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The Tabernacle in the Wilderness
References: Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9; Exodus 3-14,
25-40; Hebrews 9.
We read in the Bible the story of how Noah and a
remnant of his people with him were saved from the
flood and formed the nucleus of the humanity of the
Rainbow Age in which we now live. It is also stated
that Moses led his people out of Egypt, the land of
the Bull, Taurus, through waters which engulfed
their enemies and set them free as a chosen people
to worship the Lamb, Aries, into which sign the Sun
had then entered by precession of the equinoxes.
These two narratives relate to one and the same
incident, namely, the mergence of infant humanity
from the doomed continent of Atlantis* into the
present age of alternating cycles where summer and
winter, day and night, ebb and flow, follow each
other. As humanity had then just become endowed
with mind,** they began to realize the loss of the
spiritual sight which they had hitherto possessed,
and they developed a yearning for the spirit world
and their divine guides which remains to this day,
for humanity has never ceased to mourn their loss.
Therefore, the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple,
the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, was given to them
that they might meet the Lord when they had
qualified themselves by service and subjugation of
the lower nature by the Higher Self. Being designed
by Jehovah it was the embodiment of great cosmic
truths hidden by a veil of symbolism which spoke to
the inner or Higher Self.
In the first place it is worthy of notice
that this divinely designed Tabernacle was given to
a chosen people, who were to build it from freewill
offerings given out of the fullness of their
hearts. Herein is a particular lesson, for the
divine pattern of the path of progress is never
given to anyone who has not first made a covenant
with God that he will serve Him and is willing to
offer up his heart's blood in a life of service
without self-seeking. The term "Mason" is derived
from phree messen, which is an Egyptian term
meaning "Children of Light." In the parlance of
Masonry, God is spoken of as the Grand Architect.
Arche is a Greek word which means "primordial
substance." It is said that Joseph, the father of
Jesus, was a "carpenter," but the Greek word is
tekton-"builder." It is also said that Jesus was a
tekton, a "builder." Thus every true mystic
Freemason is a child of light, a builder,
endeavoring to build the mystic temple according to
the divine pattern given him by our Father in
Heaven. To this end he dedicates his whole heart,
soul, and mind. It is, or should be, his aspiration
to be "the greatest in the kingdom of God," and
therefore he must be the servant of all.
The next point which calls for notice is the
location of the temple with respect to the cardinal
points, and we find that it was laid directly east
and west. Thus we see that the path of spiritual
progress is the same as the star of empire; it
travels from east to west. The aspirant entered at
the eastern gate and pursued the path by way of the
Altar of Burnt Offerings, the Brazen Laver, and the
Holy Place to the westernmost part of the
Tabernacle where the Ark, the greatest symbol of
all, was located in the Holy of Holies. As the wise
men of the East followed the Christ star westward
to Bethlehem, so does the spiritual center of the
civilized world shift farther and farther westward;
until today the crest of the spiritual wave which
started in China on the western shores of the
Pacific has now reached the eastern shores of the
same ocean.
The ambulant nature of this Tabernacle in the
Wilderness is therefore an excellent symbolical
representation of the fact that man is migratory in
his nature, an eternal pilgrim, ever passing from
the shores of time to eternity and back again.
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