Is there any basis in fact for the teaching of some schools of esotericism regarding lost souls and stragglers? I have read a book which vividly describes a place called Avitchi, where the souls reside when in the last stages of disintegration. The school in question it seems holds that some souls undergo progressive retrogression, becoming lower and lower in each successive embodiment until ultimately extinguished as individual souls by absorption in the cosmic soul. Now, as I understand the Rosicrucian Teachings, all souls without exception are on the upward spiral, and while there may be a retrogression as between two successive lives in the physical world, yet the ultimate outcome is progress, not retrogression. I do not believe that it is any part of the true Rosicrucian Teachings that some souls deteriorate until annihilated. The above remarks also apply to stragglers. Kindly advise the correct teaching on the subject.
Answer: The Rosicrucians teach that life is a great school where
there are pupils in all different stages of development. In the most
advanced class there are some who have learned almost all the lessons that it
is possible to teach in our present condition and environment, and these are
about to graduate into other conditions where they will be afforded a
larger opportunity for advancement. There are also backward Spirits in the
lower classes which have, so to speak, been lazy and neglected to grasp
opportunities for advancement. Between the lowest and the highest classes
there are a great number of gradations, and certain tests for examination are
made of humanity as a whole at different points in the evolutionary career,
just the same as in a school examinations of the pupils are held at certain
times of the year for the purpose of determining if they are fitted to
advance into a next higher grade. Those who pass this examination are
promoted, while those who fail are required to pass another term in the class
where they are so that they may learn the required lessons necessary as a
basis for further advancement. Those who pass the examination are saved,
and those who fail are lost to the class as a whole. However, this is only
temporary, and those who have been backward may catch up gain and at the
following examination pass those who were promoted the year before. Then
these erstwhile stragglers are saved and the others lost.
So it is also in the school of life. Those who fail to pass the
examination at one time, and are temporarily "lost," may catch up gain and
even pass those who had once passed them. That is the true teaching
concerning the so-called lost souls, and it is confirmed by the Bible.
The Greek aionian is translated everlasting, but it has no such
meaning as infinite duration. Liddell & Scott's dictionary gives the
meaning as an "age, an indefinite period, a lifetime," etc. Thus those who
overcome, and are, as the saying is, saved, have a passport to a new age
of unfoldment, and are thus given age lasting happiness. Those who fail
are given age lasting punishment of being in a lower grade in life's
school. Generally speaking, however, the doctrine that a soul or Ego may be
lost in the sense of being annihilated is altogether without foundation, for,
as it is said, "IN God we live and move and have our being," so that if a
single Spirit were lost, a part of God would be lost. That of course is
unthinkable.
It is said that there is no rule without exception, and there is one
condition which almost gives a foundation for the teaching concerning
Avitchi promulgated by the Eastern schools. According to their philosophy,
there are two states (not places, but states) of consciousness, Avitchi and
Nirvana. They say that when the Spirit by repeated embodiments and lives
lived in the most noble manner has reached a state of sublime spirituality,
it is absorbed by the Cosmic Soul as the dewdrop is swallowed up in the sea.
Its individual consciousness plus the fruitage of all its lives is swallowed
up by the Universal Spirit, this being according to the Eastern teaching
a state of the highest bliss. Conversely, those who by lives of continued
evil pass a certain point, commence to sink lower and lower on the scale of
attainment, and as their consciousness has been so saturated in evil that
there was no room for good, individual consciousness is gradually purged
from them in the effort to eradicate the evil, until at last the Spirit
stands naked and unconscious. It is then absorbed in the Cosmic Soul,
bringing with it only sorrow and disappointment of the most intense nature.
But this teaching regarding both good and evil is as already said, contrary
to the Western Mystery Teachings, and may at least only apply in such a
case as an exceedingly evil black magician. In no case, however, is the
Spirit lost, but only the fruitage of its pilgrimage. As we have eternity
for our evolution, we may be certain that even such a Spirit would have
opportunities later to enter the pilgrimage of evolution which will make it a
self-conscious creative intelligence.
Is "legalized euthanasia," or lawful execution of the aged, infirm, or suffering persons who desire death, such as I read is being considered in a certain city, legitimate in your opinion?
Answer: At first blush and from the standpoint of people not versed
in the teachings of esotericism such a measure would seem to have
considerable claim to commendation. Most people on seeing an animal
suffering agonies and beyond hope of recovery would feel prompted by humane
instincts to put it out of its misery, and the questions, "Why should we not
do as much for our fellow men and women? Why should we keep them alive in
excruciating suffering maybe for months or years when we know they have no
chance of regaining their health and that they are looking and longing for
death to put them out of pain?" seem from the common point of view to call
for acquiescence. However, when we have a knowledge of the law of
consequence and are sure that what we sow we reap, if not in this life then
in some future existence, the matter appears in a different light.
We cannot escape our just dues. The suffering that comes to us is
needed to teach us a lesson or mellow our character. The only way to shorten
such suffering is by an endeavor to understand why we are in the condition
that brings us pain. If it is cancer of the stomach, then how have we
abused that organ? By overindulgence of food of a nature not suited to our
system? Is it the heart? How many times have we lost our tempers and raged
like made, putting a tremendous strain on this part of the body? Or are
the other organs of our system weak and debilitated? We may be sure that
in some way, either in this life or a previous one, we have abused our body
in such a manner as to cause these ailments. Otherwise we would not now
be suffering, and the sooner we take the lesson to heart and commence to live
a better life more in harmony with the laws of nature we have broken, the
sooner our suffering will cease.
It is always in our own grasp to alter conditions, though of course
we cannot remedy in a day what it has taken years or lives to break down,
but certainly there is no other way in which a permanent cure can be
effected. Even if now, by the enactment of such a law as contemplated, the
suffering is shortened, we may be sure that when the person so released from
his body is reborn his new vehicle will have the tendency to develop the same
disease from which he escaped in such an untoward manner. Besides, as has
been thoroughly explained in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, this physical
body of ours is fashioned in an invisible mold which is called the archetype,
and so long as that archetype persists our physical body remains alive.
When death occurs from natural causes, or even in the so-called accidents,
(which usually are not accidents at all but events used to terminate a life
according to the design of the invisible guardians of human affairs) the
archetype is disrupted and the Spirit flees.
A suicide, however, is different. In this case the archetype
persists after death for a number of years until death should have occurred
according to natural events, and being unable to draw to itself the physical
atoms it imparts to the suicide during those years of his post-mortem
existence a continuous aching feeling, something like a gnawing hunger, or a
dull but exceedingly painful toothache. If the plan you mention becomes a
law and people are allowed to obtain the services of others to commit
suicide (for that is what it really amounts to), there is no doubt that they
will suffer in their post-mortem existence in the same manner as the suicide
who prescribed his own poison, or cut his own throat. It is a very
dangerous plan in other respects, also, and we trust no such practice will be
sanctioned by law.
What part of the three-fold spirit is the higher self? Is it the Divine Spirit?
In the Cosmo it is stated that the Human Spirit is the Ego. Is the Life Spirit not a part of the Ego?
Is all the Ego on the physical plane during Earth life, or only parts, as the Hindus teach?
Answer: The higher self is the threefold Spirit: Divine, Life, and
Human Spirit, but you must not think of these three as being separated one
from the other. The Spirit is undivided as the white light which comes from
the Sun through interplanetary space, but as the light may be refracted into
three primary colors — blue, yellow, and red — when passing through the denser
atmosphere of the earth, so also the Virgin Spirit appears as threefold during
manifestation, because sheaths of matter of varying density are placed
around it. When it is enveloped only in the substance of the World of
Divine Spirit, then it is the Divine Spirit; when the Divine Spirit receives
in addition a sheath from the material of the World of Life Spirit, then it
becomes the Life Spirit; and when it is finally clothed in the matter of the
Region of Abstract Thought it becomes the Human Spirit — the Ego. That is
because the Virgin Spirit enmeshed in these three layers of matter is shut
off from all consciousness of its Divine Father, and being so blinded by
matter that it can no longer see things from the cosmic viewpoint when
reaching outward it turns its consciousness inward and beholds itself as
separate and apart from all others. Hence, it is an Ego — an individual. At
that point then egoism is born, and self-seeking begins.
When the Human Spirit draws around itself for better expression the
lower and more concrete vehicles — the mind, the desire body, the vital
body — by sinking itself in them, by descending even to the Physical World,
it again obtains consciousness of outward things. Then having lost knowledge
of the World of God whence it originally came, it commences to conquer the
physical world and subdue it to its own ends.
In this respect it differs radically from the Spirits of the other
three kingdoms — mineral, vegetable, and animal. The Group Spirit of the
mineral has as yet descended only to the Region of Abstract Thought.
Therefore the consciousness of the mineral resembles the deepest trance state.
The Group Spirit of the vegetable and plant kingdom has descended to the
Region of Concrete Thought. Therefore the consciousness of the plant
kingdom is akin to that which we have in the deepest dreamless sleep. The
Group Spirits of the animals are found in the Desire World, which is next to
the world in which we live. Hence the consciousness of the animal is an
internal picture consciousness, similar to that which we have in dreams, the
pictures being sent by the Group Spirits to the animals to impress upon them
what they are to do under certain circumstances. That which we call
instinct is thus the wisdom of the Group Spirits, which impresses the animal
concerning how it shall act. The Human Spirit alone in all the kingdoms of
evolving life on earth is an individualized Ego, and descends into the
vehicles which are all gathered in the physical world during the waking hours
of the day. Thus we attain to the waking consciousness whereby we are fully
aware and awake to all things pertaining to the world in which we then
function, are able to use our own reason, express our desires and emotions,
and act as dictated by our individual Higher Self — the indwelling Spirit, the
Ego.
In the first lecture sent by Mr. Heindel he says something about having engagements with our destiny and being able to cancel them under certain circumstances. Now what I want to know is this: What are those certain circumstances? I realize that now I can build for the future and that things that take place within my own consciousness I can control according to the amount of will that I have and the desire back of that will to try to do what is right. But what about the efforts along the line or wrong influence? What if one pursues the life of the ordinary person and blunders into evil ways? Is he not starting something from which it is impossible to escape? or can he, by striving to overcome the lower nature, and building a better character, forgo the consequences of his own misdeeds? This is a question a friend and I have had many arguments over. She holds to the idea that if we see we are due for an accident or trouble of any kind we can avoid those things by staying away from where they are likely to happen, but it does not seem likely to me that we can escape the past. If we could, we would not build character by running away from anything. Of course, that is a more or less fatalistic view of the matter, but I believe in taking my medicine like a man. Though I kick against the pricks, at the same time I feel disgusted that I am such a weakling.
Answer: There is one important point in the matter which it seems
you fail to take into consideration, though it has been plainly and
emphatically stated in our literature. "All the laws of nature, including
the law of consequence in its application to human life, are under the
administration of great Beings of sublime spirituality and superlative
wisdom." This law does not work blindly on the principle of an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth, but these great Beings and their agents
administer all things with a wisdom that is beyond the comprehension of our
finite minds. It has been found, however, that where there is a desire or
tendency or possibility of running away from a harvest of sorrow which has
accrued from certain ripe destiny, such plans are always circumvented by
another move on the part of the invisible administrators of this law.
If you will read again the case cited in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception of a certain lecturer who was warned by Mr. Heindel that if he
went out of his house on a certain day he would meet with an accident to
certain parts of his body, and how he forgot and thought the 28th was the
29th, took a trip to another town to lecture and was injured, as foretold,
in a railway collision. This case will perhaps illustrate our points. The
man had been forewarned, he believed in the warning and intended to
heed it, but undoubtedly the suffering accruing from that accident was due to
him in expiation of certain wrongdoings. Therefore the agents of the law of
causation caused him to forget the day of the month.
This principle works also in another way. You seem to think that
there is no way of escaping the harvest of the past but there is. We have
also repeatedly emphasized the fact that God, or nature, or the agents of
this great law, do not aim to "get even" with us. We are here in this
great school of life, safeguarded by these laws of nature. They are made for
our benefit and not for our hurt, although they limit us in a certain way
just as we limit our children's liberties for the purpose of guarding
them against dangers of indiscretion. When by our past actions we have laid
up a certain store of retribution for ourselves which is to be worked out at
some future time, and then see our mistake, turn over a new leaf, and live
in harmony with the law we had previously broken, then by that action we
wipe the slate clean with respect to our previous peccadilloes. The agents of
the great law, seeing that we have ceased from wrongdoing in that particular
respect, would not wantonly inflict suffering upon us. Bear this fact in
mind: all the laws of nature are under similar divine, intelligent
administration, for that is the difference between the fatalistic and the
spiritual viewpoints. The hand of God, through His agents, is everywhere,
from the greatest things, such as the travel of a planet in its orbit, to
the most trivial detail like the falling of a sparrow. It is an actual fact
that in God we live and move and have our being. We are under His loving
care in everything and therefore nothing can happen to us that is not in
harmony with His great divine plan. That plan certainly cannot be fatalistic!
Do you consider Mother Shipton's prophecies authentic?
Answer: Half a century before America was discovered, "Mother
Shipton," the Yorkshire seeress, prophesied the discovery of an unknown land
in which gold would abound. She saw the automobiles and railroads of today
with the many accidents they would cause, the telephone and the telegraph,
divers, submarines, airships, and the great iron ships which have superseded
vessels of wood. She foresaw the great political upheavals in the world,
notably in France, her alliance with England and an amalgamation of the
Anglo-Saxon races which may yet come to pass, notwithstanding their present
strife (WWI). She beheld the emancipation of the Jew and his preferment to
positions of prominence, and unprecedented spread of knowledge among those
of even the most lowly estate, ending with the prediction of certain
upheavals of the earth's crust whereby old lands will become submerged and
new land appear, and in 1991 she foresees the end of the world.
The last named prophecies will probably cause most of us to shake
our heads in a skeptical manner, but if we give the matter a little thought
the idea may not seem so far fetched. We know that upheavals of the earth
have taken place in the past, and earthquakes and volcanic outbursts show us
that the subterranean activities are not suspended by any means. The writer
has seen for a number of years great subterranean caverns filled with oil
and gas which run in a general direction from Maine across the American
continent in a southwesterly direction, beneath Southern California and far
out into the South Pacific Ocean. Their explosion would make a great gap in
the earth. At the same time he sees an archetype in the process of
constructions which shows the shape the earth will take at that place
when a cataclysm or series of cataclysms have broken up the present shape of
this continent and the adjoining ocean. Perhaps it is hazardous to set a
time when this remodeling of the earth will begin, but the archetype or
matrix molded in mind stuff, and representing the creative thought of the
Grand Architect and His builders, seems so nearly complete that, judging
by the progress made during the years the writer has watched its
construction, it seems safe to say that by the middle of the present century
(1950), if not before, the upheavals will have started. it is not at all
incredible that there may be one of such magnitude in 1991 that the ancient
seeress was justified in judging it the end of the world. However, perhaps
the writer is premature in judging that the upheavals will start in the middle
of the century. They may be deferred to the end. only time can decide, but
certain it is that preparations for a great change have been going on for
centuries and are now nearing completion in the invisible world. Therefore,
we may expect soon to see Mother Shipton's prophecy concerning this matter
fulfilled as the ones mentioned in the beginning our note have been.
We append the prophecy so that our readers may judge for themselves:
Carriages without horses shall go,
And accidents fill the world with woe;
Primrose Hill in London shall be,
And in its center a Bishop's See;
Around the world thoughts shall fly
In the twinkling of an eye;
Water shall great wonders do.
How strange! yet shall be true.
The world upside down shall be,
And gold found at the root of trees;
Through hills man shall ride,
And no horse or ass by his side;
Under water men shall walk,
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk
In the air men shall be seen,
In white, in black, and in green.
A great man shall come and go!
Iron in water shall float
As easy as a wooden boat,
And gold shall be found
In a land that's not now known.
fire and water shall more wonders do,
England shall at last admit a Jew;
The Jew that was held in scorn
Shall of a Christian be born.
A house of glass shall come to pass
In England, but alas!
War will follow with the work
In the land of the Pagan and Turk,
And State and State in fierce strife
Will seek each other's life.
But when the North shall divide the South,
An eagle shall build in the Lion's mouth.
Taxes for blood and for war
Shall come to every door.
Three times shall lovely France
Be led to play a bloody dance,
Before her people shall be free,
Three tyrant rulers shall she see —
Three rulers in succession see,
Each sprung from different dynasty;
Then shall the worser fight be done,
England and France shall be as one;
The British olive next shall twine
In marriage with the German Vine.
Men shall walk over rivers and under rivers.
All England's sons that plough the land
Shall be seen book in hand;
Learning shall so ebb and flow,
The poor shall most wisdom know.
Waters shall flow where corn doth grow.
Corn shall grow where waters doth flow;
Houses shall appear in the vales below.
And covered by hail and snow.
The world then to an end shall come,
Nineteen hundred and ninety-one.
In the Cosmo it is stated: "All esoteric schools belong to one of the seven planetary rays, and one can jo only the school of the ray to which he belongs. To what ray do the Rosicrucian Teachings belong? And does this mean that anyone applying for admission thereto, if not of the same ray, would be rejected? Understanding of this point is rendered still more difficult because of the statement, I think, in the astrology books, that our father star is not known until the last initiation.
Answer: There are two sets of people in the world, spoken of in the
Masonic Legend as the Sons of Seth and the Sons of Cain, and represented in
our modern times by Freemasonry and Catholicism, statecraft and
priestcraft — those who listen to the voice of intellect and follow the head,
and those who obey the voice of the heart and follow their emotions and
feelings. The Sons of Seth, people who go along the devotional path and
follow their religion in whatever country they may be, do not come in touch
with any Mystery School at any time of their existence. They have followed
their spiritual teachers, docile as lambs, as water flows gently in an
artificial canal, and among their leaders, from the time of Abel, the
shepherd, we find great lights like Solomon, who was later reborn as Jesus,
and is now the invisible spiritual pillar of the Church, which he will
eventually guide into the haven of the Kingdom of Christ. These people are
the divine prototypes, Adam and Eve, created by Jehovah, the regent of Luna,
the Queen of the waters of the world and the emotions of men. Our emotions
are as unstable as water, which is governed in its periodical ebb and flow
by the Moon.
The other stream of humanity, called the Sons of Cain, is that class
in whom the divine essence, the Ego, makes itself felt as a burning fire.
The original creative instinct is keen within them, for when humanity was in
its cradle, they listened to the voice of the Lucifer Spirits and ate of
the Tree of Knowledge; hence they became enlightened. The mind prospered at
the expense of the heart, and from Cain, Tubal-Cain, and Methusaleh have
come all the craftsmen of the world. They were the ones who built
Solomon's Temple under the leadership of Hiram Abiff, the Master Mason, who
was later reborn as the Widow's Son of Naim, raised by the strong grip of the
Lion of Judah, and is now working through industry and statecraft under the
name of Christian Rosenkreuz to bring his kindred into the kingdom of Christ
where the two streams will unite — where there will be neither priests nor
kings, but one, even Christ, who will fill the dual office of King and Priest.
In every vast company of men there are always some behind and some in
advance, and we may find individuals, belonging to each of these two streams
of humanity among the lowest types as well as among the most highly
civilized people on earth. All along the path of evolution, there are, as
we might say, gates which lead to the path of initiation and which may be
unlocked by anyone who has the proper key. The locks are different at
different points on the path of evolution, and they are becoming more
complicated, for we are all by evolution now learning lessons which were
in by-gone ages taught in the process of initiation in the Mystery Schools.
In each life we are born with a new horoscope. Our Ascendant and
planets will be very different in each life according to the lessons we
have to learn and the liabilities we are to liquidate from the past. In one
life we may have Mars as ruler, another life may be ruled by Venus, or any
one of the planets. it is designed that the Spirit should learn all things
in order to become perfect, and it must therefore evolve under the influence
of all the planets in order that everything in its nature may be evenly
balanced. Nevertheless, the stamp of our Father Star or Father Fire, is
always there, and this makes one who is inherently a martial spirit different
from one who comes from the Jupiter Ray, though their horoscopes may be
quite similar, perhaps, as in the case of twins.
Children born with the same Greenwich Mean Time in Madrid, New York,
or Honolulu would be of widely different types, stamped by their national
and racial peculiarities, and yet their horoscopes would be much alike.
This illustrates that it is not the horoscope itself that counts, but the
invisible influence that is due to the identity of the Father Fire or
Father Star; and when a man or woman is ready to enter the gate or path which
leads up to the the Mystery School, he or she will feel the right spiritual
attraction through the basic color vibration of the aura. If this attraction
is followed, it is sure to guide him to the right place, where he will not
be refused.
Generally speaking, it may be said that all the people of the
Western World belong to the Western Wisdom School of the Rosicrucians, and
that they make a mistake when they endeavor to enter a school belonging to or
teaching the Eastern philosophy. When Moses led the Israelites out of
Egypt, the land of the Bull, where the animal was worshiped when the Sun by
precession was in the sign Taurus, he gave the people under his guidance a
new symbol, the Lamb. From the time when the Sun by precession went through
the sign Aries, the Lamb, it has been and is idolatry to worship the
golden Calf (Taurus), or bow down before the serpents and scorpions, which
were the priests of that dispensation (because Scorpio is the opposite sign
from Taurus). Then came Christ, the Lamb of God, so-called, to inaugurate a
new religion; and we hear of a judgment when He shall come again under the
sign Libra, the scales, which is opposite Aries, to judge all of the world.
Later, by precession, the Sun passed through the sign Pisces, the
fishes, and for two thousand years we have been abstaining from meat on
certain days and eating fish, while we worshiped the opposite sign Virgo, the
immaculate Virgin. now the Sun is entering, by precession, within orb of the
celestial sign Aquarius, the Son of Man, and in the coming Aquarian Age we
shall have an entirely different standard from what we have had before. As a
matter of fact, we must learn to worship the Christ within, and this Christ is not the same for each one of us. This is the savior that is to lead us out
of our present condition. The difference is the basic planetary ray that
is in each and every one of us. So there is the horoscopic ray, governed
by the planet which is ruler of our horoscope in each life; there is the
individual ray, which is governed by the sub-ray of our Father Fire or Father
Star, under which we originated; and, finally, there is the Father Fire or
Ray itself. It is this latter which is not revealed until the last
initiation. our individual ray is discovered unto us at the time we receive
the discipleship instruction, and the horoscopic ray is evident as soon as
we cast the figure and know how to read it.
To clear up this point from another angle, let us illustrate by
colors. There are seven colors in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, etc.
But within the red we shall also find seven sub-rays, which are red-
red, red-orange, red-yellow, etc. The same with the yellow ray — we shall
find there yellow-red, yellow-yellow, etc. Similarly under the ray of Mars
there are some who are Mars-Saturn, others who are Mars-Sun, others again who
are Mars-Venus, and so on. Mars is then the Father Star, while the name of
the other planet designates the individual Ray, and therefore we find in
the Mystery Schools, all over the world, people who are born with any one of
the twelve signs rising and any one of the planets ruling. Also people with
individual rays of the Sun, Venus, Mars, Mercury, etc., are found in both the
Eastern and Western Mystery Schools. But the Mystery School itself is
colored by the deep, overpowering planetary influence of the Father Fire,
the Father Star, under which it originated.
You will understand that as the Father Fire is not revealed until
the last initiation, this basic nature of any Mystery School cannot be
told openly in public. But you must differentiate between the Mystery School
and such an association as The Rosicrucian Fellowship and other kindred
societies, which are only preparatory schools for their respective esoteric
orders. Such schools as The Rosicrucian Fellowship and kindred organizations
would naturally be dominated by the planetary influence from the fountain
head. This therefore cannot be given.
There are plenty of people who claim that they know all and who
will smile mysteriously, or give out misinformation which cannot be
controverted and proven false, because it concerns the secrets of initiation.
The writer has always made it a rule to say honestly and without hesitation
whenever a question was asked to which he could not give an answer: "I do
not know." To profess omniscience is equivalent to a profession of
divinity. Though the writer has met quite a number of "professors," he has
met very few, if any, "possessors," and you will have to wait for the answer
to that question until you come to the proper point in initiation.
Even in the case of the individual ray, which is given to the
disciples at the time they enter the path of discipleship, it has been
found that people under the sign Gemini, for instance, which would be
supposed to be ruled by Mercury, had in their individual ray all the
different other planets; and the same with every one of the other signs.
The writer has given time and study, endeavoring to find a rule, but it has
proven absolutely futile. There is only the one explanation, given by the
Elder Brothers, that the individual ray is retained by the Spirit throughout
its whole series of lives, and perfectly independent of the horoscopical
rays which change according to its birth, environment, and the lessons to
be learned in each life.
Can you tell us anything about Christian Rosenkreuz, his person, habitat, environment, or what part of the world he is in? It has been said that he is on the western coast. Please tell me if it is permissible to know.
Answer: No, it is not permissible to know. The whereabouts and
the movements of the august head of the Rosicrucian Order are always shrouded
in mystery. If you have read about Rosicrucian initiation as explained in
the Cosmo you will remember that he does not even appear in the body at
the Temple services so far as the lay brothers are able to determine, for
though the Temple is built of ether and the twelve Elder Brothers together
with the lay brothers function in their soul bodies during the Temple
service, the majority among us are able to see a body built of even so
tenuous substance as mind-stuff. Hence it is evident that the presence of
the head of the Order is altogether spiritual, and it is said that he
manifests only to the twelve who like him are able to function in the highest
vehicles.
Nevertheless, as has also been explained in the Cosmo, the head of
our august Order is always active in the affairs of the world, working with
the governments of the nations in the western world to guide them along the
appropriate path of their evolution. To this end he appears in a physical
embodiment, at least part of the time, and if memory serves the editor right,
a lay sister ventured to put a question concerning this matter to one of the
Elder Brothers shortly after the outbreak of the war. The rest of us held
our breath in amazement at her indiscretion. She wanted to know if
Christian Rosenkreuz was on the throne of one of the warring nations. The
Elder Brother appeared considerably taken aback at the question, but told
her that such matters could not be discussed, as the slightest inkling of
his identity might destroy his usefulness. However, he answered the
question so far as to say that Christian Rosenkreuz was not to be found on
the throne of any nation, and at the same time he intimated that he was
the power behind the throne. Nevertheless, he gave no clue that could lead
us to look anywhere in particular. We were of course, left free to indulge
in our own speculations, and the editor thought of Russia, where an
obscure monk seemed to exercise a strange influence that commenced about the
latter part of 1905 when Saturn and Mars were in conjunction in the sign
Aquarius, which rules Russia. Since the time of those great riots, this monk
has had a strange influence in the Empire. We have never spoken of this to
anyone before, but now that we learn from a newspaper clipping that his
career has ended, it will probably do no harm if our conjecture is correct.
In that case we predict that there are still further developments to be
expected and that the monk from Tomsk will be heard from again. If we are
mistaken, the speculation can hurt no one and we give it and the newspaper
account only for what they are worth.
This monk was maligned in the highest degree and accused of all
the crimes on the calendar, a fact which may make it difficult to believe
that he was indeed our holy Brother, C.R.C., but a little reflection soon
shows that a bad reputation may be borne by the most spiritual. Was not
Christ called a winebibber? Was it not said, "He hath a devil"? and was He
not crucified as a criminal? What wonder then that the monk from Tomsk was
accused of being drunken and dissolute. What wonder that he was assassinated
for the supposed reason that he was winning the Czar over to a scheme for
the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany?
There are millions in Russia who mourn him as a saint. He was the
poor man's friend. There are others who seek to brand him as a sychophant,
a hypocrite and an impostor, but one thing is absolutely certain, he was a man
possessed of an unusual power or they would not have feared him.
The following clipping from a newspaper sent by a correspondent is one
of a number of accounts which have appeared in various places:
"An incredible reign has just ended at Petrograd. it was the reign of
a monk. A simple peasant was Grigori Rasputin when he first appeared in the
Russian capital a half score years ago. He came from Eastern Russia — the
Russia that merges into Asia and shares its mysticism. This monk trod a
path of victory to power. How great this power was over the lives of
180,000,000 people will never be known.
"It is known, however, that Grigori Rasputin — 'Saint Grigori' they
called him toward the last — sent explicit orders to ministers, and these
orders were obeyed. it is known that his levees in the palace once occupied
by the Grand Duke Alexis were attended by the nobility of Russia — by high-born
ladies of the palace, by generals in glittering uniforms, by all the high and
the mighty of the empire. The poorest also came with prayers and petitions,
which were granted with the initialed order of Rasputin to heads of
governments.
"It is also said that this saint who came from Asia exercised a
mysterious power over the conscience of the Czar; that the Czarina bowed her
imperial head to his decrees; that rulers were elevated to the skies or
humbled to the dust at his word.
"And the strange story of this monk who brought the darkness of
the Middle Ages with him is not based upon hearsay. Since 1912 the
representatives of the Russian people have been struggling to free Russia
from the grasp of this Richelieu who could barely read and write.
"Again and again has the Duma denounced the 'dark forces' which
dominated the palace. Yet so powerful was this exalted peasant from Tomsk
that he could defy the unanimous vote of the Duma demanding his elimination
from the life of Russia. So strongly was he entrenched in the seat of the
mighty that he could issue a decree commanding the Russian press to cease
its clamor — and he could enforce his command.
"There is no parallel to the twilight rule of this monk except in
the Middle Ages or in the 'Forbidden City' of Peking. In the Forbidden
City, the walled stronghold of the Manchus, a concubine in our times rose to
be empress dowager of 400,000,000 yellow persons. Her rule was absolute.
The shadowy figure of the nominally-reigning emperor was blotted out by the
empress dowager's actual power. Tzu-Hsi, with her enameled face and her
gorgeous finery, uttered the words that meant life or death to courtiers,
governors, and viceroys.
"What went on behind the walls of the Forbidden City none knew. One
or two European women were admitted to that domain of slaves and eunuchs.
What they reported was exceedingly interesting. It afforded a glimpse into
a world which the Europeans believed to have passed forever with the advent of
gunpowder, the railroad, and the telegraph. But the machinery that moved
that government by women and slaves remained a mystery. The power that
controlled the lives of 400,000,000 people remained a shadow.
"The story of Rasputin is more amazing than the story of the dowager
empress, Tzu-Hsi. The holy man from Tomsk dominated, not a scheduled oriental
harem surrounded by high walls of brick and tradition, but one of the most
brilliant courts of Europe — the Europe of today, the Europe that is dealing
with tragic facts. The empire that Rasputin swayed with his strange
pretensions to a divine mission and divine powers is one of the deciding
factors of a decisive period in the history of civilization. The
anachronism might well be regarded as incredible.
"And yet this man undoubtedly played, or tried to play, a master's
part in the affairs, not only of Russia, but of Europe. All Russia believes
that eight years ago Rasputin, by his mysterious powers prevented the outbreak
of war between Russia and Austria-Hungary at the moment when
the Bosnia-Herzegovina question stirred the fires of international hatred
and suspicion to a fresh blaze.
"In the present crisis, amid the solemn surroundings of the Russian
Parliament, Rasputin has been accused of seeking to sell his country to the
enemy by trying to bring about a separate peace on humiliating terms between
Russia and the Central Powers. The crime that brought an end to his mystic
overlordship of the imperial mind and conscious has been greeted in the Duma
and by the Russian press as an act of national deliverance."
Why is humanity averse to a snake? Is the Group Spirit of the snake man's enemy?
Answer: You are mistaken in your supposition that humanity as a whole
is averse to the snake. Many species of snakes are altogether harmless,
and very useful animals. Placed in the basement of the house they will keep
it perfectly clear of vermin, mice, and rats. In the garden they eliminate
destructive animals such as gophers and field mice, which do considerable
damage. Therefore the wise farmer looks upon them with very friendly
eyes. But the question of aversion is not by any means confined to the
snakes. Millions of people are afraid of a mouse, a beetle, a spider, or other
harmless animals. it is simply a question of temperament, and no Group
Spirit is an enemy of humanity or of any other species of animals. Whatever
may seem to indicate that is a wrong view of the matter.
What is the difference between the soul and the soul body?
Answer: This is one of the most intimate questions which has ever
been asked, and it cannot be answered directly, but only by illustration.
As children learn certain intellectual truths beyond their grasp by a
pictorial illustration, infant humanity learned deep religious truths
through myths and allegories.
The vital body is composed of four ethers. The two lower ethers are
particular avenues of growth and propagation. In the vital body of a
person whose chief concern is with the physical life, who lives as it were,
entirely for the sensual enjoyment, these two ethers predominate, whereas in a
person who is rather indifferent to the material enjoyment of life, but who
seeks to advance spiritually, the two higher ethers form the bulk of the vital
body. They are then what Paul calls the "soma psuchicon," or soul body, which
remains with man during his experiences in Purgatory and the First Heaven
where the essence of the life lived is extracted. This extract is the soul,
whose two chief qualities are conscience and virtue. The feeling of
conscience is the fruit of mistakes in past earth lives, which will in
future guide the Spirit aright and teach it how to avoid similar missteps.
Virtue is the essence of all that was good in former lives, and acts as an
encouragement to keep the Spirit ardently striving upon the path of
aspiration. In the Third Heaven this amalgamates thoroughly with the Spirit
and becomes a part thereof. Thus in the course of his lives man becomes
more soulful, and the soul qualities of conscience and virtue becomes
more strongly operative as guiding principles of conduct.
But we can perhaps gain a better idea of the difference between soul
and soul body if we consider the allegory contained in the ancient
Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. This God-given
symbol was furnished with all the implements of soul growth necessary for the
development of man. Among them there was in the sanctuary the Table of
Shewbread. Upon this table there were twelve little cakes made into two piles
of six each and on each pile there was a little heap of incense. Now will
you remember, please, that the grain from which these cakes were made was
given by God to man, but it was necessary for man to plant it, to till the
soil, to water and to nourish the tiny plants. He must also harvest them,
thresh the grain and crush it into flour. He must knead the dough and bake
the read before he could bring it into the temple and have bread to shew as a
product of this labor with the God-given grain.
This God-given grain represents opportunity. Twelve kinds
of opportunities come to man each year through the twelve departments of
life represented by the twelve houses in his horoscope. But many may
neglect these opportunities, as the ancient Israelites might have thrown their
grain in a corner and let it lie. If so, he will have no read to shew to
the Lord. He will be like the servant with one talent who went and buried
it. On the other hand, if he tilled the soil and nourished the grain of
opportunity for service in the Lord's vineyard, then there will be an
increase which he may harvest and prepare to bring into the Lord's temple
at the proper time to shew that he had faithfully cultivated every
opportunity for service, and made the most thereof according to ability.
We note, however, that these twelve cakes of shew bread were not
themselves offered up to the lord, but on each pile of six there was a
little heap of incense which represented the essence of the shew bread. By
analogy this is the essence of our service; you will understand why by
another little illustration found in the experience we go through to gain
physical faculties.
As you remember, during the time when we went to school and learned
to write, we made most awkward motions and contortions with the arm and body
in order to form letters on the paper. We blotted our copy books so that
they looked most hideous, and our attempt at writing was anything but
beautiful. Nevertheless, by degrees we acquired the faculty, and in the course
of years we forgot all about the experience of those early days when we
endeavored to cultivate it. But this is the point: if we had not gone
through that cumbersome experience we would not now possess the faculty of
writing, and another point is this: after we have acquired the faculty it
is unnecessary to remember the cumbersome methods of its acquirement.
Similarly also, the coarse physical substance, the grain of the shewbread,
was not to be offered to the Lord, but only the essence or aroma thereof,
the faculty of skilled service, the benevolence which we have cultivated in
doing good to others.
The two little piles of incense were therefore taken to the altar
of incense in front of the second veil and lighted. There ascends a cloud
of smoke in the outer or eastward part of the temple, but only the aroma,
pure and free from smoke, penetrates through the veil into the inner
sanctuary. By analogy therefore we may liken the shewbread to the experiences
which we go through in serving and helping others; the frankincense which is
on top of the pile of shewbread may be likened to the essence of sympathy and
helpfulness which we extract from these services, the soul growth
contained therein. This is seen about us as a golden aura which constitutes
the soul body. But though this glorious vehicle is made of the two finest
ethers, it could not by any process amalgamate with the Spirit itself, any
more than the incense can burn without emitting smoke and leaving behind a
residue of ashes. Therefore by the spiritual alchemy of the evening exercise
of Retrospection, or in the natural process after death, this soul body is
burned without the veil (in the first heaven), and the aroma or the soul
penetrates the veil to the very innermost sanctuary as pabulum for the Spirit.
Thus the Spirit carries with itself the aroma of all its past lives.
A younger soul which has had only a few existences from which to draw
experiences and soul growth, is cruel and selfish for it has not performed
service to others. But one who has gone through many lives, who has learned
by sorrow and suffering to feel and to do for others, responds instantly to
the cry of pain, because the soul in him or her is the quintessence of
service and therefore always ready to aid others regardless of personal
comforts and enjoyment.
We have had some discussion in our classes regarding the soul. Some confusion of opinion exists. What is the relation between the soul and the mind? Are the forces of both permanently united to the spirit? Which body will be used in the later stages of development, the mental or the soul body?
Answer: We will turn for our answer to the Cosmo. There
we find a chart which embodies the whole scheme of involution and
evolution. It is not a very complicated chart, either, and the student who
wishes to master the mystery of existence would do well to memorize
thoroughly this diagram.
Reading on the left side thereof, we learn that during a stage of
unconscious evolution the Spirit grew a threefold body and crystallized into
it. This was the dense body, the vital body, and the desire body. In the
earth period, the focus of mind was given and this becomes the fulcrum upon
which involution turns to evolution. Then a threefold stage of conscious
evolution commences during which the growth of a threefold soul is
accomplished by spiritualizing the three bodies into the soul. We find that
in the remainder of the Earth Period we extract the conscious soul from
the dense body; in the Jupiter Period the intellectual soul is extracted
from the vital body; and in the Vulcan Period we become creative intelligences
by amalgamation of the threefold soul with the mind.
In order to make this more clear, we will turn to The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception where there
is a section on alchemy and soul growth. There we read as follows:
"The dense body was started in the Saturn Period, passed through
various transformations in the Sun and Moon Periods, and will reach its
highest development in the Earth Period.
The vital body was started in the Sun Period, was reconstructed in
the Moon and Earth Periods, and will reach perfection in the Jupiter
Period, which is its fourth stage, as the Earth Period is the fourth stage
for the dense body.
The desire body was started in the Moon Period, reconstructed in
the Earth Period, will be further modified in the Jupiter Period, reaching
perfection in the Venus Period."
"Referring to Diagram 8 will show that the lowest Globe of the
Jupiter Period is located in the Etheric Region. It would therefore be
impossible to use the dense physical vehicle there, as only a vital body can
be used in the Etheric Region. Yet it must not be supposed that after
spending the time from the beginning of the Saturn Period to the end of the
Earth Period in completing and perfecting this body, it is then thrown away
that man may function in a "higher" vehicle!
"Nothing in nature is wasted. In the Jupiter Period the forces of
the dense body will be superimposed on the vital body. That vehicle will
then possess the powers of the dense body in addition to its own faculties
and will therefore be a much more valuable instrument for the expression of
the threefold Spirit, than if built from its own forces alone.
"Similarly, Globe D of the Venus Period is located in the Desire
World (see diagram 8). Hence neither a dense nor vital body could be used as
an instrument of consciousness. Therefore the essences of the perfected
dense and vital bodies are incorporated in the completed desire body, the
latter thus becoming a vehicle of transcendent qualities, marvelously
adaptable and so responsive to the slightest wish of the indwelling Spirit
that in our present limitations it is beyond our utmost conception.
Yet the efficiency of even this splendid vehicle will be transcended
when in the Vulcan Period its essence, together with the essences of the
dense and vital bodies, are added to the mind, which becomes the highest of
man's vehicles, containing within itself the quintessence of all that was
best in all the vehicles. The vehicle of the Venus Period being beyond our
present power of conception, how much more so is that which will be at the
service of the divine beings of the Vulcan Period!
During involution the creative Hierarchies assisted man to arouse
into activity the threefold Spirit, the Ego, to build the threefold body, and
to acquire the link of mind. Now, however, on the seventh day (to use the
language of the Bible), God rests. Man must work out his own salvation.
The threefold Spirit must complete the working out of the plan begun by
the Gods.
The Human Spirit, which was awakened during involution in the Moon
Period, will be the most prominent of the three aspects of the Spirit in the
evolution of the Jupiter Period, which is the corresponding Period on the
upward arc of the spiral. The Life Spirit, which was started into activity
in the Sun Period will manifest its principal activity during the
corresponding Venus period, and the particular influences of the Divine
Spirit will be strongest in the Vulcan Period, because it was vivified in
the corresponding Saturn Period.
All three aspects of the Spirit are active all the time during
evolution, but the principal activity of each aspect will be unfolded in
those particular periods, because the work to be done there is its special
work.
When the threefold Spirit had evolved the threefold body and gained
control of it through the focus of mind, it commenced to evolve the
threefold soul by working from within. How much or how little soul a man has
depends upon the amount of work the Spirit has done in the bodies. This has
been explained in the section describing post-mortem experiences. (See
the Cosmo). As much of the desire body as has been worked
upon by the Ego is transmuted into the emotional soul, and is ultimately
assimilated by the Human Spirit, the special vehicle of which is the desire
body.
As much of the vital body as has been worked upon by the Life Spirit
becomes the intellectual soul, and it builds the Life Spirit, because that
aspect of the threefold Spirit has its counterpart in the vital body.
As much of the dense body as has been worked upon by the Divine
Spirit becomes the conscious soul, because the dense body is its material
emanation.
The conscious soul grows by action, external impacts, and experience.
The emotional soul grows by the feelings and emotions generated by
actions and experiences.
The intellectual soul as mediator between the other two grows by the
exercise of memory, by which it links together past and present experiences
and the feelings engendered thereby, thus creating "sympathy" and
"antipathy" which could not exist apart from memory, because the feelings
resulting from experience alone would be evanescent.
During involution the Spirit progressed by growing bodies, but
evolution depends upon soul growth — the transmutation of the bodies into
soul. The soul is, so to say, the quintessence, the power or force of the
body, and when a body has been completely built and brought to perfection
through the stages and periods as above described, the soul is fully
extracted therefrom and is absorbed by the one of the three aspects of the
Spirit which generated the body in the first place, thus:
The conscious soul will be absorbed by the Divine Spirit in the
seventh revolution of the Jupiter period;
The intellectual soul will be absorbed by the Life Spirit in the
sixth revolution of the Venus Period;
The emotional soul will be absorbed by the Human Spirit in the
fifth revolution of the Vulcan Period.
So much for the evolution of soul. We will now turn to the mind and
the various stages which brings it to perfection.
We read in the Cosmo: "At the present time, however,
the mind is not focused in a way that enables it to give a clear and true
picture of what the Spirit imagines. It is not one pointed. It gives
misty and clouded pictures. Hence the necessity of experiment to show the
inadequacies of the first conception, and bring about new imaginings and
ideas until the image produced by the Spirit in mental substance has been
reproduced in physical substance.
At the best, we were able to shape through the mind only such images
as have to do with form, because the human mind was not started until the
Earth Period, and therefore is now in its "form" or "mineral" stage. Hence in
our operations we are confined to forms, to minerals. We can imagine ways
and means of working with the mineral forms of the three lower kingdoms, but
can do little or nothing with living bodies. We may indeed graft
living branches to a live tree, or a living part of animal or man to another
living part, but it is not life with which we are working. It is form only.
We are making different conditions, but the life which already inhabited
the form continues to do so still. To create life is beyond man's power
until the mind has become alive.
In the Jupiter Period the mind will be vivified to some extent and
man can then imagine forms which will live and grow, like plants.
In the Venus period, when his mind has acquired "feeling," he can
create living, growing, and feeling things.
When he reaches perfection, at the end of the Vulcan Period, he will
be able to "imagine" into existence creatures that will live, grow, feel,
and think.
In the Saturn Period the life wave which is now man started on its
evolution. The Lords of Mind were then human. They worked with man at that
Period, when he was mineral. They now have nothing to do with the lower
kingdom, but are concerned solely with our human development.
Our present animals started their mineral existence in the Sun Period,
at which time the Archangels were human. Therefore, the Archangels are
the rulers and guides of the evolution of that which is now animal, but
have nothing to do with plant or mineral.
The present plants had their mineral existence in the Moon Period.
The angels were then human. Therefore they have special concern with the
life that now inhabits the plants, to guide it up to the human stage; but
they have no interest in the minerals.
Our present humanity will have to work with the new life wave which
entered evolution in the Earth period and now ensouls the minerals. We are
now working with it by means of the faculty of imagination, giving it
form — building it into ships, bridges, railways, houses, etc.
In the Jupiter Period we shall guide the evolution of the plant
kingdom, for that which is at present mineral will then have a plantlike
existence and we must work with it there as the angels are now doing with
our plant kingdom. Our faculty of imagination will be so developed that we
shall have the ability, not only to create forms by means of it, but to
endow those forms with vitality.
"In the Venus Period our present mineral life wave shall have
advanced another step, and we shall be doing for the animals of that period
what the archangels are now doing for our animals — giving them living and
feeling forms.
"Lastly in the Vulcan Period it will be our privilege to give them a
germinal mind, as the Lords of Mind did to us. The present mineral will
then have passed through stages similar to those through which the Angels
and Archangels are now passing. We shall then have reached a point in
evolution a little higher than that of the present Lords of Mind, for
remember there is never an exact reproduction anywhere, but always
progressive improvement, because of the spiral.
"The Divine Spirit will absorb the Human Spirit at the close of the
Jupiter Period; the Life Spirit at the close of the Venus Period, and the
perfected mind, embodying all that it has garnered during its
pilgrimage through all the seven Periods, will be absorbed by the Divine
Spirit at the close of the Vulcan Period."
From the foregoing it will be clear that there is a distinct evolution
of soul and another equally distinct evolution of the mind. Yet they are
not at all independent of one another, but work in perfect unison, as
for instance, the heart and lungs work together to keep up the rhythm of
the body. Therefore it will be neither the mental, nor the soul body that
we shall use in the later stages of our development, but a composite
vehicle containing increasingly the essence of all our bodies, which will
then be a composite garment of the Spirit, so wonderful and glorious that it
is beyond even our faintest conception at the present time.
There seems to have been a great decline of faith in recent years. What remedy is there for this from the esoteric viewpoint?
Answer: There is an esoteric reason for the decline of faith, and it
is useless to discuss a remedy until a cause has been found. No haphazard
measure will turn humanity permanently back to the path of rectitude. Let
us first consider some of the causes commonly given, and then we shall
understand the esoteric scientific reason all the better.
We often hear it sneeringly said that the reason the churches stand
empty is that the minister has no new message, but is continually rehashing
the old Bible stories. The reproach loses its force the moment the question
is asked: "Have we learned the Bible by heart?" We expect a child to
repeat the multiplication table indefinitely until he knows and can apply it.
It is more important that we should know the Bible thoroughly than that
the child should remember the table; hence repetition is necessary.
The Athenians on Mars Hill were always seeking some new thing that
would give them food for discussion, but something more is required for
soul growth. Paul specifically informs us that although we may know all the
mysteries, and all knowledge, and have not love, it profits us nothing.
The reproach of the empty pews rests particularly upon the
Protestant churches of all denominations, and it may not be out of place
therefore to draw a comparison between their method and the method of the
mother church. If we are anxious to learn we must put prejudice aside and
strive to look at the merits and demerits of each in an unbiased manner.
Let us first look into the ordinary Protestant church, where the
minister strives to give the people the gospel. Many of the pews are empty.
Among those present the ladies outnumber the men by six to one or more. The
minister is usually earnest and strives to be eloquent when he addressed
the Deity in prayer, but he has heard the reproach of repetition so often
that he is always afraid of having one service resemble another in the
slightest degree. A new prayer, a new sermon, a new song from the choir,
everything as new as possible, so as to escape that dreadful reproach. He is
almost a nervous wreck because of the haunting thought that his people may
think him "stale,"
Next, let us go to a "popular" church and see what methods they use.
The minister in these churches is always "progressive" and "up-to-date."
There is often a gymnasium and a physical culture instructor attached to the
establishment. Every night in the week there is a meeting connected with
this, that, or the other club. There are picnics, lawn parties, and dances
in the summer, and church suppers in the winter. Meetings for men and
meetings for women are usually sandwiched in, so that the whole is one
dazzling phantasmagoria with never a dull moment during the week, and on
Sunday — ah, that is the real treat, the great attraction — then the pastor
entertains, as only he knows how. He is assisted by a matchless choir of
high priced artists trained by an equally high priced conductor. The music
is not particularly religious, save as all good music fresh from the
heaven world speaks to the spiritual man, and awakens the memories of our
eternal home. But it is a treat to the music lover and draws hundreds on that
account.
Between the opening and the closing parts of the musical program
comes the so-called "sermon." One of our contributors relates that once she
was horrified on entering a church to see on the pulpit this inscription:
"I preach not the gospel." The words of the context: "Woe unto me if,"
were hidden on the other side of the pulpit, and the effect must have been
startling to say the least. However, it is a motto that might be on the
pulpit of more than one "progressive" church, for though the "sermon" may open
with a quotation from the Bible, that is usually the only reference to the
word of God. The rest is an excellent oration on whatever topic may be the
most live local or national issue, or if there be a dearth from the general
social and political sources, there are always the temperance and purity
problems. True, they are worn, like the Gospels, but by taking a bottle of
beer on the pulpit, working up a frenzy and smashing the cursed thing, it
is still possible to make an appeal to the jaded taste for sensationalism
which is ultimately developed by most of the pastor's hearers. But by that
time the "progressive" pastor gets a call to go and build up another church
elsewhere.
This much is admitted universally: under the continued pastorate of
one man the churchgoers lose interest. However, this is not because their
ministers are not sincere and hard working. The great majority are
exemplary in every way, but somehow they cannot keep their hold on the
people. Some denominations allot the churches under their jurisdiction to
their ministers for a certain term, and at the end of that time transfer
them to another section to work there awhile.
Much may be said both for and against these various schemes, but that
is beside the present discussion. Only one remedy for lack of interest
seems to have a potency sufficiently powerful to meet the general approval
as a producer of at least temporary enthusiasm: the revival.
There people flock to hear a stranger, always of strong, dominant,
and aggressive personality, with a voice that can speak in octaves from a
low pleading call, catching the crushed sinner, to the clarion cry which
sounds like the crack of doom to the recalcitrants. Like the "progressive"
pastor, he is ably aided by a trained staff, choir, and orchestra, all
arranged to make a powerful appeal to the sensations. People are "converted"
by thousands and religion (?) takes on a new lease of life in that community.
But, alas, only for a while. It is a fact needing no more than the
bare statement, that after a very little while all but a pitifully small
percentage of the converts backslide, and the poor minister must go on
laboring to keep the semblance of religion in a community increasingly
negligent of spiritual matters.
This state of affairs has become so notorious that comparatively
few young men enter the seminaries. There is thus a decline in both
church goers and ministers, which, if continued, can have but one ending —
the extinction of the Protestant church.
When we investigate the methods of the Catholic church for the sake
of comparison and to arrive at the correct conclusion regarding its power
of attraction, we should first note the absolute contrast between the
service there and that in the Protestant churches. If we listen for a moment
at the door of a dozen of the edifices of protestant denominations, we shall
find that each minister has a different topic, but we may go to any
Catholic church in the wide world, and we shall find that they are all using
the same ritual at the altar on a given day. What the priest may say from the
pulpit is negligible in face of that all-important fact, for words are
vibrations. They are creative, as demonstrated when sand and spores form
geometrical figures in response to the voice of a singer, and the Mass chanted
in countless Catholic churches scattered all over the world reverberates with
cumulative power through the universe as one mighty anthem, affecting all
who are in tune therewith, raising their religious fervor and loyalty to
their church in a manner unapproachable by the isolated and haphazard efforts
of individuals, no matter how sincere.
In corroboration of this assertion regarding the cumulative power of
a ritual, we may mention the phenomenal hold of Christian Science on its
followers. The Christian Scientists have no high priced preachers. Their
music is not out of the ordinary. Yet their churches are filled to the doors,
and they are branching out at a wonderful rate because they have, first, a
message of vital interest, health, and wealth; and second, the esoteric effect
of concentrated effort obtained by using identical readings in every
Christian Science church in the world, so that the cumulative effect may be
felt by every Christian Scientist who is in tune. This effect would be much
stronger if the service were really esoteric, and chanted to a certain strain
as is the Mass.
Thus, to sum up this phase of the matter, the persistently continued
individual attempts of Protestant preachers to guide their people by new and
original sermons are a failure, while concerted efforts centered in uniform
rituals repeated year after year, as put forth by Roman Catholics and
Christian Scientists, and even by the Freemasons and Fraternal Orders, hold
the audience.
In order to understand this mystery and apply the remedy
intelligently, it is necessary to understand the constitution of man, both
during the years of growth and also as an adult.
In addition to the visible body of man which we see with our
physical eyes, there are other and finer vehicles that are unseen by the great
majority of mankind. Nevertheless they are not superfluous appendages to
the physical body, but are indeed much more important from the fact that
they are the springs of all action. Without these finer vehicles the
physical body would be inert, senseless, and dead.
The first of these vehicles we call the vital body because it is the
avenue of vitality which leavens the dead lump of the mortal coil in the years
of life, and gives us the power to move.
The second is the desire body, which is the basis of our emotions
and feelings, and which galvanizes this visible body into action. These
three vehicles together with the mind constitute the personality which is then
informed by the Spirit. Each of the bodies we have named has its own
essential nature, and we may say that the keynote of the physical body is
"inertia," as it never moves unless impelled through these finer
invisible bodies. The key note of the vital body is "repetition." That is
easily understood,, when we consider that although it has power to move the
body, such movements result only from repeated impulses of the same kind. It
is taught to coordinate the movements of the body as the Spirits wills. If
we go to the organ for the first time and endeavor to play, we are not at
once able to move the fingers in the desired manner to produce the proper
tones. It requires repeated efforts to execute even the simplest co-ordinated
movements of the fingers requisite to making the proper harmony. Because
of this necessity for repetition it is an esoteric maxim that all esoteric
development begins with the training of the vital body.
The desire body, which we sense as our emotional nature, on the
other hand, is always seeking something new. This desire for change of
condition, change of scene, change of mood, love of emotion and sensation is
due to the activities of the desire body, which is like the sea in a storm,
full of waves, tossing hither and thither, at random and without design,
each one one powerful and destructive when unbridled and without allegiance
to the central directing power.
The mind, indeed, is the focus through which the Spirit endeavors to
subdue the lower personality and guide it according to the ability
acquired during its evolutionary period. But at the present time it is so
vague a quantity that among the great majority of people it cannot be
reckoned with, and they are therefore led principally by their feelings and
emotions, without much amenability to reason or thought.
Recognizing the great and wonderful power of the emotional body and
its amenability to "rhythm," which may be said to be its keynote,
progressive theology has addressed itself to and focused its efforts upon
appeals to this vehicle. It is this part of our nature which enjoys the
entertainments of the sensational vaudeville pastor. This vehicle it is
that sways and groans under the rhythmic rant of the revivalist, itself
vibrant with emotion, rising and falling in the well calculated measure of
the speaker's voice. Unity of pitch is soon established, a state of actual
hypnosis where the victim can no more help going to "the mourners bench,"
than water can refrain from running down hill. They realize powerfully for
the time being the enormity of their sins and they are equally anxious to
start a better life. Alas, however, the next wave of attraction to their
emotional nature washes away all the preacher has said, as well as all their
resolutions, and they stand exactly where they were before, much to the
chagrin and sorrow of the evangelist concerned.
Thus all efforts to elevate humanity by work upon the unstable
desire body are and must always prove futile. This the esoteric schools of all
ages have recognized and they have therefore addressed themselves to the
changing of the vital body by working with its keynote, which is
repetition. For that purpose, they have written various rituals suited to
humanity at the different stages of its development and in that way they have
fostered soul growth, slowly but surely, and regardless of whether man was
aware that he was being worked upon in that manner or not. The Ancient
Atlantean Mystery Temple, which we speak of as the Tabernacle in the
Wilderness, had certain rites prescribed in the mount by the divine
hierarch who was their particular teacher. Certain rites were performed
during week days. Other rites were used on the Sabbath, and again other
rites at the times of the new moons and on the great solar festivals. Nor
was it within the province of any one from the high priest down, to alter
this ritual, under pain and penalty of death.
Also among other ancient people do we find evidence of a ritual — the
Hindus, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians all used it in their religious
services. Among the latter we have, for instance, the so-called Book of the Dead, as an evidence of the esoteric value and the scope of such
ritualistic services. Even among the Greeks, though they were
notoriously individualistic and anxious to give expression to their own
conception, we find the ritual in the mysteries, and alter during the so-
called Christian Era we have the same esoterically inspired ritual in the
Catholic Church, as a means of fostering soul growth by work on the vital
body.
It is not contended that there were no abuses within these various
systems of religion, that the priests were always hold men, and that
their hands were clean and spotless when they ministered at the sacrifice
or ritual. It is indeed true that abuse at times became so great
that re-organizations were necessary, and the Protestant movement was
inaugurated by Martin Luther in order to get away from the abuses that had
sprung up within the Catholic church. However, all these systems had in them
the kernel of truth and power in the fact that they worked for the
development of the vital body, and therefore, no matter how corrupt the
priests might be, the ritual always retained its great power. Hence when the
reformers left the ritual behind them, they were in exactly the same
position as the Athenians on Mars Hill — they were forced to seek something
new. In each denomination there is a desire for truth. Each of the sects
today is struggling to solve the problem of life in its own way, but each
is striking a new note in a haphazard manner, and therefore they are all
failing, while the Catholic church with all its abuses still holds a
wonderful sway over its adherents because of the concerted power of the
ritual.
In order that we may learn from them how to fill our churches and
foster the soul growth in our Protestant people, we must first realize the
fact that "in unity there is strength." We must cease our senseless
disputes about details. Whether we "sprinkle," or "immerse," whether we are
"predestined" or "free" — what does it really matter? None was ever saved
because of this hair splitting. The words of Abraham Lincoln, "In essentials
unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity," must be adopted
before anything else can be done. Agreement to that proposition in true
consecration to the great object must be the cornerstone, and on that basic
principle a Federation of the Protestant churches could thus be formed. The
details of government could be worked out by the membership.
Having attained this point, the important question of ritual could
be worked out in two, or perhaps three ways:
(1). It could consist of certain readings from the Bible arranged
in such a manner that they would form a connected and consecutive service.
A number of such rituals could be written so that each would be suitable for a
certain feast, and on ordinary Sundays another ritual could be used in all
the Protestant churches of the world.
(2). The ritual of the Episcopal church could be adopted as it is, or
in a modified form.
(3). An esotericist capable of getting in touch with the cosmic sources
of knowledge might be found and persuaded to write a ritual that would have
in it a power unattainable in any other way.
The first of these ways would be the least effective. The last would
be the most efficient method of attaining the desired end, but conversely,
to obtain a ritual by the last method would be much more difficult.
Before a ritual can have its maximum effect, however, those who are
to grow thereby must become attuned to it. This involves work on their
vital bodies while those vehicles are still in the making.
It is a matter of esoteric knowledge that birth is a fourfold event,
and that birth of the physical body is only one step in the process. The
vital body also undergoes a development analogous to the intra-uterine growth
of the dense body. It is born about the seventh year of life. During the
next seven years the desire body is ripened and comes to birth at about the
fourteenth year, when adolescence is reached, and the mind is born
at twenty-one, when the age of manhood and womanhood commences.
These esoteric facts are well known to the Catholic Hierarchy, and
while the Protestant ministers work upon the emotional nature, which is ever
seeking something new and sensational without realizing the futility of
the struggle and the fact that it is this most rampant vehicle that
drives people from the churches in search of something more new and more
sensational, the esoterically informed Catholic Hierarchy concentrates its
effort upon the children. "Give us the child up to its seventh year and it is
ours forever," they say, and they are right. During these important seven
years they impregnate the plastic vital bodies of their charges with their
views by means of repetition. The repeated prayers, the time and tune of
the various chants, and the incense, all have a powerful effect on the
growing vital body. Nor does it matter that the ritual is in an unknown
tongue, for to the Ego this vibratory message is a divine color chant,
intelligible to all Spirits. Neither does it matter that the child repeats
like a parrot, without understanding, so long as it does repeat what is given
it. The more the better, for these esoteric vibrations are thereby
incorporated in its vital body before it sets, and remain with it through
life. Every time the Mass is intoned by the servants of the church in any
part of the world, the cumulative vibratory power of their effort stirs those
who have its line of force in their vital bodies in such a manner that they
are drawn to the church with a generally, irresistible force. This is on
the same principle that when a tuning fork is struck, others of identical
pitch commence to sing.
Some Catholics have turned against the Catholic church, but
subconsciously and at heart they have remained Catholic to their dying day,
for the vital body is exceedingly difficult to change, and the lines of
force build into it during its gestatory period are stronger than almost any
individual will.
It follows, therefore, that if we would change the tendency of the
world to pursue pleasure and sense gratification to the exclusion of religion,
we would do well to begin with the small children. If we gather them at
the altar and teach them to love God's house and incorporate certain
universal prayers and parts of the ritual in their forming vital bodies,
avoiding even the semblance of a "church supper," but cultivating in all who
enter the ideal of reverence for a holy place, we shall by degrees build
around the physical stone structure an invisible temple of Light and Life,
such as described by Manson in "The Servant in the House."
In the Rosicrucian Philosophy we are told that in the phraseology of the alchemists the Moon forces were spoken of as salt. Has this any significance with regard to the following quotation from Mark :49-50: "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltiness, wherehwith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another"?
Answer: Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. That was a
commandment in the Mosaic law, Judaism as we may call it, and was originated
by Jehovah. However, the salt has another and deeper significance. The idea
is that if the salt is put upon the sacrifice it causes a chemical fire,
and that was symbolical of that burning sensation we must feel by remorse
for misdeeds we have done. Every transgression shall be punished and
expiated by a certain sacrifice. The salt and burning of the sacrifice were
symbols of something better to come. The people at that time could not
themselves be living sacrifices. They could not have denied themselves
anything, but they did love their possessions very, very dearly. Many
children they wanted, and much land and much cattle, and therefore if the
cattle and the things that they prized most highly were taken from them on
account of sin and transgression, they felt it as they could not have felt
an injury done to themselves.
Thus this sacrifice was a sort of vicarious atonement, and it stood as
a symbol of the time later on when they should be a sacrifice themselves and
feel remorse for whatever wrong they had done. Then the sacrifice was not
accepted at the altar until it had been salted, and similarly the living
sacrifice will not be accepted on the altar of repentance until it has been
salted. That is, we must feel a burning anguish, remorse, and contrition
for every wrong we have done, and only when we have done that is the
sacrifice accepted. Then the sacrifice was burned by a divinely enkindled
fire. This indicates that after we have salted the living sacrifice of
ourselves with our tears of contrition, laying ourselves on the altar before
God, it shall come to pass that, "Though our sins be as scarlet they shall
be white as snow." The record will be wiped out from the life panorama.
Thus we cleanse ourselves, but the first requisite is that the sacrifice
must be salted with tears.
The salting of the sacrifices in ancient times may have had something
to do with the idea that Jehovah is the Spirit of the Moon and therefore
rules the chemical element salt, but the salt of the alchemist was not the
ordinary salt. That was the salt of tears and contrition, and the
alchemists did not profess to make base metal into gold, either. What they
proposed to do was to make the base elements of the body taken from the earth
into the gold of the soul, that golden wedding garment that shines around
every one who attains to spirituality and becomes a brighter light as he
lives a higher and nobler life.
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