to say, and personified, these two aspects of the Soul are depicted as two persons.  Thus we have Simon and Helen, his favourite disciple, Krishna and Arjuna, etc.  In the Canonical Gospels the favourite disciple is said to be John, and the women-disciples are placed well in the background.  In the Gnostic Gospels, however, the women-disciples are not so ostracized, and the view taken by these early communities of philosophical and mystical Christians throws much light on that wonderful history of the Magdalene that has so touched the heart of Christendom.  For instance, in the Pistis-Sophia, the chief of all the disciples, the most spiritual and intuitive, is Mary Magdalene.  This is not without significance when we remember the love of the Christ for Mary “out of whom he had cast seven devils.”

The allegory is a striking one, and perfectly comprehensible to the student of comparative religion.  As there are seven Aeons in the Spiritual World, seven principles or aspects of the Spiritual Soul, so here on Earth, by analogy, there are seven lower aspects, or impure reflections.  As there are seven Cardinal Virtues, the Prajna-Paramitas, or Perfections of Wisdom, of the Buddhists, so there are seven Cardinal Vices, and these must be cast out by the spiritual will, before the repentant Mary, or Human Soul, can be purified.

This is the mystery of the Helen, the “lost sheep.”  Then follows the mystical marriage of the Lamb, the union of the Human and Spiritual Soul in man, referred to so often in the Gospels and other mystical scriptures.

Naturally the language used is symbolical, and has naught to do with sex, in any sense.  Woe unto him or her who takes these allegories of the Soul as literal histories, for nothing but sorrow will follow such materialization of divine mysteries.  If Simon or his followers fell into this error, they worked their own downfall, under the Great Law, as surely do all who forge such bonds of matter for their own enslavement.

But with condemnation we have nothing to do; they alone who are without sin have the right to cast stones at the Magdalenes of this world; and they who are truly without sin use their purity to cleanse their fellows, and do not sully it with the stains of self-righteous condemnation.  We, ordinary men and women of the age, are all “lost sheep,” human souls struggling in ignorance; shall we then stone our fellows because their theology has a different nomenclature to our own?  For man was the same in the past as he is to-day.  The Human Soul has ever the same hopes and fears, loves and hates, passions and aspirations, no matter how the mere form of their expression differs.  That which is important is the attitude we hold to the forms with which we are surrounded.  To-day the form of our belief is changed; the fashion of our dress is scientific and not allegorical, but are we any nearer the realization that it is a dress and no more, and not the real expression of the true man within?