The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal: Book X: IV. The Mystery Which Is Within

IV

THE MYSTERY WHICH IS WITHIN

On the historical side the Secret Church is then the shadow of an hypothesis at best; on the spiritual side of the intellect it is an implicit, but it is that irresistibly; mystically it is a truth which is not less than obvious, but it should be understood--and I repeat therefore--that it is apart from all forms, conventions and instituted existence. When in our highest moments we conceive with least unworthiness of the Church on the ideal plane, we approximate, but still under the reserves of our own insufficiency, to the Holy Assembly. It is the unity of arch-natural minds. It is that in which, by the mediation of the creeds, we confess our beliefs daily--the communion of saints. If we like to express it in such words--and they are excellent apart from their unhappy associations--it is the choir invisible. It is even like the priesthood of the Graal sanctuary, as we judge by the romances concerning it; it does not ordain or teach; it fulfils its office sufficiently because, speaking symbolically, it is "in the foremost files of time." It is like Saint-Martin--its feet are on earth and its head is in Heaven.

The Secret Church has said therefore: "Introibo ad altare Dei," and it has entered and gone in. When it comes out, in the person of one of its members, it carries bread and wine, like Melchisedech. The conditions of its membership correspond to the conditions of finding

Characteristics of the Interior Church by Loupoukine, the Cloud upon the Sanctuary by Eckartshausen, Werner's Sons of the Valley, the Eucharistic side of Alchemy and the rumour of the Holy Quest. It gives to those who can receive it a full answer to the question: "Art thou He that is to come, or do we look for another?" In a word, the natural Graal is everywhere but the supernatural Graal is in the Secret Church.

So far as there has been any evidence offered on the hypothesis concerning it, this has gone entirely astray, because it has assumed that we are concerned with some corporate and organised body, whereas we are concerned only with the course of experience in the higher consciousness. Now, if there is no such experience, the claim of the official Church is at once voided.

The presence of the Secret Church is like that of angels unawares. In the outer courts are those who are prepared for regeneration, and in the adyta are those who have attained it: these are the Holy Assembly. It is the place of those who, after the birth of flesh, which is the birth of the will of man, have come to be born of God. It is in the persons of those who are regenerate that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church. The place of the Holy Assembly is the place of Eden and Paradise; it is that whence man came and whither he returns. It is also that place from which the Spirit and the Bride say "Come";