The numerous plagues from which mankind has suffered in the past, and to which it is still subject, are the inevitable consequence of its own action under the operation of natural and divine law. The outer expresses the inner, so Earth reflects the moral status of humanity. Before the Fall there was neither discord nor want in the life of man or nature. There were no wintry winds, scorching heat, no severities of changing seasons; the race lived in perpetual summer. Beauty and harmony prevailed throughout the world.
When man fell all things in nature fell with him. Since that time he has been plagued by natural disasters of diverse kinds; and will continue to be so as long as he remains under the dominion of unillumined, concrete mind (Pharaoh) and an unregenerate life of the senses. Redeemed humanity of the future will, by realigning itself with spiritual law (Moses), reenter the holy land of the New Jerusalem as depicted in Revelation, where light is perpetual and the bounties of Earth unlimited.
There is yet deeper meaning in the ten plagues of Exodus. The works of magic performed by Moses and Aaron are demonstrations of spiritual law pertaining to the blending of the Fire and Water principles. They conceal in their symbolism mystic keys for the use of the aspirant, keys no less serviceable to the neophyte of this day than they were to those of the biblical times.
Efforts to blend the elements of Fire and Water go back to Adam and Eve. They tried and failed. So, too, did Cain and Abel; later Jacob and Esau. In each instance the work was advanced but was not completed. Moses and Aaron carried it further toward consummation; so did Elijah and Elisha. Still later there was an all but successful accomplishment when Solomon and Hiram Abiff built the Temple and the attempt was made to cast the molten sea. With the coming of Christ Jesus, and not until then, was this Great Work brought to full consummation.
Jacob Boehme, the German mystic, treats one aspect of the subject in the following terms:
The four elements, Fire, Air, Water and Earth, which previous to the Fall were only one element, and which then appeared only in harmonious contrasts, now stand against one another in painfully eager desire. They anxiously desire to return to unity, but they are compelled to struggle and fight with each other in an empty, resultless circle, while at the same time God restrains them by a powerful hand to which they are subjected — natural law.
This law applies to both the body of Earth and of man. In man Fire expresses itself through the passional nature, Air through the mental; Water in the emotional; Earth in the physical. Every disciple of the true spiritual Mysteries is endeavoring to perfect the harmonious blending of these elements. This is outlined in the plagues of Exodus. These plagues are manifestations of corresponding conditions built into the ethers by man's own negative and destructive thinking. He has created a pattern widely at variance with that of the One in whose "image and likeness" he was fashioned.
The variation may be said to be due to man's unwillingness to harmonize the four primal elements within himself. Each of the four principles relates to one of the four vehicles making up the lower quarternary, or personality, through which the Ego expresses itself on this plane ot existence. Misuse of the mind will, therefore, bring about a destructive reaction through the air element. When the perverted thought of a multitude has generated a vortex of psychic force on inner planes, it will in time externalize itself in nature in the form of blighting winds and devastating hurricanes. In like manner, each unbalanced emotional condition will find its appropriate reaction in the water element, such as storms at sea, inundating rains, devastating floods. Misuse of the creative fire releases the fires of Ilarth, resulting in volcanic eruptions and seismic upheavals. Neglect of the physical body and a life of inaction brings on unproductivity of the soil and resultant famine.
By the law of attraction, individuals similarly constituted gravitate into areas and incarnate at times that will bring to them the consequence of their own mistakes or neglect. The law of divine justice is all-pervasive and immutable. Everything both great and small — every individual, community, nation, race, planet — reaps as it has sown. It has been stated repeatedly that the Old Testament foreshadows the New. There is a sense in which this is definitely true in relation to the plagues of Exodus and those of Revelation. The plagues described in chapters VII-XI of Exodus reveal the archetypal pattern of man's created evils as they appear on inner planes. In Revelation, Chapter XVI, a description is given of their projection into physical manifestation during the present Earth Period.
In discussing the correspondences between man and nature, Paracelsus, the medieval seer-physician, gives examples of how disharmony results in disease in the body of both man and planet.
He states:
The forces composing the microcosm of man are identical with the forces composing the macrocosm of the world. In man these forces may act in an abnormal manner and disease is thereby created. In the great organism of the Cosmos they may act in an abnormal manner and thereby abnormal conditions or disease manifests on the earth and in the atmosphere; in water and elements of fire, electricity may be created. Man may be affected with spasms or colic or dropsy or fever, and the macrocosm of earth may be affected with earthquakes, water-spouts, storms and lightnings. The elements that constitute the heart of man constitute the life of the Sun. The quality of life found in the elements constituting his blood corresponds to the quality of the invisible influences radiating from Mars. If the influence of Venus had not existed, influences which come to man and animal to propagate their kind would not exist; and thus every planet and every star contains magnetic elements that correspond to the identical magnetic elements existing in the constitution of man. A true physician must know the constitution of the universe as well as the constitution of man.
— Corinne Heline
