Reincarnation in The NewTestament

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belief h e l d sacred by any sincere student

of the teac h ings of the N ew Tes tam ent is opposed
or r e fe rr e d to unsympathetically in this little
treatise
T h e i mmortality of th e s ou l and the divinity
of the C h rist are fully recogni zed in it
T h e books of t h e N ew Tes tam ent are taken as
they stand and no question is raised herein
regarding t h e a u t h enticity of any portion of
them
A c a reful examination is h ere made of certain
teachings of Jesus and his immediate followers
with sole intent to arrive at a clearer under
standing of those teachings and all the y import
T his is said in order to remove in advance
any possible misapprehension that might arise as
to the nature and purpose of this work since its
title indicates that it does not follow the beaten
track of theological exegesis I n the opinion of
the writer that theological track is not t h e s a me
N
'
E ICATI ON
D D
A N D PR
O LO GU E
as and indeed not even convergent with the
path pointed out by Jesus C ertain beliefs

therefore for which the faintest shadow of sup
port c a n not be found in the Bible and which
have not approved themselves to the enlightened
conscience of humanity are not treated as sacred
in this work but are considered to be elements
that must be elimin a ted from C hristian creeds
before the C hristian religion and the religion of
C hrist can become one and the same I t is due
to the moral courage of many of the modern fol
lowers of Jesus that t h e C hristianity of t o day is
being cleansed from the undesirable accretions
of the middle ages and becoming again the
pure and noble faith taught by t h e divinely
human Jesus and the h umanly divine P aul T o
all those C hristians who have thus had the cour
age to prove all doctrines and hold fast onl y
those which are good wholesome C hristlike
and born of loving heart and claried reason
this little work is respectful ly dedicated by
T HE A U T HOR
,
E LU A H S R E T U R N
TO E A RT H
T HE R E
are a number of highly important pas

sages in the N ew Testam ent bearing directly upon
the relation of the life in heaven to the life on
earth the full signicance of w hich seems hardly
to have been grasped T h e striking statements
contained in them might well rivet the attention
of even the casual reader ; yet though they deal
with and throw light upon one of th e most vital
problems of human life they have been but little
commented upon and the only legitimate con
e lusions that can possibly be drawn from them
have almost universally been ignored A mong
others the following may be instanced :
,
M atth ew
Xi
11
14
R ev i sed Ver si on
to you
Verily I s ay unto you
Among [ m en] born of women Among them that are born of
there has not awa kened [from women there hath not arisen
1
the dead ] a greater [S eer] a greater than John the Bap
28 re ds
L k
gre ter S eer
A m en,
s ay
EINC A R N A TI O N IN
than John the Lus trator ; but

the lesser [Initiate ] in the
R ealm of the S k ies is a greater
A nd if
[S eer] than he
you are willing to receive
[ him] he himself is Eli j ah
the one d estined to come
.
yet he that is but little

in the k ingdom of heaven is
greate r than he
A nd if
2
ye are Willing to receive it
th is is Elij ah wh ich is to
come
M r gi n l re di n gs 1 Gr l
Or h im
tis t :
or
M atth ew
x vii
xvi
A nd his pupils put a ques
tion to him saying :

W hy then do the
,
ess
R ev i s ed Ver si on
Jes us
asked h is pupils
saying :
W ho do men s ay that the
S on of the Man is ?
A nd they said :
S ome [say] John the Lus
trator ; some Elij ah ; and
others Jeremiah or one of
the S eers
H e says to them :
But who do y ou s ay that
I am ?
And S imon P eter answer
ing said :
Th ou art the A nointe d
the S on of the Living G od $
13 16 ;
1 0-1 3
Re
Jesus
ask ed his dis

c ipl e s
sayi ng W ho do men
1
s ay that the Son of man is ?
And they said S ome say John
the Baptist ; some Elij ah : and
others Jeremiah or one of
the prophets H e saith unto
them But who s ay ye th at I
am ? A nd S imon P ete r an
s w e e d and said Thou art the
Christ the S on of the living
G od
,
And his disciples ask ed him

saying Wh y then s ay the
scribes that Elij ah must rst
co m e ? And he answered and
said Elij ah indeed cometh
and shall restore all things
but I say unto you that Elij ah
,
THE NEW T ES TA MEN T
corders say Eli j ah must

come
N ow Jesus answered and
said to them :
Elij ah indeed comes rst
and will restore all [ things]
N ow I s ay to you Elij ah has
come already and they did
not recognize him but have
done him as many [ inj uries]
as they could T hus also the
S on of the Man is destined to
suffer by them
T hen his pupils understood
that he said [ this] to them
about John the Lus trator
is co m e already and they knew

him not but did unto him
whatsoever they listed Even
so shall the S on of man also
suffer of them Then under
stood the disciples that he
spak e unto them of John the
Baptist
M rgin l r din g M n y
ci ent th orit ie s re d th t I th
S
m
M k viii
S
f m
27 ; L k i
18
,
ea
au
on o
a n. a
an
ee
ar
The
parallel passage in the third E vangel i s a s
follows
L uke ix
H is pupils were with him ;
and he put a question to them
saying :
Wh o do the crowds say
that I am ?
A nd they answered and said :
[S ome say] John the Lus
trator ; and others Elij ah ;
and others that a S eer of the
.
1 820
on
The disciples were with
him : and he ask ed them s ay
ing Who do the multitudes
say that I am ? A nd they
answering said John the Bap
tis t ; but others s ay Eli j ah ;
and others that one of the
old prophets is risen again
And he said unto them But
R ev i s ed Vers i
E I NCA R N AT ION IN
people of old has risen [from who

ye that I am A nd
the
P eter answering said The
Christ of G od
A nd he said to them :
But Wh o do 310 say that
2
7
29 i
l
o
M
r
k
(S
11
I am ?
A nd P ete r answering said :
The A nointe d of The G od
?
s ay
ee a s
x.
I n the above citations the following facts are

brought out either by direct statement or by
necessary implicat i on :
Jesus emphatically declared that Jo h n t h e
A s John the son of
Lus tr ator was E lij ah
Z acharias and E lisabeth had been born in the
usual way t h e emphatic unqualied statement
of Jesus can have no other meaning than that
the soul or inner S elf of E li j ah was incarnated in
John as the A ngel G abriel had announced to
1
Z acharias before the birth of his son
E li j ah
who had been translated to heaven many cen
tu r ies before had therefore returned to earth by
assuming a new body ; in other words h e had
reincarnated
T h e people who knew of the works performed
by Jesus took it for granted that he was a rein
ca rnat i o n of one of the S eers P rophets or W on
,
k
e
1
3
17
i
Lu
.
THE NEW T ES TA MENT
der-workers of olden times : they were indulging

in speculations as to which of these ancient
worthies he might be T hose w h o held that he
was John must h ave believed eit h er t h at the
latter had been restored to life after his be
heading or t h at it was possible for the soul of a
dead man to replace that of a man still in the esh
T here is no suggestion whatever t h at rein
carnation was regarded as unusual or e xtraor di
nary ; it was taken for granted the sole point at
i ssue being the identity of the individual who
was reincarnated T h e interest centred wholly
in his being a S eer and a M agician from which
it was inferred that these p owers were brought
over from a past incarnation
T h e pupils of Jesus tacitly concurred in all
this ; so far from disputing the point they also it
is clearly implied in th e narrative had been in
dul ging in similar speculations
Jesus understood that such surmises would b e
made as s h own by his abrupt question W ho do
?
the crowds say that I am
H e made no com
ment on the popular belief in reincarnation and
by his silence sealed i t with his approval T h e
essential fact that he was one of the ancient
S eers reincarnated h e did not den y ; on t h e con
.
RE I NCA RN AT ION
IN
trary,
he encouraged his pupils in their specula

tions by asking But w h o do y ou say that I am ?
A nd a little later he partially gratied their curi
os ity by volunteering the information that John
was E li j ah
T o be consistent with the context the quest i on
asked by Jesus has to be understood as Of
whom do you say that I am the reincarnation ?

W hat then could be t h e meaning of P eter s
?
seemingly irrelevant reply
I f it were only an
assertion of Jesus M essianic o fce it was an
evasive answer ; and the sub j ect opened up by
Jesus and discussed by him and his pupils was
brought to an unsatisfactory conclusion save in
t h e question concerning John t h e foreru nner
w h ich was only a side issue
F rom the foregoing considerations t h e follow
l ng 1 nq u1r 1e s naturally arise :
A re any other cases of reincarnation instanced
in the N ew Tes tament besides that of E l ij ah as
?
John
W as Jesus in fact a reincarnation of one
of the ancient S eers and if so does P eter s
answer or any statement made in the N ew Tes
tam ent indicate which of t h em had been reman
?
ife s te d in his personality
T o what extent i s t h e once universally accepted
,
THE NEW T EST A MEN T
belief in reincarnation admitted or endorsed by

?
t
e
n
t
the N ew Tes am
Does it recognize the pr i n
c ipl e as applied to all men as was anciently held
and in that case w h at bearing does this fact have
upon the teachings concerning rig h t conduct in
the present life the fate of the soul in the after
life the mission of Jesus as a S avi our and
the nature and cond i tions of t h e salvation
?
o ffered
T hese questions call for a critical examina
tion of all passages in the N ew Tes tament that
relate directly or indirectly to reincarnation
T his h owever can be done more advantageously
after rst reviewing the principal conceptions of
reincarnation as taught by t h e anc i ent m y st i cs
and philosop h ers
,
II
T HE PHI LO S O PH Y O $ R E I N C A R N A T I O N
views of the anc i ents wit h regard to rein

carnation are inseparable from the fundamental
propositions of the old philosophy which asserts
the identity of the spiritual principle in man and
the S piritual principle pervading the whole uni
verse an d predicates that man is a lesser world
manifesting in himself all the elements forces
and processes of the universe in its entirety
material and divine T his philosophy af rms the
spiritual unity of all beings and does not regard
N ature as separate from Deity
I t holds that
G od is in and throug h all things present in every
atom of even the material universe
T h e highest realm of N ature is a divine
U nity or true Being undifferentiated limitless
timeless itsel f unmanifested yet th e source of
all manifestation E xistence or manifested life
is the goin g outward from this realm of true
Bei ng into t h e spheres of change and time a nd
T HE
10
E I NC A RN A T I ON IN THE NEW T ES TA MEN T
11
is Deity i n manifestation T rue Being is

changeless N ature is ever changing ; Deity for
ever i s the universe is for ever becom i ng Y e t
the universe is as eternal as Deity : there is an
endless succession of worlds outbreathe d into
space and again indrawn and thes e worlds are
of every degr ee of spirituality and of materiality
for the essence of Being is one and matter is
but spirit outermost from its source Below th e
realm of true Being is t h at of pure spirit con
taining the types of all things that are to come
into existence the ideas or souls of all beings
and things as formed by the divine T hought and
constituting the model of the universe Below
this is the psychic realm in which these ideas
or souls become clothed in the ethereal elements
and from this real m emanates the material uni
verse that of the gross elements
T h e soul of man the real S elf of him is there
fore identical in essence with D eity or the one
universal S elf ; and in eac h realm of existence
the soul has a form or body appropriate to that
realm T h us man has a physical body for the
material world a psyc h ic body for the psychic
world and a spiritual body for th e spiritual world
E ven t h ough he knows it not man i s in reality
N ature
'
REINC A RN ATI ON IN
12
an i nhabit a nt of the three worlds T h a t h e is

unaware of th is in his outer consciousness is be
cause these bodies are not duly correlated his
i nner faculties rema i ning latent and undeveloped
E xistence being thus the outbreathing and
inbreathing of the divine Life it follows that all
forms of existence are sub j ect to cyclic action
the cycles taking place in time space and sub
stance T his law applies to th e universe in its
entirety and to every part of it W hile the
real S elf of man is eternal which means not

only that it shall never cease to be but also t h at
it never began to be but is self existent his

outer life is a series of cyclic progressions A t
death the soul is indrawn toward its real centre
of life and t h e physical body is resolved into its
elements but the soul still dwells in the psychic
world functioning through the psyc h ic form
T hat in turn being abandoned the soul is again
indrawn continuing its activity in the spiritual
world where it is consciously immortal being
puried from a ll the grosser forms of substance
and free
T h e soul reposes after its day of toil in the
eld of eart hly existence but that rest being
ended it must return to its unnished task ; it
.
T HE NEW T ES TA MENT
13
emerges again upon the psychic plane and is

reborn in the physical world T h e real life of
the soul is continuous its individuality imperish
able and in the whole series of its incarnations
there is an unbroken sequence of causes and
effects E ve ry action however small produces
its proportionate results whether in the same or
in a subsequent incarnation these e ffects react
ing upon the individual by whom they are origi
nat e d good for good and evil for evil
T hus
each man is the maker of his own destiny inas
much as h is character good or bad and his
environment favorable or unfavorable are the
direct outcome of his own thoughts and desires
deeds and misdeeds in his past lives as well as
in his present life ; and similarly his future will
be of his own making
T his
wheel of birth pertains only to the
physical and psychic elements of man s complex
nature H is inner or spiritual S elf is ever free
though the outer self whic h it has pro j ected into
the spheres of becoming is in bondage I t
has been formed of the dust of the ground

through long cycles of evolution passing throug h
all the lower elemental kingdoms ere it became
t h e likeness of its spiritual prototype t h e eternal
,
14
E IN C A R N ATI O N IN T HE NEW T ES TA ME N T
S elf that breathed into it th e Breath of Life

U ltimately it must become one with that S elf
but not until it reaches the perfectingperiod at

the end of its long cycle of earth lives
M aterial existence is therefore a process of
discipline Th e soul retains the memory of all
its incarnations but this memory can be trans
m itte d to the external consciousness only when
the outer life is sufciently puried ; for it is by
such purication alone that the inner and the
outer natures become correlated enabling the
soul to manifest fully in the lower world R e
m e m brance of past lives is claimed to have been
possessed by many and will eventually be gained
by all E ach human being h as lived in all the
great races of the past and will live in those of
the future also H istory in repeating itself has
the same actors constantly rehearsing th e great
drama But vast though it is the cycle of i n
carnations is not endless : as a period of rest suc
cee d s each incarnation so at the completion of the
entire cycle humanity collectively will regain the
purely spiritual state that of supreme beat i tude
S uch being the beliefs of the reincarnation
is ts it remains to inquire how far they are sus
taine d and j ust i ed b y the N ew Tes tament
.
16
E I NC A RN ATI ON I N
mentions four
T h e letters by P aul and others
were from their very nature never intended to
be read by persons not belonging to this secret
order : they refer largely to personal matters
sometimes of so delicate a sort that they cer
t ainly could not have been meant for the general
2
public ; and the only te a chings they contain are
in the exhortations and the incidental elucida
tion of sub j ects that had come under contro
v e rs y
I t is only by a painstaking study of such
scattered material that the teachings on any
particular sub j ect can be synt h esized ; and how
ever well the work of piecing together the dis
connected statements may be done gaps will re
main that can only be lled in by inference and
analogy
l
nle ss I sh l l sp e k t y [th m em bers o f th S o ciety t

Corinth ] eith er i
in
S e c ret Lore ( g o i )
U n veil i g or i
s e i g (p p ht i )
Te chi n g (1 C xiv
Visi on i
l so
Thro gh o t th N w T t m t th
t i i t
( h i nd )
t i
s p ok e f th c rn l one s ( h i ki k i ) whil e th
c ist s ( h i o)
disti g ish e d neop hyt s t h c lle d one s
ch o s en one s (h i kl k t i ) d th l tt r
d th
( h i k lt i )
cl s i e d t h p sychi c s ( h i p h i k i ) th t r s tworthy
l ( h i p m ti k i ) d t h p erfect
( h i p i t i ) th
p i ri t
t h I ni t i t es
I t Wil l b not e d t h t t h e s e c orre s p on d
(h i t l i i )
cc r t ely t th fo r L str ti on s or p i t y rit e refe re d t
in th N w T t m t t h L str tion s f W t er B e th A i
d B l oo d
m ) F i re
(p
1
n an
e n
n o
es
s o
e e o
an
ne u
ua
en
n eu
1 1 -1 4 ;
an
ar e a
or
or
e s o er
an
are
c a or
1 3
ur
su c
sar
as
an
I Cor V 1 ; G a l
.
or
ex o e r c s s
es a
n u
or
en
es a
as
e a
ar e
a s
as
ro
n s s
n a
ou
or
T HE NEW T ES TA MEN T
17
I n considering the treatment of the subj ect

of reincarnation by the authors of these writ
ings it is imp ortant to note that while belief in
reincarnation was almost universal in the time
of Jesus and was an essential doctrine in all the
s o called pagan religions i t is nowhere d enied
disputed or questioned in the N ew Testam ent
W herever the sub j ect comes under discussion as
it frequently does the fact of reincarnation is
either tacitly accepted or unequivocally assert ed
as in the case of E lij ah Y e t if it were a false
doctrine it would undoubtedly have come in for
the same denunciations that were hurled against
2
1
idolatry and sorcery nature worship s ar c ol a
3
4
5
try literalism and materialism ; for it is obv i
ous that a very different meaning attaches to
many of the teachings of Jesus if reincarnation
be accepted as a truth I t is not merely a truth
,
1 4 ; G al
20; R ev
XX I
t rn i g b c k g i n t t h w k
is i t y
d b g
g rly el em ent l sp irit s ( t i h i ) ?
ob servin g d y s
Y
d m oon s
d s e s on s
d y e rs
Th t t i
( G l iv 9
h i h ere m e n s
t th
r dim ent s f c erem oni l r ligi on b t
th
l m
t b el i v e d b y t h
n ci ent s t p re sid e ov r
p i i t f th
l l n t r l p h enom en
is evident f om t h c on t xt S R
vii 1 ; i 1 8 ; i 5
R m viii 5 8 G l iii 3
4 I I
C
iii 6
M tt xxii 23 I C
xv 1 6-1 9
2
H ow
ou
ar e
an
s o
a u
no
xv
or
or
ea
an
s e
ar e
e a
a,
ou
e ns ,
e e e
e a
an
x v
e s
s o c
an
c e a
u
e
ee
ev
18
th a t a dds to t h e sum -tot a l of th e others but a

new factor that changes the whol e equation
T h e allus i ons to reinc a rnation in the narrative
portions of the N ew Testament are so closely
woven into the text and so essential to the
narrative itself that it is necessary to examine
extended passages T aking these in their c h rono
logical sequence as nearly as may be the rs t
st a tement i s t h a t of Jo h n concern i ng h imself :
,
J oh n
1 9-23
And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent to him
from Jerusalem priests and Levi tes to ask him :
Who are you ?
A nd he admitted and did not deny and admitted :
1
I am not the A noint e d
And they ask ed him :
W hat then [ are you] ? Are you Elij ah ?
A nd he said :
I am not
2
Are you the S eer ?
Gr ch i t w sh e d noi n ted wi th oil ( fter b thi n g) th M
m
W
t
h
B
t
no
i
n
d
re
h
or
or
l
d
so l T h
b
t
A
i
(p
)
y
Christ o s is th A v t r p eri o di c l m i fe st t i on ( p ip h n i ) of
h
b een m ni
Th s I I Tim i 8 1 0 G d
D ei ty on e rt h
A no i n te d Je s s
S vi o
f t d no w t h ro gh t h E p ip h n y o f
wh o h done w y wi th D th nd h il l m i ne d Li fe d I m
m ort l i t y
Gr p p h t
wh o sp e k s f ( noth er) e sp eci lly f
divine int erp ret r S eer
t ne c e ss ril y
wh o fore
G d
t el l s f t e ev ent s
,
r s os ,
s a s or o n e
es e
our
ea
as
e a
as
es
ur ,
an
an
or
a a
n eu
as
ro
e s , on e
u ur
or
no
on e
or
T HE
NEW
TES TA MEN T
19
A nd he answered :
a
NO
Therefore they said to h im :

W ho are you ? that we may g iv e a r epl y to th os e who
sent us What do you say about yourself

S aid he :
I [ am] the Voice of one sho utin g in th e de s ert Mak e
1
straight the path of the
as said I saiah the S eer
?
H ere there is a den i al a pparentl y t h a t Jo h n

is E li j a h But in fact it is only an i nstance of
the many curio u s word -plays cont a ined in the
fourth E v angel E lij ah in G reek is H elias and
,
John evades the question put to him by taking it
?
to be A re you t h e S un
F or the G reek word
hli os the sun is hardly distinguishable from
N ow metaphorically th e C h ristos is
Hl i as
the S un ; and it would be natural for John to
make this denial as a mere reiteration of t h e
preceding one I am not the A nointed

But
that h e was purposely giving anevas i ve answer
is indicated by t h e enigmatical words A nd h e
admitted and did not deny and a dmitted w h i ch

are followed by apparent denials of every ques
tion asked him H ow perfectly natural it woul d
b e for John to m i sunderstand the query w h ether
purposely or ot h erwise is apparent from t h e
,
sa
XI
20
E IN C A R NATI ON I N
passage in M al achi containing the prediction of

E lij ah s coming and which both John and his
interlocutors must have had in mind T h e S av
i ou r is there foretold in solar imagery :
But
unto you that fear my name shall the S un of
righteousness arise wit h healing in his wings

and directly follo wing this is the prophecy
(iv
that E lij ah would come rst T h e question
might readily be taken to mean A re you the
?
S un of righteousness
?
By the other question
Are you the S eer
it is probable that Jeremiah is intended though
possibly I saiah is to be understood
H owever sure of his own mission John may
1
have been h e was nevertheless unable to iden
tify the M essias whom he had come to announce
E ven after h e had been thrown into prison he is
represented by M atthew and Luke as sending
two of his pupils to Jesus to ask him if he were
th e A nointed T h e following passage in the
fourth E vangel apparently conicts with this :
J ohn i
29 37
O n the morro w he sees Jesus coming toward him and says :

Se e ; [h ere is] the Lamb of The G od who tak es away the
,
yo r s elve s b e r m witne ss th t I s id
A no i n t d b t t h t I h v e b ee n s en t in dv n c e
1
Y ou
e
of
am
hi m
n ot t h e
oh n
TEST A MENT
NEw
T HE
21
sin of the world T his [A nointed] is he of whom I sai d Be

h ind me comes a man who has come to be in front of me for
1
he was my F irst
A nd I did not k now him but that he
might shine forth to Israel for this [reason] I came lus trat
ing in W ater
A nd John bore witness saying :
2
I have seen the Breath coming down li k e a dove out of
3
the Sky and it abode upon him A nd I did not know him ;
but he who sent me to l us trate in W ater he said to me U pon
whom you may have seen the Breath coming down and abid
4
ing upon him this [ A nointe d ] is h e w h o lustrate s in the pure
Breath A nd I HA VE seen and have borne witness that this
[ A nointed ] is the S on of The G od
O n the morrow again stood John and two of his pupils ; and
having gazed at Jesus wal k ing he says :
S ee ; [ here is] the Lamb of The G od
A nd the two pupils heard him spea k ing and they went
along after Jesus
I t will be seen that the abo ve is not inc ons is

tent with the narrative of t h e other E vangelists
Or
ro to typ
e.
bre th ; s piri t th b re th f l ife

Gr r n vi sibl e S p e t h v l t f th k y ; th worl d f
t h G o ds b ey on d th
kyv l t T h w ord h e ven
w
n
d
d d oe s n t exp re ss t h i n t i m t e rel ti on b e t ween t h
t
t ern l w orl d
d th
sidere l worl d b etween e rth -c on s c io s ne ss
n d c o sm i c
sp t i l c on s c io sn ss $
sim il r re s on sp irit
is n in deq t e r n deri n g f p n m f b y t h l tt r th b
t il e el em en t i is in t en de d
sh o wn by it ss o c i tion wi th th
other el em ent s Joh n l str te s in W t er d Je s s l str te s in
Ai
d Fi re ( M tt iii
G r h gi
i n sp i ri ng ; d ev ot e d t
th
G o ds ; n s l li d ;
w ch s te ; h ol y
2
ai r ,
C r p n eu m a ,
.
ou
a/ os ,
ac
e s
e r s oo
ua
r an
os ,
.
a r
eu
as n o
or a
or
an
ex
s a
e su
as
or
au
an
au
RE I NC AR N AT ION I N
22
who show John to be in doubt as to whet h er or

not Jesus is the A nointed T h e whole passage
quoted above from the E v angel of Jo h n is thor
oughly mystical and somewhat vague John as
the W ater Lu s trator asserted that he had seen
J esus the S pirit-Lu s trat or ; but h is only means
of identifying him was the magnetic atmosphere
or aur a enveloping him T his aur a here referred
to under the imagery of a dove is the R adiance

e
so
frequently
mentioned
in
the
N
w
T
es
t
a
a
o
d
x
)
(
m ent and as it is not visible to the physical eye
sight it is clear that John was speaking of a
vision he had seen N otwithstanding h is c on
dent declarations concerning Jesus h e made no
attempt to approac h him H is two pupils pla
cing implicit faith in his words went to J esus
trustingly and remained with him But John
did not purposely point him out to them ; they
overheard him talking to himself and from th e
narrative it would seem that he was in a dream
waking state or trance and not fully conscious
of h is surroundings H ence his failure to rec
H ere
ogniz e Jesus in his waking consciousness
therefore as in the synoptic E vangel s he is de
pi oted as a natural psychic an untrained S eer
and hence unable to correlate the two worlds
.
RE IN C A RN A T I ON I N
24
A nd as these [messengers ] were departing Jesus began to

,
say to the crowds concerning John :

W hat did you go out into the des ert to look at ? A reed
shak en by the wind ? But what did you go out to s e e ? A
man dress ed in ne clothes ? S ee those wearing ne [ clothes ]
are in nobl em e n s houses But what did you go out to s e e ?
A S eer ? Y e s I s ay to you and much more than a S eer $
T his [forerunner] it is conce rning whom it is written :
Behold I send my Messenger before thy face
2
h
o
shall
prepare
thy
path
in
front
of
thee
W
A m en I s ay to you Among [men] born of women there
has not awakened [from the dead ] a greate r [S eer] than John
the Lus trator ; but the lesser [Initiate ] in the R ealm of the
S k i e s is a greate r [S eer] than be A nd from the days of John
the Lus trator up to now the R ealm of the S k ies is ta ken by
3
force and the forceful seize upon it F or al l the S eers and
the Law had S eership up to [ the days of] John A nd if you
are willing to receive [him] he hims elf is Elij ah the one des
4
tined to come H e who has ears to hear let him hear
1
M ark omits this incident but Luke gives it in

words almost identical wit h t h ose of M atthew
Th
i
l i or k n t s of t l k ers
k i 2 L k i 76
M l iii 1 M
d m i ght b
tr n sl t ed
m big o s
Th
words
Th
d robb ers
b een c rrie d b y s t orm
R
lm
f th
S k ies h
d erin g i t This h owever doe s t cc or d w ith th c ontext
pl
with th p r ll el p ss ge i L k (xvi
whi ch re ds T h
from th t ti m e
d t h S eer s [ wer ] p t [ th d y s f ] Joh
L w
goo d news d every
R e lm
f Th
G d i p ro cl i m e d
th
forc e s h i w y int o i t Po ssibly th m e ni g is t h t th wri t
n cien t S c ri pt re s were onl y n t r l S eers t Ini ti t e s
f th
,
e c r cu
ar e
ea
an
as
an
on e
M a l iv 5
.
e a
er s o
no
a a
on
or
un
ar
u e
an
ar e
n ;
a u a
as
an
no
T HE NEW TES TA MENT
25
but break i ng off abruptly and leaving out t h e

latter part of Jesus statement :
L uke vii
1 8 28
A nd John s pupils reporte d to him concerning all these

[things] A nd John having summoned certain two of his
pupils sent them to Jesus saying :

A rt thou the one who is coming or are we to e x pect an
other ?
N ow having come near to him the men said :
John the Lus trator has sent us to thee sayi ng A rt thou
the one who is coming or are we to e x pe ct another ?
I n that very hour he cured many [ persons] of diseases and
scourges and depraved [ obsessing] spirits and grante d sight
A nd Jesus answering said to
to many blind [persons ]
them :
G o your way and report to John [the things] which you
have seen and heard : the blind r e cover their sight the lame
are wal k ing about the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the
dead are awak ened the beggars are evangelized and im
mortal is he be h e who he may that shall not be tripped up
on account of me $
A nd John s messengers having gone away he began to s ay
to the crowds concerning John :
What did y ou go out into the desert to loo k at ? A reed
shak en by the wind ? But what did you go out to see ? A
man dressed in ne clothes ? S ee those [arrayed] in splendid
clothing and living in lux ury are in palaces But what did
you go out to see ? A S eer ? Y e s I say to you and m uch
m ore than a S eer $ Th is [ forerunner] it is concerning whom
it is written :
,
REINC A RN A TION IN
26
Behold I send my Messenger before thy face

Wh o sh all prepare thy path in front of thee
to you N o one among [men] born of women is a

greate r S eer than John the Lus trator ; but the lesser [I niti
ate] in the R ealm of The G od is a greate r [S eer] than be
I
s ay
T hat E li j a h
was to be t h e forerunner of t h e
M essias was predicted in M alachi iv 5 :
.
Behold I send you Elij ah the divinely fre nzi ed one before
the great and manifested day of the M aster comes
,
character and person a l peculiarit i es of

Jo h n are precisely those of E lij ah N ot only
does h e h ave the same traits of character but
also the same physical appearance T hus E lij ah
i s described as a hairy man and girdled about
1
t h e loins with a girdle of skin ; and it is said
of the forerunner John wore a garment of
2
camel s hair and a girdle of skin about h is loins
T h e man is the same in both incarnations : he
is big boisterous deant ; outwardly a savage
yet divinely illumined interiorly ; loudly proclaim
ing h is message yet reticent and mysterious A s
E li j ah he made wrong use of his S eership and
magical power and scorning the kin g s command
he called down re from the sky and killed the
2 M tt
1 I I Kin
i
8
4
g
Th e
THE NEW TEST A MENT
27
two b a nds of soldiers who came to take him ; as

Jo h n he suffered for t h is evil deed for h is S eer
ship was obscured and N emesis pursued h im in
the person of the wanton H erodias who h a d h im
beheaded
T his partial obscuration and loss of power i s
shown by J oh n s inability to discern of himself
whether or not Jesus was the M essias I m pris
un j ustly so far as t h at incarnation went

e ned
but with perfect j ustice in vi ew of the misdeeds
of the prior inc a rnation h e sends h is p upils to

Jesus to make inquiry But Jesus inste a d of
giving a positive answer merely intimates t h at
John o u ght to know him from his thaumaturgi
cal feats even if the S piritual sig h t of the fore
runner had become darkened
A nd as if to
emp h a si ze this point he tells the bystanders and
not John s messengers that Jo h n as hi s for e
ru nner is
more than a S eer yet explaining
that Jo h n is only a natura l S eer or psych i c and
therefore inferior to an initiated S eer F or
John the E lij ah of old now humbled and ren
2
dered powerless because of his cruel abuse of
power had not the force to sei z e the R ealm of
the S ki es
T h e latter phr a se basi lei a tan ou
,
'
II
Ki n gs i 91 4
.
oh n
41
28
E I NC A RN AT ION I N
which is peculiar to M atthew denotes

divine S eership ; for basileia h ere means not
kingdom but the power to rule and the
S kies are the seven regions of S pace or seven
H eavens (sidereal worlds ) as indicated by the

seven hierarchies of A ngels in t h e A p ocalyps e
and by P aul s use of the word ou r anos in the pas
sage in II Cor xii 2 4

I know a man
(whether in a body I do not know ; or whether
outside of [ his] body I do not know T h e G od
knows ) such an one rapt to the T hird H eaven
of t h e S eer becomes a
F or t h e open eye
window into S pace ; h e enters at will into any

of t h e spiritual worlds John is here depicted
as t h e l ast of the great S eers of old but under
going punishment for his sins and powerless to
enter the circle of I n i tiates T here is deep
pathos in the declaration of Jesus concerning
this unrecognized despised and persecuted fallen
one : I f you are willing to receive him he him
self is E li j ah
But H erod having beheaded John becomes
the prey of an accusing conscience H e takes
Jesus to be John resurrected T his incident in
t h e narrative is given in each of the three s y
1 M tt
i 34 ; xxiv 3 1
i 22 ; L k
r a ndn,
e x
T HE NEW TES TA MEN T
29
though the accounts are somewh at at

vari ance w i th e a c h ot h er
noptics ,
x iv
M atth ew
1, 2
A t that season H erod the tetrarch heard the rumor of

1
Jesus ; and he said to his servants :

2
r
T his [ magician] is John the Lus t ato
H e himself has
3
awa k ened from the dead and for this [reason] the Forces
energize in him
vi
M ar k
4
1 16
A nd King H e rod heard [ of Jesus]
for
his name had come
to be well k nown ; and he said :

John the Lus trator has awa k ened from the dead and for
this [reason] the F orces energize in him
O the rs said :
H e is Elij ah
Gr t t
tt y p ri n c e
pe
e r ar chs ,
g overnor o f
fo rt h p rt
th e
regi on
of an y
wh o dm i nist ers th c erem oni l ri t e f p ri c t ion

F o r l str ti on s
s p ok en of i n th N w T t m n t f W t er
Ai
Fire d Bl oo d (eth er) th s c orre sp on di n g t th l
m e t s E rt h b ei n g l s o f eq en t ly m en t i one d
49
in L k
I c m e t c s t Fi e i n t o th E rth
Gr d n m i st ren gt h ; b ilit y ; p o ten cy ; f c l t y ; p s ychi c
sp i rit l p ower ; sp irit Th Bre th p n m ) is th
gi
i g g en t in w k en i n g th e s e F or c e s n d t h ei c orr sp on di n g f
l
t ie s
s h o wn b y th p ss ge H wh o s pp li e s to y th Bre th
d ene gi e s F or c e s i n y
P l l s o sp e k s f t h
( G l i ii
free-gift f t h ch rism [ o cc lt p ower h ere pp ren tly S ee s hip ]
of T h G d given t m cc ordi n g t th energi i g of his F orc e
2
Th e
on e
r,
an
(E p ic i ll
.
e a
a u
eu
e e
e e n er
z n
ac u
ou
au
ve
ou
as
as
es a
s,
ua
or
an
are
RE I NC A RN ATI ON IN
30
A nd others said :
H e is a S eer for instance one of the S eers [ of
But H erod when he heard [ of him] said :
John whom I beheaded this [S eer] has awakened from
the dead
L uke i x
7 9
N ow H erod the tetrarch heard of all the [events] ta k ing

pl ace ; and he w as thoro ughly perple x ed b e ca use it was be
,
ing said by some :

John has awa k ened from the dead $
A nd by some :
Elij ah has appeared $
A nd by othe rs :
A S eer one of the Ancient S eers has
ri
sen [from the
But H erod said :

John I beheaded ; but who is this [ma gician ] conc e rning
whom I hear such [repo rts ]
A nd he sought to s e e him
Luke represents H erod as being in doubt and

uncertainty whereas M atthew and M ark s h ow
h im to have been positive in his statement t h at
Jesus was John risen from the dead and M ark
even makes him reiterate the statement wit h
emp h a sis T h e latter account is the more natu
ral under t h e circumstances and brings out viv
idly H erod s superstitious dread of t h e man whom
he had un j ustly put to de ath
,
32
gua rdian A ngels

messengers of G od rule rs
of the F our E lements or m i nistering spirits are
1
in every case the inner S elves of men
But in
t h e present instance neither of these hypotheses
is applicable H erod and the others could not
h ave had in mind a case of obsess ion or of over
shadowing but evidently held that the soul of a
living man might leave the body and th e latter
be taken possession of by the soul of a d is e m
bodied man I n H erod s O pinion t h is accounted
for h is magical powers ; as one newly risen from
the dead he was in touch wit h the ethereal
world and so the psychic F orces energized in him
A fter John s death the sub j ect i s again r e
curred to and considerable space is devoted to
it in each of the synoptics without any serious
discrepancies but with interesting variations in
the details the three accounts supplementing each
other
- 4
M atth ew xv i 1 3 2 ; x vii 1 1 3
Jesus
ask ed his pupils saying :

Wh o do men s ay that the S on of the Man is ?
O rigi n l l y d i m on m e nt G d d th word w p pli e d t
th S o l s of m
l t r it c m e t m e n
y dis e m b o di e d s p i ri t
i t in i t b d s n s e
d th N w T t m
t w i t ers i n v ri b l y
l
i
bo nd
y
i
n
g
t
e
r
h
gh o st s T h
t
t
d obs e ss i n g s p i i t s
pp
wor d g l in th N w T t m t h p re cisely th m e ni n g th t
d i m on h d b e fore th l tt er w ord b e c m e d egr d e d
,
an
an
e os ,
en ;
a e
es a
e n
an
an
es a
as
u se
or
as
an
en
THE NEW TES TA MEN T

A nd they said :
S ome [say] John the
Lus trator ;
Je
33
some Elij ah ; and others

1
or one of the S e ers

H e says to them :
But wh o do y ou s ay that I am ?
And S imon P e te r answering said :
Thou art the A nointed the S on of the Living G od $
A nd Jesus answering said to him :
3
Im mortal you are S imon S on of Jonah $ for e s h and
blood did not unveil [ this secret] to you but my F ather who
is in the Sk ies And I say to you too Y ou are a R oc k
etra) I will build my S ociety and
on
roc
k
h
n
i
P
e
t
r
o
s
a
d
t
s
(
p
(
)
the G ates of the U nderworld shall not prevail against it
And I will give you the Keys of the R ealm of the S k ies ; and
whatsoever you shall bind on the Earth shall be bound in the
S k ies and whatsoever you shall loose on the Earth S hall be
loosed in the S k ies
Then he warned his pupils that they S hould say to no
one H e himself is the A nointed
From that time on Jesus began to show his pupils that he
4
must go away to Jerusalem and suffer many [ indignities]
from the S eniors and A rchpri ests and R ecorders and be
k illed and awak en [ from the dead ] the third day A nd P eter
ta k ing him [by the hand] began to scold him saying :
Gracious $ Master you shall not have this
But he turned and said to P eter :
Come on behind me opposer 5 Y ou are an impediment
M l iv 5
r e m iah ,
II
sdr
18
S y r B ar ,
s on o f
18 ; M
a tt
xx
S a tan as ,
ar k
dvers ry
a
B a r - on a h , S on
34
on e
of
wh o opp o s e s
Jon h
a
34
do not ta k e S ide with The G od but side with
to m e ; for y ou
men
Then Jesus sa i d to his pupils :
If any one is willing to come after me let him deny
himself utte rly and lift up and carry his cross and go along
with me
And afte r s ix days Jes us ta k es P ete r and James and his
broth er John and brings them up into a high hill apart
A nd he was transformed in thei r presence and his face shone
forth as the s un and his garmen ts became white as the light
A nd behold Moses and Eli j ah appeared to them tal k ing
with him A nd P ete r answered and said to Jesu :
Maste r it is a good [ thin g] that w e are here if you
1
k
wish we will ma e here three te nts one for you and one
for Moses and one for Eli j ah
While he was yet S peak ing behold a cloud of light over
shadowed th em ; and behold [ there w as heard] a voice from
the cloud saying :
This [Master] is my well -b e loved Son in wh om I am con
te nt ; hear ye him $
A nd when the pupils heard [the voice ] they fell on their
faces and were very much frighte ned But Jesus went [to
them] and touched them and said :
Arise and do not be frighte ned
A nd l ifting up their eyes they s aw no one e x cept Jesus
only A nd while they were going down from th e hill Jesus
commanded them saying :
T ell the vision to no one till the S on of the Man be risen
from th e dead
B oo th s or h t s m d e o f green b o gh s or ski n l ik e th In di n
Wi gw m or t ep ee s
s,
THE
NEW
TESTAMEN T
35
A nd his pupils put a question to him saying :

Why then do the R e corders s ay Elij a h m ust come
,
rs t
N ow Jes us answered and said to them :

Elij ah indeed comes rst and will resto re all [ things]
N ow I say to you Elij ah has come already and they did not
recognize him but have done him as many [inj uries ] as th ey
could Thus also the S on of the Man is destin ed to suffe r by
,
them
Then his pupils understood that he said [ this] to th em
about John the Lus trator
M ar k
viii
27 -34 ;
He
ix
2 13
a question to his pupils say i ng to them :

do men s ay that I am
A nd they told him saying :
[S ome s ay] John the Lus trator ; and othe rs Elij ah ; but
others one of the S e ers
A nd he himself says to them :
But who do y ou s ay that I am ?
A nd P eter answerin g says to him :
Thou art the A nointed $
A nd h e cauti on e d them that they should say [ th is] to no
one about h i m A nd h e began to te ach them :
The S on of the Man mus t suffer many [ indignities] and b e
rej ected by the S eniors and A rchpriests and R ecorders and
be k illed and rise [from the dead] after three days
A nd he uttered the statement freely A nd P eter ta k ing
him [by the hand] began to scold him But he turning
about and loo k ing at his pupils sco l ded Pe ter saying :
put
Wh o
RE I NC A RN ATI ON
36
on behind me opposer ; for you do not tak e side

with The G od but side with men
A nd having called the crowd to [h im] with h is pupils he
said to them :
W hosoever is willing to com e afte r me l et h im deny
himself utt erly and lift up and carry his cross and go along
with me
And afte r s ix days Jesus ta k es P eter James and John and
brings them up into a high hill apart by themse lves And he
was transfo rmed in their presence and his garments b ecame
glittering e x ceedingly white such as no fuller on earth can

white n 1 A nd there a ppeared to them Elij ah with Moses ;
and they were tal k ing with Jes us And P ete r answering
says to Jesus :
R abbi it is a good [ thing] that we are here ; and l et us mak e
three te nts one for you and one for Moses and one for Elij ah
F or he did not k now what to s ay for they were scare d

A nd there came to be a cloud ove rshadowi ng them ; and
there came a voice from the cloud :
This [Maste r] is my well -beloved S on ; hear ye him $
A nd on a sudden when they h ad look ed aro und they no
longe r s aw any one but Jesus only wi th themselves
N ow while they were going down from the hill he warned
them that they should relate to no one the [things ] which
they s aw e x cept when the S on of the Man should have ri s en
from the dead And they laid hold of the saying discussing
with each other Wh at i s rising from the dead
And
they as k ed him sayi ng :
Come
IN
Com p re Penel op e s invo c ti on f M i nerv

Cove in g h
veil of d l i n g whi tene ss h i nvoke d Minerva
b o dy wi th
( O d y y x vii
1
azz
ss e
a :
er
37
T HE NEW TEST A MENT
[ W hy] do the R ecorders say Elij ah m us t com e
A nd he answered and said to them :
Elij ah indeed comes rst and restores all [ things] A nd
how is it written of the S on of the Man that he should suffer
many [ indignities] and be treated as of no account ? But I
s ay to y ou Eli j ah also has come and they have done him as
many [ inj uries] as they could even as it is wri tten about
him
L uke i x 1 8 23 ; 28 36
.
A s he was alone praying his pupils were with him ; and he

,
put a question to them saying :

Wh o do the crowds s ay that I am ?
A nd they answered and said :
[S ome say] John the Lus trator ; and others Eli j ah ; and
others that a S eer of the people of old h as risen [from the
,
A nd he sai d to them :
But who do y ou s ay that I am ?

A nd P e te r answering said :
The A nointe d of T he G od
A nd he cautioned them and charge d [ th em] to te ll no one
this [ secret] saying :
The S on of the Man must suffer many [ indignities] and
be re j ected by the S eniors and Archpriests and R ecorders
and be k illed and awak en [from the dead ] the third day
A nd he said to [ them] all :
I f any one is willing to come afte r me let him deny him
self and lift up and carry his cross daily and go along with
me
And it came to b e th at about eight days afte r [he utte red ]
RE I NC A RN ATI ON I N
38
these say i n gs he took P ete r and John and James and went
up into the hill to pray A nd as he prayed the appearance
of his face became different and his apparel [became] white
as hin
k
as
with
lightning
A
nd
b
e
hold
tal
ing with him
g
were two men Mose s and Elij ah who appearing in a R adi
ance spo k e of h is departure [from this life] which he was
about to full at Jerus alem
N ow P ete r and those with him were overcome with sleep
but k eeping wide awake they saw his R adiance and the two
men who were standing with him A nd it came about that
as they we re parting from him P eter said to Jesus :
1
Chief it is a good [ thing] that we are here ; and let us
mak e three tents one for you and one for Moses and one
for Elij ah not k nowing w hat he says
A nd while he was saying these [words] there came to be a
cloud and it overshadowed them ; and they were frightened
as they en tered into the cloud A nd there came to be a
voice from the cloud saying :
This [Master] is my chosen S on ; hear ye him $
A nd when the voice came to be Jesus was found alone
A nd they themsel v es k ept silence and told no one in those
days anything of what they had seen
,
answer made by P eter Thou art the
A nointed the S on of the Living G od has a

double meaning S u pe rc iall y it is only an as
sertion that Jesus was th e expected M essias
which w a s not a secret but a fact well known to
The
th e
Gr p i t t over seer m ger c om m n der ; h ere se d lik e

c oll oq i l E ngl i sh w ord b o s s
.
s a
u a
s,
an a
RE I NC A R N AT ION
40
IN
M essia h ship it would be evasive and u nd e s e rv

ing of t h e commendation he received for mental
acumen N or would the words of Jesus be t rue ;
for es h and blood i n t h e person of A ndrew

h ad unveiled to P eter years before t h at Jesus
was t h e A nointed and t h e fact was no longer a
1
secret b u t a matter of common report
Y et
the real signicance of P eter s answer is quite
plain : it is an assertion that JES U S WA S K I N G
D A VI D T h is view i s abundantly sustained by
other passages in the N ew Tes tament A S John
before h is birth was foretold to be E lij ah so
Jesus was preannounced as D a vi d T h e A ngel
G abri el s promise to Z acharias was as follows :
.
I /uke
1 31 7
o ur wife Elisabeth shall hear you a s on and you shall

call his name John A nd you shall have j oy and e xultation
and many shall re j oice at his bi rth
A nd many of th e
sons of I srael will he turn to their Master-G od ; and he will
come into his presence in [ th e] S pirit and F orce of Elij ah
John in the presence of G od was i n
the S pir i t and F orce of E lij ah

can have no
other meaning than that the inner S elf of E li j ah
T hat
1
v ii
M a tt
xiv
33 ; M
4 1 ; ix 3538
.
ar k
11 ;
7;
u ke
iv
14 ;
J h n iv
o
3 94 2 ;
T HE NEW TE S TA MENT
41
was incarnated in Jo h n T h e a nn u nciation of

Jesus by the A ngel G abriel to M ary is this :
.
L u ke i
3 1 33
Behold you will conceive and bear a s on and you shall

call his name Jesus This [son] shall be great and shall be
called a s on of [ the] H ighest [ G od] ; and the Master-G od will
give him the Throne of David his father ; and he S hall reign
over the H ouse of Jacob througho ut the [ E ons f
A s G abriel was an A ngel he may be excused

for speaking as a mystagogue ; but in the lan
gu age of mortals his meaning is s u f ciently clear
I n mystical works it is a common gure of speec h
to refer to a man as th e son of one of h is
preceding incarnat i ons which i s h is father in

the sense t h at the past produces t h e present I t
is curious to note in this connection that while
M atthew gives the genealogy of Jesus from
A braham down to Joseph the husband of M ary

1
of whom Jesus was born
he also makes it per
fe c tly clear t h at Joseph was not the fat h er of
2
J e s u s ; and Luk e who gives a somewhat differ
ent genealogy running clear back to A dam
speaks of Jesus as the reputed (enom i zeto)

son of Joseph and shows that he was not in fact
,
a tt
1 -1 6
a tt
i 1 8-20, 25
.
REINC A RN A T I ON I N
42
1
h is son
H ence t h e genealogy of Josep h prove s
nothing so far as Jesus is concerned ; and unless
the two E vangelists are to be regarded as grossly
stupid in not noticing suc h a fatal defect in t h e
evi dence it must be gr a nted t h at t h ey were not
a ttempting to prove th a t Jesus w a s line a lly de
scended from A braham by mere physical h eredity ;
in other words t h a t the y were dealing wit h t h e
genealogy of souls not of bodies T h e latter are
all supposed to be descended from A dam
T aken together the two a nnunciations are
easy to be understood A s John was to come into
G od s presence in the S pirit and F orce of E l i
j ah so Jesus is to be given the T hrone of
Davi d that i s to occupy t h e place of David in

the sp i ritual world S i nce the S pirit or tru e S elf
of Davi d was to b e incarnated in h im P aul
uses t h e word T h rone in precisely this s igni

cation speaking of the things in the heavens
and the t h ings on the earth the t h ings seen a nd
the things unseen whether T hrones or M aster
2
S hips or F irst principles or A uthorities
where
h e is unquestionably referring to H ierarc h ies of
spiritual beings
F urther Jesus himself distinctly gave it to be
2 C l i 16
1 L k i 34
.
THE
NEW
TEST A MENT
43
u nderstood that h e was not the son of D av i d in

a material sense as shown in the following :
,
M atth e w
xx ii
4 1 45
N ow while the P harisees were assembled Jesus put them

,
a q uestion saying :
What is you r notion concerning the A nointe d ? Whose
s on is he ?
Th ey say to him :
David s
H e says to them :
H ow then does David [speak ing] in S pi rit call him
M aster saying :
Th e Master said to my M aster
S it thou by my right hand
1
T ill I put thine enemies underneath thy feet
If then David calls him Master how is he his
,
M a rk
A nd
x ii
3 5 37
answered and said while he was teaching in the

temple -courts :
H ow is it th e R ecorders s ay The A nointe d is David s
$ or Davi d himself [ spea k ing] in pure S pirit said :
s on ?
The Master says to my Master
T ill I put thine enemies und e rneath thy feet
Davi d himself therefore ca l ls h i m Maste r
and from what
so ur c e is h e his
P cx 1
e s us
RE I NCA RN ATI ON
44
L u ke x
4 1 4 4
IN
.
N ow he said to th em :
H ow is it they s ay that the Anointe d is Davi d s
,
s on ?
$ or
David
himself says in The Book of P sal ms :

Th e Maste r said to my Master
T ill I put thine enemies underneath thy feet
David th ere fore calls him Maste r and how is he his
A s if to emp h asize t h e spiritu a l ignorance of

t h e P harisees to w h om Jesus propounded this
problem M atthew adds A nd no one was able
to answer h im a word yet though Jesus made
t h em no explanation the solution is an easy one
David called h is own spiritual S elf his M aster
and t h at same S elf having incarnated in Jesus
he was alike the son of that M aster and the
son of David
I f the real S elf of David was
distinct from t h at of Jesus the latter could not
be David s son in the mystic sense of the word ;
nor was he descended from him p h ysically unless
through M ary and it is nowhere stated or even
intimated in the E v angel s t h at M ary was a de
s c e nd ant of David
T h e testimony of the A p ocalyp se to t h is iden
tity of Dav i d and Jesus is emphatic :
T HE NEW T EST A MENT

R evela ti on ii i 7 8 1 2
.
45
Thes e [things] says he who is pure who
true who has

David s k e y who o pens [ or unloc k s] and no one shall shut [ or
lock] who shuts and no one opens :
I have given in front of you an op e ned door which no
one is able to shut
The conqueror I will mak e him a
pillar in the temple of my G od and h e shall not at all go out
ward any more
,
is
H ere
David s key is t h e power to correlate

the two worlds to open or close the door between
them at wi ll ; and the opened door leads to

nal emancipation from reincarnation when the
freed soul need not go outward any more into

th e material world By t h e toil and suffering
of many eart h lives man reaches h um a n perf e c
tion ; then through t h e opened door h e emerges
from the human kingdom into the kingdom of
the I mmortals A gain and again in the mag
nic e nt A pocalyp s e the Book of the U nveiling
is this note of triumph sounded :
R ev el ati on
17, 1 8
am the F irst and the Last and the Living one ; and I
became a dead man and behold I am a living one throughou t
the [ Eons of the I E ons and I have the k eys of Death and of
the U nderworld $
46
xx ii
R evelation
16
Je sus sent my A ngel to declare by y ou these [th ings]

1
against the Churches I am the R oot and the O ffspr ing of
2
David h is r adiant M orning S tar
I,
imagery could h ardly be clearer

The
R oot of Davi d is the ever-living S elf which

before the descent into the cycles or l E ons of
generation was the F irst the arc h etypal man ;
while t h e Offspring is the Last t h e perfected

man who has emerged triumphantly from the
spheres of becoming returning wi th added

knowledge and power to the realm of true Being
P aul explains this evolution of th e pe rfect man
very lucidly a s in th e fo l lowi ng passages :
The
ii
Hebrews
10
I t was tting for him for whom [ are ] all [ things ] and
through whom [are] all [thin gs] in leading many S ons into
s c thi ng rr i gn m en t of th s even Ch r ch e s in th
s e c on d n d th ird ch pters f R l ti n
S ch is t h ob vi o s ren d erin g f th G re k idi om t h R V
c on str e s i t th b right th m orni n g s t r onl y p rt i l l y c or
form er ver si on whi ch re ds
ti g t h
m i s t n sl ti on o f t h
bri ght n d m orni ng st r S l s o ii 28 h o l d re d
nd th
I wi ll giv e h i m his Morni n g S t r
A l l e go i c l l y t hi s
S t r is
s o l th b ri n ger f light t th m t ri l worl d T h s I I
th
P t i 1 9 Till th d y d wn n d th Li ght -b ri n ger (p ho p h )
rise i n yo r h e rt s
1
S e e th e
e er
ra
eve a
r ec
o, a
a e
or os
REINC A RN AT ION IN
48
G od s i nj ustice in the matter$ as also from his
explanation of this plan or purpose of the ZE ons

P aul boldly proclaiming himself to be an h iero
p h ant and t h us announcing h i s miss i on :
iii
E p hesi a ns
9 11
T o bring to light all [ things ] which is the supervision of
the Mystery k ept hidden from the I E ons in Th e God by him

wherefrom all [things ] were fo rmed s o that now may be
made k nown to the Fi rst-p rinciples and A uthorities among
2
the G ods through the S ocieties the much -div e rs ie d Wisdom
of Th e G od according to a plan of the I E ons which he
brought about in A nointe d Jesus our Maste r
,
S uch langu age would be meaningless if i t did

not apply to many incarnations throughout the
E ons or evol ution a ry periods the hierarchies of
souls h aving their leaders a nd authorities and
all working together accord i n g to a plan and
making for a destined goal
3
and
Jesus is also called the seed of Davi d
t h e seed of A bra h am
I n comment i ng on
,
24
R om ix 1 4.
Gr p
i i h e venl y b ei n gs G o ds ;
q i v l en t t
i
Here th s o l s of m n
eviden tly m e nt
J hn
I s id Y
G ods
(q o t e d f o m P l xxxii
2
ou r a n o
II
Tim ii 8
.
ar e
ou ar e
as
th e oi
1
34
THE N E W
TESTAMEN T
49
G od s promises to A braham $ P aul has this
to
say :
iii
Galati ans
16
T he promises were spok en to Abraham and to his s eed

H e does not s ay A nd to the s e eds as concerning many ;
but as concerning one A nd to thy see d who i s the

A nointed
.
I f by seed t h e vital reproductive energy of

2 is intended it woul d follow that A bra
the soul
ham D a vid a nd Jesus were different inc a rna
tions of one and the same individ u al
I t is therefore a fair conclusion that by the
words Thou art t h e A nointed t h e S on of t h e
Living G od P eter applied to Jesus wi t h pe ou

liar signicance the titl e of David the W ar
rior King who was the A nointed of the G od of
J a cob and t h e sweet psalmist of I srael with
f vorit e sim il e wi th m y st ic s T h s Porp hyry A s ee d

wh en i t is c ont ine d i n m tt r dom i n t e s i t cc or di g t e ch f
t h p ro d c t iv e p ri n ci p l e s whi ch t h s ee ds c ont i n
d ll th s ee d
i t p o wer b ei n g c oll e c t e d i nt o n
p o ss e sse s th wh ol e f i t p ower
i n e ch
f th
p rt s s o l ike wis e i n th im m t eri l s o l th t
whi ch m y b c on c eive d
p rt h th p ower f th wh ol e s o l
m i )
8
i li i
t th P
(A
p ti n f I n t l l i gi bl N t
gr i n f th wh e t f ll s t th
l s o i n J h n ii 24
U nl e ss th
e rth d die s it b ide s b y i t sel f al one ; b t if it die s i t b e r s
m ch fr i t
2
an
er ce
as
a u r es ,
an
as a
e,
ar e s
ux
RE I NC A RN ATI ON IN
50
whom G od had made a covenant throughout

1
and that in Jesus his pupil saw ful
the I E ons
lled t h e promise made by that G od in old times :
,
A cts
xv
16
Afte r these [ things] I will return

2
D
And I will rebuild avid s down fallen te nt ;
And I will rebuild its ruins
3
A nd will uprear it anew
I n return Jesus addresses P eter as Bar
Jona h or S on of Jonah which expression in

the light of the context may be regarded as a
hint that P eter was Jonah reincarnated ; P eter
h aving identied Jesus with David was appro
r
i
a
t
l
rewarded
by
this
information
concerning
e
p
y
himself H is being called a rock was but a

mystical allusion to his S eership which he h ad
j ust demonstrated for this rock (petr os a
stone ) is t h e philosopher s stone symbolical of

th e inner and spiritual sight and it is identical
with t h e white pebble (ps phos ) which J e
sus in t h e Ap ocalyp se promises to the con
II
Cor
3
S am
Ou r
1 -5
e rt hly ho s e of
a
A m os
ix
11
th e t
ent
-t h e
phy si
cal
bo d y
(I I
T HE NEW T ES TA MENT
51
P eter was promised the

Keys of the R ealm of the S kies and was to be
r
r
ue
o
q
T herefore
given the power of correlating the lower and

higher worlds T h e allusion to the G ates of the
U nderworld brings in the fact of reincarnation

for they are the gates by which t h e souls pass to
and from the earth P orphyry has much to say
about these gates which are t h e zodiacal signs
C ancer and C apricorn and theologists say of
these that C ancer is the gate through which
souls descend and Capricorn that throug h which
2
they ascend
M acrobius also tells how the
souls when they be gin to fall into terrene
bodies are in C ancer ; and in elucidating the

ancient arcana he gives man y interesting details
about the causes of reincarnation and the means
of liberation whereby th e soul when it deserves
to be puried from the contagion of vice through
its entire reneme nt from the corp oreal nature
will be restored to the lig h t of perennial life and
will return to its pristine integri ty and pe rfe c
3
tion
T h e char a cter of P eter as h e is portrayed in
1
2
R ev ii
.
u th e
C mm
o
17
f th e
ave o
en tary on
Ny m p h
S cip i o
i n th e Od y ss ey ,
D r ea m ,
x ii
s
ch
xi
RE I NC A RN A T I ON IN
52
the E vangel s is certainly that of Jonah ; h e is

S imply Jona h r ed i vi vus
T h is is the more stri k
ing because the character of the man is very
marked and altogether out of the ordinary I t
is of interest therefore to compare t h e two per
,
s onal itie s
story of Jonah i s one of the masterpieces

of ancient literature I n quibbling over the sh
incident critics have generally overlooked the
H omeric strengt h and beauty of t h e narrative as
a whole its artistic contrasts of rude humor and
poetic grandeur and the dramatic force and
pathos of its c onclusion T hus it runs :
T h e word of the Lord

ordered Jona h to
arise go to N ineve h and cry against that

great city because of its wickedness But the
disobedient prophet rose up and tried to ee

from the presence of the Lord by going to T ar
shish evidently under th e supposition t h at th e
l atter city was not in t h e Lord s territory A t
Joppa he found a ship go i ng to T arshish ; s o he

paid the fare thereof and went down into it to
go with them to T arshish from t h e presence of
the Lord
But the Lord was not to be so easily
eluded by his absconding prophet and th e con
test between the resourceful Lord and the wily
The
NEW
T HE
TES TA M EN T
53
T h e Lord
Jona h i s told wit h titanic humor
sent o u t a great wind into the sea and there
was a mighty tempest in t h e sea so th a t the
T h e frightened
ship was like to b e broken
mariners cried every man unto his G od and

cast fort h the wares th a t were in the s h ip into
the sea to lig h ten it of them

while Jonah was
fast asleep between -decks T h en the s h ipm as
ter routed out the sleeping prop h et and b erated
him for not pray i ng to his G od also But on
casting lots to nd out who w as t h e cause of t h e
wrath of t h e G ods th e lot fell upon Jona h

w h o promptly owned up t h at h e was i n bad favor
wit h h is G od and heroically a dvised them to
throw h im overbo a rd so t h at t h e sea might b e
calm S till the tars were unwilling to adopt so
drastic a measure as to make moral j etsam of
Jonah and they rowed h ard to bring the ship
to land ; but they coul d not for the sea wrought
and was tempestuous against them

S o t h ey
prayed to his G od not to lay innocent blood upon
them since it was the Lord s own pl easure and
overboard went Jonah T hen the sea ceased
from her raging and so profoundly were the

mariners impressed by t h e evi dent superiority of
J onah s G od over their own that t h ey offered a
.
54
E I NC A RN ATI ON
IN
sacrice to t h e Lord and made vows N ow the

Lord had prepared a great sh to S wallow up
Jonah A nd Jonah was in the be l ly of the s h
T h e prayer of t h e
three d ays and three nig h ts
undaunted prophet thus brough t up wi th a round
turn by t h e Lord his G od is a marvel of s h rewd

ca j olery and exqu i site poetical imagery :
.
nto the Lord and he

heard me ; out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardest
my voice F or thou hadst cast me into the deep in the
midst of the seas ; and the oods compassed me about : all
thy billows and thy waves passed over me Then I said I am
cast out of thy sight ; yet I will loo k again toward thy holy
temple T he wa ters compassed me about even to the s o ul :
the depths closed me round about the weed s wer e wr apped
I w ent d o wn to the bo ttom s of th e mou nta i ns ;
abo ut m y hea d
the earth with her bars was abo ut me for e v er : yet hast thou
brought up my life from corruption 0 Lord my G od When
my soul fainted wi thin me I remembered the Lord : and my
prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple They that
observe lying vanities forsak e their own mercy But I will
sacrice to thee with the voice of than ksgiving ; I will pay
thee that that I have vowed S alvation is of the Lord
I cried by reason of my
al ic t ion u
Lord could not resist such sublime blarney ;

he sp a ke unto the s h and it vomited out Jonah
upon the dry land
S mall wonder that when
t h e word of the Lord came unto Jonah t h e sec
The
RE I NC A RN A TION IN
56
ed before to T arshish because he knew t h e Lord

would be sure to repent and so leave him dis
credited as a prophet H e besought the Lord to
take h is life saying I t is better for me to die
than to live
I n his obduracy he went out and
sat on t h e east side of the city a nd there made
h im a boot h and sat under it in the S hadow till
he migh t see what would become of t h e city

But t h e Lord was ready with another ob j ect
lesson for his obstinate prop h et H e prepared
many t h ings for the purpose even as h e had
prepared t h e great s h
F irst he prepared
a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah
that it might be a s h adow over his head to de
liver him from his grief S o Jonah was exceed
T hen he
ing glad of the gourd
prepared a
worm when t h e morning rose th e next day and
it smote the gourd t h at it withered

A nd when
the sun rose h e prepared a vehement east wind ;
and the sun beat upon th e h ead of Jonah t h at
he fainted and wi shed in himself to die

But
he still remained angry and deant and the Lord
t h en expostulated with him drawing an impres
sive moral from the ob j ect-lesson he had j ust im
parted : T hou hast had pity on the gourd for the
which thou hadst not labored neither madest it
,
T HE
NEW
TEST A MENT
57
grow
A nd should not I spare N ineveh
that great city wherein are more than sixscore
tho u sand persons that cannot discern between
their rig h t hand and their left hand ; and also
?
much cattl e
P eter is the same obstinate self assert ive
combative shrewd but blundering individual $
H e is ever speaking out a h ead of the other pupils
often clownishly and with no sense of the tness
2
of things as in his ludicrous offer to build
booths for the spiritual visitants H e has the
indomitable courage of Jonah and h i s denial of
his M aster was cert ainly not from cowardice
but from a desire to extricate himself from a bad
predicament by sacricing truthfulness Like
Jonah h e could j uggle with his conscience and
invent excuses P aul indignantly denounced him
to his face as a hypocrite : W h en P eter [ Ke

ph as ] came to A ntioch I resisted him to the
face because h e was blameworthy
A nd
the rest of the J ude ans played the hypocrite with
him likewise so that even t h e Junior P rophet
3
[Josep h ] was led astray by their hypocrisy
.
1
2
3
L
M
xxi i
tt xiv
u ke
a
3 1 , 32
283 1 ;
Ga l ii 1 1 , 1 3
.
u ke
8;
J hn
o
8, 9
58
EINC A RN AT ION I N
great stress should not be laid upon P eter s
having the Keys of the R ealm of the S kies ;

for as a S eer h e was presently surpassed by John
1
that pupil whom Jesus loved
and in whom it
is not di f cult to see Jonathan S aul s son who
2
delighted much in David
and of w h om it was
said : T h e soul of Jonathan was knit with the

soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his
T hen Jonath a n and David made
own soul
a covenant because he loved him as his own
3
soul
P eter indeed has been taken too seri
H e is in fact the clown among the
ous l y
T welve as Jonah played the clown among t h e
prop h ets of old times
T hat the pupils were not in their norm al con
s c iou s ne s s w h en they saw the

vision of M oses
and E li j a h may be inferred from the narrative :
they apparently fancied themselves wide awake
but were nevertheless in the dream-waking
state Th e appearance of M oses and E li j ah and
the transgu ration of Jesus exemplied the
permanent spiritual body the A u goe id s or
Light -like form that endures throughout the
E ons and of which the physical body is but the
impermanent earthly shadow A fter this scene
1 J
21 S m
3 I
hn
26
i
2
S m x viii 1 3
T oo
x x.
59
of the trans guration Jesus again made the

declaration that E li j ah had come in the person
of John A s John had been beheaded and yet
they had j ust seen E lij ah in the spiritual body it
follows that the coming of the latter was a

reincarnation and not merely a return in the
spirit T h e real S elf of man is thus considered
as everliving whether incarnated or excarnated
S uch is the unmistakable teac h ing of Jesus as
in t h e fol l owing :
.
M atth ew
xx ii
31 , 32
N ow concerning the ri s i ng up of the dead have you not

read that which was spo k en to you by The G od sayi ng :
I am the G od of A bra h am and the G od of I saac and
1
?
The G od of Jacob
The G od is not a God of dead [men] but of livi ng ones
M ar k
x ii
26, 27
N ow conc erning the dead that they awak en have you

,
not read in the Book of M oses at [ the passage about] the

thorn -bush how The G od spok e to him saying :
I am the G od of A braham and the G od of I saac and the
G od of Jacob ?
H e is not th e G od of dead [men] but of living on e s Y ou
wander a great way [from the
,
REINC A RN A T I ON IN
60
L uke xx
37 , 3 8
But that the dead awak en even Moses disclos ed in [ the

passage about] the thorn -bush when he calls [ the] Master
the G od of Abraham and the G od of Isaac and the God of
Jacob N ow he is not a G od of dead men but of l ivi ng
ones ; for in him all live
immort al S elf is a lways in the S piritual

world even w h en incarnated t h e m a terial self
being as it were a reection of it T hus Jesus
speaks of its ascending and descending :
T h is
,
J oh n
iii
13
A nd no one has gone up into the Sky unless he who came

down out of the Sky the S on of the Man he who i s in the
Sk y
J oh n
[What]
vi
62
then if you s h ould s ee the S on of the

up whe re he was before ?
Man going
Of
h i s own incarnation h e says :

J ohn
vi
38, 39
I have come down out of the Sky not that I may do my

will but the will of him who sent me A nd this is the will
of him who sent me that of eve rything which he has given

me I may not lose any but should raise it up on the last day
,
T HE NEW TEST A MENT
61
H is incarnating was therefore voluntary ; as

one consciously immortal h e was free from the
wheel of birth and remained in the lower

worl d only to save others P aul speaks of h im
as a forerunner on our behalf h a vi ng become
an A rchpriest t h roughout the E on according
1
and says of the
to the order of M elc h izedek
l atter t h at h e was r st King of R ight conduct
and then also King of S al em that is King of
P eace ; wi thout father wi thou t m other withou t
ances tr y h avi ng nei ther rs t o
f d ay s nor end of
2
l ife
A nd h e beautifully explains the mission
of J esus :
Hebr ews
vii
21 2
The Master con rm e d by an oath and will not change

,
his purpose :
Th ou art a priest througho ut the E on
A nd indeed the maj ority [ the silent ma j ority the

souls of the dead] have become priests [ inte rcessors for
the living or guardian angels because of their stay being
cut short by death ; but h e because of his abiding th rbugh out
the E on has the priestly office that does not pass over [ to a
successor] and hence he is a b le to save throughout the whole
[ world] those drawing near to T he G od through him [ as he
is] at all times and seasons alive to interpose on their behalf
H b i 20 G
xiv 1 820 P
4
T h t is h w
of th d e thle ss Kin gs f th Divi ne
D yn s ti e s
en
as
on e
ex
REINC A RN AT ION IN
62
T h is
continuous life th e conscious oneness

with the eternal S elf is prom ised by Jesus to his
pup i ls :
,
J oh n
x iv
2, 3
I n the hous e of my F ather there are many abidings ; but

if not so I would have told you that I am going to make
ready a place for you ; and if I do go and ma k e ready 3 place
for you I am co m ing bac k and I will tak e you to myself s o
1
that where I am
H ere th e
y ou
also may be
many abidings are the respites

the soul has in t h e S piritual world between in
carnations I n this connect i on t h ere is a curi
ous incident recorded :
.
J o hn
485 1
N athanael says to him :

From what source do you have k nowledge of me ?
Jesus answered and sa id to him :

Before Philip called you while you were [y e t] under the
gtree I saw you
N athanae l answere d and says to him :
R abbi thou art the S on of The G od ; th ou art the King of
I s rae l
Gr m n st yi n g t r yin g ( t p l c e ) T h R
is l s o t h m i
l t i on m n si on s is wh o lly nt n b l e
whi ch m ake s i t re d in c oh erently
ti on o f th p ss g
1
e,
or
a r
u
as
V t
.
r ns
a
s p u n ctu a
64
E I NC AR N ATI ON
IN
says speaking of unembodied souls W e live
t h e ir death and die their life

S o also in P lato s
Gorgi as S ocrates is represented as saying :

I
s h ould not wonder if E uripides spoke the truth
when he says W ho knows whether to live is

not to die and to die is not to live ?
A nd we
perhaps are in reality dead F or I have heard
from one of the wise that we are now dead that
the body is our sepulchre and that the part of
the soul i n w h ic h t h e desires are contained is of
such a nature that it can be persuaded and
T hus in the
h urled upward and downward
N ew Tes tament the p h ysical world is constantly
referred to as Death and its inhabitants as

1
th e dead who have to be born from above

that is born spiritually before t h ey become
living
James makes evil speech one of the
worst of t h e S ins t h at bind man to earth :
iii
am es
tongue [is] a re : the tongue is ordinarily among our

2
members the sum total of in j ustice that which vitiates the
whole body and inam es the Wh eel of Birth and is [ i tself]
3
in amed by the Burning Valley
Th e
1
3
S ee
He b
oh n
ge
iii
1 -21
h i nn om
sychi c w orl d
Vall
ey
of
Hinnom
Liter l l y
worl d
th
evil sp e ct of
a
th e
THE NEW T EST A MENT
65
M ystically the so u l is called the S on of G od

and the man as manifested on e a rt h is the
slave of his own sins which keep h im in the

bondage of rebirth S uch teachings as the fol
,
lowing admit of no other rational i nterpretation :

J ohn
3 1 36
abide in this saying of mine you are truly my

pupils ; and you shall k now the Tru th and the Truth shall set
you free
They answered him :
We are Abraham s seed and never yet have b e en slaves
to any one H ow is it you say Y ou shall become freemen
Jesus answered them :
A m en A m en I say to you E ver y one who commits sin is
a slave to s in N ow the slave does not abide in the house
throughout the E on; the S on does abide throughout the
E on
If therefore the S on S hall s et you free you shall be
1
freemen indeed
If
viii
y ou
But though eac h man is thus the slave of his

own misdeeds t h ere is a div i ne p u rpose behind it
all :
J oh n i x 1 3
,
A nd passing on he saw a man blind from birth

,
pupils as ked him saying :

,
S ee
al
so G
al
iv
1 1 1
A nd his
66
E I NC A RN ATI ON
IN
who sinned this [man] or h is parents that he

should be bo rn blind ?
Jesus answered :
N either did this [man] S in nor h is parents ; but that the
works of Th e G od might be made to shine forth in him
R abbi ,
W it h out answering the qu esti on directly

w h ether the man s blindness was due to h eredity
or to h is own S ins in a past life J esus gave out
,
the broader teaching that all sin and suffering

are disciplinary and ultimately lead to puric a
tion and to the manifestation of the divine na
ture H e restored the man s sight But the
P h a ri sees took the narrower view saying to the
man I n sins y ou were begotten entirely

N ow taking the N ew Tes tam ent as a w h ole it
becomes apparent that muc h that h as been mis
taken as merely t h e fullment of prophecies was
in reality t h e working out of causes and effects
and t h at Jesus and h is followers as well as his
enemies were the men of ol d times returned to
earth and carrying out the plan of the E on
The
c h urc h was a continuous organization
unbroken from the time of the rst contract

with G od and its members were ever the same
P aul s teachings can be understood in no other
way as also suc h passages as the followi ng :
,
THE NEW T EST A MENT

J
u de 4 1 1
67
T here have slipped in stealthily into th i s j udgment certain

es sacrilegious changing T he
o
o
ld
t
i
m
i
b
e
d
h
s
cr
men
ro
t
e
f
]
[
p
G od s favor into wantonness and disowning the only Ov erlord
and our M aster A nointe d Jesus N ow I wish to remind you
,
you k now this once for all that th e Maste r hav

ing saved a people out of the land of Egypt ne x t destr oyed
those who did not put faith in [him] ; and the Angels who did
not k eep their F irstprinciple but abandoned their own dwell
ing he has k ept in perpetual fetters under netherworld gloom
till [ the ] j udgment of a great day
S till similarly these
[ men] also in their dreamings cont aminate the esh and
disregard Masterships and revile R adiances
A las for
them $ for they travelled the path of Cain$ and rushed head
2
long in the wandering way of Balaam after pay and were
ruined in the rebellion of Korah 3
[though]
ven s uc h an indefensible translation of h oi

i
a
l
a
i
ro
e
ra
m
m
e
n
oi as
they who were of old
p
p gg
set forth distorting a technical legal expres

sion
those written up (before all eyes ) pla

carded
proscribed
into a pr Oph e tic p h rase
can not cover up the obvi ous allusion to r e incar
nation contained in the above A nd whil e the
following passage does refer to the prophecies
it also im p lies remembrance of past lives as well
as prevision of impending events :
E
G en i v 8
.
um
x vi
i 33
REINC A R N ATI O N
68
L uke xx iv
IN
25-27 , 44 4 6
A nd he himself said to them :

0 unreasoning and S low of h e art to believe after all that
the S eers have spo k en $ Are not these the [ things ] the
A nointed must have suffere d and have e nter ed into his R adi
ance
A nd b eginning at Moses and at all the S eers he e xplained
in detail to them in all the Writings the [ things] concerni ng
himself
A ll the [things] that are writte n in the Law of
Moses and S eers and P salms concerning me must be ful
lled
Then he opened their cons cio usness for the understanding
of the Writings ; and he said to them :
T hus it is written and thus must the A nointed have suf
fe re d and have risen from the dead on the third day
M any of the sayings of Jesus referring to the

distant past and the far future become preg
nant with meaning when read in the ligh t of
re i nc a rnation a s instance the following :
,
L u ke x i
4 6 52
Woe unto you Lawyers also $ F or ye load men wi th loads
hard to carry and ye yourselves do not touch the loads with

one of your ngers W oe un to you $ F or ye build the monu
ments of the S eers and your fathers k illed them S o then
ye bear witness to and approve of the work s of your fathers :
,
THE NEW TES TA MEN T
69
for th ey indeed killed them and y e build their monum e nts

F or this [ reason] also Th e Wi sd om of Th e G od said :
I will send to them S e e rs and Envoys ; and [some] of them
they shall k ill and hound s o that the blood of all the S eers
1
shed from the casting down of the world may b e re quired
2
of this generation from the blood of A be 1 to the blood of
Z achariah 3 who perished between the altar and the house
Y e a I s ay to you I t sha l l be required of this generation
W oe unto you Lawyers $ F or ye too k away the Key of the
4
Gn6s is ; y e yourselves have not entered in and those enter
5
ing in y e have prevented
.
M atth ew
xx iv
41 4
Beware lest any one lead you in wandering ways : for

many [charlatans] S hall come in my N ame saying I am the
A nointed and shall lead many [neophytes] in wandering
ways A nd you shall be about to hear of wars and rumors of
wars : see that you are not alarmed for all [ things] must
come into being ; but the P erfecting-period is not yet F or
class shall rise up against class and realm against realm ; and
there shall be privations of food and epidem i cs and earth
quak es according to places N ow all the s e [things are] the
Gr k t b l t h owin g d o wn ; l yi n g d o wn ( fo n d t ion )
O ri gen (D P i n ip i i ) expl i n s t h t i n N w T t m n t s ge th
wor d efer s t th de s cent of t h s o l s from th h igh er d i n
visible sp h ere s t th l o wer d visibl e one s in other w ords t
t h ei
f l l in t o gener tion
G n iv 8-1 0
3 I I
Ch n xxiv 20 22
4 Th
s e cret t e chin gs i n th r c ne m y st erie s
l s o M tt
2936
S
1
a a
ro
ee a
es a
e
e a
an
an
REINC A RN AT ION I N
7O
r st of birth-pangs Then they shall deliver you up to a

hemming-ih and make you wretched ; and you shall be h ate d
by all cl asses b ecaus e of my N ame A nd then many [neo
shall
be
tripped
up
and
S
hall
hate
one
another
A
nd
h
s
t
e
]
p y
many false see rs shall rise up and shall lead many [neo
use sorcery hall be
in
wande
ing
ways
And
beca
r
h
t
s
e
]
p y
prevalent the love of the masses shall become cold ; but
he who stands rm until the P e rfecting-period that [man]
S hall be saved A nd this E vangel of the Realm shall be pro
claimed in the whole inhabited [world ] for a witness to all
classes A nd then shall come the P e rfecting-period 1
.
M atth ew
xx viii
1 9, 20
G o your way and ma k e all the nations your pupils lus

trating them into the N ame of the F ather and of the S on
and of the pure S pirit ; teaching them to keep all [ things ]
whatsoever I commanded you A nd behold I am with you
all the days till the Assembly of the Perfect of the E on $
N ow,
most of the predictions made by Jesus
h inge upon the word generation as in the as

sertion that this generation shall not at all pass
2
away until these things come about
I f the
word is to be taken as meaning merely the life
time of the people then living it is certain that
most of his prophecies were never fullled ; but
if the word applies as it well may to the pres
ent process of reproduction a wider scope is
1 S e e l s o M rk
2 M tt xxi v 34
51 3
,
REINC AR NATI ON IN
72
teachings of Jesus given in parables ; and these

when taken in connection wi th reincarnation are
so clear that comment is hardly needed
,
L uke xv
1 1 32
A ce rta i n man h ad two sons A nd the younger of them

said to the F ather :
F ath e r give me the share of the S ubstance 1 that falls to
.
me
A nd he divided the Living between them
A nd not many
days after the younger s on when he had gathered all to

gether too k a j ourney to a far-distant country and ther e
he scattered abroad his S ubstance living unsavingly N ow
when he had spent his all there came about a mighty famine
throughout that country and he himself began to be in want
2
A nd he passed over and j oined himself to one of the citizens
of that country ; and he sent him into his elds to feed pigs
And h e longed to ll his belly with the carob -pods which the
pigs were eating ; and no one gave to him N ow when he
came to himself he said :
H ow many wage -work ers of my F ather have bread more
,
Gr
bein g e ss en c e ; s b st n c e p rop ert y I n p hil o
i
s op hi c l s en s e i i th p rim l s bst n c e th efcient c s e f
l l m n ife st t ion
Here th ere is pl y th t w m e n in gs f
d
f l ivin g
w ord
th
l s o wi th bi
lif e
th
m e ns
This d l i ty f m e in g i p p rent i n n m b er of c rio s
bl e
p re ssi on s s e d in t h is p
L it er lly
w
ferrie d cro ss Cro ssin g th river of gener
t i on
n d i n c rn t i n g i
th phy si c l b o d y th s o l b e c om e s
b
s ervi ent t l ongi ngs nd de sire s -th p i gs
1
ou s a ,
ou s a
as
ua
as
s a
ar a
an
au
on
ex
os ,
an
su
THE NEW TES TA MENT
73
than enough but I here am perishing with hunger $ I Shal l

rise up and cross over to my F ather and shall s ay to him
F ather I have erred against the Sky and in your presence ;
no longer am I worthy to be called your S on ; mak e me as one
of your wage -work ers
A nd he rose up and went to his F ath e r N ow while he
was yet far away his F ather saw him and h is heart was
stirred and h e ran and fell on his nec k and tend er ly k issed
him But the S on said to him :
F ather I have erred against the Sky and in your presence
and no longer am I worthy to be called yo ur S on ; ma ke me as
one of your wage -work ers
But the F ather said to his S laves :
1
Bring forth quic k ly the rst garment and put [ it] on
him and give a seal -ring into his hand and sandals to h is
feet ; and bring forth the fatted calf and sacrice [ it] ; and
let us eat and rej oice because this my S on was one dead and
is alive was one lost and is found
A nd they began to re j oice N ow his older s on was in the
eld and as he was coming and drew near the house he heard
a sound of m usic and a c h orus of S ingers ; and calling to him
one of the Slave boys he demanded what these [ things] meant
A nd he said to him :
Y our brother is come and your F ather has sacriced the
fatted calf because he has recovered him safe and hale
A nd he was wrathful and was unwilling to go in Then
his F ather went out and spo k e to h im ; but he answering
said to his F ather :
S ee so many years have I slaved for you and I never
passed over a command of yours ; and you never gave m e a
T h s p i i t l b o dy th r s t g rm ent o f th s o l
,
ua
74
EINC A RN A TION IN
that I might re j oice wi th my friends But when this

yo ur S on came who h as consumed your Living with prosti
tute s y ou have sacriced for him the fatted calf $
A nd he said to him :
Child y ou are with me at all times and all [ th in gs] that
are mine are yours N ow you ought to have re j oiced and
been glad because this your brother w as one dead and is
alive and w as one lost and is fo und
k id,
so
M atth ew
x iii
24 -30 3 6 -43
The R ealm of the S k ies may be li k ened to a man who sowed
good seed in his eld ; but while the men were asleep h is
enemy came and sowed darnels all through the midst of the
wheat and went away N ow when the grain sprouted and
put forth the ear then appeared the darnels also A nd the
householder s slaves came and said to him :
Maste r did you not s ow good seed in your eld ? Fr om
what source th en does it h ave darnels ?
A man [who is] an enemy h as done this
A nd the slaves said to him :
Do you wish then that we sho uld go bac k [ to the eld ]
and weed them out ?
But he sa id :
N o lest perhaps in weeding out the darnels you root up
the wheat with them Le t both grow together until the
reaping and at the season for reaping I wi ll say to the reap
ers : F irst weed out the darnels and bind them in bundles to
burn them up ; but gather the wheat into my grana ry
And his pupils came to him sayi ng :
,
75
Ex plain to us the parable of the darnels of the eld

A nd he answered and said to them :
H e who sows the good seed is the S on of the Man ; and
the eld is the world ; and the good seed these [souls ] are the
sons of the R ealm ; and the darnels are the sons of the useless
[function] ; and the enemy who sows th em is the A ccuser : and
the reaping is the P erfecting-period of the E on; and the
reapers are the A ngels T herefore j ust as the darnels are
weeded out and burned with re so it will be at the P erfect
ing-period of this E on T he S on of the Man will send forth
his A ngels and from his R ealm they will weed out all offen
sive things and all those wh o commit lawless deeds and will
throw them into the furnace of re ; ther ewill be wailing and
gnashing of teeth Th en the upright [souls] will shine forth
as the S un in the R ealm of their F ather H e who has ears
to hear let him hear
M atth ew
xx i
3 3 44
There was a man a householder who planted a vi neyard

,
and put a hedge round it and digged a wine -vat in it and

built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went abroad
[ to live] N ow when the season of th e fru its drew near he
sent his slaves to the husbandmen to receive its fruits
And the husbandmen seized his slaves and thrashed one [ of
them] and k illed another and pelted another with stones
A gain he sent other slaves more than the rst ; and they did
[ in j uries] to them in lik e manner A nd afterwards he sent
his s on to them saying :
T hey will pay respectful attention to my son
But the husbandmen when they saw the s on said among
themselves :
,
RE INC A RN AT ION
76
T his [ son] is the heir
Come ,
IN
then $ Let us kill him and
get possession of his inheritance

A nd seizing him they h urled [h im] out outside th e vine
yard and k illed [h im ] Wh e n therefore the Master of th e
vineyard comes what will he do to those hus bandmen ?
T hey s ay to him :
H e will utterly destroy them horribly wick ed [men] $
And he will let out th e vineyard to other husbandmen who
will ren der him the fruits in their seasons
Je s us says to them :
H ave you never read in the W ritings :
1
A stone which the Builders rej ecte d
2
This [stone ] became [ the ] head of [ the] corner ;
I t came into being from the Master
A nd is a wonderful [thing] in our eyes
F or this [reason ] I s ay to you The R ealm of The God shall
1
be tak en away from you and given to a class producing the
fruits of it A nd he who falls on this stone shall be cru shed
5
toge ther ; but on wh omsoever it shall fall it will winnow him
I ndisputably t h ese parables set forth the de

scent of the soul from t h e realm of true Being
xx viii 1 6 Z h iv 61 0
O r p ex f th gl e
P
c xviii 22 23
G r th b o dy f p eopl e t ri b e r c e ; p rt i c l r cl ss f m
c st e
Gr l i km t sep r t e th wh e t f om th ch ff wi n o w sift
gri d
T h A V f o ll o wi n g t h V lg t give s th m is t r n sl t i on
h i m t p o wd er
d th R V m k e s t h
h lf -h e rte d c orrec tion
id
s c tt er h im d st T h p r bl e is l s o rec or de d with
1 11
bl v ri t i on s i n M
k
d L k xx 9 1 8
1
sa
2
3
'
n os ,
e an
ec
u a
en ,
an,
an
as
a a
e ra
u
.
ar
a e,
an
a a
con s
NEW
THE
T ES TA MEN T
77
into the spheres of transition and its return to

t h e spirit u al state at the end of the E on But
the langu age used is such as to imply that th e
soul toils in the elds of earthly existence
throughout t h e E on which could only be
through a long series of incarnations
T h e stone which was re j ected by the Build

ers
the divine races w h o preceded t h e physi
cal humanity
is the philosophe r s stone th e
2
of th e S eer I t was the org a n of

open eye
obj ective vision of the S piritual ance s tors of h u
3
manity but became atrophied p etr ied rather
when they fell into generation and now per

tains to sp i r i tu al sight Being therefore the
point of contact between man and his inner S elf
or G od it is the avenue of h is consc i ence the
arbiter of his destiny that which through his
many incarnations on earth winnows the wheat
1
from the chaff in his nature H ence the allu
sion to it ttingly concludes t h e sublime P arable
of the Vineyard
,
'
vi 1 4
tt vi 22 ; L
G en
u ke xi
34
4 O (q ot e d fro m
J hn
m e ns
t t rn i n t o st one
M tt iii 1 2
3
sa
to
vi
p etrify
.
verb s e d p
h r d en
V
Th e
(A
or ou n ,
IV
WI N E
O LD
T H AT
IN
N E W BO T T LE S
reinc a rn a tion not only i n t h e case of

particular men but also as a law of life t h at ap
plies to all men is distinctly taught in the N ew
Testam ent h as been shown T o dispute this point
is to deny that the authors of that collection of
writings meant what they said in unmistakable
language T o rej ect reincarnation is to impugn
their teachings
W hat changes then must necessarily be made
i n th e current interpretation of Biblical doctrines
once reincarnation is admitted to be one of those
?
doctrines C oncisely stated the B i blical account
is t h is :
Th e M aster-G od
formed A dam [ the rst
man ] of t h e dust of t h e ground and breathed
into h is nostrils the Breath of Life and h aving
planted a garden eastward in E den he placed

A dam in it and commanded h im under penalty
of deat h not to eat of the tree of the know

,
78
REINCA RN ATI ON
80
IN
breathe d in to h im nothing is said S ubsequently

G od entered into four contracts or agreements
with the descendants of A dam successively with
N oah A braham I s a ac and Jacob and then a
1
fth contract wit h M oses
E ac h of t h ese con
tracts was no more and no l ess than to p r eserve
and m ul tip ly p hy si cal bod i es and to bestow ma
t erial benets the means of living upon the
people if they on t h eir part woul d obey the
will of G od and follow the moral code h e laid
down for them T h e people are especially e n
j oined to be fruitful and replenish the earth

S o far th e Old Testam ent (palai a d iathk con
tract of olden
N ext G od entered into
2
a further agreement through Jesus the N ew
Tes tament (kai n d i athk
new
by
wh ich peopl e a re to be em ancip ated fr om the p hy s
i cal body and restored to the state of purity
wh i c h was that of the soul before its fall or de
scent into material existence T h e langu age of
Genes i s though poetically euphemistic distinctly
indicates that this fall resulting in deat h was
.
G en
vi
.
er
H eb
w or d d i
18 ;
v
xxxi
7 , 8 ; D eu t
2
ix
1 3 ;
31 ;
6 -1 3 ;
a thk
xv
7 1 7 ;
18 ;
xxix 1
M tt xxvi
ix
L ev
xxvi
42; E x
xxi v
7 16
h as th e m
xvii
e n ng
a
Mr
24 ; G l iv
er ss ge i n H b
e s en
wi ll
28 ;
a k xi v
I n th e l att
pa
i
t t am
t,
.
or
23 -26 ;
rew s t h e
.
THE NEW T ES TA MEN T
81
the evolution of the generative function ; a nd
2
must pass away be
this sinful generation
fore the presence of t h e A nointed can be man

3
I n fact the N ew Tes tam ent
i fe s te d on earth
teachings concerning sin are summed up in
the words of C alderon T h e greatest guilt of
T h e ol d contract
man is that h e was born
related to generation ; the new contract to
T here
birth from above
r egener ati on$ the
fore t h e in j unction to be fruitful a nd r e pl e n
ish the earth has no place in t h e teachings of

Jesus ; on the contrary h e inculcated celibacy
and was h imself a celibate the signicance of

which fact can not be overlooked inasmuch as
he was the pattern to be followed by all who
would attain to eternal life S ince h e was t h e
W ay the T ruth and the Life

I t may clearly be inferred from t h e narrat i ve
in Genesi s t h at b efore e a ting of t h e tree A dam
and E v e were without the knowledge of good
and evil and hence m or al ly i r r esp onsi bl e T hey

gained wisdom by eating of that tree and if they
'
1
2
3
4
ma
G en
M
iii
ar k
7 , 1 0, 1 1 , 1 2 1 6 ;
38
.
iv
1, 2
xxi v 34 L k xxi 3 2 A t ii
$
i n A d m l l di s o l s o i
de l ive ( I C xv
M
a tt
or
as
or
e,
c s
40
th e A
noint e d
all
all
be
82
E IN C A R NATI ON I N
had e a ten of the other tree the evil results of

eating of the former tree would have been an
nulled T hey would have lived for ever instead
of becom i ng the prey of death But the M as
ter-G od guarded against their obtaining this
antidote and nothing is said about the tree of
life in the contracts made in olden times But
in the A pocalyp se it is said to be in the new
Je rusalem and is described as bearing twelve

fruits yielding its fru it every month ; and the
leaves of the tree were for the healing of the
nations
A nd Jesus says of it : I mmortal are
they who wash their robes so that theirs shall
be the authority over t h e tree of life

A nd
again he says : T o the conqueror I will give to
eat of the tree of life which is in the P aradise
1
of T h e G od
M anifestly therefore the one
tree that with which the old contract was

concern ed typied generati on the multiplication
of physical bodies requisite for the many suc
c e s s iv e lives on earth by which knowledge of
good and evil is gained through experience ;
while the other tree that of the new contract

stood for r egeneration emancipation from the
wheel of birth and restoration to the purely

1 R
2 14 ii 7
.
ev
NEW
THE
T EST A MEN T
83
spiritual and divine state H aving eaten of the

rst tree that is having fallen into generation
man was not to eat of th e tree of life that is
become consciously immort a l until h e h ad passed
throug h the vast cycle of reincarnations tilling
the hard soil of material existence which indeed
brings forth the t h orns and thistles of sorrow
and su ffer i ng
S uc h is t h e Biblical allegory in its sublime
simplicity
But t h e commonly rece i ved theo
logical version of it is about as fel l ow s :
A dam and E v e committed the origi nal sin

for w h ic h t h ey and all th eir descendants were
sentenced to eternal punis h ment in unquenc h able
re T h is notwi t h standing t h e irresponsibility
of A dam and E v e wh o like newborn babes had
no knowledge of good and evi l w h i ch extenuating
circumstance together with the fact that it was
their rst offence surely entitled them to a rec
om m e nd ation to mercy
A nd in condemning
their descendants the Lord went beyond the rule
h e subsequently laid down for himself of visit

ing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth
A ll
.
e nt
a
xx
My sti c l l y
a
h ir d
an d
fo rth i n c rn ti on
u
is
RE I NC A R N A T I O N
84
IN
the generations from A dam went down to endless
torment until the new contract was made

throug h Jesus who (himself perfectly innocent )
was offered as a substitute for the countless mil
lions of hu m an beings who in a ceaseless stream
were descending into the bottomless abyss (bot
t om l e s s surely or it soon would h ave been
lled ) to expiate in eternal woe a crime that
few of them had ever heard of and which had
been committed ages before their soul s had
been created and before their bodies had been
born the most perfect alibi the mind of man

could conceive Y e t not one could be saved
from eternal torture unless while still in the
physical body the pitiful prison of clay h e h eard
of and believed in J esus whether wit h or with
out any evidence upon which to base his belief
Before ever the S aviour h ad come great nations
rose and fell the populous earth for ever pouring
its mighty tribute of countless souls into the
nether abyss with no possible salvation for any
save perchance for a few S eers whose eyes had
gazed into the future ; and during and after h is
coming the sacrice of the G od M an availed not
for the many : out of non-being they come
into existence for a few short years on earth
NEw
T HE
TES TA MEN T
85
only to be hurled into the bottomless pit to
undergo eternal agony

Be fruitful and r e
plenish the earth and by so doing supply fuel
for the quenchless ames $

Look now toward
heaven said the Lord to A braham and tell

the stars if thou be able to number them ; so
1
in the N etherworld of
shall thy seed be
N ot theirs the everlasting bliss
E ternal W oe
reserved for a few saints and believers

who according to some of the theologians had
been predestined or foreordained before

the hapless A dam and E v e had come into exi e
tence and even before the S pirit of G od had
moved on th e W aters of S pace
I f it be contended that this is the old -fash
i one d theology and that it has been lightened
som ewhat of its gloom by later sects what then
are the modications that have been made ?
T h e theological sc h eme has been so constructed
t h at eac h part of it is depend ent upon the others
so that if any part of it is removed the whol e
structure collapses I f all men prior to the time
of Jesus were saved then by coming he saved
no one but brought condemnation upon all who
after h is com i ng might not hear of him or who
G n xv 5
.
RE I NC AR N ATI O N
86
IN
hearing mig h t not believe I f all those never

h earing of h im are saved and none are lost ex
cept those who hear and disbelieve then usually
i t would be a misfortune to hear of him
In
that case ignorance is not only bliss but eter nal
bliss I f the dogma of eternal punishment is
wholly re j ected then of whom and from what is
?
T h e cru x of theology is
Jesus the S aviour
this : no damnation no salvation ; no hell no
heaven T o introduce varying degrees of h ap
i
n
s
into heaven is only to erase the boundary
e
s
p
line between it and hell for relativi ty in heaven
would mean t h at evil as well as good obtains
there
N ow the whol e tissue of horrifying beliefs
w h ic h theology has woven and which all right
minded C hristians of to -day are anxious to cast
asid e if they can do so without at th e same
time giving up the realities of religion has been
fabricated upon the erroneous theory that man
has but one life upon earth N ot having eyes to
see the plain statements of reincarnation con
t aine d in the i r Bible the professional expounders
of that book have denied even th e pr e xis te nc e
of the soul T hey have asserted the doctrine of
special cre a tion claiming t h a t G od makes a

.
RE I NC A RN AT ION
88
IN
be i ng because of the generation of the p h ysical

body is to make the esh superior to the S pirit
and degrade every concept of spiritual life
T h ere is no possible authority in the Bible for
this doctrine of special creation ; t h e Breath

of Life t h at G od breathed into A dam is uncreate
eternal T hat S pirit being embodied in A dam
he became a living soul t h e soul being there

fore a manifestation of the S pirit in the outer
worlds T h e universe itself is said in t h e N ew
Tes tam ent to be born to become

or come
1
into existence
it is only in the uninspired and
not very conscientious auth orized translation that
it is made or created
From the one -incarnation dogma comes the
curious notion held by many that after the
death of the physical body the soul remains in a
comatose state until the end of th e world w h en

it is wakened for its nal j udgment on the last
day
H owever it woul d be an almost endless
task to point out the absurdities that have arisen
from attempting to interpret the N ew Tes tament
teac h ings apart from reincarnation when rein
carnation is in fact the basis of those teachings
A nd all these difculties vanish when reincarna
1 J hn i 3
.
T HE NEW TES TA MEN T
89
tion is accepted T hen the prin c ipal doctrines

m ay b e dened thus :
T h e origi nal sin was the descent of the soul
into the mater i a l world and the generation of
physical bodies man being t h enceforth a G od
dwelling in the animal form
T h e c u rse is the vast cycle of incarnations

through which the soul must pass before it can
regain the divi ne state Y e t as the prodigal
son it receives more honor on its return than

does the soul that has not gained power and
knowledge by this j ourney through the lower
worlds
The
U nderworld
(hads ) is the world in
which the soul makes its stay between incarna
tions T his world is of a dual nature P aradise
(the pleasure grounds be i ng t h e abode of t h e

1
souls of the good and G ehenna (the burn i ng
valley ) that of impure souls
H eaven is th e nal state of bliss attained by
the soul when freed from the wheel of birth

and i s t h e same as the N irvana of Buddhism
2
P erdition (apblei a) is the eight h sp h ere
.
Al
s o c l le d T r t r s i n I I
a
ev
X Vii
8 , 1 1 ; xi x
3 9 ; 1 1 P e t 111 7
.
a u
20 ;
P e t ii 4
.
J hn
o
X Vii .
1 2; I I
T h es s
3 ; H eb
RE I NC A RN A TION IN
9O
or receptac l e of the unsp i rit u ali zed res i d u e of

humanity after the seven great racial periods
which comprise t h e E on h ave run t h eir course
this residue being the bestial portion of h um an
nature W hat P aradise and G ehenna a re in the
cycle of a s i ngle incarnation H eaven and P erdi
t i on are i n the vaster cycle of the E on
1
is the consciousness of
T h e E onian Life
immortality consequent upon the recovery of the
memory of past incarnations man s life being
then one of unbroken continuity throughout the
E on even though h is outer existence continues
to be a series of incarnations on eart h
2
T h e S econd Death
is the dissolution of the
psyc h ic self of t h e irredeemably evil person the
soul thereby falling out of the evolutionary cycle
through such loss of its vehicle for manifesting
in th e lower worlds I t is also the passing away
of t h e physical and psychic worlds Death and
Had s ) at th e end of the E on

R esurrection (anas tasi s) is any ascent from
a lower to a high er state of existence whether
3
of indivi dual man or of t h e entire race
A s re
,
1
2
3
rroneo sl y tr n sl te d etern l li fe
R
1 1 xx 6 1 4
I 8
xx 5 1 2 ; J h v 29
R
E
ev
ev
o n
; XX
.
in th e A V
.
T HE NEW T ES TA ME NT
91
world period
lating to the E on or
the rst
resurrection is the awakening to spiritual life
during the cycle Of the j ust men who have
been made perfect

while the second resur
rection is that Of all m a nkind at the close of
the world -period w h en they are j udged every
man according to their works
S alvation is freedom from the bondage of

rebirth Jesus is represented as a S aviour in
that he taught and exemplied the right -conduct
th at alone can emancipate the soul from the
material animal existence and awaken it to the
realities of the spiritual life
F aith is intuitive knowledge the dim remi
nis c e nc e which th e soul retains of its pristine
state ; true faith instead of being but ignorant
O pinion is the beginning of spiritual wisdom an
assurance of things h oped for a proof Of things
1
not seen
R ighteousness is r ight-conduct t h e perfect

performance of duty in the light of a puried
conscience
Baptism or lustration is a ceremonial rite

of purication symbolizing successive degrees Of
initiation into the divine M ysteries T h e exo
,
H eb
xi .
92
EINC A R N ATI O N
IN
NEW
T HE
T ES TA MEN T
or earthy man (choi kos ) when h e rst

comes to recognize the reality of the S piritual
life becomes a believer (pi s tes) ; by th e lus
tration of W ater he becomes a psychic (psa

chi kos ) ; by that of A i r ( neu m a) a
spiritual
p
person (pneu m atikos) ; by that of F ire a perfect
man (teleios ) ; and by that of Blood (ether) a full
l
I nitiate or C hristos
T h e A tonement is the union of man s puri
e d human self with his spiritual and divine S elf ;
it is vi carious in the sense that the sinless

sp iritual S elf is incarnated for the salvation of
the animal -human creature formed of the dust
of t h e ground
t h at is evolved from the ele
ments
R egeneration is the birth from above

when t h e soul freed for ever from the prison of
clay puts on its rst garment

the deathless
gloried body of the I nitiate
te r ic is t,
My litt l e children f wh om
b form e d i n y
(G l i
,
t os
ou
v.
am a
g i n in tr v
a
ail u
ntil Chris
a
PU B L I S H E D
BY
t heosopbical Society Publishing Department
24 4
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di ffe r e n t r e l i gi ou s s y st e m s i n t he a tta i nm e n t o f Y o g a
Tra n sfo r m ati on from th e a n i m al
U n i o n w i t h t he D ivi n e
A
I n t hi s ch arm i n g w or k is e x pla i n e d th e t he ory o f r e b i rt h an d

the op e rat i on s o f t he m i n d i n t he act o f m e mory accor d i n g t o
E a s t e rn d oc tr i n e s wi t h ru le s for e e rc isi n g t he s am e s o a s t o
r e co lle c t w h at l i e s b ac k o f t h e pr e s e n t con s c i ou s n e ss
T hi s b oo k e nj oy s a wi d e ci rcul a ti on
,
KA R M A : W I S D O M A N D W O R KS by C H A R LE S
J O H N S T O N M R A S Pap e r 3 5 c e nt s
A luc id an d comp r ehe n s ive e x po si t i on o f on e o f th e fun d a
m e ntal t e ach i n gs o f T he o s op h y b a s e d upon t he aut h or s tran s
lat i on from t he o rig i nal San s k r i t
T he w r i ti n gs o f t hi s a u th o r ar e w e ll k no w n for t he b r i ll i an t
a n d s ch ol ar ly m a nn e r i n whi c h t he y a r e t r eat e d
,
A L T A R I N T H E W I L D E R N E S S by
ET H E L BE R T J O H N S O N C l ot h 50 c e n ts
T h is i s an att e m pt to i nt e rpr e t man s s eve n s p i ri tu a l a g e s o r
s e v e n w e ll d e n e d s p i r i tual e x p e r i e nc e s wh i c h e v e ry s oul is
o b l ig e d to un d e r g o i n t he cour s e o f i t s h ig he r e v olut i on T he
b oo k is r e mark ab l e fo r t he b e aut iful an d e a s y m a nn e r i n w h i c h
t h is mo st di f cul t s u bj e c t i s tr ea t e d I t i s a mo st v alua b le l i ttl e
b oo k an d w i ll b e a n o rn a m e n t t o ev e ry t he o s o phi c a l l i bra r y
THE
T H E M I N D A N D T H E B R A I N BY PR O R E LM E R
G AT E S S m i t h s on i an I n s t it u t e Pap e r 2 5 c e nt s ; clot h 50 cts
Pr e s e n ts i n an e a s y s tyl e hi s i n ve s t ig at i on s i n t he art o f M i n d
b u i l d i n g ( p s ych urg y) H e d e mon s tr a t e s t he arts o f s y s t e ma ti c
or igi nat i v e con s c i ou s m e nt at i on an d s y s t e mat i c s u b con s c i ou s
m e nta ti on and s y s t e mat i c o rigi nat ive coop e rat iv e m e n t a ti on
w h i c h t h r ee p roc e ss e s con st i tu t e t h e art o f u si n g t he m i n d
Y our m i n d is
s y s t e m a ti cally i n or igi nal t h i n k i n g
to you t he mo s t m o m e ntou s an d i m p o rtant fa c t i n t he un i ve r s e
for wi th ou t your m i n d w h at w oul d b e t he un iv e r s e an d i t s po s
to you P If you can g e t mor e m i n d o r a b e tt e r
s ibi l i ti e s
.
T h e o s oph ica l S o cie ty , Pu bl De pt
N A T U R E S A L L E G O R I E S By MA U D E D U N K L
G i lt t op Clot h 7 5 c e nts
A b e aut iful b oo k e s p e c i al l y for youn g p e opl e e x pr e ssiv e
t he i d ea o f i nt ell ig e nc e i n plant l ife I t is l l e d wi th q u a
conc e i t s b eautiful conc e p ti on s t h rou g h w h i c h is b r ea t he d
s p i ri t o f lo v e an d p e ac e
T H E PA N O R A M A O $ S L E E P : S ou l a
S Y M BO L By N I N A PI C T O N I ll u s trat e d C l ot h
S ix t ee n s ym b o l i c d r e a m s e x p e r i e nc e d b y t h e w r i t e r ar e
count e d i n b e aut iful lan gua g e T he t e ac h i n g is up l ift i n g
i n s p i r i n g and e a si l y un d e r s too d A rt i s t i c i l l u st rat i on s a dd
t he va lu e o f t he b oo k
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Reincarnation in The NewTestament

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Reincarnation in The NewTestament

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E

belief h e l d sacred by any sincere student

as and indeed not even convergent with the

path pointed out by Jesus C ertain beliefs

are a number of highly important pas

than John the Lus trator ; but

yet he that is but little

A nd his pupils put a ques

tion to him saying :

ask ed his dis

And his disciples ask ed him

THE NEW T ES TA MEN T

corders say Eli j ah must

is co m e already and they knew

parallel passage in the third E vangel i s a s

people of old has risen [from who

I n the above citations the following facts are

THE NEW T ES TA MENT

der-workers of olden times : they were indulging

he encouraged his pupils in their specula

whom do you say that I am the reincarnation ?

THE NEW T EST A MEN T

belief in reincarnation admitted or endorsed by

views of the anc i ents wit h regard to rein

E I NC A RN A T I ON IN THE NEW T ES TA MEN T

is Deity i n manifestation T rue Being is

an i nhabit a nt of the three worlds T h a t h e is

real S elf of man is eternal which means not

it never began to be but is self existent his

emerges again upon the psychic plane and is

the spheres of becoming is in bondage I t

has been formed of the dust of the ground

S elf that breathed into it th e Breath of Life

but not until it reaches the perfectingperiod at

nle ss I sh l l sp e k t y [th m em bers o f th S o ciety t

I n considering the treatment of the subj ect

th a t a dds to t h e sum -tot a l of th e others but a

Therefore they said to h im :

sent us What do you say about yourself

H ere there is a den i al a pparentl y t h a t Jo h n

John evades the question put to him by taking it

preceding one I am not the A nointed

is indicated by t h e enigmatical words A nd h e

admitted and did not deny and a dmitted w h i ch

passage in M al achi containing the prediction of

righteousness arise wit h healing in his wings

O n the morro w he sees Jesus coming toward him and says :

sin of the world T his [A nointed] is he of whom I sai d Be

I t will be seen that the abo ve is not inc ons is

bre th ; s piri t th b re th f l ife

who show John to be in doubt as to whet h er or

to under the imagery of a dove is the R adiance

A nd as these [messengers ] were departing Jesus began to

say to the crowds concerning John :

M ark omits this incident but Luke gives it in

T HE NEW TES TA MENT

but break i ng off abruptly and leaving out t h e

A nd John s pupils reporte d to him concerning all these

pupils sent them to Jesus saying :

Behold I send my Messenger before thy face

to you N o one among [men] born of women is a

character and person a l peculiarit i es of

THE NEW TEST A MENT