e Mystics of the ancient
Mysteries (_cf._ my book, _Mystics of the Renaissance_).

XII

CHRISTIANITY AND HEATHEN WISDOM

At the time of the first beginnings of Christianity, there appear in
heathen civilisation conceptions of the universe which seem to be a
continuation of the Platonic philosophy, and which may also be taken
as a deepening and spiritualisation of the wisdom of the Mysteries.
The beginning of such conceptions is to be dated from Philo of
Alexandria (B.C. 25-A.D. 50). From his point of view the processes
which lead to the divine take place in the innermost part of the human
soul. We might say that the temple in which Philo seeks initiation is
wholly within him, and his higher experiences are the Mysteries. In
his case processes of a purely spiritual nature replace the initiatory
ceremonies of the sanctuary.

According to Philo, sense-observation and knowledge gained through the
logical intellect do not lead to the divine. They have merely to do
with what is perishable. But there is a way by which the soul may rise
above these methods. It must come out of what it calls its ordinary
self: from this it must withdraw. Then it enters a state of spiritual
exaltation and illumination, in which it no longer knows, thinks, and
judges in the ordinary sense of the words; for it has become merged,
identified with the divine, which is experienced in its essence, and
cannot be imparted in thought-concepts or abstract ideas. It is
experienced, and one who goes through this experience knows that no
one can impart it, for the only way of reaching it is to live it. The
visible world is an image of this mystic reality which is experienced
in the inmost recesses of the soul. The world has come forth from the
invisible, inconceivable God. The harmony of the cosmos, which is
steeped in wisdom, and to which sense-phenomena are subject, is a
direct reflection of the Godhead, its spiritual image. It is divine
spirit poured out into the world,--cosmic reason, the Logos, the
offspring or Son of God. The Logos is the mediator between the world
of sense and the unimaginable God. When man steeps himself in
knowledge, he becomes united with the Logos, which is embodied in him.
The person who has developed spirituality is the vehicle of the Logos.
Above the Logos is God; beneath is the perishable world. It is man's
vocation to form the link between the two. What he experiences in his
inmost being, as spirit, is the universa