Filename: RC1103.TXT
Source: "The Web of Destiny" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 3704]

                     THE OCCULT EFFECTS OF OUR EMOTIONS:

                           THE FUNCTION OF DESIRE:

   Those  who have given the matter study are familiar with the havoc  which
an acute attack of fear or worry plays with the physical body.   We know how
these emotions derange digestion,  interfere with the metabolic changes  and
with elimination of waste,  and, in short, upset the whole system,  with the
result  that  in some cases the person is forced to take to his  bed  for  a
longer or shorter time depending upon the severity of the attack and the re-
sistive power of the constitution.   But there is an occult effect which  is
equally serious or more so that is usually not understood, and it may there-
fore be of considerable benefit to study the occult effect of poise and pas-
sion, anger and love, pessimism and optimism.

   From  the study of the Cosmo we learn that our desire body was  generated
in  the  Moon Period.   If you wish to obtain a mental picture  of  the  way
things looked then,  take an illustration of the foetus as shown in any book
of anatomy.  There are three principal parts:  the PLACENTA, which is filled
with  the  maternal  blood,  the  UMBILICAL  CORD,  which carries this vital

[PAGE 3705]

stream,  and THE FOETUS, which is nourished from embryo to maturity thereby.
Fancy now,  in that far off time, the firmament as one immense placenta from
which there depended billions of umbilical cords,  each with its foetal  ap-
pendage.  Through the whole human family, then in the making, circulated the
one universal essence of desire and emotion,  generating in all the impulses
to action which are now manifest in every phase of the world's work.   These
umbilical  cords  and foetal appendages were molded from  the  moist  desire
stuff by the emotions of THE LUNAR ANGELS,  while the fiery desire  currents
which were endeavoring to stir the latent life in mankind,  then in the mak-
ing, were generated by the fiery martial Lucifer Spirits.  The color of that
first slow vibration which they set in motion in that emotional desire stuff
was red.

   And  while  that  tincture  of trouble (for  that  is  really  what  this
ever-flowing,  eternal restlessness is which even now drives us  on  without
pause or peace) was circulating within us, the planet on which we dwelt also
circled  about a sun,  not our present light-giver but a past embodiment  of
the  substance  which composes our present solar universe,  and we  in  turn
circled  the globe on which we dwelt, from light to darkness,  from heat  to
cold.   We were thus worked upon from within and without in an  endeavor  to
stir the sleeping consciousness.  And there was a response,  for though none

[PAGE 3706]

of  the  partially separated spirits dwelling in an  individual  foetal  sac
would have been able to feel these impacts,  although they were very strong,
the  cumulative feelings of billions of such spirits were sensed as a  sound
in  the  universe,  A  COSMIC CRY--THE FIRST NOTE  IN  THE  HARMONY  OF  THE
SPHERES--played upon a single string.  It was,  nevertheless,  expressive in
an adequate measure of the latent longings and aspirations of the  incipient
human race of those far bygone days.

   This desire nature has since evolved;  the fiery,  martial sub-stratum of
passion and the aqueous lunar basis of emotion have become capable of numer-
ous  combinations.   As thought furrows the brain into convolutions and  the
face into lines,  so have the passions, desires,  and emotions marshaled the
mobile desire stuff into curved lines and whorls, eddies, rapids, and whirl-
pools,  resembling a mountain torrent at the time when it is at its greatest
disturbance--it is seldom ever at even comparative rest.   This desire stuff
has,  in successive periods of its evolution, become responsive to one after
another  of  the seven planetary vibrations emanating from the  Sun,  Venus,
Mercury,  Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.  Each individual desire body has,
during that time,  been woven into a unique pattern,  and as the shuttle  of
fate flies back and forth unceasingly upon the loom of destiny, this pattern

[PAGE 3707]

is being enlarged upon,  embellished, and beautified, though we may not per-
ceive  it.   As the weaver always does his work on the reverse side  of  his
tapestry,  so are we also weaving without fully understanding  the  ultimate
design  or seeing the sublime beauty thereof, because it is yet on the  side
away from us, the hidden side of nature.

   But in order that we may better understand,  let us take up some of these
tangled  threads of passion and emotion to see what effect have have on  the
pattern which God, the Master-Weaver, wishes us to make.

   The  ancient myths always shed a luminous light upon the problems of  the
soul,  and we may profitably consider in this connection a certain  part  of
the  Masonic  legend.   The masons are a society of builders,  "TEKTONS"  in
Greek--the same society in fact to which Joseph and Jesus belonged,  for the
latter are called in the Greek bible,  "tektons"--builders--not  carpenters,
as in the orthodox version.   The masons under Solomon were the builders  of
that mystic temple designed by God, the Grand Archetekton or Master Builder,
and built without sound of hammer, which Manson speaks about in that wonder-
ful play, "The Servant in the House."  He tells us there that "it is no dead
pile of stone and timber, but IT IS A LIVING THING.  When you  enter  it you

[PAGE 3708]

hear a sound,  a sound as of a mighty anthem chanted,  that is,  IF YOU HAVE
EARS; and if you have eyes, you will presently see the temple itself, a mys-
tery of looming shapes and shadows, leaping sheer from floor to dome.  It is
yet building and built upon;  sometimes the work goes on in utter  darkness,
sometimes  in  blinding light."   Every true mystic mason  knows  what  this
temple  is and endeavors to build it.   The ancient masonic legend tells  us
that  when Hiram Abiff,  the master mason in charge of the  construction  of
Solomon's temple,  a building of God made without sound of hammer,  was pre-
paring to make his masterpiece, the "molten sea," he gathered materials from
all over the earth and placed them in A FIERY FURNACE,  for he was a descen-
dant of Cain, A SON OF FIRE, who in turn was a son of Lucifer, the spirit of
fire.   Hiram proposed to make an alloy of crystal clarity,  capable of  re-
flecting all the wisdom of the world.  But,  so runs the story,  there  were
among  the  workmen  certain traitors--spies from  the  Sons  of  Seth--who,
through Adam and Eve, were descendants of the lunar god JEHOVAH,  WHO HAD AN
AFFINITY FOR WATER and who hated fire.  These traitors poured water into the
mold in which the molten sea, THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, was to be cast.  Upon
the  meeting of the fire with the water there was a great explosion.   Hiram
Abiff,  the  master  mason,  being unable to blend the warring elements, saw

[PAGE 3709]

with  unspeakable sorrow the destructive eruption of his  attempted  master-
piece.   While he was watching the battle of the spirits in the fire and wa-
ter,  Tubal-Cain, his ancestor, appeared and bade him jump into the seething
mass.   He  was then conducted to the center of the earth where he  met  his
first ancestor,  Cain,  who gave him A NEW WORD AND A NEW HAMMER which would
enable him,  when he had become skilled in the use thereof, to blend the an-
tagonistic elements and make from them the Philosopher's Stone,  the highest
possible human achievement.

   There is in this symbolical story more wisdom than could be given in vol-
umes  concerning human soul growth.   If the student will read  between  the
lines and meditate upon these various symbolical expressions,  he will  gain
much more than can ever be said, for true wisdom is always generated interi-
orly and the mission of books is only to give a clue.

   Since this ancient time the lunar Angels have taken charge principally of
the moist,  aqueous vital body composed of the four ethers and concerned  in
the  propagation and nourishment of the species,  while the Lucifer  Spirits
are singularly active in the dry and fiery desire vehicles.  The function of
the  vital  body  is  to build and sustain the dense body, while that of the
 
[PAGE 3710]

desire body involves destruction of the tissues.  Thus,  there is a constant
war  going  on between the desire and vital bodies,  and it is this  war  in
heaven that causes our physical consciousness on earth.   Through many lives
we have worked in every age and clime,  and from each life we have extracted
a  certain amount of experience,  garnered and stored as vibratory power  in
the  seed-atoms of our various vehicles.   Thus,  each of us is  a  builder,
building the temple of the immortal spirit without sound of hammer; each one
is a Hiram Abiff,  gathering material for soul-growth and throwing it in the
furnace of his life-experience,  there to be worked upon by the fire of pas-
sion and desire.   It is being slowly but surely melted,  the dross is being
purged in every purgatorial experience,  and the quintessence of soul growth
is  being extracted through many lives.   Every one of us is thus  preparing
for initiation,--preparing whether we know it or not--learning to blend  the
fiery passions with the softer,  gentler emotions.   The new hammer or gavel
wherewith  the master workman rules his subordinates is now a cross of  sor-
row, and the new word is self-control.

[PAGE 3711]

               THE COLOR EFFECTS OF EMOTION IN ASSEMBLAGES OF

                    PEOPLE--THE ISOLATING EFFECT OF WORRY:

   Let  us now see how the desire body changes under the  varying  feelings,
desires,  passions,  and emotions,  so that we may learn to build wisely and
well the mystic temple wherein we dwell.

   When we study one of the so-called physical sciences,  such as anatomy or
architecture,  which deals with TANGIBLE THINGS,  our task is facilitated by
the fact that we have words which describe the things whereof we treat,  but
even  then  the mental picture conceived by a word differs with  each  indi-
vidual.   When we speak of a "bridge,"  one may make a mental picture  of  a
million-dollar  iron  structure,  another  may think of  a  plank  across  a
streamlet.  The difficulty which we experience in conveying accurate impres-
sions  of our meaning increases apace when we attempt to convey  ideas  con-
cerning  nature's intangible forces,  such as electricity.   We measure  the
strength of the current in volts, the volume in amperes,  and the resistance
of  the  conductors in ohms, but, as a matter of actual fact, such terms are

[PAGE 3712]

only inventions to cover up our ignorance of the matter.  We all know what a
pound of coffee is,  but the world's greatest scientist has no more accurate
conception of what the volts, amperes, and ohms are of which he so learnedly
discourses than the schoolboy who hears these terms for the first time.

   What wonder then that super-physical subjects are described in vague  and
often misleading terms,  for we have no words in any physical language which
will accurately describe these subjects,  and one is almost helpless and ut-
terly at a loss for descriptive terms wherewith to express oneself regarding
them.   If it were possible to throw colored moving pictures of  the  desire
body  upon the screen and there show how this restless vehicle changes  con-
tour and color according to the emotions, even then it would not give an ad-
equate  understanding to any one who was not capable of seeing these  things
himself,  for the vehicles of every single human being differ from  the  ve-
hicles  of  all others in the way they respond to  certain  emotions.   That
which causes one to feel intense love, hate, anger, fear,  or any other emo-
tion may leave another entirely untouched.

   The  writer has a number of times watched crowds for the purpose of  com-
parison in this respect,  and has always found something startlingly new and
different from what had hitherto been observed.  On one occasion a demagogue

[PAGE 3713]

was endeavoring to incite a labor union to strike;  he was very much excited
himself,  and though the basic color of deep orange was perceivable,  it was
for  the time being almost obliterated by a scarlet color of  the  brightest
hue;  the contour of his desire body was like the body of a  porcupine  with
its  quills sticking out.   There was a strong element of opposition in  the
place,  and as he talked one could clearly distinguish the two  factions  by
the colors of their respective auras.   One set of men showed the scarlet of
anger,  but in the other set this color was inter-mingled with a  grey,  the
color of fear.   It was also remarkable that,  although the grey men were in
the majority,  the others carried the day,  for each timid one believed him-
self alone or at least with very few supporters, and was therefore afraid to
vote for or express his opinion.   If one who was able to see this condition
had  been  present and had gone to each one who manifested in his  aura  the
signs  of dissension,  and had given him the assurance that he was one of  a
majority, the tide would have turned in the opposite direction.  It is often
so in human affairs,  for at the present time the majority are unable to see
beneath the surface of the physical body and thus to perceive the true state
of the thoughts and feelings of others.

   On  another  occasion  a revival meeting was visited where many thousands

[PAGE 3714]

were present to hear a speaker of national repute.   At the beginning of the
meeting  it was evident from the state of the auras of the people  that  the
great majority had come there with no other purpose than to have a good time
and see some fun.   The thoughts, feelings,  and emotions connected with the
ordinary life of each were plainly visible, but in a number a certain  dark-
ish blue color showed an attitude of worry; it seemed that they had had some
disappointment in life and were very uneasy.   When the speaker appeared,  a
curious  phenomenon  took place:   desire bodies are usually in a  state  of
restless motion,  but at that moment it seemed as if the whole vast audience
must  have  held  its breath in an attitude of expectancy,  for  the  varied
color-play  in the individual desire bodies ceased and the basic orange  hue
was  plainly perceptible for an instant;  presently each commenced his  emo-
tional activities as before, while the prelude was being played.   Then com-
menced the singing of hymns,  and this showed the value and effect of music,
for  as  all united in singing identical words to the same  tune,  the  same
rhythmic  vibrations which surged through all these desire bodies seemed  to
blend them and make them,  for the time being,  almost one.   Quite a number
were sitting in the scoffers' seat, so to speak,  refusing to sing and unite
with  the  others.  To  the  spiritual  sight they appeared as men of steel,

[PAGE 3715]

clothed  in an armor of that color,  and from each one,  without  exception,
went  out a vibration which said so much plainer than mere words could  ever
have done,  "Leave me alone, you shall not touch me."  Something from within
had  drawn  them there,  but they were mortally afraid of  giving  way,  and
therefore  their whole aura expressed this steel color of fear which  is  an
armor of the soul against outside interference.

   When  the first song was ended,  the unity of color and vibration  lapsed
almost immediately,  each one taking anew his customary thought  atmosphere;
and had nothing more been done, each would have lapsed into his habitual in-
ner life.   But the evangelist, though not able to see this,  knew from past
experience  that his audience was not yet ripe,  and a succession  of  songs
were  therefore sung to the accompaniment of clapping hands  beating  drums,
and gesticulations from the leader aided by a trained chorus.   This brought
the  scattered  souls again into a bond of harmony;  gradually  people  were
overwhelmed with religious fervor,  and the unity necessary for the next ef-
fort was established.   From the music, the leader's hand-clapping,  and the
stirring appeal of the songs, that vast audience had become as one,  for the
men of steel, the gray-tinted scoffers who thought themselves too wise to be
fooled (when their emotion really was fear),  were a negligible part in that

[PAGE 3716]

vast congregation.  All were then attuned as the many strings upon one great
instrument,  and the evangelist who appeared before them was a master artist
at playing upon their emotions.  He moved them from laughter to tears,  from
sorrow to shame;  great waves of the corresponding colors seemed to go  over
the  whole audience,  as bewildering as they were magnificent.   Then  there
were  the  customary calls to "stand up for Jesus";  the invitation  to  the
"mourners' bench," etc., and each brought forth from all over the audience a
certain  emotional  response which was plainly shown in colors,  golden  and
blue.   Then there were more songs,  more clapping and gesticulations which,
for the time,  furthered the unity and gave this audience an experience  re-
sembling the feeling of universal brotherhood and the reality of the Father-
hood of God.   The only ones upon whom the music had no effect were the  men
clad in the steel blue armor of fear.   This color seems to be almost imper-
vious to any other emotion;  and even though the feelings experienced by the
great majority were relatively impermanent,  the people benefited in a  mea-
sure by the revival, with the exception of these men of steel.

   So far as the writer has been able to learn,  the inner fear of  yielding
to  emotion--fear being saturnine in effect and twin sister to  worry--seems
to  require  a  shock  that  will  take  the  person  so affected out of his

[PAGE 3717]

environment and set him down in a NEW PLACE among NEW CONDITIONS before  the
old conditions can be overcome.

   Worry  is  a  condition where the desire currents do not  sweep  in  long
curved lines in any part of the desire body,  but where the vehicle is  full
of eddies--nothing but eddies in extreme cases.  The person so affected does
not endeavor to take action in any line;  he sees calamities where there are
none,  and instead of generating currents which lead to action that may pre-
vent the thing he fears,  each thought of worry causes an eddy in the desire
body,  and he does nothing in consequence.   This condition of worry in  the
desire body may be likened to water which is about to congeal under a lower-
ing temperature;  FEAR which expresses itself as skepticism,  cynicism,  and
pessimism may be likened to that same water when it has frozen,  for the de-
sire bodies of such people are almost motionless, and nothing one can say or
do seems to have the power to alter the condition.  They have, to use a com-
mon expression which fits the condition excellently,  "DRAWN INTO A  SHELL,"
and that saturnine shell must be broken before it is possible to get at  the
man and help him out of his pitiable state.

   These  saturnine  emotions of fear and worry are usually  caused  by  the
suffers'  apprehension  of  economic  or social difficulties.  "Perhaps this

[PAGE 3718]

investment  which I have made may depreciate or become a total loss;  I  may
lose my position and find myself starving upon the street;  everything I un-
dertake seems to go wrong;  my neighbors are slandering me and trying to un-
dermine  my social position;  my husband (or wife) does not care for me  any
more; my children are neglecting me;" and a thousand and one kindred sugges-
tions  present themselves to the mind.  He should remember that  every  time
one of these thought is indulged in, it helps to congeal the currents in the
desire body and build a steel blue shell in which the person who  habitually
fosters  fear and worry will some time find himself shut off from the  love,
sympathy,  and  help of all the world.  Therefore we ought to strive  to  be
cheerful,  even under adverse circumstances,  or we may find ourselves in  a
serious condition here and hereafter.

   "It is easy enough to be pleasant
         When life flows along like a song,
   But the man worth while
   Is the one who will smile
         When everything goes dead wrong."

[PAGE 3719]

               EFFECTS OF WAR UPON THE DESIRE BODY--THE VITAL

               BODY AS AFFECTED BY THE DETONATIONS OF BIG GUNS:

   In  the beginning of the Great War the emotions of Europe ran riot  in  a
most horrible manner, first among the so-called "living," and then among the
killed--when  they awoke.   This awakening took a long time because  of  the
large guns used--but more of that later.   The whole atmosphere of the coun-
tries involved was seething with currents of anger and hate, like a cloud of
dark crimson it hung around every human being and over the land.  Then there
were dark-tinted streaks like a funeral pall, which seem always to be gener-
ated in crises of sudden disaster when reason is at a standstill and despair
grips the heart.  This was doubtless caused by the fact that the peoples in-
volved realized that a catastrophe of a magnitude which they were unable  to
comprehend was happening.  The desire bodies of the majority whirled at high
speed  in  long  waves  of  rhythmic  pulsation which said more plainly than

[PAGE 3720]

words,  "Just kill,  kill, kill."  When two or three or a crowd met and com-
menced  to discuss the war,  the rhythmic pulsations indicating the  settled
purpose to do and dare ceased,  and the thoughts and feelings of  excitement
generated  by  the discussion or speech took shape  as  conical  projections
which rapidly grew to a height of about six or eight inches, then they burst
and emitted a tongue of flame.  Some people generated a number of these vol-
canic  structures at one time,  in others there were only one or two at  the
same time.   When one of these bubbles had burst in one place,  another  ap-
peared somewhere else on the desire body while the discussion lasted, and it
was the flames from them that colored the cloud over the land scarlet.  When
a  crowd disbanded or friends parted after such a discussion,  the  bubbling
and  eruptions grew smaller and less frequent,  finally ceasing  and  giving
place again to the long rhythmic pulsations first mentioned.

   These conditions are now seldom if ever seen;  the explosive anger at the
enemy thus indicated is a thing of the past so far as the great majority are
concerned.   The basic orange color of the western peoples'  aura  is  again
visible,  and both officers and men seem to have settled down to war as to a
game;  each is anxious to outdo and outwit the other.  The war is now mainly
a  channel  for  their  ingenuity;  but  a number of the lay-brothers of the

[PAGE 3721]

Rosicrucian  Order  believe  that the condition of anger will  return  in  a
modified form when active hostilities cease and peace negotiations commence.
This form of emotion we may call abstract anger,  and it differs widely from
what is observed in the case of two persons who become angry with each other
in private life,  whether they start to fight physically or not.   Seen from
the  hidden side of nature,  there are hostilities before blows are  struck.
Jagged,  dagger-like desire-forms project themselves from one to  the  other
like spears until the fury which generated them has expended itself.  In the
patriotic anger there is no personal enemy,  therefore the desire-forms  are
more blunt and explode without leaving the person who generated them.

   The "steel man"  so common in private life where worry over the  thousand
one things that never happen crystallizes an armor around the person who al-
lows old Saturn to thus grip him, were are are conspicuous by their absence.
The writer accounts for it on the hypothesis that the tension in their envi-
ronment forced them to enlist and the shock broke the shell;  then familiar-
ity with danger bred contempt for it.  It is certain that these people  have
benefited  greatly  by  the war,  for there is no state  more  hampering  to
soul-growth than constant fear and worry.  It is also a remarkable fact that

[PAGE 3722]

though the men engaged in war suffer awful privations,  the mass of them are
cultivating a tinge of soft sky-blue which stands for hope, optimism,  and a
dawning religious feeling, giving an altruistic touch to the character.   It
is an indication that that universal fellow-feeling which knows no  distinc-
tions of creed, color, or country is growing in the human heart.

   In  the beginning of the war the desire bodies of the combatants  whirled
at an awful rate, and it was noted that while people passing over from sick-
ness,  old age,  or ordinary accidents regain consciousness in a short time,
varying  from  a few minutes to a few days,  those killed in war were  in  a
great  many cases unconscious for several weeks,  and strange to say,  those
who were almost torn to pieces seemed to wake up much quicker than thousands
that  had only insignificant wounds.   This puzzle was not solved  for  many
months.   Before  we study the causes underlying this  phenomenon,  we  must
first record that when the people who had thus died in intense anger  during
the first part of the war awoke in the invisible world, they usually started
to fight their enemies anew, and until the great educational work started by
the Elder Brothers and their Invisible Helpers bore fruit, these people went
about  with  maimed bodies and in great anguish because of their  dear  ones
left  behind.  Now such occurrences are extremely rare and soon settled, for

[PAGE 3723]

all have been taught that thought will create a new arm, limb, or face;  the
patriotic hatred is gone,  and "enemies" able to speak each other's language
often  fraternize with benefit to both.   The red cloud of hate if  lifting,
the  black veil of despair is gone, there are no volcanic outbursts of  pas-
sion  in either the living or the dead,  but so far as th writer is able  to
read the signs of the times in the aura of the nations,  there is a  settled
purpose  to play the game to the end.   Even in homes bereaved of many  mem-
bers,  this seems to hold good.  There is an intense longing for the friends
beyond  but no hatred for the earthly foe.   This longing is shared  by  the
friends in the unseen and many are piercing the veil,  for the intensity  of
their longing is awakening in the "dead" the power to manifest by attracting
a  quantity of ether and gas which often is taken from the vital body  of  a
"sensitive"  friend,  as materializing spirits use the vital body of an  en-
tranced medium.  Thus the eyes blinded by tears are often opened by a yearn-
ing  heart so that loved ones now in th spirit world are met again  face  to
face,  heart  to heart.   This is nature's method of cultivating  the  sixth
sense  which will eventually enable all to know that man is an immortal spi-
rit and continuity of life a fact in nature.

   To  understand  the  slowness  wherewith  those  slain  in the war regain

[PAGE 3724]

consciousness in the unseen world,  we must first undertake a more  intimate
study  of the four ethers than has hitherto been given in  "The  Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception."

   The  atoms  of the chemical and life ethers gathered around  the  nuclear
seed-atom located in the solar plexus are shaped like prisms.   They are all
located in such a manner that when the solar energy enters our body  through
the spleen, the refracted ray is red.  This is the color of the creative as-
pect of the Trinity,  namely Jehovah, the Holy Spirit,  who rules Luna,  the
planet of fecundation.   Therefore the vital fluid from the sun which enters
the  human body by way of the spleen becomes tinged with a pale rose  color,
often noted by seers when it courses along the nerves as electricity does in
the wires of an electric system.  Thus charged, the chemical and life ethers
are the avenues of assimilation which preserve the individual, and of fecun-
dation which perpetuates the race.

   During life each prismatic vital atom penetrates a physical atom and  vi-
brates  it.   to form a picture of this combination,  imagine a  pear-shaped
wire basket having walls of spirally curved wire running obliquely from pole
to pole.  this is the physical atom; it is shaped nearly like our earth, and
the prismatic vital atom is inserted from the top,  which is widest and cor-
responds  to  the  north  pole  of  the  earth.  Thus the point of the prism

[PAGE 3725]

penetrates  the physical atom at the narrowest point,  which corresponds  to
the south pole of our earth,  and the whole resembles a top swinging,  sway-
ing,  and vibrating.   In this manner our body is made alive and capable  of
motion.  (It is noteworthy that our earth is similarly permeated by a cosmic
body  of ether,  and that those manifestations which we note as  the  Aurora
Borealis  and Aurora Australis are etheric currents circling the earth  from
pole to equator as currents in the physical atoms do.)

   The light and reflecting ethers are avenues of consciousness and  memory.
They  are  somewhat attenuated in the average individual and  have  not  yet
taken definite form;  they interpenetrate the atom as air interpenetrates  a
sponge, and they form a slight auric atmosphere outside each atom.

   At  death a separation takes place;  the seed atom is withdrawn from  the
apex of the heart along the saturnine pneumogastric nerve,  through the ven-
tricles and out of the skull (Golgotha); all the atoms of the vital body are
liberated from the cross of the dense body by the same spiral motion,  which
unscrews each prismatic atom of ether from its physical envelope.

   This  process  is attended with more or less violence  according  to  the
cause of death.  An aged person whose  vitality  has  been slowly ebbing may

[PAGE 3726]

fall asleep and wake up on the other side of the veil without the  slightest
consciousness  of how the change took place;  a devout and religious  person
who  has been prepared by prayer and meditation on the beyond would also  be
able to make an easy egress;  people who freeze to death meet with what  the
writer believes to be the easiest of accidental deaths, drowning being next.

   But when a person is young and healthy,  especially if of an  irreligious
or atheistic turn of mind,  the prismatic ether atom is so tightly  entwined
by the physical atom that a considerable wrench is required to separate  the
vital  body.   When the separation of the physical body from the higher  ve-
hicles has been accomplished and the person is dead,  as we say,  the  light
and  reflecting ethers are separated from the prismatic atom.   It  is  this
stuff,  as described in the Cosmo,  which is molded into the pictures of the
past life and etched into the desire body,  which then begins to feel  what-
ever there was of pain or pleasure in the life.   The part of the vital body
composed of the prismatic atoms of the chemical and life ethers then returns
to the physical body,  hovering above the grave and disintegrating  synchro-
nously with it.

   Now  comes the crux of our explanation.   Ether is physical  matter,  and
while  people  shot  with  small arms in a minor engagement may sometimes be

[PAGE 3727]

seen  walking  away  somewhat dazed but nevertheless  conscious,  the  awful
detonations of the big guns used so extensively have the effect of  throwing
the  prismatic ether atoms topsy-turvy, and shattering (not scattering)  the
auric  envelope  of  light  and reflecting ethers  which  is  the  basis  of
sense-perception and memory.   Until this resolves itself into its  original
relativity,  the man remains in a stunned,  comatose condition  which  often
lasts  for weeks.   Under such conditions this fine etheric stuff  does  not
lend  itself to the formation of pictures of the past life--it is  congealed
to a certain extent.

[PAGE 3728]

              THE NATURE OF ETHER ATOMS--THE NECESSITY OF POISE:

   When  the  Ego is on its way to rebirth through the  Region  of  Concrete
Thought,  the Desire World,  and the Etheric Region,  it gathers  a  certain
amount of material from each.  The quality of this material is determined by
the seed atom,  on the principle that like attracts like.   The quantity de-
pends upon the amount of matter required by the archetype built by ourselves
in the second heaven.   From the quantity of prismatic ether atoms that  are
appropriated  by  a certain spirit,  the Recording Angels and  their  agents
build  an  etheric  form  which is then placed  in  the  mother's  womb  and
gradually clothed with physical matter which then forms the visible body  of
the new born child.

   Only  a small portion of the ether appropriated by a certain Ego is  thus
used,  and the remainder of the child's vital body,  or rather the  material
from which that vehicle will  eventually  be made, is thus outside the dense

[PAGE 3729]

body.   For that reason the vital body of a child protrudes much farther be-
yond  the periphery of the dense body than does that of the  adult.   During
the period of growth this store of ether atoms is drawn upon to vitalize the
accretions within the body until, at the time when the adult age is reached,
the  vital body protrudes only from one to one and a half inches beyond  the
periphery of the dense body.

   It  has been determined by physical science that the atoms in  our  dense
body  are  constantly changing so that all the material which  composes  our
present vehicle at this moment will have disappeared in a few years,  but it
is  common  knowledge that scars and other blemishes  perpetuate  themselves
from childhood to old age.   The reason for this is that the prismatic ether
atoms  which compose our vital body remain unchanged from the cradle to  the
grave.   They are always in the same relative position--that is to say,  the
prismatic ether atoms which vibrate the physical atoms in the toes or in the
fingers  do not get to the hands,  legs, or any other part of the body,  but
remain in exactly the same place where they were placed in the beginning.  A
lesion of the physical atoms involves a similar impression on the  prismatic
ether atoms.   The new physical matter molded over them continues to take on
shape and texture similar to those which originally obtained.

[PAGE 3730]

   The foregoing remarks apply only to the prismatic ether atoms which  cor-
respond to solids and liquids in the physical world,  because they assume  a
certain definite shape which they preserve.  But in addition each human  be-
ing  at  this stage of evolution has a certain amount of the light  and  re-
flecting ethers, which are the vehicles of sense perception and memory,  in-
termingled in his vital body.   We may say that the light ether  corresponds
to the gases in our physical world; perhaps the best description that can be
given of the reflecting ether is to call it hyper-etheric.   It is a vacuous
substance of a bluish color resembling in appearance the blue core of a  gas
flame.  It appears transparent and seems to reveal everything that is within
it, but nevertheless it hides all the secrets of nature and humanity.  In it
is  found  one record of the Memory of Nature.   The  light  and  reflecting
ethers are of an exactly opposite nature to that of the stationary prismatic
ether atoms.  They are volatile and migratory.  However much or little a man
possesses of this material, it is an accretion, a fruitage, derived from his
experiences in life.   Inside the body it mingles with the blood stream  and
when  it has grown by service and sacrifice in life's school so that it  can
no longer be contained within the body,  it is seen on the outside as a soul
body of gold and blue.  Blue shows the highest type of spirituality,  there-

[PAGE 3731]

fore  it is smallest in volume and may be compared to the blue core  of  the
gas flame, while the golden hue forms the larger part and corresponds to the
yellow light which surrounds the core in the gas ring.   The blue color does
not appear outside the dense body save in the very greatest of  saints--only
yellow is usually observable there.  At death this part of the vital body is
etched  into the desire body with the life panorama which it contains.   The
quintessence  of all our life experience is then eventually  impressed  upon
the seed atom as conscience or virtue which urges us to avoid evil and to do
good  in a coming life.   Thus the quality of the seed atom is altered  from
life to life.  The quintessence of good extracted from the migratory part of
the vital body in one life determines the quality of the prismatic  station-
ary ether atoms in the next life.   The highest in one life becomes the low-
est in the next and thus we gradually climb the ladder of evolution  towards
divinity.

   From the foregoing it will be evident that the vital body is a vehicle of
habit;  all parents know that during the first seven years of childhood when
this  vehicle is in course of gestation that children form one  habit  after
another.  Repetition is the keynote of the vital body and habits depend upon
repetition.   It is different with the desire body,  the vehicle of feelings
and emotions which are always changing from moment to moment; thought it has

[PAGE 3732]

been said that the ether which forms our soul body is in constant motion and
mingles  with the blood stream,  that motion is relatively slow compared  to
the  rapidity of the current of the desire body;  we may say that the  ether
moves like a snail compared with light.

   The points brought out by the foregoing may be summed up as follows:

   Desire  stuff  moves  with inconceivable rapidity  comparable  only  with
light.

   The two higher ethers also travel with great speed though far slower than
desire stuff.

   The  prismatic ether atoms composing the lower ethers are stationary  but
have a high rate of vibratory motion.

   The dense atoms are as motionless as the crystal in the rock.

   No matter what people say to us or about us,  their words have no intrin-
sic  power to hurt--it is our own mental attitude towards  their  utterances
which  determines the effect of their words upon us for good or ill.   Paul,
when  facing persecution and slander,  testified that "NONE OF THESE  THINGS
MOVE ME."  All who hope to advance spiritually must cultivate EQUIPOISE, for
without it the desire body will either run riot or congeal, according to the
nature  of  the emotions generated by intercourse with others whether worry,

[PAGE 3733]

anger, or fear.  We know that the dense body is our vehicle of action,  that
the vital body gives it the power to act, that the desire body furnishes the
incentive to action, and that the mind was given as a brake on impulse.   We
learn  from  the  "Cosmo-Conception"   that  thought-forms  from  within and
without the body are being continually projected upon the desire body in  an
endeavor to arouse feeling which will lead to action,  and that reason ought
to  rule the lower nature and leave the higher self scope for expression  of
its  divine proclivities.   We also know that HABITUAL thought has power  to
mold even physical matter,  for the nature of the sensualist is plainly dis-
cernible  in his features which are as coarse and gross as the  features  of
the spiritually minded are delicate and fine.  The power of thought is still
greater in its potency to mold the finer vestures.  We have already seen how
thoughts  of fear and worry congeal the desire body of any one who  indulges
in that habit,  and it is equally certain that by cultivating an  optimistic
frame of mind under all circumstances we can attune our desire bodies to any
key we wish.   AFTER A TIME, THAT WILL BECOME A HABIT.  It must be confessed
that it is difficult to HOLD the desire body down to any definite lines, but
it can be done,  and the attempt must be made by all who aspire to spiritual
advancement.

[PAGE 3734]

   Regarding the effect from the occult standpoint of this polarization,  we
may learn much from certain customs in so-called secret societies.   As  you
know,  such organizations always place at the door a guard who is instructed
to  deny  admittance to anyone not supplied with the  proper  pass-word  and
signs, and that works very well so far as the people are concerned who func-
tion only in their physical body.   But the so-called secrets of these orga-
nizations are not in any sense secrets to those who are able to enter  their
places  of  assembly  in their vital bodies.   It is  otherwise  in  a  true
esoteric order such as, for instance, the Rosicrucians.  No guard is on duty
at the door of that Temple when the Mystic Midnight Mass is said each  night
of  the week.   The door is wide open to all who have learned to  speak  the
open sesame.  But that is not a spoken password; the initiate who desires to
attend  must know how to attune his soul body to the particular rate of  vi-
bration  maintained on that night.  Furthermore,  this vibration differs  on
the  various  nights of the week so that those who have  learned  to  attune
themselves to the vibration maintained on Saturday night when the first  de-
gree meets are as effectually barred from entering the Temple with those who
carry on the work Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc., as any ordinary person.

[PAGE 3735]

   The  cosmic law under which this is done applies also to the control  and
effect of our thoughts,  feelings, and emotions.  Paul well said that WE ARE
THE  TEMPLE  of the living God (our Higher Self).   We have also  created  a
subtle aura about us under th guardianship of the Divine Hierarchies  reign-
ing over the seven planets, Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury,  Jupiter,  and
Venus.    The  Universe,   or  great  world,   is  mystically   called   the
seven-stringed  lyre of Apollo.   our individual organism or microcosm is  a
replica or image of God,  and it behooves us to awaken in ourselves an  echo
of this music of the spheres.   Most of us have learned to respond too  much
to the saturnine vibrations of sorrow, gloom, fear, and worry, which congeal
our desire bodies,  and it would be to the lasting benefit of all to try  to
cultivate the spiritual vibrations of the Sun,  filling our lives with opti-
mism and sunshine which will dispel the saturnine gloom and despondency  and
prevent such thoughts entering our aura in the future.

   The prime necessity of advancement is equipoise.  All who aspire ought to
adopt Paul's motto, "None of these things move me."

[PAGE 3736]

          THE EFFECTS OF REMORSE--THE DANGERS OF EXCESSIVE BATHING:

   As  there are many among the Rosicrucian students who perform  the  exer-
cises given by the Elder Brothers for the purpose of furthering soul-growth,
though  they have not felt inclined to enter the Path,  it is thought to  be
well to consider the occult effect of the emotions engendered by these exer-
cises.

   When in the exercise of retrospection the aspirant to the higher life re-
views  the happenings of the day IN REVERSE ORDER and meets an  incident  in
which he hurt some one or failed to help another or in any other way did not
live up to that which he holds as his ideal of conduct, he is taught to cul-
tivate  intense  remorse for whatever he has done wrong for the  purpose  of
eradicating the record from the seed-atom in the heart where it has been im-
printed by the act,  and where it will remain until it is wiped out by  suf-
ferings in purgatory unless previously expunged by artificial means such  as
this exercise.

[PAGE 3737]

   In  purgatory  the cleansing process is accomplished by  the  centrifugal
force of repulsion which tugs and tears the desire stuff,  in which the pic-
ture is formed over its matrix of ether,  out of the desire body.   At  that
particular time the soul suffers as it made others suffer, because of a sin-
gular condition in the lower regions of the Desire World where purgatory  is
located.   Some seers who are unable to contact the higher regions speak  of
the Desire World as illusory, and they are right so far as the lower regions
are  concerned,  FOR THERE ALL THINGS APPEAR REVERSED AS WE SEE  THEM  IN  A
GLASS.   This peculiarity is not purposeless--nothing in God's  kingdom  is;
all  things serve a wise end.   This reversal places the erring soul in  the
position  of its victim,  so that when a scene unrolls on the screen of  its
past  life where it did a wrong to some one,  the soul does not stand  as  a
mere spectator and see the scene re-enacted,  but it becomes,  for the  time
being,  the victim of the wrong and it feels the pain felt by  that  wronged
one, for the centrifugal force of repulsion exerted to tear the picture from
th  desire body of the wrongdoer must at least equal the hate and  anger  of
the victim which impressed the picture upon the seed-atom at the time of oc-
currence.

   During retrospection the aspirant endeavors to imitate these  conditions;
he tries to visualize the scenes where he did something wrong,  and the  re-
morse  he  endeavors  to  feel  must  at  least equal the resentment felt by

[PAGE 3738]

whomever he wronged.  It then has the same effect of expunging the record of
the  injury as does the centrifugal force of repulsion,  which  accomplishes
the eradication of evil in purgatory FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXTRACTING THEREFROM
THE QUALITY OF THE SOUL WHICH WE KNOW AS CONSCIENCE, and which acts as a de-
terrent in hours of temptation.  Thus used,  the emotion of remorse cleanses
and purifies the desire body of weeds and tares,  leaving the soil free  and
fostering  the  growth of manifold virtues that blossom into  spiritual  ad-
vancement and bring greater opportunities for service in the Master's  vine-
yard.

   But as the force latent in gunpowder and kindred explosive substances may
be  used  to further greatest objects of civilization or to outdo  the  most
savage acts of barbarism, so also, this emotion of remorse may be misused in
such  a manner that it becomes a detriment and a hindrance to the  soul  in-
stead of a help.  When we indulge in remorse daily and hourly,  we are actu-
ally  wasting a great power which might be used for the most noble  ends  of
life,  for  the constant indulgence of regret affects the desire body  in  a
manner similar to that which follows excessive bathing of the physical body,
as  described in the "VICE OF EXCESSIVE CLEANLINESS,"  an article which  ap-
peared  in  our  magazine,  "RAYS FROM THE ROSE CROSS."  It was there stated

[PAGE 3739]

that water has a great affinity for ether and absorbs it most greedily, sev-
eral illustrations being given to demonstrate the fact;  it was also  stated
that when we take a bath under normal conditions, it removes a great deal of
poisonous miasmatic ether from our vital bodies, provided we stay in the wa-
ter a reasonable length of time.   After a bath the vital body becomes some-
what attenuated and consequently gives us a feeling of weakness,  but if  we
are  in our usual good health and have not stayed in the bath too long,  the
deficiency  is  soon made good by the stream of force which flows  into  the
body through the spleen.   When this influx of fresh ether has replaced  the
poisoned substance carried off in the water,  we feel renewed vigor which we
rightly  attribute to the bath,  though usually without realizing  the  full
facts as here stated.

   But  when a person who is not in perfect health makes a habit of  bathing
every day,  perhaps even twice or three times,  an excess of ether is  taken
from  the  vital body.   The supply entering by way of the  spleen  is  also
diminished  on account of the loss of tone of the seed-atom located  in  the
solar plexus and the attenuated condition of the vital body.  Thus it is im-
possible for such people to recuperate between such oft repeated depletions,
and  as  a  consequence  the health of the dense  body  suffers;  they  lose
strength continually and are apt to become confirmed invalids.

[PAGE 3740]

   "AS ABOVE SO BELOW, AND AS BELOW, SO ABOVE,"  says the Hermetic aphorism,
enunciating thereby the great law of analogy which is the master-key to  all
mysteries.   When we use the centrifugal force of remorse to  eradicate  the
acts  of evil from our hearts during the evening exercise of  retrospection,
the effect is similar to the action of the water which removes the miasmatic
poisoned ether from our vital bodies during the bath,  and thus leaves  room
for an influx of pure health-promoting ether.   After we have burned out the
wrong-doings  in the sacrificial fire of remorse,  the  poisonous  substance
thus eradicated leaves room for the influx of desire stuff which is  MORALLY
healthier  and  better soil for noble deeds.   The more  thoroughly  we  are
purged by this remorse,  the greater the vacuum produced and the better  the
grade of new material we attract to our subtler vehicles.

   But, on the other hand, if we indulge in regrets and remorse during every
waking hour as some do, we are outdoing purgatory, for though the time there
is  spent in eradication of evil, the consciousness turns from each  picture
when it has been torn out by the force of repulsion.   Here,  because of the
interlocking of the desire and vital bodies,  we are enabled to revivify the
picture  in  memory  as  oft as we please,  and while  the  desire  body  is
gradually dissolved in purgatory by the expurgation of the panorama of life,

[PAGE 3741]

certain small amount is added while we are living in the physical world,  to
take the place of that which is ejected by remorse.   Thus,  remorse and re-
gret when continually indulged in have the same effect on the desire body as
excessive  bathing  has on the vital body.   Both vehicles are  depleted  of
strength by excessive cleansing,  and for that reason it is as dangerous  to
the  moral and spiritual health to indulge indiscriminately in  feelings  of
regret  and remorse as it is fatal to physical wellbeing to bathe too  much.
Discrimination should govern in both cases.

   When we perform the exercise of retrospection,  we should give  ourselves
over  to the feelings of regret and remorse with our whole soul;  we  should
endeavor to shed tears of fire that may burn into our very innermost  being;
we  should make the cleansing process as thorough as possible,  to  the  end
that  we may grow in grace thereby to the utmost.   BUT HAVING FINISHED  THE
EXERCISE  WE SHOULD DO THE SAME AS IS DONE IN PURGATORY--CONSIDER THE  INCI-
DENTS  OF THE DAY CLOSED AND FORGET ALL ABOUT THEM,  save in so far as  they
demand restitution of something,  the making of an apology,  or such  subse-
quent acts to satisfy the demands of conscience.   And having thus paid  the
debt, our attitude ought to be one of unfailing optimism.  "THOUGH YOUR SINS
BE AS SCARLET, THEY SHALL BE AS WHITE AS SNOW."   "If God be for us, who can
 
[PAGE 3742]

be against us?" B y that attitude we die daily to the old  life  and  we are
born each day to walk in the newness of the spiritual life, for  our  desire
bodies are thus renewed and ready to serve a higher aim in life than the day 
before.

   And while we are discussing regret and remorse as applied to the  problem
of soul-growth,  with their effect on our subtle bodies, we may also profit-
ably mention the effect of regret directed into other channels.   There  are
people  who live with regret as with a boon companion,  who take it  to  bed
with  them at night and get up with it in the morning;  they take it to  the
office,  shop,  or church,  they sit with it at meals,  they nurse it as the
most  precious  thing in their possession, and they would sooner  part  with
life itself than give up their regret for this, that, or the other thing.

   As a vampire sucks the ether from the vital body of its victim and  feeds
upon  it,  so perpetual thoughts of regret and  remorse  concerning  certain
things become a desire-elemental which acts as a vampire and draws the  very
life from the poor soul who has shaped it, and by the attraction of like for
like, it fosters continuance of this morbid habit of regret.

   We are not helping the loved ones who have departed this life by our  re-
grets which we love to fancy are evidences  of  our faithfulness, but we are

[PAGE 3743]

hindering them.  They have left the present sphere of experience and are go-
ing onwards to other realms where there are other lessons to be learned, and
we are holding them back by our thoughts,  for they feel us most acutely for
some  time  after they have passed over,  and we owe them a  duty  to  think
thoughts of cheer and love instead of selfish regret which hurts both us and
them.   Regret  is  subversive  of  all  spiritual  growth,  for  while  the
thought-elemental  thus created hangs about us as a vampire we cannot  climb
the rugged path.

   Loathsome as the vulture which feeds upon the noxious,  decomposing  car-
casses  of the dead are the vain regrets which live upon the morbid  contem-
plation of the past and its mistakes.   It is our duty to drive them out  of
our  mental habitation as we would eject a vulture from our  physical  abode
were it to seek entrance.

   Instead,  let us cultivate an attitude of optimism in all things, for all
things  work together for good--God is at the helm,  nothing can  go  really
wrong, and all will turn out right in God's good time.

Continued with file "RC1104.TXT"

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