E FINDING OF THE GNOSIS k SOLOTIOH OF ilFE'S WVINESY MYSTERY LIBRARY W.m STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. Entry Catalogue Number Class PRESEN 19J33 b— 20 m **Man, Know Thyself." THE (finding of THE GNOSIS, OR Apotheosis of an Ideal i1 i\lM Il^fE^IO^-^LlfE WHEREIN IS BROUGH THE INMOST SECRE VERITABLE RELIG tHe mystery 07 tHe AiJtHo^i^ed Vei^sio^: BOSTON: OCCULT PUBLISHING CdMPANY, 66 BoYLSTON Street, 1890. Copyright, 1890, by the^BpRuSfffrftlishiDg CompaDy. ILl 3' DEDICATED, IN BROTHERLY DEVOTION AND UNCOMPROMISING HONESTY, TO THE HEARTS THAT WILL RELINQUISH ALL FOR TRUTH. FOREWORD. *• What is that sea whose shore is speech? What is that pearl which is found in its depths ?" (GULSHAN I RAZ.) The several contents of this little volume are to be looked upon as continuous parts of one ever-expanding whole — an Oratorio — in rhythmic speech in lieu of tune, whose trans- cendent theme — the divine possibilities of life — is treated in five movements, having their sequence and purport as below. It seems fitting to urge that audible or rather euphonic reading — intoned with extreme deliberation — is as needful to a true and adequate interpretation of the theme (as treated) as symphonic is to a theme in harmonics. Only thus can one sense the answers to that wondrous couplet from the Sufi poem. And tjuly, the divine vibrations in "that sea whose shore is speech" are not respondents of the prevailing artificialities of poetic expression, however grave the latter's intent. EVOCATION p. 7 The call to consider the import and scope of man's existence and the superior wisdom and power of the attainments possible to all truly pure aspiration. THE SEEKING p. 13 Rationale of an individual practical pursuit of the highest ideal and its helps and hindrances. THE FINDING p. 31 The difficult way appears. It is a normal interior development according as fitness is proved, from common sense up to unQom.- mon, the latter eventuating in Selfs revelation. It is to act out the mystery of the overcoming. The imperfect can find no satisfaction short oiits own Perfect. EPITOME p. 47 The deductive refrain. APOSTROPHE. p. 51 Amplification and universal application of the central truths elicited. Man^s inherent potentialities — these are all in all and all- sufficing. Exhortation unto transcendent purity and largeness of life — the true spirituality — wherein is no place for self-seeking, sen- timentality of thought, or idolatry. Personality to be outgrown, soul-individuality remaining. It is only within the inmost depths of man's own being that perfect peace and eternal certitude are found. The Supreme is knowable, but known only when consciously self- evoked. All other knowledge is as naught compared with this which, really appropriated, is beyond all demonstration, the wish for it or need thereof. AFTERWORD, or Interpretative Notes p. 64 All queries as to the authorship of this deliverance it is best to tacitly dismiss, looking only to the spirit — the sure testimony of that ''Spirit of 'JVuth whom (properly, which) the world cannot receive" (i. e- the worldly, as such) and hence is wont to profane- EVOCATION. Psalm of the Entheal Silences. (Reiigioso.) Revere the hour Solemnity swayeth. From gloom estranging, From arts of the sciolous Conned in garish fanes Hold it apart. Know there are fanes not made with hands Enravish their visitants. Revere the child That doth father the Man And secreteth the eviternal sign. Whence the tokening — whence the all-telling? It Cometh unhid thro' the alchemy of pain, Base metal to fine transmuting. 8 EVOCATION. Truth's is the dispensation supreme Untutored man conceives as stern Fate's. Behold — if it favor — what homage! Alas! — if it chasten — what blasphemy! What impious zeal to impeach the untouchable Ends of its furthering wondrously meet, Tho' to seek to discern them as seek the wise Magnifical promise for man shall foretoken. When Truth's arch-oracle, Religion, is besought A clue to give — a secret to impart Whereby to make the tortuous pathway straight, Lighten the crushing burden of despair Or stay the withering blight of false philosophy. The sensate to uphold — the soul to desecrate, Its wanton blandishments engaging. There introvene some pure, clear-seeing spirits Unerring in retrieve of precious wheat from cumbering chaff As they gather of the yield of life's tuitions, Th' impellent Yeas of whose deep-toning accents prophet- voiced Swift, darting entrance unto list'ning hearts command, Pierce them to the quick ! EVOCATION. \ Make them to quiver with the charge electric Of strange, momentous messages truth-sublimed, Declaring in transports ne'er sprung from the red-heats But to the pure perfervor of the white-heats native, Man's dignity, dower, high, limitless estate And destiny awesome. Those grandific sanctities ! Towering majestical. With the stars keeping company Far above that dead-level for whose profanate wastes The world-host doth ever belie a disdain, (Alas ! rueful ignorance Marplotting pestilence ! ) Whose summits resplendent with light's apotheosis — Shine of the All-Life ! Cloud-wrapt remain — secrets unvisioned Save to the cloud-piercing illuminati At one with the All-Life — In the All-Life embosomed — Lost in its boundlessness — Sacred self-surrender ! Found in its unity — Self awoke to Self's great end ! 10 EVOCATION. Unto the cloistered, consecrate Would-Bes — Tear-christened Would-Bes — Beseems it to phrase and paraphrase The heart's divinest mystery. Of a surety, which can receive it ? Would-Bes from pits of despond reliant-raised. Sense-spurning Would-Bes Erect from the squat of content and dulling complacence wary-lifted. Yea, heartened and highward turned in vows solemnific Embracing the azure — Pure, placid azure ! Sparing passionate plaint of the consort corporeous — Great means to greater ends ! While as between picture and pigments that body it, That grand, living picture macrocosmic — unframable, Thro' the mute eons moving at the push of polarity, 'T is the eye of the seer ascetic, unenthralled By the world's iridescence and glittering earth-mix, Looking deep — looking soothfast Thro' illusion — thro' veil. Doth mark the conceivement and feature the Power That unfolds and unfolds ! EVOCATION. 11 And time is not ! And cause is not .... I Aspirants, all hail! PARTICIPANTS IN THE ACTION. Nameless, a truth-seeker. The individual as a composite. Soul, Theindividual^^rs^, indwelling, trans- cendental and impersonal. Ego, The personality — temporal and parvis- cient. ALTERIA, The otherself — Woman — of Man ele- mental, becoming known in the intuition of absolute purity. ETHERIA, A virgin. ADONAI, Son of Eternal Light. Fear, and Invisibles. THE SEEKING. (Serioso con spirito. — Semplice vivace. — Galore cod moto. — Quieto con grazia.) [Nameless seen wandering in solitude.] NAMELESS: I tire of my Present ; a stifling earthy Present, Tho' laden sv^^eet with joys heart of mortal should make glad. With me, they turn to ashes. Not all, — but what content my brothers. Serve to recreate and sate Lose their savor when I taste them, Loathings bring ; — I crave avoidance. 14 THE SEEKING. Beyond that anxious, frontward look And unremitting strain to hold A course, nor hope the helm to quit, In the compelling earth-life's voyage The Past for us hath planned occultly — Wise energies forsooth Self -centered to a fault, While from the slavement to belittling wants freed rarely, — What beyond this their life infills ? What but a profitless din and whirl, A vapid seeming — a cozened pride, A maze of inconsequent strifes and cares. Round upon round of gewgaws and smirks — Honeyed detestables! — nothings with names — High-acid vocables — high-spiced delect ables ! High-strung amenities held at a price and barter d for gain, What but a scramble of blist'ring conceits and corroding frivolities. Soul-killers all! True to the life speaks the mirror I hold However they extenuate or hotly repudiate. THE SEEKING. 15 In terms of downright earnestness we're told Such is Custom's high decree, To break with which is in a rain Of stinging life-hurts to walk unshielded Ever so calmly, discord-abhorringly tho' it be done. *^ Better conformity. Who thinks to escape the strict law of I'ecompense — " (The can't-allow-you-to-know-more-than-we law) ''Let him be disciplined" — still seems the cry. Echo the inquisitorial ages Amen and amen ! Away from such life, its zests and its condiments Leads a lone path which beckons — allures With promise the fairest. 'Tis border' d with wild-flowers, defiles thro' the groves Now beside the still waters, anon thro' a glen. And tho' I seem lonely as wandering I muse, A sad recluse perchance * Or hapless dupe of wizard, mania or dream. To number my friends is to count all the stars. Yea, stars, trees and flowers so still and so naturely. Nay, — seems is not trustworthy. I walk not alone. 16 THE SEEKING. {A distant, plaintive call causes him to pause."] I hear a voice calling ; how familiar — how suppliant ! It speaks thro' a vista that leads to bright yesterdays—- Rose-scented yesterdays. ''Return to thy garden of Eden, .mad wanderer, Nor forfeit thine heirship and stewardship dutiful Portioned to thee without right of release Or retreat from thy kind and the world's common service^ Howe'er they harass thee and prey on thy sanctities *' It beseeching adviseth. Tho' unheeded its warnings. Heart-sent are its pleadings And heart-moved I follow in the wake of its urge. [Some time transpires.] [Nameless returned to former habitudes,^ [Despairingly. 1 Once again in the vortex ! Mi(8 the swirl and the din — the straint and the stress, Harsh jostling of churls and vaporings noxious. The voice has disposed me. To strive 'gainst the waves that rush to engulf or to seaward cajole me I nothing am daunted. But what bodes it all .^ THE SEEKING. 17 This voice that would make me its vassal, retainer, Hath it stern Duty's sanction or comes it from earthchild World-wise yet undertaught, Dupe of Utility and the gospel of ''Real/' If Duty so dictate, strange that befriender should know me so futilely. I crave closer acquaintance. {Inexordbly^l From out this coarse sway of the sense-world I haste — This puppet-show life — this beggarly quest — this con- tract with Pleasure — These wiles that becloud tho' they may not begrime. I can but dissever these toys for man's childhood — These rude signs and tutors — a bane when outgrown. From the cordials — elixirs — that quicken — infuse — Restore the soul's birthright and flash its sublimity Thro' the night of the sense-world, The gloom recoiling — the lust-king fleeing From its omnific might ! {Turns his footsteps to his favorite haunts.'] Again my woodland solitudes I trace, deliv'rance findin In the calm, reposeful haunts of sombrous trees. 18 THE SEEKING, With floating, chanting cadences And murm'ring, eerie silences I hold a converse sweet and free as any fairy or sylph. Their tender, soothing welcoming The inner sense doth gently thrill. I listen well — I listen tense. Now soft ! the soul spreads its illume. Expands as blows my gloried lotus-flower. Nor book nor canticle nor purest human joy Shall bring such trancement peaceful. The spirit's unalloy. [Falls into a dreamy ecstasy wider the trees, but is soon rudely aroused.'] Alack ! 'tis a harsh and discordant reminder — The bray of the senses — they shrill in brute plead. I go with them far as I must but no farther. Go with me my soul. [Proceeds on his way dejectedly— after going some distance, he hears soft music— wanders off from the path and comes to a beautiful hillside covered with wild-flowers which he discovers exhale the music— sits 'm,id the thick of the flowers and gives play to the entrancing influences surrounding— a glow comes over him as he feels the approach of a magic influence— his m,ood he- comes buoyant, and as the music of the flowers grows more distinct he joins in, softly singing :'[ Of beauteous flowers — Earth's comeliest dowers, Pain-redeeming, In gladness teeming. THE SEEKING. 19 The which are seraph-thoughts, 'tis said, Bodied to be seen and read. Breathing soft in incense-prayer Gratitude for life so fair. Shapes conformed in Beauty's matrix, Sprinkled quick with rainbow-aura, Strewn, the while, in myriad places. Mark their upturned, puresome faces Sensate man ! Their meanings scan. Ah, yes, — of petals' lovely guise Looking from deeps with spirit-eyes A virgin mild is archetype. [A form steps forth out of the invisible.'] ETHERIA: Mine is the glad, golden glister that drowns thee. Daphne's aroma and attar of rose I scatter in mist 'round thy comings and goings. If I should chide thee when thou lookest sad What canst thou say.? What wilt thou do to me? Ever so tenderly now do I dare thee To cobweb thy brow — conjure a sigh Or cast thy glad eyes away into vacancy. 20 THE SEEKING. Tm a sweeper of cobwebs. That thou canst not deny. One wave of my wand charms away any sigh. Look . . . me . . . straight i' the eye. {He looks and smiles.] Dost thou know my real name.** Starbeam — I'm called for that gleamiest orb That peers out o' the west at the glad, rosy sunset. Tm always at sunsets; how could I miss one ! But thou hast missed scores with thy bleak, cloudy days [Tearfully.-] When Fortune would irown. And ah,— that reminds me Brightening ux> again.] IVc a SCCrct tO tcU thcC. Come near while I whisper. Whene'er thy day's cloudy, In lieu of repining To our tryst-tree betake thee. Our heart-song breathe^ warmly Then, deep in expectancy. Fondly prefigure But daringly will me. I'll come to thee straight Or telepath charms. TEE SEEKING, 21 [With an arch smile,} Arts of a sibyl Reck not to double. Bleary Philosophy Me shall unriddle So soon as Aurora Spies Hesper ashine. But O, be thou happy each day as it doth meet thee. Never can I give adieu to a day that brings thee grief. Thou'rt born for rarest happiness. So says my star. It sure doth know. Besides, its signs lurk in thy face. I hold the key. They're meant for me. This world is fair — How passing fair! Just back of yon hill is our Arcady. Hand in hand with thy Starbeam walk In the sunshine and truth of the ideal life. On May-day, at even, I'm with thee again. [She culls a handful of the flowers at one reach and bears them away with her after tokening him with a spray.] 22 THE SEEKING. NAMELESS: Ah — my beatitude ! Star-christened sprite ! Lily-white bloom of a heart's tend'rest wish, Go not so soon. I languish without thee — Crave thy sweet lingering, radiant virgin. Wave but thy wand. Bring May-day at even Or Knight-of-the-Starbeam must sink in despair! \,GazeSiin a tremor— no reappearance— he becomes melancholy.] [After a tim,e, Nameless wanders pensively back to the path.] Alas ! my bright fairy knows not what she is to me. Can she e'er know ? The ideal life — ah, 'tis that which I seek. But what if my Arcady differ from hers — Be farther away — to her strange and unknown, High up on a mountain-crest steep of approach, To humans unparadised ! Of the reach of the life transcendent, unprofane My thought would adequate descant : — THE SEEKING. 23 A soothfastness volitioned and single-eyed, A love earth-free, spirit-pure, nor stayed by unrequite, In silent, shoreless rivers spontaneous outpoured, Whelming all sharers of the mystic throb of life In one unfathomed, ambient flow Of sympathy kind as sunshine's glow Broadly, benignly spreading ; A self-law unselfed. Outer ruled— inner ruling. The realm of the known By its thought-wielding knower — Reflect in the doer Full royally sceptered ; No dissonance hearing In the harmonied rhythm Of law all-compassing — Wisdom-blended ; Like the lustral calm outbreathing — Calm of the hill-top at a summer dawning — Matins for the fuller light. Heart elate, the white Light seeking; Like the restful calm of eve — 24 THE SEEKING. Gloried stillness tenderly star-dropt — In meekness yielding irradiant joys To joyless night When lowers heart's oppress. [His thoughts grow more exalted— he cannot preserve calmness— he is unable to mentally delineate his fuller aspiration,— presently there breaks upon the gtillness a choiring of voices in unison of superhuman purity and grace— in throbbing expectancy ^ he listens .] Chorus of Invisibles, (Adagio nobiJe tranquillo.) Far far .... at unmeasured remove from the life of frail humans Nor earthy nor fleshly distraint and defile their gaining intrusion, On hights of resplendence suffused with the Love-Light ineffable — Hearts in the great Heart immersed — Minds superne in rapt communion — Souls quaffing deep of the space-flooding True ! Form and the sense-world in darkening shadows — pygmy abstractions — dissolved ; There there tho' vestured yet in vest- ment of mortals, THE SEEKING, 25 Life superhuman Truth's denizen liveth In works of great moment co-worker. Thitherward turn the immortals — Victoried strivers with darkness — Statures of mortals amplificate — Grandly unmoved by the tumults of humans, Banishing plaint for the life that now is. Verily they that seek do find. Life in all states hath a perfect. Purely sees who purity is. In the pure life of spirit bounds are not. Only the pureless are bounden. Wisely their eyes are holden. Gaze, O, gaze ! As we highten our rays And limn the orient home of Peace. IThe vision appears,] NAMELESS. Vision mirific ! It rises before me in phantom superlative. Terrene lights it shameth. 26 THE SEEKING. 'Tis glory the earthchild shall hope not to look on And live. See ! it seemeth to beckon ; it draws while it awes me. Nay — 'tis no fatal mirage that would lure me To ventures fanatic or pit-falls of passion. [The intense light dazzles him and he must needs turn away— looks again but the vision has vanished— given up to his emotions, he cries out imploringly:] O, Soul ! is it meet or unmeet to pursue it ? SOUL: I am thy mentor And thy true magnetic needle. Unerring do I point thee to thy pole-star, Rectitude- Guiding star and fixt — The North — whereby all mariners May steer safe course o'er life's vast sea. I charge thee /zve the life ideal, Not merely think it. Nay, — nor live it haply in some future But now — ^where thou art placed. Neither thy law expect to stand THE SEEKING. 27 To others equally confessed Ere yet their souls are trustingly enthroned. Ponder these things. Let charity — love — flow from thee in rivers. Pour self into not-self — say not Mine and ne'er thine. How to suit means to ends comes not in my province. I know not conventions — conditions — appliances. Thyself is the joiner. Raise thine own structure and leave in the basement fit place for the senses Till thou hast outlived them. More than this it behooveth me not to disclose. Look for that in the time thou art quit of thy Present. Then I shall be thou and thou shalt be one. As thou dost fit thyself wisdom to covet. Thine own Oracle gives it. It rests with thyself ! Ideals deceive not, tho' strangely elusive, Live the ideal Now and still now, As thou dost see it. Ever have courage to go where it leadeth. 28 THE SEEKING. EGO: Yes, the ideal. But how to reach the dangered hight ? * No stairway beckons. No ladder proffereth Round upon round to mount. Wings to cleave the airy main ? Never so surely fadeth the flower of new-born wish Ere yet *tis all abloom — as this : To soar as soars the dove. How rend the chains of environment ? How build a wall 'round aspiration To stay the profane of infantile minds ? What peace is found mid a crass unrest ? How yoke with idolaters' Juggernaut — Mammon-enslaving — Babylon-ruling ! And fend an unholy self-sacrifice ? Ah, vain is the hope for a sheer unattainable. How speaketh the Soul So calmly confiding — So mystic-instilling — THE SEEKING, So reason-transcending ? What is life by its law But death by the prevalent ? SOUL: Ever the star-lit eyes Shall gaze on the unattained. Ever the rainbow's ahead, Subtly elusive its shifting. Thinkst thou arrival is never, Or is't hid in the scan of the newer endeavor? THE FINDING. (Timoroso. — Tremendo diminuendo. — Poco a poco largo. — Larghissimo gravamente.) [Nameless, arriving at the edge of the wood, reclines upon the grassy hank of a surrounding lake and gazes meditatively into the azured water in front.— Falls asleep, and in a dream sees mirrored in the lake at his feet these words in shining letters /] ADONAI: There is that in secret transports The consecrate Would-Be to the haven of surety. Thence speeds it forth to the Now and Here Subtly as thought — the magnific of motion — Scepter and soul of it ! Circuits the map of the cosmic immensities, Drawing the eons — all space — to a point. 32 THE FINDING. What most is called real Is naught but Real's mask. Follow Ideal ! Up to me if thou darest. [Before fully noting the last line^ Nameless has awakened in an affrighting excitement.- Retains no further im'pression of it than this : Up , . , , dare.— He is seized with a rigor— it grows upon him.— A malignant presence confronts himj.— Despite protests it speaks. 1 FEAR: Yet hearken well, aspirant bold ! I, tho' a stranger, but whilom friend, Hold the odds against thee now. Straitly be adjured, witling: — Blackened and scarred by the wrath of elementaries, Blasted and cursed by the fury of monsters — Demoniac shrieks — meanings of victims — The hiss and foul cunning of soul-hating tempters Writhing to clutch for their sodomic uses / Powers might loose malefic Chaos — ghastly Ruin To torture and rack unto gibbering frenzy The innocent many ! [Nameless, dazed and tremulous, covers his face.'] Ay — and under the rose the soothsayers tell it, — THE FINDING, 33 Venomed and violate by the raged and the ravage-bent, Arch-impious wield of Abandon enthroned — Perils unspeakable ! Seductions unnerving ! Is the desolate pass leading up thro' the steeps — The dread realm of Awe Frail man stuns senseless Else bends him in homage — From the lowlands of Ignorance to the hights of the God-ma^5<=--;^ r-.^ — --^^i» Theseforthy portents— I '^JUN 12 1895 * Marvels of witchery. ^