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The Book of Judges stands apart from the remainder of the Bible. Contrary to appearance it possesses no particular historical value. It has nothing to do with the lives of the kings of Israel as it covers the interim between Joshua's conquests and the establishment of the monarchy. Although in its present form it consists chiefly of narrative, there are included in it many passages which must at one time have been true songs, chanted by tribal poets, perhaps in an heroic measure, and interspersed with lyrics for singing. It is not now possible to separate the chants and songs from their context, and we must, therefore, study not the songs alone but also the narrative in which they are imbedded. it is for this reason that we include the book here among the initiatory songs of the Old Testament, for there is profound esoteric knowledge to be gleaned from its pages.
The book was called Judges because "in those days there was no king in Israel" and "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Mystically speaking, this is but a way of saying that the characters whose life stories comprise the Book of Judges had attained unto the place where they were above all mortal law in having become a law unto themselves by always willing good, as God does.
Contrary to superficial opinion, the Book of Judges is deeply mystical. Through it runs the thread of spiritual evolution, and its characters are travellers upon a shining Path of Light, which by the first Christians was designated simply as "the Way." This Path or Way which existed for Bible characters exists today for every man and woman living who is willing to investigate the sacred truths which brought the Bible into being. We, too, may, if we will, through earnest endeavor find and walk in that shining Way which leads to the ultimate unbarring of the Gates of Gold.
The operation of the cosmic Law of Compensation in its judgment aspect was presented with a fresh emphasis and in new aspects in the Mystery teachings under Libra-Aries about 12000 B.C. This was about four millennia before the final catastrophe which sent the last portions of the continent of Atlantis proper to the bottom of the ocean. The wisdom of Atlantis, however, had long since been transferred to Asia, Europe, Africa and America by colonists, and most of the sacred books of the world contain fragments of it. The sign Libra was recognized as the stellar hieroglyph representing the Law, as shown by its ancient name, the Balance, or the Trial Gate.
The Bible of the Egyptians, known as the Book of the Dead, emphasizes the Law in elaborate ritualism. It portrays the weighing of the heart of the newly dead in one tray of a balance, against a feather, symbol of truth and right, in the opposite tray. On the standard of the scales is posited the scribe of the gods with his pen and palette inscribing a record of the trial. Behind him stands the Devourer or Eater of the Dead; and in the upper register the gods sit in judgment.
The instruction given the Temple neophyte was as follows: "Hear ye this judgment: the heart of Osiris has in very truth been weighed and his soul has stood as a witness for him; it hath been found true by trial in the Great Balance. There hath not been found any wickedness in him."
This idea of the after-death testing of the soul has been retained in a rudimentary form by orthodox Christians in the belief that the soul is tried on judgment Day, after which it is sent either to an eternal punishment or to everlasting reward. It is a vestige of the true esoteric teachings which were promulgated by the first Christians.
The heart contains what is called the "Seed atom" because it is the "seed", or center of consciousness, wherein is inscribed all of the experiences of the life just terminated, and it is by this record that each ego is judged and finds his rightful place — not indeed for eternal praise or blame, but only until the spirit enters upon a new cycle of Earth experiences. Thus life by life the carnal nature of man is overcome and the good strengthened. This proceeds until the state is attained when it can be written, as in Judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Or, in the words of Paul, "The law of righteousness is written upon his forehead and upon his heart."
Throughout the Book of Judges the theme is the contest between good and evil, and the Masters of Light and the Powers of Darkness are pitted against each other in the life experiences of its characters. Since Judges outlines the path of first-hand knowledge and development, which deals primarily with the awakening of the heart, symbolized by feminine attributes, many of the most prominent characters of the book are women. The feminine is both the betrayer and the saviour. The women portrayed in Judges lead sometimes to the lowest sensual levels, but they guide also to those illumined heights where the wings of the Shekinah Glory brood above the Holy of Holies. The external script is but a garment for the Holy Mysteries whereof Deborah sings — the Way that leads unto the Life beyond a life.
The power of love (Judah) must always deliver the land and Simeon, the lower nature, must assist in this work.
Caleb belongs to the tribe of Judah. Othniel symbolizes wisdom. Achsah, which signifies the feminine within man, must become wedded to wisdom. A field is a place where cultivation and growth takes place. Here one must find the springs of water, the water of eternal life, which when found prevents one from ever thirsting again.
Hebron means unity, which is always the gift of love. When the power of love manifests in the life, the three sons of Anak, representative of the lower phases of the physical, desire, and mental bodies, are expelled. As this is necessarily an individual process, the inhabitants of the valley cannot be expelled so long as they possess chariots (vehicles) of iron (lower desires).
For every sincere aspirant there is always a "way out," and when he has earned it, one of greater advancement comes to aid his quest. Meanwhile the conflict between the white and the black forces, the good and the evil, continues. The Book of Judges outlines this constant struggle for supremacy in the lives of the masses, but paralleling this is the description of the path of true Illumination for those who aspire and are found worthy to walk in it. Many different, but equally interesting, phases of occult development are touched upon in this mystic scripture.
Ehud means blending or union; Eglon, calf or animal-like. There are within the body of man, as we have seen, two separate currents, a positive and a negative, or a right and a left. Development along the left or negative current is much easier of accomplishment than is the right or positive, because the awakening of the former involves merely a revival of certain dormant faculties or powers that were active in early Lemuria and Atlantis.
Ehud was a Benjaminite and relates astrologically to Cancer, the sign of the mystic. The mystic follows the heart path, hence Ehud was a "left-handed man." Before Ehud can take a gift to Eglon (work upon the lower nature) he must make a two-edged dagger. This he wore upon his right thigh, representing the transformation of the lower desires into a weapon of the spirit. The two edges of the dagger are the two currents which arise through the ethers of the spinal cord. This work had to be consummated in the "quarries of Gilgal", the name of which means "wheels" or "centers" and is, therefore, symbolical of the vortices of spiritual force perceptible within the human aura, whose awakening signal the beginning of the Initiate consciousness. li is always after this consummation that Moab is subdued under the hand of Israel (conquest of the lower nature by the awakened divinity within), and the land has "rest for fourscore years." This approximates the entire life span of the individual, and indicates that the life may be lived out in tranquility of spirit.
— Corinne Heline
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