The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

That's French for "the ancient system," as in the ancient system of feudal privileges and the exercise of autocratic power over the peasants. The ancien regime never goes away, like vampires and dinosaur bones they are always hidden in the earth, exercising a mysterious influence. It is not paranoia to believe that the elites scheme against the common man. Inform yourself about their schemes here.

Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:12 pm

PART 2 OF 2

Involution, Evolution and Epigenesis

Having in the foregoing paragraphs disentangled from the general confusion the identity and mission of Jehovah, it may be that we can now find harmony in the two seemingly contradictory accounts of the creation of man, as recorded in the first and second chapters of Genesis, in the first of which it is written that he was the last, and in the second that he was the first created of all living things.

We note that the first chapter deals chiefly with the creation of Form, the second chapter is devoted to the consideration of Life, while the fifth chapter deals with the Consciousness. The key to the meaning, then, is that we must differentiate sharply between the physical Form, and the Life that builds that Form for its own expression. Although the order of the creation of the other kingdoms is not as correctly given in the second chapter as in the first, it is true that if we consider man from the Life side, he was created first, but if we consider him from the standpoint of Form, as is done in the first chapter, he was created last.

All through the course of evolution -- through Periods, Globes, Revolutions and Races -- those who do not improve by the formation of new characteristics are held back and immediately begin to degenerate. Only that which remains plastic and pliable and adaptable for molding into new Forms suitable for the expression of the expanding consciousness; only the Life which is capable of outgrowing the possibilities for improvement inhering in the forms it ensouls, can evolve with the pioneers of any life wave. All else must straggle on behind.

This is the kernel of the occult teaching. Progress is not simply unfoldment; not simply Involution and Evolution. There is a third factor, making a triad -- Involution, Evolution, and -- Epigenesis.

The first two words are familiar to all who have studied Life and Form, but while it is generally admitted that the involution of spirit into matter takes place in order that form may be built, it is not so commonly recognized that the Involution of Spirit runs side by side with the Evolution of Form.

From the very beginning of the Saturn Period up to the time in the Atlantean Epoch when "man's eyes were opened" by the Lucifer Spirits, and as a consequence the activities of man -- or the Life-force which has become man -- were chiefly directed inward; that very same force which he now sends out from himself to build railways, steamboats, etc., was used internally in building a vehicle through which to manifest himself. This vehicle is threefold, like the spirit which built it.

The same power by which man is now improving outside conditions was used during Involution for purposes of internal growth.

The Form was built by Evolution, the Spirit built and entered it by Involution; but the means for devising improvements is Epigenesis.

There is a strong tendency to regard all that is, as the result of something that has been; all improvements on previously existing forms, as being present in all forms as latencies; to regard Evolution as simply the unfolding of germinal improvements. Such a conception excludes Epigenesis from the scheme of things. It allows no possibility for the building of anything new, no scope for originality.

The occultist believes the purpose of evolution to be the development of man from a static to a dynamic God -- a Creator. If the development he is at present undergoing is to be his education and if, during its progress, he is simply unfolding latent actualities, where does He learn to create?

If man's development consists solely in learning to build better and better Forms, according to models already existing in his Creator's mind, be can become, at best, only a good imitator -- never a creator.

In order that he may become an independent, original Creator, it is necessary that his training should include sufficient latitude for the exercise of the individual originality which distinguishes creation from imitation. So long as certain features of the old Form meet the requirements of progression they are retained, but at each rebirth the evolving Life adds such original improvements as are necessary for its further expression.

The pioneers of science are constantly brought face to face with Epigenesis as a fact in all departments of nature. As early as 1759, Caspar Wolff published his "Theoria Generationis," in which he shows that in the human ovum there is absolutely no trace of the coming organism; that its evolution consists of the addition of new formations; a building of something which is not latent in the ovum.

Haeckel (that great and fearless student of nature as he sees it, and very near to knowledge of the complete truth regarding evolution) says of the "Theoria Generationis": "Despite its small compass and difficult terminology, it is one of the most valuable works in the whole literature of biology."

Haeckel's own views we find thus stated in his "Anthropogenie": "Nowadays we are hardly justified in calling Epigenesis an hypothesis, as we have fully convinced ourselves of its being a fact and are able at any moment to demonstrate it by the help of the microscope."

A builder would be but a sorry craftsman were his abilities limited to the building of houses after only one particular model, which, during his apprenticeship, his master had taught him to imitate, but which he is unable to alter to meet new requirements. To be successful he must be capable of designing new and better houses, improving that which experience teaches was not serviceable in the earlier buildings. The same force which the builder now directs outward to built houses better adapted to new conditions, was used in past Periods to build new and better vehicles for the evolution of the Ego.

Starting with the simplest organisms, the Life which is now Man built the Form to suit its necessities. In due time, as the entity progressed, it become evident that new improvements must be added which conflicted with the lines previously followed. A new start must be given it in a new species, where it could retrieve any previous mistakes which experience taught would preclude further development if the old lines were adhered to, and thus the evolving life would be enabled to progress further in a new species. When later experience proved that the new form also was inadequate, inasmuch as it could not adapt itself to some improvement necessary to the progress of the evolving life, it too was discarded and still another departure made, in a form adaptable to the necessary improvement.

Thus by successive steps. does the evolving Life improve its vehicles, and the improvements are still going on. Man, who is in the vanguard of progress, has built his bodies, from the similitude of the amoeba up to the human form of the savage, and from that up through the various grades until the most advanced races are now using the best and most highly organized bodies on Earth. Between deaths and rebirths we are constantly building bodies in which to function during our lives, and a far greater degree of efficiency than the present will yet be reached. If we make mistakes in building between lives, they become evident when we are using the body in Earth life, and it is well for us if we are able to perceive and realize our mistakes, that we may avoid making them afresh life after life.

But just as the builder of houses would lag commercially if he did not constantly improve his methods to meet the exigencies of his business, so those who persistently adhere to the old forms fail to rise above the species and are left behind, as stragglers. These stragglers take the forms outgrown by the pioneers, as previously explained, and they compose the lower Races and species of any kingdom in which they are evolving. As the Life which is now Man passed through stages analogous to the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, and through the lower human Races, stragglers were left all along the way who had failed to reach the necessary standard to keep abreast of the crestwave of evolution. They took the discarded Forms of the pioneers and used them as stepping-stones, by means of which they tried to overtake the others, but the advanced Forms did not stand still. In the progress of Evolution there is no halting-place. In evolving Life, as in commerce, there is no such thing as merely "holding your own." Progression or Retrogression is the Law. The Form that is not capable of further improvement must Degenerate.

Therefore there is one line of improving forms ensouled by the pioneers of the evolving Life, and another line of degenerating forms, outgrown by the pioneers, but ensouled by the stragglers, as long as there are any stragglers of that particular life wave to which those forms originally belonged.

When there are no more stragglers, the species gradually dies out. The Forms have been crystallized beyond the possibility of being improved by tenants of increasing inability. They therefore return to the mineral kingdom, fossilize and are added to the different strata of the Earth's crust.

The assertion of material science that man has ascended through the different kingdoms of plant and animal which exist about us now to anthropoid and thence to man, is not quite correct. Man has never inhabited forms identical with those of our present-day animals, nor the present-day anthropoid species; but he has inhabited forms which were similar to but higher than those of the present anthropoids.

The scientist sees that there is an anatomical likeness between man and the monkey, and as the evolutionary impulse always makes for improvement, he concludes that man must have descended from the monkey, but he is always baffled in his efforts to find the "missing link" connecting the two.

From the point where the pioneers of our life wave (The Aryan Races) occupied ape-like forms, they have progressed to their present stage of development, while the Forms (which were the "missing link") have degenerated and are now ensouled by the last stragglers of the Saturn Period.

The lower monkeys, instead of being the progenitors of the higher species, are stragglers occupying the most degenerated specimens of what was once the human form. Instead of man having ascended from the anthropoids, the reverse is true -- the anthropoids have degenerated from man. Material science, dealing only with Form, has thus misled itself and drawn erroneous conclusions in this matter.

The same relative conditions are to be found in the animal kingdom. The pioneers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Sun Period are our present-day mammals. The different grades correspond to the steps once taken by man, but the forms are all degenerating under the management of the stragglers. Similarly, the pioneers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Moon Period are found among the fruit trees, while the stragglers of that life wave ensoul all other plant forms.

Each life wave, however remains definitely confined within its own borders. The anthropoids may overtake us and become human beings, but no other animals will reach our particular point of development. They will reach a similar stage, but under different conditions, in the Jupiter Period. The present plants will be the humanity of the Venus Period, under a still greater difference of condition, and our minerals will reach the human stage under the conditions of the Vulcan Period.

It will be noted that the modern evolutionary theory, particularly that of Haeckel, would, if it were completely reversed, be in almost perfect accord with the knowledge of occult science.

The monkey has degenerated from the man.

The polyps are the last degeneration left behind by the mammals.

The mosses are the lowest degenerations of the plant kingdom.

The mineral kingdom is the final goal of the forms of all the kingdoms when they have reached the acme of degeneration.

A corroboration of this is found in coal, which was once vegetable or plant forms; also in petrified wood and fossilized remains of various animal forms. Common stone or rock, which no scientist would admit had it origin in another kingdom, is to the occult investigator as truly mineralized plants as coal itself. The mineralogist will learnedly explain that it is composed of hornblende, feldspar, and mica, but the trained clairvoyant, who can trace it back in the memory of Nature, through millions of years, can supplement that statement by adding: Yes, and that which you call hornblende and feldspar are the leaves and stems of prehistoric flowers, and the mica is all that remains of their petals.

The occult teaching of evolution is also corroborated by the science of embryology in the ante-natal recapitulation of all past stages of development. The difference between the ovum of a human being and of some of the higher mammals, and even of the higher developments in the plant kingdom, is indistinguishable, even under the microscope. Experts are unable to tell which is animal and which is human. Even after several of the initial ante-natal stages have been passed through, the experts cannot differentiate between and animal and human embryo.

But if the animal ovum is studied through the entire period of gestation, it will be observed that it passes through the mineral and plant stages only, and is born when it reaches the animal stage. This is because the Life ensouling such an ovum passed through its mineral evolution in the Sun Period, its plant life in the Moon Period, and is now forced to stop at the animal stage in the Earth Period.

Where Epigenesis is inactive in the individual, family, nation, or Race -- there evolution ceases and degeneration commences.

A Living Soul?

Thus the two Creation stories harmonize very well.

One deals with Form, which was built up through mineral, plant and animal and reached the human last.

The other tells us that Life which now ensouls human forms was manifested anterior to the Life which ensouls the forms of the other kingdoms.

One of these accounts of Creation would not have been sufficient. There are important particulars hidden behind the narrative of man's creation, in the second chapter; the verse reads: "Then Jehovah formed man from the dust of the Earth, and blew into his nostrils the breath [nephesh], and man become a breathing creature [nephesh chayim]."

In other places in the King James version, nephesh is translated "life," but in this particular instance (Gen. ii.7) it is rendered "living soul," thus conveying the idea that there was a distinction made between the life that ensouled the human form and that which ensouled inferior creations. There is no authority whatever for this difference in translation, which is purely arbitrary. The life-breath (nephesh) is the same in man and beast. This can be shown even to those who stand firmly upon the Bible as authority, for even the King James version distinctly states (Eccles. iii:19,20): "... as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have one breath [nephesh]; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast: ... All go unto one place."

The animals are but our "younger brothers," and though they are not now so finely organized, they will eventually reach a state as high as our own, and we shall then have ascended higher.

If it is contended that man received his soul in the way described in this seventh verse of the second chapter of Genesis, and that he could have received it in no other way, it is pertinent to ask where and how woman received her soul?

The meaning of the chapter, and of the inspiration of the breath of life by Jehovah, is very plain and clear when we use the occult key, and it has the further and immense advantage of being logical.

The fact that the Regent of the Moon (Jehovah), with His Angels and Archangels, were the principals in this action, fixes the time when this creation occurred. It was between the early and the middle parts of the Lemurian Epoch, and must have been after the Moon was thrown out from the Earth, because Jehovah had nothing to do with the generation of bodies before the Moon was thrown off. The forms were then more ethereal. There were no dense and concrete bodies. It is possible to make such bodies only by means of the hardening and crystallizing Moon-forces. It must have been in the first half of the Lemurian Epoch, because the separation of the sexes, which is recorded later, took place in the middle of that epoch.

At that time, man-in-the-making had not yet commenced to breathe by means of lungs. He had the gill-like apparatus still present in the human embryo while passing through the stage of ante-natal life corresponding to that Epoch. He had no warm, red blood, for at that stage there was no individual spirit, the entire form was soft and pliable and the skeleton soft like cartilage. Before the later date, when it became necessary to separate humanity into sexes, the skeleton had grown firm and solid.

The work done by Jehovah was to build dense, hard bone substance into the soft bodies already existing. Previous to this time, i.e., during the Polarian and Hyperborean Epochs, neither animal nor man had bones.

Adam's Rib

The grotesque and impossible manner in which the separation of the sexes is said to have been accomplished (as described in the common versions of the Bible and, in this particular case, in the Masoretic text also) is another example of what may be done by changing vowels in the old Hebrew text. Read in one way, the work is "rib"; but in another, which has at least as good a claim to consideration, with the additional advantage of being common-sense, it reads "side." If we interpret this to mean that man was male-female and that Jehovah caused one side, or sex in each being, to remain latent, we shall not be doing violence to our reason, as we would by accepting the "rib" story.

When this alternation is made, the occult teaching as previously given harmonizes with that of the Bible, and both agree with the teaching of modern science that man was bi-sexual at one time, before he developed one sex at the expense of the other. In corroboration of this, it is pointed out that the fetus is bi-sexual up to a certain point; thereafter one sex predominates, while the other remains in abeyance, so that each person still has the opposite sex organs in a rudimentary form and therefore is really bi-sexual, as was primitive man.

Apparently the Bible narrator does not wish to give, in this second creation account, an accurate picture of the whole of evolution, but rather to particularize a little more what was said in the first chapter. He tells us that man did not always breathe as he does now; that there was a time when he was not separated into sexes; and that it was Jehovah Who effected the change, thus fixing the time of the occurrence. As we proceed, it will be found that much further information is given.

Guardian Angels

During the earlier Epochs and Periods, the great creative Hierarchies had worked upon humanity as it was unconsciously evolving. There had been only one common consciousness among all human beings; one group-spirit for all mankind, as it were.

In the Lemurian Epoch, a new step was taken. Bodies had been definitely formed, but they must have warm, red blood before they could be ensouled, and become the abode of indwelling spirits.

In nature, no process is sudden. We would get a wrong idea were we to imagine that air blown into the nostrils could put a soul into an image of clay, and galvanize it into life as a sentient, thinking being.

The individual spirit was very weak and impotent, and quite unfitted for the task of guiding its dense vehicle. In that respect, it is not yet very strong. To any qualified observer, it is evident that the desire body rules the personality more than does the spirit, even at our present stage of advancement. But in the middle of the Lemurian Epoch, when the lower personality -- the threefold body --- was to be endowed with the light of the Ego, the latter, if left to itself, would have been absolutely powerless to guide its instrument.

Therefore it is necessary for someone much more highly evolved to help the individual spirit, and gradually prepare the way for its complete union with its instruments. It was analogous to a new nation, over which, until it becomes capable of forming a stable government for itself, some stronger power establishes a protectorate, guarding it alike from external dangers and internal indiscretions. Such a protectorate was exercised over evolving humanity by the Race-spirit, and is exercised over the animals by the group-spirit, in a somewhat different way.

Jehovah is the Most High. He is Race-God, as one might express it, having dominion over all Form. He is the Chief Ruler and the highest Power in maintaining the form, and exercising an orderly government over it. The Archangels are the Race-spirits, each having dominion over a certain group of people. They also have dominion over animals, while the Angels have dominion over the plants.

The Archangels have dominion over races or groups of people, and also over the animals, for these two kingdoms have desire bodies, and the Archangels are expert architects of desire matter, because in the Sun Period the densest globe was composed of that materials, and the humanity of that period, who are now Archangels, learned to build their densest vehicles of desire stuff as we are now learning to build our bodies of the chemical elements whereof our Earth-globe is composed. Thus it will be readily understood that the Archangels are peculiarly qualified to help later life waves through the stage where they learn to build and control a desire body.

For analogous reasons, the Angels work in the vital bodies of man, animal and plant. Their densest bodies are composed of ether, and so was the Globe D in the Moon Period when they were human.

Jehovah and His Archangels, therefore, hold a similar relation to Races that the group-spirit does to animals. When individual members of a Race have evolved entire self-control and government, they are emancipated from the influence of the Race-spirit and kindred beings.

As we have seen, the point of vantage of the group-spirit, as of any Ego in the dense body, is in the blood. The Masoretic text shows that this knowledge was possessed by the writer of Leviticus. In the fourteenth verse of the seventeenth chapter the Jews are prohibited from eating blood because "... the soul of all flesh is in the blood ...;" and in the eleventh verse of the same chapter we find these words: "... for the soul of the flesh is in the blood ... the blood itself mediates for the soul," which shows that this applies to both man and beast, for the word here used in the Hebrew is neshamah and means "soul" -- not "life," as it is rendered in the King James version.

The Ego works directly through the blood. The Race-spirit guides the Races by working in the blood, as the group-spirit guides the animals of its species through the blood. So also does the Ego control its own vehicle, but with a difference.

The Ego operates by means of the heat of the blood, while the Race (i.e., tribal, or family) spirit works by means of the air, as it is drawn into the lungs. That is why Jehovah, or His messengers, "breathed into man's nostrils," thereby securing admission for the Race-spirit, Community-spirits, etc.

The different classes of Race-spirits guided their peoples to various climates and different parts of the Earth. To the trained clairvoyant, a tribal-spirit appears as a cloud enveloping and permeating the atmosphere of the whole country inhabited by the people under its dominion. Thus are produced the different peoples and nations. Paul spoke of "The Prince of the Power of the Air"; or "principalities and powers," etc., showing that he knew of the Race-spirits, but now not even an attempt is made to understand what they mean, although their influence is strongly felt. Patriotism is one of the sentiments emanating from and fostered by them. It has not now so much power over people as formerly. There are some who are being liberated from the Race-spirit and can say with Thomas Paine, "The world is my country." There are those who can leave father and mother and look upon all men as brothers. They are being liberated from the Family-spirit, or spirit of the Clan which is different from the race-spirit, an etheric entity. Others again, who are deep in the toil of the Race or Family spirit, will suffer the most dreadful depression if they leave home or country and breathe the air of another Race of Family spirit.

At the time the Race-spirit entered human bodies, the individualized Ego commenced to get some slight control of its vehicles. Each human entity became more and more conscious of being separate and distinct from other men, yet for ages he did not think of himself primarily as an individual, but as belonging to a tribe or family. The affix "son" to many present day surnames is a remnant of this feeling. A man was not simply "John," or "James." He was John Robertson, or James Williamson. In some countries a woman was not "Mary," or "Martha." She was Mary Marthasdaughter, Martha Mary's daughter. The custom was continued in some European countries until within a few generations of the present time, the "son" affix remains with us yet and the family name is still much honored.

Among the Jews, even down to the time of Christ, the Race-spirit was stronger than the individual spirit. Every Jew thought of himself first as belonging to a certain tribe or family. His proudest boast was that he was of the "Seed of Abraham." All this was the work of the Race-spirit.

Previous to the advent of Jehovah, when the Earth was yet a part of the Sun, there was one common group-spirit, composed of all the creative Hierarchies, which controlled the entire human family, but it was intended that each body should be the temple and pliable instrument of an indwelling spirit, and that meant an infinite division of rulership.

Jehovah came with His Angel and Archangels and made the first great division into Races, giving to each group the guiding influence of a Race-spirit -- an Archangel. For each Ego He appointed one of the Angels to act as guardian until the individual spirit had grown strong enough to become emancipated from all outside influence.

Mixing Blood in Marriage

Christ came to prepare the way for the emancipation of humanity from the guidance of differentiating Race- and Family-spirit, and to unite the whole human family in One Universal Brotherhood.

He taught that "Abraham's seed" referred to the bodies only, and called their attention to the fact that before Abraham lived [the] "I" -- the Ego -- was in existence. The threefold individual spirit had its being before all Tribes and Races, and it will remain when they have passed away and even the memory of them is no more.

The threefold spirit in man, the Ego, is the God within, whom the personal, bodily man must learn to follow. Therefore did Christ say that, to be His disciple, a man must forsake all he had. His teaching points to the emancipation of the God within. He calls upon man to exercise his prerogative as an individual and rise above family, tribe, and nation. Not that he is to disregard kin and country. He must fulfill all duties, but he is to cease identifying himself with part, and must recognize an equal kinship with all the world. That is the ideal given to mankind by the Christ.

Under the rule of the Race-spirit, the nation, tribe or family was considered first -- the individual last. The family must be kept intact. If any man dies without leaving offspring to perpetuate his name, his brother must "carry seed" to the widow, that there might be no dying out (Due. XXV:5-10). Marrying out of the family was regarded with horror in the earliest times. A member of one tribe could not become connected with another without losing caste in his own. It was not an easy matter to become a member of another family. Not only among the Jews and other early nations was the integrity of the family insisted upon, but also in more modern times. As previously mentioned, the Scots, even in comparatively recent times, clung tenaciously to their Clan, and the old Norse Vikings would take no one into their families without first "mixing blood" with him, for the spiritual effects of haemolysis, which are unknown to material science, were known of old.

All these customs resulted from the working of Race- and tribal-spirit in the common blood. To admit as a member one in whom that common blood did not flow would have caused "confusion of caste." The closer the inbreeding, the greater the power of the Race-spirit, and the stronger the ties that bound the individual to the tribe, because the vital force of the man is in his blood. Memory is intimately connected with the blood, which is the highest expression of the vital body.

The brain and the nervous system are the highest expression of the desire body. They call up pictures of the outside world, but in mental image-making, i.e., imagination, the blood brings the material for the pictures; therefore when the thought is active, the blood flows to the head.

When the same unmixed strain of blood flows in the veins of a family for generations, the same mental pictures made by great-grandfather, grandfather and father are reproduced in the son by the family-spirit which lived in the hemoglobin of the blood. He sees himself as the continuation of a long line of ancestors who live in him. He sees all the events of the past lives of the family as though he had been present, therefore he does not realize himself as an Ego. He is not simply "David," but "the son of Abraham"; not "Joseph," but "the son of David."

By means of this common blood men are said to have lived for many generations, because through the blood their descendants had access to the memory of nature, in which the records of the lives of their ancestors were preserved. That is why, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, it is stated that the patriarchs lived for centuries. Adam, Methuselah and the other patriarchs did not personally attain to such great age, but they lived in the consciousness of their descendants, who saw the lives of their ancestors as if they had lived them. After the expiration of the period stated, the descendants did not think of themselves as Adam or Methuselah. Memory of those ancestors faded and so it is said they died.

The "second sight" of the Scotch Highlanders shows that by means of endogamy, the consciousness of the inner World is retained. They have practiced marrying in the Clan until recent times; also in Gypsies, who always marry in the tribe. The smaller the tribe and the closer the inbreeding, the more pronounced is the "sight."

The earlier Races would not have dared to disobey the injunction issued by the tribal God, not to marry outside of the tribe, nor had they any inclination to do so, for they had no mind of their own.

The Original Semites were the first to evolve Will, and they at once married the daughters of the men of other tribes, frustrating temporarily the design of their Race-spirit and being promptly ejected as evil-doers who had "gone a-whoring after strange gods," thereby rendering themselves unfit to give the "seed" for the seven Races of our present Aryan Epoch. The Original Semites were, for the time being, the last Race that the Race-spirit cared to keep separate.

Later, man was given free will. The time had come when he was to be prepared for individualization. The former "common" consciousness, the involuntary clairvoyance or second-sight which constantly held before a tribesman the pictures of his ancestor's lives and caused him to feel most closely identified with the tribe or family, was to be replaced for a time by a strictly individual consciousness confined to the material world, so as to break up the nations into individuals, that the Brotherhood of Man, regardless of exterior circumstances, may become a fact. This is on the same principle that if we have a number of buildings and wish to make them into one large structure, it is necessary to break them up into separate bricks. Only then can the large building be constructed.

In order to accomplish this separation of nations into individuals, laws were given which prohibited endogamy or marriage in the family, and henceforth incestuous marriages gradually came to be regarded with horror. Strange blood has thus been introduced into all the families of the Earth, and it has gradually wiped out the involuntary clairvoyance which promoted the clannish feeling and segregated humanity into groups. Altruism is superseding patriotism, and loyalty to the family is disappearing in consequence of the mixture of blood.

Science has lately discovered that haemolysis results from the inoculation of the blood of one individual into the veins of another of a different species, causing the death of the lower of the two. Thus any animal inoculated with the blood of a man dies. The blood of a dog transfused into the veins of a bird kills the bird, but it will not hurt the dog to have the bird's blood inoculated into its veins. Science merely states the fact, the occult scientist gives the reason. The blood is the vantage ground of the spirit, as shown elsewhere. The Ego in man works in its own vehicles by means of the heat of the blood; the race, family or community spirit gains entrance to the blood by means of the air we inspire. In the animals are also both the separate spirit of the animal and the group-spirit of the species to which it belongs, but the spirit of the animal is not individualized and does not work self-consciously with its vehicles as does the Ego, hence it is altogether dominated by the group-spirit which works in the blood.

When the blood of a higher animal is inoculated into the veins of one from a lower species, the spirit in the blood of the higher animal is of course stronger than the spirit of the less evolved; hence when it endeavors to assert itself it kills the imprisoning form and liberates itself. When, on the other hand, the blood of a lower species is inoculated into the veins of a higher animal, the higher spirit is capable of ousting the less evolved spirit in the strange blood and assimilating the blood to its own purposes, therefore no visible catastrophe ensues.

The group-spirit always aims to preserve the integrity of its domain in the blood of the species under its charge. Like the human Race-God, it resents the marriage of its subjects into other species and visits the sins of the fathers upon the children as we see in the case of hybrids. Where a horse and a donkey produce a mule for instance, the mixture of strange blood destroys the propagative faculty so as not to perpetuate the hybrid which is an abomination from the standpoint of the group-spirit, for the mule is not so definitely under the dominion of the group-spirit of the horses or of the group-spirit of the donkeys as the pure breed, yet it is not so far away as to be entirely exempt from their influence. If two mules could mate, their offspring would be still less under the dominion of either of these group-spirits, and so a new species without a group-spirit would result. That would be anomaly in nature, an impossibility until the separate animal-spirits should have become sufficiently evolved to be self-sufficient. Such a species, could it be produced, would be without the guiding instinct, so-called, which is in reality the promptings of the group-spirit; they would be in an analogous position to a litter of kittens removed from the mother's womb prior to birth. They could not possibly shift for themselves, so they would die.

Therefore, as it is the group-spirit of the animals that sends the separate spirits of the animals into embodiment, it simply withholds the fertilizing seed-atom when animals of widely differing species are mated. It permits one of its charges to take advantage of an opportunity for re-embodiment where two animals of nearly the same nature are mated, but refuses to let the hybrids perpetuate themselves. Thus we see that the infusion of strange blood weakens the hold of the group-spirit, and that therefore it either destroys the form or the propagative faculty where it has the power.

The human spirit is individualized, an Ego, it is evolving free will and responsibility. It is drawn to birth by the irresistible law of Consequence, so that it is beyond the power of the race, community or family spirit to keep it from returning at the present stage of human development, and by the admixture of strange blood, by intermarriage of the individuals of different tribes or nations, the leaders of man are gradually helping him to oust the family, tribal or national spirit from the blood, but with it has necessarily gone the involuntary clairvoyance which was due to its working in the blood, whereby it fostered the family traditions in its charges, and so we see that also in the case of man a faculty was destroyed by the mixture of blood. That loss was a gain, however, for it has concentrated man's energy on the material world and he is better able to master its lessons than if he were still distracted by the visions of the higher realms.

As man becomes emancipated, he gradually ceases to think of himself as "Abraham's Seed," as a "Clan Stewart Man," as a "Brahmin" or a "Levite": he is learning to think more of himself as an individual, an "I". The more he cultivates that "Self," the more he frees himself from the family and national spirit in the blood, the more he becomes a self-sufficient citizen of the world.

There is much foolish, even dangerous, talk of giving up the Self to the Not-Self; only when we have cultivated a "Self," can we sacrifice ourselves and give up the Self to the whole. So long as we can only love our own family or nation we are incapable of loving others. We are bound by the tie of kin and country. When we have burst the tie of blood and asserted ourselves, and become self-sufficient, may we become unselfish helpers of humanity. When a man has reached that stage he will find that, instead of having lost his own family, he has gained all the families in the world, for they will have become his sisters and brothers, his fathers and mothers to care for and help.

Then he will regain the viewpoint of the Spiritual World which he lost by the mixing of blood, but it will be a higher faculty, an intelligent, voluntary clairvoyance where he can see what he wills and not merely the negative faculty imprinted in his blood by the family spirit which bound him to the family to the exclusion of all other families. His viewpoint will be universal, to be used for universal good.

For aforementioned reasons, intertribal, and later international, marriages came gradually to be regarded as desirable and preferable to close intermarriages.

As man progressed through these stages, and gradually lost touch with the inner world, he sorrowed over the loss and longed for a return of the "inner" vision. But by degrees he forgot, and the material world gradually loomed up before his mind as the only reality, until at last he has come to doubt the idea that such inner Worlds exist and to regard a belief in them as foolish superstition.

The four causes contributing to this condition were:

The clearing of the foggy atmosphere of the Atlantean continent.

The indrawing of the vital body, so that a point at the root of the nose corresponds to a similar point in the vital body.

The elimination of inbreeding and the substitution therefore of marriages outside the family and tribe.

The use of intoxicants.

The Race-spirits still exist in and work with man, but the more advanced the nation, the more freedom is given the individual. In countries where people are most fettered, the Race-spirit is strongest. The more in harmony a man is with the law of Love, and the higher his ideals, the more he frees himself from the spirit of the Races. Patriotism, while good in itself, is a tie of the Race- spirit. The ideal of Universal Brotherhood, which identifies itself with neither country nor race, is the only path which leads to emancipation.

Christ came to reunite the separated races in bonds of peace and good will, wherein all will willingly and consciously follow the law of Love.

The present Christianity is not even a shadow of the true religion of Christ. That will remain in abeyance until all race feeling shall have been overcome. In the Sixth Epoch there will be but one Universal Brotherhood, under the Leadership of the Returned Christ, but the day and the hour no man knows, for it is not fixed, but depends upon how soon a sufficient number of people shall have commenced to live the life of Fellowship and Love, which is to be the hall-mark of the new dispensation.

The Fall of Man

In connection with the analysis of Genesis, a few more words must be said about "The Fall," which is the backbone and sinew of popular Christianity. Had there been no "Fall," there would have been no need for the "plan of salvation."

When, in the middle of the Lemurian Epoch, the separation of the sexes occurred (in which work Jehovah and His Angels were active), the Ego began to work slightly upon the dense body, building organs within. Man was not at that time the wide-awake conscious being he is at present, but by means of half the sex force, he was building a brain for the expression of thought as previously described. He was more awake in the Spiritual World than in the physical, hardly saw his body, and was not conscious of the act of propagation. The Bible statement that Jehovah put man to sleep when he was to bring forth is correct. There was no pain nor trouble connected with childbirth; nor (because of man's exceedingly dim consciousness of his physical surroundings) did he know anything of the loss of his dense body by death, or of his installment in a new dense vehicle at birth.

It will be remembered that the Lucifers were a part of the humanity of the Moon Period; they are the stragglers of the life wave of the Angels, too far advanced to take a dense physical body, yet they needed an "inner" organ for the acquisition of knowledge. Moreover, they could work through a physical brain, which the Angels or Jehovah could not.

These spirits entered the spinal cord and brain and spoke to the woman, whose Imagination, as explained elsewhere, had been aroused by the training of the Lemurian Race. As her consciousness was principally internal, a picture-consciousness of them was received by her, and she saw them as serpents, for they had entered her brain by the serpentine spinal cord.

The training of the women included watching the perilous feats and fights of the Men in developing Will, in which fights bodies were necessarily often killed. The dim consciousness of something unusual set the imagination of the woman to wondering why she saw these strange things. She was conscious of the spirits of those who had lost their bodies, but her imperfect sense of the Physical World failed to reveal these friends whose dense bodies had been destroyed.

The Lucifers solved the problem for her by "opening her eyes." They revealed to her her own body and that of the man and taught her how, together, they might conquer death by creating new bodies. Thus death could not touch them for they, like Jehovah, could create at will.

Lucifer opened the eyes of woman. She sought the help of man and opened his eyes. Thus, in a real though dim way, they first "knew" or became aware of one another and also of the Physical World. They became conscious of death and pain, and by this knowledge they learned to differentiate between the inner man and the outer garment he wears and renews each time it is necessary to take his next step in evolution. They ceased to be automatons and became free thinking beings at the cost of freedom from pain, sickness and death.

That the interpretation of the eating of the fruit as a symbol of the generative act is not a far-fetched idea, is shown by the declaration of Jehovah (which is not a curse at all, but simply a statement of the consequences that would follow the act) that they will die and that the woman will bear her children in pain and suffering. He knew that, as man's attention had now been called to his physical garment, he would become aware of its loss by death. He also knew that man had not yet wisdom to bridle his passion and regulate sexual intercourse by the positions of the planets, therefore pain in childbirth must follow his ignorant abuse of the function.

It has always been a sore puzzle to Bible commentators what connection there could possibly be between the eating of fruit and the bearing of children, but if we understand that the eating of the fruit is symbolical of the generative act whereby man becomes "like God" inasmuch as he knows his kind and is thus able to generate new beings, the solution is easy.

In the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch when man arrogated to himself the prerogative of performing the generative act when he pleased, it was his then-powerful will that enable him to do so. By "eating of the tree of knowledge" at any and all times, he was able to create a new body whenever he lost an old vehicle.

We usually think of death as something to be dreaded. Had man also "eaten of the tree of life," had he learned the secret of how to perpetually vitalize his body, there would have been a worse condition. We know that our bodies are not perfect today, and in those ancient days they were exceedingly primitive. Therefore the anxiety of the creative Hierarchies lest man "eat of the tree of life also," and become capable of renewing his vital body, was well founded. Had he done so, he would have been immortal indeed, but would never have been able to progress. The evolution of the Ego depends upon its vehicles, and if it could not get new and improving ones by death and birth, there would be stagnation. It is an occult maxim that the oftener we die the better we are able to live, for every birth gives us a new chance.

We have seen that brain-knowledge, with its concomitant selfishness, was bought by man at the cost of the power to create from himself alone. He bought his free will at the cost of pain and death; but when man learns to use his intellect for the good of humanity, he will gain spiritual power over life and, in addition, will be guided by an innate knowledge as much higher than the present brain-consciousness as that is higher than the lowest animal consciousness.

The fall into generation was necessary to build the brain, but that is, at best, only an indirect way of gaining knowledge, and will be superseded by direct touch with the Wisdom of Nature, which man, without any co-operation, will then be able to use for the generation of new bodies. The larynx will again speak "the lost Word," the "creative Fiat," which, under the guidance of great Teachers, was used in ancient Lemuria in the creation of plants and animals.

Man will then be a creator in very truth. Not in the slow and toilsome manner of the present day, but by the use of the proper word or magical formula, will he be able to create a body.

All that was manifested during the descending period of involution remains until the corresponding point on the ascending arc of evolution has been reached. The present generative organs will degenerate and atrophy. The female organ was the first to come into existence as a separate unit and, according to the law that "the first shall be last," will be the last to atrophy. The male organ was differentiated last and is even now commencing to divide itself from the body. Diagram 13 will make this clear.

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Diagram 13: Higher Worlds
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:15 pm

PART 1 OF 2

Part 3: Man's Future Development and Initiation

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Diagram 13A: The Seven Days of Creation

Chapter 15: Christ and His Mission

The Evolution of Religion

In the foregoing part of this work we have become familiar with the way in which our present outside world came into existence, and how man evolved the complicated organism with which he is related to outer conditions. We have also, in a measure, studied the Jewish Race-religion. We will next consider the last and greatest of the divine measures put forth for the uplifting of humanity, i.e., Christianity, which will be the Universal Religion of the future.

It is a notable fact that man and his religions have evolved side by side and in an equal degree. The earliest religion of any Race is found to be as savage as the people governed by it and as they become more civilized, their religions become more and more humane and in harmony with higher ideals.

From this fact materialists have drawn the inference that no religion has a higher origin than man itself. Their investigations into early history have resulted in a conviction that, as man progressed, he civilized his God and fashioned Him after his own pattern.

This reasoning is defective, because it fails to take into account that man is not the body, but an indwelling spirit, an Ego who uses the body with ever-increasing facility as evolution progresses.

There is no doubt that the law for the body is "The Survival of the Fittest." The law for the evolution of the spirit demands "Sacrifice." As long as man believes that "Might is Right," the Form prospers and waxes strong, because all obstacles are swept out of the way regardless of others. If the body were all, that manner of life would be the only one possible for man. He would be altogether incapable of any regard for others and would forcibly resist any attempt to encroach upon what he considered his rights -- the right of the stronger, which is the sole standard of justice under the law of the Survival of the Fittest. He would be quite regardless of his fellow beings, absolutely insensible to any force from without that tended to make him act in any manner not conducive to his own momentary pleasure.

It is manifest, then, that whatever urges man toward a higher standard of conduct in his dealing with others must come from within, and from a source which is not identical with the body, otherwise it would not strive with the body and often prevail against its most obvious interests. Moreover, it must be a stronger force than that of the body, or it could not succeed in overcoming its desires and compelling it to make sacrifices for those who are physically weaker.

That such a force exists, surely no one will deny. We have come to that stage in our advancement where, instead of seeing in physical weakness an opportunity for easy prey, we recognize in the very frailty of another a valid claim upon our protection. Selfishness is being slowly but surely routed by Altruism.

Nature is sure to accomplish her purposes. Though slow, her progress is orderly and certain. In the breast of every man this force of Altruism works as a leaven. It is transforming the savage into the civilized man, and will in time transform the latter into a God.

Though nothing that is truly spiritual can be thoroughly comprehended, yet it may at least be apprehended by means of an illustration.

If one of two tuning-forks of exactly the same pitch is struck, the sound will induce the same vibration in the other, weak to begin with, but if the strokes are continued, the second fork will give out a louder and louder tone until it will emit a volume of sound equal to that of the first. This will happen though the forks are several feet apart, and even if one of them is encased in glass. The sound from the smitten one will penetrate the glass and the answering note be emitted by the enclosed instrument.

These invisible sound-vibrations have great power over concrete matter. They can both build and destroy. If a small quantity of very fine powder is placed upon a brass or glass plate, and a violin bow drawn across the edge, the vibrations will cause the powder to assume beautiful geometrical figures. The human voice is also capable of producing these figures, always the same figure for the same tone.

If one note or chord after another be sounded upon a musical instrument -- a piano, or preferably a violin, for from it more gradations of tone can be obtained -- a tone will finally be reached which will cause the hearer to feel a distinct vibration in the back of the lower part of the head. Each time that note is struck, the vibration will be felt. That note is the "key-note" of the person whom it so affects. If it is struck slowly and soothingly it will build and rest the body, tone the nerves, and restore health. If, on the other hand, it be sounded in a dominant way, loud and long enough, it will kill as surely as a bullet from a pistol.

If we now apply what has been said about music or sound to the problem of how this inner force is awakened and strengthened, we may perhaps understand the matter better.

In the first place, let us particularly note the fact that the two tuning-forks were of the same pitch. Had this not been the case, we might have sounded and sounded one of them until the crack of doom, but the other one would have remained mute. Let us understand this thoroughly: Vibration can be induced in one tuning-fork by one of like tone only. Any thing, or any being, can be affected as above stated by no sound except its own key-note.

We know that this force of Altruism exists. We also know that it is less pronounced among uncivilized people than among people of higher social attainment, and among the very lowest races it is almost entirely lacking. The logical conclusion is that there was a time when it was altogether absent. Consequent upon this conclusion follows the natural question: What induced it?

The material personality surely had nothing to do with it; in fact, that part of man's nature was much more comfortable without it than it has been at any time since. Man must have had the force of Altruism latent within, otherwise it could not have been awakened. Still further, it must have been awakened by a force of the same kind -- a similar force that was already active -- as the second tuning-fork was started into vibration by the first after it was struck.

We also saw that the vibrations in the second fork become stronger and stronger under the continued impacts of sound from the first, and that a glass case was no hindrance to the induction of the sound. Under the continued impacts of a force similar to that within him, the Love of God to man has awakened this force of Altruism and is constantly increasing its potency.

It is therefore reasonable and logical to conclude that, at first, it was necessary to give man a religion commensurate with his ignorance. It would have been useless to talk to him, at that stage, of a God Who was all tenderness and love. From his viewpoint, those attributes were weaknesses, and he could not have been expected to reverence a God Who possessed what were to him despicable qualities. The God to Whom he rendered obedience must be a strong God, a God to be feared, a God Who could hurl the thunderbolt and wield the flail of lightning.

Thus, man was impelled first to fear God and was given religions of a nature to further his spiritual well-being under the lash of fear.

The next step was to induce in him a certain kind of unselfishness, by causing him to give up part of his worldly goods -- to sacrifice. This was achieved by giving him the Tribal or Race-God, Who is a jealous God, requiring of him the strictest allegiance and the sacrifice of wealth, which the growing man greatly prizes. But in return, this Race-God is a friend and mighty ally, fighting man's battles and giving him back many fold the sheep, bullocks and grain which he sacrificed. He had not yet arrived at the stage where it was possible for him to understand that all creatures are akin, but the Tribal God taught him that he must deal mercifully with his brother tribesman and gave laws which made for equity and fair dealing between men of the same Race.

It must not be thought that these successive steps were taken easily, nor without rebellion and lapses upon the part of primitive man. Selfishness is ingrained in the lower nature even unto this day, and there must have been many lapses and much backsliding. We have in the Jewish Bible good examples of how man forgot, and had to be patiently and persistently "prodded" again and again by the Tribal God. Only the visitations of a long-suffering Race-spirit were potent, at times, in bringing him back to the law -- that law very few people have even yet learned to obey.

There are always pioneers, however, who require something higher. When they become sufficiently numerous, a new step in evolution is taken, so that several gradations always exist. There came a time, nearly two thousand years ago, when the most advanced of humanity were ready to take another step forward, and learn the religion of living a good life for the sake of future reward in a state of existence in which they must have faith.

That was a long, hard step to take. It was comparatively easy to take a sheep or a bullock to the temple and offer it as a sacrifice. If a man brought the first-fruits of his granary, his vineyards, or his flocks and herds, he still had more, and he knew that the Tribal God would refill his stores and give abundantly in return. But in this new departure, it was not a question of sacrificing his goods. It was demanded that he sacrifice himself. It was not even a sacrifice to be made by one supreme effort of martyrdom; that also would have been comparatively easy. Instead, it was demanded that day by day, from morning until night, he must act mercifully toward all. He must forego selfishness, and love his neighbor, as he had been used to loving himself. Moreover, he was not promised any immediate and visible reward, but must have faith in a future happiness.

Is it strange that people find it difficult to realize this high ideal of continued well-doing, made doubly hard by the fact that self-interest is entirely ignored? Sacrifice is demanded with no positive assurance of any reward. Surely it is much to the credit of humanity that so much altruism is practiced and that it is constantly increasing. The wise Leaders, knowing the frailness of the spirit to cope with the selfish instincts of the body, and the dangers of despondency in the face of such standards of conduct, gave another uplifting impulse when they incorporated in the new religion the doctrine of "vicarious Atonement."

This idea is doubted by some very advanced philosophers, and the law of "Consequence" made paramount. If it so happens that the reader agrees with these philosophers, we request that he await the explanation herein set forth, showing how both are part of the scheme of upliftment. Suffice it to say, for the present, that this doctrine of atonement gives many an earnest soul the strength to strive and, in spite of repeated failures, to bring the lower nature under subjection. Let it be remembered that, for reasons given when the laws of Rebirth and Consequence were discussed, western humanity knew practically nothing of these laws. With such a great ideal before them as the Christ, and believing they had but a few short years in which to attain to such a high degree of development as this, would it not have been the greatest imaginable cruelty to leave them without help? Therefore, the great sacrifice on Calvary -- while it also served other purposes, as will be shown -- becomes rightfully the Beacon of Hope for every earnest soul who is striving to achieve the impossible; to attain, in one short life, to the perfection demanded by the Christian religion.

Jesus and Christ-Jesus

To gain some slight insight into the Great Mystery of Golgotha, and to understand the Mission of Christ as the Founder of the Universal Religion of the future, it is necessary that we first become familiar with His exact nature and incidentally, with that of Jehovah, Who is the head of such Race-religions as Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.; also with the identity of "The Father," to Whom Christ is to give up the Kingdom, in due time.

In the Christian creed occurs this sentence: "Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God." This is generally understood to mean that a certain person Who appeared in Palestine about 2,000 years ago, Who is spoken of as Jesus Christ -- one separate individual -- was the only begotten Son of God.

This is a great mistake. There are three distinct and widely different Beings characterized in this sentence. It is of the greatest importance that the student should clearly understand the exact nature of these Three Great and Exalted Beings -- differing vastly in glory, yet each entitled to our deepest and most devout adoration.

The student is requested to turn to diagram 6 and note that "The only begotten" ("The Word," of Who John speaks) is the second aspect of the Supreme Being.

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Diagram 6

This "Word" and It alone, is "begotten of His Father [the first aspect] before all Worlds." "Without Him was not anything made that was made," not even the third aspect of the Supreme Being, which proceeds from the two previous aspects. Therefore the "only begotten" is the exalted Being which ranks above all else in the Universe, save only the Power-aspect which created It.

The first aspect of the Supreme Being "thinks out," or imagines, the Universe before the beginning of active manifestation, everything, including the millions of Solar Systems and the great creative Hierarchies which inhabit the Cosmic Planes of existence above the seventh, which is the field of our evolution (See diagram 6). This is also the Force which dissolves everything that has crystallized beyond the possibility of further growth and at last, when the end of active manifestation has come, reabsorbs within Itself all that is, until the dawn of another Period of Manifestation.

The second aspect of the Supreme Being is that which manifests in matter as the forces of attraction and cohesion, thus giving it the capability of combining into Forms of various kinds. This is "The Word," the "creative Fiat," which molds the primordial Cosmic Root-substance in a manner similar to the formation of figures by musical vibrations, as previously mentioned, the same tone always producing the same figure. So this great primordial "word" brought, or "spoke," into being, in finest matter, all the different Worlds, with all their myriads of Forms, which have since been copied and worked out in detail by the innumerable creative Hierarchies.

"The Word" could not have done this, however, until the third aspect of the Supreme Being had first prepared the Cosmic Root-substance; had awakened it from its normal state of inertia and set the countless inseparate atoms spinning upon their axes, placing those axes at various angles with respect to each other, giving to each kind a certain "measure of vibration."

These varying angles of inclination of the axes and the measures of vibration made the Cosmic Root-substance capable of forming different combinations, which are the basis of the seven great Cosmic Planes. There is, in each of these Planes, a different inclination of the axes, and also a different measure of vibration, consequently the conditions and combinations in each one are different from those in any of the others, due to the activity of "The Only Begotten."

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Diagram 14: The Vehicles of the Highest Initiates & Ordinary Humanity

Diagram 14 shows us that:

"The Father" is the highest Initiate among the humanity of the Saturn Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Lords of Mind.

"The Son" (Christ) is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Archangels.

"The Holy Spirit" (Jehovah) is the highest Initiate of the Moon Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Angels.

This diagram also shows what are the vehicles of these different orders of Beings, and upon comparison with diagram 8, it will be seen that their bodies or vehicles (indicated by squares on diagram 14) correspond to the Globes of the Period in which they were human. This is always the case so far as the ordinary humanities are concerned, for at the end of the Period during which any life wave becomes individualized as human beings, those beings retain bodies corresponding to the Globes on which they have functioned.

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Diagram 8

On the other hand, the Initiates have progressed and evolved for themselves higher vehicles, discontinuing the ordinary use of the lowest vehicle when the ability to use a new and higher one has been attained. Ordinarily, the lowest vehicle of an Archangel is the desire body, but Christ, Who is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, ordinarily uses the life spirit as lowest vehicle, functioning as consciously in the World of Life Spirit as we do in the Physical World. The student is requested to note this point particularly, as the World of Life Spirit is the first universal World, as explained in the chapter on Worlds. It is the World in which differentiation ceases and unity begins to be realized, so far as our solar system is concerned.

Christ has power to build and function in a vehicle as low as the desire body, such as is used by the Archangels, but He can descend no further. The significance of this will be seen presently.

Jesus belongs to our humanity. When the man, Jesus, is studied through the memory of nature, he can be traced back life by life, where he lived in different circumstances, under various names, in different embodiments, the same, in that respect, as any other human being. This cannot be done with the Being, Christ. In His case can be found but one embodiment.

It must not be supposed, however, that Jesus was an ordinary individual. He was of a singularly pure type of mind, vastly superior to the great majority of our present humanity. Through many lives had he trod the Path of Holiness and thus fitted himself for the greatest honor ever bestowed upon a human being.

His mother, the Virgin Mary, was also a type of the highest human purity, and because of that was selected to become the mother of Jesus. His father was a high Initiate, virgin, and capable of performing the act of fecundation as a sacrament, without personal desire or passion.

Thus the beautiful, pure and lovely spirit whom we know as Jesus of Nazareth was born into a pure and passionless body. This body was the best that could be produced on Earth, and the task of Jesus, in that embodiment, was to care for it and evolve it to the highest possible degree of efficiency, in preparation for the great purpose it was to serve.

Jesus of Nazareth was born at about the time stated in the historic records, and not 105 B.C., as stated in some occult works. The name Jesus is common in the East, and an Initiate named Jesus did live 105 B.C., but he took the Egyptian Initiation, and was not Jesus of Nazareth, with whom we are concerned.

The Individual who was later born under the name of Christian Rosenkreuz, who is in the body today, was a highly evolved being when Jesus of Nazareth was born. His testimony, as well as the results of first-hand investigation by later Rosicrucians, all agree in placing the birth of Jesus of Nazareth at the beginning of the Christian Era, on about the date usually ascribed to that event.

Jesus was educated by the Essenes and reached a very high state of spiritual development during the thirty years in which he used his body.

It may be here said, parenthetically, that the Essenes were a third sect which existed in Palestine, besides the two mentioned in the New Testament -- the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Essenes were an exceedingly devout order, widely different from the materialistic Sadducees and entirely opposite to the hypocritical, publicity seeking Pharisees. They shunned all mention of themselves and their methods of study and worship. To the latter peculiarity is due the fact that almost nothing is known of them, and that they are not mentioned in the New Testament.

It is a law of the Cosmos that no Being, however high, can function in any world without a vehicle built of the material of that world (See diagram 8 and diagram 14). Therefore the desire body was the lowest vehicle of the group of spirits who had reached the human stage in the Sun Period.

Christ was one of those spirits and was consequently unable to build for Himself a vital body and a dense physical vehicle. He could have worked upon humanity in a desire body, as did His younger brothers, the Archangels, as Race-spirits. Jehovah had opened an avenue for them to enter the dense body of man by means of the air he inhaled. All Race-religions were religions of law, and creators of sin through disobedience of that law. They were under the direction of Jehovah, Whose lowest vehicle is the human spirit, correlating Him to the World of Abstract Thought, where everything is separative and therefore leads to self-seeking.

That is precisely the reason why the intervention of Christ became necessary. Under the regime of Jehovah unity is impossible. Therefore the Christ, Who possesses as a lowest vehicle the unifying life spirit, must enter into the dense human body. He must appear as a man among men and dwell in this body, because only from within is it possible to conquer the Race-religion, which influences man from without.

Christ could not be born in a dense body, because He had never passed through an evolution such as the Earth Period, therefore He would first have had to acquire the ability to build a dense body such as ours. But even had He possessed that ability, it would have been inexpedient for such an exalted Being to expend for that purpose the energy necessary for body-building through ante-natal life, childhood and youth, to bring it to sufficient maturity for use. He had ceased to use, ordinarily, vehicles such as would correspond to our human spirit, mind and desire body, although He had learned to build them in the Sun Period, and retained the ability to build and function in them whenever desired or required. He used all his own vehicles, taking only the vital and dense bodies from Jesus. When the latter was 30 years of age, Christ entered these bodies and used them until the climax of His Mission on Golgotha. After the destruction of the dense body, Christ appeared among His disciples in the vital body, in which He functioned for some time. The vital body is the vehicle which He will use when He appears again, for He will never take another dense body.

It is encroaching upon a subject to be dealt with later to remark that the object of all esoteric training is to so work on the vital body that the life spirit is built up and quickened. When we come to deal with Initiation, it may be possible to give more detailed explanations, but no more can be said on the subject just now. In chronicling the events incident to post mortem existence, this subject has been partially dealt with, and the student is here asked to note that a man is supposed to have conquered his desire body to a considerable extent before attempting esotericism. His esoteric training and the earlier Initiations are devoted to work on the vital body, and result in the building of the life spirit. At the time Christ entered the body of Jesus, the latter was a disciple of high degree, consequently his life spirit was well organized. Therefore, the lowest vehicle in which Christ functioned, and the best organized of the higher vehicles of Jesus, were identical; and Christ, when He took the vital body and the dense body of Jesus, was thus furnished with a complete chain of vehicles bridging the gap between the World of Life Spirit and the dense Physical World.

The significance of the fact that Jesus had passed several initiations lies in the effect that has on the vital body. Jesus' vital body was already attuned to the high vibrations of the life spirit. An ordinary man's vital body would have instantly collapsed under the terrific vibrations of the Great Spirit who entered Jesus' body. Even that body, pure and high-strung as it was, could not withstand those tremendous impacts for many years, and when we read of certain times when Christ withdrew temporarily from his disciples, as when he later walked on the sea to meet them, the esotericist knows that he drew out of Jesus' vehicles to give them a rest under the care of the Essene Brothers, who knew more of how to treat such vehicles than Christ did.

This change was consummated with the full and free consent of Jesus, who knew during this entire life that he was preparing a vehicle for Christ. He submitted gladly, that his brother humanity might receive the gigantic impetus which was given to its development by the mysterious sacrifice on Golgotha.

Thus (as shown in diagram 14) Christ Jesus possessed the twelve vehicles, which formed an unbroken chain from the Physical World to the very Throne of God. Therefore He is the only Being in the Universe in touch with both God and man and capable of mediating between them, because He has, personally and individually, experienced all conditions and knows every limitation incidental to physical existence.

Christ is unique among all Beings in all the seven Worlds. He alone possessed the twelve vehicles. None save He is able to feel such compassion, nor so fully understand the position and needs of humanity; none save He is qualified to bring the relief that shall fully meet our needs.

Thus do we know the nature of Christ. He is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, and He took the dense and vital bodies of Jesus that He might function directly in the Physical World and appear as a man among men. Had He appeared in a manifestly miraculous manner, it would have been contrary to the scheme of evolution, because at the end of the Atlantean Epoch humanity had been given freedom to do right or wrong. That they might learn to become self-governing, no coercion whatever could be used. They must know good and evil through experience. Before that time they had been led willy-nilly, but at that time they were given freedom under the different Race-religions, each religion adapted to the needs of its particular Tribe or Nation.

Not Peace but a Sword

All Race-religions are of the Holy Spirit. They are insufficient, because they are based on law, which makes for sin and brings death, pain and sorrow.

All Race-spirits know this, and realize that their religions are merely steps to something better. This is shown by the fact that all Race-religions, without exception, point to One Who is to come. The religion of the Persians pointed to Mithras; of the Chaldeans to Tammuz. The old Norse Gods foresaw the approach of "The Twilight of the Gods," when Sutr, the bright Sun-spirit, shall supersede them, and a new and fairer order be established on "Gimle," the regenerated earth. The Egyptians waited for Horus, the new-born Sun. Mithras and Tammuz are also symbolized as Solar orbs, and all the principal Temples were built facing the East, that the rays of the rising Sun might shine directly through the open doors; even Saint Peter's at Rome is so placed. All these facts show that it was generally known that the One Who was to come was a Sun-spirit and was to save humanity from the separative influences necessarily contained in all Race-religions.

These religions were steps which it was necessary for mankind to take to prepare for the advent of Christ. Man must first cultivate a "self" before he can become really unselfish and understand the higher phase of Universal Brotherhood -- unity of purpose and interest -- for which Christ laid the foundation at His first coming, and which He will make living realities when He returns.

As the fundamental principle of a Race-religion is separation, inculcating self-seeking at the expense of other men and nations, it is evident that if the principle is carried to its ultimate conclusion it must necessarily have an increasingly destructive tendency and finally frustrate evolution, unless succeeded by a more constructive religion.

Therefore the separative religions of the Holy Spirit must give place to the unifying religion of the Son, which is the Christian religion.

Law must give place to Love, and the separate Races and Nations be united in one Universal Brotherhood, with Christ as the Eldest Brother.

The Christian religion has not yet had time to accomplish this great object. Man is still in the toils of the dominant Race-spirit, and the ideals of Christianity are yet too high for him. The intellect can see some of the beauties, and readily admits that we should love our enemies, but the passions of the desire body are still too strong. The law of the Race-spirit being "An eye for an eye," the Feeling is "I'll get even!" The heart prays for Love; the desire body hopes for Revenge. The intellect sees, in the abstract, the beauty of loving one's enemies but in concrete cases it allies itself with the vengeful feeling of the desire body, pleading, as an excuse for "getting even," that "the social organism must be protected."

It is a matter for congratulation, however, that society feels compelled to apologize for the retaliative methods used. Corrective methods and mercy are becoming more and more prominent in the administration of the laws, as is shown by the favorable reception which has been accorded that very modern institution, the Juvenile Court. Further manifestation of this same tendency may be noted in the increasing frequency with which convicted prisoners are released on probation, under suspended sentence; also in the greater humanity with which prisoners of war are treated of late years. These are the vanguards of the sentiment of Universal Brotherhood, which is slowly but surely making its influence felt.

Yet, though the world is advancing, and though, for instance, it has been comparatively easy for the writer to secure a hearing for his views in the different cities where he has lectured, the daily papers sometimes devoting to his utterances whole pages (and front pages at that) so long as he confined himself to speaking of the higher worlds and the post mortem states, it has been very noticeable that as soon as the theme was Universal Brotherhood his articles have always been consigned to the waste-basket.

The world in general is very unwilling to consider anything that is, as it thinks, "too" unselfish. There must be "something in it." Nothing is regarded as an entirely natural line of conduct if it offers no opportunity for "getting the best of" one's fellowmen. Commercial undertakings are planned and conducted on that principle and, before the minds of those who are enslaved by the desire to accumulate useless wealth, the idea of Universal Brotherhood conjures up frightful visions of the abolition of capitalism and its inevitable concomitant, the exploitation of others, with the wreck of "business interests" implied thereby. The word "enslaved" exactly describes this condition. According to the Bible, man was to have dominion over the world, but in the vast majority of cases the reverse is true -- it is the world which has dominion over man. Every man who has property interests will, in his saner moments, admit that they are a never-failing source of worry to him; that he is constantly scheming to hold his possessions, or at least to keep from being deprived of them by "sharp practice," knowing that others are as constantly scheming to accomplish that, to them, desirable end. The man is the slave of what, with unconscious irony, he calls "my possessions,' when in reality they possess him. Well did the Sage of Concord say, "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind!"

This state of affairs is the result of Race-religions, with their system of law; therefore do they all look for "One Who is to come." The Christian religion alone is not looking for One Who is to come, but for One Who is to come again. The time of this second coming depends upon when the Church can free itself from the State. The Church, especially in Europe, is bound to the Chariot of State. The ministers are fettered by economic considerations, and dare not proclaim the truths that their studies have revealed to them.

A visitor to Copenhagen, Denmark, recently witnessed a church confirmation service. The Church there is under State control, and all ministers are appointed by the temporal power. The parishioners have nothing whatever to say in the matter. They may attend church or not, as they please, but they are compelled to pay the taxes which support the institution.

In addition to holding office by the bounty of the State, the pastor of the particular church visited was decorated with several Orders conferred by the king, the glittering badges bearing silent but eloquent testimony as to the extent of his subservience to the State. During the ceremony, he prayed for the king and the legislators, that they might rule the country wisely. As long as kings and legislators exist, this prayer might be very appropriate, but it was a considerable shock to hear him add: ".... and, almighty God, protect and strengthen our army and navy!"

Such a prayer as this shows plainly that the God worshiped is the Tribal or National God -- the Race-spirit, for the last act of the gentle Christ Jesus was to stay the sword of the friend who would have protected Him therewith. Although He said He had not come to send peace, but a sword, it was because He foresaw the oceans of blood that would be spilled by the militant "Christian" nations in their mistaken understanding of His teachings, and because high ideals cannot be immediately attained by humanity. The wholesale murder of war and like atrocities are harsh, but they are potent illustrations of what Love would abolish.

There is, apparently, a flat contradiction between the words of Christ Jesus, "I came not to send peace, but a sword," and the words of the celestial song which heralded the birth of Jesus, "On earth Peace, Goodwill toward men." This contradiction, however, is apparent only.

There is as great an apparent contradiction between a woman's words and her actions when she says, "I am going to clean house and tidy up," and then proceeds to take up carpets and pile chairs one upon another, producing general confusion in a previously orderly house. One observing only this aspect of the matter, would be justified in saying, "She is making matters worse instead of better," but when the purpose of her work is understood, the expediency of the temporary disorder is realized, and in the end her house will be the better for the passing disturbance.

Similarly, we must bear in mind that the time which has elapsed since the coming of Christ Jesus is but little more than a moment in comparison with the duration of even one Day of Manifestation. We must learn, as did Whitman, to "know the amplitude of time," and look beyond the past and present cruelties and jealousies of the warring sects to the shining age of Universal Brotherhood, which will mark the next great step of man's progress on his long and wondrous journey from the clod to the God, from protoplasm to conscious unity with the Father, that

... one far-off, divine event
To which the whole creation moves.

It may be added that the above mentioned pastor, during the ceremony of receiving his pupils into the Church, taught them that Jesus Christ was a composite individual; that Jesus was the mortal, human part, while Christ was the divine, immortal Spirit. Presumably, if the matter had been discussed with him, he would not have supported this statement, nevertheless in making it he stated an occult fact.

The Star of Bethlehem

The unifying influence of the Christ has been symbolized in the beautiful legend of the worship of the three magi, or "wise men of the East," so skillfully woven by General Lew Wallace into his charming story, "Ben Hur."

The three wise men -- Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar -- are the representatives of the white, yellow and black Races, and symbolize the people of Europe, Asia and Africa, who are all led by The Star to the World-Savior, to Whom eventually "every knee shall bow," and Whom "every tongue shall confess"; Who shall unite all the scattered nations under the Banner of Peace and Goodwill; Who shall cause men to "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks."

The Star of Bethlehem is said to have appeared at the time of the birth of Jesus, and to have guided the three wise men to the Savior.

Much speculation has been indulged in as to the nature of this Star. Most material scientists have declared it a myth, while others have said if it were anything more than a myth, it might have been a "coincidence" -- two dead Suns might have collided and caused a conflagration. Every mystic, however, knows the "Star" -- yea, and the "Cross" also -- not only as symbols connected with the life of Jesus and Christ Jesus, but in his own personal experience. Paul says: "Until Christ be formed in you"; and the mystic, Angelus Silesius, echoes:

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born
And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain
Unless within thyself it be set up again.

Richard Wagner shows the intuitional knowledge of the artist when, to the question of Parsifal, "Who is The Grail?" Gurnemanz answers:

That tell we not;
But if thou hast by Him been bidden,
From thee the truth will not stay hidden.
... The land to Him no path leads through,
And search but severs from Him wider
When He Himself is not the Guider.

Under the "old dispensation," the path to Initiation was not open. It was for only the chosen few. Some might seek the path, but only those who were guided to the Temples by the Hierophants found entrance. Previous to the advent of Christ, there was no such sweeping invitation as "Whosoever will may come."

At the moment the blood flowed on Golgotha, however, "the veil of the Temple was rent" (for reasons presently to be explained), and ever since that time, whosoever will seek admittance will surely find it.

In the Temples of Mystery, the Hierophant taught his pupils that there is in the Sun a spiritual, as well as a physical force. The latter force in the rays of the Sun is the fecundating principle in nature. It causes the growth of the plant world and thereby sustains the animal and human kingdom. It is the upbuilding energy which is the source of all physical force.

This physical, solar energy reaches its highest expression in midsummer, when the days are longest and the nights are shortest, because the rays of the Sun then fall directly on the northern hemisphere. At that time the spiritual forces are the most inactive.

On the other hand, in December, during the long winter nights, the physical force of the solar orb is dormant and the spiritual forces reach their maximum degree of activity.

The night between the 24th and the 25th of December is The Holy Night, par excellence, of the entire year. The Zodiacal sign of the immaculate celestial Virgin stands upon the eastern horizon near midnight, the Sun of the New Year is then born and starts upon his journey from the southernmost point toward the northern hemisphere, to save that part of humanity (physically) from the darkness and famine which would inevitably result if he were to remain permanently south of the equator.

To the people of the northern hemisphere, where all our present day religions originated, the Sun is directly below the Earth; and the spiritual influences are strongest, in the north, at midnight of the 24th of December.

That being the case, it follows as a matter of course that it would then be easiest for those who wished to take a definite step toward Initiation to get in conscious touch with the spiritual Sun especially for the first time.

Therefore the pupils who were ready for Initiation were taken in hand by the Hierophants of the Mysteries, and by means of ceremonies performed in the Temple, were raised to a state of exaltation wherein they transcended physical conditions. To their spiritual vision, the solid Earth become transparent and they saw the Sun at midnight -- "The Star!" It was not the physical Sun they saw with spiritual eyes, however, but the Spirit in the Sun -- The Christ -- their Spiritual Savior, as the physical Sun was their physical Savior.

This is the Star that shone on that Holy Night and that still shines for the mystic in the darkness of night. When the noise and confusion of physical activity are quieted, he enters into his closet and seeks the way to the King of Peace. The Blazing Star is ever there to guide him and his soul hears the prophetic song, "On earth Peace, Goodwill toward men."

Peace and goodwill to all, without exception; no room for one single enemy or outcast! Is it any wonder that it is hard to educate humanity to such a high standard? Is there any better way to show the beauty of, and the necessity for peace, goodwill and love than by contrasting them with the present state of war, selfishness and hate?

The stronger the light, the deeper the shadow it casts. The higher our ideals, the more plainly can we see our shortcomings.

Unfortunately, at the present stage of development, humanity is willing to learn only by the hardest experience. As a Race, it must become absolutely selfish to feel the bitter pangs caused by the selfishness of others, as one must know much sickness to be thoroughly thankful for health.

The religion miscalled Christianity has therefore been the bloodiest religion known, not excepting Mohammedanism, which in this respect is somewhat akin to our malpracticed Christianity. On the battle field and in the Inquisition, innumerable and unspeakable atrocities have been committed in the name of the gentle Nazarene. The Sword and the Wine Cup -- the perverted Cross and Communion Chalice -- have been the means by which the more powerful of the so-called Christian nations gained supremacy over the heathen peoples, and even over other but weaker nations professing the same faith as their conquerors. The most cursory reading of the history of the Greco-Latin, Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon Races will corroborate this.

While man was under the full sway of Race-religions, each nation was a united whole. Individual interests were willingly subordinated to the community interests. All were "under the law." All were members of their respective tribes first, and individuals only secondarily.

At the present time there is a tendency toward the other extreme -- to exalt "self" above all else. The result is evident in the economic and industrial problems that are facing every nation and clamoring for solution.

The state of development wherein every man feels himself an absolutely separate unit, an Ego, independently pursuing his own course, is a necessary stage. The national, tribal and family unity must first be broken up before Universal Brotherhood can become a fact. The regime of Paternalism has been largely superseded by the reign of Individualism. We are learning the evils of the latter more and more as our civilization advances. Our unsystematic method of distributing the products of labor, the rapacity of the few and the exploitation of many -- these social crimes result in under-consumption, industrial depressions and labor disturbances, destroying internal peace. The industrial war of the present day is vastly more far-reaching and destructive than the military wars of the nations.
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:16 pm

PART 2 OF 2

The Heart as an Anomaly

No lesson, though its truth may be superficially assented to, is of any real value as an active principle of the life until the heart has learned it in longing and bitterness, and the lesson man must so learn is that what is not beneficial to all can never be truly beneficial to any. For nearly 2,000 years we have lightly assented with our lips that we should govern our lives in accordance with such maxims as "Return good for evil." The Heart urges mercy and love, but the Reason urges belligerent and retaliatory measures, if not as revenge, at least as a means of preventing a repetition of hostilities. It is this divorce of head from heart that hinders the growth of a true feeling of Universal Brotherhood and the adoption of the teachings of Christ -- the Lord of Love.

The mind is the focusing point by means of which the Ego becomes aware of the material universe. As an instrument for the acquisition of knowledge in those realms, the mind is invaluable, but when it arrogates to itself the role of dictator as to the conduct of man to man, it is as though the lens should say to an astronomer who was in the act of photographing the Sun through a telescope: "You have me improperly focused. You are not looking at the Sun correctly. I do not think it is good to photograph the Sun anyway, and I want you to point me at Jupiter. The rays of the Sun heat me too much and are liable to damage me."

If the astronomer exercises his will and focuses the telescope as he desires, telling it to attend to its business of transmitting the rays that strike it, leaving the results to him, the work will proceed well, but if the lens has the stronger will, and the mechanism of the telescope is in league with it, the astronomer will be seriously hampered in having to contend with a refractory instrument, and the result will be blurred pictures, of little or no value.

Thus it is with the Ego. It works with a threefold body, which it controls, or should control through the mind. But, sad to say, this body has a will of its own and is often aided and abetted by the mind, thus frustrating the purposes of the Ego.

This antagonistic "lower will" is an expression of the higher part of the desire body. When the division of the Sun, Moon, and Earth took place, in the early part of the Lemurian Epoch, the more advanced portion of humanity-in-the-making experienced a division of the desire body into a higher and a lower part. The rest of humanity did likewise in the early part of the Atlantean Epoch.

This higher part of the desire body became a sort of animal soul. It built the cerebro-spinal nervous systems and the voluntary muscles, by that means controlling the lower part of the threefold body until the link of mind was given. Then the mind "coalesced" with this animal soul and became a co-regent.

The mind is thus bound up in desire; is enmeshed in the selfish lower nature, making it difficult for the spirit to control the body. The focusing mind, which should be the ally of the higher nature, is alienated by and in league with the lower nature -- enslaved by desire.

The law of the Race religions was given to emancipate intellect from desire. The "fear of God" was pitted against "the desires of the flesh." This, however, was not enough to enable one to become master of the body and secure its willing co-operation. It became necessary for the spirit to find in the body another point of vantage, which was not under the sway of the desire nature. All muscles are expressions of the desire body and a straight road to the capital, where the traitorous mind is wedded to desire and reigns supreme.

If the United States were at war with France, it would not land troops in England, hoping in that way to subjugate the French. It would land its soldiers directly in France, and fight there.

Like a wise general, the Ego followed a similar course of action. It did not commence its campaign by getting control of one of the glands, for they are expressions of the vital body; nor was it possible to get control of the voluntary muscles, for they are too well garrisoned by the enemy. That part of the involuntary muscular system which is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system would also be useless for the purpose. It must get into a more direct touch with the cerebro-spinal nervous system. To do this, and secure a base of operations in the enemy's country, it must control a muscle which is involuntary, and yet connected with the voluntary nervous system. Such a muscle is the heart.

We have previously spoken of the two kinds of muscles -- voluntary and involuntary. The latter are formed in lengthwise stripes and are connected with functions not under the control of the will, such as digestion, respiration, excretion, etc. The voluntary muscles are those which are controlled by the will through the voluntary nervous system, such as the muscles of the hand and arm. They are striped both lengthwise and crosswise.

The above is true of all muscles in the body except the heart, which is an involuntary muscle. Ordinarily, we cannot control the circulation. Under normal conditions the heart-beat is a fixed quantity, yet to the bewilderment of physiologists, the heart is cross-striped like a voluntary muscle. It is the only organ in the body exhibiting this peculiarity but, sphinx-like, it refuses to give material scientists an answer to the riddle.

The occult scientist easily finds the answer in the memory of nature. From that record he learns that when the Ego first sought a stronghold in the heart, the latter was striped lengthwise only, the same as any other involuntary muscle; but as the Ego gained more and more control over the heart, the cross-stripes have gradually developed. They are not so numerous nor so well defined as on the muscles under the full control of the desire body, but as the altruistic principles of love and brotherhood increase in strength and gradually overrule the reason, which is based in desire, so will these cross stripes become more numerous and more marked.

As previously stated, the seed-atom of the dense body is located in the heart during life and withdrawn only at death. The active work of the Ego is in the blood. Now, if we except the lungs, the heart is the only organ in the body through which all the blood passes in every cycle.

The blood is the highest expression of the vital body, for it nourishes the entire physical organism. It is also, in a sense, the vehicle of the subconscious memory, and in touch with the Memory of Nature, situated in the highest division of the Etheric Region. The blood carries the pictures of life from ancestors to descendants for generations, where there is a common blood, as produced by inbreeding.

There are in the head three points, each of which is the particular seat of one of the three aspects of the spirit (See diagram 17), the second and third aspects having, in addition, secondary vantage grounds.

The desire body is the perverted expression of the Ego. It converts the "Selfhood" of the spirit into "selfishness." Selfhood seeks not its own at the expense of others. Selfishness seeks gain regardless of others. The seat of the human spirit is primarily in the pineal gland and secondarily in the brain and cerebro-spinal nervous system, which controls the voluntary muscles.

The love and unity in the World of the Life Spirit find their illusory counterpart in the Etheric Region, to which we are correlated by the vital body, which latter promotes sex love and sex union. The life spirit has its seat primarily in the pituitary body and secondarily in the heart, which is the gateway of the blood that nourishes the muscles.

The actionless Divine Spirit -- The Silent Watcher -- finds its material expression in the passive, inert and irresponsive skeleton of the dense body, which is the obedient instrument of other bodies, but has no power to act on its own initiative. The Divine Spirit has its stronghold in the impenetrable point at the root of the nose.

In reality there is but one spirit, the Ego, but looking at it from the Physical World, it is refracted into the three aspects, which work as stated.

As the blood passes through the heart, cycle after cycle, hour after hour all through life, it engraves the pictures it carries upon the seed-atoms while they are still fresh, thus making a faithful record of the life which is indelibly impressed on the soul in the post mortem existence. It is always in closest touch with the life spirit, the spirit of love and unity, therefore the heart is the home of altruistic love.

As these pictures pass inward to the World of Life Spirit, in which is the true memory of nature, they do not come through the slow physical senses, but directly through the fourth ether contained in the air we breathe. In the World of Life Spirit the life spirit sees much more clearly than it can in the denser Worlds. In its high home it is in touch with the Cosmic Wisdom and in any situation it knows at once what to do and flashes the message of guidance and proper action back to the heart, which as instantaneously flashes it on to the brain through the medium of the pneumogastric nerve, resulting in "first impressions"--the intuitional impulse, which is always good, because it is drawn directly from the fountain of Cosmic Wisdom and Love.

This is all done so quickly that the heart has control before the slower reason has had time to "take in the situation," as it were. It is the thought that man "thinketh in his heart," and it is true that "so is he." Man is inherently a virgin spirit, good, noble and true in every respect. All that is not good is from the lower nature, that illusory reflection of the Ego. The virgin spirit is always giving wise counsel. If we could only follow the impulses of the heart -- the first thought -- Universal Brotherhood would be realized here and now.

But that is just the point where the trouble begins. After the good counsel of the first thought has been given, the mind begins to reason, with the result that, in the great majority of cases, it dominates the heart. The telescope arranges its own focus and points where it lists, despite the astronomer. The mind and the desire body frustrate the designs of the spirit by taking control and, as they lack the spirit's wisdom, both spirit and body suffer.

Physiologists note that certain areas of the brain are devoted to particular thought activities, and phrenologists have carried this branch of science still further. Now, it is known that thought breaks down and destroys nerve tissues. This and all other waste of the body is replaced by the blood. When, through the development of the heart into a voluntary muscle, the circulation of the blood finally passes under the absolute control of the unifying life spirit -- the Spirit of Love -- it will then be within the power of that spirit to withhold the blood from those areas of the brain devoted to selfish purposes. As a result, those particular thought centers will gradually atrophy.

On the other hand, it will be possible for the spirit to increase the blood supply when the mental activities are altruistic, and thus build up the areas devoted to altruism, so that, in time, the desire nature will be conquered and the mind emancipated by Love from its bondage to desire. It is only by complete emancipation, through Love, that man can rise above the law and become a law unto himself. Having conquered himself, he will have conquered all the World.

The cross stripes of the heart may be built by certain exercises under occult training, but as some of these exercises are dangerous, they should be undertaken only under the direction of a competent teacher. That no reader of this book may be deceived by imposters professing ability and willingness to so train aspirants for a consideration, it is emphatically repeated that No true occultist ever boasts, advertises his occult power, sells occult information or lessons at so much each or for a course; nor will he consent to a theatrical display. His work is done in the most unobtrusive manner possible and solely for the purpose of legitimately helping others, without thought of self.

As said in the beginning of this chapter, all persons earnestly desiring the higher knowledge may rest assured that if they will but seek, they will find the way open for them. Christ Himself prepared the way for "whosoever will." He will help and welcome all real seekers who are willing to work for Universal Brotherhood.

The Mystery of Golgotha

During the last 2,000 years much has been said about "the cleansing blood." The blood of Christ has been extolled from the pulpit as the sovereign remedy for sin; the only means of redemption and salvation.

But if the laws of Rebirth and Consequence work in such a way that the evolving beings reap as they have sown, and if the evolutionary impulse is constantly bringing humanity higher and higher, ultimately to attain perfection -- where then is the need for redemption and salvation? Even if the need existed, how can the death of one individual help the rest? Would it not be nobler to suffer the consequences of one's acts than to hide behind another? These are some of the objections to the doctrine of vicarious atonement and redemption by the blood of Christ Jesus. We will try to answer them before showing the logical harmony between the operation of the law of Consequence and the Atonement by Christ.

In the first place, it is absolutely true that the evolutionary impulse does work to achieve ultimate perfection for all; yet there are some who are constantly straggling behind. At the present time, we have just passed the extreme point of materiality and are going through the sixteen Races. We are treading "the sixteen paths to destruction," and are consequently in graver danger of falling behind than at any other part of the evolutionary journey.

In the abstract, time is nothing. A number may fall behind so far that they must be abandoned, to take up their further evolution in another scheme, where they can continue their journey to perfection. Nevertheless that was not the evolution originally designed for them and it is reasonable to suppose that the exalted Intelligences in charge of our evolution use every means to bring through in safety as many as possible of the entities under their charge.

In ordinary evolution, the laws of Rebirth and Consequence are perfectly adequate for bringing the major portion of the life wave up to perfection, but they do not suffice in the case of the stragglers, who are lagging behind in the various Races. During the stage of individualism, which is the climax of the illusion of separateness, all mankind needs extra help, but for the stragglers some additional special aid must be provided.

To give that special aid, to redeem the stragglers, was the mission of Christ. He said that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He opened the way of Initiation for all who are willing to seek it.

Objectors to vicarious atonement urge: That it is cowardly to hide behind another; that each man should be willing to take the consequence of his acts.

Let us consider an analogous case. The waters of the Great Lakes narrow into the Niagara River. For twenty miles this enormous volume of water flows rapidly toward the falls. The river bed is filled with rocks, and if a person who goes beyond a certain point does not lose his life in the rapids above the cataract, he will surely do so by the plunge over the brink.

Suppose a man appeared who, in pity for the victims of the current, placed a rope above the cataract, although he knew that the conditions were such that in doing so, he himself could not by any possible chance escape death. Yet gladly and of his own free will, he sacrificed his life and placed the rope, thus modifying former conditions so that any otherwise helpless victims who would grasp the rope would be saved and thenceforward none need be lost.

What would we think of a man who had fallen into the water through his own carelessness, and was struggling madly to reach the shore, if he should say: "What! Save myself and seek to avoid penalty of my carelessness by shielding myself behind the strength of another, who suffered through no fault of his own, and gave up his life that such as I might live? No, never! That would not be "manly." I will take my deserts!" Would we not all agree that the man was a fool?

Not all are in need of salvation. Christ knew that there is a very large class who do not require salvation in this way, but just as surely as there are the ninety-and-nine who are well taken care of by the laws of Rebirth and Consequence and will reach perfection in that way, so there are the "sinners" who have become "bogged" in matter and cannot escape without a rope. Christ came to save them and to bring peace and good will to all, by raising them to the necessary point of spirituality, causing a change in their desire bodies which will make the influence of the life spirit in the heart more potent.

His younger brother Sun spirits, the Archangels, had worked as Race-spirits on the desire bodies of man, but their work had been from without. It was simply a reflected spiritual Sun-force and came through the Moon -- as moonlight is reflected sunlight. Christ, the Chief Initiate of the Sun spirits, entered directly into the dense body of the Earth and brought the direct Sun-force, thus enabling Him to influence our desire bodies from within.

Man cannot gaze long upon the Sun without becoming blind, because its vibrations are so rapid that they destroy the retina of the eye. But he can look without harmful results upon the Moon, the vibrations from which are much slower; yet they are also sunlight, but the higher vibrations have been taken up by the Moon, which then reflects the residue to us.

So it is with the spiritual impulses which help man to evolve. The reason why the Earth was thrown off from the Sun was because our humanity could not endure the Sun's tremendous physical and spiritual impulses. Even after an enormous distance had been placed between the Earth and Sun, the spiritual impulse would still have been too strong had it not been sent first to the Moon, to be used by Jehovah, the Regent of the Moon, for man's benefit. A number of Archangels (ordinary Sun spirits) were given Jehovah as helpers in reflecting these spiritual impulses from the Sun upon the humanity of the Earth, in the form of Jehovistic or Race-religions.

The lowest vehicle of the Archangels is the desire body. Our desire body was added in the Moon Period, at which time Jehovah was the highest Initiate. Therefore Jehovah is able to deal with man's desire body. Jehovah's lowest vehicle is the human spirit (see diagram 14) and its counterpart is the desire body. The Archangels are His helpers because they are able to manage the spiritual Sun forces and the desire body is their lowest vehicle. Thus they are able to work with and prepare humanity for the time when it can receive the spiritual impulses directly from the Solar Orb, without the intervention of the Moon.

Upon Christ, as the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, is laid the task of sending out this impulse. The impulse which Jehovah reflected was sent out by Christ, Who thus prepared both the Earth and humanity for His direct ingress.

The expression, "prepared the Earth," means that all evolution on a planet is accompanied by the evolution of that planet itself. Had some observer gifted with spiritual sight watched the evolution of our Earth from some distant star, he would have noticed a gradual change taking place in the Earth's desire body.

Under the old dispensation, the desire bodies of people in general were improved by means of the law. This work is still going on in the majority of people, who are thus preparing themselves for the higher life.

The higher life (Initiation) does not commence, however, until the work on the vital body begins. The means used for bringing that into activity is Love, or rather Altruism. The former word has been so abused that it no longer conveys the meaning here required.

During the old dispensation, the path of Initiation was not free and open, except to the chosen few. The Hierophants of the Mysteries collected certain families about the Temples, setting them apart from all the other people. These chosen families were then rigorously guarded as to certain rites and ceremonies. Their marriages and sexual intercourse were regulated by the Hierophants.

The effect of this was to produce a race having the proper degree of laxity between the dense and vital bodies; also to wake the desire body from its state of lethargy during sleep. Thus a special few were made fit for Initiation and were given opportunities that could not be given to all. We see instances of this method among the Jews, where the tribe of Levi were the chosen Templars; also in the caste of the Brahmins, who were the only priestly class among the Hindus.

The Mission of Christ, in addition to saving the lost, was to make Initiation possible to all, therefore Jesus was not a Levite of the class to which priesthood came by inheritance. He came from the common people, and though not of the teacher class, His teaching was higher than that of Moses.

Christ Jesus did not deny Moses, the law, nor the prophets. On the contrary, He acknowledged them all and showed the people that they were His witnesses, as they all pointed to One Who was to come. He told the people that those things had served their purpose and that henceforth Love must supersede Law.

Christ Jesus was killed. In connection with this fact, we come to the supreme and fundamental difference between Him and the previous teachers, in whom the Race spirits were born. They all died and must be reborn again and again to help their peoples bear their destiny. The Archangel Michael (the Race-spirit of the Jews) raised up Moses, who was taken up to Mount Nebo to die. He was reborn as Elijah. Elijah returned as John the Baptist; Buddha died and was reborn as Shankaracharya; Shri Krishna says, "Whenever there is decay of Dharma ... and ... exaltation of Adharma, then I myself come forth for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, for the sake of firmly establishing Dharma. I am born from age to age."

When death came, Moses' face shone and Buddha's body become alight. They all reached the stage when the spirit begins to shine from within -- but then they died.

Christ Jesus reached that stage on the Mount of Transfiguration. It is of the very highest significance that His real work took place subsequent to that event. He suffered; was killed -- and resurrected.

Being killed is a very different thing from dying. The blood that had been the vehicle of the Race-spirit must flow and be cleansed of that contaminating influence. Love of father and mother, exclusive of other fathers and mothers, must go -- otherwise Universal Brotherhood and an all-embracing Altruistic Love could never become an actuality.

The Cleansing Blood

When the Savior Christ Jesus was crucified, His body was pierced in five places; in the five centers where the currents of the vital body flow; and the pressure of the crown of thorns caused a flow from the sixth also. (This is a hint to those who already know these currents. A full elucidation of this matter cannot be publicly given out at this time.)

When the blood flowed from these centers, the great Sun-spirit Christ was liberated from the physical vehicle of Jesus and found Himself in the Earth, with individual vehicles. The already existing planetary vehicles He permeated with His own vehicles and, in the twinkling of an eye, diffused His own desire body over the planet, which has enabled Him thenceforth to work upon the Earth and its humanity from within.

At that moment a tremendous wave of spiritual sunlight flooded the Earth. It rent the veil which the Race-spirit had hung before the Temple to keep out all but the chosen few, and it made the Path of Initiation free thenceforth to whomsoever will. So far as concerned the Spiritual Worlds, this wave transformed the conditions of the Earth like a flash of lightning, but the dense, concrete conditions are, of course, much more slowly affected.

Like all rapid and high vibrations of light, this great wave blinded the people by its dazzling brilliance, therefore it was said that "the Sun was darkened." The very opposite was what actually occurred. The Sun was not darkened, but shone out in glorious splendor. It was the excess of light that blinded the people, and only as the entire Earth absorbed the desire body of the bright Sun-spirit did the vibration return to a more normal rate.

The expression, "the cleansing blood of Christ Jesus," means that as the blood flowed on Calvary, it bore with it the great Sun-spirit Christ, Who by that means secured admission to the earth itself and since that moment has been its Regent. He diffused His own desire body throughout the planet, thereby cleansing it from all the vile influences which had grown up under the regime of the Race-spirit.

Under the law all sinned; nay, more -- they could not help it. They had not evolved to where they could do right for Love's sake. The desire nature was so strong that it was an impossibility for them to rule it altogether, therefore their debts, engendered under the law of Consequence, piled up to monstrous proportions. Evolution would have been terribly delayed and many lost to our life wave altogether if some help had not been given.

Therefore did Christ come "to seek and to save that which was lost." He took away the sin of the world by His cleansing blood, which gave Him entrance to the Earth and its humanity. He purified the conditions and we owe it to Him that we are able to gather for our desire bodies purer desire-stuff than formerly, and He continues working to help us, by making our external environment constantly purer.

That this was and is done at the expense of great suffering to Himself, no one can doubt who is able to form the least conception of the limitations endured by that Great Spirit in entering the hampering conditions of physical existence, even in the best and purest vehicle possible; nor is His present limitation as Regent of the Earth must less painful. True, He is also Regent of the Sun, and therefore only partially confined to the Earth, yet the limitations set by the crampingly slow vibrations of our dense planet must be almost unendurable.

Had Christ Jesus simply died, it would have been impossible for Him to have done this work, but the Christians have a risen Savior; One Who is ever present to help those who call upon His Name. Having suffered like unto ourselves in all things and knowing fully our needs, He is lenient toward our mistakes and failures so long as we continue trying to live the good life. We must ever keep before our eyes the fact that the only real failure is ceasing to try.

Upon the death of the dense body of Christ Jesus, the seed atom was returned to the original owner, Jesus of Nazareth, who for some time afterward, while functioning in a vital body which he had gathered temporarily, taught the nucleus of the new faith which Christ had left behind. Jesus of Nazareth has since had the guidance of the esoteric branches which sprang up all over Europe.

In many places the Knights of the Round Table were high Initiates in the Mysteries of the New Dispensation. So were the Knights of The Grail -- to whom was finally confided Joseph of Arimathea's Grail Cup, which was used by Christ Jesus at The Last Supper. They were afterward entrusted also with the Lance which pierced His side, and the receptacle which received the blood from the wound.

The Druids of Ireland and the Trottes of Northern Russia were esoteric schools through which the Master Jesus worked during the so-called "Dark Ages," but, dark though they were, the spiritual impulse spread, and from the standpoint of the occult scientist they were "Bright Ages" compared to the growing materialism of the last 300 years, which has increased physical knowledge immensely, but has almost extinguished the Light of the Spirit.

Tales of "The Grail," "Knights of The Round Table," etc., are now scouted as superstitions, and all that cannot be materially demonstrated is regarded as unworthy of belief. Glorious as are the discoveries of modern science, they have been bought at the terrible price of crushing the spiritual intuition and, from a spiritual standpoint, no darker day than the present has ever dawned.

The Elder Brothers, Jesus among them, have striven and are striving to counteract this terrible influence, which is like that in the eyes of the snake, causing the bird to fall into its jaws. Every attempt to enlighten people and awaken in them a desire to cultivate the spiritual side of life, is an evidence of the activity of the Elder Brothers.

May their efforts be crowned with success and speed the day when modern science shall be spiritualized and conduct its investigation of matter from the standpoint of spirit, for then, and not until then, will it arrive at a true knowledge of the world.

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Diagram 14A: As Above, So Below
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:18 pm

Chapter 16: Future Development and Initiation

The Seven Days of Creation

The Rosicrucian speaks of the Earth Period as Mars-Mercury. The great creative Day of Manifestation is embodied in the names of the days of the week, for our week-days have been named after the evolutionary stages through which the virgin spirits pass in their pilgrimage through matter.

Day/Corresponds to the/Is ruled by

Saturday/Saturn/Period Saturn
Sunday/Sun Period/The Sun
Monday/Moon Period /The Moon
Tuesday/First half of the Earth Period/Mars
Wednesday/Second half of the Earth Period/Mercury
Thursday/Jupiter Period/Jupiter
Friday/Venus Period/Venus


The Vulcan Period is the last Period of our scheme of evolution. The quintessence of all the preceding Periods is extracted by the recapitulation of spiral after spiral. No new work is done until the very last Revolution on the very last Globe and then only in the Seventh Epoch. Therefore the Vulcan Period may be said to correspond to the week, which includes all of the seven days.

The claim of astrologers that the days of the week are ruled by the particular planet for which they are named, is well-founded. The ancients were also familiar with this occult knowledge, as is shown in their mythologies, in which the names of the gods are associated with the days of the week. Saturday is plainly "Saturn's day"; Sunday is correlated to the Sun, and Monday to the Moon. The Latins call Tuesday "Dies Martis," which obviously shows its connection with Mars, the god of war. The name "Tuesday" is derived from "Tirsdag," "Tir" or "Tyr," being the name of the Norse god of war. "Wednesday" was "Wotensdag," from Woten, also a Norse god; it is called "Dies Mercurii" by the Latins, showing its association with Mercury, as given in our list.

Thursday, or "Thorsdag," is named for "Thor," the Norse god of thunder, and is called "Dies Jovis" by the Latins, after the thunder god, "Jove" or "Jupiter."

Friday is named for the Norse goddess of beauty, "Freya," and for similar reasons, the Latins call it "Dies Veneris," or Day of Venus.

These names of periods have nothing to do with the physical planets, but refer to past, present or future incarnations of the Earth; for, again applying the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below," the macrocosm must have its incarnations as well as the microcosm, man.

Occult science teaches that there are 777 incarnations, but that does not mean that the Earth undergoes 777 metamorphoses. It means that evolving life makes 7 Revolutions around the 7 Globes of the 7 World Periods.

This pilgrimage of Involution and Evolution, including the "short cut" of Initiation, is embodied in the Caduceus, or "Staff of Mercury" (see Diagram 15), so called because this occult symbol indicates The Path of Initiation, which has been open to man only since the beginning of the Mercury half of the Earth Period. Some of the lesser mysteries were given to the earlier Lemurians and Atlanteans, but not the Four Great Initiations.

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Diagram 15: The Seven Days of Creation and The Four Great Initiations

The black serpent on diagram 15 indicates the winding, cyclic path of Involution, comprising the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods, and the Mars half of the Earth Period, during which the evolving life built its vehicles, not becoming fully awake and clearly conscious of the outside world until the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch.

The white serpent represents the path that the human race will follow through the Mercury half of the Earth Period, and the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods, during which pilgrimage man's consciousness will expand into that of an omniscient, Creative Intelligence.

The serpentine path is the path followed by the great majority; but the "Staff of Mercury," around which the serpents twine, shows the "straight and narrow way," the path of Initiation, which enables those who walk therein to accomplish in a few short lives that which it requires millions of years for the majority of mankind to accomplish.

It need scarcely be said that no description of the initiatory ceremonies can be given, as the first vow of the Initiate is silence; but even if permissible, it would not be important. What concerns us in getting a bird's-eye view of the evolutionary path is to ascertain the results of the ceremonies.

The whole result of initiation is to give to the spiritually aspiring an opportunity to develop the higher faculties and powers in a short time and by severe training, thereby gaining the expansion of consciousness that all mankind will surely possess eventually, but which the vast majority choose to acquire through the slow process of ordinary evolution. We may know the states of consciousness and their concomitant powers attained by the candidate as he passes through successive great Initiations provided we know what those future states and powers will be for humanity in general. Some hints have been given, and more may be logically deduced by an application of the law of Correspondences, to give a fairly rounded picture of the evolution in store for all of us, and the magnitude of the great steps in Initiation. To do this it may help us to glance back over the steps by which the consciousness of man has been evolved through the various Periods.

We remember that during the Saturn Period, the unconsciousness of man was similar to that of the dense body when plunged into the deepest trance condition; this was succeeded, in the Sun period, by a dreamless-sleep consciousness. In the Moon Period the first glimmering of waking showed itself in inward pictures of outward things. The entire consciousness consisted of such inward representations of external objects, colors, or sounds. At last, in the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, this picture consciousness, in which objects could be observed outside, clearly and distinctly outlined in space. When this objective-consciousness was attained, man became aware of an outside world, and for the first time thoroughly realized the difference between "self" and "others." He then realized his separateness, and thenceforth the "I" consciousness, Egoism, became paramount. As previous to that time there had been no thoughts nor ideas dealing with an outside world, there had consequently been no memory of events.

The change from the internal picture consciousness to the objective-self-consciousness was effected by a very slow process, commensurate with its magnitude, lasting from the existence on Globe C in the third Revolution of the Moon Period, until the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch.

During that time the evolving life passed through four great stages of animal-like development before reaching the human stage. These steps of the past correspond to four stages yet to be passed through, and to the four initiations.

Within these four stages of consciousness previously passed, there are altogether thirteen steps, and from man's present state to the last of the Great Initiations there are also thirteen initiations -- the nine degrees of the lesser mysteries and the four Great Initiations.

There is a similar division among our present animals which can be traced through Form, because, as the form is the expression of life, so each step in its development must necessarily show a step forward in consciousness.

Cuvier was the first to divide the animal kingdom into four primary classes, but was not so successful in his division of these classes into sub-classes. The embryologist, Karl Ernst von Baer, also Professor Agassiz and other scientists, classify the animal kingdom into four primary and thirteen subdivisions, as follows:

Radiates, Mollusks, Articulates and Vertebrates

Radiates:

Polyps, Sea-anemones and Coral

Acalephs, or Jelly-fish

Starfish, Sea-urchins

Mollusks:

Acephala (oysters, etc.)

Gastropoda (snails)

Cephalopoda

Articulates:

Worms

Crustacea (lobsters, etc.)

Insects

Vertebrates:

Fishes

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

The first three divisions correspond to the remaining three Revolutions of the Mercury half of the Earth Period, and their nine steps correspond to the nine degrees of the lesser mysteries, which will have been taken by humanity in general when it has reached the middle of the last Revolutions of the Earth Period.

The fourth division in the list of the advancing animal kingdom has four subdivisions: Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals. The steps in consciousness thus indicated correspond to similar states of advancement to be attained by humanity at the end of the Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods and which any qualified individual may now attain by initiation. The first of the Great Initiations gives the stage of consciousness which will be attained by ordinary humanity at the end of the Earth Period; the second that to which all will attain at the end of the Jupiter Period; the third gives the extension of consciousness to be reached at the close of the Venus Period; the last brings to the initiate the power and omniscience to which the majority will attain only at the end of the Vulcan Period.

The Objective-Consciousness by which we obtain knowledge of the outside world is dependent upon what we perceive through the medium of the senses. This we call "real," in contradistinction to our thoughts and ideas which come to us through our inner consciousness; their reality is not apparent to us in the same as that of a book or table, or other visible or tangible object in space. Thoughts and ideas seem misty and unreal, therefore we speak of a "mere" thought, or of "just" an idea.

The ideas and thoughts of today, however, have an evolution before them; they are destined to become as real, clear and tangible as any of the objects of the outside world which we now perceive through the physical senses. At present, when a thing or a color is thought of, the picture or color presented by the memory to our inner consciousness is but a dim and shadowy one compared with the thing thought of.

As early as the Jupiter Period there will be a marked change in this respect. Then the dream-pictures of the Moon Period will return, but they will be subject to the call of the thinker, and not mere reproductions of outer objects. Thus there will be a combination of the pictures of the Moon Period and the thoughts and ideas consciously developed during the Earth Period, that is, it will be a Self-Consciousness Picture-Consciousness.

When a man of the Jupiter Period says "red," or speaks the name of an object, a clear and exact reproduction of the particular shade of red of which he is thinking, or of the object to which he refers, will be presented to his inner vision and will also be quite visible to the hearer. There will be no misconception as to what is meant by the words spoken. Thoughts and ideas will be alive and visible, therefore hypocrisy and flattery will be entirely eliminated. People can be seen exactly as they are. There will be both good and bad, but the two qualities will not be mingled in the same person. There will be the thoroughly good man and the downright evil man, and one of the serious problems of that time will be how to deal with the latter. The Manichees, an Order of still higher spirituality than the Rosicrucians, are at present studying that very problem. An idea of the condition anticipated may be gained from a short resume of their legend. (All mystic orders have a legend symbolic of their ideals and aspirations.)

In the legend of the Manichees there are two kingdoms -- that of the Light-Elves and that of the Night Elves. The latter attack the former, are defeated and must be punished. But, as the Light-Elves are as thoroughly good as the Night-Elves are bad, they cannot inflict evil upon their foes, so they must be punished with Good. Therefore a part of the kingdom of the Light-Elves is incorporated with that of the Night-Elves and in this way the evil is in time overcome. Hate which will not submit to hate, must succumb to Love.

The internal pictures of the Moon Period were a certain expression of man's external environment. In the Jupiter Period the pictures will be expressed from within; they will be an outcome of the inner life of the man. He will also possess the additional faculty, which he cultivated in the Earth Period, of seeing things in space outside of himself. In the Moon Period he did not see the concrete thing, but only its soul-qualities. In the Jupiter Period he will see both, and will thus have a thorough perception and understanding of his surroundings. At a later stage in the same Period, this perceptive ability will be succeeded by a still higher phase. His power to form clear mental conceptions of colors, objects, or tones will enable him to contact and influence supersensuous beings of various orders and to secure their obedience, employing their forces as he wishes. He will be unable to send out from himself the forces wherewith to carry out his designs, however, and will be dependent upon the help of these superphysical beings, who will then be at his service.

At the close of the Venus Period, he will be able to use his own force to give his pictures life and to set them out from himself as objects in space. He will then possess an Objective, Self-Conscious, Creative-Consciousness.

Very little can be said about the high spiritual consciousness which will be attained at the close of the Vulcan Period; it would be quite beyond our present comprehension.

Spirals within Spirals

It must not be supposed that these states of consciousness commence at the beginning of the Periods to which they belong and last until the end. There is always the Recapitulation, and therefore there must be the corresponding stages of consciousness on an ascending scale. The Saturn Revolution of any Period, the stay on Globe A, and the first Epoch on any Globe, are repetitions of the Saturn Period states of development. The Sun Revolution, the stay on Globe B, and the second Epoch on any Globe are Recapitulations of the Sun Period states of development, and so on, all the way through. Hence it will be seen that the consciousness which is to be the especial and peculiar result or product of any Period, does not begin to be evolved until all the Recapitulations have been made. The waking-consciousness of the Earth Period was not started until the Fourth Revolution, when the life wave had reached the Fourth Globe (D), and was in the Fourth or Atlantean Epoch on that Globe.

The Jupiter Consciousness will not start in the Jupiter Period until the Fifth Revolution, when the Fifth Globe (E) has been reached and the Fifth Epoch commences on that Globe.

Correspondingly, the Venus consciousness will not begin until the Sixth Revolution has come to the Sixth Globe and Epoch, and the special Vulcan work will be confined to the very last Globe and Epoch, just before the Day of Manifestation closes.

The time required for passing through these respective Periods varies greatly. The further into matter the virgin spirits descend, the slower their progress and the more numerous the steps or stages of progression. After the nadir of material existence has been passed and the life wave ascends into more tenuous and mobile conditions, the progress is gradually accelerated. The Sun Period is of somewhat longer duration that the Saturn Period, and the Moon Period is longer than the Sun Period. The Mars (or first) half of the Earth Period is the longest half of any Period. Then the time begins to shorten again, so that the Mercury half of the Earth Period, the latter three and a half Revolutions, will occupy less time that the Mars half; the Jupiter Period will be shorter than the Moon Period; the Venus Period shorter than the corresponding Sun Period; and the Vulcan Period the shortest Period of them all.

The states of consciousness of the different Periods may be tabulated as follows:

Period/Corresponding consciousness

Saturn: Unconsciousness corresponding to deep trance
Sun: Unconsciousness resembling dreamless sleep
Moon: Picture consciousness corresponding to dream state
Earth: Waking, objective consciousness
Jupiter: Self-conscious picture consciousness
Venus: Objective, Self-conscious, Creative consciousness
Vulcan: Highest Spiritual Consciousness


Having taken a general survey of the states of consciousness to be developed in the next three and a half Periods, we will now study the means of attainment.

Alchemy and Soulgrowth

The dense body was started in the Saturn Period, passed through various transformations in the Sun and Moon Periods, and will reach its highest development in the Earth Period.

The vital body was started in the second Revolution of the Sun Period, was reconstructed in the Moon and Earth Periods, and will reach perfection in the Jupiter Period, which is its fourth stage, as the Earth Period is the fourth stage for the dense body.

The desire body was started in the Moon period, reconstructed in the Earth period, will be further modified in the Jupiter Period, reaching perfection in the Venus period.

The mind was started in the Earth Period, will be modified in the Jupiter and Venus Periods, and attain perfection in the Vulcan Period.

Reference to diagram 8 will show that the lowest Globe of the Jupiter Period is located in the Etheric Region. It would therefore be impossible to use the dense physical vehicle there, as only a vital body can be used in the Etheric Region. Yet it must not be supposed that after spending the time from the beginning of the Saturn Period to the end of the Earth Period in completing and perfecting this body, it is then thrown away that man may function in a "higher" vehicle!

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Diagram 8

Nothing in Nature is wasted. In the Jupiter Period the forces of the dense body will be superimposed upon the completed vital body. That vehicle will then possess the powers of the dense body in addition to its own faculties, and will therefore be a much more valuable instrument for the expression of the threefold spirit that if built from its own forces alone.

Similarly, Globe D of the Venus Period is located in the Desire World (see Diagram 8), hence neither a dense nor a vital body could be used as an instrument of consciousness, therefore the essences of the perfected dense and vital bodies are incorporated in the completed desire body, the latter thus becoming a vehicle of transcendent qualities, marvelously adaptable and so responsive to the slightest wish of the indwelling spirit that in our present limitations, it is beyond our utmost conception.

Yet the efficiency of even this splendid vehicle will be transcended when in the Vulcan period its essence, together with the essences of the dense and vital bodies, are added to the mind body, which becomes the highest of man's vehicles, containing within itself the quintessence of all that was best in all the vehicles. The vehicle of the Venus Period being beyond our present power of conception, how much more so is that which will be at the service of the divine beings of the Vulcan Period!

During involution, the creative Hierarchies assisted man to arouse into activity the threefold spirit, the Ego, to build the threefold body, and to acquire the link of mind. Now, however, on the seventh day (to use the language of the Bible), God rests. Man must work out his own salvation. The threefold spirit must complete the working out of the plan begun by the Gods.

The human spirit, which was awakened during Involution in the Moon Period, will be the most prominent of the three aspects of the spirit in the evolution of the Jupiter Period, which is the corresponding Period on the upward arc of the spiral. The life spirit, which was started into activity in the Sun Period, will manifest its principal activity in the corresponding Venus Period, and the particular influences of the Divine Spirit will be strongest in the Vulcan Period, because it was vivified in the corresponding Saturn Period.

All three aspects of the spirit are active all the time during evolution, but the principal activity of each aspect will be unfolded in those particular Periods, because the work to be done there is its special work.

When the threefold spirit had evolved the threefold body and gained control of it through the focus of Mind, it commenced to evolve the threefold soul by working from within. How much or how little soul a man has depends upon the amount of work the spirit has done in the bodies. This has been explained in the chapter describing post mortem experiences.

As much of the desire body as has been worked upon by the Ego is transmuted into the emotional soul, and is ultimately assimilated by the human spirit, the special vehicle of which is the desire body.

As much of the vital body as has been worked upon by the life spirit, becomes the Intellectual soul, and it builds the life spirit, because that aspect of the threefold spirit has its counterpart in the vital body.

As much of the dense body as has been worked upon by the Divine Spirit is called the Conscious soul, and is ultimately merged in the Divine Spirit, because the dense body is its material emanation.

The Conscious soul grows by action, external impacts, and experience.

The Emotional soul grows by the feelings and emotions generated by actions and experiences.

The Intellectual soul, as mediator between the other two, grows by the exercise of memory, by which it links together past and present experiences and the feelings engendered thereby, thus creating "sympathy" and "antipathy," which could not exist apart from memory, because the feelings resulting from experience alone would be evanescent.

During the involution, the spirit progressed by growing bodies, but evolution depends upon soul growth -- the transmutation of the bodies into soul. The soul is, so to say, the quintessence, the power or force of the body, and when a body has been completely built and brought to perfection through the stages and Periods as above described, the soul is fully extracted therefrom and is absorbed by the one of the three aspects of the spirit which generated the body in the first place; thus:

The Conscious soul will be absorbed by the divine spirit in the seventh Revolution of the Jupiter Period;

The Intellectual soul will be absorbed by the life spirit in the sixth Revolution of the Venus Period;

The Emotional soul will be absorbed by the human spirit in the fifth Revolution of the Vulcan Period.

The Creative Word

The mind is the most important instrument possessed by the spirit, and its special instrument in the work of creation. The spiritualized and perfected larynx will speak the creative Word, but the perfect mind will decide as to the particular form and the volume of vibration, and will thus be the determining factor. Imagination will be the spiritualized faculty directing the work of creation.

There is a strong tendency at the present time to regard the faculty of imagination slightingly, yet it is one of the most important factors in our civilization. If it were not for the imagination, we would still be naked savages. Imagination planned our houses, our clothes and our transportation and transmission facilities. Had not the inventors of these improvements possessed the mind and imagination to form mental images, the improvements could never have become concrete realities. In our materialistic day and age there is scarcely an effort made to conceal the contempt in which the faculty of imagination is generally held, and none feel the effects of this more acutely than inventors. They are usually classed as "cranks," and yet they have been the chief factors in the subjugation of the Physical World and in making our social environment what it is today. Any improvement in spiritual or physical conditions must first be imagined as a possibility before it can become an actuality.

If the student will turn to diagram 1 this fact will become clear. In the comparison there drawn between the functions of the different human vehicles and the part of a stereopticon, the mind corresponds to the lens. It is the focusing medium whereby the ideas wrought by the imagination of the spirit are projected upon the material universe. First they are thought forms only, but when the desire to realize the imagined possibilities has set the man to work in the Physical World, they become what we call concrete "realities."

Image

Diagram 1: The Relative Permanency of the Visible and Invisible Worlds (illustrated by comparison with a stereoptician).

At the present time, however, the mind is not focused in a way that enables it to give a clear and true picture of what the spirit imagines. It is not one-pointed. It gives misty and clouded pictures. Hence the necessity of experiment to show the inadequacies of the first conception, and bring about new imaginings and ideas until the image produced by the spirit in mental substance has been reproduced in physical substance.

At the best, we are able to shape through the mind only such images as have to do with Form, because the human mind was not started until the Earth Period, and therefore is now in its form, or "mineral" stage, hence in our operations we are confined to forms, to minerals. We can imagine ways and means of working with the mineral forms of the three lower kingdoms, but can do little or nothing with the living bodies. We may indeed graft living branch to living tree, or living part of animal or man to other living part, but it is not life with which we are working; it is form only. We are making different conditions, but the life which already inhabited the form continues to do so still. To create life is beyond man's power until his mind has become alive.

In the Jupiter Period the mind will be vivified to some extent, and man can then imagine forms which will live and grow, like plants.

In the Venus Period, when his mind has acquired "Feeling," he can create living, growing, and feeling things.

When he reaches perfection, at the end of the Vulcan Period, he will be able to "imagine" into existence creatures that will live, grow, feel, and think.

In the Saturn Period, the life wave which is now man started on its evolution. The Lords of Mind were then human. They worked with man at that Period, when he was mineral. They now have nothing to do with the lower kingdoms, but are concerned solely with our human development.

Our present animals started their mineral existence in the Sun Period, at which time the Archangels were human, therefore the Archangels are the rulers and guides of the evolution of that which is now animal, but have nothing to do with plant or mineral.

The present plants had their mineral existence in the Moon period. The Angels were then human, therefore they have special concern with the life that now inhabits the plants, to guide it up to the human stage; but they have no interest in the minerals.

Our present humanity will have to work with the new life wave, which entered evolution in the Earth Period and now ensouls the minerals. We are now working with it by means of the faculty of imagination, giving it form -- building it into ships, bridges, railways, houses, etc.

In the Jupiter Period we shall guide the evolution of the plant kingdom, for that which is at present mineral will then have a plant-like existence and we must work with it there as the Angels are now doing with our plant kingdom. Our faculty of imagination will be so developed that we shall have the ability, not only to create forms by means of it, but to endow those forms with vitality.

In the Venus Period, our present mineral life wave shall have advanced another step, and we shall be doing for the animals of that period what the Archangels are now doing for our animals -- giving them living and feeling forms.

Lastly, in the Vulcan Period, it will be our privilege to give them a germinal mind, as the Lords of Mind did to us. The present minerals will then have become the humanity of the Vulcan Period, and we shall have passed through stages similar to those through which the Angels and Archangels are now passing. We shall then have reached a point in evolution a little higher than that of the present Lords of Mind, for remember, there is never an exact reproduction anywhere, but always progressive improvement, because of the spiral.

The Divine Spirit will absorb the human spirit at the close of the Jupiter Period; the life spirit at the close of the Venus Period; and the perfected Mind, embodying all that it has garnered during its pilgrimage through all the seven Periods, will be absorbed by the Divine Spirit at the close of the Vulcan Period. (There is no contradiction of the foregoing in the statement made elsewhere that the Emotional soul will be absorbed by the human spirit in the fifth Revolution of the Vulcan Period, because the latter will then be within the Divine Spirit.)

Then will succeed the long interval of subjective activity during which the virgin spirit will assimilate all the fruits of the septenary Periods of active Manifestation. It is then merged in God, from Whom it came, to re-emerge at the dawn of another Great Day, as One of His glorious helpers. During its past evolution, its latent possibilities have been transmuted to dynamic powers. It has acquired Soul-power and a Creative Mind as the fruitage of its pilgrimage through matter. It has advanced from impotence to Omnipotence, from nescience to Omniscience.
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:25 pm

PART 1 OF 3

Chapter 17: The Method of Acquiring First-Hand Knowledge

The First Steps


The time has now come for pointing out the way by which each individual may investigate for himself all the facts with which we have dealt thus far in our study. As stated in the beginning, there are no special "gifts" bestowed upon any. All may know for themselves the truth concerning the pilgrimage of the soul, the past evolution and future destiny of the world, without being compelled to depend upon the veracity of another. There is a method whereby this valuable faculty may be acquired, and the earnest student qualify himself to investigate those super-physical realms; a method by which, if persistently followed, the powers of a God may be developed.

A simple illustration may indicate the first steps. The very best mechanic is well-nigh helpless without the tools of his craft. Indeed it is the hall-mark of a good artisan that he is very fastidious as to the quality and condition of the tools he uses, because he knows that the work depends as much upon their excellence as upon his skill.

The Ego has several instruments -- a dense body, a vital body, a desire body, and a mind. These are its tools, and upon their quality and condition depends how much or how little it can accomplish in its work of gathering experience in each life. If the instruments are poor and dull, there will be but little spiritual growth, and the life will be a barren one, so far as the spirit is concerned.

We generally estimate a "successful" life by the bank account, the social position attained, or the happiness resulting from a carefree existence and a sheltered environment.

When life is regarded in that way, all the principal things that make for permanency are forgotten; the individual is blinded by the evanescent and illusionary. A bank account seems such a very real success, the fact is forgotten that from the moment the Ego leaves the body, it has no equity in gold nor any other earthly treasure. It may even have to answer for the methods employed in amassing that hoard, and suffer great pain in seeing others spend it. It is forgotten that the important social position also disappears when the silver cord is loosed. Those who once fawned may then sneer, and even those who were faithful in life might shudder at the thought of an hour spent with no company but that of the dead. All that is of this life alone is vanity. Only that is of true value which can be taken with us across the threshold as the treasure of the spirit.

The hot-house plant may look very beautiful as it blooms in its sheltered glass house, but should the furnace fire go out, it would wither and die, while the plant that has grown in rain and sunshine, through storm and calm, will survive the winter and bloom afresh each year. From the viewpoint of the soul, happiness and a sheltered environment are generally unfortunate circumstances. The petted and fondled lap dog is subject to diseases of which the homeless cur, which has to fight for a scrap from a garbage can, knows nothing. The cur's life is hard, but it gets experience that makes it alert, alive, and resourceful. Its life is rich in events, and it reaps a harvest of experience, while the pampered lap dog drones its time away in fearful monotony.

The case of a human being is somewhat similar. It may be hard to fight poverty and hunger, but from the standpoint of the soul it is infinitely preferable to a life of idle luxury. Where wealth is nothing more than a handmaid of well thought out philanthropy, which helps man in such a way as to really uplift him, it may be a very great blessing and a means of growth for its possessor, but when used for selfish purposes and oppression, it cannot be regarded as other than an unmitigated curse.

The soul is here to acquire experience through its instruments. These are the tools furnished to each at birth, and they are good, bad or indifferent according to what we have learned through past experience in the building of them. Such as they are we must work with them, if at all.

If we have become aroused from the usual lethargy and are anxious to progress, the question naturally arises, What must I do?

Without well-kept tools, the mechanic can do no effective work; similarly, the instruments of the Ego must be cleansed and sharpened; then we may commence work to some purpose. As one works with those wonderful tools, they themselves improve with proper use and become more and more efficient to aid in the work. The object of this work is Union with the Higher Self.

There are three steps by which this work conquers the lower nature, but they are not completely taken one after the other. In a certain sense they go together, so that at the present stage the first receives the most attention, the second less, and the third least of all. In time, when the first step has been wholly taken, naturally more attention can be paid to the other two.

There are three helps given in attaining these three stages. They can be seen in the outside world, where the great Leaders of humanity have placed them.

The first help is Race religions, which by aiding humanity to overcome the desire body, prepare it for union with the Holy Spirit.

The full operation of this help was seen on the Day of Pentecost. As the Holy Spirit is the Race God, all languages are expressions of it. That is why the apostles, when fully united and filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke with different tongues and were able to convince their hearers. Their desire bodies had been sufficiently purified to bring about the wished-for union, and this is an earnest of what the disciple will one day attain to -- the power to speak all tongues. It may also be cited as a modern, historical example, that the Comte de St. Germain (who was one of the later incarnations of Christian Rosenkreuz, the founder of our sacred Order), spoke all languages, so that all to whom he spoke thought he belonged to the same nation as they. He also had achieved union with the Holy Spirit.

In the Hyperborean Epoch, before man possessed a desire body, there was but one universal mode of communication, and when the desire body has become sufficiently purified, all men will again be able to understand one another, for then the separative Race differentiation will have passed away.

The second help which humanity now has is the Religion of the Son -- the Christian religion, the object of which is union with Christ by purification and control of the vital body.

Paul refers to this future state when he says: "Until Christ be formed in you," and exhorts his followers, as men who are running a race, to rid themselves of every weight.

The fundamental principle in building the vital body is repetition. Repeated experiences work on it to create memory. The Leaders of humanity, who desired to give us unconscious help by certain exercises, instituted prayer as a means of bringing pure and lofty thought to work on the vital body, and enjoined us to "pray without ceasing." Scoffers have often asked sneeringly why it should be thought necessary to always pray, because if God is omniscient He knows our needs, and if He is not, our prayers will probably never reach Him; and if not omniscient, He cannot be omnipotent, and therefore could not answer prayer in any case. Many an earnest Christian may also have thought it wrong to be continually importuning the Throne of Grace.

Such ideas are founded upon a misunderstanding of facts. Truly God is omniscient and requires no reminder of our needs, but if we pray aright, we lift ourselves up to Him, thus working upon and purifying our vital bodies. If we pray aright -- but that is the great trouble. We are generally much more concerned about temporal things than we are about spiritual upliftment. Churches will hold special meetings to pray for rain! And the chaplains of opposing armies or navies will even pray before a battle that success may follow their arms!

That is prayer to the Race God, Who fights the battles of His people, gives them increase of flocks and herds, fills their granaries and caters to the material wants. Such prayers are not even purifying. They are from the desire body, which sums up the situation thus: Now Lord, I am keeping your commandments to the best of my ability, and I want You to do Your part in return.

Christ gave to humanity a prayer that is, like himself, unique and all-embracing. In it there are seven distinct and separate prayers, one for each of the seven principles of man -- the threefold body, the threefold spirit and the link of mind. Each prayer is peculiarly adapted to promote the progression of that part of composite man to which it refers.

The purpose of the prayer relating to the threefold body is the spiritualization of those vehicles, and the extraction therefrom of the threefold soul.

The prayers relating to the threefold spirit prepare it to receive the extracted essence, the threefold soul.

The prayer for the link of mind is to keep it in its proper relation as a tie between the higher and the lower nature.

The third help to be given to humanity will be the Religion of the Father. We can have very little conception of what that will be, save that the ideal will be even higher than Brotherhood, and that by it the dense body will be spiritualized.

The Religions of the Holy Spirit, the Race religions, were for the uplifting of the human race through a feeling of kinship limited to a group -- family, tribe or nation.

The purpose of the Religion of The Son, Christ, is to further uplift mankind by forming it into a Universal Brotherhood of separate individuals.

The ideal of the Religion of The Father will be the elimination of all separateness, merging all into One, so that there will be no "I" nor "Thou," but all will be One in reality. This will not come to pass while we are still inhabitants of the physical Earth, but in a future state where we shall realize our unity with all, each having access to all the knowledge garnered by each separate individual. Just as the single facet of a diamond has access to all the light that comes through each of the other facets, is one with them, yet bounded by lines which give it a certain individuality without separateness, so will the individual spirit retain the memory of its particular experiences, while giving to all others the fruits of its individual existence.

These are the steps and stages through which humanity is unconsciously being led.

In past ages the Race spirit reigned alone. Man was content with a patriarchal and paternal government in which he had no part. Now all over the world we see signs of the breaking down of the old system. The caste system, which was the stronghold of England in India, is crumbling. Instead of being separated into small groups, the people are uniting in the demand that the oppressor shall depart and leave them to live in freedom under a government of, by and for the people. Russia is torn by strife for freedom from a dictatorial, autocratic government. Turkey has awakened and taken a long stride toward liberty. Here in our own land, where we are supposed to be in the actual enjoyment of such liberty as others are, as yet, only able to covet or fight for, we are not yet satisfied. We are learning that there are other oppressions than those of an autocratic monarchy. We see that we have still industrial freedom to gain. We are chafing under the yoke of the trusts and an insane system of competition. We are trending toward co-operation, which is now practiced by the trusts within their own confines for private profit. We are desirous of a state of society where "they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid."

Thus, all over the world, the old systems of paternal government are changing. Nations, as such, have had their day and are unwittingly working toward Universal Brotherhood in accordance with the design of our invisible Leaders, who are none the less potent in shaping events because they are not officially seated in the councils of nations.

These are the slow means by which the different bodies of humanity at large are being purified, but the aspirant to the higher knowledge works consciously to attain to these ends, by well-defined methods, according to his constitution.

Western Methods for Western People

In India, certain methods under different systems of Yoga, are used. Yoga means Union and, as in the West, the object of the aspirant is union with the Higher Self; but to be efficacious, the methods of seeking that union must differ. The vehicles of a Hindu are very differently constituted from those of a Caucasian. The Hindus have lived for many, many thousands of years in an environment and climate totally different from ours. They have pursued a different method of thought, and their civilization, though of a very high order, is different from ours in its effects. Therefore it would be useless for us to adopt their methods, which are the outcome of the highest occult knowledge and perfectly suited to them, but as unsuitable for the people of the West as a diet of oats would be for a lion.

For instance, in some systems it is required that the yogi shall sit in certain positions, that particular cosmic currents may flow through his body in a certain way to produce certain definite results. That instruction would be altogether useless for a Caucasian, as he is absolutely impervious to those currents, because of his way of living. If he is to attain results at all, he must work in harmony with the constitution of his vehicles. That is why the "Mysteries" were established in different parts of Europe during the Middle Ages. The Alchemists were deep students of the higher occult science. The popular belief that the object of their study and experimenting was the transmutation of baser metals into gold, was because they chose that symbolic way of describing their true work, which was the transmutation of the lower nature into spirit. It was thus described to lull the suspicions of the priests, without stating a falsehood. The statement that the Rosicrucians were a society devoted to the discovery and use of the formula for the making of the "Philosopher's Stone" was and is true. It is also true that most people have handled and do often handle this wondrous stone. It is common, but of no avail to any but the individual who makes it for himself. The formula is given in the esoteric training, and a Rosicrucian is no different in that respect from the occultist of any other school. All are engaged in the making of this coveted stone, each, however, using his own methods, as there are no two individuals alike, and consequently really effective work is always individual in its scope.

All occult schools are divisible into seven, as are the "Rays" of Life, the virgin spirits. Each School or Order belongs to one of these seven Rays, as does each unit of our humanity. Therefore any individual seeking to unite with one of these occult groups, the "Brothers" which do not belong to his Ray, cannot do so with benefit to himself. The members of these groups are brothers in a more intimate sense than are the rest of humanity.

Perhaps if these seven Rays are compared to the seven colors of the spectrum, their relation to one another can be better understood. For instance, if a red ray were to ally itself with a green ray, inharmony would result. The same principle applies to spirits. Each must proceed with the group to which it belongs during manifestation, yet they are all one. As all the colors are contained in the white light, but the refractive quality of our atmosphere seems to divide it into seven colors, so the illusory conditions of concrete existence cause the virgin spirits to seem grouped, and this apparent grouping will abide while we are in this state.

The Rosicrucian Order was started particularly for those whose high degree of intellectual development caused them to repudiate the heart. Intellect imperiously demands a logical explanation of everything -- the world mystery, the questions of life and death. The reasons for and the modus operandi of existence were not explained by the priestly injunction "not to seek to know the mysteries of God."

To any man or woman who is blest, or otherwise, with such an inquiring mind, it is of paramount importance that they shall receive all the information they crave, so that when the head is stilled, the heart may speak. Intellectual knowledge is but a means to an end, not the end itself. Therefore, the Rosicrucian purposes first of all to satisfy the aspirant for knowledge that everything in the universe is reasonable, thus winning over the rebellious intellect. When it has ceased to criticize and is ready to accept provisionally, as probably true, statements which cannot be immediately verified, then, and not until then, will esoteric training be effective in developing the higher faculties whereby man passes from faith to first-hand knowledge. Yet, even then it will be found that, as the pupil progresses in first-hand knowledge and becomes able to investigate for himself, there are always truths ahead of him that he knows to be truths, but which he is not yet advanced sufficiently to investigate.

The pupil will do well to remember that nothing that is not logical can exist in the universe, and that logic is the surest guide in all the Worlds, but he must not forget that his faculties are limited, and that more than his own powers of logical reasoning may be needed to solve a given problem, although it may, nevertheless, be susceptible of full explanation, but by lines of reasoning which are beyond the capacity of the pupil at that stage of his development. Another point that must be borne in mind is that unwavering confidence in the teacher is absolutely necessary.

The foregoing is recommended to the particular consideration of all who intend taking the first steps toward the higher knowledge. If the directions given are followed at all, they must be given full credence as an efficacious means to accomplish their purpose. To follow them in a half-hearted manner would be of no avail whatever. Unbelief will kill the fairest flower ever produced by the spirit.

Work on the different bodies of man is carried on synchronously. One body cannot be influenced without affecting the others, but the principal work may be done on any one of them.

If strict attention is paid to hygiene and diet, the dense body is the one principally affected, but at the same time there is also an effect on the vital body and the desire body for, as purer and better materials are built into the dense body, the particles are enveloped in purer planetary ether and desire-stuff also, therefore the planetary parts of the vital and desire bodies become purer. If attention is paid to food and hygiene only, the personal vital and desire bodies may remain almost as impure as before, but it has become just a little easier to get into touch with the good than if gross food were used.

On the other hand if, despite annoyances, an equable temper is cultivated, also literary and artistic tastes, the vital body will produce an effect of daintiness and fastidiousness in physical matters and will also engender ennobling feelings and emotions in the desire body.

Seeking to cultivate the emotions also reacts upon the other vehicles and helps to improve them.

The Science of Nutrition

If we begin with the dense vehicle and consider the physical means available to improve it and make it the best possible instrument for the spirit, and afterward consider the spiritual means to the same end, we shall be including all the other vehicles as well; therefore we shall follow that method.

The first visible state of a human embryo is a small, globulous, pulpy or jelly-like substance, similar to albumen, or the white of an egg. In this pulpy globule, various particles of more solid matter appear. These gradually increase in bulk and density until they come in contact with one another. The different points of contact are slowly modified into joints or hinges, and thus a distinct framework of solid matter, a skeleton, is gradually formed.

During the formation of this framework, the surrounding pulpy matter accumulates and changes in form until at length that degree of organization develops which is known as a fetus. This becomes larger, firmer, and more fully organized up to the time of birth, when the state of infancy begins.

The same process of consolidation which commenced with the first visible stage of existence, still continues. The being passes through the different stages of infancy, childhood, youth, manhood or womanhood, old age, and at last comes to the change that is called death.

Each of these stages is characterized by an increasing degree of hardness and solidity.

There is a gradual increase in density and firmness of the bones, tendons, cartilages, ligaments, tissues, membranes, the coverings, and even the very substance of the stomach, liver, lungs, and other organs. The joints become rigid and dry. They begin to crack and grate when they are moved, because the synovial fluid, which oils and softens them, is diminished in quantity, and rendered too thick and glutinous to serve that purpose.

The heart, the brain, and the entire muscular system, spinal cord, nerves, eyes, etc., partake of the same consolidating process, growing more and more rigid. Millions upon millions of the minute capillary vessels which ramify and spread like the branches of a tree throughout the entire body, gradually choke up and change into solid fiber, no longer pervious to the blood.

The larger blood vessels, both arteries and veins, indurate, lose their elasticity, grow smaller, and become incapable of carrying the required amount of blood. The fluids of the body thicken and become putrid, loaded with earthy matter. The skin withers and grows wrinkled and dry. The hair falls off for lack of oil. The teeth decay and drop out for lack of gelatin. The motor nerves begin to dry up and the movements of the body become awkward and slow. The senses fail; the circulation of the blood is retarded; it stagnates and congeals in the vessels. More and more the body loses its former powers. Once elastic, healthy, alert, pliable, active and sensitive, it becomes rigid, slow, and insensible. Finally, it dies of old age.

The question now arises, What is the cause of this gradual ossification of the body, bringing rigidity, decrepitude, and death?

From the purely physical standpoint, chemists seem to be unanimous in the opinion that it is principally an increase of phosphate of lime (bone matter), carbonate of lime (common chalk), and sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris), with occasionally a little magnesia and an insignificant amount of other earthy matters.

The only difference between the body of old age and that of childhood is the greater density, toughness and rigidity, caused by the greater proportion of calcareous, earthy matter entering into the composition of the former. The bones of a child are composed of three parts of gelatin to one part of earthy matter. In old age this proportion is reversed. What is the source of this death-dealing accumulation of solid matter?

It seems to be axiomatic that the entire body is nourished by the blood, and that everything contained in the body, of whatever nature, has first been in the blood. Analysis shows that the blood holds earthy substances of the same kind as the solidifying agents -- and mark! -- the arterial blood contains more earthy matter than the venous blood.

This is highly important. It shows that in every cycle the blood deposits earthy substances. It is therefore the common carrier that chokes up the system. But its supply of earthy matter must be replenished, otherwise it could not continue to do this. Where does it renew its deadly load? There can be but one answer to that question -- from the food and drink; there is absolutely no other source.

The food and drink which nourish the body must be, at the same time, the primary source of the calcareous, earthy matter which is deposited by the blood all over the system, causing decrepitude and finally death. To sustain physical life, it is necessary that we eat and drink, but as there are many kinds of food and drink, it behooves us, in the light of the above facts, to ascertain, if possible, what kinds contain the smallest proportion of destructive matter. If we can find such food, we can lengthen our lives and, from an occult standpoint, it is desirable to live as long as possible in each dense body, particularly after a start has been made toward the path. So many years are required to educate, through childhood and hot youth, each body inhabited, until the spirit can at last obtain some control over it, that the longer we can retain a body that has become amenable to the spirit's promptings, the better. Therefore it is highly important that the pupil partake of such food and drink only as will deposit the least amount of hardening matter, and at the same time keep the excretory organs active.

The skin and the urinary system are the saviors of man from an early grave. Were it not that by their means, most of the earthy matter taken with our food is eliminated, no one would live ten years.

It has been estimated that ordinary, undistilled spring water contains carbonate and other compounds of lime to such an extent that the average quantity used each day by one person in the form of tea, coffee, soup, etc., would in forty years be sufficient to form a block of solid chalk or marble the size of a large man. It is also a significant fact that although phosphate of lime is always found in the urine of adults, it is not found in the urine of children, because in them the rapid formation of bone requires that this salt be retained. During the period of gestation, there is very little earthy matter in the urine of the mother, as it is used in the building of the fetus. In ordinary circumstances, however, earthy matter is very much in evidence in the urine of adults, and to this we owe the fact that physical life reaches even its present length.

Undistilled water, when taken internally, is man's worst enemy, but used externally, it becomes his best friend. It keeps the pores of the skin open, induces circulation of the blood, and prevents the stagnation which affords the best opportunity for the depositing of the earthy, death-dealing phosphate of lime.

Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, said that health denotes a free circulation, and disease is the result of an obstructed circulation of the blood.

The bathtub is a great aid in keeping up the health of the body, and should be freely used by the aspirant to the higher life. Perspiration, sensible and insensible, carries more earthy matter out of the body than any other agency. As long as fuel is supplied and the fire kept free from ashes, it will burn. The kidneys are important in carrying away the ashes from the body, but despite the great amount of earthy matter carried away by the urine, enough remains in many cases to form gravel and stone in the bladder, causing untold agony, and often death.

Let no one be deceived into thinking that water contains less stone because it has been boiled. The stone that forms on the bottom of the teakettle has been left there by the evaporated water which escaped from the kettle as steam. If the steam were condensed, we should have distilled water, which is an important adjunct in keeping the body young.

There is absolutely no earthy matter in distilled water, nor in rain water, snow nor hail (except what may be gathered by contact with house-tops, etc.), but coffee, tea, or soup made with ordinary water, no matter how long boiled, is not purified of the earthy particles; on the contrary, the longer they are boiled, the more heavily charged with ash they become. Those suffering from urinary diseases should never drink any but distilled water.

General Jack Ripper: Why don't you take it easy, group captain. Please make me a drink of grain alcohol and rainwater, and help yourself to whatever you'd like. Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water? Vodka. That's what they drink, isn't it? Never water. On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason. Water. That's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this Earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that 70 percent of you is water? And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids. You beginning to understand? Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water or rainwater, and only pure grain alcohol?

Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water? Well, do you know what it is?

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

-- Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Stanley Kubrick


It may be said generally of the solid foods we take into our system, that fresh vegetables and ripe fruits contain the greatest proportion of nutritious matter, and the least of earthy substances.

As we are writing for the aspirant to the higher life and not for the general public, it may also be said that animal food should be entirely avoided, if possible. No one who kills can go very far along the path of holiness. We do even worse than if we actually killed, for in order to shield ourselves from the personal commission of the act of killing, and still reap its results, we force a fellow being, through economic necessity, to devote his entire time to murder, thereby brutalizing him to such an extent that the law will not allow him to act as a juror in cases of capital crime, because his business has so familiarized him with the taking of life.

The enlightened know the animals to be their younger brothers and that they will be human in the Jupiter Period. We shall then help them as the Angels, who were human in the Moon Period, are now helping us, and for an aspirant to high ideals to kill -- either in person or by proxy -- is out of the question.

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A photomontage by John Heartfield from the May 1936 Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, captioned "Nur keine angst – er ist vegetarier" ("Don't be frightened – he's a vegetarian"). It shows Hitler as a butcher about to cut the throat of a French rooster.

-- Adolf Hitler's Vegetarianism, by Wikipedia


If it were not a serious implication, the news article and statement, first appearing in the New York Mirror last month, and then later in other of the Hearst newspapers, declaring that Hitler was supported morally by the Rosicrucians, would be amusing. The article, which was purported to be cabled from Paris, stated in part: “That Adolph Hitler is a member of the Mystic Order called the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, and that he is inspirationally directed by some of its leaders is a charge made by Edouard Saby, French writer, in a book now in preparation.”

-- Is Hitler a Rosicrucian? -- The Rosicrucian Forum 1939, by Rosicrucian Editors


Several very important food products from animals, such as milk, cheese and butter, may be used. These are the results of the processes of life and require no tragedies to convert them into food. Milk, which is an important food for the occult student, contains no earthy matter of any consequence and has an influence upon the body possessed by no other food.

During the Moon Period man was fed upon the milk of Nature. Universal food was absorbed by him and the use of milk has a tendency to put him in touch with the Cosmic forces and enable him to heal others.

It is popularly supposed that sugar or any saccharine substance is injurious to the general health, and particularly to the teeth, causing their decay and the resulting toothache. Only under certain circumstances is this true. It is harmful in certain diseases, such as biliousness and dyspepsia, or if held long in the mouth as candy, but if sparingly used during good health and the amount gradually increased as the stomach becomes accustomed to its use, it will be found very nourishing. The health of Negroes becomes greatly improved during the sugar-cane harvest time, notwithstanding their increased labor. This is attributed solely to their fondness for the sweet cane-juice. The same may be said of horses, cows, and other animals in those localities, which are all fond of the refuse syrup fed to them. They grow fat in harvest time, their coats becoming sleek and shining. Horses fed on boiled carrots for a few weeks will get a coat like silk, owing to the saccharine juices of that vegetable. Sugar is a nutritious and beneficial article of diet and contains no ash whatever.

Fruits are an ideal diet. They are in fact evolved by the trees to induce animal and man to eat them, so that the seed may be disseminated, as flowers entice bees for a similar purpose.

Fresh fruit contains water of the purest and best kind, capable of permeating the system in a marvelous manner. Grape juice is a particularly wonderful solvent. It thins and stimulates the blood, opening the way into capillaries already dried and choked up -- if the process has not gone too far. By a course of unfermented grape-juice treatment, people with sunken eyes, wrinkled skins and poor complexions become plump, ruddy and lively. The increased permeability enables the spirit to manifest more freely and with renewed energy. The following table (Part A), (Part B), which with the exception of the last column, is taken from the publications of the United States Department of Agriculture, will give the aspirant some idea of the amount it is necessary to eat for different degrees of activity, also the constituents of the various foods named.

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Table: Nutritive Values of the Edible Part of Foods, Part A

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Table: Nutritive Values of the Edible Part of Foods, Part B

Considering the body from a purely physical standpoint, it is what we might call a chemical furnace, the food being the fuel. The more the body is exercised, the more fuel it requires. It would be foolish for a man to change an ordinary diet which for years had adequately nourished him, and take up a new method without due thought as to which would be the best for serving his purpose. To simply eliminate meats from the ordinary diet of meat-eaters would unquestionably undermine the health of most persons. The only safe way is to experiment and study the matter out first, using due discrimination. No fixed rules can be given, the matter of diet being as individual as any other characteristic. All that can be done is to give the table of food values, and describe the general influence of each chemical element, allowing the aspirant to work out his own method.

Neither must we allow the appearance of a person to influence our judgment as to the condition of his health. Certain general ideas of how a healthy person should look are commonly accepted, but there is no valid reason for so judging. Ruddy cheeks might be an indication of health in one individual and of disease in another. There is no particular rule by which good health can be known except the feeling of comfort and well-being which is enjoyed by the individual himself, irrespective of appearances.

The table of foods here given deals with five chemical compounds.

Water is the great solvent.

Nitrogen or proteid is the essential builder of flesh, but contains some earthy matter.

Carbohydrates or sugars are the principal power-producers.

Fats are the producers of heat and the storers of reserve force.

Ash is mineral, earthy, and chokes the system. We need have no fear of not obtaining it in sufficient quantities to build the bones; on the contrary, we cannot be too careful to get as little as possible.

The calorie is the simple unit of heat, and the table shows the number contained in each article of food when bought at the market. In a pound of Brazil nuts, for instance, 49.6% of the whole is waste (shells), but the remaining 50.4% contains 1485 calories. That means that about one-half of what is bought is waste, but the remainder contains the number of calories named. That we may get the greatest amount of strength from our food we must pay attention to the number of calories it contains, for from them we obtain the energy required to perform our daily work. The number of calories necessary to sustain the body under varying conditions is shown in the following table (per day):

Man at very hard muscular work: 5500 Calories
Man at moderately hard muscular work: 4150 Calories
Man at moderately active muscular work: 3400 Calories
Man at moderately light work: 3050 Calories
Man at sedentary work: 2700 Calories
Man without muscular exercise: 2450 Calories
Woman at light to moderate manual work: 2450 Calories

According to the table, it is evident that chocolate is the most nutritious food we have; also that cocoa, in its powdered state, is the most dangerous of all foods, containing three times as much ash as most of the others, and ten times as much as many. It is a powerful food and also a powerful poison, for it chokes the system more quickly than any other substance.

Of course, it will require some study at first to secure the best nourishment, but it pays in health and longevity and secures the free use of the body, making study and application to higher things possible. After a while the aspirant will become so familiar with the subject that he will need to give it no particular attention.

While the foregoing table shows the proportion of chemical substances contained in each article of food named, it must be remembered that not all of this is available for use in the system, because there are certain portions which the body refuses to assimilate.

Of vegetables, we digest only about 83% of the proteids, 90% of the fat, and 95% of the carbohydrates.

Of fruits, we assimilate about 85% of the proteids, 90% of the fat, and 90% of the carbohydrates.

The brain is the coordinating mechanism whereby the movements of the body are controlled and our ideas are expressed. It is built of the same substances as are all other parts of the body, with the addition of phosphorus, which is peculiar to the brain alone. (As to proportion.--Ed.)

The logical conclusion is that phosphorus is the particular element by means of which the Ego is able to express thought and influence the dense physical body. It is also a fact that the proportion and variation of this substance is found to correspond to the state and stage of intelligence of the individual. Idiots have very little phosphorus; shrewd thinkers have much; and in the animal world, the degree of consciousness and intelligence is in proportion to the amount of phosphorus contained in the brain.

It is therefore of great importance that the aspirant who is to use his body for mental and spiritual work, should supply his brain with the substance necessary for that purpose. Most vegetables and fruits contain a certain amount of phosphorus, but it is a peculiar fact that the greater proportion is contained in the leaves, which are usually thrown away. It is found in considerable quantities in grapes, onions, sage, beans, cloves, pineapples, in the leaves and stalks of many vegetables, and also in sugar-cane juice, but not in refined sugar.

The following table shows the proportions of phosphoric acid in a few articles:

100,000 parts of:

Barley, dry, contain, of phosphoric acid,: 210 parts
Beans: 292 parts
Beets: 167 parts
Beets, Leaves of: 690 parts
Buckwheat: 170 parts
Carrots, dry: 395 parts
Carrots, Leaves of: 963 parts
Linseed: 880 parts
Linseed, Stalks of: 118 parts
Parsnips: 111 parts
Parsnips, Leaves of: 1784 parts
Peas: 190 parts

The gist of the preceding argument may be thus succinctly stated:

The body, throughout the entire period of life, is subject to a process of consolidation.

This process consists of the depositing by the blood of earthy substances, principally phosphate and carbonate of lime, by which the various parts become ossified, converted into bone, or kindred matter.

This conversion into bone destroys the flexibility of the vessels, muscles and other parts of the body subject to motion. It thickens the blood and entirely chokes up the minute capillaries, so that the circulation of the fluids and the action of the system generally diminishes, the termination of this process being death.

This process of consolidation may be retarded and life prolonged by carefully avoiding the foods that contain much ash; by using distilled water for internal purposes; and by promotion excretion through the skin by means of frequent baths.

The foregoing explains why some religions prescribe frequent ablutions as a religious exercise, because they promote the health and purify the dense body. Fasting was also prescribed for the same purpose. They give the stomach a much needed rest, allow the body to eliminate the effete matter, and thus, if not too frequent or too prolonged, promote the health, but usually as much and more can be accomplished by giving the body proper foods which are the best medicines.

Always the first care of the physician is to ascertain if there is proper excretion, that being Nature's chief means for ridding the body of the poisons contained in all foods.

In conclusion, let the aspirant choose such food as is most easily digested, for the more easily the energy in food is extracted, the longer time will the system have for recuperation before it becomes necessary to replenish the supply. Milk should never be drunk as one may drink a glass of water. Taken in that way, it forms in the stomach a large cheese ball, quite impervious to the action of the gastric juices. It should be sipped, as we sip tea or coffee. It will then form many small globules in the stomach, which are easily assimilated. Properly used, it is one of the best possible articles of diet. Citrus fruits are powerful antiseptics, and cereals, particularly rice, are antitoxins of great efficiency.

Having now explained, from the purely material point of view, what is necessary for the dense body, we will consider the subject from the occult side, taking into consideration the effect on the two invisible bodies which interpenetrate the dense body.

The particular stronghold of the desire body is in the muscles and the cerebro-spinal nervous system, as already shown. The energy displayed by a person when laboring under great excitement or anger is an example of this. At such times the whole muscular system is tense, and no hard labor is so exhausting as a "fit of temper." It sometimes leaves the body prostrated for weeks. There can be seen the necessity for improving the desire body by controlling the temper, thus sparing the dense body the suffering resulting from the ungoverned action of the desire body.

Looking at the matter from an occult standpoint, all consciousness in the Physical World is the result of the constant war between the desire and the vital bodies.

The tendency of the vital body is to soften and build. Its chief expression is the blood and the glands, also the sympathetic nervous system, having obtained ingress into the stronghold of the desire body (the muscular and the voluntary nervous systems) when it began to develop the heart into a voluntary muscle.

The tendency of the desire body is to harden, and it in turn has invaded the realm of the vital body, gaining possession of the spleen and making the white blood corpuscles, which are not "the policemen of the system" as science now thinks, but destroyers. It uses the blood to carry these tiny destroyers all over the body. They pass through the walls of arteries and veins whenever annoyance is felt, and especially in times of great anger. Then the rush of forces in the desire body makes the arteries and veins swell, and opens the way for the passage of the white corpuscles into the tissues of the body, where they form bases for the earthy matter which kills the body.

Given the same amount and kind of food, the person of serene and jovial disposition will live longer, enjoy better health, and be more active than the person who worries, or loses his temper. The latter will make and distribute through his body more destructive white corpuscles than the former. Were a scientist to analyze the bodies of these two men, he would find that there was considerably less earthy matter in the body of the kindly disposed man than in that of the scold.

This destruction is constantly going on, and it is not possible to keep all the destroyers out, nor is such the intention. If the vital body had uninterrupted sway, it would build and build, using all the energy for that purpose. There would be no consciousness and thought. It is because the body checks and hardens the inner parts that consciousness develops.

There was a time in the far, far past when we set out the concretions, as do the mollusks, leaving the body soft, flexible and boneless, but at that time we had only the dull, glimmering consciousness the mollusks now have. Before we could advance, it became necessary to retain the concretions, and it will be found that the stage of consciousness of any species is in proportion to the development of the bony framework within. The Ego must have the solid bones with the semi-fluid red marrow, in order to be able to build the red blood corpuscles for its expression.

That is the highest development of the dense body. It signifies nothing in this connection that the highest class of animals have an internal bone formation similar to man's, but still have no indwelling spirit. They belong to a different stream of evolution.

The Law of Assimilation

The law of assimilation allows no particle to be built into our bodies that we, as spirits, have not overcome and made subject to ourselves. The forces active along these lines are, as we remember, principally our "dead," who have entered "heaven" and are learning there to build bodies to use here, but they work according to certain laws that they cannot circumvent. There is life in every particle of food that we take into our bodies, and before we can build that life into our bodies by the process of assimilation, we must overcome and make it subject to ourselves. Otherwise there could be no harmony in the body. All parts would act independently, as they do when the coordinating life has been withdrawn. That would be what we call decay, the process of disintegration, which is the direct opposite of assimilation. The more individualized is the particle to be assimilated, the more energy will it require to digest it and the shorter time will it remain before seeking to reassert itself.

Human beings are not organized in such a manner that they can live upon solid minerals. When a purely mineral substance, such as salt, is eaten, it passes through the body leaving behind it but very little waste. What it does leave, however, is of a very injurious character. If it were possible for man to use minerals as food, they would be ideal for that purpose because of their stability and the little energy required to overcome and subject them to the life of the body. We should be compelled to eat very much less in quantity and also less often than we now do. Our laboratories will some time supply us with chemical food of a quality far surpassing anything that we now have, which shall be always fresh. Food obtained from the higher plants, and still more from the yet higher animal kingdom, is positively nauseating because of the rapidity of decay. This process is caused by the efforts made by the individual particles to escape from the composite whole.

The plant kingdom is next above the mineral. It has an organization capable of assimilating the mineral compounds of the Earth. Man and animal can assimilate the plants and thus obtain the chemical compounds necessary to sustain their bodies, and as the consciousness of the plant kingdom is that of dreamless sleep, it offers no resistance. It requires but little energy to assimilate the particles thus derived, and having small individuality of their own, the life ensouling the particles does not seek to escape from our body as soon as food derived from more highly developed forms, therefore the strength derived from a diet of fruit and vegetables is more enduring than that derived from a meat diet, and the food supply does not require as frequent replenishing, besides giving more strength in proportion, because less energy is required for assimilation.

Food composed of the bodies of animals consists of particles which have been worked upon and inter-penetrated by an individual desire body, and have thus been individualized to a much greater extent than the plant particles. There is an individual cell soul, which is permeated by the passions and desires of the animal. It requires considerable energy to overcome it in the first place, so that it may be assimilated, yet it never becomes so fully incorporated into the polity of the body as do the plant constituents, which have no such strong individual tendencies. The result is that it is necessary for the flesh-eater to consume a greater weight of food than is required by the fruitarian; also he must eat oftener. Moreover, this inward strife of the particles of flesh causes greater wear and tear of the body in general, rendering the meat-eater less active and capable of endurance than the vegetarian, as all contests between advocates of the two methods have demonstrated.

One reason why any one who desires to develop his spirituality should, if his condition otherwise permits it, adopt a vegetarian diet, is that the flesh of animals exercises a stimulating effect upon the lower and animal instincts, which ought to be overcome instead of being aroused. The scientific explanation of this action of flesh is, that each material thing is an expression of its soul, and that it contains some of the qualities of that soul or life (Kama), and communicates them to a certain extent to those in whom it is taken up.

-- The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim Known by the Name of Paracelsus and the Substance of his Teachings, by Franz Hartmann, M.D.


Therefore, when flesh food derived from the herbivora is such an unstable diet, it is evident that if we should try to use the flesh of carnivorous animals, in which the cells are still further individualized, we would be forced to consume enormous quantities of food. Eating would occupy the greater part of our time, but notwithstanding that fact, we would always be lean and hungry. That such is its effect, can be seen in the wolf and the vulture; their leanness and hunger are proverbial. Cannibals eat human flesh, but only at long intervals and as a luxury. As man does not confine himself exclusively to a meat diet, his flesh is not that of an entirely carnivorous beast, nevertheless the hunger of the cannibal has also become the burden of a proverb.

If the flesh of the herbivora were the essence of what is good in plants, then, logically, the flesh of the carnivora should be the quintessence. The meat of wolves and vultures would thus be the creme de la creme, and much to be desired. This we know is not the case, but quite the reverse. The nearer we get to the plant kingdom, the more strength we derive from our food. If the reverse were the case, the flesh of carnivorous animals would be sought by other beasts of prey, but examples of "dog eat dog" are very few throughout nature.

Live and Let Live

The first law of occult science is "Thou shalt not kill," and that should have the greatest weight with the aspirant to the higher life. We cannot create so much as one particle of dust, therefore what right have we to destroy the very least form? All Form is an expression of the One Life -- the Life of God. We have no right to destroy the Form through which the Life is seeking experience, and force it to build a new vehicle.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, with the true compassion of all far advanced souls, champions this occult maxim, in the following beautiful words:

I am the voice of the voiceless;
Through me the dumb shall speak
Till a deaf world's ear
Shall be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.

The same force formed the sparrow
That fashioned man, the king.
The God of the Whole
Gave a spark of soul
To furred and feathered thing.

And I am my brother's keeper;
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word
For beast and bird
Till the world shall set things right.

Sometimes the objection is made that life is also taken when vegetables and fruits are eaten, but that statement is based upon a complete misunderstanding of the facts. When the fruit is ripe, it has accomplished its purpose, which is to act as a womb for the ripening of the seed. If not eaten, it decays and goes to waste. Moreover, it is designed to serve as food for the animal and human kingdoms, thus affording the seed opportunities for growth by scattering it in fertile soil. Besides, just as the ovum and the semen of human beings are ineffectual without the seed-atom of the reincarnating Ego and the matrix of its vital body, so any egg or seed, of itself, is devoid of life. If it is given the proper conditions of incubator or soil, the life of the group spirit is then poured into it, thus grasping the opportunity so afforded of producing a dense body. If the egg or seed is cooked, crushed, or not given the conditions necessary for the life, the opportunity is lost, but that is all.

At the present stage of the evolutionary journey, everyone knows inherently that it is wrong to kill, and man will love and protect the animals in all cases where his greed and selfish interest does not blind him to their rights. The law protects even a cat or a dog against wanton cruelty. Except in "sport," that most wanton of all our cruelties against the animal creation, it is always for the sake of money that animals are murdered and bred to be murdered. By the devotees of "sport" the helpless creatures are shot down to no purpose save to bolster up a false idea of prowess upon the part of the huntsman. It is hard to understand how people who appear otherwise sane and kindly can, for the time, trample upon all their gentler instincts and revert to bloodthirsty savagery, killing for the sheer lust of blood and joy in destruction. It is certainly a reversion to the lowest savage animal instincts, and can never be dignified into the remotest semblance of anything "manly", even though practiced and defended by the otherwise humane and worthy temporary head of a mighty nation.

How much more beautiful it would be for man to play the role of friend and protector of the weak. Who does not love to visit Central Park in New York City and pet, stroke and feed the hundreds of squirrels which are running about secure in the knowledge that they will not be molested? And who is not glad, for the sake of the squirrels, to see the sign, "Dogs found chasing the squirrels will be shot." This is hard on the dogs, but it is to be commended as an evidence of the growth of the sentiment favoring the protection of the weak against the unreasoning or merciless strong. Nothing is said on the sign about the squirrels being injured by men, because that would be unthinkable. So strong is the influence of the trust the little animals repose in the kindness of man, that no one would violate it.
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:27 pm

PART 2 OF 3

The Lord's Prayer

Returning to our consideration of the spiritual aids to human progress, the Lord's Prayer, which may be considered as an abstract, algebraical formula for the upliftment and purification of all the vehicles of man, the idea of taking proper care of the dense body is expressed in the words: "Give us this day our daily bread."

The prayer dealing with the needs of the vital body is, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

The vital body is the seat of memory. In it are stored the sub-conscious records of all the past events of our life, good or ill, including all injuries inflicted or sustained. and benefits received, or bestowed. We remember that the record of the life is taken from those pictures immediately after leaving the dense body at death, and that all the sufferings of post mortem existence are the results of the events these pictures portray.

If, by continual prayer, we obtain forgiveness for the injuries we have inflicted upon others, and if we make all the restitution possible, purify our vital bodies by forgiving those who have wronged us, and eliminate all ill feeling, we save ourselves much post mortem misery, besides preparing the way for Universal Brotherhood, which is particularly dependent upon the victory of the vital body over the desire body. In the form of memory, the desire body impresses upon the vital body the idea of revenge. An even temper amid the various annoyances of daily life indicates such a victory, therefore the aspirant should cultivate control of the temper, as it includes work on both bodies. The Lord's Prayer includes this also, for when we see that we are injuring others, we look about and try to find the cause. Loss of temper is one of the causes, and it originates in the desire body.

Most people leave physical life with the same temperament they bring into it, but the aspirant must systematically conquer all attempts of the desire body to assume mastery. That can be done by concentration upon high ideals, which strengthens the vital body and is much more efficacious than the common prayers of the Church. The occult scientist uses concentration in preference to prayer, because the former is accomplished by the aid of the mind, which is cold and unfeeling, whereas prayer is usually dictated by emotion. Where it is dictated by a pure unselfish devotion to high ideals, prayer is much higher than cold concentration. It can never be cold, but bears upon the pinions of Love the outpourings of the mystic to the Deity.

The prayer for the desire body is, "Lead us not into temptation." Desire is the great tempter of mankind. It is the great incentive to all action, and in so far as the actions subserve the purposes of the spirit, it is good; but where the desire is for something degrading, something that debases the nature, it is indeed meet that we pray not to be led into temptation.

Love, Wealth, Power, and Fame! -- These are the four great motives of human action. Desire for one or more of these is the motive for all that man does or leaves undone. The great Leaders of humanity have wisely given them as incentives to action, that man may gain experience and learn thereby. They are necessary, and the aspirant may safely continue to use them as motives for action, but he must transmute them into something higher. He must overcome with nobler aspirations the selfish love which seeks the ownership of another body, and all desires for wealth, power and fame for narrow and personal reasons.

The Love for which he must long is that only which is of the soul and embraces all beings, high and low, increasing in proportion to the needs of the recipient;

The Wealth, that which consists solely of abundance of opportunities to serve his fellow men;

The Power, that alone which makes for the upliftment of humanity;

The Fame, none save that which increases his ability to spread the good news, that all who suffer may thus quickly find solace for the heart's grief.

The prayer for the mind is "Deliver us from evil." We have seen that mind is the link between the higher and the lower natures. Animals are permitted to follow desire without any restriction whatever. In their case, there is neither good nor evil, because they lack mind, the faculty of discrimination. The method of self-protection which we pursue in regard to animals which kill and steal is different from that which we use in relation to human beings who do the same things. Even a human being who is bereft of mind is not held accountable. The fact is recognized that he does not know he is doing wrong, therefore he is simply restrained.

It was only when his mental eyes were opened that man came to know good and evil. When the link of mind becomes allied to the Higher Self and does its bidding, we have the high-minded person. On the contrary, the coalition of the mind with the lower desire nature produces the low-minded person; therefore the meaning of this prayer is that we may be delivered from the experience resulting from the alliance of the mind with the desire body, with all thereby implied.

The aspirant to the higher life accomplishes the union of the higher and the lower natures by means of Meditation on lofty subjects. This union is further cemented by Contemplation, and both these states are transcended by Adoration, which lifts the spirit to the very Throne.

The Lord's Prayer, given for the general use of the Church, gives Adoration first place, in order to reach the spiritual exaltation necessary to proffer a petition representing the needs of the lower vehicles. Each aspect of the threefold spirit, commencing with the lowest, raises itself in adoration to its corresponding aspect of Deity. When the three aspects of the spirit are all arrayed before the Throne of Grace, each utters the prayer appropriate to the needs of its material counterpart, all three joining in the closing prayer for the mind.

The human spirit soars to its counterpart, the Holy Spirit (Jehovah), saying "Hallowed be Thy Name."

The life spirit bows before its counterpart, The Son (Christ), saying "Thy Kingdom Come."

The divine spirit kneels before its counterpart, The Father, with the prayer, "Thy Will be done."

Then the highest, the divine spirit, petitions the highest aspect of the Deity, the Father, for its counterpart, the dense body: "Give us this day our daily bread."

The next highest, the life spirit, prays to its counterpart, the Son, for its counterpart in the lower nature, the vital body: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

The lowest aspect of the spirit, the human spirit, next offers its petition to the lowest aspect of Deity for the highest of the threefold bodies, the desire body: "Lead us not into temptation."

Lastly, in unison, all three aspects of the threefold spirit in man join in the most important of the prayers, the petition for the mind, in the words: "Deliver us from evil."

The introduction, "Our Father Who art in Heaven," is merely as the address on an envelope. The addition, "For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever. Amen," was not given by Christ, but is very appropriate as the parting adoration of the threefold spirit as it closes its direct address to the Deity.

Diagram 16 illustrates the foregoing explanation in a simple and easily remembered manner, showing the connection between the different prayers and the corresponding vehicles, which are similarly colored.

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Diagram 16: The Lord's Prayer

The Vow of Celibacy

The sex-pervert, or sex-maniac, is a proof of the correctness of the contention of occultists that one part of the sex-force builds the brain. He becomes an idiot, unable to think because of drawing and sending out, not only the negative or positive part of the sex force (according to whether male or female) which is normally to be used through the sex-organ for propagation, but in addition to that, some of the force which should build up the brain, enabling it to produce thought -- hence the mental deficiency.

On the other hand, if the person is given to spiritual thought, the tendency to use the sex force for propagation is slight, and whatever part of it is not used in that way may be transmuted into spiritual force.

That is why the initiate, at a certain stage of development, takes the vow of celibacy. It is not an easy vow, nor one to be lightly taken by one desirous of spiritual advancement. Many people who are not yet ripe for the higher life have ignorantly bound themselves to a life of asceticism. They are as dangerous to the community and to themselves on the one hand as is the imbecile sex-maniac on the other.

At the present stage of human evolution, the sex function is the means whereby bodies are provided, through which the spirit can gain experience. The people who are most prolific, and follow the creative impulse unreservedly, are the lowest classes; thus it is difficult for incoming entities to find good vehicles amid environments enabling them to unfold their faculties in such a manner as to permanently benefit themselves and the rest of humanity, for among the wealthier classes who could furnish more favorable conditions many have few or no children. It is not because they live abstemious sex-lives, but for the entirely selfish reasons that they may have more ease and leisure and indulge in unlimited sex-gratification without the burden of a family. Among the less wealthy middle class, families are also restricted, but in their case partially for economic reasons, that they may give one or two children educational and other advantages that their means would not permit them to give to four or five.

Thus man exercises his divine prerogative of bringing disorder into nature. Incoming Egos must take the opportunities offered them sometimes under unfavorable circumstances. Other Egos who cannot do that, must wait till favorable environment offers. Thus do we affect one another by our actions, and thus are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children, for as the Holy Spirit is the creative energy in nature, the sex energy is its reflection in man, and misuse or abuse of that power is the sin that is not forgiven, but must be expiated in impaired efficiency of the vehicles, in order to thoroughly teach us the sanctity of the creative force.

Aspirants to the higher life, filled with an earnest desire to live a noble spiritual life, often regard the sex-function with horror, because of the harvest of misery which humanity has reaped as a result of its abuse. They are apt to turn in disgust from what they regard as impurity, overlooking the fact that it is precisely such people as they who (having brought their vehicles into good condition by means of proper sanitary food, high and lofty thought, and pure and spiritual lives) are best fitted to generate the dense bodies essential to the development of entities seeking incarnation. It is common knowledge among occult scientists that, to the detriment of the race, many high class Egos are kept out of incarnation at the present time solely because parents cannot be found who are pure enough to provide them with the necessary physical vehicles.

Persons who, for the reason above mentioned, refrain from doing their duty to humanity, are magnifying the sun spots to such an extent that they forget to see the Sun itself! The sex function has its great place in the economy of the world. When properly used, there is no greater boon to the Ego, for it then provides pure and healthful bodies such as man needs for his development; conversely, when abused, there is no greater curse, for it is then the source of the worst ills to which flesh is heir.

It is a truism that "no man liveth unto himself." By our words and acts we are constantly affecting others. By the proper performance, or the neglect of our duty, we make or mar the lives, first, of those in our immediate environment, but ultimately of all the inhabitants of the Earth, and more. No one has a right to seek the higher life without having performed his duty to his family, his country, and the human race. To selfishly set aside everything else and live solely for one's own spiritual advancement, is as reprehensible as not to care for the spiritual life at all. Nay, it is worse; for those who do their duty in the ordinary life to the best of their ability, devoting themselves to the welfare of those dependent upon them, are cultivating the essential quality of faithfulness. They will certainly advance in due time to a point where they will become awake to spiritual necessities, and will carry to that work the faithfulness developed elsewhere. The man who deliberately turns his back upon his present duties to take up the spiritual life will surely be forced back into the path of duty from which he has mistakenly diverged, with no possible means of escape until the lesson has been learned.

Certain tribes of India make the following excellent division of life. The first twenty years are spent in obtaining an education; the years from 20 to 40 are devoted to the duty of raising a family; and the remaining time is devoted to spiritual development, without any physical cares to harass or distract the mind.

During the first period, the child is supported by its parents; during the second period the man, in addition to supporting his own family, cares for his parents while they are giving their attention to higher things; and during the balance of his life, he is in turn supported by his children.

This seems a very sensible method, and is quite satisfactory in a country where all, from the cradle to the grave, feel the spiritual need, to such degree that they mistakenly neglect material development except as impelled by the lash of direst need, and where the children cheerfully support their parents, secure in the knowledge that they will be supported in turn, and thus be enabled to devote themselves entirely to the higher life after having performed their duty to their country and to humanity. In the Western World, however, where no spiritual need is at present felt by the average man because he is properly following material lines of development, such a mode of life would be impossible of realization.

Spiritual desire never comes until the time is ripe, and always when the particular conditions obtain under which we must seek its gratification, if at all. Whatever duties exist which are apparent restrictions must be borne. If the care of a family prevents the complete consecration desired, the aspirant would certainly not be justified in neglecting duty and devoting the entire time and energy to spiritual purposes. An effort must be made to gratify such aspirations without interfering with duty to family.

If the desire to live a celibate life comes to a person who holds marriage relations with another, the obligations of such relations are not to be forgotten. It would be very wrong, by practicing celibacy under such circumstances, to endeavor to escape from the proper performance of duty. As to what constitutes duty in regard to coition, however, there is a standard for aspirants to the higher life different from that of the ordinary man or woman.

Most people regard marriage as sanctioning unlimited license for the gratification of sexual desire. In the eyes of statute law, perhaps it does so, but no man-made law nor custom has any right to govern this matter. Occult science teaches that the sex-function should never be used for sense-gratification, but for propagation only. Therefore an aspirant to the higher life would be justified in refusing coition with the marriage partner unless the object were the begetting of a child, and then only if both parties were in perfect health -- physically, morally and mentally -- as otherwise the union would be likely to result in the generation of a feeble or degenerate body.

Each person owns his or her body, and is responsible to the law of Consequence for any misuse resulting from the weak willed abandonment of that body to another.

In the light of the foregoing, and looking at the matter from the viewpoint of occult science, it is both a duty and a privilege (to be exercised with thanks for the opportunity) for all persons who are healthy and of sound mind to provide vehicles for as many entities as is consistent with their health and ability to care for the same. And, as previously stated, most particularly are aspirants to the higher life under obligation in this respect, on account of the purification which their purer lives have wrought in their bodies, because of which they are better qualified than ordinary humanity to generate pure vehicles. Thus they enable high-class entities to find suitable vehicles and help humanity to advance by affording these waiting Egos opportunities to incarnate and exercise their influence at an earlier period than would otherwise be possible.

If the sex force is used in the way indicated, coition will take place but few times in a life, and practically the entire sex force may be used for spiritual purposes. It is not the use, but the abuse that causes all the trouble and interferes with the spiritual life, so there is no need for anyone to abandon the higher life because he or she cannot be celibate. It is not necessary to be strictly celibate while going through the lesser Initiations. The vow of absolute celibacy applies to the greater Initiations only, and even then a single act of fecundation may sometimes be necessary as an act of sacrifice, as was the case in providing a body for Christ.

It may also be said that it is worse to suffer from a burning desire, to be constantly thinking vividly of the gratification of sense, than to live the married life in moderation. Christ taught that unchaste thoughts are as bad as, and even worse than unchaste acts, because thoughts may be repeated indefinitely, whereas there is at least some limit to acts.

The aspirant to the higher life can be successful only in proportion to the extent of the subjugation of the lower nature, but should beware of the other extreme.

The Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland

In the brain, and in approximately the positions shown in diagram 17, are two small organs called the pituitary body and the pineal gland. Medical science knows but little about these, or the other ductless glands of the body. It calls the pineal gland "the atrophied third eye," yet neither it nor the pituitary body are atrophying. This is very perplexing to scientists, for nature retains nothing useless. All over the body we find organs which are either atrophying or developing, the former being milestones, as it were, along the path which man has traveled to reach his present stage of development, the latter pointing out the lines for future improvement and development. For instance, the muscles which animals use to move the ears are present in man also, but as they are atrophying, few people can use them. The heart belongs to the class indicating future development; as already shown, it is becoming a voluntary muscle.

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Diagram 17: The Path of the Unused Sex Currents

The pituitary body and the pineal gland belong to still another class of organs, which at the present time are neither evolving nor degenerating, but are dormant. In the far past, when man was in touch with the "inner" Worlds, these organs were his means of ingress thereto, and they will again serve that purpose at a later stage. They were connected with the involuntary or sympathetic nervous system. Man then saw the inner Worlds, as in the Moon Period and the latter part of the Lemurian and early Atlantean Epochs. Pictures presented themselves quite independent of his will. The sense centers of his desire body were spinning around counter-clockwise (following negatively the motion of the Earth, which revolves on its axis in that direction) as the sense centers of "mediums" do to this day. In most people these sense-centers are inactive, but true development will set them spinning clockwise, as explained elsewhere. That is the difficult feature in the development of positive clairvoyance.

The development of mediumship is much easier, because it is merely a revival of the mirror-like function possessed by man in the far past, by which the outside world was involuntarily reflected in him, and which function was afterward retained by inbreeding. With present day mediums this power is intermittent, which explains why they can sometimes "see" and at other times, for no apparent reason, fail utterly. Occasionally, the strong desire of the client enables them to get into touch with the information he is seeking, on which occasions they see correctly, but they are not always honest. Office rent and other expenses must be paid, so when the power (over which they have no conscious control) fails them, some resort to fraud and utter any absurdity that occurs to their minds, in order to satisfy their client and get his money, thus casting discredit upon what they really do see at other times.

The aspirate to true spiritual sight and insight must first of all give proof of unselfishness, because the trained clairvoyant has no "off days." He is not in the least mirror-like, dependent upon the reflections which may happen to come his way. He is able to reach out at any time and in any direction, and read the thoughts and plans of others, provided he particularly turns his attention that way -- not otherwise.

The great danger to society which would result from the indiscriminate use of this power if possessed by an unworthy individual, can be easily understood. He would be able to read the most secret thought. Therefore the initiate is bound by the most solemn vows never to use this power to serve his individual interest in the slightest degree, nor to save himself a pang. He may feed five thousand others if he will, but he must not turn a stone into bread to appease his own hunger. He may heal others of palsy and leprosy, but by the Law of the Universe, he is forbidden to stanch his own mortal wounds. Because he is bound by his vow of absolute unselfishness, it is ever true of the Initiate that although he saves others, himself he cannot save.

So the trained clairvoyant who really has something to give will never hang out a sign offering to exercise his gifts for a fee, but will give and give freely where he considers it consistent with the ripe destiny generated under the law of consequence by the person to be helped.

Trained clairvoyance is the kind used for investigating occult facts, and it is the only kind that is of any use for that purpose. Therefore the aspirant must feel, not a wish to gratify an idle curiosity, but a holy and unselfish desire to help humanity. Until such a desire exists, no progress can be made in the attainment of positive clairvoyance.

In the ages that have passed since the Lemurian Epoch, humanity has been gradually building the cerebro-spinal nervous system, which is under the control of the will. In the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, this was so far evolved that it became possible for the Ego to take full possession of the dense body. That was the time (previously described) when the point in the vital body came into correspondence with the point at the root of the nose in the dense body and the indwelling spirit became awake in the Physical World but, so far as the greater part of humanity was concerned, lost consciousness of the inner Worlds.

Since then, the connection of the pineal gland and the pituitary body with the cerebro-spinal nervous system has been slowly building, and is now all but complete.

To regain contact with the inner Worlds, all that remains to be done is the reawakening of the pituitary body and the pineal gland. When that is accomplished, man will again possess the faculty of perception in the higher worlds, but on a grander scale than formerly, because it will be in connection with the voluntary nervous system and therefore under the control of his Will. Through this inner perceptive facility all avenues of knowledge will be opened to him, and he will have at his service a means of acquiring information compared with which all other methods of investigation are but child's play.

The awakening of these organs is accomplished by Esoteric Training, which we will now describe, as far as may be done in public.

Esoteric Training

In the majority of people, the greater part of the sex force which may legitimately be used through the creative organs is expended for sense-gratification; therefore in such people there is very little of the ascending current shown in diagram 17.

When the aspirant to the higher life begins to curb these excesses more and more, and to devote his attention to spiritual thoughts and efforts, the trained clairvoyant can perceive the unused sex force commencing to ascend. It surges upward in stronger and stronger volume, along the path indicated by the arrows in diagram 17, traversing the heart and the larynx, or the spinal cord and the larynx or both, and then passing directly between the pituitary body and the pineal gland toward the dark point at the root of the nose where "The Silent Watcher," the highest spirit, has its seat.

These currents do not usually take one of the two paths indicated in the diagram to the entire exclusion of the other, but generally one path is traveled by the greater volume of the sex-currents, according to the temperament of the aspirant. In one who is seeking enlightenment along purely intellectual lines, the current travels particularly over the spinal cord, and only a small part goes over the path through the heart. In the mystic who feels rather than knows, the currents find their way upwards through the heart.

Both are developing abnormally, and each must sometime take up the development he has neglected, so as to become fully rounded. Therefore the Rosicrucians aim to give a teaching that will satisfy both classes, although their main efforts are expended in reaching the intellectually minded, for their need is the greater.

This current of itself, however, even though it assumes the proportions of a Niagara and flows until the crack of doom, will be useless. But still, as it is not only a necessary accompaniment, but a pre-requisite to self-conscious work in the inner World, it must be cultivated to some extent before the real esoteric training can begin. It will thus be seen that a moral life devoted to spiritual thought must be lived by the aspirant for a certain length of time before it is possible to commence the work that will give him first-hand knowledge of the super-physical realms and enable him to become, in the truest sense, a helper of humanity.

When the candidate has lived such a life for a time sufficient to establish the current of spiritual force, and is found worthy and qualified to receive esoteric instruction, he is taught certain exercises, to set the pituitary body in vibration. This vibration causes the pituitary body to impinge upon and slightly deflect the nearest line of force (See diagram 17). This, in turn, impinges upon the line next to it, and so the process continues until the force of the vibration has been spent. It is similar to the way in which the striking of one note on a piano will produce a number of overtones, by setting up a vibration in the other strings which are at proper intervals of pitch.

When by the increased vibration of the pituitary body, the lines of force have been deflected sufficiently to reach the pineal gland, the object has been accomplished, the gap between these two organs has been bridged. This is the bridge between the World of Sense and the World of Desire. From the time it is built, man becomes clairvoyant and able to direct his gaze where he will. Solid objects are seen both inside and out. To him space and solidity, as hindrances to observation, have ceased to exist.

He is not yet a trained clairvoyant, but he is a clairvoyant at will, a voluntary clairvoyant. His is a very different faculty from that possessed by the medium, who is usually an involuntary clairvoyant and can see only what comes; or who has, at best, very little more than the purely negative faculty. But the person in whom this bridge is once built is always in sure touch with the inner Worlds, the connection being made and broken at his will. By degrees, the observer learns to control the vibration of the pituitary body in a manner enabling him to get in touch with any of the regions of the inner Worlds which he desires to visit. The faculty is completely under the control of his will. It is not necessary for him to go into a trance or do anything abnormal, to raise his consciousness to the Desire World. He simply wills to see, and sees.

As we explained in the earlier part of this work, the neophyte must learn to see in the Desire World, or rather, he must learn how to understand what he sees there. In the Physical World objects are dense, solid, and do not change in the twinkling of an eye. In the Desire World they change in the most erratic manner. This is a source of endless confusion to the negative involuntary clairvoyant, and even to the neophyte who enters under the guidance of a teacher, but the teaching soon brings the pupil to a point where the Form may change as often as it will; he can perceive the Life that causes the change, and knows it for what it is, despite all possible and puzzling changes.

There is also another and most important distinction to be made. The power which enables one to perceive the objects in a world is not identical with the power of entering that world and functioning there. The voluntary clairvoyant, though he may have received some training, and is able to distinguish the true from the false in the Desire World, is in practically the same relation to it as a prisoner behind a barred window is to the outside world -- he can see it, but cannot function therein. Therefore esoteric training not only opens up the inner vision of the aspirant, but at the proper time further exercises are given to furnish him with a vehicle in which he can function in the inner Worlds in a perfectly self-conscious manner.
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:32 pm

PART 3 OF 3

How the Inner Vehicle is Built

In ordinary life most people live to eat, they drink, gratify the sex-passion in an unrestrained manner, and lose their tempers on the slightest provocation. Though outwardly these people may be very "respectable," they are, nearly every day of their lives, causing almost utter confusion in their organization. The entire period of sleep is spent by the desire and the vital bodies in repairing the damage done in the day time, leaving no time for outside work of any kind. But as the individual begins to feel the needs of the higher life, control sex force, and temper, and cultivate a serene disposition, there is less disturbance caused in the vehicles during waking hours; consequently less time is required to repair the damage during sleep. Thus it becomes possible to leave the dense body for long periods during sleeping hours, and function in the inner Worlds in the higher vehicles. As the desire body and the mind are not yet organized, they are of no use as separate vehicles of consciousness. Neither can the vital body leave the dense body, as that would cause death, so it is evident that measures must be taken to provide an organized vehicle which is fluidic and so constructed that it will meet the needs of the Ego in the inner Worlds as does the dense body in the Physical World.

The vital body is such an organized vehicle, and if some means could be found to loosen it from the dense body without causing death, the problem would be solved. Besides, the vital body is the seat of memory, without which it would be impossible to bring back into our physical consciousness the remembrance of super-physical experiences and thus obtain the full benefit of them.

We remember that the Hierophants of the old Mystery Temples segregated some of the people into castes and tribes such as the Brahmins and the Levites, for the purpose of providing bodies for use of such Egos as were advanced enough to be ready for Initiation. This was done in such a manner that the vital body became separable into two parts, as were the desire bodies of all humanity at the beginning of the Earth Period. When the Hierophant took the pupils out of their bodies, he left one part of the vital body, comprising the first and second ethers, to perform the purely animal functions (they are the only ones active during sleep), the pupil taking with him a vehicle capable of perception, because of its connection with the sense-centers of the dense body; and also capable of memory. It possessed these capabilities because it was composed of the third and fourth ethers, which are the mediums of sense-perception and memory.

This is, in fact, that part of the vital body which the aspirant retains from life to life, and immortalizes as the Intellectual Soul.

Since Christ came and "took away the sin of the world," (not of the individual) purifying the desire body of our planet, the connection between all human dense and vital bodies has been loosened to such an extent that, by training, they are capable of separation as above described. Therefore Initiation is open to all.

The finer part of the desire body, which constitutes the Emotional Soul, is capable of separation in most people (in fact, it possessed that capability even before Christ came) and thus when, by concentration and the use of the proper formula, the finer parts of the vehicles have been segregated for use during sleep, or at any other time, the lower parts of the desire and vital bodies are still left to carry on the processes of restoration in the dense vehicle, the mere animal part.

That part of the vital body which goes out is highly organized, as we have seen. It is an exact counterpart of the dense body. The desire body and the mind, not being organized, are of use only because they are connected with the highly organized dense body. When separated from it they are but poor instruments, therefore before man can withdraw from the dense body, the sense-centers of the desire body must be awakened.

In ordinary life the Ego is inside its bodies and its force is directed outward. All man's will and energy are bent upon the task of subduing the outside world. At no time is he able to get away from the impressions of his outside environment and thus be free to work on himself in his waking hours. During sleep, when such an opportunity is afforded, because of the dense body having lost consciousness of the world, the Ego is outside his bodies. If man is to work on his vehicle at all, it must be when the outside world is shut out as in sleep, but yet the spirit still remains within and in full control of the faculties, as it is in the waking state. Not until such a state can be attained will it be possible for the spirit to work inwardly and properly sensitize its vehicles.

Concentration is such a state. When in it, the senses are stilled and a person is outwardly in the same condition as in the deepest sleep, yet the spirit remains within and fully conscious. Most people have experienced this state, at least in some degree, when they have become interested in absorption in a book. At such times they live in the scenes depicted by the author and are lost to their environment. When spoken to, they are oblivious to the sound, so to all else transpiring around them, yet they are fully awake to all they are reading, to the invisible world created by the author, living there and feeling the heart-beats of all the different characters in the story. They are not independent, but are bound in the life which someone has created for them in the book.

The aspirant to the higher life cultivates the faculty of becoming absorbed at will in any subject he chooses, or rather not a subject usually, but a very simple object, which he imagines. Thus when the proper condition or point of absorption has been reached where his senses are absolutely still, he concentrates his thought upon the different sense centers of the desire body and they start to revolve.

At first their motion is slow and hard to bring about, but by degrees the sense centers of the desire body will make places for themselves within the dense and vital bodies, which learn to accommodate themselves to this new activity. Then some day, when the proper life has developed the requisite cleavage between the higher and lower parts of the vital body, there is a supreme effort of the will, a spiral motion in many directions takes place, and the aspirant stands outside his dense body. He looks at it as at another person. The door of this prison house has been opened. He is free to come and go, as much at liberty in the inner worlds as in the Physical World, functioning at will, in the inner or outer World, a helper of all desiring his services in any of them.

Before the aspirant learns to voluntarily leave the body, he may have worked in the desire body during sleep, for in some people the desire body becomes organized before the separation can be brought about in the vital body. Under those conditions it is impossible to bring back these subjective experiences to waking consciousness, but generally in such cases it will be noticed, as the first sign of development, that all confused dreams will cease. Then, after a while, the dreams will become more vivid and perfectly logical. The aspirant will dream of being in places and with people (whether known to him in waking hours or not matters little), conducting himself in as reasonable a way as if he were in the waking state. If the place of which he dreams is accessible to him in waking hours, he may sometimes get proof of the reality of his dream if he will note some physical detail of the scene and verify his nocturnal impression next day.

He will next find that he can, during sleeping hours, visit any place he desires upon the face of the Earth and investigate it a great deal more thoroughly than if he had gone there in the dense body, because in his desire body he has access to all places, regardless of locks and bars. If he persists, there will at last come a day when he need not wait for sleep to dissolve the connection between his vehicles, but can consciously set himself free.

Specific directions for freeing the higher vehicles cannot be given indiscriminately. The separation is brought about, not by a set formula of words, but rather by an act of will, yet the manner in which the will is directed is individual, and can therefore be given only by a competent teacher. Like all other real esoteric information, it is never sold, but comes only as a result of the pupil qualifying himself to receive it. All that can be done here is to give an indication of the first steps which lead up to the acquirement of the faculty of voluntary clairvoyance.

The most favorable time to exercise is on first awakening in the morning, before any of the worries and cares of daily life have entered the mind. At that time one is fresh from the inner Worlds and therefore more easily brought back into touch with them than at any other time of the day. Do not wait to dress, or sit up in bed, but relax the body perfectly and let the exercises be the first waking thought. Relaxation does not mean simply a comfortable position; it is possible to have every muscle tense with expectation and that of itself frustrates the object, for in that condition the desire body is gripping the muscles. It cannot do otherwise till we calm the mind.

Concentration

The first thing to practice is fixing one's thoughts upon some ideal and holding them there without letting them swerve. It is an exceedingly hard task, but, to some extend at least, it must be accomplished before it is possible to make any further progress. Thought is the power we use in making images, pictures, thought forms, according to ideas from within. It is our principal power, and we must learn to have absolute control of it, so that what we produce is not wild illusion induced by outside conditions, but true imagination generated by the spirit from within (see diagram 1).

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Diagram 1: The Relative Permanency of the Visible and Invisible Worlds (illustrated by comparison with a stereoptician).

Skeptics say that it is all imagination but, as said before, if the inventor had not been able to imagine the telephone, etc., we would not today possess those things. His imaginings were not generally correct or true at first, otherwise the inventions would have worked successfully from the beginning, without the many failures and apparently useless experiments that have nearly always preceded the production of the practical and serviceable instrument or machine. Neither is the imagination of the budding occult scientist correct at first. The only way to make it true is by uninterrupted practice, day after day, exercising the will to keep the thought focused upon one subject, object, or idea, exclusive all else. Thought is a great power which we have been accustomed to waste. It has been allowed to flow on aimlessly, as water flows over a precipice before it is made to turn the wheel.

The rays of the Sun, diffused over the entire surface of the Earth, produce only a moderate warmth, but if even a few of them are concentrated by means of a glass, they are capable of producing fire at the focusing point.

Thought-force is the most powerful means of obtaining knowledge. If it is concentrated upon a subject, it will burn its way through any obstacle and solve the problem. If the requisite amount of thought-force is brought to bear, there is nothing that is beyond the power of human comprehension. So long as we scatter it, thought-force is of little use to us, but as soon as we are prepared to take the trouble necessary to harness it, all knowledge is ours.

We often hear people exclaim petulantly, "Oh, I cannot think of a hundred things at once!" when really that is exactly what they have been doing, and what has caused the very trouble of which they complain. People are constantly thinking of a hundred things other than the one they have in hand. Every success has been accomplished by persistent concentration upon the desired end.

This is something the aspirant to the higher life must positively learn to do. There is no other way. At first he will find himself thinking of everything under the sun instead of the ideal upon which he has decided to concentrate, but he must not let that discourage him. In time he will find it easier to still his senses and hold his thoughts steady. Persistence, persistence, and always persistence will win at last. Without that, however, no results can be expected. It is of no use to perform the exercises for two or three mornings or weeks and then neglect them for as long. To be effective they must be done faithfully every morning without fail.

Any subject may be selected, according to the temperament and mental persuasion of the aspirant, so long as it is pure and mentally uplifting in its tendency. Christ will do for some; others, who love flowers particularly, are most easily helped by taking one as the subject of concentration. The object matters little, but whatever it is we must imagine it true to life in all details. If it is Christ, we must imagine a real Christ, with mobile features, life in His eyes, and an expression that is not stony and dead. We must build a living ideal, not a statue. If it is a flower, we must, in imagination, take the seed and having buried it in the ground, fix our mind upon it steadily. Presently we shall see it burst, shooting forth its roots, which penetrate the Earth in a spiral manner. From the main branches of the roots we watch the myriads of minute rootlets, as they branch out and ramify in all directions. Then the stem begins to shoot upward, bursting through the surface of the earth and coming forth as a tiny green stalk. It grows, presently there is an off-set; a tiny twig shoots out from the main stem. It grows; another off-set and a branch appears; from the branches, little stalks with buds at the end shoot out; presently there are a number of leaves. Then comes a bud at the top; it grow larger until it begins to burst and the red leaves of the rose show beneath the green. It unfolds in the air, emitting an exquisite perfume, which we sense perfectly as it is wafted to us on the balmy summer breeze which gently sways the beautiful creation before the mind's eye.

Only when we "imagine" in such clear and complete outlines as these, do we enter into the spirit of concentration. There must be no shadowy, faint resemblance.

Those who have traveled in India have told of fakirs showing them a seed, which was planted and grew before the eyes of the astonished witness, bearing fruit which the traveler tasted. That was done by concentration so intense that the picture was visible, not only to the fakir himself, but also the spectators. A case is recorded where the members of a committee of scientists all saw the wonderful things done before their eyes, under conditions where sleight-of-hand was impossible, yet the photographs which they obtained while the experiment was in progress, came to naught. There was no impression on the sensitive plates, because there had been no material, concrete objects.

At first the pictures which the aspirant builds will be but shadowy and poor likenesses, but in the end he can, by concentration, conjure up an image more real and alive than things in the Physical World.

When the aspirant has become able to form such pictures, and has succeeded in holding his mind upon the picture thus created, he may try to drop the picture suddenly and, holding his mind steady without any thought, wait to see what comes into the vacuum.

For a long time nothing may appear and the aspirant must carefully guard against making visions for himself, but if he keeps on faithfully and patiently every morning, there will come a time when, the moment he has let the imaged picture drop, in a flash the surrounding Desire World will open up to his inner eye. At first it may be but a mere glimpse, but it is an earnest of what will later come at will.

Meditation

When the aspirant has practiced concentration for some time, focusing the mind upon some simple object, building a living thought form by means of the imaginative faculty, he will, by means of Meditation, learn all about the object thus created.

Supposing that the aspirant has, by concentration, called up the image of the Christ. It is very easy to meditatively recall the incidents of His life, suffering and resurrection, but much beyond that can be learned by meditation. Knowledge never before dreamed of will flood the soul with a glorious light. Yet something that is uninteresting and does not of itself suggest anything marvelous, is better for practice. Try to find out all about -- say, a match, or a common table.

When the image of the table has been clearly formed in the mind, think what kind of wood it is and whence it came. Go back to the time when, as a tiny seed, the tree from which the wood was cut first fell into the forest soil. Watch it grow from year to year, covered by the snows of winter and warmed by the summer Sun, steadily growing upward -- its roots meanwhile constantly spreading under the ground. First it is a tender sapling, swaying in the breeze; then, as a young tree, it gradually stretches higher and higher toward the air and the sunshine. As the years pass, its girth becomes greater and greater, until at last one day the logger comes, with his axe and saw gleaming as they reflect the rays of the winter Sun. Our tree is felled and shorn of its branches, leaving but the trunk; that is cut into logs, which are hauled over the frozen roads to the river bank, there to await the springtime when the melting snow swells the streams. A great raft of the logs is made, the pieces of our tree being among them. We know every little peculiarity about them and would recognize them instantly among thousand, so clearly have we marked them in our mind. We follow the raft down the stream, noting the passing landscape and become familiar with the men who have the care of the raft and who sleep upon little huts built upon their floating charge. At last we see it arrive at a sawmill and disbanded. One by one the logs are grasped by prongs on an endless chain and hauled out of the water. Here comes one of our logs, the widest part of which will be made into the top of our table. It is hauled out of the water to the log deck and rolled about by men with peavies. We hear the hungry whine of the great circular saws as they revolve so fast that they appear as mere blurs before our eyes. Our log is placed upon a carriage which is propelled toward one of them, and in a moment those teeth of steel are tearing their way through its body and dividing it into boards and planks. Some of the wood is selected to form part of a building, but the best of it is taken to a furniture factory and put into a kiln, where it is dried by steam so that it will not shrink after it has been made into furniture. Then it is taken out and put through a great planing machine with many sharp knives, which makes it smooth. Next it is sawn off into different lengths and glued together to form table-tops. The legs are turned from thicker pieces and set into the frame which supports the top; then the whole article is smoothed again with sandpaper, varnished and polished, thus completing the table in every respect. It is next sent out, with other furniture, to the store where we bought it, and we follow it as it is carted from that place to our home and left in our dining room.

Thus, by meditation, we have become conversant with the various branches of industry necessary to convert a forest tree into a piece of furniture. We have seen all the machines and the men, and noted the peculiarities of the various places. We have even followed the life process whereby that tree has grown from a tiny seed, and have learned that back of seemingly very commonplace things there is a great and absorbingly interesting history. A pin; the match with which we light the gas; the gas itself; and the room in which that gas is burned -- all have interesting histories, well worth learning.

Observation

One of the most important aids to the aspirant in his efforts is observation. Most people go through life blind-folded. Of them it is literally true that they "have eyes, and see not; ... have ears, and hear not." Upon the part of the majority of humanity there is a deplorable lack of observation.

Most people are, to some extent, excusable for this, because their sight is not normal. Urban life has caused untold damage to the eyes. In the country the child learns to use the muscles of the eye to the full extent, relaxing or contracting them as required to see objects at considerable distances in the open, or close at hand in and about the house. But the city-bred child sees practically everything close at hand, and the muscles of its eyes are seldom used to observe objects at any great distance, therefore that faculty is to a great extent lost, resulting in a prevalence of near-sightedness and other eye troubles.

It is very important to one aspiring to the higher life that he be able to see all things about him in clear, definite outlines, and in full detail. To one suffering from defective sight, the use of glasses is like opening up a new world. Instead of the former mistiness, everything is seen clearly and definitely. If the condition of the sight requires the use of two foci, one should not be content with having two pairs of glasses, one for near and one for far seeing, thus necessitating frequent changes. Not only are the changes wearisome, but one is very apt to forget one pair when leaving home. The two foci can be had in one pair of bi-focal glasses, and such should be worn, to facilitate observation of the minutest details.

Discrimination

When the aspirant has attended to his eyesight, he should systematically observe everything and everybody, drawing conclusions from actions, to cultivate the faculty of logical reasoning. Logic is the best teacher in the Physical World, as well as the safest and surest guide in any world.

While practicing this method of observation, it should always be kept in mind that it must be used only to gather facts, and not for purposes of criticism, at least not wanton criticism. Constructive criticism, which points out defects and the means of remedying them, is the basis of progress; but destructive criticism, which vandalistically demolishes good and bad alike without aiming at any higher attainment, is an ulcer on the character and must be eradicated. Gossip and idle tale-bearing are clogs and hindrances. While it is not required that we shall say that black is white and overlook manifestly wrong conduct, criticism should be made for the purpose of helping, not to wantonly besmirch the character of a fellow-being because we have found a little stain. Remembering the parable of the mote and the beam, we should turn our most unsparing criticism toward ourselves. None is so perfect that there is no room for improvement. The more blameless the man, the less prone he is to find fault and cast the first stone at another. If we point out faults and suggest ways for improvement, it must be done without personal feeling. We must always seek the good which is hidden in everything. The cultivation of this attitude of discrimination is particularly important.

When the aspirant to first-hand knowledge has practiced concentration and meditation exercises for some time, and has become fairly proficient in them, there is a still higher step to be taken.

We have seen that concentration is focusing thought upon a single object. It is the means whereby we build a clear, objective, and living image of the form about which we wish to acquire knowledge.

Meditation is the exercise whereby the history of the object of our investigation is traced and, so to say, entered into, to pick out of it every shred of evidence as to its relation to the world in general.

These two mental exercises deal, in the deepest and most thorough manner imaginable, with things. They lead up to a higher, deeper and more subtle stage of mental development, which deals with the very soul of things.

The name of that stage is Contemplation.

Contemplation

In contemplation there is no reaching out in thought or imagination for the sake of getting information, as was the case in Meditation. It is simply the holding of the object before our mental vision and letting the soul of it speak to us. We repose quietly and relaxed upon a couch or bed -- not negatively, but thoroughly on the alert -- watching for the information that will surely come if we have reached the proper development. Then the Form of the object seems to vanish and we see only the Life at work. Contemplation will teach us about the Life side, as Meditation taught us about the Form side.

When we reach this stage and have before us, say, a tree in the forest, we lose sight of the Form entirely, and see only the Life, which in this case is a group spirit. We shall find, to our astonishment, that the group spirit of the tree includes the various insects which feed upon it; that the parasite and its host are emanations from one and the same group spirit, for the higher we ascend in the invisible realms, the fewer the separate and distinct forms, and the more completely the One Life predominates, impressing upon the investigator the supreme fact that there is but the One Life -- the Universal Life of God, in Whom it is an actual fact that "we live, and move, and have our being." Mineral, plant, animal, and man -- all, without exception -- are manifestations of God, and this fact furnishes the true basis of brotherhood -- a brotherhood which includes everything from the atom to the Sun, because all are emanations from God. Conceptions of brotherhood based upon any other foundation, such as class distinctions, Race affinity, similarity of occupation, etc., fall far short of this true basis, as the occult scientist clearly realizes when he sees the Universal Life flowing in all that exists.

Adoration

When this height has been reached by Contemplation, and the aspirant has realized that he is in truth beholding God in the Life that permeates all things, there remains still to be taken the highest step, Adoration, whereby he unites himself with the Source of all things, reaching by that act the highest goal possible of attainment by man until the time when the permanent union takes place at the end of the great Day of Manifestation.

It is the writer's opinion that neither the heights of Contemplation, nor the final step of Adoration can be attained without the aid of a teacher. The aspirant need never fear, however, that for want of a teacher he will be delayed in taking these steps; nor need he be concerned about looking for a teacher. All that is necessary for him to do is start to improve himself, and to earnestly and persistently continue therein. In that way he will purify his vehicles. They will commence to shine in the inner Worlds, and cannot fail to attract the attention of the teachers, who are always watching for just such cases and are more than eager and glad to help those who, because of their earnest efforts to purify themselves, have won the right to receive help. Humanity is sorely in need of helpers who are able to work from the inner Worlds, therefore "seek and ye shall find," but let us not imagine that by going about from one professed teacher to another, we are seeking. "Seeking," in that sense of the word, will avail nothing in this dark world. We ourselves must kindle the light -- the light which invariably radiates from the vehicles of the earnest aspirant. That is the star which will lead us to the teacher, or rather the teacher to us.

The time required to bring results from the performance of the exercises varies with each individual and is dependent upon his application, his stage in evolution, and his record in the book of destiny; therefore no general time can be set. Some, who are almost ready, obtain results in a few days or weeks; others have to work months, years, and even their whole life without visible results, yet the results will be there, and the aspirant who faithfully persists will some day, in this or a future life, behold his patience and faithfulness rewarded and the inner Worlds open to his gaze, finding himself a citizen of realms where the opportunities are immeasurably greater than in the Physical World only.

From that time -- awake or asleep, through what men call life, and through what men call death -- his consciousness will be unbroken. He will lead a consciously continuous existence, having the benefit of all the conditions which make for more rapid advancement to every higher positions of trust, to be used in the uplifting of the race.
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:33 pm

Chapter 18: The Constitution of the Earth and Volcanic Eruptions

Even among occult scientists it is counted amount the most difficult problems to investigate the mysterious construction of the Earth. Every occult scientist knows how much easier it is to thoroughly and accurately investigate the Desire World and the Region of Concrete Thought and bring back the results into the Physical World than to investigate completely the secrets of our physical planet, because to do that fully, one must have passed through the nine lesser Mysteries and the first of the Great Initiations.

Modern scientists know very little about this matter. So far as seismic phenomena are concerned, they very frequently change their theories, because they are constantly discovering reasons why their previous hypotheses were untenable. They have, with all their usual splendid care, investigated the very outside shell, but only to an insignificant depth. As for volcanic eruptions, they try to understand them as they try to understand everything else, in a purely mechanical way, depicting the center of the Earth as a fiery furnace and concluding that the eruptions are caused by the accidental admission of water and in other similar ways.

In a certain sense, their theories have some foundation, but in this case they are, as always, neglecting the spiritual causes which to the occultist appear to be the true ones. To him, the world is far from being "dead." On the contrary, its every nook and crevice is permeated by spirit, which is the leaven that causes changes in and upon the planet.

The different kinds of quartz, the metals, the disposition of the various strata -- all have a much higher significance than the materialistic investigator has ever been able to grasp. To the occult scientists, the way in which these materials are arranged is full of meaning. On this subject, as on every other, occult science stands in the same relation to modern science as physiology does to anatomy. Anatomy states with minute detail the exact position of every bone, muscle, ligament, nerve, etc., their relative positions to one another and so forth, but does not give any clue to the use of any one of the different parts of which the body is composed. Physiology, on the other hand, not only states the position and structure of every part of the body, but also tells their use in the body.

To know the different strata of the Earth and the relative positions of the planets in the sky without having also a knowledge of their use and meaning in the life and purpose of the Cosmos, is as useless as to know merely the positions of bones, nerves, etc., without understanding also their use in the functional economy of the body.

The Number of the Beast

To the trained clairvoyant sight, of the Initiate of the various degrees of the Mysteries, the Earth appears built in strata, something like an onion, one layer or stratum outside another. There are nine such strata and the central core, making ten in all. These strata are revealed to the Initiate gradually. One stratum becomes accessible to him at each Initiation, so that at the end of the nine lesser Initiations he is master of all the layers, but has not yet access to the secrets of the core.

In ancient parlance these nine steps are called the "lesser Mysteries." They take the neophyte consciously through all that relates to his past evolution, through the activities of involuntary existence, so that he is able to understand the manner and meaning of the work he then performed unconsciously. He is shown how the present ninefold constitution (the threefold body, the threefold soul, and the threefold spirit) was brought into existence; how the great creative Hierarchies worked on the virgin spirit, awakening in it the Ego, helping it to form the body; and also the work he himself has done, to extract from the threefold body as much of the threefold soul as he now possesses. One step at a time is he led through the nine steps of the lesser mysteries, the nine strata.

This number nine is the root number of our present stage of evolution. It bears a significance in our system that no other number does. It is the number of Adam, the life which commenced its evolution as Man, which reached the human stage during the Earth Period. In the Hebrew, as in the Greek, there are no numerals, but each letter has a numerical value. In Hebrew "Adam" is called "ADM." The value of "A" is 1; of "D," 4; and of "M," 40. If we add these figures, we get 1+4+4+0=9 -- the number of Adam, or humanity.

If we turn from the Book of Genesis, which deals with the creation of man in the hoary past, to the Book of Revelation, which deals with his future attainment, we find that the number of the beast which hinders is 666. Adding these figures, 6+6+6=18; and further, 1+8=9 -- we have again the number of humanity, which is itself the cause of all the evil which hinders its own progress. Going further, to the point where the number of those who are to be saved is stated, we find it to be 144,000. Adding as before, 1+4+4+000=9 -- again the number of humanity, showing that practically it will be saved in its totality, the number incapable of progress in our present evolution being negligible in comparison to the grand total, and even the few who fail are not lost, but will progress in a later scheme.

The consciousness of the mineral and the plant is really unconsciousness. The first glimmering dawn of consciousness begins with the animal kingdom. We have seen also that according to the most modern classification, there are thirteen steps in the animal kingdom: three classes of Radiates; three classes of Mollusks; three classes of Articulates; and four classes of Vertebrates.

If we regard ordinary man as a step by himself, and remember that there are thirteen Initiations from man to God, or from the time he commenced to qualify himself for becoming a self-conscious Creative Intelligence, we have again the same number, Nine: 13+1+13=27 2+7=9.

The number 9 is also hidden in the age of Christ Jesus, 33; 3x3=9, and in a similar manner in the 33 degrees of Masonry. In olden times Masonry was a system of Initiation into the lesser Mysteries which, as we have seen, have 9 degrees, but the Initiates often wrote it as 33. Similarly we read of the l8th degree of the Rosicrucians, which was only a "blind" for the uninitiated, because there are never more than 9 degrees in any lesser Mystery, and the Masons of today have but very little of the occult ritual left in their degrees.

We have also the nine months of gestation, during which the body is built up to its present efficiency; and there are in the body nine perforations -- two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, one mouth, and the two lower orifices.

When the advancing man has passed through the nine lesser Initiations, gaining thereby entrance to all the layers of the Earth, entrance into the core is yet to be won. That is opened to him by the first of the four Great Initiations, in which he learns to know the mystery of the mind, that part of his being begun on Earth. When he is ready for the first Great Initiation he has developed his mind to the degree all men are destined to attain to at the end of the Earth Period. In that Initiation he is given the key to the next stage, and all work done by him after that will be such as humanity in general will do in the Jupiter Period, and does not concern us at present.

After his first Great Initiation, he is an Adept. The second, third and fourth Initiations pertain to the stages of development to be arrived at by ordinary humanity in the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods.

These thirteen Initiations are symbolically represented in the Christ and His twelve Apostles. Judas Iscariot has the traitorous propensities of the lower nature of the neophyte. The beloved John is the Venus Initiation, and Christ Himself symbolizes the Divine Initiate of the Vulcan Period.

In different schools of occult science the rites of Initiation vary, also their statement of the number of Initiations, but that is merely a matter of classification. It will be observed that such vague descriptions as can be given become more vague as one proceeds higher and higher. Where seven or more degrees are spoken of, almost nothing is said of the sixth Initiation, and nothing whatever of the ones beyond. That is because of another division -- the six steps of "Preparation," and the four Initiations which bring the candidate to the end of the Earth Period, to Adeptship. Then there must always be three more, if the philosophy of the school or society goes so far. The writer, however, knows of none but the Rosicrucians who have anything to say of the three Periods which preceded the Earth Period, save the bare statement that there were such Periods. They are not brought very definitely into relationship with our present phase of existence, however. Likewise, other occult teachings simply state that there will be three more schemes of evolution, but no particulars are given. Of course, under those circumstances, the three last Initiations are not mentioned.

Diagram 18 will give an idea of the arrangement of the Earth's strata, the central core being omitted to indicate more clearly the lemniscate formation of the currents in the ninth stratum. In the diagram the strata are represented as being of equal thickness, though in reality some are much thinner than other. Beginning at the outside, they appear in the following order:

The Mineral Earth: This is the stony crust of the Earth, with which Geology deals as far as it is able to penetrate.

The Fluid Stratum: The matter of this stratum is more fluid than that of the outside crust, yet it is not watery, but rather more like a thick paste. It has the quality of expansion, like that of an exceedingly explosive gas, and is kept in place only by the enormous pressure of the outer crust. Were that removed, the whole of the fluid stratum would disappear in space with a tremendous explosion. These correspond to the Chemical and Etheric Regions of the Physical World.

Vapor Stratum: In the first and second strata there is really no conscious life. But in this stratum there is an even-flowing and pulsating life, as in the Desire World surrounding and inter-penetrating our Earth.

Water Stratum: In this stratum are the germinal possibilities of all that exists upon the surface of the Earth. Here are the archetypal forces which are back of the group spirits; also the archetypal forces of the minerals, for this is the direct physical expression of the Region of Concrete Thought.

Seed Stratum: Material scientists have been baffled in their efforts to discover the origin of life, how the first living things came forth from previously dead matter.

In reality, according to the occult explanation of evolution, the question should be how the "dead" things originated. The Life was there previous to the dead Forms. It built its bodies from the attenuated, vaporous substance long before it condensed into the Earth's solid crust. Only when the life had left the forms could they crystallize and become hard and dead.

Coal is but crystallized plant bodies; coral is also the crystallization of animal forms. The life leaves the forms and the forms die. Life never came into a form to awaken it to life. Life departed from the forms and the forms died. Thus did "dead" things come to be.

In this fifth stratum is the primordial fount of life from which came the impetus that built all the forms on Earth. It corresponds to the Region of Abstract Thought.

Fiery Stratum: Strange as it may seem, this stratum is possessed of sensation. Pleasure and pain, sympathy and antipathy have here their effect on the Earth. It is generally supposed that under no possible circumstances can the Earth have any sensation whatever. The occult scientist, however, as he watches the harvesting of the ripe grain and the gathering of fruit from the trees in the autumn, or the plucking of flowers, knows the pleasure experienced by the Earth itself. It is similar to the pleasure felt by the cow when its bursting udders are being relieved by the sucking calf. The Earth feels the delight of having yielded nourishment for its progeny of Forms, this delight reaching its culmination in the harvest time.

On the other hand, when plants are torn out by the roots, it is patent to the occult scientist that the Earth senses a sting of pain. For that reason he does not eat the plant-foods which grow under the Earth. In the first place they are full of the Earth force and deficient in Sun force, and are additionally poisoned by being pulled up by the roots. The only exception to this rule is that he may partake sparingly of the potato, which originally grew on the surface of the earth, and has only in comparatively recent times grown beneath the soil. Occultists endeavor to nourish their bodies on fruits which grow toward the Sun, because they contain more of the higher Sun force, and have not caused the Earth pain.

It might be supposed that mining operations would be very painful to the Earth, but the reverse is the case. Every disintegration of the hard crust causes a sensation of relief and every solidification is a source of pain. Where a mountain torrent washes away the soil and carries it toward the plains, the earth feels freer. Where the disintegrated matter is again deposited, as in a bar outside the mouth of a great river, there is a corresponding sense of uneasiness.

As sensation in animals and men is due to their separate vital bodies, so the feeling of the Earth is particularly active in this sixth stratum, which corresponds to the World of Life Spirit. To understand the pleasure felt when mining operations are disintegrating the hard rock, and the pain when deposits gather, we must remember that the Earth is the dense body of a Great Spirit, and to furnish us with an environment in which we could live and gather experience, it had to crystallize this body into its present solid condition.

As evolution proceeds, however, and man learns the lessons pertaining to this acme of concretion, the Earth will become softer and its spirit more and more liberated. This is what Paul meant when he spoke of the whole creation groaning and travailing, waiting for the day of liberation.

Refracting Stratum: This part of the Earth corresponds to the World of Divine Spirit. There are, in occult science what are known as "The Seven Unspeakable Secrets." For those who are not acquainted with these secrets, or have not at least an inkling of their import, the properties of this stratum must seem particularly absurd and grotesque. In it all the forces which are known to us as the "Laws of Nature" exist as moral, or rather immoral forces. In the beginning of the conscious career of man they were much worse than at present. But it appears that as humanity progresses in morals, these forces improve correspondingly; also that any lapse in morals has a tendency to unleash these Nature forces and causes them to create havoc upon the Earth; while the striving for higher ideals makes them less inimical to man.

The forces in this stratum are thus, at any time, an exact reflection of the existing moral status of mankind. From the occult point of view, the "hand of God" which smites a Sodom or a Gomorrah is not a foolish superstition, for as surely as there is individual responsibility to the law of Consequence which brings to each person the just results of his deeds whether for good or evil, so is there also community and national responsibility, which brings upon groups of men corresponding results for their collective acts. Nature forces are the general agents of such retributive justice, causing floods, or earthquakes, or the beneficent formation of oil or coal for various groups, according to their deserts.

Atomistic Stratum: This is the name given by the Rosicrucians to the eighth layer of the Earth, which is the expression of the World of Virgin Spirits. It seems to have the property of multiplying many fold the things in it; this applies, however, only to those things which have been definitely formed. An unshapen piece of wood, or an unhewn stone has not existence there, but upon anything which has been shaped, or has life and form (such as a flower or a picture), this stratum has the effect of multiplication to an astonishing degree.

Material Expression of the Earth spirit: There are here lemniscate currents, which are intimately connected with the brain, heart and sex organs of the human race. It corresponds to the World of God.

Center of Being of the Earth spirit: Nothing more can be said about this at present except that it is the ultimate seed ground of all that is in and on Earth, and corresponds to the Absolute.

From the sixth or fiery stratum to the surface of the Earth are a number of shafts in different places. The outer ends of these are called "volcanic craters." When the Nature forces in the seventh stratum are unleashed so that they can express themselves through a volcanic outburst, they set the (sixth) fiery stratum in motion and the agitation spreads outward to the mouth of the crater. The bulk of the material is taken from the substance of the second stratum, for that is the denser counterpart of the sixth stratum as the vital body, the second vehicle of man, is the denser counterpart of the life Spirit, the sixth principle. This fluidic stratum, with its expansive and highly explosive quality, insures an unlimited supply of material at the point of eruption. The contact with the outer atmosphere hardens that part of it which is not blown away into space, thus forming a lava and dust, until, as the blood from a wound congeals and stanches the flow, so the lava finally seals the aperture from the inner parts of the Earth.

As might be gathered from the fact that it is the reflected immorality and anti-spiritual tendencies of mankind which arouse the Nature-forces in the seventh stratum to destructive activity, it is generally profligate and degenerate peoples who succumb to these catastrophes. They, together with others whose destiny, self-generated under the law of consequence, for various reasons, involves a violent death, are gathered from many lands by the superhuman forces, to the point where the eruption is to occur. To the thoughtful, the volcanic outbursts of Vesuvius, for instance, will afford corroboration of this statement.

A list of these outbursts during the last 2,000 years shows that their frequency has been increasing with the growth of materialism. In the last sixty years, especially, in the ratio that materialistic science has grown arrogant in its absolute and sweeping denial of everything spiritual, have the eruptions increased in frequency. While there were but six eruptions in the first 1,000 years after Christ, the last five have taken place within 51 years, as will be shown.

The first eruption during the Christian Era was that which destroyed the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, in which the elder Pliny perished, A. D. 79. The older eruptions followed in A. D. 203, 472, 512, 652, 982, 1036, 1158, 1500, 1631, 1737, 1794, 1822, 1855, 1872, 1855, 1891, 1906.

In the first thousand years, there were six eruptions; in the second thousand there have been twelve, the last five occurring in a period of 51 years, as before stated.

Of the entire number of 18 eruptions, the first nine occurred in the so-called "dark ages," that is to say, the 1600 years during which the Western World was dominated by what are commonly termed the "heathen," or by the Roman Church. The remainder have taken place in the last three hundred years, during which the advent and rise of Modern Science, with its materializing tendencies, has driven almost the last vestige of spiritually to the wall, particularly in the last half of the l9th Century. Therefore the eruptions for that period comprise nearly one-third of the total number that have taken place in our Era.

To counteract this demoralizing influence, a great deal of occult information has been given out during that time by the Elder Brothers of Wisdom, who are ever working for the benefit of humanity. It is thought that by giving out this knowledge and educating the few who will still receive it, it may be possible to stem the tide of materialism, which otherwise may bring about very serious consequences to its advocates who, having so long denied the existence of the spiritual, may be unable to find their balance when they discover that though still living, they have been deprived of the dense body. Such persons may meet a fate too sad to contemplate with equanimity. One of the causes of the dread "white plague" is this materialism, not traceable to the present incarnation perhaps, but the result of previous materialistic beliefs and affirmations.

We have spoken of the demise of the elder Pliny, at the time of the destruction of Pompeii. It is interesting to follow the fate of such a scientist, not so much for the sake of that particular individual as for the light it throws upon the manner in which the memory of Nature is read by the occult scientist, how the impressions are made upon it, and the effect of past traits upon present tendencies.

When a man dies, his dense body disintegrates, but the sum total of its forces can be found in the seventh or reflecting stratum of the Earth, which may be said to constitute a reservoir in which, as forces, past forms are stored. If, knowing the time of the death of a man, we search this reservoir, it is possible to find his form there. Not only is it stored in the seventh stratum, but the eighth or atomistic stratum multiplies it, so that any one type may be reproduced and modified by others. Thus it is used over and over again in the formation of other bodies. The brain-tendencies of such a man as Pliny the elder may have been reproduced a thousand years afterwards, and have been partly the cause of the present crop of materialistic scientists.

There is still much for modern, material scientists to learn and to unlearn. Though they fight to the last ditch what they sneeringly term the "illusionary ideas" of the occult scientist, they are being compelled to acknowledge their truth and accept them one by one, and it is only a matter of time when they will have been compelled to accept them all.

Mesmer, who was sent by the Elder Brother, was worse than ridiculed, but when materialists had changed the name of the force discovered by him, calling it "hypnotism" instead of "Mesmerism," it at once became "scientific."

Twenty years ago Madame Blavatsky, a faithful pupil of Eastern Masters, said that the Earth had a third movement, in addition to the two producing day and night and the seasons. She pointed out that the inclination of the Earth's axis is caused by a movement which, in due time, brings the north pole to where the equator is now and still later, to the place now occupied by the south pole. This, she said, was known to the ancient Egyptians, the famous planisphere at Dendera showing that they had records of three such revolutions. These statements, in common with the whole of her unexcelled work, "The Secret Doctrine," were hooted at.

A few years ago, an astronomer, Mr. G. E. Sutcliffe, of Bombay, discovered and mathematically demonstrated that Laplace had made a mistake in his calculations. The discovery and rectification of this error confirmed by mathematical demonstration the existence of the third motion of the Earth, as claimed by Madame Blavatsky. It also afforded an explanation of the theretofore puzzling fact that tropical plants and fossils are found in the polar regions, as such a movement would necessarily produce, in due time, tropical and glacial periods on all parts of the Earth, corresponding to its changed position in relation to the Sun. Mr. Sutcliffe sent his letter and demonstration to Nature, but that journal refused to publish them, and when the author made public the discovery by means of a pamphlet, he drew upon himself an appalling storm of vituperation. However, he is an avowed and a deep student of "The Secret Doctrine," and that explains the hostile reception according his discovery and its inevitable corollaries.

Later, however, a Frenchman, not an astronomer, but a mechanic, constructed an apparatus demonstrating the ample possibility of the existence of such a movement. The apparatus was exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition at Saint Louis, and was warmly endorsed by M. Camille Flammarion, as worthy of investigation. Here was something concrete, something "mechanical," and the editor of The Monist, thought he described the inventor as a man laboring somewhat under "mystic illusions" (because of his belief that the ancient Egyptians knew of this third motion), nevertheless magnanimously overlooked that feature of the case and said that he had not lost faith in M. Beziau's theory on that account. He published an explanation and an essay by M. Beziau, wherein the motion and its effects upon the surface of the Earth were described in terms similar to those used by Madame Blavatsky and Mr. Sutcliffe. M. Beziau is not definitely "billed" as an occultist, therefore his discovery may be countenanced.

Many instances might be cited showing how occult information has been corroborated later by material science. One of them is the atomistic theory, which is advocated in the Greek philosophies and later in "The Secret Doctrine." It was "discovered" in 1897, by Professor Thomson.

In Mr. A. P. Sinnett's valuable work, "The Growth of the Soul," published in 1896, the author stated that there are two planets beyond the orbit of Neptune, only one of which, he thought, would be discovered by modern astronomers. In Nature, for August, 1906, the statement is made that Professor Barnard, through the 36-inch Lick refractor, had discovered such a planet in 1892. There had been no mistake about it, yet he waited fourteen years before he announced his discovery! One need not be concerned about that, however. The main point is that the planet is there, and that Mr. Sinnett's book said so ten years before Professor Barnard's claim to prior discovery. Probably, previous to 1906, the announcement of the newly discovered planet might have tended to disarrange some popularly accepted theory!

There are many such theories. The Copernican theory is not altogether correct, and there are many facts that cannot be accounted for by the lauded Nebular theory alone. Tyco Brahe, the famous Danish astronomer, refused to accept the Copernican theory. He had a very good reason for remaining true to the Ptolemaic theory because, as he said, by it the movements of the planets figured out correctly, while with the Copernican theory, it is necessary to use a table of corrections. The Ptolemaic system is correct from the standpoint of the Desire World, and it has points that are needed in the Physical World.

By many, the statements made in the foregoing pages will be considered fantastic. Be it so. Time will bring to all a knowledge of the facts herein set forth. This book is only for the few who, having freed their minds from the shackles of orthodox science and religion, are ready to accept this until they have proven it wrong.
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

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PART 1 OF 2

Chapter 19: Christian Rosenkreuz and the Order of Rosicrucians

Ancient Truths in Modern Dress


Having encountered among the public a widespread desire to learn something of the Order of Rosicrucians, and as there is a lack of understanding of the important place occupied by the Brothers of the Rose Cross in our Western civilization, even among our students, it may be well to furnish authentic information upon the subject.

Everything in the world is subject to law, even our evolution is thus encompassed; spiritual and physical progression go hand in hand. The sun is the physical light bringer and, as we know, it apparently travels from east to west bringing light and life to one part of the earth after another. But the visible sun is only a part of the sun as the visible body is a small part of composite man. There is an invisible and spiritual sun whose rays promote soul growth upon one part of the earth after another as the physical sun promotes the growth of form, and this spiritual impulse also travels in the same direction as the physical sun; from east to west.

Six or seven hundred years B.C., a new wave of spirituality was started near the western shores of the Pacific Ocean to give enlightenment to the Chinese nation, and the religion of Confucius is embraced to this day by many millions in the celestial kingdom. Later we note the effect of this wave in the religion of Buddha, a teaching designed to stir the aspirations of millions of Hindus and western Chinese. In its westward course, it appears among the more intellectual Greeks in the lofty philosophies of Pythagoras and Plato, and at last it sweeps over the western world, among the pioneers of the human race, where it takes the lofty form of the Christian religion.

The Christian religion has gradually worked its way to the westward, even to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and thither the spiritual aspirations are being massed and concentrated. There they will reach a point of culmination, prior to taking a new leap across the ocean and inaugurating a higher and more lofty spiritual awakening in the Orient than now exists in that part of the earth.

Just as day and night, summer and winter, ebb and flood, follow each other in unbroken sequence according to the law of alternating cycles, so also the appearance of a wave of spiritual awakening in any part of the world is followed by a period of material reactions, so that our development may not become one-sided.

Religion, Art and Science are the three most important means of human education, and they are a trinity in unity which cannot be separated without distorting our viewpoint of whatever we may investigate. True Religion embodies both science and art, for it teaches a beautiful life in harmony with the laws of nature.

True Science is artistic and religious in the highest sense, for it teaches us to reverence and conform to laws governing our well-being and explains why the religious life is conducive to health and beauty.

True Art is as educational as science and as uplifting in its influence as religion. In architecture we have a most sublime presentation of cosmic lines of force in the universe. It fills the spiritual beholder with a powerful devotion and adoration born of an awe-inspiring conception of the overwhelming grandeur and majesty of Deity. Sculpture and painting, music and literature, inspire us with a sense of transcendent loveliness of God, the immutable source and goal of all this beautiful world.

Nothing short of such an all-embracing teaching will answer the needs of humanity permanently. There was a time, even as late as Greece, when Religion, Art and Science were taught unitedly in Mystery temples. But it was necessary to the better development of each that they should separate for a time.

Religion held sole sway in the so-called "dark ages." During that time it bound both Science and Art hand and foot. Then came the period of Renaissance, and Art came to the fore in all its branches. Religion was strong as yet, however, and Art was only too often prostituted in the service of Religion. Last came the wave of modern Science, and with iron hand it has subjugated Religion.

It was a detriment to the world when Religion shackled Science. Ignorance and Superstition caused untold woe, nevertheless man cherished a lofty spiritual ideal then; he hoped for a higher and better life. It is infinitely more disastrous that Science is killing Religion, for now even Hope, the only gift of the gods left in Pandora's box, may vanish before Materialism and Agnosticism.

Such a state cannot continue. Reaction must set in. If it does not, Anarchy will rend the Cosmos. To avert a calamity, Religion, Science and Art must reunite in a higher expression of the Good, the True and the Beautiful, than obtained before the separation.

Coming events cast their shadows before, and when the Great Leaders of humanity saw the tendency towards ultra-materialism which is now rampant in the Western World, they took certain steps to counteract and transmute it at the auspicious time. They did not wish to kill the budding Science as the latter has strangled Religion, for they saw the ultimate good which will result when an advanced Science has again become the co-worker of Religion.

A spiritual Religion, however, cannot blend with a materialistic Science any more than oil can mix with water. Therefore steps were taken to spiritualize Science and make Religion scientific.

In the thirteenth century a high spiritual teacher, having the symbolical name Christian Rosenkreuz -- Christian: Rose: Cross -- appeared in Europe to commence that work. He founded the mysterious Order of Rosicrucians with the object of throwing occult light upon the misunderstood Christian Religion and to explain the mystery of Life and Being from the scientific standpoint in harmony with Religion.

Many centuries have rolled by since the birth, as Christian Rosenkreuz, of the Founder of the Rosicrucian Mystery School, and by many his existence is even regarded as a myth. But his birth as Christian Rosenkreuz marked the beginning of a new epoch in spiritual life of the Western World. That particular Ego has also been in continuous physical existence ever since, in one or another of the European Countries. He has taken a new body when his successive vehicles have outlived their usefulness, or circumstances rendered it expedient that he changes the scene of his activities. Moreover, he is embodied today -- an Initiate of high degree, an active and potent factor in all affairs of the West -- although unknown to the World.

He labored with the Alchemists centuries before the advent of modern science. He, through an intermediary, inspired the now mutilated works of Bacon. Jacob Boehme and others received through him the inspiration which makes their works so spiritually illuminating. In the works of the immortal Goethe, and the masterpieces of Wagner, the same influence meets us. All undaunted spirits who refuse to be fettered by either orthodox science or orthodox religion, who fling away the husks and penetrate to the spiritual kernel regardless of vilification or of flattery, draw their inspiration from the same fountain as did and does the great spirit which animated Christian Rosenkreuz.

His very name is an embodiment of the manner and the means by which the present day man is transformed into the Divine Superman. This symbol,

"Christian Rosen Kreuz"

[The] Christian Rose Cross, shows the end and aim of human evolution, the road to be traveled, and the means whereby that end is gained. The black cross, the twining green stem of the plant, the thorns, the blood red roses -- in these is hidden the solution of the World Mystery -- Man's past evolution, present constitution, and particularly the secret of his future development.

It hides from the profane, but reveals to the Initiate the more clearly how he is to labor day by day to make for himself that choicest of all gems, the Philosopher's Stone -- more precious than the Kohinoor; nay, than the sum of all earthly wealth! It reminds him how mankind, in its ignorance, is hourly wasting the actual concrete material that might be used in the formation of this priceless treasure.

To keep him steadfast and true through every adversity, the Rose cross holds aloft, as an inspiration, the glorious consummation in store for him that overcometh, and points to Christ as the Star of Hope, the "first fruits," Who wrought this marvelous Stone while inhabiting the body of Jesus.

Upon investigation it has been found that there was in all systems of Religion a teaching reserved for the Priest-craft and not given to the multitude. The Christ also spoke to the multitude in parables, but explained the inner meaning of these parables to the disciples, to give them an understanding more suited to their developed minds.

Paul gave "milk" to the babes or younger members of the community, but "meat" to the strong who had studied more deeply. Thus there has always been an inner and an outer teaching, and this inner teaching was given in so-called Mystery Schools which have changed from time to time to suit the needs of the people among whom they were designed to work.

The Order of Rosicrucians is not merely a secret society; it is one of the Mystery Schools, and the Brothers are Hierophants of the lesser Mysteries, Custodians of the Sacred Teachings and a spiritual Power more potent in the life of the Western World than any of the visible Governments, though they may not interfere with humanity so as to deprive them of their free will.

As the path of development in all cases depends upon the temperament of the aspirant, there are two paths, the mystic and the intellectual. The Mystic is usually devoid of intellectual knowledge; he follows the dictates of his heart and strives to do the will of God as he feels it, lifting himself upward without being conscious of any definite goal, and in the end he attains knowledge. In the middle ages people were not as intellectual as we are nowadays, and those who felt the call of a higher life usually followed the mystic path. But in the last few hundred years, since the advent of modern science, a more intellectual humanity has peopled the earth; the head has completely overruled the heart, materialism has dominated all spiritual impulse and the majority of the thinking people do not believe anything they cannot touch, taste or handle. Therefore, it is necessary that appeal should be made to their intellect in order that the heart may be allowed to believe what the intellect has sanctioned. As a response to this demand, the Rosicrucian Mystery teachings aim to correlate scientific facts to spiritual verities.

In the past, these have been kept secret from all but a few Initiates, and even today they are among the most mysterious and secret in the Western World. All so-called "discoveries" of the past which have professed to reveal the Rosicrucian secrets, have been either fraudulent, or the result or treachery upon the part of some outsider who may, accidentally or otherwise, have overheard fragments of conversation, unintelligible to all but those who have the key. It is possible to live under the same roof and on terms of the closest intimacy with an Initiate of any school, yet his secret will always remain hidden in his breast until the friend has reached the point where he can become a Brother Initiate. The revealing of secrets does not depend upon the Will of the Initiate, but upon the qualifications of the aspirant.

Like all other Mystery Orders, the Order of Rosicrucians is formed on cosmic lines: If we take balls of even size and try how many it will take to cover one and hide it from view, we shall find that it will require 12 to conceal a thirteenth ball. The ultimate division of physical matter, the true atom, found in interplanetary space, is thus grouped in twelve around one. The twelve signs of the Zodiac enveloping our Solar System, the twelve semi-tones of the musical scale comprising the octave, the twelve Apostles who clustered around the Christ, etc., are other examples of this grouping of 12 and 1. The Rosicrucian Order is therefore also composed of 12 Brothers and a 13th.

There are other divisions to be noted, however. We have seen that of the Heavenly Host of twelve Creative Hierarchies who were active in our scheme of evolution, five have withdrawn to liberation, leaving only seven to busy themselves with our further progress. It is in harmony with this fact that the man of today, the indwelling Ego, the microcosm, works outwards through seven visible orifices in his body: 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils and a mouth, while five more orifices are wholly or partially closed, the mammae, the umbilicus and two excretory organs.

The seven roses which garnish our beautiful emblem and the five pointed radiating star behind, are emblematical of the twelve Great Creative Hierarchies which have assisted the evolving human spirit through the previous conditions as mineral, plant and animal, when it was devoid of self-consciousness and unable to care for itself in the slightest degree. Of these twelve hosts of Great Beings, three classes worked upon and with man of their own free wills and without any obligation whatever.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1909/11. Teachings present the mysteries, in the form of esoteric knowledge, of which Christ spoke in Matthew 13:11 and Luke 8:10. The Fellowship seeks to prepare the individual through harmonious development of mind and heart in a spirit of unselfish service to mankind and an all-embracing altruism. According to it the Rosicrucian Order was founded in the year 1313 and is composed of twelve exalted Beings gathered around a thirteenth, Christian Rosenkreuz. These great Adepts have already advanced far beyond the cycle of rebirth; their mission is to prepare the whole wide world for a new phase in religion—which includes awareness of the inner worlds and the subtle bodies, and to provide safe guidance in the gradual awakening of man's latent spiritual faculties during the next six centuries toward the coming Age of Aquarius.

-- Rosicrucianism, by Wikipedia


The gospel of the Egyptians is one of the apocryphal gospels that features a dialogue between Christ and Salome. Christ states that he has come to undo the work of the female, namely, lust, birth, and decay. To Salome's question of how long shall death prevail, Christ answered, as long as women bear children.

-- The Red Book: Liber Novus, by C.G. Jung


Image

"Bleeding Roses," by Salvador Dali


These are symbolized by the three points in the star upon our emblem which points upwards. Two more of the Great Hierarchies are upon the point of withdrawal, and these are pictured in the two points of the star which radiate downward from the center. The seven roses reveal the fact that there are still seven Great Creative Hierarchies active in the development of the beings upon earth, and as all of these various classes from the smallest to the greatest are but parts of One Great Whole whom we call God, the whole emblem is a symbol of God in manifestation.

The Hermetic axiom says: "As above so below," and the lesser teachers of mankind are also grouped upon the same cosmic lines of 7, 5 and 1. There are upon earth seven schools of the lesser Mysteries, five of the Greater Mysteries and the whole is grouped under one Central Head Who is called the Liberator.

In the Order of Rosicrucians, seven Brothers go out into the World whenever occasion requires; appearing as men among other men or working in their invisible vehicles with or upon others as needed; yet it must be strictly kept in mind that they never influence people against their will or contrary to their desires; but only strengthen good wherever found.

The remaining five Brothers never leave the temple; and though they do possess physical bodies, all their work is done from the inner Worlds.

The Thirteenth is Head of the Order, the link with a higher Central Council composed of the Hierophant of the Greater Mysteries, who do not deal with ordinary humanity at all, but only with graduates of the lesser Mysteries.

The Head of the Order is hidden from the outside world by the twelve Brothers, as the central ball mentioned in our illustration. Even the pupils of the School never see him, but at the nightly Services in the Temple His presence is felt by all, whenever He enters, and is the signal for the commencement of the ceremony.

Gathered around the Brothers of the Rose Cross, as their pupils, are a number of "lay brothers"; people who live in various parts of the Western World, but are able to leave their bodies consciously, attend the services and participate in the spiritual work at the temple; they having each and every one been "initiated" in the method of so doing by one of the Elder Brothers. Most of them are able to remember all that happens, but there are a few cases where the faculty of leaving the body was acquired in a previous life of well-doing and where a drug habit or a sickness contracted in the present existence has unfitted the brain to receive impression of the work done by the man when away.

Initiation

The general idea of initiation is that it is merely a ceremony which makes one a member of a secret society; that it may be conferred upon anyone willing to pay a certain price, a sum of money in most cases.

While that is true of the so-called initiation of fraternal orders and also in most pseudo-occult orders, it is altogether an erroneous idea when applied to initiations into various degrees of truly occult Brotherhoods, as a little understanding of the real requirements and of their reasonableness will readily make clear.

In the first place, there is no golden key to the temple; merit counts but not money. Merit is not acquired in a day; it is the cumulative product of past good action. The Candidate for initiation is usually totally unconscious that he is a candidate, he is usually living his life in the community and serving his fellow man for days and years without any ulterior thought, until one day there appears in his life the teacher, a Hierophant of the lesser Mysteries appropriate to the country in which he resides. By this time, the candidate has cultivated within himself certain faculties, stored up certain powers for service and help, of which he is usually unconscious, or which he does not know how to properly utilize. The task of the initiator will now be plain; he shows the candidate the latent faculties, the dormant powers, and initiates him into their use, explains or demonstrates to him for the first time how the candidate may awaken the static energy into dynamic power.

Initiation may be accomplished by a ceremony, or not, but let it be particularly observed, that while Initiation is the inevitable culmination of prolonged spiritual endeavor, whether conscious or the reverse upon the part of the candidate, it can positively never take place till the requisite inner development has accumulated the latent powers which Initiation teaches how to use dynamically, any more than pulling the trigger can cause an explosion in a gun that has not first been loaded.

Neither is there any danger that the teacher may overlook anyone who has attained the requisite development. Each good and unselfish deed increases the luminosity and vibrant power of the candidate's aura enormously, and as surely as the magnet attracts the needle, so will the brilliancy of that auric light bring the teacher.

It is, of course, impossible to describe in a book intended for the general public the stages of the Rosicrucian Initiation; to do so would be a breach of faith and it would also be impossible for lack of words to adequately express oneself. But it is permissible to give an outline and to show the purpose of initiation.

The lesser Mysteries deal only with evolution of mankind during the Earth Period. In the first three and one-half Revolutions of the life wave around the seven globes, the Virgin Spirits had not yet attained consciousness. In consequence of this fact, we are ignorant of how we came to be as we are today. The candidate is to have light upon that subject, so by the spell of the Hierophants during the period of initiation into the first degree, his consciousness is turned towards that page of the memory of nature bearing the records of the first revolution when we recapitulated the development of the Saturn Period. He is still in full possession of his every-day consciousness; he knows and remembers the facts of twentieth Century life, but he is now consciously watching the progress of the evolving host of Virgin Spirits of which he formed one unit during the Saturn Revolution. Thus he learns how the first steps were taken in the Earth Period towards the goal of attainment which will be revealed to him in a later step.

Having learned the lesson as practically described in Chapter X, the candidate has acquired first-hand knowledge upon this subject and has come into direct touch with the Creative Hierarchies in their work with and upon man; he is therefore able to appreciate their beneficent labors in the World and is in measure able to range himself in line with them; becoming thus far their co-worker.

When the time has arrived for him to take the second degree, he is similarly caused to turn his attention to the conditions of the second Revolution of the Earth Period, and as depicted in the memory of nature; then he watches in full consciousness the progress made at that time by the Virgin Spirits, much as Peter Ibbetson, the hero of a book, "Peter Ibbetson," by George du Maurier; it is well worth reading, for it is a graphic description of certain phases of subconsciousness -- watched his child life during the nights when he "dreamed true." In the third degree he follows the evolution of the third or Moon, Revolution, and in the fourth degree he sees the progress made in the half-Revolution we have made of the fourth.

There is, however, a further step taken in each degree; the pupil sees in addition to the work done in each revolution also the work accomplished in the corresponding Epoch during our present stay upon globe D, the Earth.

During the first degree, he follows the work of the Saturn Revolution and its latest consummation in the Polarian Epoch.

In the second degree, he follows the work of the Sun Revolution and its replica: the Hyperborean Epoch.

During the third degree, he watches the work as performed in the Moon Revolution and sees how that was the basis of life in the Lemurian Epoch.

During the fourth degree, he sees the evolution of the last half Revolution with its corresponding period of time in our present stay on Earth; the first half of the Atlantean Epoch which ended when the dense foggy atmosphere subsided, and the sun first shone upon land and sea; then the night of unconsciousness was over, the eyes of the indwelling Ego were fully opened, and he was able to turn the Light of Reason upon the problem of conquering the World. That was the time when a man as we now know him was first born.

When in the olden system of initiation we hear that the candidate was entranced for a period of three and one-half days, reference is had to the part of initiation just described, and the three and one-half days refer to the stages gone through, they are not by any means days of twenty-four hours; the actual time varies with each candidate, but in all cases he is taken through the unconsciousness development of mankind during the past Revolutions, and when it is said that he is awakened at the time of sunrise on the fourth day, that is the mystical way of expressing that his initiation into the work of the involutionary career of man ceases at the time when the sun rose above the clear atmosphere of Atlantis. Then the candidate is also hailed as a "first-born."

Having become familiar with the road we have traveled in the past, the fifth degree takes the candidate to the very end of the Earth Period, when a glorious humanity is gathering the fruits of this Period and taking it away from the seven globes upon which we evolve during each day of manifestation, into the first of the five dark globes which are our habitation during the Cosmic nights. The densest of these is located in the Region of Abstract Thought, and is in reality the "Chaos" spoken of in Chapter 11 and in the following pages. This globe is also the Third Heaven, and when Paul speaks of being caught up into the Third Heaven and of seeing things there which he could not lawfully reveal, he was referring to the experiences of an equivalent of this fifth degree in the present Rosicrucian Mysteries.

After being shown the end in the fifth degree, the candidate is made acquainted with the means whereby that end is attained during the remaining three and one-half Revolutions of the Earth Period; the four remaining degrees being devoted to his enlightenment in that respect.

By the insight he has thus acquired, he is able to intelligently co-operate with the Powers that work for Good, and thus he will help to hasten the day of our emancipation.

In order to rout a common misconception, we wish to make clear to students that we are not Rosicrucians because we study their teachings, nor does even admission to the temple entitle us to call ourselves by that name. The writer, for instance, is only a lay brother, a pupil, and would under no circumstances call himself a Rosicrucian.

We know well, that when a boy has graduated from grammar school, he is not therefore fitted to teach. He must first go through high school and college, and even then he may not feel the call to be a school teacher. Similarly in the school of life, because a man has graduated from the Rosicrucian Mystery School he is not even then a Rosicrucian. Graduates from the various schools of the lesser mysteries advance into five schools of the greater mysteries. In the first four they pass the four Great Initiations and at last reach the Liberator, where they receive a knowledge concerning other evolutions, and are given the choice of remaining here to assist their brothers or enter other evolutions as Helpers. Those who elect to stay here as helpers are given various positions according to their tastes and natural bent. The Brothers of the Rose Cross are among those Compassionate Ones, and it is a sacrilege to drag the Rosicrucian name in the mire by applying it to ourselves when we are merely students of their lofty teachings.

During the past few centuries the Brothers have worked for humanity in secret; each night at midnight there is a Service at the temple where the Elder Brothers, assisted by the lay brothers who are able to leave their work in the World (for many of them reside in places where it is yet day when it is midnight in the location of the temple of the Rose Cross), gather up from everywhere in the Western World the thoughts of sensuality, greed, selfishness and materialism. These they seek to transmute into pure love, benevolence, altruism and spiritual aspirations sending them back to the World to uplift and encourage all Good. Were it not for this potent source of spiritual vibration, materialism must long ago have totally squelched all spiritual effort, for there has never been a darker age from the spiritual standpoint than the last three hundred years of materialism.

Now the time has come, however, when the method of secret endeavor is to be supplemented with a more direct effort to promulgate a definite, logical, and sequential teaching concerning the origin, evolution and future development of the World and man, showing both the spiritual and the scientific aspect: a teaching which makes no statements that are not supported by reason and logic; a teaching which is satisfying to the mind, for it holds out a reasonable solution to all mysteries; it neither begs nor evades questions and its explanations are both profound and lucid.

But, and this is a very important "But," The Rosicrucians do not regard an intellectual understanding of God and the Universe as an end in itself; far from it! The greater the intellect, the greater the danger of its misuse. Therefore, this scientific, logical, and exhaustive teaching is given in order that man may believe in his heart that which his head has sanctioned, and start to live the religious life.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship

In order to promulgate this teaching, the Rosicrucian Fellowship has been formed, and anyone who is not a hypnotist, professional medium, clairvoyant, palmist, or astrologer, may enroll as a Preliminary Course Student by writing to the General Secretary. There is no fee for Initiation, or dues. Money cannot buy our teaching, advancement depends on merit.

After completing the Preliminary Course, one is put on the Regular Student list for a period of two years, after which if he has become so imbued with the verity of the Rosicrucian teachings that he is prepared to sever his connection with all other occult or religious orders -- the Christian Churches and Fraternal Orders are excepted -- he may assume the Obligation which admits him to the degree of Probationer.

We do not mean to insinuate by the foregoing clause that all other schools of occultism are of no account -- far from it -- many roads lead to Rome, but we shall attain with much less effort it we follow one of them than if we zigzag from path to path. Our time and energy are limited in the first place, and are still further curtailed by family and social duties not to be neglected for self-development. It is to husband the minim of energy which we may legitimately expend upon ourselves, and to avoid waste of the scanty moments at our disposal, that resignation from all other Orders is insisted upon by the leaders.

The world is an aggregate of opportunities, but to take advantage of any one of them we must possess efficiency in a certain line of endeavor. Development of our spiritual powers will enable us to help or harm our weaker brothers. It is only justifiable when efficiency in Service of Humanity is the object.

The Rosicrucian method of attainment differs from other systems in one especial particular: It aims, even at the very start, to emancipate the pupil from dependence upon others, to make him Self-Reliant in the very highest degree, so that he may be able to stand alone under all circumstances and cope with all conditions. Only one who is thus strongly poised can help the weak.

When a number of people meet in a class or circle for self-development along Negative lines, results are usually achieved in a short time on the principle that it is easier to drift with the tide than to breast the current. The medium is not master of his actions, however, but the slave of a spirit control. Hence such gatherings must be shunned by Probationers.

Even classes which meet in positive attitude of mind are not advised by the Elder Brothers, because the latent powers of all members are massed, and visions of the inner worlds obtained by anyone there, are partly due to the faculties of others. The heat of coal in the center of a fire is enhanced by surrounding coals, and the clairvoyant produced in a circle, be it ever so positive, is a hot-house plant, too dependent himself to be trusted with the care of others.

Therefore each Probationer in the Rosicrucian Fellowship performs his exercises in the seclusion and privacy of his room. Results may be obtained more slowly by the system, but when they appear, they will be manifest as powers cultivated by himself, useable independently of all others. Besides, the Rosicrucian methods build character at the same time that they develop spiritual faculties, and thus safeguard the pupil against yielding to temptation to prostitute divine powers for worldly prestige.

When the Probationer has complied with the necessary requirements and completed the term of probation, he may send request for individual instruction by the Elder Brothers through the General Secretary.

The International Headquarters of the Rosicrucian Fellowship

Having formed the Rosicrucian Fellowship for the purpose of promulgating the teaching given in this book, and aiding aspirants on the path of progression, it became necessary to find a permanent home and facilities requisite for doing this work. To this end a tract of land was purchased in the town of Oceanside, CA, ninety miles south of Los Angeles and forty miles north of San Diego, the southwestern-most city of the United States.

This tract occupies a commanding site, having a most wonderful view of the great Pacific Ocean to the west and the beautiful snow capped mountains in the east.

Southern California offers exceptional opportunities for spiritual growth, because of the ether atmosphere being denser than in any other part of the world and Mount Ecclesia, as the Rosicrucian Fellowship Headquarters are called, is particularly favored in this respect.

Our Buildings

The work at Headquarters was begun toward the end of 1911. To date (1973) numerous buildings have been erected, some of which now no longer exist. The Pro-Ecclesia, or Chapel, in which two 15-minute services have been held daily since its dedication in December, 1913, was thoroughly renovated in 1962. A devotional service with lecture continues to be conducted on Sundays. A two-story Administration Building was completed in 1917, and renovated in 1962. On the second floor are offices for the various departments: Esoteric, Correspondence Courses, Editorial, Foreign Languages, and Accounting. On the first floor are the Shipping Department and the Print Shop, where Lessons, Rays, pamphlets, etc., are printed. An offset press was installed in 1972.

The Dining Hall was built in 1914, added to in the late 30's, and renovated in 1962. Vegetarian meals are served. The Healing Temple, where a healing service is conducted each evening, was completed in 1920. Rose Cross Lodge was built in 1924, for the use of guests and workers. It is now used largely for storing books. The Sanitarium Building was opened in 1939 and used for a number of years to treat patients suffering from non-contagious diseases. It is now our Guest House, used by workers and members. Numerous cottages built since 1962, and some renovated ones provide living quarters for workers. The Healing Dept. Building was erected in 1940. Here secretaries conduct our healing work.
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Re: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel

Postby admin » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:38 pm

PART 2 OF 2

The Correspondence School

In addition to publications of The Rosicrucian Fellowship noted elsewhere, there are three correspondence courses offered on a freewill basis: Rosicrucian Philosophy, Bible Interpretation, and Astrology. Information concerning these is furnished upon request.

The Symbolism of the Rose Cross

Image

When inquiring into the meaning of any myth, legend, or symbol of occult value, it is an absolute necessity that we should understand that, as any object in the three-dimensional world may, or rather must, be viewed from all points to obtain a full and complete comprehension thereof, so all symbols have a number of aspects. Each viewpoint reveals a different phase from the others, and all have an equal claim to consideration.

Viewed in its fullness, this wonderful symbol contains the key to man's past evolution, his present constitution, and future development, together with the method of attainment. In the form where it is represented with a single rose in the center, it symbolizes the spirit radiating from itself the four vehicles: the dense, vital and desire bodies plus the mind; where the spirit has drawn into its instruments and become the indwelling human spirit. But there was a time when that condition did not obtain, a time when the three-fold spirit hovered above its vehicles and was unable to enter. Then the cross stood alone without the rose, symbolizing the condition which prevailed in the early third of Atlantis. There was even a time when the upper limb of the cross was lacking, and man's constitution was represented by the Tau (T) that was in the Lemurian epoch when he had only the dense, vital and desire bodies, but lacked the mind. Then the animal nature was paramount. Man followed desire without reserve. At a still earlier time, in the Hyperborean Epoch, he was also minus the desire body and possessed only the dense and vital bodies. Then man-in-the-making was like the plants: chaste and devoid of desire. At that time his constitution could not have been represented by a cross. It was symbolized by a straight shaft, a pillar (I).

This symbol has been considered phallic, an emblem showing the licentiousness of the people who worshiped it. Truly it is a symbol of generation, but generation is by no means synonymous with degradation -- far from it -- the pillar is the lower limb of the cross, symbolical of man-in-the-making when he was plantlike. The plant is unconscious of passion, desire, innocent of evil. It generates and perpetuates its species in a manner so pure, so chaste, that properly understood, it is a model for fallen and passionate humanity to worship as an ideal, and it was given to earlier races with that intent. The Phallus and Yona used in the Greek mystery temples were given by the hierophants in that spirit, and over the temple was placed the enigmatical words: "Man, know thyself," which motto, properly understood, is similar to that of the Rose Cross, for it shows the reason for man's fall into desire, passion and sin, and gives the key to his liberation in the same way that the roses upon the cross indicate the path of liberation.

The plant is innocent, but not virtuous; it has neither desire not choice. Man has both. He may follow desire or not as he wishes, that he may learn to master himself.

While he was plant-like, a hermaphrodite, he could generate from himself without the help of another, but though he was as chaste and as innocent as the plants, he was also as unconscious and inert. In order to advance he must have desire to spur him on, and a mind to guide him, and therefore half his creative force was retained for the purpose of building a brain and a larynx. He had at that time a round shape similar to that of the embryo, and the present larynx was a part of the creative organ which adhered to the head when the body straightened out. The connection between the two is seen even today in the fact that the boy, who expresses the positive pole of the generative force, changes his voice at puberty. That the same force which builds another body when it is sent outwards builds the brain when retained is equally clear when we consider that sex mania leads to insanity, while the profound thinker will feel little inclination for amorous practices. He uses all his creative force to generate thought instead of wasting it in sense gratification.

At the time when man commenced to withhold half his creative force for the above mentioned purpose, his consciousness was directed inwards to build organs. He was capable of seeing these organs and he used the same creative force then under the direction of Creative Hierarchies in planning and in executing plans of organs, that he now uses in the outer world to build airships, houses, automobiles, telephones, etc. Then he was unconscious of how that half of the creative force was used which was sent outwards for generation of another body.

Generation was carried on under the guidance of Angels. At certain times of the year, they herded the growing man together in great temples and there the generative act was performed. Man was unconscious of the fact. His eyes had not yet been opened, and though it was necessary for him to have a partner who had the half or other pole of the creative force available for generation which he retained to build organs within, he did not at first know his wife. In ordinary life he was shut within himself so far as the Physical World was concerned, but it was different when he was brought into such intimate and close touch with another, as in the case of the generative act. Then for the moment the spirit pierced the veil of flesh and Adam knew his wife. He had ceased to know himself -- thus his consciousness became more and more and more centered outside himself in the outside world and he lost his inner perception. That cannot be fully regained until he has passed to the stage where it is no longer necessary to have a partner in generation, and he has reached the development where he can again utilize his whole creative force at will. Then he will again know himself as he did during his stage of plant-like existence, but with this all important difference that he will use his creative faculty consciously, and will not be restricted to using it solely for the pro-creation of his own species, but may create whatever he will. Neither will he use his present organs of generation, but the larynx will speak the creative word as directed by the spirit through the coordinating mechanism of the brain. Thus the two organs built by half the creative force will in time be the means whereby man will eventually become an independent self-conscious creator.

Even at the present time man molds matter both by thought and voice, as instanced in scientific experiments where thoughts have created an image on photographic plates, and where the human voice has created geometrical figures in sand, etc. In proportion as man becomes unselfish, he will release the creative force held in leash. That will give him added thought power and enable him to utilize it for upliftment of others instead of to plan how to degrade and subject others to his will. He will learn how to master himself and cease to try to master others, except it be done temporarily for their good, but never for selfish ends. Only one who has mastered himself is qualified to rule others, and competent to judge when that should be done, and what is best for them.

Thus we see that in time the present passionate mode of generation will be again superseded by a pure and more efficient method than the present, and that also is symbolized in the Rose Cross where the rose is placed in the center between the four arms. The long limb represents the body, the two horizontals, the two arms, and the short upper limb, the head. The rose is in place of the larynx.

The rose, like any other flower, is the generative organ of the plant. Its green stem carries the colorless, passionless plant blood. The blood red rose shows the passion filled blood of the human race, but in the rose the vital fluid is not sensuous, it is chaste and pure. Thus it is an excellent symbol of the generative organ in the pure and holy state to which man will attain when he has cleansed and purified his blood from desire, when he has become chaste, pure and Christ-like.

Therefore the Rosicrucians look ardently forward to the day when the roses shall bloom upon the cross of humanity, therefore the Elder Brothers greet the aspiring soul with the words of the Rosicrucian Greeting: "May the Roses bloom upon your Cross," and therefore the greeting is given in the meetings of the Fellowship Centers by the leader to the assembled students, probationers and disciples who respond to the greeting by saying "And on yours, also."

John speaks of his purification (1st epistle, iii, 9) and says that he who is born of God cannot sin, for he keepeth his seed within him. It is an absolute necessity to progress that the aspirant should be chaste. Yet it must be borne in mind, that absolute celibacy is not required of man until he has reached a point where he is ready for the great initiations, and that it is a duty we owe to the whole to perpetuate the race. If we are mentally, morally, physically and financially able, we may approach the act of generation as a holy sacrifice laid upon the altar of humanity, but not for sensual pleasure. Neither should it be performed in an austere, forbidding frame of mind, but in glad giving up of oneself for the privilege of furnishing a friend seeking rebirth with the body and environment he needs for development. Thus we shall also help him cultivate the blooming roses upon his cross.

CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE FELLOWSHIP TEACHINGS

Although the word "Rosicrucian" is used by several organizations, The Rosicrucian Fellowship has no connection with any of them.

In the years 1907-08, after being tested for sincerity of purpose and selfless desire to aid his fellowmen, Max Heindel was selected by the Brothers of the Rose Cross to give out publicly the Western Wisdom Teachings, and thus help prepare humanity for the coming Age of Universal Brotherhood. By means of intense self-discipline and devotion to service, he earned the status of Lay Brother (Initiate) in the exalted Rosicrucian Order.

Under the direction of the Brothers of the Rose Cross, spiritual giants of the human race, Max Heindel wrote The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, an epoch-making book which has now become the Western World's leading textbook on occultism. By means of his own spiritual development, he was able to verify for himself much that was given in the Cosmo-Conception, as well as to gain additional knowledge that later become embodied in his numerous books.

One of the basic conditions on which the Western Wisdom Teachings were given to Max Heindel, was that no price should be set on them. This condition was faithfully observed by him to the end of his life, and has since been carefully observed by those directing the affairs of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. Although the Fellowship books are sold, the correspondence courses and the service of our Healing Department have been kept on the free will offering plan. There are no membership fees.

WHAT IS TRUTH?

Pilate asked the question "What is Truth?" and being incapable of knowing from within, he received no answer.

Christ Jesus said: "The Truth shall make you free," and Plato, with mystic intuition, said "God is Truth, and Light is His shadow." John said "God is Light," and as he was closer to the Master than the other disciples, he undoubtedly received teaching higher than the others were capable of receiving. We must remember that it matters not how much truth there may be, it is not for us unless we can receive it. Everyone may see the beauty of the numerous shades of light and color all about us, except those with the affliction of blindness. He who cannot perceive the world of color around him is poor indeed. So it is with Truth. Truth is everywhere, and can always be found if we are capable of perceiving it. In the exercises of the Rosicrucian Fellowship (Retrospection and concentration), we have been given a splendid means of coming in touch with Truth.

Plato and John said, "God is Light," and if we go to one of the great observatories, and with the best telescope made, look into space, we see that there is no boundary to light. It is everywhere, and with the symbol of light there expressed there comes the idea of omnipresence and magnitude of the God we worship. John, in the first five verses of his Gospel, says: "In the beginning was the Word," and therein we have a marvelous solution of the problem, for when we go back to the beginning, we are in the realm of Truth.

At the present time we have sunk into matter, and are incapable of coming into contact with that truth directly, but when we go back in thought to the beginning of things, then we are in thought with God and more capable of recognizing the Truth. Plato spoke of a time when "there was darkness." The Old Testament tells about darkness, that state of primordial matter, or "Arche," given form by God, the Grand Architect, the primordial Builder of the universe.

When we think of the One who built things in the beginning, we come into contact with Him, with God, in that "arche" in the first sentence of the five verses we take for meditation. In the next few words we come to the second proposition: the Word. The term "Word" is mistranslated in our present Bible, for it is not only "Word," but it is also the thought, the Greek word "Logos" used in that verse meaning both the word and the logical thought back of it. Before there can be a word, there must be a logical thought back of it. Before the word could come into existence, there had to be a thinker; therefore John used the words "in arche" and "Logos." They express what we wish to understand, that in the beginning there was a homogeneous mass of matter, and in that homogeneous matter was God; and God became the "Word," the rhythmic sound that goes out in the universe, and that shapes all things.

Farther on in the five verses is the statement: "in that was life." In the first place there was darkness; no vibration had been sent out into primordial matter, and there must of necessity have been darkness. But the first thing that comes into existence, we are told, is light, and light and sound are synonymous from the higher point of view. Some people, who are sensitive, never hear a sound without seeing a flash of light, and never see a flash of light without at the same time hearing a sound. So John writes mystically when he says "in the beginning" -- in the primordial matter -- "was God" and "God was the Word," and in that "was life," and the life became "the light of men."

There we have the abstract truth, as near as we can get it, of the whole problem of creation. Inside the human body there is that light shining unto this day, the light that shines in darkness, the light that is hidden by the veil of Isis, and all around us are Spirits dwelling in darkness, unless through the window of the soul the glories of the universe are revealed. Then we perceive God as light, everything good as light, and the opposite as darkness.

Light is not of one color, however, for there are seven Spirits before the Throne, each one being a light-bearer for a certain ray. Each one of us comes from one of the rays of light, and each one can better respond to one of the rays. Thus we each see Truth differently, and although we are all gradually moving toward the same source, which is God, we have, nevertheless, at different times, different viewpoints. Although we seem to be at variance one with another, yet in those five verses of John's Gospel is Truth: that we are all children of the light. Each one has within the divine spirit of light; each one is gradually learning to know that light, and with the help of the exercises, to express more of that light.

The mystic, as he sees the light of the morning dawn, looks upon it as the daily coming into his soul of the primordial Creative Fiat, "Let there be Light," and as the Light of day progresses and gradually wanes in the western sky, he sees in the glorious tapestry of the sunset a something beyond description by human tongue, a something that can be felt by the soul. If we let those five verses live within us, in the way they do in the mystic, we too, shall know the light, know the truth, as we know nothing else in the world.

We have all trodden the different paths of life at some time. At one time we have walked through Life under the martial ray, and have trodden its path of activity and passion, not caring who suffered or what became of others. In another life we came under the lighter ray of the Venusian color, and trod the path along the love side of life. Later still, the path of the deep blue, or Saturn Ray, and still later the path of the lighter blue or Jupiter Ray. So we all look forward toward the higher perception which comes from the yellow Uranian Ray, though most of us are not at present capable of receiving it, but must be content with the lower deeper yellow of the Mercury Ray. We are all working gradually toward the white light that comes from the Sun, which is the union of all color. To this we must aspire, for the light from any of the other rays is but secondary. From the great central Source come all things.

"And what about the darkness," someone asks, "is that evil?" No, there is nothing evil in God's universe. During the day we perceive by the light of the Sun the glories of this little Earth that swings in space, and perhaps if there were only light, we should perceive nothing beyond this Earth, and remain ignorant that there is more than the Sun and Moon. But when night comes, and the glories of the day have faded, when the Sun no longer illumines the sky, we can realize, to a certain extent at least, the immensity of space. We can see worlds millions and millions of miles away, and the Spirit is incited to wonderful devotion, as we dwell upon the Truth that GOD IS ALL IN ALL. -- Max Heindel.

Addendum B: Footnote to Chapter III

REINCARNATION OR REBIRTH?

Question No. 31: Is it wrong to interfere with karma, or should we assert our divinity and rise above circumstances by affirmation of our Godhood?

Answer: A question like the above was asked Mr. Heindel at one of his recent lectures in Los Angeles, and he answered about as follows: While all great religions are God-given, there is a Western religion for the Western people as well as Hinduism for the people of India, and I can see no good reason why we should copy their terminology and force people here to learn Sanskrit when we have an excellent language of our own, with terms capable of explaining everything. To make the matter clear, we will take an instance which occurred a number of years ago. There was at that time a controversy in a certain society which makes the mistake of promulgating Eastern teachings and using their terms here in the West. The dispute was about the word "Avyaktam".

The four principles of the whole of the infinite cosmos are said to be --

1. The manifested solar system in all its principles and totality constituting the Sthula warira.

2. The Light of the Logos, the Sukshma sarira.

3. The Logis which is the one germ from which the whole cosmos springs, and which contains the image of the universe, stands in the position of the Karana sarira.

4. Parabrahm.

The four principles of the manifested cosmos are enumerated as follows: --

1. Viswanara or the basis of the objective world.

2. Hiranyagarbha or the basis of the astral world.

3. Eshwara or rather Sutratma.

4. Parabrahm.

It is said that regarding this 4th principle "differences of opinion have sprung up, and as for this principle we ought to have, as we have for the cosmos, some particular entity out of which the other three principles start into existence, and which exist in it, and by reason of it, we ought no doubt to accept the Avyaktam or Mulaprakriti of the Sankhyas as this 4th principle? "You must conceive without my going through the whole process of evolution that out of these three principles, having as their foundation Mulprakriti, the whole manifested solar system with all the various objects in it has started into being." Now Mulprakriti is said to be, "veil of Parabrahmam considered from the objective stand point of the Logos." And yet, in the above passages, it is said to be the foundation out of which the three first principles of the manifested solar system, including the Logos, start into existence. Parabrahm would be the proper 4th principle and not Mulaprakriti, out of which the Logos does not and cannot arise. These passages therefore require to be explained.

-- Collection of Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row, published for the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund by Rajaram Tookaram

***
Again, Parabrahmam, after having appeared on the one hand as the Ego, and on the other as Mulaprakrti, acts as the one energy through the Logos. I shall explain to you what I mean by this acting through the Logos by a simile. Of course you must not stretch it very far; it is intended simply to help you to form some kind of conception of the Logos. For instance, the sun may be compared with the Logos; light and heat radiate from it; but its heat and energy exist in some unknown condition in space, and are diffused throughout space as visible light and heat through its instrumentality. Such is the view taken of the sun by the ancient philosophers. In the same manner Parabrahmam radiates from the Logos, and manifests itself as the light and energy of the Logos. Now we see the first manifestation of Parabrahmam is a Trinity, the highest Trinity that we are capable of understanding. It consists of Mulaprakrti, Eswara or the Logos, and the conscious energy of the Logos, which is its power and light; and here we have the three principles upon which the whole cosmos seems to be based. First, we have matter; secondly, we have force -- at any rate, the foundation of all the forces in the cosmos; and thirdly, we have the ego or the one root of Self, of which every other kind of self is but a manifestation or a reflection. You must bear in mind that there is a clear line of distinction drawn between Mulaprakrti, (which is, as it were, the veil thrown over Parabrahmam from the objective point of view of the Logos) and this energy which is radiated from it. Krshna in the Bhagavad Gita, as I shall hereafter point out, draws a clear line of distinction between the two; and the importance of the distinction will be seen when you take note of the various misconceptions to which a confusion of the two has given rise in various systems of philosophy. Now bear in mind that this Mulaprakrti which is the veil of Parabrahmam is called Avyaktam in Sãnkhya philosophy. It is also called Kutastha in the Bhagavad Gita, simply because it is undifferentiated; even the literal meaning of this word conveys more or less the idea that it is undifferentiated as contrasted with differentiated matter. This light from the Logos is called Daiviprakrti in the Bhagavad Gita; it is the Gnostic Sophia and the Holy Ghost of the Christians. It is a mistake to suppose that Krshna, when considered as a Logos, is a manifestation of that Avyaktam, as is generally believed by a certain school of philosophers. He is on the other hand Parabrahmam manifested; and the Holy Ghost in its first origin emanates through the Christos. The reason why it is called the mother of the Christos is this. When Christos manifests himself in man as his Saviour it is from the womb, as it were, of this divine light that he is born. So it is only when the Logos is manifested in man that he becomes the child of this light of the Logos -- this Mãyã; -- but in the course of cosmic manifestation this Daiviprakrti, instead of being the mother of the Logos, should, strictly speaking, be called the daughter of the Logos. To make this clearer, I may point out that this light is symbolised as Gãyatri. You know Gãyatri is not prakrti. It is considered as the light of the Logos, and in order to convey to our minds a definite image, it is represented as the light of the sun. But the sun from which it springs is not the physical sun that we see, but the central sun of the light of wisdom, [hence we do not use in our sandhyavandanam any symbol representing the physical sun.] This light is further called the mahãchaitanyam of the whole cosmos. It is the life of the whole of nature. It will be observed that what manifests itself as light, as consciousness, and as force, is just one and the same energy. All the various kinds of forces that we know of, all the various modes of consciousness with which we are acquainted, and life manifested in every kind of organism, are but the manifestations of one and the same power, that power being the one that springs from the Logos originally. It will have to be surveyed in all these aspects, because the part that it really plays in the cosmos is one of considerable importance. `

-- Philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, by T. Subba Row


Not even the Hindus are certain about the meaning of their terminology. Tons of paper and barrels of ink were used to settle the controversy and the following seems to be the definition upon which they finally compromised: "Avyaktam" is Parabraham clothed in Mulaprakriti, from which its UPAHHIS are made during the Manvantara and into which they are again resolved on arrival of the Arolaya." Mr. Heindel then said that he hoped the audience understood the meaning of "Avyaktam". When the audience laughed and shook their heads, the speaker expressed himself as being sorry for their lack of understanding of such a highly learned explanation, he would try the ordinary, garden variety of English and see if that would explain. "Avyaktam is Deity clothed in Cosmic Root Substance, from which its vehicles are made during the Day of Manifestation and into which they again resolve on arrival of the Cosmic Night."

When the audience had declared they comprehended this explanation, Mr. Heindel said it is the same with the word "karma". Everybody in the U.S. and a large part of the world besides, knows that a "debt of destiny" is without explanation and there are a number of other English words which may be used with better effect than the Hindu word karma, which is meaningless to the majority of Westerners. The speaker also held that such words as "astral" and "incarnation" were out of place because they have been conceived to mean something not warranted. He was sorry that the word "incarnation" had been used in our earliest literature, notably in the Cosmo. The Elder Brothers who gave him the teaching in German always used the word "Wiedergeburt", which means rebirth, and there is a great deal of difference between the two terms which may not appear at first sight.

It is possible for a Spirit to incarnate in an adult body by ousting the owner from his vehicle, by obsessing the body, but when we say rebirth, there is, and can be, only one meaning. In view of these facts he urges upon students never to use the term "incarnation" but always the word rebirth.
_____________________

From The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers, Vol. 2, quoting an article by Mrs. Heindel in the March, 1915 "Echoes".

Addendum C: Footnote to Chapter XIII

The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception was published in 1909. Many of the examples used by Max Heindel were taken from his era using words and definitions from the early twentieth century. Some of the wording in this chapter raises concerns; however, we should not allow this to distract us from the underlying message. The Rosicrucian Teachings promote Universal Brotherhood. We have added this addendum in order to provide additional information relating to Races and Race-religions, and their relationship to spiritual development. Additional references are listed at the end.

Growth never ceases. In the twenty-first century, we can look back and see the tremendous growth that has taken place in our world. These changes have taken place in accordance with spiritual principles outlined in this book.

During the Lemurian Epoch, Jehovah came with His Angels and Archangels and made the first great division into Races, giving to each group the guiding influence of a Race-spirit -- an Archangel. For each virgin spirit he appointed one of the Angels to act as guardian until the individual spirit had grown strong enough to become emancipated from all outside influence. There will be a total of sixteen races. (Cosmo-Conception, page 352)

We must recognize that we are not bodies, or races, but virgin spirits striving for perfection. If, as a virgin spirit, we forget this and identify ourselves with our Race, clinging to it with fanatic patriotism, then there is a great likelihood that we will become enmeshed in and sink with it when our fellow virgin spirits have passed to greater heights on the Path of Attainment. (Cosmo-Conception, page 307)

The reader is requested to note carefully that it is the Forms which degenerate. There is a very important distinction to be kept in mind between the bodies (or forms) of a race, and the spirit which is reborn in those race-bodies. (Cosmo-Conception, page 289)

Max Heindel gives various examples of groups to whom the integrity of the race was insisted upon. He mentions the Jews, and other early nations, as well as the Scots, Vikings, and Germano-Anglo-Saxons. He points out that occult scientists refer to the Sixteen Races as "the sixteen paths to destruction"; and Max Heindel wishes that "the reader may safely pass them all, for their grip is worse than the retardation in the next revolution." (Cosmo-Conception, page 231)

History is full of examples of "man's inhumanity to man". All Races have had individuals who have forgotten their spiritual heritage and have identified themselves with their Race and or Race-religion -- "clinging to it with fanatic patriotism". Max Heindel gives the example of the white races who "have been guilty of fearful oppression against those other races, having in many cases massacred multitudes of the defenseless and unsuspecting natives -- as witness the conduct of the Spaniards towards the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, to specify but one of many instances". (Cosmo-Conception, page 290)

Christ came to prepare the way for the emancipation of humanity from the guidance of the differentiating Race and Family spirits, and to unite the whole human family in One Universal Brotherhood. (Cosmo-Conception, page 352)

Let us be mindful of Max Heindel's words to us:

There's but one thing the world has need to know,
There's but one balm for all our human woe,
There's but one way that leads to heaven above.
That way is Human Sympathy and Love.

For further study:

Page 5, "A Word to the Wise"
Page 223, "Stragglers and Newcomers"
Page 386, "The Lucifer Spirits"
Page 306, "The Sixteen Paths to Destruction"
Page 347, "Guardian Angels"
Page 352, "Mixing Blood in Marriage"
Page 367, "The Evolution of Religion"
Page 383, "Not Peace But A Sword"

Addendum D: Footnote to "Our Buildings"

The work at Headquarters was begun toward the end of 1911. To date (1998) numerous buildings have been erected, some of which now no longer exist. The Pro-Ecclesia, or Chapel, in which two morning and afternoon services have been held daily since its dedication in December, 1913, was thoroughly renovated in 1962. A devotional service with lecture continues to be given on Sundays. A two-story Administration Building was completed in 1917, renovated in 1962, with an addition to the Shipping Department completed in 1976. The second floor provides offices for the Esoteric and Education Departments as well as Foreign Language and Astrology sections. In the earlier days, this floor served as Mr. and Mrs. Heindel's living quarters. On the first floor are the Shipping Department, photography room, bindery and print shop, where monthly lessons, the "Rays" magazine, pamphlets, and some books are printed.

The Dining Hall was built in 1914, added to in the late 30's, renovated in 1962, with a sprouting room added in 1978. Here vegetarian meals are served to the workers and general public. In the Healing Temple, or Ecclesia, a healing service has been conducted each evening since the day of its dedication on Holy Night, December 24, 1920. The Sanitarium Building was opened in 1939 and used for a number of years to treat patients suffering from non-contagious diseases. It is now called the Guest House and is used by workers and Fellowship members as living quarters and visitor accommodations. Numerous cottages have been built and renovated over the years to provide worker residences, the most recent structure being a two-level six-plex completed in 1976.

The Healing Department Building was erected in 1938. Built in the shape of a cross, it contains offices for the secretaries, who respond to requests for spiritual healing, and a healing Chapel in which a healing service is held at 8:45 am Monday through Friday. Adjacent to the Administration Building is a one-story structure containing the Business Offices, which include the Editorial Office for the "Rays from the Rose Cross" magazine (which was published for the first time in 1911 by Mr. Heindel), the Accounting Office, and Retail and Dealer Sales.

The End
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