Genesis 17:1-5, 15
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God walk before me, and be thou perfect.
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying,
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

   The change in the names of Abram and Sarai was the result of a change in their character and consciousness. It brought an external feature in conformity with an inner alteration. Names are powers. They carry vibrational values. To study these values is to lay hold of another key with which to unlock Bible mysteries. Every letter has a number value, and all the universe is built on number or motion. The Hebrew alphabet is constructed in accordance with numerical law and contains within itself an outline of the evolutionary path followed by the masses, and also the steps taken by the few who choose to follow the steep and narrow way of Initiation.

   Like the signs of the Zodiac, this alphabet contains a history of the pilgrimage of spirit through material existence, whereby it gathers experience, acquires self-realization, and attains to conscious union with its greater self: the god of whom it was, and is, and ever shall be an essential part.

   The letter "H" was added to the names of both Abram and Sarai. This letter carries the powers of the awakened and uplifted feminine or love principle, and thus indicates that this principle had become active in the lives of both. Intellect and intuition had been merged into unity. It is this equilibrium that produces the kingdom of heaven within. The Zohar, which contains the deepest esoteric teaching of the rabbis, is called the Book of the Heavenly Balance because its theme is the attainment of this equilibrium.

   Abraham and Sarah had now progressed to the place where the Lord promised them a son. His name was to be Isaac. This son could not come to Abraham before the release of Ishmael had been effected for the same reasons that precluded Abraham's meeting with Melchizedek before the redemption of Lot had been accomplished. It is only after Lot is redeemed and Ishmael released in the life of the aspirant that he, too, receives a promise like that given Abraham. "All the land of Canaan" then becomes his "everlasting possession," and the Lord his God.

   The work of redeeming the lower man reached a still higher stage with the circumcision of both Abraham and Ishmael. This operation refers, esoterically, to processes having to do with the extension of certain inner faculties of perception. Physiologically, these centers are located in the head; and the work relates specifically to changes in the pituitary body and the pineal gland. All the work described in connection with the development of Abraham and Sarah, and also with Hagar and Ishmael, is preparatory for the birth of Isaac. The former are being purified, developed, and spiritualized for the realization of a new joy. Every step forward marks an ascending stage of consciousness. The change first occurs within; later it becomes manifest on the outer. Abraham's life reveals these progressions as every aspirant on the path experiences them in their essential nature.

   Abraham and Sarah had now reached a stage of development where the Lord (Law) would give them a son. Since Abraham was an hundred years old and Sarah ninety, it seemed more than strange that this could be. "Abraham fell upon his face and laughed." So, too, did Sarah, for she was incredulous, but "Is anything too hard for the Lord (Law)?" Great is the joy (Isaac) that he hath prepared for them that love Him.

   The ability to receive and interpret inner plane communications requires a development of the faculties correlated to those realms. Intuitive perception is such a faculty. When the mind is in perfect alignment with this power of direct cognition, it is capable of apprehending truths that transcend the limits of mind alone. It does not contradict logical processes but goes beyond them. We read that Sarah was in her tent. In esoteric symbology a tent signifies the mind. It was in this tent that Sarah doubted.

   Evidently it soon dawned upon Abraham that the promised son meant a victory over his lower nature. So Ishmael, its offspring, comes to his mind; and in the same instant a longing for his son's redemption. "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!" he exclaims. And so he will. Man's lower nature is to be redeemed.

   Said the Lord to Abraham: "Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year." (Genesis 17:20,21)

Genesis 18:1-3
And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.

   This event occurred under the oak at Mamre (strength) where Abraham had made his dedication. The Lord appeared, and with Him, two messengers. These were Angels of light who had come to illumine the mind of a worthy seeker. Abraham had now reached the development where he was able to communicate directly with the angelic Hierarchy. This is not possible until clouds of passion have rolled away and one's aura has been cleared of its darker elements. Direct communication is, therefore, limited to children who still live in innocence and purity and to those who have overcome the propensities of the desire nature. Angels are constant companions and guardians of children until their years of adolescence when the procreative powers come to birth. From then on the Lucifer spirits exercise the dominant influence, working through desire until it has been brought under control and it expresses on higher levels. Abraham had successfully accomplished this regeneration and thus regained temporarily lost angelic contacts, as the Bible record of his life makes clear.

   The food Abraham prepared for his guests was ambrosial nourishment on which the soul feeds when in communication with spirits in celestial realms.

Genesis 18:20-32
And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood Yet before the Lord.
And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the place for their sakes.
And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.
And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure there shall be twenty, found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.
And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

   The above passage, like so many others in the Bible, outlines cryptically dual paths that lead to attainment. There is the way of the masses whereon progress is due to the forward cosmic urge more than to the aspiration and application of the individual; there is also the way of the few whereon progress is due chiefly to the practice of a disciplined life, consciously bent on regenerating the whole nature so that it may qualify for larger service, and a spiritually illumined life.

   When Abraham "stood" before the Lord and pleaded that He spare Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction, he was consciously working with divine law. The Lord and the Law are one. While the Lord cannot be persuaded to grant personal favors, since natural law knows no deviation, concessions which Abraham was granted by the Lord in response to his plea were simply the favorable reactions of cosmic law to operations initiated by one understanding that law and working in harmony with it. "Nature is conquered by obedience." Knowledge of the law gives power through working with it. This is what Abraham did.

   Abraham had a knowledge of the law of vibration. He knew the spiritual significance of numbers. Massed vibratory action of people living contrary to divine law injected such discord into their environment that a rain of fire and brimstone was finally precipitated. Every destructive manifestation in nature is the physical reaction to destructive thoughts and emotions of man himself. Nature is not vengeful; it is simply obedient to a law inherent in its own being. An outer manifestation is always, and of necessity, the outcome of some inner activity. As a man thinks, so is he. As a man creates, such are his conditions.

   The organized thought force of a small number of righteous men operating in conformity with divine law could offset the destructive forces of a much larger unorganized group. Abraham knew this. But he did not go below ten in his appeals to save the cities. Ten is the number of the masculine (1) and the feminine (0) forces working in unity. Since the cities were destroyed as a result of the desecration and fall of the feminine love principle, its elevation to union with the masculine under the powers of the number ten could have saved it.

   The Lord went His way, we read, as soon as He had "left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place." This passage points to his experience on the heights of consciousness wherein harmony and unity with the Law was realized. This realization he then carried down into his personal consciousness and introduced into the activities of his daily life. The quality of the life of such an individual is unmistakable evidence to those who have recognition of spiritual values that he has communed face to face with the Lord. Walt Whitman, touched with cosmic consciousness, says truly, "Where I pass all my children know me."

 — Corinne Heline