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VADE MECUM, VOLVENTIBUS ANNIS

THE MAYANS Number 99
6- 7 SAN ANTONIO.
TEXAS
Copyright 1950 by The Mayans
Considered as the most famous inscription scriptions The Inscription is read two columns at a
of Ancient America, the Tablet of the Cross three parts time It is generally accepted as being
of Palenque, shll only partially deciphered, at the top and bottom The character for portraits of founders of the Mayan theoc-
is believed to be a chronological guide and the year of 360 days occupies the chief
historical record that goes back to the place, on the right and left of it are added racy With an account of their time and
beginning of the Maya civilization. the fins, by wh1ch the year IS mcreased the manner of the1r ritual acbvity.
There are 6 columns of glyphs on each s1de twentyfold, that 1s, to 7,200 days: above Other characters denote lesser periods of
There would be 204 in all (17 x 22 equals there is another character to which is time odd days, 13 day weeks, months,
204) were not the first four above on the left ascribed the meaning of 20 x 7,200 or years, sacred periods of nme lunar revolu-
occup1ed by a smgle character, the super- 144,000 days All this accordmg to Dr tions, 52-year cycles, and others used in
scripture, wh1ch was customary on a11 in- Forstemann the Mayan System of recordmg bme

I,
 Rev. 99: Fl: S.60 G:H

PHILOSOPHY SERIES THREE

6th and 7th Degrees

SO
of a Series of Seven
EXPERIENCING THE DIVINE
(ATTAINING CONSCIOUS UNION)

The Hope Set Before Us ... Let Us Visualize It ... A Few Details ... The Universal
Oneness ... Gathered Threads.

Beloved Companion:

With this monograph we complete a THIRD Series of Seven Lesson Courses on

Divine Philosophy. As part of your degree work for still higher degrees, this Ninety—
ninth Revelation comes to you. Its overtones and even higher meanings will be still
richer as you ascend into “Your Second [Link] You will, of course, notice that the
number of the Three Series of Seven Lessons equals 21, which is a Three number in the
tradition of Numerolo~T, a symbol of the Degrees. This 99th Revelation is a double or
dual 3 X 3.

This lesson is one of the Stations •on your journey, the 99th Revelation.
—

Your next lecture—lesson will be number 100 which we in Mayanry, in these degrees and
In higher degrees, consider a mark of high distinction. All Mayans who have seen and
have been permitted to receive and read the 100th Revelation are henceforth recognized
as “Centurions”. See your dictionary for description of similar honors In ancient
Roman history. The lecture following that, your 101st Revelation, starts you into
Your Second Century. May you be honored and blessed to complete Your Second Century
as ably and as honorably as you have so nearly completed your first 100 Revelations.
God Bless You. Let us now consider

I. The Hope Set Before U~.

In a former lesson we have mentioned the story of a quest for the Divine
as told by W. Somerset Maugham in The Razor’s Edge. The story of the central figure,
the hero, was rather like yours. An intelligent and otherwise fortunate soul, a young
man, as told in the story, ~ a sense of being out of adlustment. He did not know
what was lacking, but ~ seeking. Here and there someone told him something that
gave him a clue, till at last he found himself consulting a wise man of the Esoteric
 Rev. 99: P2: S.6o •G:H

Brotherhood. He was sent to a solitary mountain lodge to finish thinking it out

Later, when the teacher visited him, the hesitating report was that one day he had
come to a MOMENT when he felt that he and God were one.

That meant for him that the at—onement had been accomplished. Now listen
very carefully. It was with him and the Divine as it is with two friends who fellow-
ship until the time comes when there seems hardly any difference between them. They
are two people, two BEINGS, but they share an inner life in common. They are like
two wells fed by the same vein of water.

The young man in The Razor’ s Edge found that from that time on his problems
were neutralized. There was no more hesitation, no more doubt. People of the world
did not understand, but he had found the way of peace and followed it. He had not
asked to be led into some road of his own choosing, but that God would choose his road
and lead him into it. A road he might have chosen would not have been so satisfying,
though others might have approved it more.

Never get in front of the Divine. Never run before God. Never decide
what you want and tell Him to get it for you. Put yourself in His hands, and let Him
make the choices. That is the way to keep out of trouble and attain what is best for
you.

Self—willed people turn the world life into something like a machine all
out of gear. When the Great Engineer turns on the power the parts of the machine
start chattering and working against each other. The only result is friction and the
ultimate ruin and destruction of the machine itself.

The world life should be like a machine adjusted for cooperation, all the
parts with each other for a common purpose, controlled by the Engineer. Each unit
does not its own will, but the Engineer’s will for the good of all. Then good results
are produced, and the parts of the machine themselves are at peace.

It must be a pitiful thing for the Creator to energize a world like this
[Link], only to have the units of the machine — ourselves— start trying to carry
out their o~m petty purposes, forgetting that their o~m highest interest lies in mu-
tual cooperation under the guidance of their Maker. From the cosmic viewpoint it must
be a pitiful thing to observe the human race competing and contending for selfish de-
sires, all the while missing the blessedness it could have in divinely guided coopera-
tion.

YOU are now setting out to do one person’s part to change all this, and
you may discover that one person’s part is larger and more important than you had
thought. The reason people struggle and contend instead of cooperating is partly be-
cause they have been taught that competition is the way to get on. It isn’t. Co-
operation is.

Many people who realize the truth of this in part still do not quite know
HOW to cooperate. They cooperate on too small a scale, and thus only create new and
greater competitions and rivalries. For instance, the people of a nation may cooper-
ate with each other, only to carry on hostile competition with another nation whose
people also cooperate with each other.

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.
 t
t
Rev. 99: P3: S.60 G:H

Do you not see what the trouble is? They are not cooperating in a common
union with the Engineer of the whole life of the human race. If EACH part of the
machine were in union with the Engineer it would be in harmony with all the rest.
That is where the difficulty lies. We try vainly to set up our own systems of coop-
eration, when it would all take care of itself if we would enter the common harmony
of union with the Divine purpose.

Here is the real solution of the whole problem of war and the selfish
rivalries that cause it. This is probably the world’s chief problem just now, and
you are putting yourself in line with the one real solution by enlisting one more
human life in the only plan that will ever make the human race a family, living in a
simple, comfortable home, under the care of a single heavenly Father. Is that not
worth thinking about and trying to achieve? Costly weapons and marching armies only
intensify the rivalries of earth. The way out is universal cooperative unity under
God. That would take the chatter out of the machine and remove the discord from the
music. The BIG problem is to get the backward nations to understand it, — not as
NATIONS, but as the people of ONE UNIVERSE, or better still, ONE VAST CREATION.

II. Let Us Visualize It.

Turn to the first chapter of the Book of Genesis and read the first two
verses. Meditate on them, then read them again, very thoughtfully. Do not let any
old ideas of their meaning you may have had get in the way. Reflect on them more as
you might if you had never seen or heard of them before. That way you may get them
into a clearer and less obstructed light.

This is a brief but masterful picture of the condition of things at the

beginning of creation. The universe is dark, and waste, and void, Only one thing
is there — the SPIRIT OF GOD. It is not inactive, but MOVING, doing something. An-
other rendering of the Hebrew word is “brooding”, meditating~ It was the Spirit of
Love, thinking, willing PATTERNS for an order of lovely worlds and living things.

Then the Spirit of God, the UNIVERSAL Presence, begins to send forth
energy, and slowly the darkness turns to light, the void to substance, and the chaos
to order. Thus, as the writer says, “in the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.” At the time when the writer speaks of the brooding Spirit of God this
planet had reached the creative stage of a water world, but naturally it was the
same force that had already brought creation from nothingness to that stage

Stop and think about all this very carefully. Here we have a vast empti-
ness, only the DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS moving, brooding, meditating, thinking, planning
dreaming out worlds, life forms, ages and aeons of development and PROGRESS. Then
it begins to pour ENERGY into these patterns, and they start taking form like con-
crete poured into a mould. With the passing of the periods the writer calls “days”
just as we speak of the day of this or that, we reach the stage where an infant
earth is in existence. Billions of such planets existed before and since.

The Spirit of God is STILL brooding, meditating, bringing things to pass.

As it continues to plan and energize its plans, this infant world and Universe becomes

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Rev. 99: P4: ~S.6o G:H
-

the beautiful dwellingplace of life which the Divine One plans ultimately to shape
into a pattern suggestive of His own divinity, love, happiness, health and power.
The planet was still only a stage, for the great drama was yet to begin. The develop-
ment of man and his long struggle through savagery and out of the jungle was yet to
take place.

Now let us go from the beginning of the “Divine Library” to its close.
Turn to the twenty—first chapter of the last book on the last shelf, the Book of
Revelation. Again read very thoughtfully the opening paragraph, then the rest of
the chapter, then the twenty—second and final chapter. Meditate on what you have
read. Then read it AGAIN and AGAIN until you feel you have CAUGHT ThE SPIRIT OF IT.

This is not a picture of life in some other existence, but of life as it

was meant to be and will come to be in this world. It is a picture of the POSSIBIL-
ITIES of human existence, and an ASSURANCE that those possibilities will one day be
realized. It is a description of the time when God will at last have completed His
creative work. Creation has already moved from the physical level up to the social
and cultural levels. In the future we are now thinking about it will have moved in-
to and through the spiritual level and creation will be complete. The Divine is still
thinking out these patterns and energizing them into fulfillment as the centuries and
millenniunis go by.

The two pictures you have considered represent the beginning of history
and its climax. The one is the place we started from. The other is the goal toward
which we are moving. SOMEWHERE between these two stages the human race stands today.
It has made ~ progress, but it has ~ no means REACHED the redeemed world order
of which you have been reading.

Somewhere between these two stages YOU YOURSELF also stand, and not neces-ET
sarily at the SAME stage of advancement with the human race in general. You MAY have
pushed farther along than has humanity as a whole, and You ~ get FARThER AHEAD of
it still. HUMANITY IS SLOW, UNWIELDY, AND UNAWARE. It moves only at the speed of
its slowest members. PEOPLE who are AHEAD of their time have to tr to be PATIENT
while the SLOWER ones lumber along toward the wonderful possibilities the ALERTED
ONES can SO CLEARLY SEE. YOUR part is to see the DIVINE PURPOSE and help OThERS TO-
WARD IT AS YOU CAN. The human race may not arrive in your day, but YOU WILL NOT LOSE
YOUR REWARD.

III. A Few Details.

Now let us take a look at the redeemed world order itself. You have al-
ready noticed that it is to be a tearless condition God has wiped away the tears
—

from human eyes. In other words, the COI~DITIONS that made the sorrows of mankind
ARE NO MORE.

This condition of tearless happiness has been made possible by the fact
that the human and the Divine have at last got together. As you have read, “The
tabernacle (dwellingplace) of God is with men, and He shall dwell with (perhaps in)
them, and they shall be His peoples (not people), and God Himself shall be with them.
and be their God * * * Union, not of the few but of the ~ has been achieved
at last. ThAT is what has taken all the long centuries of time for man to SEE, UN—
DERSTAND, and DO SOMEThING about.

The twenty—second verse of the twenty—first chapter makes the amazing

I,
 Rev. 99: P5: S.60 G:H

‘~. statement that as John looked at his vision of this new world order he “saw no temple
(sanctuary) therein, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, or the temple
(sanctuary) thereof.” The church has at last accomplished its great purpose. It
too has merged into the glow of the LIGHT that lights every man coming into the
world. RELIGION IS NO LONGER SOMETHING WRITTEN IN BOOKS OR LOCALIZED IN BUILDINGS.
It is a PART of the HEART-THROB of HUMANITY, as MUCH a part of life as ~~hiflg or
the circulation of the blood. The Divine is EVERYWHERE, and EVERYTHING is recognized
as HIS work. The WORLD has become a temple, and LIFE ITSELF is WORSHIP.

Get a copy of Charles Rann Kennedy’s great play, The Servant in the House,
and read again the scene where Manson, who represents the Christ, tells the bishop
about his, Manson’s church. Ponder carefully that spiritual structure from whose
pillars laugh the faces of happy children, which is FILLED with the music of the
HEART—BEAT of MANKIND, and away ~ in whose towers may be heard the sound of the ham-
mers of the brothers who have climbed ~ ahead

Hear now a parable. Word was once given out in a certain town that a new
and lovely temple of worship was to be built. The people were enthusiastic in their
expectancy. Eagerly they waited to see the lovely building that was to rise.

Soon they saw men nailing boards, rough boards, higher and higher. They
supported platforms and ladders over which the workmen moved. The thing was made of
~< rough lumber, and it had not much shape yet, the people said, but they had hopes.
They were sure the boards would be dressed, and that design would show when the work
was at last complete. It didn’t look like much now, they said, but it would be a
temple by and by.

One day the workmen began tearing down the boards and platforms. A word
of alarm went about. ~~Theyare tearing down our new temple”, people said. They
thought something must surely be wrong. Perhaps the workmen were wicked men, working
for a wicked builder, who would destroy their temple just when it was ready for use.
The workmen went on tearing down the lumber and laying it in great piles on the
ground, after which it was carted away.

Then BEHOLD, A GREAT TEMPLE, with shapely masonry, graceful carvings, and
lovely window designs, stood there. What the people had been seeing was only the
scaffolding, the falsework, on which the workmen had to stand while building the
real temple inside it.

Our human organizations are the scaffolding on which we stand and ~ which
we climb as we build the GREAT temple of universal faith. The church’s triumph will
be the day of its completion, the time when all our broken lights will merge into the
“light that shineth more and more unto the PERFECT day.” When man finaliy gets to-
gether with God the union will have to include his religion, the same as his business,
his politics, his relationships, his culture, and the rest of his interests. Religion
IS a ilfe, and it cannot realize its FULL purpose till it is wholly merged with life.

IV. The Universal Oneness.

ANYTHING not yet realized is bound to seem more or less theoretical, ~

.
Rev. 99: P6: S.6o ~G:H

one walking in the dark HAS to proceed on theory till he can discover whether it IS
fact. We have assumed the possibility of the universal oneness. We will not attempt
fully to ANSWER the question ~ but only to OPEN IT UP ENOUGH to give the student
a chance to do WHATEVER original thinking on it may seem helpful in his quest. Of
course, ~ IMPORTANT thing is to FOLLOW the road it opens up. When we do that,
theory largely takes care of itself, yet a glance on the theoretical side may throw
some light on that road.

Looking through the mystic philosophies of the Old World , a number of

modern restatements of them under various names, and even the Bible itself, we find
constantly coming to the surface the IDEA of the ONENESS of ALL things. In a Hima-
layan lamasary one might even be told that man is God DIFFERENTIATED into human form.
Elsewhere one would be told that each of us lives as a human soul only because a
little fragment of the Divine Spirit has been made the nucleus of his being. Even
in our occidental lands we are frequently told that God is all there is, and that
everything we see is simply a MATERIALIZED THOUGHT of the Infinite Mind.

Think of these things AS you wish. It is not necessary to choose among

them, or EVEN TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THEM MORE than to 1Q~OW about them. All YOU NEED
to know YOU will learn in your own experience, but knowing what others think they
have discovered MAY help. The main point just now is that the generality of such
thinking at least shows that an IDEA of oneness or unity of souls PERSISTS.

At the beginning of this lesson series we quoted St. Augustine as saying

that God has made US for HIMSELF, and that our souls know no rest UNTIL they rest
in Him. We know by general experience that this is TRUE, but why? There is some
reason why man CANKOT forget the Divine, why even savage tribes in remote times and
places have recognized a Supreme Person and sought after Him. If it is not some
fragment of the divine life in us always seeking its “COMPANION” part, it IS some-
thing that has an equivalent effect. To recognize that impulse and follow it through
to whatever realization waits is our present purpose and task.

Occasionally we hear of a man and a woman living in places very far apart
finding themselves unable to become interested in anyone else till the strange wind—
ings of fate bring them together in a marriage of perfect love. Undoubtedly this
does occasionally happen. The poets say it turns out as it does because two COMPAN-
ION PARTS of the same life stuff are hidden in their beings, and refuse to let them
rest UNTIL they ~fl’j~ the two in ONE life AGAIN.

Who shall say the poets are not right? Certainly there is something more
than mere physical attraction involved. If the physiologists insist on denying this
let us take the case of parent and child or friend and friend who never rest while
they are separated, and are at peace ONLY when brought together again. There is
some reason for this, and it cannot be wholly physiological. What would account for
cases like that of Jonathan and David or Damon and Pythias? Some oneness has been
violated by separation, and can be satisfied only by reunion.

MUCH of the physical constitution of the universe is based on attraction

of one kind or another. It holds things together, and it keeps the stars and plan-
ets in their right relationship and motion. Yet it is always mysterious and unseen.
Why is it any less reasonable that there should be attraction between two human be-
ings, or between the human and the Divine? These are All parts of the SAME order of
things.
 Rev. 99: P7: S.60 G:H

In any case these things are indications of that “something” that lures
us toward the Divine. We ALL have it, though some honor it and others stifle it.
YOU are pursuing these lessons because that feeling has pursued you. YOU have ac-
cepted it as at least a vital interest. With some it has become a consuming passion.
WHY do people feel so about it? The answer is that it is one of the inevitables.
We cannot dodge the claims or ignore the voice of what is NECESSARY to us. You can
no more explain it than you can explain love itself, but you know it is there, DRAW-
ING YOU like a magnet

WHATEVER theory you accept, or whether you accept ~ YOU HAVE ADOPTED A
PROGRAM. You have sensed a kinship with the Divine, and you propose to ~ meet
and KNOW your heavenly Father. You will do this by whatever means seems to promise
most success. Lessons, books, and counselors may help you, but you have to make the
search for yourself. Remember though, don’t go off on detours. KEEP to the main
travelled road.

V. Gathered Threads.

In closing this final lesson of this Third Series on Practical Life Phil-
osophy let us take a moment to gather up some loose threads and re—emphasize a few
points that may need it.

Think of all the people about whom you have now read as having had exper-
iences of the Divine. Think also of any you have yourself known. Not one was an
idler, was he? Most of them were busy, EVEN AT THE MOMENT GOD’S REVELATION CAME TO
ThEM. God seems to seek out BUSY people, so don’t get the idea that this is a pro-ET1
gram of WAITING. We must wait God’s ~ but we must KEEP BUSY while we are doing
it.

Keep your thoughts not on some nearby way station of the road, but on the
ultimate goal. Tennyson called it “the one far—off divine event toward which the
whole creation moves.” Jesus called it the Kingdom of Heaven. John called it the
Heavenly City, the New Jerusalem. Whatever YOU call it, keep your purpose centered
in it. The road to it is the one along which people most often find THEMSELVES
CONSCIOUSLY FACE TO FACE with the DIVINE.

Perhaps you have already been wondering whether you are fit to undertake
this quest. It is to your credit that such a c~uestion should arise, but DON’T let
it worry x~a. What BETTER indicates fitness than the DESIRE for God? If perfection
were the test, who ever was fit? Not ONE of the disciples was fit when he STARTED.
All who meet God feel unfit, SHAMEFULLY UNFIT, when they once see the divine glory,
and themselves in comparison with it. ~, not you, is the one to decide your fit-
ness, and no one ever heard df His REJECTING A SEEKER. Anyway, when you go searching
for the REALIZATION of the Divine you will find YOURSELF made MORE and MORE FIT as
you g~ along. St. Augustine’s Confessions will show what he was when he started.
Such of his works as The City of God will show what he became as he followed through.

How can YOU know ~ WILL succeed? You cannot except by faith, and it is

,.
 Rev. 99: P~: S.6o G:H

about the SUREST knowledge there is. No one who has not been there can tell WHAT is
at the other end of a long road, but he can believe those who have been there. Abra-
ham did not know where the Divine was sending him when he left Haran and started on
that long road of destiny. Much less did he have any idea along what ways of history
his~ descendents would be led through the centuries. Yet he asked no questions, but
ONLY OBEYED the tin s of THE INNER VOICE. Centuries afterward it was said of
him that he believed God and it was CREDITED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. — —

That is what YOU will have to do at first — take it by faith. Until ~

have faith ~ are not ready to start ~~where. If you have faith, you will be safe
anywhere you g~, being led, and not by sight, to the land of promise of your OWN
heart.

Faith is a positive force, capable of removing obstacles between us and

any cherished purpose. The MOMENT one begins to succeed at anything is the moment
when he begins to have FAITh in his ability to do it. For-instan~e, what would hap-
pen to one walking a wire over Niagara Falls if for a single moment he lost his
faith? Wha—t keeps him safe on such a strange road will also keep YOU safe, for it
will channel The divine WISDOM AND POWHR into YOUR life.

REACHING the level where the fulfillment of YOUR purpose is possible is

going to take endurance. YOU ma succeed ~ but NOT MANY DO. In case the
road is long, it would be a pity to waver and give ~ when SUCCESS is waiting just
around the turn. Remember it is not the start of the race that decides the victory,
but the FINISH.

YOU are strong, fresh, and eager now, and you feel certain you can do it;
but WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE TIRED, CONFUSED, AND DISCOURAGED? ThAT is JUST
the time when you MUST ~ on. One runs BETTER after he gets his second wind and
he ~ his SECOND wind just AFTER ThE WORLD STARTS TURNING BLUE BEFORE HIS EYES and
he THINKS HE CAN GO NO FARThER.

Probably you will be tired and spent when you finally realize your pur-
pose, but it WILL BE WORTh IT. The question now is whether you can endure to the
end. You CAN if you DO ThIS — set your PURPOSE on the GOAL,~ started, and KEEP
GOJNG. That is ALL it takes. The last part of the formula will be the problem,
but it is the most important thing. It is KEEPING going that brings the traveler to
the end of his journey.

In your progress toward an experience of the Divine you will have MANY
compensations, and they will FAR outweigh the struggle and effort. YOU will always
be on the victory side, with nothing to lose and everything to gain. You will be
helping achieve the most important chapter in world history. You will have content
ment, which is mOre dependable than temporary satisfaction or superficial happiness.
So now, follow through, and may God speed you on your way.

Pursue, therefore, most determinedly the completion of your First Century

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Rev. 99~ P9: ~.6o,~G:H

of Revelations —knowing that your gains WILL far outweigh the struggle, and that
your Second Century will surely bring even greater honors and higher degrees in our
beloved Mayanry.

This is the 99th Revelation, which is DOUBLE 3 X 3 (3 X 3 and 3 X 3)

equals 99. According to the most ancient Hebraic and Mayan evaluations of Numer-
ology, 99 equals 9+9 which equals l~, and l+~ equals 9 (equals 3 X 3), all of
which are degree numbers.

You will have ALL the help you need. And be sure that somewhere up the
road awaits the most glorious experience a human being can have.

With Prayers for Your Blessedness,

Your Class Instructor.