The Rosicrucian Mysteries Part 8

When both the good and evil of a life has been extracted, the spirit discards its desire body and ascends to the second heaven. The desire body then commences to disintegrate as the physical body and the vital body have done, but it is a peculiarity of desire stuff, that once it has been formed and inspired with life, it persists for a considerable time. Even after that life has fled it lives a semi-conscious, independent life.

Sometimes it is drawn by magnetic attraction to relatives of the spirit whose clothing it was, and at spiritualistic seances these _sh.e.l.ls_ generally impersonate the departed spirit and deceive its relatives. As the panorama of the past life is etched into the sh.e.l.ls they have a memory of incidents in connection with these relatives, which facilitates the deception. But as the intelligence has fled, they are of course unable to give any true counsel, and that accounts for the inane, goody-goody nonsense of which these things deliver themselves.

When pa.s.sing from the first to the second heaven, the spirit experiences the condition known and described previously as "The Great Silence," where it stands utterly alone conscious only of its divinity. When that silence is broken there floats in upon the spirit celestial harmonies of _the world of tone_ where the second heaven is located. It seems then to lave in an ocean of sound and to experience a joy beyond all description and words, as it nears its heavenly home-for this is the first of the truly spiritual realms from which the spirit has been exiled during its earth life and the subsequent post-mortem existence. In the Desire World its work was _corrective_, but in the World of Thought the human spirit becomes one with the nature forces and its _creative_ activity begins.

Under the law of causation we reap exactly what we sow, and it would be wrong to place one spirit in an environment where there is a scarcity of the necessities of life, where a scorching sun burns the crop and millions die from famine, or where the raging flood sweeps away primitive habitations not built to withstand its ravages, and to bring another spirit to birth in a land of plenty, with a fertile soil which yields a maximum of increase with a minimum of labor, where the earth is rich in minerals that may be used in industry to facilitate transportation of products of the soil from one point to another. If we were thus placed without action or acquiescence upon our part, there would be no justice, but as our post-mortem existence in purgatory and the first heaven is based upon our moral att.i.tude in this life so our activities in the second heaven are determined by our mental aspirations and they produce our future physical environment, for in the second heaven, the spirit becomes part of the nature forces which work upon the earth and change its climate, flora and fauna. A spirit of an indolent nature, who indulges in day dreams and metaphysical speculations _here_, is not transformed by death respecting its mental att.i.tude any more than regarding its moral propensities. It will dream away time in heaven, glorying in its sights and sounds. Thus it will neglect to work upon its future country and return to a barren and arid land. Spirits, on the other hand, whose material aspirations lead them to desire so-called solid comforts of hearth and home, who aim to promote great industries and whose mind is concerned in trade and commerce, will build in heaven a land that will suit their purpose: fertile, immineralized, with navigable rivers and sheltered harbors. They will return in time to enjoy upon earth the fruits of their labors in the second heaven, as they reap the result of their life upon earth in purgatory and the first heaven.

_The Third Heaven._

In the third heaven most people have very little consciousness for reasons explained in connection with the Region of Abstract Thought, for there the third heaven is located. It is therefore more of a place of waiting where the spirit rests between the time when its labors in the second heaven have been completed and the time when it again experiences the desire for rebirth. But from this realm inventors bring down their original ideas; there the philanthropist obtains the clearest vision of how to realize his utopian dreams and the spiritual aspirations of the saintly minded are given renewed impetus.

In time the desires of the spirit for further experiences draws it back to rebirth, and the Great Celestial Beings who are known in the Christian Religion as Recording Angels, a.s.sist the spirit to come to birth in the place best suited to give it the experience necessary to further unfold its powers and possibilities.

We have all been here many times and in different families, we have had relations of varying nature with many different people and usually there are several families among whom we may seek re-embodiment to work out our self-generated destiny and reap what we have sown in former life. If there are no special reasons why we should take birth in any particular family among certain friends or foes, the spirit is allowed to choose its own place of birth. Thus it may be said that most of us are in our present places by our own prenatal choice.

In order to a.s.sist us in making that choice the Recording Angels call up before the spirit's vision a panorama in general outlines of each of the offered lives. This panorama will show what part of our past debts we are to pay, and what fruits we may be expected to reap in the coming life.

The spirit is left free to choose between the several lives offered. But once a choice has been made no evasion is possible during life. We have free will with regard to the future, but the past "_mature_" destiny we cannot escape, as shown by the incident recorded in _The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception_, where the writer warned a well known Los Angeles lecturer that if he left his home upon a certain day, he would be injured by a conveyance, in head, neck, breast and shoulders. The gentleman believed and intended to heed our warning. Nevertheless he went to Sierra Madre to lecture upon the fateful day. He was injured in the places stated by a collision and later explained: "I thought the twenty-eighth was the twenty-ninth."

When the spirit has made its choice, it descends into the second heaven where it is instructed by the Angels and Archangels how to build an archetype of the body which it will later inhabit upon earth. Also here we note the operation of the great law of justice which decrees that we reap what we sow. If our tastes are coa.r.s.e and sensual, we shall build an archetype which will express these qualities; if we are refined and of aesthetic taste, we shall build an archetype correspondingly refined, but no one can obtain a better body than he can build. Then, as the architect who builds a house in which he afterwards lives, will suffer discomfort if he neglects to properly ventilate it, so also the spirit feels disease in a poorly constructed body, and as the architect learns to avoid mistakes and remedy the short-comings of one house when building another, so also the spirit which suffers from defects in its body, learns in time to build better and better vehicles.

In the Region of Concrete Thought, the spirit also draws to itself materials for a new mind. As a magnet draws iron filings but leaves other substances alone, so also each spirit draws only the kind of mind-stuff which it used in its former life, plus that which it has learned to use in its present post-mortem state. Then it descends into the Desire World where it gathers material for a new desire body such as will express appropriately its moral characteristics, and later it attracts a certain amount of ether which is built into the mold of the archetype constructed in the second heaven and acts as cement between the solids, liquids and gaseous material from the bodies of parents which forms the dense physical body of a child, and in due time the latter is brought to birth.

_Birth and Child Life._

It must not be imagined, however, that when the little body of a child has been born, the process of birth is completed. The dense physical body has had the longest evolution, and as a shoemaker who has worked at his trade for a number of years is more expert than an apprentice and can make better shoes and _quicker_, so also the spirit which has built many physical bodies produces them quickly, but the vital body is a later acquisition of the human being. Therefore we are not so expert in building that vehicle. Consequently it takes longer to construct that from the materials not used up in making the lining of the archetype, and the vital body is not born until the seventh year. Then the period of rapid growth commences. The desire body is a still later addition of composite man, and is not brought to birth until the fourteenth year when the desire nature expresses itself most strongly during so-called "hot" youth, and the mind, which makes man man, does not come to birth until the twenty-first year.

In law that age is recognized as the earliest time he is fitted to exercise a franchise.

This knowledge is of the utmost importance to parents, as a proper understanding of the development which should take place in each of the septenary epochs enables the educator to work intelligently with nature and thus fulfill more thoroughly the trust of a parent than those who are ignorant of the Rosicrucian Mystery Teaching. We shall therefore devote the remaining pages to an elucidation of this matter and of the importance of the knowledge of astrology upon the part of the parent.

_The Mystery of Light, Color and Consciousness._

"G.o.d is Light," says the Bible, and we are unable to conceive of a grander simile of His Omnipresence, or the mode of His manifestation. Even the greatest telescopes have failed to reach the boundaries of light, though they reveal to us stars millions of miles from the earth, and we may well ask ourselves, as did the Psalmist of old: Whither shall I flee from Thy Presence? If I ascend into heaven Thou art there, If I make my bed in the grave (the Hebrew word _sheol_ means _grave_ and not h.e.l.l), Thou art there, If I take the wings of morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me.

When, in the dawn of Being, _G.o.d the Father_ enunciated _The Word_, and _The Holy Spirit_ moved upon the sea of h.o.m.ogeneous _Virgin Matter_, primeval _Darkness_ was turned to _Light_. That is therefore the prime manifestation of Deity, and a study of the principles of Light will reveal to the mystic intuition a wonderful source of spiritual inspiration. As it would take us too far afield from our subject we shall not enter into an elucidation of that theme here, except so far as to give an elementary idea of how divine Life energizes the human frame and stimulates to action.

Truly, G.o.d is ONE and undivided, He enfolds within His Being all that is, as the white light embraces all colors. But He appears three-fold in manifestation, as the white light is refracted in three primary colors: Blue, Yellow and Red. Wherever we see these colors they are emblematical of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three primary rays of divine Life are diffused or radiated through the sun and produce _Life_, _Consciousness_ and _Form_ upon each of the seven light-bearers, the planets, which are called "the Seven Spirits before the Throne." Their names are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Ura.n.u.s. Bode's law proves that Neptune does not belong to our solar system and the reader is referred to "Simplified Scientific Astrology" by the present writer, for mathematical demonstration of this contention.

Each of the seven planets receives the light of the sun in a different measure, according to its proximity to the central orb and the const.i.tution of its atmosphere, and the beings upon each, according to their stage of development, have affinity for some of the solar rays. They absorb the color or colors congruous to them, and reflect the remainder upon the other planets. This reflected ray bears with it an impulse of the nature of the beings with which it has been in contact.

Thus the divine Light and Life comes to each planet, either directly from the sun, or reflected from its six sister planets, and as the summer breeze which has been wafted over blooming fields carries upon its silent invisible wings the blended fragrance of a mult.i.tude of flowers, so also the subtle influences from the garden of G.o.d bring to us the commingled impulses of all the Spirits and in that varicolored light we live and move and have our being.

The rays which come directly from the sun are productive of spiritual illumination, the reflected rays from other planets make for added consciousness and moral development and the rays reflected by way of the moon give physical growth.

But as each planet can only absorb a certain quant.i.ty of one or more colors according to the general stage of evolution there, so each being upon earth: mineral, plant, animal and man can only absorb and thrive upon a certain quant.i.ty of the various rays projected upon the earth. The remainder do not affect it or produce sensation, any more than the blind are conscious of light and color which exist everywhere around them.

Therefore each being is differently affected by the stellar rays and the science of Astrology a fundamental truth in nature, of enormous benefit in the attainment of spiritual growth.

From a horoscopic figure in mystic script we may learn our own strength and weakness, with the path best suited to our development, or we may see the tendencies of those friends who come to us as children, and what traits are dormant in them. Thus we shall know clearly how to discharge our duty as parents, by repressing evil before it comes to birth and fostering good, so that it may bring forth most abundantly the spiritual potencies of the soul committed to our care.

As we have already said, man returns to earth to reap that which he has sown in previous lives and to sow anew the seeds which make for future experience. The stars are the heavenly time keepers which measure the year, the moon indicates the month when time will be propitious to harvest or to sow.

The child is a mystery to us all, we can only know its propensities as they slowly develop into characteristics, but it is usually too late to check when evil habits have been formed and the youth is upon the downward grade. A horoscope cast for the time of birth in a scientific manner shows the tendencies to good or evil in the child, and if a parent will take time and trouble necessary to study the science of the stars, he or she may do the child intrusted to his or her care an inestimable service by fostering tendencies to good and repressing the evil bent of a child ere it has crystallized into habit. Do not imagine that a superior mathematical knowledge is necessary to erect a horoscope. Many construct a horoscope in such an involved manner, so "fearfully and wonderfully made"

that it is unreadable to themselves or others, while a simple figure easy of reading may be constructed by anyone who knows how to add and subtract.

This method has been thoroughly elucidated in Simplified Scientific Astrology which is a complete text book, though small and inexpensive, and parents who have the welfare of their children thoroughly at heart should endeavor to learn for themselves, for even though their ability may not compare with that of a professional astrologer, their intimate knowledge of the child and their deep interest will more than compensate for such lack and enable them to see most deeply into the child's character by means of its horoscope.

_Education of Children._

Respecting the birth of the various vehicles and the influence which that has upon life, we may say that during the time from birth to the seventh year the lines of growth of the physical body are determined, and as it has been noted that sound is builder both in the great and small, we may well imagine that rhythm must have an enormous influence upon the growing and sensitive little child's organism. The apostle John in the first chapter of his gospel expresses this idea mystically in the beautiful words: "In the beginning was the WORD ... and without it was not anything made that was made ... and the word became flesh;" the word is a rhythmic sound, which issued from the Creator, reverberated through the universe and marshaled countless millions of atoms into the multiplex variety of shapes and forms which we see about us. The mountain, the mayflower, the mouse and the man are all embodiments of that great Cosmic Word which is still sounding through the universe and which is still building and ever building though unheard by our insensitive ears. But though we do not hear that wonderful celestial sound, we may work upon the little child's body by terrestrial music, and though the nursery rhymes are without sense, they are nevertheless bearers of a wonderful rhythm, and the more a child is taught to say, sing and repeat them, to dance and to march to them, the more music is incorporated into a child's daily life, the stronger and healthier will be its body in future years.

There are two mottoes which apply during this period, one to the child and the other to the parent: _Example_ and _Imitation_. No creature under heaven is more imitative than a little child, and its conduct in after years will depend largely upon the example set by its parents during its early life. It is no use to tell the child "not to mind," it has no mind wherewith to discriminate, but follows its natural tendency, as water flows down a hill, when it imitates. Therefore it behooves every parent to remember from morning till night that watchful eyes are upon him all the time waiting but for him to act in order to follow his example.

It is of the utmost importance that the child's clothing should be very loose, particularly the clothing of little boys, as chafing garments often produce vices which follow a man through life.

If anyone should attempt to forcibly extract a babe from the protecting womb of its mother, the outrage would result in death, because the babe has not yet arrived at a maturity sufficient to endure impacts of the Physical World. In the three septenary periods which follow birth, the invisible vehicles are still in the womb of mother nature. If we teach a child of tender years to memorize, or to think, or if we arouse its feelings and emotions, we are in fact opening the protecting womb of nature and the results are equally as disastrous in other respects as a forced premature birth. Child prodigies usually become men and women of less than ordinary intelligence. We should not hinder the child from learning or thinking of _his own volition_, but we should not goad them on as parents often do to nourish their own pride.

When the vital body is born at the age of seven a period of growth begins and a new motto, or relation rather, is established between parent and child. This may be expressed in the two words _Authority_ and _Disciples.h.i.+p_. In this period the child is taught certain lessons which it takes upon faith in the authority of its teachers, whether at home or at school, and as memory is a faculty of the vital body it can now memorize what is learned. It is therefore eminently teachable; particularly because it is unbiased by pre-conceived opinions which prevent most of us from accepting new views. At the end of this second period: from about twelve to fourteen, the vital body has been so far developed that p.u.b.erty is reached. At the age of fourteen we have the birth of the desire body, which marks the commencement of self-a.s.sertion.

In earlier years the child regards itself more as belonging to a family and subordinate to the wishes of its parents than after the fourteenth year. The reason is this: In the throat of the ftus and the young child there is a gland called the thymus gland, which is largest before birth, then gradually diminishes through the years of childhood and finally disappears at ages which vary according to the characteristics of the child. Anatomists have been puzzled as to the function of this organ and have not yet come to any settled conclusion, but it has been suggested that before development of the red marrow bones, the child is not able to manufacture its own blood, and that therefore the thymus gland contains an essence, supplied by the parents, upon which the child may draw during infancy and childhood, till able to manufacture its own blood. That theory is approximately true, and as the family blood flows in the child, it looks upon itself as part of the family and not as an Ego. But the moment it commences to manufacture its own blood, the Ego a.s.serts itself, it is no longer Papa's girl or Mamma's boy, it has an "I"-dent.i.ty of its own.

Then comes the critical age when parents reap what they have sown. The mind has not yet been born, nothing holds the desire nature in check, and much, very much, depends upon how the child has been taught in earlier years and what example the parents have set. At this point in life self-a.s.sertion, the feeling "_I am myself_", is stronger than at any other time and therefore authority should give place to _Advice_; the parent should practice the utmost tolerance, for at no time in life is a human being as much in need of sympathy as during the seven years from fourteen to twenty-one when the desire nature is rampant and unchecked.

It is a crime to inflict corporal punishment upon a child at any age.

Might is never right, and as the stronger, parents should always have compa.s.sion for the weaker. But there is one feature of corporal punishment which makes it particularly dangerous to apply it to the youth: namely, that it wakens the pa.s.sional nature which is already perhaps beyond the control of a growing boy.

If we whip a dog, we shall soon break its spirit and transform it into a cringing cur, and it is deplorable that some parents seem to regard it as their mission in life to break the spirit of their children with the rule of the rod. If there is one universal lack among the human race which is more apparent than any other, it is lack of will, and as parents we may remedy the evil in a large measure by guiding the wills of our children along such lines as dictated by our own more mature reason, so that we help them to grow a backbone instead of a wishbone with which unfortunately most of us are afflicted. Therefore, never whip a child; when punishment is necessary, correct by withholding favors or withdrawing privileges.

At the twenty-first year the birth of the mind transforms the youth into a man or a woman fully equipped to commence his own life in the school of experience.

Thus we have followed the human spirit around a life cycle from death to birth and maturity, we have seen how immutable law governs his every step and how he is ever encompa.s.sed by the loving care of the Great and Glorious Beings who are the ministers of G.o.d. The method of his future development will be explained in a later work which will deal with "The Christian Mystic Initiation."

MT. ECCLESIA

(Transcriber's Note: This chapter is the series of pages which, earlier, the author said "had been transferred" to the back of the book.)

A DESCRIPTION OF THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWs.h.i.+P

Work in the physical world requires physical means of accomplishment; therefore a tract of land was bought in 1911 in the town of Oceanside, ninety miles south of Los Angeles, California. _Southern California was selected because of the abundance of ether in the atmosphere there, and this spot was found to be particularly favored in that respect._

On this commanding site having a wide view of the great Pacific Ocean, of snow capped mountains and smiling valleys, we began to establish our headquarters in the latter part of 1911. Soon after this we erected a sanctuary, the Pro-Ecclesia, where the Rosicrucian Temple Service is held at appropriate times. The Rose Cross Healing Circle holds its meetings there to help sufferers, and it is the place appointed for the united morning and evening devotions of the workers. In the latter half of 1920 we built an Ecclesia, which is designed to be a Temple of Healing. The building, a beautiful domed structure, is of steel and reinforced concrete. It is twelve sided in shape, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac. At the present writing, January, 1921, the final work upon it is just being completed. The esoteric work of the Fellows.h.i.+p will be carried on here.

We have also built a two-story Administration Building to house the general office, the book department, the correspondence school in Christian Mysticism which links Headquarters with students all over the world, and the editorial offices of our monthly publications, notably the "_Rosicrucian Fellows.h.i.+p Magazine-Rays from the Rose Cross_." We have also an astrological department which conducts a correspondence school. Its offices are located on the second floor.

The whole first floor is occupied by a modern printing plant and book bindery required to furnish the immense amount of literature needed in this work. In the book department we publish all the standard works and text books of the Rosicrucian Philosophy written by Max Heindel. We are now in process of publis.h.i.+ng in book form his former lessons to students.

In October, 1920, a Training School was established for the preparation of candidates for the lecture field. It is our intention to thereby maintain a Lecture Bureau, from which we will send our lecturers throughout the country to disseminate the teachings and carry the message of our philosophy to the people to a greater extent than has before been possible.

A Dining Hall with seating capacity for over one hundred people affords ample accommodation for workers, students, and patients. The scientific meatless diet served there preserves or restores health, as required in each case. Furthermore, it improves the vitality and mentality in an astonis.h.i.+ng degree. A large dormitory, and a number of cottages and tents provide living quarters for all.