Esoteric Christianity by Annie Besant (good ebook reader txt) 📖

vibrations which weaken those already existing there. As a wave of sound may be met by another which extinguishes it, and the result is silence, so do the vibrations of the scoffing thought weaken or extinguish the vibrations of the reverent and loving one. The effect produced will, of course, vary with the relative strengths of the vibrations, but the mischievous one cannot be without result, for the laws of vibration are the same in the higher worlds as in the physical, and thought vibrations are the expression of real energies.

The reason and the effect of the consecration of churches, chapels, cemeteries, will now be apparent. The act of consecration is not the mere public setting aside of a place for a particular purpose; it is the magnetisation of the place for the benefit of all those who frequent it. For the visible and the invisible worlds are inter-related, interwoven, each with each, and those can best serve the visible by whom the energies of the invisible can be wielded.

AFTERWORD.

We have reached the end of a small book on a great subject, and have only lifted a corner of the Veil that hides the Virgin of Eternal Truth from the careless eyes of men. The hem of her garment only has been seen, heavy with gold, richly dight with pearls. Yet even this, as it waves slowly, breathes out celestial fragrances—the sandal and rose-attar of fairer worlds than ours. What should be the unimaginable glory, if the Veil were lifted, and we saw the splendour of the Face of the divine Mother, and in Her arms the Child who is the very Truth? Before that Child the Seraphim ever veil their faces; who then of mortal birth may look on Him and live?

Yet since in man abides His very Self, who shall forbid him to pass within the Veil, and to see with "open face the glory of the Lord"? From the Cave to highest Heaven; such was the pathway of the Word made Flesh, and known as the Way of the Cross. Those who share the manhood share also the Divinity, and may tread where He has trodden. "What Thou art, That am I."

Peace to all Beings

INDEX.

Acts of the Apostles referred to; 281

À Kempis, Thomas; 115

Afterword; 376

Allegory; 66

Allegories, Old Testament; 121

All-wide Consciousness; 281 et seq.

Ammonius Saccas; 28

Animal Symbols of Zodiac; 165

Anselm and Redemption; 195

Answers to Prayer; 277
"        Subjective Prayer; 290

Apollonius of Tyana; 31

Apostolic Fathers; 70

Appearances of Divine Beings; 93

Aquinas, Thomas; 112

Arians of the Fourth Century, quoted; 103

Aristotle, Effect on Mediæval Christianity; 112

Ascension, The; 231, 250
"      and Solar Myth; 231
"      of the Christ; 249

Asiatic Researches, quoted; 258

Aspects of the One; 262

Athanasius, Story of; 353

Athanasian Creed, quoted; 263, 367

Atlantis, Continent of; 18

At-one-ment; 209

Atonement as one of Lesser Mysteries; 200
"    Early Church on the; 195
"    Calvinistic View of; 197
"    Edwards on the; 197
"    Flavel on the; 196
"    Luther's Views on the; 196
"    Dr. McLeod Campbell on the; 199
"    F. D. Maurice on the; 199
"    Vicarious and Substitutionary; 196

Atonement—Views of Dwight, Jeune, Jenkyn, Liddon, Owen,
Stroud, and Thomson; 198
"    Truth underlying the Doctrine of; 199
"    Pamphlet on, quoted; 198
"    Nineteenth Century quoted on; 205

Augöeides; 27


Barnabas; 71

Baptism, A Mantram in; 350
"    A Minor Form of; 349
"    Belief in Death-bed; 352
"    Infant; 353
"    In the Early Church; 352
"    In Other Religions; 348
"    of Initiate; 53
"    of Holy Ghost and Fire; 188
"    of Jesus; 133
"    of the Christ; 186
"    Tertullian on; 349

Beatific Vision, The; 95, 295

Bernard of Clairvaux; 112

Bel-fires; 164

Bhagavad Gîtâ referred to; 50, 202, 270, 306, 318

Bible Account of Creation; 179

Birth, Second; 247

Blavatsky, H. P., referred to; 127

Blood of Christ symbolised in Eucharist; 359

Böhme, Jacob; 115

Body, Causal; 239, 247
"  Desire, Changes in;  244
"  Meaning of a; 234
"  Mental; 236
"    "    Building of; 245
"  Natural or Physical; 236
"  Natural, of St. Paul; 237
"  of Bliss; 240
"  of Desire; 236
"  Physical, Changes in; 243
"  Resurrection; 240

Body, Spiritual; 239

Book of Job, quoted; 268, 332
"  of the Dead, referred to; 339
"  of Wisdom, quoted; 266

Bread, General Symbol in Sacraments; 358

Brihadâranyakopaniṣhat, quoted; 50, 202

Brotherhood of Great Teachers; 9

Bruno, Giordano, referred to; 5, 113, 115, 225, 322

Buddha, Birth Story of; 164

Buddhist Trinity; 258


Calvinistic Doctrine; 197

Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa; 115

Cathari, The, referred to; 113

Cave of Initiation; 186

Celsus—Controversy with Origen; 88

Chhânaogyopanishat, quoted; 253

Chrêstos and Christos; 174

Christ as Hierophant of Mysteries; 231
"  Baptism of; 186
"  Crucifixion of; 183
"  Disciples of; 223
"  in the Spiritual Body; 137
"  Life of the; 217
"  of the Mysteries; 191
"  The; 132, 134
"  the Crucified; 182
"  the Historical; 120, 140
"  the Kosmic; 179
"  the Mystic; 170
"  the Mythic; 145
"  Sufferings of the; 223

Christian Creed, referred to; 180, 181
"                quoted; 206, 207, 229

Christian Disciples—their work; 223

Christian Records, quoted; 348

Christian Symbols, &c., not unique; 148

Christianity has the Gnosis; 36

Christmas Day; 159, 161

Christmas Festival, rightly regarded; 164

Clarke's Ante-Nicene Library, quoted; viii., 21, 58, 71, 72, 73, 74,
77, 78, 80 et seq., 87, 88, 90 et seq., 103, 150, 151, 266

Classes of Prayers; 283

Clement of Alexandria, quoted; viii., 20
"  "    referred to; 73
"  "    on the Gnosis; 83, 84
"  "    on Scripture Allegories; 83
"  "    on Symbols; 80
"  "    and Catechetical School; 73
"  "    a Pupil of Pantænus; 73

Colossians, Epistle to, referred to; 58, 65, 81, 177

Comparative Mythologists; 7
"  "  Theory of; 8
"  Religionists; 7, 8
"  Mythology; 147

Consecrated Objects; 382

Consecration of Churches, Cemeteries, &c.; 385

Constant, Alphonse Louis; 118

Conversion, Phenomenon of; 313 et seq.

Corinthians, Epistles to, quoted; ix., x., 6, 32, 55, 64, 67, 124,
175, 177, 232, 239, 240, 241, 251, 253, 270, 356, 373

Creed, taught after Baptism in Early Church; 352

Cruden's Concordance, quoted; 33

Cur Deus Homo of Anselm; 195


Dangers to Christianity; 125

Dark Powers in Nature; 186, 187

Dean Milman, quoted; 255 et seq.

Death of Solar Heroes; 166

De Principiis of Origen; 101, 102

Deuteronomy, quoted; 96, 253

Diegesis of R. Taylor, quoted; 350

Die Deutsche Theologie; 114

Dionysius the Areopagite; 110

Disappearance of the Mysteries; 184

Disciples, The; 136
"  Work of the; 223
"  Writings of the; 140

Divine Beings, Appearance in Mysteries; 93

"Divine Grace," What it is; 224
"  Ideation; 359
"  Illumination; 377
"  Incarnations; 273, 274

Duality of Manifested Existence; 235
"  of Second Person