This morning I learned quite a lot about Melchisedech. To the Marcionites, he is the high priest of the evil and material Jehovah. To Seventh Day Adventists, he is arguably God, the Holy Ghost, or "The voice of God in the world". To both Judaism and the Catholic church I belive he was a mundane human priest. However, when you enter the world of "Christian" new-age mysticism, you'll find some odd stuff. It's not to surprising to find him written up as a tarot card figure:
Angels - Archangel Melchisadec
Meaning of Melchisadec -- Prince of peace and light - spiritual awakening
Colour -- White or Silver
Message -- Often known as the father of the angels he guides the angels as the great prophets have guided mankind. He offers you pure white light, the symbol of purity and wholeness. [...and so on]
Related Chakras -- Crown
Related Emotional Issues -- Depression, loss of purpose
Related Health Issues -- All serious illness
Aromatherapy Oils -- Frankincense, Lavender, Yang Lang
Crystals -- Rainbow quartz, clear quartz, amethyst
[link]
Pretty mundane stuff, in all. However, I ran across Max Heindel's heavily coded Freemasonry and Catholicism. I'll quote a little bit for you:
To understand the mystery of Melchisedec we must revert to the earlier epochs of man's stay upon the earth during the age called the Hyperborean Epoch. The earth was then in an extremely heated condition. Man in the making was then double sexed, male-female, like so many of our present plants, and he also resembled the plants in being inert and lacking in desire and aspirations. At that time man was the tractable ward of the Divine Hierarchs who guided him physically, these being darkly referred to in the Bible as "Kings of Edom." Later, during the Lemurian Epoch, when the body of man had crystallized and condensed somewhat more, mankind was divided into sexes physically. But as the consciousness of man was still focused in the spiritual world they were unconscious of the physical act of generation, as we are now of digestion; neither did they know birth or death and were in fact totally unaware of the possession of a physical vehicle until in time they sensed it during the generative process; it was then said that "Adam KNEW Eve." At that time Lucifer Spirits, fallen Angels and inhabitants of the warlike planet Mars, taught them how to eat of the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, which is the symbolical name for the generative act.
It goes on like that for quite a while, and was brought to you by The Rosicrucian Fellowship, "An International Association of Christian Mystics dedicated to preaching the Gospel and healing the sick".
Posted by Tom at December 1, 2003 04:45 PM