BIRTH INTO THE NEXTLIFE THE GOSPELOF OCCULTISM THE … · 2019-02-20 · “a sane mind, a soft...

“A Sane Mind, A Soft Heart, A Sound Body” September/October 2004—$5.00

BIRTH INTO THE NEXT LIFETHE GOSPEL OF OCCULTISM

THE ROSICRUCIAN MOVEMENT AND FREEMASONRYTHE WORK OF INVISIBLE HELPERS WITH THE DEAD

A CHRISTIAN ESOTERIC MAGAZINE

Would I could win some quiet and rest, and a little ease, In the cool grey hush of the dusk, in the dim green place of the trees, Where the birds are singing, singing, singing, crying aloud The song of the red, red rose that blossoms beyond the seas.

Would I could see it, the rose, when the light begins to fail, And a lone white star in the West is glimmering on the mail; The red, red passionate rose of the sacred blood of the Christ, In the shining chalice of God, the cup of the Holy Grail.

The dusk comes gathering grey, and the darkness dims the West, The oxen low to the byre, and all bells ring to rest; But I ride over the moors, for the dusk still bides and waits, That brims my soul with the glow of the rose that ends the Quest.

My horse is spavined and ribbed, and his bones come through his hide, My sword is rotten with rust, but I shake the reins and ride, For the bright white birds of God that nest in the rose have called, And never a township now is a town where I can bide.

It will happen at last, at dusk, as my horse limps down the fell, A star will glow like a note God strikes on a silver bell, And the bright white birds of God will carry my soul to Christ, And the sight of the Rose, the Rose, will pay for the years of hell.

—John Masefield, The Ballad of Sir Bors

Front Cover: Painting, The Supper at Emmaus, Rudolf Eisenstaedt. Back Cover: Planet Art

This Issue...Feature

The Living Chalice...Susan Mitchell.....................................................................2

EditorialThe Servant with a Thousand Faces.....................................................................3

Mystic LightGoethe’s The Mysteries—An Interpretation (Part 5)...Ann Barkhurst.................4

Birth into the Next Life...Z. Z. Zain......................................................................9

The Gospel of Occultims...Howard W. Coombs.................................................15

Achieving Happiness...Elsa Glover.....................................................................19

Christ-Reliance...C.W..........................................................................................20

The Rosicrucian Movement and Freemasonry...John Landes............................24

The Work of Invisible Helpers with the Dead...Amber Tuttle............................26

From Max Heindel’ s WritingsThe Temple of the Living God............................................................................30

Readers’ QuestionsThe Rosicrucian Fellowship and “Historical” Rosicrucianism...........................31

Euthanizing Animals; Saviors in a Cave.............................................................32

Western W isdom Bible StudyAbraham and Melchizedek...Gene Sande...........................................................33

AstrologyJudging a Horoscope...A. E.................................................................................36

God’s Message Through Sagittarius...Rosicrucian Fellowship Staff Members....40

The Religious Aspect of Astrology...Bessie Leo.................................................44

Spiritual Science and ArtThe Spiritual Being of Art (Part 2)...Rudolf Steiner...........................................48

Book ReviewsBlavatsky and The Secret Doctrine...Max Heindel.............................................53

HealingObedience, Faith and the Universal Healing Force...Max Heindel....................56

For ChildrenRobin Redbreast...Selma Lagerlöf......................................................................58

MiscellaneousThe Ballad of Sir Bors (poem)...John Masefield.....................(inside front cover)

The Desire World (text)...Max Heindel...............................................................14

Prayer to the God Of Our Solar System...James Robert Hubbs.........................25Regnum Caellorum Vim Patitur(poem)...Evelyn Underhill..............................46

“A Sane Mind,A Soft Heart,

A Sound Body”© 2004 The Rosicrucian Fellowship

A Christian Esoteric Magazine

Established byMax Heindel

June 1913

Volume 96, No. 5

September/October—2004USPS 471080—ISSN 0744-432X

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The Living

FEATURE

The Mother sent me on the holy quest,Timid and proud and curiously dressed

In vestures by her hand wrought wondrously; An eager burning heart she gave to me.

The Bridgeroom’s Feast was set and I drew nigh—Master of Life, Thy Cup has passed me by.

Before new-dressed I from the Mother came, In dreams I saw the wondrous Cup of Flame.

Ah, Divine Chalice, how my heart drank deep, Waking I sought the Love I knew asleep.

The Feast of Life was set and I drew nigh—Master of Life, Thy Cup has passed me by.

Eye of the Soul, awake, awake and see Growing within the Ruby Radiant Tree,

Sharp pain hath wrung the Clusters of my Vine; My heart is rose-red with its brimmed wine.

Thou hast new-set the Feast and I draw nigh—Master of Life, take me, Thy Cup am I.

—Susan Mitchell

Chalice

Created by A

riel Agem

ian exclusively for the Confraternity of the P

recious Blood

AS STUDENTS of the RosicrucianTeachings, we have a mandate:"He who would be the greatestamong you, let him be the servantof all." To serve the Light is, over

time, to be transfigured by it. The strictures ofSaturnian (Mosaic) law, the oppressive conscious-ness of sin, yield division, diminution and death.But impersonal Love (promoted by the firsttranspersonal planet Ouranous, Greek heaven), asthe fulfillment of the law, rescues and redeems theself-condemned, incarnates the transcendent Godand bequeaths to humanity the immanent Goodwhich service dynamizes and multiplies like thefew loaves of bread given to the multitude. Service,which leavens mind and matter, is the new alchemy.

As planets (Gr., planan, to wander), we are pil-grims, wanderers on earth, moving through ourappointed stations, experiencing our crises andeclipses of the Light, knowing paucity and plenty.We experience holy conjunctions, terrible con-frontations, periodicities of growth and disintegra-tion in a broadening, ascending spiraling ofSelf-consciousness. The earth we each are is aninchoate star. Mercury (mind) as Paraclete scintil-lates with Sun.

The physical dimension is the mirror in whichour yet nascent consciousness is reflected. First wesee through the glass darkly, pleased with our ownNarcissus' image that we fall toward and drown in.But, eventually, we shall see face to face, throughthe apparency, the mortality, the mutability. Wepractice seeing in others Who we really are. Wecome around to the point of our departure andknow the place and our Self for the first time.

We are engaged in a pilgrimage through matter.We are Prodigal Sons in a foreign country.

Archangels, as archetypes, inform us, instruct us,touch down in us, give us of their spiritual sub-stance the manna of intuition, sustaining hope inadversity. We are inspired and we inspire. Ourmundane person is gradually spiritualized. At theapex of our incarnate pyramids we are slow-motion struck by divine lightning. The discarnateTrinity descends and is incrementally, impercep-tibly embodied. A regeneration gradually ensues.Solomon's Seal could be our logo, its central pointunidentified, totally inner, the silent Watcher, anauthentic spark of Deity. Our bodies—physical,etheric, astral, mental, spiritual—are concentric(more or less). The spiritual Sun at our immortalcenter extends to the far reaches of creation. Ourmental sphere intimately permeates and is congru-ous with other mental spheres, though containingvast reaches of unfathomed darkness and embry-onic blessing. Our passional persons are cloudy withmixed emotions or clear and bright with empathyand altruism. Only our physical vessels are dis-crete and seemingly unique. But all their compos-ing substances are constantly circulating—solidmatter and fluids, the air especially constantlybeingpersonalized, then exhaled, suffusing the planet,and restored by the symbiotic plant kingdom.

Truly in God we live and move and have ourbeing. Human destiny is the conscious actualiza-tion of this understanding: I and the Father are one.But the Light yet shineth in darkness and thedarkness comprehendeth it not. So let our darknessbecome Light. Let us comprehend, even as we arecomprehended, love, even as we are loved, serve,even as we are served. Let us open the gates of ourconsciousness that the King of Glory may enter in.He has opened the Book of Life. He has loosed theseven seals. Even so may we. ❐

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The Servant with a Thousand Faces

EDITORIAL

STANZAS 41 TO 44, INCLUSIVE . BROTHER MARK IS INTRODUCED TO FLAME - ANGELS

As he deeply ponders on the philosophical andspiritual significance of the many symbolic pic-tures, Mark is at last too weary to further resist thedesire for rest. The Brother conducts him to a quietcell, where after a short sleep our friend awakens tothe sound of a hollow metallic clangor. It is, hethinks, the deep notes of the chapel bell, and withunwearied zest he arouses himself to answer theheavenly summons to devotion. Quickly clothed,he hastens to the threshold. Yet, swiftly as hemoves, his heart has already run before him to thechurch, in quest of devotion obedient to the celes-tial summons, deeply quiet, winged by prayer.

Arrived at the church, Mark tries the latch of thedoor, but finds it bolted; and, as he listens, thesound which awoke him is renewed, a sound as ofthree equal beats on some hollow metal. Not aclock striking the hour, and also not the bellstolling. The triple rhythm with its solemn, slow, andequal beat continues, while the notes of a flute min-gle with it from time to time. The sound, which isstrange and hard to interpret, stirs him and gladdenshis heart; it is enchanting and solemn, as when withsinging happy couples intertwine in dancing.

Bewildered, he hastens to the window to view,perhaps, the cause of his obscure emotion. The dayis dawning in the distant east; the horizon isstreaked with delicate mist, and—can he trust hiseyes?—a curious intermittent light flits through thegarden. He sees three youths, with torches in theirhands, swiftly wending their way through the paths.They are wearing white resplendent garments, cir-cled at the waist by intertwining roses, and theircurly heads are wreathed with flowers. It looks to

him as if they have come from nightlong dancing,refreshed and lively from their joyful entertain-ment. But as the fading stars, they extinguish theirtorches and vanish in the distance.

And here the Fragment ends, on a scene whichseems to have no connection whatever with any-thing that has gone before. The reader, like BrotherMark in the poem, is left in complete bafflement.

What can this possibly mean? These beautifulyouths who have spent the night dancing in themonastery gardens, to the triple beat of a hollowmetal gong (or triangle), who wear a crown of flow-ers in their hair and are begirt with roses, who carrytorches, which, like the stars, they extinguish in theearly twilight hours of dawn, and disappear—whatare they doing in this place?

One thought that comes to mind is that this is thefirst scene of a Garden of Temptation, like theGardens of Klingsor in the story of the Grail, andthat these three beautiful young men are, so tospeak, the advance guard of an act which is toinclude a Kundry and various enchantments, tolure, if possible, the holy young Brother away fromthe straight and narrow Path of his predestined mis-sion. For that he has such a mission the poem makesabundantly clear.

In support of this interpretation we note thatBrother Mark had gone, as if on wings, to thechurch; that he found the door locked and could seenothing. He therefore, on hearing music, lookedout through the latticewindow, and seeing thethree beautiful youths leaping through the gardenpaths with torches in their hands, has necessarilyturned his back on the Temple door. He could notenter because he did not have the password. To theeyes of his soul-self, the Temple is dark. In reality,work is going forward within, but he cannot enter to

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Goethe’s The Mysteries—An InterpretationPart 5

MYSTIC LIGHT

take part in that work, although he is separated fromthe body which lies sleeping in the cell. Of coursehe moved as if on wings of prayer from his cell—he was for the moment a winged being; he has infact entered the soul world, but he is not yet awareof this. Turning his back upon the Temple door, helooks into the Gardens of Pleasure, where he seesthe three supernatural youths.

Now, throughout scriptural literature, and espe-cially in the apocryphons, the term youth,or youngman,is used to refer to beings whom we common-ly call angels. The same convention is followed inthe Zohar which, published in the thirteenth centu-ry (that in which C.R.C. appeared as such inEurope), was a consensus of all kabalistic teachingsfrom the time of Christ up to that time.

In the Old Testament we have only to recall theThree Young Men who appeared to Abraham. In theBooks of Daniel, Zechariah, and Enoch, amongothers, the same expression, often translated angel,is used. Angels, however, were both celestial andinfernal. They might also be terrestrial. The wordangel means messenger, and a human being whoacted as an emissary of higher powers was also anangel of God. Similarly, a human being who wasthe emissary, consciously or unconsciously, of evil,was an angel of temptation, as when Jesus said toPeter, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”

Who then are the three angels, or youths, withtorches in their hands? The solution comes inGoethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, where weare told how Wilhelm is led up a high mountain byhis companion in a fellowship of mystics. As dark-ness descends, he sees hosts of tiny swaying flamesrise up out of the earth, which arrange themselvesin long lines, and as he ascends to the summit of themountain they converge, so that at last he findshimself in the midst of a sea of flames stretchingaway on every side. As he looks at this sea offlames, his vision clears and he discovers that theflames are in fact the light of torches carried bymen. These “men” are precisely such “youths” asthe three who bore torches, whom Brother Marksaw in the Garden of the Rose Cross.

The companion explains to Wilhelm what thelights mean: “These lights, which shine beneath theearth day and night the year round, promoting hid-den, almost unattainable earthly treasures, now well

up from the depths and brighten the open night.Rarely does one see so joyful an assembly in whicha process so useful, yet scattered beneath the earth,and removed from sight, reveals itself in its entirefullness, and makes visible a great secret union.”

Speaking further of the flames, Wilhelm says:“This spectacle seemed far more friendly than whena volcano rises up, and with its foaming roar threat-ens vast areas with destruction; and yet it glowed inan ever mightier, ever broader, and ever denser stream,sparkled like a galaxy of stars, and though soft andgentle, spread out boldly over the entire region.”

But one may well inquire at this point whetherthe “flames” did in fact “‘well up” into the opennight, or whether it was not the vision of the com-panions which plunged below the earth. The ques-tion inevitably comes to mind because if these“flames” are in fact the actual substance of matter,as would seem to be suggested here, then for themto leave their posts in the crystal lattice would meanthat matter itself would vanish, like an unravellingmeshwork. It would seem reasonable to supposethat only where the flames belong to elementalbeings who work above or near the surface of theearth could they conceivably “well up” in thismanner.

Yet it is commonly accepted as fact among occultinvestigators that elemental spirits can and do leave

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James Tissot, 1836-1902, Jewish Museum

Abraham and the Three Angels While they may appear as youths, Abraham senses or intuitsa higher presence and prostrates himself in awe and wonder.

their chemical counterparts in matter for brief inter-vals of time; as the human consciousness leaves thebody in sleep.

A certain number of the elemental flames are,necessarily, freely roaming, as the chemicalchanges in matter would suggest, like the electrons(and other subatomic particles) which are knockedout of atoms only to re-form by recombination withthe particles of the same or another atom.

The elemental flames are inconceivably minute,yet to the clairvoyant sight they assume shape andan appearance of magnitude, very much as if theywere viewed through an electron microscope capa-ble of magnifying them millions of times their“actual” size.

We have not been able to determine whether it isthe molecular or the subatomic strata that areinvolved here; but since the atom was, even inGoethe’s time, taken as the basic unit of matter, onemay assume that what he saw involved the inter-weaving of atomic forces within the molecularstructure of the planet. This would indeed be in linewith alchemical theory as Goethe knew it.

From the life-side of Nature, the “flames” are theunit of creation. All solid matter is formed aroundthese minute flames, which almost invariably, onthe earth at least, by a law of their nature, alignthemselves in the more or less intricate lattices ofcrystallization. In folklore they are named amongboth gnomes and salamanders, for although as“gnomes” they were believed to work in the interi-or of matter, yet as “flames” they were often lookedupon as salamanders, the spirits of terrestrial fire—forces that work in the crystal lattice, concerningwhich physicists say that “the entire solid crust ofthe earth is crystalline, with little exception.”

Certainly the basic elements (in Goethe’s time as“fixed” as ever, despite the centuries’-long attemptsof alchemists to transmute base metals into fine) inwhich the atomic structure seems to assume anunvarying pattern, would appear to clairvoyantvision as a latticework of flames; and both folkloreand the literature of occultism are full of examplesshowing that this is so. Nor do we have to seek farback for these examples; we have contemporaryevidence.

A student writes: “After Goethe’s vision, what Ihave to relate is anticlimax. I have seen these

flames on four different occasions. The first time,looking into the darkness of my room, fully awake,I saw a small bent flame, like a match flame bent bywind, appear at one side of my room and travelslowly across to the other, a foot or two below theceiling. The second time I had been meditating, andsank into what I call clear sleep, for my mind wasawake, and I found myself standing beside my bed,looking toward the outer bedroom wall, which iscovered with drapes. There, between the two win-dows and behind the drapes, I saw a rectangulararrangement of sixteen flames. I saw the numberwithout counting the flames. Although I knew thedrapes were there, yet I saw the flames behindthem, on the wall, as if the drapes were not there. Imean, that I did not see through the drapes, and yetI did see what was behind them. I was puzzled byall this, and found myself back in my body again,still awake, but not knowing how I had got there (soI must have fallen unconscious for a split second). Iturned my head to look at the draped wall, andremembered what was hidden behind thosedrapes—the Rose Cross, which I keep there to beunveiled in my hours of meditation. The third time,I was again in clear sleep following deep thought,the tired body having loosed its hold on the stillthinking Ego, when again I stood beside my bedlooking toward the draped wall. This time I saw asmaller rectangle, consisting of four flames,one ateach corner. I awoke, and discovered, when I inves-tigated, that the size of the figure must have beenexactly that of the Rose Cross emblem hanging inits frame. The fourth occasion was again a wakingexperience. I had, in a time of physical debility,become oversensitive to telepathic influences com-ing from a person given to emotional storms. Icould not seem to free myself of the catlike scratch-ing and tearing in my solar plexus, although I knewits source. I mentally asked the little flame-elemen-tals, as I supposed them to be, to build a wall ofpsychic protection between me and this individual Ihave mentioned. I immediately saw (in mentalspace) a latticework, consisting entirely of these lit-tle flames arranged in a diamond formation.”

We digress for a moment to point out the stresswhich the writer puts on the words “in mentalspace.” Esotericists know that there is a “mentalspace” in which an intellectual seeing takes place.

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A number of modern scientists—physicists, arche-ologists, and inventors, principally—have relatedexperiences of this sort, and several of our mostrevolutionary scientific discoveries have comeabout through the accidental exercise of thisintellectual clairvoyance. The philosophy of sci-ence usually calls such intellectual clairvoyance“intuition,” but it is clearly not the “spiritual intu-ition” of the mystic.

After a time, the intellectual vision seems toobjectify itself in outer space, so that the picture oridea seems suddenly to be projected into the roomin which the scientist sits. Psychologists call this“eidetic” seeing or imaging. It is said of Goethehimself, for instance, that he could “hallucinate arose.” The situation seems to be that the thoughtform has become reflected in the so-called“Reflecting Ether” of the physical world.Presumably the next step would be materialization,if the scientist had the formula for this, which tradi-tionally involves the use of the “Creative Word.”

We have seen that Goethe, who first saw theseearth forces as flames, later beheld them as menbearing torches. Folklore of all peoples everywhereshow the spirits of the elements—the “little”gods—as manlike in appearance. Enoch says thathe saw certain angels in the underworld as“flames,” but that these flames had the power toappear as men when it pleased them to do so.

However, the humanoid forms assumed by theelemental beings are various. They have been seenas small manlike creatures with tiny flames burningabove their foreheads, so that the viewer wasreminded of miners’caps with their lamps.Sometimes they are seen as if carrying lanterns.Goethe’s three youths carried torches. Fairies carrylanterns, or wear lights in their hair, or on their fore-heads, or at the tip of a wand. Will-o’-the-wisps arefairy flames or sparks fitting over marshes andmeadows. The homunculus is a tiny living manlikecreature brought forth by the alchemist in a glassphial, which is undoubtedly meant to represent oneof these beings trapped and fed the substance need-ed to give it form in the world of men.

Every aspect of Nature, the Macrocosm, has itsspiritual counterpart. There is no such thing as“dead” matter. The universe is alive. Therefore tothe spiritual vision, as described by many seers, the

universe glitters and blazes with brilliant livinglight in all the colors of the rainbow, and many col-ors not in earth’s rainbow. The “greater” gods,devas, or angels, are known by their greater bril-liance and by characteristic emanations. The Bookof Enoch mentions a whole hierarchy of angels whohave charge of the elements: There is an angel ofthe snow, an angel of the winds, an angel of fire, anangel of the waters; angels of hours, days, seasons;angels of light; angels of stars, sun, and moon;angels of falling stars, comets, meteors, and so on.The “wandering stars that kept not their courses”are shown as fallen or falling angels.

The human being also carries his Lamp, as wellas the innumerable sparks and flames of the trillionsof atoms comprising his physical body. The “flameof life” common to all biological organisms is seenin man burning in the medulla oblongata, where itemits a buzzing, droning sound like a swarm ofbees. In fact, the entire electrical mechanism of thebody hums in this way, oftentimes clearly audible,

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Head of a Rose Angel, Ethelwynne M Quail, Illustration for The Kingdom of the Gods, byGeoffrey Hodson, Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, India

Etheric beings mold nature’s forms from elemental “flame.”The etheric larynx speaks the creative word

its keynote set by the archetypal flame of themedulla.

In the course of man’s spiritual evolution, a sep-aration takes place between the electromagneticmatrix which holds the physical atoms in place, andanother still finer pattern of forces called “the gold-en wedding garment” (the name comes from theNew Testament), which is the matrix for the soul-body, the “Eidolon” of the Greeks. The soul- bodyis, really, a “body”; that is, it has the appearance ofthe complete human being; and the keynote of thissoul-body which is the special vehicle of the awak-ened Ego—sounds in the frontal sinus and in sub-sidiary stations in hands and feet. In this psycho-spiritual organism of the soul-body the flame pro-trudes, like the Egyptian Uraeus symbol, from thefrontal sinus.

Since the soul-body is a replica, atom for atom,of the physical body, there is of course in the soulbody, as in the physical, a center of force in themedulla, and this is sometimes felt by the Ego whenit is conscious and awake apart from the body.

We may say that all archetypal forces, electro-magnetic in nature, which build the physical mole-cules into the bodily organs, are also present in thesoul-body, even when that soul-body is not withinthe physical; and sometimes they produce an invol-untary materialization, because the archetype isdrawing free atoms out of the air. The physical bodyis not, however, entranced, but merely, in the nor-mal sense of the word, sleeping. This is the positivealchemical work which precedes Initiation.Butthere is a negative alchemical work, very close tothe mysticism of the church, which was in facttaught by a number of monastic sects of the MiddleAges. This work consisted of meditating upon thesolar plexus and navel.

Whether the development is negative or positive,however, it is always accompanied by some degreeof awakening of the force centers within the skull.The Crown of Thorns encircles the head as a streamof force, flowing through both force centers—thatin the frontal sinus and also that in the medulla.

The awakening of the force centers in the solarplexus and navel belongs to the elemental planes ofthe inner worlds, which are hard to control, oftencausing a reversion to types of behavior which arenow atavistic and of no special use to the human

race. The youths’girdle of roses hints of some suchdevelopment here in the Garden ofDelight; yetthey also wear a crown of flowers. The Glory of theRose Cross is the Crown of Roses, which unfoldsamong the thorns in the full blaze of the alchemicaltransmutation, correlative to the mature activity ofthe great control center of the frontal sinus, whichin turn is the uppermost point of the golden star,signifying the birth of the Christ Within. (SeeAncient and Modern Initiation, by Max Heindel;also the same author’s Freemasonry andCatholicism.)

On the awakening of the Christ Star, the fieryegoic powers continue to rush upward, althoughthis fountainous uprush varies in force and powerunder varying circumstances, and it is often accom-panied by a sound as of bells, ox cymbals, andsometimes by a sound that does resemble a strikingon hollow metal, although this is more rare than theother. Many mystics have commented on the bellsound that accompanies the uprushing “spinal spir-it fire. “

Brother Mark hears this clangor, which awakenshim from soul-sleep in the soul world, and with itthe rhythmic beat of the elemental forces soundingfrom deep within the earth.

Significantly, the gnomes are called, in folklore,“the Knockers”; and again we have contemporarycorroboration of this term in the account of anoccultist who said that in meditation she heard thesound of these “‘little gods” as they built the min-eral elements into the bones of the body; and thesound was the sound of innumerable tiny hammers.And though these sounds are to the human ear whatthe atom is to the human eye, yet in aggregate theywould represent, to the spiritual hearing, a tumultand a roar of rhythmic sound—the thunder-soundof the planets in their courses.

It is perhaps well to observe here that the wordgnomeactually comes from a German term signify-ing earthdweller. Gnomes are the spirits of moun-tains and earth. They were not always, and are notalways, seen in the form of dwarfs in medievalclothing. Spirits of mines and minerals, they havebecome confused in folklore with the wizened andundersized human beings, sometimes children, whoworked the mines. (Continued) ❐

—Ann Barkhurst

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THE CIRCUMSTANCES attendantupon passing to the next life are quiteas varied and lacking in uniformity asthose attendant upon birth into this life.In fact, the death of the physical body is

really the birth into that new existence.Births upon the earth take place amid widely dif-

ferent surroundings, and birth into the after-lifemay be such that the individual awakens: amidattractive conditions, attended by friends who min-ister to and welcome him; amid the harsh condi-tions of an isolated and rugged region; or in a hovelwhere all is dirt and squalor. Envision the circum-stances that attend births on the physical plane:those in the igloos of the arctic, those of the savagein the jungle, those of the journeying AmericanIndian at the side of a trail, those of the tenementregions of our cities, those in more privelegedhomes, and those, increasingly common, in lying-inhospitals where the surgical care and the appoint-ments are of the best. Entry into the astral regionhas even more scope by reason of a wider range ofenvironments.

Births on the physical plane, whatever the envi-ronmental circumstances, may, however, be broadlydivided into natural deliveries, accidental deliver-ies, and surgical deliveries. Those into the next lifedo not run exactly parallel, perhaps, but they alsomay be classified into three broad and general cat-egories that have certain points of correspondencewith those mentioned as of earth.

Corresponding to the natural deliveries on earth,we have those passages to the next life in whichthere is continued consciousness during the transi-

tion and, perhaps, a will to go. Some of the north-ern Indian tribes are reputed commonly to die inthis manner. When they get old, they have an innerfeeling that the time is at hand, and they set the dayof their passing. On that date they merely lie downand pass consciously to the next plane. Amongthose advanced in occult knowledge, such a methodof going over, without losing consciousness, is farmore frequent than people suppose. And by onewho has practiced travel on the astral plane withoutlosing consciousness while leaving and returningto the physical body, or who has used theTransition Technique of astral exploration, thepassing at death is not accompanied by sleep. We

RAYS 04 9

Birth into the Next Life

MYSTIC LIGHT

Reprint permission for this two-part article is given by TheChurch of Light (800-500-0453), www.light.org

Engraving, William Blake, Illustration for Edward Young’s Night Thoughts, 1797

Translation of a soul according to its self-created destiny, anexacting record of its life being the thread wound on a spindle.Deity is protective but impartial, thus shown with eyes closed

may say then, not because it isthe most common method ofphysical death, but because thenatural evolution of the higherstates of consciousness makes itspontaneous, that the passing tothe next plane of existence in fullconsciousness is the naturalmethod.

Then there is the accidentalmethod. Physical death arrives,even as does childbirth at times,with no warning. It comes sud-denly and with a great shock. Anexplosion may blow the body toatoms. A sudden stroke maysever the bond between the twobodies. Suicide, even thoughpremeditated, may abruptlyusher the individual into the nextworld in a sadly unprepared con-dition. And a variety of other cir-cumstances, in which there hasbeen no gradual separation of theastral consciousness from thephysical, may come under theheading of the accidentalmethod.

But, even as in this country itis far more common to have theattendance of a doctor or mid-wife at the birth of a child, so farmore frequently the individualpasses to the next plane throughan illness of some duration, andis taken in charge immediatelyafter his passing, either byfriends who have gone beforehim, or by those whose regularbusiness it is to greet and takecare of those newly arrived fromthe earth plane. Because of thepresence there of those who helpus to enter, and get adjusted to,this new world, let us call this thesurgical method.

Now, from olden times downto Helen Willman and Harry Gaze,

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When we pass over, as we surely must at no far date, it will be bymeans of one of the three methods mentioned: the accidental, the nat-ural, or the surgical. But by whatever means we pass over, the cir-cumstances in which we shall find ourselves on that plane dependentirely upon our knowledge of after-world conditions, our desires,and our spirituality.

The dominant vibratory rate at any given time determines the inner-plane level to which we gravitate. Although we may be unaware of itobjectively, and although our attention may be so focused on externallife that we are almost completely unaware,even in our souls, of theinner-plane condition which surrounds us, nevertheless, even whilewe occupy physical bodies, our astral forms exist upon the vibratorylevel of the inner plane whose basic rate is similar to our dominantrate. And while due to our preoccupation with external affairs, wemay be oblivious of such life-forms, our astral bodies can be seen byany inner-plane entities occupying the same basic vibratory level. Andour thoughts may be perceived by inner-plane entities not belongingto the same basic level, but who are able to extend their consciousnesstemporarily to the vibratory level of these thoughts.

Within the finer form of man on earth often there are strong vibra-tory trends which would quickly become dominant were it not that the

there have been those who preached immor-tality in the flesh. And I am confident thatphysical life should be, and can be greatlylengthened. Yet I can hardly imagine a morehorrible penalty than being compelled to liveforever on the earth. The spiritual man revoltsat so gross an avenue of expression, andcomes to long for a finer, higher region,where his developing potentialities can find aglorious freedom of action. Nor, out of allthose who have taught immortality in theflesh, have any lived much beyond the cus-tomary limits of physical life. Therefore, bothyou and I, in a time that will seem unusuallyshort, are sure to make this change, and itbehooves us to learn something about it.


It is a great consolation to the living to know that the deceased also lives, albeit in anoth-er dimension. The departed spirit is also freed from the distraction of bereavement.

necessities of physical life so continuously chainthe thoughts and feelings to the struggle for physi-cal existence. We all know people who are inessence kind, who love refinement, who desireabove all things to be helpful to others, who havelove for their fellowman, and who spend someeffort in relieving the distress of others with nothought of recompense; but on whose shouldersalso falls the burden of providing the physicalnecessities for themselves and their families. Thereare powerful spiritual trends present. But the strug-gle for physical subsistence is so strenuous thatmost of their attention must be directed towardmaking a living, toward getting a job and keeping ajob, toward preventing aggressive and unscrupu-lous persons from gaining undue business advan-tage, and the thousand and oneother things that mustbe done to be physicallysuccessful in a worldwhich is as yet far fromaltruistic.

Thus, for most who have strong spiritual inclina-tions, the intervals in which spiritual vibrations aredominant are intermittent and far more rare than theintervals in which the dominant vibration is deter-mined by work for physical necessities and physi-cal comforts. For most who have some aspirationfor a spiritual life, there are daily periods of devo-tion in which the vibratory rates are temporarilyraised; there are intervals in which affection andtender love are dominant, and other intervals whenthe glow of some fine deed increases the rate. Butin the longer intervals, the vibration returns tothat which is developed in the struggle for physicalsurvival.

While living in the physical it is not expedient toignore the physical necessities. But I am sure peo-ple in general would spend more time and energy incultivating the more spiritual moods and acts if theyrealized that their souls exist now upon the astralplane, and that at any given time it functions on theparticular astral level of the inner world, which hasapproximately as its basic vibratory rate thedominant vibratory rate which the individual has atthe time. Did they but realize this, I am sure theywould be more careful as much as possible to main-tain a mood which would insure that the astral levelthus contacted was one whose influence upon theirlives would be physically, mentally and spirituallybeneficial.

Merely to contact a given level sufficiently to getinformation from it through extra-sensory percep-tion does not require that the dominant rate of theastral form as a whole shall be adjusted to that basiclevel, although it is easier to get the informationwhen it is. If the consciousness centered in but alocal area of the astral form is able to adjust itsvibratory rate to the region, the level and locality onit may be reached merely through extension of con-sciousness, just as one on the physical plane canexamine things at a distance without actually goingto them, through using sight and smell and hearing.But whatever the dominant rate of the astral formis, that is, the most powerful vibratory rate in it,determines the actual level on which that astralform resides.

Now a particular physical environment is not thecause of the vibratory rate of people residing in it;for under the same external circumstances the dom-inant vibratory rate, as well as the reactions in gen-eral of people differ. Under specific conditions ofhardship some people become morose and bitter,some become mild and subdued, some become irri-table and antagonistic, and some become kind andsympathetic. But we cannot ignore that the physicalenvironment does have an influence upon the char-acter, and therefore upon the dominant vibratoryrate. It is most difficult, for instance, to maintain aharmonious mood of any kind amid clash and dis-cord. It is difficult not to feel anger when attacked,and resentment at injustice. These are emotionswhich, while they last, powerfully influence thevibratory rate.

And thus it is that when most people are born intothe next life, their dominant vibratory rate for atime is powerfully influenced by their habit ofmeeting the demands of physical environment.Their thought processes for the term of their physi-cal lives have been directed mostly to the things andconditions of the earth plane. And so long as theirthoughts are chiefly of these things of earth towhich they have become accustomed, they tend tomaintain the dominant rate which was customaryon earth.

Thus, in spite of being very good, very bad, ormerely indifferent, people, when they move out oftheir physical bodies permanently, do not at oncegravitate to the realm which later they will occupy.

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There is a transition period inwhich, as a rule, they remainrather close to the level corre-sponding to their previous strug-gle for physical necessities, andgradually become accustomed totheir new condition.

But as they become accus-tomed to the fact they are nolonger inhabiting the earth, andno longer compelled to strugglefor physical survival, theirdesires may relinquish theattachments to physical thingsand permit those aspirations andyearnings which the physicalstruggle has held in abeyance togain the dominance they have sooften longed for. And as thesevibratory rates become domi-nant, they move up or down tolevels of the astral realm havingsimilar frequencies.

Desire is the mainspring ofaction, not only on the outerplane, but also on the inner; andpeople do not immediatelychange their desires when theypass to the next life. Instead, fora time their habitual interests andhabitual desires remain, andthese hold them from moving toofar from the vibratory conditioncustomary to them on earth. Andthese desires also often keepthem for a short time sufficientlyin contact with the electromag-netic Boundary-Line energyassociated with the environmentsor people they knew on earth, orwith the electromagnetic-astralbelt surrounding the earth, toenable them to use it. About theearth there is a dense belt of elec-tromagnetic energy derived fromthe thoughts of people on earthas people in sleep can movefrom the no-man’s-land of that

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vibratory rate of that region or condition. And, regardless of spiritual-ity or lack of it, the habitual thoughts of earth things and the habitualvibration of physical necessity, together with the habit of utilizingelectromagnetic energies in thinking, keeps considerable contact withthe electromagnetic-astral belt about the earth.And thus it is, becausethey can so readily utilize the energies of this belt, and make the con-tact with other electromagnetic energies of earth, those who passto the next life, for a time after passing, have no great difficulty inmaking their presence felt by those in whom they are interested whoare yet in the flesh. But after that period of time has elapsed that per-mits adjustment, they move to their own level, and if this level is ahighly spiritualized one, it becomes difficult for them to manifest theirpresence, except through those who utilize extra-sensory perceptionor are unusually mediumistic.

In his book, At the Moment of Death, Camille Flammarion has col-lected a large array of well authenticated instances of the power of thosewho are passing, or who have just passed, to manifest themselves totheir loved ones who are at a distance from the body of the deceased.

Furthermore, if the attachment to some particular environment, orsome material activity has built a thought-form so powerful as to be,at least for a time, obsessive in character, the power of this thought-


Persons who have made no provision for death, especially when they die in the primeof life and are fully immersed in material affairs, are faced with a truly rude awak-ening when the appointed time comes, usually refusing to accept their condition.

condition out to perceive conditions on theslow-velocity material plane, or in to per-ceive conditions on the high-velocity innerplane, so the vibratory rate of physicalnecessity which people retain in varyingdegrees immediately after death, and theirdesires and habits of physical life, keep themsomewhat in contact for a time with thiselectromagnetic-astral belt, which is referredto in the Bible and in ancient ritual as theRiver Jordan, or the River Styx.

When we think intently of a condition orregion, this tends for a time to tune us to the

form may be sufficient to hold the person bound tothe physical environment, or performing in pan-tomime close to the earth, this particular activity.With suitable electromagnetic emanations at hand todrawupon, such an earth-bound soul may producea haunting. In any case he will linger near the earthin a somewhat dazed condition, interested in thethings that are related to the dominating thought-form.

Such a soul has lost his physical body, but he isunaware that he has passed from physical life. Histhoughts are as yet so focused on some earth condi-tion, or some idea of earthly purport, that he has notyet awakened to a consciousness of his present con-ditions and surroundings. Except he is approachedthrough his interest in the absorbing idea that dom-inates him, neither those on the physical plane northose on the inner plane can get intelligent conver-sation from him. He is more like one walking in hissleep, performing, perhaps, very difficult feats, butdevoid of his normal awareness. While he haspassed from the physical, he is still in the boundaryrealm, and has not as yet awakened into conscious-ness of the next life.

When such an earth-bound soul finally is borninto the life of the inner plane, his method of birth,and his after surroundings are precisely thosecommon to other souls who pass from physicallife into the next life almost immediately. In theone instance the birth is accomplished almost atonce, and in the case of the earthbound soul theperiod of labor is greatly prolonged. But whenbirth finally comes, the circumstances by whichthe arrival is surrounded are determined preciselyby the same laws that determine those of the morequickly born individual. Knowing this, we cantreat of all births as belonging to the three previ-ously mentioned categories.

The Time of Next-Life BirthOf course, viewing the matter in one way, the

moment the umbilical cord is severed may be con-sidered the time of birth into the physical world.And on the same ground, it might be consideredthat the time of birth into the astral world is themoment when the silver cord that connects theastral form to the physical form is severed. Butastrologers have found that, in certain instances, it

may be sometime after the severance of the umbil-ical cord before the child draws its first breath andutters it first cry. And they have further found thatthe chart erected for this first breath, for this firstindependent act, is, in such cases, the correct chartof birth. Therefore, while customarily the child hasits birth when the umbilical cord is severed, themoment of true birth may be delayed until some-what later. And in like manner, while the moment ofbirth into the next life might be considered themoment when the silver cord is snapped; in astricter sense, it seems to me, it should be consid-ered as the moment when the individual awakens toa consciousness of his new life.

Natural BirthWhen the individual passes to the next life in full

consciousness, by the natural method, the astralform merely moves out from the physical form inprecisely the same manner it does when the indi-vidual leaves the physical body voluntarily to makea temporary visit on the astral plane. On such a visitthere is always a cord of astral substance connect-ing the astral body with the physical. The furtherthe astral moves from the physical the thinner thiswhite astral line appears. But in the case of perma-nent transition to the inner plane, by the naturalmethod of passing, the individual purposely seversthis astral cord connecting him with the physical body.

If he is aged, or the physical body is feeble, or ifhe has carried the refining process to an advanceddegree, this line is already quite frail. But whetherfrail or not, it must be severed to break the connec-tion with the physical form. The advanced soulbreaks this line merely by the determination to doso, that is, by thought-power. When desirable andnecessary, help in this can be obtained from thoseattending the birth on the other side.

Accidental BirthIn the accidental method of birth into the life

hereafter, the transition from the physical is apt tobe more abrupt. A soldier running across no-man’s-land may be blown to bits by a bursting shell. Hehas had no pain and does not know he is physicallydead. He keeps on running, reaches the enemy, per-haps, and seeing their astral forms, does not realizethat these are not physical, and attacks them. Then

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he begins to wonder why his bayonet thrusts pro-duce no apparent effect. Others may have passedover about the same time, and they also areunaware of the transition. They talk together, andact in concert against the enemy. They may bejoined by a comrade or two who are not dead, butmerely stunned, and while lost to physical con-sciousness are out of their bodies on the battle-field.Or even some pal who has been thinking intently ofthe battle and desiring to participate in it, and hasgone to sleep with this in his mind, may come alongand recognize and talk to them.

Being so close, as yet, to the earth and the activ-ities in which they have been participating, they cansee both the astral forms of those who have justpassed from the physical and the astral forms ofthose yet in the physical. If a horse has just beenkilled, one of them may jump on its back and rideit, without knowing it has passed over. He sees itstumble and fall, and then arise. He cannot as yetrealize that it is only the astral body of the horsethat has arisen.

But when he tries to talk to those still in the flesh,he will begin to realize that something is unusual.He does not realize that he sees merely the astralforms, which are duplicates of the physical, even toevery item of equipment and clothing. But becausethe attention of these astral friends is focused on thelow-velocity region of the external world, which heis unable to see, they neither perceive him nor hearhis voice. Their attention is held to a region of whichhe is oblivious. Not knowing this he is puzzled.

Yet this condition, as a rule, is only of temporaryduration. On the astral plane there are organizationsof people who have once lived on earth who take anactive part in Red Cross work from that side. Oneof the functions of this organization is, in time ofwar, to help those who have been shocked out oftheir bodies—but are not too badly maimed, and thesilver cord remains yet unsevered—to re-enter andreanimate their bodies. And another function is tohelp those who are wandering around, after the cordhas been severed, dazed by their condition, to com-plete their births. And a third important function isto reconcile them to the fact that they have been cutoff from all physical activity.

Suicides, and violent deaths occurring while theindividual is participating in some revolting crime,

commonly live for a more or less protracted periodamid the distressing thought-forms they have creat-ed. The period of labor accompanying their birthinto the after life is both prolonged and painful. Butin the end some skillful physician of the astralcohorts is able to reach their consciousness andbring them through into a consciousness of wherethey are. So, in the long run they, as well as thosemore worthy, are awakened into a realization oftheir true condition and its environment. ❐

THE DESIRE WORLD

In this [dense physical] world matter and forceare widely different. The chief characteristic ofmatter here is inertia: the tendency to remain at

rest until acted upon by a force which sets it inmotion. In the Desire World, on the contrary, forceand matter are almost indistinguishable one fromthe other. We might almost describe desire-stuff asforce-matter, for it is in incessant motion, respon-sive to the slightest feeling of a vast multitude ofbeings which populate this wonderful world innature.

We often speak of the "teeming millions" ofChina and India, even of our vast cities, London,New York, Paris, or Chicago; we consider themovercrowded in the extreme, yet even the densestpopulation of any spot on Earth is sparsely inhabit-ed compared with the crowded conditions of theDesire World. No inconvenience is felt by any ofthe denizens of that realm, however, for, while inthis world two things cannot occupy the same spaceat the same time, it is different there. A number ofpeople and things may exist in the same place at thesame time and be engaged in most diverse activi-ties, regardless of what others are doing, such is thewonderful elasticity of desire-stuff.

As an illustration we may mention a case wherethe writer, while attending a religious service,plainly perceived at the altar certain beings interest-ed in furthering that service and working to achievethat end. At the same time there drifted through theroom and the altar, a table at which four personswere engaged in playing cards. They were as obliv-ious to the existence of the beings engaged in fur-thering our religious service, as though these didnot exist. ❐

—Rosicrucian Mysteries, p. 53, by Max Heindel

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TO THOSE WHO have come into thewider and higher outlook of occultphilosophy, life can never again appearthe same. They have seen it from ahigher level and lit by a celestial radi-

ance—for veils have been cast from their eyes, andthey have been guided upward. Life’s tangledthickets and pathways, seen thus illumined fromthe heights, begin to take on a wonderful order andbeauty; life’s confused sounds begin to blend intoa marvelous harmony. And though one cannotremain on the mount of enlightenment but mustdescend again into the dust and turmoil of every-day life, the beauty and harmony are not lost, forthe sharpened sight and hearing catch them still.

But do they always catch as much as theymight? Do we to whom has been granted this greatand glorious gift, the knowledge of occultism, dowe sufficiently appreciate how blessed we are? Dowe feel sufficiently grateful? Do we try hardenough to be worthy of it, to bring its full splendorinto our everyday lives? True, we know we musthave earned this wonderful reward by our actionsin the past, or it could not have come to us; wemust have developed sufficiently to be ready, orwe could not have taken advantage of it. But let ustry with all earnestness to make the best possibleuse of it, to grow daily in understanding andpower, and to merit the higher rewards andopportunities that await the determined pilgrim onhis pathway.

Down on this lowest of planes, the physical,encased and enmeshed in its dense, gross matter,we can obviously grasp but a fraction of the real-ization, of the vision of truth’s beauty, that will beours in the future. Hindered by the firmly set habits

and imperfections of the brain, our progress canbe, relatively speaking, but slow at best. Butthough these are handicaps, from the freerviewpoint of higher planes and future lives, theyare exactly what we need now. For the power andwisdom of the spirit must be brought into full man-ifestation on all planes, the lowest as well as thehighest, and we develop the strength and masterythat must be ours by striving against the hamperingdensity of physical matter and gradually bringingit into higher responsiveness and subjection to ourspiritual forces. And even though the fuller life andvision of higher planes are so much more wonder-ful than those of the lower, the realization that iswithin our grasp on this plane is wonderful enoughto pass the powers of language for its description,and the blessings that the higher knowledge bringsto those who live it are beyond all telling.

To the ordinary man or woman, life is a mad,chaotic tangle, ruled, or rather misruled, bychance; good and bad fortune, alike undeserved inmost cases, are dealt out indiscriminately by ablind or mischievous fate. Human beings are borninto all conceivable conditions and circumstanceswithout their choice or consent, neither reason norjustice appearing in the unequal allotments at thestart of life. Heredity determines one’s originalphysical and mental makeup; environment, train-ing, and chance determine the use he makes of it.Believing himself to be without a past before birth,the average man is naturally more or less doubtfulabout a future after death; and even if such a thingcould be demonstrated, what proof is there thatwisdom or justice rule in other states of existence,while so evidently without a controlling part in this?

All this is the more tormenting because every

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The Gospel of Occultism

MYSTIC LIGHT

man feels in his deepest soul a yearning for order,harmony, and beauty. In his own mind arises a con-ception of a world ruled by justice, wisdom, andlove. He looks for the source and reason of hisideals in his divine parentage, and finds no positiveproof that a heavenly Father exists. He turns to theworld and is baffled and oppressed by the appar-ently hopeless impossibility of reconciling hissplendid dream with things as they are. Forced intothe belief that his demand for a rational and har-monious explanation of life is vain, that his visionof perfection working through all things for a per-fect end is but a deluded imagining, he neverthe-less cannot be satisfied to placidly accept thisdeath knell of his highest hopes and aspirations. Inhis innermost soul he feels that it ought to be truethat, as Browning sang, “God’s in His heaven, all’sright with the world!” But since it plainly is notand cannot be true, he must mourn with Shelley,“Sad storm, whose tears are vain....wail, for theworld’s wrong!”

He has looked for a parent, for a living guardianof humanity, and found none. Man is an unprotect-ed orphan, and the world is a place strewnwith graves and with makeshift shelters, wherepleasure, laughter, dissipation, art, work, love orreligion prevail, but which shelters give onlytemporary and partial protection against the fierceand eternal enmity of wild beasts and contraryelements.

He may dream of a far-off time when man’s per-fected intellect, virtue, and will shall at last havetriumphed over these adversaries, but he cannothope to share in the rewards of that glorious age.He would have preferred to remain unborn tillthen, but he could not choose. Time, place, and cir-cumstances of his birth were alike beyond his con-trol. He may dream of a perfected self splendidlywinning life’s finest prizes of success and soul sat-isfaction, for nothing less than this is the high idealglimpsed by all; but he knows that it would takemany lifetimes to overcome the imperfections inhis nature, which stand between him and fullestattainment and happiness. And he sees but onebrief span of mortal years before and behind him,filled with obstacles, accidents, mistakes, frustra-tions, and missed opportunities.

Looking for equity, he sees flagrant injusticeeverywhere; longing for order, he is surrounded byconfusion; yearning for perfection, he finds rankimperfection within and all about him. Of what useis it to “follow the gleam?” It is but a will-o’the-wisp. He must make the best of things. But thepain of longings that will not die smolders andburns within him, and a dull sensation that he isliving in a nightmare from which no waking is pos-sible clouds his days.

This picture, if somewhat toned down and mod-ified to fit the average case, is a faithful depictionof the state of mind of vast numbers of humanbeings. These instincts in some form are universal,and their frustration one of the commonest of men-tal experiences. Many seek refuge in one of theestablished forms of religion, and sometimes findmuch peace therein. But the church does notanswer their deepest questions, nor satisfy theirlongings for light on the riddle of life, and itsreplies to the assaults of materialistic science andcomparative mythology are far from being suffi -ciently clear and forceful to silence the enemy.

Many have turned to spiritualism and found apositive answer to the great question of life thatcomes nearest to our hearts—“If a man die, shallhe live again?” And in the convincing evidence ofa brighter world, where loving souls separated bydeath shall rejoin one another, in the wonder ofactual present communication with those whohave gone before, man finds one of his deepestintuitive desires satisfied. But there are others forwhom spiritualism as such has no reply. Let usseek farther. The goal is not yet reached.

Christian Science seeks to solve the dark prob-lem of evil in a world created, as religion and intu-ition assert, by a perfect God. Unable to reconcilethe contradiction, it stakes its all on religion andintuition, and renounces the evidence of the sensesand reason. Evil seems to exist, but it cannot betrue. It is “a delusion of mortal mind.” This boldattempt to solve, or rather escape, the puzzle ofexistence by insistent faith in the all-potency ofGood has been a powerful agency for health andhappiness in the lives of a great many. But cultsdenounced by Christian Science as heretical obtainsimilar results, so its claim to unique truth is

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unsubstantiated. Nor doesits philosophy explain forwhat end countless bil-lions of beings, from thedawn of life to the presentday, have had to sufferthroughout their existenceunder a delusion, for baddreams are unpleasant,and pain is painful, whetherit has any basis in realityor not.

Must we then surrenderthe sublime vision ofPerfect Power, Wisdom,and Love “mightily andsweet ly order ing al lthings?” Like sunrise to alost traveler, comes occult-ism with its gloriousanswer; it wakes himfrom the nightmare ofnegation and shows himhis goal. Darkness anddoubt flee before the bril-liant light cast by it on thedeepest problems of life,and from the very depthsof his soul the pilgrim,standing on the heights whitherhe has been guided by an unseenhand, sends up a hymn ofunspeakable joyand gratitude toHim who is “Light of Light.”For as the radiance grows andthe glorious prospect of revealedtruth unfolds before his eyes, heis transported by the splendorof the Plan. He has found ananswer to his longings morecomplete and wondrous than hehas ever dared to hope for.

Now he knows that “God’s inHis heaven, all’s right with theworld” in a deeper and truersense than Browning could havedreamed. For what the great

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poets, prophets, and philosophers of all time have caught inspiringglimpses of is now his in its fullness. The priceless treasure of thesupreme knowledge that mighty souls have longed for, suffered for,striven for, and died for through ages of night, of bewilderment, andoften of despair, is bestowed upon him to the fullest extent of hiscapacity to receive. And before him he sees rising heights beyondheights where ever fuller and more marvelous knowledge shallbecome his as he advances.

In its dignity, its, beauty, its compelling logic, its sublime ideals,its wonderful harmony and completeness, occult philosophy has sat-isfied the deepest instincts of his being, and his dreams that wouldnot die have come true in surpassing measure and blossomed into anunspeakable fulfillment of beauty.

He finds himself divine, a child of the divine; and the truth that theintuition of Thomas Jefferson proclaimed in the face of reason, “Allmen are created equal,” is understood when the darkness thatshrouded the past and future of the individual is dissipated, and longshafts of light reveal a majestic vista of successive live like steps of

All religions serve the purpose of directing human will, emotion, and action toward consciousnessof and ultimate union with triune God. Religions of the Holy Spirit emphasize the crucified Christ,tend to be separative, and are based on punitive law and compulsory allegiance to strict dogma.Religions of the Son look to the resurrected Christ and are love-based. The religion of the Fatheris of the future. It envisions the ascended Christ and unites all humanity in God through Christ.

Design by F

launcy Schw

enk

a great stairway, stretching both downward andupward from his present position.

Souls are of different ages, but all started at thefoot of such a stairway at one time or another, andall will sooner or later reach its tremendousheights, which melt and vanish into Light divine.And throughout that long climb there has neverbeen a moment when a supreme law of perfect jus-tice and absolute beneficence has not governedevery life in the gradual unfolding of its divinepotentialities (even as the acorn grows into themighty oak), through many summer-lives and win-ter-deaths, “stimulated by the sunshine of joy,expanded by the rain of sorrow,” learning throughmistakes and failures, rewarded by successes andachievements, enriched and strengthened alike byall experiences.

Tennyson’s faltering hope that “not a worm iscloven in vain” is now realized as truth. WhatEmerson felt we now see, that man “cannot escapefrom his good,” and that a universal and unfailinglaw of compensation is the means. Nothing cancome to us that we have not earned, nothing thatwe do not need. This is the way that gods aremade, for that is the goal set before us: to developinto full-grown human souls, “unto the measure ofthe stature of the fullness of Christ.” “Ye thereforeshall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is per-fect” (Revised Version). Then returning to Him atlast with all the gain of countless ages of growthand experience, masters on all planes of existence,perfected Beings, fulfillments of divine love, weshall enter into the inconceivable bliss of that love,“only after aeons and aeons of time to emergeagain with Him, to be the architects and builders offuture universes.”

And the occultist knows beyond the possibilityof questioning that this mighty vision is not “toogood to be true,” but is Truth itself. For from everyside comes evidence to corroborate intuition. Thefindings of science harmonize perfectly with thehigher teachings, and the most modern “discover-ies” merely re-proclaim what those teachingsdeclared years or ages before. Life itself, in eventsgreat and small, testifies ever more clearly andconvincingly to the divine truths as insight andunderstanding grow. The undeniable facts uncov-

ered by psychic research and given order andmeaning and immensely extended by occultism,assert the actuality of the higher planes, beings,and doctrines in no uncertain tones. And as the stu-dent goes on, he gradually develops power toexperience these transcendant realities at first-hand, and thus attains to knowledge that makesdoubt laughable.

In these ways the persistent and universal faithof humanity in the fundamental teachings of reli-gion is finally justified, and the great Teachers areseen as messengers from one Source, bringingTruth to the world always in the form adapted tothe needs and capacities of the race and age. TheScriptures of all peoples are illuminated, difficul-ties are made clear, and “comparative mythology”becomes a bulwark of defense instead of a weaponin the hands of unbelief.

For him who accepts and lives the occult philos-ophy, the whole of life undergoes a remarkablechange. Not only does he know that “All is Good,”but what formerly seemed evil has lost most of itspower to hurt, even when it touches him at pointsthat were formerly vulnerable, for he is clad inshining armor, and his awakened sight perceivesthe angel behind the dark disguise. He resists notevil, thus abolishing the chief immediate cause ofpain; yet his power to overcome is multiplied. Theperplexing problems of his own nature and the wayto live are cleared up, and he is armed andequipped for life as never before.

He learns the ultimate cause of pain and how toend it. He lays out his course to the goal throughthe lives that lie ahead, and he sees all living thingsas his brothers and divine. A new power nerves hismuscles. A new incentive fires his heart. A newglory sheds its radiance over his life. The higherbeauty of the next world and the still more mar-velous centuries of heaven that are to follow shinebefore and above him—not to distract from thepresent duty, but to inspire him to fresh achieve-ment and add a higher harmony to his swellingsong of joy and love.

This is a partial glimpse of what occultismmeans to him who lives it. Let us try to live it tothe utmost of our power. ❐

—Howard W. Coombs

18 RAYS 04

DIFFERENT PEOPLE may value differ-ent things. Some value money and mate-rial possessions. Some value physicalpleasure. Some value safety. Some valueeducation. Some value a good job. Some

value adventure. Some value creativity. Some valuebeauty. Some value spiritual advancement. Some valueplants, pets, family and friends. Some value fame.Some value helping others. Happiness comes fromattaining or achieving that which we value. In thissense we all want happiness.

Some happiness is pure and lasting. Some happinessis mixed with or followed by sorrow and suffering. Thehappiness we want (if we are wise) is the pure and last-ing happiness. It is the purpose of this article to discusswhat we need to do to achieve a pure and lasting hap-piness. Steps in achieving a lasting happiness:

1. What we value (what makes us happy) needs to bein harmony with cosmic law. If it isn’t, the forces of theuniverse will work against our achievement and makeany achievement on our part only temporary. CosmicLaw demands that everyone have the right to life, lib-erty and the pursuit of happiness (provided he likewisedoes not interfere with the rights of others. Dictatorshaving power over slaves is contrary to Cosmic Law.Cosmic Law demands justice. Any action which tries toincrease one person’s happiness at the expense ofanother is contrary to Cosmic Law.

2. The various things we value need to be in harmo-ny with one another. Otherwise, our efforts may workagainst one another, and we will never be satisfied withthe results. This state of affairs is often associated withsquares and oppositions in one’s horoscope. The reso-lution of the problem lies in learning how to balance theconflicting values, giving each its proper place.

3. We need to determine what we need to do (the pathwe need to travel) in order to attain that which wevalue. Figuring out this path involves determining whatcauseeffect relationships are involved, because we needto know what causes we need to set in motion in orderto achieve the desired effects (the attainment of that

which we value).How can we learn cause- effect relationships? One

method is trial and error. When we do something whichwe think might lead us toward our goal, we mayobserve the results and evaluate whether or not theeffect is moving us toward our goal. The exercise ofRetrospection is helpful here. Experienced people mayhelp as mentors and teachers.

The writings of prophets can give us a broader viewof cause-effect relations. Because of their extended vision,prophets can give us information not only about theeffects of our actions during our life time on earth, butalso the effects on our life after death and in future lives.

Logic can be used to extend our knowledge of cause-effect relations by observing the patterns in our previ-ous observations and then applying these to other situ-ations.

Intuition can also be used in finding the path to ourgoals. Sometimes the higher powers in the universesend us information on what we need to do to attain ourgoals (if the goals are in harmony with Cosmic Law.

4. We need freedom to pursue our goals. If someoneelse controls our life so that we cannot attain that whichwe value, then we will not feel happiness when we havecompleted our tasks. We must also keep in mind thatthat which we want for ourselvesmust be granted toothers. So, if we recognize that we need freedom toattain happiness, then we must grant freedom to othersso that they also can find the happiness of attaining thatwhich they value.

5. We need the courage and inner strength to followour chosen path, even when others choose other pathsso that we must travel our path alone, even when othersridicule us and work against us.

If we follow these guidelines is ultimate happinessassured? Yes. As Manley Palmer Hall once wrote,“There is no way in which we can do right and fail.There is no way in which we can do wrong and suc-ceed.” There can, of course, be various ups and downsalong the way, so that patience is needed. ❐

—Elsa Glover

RAYS 04 19

Achieving Happiness

MYSTIC LIGHT

WHILE SELF-RELIANCE is one ofthe principal precepts of theRosicrucian aspirant, the term seemsto be open to some confusion and

misunderstanding. This article offers thoughts thatseek to clarify the meaning behind the term.

In English the word “self” is employed in twosenses that are virtually opposite. As commonlyused, “self” denotes one person's identity as distinctfrom that of another, with emphasis on the physicalnature and temperament. As a spiritual term, “Self”designates that essence of the human entity that iswholly nonmaterial and eternal. But so easy is it toconfuse these two selves, and given our rude andvague comprehension of this high Self, the qualify-ing terms Christ or holy will be used to distinguishit from the common or mortal self, which refers toour lower nature or personality.

When Christ calls the human soul—whether it iscaught up in financial affairs, like Matthew; or is onthe way to Damascus to arrest radicals dangerous tothe established order, like Paul; or is busy practicingits trade, like Peter—it is charged to deny the formerways of its personal self and to follow a higher dic-tate, a voice that speaks with unquestioned authori-ty. The first Christians heard the voice of the histor-ical Jesus. After the first Pentecost it was the HolySpirit, the Advocate for Christ. What does the callrequire of us? That we deny ourself, take up ourcross, and follow the caller—Christ.

Surely, then, we are not to rely upon what wearecalled upon to deny, our ordinary person. The unre-generate or uncalled person finds their security andsatisfaction in catering to their physical being. Butonce one hears the call to live the Christ life, a newidentity begins to form, if we heed the call.

Fledgling spirit ventures forth from the nest offamiliar worldly surroundings and, with untriedwings, tentatively trusts to a new and insubstantialmedium. This is a time of great uncertainty and test-ing. One becomes far more selective and discrimi-nating in what one thinks, says and does. On whatbasis are our choices made? We attend to the coun-sels of Scripture, we heed the advice and study thelives of devout and holy persons. We practicesilence and serenity that we may more surely hearthe inner voice.

Self-reliance, as commonly understood, whichdesires and pretends to absolute autonomy, mayactually be demonically influenced. The appealof this persuasive, even heroic, subjectivity is

20 RAYS 04

Christ-Reliance

MYSTIC LIGHT

Stained glass,Catholic University of America

PentecostAfter the first Pentecost the Holy Spirit becomes theAdvocate for Christ, who guides and counsels in His name.

subtle and powerful. Christ's firstexperiences upon investing Jesus'lower instruments related to temp-tations arising out of the sensibledimension whose anchor is thedense body. And He refuses tomisuse his powers, citing his com-plete reliance upon Godto pro-vide for His needs and direction.

The long probation of the soul isprecisely this learning to distin-guish between two voices: thevoice of the Paraclete, who speaksfor the Christ Self; and the voice ofthe Pretender to the Light as hecajoles each soul to illusory splen-dor and bogus self-sufficiency.Lucifer is a light-bearer, but hislight is not his. It is not authentic.So with the common self. Its mis-sion is to pose as its own source, tobe its own saviour. At the sametime, it lives in perpetual fear in aworld of enemies and ever mustprotect what it has, though it is never satisfied withthe extent of its possessions and ever wants more.

The common self plays all possible worldly rolesto appease its insatiable needs. It is Judas, the mer-cenary man, who esteems a Herod above a saint andsilver above sanctity. It is Caiaphas, the proud, intol-erant dogmatist. It is Pilate, fearful, indecisive, lack-ing a guiding principle. It is Herod, motivated byvainglory and cosseted in luxury. It is even falliblePeter, rash, intemperate, forgetful, to whom is said,"Thou savorest not the things that be of God, but thethings that be of men" (Mk 8:32).

Only the inner Christ is reliable, for He is theWay, the Truth and the Life. The common self relieson worldly testimony to confirm it and seeks world-ly prizes as rewards. It is supremely unreliable, animposter that must continually prop itself up withsecular preferments and pretensions to specialness.

Only what is not of me, or of any me, only whatis of God is reliable. And this truth establishes thehappy reality of total dependence upon the Father.He doeth the works. Of myself I can do nothing. Wedepend on God in the etymological sense of depend-ing from, hanging or proceeding down out of the lifeand abundance of God. We are emanations of God.

Our enduring part is nothing butHis, whatever delusion we mayentertain to the contrary. Anythingdetached from God is no thing.Without Him, the Logos, was notanything made that was made. Themedieval picture of earth suspend-ed from heavenly spheres conveysliterally and graphically this senseof utter dependency.

Self-centered, mortal man is thehanged man, as shown by the tarotTwelfth Arcanum, hanging by hisfeet, helpless, sacrificing his mun-dane self. It is Anubis on theWheel of Life, Ixion-like, subjectto the upheavals and overthrow-ings of mutable existence. Peter'sfinal overcoming of his personalself is symbolized by his beingcrucified feet first. So too doesPiscean man resign and surrenderhis common, fictional self. If thefeet of mortal man are washed, his

whole body is clean. Upside down one sees the earthas fallen indeed, cast down, a cemetery to the buriedtruth it memorializes.

Biblical fear of the Lord was based on this dis-tinction between the two selves. God's overwhelmingglory struck awe and terror in Old Testament man.Even righteous Job is chastened. Righteousness,inand of itself, does not make one deserving of wealthand prosperity Rather, conscious being in God,complete reliance upon God, is wealth, whatever theoutward person may experience as lack or tribula-tion. Self-sacrifice is really Se1f-liberation. As theSt. Francis prayer says, "It is by dying to [mortal]self that I am born [in Christ] to life eternal." Thelower self is given as an oblation at the altar ofdevotion; the self of personal desires is prostrate,penitent, emptied by purgative humility.

True self-reliance is mostly miracle, as improba-ble as walking on water, because it is an act of faith,of giving over to the unseen and the unknown.As apracticing Christian, I am reliable only when I am socompletely conformed to the indwelling Word thatall I do and am disowns private authorship and per-sonal authority.

From out of the cloud of unknowing an arm

RAYS 04 21

The Hanged Man is suspended from a T-shaped cross made of living wood. Thecard signifies ultimate surrender, ofbeing suspended in time and of martyr-dom and sacrifice to the greater good. Itcorrelates with the twelfth sign of Pisces.

From

the Biddy version of the R

ider-Waite tarot deck.

reaches down. Immaterial handsgently guide, silent words inti-mate and assure, the soul isinfused with certitude noamount of logic or self-persua-sion can confer. Measured on acosmic scale, one's own effortmust seem insignificant, butthey can signal earnestness andpiety and thus clear the channelfor the operation of the HolySpirit to teach and initiate thesoul into communion with theimmanent Christ.

The common self wants to be,and often thinks it is, the centerof the world. It relates all toitself as the measure of allthings It deems man's highestachievement world rulership.Even so did Judas and many ofhis fellows expectantly receiveChrist Jesus. But the holy Selfseeks no temporal kingdom andknows and adores God as thesun of creation and would always and only serveGod and do His will.

Arrogance is the hallmark of common self-reliance, while humility is the prerequisite for thosewho would be Christ-re1iant. Lucifer’s apostasyconsisted exactly in the willful attempt to dictate theterms of his own development and, as it were, togive unaided birth to himself—as if all he original-ly was did not issue from the One and only God,else which nothing is. So does our petty tyrant selfarray us in a tawdry tinsel of se1f-satisfaction, whis-pering fatuous blandishments to our vanity, insistingon our privileges and primacy; while Christ-relianceis more likely to move us to defer to others, to prac-tice patience and long-suffering, to be on the alertfor self-righteousness.

Our reliance takes many forms and has its basison many levels. Consider the reliance of humanityon all the creative life waves above us and on theanimal, plant and mineral kingdoms, the three sup-portive life waves below us, which in sum endow,sustain and replenish our manifold being.

A shallow understanding of self-reliance can bean invitation to an individualism that works contrary

to collective well-being, whereeach makes strenuous claims fortheir personal rights while for-getting or minimizing theirresponsibilities to the communi-ty. On the material level, consid-er how thoroughly we areinvolved in our larger environ-ment. An earthquake will quick-ly remind its victims what theymay have for long taken forgranted, as they are thrown backto primitive survival conditions,bereft of artificial light, import-ed water, modern forms of com-munication, refrigerated food,perhaps even shelter itself. Thenthere are the various servicesthat we blithely expect to bedelivered to or in effect for us:Our premises and neighborhoodare protected by police and firedepartments; our persons areentitled to admission at the localhospital; our nation is secured

by a standing army. Our assumed self-sufficiency is,in point of fact, far from being a reality. In everyfacet of our life, the closer and more distant com-munity of our fellows is implied and involved.

How much more is this interrelatedness and inter-reliance in effect on nonphysical levels. We are allmembers of the mystical body of Christ, serving oneanother, diverse as we are, as an arm and a leg andan eye serve the whole human body. We can see inthe diversification of a society's temporal occupa-tions how each vocation aids and extends the oppor-tunities and productivity of its members. Each needsall the others to function optimally. Whether oneteaches, preaches, or interprets the Word, performsacts of public charity, encourages self-improvement,inspires devotion, or defends the faith, all theseoffices and functions testify to the operation of theHoly Spirit and contribute to the whole spiritualenterprise and organism of humanity.

The concept of Self- or Christ-reliance mustaccommodate the comprehension of vital humaninterdependence in Christ, the Archetype or Matrixinto which each soul is essentially membered—noman being an island, dispensable or separable, each

22 RAYS 04

Ramon Lull's Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind, 1305

The mediaeval scala naturaeas a staircase, implyingthe possibility of the progress of all beings in thephysical and supersensible worlds, minerals to angels

being a crucial, integral part of the Christian conti-nent. Not one is to be lost and each is to be hisbrother's (sister's) keeper. Who is my neighbor?Whomsoever the Holy Spirit introduces into the circleof our daily, moment-to-moment opportunity andawareness, thereby reminding us of our extended(and extensive) family relations, for insofar as werespond to the least likely or comely of our brethren,we are responding to Christ. For this reason we areadmonished to do all things as unto the Lord. Forunto the Lord all things are done, consciously or inignorance.

In an individual body, while the heart is thedynamic focus of love, because it radiates life-giv-ing good will throughout the entire organism, thebody's health and wholeness also depends or the bil-lions of anonymous acts of "charity" and unremit-ting "selfless" service contributed by its constituentparts. Analogously, on a global level, Christ, theheart of humanity, radiates healing, regenerativelove to each and all. But our shared spiritual body'shealth in Christ is also promoted and maintained tothe extent that harmony, altruism, and planetary ser-vice characterize our collective thoughts and deeds.

Again, what is this Self we are to rely on? It iswhat is in the world, but not of it. It is what thePrince of this world has no part of (Jn 14:30). It isthat which, before Abraham was, is. It is what isindependent of the physical body and yet dependenton it in that its full potential, through the exigenciesand opportunities of material embodiment, may beliberated for dynamic creativity.

While common self-re1iance engenders fear, forone is relying on what is totally inadequate, Christ-reliance bestows certitude and peace, for one is notrelying on one's own mean (really, meaningless)resources, but on the All-Source that is God. Someof Christ's last words may be taken as our first andfrequent words: "Father, into Thy hands I commitmy spirit."

Finally, what effect has this awareness of our nec-essary relatedness and mutual reliance in Christ onone another? It frees us. It conforms us unto thelikeness of the Son of God. It fulfills our deepestnature, our divine nature, and thereby confirms us inour Father's will for us. If we would love God, thenour calling and consummation is to love, as Hedoes, all His children. We are reliable to the extentwe do this. We are Christ-reliant to the extent that

we are Christ-centered and Christ-directed and, ulti-mately, radiating Christ. ❐

—C.W.

RAYS 04 23

Prayer to the God Of Our Solar System

We come with joy to this place at this time, withheads bowed, eyes closed, knees bent, minds tuned,hearts lifted to you.

Acknowledging You as God Almighty, Creator ofthe Sun, the Moon, the planets, including our Earth,source of all that we know or can know, One with theAbsolute, possessor of all knowledge, wisdom,power, truth, love; infinitely sufficient for all ourneeds.

We acknowledge Christ as Savior, Example,Teacher, Elder Brother, Light of the Word, Rewarderof all those that diligently seek Him.

We acknowledge the Holy Spirit as CreativePrinciple, Comforter, Instructor, Disciplinarian, everpresent help in trouble.

And we acknowledge the countless billions of spir-itual beings, and other invisible beings, with variousoffices and various duties that fill the rungs betweenYourself and mankind and below, in whom we andour fellow creatures live, move, and have our being.

Thank you for this knowledge!May every object of Your creation glorify You.

May You find glory in our lives.Forgive us where we have failed to live up to the

example set for us by Christ Jesus, for we are sorry.And strengthen our every effort to imitate the Christ,for we want to be more like Him.

May Your will be done in our lives. Make Your firstwill, your full will be done to us, in us, and throughus as we set You before us this day to guide ourthoughts, our desires, our words, our actions andreactions.

Guard us against doing harm to anyone, or anything, in any way today. And protect us from anyonewho would do us harm, either inadvertently or bydesign. Also, protect us from harming ourselves.

And prosper us. Prosper us only in ways that pleaseYou. You cannot fail; therefore, we cannot fail. Youare always a success, and we are a success becausewe have set You before us this day, and because weclaim this prayer in the name of Christ. And not forour sakes alone, but for Christ's sake we pray.

Amen.—James Robert Hubbs

IN MAX HEINDEL ’S WRITINGS there arenumerous unmistakable hints that must leadthe reader to the belief that the Rosicrucianmovement and Freemasonry are in some wayallied and have one common purpose and aim.

To a student of both systems it soon becomes appar-ent that they are twin organizations, having sprungfrom one and the same parent school.

To suppose that the great similarity of principlesand purpose which characterizes these two move-ments could be incidental, an accident, or coinci-dence, as it were, would be a mere guess of thethoughtless or the uninstructed who are ignorant ofthe fundamental basis on which both structures rest.Those who look deeper and examine the foundationswill find that both organizations rest on the firm con-viction that man’s true being is in the Spirit and ulti-mately in God, the source of all being; that the indi-vidual soul is a spark from God, having lost itself inthe mazes of terrestrial existence for a time; that thereis a way for it to return to its source, but that each soulmust use its own initiative, must rise by its ownefforts, and must take full responsibility for each andall of its own acts; that conformity to the laws whichgovern human existence will bring man into harmonywith the natural and spiritual forces and to a unionwith God, which constitutes salvation, and further;that both these schools teach their pupils a way whichwill lead them by the narrow path of self-conquestand service to the desired end.

The two movements in their present form tooktheir beginning in the Middle Age of Europe, when abenighted, bigoted ecclesiastical caste ruled the reli-gious world of that continent with an iron hand, sup-pressing with fire and with sword, by cunning andwith the aid of civil law, all thought and all activityinimical to its rule and its supremacy, stamping outindependent thought and action, more especially in

things spiritual, but scarcely less in matters pertainingto the common life of man.

All its efforts were directed toward the mainte-nance, strengthening, and establishment of this eccle-siastical hierarchy. This power, in the name of Godand religion, took captive the conscience of men,constituting itself, but more especially its chief repre-sentative, the sole arbiter in spiritual matters, andsubstituting for personal responsibility a system ofvicarious religion which relieved the individual of allsuch responsibility as long as he was subject and obe-dient to this ecclesiastical power which ruled overhim.

Such a condition must needs be followed by mostserious consequences for man as a spiritual being,bringing in its wake depravity and ruin, in the samedegree that the hierarchy became more worldly andmore estranged from the truth, serving its own inter-ests rather than the true and living God. Need we pic-ture the night of thick darkness that hung over Europeabout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? All inde-pendent research was suppressed, the souls of menwere heavy, yearning for daybreak. Where then werethe Watchers, the Elder Brothers who keep vigil overhumanity? Were they asleep! Had they suffered to beextinguished the Holy Fire that was to light man’sway? No, they were not unmindful of the extremity towhich their wards had been brought. In the midst ofthis deep darkness, the Spirit that watched and brood-ed over it again pronounced the fateful dictum, “Letthere be Light!”—and there was light, kindledthrough the agency of invisible forces behind thescenes, who are known by students of the RosicrucianTeachings as the Elder Brothers.

Sudden changes are hurtful, and the divine powersdo not work with haste. Too sudden and bright, a lightwould have blinded and confused man, and mighthave driven him deeper into the fold of darkness

24 RAYS 04

The Rosicrucian Movement and Freemasonry

MYSTIC LIGHT

whence he was to be delivered. So the AllFather kin-dled the Holy Fire on two altars, hidden from the eyesof the multitude but accessible to all sincere seekerswho were duly prepared to receive it. On these twoaltars it has since been burning, sometimes in secrecyand hidden from the eyes of all but a few, sometimesfreer and brighter so as to attract even the eyes of itssworn enemies, the orthodox clergy of the times.From that Holy Fire has been kindled many a lampthat has carried light into dark places.

These two altars represent the esoteric and the exo-teric aspects respectively of the same great move-ment, and were designed to meet the needs of twoclasses of aspirants: Those, on the one hand, whobecause of previous development can penetrate moredirectly to the heart of things through strong intuitionand constructive imagination, to whom the spirit ofthings can reveal himself, and who seek to unravelthe mystery of life and of God through self-knowl-edge. By a process of intense concentration of thewill and by living a holy life, they endeavor to awak-en the life forces that lie slumbering in the humansoul and incite them to normal activity, by whichprocess they seek to gain liberation from the personalself and gain conscious oneness with the UniversalSpirit.

There are also those who have not traveled so faron the path of devotion and development as to be ableto learn by direct perception, but who are ready andwilling to prepare themselves by practicing thevirtues of self-restraint, helpfulness, and brotherlylove, and by learning to read the symbols behindwhich are hidden the mysteries of being and ofprogress toward the knowledge of God.

In this manner a way was opened for seekers fromboth sides: those who derive their growth more fromsubjective activities and those who require objectivedemonstrations and labor for their progress, develop-ment, and self-expression. In these two altars and thetwo paths that lead to them will easily be recognizedthe Rosicrucian movement and Freemasonry, both ofwhich spring, as has been stated, from one commonsource which lies deeply buried in the far distant past.They are the two youngest offshoots from the trunkof the Ancient Mysteries to bear leaves and fruit forthe healing and the feeding of the nations.

The methods employed by these two schools natu-rally must differ, but their aims and ends are thesame. The Rosicrucian Mystic follows the path ofdevotion, meditation, and concentration, by which

means he raises his soul to God and fits himself forservice. He looks behind and through physical exis-tence to find the powers and the great Beings throughand by which created things exist. He seeks forthe substance which causes manifestation. And asthis substance cannot be perceived by means of thebodily senses, he develops finer and higher senseswhich penetrate through the properties of thematerial envelopes of things, and by means of whichhe perceives their inner structure and their spiritualqualities.

The training given by the other school is of a dif-ferent nature. It emphasizes proper conduct in allwalks of life, and appears primarily as a school forcharacter building, preparing the individual to takehis proper place in human society as a useful mem-ber. But there is concealed within its ceremonies apractical knowledge of the human soul. Like theRosicrucian School it has no dogmas to defend. Itdoes not even theorize as to the origin of the soul orthe attributes of God, but simply affirms the fact thatman is an individualized intelligence, endowed withindependent choice and rational volition, and that heis responsible for all his acts to himself and to God,the Universal Intelligence and the Grand Architect ofthe Universe. It teaches that man can and must per-fect himself individually by governing himselfaccording to the innermost laws of his nature, byobeying nature’s laws, and by working after a definitedesign or pattern which has been worked out by theWise Men of past ages through experiences that havecrystallized into a certain well-defined Wisdom ofLife. It may be called a School of Ethics derived froma Science of Morals, based on a true understanding ofthe most fundamental principles underlying humanconduct, endeavoring to lead its pupils by graduatedstages upward upon the winding stairs of humanknowledge to the Chamber of Wisdom and Light,where sooner or later every one who seeks honestlyand lives the life will be brought face to face with hisown soul, which he will recognize, and with it thewisdom and true purpose of all his training.

Thus it will be seen that both schools agree in allessentials. They were both designed to teach man tofind the way to his own soul amidst the darkness ofphysical existence, to self-realization through con-quest of the lower self, which leads to consciousunion with God, the great and final purpose of life onearth. ❐

—John H. Landes

RAYS 04 25

We will now consider some proofthat we do not end our existencewhen our spirits leave our physi-cal bodies in what is commonlycalled death, but that we transfer

our consciousness from this world to another and goon living—clad in finer vehicles which cannot beseen with ordinary physical sight, but are just as realas bodies composed of flesh and blood.

If this is not true, why did the prophets of old tellhumanity of Heaven and Hell and how to live to enjoythe delights of Heaven and avoid the miseries of Hell?

All Christians believe that there must be a Heavenwhere those who live worthily may go, and that thereis a place of punishment where evil doers must stay.From what evidence I have secured, it seems to methat most people do not give much thought to whatwill happen to them after death. Many appear to leavethis more or less to chance, but go on trying to be rea-sonably good in order to fit themselves for Heaven.

Many people, when confronted with the questionof whether we live after death or not, say that no onehas ever come back after he died to prove that he stilllived on. This is not true, for we have all lived beforewithout a single exception. We have lived manylives. We have occupied all race bodies and we haveall taken part in the civilizations of the past. The trou-ble is we can’t remember all that has happened to us.Most of us remember nothing of our babyhood andlittle of our childhood. It is not surprising that wecannot remember a period a thousand years agowhen we were here before in other physical bodies.

Many advanced occult students have seen some oftheir past lives. Some have been shown this bymeans of the Jupiterian Consciousness while out oftheir bodies in sleep and have remembered it onawakening the next morning. Others, still more

advanced, have been given this knowledge in fullwaking consciousness. They do not merely believethat we live after death, they know that this isabsolutely true.

I will present for your consideration some proofthat we live after death. It is positive proof to the stu-dents who saw and talked with these so-called deadpeople, but it will not be proof to you. I hope how-ever that these stories will awaken your interest inthis subject and that you will seek to know the truthfor yourself, as that is the only way you will know it.If you wish, you can get similar proof for yourselfand then you will know and all doubt will foreverleave you concerning life after death.

Some Helpers had been investigating what hap-pens to various people after death. They wanted toknow about the effects of embalming the body soonafter the spirit leaves the dense body. By talking withvarious individuals who had passed on they learnedthat in every instance where the body was embalmedduring the first three days, the person felt the painand suffered from the injury and was burned by theembalming fluid.

A lady once asked one of these Helpers if the onewho died would suffer from the cold if placed on iceand kept there for three days before burial. She wastold that the person does feel cold at first but that hesoon gets used to it and then puts all his attention on

26 RAYS 04

The Work of InvisibleHelpers with the Dead

MYSTIC LIGHT

The Death of the Good Old Man, watercolor, William Blake illustration for Blair’s The Grave

The Soul Leaving the Physical Body at Death

seeing his life’s panorama, which is not interferedwith by cold but is lost when the person’s body isembalmed immediately after death. I will tell you thewhole story.

Some Helpers were sent to a certain place to helpa man who had died about three days before. Theyfound him standing beside his body in his desirebody. This man had died suddenly of heart trouble ina hospital, and the authorities delayed taking him toan undertaker because his wife had gone to the nextcity some miles away and left no address behind.

They put his body in a morgue and kept it thereuntil his wife returned. When the man’s wife wrote tohim on the second day that she was gone, the peopleof the hospital opened the letter. They found outwhere she was and had the police of that city go andtell her of his death. She returned home on the after-noon of the third day and had the undertaker go andget his body.

When the Helpers saw him the next day, he hadbeen embalmed and his body was laid out for burial,and he was there beside it. One of the Helpers, notknowing what had happened to him, asked him if ithurt him when the undertaker embalmed him and shewas startled at his reply.

“Why, no, that did not hurt me. I felt cold for a fewminutes when they put me in the morgue, but thatsoon passed away. Then I began to see my life fromthe time I got this way until it stopped when I wasborn. Am I really dead or in a trance? Will I wakeup?”

The Helper told this man that he was dead as mancalls it.

“That is strange,” he said. “Why did I see inpic-ture form all that I have done in my life? I have doneseveral things that I am ashamed of now that I havehad them shown to me.”

Then the Helper told him that the pictures that hehad seen were his life record and that when he leftthat place he would go to a place where he wouldhave to atone for all his wrongdoings.

“I am sorry for the wrong things that I have doneand I will not do them again,” the man said.

The Helper asked him why he was staying besidehis body, and he said that he wanted to see his funer-al. He told her that he had been an average man andhad done some good and some bad things but that heloved his family and was good to them. “I had meanstreaks sometimes and did wrong,” he said. In a little

while he spoke again.“You are the first people that I have been able to

talk to,” he said. “Are you dead as I am?”“No, we are not dead,” the other Helper answered.

“Our bodies are asleep at home.” The Helper thentold the man about his teachings.

“I heard of these teachings,” he said, “but I paid noattention to them and thought they were bunk.”

Alas! how many more people have contacted theoccult teachings and turned carelessly away, not real-izing the wonderful opportunity that came to them.At death they will realize their loss and find out thatthe teachings given out by the Elder Brothers are true.

From there the Helpers went to the bedside of aman who was about to pass on, and they materializedand one Helper told the man to tell his wife not toembalm him and she was amazed when he said, “Iwant to be embalmed so I will be really dead and notin a trance.”

“I am very sorry, but you will have your requestgranted,” she said.

The man passed on after the Helpers left and theundertaker had him embalmed an hour afterwards.The next night the Helpers went again to see him andhe told them he went through more pain than he didall the time that he was ill.

“The undertaker cut both my arms,” he said, “andput one end of a rubber tube in my left arm and theother in the pail. He used a large syringe and pumpedsome strong liquid into my arm and into my body. Itburnt me terribly and then I froze and I am still coldand in pain. Can’t you do something for me? After Ifirst died I began to see what I had done during thefew minutes before my death. I saw myself talking toboth of you and heard what you said about embalm-ing. Then I began to burn. I tried to tell the undertak-er that I was not dead, but he did not see me and paidno attention to my pleading to be let alone. When Itouched his hand my hand went right through himand he kept on until he was through.”

Then the lady Helper told the man that his liferecord was lost because he did not get to review itclearly, as the embalming fluid had destroyed theseed atom in his heart.

“That must be true because the pictures went sofast that I could hardly make them out and I wasburning so,” the poor man said.

The Helper told him that this was caused by theembalming fluid pushing the blood out quickly

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before it became congealed. The Helpers were intheir desire bodies and so the man could see them,but his wife and relatives could not. They heard theman’s wife talking to her friends and relatives. “Iwonder if I did right when I allowed my husband tobe embalmed,” she said. “I have felt nervous over itever since, and when I go in the front room I feel hispresence. I wonder if he is in there!”

The Helpers went out and materialized whatappeared to be physical bodies, and knocked on thedoor, and the wife came to the door and let them in.“Oh, Lady, please tell me this;” she said. “Did I doright to let him be embalmed? I believed you but Ithought I had to carry out his last request.”

The lady Helper looked at her partner expectantly.“No, lady, you did wrong and went against your bet-ter judgment,” he said. “Your husband is in the roombeside his body.”

“Oh, God have mercy on me. I did not know,” shesaid, and then she fainted. The people in the room ranto pick her up and the man Helper told them to let heralone. After the wife had formed and stood besideher body she looked at the Helper. “Come with me,”he said.

“I am on the floor,” she replied. “No, I am here.What is wrong?”

“That’s all right. Come on with us,” the Helpersaid. He then led her into the front room, and whenthe wife and her husband saw each other, they ran tomeet quickly and he told her that the strangers wereright and that he wished now that he had listenedwhen they tried to save him all this suffering. “Don’tever be embalmed,” he said. “It hurts. It burns andfreezes one, and I am still cold and suffering.”

The wife told her husband that she felt his pres-ence.

“I tried to tell you when you were asleep,” he said,“but you would always wake and get up.”

“Are you dead?” she asked.“The strangers told me that I am what man calls

dead, but that I am not dead,” he said.“Am I dead and are you both dead?” the wife

asked the Helpers.“We are not dead and you have fainted,” the man

Helper replied.Then the wife said goodbye to her husband and he

told her to listen to their new friends and be a goodwoman. One Helper carried the wife in her` desirebody back to her physical body and told the people

to pick her up and put her on the bed. Then she cameto and told them what had happened. Naturally thepeople looked surprised and aghast.

One Helper told the man to will himself well andthat nothing would hurt him. He did and he was allright immediately. The so-called dead man thankedthe Helper, who then told him that someone would bethere to take care of him and to go with them, and hepromised that he would. When the Helpers came outinto the next room the wife was speaking about thestrangers.

“Surely they are Angels disguised as humans,” shesaid.

“No, we are only servants of humanity,” oneHelper told her.

“I will stop every one I can from being embalmedfrom now on,” the lady said.

The next morning both Helpers remembered meet-ing both of these two men who had passed on indeath, and they knew that they were just as muchalive as ever.

When a person dies during childhood, he frequent-ly remembers that life when he is reborn in a newbody because children who die before the age offourteen do not journey around the entire life cycle,which makes it necessary to build a complete set ofnew bodies. Instead, they pass into the upper regionsof the Desire World and there they wait for an oppor-tunity to return to earth in a new body.

Young children usually are reborn one to twentyyears after their prior death. When they return, theybring their former mind and desire body with them,and many times they can tell strange stories abouttheir lives just past. Young children do not go toPurgatory, as adults do, after death but are taken tothe Borderland and then a spirit guide takes them tothe First Heaven where a relative or motherly persontakes delight in caring for them.

Mr. Max Heindel, in his book The RosicrucianCosmo-Conception, writes:

The extreme plasticity of the desire stuffmakes it easy to form the most exquisite livingtoys for the children, and their life is one beau-tiful play; nevertheless, their instruction is notneglected. They are formed into classes accord-ing to their temperaments, but quite regardlessof age.

In the Desire World it is easy to give object

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lessons on the influence of good and evil pas-sions on conduct and happiness. These lessonsare indelibly imprinted upon the child’s sensitiveand emotional desire body, and remain with itafter rebirth, so that many a noble life owesmuch of it to the fact that he was given thistraining.

As far as I have been able to learn, all children goto school while in Heaven awaiting rebirth, and agreat many of the children who are living also gothere at night while out of their bodies in sleep. Muchhelp is given all children both with and without phys-ical bodies. They are given lessons in music, art andother subjects.

Their teachers are both living Invisible Helpersand those who have died and are transiting betweenlives. Many of these teachers are Lay Brothers andLay Sisters and some are Liberated Ones.

When the teachers want illustrative material, theycan create it by thought and make books and thefinest maps and living toys. The children are taughthow to model such toys and take great joy in doingit. I heard of one case where a child remembered thatshe went to school at night and knew who her teacherwas and that she also had a teacher who was givingher violin lessons.

At one time a Lay Brother provided an entertain-ment for a roomful of earth children. He made a cutepony of desire stuff and had it do tricks for thedelighted children. Then he called up some of themand gave them complicated problems in arithmeticwhich some of them answered correctly, and hecomplimented them on their ability. The teacher hadrefreshments made of the same desire stuff and thechildren partook of them sitting in their seats.

Another time a Helper saw a class of children outin a meadow painting pictures while in Heaven. Onegirl about fourteen wanted to paint her friend’s pic-ture. She seemed to have all she needed and in ashort time she had a good portrait of the other girl onher desire stuff canvas. Life is a great school and wecome here for experience, and we get much help inall the worlds in which we function.

If we wish we can take part in this great work ofhelping children and adults, and thus we can beginpaying off our debt of destiny for all the help that hasbeen given to us through our countless lives since theGod of our Solar System sent us out as virgin spirits

to gain experience and knowledge.One time some Helpers attended a young child’s

funeral and saw the child by its white coffin. Theylooked into the coffin and saw the lifeless physicalbody of the child and then they turned their attentionto the living child in her desire body. She was notafraid, for she said that two very pretty ladies hadbeen there talking to her. They were Lay Sisters whoare Helpers. This child could not understand why shecould not make her mother know that she was welland happy. She said that she had seen her playmatesand played with them and that they saw her.

This little girl, who was about four years old, hadcaught cold and then developed pneumonia and diedin three days. She told the Helpers that the man hurther when he put something in her arm and made theother arm bleed. That was when the undertakerembalmed her body. She said that she burned insideand got cold and stayed that way until the prettyAngels came and warmed her and stopped her bodyfrom hurting and that she had been happy ever since.

The mother and other people were attending achurch service where they were saying an early massfor the child. The lady Helper noticed a little groupconsisting of a lady and three young children. Theykneeled and prayed and stood up and sat down dur-ing the service. Several of the children present sawthe Helpers and told their mothers who turned pale.

One little girl talked to the lady Helper, until hermother made her stop. Then she held out her hand tothe Helper, who was not materialized, and the Helpertook it. This child seemed to be about three years old.“Oh, Mamma,” she said, “look at the two Angels.One is a very pretty lady,”

“No, hush,” answered her mother.“But Mamma, she is so pretty,” said the child.

“May I go to her?” and she held out her hands to theHelper who stood near her.

“No,” said the mother.Later the ego of the child was taken to the Heaven

World by the Lay Sisters.When an ego who has built up a sin body dies as a

child, the sin body stays in the lower Desire Worldwhile the ego is being taught in Heaven, and when itreturns to rebirth, this sin body will try to influencethe child to do wrong. Many subnormal children aredifficult to control and teach because they have sinbodies that cause trouble. ❐

—Amber Tuttle

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NO MATTER what people say to usor about us, their words have nointrinsic power to hurt. It is our ownmental attitude towards their utter-ances which determines the effect of

their words upon us, for good or ill. Paul, whenfacing persecution and slander, testified that“None of these things move me.” All who hope toadvance spiritually must cultivate equipoise, forwithout it the desire body will either run riot orcongeal, according to the nature of the emotionsgenerated by intercourse with others, whetherworry, anger, or fear. We know that the dense bodyis our vehicle of action, that the vital body gives itthe power to act, that the desire body furnishes theincentive to action, and that the mind was given asa brake on impulse. We learn from the Cosmo, pp.89-91, that thought-forms from within and withoutthe body are being continually projected upon thedesire body in an endeavor to arouse feeling whichwill lead to action, and that reason ought to rule thelower nature and leave the higher self scope forexpression of its divine proclivities. We also knowthat habitual thought has power to mold evenphysical matter, for the nature of the sensualist isplainly discernible in his features, which are ascoarse and gross as the features of the spirituallyminded are delicate and fine. The power of thoughtis still greater in its potency to mold the finervehicles.

We have already seen how thoughts of fear andworry congeal the desire body of anyone whoindulges in that habit, and it is equally certain thatby cultivating an optimistic frame of mind underall circumstances, we can attune our desire bodiesto any key we wish. After a time, that will becomea habit. It must be confessed that it is difficult to

hold the desire bodydown to any definitelines, but it can be done,and the attempt must bemade by all who aspire tospiritual advancement.

Regarding the effect from the occult standpointof this polarization, we may learn much from cer-tain customs in so-called secret societies. As youknow, such organizations always place at the doora guard who is instructed to deny admittance toanyone not supplied with the proper password andsigns, and that works very well, so far as the peo-ple are concerned who function only in their phys-ical body. But the so-called secrets of these organi-zations are not in any sense secrets to those whoare able to enter their places of assembly in theirvital bodies. It is otherwise in a true esoteric ordersuch as, for instance, the Rosicrucians. No guard ison duty at the door of that Temple when the MysticMidnight Mass is said each night of the week. Thedoor is wide open to all who have learned to speakthe open sesame. But that is not a spoken pass-word; the initiate who desires to attend must knowhow to attune his soul body to the particular rate ofvibration maintained on that night. Furthermore,this vibration differs on the various nights of theweek, so that those who have learned to attunethemselves to the vibration maintained onSaturday night, when the first degree meets, are aseffectually barred from entering the Temple withthose who carry on the work Sunday, Monday,Tuesday, etc., as any ordinary person. The cosmiclaw under which this is done applies also to thecontrol and effect of our thoughts, feelings, andemotions. Paul well said that we are the temple ofthe living God (our Higher Self). ❐

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The Temple of the Living God

FROM MAX HEINDEL’S WRITINGS

QUESTION: Recently, you made a ratherunexpected statement, namely, that theFellowship has no connection to the his-torical Rosicrucians. If that is the case,please tell me, where should I go to find

the true Rosy Cross, if they exist today (or theirdescendants) and are they operating openly, or insecret. Then who are your “Elder Brothers”?Answer: By “historical” we were referring to thosepersons and groups that have left record of theiractions and beliefs and make certain claims abouttheir identity.

While this statement is correct as it stands, it mayyet be open to misunderstanding without some fur-ther explanation. The Rosicrucian Fellowship origi-nated from the founding impulse of Max Heindel,who sought the best possible means of disseminatingthe Teachings he had obtained directly from one ofthe Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order. That is, theTeachings are not culled from what allegedRosicrucians had made public in prior times. In fact,were you to investigate the matter, you would findthat all the material put forth as bearing aRosicrucian stamp, prior to the twentieth century,discloses virtually nothing that is contained in TheRosicrucian Cosmo-Conception. In that seminal textMax Heindel writes: “In the past these [RosicrucianMystery teachings] have been kept secret from allbut a few Initiates, and even today they are amongthe most mysterious and secret in the Western World.All so-called ‘discoveries’of the past which haveprofessed to reveal the Rosicrucian secrets, havebeen either fraudulent, or the result of treachery uponthe part of some outsider who may, accidentally orotherwise, have overheard fragments of conversa-tion, unintelligible to all but those who have the key.”

This being so, the historical documents purportingto be Rosicrucian have dubious authenticity at best.

An elaborate system of obfuscation, allusion, andriddle characterize the writings that purport to be ofRosicrucian provenance, beginning with the Fama,Confession, and Alchemical Wedding, which werepublished in the early 17th century. What can begleaned from these and other documents is thatteaching spiritual truths along Christian lines andhealing the sick constituted the two-fold calling andactivity of persons who were fulfilling the mandatefirst enunciated by Christ Jesus and later, byChristian Rosenkreuz—to preach the Gospel of loveand to heal the sick. Additionally, it was impliedthatsoul growth and initiation were incident to servingGod in this way. Such development was suggestedmore fully in the pursuit of alchemy, though it wasphysical gold rather than the gold of Spirit that com-manded the greatest interest. That the mysteriousRosicrucians were in possession of wondrous powersis what fascinated the general public and led some toconcoct and others to be the gulls of pretensions,deceptions, and colorful stories.

There are a number of groups that call themselvesRosicrucian, even alleging an unbroken connectionwith the original Rosicrucians. But, in fact, there areno historically certifiable Rosicrucians, for, as MaxHeindel makes clear, only the Elder Brothers them-selves merit the term Rosicrucian, and they wouldnever publicly divulge their attainment. It wouldserve no helpful purpose, but rather hinder theirwork, which is conducted in complete anonymity.The Rosicrucian Order is on the etheric plane and theseven Brothers who work out of physical bodies doso with extreme tact and discretion, and obviouslypseudononymously. How, then, can they be referredto as Rosicrucians? The so-called history ofRosicrucianism, detailed as it is by non-initiates, islargely a guessing game—rife with speculation, chi-canery, and unconfirmed anecdote. By all means, if

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The Fellowship and Historical RosicrucianismEuthanizing Animals; Saviors in a Cave

READERS’ QUESTIONS

you are so inclined, investigate the claims thesegroups make and see if you can obtain anything ofvalue from them.

Members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship areinterested primarily in the Truth, less in the organi-zational and institutional structures humans create intheir efforts to purvey and implement their view-points of the Truth. Truth is not dependent per se oninstitutions but available to any seeker any place onthis planet by virtue of the indwelling Christ Spirit,through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and by intu-itions that come from the World of Life Spirit. Onpage 606 of the Cosmo it is stated: “Although theword ‘Rosicrucian’is used by several organizations,The Rosicrucian Fellowship has no connection withany of them.” This includes past and present. It isalso noteworthy what Max Heindel writes in a letterto Probationers, “The Rosicrucian Fellowship is theonly authorized Preparatory School of theRosicrucian Order.”

Notwithstanding the foregoing, we may say thatthe genuine Rosicrucian influence has manifested inmany places and through many persons since theinception of its founding impulse in the thirteenthcentury. To the degree that the RosicrucianFellowship also manifests this influence, there is aspiritual connection between it and all such earliermanifestations. However, it is not a causal connec-tion with these persons, institutions, and documents,but with the source of their influence, whichemanates from Christian Rose Cross and the twelveElder Brothers.

Euthanizing AnimalsQuestion: If an animal must be put to sleep, does the2-1/2 day rule follow for them as well, i.e., they mustnot be cremated right away? Also, I am a bit con-cerned regarding karmic debt befalling me for thisdeed. Your opinions will be very welcome at this try-ing juncture of my life.Answer: Death and dying issues are a bit differentwith respect to animals, since their Ego is notindwelling but works on and through its members,which constitute a species, from the Desire World.This Ego is called a Group Spirit and it directs theactions and registers the experiences of its charges ina manner similar to how, using Max Heindel's simi-le, our mind and will, working through the physicalbrain, cause our fingers to move. While, of course,animals feel pain, they don't think about the pain they

feel, which thinking usually intensifies the pain byconcentrating on it, though potentially it can reducethe effect by mind control. Animals do not have freewill, as we understand the term, since they are underthe sway of the Group Spirit. The individual animalspirit is evolving, but does not postmortem review itslife, since it does not have the thinking faculty bywhich it can learn from its prior actions. That learn-ing is done continuously by the Group Spirit and istransmitted to its charges by desire impulses andmanifests in what we call instinct. Putting down ananimal would also have different consequences, ascontrasted with "mercy" killing or euthanasia. Wedon't know the particulars in your case, but a fullyincapacitated animal doesn't have the functioningmind to qualify the compassionate impulse to "put itto sleep." And, since it is not responsible for itsactions in the way that humans are, its difficulties arenot a function of karma or destiny that should beborne to balance out its freely elected past behavior.Therefore, you are not depriving it of learning fromits own mistakes. That your actions are motivated byyour love for the animal may compensate for endingits life.

Saviors in a CaveQuestion: Someone recently acquainted with us astory regarding a cave/tomb that apparently exists inthe middle of some desert, deep underground. In itare the ‘bodies’of 12 ‘saviours/entities’who will berevealing themselves at the appropriate time to ‘savethe planet earth’. They are each referred to as ‘One ofthe Twelve.’Have you heard of such a myth/story inany of the teachings that you have come across? Imust confess I have never heard of this particularversion. Does this sound remotely familiar to you?Answer: While there are a number of advancedbeings, including humans, the twelve Elder Brothersof the Rose Cross among them, who contribute to"saving" the planet, even their work would not suf-fice were it not for the Christ, who is the planet'sSavior. Since it is our planet, humans need to stopdoing what requires that the planet be saved, whichinvolves working with natural laws at the physical,moral, and mental levels. Let us not wait for saviorsbut rather at least minimize the need for salvatoryintervention by being enlightened custodians of ourplanet, starting with our individual persons and beingexamples to others, and choosing the hard right overthe easy wrong. ❐

32 RAYS 04

THERE IS a longhistory back of the controversybetween the Arabs and the Israelis.Each nation traces its lineage back toAbraham—and each is right! The Arabs

and the Israelis are half-brothers, who eventuallywill settle their family differences and recognizethe place of each other in the world family.

The Bible has been defined as a Book ofRealization. It is a spiritual history of mankind—the Book of Everyman. We have seen in our study,thus far, that the characters and their problemsapply to all men; and the purpose of the OldTestament is to show the steps in preparation forthe coming of Jesus, the Christed One, who under-stood and mastered all the problems in humanexistence. The many generations listed in the earlychapters of the Bible tell of a continuation of a cer-tain type of consciousness. They also tell of a lapsein time, between the appearance of great men onthe scene.

After the sinking of Atlantis, which was thestory of the Great Flood and the survival of Noah,time passed; and the next great character is Abram.This brings us up to the present Epoch. Abrahamhas been spoken of as Father Abraham, suggestinghe was the father of the new race. Symbolically, heis the type pattern of the emotional body. The emo-tional or desire body is dual. It has the capacity forsinking to the lowest depths of desire through thefive physical senses, or expressing the highestqualities of the soul. The goal? Self Mastery!

Abram’s nephew, Lot, was a symbol of the lowerdesire nature that had not yet developed spiritual

faculties sufficiently to be guidedby the inner Presence. Lot chose to live in Sodomwhich, with its companion city, Gomorrah, wasnotorious for riotous excesses of the basest urgesin the lower desire nature. After a time it becameclear to Abram, intuitively, that those wicked citieswould soon be destroyed by fire (the fire of theirown lust). However, Abram prayed for the twocities. “If there be fifty righteous people, will yousave them?” he prayed. Then he became doubtful,and prayed: “If there be forty righteous persons,will you save them?” “Yes,” came the reply.Perhaps there would be but thirty, or maybe onlytwenty—or even if there were only ten could theybe saved? Each time, the reply was “Yes!” In this,the seed for compassion and forgiveness wasbeginning to develop.

But there was not one righteous person inSodom. Abram knew he must rescue Lot from thecaptivity of the five kings (five senses). The sens-es were not to be destroyed; their faculties andpowers were to be transmuted into channels forcommunicating with the Indwelling Spirit.

Abram’s victory was immediately followed by atranscendental experience—a transcendental med-itation. Upon his return from battle, he metMelchizedek, who is described as the King ofSalem. Salem means “peace.” That city laterbecame Jerusalem. Melchizedek was Priest of theMost High God, “without father or mother, with-out descent, having neither beginning of days norend of life, but made like unto the Son of God.” Heis the high priest in every man—a principle.Melchizedek blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be

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Abraham and

WESTERN WISDOM BIBLE STUDY

Melchizedek

The O

ffering of Melchizedek, J.J. Tissot

Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heavenand earth.”

Here, he was telling Abram he possessed all thepower necessary to express his own divinity andovercome the world. The bread and wine which heplaced before Abram have their mystical meaning.They are the power of head and heart which werequickened and blended by the victory over thefive kings. They earned him the blessing ofMelchizedek and brought him in closest commu-nion with the Indwelling Presence. Centurieslater, Christ Jesus gave his twelve disciples hisdeepest teaching when he served them bread andwine at the last supper. Then they learned the truemeaning of the unity of heart and mind when hegave them a new commandment to “love oneanother.”

Abram longed for a son (a continuation of thisconsciousness) to inherit the new land; and he wasgiven the promise: “unto thy seed have I given thisland.” Abram’s wife, Sarah, was barren. She hadan Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar. Symbolically,both women represent the love principle—one inits highest expression and the other in its lower.Hagar, the lower love nature, was the first to beara son, Ishmael, to Abram. Ishmael is described asa wild person, with his hand against every man,and skilled as an archer. Sarah dealt harshly withHagar, and Hagar fled with Ishmael into thewilderness, where there was no Path. In her fear,Hagar called upon the name of the Lord, and in theprocess of her regeneration, she was given thepromise: “I will multiply thy seed exceedingly. Iwill make him a great nation.”

The Arabs claim to be descendants of Hagar andAbraham, and their records relate that Abrahameventually went to visit his son, Ishmael. He builtan altar and made sacred this part of his life; andtherein he established the Holy City of Mecca.Later, Sarah gave birth to a son, Isaac, who was thechild of promise, or the higher love nature, andrelated to the soul. The soul is the storehouse ofvirtues—the virtues of honesty, kindness, peace,goodness. The highest expression of the emotionalnature is love—not greedy, selfish love, but lovethat is kind, described by Paul as without envy,which “seeketh not her own, is not puffed up, doth

not behave herself unseemly, thinketh no evil....Love never faileth.”

Abraham’s name was changed after the birth ofIsaac with the promise: “I will make thee exceed-ingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee. Thyname shall be called Abraham, for a father of manynations I have made thee.”

Abraham, symbol of the emotional self, hadexperienced the lowest of the desire nature whenhe rescued Lot, who was a prisoner of the fivekings (or five senses) at Sodom and Gomorrah. Hisvictory was blessed by Melchizedek, symbol of theInner Priestly Self. Now, Abraham was to provethe highest capacity of the emotional Self.Intuitively, he felt he should make a sacrifice,which usually consisted of an animal, representa-tive of the animal self. He took his beloved son ofpromise, Isaac, and went to Mt. Moriah, meaninga high place in consciousness. There he built analtar; but there was no lamb. So Abraham laidIsaac on the altar for the sacrifice. At that momentthe Inner Self confirmed the highest expressionof love. All personal loves were secondary toAbraham’s love for the divine. A ram, symbol of

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Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) (1627-1628),detail, Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Sacrifice of IsaacIn this supreme test, qualifying him for cosmic service,Abraham demonstrateshis love for and obedience to thedivine will before all personal desires and affiliations. Thus hegains transcendence through complete self-renunciation.

personal will, was caught in the thicket close by,and personal will was sacrificed to divine will.

Once again, the blessing came with the promise:“Because thou hast not withheld any personal thing, Iwill multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and thesand of the sea. In thy seed shall all nations be blessed.Thy seed [symbolizing Divine Love] shall possess thegate of all enemies.” “Love never faileth.”

Later, Isaac was the father of two sons, twins,symbols of the two selves—Jacob and Esau. Theybecame enemies when Jacob, the younger, claimedthe birthright of Isaac. Only love could overcometheir enmity.

Jacob struggled within himself about his prob-lem with Esau. Fear arose within him; he thoughtEsau might kill him; but he knew hemust eventu-ally unite with his brother. He wrestled till break ofday—until dawn—the dawn of light or under-standing. His opponent (or problem) is describedas an angel. A problem is usually a blessing in dis-guise. He finally got his release with these words:“Because you have prevailed, you have powerwith God and men. You are now given a new nameIsrael, meaning ‘one who sees God’.”

Jacob had a joyous reunion with Esau becausehe saw the face of Esau, his other self, his fear orseeming enemy, as “the face of God.” Thisencounter was prophetic of the time when all menwill unite their two selves. Love has power withGod because God is love.

Jacob was the father of twelve sons, who laterbecame the twelve tribes of Israel, ten of whomwere destined to be scattered to the four corners ofthe world, while Judah and Benjamin remained inthe homeland.

Here the heavenly pattern was reflected on earth,as the qualities of the twelve are the twelve signsof the zodiac, which are described in Jacob’s bless-ings of his sons. Eventually, these qualities wouldbe redeemed in the twelve disciples of Christ Jesus.

Gad, inexperienced and undirected, was Aries.Issachar, with desire for experience in form, whichcarried its burden, was Taurus. Simeon and Levi,the twins, who saw good and evil, were Gemini,sign of the twins. Benjamin, with instinctualawareness, was symbolic of the sign Cancer.Judah, with his self-centeredness and will to dom-inate, was Leo. Dinah, whose position was laterreplaced by Ephraim, was Virgo, the symbol ofchastity. Asher, balancing the real and unreal forself-preservation, was Libra. Dan related toScorpio. Joseph, whose powers extended to thehigher worlds, was Sagittarius. Napthali’s blessingrelates to Capricorn and suggests the symbol of thegoat. Reuben’s characteristics relate him toAquarius and the quality of responsibility. Zebulonis Pisces who dwells by the sea—the emotions.Jacob, father of the multitude, was the higher lovenature with its many facets. ❐

—Gene Sande

RAYS 04 35

Die Bibel in Bildern, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1789-1853)

Jacob Meets EsauThis meeting refers to an encounter with the Dweller on theThreshold, the entity created by the accumulated evil the Egohas generated in past lives, which awaits liquidation. Incommenting on this encounter, Corinne Heline writes:

“At a certain stage of spiritual development the aspiranton the path “‘opens his eyes” to what the Lords of Destinyhave previously concealed from his sight—a beneficentprotection for those not yet strong enough to face their ownevil karma and to consciously take upon themselves theobligation to dissolve and transmute it into good. When thisis done one’s power for serving constructive forces is great-ly increased. A degree of mastership is attained. A miracleman appears.

“Note that Jacob did not meet Esau until after hisencounter with the Angel. He was afraid to do so,eventhough he had made, as he thought, all necessary prepara-tion for the event. But he was not yet ready; he was notstrong enough. Not until he had risen in consciousness andcome into a greater awareness of his innate divine power,and to a clearer realization of the continual presence andcooperation of Angels and other spiritual forces, was hequalified to meet the Dweller.”

HOW DO YOU JUDGE a horoscope?Do you methodically go throughevery chart in the same set fashion,struggling to glean the kernel ofmeaning from every planet position

and aspect? Or do you ponder over each chart untilyou feel it starts speaking to you? If you are likemost astrologers, then you probably experience thefull gamut of possibilities when sitting down to tryto glean "the message of the stars."

This article proposes to advance a few ideas thatmight help the student in his horoscope delineation.We will use the chart at right in this exercise. Thesubject is a middle-aged male.

So where do we start? In multiple places in hisbooks Max Heindel tells us to look to the mentalityfirst when judging a chart. So what do you look atwhen you consider this statement? How will youdeal with this particular chart?

In example charts [in TheMessage of the Stars]Max Heindel says to look at Mercury first, its signposition, house placement, and its aspects. Okay,let's take Mr. Heindel's approach. In this chartMercury is in Libra in the 11th house. Mercury isconjunct Neptune, sextile Pluto, and square Jupiter.Put that all together and formulate a statementabout this man's intellect. What do you come upwith? I see you are scratching your head trying tocome up with something that hits the mark.

Let's start with The Message of the Stars,andread what Max and Augusta Heindel write aboutMercury in Libra:

MERCURY IN LIBRA, when well-aspected gives abroad, well-balanced mind with a love of art and

music and an uncommon ability of expression. Itbrings success as a public speaker and sometimesas a singer. When Mercury is afflicted in Libra itindicates trouble by lawsuits through partnershipsand an unfaithful marriage partner.

Does this tell you what you need to know? Whatabout Mercury positioned in the 11th house?

MERCURY IN THE ELEVENTHHOUSEbrings a greatmany acquaintances among literary, scientific orother mercurial people, but none of them are suffi-ciently steadfast to be relied upon, unless Mercuryis very well-aspected. This position has a tendencyto make a person critical and cynical. It sharpenshis intellect, however, and gives him a good flow oflanguage.

Now can you tell me what the intellect of thisman is? The Heindels use the term well-aspected. IsMercury well-aspected? How do you tell? How doyou decide whether one conjunction, one sextile, andone square translates to well-aspected or poorly-aspected—or whatever? If you have access to the

36 RAYS 04

Judging a Horoscope

ASTROLOGY

web, do a search on cosmodynesto help you answerthese questions [readers are referred to the Raysarticle on cosmodynes in the September/ October2000 issue], to which we will return.

Given what is said above, do you think that thisman has a great many acquaintances among liter-ary, scientific or other mercurial people? Whatother factors in the horoscope support or refute thatgenerality? What does Venus in the 12th house sug-gest? What about the Scorpio Ascendant? See howeasy it is to get side-tracked in our analysis? Let'sstay focused and get back to discussing the mental-ity of this man.

What about Mercury's aspects? Surely they willtell the tale. They are delineated below fromMessage of the Stars.

NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SEXTILE, OR

TRINE TO MERCURY gives a mind peculiarly adaptedto the occult art, particularly if the conjunctionoccurs in the Third or Ninth House or the trines arefrom the watery signs Cancer and Pisces. Such peo-ple usually succeed in occult science and oftendevelop a supernormal faculty. They are particular-ly good as magnetic healers....

JUPITERSQUAREOR OPPOSITIONTO MERCURY givesa vacillating and wavering disposition so that theperson cannot make up his mind when more thanone course of action is open, hence people withthese aspects often lose their opportunities throughprocrastination and lack of judgment, and musttherefore often be classed as failures in life. Theyare liable to scandal and slander because of treach-erous associates. They should not travel, for it willbring them loss and trouble. They should also beextremely careful in making contracts or agree-ments to do or deliver certain things at a specifiedtime, for they will probably be unable to fulfill therequirements and thus trouble and loss will result.

What about Mercury sextile Pluto? Pluto wasn'tdiscovered until 1930, so here Message of the Starswill not avail us.

Look at the Neptune delineation. It says preciouslittle about the intellectual capability of this person.It suggests only that perhaps this man has healingability of some sort. Let’s look at Jupiter. Now we

are starting to gain a little ground. He can't make adecision, he procrastinates, and has bad judgment.He apparently does not choose his friends well(even though his associates are said to be "amongliterary, scientific or other mercurial people"—Mercury in the 11th house), and he forgets aboutmaking contracts that benefit him.

In the end the Heindels classify this man as alikely failure, as if one aspect can determine such athing, let alone whether a horoscope can “predict”this sort of outcome. Preposterous! Taking theMessage of the Starsat face value would certainlydepress this man if he read it, wouldn’t you say?

Let me now ask you the question, "Are you satis-fied with this cookbook type of approach?" But,where do we go from here? If you were actuallytalking to this man, would you be able to help himin any practical way knowing what you know sofar?

I suppose, to be completely fair, I must includethe following from Message of the Starswithrespect to judging the mentality:

MENTAL EFFECT OF THE RISING SIGN. SCORPIOris-ing gives a dual type of mind. This is one of the mostmystical of the twelve signs. Some times it is sym-bolized as an eagle representing the lofty, aspiringtype soaring as does the eagle into the ether. Atother times it is typified as a serpent which crawlsin the dust, and again as a scorpion. There is alsoconsiderable occult significance in the fact that theserpent has the sting in its head and the scorpionhas it in its tail. But for the present purpose we willjudge the two latter as one.

The Scorpio type of mind denoted by the eagle isthoughtful, reserved and inclined to lofty ideals'dignified in demeanor, proud and with perfect con-trol of the temper. These people are very reservedand generally keep their own counsel.

The other type when Scorpio is represented by theserpent is entirely different; deceitful, shrewd andsecretive; past finding out; sensual and unforgiv-ing; jealous and passionate, with a very sharptongue and fiery temper.

At this point let's see if we can use our epigene-sis and go beyond the cookbook approach to arriveat a more individualized and particularized profile.

RAYS 04 37

What does the 3rd house rule, among otherthings? The concrete mind. Therefore, it makessense to look at the sign on the 3rd house cusp inorder to better understand in what manner the con-crete mind tends to operate. In this chart Aquariusis on the 3rd house cusp. Its ruler is Uranus in the8th house in Cancer. What do you think all this sug-gests? A mystical bent? A concrete mind that isinterested in the unusual and the innovative? Whatare the qualities of Aquarius and Uranus? Electric,unpredictable, independent, and scientific. So,beginning to put this together, what are you comingup with? A quick mind perhaps? One that operateslike a bolt of lightning (Uranus)? Is there furtherinformation that supports this particular supposition?

Although Max Heindel never spoke of it, let'slook at the speed of the Moon. By that I mean howfast is the Moon traveling in this chart? You shouldknow the Moon moves as slowly as 11+ degrees ina day and as fast as a little over 15 degrees a day.How fast is the Moon moving in this chart? Get outyour ephemeris and check. You say you don't knowwhen this person was born? Did you bother to workbackwards and figure out the day of birth? Just soyou are not left wondering, this man was bornsometime between September 22 and September 23in the year 1949. How do we know? Hint—look atPluto and the other outer planets to get a rough ideaof the year. Then work backwards and deeper andzero in on the day (you know that the Sun is inVirgo in August and September of every year,right?). From the ephemeris you can see that theMoon was moving over 15 degrees a day when thisman was born. That's about the fastest motion thatthe Moon ever has. So what does it mean?

I have a theory, which you can start to investigatefor yourselves. The faster the Moon moves in achart, the more mental ability the individual has,perhaps the more intelligent he is, and perhaps thefaster the mind works also. Get out all the charts ofyour family members and friends and see if this the-ory "works". I have tried it on a lot of my charts andit isn't a bad theory. Not perfect, perhaps (what is,here below?), but useful to keep in mind neverthe-less.

Let us propose that the very rapid motion ofthe Moon in this chart helps to make this personlightning-quick, mentally speaking. Is there more to

look at?The 9th house represents the abstract or higher

mind. What can we glean from this chart in thisregard? Leo is on the cusp of the 9th house andMars and Pluto are in the 9th house. What does thissuggest to you?

Mars is action. Mars in Leo is not likely a place-ment that describes a person sitting around waitingfor something to happen. After all, Leo is a fire signand is of the same nature as Mars. Fire signs andMars connote activity. You can probably toss insome enthusiasm (fire signs) and even some zeal-ousness (9th house). Pluto must be considered aswell. Some say that Pluto is the octave of the Moon.This makes sense if you believe that the Moon hasto do with the "intellect and the general trend ofmental activity" (Church of Light, volume XI,“Delineating the Horoscope,” by C.C. Zain, page82) and Pluto helps a person to "consciously orunconsciously tune in on the thoughts and energiesbeing broadcast from the inner planes. This opensto him unusual sources of information and power(ibid, p. 96)." Pluto being exalted in Leo helpsaccentuate Pluto's characteristics.

So, in my experience, it is not enough to simplylook at Mercury in order to judge intellect and men-tality. Other factors come into play. Have we yetexhausted our analysis? Any additional factors thatwe have not yet spoken of?

What is Mercury's rulership sign and exaltationsign? Virgo. What is Saturn's exaltation sign? Libra.What do you see in this particular chart? Saturn isin Mercury's exaltation sign and Mercury is inSaturn's exaltation sign. This is an example ofmutual reception. The Heindels did not speak ofthis astrological commodity, but the ancientastrologers and all the traditional astrologers suchas William Lilly placed great importance on it.Mutual reception tends to strengthen and makemore positive the qualities of each of the planetsinvolved. In this chart what might be concludedfrom this mutual reception between Mercury andSaturn? Did you know that Saturn is a scientificplanet? With Saturn combined with Mercury, theplanet of thought, and considering the signs Libraand Virgo, we have here the possibilities that thisperson is detail oriented, loves mathematics andother precision work, is critical and analytical, and

38 RAYS 04

perhaps can find the flaws in the things he choosesto investigate. Remember, while thinking about allthis, that you cannot forget to take into account theAscendant, the lens through which everything isfocused. Here the Ascendant is Scorpio, the signthat is known for its persistence, its intensity, itsresourcefulness, and its capacity for probing thedepths of whatever is of interest. Now the picturebegins to appear with more color, and with moredetail. Can you take it further? Remember, thewhole art of astrological interpretation is to put thevarious pieces together so they support each otherin as many ways as possible.

Combine the information presented about the 9thhouse, the planets therein, along with the ScorpioAscendant, and Mercury's sextile to Pluto. Don'tforget about Leo and it holding the two ruling plan-ets of the Ascendant, Mars and Pluto. What is Leoknown for? Among other things, ego, willfulness,creative self-assertion What does the 9th houserule, among other things? Religion and philosophy,anything abstract and of the higher mind. With allthis in mind, what might we further be able to saywith regard to this man's style or way of thinking?Is there a tendency to fanaticism indicated (theScorpio Ascendant supplies intensity and intensitycan develop into fanaticism)? In what areas is thistrait likely to manifest?

One of the things we learn as we continue ourstudies in astrology is that the 9th house, the 9thsign (Sagittarius), and the natural ruler of the 9thhouse, Jupiter, all have a tendency towards ideal-ism. When idealism is taken too far, it moves intothe arena of fanaticism. When we hear the wordfanatic, what do we usually think of first, what sortof fanatic? A religious fanatic? Aren't Jupiter,Sagittarius, and the 9th house all associated withreligion?

Now add Pluto (force, coercion) into this mix-ture, along with Leo, the proud and kingly sign, notforgetting Mars. Can we imagine that this personhas an ego-need to be right? A person with anymeasure of Virgo in his chart has some sort of per-fectionist leaning. Combine perfectionist tenden-cies with ego and toss in a little fanaticism and itbecomes easy to understand how this man might bestruggling with his tendency, his strong need to beright—and perhaps project what he thinks is right

onto everyone he thinks might be wrong (some-times everyone).

Astrology isn't so hard, is it? One of the keys toastrology, as Max Heindel tries to teach us, is tothoroughly learn the keywords (planetary, sign, andhouse), then to learn how to combine them in wayswhich make sense. Then we may use logic andimagination to discover the myriad possibilities thatare contained in every chart. The more we practicethis methodology on the horoscopes of the ones weknow best, starting with our own chart, the betterwe will become at astrological analysis. And in theend, the better we will be able to serve those whocome to us for help. This is a wonderful way inwhich to garner soul growth, and we know fromMax Heindel's words that this is why we shouldtake up astrology in the first place.

Before wrapping up, allow me to mention anoth-er facet of astrology. In astrology, as in life, thereare very few absolutes. The theory about the speedof the Moon does not work all the time. But itseems to be not that far off the mark. A more certainrule, one to which I have yet to see an exception, isthe following: When Mercury and Venus are sextilein a natal chart, then that person is always an artistof some kind or has an identifiable artistic nature.In some way the core identity of the person express-es itself through art or as an artistic approach to lifeand its challenges. Check out all the charts youhave for this aspect and see if this rule does notapply. To my knowledge, you won't find this traitmentioned in any book. How, then, does one cometo such a conclusion? By analyzing many charts,by associative thinking, by putting intuition andimagination into practice, and by being alert to allpossibilities.

Remember, the horoscope shows tendencies only.With the proper application of correct thinking andcorrect action, all negative horoscope tendenciescan be controlled, then transmuted into positivecharacter traits.

For more astrology on a daily basis, visit NatalChart Aspect of the Day at www.rosicrucianfellow-ship.org/scgi-bin/hints/hints.cgi, and Transits forthe Day at www.rosicrucianfellowship.org/scgi-bin/totd/totd.cgi. Free astrological software may befound at www.astrowin.org. ❐

—A. E.

RAYS 04 39

IN THE SOLAR MONTH of Sagittarius,we come under the influence of the Lords ofMind. It was these great Beings who gave usthe germ of the individual mind that we pos-sess today, and it is they who hold before us

the living archetype of the human mind as it is tobe, a glorified instrument permeated with the lifeand light of the three-fold Spirit and under its com-mand. Year by year, at this time, the Lords of Mindfocus upon us the creative fire of the Holy Spirit tourge us on in the building of this mind that is to be.Let us then, while under their stimulating influ-ence, delve as deeply as possible into the processof mind building, that we may understand moreclearly how the work is done, and give to our heav-enly Teachers a more ardent and effective cooper-ation. In the Bible, these Great Beings are given byPaul the name of “ Powers of Darkness”; they arealso called “Principalities.”

The mind, as we have learned, is three-fold in itsdevelopment and operation. There is, first, the sub-conscious mind, which controls, by means of thesympathetic nervous system, all the functions ofthe physical body. This department of mind is atpresent under the sway of cosmic forces focusedthrough the Moon. It is the faithful recorder ofconditions which prevail within and about us atevery moment of our lives. But, although it oper-ates entirely without our volition, the subconsciousmind may be converted into a powerful ally of thewill, for the following reason: It tends to induce arepetition of the thoughts, feelings, and actionswhich it records, and we may make that recordwhat we will.

The conscious mind comes next in order of

development, and this is the tool with which wemust work our way to the higher reaches of mentalpower. In our study of this phase of mind underGemini [May/June 2003 Rays], we noted howclosely our mental vehicle is bound up in its devel-opment with the desire body. An understanding ofthe nature of this tie is essential to the one whoseeks a true realization of the principles involvedin spiritual unfoldment.

A study of the diagram of the Seven Worlds inThe Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (page 54 andnext page) will help us to clarify our conception ofthe situation. Let us realize, to begin with, that manhas within himself the replica of the cosmic planeshere pictured, and that as he develops the vehiclescorrelated to each plane, he creates within himselfthe conditions corresponding to the particularregion in which his thought is focused.

It will be noted that in the diagram the mind liesbetween the Human Spirit, which operates in theRegion of Abstract Thought, and the instrument ofHuman Spirit, the desire body, which operates inthe Desire World. Thus, its closest connection iswith the two vehicles through which the creativefire of the Holy Spirit is seeking expression. Themind itself is situated in the fourth, or uppermost,division of the Region of Concrete Thought, andstands ready to clothe, in the living material of thisregion, every image projected to it from above orbelow. (It must be remembered that the termsabove and below relate to rates of vibration and notto points in space.)

It can readily be seen that the line of develop-ment for the mind would be determined by thevibratory quality of the thought forms it is called

40 RAYS 04

God’s Message Through the Astrological Sign Sagittarius

ASTROLOGY

upon to make. The fate of thethought forms after they are cre-ated depends upon the reactionsthey produce in the fourth regionof the Desire World, the Regionof the Feeling, where interestvivifies or indifference kills them.

So, let us endeavor to trace theeffects of the interplay betweenthe desire body and the mind. Aslong as the interest is centered inthe desires, impressions, wishes,and feelings of the personality,the thought forms created arealmost entirely reflections fromthe three lower regions of theDesire World. These have a crys-tallizing effect upon the mindand cast it in a narrow mold thatchains the consciousness to therealm of Form. This, as we know,is what has happened in man, butall the forces of Nature are bentupon the breaking of that narrowmold, and sooner or later it willbe broken in each of us. Sooneror later we shall know the truth,and the truth shall make us free.

This release is brought aboutby the action of the twin laws ofRepulsion and Attraction in theDesire World, one of which,under Mars, whips and tears outof our being the false creations ofselfish desire; while the other,under Venus, cherishes and pre-serves every vestige of attempted good. Thiswhole drama of action and reaction is reproducedin the sensitive living substance of the mind.Gradually, the sorrow and pain incident to the con-tinued action of the Mars forces calls forth a deep-er, wider range of emotion, and this, with the accu-mulation of good, makes it possible for the tender,purifying ray of Venus to penetrate our being andturn the desires to higher levels. This brings us, inan increasing degree, under the influence of theLaw of Attraction and we are definitely through

with the grosser phases of experience.The vibrations of the mind are heightened by

this process. It becomes more amenable to the Willof the Spirit. Reason begins to assert itself, tojudge the images projected into the mind fromabove and below, and to choose which amongthem shall become the basis for action.

Two dangers meet the evolving man at thispoint. One is the danger of becoming so enamoredwith the exercise of reason as to turn all the cur-rents of the desire body into mental pursuits and

RAYS 04 41

Diagram 2

interfere with the development of this vehicle, thusblocking the growth of the Emotional Soul. Themind, trained in this way, will grow in power andmay penetrate far into the Region of AbstractThought, but will never find the secret of the Planbecause it lacks the illumination which soul-poweralone can give. The second danger lies in becom-ing contented with the degree of harmony attainedunder the Law of Attraction and centering theinterest in the beauty of the personal life and thebeauty of the outer world, thus binding the con-sciousness by the power of attraction to the realmof form.

It is Jupiter, the great benefic, working in the rayof Sagittarius, who alone can draw these twoextremes to a common center and set them to workon the building of the higher mind, which is a jointproduct of intellect and heart. Little by little, underhis repeated call, there is awakened in us a desireto share with others such treasures as we havegathered on the road of evolution.

Gradually, this desire takes form and blossomsinto humanitarian service. The love, which wasconfined to a narrow circle of chosen ones,becomes a flame that reaches out to all God's chil-dren. Under its glow the mind expands. Reason, whichbefore was powerless to find the Way of Life, nowholds a flaming torch which enables it to see thewhole glorious vista leading from the spot onwhich we stand, straight to the heights of attainment.

Pride is lost as the scope of our vision widens,and in its place is born a tremendous reverence forLife in its every expression. Every step of thisprocess, as well as the part played by the senses, isregistered in the light and reflecting ethers of thevital body. These grow in volume and luminosity,as progress is made, becoming at length theGolden Wedding Garment, or Soul Body, whichthe Ego can use at will as a separate vehicle, freedforever from the limitations of the physical body.

In the physical body the Sagittarius Ray reflectsitself in the hips and thighs, which make freedomof motion possible.

In the Bible, Romans 12:2, we read: "Be yetransformed by the renewing of your mind, thatyou may prove what is that good, and acceptable,and perfect will of God.”

In this biblical passage, Christ Jesus explainedthat we are all held accountable for our deeds, andthe extent of our loving service to others will deter-mine our own future. The actions judged in theparable were: feeding the hungry, giving drink tothe thirsty, making strangers welcome, clothing thenaked, and visiting prisoners and the sick.

The people who did these things no doubt alsoserved in many other ways not mentioned byChrist Jesus. Certainly they also showed under-standing of peoples needs and encouraged them tocarry on in spite of trouble. This work was done inthe spirit of loving kindness and helpfulness. Weoften overlook such actions in our everyday lives.

Christ Jesus placed great importance upon ourdaily actions as we communicate and associatewith people. He said, By their fruits you shallknow them. Fruits mean actions, and the results ofactions. Our actions speak far louder than anywords we utter.

We should keep our minds constantly onthoughts of the good, the true, and the beautiful,because such thoughts lead to good actions, likethose Christ Jesus spoke of. There are always littlethings we can do which mean so much to otherpeople. If someone is discouraged or unhappy, wecan speak encouraging words. Even a friendlysmile helps. We can welcome a newcomer to ourmidst. As we keep on the lookout for possibilities,we learn more of what can be done. These attemptsto be of service, along with our other regular activ-ities, will keep us too busy to have much time forfalling into temptation.

The evening exercise of reviewing the day'sactivities when we retire—the Retrospection—enables us to keep a constant check upon ouractions. Even if our review of the day's activitiesshows that we do care about others, we can alwaysdo better the next day.

The power of the mind may be likened to a seedplanted in the earth: at first nothing seems to behappening, but finally a tiny, tender blade breaksthrough the soil toward the sunlight. A smallbeginning, it is true, but gradually the tiny bladegrows stronger, eventually becoming ripe fruit orgrain. So do our actions come from tiny thoughtsplanted in our minds. Thus we come to understand

42 RAYS 04

how important is every single thing we think, do,and say if we are to become real helpers in car-rying out God's will.

Among the keywords of the Sign Sagittarius,we find one most important word "reverence." Ithas been said that reverence is the highest, mostsublime feeling that man is capable of express-ing. It is a holy feeling which is a mixture ofrespect, devotion, awe, and perhaps a little fear.So powerful is it that the average person cannotmaintain a state of reverence for longer than afew moments at a time. He who cultivates rever-ence, however, is greatly blessed, for his life willnever be dull or wearisome.

We have all, at some time in our lives, experi-enced reverence. If we think back to when wewere very young, we might remember times ofspontaneous reverence. Perhaps we felt it inchurch, or when meeting a famous person, orwhen we saw an animal being born. We mightalso be able to imagine the reverence we wouldfeel if at this very moment we were to see theChrist appearing in the heavens amid shafts ofbeautifully colored light.

The more we can express reverence, the morecontent we will be. Reverence, however, shouldbe expressed only for something that is worthy.All life is worthy of reverence, but inanimateobjects should not be revered. They may berespected, perhaps, but not revered. Reverencemay be expressed whenever we think of Deity,whenever, as in prayer, we come into the pres-ence of God. Reverence may be expressed withregard to the Divine Spark of God that is in everyperson we meet.

Reverence may be expressed when we seeGod working through another person, in deeds ofgreat kindness, or perhaps, in a stirring perfor-mance of a musical composition. Reverentthankfulness may and should be expressed atmealtimes. Or whenever we stop to consider themany blessings which are ours.

The more we can attune ourselves to the divin-ity that is everywhere, the more we shall be ableto feel the reverence that this sublime forceinvites. Goodness (God) is everywhere. ❐

—Rosicrucian Fellowhip Staff Members

RAYS 04 43

Regnum Caelorum Vim Patitur

When our five-angled spears, that pierced the world And drew its life-blood, faint before the wall Which hems its secret splendour—when we fall, Lance broken, banner furled, Before that calm invincible defence Whereon our folly hurled The piteous armies of intelligence—Then, oftentimes, we know How conquering mercy to the battlefield Comes through the darkness, freely to bestow The prize for which we fought, Not knowing what we sought, And salve the wounds of those who would not yield.

He loves the valiant foe; he comes not out to meetThe craven soul made captive of its fear:Not these the victories that to him are sweet!But the impetuous soldiery of truth,And knighthood of the intellectual quest,Who ask not for his ruthNor would desire his rest:These are to him most dear,And shall in their surrender yet prevail.Yea! at the end of unrewarded days,By swift and secret ways As on a sudden moonbeam shining clear, Soft through the night shall slide upon their gaze The thrice-defended vision of the Grail: And when his peace hath triumphed, these shall be The flower of his celestial chivalry.

And did you think, he saith, As to and fro he goes the trenches through, My heart impregnable, that you must bring The ballisters of faith Their burning bolts to fling, And all the cunning intricate device Of human wit, One little breach to make That so you might attain to enter it? Nay, on the other side Love’s undefended postern is set wide: But thus it is I woo My dearest sons, that an ignoble ease Shall never please, Nor any smooth and open way entice. Armed would I have them come Against the mighty bastions of their home; Out of high failure win Their way within, And from my conquering hand their birthright take.

—Evelyn Underhill

The title derives from the Latin text of Matthew 11:12:

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now

the Kingdom of God suffereth violence,

and the violent take it by force.”

THOSE WHO LOOK back into theannals of the past, who are interestedin studying the different religions ofthe world, will see that a religionwhich succeeded in producing among

its adherents harmony and purity had its due placein the evolution of the race; yet it was wholly builton a knowledge of those planetary influenceswhich men smile at and deride today.

Looked at from an esoteric standpoint, the zodi-ac may be considered as a glyph or cipher whichonly the initiated priests of olden times under-stood....These hieroglyphs will be preserved for alltime, and they form a symbology which only theGreat Ones fully understand. Looking back intothe far past, we find that the signs of the zodiachave never been essentially altered or changed.Dif ferent races have come and disappeared; differ-ent civilizations have risen and decayed; differentreligions have come forward, have waxed andwaned, or have, in course of time, been altered, butthe signs of the zodiac remain unchanged. Thoseadvanced ones who have their inner vision openedand can trace in the past all the workings of evolu-tion up to this time, in describing the religion ofancient Chaldea tell us that one of the high priestsin the ancient temple of Chaldea, in invoking theplanetary aid of some spirit, could be seen writingwith a wand tipped with a bituminous substancethat left a phosphorescent glow behind it, the sym-bol of the planet Jupiter, in precisely the same formas it is written to-day.

Those of you who are Egyptologists know thatthere exists the Dendera Zodiac, and that many ofthe signs used in Astrology today are found on theold Egyptian tombs of the past. But the zodiac and

planetary symbols existed before the first religionof which we have any knowledge. The greatZoroastrian religion was based entirely upon thedeeper meaning of Astrology; then Astrology wasnot taught as a science or philosophy but rather asa religion, the seven great gods, the seven spirits ofthe planets, being worshiped—not, of course, thephysical planets themselves. And when peopleoccasionally say to us, “ Surely you do not believe.in the influence of the stars or planets?” we tellthem, “No, not so far as the physical planets areconcerned, but most certainly we believe in theguiding influence of the spirit of the planets, andthat we can trace the seven influences emanatingfrom the seven planetary spirits.”

In the ancient Chaldean civilization there flour-ished a religion which perhaps has never beenequalled, so far as the devotional element in it wasconcerned. It was a religion that dominated itsadherents’life, not a religion which could be takenup and laid down spasmodically, but was to per-meate the whole of the life. No matter howengrossed with business or worldly affairs the peo-ple were, they always found time for the worshipof these great angels and archangels. They hadtheir tables of planetary hours for worship, indicat-ing when the planetary influences were conduciveto meditation and concentration. Indeed, thekeynote of the people’s lives seems to have beendevotion; it was no uncommon thing to see a manpray in the middle of business or work. Their reli-gion was part of their life, carried into all its dif-ferent departments. Even their schools for the edu-cation of their children were based on planetaryinfluences, a different kind of training being givento those born under Saturn’s influence to those

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The Religious Aspect of Astrology

ASTROLOGY

born under Jupiter’s. The schools were dividedinto different classes, corresponding to the differ-ent planetary influences. They could tell from thetime of birth the predominating planetary influ-ence in any child, and could thus determine thecourse of training best calculated to draw out itslatent characteristics. They found that by gatheringthe same types together, the children could makegreater progress than when indiscriminatelymixed. A child of Saturn was never taught in aVenus class, for instance, but they were all educat-ed according as varied dispositions and tempera-ments rendered necessary. (This plan might advan-tageously be adopted today.)

The religious festivals also were held in templesdedicated to the seven different planetary Gods,although there was one great temple dedicated tothe Sun, and no grander sight could be seen thanthe multitude of people at sunrise engaged in theworship of the outer image of the great solar Godof the epoch. They knew that the Sun, with itsgenial warmth and dazzling light was the outermanifestation of a divinity as great and profound,and before Him they all bowed down in adoration.

Looking at the symbol (a) you will see in thesign Aries the great root of being, pouring itselfoutward—Aries has always been called the sign ofSacrifice—symbolizing creative ideation, theFather, the Will in manifestation. In the signTaurus (b) we may see symbolized love, the co-operative, binding force, the Mother-Principle,Spirit-matter, Sun and Moon, Life and Form wed-ded. In the sign Gemini (c) we see mind por-trayed, Universal Mind, without which we couldhave had neither knowledge nor wisdom, for allthese symbols are divine, and reflected in our-selves they become the principles of our being. Inthis trinity of Aries, Taurus and Gemini, we havethe divine triad.

If you consider the zodiac for a moment, youwill see in Aries life, in Taurus form, and inGemini mind. Or, to put it more clearly, the princi-ples of Being, Love, and Knowledge, symbolizedby Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, are divine attributesreflected in ourselves as Existence, Feeling,Intelligence. As statements of Consciousness theyare: “I am,” “I feel,” “I think.”

The next trinity is Cancer, Leo, Virgo (d e f).In Cancer we see a reflection of the Mother-Principle on a lower scale; each of these triadsbeing reflected lower down, so to speak. TheMoon chain finds its symbology in the signCancer, typical of a past evolution when thegrowth of mind for many of us had its commence-ment. In the next sign, Leo, we may see symbol-ized the great Teachers of Compassion. The heartis ever given as the symbol of the principle of loveand compassion. Leo is the house of the Sun, theLord and Giver of Life; and there is spiritual life,as well as physical. In the next sign, Virgo, comesthe mystery of the zodiac. Today we have twelvesigns, but when they were first given, there wereonly ten; for Virgo-Scorpio (f-h) was not two,but one, and man was male-female, an hermaphro-dite creature. When the separation of the sexestook place, these signs were separated one fromthe other, and the sign Libra was introduced.Herein lies the mystery of Generation, the descentinto matter. The act of creation is now physical, butwe must remember the Gods create by the powerof will; only when the matter side is uppermostdoes creation take place as it does to-day.

The third trinity, Sagittarius (i), Capricorn(j), Aquarius (k), is intensely symbolical.Sagittarius is always represented as the centaur,half horse and half man. Do you not see in thatsymbology the descent of the Sons of Mind intoanimal man? We know that Sagittarius has a dou-ble meaning, the man who is dominating or hasdominated the the animal desires and passions.Looked at in another way, Aries, Leo andSagittarius are the Christian Trinity: the Father,Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Coming to the next sign, Capricorn, the goat, wenotice the curious fact that in some old books it issymbolized with a horn coming from the centre ofits forehead. There you have an occult fact.Clairvoyant vision may be described as seeingfrom the centre of the forehead. Capricorn also sig-nifies the climber, the Ego, as it were, surmountingthe mountain of matter, which everyone has toovercome and subjugate. Next, we come to thesign Aquarius, the Man bearing the pitcher ofwater, which he is pouring out by the way. There

RAYS 04 45

you have in symbology the picture of the manbecoming divine, the messenger of the Gods, thewater symbolizing the Divine Truth which he is topour out for the masses. Those who have studiedthe esoteric meaning of the sign (k), Aquarius,will understand the full symbology and catch theinner meaning. In noticing the form and shape ofthe different signs we to some extent grasp the lifewithin, and the last sign, Pisces (l), if you noticethe way it is fashioned, is, so to speak, a continua-tion or finishing of the sign Aries, and by symbol-ogy and analogy we may trace in the two moons orhalf circles linked together, the two souls, humanand divine, merged in one, the Spiritual soul tri-umphant. The end of the zodiac is complete, theend of manifestation accomplished.

In the sign Pisces we come to the point wherethe human and the Spiritual soul are beginning toblend, for when one touches the spiritual side ofthe nature, merging the human into the spiritual,then we have the “ God manifested in the flesh.”But we must not forget that each of these symbolshas seven different meanings, which apply toseven different planes of matter, seven differenttypes of people, and seven different races ofmankind. It is a most wonderful symbology,looked at from the spiritual standpoint.

Coming down from the cosmic side of the mat-ter to the human, let us try to look at the question:Why is each horoscope different? and answer it inthe only manner in which it can be answered, bysaying, Because each soul is different.

There are people who ask, “Can you tell us any-thing about the age of the soul from the horo-scope”? To some extent we can.

Should we find in any nativity the moral virtuesof purity, truth, and love, together with intellectualendowment and development, we know that wehave in our hands the horoscope of an advancedsoul. It is in this way that we judge, to some extent,the age of the soul from the nativity; but we mustnever forget that the planets chiefly affect the meretemporary quaternary—the physical body, theetheric body, the astral body, and mind body. Yetthere is behind and above all that an Astrologyapplicable to the immortal Ego, though it is not theAstrology with which any of us are acquainted.

The star under which a human entity is born willremain for ever its star through the whole cycle ofits earthly incarnations; but this is not his astrolog-ical star, the latter being concerned with the per-sonality or ‘quaternary,’ the former with the indi-viduality, the ‘triad’.

The true Ego is so completely beyond the mate-rial plane of our existence that he himself must bewholly unaffected by the influence of the stars aswe know it, the stars having to do with his limita-tions in matter, constituting, as it were, his presentexpression in matter, his environment, and thecharacter he is expressing. These four in manifes-tation, and the three, or triad, out of it, form aseptenary unit, which is comparable with the sevensacred planets, the seven tones, and the many otherseries of seven throughout nature.

Let us next consider how the different planetaryinfluences affect us. Those who study the scienceof Astrology know that pouring through the worldare all kinds of vibratory forces; and according tothe kind of matter vibrating in each astral and men-tal body, so will be awakened corresponding vibra-tions in harmony with the different vibratoryforces. There are thousands, perhaps millions ofvibrations going on at this moment, of which weare totally unconscious, because we have not inour bodies that finer matter which can transmit tous those finer vibrations; for the condition of thematter which we have built by past thinking andfeeling into our vehicles, determines whether theplanetary influences playing over the world willaffect us, and to what extent.

Lastly, we must remember that the stars incline;they do not compel. The stars are not the causes,they are the judges, the awarders of what we earnof good or evil; and just in accordance with whatwe have done, thought, or felt in the past, so are theconditions or qualities of the matter in which we areworking, these limitations constituting our destiny.

It is in the make-up of our own vehicles of con-sciousness that lie our fate and limitations. The egomay be exceedingly wise, and may have even amagnificent mental body, yet a brain that is unre-sponsive, and can therefore answer but imperfect-ly to the vibrations set up by the Thinker within. Itis the fate, however, we ourselves have sown, and

46 RAYS 04

if we would have a different condition, we must goto work during this life and diligently build, bypure thought and pure feeling, finer and purerastral and mental vehicles.

Having fully realized this, we may consider thenext question: When do we get beyond planetaryinfluences? That point we must carefully consider.When a man has totally and entirely overcome hisdesire-nature, and has his mind entirely under con-trol, there comes a time in his evolution when he isready to become a channel for the Spirit, when hehas merged his will with the will of the Logos andhas only the will of Divinity working through him.He has broken the bonds of all desire, spiritually,mentally and physically. Then, except he chooses,he need come back to earth no more; the spirit inhim is active and vivified, no longer latent; he hasbecome a Compassionate One. He has identifiedhimself with the Life, and being one with the Life,no form has any further power to retain him.Therefore, he can no longer be influenced by theplanetary vibrations which constantly affect us. Nosuch influences can compel one who has passedthe lesser and greater Initiations. All planetaryinfluences must be dominated for evermore whenthat stage is reached, since complete unity and har-mony have been attained. Thenceforward, if hetakes up his vehicles, it will be but as an organ ofthe Divine Life, as an expression of the Divine Will.

And so you will realize how very far yet we arefrom overcoming all planetary influences. Themost practical thing for us is to seek out the way tobegin dominating them, so as to finally reach lib-eration from horoscopes or the wheel of life. Whenwe begin to think for ourselves and to take our ownlives in hand and rule them, not letting our pas-sions, emotions, or lower mind sweep us away,then we are beginning to rule our stars. Everyeffort brings success nearer, and in time we shallcease to vibrate in common with the lower astralforces, and begin to think beyond the ordinary lim-itations of the world’s thought. For we mustalways remember that the planetary influenceshave to do with the human evolution, not with theGod, and that the God within us can overcome allplanetary influences. We are free today, if we didbut know it, to make in the future our selves and

our lives what we would have them be just as theyare today what we made them in the past. For peo-ple who say that astrologers are fatalists do notrealize that there is an Astrology that teaches self-knowledge mentally, so to speak, putting forth in amental guise the higher truths relating to the Self,teaching through the mind what all the adeptstaught practically, the science of the soul; but theideals relating to Astrology as applied to humanlife and conduct must be made practical, carriedout in everyday life, if we would really rule ourstars. And that is what all astrologers should teach:that within the fetters we ourselves have created,the soul has perfect freedom—freedom of thought,in spite of the limitation of circumstances andenvironment; and that which binds us fast to thewheel of incarnate life is either desire or thought.

As we think, so do we become. If we think puri-ty, we shall become pure; if we think truth, weshall become truthful; if we think compassion, weshall become compassionate; for thought is thecreative power, the working of the God within us.

We must also remember the fact that in everyhoroscope there is always the progression of theplanets to be noticed. A person may be born withsome conditions very unfavorable or undesirable,but as he grows older there is progression shown inthe horoscope, so that a person at thirty years ofage might be a totally different being to what hewas when first born....

There is a great evolutionary movement goingon, pressing men steadily forward, even if theywill not cooperate with it—making man a littlemore advanced and a little more noble, as it were,in spite of himself.

I have often wished the religious aspect ofAstrology, if I may call it so, had not been so great-ly neglected. A knowledge of the true Astrology iscertainly called for, a knowledge of the law andworking of the planetary influences, and intuitive-ly I feel that with the incoming of many souls whomust have lived and been taught in the Zoroastrianschools of true Astrology, through that very form,which is today so neglected or so prostituted, theancient truths will be once more revived and givento the world. ❐

—Bessie Leo

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AND THE WOMAN’S soul experi-ences continued in the imaginativeworld .† This time she came upon afigure that she herself knew was notpresent over there on the physical

plane. Nothing of it was present on thephysical plane; she was getting toknow it for the first time. Therewere many things on the physicalplane that reminded her remote-ly of this figure, but it wasnowhere present in as com-plete a form as it was here. Itwas a wonderfully austerefigure.

Having been questionedby the woman’s soul, itsaid that it came not merelyfrom higher regions butfrom very distant regionsindeed, but that, for themoment, it was obliged towork in the hierarchic realmthat is known as the realm of theSpirits of Form [ Powers, Exousia].

“Human beings beyond,” spoke thisfigure to the woman’s soul, “have neverbeen able toproduce a complete representation ofme or anything that fully corresponds to me, for myform as it is here does not exist on the physical plane.So they had to take me apart, and only by being taken

apart have I been granted the possibility (if youaccomplish what you meant to do and unite with me)to enable you to implant a faculty for fantasy inhuman souls. But because this faculty is fragmentedin human beings, the whole can appear only here andthere, torn apart into individual forms. Because noth-

ing of mine can be called a human sense,human beings have not been able to

enchain me. All they could do wasto tear me into fragments. They

have also taken away my lastoffspring and torn it into frag-ments.”

And once again, not shy-ing away from the sacrificeof being torn to pieces her-self, the woman’s soulunited with this spiritualbeing.

Then it said to her, “Nowthat you have done this, you

have once again become asingle manifestation within

the totality of your designation.You have become the prototype

of architecture, of the art of build-ing. By pouring what you have just

achieved into the souls of human beings,you are now able to give them the prototype of archi-tecturalimagination. However, you will only be ableto provide them with an architectural imaginationthat shows the details of what will enable them toconstruct buildings that tend to become broadertoward the bottom as they spread downward from thespiritual world, as represented by the pyramid. Byleading them to apply the art of building to a templeof the spirit, rather than to some earthly purpose, and

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The Spiritual Being of ArtPart 2

SPIRITUAL SCIENCE AND ART

† This is the second of two consecutive articles comprising alecture given in Berlin on October 28, 1909 by the Austrianoccultist Rudolf Steiner. The illustrations in this lecture areby Assia Turgenieff (c 1890-1966), a Russian artist whodeveloped the technique of shaded drawing. Reprinted withpermission of the Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, NY 12534

ARCHITECTURE

by causing them to imprint this character on its exte-rior, you will enable human beings to make only acopy of what I am.”

Just as the pyramid had appeared before, the Greektemple then emerged from the surging astral sea. Andthen still another figure appeared—not a figurethrusting downward so as to become broader towardthe bottom, but an upward-thrusting figure, the thirdfragment of architectural imagination. Whatappeared was the Gothic cathedral.

PAINTING

And the woman’s soul contin-ued to dwell in the imaginativeworld. Another figureapproached her, still moreforeign and remarkable thanthe previous one. Somethingresembling warming lovestreamed out of it, and alsosomething that could befrosty cold.

“Who are you?” askedthe woman’s soul.

“My name is known in itsproper form only to those yon-der on the physical plane whoinform human beings about thespiritual world. They are the onlyones who know how to use my namecorrectly, for I am called Intuition, and Icome from a distant realm. In finding my way fromthis distant realm into the world, I descended fromthe realm of the Seraphim.”

The figure of Intuition was seraphic in its being.And once again the woman’s soul said, “What doyou want me to do?”

“You must unite with me! You must dare to unitewith me! Then you will be able to enkindle in humansouls on Earth a faculty that is also a part of theirimaginative activity. Through it, too, you willbecome a single entity within the larger whole ofwhat the young man called you.”

And the woman’s soul resolved to carry out thisdeed. In doing so, she became something that, evenin its outer form, was very far removed from theouter physical form of a human being, and quite for-eign to it. Only those who had looked deeply into thehuman soul itself would have been able to assess

what her soul had become, for although it had for-merly still possessed something of an etheric nature,it could now at most be compared to somethingpurely soul-like.

The spiritual seraphic figure named Intuitionspoke: “Because you have done this, you can nowequip human beings with the capacity for imagina-tion in painting. You have become the prototype ofpainting, and this will enable you to enkindle this

ability in human beings. Now that you your-self possess a painter’s imagination,

you will be able to bestow talent ontheir sense of sight. This sense,

which is not touched by humanselfhood but contains the syn-thesizing thinking of theouter world, will then becapable of recognizing thesoul-being shining throughthe surface of things thatotherwise appear lifelessand devoid of soul.

This capacity of yourswill enable people to ensoul

everything that otherwiseappears to them on the sur-

faces of things as color and asform. They will use it to make the

soul speak through the form;through the color they conjure up on

canvas, not only the outer sense-percepti-ble color will speak, but also its inner aspect, which

moves outward from inner depths, like everythingthat comes from me. You will be able to give humanbeings an ability that allows them, through the lightof their own souls, to bring soul movement even intolifeless nature, which otherwise manifests only insoulless colors and forms. What you will give themwill allow them to transform movement into repose,to hold fast what is changeable in the outer physicalworld. You will teach them to hold fast the fleetingcolor that is briefly lit by the glancing rays of the ris-ing sun, the colors that are present in lifeless nature.”

And an image rose up out of the surging sea of theimaginative world, an imagethat represented land-scape painting. And a second image arose, represent-ing something else, and the spirit-like figureexplained it, saying, “Through the capacity you givethem, you will teach people to record what happens,

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what is experienced in human life over shorter orlonger periods of time, in a minute or anhour or incenturies, and what is compressed into one shortmoment. Even when the past and the future crossmost powerfully, even when the two currents of thepast and future come together, you willteach human beings how to recordthem as a point of undisturbedrepose in the middle.”

And out of the surging worldof imaginations, Leonardo daVinci’s painting of the LastSupper appeared.

“But you will also havedifficulties, and your diffi -culties will be greatestwhen you allow humanbeings to apply this capaci-ty of yours to things inwhich soul and movementare already present, to some-thing they have alreadyendowed with movement andsoul from the physical plane. Thisis where you will most easily goastray, for here lie the limits of the possi-bility to still call their copies of your prototypeart.” And out of the surging sea world of imagination,the portrait arose.

MUSIC

And the woman’s soul continued to dwell in theimaginative world, and again a figure approachedher, a foreign-seeming figure that was similar tonothing that is found yonder in the physical world. Ittoo might be called a heavenly figure that cannot becompared to anything on the physical plane. And thewoman’ssoul asked, “Who are you?”

The figure said, “Yonder on the earthly globe Ihave a name that can only properly be applied bythose who bring messages of the spiritual world tohuman beings; they call me Inspiration. I come froma distant realm, but for now my place is the regionthat they call the region of the cherubim when theyspeak of the spiritual world.”

This single figure from the kingdom of the cheru-bim emerged from the imaginative world.

Once again, after the woman’s soul had asked,“What can I do for you? What am I meant to do?” thefigure said to her, “You must transform yourself into

me! You must become one with me!”And in spite of the inherent danger, the woman’s

soul dissolved into the being of this cherubic figure.In doing so she became even less similar to physicalthings on the earthly globe. While it could still be

said that something at least analogous to theprevious figure is present on the earth-

ly plane, this figure from the realmof the cherubim must be

described as possessing a beingthat was foreign to everythingon Earth, as it were, so that itcould not be compared toanything at all.

And the woman’s soulitself became quite unlikeany earthly thing; it wasevident that she herself hadmoved on with her wholebeing into a spiritual realm,

that she now belonged to aspiritual realm that cannot be

found in the world of the senses.“Because you have done this,

you are now able to implant an abilityin the souls of human beings. When this

ability dawns on human souls on the earthlyglobe, it will live in them as musical imagination.This ability of yours has become so foreign to theearthly globe that human beings will have nothingexternal on which to imprint what their souls senseunder your inspiring influence. They must enkindlethis for themselves in a new way, through a sensethey otherwise know in quite a different guise: Theymust give the sense of sound a new form; they mustfind musical tones in their own souls. They must cre-ate out of their own souls as if they were creatingfrom the heavenly heights!

“And when human beings create like this, whatflows from their individual souls will be like ahuman reflection of everything that can only flowand sprout in outer nature in ways that are incom-plete and imperfect. From the human soul will flowsomething like a reflection of what trickles insprings, blows in the wind, and rolls in the thunder.It will not be a copy of these things but will step forthlike a natural sister to meet all these glories of Naturethat spring forth as if from unknown spirit depths.

“This is what will well up from human souls. It

50 RAYS 04

will give people the ability to create something thatenriches the Earth, something new on Earth thatwould not have existed without this ability you have,something like a seed for the future on Earth. Andyou will give them the ability to express theliving feelings in their souls that couldnever be expressed if people weredependent on what they havenow, namely on thoughts andconcepts. These feelingswould shrivel up or freeze ifthey had to depend on con-cepts. Concepts are thedeadly enemies of suchfeelings. For the sake ofthese feelings, you willgive people the possibilityof breathing their souls’inmost being out into theirearthly surroundings on thewings of song, and ofimprinting something on theseearthly surroundings that wouldotherwise not be there. All thecomplicated and powerful feelings,all the feelings that live in the humansoul as if in a mighty world of their own,which could otherwise never be experienced in theexternal world in this form, all the feeling that couldonly be experienced by traversing world history andthe heavenly spaces with one’s soul—these manyrealms cannot be experienced in the outer world. Ifthey were, if we attempted to know what individualshave always experienced here and there, all theopposing currents of the centuries and millenniawould flow in. But these feelings will all be con-densed through this ability of yours and will pour outinto something that people have made their own intheir symphonic musical works.”

And the woman’s soul grasped how what we knowas Inspiration is brought down from the spiritualheights of the world, and how this is to be expressedby the normal human soul. She grasped that it can beexpressed only through musical sounds. Now hersoul knew that if spiritual researchers depict theworld of Inspiration itself, and if this world is to bepresented directly to human beings on the physicalplane through physical means of expression and yetbe more than mere copy, it can only be presented as

a musical work of art. And the woman’s soul understood that a musical

composition could present the mighty event ofUranus igniting his own emotion in the fire of Gaia’s

love, or could express what happened whenChronos tried to illuminate his inner

spirit nature through the light ofZeus.

These were the deep experi-ences the woman’s soul had asa result of her contact withthe being from the realm ofthe cherubim.

POETRY

She then continued tofind her way into what iscalled the imaginativeworld, and another figureapproached her, again far

removed from what exists onEarth. And when her soul

asked, “Who are you?” the spirit-like figure answered, “Yonder in

the physical world, only those whocommunicate spiritual events by means

of spiritual science use my name correctly,for I am Imagination, and I come from a distantrealm. But from this distant realm I proceeded to theregion of the hierarchies that is known as the regionof the Spirits of Will [Hierarchy of Leo, Thrones].

“What am I to do for you?” the woman’s soulasked again. And this figure from the Spirits of Willalso asked her to unite her own being with itself. Andonce again the woman’s soul became quite unlikeany ordinary soul; she was changed into a purely soulfigure.

“By having done this, you are now able to breatheinto human souls the faculty that human beings onthe earthly globe experience as poetic imagination.You have become the prototype of poetic imagina-tion. Through you human beings will be able toexpress in their language something that they wouldnever be able to communicate if they clung only tothe outer world and tried to reproduce only thingsthat are present in the outer physical world.

“Through your poetic imagination you will givethem the possibility of expressing everything thattouches their personal will and that could otherwise

RAYS 04 51

not stream forth from the human soul through anyearthly means. On the wings of your rhythm andmeter, through everything you will be able to give tohuman beings, they will express something for whichlanguage would otherwise be much too crude aninstrument. You will give them the possi-bility of expressing what would other-wise be inexpressible. And in theimage of lyric poetry thereappeared the events that cometo pass over the centuries,inspiring whole generations.

“You will also be able tosum up what could never berepresented through any outerphysical event. Your emissarieswill be the bard, and poets of alltimes. They will condense entirehuman cycles into epic poetry. Onstage, you will conjure up before them theforms the will takes on when passions rage againsteach other. You will show them how human beingson this Earth would fight in vain, how colliding pas-sions bring death to the one and victory to the other.You will give human beings the possibility ofdrama!”

And at this moment the woman’s soul becameaware of an inner experience that could only bedescribed by using our earthly expression, “wakingup.” Why did she wake up? She woke up because shesaw, as if in a reflection, things that are not presenton Earth. She herself had become one with the beingof Imagination. What lives on Earth as poetry is areflection of Imagination. Her soul saw Imagination’sreflection in the art of poetry. This is what woke herup.

Through waking, of course, she had to leave thatdream-like spirit realm. However, she had at leastentered a region that resembles, if only as a deadreflection, the life of spiritual imagination. That waswhat made her wake up.

Now that she had awakened, she could see that thenight had passed. She was surrounded by the snow-covered countryside once again, the beach with thefloating icebergs, the trees covered with icicles. Onwaking, she saw the other woman lying next to herwho had suffered the paralyzing cold as a result ofnot being warmed through, as she had been, by theimpression of the beauty of this snowy landscape.

Now the soul of the woman who had experiencedso much during the night realized that the otherwoman, who had nearly frozen to death because shecould not experience anything in the spiritual world,

was human Knowledge. And she looked after herin order to share something of her own

warmth with her. She lavished careand attention on her, and the

other woman grew warmwith what her companion’ssoul had brought backfrom her experiences ofthe night.

Over in the east thesunrise was reaching up

into the sky and into thelandscape. The sun was

announcing its coming, and thesunrise grew ever redder and red-

der. Now that she was awake, the soulof the woman who had these experiences during

the night could watch and listen to what the childrenof Earth say when they divine what can be experi-enced in the imaginative world. And in the chorus ofthe children of Earth she heard the best of them utter-ing their inklings of something that they themselvesdo not know through Imagination, but can allow toflow out of their souls’most profound depths as agoal and standard for all of humanity.

She heard the voice of a poet who had oncedivined the greatness of what the human soul experi-ences throughthe imaginative world. She now under-stood that she must rescue this half-frozen Science,that she must warm it and imbue it with what she her-self was—and above all, with what she was as Art.She understood that she had to communicate to thishalf-frozen Science what she brought back as a mem-ory of her dream that night. And she noticedhow whathad nearly frozen to death could become alive againwith the speed of the wind when Science is able toreceive her communications as knowledge.

Once again she looked toward the sunrise, and thesunrise became for her a symbol of the state fromwhich she had awakened and also a symbol of herown imaginations. And she understood what the poethad said out of the wisdom of his divining. What sheheard out of a new spirit resounded toward her fromthe whole Earth: Only through beauty’s dawningshall you approach the land of knowledge! ❒

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When he was vice-president of the Los Angeles branch ofthe Theosophical Society in 1904-1905, Max Heindel deliv-ered two lectures entitled “Madame Blavatsky and TheSecret Doctrine,” which was published in book form in 1933,with an introduction by Manly P. Hall, a student of theRosicrucian Teachings in his early years and best known asthe author of the monumental tome The Secret Teachings ofAll Ages. While the book on Blavatsky and The SecretDoctrine continues to be available (DeVorss & Co.,www.devorss.com, 800-843-5743), because some of theHeindel stylistic hallmarks are already in evidence, becausethe work shows the evolution of his thinking, and for addi-tional reasons best expressed by Manly Hall in the book’sintroduction, portions of which follow below, we believe thatthe reader familiar with Heindel’s later writing will benefitfrom reading this text, which omits only those passages con-taining exegeses of technical Eastern terms and concepts.

INTRODUCTION

IT would have beena real loss to all students ofmysticism and metaphysics if this little essay onH. P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrinehad notfound its way into print.

Max Heindel, the Christian mystic, pays homage toMadame Blavatsky, the Oriental occultist. He seesabove the little differences which divide the West fromthe East and rejoices in the great wisdom which hasflowed forth out of Asia, rendering fertile the plains ofthe world’s thought. Great is the mind which rejoices inthe greatness of other minds. Max Heindel’s tribute tothe memory and work of Blavatsky and her Masters isa truly beautiful gesture in a world little given, alas, tosuch gentle impulses.

We live a code of criticism and condemnation withsmall appreciation of the works of others. Sects andcreeds build up walls about themselves, and only hero-ic souls in whom spiritual perceptions are truly awakecan rise above these imaginary limitations. Think backover the books that you have read and recall how sel-dom it is that any writer speaks well of another. Eachman, firm in his own opinions, gives scant courtesy tothe opinions of others. There are many teachers in this

world who instruct with words, but only a few whoinstruct with the noble example of generous deeds.

In his textbook of Christian metaphysics, TheRosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, Max Heindel refers toMadame Blavatsky as “a faithful pupil of EasternMasters” and in the same paragraph he speaks of hergreat book The Secret Doctrine as an “unexcelledwork.” With his deep appreciation of spiritual valuesMax Heindel was eminently qualified to recognize thefundamental merit of Madame Blavatsky’s work. TheChristian mystic is here revealed as a sincere student ofOriental occultism.

His summary of The Secret Doctrinein latter part ofthis book reveals a remarkable grasp of the outstandingprinciples of the monumental spiritual traditions ofAsia. In a few brief and simple words Mr. Heindel sumsup Cosmogenesis, the creation of the world, andAnthropogenesis, the creation of man. BothRosicrucians and Theosophists, in fact all sincere stu-dents of the occult sciences, will benefit from a consid-eration of this summary.

The manuscript of this present book may properly beconsidered as Heindel’s first literary effort. It was thebeginning of a considerable metaphysical literaturedevoted to the application of mystical idealism to theliving problems of a sorely afflicted mankind. It hasbeen written that “the first shall be last.” This littlebook brings into print the only remaining unpublishedmanuscript of Max Heindel. The manuscript originallyconsisted of the notes of two lectures delivered beforethe Theosophical Society in Los Angeles. In the yearswhich followed the preparation of these lectures MaxHeindel greatly increased his store of mystical knowl-edge and has justly earned recognition as America’sforemost Christian mystic. His reverence and respectfor Madame Blavatsky in no way altered, however, andto the day of his death he always referred to her interms of highest admiration. It was through the writingsof Blavatsky that Max Heindel received in this life hisfirst knowledge of occult sciences: He recognized grat-itude to be the first law of occultism and his fine soul

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Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine

BOOK REVIEWS

preserved to the end a beautiful spirit of gratitude forthe inspiration and instruction he had gained from theSecret Doctrine.

Both Madame Blavatsky and Mr. Heindel dedicatedtheir lives to the service of mankind. Each was devotedto the dissemination of spiritual knowledge. Both wererewarded, for the most part by ingratitude, persecutionand misunderstanding. Both suffered from the falsenessof friends and learned how cruel the world can be tothose who seek to educate and improve it. Only theleader of a spiritual movement can realize how heavy aresponsibility leadership can become. MadameBlavatsky had already passed into the invisible worldbefore Max Heindel began his ministry. They never metupon the physical plane. Though denied personalacquaintance with the great Oriental occultist, MaxHeindel came to understand Blavatsky through years ofsimilar service to the same high ideals. He came tounderstand her as only a mystic can, and his apprecia-tion of her loyalty and her patience was deepened bythe adversities which he himself endured.

Both H. P. Blavatsky and Max Heindel gave theirlives in a beautiful service to the spiritual needs of therace: Both went to early graves, broken by responsibil-ity and persecution. Each has left as a legacy to unborngenerations, a metaphysical literature which shall sur-vive the vicissitudes of time.

The true purposes of mysticism are to perpetuate,interpret, and apply the idealism of the race. Men turnto religion for guidance, encouragement and solace. Wewant religion to stand back of us when we try to livehonest lives. We want to know that there exists some-where in the world a body of united people who areupholding spiritual values in a world of crumblingmaterial manifestations. We are all seeking inspiration.We want ideals. We want a worthy purpose to unite usin action. We desire to establish in this vale of tears aspiritual structure which shall be elevated above thehumdrum. We want to go out into life recognizing ourspiritual institutions as oases in a desert of materialism....

Suppose...that Max Heindel returned to the fields ofhis earthly labors and in simple gabardine walkedamong his followers. Suppose he should say to them,“Brothers and sisters, have you loved one another? Iplanted a rose garden of virtues; have you tended itcarefully? My name is upon your lips, but is my workin your hearts? Have you been true one to the other?Have you labored unselfishly, impersonally? Have youso greatly loved our Heavenly Father that you haveloved all men also?” How would The Rosicruciansanswer him? Could they say, “Beloved Brother, ourconstant inspiration, we have fulfilled your works in

humility and gentleness. There has been no prideamong us, no selfishness, no personality, no smallambitions at a great cost. Here is the Fellowship yougave into our keeping. We can return it as beautiful, asclean, as united in holy purpose as you intended it to be.There is no jot and tittle observance here; we are unit-ed not in petty things but in great things. In the fifteenyears since you passed away into greater life [thisIntroduction was written in 1933, but the questionposed by Hall is as relevant today—Ed.] we havesought to do your work. We are as you intended us tobe—men and women in whom there is no guile.”Would these words be true? If not, why would they notbe true? Is man too weak to carry on a good work? Ishis littleness so great and his greatness so little?

If we would feel ashamed if our leaders should returnto us again and we should know that we have failedthem, let us rededicate ourselves to them. Let the spiritof H. P. Blavatsky be reborn in the heart of eachTheosophist and the spirit of Max Heindel live again inthe heart of each Rosicrucian. When this time comes,and may it come, the mystics and the occultists of theworld can clasp hands across the gulf of their differ-ences and, united in purpose, be an army of spiritualreconstruction marching like the prophets of old in thevanguard of progress. —Manly P. Hall

Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine

Chapter ITHE SECRET DOCTRINE is one of the most

remarkable books in the world. I realize how farbeyond my feeble powers is the task of conveyingan adequate idea of the teachings contained within itscovers. It has a history, however, a history of peculiarinterest to the student who from its rich store seeks togarner the wisdom which, as the apostle has said, is likemeat fit only for the strong. How it came to be written,and under what circumstances it was written, is thetopic of this book. I shall endeavor to give in as simpleand comprehensive language as possible an outline ofthe plan upon which the work was built and the teach-ing it reveals. The nature of the task is such that I amforced to quote freely from Theosophical literature,especially from Colonel Olcott’s Old Diary Leaves,Countess Wachmeister’s Reminiscences, The SecretDoctrine itself, and other works.

It is first necessary for us to realize that MadameBlavatsky, or as she liked to be called, H. P. B., was, asshe herself often expressed it, only the compiler of thework. Behind her stood the real teachers, the guardiansof the Secret Wisdom of the ages, who taught her all the

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occult lore which she transmitted in her writings. Shehad a threefold ability which eminently qualified herfor the task. First, she was able to assimilate the tran-scendental knowledge which came to her. Second, shewas a worthy messenger of the Masters. Third, she hada marvelous aptitude for rendering abstruse Easternmetaphysical thought into a form intelligible toWestern minds, and for verifying and comparingEastern Wisdom with Western Science. She alsodeserves great credit for her high moral courage in rep-resenting to the world thoughts and theories wholly atvariance with materialistic science. Many of theseteachings, however, have since been verified by sci-ence.

Chapter IIHumankind has always persecuted, tortured, and

killed those who in thought have been in advance oftheir age. Witness Copernicus, whom only a naturaldeath saved from a fate similar to that which half a cen-tury later overtook Bruno. Galileo was harassed all hislife, and finally when old and broken in body and spir-it by the abuse of the clergy, was forced to retract on hisknees all of his teachings which was at variance withthe commonly accepted views of the time. The samefate was shared by countless others. The seed whichthese men had sown, however, was not only indestruc-tible, but grew and grew until one day the world wokeup to find that what once was denounced as heresy hadbecome the commonly expressed opinion. Then camethe epilogue of the drama when a Thorwaldsen immor-talized in marble the same Nikolas Copernicus who,once persecuted, was proudly claimed as her son byRussia, or when amid the cheers of his countrymen wasreared the statue of Giordano Bruno on the same spotwhere fanatical monks had danced around his funeralpyre and burned the genius in the name of God.

At one time in the history of the West, men werescourged for the sake of the Christian religion. WhenChristianity became strong, it attempted to suppressscience, which was then but a fledgling. Science, how-ever, grew stronger and stronger, gradually forcing theChurch into its present apologetic attitude. Then theworld slowly sank into a state of unbelief. Nothingwhich could not be weighed or measured was accepted.Anyone who dared to assert the existence of anythingsuperphysical was at once stamped as an impostor.Science and religion vied with each other, in theirefforts to heap obloquy and opprobrium on such indi-viduals.

With the foregoing in mind, we can better appreciatethe great moral courage of H. P. B., and see why thatcourage constituted one of her qualifications as a mes-

senger of the Masters.In the same materialistic attitude of the world of that

day is also to be found the reason for making use ofphenomena. Many thoughtful persons have sincerelyregretted that this part of the subject should ever havebeen taken up by the Society, but H. P. B. always main-tained that in the early days of her work these proceed-ings were absolutely necessary. This opinion waschanged in the last years when the Master himself toldher that phenomena had been a hindrance rather than ahelp to The Secret Doctrinein Europe and that it wouldhave been better had only the philosophy been given.

In 1884 it was thought among the leaders of theTheosophical Society that the time had arrived for arevision and an amplification of Madame Blavatsky’sfirst book, Isis Unveiled, and that she was to rewrite it,with the late T. Subba Row as co-editor. All through theyear they collected material. Then Colonel Olcott andMr. Cooper-Oakley formulated a plan, and it wasannounced that the work would be published in twentyparts of about seventy-seven pages each. But on the 8thof January, 1885, H. P. B. ‘s Master communicated toher the scheme of The Secret Doctrine, and as a result,the original plans were abandoned.

Soon afterwards the heart trouble from whichMadame Blavatsky was suffering became so seriousthat her physician, Dr. Mary Scharlich, insisted uponher leaving India if she would save her life. Actingupon this advice, H. P. B. left Adyar, the spot she lovedmost on earth, in the spring of 1885. We next find herinstalled in a cheap little inn on the northern slope ofVesuvius. The room is almost bare of furniture, thefloor is of stone. Through the crevices in windows anddoor blows a cold wind which aggravates the rheuma-tism of the poor “old lady” as she sits writing at herrickety old table far from friends, alone in a foreigncountry, the language of whose inhabitants she did notunderstand, sick in body, and chafing under the injus-tice done her by those whom she had befriended. Thus,inauspicious were the circumstances attending the firstwork on The Secret Doctrine.

In the fall of 1885 she went to the quaint old Germantown of Wurzburg. What associations this name callsforth—thoughts of Martin Luther, the stern andunflinching reformer who vowed that he would go toWorms to defend his faith against the Romish priests,though the roofs of the city were covered with devils.

Not more staunch and unflinching was he than thisnew reformer who with dogged persistence, despitesickness and adverse criticism, toiled at her desk from dayto day when she might have had ease and comfort. ❐

(continued)

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THE OLD TESTAMENTopens with the account ofhow man was led astray bythe false light of theLucifer Spirits, giving

birth to all the sorrows and sufferings inthe world. It closes with the promise thatthe “Sun of Righteousness shall rise,with healing in its wings.” Each weekwe declare in our Healing Service that“Disease is really a fire; the invisible firewhich is the Father.” Again we say, dis-ease is a manifestation of ignorance, theonly sin, and healing is a demonstrationof applied knowledge, which is the onlysalvation. Christ is an embodiment of theWisdom Principle, and in proportion astheChrist is formed in us, we attain to health.

At no time does man so readily turn to Divinepower for help as when health fails and death threat-ens; therefore, the office of spiritual advisor hasalways been closely associated with healing. Evenamong savages, the priest is also the medicine man,and in our own civilization the priest calls on thesick as a representative of our Father in Heaven, andif he is a true and holy priest, his love and sympathyengender great faith, sufficient to heal. The grati-tude of the patient toward the physician is added tothe veneration felt for the spiritual advisor; and inconsequence, the power of the priest to help anduplift his erstwhile patient is enormously increasedand the tie between them is made much closer.

To be healed we must have faith; we must behumble to the point of obedience. In every casewhere Christ healed, the suffering one had to coop-erate actively with the Great Healer before his curecould be accomplished. He said, “Stretch forth thyhand,” and when the man did so the hand was

healed. To another He said, “Take up thybed and walk,” and when he did so themalady disappeared. Many are the casesrecorded, including, the blind man andthe leper. The requirements were simple,but, such as they were, they had to becomplied with so that the spirit of obedi-ence could aid the Healer’s work. This isa law of Nature that is absolutely sure. Itis disobedience, or breaking the law ofNature, that brings disease.

Obedience, no matter whether thatinvolves washing in the river Jordan orstretching forth a hand, shows a changeof mind, and the sufferer is therefore ina position to receive the healing balm.This may come through the Christ, or

through a healer of one kind or another,but primarily, in all cases, the healing force comesfrom our Heavenly Father, who is the GreatPhysician.

There are three factors, in healing: first, the powerfrom our Father in Heaven; next, the healer; andthird, the obedient mind of the patient upon whichthe power of the Father can act through the healer insuch a way as to dispel all ill. The fact that thewhole universe is pervaded with the power of theFather, always available to cure our ills, of whatev-er nature, is reason enough for our humble thanksdaily. The healer is the focus, the vehicle throughwhich the power is infused into the patient’s body. Ifhe is a proper instrument, consecrated and harmo-nious, there is no limit to the wonderful works of theFather which may be performed through him whenopportunity presents a patient of properly receptiveand obedient mind. A truly spiritual healer willendeavor to instill the highest ideals in his patients,so they may eventually learn to conform to God’s

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Obedience, Faith and the Universal Healing Force

HEALINGA

rtwork by S

r Mary S

tephen CR

SS

laws and thus attain permanent health in futurelives, as well as now.

Members of the Rosicrucian Order aim to heal thesick and have superior means of accomplishing thisbenevolent purpose. Earlier religious orders havesought to advance spiritually by abusing the body,but the Rosicrucians exhibit the tenderest care forthis instrument. It is the nature of the sickness andthe temperament of the patient which determine theform of healing to be used. If the patient is strong infaith, a spiritually-minded mental healer should bethe one to call, or a broad-minded physician inwhom the patient has confidence, for as a tuningfork of a certain pitch will respond when anothertuning fork of the same pitch is struck, so will theperson filled with faith or confidence respond.

Whatever good there is in any system of healing,the effects upon a patient will be beneficial or thereverse, in exact proportion to his faith in its healingpower. Generally speaking, the study of the higherphilosophy will always tend to better one’s health,because “knowledge is power” and the more weknow, the better we are able to cope with all condi-tions—provided, of course, we bring our knowledgeinto practice and live the life, that we be not merelyhearers of the word but doers also. No teaching is ofbenefit to us unless it is carried into our lives andlived from day to day.

The person who lives a clean and upright life,endeavoring to obey the laws of God, strivingearnestly for truth and righteousness, will createthought forms about himself of a correspondingnature. His mind will run in grooves that harmonizewith truth, and when the time comes in the SecondHeaven to create the archetype for his coming life,he will readily, intuitively, by force of habit from thepast life, align himself with the forces of right andtruth. These lines built into his body will create har-mony in the coming vehicles, and health will there-fore be his normal portion in the coming life.

The spiritual force generated all through our lives,after we have passed the stage of childhood, may beused for three purposes: generation, degeneration,or regeneration. It depends upon ourselves which ofthe three methods we choose, but the choice wemake will have an important bearing upon ourwhole life. It overshadows each moment of ourexistence and determines our attitude in each and

every phase of life among our fellow men: how wemeet the various trials of life; whether we are ableto grasp our opportunities or let them slip by; whetherwe are healthy or sick; whether or not we live ourlife according to a satisfactory purpose. All of thisdepends upon the way we use the spiritual force.

There are higher laws pertaining to the spiritualrealms which may be made to supersede those gov-erning the lower realms. The Christ, being the Lordof the Sun, embodied within Himself the synthesisof the stellar vibrations, as the octave embodies allof the tones of the scale, and He could thereforeemit from Himself the true, corrective planetaryinfluence required in each case. He sensed theinharmony and knew at once wherewith to offset itby virtue of His exalted development. He had noneed for any further preparation, but obtainedresults immediately by substituting harmony for theplanetary discord which caused the disease withwhich He was dealing.

None among our present humanity can exercisethe power of the Christ, but the need of that powerin active manifestation exists today as much as itdid two thousand years ago. Spirit pervades every-thing in and upon our planet in various measures,and it is an emanation from the Christ Principle, theUniversal Spirit composing the World of Life Spirit,which restores the synthetic harmony of the body. Wemay use it to heal the sick according to our ability,which in turn depends upon our development. ❐

—Max Heindel

Visible Helpers are just as necessary as InvisibleHelpers, and our friends and patients may share in ahigh privilege, as well as add much to the power ofliberated healing force, by joining us in prayer forthe sick. Our Healing Service is held every eveningin the Healing Temple at 6:30 (7:30 when Daylighttime is in effect) and in the Pro-Ecclesia at 4:15 P.M.when the Moon is in a cardinal sign on the followingdates:

September.............................5—12—19—26October............................2—9—17—24—30

Relax, close your eyes, and make a mental pictureof the white rose in the center of the RosicrucianEmblem on the west wall of our Pro-Ecclesia, andconcentrate on Divine Love and Healing.

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IT HAPPENED at the time when Our Lordcreated the world, when He not only madeheaven and earth, but all the animals and theplants as well, at the same time giving themtheir names.

There have been many histories concerning thattime, and if we knew them all, we should havelight upon everything in this world which we can-not now comprehend.

At that time it happened one day when Our Lordsat in His Paradise and painted the little birds, thatthe colors in Our Lord’s paint pot gave out, and thegoldfinch would have been without colour if OurLord had not wiped all His paint brushes on itsfeathers.

It was then that the donkey got his long ears,because he could not remember the name that hadbeen given him.

No sooner had he taken a few steps over themeadows of Paradise than he forgot, and threetimes he came back to ask his name. At last OurLord grew somewhat impatient, took him by histwo ears, and said:

“Thy name is ass, ass, ass!’’ And while He thusspake, Our Lord pulled both of his ears that the assmight hear better, and remember what was said tohim. It was on the same day, also, that the bee waspunished.

Now, when the bee was created, she beganimmediately to gather honey, and the animals andhuman beings who caught the delicious odor of thehoney came and wanted to taste of it. But the beewanted to keep it all for herself and with her poi-sonous sting pursued every living creature that

approached her hive. Our Lord saw this and atonce called the bee to Him and punished her.

“I gave thee the gift of gathering honey, which isthe sweetest thing in all creation,” said Our Lord,“but I did not give thee the right to be cruel to thyneighbor. Remember well that every time thoustingest any creature who desires to taste of thyhoney, thou shalt surely diet”

Ah, yes! It was at that time, too, that the cricketbecame blind and the ant missed her wings, somany strange things happened on that day!

Our Lord sat there, big and gentle, and plannedand created all day long, and towards evening Heconceived the idea of making a little grey bird.“Remember your name is Robin Redbreast,” saidOur Lord to the bird, as soon as it was finished.Then He held it in the palm of His open hand andlet it fly.

After the bird had been testing his wings a while,and had seen something of the beautiful world inwhich he was destined to live, he became curiousto see what he himself was like. He noticed that hewas entirely grey, and that his breast was just asgrey as all the rest of him. Robin Redbreast twist-ed and turned in all directions as he viewed himselfin the mirror of a clear lake, but he couldn’t find asingle red feather. Then he flew back to Our Lord.

Our Lord sat there on His throne, big and gentle.Out of His hands came butterflies that flutteredabout His head; doves cooed on His shoulders; andout of the earth beneath Him grew the rose, the lily,and the daisy.

The little bird’s heart beat heavily with fright,but with easy curves he flew nearer and nearer Our

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Robin Redbreast

FOR CHILDREN©

Michael R

. Duncan

Lord, till at last he rested on Our Lord’s hand.Then Our Lord asked what the little bird wanted.“I only wish to ask you about one thing,” said thelittle bird.

“What is it you wish to know?” said Our Lord.“Why should I be called Redbreast, when I am

all grey, from the bill to the very end of my tail?Why am I called Redbreast when I do not possessone single red feather?” The bird looked beseech-ingly on Our Lord with his tiny black eyes, thenturned his head. About him he saw pheasants allred under a sprinkle of gold dust, parrots with mar-vellous red neckbands, cocks with red combs, tosay nothing about the butterflies, the goldfinches,and the roses! And naturally he thought how littlehe needed—just one tiny drop of colour on hisbreast and he, too, would be a beautiful bird, andhis name would fit him.

“Why should I be called Redbreast when I am soentirely grey?” asked the bird once again, andwaited for Our Lord to say: “Ah, my friend, I seethat I have forgotten to paint your breast feathersred, but wait a moment and it shall be done.”

But our Lord only smiled a little and said: “Ihave called you Robin Redbreast, and RobinRedbreast shall your name be, but you must lookto it that you yourself earn your red breast feath-ers.” Then Our Lord lifted His hand and let the birdfly once more—out into the world.

The bird flew down into Paradise, meditatingdeeply.

What could a little bird like him do to earn forhimself red feathers? The only thing he could thinkof was to make his nest in a brier bush. He built itin among the thorns in the close thicket. It lookedas if he waited for a rose leaf to cling to his throatand give him colour.

Countless years had come and gone since thatday, which was the happiest in all the world.Human beings had already advanced so far thatthey had learned to cultivate the earth and sail theseas. They had procured clothes and ornaments forthemselves, and had long since learned to build bigtemples and great cities—such as Thebes, Rome,and Jerusalem.

Then there dawned a new day, one that will long

be remembered in the world’s history. On themorning of this day Robin Redbreast sat upon a lit-tle naked hillock outside Jerusalem’s walls, andsang to his young ones, who rested in a tiny nest ina brier bush.

Robin Redbreast told the little ones all about thatwonderful day of creation, and how the Lord hadgiven names to everything, just as each Redbreasthad told it ever since the first Redbreast had heardGod’s word, and gone out of God’s hand. “Andmark you,” he ended sorrowfully, “so many yearshave gone, so many roses have bloomed, so manylittle birds have come out of their eggs sinceCreation Day, but Robin Redbreast is still a littlegrey bird. He has not yet succeeded in gaining hisred feathers.”

The little ones opened wide their tiny bills, andasked if their forebears had never tried to do anygreat thing to earn the priceless red colour.

“We have all done what we could,” said the lit-tle bird, “but we have all gone amiss. Even the firstRobin Redbreast met one day another bird exactlylike himself, and he began immediately to love itwith such a mighty love that he could feel hisbreast burn. ‘Ah!’he thought then, ‘now I under-stand! It was Our Lord’s meaning that I shouldlove with so much ardor that my breast shouldgrow red in colour from the very warmth of thelove that lives in my heart.’But he missed it, as allthose who came after him have missed it and aseven you shall miss it.”

The little ones twittered, utterly bewildered, andalready began to mourn because the red colourwould not come to beautify their little, downy greybreasts.

“We had also hoped that song would help us,”said the grown-up bird, speaking in long, drawn-out tones. “The first Robin Redbreast sang until hisheart swelled within him, he was so carried away,and he dared to hope anew. ‘Ah!’ he thought, ‘it isthe glow of the song which lives in my soul thatwill colour my breast feathers red.’But he missedit, as all the others have missed it, and as even youshall miss it.” Again was heard a sad “peep” fromthe young ones’half-naked throats.

“We have also counted on our courage and ourvalour,” said the bird. “The first Robin Redbreast

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fought bravely with other birds, until his breastflamed with the pride of conquest. ‘Ah!’hethought, ‘my breast feathers shall become red fromthe love of battle which burns in my heart.’He,too, missed it, as all those who came after himhave missed it, and as even you shall miss it.”

The little young ones peeped courageously thatthey still wished to try and win the much sought-for prize, but the bird answered them sorrowfullythat it would be impossible. What could they dowhen so many splendid ancestors had missed themark? What could they do more than love, sing,and fight? What could—the little bird stoppedshort, for out of one of the gates of Jerusalem camea crowd of people marching, and the whole pro-cession rushed toward the hillock, where the birdhad its nest. There were riders on proud horses,soldiers with long spears, executioners with nailsand hammers. There were judges and priests in theprocession, weeping women, and above all a mobof mad, loose people running about—a filthy,howling mob of loiterers.

The little grey bird sat trembling on the edge ofhis nest. He feared each instant that the little brierbush would be trampled down and his young oneskilled!

“Be careful!” he cried to the little defenselessyoung ones, “creep together and remain quiet.Here comes a horse that will ride right over us!Here comes a warrior with iron-shod sandals! Herecomes the whole wild, storming mob!” Immedi-ately the bird ceased his cry of warning and grewcalm and quiet. He almost forgot the danger hov-ering over him. Finally he hopped down into thenest and spread his wings over the young ones.

“Oh! this is too terrible,” said he. “I don’t wishyou to witness this awful sight. There are threemiscreants who are going to be crucified!” And hespread his wings so that the little ones could seenothing.

They caught only the sound of hammers, thecries of anguish, and the wild shrieks of the mob.

Robin Redbreast followed the whole spectaclewith his eyes, which grew big with terror. He couldnot take his glance from the three unfortunates.

“How terrible human beings are!” said the birdafter a little while. “It isn’t enough that they nail

these poor creatures to a cross, but they must needsplace a crown of piercing thorns upon the head ofone of them. I see that the thorns have wounded hisbrow so that the blood flows,” he continued. “Andthis man is so beautiful, and looks about him withsuch mild glances that every one ought to lovehim. I feel as if an arrow were shooting throughmy heart, when I see him suffer!”

The little bird began to feel a stronger andstronger pity for the thorn-crowned sufferer. “Oh!if I were only my brother the eagle,” thought he, “Iwould draw the nails from his hands, and with mystrong claws I would drive away all those who tor-ture him!” He saw how the blood trickled downfrom the brow of the Crucified One, and he couldno longer remain quiet in his nest. “Even if I amlittle and weak, I can still do something for thispoor tortured one,” thought the bird.

Then he left his nest and flew out into the air,striking wide circles around the Crucified One. Heflew around him several times without daring toapproach, for he was a shy little bird, who hadnever dared to go near a human being. But little bylittle he gained courage, flew close to him, anddrew with his little bill a thorn that had becomeembedded in the brow of the Crucified One. Andas he did this there fell on his breast a drop ofblood from the face of the Crucified One; it spreadquickly and floated out and colored all the littlefine breast feathers.

Then the Crucified One opened his lips andwhispered to the bird: “Because of thy compas-sion, thou hast won all that thy kind have beenstriving after, ever since the world was created.”

As soon as the bird had returned to his nest hisyoung ones cried to him: “Thy breast is red! Thybreast feathers are redder than the roses!”

“It is only a drop of blood from the poor man’sforehead,” said the bird; “it will vanish as soon asI bathe in a pool or a clear well.”

But no matter how much the little bird bathed,the red colour did not vanish—and when his littleyoung ones grew up, the blood-red colour shonealso on their breast feathers, just as it shines onevery Robin Redbreast’s throat and breast untilthis very day. ❐

—Selma Lagerlöf

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Date post:	22-Mar-2020
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BIRTH INTO THE NEXTLIFE THE GOSPELOF OCCULTISM THE … · 2019-02-20 · “a sane mind, a soft...

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