Rosanista Mobile | Simplified Scientific Christianity | Bible Self-Study Supplement

The twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes plays an important part in a certain esoteric ceremonial of the Masonic Lodge concerned with the silver cord or "cable tow". Occultists give special information on this "cable tow", but much remains to be discovered, for little is actually known of its functions and attributes. The silver cord is a silvery, ethereal cord which is visible to clairvoyant vision, connecting the subtler vehicles with the physical; this cord is threefold: "the threefold cord is not easily broken."

The three parts of the cord are composed of etheric substance, astral matter and mental substance, respectively. The densest segment is the etheric, and this etheric segment is composed of the most tenuous of the four ethers, namely, the reflecting ether. The etheric segment is rooted in the apex of the heart, whence, during intrauterine existence, it grows toward the solar plexus; there it meets the second, or astral, segment, which meantime has grown from its root in the great vortex of the liver. This junction marks the quickening of the embryo. The fuller growth of the segment of the cord extending between the solar plexus and liver is a contributory cause of adolescence, this growth taking place in the second septenary of the child's life (ages of seven to fourteen). The first segment of the cord, extending between the heart and solar plexus, undergoes a fuller growth during the first septenary, and has an important bearing on the mystery of child life. The third segment of the cord is composed of mental stuff, and extends from the frontal sinus to the liver, where it joins the second or astral segment rooted there. This juncture marks the beginning of adult life, for it unites the mind with the desire body, so that the intellect is able to govern the desires henceforth. This is the end of adolescence. The third, or mental, segment of the cord like the first two segments, undergoes a further development in the seven years following the birth of the mind concomitant with the maturation of the reflecting ether which ripens during this fourth septenary period. Occultly, therefore, the age of twenty-eight marks the true beginning of completely mature adulthood.

Esoteric investigators reveal the fact that a fourth segment of the cord is now in the process of evolution. This will extend downward from the frontal sinus to the heart, thus closing the circuit of the cord. This development, however, is not considered in most occult treatises since it is as yet exceedingly rare, though it will be more common in the New or Aquarian Age. It will then make a direct connection between head and heart, for this segment, like the first, will be composed of reflecting ether. It is by means of the silver cord that man will one day come to control the mysterious psychic forces playing through the ductless gland system. The third, or mental, segment of the cord even now makes a partial circuit of these glands, passing directly from the frontal sinus to the pituitary and pineal glands, thence downward through the thyroid in the throat to the thymus, near the heart, it passes through the spleen near the solar plexus, and through the adrenals to the liver, there to unite with the astral segment, by which union the mind is awakened.

The cord is formed anew in each additional earthly incarnation, becoming increasingly rarefied and tenuous in ratio to the spiritual development of the ego. Physical death is not complete until the silver cord is severed. Only when the "silver cord is loosed" can man go to his long home. "Then shall dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

Thus does Ecclesiastes propound and elucidate the riddle of the sphinx; and, in the words of Max Heindel, a modern seer: "The mystic message of man's evolution is marked in flaming characters upon the field of heaven where he who runs may read. And when we study the revealed purpose of God we shall in turn learn to conform intelligently to that design, thereby hastening the day of emancipation from our present cramped environment to the perfect liberty of pure spirits, risen superior to the law of sin and death through Christ, the Lord of Love and Life. It is for us to decipher this message (of the stars) and solve the Riddle of the Universe."

"The words of the wise," saith the Teacher, "are as goals and nails, fastened by the Masters of Assemblies, which are given from One Shepherd." (Ecclesiastes 12:7,11) How true this is we discover in the following parallels drawn from the Sermon on the Mount and the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

The parallels found in the teachings and life histories of these two great Temple builders, Christ Jesus, the highest Initiate-Teacher of the New Testament Dispensation, and Solomon, the highest Initiate-Teacher of the Old Testament Dispensation, are accounted for when we understand that each came as a Way-Shower, each patterned his life after the initiatory formulae by which every man knows himself as a god. "Have I not said, ye are gods?" demanded Paul. The lives of all great Teachers must follow through the same degrees of Illumination in an ever-ascending series, until their little candlelight is swallowed up in the glorious effulgence of the Light of all the World, the Supreme Initiator, the Christ.

This web page has been edited and/or excerpted from reference material, has been modified from it's original version, and is in conformance with the web host's Members Terms & Conditions. This website is offered to the public by students of The Rosicrucian Teachings, and has no official affiliation with any organization.