Filename: RC1092.TXT
Source: "Teachings of an Initiate" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 3309]

                              THE WAY OF WISDOM:

   It  is  now several years since the teaching of the  Elder  Brothers  was
first published in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, and we have since added
to our literature.   It now seems appropriate that we take stock of our work
to see what we have don with the talents entrusted to our care.

   In  the  first  place let us realize that the reason why we  are  in  the
Rosicrucian  Fellowship  is because at some time we have  been  dissatisifed
with the explanations of the problems of life given elsewhere.   We have all
sought light upon the riddle,  and some among us,  like the man spoken of in
the Bible saw a pearl of great price and went and sold all we had and bought
the pearl,  which symbolizes knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven.   In  other
words,  some  among us have been so anxious to find light and  so  overjoyed
when it was found that we have given our whole life, thought,  and energy to
this work.   Previously assumed obligations prevent the majority from enjoy-
ing  this great privilege,  but everyone of us,  if we have been helped,  is
bound under the law of compensation to make some return, for interchange and

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circulation are everywhere correlative to life, as stagnation is to death.

   We know that we cannot continue to gorge ourselves upon physical good and
retain what we have eaten,  and that unless elimination maintains the  equi-
librium,  death soon follows.   Neither can we with impunity gorge ourselves
with  a  mental diet.   We must share our treasure with others and  use  our
knowledge  in the world's work or run the danger of stagnation in the  quag-
mire of metaphysical speculation.

   During   the   years   which   have   elapsed   since   THE   ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION was published,  students have had ample time to familiarize
themselves with its teachings.   We can no longer excuse ourselves by saying
we  do  not know the philosphy because we have had no time to study  it  and
therefore  cannot explain it to others.   Even those who have had the  least
time  to  study because of the duties which call them in their work  in  the
world  ought now to be sufficiently posted to "GIVE A REASON FOR THE  FAITH"
which is within them, as Paul exhorted us all to do.  Even if we do not suc-
ceed  in showing the light to everyone who asks for it,  we owe it  to  our-
selves, to the Elder Brothers, and to humanity to make the attempt.  Our own
soul  growth  depends upon the share we have in the growth of  the  movement
wherewith we have connected ourselves, and it is therefore expedient that we
should realize thoroughly WHAT THE MISSION OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP IS.

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   This you will find thoroughly and clearly elucidated in the  introductory
chapter of the "COSMO."  Briefly stated, it is TO GIVE AN EXPLANATION OF THE
PROBLEM  OF  LIFE WHICH WILL SATISFY BOTH THE MIND AND THE HEART,  and  thus
solve  the perplexities of the two classes of people who are now groping  in
the dark for want of this unifying knowledge,  and who may be broadly spoken
of  for the purposes of our discussion as THE CHURCH PEOPLE and  the  SCIEN-
TISTS.  By the first term we will designate all who are led by sincere devo-
tion or kindliness of nature, whether belonging to a church or not.   IN the
second class we mean to include all who are looking at life from the  purely
mental viewpoint, whether they class themselves as scientists or not.  It is
the  aim  and  object  of THE  ROSICRUCIAN  COSMO-CONCEPTION  to  widen  the
spiritual scope of rapidly increasing number among these two classes who re-
alize more or less clearly that there is a lack of something vitally  impor-
tant in their present view of life and being.

   You will remember that when David desired to build a temple for the  Lord
he  was denied the privilege because had had been a man of war.   There  are
organizations  in the world today which are always fighting other  organiza-
tions,  always finding fault and striving to tear down, thus warring just as
much as David did in ancient days.  They cannot with such a state of mind be
permitted  to  build  the temple which is made with living stones of men and

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women,  that temple which Manson in "The Servant in the House"  speaks of in
such beautiful terms.  Therefore, when we go about endeavoring to spread the
truths of the Rosicrucian teachings,  let us always bear in mind that we may
not with impunity decry the religion of anyone else nor antagonize him,  and
that it is not our mission to war against his error, which will manifest it-
self in due time.

   Do you remember that when David had passed out and Solomon reigned in his
stead,  the latter saw the Lord in a dream,  and asked for wisdom?   He  was
given the choice of whatever he might ask,  and he asked for wisdom to guide
the people.   This answer, in effect, was given him:  Because it was in your
heart to ask wisdom,  because you have not asked for riches or long life  or
for victory over your enemies or anything like that but have prayed for wis-
dom,  therefore  that  wisdom shall be given you and much  more  than  that.
Therefore  it may be well for us at this time to devote ourselves to  heart-
felt prayers for wisdom,  and in order that we may recognize it,  it will be
well to discuss what true wisdom is.

   It is said, and truly, that KNOWLEDGE is power.  Knowledge, though in it-
self neither good nor evil, may be used either for one purpose or the other.
Genius  merely shows the bent of knowledge, but genius also may be  good  or
evil.   We speak of a military genius, one who has a wonderful knowledge  of
the tactics of war,  but such a man cannot be truly good, FOR HE IS BOUND TO

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BE HEARTLESS AND DESTRUCTIVE in the expression of his genius.

   A man of war, whether he be a Napolean or a common soldier,  can never be
WISE, because he must deliberately crush all finer feelings of which we take
the heart as a symbol.   On the other hand,  A WISE RULER IS BIG-HEARTED  as
well as having a powerful intellect,  so that one balances the other in pro-
moting the interests of his people.  Even the deepest KNOWLEDGE along  reli-
gious  or  occult  lines is not wisdom,  as we are taught by  Paul  in  that
wonderful thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians,  where he says in effect:
Though  I  have all the knowledge so that I could solve all  mysteries,  and
have  not love,  I am nothing.   ONLY WHEN KNOWLEDGE HAS WED LOVE,  DO  THEY
MERGE INTO WISDOM,  the expression of Christ principle,  the second phase of
Deity.

   We should be very careful to discriminate properly at this point.  We may
have  discrimination between what is expedient for the attainment of a  cer-
tain end AND WHAT HINDERS and we may choose present ills for future  attain-
ment,  but  even in this we do not necessarily express  wisdom.   Knowledge,
prudence,  discretion,  and discrimination are all born of the mind;  all by
themselves  alone are snares of evil from which Christ in the Lord's  prayer
taught  us to pray that we might be delivered.   Only when  these  mind-born
faculties  are tempered by the heart-born faculty of love does  the  blended
product  become  wisdom.   If  we  read  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  first
Corinthians, substituting  the  word WISDOM for the word CHARITY or LOVE, we

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shall understand what this great faculty is that we ought so ardently to de-
sire.

   It is,  then,  the mission of the Rosicrucian Fellowship to promulgate  a
combined doctrine of the head and the heart,  which is the only true wisdom,
for no teaching that lacks either of these complements can really be  called
WISE, any more than we can strike a chord of music on one string; for as the
nature  of man is complex,  the teaching which is to assist him to  cleanse,
purify,  and elevate this nature must be multiplex in aspect.   Christ  fol-
lowed  this principle when He gave us that wonderful prayer,  which  in  its
seven  stanzas touches the keynote of each of the seven human  vehicles  and
blends  them into that master chord of perfection which we call  the  Lord's
Prayer.

   But  how shall we teach the world this wonderful doctrine  received  from
the Elder Brothers?  The answer to this question is first, last, and all the
time:  BY LIVING THE LIFE.  It is said to the everlasting credit of Mohammed
that his wife became his first disciple,  and it is certain that it was  not
his teaching alone but the life which he lived in the home,  day in and  day
out, year in and year out, which won the confidence of his companion to such
an extent that she was willing to trust her spiritual fate in his hands.  It
is  comparatively easy to stand before strangers who know nothing bad  about
us and to whom our shortcomings are therefore not patent,  and preach for an
hour or two each week, but it is  totally  different thing to preach twenty-

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four hours a day in the home as Mohammed must have done by living the  life.
It we would have the success in our propaganda that he had in his,  we must,
each and everyone of us, begin in the hone,  begin by demonstrating to those
with whom we live that the teachings which guide us are truly wisdom  teach-
ings.  It is said that charity begins at home.  This is the word that should
have been translated "love"  in the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians.
Change  this also into wisdom and let it read,  WISDOM PROPAGANDA BEGINS  AT
HOME.  Then let this be our motto throughout the years:  "By living the life
AT HOME we can advance the cause better than in any other way."   Many skep-
tical  families have been converted by husbands or wives in the  Rosicrucian
Fellowship.  May the rest follow.

                            THE SECRET OF SUCCESS:

   This  is a subject which ought to interest everybody,  for surely we  all
desire to be successful; but the question is what constitutes success?   And
to this question perhaps each individual would have a different answer.  But
a little thought will soon make it clear that whatever path we pursue in our
desire to attain success, that path must be follow the evolutionary tread of
mankind.   Therefore there must be a general answer as to  what  constitutes
success and what is the secret thereof.  It would be a mistake, however,  to
try  to find the solution of this problem just by examining the life of  man
during our present age.   Paying regard to what he has been before and  with
an eye also to the future development of humanity is the only way to  obtain
the  perspective which is necessary to arrive at the proper answer  to  this
momentous question.

   We do not need to go into details to a great extent.  We may mention that
in  the  earlier epochs of our evolution when man-in-the-making  was  coming
down from the  spiritual  world  into his present  material  existence,  the

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secret  of success lay in a knowledge of the physical world and  the  condi-
tions therein.  It was not necessary at that time to tell humanity about the
spiritual world and our finer vehicles,  for these were facts patent to  ev-
erybody.  We saw and lived in the spiritual realms.  But we were then coming
into the physical world,  and therefore the schools of Initiation taught the
pioneers  of mankind the laws which govern the physical world and  initiated
them into the arts and crafts whereby they might conquer the material realm.
From  that time until a comparatively recent date humanity has been  working
to perfect itself in these branches of knowledge,  which reached their high-
est expression in the centuries just prior to the discovery of steam and are
now in their decadence.

   At  first thought this may seem an unwarranted statement,  but a  careful
examination  of the facts will very quickly develop the truth  thereof.   In
the so-called "dark ages"  there were no factories,  but every town and vil-
lage  was full of small shops in which the master,  sometimes alone  and  at
other times with a few journeymen and apprentices,  wrought the works of his
trade  from the raw material to the finished product,  exercising his  skill
and  creative  instinct and putting his heart and soul into every  piece  of
work that left his hands.   If he were a blacksmith,  he knew how to produce
ornamental  ironwork fit for signs,  gates, and other things which  went  to
make up the quaint beauty of those medieval villages and towns.  Nor did his

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handiwork ever leave him entirely; as he walked about the town he might look
upon this,  that,  or the other ornament,  and pride himself upon the beauty
thereof,;  pride himself also in the knowledge of how he had won the respect
and  admiration  of his fellow townsmen by his  artistic  and  conscientious
work.   The  joiner who made the framework of the chairs,  also  upholstered
them  and made those artistic designs which we are today seeking to  follow.
The shoemaker,  the weaver,  and all other craftsmen without exception  pro-
duced the finished article from the raw material, and each took pride in his
handiwork.   Also they toiled long hours,  but there was no murmur  or  com-
plaint,  for each found a satisfaction in this exercise of his creative  in-
stinct.   The song of the blacksmith to the accompaniment of the  hammer  on
the anvil was a fact in every shop,  and the journeymen and apprentices felt
themselves not slaves but MASTERS IN THE MAKING.

   Then came the age of steam and machinery and with it a new system of  la-
bor.   Instead of the production of the finished article from the raw  mate-
rial by one man,  which gave satisfaction to his creative instinct,  the new
plan  was to make men tenders of machines which produced only parts  of  the
finished articles.   These parts were then assembled by others.   While this
plan decreased the cost of production and increased the output,  it left  no
scope for the creative instinct of  a  man.  He  became merely a cog in some

[PAGE 3318]

great machine.  In the medieval shop money was indeed a minor consideration;
the joy of production was everything; time mattered not.   But under the new
system  men commenced to work FOR MONEY AND AGAINST TIME,  with  the  result
that the souls of both master and men are now starved.   They have lost  the
substance and retained only the shadow of all that makes life worth  living,
for  they are laboring for something which they can neither use  nor  enjoy.
This applies to both master and men.

   What  would we say of a young man who should set himself the goal of  ac-
cumulating  a  million handkerchiefs which he could never  by  any  possible
change use?   Surely we should call him a fool;  and why should we not place
the  man who spends all his energy and foregoes all the comforts of life  to
become a millionaire,  in the same category?   This system cannot  continue,
for it is giving man a stone when he asks for bread,  and there must be some
other development in store for him.  New standards must be in the process of
development,  new ideals must be looming up to give us a wider vision.   For
hints  as to the trend of evolution we must look to those among us  who  are
most  gifted with inspiration,  the poets and seers.   James Russell  Lowell
sounds  perhaps  the clearest note in his VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL.   A  knight
leaving  his castle imbued with a desire to do great and valiant things  for
God,  is going to join the Crusaders and seek the Holy Grail in far  distant
Palestine.  He leaves his castle self-satisifed,  proud,  and arrogant, bent

[PAGE 3319]

on  his mission.   At the castle gate he meets a poor beggar,  a leper,  who
stretches out his hands asking for alms.  Sir Launfal, however,  has no com-
passion,  but  in order to be rid of the loathsome thing,  he throws  him  a
golden coin and endeavors to forget him.

"But the leper raised not the gold from the dust,
`Better to me the poor man's crust,
Better the blessing of the poor,
Though I turn empty for his door.
That is not true alms which the hand can hold;
He gives only the worthless gold
Who gives from a sense of duty;
But he who gives from a slender mite,
And gives to that which is out of sight--
That thread of all-sustaining beauty
Which runs through all and doth all unite--
The hand cannot clasp the whole of his aims,
The heart outstretches its eager palms,
For a god goes with it and makes it store
To the soul that was starving in darkness before.'"

   But what of Sir Launfal?  Could he be expected in such a frame of mind to
attain success and find the Grail?  Certainly not.   So disappointment after
disappointment meets him, and finally he returns to his castle,  discouraged
and humbled in heart.   There he again meets the leper,  and at the sight of
him,--

[PAGE 3320]

"The heart within him was ashes and dust;
He parted in twain his single crust,
He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
And gave the leper to eat and drink."

   Then, having fulfilled the task of mercy, the reward comes with it:

"The leper no longer crouched by his side'
But stood before him glorified,

                     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

And the Voice that was softer than silence said,
'Lo, it is I, be not afraid!
In many lands, without avail,
Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;
Behold, it is here--this cup which thou
Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now!
This crust is my body broken for thee,
This water the blood I shed on the tree;
The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,
In whatso we share with another's need;
Not what we give, but what we share--
For the gift without the giver is bare;
Who gives HIMSELF with his aims feeds three:
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.'"

   In  these words lies the secret of success,  which consists in doing  the
little things,  the perhaps seemingly disagreeable things which are close to
our hands, instead of going afar and seeking for chimerical  phantasms which

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never develop into anything definite or tangible.

   What  will  doing the former accomplish for us?  may be  pertinently  in-
quired.   Again we may take the answer from a poet,  Oliver Wendell  Holmes,
who tells us of the little chambered nautilus.  It first builds a small cell
only  large enough to hold it.   Then as it grows,  it adds another  chamber
which  is larger and which it them occupies for the next period  of  growth,
and so on until it has made a spiral shell as large as it can, which it then
leaves.  This idea he puts into the following lines:

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"

   When we have come to this point,  we have obtained success--all the  suc-
cess that we can get in our present world--and we are entering a new  sphere
of larger opportunities.

[PAGE 3322]

                             THE DEATH OF THE SOUL:

   From  time to time,  seemingly following a law of periodicity,  the  same
difficulties crop up in the minds of students.  At the same time a number of
letters from different parts of the world ask for information on a  subject,
at  another time on a different one, but after years the same  subjects  are
revived.   While help is given the individuals who ask,  it may be that many
more are interested in the same subject at the same time,  hence this lesson
on the death of the soul,  which seems to exercise the mind perhaps  because
death of the body is so common and frequent.

   Some  years ago we published a lesson on "The Unpardonable Sin  and  Lost
Souls" in connection with the sacraments which we were them explaining.   It
was there stated that all the sacraments have to do with the transmission of
the seed atoms,  which form the nuclei of our various bodies.   The germ for
our earthly body must be properly placed in fruitful soil to grow a suitable
dense vehicle, and for this reason, as stated in Genesis, 1:27, "Elohim cre-
ated man male and female."  The Hebrew words are SACR VA N'CABAH.  These are

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names of the sex organs.  Literally translated, SACR means the bearer of the
germ;  and thus MARRIAGE is a SACRament, for it opens the way for the trans-
mission of the physical seed atom from the father to the mother and tends to
preserve the race against the ravages of death.

   BAPTISM as a SACRament signifies the germinal urge of the soul for higher
life, the planting of a spiritual seed.

   COMMUNION  is  the SACRament in which we partake of bread made  from  the
seed of chaste plants, and in which the cup symbolizing the passionless seed
pod points to the age to come,  an age when marriage will be unnecessary  to
transmit the seed through a father and mother, but when we may feed directly
upon cosmic life and thus conquer death.

   Finally,  EXTREME UNCTION is the SACRament which marks the loosing of the
silver cord and the extraction of the sacred germ,  until it shall again  be
planted in another N'cabah, or mother.

   As the seed and ovum are the root and basis of racial development,  it is
easy to see that no sin can be more serious than that which abuses the  cre-
ative function,  for by the SACRilege we stunt future generations and trans-
gress against the Holy Spirit,  Jehovah,  who is the warden of the  creative
lunar force.   His angels herald birth,  as in the case of Isaac,  John  the
Baptist, and Jesus.  When He wanted to reward  His  most  faithful follower,

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Abraham,  He promised to make his seed as numerous as the sands on the  sea-
shore.  He also meted out the most terrible punishment to the Sodomites, who
committed sacrilege by misdirecting the seed; and the sin of Onan who wasted
it is also a pointer in the same direction.

   We  are told in the Bible that mankind were forbidden to eat of the  Tree
of Knowledge under pain of death.   But instead of patiently waiting for the
periods  of  propitious interplanetary conditions Adam KNEW Eve,  and  since
then  she has borne her children in pain and suffering subject to  premature
death.  Therefore the abuse of this sacred function for gratification of the
passional nature, and particularly perversion, is recognized by esotericists
as the unpardonable sin.  It is to this James refers when he says, "There is
a sin unto death.  I do not say that ye shall pray for that."

   But  occult investigations have proved in this case,  as with  all  other
forms of hell preaching,  that God and nature are much more lenient and mer-
ciful  to man than man is to his fellows.   Though the  retributive  justice
meted  out  to those who have lived lives of sin and vice was found  in  all
cases to be severe, nothing nearly as serious as the "death of the soul" oc-
curs.   So far as we have been able to learn,  ONLY THE BLACK  MAGICIAN  WHO
CONSCIOUSLY MISUSES THE SEED FOR MALICIOUS PURPOSES faces anything so  seri-
ous as that implied in the phrase;  and there would really be no need of go-
ing into the subject at all  except  that  it  throws side lights upon other

[PAGE 3325]

matters of value to the student.

   To  understand  this properly we must first call to the  mind  the  sharp
definitions of the terms spirit,  soul and body as given in the "Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception."   It is there stated that in the beginning of  manifesta-
tion the Virgin Spirit, a spark from the Divine, involved itself in a three-
fold veil of spirit-matter and thus became the Ego.

   The  threefold spirit cast a threefold shadow into the realm  of  matter,
and  thus the DENSE BODY was evolved as a counterpart of the Divine  Spirit,
the VITAL BODY as a replica of the Life Spirit,  and the DESIRE BODY as  the
image of the Human Spirit.  Finally, and most important of all,  the link of
MIND  was formed between the threefold spirit and its threefold body.   This
was the beginning of individual consciousness, and marks the point where the
involution  spirit  into  matter is finished and  the  evolutionary  process
whereby the spirit is lifted out of matter begins.   Involution involves the
crystallization of spirit into bodies,  but evolution depends upon the  dis-
solution of the bodies, the extraction of the soul-substance from them,  and
the alchemical amalgamation of this soul with the spirit.

   At the beginning of evolution man consisted only of spirit and  body,--he
was soulless; but since them each life lived on earth in the great school of
experience had made him more and more soulful according to the use which  he
has made of his opportunities.  This is shown in the different gradation be-
tween the savage and the saint which we see all  about  us.  It  is the loss

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of the soul which is involved in the experience we describe as the death  of
the  soul.   The spirit itself can of course never die seeing that it  is  a
spark from the Divine, without beginning and without end.   How then can the
death  of  the soul be brought about,  and what is the real meaning  of  the
phrase?   This is a subject the writer does not like to dwell upon,  but for
the  sake of the important side light it throws upon spiritual  advancement,
as already said, the facts will be given.

   In  the foregoing we have seen that the threefold spirit has projected  a
threefold  body and that the purpose of evolution is the extraction  of  the
threefold soul from his threefold body and the amalgamation thereof with the
threefold spirit.  Now mark this point for this is the important crux of the
whole matter,  a very valuable and important piece of information which will
help  the student to a more definite understanding of the subject  than  has
hitherto  been given:   Much is said in occult literature about "THE  PATH";
but though to the initiated who already know,  the statements of what it  is
and where it is are plentiful,  this information has never before been given
to the exoteric student.  Paul tells us that to be carnally MINDED is death,
but to be spiritual MINDED is life and peace.  This is the exact truth,  for
the MIND,  WHICH IS THE LINK BETWEEN THE SPIRIT AND THE BODY, IS THE PATH OR
BRIDGE, THE ONLY MEANS OF TRANSMISSION OF SOUL TO SPIRIT.  So long as man is

[PAGE 3327]

carnally minded and turns his attention to worldly successes,  cherishing as
his motto proverb,  "Let us eat,  drink, and be merry for tomorrow we  die,"
all his activities are centered in the lower part of his being,  the person-
ality,  and he lives and dies like the animals,  unconscious of the magnetic
drawings of the spirit.  But at length there comes a time when the yearnings
of the spirit are felt,  and the personality sees the light and sets out  to
seek its Higher Self across the bridge of mind.  And as flesh and blood can-
not inherit the Kingdom of God,  the body is crucified that the soul may  be
liberated  and  joined to its Father in Heaven,  the threefold  spirit,  the
Higher Self.

   That  at least is the general tendency,  the higher elevates  the  lower.
But unfortunately there are examples of the opposite where the lower person-
ality  becomes  so strong in its materialism and where the mind  becomes  so
firmly enmeshed with the lower vehicles that the personality refuses to sac-
rifice itself for the spirit, with the result that THE BRIDGE OF MIND IS FI-
NALLY BROKEN.   The soulless personality may then continue to live for  many
years  after this separation has taken place,  and may perpetrate  the  most
outrageous acts of cruelty and cunning until it succumbs.  Black Magic which
involves the perverted use of seed obtained from others is generally used by
these  soulless personalities for the purpose of satisfying  their  demoniac
desires.  Often they obtain power in a nation or a society, which  they then

[PAGE 3328]

delight in wrecking.

   Meanwhile the spirit stands naked; it has no seed atoms wherewith to cre-
ate further bodies,  and it therefore automatically gravitates to the planet
Saturn  and thence to Chaos,  where it must retain until the dawn of  a  new
creative day.   It may seen unjust at first sight that the spirit should  be
thus  made to suffer though it has committed no wickedness;  but on  further
thought it will be understood that as the personality is the creature of the
Higher Self,  the responsibility exists and cannot be evaded.   Fortunately,
however, such cases grow increasingly rare as we advance upon the pathway of
evolution.   Nevertheless,  it behooves all to set their faces earnestly to-
wards the goal so that the light on the path that leads toward our spiritual
ideal, the union with the Higher Self, may grow brighter day by day.

                        THE NEW SENSE OF THE NEW AGE:

   At the end of the Taurean age, about 4,000 years ago, "God's people" fled
from the wrath to come when they left Egypt,  the land where they  worshiped
the  Bull.   They were led in their flight to the promised  land  by  Moses,
whose  head  in  ancient esoteric pictures is adorned  with  wreathed  ram's
horns,  symbolical of the fact that he was herald of the Aryan age  of  2100
years, during which each Easter morning the vernal sun colored the doorposts
red  as with the blood of the lamb, when it passed over the equator  in  the
CONSTELLATION (not the SIGN) of the ram Aries.   Similarly,  when the sun by
precession was approaching the watery constellation Pisces, the Fishes, John
immersed the converts to the Messianic religion in the waters of Jordan, and
Jesus called his disciples "fishers" of men.  As the "lamb" was slain at the
passover while the sun went through the constellation Aries, the Ram, so the
faithful have in obedience to the command of their church fed on fishes dur-
ing Lent in the present cycle of Pisces, the Fishes.

[PAGE 3329]

   At the time when the sun by precession left the constellation Taurus, the
Bull,  the  people  who worshiped that animal were  pronounced  heathen  and
idolators.   A new symbol of the Savior, or Messias,  was found in the lamb,
which correspond to the constellation Aries; but when the sun by  precession
left that sign,  Judaism became a religion of the past,  and thenceforth the
bishops of the new Christian religion wore a mitre shaped like a fish's head
to  designate their standing as ministers of the church during  the  Piscean
Age, which is now drawing to a close.

   By viewing the future through the perspective of the past,  it is evident
that  a  new age is to be ushered in when the sun enters  the  constellation
Aquarius,  the  Water-bearer,  a few hundred years hence.   Judging  by  the
events  of the past it is reasonable to expect that a new phase of  religion
will supersede our present system,  revealing higher and nobler ideals  than
our present conception of the Christian religion.   It is therefore  certain
that if in that day we would not be classed among the idolators and heathen,
we must prepare to align ourselves with these new ideals.

   John  the Baptist,  preached the gospel of preparedness in  no  uncertain
words, warning people that the ax had been laid at the root of the tree.  He
cautioned  them also to flee from the wrath to come,  when the Son (Sun)  of
God should come,  fan in hand, to separate the wheat from the chaff and burn
it  up.  Christ  likened  the  gospel  to  a  little leaven which leavened a

[PAGE 3330]

measure of flour.

   At first sight the method of John seems to be most drastic, laying the ax
at the root of the whole social structure,  while the leavening process men-
tioned by Christ appears to be more gentle;  but in reality it is even  more
thoroughgoing and drastic,  as will be evident if we consider carefully what
takes place when we make a loaf.  It is a chemical revolution,  a  miniature
war,  involving an entire transformation of every atom of flour in the  ves-
sel;  none can escape the action of the leaven,  and there is a sound as  of
continual cannonading, explosion of bombs and shells, until the force of the
leaven is spent and the dough transformed to a light sponge.   But this  war
of the atoms,  this chemical revolution,  is absolutely indispensable in the
process of bread making, for if the leavening process were omitted,  the re-
sult would be a heavy, unpalatable, indigestible loaf.  It is the transmuta-
tion wrought by the leaven which makes the loaf wholesome and nutritious.

   The  process of preparation for the Aquarian Age has  already  commenced,
and as Aquarius is an airy, scientific, and intellectual sign, it is a fore-
gone  conclusion  that the new faith must be rooted in reason  and  able  to
solve  the riddle of life and death in a manner that will satisfy  both  the
mind and the religious instinct.

[PAGE 3331]

   Such  is the Western Wisdom Religion promulgated by the Rosicrucian  Fel-
lowship;  like the leaven in the loaf, it is breaking down the fear of death
engendered by the uncertainty surrounding the post-mortem existence.   It is
showing that life and consciousness continue under the laws as immutable  as
God,  which tends to raise man to increasingly higher,  nobler,  and loftier
states  of spirituality.   It kindles the beacon light of hope in the  human
heart  by the assertion that as we have in the past evolved the five  senses
by which we contact the present visible world,  so shall  we in the not dis-
tant future evolve another sense which will enable us to see the denizens of
the  etheric  region,  as well as those of our dear ones who have  left  the
physical body and inhabit the ether and lower desire world during the  first
stage of their career in the spiritual realms.   The mission of Aquarius  is
aptly represented by the symbol of man emptying the water urn.

   Aquarius is an airy sign having special rule over the ether.   The  Flood
partly dried the air by depositing most of the moisture it held in the  sea.
But  when the sun enters Aquarius by precession,  the rest of  the  moisture
will be eliminated and visual vibrations,  which are most easily transmitted
by a dry etheric atmosphere, will become more intense;  thus conditions will
be  particularly  conducive  to production of the slight  extension  of  our
present   sight  necessary  to  open  our  eyes  to  the   etheric   region.
California's production of physics is an instance  of  this effect of a dry,

[PAGE 3332]

electric atmosphere,  though,  of course, it is not nearly so dry as the air
of the Aquarian Age will be.

   Thus faith will be swallowed up in knowledge and we shall all be able  to
utter the triumphant cry,  "O death, where is thy sting;  O grave,  where is
thy victory?"   But it is well to realize that by aspiration and  meditation
to those who are longingly looking for that day are taking time by the fore-
lock and may quite easily outstrip their fellows who are unaware of what  is
in store.   The latter,  on the other hand, may delay the development of ex-
tended vision by the belief that they are suffering from hallucinations when
they begin to get their first glimpses of the etheric entities, and the fear
that if they tell others what they see, they will be adjudged insane.

   Therefore the Rosicrucian Fellowship has been charged by the Elder Broth-
ers with the mission of promulgating the gospel of the Aquarian Age,  and of
conducting a campaign of education and enlightenment,  so that the world may
be  prepared  for what is in store.  The world must be leavened  with  those
ideas:

  (1)    Conditions in the land of the living dead are not shrouded in  mys-
tery, but knowledge regarding them is as available as  knowledge  concerning 
foreign countries from the tales of travelers.

  (2)    We now stand  close  to the threshold where we shall all know these
truths.

  (3)    And, most important of all, we shall hasten the day in our own case

[PAGE 3333]

by acquiring knowledge of the facts concerning the post-mortem existence and
the  things we may expect to see,  for then we shall know what to look  for,
and  neither be frightened,  astonished nor incredulous when we commence  to
obtain glimpses of these things.

   Students should also realize that a serious responsibility goes with  the
possession  of knowledge:  "to who much is given,  of him much shall be  re-
quired."   If we hide or bury our "talent," may we not expect a merited con-
demnation?   The Rosicrucian Fellowship can only fulfill its mission  in  so
far as each member does his duty in spreading the teachings,  and  therefore
it  is to be hoped that this may serve to call the attention of the  student
to the fact of his individual duty.

   The  etheric  sight is similar to the X-ray in that it enables  its  pos-
sessor  to see right through all objects, but it is much more  powerful  and
renders everything as transparent as glass.   Therefore in the Aquarian  Age
many things will be different from now,  for instance,  it will be extremely
easy  to study anatomy and to detect a morbid growth,  a dislocation,  or  a
pathological condition of the body.   At present medical men of the  highest
standing admit regretfully that their diagnosis are only too frequently  er-
roneous  as shown by post-mortem observation; but when we have  evolved  the
etheric sight, they will be able  to  study  both  anatomical structures and

[PAGE 3334]

physiological processes without hindrance.

   The etheric vision will not enable us to see one another's thoughts,  for
they are formed in still finer stuff, but it will make it largely impossible
for  us to live double lives and to act differently in our homes than we  do
in public.   If we were aware that invisible entities now throng our houses,
we  should often feel ashamed of the things we do;  but in the Aquarian  Age
there will be no privacy which may not be broken into by anyone who  desires
to see us.  It will avail nothing that we send the office boy or maid out to
tell an unwelcome visitor that we are "not in."   This means that in the new
age  honesty and straightforwardness will be the only policies worth  while,
for  we cannot then do wrong and hope to escape detection.   There  will  be
people whose base characters will lead them into ways of wickedness then  as
now, but they will at least be marked so that they may be avoided.

   The student can easily conjecture a number of other conditions that  will
result  from the extension of sight which will come with the  Aquarian  Age,
and by living as near to that state as possible,  he will be placing himself
in a position to become one of the pioneers of that age when "there shall be
no night," and when the "tree of life" shall bloom unceasingly by the trans-
parent etheric "sea of glass" which permeates all things.

[PAGE 3335]

                             GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE:

   Let  us  pause  and  take  stock  of our actions and  accomplishments  in
in the past year; then let us make such resolutions as we feel will make the
future more profitable from the standpoint of the soul.

   In  the first place let us acknowledge that we have been  especially  fa-
vored, far beyond our merit, by receiving the Rosicrucian teachings from our
Elder  Brothers.   Let us hope that we have expressed our gratitude to  them
through  all  the  past year,  and let us at this  time  send  them  special
thoughts of love and gratitude.  Needless  to  say  they  do  not  crave our
gratitude,  they are beyond that;  but we may make more soul growth by being
grateful.

   Then let us consider how we have used these precious teachings during the
past year:   have we dealt justly with our fellows,  have we been lenient in
our judgments and criticisms of others,  have we striven to curb our temper,
cultivate equipoise,  and overcome whatever may be our particular  besetting
sin?

   But is is a foregone conclusion that we shall have to admit at the end of
our  retrospection that we have fallen far short of the lofty ideals  placed
before us.  This is always a critical point where our spiritual career is in
danger of shipwreck upon the rock of faintheartedness, that is, if we are of
the temperament that broods over or magnifies failure.   Such an attitude of
mind precipitates disaster by robbing us of the will to win; it makes us be-
lieve that there is not use in struggling,  that the odds against us are too
great.  Excuses are found in the antagonism of friends and family to our be-
lief, duties that take our time, etc.  But, as a matter of fact, the trouble
is within ourselves, and if we yield, we shall find  that  our  friends will

[PAGE 3336]

despise us in their hearts even if they do not show it openly.

   Instead,  so  far from causing us to forsake the path  of  progress,  our
failures  should act as a spur to greater efforts,  and we should  make  our
resolution with greater determination so that during the coming year we  may
be invincible with respect to the matter covered by it.

   We all know our own particular shortcomings,  "the sin which doth so eas-
ily beset us,"  and each will naturally have to formulate the proper resolu-
tions  for himself.   But in carrying these resolutions into effect so  that
they may be productive of soul growth and help to weave the glorious  GOLDEN
WEDDING  GARMENT,  it will undoubtedly help us immensely to fasten our  eyes
and thoughts upon one who possessed the virtue we are seeking to  cultivate.
Such a great example we have in Christ,  who "was tempted in all things like
ourselves,  yet without sin."   Let us therefore keep Him closely before our
mind's  eye  during the coming year,  and we shall surely  make  great  soul
growth.   This is also the best propaganda we can make for  the  Rosicrucian
teachings, for by living close to them we shall surely evoke in others a de-
sire to share in their blessings.

[PAGE 3337]

                        MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR:

                               SECRET SPRINGS:

   It  is  well known to students of the Rosicrucian teachings  that  we  as
spirits are immortal,  without beginning and without end;  that we have gone
to the great school of experience many life-days in the past each time  clad
in a new child's body of finer texture, in which we lived for a time varying
from  a few hours to a lifetime,  and when a day at life's school  had  been
completed,  we shuffled off this mortal coil, worn out and decrepit,  to re-
turn  to  our heavenly home for rest and assimilation during  the  night  of
death  of the lessons learned;  later to be reborn and take up  our  lessons
where we left them when we were called home from the previous session of the
school of life.

   During each day at life's school we met other spirits and formed ties  of
love  and hate.   In later lives we met again so that the debts  of  destiny
thus incurred might be liquidated.  And so our friends of today are those we

[PAGE 3338]

befriended yester-life, and our enemies are those with whom we were at vari-
ance in the forgotten past.  Thus we are continually weaving the web of des-
tiny on the loom of time,  and creating for ourselves a garment of glory  or
gloom according to whether we have worked well or ill.

   But  we do not work out our INDIVIDUAL destiny only,  for as the  proverb
says,  "No  man liveth unto himself."  We are grouped in  families,  tribes,
races, and nations, and in addition to our individual destiny we are tied by
the  family and national destinies because we are under the guardianship  of
the  angels and archangels who act as family and race spirits  respectively.
It is these great spirits who imprint on our seed atoms the racial form  and
features  of the physical body.   They also implant the national  loves  and
hates  on  the seed atoms of our finer vehicles,  because  the  race  spirit
broods  like a cloud over the land inhabited by its wards,  and  the  latter
draw all the materials for their finer bodies from this atmosphere.  In this
race spirit,  as a matter of actual fact,  they live and move and have their
being.   From it their vehicles are formed.  Yea,  with every breath in this
race spirit,  so that it is absolutely true that it is nearer than hands and
feet.   It is this race spirit which imbues them with love or hate for other
nations,  thus determining between certain nations and the trust and  confi-
dence which exists between others.

[PAGE 3339]

   According  to the teachings of the Rosicrucians,  every spirit is  reborn
twice during the time it takes the sun by precession to go through a sign of
the zodiac,  once as man and once as woman.   This is done in order that  it
may  gain the experiences to be had in that sign from the viewpoint of  both
sexes.   There are many modifications to this rule according to the necessi-
ties of individual spirits, for the law is not blind but it is under the ad-
ministration  of great beings called the Recording Angels in  the  Christian
terminology.   It is their duty to watch the Clock of Destiny and  see  when
the time is ripe to reap the harvest of the past,  and this applies both  to
individuals  and to nations.   Therefore if we study the characteristics  of
the  nations recently locked in a titanic struggle,  together with the  aims
for  which they were fighting,  and look back over the pages of history,  it
needs no seership,  scarcely even intuition,  to place them and thus see how
the springs of the recent war were generated in the distant past.

   It has, in fact, been suggested by historians that the sons of Albion are
a reembodiment of the ancient Romans.  In the light of occult investigations
this  is not quite true,  for there are a number of alien  strains  present.
But  they have been so fused in the dominant race that it may be said to  be
practically a fact.

   Let  us  recall  the history of Rome and  remember  that  the  democratic
spirit,  after the first seven kings had reigned,  manifested itself in  the
formation of a republic, which then began a war of aggression to obtain  the

[PAGE 3340]

mastery of the world,  and in the course of this campaign it became  engaged
with Carthage in a mighty struggle for the mastery of the Mediterranean Sea.
To gain expansion westward the Romans endeavored to expel the  Carthaginians
from Sicily.   Carthage at that time was a great sea power,  but she was de-
feated by the Romans in 260 B.C. on her own element.   Following up this ad-
vantage Rome transferred the war to Africa and was at first successful,  but
Regulus,  the  consoul whom she left behind,  was finally worsted  and  made
prisoner.   A  series of naval disasters to Rome ensued,  and  Carthage  was
about  to  regain more than she had lost of Sicily when Tetulus,  the  Roman
Consul,  gained another decisive victory over the Carthaginians in 241 B.C.,
who there upon undertook to evacuate Sicily and the adjacent islands.   This
ended in the first Punic War, which was twenty-two years in duration.

   But Carthage was not to be so easily conquered.   Finding Rome her  match
at sea,  she resumed hostilities by acquiring a foothold in Spain,  and  the
great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, who heartily hated Rome, attempted the
conquest of that city during the second Punic War, which was declared in 218
B.C.   His plans, nurtured in secret, were carried on with unexampled celer-
ity.   He crossed the Pyrenees from Spain to France, fought his way over the
Alps against every obstacle, and  descended  upon  Cisalpine  Gaul  with but

[PAGE 3341]

twenty-six thousand survivors of his army of fifty-nine thousand men.  After
several  defeats of the Romans came the great battle of Cannae in 216  B.C.,
where  Hannibal's victory was complete.  Macedonia and Sicily  declared  for
the conquerors, and Hannibal marched even to the Colline gate of Rome.   But
finding this city too strong for him,  he withdrew to southern Italy,  where
he was finally defeated and Carthage forced to sue for peace.  Thus Rome be-
came the mistress of the Mediterranean.

   But the hate of Hannibal was unabated,  and when he and his  compatriots,
the Carthaginians,  were reborn in landlocked Prussia, while the ancient Ro-
mans  occupied  the British Islands as mistresses of the seas,  it  was  in-
evitable that in time a great conflict must take place.   As the ancient Pu-
nic Wars generated the recent conflict,  so will this war in due time  bring
its renewal of the struggle unless we shown a spirit of kindness in  dealing
with  the vanquished foe,  instead of dealing with them as Rome did in  that
ancient past,  without mercy and without consideration.   The power to  harm
others must be taken from the militarist of the Central Empires.   It is ab-
solutely imperative that the world should be made safe from a repetition  of
this catastrophe, BUT THE MEASURES TAKEN TO SECURE THIS DESIRABLE END SHOULD
BE  SUCH THAT NOT ONLY DO THEY ENSURE PEACE FOR THE PRESENT LIFE,  BUT  ALSO
FOR  THOSE FUTURE LIFE-DAYS WHEN WE SHALL MEET IN ANOTHER GUISE  THOSE  WITH
WHOM WE WERE RECENTLY AT WAR.

   Justice ought to be done,  but it should be tempered with mercy in  order
to avoid perpetuating hate,  and therefore such harsh measures as,  for  in-
stance,  the industrial boycott are wrong.  It should be sufficient  to  see
that the Central Empires get no more than a fair share of the world's trade.
The new American nation,  which is not yet under the domination of any  race
spirits,  sees  more impartially and therefore more clearly than  any  other
what is right.   Therefore it is to be hoped that the American ideas of jus-
tice will prevail.   Let us remember that one wrong never can and never will
right another, and that we must live and let live.

Continued with file "RC1093.TXT"

End of File

