Concerning Inspiration and Prophesying

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No. II

PART I

CONCERNING INSPIRATION AND PROPHESYING ¹

I HEARD last night in my sleep a voice speaking to me, and saying--

1. You ask the method and nature of Inspiration, and the means whereby God revealeth the Truth.

2. Know that there is no enlightenment from without: the secret of things is revealed from within.

3. From without cometh no Divine Revelation: but the Spirit within beareth witness.

4. Think not I tell you that which you know not: for except you know it, it cannot be given to you.

5. To him that hath it is given, and he hath the more abundantly.

6. None is a prophet save he who knoweth: the instructor of the people is a man of many lives.

7. Inborn knowledge and the perception of things, these are the sources of revelation: the soul of the man instructeth him, having already learned by experience.

8. Intuition is inborn experience; that which the soul knoweth of old and of former years.

9. And Illumination is the Light of Wisdom, whereby a man perceiveth heavenly secrets.

10. Which Light is the Spirit of God within the man, showing unto him the things of God.

11. Do not think that I tell you anything you know not; all cometh from within: the Spirit that informeth is the Spirit of God in the prophet.

12. What, then, you ask, is the Medium; and how are to be regarded the utterances of one speaking in trance?

13. God speaketh through no man in the way you suppose; for the Spirit of the Prophet beholdeth God with open eyes. If he fall into a trance, his eyes are open, and his interior man knoweth what is spoken by him.

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14. But when a man speaketh that which he knoweth not, he is obsessed: an impure spirit, or one that is bound, hath entered into him. ¹

15. There are many such, but their words are as the words of men who know not: these are not prophets nor inspired.

16. God obsesseth no man; God is revealed: and he to whom God is revealed speaketh that which he knoweth.

17. Christ Jesus ² understandeth God: he knoweth that of which he beareth witness.

18. But they who, being mediums, utter in trance things of which they have no knowledge, and of which their own spirit is uninformed: these are obsessed with a spirit of divination, a strange spirit, not their own.

19. Of such beware, for they speak many lies, and are deceivers, working often for gain or for pleasure sake: and they are a grief and a snare to the faithful.

20. Inspiration may indeed be mediumship, but it is conscious; and the knowledge of the prophet instructeth him.

21. Even though he speak in an ecstasy, he uttereth nothing that he knoweth not.

22. Thou who art a prophet ³ hast had many lives: yea, thou hast taught many nations, and hast stood before kings.

23. And God hath instructed thee in the years that are past; and in the former times of the earth.

24. By prayer, by fasting, by meditation, by painful seeking, hast thou attained that thou knowest.

25. There is no knowledge but by labour; there is no intuition but by experience.

26. I have seen thee on the hills of the East: I have followed thy steps in the wilderness: I have seen thee adore at sunrise: I have marked thy night watches in the caves of the mountains.

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27. Thou hast attained with patience, O prophet! God hath revealed the truth to thee from within.

PART 2

A Prophecy of the Kingdom of the Soul, mystically called the Day of the Woman ¹

1. And now I show you a mystery and a new thing, which is part of the mystery of the fourth day of creation.

2. The word which shall come to save the world, shall be uttered by a woman.

3. A woman shall conceive, and shall bring forth the tidings of salvation.

4. For the reign of Adam is at its last hour; and God shall crown all things by the creation of Eve.

5. Hitherto the man hath been alone, and hath had dominion over the earth.

6. But when the woman shall be created, God shall give unto her the kingdom; and she shall be first in rule and highest in dignity.

7. Yea, the last shall be first; and the elder shall serve the younger.

8. So that women shall no more lament for their womanhood: but men shall rather say, "O that we had been born women!"

9. For the strong shall be put down from their seat; and the meek shall be exalted to their place.

10. The days of the covenant of manifestation are passing away: the gospel of interpretation cometh.

11. There shall nothing new be told; but that which is ancient shall be interpreted.

12. So that man the manifestor shall resign his office; and woman the interpreter shall give light to the world.

13. Hers is the fourth office: she revealeth that which the Lord hath manifested.

14. Hers is the light of the heavens, and the brightest of the planets of the holy seven.

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15. She is the fourth dimension; the eyes which enlighten; the power which draweth inward to God.

16. And her kingdom cometh; the day of the exaltation of woman.

17. And her reign shall be greater than the reign of the man; for Adam shall be put down from his place; and she shall have dominion for ever.

18. And she who is alone shall bring forth more children to God than she who hath an husband.

19. There shall no more be a reproach against women: but against men shall be the reproach.

20. For the woman is the crown of man, and the final manifestation of humanity.

21. She is the nearest to the throne of God, when she shall be revealed.

22. But the creation of woman is not yet complete: but it shall be complete in the time which is at hand.

23. All things are thine, O Mother of God: all things are thine, O Thou who risest from the sea; and Thou shalt have dominion over all the worlds.

Footnotes

4:1 Paris, February 7, 1880. This Part and Part 2 are referred to in the Life of Anna Kingsford, vol. i, pp. 330-336.

5:1 "By 'bound' in this connection is meant the soul in prison of the astral, and unable to transcend that level" (Letter of E. M. in Light, 1894, p. 478)

5:2 Here implying the Christ Jesus within, or the regenerated human nature, in whomsoever occurring.    E. M.

In an article on "Mysticism," in The Unknown World, 1894, P. 79, Edward Maitland says: --It was to this principle [as subsisting in all men according to the degree of their regeneration] that St Paul referred when, looking beyond the 'Christ who is after the flesh,' he insisted on the Christ formed within' as the agent of salvation," and "the one way of salvation--in opposition to the sacerdotal doctrine of "salvation by Substitution."    S. H. H.

5:3 Thus Utterance may be regarded as "an apostrophe to the prophet in general" (Life of Anna Kingsford, Vol. i, p. 333).

6:1 Paris, February 7, 1880. See note to Part 1. This Illumination refers not to persons, but to principles--e.g. the "man" and "woman" of the mind are the intellect and intuition, respectively; and, while "Adam" is the old Adam of sense, "Eve'' is the soul.    S. H. H.