Before Manly Palmer Hall, a prominent American researcher, an expert on world religions, medicine and occult teachings, no one has yet peered into human anatomy simultaneously through the prism of occult knowledge, classical science and religions, did not compare the achievements of ancient, ancient Eastern, medieval European and modern medicine.
Excerpts from the book “Occult Human Anatomy”
About the author
Manly Palmer Hall, USA, 18.3.1901 – 1990
Born in Peterborough (Canada). In 1904 he moved to the United States with his parents. From his youth he became interested in the occult and mysticism, later he was a member of the Theosophical Society and the American Federation of Astrologers, joined the Masonic Lodge and the Rosicrucian Society. In 1922 he published his first book, Initiated by the Flame; six years later, the famous work “An Encyclopedic Exposition of Masonic, Hermetic, Kabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy” was published. In 1934, Hall founded the Society for Philosophical Research, where he lectured regularly (it was estimated that by 1940 he had delivered over 7,000 lectures). In 1956, the book “Secret Societies of America” was published, after which Hall was silent for a long time. Only in 1986 The Hermetic Roots of American Society was published. In total, during his life, Manly Hall published more than 50 books and several hundred articles.
Chapter I. The human body in symbolism
Scripture says that God created man in His own image and likeness. This is stated not only in the Bible of Christians, but also in all the sacred writings of almost all enlightened peoples. The Jewish patriarchs taught that the human body is a microcosm – or a small cosmos created in the image of the Macrocosm or the great Cosmos. This analogy between the finite and the infinite is considered one of the keys by which the mysteries of the Holy Scriptures are unlocked. There is no doubt that the Old Testament is a manual of physiology and anatomy for those who are able to read it with a scientific approach to it.
The ancient sages personified the functions of the human body, the qualities of the human mind, and the qualities of the human soul, and wove a majestic drama around their relationship. To the great Egyptian demigod, Hermes, humanity should be grateful for the law of analogy. The great Hermetic axiom was that what is above is like what is below, and what is below is like what is above.
The religions of the ancient world were all based on the worship of Nature, and in a degenerate form this has survived to this day under the guise of phallism. Worship of the parts and functions of the human body began in the later Lemurian period. In the age of the Atlanteans, this religion gave way to the worship of the Sun, but the new religion introduced into its teaching many of the rites and symbols of the previous faith.
It is a custom among all nations to build temples in the form of the human body. The sanctuary of the Jews, the great Egyptian temple at Karnak ( *In Lower Egypt, not Israel) , the religious buildings of the Hawaiian priests, and Christian churches erected in the form of a cross are examples of this. If the body of a man is placed with outstretched arms in the form of any of these buildings, then the elevation of the altar occupies the same position relative to the building that the brain occupies in the human body.
All the priests of the ancient world were anatomists. They recognized that all the functions of nature are reproduced in miniature in the human body. So they used man as a guide and told their students that to understand man is to understand the universe. These wise men believed that every star in the sky, every element in the earth, and every function in nature is represented in the human body by a corresponding center, pole, or activity.
This relationship between external nature and internal human nature was hidden from the crowd and constituted the secret teachings of the ancient priesthood. In Atlantis and Egypt, they took religion much more seriously than they do now. For these peoples, it was the essence of life. The priests had complete control over millions of ignorant people who were taught from childhood that these majestic patriarchs in long robes are the direct messengers of God; and people believed that any disobedience to the orders of the clergy brought the punishment of the Almighty on the head of the disobedient. The existence of the temple depended on its secret wisdom, which gave its priests power over the forces of nature and a significant superiority in knowledge and wisdom over the ignorant crowd led by them.
These sages knew that religion contained something far greater than the mere singing of mantras and hymns; they believed that only those who had an actual scientific knowledge of the occult functions of their own body could successfully advance along the path of salvation. The anatomical symbolism they developed in order to perpetuate his understanding has reached contemporary Christianity, but the keys to it seem to have been lost . A tragic situation is created for those who study religions: they are surrounded by thousands of symbols incomprehensible to them; but even sadder is the circumstance that they even forgot that these symbols in general once had some other meaning than the naive interpretation they themselves invented.
The notion, which has taken root in the minds of Christians, that their faith is a single, true, inspired doctrine that came into the world without parents, is extremely unreasonable. A comparative study of religions shows without any doubt that Christianity borrowed its philosophy and ideas from the religions and philosophies of the ancient and post-Flood pagan world. Between religious symbols and allegories that belonged to the ancient world long before the advent of Christianity, there are a few that we would like to draw your attention to.
The following Christian symbols and concepts come from pagan religions.
The Christian cross comes from Egypt and India; triple miter – from the religion of Mithra; the shepherd’s crook – from the mysteries of Hermes and from Greece, the virgin birth – from India; Transfiguration – from Persia and the Trinity is taken from the Brahmins. The Virgin Mary, as the Mother of God, we find in twelve different religions. There are more than twenty crucified Saviors of the world. The church bell tower is a modification of the Egyptian obelisks and pyramids, and the Christian devil is a somewhat modified Egyptian Typhon.
The more you delve into this question, the more you become convinced that there is nothing new under the sun. A conscientious study of the Christian religion proves beyond doubt that it represents an evolutionary development of primitive doctrines. Just as there is an evolution of physical forms, so there is an evolution of religions. If we have adopted and introduced into our doctrines the religious symbols of almost forty peoples, then this obliges us to at least partially understand the meaning of the myths and allegories we have borrowed, even if we were more ignorant than those from whom we took them.
This book is devoted to the task of explaining the relationship that exists between the symbolism of the ancient priests and the occult functions of the human body.
First of all, we must grasp the assumption that all scriptures are sealed with seven seals. In other words, it is necessary to have seven interpretations in order to fully understand the meaning of those ancient philosophical revelations that we call Holy Scripture.
Scripture was not intended to be historical. One who understands it literally understands only its smallest meaning. It is well known that Shakespeare in his dramas, for dramatic purposes, brought together the characters of people who were actually separated from each other by centuries; but Shakespeare did not write history, but drama. The same is true of the Bible. Scripture hopelessly confuses historians with conflicting chronological tables, and most historians will remain in this position until the Day of Judgment.
Scripture provides excellent material for disputes over its meaning, as well as a field for puzzling over the meaning of individual terms and the likely location of unknown cities. Most of the biblical cities that guidebooks now point to were named hundreds of years after the birth of Christ by pilgrims who assumed that these cities were somewhere near those mentioned in the Bible. All this may be evidence of persuasiveness for others, but for the thinker the conclusion is undeniable that history is the least important part in Scripture.
Just as the Buddha in India only transformed the views of the then Brahmins, just as Jesus gave a new face to the faith of Israel and gave his disciples and the world a teaching based on what had already existed before.
But he transformed it according to the needs of the people around him and the problems facing the European peoples.
The Essenes who brought up Christ were of Egyptian or Hindu origin, and His religion took the best of what was before Him. The speeches that have survived from Him are allegorical to a large extent and immerse the common man in a whole sea of mysteries incomprehensible to him, which was done, however, not without purpose, because if Shakespeare allows himself liberties in relation to history in order to present basic truths, it is as if the historians of Jesus have taken the character of man as the basis for a great drama.
He becomes the hero of a story sealed with seven seals, and those Christians who have studied symbolism can extract from this story the key to the true Christian mysteries. They will then understand that Scripture is eternal history, belonging to no nation or people, but being the tale of all nations and all peoples. For example, it is remarkable that when studying the life of Christ in the illumination of astronomy, he becomes the sun, and his disciples the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Between the luminaries we find scenes of His ministry, and in the backward movement of the equinoxes we find the story of His birth, growth, maturity and death for the sake of people.
The chemicals tortured in the retort also tell us about the life of the Master, because with the key to chemistry, Scripture becomes another book. In this special work, however, we will deal only with the relation of these allegories to the human body.
Among the primitive races, the human body served as a symbolic unit, and the gods and demons became the personification of bodily organs and functions. For some Kabbalists, the Holy Land is planned according to the human body and different cities are shown as centers of consciousness in a person. It is a marvelous subject for those who sincerely desire to explore the ancient Mysteries in greater depth. We cannot hope to cover the entire subject as a whole, but if you extract from this little book the key to the state of things, then we hope that you will go further along this line of thought until you include its comprehensiveness and are able to remove at least at least one seal from the book of Divine Revelation.
Chapter II. Three Worlds
According to the Mystery Schools, the human body was divided into three main parts; and by analogy with this, the outer universe was considered to be composed of three worlds: namely, heaven, earth, and the underworld. The sky was the highest world and for some unknown reason it was supposed to be above, although Ingersol convincingly proves that due to the rotation of the earth, up and down are constantly changing places. Almost all religions teach that God dwells in heaven. Their followers are instructed to believe that God is above them, so they pray, raising their hands and calling to Him and asking Him for anything, they raise their eyes to heaven. Some peoples believed that He dwells on the tops of mountains, which are the highest points on earth. Wherever He is and whatever He may be, His abode is above and overshadows the world below.
Between the sky above and the underworld below is a place that the Scandinavians call Midgard – or the middle garden. It’s called earth. It hangs in space and is the place of residence of people and other living beings. She communicated with the sky through a bridge – a rainbow, along which the Gods descended on her and it was believed that the craters of volcanoes and cracks in the earth communicated with the underworld, with the country of darkness and oblivion. Here “under the sky and governing the earthly worlds”, as Goethe said, there is Nature. Green grass, flowing rivers, oceans exist only in the middle world, which is a kind of neutral place where the hordes of good and evil wage their eternal battle of Armageddon.
Below, in darkness and gloom, in torment and suffering, lies the hellish world, which we call the underworld. It is great below, because just as true as we think that heaven is above, we think that the underworld is below, while the middle place, the earth, is the dividing line between them. In hell are the forces of evil, forces tearing apart, tormenting, destroying, always bringing grief to the earth and tirelessly fighting to overturn the heavenly Gods.
This whole system is an anatomical myth, because the heavenly world of the ancients – the cherished temple on the top of the mountain – was a skull with its divine contents. He is the abode of the gods in man. The sky is considered to be above because it occupies the northern end of the human spine. The temple of the gods who rule the earth is said to be located at the North Pole, which is also the home of St. Nicholas, because the North Pole is the positive end of the spine of the Planetary Sovereign.
St. Nicholas descending through the chimney with his bunch of evergreen (Christmas tree) at the time of the year when nature is dead – also has a beautiful Masonic interpretation for those who wish to study it. The same is true of the manna that came down from heaven to feed the children of Israel in the wilderness, for manna is the substance that descends from the brain down the spine. The Hindus symbolized the spine as the stalk of the sacred lotus; therefore, the cranium and its contents are personified by this flower.
The spine is the ladder of Jacob, connecting heaven and earth, while its 33 vertebrae are the degrees of Freemasonry or the number of years of the life of Christ. Through these steps the aspirant ascends in consciousness to reach the temple of initiation which is on the top of the mountain. In this temple, under vaults with a hole in the floor (foramen magnum), the great initiations of the mysteries are given.
The Himalayan mountains rise above the ground and represent the shoulders and upper half of the body. They are the highest mountains in the world. Somewhere on their peaks stands a temple resting (like the heavens of the Greeks) on the shoulders of Atlas. It is interesting to note that the atlas is the upper vertebra in the human spine, on which the processes of the skull rest. There are many caves in the brain (ventricles and folds) and (according to Eastern legends) sages live in them – yogis and hermits.
It is said that the caves of yogis are located in the upper reaches of the river Ganges. Every nation has its own sacred river. For Christians it is the Jordan, for the Egyptians it was the Nile; while among the Hindus it is the Ganges. The sacred river is of course a channel in the spine that rises between the peaks of the mountain. The holy people in their caves are the centers of spiritual feelings in the human brain. These holy men are the seven dormant Qurans who must remain in the darkness of their cave until the spiritual fire revives them.
The brain is, of course, the upper room in which, as the Scripture says, Jesus met with his disciples and it is believed that the disciples themselves are the twelve convolutions of the brain. These are the twelve convolutions which later send their proclamations through the nerves into the body below, to convert the Gentiles, or to preach the Scriptures in the middle earth. These twelve convolutions are gathered around a central cavity in the brain (third ventricle) which is the Holy of Holies – the seat of grace – where between the outstretched wings of angels Jehovah speaks with high clergymen, and where the glory of Shekinah is glorified day and night. From here the spirit finally Ascends from the place of execution in the skull. With the help of clairvoyance, it was established that the spirit not only leaves the body, but also enters it through the top of the head – which, perhaps,
The trinity in man dwells in the three great chambers of his body, whence it radiates its power to the three worlds. These centers are: brain, heart and reproductive system. These three main chambers in the pyramid, as well as the halls in which the apprentice, journeyman and master mason are received in the lodges of blue Freemasonry. In these three chambers dwell the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which are symbolized by the three-letter word Aum.
The transmutation, regeneration and development of these three great centers is obtained through the sounding of the “Lost Word”, which is the great secret of the Masonic Order. From the nerves of the spinal column come impulses and vital forces to carry this out. Therefore, the Mason is told to think carefully about his substitute word, which means “the marrow of the bones.” In the cerebellum or cerebellum, which governs the motor system of the human body and is the only brain developed in an animal, there is a small tree-like design, which is symbolized by an acacia branch and is mentioned as such in Masonic allegories.
Both hemispheres of the brain were called among the ancients Cain and Abel, and had a great connection with the legend of the curse of Cain, which is literally the curse of imbalance. Because the killer of a balanced spirit, Cain is cast out and doomed to wander the face of the earth.
I have a very interesting skull that was originally on the killer’s shoulders. It is of good structure, but bears the Curse of Cain. This person harbored enmity towards another person and carefully cherished this enmity, and cherishing enmity can sometimes become a very dangerous thing. This face swore that when he met his enemy, he would cut out his heart and throw it in his face.
A number of years passed, his hatred grew, and finally, having met his enemy, he attacked him and carried out his intention. He was hanged for this crime, but the skull, which is, as it were, a witness to the brain, shows very interesting things: the right half of the brain is under the control of Mercury – the planet of intelligence – and due to the crossing of the cerebral nerves at the base of the skull, it controls the left side of the body. The left half of the brain is under the control of Mars, the spirit of impulse and anger, and governs the right side of the body and the strong right hand. The result of this hatred is that the left posterior half of the brain is exactly twice as large as the right side.
This man allowed Mars to control his nature. The intemperance of Mars dominated him and for the curse of Cain he had to pay with his life. Science knows that the boundary between a genius and a madman is very small, because for any predominance of vice or quality one has to pay with imbalance. Unbalance always distorts the point of view , and a distorted point of view inevitably leads to unhappiness.
In the skull is a control board that controls the activities of the body. Every function of a person below the back of the head is controlled by a corresponding center of consciousness in the brain. The proof of this fact is that damage to some brain centers entails paralysis of certain parts of the body. Medicine now knows that the spinal cord is an extension of the brain, and some authorities even defend the view that the spinal cord is capable of manifesting intelligence along its entire length. This spinal cord is that flaming sword that is placed in the gates of paradise. The gardens of paradise are located in the skull, in which a tree grows, bearing 12 different fruits.
In the brain there are chambers with vaults and passages, which correspond to the arcs and arches of the temples, while the third ventricle is undoubtedly the Lord’s chambers of the Great Pyramid. The spinal cord is the Ancient Serpent. In Central and South America, the Lord the Savior is called Quetzalcoatl, this name means “feathered snake”, and such has always been his symbol. This is the bronze serpent that Moses erected in the wilderness. The nine rattles of the snake’s tail are called the number of man and represent the sacral and coccygeal bones, which contain the secret of human evolution …
Every organ of the human body is reproduced in the brain, where it can be found by the law of analogy. There are two rudimentary human forms, one male and one female, intertwined together in the brain. This is the Yin and Yang of China, white and black dragons biting each other. The organ of expression of one of these figures is the epiphysis or pineal gland, and the other is the pituitary gland or cerebral appendage. These two endocrine glands deserve great attention because they are very important factors in the development of human consciousness.
Although they seem to have no function, they nevertheless have not atrophied, and since nature does not preserve unnecessary organs, they must therefore play a very important role. It is known that these glands are more active in a high degree of intelligence than in a low one, and in some born idiots they are very small. These two small glands are called the head and tail of the dragon of wisdom. They are the copper and zinc poles of the electric current for which the whole body serves as a battery.
The pituitary gland, which rests in the Turkish saddle of the sphenoid bone directly behind the bridge of the nose, namely slightly below it and communicates with the third ventricle through a small tube (inbundibulum) is the female pole or negative center, which takes care of the expression of physical energy. It also governs the size and weight of the body to a large extent. It is also a thermometer indicating disorder in any of the glands in the chain of endocrine glands.
Endocrinology (the science of the endocrine glands) is still in its infancy, but the time will come when it will be considered the most important in medicine. The pituitary gland was known in the ancient world under the following symbols: the alchemical retort, the dragon’s mouth, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Grail, the waxing moon, the font of purification, one of the Cherubim, the ark, Isis in Egypt, Radha in India, the fish’s mouth. It may indeed be called the coming glory of the physical man. At the other end of the third ventricle and slightly above it is the pineal gland (epiphysis), which in appearance resembles a pine cone; hence it got its name.
E. A. Walis Budge, Curator of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum, mentions in one of his writings the Egyptian custom of tying pine cones to the top of the head. He also points out that on papyrus scrolls they are placed on the crown of the head of the dead, who are in the presence of Osiris, Lord of the underworld. Undoubtedly this symbol has to do with the pineal gland.
There is also a custom among some African tribes, which forms part of their religious rite, namely, to attach pieces of fat on the head and let it, melted in the sun, flow over them. It is interesting to note that the American Indian wears his feather, which originally symbolized his Christ, in the same place where a Christian monk shaves his head. The Hindus teach that the pineal gland is the third eye, called the eye of Dangma. Buddhists call it the all-seeing eye, and in Christianity it is spoken of as a single eye.
We are taught that in ancient times the pineal gland was the organ of orientation through which people cognized the spiritual world, but that with the advent of the material senses and two eyes, it ceased to be used and during the period of the Lemurian race it came to the state in which it is now. in the brain. It is said that children who in childhood repeat past periods of their evolution have some limited ability to use this third eye until the age of seven, that is, until the age when the bones of the skull fuse. This explains the semi-clairvoyance of children, who are generally much more psychic than adults.
The pineal gland is supposed to secrete some fatty substance called tar, just like pine sap. This word is supposed to refer to the founding of the Rosicrucian order, who worked on the secretion of the pineal gland and were looking for the possibility of opening the one eye, for the Scripture says “If your eye were One, your body would be filled with light.”
The pineal gland is the tail of a dragon and has a small finger-like process at one end. This gland is called Joseph because it is the father of the God-man. The finger-shaped process is called the rod of God, and sometimes the holy spear. Its shape resembles an alchemical vessel for evaporation. This is a spiritual organ, which in the future is destined to become what it already was, namely, a connecting link between the human and the divine. The vibrating finger at the end of this gland is the wand and scepter of the high priest. Certain exercises, as taught by the Eastern and Western secret schools, cause this little finger to vibrate and this causes a buzzing or buzzing sound in the brain, which is sometimes very unpleasant, and especially if the person experiencing this phenomenon, as often happens, does not understand anything. in these experiences.
In the middle of the brain, surrounded by convolutions, is the third ventricle – the arched chamber of initiation, around which sit the three kings, the three great centers of life and power – the pituitary gland, the pineal gland and the thalamus. This chamber also contains a small gravel-like grain, which undoubtedly has a connection with the king’s ark in the Great Pyramid. It is assumed that the third ventricle is the seat of the soul and that the radiance radiating from the heads of saints and sages is a golden radiance emanating from this third ventricle.
Between the eyes, above the root of the nose, there is a cavity called the sinus frontalis. The slight bulge that forms the sinus of the frontal bone is known in phrenology as the seat of the individual. Here the jewels are placed on the forehead of the Buddha, and from this place a snake rose from the crown of the ancient Egyptians. Some Mystery schools teach that this is the seat of Jehovah in a human body. While its function is manifested through the reproductive system, its center of consciousness, as part of the human spirit, is supposed to be in the sea of blue ether called the veils of Isis, in the center of the frontal sinus. If one studies the human body with the help of clairvoyance, then this small dot is always shown as a black dot and cannot be determined.
The Palatine hill of the ancients, on which the temples of Jupiter and Juno stood, also has its place in the human body. The palatine bone is hill-shaped and directly above it are the eye sockets, containing both eyes, which are Jupiter and Juno of the ancients.
The cross, of course, represents the human body. Its upper part is the head of a man, rising above the horizontal line of his extended arms. As already mentioned, the great churches and cathedrals of the whole world were built in the form of a cross and contain (where the head should be) an altar on which lighted candles burn. These candles symbolize the spiritual sense centers in the brain, and the custom of making a rosette-shaped window indicates a soft spot at the top of the skull. The skull is the upper room, there is the holy of holies of the Masonic temple, and only the pure can strive to penetrate into it.
The pterygoid bone, which medicine knows by the name os sohenoidale, is the Egyptian scarab, bearing in its claws the pituitary gland, which exalts the radiant spark of immortality that is in the frontal sinus.
Ancient mythology teaches us that the Gods descended from the sky and lived with people, teaching them in the arts and sciences. Similarly, the divine forces in man descend from the heavens of their brain to do the work of building and restoring natural tissues. We are told that upon reaching the pinnacle of evolution, the human body will gradually begin to dissolve again in the brain (as it was at its beginning) until nothing remains but seven spherical centers radiating seven perfect cognizing senses, which are the Spirits before the Throne and the Savior. whom He sends out into the world to redeem it during the seven periods of its growth.
Man is an overturned plant which receives its nourishment from the sun, just as a plant derives its nourishment from the earth. As the life of a plant rises up its trunk to nourish its leaves and branches, so also the life in a man (rooted in his brain) descends to produce the same result. This descending life is symbolized as the World Savior who descends into the world to die for the people. Later, these lives return back to the brain, where they glorify man before all the worlds of creation. We’ve talked enough about the brain. Now we will deal with the next remarkable part of a person, namely his spinal column.
Chapter III. Vertebral column
Connecting two worlds (the sky above and the sphere of darkness below), the spinal column is a chain of thirty-three parts that protect the spinal cord. This ladder of bones plays a very important role in the religious symbolism of the ancients. Often referred to as a winding road or stairs. Sometimes it is called a snake; sometimes with a rod or scepter.
The Hindus teach that there are three different channels or tubes in the spinal system. They call them Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. These tubes connect the lower reproductive centers of the body to the brain. The Greeks symbolized this with the caduceus or winged staff of Hermes. It consisted of a long trunk (central sushumna) that ended in a ball or bump (pons medulla ablongata), on each side of this ball were raised wings, which were supposed to represent both hemispheres of the brain. Above this wand rise and coil around it two snakes, one black and the other white. they represent Ida and Pingala.
The ancient Hindus have a legend about the goddess Kundalini, which tells that she descends from the sky with the help of a ladder or a rope to a small island floating on a great sea. Comparing this with embryology, it becomes obvious that this ladder or cord is the umbilical cord, while the small island represents the solar plexus.
When the ladder is cut off from heaven, the goddess flees in fear into a cave (sacred plexus), where she hides from the eyes of people. As Amaterasu, the Japanese goddess of the Radiant Face, she must be banished from her cave, because as long as she is there and does not want to come out, the world will have to remain in darkness. Kundalini is a Sanskrit word and means “serpentine or revolving gas or force”.
This force (as the Eastern sages say) can be lifted up through the central spinal canal (Sushumna). When this essence touches the brain, it opens the centers of spiritual consciousness and inner knowing and brings with it spiritual enlightenment. But the method of implementation is the most secret science of the Eastern saints, because they know that this spiraling revolving force can not only bring enlightenment, but also deadly poison, (like the snake, its symbol).
Fragments of Eastern occultism are constantly penetrating the Western world, but we must unfortunately say that they bring with them an infinite amount of suffering and sorrow, because when these great truths fall into the hands of persons unable to correctly understand and apply them, they destroy the mind. and reason.
Along the spinal cord there are a large number of nerve nodes or plexuses. All of them have their place in religious symbolism. For example: the ancient Jews called the plexus sacralis and the ganglion sacrococcygeum the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a small plexus in the region of the kidneys called the plexus sagittalis – it was known to the ancients by the name of the city of Tarsus, where St. Paul fought the beasts.
Higher occultism teaches that lotus flowers (nerve centers in the spine) are reflexes or negative poles – witnesses to the seven great positive centers of consciousness found in the brain. These seven work through the centers of the spinal cord in much the same way as the seven Spirits before the Throne work through the planetary bodies.
The student is warned not to work on these centers in the spinal cord, but is allowed to work on their actual directing centers in the brain.
The wanderings of the children of Israel in the desert, the wanderings of the Mohammedans to Mecca, the endless pilgrimages of Hindu saints who spend their whole lives traveling from one shrine to another, represent the pilgrimage of spiritual fire (Kundalini) through the nerve centers along the spinal cord. By some special means, force is directed to these centers in turn until, as can be seen by clairvoyance, they become large, luminous centers from which rays of light emanate like petals. Each of these lotus flowers has a different number of petals, according to the number of nerves branching off from it.
It is said that the Logos, when the time came for him to create the material universe, entered into a state of deep meditation, concentrating the power of his thought on the seven flower-like centers of the seven worlds. Gradually, His power descended from the brain, which was the great upper world, and touching these flowers one by one, gave birth to the lower worlds. When at last His spiritual fire touched the lowest center, the physical world was created and His fire found itself at the base of the spinal cord.
When the world returns to Him and He again becomes perfect in consciousness, it will be because he will draw back the life from the seven centers, starting from the lowest, and it will return back to the brain. Thus, the path of evolution for all living beings consists in raising this fire, the descent of which made possible their manifestation in this lower world and the raising of which will bring them back into harmony with the higher worlds.
This myth about the life force that descended and took over the worlds is common to all civilized peoples of the earth. This is Hiram Aviv who built the Masonic temple (bodies) and was killed by the three guides he created just as Christ was killed by the sons of this world.
Because the spinal fire is a whirling snake-like force, the snake was in all parts of the world a symbol depicting the Saviors of the world. Uraeus on the forehead of the Egyptian priests was a symbol of Kundalini – the sacred cobra, which, being erected in the desert, saved everyone who looked at her (Moses and the bronze serpent).
Just as the brain is the center of the divine world, so is the solar plexus the center of the human world, because as a semi-consciousness, it serves as a link connecting the unconsciousness below with the consciousness above. Man is not only capable of thinking with his brain; he is capable of some degree of thinking through the nerve centers of the solar plexus. Here it will probably be appropriate to describe the difference between a medium and a clairvoyant. For the average person there is no such difference, but for the mystic these two phases of spiritual vision are separated by whole periods of human evolution.
A clairvoyant is one who has raised the spinal serpent into the brain and by his growth has earned the right to see the invisible worlds with the help of the third eye or the pineal gland. This organ of consciousness, which millions of years ago connected man with the invisible worlds, closed during the Lemurian period, when objective senses began to develop. Occultists, however, in the way hinted at above, can reopen this eye and by means of it explore the invisible worlds.
Clairvoyants are not born: they are made. Mediums do not become: they are born.
A clairvoyant may become one after many years, sometimes lives, spent in self-preparation; on the other hand, the medium, by sitting in a dark room or by similar methods, may come to the results in a few days.
The medium uses the solar plexus as a mirror and the pictures imprinted in the invisible ethers are reflected on his sensitive nerves. Through the spleen (which is the entrance to the etheric body), the medium allows disembodied entities to enter his spiritual constitution and the result is voices and other spiritual manifestations.
Automatic writing is achieved in such a way that the ethereal hand of the outside being is allowed to temporarily control the medium’s physical hand. This is not possible until the medium has removed his own ethereal counterpart from his hand, because two things cannot occupy the same place at the same time.
Periodic disconnection of the vital forces in the physical hand is very harmful and often ends in paralysis. Mediumship is abnormal for a person, while clairvoyance is a natural result and development of its spiritual nature.
For one clairvoyant there are a hundred mediums, because a man can become clairvoyant only through self-guidance and the manifestation of great power; while the weaker and sicker a person is, the better a medium he will be. The clairvoyant develops his mind, filling it with useful knowledge, while the first instruction given to the future medium is: “Drive all thoughts out of your head.”
The reason why mediumship through the solar plexus is a turning back can be summed up in the following words: the group spirits who govern the fate of the animal kingdoms do their work by means of the pictures they throw on the solar plexus of the animals, because the animal has no self-conscious mind.
The result of this is that, instead of thinking with its own brain, the animal thinks with the brain of the group spirit, to which it is attached by an invisible magnetic thread. These filaments conduct their impressions and photograph them on the sympathetic nervous system. Having no will of its own, the animal is unable to fight these orders and therefore obeys unconditionally.
A person controls himself with the help of the spinal nervous system. Now he has developed his individuality and the sympathetic system no longer controls him. By opening himself to impulses through the area of the solar plexus, the medium thus harms his own growth, preventing the cerebrospinal system from controlling his destiny.
Man always likes to look for support in external things. He does not like to go into the consideration of every problem and solve it with the help of the brain given to him by God. He constantly leans on the invisible worlds, asking them to help him do the work that he should have done by his own efforts.
Thousands of people bear karmic responsibility for the medium, because many follow this profession because hundreds of people want to talk with dead relatives or know what is happening on the commodity exchange. Those who, with their patronage, support things that they themselves do not approve of, they are personally responsible for the harm that is caused to other people because of their selfishness. Therefore, the difference between clairvoyance and mediumship lies in the length of the spinal cord. This is the difference between the positive and the negative, the difference between the semi-darkness of the room in which the seance takes place and the semi-light of the temple.
All organs in the human body have their own religious significance. The heart with its chambers is itself a temple standing on a mountain – a diaphragm. The spleen, with its small umbrella-shaped body, collects the rays of the sun and takes care of the etheric body. The etheric body is associated with the spleen, which releases white blood cells into the circulatory system.
We know that the human body has been the inspiration for almost all mechanical constructions. Hinges – copied from the human body, as well as articular connections. It is said that the first level (water level) was reproduced from the arterial circulatory system. Hundreds of machines and instruments working around us have been inspired by the subtle work of our own vehicles, because the human body is the most wonderful machine that man can study.
The close connection between the reproductive system below and the brain above (for the brain is a positive reproductive system) is undoubtedly due to the spinal cord which connects them. At a certain time, the series of little doors which now separate the brain from the reproductive system open and the Sushumna becomes an open passage, so that every impulse is immediately carried to both ends of the body.
Therefore, the candidate takes a vow of celibacy, because the close connection that exists in an advanced student between the brain and the reproductive system requires the complete preservation of all vital energies. The glands are directly related to the reproductive system; they are really part of their positive pole in the brain.
The present sad custom of vaccinating children and cutting out their glands as soon as they are born will, after a while, result in a certain degeneration of the race. Infection of the glands most often occurs from the fact that the child eats too much sweets during the first years of his life. Conclusion: do not cut out the glands, but stop giving sweets.
Most parents are responsible for the morbid condition of their children. Either out of ignorance or indulgence, they allow the childish consciousness, not yet controlled by the higher vehicles, to be destroyed before life itself has actually begun at all. When children get sick in the first years of their lives, the doctor can usually find the root of this evil in the parents themselves, and therefore not the child, but the mother or father would have to be treated with pills in such a case.
If the stomach is kept in proper condition, the glands will give very little cause for concern. The unconditional economy shown by nature in the construction of all her creations is proof enough that God did not waste his time when he created the glands and appendices. He obviously had a reason for creating them, but these poor innocent organs have become a gold mine for doctors who remove them at the slightest illness.
We are told that the vertical position assumed by the human body, which causes the contents of the intestines to make part of their way upwards, is the cause of appendicitis, which is not found in beings kept in a horizontal position. Each organ not only has its visible purpose, but it also has its invisible spiritual purpose, and one should be envious of the one who manages to go through his life path, retaining as much as possible of his original anatomical parts of the body.
Since we have already spoken of the duty of science to the human body, we must add that the decimal system is the result of the fact that man originally counted on his fingers and thus ten became the unit of calculation. The ancient cubit is the distance between the elbow and the tip of the second finger, or approximately 18 inches. Thus, in studying things, we go back until we come to the conclusion that almost all the things with which man has surrounded himself are borrowed from the body with which God has surrounded his spirit.
A person gradually gains control not only over the organs of his body, but also over their functions. Science says that some organs work automatically or mechanically. But occultism reveals that there is nothing mechanical in the human body in its functions.
As an example, let’s take a worker throwing a piece of iron at the wheels and levers of a softly running machine. There is a loud crack, and it stops… If, on the other hand, you figuratively throw something foreign into the human body, it immediately begins the process of throwing it back. It surrounds the foreign element, envelops it and tries to absorb it. If this turns out to be impossible, it tries to throw it out through a channel built for this purpose. If this remedy also proves ineffective, it most often gets used to the presence of a foreign body and continues to work as best it can. This certainly shows that the organic parts of the human body have some inherent intelligence, and therefore they are not a machine, because no machine has a mind.
Paracelsus, the great Swiss physicist, who returned to Switzerland after a number of years in the East to teach medicine, was the first to give the European world the idea of the Spirits of Nature. Paracelsus taught that the functions of nature are under the control of little beings, invisible to the normal senses, who work in the kingdoms of life of minerals, plants, and parts of the human body, and intelligently carry on this work.
These elementals are the invisible intelligences that direct the human body and its functions and are under the control of the great celestial hierarchy of Scorpio, on whose care all the construction of bodies in Nature lies.
As the human consciousness develops, it acquires more and more control over the functions of its various organs.
There are two types of muscles – voluntary and involuntary muscles. The difference between the two is that the voluntary muscles, which are controlled by the conscious mind of the individual, have bidirectional and criss-crossing fibers, while the involuntary muscles do not have criss-crossing fibers.
The heart is considered to be an involuntary muscle, but it now shows criss-crossing fibers – thus hinting at the day when man will consciously and intelligently regulate the beating of his own heart.
The same will be true of all other organs, which are destined for all the periodic changes that take place in the structure of man.
An Eastern ascetic can live successfully with a stopped beating of the heart; he can stop it or launch it at will. By raising the tongue in such a way that it closes off the air to the lungs, it can remain in a state of suspended life for months without dying… Many Eastern chelas do this when they receive a spiritual initiation outside of the physical body. There were proven cases when these holy people were buried in the ground. After weeks – when they took the body out of the ground, it looked dry, like skin. He was poured with water, and after a while the man, who had not breathed for weeks, came to his senses and got up. This is the result of the extraordinary control of the mind over the functions of the body.
Occultism teaches that the whole universe is in the human body – and that it has its worlds, its plans and its gods and goddesses. Millions of tiny cells are its inhabitants. They are grouped into kingdoms, peoples, races. There are bone cells and nerve cells here, and millions of these little creatures, put together, create one part, consisting of many constituent parts.
The Supreme Ruler and God of this great world is the consciousness of man, which says “I am”. This consciousness takes its universe with it and moves to another city. Each time it passes up and down the street, it carries with it hundreds of millions of solar systems, which are so small that man cannot be aware that they really are worlds.
Similarly, we ourselves are individual cells in the body of an infinite creation, which rushes through infinity with an unknown speed. Suns, moons, stars are, as it were, the bones of a large skeleton, consisting of all the substances of the universe. Our own little lives are part of an infinite life rushing through the arteries and veins of space. But all this is so vast that it surpasses the understanding of the little “I am” in us.
Therefore, we can say that both extremes are equally incomprehensible. We live in a middle world between the infinitely great on one side and the infinitely small on the other. As we grow, so does our world, as a result of a corresponding expansion of our understanding of all these wonders.
Chapter IV. Hell worlds
At the base of the spinal cord is the throne of the Lord of Images, commonly called Iegova or Shiva. The lingam is its symbol. He rides a large bull, symbolizing earthly matter. His daughter is death and destruction, though he is not inherently evil. He builds bodies that enable us to act in the lower worlds. He crystallizes them along the lines of force. Geometry is a skeleton and all the bodies it builds are geometric problems, geometric angles crystallized into rocks and stones.
Gradually, the crystallization that brings the bodies into the world brings them to too much density and resistance to the subtle impressions of the spiritual consciousness. They slowly turn to stone and death is the result of the very cause that brought them into the world.
The ancient races of mankind worshiped the reproductive properties of life. They felt that the highest expression of life was power, which in turn gives life to the world. Therefore, the life-giving principle was personified in a deity who gave life to all things, or rather brought to manifestation the dormant life, which in the physical world cannot grow and develop without a conductor of solid substance.
For the occultist, birth is death and death is awakening.
The mystics of ancient times taught that to be born into the physical world is to enter the grave, because no other plane of nature is as unyielding and limited as the earthly one. Time and space are the bars of the dungeon, limiting the soul to a narrow circle. Heat and cold torment the soul, age deprives it of its abilities, and the whole life of a person is only a preparation for death.
Since life is lived under the shadow of death, they taught that life is a mockery, an empty thing that only seems gilded to the inattentive eye, but on closer examination it turns out to be dull and passed by worms. The physical body becomes a burial place, a grave, a burial place in which the spirit lies in anticipation of the day of liberation, when, like a virgin spark, it will again ascend from a broken earthen urn. Therefore, in all religions of the world, we find the lower world – represented as a black hole, into which the three-headed Yama plunges the souls of the damned, so that they suffer in the hell that they created for themselves, for, verily, each people from their own nature creates for themselves those demons, who torment him.
Here is Typhon, the Egyptian god of destruction, with the body of a pig and the head of a crocodile, and waits with bared jaws to devour those who have failed to properly use life’s opportunities.
In most nations, the devil is depicted as half-animal, or half-human. He lives in the animal nature of man and those people whose lives are governed by their appetites, inclinations, dislikes, hatred and fear – and do not need further damnation; they themselves have built their own hell and endure its torment.
The reproductive system is gradually absorbed by the brain and the man of the next great world period will produce his offspring, or at least create vehicles for him through the larynx, which is the organ of the word. We are taught that a small etheric body gradually develops near the larynx; it will in the future create an organ of positive reproduction. Those who are unable to raise the spinal fire through the Sushumnu channel will be separated into a subsidiary kingdom, like the present monkeys.
The physical body is considered to be under the control of the moon, which, as you know, governs all fluids on earth. The Moon was the last incarnation of the Earth Spirit, and humanity passed its stage of animal consciousness in the etheric body of the Lord of the Moon.
Lunar spirits are called “ancestors” and are known to Christians as angels. These beings control the reproductive forces of animals and man. An incarnating life often chooses its future physical body several years before it appears in the world. It is said that the ethereal seed is placed in the body of the parent twenty years before the birth of the child. This is due to the search for a specially suitable environment for his material and spiritual needs.
Some occult schools have taught that the spiritual consciousness of a person is not attached to any part of the body, but is located in any of them, depending on where his thought is directed.
We know that there are three worlds in which a person can be.
The first is the mental world, where he can live surrounded by his thoughts, his dreams and aspirations.
The second is the human world, where he can be one of the people of the large middle class – who think a little, eat a little, sleep a little and constantly worry …
The third possible world is the animal world, where a person can live among passions, lusts and hatreds that burn his soul and devour his body.
The history of the primitive races shows that they passed through all these stages, until at last a few became really thinking beings.
The blood of each person is individual. When it crystallizes, it gives geometric shapes that are different for each face. By blood analysis, one could have a much more reliable system for solving crimes than by using Bertillon’s prints or fingerprints. The history of the human soul is written in his blood. The place he occupies in Evolution, his hopes and his fears are imprinted on the ethereal forms that flow in his blood streams.
Until the red blood entered the body, the human spirit could not enter the body, but hovered over it, being tied to it by an electrical thread. By clairvoyantly studying crickets, grasshoppers, and similar small creatures, one can observe impulses from small balls hovering over their bodies, impulses derived from the primitive movement of the senses that they produce. Therefore it is said that the real boundary between plants and animals is drawn by the appearance of red blood. As a result, some small fish, shellfish, etc. are technically nothing but plants, although science does not recognize them as such.
The liver is the key to red blood. The red robe of Lucifer got its color from blood, while the word Lucifer actually means “bringer of light” or warmth and is a name for blood. For this reason, he is a spirit of temptation. In the Christian mysteries, the perforation of the liver of Christ with the spear of the centurion is especially mystical, while Prometheus, a friend of man, hangs over the peaks of the Caucasus Mountains and the kite torments his liver, which represents the same myth, but expressed in the symbolism of the ancient Greeks.
Further, it is interesting to note the relationship between the words “live” (live) and “liver” (liver) because to have a liver means to live. Along the same line, we can note that the word “live” (live) read on the contrary becomes the word “evil” (evil) and that the word “lived” (lived) becomes “devil” (devil). This interesting affinity is observed not only in English, but to a certain, lesser extent, in many other languages. When we begin to do this, it leads us to the study of Kabbalah, which is the analysis of symbolically considered words.
Red is the color of blood and the key to the liver and its effect on animals is significant. It excites, irritates – drives animals crazy. Therefore, it is often taken for cloaks in bullfights. The attackers throw them at the bull’s head, which usually infuriates him. The use of red lights is usually in black magic. Evil magicians use them to materialize ghosts, while medicine has already discovered that it is a strong irritant when applied to the human body.
During anger and hatred, the astral aura of a person is dotted with red lights, which are very similar to lightning. Very often, the base of the spinal cord glows with a dark red fire, a symbol of hatred, passion or anger. This red light that burns forever at the base of the spinal cord gave rise to the story of hellfire and damnation, but the narrator forgot to remind the profane that they carry their own hell with them wherever they go. It is said that the red power is refracted from the white sunlight through the body of Samael, the spirit of Mars. Hence the red glow in the sky. Mars is the god of war, quarrel, hatred and misunderstanding. He was the patron deity of the Roman Empire, whose uniformed soldiers were dressed in red as a sign of his authority. Following the guidance of this patron, they conquered the world and then they themselves fell by swords.
But if red is the color of the body, then yellow is considered the color of the soul. For this reason, the Buddhas and Saviors of the world are usually symbolized surrounded by a golden halo or radiance. This light is yellow clothes; also the light that testifies before the darkness, about which St. John wrote. This light, flowing through the third ventricle, represents the Shekinah of the Jews, which hovers over the throne of Mercy, as a covenant between God and man. Yellow is a life-giving, life-giving color. Hence – the golden-haired sun and its personification Christ. Both are life-givers. Loss of strength is successfully treated by exposing the spine to the light of the sun.
Blue is the highest of the three primary colors. He is the color of the Father. It is a very soothing, relaxing color, especially valuable in the treatment of insanity or possession. It is difficult for black magicians to work successfully in blue light. Its relation to the mind is obvious and it collects in the form of an electric field in the pineal gland, as an extract of all the spiritual qualities of human nature. The blue heart of each flame was considered a symbol of the invisible Father behind the shining sun. In the words of Christ: “He who has seen me has seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
The use of colors in symbolism is very interesting. The green dragon, which mythological heroes usually defeat, represents the Earth. White armor is the essence of a purified physical body. The black magician is darkness and uncertainty. All colors have a symbolic value and significant lessons can be learned from the study of the application of these values in the occult.
When we discuss the subject of occult anatomy and physiology, we must pause for a moment to pay tribute to the alchemists and Rosicrucians, who in the Middle Ages sealed the study of occult anatomy by depicting the organs of the human body under the guise of retorts and alchemical vessels. One of them said on this occasion: “Our chemistry does not deal with chemicals as you know them, but with some secret vessels (internal organs) and spiritual reagents that are invisible to an ordinary person. We are not concerned with the torture of chemicals (combining them so that they constitute gases, vapors and boiling masses), because they can suffer like people when they are brought into unpleasant contact with one another.
The alchemical furnace was a human body. The flame that burned in her was at the base of her spine. The tube was the spinal canal through which vapors rose to be received and purified in the brain. This, of course, was a secret system brought from the Far East, where for hundreds of years it was considered the highest form of religion. We can call these occult truths the principles of operational spirituality, as opposed to modern religion, which is built entirely from speculative theories. People never dream that religion is physiological, nor would they believe that their salvation depends entirely on the scientific application of the elements of life and forces within their own body. But despite everything that might be objected, it is. Much will be made clear in the next few years,
It is very interesting to note the similarity that exists between the incarnations or appearances in the world of the great Avatar of Vishnu and the changes that take place in the human fetus before its birth. This brings us to the next topic, occult embryology.
Chapter V. Occult Embryology
The great Lord Vishnu has already appeared nine times in the world to save His people. His tenth birth is about to take place. His nine appearances are closely related to the nine major changes that take place in the human fetus before birth… Vishnu was born for the first time from the mouth of a Fish. Then He came out of the turtle’s body. Later He appeared as a boar, then as a lion, then as a monkey. And after a series of changes He appeared as a man. I mentioned a little earlier that a scientist compiled a table showing the affinity of the human brain with different animals during the period before birth. This scholar followed closely the list of incarnations of Vishnu, although he had no idea that he had combined Eastern occultism with Western embryology.
The cosmogonic myths of almost all peoples are based on embryology. It is assumed that the formation of the cosmos took place in the same way as the formation of man, but on a larger scale. For example, in the Vishnu Purana we are told that creation took place in the belly of Mount Meru. The space was surrounded by large mountains and cliffs (chorion). The universe was created from water and floated on a great sea (amniotic fluid). Down the stairs (umbilical cord) descended the gods. Four rivers flowed in the new country, as stated in Genesis. These are the blood vessels of the umbilical cord. This is how the story develops. There is a wonderful balance. Someday a new science will be based on the law of analogy. This will be a greater achievement in science than all scientific speculation for centuries.
One can be almost certain that the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden is based on embryology and that the womb is the original Garden of Eden. In symbolism, it is depicted through “O”. The point in the circle is the original seed, and so on until you want to continue the analogy. The egg of Brahma is the story of the cosmic embryo and embryology is the basic science of creation.
In embryology we also have a very interesting repetition of the passage of the human race through different kinds of nature. Here we find, at a certain period, Hyperborean beings. In others – we see a primitive Lemurian man, later – Atlanta, and finally, an Aryan. We highly urge all students of the occult to study this subject with particular care. Science knows that all life on this planet came from water. The human embryo is surrounded by water during all the initial stages of its growth, and in it we see the history of the evolution of all things.
Sex did not appear on the planet until the third race. It does not appear in the embryo until the third month.
That the human fetus repeats its passage through the lower kingdoms of nature is one of the strongest proofs of evolution, the more so as it conclusively shows that man could not have been created all at once in adulthood. Hence, he went through cosmic embryology; and in fact, he is still in the state of the embryo and will not be born into the human race until you become a man in the true sense of the word, which will happen after many millennia. He is now at the stage where he must become truly human.
The nine-month epoch before birth has long been taken into consideration in symbolism. Nine is considered the number of a person, in connection with the nine months during which the body is in a state of preparation. The perfect number is assumed to be twelve, so that at present a person is born three months before his completion. The gradual unfolding of the human race will take place through increasing development in the pre-birth period until the final birth is its consummation. All experiences and growth will take place in the embryonic stage.
