XVII. The Veils

The Tabernacle of Israel, by George de Charms, 1969

There were two kinds of protective covers in the tabernacle: the curtains and the veils. The curtains were primarily for protection, forming walls and ceiling; the veils were also for entrance and exit.

There were three of these, marking the three divisions of the tabernacle. The inmost divided between the holy of holies and the holy place. This was specifically called the veil, and is always the one referred to by that term if there is no qualification. The middle one divided between the holy place and the court. It is called the "door of the tent." It was hung upon pillars two cubits within the east end of the wall, so that it was protected by a sort of porch or vestibule.¹ The outmost veil divided between the court and the camp of Israel. It was called the "gate of the court."

¹ This is not stated, but it is a conclusion arising out of the folding under of the woolen curtain to a depth of two cubits.

All three of these veils were made of linen woven in the four colors: blue, purple, scarlet, and white. They were varied in the degree of their excellence and their workmanship. They differed from the linen curtain of the tabernacle in that the color white is mentioned last instead of first, and this is significant of their correspondence. They were not made as was the linen curtain, in strips sewed together, but were apparently in one piece, 10 cubits square, according to the inside measurements of the tabernacle itself. This applies to the first two veils, the gate of the court being 5 cubits high and 20 cubits in length. The veil proper was hung from four pillars of shittim wood covered with gold, 10 cubits high with a cap or fillet of gold, a golden hook at the top, and a base of silver similar to those used for the boards of the wall. These pillars were placed 10 cubits from the west wall. The distance between them allowed the ark to pass through. The veil was fastened also to the S-shaped hooks of gold which joined the two halves of the linen curtain. This veil is said to be "the work of a thinker," as was the linen curtain, having the design of golden cherubim inwoven like a tapestry.²

The hanging for the door of the tent was of the same dimensions as the veil itself. However, it was not fastened to the covering of the ceiling. It was supported on 5 pillars so placed that the ark might pass between them. These pillars also were covered with gold, but their bases were of copper. This hanging differed from the veil in that the cherubim were not inwoven on the loom, but were embroidered upon it in gold thread.³

² Exodus 26:31, 32; 36:35, 36.
³ Exodus 26:36, 37; 36:37, 38.

The hanging for the gate of the court was placed in the center of the east wall of the court. There were assigned to it 4 pillars, which it was specified should be 5 cubits apart. Of course 4 pillars, 5 cubits apart, would cover a space of only 15 cubits. A hanging of 20 cubits requires five pillars so placed. But only four were counted as belonging to the gate of the court, while one was counted as belonging to the wing of the wall. (See Chapter XVIII.) This enumeration is part of the general problem we will speak of in another chapter. These court pillars are 5 cubits high, made of shittim wood, not covered with gold. Their fillets and hooks are of silver and their bases of copper. The gate of the court, like the hanging for the door, was the work of an embroiderer, but the design of the embroidery is nowhere mentioned. Scholars generally consider it to have been folioform.

Each veil served as a door or gate of entrance and exit, and also as a protecting wall. Doors and gates may be opened or they may be closed. They may be opened to some, and closed against others. Thus they are both a means of defense or protection, and a means of approach or conjunction. Such doors may be interior or exterior. To the outer door of a house or to the outer gate of a palace any stranger may come, but through it only friends are admitted. Only such friends, then, come to the inner door where they may or may not be admitted. Only well-known friends are invited within. Past the doors leading into the inmost rooms of the house, only members and very intimate friends of the family are permitted to go.

This gives some idea of entrance into the human mind through successive gates and doors. These are loves which act as sieves to select what shall enter and what shall not. In man, in addition to the three here mentioned there is an outmost gate. It is the gate of the senses. The organs of sense can perceive unaided only a few of the objects and the forces of the material world. Nevertheless they admit into the memory many things that are as strangers to man's higher faculties. These five senses may be compared to the entrance of the camp of Israel, the gates of which are frequently mentioned in the Word. The whole nation of Israel represented the outmost or external mind, and this is where sense impressions are stored in the memory. But out of this memory a man calls forth such things as he is interested in more deeply. These he examines more closely, that he may understand them and adapt them to serve the ends he has in view. This selection is made by means of the imagination, wherein a man pictures to himself any goal toward which he would strive. He not only admits here certain sense impressions and rejects others, but those which are admitted are put together in a new order that they may form an ideal. Such selection is made according to the love that is active, and the interest such a love arouses. The things here admitted are like friends. They are welcomed, protected, and preserved for future use. But they are natural or worldly ambitions, the pleasures of the body, or the delights of the external mind.

Man has a higher imagination which may be compared to the court of the tabernacle. Here spiritual ends take form by means of abstract thought and analytical reason. By means of this higher mental activity man seeks to visualize, not the outer form, but the inner essence of things. His attention is focussed upon the discovery, and the enjoyment of things that give delight to the spirit. These are more enduring, and far more satisfying than the pleasures of the body. These also must be reordered and prepared for use. This inner mind is what is represented by the holy place. In a similar way, out of these more abstract visualizations there can arise still higher concepts which are not described as thought, but rather as perceptions. They are called celestial. They arise from a touch and realization of the soul of things, which gives, as it were, in a flash, in a single complex, a panoramic view of all their qualities and attributes. A single perception involves more than can be expressed in a thousand thoughts or a million imaginations.

These are the steps or degrees in the human mind leading up from earth to heaven like the ladder of Jacob, of which he said, "This is the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."⁴ That man may ascend this ladder is the Divine end in his creation. He is born sensual, and at first he can be aware only of physical touch with material things. By growth and education he becomes natural, using the imaginative faculty to picture before his mind worldly pleasures as goals to be sought. By regeneration he becomes spiritual, living for higher ends that are abstracted from things of the world. These are delights of the spirit that may be increased to eternity. To visualize these delights and to understand how they may be enjoyed is the function of the truly rational mind. If man is regenerated to the celestial degree he can be blessed with an inmost perception yielding a happiness far surpassing all the rest.

⁴ Genesis 28:17.

Each degree or plane of the mind is surrounded by a protecting wall, and there is access to it only through a gate or door. Until this door is opened, that plane of the mind remains unformed in the man. He remains unconscious of its existence, and if it is never opened, he continues in this unconsciousness forever. A man's development, both spiritual and natural, may be arrested at any stage. He may become natural, or spiritual, or celestial, and the degree of his ascent determines his life and the quality of his happiness in the spiritual world. Heaven is, after all, the mind of the racial man, and with this every man has communication as the successive degrees of his mind are opened and formed. The natural heaven consists of those with whom the natural degree of the mind has been opened. The spiritual heaven consists of those with whom an interior degree has been opened, and the celestial heavens consist of those with whom the inmost degree has been opened. Wherefore the Lord says, "The kingdom of God is within you."⁵ The gates or doors to those heavens are in every man the gates or doors to his own inner mind and consciousness.⁶

⁵ Luke 17:21.
⁶ A.C. 2356, 8989; H.H. 4, 28.
⁷ Revelation 3:20.
⁸ S.S. 46, 97.
⁹ John 10:9.
¹⁰ John 10:1.