Studies in "Freemasonry and Catholicism"
by Max Heindel


Introduction

  This study guide is intended for use with Freemasonry and Catholicism by Max Heindel. The guide contains two groups of questions for each chapter in Freemasonry and Catholicism. The first group of questions for a chapter are questions whose answer may be found somewhere in the chapter. The second group of questions are labeled as "thought questions." The answers to these questions are not given in the chapter, but rather can be answered by relating what was said in the chapter to one's own experience and by using one's creative imagination.

  In using the study guide it is recommended that one first read an entire chapter from Freemasonry and Catholicism to get an overall picture of the topic being discussed. Then answer the questions below, referring back to the text as needed.

  It is hoped that this study guide will help the reader clarify and make more precise the understanding of occult Truths, so that he or she may tred the path with a more certain step.

 


Part 1

1-1] In each blank insert the appropriate word or phrase.

The element Heat was the only element present in the ______________ Period. In the ______________ Period the elements of Heat and Air were present, and these elements worked together to produce ______________. Thus, unity prevailed. In the ______________ Period, the element ______________ was added, which fought against the fire, trying to quench it. The Spirits who were attuned to the ______________ were actively striving for enlargement of consciousness. The Spirits who were attuned to the ______________ were seeking to check any expenditure of latent power as dynamic energy.

1-2] Why did some of the Angels rebel against Jehovah's command that they help create forms on earth?

1-3] What is the name of the leader of the rebellious Angels? On what planet do the rebellious Angels dwell? Where is the dwelling place of the Angels who remained servants of Jehovah?

1-4] Next to each item on the left, put the letter of the item on the right which is most closely related:

Free Masonry ______ A. Fire
Catholicism ______ B. Water
Living by faith ______
Seeking knowledge ______
The Lucifer Spirits ______
Jehovah and the Angels ______ Death ______
Creation of bodies ______
Tying of the silver cord ______

 


Part 2

2-1] Why did Jehovah make humans uni-sexual?

2-2] Genesis states that a serpent induced Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. In reality, what did the Lucifer Spirits teach women to do?

2-3] Next to each item on the left put the letter of the item on the right which is most closely related:

A master workman ______ A. Abel or Seth or
their descendants
One who conquers the physical
world and learns to achieve
material comfort ______
B. Cain or his descendants
A creative, courageous person ______
One who looks to God for comfort ______
A master magician ______
A docile, trusting person ______

2-4] In each parentheses choose the correct word or phrase.

Solomon, a descendant of (Cain, Seth), was directed by (his own inner self, Jehovah) to build a Temple. Solomon (had, did not have) the creative skill to build the Temple himself. Hiram Abiff, a descendant of (Cain, Seth) was skilled in the (arts and crafts, priestcraft) and was (chosen, not chosen) to direct the construction of the Temple.

Thought Question:

2-2] If the sons of Seth and the sons of Cain had learned to work peacefully together in the building of Solomon's Temple, how might things be different today?

 


Part 3

3-1] Next to each item on the left put the letter of the item on the right which is most closely related:

The Queen of Sheba was impressed
by the Wisdom of Solomon. ______
A. A person cannot be initiated
until he has developed the
power within.
The Queen of Sheba was impressed
by the person who directed the
builders. ______
B. Humanity has not been willing to become completely obedient
to the Church, nor to
relinquish Religion in favor
of dominance by temporal powers.
The Queen of Sheba could not see
the workmen until Hiram Abiff
showed them to her. ______
C. Humanity is impressed by those
who have skills in arts and crafts.
The Queen of Sheba did not marry
either Solomon or Hiram Abiff. ______
D. Humanity receives Spiritual
direction from the Church.
Some of the workmen were unhappy
because Hiram Abiff had not
promoted them. ______
E. The forces of nature are not
perceived by the majority of
people, but the effects of
these forces are seen.

Thought Questions:

3-A] How is faith valuable to the aspirant?

3-B] In what ways are good works valuable to the aspirant?

 


Part 4

4-1] Why was Hiram not initially satisfied with the construction of the Temple, according the plan of Jehovah?

4-2] What, then, did Hiram plant to add to the Temple?

4-3] How was the Molten Sea to be used in the Temple services?

4-4] What materials were gathered for the construction of the Molten Sea?

4-5] What was extracted from these materials?

4-6] What benefits would people gain from laving in the Molten Sea?

4-7] What element, poured into the vessel cast to receive the Molten Sea, frustrated the completion of the Sea?

4-8] When Hiram jumped into the seathing mixture which had been intended to be the Molten Sea, he received the baptism of fire. What baptism did Cain predict that Hiram would receive in the future from the Lion of Judah?

4-9] What dual role did (does) the Lion of Judah combine within himself?

 


Part 5

5-1] Which of the following was not true concerning Melchisedec?

5-2] In what respects was Christ like Melchisedec?

5-3] In what order did the following occur in the past?

5-4] Why will marrying and giving birth to bodies be unnecessary in the kingdom of heaven?

5-5] After his baptism of fire, whom did Hiram Abiff leave? Whom did he them begin to serve?

5-6] After his baptism in the water of the Jordan, whom did Jesus leave? Who did Jesus then begin to serve?

5-7] What makes the blood a particularly important part of the body from the spiritual point of view?

5-8] In ancient times, people married within the family. What did the blood then contain, which it no longer contains when people marry outside the family?

5-9] Why did the practice of marrying in the family need to be discontinued?

5-10] On Golgotha when the blood flowed from Jesus' body, this blood etherealized and was spread over the earth by the Christ Spirit. What effect did this heave on the earth and on man?

Thought Questions:

5-A] Why do conflicts arise as a result of having Statecraft and Priestcraft exercised separately?

5-B] How does faith in the blood of Jesus aid the Sons of Seth?

 


Part 6

6-1] In each blank fill in an appropriate word or phrase.

_____________ in the air combining with _____________ in the blood results in a type of combustion which liberates _____________ which form an aura around an individual. Red color in the aura indicates a _____________ nature, and indicates subservience to the God _____________ and to the _____________ Spirits. Yellow in the aura indicates the use of _____________, and indicates response to the vibrations of the _____________ Spirit. The changing of the auric color from red to gold requires the raising of the _____________ of the vibrations so that they are the same as those of the _____________ Spirit.

6-2] When the Initiate creates a new adult body for himself

6-3] For what purpose may the Initiate create a new adult body?

Thought Question:

6-A] Apart from the changing of the colors of the aura, what other evidence would there be that alchemical transmutation was occurring in a person?

 


Part 7

7-1] In each blank, fill in either the word 'imagination' or the world 'will'.

By _____________ the Great Architect of the Universe visualized everything as it was to be created, and then by His _____________ the physical atoms were marshaled into this matrix of thought. When the divine Hierarchies are fashioning the crystal, plant, or animal they use their _____________ to create pictures in the archetypal region of the earth and then use their concentrated _____________ to mold the coarser matter into this matrix. Man also is learning to use his _____________ and _____________ to become an independent creator.

7-2] At one time man-in-the-making was a hermaphrodite. For what purposes were his creative energies then used?

7-3] When humanity became uni-sexual, what were their creative energies initially used for (prior to the arrival of the Lucifer Spirits)?

7-4] Next to each item on the left put the letter of the item on the right which is most closely related:

The beings who herded the sexes together
for propagation at propitious times, when
one half of the sex force was diverted to
build the brain. ______
A. Angels
The beings who taught humanity how the
sexes could cooperate to produce a body at
any time. ______
B. Lords of Mercury
The beings who are teaching
humanity how to use the mind. ______
C. Lucifer Spirits
Salt ______ D. The spiritual Hierarchy
from Neptune
Sulphur ______
Azoth ______
The beings who help humanity
to use the creative force
for generation ______
The beings who stimulate
humanity to use the creative
force for degeneration ______
The beings who help
humanity to use the creative
force for regeneration ______
The sympathetic nervous systems ______
The sensory nervous system ______
The spinal canal ______

7-5] What made the moral and physical nature of man gross and coarse?

7-6] In what manner does humanity misuse the creative force?

7-7] If humanity is to become as the gods, able to create from itself by the power of the mind, how must it direct the creative energy?

7-8] What must one do in order to draw upward the second half of the creative energy (which is the spinal spirit-fire)?

7-9] When the spinal spirit-fire reaches the head and sets the pituitary body and pineal gland to vibrating, what new power does one attain?

7-10] Under what circumstances is performance of the generative act legitimate for the Rosicrucian Student?

 


Part 8

8-1] The path if initiation starts at the surface of the earth and goes

8-2] What prevents the uninitiated from traveling the path of Initiation while they live on earth in their physical bodies?

8-3] What prevents the uninitiated from traveling the path of Initiation after death?

8-4] What law is the Initiate taught to suspend, so that he can travel the path of Initiation?

8-5] How many strata are in the earth? How many degrees are there in Mystic Masonry?

8-6] What animal is the spinal spirit fire related to, in Alchemical terminology?

8-7] Why is this animal associated with wisdom, in alchemical terminology?

8-8] Cultivation of what quality within people would bring peace on earth and would bring people most quickly to the New Heaven and New Earth, where the sons of Cain and sons of Seth will be united?

 


Part 9

9-1] Next to each item on the left put the letter of the item on the right which is most closely related (in Alchemical symbolism):

King ______ A. Fire
Priest ______ B. Water
Female ______
Male ______
Sons of Cain ______
Sons of Seth ______
Church ______
State ______
Industry ______
Spiritual welfare ______

9-2] In what sequence in time did or will the following occur?

9-3] What must one do in order to develop the soul body?

9-4] What human has become overall leader of the sons of Seth?
What human has become overall leader of the sons of Cain?

9-5] What ideal are both the sons of Seth and the sons of Cain striving toward?

 


 

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