by Dr. William L. Pierce
I
LIFE IS SHORT, our brothers and sisters. Must it also be empty? Must it also be bitter? Must its passing hold terror?
Where is fulfillment to be found in the midst of shallow and empty things? Where is peace to be found in the midst of chaos and strife? Where is serenity to be obtained in a spiritual wasteland?
Seek no more, our brothers and sisters, for we give you these answers, and more.
We show you the meaning and the purpose of things. We lead you from confusion and uncertainty to knowledge; from weakness to strength; from frustrated desire to fulfillment.
We lead you to the Path of Life. We bring your souls into harmony, with the Spirit of All Things.
We give you the Truth, which is this: There is but one Reality, and that Reality is the Whole. It is the Creator, the Self-Created.
II
The meaning of the Truth is this: Man, the world, and the Creator are not separate things, but man is a part of the world, which is a part of the Whole, which is the Creator.
The tangible Universe is the material manifestation of the Creator. All the blazing suns of the firmament; the formless gas between the stars; the silent, frozen mountain peaks of the moon; the rustling trees of earthly forests; the teeming creatures of the dark ocean depths; and man are parts of the Creator’s material manifestation.
But the Creator has a spiritual manifestation, which is the Urge toward the One Purpose. The Urge lies at the root of all things and is manifested in the relations between all things.
The Urge is in the tenuous gases of the void, for they have a purpose, which are the flaming suns and all the planets, which form from them. The Urge is in the earth, for it has a purpose, which is the realm of plants and animals which flourish on it. And the Urge is in man, for he has a purpose, which is higher man.
And the purposes of all these things are steps on the Path of Life, which leads to the One Purpose, which is the Self-realization of the Creator: the Self-completion of the Self-created.
And the matter and the spirit, the Universe and the Urge, are One, and it is the Whole.
III
Man is of the Whole, and his purpose is the Creator’s Purpose. And this signifies: Man is, in part, both the substance and the means of the Creator, and he is nothing else; this is his entire being and purpose.
And man serves the Creator’s Purpose in two ways. The first way is the way of all the other parts of the Whole; it is the way of sub-man; it is the blind way; it is the way of the deeply in-dwelling consciousness, the immanent consciousness; it is the way of instinct. The second way is the way of higher man; it is the sighted way; it is the way of the awakened consciousness and of true reason; which is to say, it is the way of the perfect union of the immanent consciousness with man’s reason, which perfect union we call Divine Consciousness.
IV
The meaning of the first way is this: The Purpose of the Creator is Self-completion; the Path of the Creator toward Self-completion is the Path of Life; and man is a step on this Path.
The Creator existed before man, and the Creator will exist after man has surpassed himself. The step on the Path before man was sub-man, and the step on the Path after man is higher man. But man is now, for a time, a part of the Creator, of the ever-changing, ever-evolving Whole.
There is a threshold on the Path at the step, which is man. It is the threshold of Divine Consciousness. Before man, each part of the Whole was blind, and it could not see the next step on the Path. The gases of the void could not foresee the suns which they were to become, nor could sub-man foresee man. The Urge carried the Whole along the Path, and each part of the Whole, though blind, served the Creator’s Purpose.
V
And the meaning of the second way in which man serves the Creator’s Purpose is this: The evolution of the Whole toward Self-completion is an evolution in spirit as well as in matter. Self-completion, which is Self-realization, is the attainment of perfect Self-consciousness. The Creator’s Urge, which is immanent in the Universe, evolves toward an all-seeing Consciousness.
Man stands between sub-man and higher man, between immanent consciousness and awakened consciousness, between unawareness of his identity and his mission and a state of Divine Consciousness. Some men will cross the threshold, and some will not.
Those who attain Divine Consciousness will ascend the Path of Life toward their Destiny, which is Godhood; which is to say, the Path of Life leads upward through a never-ending succession of states, the next of which is that of higher man, and the ultimate that of the Self-realized Creator. True reason will illuminate the Path for them and give them foresight; it will be a mighty aid to the Creator’s Urge within them.
And those who do not attain Divine Consciousness will continue groping in the darkness, and their feet will be tripped by the snares of false reason, and they will stumble from the Path, and they will fall into the depths.
For the threshold at which man stands is a dangerous threshold, a difficult threshold. And man’s reason is a dangerous achievement. Just as it can give eyes to his instinct, which is the immanent consciousness of the Whole acting in him, so it can confuse and mislead his instinct.
VI
And let us now understand the present state of man, so that we can distinguish true reason from false reason. Let us employ true reason, so that it can guide us across the threshold of Divine Consciousness.
The difference between true reason and false reason is this: True reason seeks to guide man’s actions in accord with the immanent consciousness of the Whole, while false reason does not.
The man or woman of true reason seeks order in all things, and he shuns chaos. He is pleased by a harmonious relationship between all the elements of his life and the world. He rejects that which clashes and does not fit, that which is alien.
He is happy in the knowledge that what was true and good yesterday will be true and good tomorrow. Through order and harmony, he seeks true progress, which is the ascent of the Path of Life; but he shuns frivolous change, which destroys the harmony between the past and the future.
He loves truth, and he hates falsehood.
He loves beauty, and he hates ugliness.
He loves nobility in all things, and he hates baseness.
And all these predispositions of the man or woman of true reason are like rays thrown out by the Divine Spark which burns in his soul. And this Divine Spark is the immanent consciousness of the Whole. It is the presence of the Creator’s Urge in him.
VII
The Divine Spark burns brightly in some men, and their reason is true. It burns less brightly in others, and in them true reason may give way to false reason.
For the Urge is in all things, but the state of consciousness of the Whole is more highly evolved in some things than in others. It is more highly evolved in living things than in non-living things; in man than in other animals; and in some men than in other men. There exists in the various living creatures a continuous hierarchy of states of the immanent consciousness of the Whole.
In the best of times men and women of true reason prevail, and there is true progress.
But in the worst of times false reason overcomes true reason. Then the self-seekers, the liars, and those of base motives prevail.
And then all the other evils come forth: Falsehood overcomes truth and is held up in the place of truth. Ugliness replaces beauty and is preferred over beauty. Baseness is everywhere and is praised as nobility. Disharmony rules all men’s lives, and those of true reason are frustrated in their desires.
Lies are heard everywhere, and no one has the power to speak against them. Evil deeds are seen everywhere, and no one can act against them. All that is good, valuable, and progressive is pulled down and defiled. All that is alien and discordant grows and multiplies. There is no true reason or peace in the masses of men, and they are without direction or purpose.
Then most men live from day to day, and their only thought is of themselves. Through idle amusements, through eating and drinking, through games and parties, through stupefying themselves with intoxicants, and through every other form of self-indulgence, they turn their thoughts away from the meaninglessness of their existence.
Some men attempt to give directions to their lives, but they are false directions. Their purposes may be to accumulate wealth or to wield power over other men or to become skilled in some art or craft. But unless these purposes are related to the Creator’s Purpose they are without merit and the lives of those who pursue them are as without meaning as the lives of those with no purpose.
For falsehood may often have the appearance of truth, but it remains false nevertheless. A man may pile up mountains of gold, or he may order nations to war, or he may acquire great knowledge or skill, but if he does not direct his life in accordance with the One Purpose, he may as well not have lived.
VIII
Death comes to the man or woman without Divine Consciousness as it comes to the sub-man: living matter becomes non-living matter; meaningless life becomes meaningless death; the personality is annihilated. Eternal nothingness is the destiny of those who are spiritually empty.
But he who has attained a state of Divine Consciousness partakes of the immortality of the Whole in the way of higher man: his body perishes, but his spirit remains with the Whole.
He who is a member of the Community of Divine Consciousness is not annihilated by death, because his consciousness is one with that of the Community. So long as the Community lives, his consciousness lives; and so long as the Community serves the One True Purpose, he who served that Purpose before the perishing of his body serves it in eternity.
IX
The Community of Divine Consciousness is the Community of the Awakened, the Community of the Climbers of the Path, the Community of the People of the Rune of Life, the Community of the Ordained Ones.
The gathering of those who would become members of the Community of Divine Consciousness is called the Cosmotheist Community; it is the Community of those who would become People of the Rune.
And the People of the Rune are known by these four things: knowledge, consciousness, discipline, and service; they are the things for which the members of the Cosmotheist Community strive.
By knowledge is meant understanding of the Truth. It is attained by the receptive learner through diligent study of the teachings of the Cosmotheist Community.
By consciousness is meant the awakened state of those who have gone beyond knowledge and have partaken of the immanent consciousness of the Whole which resides in their innermost souls; they have understood the inner message and have seen that it is the same as the outer message, which is the message taught by the Cosmotheist Community. The attainment of consciousness, like knowledge, requires receptiveness and diligence, and it also requires good will, which is to say, a pure motive.
Discipline comes from without and from within. From without it is imposed on the members of the Cosmotheist Community. By being so imposed it brings forth the growth of discipline from within. Without discipline, there is no mastery, and he who has not mastered the chaos of conflicting forces within himself cannot render full service. But discipline imposed and discipline which grows from within together give those who have attained knowledge and consciousness mastery over their own forces, so that those forces may serve the Creator’s Purpose.
X
Service of the Creator’s Purpose is the purpose of all things, and the purpose of the Community of Divine Consciousness is service which is conscious and disciplined. In this dangerous and difficult era of the threshold between man and higher man, many men have ceased serving the Creator’s Purpose in the old way, which is the way of sub-man, the unconscious way, and they have not begun serving in the new way. False reason leads them instead into the grievous error of contravention of the Creator’s Purpose.
But the members of the Community of Divine Consciousness, the Awakened Ones, the People of the Rune, serve in the new way, which is the way of higher man, the way of true reason. They are conscious agents of the Creator’s Purpose.
And they are ordained to overcome the men of false reason and to put an end to the works of all those who contravene the Creator’s Purpose.
They are the beginning; they are the first crossers of the threshold; they are the pointers of the way, of the Path of Life. Through their service, they resume the never-ending ascent toward their Destiny, which is Godhood.
XI
And this is our summons to you, our brothers and sisters; it is our call to all the men and women of our blood who are of good will:
Abandon falsehood and folly. Cast off alien ways and free yourselves from the snares of false reason. Turn away from the corruption of this decaying order of things.
Understand who you are and what your purpose is. Seek your Destiny. Put your life into the service of Cosmic Truth.
Enter now into the Cosmotheist Community. Partake of our joyful certainty that the Creator’s Purpose will be fulfilled. Lay with us the foundations for the new order of things, which will rise in the place of the old.
Cross with us the threshold of Divine Consciousness. Strive with us toward membership in the Community of the Awakened.
(1977)