The Divine Idea of Man
The whole Universe can be seen as one buoyant divine organism, and at the same time a playfully self-less harmony, unconscious of itself and composed of manifestations and movements that are neither fully “evil”, nor perfectly “good”. This is also shown by the counter-rotating celestial spheres of our solar system. – The pivotal point of these peacefully antagonistic phenomena, which by their prime nature are in perfect harmony, is no abstract point in the universe, however: it is represented by Man! – In other words, the divine Idea of Man is indeed the pivotal point of the World – the same as the personal Ego is the pivotal point of its human microcosm (the Greek root for the word Idea means something pictorial – an image: eidea/eidoV – eidea/eidos – idea/image). – That is why the World is named Cosmos: because it is a perfect expression of order, strength and beauty, unfolding with, as a backdrop, the one, all-embracing Goodness, irradiated and impregnated by unshakeable, loving Truth.
We may say that the entire humanity of our time has contracted an illness in which its divine origin has almost completely been forsaken. This is the effect of heedless digression from the fundamental Harmony of macrocosmic, cosmic and microcosmic dynamics, which is also named the Law of Cause and Effects.
Today, this dynamic is generally named Karma – but regrettably regarded by most people as some force of penalty or revenge. In truth, Karma is the universal divine Law of Love maintaining the equilibrium and harmony not just of our Cosmos, but of the whole Universe.
Unfortunately, modern humanity, as long as all is well, lacks consciousness of this harmony. It constantly disturbs it, and then complains about the inevitably painful consequences. Therefore, the divine Idea of Man receives no sustenance from human consciousness, and thus is “starving”, viz. devours itself, as is the case with the current infection with the virus of COVID. [i]
Cosmos, in Greek, means order, beauty, adornment. That is why the Corpus Hermeticum [ii] says that the divine will has imagined – envisioned – the beautiful World – firstly, as a creational prime idea, but then as a materially manifested universe with its indescribably harmonious interactions of all parts, species and dimensions outside or within space and time:To create means to shape.
Already the biblical Genesis showed the concept. The creator-gods wanted to produce an “image and likeness” of themselves. – Why that? – Because every creator wishes to become recognized and thereby be known – and to multiply. This “image and likeness”, firstly, is the Universe, secondly the Lebensraum Cosmos, and thirdly, Man. We might also say: The Universe is the manifested robe of the Godhead who really remains invisible, inexplicable and unconceivable, but in its manifestations makes itself knowable to whoever in earnest and good faith engages in a devotional quest to know this inner-most force.
Understand the Idea and Grasp It
The reason for the existence of Man in this Universe thus is not only to multiply and to dominate Earth (Genesis 1 and 2), but mainly, to become similar to God, as foretold by the Snake in Genesis 3. – The condition linked to acquisition of knowledge – “you will die by death” – is no punishment, but a first Grace: Without corporeal “death” and a subsequent “pause” for processing the sum of experiences collected during a physical lifetime, the soul would be unable to learn, and therefore could not grow up towards its highest goal – omniscience and all-consciousness – and thus become akin to God: This is the only way in which – as someone so justly put it: “Man can progress from an anonymous particle within a collectivity, to achieving his individual self-realization of Life, thereby awakening to ever growing awareness.” –
The visible Universe thus is the robe – and at the same time a Compendium – of the Godhead. Man, however, is a compendium of the Cosmos – that is why he is named Micro-Cosmos. – And how much do we humans understand of this “little world”? Close to nothing – despite space flight and atomic microscopes!
At this point, an important fact must be emphasized: Every manifest “thing” or “being” primarily exists as a pure idea – pure Spirit. This idea, mostly over time, rarely in a blink, acquires an etheric shape, which then gradually densifies until a physical, and lastly a material, form of manifestation has resulted. – The Universe, thus, is a physical, or even material, manifestation of the largest Idea-Form of God: so big that we are unable to grasp it. Lao-Dse in his Dao-De-Ging says in his aphorism N° 41: “A large vessel needs a long time to be achieved. A very big (or deep) sound can hardly be heard. The biggest elephant cannot be compared to anything …” [iii]
The Divine Idea of Man is the most awesome wonder within the incomprehensive and at first purely spiritual “wonder-idea called Universe”! And the greatest wonder within this manifestation is – or originally was – this physical manifestation called Man who, moreover, was endowed with the highest god-like qualities and powers: By his insight, his intellectual capabilities, and his creative power he differs from all other creatures, as the fifth realm beyond the four “well known” ones: the kingdoms of elements, of minerals, of plants and of animals. His most distinctive potential, however, is his ability to develop a high Consciousness. This is the germ out of which he is destined to become divine.
A Wonder in Ruins
But alas! Man has downright degenerated from this divine, privileged status, because he neglected his gifts, respectively used, and still uses them against their original purpose:
His body he let atrophy due to unnatural nutrition and physical laziness; his soul and spirit he crippled through negative thoughts, emotional perversion, psychoses of anguish, and lack of knowledge. Today, where are those testimonies of soaring poetry, of congenial music, of inspiring artworks?? – Where the popular songs sung together, where memorized poems and ballads? – Where the treasure of myths and fairytales – or at least the cultivation of a home in an esthetically elevating style?
And Man’s most distinct sovereignty: reason, creative thought and superhuman consciousness? – They are ripped down by official institutions, systematically and methodically, from earliest childhood to the grave: In schools and universities, in politics and economy, by health-ruining medicine and its deadly vaccines, and by soul-stupefying media and mass-communication!
Why do we specify this disgrace in all its details? Because all these poisons, all this suppression of true well-being and real health, are experienced not just by human individuals – nor only by the still curable collectivity of Man, but globally by the universal divine Idea of Man, out of which physically manifested Humanity really lives, as does a child on his mother’s breast – albeit without being conscious of it. Thus, the living being Earth intensely suffers, with all the seven “limbs” of her existence – materially, etherically, and spiritually – tortured by a senseless humanity, more than she can bear! And the visible, sensible, and most ultimate warning of Earth thus tormented, is physical illness of Humanity as a projection of its mental and spiritual suffering – for example the pandemic named COVID.
Our observation having led to this gloomy nadir, we spontaneously ask: “Is there any remedy at all for this heavily injured living being, called Earth? ‑ What can an individual – what must the collectivity – do in thoughts, feelings and actions, so that – obeying the laws connecting Spirit and Matter – a positive change can occur?” ‑
Intelligent Conversion
The answer is most uncomfortable for most of us:
Yes, there is a possible salvation up until the very last moment – like in the biblical account of Loth and his family. But it demands a clear mental conversion of as many humans as possible – from insane mentality to a sane one: Mentality – this comes from the Latin term Mens, from which also the word Human derives – i.e. earthly man. And this includes Spirit and Mind.
Mind is what every sane human should be living from – if only enough water of the soul, enough air of spirit, and enough fire of consciousness could grow in him, as was quite natural during the Middle Ages, and as was fostered during the Renaissance with its Universities! – It is that mentality, from which issued all inventions, all discoveries, and all those monuments of creative human existence – in music, fine arts, poetry and so forth: abundantly sprouting by a self-conscious seminal energy, flourishing by soaring phantasy and intuition, ripened by fecundating research and meditation: human creations of truly divine dimensions issued from self-forgetting devotion for creative production. The dynamic process was the essential part, the resulting work was the lawful consequence, and its “creator” was the nameless servant of both.
But then this creative mentality degenerated: The Ego of the individual, this free personal dynamic, collapsed to become the self-productive will of Artificial Intelligence:
“Man’s abilities are boundless if only he really wants!”, said the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller (1819-1890), and he was quite right; only he didn’t say that this will is a sword with two edges: Brandished intelligently and wisely, it helps Man to achieve deeds of highest superiority. – But unsheathed without corresponding consciousness, it leads into deepest perdition. – Blind ambition, and obsession with efficiency, the possibility to achieve whatever one really wants, brought Man to believe in high strung academic “knowledge” – a knowledge bound to always remain half-truth and idle, as long as human consciousness does not keep pace with higher mental possibilities: Only consciousness is the key for the return to true well-being – to real health of Humanity, and thus to renewed sanity of the cosmically divine idea of Man!
But what might be the highest consciousness that man is able to achieve – no, that Humankind must acquire? – It is consciousness of that divine universal power that teachers of Wisdom of all times named the Love, and which for today’s World – independently of history, culture, race and religious creeds – is the Christos. This is the pure Love-Force of the supreme God: It is the same for all humans of all worlds, and it only can (and must!) be realized by conscious humans. And this is completely independent of whether the actual pandemic broke out artificially or naturally – willingly or inadvertently: It could, and had to, break out because the Cosmic Idea called Man devoured itself from the inside – starting from physical humanity – in the same way that a virus devours its victim from the latter’s inside. Without comprehensive consciousness worthy to be called by that name, Humankind cannot but devour itself from the inside. But this would mean that the pivotal point, or axis – Man – should turn to nothing, and therefore Planet Earth should become obsolete. As a last consequence she should dissolve herself – becoming, first, an etheric cloud, and then a faded – or fundamentally new – “Prime Idea”.
But if Man finds the path leading to said high consciousness, now, then the entire Humanity will be lifted to a new level – a level today imaginable only for a very few. This renewed Humanity will integrate the Spirit and the soul into its physical manifestation, and it will also weave into its then sane existence true consciousness of the universal Christos. This healing and hallowing power shall then open up new dimensions of thought and feelings, of imagination and inspiration in free will and agency, where the actual beastly humanoïd finally merits the name Man!
As for today, we cannot but help the Idea of Man to take its due space in the comprehension of the Many, like an embryo in the womb of its mother, ripening to become true consciousness of Man. Most of all, it must be hoped that, when the multiple impressions of the pandemic named covid will give way to sound social life again, the lesson may be learnt, and not drowned by the slogan “Back to normal” ‑ i.e. “Back to unconsciousness as usual!”
The centuries of egocentricity shall then have ended, so that the humanly divine radiation of a truly human community (as it was “in the Beginning”) may flourish through new harmony in a new robe, and in a new consciousness of God, Cosmos and true Humankind!
[i] See Max Heindel: Occult Principles of Health and Healing. – Many editions in different languages.
[ii] Corpus Hermeticum, The translation into Latin by Marsilio Ficino (1468) in its incunabulum of 1503, now in facsimile. Text and German translation, both on opposed pages; illustrated. ‑ ISBN: 9783-952 4262 41.
[iii] Lao-Dse: Dao-De-Ging (Tao-Te-King) – Die Gnosis im Alten China. – Translated from Chinese into German, explained for our time on three levels, and with some notes by Pierre Martin.