Francis Bacon, Godfather of the Scientific Age (3 of 6)
Francis Bacon, Godfather of the Scientific Age (3 of 6)
Part 3: The Master Alchemist Reveals His Art of Discovery
22. Francis Bacon, Agent of the Philosophic Empire
This article is the third in a multi-part series on the life, writings, and esoteric involvements of Sir Francis Bacon.
In the last article, we concluded by introducing Francis Bacon, the Master Adept of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. In this article, we pick up the story by further exploring how, during his life, Bacon worked to re-unite the various esoteric societies and wandering sages of England and Europe, who had become dispersed after the fall of the Templar Order several centuries prior.
Bacon’s goal was to bind these isolated communities of mystics, philosophers, and artists together into a lasting organizational superstructure, one which could act in a coordinated fashion toward the accomplishment of large-scale objectives.
In many ways, Bacon’s labors picked up where the Templars’ work had previously left off, before their demise at the hands of the Church papacy in the 13th century.
As Hall writes, “after the destruction of the Templars, the esoteric tradition of Europe disappeared from public view, to be restated cautiously in the curious terminology of the alchemists, the cabalists, the Rosicrucians, and even the astrologers.”
For a few hundred years these small, secret philosophic orders quietly perpetuated the esoteric doctrines within their own ranks. But because they were disunited and dispersed, they were not able to work in a coordinated fashion to achieve the great transcontinental political initiatives that the Templars once did.
This is the situation that Francis Bacon inherited as he assumed his role as the spiritual headmaster of the Rosicrucian Society, which was headquartered in England but had branches extending out into mainland Europe, most notably in Germany.
Hall elaborates: “During the early years of the 17th century there were wandering about Europe a considerable number of initiates, sages, and esoteric societies who had been scattered by the Inquisition and forced to retire into secret places in order to survive.” These included the scattered descendants of the Knights Templar, remnants of the Troubadours, some cabalists, alchemists and astrologers, dispersed Masonic guilds, and medical healers of the Paracelsian persuasion.
As Hall further explains, the members of these societies “were differentiated from their time by superior knowledge and personal idealism. They were the heretics of their day, the free-thinkers, the men whose mystical, inward perception revealed to them the dream of a better world. To them and their kind, Bacon turned to find the instruments for his own purposes.”
“Uniting (these scattered occultists), Bacon created from them such groups as the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons, and through them he poured an ideal into the circulatory system of mankind.”
Symbolically, Bacon served as the great Alchemist who used these base ingredients to form a new version of what Plato once called the “Philosophic Empire.”
As Manly Hall informs us: “There is no doubt that Francis Bacon supplied the initiative which led to the springing up of a network of Societies on the European Continent, which were in communication with each other and which practiced a pattern of interlocking memberships.”
In this way, Bacon “formed and presided over a lodge of initiates and disciples, and they in turn oversaw the development of various other lesser branches of the tradition scattered around Europe.” The whole superstructure comprised one great esoteric society: a trans-European Mystery School.
To form this international conglomerate, Bacon worked to corral together several already existent but disunited secret societies and philosophical fraternities together. His goal was to form one interconnected super-entity, which he would then rule over as its Grand Master.
The head of this entity was to be Bacon’s Rosicrucian Order; its branches extended out into groups like the Freemasons.
As headmaster of the Rosicrucian Order, Bacon’s task was to become the “gatherer of the wits”, so to speak. As Bacon himself said, ‘I rang the bell that drew the wits together.’
Hall informs us that, through his guiding leadership, “several races of genius mingled. There were poets, mystics, men of letters, dons of education, scientists, philosophers, and prominent theologians. All these groups realized that a universal reformation was necessary, but they lacked the well-tried spirit of organization (to accomplish it). Bacon became their undisputed leader, their face toward men, their spokesman, and their learned guide and council. … Gradually, he imposed his intent upon their several purposes, binding them wholly to his ends and making of them citizens in his philosophic estate.”
In sum, Francis Bacon, working through the vehicle of the Rosicrucian Society, established the architecture of a transnational organizational entity comprised of an elite class of individuals, ones that Plato would have termed the “Philosophic Elect”.
It was the purpose of Bacon’s elite Rosicrucian Order that it serve as the foundation upon which a new, global Mystery School system would be incrementally constructed and brought into formation. The upper echelons of this Rosicrucian Order would formulate the plan and strategy for building this Temple; mid-tier groups like the Freemasons would be tasked with implementing the plan and constructing the building.
Bacon’s new Mystery School was to exist as a great, global temple of initiation, one that would work to raise up not just the Order's own inner band of initiates, but also the entire collective body of mankind as a whole.
The Divine Plan of Creation decrees that, in the fullness of time, all life will eventually and inevitably attain enlightenment. While some will attain it sooner than others, it is the job of the Mystery Schools, of which the Rosicrucian Brotherhood was a modern incarnation, to ensure that all ultimately do attain this awakening. This was the secret project that Francis Bacon labored toward as an agent and ambassador of the Philosophic Empire.
As we delve deeper into his life and works, we will discover the method that Bacon revealed for how he planned to build this World Temple, thereby leading mankind toward the fulfillment of its ultimate evolutionary end-state: Universal Enlightenment.
23. The Rosicrucian Brotherhood and the Masters of Wisdom
Like Plato before him, Francis Bacon worked to accomplish his life’s work on behalf of a yet greater spiritual entity he was an initiate of - a metaphysical society of adepts, sages, and enlightened beings, which in previous chapters of this book I have termed the “Spiritual Hierarchy”.
This metaphysical body of enlightened beings is “archetypal”, meaning it is a permanent feature of mankind’s existence here on Earth.
This spiritual over-government is comprised of a hierarchy of evolved humans, celestial beings, and spiritual powers. As Hall describes it, “the invisible government of the earth (is) a complete sidereal government, with many levels of administration, by which universal law is adapted to the requirements of every type of living creature and the planet itself.”
This over-government has always existed and will always exist, as it is the specialized institution through which the consciousness of the Divine Self is enthroned as the ruler over life on Earth.
By implication, through the leadership and guidance of this spiritual body, “civilization is unfolding according to a predetermined Plan, and not by accident or fortuitous circumstance.”
This august metaphysical institution has been given many names: the Rosicrucians sometimes called it the Invisible College; the Greeks before them termed it the Order of World Heroes. Elsewhere, this over-fraternity has been called “the Philosophic Empire, the Great School, the College of the Holy Spirit, and the Invisible Government of the World.”
John Heydon, a member of Bacon's original Rosicrucian order, once described this Invisible College as “a divine Fraternity that inhabits the Suburbs of Heaven, and these are the Officers of the Generalissimo of the World, that are as the eyes and the ears of the great King, seeing and hearing all things.”
Manly Hall regards them as a “‘race’ of heroes, citizens of a secret commonwealth dedicated to the advancement of the human state.” He also writes that “the adepts of the Order abide in the house of God, of which Christ is the cornerstone. Their temple stands upon the mountain of wisdom, and its dome is supported by those reborn men who have become living pillars in the everlasting house.”
This Invisible College is the foundation of the Rosicrucian Order that Francis Bacon was working to establish here on Earth.
Bacon’s Rosicrucian Order was linked directly to this metaphysical entity. As Hall explains, “the true Rosicrucian Fraternity, consisting of a school of ‘supermen’, is an institution existing not in the visible world but in its spiritual counterpart (i.e. in the ’inner planes of Nature’). (Consequently,) its Brothers can be reached only by those who are capable of transcending the limitations of the material world.”
Bacon’s secret society, at its highest levels, interfaced directly with this transcendent spiritual order. The Masters existing at this highest level governed over a hierarchy of lesser extensions, which they utilized to quietly exert their influence over the institutional development of world civilization.
For example, one extension that the elite Rosicrucian group worked through was the Freemasons. Yet, none but the highest initiates of the Masonic Fraternity knew that their order was overshadowed and guided by this greater Rosicrucian entity.
Manly Hall terms the Rosicrucians’ elite leadership class of spiritually advanced humans the “Masters of Wisdom”. The true Brothers of the Rose Cross were comprised exclusively of such Masters and their initiates and disciples.
Hall writes that the elite Rosicrucian Masters “were in reality citizens of two worlds: while they had physical bodies for expression on the material plane, they were also capable, through the instructions they received from the Brotherhood, of functioning in a mysterious ethereal body not subject to the limitations of time or distance. By means of this ‘astral form’, they were able to function in the invisible realm of Nature, and in this realm, beyond reach of the profane, their temple was located.”
He continues: “According to this viewpoint, the true Rosicrucian Brotherhood consisted of a limited number of highly developed Adepts, or initiates, those of the higher degrees being no longer subject to the laws of mortality.”
These “Adepts possessed the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone and knew the process of transmuting the base metals into gold.” In alchemical terminology, this references "the transmutation of the ‘base elements’ of man’s lower nature into the ‘gold’ of intellectual and spiritual realization.”
Here we discover the inner, mystical meaning of the Rosicrucian name:
The name “Rosicrucian” is a compound word linking together the root words “Rose” and “Cross”. According to Manly Hall, the Rosicrucian Adepts “were believed to have been able to teach man how to function away from his physical body at will by assisting him to remove the ‘Rose from the Cross.’”
By this it is indicated that “the spiritual nature was attached to the material form at certain points, symbolized by the ‘nails’ of the crucifixion; but by three alchemical initiations which took place in the spiritual world, in the true Temple of the Rose Cross, they were able to ‘draw’ these nails and permit the divine nature of man (‘the Rose’) to come down from its cross.”
Hall emphasized that these Masters of Wisdom are not themselves permanently “super-physical beings”, but rather are humans who have evolved within themselves the capacity to direct their consciousness out-of-body (by separating the Rose from the Cross) so as to interface with the greater order of non-physical celestial beings that quietly guide and direct the direction of life here on Earth.
In this light, Hall writes that “the Masters of Wisdom are not super-physical beings, nor should we view them as gods or demigods. They are but Craftsmen from the world of man, who have reached a little closer towards the goal than we have. They have lived the life and have learned to know the Doctrine. They are directing their ego evolution to the perfection of certain qualities and soul powers and stand a little above the average individual.”
He continues: “In their varying degrees, they are just as human as we are, but they are old in experience, which in occultism is the measurement of age.” In other words, they are our Elder Brothers within the great brotherhood that is the human family.
“Each Master is laboring for the good of the whole, regardless of color, race, or creed. The Masters strive together for a single end - the attainment of wisdom by the entire human race. Like loving parents, these initiates point out the way and try to ease the path for their younger brethren.”
Hall notes that these Masters serve as the willing instruments through whom the fulfillment of a greater Cosmic Plan and Project is to take place here on Earth.
As enlightened humans, their task is to, like the Bodhisattvas of Buddhism, “go back into the battle of life to rescue less fortunate ones … who have either fallen by the way or are wandering about lost in the darkness.”
In this way, “the Divine compassion of the Gods pours out as a stream through the hearts of the Masters."
24. Francis Bacon’s Secret Mission: the Resurrection of the Mysteries
A question naturally arises: if the above is true - if there is a permanent spiritual over-government existing behind the world - why doesn’t this invisible spiritual institution make itself known and save us from our collective suffering?
On one hand, it does make itself known. But cryptically: i.e. only in such a way that those with “eyes to see” can tell.
For example, in modern times, its emblems can be found on America’s Dollar Bill in the form of the pyramid capped by the All-Seeing Eye and the American Eagle emblem, which is actually a disguised Phoenix. These images are both traditional symbols of the Mystery Schools.
In Bacon’s time, this imagery was seeded out into society in the form of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes, the Shakespeare Plays, and the occult symbolism and ritualism of the Freemason Fraternity - all three of which Francis Bacon and his Secret Empire of Poets had a hand in crafting, organizing, and disseminating.
On the other hand, this spiritual over-government does not make itself more transparently known because its job is to initiate - i.e. to guide the collective human life wave gradually upward, through a curated cycle of experience, toward the release of internal powers and potentials inherent to itself.
One of the lessons Mankind must learn is to become a self-driven participant in the unfoldment of the Divine Plan. In order to fulfill this mission, Mankind must first learn how to harness its God-given power of self-will. This it does by discovering, through experience, how to redirect its will-power away from the pursuit of personal ambitions and toward the fulfillment of divine ideals.
In this effort, it is the task of the hidden institution called the “Mysteries” to gradually uplift the collective body of mankind so that it will incrementally evolve toward the realization of its own spiritual destiny.
The Divine Plan or Archetype for humanity is for us to become willing instruments in the fulfillment of God’s Plan. As such, mankind’s destiny is to - on both individual and collective levels - become the Alchemist: the transmuter of Nature’s base elements into the alchemical gold of Universal Enlightenment.
As mankind evolves, it incrementally moves toward the fulfillment of this archetypal end-state. Therefore, humanity’s long-term evolutionary growth is not driven by chance, but rather is guided and quickened by advanced Master Alchemists, who serve as the initiators and guides for their less advanced Brothers.
These Alchemists are ones who have already accomplished the Great Work of alchemical transmutation within themselves - i.e. they have transmuted the base elements of their own personalities into the alchemical gold of enlightened Self-realization. Having accomplished this Great Work, they return to the world and work to facilitate this awakening with the collective body of mankind.
As an Adept of the esoteric tradition, Bacon was one of these Alchemists: a Master of Wisdom. From an early age, he was initiated into the body of this prestigious metaphysical institution and during his life, like Plato and Pythagoras before him, he served as its ambassador, representative, and agent on Earth.
Through his Society, Bacon sought to fashion a terrestrial institution that could, like the Mystery Schools of old, interface directly with this invisible metaphysical institution and the enlightened beings that comprise it.
The purpose of this terrestrial institution was to serve as an intermediary link between heaven and Earth - i.e. between the celestial over-government above and the mass of evolving human souls growing up here on Earth. In this way, Bacon sought to contribute to the Great Plan for World Enlightenment.
Put simply, Francis Bacon’s secret mission was to create a new, updated, global version of the ancient Mystery School system.
Manly Hall confirms this, writing that “there is undeniable evidence that the Rosicrucians desired to reestablish the institutions of the ancient Mysteries as the foremost method of instructing humanity in the secret and eternal doctrine.”
This initiatic society or “Mystery School” that Bacon sought to found was to be globally extended in reach and overseen by a terrestrial hierarchy of enlightened philosopher-sages - a role his Rosicrucian Brotherhood was designed to fill. This mundane hierarchy would in turn work under the leadership of the greater celestial hierarchy, whose existence is metaphysical and thus exists in a subtle spiritual state which transcends the limitations of material existence.
In this way, there were two Rosicrucian orders, with Bacon serving as the link between them.
One order was immortal, eternal, archetypal, and metaphysical; the other terrestrial (but patterned after the celestial archetype), comprised of advanced humans, and oriented toward the transformation of terrestrial existence.
The celestial branch of the Rosicrucian order was responsible for initiating the most advanced initiates or “inner body” of this terrestrial society; this was the Greater Mysteries. Meanwhile, the terrestrial branch of this organization was responsible for initiating not only the lower initiates of their fraternity, but also the outer body of mankind still existing “outside the walls of the temple”. These were the Lesser Mysteries.
The goals, strategies, and missions that Bacon and his Rosicrucian Society pursued cannot be understood without understanding the fundamental truth that not only was Bacon a Master Initiate of the esoteric arts, he himself was actively working to initiate others.
As Manly Hall summarizes, “Francis Bacon is not to be regarded solely as a man but rather as the focal point between an invisible institution and (the outer) world” of evolving human souls.
In short, Francis Bacon was the great initiator of Western Civilization. He was an ambassador of the Invisible Government of the World and, as such, set about making a number of necessary changes to the institutional architecture of world civilization, ones that would set up the next great evolutionary phase of human existence - the Scientific Age.
25. The Rosicrucian Project for a Worldwide Reformation of Mankind
During his life, one of the missions Bacon was tasked to accomplish was to externalize the existence of the Invisible Government introduced above. This he accomplished, in a concealed manner, through various published writings, some affiliated with his Rosicrucian Brotherhood, others put out under his own name.
Bacon cryptically revealed the existence of his secret government through two main methods: a) through the symbolism of his utopian fable “the New Atlantis”, published posthumously under his own name; and b) through the symbolism of the Rosicrucian manifestoes, which he published in Germany through a secret agent of his society, Johann Valentin Andraeas.
In these publications, Bacon reveals the existence of his secret society, while also, at the same time, making transparent its secret aims and missions.
In one of his many invaluable writings on the topic of Bacon and the Rosicrucians (his 1946 article “Francis Bacon and his Secret Empire”), Manly Hall offers a summary of the Rosicrucian Order’s secret mission.
Hall begins by stating simply and transparently that “Bacon was dedicated to a universal reformation.” Meaning: “He was resolved to set up a machinery toward the end of the Philosophic Empire.”
Hall then emphasizes the initiatic aims of Bacon’s Secret Empire: “His Lordship knew that there could be no reformation for man apart from the reformation of man. Therefore, the human estate must be enlarged and enriched, not by accident, but by intent. A pattern must be set up to guide humanity from within its own fabric.”
Here, Hall is making it clear that Bacon’s secret mission was to intentionally catalyze a reformation in human affairs. This he would accomplish by establishing an institution - a global initiatic fraternity or Mystery School - dedicated specifically to the task.
Bacon is transparent about the method that his Society is to use in order to accomplish its mission of universal reformation and collective initiation: it is an alchemical one based on the scientific study of Nature’s laws of evolution.
The method for humanity’s evolution is revealed at every moment through the greater evolutionary processes of Nature. By means of science, the laws of our own growth and development await us to discover and utilize on ourselves, for ourselves.
By implication, in order for mankind to complete the Great Alchemical Work, which is to evolve ourselves more rapidly toward the evolutionary end-state that Nature already has planned for us, we must first become scientists.
Through science, we discover Nature’s laws, which are the laws guiding our own evolution. This way of thinking establishes a new ideal for science.
Through science, mankind discovers Nature’s secret laws, which reveal to man how the human race’s great Artistic Work of self-transformation is to be accomplished.
This Great Work is man’s own evolution, which it is our duty to participate with Nature to enact and complete.
Thus, to Bacon and his followers, science is viewed as part of a larger process of spiritual self-discovery: it is the means by which mankind discovers the keys to quickening its own evolutionary development toward the attainment of a superior spiritual state.
Manly Hall offers further elaboration on how science and alchemy interconnect to facilitate and quicken mankind’s evolutionary development.
“Nature works to the ultimate perfection of all things, but man has the faculties available to hasten the works of Nature. This anticipation of Nature’s intent and the furtherance of that intent is the highest form of Art.”
In Bacon’s thinking, “Art is planned existence: it is the dedication of faculties and abilities to their legitimate ends, which is the perfection of the human state and the revelation of the Divine purpose.” This is what Nature wants us humans to do: to learn the plan of our own evolution so as to anticipate our own growth and quicken the process.
By implication, true Artists, such as the initiates of Bacon’s Secret Empire of Poets, form an “empire of intent, with all things done for purpose and toward purpose.” This purpose is clear and simple: the deliberate quickening of Man’s evolution.
Summarizing the above, we find that Francis Bacon and his initiates, being master Alchemists, rooted their plan for the worldwide reformation of mankind in the scientific study and alchemical use of Nature’s laws.
Its methods rooted in Nature, Bacon’s Rosicrucian Order served as the basis for establishing a new, global Mystery School, one set-up as a means to quicken the process of man’s collective evolutionary development.
The Mystery School established by Bacon has since become a powerful, albeit hidden, player in world affairs, working through a variety of secret societies and front organizations in order to pursue the completion of its Great Work: the global transformation of human civilization and the mass initiation of human souls.
This discussion helps us to now better understand and appreciate the life and career of Francis Bacon.
As an initiate of the Mystery Schools, like Plato and Pythagoras before him, Bacon was motivated to transform and evolve the institutions of Western Civilization.
In the process of enacting this transformation, Bacon sought to engage the collective body of mankind in a mass initiation process, one aimed at raising upward the collective consciousness so that it could better fit into and thrive within the new institutional order he was covertly working to build and put into place.
These were Bacon's secret motivations: he was looking to evolve the institutions of Western Civilization forward, advancing them into a new, collective form of expression, one that would provide mankind with a new experiential environment to continue its growth and development in.
If the soul stays in one environment too long, its growth begins to stagnate. To ensure its continued development, it needs new stimulations and opportunities for growth.
For this reason, Bacon aimed to redesign the institutional framework of Western Civilization, thereby providing it with a scene change, a costume change, and a new stage design for it to use to play out the next great act in its evolutionary development.
Bacon and his Rosicrucian brothers knew that a great reformation of world civilization such as the one they were pursuing would not emerge spontaneously on its own accord. Again: Nature requires man to self-consciously participate in his own evolutionary growth.
Consequently, the Rosicrucians deliberately and intentionally set out to build an organizational machinery, put it in motion, and guide it toward the fulfillment of certain pre-desired outcomes.
The institutional order that Bacon and his fraternity have, for centuries now, been working to bring into existence is what we now call the Age of Science, which is the basis of today’s modern cosmopolitain world order.
The ideal for this new age is for humanity to use Bacon’s scientific method as an Art of Discovery, through use of which it “achieves all possible knowledge" (meaning, knowledge of Nature’s Laws) and uses this knowledge “for the salvation of all that lives”.
Always remember: in esoteric philosophy, man must achieve his own salvation, which he accomplishes by self-consciously and self-willingly evolving himself forward.
Bacon’s Art of Discovery is a revelation of Nature’s alchemical method for evolutionary growth, as it applies to the realm of human affairs.
In order for us to complete this Art, we must re-discover this method and put it into practice.
The details of the method Bacon graciously left to us through the various works that comprise his magnum opus: the Great Instauration. In the final sections of this article, we will examine this material in greater detail.
26. The Pyramid of Pan and the Ladder of the Intellect
Bacon models his Art of Discovery in the shape of a tetrahedron or three-sided pyramid. The three sides of this Pyramid reference the three domains or regions that Bacon aims to reveal knowledge about through use of his Method. These three domains are: Divine, Natural, and Human.
In Bacon’s thinking, Natural Philosophy is fulfilled in the observation, study, and analysis of Nature and her laws. It serves as the base of the pyramid.
Human Philosophy comes next. It incorporates the history, sociology, and psychology of the human race and adds to the previous level’s study of Nature’s larger workings. Here, the mission is to discover how Nature’s Laws work upon the human species to guide its evolutionary development.
Divine Philosophy, meanwhile, represents science’s move into metaphysics. Here, the philosopher-scientist moves to the contemplation of the First Principles at work behind the operations of both Nature and Man. Through such contemplation, the philosopher-scientist seek to ascend the intellect toward the contemplation of God’s laws, purposes, and plans.
By arranging these three philosophic domains in ascending order, beginning with Natural Philosophy, moving through Human Philosophy, and finally up to Divine Philosophy, a pyramid shape is produced. This Bacon called his Hill of the Muses or Pyramid of Pan.
As Manly Hall explains, this pyramid “ascends toward universals, but its upper parts are obscured by clouds.” Beyond these clouds is the “palace on high Olympus where dwell the eternal gods”.
The goal of Bacon’s method is to direct the mind to ascend this Scala Intellectus or “Ladder of the Intellect”, the upper end of which “extends through the clouds to the sovereign light” and the base of which “rests upon Nature, which must first be understood and outgrown.”
In Bacon’s “Pyramid of Pan”, we find the basis for his approach to the Philosophy of Science (or as he terms it, his “Art of Discovery”).
Science must always be rooted in philosophy. Bacon divides the philosophical foundations of Science into three core areas or domains, which is what the three sides of his Pyramid of Pan represent.
In Bacon’s model, scientific investigation must begin at the lowest of the three levels: the study of Nature. Then, it moves to incorporate the study and analysis of man’s inner (psychological) and outer (sociological) patterns of life. From the knowledge earned at these first two levels, science then moves upward toward the study of mysticism and metaphysics, which is what Divine Philosophy is intended to represent.
Using Bacon’s method, “the disciplines of reason ascend by qualities from the perception of things visible to the apperception of things knowable, and finally through the contemplation of things in substance unknowable. Thus all thinking, all feeling, all sciences, and arts ascend in pyramidal form to their philosophic apexes.”
As we can see, Bacon’s entire approach is firmly rooted in man’s great quest to discover and know God.
As Manly P. Hall informs us, “upon the solids of a great rationalized faith he built his foundation of knowledge. He recognized God not as part of the Universe, but as the Universe. … Deity to Bacon was not some mysterious being sitting off in space, ruling the world, but was the world itself - inclusive of all parts and members.”
His Hermetic approach to science therefore shares little in common with our modern secular version of science, which has no need for a hypothesis such as God, as one scientist famously observed.
In Bacon’s view, to study the world in any of its three primary aspects - Natural, Human, or Divine - is to study God incarnating within its creation.
Manly Hall explains that “what we call the Laws of Nature were recognized by Bacon as the Attributes of God. In these were the Will of the Creator, and this Will would go on and never change.”
In this view, the Will of God is revealed in the everyday workings of Nature. Thus, by discovering Nature’s Laws, we discover how to obey the Will of God and thus participate in the fulfillment of His Divine Plan for creation.
Here we find the themes of “Man’s place in Nature" and "Man’s duty to God” given prominent emphasis.
While the lower kingdoms of Nature (mineral, vegetative, and animal) obey Nature’s laws inherently, it is our role to have to first discover these Laws before we can perfectly obey them.
As Hall explains, “the animal obeys because it knows nothing else. What man must learn to obey is that which he knows is right.” For Bacon, Science was the way for man to discover right orientation and right action.
Here is revealed the ultimate purpose of Bacon’s Art of Discovery: it is a plan for humanity to attain its own salvation, which it achieves “by coming gradually to a glorious cooperation between (itself) and Nature.” (MPH)
We discover in Bacon’s scientific philosophy a firm foundation in God, religion, and faith. By becoming a scientist, man is better able to better understand the meaning of his faith and the duty he has to God.
On this theme, Hall writes: “The ignorant man, not knowing the Plan, can worship with only his mind or heart. But the wise man, who has discovered the Plan, can add (to his faith a new kind of) worship: service through right conduct.”
He continues: “Only those who have discovered the will of God through his divine works can become a good and faithful servant. To worship completely is to serve completely.”
Before man can perfect his service to God, he must first discover and second obey the laws of Nature. Only once he has discovered and obeyed can man then utilize this knowledge in order to successfully transform both himself and the world.
For this reason, man’s duty to God is to become, first, a scientist. As Hall tells us, “the purpose of existence is to learn. … The purpose of knowledge is that all men may discover everything that is knowable to man in the Universe.”
After mastering the philosophy of science, man then elevates himself to become the alchemist, where he uses the knowledge he has learned in order to transform himself and the world.
As we pursue this scientific endeavor, our knowledge is to be organized as a three-sided pyramid, which, like Jacob’s Ladder, elevates from Earth to Heaven (i.e. from physical to metaphysical truths).
At the end of man’s evolution, when he achieves the state of ultimate completion, he will exist in a state where the fullness of his spiritual powers and potentials have been brought into active expression within himself.
Revealing and releasing these powers first within the individual and second within the collective is the true purpose of Bacon’s philosophy. In other words, his method is an alchemical one, one aimed at synthesizing from Nature's elements the God-Man; the Adept; the Philosopher-King.
27. The Great Instauration: Bacon’s Method of Scientific Discovery
In addition to leaving us his Pyramid of Pan, which sets forth the philosophical foundations of his Art of Discovery, Bacon also revealed to us his special method for ascending “the ladder of the intellect”, which elevates from matter to spirit. He called this method the “Great Instauration” or “Six Days’ Work”.
Peter Dawkins informs us that “Francis Bacon’s brainchild is his Great Instauration, a project he conceived for the step-by-step restoration of a state of paradise upon Earth, but coupled with the illumination of mankind.”
He continues: “Bacon planned his Great Instauration in imitation of the Divine Work, the Work of the Six Days of Creation that culminate in the Seventh Day of Rest or Sabbath.” These Seven Days symbolically "constitute an eternal archetype for a cyclic occurrence - a time cycle, great or small - in which takes place a process of life (moving through) certain defined or definable stages.”
Therefore, the Six Days Work is based upon Nature’s archetype for guiding life’s evolution through time. Like life itself, its pattern is cyclic, “with each cycle building upon the previous one, so that knowledge and ability steadily increase in cycle after cycle, and with there being smaller cycles within great cycles.”
Let’s now move into an investigation of the substance of Bacon’s method.
In The Great Instauration, Bacon outlines six sequential steps or stages, which together reveal an ideal design for the organization, development, and utilization of human knowledge.
The six stages, steps, or “days” of Bacon’s Great Instauration are as follows:
Step One: Survey the State of Existing Knowledge
The first stage of Bacon’s Art of Discovery is to conduct and record a general survey of the existing state of human knowledge.
As Manly Hall explains, step one of Bacon’s method involves “a survey of the state of philosophy and science, together with a design of the relationships of the various aspects of knowledge and a plan of action.”
Dawkins describes this step as “an architectural survey of the landscape; an ordered listing of what needs to be done and the relationship of the various subjects to each other, thereby providing a design and plan of action for building a pyramid of Philosophy and Science.”
In Bacon’s own words: “The first part exhibits a summary or general description of the knowledge which the human race at present possesses. For I thought it good to make some pause upon that which is received; that thereby the old may be more easily made perfect and the new more easily approached.”
Step Two: Outline a Scientific Method for Enhancing this Knowledge
The second step of Bacon’s methodology is based around his revelation of a “New Method” for enhancing and updating the existing state of knowledge first revealed in Step One.
This second step is laid out in Bacon’s work “Novum Organum”, where he reveals his formalized Scientific Method - i.e. the steps and stages that science is to utilize in order to discover Nature’s inner laws.
As Bacon himself writes, the goal of this second step is to “equip the intellect … to the better and more perfect use of human reason in the inquisition of things … (so that it is) made capable of overcoming the difficulties and obscurities of Nature.”
Here, Bacon expresses the idea that Nature veils her laws through the cloak of matter. Man is to study the motions of behaviors exhibited by the material forms Nature produces so that we may gradually discover her veiled Laws.
Bacon tells us that man’s purpose in learning Nature’s laws should be to discover how to better obey them. This is the key to the wise use of knowledge: humility to Law.
Bacon writes that “Man is but the servant and interpreter of Nature … For the chain of causes (behind Nature) cannot by any force be loosed or broken, nor can Nature be commanded except by being obeyed.”
He continues: “Those twin objects, human knowledge and human power, do really meet in one. … What (man) does is based on what he knows (and what he knows) is only what he has observed of Nature’s order in fact or in thought.”
Therefore, “all depends on keeping the eye steadily fixed upon the facts of Nature, receiving their images simply as they are. For God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world”. (In other words, Bacon is here stating that “God forbid we should mistake our imperfect “map” of the world for its actual territory”).
In essence, Bacon is saying that, in order for mankind to act in accordance with Law, we must first discover Law by scientifically observing how Law reveals itself through Nature. But Nature guards her secrets well: Bacon warns that various cognitive biases within the mind present the scientist with many subtle pitfalls, ones which may obscure his understanding of the Truth that Nature is attempting to reveal to him.
Bacon informs us that our perception of Truth may fail in two ways: “Sometimes it gives no information, sometimes it gives false information. For first, there are very many things which escape the sense, even when best disposed and no way obstructed. … And again, when the sense does apprehend a thing, its apprehension is not much to be relied upon. For the testimony and information of the senses has reference always to man, not to the universe; and it is a great error to assert that the sense is the measure of things.”
He continues: “As an uneven mirror distorts the rays of objects according to its own figure and section, so the mind, when it receives impressions of objects through the sense, cannot be trusted to report them truly, but in forming its notions mixes up its own nature with the nature of things.”
Bacon informs us that he has devised his scientific method as a resource for the mind to utilize in order to better navigate itself through its own tendencies for misperception.
He writes: “To meet these difficulties, I have sought … to provide help for the sense; … and this I endeavor to accomplish not so much by instruments as by experiments. … The sense shall be (used) only to judge of the experiment, and that the experiment itself shall judge of the thing.”
In this way, Bacon’s New Method is (as Dawkins tells us) “a special form by means of which the ‘enchanted glass’ of the human mind might be purged of its erroneous habits and misconceptions, be guarded against erecting any new ‘idols’ or false conceptions, and be led step by step to a discovery of real truth.”
Ultimately, Bacon’s “science of the mind” is a method whereby nature’s laws can be revealed to the mind so that the person or “alchemist” can command their energies successfully in action toward the fulfillment of great and noble Works.
As Bacon writes, “It follows from this that the improvement of man’s lot and the improvement of man’s mind are one and the same thing.” In other words, man evolves his material state in life forward by first evolving his mind toward an understanding and appreciation of Nature’s immutable Laws.
By implication, “It is from ignorance of (Nature’s Laws) that operation fails.” Therefore, if we wish to succeed in our mission to evolve ourselves into a Golden Age, we must first discover what the hidden Laws of Nature are. Bacon’s method is a resource that allows us to do this.
Step Three: Gather and Organize a Databank of Scientific Knowledge
The third step of Bacon’s plan is to use the scientific method revealed in Part 2 to conduct and record a “Natural History” of the World, from Earth, to Man, to the Divine - these forming the three sides of Bacon’s Pyramid of Philosophy.
This third stage in the process consists of gathering and recording scientific data through observation, experimentation, and the study of tradition. Its goal is to compile a “suitably organized data bank” of scientific knowledge.
The means of compiling this databank are tradition, observation, and experimentation: a) tradition involves recording the evidence of previous ages; observation references the tracking of what is happening now with regards to Nature, human life, and the motions of the heavens; and, experimentation is a methodology for proving what is observed.
The data accumulated in this third step is to be organized in tables, which are themselves arranged according to a set of ordering principles or axioms, which govern the overarching design of the databank.
Peter Dawkins adds further commentary on how this third step, which is discussed in Bacon’s book Sylva Sylvarum, is to be performed.
“The third part of the Great Instauration forms the foundation of Bacon’s Pyramid of Philosophy and consists of a natural and experimental history concerning the phenomena of the universe.”
(It is) made up of carefully recorded observations of various facets of life, human and natural, (while also) including observations of divine operations in the lives of people and the rest of nature (e.g. miracles, visions, dreams, inspirations, etc.).”
“He particularly urges us to study and collect information on the desires and passions of all things - of matter, nature, and humanity, as therein will be the key to understanding the summary laws of the universe.”
Step Four: Artistically Present Scientific Findings and Discoveries to the Intellect
The fourth step concerns the use of aesthetics in order to teach and reveal to others the knowledge gained in steps One through Three.
Bacon refers to this step as “the Method of the Mind in the Comprehension of Things Exemplified”. In essence, this step is about presenting the tables of knowledge compiled in step three to the minds of the populace in such a way that their principles might be more clearly understood and appreciated.
Dawkins informs us that it is by the means of Art "that the histories of observations, experiences, and facts can be raised to the mind so that they might be seen and thought about, and then put into action.”
Here, we unexpectedly discover that Bacon’s scientific method utilizes poetry and drama. The function of these artistic mediums is to stimulate the imagination of the scientist, so that their intellect will better assimilate the knowledge being presented to it. In this way, Bacon perceived imagination as a faculty that acts “as a messenger between sense and reason, and then between reason and action.”
Step Five: Formulate and Refine a Set of Temporary Axioms
The fifth step in Bacon’s scheme involves the organization of all knowledge attained in steps One through Four according to a set of foundational principles or axioms.
These axioms, as Dawkins informs us, are “generally accepted propositions and principles discovered and sanctioned by experience.”
In step five, these axioms remain speculative hypotheses. As such, they “need to be subjected to further insights, discoveries, and experiment.” It is not until they have been fully refined do they become conclusive Laws; this is what is articulated in Step Six.
The process of formulating and refining a set of fundamental scientific axioms - the goal of Step Five - gets to the heart of how the scientific method works.
The scientific method is oriented around the formulation of “suitable experiments” designed to discover Nature’s underlying Laws. These experiments are followed by a process of analysis, where the experimental data generated by the experiment is subject to a process of testing. Then, based on the results that are yielded, the original hypothesis for the experiment is either accepted or rejected. Based on this judgment, new experiments are designed, and the process is repeated.
Peter Dawkins offers his own summary of the scientific method. He writes that it “involves a careful scrutiny of (the data), coupled with the forming of preliminary axioms and the invention of new experiments to test out the axioms.” From these new experiments fresh hypotheses are formulated “and the process repeated with the creation of new (data sets), further scrutiny, better and more advanced axioms, and so on.”
Francis Bacon calls this method “true induction”.
Induction is a sequence of reasoning that begins with the consideration of particulars (i.e. aggregated data points) before, through reason and logic, moving upward to the consideration of universals (i.e. fundamental patterns, axioms, and laws revealed by the data).
The scientific method is grounded in induction, for the reason that the accumulation and analysis of experimental data is the basis of all scientific experiments. The axioms that science articulates must explain that data as it is recorded; any theories that do not fit the data must be cast aside.
Scientific theories are "speculative axioms” which are generated and refined through the continuous use of Bacon’s experimental method. Theories become the basis of experiments; experiments generates data as a means to test the theories.
If the original hypothesis behind an experiment satisfactorily explains the experimental data, then it lives on as a theory, becoming the basis for future experiments to take place, ones which will serve to further refine and perfect the theory.
Scientific theories do not exist alone: one theory connects to other theories to form a larger super-theory: an aggregate theory that explains the findings of various lesser and more specific sub-theories. These super-theories are often called “scientific frameworks”.
Scientific frameworks from one domain of science may in turn link with other frameworks from other adjacent disciplines to form large-scale, wide-ranging scientific perspectives that Thomas Kuhn once called “scientific paradigms”.
These paradigms are governed by organizing principles or rules which Bacon calls “axioms”. Therefore, the goal of Step Five of his method is to set forth and refine a set of scientific theories that outline the core axioms of Nature’s Laws.
The orientation of Bacon's method is to expand the intellect outward, moving it from the consideration of data points, to the consideration of theories, which aggregate data points together, to the consideration of frameworks, which aggregate theories together, and, finally, upward to the contemplation of paradigms and the fundamental axioms that govern them.
As Bacon himself writes: “My plan is to proceed regularly and gradually from one axiom to another, so that the most general are not reached til the last; but then, when you do come to them, you find them not to be empty notions but well-defined, and such as Nature would really recognize as her first principles.”
Dawkins offers further commentary: “Bacon’s plan is to start with information derived from the senses and then, by means of a ‘true induction’, to discover axioms, and then the various laws of the universe, (which move) from physical laws to metaphysical laws.”
“In other words, the ‘Interpreter’ (i.e. the scientist) is to ascend as if on a ladder from lesser to middle to higher axioms.”
Step Six: Articulate a Final Set of Proven Axioms
Step six emerges as the culmination of the processes of Step Five: it represents the distillation of a final, conclusive set of axioms or principles, which Bacon terms the “Summary Laws” of Nature.
These final axioms or principles comprise the “Universal Science”, which Dawkins calls the “well-proven knowledge of Truth.”
These Summary Laws extend across two domains of operation: the physical and the metaphysical.
Dawkins notes that the achievement of this Sixth Step is the “crowning jewel” of Bacon’s method.
He writes that ”this is the jewel, the temple of true philosophy that stands upon a solid and well-examined base of experience. It is comprised of all the fully proven axioms concerning the laws of the universe - divine, human, and natural.”
When they are synthesized, we discover the “Summary Philosophy” or “Universal Science.” As Dawkins again writes, “When the true and summary laws of the universe are discovered, they will be found to be laws of Love - and this Love is an active, creative (power).”
The distillation of these Proven Axioms from Bacon’s method of “true induction” allows a complementary reasoning process to be unlocked and incorporated: that of “true deduction”.
Deduction is the inverse of induction: its motion of reasoning moves from the consideration of universals down to that of particulars. This implies a downward or inward process of reasoning where the Mind begins with the consideration of First Principles before moving inward to focus on and contemplate the meaning of any one particular topic, theory, or experimental finding.
Keeping their knowledge of universal principles in mind - these being the Summary Laws, articled here in Step Six - the philosopher, though deduction, zooms down and then considers the particular details of any specific data point, theory, or concept in question. In this way, through deduction, the philosopher attempts to perceive each individual issue as a small, localized component of a greater interconnected system.
The Summary Laws of Science are shared in common by all scientific disciplines. Thus, Bacon’s approach to science is fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature.
The main idea is that scientists working in any one particular field of science should ground their knowledge of that specialized field in a more general foundation of understanding concerning what science as a whole has discovered about what the fundamental principles, axioms, and laws of the Universe are, these being held in common across all scientific disciplines.
In this way, the experimental findings of scientists working in any one scientific discipline or field can be linked, by means of deduction, with what is going on in other fields.
For Science to successfully refine its theories to the point that they become well-articulated Summary Laws, such as those specified in Step Six of Bacon’s process, the processes of induction and deduction must be wed together, with each enhancing its counterpart so that both work in unison.
Individual theories inform universal laws and vice-versa.
In this way, deduction and induction are wed together and brought into a mutually beneficial pattern of integration.
28. Summary and Recap of Bacon’s Great Instauration
The six steps or stages of Bacon’s Great Instauration are indicated in the six books displayed in the background of the above portrait of Francis Bacon, which appeared on the frontispiece to the original 1640 pressing of his book “The Advancement of Learning". These same six books also appear on the book’s title page as part of a different image, which is featured above as the image to Bacon’s left..
Peter Dawkins offers a close analysis of the symbolic contents embedded in this portrait of Bacon. He begins by noting that, in the portrait, on the table to Bacon’s left “are stacked two books, and on the shelf directly above are standing a further four books. All these books are numbered. … These books represent and illustrate the six parts or stages of the Great Instauration.”
Dawkins connects Bacon’s Great Instauration project with the stated goals of an elite society that was referenced in a different work of his: his unfinished utopian novel, New Atlantis. In this story, Bacon incorporates into his tale the existence of an esoteric order or society called “Salomon’s House” or “the College of the Six Days’ Work.” This organization was a hybrid religious-scientific organization which was dedicated to the task of using Bacon’s Art of Discovery in order to bring about a transformation of world civilization - a new “golden age”.
In the Bible, this golden age is called the “Seventh Day of Creation”. It is day of Peace or Rest, in which God and Creation enjoy each other. By analogy, the unstated seventh book of Bacon’s great project is, as Dawkins tells us, “a mystical book, signifying the Sabbath, which is a time of enlightenment and joy.”
This seventh or Sabbath day is symbolized in the image by the open book Bacon is writing upon. On the left hand page of this open book “are written the two words “Mundus” and “Mens” (World and Mind). This references the idea of heaven (i.e. the mental sphere of thought; above) and earth (i.e. the worldly sphere of action’ below).” Thus, it is a declaration of the old Hermetic axiom, “As above, so below.”
On the right page is written in Latin “conubio jungam stabile (i.e. “World and Mind: joined in stable marriage”). This is an alchemical reference for "love in action”, which is also called charity. This theme is also portrayed in the clasped hands of the title page illustration, also featured above, where the terms “Mundus Visibilis” and “Mundus Intellectualis” are united by clasped hands. Above it says “Ratione et Experientia foederantur (‘Reason and Experience united”).
Let’s now zoom out and summarize the main idea of the overall project. Highlighting the core underlying themes of Bacon's Great Instauration, Peter Dawkins writes:
“God creates in six days.” Therefore, the “Six Days of Creation describe six stages in the creative process that bring the Universe and all that it contains into existence and evolve it to its final fruition. “
“Man, made in the image of God, is likewise intended to accomplish his destiny according to six days or stages.”
Bacon’s Art of Discovery, which is also called the Six Days’ Work, is rooted in the existence of this divine law. It is a “law of creativity, which, once learnt, can be applied creatively. Bacon is using this law to help us discover, understand, and know the Truth, which is Love in all its forms of expression, and hence to bring about a world-wide illumination and a golden age on Earth.” (Dawkins)
As Bacon teaches us, Love is the Law of Laws: it is the Summary Law of the universe; the supreme reason and purpose behind all of Nature’s workings.
To quote Bacon himself: “Next unto God, Love is the Cause of Causes, itself without any Cause.”
By following Bacon’s method, the philosopher-scientist gradually builds within themselves - i.e. within their own Mind or Soul - “a Temple of Science” rooted in the “Knowledge of Truth, which is Love.”
As Bacon explains in his Advancement of Learning, “I am not raising a Capitol or Pyramid to the pride of men, but laying a foundation in the human understanding for a Holy Temple (built) after the model of the World.” And because the World has its foundation in Divine Love, this power of Divine Love also serves also as the foundation for Bacon’s Temple, which is constructed using his method.
In sum, Francis Bacon, through his Great Instauration or “Six Days Work” project, describes a custom methodology, based on the sacred science of alchemy, for achieving “world-wide illumination and a golden age on Earth.”
Bacon, like Plato before him, believed that man’s destiny was to re-create for himself a new golden age, one that would be an enhancement over the previous golden age once achieved in lost Atlantis.
Everything that mankind has experienced in its history is a prelude to this eventual but inevitable achievement; all growth is pulling us toward the fulfillment of this ultimate end state.
In this way, “the world is a schoolroom of the Six Days’ Work”, and we do not graduate until the Sabbath or Seventh Day of Rest is reached.
The coming golden age or Sabbath Day will be brought about through a process whereby man learns the Law, obeys the Law, and then performs charitable works according to a loving plan specified by the Law.
In this way, by performing wise and benevolent acts of charity and service, the scientist becomes the alchemist. The alchemist is really the philosopher-scientist: one who, as Dawkins writes, “imitates the divine Love”. This is accomplished "by means of charity, which is Love in action”.
29. The Sabbath or Seventh Day of Rest
Bacon’s Six Days Work is a method for ascending the ladder of the intellect, bringing it from worldly knowledge to universal knowing. The six steps that comprise this method lead inevitably to the achievement of a seventh, which is associated psychologically with a mystical experience of illumination, or in social terms, with the attainment of a new golden age.
Manly Hall writes that “the Six Days’ Work is the ascent up the rungs of the ladder of the intellect, but the seventh day, which is the rest, subsists in the Divine Nature.” It is within the Divine Nature that the ultimate experience of Truth takes place. Hall elaborates: “Bacon believed that the ultimate revelation of the nature of Truth came not from books or from study but from some hidden place within the Self.”
It is in this hidden place within the Self that the experience of illumination or enlightenment is consummated. Hall writes that “Illumination is the penetration of First Cause. (Actually,) into this man does not penetrate, but (rather is himself) penetrated by the power of Eternal Light. It is this Light which reveals fully the secret motions of things.”
Hall further informs us that this “Illumination may be experienced, but it cannot be communicated.” This is why Bacon fails to explicitly feature it as part of his Six-Day methodology. Instead, of telling us about it, he provides us with the method to achieve it for ourselves.
The ultimate end of Bacon’s method occurs with this mystical penetration of First Cause that Manly Hall alludes to above. Bacon refers to the special type of mystical knowledge that results as “divine” or “sacred”.
Through illumination, one experiences and knows First Cause directly. This knowledge of First Cause then becomes the basis of deduction, which is the downward motion of reasoning moving from knowledge of First Cause to the comprehension of its Many Effects.
As Bacon informs us, whereas “philosophical knowledge or human learning is inferred by the light of nature, which consists of the notions of the mind and the reports of the senses”, divine knowledge is something different: it is “inspired by divine revelation, whether it be direct into the human heart, or by prophecy, or by way of the scriptures.”
Manly Hall offers further elaboration, noting that scientific “knowledge is attained by the diligence of man, but illumination is bestowed by the grace of God.”
Thus, the bestowing of illumination is not by accident but rather by the deliberate intent of the Divine Mind.
As Hall further explains, ”there is a covenant between the creator and his creation. This covenant is the possibility of the fulfillment of all knowing. The mind rises from opinion to sense and from sense to reason, and above reason it receives into itself the descending power of the Spirit.”
In this way, “all the work of the sciences, all the glory of the arts, and all the reverences of religion lead to a common end, which is the apperception of the reality of the Divine Mind. Man can never conquer the universal, and (in the end) he must earn the right to be conquered by the universal.”
“This then is the Sabbath, when man rests in the internal silence of himself and accepts into his own capacity the eternal light of the world. It is then and then only that knowledge is quickened and becomes alive with the possibilities and powers of the universal thinker.”
The unspoken Seventh Day of Bacon’s method is closely associated with the mystical discipline of Theurgy once advocated by the Alexandrian Neoplatonists, an important esoteric sect that Bacon almost surely would have been familiar with.
In the Neoplatonic school, Theurgy was practiced as an occult science uniting philosophy and mysticism. Manly Hall points out that the practice of this science was equivalent to the eastern esoteric practices of meditation, which were devised as “a method to break the circle of cause and consequence.”
These esoteric practices involve “disciplines of realization by which the human being could free himself from the ‘wheel of the law’” (i.e. the wheel of karma or cause and effect). In practice, this represents “a scientific organization of the powers of consciousness for the purpose of releasing the internal eternity of man from bondage to the limitations of time and place. In simple terms, it was the restatement as conscious experience of reality over illusion.”
Hall further explains that Theurgy’s origins date back to the esoteric meditational disciples of the ancient Indian Brahmans.
He writes that the ancient yogis were actually philosopher-scientists who attempted to, through the practice of sacred meditational disciples, “chart all space, physical and spiritual”. In order to fulfill their task, they “set to work to perfect within (themselves) a group of extrasensory perceptions which would sustain their researches into abstraction.”
Hall continues: “They believed that man had faculties within his mind which could be scientifically trained to cope with the mysteries of the spiritual world. This is the very essence of the doctrines of Yoga and Tantra.”
In short, Theurgy’s goal is, as Manly Hall tells us, to “gradually release universal consciousness through the unfolding faculties and functions of the human being. This science of approaching universals is the master science of the Ancient Mysteries.”
In the Mysteries, religious experiences were cultivated through the scientific contemplation of Causes. As Manly Hall explains, “the mind discovers God through the contemplation of universal principles and the manifestations which these principles set up in the sphere of particulars.”
This scientific pursuit of religion pays off in the mystical experience, which is the ultimate goal of religion. In this way, “Consciousness crowns learning, and is possible only to those who have perfected themselves to receive it.”
Elsewhere, Hall writes emphatically that “the end of all learning is that man shall be inspired to take a final step into a knowing possible only by a mystical experience within the Self.”
As mentioned above, as part of the practice of the esoteric science of Theurgy, extrasensory faculties within the Mind are developed and brought into use.
Manly Hall states that such faculties inherently exist in all human beings, but are latent and must be “stimulated into activity” by being “trained and directed”.
He further states that these ESP faculties are to be used “not only to increase our knowledge of externals but to intensify our realization of internals.”
The mystical disciples of Theurgy are designed to develop and utilize these extrasensory faculties. In fact, as Manly Hall explains, the completion of Step Six of Bacon’s method cannot be fully completed without use of such extrasensory perceptions.
Hall writes that “to reason accurately about things invisible and in themselves unknowable or unknown requires faculties not yet perfected in man.”
We should therefore be careful not to “neglect to apply their scientific approach when fitting the individual for the task of metaphysical exploration.”
Ultimately, Bacon’s Art of Discovery is revealed and offered to us as a resource to be utilized as means for us to re-discover and re-learn the ancient alchemical science of Theurgy.
This becomes possible only after the sixth step of Bacon’s method is completed. Meaning, only once Nature’s laws are accurately understood can they be successfully applied to the task of attaining illumination.
By implication, the overall purpose of Bacon’s Art of Discovery is to guide us toward the re-discovery of Theurgy’s core rules and principles. By means of this Master Science , we attain the illumination which is the Sabbath Day of Rest.
The seventh or Sabbath day of creation is that which results from the successful implementation of Theurgy.
The Golden Age is the Sabbath Day, which is brought into being only when man perfects its performance of loving action, charity, and service.
When the Sabbath day finally comes, all of creation will bask in the light of the transcendent Self and worldwide illumination results.
In his writings, Peter Dawkins beautifully summarizes this blessed ideal:
“Francis Bacon’s Great Instauration is a project he conceived for the step-by-step restoration of a state of paradise upon earth, but coupled with the illumination of mankind.” In other words, whereas mankind was innocently ignorant in the original paradise (symbolized in Plato’s Atlantis tale), in the new paradise all human souls will have reached a state of knowledge of truth. Such illumined knowledge will be based on the practice of and experience of Truth.”
“A worldwide state of illumination or “golden age” is an ancient dream and prophecy of all the great sages who ever lived on Earth” and is the ultimate goal toward which they labored. “Bacon’s great gift to the world was his ability to see this anew, and to both devise and inaugurate a particular scientific method by which it might be more certainly achieved, one suitable for the approaching era.”