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All teachers, all books are but way-showers. Man must save himself. "The way to final freedom is within thyself."
Behemoth is the plural of the Hebrew word for beast. The beast is man's lower nature, and the leviathan represents the spinal spirit fire, or kundalini of Indian teachers, which, when awakened, brings to the neophyte many temptations of a subtle nature; it is through this awakening, however, that the powerful beast of the lower nature may be controlled and finally transmuted. Occultly, this has special reference to the fact that the animal forms which symbolize the animal qualities of the character become visible through the awakening of certain astral vortices in the lower part of the body, to which the animal soul corresponds.
Continuing the theme of the kundalini fire in the process of Initiation, the forty-first chapter of Job deals with the problem of conservation of life essences through a life of continence and mental purity. It details the results of the squandering of this holy force, but it also points the only way to real spiritual attainment. Leviathan, as said above, is the serpent fire. It passes through the body in a dual current, the one masculine, the other feminine. This is the double bridle by means of which we reach the power of God in Leviathan. Saturn represents this bridling, or yoking (i.e. blending), of the two currents.
The past, present and future development of mankind may be described in the two nervous systems of the body. These are similar in construction but different in function although both receive and distribute vital energy from the Sun. In early humanity, the sympathetic nervous system was the center of vital force and of spiritual energy as well, and the solar plexus was the great distributing center of psychic forces. With the evolution of the cerebro-spinal system, one of the last of man's anatomical structures, the solar-plexus powers were relegated largely to the brain centers, and positive development is now connected with them.
The sympathetic system is plant-like. The body of the new-race man has been likened to an uprising plant in full flower, whereof the brain is the flower. This is more than a figure of speech to the clear-seeing. The "flowers" are really there. In due season, the sympathetic system will also be under the control of the will.
The bridling of Leviathan produces the seer whose miraculous powers are described in the forty-first chapter of Job. The ancients knew of this dual fire force, or nerve current, and they knew its nature and attributes, although they naturally describe it in a different terminology than ours. Synesius says, "One single source, one single Root of Light, flashes out and spreads out in two branches of splendor."
The "garment" mentioned with the double bridle in the thirteenth verse is again the soul garment, the aureole of the saint, whose glory is unattainable without the fire of Leviathan, bridled: "One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered." (Job 41:16,17)
The "burning lamps" symbolize the force and power of the word of truth spoken by one who knows from first-hand experience the reality of esoteric teachings. The smoke symbolizes the hidden power of the breath, an etheric current of force which is visible to the clairvoyant vision.
Through conservation of the vital forces of the body which we have called the spirit fire, a center of healing is awakened in the throat, and the voice utters words of Spirit and of Life. By its power the spiritually unawakened are aroused, the sick restored to health, and the sorrowful filled with joy: "My words are Spirit and they are Life."
The presence of such a man is so overpowering to the feeble senses of the ordinary unillumined mortal that the latter feels ill at ease, perhaps without understanding why; he is instinctively afraid of the invisible Power, and involuntarily does obeisance before it.
Through his knowledge of the operation of superphysical laws, which he knows how to make use of, the Initiate performs what the world terms miracles. "Observe nature, study her, and learn to understand, and she will in turn do obeisance," said an illumined one who walked in this same Path.
"Perfect love casteth out fear." Love is an armor of protection, and one who wears the golden armor of Christ can suffer no harm: "He laugheth at the shaking of a spear."
The sharp stones and "sharp-pointed things" are the powers of Truth spread out upon materiality, by which it is brought into subservience to spiritual Reality. The light of Truth shines above the darkness of evil. The deep and secret fire of Truth boils in the primordial waters of the soul and maketh it a spring of healing: "a pot of ointment."
The path that shines after Leviathan is the aura of the Initiate: "upon earth is not his like who is made without fear"; and, "he beholdeth all things: he is king over all the children of pride." Fear is at the root of most of humanity's illnesses. Fear underlies greed, fear underlies every human evil. The conquest of fear is the greatest labor of the aspirant to the Mysteries and leads to the royal diadem of the Initiate who "beholdeth all things" and is "king over the children of pride." It is axiomatic in Mystery literature that the Initiate is always the son or daughter of a king. Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Hiram, Solomon, were all kings and sons of kings. Jesus was likewise a "king" of the royal line of Judah.
"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear," Job cries at last, "but now my eye seeth thee." (Job 42:5) At last the veil has lifted. The purpose of the adversities administered through Satan (Saturn) have become clear to him. By reason of his great travail, God has assumed first place in his life, not as an intellectual concept, nor even as the object of submissive blind faith, but as a consequence of first-hand experience and communion with Him. Job has seen God face to face, as he prayed to do. The supreme ideal of every aspirant has been achieved. The path of first-hand knowledge has opened before his feet.
Bacon in his Novum Organum states that a renunciation of the idols of the mind is necessary for an entrance into the Kingdom of Truth. Job has made that ultimate renunciation and has entered the Kingdom.
Thus Job is sustained in the final judgment. This chapter (Job: 42nd chapter) deals with the Initiate's final transmutation. The three friends (personality) are commanded by the Lord to offer up for themselves seven bullocks and seven rams as a burnt offering because of their false counsel. "And my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly." "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before."
In what now does Job's freedom from captivity consist? It consists of liberation from the threefold illusion of the material world: illusions of mind, of desire and of flesh. Their transmutation into Spirit gave to Job twice what he possessed before: he now possessed not only his former material wealth and power, but spiritual wisdom and glory in addition. The light of a candle constantly increases as the flame gradually consumes the substance of the candle.
Dr. Stanley Jones gives the following very beautiful illustration of the purpose and effect of pain and sorrow. He relates that there was an ancient custom in the Orient whereby wires were stretched between the walls of a castle to form the strings of an Aeolian harp. So long as the weather remained calm, the harp was silent, but when the storm began to rage, the harp gave forth the most exquisite melody. The harp used the storm and transformed its fury into song.
So likewise, he who learns the great secret of using pain is free, for he has learned to transmute mortal sorrow into immortal joy, and all the vicissitudes of the Earth life are to him the sounding strings of Divine Love. Saturn no longer can afflict but is recognized as the great Messenger of God, the beneficent power of universal Law, which always makes for harmony.
The ancients declared that he who overcomes Saturn has gained control over the powers of Heaven and Earth. Saturn, the white-winged Archangel of Sorrow, is no enemy but a friend, saying to all as he said to Job, "Thine own right hand can save thee."
The seven sons and three daughters represent the ten aspects of man's evolutionary progress as he develops the threefold principles of body, soul and spirit. Ten is the number of humanity; it is man and woman working through generation toward regeneration.
Jemima means "a dove", the symbol of the Initiate, and refers to the great Rose of the heart, astrologically governed by Leo. The dove and roses were symbolic of the heart's love even in remote antiquity. Kezia means "eternal lifee", having reference to the "living water" which is mystically conjoined with the "living fire" of Leviathan, and in which Leviathan marks a shining path. When the power of the "eternal life" is active, the Initiate is wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. Kerenhappuch means "a horn of eye paint." It refers to the great fire center in the head, which under Aries causes the vivification of the spiritual organs, the pineal and pituitary glands. It was to these that the Master had reference when He said, "Blessed are the eyes that see."
In the following words of Froude we may perhaps find one of the most important lessons given in the initiatory manual of Job: "Prosperity, enjoyment, happiness, comfort, peace, whatever be the name by which we designate that state in which life is to ourselves pleasant and delightful, as long as they are sought or prized as things essential, so far have a tendency to dissemble our nature and are a sign that we are still in servitude to selfishness. Only when they be outside us as ornaments, merely to be worn or laid aside as God pleases — only then may such things be possessed with impunity." Spiritual teachers call this teaching the law of non-attachment.
The Book of Job revolves about a double motif: the broad way of Saturn (Satan), for the masses who can only learn through sorrow the folly of attachment to all materiality and by which they are bound for aeons to the wheel of birth and death; and the straight and narrow way of Initiation for the few who make themselves worthy to walk therein.
Its beginnings lost in incomprehensible ages, its message as provocative as the sphinx raising its head to look out over the sands of Egypt to the far blue horizons of the world, this strange book has carried its message to many races, many climes, in poetry, drama and song. Blessed are those who have understood its secret meanings, and thrice blessed are those who walk in its light.
Job is the story of Everyman. His attainment gives promise of the glory of the New Age, when a new humanity shall see God face to face. In the words of Carlyle: "A noble Book. All men's book. Grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its epic melody and repose of reconcilement — sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation, oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind, so soft and great; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars."
— Corinne Heline
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