“A Sane Mind, A Soft Heart, A Sound Body” January/February 1997—$5.00

THE ROSICRUCIAN BROTHERHOODTHE CREATION

STANDING AT THE PORTAL OF THE NEW YEARINAUGURA TION DAY 1997—ASTAR PREVIEW

A CHRISTIAN ESOTERIC MAGAZINE

Glory be to THEE, PROPITIATOR.

Glory be to THEE, UNDYING ONE.

Glory be to THEE, KING of PEACE.

Glory be to THEE, WHO was not born.

Glory be to THEE, the INCORRUPTIBLE.

Glory be to THEE, KING of GLORY.

Glory be to THEE, the HEAD of the UNIVERSE.

Glory be to THEE, HOLY and PERFECT ONE.

Glory be to THEE, THOU TREASURY Of GLORY.

Glory be to THEE, THOU true Light.

Glory be to THEE, DELIVERER of the UNIVERSE.

Glory be to THEE, THOU WHO art indeed the GOOD ONE.

Glory be to THEE, ALPHA of the UNIVERSE.

Glory be to THEE, LIFE of the UNIVERSE.

O SWEET NAME.

O THOU, WHO art at the HEAD of the Universe.

O THOU, Beginning and End of everything.

Amen.

Above: Passage from Coptic Apocrypha. Illustration by Gustave Doré for Dante’s Paradiso.

Back Cover: The Annunciation, stained glass, Notre Dame Basilica, 1885.

This Issue...Feature

The Redeemed, The Seed and the Fruit (Two Poems)...Evelyn Francis Capel....2

EditorialWinter’s Wise Men................................................................................................3

Mystic LightStanding at the Portal of the New Year...Caroline Lederman...............................4Will...C. W.............................................................................................................8To Know What Love Means...Will Levington Comfort.....................................14The Rosicrucian Brotherhood...Robert Fludd.....................................................17

Max Heindel’ s MessageAttending His Own Funeral................................................................................23

Readers’ QuestionsMorphine and Postmortem Consciousness.........................................................26Sleepwalking: Its Cause and Cure......................................................................26

Western W isdom Bible StudyThe Creation—Part 1...Max Heindel..................................................................28

AstrologyJupiter, Part of Fortune, Nodes, and Planetary Synthesis...Max Heindel...........32Inauguration Day 1997—AStar Preview...A Probationer..................................36

Religion and ArtThe Apocalypse:Verbal and Visual Revelations—Part 3...C. W.........................39

News PerspectivesJourney to the Center of the Earth......................................................................46

Book ReviewsWhat’s in a Word?...AProbationer......................................................................48

Nutrition and HealthCancer and Herbs...C. W......................................................................................51

HealingHealth and the Subconscious Mind.....................................................................56

For ChildrenRex and Zendah in the Land of the Balance...Esme Swainson..........................57

MiscellaneousExcerpt from Coptic Apocrypha.................................................Inside front coverTruth Seeker’s Prayer ...Anonymous....................................................................7Song of the Mystic (Poem)...Frater Ryan...........................................................22Song Celestial (Poem)...Sir Edwin Arnold .........................................................25The Last Surety (Poem)...Vesta Wills Hancock..................................................27You and Today (Poem)...Ella Wheeler Wilcox ...................................................37Holy Spirit (Poem)...Samuel Longfellow...........................................................50January/February 1997 Ephemeris................................................................61-62

“A Sane Mind,A Soft Heart,

A Sound Body”©1997 The Rosicrucian Fellowship

AChristian Esoteric

Magazine

Established byMax Heindel

June 1913

Volume 89, No. 1

January/February—1997USPS 471080—ISSN 0744-432X

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RAYS 97 2

FEATURE

The Redeemed

In shining white they goWho bore the test of tribulationWho glow with joy of jubilationWho walk in high anticipationTo the throne set up in Heaven.

The sounds of Earth-bred songShall precede their great procession.They shall greet the high occasionWith distinctive diapasonWhich they alone sent forth

from Earth can sing.

The Seed and the Fruit

The sun has sown a seedin the dark of Earth.Its radiance shines,In the depths, a new birth.

The seed of life fell downinto the place of death.It quickens the dead of life,Breathing with living breath.

The fruit grows from the flowerIn the light of the sun;The treasure of seed withinShall ripen for time to come.

Both poems are by Evelyn Francis Capel from her book Pictures From the Apocalypse, 1989, Temple Lodge Publishing, London. Picture is from Gustave Doré’s illustrations for Dante’s Paradiso.

BEGINNINGS CAN BE deceptive.Who, on the face of it, could say thatthe “dead of winter” is anything butjust that—a landscape of apparentlifelessness, framed by skeletal trees,

a still life of frozen earth, nature in the grip of rigormortis.

But as each day begins at midnight, so the NewYear begins in January. Life’s sun is already risingtoward the Earth’s eastern horizon. Seeds sown inthe preceding year are even now dreaming towarda green awakening.

The first months of human pregnancy are notreadily apparent to the casual observer, but basicvital structures are being built, primary tissues areelaborating, eons of evolution are silently andswiftly being recapitulated.

So it is with all beginnings. They begin within,out of sight, in the dark. First as faint stirrings, asdeep workings in the core of being, unbeknownstat times even to the host, as man’s mineral andvital bodies were fashioned during the Saturn andSun Periods, while consciousness of their forma-tion was as that of deep sleep—nil! But, for allthat, creation was proceeding.

The analogy for us is that during winter, whilethe physical dimension is benefiting from itsregenerative sleep, the invisible realms are intenselyawake and spiritually active. There are brightbirthings in dim caves, interior advents of seminalideas, and epiphanies of new possibilities whichonly the alert mind searching the vast sky of con-sciousness can discern and track to their holy cra-dles, as it were, after the time of their delivery. The

Wise Men arrive at their Christmas destination inJanuary, traditionally on the sixth of the month.

As persons who are collaborating in theChristian genesis, we bear our gifts of body, souland spirit to the sacred place of beginnings anddedicate them to the nascent impulse of holy beingwe there discover. We realize that acts of peace andgood will are predicated on repeated resolutions towill good, on the reiterated thought to be of serviceand to do what needs doing. We understand thatdoing issues from parent thoughts of like nature,thoughts that are noble, pure, truth-pledged, gener-ous, large-hearted.

We learn that flowers are so prodigal in the for-mation of seed because many do not survive theperils of harsh weather and indifferent reception.So we sow myriads of seeds as the prayerful repe-tition of key thoughts, that our resolves may ger-minate and emerge on the material plane as Christ-aspiring, spirit-guided deed.

And now is the time, especially now, before theseason of rampant growth is afield, to be selectiveand deliberate and focussed in proposing ouryear’s course, our primary purpose, our essentialbusiness. When the spring of our good deeds ismanifest, it will be clear that it was long beforebegun, in the first intentions of winter’s dark earth.

To begin, we must have already stopped, cometo a standstill, we must have frozen thought, disci-plined it to ground zero. And at that holy place weare vivified by a holy life, a renewing life for thehushed earth. There we receive it and bear itoutward, nurturing it, magnifying it, raising it—outward and up into gospel gardens of Spring. ❐

RAYS 97 3

Winter’s Wise Men

EDITORIAL

NEW YEAR IS CELEBRATED allover the world. Bells ring, whistlesblow and horns blare. People dressup and wear fancy clothes. Theysing Auld Lang Syneand feel senti-

mental. In China and Vietnam the exact datechanges from year to year, since it is observed atthe time of the second new moon after the 22nd ofDecember, which could occur as late as the middleof February. But whenever it is celebrated, NewYears is a time to part with the past and prepare forthe future. In England people open their frontdoors just before midnight to let the rest of the old

year go so they can admit the New Year at midnight.They believe the first person to enter the home willbring luck, and should it be a man with dark hair,then all follow him in to celebrate with food andspirits while they sing “Ring out the old, Ring inthe new, Ring out the false, Ring in the true.

A more sober note in observing this yearly tran-sition is provided by William Knapp, who prays,“Almighty Father, as we keep this holy time underthe deepening shadows of the closing year, wethank Thee for all that it hath brought to us ofmercy, truth, and love. Let not the experiences ofour past days be lost upon us. Fix in our mindsevery lesson of faith and duty which Thou hastbeen teaching us. Grant before the record of thisyear hath been finished and sealed that we have a

very honest and deep desire to live according toThy will.”

The advent of the New Year is preeminently atime of making vows. Many are frivolous and self-mocking. Some are serious and transformative. Inthe latter vein Max Heindel urges: “Let us make apromise that we will in the New Year give our-selves more wholly to Christ, let us endeavor to bebetter, kinder and more charitable in our sphere.Let us promise ourselves that the New Year willfind us more earnest workers, more zealous andactive in everything that is good.”

What occasions the festive mood that attends the

onset of the New Year? In the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conceptionthe author writes: “The Sun of theNew Year is born and this is why we are rejoicing.He has started His journey from the southernmostpoint toward the northern hemisphere to save thatpart of humanity from the darkness and faminewhich would result if He were to remain perma-nently south of the equator.”

January, from Latin Januarius,derives from thename of the two-faced Roman god Janus, who wasthe god of all beginnings. He watched over gatesand doors, which were generally under his protec-tion. He presided over the first hour of the day, thefirst day of the month, and the first month of theyear. His name was invoked at the outset of impor-tant undertakings.

4 RAYS 97

Standing at the Portal of the New Year

MYSTIC LIGHT

Almighty Father , as we keep this holy time under thedeepening shadows of the closing year , we thank Thee

for all that it hath brought to us of mercy , truth, and love.Let not the experiences of our past days be lost upon us.

Janus guarded the numerousceremonial gateways in Rome.These entrances and exits wereused on state occasions. Janus wasrepresented on early Romancoinage as a deity with two faces,and when youngsters tossedcoins, much as they do now, theywould not say “heads or tails?” but“past or future?”

When Numa Pompilius suppos-edly decreed that two new monthsshould be added to the year,January was chosen as the first, inhonor of the cult god of door-ways. And although the origi-nal Romanyear commenced atthe Vernal Equinox, in 153 B.C.the state proclaimed January 1st tobe New Year’s Day. The luckystone (gem) or birthstone associat-ed with January is the garnet.

Traditionally, this is a time for smoothing overquarrels and reestablishing amicable relationships.The first of January is also the eighth day of theChristmas season, which commences on December25. It commemorates the circumcision of Jesus,the date when he was submitted to the Jewishritual and entered into an alliance with God. Hefulfilled the letter of the law that he should scan-dalize none. But “the promise that he should be theheir of the world was not to Abraham or his seedthrough the law, but through righteousness andfaith” (Rom. 5:13).

So the bells ring out wild and jubilant as thoughthe closing cycle is already beginning. The annualobservance of New Year’s reminds us that everyday is a new beginning. Every morning is a pageset free. As we stand at the threshold of the NewYear, it is well to remember that things and eventsbegin and end only when they enter the realm oftime and space. In the spiritual world there are nodefinite events, no static conditions. The beginningand the end of all adventures in all ages are presentin the eternal here and now. A day is as a thousandyears and a thousand years as a day. The poet says“A thousand ages in thy sight is as an evening

gone, short as the watch that ends the night beforethe rising sun.” Above the moon, says the ElderPliny, everything is pure and filled with eternallight. There ends the cone of shadow which earthprojects and which produces night; there ends thesojourn of night and darkness; to it the night airextends, but thereafter we enter pure substance.

In the physical world many opportunities pre-sent themselves to us each hour of the day forundertaking or revising. Here in time and space wehave inexhaustible opportunities for experiences.When we pass over to the other side we will real-ize and regret the loss of those occasions to learnand grow that we did not seize. For the laws thatgovern processes in the higher worlds do not applyon this earth plane. St. John Chrysostom once said,“It is not enough to leave Egypt. One must alsoenter the Promised Land.” But we cannot enter thePromised Land until we have gained our“Egyptian” experience. It was necessary that weenter the material world to develop all its resourcesand thereby discover and develop our human fac-ulties and powers. But this fall into flesh hasresulted in our forgetting who we are and whereour true home is. Still, we have diligently appliedourselves to making the fullest possible use of

RAYS 97 5

Studio of Giovanni Bellini (`1430-1516), c. late fifteenth century, National Gallery, London

The Circumcision“And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, thename given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb”—Luke 2:21.While Christ Jesus fulfilled the Law, St. Paul makes clear that the only circumci-sion that avails to righteousness “is that of the heart, in the spirit”—Rom. 2:29.

what many believe to be our only chance at life.Commenting on our world’s work, Max Heindelsaid, “If we endeavor to turn the sails of our barkof life aright, we shall always be able to modify, ifnot to altogether change, conditions and make ourlives what we will instead of sitting supinely wait-ing for the clouds to pass by because we havemade those clouds ourselves.” The very fact thatwe have made them ought to inspire us with thecourage and energy to unmake them, or at leastpush them away as quickly as possible.

The good we have done bears fruit regardless ofany wrongs we have done or that are done to us.There is no power in heaven or on earth thatcan withhold the heavenly treasure thus earned.And further harvestis always ripe forgathering. Christcame to seek and tosave that which waslost through Hiscleansing blood,which gave Himentrance to the earthand its humanity.Our work, instruc-tion, and goodexample assist Hiseffort and conformsto His admonition“He who would begreatest among you, let him be the servant of all.”This serving includes suffering, tolerating, encour-aging inspiring, sympathizing, being a companionwho listens without judgement—the list is endless.There is always a way to help another. Whether ornot they request help or realize that we have con-tributed towards their well-being, some bond ofkinship has been created between us and a link ofhuman kindness has been forged to more surelysecure us in the family of man. We may set for our-selves the ideal that no one come near us withoutfeeling stronger, better, and more alive by virtue ofthe love and good will we ever seek to generate. Somay they experience the upliftment of spirit whichwill rekindle their desire to progress in life’s school.

While the New Year would seem to emphasize

the element of time, we must remember andemphasize that we live not in time but in eternity.Our thoughts, words, and deeds, minutely andaccurately recorded on our various seed atoms, notonly improve and refine our own talents, but alsocontribute towards the elaboration and adornmentof God’s scheme of perfection.

Each is called to give of his best. The artist’snoble vision can bring light and insight; the poet’sinspired thoughts can serve as the very breath ofrenewed life; the craftsman fashions structures thatcan both serve our functional needs while satisfyingour esthetic sense; the musician enthrallsus withcompositions whose melodies br ing us mes-sages from our true home—the heavenworld.

If we waste ourendowment of forceand energy, we initi-ate a process ofdevolution in whichforms are degrad-ed and crystallizedby sloth and self-indulgence —formswhich otherwise arespiritualized intosoul in the crucibleof self-denial.Manis essentially abuilder and his pro-gress towards the

ul t imate goal is determined by the facility withwhich he builds for himself a series of successive-ly finer and more sensitive vehicles of conscious-ness through which he develops his spiritualpotential.

We therefore understand that we have within usthe power to free ourselves from all that holds usin bondage. We realize that all real building iswithin ourselves, for unless we build the taberna-cle within, unless the light shines over the mercyseat within our hearts and the smoke of sacrificecontinually ascends within our own hearts and souls,it will be a long, long time before we can say “noware we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear whatwe shall be, but... we shall be like Him”(1 John 3:2).

The success of our efforts depends not so much

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Unless we build the tabernaclewithin, unless the light shinesover the mercy seat within our

hearts and the smoke of sacrifice continually ascends

within our own hearts andsouls, it will be a long, long

time before we can say “noware we the Sons of God....”

on how much we think about the ideal, even howmuch we love it, but on how much we are willingto strive and sacrifice for it, how much we live it.The anonymous saying expresses it well: “If youwould be a star, you must shine your own light.Follow your own path and never mind the dark-ness. That’s when stars shine their brightest.”

In the glad and glorious order of things there isa limit placed upon the operations of the forces ofdestruction and evil. They are permitted only so muchlatitude. And here lies the hope by which humanitycan endure and rise above the turbulence andvio-lence of these times and enterupon amore peaceful,stable and pro-ductive era.

The world con-c e p t i o n t o b ebrought forthmust transcendmaterial inter-pretations onwhich pre-sent action islargely based,especially in thewestern world.Unt i l moral law isrespected and spiritu-al principles recognized as theultimate governing powerin every sphere oflife, we will continue to flounder. Every day we aresowing seeds for good or for ill. When eveningcomes, if we will review our day’s activity, givingourselves praise or blame where due, we will beliving most productively in the present and mosthelpfully for the future.

Truly, the practice of nightly retrospection is afar-reaching endeavor, because our experiences,earnestly and honestly assessed, are incorporatedinto our consciousness as usable soul power, thesins of each day are blotted out, and man com-mences a new life with added soul power gainedfrom all the preceding days of his probationarylife. At present we are reaping the results of ourevolutionary journey, manifesting the efforts wehave made or not made, in the nature of the bodyand larger environment we inhabit. If we are not

satisfied with these results, we can start to changeour ways, especiallyin our thinking.

The divine man sleeps within the mortal, but heshall, when summoned, awake and arise. Within uslies the power to free ourselves from all that holdsus in bondage. We can direct all desires, decisions,choices, and responsibilities to our inner Tribunalof light and truth, which has the answers we seekand the power to prevail. May we all striveto knowourselves better, realizing anew the divinity in ournatures, and dedicating ourselves more whole-heartedly to the lofty ideals which lead us on to

the heights of spiritual attainment.Thomas Edison said that “If we

did all the things we arecapable ofdoing we

would literally as-tound ourselves.”

By accept-ing therespon-sibility forourselves aswe are, and by

us ing o u rwill to activate

our po ten t ia lpowers, we may

attain to any goal wesetfor ourselves.Le t us be so

un i ted in peace, harmony, and love thatwe may do our part in carrying out the missionof healing and enlightenment to which MaxHeindel devoted and sacrificed his life. Let uslift our eyes to the stars. Let us face this worldwith new light, new power, new hope, becauseonly in this way shall we be faithful to our questand see the glorious destiny of this great workfulfilled. It is religion that will be the very heartand keystone of the new Aquarian Age.

May you go forth blest in your quest for lighteternal. “Grant, we beseech Thee, that the wordswhich we have heard with our outward ears maybe grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they maybring forth in us the fruit of right living to ThineHonor and Praise, and may all our works begun,continued, and ended be for Thy glory.” ❐

—Caroline Lederman

RAYS 97 7

Truth Seeker’s PrayerFrom the cowardice that dare not face new truth,

From the laziness that is contented with half truth,

From the egotism that seeks for fame and fortune,

From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,

From the greediness that trades half truth for

silver and gold, and misleads others,

Oh, Lord of Truth, deliver me.—Anon.

THE PREEMINENT attribute ofthreefold Divinity, will most closelycharacterizes the Father because it isthe first quality by which God makesHimself manifest. So too was will the

first attribute received in seed form by humanity asvirgin spirits when they were invested with divinespirit. And will shall be the last quality to be fullydeveloped by humanity because it most essentiallypartakes of thedivine nature andrequires aninvo-lutionary andevolutionary pil -grimage throughf i v e Wo r l d s t oactualize its vastpotential.

The hierarchy ofLeo, called the Lordsof Will, or Thrones,rayed forth both thegerm of the human dense physical body and thedivine spirit during the Saturn Period of Earthevolution. They continued to make adaptations onthese two vehicles as they were sequentially con-figured with the other five human vehicles. TheLords of Will focus their energies through theArchangeloi (also called the Lords of Flame), Whowork on man’s desire body.

Will first manifested as the creative fiat: Letthere be. Wisdom and love are implicit in all arche-typal creative acts. For humans, creative efforts aremeans by which love and wisdom may be discov-ered and displayed. It is not accidental that the

Zodiacal sign Leo, whose keyword is will , shouldexpress that will through creativity, both genera-tive and artistic, which “children” provide the Leonature the opportunity to express its love nature.

Since creativity is a divine attribute that drawson will, wisdom, and imagination, what better proofis there of the existence of the Creator than theexistence of creation and its creatures. For by i tsfrui ts is a being known. One c a n w i l l

( t h i n k , desire)that there is noGod, bu t suchwillfulness is vainand finally full oftorment. Will usedagainst itself des-cribes the plight ofthe black magicianwhose abuse ofpower must revert tothe abuser as its ulti-mate victim.

Thinking and desiring are expressions of power,but will is in back of all manifestation in thePhysical, Etheric, Desire and Thought Worlds, aswell as the World of Life Spirit, even as God theSon and God the Holy Spirit proceed from and areexpressions of God the Father. While all powerproceeds from the Father, its manifestation on eachplane is through the substance or stuff comprisingthat World and its use will vary according to thewisdom and intentions of the beings throughwhom it is exercised.

Will is first in evidence in evolving man as will-fulness or selfish will. Increasingly, as suffering

RAYS 97 8

Will

MYSTIC LIGHT

Since creativity is a divineattribute that draws on will,wisdom, and imagination,

what better proof is there ofthe existence of the Creator

than the existence of creationand its creatures.

and destructive behaviortake their toll, will is used tocurb the untrammeled desirenature, direct its energiesinto constructive channels,and to regulate the thoughtlife. It is chiefly by meansof w i l l tha t se l f -con-sciousness is formed anddeveloped.

Will takes many guises,even disguises. It is neverpurely, at this phase of ourevolution, disembodied will.It is the basis for all forms ofself-discipline. On the physi-calplane will is the force thatholds creation intact, con-forming it to its archetypesin the World of Thought.

Clearly, mobilized will isparamount foracceleratingone’s spiritual development.Presently, the student ofWestern Wisdom Teachings,in accordance with the precept that all occultdevelopment begins with the vital body, drawsupon will to conserve and redirect his life force,control thinking, cultivate regenerate emotions,and be of service.

As will was the first faculty rayed into humanityat the dawn of creation through the implanted germof divine spirit, so it is the first faculty to manifestin the individual life, followed by feeling andthinking. The will that works in the body manifestsas the drive to assume an erect posture. As a moun-tain peak calls a climber, so the instinctive desireto stand impels the child to raise itself, first to a sit-ting position, then fully upright, moving from thehorizontal spine of the animal to the vertical spineof the human, recapitulating a momentous jump inevolutionary sophistication.

Most amenable to the impulse of will is the use ofthe opposable thumb, which enables the graspingand manipulation that make man the tool bearer,capable of shaping and controlling his environ-ment, as most simply and hieratically represented

in the king’s scepter and mace, the bishop’s crozieror staff, the magician’s wand, the holy spear ofParsifal, and Aaron’s Rod that budded. In other words,by the exercise of the enlightened will, man him-self becomes the tree of life, the hermetic caduceus,the occult symbol par excellence of the power andpotential of will to attain self-conscious divinity.

The Sons of Cain, in spiritual matters especially,have taken to themselves a larger measure of will,exercising the influence of their ancestor Lucifer,whose conflict was not with universal God, butwith one of the Elohim, Jehovah, whose chargesobediently carry out His mandates.

While the Sons of Seth, adherents of RomanCatholicism, seek, through devotion and heart-feltobedience to God’s revealed word, to live holylives as defined by the Magisterium, the Bible, andthe Pontiff, the Sons of Cain are ever champing atthe orthodox bit, breaking icons, exercising thecreative faculty endowed by their Creator in thefine and applied arts. They are more inclined towield power, to explore new frontiers, to question

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From Die Bibel in Bildern, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1789-1853)

The First Day of CreationGod the Father as Creator manifests His first attribute of Will, implicit in and proceed-ing from which are Love-Wisdom (the Son) and Activity (the Holy Spirit).

the veracity or sufficiency of existing systems ofbelief, to forge their own destinies, to seek internalauthorization for their thoughts and deeds, and like-wise to locate within their own being the holy ofholies, the high priest, and the God they both serve.

One who is evolving along the occult path facesthe greater danger of misusing will because it iseminently will that is needed to “storm heaven,”to die to the world, to be in the world but not of it,to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, topray without ceasing, and to do all things as untothe Lord. The hazards of the path of wi l l arepride and vainglo-ry, hardness of heart,rationalized self-interest and egotism.

The phases of theuse of will, usuallyseen as a progres-sion—from self-willa n d w i l l f u l n e s s(stubbornness), towillingness, to right-ly willed action—allimply the gift of freewill; that is, the abili-ty to freely choose and the power to act on one’schoice. In the earlier phases of his development,however, man’s use of will was largely desire-dri-ven and, in that respect, unfree. Only whenenlightened by experience and the suffering inci-dent to it does actual free choice become possible.There is no freedom in ignorance. One must beable to think about what one does and deliberately,that is consciously, chose to do or refrain fromdoing. And though knowledge does not in itselfweaken desire, it does activate conscience and for-tify one’s resolve to do what is right.

The will of the lower self is rooted in desire. Thuscontrol of desire for physical sensation and self-gratification constitutes will’s initial task. A modelfor the way will is so exercised is formulatedin theTen Commandments, which is essentially a set ofprohibitions, and more generally by moral lawsgoverning human behavior. The first five booksofthe Old Testament, the Pentateuch, are called theLaw.

A supreme form of willing is to bewilling, as in

agreeing, being obedient, utterly surrendering one’spersonal will to wholly bond with the divine will.This form of willing manifests as humility andmay be mistaken for the absence of will power asthe world knows it. Separating this perfect willing-ness from self-will is the mystic death, figured inGethsemane and Golgotha, by which one is baptizedinto Christ Jesus’death and witnesses one’s own“white funeral.” The daily dyings of the self-denying Christian include the modest but signifi-cant choices to ignore the pleasure impulse, to ban-ish vanity, to be sensitive to the needsof others,

to suffer lossrather than togain at the expenseof another.

The constructivewilling that is covert,interior, silent, with-out sound of ham-mer, which doessolitary battle withthe forces of dark-ness on the mid-night plains of thesoul, which holds

true to the daily course of routine obligations andengagements—it is by these practices that theroyal raiment of the spiritual ruler is spun and theglorying acclaim of angels won.

What is God’s will for me? That I activelydemonstrate my spiritual heritage as a child of Godmade in His image. And this demonstration isalways a function of the immediate present, thework informed by the guidance of the Spirit ofTruth, the Holy Spirit. It may entail willing to dotoday what yesterday I sought to avoid; electinguncertain excellence and possible failure ratherthan perpetuating the easy but inadequate statusquo; refraining from impulsive speaking todisplay knowledge or from passing peremptoryjudgment to create a moment of shallow securityand sham self-worth.

Through Christ in Jesus humans are invited toexercise the power of a faith that works the worksof God. Belief is efficacious. It empowers. It is aspiritual dynamo that translates into usable will—

10 RAYS 97

Separating perfect willingness from self-will isthe mystic death, figured inGethsemane and Golgotha,

by which one is baptized intoChrist Jesus’ death and

witnesses one’ s own “white funeral.”

the ultimate tool. Whatever degree of revealedwisdom we may possess, faith calls for our life’ssupreme effort. It is will’s proving ground. We maybest work to will’s benefit when we think we leasthave it, for then the faith that is its surety is mostneeded and that surety is the assurance that Godthe Father, as Personed Will, ever gives us the meansto accomplish His purposes. We may not feel wehave the will power to accomplish, but God does,and if His will is ours, and we infuse our mind andheart with faith in His effectual presence, there isno limit to what He will accomplishthrough us.

Where finite thinking fails or falters, faith canprovide a higherform of knowing. Where the com-mon man cowers, the faithing man may firmly stepforward. I cannot move mountains, but faith, theaccess to Him Who makes mountains, can. Formen much seems impossible, but with God allthings are possible.

The power to effect healing derives not primarilyfrom the healer but from the infirm in their believ-ing that healing is possible, and then in doingwhatthey believe will restore wholeness. Only believe!

Though their action is based on the author-ity and expertise of the healer, belief con-fers potency. In other words, the one whodesires to be healed ascribes his own powerto the healer. In healing, faith is medi-cine andfaithing here is willing recovery.One must act to prove one’s faith. While alldecisions appear to be expressions of will,they are not actually or significantly sountil those decisions are acted upon.

God’s will for us may often be unclear.But this uncertainty may serve to increaseour faith in willed daily doings. It is help-ful to remember St. Paul’s words that “it isGod which worketh in you both to will andto do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).And in so frequently reminding ourselves,we create a d ispos i t ion mostamenab le to spiritual impulses andinspiration. Frances de Sales leaves noroom for personal preferences when heasks the Lord that His will be done “ineverything and everywhere, without areserve, without a BUT, an IF, or a limit.”

We may come to a point in life where we “wantout.” Then can Christ Jesus’words be our inspira-tion for maintaining: “O my Father, if it be possi-ble, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not asI will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). F. W. Faberobserves that “There are no disappointments tothose whose wills are buried in the will of God.”

God does not will that we suffer, but neither willHe infringe on our most precious gift, that whichmost perfectly characterizes His Being—willitself, as we choose to freely exercise it. We see thetruth in English clergyman E. B. Pusey’s reason-ing: “If the least thing could happen to us withoutGod’s permission, it could be something out ofGod’s control. God’s providence or His love wouldnot be what they are. Almighty God Himselfwould not be the same God.” Which is as impossi-ble as God’s nonexistence.

Since without God I can do nothing, and wouldliterally be nothing (not made), it is clear that “By[personal] strength shall no man prevail” (1 Sam.2:9). When I act, as Whittier expresses it, I pray Iam “Doing God’s will as if it were my own/Yet

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Oil on canvas, 1650, Nicolas Poussin, Louvre, Paris, France

Healing the Blind of JerichoThe one seeking healing takes initiative both in asking for it and bybelievingthat the healer has the power to effect it. As Christ Jesus saysto the formerly blind Bartimaeus, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.”

trusting not in mine, but in his strength alone.” St.Augustine expresses the idea somewhat differently:“No man can be master of himself except of God’sbounty.”

Will’ s most sublime manifestation is love. God’ssheer awesome power is expressed through thetranscendent goodness and inexpressible giving-ness and compassion that is personed in Christ andemanates from the World of Life Spirit. More locally,the formulator of the Western Wisdom Teachingswas himself an uncommonly potent focus for theLeo energies of will, being a “triple Leo” (Sun,Moon, and Ascendant conjunct), with a Leo

Mercury in trine to a midheaven Neptune and a 5th(Leo) House Jupiter. And what is the crux of MaxHeindel’s message? Love and service, persistenceand prayer. For a certainty one knows will is ontarget and consonant with cosmic purpose when itexpresses as love, that it is purified and potentiatedwhen it places others before self and commongood above personal preference.

The Thronesdenominate the realm from whichall strength and power flow into the world, makingall things possible of fulfillment through Him Whomediates it—Christ Jesus. We best learn of thePower of Christ, incarnating and effecting theFather’s will, through the Gospel of St. Mark,whose icon is the Lion, emblematic of the powerby which Christ Love (Taurus/Luke Gospel) andChrist Wisdom(Scorpio/John Gospel) are broughtto human fulfillment (Aquarius/Matthew Gospel).

Motives for the development of will powershould ever be purified by service and compassionto insure its proper use. Increasingly, one thinks,speaks, and acts out of a sense of what is right, notbecause one is propelled by desire. Desire furnishesthe impulse to action. More often than not thisimpulse must be checked when one begins to livein accordance with precepts pertaining to spiritual

development. At this point conscious life centers inthe vital body, whose keynote is repetition andwhose development strengthens memory, constancy,purity, and devotion, which qualities, in turn, weakenand dissociate the causal connection betweendesire and action, between feeling and willing. Inthis regard unceasing prayer much avails, for ithelps keep consciousness on track, centered, illu-mined, and in a state of poised recollectedness,whereby moment-to-moment opportunities aremost easily recognized and most readily seized;whereby also discrimination and correct choicesmay be made and temptations best met and pres-

ence of mind optimally maintained. In all of this,the use of will plays a vital role, providing thepower to execute what right thinking has proposed.

The Gospel of St. John gives the student muchguidance on will. To receive Christ is to be given“power to become the sons of God” (12:12). Thispower is not gained by the will of the flesh or bythe will of man but of God (1:13). Further, “a mancan receive nothing, except it be given him fromheaven” (3:27). Christ Jesus is to be the model ofour willing. And what does He will? He says, “Ican of mine own self do nothing” (5:30). The muchHe does is not of His own self, but by God. “Mymeat is to do the will of him that sent me” (4:34) .“I seek not mine own will, but the will of theFather which sent me” (5:30, 6:38). The willingnessthat is obedience to our intuition of God’s will for usqualifies our actions to “prove what is that good andacceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).

Over time, the use of right will develops author-ity in word and person, a power or right tocommand, act, elicit obedience, and make firmdecisions. Christ Jesus is asked, “By what authoritydoest thou these things?” (Matt. 21:23) He answersthat all power is given him in heaven and on earthto do His Father’s will. For this power can be del-

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Will’ s most sublime manifestation is love, God’ s sheer awe -some power is expressed through the transcendent good -ness and inexpressible givingness and compassion that ispersoned in Christ and emanates from the W orld of Life Spirit.

egated, it is part of the Father’s patrimony. Christreceived it from God and conferred it upon His dis-ciples as they were ready to receive it.

Spiritual development is measured by the power,wisdom, and love with which one exercises freewill. Will is central to human beings and beinghuman because we are made in the image andlikeness of our Creator, to Whom St. Augustine, inhis book-length apostrophe and confession, says,“Your will is identical with Your Being.” EmmanuelSwedenborg succinctly states, “The will is theman.” As man’s highest faculty, what he doeswith itdetermineshis spir i-tual condition.

Nor should our con-sideration of will beconfined to our embo-died state. Ponder thewords of one positiveclairvoyant: “It is notthought or reflectionbut first and foremostthe faculty of will thatman possesses afterdeath. Will becomesitself perception, becomes man’s whole world oflife. He has to perform an act of will whenever hewants to perceive anything. For he must form andfashion himself in accordance with what he wants tosee. That is,he must will. He must become likewhat he wills to perceive.” All occult developmentstrengthensthepost-mortem powers of the will, mostnotably throughthe practices of retrospection andconcentration.

In My Utmost for His Highest, a book of brac-ing and spiritually demanding daily readings,Oswald Chambers reminds us that once we com-mit to God without reservation or exception, acommitment which is renewed daily and testedhourly, then we can accept the consequences of allwe do and don’t do as conforming to God’s willfor us. We may, indeed will, pass through a privatecrisis where no other person can help us. From theoutside our lives may appear the same, but thechange is taking place in our will. If we don’trelate to God on the level of our will first, theresult will only be to arouse sympathy for ourself.

Thomas à Kempis gives prayerful voice to thedesire for God-obedient willingness: “O Lord,Thou knowest what is best for us; let this or thatbe done as Thou shalt please. Give what Thouwilt, and how much Thou wilt, and when Thouwilt. Deal with me as Thou thinkest good. Set mewhere Thou wilt, and deal with me in all thingsjust as Thou wilt. Behold, I am Thy servant, pre-pared for all things, for I desire not to live untomyself, but unto Thee, and oh, that I could do itworthily and perfectly.”

Will’ s inconspicuous exemplars, ever taxing ouravailable resources,are the Christianvir-tues. We are remindedthat virtues are powers(Latin virtu meansstrength).And obedi-ence, humility andpatience both requireand are formative ofwill power. Thedemandson wi l l m a d e b yw a l k i n g either themystic or occult path

far exceed any requirements that mundane lifeexacts. Individual initiative and internal resolvemust be continually renewed and fortified becauseoutward events and ways of the world provide fewoccasionsfor the degree of self-control, focus andpersistence which are necessary for concerted spir-itual development.

On the pivot of will turns the universe. Humanevolution is a working out, a revealing, of whatGod works in us. Incarnation is the process bywhich will is activated and exercised. We see thatour pristine will must be God’s because it, like allelse, came from God. We understand that nohoroscope shows how a person will use their will(Message of the Stars, page 381) precisely becauseit is from God and partakes of His perfectly freeand omnipotent nature. Nevertheless, Godpermits that our most precious endow-ment may be used for ungodly purposes. Theright use of will, theembodying of God’swill, is our mission as humans on earth. ❐

—C. W.

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We understand that nohoroscope shows how aperson will use their will

precisely because it is fromGod and partakes of His

perfectly free and omnipotent nature.

THROUGH SEVERAL MONTHS Ihave found this to be the most fruitfulconcept for meditation. Both fromwithin and without has arrived a pro-found realization that we do not know

what love is in this Place. Only to those who haveopened certain lower and outer dimensions of thelove-thing, here, does this realization becomeapparent. In other words, certain mystical awaken-ing is necessary to realize that Love is not here.Yet, what the world calls love is the dearest thingwe have to work with—the way to the Way. Grantthat it is unrecognizable from an harmonic stand-point. So are we, as organic beings. Nevertheless,the little force-vibration which the world calls lovecontains something of basic spiritual nature.Because of this, its devotees are never led astray.“Just love her,” comes out of the sky to heal the lit-tle earthlover in his torture of jealousy. “Lovemore, not less,” is the infallible command to thosewhose mind-powers are seeking to estrange them,and from whose hearts faith is slipping. “Endure,faint not, love unceasingly,” spans every rift orabyss in the marital relation; transcends all seem-ing facts and reactions. Here follow simple butpeerless injunctions for the management ofromance in its little orbit here: Do not use intellect,use heart. Forbear to hold or give life throughexpression of critical thought. Refuse to acceptappearances of the mind.

Love is not of the mind, but of the Spirit. Theattractions of mind to mind, under the added playof sex power, are inevitably atmosphered in glamor.This glamor must be disintegrated before the Spirit

can breathe forth its enduring wisdom. This glamoris personal, selfish, often malignantly selfish. Itturns from breast to breast, from eye to eye. Itshuts out the world, seeks to lose itself in the one,takes love from all others to give to one, but findsthat the one is being destroyed. To breathe at all theRomance that satisfies means union, not of body,but of Being. Lovers entering the Real, yearn foropportunities for world service, in order that theymay have more for each other. They learn thesecret that it is only as they find union with them-selves that they find union with each other. Is it notclear at last that love is of the Spirit, and that it isonly as one co-ordinates mind and body with theSpirit that he can hope to know what Love meansfor use here in the objective consciousness?

I can give you a priceless bit of teaching onMeditation—at least what is priceless to me. I tellyou this in the beginning to raise your expectancyin order to receive it with a more eager grasp: If aMystic came down from the hills to the cities, hewould be conscious of sewage everywhere—drains under the roads, under the lawns; the moreor less hidden cloacal systems which the senses ofordinary men do not detect. He would find it diffi -cult to stay. He would be hurt by this evil presence,the vibration of his body lowered, even outraged,by the manner of life of common men. When yourSpirit comes down to operate in your objectiveconsciousness, it finds an identical condition. It issickened and hurt by the lowered vibrations ofbody and mind, by the hideous death-in-life whichis our organic condition, even at its best in thisplace.

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To Know What Love Means

Mystic Light

The neglect of our bodiesthrough a period of one singleday renders us dangerous toourselves and others. All pre-liminary training in mysticism,the correction of habits andtastes of body and mind, is buta preparation for the coming ofthe spiritual Guest. Basic spiri-tual nature is loveliness itself.Its presence in the objectiveconsciousness is nothing lessthan delight. The first andfaintest stirring of this delightbrings tears and the tremble ofweakness to our vocal cords; anhour in the midst of it exhaustsmost of us more than a full dayof pain. By this you can realizehow feeble and pitiful we are toendure the vibrations of fullBeing. The most toned andrhythmic of us, in an organicway, is sick and depraved fromthe standpoint of purity andwholeness.

To give birth to a child offlesh in the midst of these bod-ies is an ordeal on the part ofthe coming entity, for which hehas to be prepared on the other side by enteringinto a sleep that is like death. For the coming of thegreat teachers, the physical lines are chosen fromthe fairest matings through many close-watchedgenerations before the Messenger can key to thephysical through an earth mother. This is more orless an exact picture of the agony spiritual beingenduresto key to the outer nature. Yet we aspire toentertain our spiritual natures not only in momen-tary flashes of association, but to sustain enlight-enment through all the actions of our wakinghours. The spiritual nature desires this associationmore than mind can possibly desire it, but theSpirit finds it impossible except when we lift our-selves toward it in the highest sincerity of prayerand performance. Only as we render ourselvesutterly, such as we are, can spiritual vibration,

which is Love itself, come into us for use in theouter and lower world.

I have explained many times that what we knowas genius and heroism and comradeship are flashesof Being, momentary visitations in our objectiveconsciousness of the real Self, the Self we havecalled God and Christ and Beloved, even theAbsolute. When the young workman in mysticismarrives at the simple fact that life in the outer worlddoes not contain his delight, his inspiration, doesnot even answer to his forming dreams of wisdom,love, and power, he is at last ready to begin anobler quest. One who still finds his ideals in man-made affairs, in society, in any of the partisanships,even in international divisions of commonwealth,is not ready for the unreserved endeavor to findHimself.

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Holden, A. R. Mowbray & Co. Limited, London

The Supper Guest

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door,I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”—Rev. 3:20.

But having failed his loves here, having eventried departure from the world, as has the elderschool of mystics, having been brazed and burnedand crucified on the outer planes; having foundthat love and life and beauty are not here, except ashe finds their Spiritual key and meaning tallyingwithin, he is ready at least to formulate the realprayer for Being, for Unity. For the first time hisquest is unconfused. He aspires to make a place inmind and body for the Spiritual guest, not formomentary flashes of association, but for sus-tained hospitality; not for his own delight, but forBeing, which in every tone and gesture and radia-tion is for the good of others.

The presence of spiritual light reverses everypolicy and action of the mind without it. Theagony of the mind for the welfare of the self is afalse and futile agony. The welfare of Self in thereal sense is the dear care of every other being inthe Universe. The powers of the real Self glow andradiate and send forth their individual perfume andlight and color only in the supreme forgetfulness oftheir own nature. Even the great moments of menhere whose performances are memorable in history,in literature, and ethics, reveal this spontaneity,which is Spiritual charm. Not one has ever thoughtout a great policy of performance; he has risen to itin a flame of Being and Doing for others; he hasfound himself one with them in the mystery andbeauty of spiritual action.

Finding himself ready at last to call to Self, hav-ing tried all other ways and failed, having broughtdown his purpose to a science and built his faithupon knowledge, the young mystic formulates hisprayer for swift and certain co-ordination. Remember,by this time he is fundamentally disposed to thegood of others; he has risen above the fears andpains and wants of the little self; he is hungering,thirsting, yearning with every tired energy of hisobjective consciousness for that Union which willset him free—a healer, a teacher, a lover, a com-rade, a hero, in the midst of men, for their sake!Still he stands in his outer consciousness. He doesnot say, “I am Holy, I am God, I am All, I amAbsolute,” for he is none of these things. Rather ishe a creature far from Home, just risen from thehusks, remembering at last his Father’s House and

determining to return thither, resolving to stop forno other purpose than to help another on the way;to arise and go! At last he prays without confusion,without sophistry, prays not from the standpoint ofGod, because he is not, nor from his own Spirit,because he is still in the mind which for ages hasimprisoned his consciousness. He prays fromwhere he is, in the objective consciousness, fromearth in this year of our Lord, from the fetor of thedrains and bottom-lands, and their correspondingconditions in his own body and mind. He prays:

“I am lonely. For ages I have tried to do withoutyou, tried ambitions, loves and wars, misuse andviolence. All men and things, which I have abused,have risen to hold me in their bondage. Now I haveput away, so far as I know, the terrible passions andpurposes of life here. I do not want to run fromthem, because I realize that I am placed here in thisobjective consciousness to do my task; but I can nolonger tolerate the hours here without You. I, amind and a body, render myself to You.

“I know it is hard for You to come down anddwell with me in the corruption which I am. Iknow it is as hard for You to come down and dwellwith me as for the mystic of the High Hills todescend to the packed cities of men.Yet I am mak-ing myself as clean as I can with Your guidance, askind as I can, even in the mind and the body, know-ing that kindness and cleanliness are Your ways.

“I ask you to be with me. I ask you to Be I; totolerate me in Your great mercy for a little time; towarn me when I am ignorantly astray. All else hasfailed. Many times I have wished to come to Youmore completely by putting aside this slow, cold,gray thing which is objective being on the face ofthe earth, but now I know it shall have its gooduse, as You use it; that it may be a mouthpiece forYour utterance to others here; that as You takepossession of it, You may render it a medium forthe reduction of Your force to such terms of volt-age that it may be received intelligently by othershere. I come. For the great thirst and hunger andyearning within this heart, I would find, throughYou, that love of all men and creatures, whicheven now, before the dawn of You in my being, Iseem dying for.” ❐

—Will Levington Comfort

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THE SCRIPTURES TEACH US thatno age has existed, exists, or will exist,in which single individuals, experi-enced in the world and its darknesses,have not been able to retain knowledge

of the holy light, counting themselves among thesons of God. Thus in each century and epoch weresome, however small in number, who passedthrough the narrow portal, while the larger partof mankind trod the broaderand more conspic-uous way. For we readthat in eachepoch ofthe Church somewere found who weregiven the “victory, thetree of life which is inthe midst of the Para-dise of God” (Revela-tion 2:7), the “hiddenmanna and the whitestone” (Revelation 2:17),the “morning star”(Revelation 2:28), or“clothed in white rai-ment” (Revelation 3:5). They shall receivetheir heritage and their name shall not be blottedfrom the book of life, and they will be “pillars inthe temple” and will receive “the new name of theLamb.”

The following words of the Evangelist are alsoapplicable to those men: all who receive “the trueLight that cometh into the world,” receive the“power to become the sons of God” (John 1:9, 12).They are to live in the House of Wisdom, safelyand strongly erected on the mountain, of which theSaviour speaks: “Whosoever heareth these sayingsof mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto awise man, which built his house upon a rock; andthe rain descended and the floods came, and the

winds blew, and beatupon that house; andit fell not: for it wasfounded upon rock”(Matthew 7:24-25and Luke 6:48).

But, you will ask,why are these goodinhabitants of thatimaginary house sohidden? Why do theirhabitations remain sosecret? Why havethey not appeared

before the world long since? Why do they notreveal their secrets for the prosperity of the State inwhich they live—if they can call such virtue andpower their own?

To these questions I reply that while they aretruly endowed with heavenly riches, they standbefore the world poor and unknown. It is no won-der that, rich as they are through the Holy Spirit,they despise the world and its splendor, accordingto the word of the Evangelist: “Love not the world,neither the things that are in the world. For all thatis in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the

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The Rosicrucian Brotherhood—Part 1

MYSTIC LIGHT

This is the first of three articles on the Rosicrucian Brotherhood bythe English mystical philosopher, Robert Fludd (1574-1637), con-sidered an immediate father of Freemasonry, foremost among thedisciples of Paracelsus, and “the central figure of Rosicrucian liter-ature, towering as an intellectual giant...a man of immense erudi-tion, [and] exalted mind” (Waite). The unfoldment of the Christwithin each human soul is the magnum opus of spiritual alchemyand the central truth of Fludd’s writing. This and the next two arti-cles are drawn from the Rosicrucian apologist’s book SummumBonum, The Highest Good, which first appeared in 1629 in German.

But, you will ask, why arethese good inhabitants ofthat imaginary house so

hidden? Why do their habi-tations remain so secret?

Why have they not appearedbefore the world long since?

eyes, and the pride of life”(I John 2:15-16). Thus it isthat the world does notknow the sons of Godbecause “the sons of God donot know the world,” for theworld “is built entirely uponwickedness” (I John 5:19).

On the other hand, how-ever, it is the will of Godthat what is hidden shall berevealed. And God has prom-ised through His prophets,in the last days before theend of the world, “to pourout His spirit upon all flesh”(Joel 2:28), and the royalPsalmist prophesies thatGod will quench the thirstof the sons of men out of thestream of His grace; thosewho remain under the pro-tection of His wings in hopewill find in Him the foun-tain of life, for in his lightwe shall see the light (seePsalm 36).

But to return to the inhabitants of that Castle ofWisdom, built with such reason on the mountain, itis given to them by the Holy Spirit to know every-thing—because it is His task to teach everything aswas said by the Apostle, through “the grace of Godwhich is given to you by Jesus Christ, in every-thing you are enriched by him, in all utterance andin all knowledge”(1 Corinthians 1:4-5).Thus it fol-lows that these inhabitants of the House ofWisdom—they alone, and no one other thanthey—are those who, togetherwith Solomon, haveknowledge of true Magic, of true Cabala,and oftrue Alchemical science.

Therefore it seems to me praiseworthy that thissociety, the Brotherhood of the Rosicrucians, doesnot wish to appear before the world before theappointed time. We will seek to learn who are theinhabitants of this building, and why they arecalled particularly and constantly, Brothers andalso Rosicrucians. Finally, we shall publish a dec-

laration given by these Rosicrucians. Let us there-fore say, to begin with, that the palace or cloister ofthis Fraternity is that of which the Holy Scripturespeaks, as we can prove by these words: “Let usascend the mountain of reason, and erect theHouse of Wisdom.” As the foundational element inthat mountain we recognize the “cornerstonewhich” (according to the testimony of the prophet)“has taken from the mountain without the use ofhands, and has itself become a great mountain, fill-ing the whole earth after it shattered the feet of thestatue.”

Thus says the prophet: “The house of the God ofIsrael is great and mighty in its possession.” Thisis the mountain which, in truth, is the Mount ofHoreb, that spiritual Zion which is so often spokenof in Holy Scripture, and this stone is the samerock, that true house, which is meant by theEvangelist when he says, “The wise man will buildhis house by digging into the depth and placing the

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The doctrine of Jesus Christ surpasses the

doctrine of all the Holy Ones, and the broth-

ers who have God’s Spirit, find therein the

secret Manna and the Philosopher’s Stone.BJ. It happens however that many people as

soon as they hear the Gospel and the speech

of the Wise, derive no inspiration therefrom.

Therefore they have not the Spirit of Christ.

But whosoever would understand the words

of Christ and fathom His wise sayings, must

so conduct his entire life that he may become

Christ-like himself.

L O V E

H O P EFA I T H

PAT I E N C E

BenedictusDominus Deus Noster

qui dedit nobisSignum

FraterRosoe et Aureoe

Crucis

MAGISTERIESUS CHRITUS

✝✝ ✝

✝D et H

Hear, O my Son, and receive my sayings; and

the years of thy life shall be many. I have

taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led

thee in the right paths. When thou goest thy

steps shall not be straitened; and when thou

runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast

hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her

for she is thy life—Proverbs 4:10.

And I will show you great and mighty things.Jeremiah 33

This is the Golden and Rosy

which every Brother

Cross, made of pure Gold,

wears on his Breast.

From Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th & 17th Centuries, Altona, 1785

Depicted without the rose, the above cross is emblematical of four Christian virtues, theforemost of which is Love, whose personification is Christ Jesus. The seven spirits (Earthis assumed) before the throne of the sun, represented by the symbols for their planetarybodies, signify the energies by which spiritual alchemy builds the inner Christ.

foundation on the selfsame rock.” That rock, how-ever, is Christ, upon whom the spiritual house andthe sanctuary of the priests rests. Howeverclear it may be that it is required of us that we builda house upon that rock mountain, it is also clearthat this cannot be the work of men, as is believedby foolish alchemists or magicians, but rather is adivine work. It is entirely certain that if Wisdomherself is not present in such things and does notundertake the leadership, both as architect andexecutor of the work, then human power can donothing. This is already confirmed in clear wordsby the sacred text (Psalm 127:1): “Except the Lordbuild the house, they labor in vain that build it.”Thus it is in truth the Lord who does the buildingof the house, executes it with wise and experiencedhands, and brings everything to completion. This isnone other than what we see manifested when theactive man brings forth in suffering woman,through adjustment and dispersion, a third entity,namely, the foetus, which, however, is not createdby clever men, but by the spirit of God hidden inthe seed.

Therefore the Apostle also speaks: “We requireof you, you brothers, that you bear rich fruit andwork diligently; that you are calm and go aboutyour business; work with your hands as we haveprescribed for you, etc.” And, as a result, “Sothat no one will be in need.” David says in hisPsalm, “Blessed are those who walk in the ways ofthe Lord; He will establish the work of theirhands.” And yet the hands of the artist create noth-ing (as I have said) except that they separate thesuperficial, and then out of itself the Spirit acts forthe perfecting and heavenly ordering of that royalpalace. “Your habitation,” says the Apostle, “wasnot made by the hands of men, but we have a spir-itual building in the heavens, which is the House ofWisdom on the Mount of Reason, built upon thespiritual rock.”

Paul expresses this aptly in the following words:“I have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave theincrease. Thus neither is he that planted anything,neither he that watered, but God gave the increase.Every man shall receive his reward according tohis labor, for we are laborers together with God.You are God’s building. According to the grace of

God given to me, as a wise masterbuilder have Ilaid the foundation, and another builds upon it” (1Corinthians 3). Everyone must discover how hecan build upon this foundation, “for other founda-tion can no man lay than what is laid, which isJesus Christ. If any man’s work remain, which hehas built upon this foundation, he shall receive areward.

“Now if any man build upon this foundationgold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;every man’s work shall be made manifest becauseit shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall tryevery man’s work of what sort it is.”

To this is related the oft-quoted stone of con-tention for the false Christians (Romans 9:33).This is the precious and proven cornerstone laidfor everyone who believes in him as the foundationstone of the building, which will not be over-thrown (1 Peter 2:6). He is also a stone of con-tention (Isaiah 28:16). The prophet speaks of theill-founded house (Jeremiah 22), and in Proverbsit says, “Woe to him who builds his house uponunrighteousness, and woe to his house in the dayof judgment.” Solomon also says, “The house ofthe unrighteous will be destroyed.”

Since there exists a proven and a precious cor-nerstone, the true architects built the House of theWord above that stone. This house of the just, Isay, will last forever, according to the decrees ofWisdom as is testified by Matthew 7:24:“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings ofmine and doeth them, I will liken him to a wiseman, which built his house upon a rock. And therain descended, and the floods came, and the windsblew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: forit was founded upon a rock.”

Of this house the royal Psalmist sang (Psalm 5:7;26:8; 84:10): “I will come into thy house in the full-ness of thy mercy. I have loved the habitation of thyhouse, and the place where thy honor dwelleth. Ihad rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Godthan to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

By this, however, the king did not understandthe temple built by the art of men because, as istestified by the Scripture, God did not inhabit ahouse from the exodus of Israel from Egypt to thetime of Solomon, but He had His place in a tent.

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Addressing Himself to David, God also said,“Thou shalt not build an house for my namebecause thou hast been a man of war, and hast shedblood.” With these words he means a material tem-ple, for the Holy Scriptures testify that David pos-sessed a description of the material temple whichhad been written into his spirit by the finger ofGod. From this it seems clear that the divine SpiritHimself was the master of the plan of the House onthe mountain, erected by reason, because, as itwere, not only the Tabernacle and the Temple ofSolomon, but also Man himself was formedaccording to this image, and therefore he is calledthe temple of the Holy Spirit.

Thus we come to the conclusion that the build-ing of that house under the cooperation of a trueBrother is a revelation of the occult, that is, thespiritual rock or the revelation of the mystical wis-dom of the Stone of the Patriarch, which he callsthe house of God. This is the erection of the spiri-tual house or palace on the Mount of Reason. Andthis rock we call the mystical castle Bethlehem, ofwhich the Evangelist says, Christ was of the castleBethlehem. From that place also came David,which can easily be proved by etymology, forBethlehem means “house of bread” and “of

war.” But manna means “thehidden bread” and “the foodof the angels,” “the bread ofheaven,” and “the Word,” bywhich everyone can l ivewithout ordinary bread, as weare taught by Christ in theScriptures.

From this it follows thatBethlehem is the same asBeth-El, which means “theHouse of the Lord.” Thus thestone or rock of Jacob iscalled “the House of God.”Concerning the secret of thisHouse of God, this Temple ofChrist, we are excellentlytold by that patient man, Job,who says, “He brings fire ofSolomon which makes meninto prophets and friends of

God.” It makes them into faithful, wise, just, holyones. Likewise one speaks of the holy house, of theholy Christians, universal, a ransomed generation,true seed of Abraham, priests, apostles, brothers ofChrist, a Christian brotherhood,and many othernames too numerous to mention.

I have undertaken to explain carefully why theselast—these Brothers of the Rosy Cross—are prop-erly to be called the seed of Abraham, and havebeen chosen from among the heathen, how theyare descended from the blood of the Jews, howthey have been called brothers of the Apostles,Christians, and members of the RosicrucianFraternity. One has to know, first of all, that just asChrist came from the seed of Abraham, to whomby the word of God was promised blessing andthrough him salvation for the world, so also all trueChristians must be called the seed of Abraham,because they have been born, as the Evangelistsays, “not out of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,but of God.” “Who,” asks Christ, “is my mother,and who are my brothers? Whoever does the willof my Father who is in heaven, the same is mybrother, my sister, my mother.” Such a descentfrom such seed is recognized unmistakably by theApostle when he says, “They are of Christ who are

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Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, 1895. J. James Tissot, 1836-1902. Brooklyn Museum

The Prophecy of the Destruction of the TempleThe temple made with hands can be destroyed by hands. The etheric temple, either ofthe physical body or a building, is made by thought and is a more perfect similitude ofits spiritual archetype. The etheric Christ is the cornerstone of the individual soul body.

of the seed of Abraham and the heirs of hispromise.” Thus the Apostle Paul praises notthose who are circumcised in the foreskinalone, but in their hearts, when he says it isnot the external Jew only, but the inner Jewwho is chosen by God. So it is also withmany among the heathen, because he saysthat of the seed of Abraham not only theJews but all people of the world will beredeemed, as already seems evident from theGenesis. The heathen are co-workers, co-members and participants in this promise ofJesus Christ through the Gospel. For, as theApostle testifies, Christ is the promisedseed.

To anyone who doubts whether thisRosicrucian Brotherhood originates out ofsuch blood, I reply in the sense of the evi-dence mentioned above, that if one kinshipor brotherhood is of the flesh and of man,another is spiritual and divine. Thus it iswritten that the sons of God and the daugh-ters of men, that is, those chosen by Godfrom the tribe of Shem united themselveswith the daughters of the tribe of theaccursed Cain. However, the Scripturespeaks quite generally: “You are a divinegeneration.” Therefore the divine seed is notfrom below out of the earth, for it is fromabove that the divine nourishment comes. Inmany places one finds sapphires, and lumpsof earth in which there is gold. No bird hasrecognized this path, and no vulture’s eyehas discerned it, and so on. “He places Hishand upon the stones, and overturns the founda-tions of the mountains.”

With those words is not only described the earthlysubstance of that House, but also its riches, thefiery light within it, and its power and might. Theimmeasurable strength of Bethlehem, interpretedas the house of war, is shown in the castle fromwhich Christ went forth. Thus that spiritual stone(not the erroneous one of the false Alchemists) isalso called “the fame of the whole world” byHermes, a true and divine Alchemist. Through thediscernment of that spiritual stone all darkness dis-appears from around one, and He appears “in the

power of his strength” because He conquers allfine things and permeates all solid ones. Thus wasthe world created.

Job and Hermes, however, not only describe theprecious metals of that house, but also its virtues.For the city or castle built upon the summit of themountain is also cabalistically called Beth-ulia,which means, as it were, “the Virgin of the Lord,”or “the House that gives birth to the Lord.” HenceBethlehem is designated as the virginal earthwhich shall bring forth the Redeemer. And thissaying comprises the whole claim of the prophets:“The earth will open and will give birth to the

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Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper. J. James Tissot, 1836-1902. Brooklyn Museum

Transfiguration

Messiah.” For above all, it must be recognized thatin the Holy Scriptures the names of both men andof cities contain secrets. Therefore the name of thecity of Lutz was changed to Bethel because of thenotable effect of the stone, which is called thehouse of God. Likewise, Bethlehem correspondsto the living Bread which shall come forth as outof a house or castle, and Bethulia means meta-phorically the House of Wisdom built on theMount of Reason. Apparently this name was givento this town because it was the most beautiful townor castle upon a height or mountain in that region.The latter is also called Mount Horeb in order todesignate the Mountain of God. Finally, the prophetpoints to the mystery of the word Bethlehem whenhe says, “Christ, the Lord of Israel, will be givenout of Bethlehem...”

Here then you have that House or Palace ofWisdom erected on the Mount of Reason. It remainshowever, to learn who are those sages to whomthis House is open. These most fortunate of menand their spiritual house are described by theApostle in the following manner: “To whom com-ing, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed ofmen, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, asliving stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holypriesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, accept-able to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5). Andfurther on, he says, “But you are a chosen genera-tion, a royal priesthood, an holy community, a ran-somed people, that you should practice the virtuesof him who has called you out of darkness into hisroyal light. For previously you were not a people,but now you are the people of God.”

With these words he not only describes the over-whelmingly strong foundation and the builder ofthe House, but also the inhabitants. For thesedwellers in the House of Wisdom are shown byhim to be the faithful in Christ also, according tothe teachings of Esdras, who lay down their mortalsheaths, choosing the immortal, confessing thename of the Lord, crowned with victory. Thus saysa man, enlightened by wisdom: “For mortals laborin vain who have chosen a different path than wasshown by the prophet,” but this is not the path ofdeath, as people are accustomed to believe, for it isthe one mentioned by the Apostle Peter when he

speaks of the one taught him by Christ when thelatter was transfigured on the Mountain. And thisshould remain secret and hidden, otherwise theApostle would not have said, “As Jesus has taughtme,” and the highest Wisdom would not havedirected, “Do not tell anyone.” (Continued) ❐

—Robert Fludd

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In the hush of the Valley of SilenceI dream all the songs that I sing;And the music floats down the dim Valley,Till each finds a word for a wing,That to hearts, like the Dove of the Deluge, A message of peace they may bring.

But far on the deep there are billowsThat never shall break on the beach;And I have heard songs in the SilenceThat never shall float into speech;And I have had dreams in the ValleyToo lofty for language to reach.

Oh, I have seen Thoughts in the Valley—Ah me, how my spirit was stirred!And they wore holy veils on their faces,Their footsteps could scarcely be heard;They passed through the Valley like virgins,Too pure for the touch of a word !

Do you ask me the place of the Valley,Ye hearts that are harrowed by Care?It lieth afar between mountains,And God and His angels are there:And one is the dark mount of Sorrow,And one the bright mountain of Prayer.

—Frater Ryan

Song of the Mystic

WHEN wordcame to MountEcclesia thatFrank English,one of our Los

Angeles members, had shuffledoff the mortal coil, and that theeditor was expected to officiateat the services prior to cremationof the body, a party was made upof the workers on Mount Ecclesiaand we went to Los AngelesSunday morning, helped to laythe body away, and journeyedback to Mount Ecclesia, a totaldistance of 190 miles, in timefor Mr Heindel to speak at theevening Service—a pretty stren-uous day’s work.

But that is only an incidentrecorded to pave the way for theburden of our story, and bringout the fact that people usuallyattend their own funerals. Thiswas learned when someoneasked the editor after the ser-vices: “Did you see English, is

he here?”“I have never officiated at a funeral where the so-called ‘dead’was

not present and an interested spectator,” answered Mr. Heindel. Hethen went on to tell a number of interesting experiences concerningthe behavior of the “dead.” “Mostly,” he said, “they sit quietly intheir seat watching what takes place just like any of the people we

call ‘living,’ though the meaning of the common term ‘the quick andthe dead’should really be reversed; for we who are imprisoned inthis heavy lump of clay and subject to innumerable pains and ills, arereallymuch more dead than the disembodied spirits we so designate;while they, who know no sickness, who can feel no fatigue, whomove swifter than the wind without making the slightest effort,should really be called the quick.

“But at the time of the funeral many of them have not yet foundthemselves, so to speak, they have just come out of the meditationon the panorama of the past life which passes before them in reverseorder, from death to birth, to show them how events in their liveswere generated by antecedent causes, and so far as the multitudegoes, which does not study Life, they are generally hopelessly mud-dled at the whole proceedings. They very often realize that they musthave ‘died,’for they see the body in the casket, but they see

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Attending His Own Funeral

MAX HEINDEL’S MESSAGE

I have met only a few materialists onthe other side...they were all verymuch put out at being graduallyforced to revise their theory that

annihilation follows physical death.They wanted extinction of conscious-

ness and were very unhappy.

This article first appeared in theOctober, 1916 issue of the Rays.

themselves with a similar form, which to themfeels just as solid and real as the thing that is dead.

“Then they cannot make out why they are still intheir old home and why they have not seen any-thing of the judgment seat and heaven or hell—thatis if they believed in that. If they have been mate-rialists they probably begin to wonder how theycan think or continue to exist. I have met only afew materialists on the other side, and have notasked them about their feelings in that particularrespect, but they were all very much put out atbeing gradually forced to revise their theory thatannihilation follows physical death. They wantedextinction of consciousness and were very unhappy.

“People who have studied the mystic teachingspromulgated by the Rosicrucian Fellowship, andkindred organizations, differ radically as a classfrom the majority, for they recognize instantly,upon awakening from contemplation of thepanorama of life, the essential facts of the case.They know that they have entered the lowerregions of the invisible world and that they areentering upon a new phase of evolution. Most ofthem are quiet and subdued, feeling the importanceof the change, and considerably awed thereby forthe time being. They usually go to a part of theroom where the services are being held that is asfar from everybody as possible.

“But I have always noticed that if the conversa-tion in the room is made to run in a cheerful chan-nel, it has a wonderful effect in brightening thefriend. Several times I have had the satisfaction ofseeing them come out of their corner and becomevery bright, with a corresponding raise in thebarometer in all the ‘living.’On one occasion the‘dead’man grew so interested and so cheerful thathe nearly stumped me in the middle of myaddress.

“When I first entered the room, this man was sit-ting in a corner very quiet. He knew the teachingsand was evidently fully awake to facts, but it wasalso clear that the situation weighed rather heavilyupon him. So I at once made every effort to admin-ister ‘consolation to the dead’by a cheerful con-versation on the subject of death and the after con-dition with the widow, relating a number of experi-ences to illustrate the different points, and very

soon the “dead” man pricked up his ears and cameover and seated himself by his life-companion.

“During the service he remained there sittingbolt upright and alert. He listened carefully while Iexplained to the audience that that lump of clay inthe casket was only as a garment which our friendhad used a little while, and that in time it would bereplaced by a new and better body in which hewould learn new lessons in life’s Great School.

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Technically, death results from the rupture of the physicalbody’s seed atom, whereupon the heart stops and the vitalbody and spirit exit the dense body. However, it is still con-nected to the Ego’s higher vehicles by the silver cord untilthe the panorama of the past life has been etched into thedesire body. Then the silver cord snaps, the vital body grav-itates back to the dense body, decomposing along with it, andthe spirit enters the Desire World. The above picture cor-rectly shows the separation of the soul body and spirit fromthe dense physical at the moment of “death.” Jesus’situationis unique in that while the seed atoms of his dense and vitalbodies were returned to him by Christ immediately aftertheCrucifixion, the vital body containing the record of his thirtyyears of experience in the physical world is being held forthe Christ as His means of final egress from the Earth.

“Meanwhile, I had continued to point with theleft hand to the body in the open casket, while theright was poised aloft. I was getting ready to quoteSir Edwin Arnold’s inimitable poem that begins:‘Never the Spirit was born! The Spirit shall ceaseto be never!’I started to say, ‘As Sir Edwin Arnoldsays’:

“Then came a climax which I had not anticipated.Suddenly the “dead” man glided from the couchwhere he was sitting, in a bee-line through thetable at which I stood, over to the casket, where helooked with great interest at the discarded form,evidently regarding it in a light he had never reallyunderstood before; and he remained thus, lost inthought for several minutes.

“But to say that I was taken aback by thisunlooked-for incident is putting it mildly. Insteadof keeping my mind on the address, I involuntarilyfollowed the motions of our ‘dead’friend to seewhat he would do, with the inevitable result that Ilost the thread of my discourse for a minute, andrepeated lamely: ‘As Sir Edwin Arnold says.’Then, with a mighty effort, I gathered my thoughtsand went on.

“There were two remarkable things about thisperformance. In the first place, people usuallywalk from place to place for some time after theyleave the body, until gradually they find out thatthey can glide more swiftly than the wind. Theyalso seem to have an instinctive dread of goingthrough a wall or a closed door, even if they knowfrom their studies that it can be done. Above all,they dread having a ‘living’friend come and sitdown in the chair where they are sitting. Perhapsthat is the real reason why they usually go and sitdown in a corner at their funerals.

“But in this case the gentleman glided across theroom, and straight through the table and a vase offlowers, right to the casket. This shows me that hemust have become so absorbed in the one idea thathis discarded body was just like an old overcoat,and that during that fit of abstraction he uncon-sciously obeyed the laws of motion of the invisiblerealm instead of the customary physical method oflocomotion.”

“Oh, about English, how does he act?” “Why, you must remember that he was a mem-

ber of the deeper degrees where he had been taughtto assimilate the life panorama day by day, so thatwhen he passed out of the body there were proba-bly but a few straggling ends that had to be pickedup, before the Silver Cord would break and leavehim free in full possession of his consciousness.This work had made him acquainted with theinvisible world years ago, so that he was quite athome. Besides, four days have elapsed since hepassed over, so he probably feels all right, at leasthe looks it—going about among us and stoppingnow at this group of friends, now at that. When hesaw me, he nodded and smiled as if nothing out ofthe ordinary had happened.

“I only wish everybody could see the friendsafter they pass over; and it is always a wonder tome that they cannot, for during the first few daysand weeks they seem to me just as dense as theradiations of heat above a steam radiator. Butthank God, the day is coming.” ❐

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Song Celestial

Never the Spirit was born

The Spirit shall cease to be never;

Never was time it was not,

End and beginning are dreams;

Birthless and deathless remaineth

the spirit forever.

Death has not touched it at all,

Dead tho the house of it seems.

Nay, but as one layeth

A worn-out robe away

And taketh another, sayeth,

This will I wear today,

So putteth by the Spirit

Lightly its garment of flesh

And passeth on to inherit

A residence afresh.

—Sir Edwin Arnold

Question: When a person who has been very illfor a long time and who, because of the severesuffering, is kept unconscious by morphine formany days, passes from earth life in that condition,does the released spirit become conscious when itleaves the body, or what is the condition comparedto that of one who dies suddenly and in full pos-session of all his faculties?

Answer: The use of morphine and other narcoticsin very small doses has a deadening effect upon thenerves so that the spirit feels less sensitive in thebody and more like the freed or released spiritwhich has left the physical vehicle. That is why,under such conditions, the mental faculties are bet-ter and the person feels such an ease of mind andbody that it is like heaven itself until the reactionsets in, for at that time he begins to suffer the tor-tures of hell and consequently takes more in orderto restore his previous sense of well-being.

But when morphine is given in such great dosesas you describe, that of itself would constitute acase of fatal poisoning, with a condition similar tothat of a person who passes out while under ananesthetic. The writer has met a number of the lat-ter but has never seen one who has passed outunder the action of morphine. Therefore he cannotgive you the direct information you want. Butthose people who have died while under an anes-thetic were just as conscious as the ordinary humanbeing once the silver cord has been severed.

They went through their life panorama in aboutthe same way as the person who passes out ordi-narily and had no different experience. Therefore

we should say that the friend concerning whomyou inquire has probably had no extra unpleasantexperience on account of the morphine that wasgiven him before his transition and the first feelingwould be one of great relief that he had escapedfrom the suffering incident to the condition ofsevere illness which preceded death of the physicalbody. This feeling of relief is common to all whohave suffered, no matter whether consciously orunconsciously. They are all exceedingly gratefulthat this is past and can scarcely realize that thereis no sickness in the land of the living dead towhich they go after leaving this world.

Question: Please tell me what sleepwalking reallyis and if there is any way to help those who aresubject to that condition.

Answer: The Rosicrucian Christianity Lecture No.4 deals with dreams, sleep, hypnotism, medi-umship and insanity; that is to say, the abnormalconditions of consciousness. In that Lecture a verythorough explanation has been given of the variousconditions, with the exception of sleepwalking,which, however, resembles dreams in a great mea-sure. We cannot give so full an explanation here,but suffice it to say that during the daytime thephysical body which we call man is surrounded byan auric atmosphere composed of his finer vehi-cles, just as the yolk of an egg is surrounded by thewhite. But these finer vehicles interpenetrate thephysical body and are the sources of power andsense perception. It is their activities which tire thephysical body so that in the evening it, so to say,

26 RAYS 97

Morphine and Postmortem Consciousness;

Sleepwalking: Its Cause and Cure

READERS’ QUESTIONS

collapses and the finer vehicles draw out of it leav-ing it helpless, sleeping upon the bed. When thiscomplete separation has taken place the sleep isdreamless. But sometimes the ego becomes sointent upon the things in the physical world that itfinds it extremely difficult to tear itself loose fromthe physical vehicle. It may then be half in and halfout of the body. Thus the normal connectionbetween the ego and the brain is wrenched but notfully ruptured. Under these circumstances the egosees the things going on in the invisible worldswhich it confuses with the things of the physicalworld and this accounts for those phantastic andfoolish dreams which we sometimes have. Undersuch a condition the body may toss about on thebed; it may even speak and gesticulate and fromthat condition it is only a step to sleepwalking,where the ego compels the vehicle to leave the bedand wander about, sometimes aimlessly but atother times with a definite purpose in view.

If we remember that when the ego is outside itsphysical vehicle during the hours when that is leftsleeping on the bed, the spirit moves with equalfacility through the window or the wall as it doesthrough the open door, and when we realize that itcannot be burned by fire nor drowned by water orfall from a house-top, we can readily realize that,being unconscious of the fact that its physical vehi-cle is with it, it may attempt to go out of a windowand should that window be open, the physical bodynaturally drops to the ground and is hurt more orless according to the distance of its fall.

We can all walk a very narrow plank when it isclose to the ground but if the same plank is liftedup only a few feet a sense of fear comes over us,and we would probably fall off a very wide plankwere it placed hundreds of feet from the earth. Butwhen the body is manipulated by the spirit fromwithout it is itself unconscious and therefore fear-less. Consequently it walks with impunity whereverit can get a foothold and the only danger is that thesleeper may awake, that is to say, that the ego maydraw into its vehicle and assume the normal posi-tion. Then the fear will almost inevitably causehim to fall from whatever perilous position he maybe in and in consequence there is an injury of moreor less seriousness.

As to the remedy for this trouble we would sug-gest the practice of conscious relaxation of thebody. It is the desire body which keeps a grip onthe dense vehicle and during relaxation this desirebody is taught to let go and leave the dense bodyinert so that if an arm or a limb is lifted it dropsimmediately to the bed. This practice will in timestop sleepwalking, but in the meantime if wet tow-els are placed on the floor, it will probably have theeffect of awakening the person the moment hesteps out of bed, for the higher vehicles are of anature somewhat akin to electricity and we knowthat water has a wonderful drawing effect withrespect to the electric current. Similarly when thefeet of the body contact the wet towels on the floor,the finer vehicles are drawn into the central posi-tion with respect to the body and consciousness isrestored. Thus the body is awakened and the dangerof sleepwalking is averted for the time being. ❐

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The Last Surety

The blood that burns so hot today,

And mists the mind with joy and pain,

Awakens echoes grave and gay;

The Fire is smelting us again.

But shaped anew the soul still clings

To melodies the dim past sings.

The other lives that live in us,

The mysteries of the deaths we died,

Beneath this surface of froth and fuss,

As sunken rivers slowly glide.

And murmurs from that hidden stream

Will sometimes echo through our dream.

‘Tis then the cross we cannot bear

Is robbed of all its torturing load,

And joys that come not to our share

Lose all their power to tempt or goad.

For we who were ‘ere time began,

Change ever through our fate as man.

—Vesta Wills Hancock

THE OPENING SENTENCEof Genesis is a very goodexample of what was earlierstated about the interpretationof the Hebrew text, which may

be changed by differently placing the vow-els and dividing the words in another way.There are two well recognized methods ofreading this sentence. One is, “In thebeginning God created the heavens andthe Earth.” The other is, “Out of the ever-existing essence (of space) the twofoldenergy formed the double heaven.”

Much has been said and written as towhich of these two interpretations is cor-rect. The difficulty is that if a certain explanation istrue, all others must be wrong. But, emphatically,this is not the way to get at truth, which is many-sided and multiplex. Each occult truth requiresexamination from many different points of view;each viewpoint presents a certain phase of thetruth, and all of them are necessary to get a com-plete, definite conception of whatever is underconsideration.

The very fact that this sentence and many othersin the vestment of the Thorah can thus be made toyield many meanings, while confusing to theuninitiated, is illuminative to those who have thekey, and the transcendental wisdom of the wonder-ful Intelligences who inspired the Thorah is therebyshown. Had the vowels been inserted, and a divi-sion made into words, there would have been onlyone way of reading it and those grand and sublimemysteries could not have been hidden therein. That

would have been the proper method to pursue ifthe authors had meant to write an “open” book ofGod; but that was not their purpose. It was writtensolely for the initiated, and can be read under-standingly by them only. It would have requiredmuch less skill to have written the book plainlythan to have concealed its meaning. No pains areever spared, however, to bring the information, indue time, to those who are entitled to it, whilewithholding it from those who have not yet earnedthe right to possess it.

Regarded by the light thrown upon the genesisand evolution of our system, it is plain that bothrenderings of the opening sentence of the Book ofGenesis are necessary to an understanding of thesubject. The first tells that there was a beginning ofour evolution, in which the heavens were created;the other interpretation supplements the first state-ment by adding that the heavens and the Earthwere created out of the “ever-existing essence,”

28 RAYS 97

The CreationPart 1

WESTERN WISDOM BIBLE STUDIES

From Die Bibel in Bildern, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1789-1853)

The Second DayAnd God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, andlet it divide the waters from the waters—Genesis 1:6.

not out of “nothing,” as is jeeringlypointed out by the materialist. TheCosmic Root-substance is gatheredtogether and set in motion. The ringsformed by the inertia of the revolv-ing mass break away from the cen-tral part, forming planets, etc., as themodern scientist, with remarkableingenuity, has reasoned out.

Occult and modern science are inperfect harmony as to the modusoperandi. There is nothing in thesestatements inconsistent with the twotheories, as will presently be shown.Occult science teaches that Godinstituted the process of formationand is constantly guiding theSystem in a definite path. The mod-ern scientist, in refutation of whathe calls a foolish idea, and todemonstrate that a God is not neces-sary, takes a basin of water andpours a little oil into it. The waterand the oil represent space and fire-mist respectively. He now commences to turn theoil around with a needle, bringing it into the formof a sphere. This, he explains, represents theCentral Sun. As he turns the oil ball faster andfaster, it bulges at the equator and throws off aring; the ring breaks and the fragments coalesce,forming a smaller ball, which circles around thecentral mass as a planet circles around the Sun.Then he pityingly asks the occult scientist, “Doyou not see how it is done? There is no need foryour God, or any supernatural force.”

The occultist readily agrees that a Solar Systemmay be formed in approximately the manner illus-trated. But he marvels greatly that a man possess-ing the clear intuition enabling him to perceivewith such accuracy the operation of Cosmicprocesses, and the intellect to conceive this bril-liant demonstration of his monumental theory,should at the same time be quite unable to see thatin his demonstration he himself plays the part ofGod. He was the extraneous power that placed theoil in the water, where it would have remainedinert and shapeless through all eternity had he not

supplied the force that set it in motion, therebycausing it to shape itself into a representation ofSun and planets. His was the thought whichdesigned the experiment, using the oil, water, andforce, thus illustrating in a splendid manner the tri-une God working in Cosmic substance to form aSolar System.

The attributes of God are Will, Wisdom, andActivity. The scientist has Will to make the exper-iment. He has ingenuity to supply ways and meansfor the demonstration. This ingenuity correspondsto Wisdom, the second attribute of God. He hasalso the muscular force necessary to perform theaction, corresponding to Activity, which is the thirdattribute of God.

Further, the universe is not a vast perpetual-motion machine, which, when once set going,keeps on without any internal cause or guidingforce. That also is proven by the experiment of thescientist, for the moment he ceases to turn the oil-ball, the orderly motion of his miniature planetsalso ceases and all return to a shapeless mass of oilfloating on the water. In a corresponding manner,

RAYS 97 29

Oil on canvas. Jan, the Younger Brueghel (1601-1678),

God creating the Sun, the Moon and the Stars in the FirmamentAnd God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And theevening and the morning were the first day.”—Genesis 1:5. This compos-ite pictorial narrative merges several biblical days of creation. The cre-ative hierarchies’role in Earth’s genesis is shown by an arc of the zodiac.

the universe would at once dissolve into “thinspace” if God for one moment ceased to exert Hisall-embracing care and energizing activity.

The second interpretation of Genesis is mar-velously exact in its description of a twofold for-mative energy. It does not specifically state thatGod is triune. The reader’s knowledge of that factis taken for granted. It states the exact truth whenit says that only two forces are active in the forma-tion of a universe.

When the first aspect of the triune God mani-fests as the Will to create, it arouses the secondaspect (which is Wisdom) to design a plan for thefuture universe. This first manifestation of Force isImagination. After this primal force of Imaginationhas conceived the Idea of a universe, the thirdaspect (which is Activity), working in Cosmic sub-stance, produces motion. This is the second mani-festation of Force. Motion alone, however, is notsufficient. To form a system of worlds, it must beorderly motion. Wisdom is therefore necessary toguide Motion in an intelligent manner to producedefinite results.

Thus we find the opening sentence of the Bookof Genesis tells us that in the beginning, orderly,rhythmic motion, in Cosmic Root-substance,formed the universe.

The second interpretation of the opening sen-tence also gives us a fuller idea of God when itspeaks of the “twofold energy,” pointing to thepositive and negative phases of the One Spirit ofGod in manifestation. In harmony with the teach-ing of occult science, God is represented as a com-posite Being. This is accentuated in the remainingverses of the chapter.

In addition to the creative Hierarchies whichworked voluntarily in our evolution, there areseven others which belong to our evolution, andare co-workers with God in the formation of theuniverse. In the first chapter of Genesis theseHierarchies are called Elohim. The name signifiesa host of dual or double-sexed Beings. The firstpart of the word is Eloh, which is a feminine noun,the letter h indicating the gender. If a single femi-nine Being were meant, the word Elohwould havebeen used. The feminine plural is oth, so if theintention had been to indicate a number of Gods of

the feminine gender, the correct word to use wouldhave been Elooth. Instead of either of those forms,however, we find the masculine plural ending im,added to the feminine noun Eloh, indicating a hostof male-female, double-sexed Beings, expressionsof the dual, positive-negative, creative energy.The plurality of Creators is again implied in thelatter part of the chapter, where these words areascribed to the Elohim: “Let us make man in ourimage”; after which it is inconsistently added, “Hemade them male and female.”

The translators have here rendered the puzzling

30 RAYS 97

Watercolor, 1805-06, Butts Set, William Blake, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York

When the Morning Stars Sang Together

While Job, his wife and his friends look up in wonder, Christas God re-enacts the Creation, the morning starsexulting insong and joyous noise. Sun forces are at His right side,Moon forces at His left, and the stellar worlds and theirhosts occupy the upper level. Three drawings on each side ofthis watercolor depict the six days of creation, whileLeviathan’s form extends below it.

word Elohim (which was decidedly not only aplural word but also both masculine and feminine)as being the equivalent of the singular, sexlessword God. Yet could they have done differently,even had they known? They were forbidden to dis-turb existing ideas. It was not truth at any price, butpeace at any price that King James desired, his soleanxiety being to avoid any controversy that mightcreate a disturbance in his kingdom. The pluralthem is also used where the creation of man ismentioned, clearly indicating that the reference isto the creation of ADM, the human species, andnot Adam, the individual.

Six creative Hierarchies (besides the Lords ofFlame, the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and twounnamed Hierarchies which have passed into lib-eration) were active in assisting the Virgin Spiritswhich in themselves form a seventh Hierarchy.*

The Cherubim and the Seraphim had nothing todo with the creation of Form; therefore they are notmentioned in the chapter under consideration,which deals principally with the Form side ofCreation. Here we find mentioned only the sevencreative Hierarchies which did the actual work ofbringing man to where he acquired a dense physi-cal form, through which the indwelling spirit couldwork.

After a description of each part of the work ofCreation it is said, “and Elohim saw that it wasgood.” This is said seven times, the last time beingon the sixth day, when the human form had beencreated.

It is stated that on the seventh day “Elohim rested.”This is all in accord with our occult teaching ofthe part taken by each of the creative Hierarchiesin the work of evolution down to the presentPeriod. It is also taught that in the present Epochthe Gods and creative Hierarchies have withdrawnfrom active participation, that man may work outhis own salvation, leaving the necessary guidanceof ordinary humanity to the “Elder Brothers who

are now the mediators between man and the Gods.”evolution of added self-consciousness.

He includes in His own Being hosts of gloriousHierarchies of, to us, immeasurable spiritualpower and splendor. They are the fruitage of pastmanifestations of this same Being and also otherIntelligences, in descending degrees of develop-ment down to such as have not reached a stage ofconsciousness as high as our present humanity.

At the beginning of our scheme of manifestationthere were twelve great Creative Hierarchiesactive: two nameless, Seraphim, Cherubim, Lordsof Flame, Lords of Wisdom, Lords of Individuality,Lords of Form, Lords of Mind, Archangels, Angels,and the Virgin Spirits. ❐

RAYS 97 31

The RosicrucianMysteries

By Max Heindel

Written in almost narrative style, intendedespecially to give busy people a solution tolife’s basic problems by enabling the heart toaffirm what the rational mind has sanctioned.Includes:

The Order of Rosicrucians

and The Rosicrucian Fellowship

The Visible and the Invisible Worlds

The Constitution of Man

Life and Death

Please order on page 64

207 Pages. Indexed. Paper. Published byThe Rosicrucian Fellowship

The sublime truths of the

Western Wisdom

Teachings

*Occult science teaches that in the beginning ofa Day of Manifestation a certain Great Being (des-ignated in the Western World by the name of God,but by other names in other parts of the Earth)limits Himself to a certain portion of space inwhich He elects to create a Solar System for the

ANY TREATISE on Astrologywhichdeals only with planetary effectsandmakes no mention of the spiritualcauses behind these effects gives theimpression of fatalism. But when

one looks at astrology from the standpoint of evo-lution, its whole aspect is changed, and one seeseach individual Ego as a spark of the DivineF l a m e w o r k i n gtoward a gloriousunseen goal underthe play of thesetremendous cosmicforces, molding hisdestiny from momentto moment by hisevery thought.

It is perfectly truethat we cannot escapethe experiences whichwe have generated bythe thoughts, feelings, and actions of past lives.They are like a bullet which has been shot from agun. We ourselves chose the target, aimed the gunand pulled the trigger. But the Spirit is absolutelyfree to meet these self-generated experiences as itwill, free to intensify every discord in the body orin the outer circumstances of the life by continuingthe habits of thought which have produced it—orfree to break the old habits and turn all the powerof the being into the effort to attune thoughts andfeelings to the glorious rhythms and harmonies ofthe universe. When this attunement has been madeour difficulties will melt like snow before the sun.

The making of this attunement is therefore theone important task in every life and whether weknow it or not, every constructive thought is carry-ing us toward the solution of our problems; towardfreedom from sickness and confusion, and is bring-ing us nearer to the moment when we shall be capa-ble of glimpsing the divine plan and entering withjoy and power into the working out of our individ-

ual part of this plan.You will see then

t h a t i t m a k e s atremendous differ-ence whether we liedown under our dif-ficulties and broodover them or whetherwe gird ourselveswith courage and setabout correcting thethings which arewrong within our-

selves. We alone are to do the correcting, and whenwe make the effort we connect ourselves direct-ly with the powerful forcesof good which areworking everywhere to right all wrong conditions.The conditions which have been built into ourbeing for many lives cannot be undone in a day ora year, but once we have allied ourselves with thedivine purpose of Good, our whole being is floodedwith joy and courage, and every task is lightened.

We all have in us the power to rise above our dif-ficulties if we will but cease to sound the petty, dis-cordant, or tragic lower tones which perpetuatethem, and turn to the higher possibilities within

32 RAYS 97

Jupiter, the Moon’s Nodes, the Part of Fortune, and Planetary Synthesis

ASTROLOGY

We all have in us the power torise above our difficulties if

we will but cease to sound thepetty, discordant, or tragic

lower tones which perpetuatethem, and turn to the higher

possibilities within ourselves.

ourselves. These will respond equallywell ifwe but make the sustained effort to startthem into activity.

JUPITERNow, in concluding our summary study of

the nature of the seven inner planets, a wordabout Jupiter. Jupiter (K) focuses the mostbenevolent rays through which the morelasting joys and achievements of our livescome. He travels around the sun in abouteleven years, and aspects every planet fromall angles during that time, while Saturn (L)requires twenty-nine years to obstruct usfrom similar positions. Thus what we call“good” predominates overwhelmingly overthe so-called “evil,” and the realization ofthis fact should be ever with us to inculcateand cultivate an optimistic frame of mind.Present trouble is not so hard to bear whenwe can see “the turn of the lane,” and as thestudent of astrology has a sure foundationfor his hope of better things, he should bethe most contented person in the world,even when in the midst of a period of trou-ble. An aspect of Jupiter is always about toform, and whatever department of life he isin (shown by the house) will be the avenuethrough which opportunity will come to you.

One of the easiest methods a student mayuse to predict events is by these transits, as we callthe ephemeral passage of planets in the heavens.All that is required is an ephemeris for the currentyear and your own figure. The ephemeris showsJupiter’s position at a glance. A look at your ownfigure tells what house he is traversing and givesthe key to his influence. You know the nature ofthe cardinal signs. If you are not fortunate enoughto have him thus well placed, maybe you wishedsuch good fortune had been yours. But cheer up,though you may not have the life-lasting benefit ofa well placed Jupiter, he traverses the cardinalsigns and the angles four to eight times in an aver-age human life. Each time he comes to one of theimportant places in your horoscope, opportunityknocks at your door and offers you preferment andthe realization of the dreams of your life in onedirection or another. Be on the watch, however, for

you must do your share and grasp the profferedhand of Dame Fortune or she will pass on. Buteven if you miss some of your chances, keepcheerful, attune yourself to the Jupiter ray, try tospread sunshine in other lives, and some day youwill learn to live yourself into all the aspects of hisbenevolence. Some life you will be born withJupiter as the most prominent planet in your figure.

THE PART OF FORTUNE

The Part of Fortune (⊕) is a point in thehoroscope which opposes or favors the financialfortunes according to the aspects it receives fromthe planets. The philosophy of it is: The humanbody is produced by the lunar forces. At the timeof conception the moon may be mathematicallydemonstrated to have been in the degree which isascendant (ASC) at birth—at birth it has a different

RAYS 97 33

Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from the 4th century. Museo Pio-Clementino,Sala Rotunda, Vatican, Rome.

The Zeus of Otricoli is perhaps the best existing example of the face ofthe “father of gods and men” as conceived by Greek sculptors. Bothhe and his Roman counterpart, Jupiter/Jove, were believed to be pos-sessed of every form of power, endued with wisdom, partial to justice,and with no limit to their goodness and love.

longitude. In one of thesepositions the Moon may besaid to have magnetized thepositive pole, in the otherthe negative pole of the seedatom which as a magnetdraws to itself the chemicalsubstance that builds thedense body. The solar forcesvitalize the body and, as it isconstantly decaying, a pab-ulum is necessary to repairwaste. That nutrimentandall material possessions are,therefore, astrologicallyspeaking, derived throughthe combined influences of the Sun and the before-mentioned two positions of the Moon.

When the planetary aspects to this Part ofFortune are favorable, material success and pros-perity follow. When adverse influences centerupon it, reverses are met. The nature of the aspect-ing planet, the sign and house it is in, tell thesources whence we may expect one or the other,and thus show us where to direct our energies orwhat to avoid. To find the Part of Fortune: add tothe longitude of the ASC, sign, degree and minute,the longitude of the Moon, sign, degree andminute. From that sum subtract the longitude ofthe Sun, sign, degree and minute. The remainder isthe longitude, sign, degree and minute, of the Partof Fortune.

THE MOON’S NODESThe Moon’s Nodes are points in the orbit of a

planet where it crosses the ecliptic, or Sun’s path.The one where it crosses from south to north iscalled its ascending or North Node (P); the otherpoint where it crosses from north to south is calledits descending or South Node (Q). When the Sunis in the East and crosses the celestial equator fromthe south to the north, it enters its martial exalta-tion sign Aries as a conquering king at the vernalequinox, and all nature wakens to the life, love andlabor of another year. Therefore, the point wherethe Moon crosses into the north declination is alsosubject to a benign life-giving influence, such asthat ascribed to the Dragon’s Head. It is jupiterian

in effect, fostering and promoting all matters withinits influence. In the autumn, Saturn, or the adver-sary, Satan, stands in his exaltation sign Libraready to vanquish with his cold clammy hand thelife-giving Sun and usher it across its descendingnode, leaving the Northern Hemisphere to mournand die. Therefore, the Moon’s South Node, calledthe Dragon’s Tail, is deemed to be saturnine in itseffect and obstructs all things wherewith it is con-nected. The Nodes exert an influence in the horo-scope only when in conjunction with a planet orthe ASC. An orb of only two degrees, or at themost three degrees, is allowed.

PLANETARY SYNTHESIS

Finally, it may be well to take up the subject ofsynthesis at the very start of our study of the mean-ing of the stellar script, for lack of this knowledgeoften causes much confusion to young students.Contradiction is a fact which early impresses itselfupon the minds of young astrologers, and thebrighter the mind the keener the feeling of distressand helplessness arising from this source. Sometimesbeginners become cynical and skeptical becausethey are unable to reconcile one influence tabulatedin a horoscope with another of a diametrically-opposite import.

Suppose, for instance, that we find the Sun con-junct Venus in Leo and Saturn in the fifth house.According to the configuration of the Sun and Venusthe person would have an ardentlove nature and

34 RAYS 97

The serpentine path of Sun, Moon, and planets is a corridor of movement that includes theecliptic, or Sun’s path. Each planet’s point of intersection with the equator is itsnode.

EQUATOR EQUATOR

TROPIC OF CAPRICORN WINTER

Summer Tropic of Cancer

SOUTHERN----------------------------------------HEMISPHERE

NORTHERN----------------------------------------HEMISPHERE

Dragon’s Tail

Dragon’s Head

^

^

!

g

g

+ ~

@ A

F

B

K

Y

attract the affections of the opposite sex, butaccording to the placement of Saturn in the fifthhouse he would meet disappointment in courtship.At first sight this seems a bald contradiction. WhenVenus, fortified by a trine from Uranus,designates aperson as an angel of purity, it is disconcerting tofind that a square from Mars brands him as sensualto a degree. But philosophy shows us the reason ofthese contradictory omens and the art of synthesisteaches us how to balance them and extract thekernel of truth from horoscopic symbolism.

In the first place, if it were possible to find ahoroscope without contradictory testimonies, thatwould mean that the person born under such stellarinfluences would pursue a certain course throughlife either wholly good or thoroughly bad. It wouldbe absolutely impossible for him to swerve.If hisstars pointed towards the path of rectitude, hisintegrity would be so impregnable that never for amoment could temptation to wrongdoing findharborage in his consciousness; were his face set

downward, no ray of aspiration in the direction ofhigher things could ever enter his dark soul. Truly,the horrors of the dreadful theory of election andpredestination pale by comparison with such acondition. Were this condition a fact, soul growthwould be an impossibility, for the man who cannotbe tempted to do wrong acquires no merit by good-ness, any more than the man irresistibly impelledto evil deserves censure.

Choice is the prime essential in soul growth andthat comes from the contradictory influences regis-tered in the horoscope. Thanks to that puzzling fac-tor and the will , which is above the horoscope, thereis hope in even the most afflicted chart. The good isalways there to grapple with the bad. And tempta-tions overcome give added merit to the good. Thusthe square of Venus to Mars impels to wrongdoing,but the trine of Uranus to Venus gives power to over-come passion and acquire purity. May we use thesquares we dread to rise to the trines we prize. ❐

—Max Heindel

RAYS 97 35

Astro-Diagnosis —A Guide to Healing

by Max Heindel and Augusta Foss Heindel

A treatise on medical astrology and the diagnosisof disease from the natal horoscope.

Astro-diagnosis is the science and art of obtaining scientificknowledge regarding disease and its causes and the means ofovercoming it as shown by the planets.

Ninth Edition. 446 pages. Indexed. Paper. Order on page 64. Published by The Rosicrucian Fellowship.

● A recognized classic in its field, this volume is essential to students of the stellar sciencewho are engaged in healing or nursing, whether they are attached to the orthodox med-ical school or to the nature-cure school.

● Based on thirty years of intensive research, study, and practical experience by theauthors. Special section: How the Rosicrucians Heal the Sick.

● Complete delineations of 94 example horoscopes from the authors’ files.

ON JANUARY 20, 1997,high noon, someonewill be sworn in toserve as President forthe next four years. A

chart set for that auspicious momentin time is worth studying.

When Neptune is prominent, as inthis chart, being not only nearest theM.C. but also making the closestplanetary tie to the U.S. chart—anapplying conjunction to Pluto one-third of a degree from exact—cluesare often very subtle. There are degreesof subtlety, albeit it could not be arguedthat there is nothing subtle about thischart’s primary clue to interpreting itsmessage. Straddling the M.C., withinless than seven degrees, we find noless than four planets. Since inaugura-tions almost always occur at noon,1

the Sun is usually in this area, but cer-tainly not the other three big planets.It is they that convey a unanimousmessage, even though not of the sameelement (Jupiter and Uranus are fiery,Neptune is watery), and though Jupiter andNeptune are in their fall, Uranus is in its dignity.And they are all in the destiny sector and conjunctthe Sun, hence especially noteworthy.

In studying the five outermost orbs in mundanecharts, it often pays to examine what was going onwhen last they were at the same location as in thechart being viewed. That will provide the key to

their present message.A Jupiter cycle being 12 years, it last occupied

the same area during the inauguration in 1985.Then the big item in the news for months was theGramm-Rudman-Hellings deficit reduction pro-gram, and later a bill by that name.2 The Americanpublic’s mind was clearly focused on finances.

The last time Uranus hovered in the January,1997, area, was 84 years ago, in 1913. The

36 RAYS 97

Inauguration Day 1997—AStar Preview

ASTROLOGY

Chart of Inauguration Day which presages difficult times for the U.S. coffers.

11.26 Å

Sixteenth Amendment, initiating a federal incometax, though its rates were so low any resemblanceto that of the present is coincidental, was added tothe U.S. Constitution. Also that year the FederalReserve System, still with us, was set up. Oncemore the national focus was on finances; the needwas felt to prevent financial crises.

Neptune takes 165 years to swing round thezodiac, so it was during 1832-33 that it visited, forthe first time since the birth of this nation,Capricorn’s final degrees. A President was born atthe time, Benjamin Harrison, but the youngnation’s mind was not on an obscure birth in Ohio.It was fixed on a major crisis in the South. SouthCarolina, a big cotton exporter, needed a low tariffto achieve European reciprocity. The North, eagerto build up manufacturing, sought a high tariff toprotect the fledgling factories from foreign compe-tition. The West sided with the North. So, SouthCarolina threatened to “nullify”: It would stay inthe Union, but disregard the (to it) “abominable”tariff. The Vice President at the time, John C.Calhoun, was from the Palmetto State and resignedhis office to support it. This furious financial fra-cas threatened to fray the nation. Fortunately, coolheads prevailed over the “fire eaters” and a com-promise was reached.

To summarize: the details differed, but last timeall three of the big orbs near the M.C. in theJanuary 20, 1997, chart were in the same area, theaverting of financial trouble was uppermost in thecountry’s mind. History, it is said, repeats itself,though never quite exactly the same way. There’salso this: if there is a problem having to do withcosmic and/or moral law, it becomes more difficultto solve each time. To be specific: in 1832, none ofthe other 23 states sided with South Carolina, so itsoon became clear that the threat to the nation wasless than first appeared. In 1913, the action wasmainly a preventative: the U.S. had become aworld power only a dozen or so years earlier andneeded a stronger infrastructure. But in 1985, thecountry had a debt of one trillion dollars and it wasgrowing at the rate of thousands of dollars a sec-ond, which could not be allowed to continue. Yetthe Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Bill was discarded,and in early 1997 the national debt is around five

trillion dollars!How easy is the solution? Mercury, ruler of the

2nd house of material resources, is without helpfulplanetary aspects. There are only squares fromMars and Saturn, the former in detriment, the lat-ter in its fall. Jupiter, lord of the 8th sector of debts,is combust, in its fall, and conjunct the twomalefics Uranus and Neptune.

Also, there is a major basic lack: “Any chart thatlacks an element is unbalanced in a most funda-mental way.”3 And in this natus, there is a com-plete absence of planets in water signs! Meaning?How often have economists and other leaderstalked about the economy “growing” its way out ofdeficits and debts. But without water, nothing cangrow! And it is the huge deficits and debt that arekeeping interest rates higher than desirable, whichhampers business expansion. For with high interestrates, it is more tempting to buy stocks and bondsthat risk the kind of economic activity that createsjobs and productivity.

Not to be overlooked is the Moon of activity.The more aspects on Inauguration Day, the better;the more helpful those are, the better still. OnJanuary 20, 1997, the lunar orb has but two majorplanetary aspects,4 to Mars and Saturn. The Moon

RAYS 97 37

You and Today

With every rising of the sun,Think of your day as just begun;The past has shriveled and buried deepAll yestersdays, there let them sleep.Concern yourself with but today;Woo it, and teach it to obey.Nor seek to summon back one ghostOf that innumerable host.Your wish and will since time beganToday has been the friend of man,You and today, a soul sublime,And the great pregnant hour of time:With God between to bind the twainGo forth, I say, attain! attain!

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox

is also “besieged,” between two malefics—nothelpful.5 And the degree on the M.C., Capricorn26, is described as one of “warning.”6 Isn’t that anindication of danger? And rightly so, for not sincethe 1960s has this nation so much as even oncecome up with a balanced budget! How apt thedescription of Saturn in this chart, where it is rulerof the sector of destiny: “Driving a car with thebrakes on.”7 It is located in the 12th house of ripedestiny, in the very same degree with the saturnianDragon’s Tail, and perhaps most importantly, inter-cepted: ripe destiny is obviously being delayed. Haveever before so many operated for so long so deeplyin debt without more intensely negative “fallout”?

But barring radical remedial reform, it cannot bepostponed indefinitely. The degree on the cusp ofthe 12th house of ripe destiny, Pisces 28, is describedas “a fertile garden under the full moon.”8 A “fer-tile garden” holds out the promise of abundant har-vest; the time of “full moon” is when things cometo a climax.

A veritable slew of recent books, including a

“Christian best seller,”9 have warned of impendingdanger. Of course they are not infallible. But thestudent of the stellar science cannot but be con-cerned by the configuration in the Inaugurationchart: Mars of action opposite Saturn of destinyand cosmic law: there would be the tendency not tocomply fully with cosmic law.10 But negative ten-dencies can be overcome. Let us pray that this maybe so. This time. ❐

—A Probationer

1. Exceptions: when a President dies in office, his successor issworn in as soon as possible.

2. See Whatever Happened to the American Dream? LarryBurkett, page 52.

3. Sex and the Outer Planets, Barbara H. Watters, page 49.4. The two quincunxes to Jupiter and Neptune are not considered

major aspects; the “ties” to Sun and Uranus may be out of orb.5. See Here and There in Astrology, Ivy M. Goldstein-Jacobson,

page 12.6. A Spiritual Approach to Astrology, Myrna Lofthus, page 252.7. Astrology, The Divine Science, Moore and Douglas, page 68.8. The Sabian Symbols, Marc Edmund Jones, page 327.9. Larry Burkett, op. cit., page 210.

10. Astrology for the Millions, Grant Lewi, pages 35, 36.

38 RAYS 97

ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHYIN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, VOLUME 1

By Max Heindel

Section Headings:

Life On EarthLife After Death

RebirthThe Bible Teachings

Spiritualistic PhenomenonClairvoyance

AstrologyAnimals

Miscellaneous

Would you like to know more about

How We Can Know That Rebirth is a Fact?The Nature of the Holy Grail?Whether Each Soul Has a Soul Mate?The Causes of Insanity?The Difference Between Black and White Magic?Why Children Die?The Effect of Cremation on the Spirit?What Sinning Against the Holy Ghost Means?How One Can Avoid Being Obsessed?The Difference Between a Vampire and a Werewolf?The Use of Drugs in Gaining Clairvoyance?Western Versus Eastern Schools of Occultism?The Silver Cord and the Trance Condition?

Within these 417 pages is a trove of information on occult subjects. Seven full-pagediagrams. Indexed. $9.00. Published by the Rosicrucian Fellowship. Order on page 64.

From the occult point of view this book answers 189 questions asked of the author. You willfind lucid resolution for many of your own conumdrums expressed in the authoritative yetintimate voice of a Christian mystic and initiate.

THE RED DRAGON (12:3) as the rep-resentation of a legitimate phase inhuman spiritual development is to bedistinguished from the Beast (13:1-2)that also has seven heads and ten

horns, whose power comes from the Dragon. TheBeast refers to that segment of humanity that idol-izes matter, contracts its consciousness to strictlymaterial dimensions, and adopts a despotic andplundering attitude toward the earth. This pillagingof nature, wreaking tortured wonders and wretchedcorruptions of its substance, is promoted by a sec-ond lamb-like beast with two horns, an archangel-ic but demonic Being that dwells in the sun sphereand is opposed to the principles of the Lamb. Thepseudo lamb is signified by the number 666, des-ignating the principle that leads man to completehardening in external physical life by activelyrejecting spiritualizing influences, the forces inher-ing in and represented by: 1) the physical body,signified by the Hebrew letter Samech(numericalvalue of 60); 2) the etheric body (Hebrew Vau, 6);3) the desire body (Resh, 200); 4) the lower ego ormind (Tau, 400)—giving the composite value of666, which represents what is hardened in thesefour vehicles.

These four letters (s-v-r-t), read backwards,since astral letters are mirror images of their deriv-ative physical world counterparts, spell the nameof the sun-demon Sorath, the Lamb’s adversary,whose sign was a thick stroke bent back upon itselfand terminating in two curved points—thus theApocalyptist’s description of the beast as havingtwo horns like a lamb.

This beast appears after the first beast, materialman, appears, and attempts to seduce him from

taking up the Christ Impulse. For the number 666also refers to that portion of humanity that refusesto spiritually evolve. We note that 6+6+6=1+8=9,which is, like the 144,000 (1+4+4=9) to be saved(14:3), the number of humanity, as explained byMax Heindel in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception(pp. 500-501). It likewise designates acritical moment in Earth Period evolution, thepenultimate time when 6x6x6 conditions or phasesof its development have passed and humanity is onthe threshold of entering the Jupiter Period (after

RAYS 97 39

The Apocalypse—Verbal and Visual

Revelations—Part 3

RELIGION AND ART

Pen and watercolor drawing, c. 1805, William Blake, Rosenbach Foundation, Philadelphia

The Number of the Beast is 666A visionary depiction of the Beast, here withthree heads andtwo horns, giving power to a Being which appears to be a com-posite image of the secular ten-crowned and the legitimateseven-headed beasts. The Lamb is impassively interposedbetween the two Beings, nullifying the power of the two-headed Beast, if its (the Lamb’s) salvific forces are invoked.

an interperiod pralaya or span of formlessness). If,by that time, individual humanity has not acceptedChrist’s redemptive power and transformed its“animal” nature, they shall be as goats to be sepa-rated out from the lambs, who have become likeunto their Redeemer.

The worship of the beast 666, the outward, mor-tal man, Caesarism, the idolatry of things, willarrest the spiritual development of man. So whilereaders of Revelation are correct in surmising thatthe two-horned beast is a threatening and potentpower, that power can only work in and upon themwho consciously and deliberately receive it andbear its name and mark.

A final note on the Sorath number gives pause.Its appearance in historical time is suggestive. Theyear 666 marks the birth of Mohammedanism, areligion with high teachings, but whose exotericform advances God as a Sultan (evincing atavis-tic Old Testament parallels) Who has no Son. Thisfaith portrays life as subject to fatalism (Kismet)and has no place for individual creative freedom.The second multiple of 666, 1332, marks the per-secution and extermination of the KnightsTemplar. Finally, according to Alfred Heidenreichin his Study of Revelation,a vital confrontation isprophesied for 1998 that will decide the destiny ofthe human race for centuries to come.

As an immediate and stark counterpoise to thefalse lamb coming up out of the earth (materiality),who will work wonders, and will appear philan-thropic, Chapter 14 describes the true Lamb ofGod on Mount Sion with souls drawn from thesame pool of nine (humanity), but spiritualized,the first fruits of the Christ-redeemed, bearing intheir foreheads not the mark of the beast but theirFather’s name.

Now appears another manifestation of Christ(“like unto the Son of Man”—14:14), which isboth an echo of and a foil to the “grim reaper,” thepale rider on the pale horse. For he thrust in hissickle and reaped the earth. His harvest is the soulsthat are “saved,” though saved, as Peter says, as byfire through tribulation as they witness for Christand are trod in the winepress of salvific affliction.As the grain of rude event is painfully ground inthe mill of retrospection so that nutriment may beextracted for the soul, so are the grapes of earthly

experience crushed to release their life’s substance,which may then be volatilized and transmuted aspabulum for the spirit.

Thereupon follows the Seven Vials of Wrath,which are a mercy primarily directed toward theunregenerate, the blasphemers, the doers of evil,who are but experiencing their destiny, since “hav-ing shed the blood of saints and prophets,” the Lord“hast given them blood to drink” (16:6). Presentedwith many occasions to change their ways, someyet “repented not to give him glory” (16:9); that is,they persisted in deathly self-glorification.

What are we to make of this dreadful successionof scourges and cataclysms, these outpourings ofwrath? As the Earth Period draws to a end,accounts long open and active must be adjustedand closed. A final accounting must be made. The

40 RAYS 97

Woodcut, 1496-97, Albrecht Durer, State Hall of Art, Karlsruhe

The Seven-headed Dragon and the Beast with two Lamb’s HornsA prosperous and idolatrous humanity kneeling in admirationbefore the crowned, seven-headed Beast of materialism, whilethe winged Woman clothed with the Sun and her Ego Child rev-erence the Father Who holds the sickle by which He shall reapthe souls of mankind at the last harvest of the Earth Period.

seven last plagues are the accounting, a metingout to man consequences of deeds done whileon earth by the Lord of Earth, Taurus, one ofthe four Recording Angels (15:7) and heavenly“beasts.” (See Corinne Hemline, New AgeBible Interpretation VI,p. 230.)

The vials of wrath may more correctly bedescribed as fierce love, fierce consuminglove, which only appears as wrath becausehumanity is being purged of its impurities withall the suffering attendant to this blessed pur-gation. It is a burning of the chaff and a settlingout of the dregs, both in the individual personand in the community of humankind. For theconsequence of not repenting, changing one’smind, is dire. Commitment to evil could entaila stripping of the etheric body and the castingof the spirit into limbo for an interminable spanuntil a life wave appears whose evolutionaryconditions approximate those of the suspendedspirit’s original life wave. So the warning,“Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth hisgarments [vehicles] lest he walk naked andthey see his shame” (16:15).

The seventh plague is attended by a voicefrom the Throne in Heaven which pronounces,“It is done.” We are reminded of Christ’s wordson the cross, “It is accomplished.” Both con-summations are attended by earthquakesbecause they both have seismically transforma-tive effects on the planet.

Finally, the personification of earthly sensualityand materiality is introduced and the visionaryexperiences reach a negative crescendo. TheScarlet Woman is pictured mounted on the seven-headed, ten-horned beast. “Many waters,” or mul-titudes of earthly people, are saddled and bridledby lust, greed, and material sorcery. The kings ofthe earth who rule at their pleasure are yet ruled bytheir own passions, and thus those who seek mate-rial power are enslaved by the very matter theyseek. They are possessed by what they possess.

Why is the Woman in scarlet and purple called awhore? And what is this fornication? It is theabuse, the illicit violation, of matter. Matter asMater, mother, that which gives birth to all mater-ial form, is of heavenly origin; but here it isstripped of its spiritual context and purpose.

Blasphemy and sacrilege has occurred. The bloodof saints has been drunk. This is black magic. Thisis the demonic quest for personal power by the tak-ing of life. The intellect asserts a prurient inva-siveness upon matter, whose issue is idolatry,apostasy, and death.

The Woman with the golden cup of abomina-tions represents the most arrant expression of thecarnal life. The Great City, Babylon, reigns over itskings because to reign on earth is to be ruled bypride and passion. Thus Christ came to serve thatman might reign in spirit by abdicating the“thrones” of worldly temptation. Of the sevenheads of the Beast, five are fallen, two earthepochs yet remain in which materialism shalltempt and thwart man’s self-overcoming.

Again the scales of cause and consequence arebalanced as the carnal soul’s self-glorification anddelicious living are met with proportionate undo-

RAYS 97 41

William Blake, 1809, The British Museum, London

The Whore of BabylonThe bejeweled Babylon the Great, reigning on the seven hills(heads) of earthly authority over its worldly kings, holds the cup ofblasphemy, out of which partakers ascend in false rapture only todescend in anguish and shame. Greed and lust are self-consuming.

ing and sorrow. The worldly soul thatsays, “I sit as a queen, and am no widow”(18:7), is contrasted with the souls whoare widowed without the Bridegroom,Christ, yet married to Whom, as the Kingof kings, are as the Woman Clothed withthe Sun, who has the passional Moonunderfoot. The Scarlet Woman who takesand takes, until finally she consumes bod-ies and souls, her own spiritual opportuni-ties, is contrasted with the Bride wholoves and gives, whose sacrifice of thematerial world gains her the Kingdom ofHeaven.

The fundamental core of Babylonianwickedness is its attitude toward matter—it is selling its spiritual inheritance for amess of pottage, valuing the invaluableChrist Gift at thirty pieces of secular sil-ver. It is making a religion out of matter.The religion of materialism was given itscredo by Francis Bacon, who declared,“We must put nature on the rack andextort from nature the answers in whichwe are interested.” Bacon is the unwitting father ofthis inquisitorial attitude toward manifest creation.

While Goethe encouraged looking at naturewhole, as a lover looks upon his beloved andattends upon her freely offered confidences, theprevailing contemporary attitude rapes and pol-lutes nature, “smashes” the atom, manipulatesgenes, “sacrifices” animals for cosmetic and phar-macologic curiosity. This vivisection of livingearth being, atomizing and anatomizing matter, ismore than indecent exposure, it is an exploitationand torturing of nature. To what end? The bottom-less pit? Pernicious influence is exerted on human-ity from that direction. A “sodomy of thought” is inevidence in the modern view of nature, consistingin a perversion of the faculty for knowing. Here weglimpse what are rightly called, in the senserecorded in Revelation, Babylonian practices.

What is the antidote to this attitude and activity?Vital, living Christianity, adhering to theHippocratic injunction, first do no harm. VitalChristianity has been described as Christianitywithout religion, without the man-built apparatusthat blocks the door to the living Christ.

Matter, as such, sundered from its Creator, is thereal death, the snare and the delusion. To all ofnature the words of Christ may apply: “You havemade of my Father’s house a den of thieves,” ahouse of merchandise. This generalized phenome-non now faces apocalyptic consequences: And themerchants of the earth, they who traffic in exclu-sively material transactions, shall wail and grieveover the laying waste of Babylon.

Those who raise up the living Christ withinthemselves, who develop the principle of brother-ly love, will appear in white (etheric) garmentsafter the War of All against All (between the Fifthand Sixth Earth Period Epochs). Our purely intel-lectual culture is developing in the direction of theabyss of intellect. If the personality is not spiritu-alized, it will be submerged by rational material-ism, spiritual forces will not be recognized as suchand will be expended in the exclusive concern forbodily needs (longevity, merely physical health,exquisite sensation, the extension of physical pow-ers). Rampant consumerism and amoral capitalismare enlisted to serve these needs. Still greater intel-ligence and energy will be focused on the advance-

42 RAYS 97

Monoprint, with pen and watercolor, 1795, William Blake, Tate Gallery, London

NewtonThe “father of modern science” has here been transposed into anallegorical image of materialism. Using a pair of dividers, he imposesrational order on the world. But his gesture, now become an obeisanceto the physical earth, causes him to lose his erect posture, by which hestands toward the heavens and the God in Whose image he is created. Theenvironment is arid. His back echoes the curved rock he seems part of.

ment of war technology and the satisfactionof strictly mundane impulses.

Over and against this grim prospect is thevision of the other city, the New Jerusalem,and the One Who will lead and empower usto get there, Who is called Faithful and True,Who again rides a white horse, as does thehost of saints whose minds have been spiri-tualized, who revere the other Woman, theBride, who in community as the Church ofthe elect are the Bride.

The focus, the pivotal issue, is how spiri-tual power is used. Sorath, the sun-demon,the tempter to black magic, engages thosewho are magnetized by matter, who commitprostitution with it, who marry and becomechattels of the hardening principle in physi-cal substance. These are the inhabitants ofBabylon. New Jerusalem is occultly built bywhite magic, by deeds of love and generosity,by self-giving and devotion to pure ideals.

Only one faced with the terrible prospectof the abyss can develop love and freedom.Were man not faced with this possibility, hecould not choose between good and evil, hewould be but a pawn and incapable of exer-cising the divine gift of freedom, which isinseparable from the full development oflove. If man were unable to embrace evil, hecould not out of a purified will freely electGod, and his highest dignity as man wouldbe denied him. It is precisely this freedom to choosebetween good and evil that confers his divine sta-tus and glorifies him in Christ as a Son of God.

Spiritual opportunities will abound in the manyfuture incarnations, before the War of All AgainstAll, after it in the New Galilee (represented by theSeven Seals), and into the Seventh Epoch (repre-sented by the Seven Trumpets).

Revelation concludes with highly chargedimages and an exaltation of praise and song as themarriage supper of the Lamb is prepared. Formerlythe Lamb was the supper, the sacrificed Lamb,“slain from the foundation of the world” (13:8).Michael, the countenance of Christ, the “angelstanding in the sun,” announces the WeddingFeast. The Sword of Truth, the Word of God, slays

the illusions and falsehoods of the Beast and hisfollowers, carnal man. Actually, Michael repre-sents the human being when he shall haveachieved the highest spirituality relative to theEarth Period: He will have united, like the Earthitself, with the Sun and he will have overcome theMoon’s magical forces. In the form of Michael hewill fetter the evil of the world in his soul, sym-bolized by the dragon.

The Last Judgment scenes of Christian eschatol-ogy are largely based on the Apocalyptic visionsdescribed in Chapter 20. Two deaths are men-tioned. The first death (“first resurrection,” 20:16)consists in the laying aside of the last physicalbody prior to the Jupiter Period (New Jerusalem),which will be the last death of the entire succession

RAYS 97 43

William Blake, 1808, National Trust Photo Library, London

The Last JudgmentGreat dynamism characterizes Blake’s JudgmentDay as the just ascendand the wicked descend. The Dragon is chainedbelow, the Harlotabove him is seized. The twenty-four Elders, the blessed, and angelic hostssurround the Redeemer. The menorah and shew bread are shown above.

of physical embodiments during the Earth Period.Those who have received the Christ Principle willsee the physical fall away as a snake sloughs offskin, while their etheric body harmonizes withtheir desire body, having released all desire forexperience in the physical. Those who have notpurified their desire bodies will feel in their ether-ic bodies the unappeasable desire for physical sen-sation and will burn in the fires of desire.

Further spiritualization will require a release ofthe etheric body. The Christ-infused will be able toaccomplish this release, which, as the second death(20:14, 21:8), the death of the second vehicle, willhave no power over them. The new Jupiter willhave a satellite composed of those unable to attainto the Jupiter consciousness, an astral (desire body)consciousness whose lowest member is etheric.

Only through man having become human, hav-ing received the ego-intellect, can he succumb tothe Beast 666, for it is intellect itself which canmisguide man and cause him to reject the ChristPrinciple.

When he lives in four-square (actually cubic—“the length and the breadth and the height of it areequal”) New Jerusalem, man will be angelic(21:17). His former Adamic state of innocence inthe Garden of Eden as generic man was also ether-ic. He descended or fell to material consciousness.A planetary sacrifice in another garden(Gethsemane) and in the first City of Peace (oldJerusalem) redeemed alpha humanity, providingthem with spiritual power, if they choose it, torecapture their etheric status, but now in full self-consciousness, to dwell in a new and holy City ofPeace, where they can live in community asOmega humanity, partaking of the Tree of Life,because, having freely chosen deeds in Christ’sname and power, they have been written into theBook of (immortal) Life.

The name of Christ, the planetary I AM, shall bein the foreheads of His younger brothers. For it isin the place corresponding to the root of the nosethat the Ego has its sanctuary, its Mercy Seat. Atthe same time, this name no man can know but theindividual in whom it is sanctuaried, for only the Ican be I to itself (19:12).

The One Who makes all things new (20:5) shallenable humans to do likewise. They shall sing a

new song (14:3), which describes their capacity toutter living etheric beings through the etheric lar-ynx. They shall “speak plants.” In fact, NewJerusalem itself, the New Heaven, which is also aNew Earth, shall be largely of their creation, thetransformed essence of Earth Period experience.

The “Lamb’s wife” (21:9) is this etheric city, theecclesia of Jupiter humanity, which structure cor-relates with the Lamb’s (Christ’s) lowest body,composed of life spirit. It is the attitude of EarthPeriod’s humanity to nature that shall admit themto, or bar them from, New Jerusalem. As thosewho destroy earth shall be destroyed (unable toadvance), so those who respect the earth and seekto preserve its integrity shall be saved. Ultimately,working with matter will be a magical practice:white magic being creative and constructive, trans-formative into greater goodness; black magicbeing the violent tearing asunder and degrading ofsubstance, using it against others to hurt and maimand gain power over them.

It is clear that one’s proper role during Earthevolution is the adoption of a creative, loving con-

44 RAYS 97

“And he carried me away in spirit to a great and high moun-tain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,descending out of heaven from God.”—Revelation 21:10

faithcenter.wordpress.com

cern for the dense physical dimension, realizingthat it correlates with and manifests the World ofDivine Spirit. It is instructive to note that thetwelve gates or entrances to New Jerusalem aremade of pearl, which is an organic substanceworked up from elemental materials and becomean emblem of transformed pain. The physicalinstrument can be so purified and energized that itsublimates, is itself transfigured, and becomes theresurrection body.

The critical mass of accumulated evil willexplode as planetary catastrophe, the Babylonianfire shall characterize an enduring condition forthose who defiantly continue to practice evil. In aplace called Armageddon (16:16) they shall gather.There they shall be conclusively overcome andseparated out (as “goats”) to dwell in their degrad-ed element, domiciled in the region of seconddeath, passion’s Lake of Fire. Yet even this condi-tion will have the effect of separating out andincinerating all obstructive impurities so that thesewayward ones may eventually join with theirbrethren and experience the gifts of the spirit.

The battle of Armageddon has been fought over

and over again in every race and age. It designates(Hebrew, place of troops) the conflict in the indi-vidual heart and mind between good and evil, thehigher and lower nature. The prophesiedArmageddon will be that War of All Against All atthe end of the Fifth Post-Atlantean Epoch asuntrammeled egotism is let loose.

The Apostles, accesses of the twelve zodiacalenergies, are warders of the twelve gates of theChristian Mystery Temple in the etheric (21:14)realm. The disciple passes through one of the gatesand its apostle becomes his teacher as he progress-es through the successive degrees of the mysteries(9+3+1), the thirteenth degree being given by theApostles’Teacher.

The Apocalypse consists of a series of vignettes orparadigmatic images that portray phases of collec-tive and individual human initiation. By meditatingon its content and discovering the keys to the signsby which the deepest mysteries are signified, signif-icant power can be instilled in the inquiring soul toraise it toward the realms of the great creativeHierarchies and into the greater Glory of God. ❐

—C. W.

RAYS 97 45

Central Panel (53” x 93”), Ghent Altarpiece, 1426-1432, Hubert (?) and Jan Van Eyck, St. Bavon’s Cathedral, Ghent

The Adoration of the Lamb“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

MIDWAY through1966 scientistsreported finding strong evidence,based on seismic measurementsand computer modeling,that theEarth’s inner core is spinning

freely and slightly faster than the rest of Earth,“making it virtually a planet within a planet.”

Scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, as reported simultane-ously in Natureand the New York Times(7-18-96),theorize that this inner core, 1500 miles in diame-ter (about the size of the moon), is under suchtremendous pressures that, in spite of its 7000degree Fahrenheit temperature, it is still solid.Studying seismic waves by sensors has yieldeddata suggesting that a) the core acts as a singlegiant crystal of tightly packed iron atoms; b) itsaxis is tilted about 10 degrees to that of Earth; c) itlaps the Earth’s axial rotation approximately onceevery 400 years.

While in itself intriguing, the proposal that theEarth’s core has independent movement must beregarded as speculative. It is true that scientificinstruments can provide more information than theundevelopedphysical senses. The problem arisesnot from the instruments of sense extension butfrom the interpretation of the data they make pos-sible. As Max Heindel wrote in the early part ofthis waning century, “the camera will register raysthat are invisible to the eye” (Questions andAnswers,Vol. 2, p. 305), including his own soulbody, which was photographed at a pier in LongBeach while his dense body was asleep.

“Even among occult scientists it is counted

among the most difficult problems to investigatethe mysterious construction of the earth because todo that fully, one must have passed through thenine lesser Mysteries and the first of the GreatInitiations” (Cosmo-Conception, page 498).

Yet this recent scientific surmise does give pausein that it may provide a physical analogue for themysterious nature of the truly occulted Earth core,which does have an independent existence, beingthe site of the Earth’s indwelling Spirit. While adisembodied spirit can pass through a wall ormountain, if “an ordinary clairvoyant” attempts topass through the earth he will experience somethingsimilar to the effect registered “when a man hurlshimself against a wall” (Q & A, Vol. 1, p. 116).

Only by the path of initiation can the Earth’sinner recesses be approached. There are ninedegrees in the Lesser Mysteries and in each degreethe candidate becomes able to penetrate into thecorresponding layer of the Earth, while the tenthinitiation belongs to the first of the four GreaterMysteries and teaches all that can be known by

46 RAYS 97

Journey to the Centerof the Earth

NEWS PERSPECTIVES

Earth’saxis —

Iron atoms

Crystalstructure

Source: Lamont-DohertyEarth Observatory/Columbia University

When earthquakes occur, the fastest path through the earthfor their seismic waves is determined by the structure of thecrystal. By tracing the endpoint of this path on the oppositeside of the Earth over the years, researchers have found ashift that reflects the core’s faster rotation.

man in the Earth Period.Material scientists will continue to be

hoodwinked by the nature of the planetuntil they realize that it is “permeated byspirit, which is the leaven that causes [allits] changes” (Cosmo, p. 499).

To know the different strata of the Earthwithout also having a knowledge of theiruse and meaning in the life and purpose ofthe Cosmos is as useless as knowing names

and positions of body parts with-out understanding how they relateto the functional economy of thewhole human organism.

The Earth’s ninefold constitu-tion is correlated to the occultanatomy of ninefold man (three-fold body, threefold soul, andthreefold spirit). When hegainsoccult access to the Earth’s center,man shall have become an Adeptand will take possession of thekey to admit him to the work andconsciousness of the Jupiter Period.

In general, “there is still muchfor modern, material scientists tolearn and unlearn....and it is only amatter of time when they willhave been compelled to accept”the “illusionary ideas” of theoccult scientist (Cosmo, p. 511).

In reference to the specificnews item under consideration,until he has opened the door him-self in the proper manner, until thegate of initiation has opened hislatent faculties, neither man norany spirit, “whether in the body ordiscarnate, can see what is insidethe earth” (Q & A, Vol. 2p. 116). ❐

RAYS 97 47

Table Showing Correlation Between Earth Strata and Their Corresponding Occult Levels

EARTH STRATUM OCCULT LEVEL

1. MINERAL EARTH........................... CHEMICAL REGION

2. FLUID STRATUM.............................ETHERIC REGION

The matter from this stratum “has the quality of expansion, like that ofan exceedingly explosive gas,” and is released by the propulsive energyof volcanic eruptions.

3. VAPOR STRATUM........................... DESIRE WORLD

The matter in this stratum pulsates with life.4. WATER STRATUM.......................... REGION OF CONCRETE THOUGHT

Contains archetypal forces of minerals and those in back of the group spirits.5. SEED STRATUM.............................. REGION OF ABSTRACT THOUGHT

Primordial fount of life which provides the impetus for all form-building.6. FIERY STRATUM.............................WORLD OF LIFE SPIRIT

Stratum of sensation. Feeling of the Earth is particularly active here.7. REFRACTING STRATUM..................WORLD OF DIVINE SPIRIT

Here all nature forces exist as immoral forces. They exactly reflect theexisting moral status of mankind and serve as general agents of retribu-tive justice through floods, earthquakes, and volcanos. Also the “reservoirin which, as forces, past forms [human dense bodies] are stored.”

8. ATOMIC STRATUM......................... WORLD OF VIRGIN SPIRITS

Upon anything shaped on earth (flower, picture, human brain), thisstratum has the effect of multiplication to an astonishing degree.

9. MATERIAL EXPRESSION

OF THE EARTH SPIRIT...................WORLD OF GOD

This stratum’s lemniscate currents are intimately connected with thebrain, heart, and sex organs of the human race.

10. CENTER OF BEING

OF THE EARTH SPIRIT...................ABSOLUTE

Ultimateseed ground of all that is in and on Earth.

Constitution of the EarthThe diagram to the left showing the Earth’s strataomits the central core (tenth level) to indicate moreclearly the lemniscate formation of the currents inthe ninth stratum. The equal thickness of strata isfor the purpose of representation only and doesnot accord with the reality of variable thicknesses.Volcanic eruptionsoriginate in the seventh stratum.

NORMALLY, NEITHER a book onhistory nor etymology wouldwarranta review in the Rays, but OwenBarfield’s History in English Words(Lindisfarne Press, Box 778, Great

Barrington, MA01230) is a notable exception, forseveral reasons.

First, this is not a history of English words but ahistory of what amounts to the Fifth Post-Atlantean,or Aryan, Epoch through a study of the roots ofEnglish words traced to their cultural and histori-cal sources.

Second, by identify-ing word origins andtheir original meanings,Barfield is able to char-acterize the culturalperiods in this FifthEpoch of Earth Period.

Perhaps most instruc-tive, through key Englishwords, Barfield is ableto characterize generaltrends in the evolutionof human conscious-ness. “In our [English] language alone,” Barfieldwrites, “not to speak of its many companions, thepast history of humanity is spread out in an imper-ishable map, just as the history of the mineral earthlies embedded in the layers of its outercrust....Language has preservedfor us the inner,living history of man’s soul.”

The reader of this book is made aware of howprofoundly we humans are conditioned by thewords we know. Our very mode of thinking andperceiving is influenced by the syntax, idioms andvocabulary that we are born to and which consti-tutes our “mother tongue.” Conversely, a great aid

in achieving cultural objectivity is to learn two ormore languages, which help emancipate one fromnational and cultural biases and idiosyncrasies.

It is clear that language as we know it has beenevolved to enable mankind to relate to and fullyexplore the material world, so we may well expectnew words to be formed as humans learn more aboutthis world and develop their thinking to accommo-date their continuously expanded understanding.

Sensi t ive as heis to the complex “blood-lines” of many words,Barfield observes that “in

the common words weuse every day, thesouls of past races, thethoughts and feelingsof indiv idual menstand around us, notdead, but frozen intotheir attitudes like thecourtiers in the gardenof the Sleeping Beauty.”As we develop attune-ment to words,respecting them asdenominated essences

of experience, imbibing their semantic pedigree; aswe cultivate an appreciation for the intense intel-lectual or poetic effort that went into their making;once we have made them our own so that they “cir-culate like blood through the whole of the literatureand life about us”; then they become like“the kisswhich brings the sleeping courtiers to life.”

Barfield’s history is less concerned with knowingwhat the past was, since he assumesthat we havealready done this footwork. His aim is to penetratelanguage to feel how the past is.

The Aryan culture, which issued from CentralAsia and moved primarily westward,is described “as

48 RAYS 97

What’s in a Word?

BOOK REVIEWS

We are conditioned by thewords we know . Our very

mode of thinking and perceiving is influenced by

the syntax, idioms andvocabulary that we are born

to and which constitutesour “mother tongue.”

though a fresh spring bubbledup into thepool of humanity.” Nomadic at the out-set, these patriarchal peoples subjugatedand assimilated the largely matriarchal,autocthonous natives, strengtheningtheir physique by enforcing stricternotions of matrimony throughexogamy.

The Western world’s parent Indo-European language antedates Sanskrit,which is already derivative. This origi-nal Aryan people divided into twostreams, a northwestern component,which carried along with it the ances-tors of the Greeks (Dorians), Italians,Slavs, Teutons, and Celts, and a south-eastern branch, which flowed past theHimalayas down into India and west-ward to Persia, where their descen-dantsbecame the Brahmanic Hindusand theZoroastrian Persians of a later date.

English has four major tribu-taries, Greek , La t in , NormanFrench, and Teutonic (Anglo-Saxon). The language used by theolo-gians, philosophers, and scientists ofEurope was “the gradual and painfulcreation of the thinkers of ancientGreece.” Latin provided a “rigid anddurable framework on which the com-plicated texture of thought, feeling, andwill, woven in the looms of Athens andAlexandria,could be permanently out-spread.”

But another, less tangible influenceworked on and was infused into the Western “out-look,” fertilizing the whole history of humanity.The “extraordinary moral and emotional life” ofthe Hebrews permeated the Greek tongue afterAlexander the Great sacked Sidon and Tyre in 332B. C., so that, “by the second century B. C. Greekhad become the official language of the HebrewScriptures” (as evidenced by the Septuagint). Andit was Greek thought which crystallized around theteaching Christ Jesus that was carried over into thethought and feeling of modern Europe through thevast network of the Roman Empire.

While Rome bequeathed the lexicon of its twomajor strengths, military prowess and commonlaw, and more generally its genius for organizationand system, words of Greek origin are more likelyto be landmarks in the world of thought and feeling.

Since language is an essential element of thefunction of thinking, it reflects, and Barfield docu-ments, the increasing objectification of thinkingand the interiorization of consciousness in theWestern world. The seventeenth century saw botha major thrust toward individualism (actuated byDescartes’famous pronouncement “I think, there-

RAYS 97 49

Oil on canvas, 1859, Auguste Pichon (1805-1900), Basilique Notre-Dame, Clery-Saint-Andre, France

The AnnunciationThe angel Gabriel appears before Mary to announce (from Latin nuncio,meaningnews) that she will give birth to the bearer of the Word. Most tra-ditional representations of the Annunciation depict the Virgin meditatingon or actively reading Scripture (the written word), and frequently a ray ofthe Holy Spirit is shown entering Mary’s ear, as she simultaneously hearsthe angelic message andconceives her Son, thus visually fusing Idea andIncarnating Word with the more prosaic word as it is spoken and recorded.The dove of the Holy Spirit is the active agent, Gabriel is the messenger.

foreI am”) and an advance of the scientific methodby Francis Bacon’s formulation of reasoning byinduction, that is, from sense-verifiable data.Barfield details each inward shift of the center ofgravity of human consciousness with choice wordsillustrative of that process. Interestingly, the veryword evolve,made popular by Darwin, requiresthat it lose its original meaning of unfolding fromthe center outward to correspond to his moreextrinsic and materialistic conception.

We live in an increasingly nonverbal, somewould say illiterate, age where the fleeting visualimage (purveyed by throw-away journalism, com-puter and video technologies, television andmovies) is supplanting the spoken and writtenword, with profound implications for fostering animpressionistic, mentally undisciplined dispositionthat is centered in the desire nature, the sphere ofthe image.

Barfield reminds us “that nine-tenths of thewords comprising the vocabulary of a civilizednation are never used by more than at most onetenth of the population. While of the remainingtithe, nine-tenths of those who use them are com-monly aware of about one-tenth of their mean-ings.” Further, the abuse of language, as well as itsnonuse, most conspicuously exemplified in adver-tising, drains words of their power: “Every time asociety journalist or a film producer exploits thissuggestiveness [of a word] to tickle a vanity or dig-nify a lust, he is squandering a great pile of spiri-tual capital which has been laid up by centuries ofweary effort.”

Although this review has provided scant evi-dence of Barfield’s wonderful word histories asthey characterize shifts in human consciousness,he cites over a thousand word examples, many ofwhich are considered in depth. But implicit in hisentire study is a valuation of language that musthave a salutary effect on the conscientious reader—in this age of slipshod speaking and general dis-respect for the integrity and significance of thewritten and spoken word. No term more clearlydemonstrates the intimate correlation between thecreative potency of Godhead, luminous idea, andthe formative vibration we know as speech thanthe word Logos (Word) used by St. John to desig-

nate the Agency by which the Cosmos came intobeing and without which was not anything made.

If we aspire to be apostles of the Word, wewould do well to heed the words of DagHammarskjold from his book Markings:

“Respect for the word is the first commandmentin the discipline by which a man can be educatedto maturity—intellectual, emotional, and moral.

“Respect for the word—to employ it withscrupulous care and an incorruptible heartfelt loveof truth—is essential if there is to be any growth ina society or in the human race.

“To misuse the word is to show contempt forman. It undermines the bridges and poisons thewells. It causes man to regress down the long pathof his evolution.”

On the material plane, truth needs words to becognized and communicated. As emissaries ofspiritual realities, words are angels. Our messagesneeds messengers. Let us not clip their wings, norbind their tongues. ❐

—C. W.

50 RAYS 97

Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit, truth divine,Dawn upon this soul of mine;Word of God and inward light,Wake my spirit, clear my sight.

Holy Spirit, love divine,Glow within this heart of mine,Kindle every high desire,Purge me now in thy pure fire.

Holy Spirit, peace divine,Still this restless heart of mine, Speak to calm this tossing sea, Stayed in thy tranquilit y.

Holy Spirit, joy divine,Gladden thou this heart of mine;In the desert ways I’ll sing;Spring, O well, for ever spring.

—Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892)

THE PERSON WHO has just been informedthathe has cancer is in a critical predicament.* Heis presented by his doctor with a choice of oneor more of three traditional courses of treat-ment, yet all of the patient’s information

points to their questionable efficacy because the statisticsfor long-term survival for most types of cancer is notpromising. What is the person to do? He perhaps has heardof people going to Mexico or elsewhere to get alternativetreatment. But if these treatments are effective, why arethey not offered domestically?Why indeed?

This article will introduce the reader to three alterativeprotocols available for the treatment of cancer whose pri-mary elements are herbal. It will also mention severalother herbs that are purported to have value in cancer ther-apy. However, no claim is herein made for their therapeutic merit, norshould any description of aparticular modality be construed as a rec-ommendation for its use.

It is, however, of considerable comfort when one knows that he ismaking his decision based on the comprehension and evaluation ofthe maximum available information relevant to his concern. Thereader may find resources to assist in this determination at the end of thearticle and in the companion article in the preceding issue of the Rays.

First, it is appropriate to review the reasons why one would wantto look elsewhere for means to cope with cancer. Of the three methodscurrently offered for cancer treatment, surgery may be helpful if thelesion is local and accessible. But frequently the procedure is highlytraumatizing to the body and mind. Never, in any case, is cancer com-pletely removed by the oncological surgeons, as is routinely claimed(“We got it all.”) because cancer is always, from its inception, a sys-temic disease. Excision of a focus of malignancy is not tantamount toeradication of all malignant cells. Also, the risk of spreading cancer,both in biopsy and surgical removal, is a real possibility and an estab-lished fact, not only by releasing cancerous cells from the site ofoperation, but also through the accelerated cell division incident to

healing the lesion, which maystimulate oncogenesis.

Chemotherapy and radiother-apy are both highly assaultiveof the body’s health. Neither iscancer specific, are moredestructive of healthy than can-cerous tissue, and are them-selves frequently carcinogenic;that is, cancer causing, by bothseverelydepressing the regener-ative powers of the immunesystem and by stimulating for-mation and mutation of theoncogene.

In 1954 Dr. Hardin B. Jones,professor of medical physics atthe University of California,addressed his colleagues on theefficacy of cancer treatmentwith conclusions based onstatistics which they did not

RAYS 97 51

Cancer and Herbs

NUTRITION AND HEALTH

Two alkaloids, vincristine and vinblastine, derivedfrom the above-pictured rose periwinkle, are used intreating cancer, particularly, some of the leukemias.

*This article makes no claims for the merits of the procedures it describes and is providedto enable readers to explore the subject as their interest and discretion dictate.

Photo: H

ubert J. Steed

want to hear: cancer patients have a longer survivalrate if they forego all (orthodox) treatment. In une-uphemistic language, the intended cure can hastendeath. And the prognosis has not changed becausethe treatments, and more importantly, the concep-tual framework for treating cancer, have notchanged. Rather than reinforcing the body’s com-promised healing powers, current orthodox proce-dures continue to wage “war” by assaulting theentire body. But since the enemy (guerrillas) livein the same house as the citizens we seek to protectand save, destroying one may destroy the other aswell, resulting in the pyrrhic victory that cures thecancer and loses the patient.

Dr. Virginia Livingston has treated thousands ofcancer patients using a varietyof non-invasive resources,including immune-enhancingvaccines. Her success rate hasbeen far superior to whatorthodoxy can achieve. Shewrites in her book Cancer: ANew Breakthrough, “Manyhelpless individuals have beenpushed to their graves by theorganized, implacable meth-ods of treatment that havebeen a matter of prejudicerather than the result ofenlightened investigation oftreatment that is aimed at thesupport of the patient....indeed, it is a grim picture”(italics added).

What should be emphasized is that there are anumber of non-invasive, life-enhancing, non-tradi-tional therapies and substances that are availableand have been used to treat cancer for centuries.

In his forward to the book Sastun: MyApprenticeship with a Maya Healer (Harper-Collins, 1995) by naturopath Rosita Arvigo, thecurator of the New York Botanical Gardensobserves that “some 25 percent of all our prescrip-tion pharmaceuticals have been discovered” fromthe one-half to one percent of the planet’s 250,000species of higher plants that have been exhaustivelyanalyzed for their chemical composition and med-icinal properties. The Maya healer referred to in

the book’s title, Don Elijio, asks plainly, “Whymust you poison the body in order to heal it?” Sospeaks native wisdom. He believes that “for everyailment or difficulty on earth, the Spirits have pro-vided a cure—you just have to find it.” So everymorning before sunrise, Don Elijio, walks into thejungle and find his curative plants—roots, barks,flowers, leaves.

Two mainstream anticancer drugs, vincris-tinesulfate and vinblastine sulfate, are based on deriv-atives of the rose periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus.Bark from the Pacific yew tree yields a com-pound, taxol, which has demonstrated dramatictumor-dissolving effect in lung, breast, and ovariancancers. Chaparral, a dark olive green plant native

to the Southwestern UnitedStates and Mexico, alsoknown as creosote bush andgreasewood, has been usedby Native Americans for cen-turies to treat a variety of ill-nesses, including cancer. Onekey ingredient (NDGA) hasbeen shown to possess pow-erful antitumor properties.Arlin Brown, who runs theArlin Brown InformationCenter and publishes thedirectory March of Truth onCancer, provides a formulafor chaparral tea as a cancer

remedy but strongly advises that a person withcancer adopt an intensive program combiningdetoxification and immune enhancement.

Jason Winters, a former Hollywood stunt man,healed himself of terminal cancer of the neck witha tea made from chaparral, red clover, and anundisclosed Singapore flower. Jason Winter’sHerbal Tea is detailed in his book Killing Cancer(Vinton Publishing, Mound, MN). Chaparral, how-ever, is condemned on the American CancerSociety’s Unproven Methods blacklist.

Pau D’arco, also known as lapacho, ipe roxo,and taheebo, is an herbal tea prepared from theinner bark of the Tabebuia tree, native to Braziland Argentina. Bill Wead, whose 1985 book,Second Opinion (Rostrom Communications,

52 RAYS 97

The bark of the Pacific yew (Taxusbrevifo-lia), a small evergreen tree, with its characteris-tic bright red fleshy seed cup, contains the anti-cancer compound taxol, which has shown dramaticresults, especially cancers of the female organs.

Minden P

ictures

Vancouver, 1985), focuseson paud’arco as a cancer treatment andhas on file “hundreds of testi-monies as to the efficacyof lapacho,” though “thereis strong evidence thatonce remission hasoccurred,it is necessaryto continue drinking thetea.” Dr. J.B. Block wasinvolved in an N.C.I.-sponsored study of lapa-chol (a pau d’arco deriva-tive) and found that it“exhibited antitumor activi-ty...with little toxicity.” Therewas no followup of thispromisingclinical study.

As enthusiasm intensifiedfor pau d’arco’s abilityapparently to reverseadvanced cancer, includingchildhood leukemia, so didthe orthodox medical community’s attempt tostifle interest in it. As drinking paud’arco became fashionable andbig business, cheap imita-tions using the wrong treespecies flooded themarketplace. It is sug-gested by biochemistWayne Martin thatpau d’arco’s valuelies in its ability toinhibit the formationof fibrin, the proteincoating that surrounds andprotects malignant tumorsfrom being recognized.

Three of the most estab-lished alternative herbaltherapies are Essiac, Hoxsey,and Iscador. Essiac was firstused by surgical nurse RenéCaisse (Essiac spelled back-wards) in Canada, beginningin the 1920’s after she saw its dramatic effect

on her mother’s sister who had can-cer of the stomach with liver

involvement and a prognosis ofsix months to live. She

recovered and lived foranother 21 years.

Essiac is a combina-tion of sheep’s sorrel,which nurse Caissesurmised was the pri-mary antitumor herb,and three other herbs

which work as bloodpurifiers—turkey rhubarb,

burdock root, and slipperyelm bark. The four Essiac

herbs may be taken with fourpotentiating herbs: water-cress, blessed thistle, redclover, and kelp. The truehealing power of theseherbs is derived from theirsynergistic effect, their

complementary, enhancing interaction. Caissebegan giving intramuscular injections of

the antitumoral componentandoral doses of the blood purify-

ing fraction with quickerresults.

By 1926 ninelicensed Canadianphysicians petitionedCanada’s Depart-ment of Health and

Welfareto allow Caisseto conduct large-scale

tests of Essiac,after seeingthe resultsof her work. Thepetition backfired. “Itbecame,”writes chiropractorand author Gary Glum in hisbook on Caisse’s life and heruse of Essiac (Calling of anAngel, Silent WalkerPublishing,Los Angeles,1988), “the opening gun in

the war on Essiac.” For the next fifteen years she

RAYS 97 53

Red clover, Trifolium pratense, is an ingredient in theHoxsey herbal tonic, one of three herbs in JasonWinters’tea, and one of the four potentiating herbs forEssiac. Jethro Kloss (Back to Eden) also cites its valuein treating cancer.

The creosote bush, also known as chaparral, Larreatridentata, is a desert shrub that smells like balsam.It is used in the Winters’herbal formula for cancer,is used as a douche by Dr. Andrew Weil for the pre-cancerous condition, cervical displasia. Chaparralextract kills cancer cells in test tubes, according torecent studies at Auburn University by E. Mora.

Photo: E

lsa Sanger

Desert S

tar Images

lived under siege. She treated hundreds of patientsa month while doctors and officials who wantedher arrested fought against her supporters.

Nurse Caisse found that her remedy had an“affinity for drawing all the cancer cells, whichhad spread, back to the original site, at which pointthe tumor would first harden, then later it wouldsoften, until it vanished altogether, or more realis-tically, the tumor would decreased in size to whereit could then be surgically removed withminimal complications.”

Dr. Charles Brusch, co-founder ofthe Brusch Medical Center, oneof the largest clinics inMassachusetts, and for manyyears a personal physician ofJohn Kennedy, has personal-ly taken Essiac for his cancerand has “every faith in it.”Without a doubt, he says,“Essiac has been found to atleast prolong life.” Competingversions of Essiac are on themarket and one would do well tothoroughly research the issuebefore proceeding further. Dr.Glum also makes the herbalpreparation and providesdetailed directions for taking it.

The Hoxsey therapy, men-tioned briefly in the precedingRays articleon cancer (Nov/Dec’96), works to normalize the constitution of bodyfluids and restore the body’s original chemical bal-ance so that its environment will be unfavorable tothe survival and reproduction of cancer cells. TheHoxsey Tonic is designed to accomplish thisrestoration. It combines potassium iodide withsome or all of the following: licorice root, redclover, burdock root, stillingia root, barberis root,poke root, cascara, Aromatic USP14, prickly ashbark and buckthorn bark. As Hoxsey writes in hisbook You Don’t Have to Die, “In our laboratorieswe are able to demonstrate that the blood chem-istry of patients does undergo definite changes asthe result of this medicine.” Several pastes knownas escharotics are applied locally in external cases.

They “halt the spread of the disease and speed thenecrosis (death) of cancer cells.”

Two federal courts in the 1950’s upheld the“therapeutic value” of Hoxsey’s internal tonic.Even his archenemies, the A.M.A. and the F.D.A.,admitted that his treatment could cure some formsof cancer.

Hoxsey was arrested more times than any personin medical history, usually for practicing medicine

without a license. But no cancer patientever testified against him. In 1954 an

independent team of ten physiciansfrom around the United States

made a two-day inspection ofHoxsey’s Dallas clinic anddeclared that it was “suc-cessfully treating patho-logically proven cases ofcancer....We as a committeefeel that the Hoxsey treat-ment is superior to such con-

ventional methods of treat-ment as X-ray, radium, and

surgery. We are willing to assistthis clinic in any way possible in

bringing this treatment to theAmerican public.” But the treat-ment was and continues to bedenied to the American public.It is on the American CancerSociety’s blacklist of“Unproven Methods of Cancer

Management,” though the 1953 Fitzgerald Report,commissioned by a U. S. Senate committee, con-cluded that organized medicine (the A.M.A.,enlisting the support of N.C.I. and the F.D.A.) had“conspired” to “suppress” a fair, unbiased assess-ment of Hoxsey’s methods.

Since 1963 the Hoxsey therapy (“a combinationof three elements—internal medicine, externalcompounds and supportive treatment,” including adietary regimen and vitamin therapy) has beenoperating out of Tijuana, Mexico as the Bio-Medical Center, under the able administration ofHoxsey’s long-time chief nurse, Mildred Nelson,herself a scoffer of the therapy until her motherwas cured of metastasized cancer.

54 RAYS 97

Burdock root, arctium lappa, common toboth the Essiac and Hoxsey herbal thera-pies for cancer, contains a substance, called“the B-factor,”which reduces cell mutation,and inulin, a powerful immune modulator.

Photo: D

avid Tierny

From an esoteric standpoint, the Iscador therapy,offered by the Lukas Klinik in Arlesheim,Switzerland, may be most interesting. An extractof the European mistletoe, Iscador was proposedas a cancer remedy by Rudolf Steiner, the founderof the Anthroposophical movement. Steiner char-acterized cancer as the result of the weakening offormative forces which create structure and findexpression in the immune system, allowing cellu-lar forces, which regulate cell division and growth,to gain the upper hand and cause cell proliferation.When formative forces weaken and lose their abil-ity to keep cells performing their specialized func-tions, the cells become autonomous and “selfish.”As Anthroposophical physician Friedrich Lorenzexplains, “the cancer cell falls back into its ownindividual life—no longer puts itself into the ser-vices of a higher organ or organism-—it becomesegotistic.” In fact, Steiner has described cancer asthe manifestation of willing that is not imbuedwith life-filled thoughts or true feelings, where-upon it becomes a destructive force.

Mistletoe is an “animal plant,” a survivor of theMoon Period of evolution. It has an “insane aris-tocracy,” the tendency to do everything by its ownrhythms. Dr. Rita Leroi, for many years the super-visor of the Lukas Klinik, says that “the mistletoeconquers the tumorous tendency with its ownrhythmically built-up formation.” Iscador is a fer-mented extract of the whole mistletoe plant.Iscador M, made from mistletoe grown on appletrees, is used to treat women, and Iscador P, grownon pine trees, is for men and women. Differentpreparations are chosen according to the patient’sgender and the location of the primary tumor.Iscador is given as part of a program encompass-ing diet, herbs, and therapies that use art, music,and movement, notably eurythmy.

In Anthroposophical medicine cancer is not somuch a tragedy as an opportunity to undergo innerspiritual change and find new direction. Patients areencouraged to see the cancer not as punishment butas a springboard for a change of heart and mind.❐

ResourcesFor all publications cited in this article and an extensivebook list on most facets of the cancer phenomenon contactCancer Book House, Cancer Control Society 2043 N.Berendo St., Los Angeles, CA90027. Phone: 213-663-7801

Additional clearinghouses for information regarding alter-native cancer therapies and patients who have recoveredfrom these therapies include:Arlin J. Brown Information Center, P.O. Box 251, FortBelvoir, VA 22060. Phone: 703-451-8638The Alliance for Alternative Medicine, P.O. Box 59, LakeLiberty, WA 99019. Phone: 509-255-9246Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapy, P.O. Box1242, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10113. Phone:212-741-2790International Association for Cancer Victors and Friends,7740 West Manchester Ave., Suite 110, Playa del Rey, CA90293. Phone: 310-822-5032People Against Cancer, P.O. Box 10, Otho, IA50569.Phone: 515-972-4444 Essiac: ESSIAC International, Suite 2211, 1081 AmblesideDr., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8C8. Phone: 613-820-9311;Elaine Alexander, 6690 Oak St., Vancouver, British Columbia,V6P3Z2, Canada. Phone: 604-261-1270; Dr. Gary Glum, P.O.Box 80098, Los Angeles, CA90080. Phone: 213-271-9931Hoxsey: Bio-Medical Center, P.O. Box 727, General Ferreira#615, Col. Juarez, Tijuana, B.C., Mexico. Phone: 011-52-66-849011/849132 EveningsIscador: Lukas Klinik, CH-4144 Arlesheim, Switzerland.Phone: 011 41 61-701-3333; Physicians Association forAnthroposophic Medicine, P.O. Box 269, Kimberton, PA 19442Pau D’arco: through a catalogue from Lindberg Nutrition,Torrance, CA. Phone: 800-338-797Jason Wintersproducts: Tri-Sun North America, 109 1/2 Broad-way, Box 1606, Fargo, ND 58107. Phone: 800-447-0235

RAYS 97 55

Mistletoe, Viscum album, sacred to the Druids, is a semipara-sitic plant from which the cancer remedy Iscador is obtained.It enhances immune system activities, stimulates the thymus,enhances phagocytosis, elevates the number of immunocom-petent white cells, and activates natural killer cells.

New

sweek B

ooks: Health P

lants of the World

GOD IS EVERYWHERE. His healingpower is in the very air we breathe.Vitalizing forces—God’s renewing,healing forces—continually pourinto our vital bodies from the Sun.

Our subconscious mind, a powerful factor forgood or ill, functions in or through our vital bod-ies. It is amenable to suggestion by means of theimagination, one of the powers of the Spirit.Pictures consciously and persistently held in themind’s eye work into the subconscious mind andserve as suggestions for it to act upon.

Conditions we visualize and concentrate on reg-ularly are likely to be brought about eventually inour bodies. The pictures are imprinted on the sub-conscious mind and, in proportion to their clarity,they serve as suggestions for implementation.

The subconscious mind never sleeps and isnever inactive. Given strong suggestions or vividlyrealized pictures, it works them out, whether theybe for our benefit or our undoing. If we have faithin our God-given, self-healing powers, if we pic-ture ourselves well, as we are in spirit, we are morelikely to get well, and that more quickly.

Faith, be it as small as a mustard seed, initiatesthe healing process. It offers a compelling invita-tion for positive thoughts to enter the consciousmind. These, then, permeate the subconsciousmind and direct it in its emphasis on the health ofthe whole body or of specific areas and organs.

If we keep the picture and thought of healingcontinually front and center in our conscious mind,the subconscious mind will “take up the cudgels”accordingly. A lapse in such positive thinking,

however, will destroy the healthy picture and leavethe subconscious mind open to the debris ofdestructive thoughts that populate the ethers.

The condition we most frequent and vividly pic-ture to ourselves is a prescription that the subcon-scious will dutifully fill. Therefore, constant rein-forcement of the image of our good health is thekeynote for this method of inviting God’s healingpower to protect and vitalize the body. ❐

Visible Helpers are just as necessary as InvisibleHelpers, and our friends and patients may share ina high privilege, as well as add much to the powerof liberated healing force, by joining us in prayerfor the sick. Our Healing Service is held everyevening in the Healing Temple at 6:30 (7:30 whenDaylight time is in effect) and in the Pro-Ecclesiaat 4:15 P.M. when the Moon is in acardinalsign on the following dates:

January..............................1—8—14—21—29February..................................5—11—17—25

Relax, close your eyes, and make a mental pictureof the pure white rose in the center of the Rosicru-cian Emblem on the west wall of our Pro-Ecclesia,and concentrate on DivineLoveandHealing.

56 RAYS 97

Health and the

Subconscious Mind

HEALING

THE MOMENT the children turnedand saw the next gate, they bothexclaimed, “How beautiful!” It cer-tainly was the most beautiful gate theyhad seen up to the present.

The pillars on each side were formed like peachtrees, with bunches of fruit hanging in clustersfrom every branch. The gate itself was of polishedcopper and at the top, a copper sun sinkinghalfway below a copper sea, each ray of the sunhaving a little hand at its tip.

A narrow pillar ran up the centre of the gate, andpoised on the top of this, just under the settingsun, was a pair of scales. One pan swungright up in the air and the other wasweighed down with a ball, gleamingwith many colors.

“This is the Land of the Balance,”said Rex, “so I wonder if before wemay go inside we have to find what fillsthe other pan to make it swing evenly?”

“We had better look and see if we have anythingto put in,” said Zendah, searching in her pocket.But she had nothing except a handkerchief, whileRex found only the knife that he had nearly lostoutside the other gate.

Standing on tiptoe, they tried to put these thingsin the pan; nothing happened. But then they hardlythought that these would be enough. Lookinground, they noticed just under the central pillar ofthe gate, a casket, with the words engraved on it,“Choose well, choose wisely.”

Opening it they found inside a collection ofsmall bags of gold, several golden hearts, many

little daggers, and numbers of small books.Rex seized the little bags of gold, and reaching

up, piled them into the scale, but yet they did notmove. Then he collected a handful of the daggersand put them in. Still the pan remained up in theair. They tried all the little books, but with noresults.

“Well, there is only one thing left now,” saidZenda, “so that must be right,” and into the panthey piled the little gold hearts. Immediately thescales began to swing and down, up and down,until they came to rest at last level.

The moment they did so, music sounded, andvoices sang to the chord. “Give the

Password of the Just balance.”“Harmony,” replied the children.The gate glided open, so quietly andgently, that they wondered how it

opened so noiselessly.Just inside stood Father Time. They stared

with open eyes for he looked so different. Gonewas his dark cloak of the Land of the Sea-Goat;instead he now wore a dress of silvery white, cov-ered all along the edge with sparkling stones andgreen embroidery. He reminded the children of oneof those beautiful sunny days in winter when thesnow hangs like diamonds on the fir trees. Hesmiled when he saw their astonishment and said:

“I can only wear this dress when I come to visitQueen Venus. People always expect me to look sadin the other lands, but I am not really so severewhen you get to know me. Learn all you can hereand consider—Queen Venus will tell you how.”

Taking his dark cloak and hourglass from a

RAYS 97 57

Rex and Zendahin

FOR CHILDREN

MUSIC SCALES

niche by the gate he went out, after which itclosed behind him.

“Consider—consider what?” inquiredRex.

“I am sure I don’t know,” said Zendah,“but I expect we shall soon find out.”

They began to look around. It was verylovely; the sky was alight with the mostbeautiful sunset they had ever seen. Theperfume of many flowers met them onevery side, but it was difficult to say whatthey were because the fragrance was so dif-ferent from anything they knew at home.

Seven roads lay in front of them andalong one of these, coming in their direc-tion, were a man and a woman with theirarms linked together. They were verycharming to look at, but the surprising thingwas, that they were not walking on the road,nor on the grass, but floating in the air, justabove the ground. They were both dressedin robes of the same colour as the deep bluesea when a hot summer sun is shining on it,and wore copper belts, set with rows of opals.

They hardly seemed solid, for sometimesthe children thought they could see throughthem.

Coming to rest on the road near Rex andZendah, they were joined by another man andwoman, and together the four sang the chord likethat heard at the entrance.

Immediately hundreds of tiny fairies floated up,holding a many colored carpet that looked ratherlike a sunset cloud. With smiles and waving arms,the fairies invited the children to sit down on thiscarpet, when gently it rose from the ground andthey were started on their voyage in the air.

So smoothly they travelled, they hardly knewthat they had left the ground. It was quite easy forthem to see everything as they passed and theythought it was much nicer than any other methodof transportation they had ever tried.

One very curious thing they did notice was thatevery house was suspended in the air; not one wasbuilt on the ground, and they wondered where thefoundations were laid.

Whichever way they gazed, there were beautiful

gardens, and many flowers, lilies and violets androses, all in bloom, and over them hoveredhundreds of bees.

Hearing very faint music, they looked aroundand found that it was the fairies singing the flow-ers to sleep, so that they could place the honeyinside the flowers’storehouses for the bees to findthe next day. A burst of glorious music above theirheads made them look up, and high above them,they saw the palace.

It was made of sunset clouds, its towers and pin-nacles were of all colors—ruby, orange, green andpurple, and that beautiful blue you see only in thesky at sunset, on a clear day. Up and up they floatedto the entrance, fairly flying to greet them withgarlands of roses, which they threw round theirnecks. Leaving the carpet, they ascended themagic steps and entered the hall, and everywherefound there were flowers and fairies. Soon theycame to a series of rooms, seven of them, all of the

58 RAYS 97

same size, but each of a different color—red, orange,green, yellow, blue, violet, and indigo.

Each room seemed more beautiful than the pre-ceding and as they crossed the threshold, a note ofmusic sounded.

The rooms affected them differently. Goingthrough the red room they felt lively and energetic;nothing troubled them, and they stepped along asto a marching tune; in fact the note of music in thatroom sounded like a march to them.

In the orange room, they felt as if they were inthe sunshine and wanted to sit down and just enjoyit and make plans for what they wished to do.

The yel low roommade them feel clever,and Rex thought of thesums that he could notdo at school and foundhe knew all the answers,and Zendah remem-bered all the dates in herhistory that had alwaysseemed so hard.

In the green roomZendah recalled she hadforgotten to feed herrabbits the night before,and had never helpedmother in the garden asshe had promised, while Rex remembered the boywith the broken leg, who lived in the cottage downthe road and who had asked him to go and read to him.

The blue room felt like a church and theystepped on tiptoe and talked in whispers. They fan-cied they saw angels all round the walls, and heardan organ playing music, such as they heard onSundays.

The violet room! They could never quite explainhow they felt there. It reminded them somehow of theLand of the Fishes and the Temple of the Holy Cup.

Lastly, they entered the deep-sea blue room, thegreat hall. There, at the far end, they saw QueenVenus smiling at them from a carved ivory throne.The throne curved right above her head, so sheseemed to be sitting in a ball of ivory.

It had a wonderful blue cushion and behind it, onthe wall, were blue silk hangings, covered with

pictures worked in many colors.Vases of flowers stood everywhere, and all the

attendants had wreaths on their heads. QueenVenus herself was dressed in pure white silk, bor-dered with blue and opals.

The children ran toward her and caught hold ofher hands.

“Sit down on the cushions at my feet,” she said,“and consider.”

They looked at each other and whispered,“Consider again? What does it mean?” Sittingdown on the cushions pointed out to them, theywatched. Many people came into the hall with sad,

gloomy, or angry faces.Queen Venus benttoward them and whis-pered a few words intheir ears, and sent themaway with one of theattendants.

In a short time theycame back, lookingquite different, andkissing the Queen’shand, left the hall.

“Do you wonderwhat is the matter withall these people?” she

said, turning to thechildren. Rex nodded.

“They are all discontented or unhappy, and theycome to learn to be peace-makers instead of trouble-makers in the world. They do not understand thateveryone has his own note of music and also hisown colour, and if he does not use his own note hesings out of tune. So I send these people into thehalls through which you passed, to find their ownnote and to learn to sing it properly.

“Then they go back to Earth and sing in tune,and they will never grumble any more. Everythinghas its own note; listen to the waterfall and thewind in the trees and you will hear theirs. Even thestars sing. Listen!” She held up her hand andeveryone in the hall was silent.

She stood up and sang a few notes of a song. Above them in the air appeared a harp with

seven strings. First one note murmured and

RAYS 97 59

They come to learn to bepeace-makers instead of

troublemakers in theworld.They do not under-stand that everyone has

his own note of music andalso his own colour, and ifhe does not use his ownnote he sings out of tune.

swelled and sang, then another and another untilall the seven were singing together, and a starflashed out over the harp and then disappeared.

They had never heard anything like it, and it wasso grand that they almost felt a little awed, andcrept up close to Queen Venus.

Smiling at their amazement she said: “That isthe music of the seven planets; only poets andgreat musicians ever hear it on Earth, and it isbecause they find it so difficult to write down andfor other people to play that they are usually so dis-satisfied with their work. If you always think ofbeautiful things and endeavor to make happinesswherever you go, then you will be able to comeback to this land and hear the music of the planetsagain, for this land is harmony.

“That is what Father Time meant when he toldyou to consider; consider before you speak, thatyou may not say unkind words which hurt andupset the harmony of the world; consider beforeyou act whether the thing you do helps other peo-ple or is just for yourself.

“To remind you of this land, take this five-pointedopal star, Zendah, and you, Rex, take this smallseven-stringed harp, that you may try to make realmusic for the world.”

Both children kissed her hand when they saidgood-bye, and told her they were very sorry toleave her, but she smiled and said they would seeher again before they went home.

Outside the palace they took their places oncemore on the magic carpet and sailed away towardthe gate. Instead of getting off, they found them-selves floating through it.

The carpet and the fairies disappeared, and theysank slowly down, until they stood outside.

The balance was again empty on one side; thesetting sun at the top of the gate disappearedbelow its copper sea and slowly everything wentdark. (Continued) ❐

60 RAYS 97

Letters To StudentsBy Max Heindel

This book contains the direct personalcommunications of Max Heindel with

students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship fromChristmas 1910 to January 1919. These ninety-seven letters, written in the intimate, earnesttone of a teacher and friend, make inspiringand instructive reading.

Contents include:

Christ and His Second Coming

Heart Development and Initiation

Spiritual Teachers—True and False

The Christ Spirit and the Spiritual Panacea

Incr easing the Life of the Ar chetype

Unnatural Means of Attainment

“Lost Souls” and Stragglers

The Vital Body of Jesus

Please order on page 64

237 Pages. Paper

Published by The Rosicrucian Fellowship