To-day, for the first time in centuries, for the reasons already assigned, and in keeping with the scientific spirit of the age, and because superstition in power, dogma, and persecution are politically dethroned, these great truths, this Great Work, is openly declared and outlined so that he who wills may apprehend.
Let no one say, "This is an effort to _deify_ an individual." It _is_ an effort to enthrone Truth; to remove the barriers to the rights of conscience, the shackles of reason, private judgment and Individual Responsibility, and to free the soul of man from all the fetters of ignorance, superstition, and fear, in order that he may be "first a man,"
"then a Master," and at length on a higher plane of being, something more than man has yet realized, or ever dreamed.
Something "that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it yet entered into the heart of man to conceive the glory that shall be revealed."
The beginning is here and now, when man shall achieve the Mastery of Self and really possess his own soul, and not hold it tremblingly as a _pawn_ of some pretentious potentate of the soul.
The right of Light, Knowledge, and further progress by "_Being a Man_,"
and not a chattel, an asset, a pawn, or a slave.
This is the coming _Avatar_, and the dawn is already here.
Will the day darken, the Light be quenched? Who can tell?
The redemption of Woman from the slavery of all the past is well under way, and it is indeed a glorious sign.
No lesson in history is plainer nor more readily demonstrated than the fact that the degeneracy of a religion and the degradation of woman go hand in hand.
Demonstrate to-day in any country on earth the status of woman as a whole, and no mistake need be made as to the prevailing religion.
Woman's political disability is another matter entirely; for she is dominated by man only because, and only so far as, she is handicapped or degraded by the dominant religion.
Take woman from the churches, Protestant or Romish, to-day, and no church could do business for a twelvemonth.
For these reasons the immense and rapidly growing movements, Women's Clubs and the like, to-day, are of great significance, backed and illuminated as they are by all past history.
In the new movement, the School of Natural Science, the door is as wide open to woman as to man. I might paraphrase the slogan of the Robber Barons of the middle ages. "_She_ may seize who hath the power, _She_ may hold who can."
In the coming Illuminati woman will stand by the side of man in all opportunity, endeavor, or achievement.
In the new age woman will be something few men have even yet dreamed of.
We might call this new age "_the Woman's Avatar_," without doing violence to either religion, tradition, history, or science; while the sacred Hymns of the Vedas, with the angel of the household and the inspirer of the soul of man, the worship of Divinity, by both men and women, opened a new heaven on this old earth.
And then--such children as will be born, without pain, not through chance, caprice, nor under protest, but even as they were in Greece, as an offering of Love on the altar of divine man-womanhood, with a song of joy to heaven.
Prof. Fiske somewhere said, "The evolution of man by Natural Selection draws near its close, to be followed by that of Divine Selection."
The Divinity _in_ man is _Christos_, the "son of the Father," the Divine and Eternal _Avatar_.
Belief is rather a superficial process, the intellect ("mortal mind") mingled with the emotions, changing and evanescent. "Now you see it, and now you don't." It is mingled with hope that alternates with fear and doubt.
Faith, when once analyzed and apprehended, is another thing entirely, though nearly every one, and most writers, confuse "belief" and "faith."
"Faith is the soul's _intuitive conviction_ of that which both _Reason_ and _Conscience_ approve."
Genuine faith rarely wavers or changes, because it is an evolution, a "growth of the soul," a spiritual experience, and it becomes the "dominant chord" in the symphony of life, determining Harmony.
It is in this deliberate and discriminative sense that I have used the term _conviction_ in relation to the Master and his "Great Work." He never dogmatizes, nor undertakes to "indoctrinate."
In answer to a question on some deep and perplexing problem of the soul or of the spiritual plane, he replies, "So far as we _know_, it is so and so." "A new experience, or an added light, may alter our conclusion."
The average individual scarcely realizes what absolute sincerity, with no motive save Love of Truth, and beneficence to man guided by clear intelligence, and dominated by the rational Will, means, or can accomplish.
These are the natural powers of the human soul. There is nothing mysterious or miraculous about them, more than in the art of music of a Beethoven or a Paganini, or in gymnastics and the winner of the Marathon.
"To _shape_ and _use_, arise and fly, The reeling Faun, the sensual feast, Move upward, working out the beast, And let the ape and tiger die."
My _conviction_ is strong, and my Faith unwavering.
"The great and peaceful ones live, regenerating the world like the coming of spring: and having themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence, help those who try to do the same thing without personal motive." ("Crest Jewel of Wisdom.")
CHAPTER XVI
THE NEW AVATAR
From all the foregoing general considerations it may be discerned that the "New Avatar" is strictly that of _Scientific Demonstration_.
As we use terms in vogue at the present day, it pertains to the field of Natural Science.
This does not imply that it is irreligious, nor unreligious, nor sacrilegious.
When it is clearly apprehended it will be found to be the only thing that harmonizes--not the Institutions of man--but Science, Philosophy, and Religion _per se_, as departments in human intelligence.
Man will thus discern "the rational order that pervades the universe."
The purpose and result of such knowledge to man are Harmony, Enlightenment, Courage, and Hope.
Man _is_ the arbiter of his own destiny. He may _become_ the Master of his own Fate. Such are the _Illuminati_, the "Masters of the Great White Lodge," the Benefactors of the whole human race, the members of the "School of Natural Science."
What would I have my readers do? I answer, _Investigate_! Study! Think!
Wait! Hope! Anticipate!
Careful, intelligent, and conscientious investigation will determine the fact that we possess in America to-day _one_ who can fill all the requirements that I have endeavored to designate and portray--not as a "reincarnation" of Buddha or Jesus, but as a "Master"--one who has been duly instructed and prepared, who has had the personal experience, and has made a _practical demonstration_, that determines Mastership.
He has demonstrated that "there is no death," but transition only (except through conscious and determined devolution, or _suicide of the soul_).
Man is, after all, and in the last analysis, a "free moral agent."
As a Member of the "Great School" he was educated and initiated many years ago, and has consecrated his life to this service. He has demonstrated the separability of the soul by leaving and returning to his body at will.
The School of Natural Science; the Great Work; the Individual Representative; the conditions of the present age; the opportunities offered; the demand for real knowledge everywhere; the falling in pieces of creeds and dogmas; the expectancy so often voiced--all of these correspond intimately with what the ancient Aryans designated as "_Avataric_."
It is not now the deification of any Individual, but the "_apotheosis of Natural Science_," as the foundation and method in the achievement of actual knowledge.