The Twelve Powers of Man, by Charles Fillmore, [1930], at sacred-texts.com
The Twelve Powers of Man, by Charles Fillmore, [1930], at sacred-texts.com
WE CANNOT get a right understanding of the relation that the manifest bears to the unmanifest, until we set clearly before ourselves the character of original Being. So long as we think of God in terms of personality, just so long shall we fail to understand the relation existing between man and God.
Then let us dismiss the thought that God is a man, or even a man exalted far above human characteristics. So long as the concept of a man-God exists in consciousness, there will be lack of room for the true concept, which is that God is First Cause, the Principle from which flow all manifestations. To understand the complex conditions under which the human family exists, we must analyze Being and its creative processes.
Inherent in the Mind of Being are twelve fundamental ideas, which in action appear as primal creative forces. It is possible for man to ally himself with and to use these original forces, and thereby co-operate with the creative law, but in order to do this he must detach himself from the forces and enter into the consciousness of the idea lying back of them.
In Scripture the primal ideas in the Mind of Being are called the "sons of God." That the masculine
"son" is intended to include both masculine and feminine is borne out by the context, and, in fact, the whole history of the race. Being itself must be masculine and feminine, in order to make man in its image and likeness, "male and female."
Analyzing these divine ideas, or sons of God, we find that they manifest characteristics that we readily identify as masculine or feminine. For example, life is a son of God, while love is a daughter of God. Intelligence is a son of God, and imagination is a daughter of God. The evidence that sex exists in the vegetable and animal worlds is so clear that it is never questioned, but we have not so clearly discerned that ideas are also male and female. The union of the masculine and feminine forces in man is most potent in the affectional nature, and that these forces should endure and never be separated by external causes was laid down as a law by Jesus. He said, as recorded in Mark 10:6-9:
We should clearly understand that each of the various ideas, or sons and daughters of God, has identity and in creation is striving with divine might to bring forth its inherent attributes. It is to these ideas, or sons and daughters, that Being, or Elohim, says: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26).
Spiritual man is the sum total of the attributes or perfect ideas of Being, identified and individualized. This man is the "only begotten" of Elohim. Jehovah, or I AM THAT I AM, is the name of this divine man. He was manifest as the higher self of Jesus, and in the Scriptures is called the Christ. Jesus named Him the "Father in me"; in the book of Matthew, He called Him "Father" more than forty times. Christ is our Father; through Him, Elohim or original Being brings forth all human beings. It was Jehovah, or I AM, that formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Breathing is the symbol of inspiration. Jesus breathed upon His disciples, and said to them: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit."
Three primal forces of Being are manifest in the simplest protoplastic cell. Science says that every atom has substance, life, and intelligence. This corresponds with the symbolical creative process of Jehovah, as described in Genesis 2:7. The "dust of the ground" is substance; "breathed" refers to the impartation of intelligence; and the "living soul" is the quickening life. These three constitute the trinity of the natural world, in which the body of man is cast. When one understands the creative processes to be the working of the various principles of Being in the development of man, many inexplicable situations are cleared up. God cannot bring forth without law and order. To produce a man, there must be a combination of forces that at some stages of soul evolution may seem to work
against one another; but when one understands that the great creative Mind brings forth under law, reconciliation and consistency are found where in-harmony and contradiction seemed dominant.
Of all the daughters of God, love is undoubtedly the most beautiful, enticing, and fascinating. She is by nature exceedingly timid and modest, but when roused she is bold and fearless in the extreme. Mother love is as strong as life and will make every sacrifice to protect offspring. This whole-hearted, self-sacrificing aspect of love indicates a spirit deeper and stronger than the animal or the human, and we are forced to admit that it is divine. For this reason mother love is exalted to first place in our analysis of the great passion. But mothers should take heed lest they incorporate human selfishness into the divine love that is expressed in and through them.
The most popular expression of love in the world is the love between men and women. Here also love is misunderstood, and for that reason she has been forced to act in ways that are unnatural to her. She has also been compelled to do things that are abhorrent to her, yet under the compelling power of man's will she could not do otherwise. Right here is a crying need for a purer judgment of love and her right adjustment in the most sacred relation existing between men and women. Love is from God, and it is given to man in its virgin purity. It is the pure essence of Being that binds together the whole human family. Without love we should lose contact
with out mother earth, and, losing that, we should fly off into space and be lost in the star dust of unborn worlds. "Gravity" is mortal man's name for love. By the invisible arms of love we are held tight to earth's prolific bosom, and there we find the sweetest home in all the universe. All love of home is founded on man's innate love for this planet. When John Howard Payne wrote "Home, Sweet Home," he was inspired by mother love to sing of the only abiding place of this race--our dear mother earth.
The original Eden of the human family was planted by God on earth, and it is still here. Its prototype is within the human soul, but we have not entered it, because we have not understood the relation that love bears to the original substance of Being, out of which all things are formed.
It is no great task to tell of the higher aspects of love, but who will champion love submerged in human consciousness and smothered with selfishness? You say: "This is not love, but passion and lust." But we should remember that we have laid down, as a foundation principle, that God is love, and, as there is but one God, there can be but one love. This being true, we must find place in the creative law for every manifestation, regardless of its apparent contradictions of the righteousness of First Cause.
Love is submerged or cast down to sense consciousness between men and women in the marriage relation, and great misery floods the world in
consequence. This marriage should be a perpetual feast of love, and so it would be if the laws of love were observed. Courtship is usually the most joyous experience that comes to men and women, because love is kept free from lust.
If the laws of conjugality were better understood, the bliss of courtship would continue throughout all the years of married life and divorces would be unknown. It is a fact well known to psychologists that the majority of estrangements between husbands and wives result from the breaking of sex law. This sin that ends in feebleness and final disintegration of the physical organism is symbolically pictured in the so-called fall of man, in the early chapters of Genesis. Adam and Eve represent the innocent and uneducated powers of the masculine and feminine in every individual. The serpent symbolizes sensation, which combines with life and substance in all living organisms. The desire for pleasure, and for a seemingly short and easy way to get wisdom, tempts the feminine, and she eats, or appropriates. The masculine also eats. In the "cool of the day" (after the heat of passion has cooled off) they both find that they are naked. They have had pleasure with pleasure as the only object, which is contrary to the law of Being. All things should be done with a purpose, with pleasure as a concomitant only. Pleasure lends zest to all action, but it should never be exalted to the high place in consciousness.
Sex indulgence for mere pleasure is an eating or
appropriating of the pure substance that pervades the whole nervous system, which is appropriately compared to a tree. This excess of pleasure is sooner or later followed by equal reaction, which is destructive, and the body cries out in pain. The pleasure we call "good," and the pain we call "evil." Here, in a nutshell, is an explanation of eating of the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil."
When the substance in the organism is conserved and retained, the nerves are charged with a spiritual energy, which runs like lightning through an organism filled with the virgin substance of the soul. When in the ignorance of sensation men and women deplete their substance, the rose of the cheek and the sparkle of the eye fade away. Then the kiss and the touch that were once so satisfying become cold and lifeless.
In the conservation of this pure substance of life is hidden the secret of body rejuvenation, physical resurrection, and the final perpetuation of the whole organism in its transmuted purity. (John saw Jesus in this state of purity, as described in Revelation 1:12-16.) No man can in his own might attain this exalted estate, but through the love of God, demonstrated by Jesus, it is attainable by everyone. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Regeneration is not possible without love. As through the union of the male and female elements the new body of the infant is brought forth, so
through the joining of the creative forces of Spirit by souls attuned in love the new body in Christ is speedily formed. The work can be done through individual effort, and there must always be continuous constructive action between the masculine and feminine faculties of soul and body; but the anointing with the precious love of the divine feminine is necessary to the great demonstration. The woman who anointed the head and feet of Jesus "loved much," and Jesus said that which she did would be remembered wherever the Gospel should be preached in the whole world. This symbolical representation of pouring into the masculine the pure love of the feminine is a guide for all women. All over the world the submerged love of the feminine is crying for release from the sensual dominance of the masculine. The remedy is: Anoint man's head (will) and his feet (understanding) with the Christ love, and he will be purified and satisfied. Not a word need be spoken to bring about the change. If in quietness and confidence the presence and the power of divine love are affirmed, the law will be fulfilled.
Love submerged in sense still retains the remembrance of her virginity, and repels and resists the onslaughts of lust. Some of the most terrible ills are brought upon the body by the misuse of love. This is not the way of freedom; through a steady and firm holding to the one Presence and one Power will the son of man be lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Wisdom and love combined are symbolically described in Scripture as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (A.V.). But now men and women are studying the laws of Being, and in some degree are striving to observe them in the marriage relation. Instead of submerging love in lust, the children of light retain their virgin purity and go hand in hand toward the dawn of a new order, in which there will be a bringing forth of the multitude of waiting souls in a way which is now hidden, but which will be revealed when love is lifted up.