Pre-existence and pilgrimage

Use in the book

The Degrees place earthly action between other states of life and explain its painful contrasts as preparation for appreciation of a future condition. Longing for change and knowledge draws the spirit toward matter. Later the path illuminated by truth repeats the image of a life with a destination.

Places to read

1. Degrees of the Mystic Oriental Rite · Block 13“"Before appearing on earth, man lived in a spiritual world, similar to the one in which he lives on leaving the earth. Each awaits his turn in this world to appear” …
2. Degrees of the Mystic Oriental Rite · Block 14“"The life anterior, which we have all passed through, was, so to speak, a life of nothingness, of childbirth, of happiness like that which we enjoy on our exit from the” …
3. Degrees of the Mystic Oriental Rite · Block 16… “into the realms of matter to undergo a pilgrimage through the probationary states of earth, and only to regain paradise again by the fulfillment of that pilgrimage."”
4. Masonic Symbolism · Block 21… “attained it is to be illuminated in his pilgrimage through life.”

In this edition

Pre-existence is the editorial headword; anterior life, successive lives, and pilgrimage supply the principal attested expressions here.

Reading the argument

The narrative is instruction within a degree story. Its literary setting does not independently establish that an ancient teacher delivered it, or that the reader has memories of the states described. Its ethical function is to make present work part of a larger purpose.

anterior

“anterior” — 4 occurrences in 4 text blocks: D.14–15; S.39, 61.

pilgrimage

“pilgrimage” — 6 occurrences in 5 text blocks: D.16; S.20–21, 84, 88.

probationary

“probationary” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: D.16.

successive lives

“successive lives” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: D.14.