Filename: RC1030.TXT
Source: "The Mystical Interpretation of Easter" by Max Heindel

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        COMPILED FROM THE NUMEROUS WRITINGS AND LECTURES OF A MYSTIC:

                                  FOREWORD:

   The information contained in this booklet is taken from the lectures  and
writings of Max Heindel, and has been previously published from time to time
either in magazine or book form.  The "Echoes"  (magazine),  first published
by Mr.  Heindel in June,  1913, contains a mine of knowledge and wisdom con-
cerning  this and other important occurrences of mystical  significance.   A
few  chapters  on Easter are also to be found in "Gleanings Of A Mystic" and
"Teachings Of An Initiate."

   This  humble  effort is intended to be an inspiration to those  who  have
glimpsed that Spark of Divine Light and Love,  and who are striving to reach
that ultimate goal which was attained by Christ Jesus two thousand years ago
on  Golgotha.   What He accomplished then is the task that lies before  each
and  every one of us.   When we have surrendered all to the Higher  Self  or
Christ  within us,  then will come the resurrection or  complete  liberation
from matter.  Then we can say with Christ, "It has been accomplished."

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                              THE COSMIC CHRIST:

   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 BE SET US AGAIN.
                                  -Angelus Silesius.

   The  popular song of today in which everybody joins with  enthusiasm  but
which is forgotten tomorrow, the play that goes over the stage for perhaps a
hundred nights in succession to be relegated to dusty shelves forever after,
and all other things which are evanescent, show by that very fact that  they
have  no  intrinsic worth.   The blaze of a shooting star may  illumine  the
heavens for a moment,  but though the others are paler and attract less  at-
tention, their light cheers the traveler night after night through the ages.
Only  the songs that are of the music of which we never tire,  have  a  real
value  in life.   So it is also with recurring cosmic cycles marked  by  the
feasts of the year.   As they come again and again,  they teach us the  same
old lessons from a new point of view.

   The  life  impulse from the Cosmic Christ which entered  the  Earth  last
fall,  came to Mystic birth at Christmas,  performed its wonderful magic  of
fecundation during the months between autumn and spring time,  and liberated
itself from the cross of matter to ascent again to the throne of the Father,
at Easter leaves the Earth clothed in the verdant glory of spring and  ready

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for the physical activities of the summer season.

   As  it is above,  so also below.  The processes which take place  upon  a
larger  scale in the Earth are reproduced also in man.   During  the  months
from  September  to  March  we are  more  thoroughly  impregnated  with  the
spiritual  vibrations which predominate in winter than we can be  under  the
more material condition prevailing in summer.  There comes to us in the fall
a new impulse toward the higher life; it culminates on Holy Night and  works
its magic in our natures according to the way in which we have embraced  our
opportunities.   According to our diligence or dilatoriousness in  the  past
season,  progression will be accelerated or retarded in the next,  for there
is  no truer word than that which teaches us that we are just what  we  have
made  ourselves.   The service we rendered or failed  to  render  determines
whether  a  new opportunity for greater service will give us  added  impulse
heavenward;  and  it cannot be said too often that it is useless  to  expect
liberation  from  the cross of matter until we have used  our  opportunities
here and thus earned a larger sphere of usefulness.  The "nails" which bound
the Christ to the cross of Calvary will fetter you and me until the  dynamic
impulse  of love flows out from us in waves and  rhythmic  swells--like  the
tide of love which yearly enters the Earth and imbues it with renewed life.

   You  know the analogy between man--who enters his vehicles  in  the  day-
time,  lives in them and works through them,  and at night is a free spirit,
free from the fetters of the dense body--and the Christ Spirit  dwelling  in
our Earth a part of the year.   We all know what a fetter and what a  prison
this body is, how we are hampered by disease and suffering, for there is not
one  of us who is always in perfect health so that he or she never  feels  a
pang of pain, at least not one who is on the higher path.

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   It is similar with the Cosmic Christ,  who turns His attention toward our
little Earth,  focusing His consciousness in the planet in order that we may
have life.  He has to enliven this dead mass (which we have crystallized out
of  the Sun) annually;  and it is a fetter,  a clog,  and a prison  to  Him.
Therefore,  it is right and proper that we should rejoice when He  comes  at
Christmas  time each year and is born anew into our world to help us  leaven
this dead lump wherewith which we have encumbered oursleves.   Our hearts at
that time should turn to Him in gratitude for the sacrifice He makes for our
sakes  during  the winter months,  permeating this planet with His  life  to
awaken it from its wintry sleep,  in which it would remain where He not thus
born into it to enliven it.

   During  the  winter  months He suffers  agonies  of  torture,  "groaning,
travailing,  and waiting for the day of liberation," which comes at the time
we  speak of in the orthodox churches as the passion week.   But we  realize
that according to the mystic teachings, this week is just the culmination or
crest of wave of His suffering and that he is then rising out of His prison;
that  when  the Sun cross the equator, He hangs upon the  cross,  and  cries
"Consummatum est!"--"It has  been  accomplished!"  That is to say,  His work
for that day has been accomplished.  It is not a cry of agony,  but a cry of
triumph,  a shout of joy that the hour of liberation has come, and that once
more  He can soar away a little while,  free from the fettering clod of  our
planet.

   The point to which I would like to call your attention is that we  should
rejoice with Him in the great,  glorious,  triumphal hour,  the hour of lib-
eration  when He exclaims,  "It has been accomplished."   Let us attune  our
hearts to this great Cosmic event; let us rejoice with the Christ,  our Sav-
iour,  that the term of His annual sacrifice has once more  been  completed;
and let us feel thankful from the  very  bottom of our hearts that He is now

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about to be freed from the Earth's fetters;  that the life wherewith He  has
now  embued  our planet is sufficient to carry through the  time  till  next
Christmas.

   Nature is the symbolic expression of God.  Therefore if we would know God
we must study nature,  always remembering that there is a purpose behind ev-
ery manifestation; that life is a school, and through learning its many les-
sons  humanity  is slowly evolving from a divine spark to Godhood.   Had  we
learned life's lessons as they were given to us there would have been no ne-
cessity for the great sacrifice which was made and is annually being made by
the Christ Spirit, who is the embodiment of love.  Through selfishness, dis-
obedience  to laws,  and evil practices we were fast crystallizing not  only
our own bodies,  but also the Earth on which we lived, to such a degree that
as means for evolution both were fast becoming unusable.   When nothing else
could  save  us  from the results of our own  wrongdoing  the  compassionate
Christ offered Himself and His great love power to break up the crystallized
condition of man's bodies and the Earth.   For three years He taught mankind
by word, precept, and example.

   When  He was crucified on Golgotha His great sacrifice for  humanity  had
only just begun.  Each year since that time on the twenty-first of September
when  the Sun passes from the zodiacal sign Virgo into the sign  Libra,  the
Christ Spirit returning to our Earth touches its atmosphere.   He starts  on
this downward journey about the twenty-first of June at the summer solstice,
when the Sun enters Cancer.  He reaches the center of our Earth at midnight,
December the twenty-fourth.   There He remains for three days,  and then  He
starts to withdraw.   This withdrawal is completed at Easter.   From  Easter
until  the  summer  solstice He is passing through the  higher  worlds,  and
reaches  the  World  of  Divine  Spirit,  the  throne of the Father, on June

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twenty-first.   During July and August,  while the sun is in Cancer and Leo,
He  is rebuilding His Life Spirit vehicle which He is again to bring to  the
world and with it rejuvenate the Earth and the life kingdoms evolving in and
on  it.   From Christmas until Easter He gives of Himself without  stint  or
measure,  endowing  with life,  not only the sleeping seeds  but  everything
about, on and within the Earth.

   Without this yearly infusion of Divine life and energy, all living things
on our Earth would soon perish, and all orderly progress would be frustrated
so far as our present lines of development are concerned.  It is this germi-
nal activity of the Father's life brought to us by the Christ and fully  de-
livered  by Easter time that starts a renewed growth and augmented  activity
in plant, animal, and man at this particular season of the year.  The Christ
does  not leave the Earth at Easter until He has give of Himself to the  ut-
most.   It  is then that the infusion of His life,  together with  the  more
nearly vertical rays of Sun,  causes the seeds to grow,  the trees to bloom,
and  the birds,  directed by their Group Spirits,  to mate and  build  their
nests.   Mankind is then strengthened and embued with the  necessary  energy
and courage to meet, profit from, and grow by encounters with the varied and
perplexing problems of life.

   For those who have chosen to work knowingly and intelligently with Cosmic
Law,  Easter  has a great significance.   To them it means the  annual  lib-
eration of the Christ Spirit from the cramping confines of the Earth and His
joyful ascent into His true home world, there to remain for a season resting
in  the bosom of the Father.   And if their eyes are truly open they  behold
angelic hosts waiting, ready to accompany Him on His heavenward journey;  if
their ears are attuned to heavenly sounds they hear celestial choirs  chant-
ing His praise in glad hosannas to the risen Lord.

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   To the enlightened ones Easter brings a keen realization of the fact that
all humanity are pilgrims on the Earth,  that the real home of the spirit is
in  the heaven realm,  and that to reach that realm all should  endeavor  to
learn  the lessons in life's school as quickly as possible so that they  may
be  able  to look for the dawn of a day that will permanently  release  them
from  the bondage of the Earth.   Then like the liberated Christ  they  will
come  to a realization of that glorious immortality which is the  reward  of
the perfected Spirit.  To the illuminated ones Easter symbolizes the dawning
of a glad day when all mankind,  as well as the Christ,  will be permanently
freed from the cramping confines of materiality, and will ascent to heavenly
realms to become pillars of strength in the Father's house,  from which they
shall no more go out.

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                       AN EVENT OF MYSTIC SIGNIFICANCE:

   WHITHER I GO,  THOU CANST NOT FOLLOW ME NOW; BUT THOU SHALT FOLLOW ME AF-
TERWARDS .  .  .  . HE THAT BELIEVETH ON ME, THE WORKS THAT I DO SHALL HE DO
ALSO; AND GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL HE DO.

                                                         --John 13:36; 14:12

   Were we to attend an orthodox church on Easter Sunday, we should probably
hear the story of Jesus, the son of God, who had been immaculately conceived
and  who,  at the age of thirty years,  took up a ministry which lasted  for
three years and terminated in crucifixion and death for us; that through his
blood we might be saved.  We should probably also be told that on Easter day
he arose again from the dead and later ascended to the Father,  where he  is
now seated at the right hand of the majesty of God;  thence he shall  return
to judge the living and the dead at the last resurrection.

   But while we know, because of our inability to read the memory of nature,
that Jesus did live and die, that he had a mystic mission of the very great-
est  importance  to human evolution and that the main events of  that  great
life took place substantially as set forth in the gospel,  we know also that
the mission of the Mystic Christ is something infinitely more glorious  than
has ever entered into the hearts of those who know only the orthodox  inter-
pretation of the gospels.

   The  feast  of  the resurrection which we call Easter is,  in  the  first
place,  not  simply  the  resurrection of an individual, but a Cosmic event.

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It  would be foolish in the extreme to celebrate the death and  resurrection
of  an individual which must have taken place on a certain day of the  year,
by  a feast that is movable,  and determined by the position of the Sun  and
Moon in the zodiacal sign Aries, the ram or lamb.

   Each  year  a spiritual wave of vitality enters the Earth at  the  winter
solstice to impregnate the dormant seeds in the frozen ground,  to give  new
life to the world wherein we live,  and this work is done during the  winter
months,  while  the  Sun is passing through the  zodiacal  signs  Capricorn,
Aquarius,  and  Pisces.   Then it crosses the celestial  equator,  from  the
southern  signs  where  it  has been during  the  winter  months,  and  this
cross-over  or crossification,  or crucifixion is now cosmically  associated
with the sun's entrance into the sign ARIES, THE RAM OR LAMB.   Then the Sun
ascends  into the signs of the northern heavens to foster with  its  warming
rays  the growth of the seed in the soil which has been revitalized  by  the
Christic  life wave during the winter months.   Without that  annual  mystic
wave of vital energy from the Cosmic Christ,  physical life would be an  im-
possibility;  with  that there could be no physical bread and wine  nor  the
transubstantiated  spiritual  tincture prepared by alchemy  from  the  heart
blood of the disciple.

   THE LAMB was slain from the foundation of the Arian world epoch in  which
we now live, its blood was the symbol which saved the God-chosen people from
death when they left the mythical Egypt, the home of the worship of the bull
Taurus  or Apis.   From that day it became idolatry for those who  had  been
saved by the blood of the lamb to worship the golden calf, for the old reli-
gions  of the bull Taurus had been superseded by the religion of  the  lamb,
when  the Sun by precession left the sign Taurus and entered  the  celestial
sign Aries,  the lamb or ram.   In the fullness of time when the Sun by pre-
cession had reached seven  degrees  in  the sign of the lamb, Christ came in

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the  body of Jesus to make a new covenant under the seal and symbol  of  the
mystic bread and water of life.  The Lamb of God was about to pass away;  it
did so individually when Christ left the body of Jesus,  and cosmically when
the the Sun by precession left the sign Aries the lamb.  A new symbol had to
be  given to those who were to be messengers during the coming Piscean  age,
hence  He,  Himself,  at that last supper represented the sacrificial  lamb.
The  bread  of life and living water were given as symbols of his  body  and
his blood to be used during the coming age in remembrance of him.  There is,
therefore,  a connection between the mystic wine and the blood, also between
the mystic bread and the body,  which we should understand if we would  know
the true significance of the mystic death and resurrection.

   Appropriate  food  had been given to aid each of the vehicles of  man  in
their evolution.   A vehicle such as our physical body, composed of chemical
compounds,  can be nourished only on a chemical substance, likewise by anal-
ogy,  only spirit can act on spirit, and therefore,  wine was added  to  the
diet  of  man  to  aid him to break up the  heavy  molecules  of  flesh  and
stimulate him in the battle of existence.  This is told in the story of Noah
(Genesis 9:2-20),  who, with his followers, represents humanity in the rain-
bow  age  where a so-called "mixed-diet"  and wine furnish  the  nourishment
needed for the present phase of evolution.

   Fortified  by the flesh-fed mind and the spirit of alcohol man  has  wan-
dered  further and further away from the path of brotherhood,  for while  he
feeds  upon the food of the carnivora he necessarily becomes ferocious as  a
beast of prey, and preys upon all his fellow men by instinct.  The system of
inbreeding  and  marriage  in the clan tied him very firmly  to  his  fellow
tribesmen, however, he did at least show love for them.  Since international

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marriages  have come in vogue and he is becoming emancipated from  the  race
spirit in a measure, he preys upon all men, even upon his own family.  There
are no bounds of selfishness,  nothing is sacred from greed,  and each human
being lives in economic fear of all others.   Moreover,  the cup that cheers
does so only at times--there is  not rest,  no lasting peace or happiness on
the path of passion and self-gratification,  therefore,  there comes a  time
when man desires lasting cessation from sorrow more than anything else,  and
commences  to  seek the path of peace which is also the path of  purity  and
self-abnegation.   Then he is instructed in the mystery of Golgotha,  of the
Cleansing Blood, and the Rose Cross, as follows:

   CLEANSING THE BLOOD FROM EGOISM IS THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA;  IT COMMENCED
WHEN THE BLOOD OF JESUS FLOWED;  IT HAS CONTINUED THROUGH THE WARS OF CHRIS-
TIAN NATIONS WHENEVER MEN FOUGHT FOR AN IDEAL,  AND WILL LAST UNTIL THE HOR-
RORS OF WAR BY CONTRACT HAVE SUFFICIENTLY IMPRESSED MANKIND WITH THE  BEAUTY
OF  BROTHERHOOD.   Beneath us in the scale of evolution are the  plants  and
animals, above us are the gods; anatomically we belong to the animals and in
our  past lives we have lived beneath our status;  like the animals we  have
gratified  our sex desire and our appetite, but while they were held in  re-
straint  by a wise group spirit,  we have exercised no control over our  ap-
petites, hence sickness, sorrow, and suffering have become our portion.  Now
we  aspire to tread the path of peace to the serene bliss of the  gods.   To
attain that we must become like the plants,  which are pure and passionless.
Consider the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple,  also called "The  Tabernacle
in the Wilderness."  When, under that bygone dispensation, flesh offered for
sins was burned on the altar of sacrifice the stench rose to heaven  attest-
ing  the nauseating nature of transgression,  of passion and impurity.   But
within the tabernacle itself stood  the seven branched candlestick where the

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essence of olives burned without disagreeable odor.  All flesh has been con-
ceived in passion and sin,  but the generation of the plant is pure and  im-
maculate.  Therefore, the FRAGRANT FLOWER, particularly the red rose, stands
in  direct symbolical opposition to tainted flesh.   The flower is the  gen-
erative organ of the plant and it tells us that the immaculate organ of  the
plant  and it tells us that the immaculate conception in love and purity  is
the path to peace and progress.   Christ in the final session with His  dis-
ciples took the cup as the symbol of the new covenant,  gave them the  bread
to eat which symbolized His body,  the cup symbolizing his blood.   This was
no ordinary cup in which any liquid might be poured,  nor was it the  liquid
alone which had the potency necessary to ratify the new covenant.   THE MYS-
TERY LIES IN THE FACT THAT THE CUP AND ITS CONTENTS WERE INTEGRAL AND NECES-
SARY PARTS OF ONE SUBLIME WHOLE,  and the Latin name for this mystic cup was
"Calix"; in Greek it was called "Poterion."

   Under  the ancient dispensation water alone was used in the  temple  ser-
vice,  but in time wine became a factor in human evolution.   A God of wine,
Bacchus,  was worshiped and orgies of the wildest nature were held, in order
to  drown  the aspiring spirit,  that it might apply itself to  conquer  the
physical  world.   Even under the Mosaic dispensation the priests  had  been
strictly forbidden to use wine while officiating in the temple,  but Christ,
on His first public appearance, CHANGED WATER TO WINE,  ratifying its use in
the order  of things then existent.   Note,  however,  that THIS WAS DONE IN 
PUBLIC,  and that is was HIS FIRST ACT as a public minister, but AT THE LAST
ESOTERIC  SESSION OF THE CHRIST WITH HIS DISCIPLES,  WHERE THE NEW  COVENANT  
WAS GIVEN,  there no flesh of lamb (Aries), as required under the Mosaic or-
der, neither was there the wine, but only the bread, a vegetable product and
the CUP, of which we shall presently  speak  when  we  have  noted His words

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at the time:   "I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine until I  drink
it with you new in the Kingdom of Heaven."   The newly pressed juice of  the
grape does not contain a spirit of fermentation and decay, but is a pure nu-
tritious plant food,  and thus followers of the esoteric doctrine have  been
instructed by Christ to use non-flesh, non-alcoholic food.

   It  has  generally been supposed that the cup used by the Christ  at  the
Last Supper contained wine,  though as a matter of fact there is no Biblical
foundation for that supposition.   Three accounts are given of the  prepara-
tion for this Passover.   While Mark and Luke state that the messengers were
told  to go into a certain city and look for a man who carried A PITCHER  OF
WATER,  none of the Evangelists say that the cup contained  WINE.   Further-
more, research of the memory of nature shows water was used, and that so far
as the esotericist was concerned wine had had its day.   From that act dates
also the inauguration of the temperance movement,  for these cosmic  changes
involve long preparation in the inner worlds before they become manifest  in
society outwardly.  Thousands of years are as nothing is such processes.

   The use of water at the Last Supper also harmonizes with the astrological
and ethical requirements.   The Sun was leaving Aries, the sign of the Lamb,
for Pisces, the sign of Fishes, A WATERY SIGN.  A new note of aspiration was
to be sounded, a new phase of human upliftment was to be entered upon during
the Piscean Age then approaching.   Self indulgence was to be superseded  by
self denial.   BREAD, the staff of life, which made from immaculately gener-
ated grain, does not feed passions like flesh, neither does our blood,  when
diluted  with WATER surge so passionately as when wine is  imbibed.   There-
fore,  bread  and  water  are fit foods and symbols  of  ideals  during  the
Pisces-Virgo Age.  They represent purity, and the Catholic church  has given

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to its followers the PISCEAN WATER AT THE DOOR of the temple,  and the  VIR-
GINAL  BREAD AT THE ALTAR,  denying them the wine cup at the  service.   But
even the foregoing consideration does not bring us to the heart of the  mys-
tery hidden in the "Cup of the New Covenant."

   The OLD-WINE-CUP,  given to us when we entered Aryana,  the land of  gen-
eration,  was filled with destruction, death and poison,  and the WORD which
we then learned to speak is dead and powerless.

   The  NEW-WINE-CUP,  mentioned as an ideal for the future epoch,  the  New
Galilee (which is not to be confused with the Aquarian Age),  is an  etheric
organ  build within the head and the throat by the unspent sex force,  which
to  the spiritual sight appears as the stem of a flower ascending  from  the
lower part of the trunk.   This calix, or SEED-CUP,  is truly a creative or-
gan, CAPABLE OF SPEAKING THE WORD, LIFE, AND POWER.

   The present word is generated by clumsy muscular motion which adjusts the
larynx,  tongue,  and lips so that the air passing from the lungs makes cer-
tain sounds.   But air is a heave medium,  difficult to move,  in comparison
with nature's finer forces, like electricity, which moves in the ether,  and
when this organ has been evolved it will have the power to speak the word of
Life, to infuse vitality into substances that were hitherto inert.  THIS OR-
GAN WE ARE NOW BUILDING BY SERVICE.

   You will remember that Christ gave not the cup to the multitude,  but  to
His  disciples  who were His messengers and servants of the Cross.   At  the
present  time those who drink from the cup of self-abnegation that they  may
use  the force in the service of others,  are building that organ,  together
with the soul body which is the wedding garment.   They are learning to  use
it in a small way as Invisible Helpers when they are out of their bodies  at
night,  for  then  they  are forced to speak the word of power which removes

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disease and builds in healthy tissues.

   When the Atlantean Age was drawing to a close and mankind left its child-
hood  home where it had been under the direct guidance of the Divine  Teach-
ers,  the old covenant was made, giving them flesh and wine,  and these two,
together with the unrestrained use of the sex force, have made the Aryan Age
an age of death and destruction.   We are now drawing to an end of that era;
we are looking for the Kingdom of Heaven,  the New Galilee,  and in order to
prepare  us for that time Christ has given the BREAD AND THE WATER OF  LIFE,
bidding us at the same time not to lust.   Having given this new covenant He
went  to  the cross of liberation leaving behind Him the  BODY OF DEATH,  to
soar away in a VEHICLE OF LIFE,  the vital body.   He gave His followers the
assurance  that though they could not follow Him them,  where He  went  they
should follow later.   Everyone is a Christ in the making and some day  will
be "Easter" for each of us.

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                        THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER:

   THE WHOLE LIFE OF CHRIST WAS A CROSS AND A MARTYRDOM,  AND DOST THOU SEEK
FOR  THEYSELF REST AND JOY?   THE HIGHER A MAN HATH ADVANCED IN THE  SPIRIT,
THE HEAVIER CROSSES HE WILL OFTEN FIND, BECAUSE THE SORROW OF HIS BANISHMENT
INCREASETH WITH THE STRENGTH OF HIS LOVE.

                                                           --Thomas a Kempis

   On the morning of Good Friday, 1857, Richard Wagner, the master artist of
the  nineteenth century,  sat on the veranda of a Swiss villa by the  Zurich
Sea.   The landscape about him was bathed in most glorious  sunshine;  peace
and good will seemed to vibrate through nature.   All creation was throbbing
with life;  the air was laden with the fragrant perfume of budding pine for-
ests--a grateful balm to a troubled heart of a restless mind.

   Then  suddenly,  as a bolt from an azure sky,  there came  into  Wagner's
deeply  mystic soul a remembrance of the ominous significance of that  day--
the darkest and most sorrowful in the Christian year.  It almost overwhelmed
him with sadness,  as he contemplated the contrast.  There was such a marked
incongruity between the smiling scene before him, the plainly observable ac-
tivity of nature, struggling to renewed life after winter's long sleep,  and
the death  struggle  of  a  tortured Saviour upon a cross; between the full-

[PAGE 1092]

throated chant of life and love issuing from the thousands of little  feath-
ered choristers in forest,  moor, and meadow, and the ominous shouts of hate
issuing  from an infuriated mob as they jeered and mocked the noblest  ideal
the world has ever known;  between the wonderful creative energy exerted  by
nature in spring,  and the destructive element in man,  which slew the  most
noblest character that ever graced our Earth.

   While  Wagner  meditated thus upon the incongruities  of  existence,  the
question presented itself:  Is there any connection between the death of the
Saviour upon the cross at Easter,  and the vital energy which expresses  it-
self so prodigally in spring when nature begins the life of a new year?

   Though  Wagner  did not consciously perceive and realize  the  full  sig-
nificance of the connection between the death of the Saviour and the rejuve-
nation of nature, he had, nevertheless, unwittingly stumbled upon the key to
one  of  the most sublime mysteries encountered by the human spirit  in  its
pilgrimage from clod to God.

   In  the  darkest night of the year,  when Earth sleeps  most  soundly  in
Boreas's cold embrace,  when material activities are at the very lowest ebb,
a wave of spiritual energy carries upon its crest the Divine creative  "word
from  Heaven"  to a MYSTIC BIRTH at Christmas;  and as a luminous cloud  the
spiritual impulse broods over the world that "knew it not' for it "shines in
the darkness" of winter when nature is paralyzed and speechless.

   This Divine creative "Word" has a message and a mission.   It was born to
"save the world," and "to give its life for the world."    It must of neces-
sity  sacrifice its life in order to accomplish the rejuvenation of  nature.
Gradually it BURIES ITSELF IN THE EARTH and commences to infuse its own  vi-
tal  energy into the millions of seeds which lie dormant in the ground.   It
whispers "the word of life"  into  the  ears  of  beast  and bird, until the

[PAGE 1093]

gospel of good news has been preached to every creature.   The sacrifice  is
fully  consummated  by  the time the Sun crosses its Easter(n) node  at  the
spring equinox.   Then the divine creative Word expires.   IT DIES UPON  THE
CROSS AT EASTER in a mystical sense,  while uttering a last triumphant  cry.
"It has been accomplished" (CONSUMMATUM EST).

   But as an echo returns to us many times repeated,  so also the  celestial
song of life is re-echoed from the Earth.   The whole creation takes up  the
anthem.  A legion-tongued chorus repeats it over and over.  The little seeds
in the bosom of Mother Earth commence to germinate; they burst and sprout in
all directions,  and soon a wonderful mosaic of life, a velvety green carpet
embroidered  with multicolored flowers,  replaces the shroud  of  immaculate
wintry  white.   From  the furred and feathered tribes "the  word  of  life"
re-echoes as a song of love, impelling them to mate.   Generation and multi-
plication are the watchwords everywhere--THE  SPIRIT HAS RISEN to more abun-
dant life.

   Thus,  mystically, we may note the annual birth, death,  and resurrection
of  the Saviour as the ebb and flow of a spiritual impulse which  culminates
at the winter solstice, Christmas, and has egress from the Earth shortly af-
ter Easter when the WORD ASCENDS TO HEAVEN on Whitsunday.   But it will  not
remain there forever.  We are taught that "Thence it shall return,"  "at the
judgment."  Thus when the Sun descends below the equator through the sign of
the scales in October,  when the fruits of the year are harvested,  weighed,
and assorted according to their kind,  the descent of the spirit of the  new
year has its inception.  This descent culminates in birth at Christmas.

   Man is a miniature of nature.   What happens on a large scale in the life
of a planet like our Earth,  takes place on a smaller scale in the course of
human events.  A planet is the body of wonderfully great and  exalted Being,

[PAGE 1094]

one of the Seven Spirits before the Throne (of the parent Sun).  Man is also
a  spirit and "made in their likeness."  As a planet revolves in its  cyclic
path around the Sun whence it emanated, so also the human spirit moves in an
orbit around its central source--God.   Planetary  orbits,  being  ellipses,
have  points of closest approach to and extreme deviation from  their  solar
centers.   Likewise  the orbit of the human spirit is  elliptical.   We  are
closest to God when our cyclic journey carries us into the celestial  sphere
of  activity--heaven,  and  were are farthest removed from Him during  Earth
life.   These changes are necessary to our soul growth.  As the festivals of
the  year  mark the recurring events of importance in the life  of  a  Great
Spirit, so our births and deaths are events of periodical recurrence.  It is
as  impossible for the human spirit to remain perpetually in heaven or  upon
Earth as it is for a planet to stand still in its orbit.  The same immutable
law  of periodicity which determines the unbroken sequence of  the  seasons,
the alternation of day and night,  the tidal ebb and flow,  governs also the
progression of the human spirit, both in heaven an upon Earth.

   From realms of celestial light where we live in freedom,  untrammeled  by
limitations of time and space,  where we vibrate in tune with infinite  har-
mony  of the spheres,  we descend to birth in the physical world  where  our
spiritual  sight is obscured by the mortal coil which binds us to this  lim-
ited  phase of our existence.   We live here awhile,  we die and  ascend  to
heave, to be reborn and to die again.  Each Earth life is a chapter in a se-
rial life story,  extremely humble in its beginnings,  but increasing in in-
terest  and importance as we ascend to higher and higher stations  of  human
responsibility.   No limit is conceivable, for inessence we are divine,  and
must,  therefore,  have the infinite possibilities of  God  dormant  within.
When we have learned all that  this  world has to teach us, a wider orbit, a

[PAGE 1095]

larger sphere of superhuman usefulness will give scope to our greater  capa-
bilities.

   "But what of Christ?" someone will ask.  "Don't you believe in Him?   You
are  discoursing upon Easter,  the feast which commemorates the cruel  death
and glorious, triumphant resurrection of the Saviour, but you seem to be al-
luding  to  Him  more from an allegorical point of view than  as  an  actual
fact."

   Certainly we believe in the Christ;  we love Him with our whole heart and
soul,  but we wish to emphasize the teaching that Christ is the first fruits
of  the race.   He said that we shall do the things He did,  "and  greater."
Thus we are Christs-in-the-making.

   We are too much in the habit of looking to an outside Saviour while  har-
boring  a devil within;  but till Christ be formed in us,  as Paul says,  we
shall  seek in vain,  for as it is impossible for us to perceive  light  and
color,  though they are all about us, unless our optic nerve registers their
vibrations,  and as we remain unconscious of sound when the tympanum of  our
ear is insensitive,  so also must we remain blind to the presence of  Christ
and deaf to His voice until we arouse our dormant spiritual natures  within.
But  once these natures have become awakened,  they will reveal the Lord  of
Love  as a prime reality;  this on the principle that when a tuning fork  is
struck,  another of identical pitch will also commence to sing, while tuning
forks  of different pitches will remain mute.   Therefore,  the Christ  said
that His sheep knew the SOUND of His voice and responded,  but the voice  of
the stranger they heard not.  (Jon 10:5)  No matter what our creed,  we  are
all brethren of Christ, so let us rejoice, the Lord has risen!   Let us seek
Him and forget our creeds and other lesser differences.

[PAGE 1096]

   THE  SIGN OF THE CROSS SHALL BE IN HEAVEN WHEN THE LORD COMETH  TO  JUDG-
MENT.  THEN ALL SERVANTS OF THE CROSS, WHO IN LIFE HAVE CONFORMED THEMSELVES
TO THE CRUCIFIED, SHALL DRAW NIGH UNTIL CHRIST WITH GREAT BOLDNESS.

                                                           --Thomas a Kempis

   Once more we have reached the final act in the cosmic drama involving the
descent  of the solar Christ Ray into the matter of our Earth.   It is  com-
pleted at the Mystic Birth celebrated at Christmas, and the Mystic Death and
Liberation,  which are celebrated shortly after the vernal equinox when  the
Sun  of  the new year commences its ascent into the higher  spheres  of  the
northern heavens,  having poured out its life to save humanity and give  new
life  to everything upon Earth.   At this time of year a new life,  an  aug-
mented energy,  sweeps with an irresistible force through the veins and  ar-
teries  of  all living beings,  inspiring them,  instilling  new  hope,  new
ambition,  and new life, impelling them to new activities whereby they learn
new  lessons in the school of experience.   Consciously or unconsciously  to
the  beneficiaries,  this outwelling energy invigorates everything that  has
life.  Even the plant responds by an increased circulation of sap, which re-
sults in additional growth of the leaves,  flowers,  and fruits whereby this
class of life is at present expressing itself and evolving to a higher state

[PAGE 1097]

of consciousness.

   But wonderful though these outward physical manifestations are,  and glo-
rious though the transformation may be called which changes the Earth from a
waste of snow and ice into a beautiful,  blooming garden,  it sinks into in-
significance  before the spiritual activities which run side by side  there-
with.   The salient features of the cosmic drama are identical in  point  of
time with the material effects of the Sun in the four cardinal signs, Aries,
Cancer,  Libra,  and Capricorn, for the most significant events occur at the
equinoctial and solstitial points.

   It is really and actually true that "In God we live and move and have our
being."   Outside Him we could have no existence; we live by and through His
life;  we move and act by and through His strength;  it is His  power  which
sustains  our  dwelling  place,  the  Earth,  and  without  His  unflagging,
unwavering  efforts  the  universe itself would disintegrate.   Now  we  are
taught that man was made in the likeness of God,  and we are given to under-
stand that according to the law of analogy we are possessed of certain  pow-
ers latent within us which are similar to those we see so potently expressed
in the labor of Deity in the universe.   This gives us a particular interest
in the annual cosmic drama involving the death and resurrection of the  Sun.
The life of the GOD MAN,  CHRIST JESUS,  was moulded in conformity with  the
solar story,  and it foreshadows in a similar manner all that may happen  to
the MAN GOD of whom Christ Jesus prophesied when He said:  "The works that I
do shall ye do also; and greater works that these shall ye do;  whither I go
thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards."

   Nature  is the symbolic expression of God.   She does nothing in vain  or
gratuitously--there  is purpose behind every thing and every act.  Therefore

[PAGE 1098]

we  should be alert and regard carefully the signs in the heavens  for  they
have a deep and important meaning concerning our own lives.  The intelligent
understanding  of their purpose enables us to work so much more  efficiently
with  God  in His wonderful efforts for the emancipation  of  humanity  from
bondage to the laws of nature, and for its liberation into a full measure of
stature of the sons of God--crowned  with glory, honor, and immortality, and
free from the power of sin,  sickness,  and suffering which now curtail  our
lives by reason of our ignorance and nonconformity for the laws of God.  The
divine  purpose demands this emancipation,  but whether it is to  be  accom-
plished  by  the long and tedious process of evolution or by  the  immensely
quicker pathway of Initiation depends upon whether or not we are willing  to
lend our cooperation.  The majority of mankind go through life with unseeing
eyes and with ears that do not hear.   They are engrossed in their  material
affairs, buying and selling, working and playing, without an adequate under-
standing or appreciation of the purpose of existence,  and were it  unfolded
to them it is scarcely to be expected that they would conform and  cooperate
because of the sacrifice it involves.

   It  is  no wonder that the Christ appeals particularly to the  poor,  and
that  He  emphasizes  the difficulty of the rich  entering  the  kingdom  of
heaven,  for  even to this day when humanity has advanced in the  school  of
evolution for two millennia since His day,  we find that the great  majority
still  value  their  houses  and lands, their pretty  hats  and  gowns,  the
pleasures of society,  dances, and dinners more than the treasures of heaven
which are garnered by service and self-sacrifice.   Although they may intel-
lectually perceive the beauty of the spiritual life,  its desirability fades
into insignificance in their eyes when compared with the sacrifice  involved
in living the spiritual life.  Like the  rich young man they would willingly

[PAGE 1099]

follow Christ were there no such sacrifice involved.   They prefer rather to
go  away  when they realize that sacrifice is the one condition  upon  which
they may enter discipleship.   So for them Easter is simply a season of  joy
because it is the end of winter and the beginning of the summer season  with
its call of outdoor sports and pleasures.

   But for those who have definitely chosen the path of self-sacrifice  that
leads to liberation, Easter is the annual sign given them as evidence of the
cosmic basis of their hopes and aspirations.

   In the Easter Sun which at the vernal equinox commences to soar into  the
northern heavens after having laid down its life for Earth, we have the cos-
mic  symbol of the verity of resurrection.  When taken as a cosmic  fact  in
connection with the law of analogy that connects the macrocosm with the  mi-
crocosm,  it is an earnest that some day we shall all attain the cosmic con-
sciousness  and  know positively for ourselves by our  own  experience  that
there is no death,  but that what seems so is only a transition into a finer
sphere.

   It is an annual symbol to strengthen our souls in the work of  well-doing
that we may grow the golden wedding garment required to make us sons of  God
in the highest and holiest sense.   It is literally true that unless we walk
in the light as God is in the light, we are not in fellowship; but by making
the sacrifices and rendering the services required of us to aid in the eman-
cipation  of our race we are building the soul body of radiant golden  light
which  is the special substance emanated from and by the Spirit of the  Sun,
the Cosmic Christ.  When this golen substance has clothed us with sufficient
density,  then we shall be able to imitate the Eastern Sun and soar into the
highest spheres.

   With these ideals firmly fixed in our minds, Easter time becomes a season
when  it is in order to review our life during the preceding year  and  make
new  resolutions  for the coming season to  serve  in  furthering  our  soul

[PAGE 1100]

growth.   It is a season when the symbol of the ascending sun should lead us
to  a  keen realization of the fact that we are but pilgrims  and  strangers
upon Earth, that as spirits our real home is in heaven, and that we ought to
endeavor  to learn the lessons in this life school as quickly as is  consis-
tent with proper service.   Easter Day marks the resurrection and liberation
of the Christ Spirit from the lower realms,  and this liberation should  re-
mind us to look continually for the dawn of the which shall permanently free
us from the meshes of matter, from the body of sin and death,  together with
all  our  brethren in bondage.   No true aspirant could conceive of  a  lib-
eration that did not include all who were similarly placed.

   This is gigantic task; the contemplation of it may well daunt the bravest
heart,  and were we along it could not be accomplished; but the divine hier-
archies who have guided humanity upon the path of evolution from the  begin-
ning of our career are still active and working with us from their  sidereal
worlds,  and with their help we shall eventually be able to accomplish  this
elevation of humanity as a whole and attain to an individual realization  of
glory,  honor,  and immortality.   Having this great hope within  ourselves,
this  great mission in the world,  let us work as never before to make  our-
selves better men and women, so that by our example we may waken in others a
desire to lead a life that brings liberation.

[PAGE 1101]

                              THE LESSON OF EASTER:

   FOR IF THOU BE DEAD WITH HIM, THOU SHALT ALSO LIVE WITH HIM,  AND IF THOU
BE A PARTAKER OF HIS SUFFERINGS, THOU SHALT BE ALSO OF HIS GLORY.

                                                           --Thomas a Kempis

   Then  the  Earth reaches the vernal equinox in its  annual  circle  dance
about  the sun,  we have Easter.   The spiritual ray sent out by the  Cosmic
Christ each fall to replenish the smoldering vitality of the Earth is  about
to ascent to the Father's Throne.   The spiritual activities of  fecundation
and germination which have been carried on during the winter and spring will
be followed by material growth and a ripening process during the coming sum-
mer  and  autumn under the influence of the indwelling  Earth  Spirit.   The
cycle  ends  at "Harvest Home."   Thus the great World Drama  is  acted  and
re-enacted  from year to year,  an eternal contest between life  and  death;
each in turn becoming victor and being vanquished as the cycles roll on.

   This great cyclic influx and efflux are not confined in their effects  to
the Earth and its flora and fauna.   They exercise an equally compelling in-
fluence upon mankind,  though the great majority are unaware of what  impels
them to action in one direction or another.  The fact remains, nevertheless,
independent of their cognition that the same earthly vibration which beauti-
fully  adorns  bird  and  beast  in  the spring is responsible for the human

[PAGE 1102]

desire to don gay colors and brighter raiment at that season.   This is also
"the  call of the wild,"  which in summer drives mankind to relaxation  amid
rural scenes where nature spirits have wrought their magic art in field  and
forest,  in order to recuperate from the strain of artificial conditions  in
congested cities.

   On the other hand,  it is the "FALL" of the spiritual ray from the Sun in
autumn  which  causes resumption of the mental and spiritual  activities  in
winter.   The same germinative force which leavens the seed in the Earth and
prepares it to reproduce its kind in multiple, stirs also the human mind and
fosters  altruistic activities which make the world better.   Did  not  this
great  wave of selfless Cosmic Love culminate at Christmas,  did it not  vi-
brate peace and good will,  there would be no holiday feeling in our breasts
to engender a desire to make others equally happy;  the universal giving  of
Christmas gifts would be impossible, and we should all suffer loss.

   As the Christ walked day by day, hither and yon,  over the hills and val-
leys of Judea and Galilee, teaching the multitudes, all were benefited.  But
He communed most with His disciples, and they,  of course,  grew apache each
day.  The bond of love became closer as time went on, until one day ruthless
hands  took away the beloved Teacher and put Him to a shameful  death.   But
though  He  had died after the flesh, He continued to commune with  them  in
spirit for some time.  At last, however, He ascended to higher spheres,  di-
rect touch with Him was lost,  and sadly these men looked into each  other's
faces as they asked, "Is this the end?"  They had hoped so much,  had enter-
tained such high aspirations, and though the verdant glory was as fresh upon
the sunkissed landscape as before He went, the Earth seemed cold and dreary,
for grim desolation gnawed at their hearts.

[PAGE 1103]

   Thus,  it is also with us who aim to walk after the spirit and to  strive
with  the flesh,  though the analogy may not have been previously  apparent.
When the "FALL" of the Christ ray commences in autumn and ushers in the sea-
son  of spiritual supremacy,  we sense it at once and commence to  lave  our
souls  in the blessed tide with avidity.   We experience a feeling  akin  to
that of the apostles when they walked with Christ,  and as the season  wears
on,  it becomes easier and easier to commune with Him,  face to face  as  it
were.   But in the annual course of events Easter and the ASCENSION  of  the
"risen"  Christ Ray to the Father leave us in the identical position of  the
apostles when their beloved Teacher went away.  We are desolate and sad;  we
look  upon the world as a dreary waste and cannot comprehend the reason  for
our  loss,  which is as natural as the changes of ebb and flood and day  and
night--phases of the present age of alternating cycles.

   There  is a danger in this attitude of mind.   If it is allowed to  grown
upon us, we are apt to cease our work in the world and become dreamers, lose
our balance,  and excite just criticism from our fellow men.   Such a course
of conduct is entirely wrong, for as the Earth exerts itself in MATERIAL EN-
DEAVOR to bring forth abundantly in summer after receiving the SPIRITUAL IM-
PETUS in winter,  so ought we also to exert ourselves to greater purpose  in
the world's work when it has been our privilege to commune with the  spirit.
If we do thus we shall be more apt to excite emulation than reproach.

   We are wont to think of a miser as one who hoards gold,  and such  people
are generally objects of contempt.   But there are people who strive as  as-
siduously  to acquire knowledge as the miser struggles to  accumulate  gold,
who will stoop to any subterfuge to obtain their desire,  and will as  jeal-
ously guard their knowledge and the miser guards his hoard.  They do not un-
derstand that by such a method they effectually closing the door to  greater
wisdom.  The  old  Norse  theology  contained  a  parable which symbolically

[PAGE 1104]

elucidates  the matter.   It held that all who died fighting on the  battle-
field (the strong souls who fought the good fight unto the end) were carried
to Valhalla to be with the gods; while those who died in bed or from disease
(the  souls  who drifted weakly through life) went to the  dismal  Niflheim.
The  doughty  warriors in Valhalla feasted daily upon the flesh  of  a  boar
called Scrimner, which was so constituted that whenever a piece was cut from
it the flesh at once grew again, so that it was never consumed no matter how
much was carved.   Thus, it aptly symbolizes "KNOWLEDGE,"  for no matter how
much of this we give to others, we always retain the original.

   There is thus a certain obligation to pass on what we have of  knowledge,
and "to whom much is given of him much will be required."   If we hoard  the
spiritual blessings we have received, evil is at our door, so let us imitate
the Earth at this Easter time.   Let us bring forth in the physical world of
action  the  fruits of the spirit sown in our souls during the  past  wintry
season.  So shall we be more abundantly blessed from year to year.

[PAGE 1105]

                            THE SYMBOL OF THE EGG:

   SO WHEN THE CORRUPTIBLE SHALL HAVE PUT ON INCORRUPTION, AND
         THIS MORTAL SHALL HAVE PUT ON IMMORTALITY,
   THEN SHALL BE BROUGHT TO PASS THE SAYING THAT IS WRITTEN,
   DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY.

                                                             --I Cor. 15:54

   The dark,  dreary days of winter are past,  Mother Nature takes the cold,
snowy coverlids off the Earth,  and the millions and millions of seeds shel-
tered in the soft soil burst its crust and clothe the Earth in summer robes,
a riot of gay and glorious colors, preparing the bridal bower for the mating
of beasts and birds.

   At this time the mind of the civilized world is turned towards the  feast
we  call Easter,  commemorating the death and resurrection of the  indivdual
whose  life story is written in the Gospels,  the noble individual known  to
the world by the name of Jesus.   But a Christian mystic takes a deeper  and
more  far-reaching  view of this annually recurring cosmic event.   For  his
there is an annual impregnation of the Earth with the Cosmic Christ Life, an
INBREATHING  which takes place during the fall months and culminates at  the
winter solstice when we celebrate Christmas, and an OUTBREATHING which finds
it completion at the time of Easter.

   The cosmic drama of life and death is played annually among all  evolving
creatures and things from the highest to the lowest,  for even the great and
sublime Cosmic Christ in His compassion becomes subject to death by entering

[PAGE 1106]

the cramped conditions of our Earth for a part of the year.  It may,  there-
fore,  be appropriate to call to mind a few ideas concerning a death and re-
birth which we are sometimes prone to forget.

   Among the cosmic symbols which have been handed down to us from antiquity
none is more common that the symbol of the egg.   It is found in every reli-
gion.   We find it in the Elder Eddas of the Scandinavians,  hoary with age,
with  tell  of the mundale egg cooled by the icy blast  of  Nievelheim,  but
heated  by the fiery breath of Muspelheim until the various worlds  and  man
had come into being.   If we turn to the sunny south we find in the Vedas of
India  the  same story in the Kalahansa, the Swan in time and  space,  which
laid the egg that finally became the world,  Among the Egyptians we find the
winged globe and the egg-bearing serpent, symbolizing the wisdom manifest in
this  world of ours.   Then the Greeks took this symbol and venerated it  in
their Mysteries.  It was preserved by the Druids; it was known to the build-
ers of the great serpent mound in Ohio; and it has kept its place in  sacred
symbology  even  to this day,  though the great majority are  blind  to  the
MYSTERIUM MAGNUM which it hides and reveals--the mystery of life.

   When  we  break  open  the shell of an egg,  we  find  inside  only  some
varicolored viscous fluids of various consistencies.  But placed in the req-
uisite temperature a series of changes soon take place,  and within a  short
time a living creature breaks open the shell and emerges therefrom, ready to
take  its  place  among its kin.   It is possible for  the  wizards  of  the
laboratory to duplicate the substances in the egg; they may be enclosed in a
shell,  and  a perfect replica so far as most tests go may be  made  of  the
natural egg.  But in one point it differs from the natural egg, namely, that
no living thing can be hatched from the  artificial  product.  Therefore, it

[PAGE 1107]

is  evident that a certain intangible something must be present in  one  and
absent in the other.

   This  mystery of the ages which produces the living creature is  what  we
call life.   Seeing that it cannot be cognized among the elements of the egg
by even the most powerful microscope (though it must be there to bring about
the changes which we note),  it must be able to exist independently of  mat-
ter.   Thus,  we are taught by the sacred symbol of the egg that though life
is able to mold matter, it does not depend upon it for its existence.  It is
self-existent,  and having no beginning it can have no end.  This is symbol-
ized by the ovoid shape of the egg.

   When  we have the true knowledge conveyed by the egg symbol that life  is
uncreate,  without beginning and without end it enables us to take heart and
realize  that  those who are now being taken out of physical  existence  are
only  passing through a cyclic journey similar to that of the Cosmic  Christ
life  which enters the Earth in the fall and leaves it at Easter.   Thus  we
see  how the great law of analogy works in all phases and under all  circum-
stances  of life.   What happens in the great world to a Cosmic Christ  will
show itself also in the lives of those who are Christs in the making.

   We  must realize that death is a cosmic necessity under the present  cir-
cumstances  for if we were imprisoned in a body of the kind we now use,  and
placed in an environment such as we find today,  there to live forever,  the
infirmities  of  the body and the unsatisfactory nature of  the  environment
would very soon make us so tired of life that we would cry for release.   It
would block all progress and make it impossible for us to evolve to  greater
heights such as we may evolve to by re-embodiment in new vehicles and place-
ment  in new environments which give us new possibilities for growth.   Thus
we may thank God that so long as birth into a concrete body is necessary for
our further development, release by death has been  provided to free us from

[PAGE 1108]

the outgrown instrument,  while resurrection and a new birth under the smil-
ing  skies of a new environment furnish another chance to begin life with  a
clean slate and learn the lessons which we failed to master before.  By this
method  we shall some time become perfect as is the risen Christ.   He  com-
manded it, and He will aid us to achieve it.

                             THE CROSS OF CHRIST:

   IF  ANY MAN WILL COME AFTER ME,  LET HIM DENY HIMSELF,  AND TAKE  UP  HIS
CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME.

                                                               --MATT. 16:24

   According to an ancient legend Adam took with him three cuttings from the
tree  of  life  when he was forced to leave Paradise,  and  Seth,  his  son,
planted  these three cuttings and they grew.  One of them was later used  to
make  the staff of Aaron,  wherewith he performed miracles  before  Pharaoh.
The  other was taken to Solomon's temple,  with the intention of  making  it
into a pillar,  or fitting it in somewhere,  but no place whatever could  be
found for it;  it would not fit,  so it was used as a bridge across the book
which  was outside the temple.   The third of the cuttings was used for  the
cross of Christ, and upon it He suffered for our sakes, and was finally lib-
erated,  drawing  into the Earth and becoming the planetary  spirit  of  our
globe,  in  which he is now groaning and travailing until the  day  of  lib-
eration.

   There  is  a very great significance in this ancient legend.   The  first
cutting  represents the spiritual power wielded by the Divine  Hierarchs  in
the  days when mankind was in its infancy,  wielded then for our benefit  by
OTHERS.   The  second cutting was to be used in Solomon's  temple.   No  one
could  appreciate  it except the Queen of Sheba, no place could be found for

[PAGE 1109]

it,  for Solomon's temple is the consummation of the arts and crafts, and in
a material civilization nothing spiritual is appreciated.   The sons of Cain
are  working out their salvation along material lines,  and  therefore  they
have  no use for spiritual powers.   So "IT WAS USED AS A BRIDGE ACROSS  THE
BROOK."   There are always souls, the real, the true MYSTIC MASONS, who have
been able to make use that bridge,  which leads from the visible to the  in-
visible,  who are able to return to the Garden of Eden, to Paradise,  across
that  bridge.   It was the third cutting from the tree of life which  formed
the cross of Christ.  By climbing that cross, He gained liberation from this
physical existence,  and entered into higher spheres.   Likewise,  we  also,
when  we take up our cross and follow Him shall develop our soul  power  and
enter  a  larger sphere of usefulness in the invisible world.   May  we  all
strive so that day by day we shall be found kneeling, and overcome, clinging
to the cross of Christ,  so that one day not far distant we shall climb  our
own cross and from this attain the glorious liberation,  the resurrection of
life  of  which the Christ was and is the first fruits for  every  believing
soul.  This is the real, the true Easter message, and every one of us should
realize that we are Christs in the making,  and that when the Christ is  re-
ally  and truly BORN WITHIN,  that Christ will show us the way to the  cross
where  we may attain and advance from the tree of knowledge,  which  brought
death to the tree of life in the vital body, which brings immortality.

[PAGE 1110]

                 WHAT BECAME OF THE PHYSICAL BODY OF JESUS?:

   FOR WE KNOW THAT IF OUR EARTHLY HOUSE OF THIS TABERNACLE WERE  DISSOLVED,
WE  HAVE A BUILDING OF GOD,  AN HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS,  ETERNAL  IN  THE
HEAVENS.

                                                               --II Cor. 5:1

   What became of the dense body of Jesus which was placed in the tomb,  but
was not found Easter morning?   And if the vital body of Jesus is  preserved
to be used again by Christ,  what does Jesus in the meantime do for a  vital
body?   Why would it not have been more practicable to have obtained  a  new
vital body for Christ at the second coming?

   The foregoing questions were answered in ECHOES of 1914, as follows:

   Study  of the scriptures will reveal the fact that it was the  custom  of
Christ to draw apart from His disciples, and they knew not whither He  went,
or  if they did,  no mention has ever been made of it.   But the reason  was
that,  being so glorious a Spirit, the vibrations were too high for even the
best  and  purest of physical vehicles, and it was  therefore  necessary  to
leave it frequently for a period of complete rest so that the atoms might be
slowed down to their customary pitch.   Therefore the Christ was wont to  go
to the Essenes and leave the body in their care.   They were experts and the
Christ  knew nothing about handling such vehicles and He had  received  from
Jesus.  Had not this rest and care been given, the dense body of Jesus would

[PAGE 1111]

have  disintegrated  long before the three years'  ministry was  ended,  and
Golgotha would never have been reached.

   When  the  time  was ripe and the earthly ministry had  been  ended,  the
Essenes ceased to interfere, then things took their natural course,  and the
tremendous vibratory force imparted to the atoms scattered them to the  four
winds,  with the result that when the grave was opened a few days  later  no
trace of the body was found.

   This  is  in perfect harmony with natural laws known to us by  their  op-
eration in the physical world.   electric currents of low potential burn and
kill,  while  a voltage of many times the strength passes through  the  body
without harmful effect.   Light,  which has a tremendous vibratory rate,  is
pleasant and beneficial to the body, but when focuses through a lens the vi-
bratory  rate is lowered and then we have fire,  which destroys.   Likewise,
when Christ,  the Great Sun Spirit,  came into the dense body of Jesus,  the
vibratory  rate  being lowered by the resistance of the dense  matter,  must
burn up the body as in cremation if not interfered with.   The force was the
same, the results indentical, save that as it was true, invisible fire which
burned up the body of Jesus,  and not fire clothed inflame,  as in  ordinary
manifestation of fire,  there were no ashes.   In this connection it is well
remember  that fire sleeps invisibly in everything; we do not see it in  the
plant or the animal, nor in the stone, yet it is there, visible to the inner
vision  and  capable of manifesting at any time when it takes a  garment  of
flame from physical substances.

   It is one of our illusions that the body which we inhabit is alive.  As a
matter  of fact it is nothing of the sort.   At least there is such  a  very
small  portion  of this body which can really be said to be alive  that  our
statement is practically true.   The larger portion is absolutely asleep  if
not entirely dead.  This  is  a  fact  well  known to science, and something

[PAGE 1112]

which reason must teach us is so.  That is because our spiritual power is so
weak  that it cannot furnish this vehicle with life to a sufficient  extent,
and  in the measure that we fail thus to vitalize the body it seems  like  a
heavy clod of clay which we must laboriously drag along with us, until after
a  few years it crystallizes to such an extent that is is impossible for  us
any longer to keep up the vibratory action.  Then we are forced to leave the
body  and it is then said to die.   A slow process of  disintegration  takes
place to restore the atoms to their original free state.

   Contrast now the state of affairs when one of these same earth bodies  is
taken possession of by a powerful spirit like that of the Christ.   You will
find  an  analogy  in the case of a man being  resuscitated  from  drowning.
There  the vital body has been extracted,  and the vibratory action  of  the
physical atoms has ceased almost,  if not altogether.   Then when the  vital
body is again caused to permeate the physical body,  it begins to prod every
atom into action and vibration.   This attempt to awaken the sleeping  atoms
causes that intensely disagreeable pricking sensation which persons who have
been resuscitated from drowning describe,  and this sensation does not cease
until the physical atoms have attained a rate of vibration one octave  below
that of the vital body.  Then they are insensate and nothing is felt save as
we ordinarily feel.

   Take now the case of Christ entering the dense body of Jesus.   There the
atoms were naturally moving at a speed much lower than the vibratory  forces
of the Christ Spirit.  Consequently, an acceleration had to take place,  and
during the three years'  ministry this marked acceleration of the  vibration
of  these atoms would have shattered the body had not the powerful  will  of
the Master, assisted by the skill of the Essens, held it together.   Had the
atoms  been asleep at the time when the Christ left the body of  Jesus,  the
same  as  our  atoms  are asleep when we leave our bodies, a long process of

[PAGE 1113]

putrefaction  would  have been required to disintegrate the body,  but  they
were highly sensitized and alive and, therefore,  it was impossible to  keep
them in bondage when the Spirit had fled.   In future ages when we learn  to
keep  our bodies alive we shall not change atoms,  nor bodies so often,  and
when we do it will not take so long as at present to complete the process of
putrefaction.  The tomb was not hermetically sealed, and would not offer ob-
struction to the passage of atoms.

   Upon the death of the dense body of Jesus,  the seed atoms were  returned
to the original owner.  During the three years' interval between the baptism
where he gave up his vehicles,  and the crucifixion which brought the return
of the seed atoms,  Jesus gathered a vehicle of ether as an Invisible Helper
gathers  physical  material whenever it is necessary to materialize  all  or
part of the body, but material not matched with the seed atom cannot be per-
manently appropriated;  it disintegrates as soon as the will power which as-
sembled it is withdrawn, and this was therefore only a makeshift.   when the
seed atom of his vital body was returned, a new body was formed, and in that
vehicle Jesus has been functioning since, working with the churches.  He has
never  taken a dense body since,  though perfectly able to do so.   This  is
presumably  because his work is entirely unconnected with  material  things,
and differs diametrically from the work of Christian Rosenkreuz,  which  has
been with State,  industrial,  and political problems wherefore he needed  a
physical body in which to appear before the public.

   The reason why the vital body of Jesus is preserved for the second coming
of Christ, instead of providing a new vehicle, is given in "Faust," which is
a  myth setting forth in pictorial terms great spiritual truths  of  inesti-
mable value to the seeking soul.  Faust,  by endeavoring to obtain spiritual
power before he has earned  it  attracts  a  spirit  ready  to pander to his

[PAGE 1114]

desire--for  a  consideration--for  unselfishness  is  a  virtue  singularly
lacking in such.   When Lucifer turns to leave, he is dismayed to see a pen-
tagram before the door, its one point turning toward him.   He asks Faust to
remove the symbol so that he may withdraw,  and the latter inquires why  not
go through the window or chimney?  Lucifer then reluctantly admits that:

                   FOR GHOSTS AND SPIRITS 'TIS A LAW,
                   THAT WHERE WE ENTER WE MUST WITHDRAW.

   When,  in the natural course of events the Spirit comes to birth,  it en-
ters  its  dense body by way of the head,  bringing with it the  higher  ve-
hicles.   On leaving the body at night it leaves the same way, to reenter in
like manner the next morning.   The Invisible Helper also withdraws and  re-
enters  his body by way of the head.  And at length when our life  on  Earth
has  been  lived,  we soar out of the body for the last time by way  of  the
head,  which is thus seen to be the natural gate of the body,  and therefore
THE PENTAGRAM WITH ONE POINT UP IS THE SYMBOL OF WHITE MAGIC which works  in
harmony with the law of progression.

   The black magician, who works against nature, subverts the life force and
turns it downward through the lower organs.  The gate of the head is  closed
to  him,  but HE WITHDRAWS BY WAY OF THE FEET,  the silver  cord  protruding
through  the lower organs.   Therefore it was easy for Lucifer to enter  the
study of Faust, for THE PENTAGRAM, TURNED WITH TWO HORNS TOWARD HIM,  REPRE-
SENTED  THE SYMBOL OF BLACK MAGIC,  but on trying to leave he finds the  one
point facing him,  and cringes before the sign of white magic.   He can only
leave by the lower door because he entered that way,  and thus he is  caught
when that is blocked.

[PAGE 1115]

   Similarly Christ was free to choose His vehicle of entrance to the  Earth
where He is now confined, but having once chosen the vehicle of Jesus, He is
bound to leave by the same way, and were that vehicle destroyed, Christ must
remain  in the cramping surroundings till chaos dissolved the  Earth.   This
would  be a great calamity,  and therefore the vehicle He once used is  most
zealously guarded by the Elder Brothers.

   In  the meantime Jesus has been the loser of all the  soul-growth  accom-
plished during his thirty years on Earth prior to the baptism and  contained
in  the vehicle given Christ.   This was, and is a great sacrifice made  for
us,  but like all good deeds it will rebound to a greater glory in  the  fu-
ture,  because this vehicle so used and which is to be again used by  Christ
when  He  comes  to establish and perfect the Kingdom of  God,  will  be  so
spiritualized  and glorified that when it is again restored to Jesus at  the
time when Christ turns the Kingdom over to the Father,  it will be the  most
wonderful  of all human vehicles,  and though this has not been taught,  the
writer believes that Jesus will be the highest fruitage of the Earth  Period
on that account, and that Christian Rosenkreuz will come next.  For "greater
love  has no man than that he lay down his life,"  and giving not  only  the
dense body,  but also the vital body, and for so long a time,  is surely the
ultimate sacrifice.

[PAGE 1116]

                              THE RESURRECTION:

   THERE IS ONE GLORY OF THE SUN, AND ANOTHER GLORY OF THE MOON, AND ANOTHER
GLORY OF THE STARS; FOR ONE STAR DIFFERETH FROM ANOTHER STAR IN GLORY.

   SO ALSO IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.  IT IS SOWN IN CORRUPTION; IT IS
RAISED IN INCORRUPTION;  IT SOWN IN DISHONOR; IT IS RAISED IN GLORY;  IT  IS
SOWN IN WEAKNESS; IT IS RAISED IN POWER.

   IT  IS SOWN A NATURAL BODY;  IT IS RAISED A SPIRITUAL BODY.   THERE IS  A
NATURAL BODY, AND THERE IS A SPIRITUAL BODY.

   AND SO IT IS WRITTEN; THE FIRST MAN ADAM WAS MADE A LIVING SOUL; THE LAST
ADAM WAS MADE A QUICKENING SPIRIT.

Continued with file "RC1031.TXT"

End of File




