Filename: RC4006.TXT

[PAGE 83]

              ROSICRUCIAN CHRISTIANITY PHILOSOPHY COURSE:

                             LESSON NO. 39:

                           FAUST [Continued]:

   "The wages of sin is death," says the Bible, and when we sow to the flesh
we must expect to reap corruption.   Neither should we be surprised that one
who is negative of character,  like the class described as the Sons of Seth,
represented by marguerite in the Faust myth, falls a prey to this law of na-
ture at an early date after his measure of sin has been filled.   The speedy
apprehension of Marguerite for the crime of matricide is an illustration  of
how  the law works.   The holy horror of the church that was remiss  in  not
guarding her while there was yet time, is an example of how society seeks to
cover up its negligence,  and holds up its hands,  shocked by the crimes for
which it is itself, in a great measure, responsible.

   Had  the priest sought the confidence of Marguerite instead  of  coveting
the  jewels,  he might have protected her from the fat that befell her,  and
though she might have suffered by losing her lover,  she would have remained
pure.  It is, however, through the intensity of sorrow  that  the  suffering
soul  finds  its way back to the source of its being,  for we  have  all  as
prodigal  sons  left our Father in Heaven;  we have wandered afar  from  the
realms of spirit, to feed upon the husks of matter, to gather experience and
to gain individuality.

   When we are in the slough of despair we being to realize our high parent-
age and exclaim, "I will arise an go to my Father."  membership in churches,
or the study of mysticism from an intellectual point of view, does not bring
the realization of the WHITHER,  which is necessary before we can follow the
Path.   But when we are bereft of all earthly support,  when we are sick and
in prison,  we are nearer and dearer to the Saviour than at any other  time.
Therefore,  Marguerite in prison and under the ban of society,  is closer to
God than the innocent,  beautiful and pure Marguerite, who had the world be-
fore her when she met Faust in the garden.

   The Christ has no message for those who are satisfied and love the  world
and its ways.  So long as they are in that condition of mind he cannot speak
to them nor can they hear His voice.  But there is an infinite tenderness in
the  words of the Saviour:   "Come unto me all ye that labor and  are  heavy
laden, and I will give you rest."  the sinning soul symbolized by Marguerite
in her prison cell, standing alone, ostracized by society as a moral and so-
cial leper, is impelled to turn her eyes heavenward and her prayer is not in
vain.  Yet, even to the last moment, temptations beset the seeking soul. The
gate of hell and the gate of heaven are equally close to the prison cell  of
Marguerite, as illustrated by the visit of Faust and Lucifer who endeavor to
drag  her  from prison and impending death to a life of shame  and  bondage.
But she stands firm; she prefers prison and death to life and liberty in the
company of Lucifer.  She has thus stood the test and qualified for the King-
dom of God.

   Solomon was the serf of Jehovah and as a Son of Seth he was bound to  the
God who created him and his ancestors.   But in a later life,  as Jesus,  he
left  his former Master at the Baptism and then received the Spirit  of  the
Christ.   So every Son of Seth, must some day leave his guardians and take a
stand for Christ, regardless of the sacrifice entailed thereby,  even though
life be the price.

   Marguerite in her prison cell takes that important step and qualifies for
citizenship in the New Heaven and the New Earth, BY FAITH in Christ.  Faust,
on the other hand,  remains with the Lucifer Spirit for a considerable time.
He is a more positive character, a true Son of Cain, and though the wages of
sin must eventually bring him death, salvation may come through a purer con-
ception of love and through works.

   In  the second part of Faust we find the hero broken in spirit  over  the
disaster which has befallen Marguerite through his instrumentality.   He re-
alizes  his fault and begins to climb the road of redemption.   He uses  the
Lucifer Spirit, bound to him by the bargain of blood as a means of attaining
his  end.   he becomes an important factor in the affairs of  state  of  the
country whither he has journeyed, for all the Sons of Cain delight in state-
craft as the Sons of Seth love churchcraft.

   Not content, however, to serve another, under existing conditions,  Faust
sets the diabolical forces under his command to create a land,  to raise  it
out of the sea and make a New Earth.   He dreams a Utopian dream of how this
free land shall be the home of a free people who shall dwell there in  peace
and contentment living up to the highest ideals of life.

   These ideals are generated in his soul by the love of a character  called
Helen,  which is a love of the loftiest and most spiritual nature,  entirely
separate from the thought of sex and passion.  In the course of time he sees
this land rise from the sea but his eyes are growing blind, for he is shift-
ing this gaze from an earthly to a heavenly condition.  While he thus stands
looking at the forces marshalled by Lucifer,  toiling at this behest day and
night, Faust realizes that he has made real the claim of Lucifer, to be

   "The power that still
   Works for good though scheming ill."

   He sees his work with the lower forces nearing completion,  but his sight
grows dimmer, and with that intense longing which comes to the  soul  to see
the  fruitage of its works,  he desires to retain his sight until all  shall
have  been accomplished and his Utopian dream shall have become  a  reality.
Therefore,  as the vision before him--the land rising from the sea  and  the
happy  people who live upon it in good fellowship--fades from his  sightless
eyes, he utters the fateful words named by him in his bargain with Lucifer:

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   "Whenever to the passing hour
   I say, 'Oh stay! thou art so fair,
   Then unto thee I give the power
   To drag me down to deep despair.
   Then let me knell no longer linger,
   Then from my service thou art free;
   Fall from the clock the index finger,
   Be time all over then for me."

   By  terms of that bargain,  when Faust has uttered the fateful words  the
forces of hell are loosed from bondage to him,  and he in turn becomes their
prey: at least so it would seem.  But Faust did not desire to stay the march
of  time  for the purpose of enjoying sensual pleasures  nor  of  gratifying
selfish desires, as contemplated by the bargain.  It was for the realization
of an altruistic and a noble ideal that he wished to stay the passing  hour.
Therefore,  he is really free from Lucifer, and a battle between the angelic
forces  and  the  hosts of Lucifer finally results in  the  triumph  of  the
former, who carry the seeking soul to the haven of  rest  in  the kingdom of
the Christ, while they utter the following words:

   "Saved is the noble soul from ill,
   Our spirit peer.  Whoever
   Strives forward with unswerving will
   Him can we aye deliver.
   And if with him celestial love
   Hath taken part, to meet him
   Come down the angels from above;
   With cordial hail they greet him."

   Thus  the Faust of the myth is an entirely different character  from  the
Faust  of the stage;  and the drama which begins in heaven where  permission
was  given Lucifer to tempt him,  as Job was tempted in ancient times,  also
ends  in heaven when the temptation has been overcome and the soul  has  re-
turned to its Father.

   Goethe,  the great mystic, fittingly ends his version with that most mys-
tic of all stanzas found in any literature:

   "All that is perishable,
   Is but a likeness.
   The unattainable
   Here is accomplished.
   The indescribable,
   Here it is done.
   The Eternal Feminine
   Draws us on."

   This  stanza  puzzles all who are not able to penetrate into  the  realms
where it is supposed to be sung, namely heaven.

   It speaks of all that is perishable being but a likeness, that is to say,
the  material forms which are subject to death and transmutation are  but  a
likeness of the archetype seen in heaven.   "The unattainable here is accom-
plished"--that  which seemed impossible on Earth is accomplished in  heaven.
No one knows that better than one able to function in the realm,  for  there
every high and lofty aspiration finds fruition.  The indescribable longings,
ideas  and experiences of the soul,  which even it cannot express to  itself
are  clearly defined in heaven;  the Eternal Feminine,  the  great  Creative
Force in Nature, the mother God, which draws us along the path of evolution,
becomes there a reality.   Thus the Faust myth tells the story of the  World
Temple,  which the two classes of people are building and which will be  fi-
nally the New Heaven and the New Earth prophesied in the Book of Books.

                              QUESTIONS:

1] How is the soul lead back to the source of its being?

2] Was Jesus a Son of Seth or a Son of Cain?

3] Explain how he broke away from the Jehovistic regime?

4] What quality was developed in Marguerite which brought her into the New 
   Heaven?

5] What does Helen represent?

6] Who finally rescued Faust from Lucifer?

7] What qualifications had Faust built so that he could be delivered by the 
   angels?

8] What is the meaning of the Eternal Feminine?

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                               LESSON NO. 40:

                         THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG:

                           "The Rhine Maidens":

   Repetition is the keynote of the vital body and the extract of the  vital
body is the intellectual soul, which is the pabulum of the Life Spirit,  the
true Christ principle in man.   As it is the particular work of the  Western
World to evolve this Christ principle, to form the Christ within that it may
shine  through  the material darkness of the present  time,  reiteration  of
ideas  is absolutely essential.   Unconsciously the whole world  is  obeying
this law.

   When  newspapers  start out to inculcate certain ideas  into  the  public
mind, they do not expect to accomplish this by a single editorial, no matter
how powerfully written,  but by articles of daily recurrence they  gradually
create the desired sentiment in the public mind.  The Bible has been preach-
ing the principle of love for two thousand years,  Sunday after Sunday,  day
by day,  from hundreds of thousands of pulpits.   War has not yet been abol-
ished,  but the sentiment in favor of universal peace is growing stronger as
time passes.  These sermons have had but a very slight effect is  so  far as
the world at large is concerned, no matter how powerfully a particular audi-
ence might be moved for the time being; for the desire body is that part  of
the composite man which was impressed at the time and was stirred thereby.

   The desire body is a later acquisition than the vital body,  hence not so
crystallized,  and,  therefore,  more impressionable.   Because  it is of  a
finer texture than the vital body, it is less retentive, and the emotions so
easily  generated are also easily dissipated.  A very small impact  is  made
upon  the vital body when ideas and ideals filter into it through the  auric
envelope,  but whatever it gets from study, sermons, lectures, or reading is
of a more lasting nature,  and many impacts in the same direction create im-
pressions which are powerful for good or for ill according to their nature.

   In order that we may benefit by this law of cumulative impacts,  we  take
up  for study,  another of the great soul myths which throws light upon  the
mystery  of  life and being from a different angle,  so that  we  may  learn
whence we have come,  why we are here,  and whether we are going more  thor-
oughly than before.

   As previously said, all myths are vehicles of spiritual truths veiled un-
der allegory,  symbol, and picture, and, therefore, capable of comprehension
without reason.   As fairy stories are a means of enlightenment to children,
so these great myths were used to convey spiritual truth to infant humanity.

   The Group Spirit works upon animals through their desire bodies,  calling
up pictures which give to the animal a feeling and a suggestion of  what  it
must do.   Likewise, the allegorical pictures, which are contained in myths,
laid the foundation in man for his present and future development.   Subcon-
sciously  these myths worked upon him and brought him to the stage where  he
is today.   Without that preparation he would have been unable to accomplish
that work which he is now doing.

   Today these myths are yet working to prepare us for the future,  but some
are more under their spell than others.  The path of empire and civilization
has  followed the Sun's course from east to west,  and in the etheric  atmo-
sphere of the Pacific coast these mythical pictures have almost faded  away,
and man is contacting spiritual realities more directly.  Further east, par-
ticularly in Europe, we find still the atmosphere of mysticism brooding over
the  land.   There,  people love the ancient myths which speak to them in  a
manner incomprehensible to the westerner.  The soul life of the people among
the  fjords and fjelds of Norway,  on the heaths and moors of Scotland,  and
the deep recessed of the Black Forest of Germany,  and among the Alpine Gla-
ciers,  is as deep and mystical today as a thousand years ago.   They are in
closer touch with Nature Spirits and other gabled realities by feeling  than
we who have gone ahead upon the path of aspiration by direct knowledge.   If
we recall this feeling and combine it with our knowledge,  we shall have at-
tained an enormous advantage.   Let us, therefore,  try to assimilate one of
the deepest mystical stories of the past, The Ring  of  the  Niebelung,  the
great epic poem of northern Europe.   It relates the story of man,  from the
time when he dwelt in Atlantis,  until this world shall have come to an  end
by a great conflagration and the Kingdom of the Heavens shall have been  es-
tablished, as foretold in the Bible.

   The Bible tells us of the Garden of Eden where our first parents dwelt in
close touch with God,  pure and innocent as children.   It tells us how that
state of being was abrogated and how sorrow,  sin,  and death came into  the
world.  In ancient myths, like The Ring of the Niebelung, we are also intro-
duced  to  mankind living under similar conditions of  childlike  innocence.
The  opening scene in this drama of Wagner represents life under the  waters
of  the Rhine where the Rhine maidens swim about with rhythmic motion and  a
song upon their lips,  imitating and undulating swell of the dancing  waves.
The waters are lighted by a great lump of lustrous gold and around this  the
Rhine  daughters circle as planets move about the central Sun;  for we  have
here the microcosmic replica of the macrocosm where the heavenly bodies move
around the Central Light-giver in a majestic circle dance.

   The  Rhine maidens represent primitive humanity during the time  when  we
dwelt at the bottom of the ocean in the dense, foggy atmosphere of Atlantis.
The gold, which lighted the scene as the Sun illuminates the solar universe,
is a representation of the Universal Spirit which then brooded over mankind.
We did not then see everything in clear, sharp contours as  we  view objects

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around us today, but our internal perception of the soul qualities in others
was much keener than it is now.

   The  individual Spirit feels itself an Ego and designates itself  "I"  in
sharp contradistinction to all others, but this separative principle had not
entered into the child men of early Atlantis.  We had no feeling of "me" and
"thee"' we felt ourselves as one great family, as children of the divine Fa-
ther.   Neither were we troubled about what we should eat or drink any  more
than children now-a-days are burdened with the material necessities of life.
Time was to us one grand play and frolic.

   But this state could not continue, or there would have been no evolution.
As  the  child  grows up to become a man or woman to take its  part  in  the
battle  of life,  so also primitive mankind was destined to leave its  natal
home  in the lowlands and ascent through the waters of Atlantis,  when  they
condensed and flooded the basins of the Earth.   Evolving humanity then  en-
tered  the aerial conditions in which we live today as told of  the  ancient
Israelites who went through the Red Sea to enter the Promised Land,  and  of
Noah, who left his native place when flood waters descended.

   The  northern  myths tells us the story in another way,  but  though  the
angle of vision is different the main points of the narrative bring out  the
same essential ideas.  In the Garden of Eden our first parents did not think
for themselves.  They obeyed unquestioningly  whatever  commands  were given
them  by their divine leaders,  much as a child in early years does  as  its
parents  wish  because  it has no sense of self.   It  lacks  individuality.
This,  according to the Bible story, was gained when Lucier imbued them with
the idea that they might become like the gods and know good and evil.

   In the Teutonic myth we are told that Alberich,  one of these children of
the  Mist (NIEBEL is mist,  UNG is child-they were thus called because  they
lived  in the foggy atmosphere of Atlantis),  coveted the gold  which  shone
with such luster in the Rhine.   He had heard that whoever obtained the gold
and formed it into a ring would thereby be enabled to conquer the world  and
master all others who did not possess the treasure.  Accordingly, he swam up
to the great rock where the gold lay, seized it and swam rapidly towards the
surface,  pursued by the Rhine daughters who were in great distress  at  the
loss of this treasure.

   When Alberich, the thief, had reached the surface of the water he heard a
voice telling him that no one could form the gold into a ring as required to
master the world, save by forswearing love; this he did instantly and forth-
with  commenced to rob the Earth of its treasure and gratify his desire  for
wealth and power.

   As said before,  the gold,  as it lay in its unformed state upon the rock
of  the Rhine,  represents the Universal Spirit which is not  the  exclusive
property of anyone, and Alberich represents the foremost among  mankind  who
were  impelled  by  the desire to conquer new  worlds.   They  first  became
ensouled by the indwelling Spirit and emigrated the the highlands above; but
when once in the clear atmosphere of Aryana,  the world as we know it,  they
saw themselves clearly and distinctly as separate entities.   Each  realized
that his interests were different from those of others;  that to succeed and
to win the world for himself,  he must stand alone,  he must look after  his
own interests regardless of others.   Thus the Spirit drew a ring about  it-
self and all inside that ring was "me"  and "mine,"  a conception which made
him  antagonistic to others.   Hence in order to form this ring and  keep  a
separate center it was necessary for him to forswear love.   Thus,  and thus
only,  could he disregard the interests of others that he might  thrive  and
master the world.

   Alberich is not alone is his desire to draw a ring around himself for the
purpose of gaining power, however.  "As above so below" and vice versa, says
the Hermetic axiom.  The gods are also evolving.  They also have aspirations
for  power-a  desire to draw a ring around themselves-for there  is  war  in
heaven as well as upon Earth.   Different cults seek to master the souls  of
men and their limitations are also symbolized by rings.

                            [To Be Continued]

                                QUESTIONS:

1] What is absolutely essential to form the Christ within?

2] What effect did the allegorical pictures, contained in the ancient myths, 
   have upon man in his present and future development?

3] Why are these mythical pictures fading away in the etheric atmosphere of 
   the Pacific Coast?

4] What do the Rhine Maidens and the lump of lustrous gold which lighted the 
   water represent?

5] What do Alberich and the gold in its unformed state upon the rock 
   represent?

6] What was necessary before Alberich could form the ring of gold and master 
   the world?

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                                 LESSON NO. 41:

                          THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG:

                           "The Ring of the Gods":

   By  appropriating  a part of the Rhinegold,  representing  the  Universal
Spirit  and  forming  it into a ring symbolical of the  fact  that  it  (the
Spirit)  has  neither beginning nor end,  the Ego came into existence  as  a
separate  entity.   Within  the confines of this auric ring  it  is  supreme
ruler, self-sufficient, and resents encroachment upon its domain.  Thus,  it
placed itself beyond the pale of fellowship.  Like the prodigal son, it wan-
dered far from the Father,  but even before it realized that it was  feeding
upon the husks of matter,  religion stepped in to guide it back to its eter-
nal home,  to free it from the illusion and delusion incidental to  material
existence,  to redeem it from the death incurred in this phase of the  dense
embodiment, and to show it the way to truth and life eternal.

   In  the Teutonic myth,  the warders of religion are represented as  gods.
Chief  among  them is Wotan,  who is identical with the Latin  Mercury,  and
Wotansday or Wednesday, is still named in his honor.  Freya,  the  Venus  of
Norway,  was goddess of beauty,  who fed the other gods on the golden apples
which preserved their youths.  Friday is her day.  Thor,  the Jupiter of the
Norsemen, is said to drive her car over the heavens and the noise then heard
is  the thunder,  and the lightning sparks that fly from his hammer when  he
strikes at his enemies.   Loge is the name of the god of Saturday.   (Lorday
in Scandinavian,  a derivation from lue,  the Scandinavian name for  flame.)
He  is  really  not one of the gods,  but related to the  giants  or  nature
forces.   His flame is not alone the physical flame, but is also a symbol of
illusion, and he, himself, is the spirit of deceit, sometimes currying favor
with  the gods and betraying the giants,  at other times deceiving the  gods
and helping the giants to further his own schemes.  Like Lucifer,  the fiery
Mars Spirit, he is also a spirit of negation, but delights also in obstruct-
ing life like the cold Saturn.

   There  is  in northern mythology a reference to the  still  earlier  cult
wherein the deities of the water were worshiped,  but the gods we  mentioned
superseded them,  and are said to ride to the judgment seat every day over a
rainbow bridge,  Bifrost.   Thus,  we see that this religion dates from  the
dawn  of  the present epoch,  when mankind had emerged from  the  waters  of
Atlantis into the clear atmosphere of Aryana-in which we are now  loving-and
where they saw the rainbow for the first time.

   It was said to Noah,  when he led primitive mankind out of the Flood that
so long as the sign of the rainbow remained in the clouds,  the  alternating
cycles of summer and winter, night and day, should not cease, and the north-
ern myth also shows us the gods gathered at the rainbow bridge in the begin-
ning of this era.   It and the gods remain until the moment when this  phase
of our evolution is ended, an event which will be shown to be identical with
the  description given in the Christian Apocalypse,  which the  Scandinavian
myth will materially help to explain.

   Truth is universal, and unlimited.  It knows no boundaries,  but when the
Ego enveloped itself in a ring of separate vehicles which segregated it from
others,  this limitation made it incapable of understanding absolute  truth.
Therefore  a religion embodying the fullness of pure truth would  have  been
incomprehensible to mankind and unsuited to help them.   Hence,  as a  child
who  goes  to school and learns a few elementary lessons the first  year  to
prepare it for more complicated problems later, so humanity were given reli-
gions  of the most primitive nature to educate them to something  higher  by
easy stages.

   Thus the warders of religion,  the gods,  are represented as desirous  of
building a walled fortress so that they may entrench themselves behind  that
wall and focalize their powers against the other faith.   The Spirit  cannot
be limited without enmeshing itself in materiality; therefore, the gods,  on
the advise of Loge,  the spirit of deceit and delusion,  make a bargain with
the giants,  Fafner,  and Fasolt, (representing selfishness),  to build  the
wall of limitation.  When that wall surrounds the gods they  have  lost  the
universal  light and knowledge;  therefore,  the myth tells us that part  of
their payment to the builders of Valhal was to be the Sun and Moon.

   Furthermore,  when  religion has thus limited itself behind the  wall  of
creed,  the spirit of decay is introduced; it waxes old as a  garment,  and,
therefore, it is also said that Wotan (wisdom or reason), agreed to give the
giants,  Freya, the goddess of beauty, who fed the gods on her golden apples
to preserve their youth.  Thus, by listening to advise from Loge, the spirit
of deceit, the gods have sacrificed their light, their knowledge,  and their
hope of eternal youth and usefulness.  Still, as already said, this was in a
manner necessary,  for mankind could not have grasped truth in its  fullness
then; we cannot understand it even now.

   The spiritual power of religion is symbolized by the magic wand of  Aaron
in the Bible,  by the magic spear of Parsifal in the Grail myth,  and by the
spear of Wotan in the story of the Niebelung.   To bind the bargain with the
giants, magic characters were cut in the handle of the spear, which was thus
weakened,  and in that manner it is shown than religion loses  in  spiritual
power what it gains in material ways when it makes a bargain with the  world
rulers and panders to the baser appetites.

[PAGE 88]

   According to the teaching of the Norsemen, those only who died  in battle
were entitled to be taken to Valhal.  Wotan desires none but the strong  and
the mighty warriors.   Those who died of illness or in peace upon their beds
were condemned to the realm of hell, the underworld.   In this also there is
a great lesson, for none but the noble and the fearless who spend their days
fighting  the battle of life TO THE VERY LAST BREATH are worthy of  advance-
ment.   The shirkers who love ease and peace,  rather than the work  of  the
world,  are not entitled to promotion in the school of life.   It  does  not
matter where we work or what the line of our experience may be,  so long  as
we  faithfully  battle with the problems of life as they appear  before  us.
Neither will it suffice if we do this for a year or two and then lapse  into
inactivity;  we must keep on working and striving until the day of  life  is
done.

   Thus  the old Norse religion teaches the same lesson as Paul taught  when
he counseled "patient persistence in well doing."   Even if we realize  that
we have not all truth, that we are placed under limitations by separateness,
the egoism symbolized by the Ring of Niebelung,  and by creed and convention
symbolized by the Ring of the Gods,  still if we fill our appointed niche to
the best of our ability throughout our whole life we shall be certain of ad-
vancement  in a future age.   We shall see more clearly through the veil  of
egoism  when we willingly live the life where we have been placed,  for  the
Recording Angles make no mistakes.  They have put us in that place  where we
we have been given the lessons needed to prepare us for a greater sphere  of
usefulness.

   From what has been said,  it is evident that the creedbound condition  of
the various churches-the insistence on dogma and ritual-are not, unmitigated
evils, as it may have appeared to many, but in reality the necessary outcome
of  the limitations incidental to the material existence through  the  human
Spirit is now passing,  as thus each class is being properly taken care  of.
It  receives  as much truth as it can comprehend,  and as is  good  for  its
present development.   There is not need of worrying about anyone.   No  one
can or will be lost,  for, as in God we live, and move,  and have our being,
so,  if one were lost,  a part of the Divine Author of our system  would  be
missing, an unthinkable proposition.

   But while a great majority of mankind are thus being taken care of by the
orthodox religions,  there always a few pioneers-some whose faculty of intu-
ition tells them of greater heights unscaled,  who see the sunlight of truth
beyond the wall of creed.   Their souls are starving on the husks of dogmas,
and they long ardently for the apples of youth, and love sold by the gods to
the giants.  Even the gods are growing old rapidly, for no religion which is
devoid of love can ever hope to hold mankind for any length of time.  There-
fore,  the gods were forced to seek again the advice of Loge,  the spirit of
deceit,  hoping through his wiles to extricate themselves from the  dilemma.
Loge tells then how Alberich, the Niebelung, has succeeded in hoarding up an
immense  treasure by enslaving his brothers.  With the consent of the  gods,
he  uses deceitful means to capture Alberich and forces him to disgorge  all
his treasures.   He then plays upon the avaricious nature of the giants  and
finally succeeds in ransoming Freya.

   Thus the curse of the Ring (egoism and selfishness) has tainted even  the
gods.   For the sake of the Ring (power), Alberich, the Niebelung,  forswore
love.  He oppressed his brothers and ruled them with an iron rod.  Religion,
on its side,  forswore love by the sale of Freya.  It also stooped to deceit
to  force  the rulers of the world to pay tribute and when the Ring  of  the
Niebelung passed into the hands of the giants the evil fate followed it, for
one brother slays the other that he may be the sole possessor of the  wealth
of the world.

   The gods have indeed regained Freya,  but she is no longer the pure  god-
dess of love.   She has been prostituted; hence; she is but the semblance of
her former self and fails to satisfy those whose intuition sees deeper  than
the surface;  such are called Walsungs in the Scandinavian myth.   The first
syllable  is the derivation of the German word,  walhlen,  to choose or  the
Scandinavian,  vaelge.  The last syllable means children.  They are children
of  desire for free will and choice,  who want to choose their own path  and
who seek to follow their own divine instinct.

                             [To Be Continued]

                                 QUESTIONS

1] Where was the rainbow seen for the first time?

2] Why was religion embodying pure truth withheld from primitive mankind?

3] What is the great lesson in the teaching of the Norsemen, that only those 
   who die in battle were entitled to be taken to Valhal?

4] Why have the Recording Angels placed each of us in our present environment?

5] What does intuition tell the few pioneers in the Orthodox religion?

6] What is the desire of those whose intuition sees deeper than the surface?

[PAGE 89]

                              LESSON NO. 42:

                        THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG:

                              "The Valkurie":

   "The Valkuerie"  is the name of the second part of Wagner's great musical
drama,  founded upon the northern myth of the Niegelungs, and the bearers of
the name were children of Wotan, as were also the Walsungs.

   The appropriateness of this name will be at once apparent when we  under-
stand  that the mission of the Valuerie was to go to battles whether  fought
between  two or more,  take the slain upon their horses,  and carry them  to
Valhal.  Therefore, a battle field or a place of combat was called VALPLADS,
the place where Wotan, the god, chose the valiant ones who died fighting the
battle  for  truth (as they saw it),  to be his companions in the  realm  of
bliss (as they conceived it).  Brunhilde, the spirit of truth, was therefore
chief among the Valkueries,  the leader of her sisters,  the other  virtues.
She was the favorite daughter of the god Wotan.

   But  when the gods had limited themselves and shut away the  universality
of truth by the Ring of Creed and dogma--symbolized by Valhal--the Walsungs,
who  are truth seekers first and foremost,  rebelled.   They manifest  under
different  aspects  as shown by the names given them in the  northern  myth.
The root of their name is SIEG, a German word which means victory, and it is
highly appropriate,  for no matter what odds are against it, truths will win
in the end.

   Siegmund,  the courageous one,  who is impelled to seek truth  no  matter
what the consequences, may be slain as the result of his audacity.  We shall
hear how and why, presently.  Sieglinda, his sister and later his wife,  who
has the same inward urge but dares not openly follow it, may die in despair.
She transmits the hunger for the truth to their offspring Siegfried, he, who
through  victory gains peace,  so that what one generation of truth  seekers
fails to accomplish,  will eventually be achieved by their descendants,  and
in the end truth will triumph over creed and stand supreme.

   We  are  taking time by the forelock when relating or hinting  at  events
which  will be unfolded in the beautiful tale before us,  but we cannot  re-
frain from iterating and reiterating that glorious thought,  "For now we see
through a glass darkly."   Though the walls and limitations of physical  ex-
istence  are about us in every direction, the time is coming when "we  shall
see and know even as we are known."

   When  Siegmund,  impelled by the uncontrollable desire for truth,  leaves
Valhal,  Wotan  is enraged and in order to put a check  on  the  independent
spirit of the Walsungs, he orders the marriage of Sieglinda to Hunding,  who
is the spirit of convention.   She swoons despairingly in his arms,  for she
has  not the courage to leave her ancestors as her brother had  done.   Thus
she is a fit symbol of those who,  though they rebel in their innermost  na-
tures,  are married tot he conventions of the world and are afraid to make a
radical  change from the established code of the church,  for fear  of  what
people will think of them.   Thus, though outraged in their innermost nature
and thwarted in their holiest ambitions,  they continue to bear the yoke  of
conventionality and go through the established church services for the  sake
of appearance.

   In the course of time,  Siegmund comes by chance to the house of  Hunding
and finds his sister whom at first he does not know, but when they have rec-
ognized each other,  he induces her to flee with him.   They bout know  that
this acts of theirs, this outrage against Hunding, the spirit of convention,
will  not be condoned by the gods, and to fortify themselves in  the  battle
which they know is before them,  they take with them a magical sword  called
Nothung.   NOTH is need or distress, and UNG as we have already seen,  means
child.   Thus the sword is the child of distress,  the courage  of  despair.
This sword had been buried to the hilt in Yggdrasil by no less a person than
Wotan,  himself,  against just such an emergency as this.   In order that we
may thoroughly understand this beautiful symbol and the seemingly  paradoxi-
cal  conduct  of  Wotan,  it  will  be necessary to elucidate the meaning of
Yggdrasil,  the World Ash,  the tree of life and being,  as explained in the
Scandinavian mythology.

   According  to their concept,  this wonderful tree reached from  Earth  to
heaven.  One of its roots was in the underworld with Hel, a terrible hag who
ruled over those who had died of disease and were not, therefore,  qualified
to dwell with Wotan in Valhal.   They represent the class of people who  are
indolent and neglect to fight the battle of life to the last.  Hel has three
children, who are closely akin to her and are always fighting the gods.  who
have  the welfare of man at heart.  They are symbols of the  elements  which
make  up the material world where death alone reigns.   One is the  Midgaard
Serpent,  a prodigious monster encircling the Earth and biting its own tail:
it is the ocean.   The other is the wolf Fenris, which is so subtle,  yet so
strong, that nothing can hold him:  He represents the atmosphere surrounding
the Earth and the winds which cannot be controlled.  Loge, with whom we have
already become acquainted, is the spirit of fire, deceit, and illusion.  The
other  root  of Yggdrasil is with the Forest Giants in  chaos,  whence  this
whole universe originated.  The third root is with the gods.

   Under the root, which is with Hel, the Serpent, Nidhog, lies gnawing.  It
is  the  spirit of envy and malice which is subversive of good:   NID  means
envy,  and HOG,  to fell.  Because Yggdrasil, the tree of life in manifesta-
tion,  lives by love,  envy and malice would fell the tree and bring it down
to death and Hel. But under the root that is with the gods, is the fountain,
fountain,  Urd,  whence  the  three Norns, or  Fates,  fetch  the  water  of
life--the spiritual impetus wherewith to water the tree and keep its  leaves
fresh  and  green.   The  names of these three Norns  are  Urd,  Skuld,  and
Verdande.  Urd is from the German, UR, the past, primordial, or virgin state
in relation to man and the universe.  She spins upon her wheel the thread of
fate generated by us in the past; and Skuld, a name signifying debt,  is the
second Norn, who represents the present.  To her, Urd delivers the thread of

[PAGE 90]

fate  of past lives which we must expiate in this embodiment.   It  is  then
given to Verdande,  the third Norn,  whose name is a derivation of WERDENDE,
the  German  word for becoming.   She represents the future,  and  when  the
thread  of fate symbolizing the debt paid at the present time is  handed  to
her,  she breaks it off piece by piece.   Thus this wonderful  symbol  tells
just that when the causation generated in past lives has worked itself  into
effects in this life, the debt is cancelled for all time to come.

   The  northern mythology further tells us that besides these  three  chief
Norms,  there were many others,  and that one officiated at each  birth  and
took  charge of the destiny of the child then born.   We are also told  that
these  Norns,  or Fates,  did not work according to their own will but  were
subject to the dictates of the invisible Orlog.  The name is a corruption of
the word UR,  meaning primordial,  and LOG,  law.   Thus we see the northenr
symbol teaches that the Norns were  not  subject  to  the gods, and that our
destiny is not ruled by caprice but by an inexorable law of Nature,  the Law
of Cause and Effect.

   Under the third root,  which was with the Frost Giants,  was the well  of
Mime.   The Frost Giants,  or nature forces, had existed prior to the estab-
lishment of the Earth.  They had helped its formation and,  therefore,  knew
many things which were hidden from the gods.  Therefore, even Wotan, the god
of wisdom,  was wont to go to the well of Mime to drink therefore,  that  he
might receive a knowledge of the past.   He also had to drink from the foun-
tain of Urd that he might renew his life.

   Thus we see that the Hierarchies,  who help us to evolve,  are themselves
living  to learn;  and the very fact that they are learning shows their  li-
ability to err, and, also the reason why Wotan, their chief,  should provide
the  sword,  Nothung--the courage of despair--so that in an emergency  those
against  whom he erred might have a weapon wherewith to  defend  themselves.
Much more might be said about this wonderful World Ash, the Yggsdrasil,m but
the  student has now sufficient information to enable him to understand  the
relation of the sword to that which follows.

   When Siegmund and Sieglinda,  fortified with the magic sword--the courage
of  despair--leave the house of Hunding, the spirit of convention,  to  seek
truth in the wide world, the outraged Hunding needs not the command of Wotan
to pursue them with intent to kill.  Wotan bids Brunhilde, the Valuerie,  to
be invisibly present at the  expected  battle and  fight  for  Hunding,  the
spirit of conventionality.  But the spirit of truth cannot fight against the
truth  seeker,  so Brunhilde sorrowfully refuses to comply with Wotan's  or-
ders.  When Siegmund meets Hunding in deadly combat and is about to vanquish
him,  Wotan interposes his spear, and upon that the sword, Nothung, is shat-
tered and Siegmund, defenseless, is killed by a blow from Hunding.

   Thus  truth  is  ever upon the side of the truth  seeker  in  his  battle
against the conventionalities of the church and social customs.     But when
the power of religion,  which furnished him the courage of despair necessary
to stand up for his convictions,  is pitted against the power of creed  sym-
bolized  by the spear of Wotan,  many an earnest soul has  been  vanquished,
though not convinced.  Siegmund may die, and Sieglinda may follow him to the
grave,  broken-hearted,  when,  assisted by Brunhilde she has given birth to
Siegfried,  the victor; for, as already said, the thirst for truth once felt
can never be quenched until it has gained satisfaction.

   In the meantime, Wotan powerless to abandon Valhal, the Ring of Creed, is
forced to put away from himself Brunhilde, the spirit of truth, who has dis-
obeyed him;  for it is a condition of creed that it be autocratic and  brook
no  gainsaying.   But as all religions are inherently imbued by a spirit  of
love  and  a sincere desire to benefit and uplift mankind,  Wotan  feels  an
overwhelming  sorrow at the step which is necessary for the  continuance  of
the policy he had adopted, and which he adheres to despite the heart-rending
pleadings of Brunhilde.   It is a terrible thing to part company with truth,
and both feel this more keenly than words can express,  when the poor  creed
bound Wotan must perforce put Brunhilde to sleep, as he says:

 "Never to be wakened, until one shall come who is more free than I."

   And in that saying he discloses the principal requirement in the quest of
truth.   "Unless a man leave father and mother," said Christ, "He cannot be-
come my disciple."   All limitations must have been swept away before we can
hope for success in the quest of truth.

                           [To Be Continued]

                               QUESTIONS:

1] Through generations of Truth Seekers, what is accomplished?

2] Who are the three children of Hel and what do they each represent in the 
   material world?

3] Explain the symbology of the three Norns, Urd, Skuld, and Verdande.

4] Why must Brunhilde refuse to comply with Wotan's order to fight for 
   Hunding?

5] What did the birth of Siegfried, the Victor, signify?

6] What is necessary before we can hope for success in the quest of truth?

[PAGE 91]

                            LESSON NO. 43:

                      THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG:

                    "Siegfried, the Truth Seeker":

   We  have seen that it is necessary to set aside all limitations of  reli-
gion,  family, environment, and whatever else hinders in order to be able to
grasp truth, but there is still another great requirement, or one which per-
haps is comprehended in the first.   We cling to our religion,  our friends,
and  our families through fear of standing alone.   We obey conventions  be-
cause we fear to follow the dictates of the inner voice that urges us on to-
ward  the  higher  things which are incomprehensible to  the  majority;  and
therefore in reality, fear is the chief obstacle which prevents us from get-
ting at truth and living it.

   This  is  also shown in the Ring of the Niebelung.   Wotan  decrees  that
Brunhilde,  the spirit of truth, is to be put to sleep, because he fears the
loss  of  his  power if he retains her after she has  rebelled  against  his
limitations  and refuses to shield Hunding,  the spirit of  convention.   He
pronounces her doom in sorrow,  saying that she must remain asleep until one
more free than he,  the god, shall waken her.  "Perfect love casteth out all
fear," and only the fearless are free to love and to live truth.  Therefore,
Brunhilde is put to sleep on a desolate rock, and  around  her burns forever
a circle of flame kindled by loge,  the spirit of delusion.   No one but the
free--the  unfettered  and fearless soul--can ever hope  to  penetrate  that
circle  of hallucination (conventionality) and live to love  the  reawakened
spirit of truth, ever lovely and young.

   Thus  the  second part of the mystic drama ends with the  abandonment  of
truth, and the triumph of convention.  Creed is firmly established on Earth.
Siegmund,  the  truth seeker,  lies vanquished and dead.   His  sister-wife,
Sieglinda,  also has paid with her life for entering the quest and it  would
seem  as if Brunhilde must sleep forever.   now the Walsungs have  only  one
representative,  the  orphan child Siegfried,  who was left in the  cave  of
Mime, the Niebelung, by the dying mother, Sieglinda.

   In time,  however,  the child grows up in youthful vigor,  developing the
strength of a giant.   Beautiful as a god, he is a strange contrast to Mime,
the ugly Niebelung, a dwarf who claims to be his father.  This Siegfried can
scarcely believe,  for when he looks about him in the forest,  he sees  that
the nestlings resemble their parents, that the young of all animals have the
same characteristics which are found in their parents.   He alone is differ-
ent from the one who claims him as a son.

   When with prodigious strength he has caught a bear, and leads it into the
cave of Mime,  the latter is almost paralyzed with fear,  an emotion utterly
unknown  to  Siegfried.  Mime,  one  of  the  most  cunning smiths among the
Niebelung, has forged sword after sword for the use of this young giant, but
each  in turn has been shattered by the powerful arm that wielded it.   Mime
has indeed tried to weld the sword Nothung, the child of distress, which was
shattered  upon  the spear of Wotan in the fatal fray between  Siegmund  and
Hunding.   The fragments of this sword were brought by Sieglinda to the cave
of  Mime,  but NO ONE WHO IS A COWARD can either forge or wield  the  sword,
Nothung, the courage of despair; therefore, Mime, despite all his skill, has
failed every time he has tried.   One day when Siegfried taunts him  because
of his inability to make a sword that will stand,  Mime brings out the frag-
ments of Nothung,  and tells him that if he can weld it,  it will serve  him
well.  Possessing that cardinal qualification of the trust seeker, fearless-
ness, Siegfried accomplishes with unskilled hand what Mime has failed to do.
He  forges anew the magic sword and is thus prepared for the quest of  truth
and knowledge.

   Though ages have passed since Alberich, the Niebelung, was forced to part
with the Ring as ransom to the gods, neither he nor his tribe have forgotten
the  power  wielded by its possessor.   And the longing to regain  the  lost
treasure  is still rife among all of them.   For mankind,  being  inherently
spiritual  and free,  will never be reconciled to the loss of  individuality
insisted upon under the regime of the church.  Though,  like Mime,  they may
be imbued with an uncontrollable fear;  though they may cringe and fawn  be-
fore  the  higher  powers,  as  Alberich  fawned  before Wotan, they always,
whether subconsciously or otherwise,  remember their spiritual heritage  and
seek  to  recover their estate as free agents,  unbound by  creed  or  other
limitations.

   To this end they scheme and plot in the most subtle manner, as symbolized
by  the aid Mime gives Siegfried to forge anew the sword once  shattered  by
Wotan.   He  sees that the young truth seeker is fearless.   He  knows  that
Fafner,  one of the giants, who obtained the Ring from the gods, broods over
his treasure in the form of a huge dragon, awe inspiring in the extreme.  He
can scarcely believe it possible for anyone to vanquish this monster, but he

[PAGE 92]

believes that if it can be done,  this fearless young giant,  Siegfried,  is
the only one able to accomplish the feat.   It has,  indeed,  been said that
the one who forges Nothung,  will slay him;  and Mime trusts to his  cunning
and hopes that if Siegfried kills the dragon, he,  Mime,  may be able to ob-
tain  possession of the Ring of the Niebelung and become the master  of  the
world.

   There is a very deep spiritual significance in this tale, namely, that of
the lower nature,  plotting to use the higher self or its own vile purposes.
Siegfried (he,  who through victory gains peace), is the higher self at that
stage  of its pilgrimage where it has been left all alone,  without kith  or
kin,  where it sees that the shape of clay symbolized by Mime is not part of
it,  but of an entirely different race and breed,  where it is ready to con-
tinue its search for truth, attempted in previous  lives as did Siegmund and
Sieglinda,  from whom the indomitable courage,  that knows neither fear  nor
defeat, has been inherited.

   But though the seeking soul may forsake the world, as did Hertzleide, the
mother  of parsifal,  who gave birth to the truth seeker in a dense  forest,
and  as Sieglinda who bore the child, Siegfried,  in the cave of  Mime,  the
lower nature follows,  scheming to use the power of spirit for worldly ends.
Alas!   how  many  have left the churches in despair because  of  creed,  as
Siegmund  left  Wotan;  who have gained a certain knowledge  of  the  higher
things  and have then misused their heavenly powers of hypnotism and  mental
suggestion, to attract to themselves the goods of this world, seeking rather
the things of Earth which fetter than the treasures of heaven which free the
soul.

   There has never been an age on Earth when this part of the great myth was
so generally enacted as it is today.  There are many thousands of people who
represent in themselves, Siegfried and Mime--Dr. Jekyl and Mr.  Hyde.   They
are  roused to a greater or lesser realization of the powers of the  spirit,
of their divine nature and attributes as Siegfried was,  but the lower phase
of their nature, Mime, keeps on scheming for material benefit.

   And whether we call this use of the divine powers,  Christian,  or by  an
other  name,  it is not the science of the soul.   We should be honest  with
ourselves  and recognize the fact,  that He, who had not a place whereon  to
lay  His  head,  and  who  was  the very embodiment of the attracting Christ
power,  refused to use that power for His own benefit.  Even at the point of
death He refrained,  and it was said of Him that others He saved,  but  Him-
self,  He could not (would not) save because the Law of Sacrifice is greater
than the law of Self-preservation:  "For what shall it profit a man,  though
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

   The  moment  we set out upon the path in earnest,  the  lower  nature  is
doomed  despite all its efforts of cunning to save itself.   And  when  Mime
plans to send Siegfried against the dragon, Fafner, the spirit of desire, he
has in fact sealed his own fate;  for when the soul has conquered the desire
for worldly possessions,  we are dead to the world, even though we may still
live here and perform our work in the world.  We are then in the world,  but
not of it.

   Led by Mime,  Siegfried finds the giant Fafner guarding the cave where he
has hidden the hoard of the Niebelungs.   The lower nature always urges  the
higher to seek the material wealth of the world, seeking, thereby, to obtain
standing and power in society.  It is, alas, all too common, this desire and
thirst for wealth and power!  We are all like Mime,  ready to risk our lives
in the quest of gold.   And though Mime quakes at the very thought of  being
near the dreadful dragon,  he keeps on plotting,  for he knows that when the
Ego,  represented by the Ring of the Niebelung, is so enmeshed in the snares
of  materiality that the body may be said to own it,  when all its  energies
are directed by the lower nature,  there is no limit to the power it may at-
tain.  But Siegfried,  the fearless truth seeker, when he has vanquished the
dragon, representing the desire nature, also slays Mime who is emblematic of
the dense body.

   Freed from the mortal coil, the Spirit is able to understand the language
of Nature.  Intuitively it senses where truth, represented by Brunhilde, the
Valkuerie,  is hidden, and following this intuition, represented in the myth
by a bird, he starts for the fire girt rock, to wake and to woo the sleeping
beauty.   But though we may,  by laying aside the physical body,  enter  the
realm where truth is to be found, the pathway is not by any means clear; for
Wotan,  the  warder  of  creed,  stretches his  spear  across  the  path  of
Siegfried, endeavoring to the last to dissuade or discourage the independent
searcher for truth.   However, the power of creed,  represented by the spear
of  Wotan,  was weakened when he bargained with the giants;  in other  words
when  it appealed to the lower side of man's nature.   And in token of  this
weakening,  magic characters were cut upon the shaft of the spear.   This is
therefore,  easily broken in twain at the first blow from Nothung, the cour-
age of despair.

   When  the truth seeker has come to the point here described,  he will  no
longer allow himself to be thwarted in his quest, whether the opposing power
be  devils like Fafner or gods like Wotan.   Every obstacle he removes  with
ruthless hand for he has only one desire in the world,  an overweaning crav-
ing  to  know  truth.  Therefore,  after  shattering  the spear of Wotan, he
presses onward, led by the bird of intuition, until he comes to he circle of
flame hiding Brunhilde, the sleeping spirit of truth.  Neither is he daunted
at sight of loge's flames of illusion and hallucination.   He plunges boldly
through,  and behold!  there lies that for which he has panted  during  many
lives.   He stoops,  gathers Brunhilde in his strong,  yet tender arms,  and
with a fervent kiss he awakens the spirit of truth from her age long sleep.

                             [To Be Continued]

                                 QUESTIONS:

1] What is the chief obstacle which prevents us from living the truth?

2] Why does Siegfried doubt that he is the son of Mime?

3] Why was Mime unable to weld the sword Nothung, the child of distress?

4] Explain the spiritual significance of Siegfried inheriting his indomitable 
   courage from Siegmund and Sieglinda.

5] What law is greater than the law of self-preservation?

6] What does the sleeping Brunhilde within the circle of fire represent to 
   Siegfried?

Continued with file "RC4007.TXT"

End of File

