FORWARD
xi There is all around us a vast unseen world; unseen by most of us, but not necessarily invisible. There are within man faculties of the soul which, if developed, will enable him to perceive this world, so that it will become possible for him to explore and to study it precisely as man has explored and studied that part of the world which is within the reach of all. These faculties are the heritage of the whole human race; they will unfold within every one of us as our evolution progresses; but men who are willing to devote themselves to the effort may gain them in advance of the rest.
There are men who have these powers in working order, and are able by their use to obtain a vast amount of most interesting information about this world which most of us as yet cannot see. The news that such investigators bring back to us is happily of the most reassuring character; they are able to tell us that divine law rules in these higher worlds of finer matter, just as it does down here in grosser matter; xiithat to everything in this world there is an inner side, and that that inner side is often far greater and more glorious than the outer which to our blindness seems to be the whole. They tell us that man is a spirit, a spark of God's own fire; that he is immortal, and that to his growth and splendour there is no limit; that God's plan for him is wonderful and beautiful beyond all conception, and that none can fail finally to attain the goal intended for him, however slow his progress may be, however far he may wander from the path of righteousness. They do not claim to know the whole of that mighty plan, but the general trend of it is clearly to be seen. As men, we stand on a certain rung of the ladder of life; we can see other rungs both below and above us, and those who stand high above us--so high that they seem to us as gods in their marvellous knowledge and power--tell us that they stood not long since where we are standing now, and they indicate to us clearly the steps which lie between, which we also must tread if we would be as they. All these are matters not of faith, but of certainty to those who have learnt to use the eyes of the spirit.
Let it be clearly understood that there is nothing fanciful or unnatural about such sight. It is simply an extension of faculties with which we are all familiar, and to develop it is to make oneself sensitive to vibrations more rapid than those to which our physical senses are normally trained to respond.
So radical is the change in our conception of life which is introduced by our knowledge of this inner xiiiworld that I fear that much of what I have written in the following pages may not be fully comprehensible to those who have not studied that subject. I think, therefore, that it may be helpful to reprint, as an appendix to this book, an explanatory lecture which I gave some years ago, and I would suggest that those who are unfamiliar with the idea of a surrounding world composed of matter finer than the physical, should turn to that appendix and study it before reading the book itself.
It happens that some of us who, after many years of harder work than most people would care to undertake, have succeeded in acquiring these higher senses, are deeply interested in the Church and its ceremonies. It is natural therefore that, having learnt so much in other fields of study by the use of these extended powers of observation, we should utilize them also to examine the inner and the spiritual side of the Sacraments, in order to ascertain what they really are and how we can so administer them as best to carry out the intention of the Christ who founded them. The result of a long series of such investigations and experiments is embodied in this volume.
The Holy Eucharist has hitherto been regarded as a means of grace to the individual. That it undoubtedly is; but I wish to show, with all reverence, that it is also very much more than that. It is a plan for helping on the evolution of the world by the xivfrequent outpouring of floods of spiritual force; and it offers to us an unequalled opportunity of becoming, as St. Paul puts it, labourers together with God, of doing Him true and laudable service by acting as channels of His wondrous power.
I have written, I think, somewhat diffusely; I have turned aside often from the main course of my commentary on the Service of the Holy Eucharist to follow some interesting bypath which opened before me; but I have done so with intention, for this aspect of the Service is so new, and its ramifications and implications are so many and so beautiful, that it seems to me to demand a certain freedom of treatment. I have not of set purpose introduced any statement of the theological belief induced by the wider knowledge gained by this development of faculty, though indications of them inevitably peep through here and there. If time is given to me, I hope later to prepare a second volume dealing with that side of the question.
In this second edition I have the advantage of including a series of notes sent to me for that purpose by the Rev. Oscar Köllerström. They are in reality very much more than mere notes; they practically amount to a separate investigation into the inner side of the Eucharistic Ceremony--an investigation which he conducted in Holland some years ago in collaboration with Bishop Wedgwood. He seems to have intended that without special acknowledgement I should incorporate into the second portion of this book such points of his observations as I thought valuable; but xvas what he has written is of great interest, and as he approaches the subject from a somewhat different point of view, it appears to me to be better to print his remarks just as he sends them, including them as notes at the end of each sub-section of the Service, and marking them off clearly from the matter of my original book by a difference of type. He includes a wealth of detail as to the flowing of the forces which will be of value to those who are beginning to develop the faculty of clairvoyance; and his keen artistic nature enables him to appreciate and describe the amazing play of glorious colours which is so prominent a feature of this wondrous Service. I am sure that my readers will thank him as heartily as I do for the additional light which he throws upon this most fascinating topic.
I wish to express my hearty thanks to my predecessor in the office of Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Church, the Rt. Rev. James I. Wedgwood, for many most valuable suggestions and criticisms; and to the Rt. Rev. Irving S. Cooper, Regionary Bishop of our Church in America, for his work in connection with the illuminative illustrations appearing in this book, and for his most helpful and painstaking collaboration in the preparation of the work for the press. I also wish to express my indebtedness to the Rev. E. Warner for the difficult technical work of preparing the illustrations of the eucharistic form; to Miss Judith Fletcher for the photographs of the vestments; to Miss Kathleen Maddox for her care in taking notes of the many xvisermons and informal talks embodied in this volume; and to Professor Ernest Wood for his kindly co-operation in the preparation of this second edition. May the usefulness of the book to others be commensurate with the labour which has been so freely spent upon its production.
xviiFORWARD TO THE 6th EDITION To write an introduction to a new edition of C.W. Leadbeater's The Science of the Sacraments is both a privilege and a responsibility. For this is one of the most challenging and historically important writings of the twentieth century. It is unique not only in itself but in the great change in thought and attitude it represents. It was a move towards unity, an "eirenicon" to summon men of good will to accept the varied forms of manifestation as emergent from a great cosmos, not a chaos. Its message is still needed, though often outwardly accepted. It pointed, too, towards further dimension of the experience and perception which at the time, when it was published, were ignored in general thought, save among earnest students. Scientific study of extra-sensory perception, the serious consideration of faculties which were then called clairvoyant, seemed outside the life style of the universities or scholars of those days.
An attempt to show the interrelationship of studies in separated disciplines, as differing facets of the same basic reality, had been made by more advanced thinkers. The Scottish religious scholar Henry Drummond had written his famous Natural Law in the Spiritual World to show that there was but one world, xviiiand that the disciplines of science, with the then current emphasis on "evolution", could apply equally to the world beyond the physical; in the "spiritual" worlds the same patterns applied; there was no barrier, no severance. Teachers and ministers in the twenties found such writings, affecting, also, to show harmony between science and religion, most acceptable. I remember, typically, a discussion at a Methodist Guild in 1925 on general concepts of evolution as essential for the understanding of religion.
The resistance, even among young people, to such thought was quite strong, however. In the west, politically, nationalism was to redevelop and cultural fragmentation, following the collapse of the old empires, was to proceed further. A new awareness of ultimate brotherhood, vital unity of mankind and of all life, was also fortunately in process. Mankind proceeds by the tensions of positive and negative. So in college days one met students from other parts of the world. With gratitude I recall the man from Dacca who introduced me to Kalidasa and the treasures of Indian theatre, culture and thought. Underlying, antedating, all this was renewed theosophy, wisdom of the ages, perception of the unity of all life, differentiated into varied forms and processes of the world as we see it. This had been active for many years, not only from the time of its emergence in the writings of H.P. Blavatsky, with her power of organic thought, creative relationship of human traditions and perceptions, but even in great thinkers of the early centuries, and xix(indeed) from the beginnings of "time" itself. Someone was needed to bring this more openly into western culture, especially, perhaps, into christendom, to show the universal relevance of our thoughts and ways of working.
Greater theologians and writers had always accepted and stated the cosmic significance of liturgy, the mass or eucharist. Father Wassmann (a great Jesuit biologist) in his epoch-making Christian Monism (which received the imprimatur of the Roman Church) adequately presented the unity of all life which worked towards full expression, divinization, the achievement of full potential, where the divine in all things would take up within itself the total manifestation. This came at the start of the twentieth century. In the studies of theosophist's perception of unity within a greater order was more specifically set forward. Here was not merely perception of the cosmic significance of the Christian eucharist, but recognition of its own unity with the working of other approaches. One of the significant writings was that of C. Jinarajadasa, The ritual Unity of Roman Catholicism and Hinduism. In this he showed the essential identity of the Christian mass with Hindu (I use a popular term) rituals. Here was the same impulse, the recognition of vital being through all things, which we gradually "realise" in our own life. We "work" to allow this life to emerge through all manifested things, be they bread and wine, or other "life centring" manifestation. These may be, must be, its "channels".
xx C. W. Leadbeater, once an Anglican minister, then a devoted student of Buddhist philosophy, a man with gifts of perception and vision, was uniquely placed to present the active acknowledgment of Real Presence within all being. He could show how from various sources religious "working", (specifically in the Christian tradition), when properly examined, became the way for fuller life and consciousness to emerge. Within various "faiths" the accumulated wisdom of experience, those things perceived, yet intangible, not explicable in simple intellectual terms, constantly emerged. From the deep subconscious, archetypes of human environmental relationships emerged. Specifically "fixed", established by those with further perception, particular ways and structures embodied these. Just so the great poet breaches outward appearance and sets down his experience in significant words, or the scholar writes his book, the "precious life blood of a master spirit". All things, Fr. Wassman had said, "yearn" to find their fuller life and destiny. Equally, greater realms of being seek to enfold these same imperfect things within the embrace of fuller life. The witnesses and energies of those inner realms are in readiness to meet and guide the aspirants. The Christian eucharist is a point of contact: there cosmic process is focussed. So Leadbeater chose for the title of his work The Science of the Sacraments. The science, because there can be no antagonism between science and true knowledge; "sacraments" because here varying levels of xxibeing fuse and for the moment greater energies illumine and transform less active phases of the manifest worlds.
Having witnessed for himself the effect of the Mass or Great Work, so called because it is an inclusive process from which others flow, or "exist" as specialised activities, he set himself to study in detail the way in which each part of it contributed to the whole. He sought to express this in terms that might be grasped by readers of that day. He had to pursue a total study of the hidden side of things, hidden, that is, in the sense that any science must reveal the previously "unseen" or "unheard" activities underlying appearances and events we so easily accept. He had, too, to employ the vocabulary then available, and to assimilate creatively the usage of his day in such matters, scientific or figurative. In so doing he anticipated the communication patterns of our own time.
He recognised the importance of the symbol, which is not a kind of "code", by which one thing is assigned to stand for another, but rather the emergence of deeper reality in an apprehendable form. This multiplied many times partakes of the nature of a sacrament. It is this way by which deeper bases, "facts" of being, are expressed and energising life shared. In art and education this is now a matter of common experience; we are rejecting the idea that we can finally express or codify life by behaviouristic pattern, of stimulus and response. The west has had to come to terms with the wisdom of the east, xxiiwhich has never fallen into mechanistic attitudes; equally perhaps the thinkers of the east have needed to discipline insights by establishing working relevance within manifestation. As Sri Aurobindo insisted, maya is only partly maya. If we would reach the ultimate heights (figuratively) our ladder must be firmly based on earth; the full scope of energy and life is called into fullest vitality only by the tension between the two. From ultimate, densest, areas of material worlds we must bring all in offering, to be transformed through developmental process into divine fullness. We must not fly off into some quietist fantasy world, forgetful of the brotherhood of being. We must be at one with that before we can become at one with the greater levels of consciousness. Unity is indivisible--a trite saying, but seemingly forgotten by some.
Catholic writers have similarly, and in basically equivalent terms, given a guide to the mass and its "stages", have detailed approach, preparation, entry upon the temple, building of the temple, and the emergence within its completion of the divine fulfilment, the Real Presence. But C. W. Leadbeater went further. By his perception, his inner vision, and his far-reaching familiarity with varying disciplines of approach to divine "being", he could call upon a wide and unified study, relevant references absorbing the experience of mankind. Naturally, his phrasing sometimes puzzled, and even annoyed, those who wanted to keep a more limited, narrower, pattern and structure of reference. Yet, even for the more traditional minded xxiiitheologian, his approach has been justified; the churches have now admitted the relevance of all religious thought, the insights of eastern thinkers, and the need to consider carefully the validating of challenging data brought by the sensitive and clairvoyant. The disintegration of traditional patterns and sanctions faces the western church with emergent activity of powers and energies, sometimes uncontrolled, divisive. Exorcism and meditation alike demand attention; both negative and positive patterns are now revealed amongst the sometimes chaotic rejection of earlier approaches. C.W. Leadbeater gave a basis for positive acceptance, healthy guidance for the future. He saw the necessity to secure a more understanding approach to the total work of mankind; he assessed for future generations process and pattern involved in our active human heritage, a heritage which places our future in heavenly places. He sought to give meaning, coherence, and method, to the whole business of living. He indicated what might be amended, or rejected, and what, most important, was vitally to be maintained
The publication of this book was an historical event. As with many historical events, its significance has only gradually become apparent. Stage by stage Leadbeater went through two widely used forms of the eucharist, and analysed their content: the Anglican Service of Holy Communion, and the Roman Mass as then normally used in the western worlds. One might note the much more evocative, xxivlengthy, and delicate works of the eastern churches, which contain, in full, the mass of the catechumens, wisdom lore for those proceeding to Christian initiation, the mass of the mysteries and disciplines which parallel those of other great cultures. Leadbeater was, however, writing for the scientifically minded west. The Roman Mass, developed to meet the needs of less speculative adherents of the church, is a splendidly crisp, efficient, and well structured statement and working. Omitting largely the mass of instruction and the mysteries, it assumes these, giving the congregation only salient lore and wisdom homily before proceeding to the Canon of the Mass. Leadbeater saw that any eucharistic reform must concentrate on this central core of essential working. His purpose was to show the west and Christian worshippers the real basis of what they were accustomed to accept. He, therefore, went through these two services, as then used, and commented on all that took place, showing what was done.
The Liberal Catholic Mass, admitted to be a "total" working acceptable to all Christians who would preserve the fullness of eucharistic practice, was not, of course, the work of Leadbeater himself; it was the result of careful revision, with Leadbeater's constant xxvadvice, by Bishop Wedgewood of the earlier Old Catholic mass. Its excellence in liturgical language, its communication patterns, musical impact of cadence upon the worshippers, have again been almost universally acclaimed. It was based upon the sensitive perception, "clairvoyance" if you wish to retain the term, peculiar to C. W. Leadbeater.
In this new edition, since we are dealing with a historical document, we retain the extracts from the Anglican and Roman Missals as given by Leadbeater. Otherwise his comments on, and explanations of, significant changes made, are left without any reference points. As all readers are aware, these extracts are no longer typical of the recognised services of either Anglicans or Romans. These churches also have recognised the inadequacy of their rituals to involve their worshippers fully in confident participation. this great change is itself a measure, in some way, of Leadbeater's insight. That his quotations are no longer relevant simply enforces his view that changes were necessary. In this present edition, we could now wreck his argument or destroy the fabric of his reconstruction by attempting to change the quotations; nor could we indeed indicate fully the changes made: there are now several Anglican liturgies in use or permitted, while the missa normativa of the Roman Church is so far removed from the categories and divisions of the old as to be irreconcilable with the lay-out of the book.
The aim of Leadbeater's work, the purpose of this great document, has been achieved, in so far as the xxvireconstruction of liturgy in the west (which it inaugurated) has now become a priority with all communions and churches.
But this aspect of its work is only a part. The positive statements remain as relevant as ever, now, and for the future. For these things are eternal. If Leadbeater had been writing today he might have used those terms which are part of contemporary vocabulary in communication, accepted by every university student. The things he had to say however would have been the same, even though the emphasis might have changed, for many of the matters, against which he campaigned, have now receded into the past; churches have made changes, have omitted matters of offence, have inserted the more positive and relevant prayers. But there is one very great difference. The Roman Church, in a flood of emotional feeling, has made sweeping changes. But the move towards "popularising" the mass in that communion has been largely uninformed. So much as been done, one trend vying with the next to establish "originality", permissive abandonment of the position held (often rightly) for centuries, that the result has been destruction of some essential bases of work and worship. As one devout and educated Roman layman said to me, "They have destroyed the mass; they left simply an agape"--a friendly "cup" and a pleasant chat among friends. This is an exaggeration; but not so much an exaggeration as some might feel. Leadbeater wrote and commented from a position of strength; there was no rejection of the xxviiessential to pander to libertarian populism. In fact, the essentials were even more firmly established because distinguished from, and shorn of, the negative, peripheral, and misunderstood accretions.
Gradually the western church, reassessing the ravages of over-enthusiastic neophyliacs, is coming to realise this. Some come to Liberal Catholic churches now to share once again the work of the mass, while attending Roman or other place of worship as in duty bound. By such means they will be able, one hopes, to re-establish the "Great Work" and to follow in the researches of their own true scholars and scientists, such as Fr. Wassman1, in his magnificent study of the "cosmic mass": Christian Monism.
1 Fr. Wassman, S.J., was a distinguished biologist as well as a theologian.
So we send out this further edition into the world. The Science of the Sacraments has always been a best seller. It reaches all parts of the worshipping brotherhood. I have seen it in the library of isolated religious communities; I have seen it studied by many students who are not of our persuasion. Its ways of statement are of its author, relevant to his time, but lastingly relevant in the information, attitudes, and experiences, they enshrine. Leadbeater welcomed comment; he welcomed also the assistance of those skilled in parallel fields; the notes added by Köllerström, for example, expanded much of what Leadbeater said, in verbal forms and terminology that can be more immediately related to contemporary studies. The genius and inspiration xxviiiwhich underlie Leadbeater's material must be allowed to speak for itself. This book is beyond our meddling. It has passed into the classic literature of the spiritual quest, the fuller dimensions of being, man's continuing awareness of a greater destiny."
And this is what our time of seeming chaos needs.
London, July, 1974,
E. James Burton, M. A.,
Regionary Bishop for the
Liberal Catholic Church of
Great Britain and Ireland.
Forward to pages 1 to 9