plete cycle (10) of the Divine (3) manifested on earth (4) or the Christ has completed His descent into matter (4) and sits at the table of the zodiac in the midst of His 12 disciples. Number 13 therefore contains the power of its 3 elements. Through the power of the One Life (1) it blends the Divine (3) with the terrestrial (4) the Foundation Stone, or the Divine manifesting in matter. Verily to call this number evil or unlucky is to make of it the "stone which the builders rejected." It is evil only because of man's misunderstanding and unwise use of the divine heritage and power which it symbolizes.

The fundamental meaning of number 13 is the Manifestor of the Universe. Since the Divine cannot be fully expressed in matter in less than 12,2 the true symbology of 13 is that of the sun-which to the zodiac is the One Life or number 1-and the 3 of the Trinity manifesting in its fourfold aspect through the elements of earth, air, fire and water, and producing the foundation of the manifested universe. In other words, number 13 symbolizes the Sun in the center of the 12 signs of the zodiac as the Manifestor of the (physical) Universe.

"As above, so below." Just as the Divine Dot manifests within the circle as the Creator God, so does the physical Sun in the center of the circle of our solar system manifest as the source of all light, life and intelligence to its attendant planets. And just as the forces poured out by the Dot bring to fruition and redeem all its creations, and as all Saviors are represented as cyclicly giving their lives or shedding their symbolic "blood" (spiritual life-force) for the redemption of their followers, so does the Sun-the Dot in the center of our circle or zodiac-shed its "blood" or pour out its lifeforce that all nature might not perish but have life more abundant during its cycle, or reach Perfection and be redeemed in its number 10. We therefore see that the 12 signs of the zodiac with the Sun (13) in the center is the fundamental basis for all myths of a Creator and Savior God.

2 See Chapter V.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Number 13. THE SAVIOR GOD.

"If it is once shown that every true Adept had, and still has, to pass through the seven and twelve trials of Initiation . . . and that the trials of all these personages are made to correspond with the Esoteric significance of initiatory rites-all of which correspond to the twelve zodiacal signs-then every one will see the meaning of the travels of all those heroes through the signs of the Sun in Heaven; and that they are in each individual case a personification of the sufferings, triumphs and miracles of an Adept, before and after his Initiation . . . then also the mystery of all those lives, so closely resembling each other that the history of one seems to be the history of the other . . . become plain." The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, iii, 141.

While it is the accepted theory among mythologists and Higher Critics of the Bible that the physical Sun is the basis of all Sun Myths and that its journey around the zodiac is the basis for the incidents in the lives of every Divine Incarnation or Sun-God, and while the incidents in the lives of all are almost identical and coincide most remarkably with the events of the zodiac, yet we would explain this coincidence from the opposite point of view. We maintain that, instead of the life story of Jesus and other Saviors being a mere personification of the natural phenomena occurring during the Sun's cycle of the year, both are exemplifications of one and the same universal law, i. e., the Law of Cyclic Manifestation. In other words, because the Sun is the Light Bearer and self-sacrificing Savior in nature, it exemplifies the same unfoldment, in the physical life of the universe that every divine Light Bearer or Savior of man exemplifies in the unfoldment of his spiritual life. The unfoldment of both follows the same stages, not because one is a copy or personification of the other, but because both are expressions of the same law, one in the physical world, the other in the spiritual. Therefore as Mystics, instead of being disturbed by the

proofs of the Higher Critics that certain events in the life of Jesus and of other personages in the Bible did not take place historically, or else took place at a time or place far removed, or under quite different circumstances from those related, we accept the facts of the criticism when proved, but still are able to correlate them with the Bible narrative as we find it. For instead of turning our backs upon or closing our eyes to the many historical and other discrepancies in the Bible, we set to work to find why they were so used, and to find out the inner, mystical or symbolic meaning of the very discrepancies themselves; for a true Mystic never refuses to face any problem, knowing that all are but various expressions of a few fundamental laws. Instead of the discrepancies discrediting the Bible, they go to prove its mystical origin and occult significance, for only a truly inspired writer could make apparent discrepancies pregnant with true mystical meaning.

All life must be the unfoldment-brought about through unvarying and universal laws of the one Grand Cosmic Plan. Especially do we see this in the unfoldment of the minds of men. Hence when a careful study of actual history reveals the fact that men in all ages who have devoted themselves to the solution of God's Plan, have reached uniform conclusions and have sought to express them in a common way, namely, through the symbology of the Sun and the zodiac, there must be a deep and truly scientific reason back of it, a reason which the enlightened minds of every Race and Nation, each following their own divine guidance, has grasped and borne witness to. Let us then supply here the universal rule for solving a problem, which is, turn it over and view the other side.

The Sun and the zodiac are of themselves the actual manifested result of a higher and more divine truth, i. e., the One Eternal Absolute Creative God in the midst of His creations. The physical Sun with its attendant planets is a material expression of this One Eternal God-head, while the zodiac is

but the limiting body in which it (Sun) must do the Will of Him who sent it forth. Therefore, while these heavenly bodies are wonderful and most sacred to humanity, they are but one reflection in our universe of that which is far more sacred. Hence it is not merely the Sun in its annual journey which is depicted in every Sun Myth and in the life of every Light Bearer or World Savior, but the same divine "Word," the Dot in the Circle, which was in the beginning with God and which is periodically sent out from the Father, even as a ray of the Sun is sent forth periodically each day into nature. Yet in the case of a Light Bearer, or Sun Initiate such as Jesus, this Light is the very essence of the Father or "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Every age and every people must have such a shining forth of the glory of the Father, yet each Light Bearer is the only begotten in the sense that He is of the essence of the Spiritual Sun which must shine forth from age to age, just as the physical Sun must send out its force every year. Yet each recurring year the Light sent forth contains all the powers of the Sun, although the Sun itself is not diminished.

The life-force in the seed is in a static or dormant condition and requires the application of fire-in this case from the Sun's rays-ere its static condition can be transformed into one of kinetic activity and its sprout begin to put forth. We find this same law in the mineral kingdom as well, for the heat that is locked up in coal remains in a static state until through the application of fire it is turned into kinetic energy. And if we see this law manifesting in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms it must have a corresponding expression in all kingdoms, hence we may expect to find it in man. The great Light Bearers are expressions of the kinetic activity or active burning of the Spiritual Sun and through the Flame of Divine Love they light the spark in the hearts of men so that their dormant or static Christ-force is turned

into kinetic activity and the Christ seed1 in their hearts begins to sprout.

Thus the Sun and the zodiac form a perfect expression of the one Law of Manifestation back of all life. This life must therefore follow universal stages of unfoldment. And since we can only comprehend the Infinite through His Works, our finite minds recognize in the Sun and the zodiac the symbol and exemplar of the Great Divine Mystery of the manifested God-head, an universal law of manifestation so exact and mathematically correct in every detail that it must be an expression of a fundamental and infinite truth, the manifestation of God in His works.

Therefore instead of the close correspondence between the recorded life of Jesus and the Sun's journey through the zodiac being a cause for doubt of His Divinity, in truth it is a positive corroboration of it. Nor need we be disturbed if we find many similar Sons of God fulfilling the same law in former cycles. For taking the Sun as the outpicturing of the great Law of God, we find that the Sun must shine forth with fresh vigor every year that it may renew the life of all nature. If it shone but once and at that time gave enough of its force to sustain nature for many cycles (years)-say, as long as this earth endured-then we would know that only once would "God send his only begotten Son" to sustain all Races of mankind with His spiritual shining.

But "as above, so below." This cannot help being so, since the Sun is but the record in the physical universe of a mighty event in the Divine World. It is just like the writing of a telautograph which, written by the Eternal on high, causes its reproduction in our physical universe. Therefore the so-called "higher critics" have but scratched the surface of the truth and are themselves confused by the multitudinous details of the outer seeming because they are ignorant of the Soul or the motive power producing them.

1 See lesson The Christ Seed, Curtiss.