Chapter 549

[←539]

To make it plainer, any one who reads the passage in Luke, will see that the remark follows the report of the seventy, who rejoice that “even the devils [the spirit of controversy and reasoning, or the opposing power, since Satan means simply ’adversary’ or ’opponent’] are subject unto us through thy name.” (Luke, x. 17.) Now, “thy name” means the name of Christos, or Logos, or the Spirit of true Divine Wisdom, as distinct from the spirit of intellectual or mere materialistic reasoning—the Higher Self in short. And when Jesus remarks on this that he has “beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven,” it is a mere statement of his clairvoyant powers, notifying to them that he already knew it, and a reference to the incarnation of the Divine Ray—the Gods or Angels—which falls into generation. For not all men, by any means, benefit by that incarnation, and with some the power remains latent and dead during the whole life. Truly “no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son,” as added by Jesus then and there (verse 22)—the “Church of Christ” less than any one else. The Initiates alone understood the secret meaning of the terms “Father” and “Son,” and knew that it referred to Spirit and Soul on the Earth. For the teachings of Christ were Occult teachings, which could only be explained at Initiation. They were never intended for the masses, for Jesus forbade the twelve to go to the Gentiles and the Samaritans (Matth., x. 5), and repeated to his disciples that the “mystery of the kingdom of God” was for them alone, not for the multitudes (Mark, iv. 11).