As we look off into the starry dome of the heavens, we may see a picture
that is awe-inspiring, and the longer we gaze, the greater are the number of
stars which present themselves to view. Among them there are two bright stars
called by astronomers the lamps of the night. They are ever revolving about
the North or Pole Star, the mariner's guide. These two stars are the foremost
in a group called the Plow or Dipper, and are ever pointing the way to the
Pole Star, which is almost stationary and for that reason most reliable as a
friend to give direction to the sailor at sea. We admire the splendor of
these bright stars, and our eyes at once begin to trace the figure of the
Great Bear, of which they are a part.
Should we look through one of our telescopes at the stars which we admire,
we should be lost in a system of stars and worlds — worlds which man has
scarcely dreamed of, and which are many times greater in size than our tiny
earth. As we develop larger instruments and the lens carries us further into
the depths of space, the panorama becomes more wonderful. If a man-made
instrument has the power to penetrate so much farther than his limited
physical sight, imagine how much greater must be the picture of God's universe
to the man who can travel through these great distances. To the adept there is
no physical distance. The very thought will take him on spiritual wings to
visit a planet or a world, and his penetration is limited only by his
development. As he grows in spiritual consciousness, so will his power to
penetrate through space increase and the pictures become more awe-inspiring.
Materially minded man is too prone to believe that what he sees with his
eyes — the beauties of nature which surround him in the material world, the
hills, the trees, the flowers, sunshine and the clouds — constitute all there
is to his world. He cannot conceive of anything beyond what he can see, feel,
or hear. Even the life which presents itself through the telescope he accepts
as a part of his tiny universe. He fails to recognize the greatness of God's
world; he cannot understand its bigness, for he is lacking in reverence for
things beyond those which add to his comfort and his pleasure.
The astronomer with his wonderful instruments is unable to count all the
worlds or ascertain definitely whether these worlds are inhabited. He believes
that Mars is inhabited, but all attempts to communicate with this planet have
failed. But what we are most interested in is God's great picture gallery. We
have touched upon and admired the pictures of nature as man sees them with the
naked eye and with the assistance of the telescope, but the most wonderful
pictures are found through the use of vision more reliable than man with his
instruments can ever expect to develop, a sight which is latent in him, but
which he may again develop. This is the sight which he possessed in the
earlier periods of his existence before his vision was clouded by the dense
veils of matter. This spiritual sight is that which the ego possessed when as
a virgin spirit it was differentiated within God.
Man has a knowledge of right living and facilities for studying the seven
worlds and their methods of evolutionary development. If he grasps these
truths, not theoretically but practically, and makes them a part of his life
by living them, then he will slowly remove the veils which in his dip into
matter he has drawn about himself. He will then gradually regain his spiritual
state, which will enable him to see the pictures in God's great gallery that
we call the Memory of Nature. This true picture gallery of God is found in the
highest subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought. To be able to view the
great moving picture screen of the world and the light upon it in this region
it is necessary that man pass through several Initiations. His development
will then permit him to view this moving panorama of creation; nature's
pictures are ever moving. The modern moving picture reel is a wonderful
imitation of what the highly developed man sees in the records of the
universe.
Our beloved Elder Brothers have by this method of reading in the Memory of
Nature been able to pass on to us the great truths which are contained in the
"Cosmo-Conception." Max Heindel by making the necessary sacrifices and by
living a life of purity and loving service was able to remove the veils which
obscured his spiritual sight, and by the help of the Elder Brothers he was
permitted to view these pictures and impart to his readers more knowledge in
ten short years than many other advanced mystics or esotericists have done in a
lifetime.
Every formation of stone, every plant and animal, as well as man, is
recorded in some part of that great moving picture. Every event of its past
history from its very beginning is pictured there. Nothing is too small or
insignificant to prevent its record being imprinted upon that screen.
Let us sit down, close our eyes, and imagine what the sensations would be
like to have these pictures pass before us, showing the beginning of the
earth, the force of the first great cause, the fiery mist, then the
incrustation of the earth. Let us imagine what the pictures would be like, as
they pass before our mind's eye, of the darkened Saturn Period and its hot
mineral-like state.
Imagine the life of God in its work of development as it passed around the
seven globes, each globe a little more developed than the preceding, and then
the period of rest or chaos which must needs come between the time of
manifestation of each globe or period and that of the next. As we reach the
second period, called the Sun Period, imagine a blinding, illuminated, fiery
nebula in its constantly changing, constantly improving state under the
guidance of the Lords of Flame. In this period the Lords of Wisdom radiated
from their own bodies the germ of the vital body of man, which was to
interpenetrate his dense physical body that had been started in the Saturn
Period. Can we imagine such a body, which was developed from a mineral-like
state, becoming plantlike?
After the life wave of this period had accomplished its work by circling
seven globes, it again entered upon a period of rest or sleep. Note how
wonderful it is that all life, from its highest expression down to its lowest,
passes through its daytime and its nighttime.
We will now pass on with our moving panorama, and skim lightly over the
pictures pertaining to the formation of the world during the third or Moon
Period. Here we again find the mystical number seven. (See Diagram 8 in the "Cosmo-Conception.") This will give us an idea of the great scheme
of God, as the worlds are formed in cycles of seven; seven globes in each
period, and seven periods.
The Moon being of a watery nature, naturally water was the element added
in the Moon Period to the Saturn heat and the Sun fire. We may form an idea of
this period by taking a red-hot ball of iron and causing it to revolve at a
rapid rate while pouring water on it. A warm mist will rise in the atmosphere.
This describes somewhat the atmospheric conditions found in the Moon Period.
The Lords of Wisdom co-operated with the Lords of Individuality, who now took
charge of the evolving life wave. Man-in-the-making had reached the stage
where embryonic sense organs and glands were developing. In the third
revolution of the Moon Period the Lords of Individuality radiated from
themselves the substance from which man, with the assistance of these great
ones, built his desire body.
Previous to this the virgin spirits which started in the Saturn Period
were conscious of the pictures in the Memory of Nature which were moving about
them, but as veil after veil was added, the pictures faded. For instance, in
the Sun Period the addition of the vital body to some extent began to obscure
the spiritual light. It was like hanging a veil between man and the sun; the
light was slightly dimmed. In the Moon Period the germ of the desire body was
added, which gave a desire for action. The evolving body of the virgin spirit
was given the power to move, but by the addition of the desire body another
veil was added, and the light of the spirit was obscured to a still greater
degree. It was now encased in a three-fold body.
This loss of the spiritual sight now caused the spirit to turn within for
the light which it had lost. Then the before mentioned picture consciousness
was turned inward, and individualization began. The Moon beings were strange,
animal-like creatures. Max Heindel describes them as having a baggy body, very
similar to the placenta in its development between the fourth and sixth weeks.
They had the appearance of being suspended by strings in the atmosphere, just
as the embryo hangs in the placenta by the umbilical cord.
The vegetation, as we may observe in our moving picture, was growing to an
enormous size; the steam-laden atmosphere was conducive to rapid growth.
We emerged from the long sleep of a cosmic night after the Moon Period. As
we stated in the preceding section, a cosmic night must come after each
period. We will now skim lightly over the views of the fourth or Earth Period.
Like the human spirit, which must find its growth and expression through
successive lives in the physical body, so is the earth the body of a Great
Spirit seeking its development through these successive periods.
We can only touch upon the principal scenes in this great picture gallery.
Imagine how long a time a man may spend viewing pictures when he passes long
rows of paintings in one of our art galleries. He must pass quickly, stopping
to admire only the pictures which appeal to his artistic sense. Similarly must
we unroll the film of God's great universe, and touch only on the things which
interest us most.
In the fourth or Earth Period we find four elements. In the first or Saturn
Period there was but fire; in the Sun Period we had fire and air; in the Moon
Period we had three elements, for moisture was then added, giving us a warm,
misty atmosphere. In this fourth picture we add the element of earth. This is
the period of form, when the Lords of Form hold sway.
These world periods are divided into seven sub-periods or revolutions,
which according to the Rosicrucian teachings are named for the seven planets —
Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan — because the conditions
on the globes of these periods were similar to the natures of these planets.
In viewing the pictures of the earliest revolution of the Earth Period we
find the Saturnian conditions existing. But there was a difference between the
Saturn Period and the Saturn revolution of the Earth Period, for the first had
only the forces of Saturn in it, while in the latter there were present the
Saturn, Sun, and Moon forces, and man was no longer a heat being as in the
Saturn Period. Currents of air and water were added to the heat of the body,
and man began to harden and become mineral-like. The globes at this time were
still in a fiery condition, and the evolution of the human spirit was confined
to the polar regions of the sun, of which the earth was still a part.
In the Polarian Epoch the body of man gradually assumed a form, and the
sense of feeling was slowly developed, which was made possible through the
organ now known as the pineal gland. This organ protruded through the top of
the peculiar bag-shaped body. This bag-shaped body was not suspended by
etheric strings as in the Moon Period. The string was missing, and we find in
its place the organ mentioned above as the pineal gland, but this organ was at
that time much larger than the tiny pea-shaped organ of today. Through this
organ force currents were sent to the region where the heart is now found. In
this epoch man's sense of feeling extended all over his body. He sensed heat
and cold through the organ which protruded from the head.
In our next picture we will observe the life in what is termed the
Hyperborean Epoch. Here we see the forces of light and air operating, and the
bag-shaped body of man became filled with light. He then began to breathe,
which started currents in the body that later developed into nerves. In this
epoch man's dense body was permeated by the vital body, which caused the
former to rapidly increase in size. Man was then plantlike. At the end of this
epoch the earth was thrown off from the sun and began to revolve about the
parent body.
At this period the panoramic view of this picture undergoes a decided
change. We are no longer viewing it from the sun but from the earth, which was
then becoming encrusted. As it was then separated from the sun, its great heat
began to disappear. It cooled, and vegetation appeared upon its hot, steaming
surface. We may now also observe Mars, which had previously been thrown off
from the sun. The currents of air caused by the revolving of the earth cooled
the minerals, and life on the earth began to make rapid changes.
By this time the picture shows the Lemurian Epoch. Venus, Mercury, and the
other planets had been expelled from the sun, and we now see them revolving
about it. Human beings by the separation of the earth from the sun had lost
much of their inner illumination. From this trance-like state man then began to
develop an inner picture consciousness. He also developed the consciousness of
sound. At the end of the Hyperborean Epoch man possessed a two-fold vehicle,
the physical and vital bodies. At this period of the earth's development the
moon was cast off from the earth, and the currents which in the Moon
revolution had started the nervous system now became the nerves, and were
connected with the embryonic sense organs. Then a third vehicle, the desire
body, was further developed.
In the Lemurian Epoch man became animal-like. There came to his assistance
at this time great beings who were the humanity of the Sun Period, the
Archangels, and the Lords of Mind, who were the humanity of the Saturn Period.
They assisted the Lords of From with their work, and gave the germinal mind.
Heretofore we have said little about the stragglers who failed to keep up
with the forward march of the pioneers. In every life wave we find the
straggler. At the present time we find imperfection in the mineral; the weeds
are imperfect plants; the mongrel is an imperfect animal. The anthropoids were left
behind in the Saturn and Sun Periods. In the different revolutions of the
Earth Period this segregation has continued. At the end of each epoch the
human race must pass an examination, which is well described in the 25th
chapter of St. Matthew, where Christ gives a description of the last judgment
as follows:
31. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels
with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory:
32. "And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33. "And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the
left.
34. "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world."
The sheep are the chosen ones who at the close of each eopch are carried
forward into the next period. The goats are the stragglers, and may be likened
to the boy who plays truant and stays away from school; when the final
examinations come, he is left behind to stay in the same class a second term,
while his comrades who were faithful in their attendance and work pass on to
the higher grade.
These stragglers had to be left behind whenever the life wave emerged
from a cosmic night. The most progressive who were in the advance line were taken forward into the next revolution, but the stragglers were left. They
will, however, have opportunities to catch up with the pioneers sometime,
somewhere.
Our pictures as we advance into the later epochs of the earth period
become more interesting and the scenes more familiar. The vegetable kingdom
appears more natural to us, although not developed to the stage in which we
find it at this present day.
Again turning to the picture of the earth during the Lemurian Epoch, we
find the atmosphere still hot and filled with a dense fog, with man and animal
living in spots on the earth which had somewhat hardened and cooled. Both were
of enormous size, and vegetation grew to great heights. Ferns were as large
and massive as the trees are today.
Man had developed the sense of hearing and sight was just beginning to
develop in two sensitive spots, which the sun, faintly shining through the
clouds, was sensitizing and which later became the eyes.
III. The Lucifer Spirits and
the Children of the Mist
We now come to the part of God's great picture reel which depicts the
earth in the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch. Man was gradually taking an
upright position. The spinal column was becoming hardened, and the blood was
taking in the iron which was supplied by the Martian influence. The ego, which
up to that time had worked upon its vehicles from without, was gradually
drawing within, and man began to sense things outside of him. At this period
he was wholly unconscious of his physical body. He was awake, however, in the
desire world and could at that stage commune directly with the gods.
The sound of the sighing of the winds, the storms, the rushing of the
waters, were to him the voices of his gods. He was by the sacrifice of part of
his creative faculty then developing a larynx which permitted him to make
sounds. He was learning the use of this organ by imitating the rustling of the
leaves and the noise of the winds. The same creative faculty was also building
a brain, although he had only the most crude faculty of observation. This
Lemurian man had no eyes, but the two sensitive spots previously mentioned
were developing, and as the light of the sun, which showed very dimly through
the fog, became stronger, these sensitive spots eventually with the help of
the sunlight developed into eyes.
At this period of man's involution a class of beings entered into the
picture who were to take a very prominent part in the shaping of man's future,
the Lucifer spirits, who were fallen angels, a class of stragglers from the
Moon Period. These spirits were halfway between man and the angels in their
evolution, and must find an avenue through which they could gain knowledge.
Their evolution depended upon what they could gain through a lower life wave,
and as they did not understand the building of a physical body, they could not
function as low as man, who had a physical body. By helping man, however, to
develop a brain these Lucifer spirits knew that they would create an avenue
through which they could help him in his evolution and by so doing they would
also gain much experience and growth for themselves.
It has ever been and is still a law in nature for all beings, no matter in
what life wave we may seek, be they the great lords of creation, the
archangels, or angels, Lucifer spirits, group spirits, or virgin spirits, that
as they reach downward to help or guide the lower beings or life waves,
assisting them in their development and growth, these lifters in turn gain
experience and grow in proportion to the help given. We may follow this law
down into the very lowest kingdoms — all classes are under it. The Lucifer
spirits saw an opportunity to help humanity, and even though by so doing they
cause man to fall into generation, which has caused much suffering, still they
showed him the path through which both they and he could gain the greatest
amount of experience. Experience is the path of knowledge, even though it
must needs bring suffering. To man this fall into sin was truly the opening of
greater vistas of worth. To him these seemingly evil Lucifer spirits were
truly the light bearers.
While man was unconscious of the outer world, he could, however,
communicate with these Lucifer spirits in the ethereal world. Through them he
was taught the difference between good and evil. By them he was tempted and
led into generation. While he was unconscious of the earth and his physical
surroundings, he perceived the presence of his brothers spiritually, very much
as man of today, who has but a slight development of the sixth sense, can feel
and sense an invisible presence, and feels confident that at times some
discarnate being is near him which he is unable to see with the physical eyes.
Similarly was the Lemurian conscious of his brother. The conditions at that
time were reversed from what they are now. Man could see and commune with his
brother, as well as with the higher beings in the desire world, but in the
physical world he was in a dream state, for his physical eyes had not yet been
opened. On the other hand, man of today has his physical eyes opened and can
see his brothers in the physical body, but his spiritual eyes are blinded — he
has lost the faculty of seeing in the desire world.
We will now turn to the portion of our picture which covers the first and
second parts of the Atlantean Epoch. We still find the atmosphere filled with
a thick fog; it was possible to see but a few feet away. Man's figure, which
was then upright, was massive; his upper body was very large, with enormous
shoulders and long arms; his head was small in proportion to his body, the
forehead sloping back from a much flattened nose; the jaw was massive and the
neck heavy. This early Atlantean man had not yet acquired the use of his feet
for walking as man does today, but he moved by leaping, similar to the
progression of the kangaroo.
During the earlier parts of the Atlantean Period the earth was frequently
visited by floods, which caused man and animal to leave the lowlands.
Gradually, as the fog condensed, the lowlands became covered with water,
driving all living things to seek safety by climbing to higher points. This
migrating to the higher lands and the condensing of the fogs enabled man to
see the sun shining through the clouds, and also further developed his eye.
Then Adam beheld his mate, Eve.
At this stage in man's development he could see as well in the spiritual
world as in the physical. This was necessary at this period, for he had but
the germ of the mental body. He now had a three-fold body, a physical, a
desire, and a vital body, but only the rudiments of a brain; therefore he must
still be guided by the divine leaders with whom he could commune in the desire
world. When the Atlantean looked at his brother, he at once recognized the
soul, and its attributes. As the fog receded to the lowlands, it caused great
floods. The more advanced of mankind, whom we read of symbolically in the
Bible as Noah, leader of the Semites, and his family, had developed lungs with
which to breathe the clear air above the fog-laden atmosphere, and they were
the first to see the rainbow. Man was no longer a childlike member of God's
family, for as he developed memory, he became ambitious, and self-hood began
to make its appearance, which divided mankind into races.
As we reach the third period of Atlantis, we find mankind divided into
nations, and kings were worshiped, not for their goodness and love but for
their lordliness and for their esoteric power, which, however, some of them used
in a most depraved and selfish manner. Temples were erected for the use of
black magic, which the priests practiced on the people in order to keep them
in subjection. Arrogance and brutality ruled, for the ego of man was yet weak,
and the animal nature, the desire body, ruled the child mind of the people of
that epoch. This caused the Atlanteans to develop the faculty of cunning, and
led to great wickedness. The most brutal of all the seven Atlantean races were
the Turanians, the fourth Atlantean race. Black magic was practiced by this
race in a most revolting manner. The lower classes were oppressed most cruelly
by those who were supposed to be the leaders. Vanity and outward display were
the ruling fashion.
The next or fifth race, the original Semites were the first to make the
effort to develop thought. Although very primitive, yet they made an effort to
regulate their desires. These people were most zealous to keep the race pure
by marriage only in the same family. This was for the purpose of keeping their
spiritual contact with the invisible worlds. They were at that time still in
conscious touch with spiritual leaders in the desire world. But as the mental
faculties developed, the pineal gland (which we described in our previous
sections as being the organ of orientation that protruded from the bag-like
body of man in the Polarian Epoch, but which as the body developed and man
began to walk upright receded into the head) through which man contacts the
spiritual realms, drew deeper into the head as the gray matter thickened,
thereby preventing contact with the spiritual leaders.
A similar condition may be noted at the present day: in the lower phases
of evolution, for instance, in those that are
still unenlightened, we find the spiritual faculties still developed to some
extent, while in the case of the purely intellectual type, the mental giant of
the Western world, we often find the spiritual scoffer who will not believe
what he cannot prove on the material plane. Not alone was the spiritual sight
sacrificed as the brain grew, dome-like, over the pineal gland, but the abuses
of the generative faculty caused this tiny gland to atrophy and become much
smaller.
We now pass on to the picture which is perhaps the most familiar to us,
that of the current Fifth Epoch. The man whom we have pictured up to this
present period was expressing himself through a fourfold body, a physical,
vital, desire, and partially developed mental body. But as man evolves and
necessity calls for them, changes take place. Man is now forming the matrix
for a new body, the soul body, that shining raiment in which he is to meet
Christ in the air, the body in which he will again meet his spiritual teachers
and commune with them direct. This body is now shaping in many who are working
to purify their lives and who are beginning to sense the necessity of living
not for self but for all. As the desire body is mastered and the physical body
purified, and as the two higher ethers are developed, this new soul body
shapes itself.
IV. Biblical Correspondences
and the Darwin Theory
We have previously touched lightly upon the principal points on the path
of evolution of the earth and man to the present period. We will now see how
this connects with the story given to us in the Bible.
Genesis, 1st chapter, 2nd verse: "And the earth was without form, and
void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." How well this describes the
dark Saturn Period.
God gathered the waters together and made the sea, separating the land
from the water, in the period of the world's formation which we speak of as
the Moon Period.
Comparing these different days of creation with the Epochs, the formless,
dark first day of creation corresponds to the Polarian Epoch. Man was yet
mineral-like. When God commanded the light to shine and the vegetation to
grow, the vegetable kingdom was formed, which occurred in the Hyperborean
Epoch. God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature
that hath life." This portion of the Bible story of creation refers to the
fire-fog of the Lemurian Epoch, when man's body was beginning to harden. We
have then the evening and the morning of the fifth day, when God let the earth
bring forth creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things. In the
26th verse, it is recorded that God said: "Let us make man in our own image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." 27th verse: "God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and
female created He them." We have here the sixth day. These verses refer to the
Atlantean Epoch.
After man became a reasoning being, having a mind with which to think, God
gave him dominion over the lower kingdoms. After God had turned the lower
kingdoms over to man, God rested; not as the literal religionists would have
Him do, namely, sit down and refuse to work, with a man servant and a maid
servant to serve Him. God was in the same position then as a mother is who has
brought her boys and girls to the stage of puberty, watching over and caring
for them until they are old enough to be responsible for their own acts. So
did God turn man out of the child garden of play, the Garden of Eden, and made
him responsible. God was then released from the task of directing all his
activities. However, if He really ceased His work for but one instant, all the
world would fall to pieces.
The seventh day of creation corresponds to the Fifth Epoch, the epoch in
which we are living at the present time, and in which man has assumed the
responsibility for his own future. God has placed this work upon man's
shoulders, but the Creator is not resting. The formation of the world is still
going on. Man has been given the work of caring for, work with, and perfecting
the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Naturally, as a man works with
these lower life waves, as he digs the metals and pumps the oil out of the
earth, refining them and working them over he helps them in their evolution.
His development of the various species in the vegetable kingdom is helping to
perfect this life wave. Luther Burbank was a veritable god in this third life
wave, the plant kingdom. He has developed some of the lowliest species,
raising their vibrations so that they have become truly transformed in size
and beauty. Man has cultivated the tiny wild potato and now brought it to such
a size and mellowness that it has become one of the principal staple foods.
His work with the animal kingdom has also done wonders, even though he has
sometimes been a cruel master who has used his power over this second life
wave to cause great suffering. Still he has helped the animals to evolve. But
has this cruel work been effective? Could this life wave not have been helped
to a greater extent through more love? It has been demonstrated that the child
will respond more quickly to love than to the rod. The gardener who loves his
work is the most successful, so why should not the animal respond to love more
quickly than to brutality?
Another wonderful picture reel which we must not fail to look upon, and
which is a proof of the path of evolution that man has traveled, may be found
in the life of the fetus. We find depicted in this tiny form the seven stages
through which we have followed man in his development from the Saturn Period,
through the various other periods and epochs. This fetal life also
corresponds to the human life wave in its development during the seven days of
creation as described in the first and second chapters of Genesis.
Let us follow the formation of the human embryo and see how the wonderful
life within the womb compares with the outer evolution of man. The human ovum
is one tiny cell, which when fertilized is converted into a compact ball which
divides into many small cells. This may be termed the mineral or Saturn Period
of its existence. This new life by the middle of the fourth week assumes a
plantlike appearance. This stage is then followed by a tadpole phase, which
later is superseded by a reptilian aspect. In one of the primitive stages of
the embryo it is bag-shaped, similar to the form of man's body in the Moon
Period. This bag-like form is suspended by the umbilical cord. In the Moon
Period this cord was of an etheric nature. Max Heindel describes the Moon
beings in "The Web of Destiny" as follows: "Fancy, now, in that
far-off time the firmament as one immense placenta from which there depended
billions of umbilical cords, each with its fetal appendage....These
umbilical cords and fetal appendages were molded from the moist desire stuff
by the emotions of the lunar angels."
During the fifth week the embryo begins to grow a tail, which becomes one-sixth as long as its body during this period. It then takes on a decidedly
reptilian appearance, similar to that of the lizard, also having gill clefts.
This foetal form is also surrounded by water. Between the seventh and eighth
weeks the reptile has changed its form. The tail has atrophied and the head
has taken on a pugdog-like appearance, with short arms and legs. The hands and
feet are paws, with fingers and toes developing. From the tenth week the
fetus begins to take on a human form. The nose begins to develop. The man-in-
the-making at this period develops beyond the animal and becomes all human,
reaching its perfection in the seventh month. Here we again find the
perfection of God's work. At the end of the sixth cosmic day man was a self-
conscious being. He was required to take up his own work in the seventh and
free God from the exclusive care of him.
One more picture, which is of vital interest, is that of a tiny physical
atom which is mentioned in Revelation, 20th chapter, 12th verse: "And I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged
out of those things which were written in the books, according to their
works." This book of life is a tiny seed atom within man's body, the only atom
which is permanent. It is found in the apex of the left ventricle of the
heart. We are told in the "Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception" that the blood is the
direct vehicle of the spirit, and being the highest physical expression of the
ego it is naturally in closest touch with the Memory of Nature. As the blood
is forced through the heart, it engraves the pictures of the life of the man,
hour after hour, upon this tiny atom, making a perfect record of his life.
Not alone does this infinitesimal atom record the present life, but it has
etched upon it the pictures of all the man's past lives.
From the time when the child draws its first breath, when the foramen
ovale is closed and the blood is forced through the heart and lungs, the air
taken into the lungs impresses the pictures of the surroundings upon this atom
in the heart in a manner similar to that by which an impression is made upon
the film of a camera. This impress remains all through life. The rupture of
the connection between this permanent seed atom and the heart causes the
latter to stop its beating, which ends in death. During the three and one-half
days immediately following this rupture all the pictures which have been
impressed upon this atom are etched through the vital body into the desire
body. This, by the way, is a most critical time for the ego, and it is of the
greatest value to it that the body be left undisturbed. When the ego's life in
the desire world is finished, and the ego on its return to earth life brings
this wonderful record with it. It is the physical seed atom which draws to
itself the atoms which constitute the new physical body.
A word here about the Darwin theory of evolution and its correlation with
the Roscicrucian doctrine is in order:
Darwin was the pioneer scientist in orginating and developing the
materialistic theory of evolution, and in so doing he displayed great genius
and insight. He blazed the trail which succeeding scientists have ever since
been following to a greater or lesser degree.
Darwin's theory was primarily based on the origin of species through
"natural selection" and their development through "survival of the fittest."
Natural selection is spoken of by the Rosicrucians as Epigenesis, namely the
power of the spirit to originate new causes. Darwin was entitled to much
credit for the discovery of this principle in nature, although the esotericist
has been in possession of this knowledge for ages.
Natural selection or Epigenesis is responsible for the gradual improvement
of the bodies in which man functions and also the improvement of the
environment in which he lives. Darwin's theory of the "survival of the
fittest" is merely a self-evident fact in all nature. Darwin left out of
account, however, the spiritual origin and nature of man, which is of course
the most serious defect in his theory. As stated in the preceding pages, man
is primarily a spark of God, a three-fold spirit making an evolutionary
pilgrimage through matter for the purpose of obtaining added self-
consciousness and new powers. A knowledge of this fact alone makes evolution
rational and understandable.
The Rosicrucians state emphatically that man has never been an animal. He
has neither descended from nor ascended from the animals. The idea that he has
done so is an unfortunate circumstance in connection with Darwin's version of
evolution. This is the bone of contention among the Fundamentalists at the
present time. Science regards an animal merely as a mass of living matter. It
does not know that the animal is ensouled by a virgin spirit as a lower stage
of development than we. Man has never been a mere living mass of matter
without a soul. He is and always has been a spirit. But there was a time in
the prehistoric past when he inhabited animal-like bodies. At a certain stage
in our history a small section of the Egos of our life wave began to straggle
away from the main body and degenerate. These stragglers have become
anthropoid apes. But we have never passed through the anthropoid stage. The
apes are degenerate men. When the church people get this idea, the greater
part of their objections to the teaching of evolution in the schools will
without doubt disappear.
Darwin presented the material facts of evolution in such a way that they
could be grasped and accepted in the materialistic age in which he lived. In
so doing he served a great purpose. But it is necessary that his work be
supplemented by a statement of the spiritual facts connected with evolution,
and this esoteric science is doing.
How pathetic is the struggle of the anti-evolutionist to the esoteric
scientist, who can see with the X-ray sight, who has positive proof of
evolution, who can observe the picture reels of the microcosm as well as of
the macrocosm, and who can follow the records of man through many lives! How
absurd this struggle is to such a one, in which a few men who are limited in
their vision are making an attempt to restrict the religious thought of free
America, and who would dictate to the world what it shall and what it shall
not believe! One great benefit, however, will be derived from the struggle
over evolution: If the fundamentalists could but see the effect which their
fight against evolution will have upon humanity, they would know that they are
being used as instruments by the Great Ones who are guiding us behind the
scenes, to bring about a national interest in evolution. People are now
reading Darwin and comparing him with the book of Genesis who never thought of
it before, and they are seizing upon any book which deals with the subject.
The result will be that many will become converts to the very doctrines that
the fundamentalists are attempting to ban by law. Thus we may see that the
anti-evolution controversy which is creating such vast interest throughout the
entire world, is truly a cloud that has a silver lining.
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