did so always in full physical and mental consciousness, by "hyper-
mental awareness."
In this way, says Hodson, the master could readily cause him to
know the inner meaning of the scriptures or of other literary texts, a
gift that enabled Hodson to interpret and explain them to a wider au-
dience. As Easton points out, numerous biblical passages, if interpreted
literally, not only contradict one another but also do not conform at all
to what the human mind regards as reasonable, something even more
true of the supposedly revealed and authoritative teachings of many of
early church fathers. Steiner warns that the Gospels are incomprehen-
sible unless clarified by spiritual science.
For many years, as recorded in his diary, Hodson claimed to be in
daily communication with Master Polidorus, receiving from him
information on some of his, Hodson's, past lives, moving backward in
time: England in the seventeenth century, a life that ended tragically
in middle age; another English life in Tudor times as a landed gentle-
man. In the tenth century in India, Hodson appeared as a doctor of
Ayurvedic law, studying herbs and minerals in their occult and physical
properties. In an earlier Jewish life, as Aristobolus, son of Alexander
Janneus, a prince in Judea at the time of Jesus, he first met Polidorus,
who was then playing the role of Philo Judaeus. Before that he had
been a sibyl at Cumae, clairvoyant, with fully conscious powers of spir-
itual perception. Here, said the master, the seeds were sown for an
occult life in three successive incarnations. Hodson had then been a
Roman matron in the declining period of the Roman Empire.
Polidorus told Hodson of other past lives in which he had worked
hard for the brotherhood, suffering grievously, horrifyingly, getting
Hodson to vividly remember being with Master Polidorus in one of
the ancient Egyptian temples, much like Karnak, passing between great
pillars and turning into a secret passage and crypt. Hodson was also told
that he had known Francis Bacon and had been received by him into
his Rosy Cross Temple at Gorhambury.
Hodson concluded that because the mysteries in many cases had
been made known to him in former lives, their awakening to con-
sciousness in what was his current life was partly a recovery of his own
joyce
(Joyce)
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