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XXIII

FINAL DESTINY OF THE SPIRIT¹

The present structure of the universe will change ultimately, and a new universe will come forth.² When all

¹ See the section entitled "Concerning the Spirit's Destiny" in The Great Harmonia, Vol. II, pp. 243 et seq.
² This section contains what may be termed a "harmonial" distinction on the outbreathings and inbreathings of Parabrahma. In place of all things returning to God the hierarchies of intelligence are located unendingly in the Thomist state of Beatific Vision, subject, however, to a "harmonial" saving clause, in virtue of which there is nothing lost or cast out. It is an interesting presentation of the Davis scheme of eternity, but it is only a variation of St. Thomas Aquinas and of the Paradiso conceived by Dante. The philosophical basis of the idea is summarised in another place, where it is said that the most powerful attraction in the universe, namely God, cannot absorb the soul, because the soul does not love God objectively but subjectively—meaning that the soul loves God through the centre of its own individuality and not outside of itself. The self is that eternal standard of consciousness and, moreover, is that portal through which the soul looks toward all remote prospects. The highest counsel of human duty is to love the neighbour as we love ourselves. Self is the immutable rule, the pivot upon which immortality revolves, as a world turns upon its axis, and without it there is no human existence.—See The Present Age and the Inner Life, p. 411. There is no question that Davis is here attempting to express at least one great aspect of a great mystical truth, namely, that God is within or immanent, as well as transcendent or outside the self and the universe. To love God as a Being without and apart from ourselves is great and high and holy, but it is the love of a Divine Neighbour and as such is objective, whereas, in the better understanding, it is in Him we live and move and have our being, which is not a neighbourly relation but one of ineffable permeation. If we can realise this, the soul is steeped in God, and the mode of realisation is by loving Him as He who is within and not

340

The Harmonial Philosophy

worlds of material organisation shall have performed their respective missions by the individualisation of immortal spirits, when each world shall have disorganised and fallen back into its original vortex of chaos, where will the spirit reside? The answer hereto will be best understood by recurring to the soul's travellings. After individual souls leave this and the other earths they ascend to the Second Sphere, where they undergo an angelic discipline, by which every physical and spiritual deformity is removed. When all spirits shall have progressed to the Second Sphere the earths and planets in the universe will be depopulated. The earths and suns will die, their life being absorbed by the Divine Spirit. He will expand His inmost capacity and attract the glowing elements of His being which permeate the boundless expanse of matter, and all matter which is not organised into spirit will fall into its original condition. But the inhabitants of the Second Sphere will ultimately advance to the Third, then to the Fourth, then to the Fifth, and last to the Sixth, which is as near the Great Positive Mind as spirits can ever approach. It is in the neighbourhood of the Divine Aroma of Deity, is warmed and beautified by His infinite love, illuminated by His all-embracing wisdom. In this ineffable Sphere, but in different stages of individual progression, all spirits will dwell. They will be held together by attractive emanations of Deity, which will embrace the entire Sphere. The Universal Father will thus gather to Himself all images of His creation; and the House of Many Mansions will be filled by the members of the ingathered family. This may be considered as the Home of the spirit, but still greater missions and blessings will determine the paths in which every conjugal oneness will tread.

apart from our own subject. This love demands a code, which is the shaping of all our life and being into conformity with the Divine Mode; but, as Davis says also, self remains the standard, for it is we always who love, we who conform and we who realise that God is within.

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Final Destiny of the Spirit

When all spirits arrive at the Sixth Sphere, then will the Deity contract His inmost capacity, and the boundless vortex will be convulsed with new motion. God will create a new universe and will manifest different and greater elements and energies therein. New spheres of spiritual existence will thus be opened, as much superior to the present unspeakable glories of the Sixth Sphere as this now is above the Second Sphere. The highest Sphere in the present order of the universe will constitute the Second Sphere in that new order which is to be developed. Thus there will be Four Spheres for spirits and angels to pass through at the consummation of the new unfolding, as there are four now between the Second and Sixth Spheres which we have been considering. There have been developed already more universes in the manner here described than there are atoms in this earth of ours. As the human mind is incapable of computing the millions of centuries required for those souls which inhabit the Second Sphere to progress into the one above it, so it would be worse than useless to hint at those ages which will roll into the past before we begin to approach that change of universal relations about which I have spoken.¹

It follows that the spirit will have no final home, because rest would be intolerable to an immortal being, but the spirit will progress eternally. It will be always in harmony with surrounding circumstances, and so will dwell always in heaven. It will walk in those shining paths which angels tread. Let us then live justly, truly and purely: by so doing our position will be glorious in those innumerable spheres where the spirit will reside.

¹ On the subject of successive universes compare The Magic Staff, p. 341, where the same view is put forward.