Filename: RC1050.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Mysteries" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 1836]

                               LIFE AND DEATH:

                       INVISIBLE HELPERS AND MEDIUMS:

    There are two classes of people in the world. In one class the vital and
dense bodies are so firmly cemented that the ethers cannot be extracted  un-
der any circumstances but remain with the dense body at all times and  under
all  conditions  from  birth to death. Those people are  insensible  to  any
supersensuous sights or sounds. They are therefore usually exceedingly skep-
tical, and believe nothing exists but what THEY can see.

    There  is  another class of people in whom the  connection  between  the
dense and the vital bodies is more or less loose, so that the ether of their
vital  bodies vibrates at a higher rate than in the first  class  mentioned.
These people are therefore more or less sensitive to the spiritual world.

    This class of sensitives may again be divided. Some are weak characters,
dominated by the will of others in a NEGATIVE manner,  as mediums,  who  are
the  prey of disembodied Spirits desirous of obtaining a physical body  when
they have lost their own by death.

    The  other  class of sensitives are strong POSITIVE characters  who  act
only from within, according to their own will. They may develop into trained
clairvoyants,  and be their own masters instead of slaves of  a  disembodied
Spirit. In some sensitives of both classes it is possible to extract part of

[PAGE 1837]

the  ether which forms the vital body.  When a disembodied Spirit obtains  a
subject of that nature, it develops the sensitive as a MATERIALIZING MEDIUM.
The  man who is capable of extracting his own vital body by an act of  will,
becomes  a citizen of two worlds, independent and free.  These  are  usually
known  as  INVISIBLE HELPERS.  There are certain other  abnormal  conditions
where the vital body and the dense body are separated totally or in part, as
for instance, if we place our limb in an uncomfortable position so that cir-
culation of the blood ceases.  Then we may see the etheric limb hanging down
below the visible limb as a stocking.  When we restore circulatiion and  the
etheric  limb  seeks to enter into place,  an intense prickly  sensation  is
felt,  due to the fact that the little streams of force,  which radiate  all
through the ether,  seek to permeate the molecules of the limb and stir them
into  renewed  vibration.  When a person is drowning,  the vital  body  also
separates  from the dense vehicle and the intense prickly pain  incident  to
resuscitation is also due to the cause mentioned.

    While  we are awake and going about our work in the Physical World,  the
desire body and mind both permeate the dense and the vital bodies, and there
is  a constant war between the desire nature and the vital body.  The  vital
body is continually engaged in building up the human organism, while the im-
pulses of the desire body tend to tire and to break down tissue.  Gradually,
in  the course of the day, the vital body loses ground before the onslaughts

[PAGE 1838]

of the desire body,  poisons of decay slowly accumulate, and the flow of vi-
tal fluid becomes more and more sluggish until at length it is incapable  of
moving the muscles.  The body then feels heavy and drowsy. At last the vital
body collapses,  as it were; the little streams of force which permeate each
atom  seem to shrivel up,  and the Ego is forced to abandon its body to  the
restorative powers of sleep.

    When  a  building becomes dilapidated and is to be RESTORED and  put  in
thorough  repair,  the tenants must move out to let the workmen have a  free
field.  So also when the building of a Spirit has become unfit  for  further
use, it must withdraw therefrom. As the desire body caused the damage, it is
a logical conclusion that it also must be removed. Every night when our body
has become tired,  the higher vehicles are withdrawn, only the dense and vi-
tal bodies being left upon the bed.

      Then  the process of restoration commences and lasts for a  longer  or
shorter time according to circumstances.

      At  times,  however,  the grip of the desire body upon our denser  ve-
hicles is so strong that it refuses to let go.  When it has become so inter-
ested in the proceedings of the day, it continues to ruminate over them  af-
ter  the collapse of the physical body,  and is perhaps only half  extracted
from  that vehicle.   Then it may transmit sights and sounds of  the  Desire
World to the brain. But, as the connections are necessarily askew under such
conditions, the most confused dreams result. Furthermore, as the desire body

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compels  motion,  the dense body is very apt to toss about when  the  desire
body is not fully extracted; hence the restless sleep which usually accompa-
nies dreams of a confused nature.

    There are times, of course, when dreams are prophetic and come true, but
such dreams result only AFTER complete extraction of the desire body.  Under
circumstances where the Spirit has seen some danger, perhaps,  which may be-
fall, it then impresses the fact upon the brain AT THE MOMENT OF AWAKENING.

    It  also  happens that the Spirit goes upon a soul flight and  omits  to
perform its part of the work of restoration;  then the body will not be  fit
to re-enter in the morning, so it sleeps on. The Spirit may thus roam afield
for  a number of days,  or even weeks,  before it again enters its  physical
body and assumes the normal routine of alternating waking and sleeping. This
condition is called TRANCE,  and  the  Spirit  may  remember upon its return
what it has seen and heard in the super-physical realm,  or it may have for-
gotten,  according  to  the stage of its development and the  depth  of  the
trance  condition.  When the trance is very light,  the  Spirit  is  usually
present in the room where its body lies all the time, and upon its return to
the body it will be able to recount to relatives all they said and did while
its body lay unconscious.  Where the trance is deeper,  the returning Spirit
will  usually be unconscious of what happened around its body,  but may  re-
count experiences from the invisible world.

[PAGE 1840]

    A  few  years  ago  a little girl by the name  of  Florence  Bennett  in
Kankakee,  Illinois, fell into such a trance. She returned to the body every
few  days,  but stayed within only a few hours each time,  the whole  trance
lasting three weeks,  more or less.  During the returns to her body she told
relatives  that in her absence she seemed to be in a place inhabited by  all
the people who had died.  But she stated that none of them spoke about dying
and no one among them seemed to realize that they were dead. Among those she
had seen was a locomotive engineer who had been accidently killed.  His body
was  mangled in the accident which caused death.  The little girl  perceived
him there walking about minus arms,  and with lesions upon his head,  all of
which  is in line with facts usually seen by mystic  investigators.  Persons
who have been hurt in accidents go about thus,  until they learn that a mere
wish  to  have  their body made whole will supply a new  arm  or  limb;  for
desire-stuff is most quickly and readily molded by thought.
                          
                                 DEATH:
 
    After a longer or shorter time there comes in each life a point when the
experiences  which a Spirit can gain from its present environment have  been
exhausted,  and life terminates in death. Death may be sudden and  seemingly
unexpected,  as for instance by earthquake, upon the battle-field, or by ac-
cident,  as we call it,  though in reality death is never accidental or  un-
foreseen by Higher Powers.  Not a sparrow falls to the ground without divine

[PAGE 1841]

will.  There are along life's path partings of the way,  as it were;  on one
side the main line of life continues onward,  the other path leads into what
we might call a blind alley. If the man takes the latter path,  it soon ends
in  death.  We are here in life for the sake of gaining experience and  each
life  has a certain harvest to reap.  If we order our life in such a  manner
that we gain the knowledge it is intended we should acquire,  we continue in
life,  and opportunities of different kinds constantly come our way.  But if
we neglect them, and the life goes into paths which are not congruous to our
individual development,  it would be a waste of time to let us stay in  such
an environment. Therefore the great and wise Beings who are behind the scene
of evolution,  terminate our life, that we may  have a fresh start in a dif-
ferent  sphere of influence.  The Law of Conservation of Energy is not  con-
fined  to  the Physical World,  but operates in the spiritual  realms  also.
There  is  nothing in life that has not its purpose.  We do  wrong  to  rail
against circumstances, no matter how disagreeable. We should rather endeavor
to  learn the lessons which are contained therein,  that we may live a  long
and useful life. Some one may object and say:  "You are inconsistent in your
teachings.  You say there is really no death; that we go into a brighter ex-
istence, and that we have to learn other lessons there in a different sphere
of usefulness! Why then aim to live a long life?"

[PAGE 1842]

    It is very true that we make these claims,  and they are perfectly  con-
sistent with the other assertions just mentioned. However, there are lessons
to be learned HERE which cannot be learned in the other worlds,  and we have
to  bring  up  this physical body through the useless  years  of  childhood,
through  hot and impulsive youth,  to the ripeness of manhood or  womanhood,
before it becomes of true spiritual use.  The longer we live after  maturity
has been attained,  when we have commenced to look upon the serious side  of
life and started truly to learn lessons which make for soul-growth, the more
experience we shall gather and the richer our harvest will be.  Then,  in  a
later  existence,  we shall be much more advanced and capable of  taking  up
tasks  that would be impossible with less length of life and breadth of  ac-
tivity. Besides, to die is hard for the man in the prime of life with a wife
and growing family whom he loves,  with ambitions of greatness  unfulfilled,
with  hosts of friends about him,  and with interests all centered upon  the
material plane of existence. It is sad for the woman whose heart is bound up
in  home and the little ones she has reared to leave them,  perhaps  without
anyone  to care for them;  to know that they have to fight their  way  alone
through the early years when tender care is needed and perhaps to see  those
little  ones abused,  and she unable to lift a hand,  though her  heart  may
bleed  as freely as it would in Earth life.  All these things are  sad,  and
THEY BIND THE SPIRIT TO  EARTH for a much longer time than ordinarily;  they
hinder it from reaping the experiences it should reap upon the other side of
death,  and  they make it desirable, along with other reasons  already  men-
tioned, to live a long life before passing onwards.

[PAGE 1843]

    The difference between those who pass out at a ripe old age and one  who
leaves  this Earth in the prime of life may be illustrated by the manner  in
which the seed clings to a fruit in an unripe state.  A great deal of  force
is necessary to tear the stone from a green peach;  it has such a  tenacious
hold upon the fruit that shreds of pulp adhere to it when forcibly  removed.
So also the Spirit clings to the flesh in middle life and a certain part  of
its  material  interest remains and binds it to Earth after  death.  On  the
other hand,  when a life has been lived to the full, when the spirit has had
time to realize its ambitions or to find out their futility, when the duties
of  life has been misspent and the pangs of conscience have worked upon  the
man,  and shown him his mistakes; when, in fact,  the Spirit has learned the
lessons of life,  as it must have to come to old age, then it may be likened
to  the seed of the ripe fruit which falls out clean,  without a vestige  of
flesh clinging thereto, at the moment the encasing pulp is opened. Therefore
we say,  as before,  that thought there is a brighter existence in store for
those who have lived well,  it is nevertheless best to live a long life  and
to live it to the fullest extent possible.

[PAGE 1844]

    We also maintain that no matter what may be the circumstances of a man's
death, it is not accidental; it has either been brought about by his own ne-
glect to embrace opportunities of growth or else life has been lived to  the
ultimate possible.  There is one exception to that rule,  and that is due to
man's  exercise of his divine prerogative of interference.  If we lived  ac-
cording to schedule,  if we all assimilated the experiences designed for our
growth by the Creative Powers, we should live to the ultimate length, but WE
OURSELVES  usually shorten our lives by not taking advantage  of  opportuni-
ties.  It also happens that OTHER MEN may shorten our lives and cut them off
as  suddenly as the so-called accident whereby the divine  rulers  terminate
our life here.  In other words, murder,  or fatal accidents brought about by
HUMAN CARELESSNESS are in reality the only  termination to life not  planned
by invisible leaders of humanity.  No one is ever compelled to do murder  or
other  evil,  or there could not come to them a just retribution  for  their
acts.  The  Christ  said that evil must come but WOE  UNTO  HIM  BY  WHOM IT
COMETH,  and to harmonize that with the law of divine  justice,  "as  a  man
soweth,  so shall he also reap,"   THERE MUST AT LEAST BE ABSOLUTE FREE WILL
IN RESPECT TO EVIL ACTS.

      There are also cases where a person lives such a full and good life of
such  vast benefit to humanity and to himself that his days  are  lengthened
beyond the ultimate, as they are shortened by neglect, but such cases are of
course too few to allow of their being dwelt upon at length.

    Where  death is not sudden as in the case of accidents,  but  occurs  at
home after an illness, quietly and peacefully, dying persons usually experi-
ence a falling upon them as of a  pall  of great darkness before termination

[PAGE 1845]

of life. Many pass out from the body under that condition and do not see the
light again until they have entered the superphysical realms. There are many
other cases, however, where the darkness lifts before the final release from
the body.  Then the dying person views both worlds at once, and is cognizant
of the presence of both dead and living friends. Under such circumstances it
very often happens that a mother sees some of her children who have gone be-
fore,  and she will exclaim joyously:  "Oh,  there is Johnny standing at the
foot of the bed:  my,  but hasn't he grown!"   The living relatives may feel
shocked  and uneasy,  thinking the mother is suffering from  hallucinations,
while  in reality she is more clear-sighted than they.  She perceives  those
who  have passed beyond the veil,  who have come to greet and assist her  to
find herself at home in the new world she is entering.

    Each  human being is an individual, separate and apart from all  others,
and  as experiences in the life of each differ from those of all  others  in
the interval from the cradle to the grave,  so we may also reasonably  infer
that  the  experiences of each Spirit when it passes through  the  gates  of
birth and death.  We print what purports to be a spirit message communicated
by the late professor James of Harvard at the Boston Spirit Temple,  and  in
which he describes sensations which he felt when passing through the gate of
death.  We do not vouch for its authenticity as we (the writer) have not in-
vestigated the matter personally.

[PAGE 1846]

    Professor James had promised to communicate after death with his friends
in  this life,  and the whole world of psychic research was and still is  on
watch for a word from him. Several mediums have claimed that Professor James
has  communicated  through them,  but the most remarkable  are  those  given
through the Boston Spirit temple as follows:

    "And  this is death,  only to fall asleep, only to awaken in the morning
and to know that all is well. I am not dead, only arisen.

                             *  *  *  *  *

    "I  only know that I experienced a great shock through my entire system,
as if some mighty bond had been rent asunder.  For a moment I was dazed  and
lost consciousness.  When I awakened I found myself standing beside the  old
body  which had served me faithfully and well.  To say that I was  surprised
would  only inadequately express the sensation that thrilled my very  being,
and  I realized that some wonderful change had taken place.  Suddenly I  be-
came conscious that my body was surrounded by many of my friends, and an un-
controllable desire took possession of me to speak and touch them that  they
might know that I still lived.  Drawing a little nearer to that which was so
like and yet unlike myself, I stretched forth my hand and touched them,  but
they heeded me not."

                             *  *  *  *  *  

    "Then  it  was that the full significance of the great change  that  had
taken place flashed upon my newly awakened senses;  then it was that I real-
ized that an impenetrable barrier separated me from my loved ones on  Earth,
and that this great change which had taken place was indeed death.  A  sense
of  weariness  and longing for rest took possession of me.  I seemed  to  be
transported through space,  and I lost consciousness, to awaken in a land so

[PAGE 1847]

different and yet so similar to the one which I had lately left.  It was not
possible  for  me  to  describe my sensations when  I  again  regained  con-
sciousness and realized that, though dead, I was still alive.

    "When  I first became conscious of my new environment I was resting in a
beautiful  grove,  and was realizing as never before what it was  to  be  at
peace with myself and all the world."

                            *  *  *  *  *

      "I  know  that only with the greatest difficulty shal I be enabled  to
express to you my sensations when I fully realized that I had awakened to  a
new life. All was still, no sound broke the silence. Darkness had surrounded
me. In fact, I seemed to be enveloped in a heavy mist, beyond which which my
gaze could not penetrate.  Soon in the distance I discerned a faint  glimmer
of light, which slowly approached me, and then, to my wonder and joy,  I be-
held  the face of her who had been my guiding star in the early days  of  my
earth life."

                            *  *  *  *  *  

    One  of the saddest sights witnessed by the seer at a death-bed  is  the
tortures to which we often subject our dying friends on account of ignorance
of how to care for them in that condition.  We have a science of birth;  ob-
stetricians who have been trained for years in their profession and have de-
veloped  a  wonderful skill assist the little stranger into this  world.  We
have also trained nurses attendant upon mother and child,  the ingenuity  of
brilliant minds is focused upon the problem of how to make maternity easier;
neither pains nor money are spared in these beneficent efforts for one  whom
we  have  never seen.  But when the friend of a lifetime,  the man  who  has
served his kind well and nobly in profession,  state, or church, is to leave

[PAGE 1848]

the scene of his labors for a new field of activity, when the woman, who has
labored to no less good purpose in bringing up a family to take its part  in
the world's work,  has to leave that home and family,  when one whom we have
loved all our lives is about to bid us the final farewell, we stand by,  ut-
terly at a loss how to help.  Perhaps we even do the very things most detri-
mental to the comfort and welfare of the departing one.

    Probably  there is no form of torture more commonly inflicted  upon  the
dying  than that which is caused by administering stimulants.  Such  potions
have  the effect of drawing a departing Spirit into its body with the  force
of a catapult,  to remain and to suffer for some time longer.  Investigators
of conditions beyond have heard many complaints of such treatment.  When  it
is  seen that death must inevitably ensue, let not selfish desire to keep  a
departing  Spirit  a little longer prompt us to inflict such  tortures  upon
them.  The death chamber should be a place of the utmost quiet,  a place  of
peace and of prayer, for at that time, and FOR THREE AND ONE-HALF DAYS AFTER
THE LAST BREATH,  the  Spirit is passing through a Gethsemane and needs  all
the assistance that can be given.  The value of the life that has just  been
passed  depends greatly upon conditions which then prevail about  the  body;
yes,  even the conditions of its future life are influenced by our  attitude
during that time,  so that if ever we were our brother's keeper in life,  we
are a thousand times more so at death.

[PAGE 1849]

      Post-mortem examinations,  embalming,  and cremation during the period
mentioned,  not only disturb the passing Spirit mentally,  but are even pro-
ductive of a certain amount of pain,  there still being a slight  connection
with the discarded vehicle.  If sanitary laws require us to prevent decompo-
sition  while thus keeping the body for cremation,  it may be packed in  ice
till  the three and one-half days have passed.  After that time  the  Spirit
will not suffer, no matter what happens to the body.

                        THE PANORAMA OF A PAST LIFE:

    No matter how long we may keep the Spirit from passing out, however,  at
last  there  will  come a time when no stimulant can hold it  and  the  last
breath is drawn.  Then the silver cord of which the Bible speaks,  and which
holds  the higher and the lower vehicles together,  snaps in the  heart  and
causes  that organ to stop.  That rupture releases the vital body,  and  it,
with the desire body and mind, floats above the visible body for from one to
three and one-half days,  while the Spirit is engaged in reviewing the  past
life, an exceedingly important part of its post-mortem experience. Upon that
review depends its whole existence from death to a new birth.

    The  question may arise in the student's mind:  "How  can we review  our
past life from the cradle to the grave, when we do not even remember what we
did  a month ago?  To form a proper basis for our future life,  this  record
ought to be very accurate, but even the best memory is faulty."  When we un-
derstand the difference between the conscious and  subconscious  memory  and

[PAGE 1850]

the manner in which the latter operates, the difficulty vanishes.  This dif-
ference  and the manner in which the subconscious memory keeps  an  accurate
record of our life experiences may be best understood by an illustration, as
follows: When we go into a field and view the surrounding landscape,  vibra-
tions  in the ether carry to us a picture of everything within the range  of
our vision. It is as sad as it is true, however, that  "we have eyes and see
not,"  as  the Saviour said. These vibrations impinge upon the retina of our
eyes,  even to the very smallest details,  but they usually do not penetrate
to our consciousness, and therefore are not remembered. Even the most power-
ful impressions fade in the course of time, so that we cannot call them back
at will when they are stored in our conscious memory.

    When  a photographer goes afield with his camera,  the results which  he
obtains are different.  The  ether vibrations emanating from all things upon
which his camera is focused,  transmit to the sensitive plate an  impression
of the landscape,  true to the minutest detail;  and,  mark this well,  this
true and accurate picture is in no wise dependent upon whether the photogra-
pher  is observant or not.  It will remain upon the plate and may be  repro-
duced under proper conditions.  Such is the subconscious memory,  and it  is
generated automatically by each of us during every moment of time,  indepen-
dently of our volition, in the following manner.

    From  the first breath which we draw after birth to our last dying  gasp

[PAGE 1851]

we inspire air which is charged with pictures of our surroundings,  and  the
same  ether which carries that picture to the retina of our eye  is  inhaled
into our lungs where it enters the blood.  Thus it reaches the heart in  due
time.  In  the left ventricle of that organ,  near the apex,  there  is  one
little  atom which is particularly sensitized and which remains in the  body
all through life. It differs in this respect from all other atoms which come
and  go,  for it is the particular property of God,and of a certain  Spirit.
This  atom may be called the book of the Recording Angel,  for as the  blood
passes through the heart,  cycle after cycle,  the pictures of our good  and
evil acts are inscribed thereon to the minutest detail.   This record may be
called the subconscious memory.  It forms the basis of our future life  when
reproduced  as a panorama just subsequent to death.  By removal of the  seed
atom--which corresponds to the sensitized plate in a camera--the  reflecting
ether of the vital body serves as a focus,  and as the life unrolls  slowly,
backwards,  from death to birth the pictures thereof are etched into the de-
sire body, which will be our vehicle during our sojourn in Purgatory and the
First Heaven where evil is eradicated and good assimilated, so that in a fu-
ture  life  the  former may serve as CONSCIENCE to  withhold  the  man  from
repeating  mistakes  of the past,  and the latter will spur him  to  greater
good.

    A phenomenon similar to the panorama of life usually takes place where a
person is drowning.  People who have been resuscitated speak of having  seen
their whole life IN A FLASH. That is because under such conditions the vital

[PAGE 1852]

body also leaves the dense body.  Of course there is no rupture of the  sil-
ver cord,  or life could not be restored. Unconsciousness follows quickly in
drowning,  while in the usual post-mortem review the  consciousness  contin-
ues  until the vital body collapses in the same manner that it does when  we
go to sleep.  Then consciousness ceases for a while and the panorama is ter-
minated.  Therefore also the time occupied by the panorama varies with  dif-
ferent persons,  according to whether the vital body was strong and healthy,
or had become thin and emaciated by protracted illness.  The longer the time
spent  in  review,  and the more quiet and peaceful  the  surroundings,  the
deeper  will  be the etching which is made in the desire  body.  As  already
said,  that has a most important and far-reaching effect,  for then the suf-
ferings which the Spirit will realize in Purgatory on account of bad  habits
and misdeeds will be much keener than if there is only a slight  impression,
and in a future life the still small voice of conscience will warn much more
insistently against mistakes which caused sufferings in the past.

    When  conditions are such at the time of death that the Spirit  is  dis-
turbed  by  outside conditions,  as for instance the din and  turmoil  of  a
battle,  the harrowing conditions of an accident, or the hysterical wailings
of  relatives,  the distraction prevents it from  realizing  an  appropriate
depth in the etching upon the desire body.  Consequently its post-mortem ex-
istence becomes vague and insipid; the Spirit does not harvest the fruits of

[PAGE 1853]

experience as it should have done had it passed out of the body in peace and
under normal conditions.  It would therefore lack incentive to good in a fu-
ture  life,  and miss the warning against evil which a deep etching  of  the
panorama  of life would have given.  Thus its growth would be retarded in  a
very  marked degree,  but the beneficent Powers in charge of evolution  take
certain  steps  to compensate for our ignorant treatment of  the  dying  and
other untoward circumstances mentioned. What these steps are,  we shall dis-
cuss when considering the life of children in heaven; for the present let it
be  sufficient to say that in God's kingdom every evil is always  transmuted
to a greater good, though the process may not be at once apparent.

                                 PURGATORY:

    During life the collapse of the vital body at night terminates our  view
of the world about us,  and causes us to lose ourselves in the  unconscious-
ness of sleep.  When the vital body collapses just subsequent to death,  and
the  panorama of life is terminated,  we also lose consciousness for a  time
which varies according to the individual.  A darkness seems to fall upon the
Spirit;  then  after a while it wakes up and begins dimly  to  perceive  the
light  of the other world,  but is only gradually accustomed to the  altered
conditions.  It is an experience similar to that which we have  when  coming
out of a darkened room into sunlight, which blinds us by its brilliancy, un-
til the pupils of our eyes have contracted so that they admit a quantity  of
light bearable to our organism.

[PAGE 1854]

    If  under such a condition we turn momentarily from the bright  sunlight
and look back into the darkened room, objects there will be much plainer  to
our  vision than things outside which are illumined by the powerful rays  of
the Sun. So it is also with the Spirit; when it has first been released from
the body it perceives sights, scenes, and sounds of the material world which
it has just left much more readily than it observes the sights of the  world
it  is entering.   Wordsworth  in  his  ODE TO IMMORTALITY  noted a  similar
condition in the case of newborn children,  who are all clairvoyant and much
more  awake to the spiritual world than to this present plane of  existence.
Some  lose the spiritual sight very early, others retain it for a number  of
years,  and a few keep it all through life, but as the birth of a child is a
death in the spiritual world and it retains the spiritual sight for a  time,
so also death here is a birth upon the spiritual plane,  and the newly  dead
retain a consciousness of this world for some time subsequent to demise.

    When  one awakes in the Desire World after having passed through  afore-
mentioned experiences,  the general feeling seems to be one of relief from a
heavy burden,  a feeling perhaps akin to that of a diver encased in a  heavy
rubber suit,  a weighty brass helmet upon his head,  leaden soles under  his
feet,  and heavy weights of lead upon his breast and back,  confined  in his

[PAGE 1855]

operations  on  the bottom of the ocean by a short length of air  tube,  and
able  to move only clumsily and with difficulty.  When after the day's  work
such a man is hauled to the surface,  and divests himself of his heavy  gar-
ments and he moves about with the facility we enjoy here, he must surely ex-
perience  a  feeling of great relief.  Something like that is  felt  by  the
Spirit when it has been divested of the mortal coil and is able to roam  all
over  the  globe instead of being confined to the narrow  environment  which
bound it upon earth.

    There is also a feeling of relief for those who have been ill. Sickness,
such as we know it,  does not exist there.  Neither is it necessary to  seek
food and shelter,  for in that world there is neither heat nor cold.  Never-
theless,  there are many in the purgatorial region who go to all the bothers
of housekeeping,  eating and drinking just as we do here.  George Du Maurier
in his novel,  PETER IBBETTSON,  gives  a  very good idea of this condition,
in  his life lived between the hero and the Countess of Towers.  This  novel
also  illustrates splendidly what has been said of the subconscious  memory,
for George DuMaurier has somewhere,  somehow discovered an easy method which
anyone may apply to do what he calls  "dreaming true."   By taking a certain
position in going to sleep, it is possible, after a little practice, to com-
pel the appearance, in a dream, of any scene IN OUR PAST LIFE,  which we de-
sire to live over again. The book is well worth reading on that account.

[PAGE 1856]

    When  a  fiery nebulae has been formed in the sky and commences  to  re-
volve,  a little matter in the center where motion is slowest  commences  to
crystallize.  When  it  has reached a certain density it is  caught  in  the
swirl,  and whirled nearer, and nearer to the outward extremity of what has,
by  that time,  become the equator of a revolving globe.  Then it is  hurled
into space and discarded from the economy of the revolving Sun.

    This process is not accomplished automatically as scientists would  have
us  believe, an  assertion  which has been proven in "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-
Conception" and other places in our literature. Herbert Spencer rejected the
nebular theory because it required  a  First  cause, which he denied (though
unable to form a better hypothesis of the formation  of  solar systems), but
it is accomplished through the activity of a Great Spirit, which we may call
God or any other name we  choose.  As above, so below, says the Hermetic ax-
iom. Man, who is a lesser Spirit,  also gathers  about  himself  spirit-sub-
stance,  which crystallizes into matter  and becomes the visible  body which
the spiritual sight reveals as placed  inside an aura of finer vehicles. The
latter are in constant motion. When the dense body is born as a child  it is
extremely soft and flexible.

    Childhood, youth, maturity, and old age are but so many different stages
of crystallization, which goes on until at last a point is reached where the
Spirit  can no longer move the hardened body and it is thrown out  from  the
Spirit as the planet is expelled from the Sun.  That is death--the commence-
ment of a disrobing process which continues in Purgatory.  The low evil pas-
sions  and  desires  we  cultivated  during  life  have   crystallized   the

[PAGE 1857]

desire-stuff in such a manner that also must be expelled. Thus the Spirit is
purged  of evil under the same law that a sun is purged of the matter  which
later forms a planet. If the life has been a reasonably decent one, the pro-
cess of purgation will not be very strenuous nor will the evil desires  thus
expurgated persist for a long time after having been freed, but they quickly
disintegrate.  If,  on the other hand,  an extremely vile life has been led,
the  part of the expurgated desire nature may persist even to the time  when
the  Spirit returns to a new birth for further experience.  It will then  be
attracted to him and haunt him as a demon,  inciting him to evil deeds which
he himself abhors. The story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is not a mere fanci-
ful idea of Robert Louis Stevenson,  but is founded upon facts well known to
spiritual investigators.  Such cases are extremes,  of course,  but they are
nevertheless  possible,  and we unfortunately have laws which  convert  such
possibilities  of probabilities in the case of a certain class of  so-called
criminals.  We refer to laws which decree capital punishment as penalty  for
murder.

    When  a  man is dangerous he should of course be  restrained,  but  even
apart from the question of the moral right of a community to take  the  life

[PAGE 1858]

of anyone--which we deny--society by its very act of retaliatory murder  de-
feats the very end it would serve. If the vicious murderer is restrained un-
der whatever discipline is necessary in a prison,  for a number of years un-
til  his natural death,  he will have forgotten his bitterness  against  his
victim and against society,  and when he stands as a free Spirit in the  De-
sire World,  he may even by prayer have obtained forgiveness and have become
a good Christian.  He will then go on his way rejoicing, and will in the fu-
ture life seek to help those whom he hurt here.

    When society retaliates and puts him to a violent death shortly after he
has  committed the crime,  he is most likely to feel himself as having  been
greatly injured,  and not without cause. Then such a character will  usually
seek to "get even,"  as  he  calls it,  going about for a long time inciting
others  to commit murder and other crimes. Then we have am epidemic of  mur-
ders in a community, a condition not infrequent.

    The regicide in Serbia shocked the Western world (in 1914) by wiping out
an entire royal house in a most shockingly bloody manner,  and the  Minister
of the Interior was one of the chief conspirators.  Later he wrote his  mem-
oirs,  and therein he writes that whenever the conspirators had tried to win
anyone as a recruit, they always succeeded when they burned incense.  He did
not know why, but simply mentioned it as a curious coincidence.

    To the mystic investigator the matter is perfectly clear.  We have shown
the necessity of having a vehicle made of the materials of any world wherein
we wish to function.  We usually obtain a physical vehicle by going  through
the womb,  or perhaps in a few special cases, from a particularly good mate-
rializing medium, but where it is only necessary to work upon the brain  and

[PAGE 1859]

influence someone else to act,  we need but a vehicle made of such ether  as
may be obtained from fumes of many different substances.  Each kind attracts
different classes of Spirits,  and there is no doubt that the incense burned
at meetings where the conspirators were successful was of a low and  sensual
order and attracted Spirits who had a grudge against humanity in general and
the  King of Serbia in particular. These malcontents were unable  to  injure
the king himself,  but used a subtle influence which helped the conspirators
in their work. The released murderer who has a grudge against society on ac-
count  of his execution,  may enter low gambling saloons where the fumes  of
liquor  and tobacco furnish ample opportunity for working upon the class  of
people who congregate in such places,  and the man whose spiritual sight has
been  developed is often sadly impressed when he sees the subtle  influences
to  which  those  who frequent such places are exposed.  It is  a  fact,  of
course,  that  a  man  must be of a low caliber  to  be  influenced  by  low
thoughts,  and  that it is as impossible to incite a  person  of  benevolent
character to do murder--unless we put him into a hypnotic sleep--as to  make
a  tuning fork which vibrates to C sing by striking another attuned  to  the
key of G.  But the thoughts of both living and dead constantly surround  us,
and no man ever thought out a high spiritual philosophy under the  influence

[PAGE 1860]

of tobacco fumes or while imbibing alcoholic stimulants.  Were capital  pun-
ishment, newspaper notoriety of criminals, and the manufacture of liquor and
tobacco eliminated from society,  the gun factories would soon cease to  ad-
vertise and go out of business along with most of the locksmiths. The police
force  would  decrease,   and  jails  and  taxes  would  be  correspondingly
minimized.

    When a person enters Purgatory he is  exactly the same person as  before
he died. He has just the same appetites, likes and dislikes,  sympathies and
antipathies, as before. There is one important difference, however,  namely,
that HE HAS NO DENSE BODY WHEREWITH TO GRATIFY HIS APPETITES.  The  drunkard
craves drink, in fact, far more than he did in this life, but has no stomach
which  can  contain liquor and cause the chemical  combustion  necessary  to
bring about the state of intoxication in which he delights.  He may and does
enter  saloons where he interpolates his body into the body of the  physical
drunkard so that he may obtain his desires at second hand,  as it were,  in-
citing his victim to drink more and more.

    Yet  there  is no true satisfaction.  He sees the full  glass  upon  the
counter but his spirit hand is unable to lift it. He suffers the tortures of
Tantalus until in time he realizes the impossibility of gratifying his  base
desire.  Then he is free to go on, so far as that vice is concerned.  He has
been purged from that evil without intervention of an angry Deity or a  con-
ventional  devil with hell's flames and pitchfork to administer  punishment,
but under the immutable law THAT AS WE SOW SO SHALL WE REAP, he has suffered

[PAGE 1861]

exactly  according to his vice.  If his craving for drink was of a mild  na-
ture, he would scarcely miss the liquor which he cannot there obtain. If his
desires were strong and he simply lived for drink, he would suffer veritable
tortures of hell without need of actual flames. Thus the pain experienced in
eradication of his vice would be exactly commensurate with the energy he had
expended upon contracting the habit,  as the force wherewith a falling stone
strikes the earth is proportionate to the energy expended in hurling it  up-
wards into the air.

    Yet  it is not the aim of God to "get even;"  LOVE  is  higher than  LAW
and in His wonderful mercy and solicitude for our welfare He has opened  the
way  of repentance and reform whereby we may obtain forgiveness of  sin,  as
taught by the Lord of Love: the Christ. Not indeed contrary to law,  for His
laws are immutable,  but by application of a higher law,  whereby we  accom-
plish here that which would otherwise be delayed until death had forced  the
day of reckoning. The method is as follows:

    In  our explanation concerning the subconscious memory we noted  that  a
record of every act,  thought, and word is transmitted by air and ether into
our lungs, thence to the blood, and finally inscribed upon the tablet of the
heart: a certain little  SEED ATOM,  which  is  thus the book of the Record-
ing Angels.  It was later explained how this panorama of life is etched into
the desire body and forms the basis of retribution after death. When we have

[PAGE 1862]

committed a wrong and our conscience accuses us in consequence, and this ac-
cusation is productive of sincere repentance ACCOMPANIED BY REFORM, the pic-
ture  of that wrong act will gradually fade from the record of our life,  so
that  when we pass out at death it will not stand accusingly against us.  We
noted that the panorama of life unwinds BACKWARDS just after death. Later in
the purgatorial life it again passes before the spiritual vision of the man,
who  then  experiences the exact feeling of those whom he  has  wronged.  He
seems to lose his or her identity for the time being and assumes the  condi-
tion of his one time victim, he experiences all the mental and physical suf-
fering himself which he inflicted upon others. Thus he learns to be merciful
instead of cruel, and to do right instead of wrong in a future life.  But if
he awakens to a thorough realization of a wrong previous to his death, then,
as said, the feeling of sorrow for his victim and the restitution or redress
which  he gives of his own free will makes the suffering after  death  unne-
cessary. Hence "his sin is forgiven."

    The  Rosicrucian Mystery Teaching gives a scientific method  whereby  an
aspirant to the higher life may purge himself continually,  and thus be able
entirely to avoid existence in Purgatory. Each night after retiring the  pu-
pil  reviews his or her life during the day IN REVERSE ORDER.  He starts  to
visualize as clearly as possible the scene which took place just before  re-
tiring. He then endeavors to view impartially his actions in that scene, ex-
amining them to see whether he did right or wrong. If the latter, he endeav-
ors to FEEL AND REALIZE AS VIVIDLY AS POSSIBLE that wrong.  For instance, if

[PAGE 1863]

he spoke harshly to someone,  and upon later consideration finds it was  not
merited,  he will endeavor to FEEL exactly as that one felt whom he  wronged
and at the very earliest opportunity to apologize for the hasty  expression.
Then he will call up the next scene in backward succession which may perhaps
be the supper table.  In respect of that scene he will examine himself as to
whether he ate to live, sparingly and of foods prepared without suffering to
other creatures of God (such as flesh foods that cannot be obtained  without
taking life).  If he finds that he allowed his appetite to run away with him
and that he ate gluttonously, he will endeavor to overcome these habits, for
to live a clean life we must have a clean body,  and no one can live to  his
highest possibilities while making his stomach a graveyard for the  decaying
corpses  of murdered animals.  In this respect there occurs to the writer  a
little poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

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

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

[PAGE 1864]

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

    Thus the pupil will continue to review each scene IN REVERSE ORDER  from
night till morning, and TO FEEL REALLY SORRY  for whatever he has done amiss.
He  will not neglect to FEEL GLAD either when he comes to a scene  where  he
has done well,  and THE MORE INTENSELY HE CAN FEEL,  THE MORE THOROUGHLY  HE
WILL ERADICATE THE RECORD UPON THE TABLET OF THE HEART AND SHARPEN HIS  CON-
SCIENCE,  so that as time goes on from year to year, he will find less cause
for blame and enhance his soul power enormously. Thus he will grow in a mea-
sure  impossible  by  any  less systematic method,  and  there  will  be  no
necessity for his stay in Purgatory after death.

    This evening exercise, and another for the morning, if persistently per-
formed  day by day will in time awaken the spiritual vision as they  improve
life.   This matter has, however, been so thoroughly treated in number 11 of
the  ecture  series "SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT"  that it is unnecessary to
dwell upon the matter further in this place.

[PAGE 1865]

                            THE FIRST HEAVEN:

    In the First Heaven, which is located in the higher regions of  the  De-
sire  World,  the  panorama  of  life  again unrolls and reveals every scene
where we aimed to help or benefit others. They were not felt at the time the
Spirit was in the lower regions,   for  higher  desires cannot express them-
selves in the coarse matter composing the lower regions of the Desire World;
but when the Spirit ascends to the First Heaven it reaps from each scene all
the good which it expressed in life.   It will feel the gratitude poured out
by  those whom it helped; if it comes to a scene where itself received a fa-
vor from others AND WAS GRATEFUL, it will experience the gratitude anew. The
sum of all these feelings is there amalgamated into the Spirit to serve in a
future life as incentives to good.

    Thus  the  Spirit is purged from evil in Purgatory and  strengthened  in
good  in the First Heaven.  In one region the extract of  sufferings  become
CONSCIENCE  to deter us from doing wrong,  in the other region the  quintes-
sence of good is transmuted to BENEVOLENCE and altruism, which are the basis
of all true progress.  Moreover, Purgatory is far from being a place of PUN-
ISHMENT.  It is perhaps the most beneficent realm in nature,  for BECAUSE OF
PURGATION WE ARE BORN INNOCENT life after life. The tendencies to commit the
same  evil for which we suffered remain with us,  and temptations to  commit
the same wrongs will be placed in our placed in our path until we have  con-
sciously overcome the evil here. Temptation is not sin, however,  the sin is
in yielding.

    Among  the inhabitants of the invisible world there is one  class  which
lives a particularly painful life,  sometimes for a great many years,  name-
ly, the suicide who tried to play truant from the school of life.  Yet it is

[PAGE 1866]

not  an angry God or a malevolent devil who administers punishment,  but  an
immutable  law  which proportions the sufferings differently to  each  indi-
vidual suicide.

    We learned previously, when considering the World of Thought,  that each
form in this visible world has its archetype there--a vibrating hollow  mold
which  emits  a  certain harmonious sound.  That sound  attracts  and  forms
physical into the shape we behold,  much in the same manner as when we place
a  little  sand upon a glass plate and rub the edge with a violin  bow;  the
sand is shaped into different geometrical figures which change as the  sound
changes.

    The  little atom in the heart is the sample and the center around  which
the atoms in our body gather.  When that is removed at death,  the center is
lacking,  and although the archetype keeps on vibrating until the  limit  of
the  life has been reached--as also previously explained--no matter  can  be
drawn into the hollow shape of the archetype.  Therefore the suicide feels a
dreadful gnawing pain as if he were hollowed out,  a torture which can  only
be likened to the pangs of hunger. In his case,  the intense suffering  will
continue  for exactly as many years as he should have lived in the body.  At
the expiration of that time,  the archetype collapses as it does when  death
comes naturally.  Then the pain of the suicide ceases,  and he commences his
period of purgation as do those who die a natural death.  But the memory  of
sufferings experienced in consequence of the act of suicide will remain with
him in future lives and deter him from a similar mistake.

[PAGE 1867]

    In  the First Heaven there is a class who have not had  any  purgatorial
existence and who lead a particularly joyous life:  the children.  Our  home
may be saddened almost beyond endurance when the little flower is broken and
the sunshine it brought has gone.  But could we see the beautiful  existence
with these little ones lead,  and did we understand the great benefits which
accrue to a child from its limited stay there,  our sorrow would be at least
ameliorated in a great measure, and the wound upon our heart would heal more
quickly.  Besides, as nothing else in the world happens without a cause,  so
there  is also a much deeper cause for infant mortality than we are  usually
aware  of,  and as we awake to the facts of the case,  we shall be  able  to
avoid in future the sorrow incident to loss of our little ones.

    To understand the case properly we must revert to the experiences of the
dying in the death hour.  We remember that the panorama of the past life  is
etched  upon  the desire body during a period varying from a  few  hours  to
three and one-half days just subsequent to demise.  We recall also that upon
the depth of this etching depends the clearness of the picture, and that the
more  vivid this panorama of life,  the more intensely will the Spirit  suf-
fer  in Purgatory and feel the joys of heaven;  also,  that the greater  the
suffering Purgatory the stronger the conscience in the next life.

[PAGE 1868]

    It was explained how the horrors of death upon the battle field,  in  an
accident, or other untoward circumstances would prevent the Spirit from giv-
ing  all its attention to the panorama of life,  with the result that  there
would be a light etching in the desire body, followed by a vague and insipid
existence  in Purgatory and the First Heaven.  It was also stated that  hys-
terical lamentations in the death chamber would produce the same effect.

    A Spirit which had thus escaped suffering proportionate to its misdeeds,
and which had not experienced the pleasure commensurate with the good it had
done,  would not in a future life have as well developed a conscience as  it
ought to have,  nor would it be as benevolent as it ought to be,  and there-
fore the life, terminated under conditions over which the Spirit had no con-
trol,  would be partly wasted.  The Great Leaders of humanity therefore take
steps to counteract such a calamity and prevent an injustice.  The Spirit is
brought to birth, caused to die in childhood, re-enters the Desire World and
in the First Heaven it is taught the lessons of which it was deprived previ-
ously.

    As  the First Heaven is located in the Desire World (which is the  realm
of  light and color),  where matter is shaped most readily by  thought,  the
little  ones are given wonderful toys impossible of construction here.  They
are taught to play with COLORS, WHICH WORK UPON THEIR MORAL CHARACTER in ex-
actly the manner each child requires.  Anyone who is at all sensitive is af-
fected by the color of his clothing and surroundings. Some colors have a de-
pressing effect, while others inspire  us  with  energy,  and  others  again

[PAGE 1869]

soothe and comfort us. In the Desire World the effect of colors is much more
intense; they are much more potent factors of good and evil there than here.
In this color play,  the child imbibes unconsciously the qualities which  it
did  not acquire on account of accident or lamentations of relatives.  Often
it  also falls to the lot of such relatives to care for a child and  see  it
die.  Thus  they receive just retribution for the wrong committed.  As  wars
cease,  and man learns to be more careful of life,  also how to care for the
dying, infant mortality, which now is so appalling, will decrease.

                             THE SECOND HEAVEN:

    When  both the good and evil of a life have been extracted,  the  Spirit
discards its desire body and ascends to the Second Heaven.  The desire  body
then commences to disintegrate as the physical body and the vital body  have
done,  but it is a peculiarity of desire-stuff that, once it has been formed
and inspired with life, it persists for a considerable time. Even after that
life has fled it lives a semiconscious,  independent life.  Sometimes it  is
drawn  by magnetic attraction to relatives of the Spirit whose  clothing  it
was,  and at spiritualistic seances these SHELLS generally  impersonate  the
departed Spirit and deceive its relatives.  As the panorama of the past life
is  etched  into  the  shells, they have a memory of incidents in connection

[PAGE 1870]

with these relatives,  which facilitates the deception.  But as the intelli-
gence has fled, they are of course unable to give any true counsel, and that
accounts for the inane,  goody-goody nonsense of which these things  deliver
themselves.

    When passing from the First to the Second Heaven, the Spirit experiences
the condition known and described previously as  THE  GREAT  SILENCE,  where
it stands utterly alone,  conscious only of its divinity.  When that silence
is broken there floats in upon the Spirit  celestial harmonies of THE  WORLD
OF TONE  where  the Second Heaven is located.  It seems then to lave  in  an
ocean of sound and to experience a joy beyond all description and words,  as
it  nears  its heavenly home--for this is the first of the  truly  spiritual
realms  from which the Spirit has been exiled during its Earth life and  the
subsequent post-mortem existence.  In the Desire World its work was  CORREC-
TIVE,  but in the World of Thought the human Spirit becomes one with the na-
ture forces and its CREATIVE activity begins.

    Under the Law of Causation we reap exactly what we sow,  and it would be
wrong to place one Spirit in an environment where there is a scarcity of the
necessities of life,  where a scorching sun burns the crop and millions  die
from famine, or where the raging flood sweeps away primitive habitations not
built  to withstand its ravages,  and to bring another Spirit to birth in  a
land of plenty,  with fertile soil which yields a maximum of increase with a
minimum  of labor,  where the earth is rich in minerals that may be used  in
industry to facilitate transportation of products of the soil from one point
to another.

[PAGE 1871]

    If  we  were thus placed without action or acquiescence upon  our  part,
there would be no justice, but as our post-mortem existence in Purgatory and
the First Heaven is based upon our moral attitude in this life,  so our  ac-
tivities in the Second Heaven are determined by our mental aspirations. They
produce  our  future physical environment,  for in the  Second  Heaven,  the
Spirit  becomes  part  of the nature forces which work upon  the  earth  and
change its climate,  flora,  fauna. A Spirit of an indolent nature,  who in-
dulges in daydreams and metaphysical speculations HERE,  is not  transformed
by  death respecting its mental attitude any more than regarding  its  moral
propensities.  It will dream away time in heaven, glorying in its sights and
sounds. Thus it will neglect to work upon its future country and return to a
barren and arid land. Spirits, on the other hand, whose material aspirations
lead them to desire so-called solid comforts of hearth and home,  who aim to
promote  great  industries,  and whose mind is concerned in trade  and  com-
merce,  will build in heaven a land that will suit their  purpose:  fertile,
mineralized,  with navigable rivers and sheltered harbors.  They will return
in time to enjoy upon Earth the fruits of their labors in the Second Heaven,
as they reap the result of their life upon Earth in Purgatory and the  First
Heaven.

[PAGE 1872]

                             THE THIRD HEAVEN:

    In the Third Heaven most people have very little consciousness, for rea-
sons explained in connection with the Region of Abstract Thought,  for there
the  Third  Heaven is located.  It is therefore more of a place  of  waiting
where the Spirit rests between the time when its labors in the Second Heaven
have  been completed and the time when it again experiences the  desire  for
rebirth.  But  from this realm inventors bring down  their  original  ideas,
there  the philanthropist obtains the clearest vision of how to realize  his
utopian  dreams,  and the spiritual aspirations of the  saintly  minded  are
given renewed impetus.

    In  time the desires of the Spirit for further experiences draw it  back
to  rebirth,  and the great celestial Beings who are known in the  Christian
Religion  as  Recording Angels,  assist the Spirit to come to birth  in  the
place best suited to give it the experience necessary further to unfold  its
powers and possibilities.

      We  have all been here many times and in different families,  we  have
had  relations  of varying nature with many different  people,  and  usually
there are several families among whom we may seek re-embodiment to work  out
our  self-generated destiny and reap what we have sown in former  lives.  If
there are no special reasons why we should take birth in any particular fam-
ily among certain friends or foes,  the Spirit is allowed to choose its  own
place  of  birth.  Thus it may be said that most of us are  in  our  present
places by our own prenatal choice.

[PAGE 1873]

    In order to assist us in making that choice the Recording Angels call up
before the Spirit's vision a panorama in general outlines of each of the of-
fered lives.  This panorama will show what part of our past debts we are  to
pay, and what fruits we may be expected to reap in the coming life.

    The Spirit is left free to choose between the several lives offered. But
once a choice has been made no evasion is possible during life. We have free
will  with regard to the future,  but the past MATURE destiny we cannot  es-
cape, as shown by the incident recorded in  "The  Rosicrucian  Cosmo-Concep-
ion, "where  the writer warned a well known Los Angeles lecturer that if  he
left his home upon a certain day,  he would be injured by a  conveyance,  in
head, neck, breast and shoulders.  The gentleman believed  and  intended  to 
heed our warning.  Nevertheless, he went to Sierra Madre to lecture upon the 
fateful day. He  was injured by a collision in the places stated  and  later
explained:  "I thought the twenty-eighth was the twenty-ninth."

    When the Spirit has made its choice,  it descends into the Second Heaven
where  it is instructed by the Angels and Archangels how to build an  arche-
type of the body which it will later inhabit upon Earth.  Also here we  note
the operation of the great Law of Justice which decree that we reap what  we
sow. If our tastes are coarse and sensual, we shall build an archetype which

[PAGE 1874]

will express these qualities;  if we are refined and of aesthetic taste,  we
shall  build an archetype correspondingly refined, but no one can  obtain  a
better body than he can build.  Then, as the architect who builds a house in
which he afterwards lives,  will suffer discomfort if he neglects to  venti-
late it properly,  so also the Spirit feels disease in a poorly  constructed
body.  As the architect learns to avoid mistakes and remedy the shortcomings
of  one house when building another,  so also the Spirit which suffers  from
defects in its body learns in time to build better and better vehicles.

    In the Region of Concrete Thought, the Spirit also draws to itself mate-
rials for a new mind.  As a magnet draws iron filings but leaves other  sub-
stances alone,  so also each Spirit draws only the kind of mind-stuff  which
it  used in its former life,  plus that which it has learned to use  in  its
present post-mortem state.  Then it descends into the Desire World where  it
gathers  materials for a new desire body such as will express  appropriately
its moral characteristics. Later it attracts a certain amount of ether which
is built into the mold of the archetype Constructed in the Second Heaven and
acts  as cement between the solids, liquids,  and gaseous material from  the
bodies of parents which form the dense physical body of a child,  and in due
time the latter is brought to birth.

                             BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD:

    It must not be imagined,  however,  that when the little body of a child
has been born,  the  process of birth is completed.  The dense physical body

[PAGE 1875]

has  had  the longest evolution,  and as a shoemaker who has worked  at  his
trade  for a number of years is more expert than an apprentice and can  make
better shoes and QUICKER,  so also the Spirit which has built many  physical
bodies produces them quickly,  but the vital body is a later acquisition  of
the  human being.  Therefore we are not so expert in building that  vehicle.
Consequently, it takes longer to construct it from the materials not used in
making the lining of the archetype, and the vital body is not born until the
seventh year.  Then the period of rapid growth commences. The desire body is
a  still later addition of composite man, and is not brought to birth  until
the fourteenth year,  when the desire nature expresses itself most  strongly
during the so-called  "hot" youth, and the mind, which makes man,  does  not
come to birth until the twenty-first year.  In law that age is recognized as
the earliest time he is fitted to exercise a franchise.

    This knowledge is of the utmost importance to parents,  as a proper  un-
derstanding  of the development which should take place in each of the  sep-
tenary  epochs  enables the educator to work intelligently with  nature  and
thus fulfill more thoroughly the trust of a parent than those who are  igno-
rant of the Western Mystery Teaching.  We shall therefore devote the remain-
ing pages to an elucidation of this matter  and  to  the  importance  of the
knowledge of astrology upon the part of the parent.

[PAGE 1876]

              THE MYSTERY OF LIGHT, COLOR, AND CONSCIOUSNESS:

    "God  is Light,"  says  the  Bible,  and we are unable to conceive of  a
grander simile of His omnipresence,  or the mode of His manifestation.  Even
the greatest telescopes have failed to reach the boundaries of light, though
they  reveal to us stars millions of miles from the Earth,  and we may  well
ask ourselves,  as did the Psalmist of old:  "Whither  shall I flee from thy
presence?  If I ascend into heaven Thou art there,  if I make my bed in  the
grave  Thou art there,  if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in  the
uttermost parts of the sea. Even there shall thy hand lead me."

    When,  in the dawn of Being, GOD THE FATHER enunciated THE WORD, and THE
HOLY SPIRIT moved upon the sea of homogeneous VIRGIN MATTER,  primeval DARK-
NESS was turned to LIGHT. That is therefore,  the prime manifestation of De-
ity,  and a study of the principles of Light will reveal to the mystic intu-
ition a wonderful source of spiritual inspiration.   As it would take us too
far  afield from our subject we shall not enter into an elucidation of  that
theme here,  except so far as to give an elementary idea of how divine  Life
energizes the human frame, and stimulates to action.

    Truly,  God is ONE and undivided.  He unfolds within His being all  that
is, as the white light embraces all colors.  But  He  appears  threefold  in

[PAGE 1877]

manifestation,  as  the white light is refracted in  three  primary  colors:
blue, yellow, and red. Wherever we see these colors they are emblematical of
the Father,  Son,  and Holy Spirit.  These three primary rays of divine Life
are  diffused or radiated through the Sun and produce  LIFE,  CONSCIOUSNESS,
AND FORM upon each of the seven light-bearers, the planets, which are called
"the Seven Spirits before the Throne."  Their  names  are:  Mercury,  Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. Bode's Law proves that Neptune and
Pluto do not "belong" to our solar system. See "Simplified Scientific Astro-
logy" by the  present  writer for mathematical demonstration of this concep-
tion.

    Each  of the seven planets receives the light of the Sun in a  different
measure,  according to its proximity to the central orb and the constitution
of its atmosphere, and the beings upon each, according to their stage of de-
velopment,  have affinity for some of the solar rays. They absorb the colors
congruous  to them,  and reflect the remainder upon the other planets.  This
reflected  ray  bears with it an impulse of the nature of  the  beings  with
which it has been in contact.

    Thus  the  divine Light and Life comes to each planet,  either  directly
from the Sun, or reflected from its sister planets, and as the summer breeze
which has been wafted over blooming fields carries upon its silent invisible
wings  the blended fragrance of a multitude of flowers,  so also the  subtle
influences from the garden of God bring to us the co-mingled impulses of all
the Spirits, and in that varicolored light we live and move and have our be-
ing.

[PAGE 1878]

    The  rays which come directly from the Sun are productive  of  spiritual
illumination,  the  reflected rays from other planets make  for  added  con-
sciousness and moral development,  and the rays reflected by way of the Moon
give physical growth.

    But  as  each planet can absorb only a certain quantity of one  or  more
colors according to the general stage of evolution there, so each being upon
Earth:  mineral,  plant,  animal, and man, can only absorb and thrive upon a
certain quantity of the various rays projected upon the Earth. The remainder
do not affect it or produce sensation, any more than the blind are conscious
of light and color which exists everywhere around them. Therefore each being
is differently affected by the stellar rays, and the science of astrology, a
fundamental  truth in nature,  is of enormous benefit in the  attainment  of
spiritual growth.

    From a horoscopic figure in mystic script we may learn our own  strength
and weakness,  with the path best suited to our development,  or we may  see
the tendencies of those friends who come to us as children,  and what traits
are dormant in them. Thus we shall know clearly how to discharge our duty as
parents,  by repressing evil before it comes to birth, and fostering good so
that  it  may  bring forth most abundantly the spiritual  potencies  of  the
Spirit committed to our care.

    As we have already said,  man returns to Earth to reap that which he has
sown in previous lives and to sow anew the seeds which make for future expe-
rience.  The stars are the heavenly time keepers which measure the year; the

[PAGE 1879]

Moon  indicates the month when the time will be propitious to harvest or  to
sow.

    The child is a mystery to us all.  We can know its propensities only  as
they  slowly  develop into characteristics,  but it is usually too  late  to
check  when evil habits have been formed and the youth is upon the  downward
grade.  A horoscope cast for the time of birth in a scientific manner  shows
the tendencies to good or evil in the child,  and if a parent will take  the
time and trouble necessary to study the science of the stars,  he or she may
do the child entrusted to his or her care an inestimable service by  foster-
ing  tendencies to good and repressing the evil bent of a child ere  it  has
crystallized into habit.  Do not imagine that a superior mathematical knowl-
edge is necessary to erect a horoscope.  Many construct a horoscope in  such
an involved manner,  so "fearfully and wonderfully made,"  that  it  is  un-
readable to themselves or others,  while a simple figure,  easy of  reading,
may be constructed by anyone who knows how to add and subtract.  This method
has been thoroughly elucidated in"Simplified Scientific Astrology," which is
a complete text book, though small and inexpensive, and parents who have the
welfare of their children thoroughly at heart should  endeavor  to learn the
stellar science for themselves. Even though their ability  may  not  compare
with that of a professional  astrologer,  their  intimate  knowledge  of the
child and their deep interest will more than compensate  for  such  lack and
enable them to see most deeply into the child's character  by  means  of its
horoscope.

[PAGE 1880]

                           EDUCATION OF CHILDREN:

    Respecting  the birth of the various  vehicles and the  influence  which
that has upon life,  we may say that during the time from birth to the  sev-
enth year the lines of growth of the physical body are determined, and as it
has  been  noted that sound is builder both in the great and small,  we  may
well  imagine that rhythm must have an enormous influence upon  the  growing
and sensitive little child's organism. The apostle John in the first chapter
of  his Gospel expresses this idea mystically in the  beautiful  words:  "In
the  beginning was the WORD...and without it was not anything made that  was
made... and the word became flesh."  The Word is a rhythmic sound, which is-
sued  from  the Creator,  reverberated through the  universe  and  marshaled
countless  millions of atoms into the multiplex variety of shapes and  forms
which we see about us. The mountain, the mayflower,  the mouse,  and the man
are all embodiments of the great Cosmic Word which is still sounding through
the universe and which is still building and ever building though unheard by
our  insensitive ears.  But though we do not hear that  wonderful  celestial
sound,  we may work upon the little child's body by terrestrial  music,  and
though the nursery  rhymes are without sense,  they are nevertheless bearers
of a wonderful rhythm. The more a child is taught to say,  sing,  and repeat
them,  to dance and to march to them,  the more music is incorporated into a
child's  daily life,  the stronger and healthier will be its body in  future
years.

[PAGE 1881]

    There are two mottoes which apply during this period,  one to the  child
and the other to the parent: EXAMPLE AND IMITATION. No creature under heaven
is  more imitative than a little child, and its conduct in after years  will
depend largely upon the example set by its parents during its early life. It
is  no use to tell the child "not to mind."  It  has  no mind  wherewith  to
discriminate,  but follows its natural tendency, as water flows down a hill,
when it imitates.  Therefore it behooves every parent to remember from morn-
ing till night that watchful eyes are upon him all the time, waiting but for
him to act in order to follow his example.

    It is of the utmost importance that the child's clothing should be  very
loose,  particularly the clothing of little boys,  as chafing garments often
product vices which follow a man through life.

    If anyone should attempt forcibly to extract a babe from the  protecting
womb of its mother, the outrage would result in death,  because the babe had
not  yet arrived at a maturity sufficient to endure impacts of the  Physical
World.  In the three septenary periods which follow birth, the invisible ve-
hicles are still in the womb of Mother Nature. If we teach a child of tender
years to memorize,  or to think,  or if we arouse its feelings and emotions,
we  are in fact opening the protecting womb of nature,  and the results  are
equally as disastrous in other respects as a forced premature  birth.  Child

[PAGE 1882]

prodigies  usually become men and women of less than ordinary  intelligence.
We  should not hinder the child from learning or thinking  OF HIS OWN  VOLI-
TION,  but we should not goad them on as parents often do to  nourish  their
own pride.

    When  the vital body is born at the age of seven a period of growth  be-
gins and a new motto, or rather a new relation,  is established between par-
ent  and  child.  This may be expressed  by  the  two  words  AUTHORITY  and
DISCIPLESHIP.  In  this  period the child is taught certain lessons which it
takes  upon faith in the authority of its teachers,  whether at home  or  at
school,  and  as memory is a faculty of the vital body it can  now  memorize
what is learned.  It is therefore eminently teachable;  particularly because
it  is unbiased by preconceived opinions which prevent most of us  from  ac-
cepting new views.  At the end of this second period,  from about twelve  to
fourteen,  the vital body has been so far developed that puberty is reached.
At the age of fourteen we have the birth of the desire body, which marks the
commencement  of self-assertion.  In earlier years the child regards  itself
more as belonging to a family,  and subordinate to the wishes of its parents
than after the fourteenth year. The reason is this: In the throat of the fe-
tus and the young child there is a gland called the thymus gland,  which  is
largest before birth,  then gradually diminishes through the years of child-
hood and finally disappears at ages which vary according to the characteris-
tics of the child.

[PAGE 1883]

    Anatomists  have been puzzled as to the function of this organ and  have
not  yet come to any settled conclusion, but it has been suggested that  be-
fore development of the red marrow bones, the child is not able to  manufac-
ture its own blood, and that therefore the thymus gland contains an essence,
supplied  by the parents,  upon which the child may draw during infancy  and
childhood,  till  able  to manufacture its own blood.  That  theory  is  ap-
proximately true,  and as the family blood flows in the child, it looks upon
itself as part of the family and not as an Ego.  But the moment it commences
to manufacture its own blood, the Ego asserts itself; it is no longer papa's
girl or mama's boy; it has an "I"-dentity of its own.

    Then  comes the critical age when parents reap what they have sown.  The
mind  has not yet been born,  nothing holds the desire nature in check,  and
much, very much, depends upon how the child has been taught in earlier years
and   what  example  the  parents  have  set.    At  this  point   in   life
self-assertion,  the feeling "I AM MYSELF,"  is  stronger than at any  other
time, and therefore authority should give place to advice. The parent should
practice  the utmost tolerance,  for at no time in life is a human being  as
much  in  need  of  sympathy as during the  seven  years  from  fourteen  to
twenty-one when the desire nature is rampant and unchecked.

[PAGE 1884]

    It  is a crime to inflict corporal punishment upon a child at  any  age.
Might is never right,  and as the stronger,  parents should always have com-
passion  for  the weaker.  But there is one feature of  corporal  punishment
which makes it particularly dangerous to apply it to the youth: namely, that
it  wakens the passional nature which is already perhaps beyond the  control
of the growing boy.

    If we whip a dog, we shall soon break its spirit and transform it into a
cringing  cur,  and it is deplorable that some parents seem to regard it  as
their mission in life to break the spirit of their children with the rule of
the rod.  If there is one universal lack among the human race which is  more
apparent than any other,  it is lack of will,  and as parents we may  remedy
the evil in a large measure by guiding the wills of our children along  such
lines as dictated by our own more mature reason. Thus we help them to grow a
backbone instead of a wishbone,  with which unfortunately most of us are af-
flicted.  Therefore, never whip a child; if punishment is needed, correct by
withholding favors or withdrawing privileges.

    At the twenty-first year the birth of the mind transforms the youth into
an  adult fully equipped to commence his own life in the school  of  experi-
ence.

    Thus we have followed the human Spirit around a life cycle from death to
birth  and maturity;  we have seen how immutable law governs its every  step
and how it is ever encompassed by the loving care of the great and  glorious
Beings who are  the  ministers of God.  The method of his future development
will be explained in a leter work which  will deal with THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC 
INITIATION.

Continued with file "RC1051.TXT"

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