“A Sane Mind, A Soft Heart, A Sound Body” January/February 2003—$5.00

CHRIST AND THE RATIONAL MINDTHE TEACHER

THE SOURCE OF ST. JOHN’S REVELATIONTHE VALUE OF ASTROLOGY

A CHRISTIAN ESOTERIC MAGAZINE

Holy art Thou, O God, the universals’ Father.

Holy art Thou, O God, whose Will perfects itself by means of its own Powers.

Holy art Thou, O God, who willeth to be known and art known by Thine own.

Holy art Thou, who didst by Word (Logos) make to consist the things that are.

Holy art Thou, of whom All-nature hath been made an image.

Holy art Thou, whose Form Nature hath never made.

Holy art Thou, more powerful than all power.

Holy art Thou, transcending all pre-eminence.

Holy Thou art, Thou better than all praise.

Accept my reason’s offerings pure, from soul and heart for ever stretched up to Thee,

O Thou unutterable, unspeakable,Whose Name naught but the Silence can express.

Give ear to me who pray that I may never of Gnosis fail,[Gnosis] which is our common being’s nature;

and fill me with Thy Power, and with this Grace [of Thine],that I may give the Light to those in ignorance

of the Race, my Brethren, and Thy Sons.

For this cause I believe, and I bear witness;I go to Life and Light.

Blessed art Thou, O Father.Thy Man would holy be as Thou art holy,

even as Thou gave him Thy full authority [to be].

From Poemandres, the first of fifteen tractates comprising The Corpus Hermeticum, translated by G.R.S. Mead. The"Poemandres" is the account of a revelation given to Hermes Trismegistus by the being Poemandres or "Man-Shepherd," anexpression of the universal Mind. These fifteen tractates, along with the Perfect Sermon or Asclepius, are the foundation docu-ments of the Hermetic tradition. They were written by unknown authors in Egypt sometime before 300 A.D.Back cove: Ascension of Christ, fresco, 1481, Melozzo da Forli, Palozzo del Quirinale, Rome, Planet Art. Front cover: Winter scene, Corel Professional Photos

This Issue...Feature

Gradatim...J.G. Holland.........................................................................................2

EditorialLook Homeward, Angel........................................................................................3

Mystic LightMythology and Esoteric Truths—Part 1...Elsa Glover.........................................4Transmissive Prayer...C.E.S. Gunasekera.............................................................9The Teacher...Kwassi Laurent Djondo................................................................11Meanderings of the Spiritual Path...Elizabeth Ray.............................................15Christ and the Rational Mind...C.W....................................................................20Studies in the Apocalypse—Part 1...Valentin Tomberg......................................23Dangers of Negative Development...H.M...........................................................29Vertical Telepathy...Robert Assagioli, M.D.........................................................30

From Max Heindel’ s WritingsDo the Dead Lose Interest in Us?.......................................................................33

Readers’ QuestionsBeing as Gods......................................................................................................35Planet X...............................................................................................................36

Western W isdom Bible StudyDiscipleship—The Fellowship Degree—Part 1...Corinne Heline......................37

AstrologyThe Value of Astrology...H.L. Stevens................................................................40The Character of Capricorn and Saturn...John Jocelyn......................................45Aquarius, The Water Bearer...Bessie Leo............................................................49The Commandments of Astrology...Kevin James Clark......................................51

News PerspectivesPhotons of Love..................................................................................................53

Book ReviewsThe Afterlife Experiments...C.W.........................................................................54

Nutrition and HealthAn Invisible Helper’s Story...Max Heindel.........................................................57

HealingPermanent Healing..............................................................................................59

For ChildrenThe Pilgrim Who Dragged His Hind Leg...Manfred Kyber...............................60

MiscellaneousPoemandres (excerpt fromThe Corpus Hermeticum)................inside front coverThe Unnecessary Fear of Death...Max Heindel..................................................34A Soliloquy (poem)...Isabel Ambler Gilman.......................................................44On the Genesis and Evolution of the Solar System...Max Heindel....................48January/February 2003 Ephemerides.............................................................61-62

“A Sane Mind,A Soft Heart,

A Sound Body”© 2003 The Rosicrucian Fellowship

A Christian Esoteric Magazine

Established byMax Heindel

June 1913

Volume 95, No. 1

January/February—2003USPS 471080—ISSN 0744-432X

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Heaven is not reached at a single bound;

But we build the ladder by which we rise,

From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,

And we mount to its summit round by round.

I count this thing to be grandly true,

That a noble deed is a step toward God;

Lifting the soul from the common sod,

To a purer air and a broader view.

We rise by things that are beneath our feet;

By what we have mastered by good or gain,

By the pride deposed and the passion slain,

And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.

We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust,

When the moaning calls us to life and light,

But our hearts grow weary, and, ere the night,

Our lives are trailing the sordid dust.

We hope, we resolve, we aspire, we pray,

And we think that we mount the air on wings

Beyond the call of sensual things,

While our feet still cling to the heavy clay.

Wings for the angels, but feet for men.

We may borrow the wings to find the way—

We may hope, and resolve, and aspire, and pray;

But our feet must rise or we fall again.

Only in dreams is a ladder thrown

From the weary earth to the sapphire walls;

But the dream departs and the vision falls,

And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone.

—J. G. Holland

2 RAYS 03

FEATURE

GRADATIM

Jacob’s Dream

, Die

Bibel in B

ildern, Julius Schnorr von C

arolsfeld

BEHOLD, what manner of love theFather hath bestowed on us, that weshould be called the sons of God.” Andthis is why all earthly homes are tem-porary, which we, in time, must leave.

This too is why we are called pilgrims, journeyingthrough the physical world to another destination.This is why those who have not this “ever dying andbringing to birth” are “sorry guests on this dismalearth,” dismal because only metamorphosis of formserves our spiritual needs as guests and sojournershere below. Each dying in life makes possible ahigher and finer expression of life in new forms.Each home we leave makes possible the creation ofan environment and condition more like the spiritu-al prototype of all mundane homes.

In these “postmodern” days, many of our brothersand sisters are prodigals who have not only left theirheavenly Father, but have even forgotten that Heexists and is ever calling us Homeward. Never hasphilosophical materialism made such “progress” inproving that physical Earth can be made into Eden,there being, it is maintained, no other place we maycall home. Certainly earth has its legitimate claimson us and gives us beauty, pleasures, and delight.But the allure and distraction of things is strong, act-ing as a soporific that makes us forget our mission,as did the drink, called soma, given to homeward-bound Ulysses by Circe to induce amnesia. Thehawkers of things ever build on the false claim thatpossessions and prestige feed the soul. Where shallour treasure be? For what do our hearts long? Isimmeasurable love calling us, or does the siren songof sensation and acquisition orchestrate our actions?

We are on Earth to know so that we may developthe mind of Christ. All of us have the same goal. Butsome of us have forgotten what that goal is. We allhave divine discontent, but some, not knowing their

discontent has a divine origin, suppose the securityof an earthly home will quell their yearning.

Our Father sent us out from our heavenly abodethat we could be more like Him. T. S. Eliot’s expla-nation of this paradox is helpful: “We shall not ceasefrom exploration. And the end of our exploring willbe to return where we began and to know the placefor the first time.” The “place” is Heaven—God’sBeing. When we self-consciously “know” thisplace, this Being, we shall be co-creators with God.

Beloved, now are we the Sons of God. And whileit does not appear what we shall be, Christ leads usin the homeward direction and identifies in HisPerson what we aspire to. When He will appear tous, we shall know Him and see Him as He is, and belike Him. This is the Ascension, a returning to thebosom of the Father, coming Home, which Paulcalls a Temple. From this temple of the etheric orsoul body we will no more go out. This JupiterPeriod condition has already been attained by some,and marks the immediate goal of the student of theRosicrucian Teachings.

How is this goal most surely and expediently real-ized? Not by denying the world but by rejecting itspower to waylay and mesmerize and divert us fromour high calling, God’s calling. His love for us grantsthat we each know and exercise the same love forHim. We return to the Father bearing our individu-alized essence of His creation, and, wonder of won-ders, through the force of genius, we each ultimate-ly give more to God than He first gave us, to Hisgreater glory. We do not simply regain our lost estate,but, through epigenesis, create what had no prioractuality or potentiality. The home-sickness of spir-itual nostalgia is transformed into a divine healing.It is not the past that calls us, but an indescribablybright future, that time beyond time when we shallsay, and experience, “I and the Father are one.” ❐

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Look Homeward, Angel

EDITORIAL

SLEEP, FORGETFULNESS, AND BLINDNESS

IN MYTHOLOGY

WHEN WE ARE IN the All-con-scious state, we are in contactwith God and know everythingthere is to know about CosmicLaws, the purpose of life on

earth, our own past lifetimes on earth, etc.However, when we enter the self-conscious state,we tend to forget much of our previous knowledge.Also, in the self-conscious state, we cannot seevery far in the time direction. These limitations arerepresented in various ways in mythology.

In The Twelve Dancing Princesses(GrimmFairy Tales), most princes could not discoverwhere the princesses danced at night because justbefore bedtime they were given wine with a sleep-ing potion in it, so they slept the night through. Thesoldier avoided the wine, and thus discovered thatthe princesses danced in an underground world atnight. This earned him the hand in marriage of oneof the princesses. This myth is showing that moregoes on at night time (when the physical body isasleep) than most people remember.

In The Lady and the Lion(Grimm Fairy Tales),a girl married a lion who turned into a prince.However, the prince got separated from his wifebecause a ray of light fell upon him (which was notsupposed to happen). The wife went on a longsearch for her husband. When she eventuallyfound him, he had forgotten all about her and wasabout to be married to a princess. The wife boughther way into his bed chamber for three nights, butbecause he had been given a sleeping potion, she

could not wake him. However, on the third night thatshe was in the sleeping chamber, he had not takenthe sleeping potion, and thus he heard her storyandremembered his promises to her and returned tolive with her. Note that the lion-turned-prince (self-consciousness) was separated fromhis wife (All-consciousness) by both sleep and forgetfulness,but the reunification still was managed in the end.

In The Raven(Grimm Fairy Tales), a princess isunder a spell, which put her in the form of a raven(the All-consciousness is separated from the rest ofthe world by the raven skin). A prince (self-con-sciousness) wanted to help free her from the spell,and he was warned not to eat or drink anything andto wait for her behind the house. However, hedrank a tiny sip of wine and that was enough to puthim to sleep when the raven came for him. Thishappened three days in a row. This shows that whenthe All-consciousness is active (as in sleep or afterdeath of the physical body), the self-consciousness

4 RAYS 03

Mythology and EsotericTruths

Part 2

MYSTIC LIGHTA

James S

pero adaptation of Arthur R

ackham’s illustration for G

rimm

’s The Lady and the Lion, D

over Pub. C

o.

sleeps. As the story progresses, the prince goesthrough many more trials and does eventuallybreak the spell on the princess and marry her. Soeventually the self-consciousness andAll-con-sciousness are able to function together.

In The Girl Who Met the Witch of the Woods(from Sweden, in Midsummer Magic, compiled byEllin Greene), a girl was waylaid by the Witch ofthe Woods. The witch held the girl under the waterof a stream until she forgot all her previous life andthought that the witch was her caretaker. However,she retained her feelings about what was good andbad, and when the witch tried to get her to kidnapa baby, she resisted. This led to her eventual escapefrom the witch and return home.

In The King’s Son(ldries Shah, Tales of theDervishes), a prince (self-consciousness) went ona journey to a far country in order to obtain a jewel(All-consciousness) guarded by a fearsome mon-ster (the Dweller on the Threshold). When in thefar country, the air and food of the country causedhim to forget that he was a prince and that he wasto obtain the jewel (as many people on earth haveforgotten where they came from and why they arehere). But one day a message came to him throughthe air which re-awoke him to his mission, and hewent on to obtain the jewel and return home.

Sometimes the hero in search of his mystic bridewill temporarily forget his search and maybe evencourt and take on another bride. But usually in theend he finds his true bride. In Sweetheart Roland(Grimm Fairy Tales), Sweetheart Roland (self-con-sciousness) saves a maiden (All-consciousness)from a wicked witch, and Roland and the maidenagree to marry. However, when Sweetheart Rolandgoes home to get permission from his father, hebecomes subject to the wiles of another woman andforgets his true sweetheart. But just before he wedsthe false bride, he hears his true sweetheart sing andthis reawakens him to his promises to his originalsweetheart. He then marries his true sweetheart.This story shows that humans sometimes get side-tracked from the Truth, and for a time follow somefalsehood, but eventually they return to the Truth.

The lack of time vision of the self-consciousnessis often symbolically represented by a characterwandering through a forest, where one cannot see

very far and could run into almost anything (suchas a witch’s cottage or castle) without much warn-ing. To add to the image, the wandering in the for-est is often at night time, which restricts the visioneven farther. The two children in Hansel andGretel(a Grimm Fairy Tale) were lost in a forest andeventually ran into a witch’s gingerbread cottage.Joringa and Joringel (in a Grimm Fairy Tale) ran intoawitch’s castle while wandering in a forest. Snow-White (in a Grimm Fairy Tale) ran into the Dwarf’shouse while she was wandering in the woods.

WISHING IN MYTHOLOGY

In mythology, wishes are taken seriously. Somewishes (wise or foolish) are immediately fulfilled,others may take longer. But the important point isthat because wishes may be fulfilled, we need to becareful what we wish for.

In The Seven Ravens(Grimm Fairy Tales), theseven sons of a king were sent to get water to bap-tize their baby sister, but they dropped the pitcherin the water and so did not return. The king became

RAYS 03 5

Illustration for Grim

m’s

Hansel and G

retel by Arthur R

ackham, D

over Publications, Inc.

impatient and wished that the boys would turn intoravens, which immediately happened.

In The Fairies’Two Gifts(Grimm Fairy Tales), afairy was kindly lodged by a poor couple, and as areward, the fairy granted them three wishes. Thusthe couple was granted that they would have healthand strength throughout their life, would have theirsimple daily wants provided, and would have anew house. When a rich man, who had originallyrefused lodging to the fairy, found out what shehad granted to the poor couple, he rode after thefairy on his horse and apologized for his treatmentof her and asked if he could have three wishes also,which she granted. For some time he could notthink of what he wanted to wish for. On the wayhome his horse was misbehaving and withoutthinking what he was doing he wished the horse’sneck was broken. This happened immediately.Carrying the saddle on his back, he became jealousof his wife sitting comfortably at home and thewish arose in his mind that she were sitting on thesaddle and not able to get off. This also happenedimmediately. Then, of course, he had to use his lastwish to get her off the saddle.

In The Pink(Grimm Fairy Tales), a prince hasthe power of wishing when he is born. Anything hewishes for he gets immediately. The prince repre-sents the self-consciousness. The prince’s power ofwishing represents the ability of all who have self-consciousness to attain what we wish to attain. Inthe story the wishes are fulfilled immediately; inreal life, time is required for wishes to come tofruition. The story condenses time in order to makethe point clearer and more dramatic. In real life, wecan attain anything, if we seek it long enough andhard enough—provided it is not contrary to cosmiclaw. As Christ said, “Seek and you shall find.” InThe Pink, a jealous cook steals the prince from hisparents by the power of wishing. Attainment ofwishes may bring problems which take a while tostraighten out.

OBTAINING HELP IN MYTHOLOGY

In myths, sometimes there is a poor but beauti-ful girl who is abused by a wicked stepmother,stepsisters, or others. She may not have enough toeat, or may have been assigned an impossible task

to do, or may need a dress to wear to a ball.Sometimes there is a prince who has set out on aquest, but does not know where to go or how toovercome the monsters that he will meet. In bothcases, they are in need of help. In myths, helpalways comes at the right time to those who needand deserve it. Sometimes the one given help needonly to cry pitifully and the help comes. In otherstories, the person does some kind deed (like shar-ing bread, giving alms, or giving lodging) to theone who later helps them.

In The Frog Prince (Grimm Fairy Tales), theprincess cried bitterly when she lost her goldenball in the well, and a frog appeared and got theball for her. In Rumpelstiltskin(Grimm Fairy Tales),the miller’s daughter wept when she was given aroom full of straw which she must spin into gold,or else lose her life. Then a little man appeared onthescene and (in return for a reward) spun it for her.

In The White Snake(Grimm Fairy Tale), a manwho had learned to understand the talk of animalsheard them tell of their problems and helped a fish,

6 RAYS 03

Arthur R

ackham illustration for G

rimm

’s Fairy Tale T

he Water of Life

some ants, and some baby birds. Later, when hehad to do some difficult tasks in order to obtain thehand of the princess in marriage, the animalshelped him retrieve a ring from a sea, pick up tensacks of millet seeds strewn in grass in one day,and obtain an apple from the Tree of Life.

In The Twelve Dancing Princesses(GrimmFairy Tales), a soldier on his way to the king’spalace met an old woman who told him what heneeded to do in order to determine where theprincesses danced at night.

Sometimes help comes in different forms. InJorinda and Joringel (Grimm Fairy Tales),Joringel dreamed what he needed to do to saveJorinda from the spell the witch had cast over her,transforming her into a bird. In Wagner’s Ring ofthe Niebelung, Siegfried was led by a bird (whichsymbolizes intuition) to the place where Brunhilde(Truth) was sleeping, encircled by a ring of fire.

MYSTICAL POWERS IN MYTHOLOGY

Myths present some idea of the extended powerswhich it is possible for humans to achieve. Somemythical heroes acquire the means of travelingquickly or instantaneously wherever they wish, orthe means of curing all ills, or the power to bringthe dead to life again, or the means of becominginvisible, or the ability to understand the commu-nication of animals, or obtaining sources of wealthor food which will never get used up, or of acquir-ing all wisdom.

Being able to travel quickly is symbolical of themobility of the spirit when it can function sepa-rately from the body. The ability to cure illness isachieved when one learns to speak the creativeword. The spirit separated from the physical bodyis invisible to those who cannot see at the spirituallevel. The ability to understand the communicationof animals is possible to one who can directly seethe desires and thoughts of the animals. Sources ofwealth or food which never get used up may besymbolical of the advanced being who can tap inon the cosmic sources of energy, which are alwayspresent in unlimited amounts. The spirit which cantravel everywhere instantaneously and even cantravel forward or backward in time can, of course,know anything it wishes simply by going where it

needs to in order to find out.In The King of the Golden Mountain(Grimm

Fairy Tales), a young man went through the trialsnecessary to break the spell which kept a princessencased in a snake’s body, and then married theprincess. So that he could visit his father, the princessgave her husband a wishing ring which would takehim instantaneously wherever he wished to be.

In The Raven (Grimm Fairy Tales), there was aprince who was trying to release a princess frombeing encased in a raven’s body. When his originalefforts failed, the princess was transported to a faraway castle which stood on a mountain of glass. Tohelp him in his travels, the princess gave him somebread and meat and wine which could never beused up. Later on in his journey, he obtained a stickwhich made any door fly open which it touched, acloak which made him invisible when he wore it,and a horse which could go anywhere, even upthe mountain of glass. Using these, he was ableeventually to reach the princess and release herfrom the raven spell and marry her.

In The White Snake(Grimm Fairy Tales), a manate a piece of white snake, which gave him thepower to understand the language of animals.

In The Three Languages(Grimm Fairy Tales), ayouth studying with various masters learned in oneyear to understand what a dog says when it barks,in another year to understand the language ofbirds, and in another year to understand the croak-ing of frogs. The youth’s father was much disap-pointed by what his son was learning, but in theend the youth learned from the animals what heneeded to know to free a town of some enchanteddogs and to become Pope. In his job as Pope,although he could not read a word of Latin, twodoves perched on his shoulders and whispered thewords into his ears.

In Richard Wagner’s Parsifal, a Grail Cup (sym-bolizing Truth), makes the wound in Amfortas’side bleed when he views it (the Truth makes usfeel painful remorse for our sins) and inspires theother Grail Knights to deeds of valor. In the courseof the story, Parsifal obtains a sacred spear whichis able to heal anyone whom it touches.

In The Water of Life(Grimm Fairy Tales), a prince,in order to heal his father, went on a journey to

RAYS 03 7

an enchanted castle where there was a fountaincontaining the Water of Life. The specific proce-dure he needed to follow to get into the castle wasgiven him by a dwarf he met along the way. Alsoin the castle he found bread which would never beused up and a magic sword which would overcomeenemies. We may note that at a higher level ofinterpretation, overcoming enemies does notinvolve killing other people, but rather involvesconquering the rebellious forces within oneself.

THE MYTHOLOGICAL PICTURE OF EVOLUTION

The main outline of the picture of the evolution-ary process, which the forgoing myths symbolize,may be summarized as follows: 1) At the presenttime, the self-consciousness is separated from theAll-consciousness. The self-consciousness tends tofall asleep when the All-consciousness is present.The All-consciousness tends to go to sleep whenthe self-consciousness is present. 2) The goal ofevolution is the unification of the self-conscious-ness and the All-consciousness, which may also becalled the unification of the head and the heart. 3)This goal is achieved through cycles in which thespirit goes back and forth between the self-con-scious and All-conscious states. 4) When humanshave self-consciousness, they tend to forget thewisdom they had when they were in the All-con-scious state. They then live in a spiritual darkness,and often don’t know where they are going or howto get there. 5) Those who are kind and helpful toothers will, themselves, find help when they needit. 6) People can be transformed. Regardless ofhow poorly they currently appear, they may end upas a prince or princess. 7) People can achieve whatthey wish to achieve, provided it is not contrary toCosmic Law, and provided they work at it. 8)Along the path of evolution there are tests and tri-als which must be passed in order to proceed. Themajor trial of conquering the Dweller on theThreshold must be accomplished before theMystic Marriage of the self with the All can occur.9) People can attain extended powers, such as theability to heal others, to travel instantaneously toother places, to be invisible, and to understand thelanguage of animals. ❐

—Elsa Glover

8 RAYS 03

MAX HEINDEL ON FAIRY TALES AND MYTHS

In this material world all the forms are stable

and do not easily change. The Desire World is

widely different in that respect. The fairy tales,

like the metamorphosis of Cinderella's mice,

etc., are actual facts in the Desire World, for the

forms change at the will of the ensouled life with

a lightning-like rapidity, which is very bewilder-

ing to one who enters that world as a neo-

phyte.—Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and

Answers, Vol. 1, p. 247

“It is an erroneous idea when we think that a

myth is a figment of human fancy, having no

foundation in fact. On the contrary, a myth is a

casket containing at times the deepest and most

precious jewels of spiritual truth, pearls of beau-

ty so rare and ethereal that they cannot stand

exposure to the material intellect. In order to

shield them and at the same time allow them to

work upon humanity for its spiritual upliftment,

the Great Teachers who guide evolution, unseen

but potent, give these spiritual truths to nascent

humanity, encased in the picturesque symbol-

ism of myths, so that they may work upon our

feelings until such time as our dawning intellects

shall have become sufficiently evolved and spir-

itualized so that we may both feel and know.

This is on the same principle that we give our

children moral teachings by means of picture

books and fairy tales, reserving the more direct

teaching for later years.”—Mysteries of the

Great Operas, p. 53

“[C]ontrary to the popularly accepted opin-

ion, a myth is not a story made out of whole

cloth, but is veiled truth, revealing in symbol

great spiritual principles. These myths were

given to infant humanity for the same reason

that we give our children ethical teachings in

nursery stories and picture books, which

impress themselves upon the infant mind in a

way intellectual teaching would be incapable of

doing.”—Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions

and Answers, Vol. 1, pp 42-43

MAN IS A TRANSMITTER onall planes, in every place helives, in all ages of history. Onthe physical plane he transmitsfood through his body and

genes to future offspring. On the emotional plane,he engages in relationships with family and friendsthat transmit feelings and emotions. On the intel-lectual plane, he transmits knowledge and skillsthrough processes of education and communica-tion. He looks to the spiritual plane to set the pat-tern for his behavior and attitudes in daily life andseeks in transmissive prayer to learn to know anddo the Will of God.

Petition prayer is the main field of activity oforthodox religious organizations of all faiths tohelp their followers make adjustments to their wayof living, to rectify errors, and resolve problems.Their work can be compared to that of hospitalswhich are open to all. Meditative prayer is the fieldof esoteric schools found in every religion to helptheir followers understand and work with, and notagainst, the forces operating in the world. Theirwork can be compared to that of universities whichare geared principally to those who are likely tobenefit from them. In transmissive prayer, organi-zations and schools come together to address theneeds of the community. Transmissive prayerrequires training in both orientation (petitionphase) and in understanding (meditative phase)before it becomes functional (transmissive phase).

The majority of people are more or less limitedto negative transmission, which is characterized bycompliance to imposed forces, both natural (instinc-tual), such as the drive to self-preservation andreproduction, and man-made laws, regulations,

customs, and formalities. This is supported by a sys-temof rewards and punishments to insure the ruleof obedience to set patterns. This type of transmis-sion is at best repetitive and at worst degenerative.

All progress comes from those capable of posi-tive transmission. This is characterized by volun-tary undertakings in response to inner decisions,wherein the action is its own reward, for there is noattempt to seek social favor or to avoid social stig-mas. Creative artists, musicians, teachers, scien-tists, healers, prophets, holy men, are examples oflives of positive transmission because they notmerely pass on patterns, they add their own contri-butions to them. This type of transmission isalways creative—at best helpfully innovative, atworst, mistaken, which, however, can be turned toadvantage as the conception or action is madeclearer and purer. The fact that man evolves onlythrough positive transmission is impressive evi-dence that God is a creative Being and that we, Hischildren, are here on earth to learn to be creative asour heavenly Father.

Transmissive prayer is undertaken when theimportance of positive function is realized. It thenbecomes apparent that the biggest obstacle to achange from negative to positive is the karmicfreight of our past misdeeds. A proper base fromwhich to operate cannot be formed without, insome measure, correcting inner personal faults andadjusting external social complications arisingfrom mistaken actions. In a desperate effort toclear away accumulated obstacles, some impatienthuman spirits go to the extreme of incorporatinginto the incarnation chosen by them such a crush-ing load of karmic adjustment that they feel pow-erless to act, and end by living out vegetable-like

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Transmissive Prayer

MYSTIC LIGHT

existences. No doubt they learn a great lesson inpatience and teach those around them the spiritualvalue of accepting responsibility for others, but, inthe long run, they retard their development by theinertia of their lives. The other extreme is the spir-it who chooses an incarnation stressing one singlepoint of positive function with which he is preoc-cupied, to the neglect of other aspects. This pro-duces the one-pointed genius who benefits societyby the progress he makes in his chosen field, butdetracts from his gains by creating a host of prob-lems through weaknesses in neglected areas.Again, the spirit learns the lesson that when unbal-anced, it can take longer to develop as a wholethanif a more generalized approach were adopted.

The beginning of the orientation or purifyingphase is often marked by apparent “punishments”when trying to do good. This covers a wide-rang-ing pattern of unhappy and frustrating effects, suchas proffered aid that escalates into crushingresponsibilities, charity that begets hatred, thesickening exploitation of any show of sympathy orkindness, and, on the personal side, accidents, ill-nesses, and misfortunes. These signs of stressshow that either a karmic debt is being paidthrough the channel of service, or mistakes arebeing made due to lack of skill and experience inthis field. This period must be battled through,altruistic action persisted in, and the temptation torevert to selfish ways overcome. When the poten-tially purifying effect of this type of suffering isrealized, attention is focused on the lessons to belearned from these experiences, after which theneed for understanding natural forces arises andthe meditative phase is entered. When even slight-ly free from the thralldom of handicaps, whenequipped with even the most rudimentary knowl-edge, the creative functional phase of healing,interpreting, and manifesting can begin.

The first field of positive function is helping oth-ers in their work of orientation, described as “heal-ing the sick,” because sickness on any plane is adeviation from the path of progress and healing isthe correction of such deviations. Under the law ofconsequence, handicaps arise from deviations. Thelaw aims not to punish but to reform, and the testof successful healing is the applicability of the

injunction “go and sin no more,” which are wordsof power representing the forgiveness of sins andthe re-orientation of character.

The second field of positive function is helpingothers to understand the forces around them,described as “preaching the gospel.” This is calledthe “gospel” or “good news” because these forces,including the most powerful of them all—theChrist force—are there to aid man’s progress and“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall makeyou free” (John 8:32). The ultimate prayer, or“reaching out” of the lower self in each person, isto establish contact with its higher self, and theinjunction “pray for one another” (James 5:16) isto help one another’s lower selves to make thiscontact. “Preach the gospel and heal the sick” isanother way of phrasing the Great Commandment,“Love God, love your neighbor.”

In order to function positively, daily life must bedirected by the higher self and not the lower self.The lower self is focused on the impermanentphysical body and its attention is directed to mate-rial benefits. It is selfish, impatient, karmic-bound,fearful of the future, and dominated by externalforces. It tends to pollute the medium in which itworks and can only function negatively. The high-er self is focused on the immortal spirit and itsattention is directed to spiritual benefits. It is altru-istic, patient, karmic-free, optimistic of the future,and learns how to work with external forces. Italways enriches the medium in which it works andis capable of positive function.

From the point of view of the lower self, work issuffering, as most of its work is clearing obstaclesand resolving difficulties. From the point of viewof the higher self, work is a joy and a privilege, asits work is creative and brings with it the sense ofbeing a co-worker with God and the knowledgethat to work is to pray. It is only work at this levelthat can fulfill the prayer “Thy will be done onearth as it is in heaven” because transmitting God’swill from heaven to earth involves the addition ofman’s creative effort. It is this type of work thatwins the accolade “Well done thou good and faith-ful servant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord”(Matt. 25:21). ❐

—C.E.S. Gunasekera

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GENERALLY SPEAKING,the term “teacher” is appliedto any one who has knowl-edge to impart to another; thisteaching may be either scien-

tific or classical or occult or spiritual. In theWestern Wisdom Teachings, which are eso-teric, there is only one Teacher: Christ.Between Christ and general humanity areintermediaries, holy men and women. The12 Elder Brothers are chosen from amongthe group of holy men. They are theHierophants of the Western WisdomTeachings. Each of them is a complete creative unitwho has forged a second spinal cord by drawingthe lower love-ray of Venus upward and transmut-ing it to altruism, conquering for it the dominionover the sympathetic segment of the first spinal cordand the left cerebral hemisphere, now ruled by thepassionate Hierarchy of Mars, the Lucifer Spirits.

Each of these Compassionate Beings can createon both the spiritual and physical planes. Each isable to use the bi-polar force(masculine and femi-nine) through the double spinal cord, illuminatedand raised in potential energy by the spinal spiritfires of Neptune (will) and Uranus (love andImagination). This creative energy conceives in thetwin hemispheres of the cerebrum, ruled by Marsand Mercury, a vehicle fit for the expression of thespirit, which is then sent out and objectified in theworld by the spoken Creative Word. By means ofthis power he is able to perpetuate his physicalexistence and create a new body before he leavesthe old one.

The Rosicrucian School is under the responsibil-ity of one of the 12 Elder Brothers. In Rosicrucianparlance he is the Teacher; he possesses the exter-nal picture consciousness of the Jupiter Period. TheTeacher truly speaking is Christ.

The Rosicrucian Teacher can be considered asthe second aspect of the Teacher. Even though he isresponsible for the Rosicrucian School, he isnonetheless an intermediary between Christ andthe aspirant in the Western Wisdom School. At acertain time on the path, his destiny brings theaspirant in contact with the Teacher, who guideshim to Christ.

In the French language, the Rosicrucian Teacher,who is one the 12 Elder Brothers, is referred to asthe Instructeurand Christ as Maître, the Teacher.

Three types of consciousness need to be passedthrough before reaching the Christ Consciousness:Saturn Consciousness, Mercury Consciousness andJupiter Consciousness. The Rosicrucian Teacherpossesses this Jupiter Consciousness.

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MYSTIC LIGHT

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

Moses Receives the Tablets of LawSaturnian Consciousness is the first phase of becoming a Teacher. Themind is ordered by law and the passional life is purified by suffering.

The Teacher

Where do we find the Teacher? Where does helive—within or outside the aspirant? The seekercreates the Teacher within himself, and then meetsits external counterpart in the house of service—the school of the Invisible Helpers.

The first aspect of the Teacher is Saturnine, theLaw aspect. Some of the key words for Saturn are:restriction, discipline, crys-tallization, purification suf-fering, sorrow, patience,science. Saturn comes intoour lives to awaken usthrough the purification (bysuffering and sorrow) ofour negative emotions andpassions, which leads toLaw Awareness and finallyto Law Consciousness.

The Law controls, guides,directs, and protects us.

Saturn, Law Conscious-ness, leads to the searchfor knowledge, ruled byMercury, and to the appli-cation of knowledge, whichis service. Mercury comesinto our lives to protect anddeliver us from the whip-ping of Saturn. The firstrole of Mercury is theacquisition of knowledgeand then its application.Knowledge is the antidote for ignorance, the onlysin which really exists.

The Earth Period is divided into two parts: Onehalf is under the sway of Mars, the other half isunder Mercury. The Mars half is characterized bypassion, which manifests in violence, wars,courage and egotism. The Mars half of Earth evo-lution has been completed. We have now enteredthe Mercury phase, characterized by mental activi-ty (of the concrete or lower mind), by the use ofreason, the acquisition of knowledge, communica-tion, adaptability, skills, education, service, etc.

Mercury Consciousness corresponds to the sec-ond aspect of the Teacher. The aspirant orientedtoward Jupiter- and Christ-Consciousness will byall means pass through the Mercury

Consciousness, which is more often than notneglected. Unless the aspirant is aware of this need,this phase of soul development, he can neverprogress on the spiritual path. No true initiation cantake place without Mercury.

Mercury rules two departments of life: 1)Gemini-Mercury seeks pure knowledge, knowl-

edge for knowl edge’s sake;2) Virgo-Mercury aims toapply knowledge in ser-vice.

There are two types ofGeminian-Mercury knowl-edge: (1) Classical knowl-edge, which we acquire ininstitutions, from kinder-garten through the primary,elementary, secondary, col-lege, and university level;(2) Occult, mystical, orspiritual knowledge, whichthe aspirant acquires inMystery Schools, Churches,Spiritual Orders, Congrega-tions, Bible Schools, andother institutions.

There are also two typesof Virgoan-Mercury knowl-edge: (1) Practical orApplied Knowledge. Atthis stage, primarily themind is used, with very lit-

tle feeling. Scientific knowledge is used to advancematerial medicine, to invent technologies thatexploit the earth resources on a wider scale,increase the production and consumption of things,and invent more effective (lethal) engines of warand destruction. (2) The mind + feeling stage: Atthis stage, the head begins to works hand in handwith the heart. Here service is said to be loving andself-forgetting. It is at this stage that appliedknowledge becomes salvation.

How do we create Mercury Consciousness? TwoProfessors, Stephen Krashen (University ofSouthern California) and Tracy Terrell (Universityof California at Irvine), in their work on SecondLanguage Acquisition, have developed fivehypotheses, one of which is called the “Monitor

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VULCAN

PERIOD

PERIOD

MARS

HALF

EARTH

MERCURY

HALF

JUPITER

PERIOD

SUN

PERIOD

MOON

PERIOD

GOD

SATURN

PERIOD

VENUS

PERIOD0

L

C

Y K

B ?

In the Mercury half of Earth evolution the use of mindis increasingly emphasized. The Rosicrucian school teach-esthe directing of informed reason in loving service.

Periods assigned planet colors as given in T

he Message of the S

tars, p. 64

Hypothesis.” Likewise, in his workon The Silent Way, Caleb Gattegnoformulates a theory about “InnerCriteria.” Both theories state that for alearner to succeed, he must be able toestablish within himself a Monitor oran Inner Criterion, whose function isto guide, alert, and correct the learnerin his acquisition of information. Inview of the foregoing, we can answerthe question: “How does the aspirantdevelop the Mercury Consciousness,the second aspect of the Teacher?”First, by acquiring knowledge and,second, by applying that knowledgefor the welfare of others. It is byimplementing academic, occult, orspiritual knowledge in loving, self-forgetting service that this sameknowledge is internalized in the aspi-rant and becomes his TEACHER. Ithelps him, it comes to his assistancewhenever he is in need.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship is aSchool, a Christian school, where the aspirantlearns esoteric Christian truths. It is the onlyChristian school where the aspirant is openlytaught how to blend knowledge with feeling to gen-erate pure and true Love.

The Christ Within can never be born unless theaspirant makes use of both the mind and the heart.The Talmud says that "The Law may be likened totwo roads, one of fire, the other of snow. To followthe one is to perish by fire; to follow the other is todie of cold. The middle path alone is safe."

Ignorance is the greatest sin, applied knowledgeis salvation. The greater your knowledge, thegreater is your chance of successfully combatingand avoiding sin. The person who seeks knowledgeand applies it is a light bearer.

The Rosicrucian School has composed a syllabusthat offers instruction in three different areas:Philosophy, Bible, and Spiritual Astrology, provid-ing students with occult and mystical knowledge,based on the Western Wisdom Teachings, to safe-guard and to protect them. If the aspirant wishes tobe more efficient in the work of the invisiblehelper, he may seek for further knowledge, partic-

ularly in the field of human anatomy. What are the benefits accruing from Mercury

Consciousness? One eliminates the mistakes anderrors that create doubt and fear. The aspirant’sfaith increases, as does his thought power and hisability to effectively serve others. He develops self-reliance; his self-confidence waxes; his investiga-tive power grows stronger; he increasingly is ableto rely on himself for answers to questions that baf-fle him. His consciousness begins to expand anddeepen and he develops a better understanding ofthe visible and invisible objective worlds.

Christ raised His Disciples to MercuryConsciousness before leaving them. He taughtthem for three years. Prior to His ministry, John theBaptist taught the Mosaic (Saturnian) law and theProphets. Christ came to deepen and completewhat has been taught before Him. He said that Hehad not come to abolish but to fulfill. His teachingis based on Love. He has come to teach mankindhow to blend knowledge with love. He gave exam-ples of what He expected from His students/disci-ples. Upon leaving the world, He promised to sendthe Holy Spirit, Who would remind them of all that

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

Christ Teaching NicodemusWhile Christ Jesus may have communicated with Nicodemus in mental pic-tures, it is clear that this “master of Israel” had yet to more fully develop hisMercury Consciousness before he could comprehend “heavenly things.”

He, Moses, and the prophets had taught beforeHim. The Holy Ghost expands, multiplies, andenspirits, or brings to life, knowledge previouslyacquired, raising the aspirant’s Mercury conscious-ness to the Jupiter Consciousness.

The Jupiter Period follows this present EarthPeriod. Key words for Jupiter include: the HigherMind, altruism, expansion, wisdom, preservation,generosity, churches, temples, discipleship, highpriests, higher religion, higher philosophy, judges,philanthropy.

The key to this consciousness isas follows:No aspirant will acquire Jupiter Consciousness ifhe does not first acquire Saturn and MercuryConsciousness. Saturn contracts and solidifies.Jupiter, the son of Saturn according to Greekmythology, expands and levitates. The father andthe son are diametrically opposite. In between themis Mercury, the ruler of knowledge. It is thereforeMercury that frees man from the jaws of Saturn,enabling him, through the acquisition and theapplication of knowledge, to graduate to Jupiter.

How does the aspirant change Mercury Conscious-ness to Jupiter Consciousness? By infusing hisknowledge with love. Again, it is through lovingand self-forgetting service that the aspiring soulapproaches and enters Jupiter Consciousness, pre-pared for by joining the cognitive (mercury) andthe affective (venus) qualities.

The Rosicrucian Teacher, as Max Heindel pointsout, possesses Jupiter Consciousness, which isSelf-Conscious Picture-Consciousness: He is capa-ble of throwing upon the screen of the mind of hispupil pictures of whatever he says to him, roughlyanalogous to those seen on a movie screen, butwith the difference that we know more about thecharacters and ideas that are thus projected into ourconsciousness than we know of the people we talkwith and the ideas they articulate in the physicalworld.

The Bible offers an example of JupiterConsciousness in The Acts of the Apostles in thedescription of Pentecost: “And there were dwellingat Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nationunder heaven. Now when this noised abroad, themultitude came together, and were confounded,because that every man heard them speak in hisown language. And they were amazed and mar-

veled, saying one to another, behold, are not allthese which speak Galileans? And how hear weevery man in our own tongue, wherein we wereborn?”(2:5-8) The minds of the apostles and otherdevout men were raised, at least temporarily, toJupiter Consciousness by the Holy Ghost.

There is a link between Jupiter Consciousnessand Superconscious memory: Both belong to theworld of the Human Spirit which is the world of theHoly Ghost (Spirit). From Jupiter Consciousnesstheaspirant is guided progressively by the Teachertowards Christ Consciousness, which is based onaltruism and compassion. This stage, according tothe Western Wisdom Teachings, corresponds to thebirth of the Christ within, that is, the marriagebetween the higher Self and the lower self. The 12Apostles and the 12 Elder Brothers have attainedthis height. Saint Paul says: “Until Christ beformed in you.” The German mystic poet AngelusSilesius puts it this way:

“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehembe born

And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vainUnless within thyself it be set up again.

The aspirant in the Rosicrucian School can notreach the stage of Christ Consciousness if he doesnot first develop the three types of consciousnessruled by Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter. ❐

—Kwassi Laurent Djondo

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“During the Jupiter Period....we shall beable, when speaking, to project them [internalpictures] upon the consciousness of those weare addressing. Now, therefore, when any oneprofesses to be a Teacher, he must be able tosubstantiate his claim in that manner....the trueTeachers, the Elder Brothers, who are nowpreparing the conditions of evolution whichare to obtain during the Jupiter Period, all havethe consciousness pertaining to that period.Thus, it will be seen that they naturally andwithout effort use this external picture speech,and thereby at once given evidence of theiridentity.” —Letters To Students

AS THE TITLE of this story,"Meanderings of the SpiritualPath," unfolded, a curiosityabout the word meanderingled me to the dictionary to find

out what exactly this word means? Where didit come from? What stories are behind it?Looking up a word in the dictionary alwayspoints me on a trail of learning and exploring, andthis is what I discovered about the word meander-ing. It derives from the name of a river in ancientgeography called,what else? the Meander River, inPhrygia. Meander is based on the Greek wordmaiandros and the river was known for its cir-cuitous windings.

Phrygia! Asia Minor. Now, I turn the pages tolook up the word Phrygia. In my mind, I remem-ber seeing some beautiful art murals, done in aclassical style in the impressive state capitol build-ing of Wisconsin. It is considered to be one themost beautiful, if not the most beautiful, of all thestate capitols and is located on a hill in the middleof an isthmus between two lakes—the lake of themorning (to the southeast) and the lake of theevening (to the northwest). But back to rivers—theMeander River of Phrygia, and to my memory ofan art mural in the state capitol—the one in themassive dome, 200 feet above the marble floor andhigh above the numerous galleries and theCorinthian colonnade.

Inside this dome, the artist portrays the state ofWisconsin as a female form surrounded by otherfeminine forms and objects symbolizing the

resources of the state—twelve in all, twelve femi-nine forms holding twelve objects, and the centralfigure among them, Wisconsin, with amber hairand wearing what appears to be a soft, brimless,cone-shaped, snug-fitting hat with tails trailing oneither side of the head. This soft cap is a warm redcolor. I remember that the tour guide told us thatLady Wisconsin was wearing a "Phrygian Cap."

Aha! Phrygian Cap. I am hot on the trail withanother clue, searching for another bit of informa-tion. Do you like treasure hunts? That was one of myfavorite activities as a child. You can have your owntreasure hunt, all by yourself, ferreting out littlewitticisms and wisdoms and building stories aroundthem and this greatly develops your intuition.

So, in the dictionary, I searched for PhrygianCap and the text read "see liberty cap." "LibertyCap"! And, lo and behold, the dictionary described

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Meanderings of theSpiritual Path

MYSTIC LIGHT

Chapel Talk June 16, 2002

Mural (detail), dome of Wisconsin State Capitol, Edwin Howland Blashfield, Madison

Resources of WisconsinLady Wisconsin, wearing a Phrygian cap and bearing thestate escutcheon and a sheaf of wheat, is surrounded byfemale figures proffering samples of the states resources.

Photo: Jam

es Potter

the very cap which I have described to you andsaid that these caps were presented to slaves inancient Rome upon manumission. What is manu-mission? As you might assume, it means, emanci-pation from servitude or indentured status, whenthe slave is given his freedom.

These caps were used as symbols of liberty bythe French revolutionaries and were worn by regu-lar people in the United States in the late 1700s,both for their style and as a symbolic statement.

For more information, we turn to classicalmythology and find Phrygia, that ancient commu-nity of Asia Minor, and now the diggings bearmuch gold. It was the domain of King Midas! Hewas the second King of Phrygia. Don't you lovehow you can drift from actual history right intomythology and in and out on a meandering spiritu-al path? You see, we have no plan. We do not fol-low any charted course. We just follow our nosesand let the gentle breezes blow to guide us.

Now, in Phrygia, the Phrygians were seeking aking. They consulted the oracle at Delphi and wereinstructed that they were to choose the first personthey met who would be riding on an oxcart headedtoward the temple of Zeus. Well, the first person tocome along on an oxcart, heading toward the tem-ple, was Gordius, a guy called Gordius. So, theymade him their King! Afterwards, Gordius, by-and-by, dedicated his cart and its yoke to Zeus onthe Acropolis of Gordium, evidence that the citizensof his polis got around to naming a city after him.

In fact, he tied the knot of the yoke so skillfullythat an oracle declared that whoever could untie itwould be ruler of all Asia. So, guess who camealong? Alexander the Great. Along comesAlexander the Great, who had heard about the ora-cle and decided to apply it to himself. He pulledout his sword and—whack!—cut the knot in two.I guess nobody argued with him, because from thislegend, we have the phrase "to cut the Gordianknot," which means to solve a problem or end adifficulty in a vigorous or drastic way.

Back in Phrygia, however, there was a unionbetween Gordius and Cybele and they had a childnamed Midas. Midas studied under Orpheus andbecame King of Phrygia. Midas, as you may know,made a request to Dionysus that everything he

touched be turned to gold, and the wish was granted.Because of this, even his food became gold,

which was disastrous. It was not until he bathed inthe Pactolus River that the fatal gift was transferredfrom him to the river. In another legend, Midaswas to be the umpire in a musical contest betweenPan, playing the flute, and Apollo, playing the lyre.Midas decided in favor of Pan. Apollo got soangry that he turned Midas's ears into Ass's ears!

Sadly, Midas hid his deformity under hisPhrygian cap, but could not hide it from his barber.The barber was sworn to secrecy, but he felt heav-ily burdened by the secret he could not reveal; soheavily burdened that he dug a hole in the groundand whispered into it, "King Midas has ass's ears."He then filled up the hole and his heart was light-ened, but out of the ground sprang a reed whichwhispered the shameful secret to the breeze.

We will come back to Phrygia in a little while,but what follows is a look at two of the activitiesof the mystic or occultist as he meanders along hisspiritual path, for there are as many spiritual pathsas there are virgin spirits in our life wave.According to Heindel, the activities in which we,as spiritual individuals, engage ourselves can bedefined and listed as seven distinct practices, eachwith its own attributes and its own process.

These seven practices are retrospection, concen-tration, observation, discrimination, meditation,contemplation, and adoration. The two that we willstudy here are concentration and meditation.

Concentration, deductive in its process, focuseson a single object and holds it steadily and exclu-sively in consciousness. All of one's attention con-verges pointedly, just as when one extends thehand to grasp an object, and all other objects fallfrom it. With the chosen object firmly in the grasp,the practitioner holds it steadily for as long as hewills. Now, we will use some basic astrologicalconcepts.

I hope that those of you who do not know anyastrology will follow the basic concepts as I try topresent this amalgamation of ideas. Basic under-standings are organized in the astrological man-dala, which illustrates the divine order of things, ofcreation.

Therefore, in concentration, the practitioner

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focuses on a single object and holds it steadily inhis consciousness for as long as he wills.Predictably, the ability to fix this image is strongerwhen fixed signs are prominent in the natal chart.It's like a fixation. Mercury, the planet of cognitiveprocess, in Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, or Aquarius,gives the required tenacity. The planetary rulers oftwo of these signs—Mars and Pluto for Scorpio,and the Sun for Leo—we associate with will,which is one of the three attributes of God, theother two attributes being wisdom and activity.

Of these four signs of the fixed cross, Aquariusis ruled by the planet, Uranus, which is the higheroctave of Venus (Venus is personal love, whereasUranus is the ability to love everyone). We associ-ate Aquarius and its planet Uranus (universal love)with personal detachment and the ability to drawfrom the divine will. It is the planet of invention,the planet that "makes all things new." It is exaltedin Scorpio, one of the other fixed signs and thesign of regeneration (healing). The ruler of thefourth sign, Taurus, is Venus. We find all four ofthe elements represented in the fixed signs: air,fire, earth and water, or I, N, R, I, the first letters ofthe Hebrew words for these elements.

After learning the attributes or qualities of thesesigns, it is understandable that these four fixedsigns form the fixed cross of the Zodiac, signifythe four Gospel writers, and contain formulae ofChristian mystic initiation: Matthew-Aquarius,Mark-Leo, Luke-Taurus, and John-Scorpio.Incidentally, the altar at the Prince of PeaceMonastery (over on the next hill across fromMount Ecclesia in Oceanside, California) displaysthe symbols of these four fixed signs of the zodiacin its contemporary representation of Christ.

We began this astrological side-trip with our dis-cussion about concentration and the importance offixed signs in the ability to concentrate. Let us nowconsider meditation.

Whereas concentration is deductive in itsprocess, meditation is inductive and opens the doorof the imagination. It is divergent in nature, andlets thoughts come willy-nilly (nil of the will!),passively, without order or plan.

Many of us are stronger in one or the other,(divergent or convergent thinking) and therefore

not quite balanced and not as completely flexibleor as creative as we would like to be. The creativeoccupations draw heavily on both concentrationand meditation.

Concentration is positive, as is the Sun, and ispracticed by the Occultist. It is also required in thefervent prayer of the Mystic. Meditation is nega-tive and reflective, like the Moon, and we maylook at the qualities of the Moon for a better under-standing of the meditative state—its fluidic quali-ty, its mutability, its receptive fecundity. There isnothing fixed about this. The Moon and Neptune,rulers of the watery signs Cancer and Pisces,together with Mercury (quicksilver), ruler of theairy Gemini, alike relate to what is subtle and elu-sive; there is nothing to grasp hold of here. In ameditative state one’s consciousness is not fixedbut mobile and open.

Keywords for these three planets and signs are:elusive, changeable, illusion, the trickster. Thecrescent of the moon, contained in the symbols formoon, mercury, and neptune, while used to signifythe cup of the New Testament, the holy grail, canalso refer to an all-containing receptacle, thatwhich takes on anything and everything, like thesatellite dish of a television antennae. Water con-ducts positive and negative energies and takes it allindiscriminately, much as the mystic receives ahost of influences through open-armed love.

This is why an individual with a predominanceof water in the natal chart tends to be extremelysensitive to all stimuli and needs to retreat to"recharge his batteries." Keywords for Cancer are"I feel." Watery signs are sensitive to the moodsand impressionable to the thought forms of others.Watery signs, especially Cancer, are receptiveemotionally. Sacrificial, Neptunian Pisces, whenweak or afflicted, takes on the anger and sorrowsof others and either becomes mad or turns to alco-hol and becomes intoxicated, or seeks a spiritualtransformative life and, with great effort and by thegrace of God, transmutes its negative thought-forms by loving, self-forgetting service.

Now that we have examined two of the sevenpractices of the mystic and the occultist, let us con-sider the Old Testament book which describes thefour creatures, a wheel, and refers to the bow in the

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cloud—the book of Ezekiel. I am actually timidabout reading from this book. When you enterEzekiel on the world-wide web you find new-ageinterpretations of every variety. It would be sad tosimply add to this nonsensical proliferation.Nevertheless, Chapter 1, verses 4-14:

And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind cameout of the north, a great cloud and a fire infold-ing itself, and a brightness was about it, and outof the midst thereof as the color of amber, out ofthe midst of the fire. Also out of the midst there-of came the likeness of four living creatures.And this was their appearance; they had thelikeness of a man. And every one had four facesand every one had four wings. And their feetwere straight feet and the sole of their feet waslike the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkledlike the color of burnished brass. And they hadthe hands of a man under their wings on theirfour sides; and they four had their faces andtheir wings. Their wings were joined one toanother; they turned not when they went; theywent everyone straight forward. As for the like-ness of their faces, they four had the face of aman, and the face of a lion, on the right side;and they four had the face of an ox on the leftside; they four also had the face of an eagle.Thus were their faces: and their wings werestretched upward; two wings of every one werejoined one to another, and two covered theirbodies. And they went every one straight for-ward: whither the spirit was to go, they went;and they turned not when they went. As for thelikeness of the living creatures, their appear-ance was like burning coals of fire, and like theappearance of lamps: it went up and downamong the living creatures; and the fire wasbright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.And the living creatures ran and returned as theappearance of a flash of lightning.

Ezekiel's four living creatures with "the hands ofa man" symbolize the four fixed signs of the zodi-ac: Taurus the Bull, Scorpio the Eagle, Aquariusthe Man, and Leo the Lion. They are God's minis-ters, also known as the Lords of Destiny or theFour Recording Angels of Christian esotericism.

The vision of Ezekiel reveals that they are a col-lective entity; they work as a unit. In addition to itsown special quality, each Being possesses thequalities of the other three. Their intelligence per-meates the entire universe: “Whither the spirit wasto go, they went; and they turned not when theywent.”

The vision is a supersensible form created byspirit. Now, verses 15 and 16:

Now as I beheld the living creatures, beholdone wheel upon the earth by the living crea-tures, with its four faces. The appearance of thewheels and their work was like unto the color ofa beryl: and they four had one likeness: and

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The Cherub of EzekielThe encampment of the twelve tribes of Israel around theTabernacle in the Wilderness was symbolic of the order andcomposition of the universe. At the four corners were positionedthe banners of Ephraim (the Bull), Dan (the Eagle), Judah (theLion), and Reuben (the Man). Even so from the common centerand Ark of the four Gospels speaks the creative Word of God.

© T

he Philosophical R

esearch Society

their appearance and their work was as it werea wheel in the middle of a wheel.

Beryl is a bluish-green gemstone, its mineral,occurring in hexagonal prisms, resembles theearth, the Star of David, and its triplicities. Thecomposite of the four creatures symbolizes ourfixed cross of the four Gospels. The wheel uponthe blue-green earth represents the houses of ourgeocentric zodiac. The wheel in the middle of awheel diagrams, from a geocentric perspective, theecliptic of the circling constellations.

Supersensible knowledge is received verydifferently than is knowledge entering through thesenses. When an embodied teacher speaks, hiswords are heard objectively from vibrationsentering the listener's ear. "But in inner-planeschools where Teachers speak through living,creative imagination, their words spring up alive inthe mind and soul of a disciple and become part ofthe latter's very being." (Corinne Heline)

When we spoke about the fixed cross of theZodiac we talked about the will and the ability tofix an image. In order to do the work of a spiritualTeacher, this will principle, the root of which, inthe physical body, lies at the base of the nose in thefrontal sinus, becomes the source of power for thehuman personality. It is the Silent Watcher, thepower which moves, but is itself not moved.Ezekiel is told:

Behold, I have made thy face strong againsttheir faces, and thy forehead strong againsttheir foreheads. As an adamant, harder thanflint, have I made thy forehead: fear them not,neither be dismayed at their looks, though theybe a rebellious house.—Ezekiel 3:8-9

"Hypnotists in the flesh and among disembod-ied spirits who seek to obsess a living person exerttheir power upon this seat of the human will.Psychical pressure on this area should be instantlyresisted by a neophyte. Therein the Divine Spirit(the Will principle) has its stronghold, and there itshould be all-powerful. No evil spirit, in the fleshor out of it, can ever obsess a neophyte who makeshis forehead ‘harder than flint’against suchencroachment."

This story began as we opened the dictionary tofind out about the word "meandering." It traveledthrough ancient geography, mythology, a trip toWisconsin, and, finally to an Ezekiel vision. Isthere a moral to this story of the Phrygian cap, theliberty cap? Always, we can look to Max Heindelfor answers. He said:

In many women, in whom the vital body ispositive, and in advanced people of either sexwhere the vital body has been sensitized by apure and holy life, by prayer and concentration,this superconscious memory inherent in the LifeSpirit does not always need to incur the dangerof being subjected to and perhaps overruled bya process of reasoning. Sometimes, in the formof intuition, or teaching from within, it impress-es itself directly upon the reflecting ether of thevital body. The more readily we learn to recog-nize it and follow its dictates, the more often itwill speak, to our eternal welfare.

All who are upon the Path, whether the pathof occultism or of mysticism, are weaving the"golden wedding garment" by this work fromwithin and from without. In some the gold isexceedingly pale, and in others it is deeplyred. But eventually when the process ofTransfiguration has been completed, or ratherwhen it is nearing completion, the extremes willblend, and the transfigured bodies will becomebalanced in color, for the occultist must learnthe lesson of deep devotion, and the ChristianMystic must learn how to acquire knowledge byhis own efforts without drawing upon the uni-versal source of all wisdom.

In this life or the next, should we find ourselvessons or daughters of Kings, and if we have thegood fortune to choose the winner in the musicalcontest of Apollo (the Sun God) and Pan (the Godof nature, the earth, and himself a non-discrimina-tive receptacle), remember to choose Apollo (!)that we should not have to hide our donkey-earsunder our Phrygian caps, causing stress to our bar-bers who try to keep secrets that can never reallybe hidden. ❐

—Elizabeth Ray

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THE AWESOME MYSTERY bywhich universal Perfection conceivesand generates seeds of Its own Being,which are destined to develop intoindependent Entities of like magni-

tude, can scarcely escape sacrilege in the thinkingand fatuity in the saying. Earthworn words and ahuman brain specialized to cope with earthlyaffairs seem too profane to address this concept,but they do, and they must. The Spirit’s memoryand the heart’s intuition demand this, even thoughit may be a burlesque of the Truth and subject toworldly ridicule.

Strangely, as information about things physicalburgeons, information pertaining to things super-physical also is coming into public access with com-parable stunning profusion. All the Asian theogo-nies and theosophies, as well as the Judeo-Christiantraditions and esoteric teachings, and the countlessprivate visions of seers and saints, old and contem-porary, flood the metaphysical marketplace.

The two common responses to this deluge ofdisparate systems are: 1) to select, arbitrarily, the“one true doctrine,” although the historical purityof the religious teaching (Judaism, Buddhism,Christianity) will be adulterated subtly or grosslyby modern infusions to accommodate the present-day consciousness; 2) to find the few elementscommon to all the teachings and, in accordancewith the emerging one-world (Aquarian) con-sciousness, to enunciate a simple, vague, laissez-faire “articles of religious belief,” which maintainsthat all people worship the same God and that dif-ferences in content are simply the product ofsocial, linguistic, geographic, or ethnic variation.

A third response to the current situation synthe-sizes the germ of truth from these two approaches,

the selective and the collective. This is not, how-ever, a diplomatic strategy of compromise. Thiscontent is original and springs forth from its owninner necessity and the ripeness of the time.Investigation reveals that there is continuityamong the teachings of the Science of Spirit (thissynthesis) and all its antecedents.

The key to an initial understanding of the newteaching is that man, as Spirit and body, as creatorand creature, is continuously changing and devel-oping. As some faculties specialize and strengthen,others atrophy, in accordance with a cosmic plangoverning human evolution. Not only did Indo-Aryans, whose progenitors were the 5th Atlanteanrace (original Semites), teach the reality of rebirth,many members of that first post-Atlantean epochcould confirm clairvoyantly the fact of the Spirit’senduring life and its periodic change of mortalform. The teaching of cause and effect (karma)was the necessary complement to the reality ofrebirth. Together, the two primary tenets of origi-nal Indian theosophy continued to inform Hinduculture for millennia.

A different course of development was intendedfor eastern Mediterranean and European peoples.Rather than emphasizing meditation as a means ofwithdrawing from an illusory world (maya) anduniting (yoga) with divinity, they were to evolve

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Christ and the Rational Mind

MYSTIC LIGHT

“The mirror of mind contributes increasing-ly to spiritual growth as the thoughts which ittransmits to and from the Spirit polish it togreater brightness, sharpening and intensify-ing its focus more and more to a single point,perfectly flexible and under the control of theSpirit.” —Max Heindel

physical and conceptual faculties associated withsensory existence and were given religious instruc-tion that promoted this objective.

The star of spiritual empire, likethe geocentric Sun, moves from Eastto West (Max Heindel’s observa-tion). The baton of spiritual ascen-dancy was passed from the originalIndian peoples and epoch to the pre-historic Zoroastrians,to the Egypto-Chaldean-Assyrian peoples, to theHebraic-Greco-Romans, to thepresent occidental (Celtic-Teutonic)peoples. With each transfer ofspiritual impetus, the Spirit in man,ironically, has become more deeplyimplicated in mundane affairs, chargedwith the task of identifying and man-ipulating objects of sense perception.

Increasingly, man made the worldhis principal home. Increasingly, itwas believed that life in its totalitycommences at physical conceptionand terminates absolutely whenone’s heart stops beating. And,increasingly, a mounting frustrationand yearning were evident, becom-ing discernible somewhat prior to theinception of the Christian era andreaching a climax toward the endof the nineteenth century. Thisfrustration was an expression ofthe Spirit’s asphyxiation in thedense physical world. The stillsmall voice wascrying to beheard, identified, and resurrectedfrom the tomb of man’s exclu-sively mortal concerns.

Provision for this predicamentof being spiritually buried alive, now a virtualplanetary epidemic, was anticipated in the earlysecond millennium by highly evolvedBeings whosought to engage man’s emerging rational faculty,now commandeered by worldly pursuits, withinformation about his home-world. With objectiveand logically formulated truths about non-physicaldimensions, these spiritual pioneers of humanity

have not simply reintroduced old oriental conceptsand dynamics. The content itself has changed:Theosophy has been baptized and transformed by

the Christ Impulse and Deed.In the pivotal area and time

between oriental and occidentalascendancy lies the geography andnarrative of Christ’s ministry in thebody of Jesus.

The burial of spiritual man inphysical man, occasioned as muchby the intervention of supersensibleagencies (Lucifers and others) as byman’s response to their influence,was foreseen by cosmic Beingsentrusted with the Earth project. Anantidote of superlative potency wasrequired to rescue the Spirit of manfallen into matter. The project requireda giving of Goodness, Light, andPower (more than commensuratewith what had been lost) back to manas a kind of spiritual transfusion.This would enable his Spirit toquicken, his mind to vivify withthoughts attuned to nonphysical real-ities, and his heart to know sin. Farmore important, it would helphumanity realize that through the

blood of the only innocent BeingWho has lived and died in a mor-tal body, all inherited sin “of theworld” and its degenerating powerhas been annulled and is forgiven.

The modern seeker afteranswers to questions about theeternal Self has evolved a scoutand guardian for this enterprise—the rational mind. Until recently,

the mind had been directed away from that Selfand had been serving selfish material desires. Thethousands of years human physical senses andthoughts have been fixed on the physical worldhave helped develop the very faculty that is nowserving to guide man’s understanding of hishigher Being and the worlds in which he hasenduring citizenship.

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Frederick Shields, Chapel of the Ascension, London

St PaulSt. Paul has been called Christianity’sfirst theologian, who attempted to liveaccording to “the law of my mind.”While he addressed the thinking facultyof his fellows and assured them that“we have the mind of Christ,” it was notthe “fleshly mind” to which he wasreferring but “the spirit of your mind,”for earthbound reason balks at the cross.

The contemporary seeker is asked to addressstatements concerning spiritual matters with thesame impartiality and scrutiny that he brings tobear on matters relating to sense perception.

Physical eyes have fed the mind from without. Afew have fed their minds with a subtler, more inte-rior vision. Most of us do not yet possess this spir-itual sight, but wedohave the capac-ity, in the light of our own experienceand through the focusing of openminds, to evaluate the truth of whatpositive seers report.

Modern scientific experiments willallow of no preconception or theintrusion of considerations notdirectly bearing on the subject ofinquiry. Testing the validity of dis-closures coming from invisibledimensions should be at least as fas-tidious and rigorous in their controland objectivity.

Through the very rational instru-ment that his material pursuits havematured in him, man has developedthe means to overthrow thetyranny of matter and come toterms with the welter of teach-ings converging on him from alltimes and all places. The morehe explores, the more relativisticand partial shall he find most ofwhat he studies. In time, he willconsider an Event on Golgotha. The impact of thatcrucial Event, taken to mind and heart, shall sendshock waves through his being, transforminggoals, values, and habits—his very life. It will beseen that that outer Event is an inner event, everpresent, ever recurring, ever to be experienced. Itwill be seen that what occurred historically afterGolgotha also has its individual counterpart andsequel. For what was once lived was lived for allhumanity as a way-showing, demonstrating: howbreaking through the rock of the mortal world isaccomplished; how rising out of the cave of death-ly detention is assured; how the strength toapproach the hill of utmost obedience is fully pro-vided; how proof of the life enduring after death is

given by the power of the One Who walkedandwon for all the path of spirit redemption.

It also will be manifest, upon investigation, thatall the vital forces and beings that have generatedspiritual teachings and religious institutions havenot been lost. They have nourished hearts andminds, selves and souls, fostering in mankind the

desire and means to become moreSelf-determining. Indeed, most ofthe people who subscribe to esotericChristian teachings lived in the cul-tures that are still anchored by theseearlier teachings. Further, it will beappreciated that the spiritual giantswho inspired various peoples continueto magnifyand elaborate their powersand to consecrate them to the serviceof Earth’s evolution and to itsindwelling Spirit.

As the human Spirit, in its longearthly evolution, takes on differentbodies, so the Spirit of the Gnosisassumes different formulations andemphases in accordance with the spir-

itual needs and era of the peopleit informs. And as the Ego garnersthe quintessence of each earthlyembodiment as nutriment for itsongoing growth and refinement,so also the key concepts of spiri-tual teaching are modified, trans-formed, and reintroduced to the

advancing Ego, enriched and amplified by thealchemy of earthly experience and understanding.

As diverse peoples increasingly intermingle andpool their religious heritages, as well as their mater-ial resources, it shall become common knowledgethat their spiritual leaders are enlisting their high andholy energies in the service of the One Who broughtunifying and regenerating life to the Earth. Increas-ingly He shall be universally acknowledged as theone Lord of Earth, the Son of God, the God from theSun Whoonce lived bodily in human form, the veryChrist Who brought Light to a darkening Earth, Whoshall be in the heart of the Earth until all evolving onit know Him as our one Life in God. ❐

—C.W.

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Engraving on heavy wove, 1808, William Blake

Christ Descending Into the GraveChrist’s descent into the body of Jesus andHis entry into the Earth are prototypes forthe entering of the human Spirit into eachsoul with the keys ofdeliverance fromearth-bound consciousness andcaptivity tothe forces of materialistic thinking.

THE SOURCE OF ST. JOHN’S REVELA TION

INQUIRY AS TO THE SOURCES of theRevelation of St. John has long and oftenoccupied the minds of those concerned withexternal material research. These sourceshave been sought in oral traditions, in the

apocryphal writings of ancient Christendom, in thedocuments and traditions of the Judeo-ChristianGnosis, and even in abnormal and fantastic experi-ences based on atmospheric phenomena. But thecontent of the Apocalypse itself stands in rigidopposition to all these efforts, for in the text of it,the explanation recurs more than once that thewriter of the Apocalypse “saw and heard” thatwhich it contains “in the spirit.”

The writer of the Apocalypse is never weary ofpointing out in the most unequivocal way imagin-able that the content of the Apocalypse has nothingto do with the spatial and temporal horizontality oftradition, hearsay, or plagiarism, but that it hascome into existence simply and solely on the ver-tical path of revelation from the spiritual world.

Thus, for example, the text of the Apocalypsebegins with a definite statement concerning itssource, its authorship, and the way it has originat-ed: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which Godgave unto Him, to show unto His servants...and Hesent and signified it by His angel unto His servantJohn” (Rev. 1:1). In these words is characterized indistinct and solemn manner the path by which theApocalypse came into being. It is the path of thedescent from God to Jesus Christ, from Jesus Christ

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MYSTIC LIGHT

A word of explanation and advice precedes Valentin Tomberg’sstudies of the Apocalypse, which will be featured in forth-coming issues of the Rays. This advice pertains not only tothe entire content of the Rays, but to all printed documents,especially those that attempt to convey the fruits of insightinto spiritual realms. To do justice to such communications,“they must not be taken as authority because they have beencast into print....the responsibility of the reader is to testthese works through his own thinking and experiences, andto exercise his inner understanding with others, when possi-ble, so that the work becomes—not dogma, but dialogue.”Studies of the Apocalypse, ©1985 by Candeur Manuscripts,is reprinted by permission of Anthroposophic Press.

Studies in the ApocalypseWeight, Measure, and Number

In the Spiritual History ofMankind—Part 1

Panel from St John Altar: 1518, Hans Burkgkmair the Elder, AltePinakothek, Munich

St John the Evangelist on PatmosThe line of descent of St. John’s inspired Revelation was fromGod through Jesus Christ, “sent and signified by an angel.”John both saw and heard; that is, he received communica-tion from both the Desire World and the World of Thought.

to the Angel of Revelation, from the Angel to John,and from John to the readers, hearers, and keepers(hoi teruntes) of “the words of this prophecy.”

Now it is not possible to have a serious concep-tion of the origin of a document bearing on humanspiritual life without taking a serious view of thecontentof that document itself. And it really wouldnot be taking the content of the Apocalypseseriously if the very greatest effort had not beenmade at least to understand what the writer himselfsays concerning the origin of his work. It is cer-tainly true that the very content of the Apocalypsechallenges research into ways and means whichwill render an understanding of it possible, butthese ways and means must not be in contradictionto the spirit and letter of the Apocalypse. To approachthe question of the origin of the Apocalypse fromthis point of view, it will be necessary in the firstplace to overcome one obstacle which is sure toarise, either consciously or unconsciously, at theoutset of such an enterprise.

The essence of this objection finds expression asfollows: The Apocalypse tells of the future of man;now man is free. How can it be possible to givedefinite information concerning the future ofmankind, since the structure of that future obviouslydepends upon man’s freedom? This objectiondisappears when we consider that the Apocalypsedepicts two future paths, for it shows the stages ofa path of ascent, as well as of a path of descent.These paths are karmically determined. Who is tochoose which path depends, however, on thefreedom of each individual. And, indeed, the pathsare already determined, inasmuch as mankind hasalready lived through a long destiny. Today is notthe first day of creation; a vast stretch of thekarmic path lies behind mankind in the past.

The new fact of infinite importance which formspart of man’s destiny is that Christ has become thejudge of that destiny. He has become the Lord ofKarma. And having become this, He not onlydetermines the future of mankind but is also thesource of revelation concerning it. On the otherhand, the future is determined by the past, andjudgment on the karmic past—insofar as it still hasconsequences for the future—likewise lies in thehands of Christ. For this reason the “Seven

Letters” to the seven “Churches” refer not only tothe future, but also to the past. In those Letters,judgment was given, not only on what was then thepresent times and on the three future culture-epochs (‘Churches’), but also on the three culture-epochs of the past: the Old Indian, Old Persian,and Egypto-Chaldean.

However, before we begin to study the contentof the Letters to the Seven Churches, we mustobtain a more definite idea of the source of theRevelation of St. John. This, too, is in accordancewith the writer’s intention, for in the opening sen-tences of the Apocalypse, he not only indicates thissource, but in the first chapter he also shows thespiritual figure of Him who has called forth theRevelation (Rev. 1:12-16).

This figure was “one like unto a Son of man”bearing the signs of the cosmic planetary forcesjust as they would be realized in the man of thefuture (the “Son of man”) during the Jupiter period.For the archetype of the Jupiter man—the “Son ofman” of the future—must be pictured thus:Arbitrariness will cease to be possible in histhought life. Streams of thought will flow downinto his head just as hair grows “of itself.” Andthese thought-streams flowing from the cosmoswill not be one-sided, they will have no distinct“coloring,” but will be, in a deep and true sense,“synthetic.” Just as white light is a combination ofthe seven colors, so the cosmic thinking of thefuture will be “white”—“white like wool, as whiteas snow” (Rev. 1:14).

The force of the I-initiative will not be manifest-ed in the sphere of thought-life, which will be apure revelation of the cosmos; rather, it willexpress itself in the illuminating and permeating ofcosmic phenomena. The I-initiative will become aspiritual power of vision, filling things seen withits fire. Seeing will not be a passive acceptance ofimpressions from without, but an illumination andpermeation radiating from within the phenomenaof the external world: “His eyes were as a flame ofof fire” (Rev. 1:14).

The earth-bound will-life will also be differentinsofar as it will have forfeited the flow of its driv-ing force. Instead, it will bind the glowing ardor offire with metallic rigidity. Man will no longer be

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impelled by the waves of the cosmic formativeforces in his will life, he will stand on a stablefoundation of conscious volition with the force offire and the rigidity of metal. His “feet” will be“like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a fur-nace,” and the waves of cosmic impulse and ofcreative formative forces will pass over from hisearth-bound will life into his voice. The creativepower of Nature, functioning today as an impellingforce in man’s subconsciousness, will be raisedinto the power of speech in the future man. Hisvoice will be “as the sound of many waters” (Hosphone hydaton pollon).

The feeling life of the man of the future will besuch that, on the one hand, it will express the har-mony of the stars in heaven and, on the other, itwill be “sharpened” to the finest pitch of concen-tration on the creative word. The man of the futurewill hold “in his right hand seven stars,” and out ofhis mouth will go a “sharp, two-edged sword.” Onthe one hand, charity will flow as approval andunderstanding from the harmony of the sevenstars, which are the spiritual beings of the seven“Churches” of mankind; while, on the other, truthwill find a rigid and sharp instrument in the “swordof the word.” But, precisely as an instrument oftruth, this “sword of the word” will be a two-edgedone—it will function in such a way as to “strike”him who speaks, as well as those who hear. TheWord will proceed from a consciousness of theunity of mankind, from the “seven stars,” andtherefore its judgment will apply as well to thespeaker as to the rest of mankind.

The Mars force of the Word will indeed wage awar of annihilation against error and lies, but thatannihilating conflict will produce an inward, aswell as an outward, effect. Hence it will be freefrom any spirit of hostility. Thus, the Word will beable to express the truth with inflexible decisionand without the possibility of its being used as aone-sided offensive weapon.

But the complete picture of the man of the futureis not restricted to the changes we have mentionedin thinking, willing, and feeling. The changesinclude not only the inner conditions of the abovesoul forces, but also their relations with one anoth-er. The relations of the soul forces of future man

must necessarily change on account of the expan-sion of the Sun-force of the heart, which will beraised into the head: “His countenance was as thesun shining in His strength,” while the formativeand restricted force of the head will descend intothe Sun-region of the heart: Man will be “girtabout the paps with a golden girdle.” And the will-life will ensheath the whole man. In the realm ofthe earthly (or rather, of the natural, for in theJupiter period the “earthly” will be different), itwill become glowing metal. But, at the same time,it will flow down from the higher man to theperiphery of his being. This centrifugal directionof the will, by which it becomes a kind of sheath,is expressed in the Apocalypse by the symbol of “agarment down to the foot”.

Thus at the beginning of the Apocalypse we areshown the figure of the man of the future, whosends the “Letters” to the Seven Churches. But He

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Engraving, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Illustrations for the Apocalypse (1496-1498)

St John Sees the Seven CandlesticksJohn sees a symbolic representation of the man of the future.

Who reveals Himself in this figure is the “I am,”the “First and the Last” of Earth’s evolution, “Hethat liveth” in that sphere of Cosmic evolution inwhich Death holds sway (Rev. 1:17, 18). ChristHimself, whose esoteric name is for humanity, “Iam,” speaks through this figure. He is the source ofSt. John’s Revelation.

THE LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES OF THE PAST

As Christ is the source of the Revelation of St.John, He is also the source of those positive soulcurrents which flow in mankind from the past tothe future. For the influence of Christ was alreadyin action during the Old Indian culture-epoch; thepositive fundamental impulse of that ancient cul-ture of Post Atlantean humanity proceeded fromHim. This impulse lived on; it lived on below thesurface in the souls of men; and those in whom itsinfluence is particularly strong and determinantform a “community”, which is called in theApocalypse, “the Church of Ephesus.”

The purpose of the “Letter to the Church ofEphesus” is not merely to give judgment on a long-past civilization; its purpose is especially to appealto the Old Indian impulse still active in the souls ofthe present day. For only thus is there a practicalmoral significance in the admonition: “Rememberfrom whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thefirst work.” Such an exhortation would be quitemeaningless if it were directed only to a long-pastcivilization, a human endeavor long ago sunk intosilence. It is, however, also addressed to a presentand a future time—indeed, to an eternity, for theletter begins with the words: “Unto the Angel ofthe Church of Ephesus write.” These wordsexpress the fact that we are not here dealing with adefinite group of men living in the past, or fromthat time in the present, but with that which wastranscendent and comprehensive in the characterof the message of the Old Indian culture. The mes-senger, the angel of that culture, is still active; forsuch a culture is not brought into being in order tofall into oblivion, but in order that the seed of rev-elation, the message of heaven which underlies it,would sprout, and grow down through the ageswithin the souls of men, passing through manymetamorphoses brought about by co-operation

with newly added influences, until it expands intoblossom and ripe fruit.

For this reason the mission of the essential mes-sage of the Old Indian culture has not even yetended. All that was then inaugurated still lives on,and the messenger of that culture, the “Angel ofthe Church of the Church of Ephesus,” continuesto be associated with the onward flowing currentof the effects and the consequences of his originalmessage. The Old Indian culture still persists as akarmic current, and the spirit of that culture isbound up with this karmic current, living on in theform of qualities and longings and memories in thesouls of men. It also lives on in the potential limi-tations of men, and in their inclinations to repeatthe earlier faults. And with it, the spirit of that cul-ture is also linked in the consciousness of a sharedresponsibility.

What is it, then, of the Old Indian spiritual lifewhich is still present in the souls of men today?What is it that still functions as karma from thatage? To be able to answer this question, we mustrecall some fundamental characteristics of theancient Rishi culture, especially the fact that it wasan all-embracing revelation culture, from whichsprang the basic impulse for the seven culture-epochs of the whole Post-Atlantean evolution. Forthe revelation of the Seven Rishis was not only there-vivification of the wisdom of the sevenAtlantean oracles, it was also the planting of theseven-hued wisdom for the seven epochs of thePost-Atlantean Age. It was the seven “vowels” ofthe Cosmic Word—the Logos—which, throughthe instrumentality of the Rishis, flowed into thesouls of men, just as at Pentecost the twelve “con-sonants” of the Cosmic Word were revealed. And,as there can be no speech without vowels, sowould human souls have been incapable of com-prehending the Logos had there been no Rishi rev-elation in the Old Indian epoch. For the influenceof the Rishi revelation is felt even to the presenttime, on the one hand in a definite longing withinthe souls of men, and on the other of “memories,”borne in the ether bodies of men, of the ways andmeans by which to satisfy that longing.

The longing which dwells in the depths ofhuman souls as an echo of the Rishi culture

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consists, above all, in the striving after a compre-hensive “synthetic” wisdom valid for all men, awisdom which would carry with it a harmonizingof one-sided tendencies, just as in the Old Indianepoch the revealed wisdom of the Rishis repre-sented the harmonizing of the seven Atlantean ora-cles.

The longing which dwells in the souls of mencorresponds to the light of the “seven stars” inheaven, which became the light of the “seven can-dlesticks” on earth. And this longing dwells withinthem for the very reason that the light which shinesin the seven stars, the constellation of the GreatBear, once shone also in seven men, the Rishis,and for seven human groups which were associat-ed in one community, just asthe seven candlesticks werejoined together in one light ofwisdom. And it is to this long-ing that the first letter isaddressed, for it speaks of Him“that holdeth the seven stars inHis right hand, Who walketh inthe midst of the seven golden candlesticks.” Theletter to the Church of Ephesus proceeds from Himwho can still the longing, from Him who is theactual content of the memory underlying that long-ing, because the Rishi revelation was a revelationof the comprehensive nature of Christ as theCosmic Word.

But the future which the realization of this long-ing is to bring is not merely the lighting of theseven candles with the flame of the seven stars, butsomething which proceeds therefrom. For whatonce existed as revealed wisdom will be the actuallife of the man of the future. “To him that over-cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, whichis in the midst of the paradise of God.” Thesewords express the positive future of the endeavorwhich moves courageously forward into the futurefrom the reminiscent longing for the comprehen-sive wisdom of the past.

The “overcoming” in question here is the over-coming of the desire for the past. True, it is to liveby a longing which proceeds from the past, but itmust seek its satisfaction, not in the past, but in thefuture. The drift of the soul’s desire towards the

past must be permanently overcome, but the con-tent of the longing must not only be fostered, buteven must be strengthened to the pitch of energeticstriving towards the future. Then it will be possiblefor wisdom to become life, for the wisdom origi-nally revealed from heaven to live in man himself.This transformation indicates the future evolutionof the “moral ether” in human nature, and this“moral ether” will be as full of light as was theoriginal revelation of the wisdom of the Rishis.Moreover, it will not only give light, it will alsofunction as the life-force functions. The “eating ofthe tree of life” will be an absorption into thehuman system of the power to bestow life.

The endeavor to master this life-giving forcealways existed, and is devel-oped in two special directions:On the one hand, towards thatasceticism of which the finalexpression is a kind of Indianyoga. The aim of this type ofasceticism is to send the life-force contained in man’s pro-

creative faculty upwards into the head so as to pro-vide man’s spiritual life with the same creativelife-force as that possessed by the procreative fac-ulty. On the other hand, that endeavor took a sec-ond direction called by the writer of theApocalypse “the deeds of the Nicolaitanes.” Herethe aim was so consciously to descend into thephysical that the instinctive forces of the physicalbody should be made to subserve, in an unnaturalway, certain magic ends. As with the first direc-tion, a distortion of the message of the Spirit tookplace because the spiritual force was not set inaction by its own moral content but by the influxof a force drawn from another sphere of existence;so with the second direction a distortion of the mis-sion of the human body took place because it wasgiven a primary position through the sensualizingof the spirit.

Those who come forward as men sent by thespirit, and who yet do not represent the pure spiritbut rather a spirit mingled with forces borrowedfrom the body, are not truly sent by the spirit(“apostles”) but only believe themselves to be so.Those, however, who allow the spirit to become

RAYS 03 27

The “eating of thetree of life” will be anabsorption into the

human system of thepower to bestow life.

the prey of sensuality (the Nicolaitanes) representthe other error in the search for “the tree of life.”For the fruits of the tree of life do not consist in anactivity of the spirit developed at the expense ofthe bodily forces, nor yet in the sensualizing of thespirit, but in the pure spiritual force increasing instrength in such a way that it works with thestrength of a nature force. Moral ether does notexist as a “latent force” of the body, etc., it is a newforce which will gradually be born in man out ofthe Christ impulse.

But the hindrances which offer opposition to thefuture birth of the true fruits of the tree of life arethe efforts of the “liars” (who say they are apostles,i.e., sent by the spirit, but are not) and “Nicolai-tanes.” These two errors are resisted by “the Angelof the Church of Ephesus.” Nevertheless, he hadnot remained entirely true to his mission, for hehad “left his first love,” the original pure impulseof the Post-Atlantean human evolution. Now thatoriginal impulse was love for the mission of manon Earth. That love was a deep rooted readiness of

souls to incarnate truly and completely in ordertruly and completely to fulfill the task of earthlyexistence. This will—namely, the desire for com-plete earthly incarnation for the purpose of thecomplete fulfillment of the Earth mission—is thetrue quintessence of Weight. Everything whichinvolves a conscious, sacrificial descent is anexpression of spiritual ‘weight.’Thus, for instance,any words which a man may utter have moreweight if they penetrate not only to the astral body,but down to the ether body also. And a human deedhas more weight if its moral content penetratesright down into physical reality than it has when ittouches only the upper strata of earthly existence.

But now, seen from the physical side, there aretwo different phenomena of weight. One is the sac-rificial ‘descent’ already mentioned, the other isthe phenomenon of the Fall, the expulsion from thespiritual heights. The latter occurs as the karmicconsequences of an unjustified attitude towards thespirit. True ‘weight’ then becomes heaviness, andthe ‘descent,’a downfall. (Continued) ❐

28 RAYS 03

THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTIONBy Max Heindel

Please Use OrderFormon page 64

This book gives a complete outline of the Western Wisdom Teachings as far as itmay be made public at the present time. It contains a comprehensive outline ofthe evolutionary processes of man and the universe, correlating science withreligion. The author received this Teaching personally fromthe Rosicrucian Brotherhood.

NEW HARDCOVER EDITION: 717 pages, including a 100-page Alphabetical Index and a 60-page Topical index

PAPER EDITION: 610 pages with 60-page Topical Index. Published by The Rosicrucian Fellowship.

This is the textbook used in the RosicrucianPhilosophy Correspondence Course.

PART ONE: A treatise on the Visible and Invisible Worlds, Man and theMethod of Evolution, Rebirth and the Law of Cause and Effect.

PART TWO: Covers the scheme of Evolution in general and in particular theEvolution of the Solar System, the Earth, and its Humanity.

PART THREE: Treats of Christ and His Mission, Future Development of Man andInitiation, Esoteric Training, a Safe Method of Acquiring First-handKnowledge, Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucian Order.

IBEGAN THE SEARCH for Truth early inlife. In my younger days my Spirit was like aprisoner in its body, beating its head againstthe walls to get out and see and know theunknown spirit world.

When I found the Cosmo-Conception in a militarycamp library in Indonesia, I read it avidly from coverto cover. Now I knew that my search for enlight-enment was over, for here were all the answers.

Being particularly interested in the spirit world, Iimmediately accepted the information in the Cosmodealing with that region and its denizens as theabsolute truth. However, I did not yet know the fulldifference between the positive and the negativepaths, nor the dangers of the latter. At this time Iwas actively engaged in Ouija board and seancepractices with my Afro-American friends. Mostlyout of unholy curiosity, we desired to know theanswers to a lot of questions, and we were deeplythrilled when we got our answers combined withtable dances and trancelike contortions of sensitivefriends. We were ignorant of the fact that theseSpirits were earthbound and of no better characterthan ourselves.

Before I realized that service and love alone candevelop one’s spiritual faculties in a positive way, Iconcentrated on the information in the Cosmo aboutincreasing the vibration of the pituitary body inorder to obtain the craved-for treasure of clairvoy-ance. I succeeded in increasing a vibration in theback of my head, almost as if holding an electricrazor pressed against the skull.

The sad part was I could not control this, and Ifound myself gradually being taken over by thispower which I later came to realize was an obsess-ing entity trying to gain entrance and control of me.In the meantime, we had moved from camp to campand the Cosmo was no longer available to guide me

in this sickening development. While the vibrationwas “on” I could not control my physical body;moving even one finger became a tremendouseffort. The intense fear of being controlled by anunknown agent made me “snap” out of this situa-tion every time, but each vibration lasted severalminutes. The effort of shaking loose sometimehurled me off my bed, a result probably of suddenrelease not counteracted by intelligent and alertreflexes. Then at night there was this Arabian Spiritstanding by my bedside dressed in the whiteburnoose and headdress of a Bedouin, and, as Iwrite this to you, I feel the clammy fear again that Iexperienced long ago. Weakened by thrombosis andjaundice at the time, the turning point came onenight when I was tossed out of my physical bodyduring a spell of “vibration” and stared at my pros-trate form on the bed from a location near the ceil-ing of the room.

After finally getting back into my body, I realizedclearly for the first time that I had gone too far onthe wrong trail. Then I began consciously fightingto rid myself of the unwanted spells of “vibration.”Needless to say, it was quite a struggle, and themethod I developed is of interest. I found that theonly way to prevent this almost uncontrollablevibration in the back of my head was to stop itbefore it got started. When it was about to comethrough, somehow I would remember a passage outof Kipling’s Kim. I would frantically concentrate onadding or multiplying three figure numbers, andafter about six months I was practically rid of thisself-inflicted danger.

Now I am very careful in regard to contact withthe superphysical world and its denizens. “Awarned man is a wise man,” and also “a little bit ofknowledge is a dangerous thing.” ❐

—H. M.

RAYS 03 29

Dangers of Negative Development

MYSTIC LIGHT

WE WILL NOW TURN to therelationship between the con-scious 'I' and what it can receiveor pick up from the supercon-scious. This ability to receive

'from above' may be called vertical telepathy, inorder to distinguish it from horizontal telepathy,which refers to signals from outside the subject,emanating from the currents of individual or andcollective thought, reaching that person horizontal-ly through the atmosphere. We might also call itinternal telepathy because it goes on within a sin-gle individual. We need to give a warning here,however: it is very difficult to distinguish whatcomes from the individual superconscious andwhat comes from even higher spheres or from thelevels of the superconscious outside the individual.The higher one ascends, the more the limits ofindividuality tend to disappear; the higher oneascends, the more the individual becomes unitedwith the whole. Thus any description or terminol-ogy can only be relative or indicative. Language isalways symbolic and allusive in nature, and this iseven more the case in the psychospiritual realm.

The word telepathy means influence at a dis-tance, referring here to a psychological distance, adistance in level between the conscious 'I' and thesuperconscious. Here again, as with horizontaltelepathy, this type of telepathy can be either spon-taneous or experimental, that is to say deliberate.

Spontaneous telepathy consists of receivingimpressions from afar, without willing them, and

then discovering that they tie in with reality; whilein experimental telepathy one person projects athought or image and another person tries to pickup what is being transmitted. The same distinctioncan be made in vertical telepathy. The type of ver-tical telepathy which might be called spontaneouscovers all inspiration-related phenomena: artistic,literary or musical inspiration; intuition; the high-er forms of premonition; the urge to perform hero-ic deed; and mystical enlightenment. Ideas andenergies from the superconscious burst through orcome down into the conscious mind and are per-ceived by the conscious 'I'. But here too theprocess can be encouraged or even deliberatelycaused by means of psychospiritual exerciseswhich attract or facilitate the transfer of supercon-scious messages and influences to the level ofeveryday consciousness.

Vertical telepathy is of great scientific andhuman significance. It is important from the scien-tific point of view because it confirms the exis-tence of this higher aspect to our being; and it isimportant in human terms in that it is the best partof ourselves which is being encouraged, made con-scious, and therefore used creatively and to goodpurpose. Its significance is not recognized, howev-er, or we would live very differently!

An analogy may help us to understand this. If itwere known that there was a great sage endowedwith great spiritual powers, a loving, unselfishsage, we would certainly feel an eager desire tospeak to him and ask his help and advice. And if helived as a hermit up in the mountains, surely wewould be prepared to make the climb to find him.Would we not be willing to submit to the disciplineof special psychospiritual preparation in order to

30 RAYS 03

Vertical Telepathy

MYSTIC LIGHT

Reprinted with permission from Transpersonal Development:The Dimension Beyond Psychosynthesis, by RobertAssagioli, M.D. This and other related articles can be foundon the web at http://intuition2vishnu.homestead.com

win his precious teachings and to be made alive bythe energy and love he radiated? We would realizethat the help he offered could save us from makingmistakes and from suffering and pain, as well ashaving the power to truly change our lives.

Such a sage or Master does actually exist. He isclose at hand, indeed he is present in each of us. Heis the Higher 'I', the Spiritual Self. To reach himdoes require a journey, but it is a journey throughthe world within. To reach the placewhere this Self resides means aclimb, an ascent to the heights of thesuperconscious. It also requiresproper psychospiritual preparationso that we will be able to withstandthe impact of the force of theSpiritual Self and to pick up its sub-tle messages, distinguishing themfrom all the other voices within, sothat we can understand and interpretits symbolism correctly. And lastlywe need to be prepared to put intoeffect, with an unswerving, resolutewill, what we have been shown.

This preparation is not easy, ofcourse. The Self considers things,events, and beings in a very differ-ent way from the personal 'I'. Itsvalue system and its perspective arevery different to the way the ordi-nary conscious mind looks at things,with its “short-sighted views,” as Dante put it.What the Self reveals is consistent with what istruly good, but it can be contrary to our wishes andpersonal preferences. The Self does not call forsacrifices in the usual erroneous sense of forced,demanding renunciations; it calls for them in thesense of a consecration which results in the grad-ual elimination of a number of habits and activitiesthat are harmful and of no use, or of less impor-tance, so as to create a space for us to devote ourtime to things of greater value.

Furthermore, the Self—in its wisdom and under-standing love—does not require that we do this ata stroke and in a perfect fashion. It is patient, pre-pared to wait, knowing full well that, howeverslowly, we will reach the high goal for which we

are destined, a goal on which the Self has kept itssights since the start of our evolutionary pilgrim-age. In other words, the Self has a sense of what iseternal; or, to be more accurate, it lives in eternity.But it is the eternal now that it inhabits, not mere-ly a transcendent eternity, cut off from the evolu-tionary process of development.

Eternal now is a paradoxical expression whichmust be appreciated intuitively; but it provides us

with the key to a fundamental truth,and that has to do with the relationbetween the transcendent and theimmanent, between being andbecoming. Both of these should bepresent, conscious and at work in us.

We need to live our lives with akeen awareness of each moment,but against the backdrop of eternity.Now the synthesis of the moment andof eternity is the cycle. Life processesin cycles, and these cycles are momentslinked organically by somethingwhich transcends them— eternity. Asynthetic expression of this is thephrase “the glorious, eternal now.”

To enter into a conscious relation-ship with the Self requires that onebecome attuned to it. The analogy ofa radio set may help us to under-stand this better. Initially an attemptwas made to build the most power-

ful receivers possible by increasing the number ofvalves, but it was soon realized that power wasoften to the detriment of selectivity and clarity ofreception, alongwith enough power to pick up thetransmission.

The same things applies to us. The problem isnot so much “receiving” (there is a sense in whichwe receive too much and from all directions), itis a case of developing an ever more refinedand sophisticated selectivity. This necessarypreparation requires overcoming the unwillingrebelliousness of our selfish attitudes and ourmoral lethargy. (We are all morally lethargic, evenif we camouflage it with outward activity which,more often than not, is a form of evasion—apassivity masked by activity.) But success is possi-

RAYS 03 31

Ink drawing by M

arcia Malinova-A

nthony

The Departure of the Soul

ble if we continually remember that it is worth it.The inner master, the Spiritual 'I,' is omniscient, itsees into the future and has remarkable powers onwhich we cannot set a limit. Its guidance, inspira-tion and multifaceted help can give us light, peaceand security, producing joy and love in us, andmaking us effective instruments of good for others.

There are various symbols of the Self, and eachof them portrays or suggests one aspect of it.Among the most commonly used symbols are astar, a sphere of radiant fire, an angelic figurewhich the orientals refer to as the 'Solar Angel', theinner Master, the Wise Old Man, the Hero, and theinner Warrior. But it is we who must invoke theSelf, we who must take the first step, open the dooror create the channel. Only then can the Self inter-vene, for it will not force us or impose itself on us.We have the gift of free will, and though we makeso little use of it, it is the most precious gift wehave, because through our experiences, mistakes,and suffering, it brings us to reawakening. The Selfwill not in any way force our hand, but if weaddress it, it will respond.

Time and time again one is brought up againstthe paradoxical duality and unity of the Deity. Thepersonal “I” is the form of a reflection. This fitsone of the interpretations of the parable of theprodigal son. The personal “I” is the prodigal sonwho has descended to the level of the materialworld and forgotten his origin, to the point where,of his own free will, he resorts to all the foolish-ness he is capable of, all the errors (errors both inthe sense of making mistakes and of going astray),and only then feels a longing for his father's house,sets out in search of it, and eventually finds it.

It is not enough, however, merely to admit orgive intellectual assent to this duality in unity: thisneeds to happen, but it is only one step. One mustthen make it a reality by living it out. And beforeattaining reunification there is a time of dramaticinner dialogue, appeals, questions, and answers,followed by a gradual coming together and by evermore frequent and vivid sparks between the twopoles as they approach one another until the pointwhere they meet. They then separate again until thatmoment of great peace when the two become One. ❐

32 RAYS 03

ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATIONby Max Heindel

This volume on the Atlantean/Ancient Hebrew and Christian forms of Initiation containsthe results of spiritual investigations conducted by Max Heindel, himself an Initiate. Theformulae of Initiation for humanity under the New Covenant are herein described.

PART ONE

TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESSTHE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE

THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVEREAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLETHE ARK OF THE COVENANT

THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORYTHE NEW MOON AND INITIATION

PART TWO

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONMYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM

THE TEMPTATIONTHE TRANSFIGURATIONTHE LAST SUPPER AND

THE FOOTWASHINGGETHSEMANE, THE GARDEN OF GRIEFTHE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION

This book will give the sincere seeker of truth a deeper and more mystic insight into the history andalchemical process of Initiation as it takes place in the body of man and is revealed in the Bible. Publishedby the Rosicrucian Fellowship. Paper. 148 pages. Indexed. Please order on page 64.

THE STORY IS TOLD of agreat-hearted couple in Waleswho wanted to adopt aBelgian refugee child, andjourneyed to Swansea to

obtain one from the concentration campthere.* But none suited them save abrother and sister who clung to eachother so tenaciously that they had not theheart to separate them, so they decided toadopt both, and took them home. When thelady undressed the little girl she noticed alocket hanging around the child’s neck and the tottold her as well as she could that it contained a pic-ture of her mama who had been massacred. Whenshe opened the locket the lady saw with astonish-ment and grief a picture of her own sister who hadgone to Belgium as a governess years before, andof whom she had lost track. In this way it devel-oped that she had taken her slain sister’s childrento her heart and home.

How did it happen, or did it ‘happen’? That is aquestion of great moment, for it affects the destinyof every human being whether events in our livesare ruled by chance or design. The simplest expla-nation is, of course, that it “just happened” and itmay seem very farfetched to the majority to postu-late design. Still, Christ said: “the hairs on yourhead are numbered, and not even a sparrow fallethto the earth without your Father knoweth [sic]. Yeare of more value than many sparrows.” If Christtold the truth, and how can we doubt it, then theelement of chance is eliminated and all that befallsus is either the result of divine or human designoperating under and in harmony with the

immutable law of consequence, and theagencies which make these designs maybe either in the visible or invisibleworld.

On this hypothesis it is easy toaccount for the occurrence. When weask ourselves who would be interestedin bringing these children to their aunt

for protection, the answer is, obviously,the mother.And if one another can do that for her

children, then it follows that all mothers musthave similar ability to affect the destinies of theiroffspring, restricted of course by the law of causa-tion as already said; and if mothers can do suchthings, fathers or other relatives, in short, thewhole world on the other side of the veil of death,must have the power to affect every other personnow living here, and we must have the power toaffect them. There can be no half way measures.

To the occult investigator it is a matter of com-mon knowledge that those we call deadcontinuefor a time, varying according to their bent and dis-position, to take an interest in the affairs of thosethey have left behind, and endeavor, with varyingsuccess, to influence them as we influence oneanother in physical relations. They are not free todo this at all times, because episodes in the panora-ma of their past life demand their entire attentionwhile they are being expurgated, but between theseperiods our friends from the invisible world are rightwith us and embrace us with the same solicitudeand love they had for us while with us in the flesh.

Unfortunately, the reverse is also true: If anenemy dies we are not rid of him by that fact. Hemay indeed do us more harm there than he could in

RAYS 03 33

Do the Dead Lose Interest in Us?

FROM MAX HEINDEL’S WRITINGS

* From August 1915Rays

the body. That was felt on a small scale in theRusso-Japanese war when some of the clevercoups of the Japanese were due to impressionsreceived from the other side, and similar methodswere used to an extent no one not actually aware ofthe facts would believe, in the beginning of thepresent war. But the organized effect of the ElderBrothers and their bands of invisible helpers haveborne fruit to stem the current of hate among thevictims of battle, so that all who cross the portal ofdeath are now instructed in the effect of malice onthemselves and the world, their better natures areappealed to, and altruism extolled as nobler thanpatriotism; with the result that the majority areconverted, at least to the extent that they refrainfrom active endeavors to interfere in the battle. Wehave for many years advocated the abolition ofcapital punishment for similar reasons, the resent-

ful murderer is by that act of retaliation let loose toinfluence others similarly minded with the resultthat murders multiply, whereas if they were kept inprison they would be isolated until the passing yearshad cooled their resentment against society, and theywould then pass over in a less dangerous frame ofmind and would probably do no harm to society.

So let it be realized that it was an actual fact, andnot poetical sentiment when John McCreery wrote:

Though unseen to the mortal eye,They still are here and love us yet,The dear ones they have left behind,They never do forget.Yes ever near us though unseen,Our dear familiar spirits tread,For all God’s boundless Universe is Life,There are no dead. ❐

34 RAYS 03

The Unnecessary Fear of Death

I t is one of the greatest blessings conferredupon those who study and believe theRosicrucian teachings that they are gradually

emancipated from the fear of death and from thefeeling that a great calamity has happened whensome one near and dear to them passes into theinvisible beyond. A blessing flows both to the so-called "living" and the so-called "dead" when thedeparting spirit is given the proper care and helpduring the transition. It is then able to assimilatethe panorama of life, which will make the post-mortem existence full and profitable becauseundisturbed by the sorrow, grief, and hystericalweeping of those who are still in the body. Duringthe years which follow, it may also be assisted bytheir prayers.

On the other hand, those of the so-called "living"who study these teachings are learning to practicethis unselfish attitude toward death, so necessary tosoul growth, because they realize that as a matterof actual fact death of the body at the proper timeis the greatest blessing that can befall humanity.There is not one among us who has a body so per-fect that it is fit to be lived in forever. In most casesthe passing years bring out the weak points in ourvehicles to an increasing degree, crystallizing and

hardening them so that they become more andmore of a burden which we are only too glad to laydown. Then we have the hope and the knowledgethat we shall be given a new body and a new startin a future age, so that we may learn more of thelessons in life's school....

I trust that you will take this to heart and devoteyourself to spreading this knowledge, not as timeand opportunity offer, but taking time by the fore-lock and making the opportunity; but with all prop-er tactfulness so that the object we have in viewmay not be frustrated by using the wrong method.

Furthermore, it is not necessary to label thisknowledge. Bible instances can be brought forth toshow that this doctrine was believed by the Eldersof Israel who sent messengers to John the Baptistto ask if he were Elias. Also their speculations as towhether Christ was Moses, Jeremiah, or another ofthe prophets are evidence of their belief. Christbelieved in rebirth, because He stated definitelythat John the Baptist was Elias. This doctrine wasenunciated by Paul in the 15th chapter of 1stCorinthians, also in other places.

You can render no greater service to humanitythan by teaching them these truths. ❐

—Letters to Students, No. 77

QUESTION: I was a bit troubled withthe phrase "we shall be as Gods." Itseems that the whole of creation isdivided according to Milton's ParadiseLost in that one either chooses to serve

themselves or be in submission to the Holy Spirit. Ido not wish to be as a "god." I only wish to servehim. Can you enlighten me on this subject?Answer: It seems that one of our earliest forbears,Eve, wanted to be as the Gods. Why? It was her des-tiny and God's will. In the first creation account,theElohim said "Let us make man in our image, afterour likeness." Eve's desire to be like the Gods,weare told, led to the "Fall," to physical consciousness.The context is familiar: the serpent said:"Ye shall notsurely die, for God knows that in the day ye eatthereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shallbe as gods, knowing good and evil."

Christ Jesus, the Son of God the Father, told hisdisciples that "the things that I do shall ye do, andgreater things than these shall ye do." How will thisbe possible? The Rosicrucian Teachings maintainthat the human Spirit originates in God as part ofGod. Our inherent, essential nature is divine. We aresparks of Divinity which, over the course of eons oftime, are fanned into active powers for good, intocreative knowledge. Our destiny is to become likethe Father, as stupendous, even sacrilegious as thismay at first seem.

The Jews wanted to stone Jesus because, theysaid, he blasphemed. What was his blasphemy?That "thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesusanswered them, Is it not written in your law, I said,Ye are gods?" (John 10:33-34).

After Paul healed the man at Lystra who was"crippled from his mother's womb, who had neverwalked," the people exclaimed "the gods are come

down to us in the likeness of men." (Acts 14:11) Each human is a Virgin Spirit who was differenti-

ated in God and separated off by sheathes of spiritsubstance and an outer "coat of [physical] skin" toacquire experience in the physical world so that hecan convert potential divinity into active god-wield-ing powers and wisdom and the kind of cosmic loveevinced by Christ Jesus Himself when He sacrificedhis superhuman identity to assist, as Paul describeshumans, His younger brothers, as well as the entireearth organism.

Your profession of obedience to the Holy Spirit iscommendable. Through this obedience (from theword meaning to hear) you will in time be informedof your even more glorious destiny entailed in doingthe Father's will, which, as his son, is to know Himand become like unto Him.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard the things thatGod has planned for them that love Him. For in thislove itself is implicit the law that the lover is likeunto the beloved.

Question: You encourage us to ask questions. Wewish your web pages and articles were more up todate....For example: What is Your position in regardto the so-called Planet X? Will it be near our Earthin 2003, as many assert, or....??Answer: "Up to date" is surely a relative assess-ment and most often the term is applied to today's"groundbreaking" news which is tomorrow's irrele-vancy, fabrication, or mere error. Discoveries and"breakthroughs" in the "war on cancer" have beenblitzing the press since Richard Nixon declared bat-tle in 1971. Yet what's new, with all the develop-ments and thousands of "promising" drugs assayedand foisted on doctors and patients by the pharma-ceutical companies? The spiritual dimension must

RAYS 03 35

Being as Gods l Planet X

READER’S QUESTIONS

inform practice in all areas of human endeavor forreal news, real development to take place, be it inmedicine, astronomy, biology, or geophysics.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship is dedicated to thedissemination of spiritual truths. The physical sci-ences ground and corroborate these truths and showtheir operation on the physical plane. The materialworld is an emanation of spiritual forces and is gov-erned by spiritual laws. Perspective and discern-ment are needed to cull the few significant discov-eries from the daily raft of false reports, novel pro-posals, and hypotheses passed off as facts—e.g.,Darwinian evolution. We have an avalanche ofinformation at our hands. What do we do with it?How do we order it? How do we separate what isimportant from what trivial? If we don't have anordering principle, if we lack a system of transcen-dent values, we are unable to intelligently evaluateand use (and mostly dismiss!) information.Information comes from registering sensory data.Knowledge comes from applying logical thought tothis data. Wisdom comes from living in accordancewith spiritual verities, which are disclosed by the"inner eye" of intuition and the awakened faculty ofextrasensory perception, which will reveal spiritualrealities that, often as not, fly in the face of today'siconic truths, such as heliocentrism (on the soullevel), or the ascent of humans from apes, or that theheart "pumps" blood, etc.

Let us seek and cultivate what abides, what isenduring, what makes a qualitative difference in ourlives, what better enables us to know the Creatorand his creatures, including our fellow humans.

Lest this response to your question be thought awindy harangue, or a lazy evasion, we offer the fol-lowing to more directly address your inquiry.

While humans are regularly doomed with apoca-lyptic scenarios, we ourselves are the causativeagents in all earthly catastrophes. In the bookBlindsided: Planet X Passes in 2003, MarkHazlewood claims that the approach of a Planet X,a large “reddish chunk of matter” inbound from theorbit of Pluto, “is currently causing Earth to experi-ence a long list of seismic, volcanic, and weatherrelated problems." The truth is, however, thathuman beings prepare for and create all the seismicand volcanic disturbances on our Planet Earth andare responsible for them by their materialistic think-

ing and immoral behavior. To the extent that Planet X, or any other anom-

alous extraterrestrial body, is found scientifically tocause an earthly upheaval, it would be only a prox-imate cause, a vehicle called into being in responseto and a counterbalance for human wrongdoing. Fearnot Planet X. Rather let each fear his own power todo wrong and experience the repercussions thatmust, according to cosmic law, follow from them.

In the publication Nature Spirits and NatureForces, Max Heindel writes: “Thus the world is justwhat we ourselves, individually and collectively,have made it; and it will be what we make it. Theoccult scientist sees in everything that happens acause of a spiritual nature manifesting itself, notomitting the prevalence and alarmingly increasingfrequency of seismic disturbances, which it traces tothe materialistic thought of modern science.

“It is true that purely physical causes can bringabout such disturbances, but is that the last word onthe subject? Can we always get the full explanationby merely recording what appears on the surface?[Or from above the surface?] Surely not! Theoccultist says that if materialism had not been, seis-mic disturbances would not have occurred.”

“[T]he ‘hand of God’which smites a Sodom or aGomorrah is not a foolish superstition, for as surelyas there is individual responsibility to the Law ofConsequence which brings to each person the justresults of his deeds whether for good or evil, so isthere also community and national responsibility,which brings upon groups of men correspondingresults for their collective acts.”

As for apparent aberrations in the weather, TheRosicrucian Cosmo-Conception informs us that inthe “Aerial Region" or third division of the Regionof Concrete Thought are the archetypes of all thedesires, passions, wishes, feelings, and emotionsthat we experience in the Desire World, which man-ifest as atmospheric conditions; so that, for instance,the passions of warring nations appear as flashes oflightening. The atmospherics of weather, while hav-ing their physical causes, ultimately issuefrom spir-itual archetypes, which, in turn, are reflectionsofhuman thought, word, desire, and deed.

Finally, when catastrophes do occur, as in theAtlantean Flood, and many people die, it is the bodythat dies. The spirit endures, for it is eternal. ❐

36 RAYS 03

THE FIVE FOLLOWERS

THE Seaof Galilee,always closely asso-ciated with Christ’sMinistry, is mostinterestingly situat-

ed. Almost circular in shape, inearly Christian times it was sur-rounded by twelve towns, allprominent in the life and activi-ty of the Master. The size ofthese towns was such that theoutskirts of one merged into theborders of the next. Toward the north, where theRiver Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee, layCapernaum, Bethsaida and Magdala. FromCapernaum came four of the most illustrious of theDisciples. Of these Andrew and Peter were the firstto give allegiance to the Master.

ANDREW

Andrew was the first called but he never camefirst in point of leadership. Deeply humble and of aquiet, retiring nature, Andrew revealed his truegreatness when he yielded first place to his famousbrother and remained content to shine in Peter’sglory. Andrew and John seem to have workedtogether in an intimate companionship. A fragmentfrom a very ancient canon of the New Testamentindicates that Andrew assisted John in writing hisGospel. He has been called the patron saint of per-sonal workers.

Eusebius reports that Andrew met death in

Greece, by command ofAegeas, who complained thatall the people were desertingtemple worship to follow themiracles of the new way as pro-claimed by this Disciple. Ademand was made that Andrewrecall the people to worship theancient religion by pouring outa libation to the gods. ThisAndrew refused to do. Then itwas commanded that theDisciple should impart to

Aegeas secrets of his magic art,else he should hang upon the cross which was theemblem of his faith. Andrew replied, “If thouwouldst know the truths of discipleship then thoumust live the life in order to learn what thou artinquiring after. Torture cannot draw from me thesesacred things.”

When Andrew was placed upon the cross he said,a beautiful smile making radiant his face, “I rejoiceto hang upon the cross of Christ which has beenadorned with His limbs as if with pearls.”

As he prayed he became joyous and exultant. Agreat light from heaven shone like lightning uponhim, surrounding him with such splendor that mor-tal eyes could not look upon him.

When he was taken from the cross Maximilia, thewife of the ruler, anointed the body with costlyspices and laid it in her own tomb. This holywoman, having been illumined by the love ofChrist, lived quietly with the Christians.

THOMAS

Diophanes and Rhea were prosperous innkeepersin the Syrian city of Antioch. Ten years after

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Discipleship

WESTERN WISDOM BIBLE STUDIES

The second and third of this four-part study, begun in theNovember-December 2002 Rays,considers the five disciplesbelonging to the second or Fellowship degree of Discipleship.

The FellowshipDegree

Part 1

Manuscript,A

uct.D.inf.2.11 f42v

Bodeleian Library, O

xford

St Andrew

Tiberias became Emperor, twins—a boy Thomasand a girl Lysias—were born to this couple. WhenThomas was fourteen an incident occurred which,he said, largely determined his destiny. Three Magi,returning home from a visit to Jerusalem, spent twodays at the inn. The lad was deeply impressed withthe story they told of the great Star and of the Babeborn in a manger. This infant, the Wise Mendeclared to Thomas, was to become King of Light.

Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, At last he beat his music out. There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.

These lines of Tennyson are appropriate toThomas, the doubting Disciple, of whom it has beensaid, “Doubts were simply minor chords in a lifewhich produced thrilling organ music.”

Thomas was pessimistic and despondent; he wasalso fearless, loyal and constant once his doubtswere allayed. He was a literalist in the early days ofhis discipleship. Later, after the wondrous experi-ences which came to the inner Group in the interimbetween the Resurrection and the Ascension, all hisgloomy questionings were swept away. His doubt-ing was transformed into a glorious realization—acertainty, born of first-hand knowledge, which lift-ed him into spiritual status next to Peter and John.On that Octave Easter Sunday when Thomasexclaimed adoringly to the Risen Christ, “My Lordand my God,” his dedication was complete.

After Pentecost Thomas went into India carryingthe message of the Christ. There remains, in moderntimes, on the coast of Malabar, a sect calling them-selves the Followers of St. Thomas. This Disciplewas known as a true master builder and is, therefore,denominated the patron saint of architects. His sym-bol is the Mason’s Square. The Masonic Lodge ofKilwinning, Scotland, was dedicated to him. LikeJohn, Thomas is an apostle of Gnosis, for he typifiesthe intellectualist so frequently found in Hellenisticsociety.

The following legend is in harmony with occultinvestigation. When Thomas was in India, KingGundaphorus discovered that he was a builder andgave him a large sum of money to use in building awinter palace. At this time the famine among thepoor was most grievous, so Thomas spent all the

king’s money to alleviate their condition. When theking returned to his province and discovered that nobuilding had been begun yet all the money had beenspent, he cast Thomas into prison with the threatthat he should be flayed alive. Before this sentencecould be carried out the only brother of the kingexpired quite suddenly, then reappeared before KingGundaphorus saying the Angels had shown him aglorious palace in heaven which Thomas had build-ed by his deeds of love and service to his fellowmen on earth. The king, giving heed to his brother’smessage, released Thomas from prison and there-after subscribed to his good works.

The incidents described in this legend are basedon first-hand knowledge. All are building in innerrealms the conditions and environment they willknow after death, and one’s heaven accuratelyreflects the life lived on earth. “I myself am heavenand hell.” Love and service poured out on earthbecomes beauty and fruitfulness in heaven. Selfish-ness and egotism here are duplicated there as lackand suffering. Exact and just is the working of theLaw of Cause and Effect on all planes of being.

In this apocryphal history of Thomas is found,perhaps, the earliest reference to the theme of theInterior Palace, celebrated in medieval times as theCastle of the Holy Grail. It is significant that a lateGerman legend relates that when the Grail disap-peared in Europe it was taken to India and hiddenfrom the eyes of men in the high Himalayas. Again,it is written that Parsifal had a twin brother, Feirfeis,“in the East,” and that he who last took the Grail setout to find this brother—a reference to the orientalChristian communities of the middle and far East,all of which area was included in the name India inancient times. The ministry of Thomas includedPersia and the Bosporus region as well as Indiaproper. It was in India that Thomas went to a mar-tyr’s death.

In the course of his ministry Thomas performedmany miraculous works accounted as sorceries byhis enemies. He was imprisoned under sentence ofdeath, but was so popular with the people that theauthorities feared they might attempt his rescue, sosent him into the mountains under a guard of fivesoldiers. Two walked on either side of him and onewent ahead. Taking note of their position Thomasexclaimed, “O the hidden mysteries of Life! Behold,

38 RAYS 03

four have laid hold of me because Iconsist of four elements, and oneleads me since I belong to the Onetoward whom I am always going.”

As Thomas prayed the four struckat him at once. The numerologicalsymbolism here is very beautiful.Four represents the personality andone the Spirit. The four strike him,for only the personality is destruc-tible. Spirit, the One, is immortal.

The disciples of Thomas wrappedhis body in fine linen shawls andlaid it in a tomb. As they sat watch-ing he reappeared before them in hisspirit-body and said, “I am not there.Why do you sit watching? I havegone up to receive the things I hopefor and after a time you too shall bebrought beside me.”

It is an arresting commentary onSt. Thomas, that in the apocryphalhistory he is described as having become the veryimage of Christ. So much so that when the MasterJesus, in the body of the Resurrection, appeared inIndia (a legend which has not received the attentionit deserves) the two could not be told apart. ThatJames, the Master’s kinsman, should have borneHim so close a resemblance is in no way remark-able. But Thomas seems to have grown into Hislikeness through the putting on of the Christed spir-it.

Truly illumined individuals down through theages have recognized the fundamental unity under-lying spiritual concepts of East and West. This unityof doctrine has been expressed by Wise Ones inmany ways, both in parable and legend, in everycentury. The method of approach varies in accor-dance with racial and environmental differences,but the Truth is One.

The Supreme Master demonstrated this fact whenhe came to the East bringing a message that hasbeen paramount in the West. The West at presentfinds its center in doing, the East in being. Thecourse of wisdom is an equitable exchange of valuesbetween the two. The West must learn to spiritualizeits activities and the East to activate its latent spiri-tual power.

The occult writer, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, stresses theimportance of this amalgamation in his book, TheEast in the Light of the West. He points out thatthese “two worlds must unite themselves in love,”and adds that “we shall eventually come to recog-nize that there is a light of the West, which shines inorder to make that which originates in the East moreluminous than it is through its own power.” He con-cludes that when any man reaches the place wherehe can know both paths, their fundamental unity isclearly recognizable.

The well-known divine, Dr. E. Stanley Jones, inhis book, The Christ of the Indian Road—which isalmost a religious classic—also points to the sameOneness of Spirit between East and West. AndNicholas Roerich, inspired painter-poet-philoso-pher, whose universalism of spirit led to his beingcalled the Walt Whitman of painting, dedicates hiscultural and artistic genius in service to this unity.He has predicted that the divine Feminine, theMadonna influence, will create a bridge between thetwo worlds, and that their spiritual fusion will giveto the world a spiritual power and aesthetic culturemore transcendently beautiful than anything previ-ously known. ❐

—Corinne Heline

RAYS 03 39

Tempera on wood, 1308-11, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena

The Doubting ThomasThe disciple who had to see and touch is no stranger to many students ofRosicrucian Christianity, who typically want proof (reasons) before they believe.

EVEN acasual and cursoryinvestigation of astrology will con-vince most people that “there issome-thing in it.” As interest really awakens

through further study and examina-tion, curiosity will become strongerand conviction will increaseas timepasses. Many who have approachedthe subject in a spirit of rank skep-ticism have been fascinated by thetruth of its teachings and havebecome whole-hearted converts.The history of astrology is repletewith such cases.

It will be assumed that the indi-vidual is convinced that the teach-ings of astrology are correct, thatthe position of the heavenly bodiesat his birth have “stamped” himwith an indelible and quite distinc-tive imprint. This knowledge willprobably be received with varyingemotions according to the type ofmind concerned. There are those,presumably, who would regard thewhole matter with indifference andunconcern and would miss thedeep significance of this planetary power. Deeplyimmersed in the affairs of everyday life, full of thezest of living and bent upon enjoying themselvesto the utmost, they refuse to be bothered with thesubject. They are too fond of the fleshpots to giveconsideration to any factor that might be expected

to disturb theirpeace of mind.

Another class might concedethat astrology could vindicate its claims to

recognition but would admit no particular need forits assistance. Staunch adherents of some certain

type of religious faith, they areconscious of sufficient satisfactiontherefrom without delving intoany astrological mysteries. Stillothers would adopt a highly inim-ical attitude towards sciencewhich, they would aver, madesuch preposterous claims. Thisconservative and mentally inflexi-ble attitude might regard astrologyas irreligious and as smacking ofsuperstition and paganism. Fromthe spiritual standpoint, the mosthopeless class of all is representedby the hard-boiled atheist whoscorns and ridicules the verynotion of astrological truth.

It is a lamentable fact that thevery people who would certainlyderive the utmost benefit fromastrology are often those whom itis most difficult to reach.

What, then, has astrology to offerin these busy, harrying, worrying times, indeed,any time? How can it profit an individual who hasbeenattracted to its serious claims? What, in short,can it do for him?

In the first place, astrology shows us what andwhere we are. It is a sure index to our character. It

40 RAYS 03

The Value of Astrology

ASTROLOGY

Paracelsus, herbalist, alchemist,occultist, healer, presented theRosicrucian teachings in “a moreveiled manner.” (Note the rose abovehis head.) Astrology figured promi-nently in his thought and work. Heponders the Hippocratic mottowhich counsels,“first do no harm.”

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reveals our weaknesses and strengths, our emo-tional and intellectual urges. It brings to light ourlatent capacities and the particular avenues alongwhich we would make the most material progressand secure the most happiness from our endeavors.Perhaps most important of all, it clearly indicatesthe degree of our moral and spiritual strength. Thisinformation in itself would be worth all the timeand trouble expended upon its study. Actually, anindividual could ascertain these details after acomparatively short acquaintance with astrology.Deeper insight into the intricacies of the horoscopewill be acquired through wider experience andmore extended research.

Well may we heed the motto that was engraved

above the main entrance of the temple at Delphi,words which Plato’s teacher, Socrates, had madehis own: “Man, know thyself.” To be positivelyaware of one’s actual power or weakness is to befortified in every way. No good purpose could beserved by a blind or irrational optimism that wouldunduly magnify our powers or incite us to expendenergy along channels unsuited to our capacities. Itis possible for ambition to minimize or ignore thelimitations imposed upon us by our natural talents.Astrology is extremely useful here by clearlyshowing the “lines of least resistance.” Scientificvocational analysis by means of the birth-chartconstitutes a trustworthy guide to those talentswhich could be utilized to the best advantage.

Astrology may confer its greatest benefit inaccurately appraising the intrinsic strength of ourmorals. It is at this point that we most clearly real-ize the high status of this science. The student herestands upon holy ground and is drawn close inthought to those great planetary Spirits whose rayspermeate and influence all human life on earth.The texture of an individual’s moral fiber is accu-rately shown by the horoscope of birth and conse-quently the ease or difficulty he will experience in

mastering this part of his nature. A little thoughtwill go to show that much of our fate in this life isdependent upon the evolution of our moral nature.Low desires and coarse impulses are the signaturesof an undeveloped moral sense. When these indi-cations exist the soul is distinctly warned of trou-ble ahead. It will know that through its actions inpast lives it has accumulated this heavy karmicdebt which must be paid off at some time or other.

Similarly, refined and elevated emotions are thesure reward of one’s efforts in the past. They mightbe regarded as funds in the bank of destiny.

Everything will depend upon how thoseresources are employed. It is possible from a fine,auspicious start to so mismanage one’s affairs that

severe loss and discredit may result. Retrogressioninstead of progress is quite possible through failureto properly appreciate the value of one’s posses-sions and the responsibility entailed by wise stew-ardship. The Bible story of the talents is one thatmay be profitably pondered. The two servants whohad used their master’s money profitably weresuitably rewarded. The fearful slothful servantwho had buried the single talent with which he wasentrusted received a severe reprimand. The indi-vidual will be compelled to account for the use hehas made of all his faculties.

To know the full extent of our moral weaknessmay cause us disquietude and remorse. But weshould profit as the result of this disclosure. Theregenerative process can be more effectively set inoperation when we are aware of the nature andextent of our shortcomings. Knowledge is power.But knowledge must be intelligently and faithfullyapplied. The absolute necessity for purification ofthe moral nature must be realized. The will must bearoused and exerted to play its dominant part inthis righteous cause.

Astrology is thus linked closely with all the spiri-tual forces of the universe. Individual characteristics

RAYS 03 41

The Law of Consequence works in harmony with the stars, so that a man isborn at the time when the positions of the bodies in the solar system willgive the conditions necessary to his experience and advancement in theschool of life. That is why astrology is an absolutely true science, though eventhe best astrologer mad misinterpret it, because he is fallible.—Max Heindel

and other indications of destiny are clearly shownin the natal chart. Through countless earth-livesthe ego has constructed the conditions under whichit is born. The one-earth-life theory is obviouslyinadequate to explain the various and widespreadanomalies of existence. Surely it is more reason-able to believe that the destiny which is mappedout in the horoscope corresponds exactly to one’sdeserts than to suppose that one has been the vic-tim of blind chance! Those who are laboring undera severely afflicted birth-chart would have causefor real resentment were any other theory pro-posed.

Profound reflection upon this aspect of the sub-ject will lead to the conviction that purpose anddesign underlie the destiny foreshown in everyhoroscope. If an overarching, omniscient intelli-gence (Deity) governs the whole cosmos, justicemust reign throughout. It therefore follows thateach ego encounters at birth exactly what it hasearned by reason of its actions and exertions inpast lives.

If the ego has conscientiously attended to itsduties and faithfully learned its various lessonsthroughout the past a favorable horoscope willhave crowned its endeavors. If, on the other hand,it has misused its opportunities in the school of lifeand shirkedits tasks, thepenalty is asclearly evi-dent. Geniussignifies cre-ative powerand abilityrightly earnedby diligentwork beforethe present incarnation. Those who find them-selves handicapped during the present life willunderstand that they themselves only are to blame;but also that they can apply the remedy.

Astrology should therefore serve as a stimulusand inspiration and as a most practical aid toaccomplishment. Its sacred implications shouldalways be present to the mind. It should spur onthe individual to “live the life,” to tread the Path of

spiritual endeavor. Encouragement will alwaysreward the efforts of those who have thus conse-crated their whole being to the higher life. If thisstandard appears beyond the reach of many, realexertion along this line should, at least, be made.

Astrology thus teaches the important lesson thateach individual mustshoulder the fullresponsibility for allthat he is and has. Healone has been thearbiter of his fate, thearchitect of his ownfortunes. The aim andobject of evolution isseen to be the perfec-tion of each egothrough gradual andsystematic cleansingof its vehicles anddevelopment of itspowers until liberationfrom rebirth has beenattained. To make ofeach ego a creator—from the ordinarymeaning of that wordto grades and phasesofbeing totally beyondhuman comprehen-sion—this is themeaning of evolution.

Those who havecome into contact withastrology are thereforeespecially favored.They possess insideinformation, as it were,

of these spiritual truths. They are the recipients ofthe priceless treasures of occult knowledge thatformerly were jealously guarded by the few. Intheir possession is placed the master key by meansof which they may unlock door after door in thecosmic temple of spiritual understanding andendeavor. They have been given much and muchwill be expected of them. This is a spiritual truthemphasized in all occult teaching. Astrology

42 RAYS 03

Engraving, William Blake (1757-1827), from Blake’s illustrations for Edward Young’s Night Thoughts

In pathos an angel records the degradation of a soul and its difficult destiny.

© D

over Publications, Inc.

certainly reveals the true significance of spiritualstewardship. The ego has been entrusted with thetask of fashioning its own destiny. It should takeheart and courage from this fact.

If the astrological student has been lax and indif-ferent to all the wonderful and majestic teaching ofthis subject, the more reason for a complete orien-tation of the life in conformity with these sublimetruths. Let it be remembered that God is notmocked but requires from all the utmost exertionof which we are capable. In the battle of life wecannot default in our duty and cravenly hidebehind the lines in the hope that we may escape thefull brunt of our responsibilities. It is essential that

we face our horoscope bravely and refrain from apusillanimous inclination to shirk our immediateduties. The longer we delay in consciously layinghold of our karmic obligations, the more difficultwill be the task in the future.

Debts of destiny contracted in former livesshould be liquidated as quickly as possible. Thiscan only be done by concentrated, conscientiouseffort. Drifting aimlessly with the tide of life,reaching forward eagerly to every sensual plea-sure, succumbing supinely to every passing temp-tation, such behavior assures retrogression, possi-bly of the most deplorable kind. A positive, aggres-sive attitude towards an unfortunate, heavilyafflicted nativity constitutes the one obvious, logi-cal method of spiritual redemption.

When one has become fully awakened to clearly-defined duty and has faced one’s horoscopeunflinchingly, salvation lies straight ahead.Regeneration will then proceed surely and steadilyand this policy of renunciation of the spirituallyworthless will bring its inevitable rewards. Theindividual will be heartened by the knowledge that

he is ceasing (or almost so) to generate fresh karmathat must inevitably require liquidation in a subse-quent incarnation. This is no trivial advantage.Rather, it spells quick and certain advancement.And let the aspirant so flood his consciousnesswith this feeling of spiritual stewardship that eachtemptation as it arises will be more than half con-quered before its onslaught has been made.

The more one can cultivate this consciousness ofspiritual awareness, of one’s close identity with thespiritual universe, the easier will it be to conformthe life to the highest standard. A devotional atti-tude may be acquired through prayer and contem-plation and in this way the whole being raised to a

higher rate of vibration. Astrology teaches thateach is compelled to work out his spiritual destiny,that life is a gift to be utilized to the utmost advan-tage. It stresses cultivating the attributes of obliga-tion, ardent endeavor, and optimism.

The great planetary spirits guiding human evo-lution may be presumed to know what it best foreach. A mental attitude overwhelmed with a senseof solemnity and fatalism, tinged even withdepression, would be deprecated by every implica-tion of astrological teaching. This frame of mindshould be abandoned if it has gained any controlwhatever over the general outlook upon life. Modernpsychology would here join forces with astrologyin advocating a bright and positive outlook, a joy-ous, confident, and courageous spirit ready at alltimes to grapple with the problems of life.

We come now, naturally, to the question ofhealth. Here again astrology affords a furtherexample of its practical utility. By indicating withprecision the strongest and weakest parts of ourphysical structure, the proper remedies can beapplied with the greatest possible advantage. The

RAYS 03 43

Astrology is a phase of Mystic Religion, as sublime as the stars with which itdeals, and not to be confused with fortune-telling. The educational value of

astrology lies in its capacity to reveal the hidden causes at work in our lives.It counsels adults in regard to vocation, parents in the guidance of children,teachers in management of pupils, judges in executing sentence, physiciansin diagnosing and treating disease, and in similar manner lends aid to each

and all in whatever station or enterprise they may find themselves.

medical aspect of this science can certainly bemade to produce beneficial results. When thephysical body has been toned up in a scientific wayit will be a more efficient instrument for theexpression of the individual spirit. In many casesthe mind will reflect the healthier condition of thephysical body and will therefore be more capablefor both personal and altruistic service.

The role played by astrology in furthering thespiritual development of the soul through purifica-tion and renunciation must now be extended inanother and impersonal direction. Service repre-sents one of the principal avenues along which wemake spiritual progress—pure altruistic service.To give out to others what we have ourselvesreceived is of the very essence of spirituality. Apractical knowledge of astrology will enable theindividual to assist others in many useful ways.Advice of instrumental value may be rendered onbusiness, vocation, health, etc. By giving outfreely and lovingly to others the individual is stor-ing up spiritual treasures for himself.

In time this sustained and earnest effort towardshigher development will meet with its naturalreward. The “substance” of both the physical andthe finer bodies will be raised to a higher pitch ofvibration. Purer matter will be built into thesevehicles of the spirit until finally the soul bodyassumes a luster and radiance that gives clear indi-cation of intrinsic spiritual worth. This luminosityof the vital body will signify distinct progressalong the Path, and in fact will automaticallyattract advanced spiritual teachings to the fortunateaspirant.

Astrology, by thus contrasting the ordinary,orthodox teachings with these higher occult truths,and by affording proof of human “survival,” isinstrumental in accomplishing this wonderfulwork. It may well be cherished.

By indicating fortunate and adverse periods inone’s life, astrology may be employed in stillanother useful way. To be forewarned is to be par-tially protected against or braced for any circum-stances or emergency. Apprised of periods of timewhen the planetary forces are propitious for aggres-siveaction and enterprise the individual can sum-mon all his resources to meet the occasion. On the

other hand, when adverse influences are foreshowncaution and prudence may be allowed to exercisetheir sway. Here again, this knowledge can beapplied to personal affairs or used to assist others.

An accomplished astrological student, therefore,possesses a most useful instrument for the attain-ment both of material and spiritual progress.

It is to be sincerely hoped that astrology maygain greater favor among all classes of people as timegoes on and that it may soon reach an outstandingand authoritative position in educational activitiesthroughout the world. ❐

—H.W. Stevens

44 RAYS 03

A SOLILOQUY

Well, I was stung today! At every turn

Opposing forces swept me from my goal,

And every follow worker seemed to burn

With generosity to heap on coal.

Ha! Here’s my horoscope! What aspect vile

Could operate to filch from me my pile?

Could this be it? Let’s see, the Lady Moon

Was transiting a square; from fixed signs, too.

It culminated at—exactly noon.

I understand. An ancient debt came due—

An obligation I could not evade.

The Lords of Destiny would see it paid.

My treasured savings in the discard—lost!

How I had worked and skimped to save that

pile!

Financially, l’m wrecked and tempest-tossed—

NO! I can suffer and serenely smile;

The Lords of Destiny exchanged my roll

For everlasting qualities of soul.

When I have paid unto the bitter end

And no more debts contracted or implied,

Then I can laugh at what the stars portend

And say “Your power o’er me is nullified.”

Oh, aspect vile—with hidden blessing fraught!

I’m grateful for the lesson you have taught.

—Isabel Ambler Gilman

THE CHARACTER of Capricornendows its natives with the qualityattributed to the Goat—the ability toclimb cautiously from crag to crag andsummit to summit, ever ascending. The

place of the mountain peaks seems to be theirhappiest habitat. Capricorn confers thepowerful inner impulse toproduce aprogress that is both physical andspiritual, which the occult-minded soul understands. Atthe same time there is asocial sense peculiar to thissign which also demandssatisfaction and seeks it inobsequious conduct whereplace and power are con-cerned. This in its negativephase can descend to down-right objectionable servilefawning, and there is no doubtthat Dickens had this sign in sightwhen he created the character ofUriah Heap, who ever unc-tuously washed his handswith an invisible soap.

Consciously or uncon-sciously Capricorn nativeshave within them a power of authority over othersand it is this mode of mastery which ever bringsthem to a place of power or responsibility, onerousor otherwise, in a family, local, national or world-wide context.

The sense of power, authority, and responsibilityin Capricorn becomes admirable only in proportionto the actual amount of Christ-consciousness mani-

festing in the individual. The more this power ofpractical mysticism is possessed, the finer and high-er the success, at least spiritually—and eventuallypractically, for it should be etched into the mind thatthe dual factors of Practical and Spiritual inhere in

this sign in marked degree.We see an outstanding example of the

practical mysticism of this sign informer President Wilson with

his Sun in Capricorn andMoon in Aquarius, with theSaturn exaltation sign ofunion, Libra, rising atbirth. His was the idea ofthe League of Nationswhich his own countryrepudiated, which repudi-ation increased the chaos

that produced the secondWorld War. Yet this Christ

Idea from a soul saturate in theneed and nurture of Saturn will

live, grow, and be required of aworld whose people shall beforced into Friendship.

True power comes to theCapricorn soul in proportionto his moral-spiritual growth.

As the mind expands and the intellect becomeslighted by the Christ Intuition, then do these nativescease to react to the gall of jealousy and that fear-some antipathy which causes them to live incessant-ly with the idea that someone is about to steal theirplace, power, or prestige. As the Capricorn nativedissolves the darkness through the growing flood ofthe Christ Light which shines in that darkness,

RAYS 03 45

The Character of Capricorn and Saturn

ASTROLOGY

Illumination, English Psalter, c.1170, Glasgow University Library

Although classical authors often refer to Capricornexclusively as a goat, the older goat-fish image can betraced to Mesopotamia and the Chaldean god of wis-dom, Oannes, who was half-man, half-fish.

positive power and swift advancement is pressedupon him.

The paradox of Capricorn is a paradox of Scorpio,for heaven and hell, the darkness and light, inhere inboth signs in their opposite phases. The Light of theChrist informs each aspect: in the nightside force ofSaturn and in the power of the day also. In bothcases it is the Power of the Sun of Righteousness,and Paul from firsthand testimony says, in secondCorinthians, the fifth chapter: “For we must allappear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body, accord-ing to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we per-suade men.” Again, when Peter preached to thehousehold of Cornelius, we see that he becamecommissioned through Christ, for observe his wordsin Acts 10:42: “And He commanded us to preachunto the people, and to testify that it is He which wasordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.”

Saturnine forces make for gloom, pessimism, anddarkness, for Saturn is the darkness into which theLight shines. The Jewish people are ruled by thissign as are the people in India, where the meditativemind ever ruminates, impeding a full accommoda-tion to the physical world by utilizing its resources,harnessing its energies, and mastering its conditions.

So strong is the force of philosophy in theCapricorn sign, and so searchingly scrutinizing is themind of these natives, in a gaze incessantly inward,that sometime, some life, they will come to an ele-vation of consciousness and a comprehension of theLight that was ever shining in the darkness! Out ofthe condition of inevitable destiny which this signinvariably confers—the oppression, limitation, frus-tration, delays, and denials—out of the darkness ofthis formative building soul-force, there at lastcomes the Light of the living Christ. And even thoseamong Jewish people who are stereotypically recal-citrant and those among the Hindu people who areretroflective will come to this realization of theChrist—as will the whole world.

The curse of a negative Capricorn is the lack ofpower to perceive the spiritual Christ Light whichshines in the darkness. Those so affected cannot dis-cern spiritual reality. In their egoism and horribleself-sufficiency they believe their ideas and views

are the only right ones—the only Truth. So strong isthe force of Form in this Saturn sign that Spirit oftenremains untapped and unknown. This conditioninverts the idea of God. The personality under sucha state of spiritual death sometimes makes monstersof misrule who betray their stewardship, whether ingovernment or finance.

The soul is veritably sold to the devil under thenegative Saturnine forces of Capricorn wherebycome suicide, sorcery and every tendency whichbespeaks black magic. A compelling power to cheatoneself or others is seen in Saturn’s darkness andthis is not reversed until the Light breaks down thefalse astral illusion. However, it is this GreatIllusion in which all the world lives. Men move inthe “light of darkness,” through the negative com-ponents of the Saturn-Moon-Mars forces. Referenceto this fact is clearly seen in Revelation 12:9 whereChrist says: “And the Great Dragon was cast out,that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, whichdeceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into theearth, and his angels with him.”

Capricorn natives experience real salvation andinstant progress when the Christ Light breaksthrough into the brain-bound personality, for notuntil this time will these souls become truly self-effacing and impersonal. The weakness ofCapricorn is the thirst for power, fame, honor, andtitle. Jesus referred to them as Pharisees, who lovethe uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats inthe synagogues and greetings in the markets and tobe called of men “Master.”

The mighty power of the Father-force inCapricorn is only truly tapped and expressed as itssubjects realize the Light which shines in the dark-ness, for when this Light is comprehended the high-est attainments are achieved through the action ofthe Christ Within, which is all-wise, all-loving, andall-intelligent. But not until the humanity ofAquarius is added unto the patient persistence ofCapricorn is the true force of the Father-fire addedto the Christ, so that the Christ may say, “I and myFather are One.” This means that active intelligencehas been added to the wisdom of love and with thisfact comes spiritual intelligence.

Not until they transmute fear can Capricorn nativessecure true health, for melancholia and morbid

46 RAYS 03

states of mind and feeling saturate and sink thesesouls and give rise to numerous ailments in thedigestive tract and the skeletal system. One ruseoften resorted to by Capricorn people is to threatensuicide if they cannot get their own way. Their worstenemy then is despondency, a lack of buoyancy, andfor this reason such souls are bestinformed on the mechanics of ourlife and planet, and fully realizethe appalling effect that earth-bound ignorant humans exertupon their fellows, influencingthose who are negatively psychicso that they fall under the sway ofevil forces.

The ideas of place, power,prestige, and personality standstrongest in Capricorn and untilthe Light of the Christ is foundshining in the darkness, the soulremains supine through snobberyand judgments based on outwardform and conditions. Yet theGolden Wedding Garment ofGod is in this master sign, butone must have worked his waythrough the negative form-forcesof Saturn before the positiveFather power is earned and actu-alized. The weakest and thestrongest souls come out of this sign—the mightymeditatives, God-men, and also the “untouchables.”

Capricorn over connotes a person animated withstrong personal ambition, with the element of ego-ism, expressing as a Saturnine fact and forcethrough which the man passes, to rise at last in thislife or the next into its complementary quality ofaltruism. In a planet of duality the power of oppos-ing forces ever manifest until the crown and con-summation of the Christ Man is realized. The powerof the Father-force is in Capricorn, but first the soulmust contend with the strong lunar influence thatimpels action along negative lines and kindles astrong desire to wield power for selfish purposes. Intime egoism is resolved into altruism in theCapricorn natives who have become purified andillumined in head and heart through the cooperation

of Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn.Only as we realize that Capricorn rules the mid-

heaven of a horoscope—the vital point which isindicative of our integrity, the very House of Honorwhich predicates our worldly standing and prestige,our good name among men, and, incidentally, our

true spiritual name with God—can we appreciate why thismighty Saturn sign refines thesoul of those who develop theirmoral-spiritual condition.

Destiny is ordered by thegrowth of the soul from withinoutward. Capricorns may becomepowerful organizers for good andrise far above the early difficul-ties of environment and parentswith whom there is invariablysome distinct painful inharmonythrough psychic-astral inheri-tance, as it were.

A compelling Form-life is thetrammelling condition of Capri-corn, for it arouses a keen senseof social standing and inclinestoward a caste consciousness,which, while most prominentlypersists in Capricorn-ruled India,exists wherever “inferior” and“superior” typing takes place on

the basis of formal distinctions and outward appear-ances.

People unaware of soul or sign forces mayreceive the impression of reticence if not downrightaloofness as a result of the subjective condition ofself-restraint in Capricorn not animated by its nextsign, also Saturn-ruled, Aquarius. Capricorn has ahuge capacity and love for work made the greater bythe immense ambition which lights it. In the lefthand phase self-interest and the secret desire to gainand wield power is great, and we see this exempli-fied in statesmen, politicians, and capitalists whomanage vast financial interests in this day. However,the work of a Capricorn soul gains only as he sacri-fices his interests and personality to the spirit within.

All Capricorn natives become positively endowedwith permanent place and power as they align

RAYS 03 47

Abraham Lincoln displayed positiveSaturnian and Capricornian traits. Hehad a strong sense of both personal andnational destiny, based on a deep moralintuition of the rule of the All-Good.

Original art ©

G.L.

themselves with the Christ, as the mystical sideblossoms to transmute any and all ambitious ego-ism. No sign is more earnest and steadfast than this,none more meditative and concentrative of mind,the soul diving ever deeper for food and facts. Noris there a sign with more of that quality of destiny,the sense of fatality often attaching, as witnessLincoln with this sign holding his Moon and aSaturn Ascendant. All ambition save that of Christ-soul ambition is dangerous for Capricorn natives,

for when it is turned into earthly and personal chan-nels the native is toppled.

A special challenge for Capricorn and Saturnsouls is to practice true humility and to cultivate realreverence, so that egoism, the enemy of Christ, shalldie. Executive ability is found in these people to agreat degree, and as they rid themselves of the neg-ative force of competition they become highly coop-erative, and true exemplars of Christ. ❐

—John Jocelyn

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"[W]hen the beings upon a planet have evolvedto a sufficient degree, the planet becomes a Sun,the fixed center of the Solar System. When thebeings there have evolved to a still greater degree,and consequently it has reached its maximum ofbrilliancy, it breaks up into a Zodiac and becomes,so to speak, the womb of a new Solar System. Thusthe Great hosts of Divine beings who, until then,were confined upon that Sun gain freedom ofactions upon a great number of stars whence theycan affect, in different ways, the system whichgrows up within their sphere of influence. Theplanets or man-bearing worlds within the Zodiacare constantly being worked upon by these forcesbut in various ways according to the stage theyhave reached in evolution. Our Sun could not havebecome a Sun until it set out from itself all thebeings who were not sufficiently evolved to endurethe high rate of vibration and the great luminosityof the beings who were qualified for that evolution.All the beings upon the different planets wouldhave been consumed had they remained in the Sun.This visible Sun, however, though it is a place ofevolution for beings vastly above man, is not byany means, the Father of other planets, as materialscience supposes. On the contrary, it is itself anemanation from the central Sun, which is the invis-ible source of all that is in our solar system.

"Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which arereflected the Rays of energy from the SpiritualSun, the real Sun is as invisible as the real man."

From this teaching it is apparent that the great

spiritual hierarchies which are now guiding ourevolution have had their training for this path inprevious schemes of manifestation, also that whatthey are now doing, we shall some day do for oth-ers. Already the foremost among our race aretreading the path of initiation, and have therebyadvanced into stages far beyond the general statusof our present humanity. It has been learned thatthose who have gone through the MercurialSchool of the lesser Mysteries, and have graduat-ed from the School of the Greater Mysteries arenow preparing human evolution for the JupiterPeriod. They have entered the planet Jupiter, byway of one of the Moons, which serves as a step-ping stone. Others there are, unfortunately, whohave gone the other way. We read in TheRosicrucian Cosmo-Conception that even as thewhole population of the earth was at one timeexpelled from the present Sun because of theirinability to keep up with the vibrations of thebeings thereon, thus hindering them and beinghindered themselves, so also it becomes necessaryin the Lemurian Epoch, to expel a number of thestragglers from earth. Thus the Moon was cast outinto space to revolve as a Satellite around our pre-sent planet. Those unfortunates are graduallydegenerating and the time will come when theywill all go to the planet Saturn, which is the doorto Chaos. Thence they will be expelled to inter-planetary space to await the time when, in a newsystem, there will be a favorable condition fortheir further evolution. —Message of the Stars

On the Genesis and Evolution of Solar Systems—A Rosicrucian Perspective

THIS SIGN has been considered by allastrologers as the most mystical in thezodiac. It is the sign of power: its qual-ity consists of fixed air, and this fixingof the air, so to speak, conveys to us a

deep and hidden meaning.Airy signs are considered by astrologers as syn-

onymous with mind or mental conditions; there-fore, as the sign Aquarius is fixed (fixed mind), sothe man coming under its influence would be fixedin purpose, able to concentrate or fix his thoughttowards any given end. Hence persons born underthis sign, or with either Moon or Mercury therein,have a steady, fixed mind, not scattering theirthought or dissipating their forces, but able tofocus and control them.

It is somewhat remarkable that only to this signof the zodiac is ascribed the title “Man.” Yet if weconsider for a moment, we shall see that this titlecan only be truly given to one who can control theanimal within—a being “self-controlled,” and thusmaster of both mind and senses. This is what ismeant by living up to the Aquarian influence; thisis indeed to become “free”—free from self andselfish desires and able to dominate the mind, forc-ing it to become the servant, and not allowing it tobe the master, as is usually the case.

Then the mighty Aquarian Will can act, for theMan has made a place of peace within his owncenter through which the Soul can achieve its pur-poses. It is no longer half distracted between themental currents of reason and sensation, the duali-ty of Gemini or the uncertain and changeablevibrations of Libra, but self-poised, self-motived,not swayed and diverted by objects and opinions

from without, but moved by the will from within.That is why this has been called the magical

sign, because concentrated thought and force ofwill are necessary before a man can be a magicianor exercise any power over the occult forces.Indeed, before any one can become an occultist,concentration has to be practiced and the mindthoroughly trained.

On looking at the formation of this sign, we notethe two wavy lines forming serpentine or partlyspiral curves, and as it is now admitted by sciencethat nature also works by curves and spirals, thissign would show harmony with Nature.

Notice the two lines, symbols of love and wis-dom, head and heart, soul and mind, united.

When the true Aquarian is born and ready tobecome the servant of humanity, the channel forthe Logos of the system to use, he is then indeedthe water-bearer in a very real sense—bearer of theWaters of Life to the thirsty souls of humanity.When the “chord of self” no longer vibrates toimpacts from without, and only the great cry ofhumanity is heard, when he is ready to help allwho are in need, the Aquarian has indeed (as AnnaKingsford says) ‘reversed his spheres,’for Aquariusis opposite to the sign Leo. The Man has evolvedthrough the animal and the human to the divinecondition. His will is now in harmony with hisCreator’s.

He lives only to bless and help humanity; that hemay be able to use a force that is within him, aforce that some occult students know as “Fohat.”As this fiery electric force circulates through hisbeing and leaps from one centre to another, thebond of the flesh is broken, the Aquarian is free

RAYS 03 49

Aquarius, the Water Bearer

ASTROLOGY

(all know how much these people love liberty),able to lay down his garment of flesh called thebody, to pass out of it in full consciousness at will,and to travel in a finer one composed of a finersubstance. He is able to see with the eye and hearwith the ear of the mind. He is what people callclairvoyant and clairaudient. Then indeed he isfree in life of the prison house of the body. Thelimitation of Saturn is passed, form has been over-come, and his consciousness has now expanded totake in the vista of other worlds.

He has obtained the key of power, for knowl-edge is power; and truly it may be said of one whois born an Aquarian that he is the houseless man,for he looks no longer on this earth as his home. Heis a cosmopolitan, all lands or countries are thesame to him. His cry would be, “Here am I, Lord,send me.” For his life is consecrated to service, touse, not fame, and to altruism, not self-aggrandize-ment.

We shall travel round the wheel of life, until one one day we reach the Uranian spoke, and then evo-lution for us is nearly finished; but there are fewAquarians today, for alas, those born under thissign do not live up to it. Yet slowly the wheel turns,and mankind with it; for evolution is God’s law,and to His perfection shall come in time every sonof man created in His image. However, before wecan teach, we must learn; and thus the signAquarius is placed last but one in the zodiac.

The basic qualities of each sign must first beevolved before we can aspire to become theAquarian. “From Aries we gather intuition and rea-son; from Taurus reserve power and will; fromGemini senses and reason; from Cancer feelingand sympathy; from Leo faith and self-control;from Virgo vibration and flexibility; from Librainspiration and perception; from Scorpio attach-ment, tenacity, silence; from Sagittarius love andintrospection; from Capricorn absorption and ded-ication; from Aquarius soul memory, knowledge.”

In this sign you note the basic quality is soul,with memory not only of the present but of pastlives—and that knowledge which alone is power,knowledge of reality instead of illusion, insight topenetrate beneath the forms of things and to see thecause which has produced the effect.

Capricorn precedes Aquarius and gives us a pic-ture in symbol of the goat who is to slowly climbthe rugged hill of life, committed to attaining theUranian height. We who desire to have the knowl-edge and power of Aquarius, what must we do inorder some day to attain it? Purification is the firststep (Aquarians are pure). The purification of thelower nature, beginning first with the physicalbody. “Pure food,” not living on the flesh of ani-mals (Aquarius is a humane sign), for the animalsare, after all, our younger brothers and sisters.Purification, inner and outer, is the keynote towhich our physical instrument must be tuned. Thushabits of temperance and chastity are necessarybefore the higher consciousness can functionthrough the lower vehicles.

Many of us would like magical power and psy-chic development, but we are not prepared to paythe high price demanded—self-abnegation andself-sacrifice, “service to man.” And until we haveto some extent subjugated the lower self and yield-ed obedience to the higher, the door of the mystictemple must be shut, for real power can only bewielded by “the lover of all that lives.” The torchof Power must be carried by the hand of love, ordestruction, and not evolution, would ensue.

The great evil of the world today is selfishnessand lust, lust of gold or of sex—the abuse either ofSaturn or of Mars.

Pupils of the great “science of the stars,” awake,take the “ snake of self” in hand, and as you crushit, its wisdom, the wisdom of the serpent, willbecome yours. For the true Aquarian who hasreceived the new birth is as wise as a serpent, butas harmless as a dove.

If Astrology were chiefly studied on transcen-dental, metaphysical lines, it would unfold man’snature and teach him his true self. Once the sacredscience of the Mysteries (for mankind has neverbeen left without teachers), it is as true today as itwas thousands of years ago; and now, as then,“when the pupil is ready the teacher is found.”

Let us, therefore, all seek to purify ourselves andbecome ready, and then shall be found “ the lightwhich lighteth every man that cometh into theworld.” ❐

—Bessie Leo

50 RAYS 03

COUNTLESS PEOPLE lead theirentire lives advocating the impor-tance of the Commandments given byGod: The first ten through Moses inExodus 20:2-17 and the two great

commandments given by Christ himself inMatthew 22:37-40.

Few realize, however, that these twelve com-mandments are fashioned in successive order withthe signs of the Zodiac. Anyone who knows thebasics of Astrology will see that these command-ments are extrapolations which clearly illustratethe importance of this ancient science.

This nexus is no coincidence. Astrology is a truerevelation given to man by God.

1. "I am the Lord thy God…. Thou shalt have noother Gods before me."

The motto for Aries is "I am." This sign repre-sents, at the lower levels, the selfish nature, onewho dictates over others, or causes war.

As the sign correlated with the first House, Ariesrepresents birth, infancy, and our early environ-ment.

Through the first commandment, Jehovah pre-sents Himself for the very first time, thereby giv-ing birth to the law. To the child, the one who is allself and therefore requires discipline, He says:"My way is the only way, there is no other. Thereis only me, and I my Word has all power."

2. "Thou shalt not make any graven image… Donot bow down to any idol or worship it, because Iam the Lord thy God."

Taurus is the sign of materialism, ownership,and possessions. Jehovah is saying, "I own you,

you belong to me." He is now instructing the Jewsnot to "make or worship" any idols out of theirmaterial possessions.

3."Thou shalt not use the Lord's name in vain."Gemini is the sign of communication. This corre-lates to the third house as an instruction to guardone's manner of speech, because the Gemini influ-ence tends to promote gossip when speaking in ashallow or superficial way.

4."Observe the Sabbath and keep it Holy… Onthat Day no one is to work."

As ruler of the fourth house, Cancer representsfamily and our home environment. Jehovah isinstructing the Jews to recognize their home envi-ronment on the Sabbath in order to keep it holy.

5."Thou shalt honor thy father and thy moth-er…." An excellent keyword for Leo is "Honor"and its influence over the fifth house includes ourchildren. Thus, the instruction of the fifth com-mandment is to all sons and daughters to honortheir parents.

6."Thou shalt not kill." Virgo is the sign of the chaste virgin and the

immaculate conception of life. As the sign corre-lated with the sixth house, Virgo governs ourhealth and well-being. Therefore, the sixth com-mandment is an instruction to revere all life. It for-bids more than murder because killing may bedone incrementally over time. Jehovah is clearlyinstructing the Jews to honor all forms of life, toguard one's health and the health of others.Occultly, we also kill truth when we lie.

RAYS 03 51

The Commandments of Astrology

ASTROLOGY

7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Libra is the sign of partnerships. Correlated with

the seventh house, Libra governs marriage.Jehovah commands fidelity to one’s spouse, whichholy matrimony is designed to protect.

8. “Thou shalt not steal." Scorpio and the eighth house rule other people's

money, legacies, investments, and joint finances.Thus, the eighth commandment instructsus not totake the money or possessions which belong toothers.

9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness againstanother."

In the natural zodiac Sagittariusis associated withthe ninth house, promoting high ideals of law andprinciples of universal truth. Here, among otherthings, the application of truth in a court of lawrequires that the veracity of evidence and right rea-son be used to determine guilt or innocence.

10. "Thou shalt not covet another man's house,wife or possessions.”

Capricorn rules our status and position in thecommunity. Correlated with the tenth house, itdenotes our social standing and reputation.Jehovah is instructing the Jews not to inordinatelydesire the status, reputation or possession of anoth-er—not envy what another person has.

11. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with allthy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thymind, and with all thy strength."

Aquarius represents altruism and the eleventhhouse rules friendships and universal brotherhood—conditions that shall be far more prevalent in theAge of Aquarius. This is the first great command-ment that is being ushered in by Christ himself.

The life of Jesus exemplifies the immenseunconditional love that God gives and desires ofhis children. It was through this unfaltering lovethat Jesus was able to raise His higher vehicles inorder to commune with God through the Spirit ofChrist. Jesus not only announced this as the great-est commandment for all to follow, He lived a per-fect and righteous life that demonstrates how thisgreat commandment is fulfilled.

12. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

Pisces especially correlates with compassion, so agood keyword is "empathy," which is the ability tofeel another's pain as if it were one’s own. Thetwelfth house rules "ripe destiny," which is attrib-uted to karma or the operation of the Law ofConsequence. Thus, the second great command-ment of Christ gives the principle by which one cangenerate good (and liquidate difficult) destiny.

These last two commandments are called the"Great Commandments" because they consum-mate and supercedethe first ten. As Jesus himselfsaid, "The whole law of Moses and the teachingsof the prophets depend on these two command-ments” (Matt. 22:40).

This writer submits that the foregoing clearlyillustrates that all twelve commandments correlatewith the ancient teachings of Astrology, which is ascience that studies the true nature of God and Hisplan for humanity and its cosmos. ❐

—Kevin James Clark

52 RAYS 03

Christ Blessing

TRULY, THE HUMAN HEART is awonderful organ. Perhaps ergon wouldbetter describe it, for the work it does isherculean, or, to stay with Greek myth,the heart is promethean: it gives a spark

of life (each second) to the body and continuouslysacrifices itself, actually bleeds for the whole. It isan ongoing passion. It works out of sight, day andnight, from moment to moment, year after year. Ifservice is the keynote of spiritual development, theheart is the body’s servant, par excellence. It is ourfour-chambered sanctuary of life; literally, our phys-ical life’s savior.

Indelicately described as a muscle, the heart beatsover 100 times a minute in infants and children andbetweeen 60-70 times per minute in healthy adults.A heart beating 70 times a minute “pumps” 4.9 litersof blood. At that rate, 7000 liters, or 1849.5 gallons,a day are “pumped” throughout a vascular systemthat is over 1400 meters (9/10 mile) long! Calculatedfor one year, the heart muscle pumps in excess of2.5 million liters (1 liter is about one quart).

Christ is to humanity as the heart is to the body:“he who would be the greatest among you, let himbe the servant of all.” Of all the body’s organs, doesit not most fully, tirelessly, and “selflessly” serve allits members as a lifeline, supplying oxygen andnutrients, even doing the “dirty work” of cleaningup after individual cells, by collecting and trans-porting their death-dealing carbon dioxide and nox-ious metabolic biproducts, including ammonia andurea, to the lungs, liver and kidneys for elimination?Itself cross-striped, the heart inwardly bears thebody’s living cross, usually without a murmur. Thissun of the body’s cosmos is its heat bearer, its waterbearer, andits air bearer. Its courage (Latin, cor orheart) associates it with the lion who protects its own

and whosezodiacal complement is the Aquarianwater bearer.

So what is the news in this panegyric? What’s theheart of the matter? If the sun’s light and energy sus-tain Earth and support its four evolving life waves,perhaps the heart, the sun’s microcosmic counter-part, also emits measurable energy, at different lev-els or frequencies, whose most sublime radiation islove. Admittedly, love doesn’t originate in the heart,just as the impulse issuing from the apex of its leftventricle is transmitted via the etheric heart from thearchetypal heart in the World of Thought. But loveregisters there, wells up in us as water bubbling in aspring. Love has its origin in the World of Life Spiritand impinges on human consciousness through theChrist or light ether, the negative pole of which reg-ulates the heat in the blood. Love warms, irradiates,and gives life, like the sun. How far can science goin corroborating the heart’s love nature, in measur-ing its “love” energies? Clearly, life spirit cannot bequantified, but the Human Energy Systems Laboratory(HESL) and the Heart Science Laboratory, both inTucson, Arizona, contend that there is a force asso-ciated with this attracting, uniting vibration whichcan be studied as a bio-electromagnetic energy, asreal as Newton’s gravity. The heart, as the largestgenerator of electromagnetic signals in the body, emitsinvisible “light” or photons, and there is neuralrecognition between people’s electrocardiograms,even over long distances. Cardiac bio-photons areunique to each person, their energy signature. Newresearch at HESLsuggests that when energy is inten-tionally sent to others, especially loved ones, there isa detectable increase in the absorption and/orscat-tering of gamma rays and an increase in the emis-sion of high-frequency X-rays. More hard data prov-ing what we already know will be forthcoming.❐

RAYS 03 53

Photons of Love

NEWS PERSPECTIVES

IN THE EARLIER STAGES of its develop-ment, infant humanity lived in conscious con-tact with higher Beings, making the need forreligion, but not moral guidance, redundant.In the present Epoch, “the Gods and creative

Hierarchies have withdrawn from active participa-tion, that man may work out his own salvation.”Now the guidance of ordinary humanity is the workof Elder Brothers. The Brothers, it seems, are stilllike the original brothers Cain and Abel in that theyhave different points of view, different agendas.There are twelve Brothers for each of the sevenLesser Mystery Schools, of which the RosicrucianOrder is one. Moreover, since there are many morethan 84 Adepts, just as there are many more highschool than college graduates, it is not surprisingthat unanimity on how best to assist evolvinghumanity is not always easily achieved among theour spiritual elders.

Take, for example, the question that arose in themid-nineteenth century as to whether humans weresufficiently evolved that they could benefit from adisclosure of certain spiritual truths. As reported byC.G. Harrison in The Transcendental Universe(reviewed in the July/August 1999 Rays), “Brothersof the Left,” let’s call them conservatives, proposedthat only the interests of the few should beaddressed; while the “Brothers of the Right,” liber-als, were of a more democratic persuasion andadvocated a more general dissemination of occultknowledge. The justification for continuing to con-ceal the fact that there is an unseen world around us,as real as the world of senses, was becoming increas-ingly moot. The concern was, how could this reve-lation be made safely? The concern was warranted.What Harrison describes as the “Frankenstein mon-ster” of spiritualism was produced. Experiments were

made with individuals of a peculiar psychical orga-nization—mediums—who, “one and all, declaredthat they were controlled by spirits who had depart-ed from the earth.” Mediumship became a profes-sion (especially in America), and mediums wereexploited by “Brothers of the Left” for their ownpurposes. The attempt to withdraw from the experi-ment was futile; the door to extramundane influ-ences was open and could not be closed. Not onlywas the spirit world demoted into an extension ofthe material world, nullifying the objective ofinspiring advanced persons to raise themselves byadapting to spiritual realities, but every kind of impos-tor came forward to dupe the credulous public.

Viewed traditionally, both the ego and soul con-sciousness of the medium are suppressed so that thehypnotist or other controller can impose his will onthe subject. It is impossible for the medium to enterthe realm of the dead because the very members ofhis being which belong to that realm have beenmade inoperative. While the medium could producephenomena that purported to issue from the spiritworld, it was phenomena, material manifestation, beit vocal chords vibrated by an entity, poltergeistactivity, or levitation (which is an etheric phenome-non and still part of the physical world).

Two eminent scientists, Sir William Crookes andSir Oliver Lodge, and William James became con-vinced of the spiritual world through observationsof mediumship. James, the father of AmericanPragmatism, physician, Harvard professor of psy-chology, and the author of “The Varieties of ReligiousExperience,” had studied the greatest mediums ofhis day with a view toward determining the possi-bility of the continuance of consciousness afterphysical death. Not only did James write (as report-ed in R. Laurence Moore’s In Search of White

54 RAYS 03

The Afterlife Experiments

BOOK REVIEWS

Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and AmericanCulture, Oxford University Press, 1977) that medi-um Leonora Piper had “supernormal powers,” heaffirmed that “I should be willing now to stake asmuch money on Mrs. Piper’s honesty as on that ofanyone I know, and I am quite satisfied to leave myreputation for wisdom or folly, so far as human natureis concerned, to stand or fall by this declaration.”

Well and good: There are honest mediums, whohave real, paranormal abilities. But more to thepoint, are a medium’s abilities to be desired andsought for? Max Heindel says emphatically, No! Infact, no person may become a member of theRosicrucian Fellowship who is a medium. Why?Because the medium suppresses his Ego-conscious-ness and surrenders the spiritual independence thatare hallmarks of the Rosicrucian path of develop-ment. We may say, however, that not all mediumsare equal. The medium is a messenger, albeit with-out conscious control over what his message shallbe, or where and when he may obtain it.Nevertheless, Heindel acknowledged that involun-tary clairvoyants have something to offer us. Forthis reason he included in nine issues of the Raysmagazine the results of psychometric investigationby Elizabeth Denton, even as he said, “We needhardly to warn our readers of the danger of attempt-ing to awaken the passive phase of this faculty.”Heindel said he was publishing these articles (June1916 to February 1917) because they reveal what isin the memory of nature: “We now give for the ben-efit of our readers a series of fragments fromNature’s Secrets which embody the results of pas-sive impressions obtained by Mrs. Denton fromfragments of rock, etc., also a description of hermethod and ideas regarding her psychic gift.”Heindel also published her husband’s essay entitled“The Utility of Psychometry.”

The book under review here, The AfterlifeExperiments (Pocket Books, 2002), is based on thework of genuine mediums who do not conform toour common understanding of the term. These per-sons are able to make contact with the spirits of thedeceased in the Desire World by inducing an atten-tive, recollected state of “mind” that attunes them tothis extraphysical dimension. They retain completeawareness of their physical surroundings and caninteract with their subject and with experimenters

who are conducting the “readings.”What is the overriding motive of people who

search out mediums? They want to make contactwith deceased loved ones. The key word is love,love which wants evidence of things not seen, wantssubstance of things hoped for: a word, some detailthat the departed loved one is still living—some-how, somewhere. This motive gave rise to the“Afterlife Experiments” and the book that describesthem. Its author, Gary Schwartz—Ph.D. graduate ofHarvard, former professor of psychology and psy-chiatry at Yale, early president of the BiofeedbackResearch Society, early president of the Division ofHealth Psychology of the American PsychologicalAssociation, author of more than four hundred arti-cles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals,and over six hundred papers presented at scientificmeeting—might be the last person to embark onsuch investigations because he was so entrenched inmodern scientific methodology and trained to beskeptical and rigorously objective. With such an ori-entation, how could he agree to commit himself tomediums purporting to deliver messages from thepresence of those absent?

While attending a conference of the AmericanPsychosomatic Society in 1993, Schwartz met andwas asked by clinical psychologist, Linda Russek,Ph.D., “Do you think it’s possible that my father isstill alive?”

“I’m not sure,” Schwartz replied. “Would it mat-ter if I told you that I thought it was possible?”

“Yes,” she said.“Why would it make a difference what I think?”“Because you’re a serious scientist, and if you think

it’s possible, you probably have a good reason.”Schwartz did have a good reason, but he had

never shared his “hypothesis” with anyone becauseit was “so painfully controversial,” certainly for ahighly credentialed scientist to entertain. Hishypothesis, which he proceeded to explain, was that“mathematical logic leads to the conclusion that notonly are all systems ‘alive’to various degrees, butalso that this information continues as a living,evolving energy system after the physical structurehas ceased to exist.” Contemporary astrophysics hasdocumented that 12-plus-billion-year-old photons,or packets of light, supposedly from the time of theuniverse’s conception (Big Bang), continue to exist.

RAYS 03 55

If these “info-energy” packets persist in the universetoday, why can’t human info-energy packets persistas well. Schwartz was not far from the nuclearforces describing human seed atoms.

Schwartz and Russek decided to collaborate ininvestigating the working assumption that “sciencecan establish that love exists, that consciousnessexists, and that survival of consciousness exists inthe same way the science has established that grav-ity exists, that electrons exists, and photons from‘deceased’stars continue to exist.”

Since physics teaches that it is scientificallyappropriate to infer the existence of invisibleprocesses through careful observation in repeatedexperiments, it should be possible to infer the exis-tence of invisible living info-systems—living soulsand spirits—through systematic and careful experi-mentation.

The research that Schwartz et al have conductedto date suggests that “our common sense idea ofdeath will ultimately turn out to be as ‘flat’as ourpast common sense idea of a flat earth.”

The student of Western Wisdom Philosophy cer-tainly requires no proof of the continuity of con-sciousness and the existence of “the dead.” But hemay be able to make use of The Afterlife Experimentsto appeal to those realists who demand the impri-matur of “hard science”. Moreover, the experimentsprovide “a scientific reason to believe what wealready know in our hearts to be true.” Does thisphrasing sound familiar? It echoes Heindel’s wordsthat the Cosmo was written “to aid those who inher-ently feel that these things must be and to help themto see the light upon this great World-mystery...”

While no major university has a formal researchprogram investigating the possibility of survival ofconsciousness after death, the University ofArizona, to which Schwartz transferred in order toconduct research more in line with his interests,agreedto permit his unconventional studies.

The challenge was how to fashion clinical proce-dures that precluded every element of chance oropportunity for deception or mere good guessing.Here is where the methodology of the sciences canboth confirm belief and rescue unbelief. By the timethe third series of “readings” was to take place, theexperimenters had devised a three phase procedurethat excluded areas where suggestion, inference, or

other forms of influence could intrude. In a pre-reading phase, a “contemplation” period, the medi-um wrote down information received about theunknown, unseen sitter. In a second “silent-sitter”phase, a phone connection was made between sitterand reader, who spoke her received impressionswith the mute button turned on at the reader’s end.The entire session was taped and videoed. In thethird phase the reader read the content of her pre-reading contemplation to the sitter and asked fordenial or confirmation of items. There was an overall65% accuracy of the data received by the reader. Insome cases the sitter would deny the data given, or notbe able to confirm it, only to subsequently discoverthat the information was correct. When readings weredone in the same room, with a screen separating thesitter and the medium, electro encephalogram mark-ings became assymetric at the time of the reading,ruling out the suggestion of telepathy, during whichbrain wave patterns tend to be parallel, indicating amental conformity between sitter and medium.

While Schwartz’s work is ongoing, his partner,Dr. Russek, asked him why he continued to resistsummarizing the data as a whole. Schwartz writes,“I was experiencing a growing professional and per-sonal fear....I was brought up from an early age tobelieve that scientists are not supposed to believe inthings,” though opinions are admissible. More, hecontinued to doubt. “My degree of doubt in the pres-ence of all the data was frankly irrational.” He wentthrough all the experiments again and came to theconclusion, based on science, that “we celebrate theexistence of the human mind, which not only raisesscientific questions but also evolves the wisdom toknow when it’s time to stop obsessively questioningand accept the truth of the answers. That we cele-brate the existence of living souls in a living andevolving universe. And that, with humility, wethank a Loving Essence that makes all of this possi-ble.” That from a hard-core scientist faced with thefacts, whose group’s motto is, “If it is real, it will berevealed. If it is fake, we’ll find the mistake.”

The epigraph to The Afterlife Experiments quotesWilliam James: “In order to disprove the law that allcrows are black, it is enough to find one white crow.”Schwartz’s investigations show that white crowsabound, and that life continues beyond death. ❐

—C.W.

56 RAYS 03

IT IS NOT usuallypermitted, nor is italways expedient, thatthe Invisible Helpersshould tell of their

exploits, as it gives an unde-sirable odor of phenomenon-mongering; but there aretimes when modesty must beset aside to a certain extentfor the good of the cause andthe following story by Dr.Stuart Leech, M. D., one ofour Probationers, illustratesthe method used and resultsgained in one case. We couldcite hundreds of similarcases where other organshave been restored to health;even spines have been straightened and paralyzedlimbs made responsive to the will.

In the case reported by Dr. Leech, he does notmention whether the patient felt the manipulations.This is quite frequently the case, for the unseenhands are powerful when materialized inside thepatient’s body. It also frequently happens that thepatient sees the Invisible Helpers at the moment ofwaking.

The report was originally written for publicationin a medical magazine. Dr. Leech does give hisorthodox medical confreres some, to them, “hardnuts” from time to time; but what if they scoff

today? Yesterday theysneered at ideas which are“strictly scientific” today;and tomorrow they willlearn that, to paraphraseShakespeare, “There aremore things twixt heavenand earth than dreamt of intheir pathology.”

Clinical Report of a CaseIt was during the early

days of January 1914 that Ihad been attending a case ofabdominal trouble in a four-teen year old, much emaci-ated boy. He was darkhaired, had brown eyes,large bones and slender

physique with a good amount of intelligence. Fouryears prior to this present attack he had sufferedfrom a severe attack of appendicitis from which hehad apparently recovered. Of late he had been moreor less indiscreet in the choice and the amount ofhis food and on the day before the present attack hehad, in lifting hay, suffered some violence by a slipof the foot.

After a day or two of suffering I was sent for andfound all the classical symptoms of a pus-formingappendix present. Food was discontinued for eightor ten days, the proverbial ice bag was used judi-ciously and an occasional enema was employed.Temperature ran along from 99 to 102 degreesand about the seventh or eighth day of his sicknessthe symptoms became so alarming that I inducedthe family to permit me to have Dr. North as a

RAYS 03 57

An Invisible

NUTRITION AND HEALTH

Though first-person narratives of the healing work assistedin by invisible helpers are not, as a matter of principle, to bemade public, Max Heindel made an exception for the follow-ing account, which appeared in the 1915 Rays.

Story

Illustration by Ethelwynne M. Quail for Geoffrey Hodson’s Kingdom of the Gods

A Healing AngelWhile angels and humans (in soul bodies) promote heal-ing,ultimately the healing force comes from the Father.

Theosophical P

ublishing House, A

dyar, Madras, India

Helper’s

consultant next morning.Dr. Unus of the same town had attended the case

four years previously and had at that time insistedon an operation. Personally, I had performed quite afew abdominal operations, but it was generallydone as a last resort, and now it looked as thoughthere would be another case where I would have toresort to the same procedure. This modus operandi,especially in the midst of an attack, was not to myliking. Being in the neophyte class of the WesternWisdom School, I endeavored to use unusual meansin conjunction with the physical means to bringabout the recovery of this case, as I do in others.The unusual is the application of natural laws ofone or more of the higher worlds.

As a word of explanation, I will say that theNatural Science School of the Rosicrucians informsus of a number of concentric worlds as real, if notmore real, than the physical, all interpenetratingeach other, occupying the same apace as it were,forming no less than seven dimensions of space,each under a vibratory condition consistent with itsharmonious surroundings. Physical sciencebegrudgingly recognizes and hints at the highervibrations of the invisible ether. Medical sciencedoes its best to ignore these higher Worlds, yet shepersistently and empirically uses daily the powerfulalkaloids. There are a number of wavelengthsbetween the vibration that causes sound and thatwhich causes light. Although unknown to us, butproducing things no less powerful, it is so on intothe trillion and quintillion of vibrations. Most ofthese vibrations ignore our dense, physical bodies,vibrating right through them as though they neverexisted. These vibrations are harmonized into divi-sions, and nearest to our chemical physical world isthe Etheric Region. We might conceive of it as anextension of the physical plane. Being morerefined, it is naturally subject to higher and morerefined laws.

However, in order to be able to function in thisRegion, or in the Desire World, an organization oflike substance is required. Every man has theframework for this substance concealed in his phys-ical makeup, and there is a certain Word or formulawhich, if wisely used, will develop this organiza-tion. Anatomically speaking, it causes a physiolog-ical link or connection to be made between the pitu-

itary and pineal bodies, which respectively governand harmonize the desire with the physical body.When this chasm is bridged, the higher vibratingsoul-body can at will withdraw from the physicalbody and travel any distance in the Desire World. Ifyou wish to follow no further, you, the reader, canconsider the phenomenon a going off into dream-land. But remember, a fact is a stupendous thingand remains whether we like it or not.

The evening before the physical consultation wasto take place with Dr. North, Dr. Unus, Dr. North,and myself went off into the Desire World(Dreamland) and met at the bedside of the sick boywithout his knowledge or that of his parents, whowere eagerly watching him. Naturally, we wereinvisible to their physical perceptions.

During this consultation in the Desire World, Dr.Unus stepped forward and almost violently seized aportion of the afflicted organ and threw it away. Hisetheric hand passed right through the boy’s physicalbody. I then stepped up to the bedside and, usingboth hands, lifted the elbow end of the colon andgently stroked the undesirable, irritating substanceaway. Dr. North acted as a spectator, and apparent-ly gave his consent. Let it be known that physicalsubstance is no bar to the etheric hand, but it is notunusual for a patient to waken from his slumber asthe invisible hand is being withdrawn.

The morning after this consultation in the UnseenWorld, I called, as I had promised, at Dr. North’soffice and had him ride with me for the physicalconsultation which had been agreed upon with thefamily the previous day. To the great astonishmentof the family and to my own gratification, the boywas free from pain, tenderness, fever, and muscularrigidity and from the parents’report his rapid recov-ery commenced during the night. It is now sixmonths since the occurrence took place and the boyis enjoying the best of health....

It is not to be inferred from the forgoing [Heindelwrites] that instantaneous cures are effected inevery instance. Such cases are frequent among thelarge clientele which benefit from our aid, but thegreat majority require patient perseverance to bringabout a cure.

If patients are faithful in writing their weekly let-ters to Headquarters and obey our instructionsregarding diet, they are bound to benefit. ❐

58 RAYS 03

MAN is a seven-fold being,having a threefold Spiritcontrolling a three-foldbody through the link ofmind. The three aspects of

the Spirit we designate as the Divine, Life,and Human; the three bodies we call thedense, vital, and desire. The mind acts as thelink, or focus, between the Spirit and the bod-ies, so that each aspect of the Spirit finds itscounterpart in a body and through its experi-ences garners food for its growth.

When there is a perfect state of harmony inand between these seven, a perfect state of healthmanifests, but there have been very few humanbeings who have approached this ideal. As welearn to live in harmony with God’s laws, howev-er, we come closer to it.

All disease, then, is a manifestation of lack ofharmony in the nature of man. Hence we say thatin the final analysis genuine healing is a process ofgetting right with God. When Christ Jesus, theMaster Physician, healed the sick, He invariablysaid: “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” plainly indicat-ing that the patients’sufferings were the result ofpast mistakes. St. John records the healing of theimpotent man at the pool of Bethesda: “After Jesusfindeth him in the temple, and said unto him,Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more lest aworse thing come upon thee.”

Even His healings could not be permanentunless the person was willing to take correctivemeasures in removing the cause and attempt to livea blameless life. The law works today as it everhas: when the patient uncovers the underlying

cause of his disease and uproots it, learning to liveaccording to God’s plan of purity and love, he willmake of his body a fit temple and a perfect tool forthe God within. ❐

—Stewart Haring

Visible Helpers are just as necessary as InvisibleHelpers, and our friends and patients may share ina high privilege, as well as add much to the powerof liberated healing force, by joining us in prayerfor the sick. Our Healing Service is held everyevening in the Healing Temple at 6:30 (7:30 whenDaylight time is in effect) and in the Pro-Ecclesiaat 4:15 P.M. when the Moon is in a cardinal sign onthe following dates:

January.........................2—9—17—23—30February.............................5—13—19—26

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

RAYS 03 59

HEALING

Ariel view of the cruciform Healing Building at Mount Ecclesia,completed in 1939. At the place of the transcept is a chapel wherehealing services are held each weekday morning. The chapel’s insidedome, irradiated by the day’s light, depicts a large five-pointed goldstar (with five red roses in the star’s pentagonal center) in a blue field.

Permanent Healing

ASMALL BEETLE was scramblingpainfully along a stony path. Therewere many obstacles in his way,such as straws and other objectsdif-ficult to negotiate. It was all very

exhausting. He couldn’t fly, he was a creeping bee-tle. Besides, his left hind leg had been crippledsince his birth. He was obliged to drag it after him.A very sad case. For beetles don’t walk or wanderabout, they make pilgrimages. There is a big dif-ference.

“Oh, do get out of my way!” cried an impatientbee whose name was Mrs. Buzzer, to the pilgrim,buzzing angrily, “dawdling about the road makingyourself a nuisance to respectable ladies on theirway to the flower market!”

“Please excuse me,” said the beetle who draggedhis hind leg, “I am obliged to do it, I am a cripple,”and he pointed with his antenna to his shrunkenhind leg.

“Oh, dear!” said Mrs. Buzzer compassionately,“that’s quite another matter! I didn’t notice, I wasin a hurry. Nowadays, if one isn’t early at the mar-ket there’s nothing left, competition is so keen! Butwhy do you make pilgrimages? It would be betterto stay at home with your bad leg. Why don’t youget married? Then you would at least have yourmeals regularly.“

“No, I must make pilgrimages,” said the pilgrim,“an old beetle whom I consulted about my infirmi-ty said so. He told me about the religion of thesacred scarab and said I was to look out for theWheel of Life. A very ancient belief and a greatcomfort to prior creeping beetles.”

“And what do you get out of it?” asked Mrs.

Buzzer. “It’ s much more sensible to be early at themarket.”

The little beetle jerked his crippled hind legunder his body so that it couldn’t be seen.

“One can get to be a rose-beetle!” he said in amysterious whisper.

“Is that a paying profession?” inquired Mrs.Buzzer. She was a practical housewife, whosehoney pots were quite unsurpassed in the beeworld and really quite famous.

“A rose-beetle glitters like liquid gold and isable to fly. He sleeps in the roses and breathes theirperfume.”

That reminded Mrs. Buzzer of the flower mar-ket.

“Well! I really must fly. Competition is so verykeen these days. At any rate you have my bestwishes.”

The pilgrim who dragged his hind leg pil-grimmed on. A cart came along the road.

“This is the Wheel of Life,” he thought and hur-ried towards it.

The wheel went over him. And there was only aformless spot left in the road.

Some time later, in the Sunny South a little rose-beetle crawled out of an egg. The very first thinghe did was to feel his left hind leg with his anten-na. He didn’t know why he did that. His left hindleg was strong and well and gleamed like liquidgold. It was perhaps, if anything, more shiny andmore beautiful than his other legs.

The roses flung their perfume, abroad.The Wheel of Life rolled on. ❐

—Manfred Kyber Translated from the German by Olive Harcourt

60 RAYS 03

The Pilgrim Who Dragged His Hind Leg

FOR CHILDREN