_The Chemical Region._
If one who is capable of consciously using his spiritual body with the
same facility that we now use our physical vehicles should glide away from
the earth into interplanetary space, the earth and the various other
planets of our solar system would appear to him to be composed of three
kinds of matter, roughly speaking. The densest matter, which is our
visible earth, would appear to him as being the center of the ball as the
yolk is in the center of an egg. Around that nucleus he would observe a
finer grade of matter similarly disposed in relation to the central mass,
as the white of the egg is disposed outside the yolk. Upon a little closer
investigation he would also discover that this second kind of substance
permeates the solid earth to the very center, even as the blood percolates
through the more solid parts of our flesh. Outside both of these mingling
layers of matter he would observe a still finer, third layer corresponding
to the shell of the egg, except that this third layer is the finest most
subtile of the three grades of matter, and that it inter-penetrates both
of the two inner layers.
As already said, the central mass, spiritually seen, is our visible world,
composed of solids, liquids and gases. They constitute the earth, its
atmosphere, and also the ether, of which physical science speaks
hypothetically as permeating the atomic substance of all chemical
elements. The second layer of matter is called the Desire World and the
outermost layer is called the World of Thought.
A little reflection upon the subject will make clear that just such a
constitution is necessary to account for facts of life as we see them. All
forms in the world about us are built from chemical substances: solids,
liquids and gases, but in so far that they do move, these forms obey a
separate and distinct impulse, and when this impelling energy leaves, the
form becomes inert. The steam engine rotates under the impetus of an
invisible gas called steam. Before steam filled its cylinder, the engine
stood still, and when the impelling force is shut off its motion again
ceases. The dynamo rotates under the still more subtile influence of an
electric current which may also cause the click of a telegraph instrument
or the ring of an electric bell, but the dynamo ceases its swift whirl and
the persistent ring of the electric bell becomes mute when the invisible
electricity is switched off. The form of the bird, the animal and the
human being also cease their motion when the inner force which we call
_life_ has winged its invisible way.
All forms are impelled into motion by desire:—the bird and the animal roam
land and air in their desire to secure food and shelter, or for the
purpose of breeding, man is also moved by these desires, but has in
addition other and higher incentives to spur him to effort, among them is
desire for rapidity of motion which led him to construct the steam engine
and other devices that move in obedience to _his_ desire.
If there were no iron in the mountains man could not build machines. If
there were no clay in the soil, the bony structure of the skeleton would
be an impossibility, and if there were no Physical World at all, with its
solids, liquids and gases, this dense body of ours could never have come
into existence. Reasoning along similar lines it must be at once apparent
that if there were no Desire World composed of desire-stuff, we should
have no way of forming feelings, emotions and desires. A planet composed
of the materials we perceive with our _physical_ eyes and of no other
substances, might be the home of plants which grow unconsciously, but have
no desires to cause them to move. The human and animal kingdoms however,
would be impossibilities.
Furthermore, there is in the world a vast number of things, from the
simplest and most crude instruments, to the most intricate and cunning
devices which have been constructed by the hand of man. These reveal the
fact of man’s thought and ingenuity. Thought must have a source as well as
_form_ and _feeling_. We saw that it was necessary to have the requisite
material in order to build a steam engine or a body and we reasoned from
the fact that in order to obtain material to express _desire_ there must
also be a world composed of desire stuff. Carrying our argument to its
logical conclusion, we also hold that unless a World of Thought provides a
reservoir of mind stuff upon which we may draw, it would be impossible for
us to think and invent the things which we see in even the lowest
civilization.
Thus it will be clear that the division of a planet into worlds is not
based on fanciful metaphysical speculation, but is logically necessary in
the economy of nature. Therefore it must be taken into consideration by
any one who would study and aim to understand the inner nature of things.
When we see the street cars moving along our streets, it does not explain
to say that the motor is driven by electricity of so many amperes at so
many volts. These names only add to our confusion until we have thoroughly
studied the science of electricity and then we shall find that the mystery
deepens, for while the street car belongs to the world of _inert form_
perceptible to our vision, the electric current which moves it is
indigenous to the realm of _force_, the invisible Desire World, and the
thought which created and guides it, comes from the still more subtile
World of Thought which is the home world of the human spirit, the Ego.
It may be objected that this line of argument makes a simple matter
exceedingly intricate, but a little reflection will soon show the fallacy
of such a contention. Viewed superficially any of the sciences seem
extremely simple; anatomically we may divide the body into flesh and bone,
chemically we may make the simple divisions between solid, liquid and gas,
but to thoroughly master the science of anatomy it is necessary to spend
years in close application and learn to know all the little nerves, the
ligaments which bind articulations between various parts of the bony
structure, to study the several kinds of tissue and their disposition in
our system where they form the bones, muscles, glands, etc., which in the
aggregate we know as the human body. To properly understand the science of
chemistry we must study the valence of the atom which determines the power
of combination of the various elements, together with other niceties, such
as atomic weight, density, etc. New wonders are constantly opening up to
the most experienced chemist, who understands best the immensity of his
chosen science.
The youngest lawyer, fresh from law school knows more about the most
intricate cases, in his own estimation, than the judges upon the Supreme
Court bench who spend long hours, weeks and months, seriously deliberating
over their decisions. But those who, without having studied, think they
understand and are fitted to discourse upon the greatest of all sciences,
the science of Life and Being, make a greater mistake. After years of
patient study, of holy life spent in close application, a man is
oftentimes perplexed at the immensity of the subject he studies. He finds
it to be so vast in both the direction of the great and small that it
baffles description, that language fails, and that the tongue must remain
mute. Therefore we hold, (and we speak from knowledge gained through years
of close study and investigation), that the finer distinctions which we
have made, and shall make, are not at all arbitrary, but absolutely
necessary as are divisions and distinctions made in anatomy or chemistry.
No form in the physical world has feeling in the true sense of that word.
It is the indwelling life which feels, as we may readily see from the fact
that a body which responded to the slightest touch while instinct with
life, exhibits no sensation whatever even when cut to pieces after the
life has fled. Demonstrations have been made by scientists, particularly
by Professor Bose of Calcutta, to show that there is feeling in dead
animal tissue and even in tin and other metal, but we maintain that the
diagrams which seem to support his contentions in reality demonstrate only
a response to impacts similar to the rebound of a rubber ball, and that
must not be confused with such feelings as _love_, _hate_, _sympathy_ and
_aversion_. Goethe also, in his novel “Elective Affinities,”
(Wahlverwandtschaft), brings out some beautiful illustrations wherein he
makes it seem as if atoms loved and hated, from the fact that some
elements combine readily while other substances refuse to amalgamate, a
phenomenon produced by the different rates of speed at which various
elements vibrate and an unequal inclination of their axes. Only where
there is sentient life can there be feelings of pleasure and pain, sorrow
or joy.
_The Etheric Region._
In addition to the solids, liquids and gases which compose the _Chemical
Region_ of the Physical World there is also a finer grade of matter called
Ether, which permeates the atomic structure of the earth and its
atmosphere substantially as science teaches. Scientists have never seen,
nor have they weighed, measured or analyzed this substance, but they infer
that it must exist in order to account for transmission of light and
various other phenomena. If it were possible for us to live in a room from
which the air had been exhausted we might speak at the top of our voices,
we might ring the largest bell or we might even discharge a cannon close
to our ear and we should hear no sound, for air is the medium which
transmits sound vibrations to the tympanum of our ear, and that would be
lacking. But if an electric light were lighted, we should at once perceive
its rays; it would illumine the room despite the lack of air. Hence there
must be a substance, capable of being set into vibration, between the
electric light and our eyes. That medium scientists call ether, but it is
so subtile that no instrument has been devised whereby it may be measured
or analyzed and therefore the scientists are without much information
concerning it, though forced to postulate its existence.
We do not seek to belittle the achievements of modern scientists, we have
the greatest admiration for them and we entertain high expectations of
what ambitions they may yet realize, but we perceive a limitation in the
fact, that all discoveries of the past have been made by the invention of
wonderful instruments applied in a most ingenious manner to solve
seemingly insoluble and baffling problems. The strength of science lies
vested in its instruments, for the scientist may say to anyone: Go,
procure a number of glasses ground in a certain manner, insert them in a
tube, direct that tube toward a certain point in the sky where now nothing
appears to your naked eye. You will then see a beautiful star called
Uranus. If his directions are followed, anyone is _quickly and without
preparation_, able to demonstrate for himself the truth of the scientist’s
assertion. But while the instruments of science are its tower of strength
they also mark the end of its field of investigation, for it is impossible
to contact the spirit world with _physical_ instruments, so the research
of occultists begins where the physical scientist finds his limit and are
carried on by _spiritual_ means.
These investigations are as thorough and as reliable as researches by
material scientists, but not as easily demonstrable to the general public.
Spiritual powers lie dormant within every human being, and when awakened,
they compensate for both telescope and microscope, they enable their
possessor to investigate, _instanter_, things beyond the veil of matter,
but they are only developed by a patient application and continuance in
well doing extended over years, and few are they who have faith to start
upon the path to attainment or perseverance to go through with the ordeal.
Therefore the occultist’s assertions are not generally credited.
We can readily see that long probation must precede attainment, for a
person equipped with spiritual sight is able to penetrate walls of houses
as easily as we walk through the atmosphere, able to read at will the
innermost thoughts of those about him; if not actuated by the most pure
and unselfish motives, he would be a scourge to humanity. Therefore that
power is safeguarded as we would withhold the dynamite bomb from an
anarchist and from the well-intentioned but ignorant person, or, as we
withhold match and powder barrel from a child.
In the hands of an experienced engineer the dynamite bomb may be used to
open a highway of commerce, and an intelligent farmer may use gunpowder to
good account in clearing his field of tree-stumps, but in the hands of an
ill-intentioned criminal or ignorant child an explosive may wreck much
property and end many lives. The force is the same, but used differently,
according to the ability or intention of the user, it may produce results
of a diametrically opposite nature. So it is also with spiritual powers,
there is a time-lock upon them, as upon a bank safe, which keeps out all
until they have earned the privilege and the time is ripe for its
exercise.
As already said, the ether is physical matter and responsive to the same
laws which govern other physical substances upon this plane of existence.
Therefore it requires but a slight extension of _physical_ sight to see
ether, (which is disposed in four grades of density), the blue haze seen
in mountain canyons is in fact ether of the kind known to occult
investigators as “_chemical ether_.” Many people who see this ether, are
unaware that they are possessed of a faculty not enjoyed by all. Others,
who have developed spiritual sight are not endowed with etheric vision, a
fact which seems an anomaly until the subject of clairvoyance is
thoroughly understood.
The reason is, that as ether is physical matter, etheric sight depends
upon the sensitiveness of the optic nerve while spiritual sight is
acquired by developing latent vibratory powers in two little organs
situated in the brain: the Pituitary body and the Pineal gland.
Nearsighted people even, may have etheric vision. Though unable to read
the print in a book, they may be able to “see through a wall,” owing to
the fact that their optic nerve responds more rapidly to fine than to
coarse vibrations.
When anyone views an object with etheric sight he sees _through_ that
object in a manner similar to the way an x-ray penetrates opaque
substances. If he looks at a sewing machine, he will perceive, first an
outer casing; then, the works within, and behind both, the casing furthest
away from him.
If he has developed the grade of spiritual vision which opens the Desire
World to him and he looks at the same object, he will see it both inside
and out. If he looks closely, he will perceive every little atom spinning
upon its axis and no part or particle will be excluded from his
perception.
But if his spiritual sight has been developed in such a measure that he is
capable of viewing the sewing machine with the vision peculiar to the
World of Thought, he will behold a cavity where he had previously seen the
form.
Things seen with etheric vision are very much alike in color, they are
nearly reddish-blue, purple or violet, according to the density of the
ether, but when we view any object with the spiritual sight pertaining to
the Desire World, it scintillates and coruscates in a thousand ever
changing colors so indescribably beautiful that they can only be compared
to living fire, and the writer therefore calls this grade of vision _color
sight_, but when the spiritual vision of the World of Thought is the
medium of perception, the seer finds that in addition to still more
beautiful colors, there issues from the cavity described a constant flow
of a certain harmonious _tone_. Thus this world wherein we now consciously
live and which we perceive by means of our physical senses is preeminently
the world of _form_, the Desire World is particularly the world of _color_
and the World of Thought is the realm of _tone_.
Because of the relative proximity or distance of these worlds, a statue, a
_form_, withstands the ravages of time for millenniums, but the _colors_
upon a painting fade in far shorter time, for they come from the Desire
World, and _music_ which is native to the World furthest removed from us,
the World of Thought, is like a will-o-the-wisp which none may catch or
hold, it is gone again as soon as it has made its appearance. But there is
in color and music a compensation for this increasing evanescence.
The statue is cold and dead as the mineral of which it is composed and has
attractions for but few though its _form is_ a tangible reality.
The forms upon a painting are illusory yet they express _life_, on account
of the _color_ which has come from a region where nothing is inert and
lifeless. Therefore the painting is enjoyed by many.
Music is intangible and ephemeral, but it comes from the home world of the
spirit and though so fleeting it is recognized by the spirit as a
_soul-speech_ fresh from the celestial realms, an echo from the home
whence we are now exiled, and therefore it touches a cord in our being,
regardless of whether we realize the true cause or not.
Thus we see that there are various grades of spiritual sight, each suited
to the superphysical realm which it opens to our perception: Etheric
vision, color vision and tonal vision.
The occult investigator finds that ether is of four kinds, or grades of
density:
The Chemical Ether,
The Life Ether,
The Light Ether,
The Reflecting Ether.
_The Chemical Ether_ is the avenue of expression for forces promoting
assimilation, growth and the maintenance of form.
_The Life Ether_ is the vantage ground of forces active in propagation, or
the building of new forms.
_The Light Ether_ transmits the motive power of the sun along the various
nerves of _living_ bodies and makes motion possible.
_The Reflecting Ether_ receives an impression of all that is, lives and
moves. It also records each change, in a similar manner as the film upon a
moving picture machine. In this record mediums and psychometrists may read
the past, upon the same principle as, under proper conditions, moving
pictures are reproduced time and again.
We have been speaking of ether as an avenue of _forces_, a word which
conveys no meaning to the average mind, because force is invisible. But to
an occult investigator the forces are not merely names such as steam,
electricity, etc. He finds them to be intelligent beings of varying
grades, both sub and superhuman. What we call “laws of nature,” are great
intelligences which guide more elemental beings in accordance with certain
rules designed to further their evolution.
In the Middle Ages, when many people were still endowed with a remnant of
_negative_ clairvoyance, they spoke of Gnomes and Elves or Fairies, which
roamed about the mountains and forests. These were the _earth_ spirits.
They also told of the Undine or _water_-sprite, which inhabited rivers and
streams, of Sylphs which were said to dwell in the mists above moat and
moor, as air spirits, but not much was said of the Salamanders, as they
are, fire spirits, and therefore not so easily detected, or so readily
accessible to the majority of people.
The old folk stories are now regarded as superstitions, but as a matter of
fact, one endowed with etheric vision may yet perceive the little gnomes
building green chlorophyll into the leaves of plants and giving to flowers
the multiplicity of delicate tints which delight our eyes.
Scientists have attempted time and again to offer an adequate explanation
of the phenomenon of wind and storm but have failed signally, nor can they
succeed while they seek a mechanical solution to what is really a
manifestation of life. Could they see the hosts of sylphs winging their
way hither and thither, they would _know_ who and what is responsible for
the fickleness of the wind; could they watch a storm at sea from the
etheric view-point they would perceive that the saying “the war of the
elements” is not an empty phrase, for the heaving sea is truly then a
battlefield of sylphs and undines and the howling tempest is the war cry
of spirits in the air.
Also the salamanders are found everywhere and no fire is lighted without
their help, but they are mostly active underground. They are responsible
for explosions and volcanic eruptions.
The classes of beings which we have mentioned are still sub-human, but
will all at some time reach a stage in evolution corresponding to the
human, though under different circumstances from those under which we
evolve. But at present the wonderful intelligences we speak of as the laws
of nature, marshall the armies of less evolved entities mentioned.
To arrive at a better understanding of what these various beings are, and
their relation to us, we may take an illustration: Let us suppose that a
mechanic is making an engine, and meanwhile a dog is watching him. It
_sees_ the man at his labor, and how he uses various tools to shape his
materials, also how, from the crude iron, steel, brass and other metals
the engine slowly takes shape. The dog is a being from a lower evolution
and does not comprehend the purpose of the mechanic but it _sees_ both the
workman, his labor and the result thereof, which manifests as an engine.
Let us now suppose that the dog were able to see the materials which
slowly change their shape, assemble and become an engine but that it is
unable to perceive the workman and to see the work he does. The dog would
then be in the same relation to the mechanic as we are to the great
intelligences we call laws of nature, and their assistants, the nature
spirits, for we behold the manifestations of their work as _force_ moving
matter in various ways but always under immutable conditions.
In the ether we may also observe the angels, whose densest body is made of
that material, as our dense body is formed of gases, liquids and solids.
These beings are one step beyond the human stage, as we are a degree in
advance of the animal evolution. We have never been animals like our
present fauna, however, but at a previous stage in the development of our
planet we had an animal-like constitution. Then the angels were human,
though they have never possessed a dense body such as ours, nor ever
functioned in any material denser than ether. At some time, in a future
condition, the earth will again become ethereal. Then man will be _like_
the angels. Therefore the Bible tells us that man was made _a little
while_ lower than the angels (Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, second
chapter, seventh verse; _see marginal reading_.)
As ether is the avenue of vital, creative forces, and as angels are such
expert builders of ether, we may readily understand that they are
eminently fitted to be warders of the propagative forces in plant, animal
and man. All through the Bible we find them thus engaged: Two _angels_
came to Abraham and announced the birth of Isaac, they _promised_ a child
to the man who had obeyed God. Later _these same angels_ destroyed Sodom
for _abuse of the creative force_. _Angels_ foretold _to the parents_ of
Samuel and Samson, the birth of these giants of brain and brawn. To
Elizabeth came the _angel_ (not archangel) Gabriel and announced the birth
of John, later he appeared also to Mary with the message that she was
chosen to bear Jesus.
_The Desire World._
When spiritual sight is developed so that it becomes possible to behold
the Desire World, many wonders confront the newcomer, for conditions are
so widely different from what they are here, that a description must sound
quite as incredible as a fairy tale to anyone who has not himself seen
them. Many cannot even believe that such a world exists, and that other
people can see that which is invisible to them, yet some people are blind
to the beauties of this world which we see. A man who was born blind, may
say to us: I know that this world exists, I can hear, I can smell, I can
taste and above all I can feel but when you speak of light and of color,
they are nonexistent to me. You say that you _see_ these things, I cannot
believe it for I cannot _see_ myself. You say that light and color are all
about me, but none of the senses at my command reveal them to me and I do
not believe that the sense you call _sight_ exists. I think you suffer
from hallucinations. We might sympathize very sincerely with the poor man
who is thus afflicted, but his scepticism, reasonings and objections and
sneers notwithstanding we would be obliged to maintain that we perceive
light and color.
The man whose spiritual sight has been awakened is in a similar position
with respect to those who do not perceive the Desire World of which he
speaks. If the blind man acquires the faculty of sight by an operation,
his eyes are opened and he will be compelled to assert the existence of
light and color which he formerly denied, and when spiritual sight is
acquired by anyone, he also perceives for himself the facts related by
others. Neither is it an argument against the existence of spiritual
realms that seers are at variance in their descriptions of conditions in
the invisible world. We need but to look into books on travel, and compare
stories brought home by explorers of China, India or Africa and we shall
find them differing widely and often contradictory, because each traveler
saw things from his own standpoint, under other conditions than those met
by his brother authors, and we maintain that the man who has read most
widely these varying tales concerning a certain Country _and wrestled with
the contradictions of narrators_, will have a more comprehensive idea of
the country or people of whom he has read, than the man who has only read
one story assented to by all the authors. Similarly, the varying stories
of visitors to the Desire World are of value, because giving a fuller
view, and more rounded, than if all had seen things from the same angle.
In this world matter and force are widely different. The chief
characteristic of matter here is _inertia_: the tendency to remain at rest
until acted upon by a force which sets it in motion. In the Desire World,
on the contrary, force and matter are almost indistinguishable one from
the other. We might almost describe desire-stuff as force-matter, for it
is in incessant motion, responsive to the slightest _feeling_ of a vast
multitude of beings which populate this wonderful world in nature. We
often speak of the “teeming millions” of China and India, even of our vast
cities, London, New York, Paris or Chicago, we consider them overcrowded
in the extreme, yet even the densest population of any spot upon earth is
sparsely inhabited compared with the crowded conditions of the Desire
World. No inconvenience is felt by any of the denizens of that realm,
however, for, while in this world two things cannot occupy the same space
at the same time, it is different there. A number of people and things may
exist _in the same place at the same time_ and be engaged in most diverse
activities, regardless of what others are doing, such is the wonderful
elasticity of desire stuff. As an illustration we may mention a case where
the writer while attending religious service, plainly perceived at the
altar certain beings interested in furthering that service and working to
achieve that end. At the same time there drifted through the room and the
altar, a table at which four persons were engaged in playing cards. They
were as oblivious to the existence of the beings engaged in furthering our
religious service, as though these did not exist.
The Desire World is the abode of those who have died, for some time
subsequent to that event, and we may mention in the above connection that
the so-called “dead” very often stay for a long while among their still
living friends. Unseen by their relatives they go about the familiar
rooms. At first they are often unaware of the condition mentioned: “that
two persons may be in the same place at the same time,” and when they seat
themselves in a chair or at the table, a living relative may take the
supposedly vacant seat. The man we mistakenly call dead will at first
hurry out of his seat to escape being sat upon, but he soon learns that
being sat upon does not hurt him in his altered condition, and that he may
remain in his chair regardless of the fact that his living relative is
also sitting there.
In the lower regions of the Desire World the whole body of each being may
be seen, but in the highest regions only the head seems to remain.
Raphael, who like many other people in the middle ages was gifted with a
so-called _second sight_, pictured that condition for us in his Sistine
Madonna, now in the Dresden Art Gallery, where Madonna and the
Christ-child are represented as floating in a golden atmosphere and
surrounded by a host of genie-heads: conditions which the occult
investigator knows to be in harmony with actual facts.
Among the entities who are, so to speak, “_native_” to that realm of
nature, none are perhaps better known to the Christian world than the
Archangels. These exalted Beings were human at a time in the earth’s
history when we were yet plant-like. Since then we have advanced two
steps: through the animal and to the human stage of development. The
present Archangels have also made two steps in progression; one, in which
they were similar to what the angels are now, and another step which made
them what we call Archangels.
Their densest body, though differing from ours in shape, and made of
desire stuff, is used by them as a vehicle of consciousness in the same
manner that we use our body. They are expert manipulators of forces in the
Desire World, and these forces, as we shall see, move all the world to
action. Therefore the Archangels work with humanity _industrially_ and
_politically_ as arbitrators of the destiny of peoples and nations. The
Angels may be said to be _family_-spirits whose mission is to unite a few
spirits as members of a family, and cement them with ties of blood and
love of kin, while the Archangels may be called race and national spirits,
as they unite whole nations by patriotism or love of home and country.
They are responsible for the rise and fall of nations, they give war or
peace, victory or defeat as it serves the best interests of the people
they rule. This we may see, for instance, from the book of Daniel, where
the Archangel Michael (not to be confounded with the Michael, who is
ambassador from the sun to the earth), is called the prince of the
children of Israel. Another Archangel tells Daniel, (in the tenth chapter)
that he intends to fight the prince of Persia by means of the Greeks.
There are varying grades of intelligence among human beings, some are
qualified to hold high and lofty positions entirely beyond the ability of
others. So it is also among higher beings, not all Archangels are fitted
to govern a nation and rule the destiny of a race, people or tribe, some
are not fitted to rule human beings at all, but as the animals also have a
desire nature these lower grades of Archangels govern the animals as
group-spirits and evolve to higher capacity thereby.
The work of the race spirits is readily observable in the people it
governs. The lower in the scale of evolution the people, the more they
show a certain racial likeness. That is due to the work of the race
spirit. One national spirit is responsible for the swarthy complexion
common to Italians, for instance, while another causes the Scandinavians
to be blond. In the more advanced types of humanity there is a wider
divergence from the common type, due to the individualized Ego, which thus
expresses in form and feature its own particular idiosyncrasies. Among the
lower types of humanity such as Mongolians, native African Negroes and
South Sea Islanders, the resemblance of individuals in each tribe makes it
almost impossible for civilized Westerners to distinguish between them.
Among animals, where the separate spirit is not individualized and
self-conscious, the resemblance is not only much more marked physically
but extends even to traits and characteristics. We may write the biography
of a man, for the experiences of each varies from that of others and his
acts are different, but we cannot write the biography of an animal for
members of each tribe all act alike under similar circumstances. If we
desire to know the facts about Edward VII, it would profit us nothing to
study the life of the Prince-Consort, his father, or of George V, his son,
as both would be entirely different from Edward. In order to find out what
manner of man he was, we must study his own individual life. If, on the
other hand, we wish to know the characteristics of beavers, we may observe
any individual of the tribe, and when we have studied its idiosyncrasies,
we shall know the traits of the whole tribe of beavers. What we call
“instinct,” is in reality the dictates of group-spirits which govern
separate individuals of its tribe telepathically, as it were.
The ancient Egyptians knew of these animal group spirits and sketched many
of them, in a crude way, upon their temples and tombs. Such figures with a
human body and an animal head actually live in the desire world. They may
be spoken to, and will be found much more intelligent than the average
human being.
That statement brings up another peculiarity of conditions in the Desire
World in respect of language. Here in this World human speech is so
diversified that there are countries where people who live only a few
miles apart speak a dialect so different that they understand each other
with great difficulty, and each nation has its own language that varies
altogether from the speech of other peoples.
In the lower Regions of the Desire World, there is the same diversity of
tongues as on earth, and the so-called “dead” of one nation find it
impossible to converse with those who lived in another country. Hence
linguistic accomplishments are of great value to the “Invisible Helpers”,
of whom we shall hear later, as their sphere of usefulness is enormously
extended by that ability.
Even apart from difference of language our mode of speech is exceedingly
productive of misunderstandings. The same words often convey most opposite
ideas to different minds. If we speak of a “body of water”, one person may
think we mean a lake of small dimensions, the thoughts of another may be
directed to the great American Lakes and a third person’s thoughts may be
turned towards the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. If we speak of a “light”,
one may think of a gas-light, another of an electric Arc-lamp, or if we
say “red”, one person may think we mean a delicate shade of pink and
another gets the idea of crimson. The misunderstandings of what words mean
goes even farther, as illustrated in the following.
The writer once opened a reading room in a large city where he lectured,
and invited his audience to make use thereof. Among those who availed
themselves of the opportunity was a gentleman who had for many years been
a veritable “metaphysical tramp,” roaming from lecture to lecture, hearing
the teachings of everybody and practicing nothing. Like the Athenians on
Mars’ Hill, he was always looking for something “new,” particularly in the
line of phenomena, and his mind was in that seething chaotic state which
is one of the most prominent symptoms of “mental indigestion.”
Having attended a number of our lectures he knew from the program that:
“The lecturer does not give readings, or cast horoscopes _for pay_.” But
seeing on the door of the newly opened reading room, the legend: “Free
Reading Room,” his erratic mind at once jumped to the conclusion that
although we were opposed to telling fortunes for pay, we were now going to
give free readings of the future in the Free Reading Room. He was much
disappointed that we did not intend to tell fortunes, either gratis or for
a consideration, and we changed our sign to “Free Library” in order to
obviate a repetition of the error.
In the higher Regions of the Desire World the confusion of tongues gives
place to a universal mode of expression which absolutely prevents
misunderstandings of our meaning. There each of our thoughts takes a
definite form and color perceptible to all, and this thought-symbol emits
a certain tone, which is not a word, but it conveys our meaning to the one
we address no matter what language he spoke on earth.
To arrive at an understanding of how such a universal language becomes
possible and is at once comprehended by all, without preparation, we may
take as an illustration the manner in which a musician reads music. A
German or a Polish composer may write an opera. Each has his own peculiar
terminology and expresses it in his own language. When that opera is to be
played by an Italian band master, or by a Spanish or American musician, it
need not be translated, the notes and symbols upon the page are a
universally understood language of symbols which is intelligible to
musicians of no matter what nationality. Similarly with figures, the
German counts: ein, zwei, drei; the Frenchman says: un, deux, trois, and
in English we use the words: one, two, three, but the figures: 1, 2, 3,
though differently spoken, are intelligible to all and mean the same.
There is no possibility of misunderstanding in the cases of either music
or figures. Thus it is also with the universal language peculiar to the
higher Regions of the Desire World and the still more subtile realms in
nature, it is intelligible to all, an exact mode of expression.
Returning to our description of the entities commonly met with in the
lower Desire World, we may note that other systems of religion than the
Egyptian, already mentioned, have spoken of various classes of beings
native to these realms. The Zoroastrian Religion, for instance, mentions
_Seven Ameshaspends_ and the Izzards as having dominion over certain days
in the month and certain months in the year. The Christian religion speaks
of Seven Spirits before the Throne, which are the same beings the Persians
called Ameshaspends. Each of them rules over two months in the year while
the seventh: Michael, the highest, is their leader, for he is ambassador
from the sun to the earth, the others are ambassadors from the planets.
The Catholic religion with its abundant occult information takes most
notice of these “_star-angels_” and knows considerable about their
influence upon the affairs of the earth.
The Ameshaspends, however, do not inhabit the lower Regions of the Desire
World but influence the Izzards. According to the old Persian legend these
beings are divisible into one group of twenty-eight classes, and another
group of three classes. Each of these classes has dominion over, or takes
the lead of all the other classes on one certain day of the month. They
regulate the weather conditions on that day and work with animal and man
in particular. At least the twenty-eight classes do that, the other group
of three classes has nothing to do with animals, because they have only
twenty-eight pair of spinal nerves, while human beings have thirty-one.
Thus animals are attuned to the lunar month of twenty-eight days, while
man is correlated to the solar month of thirty or thirty-one days. The
ancient Persians were astronomers but not physiologists, they had no means
of knowing the different nervous constitution of animal and man, but they
saw clairvoyantly these superphysical beings, they noted and recorded
their work with animal and men and our own anatomical investigations may
show us the reason for these divisions of the classes of Izzards recorded
in that ancient system of philosophy.
Still another class of beings should be mentioned: those who have entered
the Desire World through the gate of death and are now hidden from our
physical vision. These so-called “dead” are in fact much more alive than
any of us, who are tied to a dense body and subject to all its
limitations, who are forced to slowly drag this clog along with us at the
rate of a few miles an hour, who must expend such an enormous amount of
energy upon propelling that vehicle that we are easily and quickly tired,
even when in the best of health and who are often confined to a bed,
sometimes for years, by the indisposition of this heavy mortal coil. But
when that is once shed and the freed spirit can again function in its
spiritual body, sickness is an unknown condition and distance is
annihilated, or at least practically so, for though it was necessary for
the Savior to liken the freed spirit to the wind which blows where it
listeth, that simile gives but a poor description of what actually takes
place in soul flights. Time is nonexistent there, as we shall presently
explain, so the writer has never been able to time himself, but has on
several occasions timed others when he was in the physical body and they
speeding through space upon a certain errand. Distances such as from the
Pacific Coast to Europe, the delivery of a short message there and the
return to the body has been accomplished in slightly less than one minute.
Therefore our assertion, that those whom we call dead are in reality much
more alive than we, is well founded in facts.
We spoke of the dense body in which we now live, as a “clog” and a
“fetter.” It must not be inferred, however, that we sympathize with the
attitude of certain people who, when they have learned with what ease
soul-flights are accomplished, go about bemoaning the fact that they are
now imprisoned. They are constantly thinking of, and longing for, the day
when they shall be able to leave this mortal coil behind and fly away in
their spiritual body. Such an attitude of mind is decidedly mistaken, the
great and wise beings who are invisible leaders of our evolution have not
placed us here to no purpose. Valuable lessons are to be learned in this
visible world wherein we dwell, that cannot be learned in any other realm
of nature, and the very conditions of density and inertia whereof such
people complain, are factors which make it possible to acquire the
knowledge this world is designed to give. This fact was so amply
illustrated in a recent experience of the writer:—A friend had been
studying occultism for a number of years but had not studied astrology.
Last year she became aroused to the importance of this branch of study as
a key to self knowledge and a means of understanding the natures of
others, also of developing the compassion for their errors, so necessary
in the cultivation of love of one’s neighbor. Love of our neighbor the
Savior enjoined upon us as the Supreme Commandment which is the
fulfillment of all laws, and as Astrology teaches us to _bear_ and
_forbear_, it helps as nothing else can in the development of the supreme
virtue. She therefore joined one of the classes started in Los Angeles by
the writer, but a sudden illness quickly ended in death and thus
terminated her study of the subject in the physical body, ere it was well
begun.
Upon one of many occasions when she visited the writer subsequent to her
release from the body, she deplored the fact that it seemed so difficult
to make headway in her study of astrology. The writer advised continued
attendance at the classes, and suggested that she could surely get someone
“on the other side” to help her study.
At this she exclaimed impatiently: “Oh yes! of course I attend the
classes, I have done so right along; I have also found a friend who helps
me here. But you cannot imagine how difficult it is to concentrate here
upon mathematical calculations and the judgment of a horoscope or in fact
upon any subject here, where every little thought-current takes you miles
away from your study. I used to think it difficult to concentrate when I
had a physical body, but it is not a circumstance to the obstacles which
face the student here.”
The physical body was an anchor to her, and it is that to all of us. Being
dense, it is also to a great extent impervious to disturbing influences
from which the more subtle spiritual bodies do not shield us. It enables
us to bring our ideas to a logical conclusion with far less effort at
concentration than is necessary in that realm where all is in such
incessant and turbulent motion. Thus we are gradually developing the
faculty of holding our thoughts to a center by existence in this world,
and we should value our opportunities here, rather than deplore the
limitations which help in one direction more than they fetter in another.
In fact, we should never deplore any condition, each has its lesson. If we
try to learn what that lesson is and to assimilate the experience which
may be extracted therefrom, we are wiser than those who waste time in vain
regrets.
We said there is no time in the Desire World, and the reader will readily
understand that such must be the case from the fact, already mentioned,
that nothing there is opaque.
In this world the rotation of the opaque earth upon its axis is
responsible for the alternating conditions of day and night. We call it
Day—when the spot where we live is turned towards the sun and its rays
illumine our environment, but when our home is turned away from the sun
and its rays obstructed by the opaque earth we term the resulting
darkness: Night. The passage of the earth in its orbit around the sun
produces the seasons and the year, which are our divisions of time. But in
the Desire World where all is light there is but one long day. The spirit
is not there fettered by a heavy physical body, so it does not need sleep
and existence is unbroken. Spiritual substances are not subject to
contraction and expansion such as arise here from heat and cold, hence
summer and winter are also non-existent. Thus there is nothing to
differentiate one moment from another in respect of the conditions of
light and darkness, summer and winter, which mark time for us. Therefore,
while the so-called “dead” may have a very accurate memory of time as
regards the life they lived here in the body, they are usually unable to
tell anything about the chronological relation of events which have
happened to them in the Desire World, and it is a very common thing to
find that they do not even know how many years have elapsed since they
passed out from this plane of existence. Only students of the Stellar
Science are able to calculate the passage of time after their demise.
When the occult investigator wishes to study an event in the past history
of man, he may most readily call up the picture from _the memory of
nature_, but if he desires to fix the time of the incident, he will be
obliged to count backwards by the motion of the heavenly bodies. For that
purpose he generally uses the measure provided by the sun’s precession:
Each year the sun crosses the earth’s equator about the twenty-first of
March. Then day and night are of even length, therefore this is called the
Vernal equinox. But on account of a certain wabbling motion of the earth’s
axis, the sun does not cross over at the same place in the Zodiac, it
reaches the equator a little too early, it _precedes_, year by year it
moves _backwards_ a little. At the time of the birth of Christ, for
instance, the Vernal Equinox was in about seven degrees of the Zodiacal
sign Aries. During the two thousand years which intervene between that
event and the present time, the sun has moved _backwards_ about
twenty-seven degrees, so that it is now in about ten degrees of the sign
Pisces. It moves around the whole circle of the Zodiac in about 25,868
years. The occult investigator may therefore count back the number of
signs, or whole circles, which the sun has _preceded_ between the present
day and the time of the event he is investigating. Thus he has by the use
of the heavenly time keepers a very approximately correct measure of time
even though he is in the Desire World and that is another reason for
studying the Stellar Science.
_The World of Thought._
When we have attained the spiritual development necessary to consciously
enter the World of Thought and leave the Desire World, which is the realm
of light and color, we pass through a condition which the occult
investigator calls The Great Silence.
As previously stated, the higher Regions of the Desire World exhibit the
marked peculiarity of blending form and sound, but when one passes through
the Great Silence, all the world seems to disappear and the spirit has the
feeling of floating in an ocean of intense light, utterly alone, yet
absolutely fearless, since unimbued with a sense of its form or sound, nor
past or future, but all is one eternal NOW. There seems to be neither
pleasure nor pain and yet there is no absence of feeling but it all seems
to center in the one idea:—“_I am_”! The human Ego stands face to face
with itself as it were, and for the time being all else is shut out. This
is the experience of anyone who passes that breach between the Desire
World and the World of Thought, whether involuntarily, in the course of an
ordinary cyclic pilgrimage of the soul, which we shall later elucidate
when speaking of the post-mortem existence, or by an act of the will, as
in the case of the trained occult investigator, all have the same
experience in transition.
-------------------------------------
There are two main divisions in the Physical World: the Chemical Region
and the Etheric Region. The World of Thought also has two great
subdivisions: The Region of concrete Thought and the Region of abstract
Thought.
As we specialize the material of the Physical World and shape into a dense
body, and as we form the force-matter of the Desire World into a desire
body, so do we appropriate a certain amount of mindstuff from the Region
of concrete Thought; but we, as spirits, clothe ourselves in
spirit-substance from the Region of abstract Thought and thereby we become
individual, separate Egos.
_The Region of Concrete Thought._
The Region of concrete Thought is neither shadowy nor illusory. It is the
acme of reality and this world which we mistakenly regard as the only
verity, is but an evanescent replica of that Region.
A little reflection will show the reasonableness of this statement and
prove our contention that all we see here is really crystallized thought.
Our houses, our machinery, our chairs and tables, all that has been made
by the hand of man is the embodiment of a thought. As the juices in the
soft body of the snail gradually crystallize into the hard and flinty
shell which it carries upon its back and which hides it, so everything
used in our civilization is a concretion of invisible, intangible
mind-stuff. The thought of James Watt in time congealed into a steam
engine and revolutionized the world. Edison’s thought was condensed into
an electric generator which has turned night to day, and had it not been
for the thought of Morse and Marconi, the telegraph would not have
annihilated distance as it does today. An earthquake may wreck a city and
demolish the lighting plant and telegraph station, but the thoughts of
Watt, Edison and Morse remain, and upon the basis of their indestructible
ideas new machinery may be constructed and operations resumed. Thus
thoughts are more permanent than things.
The sensitive ear of the musician detects a certain musical note in every
city which is different from that of another city. He hears in each little
brook a new melody, and to him the sound of wind in the treetops of
different forests give a varying sound. In the Desire World we noted the
existence of forms similar to the shapes of things here, also that
seemingly _sound proceeds from form_, but in the Region of concrete
Thought it is different, for while each form occupies and obscures a
certain space here, form is nonexistent when viewed from the standpoint of
the Region of concrete Thought. Where the form was, a transparent, vacuous
space is observable. _From that empty void comes a sound_ which is the
“keynote” that _creates_ and maintains the _form_ whence it _appears_ to
come, as the almost invisible core of a gas-flame is the source of the
light we perceive.
Sound from a vacuum cannot be heard in the Physical World, but the harmony
which proceeds from the vacuous cavity of a celestial _archetype_ is “the
voice of the silence,” and it becomes audible when all earthly sounds have
ceased. Elijah heard it not while the storm was raging; nor was it in
evidence during the turbulence of the earthquake, nor in the crackling and
roaring fire, but when the destructive and inharmonious sounds of this
world had melted into silence, “the still small voice” issued its commands
to save Elijah’s life.
That “keynote” is a direct manifestation of the Higher Self which uses it
to impress and govern the Personality it has created. But alas, part of
its life has been infused into the material side of its being, which has
thus obtained a certain will of its own and only too often are the two
sides of our nature at war.
At last there comes a time when the spirit is too weary to strive with the
recalcitrant flesh, when “the voice of the silence” ceases.
The earthly nourishment we may seek to give, will not avail to sustain a
form when this harmonious sound, this “word from heaven” no longer
reverberates through the empty void of the celestial archetype, for “man
lives not by bread alone,” but by the WORD, and the last sound-vibration
of the “keynote” is the death-knell of the physical body.
In this world we are compelled to investigate and to study a thing before
we know about it, and although the facilities for gaining information are
in some respects much greater in the Desire World, a certain amount of
investigation is necessary nevertheless to acquire knowledge. In the World
of Thought, on the contrary, it is different. When we wish to know about
any certain thing there, and we turn our attention thereto, then that
thing speaks to us, as it were. The sound it emits at once gives us a most
luminous comprehension of every phase of its nature. We attain to a
realization of its past history; the whole story of its unfoldment is laid
bare and we seem to have lived through all of those experiences together
with the thing we are investigating.
Were it not for one enormous difficulty, the story thus obtained would be
exceedingly valuable. But all this information, this life-picture, flows
in upon us with an enormous rapidity in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, so that it has neither beginning nor end, for, as said, in the World
of Thought, all is one great NOW, Time does not exist.
Therefore, when we want to use the archetypal information in the Physical
World, we must disentangle and arrange it in chronological order with
beginning and ending before it becomes intelligible to beings living in a
realm where Time is a prime factor. That rearrangement is a most difficult
task as all words are coined with relation to the three dimensions of
space and the evanescent unit of time, the fleeting moment, hence much of
that information remains unavailable.
Among the denizens of this Region of concrete Thought we may note
particularly two classes. One is called the powers of darkness by Paul and
the mystic investigator of the Western World knows them as Lords of Mind.
They were human at the time when the earth was in a condition of darkness
such as worlds in the making go through before they become luminous and
reach the firemist-stage. At that time we were in our mineral evolution.
That is to say: The Human Spirit which has now awakened was encrusted in
the ball of mindstuff, which was then the earth. At that time the present
Human Spirits were as much asleep as is the life which ensouls our
minerals of today, and as we are working with the mineral chemical
constituents of the earth, molding them into houses, railways,
steam-boats, chairs, etc, etc., so those beings, who are now Lords of
Mind, worked with us when we were mineral-like. They have since advanced
three steps, through stages similar to that of the Angels and Archangels,
before they attained their present position and became creative
intelligences. They are expert builders of mind stuff, as we are builders
of the present mineral substances and therefore they have given us
necessary help to acquire a mind which is the highest development of the
human being.
According to the foregoing explanation it seems to be an anomaly when Paul
speaks of them as evil and exhorts us to withstand them. The difficulty
disappears, however, when we understand that good and evil are but
relative qualities. An illustration will make the point clear:—Let us
suppose that an expert organ builder has constructed a wonderful organ, a
masterpiece. Then he has followed his vocation in the proper manner, and
is therefore to be commended for the good which he has done. But if he is
not satisfied to leave well enough alone, if he refuses to give up his
product to the musician who understands how to play upon the instrument;
if he intrudes his presence into the concert hall, he is out of place and
to be censured as evil. Similarly the Lords of Mind did the greatest
possible service to humanity when they helped us to acquire our mind, but
many subtle thought influences come from them, and are to be resisted, as
Paul very properly emphasizes.
The other class of beings which must be mentioned are called Archetypal
Forces by the Western School of occultism. They direct the energies of the
creative Archetypes native to this realm. They are a composite class of
beings of many different grades of intelligences, and there is one stage
in the cyclic journey of the Human Spirit when that also labors in, and is
part of, that great host of beings. For the Human Spirit is also destined
to become a great creative intelligence at some future time, and if there
were no school wherein it could gradually learn to create, it would not be
able to advance, for nothing in nature is done suddenly. An acorn planted
in the soil does not become a majestic oak over night, but many years of
slow, persistent growth are required before it attains to the stature of a
giant of the forest. A man does not become an Angel by the mere fact of
dying and entering a new world any more than an animal advances to be a
man by the same process. But in time all that lives, mounts the ladder of
Being from the clod to the God. There is no limitation possible to the
spirit, and so at various stages in its unfoldment the Human Spirit works
with the other nature forces, according to the stage of intelligence which
it has attained. It creates, changes and remodels the earth upon which it
is to live. Thus, under the great law of cause and effect, which we
observe in every realm of nature, it reaps upon earth what it has sown in
heaven, and vice versa. It grows slowly but persistently and advances
continually.
_The Region of Abstract Thought._
Various religious systems have been given to humanity at different times,
each suited to meet the spiritual needs of the people among whom it was
promulgated, and, coming from the same divine source:—God, all religions
exhibit similar fundamentals or first principles.
All systems teach that there was a time when _darkness_ reigned supreme.
Everything which we now perceive was then non-existent. Earth, sky and the
heavenly bodies were uncreate, so were the multitudinous forms which live
and move upon the various planets.—All, all, was yet in a fluidic
condition and the Universal Spirit brooded _quiescent_ in limitless Space
as the One Existence.
The Greeks called that condition of homogeneity _Chaos_, and the state of
orderly segregation which we now see; the marching orbs which illumine the
vaulted canopy of heaven, the stately procession of planets around a
central light, the majestic sun; the unbroken sequence of the seasons and
the unvarying alternation of tidal ebb and flow;—all this aggregate of
systematic order, was called _Cosmos_, and was supposed to have proceeded
from Chaos.
The Christian Mystic obtains a deeper comprehension when he opens his
Bible and ponders the first five verses of that brightest gem of all
spiritual lore: the Gospel of St. John.
As he reverently opens his aspiring heart to acquire understanding of
those sublime mystical teachings he transcends the form-side of nature,
comprising various realms of which we have been speaking, and finds
himself “in the spirit,” as did the prophets in olden times. He is then in
the Region of abstract Thought and sees the eternal verities which also
Paul beheld in this, the third, heaven.
For those among us who are unable to obtain knowledge save by reasoning
upon the matter, however, it will be necessary to examine the fundamental
meaning of words used by St. John to clothe his wonderful teaching, which
was originally given in the Greek language, a much simpler matter than is
commonly supposed, for Greek words have been freely introduced into our
modern languages, particularly in scientific terms, and we shall show how
this ancient teaching is supported by the latest discoveries of modern
science.
The opening verse of the gospel of St. John is as follows: “In the
_beginning_ was the _Word_, and the _Word_ was with _God_, and the _Word_
was _God_.” We will examine the words: “beginning,” “Word” and “God.” We
may also note that in the Greek version the concluding sentence reads:
“and God was the Word,” a difference which makes a great distinction.
It is an axiomatic truth that “out of nothing, nothing comes,” and it has
often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches generation “from
nothing.” We readily agree that _translations_ into the modern languages
promulgate this erroneous doctrine, but we have shown in _The Rosicrucian
Cosmo Conception_ (chapter on “the Occult Analysis of Genesis”), that the
Hebrew text speaks of an _ever-existing essence_, as the basis whence all
forms, the earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created, and
John also gives the same teaching.
The Greek word _arche_, in the opening sentence of the gospel of St. John
has been translated _the beginning_, and it may be said to have that
meaning, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more
significant of the idea John wished to convey. It means:—an elementary
condition,—a chief source,—a first principle,—primordial matter.
There was a time when science insisted that the elements were immutable,
that is to say, that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron since the
earth was formed and would so remain to the end of time. The Alchemists
were sneered at as fanciful dreamers or madmen, but since Professor J. J.
Thomson’s discovery of the electron, the atomic theory of matter, is no
longer tenable. The principle of radio-activity has later vindicated the
Alchemists. Science and the Bible agree in teaching, that all that is, has
been formed from one homogeneous substance.
It is that basic principle which John called _arche_:—primordial
matter,—and the dictionary defines Archeology as: “the science of the
origin (_arche_) of things.” Masons style God the “Grand Architect,” for
the Greek word tektos means builder, and God is the Chief Builder
(_tektos_) of _arche_: the primordial virgin matter which is also the
chief source of all things.
Thus we see that when the opening sentence of St. John’s gospel is
properly translated, our Christian Religion teaches that once a virgin
substance enfolded the divine Thinker:—God.
That is the identical condition which the earlier Greeks called Chaos. A
little thought will make it evident that we are not arbitrary in finding
fault with the translation of the gospel, for it is self-evident that a
word cannot be the beginning, a thought must precede the word, and a
thinker must originate thought before it can be expressed as a word.
When properly translated the teaching of John fully embodies that idea,
for the Greek term _logos_ means both the reasonable thought,—(we also say
Logic),—and the word which expresses this (logical) thought.
1) _In the primordial substance was thought, and the thought was
with God And God was the word_,
2) THAT, [The Word], _also was with God in the primal state_.
Later the divine WORD; the Creative Fiat, reverberates through space and
segregates the homogeneous virgin substance into separate forms.
3) _Every thing has come into existence because of that prime
fact_, [The Word of God], _and no thing exists apart from that
fact._
4) _In that was Life._
In the alphabet we have a few elementary sounds from which words may be
constructed. They are basic elements of expression, as bricks, iron and
lumber are raw materials of architecture, or as a few notes are component
parts of music.
But a heap of bricks, iron and lumber, is not a house, neither is a
jumbled mass of notes music, nor can we call a haphazard arrangement of
alphabetical sounds a word.
These raw materials are prime necessities in construction of architecture,
music, literature or poetry, but the contour of the finished product and
the purpose it will serve depends upon the arrangement of the raw
materials, which is subject to the constructor’s design. Building
materials may be formed to prison or palace; notes may be arranged as
fanfare or funeral dirge; words may be indited to inspire passion or
peace, all according to the will of the designer. So also the majestic
rhythm of the Word of God has wrought the primal substance: _arche_, into
the multitudinous forms which comprise the phenomenal world, according to
His will.
Did the reader ever stop to consider the wonderful power of a human word.
Coming to us in the sweet accents of love, it may lure us from paths of
rectitude to shameful ignominy and wreck our life with sorrow and remorse,
or it may spur us on in noblest efforts to acquire glory and honor, here
or hereafter. According to the inflection of the voice a word may strike
terror into the bravest heart or lull a timid child to peaceful slumber.
The word of an agitator may rouse the passions of a mob and impel it to
awful bloodshed, as in the French Revolution, where dictatorial mandates
of mob-rule killed and exiled at pleasure, or, the strain of “Home, Sweet
Home” may cement the setting of a family-circle beyond possibility of
rupture.
Right words are true and therefore free, they are never bound or fettered
by time or space, they go to the farthest corners of the earth, and when
the lips that spoke them first have long since mouldered in the grave,
other voices take up with unwearying enthusiasm their message of life and
love, as for instance the mystical “Come unto me” which has sounded from
unnumbered tongues and brought oceans of balm to troubled hearts.
Words of Peace have been victorious, where war would have meant defeat,
and no talent is more to be desired than ability to always say the right
word at the auspicious time.
Considering thus the immense power and potency of the human word, we may
perhaps dimly apprehend the potential magnitude of the Word of God, the
Creative Fiat, when as a mighty dynamic force it first reverberated
through space and commenced to form primordial matter into worlds, as
sound from a violin bow moulds sand into geometrical figures. Moreover,
_the Word of God still sounds_ to sustain the marching orbs and impel them
onwards in their circle paths, the Creative Word continues to produce
forms of gradually increasing efficiency, as media expressing life and
consciousness. The harmonious enunciation of consecutive syllables in the
Divine Creative Word mark successive stages in evolution of the world and
man. When the last syllable has been spoken and the complete word has
sounded, we shall have reached perfection as human beings. Then Time will
be at an end, and with the last vibration of the Word of God, the worlds
will be resolved into their original elements. Our life will then be “hid
with Christ in God,” till the Cosmic Night:—Chaos,—is over, and we wake to
do “greater things” in a “new heaven and a new earth.”
According to the general idea Chaos and Cosmos are superlative antitheses
of each other. Chaos being regarded as a past condition of confusion and
disorder which has long since been entirely superseded by cosmic order
which now prevails.
As a matter of fact, Chaos is the seed-ground of Cosmos, the basis of all
progress, for thence come all IDEAS which later materialize as Railways,
Steamboats, Telephones, etc.
We speak of “thoughts as being conceived by the mind,” but as both father
and mother are necessary in the generation of a child, so also there must
be both _idea_ and _mind_ before a _thought_ can be conceived. As semen
germinated in the positive male organ is projected into the negative
uterus at conception, so ideas are generated by a positive Human Ego in
the spirit-substance of the Region of abstract Thought. This idea is
projected upon the receptive mind, and a conception takes place. Then, as
the spermatozoic nucleus draws upon the maternal body for material to
shape a body appropriate to its individual expression, so does each idea
clothe itself in a peculiar form of mindstuff. It is then a thought, as
visible to the inner vision of composite man, as a child is to its parent.
Thus we see that ideas are embryonic thoughts, nuclei of spirit-substance
from the Region of abstract Thought. Improperly conceived in a diseased
mind they become vagaries and delusions, but when gestated in a sound mind
and formed into rational thoughts they are the basis of all material,
moral and mental progress, and the closer our touch with Chaos, the better
will be our Cosmos, for in that realm of abstract realities truth is not
obscured by matter, it is self-evident.
Pilate was asked “what is Truth,” but no answer is recorded. We are
incapable of cognizing truth in the abstract while we live in the
phenomenal world, for the inherent nature of matter is illusion and
delusion, and we are constantly making allowances and corrections whether
we are conscious of the fact or not. The sunbeam which proceeds for 90
millions of miles in a straight line, is refracted or bent as soon as it
strikes our dense atmosphere, and according to the angle of its
refraction, it _appears_ to have one color or another. The straightest
stick appears crooked when partly immersed in water, and the truths which
are so self-evident in the Higher worlds are likewise obscured, refracted
or twisted out of all semblance under the illusory conditions of this
material world.
“The truth shall set you free,” said Christ, and the more we turn our
aspirations from material acquisitiveness and seek to lay up treasure
above, the more we aim to rise, the oftener we “get in the spirit,” the
more readily we “shall know truth” and reach liberation from the fetter of
flesh which binds us to a limited environment, and attain to a sphere of
greater usefulness.
Study of philosophy and science has a tendency to further perception of
truth, and as science has progressed it has gradually receded from its
erstwhile crude materialism. The day is not far off when it will be more
reverently religious than the church itself. Mathematics is said to be
“dry,” for it doesn’t stir the emotions. When it is taught that “the sum
of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees,” the dictum is at once
accepted, because its truth is self-evident and no feeling is involved in
the matter. But when a doctrine such as the Immaculate Conception is
promulgated and our emotions are stirred, bloody war, or heated argument,
may result, and still leave the matter in doubt. Pythagoras demanded that
his pupils study mathematics, because he knew the elevating effect of
raising their minds above the sphere of feeling, where it is subject to
delusion, and elevating it towards the Region of abstract Thought which is
the prime reality.
In this place we are dealing with worlds in particular, and will therefore
defer comment upon the remainder of the first 5 verses of St. John’s
gospel:
“_And Life became Light in man,_
5) _and Light shines in Darkness._”
We have now seen that the earth is composed of three worlds which
interpenetrate one another so that it is perfectly true when Christ said
that “heaven is within you” or, the translation should rather have been
_among you_. We have also seen that of these three realms two are
subdivided. It has also been explained that each division serves a great
purpose in the unfoldment of various forms of life which dwell in each of
these worlds, and we may note in conclusion, that the lower regions of the
Desire World constitute what the Catholic religion calls _Purgatory_, a
place where the evil of a past life is transmuted to good, usable by the
spirit as conscience in later lives. The higher regions of the Desire
World are the _first Heaven_ where all the good a man has done is
assimilated by the spirit as _soul_ power. The Region of concrete Thought
is the _second Heaven_, where, as already said, the spirit prepares its
future environment on earth, and the Region of abstract Thought is the
_third Heaven_, but as Paul said, it is scarcely lawful to speak about
that.
Some will ask: is there then no hell?—No! _The mercy of God_ tends as
greatly towards the principle of GOOD as “_the inhumanity of man_” towards
cruelty, so that he would consign his brother men to flames of hell during
eternity for the puerile mistakes committed during a few years, or perhaps
for a slight difference in belief. The writer has heard of a minister who
wished to impress his “flock” with the reality of an eternity of hell
flames, and to demonstrate the fallacy of a heretical notion entertained
by some of his parishioners that when sinners come to hell they burn to
ashes and that is the end.
He took with him an alcohol lamp and some asbestos into the pulpit and
told his audience that God would turn their souls into a substance
resembling asbestos. He showed them that though the asbestos were heated
red hot it did not decompose into ashes. Fortunately the day of the hell
preacher has gone by, and if we believe the Bible which says that “in God
we live and move and have our being,” we can readily understand that _a
lost soul would be an impossibility_, for were one single soul lost, then
logically a part of God Himself would be lost. No matter what our color,
our race or our creed, we are all equally the children of God and in our
various ways we shall obtain satisfaction. Let us therefore rather look to
Christ and forget Creed.
_Creed or Christ?_
No man loves God who hates his kind,
Who tramples on his Brother’s heart and soul.
Who seeks to shackle, cloud or fog the mind
By fears of Hell has not perceived our goal.
God-sent are all religions blest;
And Christ, the Way, the Truth and Life,
To give the heavy-laden rest,
And peace from Sorrow, Sin and Strife.
At his request the Universal Spirit came
_To all the churches_, not to one alone.
On Pentecostal morn a tongue of flame
Round _each_ apostle as a halo shone.
Since then, as vultures ravenous with greed,
We oft have battled for an empty name,
And sought by Dogma, Edict, Creed,
To send each other to the flame.
Is Christ then divided? Was Cephas or Paul
Nailed to the deathly tree?
If not—then why these divisions at all?
Christ’s love doth embrace you and me.
His pure sweet love is not confined
By creeds which segregate and raise a wall;
His love enfolds, embraces _Humankind_
No matter what ourselves or Him we call.
Then why not take Him at His word?
Why hold to creeds which tear apart?
But one thing matters, be it heard,
That brother-love fill every heart.
There is but one thing that the world has need to know;
There is but one balm for all our human woe
There is but one way that leads to heaven above;
That way is human sympathy and love.