IS THERE A SOUL-MATE BELONGING TO EVERY SOUL THROUGH ALL ETERNITY?

QUESTION NO. 22

 IS THERE A SOUL-MATE BELONGING TO EVERY SOUL THROUGH ALL ETERNITY? IF SO, WOULD IT NOT BE BETTER TO REMAIN UNMARRIED A THOUSAND YEARS THAN TO MARRY THE WRONG MATE?

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 ANSWER: As the light is refracted into the seven colors of the spectrum when passing through our atmosphere, so also the spirits which are differentiated within God are refracted into seven great rays. Each class is under the direct guidance and domination of one of the Seven Spirits before the Throne, which are the planetary genii, the Star Angels. All the Virgin spirits in their successive incarnations are continually intermingling in order that they may gain the most varied experiences; nevertheless, those who have emanated from the same Star Angel are always sister or twin souls, and when they seek the higher life, they must enter the path of initiation through a lodge composed of members of the same ray from which they originally came, thence to return to their primal source. Therefore, all occult schools are divisible into seven, one for each class of spirits. That was the reason Jesus said to his disciples “Your father and mine”–None could have come into as close touch with him as these disciples were, except those belonging to the same ray.

 Like all other mysteries, this beautiful doctrine has been degraded to a physical or material idea such as embodied in the popular conception of twin souls or affinities; that one is male and the other female, and very often each is somebody else’s wife or husband. In such cases the doctrine of twin souls is often made an excuse for elopement and adultery. This is an abominable perversion. Each spirit is complete in itself, it takes upon itself a male or a female body at different times in order to learn the lessons of life, and it is only during the present stage if its development that there is such a feature as sex at all. The Ego was before sex, and will persist after that phase of its manifestation has passed away.

REUNION OF LOVERS IN HEAVEN
QUESTION NO. 5.

   IF THERE IS A STRONG ATTRACTION BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE WHICH CANNOT REACH A LEGITIMATE CONSUMMATION IN MARRIAGE BECAUSE OF PREVIOUS TIES AND ONE OF THEM PASSES OUT OF HIS LIFE WITH THAT LONGING IN MIND, WILL THEY BE REUNITED IN HEAVEN, AND WILL THEY MEET AND MATE IN A FUTURE EARTH LIFE?

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   ANSWER: YES, in all probability the attraction they feel for each other and which cannot find expression now will in many such cases bring them together even before the next life; for though there is no marriage in Heaven, those who love each other and are therefore in a sense necessary to each other’s happiness, are united in a bond of closest friendship during the stay in the First Heaven if they pass out at or near the same time. But if one remains in the body for a number of years after the other has passed over, the one who is in the Heaven World will with his or her loving thought create an image of the other and endow it with life for we must remember that the Desire World is so constituted that we are able to give bodily shape to whatever we think of. Thus, although this image will only be ensouled by his thought and the thoughts of the other person still living in the physical region, it embodies all the conditions that are necessary to fill the cup of happiness of this inhabitant of the Heaven World.

 Similarly, when the second person passes on, if the first person has progressed into the Second Heaven, his or her shell, so-called (the disintegrating desire body in which he or she lived), will answer the purpose and seem perfectly real to the second lover until his or her life in this realm is ended. Then when they both pass into the Second and Third Heavens, forgetfulness of the past comes over them, and they may part for one or more lives without loss. But some time, somewhere, they will meet again, and the dynamic force which they have generated in the past by their yearnings for each other will unvaryingly draw them together so that their love may reach its legitimate consummation.

 This applies not only to lovers in the generally accepted sense of the word, but the love existing between brothers and sisters, parents and children, or friends who are not related by blood will also work itself out in a similar manner. Our life in the First Heaven is always blessed and filled by the presence of those we love. If they are not in the spirit world and thus actually present, their images will be; and it must not be thought that these are pure illusion, for they are ensouled by the love and the friendship sent out by the absent ones toward the person of whose heaven life they are a part.

 

WHERE ARE THE DEAD? Part 1.

Part I

A little thought will soon make it apparent to any investigator that we live in a world of EFFECT which is the result of INVISIBLE CAUSES. MATTER and FORM we see, but the FORCE which molds the matter into form and quickens it is invisible to us. Life can not be cognized directly by the senses; it is invisible and self-existent, independent of the varied forms we see as its manifestations.

 Electricity, magnetism, and steam are names given to forces never seen with physical eyes, though, by conforming to certain laws discovered by experiment, we have made them our most valuable servants. We see their manifestations in moving streetcars, in railways and steamships; they light our path at night and carry our message around he globe with a speed that annihilate space, bringing the antipodes to our very doors in seconds of time. They are at our beck and call at any and all hours, tireless and faithful in the performance of innumerable tasks, yet, as said, we have never seen these, our most faithful and valuable servants.

 These Nature Forces are neither blind nor unintelligent s we mistakenly think; there are many classes of them and they work along different avenues of life. Perhaps an illustration will make clear their status in relation to us. Let us suppose a carpenter is making a fence and a dog is standing by watching him. The dog sees both the carpenter and his work, though it does not fully comprehend what he is doing. If the carpenter were invisible to the dog it would see the fence being slowly built, it would see every nail driven, it would perceive the manifestation but not the cause, and it would then be in the some relation to the carpenter as we are to the Nature Forces which manifest about us as gravity, electricity, and magnetism.

 During the past few centuries, but particularly in the last sixty years, science has made giant strides in the investigation of the world in which we live, and the result has been to reveal in all directions a hitherto invisible world. With telescopes of increasing power the astronomers have been reaching out into space, discovering more and more worlds; with admirable ingenuity they have attached the camera to the telescope, and have thus been able to photograph suns at such enormous distances from us that their rays make no impression on our eyes, and can only be caught by hours of exposure of a sensitize photographic plate.

 In the direction of the minutely small, the increasing perfection of the microscope has achieved similar results; a world that was hitherto invisible to us has been discovered, containing an exceeding activity of LIFE and marked by a diversity of form scarcely less complex than the world we behold through our unaided senses.

 The effort of making such investigations through the eyepiece of a microscope is a severe one, causing intense strain on the eyes; but here also the camera lends its aid to man. With proper mechanical attachments and lightning speed it can make permanent records of microscopic phenomena at the rate of perhaps seventy negatives per second. These may then be magnified and projected upon a screen as moving pictures; they may be seen by hundreds of people at the same time in comfort and ease.

 We may see how the sap slowly circulates through the veins of a leaf, or watch the way the blood races like a millstream through the semitransparent veins of a frog’s leg. Maggots in cheese appear as large as gray crabs meandering hither and thither in search of prey. A drop of water contains many dark colored balls which grow and burst, throwing out numerous tiny globes which in their turn expand and fling out offspring. Dr. Bastian of London has even seen how a little black spot on the spine of a cyclop (of which there are many in a drop of water) developed into a parasite which fed on the cyclop.

 By means of the X-ray science has been able to invade the innermost recesses of the dense body of the living human, photographing the skeleton and any foreign substance which may have become located there by accident.

 Thus in many directions a hitherto invisible world has presented itself to the gaze of the persistent investigators. Who shall say the end has been reached; that there are no other worlds in space beyond those now photographed by astronomers; no life dwelling in forms more minute than those discovered by the best microscopes of today? Tomorrow an instrument may be designed that will reach beyond all previous devices and show much of what is hidden today. The infinitude of space, of the great and of the small seems to be beyond question and independent of our cognition.

 In looking over the marvelous achievements of physical science, there is one characteristic particularly worth while to note; namely, that each new discovery has been made through the invention of new or the improvement of previously existing devices to aid the senses; and for that reason the investigations of science have been limited to the world of sense the dense Physical World. Scientists have dealt with the chemical elements: solids, liquids, and gases; but beyond that they have no instruments capable of reaching, although forced to postulate a still finer matter they call “ether,” because without this finer medium they find it impossible to account for light, electricity, etc. Thus we see that physical science inductively recognizes the existence of an invisible world as a necessity in the economy of Nature.

 Both physical and occult science are therefore agreed on that point and both reach into the invisible world for solutions to problems. They differ as to the method of investigation and the credence to be given evidence thus obtained. Material science seeks only for explanation to problems insoluble on a purely physical basis, such as the passage of light waves through a vacuum or the resemblance of the flowers of the present season to those of past summers. In such cases science readily postulates an invisible, intangible something like ether or heredity and prides itself on its acumen and the ingenuity of its explanations.

 Occult science asserts that THERE IS AN INVISIBLE CAUSE AT THE ROOT OF ALL VISIBLE PHENOMENA, which when known will afford a more thorough knowledge of the facts of life than a mechanical concept, and that the most comprehensive idea of life is obtained by the study of BOTH phenomena of the visible and the noumena or underlying causes of the invisible world. It therefore investigates the invisible worlds and offers a more thorough and reasonable solution to the problems of life than mere facts of science derived only through observation of the physical phenomena.

 Material science postulates ether and heredity as solutions to the above problems, though unable to offer actual proof of the truth of its hypotheses except their seeming reasonableness. Yet when occult science employs similar methods and declares the existence of thetc., physical science sneers and inconsistently speaks of superstition and ignorance. It demands proof, though the evidence offered is at least as good as the scientific evidence of the existence of ether, heredity, and numerous other ideas advanced by science, implicitly believed in by the multitude that admiringly bows its head in the dust before any dictum supported by the magic word Science. 

 No one can demonstrate the truth of a proposition in geometry to a person unacquainted with the principles of mathematics. For similar reasons the facts of the inner worlds cannot be proved to the material scientist. If the person devoid of mathematical knowledge studies that science he will be easily satisfied as to the solution of the problem. When the physical scientist has fitted himself for the apprehension of superphysical facts he will have the proof and be compelled to uphold the very theories he now combats as superstition.

Question and Answers – Max Heindel

Aside

QUESTION NO. 89

  Is there an occult significance in the various Christian feasts of the year?

 Answer: Yes, the feasts of the year have the very deepest occult significance. From the material point of view, the planets are but so many masses of matter going about in their orbits in obedience to so-called blind laws, but to the occultists they appear as Great Spirits, moving about in space as we move in the world.

 When a man is seen gesticulating, we attach a certain significance to his gestures. If he shakes his head, we know that he is negativing a certain proposition, but if he nods, we infer he agrees. If he beckons, having the palms of his hands turned toward him, we know that he is motioning for someone to come to him, but if he turns the palms outward, we understand that he is warning someone to stay away. In the case of the universe, we usually do not think that there is any significance to the altered position of the planets, but to the occultist there is the very deepest meaning in all the varied phenomena of the heavens. They correspond to the gestures of man.

 Krishna means anointed, and anyone who had a special mission to perform was so anointed in olden times. When, in the winter time, the sun is below the equator at the nadir point of its travel, the spiritual impulses are the greatest in the world. For our material welfare, however, it is necessary that the sun should come again into the northern hemisphere, and so we speak of the time when the sun starts upon its journey northward as Christmas, the birthday of the Savior, anointed to save us from the famine and cold which would ensue if he were to stay at the nadir point always.

BLOGFC-GIOVANNI-di-Paolo-The-Baptism-of-Christ As the sun passes toward the equator, it goes through the sign Aquarius, the water-man, at that time the earth is deluged with rain, symbolizing the baptism of the Savior. Then comes the passage of the sun through the sign Pisces, the fishes, in the month of March. The stores of the past year have been all consumed, and the food of man is scant, hence we have the long fast of Lent, where the eating of fish symbolizes this feature of the solar journey. Then comes the Passover, when the sun passed over the equator. This is the time of Easter, when the sun is at his eastern node, and this crossing of the equator is symbolized by the crossification or crucifixion, so called, of the Savior; the sun then goes into the sign of Aries, the Ram, and becomes the Lamb of God, which is given for the salvation of the world at the time when the plants begin to sprout. In order that the sacrifice may be of benefit to man, however, he (the sun) must ascend into the heavens where his rays will have power to ripen the grape and the corn, and so we have the feast of the Ascension of the Savior to the Throne of the Father, which is at the summer solstice in June. There the sun remains for three days, when the saying “Thence he shall return” takes effect as the sun commences his passage toward the western node. At the time when he enters the sign Virgo, the Virgin, we have the feast of the assumption and later on, when he leaves the sign Virgo, the Nativity of the virgin, who seems, as it were, to be born from the sun.

 The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles occurred at the time when the sun was crossing the equator on its passage into the winter months, and this feast was accompanied by the weighing in of the corn and the harvest of the wine, which were the gifts of the solar God to his human worshipers.

 Thus all the feasts of the year are connected with the motions of the stars through space.

 

 QUESTION NO. 78

 

   WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE LETTERS I.N.R.I. SOMETIMES PLACED OVER THE CROSS?

 Answer: We are told in the gospel story that Pilate placed a sign reading, “Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorem,” and His Cross, and this is translated in the authorized version to mean “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” But the four initials, I.N.R.I., placed upon the Cross represent the names of the four elements in Hebrew: Iam, water; Nour, fire; Ruach, spirit or vital air; and Iabeshah, earth. This is the occult key to the mystery of crucifixion, for it symbolizes in the first place the Salt, Sulphur, Mercury, and Azoth which were used by the ancient alchemists to make the Philosopher’s Stone, the universal solvent, the elixir-vitae.

blogFC-christ-inri  The two “I’s” (IAM and IABESHAH) represent the salient lunar element water, (a) in fluidic state holding salt in solution, and (b) in the coagulated extract of this water, “the salt of the earth.” In other words, the finer fluidic vehicles of man and his dense body. N, (NOUR) in Hebrew stands for fire and the combustible elements, chief among which are SULPHUR and phosphorus, so necessary to oxidation and without which warm blood would be an impossibility. The Ego could not then function in the body, nor could thought find a material expression. R (RUACH) is the Hebrew equivalent for the Spirit, Azoth, functioning in the mercurial mind. Thus the four letters, I.N.R.I., placed over the Cross of Christ according to the gospel story represent composite man, the Thinker, at the point of his spiritual development when he is getting ready for liberation from the cross of his dense vehicle.

 Proceeding further along the same line of elucidation we may note that I.N.R.I. is the symbol of the crucified candidate for the following additional reasons:

 IAM is the Hebrew word signifying water, the fluidic lunar element, which forms the principal part of the human body (about 87 per cent), and this word is also the symbol of the finer fluidic vehicles of desire and emotion.

 NOUR, the Hebrew word signifying fire, is a symbolic representation of the heat-producing red blood laden with martial iron, fire, and energy, which the occultist sees coursing as gas through the veins and arteries of the human body, infusing it with energy and ambition, and without which there could be neither material nor spiritual progress. It also represents the sulphur and phosphorus necessary for the material manifestation of thought as already mentioned.

 RUACH, the Hebrew word for Spirit, or vital air, is an excellent symbol of the Ego clothed in the mercurial mind which makes man MAN, and enables him to control and direct his bodily vehicles and activities in a rational manner.

 IABESHAH is the Hebrew word for earth, representing the solid fleshy part which makes up the cruciform earthy body, crystallized within the finer vehicles at birth and severed from them in the ordinary course of things at death, or in the extraordinary course of things at death, or in the extraordinary event that we learn to die the mystic death and ascend to the glories of higher spheres for a time.

 This stage of the Christian Mystic’s spiritual development therefore involves a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary downward course through the tripartite spinal cord where the three segments are ruled by the Moon, Mars, and Mercury, respectively, and where the ray of Neptune then lights the REGENERATIVE SPINAL SPIRIT-FIRE which, mounting upward, sets the pituitary body and the pineal gland into vibration. This, opening up the spiritual sight and striking the frontal sinus, starts the crown of thorns throbbing with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by the sacred spirit-fire which wakes this center from its age long sleep to a throbbing, pulsating life, sweeping onward to the other centers in the five-pointed stigmatic star. They are also vitalized and the whole vehicle becomes aglow with a golden glory. Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the desire body located in the liver is liberated, and the martial energy contained in that vehicle propels upward and sidereal vehicle (so-called because the stigmata in the head, hands, and feet are located in the same relative position to one another as the points in the five-pointed star), which ascends through the skull (Golgotha), while the CRUCIFIED CHRISTIAN utters his triumphant cry, “Consummatum est” (it has been accomplished), and soars into the subtler spheres to seek Jesus whose life he has imitated with such success and from whom he is henceforth inseparable. Jesus is his Teacher and his guide to the Kingdom of Christ where all shall be united in one body to learn and to practice the RELIGION OF THE FATHER to whom the Kingdom will eventually revert that He may be All in All.

 QUESTION NO. 85

THE CROWN OF THORNS


   DOES IT SERVE ANY REAL PURPOSE TO RECALL EACH YEAR THE SUFFERING OF CHRIST? IF NOT, WHY DOES NOT THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH OMIT THE PASSION AND THE CROWN OF THORNS, AND CONCENTRATE ITS EFFORTS UPON CELEBRATING EASTER AS A TIME OF JOY?

 ANSWER: The gospel story as it is usually read by people in the churches is only the story of Jesus, a unique character, the Son of God in a special sense, who was once born in Bethlehem, lived once upon the earth for the short space of thirty-three years, who died once for mankind after much suffering, and is now permanently exalted to the right hand of the Father. Thence they expect Him to return to judge the quick and the dead, and they celebrate his birth and his death at certain time of the year, because they are supposed to have taken place on definite dates, the same as the birthday of Lincoln, Washington, or the Battle of Gettysburg.

resurrection-243x300 While these explanations satisfy the multitudes who are not very deep in their inquiries concerning the truth, there is another side which is very patent to? they mystic. This is a story of divine love and perpetual sacrifice that fills him with devotion to the cosmic Christ, who is born periodically in order that we may live and have an opportunity to evolve in this environment for he understands from that viewpoint that without such recurring annual sacrifice, this earth and its present conditions of advancement would be an impossibility.

 At the time when the Sun is in the celestial sign Virgo (the Virgin) the Immaculate Conception takes place. A wave of solar Christ light and life is focused upon the earth. Gradually this light penetrates deeper into the earth, until the turning point is reached on the longest and the darkest night of the year, which we call Christmas. This is the mystic birth of a cosmic Life Impulse which impregnates and fertilizes the earth. It is the basis of all terrestrial life. Without it no seed would germinate, no flower would appear upon the face of the earth, neither man nor beast could exist, and life would soon become extinct. Therefore, there is a very, very valid reason for the joy that is felt at Christmas time. As the divine Author of our being, our Father in heaven, has given the greatest of all gifts to man, the Son, so men also are impelled to give gifts to one another. There reigns upon earth, joy, good will, and peace, no matter whether man understands the mystic and annually recurrent reasons therefore.

 As “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” so this spiritual life impulse which impregnated the earth at the winter solstice works its way through the winter months, towards the circumference, giving life to all wherewith it comes in contact. Even the minerals would not grow were this light impulse withheld, and by the time Easter is reached, when the earth is in bloom, when the birds start singing, and the animals in the forest are mating, all is imbued with great Divine Life. It has spent itself, it dies, and is raised again to the right hand of our Father. Thus Christmas and Easter are turning points which mark the ebb and flow of the Divine Life annually given for our sakes, without which it would be impossible for us to live upon the earth. The latter ends also the annual recurrence of the festive feeling which we experience from Christmas to Easter, the joy that thrills our being. If we are at all sensitive, we cannot help but feel Christmas and Easter in the air, for they are laden with DIVINE LOVE, LIFE, AND JOY.

 But whence come the note of sorrow and suffering which precedes the Easter resurrection? Why may we not rejoice with an unmingled joy at the time when the Sun is liberated ad returns to His Father? Why this Passion, this Crown of Thorns? Why cannot this be left out of consideration?

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 To understand this mystery it is necessary to view the matter from the Christ viewpoint, and it is necessary to realize fully and thoroughly that this annual life wave which is projected into our planet is not simply a force devoid of consciousness. It carries with itself the full consciousness of the Cosmic Christ. It is absolutely a true fact that without Him was not anything made that was made, as we are told by St. John in the opening chapter of his Gospel. At the time of the Immaculate Conception in September, this great life impulse commences Its descent upon our earth, and by the time of the winter solstice, when the mystic birth takes place, the Cosmic Christ has fully concentrated itself upon and within this planet. You will realize that it must cause much discomfort to such a great Spirit to be cramped within this little earth of ours and to be conscious of all the hate and discord we are sending out from day to day all through the year. It is a fact that cannot be gainsaid that all life expression is through and by love, and similarly, death comes through hate. Were the hate and discord which we generate in our daily lives in our transactions one with another, the deceit, the infamy, and the selfishness, left without antidote, this earth would be swallowed up in death.

 You remember the description of initiation given in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION. It is there stated that at the Service held every night at midnight, the etheric Temple in Germany is the focus of all the thoughts of hate and disturbance in the Western world which it serves, that these thoughts are there disintegrated and transmuted, and that this is the basis of social progress in the world. It is also known that saintly Spirits grieve and suffer greatly at disturbances in the world, at the discord and the hate, that they send out from themselves individually thoughts of love and kindness. The associated efforts of such orders as that of the Rosicrucians are directed in the same channels of effort when the world is still, so far as physical exertions are concerned, and is therefore more receptive to the spiritual influence, namely, midnight. At that time they endeavor to attract and transmute these thought arrows of hate and discord, suffering thus their small share while trying to lift a few of the thorns from the Savior’s crown.

 Considering the foregoing, you will understand that the Christ Spirit in the earth is, as St. Paul says, actually groaning and travailing, waiting for the day of liberation. Thus He gathers all the darts of hate and anger. These are the crown of thorns.

 In everything that lives, the vital body radiates streamers of light from the force that has spent itself in building the dense body. During health they carry away all poison from the body and keep it clean. Similar conditions prevail in the vital body of the earth which is the vehicle of Christ. The poisonous an destructive forces generated by our passions are carried away by the life forces of the Christ, but every evil thought or act brings Him its own proportion of pain, and therefore becomes a part of the Crown of Thorns–the crown because the head is always thought of as the seat of consciousness. We should realize that every single evil act of ours reacts upon the Christ in the manner stated and adds another thorn of suffering.

 In view of the foregoing we can realize with what relief He speaks the final words at the time of liberation from the earthly cross: “Consummatum est.” why the annual recurrence of suffering, you ask? As we take into our bodies continually the life giving oxygen to go through its cycle to vitalize and energize the whole body, as that oxygen dies to the outside world for the time being, while it is living in the body, as it is charged there with poisons and waste products, and finally exhaled as carbon dioxide, as poisonous gas, so it is necessary for the Savior annually to enter into the great body which we call the earth and take upon Himself all the poison that is generated by ourselves, to cleanse and purify, and to give it a new lease of life before He finally is resurrected and rises to His Father.

THE MISSION OF CHRIST AND THE FESTIVAL OF THE FAIRIES

Art Sean & Ashlie Nelson

Whenever we are confronted by one of nature’s mysteries which we are at a loss to explain, we simply add a new name to our vocabulary which we then use in learned juggling to hide our ignorance of the subject. Such are the ampere which we use to measure the volume of the electric current, the volt which we say indicates the strength of the current, and the ohm which we use to show what resistance a given conductor offers to the passage of the current. Thus by much study of words and figures, the master minds of the electrical science attempt to persuade themselves and others that they have fathomed the mysteries of the elusive force which plays such an important part in the world’s work; but when all is said and they are in a confidential mood, they admit that the brightest lights of electrical science know but very little more than the schoolboy who is just beginning to experiment with his cells and batteries.

 Similarly in the other sciences, anatomists cannot distinguish the canine from the human embryo for a long time, and while the physiologist talks learnedly about metabolism, he cannot escape the admission that the laboratory tests whereby he endeavors to imitate our digestive processes must be and are widely different from the transmutations undergone in the chemical laboratory of the body by the nourishment we take. This is not said to disparage or belittle he wonderful achievements of science but to emphasize the fact that there are factors behind all manifestations of nature–intelligences of varying degrees of consciousness, builders and destroyers, who perform important parts in the economy of nature–and until these agencies are recognized and their work studied, we can never have an adequate conception of the way the nature forces work, which we call heat, electricity, gravity, chemical action, etc. To those who have cultivated the spiritual sight, it is evident that the so-called dead spend part of their time in learning to build bodies under the guidance of certain spiritual hierarchies. They are the agents in the metabolic and anabolic processes; they are the unseen factors in assimilation, and it is therefore literally true that we should be unable to live save for the important aid from those we call dead.

 To grasp the idea of how these agencies work and their relation to us, we may recall an illustration used in the COSMO: Suppose that a mechanic is at work making a table, and a dog, which is an evolving spirit belonging to another life wave, sits watching him. It then sees the process of cutting the boards; gradually the table is formed from the material, and at last it is finished. But though the dog has watched the man work, it has no clear conception of how this has been done nor of the ultimate use of the table. Suppose further that the dog were gifted with only a limited vision, hence unable to perceive the workman and his tools; then it would have seen the boards gradually falling apart in certain places, then joined and assembled in another manner until the table took shape and was finished. It would see the process of formation and the finished product but would have no conception of the fact that the active agency of a workman was necessary to transform the lumber to a table. If it could speak, it might explain the origin of the table as Topsy did her own by saying that it “just growed.”

 Our relation to the nature forces is similar to? that of the dog to the invisible workman, and we also are apt to explain nature’s mysteries as Topsy did. We learnedly tell the child how heat from the sun evaporates the water of the rivers and oceans, causing it to ascend to the cooler regions of the air where it condenses to clouds which finally become so saturated with moisture that they gravitate towards the earth as rain to replenish the rivers and oceans and be again evaporated. It is all perfectly simple, a nice automatic perpetual motion process.

Derek Emmons, My Little Angel by ShadowElement

But is that all? Are there not a number of holes in this theory? We know that there are, though we can not digress too far from our subject to discuss them. One thing is lacking to fully explain it, namely, the semi-intelligent action of the sylphs who lift the finely divided vaporized particles of water prepared by the undines, from the surface of the sea and carry them as high as they may before partial condensation takes place and clouds are formed. These particles of water they keep until forced by the undines to release them. When we say it storms, battles are being fought on the surface of the sea and in the air, sometimes with the aid of salamanders to light the lightning torch of separated hydrogen and oxygen and send its awe-inspiring shaft crashing zigzag through the inky darkness, followed by ponderous peals of thunder that reverberate in the clearing atmosphere, while the undines triumphantly hurl the rescued raindrops to earth that they may be again restored to union with their mother element.

 The little gnomes are needed to build the plants and the flowers. It is their work to tint them with the innumerable shades of color which delight our eyes. They also cut the crystals in all the minerals and make the priceless gems that gleam from golden diadems. Without them there would be no iron for our machinery nor gold wherewith to pay for it. They are everywhere and the proverbial bee is not busier. To the bee, however, is given credit for the work it does, while the little nature spirits that play such an immensely important part in the world’s work are unknown save to a few so-called dreamers or fools.

Judy Mastrangelo, Fairy Revels

 At the summer solstice the physical activities of nature are at this apex or zenith, therefore “Midsummer Night” is the great festival of the fairies who have wrought to build the material universe, nourished the cattle, nurtured the grain, and are hailing with joy and thanksgiving the crest wave of force which is their tool in shaping the flowers into the astonishing variety of delicate shapes called for by their archetypes and tinting them in unnumbered hues which are the artist’s delight and despair.

 On this greatest of all nights of the glad summer season they flock from fen and forest, from glen and dale, to the Festival of the Fairies. They really bake and brew their etheric foods and afterwards dance in ecstasies of joy–the joy of having brought forth and served their important purpose in the economy of nature.

 It is an axiom of science that nature tolerates nothing that is useless; parasites and drones are an abomination; the organ that has become superfluous atrophies, so does the limb or eye that is no longer used. Nature has work to do and requires work of all who would justify their existence and continue as part of her. This applies to plan and planet, man and beast, and to the fairies as well. They have their work to do; they are busy folk and their activities are the solution to many of nature’s multifarious mysteries, as already explained.

 We are now at the other pole of the yearly cycle, where the days are short and the nights long; physically speaking, darkness hangs over the Northern Hemisphere, but the wave of spiritual light and life which will be the basis of next year’s growth and progress is now at its greatest height and power. On Christmas night at the winter solstice when the celestial sign of the Immaculate Virgin stands upon the eastern horizon at midnight, the sun of the new year is born to save humanity from the cold and the famine which would ensue were its beneficent light withheld. At that time the Christ Spirit is born into the earth and commences to leaven and fertilize the millions of seeds which the fairies build and water that we may have physical food. But “man shall not live by bread along.” Important as is the work of the fairies, it fades into insignificance compared with the mission of Christ, who brings to us each year the spiritual food needed to advance us upon the path of progress, that we may attain perfection in love with all which that implies.

 It is the advent of this wonderful love light that we symbolize by the lighted lamps on the altar and the ringing of the Christmas bells which each year announce the glad tidings of the Savior’s birth, for to the spiritual sense, light and sound are inseparable; the light is colored and the sound is modified according to vibratory pitch. The Christmas light that shines on earth is golden, inducing the feelings of altruism, joy, and peace which not even the great war could entirely obliterate.

 The war is past, and as we always value that most which we have missed, it is to be hoped that all mankind will unite this Christmas in the songs of songs “On Earth Peace, Good Will toward Men.”

Taken for the book Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures by Max Heindel.

Questions and Answers about “LIFE on EARTH”

 

QUESTION NO. 4

 IF THIS EARTH LIFE IS SO IMPORTANT AND REALLY THE BASIS OF ALL OUR SOUL GROWTH, THE LATTER RESULTING FROM THE EXPERIENCES WE GAIN HERE, WHY IS OUR EARTH LIFE SO SHORT IN COMPARISON WITH THE LIFE IN THE INNER WORLDS, APPROXIMATING A THOUSAND YEARS BETWEEN TWO EARTH LIVES?

Mental Forms Crystallized

 ANSWER: All that is in this world which has been made by the hand of man is CRYSTALLIZED THOUGHT; the chairs upon which we sit, the houses in which we live, the various conveniences, such as telephone, steamship, locomotive, etc. were once a thought in the mind of man. If it had not been for that thought, the thing would never have appeared. In similar manner, the trees, the flowers, the mountain and the seas are crystallized thought forms of the nature forces. Man, when he leaves this body after death and enters the Second Heaven, becomes one with those nature forces he works under the direction of the creative hierarchies, making for himself the environment which is necessary for his next step in unfoldment. There he builds in mind stuff” the archetypes of the land and the sea; he works upon the flora and the fauna; he creates everything in his environment as thought forms, as he changes the conditions, so they appear when he is reborn.

 But working things out in mind stuff is very different from working thinks out in the concrete. At the present time we are very poor thinkers, and therefore it takes an enormous period of time for us to shape the thought forms in the second heaven; then, also, we must wait a considerable time before these thought forms have crystallized into the actual dense physical environment to which we are to come back. Therefore, it is necessary that we should stay in the Heaven World for a much longer time than we remain in the earth life. When we have learned to think aright, we shall be able to create things here in the Physical World in a much shorter time than it now takes to laboriously form them. Neither will it be necessary then to stay our of earth life as long as the present time.

 

QUESTION NO. 5

HOW LONG WILL IT BE BEFORE WE CAN DO WITHOUT THE PHYSICAL BODIES, AND FUNCTION ALTOGETHER IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS AGAIN?

ANSWER: This question reveals a state of mind which is all too common among people who have become acquainted with the fact that we possess spiritual bodies in which we may move through space with lightning rapidity, bodies which do not need the material raiment and, therefore, will require no care on the part of their owners. These people long then for the time when they may grown such figurative wings and shed this “low and vile mortal coil” altogether.

Spiritual Bodies that allows us to move with the speed of light.

 Such a state of mind is extremely unfortunate. We should be very thankful for the material instrument which we have, for that is the most valuable of all our vehicles. While it is perfectly true that our physical body is the LOWEST of all our vehicles, it is also a fact that this vehicle is the most finished of our instruments, and without that the other vehicles would be of little use to us at this time. For while this splendidly organized instrument enables us to meet the thousand and one conditions here, our higher vehicles are practically unorganized. The vital body is formed organ for organ as our dense physical body, but until it has been trained by esoteric exercises it is not a fit instrument to function in alone. The desire body has only a number of sense centers which are not even active in the great majority of people, and as for the mind, it is an unformed cloud with the great majority. We should aim today to spiritualize the physical instrument, and we should realize that we must train our higher vehicles before they can be of use. For the great mass of people that will take a long, long time. Therefore, it is best to do the duty that is close to our hands, then we hasten the day when we shall be able to use the higher vehicles, for that day depends upon ourselves.

 

QUESTION NO. 11

HOW IS IT THAT ONE ATONES FOR ALL SIN IN PURGATORY, THEN AT REBIRTH MUST AGAIN SUFFER THROUGH THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT FOR SINS OF A FORMER LIFE

ANSWER: There are two distinct activities in Purgatory. First, there is the eradication of bad habits. For instance, the drunkard craves drink just as much as he did before death, but now he has no stomach and alimentary canal go around to the various saloons, although he may even get inside the whiskey casks and steep himself in the liquor, he obtains no satisfaction, for there are no fumes as when chemical combustion takes place in a stomach. Thus he suffers all the tortures of Tantalus–“Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.”

 But, as desire in this world burns out when we realize that is cannot be gratified, so in time the drunkard is cured of his desire for drink, because he can obtain no liquor, and he is born innocent of evil so far as that particular vice is concerned. However, he must overcome that vice CONSCIOUSLY, and so at a certain time temptation will come in his way. When he has grown up a companion may ask him to “come and have a drink.” Then it depends upon WHETHER HE YIELDS or not. If he does, he sins anew and must be purged anew, till at last the cumulative pains of repeated purgatorial existence will cause him to have a disgust for drink. Then he will have consciously overcome temptation and there will be no more suffering from that source.

Our bad actions get imprinted in the heart atom.

 As to the evil that we have done to others, for instance, where we have dealt cruelly with a child placed under our care, where we have beaten and starved it or otherwise maltreated it, the scenes where we have thus done wrong will have impressed themselves upon the atom in the heart; later on, the etching will have been transferred to the desire body and the panorama of life, which unrolls BACKWARD, will again bring these scenes before our consciousness. WE shall then ourselves feel as the child felt who was our victim; WE SHALL FEEL THE STRIPES that WE inflicted just as the child felt them; WE shall feel the mental anguish and mortification, WE shall suffer pang for pang, and then, when we are reborn, we shall meet our victim and have the opportunity to do good to the victim instead of doing evil. If we do so, well and good; if our old enmity asserts itself as before, then further stripes in the next Purgatory will at last cause us to see that we ought to be merciful to those under our care. So we do not suffer ANEW for sins of a former life; WE ARE BORN INNOCENT through the blessed ministrations of Purgatory, and AT LEAST EVERY EVIL ACT WE COMMIT IS AN ACT OF FREE WILL. But TEMPTATIONS are placed before us in order to ascertain whether the purging has been sufficient to teach us the needed lessons, and it is our privilege either to yield or to stand strong and firm for the good.


QUESTIONS CONCERNING LIFE ON EARTH

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.

QUESTION NO. 9

 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.