Filename: RC1095.TXT
Source: "Teachings of an Initiate" by Max Heindel

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                            THE BOW IN THE CLOUD:

   I have a few preliminary explanations to make, a few reasons why the sub-
ject of "The Bow in the Cloud"  is taken up.   I recently dictated the manu-
script  for a book which I have since been editing.   In the course  of  the
dictation there came up certain points that required investigation,  one  of
them being the life force that enters the body through the spleen.  Upon in-
vestigating  it was seen that this force manifests in different colors,  and
that in different kingdoms of life it works differently;  therefore much was
to be looked up before making the information public.  A friend,  upon read-
ing some of the manuscript,  sent to his library in Seattle for a book  pub-
lished  about  forty  years ago called "Babbitt's Principles  of  Light  and
Color."  I referred to this book and found it most interesting, written by a
man who was clairvoyant.  After spending an hour studying the book, I turned
to  investigation myself, with the result that a great deal of new light was

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shed upon the subject.  And it is a deep and profound subject,  for the very
life of God seems to be embodied in these colors.

   Among other things, in tracing back through the Memory of Nature,  in re-
gard to light and color I came to a point where there was no light,  as  has
been shown in the "Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception."   Then I followed the dif-
ferent stages of planetary formation and on down to the point where the  bow
was seen in the cloud.  The whole investigation made such a profound impres-
sion upon me as to fill me with devotion.

   It is stated in the Bible that "God is Light,"  and nothing can reveal to
us  the nature of God in the same degree as that symbol.   If a  clairvoyant
went back into the far,  dim past and looked upon this planet as it was then
formed, he would see at first, as it were, a dark cloud, without form,  com-
ing out of chaos.   Then he would see this cloud of virgin substance  turned
by the Creative Fiat into light--its first visible manifestation, a luminous
fire mist.   Then would come a time when moisture gathered around that  fire
mist, and later the period spoken of as the Moon Period would arrive.  Still
later would come the darker and more dense stage called the Earth Period.

   In the Lemurian Epoch the first incrustation of the earth began when  the
seething,  boiling  water was evaporated.   We know that when  we  boil  and
reboil water,  it incrusts the kettle; likewise the boiling of the  moisture
on the outside of the fiery earth ball formed the hard and crusty shell that

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constitutes the surface of the earth.

   The  Bible says relative to the next epoch that it did not rain upon  the
earth,  but a mist went forth from the earth.   From the damp earth at  that
time  there  issued  a  mist that completely surrounded  it.   Then  it  was
impossible for us to see the sunlight as we do now;  the sun had the appear-
ance  of an arc light of the present time on a dark night;  it had  an  aura
around  it.   In  that  misty atmosphere we dwelt in  the  early  period  of
Atlantis.   Later there came a time when the atmosphere cooled more and more
and  the moisture was condensed into water,  finally driving the  Atlanteans
from their land by a flood such as is recorded in the various religions.

   At the time when that misty atmosphere enwrapped the earth,  the  rainbow
was an impossibility.   This phenomenon usually occurs when there is a clear
atmosphere in some places and a cloud in others.  There came a time when hu-
manity saw the rainbow for the first time.  When I looked upon that scene in
the Memory of Nature,  it was most wonderful.   There were refugees who were
driven from Atlantis, which is now partly under the Atlantic Ocean;  it also
included parts of what are now known as Europe and America.   These refugees
were  driven eastward till they came at last to a place where the  land  was
high,  where the atmosphere had partially cleared,  and where they  saw  the
clear  sky above.  Of a sudden there came up a cloud, and  from  that  cloud

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came lightning.   They heard the roll of thunder,  and they who had  escaped
peril by water and had fled under the guidance of a leader whom they revered
as God,  turned to Him to ask,  "What have we come to now?   Shall we be de-
stroyed  at last?"   He pointed to the rainbow that stood in the  cloud  and
said:   "No,  for so long as that bow stands in the cloud, so long shall the
seasons come one after another in unbroken succession";  and the people with
great admiration and relief looked upon that bow of promise.

   When  we consider the bow as one of the manifestations of Deity,  we  may
learn some wonderful lessons of devotion,  for while we look upon the light-
ning  with awe and hear the thunder with fear,  the rainbow in the sky  must
always provoke in the human heart an admiration for the beauty of its seven-
fold  path of color.   There is nothing to compare with that wonderful  bow,
and I wish to call your attention to a few physical facts concerning it.

   In the first place the rainbow never appears at noon;  it is always after
the  sun has passed downward and has traversed more than half  the  distance
from  the meridian to the horizon that the rainbow appears,  and the  closer
the sun is to the horizon,  the larger,  clearer,  and more beautiful it is.
It never appears in a clear sky.  It usually has for its background the dark
and dreary cloud,  and it is always seen when we turn our face from the sun.
We  cannot  look  towards  the  sun  and  at  the  same  time see a rainbow.

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When we look upon the bow from below, it appears as a half circle above  the
earth and us.  But the higher we get, the more of the circle we see,  and in
the mountains,  when we reach a sufficient height above the rainbow,  we see
it as a sevenfold circle--sevenfold like the Deity of whom it is a  manifes-
tation.

   Now with these physical facts before us, let us go into the mystic inter-
pretation of the subject.  In ordinary life when we are at the height of our
physical activity,  when prosperity is the greatest,  when everything  looks
bright and clear to us,  then we do not need the manifestation of the divine
light and life.   We do not need that covenant,  as it were,  that God  made
with  man  upon his entry into the Aryan Epoch.   We do not care  about  the
higher life;  our bark is sailing upon summer seas,  and we care for nothing
else;  everything  is so good to us here that there seems no reason  why  we
should look beyond.

   But suddenly there comes the tempest,  a time in every life when  sorrows
and troubles come upon us.   The storm of disaster tears away from us  every
physical foundation,  and we stand,  perhaps, alone in the world in  sorrow.
Then when we look away from the sun of physical prosperity,  when we look to
the higher life, we shall always see upon the dark cloud of disaster the bow
that stands as the covenant between God and man,  showing that we are always
able to contact the higher life.  It may not be best for  us  then to do so,

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for  we all need a certain material evolution,  which is  best  accomplished
when we do not contact too closely the higher life.   But in order to evolve
and  progress and gradually seek a higher and higher state of  spirituality,
there  must in time come to us troubles and trials which will bring us  into
contact with the higher life.   When we can look upon trial and  tribulation
as a means to that end,  then sorrows become the greatest blessings that can
come to us.   When we feel no hunger, what do we care about food?   But when
we feel the pangs of starvation and are seated before a meal,  no matter how
coarse the fare, we feel very thankful for it.

   If we sleep every night of our lives and sleep well, we do not appreciate
what a blessing it is.   But when we have been kept awake night after  night
and  have craved sleep,  then when it comes with its corresponding rest,  we
realize its great value.   When we are in health and feel no pain or disease
in  our bodies,  we are prone to forget that there ever was such a thing  as
pain.   But just after recovering from an illness or after we have  suffered
much, we realize what a great blessing health is.

   So  in the contrast between the rays of the sun and the darkness  of  the
cloud, we see in the latter the bow that beckons us on to a higher life; and
if we will only look up to that, we shall be much better off than if we con-
tinue in the paths of the lower life.

   Many  of  us  are  prone  to  worry  over  little  things.  This  reminds

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me  of  a  story  recently  printed  in  one  of  our  papers  of  a  little
boy  who had climbed a ladder.   He had been looking up as he was  climbing,
and had gone so far up that a fall would have meant death.   Then he stopped
and looked down, instantly becoming dizzy.  When we look down from a height,
we  become  dizzy and afraid.   But some one above called to him  and  said:
"Look up,  little boy.  Climb up here, and I will help you."   He looked up,
and at once the dizziness and fear left him;  then he climbed up until taken
in at a window.

   Let us look up and endeavor to forget the little worries of life, for the
bow of HOPE is always in the cloud.  As we endeavor to live the higher  life
and climb the sublime heights toward GOD,  the more we shall find the bow of
peace becoming a circle and that there is peace here below as well as  there
above.   It is our duty to accomplish the work we have to do in  the  world,
and  we  should never shrink from that duty.   Still we have a duty  to  the
higher  life,  and it is in the interests of the latter that we  gather  to-
gether  on  Sunday night and by massing our aspirations advance  toward  the
spiritual heights.

   We should remember that we each have within a latent spiritual power that
is greater than any worldly power,  and as it is unfolding,  we are  respon-
sible for its use.  To increase that power we should endeavor to devote part
of our leisure time to the cultivation of the higher life, so that when  the

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cloud of disaster comes upon us,  we shall by the aid of that power find the
bow within the cloud.   As the bow is seen at the end of the storm,  so when
we have gained the power to see the bright rainbow in our cloud of disaster,
the  end  of that disaster has come, and the bright side begins  to  appear.
The greater the disaster,  the greater the needed lesson.   When on the path
of wrong doing we sooner or later are kindly but firmly whipped into line by
the realities of life, and forced to recognize that the path of truth is up-
ward and not downward and that God rules the world.

                       THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE:

   At the time in the far,  dim past when we began our lives as human beings
we had had very little experience,  and consequently we had very little  re-
sponsibility.  Responsibility depends upon knowledge.  The animals, we find,
are not amenable to the law of causation from the moral standpoint, although
of course,  if an animal jumps out of a window, it is amenable to the law of
physical  causation,  inasmuch as when it falls upon the ground beneath,  it
may possibly break a limb or cause itself some injury.   If a man should  do
the same thing,  he would be amenable to the law of responsibility in  addi-
tion to the law of cause and effect.   There is for him a moral responsibil-
ity,  for he knows better, and he has no right to injure the instrument that
has been given him.   So we see that we are morally responsible according to
our knowledge.

   As  we  have  gone  through  the experiences of many lives, more and more

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faculties have become ours,  and we are born each time with the  accumulated
talents which are the results of the experiences of those lives.  We are re-
sponsible,  therefore,  for the way we use them.   It is necessary  that  we
should put these talents to use in life, for unless we do, they will atrophy
just  as  surely as will the hand that is not used and that hangs  limp  and
idle by the side.  Just as surely as that hand atrophies, so surely will our
spiritual  faculties  atrophy  unless we put them to usury  and  gain  more.
There can be no resting,  no halting on this path of evolution which we  are
treading; we must either go forward or else degenerate.

   There is, then, evidently much responsibility attached to knowledge.  The
more knowledge we have, the more responsibility we have--that is very plain.
But  looking at it from the still deeper viewpoint of the occult  scientist,
there is a responsibility attached to knowledge which is not ordinarily per-
ceived by humanity,  and it is this particular phase of responsibility  that
we wish to discuss here.

   Mabel  Collins avers that the story in her book called "THE  BLOSSOM  AND
THE FRUIT,  OR THE STORY OF FLETA, A BLACK MAGICIAN," is a true story.   She
states that the material for this story was brought from a far distant coun-
try in a very strange manner, and that from the standpoint of one who knows,
there are in it some of the very deepest truths pertaining to the gaining of
knowledge and its use.  We are  told there how Fleta in the beginning of her

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embodiments,  while still in the savage state, murdered her lover,  and that
from that murder, through the cruelty involved in it, she obtained a certain
power.   That power, naturally, according to the deed, went in the direction
of black magic.  Therefore in the life with which the story deals,  she pos-
sessed  the  power  of a black magician.  She forced her lover  to  kill  an
entity in order that she might gain new power.   It was in this black manner
that she utilized her knowledge.

   There  is a very deep truth here.   All knowledge that is  not  saturated
with life is empty,  purposeless, and useless.  The life that gives power to
knowledge  may be obtained in various ways,  and may also be put to  use  in
various ways.   Once it has been obtained, it may be stored in a   talisman,
and  then used by others for a good or for an evil purpose according to  the
character of the one who uses it.  If it is stored within the one who devel-
ops  the power himself,  then it will be used according to the character  of
that man or woman.  This is on the same principle that we may store up elec-
tricity in a battery, so that it may be taken away from the electric station
and  used  for a variety of purposes by others than the one who  stored  it.
So, also, the dynamic power that comes through the sacrifice of life for the
purpose  of  gaining occult power,  may be used in one way or the  other  if
stored in a talisman.

   We see this great fact in life  particularly illustrated in the legend of

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Parsifal.   In  this beautiful legend,  the cleansing blood of  the  Savior,
given  in  noble self-sacrifice--not taken from another--was received  in  a
vessel  which  then became a talisman, and was capable of  giving  spiritual
power to many who looked upon it if they were pure,  chaste,  and  harmless.
We  have also the symbol of the spear which was the cause of the wound  from
which  the blood flowed.   This was stained with the cleansing blood,  which
made  it  a  talisman that could be variously used.   during  the  reign  of
Titurel the Grail mystery was powerful;  but when th Grail was given over to
Amfortas,  son  of Titurel,  he went out armed with the holy spear  to  slay
Klingsor.   He then ceased to be harmless;  he wanted to pervert that  great
spiritual power and use it to slay an enemy.  Even though it was an enemy of
the good, it was not right to use that power for that purpose, and therefore
the power turned against him.  He had ceased to be chaste,  pure,  and harm-
less, and then the power gave him the wound that would never heal.  So it is
also in other cases.

   We read of David the bloody man of war,  who was forbidden by the Lord to
build  the Temple.   Even though that Lord was a god of war,  having had  to
punish nations in order to bring them into the right,  He could not use  the
instrument which had been soiled by the blood of His wars for the purpose of
building a temple.  That had to be left to David's son, Solomon,  the man of
peace.  We are told how Solomon  desired  wisdom,  great  knowledge,  not in

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order that he might gain the victory over his enemies,  not in order that he
might increase his territory and make his people a great nation,  but in or-
der that he might better rule the people who had been placed under his care;
and knowledge was given to him abundantly.

   We also learn how Parsifal, the antithesis of Amfortas, was the offspring
of a man of war, a bloody man, who died.   Through herzleide,  heart afflic-
tion,  the posthumous child Parsifal came into the world.  In the first part
of  his career he used the bow,  but at a certain stage he broke it,  became
chaste,  pure,  and harmless, and by the power of these qualities stood firm
in the day of temptation,  and wrested the spear from Klingsor,  who had had
it since the day when Amfortas lost it.  Parsifal, in his wanderings between
the  time  when he received the speak and the time when he returned  to  the
Grail Castle,  was beset by many temptations and much sorrow,  trouble,  and
tribulation.   Men had sought his life,  and many times he realized that  he
might  have  saved  himself by the use of the holy spear if  he  would  have
turned  it against his enemies.   But he knew that the spear was to be  used
not for hurt but for healing;  he realized the sacredness of the power which
the  sacrificial blood had given to the talisman,  and that it must only  be
used for the very highest purpose.

   So  we  find  everywhere that those who come into possession of spiritual

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power  will never make use of it for any selfish purpose.   No  matter  what
trouble comes to them,  they stand firm on that point.   No matter how  hard
they may be beset, they never for a moment think of prostituting their power
for selfish gain.   Though such a one, if he likes,  may feed five  thousand
who  are hungry and way from their source of supply,  he will not take  even
one  little stone and turn it to bread to appease his own hunger.   Although
he may stand before his enemies and heal them,  as the Christ healed the ear
of the Roman soldier,  he will refuse to use spiritual power to staunch  the
blood  that flows from his own side.   It has always been said of  such  men
that "others they saved, themselves they would not save."  They could always
have  done  so,  for the power is great.  But if they had so used  it,  they
would have lost it; they had no right to thus prostitute their power.

   Then  there is a different kind of mystery from that of the  Grail.   For
instance,  John  the Baptist's head was placed upon a platter after  he  had
been  sacrificed,  and others derived a certain power by looking  upon  that
spectacle.   The Greek myth tells us of Argus,  who had so many eyes that he
could see everywhere--he was clairvoyant.  But he used his power for a wrong
purpose, and Mercury, the god of wisdom, cut off his head, and took away the
power.   Every time that a man seeks to use spiritual knowledge and power in
a wrong way, he will lose them; they cannot remain his.

[PAGE 3451]

   Even when we look at knowledge from a scientific standpoint,  we  realize
that it takes life,  for every thought which we think breaks down tissue  in
our  brain,  which is built of little cells.   Every cell has its own  indi-
vidual  cell life,  and that life is destroyed by thinking,  or rather,  the
form is destroyed so that the life can no longer manifest in it.   There  is
always  the  taking  of life in whatever direction we  go  after  knowledge.
There are those who take life in scientific experiments out of pure  curios-
ity.   There are those who are cruel in the taking of life,  as in  vivisec-
tion,  and here,  when the quest of knowledge is pursued solely from the mo-
tive  of curiosity,  there is a dreadful debt laid up against a future  day,
for the equilibrium will surely be restored.

   So  we find it in the case of Fleta,  that the sacrifice of life  at  one
time  in the physical world was followed by sacrifice in another world;  but
through  it  she  gained a power that brought her even to  the  very  temple
doors, where she stood and demanded Initiation.  Her motives, however,  like
those of Klingsor,  were not pure.   She was not chaste,  not fitted to have
spiritual power in its full measure and to be counted as one of the  helpers
of  humanity;  therefore she was banished from the door of the  temple,  and
died  the death of the black magician.  A veil hangs before that death,  and
we are not told what is behind it.  Those things are perhaps better left un-
told.   But the lesson is just as valid, that we cannot take life nor  in  a
wrongful way amass knowledge without incurring a dreadful liability thereby.

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The only reason which is satisfactory and proper for the quest of  knowledge
is that we may thereby serve and help the race in a more efficient way.

   At  the present time the sacrifice of life in obtaining knowledge is  un-
avoidable;  we cannot help it.   But we should seek that knowledge with  the
purest and the bet of motives, for the life that we destroy is legion.   The
occultist,  who sees the life that is coming to birth,  the  elemental  life
which  is seeking embodiment and which is deprived of its forms by the  pro-
cess  of obtaining knowledge,  is amazed sometimes at the vast loss  of  the
separate  life that is thus sacrificed, and sacrificed to no  good  purpose.
Therefore  we reiterate that no one has the right to seek  knowledge  unless
with the purest and the best of motives.

   If,  on the other hand,  we walk the path of duty, if we seek to do those
things well and thoroughly which come to our hands, and if we have spiritual
aspirations without aiming to force spiritual growth,  then we shall be com-
paratively easily fitted for having higher powers.   It is a beautiful  fea-
ture  of  the  Rosicrucian exercises that they not only  give  us  spiritual
knowledge, but they fit us for having that knowledge.  We must learn to walk
the path of duty,  to live the good life.   Never mind a long life;  so many
people, as Thomas a Kempis says, are concerned with living a long life.  But
never mind this.  Rather,  let  us  strive  each day to do our duty; then we

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shall surely be fit to have the higher knowledge that goes with exalted pow-
ers.

   No matter what our sphere,  there is always a place where we may make use
of our knowledge,  not to preach sermons, not to talk to people from morning
till night about the things we know that they may admire our knowledge,  but
that we may live the spiritual life among them, that we may stand to them as
living  examples  of  our  teachings.   There is for  everyone  of  us  this
opportunity.  We need no look very far for it; it is right here.

   Thomas  a Kempis has expressed this in a manner which only a  mystic  can
do.  He has given the idea in such beautiful words that it would pay us well
to read and ponder a few of them in his "Imitation of Christ."  He says:

   "Every  man  naturally desireth to know,  but what does  knowledge  avail
without the fear of God.   Surely,  an humble husbandman that serveth God is
better  than a proud philosopher who studies the course of the heavens,  and
neglecteth himself.....The more thou knowest,  the heavier will be thy judg-
ment unless thy life be also the more holy.  Be,  therefore,  not puffed up,
but  rather fear for the knowledge that is given thee.   If it seem to  thee
that  thou  knowest  much,  remember  that  there are many things which thou

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knowest not.  Thou knowest not how long thou mayest prosper in well doing."

   Therefore let us remember that we should not seek after knowledge  simply
for the sake of knowledge, but only as a means to the living of a better and
a purer life, for that alone justifies it.

                     THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS:

   Our  subject is taken from the Bible story of "The Temple in the  Wilder-
ness,"  and  we shall endeavor to interpret it from the  standpoint  of  the
Rosicrucian  teachings.   It may seem to those who have  not  studied  these
teachings that one interpretation is as valid and as worthy of belief as an-
other,  but further consideration of the subject may give a somewhat differ-
ent opinion.   Peter,  in his second Epistle,  first chapter and 20th  verse
says:   "Knowing this first,  that no prophecy of the Scriptures is  of  any
private interpretation."   In our daily life we understand that if our opin-
ion on any subject is to be considered valuable,  that opinion must be based
upon  a certain amount of knowledge of the subject.   The testimony of  wit-
nesses in a court is based upon this principle.   If a person well qualified
by study or experience expresses an opinion upon a subject,  he is  listened
to with respect and receives due consideration.   It should be the same with
one interpreting the Scriptures. 

[PAGE 3455]

   You  will notice that Peter says that the Scriptures are not  of  private
interpretation.   The Roman Catholics have held during many  centuries  (and
have been censured for so maintaining) that they are an authority on  inter-
pretation  of the Scriptures.   There is some foundation for this  position,
for every Pope who has ever been at the head of the Vatican, with one excep-
tion, has had his spiritual sight unfolded.

   It  is  not claimed that the Popes have wielded their power  wisely,  but
nevertheless  they have not been blind leaders of the blind.   It is such  a
claim  that Peter makes for himself.   He says,  "We have not followed  cun-
ningly  devised fables when we made known unto you the power and  coming  of
our Lord Jesus Christ,  but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."   (II  Peter,
1:16)  "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" says Paul in the 9th chapter
of First Corinthians, first verse.

   There  is  thus a foundation for their writings and their  teaching,  and
this foundation is that they have seen and heard.   We might go further  and
show  that those who were associated with the Christ when He was upon  earth
had  spiritual  sight.   They had been taken upon the Mount  of  Initiation,
there they saw Moses and Elijah, who had both long since passed out and were
no longer in the physical world.  They beheld them, and saw and heard things
whereof they might not speak.   Therefore by the unfoldment of the sixth  or
spiritual sense they had a foundation for their teaching.  They were capable

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of interpreting the teaching given them, the proof of which they had seen.

   In  the  Rosicrucian  Fellowship  we do not believe  that  the  power  of
spiritual  sight  is given only to the few but that it is a  faculty  to  be
acquired  by  every  human  being in the course  of  his  or  her  spiritual
unfoldment.   Some  day we shall all acquire spiritual sight,  and  then  we
shall know that the things previously stated are true.  There are some among
us  who have unfolded spiritual sight, and have by that unfoldment  acquired
the ability to see beyond the veil,  to read from the Memory of Nature,  and
to  find reflected therein from a higher world the causes that produced  our
present civilization.   Some can also see into the future,  and thus know of
the future work of evolution.   The Scriptures have not been taken up by the
writer and interpreted according to his personal understanding, but this in-
formation  is the result of an understanding obtained by means of  spiritual
vision.

   In the first place let it be understood,  as previously said in  speaking
of the Christian mysteries, that the four Gospels are not merely accounts of
the life of a single individual, written by four different people,  but that
they are symbolical of different Initiations.   Paul says,  "Until Christ be
formed in you."   Everyone will some day go through the four stages that are
depicted  in the four Gospels,  for everyone is unfolding the Christ  spirit
within himself.  And in saying this of the four Gospels,  we may also  apply
the  same  assertion  to  a  great  part  of  the Old Testament, for it is a

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wonderful book of occultism.  When we hoe potatoes, we do not expect to find
only potatoes and no earth; neither should we expect to dig into the book we
call  the Bible and find every word an occult truth,  for as there  must  be
soil between the potatoes,  so must there be dross between occult truths  in
the Bible.

   The  four Gospels were written in a manner such that only those who  have
the  right  to know can unveil what is meant and understand  the  underlying
facts.   So likewise in the Old Testament we find great occult  truths  that
become  very plain when we can look behind the veil that blinds most of  us. 
Many for the present must forego occult sight in order to master the  condi-
tions of material evolution and thereby perfect themselves for the  pursuits
of  the material world.   But we of the Western world are now on the  occult
arc;  we are on the shore of the spiritual sea,  where we individually shall
gather the pearls of knowledge that have been hidden by the matter that  has
blinded us.

   We will now discuss a form of Initiation depicted in a part of the Bible,
describing the journey of man from the clod to God.   When we enter into the
collection of writings which we call the Bible,  we find that it begins with
five books which are commonly called the five Books of Moses.  These tell of
the  journey of a so-called "chosen people"  from Egypt to a promised  land,
and how they passed through the water called the Red Sea, guided in a manner
called  supernatural;  after  many,  many  years and after many of those who 

[PAGE 3458]

first set out upon that journey had perished,  they finally reached the land
that was promised.  And yet Paul in his letter to the Hebrews speaks of that
covenant  as having been unable of fulfillment,  for that which should  have
been  accomplished failed.   This is a fact.  When we make a law,  there  is
also a means for transgressing that law;  therefore it is impossible for law
to save. 

   There was a time when humanity was in such a state that it was impossible
to  guide them at all without law--law telling them in all cases  what  they
must  do and what they must not do.   Therefore it was the mission of  their
leader to give them such laws,  and these were embodied in the five Books of
Moses.   Historically  the Israelites were a people who  traveled  not  from
Egypt  to  Palestine,  but  who were taken  by  their  leaders  from  doomed
Atlantis, where the condensing moisture in the atmosphere caused floods that
rendered the land uninhabitable,  into the central part of Asia.   This com-
pany of men and women had been selected as a nucleus for a chosen race,  and
they have since become what is known as the Aryan race.  While this may be a
historical  interpretation,  still  there  is  within  this  story  a  great
spiritual lesson,  particularly in that part of the story which we are  con-
sidering.

   In the COSMO-CONCEPTION is given an illustration of two men standing on a
street corner; one knocks the other down.  An  observer  might  say  that an

[PAGE 3459]

angry thought knocked the man down.  Another would contradict that statement
and  say that he saw the arm lifted and a blow landed upon the  man's  face,
causing  him to fall to the ground.  The latter version is true,  but  there
was  a  thought also;  the arm was but an irresponsible instrument.   It  is
thought  that moves everything,  and when we look upon the hidden or  occult
side of effects,  we get a far deeper understanding of causes.   It is  from
this viewpoint that we shall speak of the Temple in the Wilderness.

   In our Bible there is a description of the first people upon earth.  They
are called Adam and Eve; but properly interpreted this means the human race,
which gradually arrogated to itself the power of procreation and thereby be-
came free agents.   Humanity was thus given its freedom and made responsible
to the law of Consequence,  for it had arrogated to itself the power to cre-
ate  new bodies,  and was then separated from th Tree of life and the  state
which we are now cognizant of as etheric.  When we learn that we have a  vi-
tal  body made of ether,  and that it is the tree of life to everyone of  us
and  furnishes us the vitality whereby we are enabled to make the  movements
of the body, we may understand why the power to recreate and regenerate our-
selves  was taken away from us lest we learn how to vitalize  the  imperfect
dense body; and we also see why as stated in the Bible, there were placed at
the  gate of the Garden of Eden Cherubim with flaming swords to  guard  that
region.

[PAGE 3460]

   This story is told in the beginning of the Bible,  but in the end of  the
book, in Revelation, we are told about a city where there is peace among the
people.  Two cities are mentioned in the Bible; one, Babylon, a city of sor-
row and tribulation,  where confusion started,  where humanity first  became
estranged, one from another, where brotherhood ceased; also another city,  a
new one,  a New Jerusalem,  is described where there will be peace.   We are
further  told in Revelation that in this New Jerusalem is the Tree of  life,
symbolizing the power to regenerate ourselves,  whereby we shall regain that
health and beauty that we at present lack.

   It  was for a good purpose that this power was taken away.   It  was  not
through malice in order that man should suffer in sorrow and pain,  but  be-
cause  it was only by repeated existences in an inferior body that we  could
learn to build for ourselves such a vehicle as would be fit to  immortalize. 
Man gradually came down from the etheric state as easily then as he can  to-
day dwell in the present three elements of the physical world.   In the past
etheric state he contacted internally the life currents that we now  contact
unconsciously.  He was then able to center the energy of the sun in his body
and draw it in a manner different from that at present used.  This power was
gradually  taken  away from him as he entered the more solid  state  of  the
present.

   Then began the journey through the wilderness, a wilderness of  space and 

[PAGE 3461]

of matter;  and we shall continue to so journey until we reenter the etheric
realm consciously--that realm called the New Heaven and the New Earth, where
righteousness  will  dwell  and where there will be no  more  sin.   At  the
present time we are still traveling through the wilderness of space,  as  we
shall see if we study the Bible understandingly.   Not the English  version,
however,  as that was prepared by translators who were hampered by an  edict
of  King James instructing them not to translate anything that would in  any
manner interfere with the existing belief of that time.

   The  first  thing that we learn from the occult point of view  about  the
temple  that was built in the wilderness is that Moses was called  into  the
mountain  and there shown certain patterns.  You will remember we have  been
told  in  the COSMO-CONCEPTION that in the heaven world  there  are  pattern
pictures--archetypes.  We find in the Greek language the word "APXN" meaning
"in the beginning,"  that is, the commencement.  The Christ says of Himself,
or rather the Initiate who understands his divinity says:   "I am the begin-
ning  (APXN)  and the end."   There is in that word "beginning"  (APXN)  the
nucleus for everything we have here.

   In the temple there was placed an ark, and the ark was arranged in such a
manner  that the staves could not or should not be taken out of  it;  during
the  whole  journey through the wilderness those staves must  remain  there. 
They were never removed until the ark was taken into the temple  of Solomon.

[PAGE 3462]

We  see here a state where a certain symbol,  an archetype,  something  that
comes from the beginning,  is made in such a manner that it can be taken  up
at  any  time and carried further on.  In that ark was  the  nucleus  around
which  everything  in  the temple centered.  There was the  magical  rod  of
Aaron, and there was the pot of manna; also the two tablets of the law.

   We  have here described a perfect symbol of what man really is,  for  all
the  while  he is going through this vale of matter and  is  traveling  con-
tinually from one place to another, the staves are never under any condition
removed.   They are not removed until he comes to that state  symbolized  in
Revelation  where it is said,  "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar  in
the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out." 

   During  all  the time that has intervened from the moment when  man  com-
menced his passage through matter,  he has had that spirit of peregrination. 
He does not remain stationary.   Every so often the temple was taken up,  an
the  ark was carried farther on to a new place.   So also is man taken  from
place to place from environment to environment, from condition to condition. 
It  is not an aimless journey,  for it has for its goal that promised  land,
the  New Jerusalem,  where there shall be peace.   But while man is on  this
journey he must know that there will be no rest and no peace.

   This  is  the result of the law which man has transgressed in  a  certain
sense.  It was not designed at the beginning that we should go  through such

[PAGE 3463]

an  evolution as this,  such a vale of sorrow and tears as we have been  and
are  passing through.   We are told that the creative force that was  latent
within  and that we are just beginning to use constructively was first  used
by us under the direction of the angels,  who took care that procreation was
carried on at times when the planetary conditions were favorable.  Then par-
turition was painless.  Everything was good on the earth.  The Lord had made
everything  so  that it was good.   But there came a time when  the  Lucifer
spirits,  whom we recognize as the stragglers from the angel evolution,  had
to  have  a brain in order that they might function in the  physical  world. 
Therefore they showed us how we might use our creative force in a manner in-
dependent of the guidance of the angels, so that when a body was cast off in
death,  as it had to be when it became useless, it would be possible for the
human being to create another body.

   So we have these two classes working in different parts of the body:  the
Lucifer  spirits,  that have since worked on us through the spinal cord  and
the brain;  and the angels who have charge of the propagative faculty in  so
far as it does not interfere with our own action.  Here,  at this point,  is
where  free  will and choice come in and also the Law of  Consequence.   The
animals  are not responsible in the way we are;  if an animal jumps  from  a
height,  it hurts itself in a physical manner,  but there the responsibility
ends; while if we should do the same thing, we should incur similar physical 

[PAGE 3464]

results and in addition a moral responsibility,  for we know better than  to
injure the physical vehicle unnecessarily.   Thus the Law of Consequence at-
taches to every act of a human being when free will is attained.

   Whatever we do that is wrong has in some way to be brought to our notice. 
Sorrow and pain have been the taskmasters who have guided us aright,  and in
order that we might in time know how to do right, the Law of Consequence was
given.   In the ark, which symbolized the human being, there were placed the
tablets of the law,  and there was also placed the pot of manna.   The  word
"manna"  signifies not bread that came from heaven but the thinker, the Ego,
which  descended from the higher spheres.  In almost every language we  have
the word "man."   In Sanskrit, German, Scandinavian,  etc.,  the root is the
same.   In  the ark is the thinker,  and he is being carried  about  in  the
temple in the wilderness during the present stage of his evolution.

   There  is in us also the spiritual power symbolized by the rod of  Aaron. 
Aaron's rod,  we remember, was one that budded when all others remained bar-
ren.   There is in each one of us a spiritual power that has  become  latent
during the time we have been going through the pilgrimage of matter,  and it
is for us to awaken this power.  We have spoken a number of times about this
spiritual power--how the use of it brings blessings into the world when used

[PAGE 3465]

as Parsifal used it,  and how when misused, as did Amfortas,  it brings sor-
row.

   This spiritual power is latent at the present time because humanity, sym-
bolized by the traveling ark,  has not fitted itself to receive it.   We are
too selfish,  and we must cultivate unselfishness before we shall be trusted
to  wield  this wonderful power.   Peter is very emphatic in regard  to  the
teachers  who may come among us,  when he speaks of false teachers and  says
they will make merchandise of us.   Such are they who have lessons in  this,
that,  and the other kind of spiritual science to sell,  more than likely in
astrology,  at perhaps five dollars per lesson.   They have these things  to
give us for the coin of the realm, but we must remember that it is not money
but merit that counts in spiritual attainment every time,  and it is  impos-
sible  to initiate a man into higher spiritual powers for a few  dollars  or
any material consideration.   Just as it is necessary to load the pistol be-
fore pulling the trigger will cause the explosion,  so also is it  necessary
that we have stored up within ourselves the force,  the spiritual power sym-
bolized by Aaron's rod,  before we can have that power turned to its  proper
and  legitimate use.   And this is one of the great lessons in the story  of
the ark.

   If we continue to travel and travel,  take rebirth after rebirth,  and do
not at some time learn to obey the voice of God, hold His commandments holy,
and live the good life, we cannot  expect  to  reach  the City of Peace, but

[PAGE 3466]

must be content to remain in the land of sorrow and suffering.

   How  then  are we to unfold our spiritual power?   What is the  way,  the
truth,  and the life?  We have had the threefold path shown us in the glori-
ous teaching of the Christ.   Ordinary humanity all over the world are being
worked upon by law,  which works upon the desire body and holds it in check. 
The thinker is pitted against the flesh.  But under law no one can be saved. 
We also have the vital body spoken of in our teaching.  This is the vehicle,
as Paul has said, of love and attraction.  If we can overcome the passionate
side of our nature, if we can get away from the lower vibrations of love, if
we can cultivate within ourselves purity, and if we can withstand temptation
as did Parsifal and live the pure life,  then every day we cultivate  within
ourselves  a power.   This power is the power of love,  which  will  express
itself in our lives in service,  and gradually it will accumulate to such an
extent  that  it  will be like the powder in the loaded  pistol.   Then  the
Teacher will come to us and show us how to liberate the power we have stored
up within our being.

   It  depends  upon ourselves how long we shall travel in  the  wilderness. 
Everyone  of us has the power latent within that will bring him or her  into
the City of Peace, a place apart from sorrow and suffering.   Everyone of us
can and must make the start sometime, and  the  first  step is purification,

[PAGE 3467]

for without the pure life there can be no spiritual advancement.  "Ye cannot
serve  God and mammon,"  it is said.   But mammon is usually interpreted  to
mean the gold of the world.   Yet a man may remain in his business and  take
care of it for the good of all, not for his own selfish greed and  interest,
doing  everything possible for others,  and not be serving mammon no  matter
how much he may be accumulating.   A person may love only a few around  him,
but  there is a higher love that flows out to others not in his  own  circle
which  must be observed.   Every duty must be fulfilled that we may  thereby
take  advantage of the higher opportunities that are ever opening up  before
us.

   And  so we must all learn our lessons in service:   service to  humanity,
service  to animals,  service to our younger brothers,  service  everywhere. 
This alone will bring us out of the "wilderness."  It is said that those who
were highest in the temple were those who served;  and the Christ said,  "He
who would be the greatest among you, let him be the servant of all."  Let us
all strive to render this service.  It is easy to do if we will.   Then some
day in the not far distant future we shall hear that gentle voice, the voice
of  the Teacher,  which comes to everyone who serves and who listens to  the
voice of God.

Continued with file "RC1096.TXT"

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