At this point the vision of Daniel becomes particularly comparable to one in Revelation, and may be looked upon as an earlier version of the latter.
It is obvious that the above is a vision of the universe in its spiritual aspect and presided over by the Supreme Being, for the "wheels" are, like those in Ezekiel's vision, the Wheels of the Zodiac, the fiery aura of great Beings whose powers brought the Zodiac into existence. St. John also looked upon the glory of the Ancient of Days and ten thousand times ten thousand Angels hovering about the throne — the various celestial Hierarchies which do His bidding. The solar orb is the outward symbol of the Supreme Being and heaven is the symbol of the Absolute. Therefore, "his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire."
In the "fiery flame which issued and came forth from before him" the Initiate perceives the sacred Mystery of the cosmic Fire permeating and recreating the universe, a stream, in fact, of living spirits freshly entering creation from the hand of God.
"The judgment was set, and the books were opened." The problem of evil, its origin and its eventual disappearance from human experience, is probably the most difficult of all problems to solve. Its solution depends upon ability to rise, not merely into the Third Heaven whereof Paul spoke as containing those truths not lawful to utter, but into the Seventh Heaven where stands the Throne of God. In the presence of Deity alone, He who is beyond both good and evil (operation of the Law of Opposites), the Book of Truth is to be opened and the judgment read. Here only will Pilate's question "What is truth?" be answered.
When Daniel's Three Friends had been cast into the fiery furnace, the king of Chaldea looked upon them and saw a fourth "like the son of God." In this vision Daniel, the Initiate, beheld the sacrifice of the great Christ Archangel: His coming to earth as the Redeemer of the planet and of mankind, and His eventual acceptance by all the peoples of the earth. Then he saw the occupation of the New Land by the New Race, when neither earth nor man shall wear these present robes of dust, but shall be adorned in celestial raiment that knows not age or decay.
The "clouds" are radiations of color seen in spiritual realms; they arise from the great sea of cosmic emotion visible in the soul world.
Daniel states that the beasts have their dominion taken away from them, but "their lives are prolonged for a season and time." Beast-men of earlier periods of evolution are to be supplanted by a truly human race. Yet vestiges of past evils will continue to exist, not only in the remnant of dying races but in animal propensities active in all men that prevent their putting on the quintessential humanity, the Christ-in-man. These evil attributes are beheld by Seers as elemental astral forms. The "time" during which the three beasts were yet to influence human evolution is the same period referred to by Christ when he said: "I come not to bring peace but a sword" — for without the Sword of Christos the beasts can never be slain.
According to Josephus a Hebrew legend states that Adam said the world would be destroyed by both water and fire, and this agrees with the Persian teaching. In the foregoing verses Daniel describes the terrible evil of black magic that destroyed the Fourth Root Race and the continent of Atlantis. "The dividing of time" was marked by the Flood, which destroyed the earth and the Fourth Race. Mankind had descended to the lowest point in the evolutionary cycle and was ready to turn again heavenward. The destruction by fire prophesied by Adam refers to the destruction of the Lemurian continent in the Pacific Ocean; this took place prior to the Atlantean Epoch.
This vision ends with the establishment of the new continent and the new race, which after many ages will come into being in the Aquarian-Leo cycle. "Hitherto is the end of the matter."
— Corinne Heline
