Filename: RC1093.TXT
Source: "Teachings of an Initiate" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 3342]

                        MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR:

                      ITS PROMOTION OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT:

   Strange as the statement may seem, it is nevertheless true that the great
majority  of mankind are partially asleep most of the time,  notwithstanding
the fact that their physical bodies may seem to be intensely occupied in ac-
tive  work.   Under ordinary conditions the desire body in the case  of  the
great majority is the most awake part of composite man, who lives almost en-
tirely in his feelings and emotions, but scarcely ever thinks of the problem
of existence beyond what is necessary to keep body and soul together.   Most
of this class have probably never given the great questions of life,  Whence
have we come, why are we here, and whither are we going? any serious consid-
eration.   Their vital bodies are kept active repairing the ravages  of  the
desire  body upon the physical vehicle, and purveying the vitality which  is
later dissipated in gratifying the desires and emotions.

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   It  is this hard-fought battle between the vital and desire bodies  which
generates consciousness in the physical world and makes men and women so in-
tensely  alert that,  viewed from the standpoint of the physical  world,  it
seems to give the lie to our assertion that they are partially asleep.  Nev-
ertheless,  upon examination of all the facts it will be found that this  is
the case,  and we may also say that this state of affairs has come about  by
the design of the great Hierarchs who have our evolution in charge.

   We  know  that  there  was a time when man was much  more  awake  in  the
spiritual worlds than in the physical.   In fact there was a time when,  al-
though he had a physical body, he could not sense it at all.   In order that
he  might  learn how to use this physical instrument properly,  conquer  the
physical  world,  and learn to think accurately,  it was necessary  that  he
should for a time forget all about the spiritual worlds,  and devote all his
energies to physical affairs.   How this was brought about by the  introduc-
tion  of  alcohol  as a food and by other means has been  explained  in  the
"COSMO"  and need not be reiterated.   But we are now face to face with  the
fact that mankind has become so completely immersed in materiality that,  so
far  as the great majority are concerned,  the invisible vehicles are  thor-
oughly  focused  upon  physical  activities  and  asleep  to  the  spiritual
verities, which are even derided as the imagination of diseased brains; also
those  who  are beginning to awake from the sleep of materialism are scorned

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as fanatics, fit only for the madhouse.

   If  this attitude of mind were consistently followed,  the  spirit  would
eventually  become  crystallized in the body.  The heaven life in  which  we
build our future vehicles and environments would become increasingly barren;
for when we persistently hold the thought that there is nothing but what  we
contact through our senses (see, hear,  feel,  smell,  touch,  and analyze),
this  mental  attitude cultivated in the earth life persists in  the  Second
Heaven with the result that we may there neglect the preparation that  would
give us a field of endeavor and instruments wherewith to work in it,  and as
a result evolution would soon cease.

   According  to the Rosicrucian teachings,  the soul is the extract of  the
various bodies;  it is garnered by experience that involves the  destruction
of  the particular bodies from which this living bread is derived and  which
is to be used as a pabulum for the spirit.  In the ordinary course of evolu-
tion  the perfection of the various vehicles is gradual,  and the soul  sub-
stance  is then garnered and assimilated by the spirit between earth  lives.
But  at a certain period in the larger life when we are entering upon a  new
spiral,  a different phase of evolution, it is usually necessary  to  employ
drastic measures to turn the spirit out of the beaten pathway into a new and
unknown direction.   Formerly when we possessed less individuality and  were
incapable of taking the initiative ourselves these changes were accomplished

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by  what  may  be  called  great  cataclysms  of  nature,  but   which  were 
in  fact  planned  by  the  divine Hierarchies who guide evolution,  with  a
view to destroying multitudes of bodies that had served the purpose of human
development in a given direction,  changing the environment of those who had
learned the possibilities of a new road,  and starting these pioneer  people
upon  a fresh career.   Such wholesale destruction was naturally  much  more
frequent  in the earlier epochs than in later times.   Lemuria had  all  the
requisite conditions for numerous attempts at making a fresh start with  one
group when another had failed and had been destroyed.   As a matter of fact,
there was not merely one flood in Atlantis but three,  and a period of about
three-quarters of a million years elapsed between the first and the last.

   We  may  not expect that the method of wholesale destruction  and  a  new
start can be abrogated until we as a whole awaken to the necessity of taking
a new road when we have come to the end of the old,  but a new method is be-
ing used by the Invisible Directors of evolution.   They are not now  making
use  of cataclysms of nature to change the old order for something  new  and
better,  but THEY ARE MAKING USE OF THE MISDIRECTED ENERGIES OF HUMANITY IT-
SELF  TO FURTHER THE ENDS THEY HAVE IN VIEW.   This was the genesis  of  the
great war which recently raged among us.  Its purpose was to turn our  ener-
gies  from  seeking the bread whereof men die and to create in us  the  soul
hunger that would cause us  to  turn  from material things to spiritual.  We

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are,  as a matter of act, commencing to work out our own salvation.   We are
beginning to do things for ourselves instead of having them done for us, and
though unaware of the fact, WE ARE LEARNING HOW TO TURN EVIL TO GOOD.

   Some may think this war affected only those few million men actually  en-
gaged in it,  but a little thought upon the matter will soon convince anyone
that the welfare of the whole world was involved to a greater or lesser  de-
gree  so far as economic conditions were concerned.   There is no  race  nor
country that escaped entirely, nor can any go on in the same tranquil manner
as before the war broke out.  Kinship and friendship were ties which reached
from the trenches of Europe to every part of the globe.  Many of us were re-
lated  to individuals in one and perhaps both groups engaged in the  strife,
and  we  followed  their fortunes with an  interest  commensurate  with  the
strength  of our feeling for them.   But in the nighttime when our  physical
bodies were asleep and we entered the desire world, we could not escape liv-
ing and feeling th whole tragedy with all the intensity whereof we were  ca-
pable,  for the desire currents swept the whole world.   In the desire world
there is neither time nor distance.   The trenches of Europe were brought to
our door no matter where we lived, and we could not escape the  subconscious
effect  of  the  spectacle which we there  saw.   Furthermore  this  titanic
struggle  produced  effects  which  could  never  be  equaled  by  a natural


[PAGE 3347]

cataclysm, which is so much quicker in its action and so much shorter in its
duration, besides being localized and incapable of generating the same feel-
ings of love and hate which were such important factors in the World War.

   During  the previous career of man it has been the object of  the  divine
Hierarchs to teach him how to accomplish physical results by physical means.
He has forgotten how to utilize the finer forces in nature such as,  for in-
stance,  the energy liberated when grain is sprouting,  which was  used  for
purposes of propulsion and levitation in the Atlantean airships.   He is un-
aware of the sanctity of fire and how to use it spiritually,  therefore only
about  fifteen per cent of its power is utilized in the best steam  engines.
It is well of course that man is thus limited,  for were he able to use  the
power at the command of one whose spiritual faculties are awakened, he could
annihilate our world and all upon it.  But while he is doing his best or his
worst with the faculties at his command today,  he is learning the lesson of
how  to hold his feelings in leash to fit himself for the use of  the  finer
forces necessary for development in the Aquarian Age, and pulling the scales
from his eyes so that he may commence to see the new world which he is  des-
tined to conquer.

   Two  separate and distinct processes are made use of to  accomplish  this
result.  One is the visit of death to millions of homes, tearing  away  from

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the family group the husband, father, or brother,  and leaving the survivors
to face a grey existence of economic privation.  The sun existed previous to
the  eye  and built that organ for its perception.   The desire to  see  was
naturally unconscious on the part of the individual who did not know and had
no concept of the meaning or use of sight; but in the world soul, which cre-
ated  the  sun,  rested the knowledge and requisite desire that  worked  the
miracle.   Similarly in the case of death:  when our consciousness had first
become  focused in the physical vehicles and the fact of death stared us  in
the face, there was no hope within; but in time religion supplied the knowl-
edge  of  an invisible world whence the spirit had come to  take  birth  and
whither it returns after death.   The hope of immortality gradually  evolved
in humanity the feeling that death is only a transition,  but modern science
has done its best to rob men of this consolation.

   Nevertheless,  at every death the tears that are shed serve  to  dissolve
the  veil  that  hides  the invisible world  from  our  longing  gaze.   The
deep-felt yearning and the sorrow at the parting of loved and loving ones on
both sides of the veil are tearing this apart,  and at some not far  distant
day the accumulated effect of all this will reveal the fact that there is no
death,  but that those who have passed beyond are as much alive as we.   The
potency  of  these tears,  this sorrow,  this yearning is not equal  in  all
cases, however, and the effects differ wisely according to whether the vital

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body has been awakened in any given person by acts of unselfishness and ser-
vice,  according  to the occult maxim that all development  along  spiritual
lines begins with the vital body.   his is the basis,  and no superstructure
can be built until this foundation has been laid.

   With regard to the second process of soul unfoldment which is carried  on
among those actually engaged in warfare, there are probably but few who have
had as unique an opportunity to study actual conditions on the whole of  the
extended line of battle as th writer.  Notwithstanding all the brutality and
hellishness of the whole thing he feels confident that this was the greatest
school of soul unfoldment that has ever existed, for nowhere have there been
so  numerous opportunities for selfless service as on the battle  fields  of
France,  and nowhere have men been so ready to grasp the change of doing for
some  one else.   Thus the vital bodies of a host of people have received  a
quickening  such  as they would probably not have otherwise attained  for  a
number of lives, and these people have therefore become correspondingly sen-
sitive  to spiritual vibrations,  and susceptible in a higher degree to  the
benefit  which may be derived from the first process  previously  mentioned.
As a result we shall in due time see an army of sensitives among us who will
be in such close touch with the invisible world that their concerted  testi-
mony cannot be crushed by the materialistic school.  They will prove a great


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factor  in helping us to prepare for the higher conditions of  the  Aquarian
Age.

   "But,"  some may ask, "will they not forget when the stress and strain of
war are over?   Will not a large percentage of these people go back into the
same rut where they were before?"  To this we may answer that we feel confi-
dent it can never come to pass, for while the invisible vehicles, especially
the vital body, are asleep, man may pursue a materialistic career;  but once
this vehicle has been awakened and has tasted the bread of life,  it is like
the  physical body,  subject to hunger--soul hunger,--and its cravings  will
not be denied save after an exceedingly hard struggle.   In the latter case,
of course,  the words of Peter are applicable:   "The last state of that man
is worse than the first."   However,  it is good to feel that out of all the
indescribable  sorrow  and trouble of the war good is being wrought  in  the
crucible of the gods,  and it will be a lasting good.   May we all align our
forces and help extract the good, so that we may be shining examples to help
lead humanity to the New Age.

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                        MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR:

                               PEACE ON EARTH:

   A war-weary world,  red with the blood of millions,  the hope of its  fu-
ture,  the flower of its young manhood,  is groaning in agony,  praying  for
peace, not an armistice, a temporary cessation of hostilities, but EVERLAST-
ING PEACE, and it is striving to solve the problem of how to accomplish this
much  desired  end.   But it is striking at effects because ignorant  of  or
blind to the one great underlying cause of the ferocity of the people, which
was  but barely hidden under a thin veneer of civilization before  it  burst
into the volcano of destruction which we have recently witnessed and are now
lamenting.

   Until the connection between the food of man and his nature is understood
and the knowledge applied to tame the passions and eradicate ferocity, there
can  be no lasting peace.   In the dim dawn of being when  man-in-the-making
wrought under the direct guidance of the divine Hierarchs who led him  along
the path of evolution, food was given him of a  nature  that  would  develop

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various  vehicles in an orderly,  systematic manner,  so that in time  these
different bodies would grow into a composite instrument usable as the temple
of an indwelling spirit which might then enter and learn life's lessons by a
series  of  embodiments in earthly bodies of an increasingly  fine  texture.
Five  great stages or epochs are observable in the evolutionary  journey  of
man upon earth.

   In the first, or Polarian Epoch, what is now man had only a dense body as
the  minerals have now,  hence he was mineral-like,  and it is said  in  the
Bible that "ADAM was formed of the earth."

   In  the  second,  or Hyperborean Epoch,  a vital body made of  ether  was
added, and man-in-the-making had then a body constituted as are those of the
present plants; he was not a plant but was plantlike.  CAIN, the man of that
time,  is  described as an agriculturist; his food was derived  solely  from
vegetation, for plants contain more ether than any other structure.

   In the third, or Lemurian Epoch, man cultivated a desire body,  a vehicle
of  passions  and emotions,  and was then constituted as the  animal.   Then
milk, a product of living animals, was added to his diet, for this substance
is most easily worked upon by the emotions.  ABEL, the man of that time,  is
described as a shepherd.   It is nowhere stated that he killed an animal for
food.

   In the fourth, or Atlantean Epoch, mind was  unfolded,  and the composite

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body  became  the temple of an indwelling spirit,  a  thinking  being.   But
thought  breaks down nerve cells;  it kills,  destroys,  and  causes  decay,
therefore  the new food of the Atlantean was dead carcasses.   He killed  to
eat,  and  so the Bible describes the man of that time as NIMROD,  a  mighty
hunter.

   By partaking of these various foods man descended deeper and deeper  into
matter;  his  erstwhile ethereal body formed a skeleton  within  and  became
solid.  At the same time he gradually lost his spiritual perception, but the
memory  of heaven was always with him,  and he knew himself to be  an  exile
from his true home, the heaven world.  In order to enable him to forget this
fact  and apply himself with undivided attention to conquering the  material
world,  a new article of diet, namely, wine, was added in the fifth or Aryan
Epoch.   Because of indulgence in this counterfeit spirit of alcohol  during
the  millenniums  which have passed since man came up out of  Atlantis,  the
most advanced races of humanity are also the most atheistic and  materialis-
tic.   THEY ARE ALL DRUNK for even though a person may say,  and  say  quite
truthfully, that he has never touched liquor in his life, it is nevertheless
a fact that body in which he is functioning has descended from ancestors who
for  millenniums have indulged in alcoholic beverages in unstinted  measure.
Therefore the atoms composing all present day Western bodies  are  unable to

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vibrate  to the measure necessary for the cognition of the invisible  worlds
as  they  were before wine was added to the diet  of  humanity.   Similarly,
though  a child may be brought up today on a fleshless diet,  it still  par-
takes  of  the ferocious nature of its flesh-eating ancestors of  a  million
years,  though  in a less degree than those who still continue to  feast  on
flesh.   Thus the effect of the flesh food provided for man-in-the-making is
deep-seated and deep-rooted even in those who do not now indulge in it.

   What wonder then that those who still partake of flesh and wine return at
times to godless savagery and exhibit a ferocity unrestrained by any of  the
finer  feelings  supposed to have been fostered by  centuries  of  so-called
civilization!   So long as men continue to quench the immortal spirit within
themselves by partaking of flesh and the counterfeit alcoholic spirit, there
can  never be lasting peace on earth,  for the innate ferocity  fostered  by
these  articles will break through at intervals and sweep even the most  al-
truistic conceptions and ideals into a maelstrom of savagery,  a carnival of
ruthless slaughter, which will grow correspondingly greater as the intellect
of  man evolves and enables him to conceive with his master mind methods  of
destruction more diabolical than any we have yet witnessed.

   It needs no argument to prove that the recent war was much more  destruc-
tive than any of the previous conflicts recorded in history,  because it was
fought by men of BRAIN rather than by men of BRAWN.  The ingenuity  which in

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times  of peace has been turned to such good account in constructive  enter-
prises  was enlisted in the service of destruction,  and it is safe  to  say
that if another war is fought fifty or a hundred years hence, it may perhaps
all  but  depopulate the earth.   Therefore a lasting peace is  an  absolute
necessity  from the standpoint of self-preservation and no thinking  man  or
woman  can afford to brush aside without investigation any theory  which  is
advanced  as tending to make war impossible,  even if they have been  accus-
tomed to regard it as a foolish fad.

   There  is plenty of proof that a carnivorous diet fosters  ferocity,  but
lack  of space prevents a thorough discussion of this phase of the  subject.
We may, however, mention the well known fierceness of beasts of prey and the
cruelty of the meat-eating American Indian as fair examples.   On the  other
hand, the prodigious strength and the docile nature of the ox, the elephant,
and the horse show the effects of the herb diet on animals,  while the  veg-
etarian  and peaceable nations of the Orient are a proof of the  correctness
of the argument against a flesh diet which cannot be successfully  gainsaid.
Flesh food has fostered human ingenuity of a low order in the past;  it  has
served a purpose in our evolution;  but we are now standing on the threshold
of a new age when self-sacrifice and service will bring spiritual growth  to
humanity.  The evolution of the mind will bring a wisdom profound beyond our

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greatest conception, but before it will be safe to entrust us with that wis-
dom,  we  must become HARMLESS as doves, for otherwise we should be  apt  to
turn it to such selfish and destructive purposes that it would be an  incon-
ceivable menace to our fellow men.   To avoid this the vegetarian diet  must
be adopted.

   But  there are vegetarians and vegetarians:   In Europe conditions  cause
people  now to abstain from flesh eating to a very large extent.   They  are
not  true vegetarians for they are lusting for flesh every moment  of  their
lives,  and they feel the want of it as a great hardship and sacrifice.   In
time they would of course grow used to is,  and in many generations it would
make them gentle and docile, but obviously that is not the kind of vegetari-
anism  we need now.   There are others who abstain from flesh foods for  the
sake of health;  their motive is selfish,  and many among them probably also
lust  after the "flesh pots of Egypt."  Their attitude of mind is  not  such
either that it would abolish ferocity very quickly.

   But there is a third class which realizes that all life is God's life and
that to cause suffering to any sentient being is wrong,  so out of pure com-
passion  they abstain from the use of flesh foods.   They are the true  veg-
etarians, and IT IS OBVIOUS THAT A WORLD WAR COULD NEVER BE FOUGHT BY PEOPLE
OF  THIS  TURN OF MIND.   All true Christians will also be  abstainers  from
flesh  foods for similar motives.   Then peace on earth and good will  among
men will be an assured fact; the nations will beat their  swords  into plow-

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shares  and  their  spears into pruning hooks that they may  cease  to  deal
death,  sorrow, and suffering, and become instruments to foster life,  love,
and happiness.

   Our own safety,  the safety of our children, the safety of the human race
even,  demands  that we listen to the inspired voice of  the  poetess,  Ella
Wheeler  Wilcox,  who wrote the following soul stirring appeal in behalf  of
our dumb fellow creatures:

         "I am the voice of the voiceless,
         Through me the dumb shall speak,
         Till a deaf world's ear
         Shall be made to hear
         The wrongs of the wordless weak.

         "The same force formed the sparrow,
         That fashioned man the king;
         The God of the Whole
         Gave a spark of soul,
         To furred and feathered thing.

         "And I am my brother's keeper,
         And I will fight his fight,
         And speak the word
         For beast and bird
         Till the world shall set things right."

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                        MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR:

                          THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS:

   The  recent titanic struggle among the nations in Europe upset the  equi-
librium of the whole world to such an extent that the emotions of the people
who liven in even the most remote regions of the earth were stirred as  they
had never been stirred before, the people expressing anger, hate,  hysteria,
or gloom according to their nature and temperament.   It is evident to those
who  have  studied the deeper mysteries of life and who understand  the  op-
eration  of natural law in the spiritual worlds that the inhabitants of  the
invisible  realms were affected in perhaps a greater degree than  those  who
lived in physical bodies, which by their very density make it impossible for
us to feel the full force of the emotions.

   After the outbreak of the war the tide of emotions ran high and fast, be-
cause there were no adequate means of checking it;  but by dint of hard work
and  organization the Elder Brothers of humanity succeeded after  the  first
year in creating an army of Invisible Helpers who, having passed through the

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gate  of death and having felt the sorrow and suffering incident to  an  un-
timely transition,  were filled with compassion for the others who were con-
stantly pouring in,  and became qualified to soothe and help them until they
also had found their balance.  Later, however, the emotions of hate and mal-
ice  engendered  by the people in the physical world became so  strong  that
there was danger they might gain the ascendancy;  therefore new measures had
to be taken to counteract these feelings, and everywhere all the good forces
were  marshaled  into line to help restore the balance and  keep  the  baser
emotions down.

   One  of  the  ways in which most people contributed to  the  trouble  and
helped to prolong the war which they were praying might end, was by dwelling
on the AWFUL side of it and forgetting to look at the bright side.

   "The  bright  side of that cruel war?"  is probably  the  question  which
arises in the mind of the reader.  "Why, what can you mean?"  To some it may
perhaps even seem sacrilegious to speak of a bright side in connection  with
such  a calamity,  as they would put it.   But let us see if there is not  a
silver lining to even this blackest of clouds,  and if there is not a method
by  which the silver lining could be made wider and wider so that the  cloud
would become altogether luminous.

   Some  time ago our attention was called to a book  entitled  "Pollyanna."
Pollyanna was the little daughter of  a  missionary,  whose  salary  was  so

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meager  that  he could scarcely obtain the bare necessities of  life.   From
time  to time barrels filled with old clothes and odds and ends  arrived  at
the mission for distribution.   Pollyanna hoped that some day a barrel might
come  containing a little doll.   Her father had even written to ask if  the
next  barrel might not contain a discarded doll for his child.   The  barrel
came, but instead of the doll it contained a pair of small crutches.  Notic-
ing the child's disappointment her father said:   "There is one thing we can
be glad of and grateful for, that we have no need of the crutches."   It was
then they began "playing the game,"  as they called it,  of looking for  and
finding  something for which to be glad and thankful,  no matter  what  hap-
pened,  and they always found it.  For example, when they were forced to eat
a very scant meal at a restaurant,  not being able to afford the dainties on
the menu,  they would say:   "Well, we are glad we like beans,"  even though
their  eyes would rest on the roast turkey and its prohibitive price.   Then
they started to teach the game to others, making many a life the happier for
learning it,  among them some in whom the belief had become fixed that  they
could never again be happy.

   At  last they were really starving,  and Pollyanna's mother had to go  to
heaven  to save the expense of living.   Soon her father  followed,  leaving
Pollyanna dependent upon the bounty of a rich but  crabbed  and inhospitable

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old maiden aunt in Vermont.  Despite the unwelcome reception and undesirable
quarters assigned her at first,  the little girl saw nothing but reasons for
gladness;  she literally radiated joy, drawing under its spell maid and gar-
dener  and in time even the loveless aunt.   The child's roseate  mind  soon
filled  the bare walls and floor of her dingy attic room with all manner  of
beauty.   If  there were no pictures,  she was glad that  he  little  window
opened upon a landscape scene more beautiful than any artist could paint,  a
carpet  of green and gold the like of which not even the cleverest of  human
weavers had ever woven.   If her crude washstand were without a mirror,  she
was  glad that the lack of it spared her seeing her freckles;  and  what  if
they were freckles,  had she not reason to be glad they were not warts?   If
her trunk were small and her clothes few,  was there not reason for gladness
that the unpacking was soon done and over?  If her parents could not be with
her,  could she not be glad that they were with God in heaven?   Since  they
could not talk to her, ought she not to rejoice that she could talk to them?

   Flitting birdlike over field and moor she forgot the supper hour, and be-
ing  ordered upon her return to the kitchen to make her meal there of  bread
and milk,  she said to her aunt who expected tears and pouting, "Oh, I am so
glad  you  did it,  because I am so fond of bread and milk."   Not  a  harsh
treatment, and there were many of them at first, but that she  imagined some

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kindly motive back of it and gave it a grateful thought.

   Her first convert was the housemaid,  who used to look forward with dread
to the weekly wash day and face Monday in a surly mood.  It was not long be-
fore  our little glad girl and Nancy feeling gladder on Monday morning  than
on  any other morning,  because there was not another wash day for  a  whole
week;  and soon she had her glad that her name was not Hepsibah,  but Nancy,
at  which  name  the  latter  had been  disgruntled.   One  day  when  Nancy
remonstratingly said to her, "Sure, there is nothing in a funeral to be glad
about,"  Pollyanna promptly answered,  "Well, we can be glad it isn't ours."
To the gardener, who complained to her that he was bent half over with rheu-
matism,  she also taught the glad game by telling him that being  bent  half
over he ought to be glad that he saved one-half the stooping when he did his
weeding.

   Near her home in a palatial mansion lived an elderly bachelor,  a  sullen
recluse.  The more he rebuffed her, the cheerier she was and the oftener she
went to see him because no one else did.   In her innocence and pity she at-
tributed  his  lack  of courtesy to some secret sorrow,  and  therefore  she
longed  all the more to teach him the glad game.   She did teach it to  him,
and  he learned it,  thought it was hard work at first.   When he broke  his
leg, it was not easy to get him to be glad that but one leg was broken,  and
admit it would have  been  far  worse  if  this legs had been as numerous as

[PAGE 3363]

those of a centipede and he had fractured all of them.   Her sunshiny dispo-
sition  succeeded  at  last in getting him to love the  sunshine,  open  the
blinds, pull up the curtains, and open his heart to the world.  He wanted to
adopt her, but failing in this, he adopted a little orphan boy whom she hand
chanced to meet by the wayside.

   She  made one lady wear bright colors,  who had before worn  only  black.
Another  lady,  rich and miserable because her mind was centered  upon  past
troubles, had her attention directed by Pollyanna to the miseries of others,
and  being  taught through the glad game how to bring  gladness  into  their
lives,  this lady brought an abundance of it also into her own.  All unknown
to  the  little  girl  she reunited in happy home life  a  couple  about  to
separate,  by kindling within their hearts that had grown cold a strong love
for their little ones.  By and by the whole town began to play the glad game
and teach it to others.   Under its influence men and women became different
beings:   the unhappy became happy, the sick became well,  those about to go
wrong found again the right path, and the discouraged took heart again.

   Soon the leading physician in town found it necessary to prescribe her as
he  would some medicine.   "That little girl,"  he said,  "is better than  a
six-quart bottle of tonic.   If anyone can take a grouch out of a person  it
is  she;  a dose of Pollyanna is more curative than a store full of  drugs."
But the greatest miracle which the glad game  worked  was the transformation

[PAGE 3364]

effected in the character of her prim, puritanic aunt.  She who had accepted
Pollyanna in her home as a matter of stern family duty,  developed under her
little  niece's treatment a heart that fairly overran with affection.   Soon
Pollyanna  was  taken out of her bare attic room to a  beautifully  papered,
pictured, carpeted, and furnished room on her aunt's floor.  And so the good
she did reacted upon herself.

   The  story is fiction,  but it is based upon facts rooted in cosmic  law.
What that little girl did with respect to the people in her environment,  we
as students of the Rosicrucian teachings can and ought to do in our own  in-
dividual spheres, both in regard to the matters which pertain to intercourse
with our relatives and immediate associates and with respect to the world at
large.

   As regards its application to war in general,  instead of being gloomy at
defeat  or appalled at catastrophes recorded in sensational newspaper  head-
lines, instead of adding our gloom, hate, and malice to the similar feelings
engendered by others, can we not find a bright side even in such a seemingly
overwhelming calamity?  Surely there is reason to rejoice exceedingly in the
thoughts of self-sacrifice which prompted so many noble men to give up their
work in the world,  their large incomes, and their comfortable homes for the
sake  of  what to them was an ideal to make the world better for  those  who
came  after them,  for they could not help realizing that they  might  never
come  back  to  enjoy  the  fruits  themselves.  Can  we  not  rejoice like-

[PAGE 3365]

wise  that  many  noble  women,  nurtured  in  ease  and comfort, left their 
homes  and  friends  for  the  arduous  work  of  nursing and caring for the 
wounded?  Throughout  all  there  was a spirit of altruism, shared by  those  
who  though  forced  by  circumstances  to say at home  still  put  in their  
time  knitting  and working for those who had to bear  the  brunt of battle.

   Great are the birth pangs by which altruism is being born in millions  of
human hearts,  but through the superlative suffering of the later war human-
ity will become gentler,  nobler,  and better than ever before.   If we  can
only take this view of the recent suffering and sorrow, if we can only teach
others  to look to the future blessings which must accrue through this  pain
and suffering, we shall ourselves be better able to recover from the strain,
and be better qualified to help others do the same.

   In this manner we can imitate Pollyanna,  and if we are only sufficiently
sincere,  our views will spread and take root in other hearts;  then because
thoughts are things and good thoughts are more powerful than evil since they
are in harmony with the trend of evolution,  the day will soon come when  we
shall be able to gain the ascendancy and help establish permanent peace.

   It is hoped that this suggestion may be taken very seriously and put into
practice by everyone of our students,  for the need is great at the  present
time, greater than it has been before.

[PAGE 3366]

        THE ESOTERIC SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER AND THE INCEPTION OF THE

                         ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY:

   AGAIN  the earth has reach the vernal equinox in its annual circle  dance
about the sun, and we have Easter.  The spiritual ray sent out by the Cosmic
Christ each fall to replenish the smoldering vitality of the earth is  about
to ASCEND to the Father's Throne.   The spiritual activities of  fecundation
and germination which have been carried on during the winter and spring will
be followed by material growth and a ripening process during the coming sum-
mer  and  autumn under the influence of the indwelling  Earth  Spirit.   The
cycle  ends  at "Harvest Home."   Thus the great World Drama  is  acted  and
re-enacted  from year to year,  an eternal contest between life  and  death;
each in turn becoming victor and being vanquished as the cycles roll on.

   This great cyclic influx and efflux are not confined in their effects  to
the  earth and its flora and fauna.  They  exercise  an  equally  compelling

[PAGE 3367]

influence upon mankind, though the great majority are unaware of what impels
them to action in one direction or another.  The fact remains, nevertheless,
independent of their cognition that the same earthy vibration which  gaudily
adorns  bird and beast in the spring is responsible for the human desire  to
don gay colors and brighter raiment at that season.   This is also "the call
of the wild," which in summer drives mankind to relaxation amid rural scenes
where  nature spirits have wrought their magic art in field and  forest,  in
order  to recuperate from the strain of artificial conditions  in  congested
cities.

   On the other hand,  it is the "FALL" of the spiritual ray from the sun in
autumn  which  causes resumption of the mental and spiritual  activities  in
winter.   The same germinative force which leavens the seed in the earth and
prepares it to reproduce its kind in multiple, stirs also the human mind and
fosters  altruistic  activities which make the world better.   Did  no  this
great  wave of selfless Cosmic Love culminate at Christmas,  did it not  vi-
brate peace and good will,  there would be no holiday feeling in our breasts
to engender a desire to make others equally happy;  the universal giving  of
Christmas gifts would be impossible, and we should all suffer loss.

   As the Christ walked day by day,  hither and yon,  over the hills and the
valleys of Judea and Galilee,  teaching the multitudes,  all were benefited.
But  He  communed  most  with His disciples, and they, of course, grew apace

[PAGE 3368]

each  day.   The bond of love became closer as time went on,  until one  day
ruthless  hands  took  away the beloved Teacher and put Him  to  a  shameful
death.  But though He had died after the flesh, he continued to commune with
them  in spirit for some time.   At last,  however,  He ascended  to  higher
spheres,  direct touch with Him was lost,  and sadly these men  looked  into
each  other's faces as they asked,  "Is this the end?"   They had  hoped  so
much,  had entertained such high aspirations,  and though the verdant  glory
was  as  fresh upon the sun-kissed landscape as before He  went,  the  earth
seemed cold and dreary, for black desolation gnawed at their hearts.

   Thus  it is also with us who aim to walk after the spirit and  to  strive
with  the flesh,  though the analogy may not have been previously  apparent.
When the "FALL" of the Christ ray commences in autumn and ushers in the sea-
son  of spiritual supremacy,  we sense it at once and commence to  lave  our
should  in the blessed tide with avidity.   We experience a feeling akin  to
that of the apostles when they walked with Christ,  and as the season  wears
on  it  becomes easier and easier to commune with Him,  face to face  as  it
were.   But in the annual course of events Easter and the ASCENSION  of  the
"risen"  Christ ray to the Father leave us in the identical position of  the
apostles when their beloved Teacher went away.  We are desolate and sad;  we
look upon the world as a  dreary  waste and cannot comprehend the reason for

[PAGE 3369]

our  loss,  which is as natural as the changes of ebb and flood and day  and
night--phases of the present age of alternating cycles.

   There  is a danger in this attitude of mind.   If it is allowed  to  grow
upon us, we are apt to cease our work in the world and become dreamers, lose
our balance,  and excite just criticism from our fellow men.   Such a course
of conduct is entirely wrong, for as the earth exerts itself in MATERIAL EN-
DEAVOR to bring forth abundantly in summer after receiving the SPIRITUAL IM-
PETUS in winter,  so ought we also to exert ourselves to greater purpose  in
the world's work when it has been our privilege to commune with the  spirit.
If we do Thus we shall be more apt to excite emulation than reproach.

   We are wont to think of a miser as one who hoards gold,  and such  people
are generally objects of contempt.   But there are people who strive as  as-
siduously  to acquire knowledge as the miser struggles to  accumulate  gold,
who will stoop to any subterfuge to obtain their desire,  and will as  jeal-
ously guard their knowledge as the miser guards his hoard.   They do not un-
derstand  that  by such a method they are effectually closing  the  door  to
greater  wisdom.   The  old Norse theology contained a  parable  which  sym-
bolically elucidates the matter.   It held that all who died fighting on the
battle field (the strong souls who fought the good fight unto the end)  were
carried to Valhalla to be with the gods; while those who died in bed or from
disease  (the  souls  who drifted weakly through life) went  to  the  dismal
Niflheim.  The doughty warriors in  Valhalla feasted daily upon the flesh of

[PAGE 3370]

the boar called Scrimner, which was so constituted that whenever a piece was
cut from it the flesh at once grew again,  so that it was never consumed  no
matter how much was carved.   Thus it aptly symbolized "KNOWLEDGE,"  for  no
matter how much of this we give to others, we always retain the original.

   There is Thus a certain obligation to pass on what we have of  knowledge,
and  "to whom much is given of him much will be required."   Perhaps it  may
not  be  out  of place to recount an experience which  will  illustrate  the
point,  for it was the final "test" applied to myself before I was entrusted
with the teaching embodied in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION,  although  I
was,  of course, at the time unaware that I was being weighed.   It occurred
at a time when i had gone to Europe in search of a teacher who,  I believed,
was  able to aid me to advance on the path of attainment.   But when  I  had
probed his teaching to the bottom and forced him to admit certain  inconsis-
tencies  in it which he could not explain,  I was in a veritable "slough  of
despond,"  ready to return to America.  As I sat in my chair ruminating over
my disappointment,  the feeling that some one else was present came over me,
and  I looked up and beheld the One who has since become my  Teacher.   With
shame  I remember how gruffly I asked who had sent him and what  he  wanted,
for  I  was  thoroughly  disgruntled,  and  I  hesitated considerably before

[PAGE 3371]

accepting his help on the points that had caused me to come to Europe.

   During the next few days my new acquaintance appeared in my room a number
of times,  answering my questions and helping me to solve problems that  had
previously baffled me,  but as my spiritual sight was then poorly  developed
and not always under control, I felt rather skeptical in the matter.   Might
it not be hallucination?   I discussed the question with a friend.   The an-
swers  to  my queries as given by the apparition were  clear,  concise,  and
logical  to a high degree.   They were strictly to the point and  altogether
beyond anything I was capable of conceiving,  so we concluded that the expe-
rience must be real.

   A  few  days later my new friend told me that the Order to which  he  be-
longed  had  a complete solution to the riddle of the  universe,  much  more
far-reaching  than any publicly known teaching,  and that they would  impart
that teaching to me provided I agreed to keep it as an inviolable secret.

   The  I turned on him in anger:   "Ah! do I see the cloven hoof  at  last!
No,  if you have what you say and if it is good for the world to know.   The
Bible expressly forbids us to hide the Light, and I care not to feast at the
source of knowledge while thousands of souls hunger for a solution to  their
problems as I do now."  My visitor then left me and stayed away,  and I con-
cluded that he was an emissary from the Black Brothers.

[PAGE 3372]

   About a month later I decided that I could obtain no greater illumination
in  Europe  and therefore made reservation on a steamer for  New  York.   As
travel was heavy, I had to wait a month for a berth.

   When I returned to my rooms after having purchased my ticket, there stood
my slighted Teacher and he again offered me instruction on condition that  I
keep it secret.   This time my refusal was perhaps more emphatic and  indig-
nant than before, but he did not leave.  Instead he said, "I am glad to hear
you  refuse,  my brother,  and I hope you will always be as zealous in  dis-
seminating our teachings without fear or favor as you have been in this  re-
fusal.  That is the real condition of receiving the teachings."

   How  directions were then given me to take a certain train at  a  certain
depot  and  go to a place I had not heard of before,  how i  there  met  the
Brother  in the flesh,  was taken to the Temple,  and received the main  in-
structions embodied in our literature,  are matters of small interest.   The
point  is  that  had  I agreed to keep the  instructions  secret,  I  should
naturally have been unfit to be a messenger of the Brothers,  and they would
have  had  to  seek another.   Likewise with any of us:   if  we  hoard  the
spiritual blessings we have received, evil is at our door, so let us imitate
the earth at this Easter time.   Let us bring forth in the physical world of
action  the  fruits of the spirit sown in our souls during the  past  wintry
season.  So shall we be more abundantly blessed from year to year.

[PAGE 3373]

                            THE LESSON OF EASTER:

   AND  again  it is Easter.   The dark,  dreary days of  winter  are  past.
mother  nature is taking the cold,  snowy coverlids off the earth,  and  the
millions  and millions of seed sheltered in the soft soil are  bursting  its
crust  and clothing the earth in summer robes,  a riot of gay  and  glorious
colors, preparing the bridal bower for the mating of beasts and birds.  Even
in  this  war-torn year the song of life sounds loudly above  the  dirge  of
death.   "O death,  where is thy sting?   O grave,  where is  thy  victory?"
Christ  has risen--the first fruits.   He is the resurrection and the  life;
whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

   Thus at the present season the mind of the civilized world is turned  to-
wards the feast we call Easter, commemorating the death and resurrection  of
the individual whose life story is written in the Gospels,  the noble  indi-
vidual  known  to the world by the name of Jesus.   But a  Christian  mystic
takes a deeper and more far-reaching view of this  annually recurring cosmic

[PAGE 3374]

event.  For him there is an annual impregnation of the earth with the cosmic
Christ  life;  an INBREATHING which takes place during the fall  months  and
culminates  at  the  winter solstice when we  celebrate  Christmas,  and  an
OUTBREATHING  which  finds  its  completion at  the  time  of  Easter.   The
inbreathing or impregnation is manifested to us in the seeming inactivity of
winter,  but the outbreathing of the Christ life manifests as the  resurrec-
tion force which gives new life to all that lives and moves upon the  earth,
life abundant, not only to sustain but to propagate the perpetuate.

   Thus  the  cosmic drama of life and death is played  annually  among  all
evolving creatures and things from the highest to the lowest,  for even  the
great  and sublime cosmic Christ in His compassion becomes subject to  death
by entering the cramping conditions of our earth for a part of the year.  It
may  therefore be appropriate to call to mind a few ideas  concerning  death
and rebirth which we are sometimes prone to forget.

   Among the cosmic symbols which have been handed down to us from antiquity
none  is  more  common that the symbol of the egg.   It is  found  in  every
religion.   We find it in the Elder Eddas of the Scandinavians,  hoary  with
age, which tell of the mundane egg cooled by the icy blast of Niebelheim but
heated  by the fiery breath of Muspelheim until the various worlds  and  man
had come into being.  If we turn to the sunny south we find the Vedas of In-
dia the same story in the Kalahansa, the Swan in  time and space, which laid

[PAGE 3375]

the  egg  that finally became the world.   Among the Egyptians we  find  the
winged globe and the oviparous serpent,  symbolizing the wisdom manifest  in
this  world of ours.   Then the Greeks took this symbol and venerated it  in
their Mysteries.  It was preserved by the Druids; it was known to the build-
ers of the great serpent mound in Ohio; and it has kept its place in  sacred
symbology  even  to this day,  though the great majority are  blind  to  the
MYSTERIUM MAGNUM which it hides and reveals--the mystery of life.

   When  we  break  open  the shell of an egg,  we  find  inside  only  some
varicolored viscous fluids of various consistencies.  But placed in the req-
uisite temperature a series of changes soon take place,  and within a  short
time a living creature breaks open the shell and emerges therefrom, ready to
take its place among its kin.  it is possible for the wizards of the labora-
tory  to  duplicate the substances in the egg;  they may be  enclosed  in  a
shell,  and  a perfect replica so far as most tests go may be  made  of  the
natural egg.  But in one point it differs from the natural egg, namely, that
no living thing can be hatched from the artificial product.  Therefore it is
evident  that a certain intangible something must be present in one and  ab-
sent in the other.

   This  mystery of the ages which produces the living creature is  what  we
call life.  Seeing  that it cannot be cognized among the elements of the egg

[PAGE 3376]

by even the most powerful microscope (though it must be there to bring about
the changes which we note),  it must be able to exist independently of  mat-
ter.  Thus we are taught by the sacred symbol of the egg that though life is
able to mold matter,  it does not depend upon it for its existence.   It  is
self-existent,  and having no beginning it can have no end.  This is symbol-
ized by the ovoid shape of the egg.

   We are appalled at the carnage on the European battle fields, and rightly
so  because  of  the  manner in which the victims are  being  taken  out  of
physical  life.   But when we consider that the average human life  is  only
fifty years or less,  so that death reaps a harvest of fifteen hundred  mil-
lions in half a century,  or thirty millions per annum,  or two and one-half
millions  every  month,  we see that the total has not been so  greatly  in-
creased after all.   And when we have the true knowledge conveyed by the egg
symbol that life is uncreate, without beginning and without end,  it enables
us  to  take  heart and realize that those who are now being  taken  out  of
physical existence are only passing through a cyclic journey similar to that
of  the cosmic Christ life which enters the earth in the fall and leaves  it
at Easter.   Those who are killed are only going into the invisible  realms,
whence they will later take a new dip into physical matter,  entering as all
living  things do the egg of the mother.   After a period of gestation  they
will re-emerge into physical life to learn new lessons in the great  school.
Thus we see how the  great  law of analogy works in all phases and under all

[PAGE 3377]

circumstances of life.   What happens in the great world to a cosmic  Christ
will  show itself also in the lives of those who are Christs in the  making;
and  this will enable us to look more cheerfully upon the  present  struggle
than would otherwise be the case.

   Furthermore,  we must realize that death is a cosmic necessity under  the
present circumstances for if we were imprisoned in a body of the kind we now
use and placed in an environment such as we find today,  there to live  for-
ever, the infirmities of the body and the unsatisfactory nature of the envi-
ronment  would very soon make us so tired of life that we would cry for  re-
lease.   It would block all progress and make it impossible for us to evolve
to greater heights such as we may evolve to by re-embodiment in new vehicles
and placement in new environments which give us new possibilities of growth.
Thus  we may thank God that so long as birth into a concrete body is  neces-
sary for our further development, release by death has been provided to free
us  from the outgrown instrument,  while resurrection and a new birth  under
the smiling skies of a new environment furnish another chance to begin  life
with  a clean slate and learn the lessons which we failed to master  before.
By this method we shall some time become perfect as is the risen Christ.  He
commanded it, and he will aid us to achieve it.

Continued with file "RC1094.TXT"

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