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Home Preface 5 Planes of Existence Introduction Five Planes of Manifestation A to Z Contact Related Information BIBLE VERSES |
FIRE, DESTROYINGA symbol of the Spirit of Love and Truth as the active principle which is the means of dispelling ignorance and error; for our God is a consuming fire. HEB. xii. 29. For it is by earth that we see earth, and by water water, and by air glorious air; so too, by fire, we see destroying fire. — Empedocles, FAIRBANKS, 333. Through the physical mechanism the physical is perceived; by the astral mechanism, the astral or the desires; by the lower mental mechanism, the higher mental vibrations; by the spiritual mechanism, the Spirit, as the active principle in dispelling ignorance, which is the opinionative knowledge of the lower planes. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly. — ISAIAH xxxiii. 14, 15. The quality perfected in goodness and truth dwelleth on high untouched by the purifying fire which consumes the wicked, that is, the ignorant and evil qualities. See 1 COR. iii. 12–15. Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. — MATTHEW xxv. 41. This text refers to the lower qualities of human nature which, being selfish, do not minister to the higher qualities. These undergo purification and transmutation by means of buddhic functioning and are finally dissolved. The devil and his angels signify the illusory principle of evil and the desires consumed through transmutation by the eternal Spirit, fire. Mystics such as Mechthild of Magdeburg, Dante, Ruysbroeck, and others saw Deity as a flame or river of fire filling the universe, and the deified souls as sparks within it, one with it yet distinct. — E. Underhill, Mysticism, p. 503. That consuming fire is eternal God Himself; the purifying blast in which all that does not pertain to Christ and the kingdom of Christ is consumed. It is not evil but good that has the last word, not sorrow but joy, not sin but holiness. — R. J. Campbell, Sermon: The Eternal Fire. I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I, if it is already kindled? Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division. — LUKE xii. 49–51. The purification of the lower nature by love and truth is necessarily accompanied by division and the strife of opposites. Throughout ancient rites, fire symbolised purification and divine illumination, from Zoroastrian worship to Roman, Hindu, and Chaldean practices, where contact with fire was believed to purge impurity and restore harmony. — A. Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 120. |
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