Node

“ It is therefore the ground, the root, of which the actions, the works, the believings, as acts of the will in the understanding, are the trunk and the branches. But these must be in the light. The disposition to see must have organs, objects, direction, and an outward light. The three latter of these our Lord gives to his disciples in this blessed sermon on the Mount, preparatorily, and, as Donne rightly goes on to observe, presupposing faith as the ground and root. ”

“ Many other and very various, orders of things, unknown to and inconceivable by us, may and probably do exist in the unlimited regions of space. And all yonder stars, innumerable, with their dependencies, may perhaps compose but the leaf of a flower in the Creator's garden, or a single pillar in the immense building of the Divine Architect. ”

“ Each sun is the centre of as many worlds which are distributed in as many distinct series in an infinite number of concentric centres and systems. Each system is attracted, repelled, and moved by an infinite, internal passion, or attraction; each turns round its own centre, and moves in a spiral towards the centre of the whole, towards which centre they all tend with infinite passional ardour. For in this centre resides the sun of suns, the unity of unities, the temple, the altar of the universe, the sacred fire of Vesta, the vital principle of the universe. ”

“ Now, since the expanse originates from the centre, and not the centre from the expanse, as we said above, and the centre of life, which is the sun of the angelic heaven, is divine love proximately proceeding from God, who is in the midst of that sun; and since the expanse of that centre, which is called the spiritual world, is hence derived; and since from that sun existed the sun of the world, and from the latter its expanse, which is called the natural world; it is evident, that the universe was created by one God. ”

“ Space that was not Space: I was myself, and not myself. When I could find voice, I shrieked aloud in agony, “Either this is madness or it is Hell.” “It is neither,” calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, “it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye once again and try to look steadily.” ”

“ Shall we so often, when describing to our neighbors the color of something we have seen, refer them, not to some natural object in our neighborhood, but perchance to a bit of earth fetched from the other side of the planet, which possibly they may find at the apothecary's, but which probably neither they nor we ever saw ? Have we not an earth under our feet,—ay, and a sky over our heads? ”

“ Once inside, you discover that you can neither gain the centre of the maze or return to the starting-point; you must either wander round for an eternity, or do as I shall do, cut your way through the hedges planted to bewilder you, and thank Heaven when on the outside that you are clear of the tortuous passages. ”

“ It is the same thing, but under a different form, as the Master and Wardens of a lodge. The Master and Wardens are symbols of the sun, the lodge of the universe, or world, just as the point is the symbol of the same sun, and the surrounding circle of the universe. ”

“ Let a Sign ascend in a Nativity or Question, if the Ascendant be in those Degrees you see are called Light, the Childe or Querent shall be more fair; if the degree ascending be of those we call Dark, his Complexion shall be nothing so fair, but more obscure and dark; and if he be born deformed, the deformity shall be more and greater; but if he be deformed when the light degrees of a Sign ascend, the imperfection shall be more tolerable. ”

“ I have come from a world closely resembling Ento. It is far away in space, and by its inhabitants it is known as Earth. I have been brought to you by persons who once lived on either Earth or Ento, but death of their physical bodies having freed the imperishable, intelligent Principle, they are known as Spirits and may go from World to World. I, too, am a spirit, but, like yourself, am yet connected with a physical body, to which I shall soon return. ”

“ The external world is thus coined into symbols, and of these symbols the foundations of mind are laid, and of these symbols the walls are constructed, and of these symbols the dome is reared, until the temple of the soul is perfected—a symbol structure built in every soul by the phenomena of the universe. ”

“ Upon the Knowledge of these six Principles, depends the eternal Happiness of many. And the Knowledge of the two Seeds, is those two Keys that doth open those two, namely, the strait and narrow Gate that leadeth unto Life, and the broad and wide Gate that leadeth to Destruction. ”

“ When you are to examine the landscape from a height, in order to obtain a wide prospect, you may have to use a glass, or a compass, or some other instrument of abstraction, in order to define what the distance tends to render obscure, or what the manifoldness of the scenery surveyed makes it hard rightly to view in its true relations. And, in such cases, the glass or the compass is but an auxiliary, intended to help in the end your whole outlook. Now the world of good and evil is a world of wide prospects, of vast distances, of manifold features. ”

“ That which inclines to the centre, that which rises from it to the surface, and that which rolls about the centre, constitute the universal world, and make one entire nature; and as there are four sorts of bodies, the continuance of nature is caused by their reciprocal changes; for the water arises from the earth, the air from the water, and the fire from the air; and, reversing this order, the air arises from fire, the water from the air, and from the water the earth, the lowest of the four elements, of which all beings are formed. ”

“ Each plane, both of the universe and of the human form, receiving activity from the Creator, or from the next higher plane, acts as of itself into the next lower. The human form, or man, is therefore sustained by two general forms of influx: first, from the Creator into the Inmost, and thence from the Inmost into the Celestial plane, and thence from the Celestial into the Spiritual, and likewise to the ultimates of the body. ”

“ But what this central Body really is, I shall not here presume to say, yet I can't help observing it must of Necessity, if the Creation is real and not merely Ideal, be either a Globe of Fire superior to the Sun, or otherwise a vast terraqueous or terrestrial Sphere, surrounded with an Æther like our Earth, but more refined, transparent and serene. ”

“ These have emanated, like immense waves of light, from the divine centre, and, as ten consecutive zones of Sephiroth, form the universe. The farther away from the centre, the more the primitive light wanes, until the periphery ends in those mere negations, darkness and evil, which are the essence of matter. ”

“ The symbols of the planets are given on page 24, and it will be noticed that they consist of a circle, a half circle and a cross variously grouped. The circle is the symbol of the spirit, the half-circle is the emblem of the soul, and the cross represents matter. Thus the elements of the human constitution, Spirit, Soul and Body are unfolded in the component parts of the planetary symbols to show to the Mystic their mission with respect to humanity. ”

“ The commencement, as a fact, I must learn from testimony; I have no means whatever of inferring it from phenomena.
Permit me, therefore, to repeat, as having been proved, these two propositions:—
All organic nature moves in a circle.
Creation is a violent irruption into the circle of nature. ”

“ Here is a nucleus—a band of brethren inspired from on high, having the oracles of God in their midst,—the only people that are taught by the revelations of God. Here is the place where the standard is to be erected to all nations. ”

“ The plane of spirit, as we have indicated, is the true and proper plane to be developed, for the development of which men are born, the development of which brings them into the kingdom of heaven, or of God, while still on earth, and into a visible heaven hereafter. ”

“ There are three factors which bring to us the mystic message of the stars; the houses, the signs and the planets, The houses ave divisions of the earth; each house represents a department of life; the signs are divisions of the heavens which by their placement relative to the houses indicate our basic temperament and attitude towards life, and the planets are the messengers of God which by their motion through the houses and signs bring to us the opportunities for soulgrowth which we need for our individual development. ”

“ Or should Heaven have a natural curve in the opposite direction, put Earth to the left in the hollow and make a male or left-sided arrangement.
Earth's lateral bend is due to the need of such a line to balance the curve of Heaven in the opposite direction. ”

“ We have seen powerful evidence that the construction of this globe and its associates, and, inferentially, that of all the other globes in space, was the result, not of any immediate or personal exertion on the part of Deity, but of natural laws which are expressions of his will. What is to hinder our supposing that the organic creation is also the result of natural laws, which are in like manner an expression of his will? ”

“ As the centre of a circle is not the point which shows the distance of one part from another but really that focus from which proceed the countless lines comprised within and constituting the complete circuit so the Lord is the centre as well as the circumference of the full circle of life. The Lord in His sanctified Self is present in the inner soul, aye, seated in the very heart of every created being. ”

“ So we opened the gateways from that land which we had been the first human beings to enter for centuries, took a final look at all it had disclosed and that we were leaving behind, and plunged into the darkness. ”

“ For although that Garden and all its beautiful belongings are not to be literally interpreted—although they are to be taken as the representatives of the internal states of the most ancient people in the days of their innocence and integrity—the account serves our purpose none the less for all that. For the beautiful surroundings of the angels are but the outward representatives of their internal states—their affections and thoughts—and are in perfect correspondence with them. ”

“ In ascending to this primary and aboriginal sentiment we have come from our remote station on the circumference instantaneously to the centre of the world, where, as in the closet of God, we see causes, and anticipate the universe, which is but a slow effect. ”

“ For all the members of creation form, as it were, the links of one great chain, and were but one removed, though it might perchance be only some poor weed or lowly moss, yet might it cause the whole to be annihilated ”

“ And if there exists this correspondence between the natural mind and the world which this mind creates round about itself in the realm of nature—if we see everywhere a strong tendency in natural affections and thoughts to go forth and embody themselves under corresponding natural forms—then it is reasonable to conclude that this law of correspondence must be the very law that determines the character or aspect of the objective world in heaven. ”

“ And a river went out of Eden, to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and was into four heads. A "river out of Eden," signifies wisdom from love, for "Eden" is love; "to water the garden," is to bestow intelligence; to be "thence parted into four heads," is a description of intelligence by means of the four rivers, as follows.
108. The most ancient people, when comparing man to a "garden," also compared wisdom, and the things relating to wisdom, to "rivers;" ”

“ A tree, Elsje, is a lot of roots, branches and leaves. Yet we call it a tree. A swarm of bees are a lot of bees, and yet one swarm. You cannot discern humanity because you cannot see all people at the same time, and not how they are connected. ”

“ Ground of Light and Life, where thou mayst in his Light behold both Time and Eternity, and bring all the wonders created of God for the exterior into the interior life, and so eternally rejoice in them to the glory of Christ; the partition of thy Creaturely Will being broken down and the Eye of thy Spirit simplified in and through the Eye of God manifesting itself in the Centre of thy Life. ”

“ All things are in halves; male, female—negative, positive—light, dark, and so on. So is the nebulæ of worlds to which we belong. Now, remember what I have said of the resemblances between this earth and universe and the seven others beyond the Wall. Precisely such likenesses exist between the worlds of the respective halves of our own system.
"At various distances, flecking the vault, we behold suns and systems innumerable. ”

“ The heaven bendeth and inclineth toward the centre, but the earth goeth from the centre, whiles the world with continuall volubilitie and turning about it, driveth the huge and excessive globe thereof into the forme of a round ball. ”

“ The second line—the Line of the Head—stretches across the natural world; it traverses the Plain and the Mount of Mars, which represent the struggle of Love and Reason in existence—the natural world, life as it presents itself to most persons. ”

“ For those who cling to the outward forms and symbols the Place of Rest is neither seen nor spoken of. This Place of Rest, this Home of Peace, is in reality the very Cross itself, the Firm Foundation, the that on which the whole creation rests. ”

“ Such intuitions and beliefs find their full flower in the conception of the river of life—the stream, pure as crystal, that, with exulting movement onward, brings to men the thrill of hope and the inspiration of progress to a world beyond. ”