It has been observed that man is a creature of many and diverse proclivities. In this respect he is somewhat different than other forms of life abounding on the earth plane whose life expressions are more closely confined within specific dimensions.
While the earth man is quite capable of expressing and re-expressing an infinite number and variety of expressions in his earth life, he would no doubt be nonplussed and horrified to be suddenly confronted with the realization that all these expressionary forms, even the most grandiose of intellectual efforts were almost entirely a system of idolatries constantly reasserted into consciousness in symbolic forms.
For indeed it is that in all forms and manners of life, mankind universally worships the idolatrous forms of life which; existing as symbolic forms linked to past expressions, become the basic instigating power behind his life.
There are many forms of idolatry whether it is in the worship of sex, cars, homes, fur coats, etc., or such common public adulations which center about movie ‘stars’, politicians and other public figures. In fact, mankind does universally worship all forms and artifacts of life with which he is familiar, nor are the religious systems exempt. The Mohammedan points his finger at the Christian and cries ‘Infidel’, the Christian points back and cries ‘pagan’, while the Jew is looking down his nose at both of them as the Hindu stands by in complacency knowing full well Buddha is the ‘true Prophet’.
To all these religions, the effigy and the symbol are immediately apparent. The savage headhunter in Borneo hangs the empty skull of his adversary on a pole in front of his hut believing he has incarcerated his adversary’s spirit in this skull forever. The basilica in St. Peter’s is adorned within and without with effigies of eulogized saints. Even the supposed likeness of God, Himself, is painted in the dome with the direct connotation that somehow there is a spiritual connection between these figureheads and the place where their effigies reside, thus making the supposed Christian morality possible. Yet, is it any different in basic principle than the headhunter and his skull?
Nor are the forms of idolatry and idolatrous worship confined to the artifacts of life or in religious expressions. Even the word on the printed page is an autosuggestive effigy which, through past associations which have been learned, brings about the desired mental reaction to help sustain the oscillating process called thought. So it is that in the most complete and broadest abstraction, the material world is, just as it has always been, a place of idolatry and worship; a place lived as a continuity of autosuggestive forms worshipped as the most complete and absolute reality of life itself, hardly daring to venture into the realm of the unknown.
For, even as the would-be swimmer tries the water with his toe, so is the man of today—through science and through the fancied security of his earthly perch, attempting to try the waters of Infinite space.
The morality of our discussion is not an attempt to condone or condemn idolatry and the effigy. The broad perspectus of evolution demands a beginning point which mandates any expressionary form as an embryo, successively regenerating into higher expressionary forms through association and usage. There is, however, a point of diminishing returns wherein the earth life or embryonic evolution will cease to satisfy the evolutionary demand.
It is at this point the embryonic consciousness begins to expand and reach the higher dimensions of expression. From then on, deistic configurations, the recognition of extraterrestrial power and intelligence are acknowledged. Thus, religious forms and religions are developed; always, however, rigidly confined within the precinct of the reactive effigy of symbolic form.
The final phase of our analysis now enters into a critical point for here we must determine that, as the symbolic form is an effigy, and as its true origin, meaning and purpose is unknown, and as it is combined and recombined in the grand scale of evolution, those who believe in these symbolic forms, use them and pursue them are, therefore, idolatrous.
These statements may be challenged by those who claim to be well versed in the rhetorical or pedantic phases of intellectual culture. They may point to great universities, libraries, laboratories, etc., where an infinite number and variety of classical expressionary forms seemingly present a solid cultural background, a facade of knowledge which apparently might answer all facets and phases of earth life. A close scrutiny and a pursuance to the ultimate ends of these diverse expressionary cultures always leads into blind alleys. The ultimate disillusion of the illusion of the sophisticated cultural expression can only sum up reactive expressions as they are posed in the third dimensional earth life and at no point do any of these expressionary cultures go beyond the line of demarcation bounded by the physical world and repeated from a conclave of historical elements.
Nor has history revealed any such extension of cultural synthesis beyond the rigorous confines of the third dimensional world save one, which is best defined as the Unariun Concept. In several instances, written and unwritten, in different anthropologies, there have been attempts to educate the earth man in the basic elements of Infinite Creation. The life and mission of Jesus was one of these other instances which relate to civilizations not known or recognized.
At the present time, and in the scientific atmosphere of our twentieth century, the greatest of all efforts is now being made to acclimate the earth man into a mental atmosphere more suitable for the growth and propagation of this interdimensional science. This effort is especially intended for those already quickened for the possibility of enlarged mental and spiritual
perspectives.
But for the present, however, and for some time to come, the masses of the world will still continue to live largely under the shadow of rhetorical despotism. Society demands rigorous conformity. It violently suppresses creative spontaneity yet gives immortal eulogy to those who have died for the cause of independent creative thinking.
Virtue is not subject to quantitative measurement, but resides purely as an expressionary abstraction which can be constructively used in proportion to understanding. The virtue of any man’s life is therefore not measurable in terms of reactive or reactionary values, but rather in esoterical values which challenge man’s thinking beyond the need of his reactive life.
In conclusion, if evil and good can be summed up, if a classical definition can be arrived at beyond the normal frame of reference, it would be well said to say the greatest evil in the world could be found in the symbolic form: the symbol without logic, reason, or knowledge to explain its existence and to confirm its continuity in constructive universal expression.
For to believe in and to reside in the influence of a symbolic society only terminates all consciousness at the point of physical death. Even the reason for life and the necessity for its expression is defeated in the symbolic form and those who live completely in the symbolic world face a death in all values which are based on symbolic forms, and which live in consciousness without reason, logic, or the conscious knowledge of their continuity in the interdimensional cosmos.
Perhaps it was more simply summed up by Jesus who said that the camel could pass through the eye of a needle more quickly than a man who loved the world could get to Heaven.
The difference in the material world, the world of reactive form, the false illusion of the transparent solid is quite different than other worlds or planes of life found in the more upper reaches of the spiritual cosmos. Swedenborg tried to describe them in the “Seven Celestial Kingdoms”, and most religious liturgies have some sort of a descriptive chronology of the future lives lived beyond death; none, however, present the cold hard scientific facts, nor do they present the entire scope of Infinity.
These factors and all attendant elements can only be learned through progressive evolution. No human can understand them beyond the circumference of his present understanding which is based entirely on the past. And the future, the Infinite breadth and depth of Infinity becomes to him a nebulous theorem if so presented.
To those who are interested in their future, the greatest single accomplishment in personal evolution will be attained at that moment of emancipation, when their mental horizon can be extended beyond the dimensions of the symbolic world.
Excerpt from Tempus Procedium
