As Above, So Below, Page Two

Certain facts from the time of Christ stand out. His foremost enemies, the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, were literalists, fundamentalists of the written word in his day. It is the hallmark of that mind-set, while speaking always as though the contrary were true, to reject the reception of radical new spiritual light, and to see things in a materialistic way-to speak, for instance, of a second coming of Christ in a physical body. How can we fail to see this as a recurring phenomenon in our own time?

Is it not also eminently significant that Christ left us not a single written word in his own hand? We are told only that on one occasion he "wrote with his finger on the ground" (Jn 8,6). And in a day when likenesses of prominent figures were preserved for posterity by Greek and Roman alike, we have not so much as a single replica in clay or paint of his holy "likeness." One could say that he simply conducted his ministry in such manner as not to invite this. But indeed is not this the point, if not the fact that it was ordained in the spiritual world itself that there should be no such production by or about the Christ himself?

It is true that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1,14), but as flesh and blood alone Jesus of Nazareth was maya (Mt 16,17; see also Jn 3,6). Steiner explicitly says so in Background to the Gospel of St. Mark (BKM), Lect. 12, p. 209. He is not saying what some gnostics expressed, namely, that there never was a physical Incarnation, but rather that the mineral-physical body per se of Jesus was maya just as is the mineral-physical body of every other human being.

I have deemed it appropriate to digress into the above thoughts in regard to the phrase "As Above, So Below." For when one opens the mind to its full implications, by going to phenomena themselves, what is revealed to us outside the words of the Bible, if we but observe, will lead us to truths within the Bible far deeper than could otherwise be imagined from a mere reading of the words of translations as they have come down to us in our day, hidden as they are beneath the veneer of modern materialistic understanding.

While recognizing that all creation has come from "the Word of God," the Christ, Paul demonstrates over and over again that it has all come about by virtue of that creative principle expressed in the ancient mysteries, "As Above, So Below." Certain words have always been keys to this principle, such as "copy,"shadow,"pattern" and "image" (or "likeness"). The following are examples (my emphasis):

Heb 8,5: They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain."

[It is very important that we understand the meaning of mountain in spiritual writings. It is universally recognized by the enlightened as meaning the condition in which one has an experience beyond or above that of the world of the senses. The metaphor is so apt that even in common parlance we understand this to be the meaning of the phrase mountaintop experience. It is not necessary to be on a physical mountain in order to be on the mountain in a spiritual sense. Physical location is irrelevant. It is entirely possible that all references to Mount Sinai or Horeb in the Bible were only spiritual events that did not take place on a physical mountain, though this is not necessarily the case as we shall see. This truth can help, however, when one considers the difficulty in locating the mountain from the biblical description of it. The same can be said for the term "wilderness," especially in view of the lack of archaeological evidence to support the Bible's description of the wanderings in the wilderness. The term wilderness means in the loneliness or desolation of the soul.¹⁰ The importance of this passage in Heb 8 cannot be overemphasized, for it deals with the matter of the "temple." In the Gospels Christ spoke of raising the temple after three days, where he is clearly referring to the temple of the body (Jn 2,21), the purified astral, etheric and physical bodies that Paul immediately thereafter calls "manna," the "rod that budded" and "tablets," respectively (Heb 9,4).¹¹]

Ex 25,9,40: ⁹ According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and all of its furniture, so you shall make it. ⁴⁰ And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.

Acts 7,44: "Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen."

Heb 9,23-24: ²³ Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Heb 10,1: For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near.

Col 2,16-17: ¹⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. ¹⁷ These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Gen 1,26-27: ²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . . ." ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.

Heb 11,3: By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.

Mt 6,10b: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Job 38,33: "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?"

Gen 1,11,12,21,24,25: ¹¹ And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed,each according to its kind. . . . ²¹ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind . . . . ²⁴ And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. . . ." ²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind