Filename: RC1082.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions & Answers, Vol. II"
by Max Heindel
[PAGE 2916]
CELESTIAL VISITORS:
QUESTION NO. 59:
WHY IS IT THAT CLAIRVOYANTS GIVE SUCH DIFFERING VIEWS AND IDEAS OF WHAT
THEY SEE IN THE INVISIBLE WORLDS THAT IT IS UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE TO RECONCILE
THEIR ACCOUNTS?
ANSWER: This question has been thoroughly explained in "The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception." It hinges to a considerable extent upon the fact that in
the invisible world forms are so plastic that they can change their shape in
the twinkling of an eye, thus giving the untrained seer an entirely wrong
idea. Hence training is absolutely necessary to observation there as where,
but you are mistaken in the idea that ALL disagree. There are a consider-
able number of people who have developed the spiritual sight, or perhaps
have acquired it involuntarily, but who nevertheless see things alike and
thus corroborate one another's statements. We have, for instance before us
the review of a book written by a hospital nurse who had been present at
many deathbeds and there observed exactly the same thing that we have writ-
ten in our various books for the last ten years. The book is called, "The
Ministry of Angels," a term which the author applies not only to the great
Hierarchy next above humanity, as the term is used in "The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception," but to all human beings who have passed beyond the veil.
[PAGE 2917]
However, apart from that the book is full of experiences which have been du-
plicated by the writer in thousands of instances. We may take a few in-
stances from the resume of this book, given in THE OCCULT REVIEW, to show
the similarity of the experiences of this lady with our teachings as set
forth in the Rosicrucian literature.
When she was about eighteen years of age, a girl friend called Maggie was
suddenly taken very ill and died in her arms. Immediately after her hearth
had ceased to beat, she says, "I distinctly saw ascend from her body some-
thing in appearance like smoke or steam as it rises from a kettle in which
water is boiling." The emanation rose only a little distance and there re-
solved itself into a form like that of my friend who had just died. This
form, shadowy at first, gradually changed until it became well defined and
clad in a pearly white, cloud-like robe, beneath which the outlines of the
figure were distinctly visible. The face was that of my friend, but glori-
fied with no trace upon it of the spasm of pain which had seized her just
before she died."
This is just as we have taught: at the moment of death, when the silver
cord has been ruptured in the heart, the vital body rises out through the
sutures in the skull and hovers a few feet above the body. Writing on the
subject of deathbeds of the patients she nursed, she remarks that often, ir-
respective of the physical condition or frame of mind of the dying, just
[PAGE 2918]
before the end came they would seem to recognize someone who was not of them
at the bedside and who was unseen by them.
"I have seen," she says, "a woman who had been in a comatose state for
hours, suddenly open her eyes with a look of glad surprise, stretch forth
her hands as though to grasp invisible hands outstretched toward her, and
then with what seemed a sigh of relief, expire. I have seen a man who had
been writhing in agony, suddenly grow calm, direct his eyes with an expres-
sion of joyful recognition to what to those observing him was only vacancy
and, uttering a name in tones of greeting, breathe his last breath.
"I recall the death of a woman who was the victim of that most dread dis-
ease, malignant cancer. Her sufferings were excruciating and she prayed
earnestly that death might speedily come to her. In her agony suddenly her
suffering appeared to cease, the expression of the face which a moment be-
fore had been distorted by pain changed to one of radiant joy. Leaping up-
wards with a glad light in her eyes, she raised her hands and exclaimed.
`Oh, Mother dear, you have come to take me home. I am so glad,' and in an-
other moment her physical life had ceased."
At first the author was not able to see these invisible beings herself,
but gradually she developed the spiritual sight, so that she actually did
see those who came to meet the dying from the realms of Spirit life and to
welcome them into another state of experience.
[PAGE 2919]
"The first time I received the ocular proof," she says, "was at the death
of L., a sweet girl of seventeen, who was a personal friend of mine. She
was a victim of consumption. She suffered no pain, but the weariness that
comes from extreme weakness and debility was heavy upon her and she yearned
for rest.
"A short time before she expired I became aware that two Spirit forms
were standing by the bedside, one on either side of it. I did not notice
them enter the room. They were standing by the bedside when they first be-
came visible to me, but I could see them as distinctly as I could see any of
the human occupants of the room. In my own heart I have always called these
bright beings from another world ANGELS, and as such I shall hereafter speak
of them. I recognized their faces as those of two girls who had been the
closest friends of the girl who was dying. They had passed away a year be-
fore and were then about her own age.
"Just before they appeared, the dying girl exclaimed, 'IT HAS GROWN SUD-
DENLY DARK, I cannot see anything,' but she recognized them immediately, a
smile beautiful to see lit up her face as she stretched forth her hands and
in joyful tones exclaimed, `Oh, you have come to take me away; I am glad,
for I am very tired.'
"The two angels extended each a hand, one grasping the dying girl's right
hand, the other her left. Their faces were illumined by a smile more radi-
antly beautiful even than that of the face of the girl who was so soon
[PAGE 2920]
to find the rest for which she longed. She did not speak again but for
nearly a minute her hands remained outstretched, grasped by the hands of the
angels, and she continued to gaze at them with the glad light in her eyes
and the smile on her face. The angels seemed to relax their grasp of the
girl's hands which then fell back on the bed. A sigh came from her lips
such as one might give who resigns himself gladly to a much needed sleep,
and in another moment she was what the world calls dead. That sweet smile
with which she at first recognized the angels was still stamped upon her
features."
You will notice that in this last instance the dying girl speaks about
the room growing dark, and these and many other facts are taught in "The
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" and elsewhere in our literature. So far as we
know, nowhere else has such thorough and definite information been given
concerning the passage of the Spirit from the land of the living to the land
of the living dead.
The author comments on the materialistic attitude of relatives and
friends when brought face to face with the presence of death, and she fre-
quently felt keenly the hopelessness of convincing them of the reality of
what she herself was able to witness. In the above instance the father of
the girl was an entire skeptic and had convinced himself that there was no
future life. His daughter's last words, the smile that lit up her face as
she recognized the girl friends who had come to take her Spirit away, he re-
garded as evidence of a disordered imagination. It was not, however,
[PAGE 2921]
always so. In the case of a patient who was dying of pneumonia, his wife
was seated by his bedside and he called her to draw her attention to their
little boy who had died at the age of five or six years and who was waiting
for him. "Look, how he smiles and holds out his hands to me," he exclaimed,
"cannot you see him?" Though she could not see him like her husband she re-
marked afterwards, "I am very glad that he saw B. before he died. I shall
now be able to think of them as always together and happy, and when I re-
ceive my own summons I know they will both come for me."
Eventually our hospital nurse gave up her hospital work and took up pri-
vate nursing. On one occasion she accompanied a friend to the house of a
lady who had been an invalid for many years and needed a nurse. It was her
friend, however, who was engaged as the nurse. "When I met her my heart
went out to her at once," says the author, "for in a moment there were re-
vealed to me the depth and tenderness of her saintly soul. How I know not.
I cannot explain it. This woman, I said to myself, is the friend I have
long been seeking and the great hope came to me that I might win her friend-
ship."
The aspiration was not realized in this world, however, but was destined
to receive satisfaction in one of those strange friendships in which one of
the two friends is on this side of the veil and one on the other. "In the
course of time," she writes, "quite a while after her death, she became more
[PAGE 2922]
intimately my friend than any friend I had who belonged to this life. When
she appeared to me it was not to vanish almost immediately but to stay with
me and converse with me as plainly and naturally as could any human being.
When she was with me I could see her as plainly as I could see any of the
everyday objects of life, and she disclosed to me an individuality just as
pronounced as that of any person possessed of strong characteristics who
still dwelt on this earth."
By means of this lady whom she came to look upon as her guardian angel,
she was taken in trance to visit many scenes and people in the other world,
and in particular describes her visits to what she terms the heavenly garden
and her friend's rest chamber there where she came to rest and meditate. We
may regard these descriptions as symbolic, but experience is none the less
experience, and sensation none the less sensation, though we thus describe
it. Symbolism is in fact in many cases the means by which certain emotions
are interpreted by our consciousness which would be unable to realize them
in any other form.
"My guardian angel," our author writes, "led me through one of the en-
trances and I found myself in a spacious chamber filled with subdued light
and in which the various shades of color were blended in such perfect har-
mony that it impressed one as some beautiful and soothing music made vis-
ible. The walls were hung with cloudlike draperies in which greens,
[PAGE 2923]
pinks, crimsons, and golds were blended so artistically that there was no-
where a jarring note of color, but the draperies were unlike any of earth's
fabrics. They were distinctly visible to me, but they offered no resistance
to my touch. It was like thrusting my hand into a cloud. In the chamber
there were several couches that displayed the same soothing, harmonious col-
oring. Many plants and beautiful flowers were bestowed about the place.
'This,' said my guardian angel, 'is my rest chamber where I come to rest and
meditate, and you shall come here and rest with me often.'"
This region, the Summerland of the Spiritualists, with its houses and
flowers, its garden of rest, has also been described in "The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception" and other books. Thus all along the line there is perfect
agreement between this particular author and the present writer as to facts
and observations regarding death and the invisible worlds.
Then we are told that she was taken thence by her friend to visit the
toiling millions in some city of the earth to whose sufferings the dwellers
in the heavenly garden went to minister. Here she visited a factory and ob-
served that she and her companions passed through walls and partitions as
they went from one department to another of the huge building, neither brick
walls nor steel beams offering the slightest resistance to their bodies. "I
often used to wonder," she remarked, "how Spirits entered houses and rooms
in which no doors were opened, and how they left them when all exists were
[PAGE 2924]
closed." Now she appeared to understand what to us on earth are solid walls
appear, when approached close by one in the Spirit body, as though composed
of something like fog, and to the passage of the Spirit body through them,
they present just as little impediment as does fog to the passage of the
physical body. Many things, she observes, that are insoluble mysteries to
the human understanding, appear just as little mysteries to the Spirit fac-
ulties as seem to us here the common things and experiences of everyday
life. To find one's progress here stopped by a brick wall occasions no sur-
prise, and similarly it occasions no surprise to one in the Spirit body to
find that the brick wall presents no impediment. We come here to a problem
of the fourth dimension which puzzles many in this world and on which this
curious record, which in part reads like a phantasy of fairyland, throws
some strange light. This also has been covered in a number of places
throughout the Rosicrucian literature.
Another incident of a somewhat similar character in the light it helps to
throw on this strange mystery of interpenetrating planes is given towards
the close of this narrative. In one of her visits to celestial regions our
author makes the acquaintance of a man she terms "the mentor." The mentor
gave her a bouquet of flowers which she desired to take with her to earth.
"When I returned in my Spirit body to my home," she says, "I placed them in
a vase, but when next morning in my physical body I went to look at them I
[PAGE 2925]
discovered that thought I could see them as plainly as when the mentor had
handed them to me, and could still smell their exquisite fragrance, they
were not palpable to my touch. My hands passed through them as they would
through a ray of light, and still they remained unbroken with not a single
petal deranged. Save myself, no member of my household could see them or
smell them. The angels," she adds, and here is a very curious point, "who
visit me in my house can handle them as we do earthly flowers, but the lat-
ter, of which I always have some in my house, they cannot handle. They see
them just as I see them but they offer no resistance to their touch." She
asks in bewilderment, "Which is the world of solid reality, and which of in-
tangible appearances, our world or the Spirit world?"
These points have also been covered in the Rosicrucian literature, and we
would refer our readers to the story called "Facing the Firing Squad" which
appeared in the November, 1917, number of "Rays from the Rose Cross," and
gives a description of the last hours of a spy, how he meets death and after
the transition visits a sister. During the journey to his sister's home
thousands of miles from the place where he met his death, it puzzled him
that the air seemed to be peopled with Spirit forms floating through the air
just like himself and the Rosicrucian who accompanied him. At first he
tried to avoid them but found it impossible. He braced himself for a colli-
sion, when to his surprise he found that these people floated right
[PAGE 2926]
through him and his companion just as if they had no existence whatever.
This filled him for the moment with consternation and bewilderment, until
the Rosicrucian, observing his dilemma, laughed reassuringly and bade him
not to mind. That was the custom in the land of the living dead, for there
all forms are so plastic that they easily interpenetrate one another at
times, and there is no danger whatever of losing one's identity.
Arrived at the home of his sister they found her seated in a comfortable
living room and the spy impulsively rushed over to her and embraced her,
only to find to his dismay that she was absolutely unaware of his presence
and that HIS HANDS INSTEAD OF GRASPING HER FORM WENT RIGHT THROUGH IT.
Again he turned to the Rosicrucian and asked what he should do to make him-
self felt, for this impalpability of a so-called solid body again
non-plussed him. The directions were given and the method used by the liv-
ing dead to attract attention of those in the physical world described.
Thus there are a thousand and one points of agreement between a number of
people who are capable of functioning both in the visible and the invisible
worlds. Moreover, this war is greatly increasing the number of those who
can perform this feat and eventually we shall all be able to do so, from the
least to the greatest. It will be as normal a faculty as sight or hearing.
Thus gradually we are becoming more and more acquainted with the invisible
worlds and the points of agreement are already far in excess of the points
[PAGE 2927]
of divergence. Hence there should be no difficulty in accepting the stories
from the unseen on that account.
WHY GROUP SPIRITS SUFFER:
QUESTION NO. 60:
ANIMALS BOTH WILD AND DOMESTIC SUFFER MANY THINGS, AND WE ARE TAUGHT THAT
THE GROUP SPIRITS SUFFER MORE INTENSELY. WHY IS THIS? DO GROUP SPIRITS,
LIKE US, SUFFER FROM THEIR OWN MISDEEDS?
ANSWER: It seems very difficult to conceive that such glorious beings as
the Archangels--who are Group Spirits and Race Spirits--can do wrong, at
least in the sense that we with our limited understanding attach to that
word. Christ is the highest Initiate among the Archangels, and as we know
that "He suffered in all things as we, being tempted, yet without sin,"
there is evidently a higher law. What that is we shall sense when we con-
sider the relation of the Group Spirits to the animals of their species in
the light of the law of analogy, which is the masterkey to all mysteries.
[PAGE 2928]
The following illustration from the COSMO will probably make the differ-
ence clear between man with his indwelling Spirit and the animal with its
Group Spirit:
Let us imagine a room divided by means of a curtain representing the De-
sire World, and the other the Physical. There are two men in the room, one
in each division; they cannot see each other nor can they get into the same
division. There are, however, ten holes in the curtain, and the man who is
in the division representing the Desire World can put his ten fingers
through these holes in the other division, representing the Physical World.
He now furnishes an excellent example of the Group Spirit which is in the
Desire World. The fingers represent the animals which belong to one spe-
cies. He is able to move them as he wills, but he cannot use them as
freely, nor as intelligently as the man who is walking about in the physical
division uses his body.
The latter sees the fingers that are thrust through the curtain. He ob-
serves that they all move, but he cannot see the connection between them.
To him it appears as if they were all separate and distinct from one an-
other. He cannot see that they are the fingers of the man behind the veil,
and are governed in their movements by his intelligence. If he hurts one of
the fingers he does not hurt them as much as the man on the other side of
the curtain. If an animal is hurt it suffers, but not to the extent that
the Group Spirit does, because it has no individualized consciousness.
[PAGE 2929]
The dense body in which we function is composed of numerous cells, each
having separate cell-consciousness, though of a very low order. While these
cells form part of our body they are subject to and dominated by our con-
sciousness. An animal Group Spirit functions in a spiritual body which con-
sists of a varying number of Virgin Spirits imbued for the time being with
the consciousness of the Group Spirit. The latter directs them, watching
over them and helping them to evolve. As its wards progress the Group
Spirit also evolves, undergoing a series of metamorphoses, in a manner
similar to that in which we grow and gain experience by taking into our bod-
ies the cells of the food we eat, thereby also raising their consciousness
by enduing them with ours for a time.
This Group Spirit dominates the action of the animals in its charge until
the Virgin Spirits shall have gained self-consciousness and become human.
Then they will gradually manifest wills of their own, gaining more and more
freedom from the Group Spirit and becoming responsible for their own ac-
tions. The Group Spirit will continue to influence them, although in a de-
creasing degree, as Race, Tribe, Community, and Family Spirits until each
individual has become capable of acting in full harmony with Cosmic Law.
Then each Ego will be free and independent of interference, and the Group
Spirits will enter a higher phase of evolution.
In the light of the foregoing elucidation of the relationship between the
Group Spirit and the animals, it is evident that the sufferings experienced
[PAGE 2930]
through its proxies have the same purpose as the sufferings we experience on
account of our direct mistakes, namely, to teach it to avoid whenever pos-
sible undesirable conditions which are productive of pain. The man without
a gun sees lots of animals when he walks about the fields; they flock to Mt.
Ecclesia and other places where the Group Spirit tells them they are safe.
The man with the gun truly has to hunt, for the Group Spirit warns its
charges of his approach. Besides, the Group Spirit clothes its species in
fur or feathers colored to resemble the ground, the trees, or leaves, so as
to render them as inconspicuous as possible to those who would hunt them and
thereby cause them pain. Thus, because of the desire to avoid pain to it-
self it exercises its ingenuity to guard its charges. We are not prepared,
however, to aver that the desire to escape pain is the prime motive of the
Group Spirit in guarding its charges, but the two are linked together as the
cause and effect.
But what about the animals slaughtered for food, and the poor creatures
tortured in the vivisection hells? How about the poor horses starved and
beaten by inhuman drivers? What is the Group Spirit doing to protect them
and save itself the pain incident to their condition? It can educate the
wild animals of the field to save themselves by various methods, but domes-
tic animals must present a problem of considerable difficulty to the Group
Spirit. It has the power to withhold the seed atom necessary to
[PAGE 2931]
fertilization to preserve the purity of its tribe, and does so in the case
of hybrids. However, the prime purpose of existence is experience, so it is
forced to admit the Spirits under its guardianship to birth through their
legitimate channels even though they are thereby exposed to atrocious treat-
ment at the hands of man. Man must and will help the animals at some future
time to atone for his present wrong-doing, and he will have to help the
present minerals when they have become animals. The Law of Consequence is
just and can be depended upon to balance the scales. In the meantime, the
Group Spirits are learning sympathy and compassion. The Race Spirits are
learning the same thing through human suffering caused by industrial and na-
tional warfare. Eventually the day will come when the lion will lie down
with the lamb, eating grass with the ox, when the child may play unharmed
with the serpent, when men will beat their swords into plowshares and their
spears into pruning hooks, when there will be "peace on earth and good will
among men." True, that will require great changes, mental, moral, and
physical, but "though the mills of the Gods grind slowly, they grind exceed-
ing small." Divine power has wrought cosmos from chaos; we have therefore
reason to trust in its benevolent purpose and believe in its omnipotence to
overcome all obstacles in the way of realizing what now appears utopian.
[PAGE 2932]
NATURE OF THE DESIRE WORLD:
QUESTION NO. 61:
THE COSMO SAYS THAT THE DESIRE WORLD IS FLUID, AND COMPOSED OF
EVERCHANGING LIGHT AND COLOR. IS IT NOT CORRECT TO PICTURE THE DARKEST COL-
ORS AT THE LOWEST REGIONS GRADUALLY BLENDING INTO THE LIGHTER COLORS AND IN
THE REGION OF SOUL POWER FINDING PURE WHITE LIGHT?
ANSWER: Yes, in one sense you are right. Color depends upon vibration,
the rapidity of the rate and wave length. For instance, in the colors of
the spectrum red has a much longer wave length and a slower rate of vibra-
tion than violet, which is at the other end of the solar spectrum, but the
colors in the Desire World are not at all the same colors that we see here.
Here color is caused by the reflection of the Sun's rays in the atmosphere.
There light is a property of matter. One might almost say that from the
viewpoint of that world desire stuff is light and light is desire stuff.
That is not quite correct, but almost so.
Furthermore, the colors which we would call dark there are brighter than
the brightest sunlight here. That is why we do not see them. Our eyes can-
not respond to that rate of vibration. You should not consider the Desire
World being above and higher than the Physical World in the sense of space
being involved. The desire matter is here. It interpenetrates every
[PAGE 2933]
physical atom. Even the ether is pervaded by it, and the dark, to the
spiritual sight almost black, chemical ether, seems almost inseparable from
the lowest grade of desire stuff. They are so dense that they seem nearly
gaseous, and it has often been a wonder to the writer that people cannot see
them and the beings moving therein.
ATTITUDE OF GROUP SPIRITS TO EACH OTHER:
QUESTION NO. 62:
ARE GROUP SPIRITS ENEMIES ON THE SPIRITUAL PLANE AS THEIR CHARGES SUCH AS
WOLVES AND SHEEP ARE ON THIS PLANE?
ANSWER: No, there is no enmity connected with the whole matter, either
in the visible or invisible world. The wolf does not hate the sheep it eats
any more than the ox hates the grass. It is simply a question of obtaining
the food wherewith to sustain life, and the work of the Group Spirits with
their charges is furthered in no small measure by the resulting game of hide
and seek, played by the beasts of prey and their quarries.
THE MAIN OBJECT OF EXISTENCE IS THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, and the
[PAGE 2934]
ingenuity displayed by one class of animals in capturing another, the pa-
tient concentration of the cat watching the mousehole, and the many varied
schemes used by other animals to catch the unwary, are easily counterbal-
anced by the vigilance displayed by the animals preyed upon in their wild
state, when they are totally dependent upon the group Spirits to save them
from their pursuers. If there were not this struggle for existence the
evolution of consciousness would be much more long-drawn than it is and
therefore the predatory habits of the carnivorous animals serve a good pur-
pose in nature as well as all other seeming anomalies.
UNDINES AND MERMAIDS:
QUESTION NO. 63:
IS THERE ANY FOUNDATION FOR THE BELIEF IN MERMAIDS? IF SO, WHAT IS THEIR
ORIGIN? WHAT PURPOSE DO THEY SERVE?
ANSWER: Undines, mermaids, and mermen are not figments of the fancy.
They are real. We are so fond of looking upon this world as a great big
perpetual motion machine, and we try to explain everything on one scientific
[PAGE 2935]
theory or another. People will say that the sun heats up the ocean, that
the water evaporates, rises into colder strata, and there condenses into
clouds, which are moved over the lands by wind, and when condensed suffi-
ciently, the seawater falls as rain. Then it runs back to the sea as riv-
ers, and that is all there is to it.
Yes, but how could all this happen without somebody being at the head of
it and somebody working at it. We know very well a building is made of
bricks. one brick is laid on top of another, and it is built to whatever
height is desired. But the bricks do not get up there themselves. They
have to be carried, and it is the same in the economy of nature. The work-
men, the nature spirits, are found everywhere. They have their work and
evolution just as we have and everything in nature is an orderly process.
These undines, mermaids, and mermen are concerned with the condensation of
the water and with the work of keeping the things in the water in order,
building up plants and such like things, just the same as the gnomes build
the flowers on land. We say that a plant grows, but just as bricks have to
be put together in a house, so the atoms have to be put together in plants.
In the case of human beings, those who are in the Second heaven are pre-
paring to build new bodies, and they learn to build better bodies by working
on us to build these bodies. Later they come back to earth wit added expe-
rience and that helps them to build a better body next time. Similarly, the
little nature spirits we call gnomes help to build the plants and flowers,
[PAGE 2936]
and the sylphs are the agents in carrying up the water that has been broken
up by the undines, into the skies where it condenses into clouds. Then the
sylphs are the cause of the winds and move the clouds about and bring about
the storms and the rain. Thus one department in nature works with the oth-
ers. The salamanders are the fire spirits and perhaps the least known, but
they also have their work to do in breaking up earth conditions, etc. You
remember Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." That is an actual fact.
It is this way: at the winter solstice when everything is dead, when the
earth is asleep under its winter blanket, the new impulse to life, the
Christ Life, is poured into the earth and begins to work out towards the pe-
riphery, bringing life to seeds in the ground and giving them the vitality
the need to sprout. It also infuses vitality in all beings that live upon
the earth. This Christ Life takes birth at the winter solstice when the Sun
is at its lowest point of declination. Thus in the winter we have more
spirituality, for that divine life impulse comes to us anew every year and
the Savior is thus born to save His people from the cold and famine that
would result if the Sun were always in that southern part of declination.
The impulse is spiritual for there is no physical activity going on in
nature at that time. On the other hand, in summer all is activity in the
world. The summer solstice is the apex of the physical impulse, and it is
[PAGE 2937]
at that time that the nature spirits have their festival. They do enjoy
themselves, and glory and feel thankful that they have brought forth and
that that they have helped to work this miracle of fecundation and expres-
sion of all physical things that have come to birth. At that time the fruc-
tification begins, the fruit begins to ripen, and then we go down towards
the harvest, which is at the fall equinox. So these nature spirits have a
great work to do. It is not only true that they ARE, but they play a very,
very important part in the world's work.
QUESTIONS DEALING WITH SPIRITUAL SIGHT:
THE FOUR KINGDOMS:
|---------|--------|---------------------------|-----------------------------|
| PURE | | WILL | THE ONE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT: |
| | | | |
| | | |MINERAL|PLANT |ANIMAL| HUMAN |
| | | | GROUP |GROUP |GROUP | EGO |
| SPIRIT | | IMAGINATION |SPIRIT |SPIRIT|SPIRIT|| ||
|---------|--------|---------------------------|-| |--| |--| |--| ||
| | | |7| | || | || | || ||
| | | ABSTRACT |-\ - /-|| |-|| |-|| ||
| WORLD | EGO | |6| | || | || | || ||
| | | THOUGHT |---|---|\ - /-|| |-|| ||
| | | |5 | | | || | || ||
|---------|--------|---------------------------|---|------|----\ - /--| ||
| | | |4 | | | | | || ||
| OF | | THE FOCUS OF MIND |---|---|--|---|--|---|\ --- /|
| | MIND | |3 | | | | | | /^\ |
| | | |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
| THOUGHT | | |2 | | | | | | ||| |
| | | CONCRETE THOUGHT |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
| | | |1 | | | | | | ||| |
|---------|--------|---------------------------|---|------|------|------|||--|
| | | |7 | | | | | | ||| |
| | | HIGHER |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
| DESIRE | DESIRE | |6 | | | | | | ||| |
| | | DESIRES |---|---|--|---|--|---|--|||--|
| | | |5 | | | | | | ||| |
| | |---------------------------|---|---|--|---|-\|/--|--|||--|
| | | |4 | | | | /^\ | ||| |
| | | FEELING>>>>>>>|---|---|--|---|-|||--|--|||--|
| WORLD | BODY | |3 | | | | ||| | ||| |
| | | LOWER >>>>> |---|---|--|---|-|||--|--|||--|
| | | |2 | | | | ||| | ||| |
| | | DESIRES >>>>> |---|---|--|---|-|||--|--|||--|
| | | |1 | | | | ||| | ||| |
|---------|--------|---------------------------|---|------|-----|||-----|||--|
| | |REFLECTING ETHER:MEMORY |7 | | | | ||| | ||| |
| | |---------------------------|---|---|-\|/--|-|||--|--|||--|
| | VITAL |LIGHT ETHER:THE SENSES |6 | | /^\ | ||| | ||| |
|PHYSICAL | |---------------------------|---|---|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
| | |LIFE ETHER:PROPAGATION |5 | | ||| | ||| | ||| |
| | BODY |---------------------------|--\|/--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
| | |CHEMICAL ETHER:ASSIMILATION|4 /^\ | ||| | ||| | ||| |
| |--------|---------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
| | |GAS: BREATH |3 ||| | ||| | ||| | ||| |
| WORLD | DENSE |---------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
| | |LIQUID: BLOOD |2 ||| | ||| | ||| | ||| |
| | BODY |---------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
| | |SOLID: BONE |1 ||| | ||| | ||| | ||| |
|----------------------------------------------|--|||--|-|||--|-|||--|--|||--|
\|/ \|/ \|/ \|/
MINERAL PLANT ANIMAL MAN
[PAGE 2938]
THE METHOD OF SPIRITUAL COGNITION:
QUESTION NO. 64:
WILL YOU PLEASE DISCUSS THE PROBLEM OF COGNITION? HOW DOES THE SEER KNOW
ON THE HIGHER PLANES? BY THIS I MEAN, (a) HOW CAN HE DISTINGUISH BETWEEN A
THOUGHT FORM EMANATING FROM HIS OWN MIND AND (b) THE THOUGHT FORM EMANATING
FROM SOME OTHER PERSON EITHER IN THE BODY OR OUT, AND (c) OBJECTIVE
SPIRITUAL ENTITIES?
ANSWER: Contrary to the opinion of people who do not know anything about
the matter this is purely a matter of training. It is absolutely wrong to
suppose that because a person who has developed the spiritual sight and is
able to see things in the worlds which are usually invisible to the ordinary
human view in the present stage of evolution he therefore by the same fac-
ulty knows everything. As a matter of fact he does not know anything until
he has acquired the knowledge by investigation. The law of analogy, which
is the master key to all mysteries, should make this clear. "As above, so
below," and "as below, so above." We see the telephone hanging on the wall;
we know how to operate it by taking down the receiver, placing it to our ear
and talking through the transmitter. We know even in a vague way that it is
operated by electricity, but the mechanism is a mystery to the great major-
ity.
Similarly, we may turn an electric switch, see the lights flash on, and
[PAGE 2939]
the motors begin to whirl. We see the phenomenon, but we do not know the
underlying forces until by investigation we have fitted ourselves and ac-
quired the knowledge. The very same conditions obtain in the Desire World
to an even greater degree, because of the superlative plasticity of the de-
sire stuff and the ease wherewith it is changed into different forms by the
ensouling Spirit, whether superhuman or elemental. On that account even the
person who has voluntary control of his spiritual sight requires a thorough
training and must cultivate the faculty of seeing beyond the form to the
ensouling life. It is only when he has cultivated that faculty that he is
free from delusion and able to distinguish the true nature and status of all
the things and beings which he sees in the invisible world. To do this in
the most efficient manner and have the certainty of escaping illusion it is
necessary to cultivate the grade of spiritual sight pertaining to the con-
crete region of the World of Thought, where the archetypes which are the
ensouling life can be seen.
To make this clear we may call to mind that the physical sight varies so
that there are certain beings which see perfectly under conditions which to
us appear as darkness. For instance owls and bats. The eyes of fishes are
constructed so that they see under water. The organs of spiritual sight are
also capable of being attuned to different vibrations. Each rate of vibra-
tion produces a different grade of sight and opens up to the investigator a
certain realm of nature. By an exceedingly slight extension of the physical
[PAGE 2940]
sight the ethers and the beings therein become plainly visible. This grade
of sight may be likened to the X-ray, for objects which appear solid to the
physical sight are most easily penetrated by the etheric sight or vision.
When one looks at a house with etheric vision he sees right through the
wall. If he wants to find out what is taking place in a room on the farther
side of the house from where he stands, the etheric rays from his eyes to
the object in that room pierce the walls and all other intervening objects,
and he sees them just as plainly as if the whole house were made of glass.
This grade of sight may be applied to the human body, and it is possible
with its help to look through the whole organic structure and watch its
functions in actual operation. The writer also had the idea until recently
that the common trick of reading a letter which is enclosed in a sealed en-
velope, perhaps in the pocket of another person was done in the same manner.
However, stimulated by the articles on psychometry in our magazine, he one
day took a letter addressed to himself and tried the experiment, which suc-
ceeded beautifully, showing the person who had written the letter sitting in
his room, and giving the whole contents very nicely. Immediately afterward
he tried another letter with etheric sight to ascertain how the result would
differ, and it was then found to be very difficult to disentangle the writ-
ing on account of the letter having been folded up. There seemed to be a
conglomerate mass of ink streaks, and it required the use of the next higher
[PAGE 2941]
grade of sight which penetrates to the Desire World before the letter could
be distinguished and read.
When one looks at an object with the sight necessary to see the Desire
World, even the most solid objects are also seen through and through, but
with the difference that one sees them as it were from all directions.
Thought forms such as spoken of by the enquirer would probably be clothed in
this material because no thought form can compel action save through the me-
dium of this force--matter which we call desire stuff, and no one who has
not made a study of it can guess how many people are actuated by thought
forms which they think are their own, but which as a matter of fact,
originated in the brain of some one else. it is in this way that what we
call public opinion is formed. Strong thinkers who have certain definite
ideas about a particular thing radiate those thought forms from themselves,
and others less positive and not antagonistic to the view expressed in these
wandering thought forms catch them up and think that these thoughts have
originated within themselves. Thus gradually the sentiment grows until that
which was originally started by one man has been accepted by a large part of
the community.
To learn positively the origin of such stray thought forms would neces-
sitate examination by means of the grade of sight necessary to function in
the Region of Concrete Thought where the idea first took shape. There all
solid objects appear as vacuous cavities from which a basic keynote is con-
tinually sounded and thus whoever sees a thing also hears from itself the
[PAGE 2942]
whole history of its being. Thought forms which have not yet crystallized
into physical action or being do not present themselves to the observer as a
cavity, but there thoughts are not silent. They speak in a language which
is unmistakable and convey far more accurately than words can, what is their
intent until the force which their originator expended to bring them into
being has been spent. As they sing in the key peculiar to the person who
gave them birth it is a comparatively easy matter for the trained occultist
to trace them to their source.
Regarding section "c" of your question is it not quite clear what you
mean. If you want to know how we can distinguish the thoughts of objective
spiritual entities from our own thoughts, the foregoing method may be ap-
plied to all beings without any distinction whatever. But if you mean how
can we distinguish objective spiritual entities from thought forms, the an-
swer is that thought forms lack spontaneity. They are more or less like
automatons. They move and act in one direction only, according to the will
of the thinker which is the motive power within them. The actions of objec-
tive spiritual entities are spontaneous and changeable in the same way that
our actions or tactics are, whenever we wish or it seems desirable to change
them.
[PAGE 2943]
THE FOURTH DIMENSION:
QUESTION NO. 65:
IT IS STATED IN THE COSMO, PAGE 126, THAT THE FACULTY OF SPACE PERCEPTION
IS CONNECTED WITH THE DELICATE ADJUSTMENT OF THE THREE SEMICIRCULAR CANALS
IN THE EAR, POINTING IN THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SPACE. LOGICAL THOUGHT AND
MATHEMATICAL ABILITY ARE IN PROPORTION TO THE ACCURACY OF THEIR ADJUSTMENT.
IT SEEMS THAT THE PERCEPTION OF THE FOURTH DIMENSION HAS BEEN ARRIVED AT
BY MATHEMATICIANS OF A VERY HIGH DEGREE. CAN YOU TELL ME IF THERE IS ANY
CHANGE IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF THESE SEMI-CIRCULAR CANALS, OR WHAT IS THE PRO-
CESS THAT LEADS UP TO THE FOURTH DIMENSION CONSCIOUSNESS?
IT WOULD ALSO SEEM THAT NATURE SPIRITS AND ELEMENTALS HAVE THIS FOURTH
DIMENSIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH IS A HIGHER DEGREE OF CONSCIOUSNESS THAN
THAT WHICH WE NOW POSSESS, AND POSSIBLY THE BEE OR THE ELBERFELD HORSES.
WILL YOU PLEASE SUPPLY THE MISSING LINK? WHAT MAKES MAN OR HUMANITY SUPE-
RIOR TO THESE BEINGS, AND WHAT IS THE ARRANGEMENT OF THESE SEMI-CIRCULAR CA-
NALS IN THE CASE OF THE BEES AND THESE GIFTED HORSES?
ANSWER: To the majority of mankind figures are exceedingly tedious, for
we are used to living an outward life among other people and friends where
we give expression to our desires, feelings, and emotions. The more these
are stirred the more interesting we find life, and contrariwise, the things
[PAGE 2944]
that do not cause a ripple of emotion are held to be dull and uninteresting.
Therefore, the majority do not take to mathematics or anything else that
will sharpen the mind without at the same time arousing the emotional na-
ture.
We know that God geometrizes, that all the processes of nature are
founded upon systematic calculation which argues the great Master-mind.
When God as the great Architect of the universe has built the whole world
upon mathematical lines, we may know that consciously or unconsciously the
mathematician is reaching out in a direction in which eventually he will
find himself face to face with God, and this in itself argues an expansion
of consciousness. When we consider the fact that each of the semi-circular
canals is in fact a supersensitive spirit level adjusted so as to indicate
to our consciousness the motion of our body through the length, breadth, or
depth of space we may easily understand that their actual adjustment is nec-
essary to space perception. If they are true, then the space perception of
the person is perfect, and if he takes up the study of mathematics, then his
theories will agree with what he sees in the world as actual facts. This is
some high minds engenders an actual love of figures so that they may rest
such a mind instead of being a source of fatigue as they are to most people.
The love of figures may arouse in such a person the latent spiritual facul-
ties, but not through any change in the semi-circular canals. These are
[PAGE 2945]
bony strucutres and not easily changed during the life time. There is no
doubt, however, that one who has a taste for music or mathematics will later
build these canals more accurately in the Second Heaven between death and a
new birth.
With respect to the consciousness of the elementals or nature spirits,
you are quite correct in assuming that they have what may be called a fourth
dimensional consciousness. In addition to the height, width, and length,
which are the dimensions of space in the physical world, there is what we
may call "throughness" in the ethers. With the etheric sight you may look
into a mountain, and if you have an etheric body such as the nature spirits
possess, you may also walk through the hardest granite rock. It will offer
no more obstruction than the air does to our progress here. In fact, not so
much, for here we are hindered by winds. However, even among nature spirits
there are different entities and a corresponding variation of consciousness.
The bodies of the gnomes are made of the chemical ether principally, and
therefore they are of the earth earthy. That is, one never sees them fly
about as do the sylphs. They can be burned in fire. They also grow old in
a manner not so greatly different from the human beings.
The undines which live in the water and the sylphs of the air are also
subject to mortality, but their bodies being composed of the life and light
ethers, respectively, makes them much more enduring. Thus while it is
stated that the gnomes do not live more than a few hundred years, the
[PAGE 2946]
undines and sylphs are said to live for thousands, and the salamanders whose
bodies are principally built of the fourth ether are said to live many thou-
sands of years. The consciousness which builds and ensouls these bodies,
however, belongs to a number of divine hierarchs who are gaining additional
experience in that manner; and the forms which are built of matter and thus
ensouled have attained a degree of self-consciousness during these long ex-
istences. They have a sense of their own transitory existence and it is to
their rebellion against this state of things that the war of the elements,
notably fire, air, and water, is due. Fancying that they are being held in
bondage, they seek liberation from the leash by force, and having no sense
to guide themselves, run amuck in a destructive manner which at times brings
about great catastrophes.
The consciousness of the gnomes is too dull to take the initiative, but
they not infrequently become accomplices of the other nature spirits by
opening passages which favor explosions in the rock. However, this has no
connection at all with the Elberfeld horses or kindred animal prodigies.
These are the wards of their respective Group Spirits and it is probably the
last time they will seek embodiment in an animal form. When that happens,
such Spirits are relegated to Chaos where they must wait during the Cosmic
night for their less gifted brothers until the time when it is possible to
begin their human evolution in the Jupiter Period.
[PAGE 2947]
THE MEMORY OF NATURE:
QUESTION NO. 66:
HOW DO THE RECORDS IN THE MEMORY OF NATURE APPEAR TO THE SPIRITUAL VI-
SION? THAT IS, HOW ARE THE ACTS OF A PERSON IN A FORMER LIFE REPRESENTED?
ANSWER: That depends upon where you read the Memory of Nature. There
are, in the reflecting ether, pictures of all that has happened in the
world, at least several hundred years back, perhaps in some cases much more.
And they appear almost as the pictures on a screen, with this difference,
that the scene shifts backward. Thus if we wish to study the life of Luther
or Calvin in the Memory of nature we may by concentration call up any cer-
tain points in their lives and start there, and we may hold that scene
wherewith we start, or any other scene, as long as we desire, by simply
willing so to do. However, we shall find that the picture rolls backward,
so if we start with the scene where Luther is said to have thrown the ink
bottle against the wall to oust his Satanic Majesty, and if we want to know
what happened after that, we shall find ourselves foiled in our purpose. We
will then have presented to us all the scenes that went before, and in order
to get the information we want we must start at a point later in time than
that event. Then the scenes will roll backward in orderly sequence until we
come to the episode with the ink bottle, and we may later reconstruct the
[PAGE 2948]
whole picture in the progressional manner which obtains in ordinary every
day physical life.
But if we read in the Memory of Nature in the next higher realm where it
is kept, namely, the highest subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought,
we obtain a vastly different view in quite another manner. By concentrating
our thought upon Luther we shall there call up in our mind at one flash the
whole record of his life. There will be neither beginning nor end, but we
shall obtain at once the aroma or essence of his whole existence. Neither
will this picture or thought or knowledge be outside ourselves, so that we
stand as spectators and look at the life of Luther, but the picture will be,
so to speak, within ourselves, and WE SHALL FEED OURSELVES AS IF WE WERE AC-
TUALLY LUTHER. This picture will speak to our inner consciousness and give
us a thorough understanding of his life and purpose, not to be gained by an
exterior view. We shall know whatever he knew, for the time being. We
shall feel whatever he felt, and though there will be no audible word spo-
ken, we shall obtain a perfect understanding of what the man was from the
cradle to the grave. Every thought, no matter how secret, and every act, no
matter how well concealed, will be known to us with all the motives and ev-
erything that led up to the event, and thus we shall obtain a most thorough
understanding of the life of Luther, so intimate that probably not he him-
self during life, realized himself as perfectly as we shall then.
Now it would seem that having obtained such an intimate and thorough
knowledge of Luther, Calvin, Napoleon, or any other man or event in history,
[PAGE 2949]
or before the date when history was written, we should be able to write
books that would explain all these things in the most wonderful manner.
Anyone who has tried to read in the Memory of Nature as kept in that high
region will testify with the writer that they have felt just that way when
they left their investigation and returned to their ordinary brain con-
sciousness. But, alas and alack! Thought must be manifested through the
brain and to be intelligible to others it must be translated into sentences
consecutively unfolding the ideas to be conveyed, and no one who has not
felt this limitation on coming back from the Heaven World with such valuable
information can realize the chagrin and despair which one feels when he en-
deavors to do this. In that highest subdivision of the Region of Concrete
Thought, all things are included in an eternal HERE and NOW; there is nei-
ther time nor space, beginning nor end, and to arrange that which is there
seen, heard, and felt, into consecutively arranged ideas is next to impos-
sible. it simply seems to refuse to filter through the brain. We who have
seen and heard know what we have seen and what we have heard, but we are un-
able to utter it. There is no human language or tongue that can translate
these things in an adequate manner and give to another anything but the
faintest feeling, the most attenuated shadow of the glorious reality.
There is still another record of the Memory of Nature in the World of
Life Spirit, which is said by the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucians to
cover events from the earliest dawn of our present manifestation and to be
[PAGE 2950]
so sublime and wonderful that we have no word that will give even the
slightest idea thereof. There are a number of misguided people who deceive
themselves and others into thinking that they are able to read this record,
but the fact is, according to the Elder Brothers, that only they and other
hierarchs of the other Mystery Schools, together with the Adepts who have
graduated from these institutions, are able to do so.
DIAGRAM 15:
THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION AND THE FOUR GREAT INITIATIONS:
Ordinary Humanity pursues the spiral path
The Initiate goes the straight and narrow way that leads....
TO
GOD
/--------------------------\ * /--------------------------\
<---------------------------->--|--<---------------------------->
\--------------------------/ | \--------------------------/
|[4]
|--* | *--|
1 | /|\ | 7
SATURN PERIOD \|/ | /|\ VULCAN PERIOD
[Saturday] | | | THE WEEK
VIOLET |--->---->---->|---->---->--|-| [Embracing All
|--->----->--|-->---->----| | The Days]
| /|\ \|/ WHITE
/|\ | | [Including All
|-|<----<----<-|----<----<----| The Colors]
| |---<----<-----<-----<----|
6 \|/ |[3] /|\ 2
VENUS PERIOD | /|\ | SUN PERIOD
[Friday] |---->---->----|->----->----|-| [Sunday]
RED |----->---->-|---->---->--| | INDIGO
/|\ | \|/
3 | |[2] | 5
MOON PERIOD |-|----<----<--|---<----<-----| JUPITER PERIOD
[Monday] | |--<-----<------<----<----| [Thursday]
BLUE \|/ | /|\ ORANGE
| /|\ |
4 |----->------>------>-------|-|
EARTH-- |->------>---|-->------>--| | --PERIOD
MERCURY HALF /|\ |[1] \|/ MARS HALF
[Wednesday] |--< /|\ <--| [Tuesday]
YELLOW | GREEN
|
/|\
[THE | CADUCEUS]
|
/ \
THE WAY OF INITIATION
There was no Initiation prior to the end of the Mars half of the Earth
Period. The Lesser Mysteries embrace human evolution in the Mercury Half of
the Earth Period.
[PAGE 2951]
QUESTIONS DEALING WITH INITIATION:
THE PLANE OF INITIATION:
QUESTION NO. 67:
IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE INITIATED ON ANOTHER PLANE WITHOUT GOING THROUGH A
CORRESPONDING INITIATION ON THE PHYSICAL PLANE? IF SO, SHOULD THE MEMORY OF
THE INITIATION ON FIRST WAKING BE AN INDICATION THAT ONE HAS TAKEN PLACE, OR
WOULD IT BE ONLY A DREAM?
ANSWER: Mankind as a whole is progressing by a process which we call
evolution from impotence to omnipotence. During this pilgrimage we, who
were once altogether spiritual, have become gradually crystallized into the
various vehicles we now possess. In those by-gone days we were
all-conscious upon the spiritual plane, and though we had in time become en-
meshed in a physical body, we knew it not. Gradually, however, some became
conscious of the physical body. As the Bible says, "They saw themselves,
their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked." These pioneers
who had thus been initiated into the mystery of the physical body commenced
to go around telling the others, "We have a body." At first, of course
there were very few who would believe them, but gradually a larger number
became initiated into the mystery of the body. THEY RECEIVED THEIR PHYSICAL
SIGHT, and saw something which was not patent to their brethren. Finally
the whole of humanity had evolved the physical senses, and became capable of
[PAGE 2952]
cognizing the material world in which we now live.
Today it is the other way. Humanity has become so engrossed in the mate-
rial world that the great majority are unaware that they have finer ve-
hicles, and that there is a spiritual world which may be cognized by a sixth
sense which has been evolved by a few, but is latent in the majority of
people. These pioneers who by the unfoldment of a sixth sense have become
initiated into the mystery of the soul are now busy going about telling to
others the good news that we have a soul and a latent sense whereby to per-
ceive it.
From this explanation it should be clear that initiation consists partly
of helping someone who has not previously been able to perceive the
spiritual world to change his consciousness, so that he may at will center
it upon the invisible part of the human being, which we may loosely term the
soul, and retain perfect consciousness of all he sees.
That is true at least of the spiritual process of initiation. In that
far bygone lemurian epoch when the first pioneers discovered that we have a
body, it would not have helped anyone not ready to have gone with them
through a ceremony no matter how elaborate; the uplift to be obtained by
initiation was the opening of the eyes and the perception of the physical
body in the physical world. Similarly, it will help no one to go through
ceremonies from morning until night and study this man's book or that man's
method. The object is to evolve that sixth sense whereby the invisible
[PAGE 2953]
world and the invisible vehicles of men are perceived. This is a process of
slow growth; it involves a becoming of something that the person is not now.
The method of awakening this latent sense best suited to the Western
world has been given in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION under the caption
THE METHOD OF ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE, and also in the pamphlet
called SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT; ITS CULTURE, CONTROL, AND LEGITIMATE
USE. When the physical life lived by any person has fitted him for ini-
tiation, the Teacher always appears to him, while he is wide awake and in
full physical consciousness. The candidate is told that he has evolved a
vehicle necessary to function in the invisible world, and is then offered
the help to make the first or "initial" transition safely. This is an offer
which he may refuse if he will, and no one of the White Brothers would urge
him against his will, should he decide not to go. Certain physical prepara-
tions are necessary, and throughout the whole process, from the time he
leaves his body until he returns, the candidate remains in full conscious-
ness and has an uninterrupted memory of all that takes place. Thus it is
impossible for any one who has really gone through the process of initiation
to be in doubt of it or think that it may have been a dream.
[PAGE 2954]
THE TESTS OF INITIATION:
QUESTION NO. 68:
WHAT ARE THE TESTS OF INITIATION, WHICH IT IS SAID THE CANDIDATE MUST
PASS BEFORE HE IS INITIATED?
ANSWER: The candidate for initiation very often does not know that he is
a candidate. Usually he is simply living the spiritual life of service to
his fellow men because that is the only life that appeals to him, and he has
no ulterior thought or object in so doing. But, nevertheless, he is being
tested and tried all the time unconsciously to himself for that is part of
the process. No candidate is ever taken into an initiation chamber and
tried or tested. The tests come in the daily life and in the small things
which are seemingly very unimportant, but really are of prime significance.
If a man cannot be faithful in little things, how could he ever be expected
to be faithful in the great? Furthermore, the Elder Brothers of humanity
who have charge of this work with respect to their younger brothers, are al-
ways sure to pick out his most vulnerable point, because if he is tried,
tempted, and falls, this serves to call his attention to the weakness in his
character. Thus he has an opportunity of correcting it which he would not
have if temptation were not placed before him.
Thus the tests are not wholly made for the purpose of seeing whether he
would keep the trust, but also for the purpose of giving him the chance to
[PAGE 2955]
strengthen his weak points. The tests are therefore never the same in the
case of any two candidates, for what would be a temptation to one would pass
the other absolutely without making any impression upon him whatever. By
the life of unselfish service, and through the strength gained by passing
the various tests, the candidate weaves the golden wedding garment of the
soul body which prepares him to enter the invisible worlds and the process
of initiation consists then in simply showing him how to make use of the
power which he has accumulated within himself by his own work. No one can
initiate anyone else unless he has the power within, any more than an empty
shell can be exploded.
CREATING A NEW BODY:
QUESTION NO. 69:
HOW CAN AN INITIATE CREATE A NEW ADULT BODY READY TO WEAR BEFORE HE RE-
LINQUISHES HIS OLD ONE?
ANSWER: You will understand in the first place that it is not everyone
who has just become aware of the invisible worlds and perhaps learned to
function in the soul body that is capable of performing this feat. This re-
quires vastly more spiritual development, and only those who are very
[PAGE 2956]
highly developed at our present time are able to perform the feat.
However, the method is said to be as follows:
When food is taken into the body of anyone, be he Adept or ignoramus, the
law of assimilation is that he must first overcome each particle and conform
it to himself. He must subdue and conquer the individual CELL LIFE before
it can become part of his body. When this has been done, the CELL will stay
with him for a longer or shorter time according to the constitution and the
place in evolution of the life that dwells within it. The CELL composed of
tissue that has once been incorporated in an animal body and has been inter-
penetrated by a desire body has the most evolved life. Therefore, this life
quickly reasserts itself and leaves the body into which it has been as-
similated.
Hence one who lives upon a flesh diet must replenish his food supply very
often. Such material would therefore be unsuitable for the purpose of
building a body that has to wait for a while before the Adept enters it.
Food consisting of vegetables, fruits, and nuts, particularly when these are
ripe and fresh, is interpenetrated by a great deal of the ether which com-
poses the vital body of the plant. They are much easier to subdue and in-
corporate into the polity of body. Also, they stay longer there before the
individual cell life asserts itself. Therefore the Adept who wishes to
build a body ready to wear before he leaves the old one, naturally builds it
from fresh vegetables, fruits, and nuts, taking them into the body which he
[PAGE 2957]
uses daily where they become subjected to his will--a part of himself.
The soul body of such a man is naturally very large and very powerful.
He takes a part of it, and makes a mold or a matrix into which he may build
each day particles superfluous to the nourishment of the body he is using.
Thus by degrees, having assimilated a considerable surplus of new material,
he may also draw upon the vehicle he is wearing for material that can be in-
corporated into the new body. Thus, in the course of time he gradually
transmutes one body into the other. When the point is reached where ema-
ciation of the old body would be observed by the outside world and cause
comment, he will have balanced matters so that the new body is ready to
wear. He can step out of the old and into the new. But he does not do that
merely for the purpose of living on in the same community. it is possible
for him by reason of his great knowledge to use the same body for many years
in such a manner that it would seem still young, for there is no wear and
tear upon it such as we ordinary mortals cause by our passions, emotions,
and desires. However, when he does create a new body, it is always, as far
as the writer knows, for the purpose of leaving that environment and taking
up his work in a new.
It is for reason of this fact that we hear in history of men like
Cagliostro, St. Germain, and others who one day appeared in a certain envi-
ronment, took up an important work, and then disappeared. nobody knew
whence they had come or whither they had gone, but everyone ho knew these
[PAGE 2958]
people was ready to testify to their remarkable qualities, whether for the
purpose of villification or praise.
It is taught by the Elder Brothers that Christian Rosenkreuz has a
physical body, or perhaps he has had a series of bodies which he has worn
continually since the order was founded in the fourteenth Century. But
thought the writer has spoken to Lay Brothers of high degree, none has ever
admitted that he has seen Christian Rosenkreuz. We all understand that he
is the thirteenth member of the Order, and he is felt at meetings in the
temple as a presence, but is neither seen or heard, so far as anyone whom
the writer had dared to question, knows.
The manner of the Elder Brothers when speaking of their illustrious head
has been one of reticence, and it would seem undue inquisitiveness to ask
anything further than they are prepared to tell. it is known, however, that
his work is with the governments of the world. And though we are unable to
point to any character on the world stage now who may this great Spirit we
are certain he is there and taking his proper part. It has been said that
he wore the garment of a lady of the French Court prior to the revolution
and worked hard and earnestly to prevent that impending catastrophe, though
without success. Although we believe this is true, is is mere hearsay.
Were we to point him out at the present time we should rather look for him
as the power behind the throne somewhere rather than the actual incumbent of
one of the seats of power in the world today.
[PAGE 2959]
MASTERS AND INITIATION:
QUESTION NO. 70:
WHY DO THE OCCULTISTS SPEAK TO US OF MASTERS AND INITIATIONS, WHILE OTHER
SCHOOLS--MYSTICS--SEEM TO TEACH THAT MAN MAY TEACH HIMSELF AND REACH GOD
WITHOUT THE NECESSITY OF INITIATION AND MASTERS? CANNOT MAN REACH THE CON-
SCIOUSNESS OF THE "I" WITHOUT THESE THINGS? DO THE INITIATIONS REFER SOLELY
TO THE UNFOLDMENT OF LATENT POWERS IN MAN? ARE THERE INITIATIONS IN MYSTI-
CISM? ARE THEY THE SAME AS IN OCCULTISM?
ANSWER: If everybody was born with the same temperament it would be nec-
essary to have only one path for them. Everybody would need the same expe-
riences in order to raise his consciousness to union with God. however, as
every one is fundamentally different from all others, the experiences neces-
sarily differ and certain great lines of demarkation are necessary in order
to obtain the desired results for all. Therefore, strictly speaking, there
are as many paths to God as there are separate spirits in evolution.
Broadly speaking, there are two: one which leads to UNION BY FAITH, and
the other which is the path of SALVATION BY WORKS. At a certain point these
two paths converge, and the one who has been growing by faith finds it then
necessary to take up work also, while the person who has developed by works,
apart from belief, finds himself or herself compelled by experience in the
[PAGE 2960]
present condition to have faith also. A person may learn to speak a foreign
language by means of grammars and kindred helps, though he never visited the
country where the language was spoken; but it is probable that his pronun-
ciation will make that which he says unintelligible to a native. With the
help, however, of one who has visited the country he may learn much more ef-
ficiently and in a shorter time.
Likewise, also in the mystic life. There are some who have progressed
farther than others, who have visited the land of the soul and who have at-
tained the mystic union with God, and their help if of inestimable value to
those who are endeavoring to tread the path. Having gone before, they are
able to direct the seeker intelligently, though of course he (the seeker)
must walk every step of the way. The steps upon the path are commonly known
as initiation. An illustration will help to make the matter clear. Let us
suppose that God is at the pinnacle of a very high mountain, and that human-
ity is scattered over the plain below. From the foot of the mountain a spi-
ral circles toward the goal at the top. This is the path of evolution fol-
lowed by a great majority of mankind, who thus gradually climb the steep
sides toward the top without perceptible effort. However, there is also a
stair leading straight from the bottom to the summit. This is the path of
Initiation which is climbed only by great and conscious effort.
The spiral path of evolution goes past the stairway of initiation at
[PAGE 2961]
different points. Thus some who are still upon the path of evolution, the
pioneers, for instance, may be more advanced toward TRUTH than those who
have advanced along the path of Initiation from a lower spiral. But the
latter, of course, will soon attain a higher point if they keep on. The
more backward races of the East enter the path of initiation at a lower
point than that already attained through evolution by the pioneers of the
West. Being younger, and therefore more feeble, it is really more necessary
for them to have a Master who can help them over the first part of the rug-
ged road, than it is for those who have attained to the evolutionary state
common among the Western people. Also, the higher we climb, either by
evolution or initiation, the clearer we see the LIGHT which shines upon the
top, which is God, the more we are strengthened thereby, and the better we
are fitted to walk and climb alone.
Therefore, after a time, it is unnecessary to have Masters to help us,
and their place is then taken by the Elder Brothers, known in the West as
FRIENDS and advisers. The Master of the East urges his pupil, praises him
when he does well, punishes him when he has been neglectful. In the West,
the Elder Brothers never urge, never praise, and never blame. The urge must
come from WITHIN the pupil, and they teach him to judge himself. At certain
stages upon the path they require him to write impartial opinions of his own
conduct, so that it may be known how far he has learned to judge correctly.
Thus in every respect they educate him to stand upon his own feet without
[PAGE 2962]
leaning on them or anyone else. For the higher we attain, the greater would
be the disaster of a fall; and only as we cultivate equipoise and
self-reliance coupled with zeal of devotion, are we really fitted to go on.
Now with respect to these initiations: THERE IS NO CEREMONY OF ANY KIND
CONNECTED WITH THE TRUE INITIATION. The elaborate ceremonial of
pseudo-occult orders as today seen in the visible world, of fraternal or-
ders, or of churches, does not in any particular resemble the true ini-
tiation. That does not take place in the physical realm at all, and there
is absolutely no ceremony connected with it. Neither does it consist of a
ritual, read by anyone else, nor of lectures or preaching or anything of
that nature. not a single word is spoken during the process. That I know
to be true in the lower degrees, which I myself has passed, and it would be
contrary to reason to suppose such means should be used in the higher de-
grees. Furthermore, having had conversations with the Lay Brothers who have
passed into higher degrees, the truth of this supposition is corroborated by
their word.
In this fact you have a very good reason why the secrets of true ini-
tiation cannot be revealed. IT IS NOT AN OUTWARD CEREMONIAL BUT AN INWARD
EXPERIENCE. The Initiator, having evolved the external, picture conscious-
ness of the Jupiter Period, fixes his attention upon certain cosmic facts,
and the candidate, who has become fitted for initiation by evolving within
himself certain powers, (which are still latent, however), is like a tuning
[PAGE 2963]
fork of identical pitch wit the vibration of the ideas sent out by the Ini-
tiator in pictures. Therefore, he not only sees the pictures--anyone might
see them--but he is able to respond to the vibration. Vibrating to the
ideal presented by the Initiator, he has the latent power within him then
converted into dynamic energy and his consciousness lifted to the next step
upon the ladder of initiation.
This may sound abstruse upon first reading, but if you will read and
re-read until you have mastered the idea, you will have attained to the
nearest description of what initiation is which can possibly be given to one
who has not experienced it himself. Neither is there any secret about the
picture, in the sense that one should not tell, but it is secret because no
physical words are coined which could adequately describe a spiritual expe-
rience in material language. It is true that the initiation takes place in
a temple particularly suited to the needs of a certain group of individuals
who vibrate to a certain octave, and that there are others present. How-
ever, I reiterate that it is not what they might do or say which constitutes
initiation, but that initiation is an inward experience whereby the latent
powers which have been ripened WITHIN are changed to dynamic energy.
Now with respect to the difference between initiation along the occult
lines, and those of the mystic. You will find from what has been said from
the beginning, that they are, and must be, exactly opposite. The OCCULTIST,
[PAGE 2964]
who takes his initiation from the intellectual side is shown the connection
of spiritual causes with material facts, while the consciousness of the mys-
tic, who has received the spiritual facts is directed to their connection
with the effects of the material plane. All this with the view of blending
both sides and developing man normally. The Rosicrucian initiations, being
designed for the present pioneers of humanity, endeavor TO BLEND THE MYSTIC
WITH THE OCCULT. However, as the Western world has developed the intellect
to the detriment of the fellings, a little more stress is laid perhaps upon
the mystic side. Here the Elder Brothers always direct their pupils to look
to Christ, but though the genuine Eastern Masters are as devoted in the ser-
vice of humanity, they cannot thus teach their pupils, because from the
standpoint of the Eastern aspirant the Christ Light is yet invisible. Hence
they are forced to teach their charges to do exactly as they say, and in the
course of time when they have ascended to our level Christ will appear to
them, also.
[PAGE 2965]
WHY MOST INITIATES ARE MEN:
QUESTION NO. 71:
IF WOMAN, POSSESSING THE POSITIVE VITAL BODY, REACHES THE POINT IN EVOLU-
TION WHERE SHE CAN HAVE THE CHOICE OF BODY AND SHE SELECTS THE POSITIVE
PHYSICAL BODY, WHERE DOES THE NEGATIVE SIDE COME IN AS A BALANCE?
ANSWER: To understand the point you wish to have cleared up, you must
first realize that man and woman are appellations to be applied only to the
physical body, for sex is not expressed in the same manner in the higher ve-
hicles. Fix also firmly in your mind that the Spirit which manifests in the
bodies of the two sexes which we call male and female is itself sexless.
However, two of the Spirit's attributes are particularly in evidence when it
creates its vehicles: WILL and IMAGINATION, positive and negative, and THEY
manifest as male and female respectively when the Spirit reaches the
Physical World and builds the body in which it will function under the di-
vine guidance of the Creative Hierarchies. The Spirit expresses alter-
nately, will and imagination, so that it may be evenly developed, and there-
fore it manifests in male and female bodies. Being imperfect, the balance
is struck for it by giving it a positive physical body together with a
negative vital body, and vice versa.
However, when the time comes that the Spirit has evolved through eons in
[PAGE 2966]
school of life and learned its lessons to such an extent that it becomes
fairly self-controlled or balanced, it is no longer necessary to secure the
full equilibrium by means of opposite polarity in the body. Therefore the
Spirit can and does take to itself both a positive vital and a positive
physical body. This is the case with the great majority of initiates except
where for special reasons they find it advantageous to make use of a
negative physical body. THE VITAL BODY, HOWEVER, IN EVERY INITIATE IS AL-
WAYS POSITIVELY POLARIZED, as that makes it a better and more receptive in-
strument for the vibrations which come from the Life Spirit, whose counter-
part the vital body is.
DIAGRAM 14:
THE VEHICLES OF THE HIGHEST INITIATES AND ORDINARY HUMANITY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| The | SATURN PERIOD | SUN PERIOD | MOON PERIOD |
| worlds |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
|in which | The | The | The | The | The | The |
| these | highest|ordinary| highest|ordinary|highest |ordinary|
| orders |Initiate|humanity|Initiate|humanity|Initiate|humanity|
| have | is |are now |Christ |are now | is |are now |
| corre- | The | Lords | The | Arch- |Jehovah | Angels |
Zodiacal |sponding |Father | of | Son | angels | The | |
Signs |vehicles | | Mind | | | Holy | |
| | | | | | Spirit | |
--|-------|---------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
13|Alto- | | /\ | | | | | |
|gether | World | / \ | | | | | |
..|.......|.........|..| |..|........|........|........|........|........|
12|Aries | of | | | | | /\ | | | |
..|.......|.........|..| |..|........|../ \..|........|........|........|
11|Taurus | God | | | | | | | | | /\ | |
--|-------|---------|--| |--|--------|--| |--|--------|--/ \--|--------|
10|Gemini |World of| | | | /\ | | | | | | | | |
..|.......|.........|..| |..|../ \..|..| |..|........|..| |..|........|
9 |Cancer | Virgin | | | | | | | | | | /\ | | | | |
..|.......|.........|..| |..|..| |..|..| |..|../ \..|..| |..|........|
8 |Leo | Spirits | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | /\ |
--|-------|---------|--| |--|--| |--|--| |--|--| |--|--| |--|--/ \--|
7 |Virgo |World of| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Divine | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Spirit | |--| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
--|-------|---------|--------|--| |--|--| |--|--| |--|--| |--|--| |--|
6 |Libra |World of| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Life | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Spirit | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |--| | | | | | | | | | |
--|-------|---------|--------|--| |--|-- --|--| |--|--| |--|--| |--|
5 |Scorpio|World of | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| |Thought: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| |Region of| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| |Abstract | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Thought | | | | | | | | | | | |--| | | | |
..|.......|.........|........|..| |..|.. ..|..| |..|........|..| |..|
4 |Sagit- |Region of| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|tarius |Concrete | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Thought | | |--| | | | | | | | | | | |
--|-------|---------|--------|--------|-- --|--| |--|--------|--| |--|
3 |Capri- | Desire | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| corn | World | | | | |--| | | | | |
--|-------|---------|--------|--------|--| |--|--------|--------|--| |--|
2 | Aqua- |Physical | | >>>>>>|--| | | | | | |
| rius | World: | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Etheric | | Jesus' | | | | | | | |
| | Region | | Bodies | | | | | |--| |
..|.......|.........|........|.....|..|..|--|..|........|........|........|
1 |Pisces |Chemical | | | | | | | | | |
| | Region | | >>>>>>|--| | | | |
--|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
[PAGE 2967]
QUESTIONS DEALING WITH THE BIBLE:
NEW AND OLD TESTAMENT TEACHINGS CONCERNING JEHOVAH:
QUESTION NO. 72:
THE TEACHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS TOUCHING THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE COM-
FORTER, SO WINSOME AND SO GRACIOUS, MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY THE HOLY
SPIRIT WITH THE VENGEFUL JEHOVAH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. HOW IS THIS TO BE
RECONCILED?
ANSWER: It was the mission of Jehovah and His Angels to multiply what-
ever is upon the earth. In other words, He was the giver of children. Take
the announcement of the angel to Mary: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you
and you shall conceive." There you have already a connecting link; but just
as there are two sides to every question, so there are two sides also to the
Holy Spirit. One phase of His work is done from the OUTSIDE as a giver of
law, and law when it is applied without, is a taskmaster that DRIVES us to
do this or that or PROHIBITS us from doing other things. It demands an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. There is jehovah, the author of the
law; but when the time comes that we have RECEIVED THE LAW WITHIN and are
not driven from without, the taskmaster becomes the Comforter. The whole
universe is governed by law. Everything in the world rests upon law, and it
is our safeguard as well as our taskmaster.
In the morning we leave our homes without concern, depending upon the law
[PAGE 2968]
of gravity to keep them in place during our absence. We know that upon our
return we shall find them where we have left them, although our planet is
rushing along in its orbit at the rate of 65,000 miles per hour. We rely
upon the expansion of gases for our motive power. In fact, everything in
nature is based upon laws, and whether we know it or not, we are their
slaves until by knowledge we learn to use them, to co-operate with them, and
thus make them do OUR BIDDING and save us labor.
Similarly it is with the MORAL LAWS given by Jehovah upon Mt. Sinai.
They were designed to bring us to Christ, and WHEN CHRIST IS BORN WITHIN,
the law of the Holy Spirit also enters in. Man then is symbolized by the
ARK that stood in the Holy of Holies and had WITHIN IT the tables of the
law. You will notice that the Comforter who came to the men of old was not
an outside Comforter, but one who worked within, one who entered into them
and became a part of them. When the Spirit of Law, the Holy Spirit, enters
into us, He is the Comforter, because we do willingly the things which are
prompted by this INNER URGE, while we resented and begrudged doing the bid-
ding of the exterior taskmaster.
Continued with file "RC1083.TXT"
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