Lectionary Readings for Sunday, April 12th, 2020

Holy Memorial Day

Book of Divinity Chapter 11, Chapter 12

Chapter 11

1. The next dan was five hundred years, and God and his heavenly kingdoms prospered
before Jehovih. But as to the Lord’s kingdoms on earth, and as to mortal kingdoms and
empires, not much light was manifested in them.

2. Ahura, who had thus falsely taken, and was known by, the name of Ahura’Mazda,
established Lords to rule over mortals. And these Lords were in direct opposition
to God’s Lords; for the latter taught the higher heavens and the All Person, Jehovih,
or Ormazd, according to the language of mortals. But Ahura’s Lords taught only
one heavenly kingdom, which was Ahura’s, called Ctusk, the All Holy Highest Heaven.

3. God’s Lords inspired mortals to everlasting resurrection; Ahura’s Lords inspired
mortals to Ahura’s kingdom, and there the end. And since mortals had built temples for
their priests (rab’bahs), who were gifted with su’is, the spirits congregated in the temples,
and oft appeared in sar’gis, teaching openly their several doctrines. And the ashars that
labored for Ahura extolled the glory and the delight of Ctusk, and the wonderful majesty
and power of Ahura. But the ashars of God’s hosts inspired and taught of the Great Spirit,
Unapproachable.

4. For five hundred years were God’s hosts confronted with this opposition; and it came to
pass that mortals, especially in Vindyu, were divided into two great classes of
worshippers. And just before God’s successor came into dominion, he propounded the
matter in Diva; whereupon all the members spake at great length. Afterward, Div
decreed:

5. Whatsoever is worshipped, having comprehensible form or figure, is an idol. He that
worshippeth an idol, whether of stone or wood, or whether it be a man or an angel,
sinneth against the Creator. This was given unto all of God’s Lords, and by them to
the ashars, and commanded to be taught to mortals by inspiration and otherwise.

6. When the time of dan came there were seven thousand million Brides and Bridegrooms
raised up to Jehovih’s emancipated worlds, and the succeeding God and Lords came
into dominion under more favorable auspices, but which were not to continue long.

7. The Diva had extended to fourteen members; and God’s Lords had succeeded in
securing kingdoms in the principal parts of Jaffeth, Vind’yu and Arabin’ya. On the other
hand, the emissaries of Ahura, the false, had been most active in extending the kingdom
of their idol. Ahura was most cunning with the last Divan act: Instead of interdicting
it, he altered it, so it read as followeth, to wit: Whatsoever is worshipped, having
comprehensible form or figure, is an idol. He that worshippeth an idol, whether of
stone or wood, or whether it be a man or an angel, sinneth against the All Highest,
who is personated in Ahura’Mazda, the Holy Begotten Son of all created creations!

8. And next, Ahura, determined to found a second heaven, decreeing to his emissaries as
followeth, to wit: Behold Gir-ak-shi, the heavenly region belonging above the lands of
Heleste! Thither will I build a new heaven, greater than all other heavens, save Ctusk.
And when Gir-ak-shi is well founded, I will people it with many millions of mighty
angels, Gods and Lords. And my hosts shall descend to the corporeal earth, to the lands
of Parsi’e and Arabin’ya, and they shall obsess mortals day and night, and inspire them
to go to Heleste, where they shall build great cities and kingdoms unto me and my hosts.

9. And when these things are fulfilled, behold, I will send my hosts to Uropa, and build
there also heavenly kingdoms and mortal kingdoms; and when these are established,
behold, I will send into other countries, one after another, until my heavenly kingdoms
embrace all places, and until all the earth is mine.

10. For I will be God over all, and ye that labor with me shall be my Lords and sub-Gods
forever. And my kingdoms and your kingdoms shall be bestowed with glories
and ornaments, the like of which never was. Neither shall the Gods of other worlds
come against me or mine to carry away my people. They shall no longer flatter them,
calling them Brides and Bridegrooms to Jehovih, a thing, none can see or comprehend.

11. And Ahura and his emissaries set to work to carry out these decrees, and in two
hundred years they had inspired the Parsi’e’ans and the Arabin’yans to emigrate by tens
of thousands to the land of Heleste, which was inhabited by druks and wanderers, full
of wickedness. Ahura inspired his immigrants to fall upon the native druks, and
destroy them. Wherein had come to pass that which Jehovih spake in Mouru, saying:
They who cannot be risen by persuasion may be aroused by less scrupulous masters.

12. For whilst Ahura’s hosts were slaying the druks of Heleste by tens of thousands, God’s
heavenly hosts were receiving their spirits and conducting them away to other
atmospherean regions.

13. These, then, were the divisions of mortals on earth at this time: First, the I’hins, who
were the original Faithists. And they were capable of prophecies and miracles to such an
extent that all other people called them the sacred people. Neither did the great warriors
of other nations and peoples molest them. The I’hins lived secluded and separate from all
other people. Nevertheless, they were the seed of everlasting life on the earth, and the
foundation for raising up prophets and seers unto other peoples. Even as the mother of
Zarathustra was of the I’hins, so was it with all men and women born into the world with
su’is and sar’gis. For being near Jehovih, they had faith in Him, and Him only. The second
race, equally ancient, was the druks, the barbarian hordes, incapable of inspiration, save
for their stomachs’sake. And though they were told a thousand times: Behold, ye have a
spiritual body! they understood not, cared not, and forgot it a moment after. And though it
were said to them: Behold, there is a Great Spirit! they heard it not, nor understood, nor
heeded the words. The third race was the I’huans, born betwixt the I’hins and the druks.
To this race, in its early days, a commandment was given by God not to marry with the
druks, and they had maintained that law amongst themselves by the sign of circumcision.
This, then, was the first beginning of persecution against Faithists in Jehovih.

14. When Ahura usurped his heavenly kingdom, and appointed guardian angels over
mortals, he determined to leave nothing undone in order to overthrow the doctrine of
Jehovih, the All Person. So he decreed as followeth, to wit:

15. Since, by the mark of circumcision, they have pride in being Faithists, I will not have
circumcision. After the third generation (one hundred years) whosoever hath this mark
upon him is my enemy. He shall be pursued, and no profit shall fall to his lot. Suffer
not little children to be maimed for my sake; rather let them be circumcised in heart.

16. And Ahura put no restriction upon his mortal followers marrying, and it came to
pass that those druks not slain in Heleste married with the worshippers of Ahura.

17. And about this same period of time Jehovih brought the earth into a light region for
two hundred years. And when the Diva was in session, Jehovih’s Voice spake to Div,
saying: Let My Sons be not cast down because of the sins of Ahura; rather be ye wise and
appropriate from his wickedness that which will be good in the end. For as it was not
lawful for My people to marry with the druks, behold, Ahura hath made a law on his own
account against circumcision, and it shall come to pass that by their sins even druks shall
be raised up to learn of Me and My kingdoms.

18. And it came to pass that a fourth race rose up in the world, and it was mongrel, being
dark and short and less noble. The I’huans were red, and brown, and tall, and majestic; the
I’hins small, and white, and yellow. And Jehovih put these marks upon His peoples that
the races might be read in thousands of years.

19. Ahura perceived this. One of his Lords said unto him: Behold, the marks of su’is are
written! Then Ahura sought to disprove Jehovih in this. He said:

20. Behold, there are two senses to all men, the es and the corpor. When one is in
abeyance the other acteth. This is su’is. Call together thy companions, and find a remedy;
for I will prove all things in heaven and earth.

21. For fifty years Ahura and his hosts tried by other means to have born into the world a
great prophet and seer, but failed. Ahura said: I know the way of the loo’is: They decoy
the I’hin men to go with the I’huan damsels. But I have sworn there is no Jehovih; how,
then, shall I go to the sacred people? And, after all, such a prophet might prove
treacherous to my kingdom. So Ahura commanded his emissaries to weigh the matter for
other fifty years, and then to solve the problem.

22. So Ahura’s emissaries inspired thousands of experiments to be made, whereby a
prophet or seer could be made amongst the mongrels. And Jehovih suffered them to
discover that by pressing down the front brain of infants they could be made capable of
su’is. And infants were strapped on boards, and another board strapped on the forehead to
press the head flat; and every day the head-board was strapped on anew, tighter and
tighter, until the forehead, which holdeth the corporeal judgment, was pressed flat, and
the judgment of the brain driven up into light-perceiving regions at the top of the head.
(See Che-guh and Took-shein, BOOK OF SAPHAH)

23. Ahura thus raised up prophets and seers, and they were willing instruments in his
hands. And he sent into all the divisions of the earth tens of thousands of angels, teaching
this to mortals, thus laying down the foundation for his grand scheme of reducing heaven
and earth into his own kingdoms.

24. Jehovih spake in the Diva, saying: Even this permit ye. The druks will heed more
what one of their own people saith as a seer, than if the same thing were said a hundred
times over by an I’hin.

Chapter 12

1. The next resurrection was six thousand million souls, and God and his Lords and his
sub-Gods had maintained the Diva, and maintained all the orders of heaven, and the
divisions and kingdoms, save what had confederated with Ahura and his kingdoms. And
God and his Lords had preserved their colleges, schools, factories, hospitals and
nurseries, and their standard in the temples with mortals. And of mortals who remained
Faithist, that is, the I’huan race preserved in purity, God, his Lords and ashars held
command for the glory of Jehovih.

2. But of the mongrels, who were multiplying fast on the earth, Ahura, his Lords and
ashars held command. But alas for the grade of Ahura’s hosts in heaven! In less than one
thousand years he had abolished his colleges and schools, save what pertained to
acquiring a knowledge of the earth and atmospherea. He taught not his people to look
higher for other worlds, and herein he began the work which was in after time to be his
own downfall.

3. Jehovih had said: Whoever provideth not a philosophy for the endless acquisition of
knowledge, dammeth up the running waters I have made. Suffer Ahura to teach what he
will; the time will come when he will be obliged to find an outlet for My created beings.
And rather than acknowledge Me in My Person, he will profess to send souls back into
earth to be re-incarnated.

4. Ahura’s heavenly kingdoms numbered more than six thousand million souls, and
half of them were little better than drujas, being slaves to certain masters, doing
whatsoever they were bidden without knowing, or desiring to know, the reason therefore.

5. As yet there were six hundred years to pass before another dawn of dan, in which God,
his Lords and their people had faith that Jehovih’s hosts would come from on high to help
deliver heaven and earth out of darkness.

6. On the other hand, Ahura, although having been taught the cycles in his early
education, spread the word abroad in heaven and earth, that there were no cycles; that, as
things are, they had been, and would continue to be.

7. So, as much as God’s hosts prophesied a coming light, Ahura and his hosts prophesied
that nothing of the kind would come. Ahura, moreover, sent the following order to his
Lords, to be taught in heaven and earth, to wit: Am I not he who inspired Zarathustra, the
All Pure? Spake I not to him, face to face? Are not all created things mine own? Who,
then, knoweth but I will light up the world again? Behold, I am the Personation of
Ormazd, Who was VOIDANCE, but now is Me, Ahura’Mazda. In Me only is life and death
and resurrection. Whosoever calleth: Ahura’Mazda, Ahura’Mazda! is mine, and within
My keeping. Suffer not thy judgment to be warped by prophets who hope for impossible
things.

8. In the sixth dan and the eightieth year, Ahura’s numberless heavenly kingdoms began
to be disturbed by his sub-Gods’lack of advancement, and so, sixty of them congregated
together and appealed to Ahura, saying;

9. In reverence to thee, O thou All Highest God! Many hundreds of years have we served
thee. And we have paid thee tribute whenever thou requiredst of us. We have helped to
adorn thy capital, Ctusk; with diamonds and pearls we have laid thy streets. Thy mansions
have we built with precious gems. And as to thy throne, what one of us is there but hath
contributed to glorify it before thee. Yea, in all things have we been most loyal and
tributary to thee.

10. Nor are we unmindful of our own wisdom. We remember thy arguments of old. Thou
didst say to thy God: Behold, thou hast long promised we should be raised to more
exalted kingdoms, but, behold, two hundred years have elapsed, and there is no
advancement. This thou didst use as an argument for seceding from thy God’s kingdoms.
Behold, now we have served thee and thy kingdoms more than a thousand years. We
come to thee to know wherein we can now serve thee that thou mayst exalt us into
kingdoms commensurate with our wisdom and power?

11. To this Ahura replied, saying: Most humble and well-meaning Lords and sub-Gods,
why came ye not before me, face to face? Why have ye consorted in private? Was not
my capital, and before my throne, the proper place for your argument? Had ye suggested
any way whereby advancement was possible unto you, I had answered your demands.

12. But his Lords and sub-Gods came not before him, but sent this answer, to wit: As
thou promisedst us advancement provided we served thee, so promised we our ashars,
and our marshals and captains. Now they come to us, saying: For hundreds of years have
we served; give us preferment. But we have nothing to give. Think not, O God, that we
are unwise, or that we hunger and come begging; or that diadems, or gems, or costly
thrones, would satisfy us. We know what thou hast to give–promises! We know every
corner of thy vast kingdom, and that all places are full, and that thou canst not exalt us.
Wherefore, then, shouldst we have spoken before the throne in Ctusk? Would not our
voices but breed mischief amongst thy other Gods and Lords? Rather let us err in our
proceeding, bringing just punishment upon ourselves, than that we should injure thee and
thy kingdoms. Hear us then, O Ahura’Mazda:

13. Whence the desire for endless advancement if this heaven be all? If a little knowledge
giveth power, wherein is not great knowledge desirable. We have destroyed our great
colleges, saying: Higher than we, ye must not go. Remember thou, O Ahura, we were
students under the Faithist’s God and Lords when thou secededst; and thou said unto us:
Behold the long training of your course; a curriculum of a thousand years! Come with me;
I will give you kingdoms at once.

14. So we came to thee, and we were suddenly puffed up with great pride. Behold now,
we look abroad and the same stars shine upon us. We have not visited them. We know
not how to go so far. The countless etherean worlds lay beyond ours. We are told that
they are habitable. We know not. We have no knowledge enabling us to get away from
these heavens; save, indeed, back to the filthy earth.

15. To this Ahura replied, saying: It is plain to me ye are beside yourselves. This heaven
is good enough. If there be higher heavens, let them come or stay. I go not to them. But,
in truth, with your present convictions, I would be an unwise God not to grant you
dismissal from my kingdoms.

16. This ended the matter, and the sixty sub-Gods then deliberated on their course, and
finally sent to God, in Mouru, the following address, to wit:

17. In reverence to thee, God of the Faithists in Jehovih: We have had sub-kingdoms, and
know our rank is beneath thine. But we are reaching outward and onward; to thee we
submit our cause. First, then, there are sixty of us, of the rank of sub-Gods, and we
hold seven hundred million subjects. Disaffection hath risen betwixt ourselves and
Ahura’Mazda, from whom we are alienated. But whether we shall unite our hosts into
a new kingdom of our own, or affiliate with some mighty God, that is our question?

18. What preferment canst thou give unto us if we turn our subjects over to thee?

19. God answered them, saying: Brothers, hear me patiently, and consider my words.
First, then, I am not God of the Faithists, nor of any other people, but God of the locality
which was assigned me by the Father, through His Son. Neither can ye give your subjects
unto me; for by my service to Jehovih I can have nothing, and, least of all, my brothers
and sisters.

20. In the next place, I can give you no preferment; I have nothing, neither to give nor to
sell. Wherein the Father giveth me wisdom and power, I impart them unto others.
Besides, until ye have also learned to know that ye have nothing, neither subjects nor
jewels, also desiring nothing, save wisdom and strength to impart to others, how hope ye
to gain admittance into my places of learning?

21. And lastly, since ye have kingdoms of your own already, raise ye them up, and thus
prove unto me your just merit.

22. To this the confederated Gods replied: What meanest thou? That Gods and
angels must labor for others than themselves forever, and receive nothing therefore?

23. God answered them: Even so; save and except ye shall receive an abundance of
happiness, and it will endure forever! Here the matter ended for two whole years; and
the sub-Gods understood not the plan of Jehovih’s kingdoms. But their kingdoms were
out of sorts, having no head; and hundreds of thousands of their subjects were deserting
them and returning down to the corporeal earth, becoming wanderers and drujas.

24. Finally the sub-Gods again appealed to God in Mouru, inquiring as followeth,
to wit: Is not a God a God, whether he be for another or for himself? Behold, we
have helped to build up Ahura; he is a mighty God! If we affiliate with thee, we will
labor to build thee up also. Yea, we will adorn thy throne and thy great heavenly city. But
since we have been sub-Gods we desire not to enter thy service as menials and servants.
What, then, shall we do, that both thee and ourselves may have honor and glory?

25. God answered them, saying: Ye cannot serve me; I have no servants. Serve ye
Jehovih only. Behold, we are all brothers, being Sons of the same Great Spirit. As for
building me up, sufficient is it for me that He who created me will build me up according
to my just deserts. As for adorning my throne, ye can only bring substance to it from the
lower kingdoms, which I desire not. Why will ye adorn the heavenly city of Mouru?
Behold, it is but a resting place on the great journey to the kingdoms of endless light. In a
few hundred years, at most, not only I but my hosts will rise from this place to return not
to it forever.

26. And lastly, to be a self-God, as is Ahura, is to own all things possible, and hold on
thereto; to be a God as I am, is to own nothing, and to retain nothing; but to be forever
giving away all one receiveth. Said I not to you before: Begin with your own hosts and
exalt them. Inasmuch as ye asked for subjects, behold, the Father gave unto you.
Think not that He will suffer ye now to cast them aside or barter them off. Nor shall ye
suffer them to become wanderers, nor to return back to the earth as drujas. As much as
ye raise up the kingdoms that have been entrusted to you, so will ye also be raised up.

27. Nevertheless, if ye desire to affiliate with Jehovih’s kingdoms, the way is open unto
you; and your first labor would be, to gather together all your own hosts, and to labor
amongst them, teaching them wisdom, strength and individuality equal with yourselves;
and when the lowest of them is so risen, then can ye enter the kingdoms of the Father. As
ye have had the profit of your subjects for hundreds of years, return ye now unto them
service for service. Jehovih is Justice!

28. The sub-Gods made no answer to this for awhile, but Jehovih moved upon their
hearts, and they perceived wisdom and justice, and they repented, bitterly bewailing the
loss of the thousand years in which they had espoused kingdoms. But they had neither
power nor learning sufficient to extricate themselves; so they petitioned God for more
light. Whereupon, God affiliated them, and appointed Vishnu Lord unto them and their
hosts.

29. And Vishnu took three hundred thousand teachers, captains, physicians, nurses and
laborers, and went to them in Maitraias, a heavenly place to the west of Vindyu, and there
established a Lordly division, with messengers in connection with Mouru, in Haraiti. And
Vishnu sent his captains with sufficient forces, under command of the sub-Gods, to arrest
such as had become wandering spirits, or had returned to the earth as drujas. And whilst
these were on this duty, Vishnu organized his Lord-dom, and this was the first Lord-dom
established in heaven, which is to say, as mortals on earth have military stations, so was
the Lord-dom of Vishnu.

30. Jehovih’s Voice had spoken to God in Diva, saying: Behold, the time is coming
when the sub-kingdom of Ahura, the false, will begin to revolt. And they have
thousands of millions of slaves who will strive to go back to the earth to dwell with
mortals. They dwell in darkness, and thou shalt not suffer them to regain the earth,
lest the races of men go down in darkness, even as before the submersion of Pan.
For which reason, thou shalt establish a Lord-dom, and raise a sufficient army to
shield the inhabitants of the earth. And thou shalt make Vishnu thy Lord in My behalf.

31. When it was known in Ctusk, the heavenly place of Ahura, that sixty sub-Gods, with
their hosts, had affiliated with Jehovih’s kingdoms, general disobedience to Ahura was
manifested by the remaining sub-Gods, of whom there were yet more than eight hundred,
who had within their dominions upward of two thousand million angels, all slaves, and
with light of no other heavenly place than the small precinct where they had been kept in
drudgery hundreds of years.

32. The Voice of Jehovih came to God, saying: My Son, take advantage of the seed of
disaffection in Ahura’s kingdom. Send thou an otevan of great power throughout the
heavenly kingdoms. And thou shalt put trumpeters in the otevan, and they shall prophesy
the dawn of dan within two hundred years.

33. God perceived, and he had his workmen build an otevan of great power; and he
provided trumpeters, and sent them forth, saying to them: Ten years shall ye travel in the
heavenly places around about the whole earth, prophesying: In less than two hundred
years, Jehovih’s etherean hosts are coming. Prepare ye for the resurrection; His kingdoms
are open for the weary; His Lords and Gods will give you rest!

34. Ahura summoned his Council of false Gods, hoping they might invent a remedy to
counteract so great a prophecy. And he and his Council sat forty days and forty nights in
their heavenly capital; but there was no high light amongst them, merely each one giving
his opinion. But at the end of forty days Ahura resolved upon the following method, to
send a prophecy of his own.

35. Accordingly, he had an otevan built, and sent trumpeters forth with these words, to
wit: I, Ahura’Mazda, Only Son of the All Nothing Presence, personated in My Very Self,
proclaim from My All Highest Heavenly Judgment Seat! Hear My words, O ye Gods, and
tremble! Hear Me, O ye angels, and fall down! Hear Me, O mortals, and bow down to My
decrees. Behold, I sent My fire-ship, prophesying that in less than two hundred years I
would come in a dawn of dan! But ye obeyed not; ye were defiant before Me! Then I
swore an oath against all the world! Ye shall know My power! Then I came down out of
My holy, high heaven; and I am already come. Now is the dawn of dan! I send My
trumpeters first; after them come my lashers and enchainers, whose captain is Daevas,
whose God is Anra’mainyus. I will have Mine, and I will give druks and drujas by
thousands and tens of thousands over to everlasting torments.

36. Ahura’s Gods had become acquainted with him, during the hundreds and hundreds of
years, and they no longer trembled at his commandments. In their hearts they knew he
could not do what he professed; they knew his prophecies were vain boastings. Yea, his
very trumpeters believed not what they proclaimed.