Every event in the daily life of man is recorded in the subconscious mind, wherein it serves as the arbiter of his destiny when the silver cord is loosed and his spirit is freed to return to its heavenly home.
For one so highly illumined as Joshua, this recapitulatory cycle was more extended. It involved much more than that experienced by an average individual. Joshua possessed ability to read both past and future events in the Memory of Nature. At the time of his passing, when the powers of his superconscious mind were especially active, that ability was considerably enhanced. It was at this time of special illumination that Joshua delivered his parting exhortation to the people of Israel.
Canaan, now Palestine, is truly Earth's principal spiritual center. Its being called the Holy Land is no misnomer. It is that in a peculiar sense. The land was long in preparation for the purposes it was to serve. The earliest post-Atlantean Mystery Schools were founded for the express purpose of training advanced souls to serve as messengers in preparing man and the Earth for the coming of the Messiah. Joshua was among the chief of these, as were Abraham, Jacob and Moses. Israel formed the nucleus of the pioneering race, the twelve tribes being representative of twelve attributes of character that come into expression in a fully developed individual and race.
In his farewell address to Israel, Joshua reminds his people of the repeated evidences they have had of divine guidance and protections. He exhorts them, above all things, not to be mislead by neighboring peoples into idol worship (the placing of the material before the spiritual), but to remain true to the one God they have come to know; in other words, not to permit worldly interests to supersede spiritual. He furthermore warns them against making marriages with the "remnant" of displaced nations in Canaan lest they thereby lose their status as God's "peculiar people" and fail to fulfill the racial purpose for which they had been prepared so carefully over so long a period. It was important at that early stage of Fifth Epoch development for the racial stock to be kept pure and intact; otherwise, qualities implanted in them germinally, and awaiting unfoldment in the Fifth Root Race of which they were the nucleus, would not come to fruition. "Be ye therefore very courageous," urges Joshua, "to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left." Joshua foresaw that great things were destined to spring from those whom he addressed; that from them was to come the Initiate-poet David , the Seer-king Solomon; and Mary of Bethlehem, the perfect pattern of motherhood for the New Age and the Initiate-mother of the greatest of all messengers, the Christed Jesus.
Reading the Book of Joshua in the light of esoteric Bible interpretation, historical incidents, often seemingly cruel and barbaric, are recognized as being but a cloak concealing from unprepared multitudes the deeper mysteries of the soul. These mysteries are clearly discernible to an awakened few, and serve to indicate to them the path of spiritual unfoldment.
It is recorded that "Joshua waxed old and stricken in age." This does not refer to the senile decrepitude that overtakes the majority of mankind. Joshua possessed Initiate consciousness whereby the body receives constant renewal, thus retaining its capacity to function fully, even at Joshua's ripe age of one hundred and ten. Rather, these words are to be understood as describing one in whom wisdom comes to ripeness. They speak of an attainment that causes limitations of mortality to fall away, and the soul to assert its clear supremacy. This is indicated in a further statement that "Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him"; and also in the further declaration that some of the honour of Moses had descended upon him.
In his final exhortation Joshua states the faith and practice on which he had founded his life's work: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Law)." Obedience to this code gave "rest unto Israel (those who see God) from all their enemies" — as all may come to know rest for themselves if they will follow Joshua on the highway of spirit.
Joshua's Initiation into the powers of polarity have been described in terms of the Sun and the Moon, over which he was accredited with exercising sovereign control. Another cipher is introduced into the closing record of his life which testifies to this same attainment. We read that "Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old." The number, indicative of the powers of eleven, reveals his self-mastery, and the establishment of equilibrium between the two poles of spirit within himself. He was ready for the freedom of greater spaces. "The glory of Osiris is upon me," said the Initiate of ancient Egypt when standing upon this threshold of translation, "my feet are set forever in eternal places, I walk among the stars." Such was the passing and the inheritance of Joshua, Son of Initiate-wisdom.
Secret legends teach that Joshua did not die because of the sin of Adam (man's fall into generation), but by the operation of a supreme mystery expressed in the words: "His servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle."
— Corinne Heline
