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Edna Lister’s Lectures, 1965
What Is Power?
Edna Lister outline, February 2, 1965, Tacoma, WA, Philippians 4:13, Mark 9:23, Matthew 19:26
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”–Philippians 4:13.
“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”–Mark 9:23.
“But Jesus beheld [them], and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”–Matthew 19:26.
Everyone knows the difference between potential power and kinetic energy. Potential power, harnessed and released into action as kinetic energy, can move the world. Running wild, it can’t do anything constructive.
It’s like the difference between a goal-oriented, even-tempered person who controls his life while conquering self, and one who scatters his energy, lacks self-control and any desire to conquer self. The former is soul-expression, but the latter is self-expression. Soul expression harnesses the potential Power of God, releases it in prayer and declarations, and the results are miracles and success.
Delays and anemic failures result from no respect for the Power of God. Lack of conscious direction and control of their faculties is what ails so many people, from atheists and agnostics to people who lukewarmly “believe” in God. To empower your own soul, remember this—Of myself, I am nothing; with God, I am everything.
To most people, a million things are impossible. Yet one man comes along who thinks, believes in and knows the impossible is doable, and he does it. If I declare that something is impossible, then so it is for me. If I declare, “Not I, but the Power can do anything. All things are possible with God. My God can do anything!” then so it shall be!
The difference between a statement and a declaration is simple. A statement can be weak and unsure of itself. A declaration is a positive soul proclamation, born of a fiery conviction that God’s Power is ready to do the work. Just to see the truth, to believe the truth is not enough. Truth waits upon the Word, the declaration, to be able to act. A declaration of divine power is like starting a jet engine. It ignites the potential atomic power into the right degree of kinetic energy necessary to do the work.
Declare, “I now declare that my new truth of the Power of God is to move into action to fulfill all my dreams. I begin to transform my life. I ascend to my Mount of Transfiguration, where Power does the work, where all my projects are vitalized and quickened with the renewing, rebuilding glory of the Power of God.”
Love and Wisdom
Edna Lister outline; February 7, 1965, Tacoma, WA
Wisdom is the Father principle of all Power. Love is the Mother principle of personality, representing action. Wisdom is all law, and Love is all law as action. The mating of Love and Wisdom gives firmness and boldness to all action. When Love and Wisdom are one, they act as nonresistance, which is the greatest, the most powerful of all laws.
How do you get into action effectively according to your desires? When you use power, Desire or love as darkness, when you misuse it, you steal from yourself. Its Light-value is then diluted, adulterated, and dissipated.
Only Truth is self-sustaining. Darkness must steal substance to sustain itself. What do you desire? You must choose! Then you must stand, know and praise it into being, with no fear or thoughts of delay, but only love. Rewards, unthinkable, uncountable and beyond belief can be yours. Life abundant shall possess you when you adopt the boldness of Nonresistance as the amalgamation of Wisdom and Love.
Responsibility
Edna Lister outline; February 14, 1965, Tacoma, WA
Responsibility is a form of steadfastness on assuming payment for all our own debts, for things, actions and words. It means that I take the blame for what my words cause, without being a doormat or soft, but balanced. Everyone knows what irresponsibility is and how it acts—blithely doing anything it pleases, never paying a debt, material or emotional. When we do voluntarily pay our debts on the outer, we receive tenfold rewards on the inner.
Our own miraculous good is always ready to alight beside us and fold its golden wings, like a butterfly. Yet when we repudiate a debt, off it flies, back to the mountain top of unattainable desires, where it waits until our next spurt of high desire sends it winging our way once more. Responsibility is based on respect for God’s Laws under honor, loyalty and integrity of soul. A lack of respect for the smallest of God’s law causes a lack of respect for all laws, and for God Himself.
What Are Angels?
Edna Lister outline, February 21, 1965, Tacoma, WA
According to non-canonical history, James and the disciples journeyed with Jesus from Jericho to Bethany. Nathaniel walked closely beside Jesus, discussing the relationship of children to the kingdom of heaven, the part parents played in teaching them, and when and how to teach children about heavenly ministering angels as their Guardians when the High Priest of the temple, a Sadducee, did not believe in angels!
Jesus explained about the Order of the Angelic Hosts, which are a separate order of created beings, entirely different from the orders of mortal creations, which take on flesh. Angels are not members of the group called the Sons of God, or the glorified spirits of mortal men, who have passed through the mansions of the soul. Once-embodied souls travel through their own Order by soul-conquering initiations, but never become members of the Angelic Orders.
Angels are the Servants of the Most High God. The angels that Jacob saw ascending and descending the ladder, were taking initiations through their own Orders.
Angels are protectors for embodied souls, “They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”–Psalm 91:12. To gain their full, personal protection, you must give up earth’s “impossible” and accept God’s “possible.” Earth’s limiting ideas are easy to accept, but hard to give up! You can succeed more quickly when you mix joy into everything you face in life, and that becomes easier when you constantly bear in mind that “everything is good in God’s Creation because He named it so.” Do this and you can be sure your prayer pattern follows your soul’s needs. The pattern many souls accept is “I’m doing so much better.” Better than what? Compared with the past? No! Compared with God!
Our goal is Ascension for more Light, Love, Power and Life. Anyone can measure more of these qualities on the outer. On the inner, it takes a greater and far different measure of “time” and “space” to show the soul’s true quality of life.
Miracles
Edna Lister outline, March 2, 1965, Tacoma, WA
What is a revolution? A revolving! Every so often in a civilization, the masses underneath start moving. As they stretch to find room for growth, they push up, reaching for the warmth of the sun. They begin to revolve, moving everything around, resulting in a revolution. New ideas usually start a revolution. People, being pushed, start to revolve until even earth moves from a static condition to a new point.
God has given us a secret weapon to aid us in this revolution. It is now changing the balance of power from darkness to Light, from evil to good. This weapon of God-given Power lies in one small four-letter word, good. Good is God’s name upon earth. “I AM good” is the most powerful healing statement we can ever use. “I AM” has but one idea, it can’t be anything else, it can be degraded or dragged down from its high place.
Do you want miracles? Declare “I am good. You are good. This is good.” Even if you knew nothing else but this, miracles would follow.
A man started driving from Chicago to Cleveland in the early darkness of a winter afternoon. He had driven for half an hour when his headlights went out, and the parking lights were all he had left. First he feared, then he prayed and told God that He would have to send His Light through the lamps, in the name of Jesus the Christ. The Highway Patrol was very strict along the way, and he knew he’d be stopped, so he prayed again.
Sure enough, he heard the siren coming and pulled over. The blustering patrolman wouldn’t let him explain why he had no lights. He said, “You can’t fool me now by turning your lights off! I’m arresting you for blinding the five cars that you’ve passed. Turn on your lights and follow me.”
The driver tried to explain, but the patrolman said, “Move over. I’ll turn ’em on.” He got in the car and fiddled and fussed, but no light. He even looked under the hood and was finally convinced that the car had no lights. Still he asked, “How did you blind those five other drivers?” The patrolman, who escorted the man to the next town, where a mechanic found the broken connection, remained unconvinced that five men could be wrong!
“This is good. I AM loves for you. I AM loves you. I AM declares you are healed. You are now healed. Your body is filled with Light.” Now, stop straddling the fence. Move up into your higher octave of life. Strike a higher chord, “This is good.”
The Mysteries of Egypt outline
Edna Lister, May 4, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Cyrus the Great, the Persian conqueror, bequeathed his throne to his son, Cambyses. Of Cambyses it was written “…though not devoid of fine qualities he was jealous and tyrannical. He caused his own brother Smerdis to be put to death. He completed his father’s conquests by adding Egypt to his empire.” (John Lord, 1883). Egypt was considered the sanctuary of the arts and sciences. Other nations considered it the “College of the World,” which it was then.
The Egyptian priests initiated candidates into the mysteries of theology and physics. The destruction of Egypt by Cambyses in the year 528 BC, caused the ruin of nearly all Egypt and of course destroyed all the principal cities. The conquest dispersed most of the priest-teachers into Greece and elsewhere. They continued to teach enigmatically, further enveloping the mysteries in the obscurities of hieroglyphics and fables. Finally the teaching descended into the common and vulgar, moving into illusions—“seeing, you see nothing, and hearing, you comprehend nothing.” The result was that they had so long concealed the mysteries under so many unexplained veils that they produced a swarm of absurdities, spreading out from Greece over the whole world.
The schools of ancient mysteries in their order of succession as they radiated from a destroyed Egypt:
1. Egypt: Osiris and Isis
2. India: Mahadeva and Bhavani, Shiva and Parvati
3. Phoenicia: Thammuz (Adonis) and Ishtar (Astarte)
4. Phrygia: Attys and Cybele
5. Persia: Mithras and Asis
6. Greece: Dionysus and Rhea
7. Britain: Hu and Cerridwen
8. Scandinavia: Woden and Freya
Remember, in the early days of Christianity there was an initiation like those of the pagan cults. Persons were admitted to the mysteries under special conditions only. They first had to pass thee degrees of instruction. The three classes of initiates were Auditors, Catechumens, and the Faithful.
The Auditors (those who listen) were the novices or neophytes who were prepared to receive the first portion of dogma, what we would call the lesser mysteries today. When they had received this instruction, they became Catechumens, who received particular purification, further instruction, and baptism, which they called the “initiation of the Theogenesis,” or “God-birth.” The purpose of this initiation was to commence awareness of divine regeneration, the initiatory process of “becoming Godlike.”
The Grand Mysteries of all ancient religions included the individual mysteries of Incarnation, Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection of the Christ, the Anointed One.” The Holy Sacraments were kept a profound secret.
Irenaeus tells us that the Simoneans, one of the earliest sects of Gnostics, had a Priesthood of the Mysteries. They remained hidden because their pagan slant so outraged the early Christians that they persecuted and killed them.
The Egyptian gods formed Triads, the third member in each proceeding from the other two:
The Triad of Memphis: Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertum
Ptah (“Creator”) was one of several gods who supposedly created the world, its inhabitants, and the spirits of the other gods. He is portrayed as a mummified man with only his hands free to grasp a scepter composed of the symbols of life (ankh), power (was), and stability (djed). A patron of craftsmen, Ptah was closely associated with stone-working. Sekhmet (“Mighty One”) was a goddess of war and divine retribution, pictured as a woman with the head of a lioness. As the “Lady of Pestilence,” she could send plague and disease, but was also the healer of these ills. Nefertum, the god of the morning sun, was the son of Ptah and Sakhmet. He was usually represented as a man with a cluster of lotus flowers upon his head, but sometimes with the head of a lion, or standing upon the back of a lion.
The Triad of Thebes: Amun, Mut and Khons
Amun (“the hidden one”) was originally a god of wind and ruler of the air before Thebes adopted him as the powerful sun-god of (2133-2000 BC), Amun-Re, and later made him the supreme god and king of the gods. From his union with the goddess Mut came forth the moon-god Khons. Amun’s symbol is the ram, and he is portrayed as a ram, as a man with a ram’s head, or with a beard and a feathered crown. In Greece they worshiped him as Ammon. Mut (mother) was a sky goddess and “mother of the mothers,” from whom everything originates. She was portrayed as a vulture, or as a woman with the head of a vulture. At Thebes, Mut was fused with the goddess Sekhmet, taking on her attributes as a goddess of war and divine retribution. Khons was the “master of time,” sometimes identified with the god Thoth. He is depicted as a young man in the posture of a mummy with the child’s side lock and the curved beard worn by the gods, but also with a full moon and a crescent on his headdress.
The Triad of Philae: Osiris, Isis and Horus
Osiris was the god of the underworld, although he was also worshiped as a fertility, resurrection, and vegetation god. He was married to Isis, a sky goddess. He was father to Horus, the god of sky, and protector of the dead. Osiris was sent to the underworld to serve as king, and to judge the souls of the dead. Isis was a daughter of Seb and Nut, sister and wife of Osiris. Possibly she was originally the personification of the throne (her name is written with the hieroglyph for throne), and as such she was an important source of the pharaoh’s power. To the Greeks, Isis was the protectress of sailors. Isis was depicted as a woman with the solar disk between the cow horns on her head (an analogy with the goddess Hathor) or crowned with a thrown, but also with the child Horus sitting on her lap. A vulture was sometimes incorporated in her crown. Also she was sometimes depicted as a kite above the mummified body of Osiris. Isis’ popularity lasted far into the Roman era. She had her own priests and many temples were erected in her honor, thou her largest temple was on the island of Philae in the Nile delta. The name Horus was given to multiple deities, the most famous of whom is Harseisis (Heru-sa-Aset) or Horus-son-of-Isis (or Horus the Younger) who was conceived after the death of his father, Osiris, and who later avenged him. In all the Horus deities the traits of kingship, sky and solar symbology, and victory reoccur.
The Triad of Elephantine and the Nile Cataracts: Khnum, Satis and Anuket
Khnum was the ram god who makes the Nile delta fertile and suitable for agriculture. He is considered the creator of humans, because he makes children from clay and places them in the wombs of the mothers. He is usually depicted as ram or a man with the head of a ram. Satis was “Queen of Elephantine”, an island in the Nile near Aswan. Guardian of Egypt’s southern (Nubian) frontier, she killed the pharaoh’s enemies with her arrows, and was also associated with the annual inundation of the Nile. She wears the crown of Upper Egypt, flanked by the gazelle horns, and holds a scepter and the ankh. Anuket (Anqet or Greek Anukis) was the goddess of the Nile, and nourisher of the fields. She was portrayed with a crown made of reeds, topped with ostrich feathers. Her name means the “embracer” and may refer to the embrace of the Nile waters by the river’s banks. She was later merged with Nephthys.
Sometimes they regarded the Triad as Spirit. The Egyptians defined Spirit as the active principle or generative power, and matter as the passive principle or productive capacity of the universe, which proceeds from the first two. Also, in Egypt they had but three seasons, Summer, Autumn and Spring. Their main gods were sun-related, and their temples each had three gates. The Egyptians regarded Amen Ra as the Creator, symbolized by the summer sun. Osiris Ra was the giver of fruitfulness, as represented by the autumn sun. Horus Ra was the Queller of Light, symbolizing the springtide sun.
The Ennead of Heliopolis was the group of the nine chief deities of the Osirian cycle in ancient Egyptian myth. They are Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.
The mysteries have been preserved as given below.
“No man hath seen God at any time. He is One, Eternal, All-Powerful, All-Wise, Infinitely just, Merciful, Benevolent, and Compassionate, Creator and Preserver of all things, the Source of Light and Life, coextensive with Time and Space; Who thought, and with the Thought created the Universe and all living things, and the souls of men: That is: The Permanent, while everything beside is a perpetual genesis.” (Genesis means change and new birth.)
“The Soul of Man is Immortal; not the result of organization, nor an aggregate of modes of action of matter, nor a succession of phenomena and perceptions; but an Existence, one and identical, a living spirit, a spark of the Great Central Light, that hath entered info and dwells in the body; to be separated therefrom at death, and return to God who gave it: that doth not disperse nor vanish at death, like breath or a smoke, nor can be annihilated; but still exists and possesses activity and intelligence, even as it existed in God, before it was enveloped in the body.”
“The impulse which directs to right conduct, and deters from crime, is not only older than the ages of nations and cities, but coeval with that Divine Being Who sees and rules both Heaven and earth. Nor did Tarquin less violate that Eternal Law, though in his reign there might have been no written law at Rome against such violence; for the principle that impels us to right conduct, and warns us against guilt, springs out of the nature of things. It did not begin to be law when it was first written, nor was it originated, but is coeval with the Divine Intelligence itself. The consequence of virtue is not to be made the end thereof; and laudable performances must have deeper roots, motives, and instigations, to give them the stamp of virtues.”
“The moral truths are as absolute as the metaphysical truths. Even the Deity cannot make it that there should be effects without a cause, or phenomena without substance. As little could he make it to be sinful and evil to respect our pledged word, to love truth, to moderate our passions. The principles of Morality are axioms, like the principles of Geometry. The moral laws are the necessary relations that flow from the nature of things, and they are not created by, but have existed eternally in God. Their continued existence does not depend upon the exercise of His Will. Truth and Justice are of His Essence. Not because we are feeble and God omnipotent, is it our duty to obey His law. We may be forced, but are not under obligation, to obey the stronger. God is the principle of Morality, but not by His mere will, which, abstracted from all other of His attributes, would be neither just nor unjust. Good is the expression of His will, in so far as that will is itself the expression of eternal, absolute, uncreated justice, which is in God, which His will did not create; but which it executes and promulgates, as our will proclaims and promulgates and executes the idea of the good which is in us. He has given us the law of Truth and Justice; but He has not arbitrarily instituted that law. Justice is inherent in His will, because it is contained in His intelligence and wisdom, in His very nature and most intimate essence.”
“There is an essential distinction between Good and Evil, what is just and what is unjust; and to this distinction is attached, for every intelligent and free creature, the absolute obligation of conforming to what is good and just. Man is an intelligent and free being—free, because he is conscious that it is his duty, and because it is made his duty, to obey the dictates of truth and justice, and therefore he must necessarily have the power of doing so, which involves the power of not doing so—capable of comprehending the distinction between good and evil, justice and injustice, and the obligation which accompanies it, and of naturally adhering to that obligation, independently of any contract or positive law; capable also of resisting the temptations which urge him toward evil and injustice, and of complying with the sacred law of eternal justice.”
“Man is not governed by a resistless fate or inexorable destiny; but is free to choose between the evil and the good: that justice and Right, the Good and Beautiful, are of the essence of the Divinity, like His Infinitude; and therefore they are laws to man: that we are conscious of our freedom to act, as we are conscious of our identity, and the continuance and connectedness of our existence; and have the same evidence of one as of the other; and if we can put one in doubt, we have no certainty of either, and everything is unreal: that we can deny our free will and free agency, only upon the ground that they are in the nature of things impossible; which would be to deny the Omnipotence of God.”
“The necessity of practicing the moral truths, is obligation. The moral truths, necessary in the eye of reason, are obligatory on the will. The moral obligation, like the moral truth that is its foundation, is absolute. As the necessary truths are not more or less necessary, so the obligation is not more or less obligatory. There are degrees of importance among different obligations; but none in the obligation itself. We are not nearly obliged, almost obliged. We are wholly so, or not at all. If there be any place of refuge to which we can escape from the obligation, it ceases to exist. If the obligation is absolute, it is immutable and universal. For if that of today may not be that of tomorrow, if what is obligatory on me may not be obligatory on you, the obligation would differ from itself, and be variable and contingent. This fact is the principle of all morality. That every act contrary to right and justice, deserves to be repressed by force, and punished when committed, equally in the absence of any law or contract: that man naturally recognizes the distinction between the merit and demerit of actions, as he does that between justice and injustice, honesty and dishonesty; and feels, without being taught, and in the absence of law or contract, that it is wrong for vice to be rewarded or go unpunished, and for virtue to be punished or left unrewarded: and that, the Deity being infinitely just and good, it must follow as a necessary and inflexible law that punishment shall be the result of Sin, its inevitable and natural effect and corollary, and not a mere arbitrary vengeance.”
“The immutable law of God requires, that besides respecting the absolute rights of others, and being merely just, we should do good, be charitable, and obey the dictates of the generous and noble sentiments of the soul. Charity is a law, because our conscience is not satisfied nor at ease if we have not relieved the suffering, the distressed, and the destitute. It is to give that which he to whom you give has no right to take or demand. To be charitable is obligatory on us. We are the Almoners of God’s bounties. But the obligation is not so precise and inflexible as the obligation to be just. Charity knows neither rule nor limit. It goes beyond all obligation. Its beauty consists in its liberty. “He that loveth not, knoweth not God; For God Is Love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” To be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; to relieve the necessities of the needy, and be generous, liberal, and hospitable; to return to no man evil for evil; to rejoice at the good fortune of others, and sympathize with them in their sorrows and reverses; to live peaceably with all men, and repay injuries with benefits and kindness; these are the sublime dictates of the Moral Law, taught from the infancy of the world, by Masonry.”
“The laws which control and regulate the Universe of God, are those of motion and harmony. We see only the isolated, incidents of things, and with our feeble and limited capacity and, vision cannot discern their connection, nor the mighty chords, that make the apparent discord perfect harmony. Evil is merely apparent, and all is in reality good and perfect. For pain and sorrow, persecution and hardships, affliction and destitution, sickness and death are but the means, by which alone the noblest, virtues could be developed. Without them, and without sin and error, and wrong and outrage, as there can be no effect without an adequate cause, there could be neither patience under suffering and distress; nor prudence in difficulty; nor temperance to avoid excess; nor courage to meet danger; nor truth, when to speak the truth is hazardous; nor love, when it is met with ingratitude; nor charity for the needy and destitute; nor forbearance and forgiveness of injuries; nor toleration of erroneous opinions; nor charitable judgment and construction of men’s motives and actions; nor patriotism, nor heroism, nor honor, nor self-denial, nor generosity. These and most other virtues and excellencies would have no existence, and even their names be unknown; and the poor virtues that still existed, would scarce deserve the name; for life would be one flat, dead, low level, above which none of the lofty elements of human nature would emerge; and man would lie lapped in contented indolence and idleness, a mere worthless negative, instead of the brave, strong soldier against the grim legions of Evil and rude Difficulty.”
“Justice, the Wisdom, and the Mercy of God are alike infinite, alike perfect, and yet do not in the least jar nor conflict one with the other; but form a Great Perfect Trinity of Attributes, three and yet one: that, the principle of merit and demerit being absolute, and every good action deserving to be rewarded, and every bad one to be punished, and God being as just as He is good; and yet the cases constantly recurring in this world, in which crime and cruelty, oppression, tyranny, and injustice are prosperous, happy, fortunate, and self-contented, and rule and reign, and enjoy all the blessings of God’s beneficence, while the virtuous and good are unfortunate, miserable, destitute, pining away in dungeons, perishing with cold, and famishing with hunger, slaves of oppression, and instruments and victims of the miscreants that govern; so that this world, if there were no existence beyond it, would be one great theater of wrong and injustice, proving God wholly disregardful of His own necessary law of merit and demerit—it follows that there must be another life in which these apparent wrongs shall be repaired: That all the powers of man’s soul tend to infinity; and his indomitable instinct of immortality, and the universal hope of another life, testified by all creeds, all poetry, all traditions, establish its certainty; for man is not an orphan; but hath a Father near at hand: and the day must come when Light and Truth, and the just and Good shall be victorious, and Darkness, Error, Wrong, and Evil be annihilated, and known no more forever: That the Universe is one great Harmony, in which, according to the faith of all nations, deep-rooted in all hearts in the primitive ages, Light will ultimately prevail over Darkness, and the Good Principle over the Evil: and the myriad souls that have emanated from the Divinity, purified and ennobled by the struggle here below, will again return to perfect bliss in the bosom of God, to offend against Whose laws will then be no longer possible.”
The Mysteries of Egypt transcript
Edna Lister lecture, Elizabeth Barnes, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes, May 4, 1965, Cleveland, OH
In occult work a story or legend is often called a myth. They all give to the world some idea connected with spiritual, intellectual and emotional truths. Time and location is intellectual; the emotional relates to the story itself. A mystery is something unknown. In our work a mystery enfolds some tenet of religion. For example, rays of Light are sent forth from the heavenly councils above. Two beams of Light crossing in the sky produce a Light at their intersection. The same two rays, if focused together in the ark of the mother (the womb), can cause a small seed of life to burgeon. There are more immaculate conceptions on earth today than anyone knows about. We could say that a mystery is something that has not yet been brought through as science. We speculate by studying the mysteries and legends that are already brought through and make them known. There were mysteries before Egypt, and the truth of the Old Testament mysteries hasve not been tapped.
Egypt was considered to be the source of rites and science in its heyday. Other nations considered it the college of the world, and the intellectual center of the world. Everything had been gathered together by the same gods who had descended in the beginning. One of our Hierarchies of the 49 came to earth and outlined and drew the Great Pyramid of Giza. He and his helpers did all the measuring. A star in the opening told them what season it was. They brought this wisdom through and if written on scrolls, which could have been lost in the great monument, wrote it on stones instead. It tells the story in the measurements. That was to bring the mystery of the stars and heavens to earth intellectually. In 528 BC Cyrus, a great Persian ruler, decided to conquer the world. He finally died and his son Cambyses took the throne from his father, had his brother Smerdis put to death, and completed in Egypt what his father had started. He ruined Egypt.
The tribes of Israel were dispersed in 585 BC and the priests under the schools of Egypt initiated the students in theology and physics. Each class was called an initiation. The conquering of Egypt dispersed the teachers into Greece and elsewhere where they continued their teaching in magic and had to teach this way to save their lives. They covered the mysteries in fables and hieroglyphics and finally moved down into common and vulgar teaching, seeing but seeing nothing. They moved into delusions and thus became mediums. This is the reason for agnosticism in the world and cynicism against those who try to unfold the mysteries. But there has always been the torch. The mysteries had for so long been concealed under so many unexplained things that this gave rise to a swarm of absurdities. The absurdities spread out form Egypt through Greece and the whole world.
Initiations: This is the foundation for all mystery. Christianity has balanced 1,000 years of paganism. The pagans had ritual and mystery and included those of the Druids and Belial as their pagan rites were on the lowest form of the emotional, using black magic. In the early days of Christianity there was initiation just like the pagans and people were admitted to the mysteries under special conditions only. In Christianity they had to pass through three degrees of instruction. This is on the 26th degree of Masonry.
The three Orders of Solomon: The three classes were Auditors, Catechumen and the Faithful. 1. Auditors novices and neophytes, being prepared to receive dogma. The first portion of what today is part of the six first lesser mysteries of creation. 2. Catechumen for the priests who were letter-perfect in creed and dogma and through this they become the 3. Faithful: who walked the pathway of purification and received further instruction in baptism. This was called the Initiation of Theogenesis, the origin of things and whom and is divine regeneration. This was in Christianity.
The Grand Mysteries were all religious, broken into incarnation, nativity, passion and resurrection, but never included or revealed the ascension. They were just one step from paganism and kept these hidden as initiations of the mystery to protect them against profanation. Their actual initiations, for which they had to study, were baptism by water and fire. Hundreds of classes were required to learn perfection and fasting, and these initiations are still held in veneration. The Roman church made them holy sacraments keep their holy secret.
Irenaeus tells the story of the Simoneans, a group named for Simon Peter and one of the earliest sects. The early Christian founders had a priesthood of the mysteries hidden because the Christians were so persecuted. The Simoneans part of the mysteries does not refer to the initiation above. This is the only one that dealt with the original mysteries of Egypt and called the sacraments the mystery.
Hypatia was a high priestess of the Gnostics and was brought down into Alexandria. She was stoned because they thought she was having men at her home, and she was, but they came to hear her teach.
The Egyptian gods formed triads. The third member in each triad is the one proceeding from the first two. 1. Triad at Thebes. This was Amun, Maut and Karso. These were oracles. The oracle had to be inside a pillar as people are confused by seeing an ordinary person used. The medium closes her eyes to veil the personality. 2. Triad was at Philae. This was Osiris, Isis, Horus. 3. Triad of Elephantine and the Cataracts. These were Noph, Sate and Anonke. These were triads of the order of oracles and sometimes these were regarded as (1) spirit as active principle or generative power or (2) matter as passive or productive capacity or the universe itself from which proceeds the first two in the triad.
The mystery of Spirit is the rational soul animates the body, but matter is passive. As in many other mysteries, the least known is most important. This was practical in its application on earth.
In Egypt: Amon-Ra, the creator; Osiris-Ra, the giver of life or fruitfulness; Horus-Ra, the queller of Light (transforming Light down from the Source). These were symbolized as summer, autumn, and spring and there were only three seasons in Egypt and three gates to the temple like the trinity. The 18th Path is tying earth to heaven. Edna Miriam came here to prove that you could live on earth as in heaven, can work in the world and earn your living and still open up by observation of details the mystery of heaven and live immortal. We are being instructed in Theogenesis and it is such a higher level that it will appear as new material.
Principle revealed as mystery: The nine mysteries: In Masonry these are the sacred mysteries and they are the only ones that tie your earth to Heaven. They are the greater truths and sacred mysteries.
1. No man hath seen God at any time (with his physical eyes). He is One Eternal, infinitely just, merciful, benevolent and compassionate, creator and preserver of all things, Source of Light and life coextensive with time and space who thought and with thought created the universe and all living things and the souls of men. Than THAT IS the permanent while everything else beside it is the perpetual genesis.
2. The soul of man is immortal. Not the result of organization nor an aggregate of modes of action of matter, nor a succession of phenomena and perception. An existence one and identical, a living spirit from the great central Light that hath entered onto the body and dwells therein, separated from the body at death, returns to God who gave it. Does not disperse or vanish like breath or smoke. Cannot be annihilated but exists and possesses activity and intelligence as it existed in God before creation. That is the secret of your life. The first one reveals your Source and the second one your relationship to your Source.
Mysteries: This is the order in which mysteries spread out through countries, temples and religions in this order. 1. Egypt: Osiris and Isis. 2. India: Mahadeva and Bhavani. 3. Phoenicia: Thammuz or Adonis and Astarte. 4. Phrygia: Atys and Cybele. 5. Persia: Mithras and Asis. 6. Samothrace and Greece: Dionysus or Sabonus and Rhea (from this came the Sabaeans, a high order and from this came the Fabians). 7. Britain: Hu and Ceriddwen. 8. Scandinavia: Woden and Freia. Germany was a law in itself and was taken over by the Druids. The mysteries always spread through a high pair of descended gods.
Ancient Myths and Mysteries outline
Edna Lister lecture, May 11, 1965, Cleveland, OH
All ancient mysteries were essentially funereal in character. They all celebrated the mystical death and restoration of some divine or heroic personage. The details of the legend and modes of death differed in the various countries. The explanation belongs to astronomy, and the interpretation through symbology to mythology, which is an exact science.
The Hebrews, the children of Israel, who were in bondage to Egypt, went there, were divinely sent there to receive instructions in the complete mysteries then held covered in Egypt. Moses had been thoroughly instructed, and was ready for his Transfiguration. Yet he had to earn it!
Truth has always been clothed in allegory and figures with hidden meaning. In all histories of the gods and heroes, the mysteries lay hidden, couched in astronomical details and in the history of visible nature. These, in turn, were only symbols of higher truths and of truth more profound. Only rude, uncultivated intellects could long worship the sun, moon, and stars themselves. We have always sought and will always seek the spiritual truths, which lie behind the veils. The Hebrew mysteries were based Egyptian legends and myths. In all mysteries, the head masculine figure is pictured as and named the Sun. The feminine head is represented by the Moon.
Every people has received its own sign and seal of supernatural designation, communicated to its heroes and daily proved in the lives and experiences of its folk. An honest comparison of all myths, legends and sacraments of nations immediately reveals that all have been built from the one fund of mythological motifs, variously selected, organized, interpreted and ritualized according to local needs, but revered by every people on earth.
King Arthur’s Round Table is selected to open because it more nearly touches our present time, and because King Arthur’s symbols are those of all world religions. The Round Table was the Zodiac, not a table on the ground, where this representation of it was so carefully and so intelligently laid out and built, but in the heavens, where the ancients knew the causes of everything to be. The 24 Knights who gathered about this circular symbolic table, at which every seat (a siege or throne) was as much a point of beginning as another, and no place was more important than the rest, were symbolically the twelve positive and twelve negative qualities of the Zodiacal signs.
King Arthur was England’s leading general of the sixth century. In Arthur’s time, all builders knew the exact position of the stars, constellations and Zodiacal signs in the heavens, as well as what they signified in the great scheme of human branches of nature.bThe Church of England traced its history to its oldest church. The term, “church,” come from the same root as “circle,” called “kirche” in German, “kirk” by the Dutch, and “kirk” by the Scots. The Grail referred to in more ancient legends and symbols of King Arthur is not that of the Christian Crusades! The Grail we speak of is earlier than the Christian era. It is the Cauldron of Wisdom, already famous ages before Joseph of Arimathea brought his message to England.
Under Welsh mythology, Avalon is the “kingdom of the dead” in the British Isles. King Arthur shines as Hercules (Sagittarius) in the night sky. Those who had been initiated into the mysteries of this island valley were obliged to couch their secret knowledge in romance after Christianity swept the field. However, neither that reformation, nor any other, was able to destroy the map of the stars that our forefathers modeled among the hills and river beds of the Somerset Plain, which testifies to the ancient religion.
The early Phoenician sun and star worshipers brought the knowledge of the maps of the stars to earth in 2800 BC, and from this, the Phoenicians had planted the forerunner of later mysteries in every land. Homer, in the 9th Century, mentioned a “wondrous zone where woodland monsters grin, inimitably wrought with skill divine.” On this island of Avalon Ouranos is imprisoned with Briareus keeping guard over him as he sleeps. Around him are many divinities, his henchmen-attendants. Briareus was the son of Ouranos and Gaea, heaven and earth in ancient Greek mythology. The Isle of Avalon is in this great “Circle Church,” in the sign Sagittarius, which is definitely “King Arthur” by both symbolism and actual illumination and actual illustration in effigy. Glastonbury, in the British Isles, is in Capricorn, the Manger of Christianity, the birthplace of a world savior in all religions. Power is released there. Cronus, or Saturn, is the ruler of Capricorn.
In the 11th Century, this marvelous ten-mile Zodiac was known objectively and also understood subjectively. The spiritual understanding of the “Altar of the Skies,” according to The High History of the Holy Graal, “…never was the chapel wasted nor decayed, but was as whole thereafter as before and is so still.” This was all in complete existence before the visit of Joseph of Arimathea: “I saw the Graal, said the Master, or ever Joseph, who was uncle to King Fisherman, collected therein the blood of Jesus Christ.” The Christian Grail took the place of an earlier and far more vast conception of what the Graal was.
Ancient Myths and Mysteries transcript,
Edna Lister, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, May 11, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Nine great truths or sacred mysteries known as Grand Truths are contained in twenty-six degrees of Masonry. The 18th Path or Degree ties earth to heaven. Edna Miriam came here to prove that you can live here as you do in heaven and to open the mysteries of heaven here and live consciously as an immortal. Here we tie our earth to our new heaven and are being instructed in theogenesis.
The twenty-six degrees of Masonry contain principles revealed as mysteries. The nine Grand Truths that tie heaven to earth are Masonic in origin. The first great mystery reveals God as your Source. The second great mystery reveals your relationship to your Source: You are immortal. The third great mystery reveals the divine principle of Wisdom.
The first grand truth is “no man hath seen God at any time” with physical eyes. He is one, eternal, infinitely just, merciful, benevolent, the compassionate creator and preserver of all things; the Source of Light and life coexistent in time and space who thought and through thought created the universe, all living things and the souls of men. “THAT IS” is immutable, permanent, while everything else is perpetual genesis, mutable, changing or God-moving. The first mystery is the foundation upon which we stand: God is immutable.
The second grand truth is that “the soul of man is immortal.” This is not the result of organization or an aggregate of modes of action nor of matter, nor a succession of phenomena and perception. The soul is an existence, one and identical, a living spirit from the great central Light that enters into the body and dwells therein, separated from body at death, and which returns to God who gave it. It does not disperse nor vanish like breath or smoke; it cannot be annihilated, but exists and possesses activity and intelligence as it exists in God before creation.
The third grand truth is the divine principle of Wisdom. This moves forth as a great Creative Impulse, forever directing the soul to right conduct. It also carries warnings against evil. The principle of Wisdom didn’t become a Law when first written, nor was it originated; it is an attribute, a virtue of divine intelligence itself. The blue ray of the Mother has three phases of love, emotional, mental and spiritual. The emotional may become sticky with sentimentality, possessiveness or smothering. It must branch out from the spiritual basis of God. Faith is the action of timing and spacing. We entered into a new era on the moon May 1, 1965. No matter what the apparent chaos on the outer, the Golden Age is well developed. The Armageddon is here. The old prophets must come forth in new bodies. Atheists are the hungriest people on earth for God. Their denials of God are in fact their declarations of insecurity.
All ancient mysteries were more or less funereal in character. They all celebrated the mystical death and resurrection of some divine or heroic personage. The details of legends, the modes of death differed in various countries. The explanation belongs to both astronomy and mythology. When the mysteries are understood, mythology will be found to be an exact science. The Hebrews, while in bondage in Egypt, were really divinely sent to receive instruction in the complete mysteries then held covered in Egypt, belonging to the temple priests. This was the one way to bring them back to God. Moses was thoroughly instructed and ready for his transfiguration, yet he had to earn it the hard way.
Truth, as always had to be clothed in allegories and figures of hidden meanings. In all histories of the gods and heroes, the mysteries lay hidden and couched in astronomical details and in the history of visible nature. They had to choose the keys to each and then apply them. These, in turn, are only symbols of higher truths, more profound. Only the rude, uncultivated intellects could long worship just the sun, moon and stars. There always have been and always will be seekers of spiritual truths behind the veil. The Hebrew mysteries were based on Egyptians myths and legends. In all mysteries the masculine head figure is represented by the moon, the veils of illusion or of Isis, the veiled Mother.
Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable were seekers. Every people, throughout the ages, received their own sign and seal of supernal designation communicated through its heroes and daily proven in the lives and experiences of its folks. An honest comparison of all myths, legends and sacraments of the nations reveals that all have been built from the one fund of myth, motives variously selected, organized, interpreted and ritualized according to local needs, but they were revered by all people on earth at all times. Too often the beauty of the legends lost out and was swallowed by ritual.
The Wisdom derived from Jupiter and Saturn will unfold the 54 Companions of Perseus, fifty-four of the 144 faculties. This Wisdom added the 54 Companions 
to the initiate’s higher creative center and send illumination through the pineal body, whose symbol is the eternally divine fir tree. Saturn is represented by the number five and Jupiter by the number four; the 54 = nine, symbolic of salvation and brotherhood. Saturn represents the principle of contraction and Jupiter the principle of expansion.
The romantic interpretation of King Arthur’s Round Table is significant today because King Arthur’s symbols are those of all world religions. The Round Table represents the Zodiac. It was not an actual physical table, but reflects the heavens where this representation was so intelligently built. The ancients knew that the causes for all action below are above. The 24 knights gathered round this circular symbolic table at which every seat was as much a part of the beginning as every other and where no place was more important than any other; all were equal but divinely different. These 24 seats symbolize twelve positive and twelve negative qualities of the signs of the Zodiac and were called thrones. The 24 seats represented the main virtues of the signs, the twelve positive and twelve negative opposites.
In King Arthur’s time, all builders knew the exact position of the stars, constellations and Zodiacal signs as well as what they signified. Every builder dedicated himself to the one God and the buildings were blessed before anyone moved into them so there would be no conflict within the building when it was occupied. The Church of England traces its history back to the oldest church built. Church has the same root as circle: German, kirch; Dutch, kerk; Scots, kirk; all mean circle.
The grail referred to in the more ancient legends and symbolism of King Arthur is not the grail of the Christian crusaders. The grail we speak of is earlier than the Christian era; it is the cauldron of wisdom, full, boiling and burning. So it was with the Holy Grail. Whatever was put into it was transformed into steam. They poured in all negatives and evil and transformed it into Light.
There are seven mysteries of the Holy Grail, the cauldron. The transforming of evil substance into Light is one of the seven. The Cauldron of Wisdom was famous ages before Joseph of Arimathea brought his message to England. It was he who brought the Egyptian mysteries and the triads. The crusaders went to the holy land to seek the grail and all the time it was in England.
Under Welsh mythology, Avalon, in the British Isles, was peculiarly known as the Kingdom of the Dead, the Isle of the Blessed, the Island of the Mighty. King Arthur shines as Hercules in Sagittarius in the night sky. Those who had been initiated into the mysteries of the island vale were obliged to couch their secret knowledge in romance tales after Christianity swept aside the spirit of Logres. However, not that first reformation or any other was able to destroy the map of the stars that our forefathers modeled along the hills and riverbeds of Somerset. These effigies testified to the ancient religion and its mysteries. The early Phoenicians were sun and star worshipers who in 2,800 BC brought the knowledge of the maps of the stars to earth by placing them in megalithic structures, stone groupings, throughout Britain and Europe. These were the descended gods who incarnated at that time. Through the star maps, the Phoenicians planted Freemasonry in every land. Freemasonry is what Solomon originally brought through from Abraham.
Homer in the 9th Century BC, mentioned a “wondrous zone” where grim woodland monsters resided and inimitably wrought with divine skill. On this island, Avalon, Auranos is imprisoned with Briareus, keeping watch over him as he sleeps with many henchmen and divinities in attendance. Briareus is the son of Auranos, heaven, and Gaea, earth, the mother of the Titans. The imprisonment of Auranos represented the evils of the world being watched over by Briareus, his son, who was very strong, a giant who fought with the Olympians against the Titans.
Cronos (Saturn) swallowed his five children who were the five parts of law. Rhea, their mother, saved her son Jupiter, who forced his father to disgorge his children. These are five laws of heaven, the mysteries which were brought to Britain: Time swallowed law.
All the roundtable initiations were designed to conquer self. The Isle of Avalon was a mythical circle church in the skies of Sagittarius. King Arthur received information direct from this church in the skies. The original Glastonbury is in Capricorn and is the manger in Christianity. This is the birthplace of all saviors of all world religions. Within Capricorn and Sagittarius are located the 54 companions or mysteries of God. The meanings of the lotus centers, for example, contain one of these mysteries.
The spiritual understanding of the altar in the skies was that never was the chapel wasted or decayed, but was as whole then as it is now. This refers to the church circle of Avalon in Sagittarius. This was in complete existence before the visit of Joseph of Arimathea was spoken through: “I saw the Grail.”
The Christian Grail took the place of the earlier and more vast conception of what the grail was: the Cauldron of Wisdom. King Arthur and his roundtable represent the church in the skies, the circle church on the Isle of Avalon in Sagittarius which is the Gate of the Gods, the Gate of Fire, the Gate of the Paradise Mother who receives the gods as they return from earth.
Edna Lister lecture, May 18, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Coming soon.
The Pyramid Mysteries transcript
Edna Lister lecture, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Lotus Landis, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes, May 18, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Coming soon
Osiris and Isis: The Model for All Later Mysteries outline
Edna Lister lecture, May 25, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Whether Egypt originated the legend of Osiris and Isis, or borrowed it from India or Chaldea is now almost impossible to know. We do know that the Hebrews received the mysteries from their sojourn in Egypt. Mysteries are Truth clothed in allegorical figures. For instance, Osiris, King of Egypt, marries his sister Isis. Later, Abraham tells his wife to claim that she is his sister if Pharaoh asks.
Behind the legend of Osiris and Isis is the truth of the opening of a Great Day of Manifestation. The androgynous gods descended, as they always do to open a new Day, and then were separated to become Holy Pairs on earth. The first two chapters of Genesis and the legends dovetail to give the full account of how Creation opened.
All the legends formed into myths and given as mysteries have been for one purpose: To teach all initiates that the rule of “evil and darkness” is but temporary, and that of “Light and good” will be eternal. At first the worship of stars was only because they were used as signs and released Power, to be worshiped with adoration only because they were the servants of the Lord God Almighty. In time the Name of God was forgotten and religion retained only the worship of the Hosts of Heaven, the stars.
Ancient philosophers regarded the soul of man as having its origin in heaven. Thus the mysteries taught the great doctrine of the divine nature of and longing after immortality of the soul: The nobility of its origin, the grandeur of its destiny, and its superiority over the animals who have no aspirations heavenward.
The signs of the Zodiac remain unchanged, and because the Milky Way always crosses at the signs of Capricorn and Cancer, though not through these constellations, all souls were supposed to descend to earth and re-ascend to heaven through these signs, spread out across the Milky Way. Everyone born came through Capricorn, named the Gate of the Gods, and Cancer, the Gate of Men.
All men have “gone off” when getting in sight of this fact! Because of this, some false beliefs arose that we can’t return except through the sublimation of life’s forces, except as a pair, and through what they call “lighting each other through the Gates."
Capricorn o’ershadows Cancer. In a natural chart of the Zodiac, Capricorn is found at the top, the Midheaven. Cancer is at the bottom, called the Nadir. Symbolically, the Father (Capricorn) o’ershadows the Mother (Cancer). The mystery of the two “seeds of life""seeds of life" and the opening of optic thalamus and glands are hidden in this.
Legend has it that the soul drops, or falls down along the Zodiac, in the Milky Way, to the lower spheres. In each sphere it takes on a new envelope of the material composing the seven planets and receives its faculties from each planet.
From Saturn the soul acquires the power of reasoning and intelligence. The logical and contemplative faculty. From Jupiter the soul acquires the power of action and expansion.
From Mars the soul acquires valor, enterprise and impetuosity. Venus inspires the soul with desires. Mercury gives the soul the faculty of expressing and enunciating what it thinks and feels.
From the Moon, the soul acquires the power of generation and growth. From the Sun (light) the soul receives the senses and imagination, which produce sensation, perception and thought.
These are the only planets and heavenly bodies used in ancient astrology teachings because the outer planets are not visible with the naked eye. Pluto and Vulcan were lost 25,000 years ago and had not yet returned [to our perception of them].
On the soul’s return in its Ascension, it restores to each planet and sphere the passions and earthly faculties that it received from them: Sun: Passion for greatness and empire. Moon: The faculty of increase and diminution of the body. Mercury: Fraud, the architect of evils. Venus: Seductive love of pleasure. Mars: Audacity and temerity. Jupiter: Avarice. Saturn: Falsehood and deceit.
At last the soul enters the highest heaven, relieved of all taints of earth, naked and pure, the eighth heaven. During this time, by watching summer and winter solstices, and vernal and autumnal equinoxes, they formed the allegorical myths, which grew into the forms used in the mysteries. The gloom and darkness of winter represented sin, suffering, evil and death. Spring summer and autumn became representative of happiness and immortality.
Soon they stepped into personification of the Sun and Moon first. Then the next step was to give them a name.
The Legend of Osiris, Typhon and Isis
The masculine Sun became Osiris and the feminine Moon became Isis, wife of Osiris. The ocean into which winter descended became Typhon, the spirit or principle of evil moving against good Osiris.
Isis was assisted in her search by Anubis, who wore the shape of a jackal, a dog-like animal. Anubis represented Sirius, called the Dog Star, and was regarded as a friend and counselor of Osiris, and the inventor of language.
The mysteries called the nailing up of Osiris’ body in the chest or ark, the aphanism, or disappearance, of the sun below the Tropic of Capricorn at the winter solstice. Isis’ recovery of different parts of Osiris’ body was called the euresis, or the finding, which corresponded to the sun’s ascension above the Tropic of Cancer at the summer solstice.
The main facts of this fable were the same in all countries. The prominent deities were always a male and a female. Typhon slew Osiris when the sun was in the sign of the Scorpion, at the autumnal equinox. The stars of Libra (presently the sign marking the autumnal equinox) and Scorpio were conjoined in one sign in that era.
Isis was aided by her son Horus, who slew Typhon. Typhon was represented as born of earth, in stature reaching the clouds. The upper part of his body covered in feathers, his arms and legs with scales, with serpents darting from him on every side and fire flashing from his mouth. Horus, at the death of Osiris, became the sun god, known in Greece as Apollo. Typhon is but the anagram of Python, the great serpent slain by Apollo. Typhon means “one who supplants,” and signifies human passions, which drive from our heart all wisdom and take over the throne of Love and Wisdom, represented by Isis and Osiris.
Osiris and Isis: The Model for All Later Mysteries transcript
Edna Lister lecture, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Ross and Virginia Whitehead, scribes, May 25, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Behind the legend of Isis and Osiris is the truth of the opening of a Great Day of Manifestation when the Androgynous Beings descend. The true Isis was a descent of the Supreme Queen. They were the highest. This was first revealed August 10, 1947, in Yellow Pine, Idaho. They always descend to open a new day. After earth cooled and they could float on something semisolid, like water or muck, they were separated to become pairs on earth. The first two chapters of Genesis and all the legends dovetail to give a full account of how creation was opened. Always, in the past, it was necessary to cover the truth in myths and legends to keep great truths from Belial and his followers. The mysteries serve to keep truth from the profane. In the Bible and in parchments, truth is unfolded in fragments. You have to work for what you get. All research entails digging.
Whether the Egyptians originated the legend of Isis and Osiris or whether they borrowed it from Chaldea or India is unknown, but the Hebrews certainly received the mysteries in Egypt. The mysteries are truths clothed in allegory or figures. God reveals Himself through personality and principle, so every mystery, fairy tale and legend has its heroes, romance, kings and queens. All the legends were formed into myths and given as mysteries for one purpose, to teach initiates the immutable rule that evil and darkness are but temporary and that Light and good are eternal.
In the beginning, stars were only worshiped because they were used as signs and released Power. They were worshiped with adoration because they were the servants of the Lord God Almighty. The time came when the name of God was forgotten and religion retained only the worship of the hosts of heaven and the stars. All ancient philosophies regarded the soul of man as having its origin in heaven. Thus, the mysteries taught the great doctrine of the divine nature of God and man’s longing after immortality of the soul. The nobility of the origin of the soul of man, the grandeur of its destiny, its superiority over the animals who have no heavenward aspiration, all this was part of the mysteries.
The signs of the zodiac remained unchanged because they represent the twelve high Divisions above the Milky Way, crossing at Cancer and Capricorn. All souls were supposed to descend to heaven through these signs across the Milky Way. Everyone born came through Capricorn, the high Gate of the Gods. Cancer is not only the Gate of the Mother, but the Gate of Man. This refers to the descended gods. The children of earth and creatures only go to the Dawn Plane and Desire Plane between incarnations, where they go to school. As they progress, they are promoted to the psychic plane.
There are cities in every zodiacal house. There are cloud continents which serve as taking off places for ascension and descension in the Realms. The cities of the White Brotherhood are on the Desire and Psychic Planes where different ones go who have last come through the change. There are cities with parishes and ministers, just as here on earth. They all gather Osiris and Isis together during their interludes over there. The White Brotherhood has its own cloud continents on the desire plane. All teachers have gone astray in their beliefs, especiallly those who joyously teach “free love."” It’s easy to go off the path at Cancer, the Gate of the Mother and her mysteries. All lower path perversions arise from the misinterpretation of mysteries and legends.
Every embodied soul comes through the Gate of Cancer, but children of men go back through the gate of their sun sign expressed in the most recent incarnation. The Elect who are ready are taken to Shamballah to meet the Lord Jesus Christ and have their first lesson on whom they are and what they are to do. They have gone through Sagittarius, the Gate of the Heavenly Mother and this is their reward. Many who return have misinterpreted high teachings and teach that we cannot return except through sublimation of life forces.
Capricorn o’ershadows Cancer. The Father over the Mother (69) forms the ark of the mother and represents the two seeds of life (69) coming together. This is the reason that in both male and female, with every deep breath coming down the spine there is the breath of life from the pineal to the pituitary and throughout the spinal column, permeating the epigastric nerve center. That substance then moves into the heart center, and this is the process every day with every breath you draw. This shows the necessity of deep breathing. The seed that ripens every 29.5 days, and stimulates the brain. It is the same seed the Masters can use to produce a genius; the same seed of life that moves down to o’ershadow the cells of the two parents at conception. If we breathe up in devotion, it waters the brain and opens new brain cells, the parathalamus glands and the optic thalamus.
There is a legend that Isis dropped some divine seeds along the Zodiacal Path out over the Milky Way and lower spheres. They became the new envelopes of material composing the seven planets, which endow the faculties of each planet with divine substance. From original legends and scrolls of the mysteries we learn that the planets’ natures change as you ascend in consciousness.
Saturn helps an egoic soul to acquire the power of reasoning and intelligence. The high priest of Saturn and Capricorn is a servant of all the Power. This endows the soul with the logical and contemplative faculties. Jupiter helps the soul to acquire the power of action and expansion under Law. Sagittarius is the sign of the Love that fulfills the Law.
Mars helps an egoic soul to acquire the power of valor and enterprise, but the egoic soul must guard against impetuosity. Venus inspires the soul with high desires and brings beauty into focus during incarnation. This bestows the power of symmetry. Mercury gives the egoic soul the faculty of expression and enunciation of what is thought and felt. It is the carrier of Osiris and Isis, the Word.
The Moon enables the egoic soul to acquire the power of Generation and Growth. It may also manifest as negative creature tension. The Sun gives the combined power of the senses and the creative images which become imagination and produces sensation, perception and thought.
These are the seven from ancient teachings. They have the greatest value for us, even though Neptune, Uranus and Pluto are not included. Pluto returned to the Light in 1936 with the opening of the King’s Chamber of the pyramid.
The soul at last enters the highest heaven released of all taints of earth, naked and pure, standing in the 8th heaven. During this time, between the summer and winter solstice and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the myths and mysteries were formed. Also, between. The cardinal points are Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn. The gloom and dark of winter represents evil, death, sin, and suffering. Spring, summer, and autumn represent happiness and immortality. Soon the mysteries were personified by the sun (masculine) and the moon (feminine). So the sun was personified by Osiris, and the moon by Isis. Winter descended into the ocean and became Typhon (Typhon upper half feathers, lower half fish scales. Fire spouted from the mouth. Hands and arms and legs, scales) the spiritual or principle of evil working against good or Osiris. Osiris was one Egyptian king. He was called the sun god. Isis was the moon goddess. Legend recounts the annual journey of the sun (Osiris) through the twelve Zodiacal signs. In the absence of Osiris, Typhon sought his throne. Plan stopped by Isis. Typhon persuaded Osiris to enter a sarcophagus and tossed it in the Nile. Anubis (Sirius dog star) helped Isis and Horus in finding body of Osiris. This was why Sirius was worshiped in Egypt. Reappearance of body of Osiris represents the disappearance of the Winter Solstice behind Tropic of Capricorn. Isis found body and concealed it in forest. An acacia tree grew around it. This represents the Light of Truth or God in depth of higher of soul (forest). The feminine or Love of treasure took over. Typhon found body which represents the fact that it takes evil to send soul back to God. Typhon cut body in fourteen parts, thinking that then it could not be redeemed. Thirteen parts were recovered, representing the Via Christa. The fourteenth part was outer physical expression. Fourteen is number of choice and separation. Osiris went up to Lake of Purity and fires of Zeus and became a eunuch, neither male nor female. Fish ate the fourteenth part. Fish represents spiritual illumination and exaltation, victory over the physical. Isis replaced the fourteenth piece with wood, which was the beginning of phallic worship. She buried his body at Philae. Horus, the son, became Apollo, ruler of sun after Osiris was buried. Typhon born of earth. His was the form Belial took. This legend tied up to evil dragons, serpents, etc., as representatives of evil. The main facts are the same in all countries. Typhon slew Osiris when the sun was in Scorpio, the sign of death and resurrection.
Kabbalistic Fifth Great Truth and Sacred Mystery: Because man is free and endowed with choice and knowledge of good and evil -morals, he is under the absolute obligation to conform-it is his plain duty to obey the dictates of truth and justice. The very essence of man’s divinity lies in this power of choice. In choice lies the exercise of free will.
The Myths from Egypt to Greece via India and Persia outline
Edna Lister lecture, June 1, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Albert Pike wrote, “From the bosom of Egypt sprang a man of consummate wisdom, initiated in the secret knowledge of India, Persia, and Ethiopia,” land of the Queen of Sheba. He was named Thoth or Ptah in Egypt, Taaut by the Phoenicians, and Hermes Trismegistus by the Greeks to whom “Hermes” means “interpreter.”
Egypt. Hermes was nature’s favorite. Deity had infused him with all the arts and sciences so that he could instruct the whole world. He invented and named many common things. He taught men how to write and to speak, and instituted ceremonies to be used in the worship of the gods. He observed the courses of the stars. He invented different bodily exercises, arithmetic, medicine, and metal-working.
Hermes invented music, and the three-string lyre. He regulated the three tones of the lyre and the human voice. Sharp was taken from autumn, grave from winter, and middle from spring, there being only three seasons in Egypt. In Egypt, he instituted hieroglyphics, created offices in the mysteries, and veiled the mysteries in symbols. In fact, 1,500 years before Moses revered mysteries as One God, Hermes called God, The Only Uncreated.
In Egypt, they paid homage to seven principal deities under One God. As Hermes lay dying, a priest recorded his final words: “Hitherto I have lived an exile from my true country. Now I return thither. Do not weep for me. I return to the celestial country whither each goes in his turn. There is God. This life is but a death.”
Greece. In Greece, they believed that earth was a flat circular disk, with Greece occupying its center. Further, they believed that the central point was either at the summit of Mount Olympus or in Delphi, the location of the Delphic Oracle. This circular disk called earth was crossed from west to east, and divided into two equal parts by a sea, which they called the Mediterranean (middle earth). Its continuation into what we call the Atlantic, they named the Euxine.
Around this flat earth flowed the river Oceanus, its course running from south to north on the west side, from north to south on the east side. It flowed in a stead equable current, unvexed by storm or tempest. The sea and all rivers on earth received their waters from it.
The northern portion of earth was supposed to be inhabited bu a happy race, the Hyperboreans, dwelling in everlasting bliss and spring beyond the lofty mountains. The caverns of these mountains were supposed to send forth the piercing blasts of the north wind (Boreas), which chilled the people of Hellas, or Greece. This land of the Hyperborean country was inaccessible by land or sea, so they lived exempt from disease, old age, toil or warfare.
In the southern hemisphere, close to the stream of Ocean, dwelt a people as happy and virtuous as the Hyperboreans. They were named the Ethiopians. The gods favored them so highly that at times they were wont leave their Olympian abodes and go to share their sacrifices and banquets. Thus, as recorded in Genesis 6:2: “The “sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.”
On the west side of earth, by the stream of Ocean, lay a happy place known as the Elysian Plain, where mortals favored by the gods were transported without tasting of death, to enjoy the bliss of immortality. This happy region was also called the Fortunate Fields, and was known as the Isle of the Blessed in ancient hymns.
The Greeks of early ages knew very little about any real people except those to the east and south of their own country, near the coast of the Mediterranean. In their imagination, they populated the western portion of the sea with “giants, monsters and enchantresses.” Around the disk of the earth, which they regarded as of no great width, they placed nations enjoying the peculiar favors of the gods and blessed with happiness and longevity.
They supposed that the dawn, the sun and the moon arose from the ocean on the east side and drove chariots through the air, giving light to the gods and to men. The stars also, except those forming the “Wain of the Bear” and other circumpolar stars, also rose from and sank into the stream of Oceanus. At dusk, the sun god left his chariot in the west and embarked in a winged boat, which conveyed him around by the northern part of the earth back to his place of rising in the east.
The abode of the gods was upon the extreme summit of Mount Olympus in Thessaly. A gate of clouds, kept by goddesses named the Seasons, opened to permit the passage of the Celestials to earth and to receive them upon their return.
The gods all had their separate dwelling, but all, when summoned, repaired to the palace of Zeus (Jupiter), as did those deities whose abode was the earth waters, or the underworld. It was also in the great hall of the palace of the Olympian king that the gods feasted each day upon ambrosia and nectar, their food and drink being served by the lovely goddess Hebe, the personification of eternal youth. Here they conversed of the affairs of heaven and earth as they quaffed their nectar.
Apollo, the god of music delighted them with the tones of his lyre, to which the Muses sang in responsive strains. When the sun was set, the gods retired to sleep in their respective dwellings.
Athene (Minerva) and the Graces wove the robes of the goddesses. Everything of a more solid nature was formed of the various metals. Hephaestus (Vulcan) was the architect, smith, armorer, chariot builder and artist of all work in Olympus. He built the crass of the houses of the gods. He made the golden shoes with which they trod the air or walked upon the water as they moved from place to place with the speed of light.
The Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory), the daughter of Uranus and Gaea. Nine in number, they presided over song (prompted memory), and each was assigned precedence over some particular department of literature or science. Calliope was the muse of epic poetry, Clio, of history, Euterpe, of lyric poetry, Melpomene was tragedy, Terpsichore, choral song and dance, Erato, of love poetry, Polyhymnia, sacred poetry, hymns, Urania, astronomy, and Thalia, comedy.
The Myths from Egypt to Greece via India and Persia transcript
Edna Lister lecture, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Virginia Whitehead, scribes, June 1, 1965, Cleveland, OH
From the bosom of Egypt sprang a man of consummate wisdom, initiated in the secret knowledge of India, Persia, and Ethiopia. He was named Thoth or Ptah in Egypt, Taaut by the Phoenicians and Hermes by the Greeks, who also called him by his greatest name, Trismegistus, the Thrice Great. He was nature’s favorite. Deity had infused him with all the arts and sciences so that he could instruct the whole world.
Hermes invented common things necessary to man. He observed the course of the stars and taught astrology, astronomy, invented music and taught bodily exercise, mathematics, medicine, taught men to work with metals and invented the lyre. He regulated the three tones of life after the three seasons in Egypt: sharp was autumn, grave was winter, middle was spring. Hermes meant “interpreter” in Greek. He taught speech and writing, ceremonial rites and the ceremonies of each of the gods. He instituted hieroglyphics in Egypt, created the mysteries and veiled them in symbols.
Fifteen hundred years before Moses he revered the mysteries and the gods as one “uncreated” God in Egypt. This is how the concept of the “unknown god” came to Greece. Under the doctrine of one God he taught people to pay homage to the seven principal deities. When he was dying, he spoke these words, which a priest recorded: “Hitherto I have lived in exile from my country. Now I return thither. Do not weep for me. I return to the celestial country whither each goes in his turn–there is God.”
This wisdom, emanating from Egypt to Greece, is tracked back to Greece’s earliest history. The Greeks believed earth to be flat and circular, like a disk. They thought it occupied the center or middle of earth and that the central point was Mt. Olympus and the Delphic oracle. Both ideas were true for them because the descended gods did come down from Mt. Olympus in the ancient days to speak through the Delphic oracle.
These descended gods were of the heavenly hierarchy and had precipitated their bodies. This circular disk of the earth was crossed from east to west by the Mediterranean Sea which they called the Euxine. The only sea they knew around this flat earth of theirs was what they called the river-ocean. Its course was from south to north on the west side and north to south on the east side. The sea and all rivers received their waters from it.
The northern portion of this disk was said to be inhabited by a happy race called the Hyperboreans. It was believed that they dwelt in everlasting bliss and springtime beyond the great mountains. It was believed that from the caverns within these mountains, the gods sent forth the north wind which chilled the people of Hellas (Greece). This land was inaccessible by land or sea. The Hyperboreans lived exempt from disease, old age, toil or sorrow.
In the southern half lived a people as happy as the Hyperboreans, called the Ethiopians, the people to whom the queen of Sheba chose to come. The gods favored them and often went there to share sacrifices and banquets. The Elysian Fields was the place where mortals favored mortality and bliss. This region was also called the Fortunate Fields and the Isle of the Blessed. The Greeks only knew of the peoples east and south of their own country. Imagination peopled the western portion of the sea with giants and enchantresses. They thought as nations as being blessed by gods or cursed by monsters.
The goddess of the dawn was Aurora; the sun god was Apollo; the goddess of the moon was Artemis (Diana) They arose out of the ocean in the east to give light to mankind. People believed, except for the wane of the bear, that other stars rose out of and sank into the ocean. Apollo embarked in his winged boat in the west and returned to the place of the rising sun in the east in the morning.
Mt. Olympus, the abode of the gods, was in Thessaly. The goddesses of the seasons opened the gates of the clouds to receive those moving down and those returning from earth. The gods all had separate dwellings but repaired to the palace of Jupiter (Zeus) as did those deities who lived on earth, in the water or in the underworld.
Pluto, Neptune, and Jupiter were brothers and the sons of Saturn whose brother was Uranus. In the palace of Zeus they feasted each day on nectar and ambrosia served by Hebe who married Hercules. Ganymede succeeded Hebe as cupbearer to the gods and he is the symbol of Aquarius. In the temple of Zeus they conversed and held conferences pertaining to the affairs of heaven and earth. As they quaffed the nectar, Apollo, who was the great musician, played his lyre and the Muses sang in responsive strains and the gods would depart to their dwellings.
The robes of the gods and goddesses were woven by Minerva (Athena). These gods, regardless of the myths about them, actually descended to open Western civilization. Everything of a more solid nature was formed of various metals. Vulcan, husband of Aphrodite (Venus) was the architect, smith and armorer of the gods. Venus later deserted him for Mars. Their son is Cupid (Eros). Vulcan was also the chariot builder of the gods. He is the heavenly artist and creator of artistic works on Olympus. He was the least beautiful of the gods and while he knew how to create beauty, he didn’t know how to express it within himself. He created the four beasts.
Edna Miriam pondered the planet Vulcan moving back into expression and manifestation as the ruler of Virgo. Regardless of why we believe Pluto rules Scorpio, it may be that Vulcan rules Scorpio and Pluto rules Virgo. Scorpio would become the house of immortality and no longer function as the house of death. Vulcan also cast brass in the houses of the gods. He made them magic golden shoes which enabled them to walk on air or water at the speed of light.
Under the gods were the Muses, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory). The Muses presided over music and prompted memory. To each of the nine was assigned some department of literature, art or science. Calliope ruled epic poetry (tying earth to heaven); Clio taught history (earth, air, fire and water); Euterpe presided over lyric poetry (creative mother); Melpomene taught the tragedies that could occur in all phases of life; Terpsichore taught choral dance and song; Erato taught love poetry; Polyhymnia taught sacred poetry; Urania taught astronomy and Thalia taught comedy.
Hermes means “interpreter.” Hermes Trismegistus precipitated and transmitted his body; he was not born. In him, part of Melchizedek descended. The name vibration of Melchizedek and Hermes Trismegistus is the same at a higher degree than Earth. Zeus mentally created the Greek god Hermes. Other gods precipitated their physical sheaths from the degree of substance available at that level so that men would be able to see them.
The first pair of androgynous beings created bodies for the next set. They thought their bodies into form and actually descended to the summit of Mt. Olympus and for a time used this as their earthly abode. Where one of the father gods had a descended daughter, the daughter on the other side was invisible and helped with the creation. This purity of creation was turned into impurity by the followers of Belial who turned all this beauty into incest among men. The Begotten Son, who later came as Jesus the Christ, was Osiris. The Begotten Son always opens every great civilization and all the Days of Manifestation. The great Paradise Twin could have taken Melchizedek’s place when he descended as Hermes, had he been permitted.
When the gods left Mt. Olympus, Belial took it over. The old temple at Monte Casino, Italy, was taken over by Belial as was the underground of the Vatican and the caves of Tibet. Mt. Olympus was later honeycombed with evil and became the abode for the sons of Aherius on earth. All prophecy points to one place as the seat of destruction on earth: Mt. Vesuvius. The destruction starts with the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Greece across the plains of Siberia to China. It tells of a comet appearing with a 2,000 foot tail which scorched the earth as the tail swept past. This could only happen if everyone on earth were to turn to evil.
On the inner, the Councils have three plans for finishing the Armageddon. If we speak the right words, avoid idle words and stand steadfast in the Light and bring the Light of love through, we can pray that only a comparatively few will lose their bodies and the Golden Age will manifest sooner.
Pythagoras’ Three Degrees outline
This Edna Lister, June 8, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Pythagoras established the Grecian Mysteries, which he brought from Egypt. He was first to coin the word “philosopher,” which means “a seeker of wisdom.” Born around 600 BC, many stories surround his birth. One is that he was born of a woman who was o’ershadowed by the Holy Spirit, a symbol of the sun god Apollo. Another was that his father Mnesarchus and his wife, Parthesis, visited the Oracle in Delphi, where they were given the prophecy that their son would have wisdom, far-reaching in its effect. Their son was born on another journey, to Phoenicia, where Parthesis changed her name to Pythasis in memory of the Pythian Oracle Priestess. They named their son Pythagoras. Thus, Pythagoras was the son of a traveling merchant, who spent his early years in constant journeying.
Pythagoras was initiated into fourteen schools of the mysteries, including the Hebrew Kabbala and the Order of Essenes in Palestine. At age sixty, he married one of his disciples, with whom he had seven children. At age 100, it is reported that he appeared sixty, had all his teeth and no gray hair. Ancient sources agree that Pythagoras was martyred, killed by his enemies, those whom he had refused admittance to the mysteries. His school was destroyed, but that fact that his work still continues proves that he taught the true mysteries.
Pythagoras gathered all the mysteries into which he had been initiated, and established them in the Three Degrees. A neophyte preparation of five long years of abstinence and silence was required before entrance to the first degree. If a candidate was found to be passionate, intemperate, contentious, or ambitious of worldly honors and distinctions, he was rejected before being given any mysteries he could repeat.
Pythagoras taught mathematics as a means of proving God by logic and reason. He taught grammar, rhetoric and logic to cultivate and improve the candidate’s ability to reason and think. He taught arithmetic because he conceived that the ultimate benefit of men consisted in the science of numbers. Geometry, music and astronomy were included in the curriculum because he conceived that man was indebted to them for a knowledge of what is really good and useful.
His Three Degrees are 1. Being is Being. 2. Being is Real. 3. Being is Logic. These are three absolute principles, which are but One Principle, all forming a single whole, compounded of the Idea and the Form. These Three Degrees are Pythagoras’ distillation of the Hermetic axiom “three falling into the four."
In philosophy, they provide the identity of reason and reality. In religion they describe Providence, the divine action that makes real the Good. In Christianity, they are called the Holy Spirit. In the material world of manifestation we would say that they describe Divine Substance, taking on form.
The First Degree: Being is Being. Pythagorus’ first degree includes the true method of obtaining knowledge of the divine laws of the purifying of the soul from its imperfections. In seven steps: The first step is searching for truth. Second is practicing the virtues by imitating the perfection of God, which is a way to “be as perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Third, you speak the truth, which means no idle words. Fourth, you render benefits to one another, which includes covering their transgressions in Light. Fifth, hold your silence. Sixth, practice fortitude. Seventh, practice pure justice tempered with mercy.
The Second Degree: Being is Real. The second degree deals with the immortality of the soul, and the necessity of a personal holiness and purity to prepare yourself for admission into the society of the gods, which we call Ascension.
The Third Degree: Being is Logic. This degree deals with the Omnipotence of the One God. The Egyptian priests taught that the One God, supreme and unapproachable, conceived the universe by His Intelligence before He created it by His Power and Will. They further taught that the horrors of Tartarus (hell) were all symbolic of the false mental images, emotional fears, etc., representing the facts that Ascension was a long, laborious process on the journey back to God.
Initiation into the mysteries was meant to ameliorate this struggle for mankind, to perfect the intellectual part of man, the nature of the human soul (which to us, in this sense, is the subsoul). This prevented the divine part of man from becoming engulfed in lower earthy matter. The soul, to them, was not a mere conception or abstraction, but a reality, including in itself life and thought, whose essence was to live and think.
Initiatory tests by water, air and fire were represented as a means by which the soul could be purified and released. From this sprang the doctrine of the transmigration of the souls. Pythagorus taught it as an allegory, never intending it as a literal doctrine. He used it to show how evil dragged down the soul, and that the souls of the vicious dead did pass into the bodies of those animals whose nature their vices had most affinity.
By the practice of virtue, the soul could rescue itself and free itself to ascend. From this came the interpretation that we must expiate here below the crimes committed in a prior life. Indeed, his disciples asked Jesus whether the blind young man or his parents had sinned, since he was born blind!
The ancient Egyptians even held that these migrations from the human body though animals, fish and birds to another human body took 3,000 years! Some even held that plants, of which the laurel was noblest, and animals, the lion in particular, both being consecrated to the sun, could serve as the repository of souls. In the Orient they believed that virtuous souls would return.
Pythagoras was responsible for certain particular “modes of instruction” in the mysteries. Motion began in the east and proceeded west. Temples are oriented due east and west because the Heirophant, the “Master of mysteries” represents the “Rising Sun,” which must be in the east. Their temples were said to extend upward to the heavens, a custom among the Persians and Druids whose temples had no roofs.
Plato later developed and spiritualized the philosophy of Pythagorus.
The following was added Edna Miriam’s June 22, 1965 Outline:
Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, pp. 96-97:
Pythagoras, the great divulger of the philosophy of numbers, visited all the sanctuaries of the world. He went into Judea, where he procured himself to be circumcised, that he might be admitted to the secrets of the Kabbalah, which the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel, not without some reservations, communicated to him. Then, not without some difficulty, he succeeded in being admitted to the Egyptian initiation, upon the recommendation of King Amasis. The power of his genius supplied the deficiencies of the imperfect communications of the Hierophants, and he himself became a Master and a Revealer.
Pythagoras defined God as a Living and Absolute Verity clothed with Light. He said that the Word was Number manifested by Form. He made all descend from the Tetractys, having a base of four, that is to say, from the Quaternary, in parts of four. God, he said is the Supreme Music, the nature of which is Harmony.
Pythagoras said, “Even as there are three divine notions and free intelligible regions, so there is a triple word, for the Hierarchical Order always manifests itself by threes. There are the word simple, the word hieroglyphical, and the word symbolic: in other terms, there are the word that expresses, the word that conceals, and the word that signifies; the whole hieratic intelligence is in the perfect knowledge of these three degrees.” Pythagoras enveloped his doctrine with symbols, but carefully avoided personifications and images, which, he taught, sooner or later produced idolatry.
The Holy Kabbalah, or tradition of the children of Seth, was carried from Chaldea by Abraham, taught to the Egyptian priesthood by Joseph, recovered and purified by Moses, concealed under symbols in the Bible, revealed by the Savior to Saint John, and contained, entire, under hieratic figures analogous to those of all antiquity, in the Apocalypse of that Apostle.
Pythagoras’ Three Degrees transcript
Edna Lister lecture, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes, June 8, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Pythagoras was born about 600 BC. He was a seeker after truth and wisdom who established the Greek mysteries which he brought from Egypt. He first coined the term, “philosopher.” Philosophy is the study of wisdom, and he taught pure wisdom. The legend of his birth is that he was conceived immaculately under Apollo. In the Greek myths, when two came together under love they were said to be o’ershadowed by the sun god Apollo. This meant their marriage was made or recorded in heaven.
Pythagoras’ father was Mnesarchus and his mother was Parthesis. On a journey to Greece they visited the Delphic oracle who prophesied that a son would be born to them and would have great wisdom. He was born in Phoenicia. His mother visited the temple of the Pythian priestess and in her honor changed her name to Pythesis and name her son Pythagoras. Pythia is a name used in mysteries and secret orders to this day.
Since Pythagoras was the son of a traveling merchant, he spent his early years traveling and became familiar with various countries. He was initiated into fourteen mystery schools including the great pyramid in Egypt. Fourteen is the number of choice and separation. He was also a member of the Essenes, a Hebrew sect who were descended from Abraham who received the Kabbalah from an angel of the Lord. Within the fourteen we have the three falling into the four. You can make a heavenly choice, but watch your step because you have the three higher breaths falling into the four elements of earth, water, air and fire.
The 14th Path means that you move from one thing to another; in and out or up and down. In and out means you have a choice of accepting the situation on the outer, increasing your work on the outer and accomplishing greatly. But you must be careful not to enjoy praise or apple polishing, not to yield to self aggrandizement. Up and down means a change in your state of consciousness. Take the up path; make up your mind to let the outer go and take inner credits.
Lay a gift of praise on the altar and say, “Father, I have it here. I am putting self upon the altar.” Then you may move up and ask for further Illumination, or you have the choice of moving out and accepting on earth. Do you want to be a teacher, start a class, change position and move out on earth? Do not let go of God but, remember, you are not yet as perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. Keep your lines up for illumination.
Three Pythagorean Degrees
Pythagoras studied the Kabbalistic system, a mystical system of numbers. This colored his life. In later years he interpreted under the Kabbalah and added to it. He was a high king of a Division and the very highest wisdom came through to him. He studied mathematic principles and became a super mathematician. At the age of sixty he married one of his disciples and had seven sons. At age 100 he looked fifty. He was martyred by the few who were refused admission to his school in Crotona.
Time has proven that he taught truth; his teachings are remembered and still taught. The laws of Pythagoras still stand. He gathered together all the mysteries then known and established them in three degrees patterned after the teachings of Solomon. He required five years’ training and preparatory work from each candidate who desired to study with him. This training period included abstinence and complete silence. He married a former student!
Pythagoras taught mathematics as a means of “proving” God from observation and reason. His basis was logic, reason, discretion, discrimination and discernment. He taught grammar, rhetoric and logic to cultivate and improve the ability to reason and to think. Don’t just think you are thinking! He taught mathematics because he conceived that the ultimate benefit of man consisted of the science of numbers. Mathematics is a high science. On earth we begin with geometry which is based on mathematics and algebra. Geometry begins with a hypothetical dot extending into space as a line and plane. When you study geometry, mathematics begins to touch the absolute.
For higher math, the Kabbalistic system gives great illumination. It is based on 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which are also numbers. The study of numerology comes from these numbers. Arithmetic is the science of numbers, then comes algebra and then geometry. Numbers are our daily portions, and we use them in everything we do. For the child, spelling comes next. Geometry represents the mystic value of God. It gives the key of how to contact Him. Grammar, rhetoric and logic are absolute, yet can entail idle words.
The three teachings of Pythagoras include: (1) Geometry as a purely metaphysical form of wisdom; (2) Music as a study of the principles of Light, number color, tone, and form. (3) Astronomy as a study of the principle of Light itself. Pythagoras conceived the idea that man is indebted to these three subjects for a knowledge of what is good and useful.
The three degrees of Pythagoras’ teachings are axioms: 1) Being is being; 2) Being is real (I AM THAT I AM); (3) Being is logic. Each of these three deals with a trinity. Reality is part of the love principle. These three absolutes are but one principle forming a single whole of the idea and the form, qualified and unqualified. The idea holds within itself the form. This is all preliminary to his first degree. While the neophytes were living in absolute silence, he was training them for these three degrees. Pythagoras was the first to teach the mathematical philosophy of the three falling into the four. The problems of Euclid are problems of principle.
In philosophy, Pythagoras taught the identity of reason and reality. In religion, he taught providence, the divine action that makes reality the “good.” In Christianity, this is the Holy Spirit. Remember that Christos is light in Greek. In the material world of manifestation, Pythagoras taught that divine substance takes on form. This philosophy is a true method of obtaining a knowledge of the divine laws of purifying the soul from its imperfections. There are seven steps:
1. The search for the truth. The great things in the Bible are truth; you have already found truth there. You find a teacher to help you find the Source of truth and its application. This is why Pythagoras included rhetoric. That which fills the universe with Mind and Power is unqualified; that which manifests as Substance is qualified. Our statement is, “I search for the Source of all truth."
2. Pythagoras stressed the practice of all virtues as imitating the perfection of God. We say, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
3. Speak the truth. We say, “No idle words."
4. Render benefits to one another. We say, “Cover the transgressions of others."
5. Hold your silence. Move up into the Golden Silence and hold that consciousness and you are above worldly tests.
6. Practice fortitude. But don’t know you are doing it! Don’t look holy! Stand and hold.
7. Practice pure justice. Balance Love and Wisdom.
If you’re like a toadstool, here today and gone tomorrow, you are useless. You poison your soul and produce dry rot. Put a straight line through to the Source for a miracle. You must put that line up with a burning desire, fervor and love. If you put your line up and it’s mixed with idle words, self, grief, etc., your Guards have to unscramble all your lines of Light and responsibility, which is a tremendous amount of work for them.
Under religion, Pythagoras taught the immortality of the soul and the necessity of a personal holiness and purity to prepare one’s self for admission into the society of the gods. We call this Ascension. He also taught the omnipotence of God; that there is one God Supreme and unapproachable who conceived the universe by His intelligence before He created it through His Power and Will.
Initiations prevented man from becoming engulfed in lower earthly matters. The soul was not a mere conception or abstraction, but a reality including in itself life and thought whose essence it was to live and to think, His tests of air, water and fire were represented as means by which the soul could be purified and released. From these teachings sprang the doctrine of transmigration of souls, but Pythagoras taught it as an allegory showing that the individual could descend and become like an animal. He never intended this as a literal doctrine, but used it to show how evil dragged the soul down and that the souls of the vicious dead did not pass into bodies of those animals to whose nature their vices had the most affinity.
Pythagoras taught that by the practice of virtue the soul could rescue itself to ascend. From this practice came the interpretation that we must expiate here below the crimes committed in a prior life. The ancient Egyptians held that the migrations of animals and birds to another body could take 3,000 years. Some held that even plants entered into animals. For example, the laurel, the noblest of plants, was believed to enter into the lion, the noblest of beasts. Both were consecrated to the sun god, Apollo.
It was held in the Orient that virtuous souls would return if they had only sinned mildly. Pythagoras was responsible for the particular mode of instruction in the degree of Fellowcraft in Freemasonry. He arranged the use of assemblies as they are employed to this day in Masonic Temples, especially the East and West ends. The motion begins in the East and proceeds West in every lodge because the Master of the Lodge represents the rising sun and must be seen first in the East. The concept of the lodge is that it mystically extends up to heaven. Some Persian and all Druid temples had no roofs. Pythagoras brought forth these concepts that have lived through the centuries. Plato later spiritualized the philosophy of Pythagoras.
The Greek Pantheon of Gods outline
Edna Lister, June 15, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Zeus, known in Rome as Jupiter and Jove, though called the “father of the gods and of men,” had himself a beginning. Cronus [Saturn] was his father and Rhea [Ops] was his mother. Cronus and Rhea were of the race of Titans, who were the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth), which sprang from Chaos. There is another earlier cosmogony, or account of creation, according to which Chaos, Gaea (Earth), Eros (Love) and Tartarus (the underworld) were the first beings. Eros (Love) issued from the Egg of Night, which floated on Chaos. By his own arrow and torch, he pierced and vivified all things, producing life and joy.
The Titans, offspring of Uranus and Gaea were Oceanus (Ocean), were the personifications of natural forces. Cronus and Rhea were not the only Titans. In birth order, the Titan sons, Coeus, Crius, Ophion, Hyperion (Sun), Iapetus and Cronus. Their daughters were Theia (Light principle), Rhea (Fertility), Themis (Law and Order), Mnemosyne (memory), Euronyme, and Tethys. These are spoken of as the “elder gods,” whose dominion was afterward transferred to others.
For instance, Cronus yielded to Zeus, Oceanus to Poseidon, Hyperion to Apollo. Hyperion was the father of the sun, moon and dawn. He is the original sun god, and is painted with the splendor and beauty, which were afterward bestowed upon Apollo. In one early tradition, Ophion (serpent) and his consort Eurynome (an Oceanid, Mother of All Things) reigned over Olympus until they were dethroned by the younger generation of gods. Ophion was cast into the Tartarus by Cronus.
Gaea saved her infant Zeus from the “monster” Cronus, who had swallowed the rest of his children. When Zeus had grown up, he espoused Metis (Prudence, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys), who administered an emetic draft to Cronus, which caused him to disgorge his children.
Zeus, with his brother and sister Titans, then rebelled against their father Cronus and those loyal to him. Zeus’ faction vanquished the others, inflicting penalties and imprisoning some in Tartarus. Atlas, for instance, was condemned to bear up the heavens on his shoulders.
On the dethronement of Cronus [Saturn], Zeus [Jupiter] and his brothers, Poseidon [Neptune] and Dis [Pluto], divided Cronus’ dominions. Zeus’ portion was the heavens, Poseidon ruled the oceans, and Dis became the ruler of the realms of the dead. Earth and Mount Olympus became common property.
Zeus made himself the king of gods and men. The thunder was his weapon. He bore a shield, the Aegis, made for him by Hephaestus. The eagle was his favorite bird, and bore his thunderbolts. A similar symbol is used for the United States seal.
Hephaestus [Vulcan], the celestial artist, was the son of Zeus and Hera [Jupiter and Juno]. He was born lame, and his mother was so displeased with the sight of him that she flung him from heaven. Hephaestus’ fall of his lameness. He fell for an entire day, landing on the Isle of Lemnos, which was ever after sacred to him.
Ares [Mars], the god of war, was the son of Zeus and Hera. Apollo, the god of music, prophecy and archery, was the son of Zeus and Leto, with his twin sister Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt. Later, Apollo became the sun god, and Artemis became moon goddess. Homer wrote that Aphrodite [Venus], the goddess of sexual love and beauty, was the daughter of Zeus and Dione, another Titaness. An old legend, recorded by Hesiod, said that she sprang from the sea, offspring of the blood of Uranus. The Zephyr (west wind) wafted her along the waves to the Isle of Cyprus, where she was received and robed by the Seasons, then led to the assembly of the gods. All were charmed with her beauty and each demanded her for his wife. Zeus gave her to Hephaestus in gratitude for the service he had rendered in forging the thunderbolts. So the most beautiful of the goddesses became the wife of the most ill-favored of the gods.
Hephaestus made for Aphrodite a finely wrought golden girdle, the cestus, which had the power of inspiring love. One legend says that Aphrodite and Ares were the parents of Eros, the god of love, and Anteros, the god of reciprocal love, and sometimes as the avenger of slighted love. Eros [Cupid] was Aphrodite’s constant companion. Armed with a boy and arrows, he often shot darts of desire into the hearts of gods and men.
Themis, the personification of divine right order, was said to have built the Oracle at Delphi, and she had oracular powers. Aphrodite, complaining to her that Eros continued always as a child, was told by Themis that it was because he was solitary, and that if he had a brother he would grow. Anteros was born soon after, and Eros immediately increased in size and strength.
Pallas Athene [Minerva] the goddess of wisdom, was the daughter of Zeus without a mother, which is the root of the word, parthenogenesis. It was said that she sprang forth from Zeus’ head, fully armed.
Hermes [Mercury], the messenger, was the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, daughter of Atlas and one of the Pleiades. He presided over commerce, wrestling and other gymnastic exercises. Cunning and shrewd, he was the god of merchant, weights and measures, and of thieves, anything that required skill and dexterity.
Hermes is said to have invented the flute and the lyre. As the story goes, he caught and killed a tortoise, drilled matching holes on either side, nine sets in honor of the Muses, and drew cords through. The music so enchanted Apollo, whose cattle he had slain to make it, that he gave him the lyre.
The Graces (Charites) [Gratiae], who were the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome (an Oceanid, a daughter of Oceanus), personified charm and beauty. Companions of Aphrodite, they presided over the banquet, dance and social pleasures, as well as the elegant arts. Together with the Muses, they were sources of inspiration. They were Aglaea (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth) and Thalia (Good Cheer).
The Fates, or Moirae [Parcae], were the goddesses who controlled the destiny of every soul. Also three in number they were: Clotho [Nona], the spinner, who spun the thread of life, Lachesis [Decuma], the apportioner, who decided when the end had come, and Atropos [Morta], the inevitable, who cut the thread of life. Ministers of the Fates were always oracles or soothsayers (seers of the future). Their parentage is uncertain, though some sources say they may have been the daughters of Zeus and Themis.
The Furies (Erinyes) were also three in number, avenging goddesses who punished by their secret stings the crimes of those who had escaped or defied public justice. The daughters of Uranus and Gaea, their names were Tisiphone (the avenger of murder), Megaera (the jealous one), and Alecto (unceasing in anger). Their heads were wreathed in snakes for hair, had bats’ wings, and blood dripped from their eyes. Their whole appearance was horrific and appalling. When they showed mercy, they transformed their frightful appearance into the Eumenides, meaning “kind-hearted.” Nemesis [Poena] was also an avenging goddess, who represented the righteous anger of the gods, particularly against the proud and insolent. A very ancient goddess, Hesiod said that she was the daughter of Erebus (the primordial darkness) and Nyx (goddess of the night). She was portrayed as stern-looking, holding a whip, a sword or a pair of scales.
Pan, the son of Hermes, was the god of flocks and shepherds. His favorite residence was in Arcadia, a district of the Peloponnesus, synonymous with pastoral simplicity. Pictured as a satyr (deities of the woods and fields), covered with bristly hair, the lower body of a goat standing upright, he had a very prominent chin and sported small horns on his forehead. He was also a fertility god, symbolic of unbridled sexual desire.
Momus was the Greek deity of laughter, mockery, faultfinding, scoffing and criticism, fair and unfair. He is also the patron of writers and poets. He found fault with the man made by Hephaestus for not having little doors in his breast through which his secret thoughts might be seen, and with Aphrodite for talking too much and because her sandals creaked. This and other mocking and criticism of the gods led to his downfall and he was banished from the Olympus. Hesiod called him a son of Nyx (Night).
Plutus was the god and personification of wealth, regarded as the son Demeter, the earth goddess and Iasius, son of Zeus and Electra, one of the Pleiades. Zeus blinded him, so that he might dispense his gifts blindly and without regard to merit. His feminine counterpart was Irene, one of the Horae.
The Greek Pantheon of Gods transcript
This Edna Lister, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, scribes, June 15, 1965, Cleveland, OH
As the mysteries spread over the known earth, they were brought from Lemuria (Mu) to Atlantis to Egypt. Each new country had a new name for the same old god. The names of the gods were those of the descended androgynous beings who opened this Great Day of Manifestation. Jupiter, Jove or Zeus, though called the father of the gods and men, had himself a beginning. Saturn, or Crones, was his father and Rhea was his mother. There had to be a beginning for these gods in the dim mists of time. Myths were the first written stories of the gods. The beginning of the gods on earth was the descent of the androgynous beings and in Greece they descended to Mount Olympus.
Saturn and Rhea were Titans. Titans were made up of both the sons and daughters of earth and the sons and daughters of God. It was written that they sprang from chaos (dark). We are told that Saturn and Rhea descended to earth just before the lights descended when the earth was dark and void. “They sprang from chaos” means taht they appeared before a Day of Manifestation begins. Another account of creation tells us that the earth and Erebus and Eros (love) were the first beings. Eros issued forth from the “egg of night which floated over chaos.” By his own arrow and torch, Eros pierced and vivified all things. He produced life and joy wherever he went. Light came from Eros.
Saturn and Rhea were not the only Titans. The males were Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetus and Ophion. The females were Themis, Mnemosyne and Eurynome. These were the elder gods whose dominion was later transferred to others. Saturn yielded to Jupiter, Oceanus to Neptune, Hyperion to Apollo. Hyperion was the father of Apollo, the sun god, and of Diana (Astarte) and Aurora. Hyperion was the original sun god and was gifted with the splendor and beauty later bestowed upon Apollo.
Ophion and Eurynome ruled over Mt. Olympus which they thought of as the high spot on earth. The Olympian mountains stayed above water throughout the sinking of Lemuria and later of Atlantis. The descended gods chose Olympus so they could remain there during the continental changes when evil took over. After each deluge, a new Day of Manifestation began. If it were not for the losses now in Vietnam and other wars, the price to pay for the salvation of earth would have been much higher because this time the destruction would be by fire, not water. Ophion and Eurynome ruled until they were dethroned by Saturn and Rhea. The mystery behind the myth is that heaven is run according to periods of thirty zodiacal degrees and the thrones change at regular intervals. So these descended gods changed their seasons of planting, harvest and rest.
Saturn became known as a monster who swallowed his own children to keep his dominion. The meaning behind the myth is that the planet Saturn, as it moves in orbit, appeared to the ancients to swallow the other stars in its wake in the heavens (this is called an occultation). At different seasons they would follow Saturn and disappear.
When grown, Jupiter (Zeus) espoused Metis (prudence). She was a restraining influence on Jupiter’s joyous abandonment. She gave Saturn a draft that made him disgorge his children (when the planets reappeared in the skies). Jupiter and his brothers and sisters rebelled against Saturn. The Titans were descended gods who took on flesh. Many were imprisoned in Tartarus, an island.
Atlas, one of the Titans, was condemned to bear the heavens on his shoulders. On the dethronement of Saturn, his three dominions were divided between his three sons, Jupiter (Zeus) ruled the heavens, Neptune (Poseidon) the ocean, and Pluto (Hades) the underworld, the realm of the dead. Earth and Olympus were common property not apportioned to one god. They did set up Jupiter as king of the gods and men.
The planet Jupiter rules Sagittarius, the Gate of Ascension. Men descend to earth through Capricorn. Only the descended gods descend through Sagittarius. The children of earth can ascend through Sagittarius if they have earned the right to go through the Gates. The descended gods had to learn to bargain with men and agree and adjust. They let their sheaths get heavy. These were precipitated bodies that became visible.
Thunder was Jupiter’s weapon. He bore a shield called the aegis, made by Vulcan. The eagle was his favorite bird and it bore his thunderbolts. Our American eagle with its symbolic thunderbolts is related to this. In our Adamic Civilization, we are tied up to these original descended gods. Within the U.S., our high ones come from the twelve Tribes and the twelve Golden Cities. There are 12,000 to a tribe who were the first descended gods. There were two sets of 12,000 in Revelation. These were the Elect, those whom the descended gods took home with them. The Elect are neophytes who are learning Law. The descended gods persuade them to go back home. It is still the burden of the descended Elect is to teach the world to move up in consciousness and get evil under foot.
Vulcan, or Hephaestus, was the celestial artist, artisan or architect. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno. His mother was displeased at the sight of him and flung him from heaven to earth, crippling him. The distinction here is that they were ruling from heaven in this myth, rather than on earth. We must figure then that Jupiter and Juno were ruling from the planet Jupiter when they created Vulcan. It took him one full day to fall from heaven to earth. He landed on the island of Lemnos. Mars (Ares), the god of war, was his brother, son of Jupiter and Juno.
Apollo also ruled archery, poetry, music and prophecy. Because he was the sun god, he cast light on men and events. Apollo is tied up with the Temple of the Sun. You enter at the west and walk west. In the center is a glorious fountain of great lights. The number seven is in the center, the Master’s Purple Seven. Edna Miriam hopes to train certain ones into the Order of the Purple Seven as ministers.
On the right is a great archway, curtains drawn, red, blue, or purple. One curtain is decorated with a great eye. You enter the cloud continent of the City of the Sun through a wall of fire. Golden rays of glory shine through the curtain, which veils the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. They were raised and placed there by the Fathers themselves. Down to the left is a wide archway into the Temple of the Sun. The curtains at the right open into the first Hall of Records. The Hall is where you go to face past thoughts, words and actions and also for certain ceremonies. The Temple of the Sun is also our home and we go there at night.
Apollo was the brother of Diana (Astarte), the moon goddess. She was the daughter of Jupiter and Latona. Venus (Aphrodite) wore a helmet which represented love with the head covered which was one reason she became a goddess of physical love and was misunderstood. She was the goddess of love and beauty. This ties up the fires of Aphrodite and Zeus. Aphrodite is Zeus’ queen. Both lakes of fire are for cleansing and are in the same Realm. This is the reality behind the myth. Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. She sprang from the foam of near the isle of Cyprus. She was met by the four seasons who led her to the assembly of the gods on Mt. Olympus. When they saw her beauty, each wanted her for his wife. Zeus owed Hephaestos (Vulcan) a great debt of gratitude for his thunderbolts, so he gave her to him. Aphrodite was not enthusiastic about this. She wore the cestas, the girdle of love, which had the power of inspiring love. On the inner, it is called the girdle of Aphrodite and it covers the seat of the creative fire. This is one of the great gifts of the gods and is a great reward for conquering.
Eros was the son of Venus and Mars. He was her constant companion. Mischievous, he shot darts of love into men and caused all the trouble resulting from the desire of the gods for the children of men. The darts brought the gods down in consciousness. These darts represent the flame of physical desire. Anteros was the avenger of slighted love. Venus had complained to Themis the godess of justice that Eros remained a child and never grew up. Themis judged that he should have a brother and would then grow up. Anteros is also the champion of reciprocal affection. These two are like Cain and Abel: Eros is love; Anteros is against love. The fallen god Anteros could have taken over the fixed star, Antares, on revenge, but Belial got there first, took over and from there plotted most of the evil on earth. These legends tie up the fall of the gods. When these androgynous beings came to earth they quaffed the Cup of Lethe, forgetfulness, and turned away from the Light.
Minerva (Pallas Athena) was the goddess of wisdom. She wore the famous winged helmet of the warrior gods. She was the offspring of Zeus without a mother. It is said she sprang fully formed from his head, completely armed. This shows there is no limitation in creation. Love and wisdom create from the same Mind. Wisdom is armor against the false.
Mercury (Hermes) was the son of Jupiter and Maia (earth, air, fire and water as one). His influence is neutral; it also means being closer to earth than to the higher gods. Mercury, was not only the messenger who brought the word of the gods to men, was also the ruler of communication, commerce, gymnastics, physical dexterity, and thieves. He wore a winged cap and sandals which represent the symbolic “fans of Pharaoh,” which you open through ascended mental process.
While Hermes rules intellect, he also rises up to rule wisdom with Uranus. He is credited with the invention of the lyre, made from the shell of the tortoise, which had nine strings in honor of the nine Muses. Nine was the number of salvation and was sacred. The three Graces presided over banquets, dance, all social enjoyment and the arts. They are Euphrosyne, Aglalia and Thalia.
Themis, law sat by Jove to counsel him. She was the mother of the three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who spun the thread of destiny and were armed with shears with which they could cut off a span of life if they chose. “Fate has sheared me.” They cut off life lines when necessary. The line of fate is cut when one has misused too much soul substance. The Fathers do this because they will not allow one to lose their soul. When we move up to the Path of Destiny, we no longer need the three Fates. These are called the Norns in Nordic myths.
The Furies punished evil with secret stings. They punished the crimes of those who escaped or defied public justice. They represent the conscience. Their heads were wreathed with serpents and were terrible to see. They were Electra, Tisiphone and Megaera. Nemesis was the avenging goddess, representing the righteous anger of the gods, especially against the proud and arrogant.
Pan was the god of flocks and shepherds. Arcadia was his favorite residence, Satyrs were deities of the fields and woods. Half men and half goat, they were covered with bristling hair and had cloven feet. They watched over the woods.
Momus was the god of laughter, mimicry and memory. Plutus was the god of wealth. These gods and goddesses represent the principles of love, wisdom, faith, honor and joy.
Mysteries of Dionysus outline
Edna Lister, June 22, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Originally, the mysteries were the means used to introduce a candidate to the beginning of a new life of reason and virtue. Dionysus [Bacchus], also named as Osiris, instituted the new Dionysian Mysteries of Wisdom, which proscribed all impurity. Dionysus was the Greek god of wine, agriculture, and fertility of nature, who was also the patron god of the Greek theater. He represented not only the intoxicating power of wine, but its social and beneficent influences. So he was viewed as a promoter of civilization, a law-giver, and a lover of peace.
According to ancient tradition, he was the son of Zeus and the mortal woman, Semele, the daughter of Cadmus of Thebes. Another legend claims that he was born of a virgin on December 25, and performed great miracles for the good of mankind. He changed water into wine, rode in a triumphal procession on a donkey, was put to death by the Titans and rose again on March 25. He was always called “the savior.” In the ceremonial instructions of the Mysteries of Dionysus, he is shown as an infant on Christmas morning. This illustrates a direct connection between the modern observation of Christmas and Easter, both of which were holy days observed by millions of people before the Christian Era.
Christmas, coinciding with the winter solstice, and Easter, coinciding with the vernal equinox, are both related to the sun’s movement through the heavens. The winter solstice, the first day of winter, marks the sun’s entry into Capricorn, and the vernal equinox heralds the advent of spring as the sun enters Aries, the sign of the lamb. Capricorn is the Gate of the Gods, and Aries is the House of Fire, as the sun’s rays begin warming earth, and the sign of the self. The Christian dates of entry are not the same as the astrological/astronomical dates of the signs, for there is the added factor of the moon’s aspects. Passover commences with the first new moon after the vernal equinox. Easter is the first Sunday following the new moon after the vernal equinox.
The symbols of the translation of Light and Power from God to man included Hercules, who wore a lion’s skin, and Dionysus, who wore the horns of the bull. Herodotus identified Dionysus jointly with Ceres (as Osiris and Isis), and said that they preside over the distribution of all our blessings. From these two emanate everything good and beautiful in nature. One furnishes the germ and principle of every good. The other receives and preserves it as a deposit.
Ceres and the serpent, Jupiter Ammon and the bull, all figured in the mysteries of Dionysus. In the mysteries of the bull-horned Dionysus, the officers held serpents in their hands, raised them above their heads and cried aloud, “évoé!", the oriental name for serpent and the particular name of the constellation in which the Persians placed “Evoe and the serpent.” The use of this word-name caused Clement of Alexandria to say that the priests in the mysteries invoked Eve, by whom they believed all evil had been brought into the world. The mystic winnowing fan, symbolized as encircled by serpents, was used in the feasts of Dionysus.
The Oracles taught that from the Unrevealed God, who is at the head of the world of emanations, and exalted above all conception or designation, were evolved seven living, self-subsistent, ever-active hypostatized powers: The intellectual powers are Nous, the Mind, Logos, the reason, Phronesis, the thinking power, and Sophia, or Wisdom. The fifth was Dunamis, the active operative power needed to accomplish the purposes of Wisdom. The last two are moral attributes: Dikaiosune is holiness or moral perfection, and Eirene is inward tranquility.
Dionysus (Bacchus) was associated with and was o’ershadowed by Osiris. He instituted the Dionysian mysteries of pure wisdom that he brought onto Greece and Persia. These mysteries taught that purity and holiness are necessary parts of earth living. You could not live these mysteries if you were impure. Born of a virgin on December 25, Bacchus performed great miracles for the good of mankind. In particular, he rose from the dead on March 25 and was called the Savior. Under his mysteries and ceremonial instructions, he was shown as an infant in the temple.
Through Bacchus there was a direct connection between Christmas and Easter. Both of these were high holy days in antiquity, observed long before Christianity. This was not pagan but was the foreshadowing of a true ceremony of the descended Elect. The dates of Christmas and Easter are related to the sun’s passage into the signs of Capricorn and Aries, the winter solstice and the vernal equinox respectively. Capricorn, an earth sign, is the Gate of the Gods and of the Father; Cancer, a water sign, is the Gate of Men and the House of the Mother; Aries, a fire sign, is the House of Self.
Easter is preceded by forty days of sacrifice of self, after which you pass through the cleansing fires during Holy Week. Easter was originally determined by the lunar calendar, but in 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea standardized the date of Easter to fall on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon. You must consider both the solar and lunar aspects to understand how the full Light and Power of God coalesce and flow though man.
Hercules (who wore a lion’s skin) is related to the sun gods. The kunar aspects interfered with the entrance of Hercules, a solar hero, into Aries, a fire sign. By contrast, Bacchus, who wore the horns of a bull, was a lunar figure who was associated with Ceres, Demeter and Isis, all of whom wore crowns of cows’ horns. With Ceres, Bacchus presided over all man’s blessings of the fruits of the earth. People prayed to Ceres, Demeter and Isis as liaison deities. From these high ones poured the emanations of every good and beautiful thing that has evolved on earth. The Bacchanalian mysteries (related to Taurus, an earth sign) rule over nature and beauty and furnished the germ-idea of every good. Bacchus is masculine and Ceres is feminine. She receives and preserves the germ as a depository. She was often symbolized with a serpent, and snakes, which live in caves, and deep caverns in the earth, were sacred to her.
Jupiter-Ammon, a sun god, Ammon (Amun or Amon) was often depicted with curling ram’s horns, symbolic of Aries, the sun sign. Ammon and Apis the Egyptian bull (symbolic of Taurus), all figured into the mysteries of Bacchus. During the mysteries of the horned bull, the temple priests held snakes (Ceres-Demeter) in their hands and cried aloud, “Evoe!” which means “serpent” in the oriental tongues. This caused Clement of Alexandria to say that the Persians evoked the evil of Eve. A fan encircled by serpents was used to blow chaff away from grain. Serpents symbolize wisdom. Evil was the name for all serpents. Bacchus had left earth long before the second Bacchus came and defamed that name.
Mysteries of Dionysus transcript
Edna Lister, Elizabeth Barnes, Ruth Johnson, Irene White, Ross and Virginia Whitehead, scribes, June 22, 1965, Cleveland, OH
Originally, the study of the mysteries was undertaken in order to begin a new life of virtue. Bacchus was associated with Osiris and, as a god in the temple, was o’ershadowed by Osiris. He instituted the Dionysian mysteries of pure wisdom that he brought onto Greece and Persia. These mysteries taught that purity and holiness are necessary parts of earth living. You could not live these mysteries if you were impure. Born of a virgin on December 25, Bacchus performed great miracles for the good of mankind. In particular, he rose from the dead on March 25 and was called the Savior.
Under his mysteries and ceremonial instructions, he was shown as an infant in the temple. There was through him even then a direct connection between Christmas and Easter. Both of these high holy days were observed long before Christianity. This was not pagan but was a true ceremony of the descended gods. The dates of Christmas and Easter are related to the sun’s passage into the signs of Capricorn and Aries, the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Capricorn is called the Gate of the Gods, Cancer is the Gate of Men and the House of the Mother. Aries is the self House of Fire. Easter is preceded by forty days of sacrifice of self and Holy Week is when you go into the cleansing fires. You must add lunar aspects to this to get the full Light and Power from God to man.
Hercules is related to the sun gods. Moon aspects were delayed and interfered with the entrance of Hercules (who wore a lion’s skin) into Aries. Bacchus wore the horns of a bull. He is also associated with Ceres, Demeter and Isis, who all wore crowns of cows’ horns. With Ceres, Bacchus presided over all man’s blessings. People prayed to them as liaison deities. From these emanations of the high ones, every good and beautiful thing of earth evolved. The Bacchanalian mysteries rule over nature and beauty (Taurus) and furnished the germ-principle of every good. Bacchus is masculine and Ceres is feminine. She receives and preserves the germ as a depository. She often was identified with a serpent and snakes were sacred to her.
Jupiter-Ammon, a sun god, and Apis the Egyptian bull, all figured onto the mysteries of Bacchus. During the mysteries of the horned bull, the temple priests held snakes in their hands and cried aloud, “Evoe!” which means “serpent” in the oriental tongues. This caused Clement of Alexandria to say that the Persians evoked the evil of Eve. There was a fan encircled by serpents which was used to blow chaff away from grain. Serpents symbolize wisdom. Evil was the name for all serpents. Bacchus had left earth long before the second Bacchus came and defamed that name.
The Golden Fleece
Edna Lister, International New Thought Alliance 50th Anniversary Congress speech outline, July 4, 1965, Judges 6:36-40
“Gideon said to God, If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said, look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said. And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more; Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.”–Judges 6:36-40.
Today, our culture is called “a society in a dilemma.” No one can foresee what the results of any given decision may be, whether personal, political, or financial. Personal fears are magnified into world fears. Air travel and communications have made us into a “neighborhood,” without making us into a “brotherhood.”
The worship of material things has caused good, old-fashioned faith to shrink until there is no more Shekinah glory in the sanctuaries. We have no pillar of cloud by day, no fire by night to guide us, no more mysteries in our temples. Faith has grown obsolete.
In ancient Greece, with its mysteries from Egypt, handed down from Abraham, with its legends, its myths, all feeding fuel to the fires of faith in God, faith reached a burning peak of sacrificial splendor. The Crusaders went forth to sacrifice life itself for their faith.
Knighthood grew out of the legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Jason slew a dragon and carried the golden fleece to Thessaly, where it became the symbol of a goal, the goal gained by selfless sacrificial service through the growth of the soul. The golden fleece symbolized magic, protection, rescue and miracles. It epitomized the soul in its search for the Holy Grail. The golden fleece was the golden silence. The Holy Grail was oneness with God.
Forty years after Moses, the Midianites pushed the children of Israel into caves in the mountains and still pursued them. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, telling him that he was to save Israel, he felt unworthy and doubtful. His father’s house was the least in Israel. Imagine him trying to lead!
They were four generations past Moses, and would rather be captured than to move. Gideon knew one thing: God gives us time, never pushes, never forces. Gideon took the time and used a fleece to prove God’s word before acting. If the fleece was wet, it proved that divine Mind was flowing through as inspiration. If the fleece was dry, it proved that Gideon had moved up into oneness, which was his goal, his golden fleece, his golden silence, with no doubt or fear.
Everyone knows the story: Gideon started with 30,000 men, but ended with only 300. Yet the 300 were fearless, watchful men, who carried pitchers, which hid candles, symbolizing their faith with Light breaking through their bondage to fear. The Light of the silence banishes any darkness that earth can produce. They shouted, “By the sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” while Gideon wielded the sword of faith in action.
Today’s astronauts are also in search of the Holy Grail under selfless sacrificial service. Their golden fleece goal is conquering the stars. Gideon, Jason and the astronauts all have one thing in common: Obedience to orders through selfless sacrificial action, in two steps.
The first step is being in the right place at the right time to reach the goal, the golden fleece. Time and place must dovetail, or no miracle can result. All parents must teach this to their children: A miracle may be as simple as knowing the right thing to say. Yet first you need the right time and be in the right place. For time and place to meet, you must wait upon the Lord in the high place.
The second step is to keep your attention centered on the goal, on what you want. Your power-line always follows your attention. The power-line of faith, focused on the goal, increases a miracle. If your attention is on pain, Power moves in and increases the pain. Hold your attention focused, without wavering, on the object of your desire.
God’s Miracles
Edna Lister outline, International New Thought Alliance Golden Anniversary Rally, September 28, 1965, Caxton Hall, London, England
From creature to creator is a long road. From instinctive intelligence to conscious intelligence requires many billions of experiences. The creature and the son of man first acquire individual consciousness, then, as sons of God and creators, they earn Christed consciousness. “Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”–Mark 10:27. To the millions, the impossibles of earth are far greater than the possibles of God. Start from one point of thinking, “According to my faith, so will it be done to me.” My faith is is my idea of what love can do. What do I expect from God? What do I expect from life?
As metaphysicians we have learned that we receive exactly what we send forth. My results depend upon my statements, which may be weak and wishy-washy, and on my declarations. Are they weak, or positive and dynamic? My results depend on my giving up of self, and my giving from soul. If I agree with the world and declare or decree a world’s “impossible,” I cut off my contact with my divine Source of Power. If I agree with God’s “possibles,” I will increase my miracles.
Knowing the difference between a statement and a declaration is critical. You can make statements that are true or false. For instance, a doctor may say that something is “impossible,” and he is right in his material-physical grade, since he made his statements based on the physical laws of man. A statement uses the ordinary energy-power that is always circulating in the world.
My powerful declaration, “This is possible for God to do,” starts His full powers into action on my spoken word. It is a challenge to any world weakness to yield to God, to give up evil or darkness. “Let there be Light,” I declare in love and in faith, believing. I am aware, day and night, of God as all Power, as all good now. I am aware of God as my identity, with assurance, confidence and trust, without fear or doubt, “without variableness or shadow of turning.” In His Name, I now declare that I give. I love. I am healed. You are healed. They are healed. Love fulfills the law.
What We Believe
Edna Lister International New Thought Alliance 50th Anniversary Congress, July 5, 1965, Miami, FL, James 1:17, John 14:12
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”–James 1:17.
“The works that I do you will do also; and greater works than these you will do.”–John 14:12.
God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God is deathless, ageless and abiding. The questions are very simple: What do you believe? Does this mean me? What is my idea about these things? Where do I go from here?
Your Mysterious Coach
Edna Lister Edinburgh Psychology Club speech outline, August 25, 1965, Edinburgh, Scotland, Luke 15:18
“I will arise and go to my father.”–Luke 15:18.
“I will arise and go into my Father’s house. I will stand under my own shaft of Light. I will wait upon the Lord while I work out my own salvation here below."
Under the old psychology, we referred to the three phases of mind as the subconscious, conscious and super-conscious. In reference to the soul, we call these phases the appetitive soul, the rational soul and the Oversoul.
You dwell in this sheath called a body. You do not belong to the body or to the world, but are a descended creator now. You, as soul, are a conscious mind, using the subconscious as a servant. It is faithful to all your commands. You listen for and heed the Oversoul speaking through super-conscious mind.
The subconscious rules the desire body and the vital centers. The conscious soul portion of you rules the mental body, which is your link with your true source of energy and reservoir of stored-up Power. The Oversoul is the ruler of the soul’s desire, which must be burning, unwavering thinking and imagination vivid enough to produce miraculous creations.
Desire, thinking and imagination form the real power of faith, which is unconquerable. Faith reaches up to its Source of love, and love bestows comprehension. Love moves forth, forms a sphere of Light around you, and this becomes your protection.
No one can penetrate your sphere of Light unless you invite them in. Otherwise, your sphere produces rays of repulsion to keep them out. The requirements for this protection are your strong declarations, not weak mental statements. Declare, from burning desire, a carefully thought declaration, which you can see, and visualize doing the work.
Once upon a time, two mysterious coaches began a journey across the plains, up toward the plateau where there lay the beautiful City of Desire, with its shining domes and spires. One coach was painted gray, and the other was rose and green.
The gray coach had twin drivers, Lukewarmness and Indifference, each holding a double rein, so either one could command the team, named Opinion and Prejudice. On the seat between them sat Good Judgment, who was supposed to give them good advice.
Imagination drove the other coach, and Reason sat with him for balance. Their team was named Will and Desire. The gray coach started first and went flying down the hill and across the plain where they had seen the City of Desire. Lukewarmness and Indifference drove recklessly until they came to a branching in the road. They automatically took the easy, well-packed road to the left. Flowers bloomed, birds sang and the sun was shining.
As they approached the first small trees of what seemed would become a forest farther on, they spied two dirty, ragged barefoot tramps. Indifference stopped the team at their hail and said, “Yes. Climb on” to their request for a free ride, since their feet were sore. They introduced themselves as Fear and Doubt.
Good Judgment said, “Do not take this pair with you. They are troublemakers.” Lukewarmness thought they could look after themselves well enough, and so took them on. Good Judgment protested and they pushed him off the coach. Doubt sat between Indifference and Lukewarmness, while Fear rode behind. Good Judgment cut across the meadow to find the other coach.
Next they met Sorrow beside the road, accompanied by Tears, who was weeping. A pitiful sight, their shoes were mismatched, and hair was straggling. They felt sorry for them, and so they took them on, too.
A little farther on and they met Mrs. I Don’t Care with her brood—a son, Why?, a daughter, I’m Trying, and the loudmouthed twins, I Can’t and I Won’t.
Next aboard was old man Worry with his long beard and hair, and baggy clothes. He looked hungry and was always asking for something to eat. They picked up Intolerance and Pride, who pushed Sorrow and Tears off the seat.
From one side of the road ran Self-pity, and from the other side Revenge. They took up the other seat, so when Hate got aboard, he had to sit with his feet over the side. They found him on crutches, stooped and wearing dark glasses. Envy and old lady Gossip sat in the middle of the road with a huge sack. They invited them on, too.
They all began to clamor to see the city, the children quarreling. Indifference began to blame Lukewarmness for the heavy load. When it finally got dark, their coach was bogged down in a mire in the Forest of Despair. With no place to go, it was the end of the road, and they had to turn around and walk back.
Meanwhile, Good Judgment caught up with the other coach, which had taken the rough, hilly road to the right because then they could always see the City of Desire from each hilltop. Good Judgment stood behind Reason, with his hands on his shoulders.
Soon they met Mr. and Mrs. Love, with their twin daughters Peace and Patience. They picked them up, with a newly engaged pair, Faith and Understanding. Next they met Poise and Power, who were on a hiking trip to the city.
Beauty, who had just married Strength, joined them, too. At last, a bevy of young beauties came aboard: Joy, Hope, Compassion and Delight. They all drove into the Plaza before the great gates to the City of Desire, and everyone knew the password: Forgiveness through Acceptance.
It is your choice which road you will take, and whom you invite along on your journey. Each sees the vision of his own City of Desire. It means different things to different people, but to everyone it signals happiness. Become enthralled with your vision of the goal. It must become a flame and a glory.
All Things Are Possible to God
Edna Lister International New Thought Alliance Truth Forum speech, September 3, 1965, London, England, September 28, 1965, London, England. Luke 18:27
“The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”–Luke 18:27. “All things are now possible to God” is exactly where the statement, “according to my faith,” applies. Is my faith positive and dynamic, or weak and part-time wavering? What do I expect from God? What do I expect from life?
To one man, millions of things are impossible. Yet, another passes him right by on the highway of life, and does the impossible. How are you using your active tools of desires, thinking, and imagination? If I declare a thing is impossible, so it is. If I declare, “All things are possible with my God. In His name I now declare that I am healed,” or, “She is healed,” then so it is and shall be.
What is the difference between a statement and a declaration? A statement can be truth or evil. “This is impossible” is a statement, though weak and dark. “This is possible” is truth, waiting for the declaration. A statement is truth to me, light or dark. A declaration is my challenge to all the Powers of God to act, to do, to go to work. I declare in faith, believing. I ascend from transformation of mind, heart, body and affairs onto my Mount of Transfiguration, where I have an illumination that comprehends, and I comprehend all that I have, all that I know.
Light so shines through me. I am ready for Ascension. Day and night, I am aware of God as all good now. This is my assurance, without doubt, my confidence without fear, my trust without variableness or shadow of turning. I see God as my whole life. I ascend in consciousness above earth, wearing a seamless robe of Shekinah glory.
You Are Immortal Now
Edna Lister International New Thought Alliance lecture outline, September 5, 1965, Bournemouth, England, September 19, 1965, Blackpool, England, John 21:22, Matthew 5:25, John 12:32
“What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”–John 21:22.
“Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.”–Matthew 5:25.
“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”–John 12:32.
Mortality operates under the laws of emergence, maturity and decline. Immortality works under the laws of transmutation, transfiguration and ascension.
Under emergence, you come forth. Under maturity, you develop. In decline, you fade away. To transmute or transform means that you change from one state or form into another. When you transfigure, your lights become shining. When you ascend, you move higher in consciousness.
What is immortality? It is not merely a dictionary definition! You can examine immortality from a physical, emotional or a mental viewpoint—or from a psychological, metaphysical viewpoint.
Science, especially Albert Einstein’s work on the theory of special relativity, has given us a clue. E = mc2 is an equation that expresses the fact that mass and energy are the same physical entity and can be changed into each other. Einstein has revolutionized science itself with his theories about mass, energy and light. Missiles and jet-engine aircraft have all unfolded from his theories.
Did science put the Power in the atom? God is Light, and Light is energy. In geometry, you extend a dot into a line, into a plane, which illustrates life unending. Science simply makes use of what is already there! As metaphysicians, we have always known that there is only one Mind, one Substance, and one Power. Man’s hand, for instance, holds the Power concealed.
You brought your innate ability to contact the Source of All Life with you. Deep breathing is the source of all physical power, as the Eastern religions and philosophies have always known and practiced. The difficulty lies in transforming this Power for your daily, practical use. The reason for your difficulty lies primarily in your emotional and mental blocks.
Take these three essential steps—transformation, transfiguration, and ascension. How do you transform yourself? The first law of Jesus, the Christed One, is “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” The second law is “Agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art in the ways with him.” You might think, “Oh, I’ve heard that before!” Yet a huge difference separates hearing a law and applying what you’ve heard. How fully and honestly have you applied these laws?
Jesus is the only teacher who left behind instructions on the use of his name, “Ask anything in my name, and you will have it.” This is your proof that he is the First Begotten Son, who holds the scepter of Power. Either you have God as both principle and personality, or you are not here.
The first step in transformation is, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” This means to mind your own business. Leave everyone else to be themselves in their own grades. Life is a school, with grades. When another wants the last word, give him the first word! This immediately stops inner conflicts and stumbling blocks. I compare myself with God only, and no man. My only valid questions are, “Do I truly want to be transformed? Do I truly want to be immortal now?"
By deep breathing, you can inflate the atomic body with unlimited energy. One deep breath reaches the Source. You can express atomic energy. This is how to ascend into unconquerable faith, fill your body with Light and become an instrument of Light and Power.
The second step is transfiguration through agreeing with the adversary. When you face a so-called adversary, you call this an initiation. By agreeing, you use your creative tools of desire (emotions), thinking, and imagination perfectly. Waste no time paying debts for others. Indulging in criticism, blame, and resentment cause you to take on the debts that others make.
Be interested in everyone you meet. In the face of the worst criticism, ask questions. No matter how outrageous their response, you can always say, “Really? Well, I can see how you think that. Have you ever thought of thus and so?"
How does this approach lead you into the third step of ascension? It makes you balanced, and open to receive illumination from above. Criticism leaves you rebellious and in rejection, so that you have an umbrella up when illumination pours out!
Your power-line follows your attention. What you pay attention to, grows. So pay attention to living in the Light, in accepting the Light. Attention, plus Power acting, increases the life anywhere you focus. If you focus on needs, such as illness, you have a miracle of increase, and the illness grows.
There is only the one Power, and it must increase whatever you attend to, as you nourish it with desire, thinking and imagination. Stand in the Light. Stand in the golden silence, declaring for Light. Breathe the Breath of God. You must create, since you are a creator now. You are immortal now!
Eternal Youth Through Breathing
This Edna Lister International Ecumenical Convention speech outline, October 21, 1965, Edinburgh, Scotland, John 1:1-4, Matthew 6:6
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”–John 1:1-4.
“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”–Matthew 6:6.
The whole world is in a state of confusion. Everyone wants peace and the right to live in freedom. Yet the ideas about what kind of peace it is to be, are in conflict. We have one absolute foundation fact upon which to make a stand in agreement. Each must accept it or perish: To breathe is to live. To live is to breathe. There is no life in this body-sheath without breathing.
Spiritual teaching in all ages has stressed breathing as necessary. It is still an important fact in hatha yoga. Every spiritual attainment comes on the full, high conscious breathing of the seven breaths. Four phases of breath feed the physical, while the remaining three nourish the spiritual life. You cease to think of the physical body and instead breathe while thinking of the Source!
The body is not you. It is your sheath, your vehicle, the portion given to you as proof that you are, for most of the world’s population is eye-minded, and must see physically to believe. You are a soul, a descended creator god, forever fourfold in your life, like an iceberg, three-quarters submerged!
This outer sheath, which makes you visible, is meant to enable you to move about and be seen. Yet it is but one quarter of you. The body is not you. It is not me, but it is all that the world can ever see of what I am. In this, it is a true picture of the other three-quarters of me. I, as a descended creator god, am a spiritual, mental and emotional being in action in daily living.
From the time you breathe yourself into your vehicle, the body, until you exhale yourself from it, you breathe to live. You inhale your first breath at birth and your last breath at transition, the death of the body.
God has given you creative tools by which you may express yourself, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. The perfect, spiritual part of you, which maintains high contact with God, uses imagination as its creative tool. Your mental portion uses the power of thinking as its creative tool. The emotional part of you has been given desire as its creative tool.
When mankind decided that he didn’t need his God-identity any longer, he closed out his spiritual contact and high breathing. He cut off the three higher breaths. When he lost his God-identity, he demoted himself into this age of insecurity.
God created you as a complete being, able to maintain constant contact with your Source through deep, high breathing. To look up with your soul, body, mind and heart, and draw just one high breath, fills you to the outermost limit with God’s Eternal Life, which is eternally youthful. God is deathless, ageless and abiding, the same yesterday, today and forever. Do you believe this?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”–John 1:1-4.
The Word is God now. If man cuts off spiritual breathing, he impoverishes his three outer bodies, mental, desire, and physical.
Einstein made healing practical with his theory that mass, energy, and light are one substance! Breathe the one breath that contains all that is—Light and Life, using your creative tools.
The spiritual body of imagination is the fire body, which is pure divine substance. Using thinking, you condense this fiery Light into the atomic mental body. Desire condenses, transforms Light into energy or mass, when channeled into diet.
Thinking is the power to explode Light into energy directly! How do you best manage this contact, since so may different formulas are available? The simplest method is the one the Master taught: “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”–Matthew 6:6.
First, go into your room and close the door, which means to close out the sound of outer noise. The second step is to close out emotional “sound waves,” the heavy pull of others’ feelings, sorrow, anger or emotional pain. Then, you close out their mental “sound waves,” their conflicting or demanding thoughts.
Then, and only then, can you stand in the golden silence, using your open sesame of praise. This puts you in the right place at the right time. All failure comes from being out of step in time or space. They must work together and always overlap to produce a miracle.
Do not come out of the golden silence. Continue breathing deeply to hold your contact. Know that you are immortal now, and that there is no other substance but the one divine substance needed for a miracle. Every time you pray for a miracle, a miracle happens somewhere! Keep praying.
Wherever your attention is centered, your miracles will come, for your Power-line to the Source of all miracles will follow your attention, without fail. Miracles of increase will manifest wherever you focus your attention. If you concentrate on illness or needs, they will increase. Praise God unceasingly for what you do want, and your success will inevitably manifest as miracles.
Use your creative tools of desire, thinking and imagination for what you want. Breathe deeply to hold contact with the Source of your God-identity. You will become all faith unconquerable, glorious and free. You are immortal now!
Your Eternal Destiny
Edna Lister article, Prayer Circle Newsletter, October 1965, Washington, D.C.
Since all new ideas come through divine Mind, creation is still going on. The advances in science prove this, more than in humanity itself, for civilization is having a hard time keeping up with what science is unfolding from an inner world of invisible substance.
Everyone knows that the power in the world today is greater than it was 2,000 years ago. From the camel and horse to the jet engine plane is some advance. Science is already doing the “greater works.” It is no wonder that we, as individuals, are not yet used to so much power and do not thoroughly apply the new atomic energy idea to the body to maintain or restore its youthfulness.
God created us with the ability to draw our energy from the Source. We are still seeking the way to build a machine to draw energy direct from the sun. God created us wonderfully—our equipment of life allows us to take a deep breath and with it draw pure Light as a vibration direct from the Great Source Universal, then transform it into energy without cost or even effort.
Eternal youth in expression is just the trick of accepting your identity with the universal Source of all Life. Then, by breathing in the great Creative Impulse to keep your contact with all life, you allow it to permeate every part of your being. The Eternal Flame, which is the Creative Impulse, lifts our own gift of desire ever higher, until we reach the place of Oneness with the Source, where there is no chance that we can ever falter or waver again in our allegiance to the Light.
We have joined the consciously “deathless, ageless and abiding” ones, and we know our physical vehicle is the implement of the soul—the soul, which is as immortal now as it can ever be. The body only needs your full cooperation to let Light show through the outer sheath as health, strength and eternal beauty.
Miracles for the Christed Age
Edna Lister, International New Thought Alliance lecture outline, October 3, 1965, Bournemouth, England
We see outer miracles in every line of human endeavor. Great new computers do the work of many men in just two and three hours, which formerly required days. Surgeons are reattaching severed limbs, returning teeth to their sockets, and even transplanting eyes.
A computer must be programmed in an exact language, with no idle words. Their programmers say, “Garbage in, garbage out.” An article in a scientific magazine recently said, “Soon we’ll be speaking into large computers direct, with no need for cards or symbols. Later we will have a machine into which we’ll think."
We don’t have to wait for the future. Right now you and I have a computer, a brain into which we think. I don’t have to depend on telepathy. I can think to myself and come up with a right answer by consulting my computer, all in the silence. hink of the power of thought that must be used for our miracles—instant action, with no fumbling words. Only one magic word is required to cover all needs: Love. We must accept love as the only miracle way. When you accept love as your magic wand and key, you must assume the attitude of a conqueror. You must spread your wings and soar! When you do this, something marvelous happens. We call it the Christing—we are filled with Light!
Until very recently science told us that there was no recognized nerve connection between the endocrine glands and the physical nervous system. Now they have found channels between them, each other, and the nervous system. How and why did they miss this connection, only to discover it now? The vibration of the whole world has been lifted, and everything accelerated to a faster tempo. The old, heavy physical is dropping away. Life sparks are being drawn to a higher level, and soon we’ll be walking only in a higher vibration body, the desire body, parts of which are now becoming visible. Surgically removed body parts have regrown. Nerve connections, such as those within the endocrine system, are the desire body becoming visible because we’ve stepped up in consciousness collectively.
You hear through your ears, but listen with your brain cells. The function of the pineal body and pituitary gland, beyond their physical operation, is as channels of intuition and illumination, or love and wisdom. Now science is telling us that parathalamus glands exist, which will be our glands of full knowing, seership and prophecy, to function greater divine Power. The optic chiasm of the thalamus is our all-seeing eye. Its input registers on the parathalamus.
We now can function the full Power of God. Love has opened all doors and has torn aside the seven veils of illusion. Our love reaches up in devotion, and praise lifts up our needs. When our needing love meets God’s loving need to give, an explosion takes place, resulting in a shaft of Power and Substance descending through us, healing minds and bodies, as it flows into the outer world as a miracle.
Light condenses into a heavy auric sphere-sheath around you, and when filled, shoots forth rays of repulsion, which are your protection. When do I know that I’ve loved enough? When the miracle manifests! Law does not fill love. Love fulfills the Law, and enough love is a miracle!
Who can take you anywhere? Who in you identifies with the Source of all life, I AM or “little me"? Miracles are mine when I am lifted above little me. I have no yesterday. I can’t cling to the past, or I bind myself in chains. I have only the now. I am become the servant of all Power. Love is my magic wand. I am become a living miracle, triumphant and conquering!
.
Edna Miriam Lister
1884–1971
The original Pioneering Mystic,
Christian Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder of the Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.
References
Lord, John LL.D. “Antiquity,” Beacon Lights of History, vol. 1. Fords, Howard and Hulbert, New York, 1883.
Pike, Albert. Morals and Dogma. Charleston, 1871, pp. 533-538.