The following treatise was written by the author at my
request for the purpose mentioned in the first two paragraphs, and being well
fitted by years of study of both Eastern and Western religious systems to
undertake such a commission, she has, in my estimation, given a most
comprehensive view of the subject. She has taken a most sympathetic attitude
towards the Eastern teaching as becomes an enlightened soul. Thus the spirit
of this little book is not controversial in any sense, for we do not believe
in trying to build up our own religion by casting aspersions upon that of
other people. We are just as sure that the religion of the East is perfectly
suited to the people who live there as that the Christian religion is the
religion for the Western people. Were the Buddha teaching today and a student
from the West asked his opinion as to whether he should follow him or the
Christ, I feel sure that he would direct the inquirer to The Light of the
World. This little book is therefore sent forth in the hope that it may show
Western students that their religion is the Christian religion, and
that they should leave the Eastern religion to the Eastern people, while
embracing with their whole heart and soul the religion of the Christ.
When the eastern Esoteric Teaching was presented to the
Western World about forty years ago, its explanations of the universe were
accepted as reasonable by many students. The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception given in 1909, was similar in
certain respects concerning the laws governing the universe. The question then
naturally arises as to its scope and purpose, why it was given, and whether
its teachings and methods of development are better suited to an advanced,
modern, civilization.
This treatise is written in answer to this inquiry and to correct the
erroneous conclusion, based upon a superficial examination, that both
teachings are the same.
The eighth chapter of Hebrews tells of a time to come when it will not be necessary to teach men to know God, for then all, from the least to the
greatest, will have His laws inscribed in their hearts and minds, and all will
know Him. At present spiritual perception is obscured in varying degrees by
the veil of flesh and blood which "cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." We are
now groping for the truth which shall make us free from the fetters of flesh
and endue us with the spiritual faculties requisite for knowing God. It is the
promise of Christ that if we seek, we shall find. He made no exceptions; we
need not fear that any will be "lost." Yet much effort may be saved by
searching in the right direction, and we therefore feel impelled to place
before Western students some of the differences between the teachings of the
East and those of the West with particular emphasis upon the Western method of
soul unfoldment, a method naturally adapted to Western people and which takes
into account the mental and racial differences between the occidental and
oriental civilizations (or peoples).
(1) We believe that all religions have been divinely given, each perfectly
suited to the nation to whom it was given, having been originated by one of
God's messengers.
(2) We know that the path of civilization has been from East to West, and
that the most advanced people are now living in the West.
(3) We think it a reasonable supposition that the most advanced religion
has been given to the most advanced people, and that thus our Christian
religion is at present the most lofty form of worship.
(4) We know that each of the older religions had Mystery Schools for
advanced souls, also that Christ gave His chosen disciples knowledge
concerning "the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven" but parables to the
public.
(5) In the Eastern Teaching universal brotherhood is considered the great
ideal. In the Christian Mystery Teaching of the West, universal friendship is
the ideal. Christianity is to be a cosmic instead of a race religion, and its
esoteric teachings are destined to become universal. According to the Western
teaching Christ will be the leader of the next Great Epoch, and will come
again, not in a physical body, but in a "soul body" (soma psuchicon), as
taught by Paul in 1 Cor. 15-45. This vehicle is built of ether, and when man
has evolved etheric consciousness so that he can meet Christ "face to face,"
He will appear.
(6) If the Christian religion is the most advanced, its inner teaching must
necessarily be deeper and more far-reaching than any other. The Western Wisdom
Teaching includes methods for developing the soul body so that we may function
consciously in the invisible worlds while still living in the dense body.
These methods are particularly adapted to the needs of Westerners, hence they
are productive of results without the dangers attendant upon the use of
Eastern methods.
We may add that after many years' study of the ancient religions we speak
without prejudice and with gratitude for the light received through them. Thus
we feel free to voice our conviction that the Christian religion is more lofty
than any of its predecessors; that the Christian Mystery Teachings, now
promulgated by the Order of the Rosicrucians through the Rosicrucian
Teachings, are both scientific and specially adapted to our advanced
civilization; and that to repudiate the Christian religion for any of the
older systems is analogous to preferring the older textbooks of science to the
new editions which embrace discovery to date.
A Historical Retrospect
We no longer need to be reminded that we are living in times pregnant with
innovations. Into every department of our civilization has swept the intrepid,
invading spirit of inquiry, of investigations, of analysis. Neither can we
fail to observe that we are living in an age when the intellect is reaching
its most practical and intense expression; that it is arrogating to itself
with a royal, self-sufficing confidence the right to challenge any code of
ethics, any theory of life or religion, any landmarks of civilization, or any
hypothesis of science, and to demand proof of its right to exist. Nothing in
the universe is too colossal for its investigation or too infinitesimal for
its analysis. Society has ceased to shrink from the revolutionary attacks of
scientific discoveries which for many years have been beating back ignorance,
prejudice, and dogmatism with resistless force. These have had their day, and
are now powerless to retard progress; mankind is advancing whether it will or
not.
In no department of life is the spirit of inquiry, of sifting of
investigation more intimately manifested than in religion. Into this domain of
mystery and tradition, into the depths of its origin, into the realm of its
authority has marched the relentless spirit of inquiry, which has not halted
nor flinched nor turned back though all the sacred bulwarks of creed
threatened to crumble before its encroachment. The intellect is demanding a
right higher than that of the priest to interpret the truth of religion,
confidently asserting that if it cannot discern truth or penetrate beyond the
borders of the invisible to a knowledge of God, no other faculty exists
capable of cognizing Deity.
If we look back over the centuries of history, we note that the present
intellectual and material age is the fruitage of a long and significant past;
the crest of a wave of progress that has followed an impulse sent out from the
very beginning of the race. Vague and uncertain as our glimpse may be of the
civilization of India, Egypt, Persia, or Greece, we neverthless can note that
since the birth of the Fifth Epoch race the line of progress has been the beckoning
glory of the setting sun.
When India reached the pinnacle of her greatness, the Hindu religion taught
a conception of God and His omnipotence which in all history has not been
exceeded for lofty spirituality. From the crest of the wave of progress has
flashed down through the centuries the light of the wonderful truth of the
unity of life and light of the wonderful truth of the unity of life and of a
divine Presence in the universe. Then with deep stillness the wave receded to
reappear in Persia, adding a new light to stimulate human progress.
We do not usually associate the idea of material development with the
Orient, yet it was born there. As the keynote of the Hindu religion is unity,
realizing the Deity in every part of the universe, so the keynote of the
Parsic or Zoroastrian religion is purity; purity of conduct and in the affairs
of life. Zoroaster came to lift his people from the sloth and idleness into
which they had fallen, and to arouse them from the state of apathy and
inactive contemplation of the inner life, all too common among the Hindus, to
a consideration of spiritual truth adapted to their day. Like all great
religions it emphasized the practical side of life rather than the
metaphysical, and its motto of "pure thoughts, pure words, pure deeds" reveals
how ancient is the doctrine of right thinking and right living.
Centuries later the Buddha came to re-enunciate the ancient truths that lay
concealed beneath the debris of selfishness and caste, and feeling the
suffering and sin of the world to be rooted in unfulfilled desire, his
compassionate heart sought to alleviate sorrow through the doctrine of
overcoming all desire and thus attaining to peace, a doctrine that fell like a
benediction on the troubled lives of his contemporaries, and which still lives
in the hearts of his followers.
With the passing of the great Eastern teacher the glory of the Orient began
to wane. Again the spiritual wave receded to reappear among the Greeks. Since
the Greeks no higher type of pure intellect than theirs has been achieved;
their art, their philosophy, speaks always in the language of repose, of
dignity, of self-control. To them truth and beauty were the pearls of great
price. They inscribed over their temples "Know Thyself," for to know oneself
is to know truth. Whether manifesting through the conscious power of their god
Apollo, issuing from his temple to defend in person the sacred shrine, or
reflected in the splendid achievements of Pericles or the lofty philosophy of
Pythagoras, Socrates, or Plato, we contact always in the Greeks the presence
of intellectual power of intellect and self-sufficiency, Greece fell before
the organized militarism of Rome.
From her pinnacle of military supremacy Rome looked with complacency over
the world she had conquered. Little she dreamed that she would topple before
mere spiritual force, leaving a heritage of law, order, and justice to a later
generation.
To glimpse the misery and degradation of the world at the feet of Rome,
enslaved by vice, apathy, and superstition, is to realize, though vaguely, how
far humanity had strayed from the lofty precepts of the ancient Teachers. All
too faintly amid the babble of race prejudice and race separateness sounded
the ancient keynotes of unity and purity. Egypt was wrapped in the darkness of
a degenerate priesthood; India was fettered by caste; Persia lay asleep
beneath her jewelled canopies; the glory of Greece was dimmed; Rome, reeking
with vice and dissipation, affronted the skies with her camp fires; and it
almost seemed as if God had forgotten His world. But, "He standeth still
within the shadow, keeping watch above His own." Again the time had come for
one of those divine manifestations which from age to age take place for
helping humanity. Such a manifestation invariably comes when the oppression of
darkness seems too heavy to bear and a new impulse is needed to quicken
spiritual growth.
Into this mire of a decaying empire, into the weariness of a despairing
world, into the midst of a lost and despised people, descended the Sun Spirit,
Christ, manifesting "the greatest of the divine measures yet put forth for the
upliftment of the world." Christ came not alone to rescue truth from oblivion,
to bring back the ancient teachings, or to re-establish the law, but to add to
them the greatest principle of all — Love; to reveal to humanity the doctrine
of the heart; how we may attain to a more sublime wisdom by the pathway of
love than we can reach by reason. He came to replace the race religions which
were instituted by and under the guidance of Jehovah, with a cosmic religion,
promotive of Universal Amity as well as Universal Brotherhood; a religion
wherein the reign of Law is to be superseded by the reign of Love, and wherein
the spirit of antagonism and separateness which lies at the root of all race
religions will be transmuted into selfless service, each for all, so that
nations may beat their swords into plowshares and the reign of Friendship and
Peace begin.
In all the previous religions there were deeper truths than were given to
the masses. The priests were custodians of this inner knowledge, and
Initiation was open only to a few. Humanity as a whole was not sufficiently
advanced to receive it. Those who were initiated into the ancient Mysteries
required the mediation of priests, and only the High Priest could enter the
innermost Temple of God. When Christ came, begotten of the Father, He brought
direct to humanity the light and power of the spiritual Sun. He poured into
human life the Cosmic Ray of Himself. He is the link between God and man, the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, filling within Himself the office of the High
Priest after the order of Melchizedeck, Himself the Initiator; and now
"whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
It seems paradoxical to consider the material growth and supremacy of modern civilization as in any real sense the outcome of an impulse sent
forth by the gentle Nazarene, yet the birth of the Christian religion gave
direct and special stimulus to individual achievement, for it broke down the
barriers of caste and race and revealed the fact that all men are equal in the
sight of God. That all are brothers is a fact in nature, but under the regime
of Jehovah some were preferred above others; therefore Christ came to level
the differences. Galilee itself was a more fitting birthplace for a new order
of things than at first may be apparent. Obscure as it is today, two thousand
years ago Galilee was the Mecca of travelers who flocked there from all the
known parts of the world. It was as cosmopolitan as Rome itself, a sort of
"melting pot," providing conditions congenial for the birth of a body and
brain different from the ordinary type, and an environment where adaptability
to new impulses could find scope and whence new conceptions could be sent over
the world.
In the new Christian religion the old ideals of slave and master, Jew and
Gentile, priest and people, Brahmin and Pariah, were superseded by the ideals
of equality, independence, and individual freedom. Even the lowliest began to
lift their heads as free men and to reach towards individual achievement and
individual development; and with this new sense of freedom in their hearts it
is small wonder that they commenced to quench their first thirst for self-
expression from the waters of material prosperity that never before had flowed
so abundantly at their feet. Our modern civilization is a normal outgrowth of
this impetus given to individual development both in thought and action.
The material and intellectual acheivements of modern civilization have
naturally evolved the critical and analytical spirit that always accompanies
individual growth. This was accentuated by the birth of modern science. Today
the intellect sits enthroned upon the knowledge it has acquired, and refuses
to accept anything as truth that cannot be seen, measured, or analyzed. But
though physical science may scoff at the Christian religion of love and self-
sacrifice as being unscientific and contrary to the laws of self-preservation
and the survival of the fittest, the teachings of the lowly Nazarene have
silently and almost imperceptibly inoculated the Western World with a spirit
of altruism, impelling mankind to bear one another's burdens and make the
cause of individual welfare the cause of the whole.
Christian Rosenkreuz
Every student knows that this modern civilization has not been achieved by
stages of smooth and uniform growth. Following the spiritual impulse of early
Christianity came the gruesome Dark Ages with their cloak of superstition and
intolerance. The Christian religion was used as a ladder for greed and
ambition, and the inner teachings of Christ were submerged under a theological
dogmatism that threatened to arrest human progress for the sake of
ecclesiastical supremacy. The shackles of an autocratic priesthood were at
length broken by modern science, and reason leaped to the dangerous,
tyrannical supremacy it still maintains.
The intellect in its revolt against superstition soon showed a leaning
towards ultramaterialism. That this might not engulf spiritual truth, there
came about the 14th century a great Teacher bearing the symbolical name of
Christian Rosenkreuz to throw new light upon the misunderstood Christian
teachings, to preserve them and steer them through the impending materialistic
and scientific controversies. He is a warden of the hidden Wisdom of the West,
which alone can satisfy both heart and mind.
We are today in the midst of a civilization born of stress, strife, and
ultra-activity; a civilization hewn by the sword and trailed by human blood.
Truly, Christ ignores the physical or hygienic welfare of its people. To the
knowledge of this and other branches of science the Western Wisdom Teaching of
the Rosicrucians brings certain new and far-reaching explanations that furnish
a reasonable solution to many of the problems of evolution.
Involution, Evolution,
and Epigenesis
Besides presenting the theory of Involution of life and the synchronous
Evolution of form, the Western teaching includes a third factor, the Law of
Epigenesis. Man is himself a factor in the building of his bodies. During
antenatal life he works unconsciously, building in the "quintessence of former
bodies"; later he begins to work consciously, and the more advanced he is, the
better he can build. In each embodiment he does some original work, so that
"there is an influx of new and original causes all the time," and this process
of taking the initiative, of creating new possibilities of growth, is called
"Epigenesis." This enables man to become a genius and a co-worker with the
Creative Hierarchies of the world. If evolution consisted merely in the
unfoldment of germinal or latent possibilities, and could not thus become a
creator. The Eastern teaching says nothing of this far-reaching principle.
Soon after the promulgation of Darwin's theory of evolution certain
objections were brought forward which have never been satisfactorily answered
by science, but which receive a reasonable explanation in the Western Wisdom
Teaching. These objections to the Darwinian theory of evolution are:
1. The Absence of Discovered
Links Between the
Higher Apes and Man
There is always movement in nature, and as man passed through the various
kingdoms, he evolved and occupied forms adapted to each stage of development.
"It is a law in nature that no one can inhabit a more efficient body than he
is capable of building." When the form reaches the limit of its capacity for
usefulness, it begins to degenerate, having served its purpose as a vehicle of
growth. All along the way there were always some who refused to advance and
were left behind as stragglers. As the pioneers passed into bodies better
suited for further progress, the archetypal models of their outgrown and
degenerating vehicles were taken up by the less evolved and by the stragglers,
who in turn used them as stepping stones until the corresponding bodies
crystallized beyond the possibility of the evolving life to ensoul them.
Science speaks of the evolution of forms, but there is also this line of
degenerating forms used by the less evolved and by the stragglers. The apes
belong to the latter class, and instead of being the progenitors of man they
are in reality stragglers occupying the degenerated forms once used by man.
The Eastern teaching attributes their existence to the improper relations of
primitive man with animals.
2. The Sterility of Hybrids
This is another problem in evolution passed over entirely by Eastern
esotericism, nor is it satisfactorily explained by science, but it receives a
rational solution in the Western Wisdom Teaching. Briefly stated, it is this:
Until the animals become ensouled by individual indwelling spirits endowed
with reason to consciously or subconsciously guide them from within, Mother
Nature wisely appoints a group spirit which guides them from without in
harmony with cosmic law; and that which we call "instinct" is a manifestation
of this group spirit's wisdom. When animals of different species mate, their
progeny are not wholly under the control of either of the group spirits which
guide their parents. If hybrids were able to propagate, the issue would be
still further removed from the group spirit's guidance and control; it would
be a helpless waif on the sea of life, having neither instinct nor reason.
Therefore the group spirits beneficently withhold the seed atom necessary to
fertilization from hybrids, which are therefore sterile.
The scientifically observed fact of "hemolysis," or destruction of blood
when unnaturally mixed also has an important bearing on this subject. This is
fully elucidated in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception to which students
desiring to thoroughly investigate the matter will do well to refer.
3. The Moral and Mental
Supremacy of Man
Over Animals
This fact, so apparent that it cannot escape the notice of the most
superficial observer, is not clearly explained by Eastern esotericism, but
receives thorough and logical treatment in the Western Wisdom Teaching of the
Rosicrucians.
The plants draw their sustenance from the soil, animals feed upon the
plants, and human beings take their food from the lower kingdoms. Thus in the
final analysis all mineral, vegetable, animal, and human forms are composed of
the same chemical constituents of the earth.
Besides this physical form world which we see, there are realms invisible
to the eye, but perceptible by a sixth sense which is latent in the majority
but awakened in some. This spiritual vision reveals the existence of:
An Etheric Region, promotive of growth and sense perception.
A Desire World.
A World of Thought.
As a form built of chemical matter is required for life in the physical
world, so also is it necessary to have a vehicle made of the substance of the
other realms of nature in order to express their qualities. Further, life in
evolution is ever seeking expansion of consciousness. To this end froms become
more complex as we ascend the scale from mineral to man, and invisible
vehicles are also added to the physical form. Man alone has vehicles
correlating him to all four realms, which results in four states of
consciousness analogous to those possessed by the four kingdoms.
Trance
At spiritual seances invisible entities accomplish the feat of
materialization by drawing out of a medium's body, forming it as they wish,
and filling this warp to any desired density with a woof of physical particles
floating in the atmosphere. The body of the medium is thus separated from the
higher vehicles which link it with the spirit, hence the medium is in a state
of deep unconsciousness which we call "trance." As the mineral has only a
physical body it may be said to have a trance consciousness.
Dreamless Sleep
When we look at a person wrapped in dreamless slumber, the body seems
inert; but when we focus our spiritual vision upon the sleeper, we see an
inner activity. The processes of digestion, assimilation, secretion, etc., are
carried on to even better purpose than in the waking state. This is because
the dense body is interpenetrated by a vital body made of ether, but the
higher vehicles float a few feet above the bed. When we examine the plants we
find that they also have a dense and a vital body, which enable them to digest
and assimilate food, to breathe the air, etc., and we may therefore say that
the plants have a consciousness analogous to dreamless sleep.
Dreams
Sometimes when we are unduly intent upon the affairs of this world, the
higher vehicles do not properly separate when we go to sleep. The dense and
vital bodies are then partially interpenetrated by the desire body which
generates emotion and incentive to motion. Because the sense centers of our
higher vehicles are then askew in relation to our brain, we see a galaxy of
wild dream pictures, and toss about on the bed under the sway of emotions
caused by these visions. We cannot reason about them, for the mind is outside
the dense body, and we therefore accept unquestioningly even the most
impossible situations.
A vital body and a desire body interpenetrate the dense body of animals,
but are not quite concentric with it. Upon the screen of these vehicles
pictures are projected by the wise group spirit, and the animals, having no
mind, follow blindly the course suggested by these pictures. Thus we see that
the consciousness of animals is analogous to our own dream state, with the
important difference that the suggestive pictures projected by the group
spirit are not irrational, but embody a wonderful wisdom which we call
instinct.
The supernormal intelligence and reason observable in domesticated animals
are induced by association with man on the same principle that electricity of
low voltage is induced when an uncharged wire is brought into close proximity
with another carrying a current of high tension.
The Waking State
In the waking state all of man's vehicles are concentric, and he is thus
able to will and reason. The mineral cannot chooses whether it will
crystallize or not, nor has the plant free will; it is compelled to bloom by
conditions outside its control. The lion must prey, and the rabbit must
burrow. Each species has certain generic habits, and all the separate plants
or animals of a certain family act alike under like conditions because
impelled to action by the common group spirit. Therefore if we know the habits
of any one animal, we know the characteristics of the whole family. Not so
with man, who is guided from within. Each is a species, a law unto himself,
and no matter how many we study, we never can tell what any one will do in a
certain case by knowing how another has acted. Neither can we write the
biography of a rose, or a lion. Only a man, whose life is different from all
other, can be thus sketched.
Thus man's mental and moral supremacy over the animals and lower kingdoms
is due to the fact that he is an individual, indwelling ego, knowing himself
as "I am," an appellation not applicable to an animal. Man is capable of
initiating action from within by an "I will," while animals are guided from
without by a group spirit and have no volition.
4. The Existence of Organs
of No Use to Their
Possessors
Here also the Western Wisdom Teaching is more comprehensive and explicit
that Eastern esotericism. It distinguished between:
a. Parts which are atrophying because they have ceased to be of use, such
as the muscles which move the skin and ears in animals. These are present in
man, but not used.
b. Organs like the pineal gland and the pituitary body, which have played
an important part in our past evolution, and though dormant now are destined
to play a still greater part in the future.
During the period of involution when man was building his bodies and was in
closer touch with the spiritual worlds than now, these organs were vehicles of
consciousness by means of which he contacted the inner worlds, which were then
as real to him as the physical world is today. But as he dipped deeper into
matter and began to focus his consciousness here, these organs were a
hindrance, for through them his attention was diverted from the work of the
physical world. Therefore they became dormant. Man, however, evolves in a
spiral, and as he mounts upward, these centers will again become active to
enable him to recontact the spiritual worlds. Therefore they have not
atrophied as they would have done had their purpose been entirely served.
After many years' study of the ductless and secretory glands, Dr. C. E. de
Sajons has published a profound treatise on the pituitary body, wherein he
shows that this organ exercises a central control over our entire physical
organsim; that instead of being a rudimentary or atrophied organ as
physiologists have long held, it serves as a point of control over the body.
The sympathetic nervous system, the vital secretions of the thyroid gland, and
the suprarenal capsules are regulated by direct connection with the pituitary
body, as well as are the digestive tract and the vasodilator and
vasoconstrictor nerves. These scientific statements concerning the importance
of the pituitary body to our physical system are especially interesting in the
light of the Western Wisdom Teaching regarding the future function of this
organ.
c. Organs not yet completely developed.
The heart belongs to this class. It is an involuntary muscle, but it is
invested with the cross stripes peculiar to voluntary muscles, and these cross
stripes will become more and more marked as the ego gains control over this
organ. All muscles are the expression of the desire body, and as man evolves
more spiritual desires and grows in spiritual power, the heart will become a
voluntary muscle, and the circulation of the blood will pass under voluntary
control. Then he will have the power to withhold the blood from those areas of
the brain devoted to selfish purposes, and to direct it to other centers
devoted to altruistic ideals.
The Mystery of Blood
In the Christian scriptures the following doctrines are given great
prominence:
1. Contamination of the blood by generation.
2. Cleansing of the blood by
re-generation.
The doctrine of blood is written large upon every page of the Bible fromk
Genesis to the Apocalypse. It is undeniable that blood is the basis of all
forms having sentient life; but so far as the writer has been able to learn,
Eastern esotericism has not one word upon the important subject. The Western
Wisdom Teaching, on the other hand, throws a light upon the "Mystery of Blood"
which is illuminative of many of the most intimate problems of life. It
presents various far-reaching ideas concerning the blood. It calls the blood
the "vantage ground of the spirit," the direct and individual vehicle through
which man by means of its heat controls and directs his physical body. When
man had entered the human kingdom and was developing his individuality,
control over his actions was to a certain extent exercised by the race spirit,
who, in a manner somewhat analogous to the control of the group spirit over
the animal kingdom, maintained dominion over him by preserving the purity of
the tribal or family blood; the closer the intermingling of blood by marriage
in the clan, caste, or tribe, the stronger the power of the race spirit. Since
the blood is the vehicle of the ego, the carrier of its feelings and emotions
and the recorder of its memory, the intermingling of the family blood had the
effect of reproducing the mental pictures of the parents in their descendants,
who saw themselves in this memory of nature, through a long line of ancestors.
Events in the lives of their forebears thus seemed to have happened to
themselves. It was through this common consciousness or memory that a man was
said to live many generations. When we read that Adam lived 900 years and the
patriarchs lived for centuries, it means, not that they themselves lived that
long, but that their descendants felt themselves to be Adam, Methuselah, etc.,
because the ancestral blood, transmitted directly through intermarriage, was
the storehouse of all experience, and carried the memory pictures of the life
of these patriarchs. Thus certain faculties and traits were built in and the
type strengthened until humanity could stand on its own feet without the aid
of family or race spirit. During man's earlier evolution of self-consciousness
he lived under this reign of law, which submerged the individual in the
nation, tribe, or family that the type might be formed.
There is evidence that the early Jews had special teaching concerning the blood, as shown in the 14th verse of the 17th chapter of Leviticus, where they
were prohibited from eating the blood because the "soul of all flesh is in the
blood." Among them the race spirit was stronger than the individual, for every
Jew thought of himself first as belonging to a certain tribe or family, and
his proudest boast was that he was of the "seed of Abraham."
The original Semites were the first to evolve free will. They in a measure
broke away from the grip of the race spirit by intermarrying with other
tribes, and this introduction of strange blood interrupted the common
consciousness which they shared with their ancestors, and which was superseded
by individual consciousness. But by this act they also gradually lost the so-
called "second sight," retained to the present day by many of the Scots who
marry in the clan.
The great significance of the Christian religion lies in its teaching that
Christ came to prepare the way for the emancipation of humanity from the sway
of the race spirit and unite the multiplicity of races into a brotherhood of
the whole; to supersede the reign of law with the reign of love and self-
sacrifice; to instill into the new race the ideal of friendship, an ideal that
will eventually level all distinctions and bring peace upon earth and good
will among men. He brought a sword for the sake of ultimate peace, for not
until the kingdom of men is destroyed can the kingdom of God be built — the
kingdom of God that is built from within through the free will of man as a
self-governing individual, co-operating with the divine will.
Man is building in all the worlds, and while at times he appears to build
only for the separate self, yet there exists in the world today an ideal of
friendship and altruism that was scarcely known in ancient civilizations.
Through this expression of altruism man is brining to perfection his vital body, which is the highest expression of the blood. This vehicle is also the
seat of memory and is correlated to the unifying Life Spirit as shadow is to
substance. The blood corpuscles of the lower animals are nucleated, and these
nuclei are the vantage ground of group spirits which control each species
through these centers of life. When individuality is evolved, the nuclei
disappear as in the higher mammals which are nearing individualization. In the
human fetus the blood corpuscles are nucleated during the first few weeks
while the mother works on the body; but these the indrawing ego disintegrates,
and at the quickening, when it takes possession of its body as an individual,
the last are gone, for there can be no other governing principle where the
indwelling spirit is. Thus the blood of every human being is different from
the blood of every other individual, which fact will shortly be discovered by
science. We are taught in the Western Wisdom Teaching that the vital body will
be our densest vehicle in the next upward cycle, therefore the necessity of
its proper unfoldment is readily apparent. The Western Wisdom Teaching gives
definite explanation concerning the vital body's constituent ethers, their
functions in the development of man, and the relation of the development of
the vital body to the second coming of Christ. It includes instructions for
this development by cleansing the blood, and this method is suited to the mind
and body we have evolved under the modern and progressive ideals of the west.
It is a western method for western people; hence it is safe and sure, as the
writer knows by experience.
As we study more closely this wonderful teaching, we can understand in a
measure the intricate problem of racial blood that has played such an
important part in the world's history and in the perpetuation of family,
tribe, and national ideas. Science is still searching for its significance; it
recognizes the fact that the transfusion of blood from an animal of a higher
species to one of a lower kills the latter (hemolysis). But this Western
Wisdom Teaching further explains that as humanity evolves towards the divine
stature, mixing of human blood will become impossible. In a far-off future age
propagation of the race will no longer be necessary, for man will then have
learned to create from within by the Word. Even today human being is building a finer
and better body than he or she had in the past, more flexible, more adaptable; he or she is
learning to know its functions, and is beginning to liberate himself or herself from the
crystallizing influence of racial blood and to become a citizen of the world.
The Mystery of Sex
The Western Wisdom Teaching also gives a solution of the problem of sex and
its purpose. "The ego itself, contrary to the generally accepted idea, is bi-
sexual." This duality does not manifest as sex in the inner worlds, but as
will and imagination, akin to the solar and lunar forces respectively. During
the epoch when the earth was united with the sun "the solar forces supplied
man with all needed sustenance, and he unconsciously radiated the surplus for
the purposes of propagation." But when the ego began to dwell within the body
and control it, it was necessary to use part of this creative force to build a
brain and larynx that man might be furnished with instruments for self-
expression. As the physical body became upright, the dual creative force was
divided, one part being directed upward to build the brain and larynx, the
other downward to build the procreative organs. As a result of this change
only one part of the force essential for the creation of another body was
available in each individual, and the co-operation of another became necessary
for propagation. Thus man obtained brain consciousness at the cost of half of
his creative power, but he gained an instrument with which he could create in
the World of Thought, in the realms of music, of poetry, and of art, and enter
into a heritage of the world's beauty; and if by this act his eyes were opened
to the knowledge of death, of pain, and of sorrow, they were also opened to
the knowledge of his own divinity, and to a knowledge of the law of sacrifice,
of love, and of service. Eastern esotericism teaches the fact of the separation
into sexes, but the Western Wisdom Teaching shows the purpose of the separation.
The Mystery of
Infant Mortality
The Western Wisdom Teaching also logically explains how infant mortality,
which has brought so much sorrow and suffering into the world, is really the
merciful action of a beneficent law to prevent a still greater calamity. An
understanding of the workings of this law will show us how we may prevent this
anomaly and save ourselves the suffering incident to the premature departure
of those beloved rays of sunshine which, alas, too frequently leave our earth
cold and desolate.
Immediately after death a panorama of the life just ended passes before the
spirit. By contemplation this is etched into the desire body, and as the ego
enters the world of desires and emotions, it feels with a keenness
incomprehensible to us in our present state the mistakes of the past life as
it broods over the pictures of scenes wherein it did wrong. That is purgatory,
and out of the suffering there the soul weaves conscience to guard if from
evil acts in future lives. It also enjoys with unbelievable intensity virtues
evolved in the past life and the good deeds done. That is heaven, and out of
this joy comes the incentive to live up to still higher ideals in the future.
Thus the spirit reaps the fruits of conscience and lofty aspiration from the
undisturbed contemplation and of the panorama immediately following death.
When this contemplation is disturbed, as in case of death on a battlefield
or by fire, drowning, or other accidents, the harrowing circumstances
attending make it impossible for the departing spirit to give undivided
attention to the panoramic review of the past life. This is also the result
when hysterical outbursts from relatives act in a similarly disconcerting
manner. Under such conditions the etching on the desire body is weak, and
consequently the feelings of joy and sorrow are not felt with sufficient
keenness in the post-mortem existence to generate conscience to guide the
spirit in its next earth life, or ideals to beckon it onward. It has sown, but
has not reaped; the life has been lived in vain, and in its next earth life
the man would still be subject to the vices which beset him in the life just
passed; the virtues achieved in the preceding life would have to be wrought
anew. Thus the Spirit would be launched upon the sea of life like a ship
without compass to guide it into a haven of rest, and it would be doomed for a
lifetime to drift aimlessly. Strange as it may seem, death in childhood under
such conditions is designed by the loving kindness of God to avert this
calamity caused by savagery, carelessness, or lack of consideration, and to
give the incoming spirit a fair start in life. The method of attaining this
end is as follows:
On its way to rebirth the spirit gathers materials for a new mind, desire
body, vital body, and dense body. As a period of gestation precedes the birth
of the dense body, so with the finer vestures. Birth of the vital body at
seven years of age inaugurates rapid growth; of the desire nature at fourteen
brings adolescence and ushers in the emotional age; and at twenty-one when
the mind is born, reason lights the path to subdue emotion and guide us
through life.
That which has not been born cannot die; and when the dense body of a child
dies before the age of adolescence, gestation of the desire body is completed
in the first heaven, a part of the desire world (called "summerland" by some)
where noble ideals and an aversion to evil are instilled by devoted teachers.
There the children are taught a superior morality while engaged in play with
colors and living toys so beautiful, that could we see them, we would forget
our sorrow and thank God for His goodness. After a few years these lucky ones
are often born in the same family, nobler than they would have been if they
had not had the experience resulting from death in childhood.
Eastern esotericism tells us that we should not grieve for those who pass on,
for birth is as certain to those who die as death is to all who are born. This
is true, but it is as cold as esotericism itself. Infant mortality is so sad, it
is such an apparent anomaly in nature, that we crave a ray of hope to comfort
our aching hearts when the Angel of Death has taken the sunshine from our
homes. The Western Wisdom Teaching speaks to heart and mind alike; it shows us
a law working for good to correct our mistakes; it lights the path of sorrow
with the ray of hope, and shows us how we may save ourselves this sorrow in
future lives by abolition of war, by taking care to avoid accidents, and be
being considerate of departing friends in the hour of death, not disturbing
them with selfish lamentations.
The Western Wisdom Teaching gives invaluable instructions in the care of
the dying, and shows how we may aid them, in the hour of passing to realize
the greatest possible soul growth from the life just ending. Thus this
teaching is of practical benefit in every contingency of life and death.
The Mystery of Death
Although the idea has been accepted by most thoughtful students that death
is but a shifting of activities from this physical world to worlds less
material, the Western Wisdom Teaching explains the working of natural law
concerning length of earth life and the collapse of the physical body. Man
builds the archetype of his dense body in the heaven world. This archetype is
of course built according to his capacities. Sometimes a life is prolonged
beyond the normal length when the Compassionate Ones see that it can be of
special service, but generally speaking, the archetype persists only till the
vibration given it at birth has been expended.
When the life is ended, the ascent of the Spirit is hindered by the desire
matter which cling to it after the mortal coil has been shed. From this it
seeks to free itself by centrifugal force, following the same natural law by
which a planet throws off that part of itself which is most crystallized. Thus
the coarsest matter of the desire body is thrown off first. It is eliminated
by the purging centrifugal force which tears out the evil and allows the
spirit to ascend into the higher regions constituting the heaven world. In
this connection the very important teaching is given as to the necessity of
properly etching the panorama of the past life into the desire body that the
ego may see its successes and its failures, wherein it was strong and wherein
it was weak; that it may see the purpose of pain and the path that leads to
its elimination.
Each generation as it ascends to the heaven world sings a song of its
accomplishments while upon earth. Thus each sings a different measure in the
harmony of our sphere, and as spores upon a glass plate are differently
arranged when different tones set them into vibration, so these variations in
the world anthem are the causes which change climate, flora, and fauna on
earth. If we were diligent during our past earth life, when we reached the
heaven world we sang of a land of plenty, and lo! we find it awaiting us on
our return. If we neglected the land and spent our time in metaphysical
specualtion, our song in the heaven world was very different, and when we
return to earth life, we find ourselves in a land of famine, flood, and
desolation. All things in heaven and on earth are governed by the immutable
law of consequence, which maintains the equilibrium of the world.
The Christ of the West
Is Not the Christ of
the East
While the foregoing points are of importance in showing the superior
concepts of the Western Wisdom Teaching relative to those of Eastern
esotericism, they become insignificant in comparison with the differences
between the two teachings concerning the Christ, His identity, His mission,
and the nature of His advent. On this important point, says Edith Ward in The Occult Review, there is such a radical and irreconcilable difference that both cannot be true. She arrives at this conclusion be comparing The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception by Max Heindel with the writings of a leader of the principal
society promulgating Hinduism among the people of the West.
Until November, 1909, when The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception was published,
this society had had very little to say about a Christ; but since then they
have made this a feature. In one of their more recent books their leader
claims that the lives of Christ have always been lived in close relationship
with the most devoted members of this society. Jesus is said to have recently
taken birth as a Hindu, and at the present time to be the ward of this leader,
who claims to be fitting him for the spiritual rulership of the world.
We have no quarrel with those who believe this. It is contrary to the principles of The Rosicrucian Teachings to speak in a derogatory manner of people
of another persuasion or to make light of their sincere beliefs; but we do
claim the ethical right to compare the Western Wisdom Teaching, which is in
full agreement with the Christian scriptures in which we believe, with the
teaching of the Eastern school, for the purpose of showing that the Christ to
whom the whole Christian world looks for light and hope is not the Christ
proclaimed by this society.
To this end there might be adduced most voluminous references, but the
following will suffice. The letters X and Z are used to designate quotations
from two writers of the Eastern school.
According to X., it is stated that "when the time came at which it was
expected that humanity would be able to take care of itself, the foremost who
had reached the stage of adeptship were two friends or brothers whose
development was equal. These were Lord Gautama and Lord Maitreya. The former
held office first, the latter followed thousands of years later....Buddha has
yielded his office of ruler of religion and education to Lord Maitreya, whom the Western people call the Christ, and who took the body of the disciple
Jesus during the last three years of his life on the physical plane....Lord
Maitreya had taken various births before he came into the office he now
holds."
Z. traces a similar line of births: —
"The Lord Maitreya in due course appeared as Shri Krishna, and passed away
in early manhood, returning to his Himalayan home. Then he came again, using
the body of his dear disciple, Jesus the Hebrew, and for three years shone in
the perfect tenderness of the Christ....And now again we are hoping, watching
for His coming."
But that these people are not looking for the Christ of the gospels, of the
Christian world, or of the Western Wisdom Teaching is a fact they are careful
to impress on their readers as follows:
Z. writes:
"In considering the return of the Christ I would have you distinguish
clearly between the Christ of the gospels and him to whom I refer. All they
have in common is the name Jesus....It is necessary to emphasize the fact that
the Jesus whose immediate return I look for should in no way be confused with
your Christ....If you remain a faithful believer in your scriptures — the authenticity of which I deny — they will safeguard you against....confusing the
prophet whose immediate return I proclaim and the Christ of the gospels."
X. says:
"When we examine clairvoyantly the life of the founder of Christianity....we
find no trace of the twelve apostles....The author of the gospels seems to
have conceived the idea of casting some of the great facts of initiation into
a narrative form and mingling them with some points out of the life of the
real Jesus who was born 105 B.C."
With this Z. agrees:
"Your faith in his divinity arises out of your faith in the story of his
life as recorded by his disciples. But so far as I know, these disciples never
existed, and the story of his life, as of theirs, is a creation of the imagination....The Christ to whom I refer....lived on earth about a century
before the time when these events in Palestine were supposed to take place but did not do so."
Does it not seem, strange that this writer who thus repudiates the
Christian scriptures and brands the story of Christ and His apostles as a
figment of the imagination should pathetically exclaim as follows because the
new Christ is repudiated by many members of his society:
"Shall history here repeat itself and the story of Judea, Jerusalem, and
even Calvary once more be played?"
How can that repeat itself which never took place? And is it not strange
that a leader who makes a worldwide campaign repudiating the Christ of the
Western World and of the Christian scriptures and who heralds another Christ,
should say:
"I know next to nothing of this Jesus, whose return I foretell."
Is it not strange that one who says bluntly and without reserve,
I am not a Christian,
should have been entrusted with the great mission of proclaiming the return
of Christ?
Let the reader answer these questions as he thinks the evidence merits. But
we believe, nay, we know, that the Christ of all devout and believing
Christians is entirely different from the one heralded by the new leaders of
the Eastern school of esotericism.
The Christ of
the West
The Western Wisdom Teaching gives a comprehensive account of cosmogenesis.
Three great evolutionary periods have preceded our present state. The Father
is the highest Initiate of the first or Saturn Period. The Son (Christ) is the
highest Initiate of the second or Sun Period, and Jehovah is the highest
Initiate of the third or Moon Period.
Under the regime of Jehovah and his angels separation of the sexes took
place, also a division of mankind into tribes and nations. The desire nature
was rampant, so laws were given, and "the fear of the Lord" was pitted against
the desires of the flesh. All race religions were designed by Jehovah, each
suited to the particular nation to whom it was given. All these forms of
worship aimed to prepare mankind for the reign of Christ, whose mission is to
emancipate us from the rule of law, under which all sin; substituting the
reign of Love where all will serve.
Jehovah worked upon the earth and mankind from without, as group spirits
work with the animals. But 2000 years ago, at the Baptism, the Christ Spirit
descended upon Jesus and dwelt in his body until the tragedy on Golgotha, when
it entered the earth as indwelling Planetary Spirit. Forthwith Christ
commenced to cleanse the desire world, which reeked with brutality and egotism
generated under the law, and also to radiate love and altruism, which is
slowly but surely permeating the world. Thus in time we shall surely see "on
earth peace, good will toward men."
But the Great Sacrifice was only begun on Golgotha; the Christ is still
"groaning and travailing," and must continue to do so "till the day of
manifestation of the Sons of God," the day when we shall have evolved
sufficiently to guide our own planet in its orbit and care for our weaker
brothers. Let us not forget that we can hasten or retard the day of His coming
by the lives we lead. If we live unto the world, we lengthen His imprisonment
and agony; and so it behooves us to heed His last admonition, that whatever we
do, it be done in remembrance of Him; for then shall we be working to free
Him, thereby hastening the time when we shall meet Him "in the air" as He
passes out from the center of the earth to the surface and thence to the sun
whence He came.
The work of the Fifth Epoch race has been to evolve reason; and right well has it
accomplished this purpose. But henceforth humanity must learn to illuminate
its reason by the inner light of the spirit, and unite its head knowledge with
the knowledge of the heart. it must learn to initiate through its own free
will all action from within, and this action must result in Service.
It has been said that "the flower of religion is always given to the flower
of humanity," and that more glorious religions are yet to come. Yet the world
today is just beginning to catch faint glimpses of the lofty mission of
Christ, which is to lift mankind into the living reality of universal friendship.
In the Atlantean Mystery Teaching, recorded in the Old Testament, we learn
that man of his own free will partook of the "tree of knowledge," which
brought pain and death into the world, and as a result he was "expelled from
the garden of God, to wander in the wilderness of the world"; that God in pity
made a covenant with man; that a tabernacle was built, within which was placed
the Ark, symbolizing the human spirit, which never dies; that the staves of
the Ark were never removed, even as man, a pilgrim, may never rest until he
reaches through his own free will the human goal. Within this Ark was the
"golden pot of manna," man, fallen from heaven, together with a statement of
divine laws which he must learn in his "pilgrimage through the wilderness of
matter"; there was also the "magic wand" of Aaron, the emblem of spiritual
power, whcih is within every one, urging him on his way to the Mystic Temple
of Solomon. In the Old Testament is traced man's descent from heaven, his
transgressions from the commands of Jehovah, who led and guided him in pain
and sorrow through the wilderness of matter toward the reign of peace which
will be ushered in by Christ.
Scarcely has the world yet begun to live the inner teachings of
Christianity; only dimly is it beginning to grasp their significance; yet
slowly but surely we are proceeding toward the next cycle of progress, the
great Sixth Epoch, of which Christ is to be the leader, an Epoch which will
marshal all mankind, whether "Sons of Cain" or "Sons of Seth," to work in
harmony in the Kingdom of their Lord; and Epoch when the rays from the Rose
Cross will shed the light of understanding upon every institution of men so
that every difference will sink in common service for the good of all, and
friendship will unite the scattered souls in the kingdom of Christ. When He
has fully perfected the unification of the Kingdom, he will yield it to the
Father, as stated in the Bible.
In the Western Mystery Teaching is found revealed the mission of Christ,
who came to show and prepare the way to His Kingdom, that not the stragglers
alone might be lifted up, but that all who are ready to enter into the narrow
way and through the straight gate may find the Light and the Way. No longer is
He "the One to come," but the One to come again. Neither will he again appear in the flesh, which, as Paul says, cannot inherit the Kingdom, but in the soul body. When humanity has evolved etheric consciousness, they can meet Him "in
the air." But "of that day and hour, knoweth no man, no, not even the angels
which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." Then the law that was
given by Moses will be superseded by the "grace and truth that came by Jesus
Christ," and the stream of humanity that has been surging onward in its
appointed course will bear witness as rightful sons of God that it is possible
to obey the divine command, "Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is
perfect."
Conclusion
In the foregoing pages we have scarcely touched upon the wealth of wisdom found in the Christian Mystery Teaching, but sufficient has been said to convince anyone acquainted with
the teaching of Eastern esotericism and who is open to conviction, that while
both contain the same great basic truths common to all religions, both ancient
and modern, they are very far from being the same and that the Western Wisdom Teaching is as far in advance of Eastern esotericism as Buddha, the light of Asia, is outshone by our glorious Christ, the light of the world, for whose coming we watch and pray.
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