Last Judgment

The Last Judgment is the initiation in which the individual is called to give account for the energies he has expended during his allotted time of opportunity in the world of form. The, Last Judgment, also known as the Trial of the Sacred Fire, may take place either in the Ascension Temple at Luxor, Egypt, or at the Court of the Sacred Fire on the God Star, Sirius. Candidates for the ascension are reviewed at Luxor, while the unprofitable servants, those who have utterly abused their opportunities to evolve Godward by refusing to multiply their God-given talents, must appear before the Bar of Supreme Justice on Sirius.

In the case of the unprofitable servant, this final review of the soul’s experiments in the world of form takes place when the sands in the hourglass have run out, when the soul has spent the last farthing of “energy-opportunity” for all incarnations. On the other hand, the candidate for the ascension may finish his course on time, or ahead of time, to be received by the Hierarch of Luxor with highest honors.

This review is called the “last” judgment to distinguish it from (1) the judgments of the God Presence and the Christ Self that occur daily throughout the soul’s many embodiments, and (2) the judgment that takes place at the close of each embodiment when the soul stands before the Lords of Karma to give an accounting of her activities in the world of form. Neither one of these is the “last” judgment; but they may both be thought of as achievement tests, given in order that the soul might know where she stands: whether or not she has “passed” a particular grade, how best to prepare for the test of the next day or the next embodiment, and how ultimately to prepare for the “final exam”—the Trial by Fire.

The Trial of the Sacred Fire, whether it is convoked at Luxor or on Sirius, is the final examination of the individual’s every motive, thought, feeling, word and deed with its corresponding cause, effect, record and memory. It is here that the final auditing of the soul’s account takes place: Has the soul multiplied or wasted the talents given by God? What degree of self-mastery has been attained? In what ways has the soul sought to enhance the evolution of life towards its divine completion? In essence, the purpose of the Trial of the Sacred Fire is to determine exactly how brightly the star of the soul shines and to reward her accordingly.

The process of the trial

On Sirius the Trial of the Sacred Fire takes place in a large circular courtroom surrounded by twelve smaller circular courts, often referred to as “flame rooms.” Thus, the cosmic pattern of the Central Sun with twelve revolving lesser suns is duplicated in the design of the Court of the Sacred Fire. The Twelve Solar Hierarchies are represented at the trial by twelve sets of twin flames, known collectively as the Four and Twenty Elders.

At the conclusion of the trial, if the margin of judgment—or, shall we say, the margin of mercy—has awarded the soul another opportunity, the sentence is pronounced and the Court is adjourned. The soul is then escorted to an antechamber whence she may be taken to a retreat for instruction before reembodying, which may occur within a fortnight. But if it is considered that he would not alter his course, even if further opportunity in embodiment were given to him, the Court calls for an immediate reckoning of his accounts.

After he has been given his “last rites,” the sacred tone—the keynote of his Presence—is sounded, and the sacred fire is released through his soul and four lower bodies. The current from Omega rises from the base of the dais, and the current from Alpha descends through the canopy overhead. The soul whose works have been of God is immortalized by the sacred fire; but the soul whose deeds have been evil—the soul who has used God’s energy to spawn a veil of illusion—is consumed. If the soul fails this exam, she goes through the second death (the first death being the death of the physical body; the second death being the death of the soul) and her individuality is remembered no more.

The second death

The second death comes as an act of mercy to those souls whose karma is so heavy that the suffering that would be entailed in the balancing of their debt to Life is considered by the Elders to be too great for any lifestream to bear. Actually, it is God in man who is crucified daily by the weight of men’s sins, and He does not choose to bear their burdens indefinitely—hence the second death is the means whereby God himself is liberated from the vile consciousness of men.

In the process of the second death, the Creator withdraws the energies he has invested in the individualization of the soul. This takes place automatically as the sacred fire passes through the personality consciousness, through the cause, effect, record and memory of all that has transpired within the forcefield and pattern of identity, and through the four lower bodies. As these energies are relieved of the stamp of personal impurity, they are drawn into the heart of the sacred fire and thence into the Great Central Sun Magnet (the white-fire core of the Central Sun) where they are purified—repolarized with perfection—and returned to the reservoir of God’s creative power, the Great Causal Body, from which they will eventually be released in the mold of a newly created soul.

At the same time that the individual is passing through the Trial by Fire at the Court of the Sacred Fire on Sirius, his negative creations are being cast into the Lake of Fire for repolarization.

For more information

Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Path to Immortality, chapter 3.

Sources

Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Path to Immortality, chapter 3.