“It is the inveterate enmity of the occult powers of evil to the mystic “Woman” of Scripture that is implied in the Apocalyptic presentation of the dragon, “when knowing he has but a short time,” as “casting out of his mouth water as a flood to carry her away.”
The imminence of the restoration of the intuition recognised by the dragon, who is no other than her old seducer in Eden, is due to the commencement of the reign of Michael, “the great prince who standeth for the children of God’s people.” This is because, as the representative of the principle of equity or equilibrium, in respect of the masculine and feminine factors in man’s nature, Michael represents the restoration to her proper throne of the Intuition, by whom is the discernment of spirit and, therein, of the true nature of the dragon as the antithesis of the Spirit.
The denial of the Intuition is a distinguishing characteristic of Ecclesiasticism, be it religious or scientific. And never was it more conspicuous by its absence from either kind than in the present day. But the question has first to be answered, who or what precisely the Intuition is. And as there is none so competent to answer it as herself, it is in the words in which she has revealed herself anew expressly for the purposes of the New Interpretation represented by this Society, that the answer shall be given. It will be seen that at the very outset she restores the doctrine – Universal in the pre-Christian Churches, but suppressed by Ecclesiasticism on assuming the designation of Christian – which alone renders her, or the Bible, or existence itself, intelligible. This is the doctrine of a multiplicity of earth-lives.
“Intuition is inborn experience; that which the soul knoweth of old and of former years. 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. None is a prophet save he who knoweth: the instructor of the people is a man of many lives. And Illumination is the light of Wisdom, whereby a man perceiveth heavenly secrets. Which light is the Spirit of God within the man, showing unto him the things of God.” (1)
The mystic books deal only with spiritual entities. The tempter himself even is not matter, but that which gives matter the precedence. Adam is, rather, intellectual force; he is of earth. Eve is the moral conscience; she is mother of the living.
Intellect, then, is the male, and Intuition the female principle. And the sons of Intuition, herself fallen, shall at last recover truth and redeem all things.
By her fault, indeed, is the moral conscience of humanity made subject to the intellectual force, and thereby all manner of evil and confusion abounds, since her desire is unto him, and he rules over her until now.
But the end foretold by the Seer is not far off. Then shall the Woman be exalted, clothed with the sun, and carried to the throne of God. And her sons shall make war with the dragon, and have victory over him.
Intuition, therefore, pure and a virgin, shall be the mother and redemptress of her fallen sons whom she bore under bondage to her husband, the intellectual force.
Moses, therefore, knowing the mysteries of the religion of the Egyptians, and having learned of their Occultists the value and signification of all sacred birds and beasts, delivered like mysteries to his own people. (…) And he taught his initiated the spirit of the heavenly hieroglyphs, and bade them, when they made festival before God, to carry with them in procession, with music and with dancing, such of the sacred animals as were, by their interior significance, related to the occasion.
Now, of these beasts, he chiefly selected males of the first year, without spot or blemish, to signify that it is before all things needful that man should dedicate to the Lord his intellect and his reason, and this from the beginning and without the least reserve. And that he was very wise in teaching this is evident from the history of the world in all ages, and particularly in these last days. For what is it that has led men to renounce the realities of the Spirit, and to propagate false theories and corrupt sciences, denying all things save the appearance which can be apprehended by the outer senses, and making themselves one with the dust of the ground? It is their Intellect which, being unsanctified, has led them astray; it is the force of the mind in them, which, being corrupt, is the cause of their own ruin, and of that of their disciples.
As then, the intellect is apt to become the great traitor against heaven, so also it is the force by which men, following their pure intuition, may also grasp and apprehend the truth. For which reason it is written that the Christs are subject to their Mothers. Not that by any means the intellect is to be dishonoured; for it is the heir of all things, if only it be truly begotten and be no bastard.
And besides all these symbols, Moses taught the people to have beyond all things an abhorrence of Idolatry. What, then, is Idolatry, and what are false gods?
To make an idol is to materialise spiritual mysteries. The priests, then, were idolaters who, coming after Moses, and committing to writing those things which he by word of mouth had delivered unto Israel, replaced the true things signified, by their material symbols, and shed innocent blood on the pure altars of the Lord.
“They also are idolaters who understand the things of sense where the things of the Spirit are alone implied and who conceal the true features of the Gods with material and spurious presentations. Idolatry is Materialism, the common and original sin of man, which replaces Spirit by Appearance, Substance by Illusion, and leads both the moral and intellectual being into error, so that they substitute the nether for the upper, the depth for the height. It is that false fruit which attracts the outer sense, the bait of the serpent in the beginning of the world. Until the mystic man and woman had eaten of this fruit, they knew only the things of the Spirit, and found them suffice. But after their fall, they began to apprehend matter also, and gave it the preference, making themselves idolaters. And their sin, and the taint begotten of that false fruit, have corrupted the blood of the whole race of men. From which corruption the Sons of God would have redeemed them.” (2)
“All that is true is spiritual. No dogma is real that is not spiritual. If it be true, and yet seem to you to have a material signification, know that you have not solved it. It is a mystery: seek its interpretation. That which is true is for Spirit alone. For matter shall cease and all that is of it; but the Word of the Lord shall endure for ever. And how shall it remain except it be purely spiritual, since when matter ceases, it would “then be no longer comprehensible?” (3)
For, though matter is eternally the mode whereby spirit manifests itself, matter is not itself eternal.
The Church has all the truth; but the priests have materialised it.
In their real sense its doctrines are divine verities, founded in the nature of Being. As ecclesiastically presented, they are blasphemous absurdities. They are true as God intended them; not as priests will have them.
The Bible was written by intuitionalists, for intuitionalists, and from the intuitionalist standpoint. It has been interpreted by externalists, for externalists, and from the externalist standpoint. The most occult and mystical of books, it has been expounded by persons without occult knowledge or mystical insight.”
(Edward Maitland, The “New Gospel of Interpretation”, pp. 27-32; emphasis added)