To obtain a thorough understanding of the deep and far-reaching significance of the manner in which the Sacrament of Communion was instituted, it is necessary to consider the evolution of our planet and of composite man, also the chemistry of foods and their influence on humanity. For the sake of lucidity1 we will briefly2 recapitulate3 the Rosicrucian teachings on the various points involved. They have been given at length in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and our other works.
The Virgin4 Spirits, which are now mankind, commenced their pilgrimage through matter in the dawn of time, that by the friction5 of concrete existence their latent powers might be transmuted6 to kinetic7 energy as usable soul power. Three successive veils of increasingly dense8 matter were acquired by the involving spirits during the Saturn9, Sun, and Moon Periods. Thus each spirit was separated from all other spirits, and the consciousness which could not penetrate10 the prison wall of matter and communicate with others22 was forced to turn inwards, and in so doing it discovered—ITSELF. Thus self-consciousness was attained11.
A further crystallization of the before mentioned veils took place in the Earth Period during the Polarian, Hyperborean, and Lemurian Epochs. In the Atlantean Epoch12, mind was added as a focusing point between spirit and body, completing the constitution of composite man, who was then equipped to conquer the world and generate soul power by endeavor and experience, each having free will and choice except as limited by the laws of nature and his own previous acts.
During the time man-in-the-making was thus evolving, great creative Hierarchies13 guided his every step. Absolutely nothing was left to chance. Even the food he ate was chosen for him so that he might obtain the appropriate material wherewith to build the various vehicles of consciousness necessary to accomplish the process of soul growth. The Bible mentions the various stages, though it misplaces Nimrod, making him to symbolize14 the Atlantean kings who lived before the Flood.
In the Polarian Epoch pure mineral matter became a constituent15 part of man; thus Adam was made of earth, that is, so far as his dense body was concerned.
In the Hyperborean Epoch the vital body was added, and thus his constitution became plantlike,23 and Cain, the man of that time, lived on the fruits of the soil.
The Lemurian Epoch saw the evolution of a desire body, which made man like the present animals. Then milk, the product of living animals, was added to human diet. Abel was a shepherd, but it is nowhere stated that he killed an animal.
At that time mankind lived innocently and peacefully in the misty16 atmosphere which enveloped17 the earth during the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch, as described in the chapter on “Baptism.” Men were then like children under the care of a common father, until the mind was given to all in the beginning of Atlantis. Thought activity breaks down tissue which must be replaced; the lower and more material the thought, the greater the havoc18 and the more pressing the need for albumen wherewith to make quick repairs. Hence necessity, the mother of invention, inaugurated the loathsome19 practice of flesh eating, and so long as we continue to think along purely20 business or material lines we shall have to go on using our stomachs as receptacles for the decaying corpses21 of our murdered animal victims. Yet we shall see later that flesh food has enabled us to make the wonderful material progress achieved in the Western World, while the vegetarian22 Hindus and Chinese have remained in an almost savage23 state. It seems sad to contemplate24 that they will be forced to follow in our steps and shed the blood of our fellow creatures when24 we shall have outgrown25 the barbarous practice as we have ceased cannibalism26.
The more spiritual we grow, the more our thoughts will harmonize with the rhythm of our body, and the less albumen will be needed to build tissue. Consequently, a vegetable diet will suffice our needs. Pythagoras advised abstinence from legumes to advanced scholars because they are rich in albumen and apt to revive lower appetites. Let not every student who reads this rashly conclude to eliminate legumes from his diet. Most of us are not yet ready for such extremes; we would not even advise all students to abstain27 entirely28 from meat. The change should come from within. It may be safely stated, however, that most people eat entirely too much meat for their good; but this is in a certain sense a digression, so we will revert29 to the further evolution of humanity in so far as it has a bearing upon the Sacrament of Communion.
In due time the dense mist which enveloped the earth cooled, condensed, and flooded the various basins. The atmosphere cleared, and concurrently30 with this atmospheric31 change a physiological32 adaptation in man took place. The gill clefts33 which had enabled him to breathe in the dense water laden34 air (and which are seen in the human foetus to this day) gradually atrophied35, and their function was taken over by the lungs, the pure air passing to and from them through the larynx. This allowed the spirit,25 hitherto penned up within the veil of flesh, to express itself in word and act.
There in the middle of Atlantis the sun first shone upon man as we know him; there he was first born into the world. Until then he had been under the absolute control of great spiritual Hierarchies, mute, without voice or choice in matters pertaining36 to his education, as a child is now under the control of its parents.
But on the day when he finally emerged from the dense atmosphere of Atlantis; when he first beheld37 the mountains silhouetted38 in clear, sharp contours against the azure39 vault40 of heaven; when he first saw the beauties of moor41 and meadow, the moving creatures, birds in the air, and his fellow man; when his vision was undimmed by the partial obscuration of the mist which had previously42 hampered43 perception; above all, when he perceived HIMSELF as separate and apart from all others, there burst from his lips the glorious, triumphant44 cry, “I AM.”
At that point he had acquired faculties45 which equipped him to enter the school of experience, the phenomenal world, as a free agent to learn the lessons of life, untrammeled save by the laws of nature, which are his safeguards, and the reaction of his own previous acts, which become destiny.
The diet containing an excess of albumen from the flesh wherewith he gorged46 himself, taxed his liver beyond capacity and clogged47 the system, making him26 morose48, sullen49, and brutish. He was fast losing the spiritual sight which revealed to him the guardian50 angels whom he trusted, and he saw only the forms of animals and men. The spirits with whom he had lived in love and brotherhood51 during early Atlantis were obscured by the veil of flesh. It was all so strange, and he feared them.
Therefore it became necessary to give him a new food that could aid his spirit to overpower the highly individualized molecules52 of flesh (as explained in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, chapter on Assimilation, p. 457), brace53 it for battle with the world, and spur it on to self-assertion.
As our visible bodies composed of chemical compounds can thrive only upon chemical aliment, so it requires spirit to act upon spirit to aid in breaking up the heavy proteid and in stimulating54 the drooping55 human spirit.
The emergence56 from flooded Atlantis, the liberation of humanity from the absolute rulership of visible superhuman guardians57, their placement under the law of consequence and the laws of nature, and the gift of WINE are described in the stories of Noah and Moses, which are different accounts of the same event.
Both Noah and Moses led their followers58 through the water. Moses calls heaven and earth to witness that he has placed before them the blessing59 and the curse, exhorts60 them to choose the good or take the consequence of their actions; then he leaves them.
27
The phenomenon of the rainbow requires that the sun be near the horizon, the nearer the better; also a clear atmosphere, and a dark rain cloud in the opposite quarter of the heavens. When under such conditions an observer stands with his back to the sun, he may see the sun’s rays refracted through the rain drops as a rainbow. In early Atlantean times when there had been no rain as yet and the atmosphere was a warm, moist fog through which the sun appeared as one of our arc lamps on a foggy day, the phenomenon of the rainbow was an impossibility. It could not have made its appearance until the mist had condensed to rain, flooded the basins of the earth, and left the atmosphere clear as described in the story of Noah, which thus points to the law of alternating cycles that brings day and night, summer and winter, in unvarying sequence, and to which man is subject in the present age.
Noah cultivated the vine and provided a spirit to stimulate61 man. Thus, equipped with a composite constitution, a composite diet appropriate thereto, and divine laws to guide them, mankind were left to their own devices in the battle of life.
点击收听单词发音
1 lucidity | |
n.明朗,清晰,透明 | |
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2 briefly | |
adv.简单地,简短地 | |
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3 recapitulate | |
v.节述要旨,择要说明 | |
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4 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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5 friction | |
n.摩擦,摩擦力 | |
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6 transmuted | |
v.使变形,使变质,把…变成…( transmute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7 kinetic | |
adj.运动的;动力学的 | |
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8 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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9 Saturn | |
n.农神,土星 | |
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10 penetrate | |
v.透(渗)入;刺入,刺穿;洞察,了解 | |
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11 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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12 epoch | |
n.(新)时代;历元 | |
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13 hierarchies | |
等级制度( hierarchy的名词复数 ); 统治集团; 领导层; 层次体系 | |
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14 symbolize | |
vt.作为...的象征,用符号代表 | |
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15 constituent | |
n.选民;成分,组分;adj.组成的,构成的 | |
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16 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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17 enveloped | |
v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 havoc | |
n.大破坏,浩劫,大混乱,大杂乱 | |
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19 loathsome | |
adj.讨厌的,令人厌恶的 | |
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20 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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21 corpses | |
n.死尸,尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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22 vegetarian | |
n.素食者;adj.素食的 | |
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23 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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24 contemplate | |
vt.盘算,计议;周密考虑;注视,凝视 | |
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25 outgrown | |
长[发展] 得超过(某物)的范围( outgrow的过去分词 ); 长[发展]得不能再要(某物); 长得比…快; 生长速度超过 | |
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26 cannibalism | |
n.同类相食;吃人肉 | |
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27 abstain | |
v.自制,戒绝,弃权,避免 | |
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28 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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29 revert | |
v.恢复,复归,回到 | |
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30 concurrently | |
adv.同时地 | |
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31 atmospheric | |
adj.大气的,空气的;大气层的;大气所引起的 | |
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32 physiological | |
adj.生理学的,生理学上的 | |
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33 clefts | |
n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 );裂口;cleave的过去式和过去分词;进退维谷 | |
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34 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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35 atrophied | |
adj.萎缩的,衰退的v.(使)萎缩,(使)虚脱,(使)衰退( atrophy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 pertaining | |
与…有关系的,附属…的,为…固有的(to) | |
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37 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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38 silhouetted | |
显出轮廓的,显示影像的 | |
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39 azure | |
adj.天蓝色的,蔚蓝色的 | |
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40 vault | |
n.拱形圆顶,地窖,地下室 | |
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41 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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42 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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43 hampered | |
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44 triumphant | |
adj.胜利的,成功的;狂欢的,喜悦的 | |
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45 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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46 gorged | |
v.(用食物把自己)塞饱,填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 );作呕 | |
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47 clogged | |
(使)阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 ); 淤滞 | |
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48 morose | |
adj.脾气坏的,不高兴的 | |
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49 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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50 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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51 brotherhood | |
n.兄弟般的关系,手中情谊 | |
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52 molecules | |
分子( molecule的名词复数 ) | |
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53 brace | |
n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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54 stimulating | |
adj.有启发性的,能激发人思考的 | |
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55 drooping | |
adj. 下垂的,无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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56 emergence | |
n.浮现,显现,出现,(植物)突出体 | |
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57 guardians | |
监护人( guardian的名词复数 ); 保护者,维护者 | |
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58 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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59 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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60 exhorts | |
n.劝勉者,告诫者,提倡者( exhort的名词复数 )v.劝告,劝说( exhort的第三人称单数 ) | |
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61 stimulate | |
vt.刺激,使兴奋;激励,使…振奋 | |
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