Filename: RC1090.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Philosophy In Questions & Answers, Vol. II"
         by Max Heindel

[PAGE 3232]

                        HUMANITY'S AVERSION TO SNAKES:

                              QUESTION NO. 158:

   WHY  IS  HUMANITY AVERSE TO A SNAKE?  IS THE GROUP SPIRIT  OF  THE  SNAKE
MAN'S ENEMY?

   ANSWER:  You are mistaken in your supposition that humanity as a whole is
averse  to the snake.   Many species of snakes are altogether harmless,  and
very useful animals.   Placed in the basement of the house they will keep it
perfectly clear of vermin, mice, and rats.  In the garden they eliminate de-
structive animals such as gophers and field mice, which do considerable dam-
age.   Therefore  the wise farmer looks upon them with very  friendly  eyes.
But  the  question of aversion is not by any means confined to  the  snakes.
Millions of people are afraid of a mouse, a beetle, a spider, or other harm-
less animals.   it is simply a question of temperament,  and no Group Spirit
is  an enemy of humanity or of any other species of animals.   Whatever  may
seem to indicate that is a wrong view of the matter.

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                         THE SOUL AND THE SOUL BODY:

                              QUESTION NO. 159:

   WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SOUL AND THE SOUL BODY?

   ANSWER:   This is one of the most intimate questions which has ever  been
asked,  and it cannot be answered directly,  but only by  illustration.   As
children learn certain intellectual truths beyond their grasp by a pictorial
illustration,  infant humanity learned deep religious truths  through  myths
and allegories.

   The vital body is composed of four ethers.  The two lower ethers are par-
ticular  avenues of growth and propagation.   In the vital body of a  person
whose  chief concern is with the physical life,  who lives as it  were,  en-
tirely for the sensual enjoyment, these two ethers predominate, whereas in a
person who is rather indifferent to the material enjoyment of life,  but who
seeks to advance spiritually, the two higher ethers form the bulk of the vi-
tal body.  They are then what Paul calls the "soma psuchicon," or soul body,
which  remains  with man during his experiences in Purgatory and  the  First
Heaven  where the essence of the life lived is extracted.   This extract  is
the soul, whose two chief qualities are conscience and virtue.   The feeling
of  conscience is the fruit of mistakes in past earth lives,  which will  in
future  guide  the Spirit aright and teach it how to avoid similar missteps.

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Virtue is the essence of all that was good in former lives,  and acts as  an
encouragement to keep the Spirit ardently striving upon the path of  aspira-
tion.   In the Third Heaven this amalgamates thoroughly with the Spirit  and
becomes  a part thereof.   Thus in the course of his lives man becomes  more
soulful,  and  the  soul qualities of conscience  and  virtue  becomes  more
strongly operative as guiding principles of conduct.

   But we can perhaps gain a better idea of the difference between soul  and
soul  body  if we consider the allegory contained in the  ancient  Atlantean
Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.  This God-given symbol was
furnished with all the implements of soul growth necessary for the  develop-
ment of man.   Among them there was in the sanctuary the Table of Shewbread.
Upon  this table there were twelve little cakes made into two piles  of  six
each and on each pile there was a little heap of incense.   Now will you re-
member, please, that the grain from which these cakes were made was given by
God to man,  but it was necessary for man to plant it, to till the soil,  to
water and to nourish the tiny plants.  He must also harvest them, thresh the
grain  and crush it into flour.   He must knead the dough and bake the  read
before he could bring it into the temple and have bread to shew as a product
of this labor with the God-given grain.

   This   God-given   grain   represents   opportunity.    Twelve  kinds  of

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opportunities  come to man each year through the twelve departments of  life
represented  by the twelve houses in his horoscope.   But many  may  neglect
these opportunities, as the ancient Israelites might have thrown their grain
in  a  corner and let it lie.   If so, he will have no read to shew  to  the
Lord.   He will be like the servant with one talent who went and buried  it.
On the other hand, if he tilled the soil and nourished the grain of opportu-
nity  for  service in the Lord's vineyard,  then there will be  an  increase
which  he  may harvest and prepare to bring into the Lord's  temple  at  the
proper time to shew that he had faithfully cultivated every opportunity  for
service, and made the most thereof according to ability.

   We note,  however,  that these twelve cakes of shew bread were not  them-
selves  offered up to the lord,  but on each pile of six there was a  little
heap of incense which represented the essence of the shew bread.  By analogy
this  is  the essence of our service;  you will understand  why  by  another
little  illustration found in the experience we go through to gain  physical
faculties.

   As  you remember,  during the time when we went to school and learned  to
write, we made most awkward motions and contortions with the arm and body in
order to form letters on the paper.   We blotted our copy books so that they
looked most hideous,  and our attempt at writing was anything but beautiful.
Nevertheless, by degrees we acquired the faculty, and in the course of years

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we forgot all about the experience of those early days when we endeavored to
cultivate it.   But this is the point:  if we had not gone through that cum-
bersome experience we would not now possess the faculty of writing,  and an-
other point is this:   after we have acquired the faculty it is  unnecessary
to remember the cumbersome methods of its acquirement.  Similarly also,  the
coarse physical substance, the grain of the shewbread, was not to be offered
to the Lord,  but only the essence or aroma thereof,  the faculty of skilled
service, the benevolence which we have cultivated in doing good to others.

   The  two  little piles of incense were therefore taken to  the  altar  of
incense in front of the second veil and lighted.   There ascends a cloud  of
smoke in the outer or eastward part of the temple, but only the aroma,  pure
and free from smoke,  penetrates through the veil into the inner  sanctuary.
By analogy therefore we may liken the shewbread to the experiences which  we
go through in serving and helping others;  the frankincense which is on  top
of the pile of shewbread may be likened to the essence of sympathy and help-
fulness  which  we extract from these services,  the soul  growth  contained
therein.   This is seen about us as a golden aura which constitutes the soul
body.  But though this glorious vehicle is made of the two finest ethers, it
could  not by any process amalgamate with the Spirit itself,  any more  than
the incense  can burn without emitting smoke and leaving behind a residue of

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ashes.  Therefore by the spiritual alchemy of the evening exercise of Retro-
spection,  or in the natural process after death,  this soul body is  burned
without the veil (in the first heaven), and the aroma or the soul penetrates
the veil to the very innermost sanctuary as pabulum for the Spirit.

   Thus  the Spirit carries with itself the aroma of all its past lives.   A
younger soul which has had only a few existences from which to draw  experi-
ences and soul growth, is cruel and selfish for it has not performed service
to others.  But one who has gone through many lives, who has learned by sor-
row  and suffering to feel and to do for others,  responds instantly to  the
cry of pain,  because the soul in him or her is the quintessence of  service
and therefore always ready to aid others regardless of personal comforts and
enjoyment.

                       RELATION BETWEEN SOUL AND MIND:

                              QUESTION NO. 160:

   WE HAVE HAD SOME DISCUSSION IN OUR CLASSES REGARDING THE SOUL.  SOME CON-
FUSION  OF OPINION EXISTS.   WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN THE SOUL  AND  THE
MIND?   ARE THE FORCES OF BOTH PERMANENTLY UNITED TO THE SPIRIT?  WHICH BODY
WILL  BE  USED IN THE LATER STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT,  THE MENTAL OR  THE  SOUL
BODY?

[PAGE 3238]

   ANSWER:   We will turn for our answer to page 366 of the COSMO.  There we
find  a chart which embodies the whole scheme of involution  and  evolution.
It  is not a very complicated chart, either,  and the student who wishes  to
master  the mystery of existence would do well to memorize  thoroughly  this
diagram.

   Reading on the left side thereof,  we learn that during a stage of uncon-
scious evolution the Spirit grew a threefold body and crystallized into  it.
This was the dense body, the vital body, and the desire body.   In the earth
period,  the focus of mind was given and this becomes the fulcrum upon which
involution turns to evolution.   Then a threefold stage of conscious  evolu-
tion  commences during which the growth of a threefold soul is  accomplished
by spiritualizing the three bodies into the soul.   We find that in the  re-
mainder  of  the Earth Period we extract the conscious soul from  the  dense
body;  in the Jupiter Period the intellectual soul is extracted from the vi-
tal body; and in the Vulcan Period we become creative intelligences by amal-
gamation of the threefold soul with the mind.

   In order to make this more clear, we will turn to page 421 where there is
a chapter on alchemy and soul growth.  There we read as follows:

   "The dense body was started in the Saturn Period,  passed through various
transformations  in  the Sun and Moon Periods,  and will reach  its  highest
development in the Earth Period.

   The vital body  was  started  in the Sun Period, was reconstructed in the

[PAGE 3239]

Moon  and Earth Periods,  and will reach perfection in the  Jupiter  Period,
which is its fourth stage,  as the Earth Period is the fourth stage for  the
dense body.

   The  desire  body was started in the Moon Period,  reconstructed  in  the
Earth Period, will be further modified in the Jupiter Period,  reaching per-
fection in the Venus Period."

   "Referring  to Diagram 8 will show that the lowest Globe of  the  Jupiter
Period is located in the Etheric Region.   It would therefore be  impossible
to use the dense physical vehicle there, as only a vital body can be used in
the  Etheric Region.   Yet it must not be supposed that after  spending  the
time from the beginning of the Saturn Period to the end of the Earth  Period
in completing and perfecting this body,  it is then thrown away that man may
function in a "higher" vehicle!

   "Nothing  in nature is wasted.   In the Jupiter Period the forces of  the
dense body will be superimposed on the vital body.   That vehicle will  then
possess  the powers of the dense body in addition to its own  faculties  and
will therefore be a much more valuable instrument for the expression of  the
threefold Spirit, than if built from its own forces alone.

   "Similarly,  Globe D of the Venus Period is located in the  Desire  World
(see diagram 8).   Hence neither a dense nor vital body could be used as  an
instrument of consciousness.   Therefore the essences of the perfected dense
and vital bodies are incorporated  in  the completed desire body, the latter

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thus becoming a vehicle of transcendent qualities, marvelously adaptable and
so  responsive  to the slightest wish of the indwelling Spirit that  in  our
present limitations it is beyond our utmost conception.

   Yet the efficiency of even this splendid vehicle will be transcended when
in  the Vulcan Period its essence,  together with the essences of the  dense
and vital bodies,  are added to the mind, which becomes the highest of man's
vehicles,  containing within itself the quintessence of all that was best in
all the vehicles.   The vehicle of the Venus Period being beyond our present
power of conception,  how much more so is that which will be at the  service
of the divine beings of the Vulcan Period!

   During  involution the creative Hierarchies assisted man to  arouse  into
activity the threefold Spirit, the Ego, to build the threefold body,  and to
acquire the link of mind.  Now, however, on the seventh day (to use the lan-
guage of the Bible),  God rests.  Man must work out his own salvation.   The
threefold  Spirit  must complete the working out of the plan  begun  by  the
Gods.

   The  Human Spirit,  which was awakened during involution in the Moon  Pe-
riod,  will be the most prominent of the three aspects of the Spirit in  the
evolution  of the Jupiter Period,  which is the corresponding Period on  the
upward arc of the spiral.  The Life Spirit,  which was started into activity
in  the  Sun  Period  will  manifest  its  principal  activity  during   the

[PAGE 3241]

corresponding  Venus  period,  and the particular influences of  the  Divine
Spirit  will be strongest in the Vulcan Period,  because it was vivified  in
the corresponding Saturn Period.

   All three aspects of the Spirit are active all the time during evolution,
but  the  principal activity of each aspect will be unfolded in  those  par-
ticular periods, because the work to be done there is its special work.

   When the threefold Spirit had evolved the threefold body and gained  con-
trol of it through the focus of mind,  it commenced to evolve the  threefold
soul by working from within.   How much or how little soul a man has depends
upon  the amount of work the Spirit has done in the bodies.   This has  been
explained  in  the chapter describing post-mortem experiences.   (See  pages
95-96 of the COSMO).   As much of the desire body as has been worked upon by
the Ego is transmuted into the emotional soul, and is ultimately assimilated
by the Human Spirit, the special vehicle of which is the desire body.

   As much of the vital body as has been worked upon by the Life Spirit  be-
comes the intellectual soul, and it builds the Life Spirit, because that as-
pect of the threefold Spirit has its counterpart in the vital body.

   As  much of the dense body as has been worked upon by the  Divine  Spirit
becomes  the conscious soul,  because the dense body is its material  emana-
tion.

   The conscious soul grows by action, external impacts, and experience.

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   The  emotional soul grows by the feelings and emotions generated  by  ac-
tions and experiences.

   The intellectual soul as mediator between the other two grows by the  ex-
ercise  of memory,  by which it links together past and present  experiences
and  the  feelings  engendered thereby, thus creating  "sympathy"  and  "an-
tipathy"  which could not exist apart from memory,  because the feelings re-
sulting from experience alone would be evanescent.

   During  involution the Spirit progressed by growing bodies but  evolution
depends  upon soul growth--the transmutation of the bodies into  soul.   The
soul is,  so to say,  the quintessence, the power or force of the body,  and
when a body has been completely built and brought to perfection through  the
stages and periods as above described, the soul is fully extracted therefrom
and  is absorbed by the one of the three aspects of the Spirit which  gener-
ated the body in the first place, thus:

   The  conscious soul will be absorbed by the Divine Spirit in the  seventh
revolution of the Jupiter period;

   The  intellectual soul will be absorbed by the Life Spirit in  the  sixth
revolution of the Venus Period;

   The  emotional  soul will be absorbed by the Human Spirit  in  the  fifth
revolution of the Vulcan Period.

   So much for the evolution of soul.   We will now turn to the mind and the
various stages which brings it to perfection.

   We  read  on  page  426 of the COSMO:  "At the present time, however, the

[PAGE 3243]

mind  is not focused in a way that enables it to give a clear and true  pic-
ture of what the Spirit imagines.   It is not one pointed.   It gives  misty
and clouded pictures.   Hence the necessity of experiment to show the  inad-
equacies of the first conception,  and bring about new imaginings and  ideas
until  the image produced by the Spirit in mental substance has been  repro-
duced in physical substance.

   At the best,  we were able to shape through the mind only such images  as
have to do with form, because the human mind was not started until the Earth
Period, and therefore is now in its "form" or "mineral" stage.  Hence in our
operations we are confined to forms,  to minerals.   We can imagine ways and
means of working with the mineral forms of the three lower kingdoms, but can
do  little  or  nothing with living bodies.   We  may  indeed  graft  living
branches to a live tree, or a living part of animal or man to another living
part,  but it is not life with which we are working.   It is form only.   We
are  making different conditions,  but the life which already inhabited  the
form continues to do so still.   To create life is beyond man's power  until
the mind has become alive.

   In  the Jupiter Period the mind will be vivified to some extent  and  man
can then imagine forms which will live and grow, like plants.

   In the Venus period, when his mind has acquired "feeling,"  he can create
living, growing, and feeling things.

[PAGE 3244]

   When he reaches perfection,  at the end of the Vulcan Period,  he will be
able to "imagine" into existence creatures that will live, grow,  feel,  and
think.

   In the Saturn Period the life wave which is now man started on its evolu-
tion.   The Lords of Mind were then human.  They worked with man at that Pe-
riod, when he was mineral.  They now have nothing to do with the lower king-
dom, but are concerned solely with our human development.

   Our present animals started their mineral existence in the Sun Period, at
which  time the Archangels were human.   Therefore,  the Archangels are  the
rulers  and  guides of the evolution of that which is now animal,  but  have
nothing to do with plant or mineral.

   The  present plants had their mineral existence in the Moon Period.   The
angels were then human.   Therefore they have special concern with the  life
that now inhabits the plants,  to guide it up to the human stage;  but  they
have no interest in the minerals.

   Our  present humanity will have to work with the new life wave which  en-
tered  evolution in the Earth period and now ensouls the minerals.   We  are
now  working  with  it by means of the faculty  of  imagination,  giving  it
form--building it into ships, bridges, railways, houses, etc.

   In the Jupiter Period we shall guide the evolution of the plant  kingdom,
for  that which is at present mineral will then have a  plantlike  existence
and we must work with it  there  as  the angels are now doing with our plant

[PAGE 3245]

kingdom.  Our faculty of imagination will be so developed that we shall have
the  ability,  not only to create forms by means of it,  but to endow  those
forms with vitality.

   "In  the Venus Period our present mineral life wave shall  have  advanced
another step,  and we shall be doing for the animals of that period what the
archangels  are  now doing for our animals--giving them living  and  feeling
forms.

   "Lastly in the Vulcan Period it will be our privilege to give them a ger-
minal mind,  as the Lords of Mind did to us.   The present mineral will then
have  passed  through stages similar to those through which the  Angels  and
Archangels are now passing.  We shall then have reached a point in evolution
a little higher than that of the present Lords of Mind,  for remember  there
is never an exact reproduction anywhere, but always progressive improvement,
because of the spiral.

   "The Divine Spirit will absorb the Human Spirit at the close of the Jupi-
ter Period;  the Life Spirit at the close of the Venus Period,  and the per-
fected  mind,  embodying  all that it has  garnered  during  its  pilgrimage
through all the seven Periods,  will be absorbed by the Divine Spirit at the
close of the Vulcan Period."

   From the foregoing it will be clear that there is a distinct evolution of
soul and another equally distinct evolution of the mind.   Yet they are  not
at all independent of one another,  but  work  in  perfect  unison,  as  for

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instance,  the  heart and lungs work together to keep up the rhythm  of  the
body.   Therefore it will be neither the mental,  nor the soul body that  we
shall  use in the later stages of our development,  but a composite  vehicle
containing increasingly the essence of all our bodies,  which will then be a
composite garment of the Spirit, so wonderful and glorious that it is beyond
even our faintest conception at the present time.

                             HOW TO FOSTER FAITH:

                              QUESTION NO. 161:

   THERE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN A GREAT DECLINE OF FAITH IN RECENT YEARS.   WHAT
REMEDY IS THERE FOR THIS FROM THE OCCULT VIEWPOINT?

   ANSWER:   There is an occult reason for the decline of faith,  and it  is
useless to discuss a remedy until a cause has been found.  No haphazard mea-
sure will turn humanity permanently back to the path of rectitude.   Let  us
first consider some of the causes commonly given,  and then we shall  under-
stand the occult scientific reason all the better.

   We often hear it sneeringly said that the reason the churches stand empty
is that the minister has no NEW message,  but  is  continually rehashing the

[PAGE 3247]

old Bible stories.   The reproach loses its force the moment the question is
asked:   "Have we learned the Bible by heart?"   We expect a child to repeat
the  multiplication table indefinitely until he knows and can apply it.   It
is  more  important that we should know the Bible thoroughly than  that  the
child should remember the table; hence repetition is necessary.

   The Athenians on Mars Hill were always seeking some new thing that  would
give  them  food for discussion,  but something more is  required  for  soul
growth.  Paul specifically informs us that although we may know all the mys-
teries, and all knowledge, and have not love, it profits us nothing.

   The  reproach  of the empty pews rests particularly upon  the  Protestant
churches of all denominations,  and it may not be out of place therefore  to
draw a comparison between their method and the method of the mother  church.
If we are anxious to learn we must put prejudice aside and strive to look at
the merits and demerits of each in an unbiased manner.

   Let us first look into the ordinary Protestant church, where the minister
strives  to give the people the gospel.  Many of the pews are empty.   Among
those present the ladies outnumber the men by six to one or more.   The min-
ister  is usually earnest and strives to be eloquent when he  addressed  the
Deity in prayer,  but he has heard the reproach of repetition so often  that
he is always afraid of having one service resemble another in the  slightest
degree.  A new prayer, a new sermon, a new song from  the  choir, everything

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as NEW as possible, so as to escape that dreadful reproach.   He is almost a
nervous wreck because of the haunting thought that his people may think  him
"stale,"

   Next, let us go to a "popular" church and see what methods they use.  The
minister in these churches is always "progressive" and "up-to-date."   There
is  often a gymnasium and a physical culture instructor attached to the  es-
tablishment.   Every  night in the week there is a  meeting  connected  with
this,  that, or the other club.  There are picnics, lawn parties, and dances
in the summer, and church suppers in the winter.  Meetings for men and meet-
ings for women are usually sandwiched in, so that the whole is one  dazzling
phantasmagoria with never a dull moment during the week,  and on Sunday--ah,
that is the real treat, the great attraction--then the pastor entertains, as
only he knows how.   He is assisted by a matchless choir of high priced art-
ists  trained by an equally high priced conductor.   The music is  not  par-
ticularly  religious,  save as all good music fresh from  the  heaven  world
speaks to the spiritual man,  and awakens the memories of our eternal  home.
But it is a treat to the music lover and draws hundreds on that account.

   Between  the opening and the closing parts of the musical  program  comes
the so-called "sermon."   One of our contributors relates that once she  was
horrified  on  entering  a church to see on the pulpit this inscription:  "I

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preach not the gospel."   The words of the context:  "Woe unto me if,"  were
hidden on the other side of the pulpit,  and the effect must have been star-
tling to say the least.   However, it is a motto that might be on the pulpit
of more than one "progressive" church, for though the "sermon" may open with
a quotation from the Bible,  that is usually the only reference to the  word
of God.   The rest is an excellent oration on whatever topic may be the most
live local or national issue,  or if there be a dearth from the general  so-
cial and political sources, there are always the temperance and purity prob-
lems.  True, they are worn, like the Gospels, but by taking a bottle of beer
on  the  pulpit,  working up a frenzy and smashing the cursed thing,  it  is
still possible to make an appeal to the jaded taste for sensationalism which
is ultimately developed by most of the pastor's hearers.   But by that  time
the "progressive" pastor gets a call to go and build up another church else-
where.

   This much is admitted universally:   under the continued pastorate of one
man the churchgoers lose interest.   However, this is not because their min-
isters are not sincere and hard working.   The great majority are  exemplary
in every way,  but somehow they cannot keep their hold on the people.   Some
denominations allot the churches under their jurisdiction to their ministers
for  a certain term,  and at the end of that time transfer them  to  another
section to work there awhile.

[PAGE 3250]

   Much may be said both for and against these various schemes,  but that is
beside the present discussion.   Only one remedy for lack of interest  seems
to  have a potency sufficiently powerful to meet the general approval  as  a
producer of at least temporary enthusiasm:  the revival.

   There people flock to hear a stranger,  always of strong,  dominant,  and
aggressive  personality,  with a voice that can speak in octaves from a  low
pleading call,  catching the crushed sinner, to the clarion cry which sounds
like the crack of doom to the recalcitrants.  Like the "progressive" pastor,
he is ably aided by a trained staff, choir,  and orchestra,  all arranged to
make a powerful appeal TO THE SENSATIONS.   People are "converted"  by thou-
sands and religion (?) takes on a new lease of life in that community.

   But,  alas, only for a while.  It is a fact needing no more than the bare
statement, that after a very little while all but a pitifully small percent-
age of the converts backslide,  and the poor minister must go on laboring to
keep  the  semblance of religion in a community  increasingly  negligent  of
spiritual matters.

   This  state  of affairs has become so notorious  that  comparatively  few
young  men  enter the seminaries.   There is thus a decline in  both  church
goers and ministers,  which,  if continued, can have but one ending--the ex-
tinction of the Protestant church.

   When  we investigate the methods of the Catholic church for the  sake  of
comparison and to arrive  at  the  correct conclusion regarding its power of

[PAGE 3251]

attraction,  we should first note the absolute contrast between the  service
there and that in the Protestant churches.  If we listen for a moment at the
door of a dozen of the edifices of protestant denominations,  we shall  find
that  each  minister has a different topic, but we may go  to  any  Catholic
church in the wide world, and we shall find that they are all using the same
ritual at the altar on a given day.  What the priest may say from the pulpit
is negligible in face of that all-important fact,  for words are vibrations.
They  are creative,  as demonstrated when sand and spores  form  geometrical
figures in response to the voice of a singer, and the Mass chanted in count-
less Catholic churches scattered all over the world reverberates with  cumu-
lative  power through the universe as one mighty anthem,  affecting all  who
are in tune therewith,  raising their religious fervor and loyalty to  their
church  in a manner unapproachable by the isolated and haphazard efforts  of
individuals, no matter how sincere.

   In  corroboration of this assertion regarding the cumulative power  of  a
ritual,  we may mention the phenomenal hold of Christian Science on its fol-
lowers.   The Christian Scientists have no high priced preachers.  Their mu-
sic is not out of the ordinary.  Yet their churches are filled to the doors,
and they are branching out at a wonderful rate because they have,  first,  a
message of vital interest, health, and wealth; and second, the occult effect
of  concentrated  effort  obtained by  using  identical  readings  in  every

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Christian Science church in the world,  so that the cumulative effect may be
felt by every Christian Scientist who is in tune.  This effect would be much
stronger if the service were really occult,  and chanted to a certain strain
as is the Mass.

   Thus,  to sum up this phase of the matter, the persistently continued in-
dividual  attempts of Protestant preachers to guide their people by new  and
original sermons are a failure,  while concerted efforts centered in uniform
rituals repeated year after year, as put forth by Roman Catholics and Chris-
tian Scientists,  and even by the Freemasons and Fraternal Orders,  hold the
audience.

   In  order to understand this mystery and apply the remedy  intelligently,
it is necessary to understand the constitution of man, both during the years
of growth and also as an adult.

   In  addition  to the visible body of man which we see with  our  physical
eyes, there are other and finer vehicles that are unseen by the great major-
ity  of mankind.   Nevertheless they are not superfluous appendages  to  the
physical  body,  but are indeed much more important from the fact that  they
are  the springs of all action.  Without these finer vehicles  the  physical
body would be inert, senseless, and dead.

   The first of these vehicles we call the vital body because it is the  av-
enue of vitality which leavens the dead lump of the mortal coil in the years
of life, and gives us the power to move.

[PAGE 3253]

   The  second is the desire body,  which is the basis of our  emotions  and
feelings,  and which galvanizes this visible body into action.   These three
vehicles together with the mind constitute the personality which is then in-
formed by the Spirit.   Each of the bodies we have named has its own  essen-
tial nature,  and we may say that the keynote of the physical body is "iner-
tia,"  as  it  never moves unless impelled  through  these  finer  invisible
bodies.  The key note of the vital body is "repetition."  That is easily un-
derstood,,  when  we consider that although it has power to move  the  body,
such movements result only from repeated impulses of the same kind.   It  is
taught to coordinate the movements of the body as the Spirits wills.   If we
go to the organ for the first time and endeavor to play,  we are not at once
able to move the fingers in the desired manner to produce the proper  tones.
It requires repeated efforts to execute even the simplest co-ordinated move-
ments  of  the fingers requisite to making the proper harmony.   Because  of
this necessity for repetition it is an occult maxim that all occult develop-
ment begins with the training of the vital body.

   The  desire body,  which we sense as our emotional nature,  on the  other
hand, is always seeking something new.  This desire for change of condition,
change of scene, change of mood, love of emotion and sensation is due to the
activities  of the desire body,  which is like the sea in a storm,  full  of
waves, tossing hither and thither,  at  random  and without design, each one

[PAGE 3254]

one  powerful and destructive when unbridled and without allegiance  to  the
central directing power.

   The mind, indeed, is the focus through which the Spirit endeavors to sub-
due  the  lower personality and guide it according to the  ability  acquired
during  its evolutionary period.   But at the present time it is so vague  a
quantity that among the great majority of people it cannot be reckoned with,
and they are therefore led principally by their feelings and emotions, with-
out much amenability to reason or thought.

   Recognizing  the great and wonderful power of the emotional body and  its
amenability  to "rhythm,"  which may be said to be its keynote,  progressive
theology  has  addressed itself to and focused its efforts upon  appeals  to
this vehicle.  It is this part of our nature which enjoys the entertainments
of  the sensational vaudeville pastor.   This vehicle it is that  sways  and
groans under the rhythmic rant of the revivalist,  itself vibrant with  emo-
tion,  rising  and falling in the well calculated measure of  the  speaker's
voice.  Unity of pitch is soon established, a state of actual hypnosis where
the  victim can no more help going to "the mourners bench,"  than water  can
refrain from running down hill.   They realize powerfully for the time being
the  enormity of their sins and they are equally anxious to start  a  better
life.   Alas, however, the next wave of attraction to their emotional nature
washes away all the preacher has said, as well as all their resolutions, and
they stand exactly where they were before, much to the chagrin and sorrow of

[PAGE 3255]

the evangelist concerned.

   Thus  all  efforts to elevate humanity by work upon the  unstable  desire
body are and must always prove futile.  This the occult schools of all  ages
have recognized and they have therefore addressed themselves to the changing
of  the vital body by working with its keynote,  which is  repetition.   For
that  purpose,  they have written various rituals suited to humanity at  the
different stages of its development and in that way they have fostered  soul
growth,  slowly but surely,  and regardless of whether man was aware that he
was being worked upon in that manner or not.   The Ancient Atlantean Mystery
Temple,  which we speak of as the Tabernacle in the Wilderness,  had certain
rites  prescribed  in the mount by the divine hierarch who  was  their  par-
ticular  teacher.   Certain rites were performed during  week  days.   Other
rites  were used on the Sabbath,  and again other rites at the times of  the
new moons and on the great solar festivals.   Nor was it within the province
of any one from the high priest down,  to alter this ritual,  under pain and
penalty of death.

   Also among other ancient people do we find evidence of a ritual--the Hin-
dus,  the Chaldeans,  and the Egyptians all used it in their religious  ser-
vices.   Among the latter we have,  for instance,  the so-called BOOK OF THE
DEAD,  as an evidence of the occult value and the scope of such  ritualistic
services.    Even   among  the  Greeks,   though   they   were   notoriously
individualistic and anxious to give expression to  their  own conception, we

[PAGE 3256]

find  the ritual in the mysteries, and alter during the so-called  Christian
Era we have the same occultly inspired ritual in the Catholic Church,  as  a
means of fostering soul growth by work on the vital body.

   It  is not contended that there were no abuses within these various  sys-
tems  of religion,  that the priests were always hold men,  and  that  their
hands  were  clean  and spotless when they ministered at  the  sacrifice  or
ritual.   It  is  indeed  true that abuse at  times  became  so  great  that
re-organizations were necessary, and the Protestant movement was inaugurated
by  Martin  Luther in order to get away from the abuses that had  sprung  up
within the Catholic church.  However, all these systems had in them the ker-
nel  of truth and power in the fact that they worked for the development  of
the vital body,  and therefore,  no matter how corrupt the priests might be,
the ritual always retained its great power.   Hence when the reformers  left
the ritual behind them,  they were in exactly the same position as the Athe-
nians  on Mars Hill--they were forced to seek something new.   In  each  de-
nomination  there is a desire for truth.  Each of the sects today is  strug-
gling  to solve the problem of life in its own way,  but each is striking  a
new  note in a haphazard manner,  and therefore they are all failing,  while
the Catholic church with all its abuses still holds  a  wonderful  sway over

[PAGE 3257]

its adherents because of the concerted power of the ritual.

   In order that we may learn from them how to fill our churches and  foster
the  soul growth in our Protestant people,  we must first realize  the  fact
that  "in  unity there is strength."  We must cease our  senseless  disputes
about details.  Whether we "sprinkle," or "immerse," whether we are "predes-
tined"  or "free"--what does it really matter?   None was ever saved because
of this hair splitting.  The words of Abraham Lincoln, "In essentials unity,
in non-essentials liberty,  in all things charity,"  must be adopted  before
anything else can be done.   Agreement to that proposition in true consecra-
tion  to the great object must be the cornerstone,  and on that basic  prin-
ciple a Federation of the Protestant churches could thus be formed.  The de-
tails of government could be worked out by the membership.

   Having  attained this point,  the important question of ritual  could  be
worked out in two, or perhaps three ways:

   (1).   It  could consist of certain readings from the Bible  arranged  in
such  a manner that they would form a connected and consecutive service.   A
number of such rituals could be written so that each would be suitable for a
certain feast,  and on ordinary Sundays another ritual could be used in  all
the Protestant churches of the world.

   (2).  The ritual of the Episcopal church could be adopted as it is, or in
a modified form.

[PAGE 3258]

   (3).  An occultist capable of getting in touch with the cosmic sources of
knowledge might be found and persuaded to write a ritual that would have  in
it a power unattainable in any other way.

   The first of these ways would be the least effective.   The last would be
the most efficient method of attaining the desired end,  but conversely,  to
obtain a ritual by the last method would be much more difficult.

   Before a ritual can have its maximum effect,  however,  those who are  to
grow thereby must become attuned to it.   This involves work on their  vital
bodies while those vehicles are still in the making.

   It  is a matter of occult knowledge that birth is a fourfold  event,  and
that birth of the physical body is only one step in the process.   The vital
body  also undergoes a development analogous to the intra-uterine growth  of
the dense body.  It is born about the seventh year of life.  During the next
seven years the desire body is ripened and comes to birth at about the four-
teenth  year,  when  adolescence  is  reached,  and  the  mind  is  born  at
twenty-one, when the age of manhood and womanhood commences.

   These  occult facts are well known to the Catholic Hierarchy,  and  while
the Protestant ministers work upon the emotional nature, which is ever seek-
ing  something  new and sensational without realizing the  futility  of  the
struggle  and  the  fact that it is this most rampant  vehicle  that  drives
people  FROM  the  churches  in search of something more new and more sensa-

[PAGE 3259]

tional,  the  occultly informed Catholic Hierarchy concentrates  its  effort
upon the children.  "Give us the child up to its seventh year and it is ours
forever,"  they say, and they are right.  During these important seven years
they  impregnate the plastic vital bodies of their charges with their  views
by  means of repetition.   The repeated prayers,  the time and tune  of  the
various chants,  and the incense,  all have a powerful effect on the growing
vital body.  Nor does it matter that the ritual is in an unknown tongue, for
to the Ego this vibratory message is a divine color chant,  intelligible  to
all Spirits.   Neither does it matter that the child repeats like a  parrot,
without understanding, so long as it does repeat what is given it.  The more
the better,  for these occult vibrations are thereby incorporated in its vi-
tal body before it sets,  and remain with it through life.   Every time  the
Mass is intoned by the servants of the church in any part of the world,  the
cumulative vibratory power of their effort stirs those who have its line  of
force  in  their vital bodies in such a manner that they are  drawn  to  the
church with a generally,  irresistible force.  This is on the same principle
that  when a tuning fork is struck,  others of identical pitch  commence  to
sing.

   Some  Catholics  have  turned against the Catholic  church,  but  subcon-
sciously  and at heart they have remained Catholic to their dying  day,  for
the vital body is exceedingly  difficult  to  change, and the lines of force

[PAGE 3260]

build into it during its gestatory period are stronger than almost any indi-
vidual will.

   It follows,  therefore, that if we would change the tendency of the world
to pursue pleasure and sense gratification to the exclusion of religion,  we
would  do well to begin with the small children.   If we gather them at  the
altar  and teach them to love God's house and incorporate certain  universal
prayers and parts of the ritual in their forming vital bodies, avoiding even
the  semblance of a "church supper,"  but cultivating in all who  enter  the
ideal  of reverence for a holy place, we shall by degrees build  around  the
physical stone structure an invisible temple of Light and Life,  such as de-
scribed by Manson in "The Servant in the House."

                           THE SALT OF ALCHEMISTRY:

                              QUESTION NO. 162:

   IN THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY WE ARE TOLD THAT IN THE PHRASEOLOGY OF  THE
ALCHEMISTS  THE  MOON  FORCES WERE SPOKEN OF AS SALT.   HAS  THIS  ANY  SIG-
NIFICANCE  WITH REGARD TO THE FOLLOWING QUOTATION FROM MARK  9:49-50:   "FOR
EVERY  ONE SHALL BE SALTED WITH FIRE,  AND EVERY SACRIFICE SHALL  BE  SALTED
WITH SALT.  SALT IS GOOD; BUT IF THE SALT HAVE LOST ITS SALTNESS,  WHEREWITH
WILL  YE  SEASON  IT?  HAVE  SALT  IN  YOURSELVES,  AND  HAVE PEACE ONE WITH

[PAGE 3261]

ANOTHER"?

   ANSWER:   Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.  That was a command-
ment in the Mosaic law, Judaism as we may call it, and was originated by Je-
hovah.   However, the salt has another and deeper significance.  The idea is
that  if the salt is put upon the sacrifice it causes a chemical  fire,  and
that  was symbolical of that burning sensation we must feel by  remorse  for
misdeeds we have done.   Every transgression shall be punished and  expiated
by a certain sacrifice.   The salt and burning of the sacrifice were symbols
of something better to come.   The people at that time could not  themselves
be living sacrifices.   They could not have denied themselves anything,  but
they  did  love their possessions very,  very dearly.   Many  children  they
wanted,  and much land and much cattle, and therefore if the cattle and  the
things  that they prized most highly were taken from them on account of  sin
and transgression,  they felt it as they could not have felt an injury  done
to themselves.

   Thus this sacrifice was a sort of vicarious atonement,  and it stood as a
symbol  of the time later on when they should be a sacrifice themselves  and
feel remorse for whatever wrong they had done.   Then the sacrifice was  not
accepted  at the altar until it had been salted,  and similarly  the  living
sacrifice will not be accepted on the altar of repentance  until it has been

[PAGE 3262]

salted.   That is, we must feel a burning anguish,  remorse,  and contrition
for every wrong we have done,  and only when we have done that is the sacri-
fice accepted.   Then the sacrifice was burned by a divinely enkindled fire.
This  indicates that after we have salted the living sacrifice of  ourselves
with our tears of contrition,  laying ourselves on the altar before God,  it
shall come to pass that,  "Though our sins be as scarlet they shall be white
as  snow."   The record will be wiped out from the life panorama.   Thus  we
cleanse  ourselves,  but the first requisite is that the sacrifice  must  be
salted with tears.

   The salting of the sacrifices in ancient times may have had something  to
do with the idea that Jehovah is the Spirit of the Moon and therefore  rules
the chemical element salt,  but the salt of the alchemist was not the  ordi-
nary salt.   That was the salt of tears and contrition,  and the  alchemists
did not profess to make base metal into gold, either.  What they proposed to
do  was to make the base elements of the body taken from the earth into  the
gold of the soul,  that golden wedding garment that shines around every  one
who  attains  to  spirituality and becomes a brighter light as  he  lives  a
higher and nobler life.

[PAGE 3263]

                            THE PHILOSOPHY OF WAR:

                              QUESTION NO. 163:

   FROM THE ROSICRUCIAN VIEWPOINT, AN WAR BE SAID TO BE RIGHT?   WHAT SHOULD
BE THE STAND OF THE ROSICRUCIAN STUDENT IN THE PRESENT CONFLICT?  (World War
I)

   ANSWER:   In  the great crises of life we are brought face to  face  with
certain  issues  and called upon to make decisions of such  importance  that
they often require reversion of ideas and ideals, even of our most cherished
principles as hitherto conceived.  When such a crisis comes it will be noth-
ing short of mental,  moral, and spiritual suicide to shirk or evade the is-
sue,  no matter what the cost.  Consistency is said to be a jewel, but if we
would be truly wise we must be ready to change or revise our ideas  whenever
occasion really demands.

   The  Rosicrucian  teaching has always been in conformity with  the  Bible
dictum, "Thou shalt not kill."  No qualification was made and some have car-
ried this idea to such extremes that they would not kill a fly.  But the ma-
jority rightly felt that the injunction was not intended to cover pests  and
microorganisms which take such a terrible toll of human life.  These things,
being manifestations of evil thoughts,  are without the pale.   These people
have  no  intention of allowing their bodies or the bodies of their children

[PAGE 3264]

to be overrun by vermin rather than to kill the pests, and they realize that
extermination  of insects was a great basic factor in America's  success  at
Panama.   In  fact it turned the balance from failure to success,  and  this
principle should be applied wherever necessary.  They feel that it would  be
a  foolish  application of the injunction, "Thou shalt not kill,"  to  allow
beasts of prey or poisonous reptiles to roam about among us to endanger  our
lives,  and they would cheerfully kill to remove such a menace from the com-
munity.   In their code of ethics the injunction involves only the idea that
it is wrong to kill for food, for sport, or for profit.  To kill a human be-
ing seemed to remote a possibility to most of us that it was not  considered
even as a contingency.   We always denounced capital punishment both on  the
ground that it is basically wrong and that it is worse than useless for when
we  free  the  Spirit of a murderer from his body we  liberate  him  in  the
spiritual world where he can and often does work on others to influence them
to similar crimes.   Therefore, it is better to restrain him in a prison and
strive to reform him so that even if he does not regain his liberty in  this
life, he will in future existences respect the sanctity of life of others.

   But  while it is possible thus to deal with the individual murderer,  the
case is different when an entire nation runs amuck against another,  commit-
ting  wholesale  murder,  arson,  destruction,  and  pillage.   It  is  then

[PAGE 3265]

impossible to imprison a whole nation and more drastic means of self-defense
must be found.

   In civil life we recognize the law of self-defense,  which gives the  in-
tended  victim  of a would-be murderer the right to slay rather than  to  be
slain, and it would be specious to contend that this right is lost because a
million murderers dress themselves in uniform or because they go out  boldly
and brazenly,  proclaiming their intention to kill,  or because they lie  in
ambush by companies instead of singly.  Being the aggressors,  they are mur-
derers, and their intended victims have an unquestionable moral right to de-
fend their own lives by slaying these murderers.   Furthermore,  there rests
upon the strong the sacred duty of protecting the lives of those who are too
weak to protect themselves.   Even that involves the slaying of the  murder-
ers.

   FROM  THE  SPIRITUAL STANDPOINT,  THEREFORE,  THE RIGHT OR WRONG  OF  WAR
HINGES UPON THE QUESTION:  WHO IS THE AGGRESSOR AND WHO IS THE VICTIM?

   This question is easily answered where war is started for the purpose  of
conquest, or when war is waged for an altruistic purpose such as the emanci-
pation of a subjected people from physical, industrial,  and religious bond-
age.   It needs no argument to show that in such cases the oppressor is also
the aggressor and the liberator is the defender of inalienable human rights.
He is performing a sacred duty as his "brother's keeper."

   When this is once understood we cannot be deceived by the jack-o-lanterns

[PAGE 3266]

of  diplomacy,  for we have a true light,  a simple standard  of  right  and
wrong.

   Having  made up our minds on that point,  it follows that it is far  more
noble  and heroic to face a firing squad for refusing to enter the  army  of
the aggressor,  or to flee from our native land,  or even join the ranks  of
the  defenders in the most menial capacity, than to hold a post  of  highest
honor among the aggressors.

   On the other hand it is a sacred duty in accord with the highest and  no-
blest  spiritual principles to fight among the defenders.   The greater  the
sacrifice,  the greater the merit, and he who shirks this sacred duty to de-
fend  hearth and home,  kin and country,  or who fails to fight for the  op-
pressed,  is beneath denunciation.  Furthermore,  the greater the emergency,
the greater the sacrifice that is required.

   Nor  is this great privilege of sacrifice confined to those of brawn  and
broad  shoulders.   Not alone are they bound by duty;  the work  behind  the
lines  is  even  more important and all can share according  to  talent  and
ability--mental, physical, and financial.

   Furthermore,  when  the  occasion  arises  where  defense  of  others  or
self-defense  becomes unavoidable,  the harder the campaign is  pushed,  the
shorter and more successful it will be.  Therefore,  no half measures should
be  tolerated,  and neutrality under such circumstances must be regarded  at
least as a sin of omission.

[PAGE 3267]

   It  is well understood by students of occultism that wars are  instigated
and inspired by the divine hierarchies who thus use one nation to punish an-
other for its sins.  Even a superficial study of the Bible will furnish many
instances.   This does not always mean that the victor is  altogether  righ-
teous, but it does show that the vanquished nation has done wrong and merits
the punishment inflicted,  usually on account of its arrogance and  godless-
ness.   Nor is it a sign that because it is victorious for a long  time  and
extremely difficult to conquer,  it enjoys divine favor--at least in a  mea-
sure.   Such a course may be brought about by the invisible army who support
the arms of the aggressor and prolong the struggle for the purpose of making
the final defeat more thorough and disastrous; also to teach the defenders a
lesson that could not be learned in a short decisive struggle.

   Such, briefly, is the philosophy of war from the spiritual viewpoint, re-
gardless of who are the nations involved.   If we apply these principles and
tests  to the present war (World War I) it must be apparent to everyone  who
is not biased and will approach the subject with a broad and open mind  that
the militarists of the Central Empires have been preparing for this war  for
generations,  and on the fifth of July, 1914,  at the notorious Potsdam Con-
ference which is now acknowledged by them, they agreed to start the war  af-
ter a few weeks during which the bankers of these nations were so manipulat-
ing the markets as to amass the greatest possible financial resources.  This

[PAGE 3268]

stamps the Austro-German war parties as the aggressors,  who under the spell
of the Race Spirits have marshaled their millions against all the other  na-
tions  of the world.   In the beginning of the conflict France and  England,
who  were the immediate neighbors of the outraged Belgians,  made her  cause
their own and acted in that respect as their brother's keeper.  However, be-
ing  unprepared,  they have been unable to bring the struggle to a  decisive
termination.   Therefore it became necessary for America to enter  the  con-
flict and turn the balance, so that peace may be restored and safety secured
to those who are too weak to protect themselves.

   It  has been a matter for rejoicing that whenever the United  States  has
been  forced to enter upon a military campaign it has always been either  in
self-defense or in the still more altruistic role of defender and  emancipa-
tor  of the weak.   Were this a war of conquest or aggression,  it would  be
better  for any spiritually minded person to face a firing squad as  already
stated than to participate in such an unrighteous undertaking.  On the other
hand,  seeing  that the present struggle which is waged for the  purpose  of
crushing the militarism of Central Europe has taken such a terrible toll  of
human life with the strength of the allied defenders nearly spent, it is the
sacred duty of everyone to aid to the very limit according to his spiritual,
mental, moral, or physical capacity, either at the front or behind the lines

[PAGE 3269]

wherever the judgment of those in charge may require his or her service.

   Therefore  we  would  urge  each and every one of  the  students  of  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship,  of whatever country now defending the cause of  hu-
manity against the militarist party of the Central Powers, to support his or
her  government to the very best of his ability that we may soon see  "Peace
on earth and among men good will."

                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP:

                              QUESTION NO. 164:

   IS THE TEACHING OF THE ROSICRUCIANS AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE?   IF SO,  HOW
IS IT MADE AVAILABLE?

   ANSWER:   In order to promulgate this teaching The Rosicrucian Fellowship
has  been formed,  and anyone who is not a hypnotist,  professional  medium,
clairvoyant, palmist, or astrologer, may enroll as a Preliminary Course Stu-
dent by writing to the General Secretary.   There is no fee for  initiation,
or dues.  Money cannot buy our teaching.  Advancement depends upon merit.

[PAGE 3270]

   After completing the Preliminary Course one is put on the Regular Student
list for a period of two years,  after which if he has become so imbued with
the  verity  of the Rosicrucian teachings that he is prepared to  sever  his
connection with all other occult or religious orders--the Christian Churches
and Fraternal Orders are excepted--he may assume the Obligation which admits
him to the degree of Probationer.

   We  do not mean to insinuate by the foregoing that all other  schools  of
occultism are of no account--far from it.  Many roads lead to Rome,  but  we
shall attain with much less effort if we follow one of them than if we  zig-
zag from path to path.   Our time and energy are limited in the first place,
and  are still further curtailed by family and social duties not to  be  ne-
glected for self-development.   it is to husband the minimum of energy  that
we may legitimately expend upon ourselves,  and to avoid waste of the scanty
moments  at our disposal that resignation from all other Orders is  insisted
upon.

   The world is an aggregate of opportunities,  but to take advantage of any
one  of them we must possess efficiency in a certain line of endeavor.   De-
velopment of our spiritual powers will enable us to help or harm our  weaker
brothers.   It is only justifiable when efficiency in service of humanity is
the object.

   The  Rosicrucian  method of attainment differs from other systems in  one
especial particular:  It aims, even at the very start, to emancipate the pu-
pil  from  dependence  upon  others,  to  make  him SELF-RELIANT to the very

[PAGE 3271]

highest  degree,  so that he may be able to stand alone  under  all  circum-
stances and cope with all conditions.   Only one who is thus strongly poised
can help the weak.

                             NATURE OF THE MYTH:

                              QUESTION NO. 165:

   DO  YOU CONSIDER THE ANCIENT MYTHS OF ACTUAL VALUE,  OR ARE THEY  LARGELY
FIGMENTS OF THE IMAGINATION?

   ANSWER:   They contain profound occult truths.  The contest between light
and  darkness is described in innumerable myths which are alike in the  main
features,  though circumstances vary according to the evolutionary stage  of
the people among whom they are found.  Generally the appear fantastic to the
normal  mind because the picture drawn is highly symbolical,  and  therefore
out of tune with the concrete realities of the material world.  However, em-
bodied in these legends are great truths which appear when they are stripped
of their scale of materialism.

   In  the first place it should be borne in mind that the  contest  between
light  and  darkness,  as  fought here in the physical  world,  is  but  the
manifestation of a similar  contest  fought  also  in the moral, mental, and

[PAGE 3272]

spiritual realms.   This is a fundamental truth, and he who would know truth
should  realize that the concrete world,  with all the things which  we  now
think so real,  solid,  and enduring is but an evanescent manifestation cre-
ated by the divine thought, and it will dissolve into dust millions of years
before  the  other  worlds which we think of us unreal  and  intangible  are
similarly  dissolved and we once more return to the bosom of the Father,  to
rest until the dawn of another and greater Cosmic Day.

   It  is  particularly at Christmas,  when the light is low and  the  night
long, that humanity turns its attention to the Southern Sun, and waits in an
attitude  of  expectancy  for the moment when it shall  again  commence  its
northward journey to bring back the light and life to our frozen hemisphere.
In the Bible we learn how Samson, the Sun,  waxed strong while his rays grew
longer; how the powers of darkness, the Philistines, ferreted out the secret
of his power and had his hair, or rays, cut, to rob him of his strength; how
they deprived him of his sight by piercing his eyes and finally slew him  at
the temple of the Winter Solstice.

   The Anglo Saxons speak of the victory of King George over the dragon; the
Teutons call to mind how Beowolf slew the fire drake and how Siegfried  con-
quered the dragon Fafner.   Among the Greeks we find Apollos victorious over
Python,  and  hercules over the dragon of the Hesperides.  Most of the myths

[PAGE 3273]

tell only the victory of the newborn Sun,  but there are others which,  like
the  story of Samson just recited,  and Hiram Abiff of the  Masonic  Legend,
tell  also of how the old year's Sun was vanquished after  having  completed
its circle and was then ready to give birth to a new Sun,  which rises  from
the ashes of the old Phoenix to be the Lightbearer of a new year.

   It is in such a myth that we learn of the origin of the mistletoe, a tale
which is told in Scandinavia and Iceland,  particularly at Yuletide when the
red  holly mingles in decorative effect with the white mistletoe--a  shadowy
symbol of the blood that was scarlet with sin but has become white as  snow.
The story follows:

   In  ancient  days when the Gods of Olympus reigned  over  the  Southland,
Wotan with his company of Gods,  held sway in Walhall where the icicles  re-
flected the winter Sun in all tints of the rainbow and the beautiful  cover-
let of snow made light the darkest night eve without the aid of the  flaming
Aurora Borealis.  They were a wonderful company; Tyr, the God of War,  still
lives in memory among us, for him we have named Tuesday.  Wotan,  the wisest
among them,  is remembered in Wednesday; Thor still is with us as the God of
Thursday.   He was the hammer swinger.   When he threw his hammer after  the
giants,  the  enemies of God and man, he made thunder and lightning  by  the
terrific force with which his hammer struck the clouds.   The gentle  Freya,
the Goddess of beauty,  for  whom  we have named Friday, and the treacherous

[PAGE 3274]

Loke,  whose name lives in the Scandinavian Saturday,  are other present-day
fragments of a forgotten faith.

   But  there  was no one like Baldur.   He was the second son of  Odin  and
Freya.   He was the noblest and most gentle of the Gods,  beloved of  every-
thing in nature.   He exceeded all beings,  not only in gentleness,  but  in
prudence and eloquence,  also, and was so fair and graceful that light radi-
ated from him.   In a dream it was revealed to him that his life was in dan-
ger  and this weighted so heavily on his Spirit that he shunned the  society
of the Gods.   His mother Freya, having at length prevailed upon him to tell
her the cause of his melancholy, called a council of the Gods,  and all were
filled with sad forebodings, for they knew that the death of Baldur would be
the forerunner of their downfall--the first victory of the giants, or powers
of darkness.

   Wotan therefore cast RUNES, magic characters, which were used to foretell
the  future,  but all seemed dark to him.   He could gain no  insight.   The
"Vessel  of Wisdom,"  which might have served them in their need was in  the
keeping of one of the Norns,  the Goddesses of Fate,  so that could not help
them now.   Ydun,  the Goddess of health,  whose golden apples kept the Gods
ever young,  had been betrayed into the powers of the giants by the trickery
of Loke, the spirit of evil, but a delegation was sent to her, in order that
she  might  be  consulted  on  the  nature  of the sickness which threatened

[PAGE 3275]

Baldur,  if such it be.  However, she only answered with tears,  and finally
after a solemn council held by all the Gods,  it was determined that all the
elements,  and everything in nature should be bound by an oath not  to  harm
the  gentle God.   This was done and a pledge was obtained from  everything,
except  one  insignificant plant which grew westward of the  Palace  of  the
Gods;  this  seemed so frail and fragile that the Gods deemed it to  be  in-
nocuous.

   However,  Wotan's  mind  still misgave him that all was  not  right.   it
seemed to him that the Norns of good fortune had flown away.  Therefore,  he
resolved  to visit the home of a celebrated prophetess by the name of  Vala.
This  is the spirit of the earth,  and from her he would learn the  Fate  in
store  for the Gods,  but he received no comfort from her and   returned  to
Walhall more cast down than formerly.

   Loke,  the spirit of evil,  and treachery, was in reality one of the  gi-
ants,  or powers of darkness,  but part of the time he lived with the  Gods.
He was a turncoat,  who could be depended upon by neither party,  and there-
fore  he was usually distrusted and despised by both Gods and  giants.   One
day while he was sitting bemoaning his Fate a dense cloud began to rise from
the  ocean,  and after a time the dark figure of the Giant King issued  from
it.   Loke in some terror demanded what brought him hither.  The monarch be-
gan  to reproach him with the contemptible part he,  a demon by  birth,  was
acting in consenting to be the tool of the Gods in their warfare against the

[PAGE 3276]

giants,  to whom he owed his origin.  It was out of no affection for himself
that he was admitted to the society of the Gods, but because Wotan knew well
the  ruin  which he and his offspring were destined to bring upon  them  and
thought  by thus conciliating him to defer the evil day.   He who  from  his
power  and cunning might have been a leader with either party,  was now  de-
spised and rejected by all.  The Giant King further reproached him with hav-
ing  already  frequently saved the Gods from ruin and even  with  furnishing
them with weapons against the giants,  and ended by appealing to the  hatred
which rankled in his bosom against Wotan and his whole race as a proof  that
his natural place was with the giants.

   Loke  acknowledged the truth of this and professed his readiness  to  aid
his brethren by all means in his power.   The Giant King then told him  that
the moment was now at hand when he might seal the Fate of the Gods;  that if
Baldur was slain their destruction must sooner or later follow and that  the
gentle  God's life was at that time threatened by some as  yet  undiscovered
danger.   Loke replied that the anxiety of the Gods was already at  an  end,
for Freya had bound everything in nature by oath not to injure her son.  The
dark monarch said that one thing only had been omitted.  However,  what that
was lay concealed in the breast of the  Goddess  and  was known to no other.

[PAGE 3277]

He  then  sank  down again to his dark abyss and left  Loke  to  his  darker
thoughts.

   Loke then,  having assumed the figure of an old woman,  appeared to Freya
and by his cunning drew from her the fatal secret; that presuming on the in-
significant  nature of the mistletoe she had omitted to obtain from  it  the
pledge  wherewith she had bound everything else.   Loke lost no time in  re-
pairing  to  the place where the mistletoe grew,  and tearing it up  by  the
roots, gave it to the dwarfs, who were cunning smiths, to form into a spear.
This  weapon was made with many incantations,  and when the spear  was  com-
pleted one called for blood to temper it.   A child free from all taint  was
brought in, th dwarf plunged the spear into its breast and sang:

         "The death-grasp hear,
         Ho!  Ho!--now 'tis o'er--
         Soon hardens the spear
         In the babe's pure gore--
         Now the barbed head feel,
         Whilst the veins yet bleed,
         Such a deed--such a deed--
         Might harden e'en steel."

   In the meantime the Gods and the dead braves, who are with them assembled
for  a tournament,  in order to convince Baldur how groundless were his  ap-
prehensions,  now that his life was deemed to be charmed,  made him the butt
of all their weapons.

[PAGE 3278]

   Loke  repaired there also with the fatal spear and seeing the  blind  and
strong God,  Hoedur,  standing apart from the rest, asked him why he did not
honor his brother Baldur by tilting with him, also.   Hoedur excused himself
on account of his blindness and because he had no weapon.  Loke then put the
enchanted spear into his hands and Hoedur,  unsuspicious of malice,  pierced
Baldur through the breast with the spear made from the mistletoe, so that he
fell lifeless to the ground to the unspeakable grief of all creatures.

   Baldur  is the summer Sun,  beloved by everything in nature,  and in  the
blind God,  Hoedur,  who slays him with the spear,  we may readily recognize
the  sign Sagittarius,  for when the Sun enters that sign in December it  is
nearly  without  light and is therefore said to be slain by  the  blind  God
Hoedur.   The  bow of Sagittarius,  as pictured on the zodiac of  the  south
presents symbolically the same idea as the spear of the story in the Eddas.

   The  legend of Baldur's death teaches the same cosmic Truth as all  other
myths of kindred nature,  namely, that the Spirit of the Sun must die to the
glories  of the Universe while,  as Christ, it enters the earth to bring  it
the  renewed life,  without which all physical manifestations on our  planet
must  cease.   As death here precedes a birth into the spiritual realms,  so
also  there is a death upon the spiritual plane of existence before a  birth
can  take  place  into  the  physical  body.  As Osiris in Egypt is slain by

[PAGE 3279]

Typhon,  ere Horus, the Sun of the New Year, may be born, so also Christ die
to the higher world before He an be born into the earth and bring to us  the
needed annual spiritual impulse; but our Holy Season commemorates no greater
manifestation of Love than that of which the mistletoe is emblematical.  Be-
ing  physically the extreme of weakness,  it clings to the oak which is  the
symbol of strength.   it is the very weakness of the weakest of beings  that
pierces the heart of the noblest and gentlest of Gods so that,  compelled by
his love for the lowly, he descends to the shades in the underworld, even as
Christ  for our sake dies to the spiritual world each year and is born  into
our planet that He may permeate it anew with His radiant Life and Energy.

                                   PRAYER:

                              QUESTION NO. 166:

   WHAT IS THE ROSICRUCIAN ATTITUDE TOWARD PRAYER,  IN THE LIGHT OF BIBLICAL
ADMONITIONS?

   ANSWER:   In one place the Bible directs us to pray without ceasing.   In
another  Christ repudiates the practice,  saying that we should not  imitate
those  who  believe  they are heard for their many  words.   There  can,  of
course, be no contradiction between the  words  of  Christ  and those of His

[PAGE 3280]

disciples,  and we must therefore reconstruct our ideas of prayer in such  a
manner  that we may pray always and yet without voluminous verbal or  mental
expression.  Emerson said:

         Although your knees were never bent,
         To heaven your hourly prayers are sent,
         And be they formed for good or ill,
         Are registered and answered still."

   In other words,  every act is a prayer, which, under the law of cause and
effect,  brings to us adequate results.   We get exactly what we want.   Ex-
pression in words is unnecessary,  but sustained action along a certain line
indicates what we wish, even if we ourselves do not realize it, and in time,
longer  or shorter,  according to the intensity of our desire,  there  comes
that which we have thus prayed for.

   The  things  thus gained or achieved may not be what we really  and  con-
sciously want.   In fact, sometimes we may get something we would far sooner
be without,  something that is a curse and a scourge, but the prayer-act has
brought  them to us and we must keep them until we can legitimately get  rid
of them.   If we throw a stone into the air,  the act is not complete  until
the reaction has carried the stone back to the earth.   In that case the ef-
fect  follows the cause so speedily that it is not difficult to connect  the
two.

   However, if we wind the spring of an alarm clock, the  power is stored up

[PAGE 3281]

in  the  spring  until  a certain mechanism releases  it.   Then  comes  the
effect--the  ringing of a bell--and although we may have been  sleeping  the
sleep of forgetfulness,  the reaction or unwinding of the spring took  place
just the same.  Similarly, acts which we have forgotten will sometime or an-
other produce their results regardless, and thus the prayer of action is an-
swered.

   However,  there is the true mystic prayer--the prayer where we  meet  God
face to face, as Elijah met Him.  Not in the tumult of the world,  the wind,
the  earthquake,  or the fire,  do we meet Him,  but when all is  still  the
soundless voice speaks to us from within.  However, the silence which is re-
quired  for this experience is not a mere silence of words.   There are  not
even the inward pictures which usually pass before us in meditation, nor are
there thoughts, but our whole being resembles a calm crystal-clear lake.  In
it Deity mirrors Himself, and we experience the unity which makes communica-
tion  unnecessary  either by words or in any other way.   We  feel  all  God
feels.  He is nearer than hands and feet.

   The Christ taught us to say, "Our Father who are in heaven,"  etc.   That
prayer  is the most sublime that can be given utterance in words,  but  this
prayer of which I am speaking may at the moment of union give itself  utter-
ance in the one unspoken word,  "Father."  The devotee,  when he is truly in
the mood of prayer, never gets any farther.  He makes no requests,  for what
is the use?  Has he not the promise, "The Lord is my Shepherd,  I  shall not
want"?   Has  he not been told to seek first the kingdom of heaven  and  all
other things shall be added?  His attitude can perhaps best be understood if
we  take  the simile of a faithful dog looking with dumb devotion  into  its
master's face,  its whole soul pouring itself out through its eyes in  love.
Likewise,  only of course with much greater intensity,  does the true mystic
look  to the God within and pour himself or herself out in voiceless  adora-
tion.   In this way we may pray without ceasing, inwardly,  while we work as
zealous servants in the world without; for let us always remember that it is
not  intended  that we should dream our lives away.   While we pray  to  God
within, we must also work for God without.

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