Filename: RC1068.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Philosophy In Questions & Answers, Vol. I" by
         Max Heindel

[PAGE 2432]

                              QUESTION NO. 16:

   IT IS SOMETIMES CONTENDED THAT WE HAVE A RIGHT TO THINK WHAT WE WILL  AND
ARE  NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR THOUGHTS.   IS THAT SO FROM AN OCCULT POINT  OF
VIEW?

   ANSWER:   No,  indeed; it is very much the reverse, and we do not need to
go as far as what is usually called occultism;  we find that idea  expressed
by  Christ  in  the sermon on the mount, where he tells us that "The man who
has looked upon a woman with desire has,  in fact,  already committed  adul-
tery," and when we realize that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, we
shall have a much clearer conception of life if we only take into  consider-
ation  the acts of men,  for every act is the outcome of a previous  thought
BUT THESE THOUGHTS ARE NOT ALWAYS OUR OWN.

   When we strike a tuning fork, another tuning fork of the same pitch being
near,  not only the one which is struck will ring,  but the other will  also
commence to sing in sympathy.  Likewise, when we think a thought and another
person  in  our  environment  has been thinking along  the  same  line,  our
thoughts coalesce with his and strengthen him for good or evil according  to
the nature of the thought.  It is no mere fancy when in the play called "The
Witching Hour,"  the hero aims to help a scoundrel escape from the State  of
Kentucky,  where the latter is about to be arrested for murder of the Gover-
nor.   The hero,  a man of considerable thought power feels that he may have
prompted the criminal.  He tells his sister that previous to the time of the
murder he had thought that the murder could be committed JUST IN THE  MANNER
IN WHICH IT WAS ACTUALLY DONE.   He is under the impression that his thought
may have been caught by the brain of the murderer and have shown him the way
to commit the murder.

   When  we go into a jury box and we see before ourselves the criminal,  we
behold  only his act;  we have no cognizance of the thought  which  prompted
him.   If  we have been in the habit of thinking  evil,  malicious  thoughts
against  one person or another,  these thoughts may have been attractive  to
that  criminal,  and on the principle that when we have before  ourselves  a
saturated solution  of  salt it will only take a single crystal to make that

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salt  solution  solidify,  so also if a man has saturated  his  brains  with
thoughts  of  murder,  the thought that we sent out may be  the  last  straw
breaking the back of the camel, destroying the last barrier which would have
held him from committing the act.

   Therefore, our thoughts are of vastly more importance than our acts,  for
if we will only think right,  we shall always act right.   No man can  think
love  to  his fellowmen;  can scheme in his mind how to aid and  help  them,
spiritually,  mentally or physically,  without acting out these thoughts  at
some time in his life, and if we will only cultivate such thoughts, we shall
soon find sunshine spreading around us;  we shall find that people will meet
us  in that some spirit that we send out,  and if we could realize that  the
desire  body (which surrounds each of us and extends about sixteen to  eigh-
teen  inches beyond the periphery of the physical body) contains  all  these
feelings and emotions,  then we would meet people differently,  for we would
understand that everything we see is viewed through the atmosphere which  we
have created around ourselves which colors all we behold in others.

   If,  then,  we see meanness and smallness in the people whom we meet,  it
would be well to look within to ascertain if it is not the atmosphere we are
looking  through which colors them thus.   Let us see if we have not  within
ourselves those undesirable qualities,  and then being to remedy the  defect
within ourselves.  The man who is mean and small will appear mean to him FOR
HE WILL CALL OUT FROM others the very qualities which he manifests,  on  the
principle  that  the  vibration of a tuning fork of a  certain  pitch,  when
struck,  will  cause another of identical pitch to vibrate.   On  the  other
hand, if we cultivate a  serene  attitude,  an  attitude  that  is free from

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covetousness and is frankly honest and helpful,  we shall call out the  best
in other people.  Therefore let us realize that it is NOT UNTIL WE HAVE CUL-
TIVATED THE BETTER QUALITIES IN OURSELVES THAT WE CAN EXPECT TO FIND THEM IN
OTHERS.   We are thus in very truth responsible for our thoughts, we are in-
deed the keepers of our brothers,  for as we think when we meet them,  so do
we appear to them,  and they reflect our attitude.   Applying the  foregoing
principle,  if we want to obtain help to cultivate those  better  qualities,
let us seek the company of people who are already good,  for their  attitude
of  mind  will  be  of immense help to us to call  forth  in  us  the  finer
qualities.

                              QUESTION NO. 17:

   IF  A  PERSON IS CONSTANTLY BOTHERED BY EVIL THOUGHTS WHICH  KEEP  COMING
INTO HIS MIND,  ALTHOUGH HE IS CONSTANTLY FIGHTING THEM, IS THERE ANY WAY IN
WHICH  HE  CAN  CLEANSE HIS MIND SO THAT HE WILL THINK ONLY  PURE  AND  GOOD
THOUGHTS?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  there is, and a very easy way at that.   The inquirer has
himself suggested the chief difficulty in his question, when he says that he
is constantly FIGHTING these thoughts.  If we take an illustration  we shall

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see the point.

   Supposing we have a particular dislike for a certain person whom we  meet
every day upon the street, perhaps a number of times.   If we stop each time
we  meet  that person and berate him for walking upon the  street,  for  not
keeping  out of our sight,  we are each time adding fuel to the fire of  our
enmity,  we are stirring him up, and for pure spite he may seek to waylay us
so  much  the  more.   Both like and dislike have a tendency  to  attract  a
thought or an idea to?  us, and the added thought force which we send out to
fight  evil  thoughts will keep them alive and bring them to  our  mind  the
oftener, in the same way that quarreling will cause the person we dislike to
waylay us for spite.  But if, instead of fighting him,  we adopt the tactics
of indifference.   If we turn our heads the other way when we meet him  upon
the street,  he will soon grow tired of follow us;  and,  on the same  prin-
ciple,  when thoughts of evil come into our minds.  If we will but turn away
with  indifference and apply our minds to something that is good and  ideal,
we  shall  find in a short time that we are rid of their  companionship  and
have only the good thoughts we desire to entertain.

[PAGE 2436]

                              QUESTION NO. 18:

   IF WOMAN IS AN EMANATION FROM MAN, AS PER THE RIB STORY,  WILL SHE IN THE
FINAL RETURN TO UNITY BE REABSORBED, LOSING HER INDIVIDUALITY IN THE  MASCU-
LINE DIVINITY?

   ANSWER:   The "rib story"  is one of those instances of  gross  ignorance
upon   the   part  of  the  Bible  translators--who  possessed   no   occult
knowledge--in dealing with the language of the Hebrews, which in writing was
not divided into words and had no vowel points.  By inserting vowels at dif-
ferent points and dividing words differently,  various meanings to the  same
text may be obtained in many places.   This is one case where a word pointed
in one way reads "TSAD"  and in another way "TSELA."   The Bible translators
read the story that the God had taken something from Adam's side  ("tsela"),
and  they were puzzled as to what it was and so,  perhaps,  they thought  it
would have done him the least harm to take a rib ("tsad"), hence the foolish
story.

   The  fact  was  that man had first been like the  Gods,  "made  in  their
image,"  male and female, a hermaphrodite, and later one SIDE was taken away
so that he became divided into two sexes.   It may be further said that  the
first  organ  which  was developed as it is now was the  female  organ,  the
feminine  SIDE  having always existed in everything  before  the  masculine,
which came later,  and,  according to the law in evolution,  that "the first
shall be the last,"  the feminine will remain a distinct sex longer than the
masculine,  and, therefore, the inquirer is altogether wrong in the supposi-
tion.   It is the masculine that will be absorbed in the feminine.  Even now
it is seen that the masculine organ is gradually contracting at its base and

[PAGE 2437]

will finally cease to be.

   As for losing her individuality,  such a thing is impossible,  it is just
the  purpose of evolution that we should become individuals,  self-conscious
and SEPARATE during evolution,  self-conscious and UNITED during the  inter-
ludes between manifestations.

                              QUESTION NO. 19:

   WHY HAS WOMAN BEEN CURSED BY INEQUALITY,  ASSUMED INFERIORITY AND  INJUS-
TICE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE UPON THIS PLANE?

   ANSWER:   In the first place, we must remember that the spirit is neither
male nor female, but manifests in that way alternately, as a rule.   We have
all been men and we have all been women.  Therefore there can be no question
of  inequality  if we look at life from the larger point of  view.   Certain
lessons must be learned by the spirit in each age which can only be  learned
from  the  standpoint of a woman,  and there are other lessons  only  to  be
learned  by incarnation in a male body.   Therefore,  of a necessity,  there
must  be  the  change  in  sex.  It  sometimes  happens, of course, that for

[PAGE 2438]

reasons a person must appear as a male for several incarnations and then, of
course, when he takes upon himself the female garb, it may jar considerably.
In  that  case we have a very masculine woman,  perhaps a suffragette  of  a
militant nature.  On the other hand, a spirit may sometimes have been embod-
ied  for several incarnations in a female garb and then may appear as a  man
of a very effeminate nature,  a regular "sissy."   But even upon the hypoth-
esis  of alternating incarnations,  many of us probably were  incarnated  in
Rome  in the opposite sex,  and taking the law of causation  into  consider-
ation,  the  treatment of women by the men of that time was not such  as  to
cause these Roman women when incarnated now as men to give any great conces-
sions to their former masters.

                              QUESTION NO. 20:

   WHY  WAS THE SUFFERING OF MARGUERITE SO EXTREME AND OUT OF PROPORTION  TO
THAT OF FAUST,  EVEN TO IMPRISONMENT AND THE DEATH PENALTY,  WHILE HIS LIFE,
LIBERTY AND PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS WAS UNMOLESTED?

   ANSWER:   This question has reference to one of the myths which have come
down through the ages, and contrary to the popularly accepted opinion a myth
is not a story made out of whole cloth,  but is VEILED TRUTH,  revealing  in
symbol  great  spiritual  principles.  These  myths  were  given  to  infant

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humanity for the same reason that we give our children ethical teachings  in
nursery stories and picture books,  which impress themselves upon the infant
mind in a way intellectual teaching would be incapable of doing.

   Goethe, who was an initiate, has treated this Faust myth in a way that is
wonderfully  illuminative,  and the key to the problem is found in the  pro-
logue, which is laid in Heaven, much in the same way as we find in the open-
ing  of the Book of Job.   The Sons of God appear before the Throne  an  the
Devil among them,  for he is also one of the Sons of God.   He is given per-
mission to try to seduce Faust in order that the spiritual activities may be
called forth and virtue developed.   It is one of our great mistakes to  re-
gard  innocence and virtue as synonymous;  every one among us is born  inno-
cent,  he comes here without any evil, that has all been purged away, but he
has certain TENDENCIES which may develop into vice and,  therefore,  he must
be  tried in every life to see whether he will yield to temptation  and  em-
brace  vice,  or whether he will stand firm and develop  virtue.   Faust  is
tempted,  he falls,  but afterwards he sincerely repents and transmutes  the
evil forces to good, so that at last he is saved.  Repentance and reform be-
fore  death  has  wrought  his salvation, the impure  passion  he  felt  for
Marguerite gave place to his pure love for Helen.  Marguerite also yields to
the  temptation,  she repents and is saved by means of  the  forgiveness  of
sins.   Thus  in the case of one it is SALVATION BY ACTS.   By  his  energy,
which dominates the evil forces,  he builds a new land,  a land where a free
people may live under better conditions; he is seeking to lift humanity to a
higher plane,  and by that act, by his unselfish work for others,  he is re-
deemed from the powers of evil.  In  Marguerite's  case,  salvation  results

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from prayer and repentance.   Thus we have in that drama,  as represented by
Goethe, a perfect symbol of the Western teaching that there is both the for-
giveness of sins and the expiration of a wrong act by a corresponding  right
act.  Death is something that comes to all and the suffering which was inci-
dent  to the wrong act in each case is surely none the less in the  case  of
Faust,  where it was prolonged over a long period of years, than in the case
of  Marguerite,  where the life is ended in a much shorter time.   The  only
difference is that Faust has overcome CONSCIOUSLY and will in future life be
immune to temptation,  while the case of Marguerite is problematical.   In a
future earth life she will yet have to meet temptation in order that it  may
be made manifest whether or not she has developed the strength of  character
requisite to withstand the wrong and adhere to the right.

                              QUESTION NO. 21:

   IS THERE ANY PLACE, EITHER IN THE OLD OR NEW TESTAMENT,  WHEREIN MEN WERE
TOLD  TO MARRY AND THEN LIVE AS BROTHER AND SISTER AT ANY TIME OR UNDER  ANY
CONDITION?  AND IF NOT IN THE BIBLE, WHY DO YOU TEACH IT?

   ANSWER:   The  Original Semites were the fifth of  the  Atlantean  races.
They came out of the drowning Atlantis as told variously in  the  stories of

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Noah  and Moses.   They were to go into a Promised Land,  not little  insig-
nificant Palestine,  but the whole earth as it is now constituted.   It  was
PROMISED because the earth was undergoing the changes usual when a new  race
is to take possession.   Floods had destroyed the Atlantean civilization and
in  the wilderness of Gobi,  in Central Asia,  wandered the nucleus  of  the
present Aryan races.

   At  the  time when such a nucleus was to become a  world  peopling  race,
naturally, the begetting of children was a prime consideration.   Therefore,
it was looked upon as the duty of everyone to beget numerous children and be
exceedingly fruitful.   But we are not living in those times now;  the world
is  well peopled and the re-incarnating Egos are taken care of without  spe-
cial endeavors at generation.   We have never advocated generally  celibacy,
or  that people should marry and then live AT ALL TIMES as brother and  sis-
ter;  but  we have taught that married people,  according to  their  circum-
stances,  should help to perpetuate the race.  That is to say,  if both hus-
band  and  wife are physically,  morally and mentally able;  when  they  are
possessed of a home, wherein an incarnating Ego may obtain the chance of em-
bodiment and experience,  they should offer themselves as a living sacrifice
upon the altar of humanity and give of the substance of their bodies to fur-
nish an Ego with a vehicle, inviting it into their home as they would invite
a dear guest,  thankful that they may be able to do for it what others  have
done for them.  But when the act of impregnation has been accomplished, they
should refrain from further intercourse, until again they feel  sufficiently
fitted to generate the body for another child.   Such is the teaching of the
Rosicrucians concerning the ideal relation between husband  and  wife.  They

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hold that creative function should not be used for sensual purposes, but for
the  perpetuation  of the race for which it has been,  naturally,  designed.
This  is  an ideal condition and may be beyond most people  at  the  present
time,  like the injunction to love our enemies;  but if we do not have  high
ideals we shall make no progress.

                              QUESTION NO. 22:

   IS  THERE A SOUL-MATE BELONGING TO EVERY SOUL THROUGH ALL  ETERNITY?   IF
SO,  WOULD  IT NOT BE BETTER TO REMAIN UNMARRIED A THOUSAND  YEARS  THAN  TO
MARRY THE WRONG MATE?

   ANSWER:   As the light is refracted into the seven colors of the spectrum
when passing through our atmosphere, so also the spirits which are differen-
tiated within God are refracted into seven great rays.   Each class is under
the  direct guidance and domination of one of the Seven Spirits  before  the
Throne,  which  are the planetary genii, the Star Angels.   All  the  Virgin
spirits  in their successive incarnations are continually  intermingling  in
order  that they may gain the most varied experiences;  nevertheless,  those
who have emanated from the same Star Angel are always sister or twin  souls,
and when they seek the higher life, they must enter the  path  of initiation

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through  a  lodge  composed  of members of the  same  ray  from  which  they
originally came, thence to? return to their primal source.   Therefore,  all
occult  schools  are divisible into seven, one for each  class  of  spirits.
That was the reason Jesus said to his disciples "Your father and mine"--None
could have come into as close touch with him as these disciples were, except
those belonging to the same ray.

   Like all other mysteries,  this beautiful doctrine has been degraded to a
physical or material idea such as embodied in the popular conception of twin
souls or affinities;  that one is male and the other female,  and very often
each is somebody else's wife or husband.  In such cases the doctrine of twin
souls  is  often  made an excuse for elopement and  adultery.   This  is  an
abominable perversion.  Each spirit is complete in itself, it takes upon it-
self  a male or a female body at different times in order to learn the  les-
sons  of life,  and it is only during the present stage if  its  development
that  there is such a feature as sex at all.   The Ego was before  sex,  and
will persist after that phase of its manifestation has passed away.

[PAGE 2444]

                              QUESTION NO. 23:

   IS IT WRONG FOR FIRST, SECOND OR THIRD COUSINS TO MARRY, AND IF SO, WHY?

   ANSWER:  The purpose of marriage is the perpetuation of the race, and ac-
cording to the physical nature of the parents, plus their environment,  will
the  child be.   We find,  for instance, that the emigrants who come to  our
shores  are different from the children they beget,  and that  the  children
that they beget HERE IN AMERICA are different from the children begotten  in
Europe.   For instance,  the longheaded Sicilians beget children who have  a
more rounded head,  and the round-headed Jews beget children who have a more
oval  shaped head,  thus showing in all races a tendency to  amalgamate  and
bring into birth A NEW AMERICAN RACE.

   These changes are not at all brought about by accident.   The great lead-
ers  of  humanity always aim to bring about certain conditions in  order  to
produce  certain types.   For only in that way can the faculties be  evolved
that  are necessary to the progress of the spirit and there was a time  when
it  was necessary to the evolution of the Ego that they should marry in  the
family.  At that time humanity was not so evolved and individualized as they
are now.  They were ruled by a family spirit which entered into the blood by
means of the air they inspired to help the Ego control its instrument.  Then
humanity  had what is known as second sight,  and that second sight  is  yet
found among people who have persisted largely in marrying inside the family,
such, for instance, as the Scotch Highlanders and the Gypsies.

[PAGE 2445]

   But is was necessary that me should forget the Spiritual World for a time
and remember no life but the present.  In order to bring this change in con-
sciousness about,  the great leaders took certain steps,  one of them  being
the prohibition of marriages in the family.  When we read in the fifth chap-
ter  of Genesis that Adam lived for 900 years and all the  patriarchs  lived
for  centuries,  it does not really mean that the persons named lived  THEM-
SELVES  during  that length of time,  but the blood which coursed  in  their
veins was transmitted directly to their descendants and this blood contained
the pictures of our individual family as it now contains the pictures of our
individual lives, for the blood is the storehouse of all experiences.   Thus
the  descendants  of  the  patriarchal  families  saw  themselves  as  Adam,
Methusaleh,  etc.  Of course, during the centuries, these pictures gradually
became faint and when the memory of Adam faded out from the blood of his di-
rect descendants it was said that Adam ceased to live.

   As man became more individualized,  he was to learn to stand upon his own
legs  without the help of the family spirit.   Then international  marriages
were  permitted,  or even commanded,  and marrying inside the family was  no
longer allowed.   That killed clairvoyance.   Science has demonstrated  that
when the blood of one animal is inoculted into the veins of another  animal,
haemolysis,  or  the destruction of blood, takes place,  so that  the  lower
animal is killed.   But the introduction of strange blood,  in whatever  way
accomplished,  always kills something,  if not the form at least a  faculty,
and  the strange blood introduced by marriage killed the  clairvoyance  pos-
sessed  by primitive man.   That this statement is true about strange  blood
being destructive can be noted in the case of hybrids.  Where, for instance,

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a horse and a donkey are mated the progeny is a mule, but that mule is minus
the  propagative faculty,  for it is neither under the group spirit  of  the
horses nor under the dominion of the group spirit of the donkeys,  and if it
should  propagate,  the result would be a species not under the dominion  of
any  group spirit.   The mule is not so far evolved,  however,  that it  can
guide  its instrument without the assistance of a group spirit,  and so  the
propagative  faculty is denied the group spirit withholding the  fructifying
seed atom.   With humanity it was different, however.  When they had come to
the stage where international marriages were commanded,  they had arrived at
the  point in evolution of self-consciousness where they were able to  steer
their own bark and where they must cease to be God-guided automatons and be-
come self-governing individuals.  The greater the mixture of blood, the less
the indwelling spirit can be influenced by any of the race or family spirits
which influenced our ancestors.  Thus greater scope is afforded the incoming
Egos when we marry strangers than when we seek a cousin for a mate.

[PAGE 2447]

                              QUESTION NO. 24:

   WOULD IT BE WISE FOR TWO PEOPLE OF THE SAME TEMPERAMENT TO MARRY IF  THEY
WERE BOTH BORN UNDER THE SAME SIGN OF THE ZODIAC?  IN AUGUST, FOR INSTANCE?

   ANSWER:   It is said that a person is born every second of the day;  thus
there would be 3,600 born in an hour, 86,400 in a day of 24 hours, and about
two millions and a half in a month.  If they were supposed to have the  same
temperament  and the same fate in life, we should only have twelve kinds  of
people, and yet we know that there are not two people exactly alike, so that
it is foolish to say that people have the same temperament because they  are
born under the same sign of the zodiac, as determined by the month.

   To cast a horoscope scientifically,  it if necessary to take into consid-
eration the day and the year when a person was born,  for the planets do not
arrive  at the same relative positions more than once in  twenty-five  thou-
sand,  eight hundred and sixty-eight years.  We must further take into  con-
sideration  the hour of the birth and if possible try to get the minute,  on
account of the swiftly changing position of the moon.   If we also take into
consideration the place,  we can calculate THE RISING SIGN,  which gives the
FORM of the body.  Then we have an absolutely individual horoscope,  for the
degree  of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon changes every four  min-
utes, so that even in the case of twins there would be a difference.

   In order,  then,  that the astrologer may say whether the marriage of two
people will be harmonious or otherwise,  it is necessary for him to cast the
horoscope  of  the  two  persons  and  endeavor  to find out if they will be

[PAGE 2448]

physically, morally, and mentally congenial.  He judges by comparing the as-
cendants,  or rising signs, which show the physical affinity.  The positions
of  Mars and Venus will show whether they are morally of the  same  caliber,
and the Sun and Moon show their mental characteristics.   Thus he has an ac-
curate gauge as to whether their natures will blend,  but predictions  based
upon anything short of such a calculation are worthless.

                              QUESTION NO. 25:

   IN THE CASE OF DEATH BY VIOLENT MEANS IS THE NEXT LIFE,  WHEN THE  PERSON
DIES  AS CHILD,  LIVED IN A BODY OF THE SAME SEX AS BEFORE OR THE  OPPOSITE;
THAT IS,  WILL A SOLDIER KILLED ON THE BATTLE FIELD BE REBORN AS A BOY OR  A
GIRL, OR DOES SEX PLAY LITTLE PART WHEN THE LIFE IS A VERY SHORT ONE?

   ANSWER:  So far as the writer has been able to investigate there does not
seem  to be any attention paid to this matter in the succeeding  life.   The
Ego takes the opportunity for rebirth wherever it can be found.  All that is
necessary  is  that the material for the new vehicles shall be  gathered  so
that the moral impression may be made on the desire  body  during the heaven

[PAGE 2449]

life which follows death as a child.

   This matter of sex seems on the whole to be very elastic, at least in the
cases of those who have been living what we call "the higher life,"  because
this  has a tendency to make the vital body more permanently  positive,  and
the seed atom, located in the solar plexus, therefore automatically attracts
to  itself an increasingly large quantity of positively polarized ether,  so
that  whether the physical body is male or female,  the constituents of  the
vital  body remain positive.   Therefore in the case of so-called  "advanced
people"  sex becomes a matter of less importance than ordinarily,  being  in
many cases left to the choice of the Ego which is seeking rebirth.

                              QUESTION NO. 27:

   HAS  THE  ROSICRUCIAN  PHILOSOPHY ANY SPECIFIC  TEACHING  CONCERNING  THE
TRAINING OF CHILDREN?

   ANSWER:  There is perhaps no subject of greater importance than that.  In
the first place,  wise parents who are desirous of giving the child all  ad-
vantages,  commence BEFORE THE BIRTH of the child,  even before the  concep-
tion,  to prayerfully turn their thoughts toward the task they are undertak-
ing,  and  are  careful to see that the union which is to  bring  about  the
germination takes place under the proper stellar influences,  when the  moon
is  passing through signs which are appropriate to the building of a  strong
and healthy body,  having,  of course, their own bodies in the best possible
physical, moral and mental condition.

   Then  during  the period of gestation they hold before their  mind's  eye
constantly the ideal of a strong,  useful life for the incoming entity,  and
as  soon as possible after birth has taken place they cast the horoscope  of
the child,  FOR THE IDEAL PARENT IS ALSO AN ASTROLOGER.  If the parents have
not the ability to cast the horoscope themselves they can at least study the
stellar signs that will enable them to intelligently understand what the as-
trologer tells them;  but under no circumstances will they consult a profes-
sional  astrologer to help them,  one who prostitutes the science for  gold,
but  will seek the aid of a spiritual astrologer,  though they may  have  to
seek some time.  From the child's natal chart the strength and weaknesses of
its character can be readily seen.  The parents will then be in the best po-
sition possible to foster the good and take  appropriate  means  to  repress

[PAGE 2450]

the  evil  before the tendencies work themselves out into  actualities,  and
thus  they may in a large measure help the incoming entity to  overcome  his
faults.

   Next,  the parent must realize that that which we term birth is only  the
birth of the visible,  physical body, which is born and comes to its present
high  stage of efficiency in a shorter time than the invisible  vehicles  of
man,  because it has had the longest evolution.   As the foetus is  shielded
from  the  impacts of the visible world by being encased in  the  protecting
womb of the mother during the period of gestation,  so are also the  subtler
vehicles encased in envelopes of ether and desire stuff which protects  them
until they have sufficiently matured,  and are able to withstand the  condi-
tions of the outer world.

   Thus the vital body is born at about the age of seven,  or the time  when
the child cuts its second teeth,  and the desire body is born at about four-
teen,  or the time of puberty.  The mind comes to birth at about twenty-one,
when we say a man has reached majority.

   There are certain important matters which can be taken care of only  dur-
ing the appropriate period of growth,  and the parent should know what these
are.   Though  the organs have been formed by the time the  child  comes  to
birth, THE LINES OF GROWTH are determined during the first seven years,  and
if  they are not properly outlined during that time,  an  otherwise  healthy
child may become a sickly man or woman.

   In the first chapter of St.  John, we read that "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,  and sound is the  great
cosmic builder,  therefore during the first septenary epoch of its life  the
child  should  be  surrounded  by  music  of  the  right  kind,  by  musical
language--the  swing  and  rhythm  of  nursery  rhymes  being   particularly

[PAGE 2451]

valuable.   It does not matter about the sense at all;  what matters is  the
rhythm; the more the child has of that, the healthier it will grow.

   There  are two great watchwords which apply to this period of  a  child's
life.   They are called IMITATION and EXAMPLE.   There is no creature in the
world so imitative as a little child; it follows our example to the smallest
detail so far as it is able.   Therefore,  the parents who seek to bring  up
their  child  well will ever be careful when in the presence of  the  little
one.  It is no use to teach it not to mind; the child has no mind, it has no
reason,  it can only imitate, and it cannot help imitating any more than wa-
ter can help running down hill.   If we have one kind of food for  ourselves
which is highly seasoned and cooked in French style,  perhaps,  and we  give
our child another dish, telling it that what we eat is not good for it,  the
child  may not then be able to imitate us,  but we implant the appetite  for
such food in the little one.   When it grows up and can gratify its taste it
will do so.   Therefore,  the careful parents should abstain from the  foods
and liquors they do not wish their child to partake of.

   Regarding the clothing,  we may say that at that time the child should be
entirely unconscious of its sex organs, and therefore the clothing should be
particularly  loose at all times.   This is specially necessary with  little
boys,  for  oftentimes a most seriously bad habit in later life  may  result
from the rubbing of too tight clothing.

   There is also the question of punishment to be considered; that too is an
important  factor  at all times in awakening the sex nature  and  should  be
carefully avoided.  There is no child so refractory that it will not respond
to the method of reward for good deeds and the withholding of  privileges as

[PAGE 2452]

retribution for disobedience.   Besides, we recognize the fact that whipping
breaks the spirit of a dog,  and we oftentimes complain that certain  people
have  cultivated a wishbone instead of a backbone--that they are lacking  in
will.   Much of that is due to whippings, mercilessly administered in child-
hood.   Let any parent look at this from the child's standpoint.   How would
any  of us now like to live with someone from whose authority we  could  not
escape,  who was much bigger than we, and have to submit to whippings day by
day?  Leave the whipping alone and much of the social evil will be done away
with in a generation.

   When  the vital body has been brought to birth at the seventh  year,  the
faculties  of perception and memory are to be educated.   The watchword  for
this period should be AUTHORITY and DISCIPLESHIP.  We should not, if we have
a precocious child, seek to goad it into a course of study which requires an
enormous  expenditure of thought.   Child prodigies have usually become  men
and women of less than ordinary mentality.   The child should be allowed  to
follow  his own inclination in that respect.   His faculties of  observation
should be cultivated,  he should be shown living examples.   Let him see the
drunkard and what vice has led HIM to; show him also the good man,  and  set
before him high ideals.  Teach him to take everything you say upon authority
and  endeavor to be such that he may respect your authority as  parents  and
teachers.   At  this time he should also be prepared to  husband  the  force
which  is now being awakened in him, and which will enable him  to  generate
his kind at the end of the second period of seven years.   He should not  be
allowed to gather that knowledge from polluted sources,  because the parents
shirk the responsibility of telling him from a mistaken sense of modesty.  A

[PAGE 2453]

flower may be taken as an object lesson,  whence all the children,  from the
smallest to the biggest,  may receive the most beautiful instruction in  the
form  of  a fairy tale.   They may be taught how flowers are  like  families
without bothering at all with botanical terms,  so long as the parents  have
studied in the slightest degree a little elementary botany.   Show the chil-
dren some flowers.   Tell them "Here is a flower family where there are  all
boys (a staminate flower),  and here is another flower where there are  only
girls (a pistilate flower).  Here is one where there are both boys and girls
(a flower where there are both stamen and pistils).  Show them the pollen in
the anthers.  Tell them that these little flower boys are just like the boys
in the human families;  that they are adventuresome and want to go out  into
the world to fight the battle of life, while the girls (the pistils) stay at
home.   Show them the bees with the pollen baskets on their legs,  and  tell
them  how  the  little flower boys bestride those winged  steeds,  like  the
knights  of old,  and go out into the world to seek the princess immured  in
the  magic  castle (the ovule hidden in the pistil);  how  the  pollen,  the
flower boy-knights,  force their way through the pistil and enter the ovule;
then tell them how that signifies that the knight and the princess are  mar-
ried,  that  they live happy ever afterward and become the parents  of  many
little flower boys and girls.  When they have fully grasped that,  they will
understand also the generation in the animal and human kingdom, for there is
no  difference;  one is just as pure and chaste and holy as the other.   And
the little children brought up in that way will always have a reverence  for
the creative function that can be instilled in no better way.

   When  a child has been thus equipped, it is well fortified for the  birth
of  the  desire  body  at  the  time  of  puberty.  When the desires and the

[PAGE 2454]

emotions  are unleashed,  it enters upon the most dangerous period of  life,
the time of the hot youth from fourteen to twenty-one,  for at that time the
desire  body is rampant and the mind has not yet come to birth to act  as  a
brake.   At this time it is well for the child that has been brought  up  as
here outlined,  for its parents will then be a strength and an anchor to  it
to  tide  it  over that troublesome period until the time when  it  is  full
born--the age of twenty-one , when the mind is born.

                              QUESTION NO. 28:

   WHY ARE CHILDREN BORN IN A FAMILY WHERE THEY ARE NOT WELCOME?

   ANSWER:  It shows a sad state of society when a question such as this can
be relevant,  as,  unfortunately,  it is.  The primal purpose of marriage is
the  perpetuation of the race and people who are not willing to become  par-
ents  have no right to marry.   It should be the right of every child to  be
well  born,  and welcome.   But while we are careful to seek  out  the  best
strain in the animals which we use for breeding purposes,  in order that  we
may get the hardiest and best stock,  we usually do not think at all of  the
physical, moral and mental fitness of the  one we select to be the father or

[PAGE 2455]

mother of our children.  In fact, it is usually considered indelicate if not
indecent  to  think  of  children at all, and when they  come  in  spite  of
preventatives,  the parents are often distracted with grief.  But the law of
cause and effect is not to be thwarted.   The mills of the Gods grind slowly
but they are sure to grind very small, and though the centuries may pass by,
there will come a time when the one who is an unwilling parent must  himself
seek  an embodiment anew,  and perhaps he will then be reborn into a  family
where he is not welcome.   Or perhaps the unwilling parents of one life  be-
come  childless  in the next.   Cases are know to the writer  where  such  a
couple  has been blessed with numerous children whom they desired  and  pas-
sionately  loved,  but who died in childhood one after another to the  great
grief of the parents.

                              QUESTION NO. 29:

   WHEN CHILDREN DO NOT COME TO A MAN AND WIFE WHO DEEPLY LONG FOR THEM,  IS
THERE  NOT SOME WAY TO INDUCE SOME SOUL IN THE UNSEEN WORLD TO ACCEPT  THEIR
INVITATIONS TO REINCARNATE?   WHERE THE CONDITIONS IN THE HOME ARE MOST  FA-
VORABLE,  IT WOULD SEEM THAT AMONG THE MANY SOULS AWAITING  INCARNATION  ONE
WOULD FIND THE CONDITIONS RIGHTS.

   ANSWER:   This  is undoubtedly one of the conditions where  the  would-be
parents  have  some  time  in  a  previous  neglected their opportunity, or,

[PAGE 2456]

perhaps, have taken precautions to avoid begetting children.  Or, if this is
not the case,  it may be that at a later day their hopes will be  fulfilled.
The  writer has observed a case where a spirit seeking incarnation  followed
the mother about,  and he was told by someone else who had known the  mother
that that Ego had been following her from before her marriage.  The marriage
proved barren, however, and only recently came the news of the divorce.   It
was  plain that although this Ego evidently desired incarnation through  the
mother,  it refused the father.   We sometimes hear of marriages  which  are
barren, and then when the marriage contract has been dissolved and the part-
ners have each remarried,  both have become parents,  showing that they were
perfectly able to become parents from the physical standpoint,  and that  it
was  the incarnating Ego that was lacking.   For this should be noted,  that
unless  there is an Ego seeking embodiment through a married  couple,  their
efforts will be fruitless.   From the ordinary standpoint that would not ap-
pear to be so, but it will be readily seen that as the chemical constituents
of the semen and the ova are at all times the same, there would be no reason
why  a union of the sexes should be fruitful at one time and barren  at  an-
other  if they were the only factors.   We know that if we mix hydrogen  and
oxygen  in proper proportions we always get water;  we know that water  will
always  flow down hill;  and thus all the laws of nature are invariable,  so
that unless there were another factor than the chemical mixture of semen and
ova there would always be issue.   And this unknown and unseen factor is the
reincarnating  Ego which goes only where it pleases and without which  there
can be no issue.

   If  the  inquirer  will  pray  earnestly to the angel Gabriel, who is the

[PAGE 2457]

ambassador  of the Regent of the Moon to the earth,  and therefore  a  prime
factor in the generation of bodies (vide the Bible),  it may possibly  avail
to bring the desired result.   The best time is Monday at sunrise,  and from
the new Moon to the full.

                              QUESTION NO. 30:

   HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE FACT THAT A CHILD SO OFTEN INHERITS THE BAD  CHAR-
ACTERISTICS OF THE PARENTS?

   ANSWER:   We  explain by saying that it is not  a  fact.   Unfortunately,
people seem to lay their bad traits to heredity,  blaming their parents  for
their faults,  while taking to themselves all the credit for the good.   The
very  fact  that we differentiate between that which is inherited  and  that
which is our own,  shows that there are two sides to man's nature,  the side
of the FORM and the LIFE side.

   The man,  the thinker,  comes here equipped with a mental and a moral na-
ture,  which are entirely his own, taking from his parents only the material
for the physical body.   We are drawn to certain people by the law of causa-
tion,  and the law of association.   The same law which causes musicians  to
seek the company of one another in  concert halls, gamblers to congregate at

[PAGE 2458]

at the race tracks or in pool rooms, people of a studious nature to flock to
libraries, etc., also causes people of similar tendencies,  characteristics,
and tastes to be born in the same family.  Thus,  when we hear a person say,
"Yes, I know I am thriftless, but then my people never were used to work, we
always had servants," it shows that similarity of tastes and nothing more is
needed to explain it.   When another person says, "Oh, yes,  I know I am ex-
travagant,  but I just cannot help it,  it runs in the family,"  it is again
the law of association,  and the sooner we recognize that instead of  making
the law of heredity an excuse for our evil habits we should seek to  conquer
them and cultivate virtues instead, the better for us.   We would not recog-
nize  it as a valid excuse if the drunkard should say,  "No,  I cannot  help
drinking, all my associates drink."  We would tell him to get away from them
as quickly as possible and assert his own individuality, and we would advise
people to cease shielding themselves behind their ancestors as an excuse for
bad habits.

[PAGE 2459]

                              QUESTION NO. 31:

   DOES NOT THE CHILD INHERIT ITS BLOOD AND NERVOUS SYSTEM FROM ITS PARENTS?
IF SO, WILL IT NOT INHERIT DISEASE AND NERVOUS DISORDERS ALSO?

   ANSWER:   In the foetus,  in the lower part of the throat just above  the
sternum or breast bone,  there is a gland called the thymus gland,  which is
largest during the period of gestation and which gradually atrophies as  the
child grows older and disappears entirely by or before the fourteenth  year,
very often when the bones have been properly formed.   Science has been very
much  puzzled  as  to the use of this gland,  and  few  theories  have  been
advanced  to account for it.   Among these theories one is that is  supplies
the material for the manufacture of the red blood corpuscles until the bones
have  been properly formed in the child so that it may manufacture  its  own
blood corpuscles.  That theory is correct.

   During  the  earliest years the Ego which owns the child-body is  not  in
full possession,  and we recognize that the child is not responsible for its
doings,  at any rate not before the seventh year, and later we have extended
it to the fourteenth year.   During that time no legal liability for its ac-
tion attaches to the child,  and that is as it should be,  for the Ego being
in the blood can only function properly in blood of its own making,  so that
where, as in the child-body, the stock of the blood is furnished by the par-
ents through the thymus gland,  the child is not yet its own master or  mis-
tress.   Thus it is that children do not speak of themselves so much as  "I"
in  the  earlier years,  but identify themselves with the family;  they  are
Papa's girl and Mama's boy.  The  young  child will say "Mary wants" this or

[PAGE 2460]

"Johnny  wants that,"  but as soon as they have attained the age of  puberty
and have begun to manufacture their own blood corpuscles,  then we hear  the
boy or girl say, "I" will do this or "I" will do that.   From that time they
begin  to assert their own identity,  and to tear themselves loose from  the
family.

   Seeing,  then, that the blood throughout the years of childhood,  as well
as the body,  is inherited from the parents,  the tendencies to disease  are
also carried over, not the disease itself but the tendency.  After the four-
teenth  year,  when the indwelling Ego has commenced to manufacture its  own
blood corpuscles,  it depends a great deal upon itself whether or not  these
tendencies shall become manifested actualities in its life.

                              QUESTION NO. 32:

   CAN  A  PERSON  BE INFLUENCED IN A NATURAL SLEEP AS HE  CAN  IN  HYPNOTIC
SLEEP, OR IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  there  is a difference.  In the natural  sleep  the  Ego,
clothed  in the mind and desire body,  draws outside the physical  body  and
usually hovers over the body, or at any rate  remains close to it, connected

[PAGE 2461]

by the silver cord, while the vital body and the dense body are resting upon
the bed.

   It is then possible to influence the person by instilling into his  brain
the thoughts and ideas we wish to communicate.  Nevertheless, we cannot then
get him to do anything or to entertain any idea except that which is in line
with his natural proclivities.   IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO COMMAND HIM TO DO  ANY-
THING  AND TO ENFORCE OBEDIENCE,  the same as it is when he has been  driven
out  by the passes of the hypnotist,  for its is the brain which  moves  the
muscles,  and during the natural sleep his brain is interpenetrated  by  his
own vital body and he is in perfect control himself,  while during the  hyp-
notic  sleep the passes of the hypnotist have driven the ether of which  his
vital body is composed out of the brain,  down to the shoulders of the  vic-
tim,  where it lies around his neck and resembles the collar of  a  sweater.
The  dense brain is then open to the ether from the hypnotist's vital  body,
which  displaces that of the proper owner.   Thus IN THE HYPNOTIC SLEEP  THE
VICTIM HAS NO CHOICE WHATEVER AS TO THE IDEAS HE ENTERTAINS OR THE MOVEMENTS
HE MAKES WITH HIS BODY,  but in the ordinary sleep he is still a free agent.
In fact,  this method of suggestion during sleep is something which  mothers
will find extremely beneficial in treating refractory children,  for if  the
mother will sit by the bed of the sleeping child, hold its hand, speak to it
as she would speak when it is awake, instill into its brain ideas of such  a
nature as she would wish it to entertain,  she will find that in the  waking
state many of these ideas will have taken root.  Also in dealing with a per-
son who is sick or is addicted to drink, if the mother,  nurse or others use
this method, they will find it possible to instill hope and healing, materi-
ally furthering recovery or aiding self-mastery.  This  method way of course
be used for evil,  but we cannot refrain from publishing it,  as we  believe
that  the good which can be done in this way will much more than offset  the
few cases where some misguided person may use it for the wrong purpose.

Continued with file "RC1069.TXT"

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