A ship sets sail for the East and one for the West with the same windfor both. “It is the position of the sail and the wind that determines the way they carry?”. And as the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;  in the same way we sail the life of the soul. It is the act that determines victory, and not the calm or the strife.

 

QUESTION NO. 6

Study for the Alba Madonna, Lille, Musée des Beaux-Arts by Raphael.

   DOES THE SPIRIT ENTER THE BODY AT THE TIME OF CONCEPTION OR AT THE TIME OF BIRTH?

ANSWER: It has been ascertained by clairvoyant investigation that at the time of death the spirit takes with it the forces of one little atom located in the left ventricle of the heart, which is called the seed atom, for its the nucleus or seed around which all the material in the body gathers, and every atom on the body must be capable of vibrating in unison with that seek atom. Therefore, that atom is deposited in the semen of the father some time previous to conception, and later placed in the womb of the mother. But conception is not at all identical with the time of sexual union of the parents. The impregnated spermatozoa is sometimes not imbedded in the ovum until fourteen days after the union of the parents. It is this impregnation of the ovum that may be called the time of conception, for from the moment when the impregnated ovum leaves the Fallopian tube the period of gestation commences.

During the first eighteen to twenty-one days, all the work is done by the mother, but at that time the reincarnating Ego, clothed in a bell-shaped cloud of desire and mind stuff, enters the womb of the mother and the bell-shaped cloud closes at the bottom so that it is then ovoid, or egg-shaped . Then the spirit is definitely enmeshed in the flesh and cannot escape any more, but must stay with the mother until liberated by birth. In the present stage of our unfoldment, the spirit does very little CONSCIOUS work upon its coming vehicle, but it is present all the time and helps UNCONSCIOUSLY in the task of providing its instrument. This is not more remarkable than that we are able to digest our food and work our respiratory organs without being conscious of the process.

 DO WE KEEP THE SAME TEMPERAMENT THROUGH ALL OUR LIVES?

Arthur Foord Hughes

ANSWER: The Ego may be likened unto a precious stone, a diamond in the rough. When it is taken out of the earth the stone is far from beautiful; a rough coating hides the splendor within, and before the rough diamond becomes a gem, it must be polished upon the hard grindstone. Each application to the stone removes a part of the rough coat and grinds a facet through which the light enters and is refracted at a different angle from the light thrown back by the other facets.

 So it is with the Ego. A diamond in the rough, it enters the school of experience, the pilgrimage through matter, and each life is as an application of the gem to the stone. Each life in the school of experience removes part of the roughness of the Ego and admits the light of intelligence at a new angle, giving a different experience, and thus as the angels of light vary in the many facets of the diamond, so the temperament of the Ego differs in each life. In each life we can show forth only a small part of our spiritual natures, we can realize only a small part of the splendor of our divine POSSIBILITIES, but every life tends to make us more rounded and our temperaments become more even. In fact, it is the work upon the temperament that is the principal part of our lesson, for self-mastery is the goal. As Goethe says,

“From every power which all the world enchains,  Man liberates himself when self-control he gains.”

QUESTION NO. 24

Lovers, Arthur Foord Hughes

 WOULD IT BE WISE FOR TWO PEOPLE OF THE SAME TEMPERAMENT TO MARRY IF THEY WERE BOTH BORN UNDER THE SAME SIGN OF THE ZODIAC? IN AUGUST, FOR INSTANCE?

ANSWER: It is said that a person is born every second of the day; thus there would be 3,600 born in an hour, 86,400 in a day of 24 hours, and about two millions and a half in a month. If they were supposed to have the same temperament and the same fate in life, we should only have twelve kinds of people, and yet we know that there are not two people exactly alike, so that it is foolish to say that people have the same temperament because they are born under the same sign of the zodiac, as determined by the month.

 To cast a horoscope scientifically, it if necessary to take into consideration the day and the year when a person was born, for the planets do not arrive at the same relative positions more than once in twenty-five thousand, eight hundred and sixty-eight years. We must further take into consideration the hour of the birth and if possible try to get the minute, on account of the swiftly changing position of the moon. If we also take into consideration the place, we can calculate THE RISING SIGN, which gives the FORM of the body. Then we have an absolutely individual horoscope, for the degree of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon changes every four minutes, so that even in the case of twins there would be a difference.

 In order, then, that the astrologer may say whether the marriage of two people will be harmonious or otherwise, it is necessary for him to cast the horoscope of the two persons and endeavor to find out if they will be physically, morally, and mentally congenial. He judges by comparing the ascendants, or rising signs, which show the physical affinity. The positions of Mars and Venus will show whether they are morally of the same caliber, and the Sun and Moon show their mental characteristics. Thus he has an accurate gauge as to whether their natures will blend, but predictions based upon anything short of such a calculation are worthless.

QUESTION NO. 28

WHY ARE CHILDREN BORN IN A FAMILY WHERE THEY ARE NOT WELCOME?

ANSWER: It shows a sad state of society when a question such as this can be relevant, as, unfortunately, it is. The primal purpose of marriage is the perpetuation of the race and people who are not willing to become parents have no right to marry. It should be the right of every child to be well born, and welcome. But while we are careful to seek out the best strain in the animals which we use for breeding purposes, in order that we may get the hardiest and best stock, we usually do not think at all of the physical, moral and mental fitness of the one we select to be the father or mother of our children. In fact, it is usually considered indelicate if not indecent to think of children at all, and when they come in spite of preventatives, the parents are often distracted with grief. But the law of cause and effect is not to be thwarted. The mills of the Gods grind slowly but they are sure to grind very small, and though the centuries may pass by, there will come a time when the one who is an unwilling parent must himself seek an embodiment anew, and perhaps he will then be reborn into a family where he is not welcome. Or perhaps the unwilling parents of one life become childless in the next. Cases are know to the writer where such a couple has been blessed with numerous children whom they desired and passionately loved, but who died in childhood one after another to the great grief of the parents.

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