Strange as the statement may seem, it is nevertheless true that the great
majority of mankind are partially asleep most of the time, notwithstanding
the fact that their physical bodies may seem to be intensely occupied in
active work. Under ordinary conditions the desire body in the case of the
great majority is the most awake part of composite man, who lives almost
entirely in his feelings and emotions, but scarcely ever thinks of the problem
of existence beyond what is necessary to keep body and soul together. Most
of this class have probably never given the great questions of life, Whence
have we come, why are we here, and whither are we going? any serious
consideration. Their vital bodies are kept active repairing the ravages of
the desire body upon the physical vehicle, and purveying the vitality which
is later dissipated in gratifying the desires and emotions.
It is this hard-fought battle between the vital and desire bodies which
generates consciousness in the physical world and makes men and women so
intensely alert that, viewed from the standpoint of the physical world, it
seems to give the lie to our assertion that they are partially asleep.
Nevertheless, upon examination of all the facts it will be found that this
is the case, and we may also say that this state of affairs has come about
by the design of the great Hierarchs who have our evolution in charge.
We know that there was a time when man was much more awake in the
spiritual worlds than in the physical. In fact there was a time when,
although he had a physical body, he could not sense it at all. In order that
he might learn how to use this physical instrument properly, conquer the
physical world, and learn to think accurately, it was necessary that he
should for a time forget all about the spiritual worlds, and devote all his
energies to physical affairs. How this was brought about by the
introduction of alcohol as a food and by other means has been explained
in the "Cosmo" and need not be reiterated. But we are now face to face
with the fact that mankind has become so completely immersed in materiality
that, so far as the great majority are concerned, the invisible vehicles
are thoroughly focused upon physical activities and asleep to the
spiritual verities, which are even derided as the imagination of diseased
brains; also those who are beginning to awake from the sleep of materialism
are scorned as fanatics, fit only for the madhouse.
If this attitude of mind were consistently followed, the spirit would
eventually become crystallized in the body. The heaven life in which we
build our future vehicles and environments would become increasingly barren;
for when we persistently hold the thought that there is nothing but what we
contact through our senses (see, hear, feel, smell, touch, and analyze),
this mental attitude cultivated in the earth life persists in the Second
Heaven with the result that we may there neglect the preparation that would
give us a field of endeavor and instruments wherewith to work in it, and as a
result evolution would soon cease.
According to the Rosicrucian teachings, the soul is the extract of the
various bodies; it is garnered by experience that involves the destruction
of the particular bodies from which this living bread is derived and which
is to be used as a pabulum for the spirit. In the ordinary course of
evolution the perfection of the various vehicles is gradual, and the soul
substance is then garnered and assimilated by the spirit between earth
lives. But at a certain period in the larger life when we are entering upon a
new spiral, a different phase of evolution, it is usually necessary to
employ drastic measures to turn the spirit out of the beaten pathway into a
new and unknown direction. Formerly when we possessed less individuality and
were incapable of taking the initiative ourselves these changes were
accomplished by what may be called great cataclysms of nature, but
which were in fact planned by the divine Hierarchies who guide
evolution, with a view to destroying multitudes of bodies that had served
the purpose of human development in a given direction, changing the
environment of those who had learned the possibilities of a new road, and
starting these pioneer people upon a fresh career. Such wholesale
destruction was naturally much more frequent in the earlier epochs than in
later times. Lemuria had all the requisite conditions for numerous
attempts at making a fresh start with one group when another had failed and
had been destroyed. As a matter of fact, there was not merely one flood in
Atlantis but three, and a period of about three-quarters of a million years
elapsed between the first and the last.
We may not expect that the method of wholesale destruction and a new
start can be abrogated until we as a whole awaken to the necessity of taking a
new road when we have come to the end of the old, but a new method is being
used by the Invisible Directors of evolution. They are not now making use
of cataclysms of nature to change the old order for something new and
better, but they are making use of the misdirected energies of humanity itself to further the ends they have in view. This was the genesis of the
great war which recently raged among us. Its purpose was to turn our
energies from seeking the bread whereof men die and to create in us the
soul hunger that would cause us to turn from material things to spiritual.
We are, as a matter of act, commencing to work out our own salvation. We
are beginning to do things for ourselves instead of having them done for us,
and though unaware of the fact, we are learning how to turn evil to good.
Some may think this war affected only those few million men actually
engaged in it, but a little thought upon the matter will soon convince anyone
that the welfare of the whole world was involved to a greater or lesser
degree so far as economic conditions were concerned. There is no race nor
country that escaped entirely, nor can any go on in the same tranquil manner
as before the war broke out. Kinship and friendship were ties which reached
from the trenches of Europe to every part of the globe. Many of us were
related to individuals in one and perhaps both groups engaged in the strife,
and we followed their fortunes with an interest commensurate with the
strength of our feeling for them. But in the nighttime when our physical
bodies were asleep and we entered the desire world, we could not escape living
and feeling th whole tragedy with all the intensity whereof we were capable,
for the desire currents swept the whole world. In the desire world there is
neither time nor distance. The trenches of Europe were brought to our door
no matter where we lived, and we could not escape the subconscious effect of
the spectacle which we there saw. Furthermore this titanic struggle
produced effects which could never be equaled by a natural cataclysm,
which is so much quicker in its action and so much shorter in its duration,
besides being localized and incapable of generating the same feelings of love
and hate which were such important factors in the World War.
During the previous career of man it has been the object of the divine
Hierarchs to teach him how to accomplish physical results by physical means.
He has forgotten how to utilize the finer forces in nature such as, for
instance, the energy liberated when grain is sprouting, which was used for
purposes of propulsion and levitation in the Atlantean airships. He is
unaware of the sanctity of fire and how to use it spiritually, therefore only
about fifteen per cent of its power is utilized in the best steam engines.
It is well of course that man is thus limited, for were he able to use the
power at the command of one whose spiritual faculties are awakened, he could
annihilate our world and all upon it. But while he is doing his best or his
worst with the faculties at his command today, he is learning the lesson of
how to hold his feelings in leash to fit himself for the use of the finer
forces necessary for development in the Aquarian Age, and pulling the scales
from his eyes so that he may commence to see the new world which he is
destined to conquer.
Two separate and distinct processes are made use of to accomplish this
result. One is the visit of death to millions of homes, tearing away from
the family group the husband, father, or brother, and leaving the survivors
to face a grey existence of economic privation. The sun existed previous to
the eye and built that organ for its perception. The desire to see was
naturally unconscious on the part of the individual who did not know and had
no concept of the meaning or use of sight; but in the world soul, which
created the sun, rested the knowledge and requisite desire that worked
the miracle. Similarly in the case of death: when our consciousness had
first become focused in the physical vehicles and the fact of death stared us
in the face, there was no hope within; but in time religion supplied the
knowledge of an invisible world whence the spirit had come to take birth
and whither it returns after death. The hope of immortality gradually
evolved in humanity the feeling that death is only a transition, but modern
science has done its best to rob men of this consolation.
Nevertheless, at every death the tears that are shed serve to dissolve
the veil that hides the invisible world from our longing gaze. The
deep-felt yearning and the sorrow at the parting of loved and loving ones on
both sides of the veil are tearing this apart, and at some not far distant
day the accumulated effect of all this will reveal the fact that there is no
death, but that those who have passed beyond are as much alive as we. The
potency of these tears, this sorrow, this yearning is not equal in all
cases, however, and the effects differ wisely according to whether the vital
body has been awakened in any given person by acts of unselfishness and
service, according to the esoteric maxim that all development along
spiritual lines begins with the vital body. his is the basis, and no
superstructure can be built until this foundation has been laid.
With regard to the second process of soul unfoldment which is carried on
among those actually engaged in warfare, there are probably but few who have
had as unique an opportunity to study actual conditions on the whole of the
extended line of battle as th writer. Notwithstanding all the brutality and
hellishness of the whole thing he feels confident that this was the greatest
school of soul unfoldment that has ever existed, for nowhere have there been
so numerous opportunities for selfless service as on the battle fields of
France, and nowhere have men been so ready to grasp the change of doing for
some one else. Thus the vital bodies of a host of people have received a
quickening such as they would probably not have otherwise attained for a
number of lives, and these people have therefore become correspondingly
sensitive to spiritual vibrations, and susceptible in a higher degree to
the benefit which may be derived from the first process previously
mentioned. As a result we shall in due time see an army of sensitives among us
who will be in such close touch with the invisible world that their concerted
testimony cannot be crushed by the materialistic school. They will prove a
great factor in helping us to prepare for the higher conditions of the
Aquarian Age.
"But," some may ask, "will they not forget when the stress and strain of
war are over? Will not a large percentage of these people go back into the
same rut where they were before?" To this we may answer that we feel
confident it can never come to pass, for while the invisible vehicles,
especially the vital body, are asleep, man may pursue a materialistic career;
but once this vehicle has been awakened and has tasted the bread of life, it
is like the physical body, subject to hunger — soul hunger, — and its cravings
will not be denied save after an exceedingly hard struggle. In the latter
case, of course, the words of Peter are applicable: "The last state of that
man is worse than the first." However, it is good to feel that out of all
the indescribable sorrow and trouble of the war good is being wrought in
the crucible of the gods, and it will be a lasting good. May we all align
our forces and help extract the good, so that we may be shining examples to
help lead humanity to the New Age.
XI. Mystic Light
on the World War
Part III: Peace on Earth
A war-weary world, red with the blood of millions, the hope of its
future, the flower of its young manhood, is groaning in agony, praying for
peace, not an armistice, a temporary cessation of hostilities, but everlasting peace, and it is striving to solve the problem of how to accomplish this much
desired end. But it is striking at effects because ignorant of or blind
to the one great underlying cause of the ferocity of the people, which was
but barely hidden under a thin veneer of civilization before it burst into
the volcano of destruction which we have recently witnessed and are now
lamenting.
Until the connection between the food of man and his nature is understood
and the knowledge applied to tame the passions and eradicate ferocity, there
can be no lasting peace. In the dim dawn of being when man-in-the-making
wrought under the direct guidance of the divine Hierarchs who led him along
the path of evolution, food was given him of a nature that would develop
various vehicles in an orderly, systematic manner, so that in time these
different bodies would grow into a composite instrument usable as the temple
of an indwelling spirit which might then enter and learn life's lessons by a
series of embodiments in earthly bodies of an increasingly fine texture.
Five great stages or epochs are observable in the evolutionary journey of
man upon earth.
In the first, or Polarian Epoch, what is now man had only a dense body as
the minerals have now, hence he was mineral-like, and it is said in the
Bible that "Adam was formed of the earth."
In the second, or Hyperborean Epoch, a vital body made of ether was
added, and man-in-the-making had then a body constituted as are those of the
present plants; he was not a plant but was plantlike. Cain, the man of that
time, is described as an agriculturist; his food was derived solely from
vegetation, for plants contain more ether than any other structure.
In the third, or Lemurian Epoch, man cultivated a desire body, a vehicle
of passions and emotions, and was then constituted as the animal. Then
milk, a product of living animals, was added to his diet, for this substance
is most easily worked upon by the emotions. Abel, man of that time, is
described as a shepherd. It is nowhere stated that he killed an animal for
food.
In the fourth, or Atlantean Epoch, mind was unfolded, and the composite
body became the temple of an indwelling spirit, a thinking being. But
thought breaks down nerve cells; it kills, destroys, and causes decay,
therefore the new food of the Atlantean was dead carcasses. He killed to
eat, and so the Bible describes the man of that time as Nimrod, a mighty
hunter.
By partaking of these various foods man descended deeper and deeper into
matter; his erstwhile ethereal body formed a skeleton within and became
solid. At the same time he gradually lost his spiritual perception, but the
memory of heaven was always with him, and he knew himself to be an exile
from his true home, the heaven world. In order to enable him to forget this
fact and apply himself with undivided attention to conquering the material
world, a new article of diet, namely, wine, was added in the Fifth or post-Atlantean
Epoch. Because of indulgence in this counterfeit spirit of alcohol during
the millenniums which have passed since man came up out of Atlantis, the
most progressive portion of humanity are also the most atheistic and
materialistic. They are all drunk for even though a person may say, and
say quite truthfully, that he has never touched liquor in his life, it is
nevertheless a fact that body in which he is functioning has descended from
ancestors who for millenniums have indulged in alcoholic beverages in
unstinted measure. Therefore the atoms composing all present day Western
bodies are unable to vibrate to the measure necessary for the cognition of
the invisible worlds as they were before wine was added to the diet of
humanity. Similarly, though a child may be brought up today on a fleshless
diet, it still partakes of the ferocious nature of its flesh-eating
ancestors of a million years, though in a less degree than those who still
continue to feast on flesh. Thus the effect of the flesh food provided for
man-in-the-making is deep-seated and deep-rooted even in those who do not now
indulge in it.
What wonder then that those who still partake of flesh and wine return at
times to godless savagery and exhibit a ferocity unrestrained by any of the
finer feelings supposed to have been fostered by centuries of so-called
civilization! So long as men continue to quench the immortal spirit within
themselves by partaking of flesh and the counterfeit alcoholic spirit, there
can never be lasting peace on earth, for the innate ferocity fostered by
these articles will break through at intervals and sweep even the most
altruistic conceptions and ideals into a maelstrom of savagery, a carnival of
ruthless slaughter, which will grow correspondingly greater as the intellect
of man evolves and enables him to conceive with his master mind methods of
destruction more diabolical than any we have yet witnessed.
It needs no argument to prove that the recent war was much more
destructive than any of the previous conflicts recorded in history, because
it was fought by men of brain rather than by men of brawn. The ingenuity
which in times of peace has been turned to such good account in constructive
enterprises was enlisted in the service of destruction, and it is safe to
say that if another war is fought fifty or a hundred years hence, it may
perhaps all but depopulate the earth. Therefore a lasting peace is an
absolute necessity from the standpoint of self-preservation and no thinking
man or woman can afford to brush aside without investigation any theory
which is advanced as tending to make war impossible, even if they have been
accustomed to regard it as a foolish fad.
There is plenty of proof that a carnivorous diet fosters ferocity, but
lack of space prevents a thorough discussion of this phase of the subject.
We may, however, mention the well known fierceness of beasts of prey and the
cruelty of the meat-eating American Indian as fair examples. On the other
hand, the prodigious strength and the docile nature of the ox, the elephant,
and the horse show the effects of the herb diet on animals, while the
vegetarian and peaceable nations of the Orient are a proof of the
correctness of the argument against a flesh diet which cannot be successfully
gainsaid. Flesh food has fostered human ingenuity of a low order in the past;
it has served a purpose in our evolution; but we are now standing on the
threshold of a new age when self-sacrifice and service will bring spiritual
growth to humanity. The evolution of the mind will bring a wisdom profound
beyond our greatest conception, but before it will be safe to entrust us with
that wisdom, we must become harmless as doves, for otherwise we should be
apt to turn it to such selfish and destructive purposes that it would be an
inconceivable menace to our fellow men. To avoid this the vegetarian diet
must be adopted.
But there are vegetarians and vegetarians: In Europe conditions cause
people now to abstain from flesh eating to a very large extent. They are
not true vegetarians for they are lusting for flesh every moment of their
lives, and they feel the want of it as a great hardship and sacrifice. In
time they would of course grow used to is, and in many generations it would
make them gentle and docile, but obviously that is not the kind of
vegetarianism we need now. There are others who abstain from flesh foods
for the sake of health; their motive is selfish, and many among them
probably also lust after the "flesh pots of Egypt." Their attitude of mind
is not such either that it would abolish ferocity very quickly.
But there is a third class which realizes that all life is God's life and
that to cause suffering to any sentient being is wrong, so out of pure
compassion they abstain from the use of flesh foods. They are the true
vegetarians, and it is obvious that a world war could never be fought by people of this turn of mind. All true Christians will also be abstainers
from flesh foods for similar motives. Then peace on earth and good will
among men will be an assured fact; the nations will beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks that they may cease to
deal death, sorrow, and suffering, and become instruments to foster life,
love, and happiness.
Our own safety, the safety of our children, the safety of the human race
even, demands that we listen to the inspired voice of the poetess, Ella
Wheeler Wilcox, who wrote the following soul stirring appeal in behalf of
our dumb fellow creatures:
"I am the voice of the voiceless,
Through me the dumb shall speak,
Till a deaf world's ear
Shall be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.
"The same force formed the sparrow,
That fashioned man the king;
The God of the Whole
Gave a spark of soul,
To furred and feathered thing.
"And I am my brother's keeper,
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word
For beast and bird
Till the world shall set things right."
XII. Mystic Light
on the World War (WWI)
Part IV: The Gospel
of Gladness
The recent titanic struggle among the nations in Europe upset the
equilibrium of the whole world to such an extent that the emotions of the
people who liven in even the most remote regions of the earth were stirred as
they had never been stirred before, the people expressing anger, hate,
hysteria, or gloom according to their nature and temperament. It is evident
to those who have studied the deeper mysteries of life and who understand
the operation of natural law in the spiritual worlds that the inhabitants of
the invisible realms were affected in perhaps a greater degree than those
who lived in physical bodies, which by their very density make it impossible
for us to feel the full force of the emotions.
After the outbreak of the war the tide of emotions ran high and fast,
because there were no adequate means of checking it; but by dint of hard work
and organization the Elder Brothers of humanity succeeded after the first
year in creating an army of Invisible Helpers who, having passed through the
gate of death and having felt the sorrow and suffering incident to an
untimely transition, were filled with compassion for the others who were
constantly pouring in, and became qualified to soothe and help them until
they also had found their balance. Later, however, the emotions of hate and
malice engendered by the people in the physical world became so strong
that there was danger they might gain the ascendancy; therefore new measures
had to be taken to counteract these feelings, and everywhere all the good
forces were marshaled into line to help restore the balance and keep the
baser emotions down.
One of the ways in which most people contributed to the trouble and
helped to prolong the war which they were praying might end, was by dwelling
on the awful side of it and forgetting to look at the bright side.
"The bright side of that cruel war?" is probably the question which
arises in the mind of the reader. "Why, what can you mean?" To some it may
perhaps even seem sacrilegious to speak of a bright side in connection with
such a calamity, as they would put it. But let us see if there is not a
silver lining to even this blackest of clouds, and if there is not a method
by which the silver lining could be made wider and wider so that the cloud
would become altogether luminous.
Some time ago our attention was called to a book entitled "Pollyanna."
Pollyanna was the little daughter of a missionary, whose salary was so
meager that he could scarcely obtain the bare necessities of life. From
time to time barrels filled with old clothes and odds and ends arrived at
the mission for distribution. Pollyanna hoped that some day a barrel might
come containing a little doll. Her father had even written to ask if the
next barrel might not contain a discarded doll for his child. The barrel
came, but instead of the doll it contained a pair of small crutches. Noticing
the child's disappointment her father said: "There is one thing we can be
glad of and grateful for, that we have no need of the crutches." It was then
they began "playing the game," as they called it, of looking for and
finding something for which to be glad and thankful, no matter what
happened, and they always found it. For example, when they were forced to
eat a very scant meal at a restaurant, not being able to afford the dainties
on the menu, they would say: "Well, we are glad we like beans," even
though their eyes would rest on the roast turkey and its prohibitive price.
Then they started to teach the game to others, making many a life the happier
for learning it, among them some in whom the belief had become fixed that
they could never again be happy.
At last they were really starving, and Pollyanna's mother had to go to
heaven to save the expense of living. Soon her father followed, leaving
Pollyanna dependent upon the bounty of a rich but crabbed and inhospitable
old maiden aunt in Vermont. Despite the unwelcome reception and undesirable
quarters assigned her at first, the little girl saw nothing but reasons for
gladness; she literally radiated joy, drawing under its spell maid and
gardener and in time even the loveless aunt. The child's roseate mind
soon filled the bare walls and floor of her dingy attic room with all manner
of beauty. If there were no pictures, she was glad that he little
window opened upon a landscape scene more beautiful than any artist could
paint, a carpet of green and gold the like of which not even the cleverest
of human weavers had ever woven. If her crude washstand were without a
mirror, she was glad that the lack of it spared her seeing her freckles;
and what if they were freckles, had she not reason to be glad they were not
warts? If her trunk were small and her clothes few, was there not reason
for gladness that the unpacking was soon done and over? If her parents could
not be with her, could she not be glad that they were with God in heaven?
Since they could not talk to her, ought she not to rejoice that she could
talk to them?
Flitting birdlike over field and moor she forgot the supper hour, and being
ordered upon her return to the kitchen to make her meal there of bread and
milk, she said to her aunt who expected tears and pouting, "Oh, I am so glad
you did it, because I am so fond of bread and milk." Not a harsh
treatment, and there were many of them at first, but that she imagined some
kindly motive back of it and gave it a grateful thought.
Her first convert was the housemaid, who used to look forward with dread
to the weekly wash day and face Monday in a surly mood. It was not long
before our little glad girl and Nancy feeling gladder on Monday morning than
on any other morning, because there was not another wash day for a whole
week; and soon she had her glad that her name was not Hepsibah, but Nancy,
at which name the latter had been disgruntled. One day when Nancy
remonstratingly said to her, "Sure, there is nothing in a funeral to be glad
about," Pollyanna promptly answered, "Well, we can be glad it isn't ours."
To the gardener, who complained to her that he was bent half over with
rheumatism, she also taught the glad game by telling him that being bent
half over he ought to be glad that he saved one-half the stooping when he did
his weeding.
Near her home in a palatial mansion lived an elderly bachelor, a sullen
recluse. The more he rebuffed her, the cheerier she was and the oftener she
went to see him because no one else did. In her innocence and pity she
attributed his lack of courtesy to some secret sorrow, and therefore she
longed all the more to teach him the glad game. She did teach it to him,
and he learned it, thought it was hard work at first. When he broke his
leg, it was not easy to get him to be glad that but one leg was broken, and
admit it would have been far worse if this legs had been as numerous as
those of a centipede and he had fractured all of them. Her sunshiny
disposition succeeded at last in getting him to love the sunshine, open
the blinds, pull up the curtains, and open his heart to the world. He wanted
to adopt her, but failing in this, he adopted a little orphan boy whom she
hand chanced to meet by the wayside.
She made one lady wear bright colors, who had before worn only black.
Another lady, rich and miserable because her mind was centered upon past
troubles, had her attention directed by Pollyanna to the miseries of others,
and being taught through the glad game how to bring gladness into their
lives, this lady brought an abundance of it also into her own. All unknown
to the little girl she reunited in happy home life a couple about to
separate, by kindling within their hearts that had grown cold a strong love
for their little ones. By and by the whole town began to play the glad game
and teach it to others. Under its influence men and women became different
beings: the unhappy became happy, the sick became well, those about to go
wrong found again the right path, and the discouraged took heart again.
Soon the leading physician in town found it necessary to prescribe her as
he would some medicine. "That little girl," he said, "is better than a
six-quart bottle of tonic. If anyone can take a grouch out of a person it
is she; a dose of Pollyanna is more curative than a store full of drugs."
But the greatest miracle which the glad game worked was the transformation
effected in the character of her prim, puritanic aunt. She who had accepted
Pollyanna in her home as a matter of stern family duty, developed under her
little niece's treatment a heart that fairly overran with affection. Soon
Pollyanna was taken out of her bare attic room to a beautifully papered,
pictured, carpeted, and furnished room on her aunt's floor. And so the good
she did reacted upon herself.
The story is fiction, but it is based upon facts rooted in cosmic law.
What that little girl did with respect to the people in her environment, we
as students of the Rosicrucian teachings can and ought to do in our own
individual spheres, both in regard to the matters which pertain to intercourse
with our relatives and immediate associates and with respect to the world at
large.
As regards its application to war in general, instead of being gloomy at
defeat or appalled at catastrophes recorded in sensational newspaper
headlines, instead of adding our gloom, hate, and malice to the similar
feelings engendered by others, can we not find a bright side even in such a
seemingly overwhelming calamity? Surely there is reason to rejoice
exceedingly in the thoughts of self-sacrifice which prompted so many noble men
to give up their work in the world, their large incomes, and their
comfortable homes for the sake of what to them was an ideal to make the
world better for those who came after them, for they could not help
realizing that they might never come back to enjoy the fruits
themselves. Can we not rejoice likewise that many noble women,
nurtured in ease and comfort, left their homes and friends for the
arduous work of nursing and caring for the wounded? Throughout all there
was a spirit of altruism, shared by those who though forced by
circumstances to say at home still put in their time knitting and
working for those who had to bear the brunt of battle.
Great are the birth pangs by which altruism is being born in millions of
human hearts, but through the superlative suffering of the later war humanity
will become gentler, nobler, and better than ever before. If we can only
take this view of the recent suffering and sorrow, if we can only teach others
to look to the future blessings which must accrue through this pain and
suffering, we shall ourselves be better able to recover from the strain, and
be better qualified to help others do the same.
In this manner we can imitate Pollyanna, and if we are only sufficiently
sincere, our views will spread and take root in other hearts; then because
thoughts are things and good thoughts are more powerful than evil since they
are in harmony with the trend of evolution, the day will soon come when we
shall be able to gain the ascendancy and help establish permanent peace.
It is hoped that this suggestion may be taken very seriously and put into
practice by everyone of our students, for the need is great at the present
time, greater than it has been before.
XIII.The Esoteric
Significance of Easter
and the Inception of
the Rosicrucian Teachings
Again the earth has reach the vernal equinox in its annual circle dance
about the sun, and we have Easter. The spiritual ray sent out by the Cosmic
Christ each fall to replenish the smoldering vitality of the earth is about
to ascend to the Father's Throne. The spiritual activities of fecundation
and germination which have been carried on during the winter and spring will
be followed by material growth and a ripening process during the coming summer
and autumn under the influence of the indwelling Earth Spirit. The cycle
ends at "Harvest Home." Thus the great World Drama is acted and re-
enacted from year to year, an eternal contest between life and death; each
in turn becoming victor and being vanquished as the cycles roll on.
This great cyclic influx and efflux are not confined in their effects to
the earth and its flora and fauna. They exercise an equally compelling
influence upon mankind, though the great majority are unaware of what impels
them to action in one direction or another. The fact remains, nevertheless,
independent of their cognition that the same earthy vibration which gaudily
adorns bird and beast in the spring is responsible for the human desire to
don gay colors and brighter raiment at that season. This is also "the call
of the wild," which in summer drives mankind to relaxation amid rural scenes
where nature spirits have wrought their magic art in field and forest, in
order to recuperate from the strain of artificial conditions in congested
cities.
On the other hand, it is the "fall" of the spiritual ray from the sun in
autumn which causes resumption of the mental and spiritual activities in
winter. The same germinative force which leavens the seed in the earth and
prepares it to reproduce its kind in multiple, stirs also the human mind and
fosters altruistic activities which make the world better. Did no this
great wave of selfless Cosmic Love culminate at Christmas, did it not
vibrate peace and good will, there would be no holiday feeling in our breasts
to engender a desire to make others equally happy; the universal giving of
Christmas gifts would be impossible, and we should all suffer loss.
As the Christ walked day by day, hither and yon, over the hills and the
valleys of Judea and Galilee, teaching the multitudes, all were benefited.
But He communed most with His disciples, and they, of course, grew apace
each day. The bond of love became closer as time went on, until one day
ruthless hands took away the beloved Teacher and put Him to a shameful
death. But though He had died after the flesh, he continued to commune with
them in spirit for some time. At last, however, He ascended to higher
spheres, direct touch with Him was lost, and sadly these men looked into
each other's faces as they asked, "Is this the end?" They had hoped so
much, had entertained such high aspirations, and though the verdant glory
was as fresh upon the sun-kissed landscape as before He went, the earth
seemed cold and dreary, for black desolation gnawed at their hearts.
Thus it is also with us who aim to walk after the spirit and to strive
with the flesh, though the analogy may not have been previously apparent.
When the "fall" of the Christ ray commences in autumn and ushers in the season
of spiritual supremacy, we sense it at once and commence to lave our should
in the blessed tide with avidity. We experience a feeling akin to that of
the apostles when they walked with Christ, and as the season wears on it
becomes easier and easier to commune with Him, face to face as it were.
But in the annual course of events Easter and the Ascension of the "risen"
Christ ray to the Father leave us in the identical position of the apostles
when their beloved Teacher went away. We are desolate and sad; we look upon
the world as a dreary waste and cannot comprehend the reason for our loss,
which is as natural as the changes of ebb and flood and day and night — phases
of the present age of alternating cycles.
There is a danger in this attitude of mind. If it is allowed to grow
upon us, we are apt to cease our work in the world and become dreamers, lose
our balance, and excite just criticism from our fellow men. Such a course
of conduct is entirely wrong, for as the earth exerts itself in material endeavor to bring forth abundantly in summer after receiving the spiritual impetus in winter, so ought we also to exert ourselves to greater purpose in
the world's work when it has been our privilege to commune with the spirit.
If we do Thus we shall be more apt to excite emulation than reproach.
We are wont to think of a miser as one who hoards gold, and such people
are generally objects of contempt. But there are people who strive as
assiduously to acquire knowledge as the miser struggles to accumulate gold,
who will stoop to any subterfuge to obtain their desire, and will as
jealously guard their knowledge as the miser guards his hoard. They do not
understand that by such a method they are effectually closing the door to
greater wisdom. The old Norse theology contained a parable which
symbolically elucidates the matter. It held that all who died fighting on
the battle field (the strong souls who fought the good fight unto the end)
were carried to Valhalla to be with the gods; while those who died in bed or
from disease (the souls who drifted weakly through life) went to the
dismal Niflheim. The doughty warriors in Valhalla feasted daily upon the
flesh of the boar called Scrimner, which was so constituted that whenever a
piece was cut from it the flesh at once grew again, so that it was never
consumed no matter how much was carved. Thus it aptly symbolized
"knowledge," for no matter how much of this we give to others, we always
retain the original.
There is thus a certain obligation to pass on what we have of knowledge,
and "to whom much is given of him much will be required." Perhaps it may
not be out of place to recount an experience which will illustrate the
point, for it was the final "test" applied to myself before I was entrusted
with the teaching embodied in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, although I
was, of course, at the time unaware that I was being weighed. It occurred
at a time when i had gone to Europe in search of a teacher who, I believed,
was able to aid me to advance on the path of attainment. But when I had
probed his teaching to the bottom and forced him to admit certain
inconsistencies in it which he could not explain, I was in a veritable
"slough of despond," ready to return to America. As I sat in my chair
ruminating over my disappointment, the feeling that some one else was present
came over me, and I looked up and beheld the One who has since become my
Teacher. With shame I remember how gruffly I asked who had sent him and
what he wanted, for I was thoroughly disgruntled, and I hesitated
considerably before accepting his help on the points that had caused me to
come to Europe.
During the next few days my new acquaintance appeared in my room a number
of times, answering my questions and helping me to solve problems that had
previously baffled me, but as my spiritual sight was then poorly developed
and not always under control, I felt rather skeptical in the matter. Might
it not be hallucination? I discussed the question with a friend. The
answers to my queries as given by the apparition were clear, concise, and
logical to a high degree. They were strictly to the point and altogether
beyond anything I was capable of conceiving, so we concluded that the
experience must be real.
A few days later my new friend told me that the Order to which he
belonged had a complete solution to the riddle of the universe, much more
far-reaching than any publicly known teaching, and that they would impart
that teaching to me provided I agreed to keep it as an inviolable secret.
The I turned on him in anger: "Ah! do I see the cloven hoof at last!
No, if you have what you say and if it is good for the world to know. The
Bible expressly forbids us to hide the Light, and I care not to feast at the
source of knowledge while thousands of souls hunger for a solution to their
problems as I do now." My visitor then left me and stayed away, and I
concluded that he was an emissary from the Black Brothers.
About a month later I decided that I could obtain no greater illumination
in Europe and therefore made reservation on a steamer for New York. As
travel was heavy, I had to wait a month for a berth.
When I returned to my rooms after having purchased my ticket, there stood
my slighted Teacher and he again offered me instruction on condition that I
keep it secret. This time my refusal was perhaps more emphatic and
indignant than before, but he did not leave. Instead he said, "I am glad to
hear you refuse, my brother, and I hope you will always be as zealous in
disseminating our teachings without fear or favor as you have been in this
refusal. That is the real condition of receiving the teachings."
How directions were then given me to take a certain train at a certain
depot and go to a place I had not heard of before, how i there met the
Brother in the flesh, was taken to the Temple, and received the main
instructions embodied in our literature, are matters of small interest. The
point is that had I agreed to keep the instructions secret, I should
naturally have been unfit to be a messenger of the Brothers, and they would
have had to seek another. Likewise with any of us: if we hoard the
spiritual blessings we have received, evil is at our door, so let us imitate
the earth at this Easter time. Let us bring forth in the physical world of
action the fruits of the spirit sown in our souls during the past wintry
season. So shall we be more abundantly blessed from year to year.
XIV. The Lesson of Easter
And again it is Easter. The dark, dreary days of winter are past.
mother nature is taking the cold, snowy coverlids off the earth, and the
millions and millions of seed sheltered in the soft soil are bursting its
crust and clothing the earth in summer robes, a riot of gay and glorious
colors, preparing the bridal bower for the mating of beasts and birds. Even
in this war-torn year the song of life sounds loudly above the dirge of
death. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Christ has risen — the first fruits. He is the resurrection and the life;
whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Thus at the present season the mind of the civilized world is turned
towards the feast we call Easter, commemorating the death and resurrection of
the individual whose life story is written in the Gospels, the noble
individual known to the world by the name of Jesus. But a Christian
mystic takes a deeper and more far-reaching view of this annually recurring
cosmic event. For him there is an annual impregnation of the earth with the
cosmic Christ life; an inbreathing which takes place during the fall months
and culminates at the winter solstice when we celebrate Christmas, and
an outbreathing which finds its completion at the time of Easter.
The inbreathing or impregnation is manifested to us in the seeming inactivity
of winter, but the outbreathing of the Christ life manifests as the
resurrection force which gives new life to all that lives and moves upon the
earth, life abundant, not only to sustain but to propagate the perpetuate.
Thus the cosmic drama of life and death is played annually among all
evolving creatures and things from the highest to the lowest, for even the
great and sublime cosmic Christ in His compassion becomes subject to death
by entering the cramping conditions of our earth for a part of the year. It
may therefore be appropriate to call to mind a few ideas concerning death
and rebirth which we are sometimes prone to forget.
Among the cosmic symbols which have been handed down to us from antiquity
none is more common that the symbol of the egg. It is found in every
religion. We find it in the Elder Eddas of the Scandinavians, hoary with
age, which tell of the mundane egg cooled by the icy blast of Niebelheim but
heated by the fiery breath of Muspelheim until the various worlds and man
had come into being. If we turn to the sunny south we find the Vedas of India
the same story in the Kalahansa, the Swan in time and space, which laid the
egg that finally became the world. Among the Egyptians we find the winged
globe and the oviparous serpent, symbolizing the wisdom manifest in this
world of ours. Then the Greeks took this symbol and venerated it in their
Mysteries. It was preserved by the Druids; it was known to the builders of
the great serpent mound in Ohio; and it has kept its place in sacred
symbology even to this day, though the great majority are blind to the mysterium magnum which it hides and reveals — the mystery of life.
When we break open the shell of an egg, we find inside only some
varicolored viscous fluids of various consistencies. But placed in the
requisite temperature a series of changes soon take place, and within a
short time a living creature breaks open the shell and emerges therefrom,
ready to take its place among its kin. it is possible for the wizards of the
laboratory to duplicate the substances in the egg; they may be enclosed
in a shell, and a perfect replica so far as most tests go may be made of
the natural egg. But in one point it differs from the natural egg, namely,
that no living thing can be hatched from the artificial product. Therefore it
is evident that a certain intangible something must be present in one and
absent in the other.
This mystery of the ages which produces the living creature is what we
call life. Seeing that it cannot be cognized among the elements of the egg
by even the most powerful microscope (though it must be there to bring about
the changes which we note), it must be able to exist independently of
matter. Thus we are taught by the sacred symbol of the egg that though life
is able to mold matter, it does not depend upon it for its existence. It
is self-existent, and having no beginning it can have no end. This is
symbolized by the ovoid shape of the egg.
We are appalled at the carnage on the European battle fields, and rightly
so because of the manner in which the victims are being taken out of
physical life. But when we consider that the average human life is only
fifty years or less, so that death reaps a harvest of fifteen hundred
millions in half a century, or thirty millions per annum, or two and one-
half millions every month, we see that the total has not been so greatly
increased after all. And when we have the true knowledge conveyed by the egg
symbol that life is uncreate, without beginning and without end, it enables
us to take heart and realize that those who are now being taken out of
physical existence are only passing through a cyclic journey similar to that
of the cosmic Christ life which enters the earth in the fall and leaves it
at Easter. Those who are killed are only going into the invisible realms,
whence they will later take a new dip into physical matter, entering as all
living things do the egg of the mother. After a period of gestation they
will re-emerge into physical life to learn new lessons in the great school.
Thus we see how the great law of analogy works in all phases and under all
circumstances of life. What happens in the great world to a cosmic Christ
will show itself also in the lives of those who are Christs in the making;
and this will enable us to look more cheerfully upon the present struggle
than would otherwise be the case.
Furthermore, we must realize that death is a cosmic necessity under the
present circumstances for if we were imprisoned in a body of the kind we now
use and placed in an environment such as we find today, there to live
forever, the infirmities of the body and the unsatisfactory nature of the
environment would very soon make us so tired of life that we would cry for
release. It would block all progress and make it impossible for us to evolve
to greater heights such as we may evolve to by re-embodiment in new vehicles
and placement in new environments which give us new possibilities of growth.
Thus we may thank God that so long as birth into a concrete body is
necessary for our further development, release by death has been provided to
free us from the outgrown instrument, while resurrection and a new birth
under the smiling skies of a new environment furnish another chance to begin
life with a clean slate and learn the lessons which we failed to master
before. By this method we shall some time become perfect as is the risen
Christ. He commanded it, and he will aid us to achieve it.
XV. The Scientific Method
of Spiritual Unfoldment
Part I: Material Analogies
While we were coming down by involution into concrete existence our line
of progress lay entirely in material development; but since we have rounded
the nadir of materiality and are beginning to rise above the concrete,
spiritual unfoldment is becoming increasingly important as a necessary factor
in our development, although we still have many great and important lessons to
learn from the material phase of our existence. This applies to humanity in
general but particularly, of course, to those who are already consciously
beginning to aspire to live the higher life. It may therefore be expedient
to review from another angle the Rosicrucian Teachings as to the scientific
method of acquiring this spiritual unfoldment.
People of the older generation, particularly in Europe and the eastern
states of America, will undoubtedly remember with pleasure their travels
along quiet country lanes, and how time and again they have passed by a
rippling stream with an old rustic mill, its creaking water wheel
laboriously turning the crude machinery within, using but a small fraction of
the power stored in the running water, which was going uselessly to waste
save for such partial use. But later on a new generation came and perceived
the possibilities to be realized by a scientific use of this enormous
energy. Engineers began to construct dams to keep the water from flowing
in the former wasteful manner. They diverted the water from the storage
reservoirs through pipes or flumes to the water wheels constructed upon
scientific principles, and they husbanded the great energy which they had
stored by letting in only enough water to turn the water wheels at a given
speed and with a given load.
But while the scientifically constructed water wheel was a giant compared
with its crude predecessor, it was subject to some of the same limitations;
its enormous energy could only be used at the place where the power was
located, and such places are usually many miles from the centers of
civilization where power is most needed. By working with the laws of
nature, man had secured a servant of inexhaustible energy; but how to make
it available where most needed, that was the question. To solve that problem,
again the laws of nature were invoked; electric generators were coupled to
the water wheels, the water power was transformed into electrical energy
and an endeavor made to send it from the sources of its development to the
cities where it might be used. But this again required scientific methods of
working with the laws of nature, for it was found that different metals
transmit electricity with varying facility, the best of them being copper and
silver. Copper was therefore chosen as the less expensive of the two.
Let the student observe that we cannot compel these forces to do
anything; whenever we use them it is by working with the laws that govern their manifestation, by choosing the line of least resistance to obtain
the maximum of energy. If wires of iron or German silver, which have a
comparatively high resistance, had been chosen as transmitters, a great deal
of energy would have been thus lost, besides, other complications would
have resulted which we need not enter into for our purpose. But by working
with the laws of nature and choosing the line of least resistance, we obtain
the best result in the easiest manner.
There were other problems which confronted these experimenters in their
transformation of the water power used in the old water wheels, to electricity
usable many miles from the source of power. it was found that an electric
current would always seek the ground by the nearest path if there were any
possibility of so doing. Hence it became necessary that the wire carrying the
electric current be separated from the earth by some material that would
prevent it from thus escaping, exactly as a high wall keeps a prisoner behind
it. Something had to be found for which electricity had a natural aversion,
and his was discovered in glass, porcelain, and certain fibrous substances,
thus solving by scientific means and ingenuity, working always with the laws
of nature, the problem of how to use the best advantage in distant places
the great energy which the old crude mill wheel had wasted at its source.
The same application of scientific methods to other problems of life,
such as gardening, has also secured wonderful results for the benefit and
comfort of humanity, making two hundred blades of grass grow where formerly
by the crude old methods not one even could find sustenance. Wizards like
Luther Burbank have improved upon the wild varieties of fruit and
vegetables, making them larger, more luscious and palatable, as well as
more prolific; and wherever, haphazard practices of former days, the same
beneficial results have been achieved. But as said before, and this is very important for our consideration, everything that has been done has been accomplished by working with the Laws of Nature.
The Hermetic axiom, "As above so below," enunciates the law an analogy,
the master-key to all mysteries, spiritual or material, and we may safely
infer that what holds good in the application of scientific methods to
material problems will have equal force when applied to the solution
of spiritual mysteries. The most cursory review of religious development
in the past will be sufficient to show that it has been anything but
scientific and systematic, and that the most haphazard methods have prevailed.
On account of their capacity for devotion, a few have risen to sublime heights
of spirituality and are known through the ages as Saints, shining lights
upon the pathway, showing what may be done. But how to achieve that
sublime spirituality has been and is a mystery to all, even to those who
most ardently desire such development, and these are, alas, comparatively
few at the present time.
The Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucians have, however, originated a
scientific method, which, if persistently and consistently followed, will
develop the sleeping soul powers in any individual, just as surely as constant
practice will make a person proficient in any material line of endeavor. To
understand this matter it is necessary to realize that facts in the case; it
was the old crude mill wheel that gave water power in an efficient manner
and to much greater advantage. If we first study the natural development of
soul power by evolution, we shall then be in a position to understand the
great and beneficial results to be derived from an application of scientific
methods to this important matter. Students of the Rosicrucian teachings are
of course familiar with the main points in this process of humanity's
development by evolution, but there may be a number who are not so informed,
and so for their sake we will give a little fuller outline than might
otherwise be necessary.
Science says, and correctly so, that an invisible, intangible substance
called ether permeates everything from the densest solids to the air which
we breathe. This ether has never been seen, measured, or analyzed by
science, but it is necessary to postulate its existence in order to account
for various phenomena such as, for instance, the transmission of light through
a vacuum. There, science says, ether is the medium of transmission of the
light ray. Thus the ether carries to us a picture of our vision, and
impresses it upon the retina of our eyes. Similarly, when a motion-picture
operator photographs a number of scenes in a play, the ether carries
pictures of all objects, the motions they make, et cetera, to the minutest
details, through the lens of his camera to the sensitized plate, leaving a
complete record of all the scenery and every act of the actors in that play.
And if there were in our eyes a similar sensitized film of sufficient length
to hold the pictures, we should at the end of our life have a complete
record of every event that had taken place in it, that is, provided we could
see.
But there are a number of people who are deficient in various senses; one thing however, they must all do to live: they must breathe. And nature,
which is only another name for God, has thus rightly decreed that the record
be kept by this universally used means. Every moment of our action in the
drama of life from the first breath to the last dying gasp, the ether which
is drawn into our lungs carries with it a complete picture of our outside
environment, of our actions and the actions of other people who are with us,
the record being impressed upon one single little atom placed in the left
ventricle at the apex of the heart where the newly oxygenated blood, thus
carrying with it a different picture for every moment of our life, passes by
in a continual stream. Therefore all that we say or do from the least to
the greatest, from the best to the worst, is written in our heart in
indelible characters. This record is the basis of the natural slow method
of soul growth by evolution, corresponding to the crude and ancient
water wheel.
In the next section we shall see how it is thus used and how by
scientific means soul growth may be accomplished and soul power unfolded by
an improvement on this process.
XVI. The Scientific Method
of Spiritual Unfoldment
Part II:
Retrospection:
A Means of
Avoiding Purgatory
We saw in the last section that a record resembling a picture film, of
our life from the cradle to the grave is inscribed upon a little atom in the
heart by the action of the ether which we inhale with every breath, and
which carries with it a picture of the outside world in which we are living
and moving at the time. This forms the basis of our post-mortem existence,
the record of deeds of wrongdoing being eradicated in a painful purgatorial
experience caused by the fire of remorse, which sears the soul as the
pictures of its misdeeds unroll before its gaze, thus making it less prone
to repeat the same wrongdoing and mistakes in future lives. The reaction
from the pictures where good was done is a heavenly joy, the subconscious
remembrance of which will in later lives prompt the soul to do more good.
But this process is necessarily sow and may be likened to the action and
operation of the old mill wheel. However, it is the way designed by nature to
teach humanity how to walk circumspectly and obey her laws. By this slow
process the greater part of humanity is gradually evolving from egoism to
altruism, and though exceedingly slow it seems to be the only method by
which they will learn.
There is another class which has caught a glimpse of a vision and sees in
the distant future a glorified humanity, expressly all the divine attributes
and living a life of love and peace. That class is aiming its bow of
aspiration at the stars, and is endeavoring to attain in one or a few
short lives what its fellow men will require hundreds of embodiments to
accomplish. To that end they, like the pioneers in the harnessing of the
waters and the scientific transmission of electricity, are seeking for a
scientific method which will eliminate the waste of time and energy involved
in the slow process of evolution and enable them to do the great
work of self-unfoldment scientifically and without waste of energy. That
was the problem which the early Rosicrucians set themselves to solve, and
having discovered this method they are now teaching the same to their faithful
followers, to the eternal welfare of all who aspire and persevere. Just as
the engineers who undertook to improve the primitive mill wheel and
accomplish the transmission of electricity to distant points achieved their
object by first studying the effects and defects of the primitive device, so
also the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucians first studied by the aid of
their spiritual sight all the phases of ordinary human evolution in
the post-mortem state as well as in the physical world, so that they might
determine how through many lives progress is gradually attained. They also
studied such glyphs and symbols as had been given to humanity throughout the
ages, to aid them in soul growth, notably the Tabernacle in the Wilderness,
which, as Paul says, was a shadow of better things to come, and they found
the secret of soul growth hidden in the various appliances and appurtenances
used in that ancient place of worship. As the scenes in the life panorama
which unrolls before the eyes of the soul after death, cause a suffering in
purgatory which cleanses the soul from a desire to repeat the offenses which
generated those pictures, so the salt wherewith the sacrifices upon the altar
of burnt offerings in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness were rubbed before
being placed before the altar and the fire wherewith they were consumed
symbolized a double fiery pain similar to that felt by the soul in
purgatory. Confident in the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below," they
evolved the method of Retrospection as being in harmony with the cosmic laws
of soul growth, and capable of accomplishing day by day that which the
purgatorial experience does only one in a life time, namely, cleansing the
soul from sin by the fire of remorse.
But when we say "Retrospection," it happens not infrequently that people
say, "Oh, that is taught by other religious bodies and i have practiced it
all my life; I examine the day's doings every evening before going to
sleep."
So far, so good. But that is not sufficient. In order to perform this
exercise scientifically it is necessary to follow the process of nature as
the electrician did when he desired to insulate the electric current from
the ground and found that glass, porcelain and fibre would act as barriers
to its passage. We must conform in every particular to the processes of
nature in her methods of attaining soul growth. When we study the purgatorial
expiation, we find that the life panorama is unfolded in reverse order, from
the grave to the cradle, scenes that were enacted late in life being taken
up for expiation first, and those which occurred in early youth being the
last to be dealt with. This, in order to show the soul how certain effects
in life were brought about by causes generated at an earlier stage.
Similarly, the scientific method of soul unfoldment requires that the aspirant
must examine his life every evening before going to sleep, starting with the
scenes which were enacted late in the evening just prior to retiring for the
night, then gradually proceeding in reverse order towards the things which
were done in the afternoon, then those which took place in the morning, and
back to the very moment of awakening. But also, and this is very important,
it is not sufficient to merely examine these scenes in a perfunctory way and
admit being sorry when one comes to a scene where one was unkind or unjust to
another person. There the glyph contained in the altar of burnt offerings
gives specific instruction; just as the sacrifices were rubbed with salt
which, as everyone knows burns and smarts exceedingly when rubbed into a
would, and just as fire, such as is applied on the altar of burnt offerings
to the sacrifice, consumes the same offerings, so also the aspirant to soul
growth must realize that he is both priest and sacrifice, the altar and the
fire burning thereon; he must allow the salt and the fire of remorse to burn
and sear into his very heart a deep-felt contrition at the thought of
whatever wrong he has done, for only such a deep and serious treatment of the
matter will wash the record away from the seed atom in the heart and leave it
clean. And unless that is done, nothing has been accomplished. But if the
aspirant to scientific soul unfoldment succeed in making this fire of remorse
and contrition sufficiently intense, then the seed atom will be cleansed of
the sin committed day by day throughout the life, and even the things that
have taken place before such exercises were taken up will gradually disappear
before that cleansing fire, so that the end of life when the silver cord has
been loosened the aspirant find himself without any panorama of life to
take up his attention, such as all ordinary people are occupied with who
have not been fortunate enough to be taught and to practice this scientific
method. The result then is that instead of having to spend in purgatorial
expiation a period of time about one-third as long as the life lived in the
dense body, he who steadily and unwaveringly practices this method finds
himself as a free lance in the invisible world, not bound by limitations
which hold and fetter all others, and therefore free to use his entire
time while in the lower regions in the service of suffering humanity. But
there is a great difference between the opportunities there and here; here
one-third of our life is taken up with rest and recuperation, another third
is taken up in work so that we may obtain the wherewithal to keep this
physical body fed, clothed, and housed; and only the other third is at all
available for the purposes of rest, recreation, or soul growth. It is
different in the Desire World where the spirit finds itself after death. The
bodies in which we function there do not require food or raiment, neither do
they need shelter; they are not subject to fatigue either, so that instead
of spending two-thirds of the time as here in providing the necessaries of
the body, the spirit is there free to use its instruments the whole twenty-
four hours, day after day. Therefore the time saved in the invisible world
by having lived our purgatory day by day is the equivalent of that portion of
an entire earth life which one spends in work. Also during all that time
thus saved no thought or care need be given to anything else but how we may
help to further the scheme of evolution and aid our younger and less
fortunate brothers. Thus we reap a rich harvest and make more soul growth
in that post-mortem existence than would be possible in several ordinary
lives. When we are reborn we then find ourselves with all the soul powers
thus acquired and must further along upon the path of evolution than we
could possibly have been under ordinary circumstances.
It is also noteworthy that while other methods of soul unfoldment evolved
and taught by other schools carry with them danger which sometimes may bring
those who practice them into the insane asylum, the scientific method of
soul unfoldment advocated by the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian order is
always bound to benefit everyone who practices it and can never under any
circumstances cause any harm to anyone. We may also say that there are
other helps that have not been mentioned here which are communicated to
those who have proved their worth by their persistence, and while they do
not directly aim at the evolution of spiritual sight, this will be evolved
by all who practice them with the necessary faithful perseverance.
XVII. The Heavens Declare
the Glory of God
"The Heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his
handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth
knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of
the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a
bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a
race."
Everywhere for miles around us we see the glorious sunrise, bringing
light and life to all; then the day star mounts high in the heavens, later
to decline towards the western horizon in a glorious burst of flame as its
sinks into the sea, leaving an afterglow of indescribable, variegated tints
coloring the heavens as with liquid fire of the softest and most beautiful
hues, which the brush of the painter can never paint to perfection. Then
the moon, the orb of night, rises over the eastern hills, carrying the stars
and constellations upward in her train toward the zenith, and following the
sun in its everlasting circle dance; the stellar script thus describes upon
the map of heaven man's past, present and future evolution among the ever
changing environments of the concrete world, without rest or peace while
time lasts.
In this ever changing kaleidoscope of the heavens there is one star and
only one that remains so comparatively stationary that to all intents and
purposes and from the standpoint of our ephemeral life of fifty, sixty, or
one hundred years it is a fixed point — the North Star. When the mariner
sails his ship upon the waste of waters, he has full faith that so long as
he steers by that mark he will safely reach his desired haven. Nor is he
dismayed when clouds obscure its guiding light, for he has a compass
magnetized by a mysterious power so that through sunshine or rain, in fog
or mist, it points unerringly to that steadfast star and enables him to
steer his ship as safely as if he could actually see the star itself. Truly,
the heavens declare the wonders of the Lord.
As it is in the macrocosm, the great world without us, so it is in our
own lives. At our birth the sun of life rises, and we begin the ascent
through the years of childhood and youth toward the zenith of manhood or
womanhood. The ever changing world which forms our environment, including
fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers, surrounds us. With friends,
acquaintances, and foes we face the battle of life with whatever strength we
may have gained in our past lives, to pay the debts contracted, to bear the
burdens of this life, perhaps to make them heavier according to our wisdom
or unwisdom. But among all the changing circumstances of life and the
vicissitudes of existence there is one great and grand guide which like the
North Star never fails us; a guide ever ready like the steadfast star in
heaven to help us steer our bark of life into clear sailing — God. It is
significant to read in the Bible that the wise men in their search for the
Christ (our Great Spiritual Teacher) also followed a star that led them to
this great spiritual Light. What would we think of the captain of a ship
who lashed the wheel and let his ship drift with the tide, leaving it to the
change of wind or fate? Would it surprise us if he were eventually
shipwrecked and lost his life upon the rocks? Surely not. The marvel would
be if he should reach the shore.
A great and wonderful allegory is written in cosmic characters in the
sky. It is also written in our own lives, and warns us to forsake the
fleeting life of the material and to seek the eternal life of God.
We are not left without a guide, even though the veil of flesh, the pride
of life, and the lusts blind us for a time. For as the mariner's magnetic
compass points to the guiding star, so the spirit draws us to its source
with a longing and a yearning that cannot be entirely quenched no matter how
deep we may sink into materialism. Many are at present groping, seeking,
trying to solve that inner unrest; something seems to urge them on though
they do not understand it; something ever draws them forward to seek the
spiritual and to reach up for something higher — our Father in Heaven.
David said, "if I ascend up into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed
in the grave thou art there; thy right hand shall guide and hold me." in
the 28th Psalm, he says, "when i consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that
thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have
dominion over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under his
feet."
This is nothing new to those who are seeking the Light, who have been doing
their very best to live the life; but the danger lies in that they may become
indifferent, may become spiritually common-place. Therefore, as the
steersman at the helm of the ship is constantly wakeful and watching the
guiding compass, so it is of the greatest importance that we continually
shake ourselves lest we go to sleep and the ship of our life go off its
course. let us all set our faces firmly towards this star of hope, this
great spiritual light, the real and only thing worth while — the life of God.
XVIII. Religion and Healing
At various times and in different ways humanity has been given religions
suited to spur them onward upon the path of evolution. In each the ideal
was made just high enough to rouse the aspirations of the class of people to
whom it was given, but not so high as to be beyond their appreciation, for
then it would not have appealed to them at all. The primitive human being, for instance,
must have a strong God, one who wields the flaming sword of lightning with
mighty hand. He can look up to such a God in fear, but would despise a God
who would show love and mercy.
Therefore religions have also changed as man has evolved; the ideal has
been slowly raised until it has reach the highest stage in our Christian
teaching. The flower of religions is always given to the flower of
humanity. in a future age a higher religion will of course be given to a
more advanced human race. There can be no end to evolution, but we maintain that
the invisible leaders of humanity give to each nation the teaching best
suited to their condition. Hinduism helps our brothers in the
East, but Christianity is the Western teaching, particularly suited to Western
people.
Thus we see that the mass of humanity is taken care of by the religion
publicly taught in the country of their birth; but there are always pioneers
whose precocity demands a higher teaching, and to them a deeper doctrine is
given through the agency of the Mystery School belonging to their country.
When only a few are ready for such preparatory schooling they are taught
privately, but as they increase in number the teaching is given more
publicly.
The latter is the case in the Western world at present. Therefore the
Brothers of the Rose Cross gave to the writer a philosophy such as published
in our various works, to promulgate this teaching. The purpose is to bring aspiring
souls into contact with the Teacher when by service here, in the physical
world, they have shown their sincerity and given reasonable assurance that
they will use their spiritual powers for service in the other world when
they shall have been initiated therein.
The higher teachings are never given for a monetary consideration. Peter
in olden days rebuked Simon the sorcerer, who wanted to buy spiritual power
that he might prostitute it for material gain. The Elder Brothers also refuse to open the door to those who prostitute the spiritual sciences by casting horoscopes, reading palms, or giving clairvoyant readings professionally for money. The Rosicrucian Teachings advocate the study
of astrology and palmistry by all its members, and furnishes simple
teachings on the former so that all may acquire ability in this science instead of remaining the dupes of professionals, who are often mere pretenders.
During the past few years since we first commenced to disseminate the
Rosicrucian teachings they have spread like wildfire over the civilized
world. They are studied with avidity from the Cape of Good Hope to the Arctic
Circle and beyond. They have found response in the hearts of all
classes of people — in the snow-clad huts of Alaskan miners, in government
houses where a tropical wind unfurls the British Lion, and in the capitals
of Turkish autocracy and American democracy alike. Our adherents may be
found in government institutions as well as in the humblest walks of life,
all in lively correspondence and close touch with our movement and working
for the promulgation of the deeper truths concerning life and being which
are helping them.
The Rosicrucian Principles
of Healing
It is a trite saying that "man is of few days and full of trouble."
Among all the vicissitudes of life none affect us more powerfully than loss
of health. We may lose fortune or friends with comparative equanimity, but
when health fails and death threatens, the strongest falter; realizing human
impotence we are more ready to turn to divine power for succor then than at
other times. Therefore the office of spiritual adviser has always been
closely associated with healing.
Among primitve humanity the priest was also "medicine man." In ancient Greece
Aesculapius was particularly sought by those in need of healing. The Church
followed in his steps. Certain Catholic orders have continued the endeavor
to assuage pain during the centuries which have intervened between that day
and the present. In times of sickness the "good father" came as a
representative of our Father in Heaven, and what he lacked in skill was made
up by love and sympathy — if he was indeed a true and holy priest — and by the
faith engendered in the patient by the priestly office. His care of the
patient did not commence at the sickbed, nor was it terminated at recovery.
The gratitude of the patient toward the physician was added to the
veneration felt for the spiritual adviser, and as a consequence the power of
the priest to help and uplift his erstwhile patient was enormously increased,
and the tie between them was closer than possible where the offices of
spiritual and medical adviser are divorced.
It is not denied that the double office gave the incumbents a most
dangerous power over the people and that that power was at times abused. It
is also patent that the art of medicine has reached a stage of efficiency
which could not have been attained save by devotion to that one particular end
and aim. The safeguards of sanitary laws, the extinction of insect carriers
of disease, and the consequent immunity from disease are monumental
testimonies to the value of modern scientific methods. Thus it may seem as
if all were well and there were no need of further effort. But in reality,
until humanity as a whole enjoys perfect health, there is no issue more
important than the question, How may we attain and maintain health?
In addition to the regular school of surgery and medicine, which depends
exclusively upon physical means for the care of disease, other systems have
sprung up which depend entirely on mental healings. It is the custom of
organizations which advocate "mind cure," "nature cure," and other like
methods to hold experience meetings and publish journals with testimonials
from grateful supporters who have benefited by their treatments, and if
physicians of the regular school did likewise there would be no lack of
similar testimonies to their efficiency.
The opinion of thousands is of great value, but is does not prove
anything, for thousands may hold an opposite view. Occasionally a single
man may be right and the rest of the world wrong, as when Galileo
maintained that the earth moves. Today the whole world has been converted to
the opinion for which he was persecuted as a heretic. We assert that as man
is a composite being, cures are successful in proportion as they remedy
defects on the physical, moral, and mental planes of being. We also
maintain that results may be obtained more easily at certain times when the
stellar rays are propitious for the healing of a particular disease or for
treatment with remedies previously prepared under auspicious conditions.
It is well known to the modern physician that the condition of the blood,
and therefore the condition of the whole body, changes in sympathy with the
state of mind of the patient, and the more the physician uses suggestion as
an adjunct to medicine the more successful he is. Few perhaps would credit
the further fact that both our mental and physical condition is influenced
by planetary rays which change as the planets move. In these days since the
principle of radioactivity has been established we know that everybody
projects into space numberless little particles. Wireless telegraphy has
taught us that etheric waves travel swiftly and surely through trackless
space and operate a key according to our will. We also know that the rays
of the sun affect us differently in the morning when they strike us
horizontally than at noon when they are perpendicular. If the light rays
from the swift-moving sun produce physical and mental changes, may not the
persistent ray of slower planets also have an effect? If they have, they
are factors in health not to be overlooked by a thoroughly scientific healer.
Disease is a manifestation of ignorance, the only sin, and healing is a
demonstration of applied knowledge, which is the only salvation. Christ is
an embodiment of the Wisdom Principle, and in proportion as the Christ is
formed in us we attain to health. Therefore the healer should be spiritual
and endeavor to imbue his patient with high ideals so that he may eventually
learn to conform to God's laws which govern the universe, and thus attain
permanent health in future lives as well as now.
However, faith without works is dead. if we persist in living under
unsanitary conditions, faith will not save us from typhoid. When we apply
preventives of proper kind, or remedies in sickness, we are really showing
our faith by works.
Like other Mystery orders the Rosicrucian Order has also aimed to help
humanity in the attainment of bodily health. It has been written in various
works that the members of the Order took a vow to heal others free of
charge. This statement is somewhat garbled. The lay brothers take a vow to
minister to all according to the best of their ability free of charge. That
vow included healing, of course, in the case of such men as Paracelsus, who
had ability in that direction; by the combination method of physical
remedies applied under favorable stars and spiritual counsel he was highly
successful. Others were not suited to be healers but labored in other
directions, but all were alike in one particular — they never charged for their services, and they labored in secret without flourish of trumpet or sound of drum.
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