the scriptures, and sitteth on the right hand of the
Father."--(_Nicene Creed_.)

The "descent into hell" of the Apostles' Creed of course meant the
passing to the place of disembodied souls--the lower Astral Plane.
Even the orthodox teachers do not now pretend that the term "hell"
meant the place of torture presided over by the Devil, which theology
has invented to frighten people into the churches. "The third day he
arose from the dead" (and the corresponding passage in the Nicene
Creed) refers to the appearance in the Astral Body--the return from
the Astral Plane in which He had sojourned for the three days
following the crucifixion. "And ascended into heaven"--this passage
shows the belief that He returned to the place from which He came, for
the Nicene Creed has stated that he "_came down from heaven_ and was
incarnate ... and was made man."

The passage in both creeds stating that He then took his place "on the
right hand of the Father" is intended to show that He took the place
of the highest honor in the gift of the Father. The mystic teachings
explain this by showing that The Christ is separated from The Father
by but the most ethereal intervening of spiritual substance, and that
He is a Cosmic Principle second in importance only to the Father.
Truly this is the place of honor on "the right hand of the Father."

"He shall come to fudge the quick and the dead."

In this passage we see the intimation that not only with the "quick"
or living people is The Christ concerned, but also with the "dead,"
that is, with those who "passed out" before and after His time and who
have passed on to the Astral World, as we have explained in this
lesson. Whether or not the framers of the Creed so understood
it--whether or not they were deluded by the tradition of the "Day of
Judgment"--certainly the Early Christians, or rather, the mystics
among them, understood the teachings as we have given them and spoke
of Him as "living in the dead as well as in the living," as one of the
occult records expresses it.

"The communion of saints" is the spiritual understanding of the
Mysteries by the Illumined Ones. "The forgiveness of sins" is the
overcoming of the carnal mind and desires. "The resurrection of the
dead and the life of the world to come" is the promise of life beyond
the grave, and not the crude idea of the physical resurrection of the
body, which has crept into the Apostles' Creed, evidently having been
inserted at a la