Filename: RC1089.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Philosophy In Questions & Answers, Vol. II"
         by Max Heindel

[PAGE 3204]

                                 LOST SOULS:

                              QUESTION NO. 151:

   IS THERE ANY BASIS IN FACT FOR THE TEACHING OF SOME SCHOOLS OF  OCCULTISM
REGARDING LOST SOULS AND STRAGGLERS?   I HAVE READ A BOOK WHICH VIVIDLY  DE-
SCRIBES  A  PLACE CALLED AVITCHI,  WHERE THE SOULS RESIDE WHEN IN  THE  LAST
STAGES OF DISINTEGRATION.   THE SCHOOL IN QUESTION IT SEEMS HOLDS THAT  SOME
SOULS  UNDERGO PROGRESSIVE RETROGRESSION,  BECOMING LOWER AND LOWER IN  EACH
SUCCESSIVE  EMBODIMENT UNTIL ULTIMATELY EXTINGUISHED AS INDIVIDUAL SOULS  BY
ABSORPTION IN THE COSMIC SOUL.   NOW, AS I UNDERSTAND THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACH-
INGS,  ALL SOULS WITHOUT EXCEPTION ARE ON THE UPWARD SPIRAL, AND WHILE THERE
MAY  BE  A  RETROGRESSION AS BETWEEN TWO SUCCESSIVE LIVES  IN  THE  PHYSICAL
WORLD,  YET THE ULTIMATE OUTCOME IS PROGRESS,  NOT RETROGRESSION.   I DO NOT
BELIEVE  THAT  IT IS ANY PART OF THE TRUE ROSICRUCIAN  TEACHINGS  THAT  SOME
SOULS DETERIORATE UNTIL ANNIHILATED.  THE ABOVE REMARKS ALSO APPLY TO STRAG-
GLERS.  KINDLY ADVISE THE CORRECT TEACHING ON THIS SUBJECT.

   ANSWER:   The Rosicrucians teach that life is a great school where  there
are  pupils in all different stages of development.   In the  most  advanced
class there are some who have learned almost all the lessons that it is pos-
sible to teach in our present condition and environment, and these are about
to  graduate  into  other  conditions  where  they will be afforded a larger

[PAGE 3205]

opportunity for advancement.   There are also backward Spirits in the  lower
classes which have, so to speak, been lazy and neglected to grasp opportuni-
ties for advancement.   Between the lowest and the highest classes there are
a great number of gradations,  and certain tests for examination are made of
humanity as a whole at different points in the evolutionary career, just the
same as in a school examinations of the pupils are held at certain times  of
the year for the purpose of determining if they are fitted to advance into a
next  higher  grade.   Those who pass this examination are  promoted,  while
those who fail are required to pass another term in the class where they are
so that they may learn the required lessons necessary as a basis for further
advancement.   Those who pass the examination are saved,  and those who fail
are  lost to the class as a whole.   However,  this is only  temporary,  and
those who have been backward may catch up gain and at the following examina-
tion  pass those who were promoted the year before.   Then  these  erstwhile
stragglers are saved and the others lost.

   So it is also in the school of life.  Those who fail to pass the examina-
tion  at one time,  and are temporarily "lost,"  may catch up gain and  even
pass those who had once passed them.   That is the true teaching  concerning
the  so-called  lost souls,  and it is confirmed by the  Bible.   The  Greek
AIONIAN  is  translated  everlasting,  but  it  has  no  such   meaning   as

[PAGE 3206]

infinite  duration.   Liddell & Scott's dictionary gives the meaning  as  an
"age, an indefinite period, a lifetime," etc.  Thus those who overcome,  and
are,  as the saying is,  saved,  have a passport to a new age of unfoldment,
and  are  thus given AGE lasting happiness.   Those who fail are  given  AGE
lasting  punishment of being in a lower grade in life's  school.   Generally
speaking,  however, the doctrine that a soul or Ego may be lost in the sense
of being annihilated is altogether without foundation,  for,  as it is said,
"IN  God we live and move and have our being,"  so that if a  single  Spirit
were lost, a part of God would be lost.  That of course is unthinkable.

   It is said that there is no rule without exception, and there is one con-
dition  which almost gives a foundation for the teaching concerning  Avitchi
promulgated  by the Eastern schools.  According to their  philosophy,  there
are two states (not places,  but STATES) of consciousness,  Avitchi and Nir-
vana.  They say that when the Spirit by repeated embodiments and lives lived
in the most noble manner has reached a state of sublime spirituality,  it is
absorbed by the Cosmic Soul as the dewdrop is swallowed up in the sea.   Its
individual consciousness plus the fruitage of all its lives is swallowed  up
by  the  Universal Spirit,  this being according to the Eastern  teaching  a
state  of the highest bliss.   Conversely, those who by lives  of  continued
evil pass a certain point,  commence to sink lower and lower on the scale of
attainment,  and as their consciousness has been so saturated in  evil  that
there  was  no  room  for good, individual consciousness is gradually purged

[PAGE 3207]

from  them  in the effort to eradicate the evil,  until at last  the  Spirit
stands  naked  and unconscious.   It is then absorbed in  the  Cosmic  Soul,
bringing with it only sorrow and disappointment of the most intense  nature.
But this teaching regarding both good and evil is as already said,  contrary
to  the  Western Mystery Teachings,  and may at least only apply in  such  a
case as an exceedingly evil black magician.   In no case,  however,  is  the
Spirit lost,  but only the fruitage of its pilgrimage.   As we have eternity
for our evolution,  we may be certain that even such a Spirit would have op-
portunities later to enter the pilgrimage of evolution which will make it  a
self-conscious creative intelligence.

                                 EUTHANASIA:

                              QUESTION NO. 152:

   IS "LEGALIZED EUTHANASIA,"  OR LAWFUL EXECUTION OF THE AGED,  INFIRM,  OR
SUFFERING PERSONS WHO DESIRE DEATH,  SUCH AS I READ IS BEING CONSIDERED IN A
CERTAIN CITY, LEGITIMATE IN YOUR OPINION?

   ANSWER:   At first blush and from the standpoint of people not versed  in
the  teachings  of  occultism such a measure would seem to have considerable

[PAGE 3208]

claim  to commendation.   Most people on seeing an animal suffering  agonies
and  beyond hope of recovery would feel prompted by humane instincts to  put
it out of its misery,  and the questions, "Why should we not do as much  for
our  fellow men and women?   Why should we keep them alive  in  excruciating
suffering maybe for months or years when we know they have no chance of  re-
gaining their health and that they are looking and longing for death to  put
them out of pain?"  seem from the common point of view to call for  acquies-
cence.   However, when we have a knowledge of the law of consequence and are
sure that what we sow we reap,  if not in this life then in some future  ex-
istence, the matter appears in a different light.

   We cannot escape our just dues.  The suffering that comes to us is needed
to teach us a lesson or mellow our character.   The only way to shorten such
suffering  is by an endeavor to understand why we are in the condition  that
brings  us pain.   If it is cancer of the stomach,  then how have we  abused
that organ?  By overindulgence of food of a nature not suited to our system?
Is  it the heart?   How many times have we lost our tempers and  raged  like
made,  putting  a tremendous strain on this part of the body?   Or  are  the
other  organs of our system weak and debilitated?   We may be sure  that  in
some way,  either in this life or a previous one, we have abused our body in
such a manner as to cause  these  ailments.  Otherwise  we  would not now be

[PAGE 3209]

suffering, and the sooner we take the lesson to heart and commence to live a
better  life  more in harmony with the laws of nature we  have  broken,  the
sooner our suffering will cease.

   It  is always in our own grasp to alter conditions,  though of course  we
cannot  remedy in a day what it has taken years or lives to break down,  but
certainly  there is no other way in which a permanent cure can be  effected.
Even if now,  by the enactment of such a law as contemplated,  the suffering
is shortened,  we may be sure that when the person so released from his body
is reborn his new vehicle will have the tendency to develop the same disease
from  which he escaped in such an untoward manner.   Besides,  as  has  been
thoroughly explained in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, this physical body
of ours is fashioned in an invisible mold which is called the archetype, and
so  long as that archetype persists our physical body remains  alive.   When
death occurs from natural causes, or even in the so-called accidents, (which
usually are not accidents at all but events used to terminate a life accord-
ing to the design of the invisible guardians of human affairs) the archetype
is disrupted and the Spirit flees.

   A suicide,  however,  is different.   In this case the archetype persists
after death for a number of years until death should have occurred according
to natural events,  and being unable to draw to itself the physical atoms it
imparts  to  the  suicide  during those years of his post-mortem existence a

[PAGE 3210]

continuous aching feeling,  something like a gnawing hunger,  or a dull  but
exceedingly  painful toothache.   If the plan you mention becomes a law  and
people  are allowed to obtain the services of others to commit suicide  (for
that is what it really amounts to),  there is no doubt that they will suffer
in  their post-mortem existence in the same manner as the suicide  who  pre-
scribed his own poison,  or cut his own throat.  It is a very dangerous plan
in other respects, also, and we trust no such practice will be sanctioned by
law.

                          NATURE OF THE HIGHER SELF:

                              QUESTION NO. 153:

   WHAT PART OF THE THREE-FOLD SPIRIT IS THE HIGHER SELF?   IS IT THE DIVINE
SPIRIT?
   IN THE COSMO IT IS STATED THAT THE HUMAN SPIRIT IS THE EGO.   IS THE LIFE
SPIRIT NOT A PART OF THE EGO?

   IS ALL THE EGO ON THE PHYSICAL PLANE DURING EARTH LIFE,  OR ONLY A PARTS,
AS THE HINDUS TEACH?

   ANSWER:   The higher self is the threefold Spirit:  Divine, Life, and Hu-
man  Spirit,  but you must not think of these three as being  separated  one
from the other.  The Spirit is undivided as the white light which comes from
the Sun through interplanetary space, but as the light may be refracted into

[PAGE 3211]

three primary colors--blue, yellow, and red--when passing through the denser
atmosphere of the earth, so also the Virgin Spirit appears as threefold dur-
ing manifestation,  because sheaths of matter of varying density are  placed
around it.   When it is enveloped only in the substance of the World of  Di-
vine Spirit,  then it is the Divine Spirit;  when the Divine Spirit receives
in addition a sheath from the material of the World of Life Spirit,  then it
becomes the Life Spirit; and when it is finally clothed in the matter of the
Region  of Abstract Thought it becomes the Human Spirit--the Ego.   That  is
because  the Virgin Spirit enmeshed in these three layers of matter is  shut
off  from all consciousness of its Divine Father,  and being so  blinded  by
matter  that  it  can no longer see things from the  cosmic  viewpoint  when
reaching  OUTWARD  it turns its consciousness inward and beholds  itself  as
separate and apart from all others.  Hence, it is an Ego--an individual.  At
that point then egoism is born, and self-seeking begins.

   When the Human Spirit draws around itself for better expression the lower
and more concrete vehicles--the mind,  the desire body,  the vital  body--by
sinking itself in them,  by descending even to the Physical World,  it again
obtains consciousness of outward things.   Then having lost knowledge of the
World of God whence it originally came, it commences to conquer the physical
world and subdue it to its own ends.

[PAGE 3212]

   In this respect it differs radically from the Spirits of the other  three
kingdoms--mineral,  vegetable,  and animal.  The Group Spirit of the mineral
has as yet descended only to the Region of Abstract Thought.   Therefore the
consciousness of the mineral resembles the deepest TRANCE state.   The Group
Spirit  of  the vegetable and plant kingdom has descended to the  Region  of
Concrete Thought.   Therefore the consciousness of the plant kingdom is akin
to that which we have in the deepest DREAMLESS SLEEP.   The Group Spirits of
the  animals are found in the Desire World,  which is next to the  world  in
which we live.  Hence the consciousness of the animal is an internal picture
consciousness,  similar to that which we have in dreams,  the pictures being
sent by the Group Spirits to the animals to impress upon them what they  are
to do under certain circumstances.   That which we call instinct is thus the
wisdom  of the Group Spirits,  which impresses the animal concerning how  it
shall act.   The Human Spirit alone in all the kingdoms of evolving life  on
earth is an individualized Ego, and descends into the vehicles which are all
gathered in the physical world during the waking hours of the day.   Thus we
attain  to the waking consciousness whereby we are fully aware and awake  to
all  things pertaining to the world in which we then function,  are able  to
use our own reason, express our desires and emotions, and act as dictated by
our individual Higher Self--the indwelling Spirit, the Ego.

[PAGE 3213]

                           SOWING WITHOUT REAPING:

                              QUESTION NO. 154:

   IN THE FIRST LECTURE SENT BY MR.  HEINDEL HE SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT  HAVING
ENGAGEMENTS  WITH  OUR DESTINY AND BEING ABLE TO CANCEL THEM  UNDER  CERTAIN
CIRCUMSTANCES.   NOW WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS THIS:   WHAT ARE  THOSE  CERTAIN
CIRCUMSTANCES?   I  REALIZE  THAT NOW I CAN BUILD FOR THE  FUTURE  AND  THAT
THINGS  THAT TAKE PLACE WITHIN MY OWN CONSCIOUSNESS I CAN CONTROL  ACCORDING
TO THE AMOUNT OF WILL THAT I HAVE AND THE DESIRE BACK OF THAT WILL TO TRY TO
DO WHAT IS RIGHT.  BUT WHAT ABOUT THE EFFORTS ALONG THE LINE OF WRONG INFLU-
ENCE?  WHAT IS ONE PURSUES THE LIFE OF THE ORDINARY PERSON AND BLUNDERS INTO
EVIL WAYS?   IS HE NOT STARTING SOMETHING FROM WHICH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ES-
CAPE?   OR CAN HE, BY STRIVING TO OVERCOME THE LOWER NATURE,  AND BUILDING A
BETTER CHARACTER,  FOREGO THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS OWN MISDEEDS?   THIS IS  A
QUESTION A FRIEND AND I HAVE HAD MANY ARGUMENTS OVER.  SHE HOLDS TO THE IDEA
THAT  IF  WE SEE WE ARE DUE FOR AN ACCIDENT OR TROUBLE OF ANY  KIND  WE  CAN
AVOID THOSE THINGS BY STAYING AWAY FROM WHERE THEY ARE LIKELY TO HAPPEN, BUT
IT DOES NOT SEEM LIKELY TO ME THAT WE CAN ESCAPE THE PAST.  IF WE COULD,  WE
WOULD NOT BUILD CHARACTER BY RUNNING AWAY FROM ANYTHING.  OF COURSE, THAT IS
A  MORE OR LESS FATALISTIC VIEW OF THE MATTER,  BUT I BELIEVE IN  TAKING  MY
MEDICINE LIKE A MAN.  THOUGH  I  KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS, AT THE SAME TIME I

[PAGE 3214]

FEEL DISGUSTED THAT I AM SUCH A WEAKLING.

   ANSWER:   There is one important point in the matter which it  seems  you
fail to take into consideration, though it has been plainly and emphatically
stated  in our literature.   "All the laws of nature,  including the law  of
consequence in its application to human life,  are under the  administration
of great Beings of sublime spirituality and superlative wisdom."   This  law
does not work blindly on the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth  for
a tooth,  but these great Beings and their agents administer all things with
a wisdom that is beyond the comprehension of our finite minds.   It has been
found,  however,  that where there is a desire or tendency or possibility of
running  away from a harvest of sorrow which has accrued from  certain  RIPE
destiny,  such plans are always circumvented by another move on the part  of
the invisible administrators of this law.

   If you will read again the case cited in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION
of a certain lecturer who was warned by Mr.  Heindel that if he went out  of
his  house on a certain day he would meet with an accident to certain  parts
of  his body,  and how he forgot and thought the 28th was the 29th,  took  a
trip to another town to lecture and was injured,  as foretold,  in a railway
collision.   This case will perhaps illustrate our points.  The man had been
forewarned,  he  believed  in  the  warning  and  intended  to  heed it, but

[PAGE 3215]

undoubtedly the suffering accruing from that accident was due to him in  ex-
piation of certain wrongdoings.   Therefore the agents of the law of  causa-
tion caused him to forget the day of the month.

   This principle works also in another way.   You seem to think that  there
is  no way of escaping the harvest of the past but there is.   We have  also
repeatedly emphasized the fact that God,  or nature,  or the agents of  this
great  law,  do not aim to "get even" with us.   We are here in  this  great
school of life,  safeguarded by these laws of nature.  They are made for our
benefit and not for our hurt,  although they limit us in a certain way  just
as  we  limit  our children's liberties for the  purpose  of  guarding  them
against dangers of indiscretion.  When by our past actions we have laid up a
certain store of retribution for ourselves which is to be worked out at some
future time,  and then see our mistake,  turn over a new leaf,  and live  in
harmony with the law we had previously broken,  then by that action we  wipe
the slate clean with respect to our previous peccadillos.  The agents of the
great law, seeing that we have ceased from wrongdoing in that particular re-
spect,  would  not wantonly inflict suffering upon us.   Bear this  fact  in
mind:  all the laws of nature are under similar divine, intelligent adminis-
tration, for that is the difference between the fatalistic and the spiritual
viewpoints.   The hand of God, through His agents,  is everywhere,  from the
greatest things,  such as the travel of a planet in its orbit,  to the  most
trivial detail like the falling of a sparrow.  It is an actual  fact that in

[PAGE 3216]

God  we live and move and have our being.   We are under His loving care  in
everything  and  therefore nothing can happen to us that is not  in  harmony
with His great divine plan.  That plan certainly cannot be fatalistic!

                         MOTHER SHIPTON'S PROPHECIES:

                              QUESTION NO. 155:

   DO YOU CONSIDER MOTHER SHIPTON'S PROPHECIES AUTHENTIC?

   ANSWER:   Half a century before America was discovered, "Mother Shipton,"
the Yorkshire seeress,  prophesied the discovery of an unknown land in which
gold would abound.   She saw the automobiles and railroads of today with the
many  accidents they would cause,  the telephone and the telegraph,  divers,
submarines, airships, and the great iron ships which have superseded vessels
of wood.  She foresaw the great political upheavals in the world, notably in
France,  her  alliance with England and an amalgamation of  the  Anglo-Saxon
races which may yet come to pass, notwithstanding their present strife.  She
beheld  the  emancipation  of the Jew and his  preferment  to  positions  of
prominence,  and  unprecedented  spread of knowledge among those of even the

[PAGE 3217]

most  lowly estate,  ending with the prediction of certain upheavals of  the
earth's  crust whereby old lands will become submerged and new land  appear,
and in 1991 she foresees the end of the world.

   The  last  named prophecies will probably cause most of us to  shake  our
heads in a skeptical manner,  but if we give the matter a little thought the
idea may not seem so farfetched.   We know that upheavals of the earth  have
taken place in the past, and earthquakes and volcanic outbursts show us that
the subterranean activities are not suspended by any means.   The writer has
seen  for a number of years great subterranean caverns filled with  oil  and
gas  which run in a general direction from Maine across the American  conti-
nent in a southwesterly direction,  beneath Southern California and far  out
into the South Pacific Ocean.  Their explosion would make a great gap in the
earth.   AT the same time he sees an archetype in the process  of  construc-
tions  which  shows  the  shape the earth will take at  that  place  when  a
cataclysm  or series of cataclysms have broken up the present shape of  this
continent  and the adjoining ocean.   Perhaps it is hazardous to set a  time
when  this remodeling of the earth will begin,  but the archetype or  matrix
molded in mind stuff, and representing the creative thought of the Grand Ar-
chitect  and His builders,  seems so nearly complete that,  judging  by  the
progress  made during the years the writer has watched its construction,  it
seems safe to say that by the middle  of the present century (1950),  if not

[PAGE 3218]

before,  the upheavals will have started.   it is not at all incredible that
there may be one of such magnitude in 1991 that the ancient seeress was jus-
tified in judging it the end of the world.   However,  perhaps the writer is
premature in judging that the upheavals will start in the middle of the cen-
tury.   They may be deferred to the end.  only time can decide,  but certain
it is that preparations for a great change have been going on for  centuries
and are now nearing completion in the invisible world.   Therefore,  we  may
expect  soon  to see Mother Shipton's prophecy concerning this  matter  ful-
filled as the ones mentioned in the beginning our note have been.

   We append the prophecy so that our readers may judge for themselves:

   Carriages without horses shall go,
   And accidents fill the world with woe;
   Primrose Hill in London shall be,
   And in its center a Bishop's See;
   Around the world thoughts shall fly
   In the twinkling of an eye;
   Water shall great wonders do.
   How strange! yet shall be true.

   The world upside down shall be,
   And gold found at the root of trees;
   Through hills man shall ride,
   And no horse or ass by his side;
   Under water men shall walk,
   Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk
   In the air men shall be seen,
   In white, in black, and in green.

   A great man shall come and go!
   Iron in water shall float
   As easy as a wooden boat,

[PAGE 3219]

   And gold shall be found
   In a land that's not now known.
   fire and water shall more wonders do,
   England shall at last admit a Jew;
   The Jew that was held in scorn
   Shall of a Christian be born.
   A house of glass shall come to pass
   In England, but alas!
   War will follow with the work
   In the land of the Pagan and Turk,
   And State and State in fierce strife
   Will seek each other's life.
   But when the North shall divide the South,
   An eagle shall build in the Lion's mouth.
   Taxes for blood and for war
   Shall come to every door.
   Three times shall lovely France
   Be led to play a bloody dance,
   Before her people shall be free,

   Three tyrant rulers shall she see--
   Three rulers in succession see,
   Each sprung from different dynasty;
   Then shall the worser fight be done,
   England and France shall be as one;
   The British olive next shall twine
   In marriage with the German Vine.
   Men shall walk over rivers and under rivers.
   All England's sons that plough the land
   Shall be seen book in hand;
   Learning shall so ebb and flow,
   The poor shall most wisdom know.
   Waters shall flow where corn doth grow.
   Corn shall grow where waters doth flow;
   Houses shall appear in the vales below.
   And covered by hail and snow.
   The world then to an end shall come,
   Nineteen hundred and ninety-one.

[PAGE 3220]

                              THE GOVERNING RAY:

                              QUESTION NO. 156:

   IN  THE  COSMO IT IS STATED:   "ALL OCCULT SCHOOLS BELONG TO ONE  OF  THE
SEVEN PLANETARY RAYS,  AND ONE CAN JOIN ONLY THE SCHOOL OF THE RAY TO  WHICH
HE BELONGS.   TO WHAT RAY DOES THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP BELONG?   AND DOES
THIS  MEAN THAT ANYONE APPLYING FOR ADMISSION THERETO,  IF NOT OF  THE  SAME
RAY,  WOULD BE REJECTED?  UNDERSTANDING OF THIS POINT IS RENDERED STILL MORE
DIFFICULT BECAUSE OF THE STATEMENT,  I THINK,  IN THE ASTROLOGY BOOKS,  THAT
OUR FATHER STAR IS NOT KNOWN UNTIL THE LAST INITIATION.

   ANSWER:   There are two sets of people in the world, spoken of in the Ma-
sonic  Legend as the Sons of Seth and the Sons of Cain,  and represented  in
our   modern   times  by  Freemasonry  and   Catholicism,   statecraft   and
priestcraft--those who listen to the voice of intellect and follow the head,
and  those  who obey the voice of the heart and follow  their  emotions  and
feelings.   The Sons of Seth,  people who go along the devotional  path  and
follow their religion in whatever country they may be,  do not come in touch
with any Mystery School at any time of their existence.   They have followed
their spiritual teachers, docile as lambs, as water flows gently in an arti-
ficial canal, and among their leaders, from the time of Abel,  the shepherd,
we find great lights like Solomon, who was later reborn as Jesus, and is now

[PAGE 3221]

the invisible spiritual pillar of the Church, which he will eventually guide
into the haven of the Kingdom of Christ.  These people are the divine proto-
types,  Adam and Eve,  created by Jehovah, the regent of Luna,  the Queen of
the  waters of the world and the emotions of men.   Our emotions are as  un-
stable  as water,  which is governed in its periodical ebb and flow  by  the
Moon.

   The other stream of humanity,  called the Sons of Cain,  is that class in
whom the divine essence, the Ego, makes itself felt as a BURNING FIRE.   The
original creative instinct is keen within them, for when humanity was in its
cradle,  they  listened to the voice of the Lucifer Spirits and ate  of  the
Tree of Knowledge; hence they became enlightened.  The mind prospered at the
expense of the heart,  and from Cain,  Tubal-Cain,  and Methusaleh have come
all  the  craftsmen of the world.   They were the ones who  built  Solomon's
Temple under the leadership of Hiram Abiff, the Master Mason,  who was later
reborn as the Widow's Son of Naim,  raised by the strong grip of the Lion of
Judah,  and is now working through industry and statecraft under the name of
Christian  Rosenkreuz to bring his kindred into the kingdom of Christ  where
the  two streams will unite--where there will be neither priests nor  kings,
but one, even Christ, who will fill the dual office of King and Priest.

   In every vast company of men there are always some behind and some in ad-
vance,  and we may find individuals,  belonging to each of these two streams
of  humanity  among  the  lowest  types  as  well  as  among the most highly

[PAGE 3222]

civilized people on earth.  All along the path of evolution,  there are,  as
we  might say,  gates which lead to the path of initiation and which may  be
unlocked by anyone who has the proper key.   The locks are different at dif-
ferent points on the path of evolution,  and they are becoming more  compli-
cated,  for  we  are all by evolution now learning  lessons  which  were  in
by-gone ages taught in the process of initiation in the Mystery Schools.

   In each life we are born with a new horoscope.  Our Ascendant and planets
will  be  very different in each life according to the lessons  we  have  to
learn and the liabilities we are to liquidate from the past.  In one life we
may have Mars as ruler,  another life may be ruled by Venus,  or any one  of
the planets.   it is designed that the Spirit should learn all things in or-
der to become perfect,  and it must therefore evolve under the influence  of
all  the planets in order that everything in its nature may be  evenly  bal-
anced.  Nevertheless, the stamp of our Father Star or Father Fire, is always
there,  and this makes one who is inherently a martial spirit different from
one  who comes from the Jupiter Ray,  though their horoscopes may  be  quite
similar, perhaps, as in the case of twins.

   Children born with the same Greenwich Mean Time in Madrid,  New York,  or
Honolulu would be of widely different types,  stamped by their national  and
racial  peculiarities,  and yet their horoscopes would be much alike.   This
illustrates that it is not the horoscope itself that counts,  but the invis-
ible  influence  that  is  due  to the identity of the Father Fire or Father

[PAGE 3223]

Star; and when a man or woman is ready to enter the gate or path which leads
up  to the the Mystery School,  he or she will feel the right spiritual  at-
traction through the basic color vibration of the aura.   If this attraction
is followed,  it is sure to guide him to the right place,  where he will not
be refused.

   Generally  speaking,  it may be said that all the people of  the  Western
World belong to the Western Wisdom School of the Rosicrucians, and that they
make a mistake when they endeavor to enter a school belonging to or teaching
the  Eastern philosophy.   When Moses led the Israelites out of  Egypt,  the
land of the Bull,  where the animal was worshiped when the Sun by precession
was in the sign Taurus,  he gave the people under his guidance a new symbol,
the  Lamb.   From the time when the Sun by precession went through the  sign
Aries,  the  Lamb,  it has been and is idolatry to worship the  golden  Calf
(Taurus),  or  bow down before the serpents and scorpions,  which  were  the
priests of that dispensation (because Scorpio is the opposite sign from Tau-
rus).  Then came Christ, the Lamb of God, so-called, to inaugurate a new re-
ligion;  and we hear of a judgment when He shall come again under  the  sign
Libra, the scales, which is opposite Aries, to judge all of the world.

   Later, by precession, the Sun passed through the sign Pisces, the fishes,
and for two thousand years we have been abstaining from meat on certain days
and eating fish, while we worshiped the opposite sign Virgo,  the immaculate

[PAGE 3224]

Virgin.  now the Sun is entering, by precession, within orb of the celestial
sign Aquarius,  the Son of Man, and in the coming Aquarian Age we shall have
an entirely different standard from what we have had before.  As a matter of
fact, we must learn to worship the CHRIST WITHIN, and this Christ is not the
same for each one of us.   This is the savior that is to lead us out of  our
present  condition.   The difference is the basic planetary ray that  is  in
each and every one of us.   So there is the horoscopic ray,  governed by the
planet which is ruler of our horoscope in each life; there is the individual
ray, which is governed by the sub-ray of our Father Fire or Father Star, un-
der which we originated;  and,  finally, there is the Father Fire or Ray it-
self.   It is this latter which is not revealed until the  last  initiation.
our  individual  ray is discovered unto us at the time we receive  the  dis-
cipleship instruction,  and the horoscopic ray is evident as soon as we cast
the figure and know how to read it.

   To clear up this point from another angle,  let us illustrate by  colors.
There are seven colors in the spectrum:   red,  orange,  yellow,  etc.   But
within  the  red  we  shall also find seven  sub-rays,  which  are  red-red,
red-orange,  red-yellow,  etc.   The same with the yellow ray--we shall find
there yellow-red, yellow-yellow, etc.  Similarly under the ray of Mars there
are some who are Mars-Saturn, others who are Mars-Sun,  others again who are
Mars-Venus, and so on.  Mars is then the Father Star,  while the name of the

[PAGE 3225]

other  planet  designates the individual Ray, and therefore we find  in  the
Mystery Schools, all over the world, people who are born with any one of the
twelve signs rising and any one of the planets ruling.  Also people with in-
dividual rays of the Sun, Venus, Mars, Mercury, etc.,  are found in both the
Eastern and Western Mystery Schools.   But the Mystery School itself is col-
ored by the deep,  overpowering planetary influence of the Father Fire,  the
Father Star, under which it originated.

   You  will  understand that as the Father Fire is not revealed  until  the
last  initiation,  this basic nature of any Mystery School  cannot  be  told
openly in public.  But you must differentiate between the Mystery School and
such an association as The Rosicrucian Fellowship and other kindred  societ-
ies,  which are only preparatory schools for their respective occult orders.
Such  schools as The Rosicrucian Fellowship and kindred organizations  would
naturally  be dominated by the planetary influence from the  fountain  head.
This therefore cannot be given.

   There  are  plenty of people who claim that they know all  and  who  will
smile mysteriously,  or give out misinformation which cannot be controverted
and proven false, because it concerns the secrets of initiation.  The writer
has always made it a rule to say honestly and without hesitation whenever  a
question was asked to which he could not give an answer:   "I do not  know."
To  profess  omniscience  is equivalent to a profession of divinity.  Though

[PAGE 3226]

the writer has met quite a number of "professors,"  he has met very few,  if
any, "possessors," and you will have to wait for the answer to that question
until you come to the proper point in initiation.

   Even in the case of the individual ray,  which is given to the  disciples
at  the  time they enter the path of discipleship,  it has been  found  that
people under the sign Gemini,  for instance,  which would be supposed to  be
ruled by Mercury,  had in their individual ray all the different other plan-
ets;  and the same with every one of the other signs.   The writer has given
time and study, endeavoring to find a rule, but it has proven absolutely fu-
tile.  There is only the one explanation, given by the Elder Brothers,  that
the individual ray is retained by the Spirit throughout its whole series  of
lives,  and perfectly independent of the horoscopical rays which change  ac-
cording  to its birth,  environment,  and the lessons to be learned in  each
life.
                                                 
                     WHEREABOUTS OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ:

                              QUESTION NO. 157:

   CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ, HIS PERSON, HABITAT,
ENVIRONMENT,  OR WHAT PART OF THE WORLD HE IS IN?   IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT HE
IS ON THE WESTERN COAST.  PLEASE TELL ME IF IT IS PERMISSIBLE TO KNOW.

[PAGE 3227]

   ANSWER:   No,  it is not permissible to know.   The whereabouts  and  the
movements of the august head of the Rosicrucian Order are always shrouded in
mystery.   If you have read about Rosicrucian initiation as explained in the
COSMO  you  will remember that he does not even appear in the  body  at  the
Temple services so far as the lay brothers are able to determine, for though
the Temple is built of ether and the twelve Elder Brothers together with the
lay  brothers function in their soul bodies during the Temple  service,  the
majority among us are able to see a body built of even so tenuous  substance
as mind-stuff.  Hence it is evident that the presence of the head of the Or-
der  is altogether spiritual,  and it is said that he manifests only to  the
twelve who like him are able to function in the highest vehicles.

   Nevertheless,  as has also been explained in the COSMO,  the head of  our
august Order is always active in the affairs of the world,  working with the
governments of the nations in the western world to guide them along the  ap-
propriate path of their evolution.  To this end he appears in a physical em-
bodiment,  at least part of the time, and if memory serves the editor right,
a lay sister ventured to put a question concerning this matter to one of the
Elder Brothers shortly after the outbreak of the war.   The rest of us  held
our  breath  in  amazement  at  her  indiscretion.   She  wanted  to know if

[PAGE 3228]

Christian  Rosenkreuz was on the throne of one of the warring nations.   The
Elder  Brother appeared considerably taken aback at the question,  but  told
her  that such matters could not be discussed,  as the slightest inkling  of
his identity might destroy his usefulness.   However,  he answered the ques-
tion  so far as to say that Christian Rosenkreuz was not to be found on  the
throne  of  any nation,  and at the same time he intimated that he  was  the
power behind the throne.   Nevertheless,  he gave no clue that could lead us
to look anywhere in particular.  We were of course,  left free to indulge in
our  own speculations,  and the editor thought of Russia,  where an  obscure
monk seemed to exercise a strange influence that commenced about the  latter
part of 1905 when Saturn and Mars were in conjunction in the sign  Aquarius,
which rules Russia.   Since the time of those great riots, this monk has had
a strange influence in the Empire.   We have never spoken of this to  anyone
before,  but now that we learn from a newspaper clipping that his career has
ended,  it will probably do no harm if our conjecture is correct.   In  that
case we predict that there are still further developments to be expected and
that the monk from Tomsk will be heard from again.  If we are mistaken,  the
speculation  can hurt no one and we give it and the newspaper  account  only
for what they are worth.

   This  monk  was  maligned in the highest degree and accused  of  all  the
crimes on the calendar, a fact which may make it difficult  to  believe that

[PAGE 3229]

he was indeed our holy Brother,  C.R.C.,  but a little reflection soon shows
that  a bad reputation may be borne by the most spiritual.   Was not  Christ
called a winebibber?   Was it not said,  "He hath a devil"?  and was He  not
crucified as a criminal?   What wonder then that the monk from Tomsk was ac-
cused of being drunken and dissolute.  What wonder that he was  assassinated
for  the supposed reason that he was winning the Czar over to a  scheme  for
the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany?

   There are millions in Russia who mourn him as a saint.   He was the  poor
man's  friend.   There are others who seek to brand him as a  sychophant,  a
hypocrite and an imposter, but one thing is absolutely certain, he was a man
possessed of an unusual power or they would not have feared him.

   The following clipping from a newspaper sent by a correspondent is one of
a number of accounts which have appeared in various places:

   "An incredible reign has just ended at Petrograd.   it was the reign of a
monk.   A simple peasant was Grigori Rasputin when he first appeared in  the
Russian  capital a half score years ago.   He came from Eastern  Russia--the
Russia  that merges into Asia and shares its mysticism.   This monk  trod  a
path  of  victory  to power.   How great this power was over  the  lives  of
180,000,000 people will never be known.

   "It is known, however, that Grigori Rasputin--`Saint Grigori' they called
him  toward  the  last--sent  explicit orders to ministers, and these orders

[PAGE 3230]

were obeyed.  it is known that his levees in the palace once occupied by the
Grand Duke Alexis were attended by the nobility of Russia--by high-born  la-
dies of the palace,  by generals in glittering uniforms, by all the high and
the mighty of the empire.  The poorest also came with prayers and petitions,
which were granted with the initialed order of Rasputin to heads of  govern-
ments.

   "It is also said that this saint who came from Asia exercised a  mysteri-
ous power over the conscience of the Czar;  that the Czarina bowed her impe-
rial head to his decrees;  that rulers were elevated to the skies or humbled
to the dust at his word.

   "And  the  strange  story of this monk who brought the  darkness  of  the
Middle Ages with him is not based upon hearsay.   Since 1912 the representa-
tives  of  the Russian people have been struggling to free Russia  from  the
grasp of this Richelieu who could barely read and write.

   "Again and again has the Duma denounced the 'dark forces' which dominated
the  palace.   Yet so powerful was this exalted peasant from Tomsk  that  he
could defy the unanimous vote of the Duma demanding his elimination from the
life  of Russia.   So strongly was he entrenched in the seat of  the  mighty
that  he  could  issue a decree commanding the Russian press  to  cease  its
clamor--and he could enforce his command.

   "There is no parallel to the  twilight  rule  of  this monk except in the

[PAGE 3231]

Middle Ages or in the `Forbidden City'  of Peking.   In the Forbidden  City,
the  walled stronghold of the Manchus,  a concubine in our times rose to  be
empress dowager of 400,000,000 yellow persons.  Her rule was absolute.   The
shadowy figure of the nominally-reigning emperor was blotted out by the  em-
press dowager's actual power.  Tzu-Hsi, with her enamelled face and her gor-
geous finery, uttered the words that meant life or death to courtiers,  gov-
ernors, and viceroys.

   "What went on behind the walls of the Forbidden City none knew.   One  or
two European women were admitted to that domain of slaves and eunuchs.  What
they  reported was exceedingly interesting.   It afforded a glimpse  into  a
world which the Europeans believed to have passed forever with the advent of
gunpowder,  the railroad,  and the telegraph.   But the machinery that moved
that government by women and slaves remained a mystery.  The power that con-
trolled the lives of 400,000,000 people remained a shadow.

   "The story of Rasputin is more amazing than the story of the dowager  em-
press, Tzu-Hsi.  The holy man from Tomsk dominated, not a scheduled oriental
harem surrounded by high walls of brick and tradition,  but one of the  most
brilliant courts of Europe--the Europe of today,  the Europe that is dealing
with tragic facts.  The empire that Rasputin swayed with his strange preten-
sions  to a divine mission and divine powers is one of the deciding  factors
of  a  decisive  period  in  the  history  of civilization.  The anachronism
might well be regarded as incredible.

   "And yet this man undoubtedly played,  or tried to play,  a master's part
in the affairs, not only of Russia, but of Europe.  All Russia believes that
eight years ago Rasputin, by his mysterious powers prevented the outbreak of
war   between   Russia   and  Austria-Hungary  at  the   moment   when   the
Bosnia-Herzegovina  question stirred the fires of international  hatred  and
suspicion to a fresh blaze.

   "In the present crisis,  amid the solemn surroundings of the Russian Par-
liament, Rasputin has been accused of seeking to sell his country to the en-
emy  by trying to bring about a separate peace on humiliating terms  between
Russia and the Central Powers.   The crime that brought an end to his mystic
overlordship of the imperial mind and conscious has been greeted in the Duma
and by the Russian press as an act of national deliverance."

Continued with file "RC1090.TXT"

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