The Angel and the Sorcerer: The Remarkable Story of the Occult Origins of Mormonism and the Rise of Mormons in American Politics by Levenda Peter

Author:Levenda, Peter [Levenda, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Nicolas-Hays, Inc
Published: 2012-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

This single paragraph from a relatively recent proclamation by the fifteenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encapsulates many of the ways in which Mormons differ significantly from other Christians. Aside from the weird “spirit sons and daughters” terminology, the concept of the premortal realm is front and center. We all, according to Mormon doctrine, pre-existed in our current genders. We incarnated as part of a process by which we will gain perfection. Our family relationships will continue after death, but only if we have received the ordinances and covenants in the holy temples of the Mormon church. Otherwise it seems that we are out of luck.

The idea of perfectability is alien to normative Christian doctrine. All a Christian can hope for is to be “saved” from eternal damnation by living according to God's laws and abstaining from sinful thoughts, words and deeds. This is not “progressing towards perfection”, but simply keeping your nose clean and staying out of trouble.

But perfectability is central to alchemical and occult belief and practice, otherwise there would be no alchemy, no secret rituals, no initiatory societies, no esoteric teachings. As we have been seeing all along—and contrary to official Mormon dogma—Joseph Smith's religion is an occult order, made even more so by his adoption of Masonic ritual as an overlay to his treasure-seeking, ceremonial magic origins.

Another interesting aspect of the Mormon heaven system is the possibility of marriage in the afterlife. As mentioned previously, spouses on earth can be “sealed” for eternity in heaven, even after one of them has already died. This type of “spirit marriage” is not unique: some Chinese ethnicities practice this form of marriage (minghun in Mandarin) when a person has died as a bachelor. In order to provide him a wife in the afterlife, his family arranges a marriage with a suitable dead woman and the marriage rites are performed as if both are still alive, after which the woman's corpse is moved to a grave next to her “husband”. In some cases, a living woman is married to a dead man. In that instance, the wife remains faithful to her dead husband (takes a vow of celibacy in this life), and visits his grave like a normal dutiful spouse every year, etc. The difference between the Asian concept of spirit marriage and the Mormon version is that the former is a strategy for ensuring that the deceased is cared for in the afterlife, and to avoid the return of the spirit of the dead bachelor to haunt his family. It is a prophylactic mechanism that serves a purpose. In the case of the Mormon “spirit marriages” there seems to be no such purpose being served. The motivation for instituting such a practice must remain obscure, unless we look once again to occult sources.

This is another instance in which Swedenborg and Smith agree, as Swedenborg felt that marriage did, indeed, take place in heaven and that even the angels got married. The use of terms

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