As Probationers in various places have banded themselves together
to study Astro-Diagnosis and Astro-Therapy with a view to forming Healing
Centers when they shall have become sufficiently grounded in these sciences,
it may be well to give a few suggestions for the conduct of such centers.
In the first place we must remember that whatever is to be done is
for Christ's sake, and devotional exercises at the commencement of classes
are an absolute necessity in order to balance the intellectual side of the
work. Let us remember that the Christ is now imprisoned in the earth for our
sake, bearing the heavy burden of the earth so that we may have proper
conditions for our evolution; that disease is the result of ignorance of
cosmic laws, hence a retarding factor in evolution and therefore a cause of
prolongation of the Christ's imprisonment; and that when we alleviate human
suffering we are at the same time decreasing the suffering of Christ and
hastening the day of His liberation.
Devotional exercises are a powerful means of putting us in tune with
the Christ. Through them we gain an intuitional faculty whereby we feel
the suffering of others, and at the same time we find the way to ease their
pain as Parsifal did the cause of Amfortas' suffering when he was in the
garden with Kundry and there realized how he might heal the stricken king.
So first and foremost, let us have devotional exercised, reading from the
Bible with reference to how Christ healed the sick and comforted the
suffering. Perhaps a few comments to drive home the lesson, would be well.
Take The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, or anything else of
a thoroughly devotional nature, and then turn to the study of the human body,
for a knowledge of anatomy is an absolute essential. The body is the temple
for the indwelling Spirit, and as it is necessary for an architect to know
how to prop up the pillars of a church, when the wear and tear of time have
caused the foundation to crumble, so that new material may replace that
which has decayed to make the edifice strong and useful again, so also must
we know how to strengthen the various parts of the living temple with which
we are to deal. There is a book called The Story of the Living Temple, by
Rossiter, which treats of the body in a spiritual manner and will service
admirably as an aid to a higher conception while using the ordinary
textbooks.
When taking up a horoscope for analysis, be sure you do not use the
figures for Probationers attending the meetings, or their close relatives.
For just as students in a medical college often by suggestion develop the
symptoms of the diseases they are studying, so also members of the class are
apt to suffer from neglect of the above precaution. Moreover, when a
Probationer is ill and applies to the Center for healing, he or she may not
be admitted to the classes while in ill health, for it is absolutely
impossible to avoid accidental mention of symptoms from which such a one may
suffer, and thus the disease may be aggravated in this manner.
If letters of fire that would burn themselves into the consciousness
of the reader were obtainable, we would spare no effort to procure them for
the purpose of warning students on some particular points in connection with
the practice of Medical Astrology; these are:
Never tell a patient a discouraging fact.
Never tell him when impending crises are due.
Never predict sickness at a certain time.
Never, never predict death.
It is a grave mistake,
almost a crime, to tell sick persons anything discouraging, for it robs them
of strength that should he husbanded with the utmost care to facilitate
recovery. It is also wrong to suggest sickness to a well person, for it
focuses the mind on a specific disease at a certain time, and such a
suggestion is liable to cause sickness. It is a well-known fact that many
students in medical colleges feel the symptoms of every disease they study,
and suffer greatly in consequence of auto-suggestion, but the idea of
impending disease implanted by one in whom the victim has faith is much more
dangerous. Therefore, it behooves the medical astrologer to be very cautious.
If you cannot say something encouraging, be silent.
This warning applies with particular force when treating patients
having Taurus or Virgo rising or the Sun or Moon in those signs. These
positions predispose the mind to center on disease, often in a most
unwarranted manner. The Taurean fears sickness to an almost insane degree,
and prediction of disease is fatal to his nature. The Virgoans court
disease, in order to gain sympathy, and though professing to long for
recovery, they actually delight in probing the matter to the depths; they
will plead ability to stand full knowledge and profess that it will help them;
but if the practitioner allows himself to be enticed by their protestations,
and does tell them, they wilt like a flower. They are the most difficult
people to help in any case, and extra care should be taken not to aggravate
their chances by admissions of the nature indicated. Some students have a
morbid desire to know the time of their own death, and probe into this
matter in a most unwarranted manner; but no matter how they may seek to
deceive themselves there are very few who have the mental and moral stamina
to live life in the same manner, if they knew with absolute certainty that
on a certain date their earthly existence would be terminated. This is one
of the points most wisely hidden until we are able to see on both sides of the
veil, and we do wrong, no matter what our ground, to seek to wrest that
knowledge from the horoscope.
In the past when our efforts in behalf of the sick were necessarily
restricted to members on account of lack of help in the office the questions
sometimes asked: "How may I help a sick friend?" Though we are now
prepared to render aid from Headquarters to "whosoever will" some, it is
important to impress upon probationers of the great opportunity which is
theirs by virtue of the connection they have established with the Teacher.
Healing is accomplished principally by Probationers who "live the life" under
direction of the Elder Brothers; and application to them, written with pen
and ink, whether directed through Headquarters or to a Probationer,
invariably evokes a response.
The Elder Brothers know how to use the law to the best advantage,
but cannot work contrary to it nor do more than the material furnished them
admits, physical sickness may be overcome by spiritual power, but a certain
amount of this power is required. It is a law of physics that a number of
coals must be heaped together and sufficient oxygen furnished in order to
make a fire. Christ said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there will I be among them."
Association of Probationers in Center of Healing furnishes the
material in which the Elder Brothers may kindle the Spiritual Fire required
to heal physical, moral, and mental ailments. Singlehanded there is small
change of doing good, but in numbers there is strength, particularly if all
are fortified with a knowledge of diagnosis from the horoscope and how to
apply treatment at propitious times.
On Holy Night the spiritual power in the Sun culminates, pouring out
a benediction upon the air. From the 25th of December to the 25th of June
the physical activities are in the ascendant, gradually gathering force
which culminates at the Summer Solstice; and then blesses man physically
with the things needed for his material sustenance. During that time the
spiritual activities are difficult to inaugurate, and therefore we waited
quietly until the turn recently, holding the first evening healing service
on Tuesday, the 23rd of June (1914), at half past seven, when the Moon was
in the cardinal sign of Cancer. And in the future a healing service will be
held in the Pro-Ecclesia each week at that hour on a day when the Moon is in
one of the cardinal signs. We decided to have these services that we might
utilize the little Pro-Ecclesia to the very utmost, and thus earn the
privilege of having the Ecclesia, too. This was approved by the Teacher,
and he suggested that the healing service be held when the Moon is in the
cardinal signs. But we want to go a step further in our efforts to secure
efficiency; and this is where we want to add the help of every earnest
student in The Rosicrucian Fellowship.
There is a passage in the ritual used at The Rosicrucian Fellowship services which says: "One coal cannot make a fire, but where a number of
coals are gathered together the heat which is latent in each may be kindled
into a flame emitting light and warmth. It is in obedience to the same law
of Nature that we have gathered here tonight, that by massing our spiritual
aspirations we may light and keep ablaze the beacon light of true spiritual
fellowship." The power of numbers is insignificant in the world of
physical existence, compared with the power of the same number in the
spiritual realm. Here additions to the power of a community count as one,
two, three, four, etc., but there the power increases in a proportion that
might be likened to the square; two, four, eight, sixteen, etc., for the
first twelve who attend a spiritual service. The thirteenth then would bring
it up into another higher realm of the spiritual universe. For the sake of
illustration, we may count the increase there by the power of three,
nine, twenty-seven, etc., as so on. Thus you will see how important even the
very weakest one among us may become when it is a question of massing our spiritual aspirations. Nor can there by any questions of the powerful
influence that will have on the sick.
To secure the help of all earnest students and give them the privilege
of helping, we will publish in the Echoes each month the date on which
the healing services will be held, and if each student will sit down in his
or her own home at half past seven, directing their thoughts to Mt.
Ecclesia, to the little Pro-Ecclesia, where the symbol of the Invisible
Helpers will then be unveiled, the love, sympathy, and strength thus given
these workers will enable them to do a much greater service for humanity;
each one of course them having part in that work. The symbol of the
Invisible Helpers upon which we concentrate at Mt. Ecclesia is a snow-white
cross, with the seven red roses and a pure white one in the center; the
usual stars (the rays), goes out from the cross, and the background is
blue, the whole being beautifully illuminated, thus making it an apt emblem
of the effulgence of that soul body wherein these workers travel. It will
not be necessary to make corrections in time for your place of residence,
because the Sun will gather all the aspirations as he goes along, and when
the rays at the proper angle arrive at Mt. Ecclesia the influence directed
here will certainly transmit itself and unite with our aspirations taking
place at this time and help us in the work. (Note: The time of this healing service has since been changed to half past six.)
Amid all the uncertainties which are the characteristics of this
world, there is but one certainty — Death. At one time or another, after a
short or long life, comes this termination to the material phase of our
existence, which is a birth into a new world, as that which we term "birth"
is, in the beautiful words of Wordsworth, a forgetting of the past.
Birth and death may therefore be regarded has the shifting of man's
activity from one world to another, and it depends upon our own position
whether we designate such a change birth or death. If he enters the world
in which we live, we call it birth; if he leaves our plane of existence to
enter another world, we call it death. To the individual concerned,
however, the passage from one world to another is but as a removal to
another city here; he lives, unchanged; only his exterior surroundings and
condition are changed.
The passage from one world to another is often attended by more or
less unconsciousness, like sleep, as Wordsworth says, and for the reason our
consciousness may be fixed upon the world we have left. In infancy heaven
lies about us in actual fact; children are all clairvoyant for a longer
or shorter time after birth, and whoever passes out at death still beholds
the material world for some time. If we pass out in the full vigor of
physical manhood or womanhood, with strong times of family, friends, or other
interests, the dense world will continue to attract our attention for a
much longer time than if death occurred at a "ripe old age," when the earthy
ties have been severed before the change we call death. This is on the
same principle that the seed clings to the flesh of unripe fruit, while it
is easily and cleanly detached from the ripe fruit. Therefore it is easier
to die at an advanced age than in youth.
The unconsciousness which usually attends the change of the
incoming spirit at birth, and the outgoing spirit at death, is due to our
inability to adjust our focus instantly, and is similar to the
difficulty we experience when passing from a darkened room to the street on a
light, sunny day, or vice versa. Under those conditions some time elapses
before we can distinguish objects about us; so with the newly born and the
newly dead, both have to readjust their viewpoint to their new condition.
When the moment arrives which marks the completion of life in
the physical world, the usefulness of the dense body has ended, and the
Ego withdraws from it by way of the head, taking with it the mind and the
desire body, as it does every night during sleep, but now the vital body is
useless, so that, too, is withdrawn, and when the silver cord which united
the higher to the lower vehicles snaps it can never be repaired.
We remember that the vital body is composed of ether, superimposed
upon the dense bodies of plant, animal, and man during life. Ether is
physical matter, and therefore has weight. The only reason why the scientists
cannot weigh it is because they are unable to gather a quantity and put it
on a scale. But when it leaves the dense body at death a diminution in
weight will take place in every instance, showing that something having
weight, yet invisible, leaves the dense body at that time.
Physical science knows that whatever the power which moves the heart,
it does not come from without, but is inside the heart. The esoteric
scientists sees a chamber in the left ventricle, near the apex, where a
little atom swims in a sea of the highest ether. The force in that atom,
like the forces of all other atoms, is the undifferentiated Life of God;
without that force the mineral could not form matter into crystals, the
plant, animal, and human kingdoms would be unable to form their bodies. The
deeper we go the plainer it becomes to us how fundamentally true it is that
in God we live, more, and have our being.
That atom is called the "seed atom." The force within it moves the
heart and keeps the organism alive. All the other atoms in the whole body
must vibrate in tune with this atom. The forces of the seed-atom have been
immanent in every dense body every possessed by the particular Ego to whom it
is attached, and upon its plastic tablet are inscribed all the experiences
of that particular Ego in all its lives. When we return to God, when we
shall have become one in God once more, that record, which is peculiarly
God's record, will still remain, and thus we shall retain our individuality.
Our experiences we transmute into faculties; the evil is transmuted into
good and the good we retain as power for higher good, but the record of the
experiences is of God and in God; in the most intimate sense.
The "silver cord" which unites the higher and lower vehicles
terminates at the seed atom in the heart. When material life comes to an
end in the natural manner the forces in the seed atom disengage themselves,
pass outward along the pneumogastric nerve, the back of the head and along
the silver cord, together with the higher vehicles. It is this rupture in
the heart which marks physical death, but the connecting silver cord is
not broken at once, in some cases not for several days.
When the Ego is coming down to rebirth it descends
through the Second Heaven. There is is helped by the Creative Hierarchies
to build an archetype for its coming body, and it instills into that
archetype a life that will last for a certain number of years. These
archetypes are hollow spaces and they have a singing, vibratory motion which
draws the material of the Physical World into them and sets all the atoms
in the body vibrating in tune with a little atom that is in the heart,
called the seed-atom, which, like a tuning fork, gives the pitch to all the
rest of the material in the body. At the time when the full life has been
lived on the earth the vibrations in the archetype cease, the seed-atom is
withdrawn, the dense body goes to decay and the desire body, wherein the
Ego functions in Purgatory and in the First Heaven, takes upon itself the
shape of the physical body. Then the man commences his work of expiating his
evil habits and deeds in Purgatory and assimilating the good of his life in
the First Heaven.
The foregoing describes the ordinary conditions when
the course of nature is undisturbed, but the case of the suicide is different.
He has taken away the seed-atom, but the hollow archetype still keeps on
vibrating. Therefore he feels as if he were hollowed out and experiences a
gnawing feeling inside that can be best likened to the pangs of intense
hunger. Material for the building of a dense body is all around him, but
seeing that he lacks the gauge of the seed atom, it is impossible for him
to assimilate that matter and build it into a body. This dreadful hollowed-
out feeling lasts as long as his ordinary life should have lasted. Thus the
Law of Cause and Effect teaches him that it is wrong to play truant from the
school of life and that it cannot be done with impunity. Then in the next
life, when difficulties beset his path, he will remember the sufferings of
the past which resulted from suicide and go through the experience that
makes for his soul growth.
It is curious that the commission of suicide in one
life and the consequent post-mortem suffering during the time when the
archetype still exists often generate in such people a morbid fear of death
tin the next life; so that when the event actually occurs in the ordinary
course of life, they seem frantic after they leave the body and so anxious
to get back to the Physical World again that they frequently commit the
crime of obsession in the most foolish and unthinking manner.
When a man passes out a death, he takes with him the mind, desire
body, and vital body the latter being the storehouse of the pictures of his
past life. And during the three and one-half days following death these
pictures are etched into the desire body to form the basis of man's life in
Purgatory and the First Heaven where the evil is expurgated and the good
assimilated. The experience of the life itself is forgotten, as we have
forgotten the process of learning to write, but have retained the faculty.
So the cumulative extract of all his experiences, both during past earth
lives and past existences in Purgatory and the various heavens, are retained
by the man and form his stock in trade in the next birth. The pains he has
sustained speak to him as the voice of conscience, the good he had done gives
him a more and more altruistic character.
Now, when the three and a half days immediately following death are
spent by man under conditions of peace and quiet, he is able to concentrate
much more upon the etching of his past life and the imprint upon the desire
body will be deeper than if he is disturbed by the hysterical lamentations of
his relatives or from other causes. He will then experience a much keener
feeling for either good or bad in Purgatory and in the First Heaven, and in
after lives that keen feeling will speak to him with no unmistakable voice;
but where the lamentations of relatives take away his attention or where a
man passes out by accident, perhaps in a crowded street, in a train wreck,
theater fire, or under other harrowing circumstances, there will, of course,
be no opportunity for him to concentrate properly; neither can he
concentrate on a battle field if he is slain there, and yet it would not be
just that he would lose the experience of his life on account of passing out
in such an untoward manner, so that the Law of Cause and Effect provides a
compensation.
We usually think that when a child is born it is born and that is an
end to it; but as during the period of gestation the dense body is shielded
from the impact of the outside world by being placed within the protecting
womb of the mother until it has arrived at sufficient maturity to meet the
outside conditions, so are also the vital body, desire body, and mind in
a state of gestation and are born at later periods because they have not had
as long an evolution behind them as the dense body. Therefore, it takes a
longer time for them to arrive at a sufficient state of maturity to become
individualized. The vital body is born at the seventh year, when the period
of excessive growth marks its advent. The desire body is born at the time
of puberty, the fourteenth year, and the mind is born at twenty-one, when
the child is said to have become a man or woman, to have reached
majority.
That which has not been quickened cannot die, and so when a child
dies before the birth of the desire body it passes out into the invisible
world into the First Heaven. It cannot ascend into the Second and Third
Heaven because the mind and desire body are not born and will not die, so it
simply waits in the First Heaven until a new opportunity for embodiment
offers, and where it has died in its previous life under the before-mentioned
harrowing circumstances by accident or upon the battle field or where the
lamentations of relatives rendered it impossible for it to gain as deep an
impression of evil committed and the good accomplished as would have been the
case had it died in peace, it is instructed when it has died in the next life
as a child in the effects of passions and desires so that it learns the
lessons then which it should have learned in the purgatorial life had it
remained undisturbed. It is then reborn with the proper development of
conscience so that it may continue its evolution.
As in the past man has been exceedingly warlike and not at all careful
of the relatives who passed out at death because of his ignorance,
holding wakes over those who died in bed, which were few, perhaps, compared to
those who died on the battle field, there must necessarily on that account be
an enormous amount of infant mortality, but as humanity arrives at a better
understanding and realizes that we never so much our brother's keeper as when
he is passing out of this life and that we can help him enormously by being
quiet and prayerful, so also will infant mortality cease to exist on such a
large scale as at present.
The vital body is the vehicle of sense-perception. As it remains
with the body of feeling (the desire body) and the etheric cord connects
them with the discarded dense body, it will be evident that until the cord
is severed there must be a certain amount of feeling experienced by the
Ego when its dense body is molested. Thus, it causes pain when the blood is
extracted and embalming fluid injected, when the body is opened for
post-mortem examination, and when the body is cremated.
A case was told the writer in which a surgeon amputated three toes from
a living person under anesthetics. He threw the severed toes into a bright
coal fire, and immediately the patient commenced to scream, for the rapid
disintegration of the material toes caused an equally rapid disintegration
of the etheric toes, which were connected with the higher vehicles. In like
manner molestations affect the discarnate Spirit from a few hours to three
and a half days after death. Then all connection is severed and the body
begins to decay.
Therefore great care should be taken not to cause the passing Spirit
discomfort by such measures. Quiet and prayer are of enormous benefit at
that time, and if we love the departed Spirit wisely we shall be able to earn
its lasting gratitude by following the above instructions.
A word should be spoken in regard to the treatment of dying persons
who suffer unspeakable agony in many cases through the mistaken kindness
of friends. More suffering is caused by administering stimulants to the
dying than perhaps in any other way. It is not hard to pass out of the body,
but stimulants have the effect of throwing the departing Ego back into its
body with the force of a catapult, to experience anew the sufferings from
which it was just escaping. Departing souls have often complained to
investigators, and one such person said that he had not suffered as much in
all his life as he did while kept from dying for many hours. The only
rational way is to leave Nature to take its course when it is seen that the
end is inevitable.
Another and more far-reaching sin against the passing Spirit is to
give vent to loud crying or lamentation in or near the death chamber. Just
subsequent to its release and from a few hours to a few days afterwards,
the Ego is engaged upon a matter of the utmost importance; a great deal of
the value of the past life depends upon the attention given to it by the
passing Spirit. If distracted by the sobs and lamentations of loved ones,
it will lose much, but if strengthened by prayer and helped by silence, much
future sorrow to all concerned may be avoided. We are never so much our
brother's keeper as when he is passing through this Gethsemane, and it is one
of our greatest opportunities for serving him and laying up heavenly
treasure for ourselves.
We have studied the phenomenon of birth, and have evolved a Science of Birth. We have qualified obstetricians and trained nurses to minister
in the best possible manner to both mother and child to make them
comfortable, but we are sadly, very sadly, in need of a Science of Death.
When a child is coming into the world we bustle about in an intelligent
endeavor; when a lifelong friend is about to leave us we stand helplessly
about, ignorant of how to aid; worse than all, we bungle, and cause
suffering instead of helping.
We have stated that the vital body is the storehouse of both the
conscience and subconscious memory; upon the vital body is branded
indelibly every act and experience of the past life, as the scenery upon an
exposed photographic plate. When the Ego has withdrawn it from the dense
body, the whole life, as registered by the subconscious memory, is laid
open to the eye of the mind. It is the partial loosening of the vital body
which causes a drowning person to see his whole past life, but then it is
only like a flash, preceding unconsciousness; the silver cord remains
intact, or there could be no resuscitation. In the case of a Spirit
passing out at death, the movement is slower; the man stands as a spectator
while the pictures succeed one another from death to birth, so that he sees
the first happenings just prior to death then the years of manhood and
womanhood unroll themselves; youth, childhood and infancy follow, until
it terminates at birth. The man, however, has no feeling about them at that
time, the object is merely to etch the panorama into the desire body, which
is the seat of feeling, and from that impress the feeling will be realized
when the Ego enters the Desire World, but we may note there that the intensity of feeling realized depends upon the length of time consumed in the process of etching, and the attention given thereto by the man. If he was undisturbed for a long period, a deep clear-cut impress will be made upon the Desire Body. He will feel the wrong he did more keenly in Purgatory, and be more abundantly strengthened in his good qualities in Heaven, and though
the experience will be lost in a future life, the feelings will remain, as
the "still small voice." Where the feelings have been strongly indented
upon the desire body of an Ego, this voice will speak in no vague and
uncertain terms. It will impel him beyond gainsaying, forcing him to
desist from that which caused him pain in the life before and compel him to
yield to that which is good. Therefore the panorama passed backwards, so
that the Ego sees first the effects, and then the underlying causes.
When the body is buried, the vital body disintegrates slowly at the
same time as the dense body, so that when, for instance, an arm has decayed
in the grave, the etheric arm of the vital body which hovers over the
grave also disappears, and so on until the last vestige of the body is gone.
But where cremation is performed the vital body disintegrates at once, and
as that is the storehouse of the pictures of the past life, which are
being etched upon the desire body to form the basis of life in Purgatory and
the First Heaven, this would be a great calamity where cremation is
performed before the three and a half days are passed. Unless help were
given, the passing Spirit could not hold it together. And that is part of
the work that is done by the Invisible Helpers for humanity. Sometimes they
are assisted by nature spirits and others detailed by the Creative Hierarchies
or leaders of humanity. There is also a loss where one is cremated before
the silver cord has been broken naturally, the imprint upon the desire body
is never as deep as it would otherwise have been, and this has an effect
upon future lives, for the deeper the imprint of the last life upon the
desire body, the keener the sufferings in Purgatory for the ill committed and
the keener also the pleasure in the First Heaven which results from the
good deeds of the last life. It is these pains and pleasures of our past
lives that are what we call conscience, so that where we have lost in
suffering we lose also the realization of wrong which is to deter us in future
lives from committing the same mistakes again. Therefore, the effects of the
premature cremation are very far reaching.
As to what determines the length of the panorama, we remember that it
was the collapse of the vital body which forced the higher vehicles to
withdraw, so after death, when the vital body collapses, the Ego has to
withdraw, and thus the panorama comes to an end. The duration of the
panorama depends, therefore, upon the time the person could remain awake if
necessary. Some people can remain awake only a few hours, others can endure
for a few days, depending upon the strength of their vital body.
When the Ego has left the vital body, the latter gravitates back to
the dense body, remaining hovering above the grave, decaying as the dense
body does, and it is indeed a noisome sight to the clairvoyant to pass
through a cemetery and behold all those vital bodies whose state of decay
clearly indicates the state of decomposition of the remains in the grave.
If there were more clairvoyants, incineration would soon be adopted as a
measure of protection to our feelings, if not for sanitary reasons.
As the interest and belief in a life after death becomes more
universal, the necessity for a scientific method for the care of those who are
passing into the higher life will be impressed upon the people, and we shall
then have nurses, doctors, and ministers who are versed in the science of
death as well as in the science of birth. The Spirit will then be surrounded
by love and peace at the time of passing. It will also have a deeper
and clearer record with which to begin its life work in its new state.
When the Ego comes into the Physical World, it is in one sense a
cause for rejoicing, as we rejoice at the birth of a child, for this world
affords us experience and material for soul growth. Looking at if from
another point of view, however, when the Ego comes into this world and
enters the prison house of the dense body, it is in the most limited
condition imaginable, and to rejoice at the time the child is born and
lament when it is liberated by death, is in reality analogous to rejoicing
when a friend is put in jail and giving way to hysterical lamentation when he
is liberated.
Furthermore, our duties to our dear ones who have passed away from
the earth life are not ended when they have severed the physical ties. We
have a responsibility to them beyond the grave. Our attitude after the death
of our loved ones continues to affect them, for they do not usually leave
their accustomed places right away. Many stay in or near the home for a
number of months after they have left the body and can feel conditions there
even more keenly than when in earth life. If we sigh, mourn, and groan for
them we transfer to them the gloom we ourselves carry about us or else we bind
them to home in efforts to cheer us. In either case we are a hindrance
and a stumbling black in the way of their spiritual progress, and while this
may be forgiven in those who are ignorant of the facts concerning life
and death, people who have studied the Rosicrucian Philosophy or kindred
teachings are incurring a very grave responsibility when they indulge in
such practices.
We are well aware that custom used to demand the wearing of mourning
and that people were not considered respectable if they did not put on a
sable garb as a token of their grief. Fortunately, times are changing and a
more enlightened view is being taken of the matter. The transition to the
other world is quite serious enough in itself, involving as it does a process
of adjustment to strange conditions all around, and the passing spirit is
further hampered by the sorrow and anguish of the dear ones whom it
continues to see about itself, when it finds them surrounded by a cloud
of black gloom, clothed in garments of the same color and nursing their
sorrow for months or years, the effect cannot be anything but depressing.
How much better the attitude of those who have learned the
Rosicrucian Teachings and have taken them to heart. Their attitude is
cheerful, helpful, hopeful, and encouraging. The selfish grief at the loss
is suppressed in order that the passing spirit may receive all the
encouragement possible. Usually the survivors in the family dress in white
at the funeral and a cheerful, genial spirit prevails throughout. The
thought of the survivors is not, "What shall I do now that I have lost him?
All the world seems empty for me." It is, "I hope that he may find himself
rights under the new conditions as quickly as possible and that he will not
grieve at the thought of leaving us behind." We pray earnestly for his
welfare and that he may learn the lessons of this life thoroughly in his
experiences in Purgatory and the First Heaven.
Thus, by the good will, intelligence, unselfishness, and love of the
remaining friends the passing Spirit is enabled to enter the new conditions
under much more favorable circumstances, and we cannot do better than to
spread this teaching as widely as possible. It is our loss if we are blind
to the superphysical realms, but to all who will take the trouble to awaken
their latent faculties, the opening of the proper sense is but a matter of
time. When that time comes we shall see the so-called "dead" are all about
us, and that, in fact, "there is no death," as John McCreery says in the
following beautiful poem:
There is no death. The stars go down
To rise upon another shore,
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine forevermore.
There is no death. The forest leaves
Convert to life the viewless air;
The rocks disorganize to feed
The hungry moss they bear.
There is no death. The dust we tread
Shall change beneath the summer showers
To golden grain or mellow fruit,
Or rainbow-tinted flowers.
There is no death. The leaves may fall,
The flowers may fade and pass away —
They only wait through wintry hours
The warm, sweet breath of May.
There is no death, although we grieve
When beautiful familiar forms
That we have learned to love are torn
From our embracing arms.
Although with bowed and breaking heart,
With sable garb and silent tread
We bear their senseless dust to rest
And say that they are dead —
They are not dead. They have but passed
Beyond the mists that blind us here
Into the new and larger life
Of that serener sphere.
They have but dropped their robe of clay
To put a shining raiment on;
They have not wandered far away,
They are not 'lost' or 'gone.'
Though unseen to the mortal eye,
They still are here and love us yet;
The dear ones they have left behind
They never do forget.
Sometimes upon our fevered brow
We feel their touch, a breath of balm;
Our spirit sees them, and our hearts
Grow comforted and calm.
Yes, even near us, though unseen,
Our dear, immortal spirits tread —
For all God's boundless Universe
Is Life — there are no dead.
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