Filename: RC1049.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Mysteries" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 1805]

                        THE WORLD OF THOUGHT [continued]:

There  seems to be neither pleasure nor pain and yet there is no absense  of
feeling  but it all seems to center in the one idea:  "I AM!"    The   human
Ego, stands face to face with itself, as it were, and for the time being all
else  is shut out.  This is the experience of anyone who passes that  breach
between the Desire World and the World of Thought, whether involuntarily, in
the  course of an ordinary cyclic pilgrimage of the Spirit,  which we  shall
later elucidate when speaking of the post-mortem existence,  or by an act of
the will,  as in the case of the trained occult investigator;  all have  the
same experience in transition.

    There are two main divisions in the Physical World:  the Chemical Region
and  the Etheric Region.  The World of Thought also has two  great  subdivi-
sions: The Region of Concrete Thought and the Region of Abstract Thought.

    As we specialize the material of the Physical World and shape it into  a
dense body,  and as we form the force-matter of the Desire World into a  de-
sire body, so also do we appropriate a certain amount of mind-stuff from the
Region of Concrete Thought; but we, as Spirits,  clothe ourselves in spirit-
substance  from the Region of Abstract Thought and thereby we  become  indi-
vidual, separate Egos.

                      THE REGION OF CONCRETE THOUGHT:

    The  Region of Concrete Thought is neither shadowy nor illusory.  It  is
the acme of reality,  and this world which we mistakenly regard as the  only
verity, is but an evanescent replica of that region.

[PAGE 1806]

    A  little reflection will show the reasonableness of this statement  and
prove  our contention that all we see here is really  crystallized  thought.
Our houses,  our machinery, our chairs and tables, all that has been made by
the  hand of man is the embodiment of a thought.  As the juices in the  soft
body of the snail gradually crystallize into the hard and flinty shell which
it  carries  upon its back and which hides it,  so everything  used  in  our
civilization  is  a  concretion of  invisible,  intangible  mind-stuff.  The
thought of James Watt in time congealed into a steam engine and  revolution-
ized the world.   Edison's thought was condensed into an electric  generator
which has turned night to day,  and had it not been for the thought of Morse
and Marconi,  the telegraph would not have annihilated distances as it  does
today.  An earthquake may wreck a city and demolish the lighting  plant  and
telegraph station,  but the thoughts of Watt, Edison, and Morse remain,  and
upon  the  basis  of their indestructible ideas new machinery  may  be  con-
structed  and  operations resumed.  Thus thoughts are  more  permanent  than
things.

    The  sensitive ear of the musician detects a certain musical note in  e-
very  city which is different from that of another city.  He hears  in  each
little brook a new melody,  and to him the sough of wind in the treetops  of
different forests gives a varying sound.    In the Desire World we noted the
existence  of forms similar to the shapes of things gere,  also  that  seem-
ingly SOUND PROCEEDS FROM FORM.  But in the Region of Concrete Thought it is

[PAGE 1807]

different,  for while each form occupies and obscures a certain space  here,
form  is nonexistent when viewed from the standpoint of the Region  of  Con-
crete Thought.  Where the form was, a transparent vacuous space is  observa-
ble.   FROM THAT EMPTY VOID COMES A SOUND which is the  "keynote"  that cre-
ates and maintains the form whence it APPEARS to come,  as the almost invis-
ible core of a gas-flame is the source of the light we perceive.

    Sound from a vacuum cannot be heard in the Physical World,  but the har-
mony  which  proceeds from the vacuous cavity of a  celestial  ARCHETYPE  is
"the Voice of the Silence,"  and  it becomes audible when all earthly sounds
have ceased.  Elijah heard it not while the storm was raging;  nor was it in
evidence during the turbulence of the earthquake,  nor in the crackling  and
roaring fire, but when the destructive and inharmonious sounds of this world
had melted into silence,  "the still small voice"  issued  its  commands  to
save Elijah's life.

    That  "keynote"  is a direct manifestation of the Higher Self which uses
it to impress and govern the personality it has created. But, alas,  part of
its  life  has been infused into the material side of its being,  which  has
thus obtained a certain will of its own and only too often are the two sides
of our nature at war.

    At  last there comes a time when the Spirit is too weary to strive  with
the recalcitrant flesh; when "the Voice of the  Silence"  ceases.  No matter

[PAGE 1808]

how much earthly nourishment we may seek to give,  it will not avail to sus-
tain a form when this harmonious sound,  this  "word from heaven"  no longer
reverberates through the empty void of the celestial archetype.   "Man lives
not by bread alone,"  but by the WORD,   and the last sound-vibration of the
"keynote" is the death-knell of the physical body.

    In  this world we are compelled to investigate and to study a thing  be-
fore we know about it,  and although the facilities for gaining  information
are in some respects much greater in the Desire World,  a certain amount  of
investigation is necessary, nevertheless, to acquire knowledge. In the World
of Thought, on the contrary, it is different. When we wish to know about any
certain  thing there,  and we turn our attention thereto,  then  that  thing
speaks to us,  as it were.  The sound it emits at once gives us a most lumi-
nous comprehension of every phase of its nature.  We attain to a realization
of its past history;  the whole story of its unfoldment is laid bare and  we
seem to have lived through all of those experiences together with the  thing
we are investigating.

    Were it not for one enormous difficulty,  the story thus obtained  would
be exceedingly valuable; but all this information, this life-picture,  flows
in upon us with an enormous rapidity,  in a moment,  in the twinkling of  an
eye, so that it has neither beginning nor end, for, as said, in the World of
Thought, all is one great NOW; TIME does not exist.

[PAGE 1809]

    Therefore,  when  we  want  to use the  archetypal  information  in  the
Physical  World,  we must disentangle and arrange it in chronological  order
with beginning and ending before it becomes intelligible to beings living in
a realm where TIME is a prime factor. That rearrangement is a most difficult
task as all words are coined with relation to the three dimensions of  space
and the evanescent unit of time, the fleeting moment, hence much of that in-
formation remains unavailable.

    Among  the denizens of this Region of Concrete Thought we may note  par-
ticularly two classes. One is called the Powers of Darkness by Paul, and the
mystic  investigator of the Western World knows them as Lords of Mind.  They
were human at the time when the Earth was in a condition of darkness such as
worlds-in-the-making  go through before they become luminous and  reach  the
firemist-stage.  At that time we were in our mineral evolution.  That is  to
say:  the human Spirit which has now awakened was encrusted in the  ball  of
mindstuff,  which was then the Earth. At that time the present human Spirits
were as much asleep as is the life which ensouls our minerals of today,  and
as we are working with the mineral chemical constituents of the earth, mold-
ing them into houses, railways, steamboats, chairs, etc., etc., so those Be-
ings,  who are now Lords of Mind, worked with us when we were  mineral-like.
They have since advanced three steps,  through stages similar to that of the
Angels and Archangels,  before they attained their present position and  be-
came creative Intelligences.  They are expert builders of mind-stuff,  as we
are  builders  of the present mineral substances,  and therefore  they  have
given  us necessary help to acquire a mind which is the highest  development
of the human being.

[PAGE 1810]

    According  to the foregoing explanation it seems to be an  anomaly  when
Paul speaks of them as evil and exhorts us to withstand them. The difficulty
disappears,  however, when we understand that good and evil are but relative
qualities. An illustration will make the point clear: Let us suppose that an
expert organ builder has constructed a wonderful organ, a masterpiece.  Then
he  has followed his vocation in the proper manner,  and is therefore to  be
commended  for  the good which he has done.  But if he is not  satisfied  to
leave well enough alone,  if he refuses to give up his product to the  musi-
cian  who understands how to play upon the instrument,  if he  intrudes  his
presence  into the concert hall,  he is out of place and to be  censured  as
evil.  Similarly the Lords of Mind did the greatest possible service to  hu-
manity when they helped us to acquire our mind,  but many subtle thought in-
fluences come from them,  and are to be resisted,  as Paul very properly em-
phasizes.

    The other class of beings which must be mentioned are called  Archetypal
Forces by the Western School of occultism.  They direct the energies of  the
creative archetypes native to this realm.  They are a composite class of be-
ings of many different grades of intelligence, and there is one stage in the
cyclic journey of the human Spirit when that also labors in, and is part of,
that great host of beings. For the human Spirit is also destined to become a

[PAGE 1811]

great creative Intelligence at some future time, and if there were no school
wherein  it  could gradually learn to create, it would not be  able  to  ad-
vance,  for nothing in nature is done suddenly. An acorn planted in the soil
does not become a majestic oak overnight,  but many years of slow,  persist-
ent  growth are required before it attains to the stature of a giant of  the
forest.  A man does not become an Angel by the mere fact of dying and enter-
ing  a  new world any more than an animal advances to be a man by  the  same
process.   But in time all that lives, mounts the ladder of Being  from  the
clod to the God.  There is no limitation possible to the Spirit,  and so  at
various  stages in its unfoldment the human Spirit works with the other  na-
ture forces,  according to the stage of intelligence which it has  attained.
It creates, changes, and remodels the Earth upon which it is to live.  Thus,
under the great Law of Cause and Effect,  which we observe in every realm of
nature,  it reaps upon earth what it has sown in heaven, and vice versa.  It
grows slowly but peristently and advances continually.

                      THE REGION OF ABSTRACT THOUGHT:

    Various  religious  systems  have been given to  humanity  at  different
times,  each suited to meet the spiritual needs of the people among whom  it
was promulgated, and, coming from the same divine source: God; all religions
exhibit similar fundamentals of first principles.

[PAGE 1812]

    All  systems teach that there was a time when DARKNESS reigned  supreme.
Everything which we now perceive was then non-existent. Earth, sky,  and the
heavenly  bodies were uncreate,  so were the multitudinous forms which  live
and move upon the various planets. All, all,  was yet in a fluidic condition
and the Universal Spirit brooded QUIESCENT in limitless Space as the One Ex-
istence.

    The Greeks called that condition  of  homogeneity  CHAOS,  and the state
of  orderly segregation which we now see:  the marching orbs which  illumine
the  vaulted canopy of heaven,  the stately procession of planets  around  a
central light,  the majestic Sun,  the unbroken sequence of the seasons  and
the unvarying alternation of tidal ebb and flow--all this aggregate of  sys-
tematic order was called  COSMOS,  and  was  supposed to have proceeded from
Chaos.

    The  Christian Mystic obtains a deeper comprehension when he  opens  his
Bible  and  ponders  the  first five verses of that  brightest  gem  of  all
spiritual ore: the gospel of St. John.

    As  he reverently opens his aspiring heart to acquire  understanding  of
those sublime mystical teachings he transcends the form-side of nature, com-
prising  various realms of which we have been speaking,  and  finds  himself
"in the spirit,"  as  did the prophets in olden times. He is then in the Re-
gion  of Abstract Thought and sees the eternal verities which also Paul  be-
held in this, the Third Heaven.

[PAGE 1813]

      For those among us who are unable to obtain knowledge save by  reason-
ing upon the matter,  however, it will be necessary to examine the fundamen-
tal meaning of words used by St. John to clothe his wonderful teachings.  It
was  originally given in the Greek language,  a much simpler matter than  is
commonly supposed, for Greek words have been freely introduced into our mod-
ern languages,  particularly in scientific terms, and we shall show how this
ancient teaching is supported by the latest discoveries of modern science.

    The opening verse of the Gospel of St. John is as follows:   "In the BE-
GINNING was the WORD and the WORD was with GOD,  and the WORD was  GOD."  We
will  examine  the  words:  "beginning,"  "Word,"  and "God."    We may also
note that in the Greek version the concluding sentence reads:  "and  God was
the Word," a difference which makes a great distinction.

    It is an axiomatic truth that  "out of nothing, nothing comes,"   and it
has often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches generation  "from
nothing."  We readily agree that TRANSLATIONS into the modern languages pro-
mulgate  this  erroneous doctrine,  but we have  shown  in  THE  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION (chapter on  "The  Occult Analysis of Genesis"),  that  the
Hebrew  text  speaks of an EVER-EXISTING essence, as the  basis  whence  all
forms,  the Earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created,  and
John also gives the same teaching.

    The Greek word  ARCHE,  in  the  opening  sentence of the Gospel of  St.
John has been translated  THE BEGINNING,  and  it  may be said to have mean-
ing, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more significant of
the idea John wished to convey. It means:  an elementary condition,  a chief
source, a first principle, primordial matter.

[PAGE 1814]

    There was a time when science insisted that the elements were immutable,
that  is  to say,  that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron  since  the
earth  was  formed and would so remain to the end of time.   The  alchemists
were  sneered at as fanciful dreamers or madmen,  but since PRofessor J.  J.
Thomson's  discovery  of the electron,  the atomic theory of matter,  is  no
longer  tenable.   The principle of radio-activity has leter vindicated  the
alchemists.   Science and the Bible agree in teaching that all that  is  has
been formed from one homogenous substance.

    It is that basic principle which  John  called  ARCHE:   primordial mat-
ter,  and the dictionary defines archeology as:   "the science of the origin
(ARCHE) of things."  Masons style God the  "Grand Architect,"  for the Greek
word tekton means builder,  and God is the Chief Builder (TEKTON) of  ARCHE,
the primordial virgin matter which is also the chief source of all things.

    Thus we see that when the opening  sentence of St.  John's Gospel is pro
perly  translated,  our Christian religion teaches that once a  virgin  sub-
stance enfolded the divine Thinker: God.

    That is the identical condition which the earlier Greeks called Chaos. A
little  thought  will make it evident that we are not arbitrary  in  finding
fault with the translation of the gospel, for it is self-evident that a word

[PAGE 1815]

cannot be the beginning, a thought must precede the word, and a thinker must
originate thought before it can be expressed as a word. When properly trans-
lated the teaching of John fully embodies  that  idea,  for  the Greek  term
LOGOS   means  both the reasonable thought (we also say logic) and the  word
which expresses this (logical) thought.

    1)  In the primordial substance was thought,  and the thought  was  with
        God, And God was the word,

    2) That (The Word), also was with God in the primal state.

    Later the divine WORD, the Creative Fiat, reverberates through space and
segregates the homogeneous virgin substance into spearate forms.

    3) Every thing has come into existence because of that prime fact,  (The
    Word of God), and no thing exists apart from that fact.

    4) In that was Life.

    In the alphabet we have a few elementary sounds from which words may  be
constructed.  They are basic elements of expression,  as bricks,  iron,  and
lumber are raw materials of architecture, music, literature, or poetry,  but
the  contour of the finished product and the purpose it will  serve  depends
upon  the  arrangement  of  the  raw materials,  which  is  subject  to  the
constructor's design.

    But a heap of bricks,  iron,  and lumber,  is not a house,  neither is a
jumbled mass of notes music, nor can we call a haphazard arrangement of  al-
phabetical sounds a word.  These raw materials are prime necessities in con-
struction of architecture,  music, literature, or poetry, but the contour of
the  finished  product  and  the  purpose  is  will  serve  depends upon the

[PAGE 1816]

arrangement of the raw materials,  which is subject to the constructor's de-
sign.   Building materials may be formed into prison or palace; notes may be
arranged as fanfare or funeral dirge;  words may be indicted to inspire pas-
sion  or  peace,  all according to the will of the  designer.  So  also  the
majestic  rhythm  of  the  Word of God has  wrought  the  primal  substance,
ARCHE,  into  the  multitudinous  forms which comprise the phenomenal world,
according to His will.

    Did  the reader ever stop to consider the wonderful power of  the  human
word?  Coming to us in the sweet accents of love,  it may lure us from paths
of  rectitude  to shameful ignominy and wreck our life with sorrow  and  re-
morse,  or it may spur us on in noblest efforts to acquire glory and  honor,
here  or  hereafter.  According to the inflection of the voice  a  word  may
strike terror into the bravest heart or lull a timid child to peaceful slum-
ber. The word of an agitator may rouse the passions of a mob and impel it to
awful bloodshed,  as in the French Revolution, where dictatorial mandates of
mob-rule  killed  and exiled at pleasure, or,  the strain of   "Home,  Sweet
Home"   may cement the setting of a family-circle beyond possibility of rup-
ture.

    Right  words are true and therefore free;  they are never bound or  fet-
tered by time or space;  they go to farthest corners of earth,  and when the
lips  that  spoke them first have long since mouldered in the  grave,  other
voices take up with unwearying enthusiasm their message of life and love, as
for instance,  the mystical  "Come unto me"   which has sounded from  unnum-
bered tongues and brought oceans of balm to troubled hearts.

[PAGE 1817]

    Words  of peace have been victorious where war would have meant  defeat,
and  no  talent is more to be desired than ability always to say  the  right
word  at the auspicious time.    
    Considering thus the immense power and potency of the human word, we may
perhaps dimly apprehend the potential magnitude of the Word of God, the Cre-
ative Fiat, when,  as a mighty dynamic force it  first  reverberated through
space and commenced to form primordial  matter into worlds, as  sound from a
violin bow molds sand into geometrical figures. Moreover,  THE WORD  OF  GOD
STILL SOUNDS to sustain the marching orbs and impel them  onwards  in  their
circle paths;  the Creative Word continues to produce forms of gradually in-
creasing efficiency,  as media expressing life and consciousness.  The  har-
monious enunciation of consecutive syllables  in  the Divine  Creative  Word
mark successive stages in the evolution of  the  world  and  man.  When  the
last syllable has been spoken and the complete word  has  sounded,  we shall
have reached perfection as human beings. Then TIME will be at  an  end,  and
with the last vibration of the Word of God, the worlds will be resolved into
their original elements.  Our life will then be  "hid  with  Christ in God,"
until the Cosmic Night, Chaos, is over,  and we wake to  do "greater things"
in a "new heaven and a new earth."

[PAGE 1818]

    According  to the general idea Chaos and Cosmos  are  superlative  anti-
theses of each other. Chaos being regarded as a past condition of  confusion
and disorder which has long since been entirely superseded by the cosmic or-
der which now prevails.

    As a matter of fact,  Chaos is the seed-ground of Cosmos,  the basis  of
all progress, for thence come all IDEAS which later materialize as railways,
computers,  telephones,  etc.

    We  speak  of thoughts as being  "conceived by the mind,"  but  as  both
father and mother are necessary in the generation of a  child, so also there
must be both IDEA and MIND before a THOUGHT can  be conceived. As semen ger-
minated in the positive male organ is projected into the negative  uterus at
conception,  so ideas are generated by a positive human Ego in  the  spirit-
substance of the Region of Abstract Thought. This idea is projected upon the
receptive mind, and a conception takes place. Then, as the spermatozoic  nu-
cleus draws upon the maternal body for material to  shape a body appropriate
to its individual expression,  so does each idea clothe itself in a peculiar
form of mind-stuff. It is then a thought, as visible to the  inner vision of
composite man as a child is to its parent.

    Thus   we   see   that  ideas  are   embryonic   thoughts,   nuclei   of
spirit-substance from the Region of Abstract Thought.  Improperly  conceived
in a diseased mind they become vagaries and delusions,  but when gestated in
a sound mind and formed into rational thoughts they are the basis of all the
material, moral,  and mental progress. The closer our touch with Chaos,  the
better will be our Cosmos,  for in that realm of abstract realities truth is
not obscured by matter, it is self-evident.

[PAGE 1819]

      Pilate asked "What is Truth?" but no answer is recorded.    We are in-
capable  of cognizing truth in the abstract while we live in the  phenomenal
world,  for the inherent nature of matter is illusion and delusion,  and  we
are constantly making allowances and corrections whether we are conscious of
the  fact or not.  The sunbeam which proceeds for 90 millions of miles in  a
straight  line  is refracted or bent as soon as it strikes our  dense  atmo-
sphere, and according to the angle of its refraction, it APPEARS to have one
color or another. The straightest stick appears crooked when partly immersed
in water,  and the truths which are so self-evident in the higher worlds are
likewise obscured,  refracted or twisted out of all semblance under the  il-
lusory conditions of this material world.

    "The truth shall set you free,"  said Christ,   and the more we turn our
aspirations from material acquisitiveness and seek to lay up treasure above,
the  more  we aim to rise,  the oftener we  "get in the spirit,"   the  more
readily  we  "shall know truth"  and reach  liberation  from the  fetter  of
flesh  which binds us to a limited environment,  and attain to a  sphere  of
greater usefulness.

    Study of philosophy and science has a tendency to further perception  of
truth,  and  as  science has progressed it has gradually  receded  from  its
erstwhile  crude materialism.  The day is not far off when it will  be  more
reverently  religious  than the church itself.  Mathematics is  said  to  be

[PAGE 1820]

"dry,"  for it does not stir the emotions.  When  it is taught that "the sum
of  the  angles of a triangle is 180 degrees,"   the dictum is at  once  ac-
cepted,  because its truth is self-evident and no feeling is involved in the
matter.  But  when  a doctrine such as the  Immaculate  Conception  is  pro-
mulgated and our emotions are stirred, bloody war,  or heated argument,  may
result,  and still leave the matter in doubt.  Pythagoras demanded that  his
pupils  study mathematics,  because he knew the elevating effect of  raising
their  minds above the sphere of feeling,  where it is subject to  delusion,
and  elevating it towards the Region of Abstract Thought which is the  prime
reality.

    In this place we are dealing with worlds in particular,  and will there-
fore defer comment upon the remainder of the first five verse of St.  John's
Gospel:

                       And Life became Light in man,
                  5)   and Light shines in Darkness.

    We have now seen that the Earth is composed of three worlds which inter-
penetrate  one  another so that it is perfectly true when Christ  said  that
"heaven  is  within  you"  or,   as   the  translation  should  rather  have
been, AMONG YOU.   We  have  also  seen that of these three realms  two  are
subdivided.  It  has also been explained that each division serves  a  great
purpose  in the unfoldment of various forms of life which dwell in  each  of
these worlds,  and we may note in conclusion,  that the lower regions of the
Desire  World constitute what  the  Catholic  religion  calls  PURGATORY,  a

[PAGE 1821]

place  where the evil of a past life is transmuted to good,  usable  by  the
Spirit as conscience in later lives.  The higher regions of the Desire World
are the  FIRST HEAVEN  where  all  the good a man has done is assimilated by
the Spirit as SOUL power.  The  Region  of  Concrete  Thought is  the SECOND
HEAVEN,  where,  as already said, the Spirit prepares its future environment
on Earth, and the Region of Abstract Thought is the  THIRD  HEAVEN,  but  as
Paul said, it is scarcely lawful to speak about that.

    Some will ask:  Is there then no hell?   No!  THE MERCY OF GOD tends  as
greatly towards the principle of GOOD AS THE INHUMANITY OF MAN towards  cru-
elty,  so  that he would consign his brother men to flames  of  hell  during
eternity for the puerile mistakes committed during a few years,  or  perhaps
for  a slight difference in belief.  The writer has heard of a minister  who
wished  to  impress his "flock"  with  the  reality of an eternity  of  hell
flames,  and to demonstrate the fallacy of a heretical notion entertained by
some  of his parishioners:  that when sinners go to hell they burn to  ashes
and that is the end.

    He took with him an alcohol lamp and some asbestoes into  the pulpit and
told  his audience that God would turn their souls into a  substance  resem-
bling asbestos. He showed them that thought the asbestos were heated red hot
it did not decompose into ashes.  Fortunately,  the day of the hell preacher
has  gone by,  and if we believe the Bible which says that  "in God we  live
and move and have our being,"  we  can  readily  understand that A LOST SOUL

[PAGE 1822]

WOULD BE AN IMPOSSIBILITY,  for  were  one single soul (Spirit)  lost,  then
logically a part of God Himself would be lost. No matter what our color, our
race,  or  our  creed,  we are all equally the children of God  and  in  our
various ways we shall obtain satisfaction.  Let us therefore rather look  to
Christ and forget creed.

                              CREED OR CHRIST?

No man loves God who hates his king;
    Who tramples on his brother's heart and soul,
Who seeks to shackle, cloud, or fog the mind
    By fears of Hell has not perceived our goal.

God-sent are all religions blest;
    And Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life,
TO Give the heavy-laden rest,
    And peace from sorrow, sin, and strife.

At his request the Universal Spirit came
    TO ALL THE CHURCHES, not to one alone;
On Pentecostal morn a tongue of flame
    Round EACH apostle as a halo shone.

Since then, as vultures ravenous with greed,
    We oft have battled for an empty name,
And sought by dogma, edict, creed,
    To send each other to the flame.

Is Christ then twain?  Was Cephas, Paul
    To save the world, nailed to the tree?
Then why divisions here at all?
    Christ's love enfolds both you and me.

[PAGE 1823]

His pure sweet love is not confined
    By creeds which segregate and raise a wall,
His love enfolds, embraces HUMAN KIND,
    No matter what ourselves of Him we call.

Then why not take Him at His word?
    Why hold to creeds which tear apart?
But one thing matters, be it heard,
    That brother-love fill every heart.

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.

[PAGE 1824]

                           THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN:

                        VITAL BODY--DESIRE BODY--MIND:

    Our chapter head,  "The Constitution of Man,"  may surprise a reader who
has not previously studied the Mystery Teachings,  or he may imagine that we
intend  to give an anatomical dissertation, but such is not  our  intention.
We  have  spoken of the Earth upon which we live as being  composed  of  se-
veral invisible realms in addition to the world we perceive by means of  our
senses.  We  have also spoken of man as being correlated  to  these  various
divisions in nature, and a little thought upon the subject will quickly con-
vince us that in order to function upon the various planes of existence  de-
scribed,  it  is necessary that a man should have a body composed  of  their
substance,  or at least have specialized for his or her own use, some of the
material of each of these worlds.

    We have said that finer matter, called desire-stuff and mind-stuff, per-
meates our atmosphere and the solid Earth,  even as blood percolates through
all parts of our flesh.  But that is not a sufficient explanation to account
for all facts of life. If that were all, then minerals,  which are interpen-
etrated by the World of Thought and the World of Desire, would have thoughts
and  desires as well as man.  This is not the case,  so something more  than
mere interpenetration must be requisite to acquire the faculties of  thought
and feeling.

[PAGE 1825]

    We know that in order to function in this world,  to live as a  physical
being  among other like beings,  we must have a physical body all  our  own,
built of the chemical constituents of this visible world. When we lose it at
death,  it  profits  us  nothing that the world is full  of  just  the  very
chemicals needed to build such a body.  We cannot then specialize them,  and
therefore we are invisible to all others. Similarly, if we did not possess a
special  body made of ether,  we should be unable to grow and to  propagate.
That  is  the case with the mineral.  Had we no separate  individual  desire
body,  we should be unable to feel desires and emotions,  there would be  no
incentive to move from one place to another. We should then be stationary as
plants,  and did we not possess a mind,  we should be incapable of  thought,
and act upon impulse and instinct as animals do.

    Some one may of course object to  this last statement,  and contend that
animals do think.  So far  as our domesticated animals are concerned that is
partially true, but it is not quite in the same way that we  think  and rea-
son.  The difference may  perhaps best  be  understood if we  take  an illu-
stration from the  electrical  field. When an electric current OF HIGH VOLT-
AGE is passed through a coiled  copper wire,  and  another wire is placed in
the center of the coils, that wire will become charged with electricity OF A
LOWER VOLTAGE; so also the animal, when brought  within  the sphere of human
thoughts, evolves a mental activity of a lower order.

[PAGE 1826]

    Paul,  in his writings, also mentions the NATURAL BODY and the SPIRITUAL
BODY  while the man himself is a Spirit inhabiting those vehicles.  We  will
briefly note the constitution of the various bodies of man invisible to  the
physical sight but as objective to spiritual sight as the dense body to  or-
dinary vision.

                            THE VITAL BODY:

    That  body of ours is composed of ether  is  called  the  VITAL BODY  in
Western Mystery Schools,  for, as we have already seen,  ether is the avenue
of ingress for vital force from the Sun and the field of agencies in  nature
which promote such vital activities as assimilation,  growth,  and  propaga-
tion.

    This vehicle is an exact counterpart of our visible body,  molecule  for
molecule,  and  organ for organ,  with one exception,  which we  shall  note
later.  But it is slightly larger, extending about one and  one-half  inches
beyond the periphery of our dense vehicle.

    The  spleen is the entrance gate of forces which vitalize the  body.  In
the  etheric counterpart of that organ solar energy is transmuted  to  vital
fluid of a pale rose color.  Thence it spreads all over the nervous  system,
and  after  having  been used in the body it radiates in  streams,  much  as
bristles protrude from a porcupine.

    The rays of the Sun are transmitted either directly, or reflected by way
of the planets and the Moon.  The rays directly from the Sun give  spiritual
illumination;  the  rays perceived by way of the  planets  produce  intelli-
gence, morality, and soul growth,  but the rays reflected by way of the Moon

[PAGE 1827]

make  for  physical growth as seen in the case of plants,  which  grow  dif-
ferently  when planted in the light of the Moon from what is the  case  when
they are planted when the Moon is dark. There is also a difference in plants
sown when the Moon is in barren and fruitful signs of the Zodiac.

    The solar ray is absorbed by the human Spirit which has its seat in  the
center of the forehead;  the stellar ray is absorbed by the brain and spinal
cord; and the lunar ray enters our system through the spleen.

    The solar, stellar, and lunar rays are all three-colored, and in the lu-
nar which supplies our vital force, the blue beam is the life of the FATHER,
which cause germination;  the yellow beam is the life of the SON,  which  is
the  active principle in nutrition and growth; and the red beam is the  life
of  the  HOLY SPIRIT,  which stimulates to action,  dissipating  the  energy
stored  by the yellow force.  This principle is particularly active in  gen-
eration.

    The  various kingdoms absorb this life-force differently,  according  to
their constitution.  Animals have only 28 pairs of spinal nerves.  They  are
keyed  to  the lunar month of 28 days and therefore dependent upon  a  Group
Spirit  for an infusion of stellar rays necessary to produce  consciousness.
They are altogether incapable of absorbing the direct ray of the Sun.

    Man  is in a transition stage,  he has 31 pairs of spinal  nerves  which
keys him to the solar month,  but  the  nerves in the so-called cauda-equina

[PAGE 1828]

(literally, horse-tail) at the end of our spinal cord are still too undevel-
oped to act as avenues for the spiritual ray of the Sun. In proportion as we
draw our creative force upward by spiritual thought we develop these  nerves
and awaken dormant faculties of the Spirit.  But it is dangerous to  attempt
that  development  except  under guidance of a qualified  teacher,  and  the
reader  is  earnestly warned not to use any method published in  books,  nor
sold, for their practice usually leads to insanity. The safe method is never
sold  for money or any earthly consideration however large or small;  it  is
always freely given as a reward of  merit.  "Ask and ye shall receive,  seek
and ye shall find,  knock and it shall be opened,"  said the Christ.  If our
life is a prayer for illumination, the search will not be uncertain, nor the
knock without response.

    When  solar  energy has been transmuted in the spleen it  traverses  the
whole nervous system of the body,  glowing with a most beautiful color of  a
delicate rosy hue. It answers the same purpose as electricity in a telegraph
system.  We may string wires between cities,  erect telegraph stations,  in-
stall  receivers and transmitters.  We may even have operators ready at  the
keys,  but until electric fluid is turned into our wires, the telegraph keys
will refuse to click.

    So also in the body, the human Spirit is operator,  and from the central
station of the brain,  nerves ramify,  go through the whole body to all  the
different muscles.  When this vitalizing fluid of which we are speaking tra-
verses the nervous system,  the Ego may send his commands to the muscles and

[PAGE 1829]

cause them to move, but if the vital fluid for any reason does not flow into
a certain part of the body such as an arm or a limb,  then the Spirit is po-
werless to move that part of the body and we say that it is paralyzed.

    When we are in health,  we specialize solar energy in such great quanti-
ties that we cannot use it all in the body and therefore it radiates through
the pores of our skin in straight streams and serves a similar purpose as an
exhaust fan.  That machine drives the foul air out of a room or building and
keeps the atmosphere within pure and sweet.  The excessive vital force which
radiates from the body drives out poisonous gases, deleterious microbes, and
effete matter,  thus tending to preserve a healthy condition.  It also  pre-
vents armies of disease germs, which swarm about in the atmosphere, from en-
tering, upon the same principle that a fly cannot wing its way into a build-
ing through the exhaust fan.  Thus it serves a most beneficent purpose  even
after it has been utilized in our body and is returning to the free state.

    It  is a curious and most astounding sight when one first observes  how,
from exposed parts of the body such as hands and face,  there suddenly  com-
mences to flow a stream of stars, cubes,  pyramids,  and a variety of  other
geometrical  forms.  The writer has more than once rubbed his eyes  when  he
first perceived the phenomenon, for it seemed that he must be suffering from
hallucinations.  The forms observed are chemical atoms, however,  which have
served their purpose in the body and are expelled through the pores.

[PAGE 1830]

    When one has eaten a meal,  vital fluid is consumed by the body in great
quantities, for it is the cement whereby nature's forces build our food into
the body.  Therefore the radiations are weakest during the period of  diges-
tion.  If  the  meal  has been heavy, the outflow is very perceptibly dimin-
ished, and does not then cleanse our body as thoroughly as when the food has
been digested,  nor  are  the  radiations as potent in keeping out  inimical
germs. Therefore one is most liable to catch cold or other diseases by over-
eating.

    During  ill health the vital body specializes but little  solar  energy.
Then,  for a time, the visible body seems to feed upon the vital body, as it
were,  so  that the vehicle becomes more transparent and attenuated  at  the
same rate as the visible body exhibits a state of emaciation.  The cleansing
odic radiations are almost entirely absent during sickness,  therefore  com-
plications set in easily.

     Though science has not directly observed this vital body of man, it has
upon several occasions postulated the existence of such a vehicle as  neces-
sary to account for facts in life, and the radiations have been observed  by
a  number  of scientists at different times and  under  varying  conditions.
Blondlot  and Charpentier have called them N-rays after the city  of  Nantes
where  the radiations were observed by these scientists;  others have  named
them  "The Odic fluid."  Scientific  investigators  who have  conducted  re-
searches into psychic phenomena have even photographed  it  when it has been

[PAGE 1831]

extracted through the spleen by materializing Spirits.  Dr.  Hotz,  for  in-
stance, obtained two photographs of a materialization through the German me-
dium, Minna-Demmler.  On one a cloud of ether is seen oozing out through the
left side of the medium,  shapeless and without form.   The second  picture,
taken  a few moments later,  shows the materialized Spirit standing  at  the
medium's  side.   Other photographs obtained by scientists from the  Italian
medium, Eusapio Palladino, show a luminous cloud over-hanging her left side.

    We said in the beginning of this description that the vital is an  exact
counterpart of the dense body with one exception: it is of the opposite sex,
or  perhaps we should rather say POLARITY.  As the vital body nourishes  the
dense vehicle,  we may readily understand that blood is its highest  visible
expression,  and also that a positively polarized vital body would  generate
more blood than a negative one.  Woman,  who is physically negative,  has  a
positive  vital body,  hence she generates a surplus of blood which  is  re-
lieved  by  the periodic flow.  She is also more prone to tears,  which  are
white bleeding,  than man,  whose negative vital body does not generate more
blood  than he can comfortably take care of.  Therefore it is not  necessary
for him to have the outlets which relieve excess of blood in woman.

                              THE DESIRE BODY:

    In  addition to the visible body and the vital body we also have a  body
made of desire stuff from which we form our feelings and emotions.  This ve-
hicle also impels us to seek sense gratification.  But while the two instru-
ments of which we have already spoken are well organized,  the  desire  body

[PAGE 1832]

appears  to  spiritual  sight as an ovoid cloud extending  from  sixteen  to
twenty inches beyond the physical body.  It is above the head and below  the
feet  so that our dense body sits in the center of this egg-shaped cloud  as
the yolk is in the center of an egg.

    The reason for the rudimentary state of this vehicle is that it has been
added  to  the human constitution more recently than the  bodies  previously
mentioned.  Evolution  of  form may be likened to the manner  in  which  the
juices in the snail first condense into flesh and later become a hard shell.
When  our  present  visible body first germinated in the Spirit,  it  was  a
thought-form,  but gradually it has become denser and more concrete until it
is now a chemical crystallization.  The vital body was next emanated by  the
Spirit as a thought-form,  and is in the third stage of concretion which  is
etheric.  The  desire body is a still later acquisition.  That  also  was  a
thought-form  at its inception,  but has now condensed to desire-stuff,  and
the mind,  which we have only recently received,  is still but a mere cloudy
thought-form.

    Arms and limbs,  ears and eyes are not necessary to use the desire body,
for it can glide through space more swiftly than wind without such means  of
locomotion as we require in this visible world.

    When viewed by spiritual sight, it appears that there are in this desire
body a number of whirling vortices.  We have already explained that it  is a

[PAGE 1833]

characteristic of desire-stuff to be in constant motion,  and from the  main
vortex in the region of the liver, there is a constant outwelling flow which
radiates  toward  the periphery of this egg-shaped body and returns  to  the
center through a number of other vortices.  The desire body exhibits all the
colors and shades which we know and a vast number of others which are  inde-
scribable in earthly language.  Those colors vary in every person  according
to his or her characteristics and temperament,  and they also vary from  mo-
ment  to moment as passing moods, fancies,  or emotions are  experienced  by
him. There is, however, in each one a certain basic color dependent upon the
ruling  star at the moment of his or her birth.  The man in whose  horoscope
Mars is peculiarly strong usually has a crimson tint in his aura;  where Ju-
piter is the strongest planet the prevailing tint seems to be a bluish tone;
and so on with the other planets.

    There  was a time in the Earth's past history when incrustation was  not
yet  complete,  and human beings of that time lived upon  islands  here  and
there,  amid  boiling seas.  They had not yet evolved eyes or  ears,  but  a
little organ:  the pineal gland, which anatomists have called THE THIRD EYE,
protruded through the back of the head and was a LOCALIZED ORGAN OF FEELING.
It  warned the man when he came too near a volcanic crater and thus  enabled
him to escape destruction.  Since then the cerebral hemispheres have covered
the pineal gland,  and instead of a single organ of feeling,  the whole body
inside  and  out is sensitive to impacts, which of course is a  much  higher
state of development.

[PAGE 1834]

    In the desire body every particle is sensitive to vibrations similar  to
those which we call sight,  sounds,  and feelings,  and every particle is in
incessant motion,  rapidly swirling about so that in the same instant it may
be at the top and bottom of the desire body and impart at all points to  all
the other particles a sensation of that which it has experienced. Thus every
particle  of  desire-stuff in this vehicle of ours will instantly  feel  any
sensation experienced by any single particle.  Therefore the desire body  is
of  an exceedingly sensitive nature,  capable of most intense  feelings  and
emotions.

                                 THE MIND:

    This is the latest acquisition of the human Spirit,  and in most  people
who have not yet accustomed themselves to orderly,  consecutive thought,  it
is  a mere inchoate cloud disposed particularly in the region of  the  head.
When looking at a person clairvoyantly there appears to be an empty space in
the  center  of the forehead just above and between the eyebrows.  It  looks
like the blue part of a gas flame.  That is mind-stuff which veils the human
Spirit,  or Ego,  and the writer has been told that not even the most gifted
seer can penetrate that veil,  said to have been spoken of in ancient  Egypt
as "THE VEIL OF ISIS."  None  may lift it and live,  for behind that veil is
the Holy of Holies,  the temple of our body,  where the Spirit is to be left
secure from all intrusion.

[PAGE 1835]

    To  those  who have not previously studied the deeper  philosophies  the
question may occur:  But why all these divisions? Even the Bible speaks only
of soul and body,  for most people believe soul and Spirit to be  synonymous
terms.  We  can  only answer that this division is  not  arbitrary  but  ne-
cessary,  and founded upon facts in nature.  Neither is it correct to regard
the soul and the Spirit as synonymous.  Paul himself speaks of  the  NATURAL
BODY  which  is composed of physical substances: solids, liquids, gases, and
ethers;  he  mentions  a  SPIRITUAL  BODY, the vehicle of the  Spirit,  com-
posed  of the mind and desire body, and THE SPIRIT ITSELF,  which is  called
EGO in Latin or "I" in English.

    That  term "I"  is  an  application which can be made only by the  human
Spirit of itself. We may all call a dog, dog; or we may call a table, table,
and  any one else may apply the same name to the dog and to the  table,  but
only a human being can be called "I."  Only  he  himself can apply that most
exclusive of all words,  "I,"  for  this is the badge of self-consciousness,
the  recognition  by the human spirit of ITSELF as an entity,  separate  and
apart from all others.

      Thus we see that the constitution of man is more complex than  appears
upon the surface,  and we will now proceed to note the effect upon this mul-
tiplex being of various conditions of life.

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