Filename: RC1056.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 2039]

    There  is  no question in the writer's mind that this was  a  piece  of
"ripe"  fate,  impossible to escape,  which was accurately foreshown by the
stars.

    The stars may therefore be called the "Clock of Destiny."   The  twelve
signs of the Zodiac correspond to the dial;  the Sun and the planets to the
hour hand, indicating the month of the year when the different items in the
score of ripe fate allotted to each life are due to work themselves out.

    It  cannot be sufficiently emphasized, however,  that though there  are
some things that cannot be escaped, man has a certain scope of free will in
modifying causes already set going.  A poet puts it thus:

    One ship sails east and another sails west
          With the self-same winds that blow.
    `Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
          Which determines the way they go.

    As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate
          As we voyage along through life,
    `Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal,
          And not the calm or the strife.

    The  great point to grasp is that our present actions determine  future
conditions.

    Orthodox  religionists and even those who profess no religion  at  all,
often bring forward as one of their strongest objections to the law of  Re-
birth that it is taught in India to the "ignorant heathen,"  who believe in
it.   If it is a natural law, however,  there is no objection strong enough
to invalidate it or make it inoperative.  Before we speak of "ignorant hea-
then,"  or  send  missionaries to them, it might be well to examine our own

[PAGE 2040]

knowledge a little.  Educators everywhere complain of superficiality on the
part of our students.  Professor Wilbur L. Cross,  of Yale,  mentions among
other startling cases of ignorance,  the fact that in a class of forty stu-
dents, NOT ONE COULD "PLACE" JUDAS ISCARIOT!

    It would seem as though the labors of missionaries could profitably  be
diverted  from  "heathen"  countries and from slum work  to  enlighten  the
college-bred individuals of our own country, on the principle that "charity
begins at home,"  and "as God will not let the ignorant heathen perish"  it
would  seem  better to leave him in ignorance where he is sure  of  heaven,
than  to enlighten him and so render his chances of going to  hell  legion.
Surely, this is a case of "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise."
We would be doing ourselves and the heathen a signal service by letting him
alone and looking after the ignorant Christian nearer home.

    Moreover,  to call this heathen doctrine does not disprove it.  Its as-
sumed priority in the East is not more an argument against it that the  ac-
curacy of the solution of a mathematical problem is invalidated because  we
do  not happen to like the person who first solved it.   The only  question
is:  Is it correct?  If so, it is absolutely immaterial whence the solution
first came.

    All other religions have been but leading up to the Christian religion.
They  were Race Religions and contain only in part that which  Christianity
has  in fuller  measure.   The real Esoteric Christianity has not yet  been
taught publicly, not will it be so taught until humanity has passed the ma-
terialistic  stage and becomes fitted to receive it.   The laws of  Rebirth
and Consequence have been secretly taught all the time, but, BY THE  DIRECT

[PAGE 2041]

COMMAND OF CHRIST HIMSELF,  as we shall see,  these two laws have not  been
PUBLICLY taught in the Western world for the past two thousand years.

                       WINE AS A FACTOR IN EVOLUTION:

    To  understand the reason for this omission and the means  employed  to
obscure these teachings,  we must go back to the beginning of man's history
and see how,  for his good,  he has been led by the Great Teacher of human-
ity.

    In  the  teaching of occult science the stages of  development  on  the
earth  are divided into periods called "Epochs."   There have been four  of
these Epochs, which are designated as follows, respectively:  The Polarian,
the Hyperborean,  the Lemurian, the Atlantean.  The present Epoch is called
the Aryan Epoch.

    In the First or Polarian Epoch,  what is now humanity had only a  dense
body, as the minerals have now, hence he was mineral-like.

    In  the  Second  or  Hyperborean Epoch, a  vital  body  was  added  and
man-in-the-making possesses a body constituted as are those of plants.   He
was not a plant, but was plantlike.

    In the Third or Lemurian Epoch,  he obtained his desire body and became
constituted like the animal--an animal-man.

    In the Fourth or Atlantean Epoch, mind was unfolded and now,  so far as
his principles are concerned,  he steps upon the stage of physical life  as
MAN.

    In the present,  the Fifth or Aryan Epoch,  man will in some degree un-
fold the third or lowest aspect of his threefold spirit--the Ego.

[PAGE 2042]

    The student is requested to strongly impress upon his mind the emphatic
statement  that in the process of evolution up to the time when man  gained
self-consciousness, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WAS LEFT TO CHANCE.

    After  self-consciousness there is a certain scope for the  exercise of
man's own individual will to enable him to unfold his Divine spiritual pow-
ers.

    The  great Leaders of mankind take everything into  consideration,  the
food  of man included.   This has a great deal to do with his  development.
"Tell  me  what  you  eat  and I will tell you  what  you  are"  is  not  a
far-fetched idea, but a great truth in nature.

    The man of the first Epoch was ethereal.   That does not contradict the
statement that he was mineral-like,  for all gases are mineral.   The Earth
was still soft, not yet having solidified.  In the Bible man is called Adam
and it is said that he was made of earth.

    Cain  is described as an agriculturist.  He symbolizes the man  of  the
Second Epoch.  He had a vital body like the plants which sustained him.

    In the Third Epoch food was obtained from living animals to  supplement
the  former plant food.   Milk was the means used for evolving  the  desire
body,  which made the mankind of that time animal-like.   This is  what  is
meant  by the Bible statement that "Abel was a shepherd."   It  is  nowhere
stated that he killed animals.

    In  the  Fourth  Epoch  man had evolved  beyond  animals--he had  mind.
Thought breaks down nerve cells:  kills, destroys and causes decay.  There-
fore the food of the Atlantean was,  by analogy,  carcasses.   He killed to
eat  and  that is why the Bible states that "Nimrod was a  mighty  hunter."
Nimrod represents the man of the Fourth Epoch.

[PAGE 2043]

    In the meanwhile, man had descended deeper and deeper into matter.  His
former  ethereal body formed the skeleton within and had become solid.   He
had  also lost be degrees the spiritual perception which was  possessed  by
him in the earlier Epochs.  Thus it was designed.  He is destined to get it
back at a higher stage,  plus the self-consciousness which he did not  then
possess.   He had, however, during the first four Epochs,  a  greater know-
ledge of the spiritual world. He knew he did not die and that when one body
wasted  away  it  was  like  the drying of a leaf  from  the  tree  in  the
autumn--another body would grow to take its place. Therefore he had no real
appreciation of the opportunities and advantages of this Earth life of con-
crete existence.

    But  it  was necessary that he should become thoroughly  awake  to  the
great importance of this concrete existence, so that he might learn from it
all that could be learned.  So long as he felt that he was a citizen of the
higher  Worlds and knew for a certainty that physical life is but  a  small
part  of real existence he did not take it  seriously enough.   He did  not
apply himself to the cultivation of the opportunities for growth which  are
found  only in the present phase of existence.   He dallied his  time  away
without  developing the resources of the world,  as do the people of  India
today, for the same reason.

    The  only way in which an appreciation of concrete  physical  existence
could  be aroused in man was by depriving him of the memory of his  higher,
spiritual existence for a few lives.  Thus, during his Earth life,  he came
to  hold no positive knowledge of any other than the one  present  physical
life, and was in this way impelled to earnestly apply himself to living it.

    There had been religions previous to Christianity which had taught  Re-
birth and the law of Consequence,  but the time had now come when it was no

[PAGE 2044]

longer  conducive to man's advancement that he should know  this  doctrine,
and  ignorance  concerning it came to be regarded as a  sign  of  progress.
This one single life was to be made paramount.   Therefore we find that the
Christian Religion,  as publicly taught, does not embody the laws of Conse-
quence and Rebirth.   Nevertheless,  as Christianity is the religion of the
most advanced Races, it must be the most advanced Religion,  and because of
the elimination of this doctrine from its PUBLIC teachings, the conquest of
the world of matter is being made.

    As  some new addition to or change in the food of man has been made  in
every Epoch to meet its conditions and accomplish its purposes, we now find
added  to  the food of the previous Epochs a  new  article--WINE.   It  was
needed  on account of its benumbing effect upon the spiritual principle  in
man,  because no religion, in and of itself, could have made man forget his
nature  as a spirit and have caused him to think of himself as "a  worm  of
the dust," or made him believe that "we walk with the same force with which
we think"--indeed,  it was never intended that he should go so far as that.

    Hitherto  only water had been used as a drink and in the ceremonies  of
the  Temple service,  but after the submergence  of  Atlantis--a  continent
which once existed between Europe and America, where the Atlantic Ocean now
lies--those  who  escaped destruction began to cultivate the vine and  make
wine,  as we find narrated in the Bible story of Noah.  Noah symbolizes the
remnant of the Atlantean Epoch, which became the nucleus of the Fifth Race.

[PAGE 2045]

    The  active principle of alcohol is a "spirit"  and as the humanity  of
the earlier Epochs used the articles of food best suited to their vehicles,
so this spirit was,  in the Fifth Epoch, added to the foods previously used
by evolving humanity.  It acts upon the spirit of the Fifth Epoch man, tem-
porarily paralyzing it,  that it may know,  esteem and conquer the physical
world and value it at its proper worth.  Thus man forgets, for the time be-
ing,  his spiritual home, clinging to this form of existence,  which he has
previously despised,  with all the tenacity born of a feeling that this  is
all there is--or  at least,  preferring the certainty of this world to tak-
ing chances on a heaven which,  in his present muddled state,  he does  not
understand.

    Water  only  had been used in the Temples,  but now  this  is  altered.
"Bacchus,"  a god of wine, appears and under his sway the most advanced na-
tions  forget that there is a higher life.   None who offer tribute to  the
COUNTERFEIT spirit of wine or any alcoholic liquor (the product of  fermen-
tation  and  decay) can ever know anything of  the  higher  Self--the  TRUE
Spirit which is the very source of life.

    All  this  was preparatory to the coming of Christ,  and it is  of  the
highest  significance that HIS FIRST ACT was to change "water  into  wine."
(John ii:11.)

    In private He taught Rebirth to his His disciples.   He not only taught
them in words, but He took them "into the mountain."  This is a mystic term
meaning  a place of Initiation.   In the course of Initiation they see  for
themselves  that Rebirth is a fact, for there Elijah appeared before  them,
who,  they  are told,  is also John the Baptist.   Christ,  in  unequivocal
terms,  had previously told them, when speaking of John the Baptist,  "this
is Elijah who was for to come."  He reiterates  this at the transfiguration

[PAGE 2046]

scene,  saying,  "Elijah has come already and they knew him not,  but  have
done to him whatsoever they listed."   And following this,  it is said that
"they understood He spake of John the Baptist."   (Matt.  xvii:12-13).   On
this occasion,  and also at the time when Rebirth was discussed between Him
and His disciples, they told Him that some thought He was Elijah and others
that He was one of the prophets who had been reborn.   He commanded them to
"tell no man."  (Matt. xvii:9; Like ix:21).  This was to be,  for thousands
of years, an esoteric teaching, to be known only among the few pioneers who
fitted themselves for the knowledge, pushing ahead to the stage of develop-
ment when these truths will again be known to man.

    That  Christ taught Rebirth and also the law of Consequence is  perhaps
shows in not other place as clearly as in the case of the man who had  been
born blind,  where His disciples asked, "Who did sin,  this man or his par-
ents, that he was born blind?"  (John ix:2).

    Had Christ not taught Rebirth and the law of Consequence,  the  natural
answer would have been,  "Nonsense!   How could a man have sinned BEFORE HE
WAS BORN, and have brought blindness upon himself as a result?   But Christ
does not answer in that way.  He is not surprised at the question, nor does
He treat it as being at all unusual,  showing that it was quite in  harmony
with His teachings.   He explains,  "Neither hath this man sinned,  nor his
parents; but that the works of (the) God should be made manifest in him."

    The  orthodox  interpretation is that the man was born blind  in  order
that Christ might have the opportunity of performing a miracle to show  His
power.  It  would  have  been  a  strange way for a God to  obtain  glory--

[PAGE 2047]

capriciously  condemning  a  man to many years of blindness and misery that
He might "show off" at a future time!  We would consider a man who acted in
such a manner a monster of cruelty.

    How  much more logical to think that there may be another  explanation.
To impute to God conduct which, in a human being,  we would denounce in the
strongest terms, in surely unreasonable.

    Christ differentiates between the physically blind body of the man  and
the God within, which is the Higher Self.

    The dense body has committed no sin.  The God within has done some deed
which  manifests in the particular affliction from which he  is  suffering.
It is not stretching a point to call a man a God.  Paul says,  "know ye not
that ye are Gods?  and he refers to the human body as the "temple of  God,"
the indwelling spirit.

    Finally,  although most people do not remember their past lives,  there
are some who do,  and all may know if they will live the life necessary  to
attain the knowledge.   This requires great strength of character,  because
such knowledge will carry with it a knowledge of impending fate that may be
hanging black and sinister over one, which will manifest in dire  disaster.
Nature has graciously hidden the past and the future from us,  that we  may
not be robbed of peace of mind by suffering in anticipation of the paid  in
store for us.   As we attain greater development we shall learn to  welcome
all things with equanimity,  seeing in all troubles the result of past evil
and  feeling thankful that the obligations incurred thereby are  being  an-
nulled,  knowing  that so much less stands between us and the day  of  lib-
eration from the wheel of birth and death.

[PAGE 2048]

    When a person dies in childhood in one life, he or she not infrequently
remembers  that life in the next body,  because children under 14 years  do
not journey around the entire life cycle,  which necessitates the  building
of a complete set of new vehicles.  They simply pass into the upper Regions
of  the  Desire World and there wait for a new  embodiment,  which  usually
takes place in from one to twenty years after death.   When they return  to
birth,  they bring with them the old mind and desire body,  and if we  lis-
tened to the prattle of children,  we should often able to discover and re-
construct such stories as the following

                            A REMARKABLE STORY:

    One day in Santa Barbara,  Cal., a man by the name of Roberts came to a
trained clairvoyant who is also a lecturer on Theosophy and asked for  help
in a perplexing case.   Mr. Roberts had been walking in the street the pre-
vious day when a little three-year old girl came up to him and put her arms
around his knees,  calling him papa.  Mr.  Roberts was indignant,  thinking
that someone was trying to father the child on him.   But the mother of the
child, who came up directly, was equally put out and tried to get the child
away.   The child,  however, kept on clinging to Mr. R.,  insisting that he
was her father.  On account of circumstances to be told later Mr. R.  could
not put it out of his mind, and sought out the clairvoyant, who accompanied
him to the house of the child's parents.  Where the girl at once ran up  to
Mr.  R.  and again called him papa.  The clairvoyant, whom I call X,  first
took the child over to the window to note whether the iris of the eye would
expand and contract when he turned her to and from the light,  in order  to
see  whether  another  entity  than  the  rightful  owner was in possession

[PAGE 2049]

of the child's body,  for the eye is the window of the soul and no "obsess-
ing"  entity can secure control of that part.  Mr. X.  found however,  that
the  child was normal and next proceeded to question the little  one  care-
fully.   After patient work carried on intermittently during the afternoon,
so as not to tire the child, this is the story she told:

    She had lived with her papa, Mr. Roberts, and another mamma in a little
house that stood all alone, where no other house could be seen; there was a
little  brook close to the house where some flowers grew (and here she  ran
out  and brought in some "pussy-willows") and there was a plank across  the
brook  which she was cautioned against crossing,  for fear she  might  fall
into the brook.   One day her papa had left her mother and herself and  had
not returned.   When their supply of food was exhausted her mamma lay  down
on the bed and became so still.   At last she said quaintly,  "then I  also
died, but I didn't die.  I came here."

    Mr.  Roberts  next told his story.  Eighteen years before he  lived  in
London,  where his father was brewer.   He fell in love with their  servant
girl.   His father objected,  so he eloped with her to Australia after they
had  first  been married.   Here he went out into the bush  and  cleared  a
little farm,  where he erected a small cabin by a brook,  just as described
by the little girl.   A daughter was born to them there,  and when she  was
about  two years old he left the house one morning and went to  a  clearing
some distance from the house, and while there a man with a rifle came up to
him,  saying that he arrested him in the name of the law for a bank robbery
committed on the night Mr.  R.  had left England.   The officer had tracked
him here, thinking him the criminal.  Mr. R. begged  to be allowed to go to

[PAGE 2050]

his wife and child,  but, thinking this a ruse to entrap him into the hands
of  confederates,  the officer refused and drove him to the  coast  at  the
point  of  the gun.   He was taken to England and tried and  his  innocence
proven.

    First then did the authorities take heed of his constant ravings  about
his wife and child,  whom he knew must starve in that wild and lonely coun-
try.   An expedition was sent out to the cabin, when it was found that only
the skeletons of the wife and child remained.  Mr. Roberts' father had died
in the meantime, and though he had disinherited Mr. R. his brothers divided
with him and he came to America a broken man.

    He then produced photographs of himself and his wife,  and at the  sug-
gestion of Mr.  X.  they were mixed with a number of other photographs  and
shown to the little girl,  who unhesitatingly picked out the photographs of
both her alleged parents,  although the photograph shown was very different
from the present appearance of Mr. Roberts.

[PAGE 2051]

                    COSMOGENESIS AND ANTHROPOGENESIS:
             
                        THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD:

    In  the preceding chapters we have been considering man in  relation  to
three  of  the five Worlds which form the field of his evolution.   We  have
partly described these Worlds and noted the different vehicles of conscious-
ness by means of which he is correlated to them.   We have studied his rela-
tion  to the other three  Kingdoms--mineral,  plant and  animal--noting  the
difference in vehicles, and consequent difference in consciousness,  between
man and each of these Kingdoms.  We have followed man through one life cycle
in the three Worlds and have examined the operation of the twin laws of Con-
sequence and Rebirth in their bearing upon the evolution of man.

    In order to understand further details as to the progress of man, it now
becomes  necessary  to  study his relation to the  Grand  Architect  of  the
Universe--to God and to the Hierarchies of Celestial Beings which stand upon
the many different rungs of the Jacob's ladder of attainment that  stretches
from man to God and beyond.

    This is a task of the utmost difficulty,  rendered still more so by  the
indefinite  conceptions of God which exist in the minds of the  majority  of
the readers of literature dealing with this subject.  It is true that names,
in and of themselves, are not important, but it matters greatly that we know
what  we  mean  by  a  name;  other  wise  misunderstanding will result, and

[PAGE 2052]

                                 DIAGRAM 6:


                                   POWER
                                    /\
      1ST COSMIC PLANE             /  \
                                  /    \
                                 /      \
                                /        \
                               /  SUPREME \
                              /    BEING   \
                     THE WORD/--------------\ MOTION
                   THE      SEVEN   |  GREAT       LOGOI
   *-----------*---------*----------*-----------*-----------*------------*    
---|-----------|---------|----------|-----------|-----------|------------|---
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |   
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |
*******     *******   *******    *******     *******     *******      *******
                                                                         |
2ND COSMIC PLANE                                                         *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---
                                                                         |
                                                                         |
                                                                      ********
                                                                      |
3RD COSMIC PLANE                                                      *
----------------------------------------------------------------------|------
                                                                      |
                                                                      |
                                                                      |
                                                                   *******
                                                                   |
4TH COSMIC PLANE                                                   *
-------------------------------------------------------------------|---------
                                                                   |
                                                                   |
                                                                *******
                                                                |   
5TH COSMIC PLANE                                                *
----------------------------------------------------------------|------------
                                                                |
                                                                |
                                                             *******
                                                             |
6TH COSMIC PLANE                                          |--*
----------------------------------------------------------|--|---------------
                                                          |  |
7TH COSMIC PLANE                                          |  |
INCLUDES ALL BELOW THE ABOVE LINE,                        |******
THE SEVEN WORLDS BEING                                    |  \|/
SUBDIVISIONS OF IT.                 |---------------------|   |
                                    |                         |>GODS OF
                                    |                           OTHER SOLAR
                                   WILL                         SYSTEMS
                                   /\
                                  /  \
                                 /    \
1 THE WORLD OF GOD              /      \
                               /        \
                              /          \
                             /     GOD    \
                      WISDOM/-------|------\ACTIVITY
                                    |
   |-----------|---------|----------|-----------|-----------|------------|
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |
   |           |         |          |           |           |            |
URANUS      SATURN     JUPITER    EARTH        MARS       VENUS       MERCURY
   *           *         *          *           *           *            *
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 THE WORLD OF VIRGIN SPIRITS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 THE WORLD OF DIVINE SPIRIT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 THE WORLD OF LIFE SPIRIT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 THE WORLD OF THOUGHT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 THE WORLD OF DESIRE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 THE PHYSICAL WORLD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[PAGE 2053]

if  a  common nomenclature is not agreed upon by writers and  teachers,  the
present confusion will be worse confounded.  When the name "God"  is used it
is  always uncertain whether The Absolute, the One Existence,  is meant;  or
The Supreme Being, Who is the Great Architect of the Universe;  or God,  Who
is the Architect of our Solar system.

    The  division of the Godhead into "Father,"  "Son"  and "Holy Ghost"  is
also confusing.  Although the Beings designated by these names are immeasur-
ably above man and worthy of all the reverence and worship he is capable  of
rendering  to his highest conceptions of Divinity,  yet They  are  different
from one another in actual fact.

    Diagrams 6 and 11 will perhaps make the subject clear.   It must be kept
in  mind  that  the Worlds and Cosmic Planes are not one  above  another  in
space,  but that the seven Cosmic Planes inter-penetrate each other and  all
the seven Worlds.  They are states of spirit-matter, permeating one another,
so that God and the other great Beings who are mentioned are not far away in
space.   They pervade every part of their own realms and realms  of  greater
density than their own.   They are all present in our world and are actually
and  DE FACTO "nearer than hands and feet."   It is a literal truth when  we
say " in Him we live and move and have our being."  For none of us could ex-
ist outside these great Intelligences Who pervade and sustain our world with
Their  Life.
    It has been shown that the Etheric Region extends beyond  the atmosphere
of our dense Earth;  that the Desire World extends out  into  space  further
than the Etheric Region; also that the World of Thought extends further into
inter-planetary Space than either of the others.   Of course,  the Worlds of
rarer  substance  occupy  a  larger  space  than  the  denser  World,  which

[PAGE 2054]

has crystallized and condensed, thus occupying less space.

    The  same principle is operative in the Cosmic Planes.   The densest  of
them is the seventh (counting from the top downward).   It is represented in
the  diagram as larger than any of the others,  the reason being that it  is
the plane with which we are most intimately concerned, and it was desired to
indicate its principle subdivisions.  In reality, however,  it occupies less
space than any of the other Cosmic Planes, although it must be borne in mind
that,  even with this comparatively restrictive qualification as to its  ex-
tent,  it is still immeasurably vast, far beyond the utmost power of the hu-
man mind to conceive, comprising within its limits millions of Solar Systems
similar to our own, which are the fields for the evolution of many grades of
beings of approximately our own status.

    Of the six Cosmic Planes above our own we know nothing, save that we are
told they are the fields of activity of great Hierarchies of Beings of inde-
scribable splendor.

    Proceeding from our Physical World to the inner and finer worlds and  up
through the Cosmic Planes, we find that God, the Architect of our Solar Sys-
tem,  the Source and goal of our existence, is found in the highest division
of the seventh Cosmic Plane.  This is His World.

    His  realm  includes the systems of evolution carried on  in  the  other
planets which belong to our system--Uranus, Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Earth,
Venus, Mercury, and their satellites.

    The  great Spiritual Intelligences designated as the Planetary  Spirits,
which  guide  these evolutions,  are called the "Seven  Spirits  before  the
Throne."   They are His Ministers,  each presiding over a certain department
of the Kingdom of God--which is our  solar  System.  The  Sun  is  also  the

[PAGE 2055]

field of evolution of the most exalted Beings in our Cosmos.  They alone can
endure  and advance by means of the terrific solar vibrations.   The Sun  is
the  nearest approach we have to a visible symbol.   What That is cannot  be
uttered publicly.

    When we try to discover the origin of the Architect of our Solar System,
we find that we must pass to the highest of the seven Cosmic Planes.  We are
then in the Realm of the supreme Being, Who emanated from the Absolute.

    The Absolute is beyond comprehension.  No expression convey any adequate
idea.   Manifestation implies limitation.  Therefore, we may at best charac-
terize the Absolute as boundless Being; as the Root of Existence.

    From the root of Existence--The Absolute--proceeds the Supreme Being, at
the dawn of manifestation.  This is THE ONE.

    In the first chapter of John this Great Being is called God.   From this
Supreme  Being emanates The Word,  the Creative Fiat "without whom  was  not
anything made,"  and this Word is the alone-begotten Son, born of His father
(the Supreme Being) before all worlds--but positively NOT Christ.  Grand and
glorious as is Christ, towering high above mere human nature, He is not this
Exalted  Being.   Truly "the Word was made flesh,"  but not in  the  limited
sense of the flesh of one body,  but the flesh of all that is,  in this  and
millions of other solar Systems.

    The  first  Aspect of the Supreme Being may be characterized  as  POWER.
From this proceeds the Second Aspect, THE WORD;  and from both of these pro-
ceeds the Third, Aspect, MOTION.

    From this threefold Supreme Being proceed  the  seven  Great Logoi. They

[PAGE 2056]

contain within Themselves all the great Hierarchies which differentiate more
and  more as they diffuse through the various Cosmic Planes.   (See  diagram
6).   There  are forty-nine Hierarchies on the second Cosmic Plane;  on  the
third there are 343 Hierarchies.   Each of these is capable of septenary di-
visions and subdivisions, so that in the lowest Cosmic Plane,  where the So-
lar System manifest,  the number of divisions and subdivisions is almost in-
finite.

    In  the Highest World of the seventh Cosmic Plane dwells the God of  our
Solar  Systems in the Universe.   These great Beings are also  threefold  in
manifestation, like The Supreme Being.  Their three aspects are Will, Wisdom
and Activity.

    Each  of  the seven Planetary Spirits which proceeds from  God  and  has
charge of the evolution of life on one of the seven planets,  is also three-
fold and differentiates within itself Creative Hierarchies which go  through
a  septenary evolution.   The evolution carried on by one  Planetary  Spirit
differs from the methods of development inaugurated by each of the others.

    It  may  be further stated that, at least in  the  particular  planetary
scheme  to which we belong,  the entities farthest evolved in  the  earliest
stages,  who had reached a high stage of perfection in previous  evolutions,
assume  the  functions  of the original Planetary Spirit  and  continue  the
evolution,  the original Planetary Spirit withdrawing from active participa-
tion, but guiding its Regents.

    The  foregoing  is the teaching relative to all the Solar  Systems,  but
coming  down to the particular System to which we belong,  the following  is
the  teaching which the sufficiently trained Seer can obtain for himself  by
personal investigation of the memory of nature.

[PAGE 2057]

                          THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION:

                               THE BEGINNING:

    In harmony with the Hermetic axiom "As above, so below"  and VICE VERSA,
Solar Systems are born, die and come to birth anew in cycles of activity and
rest, as does man.

    There is a constant flaming out and dying down of activity in every  de-
partment of nature,  corresponding to the alternations of ebb and flow,  day
and night, summer and winter, life and death.

    In  the beginning of a Day of Manifestation it is taught that a  certain
Great  Being  (designated in the Western World by the name of  God,  but  by
other names in other parts of the earth) limits Himself to a certain portion
of space,  in which He elects to create a Solar System for the evolution  of
added self-consciousness.  (See diagram 6).

    He  includes in His own Being hosts of glorious Hierarchies of,  to  us,
immeasurable  spiritual power and splendor.   They are the fruitage of  past
manifestations of this same Being and also other Intelligences,  in descend-
ing degrees of development down to such as have not reached a stage of  con-
sciousness as high as our present humanity,  and therefore these latter will
not be able to finish their evolution in this  System.  In  God--this  great

[PAGE 2058]

collective Being--there are contained lesser beings of every grade of intel-
ligence  and stage of consciousness, from omniscience to an  unconsciousness
deeper than that of the deepest trance condition.

    During  the period of manifestation with which we are  concerned,  these
various  grades of beings are working to acquire more experience  than  they
possessed at the beginning of this period of existence.  Those who,  in pre-
vious  manifestations,  have attained to the highest degree  of  development
work  on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness.   They induce  in
them  a  stage  of  self-consciousness.   They induce in  them  a  stage  of
self-consciousness  from  which they can take up  further  work  themselves.
Those who had started their evolution in a former Day of Manifestation,  but
had not progressed far at the close,  now take up their task again,  just as
we  take  up our daily work in the morning where we left  off  the  previous
night.

    All the different Beings, however, do not take up their evolution at the
early stages of a new manifestation.  Some must wait until those who precede
them have made the conditions which are necessary for their further develop-
ment.   There are no instantaneous processes in nature.   All is an  exceed-
ingly slow unfolding,  a development which,  though so exceedingly slow,  is
yet  absolutely certain to attain ultimate perfection.   Just as  there  are
progressive stages in the human life--childhood,  youth,  manhood or  woman-
hood,  and  old age--so in the macrocosm there are different  stages  corre-
sponding to these various periods of the microcosmic life.

    A child cannot take up the duties of fatherhood or motherhood.   Its un-
developed  mental and physical condition render it incapable of  doing  such
work.  The same is true of the  less  evolved beings  in  the  beginning  of

[PAGE 2059]

manifestation.  They must wait until the higher evolved have made the proper
conditions for them.   The lower the grade of the intelligence of the evolv-
ing being, the more it is dependent upon outside help.

    At the Beginning,  then,  the highest Beings--those who are the farthest
evolved--work  upon those who have the greatest degree  of  unconsciousness.
Later,  they  turn them over to some of the less evolved entities,  who  are
then able to carry the work a little further.   At least  self-consciousness
is awakened.  The evolving life has become Man.

    From the point where the self-conscious individual Ego has come into be-
ing he must go on and expand his consciousness without outside help. Experi-
ence  and  thought  are then to take the place of outside teachers  and  the
glory, power and splendor he may attain are limitless.

    The  period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness  and
to  the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man  manifests,
is called "Involution."

    The  subsequent period of existence, during which the  individual  human
being develops self-consciousness into divine omniscience, is called "Evolu-
tion."

    The Force within the evolving being which makes evolution what it is and
not  a  mere unfoldment of latent germinal possibilities;  which  makes  the
evolution of each individual differ from that of every other; which provides
the element of originality and gives scope to the creative ability which the
evolving  being  is  to cultivate that he may become a  God--that  Force  is
called  "Genius,"   and  as  previously  explained,   its  manifestation  is
"Epigenesis."

    Many  of the advanced philosophies of modern times recognize  involution
and  evolution.   Science recognizes only the latter,  because it  (Science)
deals only with  the  Form  side of  manifestation.  Involution  belongs  to

[PAGE 2060]

the Life side;  but the most advanced scientists regard Epigenesis as a  de-
monstrable  fact.   The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception combines all  three  as
necessary to full understanding of the past,  present and future development
of the System to which we belong.

                                THE WORLDS:

    We  might use a homely instance to illustrate the building of a  Cosmos.
Suppose a man wants to establish a home in which to live.   He first selects
a  suitable location and then proceeds to build a house,  dividing  it  into
various  rooms to serve certain purpose.   He makes a  kitchen,  dining-room
bedrooms  and bathroom,  and furnishes them all to suit the special  purpose
they are intended to serve.

    When God desires to create,  He seeks out an appropriate place in space,
which  He  fills  with  His  aura,  permeating  every  atom  of  the  cosmic
root-substance of that particular portion of space with His Life, thus awak-
ening the activity latent within every INseparate atom.

    This Cosmic Root-substance is an expression of the negative pole of  the
Universal Spirit, while the great Creative Being we call God (of whom we, as
spirits,  are part) is an expression of the positive energy of the same Uni-
versal Absolute Spirit.   From the work of one upon the other,  all that  we
see about us in the Physical World has resulted.  The oceans,  the Earth ev-
erything  we see manifesting as mineral,  plant animal and human  forms--all
are CRYSTALLIZED SPACE, emanated from this negative Spirit-substance,  which
alone existed at the dawn of Being.   As surely as the hard and flinty house
of the snail is the solidified juices of its soft body,  so surely all FORMS
are crystallizations around the negative pole of Spirit.

[PAGE 2061]

    God  draws from the Cosmic Root-substance outside His immediate  sphere;
thus  the substance within the nascent cosmos becomes denser than it  is  in
Universal space, between Solar Systems.

    When God has thus prepared the material for His Habitation, He next sets
it in order.  Every part of the system is pervaded by His consciousness, but
different modification of that consciousness in each part of division.   The
Cosmic Root-substance is set in varying rates of vibration and is  therefore
differently constituted in its various divisions, or regions.

    The above is the manner in which the Worlds come into being and are fit-
ted to serve different purposes in the evolutionary scheme,  the same as the
various rooms in the house are fitted to serve the purpose of everyday  life
in the Physical World.

    We  have already seen that there are seven Worlds.   These  Worlds  have
each a different "measure" and rate of vibration.  In the densest World (the
Physical) the measure of vibration, though in the case of light-waves reach-
ing a rate of hundreds of millions per second, is nevertheless infinitesimal
when compared to the rapidity of the vibration in the Desire World, which is
next to the Physical.  To get some conception of the meaning and rapidity of
vibration,  perhaps the easiest way is to watch the heat  vibrations  rising
from a very hot stove, or from a steam radiator near a window.

    It must be borne constantly in mind that these Worlds are not  separated
by  space  or distance,  as is the earth from the other planets.   They  are
states of matter, of varying density and vibration, as are the solids,  liq-
uids and gases of our Physical World.   These Worlds are not instantaneously
created at the beginning of a day of Manifestation, nor do they  last  until

[PAGE 2062]

the end;  but as a spider spins its web thread by thread, so God differenti-
ates one after another of the Worlds within Himself, as the necessity arises
for new conditions in the scheme of evolution in which He is engaged.   Thus
have  all  the  seven Worlds been gradually differentiated as  they  are  at
present.

    The  highest  Worlds are created first, and as involution is  to  slowly
carry the life into denser and denser matter for the building of forms,  the
finer Worlds gradually condense and new Worlds are differentiated within God
to  furnish  the necessary links between Himself and the Worlds  which  have
consolidated.  In due time the point of greatest density, the nadir of mate-
riality,  is reached.  From that point the life begins to ascend into higher
Worlds,  as evolution proceeds.   That leaves the denser Worlds depopulated,
one by one.   When the purpose has been served for which a particular  World
was created, God ends its existence, which has become superfluous,  by ceas-
ing within Himself the particular activity which brought into being and sus-
tained that World.

    The highest (finest, rarest, most ethereal) Worlds are the first created
and  the  last  eliminated,  while the three densest Worlds,  in  which  our
present phase of evolution is carried on,  are but comparatively  evanescent
phenomena incident to the spirit's dip into matter.

                             THE SEVEN PERIODS:

    The  evolutionary scheme is carried through these five Worlds  in  seven
great Periods of Manifestation, during which the virgin spirit,  or evolving
life, becomes first, man--then, a God.

    At the beginning of Manifestation God differentiates  within  (not FROM)

[PAGE 2063]

Himself these virgin spirits,  as sparks from a Flame,  of the same  nature,
capable  of being fanned into Flames themselves.   Evolution is the  fanning
process which is to accomplish that end.  In the virgin spirits are enfolded
all the possibilities of their Divine Father, including the germ of indepen-
dent Will, which makes them capable of originating new phases, not latent in
them.   The  latent possibilities are transformed into  dynamic  powers  and
available faculties during evolution,  while the independent Will institutes
new and original departures--or Epigenesis.

    Prior  to  the  beginning of the pilgrimage through  matter  the  virgin
spirit  is in the World of Virgin Spirits,  the next to the highest  of  the
seven  Worlds.   It has Divine Consciousness,  but  NOT  SELF-consciousness.
That, Soul-power, and the Creative Mind, are faculties or powers attained to
by evolution.

    When the virgin spirit is immersed in the World of Divine Spirit,  it is
blinded and rendered utterly unconscious by that matter.  It is as oblivious
to outside conditions as is man when in the deepest trance.   This state  of
unconsciousness prevails during the first period.

    In the Second Period it rises to the dreamless sleep state; in the third
Period it reaches the dream stage,  and in the middle of the Fourth  Period,
at  which we have now arrived,  the full waking consciousness of man is  at-
tained.   This  is a consciousness pertaining to only the lowest one of  the
seven  Worlds.   During the remaining half of this Period,  and  the  entire
three remaining Periods,  man must expand his consciousness so as to include
all of the six Worlds above this Physical World.

    When  man passed through these Worlds in his descent his  energies  were
directed by higher Beings, who  assisted  him  to  turn  unconscious  energy

[PAGE 2064]

INWARD for the building of proper vehicles.  At last, when he was far enough
advanced  and  equipped with the threefold body as a  necessary  instrument,
these higher Beings "opened his eyes"  and turned his gaze OUTWARD upon  the
Chemical Region of the Physical World, that his energies might conquer it.

    When he has fitted himself by his work in the Chemical Region,  his next
step in progress will be toward an expansion in consciousness that will  in-
clude the Etheric Region; then the Desire World, etc., etc.

    In  the Rosicrucian terminology,  the names of the seven Periods are  as
follows:

1] The Saturn Period
2] The Sun Period
3] the Moon Period           These periods are successive Rebirths
4] The Earth Period          of our Earth.
5] The Jupiter Period
6] The Venus Period
7] The Vulcan Period

    It must not be thought that the above mentioned Periods have anything to
do  with  the planets which move in their orbits around the sun  in  company
with the earth.  In fact, it cannot be too emphatically stated that there is
no connection whatever between these planets and the periods.   The  Periods
are simply past,  present or future incarnations of our Earth,  "conditions"
through which it has passed, is now passing, or will pass in the future.

    The  three first mentioned Periods (the Saturn,  Sun and  Moon  Periods)
have been passed through.  We are now in the fourth, or Earth Period.   When
this Earth Period of our Globe has been completed,  we and it shall pass in,
turn  through  the Jupiter,  Venus and Vulcan conditions  before  the  great
septenary Day of Manifestation comes to an end, when all that  now  is  will

[PAGE 2065]

once more be merged in the Absolute for a period of rest and assimilation of
the fruits of our evolution, to re-emerge for further and higher development
at the dawn of another Great Day.

    The  three  and one-half Periods already behind us have  been  spent  in
gaining  our  present vehicles and consciousness.  The remaining  three  and
one-half Periods will be devoted to perfecting these different vehicles  and
expanding our consciousness into something akin to omniscience.

    The  journey  made by the virgin spirit from  unconsciousness  to  omni-
science, unfolding its latent possibilities into a kinetic energy, is a pro-
cess  of  marvelous complexity and progress in our present outline  will  at
first be given.  As we progress in our present study, however,  more details
will be filled in,  until the picture is a complete as the writer is capable
of making it.   The attention of the student is called to the definition  of
terms that are given as new ideas are being presented.   He is earnestly im-
portuned  to familiarize himself with them, as the intention is to  simplify
the  matter  by  using  only one familiar English name  for  the  same  idea
throughout  the work.   The name will be as descriptive as possible  of  the
idea  to be conveyed,  in multiplex terminology may be avoided.   By  paying
strict attention to definition of terms,  it should not be too difficult for
any  person of average intelligence to acquire a knowledge of at  least  the
outlines of the scheme of evolution.

    That  such a knowledge is of the utmost importance will,  we  think,  be
conceded by every intelligent individual.   We live in this world,  governed
by the laws of nature.   Under these laws we must live and work,  and we are
powerless to change them.  If we know them and intelligently co-operate with

[PAGE 2066]

with them,  these nature-forces become most valuable servants,  e.g.,  elec-
tricity and the expansive force of steam.  If, on the other hand,  we do not
understand  them and in our ignorance work,  contrary to them,  they  become
most dangerous enemies, capable of terrible destruction.

    Therefore,  the  more we know of the working methods  of  nature,  which
latter  is but the visible symbol of the invisible God,  the better able  we
shall  be  to take advantage of the opportunities it offers for  growth  and
power; for emancipation from bondage and for elevation to mastery.

|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------| 
|  DIAGRAM  |                                    EGRESS OF THE LIFE WAVE    |
|     7     |                                    FOR THE COSMIC NIGHT       |
|           |                                    BETWEEN THE SATURN         |
|           | INGRESS OF LIFE WAVE AT THE     |>>PERIOD AND THE SUN PERIOD  | 
|-----------|-BEGINNING OF OUR EVOLUTION>>>|--|-----------------------------| 
|   WORLD   |               |----------|  \|/ |     |-----------|           | 
|    OF     |  |---<----<---|          |-<-| /|\    |           |           |
|  DIVINE   | \|/|--<----<--|    A     |--<---|--<--|     G     |-<---<--|  |
|  SPIRIT   |  |\|/|--<---<-|          |<---<-|<---<|           |<---<-| |  |
|           |  | | | |--<---|----------|--<---|--<--|-----------|--<-| |/|\ |
|-----------|--| |\|/| |-<---<----<----<----<-|<----<-----<-----<--| |/|\|--|
|   WORLD   |  |-----------|----<----<----<--/-\-<----<----<-|------------| |
|    OF     | \|/   B      |--<-------<-----<-|---<-----<----|     F      | |
|   LIFE    |  |          \|/                 |-<-----<----<-|            | |
|  SPIRIT   |  |-----------|               SATURN            |------------| |
|-----------|--| | | | | | |---------------------------------| | | | | | |--|
|  REGION   |  |-----------|               PERIOD            |------------| |
|    OF     | \|/   C     \|/                               /|\    E      | |
| ABSTRACT  |  |           |----------|------------|---------|            | |
|  THOUGHT  |  |-----------|->---->---|            |-->---->-|------------| |
|           |  |\|/| | |-->---->--->--|            |->------>----| | |/|\|  |
|-----------|--| |\|/|->------>----->-|     D      |-->------>---->|/|\| |--|
|  REGION   | \|/| |-->------>------>-|            |->---->----->----| |/|\ |
|    OF     |  | |-->------>----->----|            |-->------>------>--| |  |
| CONCRETE  |  |----->------>------>--|            |----->------>------>-|  |
|  THOUGHT  |                         |------------|                        |
|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------|

Continued with file "RC1057.TXT"

End of File

