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THE DEVOTIONAL ATTITUDEby

Chas. A. Peckham

In this intellectual age, with its hurry andhustle, its vain pleasure seeking and madrush for wealth, there are few who seek tolive a life of devotion to high ideals or to cul-tivate within themselves that attitude of mindwhich seeks the good and the beautiful in all

things. With the great mass of mankind material

perception seems to be the sole basis ofunderstanding: what they are wont to seewith the outward senses they believe to betrue, but what they cannot see with the phys-ical eye they do not believe.

The mystic, on the other hand, perceivesan ulterior meaning, a hidden beauty and sig-nificance in all the objects, acts, and events

The Mystic Light* * * * * *

Vol. 3 Oceanside June 1915 California No 2

Subscription: $1.00 per year; single copies 10c in the U.S.; Canada $1.25 per year andEngland $1.50 per year post free.

Formerly “Echoes from Mt. Ecclesia,” and entered under that name as second class matterNov. 3rd, 1913 at the Post Office of Oceanside, California, under the

Act of August 24th, 1912.

of daily life. To him there is nothing mean orsordid in the universe, but he regards allthings, from the tiny blade of grass to theshining constellations in the blazing pathwayof the zodiac, as symbols of the Divine.

Thus in the things which the average per-son looks upon with indifference, owing tothe constant familiarity therewith, the mysticperceives a hidden meaning that reveals tohim their spiritual import.

In the brightness of the sun he sees a sym-bol of God’s great love for humanity; in theclouds, which oft obscure it, the worldly pre-occupations and material pursuits which pre-vent that love from manifesting.

In the glory of the sunrise he sees thepromise of a glorious future towards whichhe yearns, and in the gorgeous colors of thesunset the assurance of a continuance of lifebeyond the dark night of the death of thebody.

The brook pursuing its tortuous and stormypathway in untiring efforts to reach the sea isan apt symbol of the soul upon the path ofattainment, treading the maze of the materialworld, seeking its way to truth and light.

Every little flower growing by the waysidespeaks most eloquently of the path of chasti-ty which all must tread who reach that goal.In each tiny seed is revealed the history ofevolution, and the great possibilities of thehuman soul. In the transformation of thecaterpillar to the butterfly we gain a hint as towhat man has been and also what he is des-tined to become.

Such is the attitude which the mystic sus-tains towards all things in Nature. He looks

upon everything with a spiritual vision thatsees in each object a symbol of divine pur-pose and seeks within the depth of his inner-most being to learn a lesson therefrom.

Likewise, all the acts and events of dailylife are regarded by the mystic as symbols ofhigher things, and he performs his duties inthe spirit of devotion, as unto the Lord, andto him they become as sacraments.

When he eats, each meal is to him the HolySupper, to be approached with reverence andeaten in remembrance of Him who said:“This is my body,” for he sees truly that thebread which he eats is indeed a part of thebody of the great Christ Spirit who sacrificesHimself for the good of humanity.

The bath he sees as a symbol of that innerpurification so essential to one who seeks totread the path.

Marriage he regards as a high and holything, for in that union of soul with soul isprefigured that greater and holier union themystic marriage between God and the soul.

It is thus by cultivating within himself thatdevotional attitude of mind which sees onlythe good, the true, and the beautiful in allpersons and things and perceives the innermeaning that is contained in all experiences,that the mystic opens up his soul to theinflow of the divine life which illumines hisunderstanding, and endows him with a spiri-tual vision that enables him to read thesecrets contained in the book of Nature.

Ever seeking instruction in things spiritual,he strives to daily refine his senses from themere perception of the outward forms ofthings that he may more clearly perceive

4 RAYS FROM THE ROSE CROSS

their spiritual import.Yet it must not be supposed that he disre-

gards the things of ordinary life or spends histime in idle speculations upon metaphysicalsubjects.

He regards the world as a school whereinhe is placed to learn by experience thelessons of life, and so he goes through lifewith an alert, wide-awake mind keenlyobserving all things and carefully weighingand testing all experiences, thereby extract-ing from each the greatest possible amount ofbenefit. Thus he is one of the most practicalof men, doing his work in the world to thevery best of his ability, yet ever keeping inmind the true purpose of life and constantlystriving to understand the spiritual signifi-cance of all things.

Everyone who aspires to tread the path ofspiritual attainment must assiduously culti-vate within themselves this devotional atti-tude of mind. It is the first step upon the paththat leads to the higher knowledge and is ofenormous and far-reaching importance.Everywhere in our environment we shouldlook for that which evokes in us feelings ofrespect and veneration. Such feelings are tothe soul what food is to the body. It is by cul-tivating our devotional nature that we feedthe soul, thereby causing it to expand andgrow strong. Feelings of hate, disrespect,and antipathy, on the other hand, bring aboutstarvation and withering of its activities.Therefore we should avoid such feelings asthese and bend all our energies to the task ofdeveloping the devotional attitude withinourselves. Then we have firmly planted our

feet upon the higher path which will eventu-ally lead to God.

FOR PEACEby

Eva G. Taylor

We are praying for peace; we are thinkingpeace, hoping for peace, and for a fewmoments we will consider peace in its wider,fuller import. What is the peace which weare praying for with all our hearts while afaroff the din and horror of fratricidal strife fillsthe earth’s aura with its lurid red?

Last year there were held more than one-hundred-and-fifty International PeaceCongresses, Conventions, and Conferences.These were believed to presage the approachof the long-hoped-for and world-wide unityfor which humanity had been praying. It wasdeclared with emphatic assurance that warwas a thing of the past. Today we are in themidst of conditions which might causeangels to weep—and Europe is plunged intothe most terrible fratricidal struggle recordedin history. From this we are forced to drawseveral conclusions—one of which is thatour former optimism rested upon a very inse-cure foundation, and that our so-called“peace” perched upon a thin crust overseething inner fires.

The great Master—Christ Jesus—utteredthese words, wonderful in their profound andmystical meaning: “My peace I give untoyou—not as the world gives.” Note that theywere spoken to the Disciples alone; to thosewho loved Him and were consecrated to His

RAYS FROM THE ROSE CROSS 5

service. Also, that they imply TWO KINDSOF PEACE. Human analogy bears out theinference. The peace which the world givesis the false security lulling us into a tempo-rary siesta while the storm is gatheringaround.

The peace of Christ for which we are pray-ing is more than external calm. It is morethan exterior stillness over agitated andseething depths. In the microcosm it is morethan emotion lulled into momentary rest. Itis more than the nepenthe-stilled senseswhich for a brief interval see not, feel not,hear not. In the microcosm it is more thancessation of martial movement when the ele-mental forces are awed into quiet by aMaster’s will. The world peace for which welong and wait is not the ominous stillness ofoppressed and stifled misery—stifledbeneath crushing tyranny. It is not thepathetic indifference to fate which the sub-merged masses show beneath the iron handof greed and avarice. It is not the dull accep-tance of relentless conditions—a submissionwhich prevents open warfare BECAUSE ofthe conditions. Such submission eitherparalyses all out-reaching endeavors or feedsa seething fire of hatred within, which even-tually will burst all bounds.

Such has been the peace conditions of thepast centuries among the nations of theworld. Ominous mutterings of the comingtempest have been heard now and againthrough the sultry silence. Wrongs haveclamored for redress, but have been silencedby the lifted hand of tyranny dyed red in theblood of humanity. We have called it

“peace” because there was dulled submissionto inevitable conditions. Wrongs were vest-ed with robes of official dignity, injusticewas clad in purple and ermine, and crueltysat on the thrones of power.

So there was “peace.” Peace? Ah!Friends, let us look beneath, to the heart andcore of it all. Again let us turn to the wordsof our great Example, Christ. He makes asignificant distinction between the peacewhich the world gives and that which Heimparts to those who love Him. We haveseen the effects of the former. We have livedunder its false security and have sufferedfrom its far-reaching consequences. Itspeace is like that of a sultry summer after-noon when all nature is conscious of electri-cal disturbance—somewhere. The sense andemotional centers feel the subtle vibrationsof ruffled atmospheric currents. Presentlythere is a movement of air, an on-rushingenergy, a sigh from bending forests and afierce, elemental battle is on.

Another simile for the false peace may befound in the still pool in whose dark depthspoison lurks. A false peace, dear Friends,rests upon no foundation. At any momentimpulsions from beneath are liable to pene-trate its thin shell, and gigantic disturbanceresults. It is evident then that we desire someother form of peace—something enduringand potential. This peace can be found onlyin the Christ-principle—in the Christ-spiritprevailing and guiding. His peace differsfrom that which the world in its temporizingpolicy offers, as radiant energy differs fromlethargy. Christ’s peace is radiant energy,


glowing life, moving flame from a pure cen-ter of Light; and its bright altruism enfoldsand blesses the heart of humanity—theworld-soul. When this peace reaches theheart of mankind the nations will no longerbe at war. There will be no race-spirit, nodesire for power to use in selfish monopoly;no out-reaching tentacles of avarice to gripthe hapless victims. This, then, is the peacewe pray for tonight, tomorrow, and all thedays to come. The peace of Christ ! We aretold that it passes understanding. It passesthe bounds of intellect. Mind cannot grasp it.Only the spirit can recognize and embrace it.Yet from that radiant center we feel its bene-dictory calm, its high beatitude through allthe life. It touches and electrifies all thesense and all the emotional centers. It trulyradiates its blessings through every avenue ofconsciousness. It cannot be expressed. Itcannot be understood by those who know itnot.

With this understanding of peace it is evi-dent that the world is not quite ready for itsdivine blessedness. Anything less than this isnot peace, but is merely absence of martialmovement. It is one of the great tragedies ofour “Sorrowful Star” that tears and blood-shed, wreck and ruin must precede the recon-ciling harmony—the harmony that springsfrom the perfect peace, and includes it. TheMars spirit makes this an age of unrest. It isfelt not alone on the battlefield, but in everywalk in life, in every avenue of the world’sprogress. It is good, therefore, to send outthoughts of peace continually; to concentrateon peace, to work and pray for it; but we

must do MORE THAN THIS. We must ana-lyze with the philosopher’s insight and findthe underlying causes of the chaotic condi-tions which we find everywhere. Then wemust recognize all the elements of the strifeand find a true basis for peace. As this can befound only in altruism—in universal love—in the recognition of the fundamental unity.It is clear then that we must work for this; inother words, for Christ and His Kingdom. Togo back to the ultimate, not stop halfway anddream of glossed-over conditions which areevil at the core, but fair on the outside—likewhited sepulchers. It is those conditionswhich have produced our wars and our mis-eries. These wars and these miseries mustprevail until the stream of human life is puri-fied at its source. So much of the animal ele-ment is mixed with its pure essence now thatsometimes it becomes difficult to separatethe two. We must become pure, however,before we can have peace—lasting peace—in the national life as in the individual.While anything false or evil is hidden, orcovered up, or glossed over, the utmost ofpeace that we can know is that which theworld gives—a temporary lull in the storm—an armistice or truce during which we maybury our dead.

The real peace is white, luminous, like abeam of light from God. It is the perfectflower which crowns life harmonized. It isthe true symphony of human life whose qual-itative analysis may be summed up in thesewords of the great Master, Beethoven:“Nothing can be more sublime than to drawnear to the Godhead, and to diffuse here on


earth these god-like rays among mortals.”During the process of unfoldment, of

adjustment, of constructive utility and beau-ty, life is full of discord and strife. It is withthe nations as with the individual—with thecosmic as with the microcosmic. While theDEBRIS of a demolished structure is beingcleared way to make room for the new, thesight is not a pleasing one. All the senses areoffended by the litter and confusion. Theartist’s soul alone can see in imagination thenew structure which will arise in airy grace,in noble beauty over the wreck and ruin. Inour old terminology we need to speak of thehuman lives which were “snuffed out uponthe battlefield,” like the flame from a candle.We know now that the life is not snuffedout—and that the flame still lives. The oldcrystallized conditions will be broken up bythis terrible upheaval and we shall feel thestirring of finer etheric currents.

Let us then continue to send out thoughtsof peace, and more than this to make themmighty, potent, all-powerful—charged withthe electric current of love from the DivineCenter. Thus we may aid in the movementfor peace—for the true peace—for the peaceof Christ. The preparatory work must bedone, however. The DEBRIS of uselessthought, of idle fancy, of selfish interestsmust be cleared away. The race-spirit mustdie out. Class distinctions—except degreesin spiritual attainment—must be abolished.The only standard of excellence must bebased upon spiritual unfoldment. All thearbitrary distinctions of our foolish, modern,so-called civilization must be dissolved in

the white light of Truth which shines fromthe spiritual worlds. All our concepts basedupon earth’s false standards must be reversedand we must stand as a UNIT endlesslyMULTIPLIED as ONE radically, fundamen-tally—manifesting in differing degrees, butaltogether making the perfect humanity.

To use the old musical simile—eachhuman Intelligence sounds its note and a cer-tain number of these notes harmoniouslyblended make up the perfect chord. All thesechords with their tones and overtones, theirbalance and rhythm, form the great sympho-ny of life. Not one note can be spared—notone chord dispensed with. Even those whichfall with a weird dissonance upon untrainedears, under the Master’s skill, help to pro-duce the truest music—the most perfect har-mony. None of us who journey togetherupon this “sorrowful Star” can enter into theperfect harmony until the last false individualnote has been brought up to sound its full,true note. In the great world-soul there aremany tones. Some sound very discordant tosensitive ears, but they must be rendered trueand clear spheres as a vivid fact instead of apoet’s dream. Then we shall know the mean-ing of peace and shall realize how fully weare one. Just now the martial note prevails,but from the crash of horns and drums therewill arise a clear, pure melody from the vio-lin and cello strings of man’s higher soul, andthe reign of peace will begin.

In a very real sense we are our brothers’keepers—in a deep mystical sense—for atthe heart of things we are one. Our souls,formed from the world-soul, separated now


though they be—each enclosed in its tinyshell—will, when purified and united to thespiritual Intelligence, be one in mightypower and blessedness.

One last thought: Altruism must have itsroots within, in the holy center of Love andLight where the real self dwells. Seeds oftruth must fall into the silences of the heartand germinate there in the deep stillness. Weknow not what we lose when we let them fallupon the turbulent, eddying stream of out-ward life and while away on its restless cur-rents. Its impulsions are ever outward and ifthe divine truths, which the Master speaks tothe inner ear, be not allowed to come to fullfruition within, before they are borne out-ward, they will fail in their high purpose. Adeep truth lies concealed in this—one worthyof your serious thought.

The Heart of the Christ is love and light.When His law rules the life, peace results.Restlessness is a sign of disturbed centersand shows that the energies are rushing out intravail channels—dissipated in non-essentiallines.

The false peace—the peace which theworld gives its votaries, disunites, segregates,disrupts. In its way it is almost as harmful asthe martial forces let loose. To enter into thegreat and lasting peace, dear friends, the soulof humanity must turn toward the Divine,central Light and away from the world ofform and fantasy. It is the trying to face bothways that brings all our misery.

It is all quite simple—the problem of life,individual and cosmic—when we find thekey. This key is within the reach of all when

we look within, and in the center of ourbeing—in the deep stillness find our realself—our higher Self and our God.

Let the closing thought of peace which weshall take away with us be expressed in thewords of a hymn written by a mystic andsaint in the Welsh Abbey of Llantheny:—

Hush—let a stillness deepBrood over every heart!Let every earthly thoughtNow utterly depart.

Master, say, “Peace be still.”For THOU ART SURELY HERE.Master—let Thy great calmMake us to FEEL THEE NEAR!

Our souls all sweetly bless,And make this hour so sweetThat we shall KNOW OURSELVES

Just resting at Thy Feet.

FELLOWSHIP: A LEGENDby

Blanche Cromartie

Three beggars went down to Samaria, theone deaf, another blind, the third a cripple.

And as they went one said: “Surely I am aSinner—being deaf”; and the second said: “Iam blind, surely I am a sinner also”; and thethird likewise owned his sins saying:“Therefore I am a cripple.”

Then they were minded how they alwayswent the three together and said each to theother:

“I can hear, for I have thee and thee for ears.”


And the next said:“I can see, for I have thee and thee for eyes.”And the last said:“Surely you twain are my feet.”Then all three praised God and rejoiced.And as they drew new to Samaria they met

one whose mouth was covered and in hishand a clapper, for he was a leper.

He stood far off and begged an alms ofthem, but they said: “We be beggars, we havenaught; we go down to Samaria seekingalms, for the Samaritans are ready givers.”

The leper cried aloud and said: “Thoughyou have naught yet you are greatlyblessed—being three. But I am a sinner andmust dwell comradeless.”

When the three friends heard that, they saidone to another:

“We are likewise sinner but we go in com-pany.” Then their heart smote them withcompassion for the lonely one and with oneconsent they called to him: “We be all sin-ners and afflicted of the Lord. Come nowand be of our fellowship.”

The leper rejoiced exceedingly hearing thisand said: “Then let us go to Bethlehem forthis night in a dream one showed me thatMessiah is born there.”

The road to Bethlehem was stony and steepand the night fell, but the blind man knew theway.

It was night when they reached the stable-door at Bethlehem and they feared to knock.Now within, Joseph slept, but Mary keptwatch by the child; she heard the noise of thefeet and of men whispering, so she arose andopened the wicket.

A dazzling ray of light streamed out intothe darkness, and through the wicket Maryinquired who they were and why they hadcome, and they answered: “We be all sinnersand justly afflicted by the Lord but we hearthat Messiah is born and therefore have wecome.” The Virgin asked: “What gift haveyou brought, for none can enter here excepthe bring an offering.”

The beggars cast down their eyes andanswered nothing for their hands were empty.

Mary asked them, saying: “Who is thefourth man who standeth somewhat apart?

Then the three feared greatly and fell upontheir knees crying: “We are sinners indeedfor we joined this one unto us and he is aleper: and moreover he is a Samaritan. ThenMary threw the door open wide and theycame in and beheld the Saviour: the blindreceived his sight, the deaf heard, the lameman leaped upon his feet. And they lookedexpecting that the leper should be cleansed:but he was gone. Then they perceived that ithad been an Angel of the Lord.

A PROPHETIC VISION

Some time ago we received a magazinefrom Germany entitled Towards the Light inwhich the following prophecy was printed.The Editor claims that this prophecy was sentto him by a Brother in the spring of 1904,that it was then published in a little pamphletcalled The Holy Grail, an Esoteric Colonyand a prophesy, which, he says, is probablystill in the hands of many of his readers fromthat time. The prophecy relates to the war in


part, and the skeptical reader would probablydiscount it on the grounds that it is easy nowto prophesy something that has already hap-pened and is now going on. But there is onepart of the prophecy which has not been ful-filled and which coincides with what we our-selves know to be in line with facts as theywill develop in later years, and as it wouldnot seem proper to give this latter part of theprophecy without also printing the begin-ning, we herewith give the whole, translatingfrom the German as follows:

“I awakened from a natural sleep, not tothe ordinary waking consciousness, but to ahigher super-sensual, and I saw somethingwhich filled me with horror. It seemed as ifI was hovering in the air and all Europe laybeneath me, vibrations of unrest and strifecame up toward me from the people on thewhole continent, and atmosphere around meseemed to be darkened, as if the vibrations ofunrest were concentrating themselves into athunder cloud, and that is what seemed actu-ally to happen. Then the cloud floated hitherand thither, lightning darts discharged them-selves now upon one country and now uponthe other, but the thunder was the thunder ofcannons and the lightning was fire fromthousands and millions of guns. The cloudlay thick and dark over Europe and seemedalso to go to each side over Asia andAmerica, but it soon went away from the lat-ter continent and somewhat later from Asiato lay itself all the heavier and darker overEurope. It rolled hither and thither like afire-drake often crossing here and there and

then again drawing itself together. Below Icould see the people, nations in war.Wherever the cloud hovered there theywrecked and ruined everything and the war-ring nations seemed to grow more and morelike wild animals. Little by little the cloudseemed to disperse, but what a sight where ithad been! The misery cannot be described;thousands of widows, maidens and orphanslay upon the fresh graves and wept over theirdead; behind them stood the aged fathers andmothers and mourned for their sons that hadbeen taken away in the prime of their youngmanhood.”

“And while with sorrowing heart I saw andlooked down upon all this grief, there came ahot wind from the south which withered allthat was green and there was a famine inmost of the countries of Europe, sorrowincreased and many thousands were added tothe dead. Then there came a great hand inthe north and poured out an acid fluid and asa result there was great pestilence.”

“Then I saw a great light which graduallydispelled the previous darkness but ITCAME FROM THE WEST, from NorthAmerica and shone upon the stricken coun-tries of Europe. In it was hope, health, andhealing. Many ships left the coasts of thenew land laden with grain and foods. Onething more I saw which had hitherto escapedmy notice, IN THE WESTERLY PARTBEYOND THE GREAT MOUNTAINRANGE IN NORTH AMERICA. I SAW AGARDEN OF WONDERFUL BEAUTYAND A DAZZLING LIGHT SHONE INTHE MIDST OF THIS COLONY OF HOLY


MEN AND WOMEN, Who had come out ofall the lands of the world, because of its greatsorrows. From thence they returned to theirnative countries with the fire of love burningbrightly in their hearts, and the stone of thephilosophy as a sign upon their forehead thatthey might spread light and love over thewhole world, and each kindled anew the lightin his own fatherland.”

“Then there came a new era, the nations ofthe earth put away their weapons and devot-ed their energy to build wonderful machinerywhich lightened the work of the world; igno-rance, poverty, and all slavery was doneaway with and a golden era dawned, but ALLTHIS BECAME POSSIBLE ONLYBECAUSE THE FAITHFUL ONES OFTHE LORD HAD WITHDRAWN FROMTHE WORLD AND FOSTERED THEHOLY LIGHT WHICH BROUGHT THEWORLD ITS FREEDOM.”

“And as I wondered over what I had seen,there sounded in the heavens a choir of praisewhich sang ‘Praise to the Highest and to menPeace, Goodwill and Happiness.’ And therewas given to me the command ‘write whatyou have seen and let it be known, the skep-tics will laugh and sneer, the wise will feelthe truth in their heart AND THEY WILLSEEK FOR THIS PLACE OF SAFETY, thatthey may not be swept away by the great cat-astrophe, but preserve and defend theHeavenly light, the fire of love, which is intheir hearts, so that when the sorrow is pastthey may be able again to enkindle it in oth-ers.’”

While as said, the writer does not know

who this Brother is, and what is his standing,it has upon its face a certain stamp of truthwhich cannot be overlooked. Nowadayspeople are usually looking TOWARDS THEEAST when they take up the Quest of theMystic light. But as a matter of fact thecourse of the stars is from East to West, andthe Heavenly light givers above, so also theEarthly place of light below, are periodicallymoved toward the west. The wise men of theEast, spoken of in the Bible, did not looktowards the east for the Star but THEY FOL-LOWED IT and went with it towards theWest. In the ancient Atlantean Mystery tem-ple, called the Tabernacle in the wilderness,there was a light INSIDE the eastern gatewhere the aspirant entered, he was then fac-ing the West and he saw the light just inside,namely the light on the Altar of Burnt offer-ings. He was then like the Candidate whoappears at the door of the Masonic temple, hewas blind and was looking for the light; thislight confronts him when he looks towardsthe West. The law was his taskmaster tobring him to the light which then shone forhis guidance, and as he followed it upon thepath and JOURNEYED WESTWARDtowards the first veil, another light appeared:the seven branched candle-stick in the HolyPlace. This was a purer and more holy lightthan the light of the Altar of Burnt offeringswhere the fire was fed upon the smoking andbleeding carcasses of the sacrifices. Thelight in the Holy Place was fed by the purestolive oil, especially made for that purpose;thus it was light of a higher order than that ofthe carcasses that burned without. But the


candidate proceeded further Westward, andwhen he came to the Westernmost part of all,the Holy of Holies, there was seeming dark-ness where stood the Ark of the Covenant;but above it there burned A SPIRITUALLIGHT, spoken of in the Bible as “ShekinahGlory”, which hovered above the Ark as asymbol of the purified man. While he was atthe eastern gate and the light shone WITH-OUT, the law was also WITHOUT as ataskmaster which he only obeyed because hemust. At this Western end of the tabernaclehe finds the Ark with the tables of the lawWITHIN, symbolical of the fact that the manwho has obtained to that height has takenWITHIN himself all the laws of nature and isat-one with them. Therefore, he obeys themreadily; they are not to him task masters; hewould not act contrary to them if he could.The golden pot of Manna, symbolizing thebread that came down from heaven, THECHRIST WITHIN, gives another key to thenature of this symbol. The Rod of Aaronwith which he wrought the miracles ofEgypt, is like the spear of the Grail, a symbolof the spiritual power which may be wieldedby a man who has attained to that SPIRITU-AL LIGHT IN THE WEST.

But the purpose of this attainment is, andmust always be, service; therefore, the staveswere always in the rings of the Ark, that itmight be moved upon an instant’s notice.Similarly the man or woman above whomshines that wonderful Shekinah Glory, andwho has within himself or herself the tablesof the law, the Heavenly Manna and theSacred rod, are every one alert to the slight-

est call for service, that they may hasten toalleviate the suffering of their brothers andsisters who are behind upon the path of evo-lution further towards the East.

These are mystic facts, and the vision ofthis mystic has perceived them aright.Everything changes as we go from East toWest to further the development of the newattribute that we are to evolve in this age, thatthe coming Era may be ushered in.

When the writer went to Germany in 1907,he felt most acutely the oppression of thegroup spirit there as a cloud over the landholding the people in its grip. Just as it isrecorded that in ancient times Jehovah wentbefore the Israelites and was IN THECLOUD, so the nation group spirit, each rul-ing over its own particular people, broodsover, and develops in them certain character-istics. Therefore the types in Europe persist,despite the increasing frequency of interna-tional marriages, for the group spirit invari-ably stamps the off-spring. In America it isdifferent; that is the melting pot, the cradle ofthe new race, and no group spirit has yet beendeveloped for it. The West Indies on theAtlantic side and Hawaii on the Pacific sideare also gates through which the races of theEast and West are being assimilated and pre-pared to mingle in the great new race now inits gestatory stage. And it is a fact ascer-tained by scientific investigators that thechildren of all nations born in America takeon a distinct contour of the head which is dif-ferent from the nationality from which theyhave sprung. Thus it is even physicallydemonstrable that a new race is being born in


America, different from any in the old conti-nent. A new class of Egos is coming into re-birth which has different traits of characterand characteristics from those which existamong the older people.

When we investigate the climatic condi-tions we also find that there is a great differ-ence between the atmosphere of America andof Europe; the atmosphere of America iselectric and particularly in SouthernCalifornia, the ether abounds to a degree notexperienced anywhere on the whole earth.This has a very brightening effect upon thepeople living in the different countries, andthe writer cannot illustrate this better than byrelating a certain incident and conversationthat took place at the temple of the RosyCross in Germany which he visited by invi-tation to receive the teachings embodied inThe Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception. Byincessant work night and day for a long timehe had succeeded in making a sketch of thephilosophy. This he showed to the ElderBrothers who were instructing him, but hisfeelings of enthusiasm were soon cooledwhen he was told that though he was nowvery much pleased with it, as soon as heshould arrive in the U.S. the electric atmos-phere there would cause him to look at thingsin a different way, that he would re-write itand make it totally different; this he thoughtabsolutely impossible at the time, but theElder Brothers then said:

“You were requested to come to Germanybecause this heavy atmosphere brooded overby the group spirit leads to persistence andperseverance, favors concentration, deep

thought, and great insight. Here alone couldthe skeleton for such a book be written, but tofinish it and give it that touch of life which itmust have to make it a success among themasses, the electric atmosphere of Americais required.”

The mental attitude of a German, due to thegroup spirit in the atmosphere, may belikened to a man who travels from Berlin toParis by stagecoach; it will take him a longtime but on the way he sees people of differ-ent nations, he becomes acquainted withevery foot of the road and notices the sceneryso that he is thoroughly acquainted withevery step along the way and could give agood description of it, were he afterwardsrequired. The mental processes of theAmerican are also like his methods of travel.When he desires to go from New York toChicago, he takes a sleeper at night so as notto lose any of the precious daylight businesshours, he rushes over the country at the rateof seventy miles an hour and arrives at hisdestination at an early hour the followingday; he knows nothing whatever of the coun-try he has passed through, but he arrivedquickly, that is the essential point.

A German would have taken at least twovolumes to express his views upon all thedetails of the Panama Canal project;President Roosevelt covered the subject wellin one speech; he arrived at the destinationwithout all the details. That national trait isgrowing because the rays of Uranus andNeptune are stronger and affect the people ofthe United States more than any other part ofthe world. For under their tutelage a new


race will be born and fostered to relieve theworld’s woe.

On another occasion when the question ofheadquarters was up for discussion, thewriter was instructed to look for a place over-looking the Pacific Ocean in SouthernCalifornia and having at the back of it snowcapped mountains. We tried first to buy aplace which seemed to suit the description,partly, but obstacles were piled up so that wecould not perfect the purchase. Then Mt.Ecclesia was found and at once recognizedby the leaders as meeting all the conditionsrequired. The number of buildings isincreasing, the grounds are growing morebeautiful year after year, and it seems as ifthe description given in the vision quoted atthe beginning of this article would fit Mt.Ecclesia well. It has already become aMecca for students from many lands thatcome here to gather inspirations and takeback to their respective homes the lightreceived here, and as the time goes on maywe not hope that this may, indeed, become acenter of a great spiritual influence in theworld’s work. Let us hitch the wagon ofaspirations to the Star of Hope, and the high-er our ideal the better perhaps we shall liveup to it.

One thing is certain—that the spiritualtemple which we are building by our hopesand aspirations around the earthly sanctuarywe have already erected, is gradually grow-ing more and more beautiful, luminous, andmore like that wonderful temple which“Manson” describes so eloquently in TheServant in the House, and by the Grace of

God ,we shall continue in joy and gladness.As Manson said: “We have found it to be truethat sometimes the work goes on in almostutter darkness, but sometimes there come therays of hope, the clouds break, and the sun-shine of joy and gladness shines through tolighten the load for a little while”; butwhether we are building in darkness or in theblinding light, it is something to be able tosay that we have never ceased in our un-wearying persistence. Helped by the aspira-tions of thousands of students centered uponthis place, the work goes forward through joyor sorrow, and sometime the vision shall berealized, and Mt. Ecclesia, the headquartersof the Rosicrucian Fellowship, shall give itsfull share of light to “the waiting world.”

As the Sun by precession is nearing thecusp of the Sign Aquarius, the Uranian andNeptunian influences are growing strongerand stronger. People all over the world are atthe present time being drawn towards thespiritual side of their nature in a manner andwith a force that was never experiencedbefore. The wave of materialism and of bothreligious and scientific dogmatism is gradu-ally receding and in its place this new stellarray is bringing greater light, greater love forhumanity. Even this war that is raging at thepresent time and which was seen in thevision as a dark cloud, even that with has itsinfluence for good; it is horrible indeed tosee, as one does with the spiritual vision, theseething swirling, whirling masses ofhumanity as they leave this world, in anger,hate, and deep sorrow at being taken awayfrom their kindred, from those they love and


whose future depends upon them, it is just assad to look upon those who are left behindand who must face the world with emptyhands and without hopes, but out of this fur-nace of affliction there will rise a new and anobler feeling. After the sorrow and angerhas spent its first fury, there will come arefining influence which is even now percep-tible in the different countries of Europe; theparoxysm of anger, of hate, and frenzy hasalready spent itself in a measure. The peoplewho are at the front, and those also who areleft behind in the cities, look upon life froma very different, a much more subdued, anglethan they did before. They are being pre-pared for a new era, nobler sentiments arebeing slowly inculcated by sorrow and suf-fering through which they are now going, asnever could have happened in any other way.Thus, out of the sorrows and the misfortunesof the present time there will arise, phoenix-like, a new, a more religious Europe. Man’snecessity is God’s opportunity, and it will notbe long before those who are now preparingthemselves for the task by proper study, by aconsecrated life, will find a ready audienceamong the nations where formerly pleasurewas the chief aim of life. May every one thatsees the mystic light grasp the opportunity toprepare himself or herself properly for thisgrand privilege of carrying light to thenations so that they may reap the oil of glad-ness for their reward and earn greater andgrander opportunities for service in thefuture, by work in the present.

EMOTION AND INTELLECT

W. A. Rowdon

One of the greatest charms and real advan-tages of philosophy is its great value as aplace of mental retirement. When a man hasworked his hardest, has endured all the strainand sorrow of the life mundane and is weary,then his mind turns with joy to the satisfyinghelp afforded by philosophy. Those thingswhich seemed to fill his horizon with a blackshadow of doubt and fear, then shrink tosmallness and life itself assumes a morecheering aspect.

Philosophy is catholic in its application.The intellectual person must have a philoso-phy that will give a rational and even scientif-ic solution to life’s mysteries. He demands asimilar explanation of religion. Faith, to himis a matter of knowledge. The emotional per-son desires an appeal to his heart, rather thanto his brain. He is not so concerned about theactual why and wherefore of an occurrence ora statement, as he is about the value of itsemotional properties. The former concernshimself with the actual physical reason for amiracle; the latter, with the appreciation ofwonder and real beauty attendant upon itsmanifestation. The former would give help toa fellow creature, not so much because of anypity he would feel, but chiefly because such anact would be in accordance with his own intel-lectual conception of the relationship of manto man. The latter, of course, would act fromheartfelt sympathy and an emotional desire tohelp the unfortunate one.

(Concluded on page 40.)


A PROPHETIC DREAM A young lady in Pasadena, California was

reported in several of the March papers tohave had a vision of her younger brother,who was then on his way to Salt Lake City,arriving there and the following day com-mitting suicide on the street by shootinghimself four times with a revolver. Thevision was so vivid and she was so dis-turbed by it, that she impressed her sisterand father, to such a degree that the fathertook the next train to Salt Lake City to lookafter his son. But when arrived he foundthat the suicide had just happened, actuallyas seen by the sister one and one-half daysbefore the event took place. Question: Howcould the lady see the event before it tookplace; it had not then become a memory ofnature record.

Answer: When we die a panorama of ourpast life unrolls in reverse direction fromdeath to birth, the object being to show ushow certain effects are brought about by cer-tain causes and acts in our lives, and thusteach us the lesson it was intended weshould learn. We only mention at this pointwithout going thoroughly into the matter,that our evil deeds bring suffering in purga-tory, and the good brings pleasure in the first

heaven. Gradually the acts of the life aremade to yield fruit, and the essence thereofincorporated into the spirit as ‘Conscience,’to keep him from repeating evil, and‘Virtue,’ to urge him to do good. Thencomes the stay in the second heaven, whereman works upon his future environment aspart of the nature forces, and later, the peri-od of waiting in the third heaven, which isso exalted a stage that man has little or noconsciousness there. In the fullness of timedesire for more experience draws the Egoback to earth life, and then the RecordingAngels call up before his consciousness apanorama of the coming lives available tohim. Various embodiments are usuallyoffered because he has had connection withdifferent people who are then living and inwhose environments he may take his place,to reap with them what he has sown in for-mer lives and to sow anew. These panoram-ic pictures run in the direction from birth todeath, and not in reverse order as thepanorama we remember spoken of above asseen after death, because the object is toshow how, by certain acts he may bringabout certain effects and thus generate asuitable pabulum for the soul to give it anall-around life experience. This panorama,

Question Department* * * * * *

however, is only given in the large outline,the man is free to build in the details.

Then the descent into matter commencesfrom the finer realms to the physical world.On the way man gathers materials for use asvestures of the soul during the coming earthlife, and is finally born at the time when theclock of destiny, the stellar rays in the heav-ens, are propitious to the unfoldment of thatlife panorama, and the horoscope at birththus shows the line of least resistance in thatlife, the time when he will receive impulsesfrom the planetary rays to bring on incen-tives to certain actions at certain times.

It is, however, particularly noted that heis, in the final analysis, the arbiter of hisdestiny. If he drifts without resistance orinitiative, then he is ruled entirely by hisstars. On the other hand, if he does take ini-tiative, then in the measure that he carriesout his divine prerogative of choosing whatto do or what not to do, he becomes theruler of his stars. For the purpose of thisanswer, particular stress is laid upon the factthat at certain times the clock of destinypoints to the fatal hour when a choice mustbe made concerning a certain matter, andupon that choice much of the later life is, ofcourse, dependent.

Thus we carry with us in the subtle auricatmosphere, the latent force of our pastlives, and at the propitious moment, like thewireless waves that light a distant lamp, theplanetary ray impinges upon the tendencieslatent within us and galvanizes them intodynamic energy, which impels us in a cer-tain direction. The picture shown in that

prenatal panorama becomes endowed withlife and we are force to take action in oneway or the other. Either we may yield to theimpulse, thus generating the whole effectshown by the pre-natal cause at hand, or wemay strive to take another line of action,which will then modify the cause, give adifferent effect, and change the life withincertain limits. We cannot change our livesaltogether, however; but just as a man goingfrom the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast has achoice of routes at the beginning and maygo either North or South, but is limited oncehe has chosen a route, he must then followthat line, with certain side trips allowed. Hecannot change his destination, either, whenthe ticket is bought.

So it is with us; we are bound on the jour-ney of life from the cradle to the grave, andas a man achieves his destination and seesthe suburbs of that city, having no choice inthe matter, so also must we in childhood gothrough certain experiences among the peo-ple with whom we are. Likewise, in the lastdays when we are nearing the end of life, theweb of destiny has been so nearly woventhat there is room only for a few strands.The details may perhaps be somewhat var-ied, but very little, and the life panoramawhich is with each of us is slightly changedin the course of years by our actions so thatthe final strands will fit in at the end.

Contrary to most people’s ideas, there arereally no acts of impulse, A thought is backof even the most trivial move, and there area great many thoughts back of every deter-mining act in our lives; the man who com-


mits murder has repeatedly and habituallythought murder. He may be, and often is,acted upon from without, as a wirelessreceiver catches the waves from other sta-tions, but before this happens, he must of anecessity be attuned to vibrations of vio-lence by his habits of thought. This impor-tant fact was brought out in the psychologi-cal play called, “The Witching Hour,”where one man, a very strong thinker,thought that the Governor of a certain State,who was a scoundrel, should be killed andthat he could be killed in a certain manner.Somebody else who had no connection withthe thinker committed the murder and wasabout to be brought to justice for it when thethinker saved him, because he felt responsi-ble for the crime.

Suicide, likewise, involves a great deal ofthought. The young man must first havesecured the revolver; it took some time tobring him to that point. Then he must haveplanned the trip away from his people, etc.,and a thought form embodying the wholescheme was finally completed, as it alwaysis before any decisive step is taken. Theonly difference between this and most casesis that it is usually not seen by anyone. Butthe sister of the young man in this case mustbe a sensitive, and her love for the brotherwas very great, so she must have divined agreat deal of what was in his mind before heleft the home and there are two ways inwhich she may have seen what was about tohappen. In the rooms where we live wemake a picture of all the things that we do,say, and think, particularly in our private

rooms; they are pervaded with our thoughtatmosphere and the picture may easily havebeen seen there. It is more probable, how-ever, that on the night when the sister sawthe coming event she was out of the body,and drawn by her love for her brother, shewas with him in the Eastern city where hewas perhaps again meditating on the con-templated act. Even the multiplicity ofshots used may have been pre-determinedby a desire to make sure that he would endthe life he disliked.

That the life might end by suicide wasprobably shown as a contingency, but notpre-determined by the antenatal panoramaof life, for so far as we have been able tofind out, all the evil effects of any life areeradicated in the purgatorial existence thatfollows death. Thus, every child is trulyborn innocent, though with certain evil ten-dencies which may be determining factorswhen temptation comes to try it. It followsfrom that fact, that at least every evil act inlife is an absolute free-will. Thus it seemsthat suicide cannot have been contemplatedby any panorama of life, but the young manchanged his life so that after the skeinbecame entangled he could find no otherway out of it but suicide. The archetypewhich is the sole arbiter of the length of life,remains intact after suicide has been com-mitted, and its endeavor to draw to itself thephysical particles wherewith to build aphysical body, cause acute suffering, as ofhunger, to the man or woman who hasendeavored to play truant from the schoolof life. They suffer intensely as long as the


archetype lasts. Only when that is disinte-grated does life end in ordinary cases, andin the case of the suicide it is the same; thearchetype remains alive for its allottedlength of time, causing the suicide greatsuffering and thus teaching him the muchneeded lesson of the sacredness of life.

There is a tendency upon the part of stu-dents to regard all events of the present life

as effects of causes set going in past lives, atendency to forget that we are every day set-ting new causes going which may workthemselves out in this life, and suicide issurely one of the causes which has ripenedto effect before the life cycle has been com-pleted. But where a grave mistake may bemade, the prenatal panorama also sounds awarning.

ters of our nervous system. These vorticesresemble the arrangement of iron fillingsseen in experiments in magnetic whirls. Inevolution the direction of the currents goclockwise, but just the reverse in devolut-ing. To the neophyte this is not mere spec-ulation, for years before the real attainment,the circles of force will be visible by will tothe eye. The pituitary and pineal centerswhirl with a terrific speed and if there arenot many interruptions in the mental orphysical career of the individual, the chasmbetween the two is bridged, giving the pos-sessor higher perception or the power to seethe vital and desire bodies of others and ofhimself at will. It is a natural law of radia-tion. He not only obtains this higher per-ception, but in a perfectly natural way hasthe power to withdraw high higher materialbody from that of the heavier physical,leaving it asleep, and still remain fully con-


A CLIPPING

(From an article by Stuart Leech, M. D.,in “Medical Progress.” Dr. Leech is amember of the Fellowship doing good workby giving his confrere’s an occasional tasteof Astrology.)

“. . . . No man of intelligence can standon the seashore a calm evening and see thetide dash against the breakers without med-itating on the invisible planetary forces thatproduce the result, for we know that backof every result is an act and back of everyact is a thought. This naturally carries usinto the higher radiation of materiality.

“By a unique but natural system of train-ing our physical faculties, combined with asubduing (not killing) of our passions and adevelopment of the will, we increase thevortices, or whorls, of force of certain cen-

The Astral Ray* * * * * *

scious, paradoxical as this may seem. Hismind, soul, and what we call the “desirebody,” leaves his lower physical in thehands of his spirit. A similar phenomenontakes place when one is asleep, but the cen-ters, not being developed, you can not beconscious of it. Ordinarily digestion takesplace without your being conscious of thefact.

“This higher development is greatlyaided, if not wholly so, by the planetaryforces, more so by some than others. To theindividual this can be proven to his satis-faction by directing his attention to certainconditions that will be brought about whenhe comes under certain planetary aspects.All of this was A, B, C, to the initiates,Schiller, Goethe, Walt Whitman, Shakespeare,Bulwer Lytton, and a host of others.

“While so great an attainment is withinthe reach of all, very few are willing to paythe price. The time alone to acquire samewill require two to twenty-five years.

“Two hundred years ago, physicians inEngland were required to pass an examina-tion in astrology before they were permit-ted to practice. A shifting to the Copernicansystem and the degeneration of astrologyinto the basest kind of commercialism andfortune-telling threw it into disrepute, caus-ing its rejection in toto. Learning, especial-ly as it pertains to the higher radiation ofmatter, is rapidly increasing and is causingastrology to again come into its own. Anyamateur astrologer can cast a horoscopeshowing the various planets’ positions inthe zodiacal houses. The real science has

thrown down the gauntlet with a challengeto the world, and they are prepared to standor fall upon the great fact, viz.: ‘If the plan-ets have no effect in the lives of men, theirdirections to the angles of the horoscopecan have no effect; but never was it foundthat a man had evil fortunes at the periodwhen the planet Jupiter was directed to themid-heaven or the ascendant, or anythingbut bad fortune when Saturn was similarlydirected.’ The fact is there, and we, as think-ing men, cannot get away from it. . . .”

THE MEASURE OF AMENABILITYTO PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

(Continued)

To primitive man, driven by the whip-lash of Saturnine necessity, when not by theanimal lust and passions of Mars and theMoon, the World looks gloomy. Fear is thekeynote of his existence; fear of animals;fear of other men; fear of the nature forces;fear of everything around him. He mustever be watchful and on the alert, vigilanceis eternally the price of safety. But whenevolution makes him amenable to the influ-ence of Venus and Mercury, they soften hisemotions and brighten the mentality; hebegins to feel love and reason as factors inlife. The Sun also begins to brighten hisoutlook upon life, and sunshine in thenature of man during this phase of his evo-lution partially dispels the cloud of Saturn.Thus, by degrees, as he evolves andbecomes responsive to the music of the


spheres, one string after the other in thecelestial harp strikes the kindred chord inthe human soul and makes him amenable toits vibrations, so that as a tuning fork whichis struck, awakens the music in other tuningforks of even pitch within reasonable dis-tance, the planets in our solar system havein evolutionary succession struck variouschords that have found an echo in thehuman heart.

But the strings on the celestial Lyre ofApollo are not all in harmony, some are inactual discord, and while man responds tosome he must necessarily remain, at leastpartially, unresponsive to others. In fact,before it is possible to respond perfectly tothe rays of Venus, it is necessary for man toconquer Mars to a considerable degree, tobring him under control so that certainundesirable martial traits in his nature willbe kept in the background, while others,which may be more valuable, are retained.The Venus love, which is willing to give allfor the loved ones, cannot dwell side byside in the heart with the Mars ray, whichdemands all for self. Therefore the savagemust learn to conquer himself in a certainmeasure ere he may become the more civi-lized family man of modern times.

Under the unrestrained rays of Mars andthe Moon, parents bring children into theworld and leave them to take care of them-selves, almost as animals do, for they areproducts of animal passion. The femalesare bought and sold as a horse or a cow, orelse taken by force and carried away. Evenso late as the medieval dark ages, the knight

often carried away his bride by force ofarms, practically in the same manner thatthe male animals battle for possession ofthe female at mating time.

Thus we see that the first step toward civ-ilization requires that a man conquer one ormore of the planets, to a certain degree atleast. Unbridled passion, such as generatedby the primitive Mars rays, is no more per-missible under the regime of modern civi-lization, neither is the tenet that “might isright” any longer admissible, save in warswhen we return to barbarism. The Marsquality of physical prowess, that at onetime made it a virtue to attack others andtake away property, is no longer admired inthe individual. It is punished by variousmeans, according to law, though it is stilleffective as far as nations are concerned,who go to war under this primitive impulsein order to secure territorial aggrandize-ment. However, as said, Mars has beenconquered to a great degree in civil andsocial life in order that the Venus lovemight take the place of the Mars passion.

As previously noted, the children ofprimitive man were left to their ownresources as soon as they had been taughtto defend themselves in physical warfare.With the advent of Mercury anothermethod is observable. The battle of lifenowadays is no longer fought with physicalweapons alone. Brain, rather than brawndetermines success. Therefore the periodof education has been lengthened asmankind advanced, and it aims principallyat mental accomplishments because of the


Mercurial Ray which accompanies theVenus development of modern civilization.Thus man sees nature from a more sunnyside when he has learned to respond to theSun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Moon, andSaturn, even if only in a very slight measure.

Although these various stages of evolutionhave gradually brought man under the dom-inance of a number of planetary rays, thedevelopment has been one-sided, for it hasaimed to foster interest solely in things overwhich he has a proprietary right: his busi-ness, his house, his family, his cattle, farm,etc., are all vitally important, and must betaken care of. His possessions must beincreased, if possible, no matter what hap-pens to the possession, family, etc., belong-ing to anyone else; that is not his concern.

But before he can reach to a higher stageof evolution it is necessary that this desireto appropriate the earth, and retain it forhimself if possible, must give way to adesire to benefit his fellowmen. In otherwords, Egoism must give way to Altruism,and just as Saturn, by wielding thewhiplash of necessity over him in his prim-itive days, brought him up to his presentpoint of civilization, so also Jupiter, theplanet of altruism, is destined to raise himfrom the estate of man to superman wherehe will come under the Uranian ray inrespect of his emotional nature, where pas-sion generated by Mars will be replaced byCompassion, and where the childlike con-sciousness of Lunar origin is replaced by aCosmic consciousness of the Neptunian ray.And therefore the advent into our lives of

the Jupiterian ray marks a very distinctadvance in human development.

As taught in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, we are to advance from ourpresent Earth period into the Jupiter period,and therefore the Jupiterian ray marks thathigh stage of altruism which will then be aprominent factor in our relations, one withthe other, and it will be readily understoodthat before we can readily respond to therays of Jupiter, we must in a measure culti-vate altruism, and conquer the Egotism thatcomes through the Mercurial reasoningpower. We have learned to conquer someof the phases of Mars and the Moon, wemaybe have also learned to conquer someof the lower phases of Mercury and Venus;the more we have overcome these, the bet-ter we shall be able to respond to the high-est vibratory forces emanating from theseplanets; yes, if strive earnestly we shallsome day be able to overcome even thehighest stage of the Venus love, that alwaysattaches itself to an object which is ownedby us.

We love our children because they areours; we love our husbands and wivesbecause they belong to us; we take pride,Venusian pride, in their Moral characteris-tics, or Mercurial pride in their accomplish-ments, but Christ set a higher standard:“Unless a man leave his father and motherhe cannot be my disciple.” The idea thatwe should neglect our fathers or our moth-ers or that we must hate them in order tofollow Him was far from his mind, ofcourse, but father and mother are only bod-


ies; the soul that inhabits this body of thefather and mother is to be loved, not themere physical garment. Our love should bethe same, whether a person is old or young,ugly or beautiful. We should look for thebeauty of the soul, for the universal rela-tionship of all souls and not mind so muchthe relationship of the bodies. Who is mymother and my brothers? asked Christ, andpointed to His disciples, those who were atone with Him in that great work. Theywere closer to Him than anyone else couldbe because of the mere physical relation-ship. This attitude constitutes an upwardstep from the Venus love, which places theemphasis on the physical garments of theloved ones and leaves out of considerationthe soul that is within.

The Jupiterian love, on the other hand,takes cognizance only of the soul, regard-less of the body it wears. The Mercurial orreasoning phase of the mentality is alsochanged by response to the altruisticJupiter. Cold calculation is out of the ques-tion. One who feels the expansive ray ofJupiter is big-hearted, first, last, and all thetime, and in every respect, big-heartedwhere his emotions are concerned. “Ajovial fellow” is an apt expression. He iswelcomed and loved by everyone he meetsbecause he radiates not the common self-ishness, but a desire to benefit others thatbreeds in us a feeling of trust, diametricallydifferent form the sense of distrust weinstinctively feel when we come in contactwith a Saturn-Mercury man.

It is a matter of actual experiences to

astrologers endowed with spiritual sightthat every man’s planetary rays producecertain colors in his aura, in addition to thebasic color which is the stamp of the race towhich the man belongs. The man with thethin sickly blues of a commingled Saturnand Mercury, is to be pitied rather than cen-sured for the avarice and gloom which arehis constant attitude of mind; he sees every-thing in the world through that auric mirrorwhich he has created around himself. Hefeels that the world is cold, hard, and self-ish, and that therefore it is necessary forhim to be more selfish and more cold inorder that he may protect himself.

On the other hand, when we see thedivine blue ray of Jupiter tinted with, per-haps, the refined gold of the Uraniannature, we realize how different such anexalted individual must view the world,from our own sordid way of seeing andjudging things. Even those who have thefaintest Jupiterian tinge are in a world filledwith sunshine and flowers blooming;everything in nature is gay and glad. Andby looking at the world through such anatmosphere, they call forth from othersources a similar response as the tuningfork previously mentioned generates inanother of even pitch.

After what has been said it will not be dif-ficult to understand that the Uranian char-acteristic, where love becomes Compassion,gives a wisdom that is not dependent uponreasoning, a love that is not fixed upon onesubject alone, but includes all that lives andmoves and has its being. It is similar to the


characteristics that are to be evolved byhumanity during the Venus period whenperfect love shall have cast out all fear,when man shall have conquered all thelower phases of his nature, and love shallbe as pure as it is universally inclusive.

When these Uranian vibrations are felt byadvance in the higher life through aspira-tion, there is a great danger that we maythrow away the fetter of law in anticipation,before we are really ready to govern our-selves by the law of Love divine; that wemay disregard the laws that are in theworld; that we may not render unto Caesarthat which is Caesar’s, whether in obedi-ence or coin; that we may not be careful ofavoiding the appearance of evil; that wemay think that we have so far transcendedthe ordinary stage of humanity that we canlive as super-humans; that the passion ofMars has in our case been changed toUranian compassion, which is sexless, andunder these misapprehensions many peoplewho endeavor to tread the path disregardthe laws of marriage and enter into rela-tionships as soul-mate and affinity. Theyfeel the Uranian ray, but cannot quiterespond to its sublime purity; therefore,they experience a counterfeit Venusian sen-sation which usually ends in adultery and

sex-perversion, so that instead of the natur-al animal passion of Mars having beentransmuted to the compassion of Uranus, ithas, as a matter of fact, degenerated intosomething that is far worse than the fullestsex expression of the martial rays commit-ted in a frank and proper manner.

This is a danger that cannot be too strict-ly guarded against, and it behooves every-one who endeavors to live the higher lifenot to try to aspire to the Uranian rays untilhe at first becomes thoroughly imbued withthe altruistic vibrations of Jupiter, for moremisery is brought into the world by thosewho have aspired too highly and fallen lowthan by those who are not sufficiently aspir-ing. “Pride goes before a fall,” is an ancientand very true proverb, which it behoovesevery one of us to take heart. The Christtook part in the marriage at Cana. Marriageis a regular Christian institution, and mustexist until abolished in the kingdom tocome, because the bodies we will have thenwill not wear out and therefore there will beno need of marriage to generate new ones.

Let it also be understood that although itis true that the minister who marries can notmate, the finding of the mate should bedone before the marriage ceremony isundertaken and not after.


(To be continued)

THE ORIGIN OF “LIFE”

If we desire to solve the problem of exis-tence, and find out why we are here, the firststep is to ascertain the origin of life, for ifwe can trace whence we have come, and thepath by which we have already achieved ourpresent evolution it may be easier to ascer-tain what is the direction in which we aretraveling and this will give us a conceptionof the development necessary to bring usfurther along on the path of advancement.

But when we speak of the Origin of ‘Life’it must be distinctly understood that thatmeans ‘life’ and not form; in fact, allthrough the studies it should be borne inmind that definite technical terms are usedto make certain distinctions and that unlessthis is borne in mind, unless we rememberthat each term applies to a certain idea ofthing, and to no other, we shall not be ableto escape confusion. Philosophers of thepast have made that great mistake of givingdifferent names to the same things and

ideas, speaking promiscuously of that thingor idea by these various names. Such amethod can only result in chaos, and weknow that that has been the hallmark ofphilosophical speculation. What we areafter now is the origin of ‘life’ itself, inde-pendent of the form through which we see itmanifested. We therefore turn to the indexof words in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception on pp. 541. There we find ‘life’under the grouping of the letter L. and oppo-site a page No. 563. This refers to the pagein the index where we shall find all the ref-erences to life. Accordingly, we turn to thatpage and looking through the descriptivereferences that promise a clue to what weare looking for, we turn around to page 564where there is one which says “life did notoriginate anywhere at any time; it is.” Thisshould refer to page 504 in the Cosmowhere this matter is discussed, but onaccount of a typographical error this is notapparent and we would advise the studentsto make the corrections right away in ink.

Studiesin

The RosicrucianCosmo Conception

* * * * * * *

Turning now to page 504 we find the refer-ence we are looking for:

“Seed Stratum: Material scientists havebeen baffled in their efforts to discover theorigin of life, how the first living thingscame forth from previously dead matter.

“In reality, according to the occult expla-nation of evolution, the question should behow the ‘dead’ things originated. THELIFE WAS THERE PREVIOUS TO THEDEAD FORMS. It built its bodies from theattenuated, vaporous substance long beforeit condensed into the earth’s solid crust.ONLY WHEN THE LIFE HAD LEFT THEFORMS COULD THEY CRYSTALLIZEAND BECOME HARD AND DEAD. Coalis but crystallized plant bodies; coral is alsothe crystallization of animal forms. The lifeleaves the forms and the FORMS die. Lifenever came into a form to awaken it to life,life departed from the forms and they died.Thus ‘dead’ things came to be.

“In this fifth stratum is the primordialfount of life from which came the impetusthat built all the forms on earth. It corre-sponds to the Region of Abstract Thought.”

In 1868 Huxley announced that he hadfound a sticky jelly-like substance takenfrom the bottom of the sea, which was amass of protoplasm and non-living; this hecalled “Bathybius,” from two Greek wordsmeaning “deep” and “life,” and DavidStrauss in 1872 wrote in his book, The OldFaith and the New, that no man whobelieved in Bathybius can at the same timebelieve in the teachings of the Christianchurch. Haeckel, in his History of Creation,

made Bathybius the central root from whichall terrestrial life has grown, and the scien-tific world at that time claimed that alllife—past, present, and future—woulddevelop from ooze at the bottom of the sea,and that all who believed in any Divineagency as having a hand in the matter of lifeand its manifestations upon earth were wellon their way to an asylum. But in 1875 theShip “Challenger” made deep sea soundingsand found Bathybius to be nothing but sul-fate of lime.

Thus the scientific dogma of that daydied, neither has science been able to findany better theory, and the origin of life is tothe scientists a mystery despite the repeat-edly up-cropping stories that Professor so-and-so, in this place, or Doctor somebodyelse, in that place, has succeeded in evolv-ing life, for to weld life to form is the pre-rogative of the Angels during the presentperiod of manifestation. And until in afuture day the wizards of the laboratorypurify themselves as the priests of the MostHigh God, and in that attitude of mind andsoul approach the laboratory table, it will beimpossible for them to know anything, saveof the dead forms which are all that we canwork with at our present point of evolution.Moreover, even if we were able to weld lifeand form as the angels are, in plants, ani-mals, and men, that would not discover theorigin of life. That mystic first chapter ofSt. John’s Gospel would still be supremeauthority upon the matter: “In the beginningwas the Word and the Word was with God,and the Word was God, in it was Life and


the Life became the light of men, without itwas not anything made that was made.”

Turning now to the last paragraph of ourQuotation from the Cosmo—we read therethat “the Fifth Stratum of the earth is the pri-mordial fount of life from which came theimpetus that built all the form on Earth; itcorresponds to the region of AbstractThought.” Then turn to the chart on page54, and read there what is said about theworld of Virgin Spirit, the world of DivineSpirit, the world of Life Spirit and theRegion of Abstract thought. This is an easymethod of following the descent of Spiritinto matter.

We are of course particularly interested inthe study of the human “life,” which weknow at the present time manifests as anego, and we therefore turn to our index ofwords to find if a definition of that word canbe found in the Cosmo. Opposite the word“Ego” in the list of words, page 540, we findthe page number, 575; we find and turn tothat page in the index, we read, “Ego (seeHuman Spirit).” Then below that, “the Egois a Virgin Spirit involved in a three-foldveil of matter which obliterates its originaldivine consciousness and engenders theillusion of a separate self, page 216.” Therewe have a detailed description of howbefore the beginning of manifestation theSpirit enjoyed a divine consciousness in thebosom of Deity; that the pilgrimage throughmatter was undertaken in order that eachspark from the divine Flame might attainconsciousness; that during the Saturn, Sun,and Moon periods each Spirit was encased

in three veils of matter of gradually increas-ing density, until at last it could no longerlook outward and perceive others; then itturned its gaze within and saw itself.

This last happened in the Region ofAbstract thought, the fifth realm of nature,counting from the physical world upwardsto finer matter, and this is the counter-part ofthe fifth stratum of the Earth to which theparagraph in our quotation at the beginningof this article refers. Thus you see why it issaid on page 504, that this stratum containsthe primordial fount of life from which allthe forms have been built that have evercome upon earth. If you turn to the diagramof the Seven World Periods on page 197,you will see that during the Earth Periodwherein we are now, none of the worldsallotted to that period are in the region ofabstract thought, therefore that and the otherworlds that are on beyond may be describedas Chaos, but this name is not synonymouswith confusion and Void, by any means, aswill be made clear if you turn to the chapteron Chaos pp 246, by reading on through thatchapter to pp 258 it will be made plain thatwe must learn to think of Chaos as the spir-it of God which pervades every part of theinfinite.

To sum up, the Rosicrucian Teaching con-cerning the origin of Life is: that it origi-nates “in” God, that it is “in” Him, becausenothing exists outside of Him, but that “in”Him it has neither beginning nor end. It Is.In the second place we learn that in the con-crete regions of the material universe, lifecan only be known when manifesting


through a form, which may be either physi-cal, etheric, or of finer material still, but inthe Spiritual realms of the Universe, begin-ning with the Region of Abstract Thought,Life and form, Spirit and matter merge, sothat in this Chaos we live in the ideas ofGod and attune ourselves to them, bringingwith us to rebirth each time, a better under-standing of the divine idea, and building

forms which express in a greater measurethe divine purpose.

Students are requested to consider thischapter very carefully, reading all the por-tions of the Cosmo suggested and if anyquestions suggest themselves please sendthem in so that we may take up the study ina thoroughly systematic manner and securesatisfaction to everybody.

sickness. But one of the besetting sins of allages is gluttony. We do not live to eat, buteat to live. It is safe to say we all eat toomuch. The physical reason for most dis-eases is overeating: stuffing. Unfortunately,the medical profession encourages stuffing,particularly at times where little or no foodat all should be taken, so that the clogged-upsystem could have a chance of getting rid ofpoisons due to undigested food, fermentingand decomposing in the bowel. The ques-tion of diet is very difficult. “One man’smeat is another man’s poison.” Each one isa law unto himself. One can not say whatand how much a person should eat. Thereare many factors which must be considered.A man living a strenuous outdoor liferequires a different diet from one who has asedentary habit. Again food which suits ahealthy, robust individual would not do for aperson whose digestive ability is impaired.It is not the question how much we eat, but


MODERATION AND DISCRIMINATION

Franziska Lash, D. O.

Our body is a machine, splendidly orga-nized and self-adjusting to a large degree.But even the best machine will get out oforder, unless it is attended by one whoknows its mechanism and therefore pre-vents damaging the complicated structure.If, due to wear or tear, improper workingmanifests itself, the skilled hand is capableof repairing the instrument and it is oncemore useful. Yet how many of us knowanything of the most wonderful machine onGod’s earth, the most perfect vehicle wepossess: our body? We pretend to run thatdelicate machine, abuse it every day inmany ways, sinning against the law andthen blaming everybody else save the cul-prit when the poor misused body refuses towork. Many indeed are the sins of omissionand commission which are responsible for

Nutrition and Health* * * * * *

how much we are able of handling, of build-ing into our body healthy flesh and blood.It’s a question of digestion; that meansbreaking down the complex structure offood into simple substances. Those areabsorbed by the blood and carried to everycell of our body; they become bones,nerves, muscles, etc., and that process iscalled assimilation.

To digest means to break down the foodwe eat; to assimilate, to build the particlesthus gained into one body, so we are indeedwhat we eat. Everyone is anxious and wantto know how much to eat, but no oneinquires how much he is able to digest. Assaid, most of us over eat; we take muchmore food than is required to repair bodywaste, the machine becomes clogged withashes, sickness follows, because the body isnot able to digest all the fuel injected andthe food ferments. Taking a smell of thecontents of a half-decayed garbage cangives us an idea what our inside is likeunder such conditions. Suppose our diges-tive ability is great enough to take care ofthe over-supply of food, much nerve energyis wasted thereby, which could be used bythe aspirant for a nobler purpose. In addi-tion, much more waste products have to beeliminated by the kidneys, bowel, lungs,and skin. At last there comes a time whenthe poor over-worked machine breaks downand all the ailments under the sun are mani-fested. It’s then we cry out for help, whichis given by the Fellowship, but to stay wellwe have to learn to bridle our appetite, a dif-ficult thing, but it affords ample opportunity

for self discipline and self-denial. Asidefrom the spiritual advantage we gain byovercoming the craving of our dense body,the sacrifice is hundred-fold repaid by thestrength of the body, the clearness and easeof mind which is our reward. How we couldlabor in the vineyard of the Lord, if therewere no handicap which destroys our abili-ty to concentrate our powers! A sick man,alas, is but a poor worker, and it is folly towaste our time in idleness, because we areill, when we can do well and know the joyand pleasure of working as a cooperatorwith God!

Most of us, in thinking the matter over,concede that we overeat, yet we may eatsparingly and still sin against natural laws.The combination of food matters as much asthe quality of food. Both moderation anddiscrimination are essential to build wiselyand well “the temple of God,” which is ourbody.

RECIPES

The following is a menu from Mt. Ecclesia.

BREAKFAST. 7:30 A.M.

Baked ApplesPuffed Rice with cream

Toast, one soft boiled eggCoffee or Milk


DINNER. 12 NOON

Nut Loaf with brown gravyGerman steamed Potatoes, Green Peas

Whole Wheat bread and butterMilk

SUPPER. 5:30 P.M.

Fruit SaladWhole Wheat bread and butter

Cake, HoneyTea or Milk

BAKED APPLES

Take smooth skinned apples, wash andremove cores without breaking skins, putone teaspoonful of sugar in each hole, put alittle water in the bottom of the baking panto keep the apples from burning. Bake inthe oven for twenty minutes.

NUT LOAF

Grind one cup of English walnuts, twocups of whole wheat bread crumbs, onestalk of celery, one medium sized onion, onesmall clove of garlic, and a few sprigs ofparsley through a vegetable grinderTWICE. After grinding, fry the above in alittle hot oil, turning and stirring until niceand brown. Take from the stove and mixwith two eggs, and a cup of tomato sauce.Season to taste. Bake 45 minutes. Serve hotwith brown gravy. Cold, boiled vegetables left

over from the previous day may be added tothe above, grinding them with the otheringredients. This will improve the flavor.

BROWN GRAVY

Take one slice of brown bread, toasted.Grind and place it in a pre-heated skilletwith one tablespoonful of butter or olive oil.Fry it for a few minutes. Take the watersaved from boiled vegetables and pour itslowly into the skillet until it is the thicknessof gravy. Season to taste and serve over theloaf.

GERMAN STEAMED POTATOES

Peel and slice potatoes into1/4-inch thickslices. Wash and put them in a deep pre-heated skillet with two tablespoons of butteror oil. Cover tightly to keep the steaminside the skillet, but watch them closely sothey do not burn. After about 10 minutesremove the lid and add enough salt to flavor,one cup of water, and one tablespoon ofchopped parsley. Cover again and cookabout 10 more minutes or until potatoes aretender. Serve hot.

FRUIT SALAD

Take two peeled and sliced apples, threeslices of pineapple, and one sliced orange.Chop fine and add one cup of finely groundwalnuts. Serve with mayonnaise dressingon a lettuce leaf.


“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,”said the Christ, and this is an absolutely sci-entific proposition, something moreover,which everyone may demonstrate by look-ing about him in the every day condition oflife in the home, office, or street. Here wesee a man with thick lips, with puffedcheeks, with a veritable pouch under hischin, and at once we know that we havebefore us a glutton and a sensualist.Another comes along the street, his face isfurrowed by lines, his lips are thin and set,and we know that thought and care havebeen the architects that molded this face.Each one who passes, expresses withoutexactly what his thoughts are within. One ismuscular and active, because the thoughtswhich have governed his activities built anactive body. Another has flabby flesh, apouch stomach and a waddling walk, show-ing that he is adverse to all exercise. In eachcase the body is an accurate reproduction ofthe mind; each class suffers from the ail-ments peculiar to the trend of its mentalactivity. The glutton and sensualist sufferfrom diseases engendered when theirthoughts have crystallized and weakenedthe digestive tract and creative organs.Their diseases are entirely different from thenervous diseases that attack the thinker, and

any system of healing that does not take intoconsideration the fact that the body is morea physical expression of mind than mind isa manifestation of the physical man, makesa very radical mistake. In our complexnature, mind and matter act and react uponeach other in such a manner that it isabsolutely necessary to consider the man asa whole whenever we attempt to deal withhis disability.

It is well known to Physiologists that joywill sometimes bring the patient out of thesickroom quicker than any medicine. Ifsomething has happened to give his affairsin the world a sudden upward turn, so thathe becomes optimistic, disease seems to dis-appear as if by magic; and conversely, eventhough he may seem to enjoy good health,the moment a depressing influence comesinto his business affairs, he begins to feel illin body. A letter containing bad news maysometimes stop digestion completely andgive the person who receives it a very seri-ous attack of indigestion. Thus the truth ofthe Savior saying, “As a man thinketh in hisheart, so is he,” is amply demonstrated inpractical everyday life.

When we realize this we also see thenecessity of cultivating an attitude of opti-mism, a hopeful mind is the greatest of all

Healing Department* * * * * *

medicine, and a constant reiteration of a res-olution to overcome the present ills is betterthan all the medicine in the world. Whenone is in constant pain, suffering acutely, itis perhaps very difficult to maintain an atti-tude of optimism; nevertheless, the magicformula of the Savior applied to health willhelp us to overcome in time. It is a law thatif we think health we must of a necessitysooner or later to express health. Faithwithout works is dead however, and it is ofno use to aspire to health unless we cease todo the things that make for ill health. Wemust live the rational life and cease fromexcesses, particularly in diet; that cannot beemphasized too often. Neither will it availto stand before a mirror and reiterate to one-self, “I have Faith” “I am Health,” or simi-lar untruth affirmations. Just stop talking ofour ailments to others; try above all to divertyour own thoughts from your condition;believe in health as our birthright, and assomething that can be attained by us, neverwavering. You may have heard the story ofthe old lady who had heard her ministerspeak about a faith that could remove moun-tains. She was willing to try her faith on theash heap, but next morning when she saw itwas still there she exclaimed, “I thoughtso.” Conditions were what she expected inher heart, not what she claimed to believewith her tongue and it will be the same withevery one. We get just what we believe inour hearts we will get. Therefore believeheartily in health.

Students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship allover the world, direct their thoughts towards

the special healing services held on Mt.Ecclesia at six-fifteen on the followingdays; the difference in time is disregarded asthe Sun carries the influence.

June 6-13-20-26

July 3-10-17-24-30

August 7-14-20-27

On these days the Moon enters one of theCardinal signs. These signs are of energeticnature which lends force to all efforts inau-gurated, while they rule. Thus we may thenaccomplish more with a certain expenditureof energy than at any other time. Be sure tovisualize the Rosicrucian Emblem with apure white rose at the center of the Cross;concentrate your thoughts thereon, and theblessing you bring to someone will react athousandfold upon yourself.

Seattle, WashingtonDear Secretary:

My throat is relieved of the obstruction forwhich I wrote you last week. The method ofhealing and relieving our physical difficul-ties is grand and wonderful. I shall be soglad when the Ecclesia is completed so thework may be carried on in a greater mea-sure. Thanking you for the great blessing. Iremain

Yours in Fellowship,N. L. C.


Norfolk, VirginiaDear Friend:

When I stop and think how ill I have beenthe past year I can most thoroughly appreci-ate such an improvement as I have felt thepast two weeks. I sleep well now and havea splendid appetite and I hope to get wellagain. Hope I can tell you of further improve-ment next week.

Will close wishing you every success.L. M. B.

Denver, ColoradoDear Friends:

I still feel the very best, seem to be per-fectly recovered of my stomach trouble, and

everybody is so surprised and feel nothingof my other trouble but will put up the let-ters anyway for a time as you request me todo. I am so happy and so thankful to theInvisible Helpers.

Sincerely, A. P.

Granite, OklahomaKind Friends:

I am improving all the time. I seem to bein perfect health. And I am sure thankfulthat I have my health back again. I feel Iowe it all to the Fellowship. May God blessthe Fellowship in their good work.

Yours Truly,A. A.

disappointed and sometimes take the atti-tude that we have misrepresented, for it isalways so easy to see the ‘mote’ in some-body else’s eye even though the ‘beam’ isvery evident in our own.

If anyone came to Harvard or Yale expect-ing classes in vacation time, who would beat fault, the faculty or the student? And sim-ilarly in Mr. Ecclesia, if people “drop in” atany time without previous application andacceptance, we certainly cannot be expectedto keep teachers waiting to teach one or twowho straggle in for a few days expecting tolearn to sprout wings before they depart.We therefore wish to reiterate, in order to


DON’T FORGET!If you were preparing to go to a College

such as Yale, Harvard, Stanford, or anyother kindred place, you would be requiredto make application and would, if accepted,be told to present yourself on a certain daywhen the sessions begin. We have also madeit a rule at headquarters that students whodesire to enter the school must make appli-cation, and may not start before they havebeen duly accepted and told when they maycome. In spite of all we can say, however,some persist in coming any time they desireor see fit and if it happens that they comewhen the school is not in session they feel

Echoes from Mt. Ecclesia* * * * * *

save disappointment and annoyance, thatthose who wish to come to headquarters,particularly on account of the school, mustalways first ask for permission to come andwait until they have been duly acceptedbefore they start. Then they will be toldwhen they may come, and what classes areto be given at that time. Visiting members,on the other hand, who are going to the Fairsand who wish to stay at headquarters for ashort time, will be made welcome withoutthe necessity of making applications , but allmust understand that until they have beenaccepted as pupils of the school, there canbe no obligation upon the part of the leadersto maintain classes for their benefit.

We hope you like the magazine we sentout last month, it is undeniable that we our-selves felt very proud of it, but O my!Weren’t we tired when we had it off ourhands. In the first place, there was the set-ting of the type; next, getting ready the lino-type for the advertising and the descriptionof Headquarters, etc.; setting up the head-ings for the advertising, and doing all thework incidental to the entirely new venture.Moreover, it was between seasons so tospeak, the students who had been here forthe winter had all left with the exception ofone, some of the workers had also beencalled away from headquarters and thosewho were to come and take their place hadnot yet arrived, thus we were unusuallyshorthanded. Besides, it was necessary toget out a much larger edition than theEchoes, because we sent the magazine notonly to all the students on the correspon-

dence list, but also to a number of otherswho we knew were interested; and last butnot least, among the contributing causes oftrouble, we did not feel that we could get alarge press until the mortgage had been paidwhich we told you about in last month’sEcho department, for it has always been thepolicy of the leaders to go slow and not getinto debt. They feel that as Stewards of theWidows’ mites coming to headquarters it isincumbent upon them to expend all for thework and not for interest on debts.Therefore, we did all the printing on our lit-tle press which is only eight by twelve andcan therefore print but two pages of themagazine at one time. Thus it requiredtwenty-eight impressions to print each mag-azine, and when you multiply that by anumber of thousands you will realize thatalthough we speeded up the press up to thepoint of the limit of a man’s ability to feedit, it took almost two weeks constant run-ning of the press for about twelve hours aday before the printing of the magazine wasfinished. Then we had to fold the separatesheets and put them in order, stitch them,and address every copy so that it was reallya prodigious task. We also had somemishaps to contend with, but we hadpromised that we would get the magazineout, and it has always been the policy atheadquarters that we never allow obstaclesto hold us back; that, partly has been thesecret of our success, together with thisaforementioned method of always workingand living within the limits of our means.We were all tired and fagged out in body,


but we had the satisfaction that we hadaccomplished our task—as we always do.

Some remarks of the writer in a recentEcho provoked the query: Why have therebeen so many failures among those whocome to Mt. Ecclesia as workers, seeing wehad their horoscopes? As there are somepoints involved which apply to all whoendeavor to live the life and aspire to theacquisition of soul powers, it may be well totake this matter up for discussion.

When a ship sails the sea the same direc-tion as the wind she sails on an even keeland goes along smoothly and beautifully.The force of the wind is not noticeable, andwhatever motion may be felt will be of apleasurable and delightful nature. But themoment that the ship turns about and headsagainst the wind and sea there is anotherstory to tell. She keels over with the gale,her deck becomes awash perhaps on the leeside, and the wind howls through her sailsand rigging. Her timbers begin also togroan as she buffets the wind and the waves,much to the discomfort of all on board. It issimilar with those who endeavor to live thelife: while they are drifting with the tide inthe world the motion seems unnoticeable,everything is pleasant on the ship that sailsbefore the wind, but the moment they beginto buffet the winds of habit and ceaseindulging the senses, the struggle com-mences, which is analogous to the buffetingof the waves upon the ship that strives to goagainst the wind. Where the lower naturerequires indulgence and has been in the

habit of having it, the higher nature decreesabstinence, and consequently there is afflic-tion all along the line. Sometimes the aspi-rant imagines himself or herself to be veryvile indeed, they feel that it is a sacrilege forthem to aspire beyond the worldly life, thatthey can never attain purity of life and char-acter. In fact, that is one of the subtle argu-ments of the lower nature to bring themback into the path of indulgence, and thehoroscopes of all probationers which wehave at headquarters are used for the pur-pose of giving them the help needed at cer-tain critical points; this help is givennotwithstanding the fact that the one whoreceives it is very often unaware that any-thing special was done or said in a letter; butnevertheless such is the use that is made andthe purpose of having the horoscopes.

What has been said about people whoremain in the world and there aspire to thehigher life, applies in a much greater degreeto those who come to an Esoteric Centerlike Mt. Ecclesia; the vibrations here arevery strong and may be likened to the galethat strikes the ship; they bring out thetemptations in order to test the strength ofthe aspirant. Of this he is always fairlywarned before he comes here. “Many arecalled, but few are chosen,” is indeed a prin-ciple that applies here, where strength ofcharacter is tested to its limit; but that doesnot do away with the fact that people whohave tried and failed are better for the expe-rience, nor is it to be inferred that they werenot good people; indeed they have been of amost estimable character, and they are not to


be blamed because they could not stand thehigh tests that are given in an EsotericCenter. Some day they will be able to keeptheir balance in these vibrations and makegood. People in the world who take upthese studies and then drop them after a timeare in an analogous position; they have alsofailed for the time being, and for the samereason. But as said, they must be good peo-ple or they would not have tried to live thehigher life in the first place, and havingfailed temporarily, they should be helped,not censured.

But the question is asked more from theAstrological standpoint, the querent feelsthat if Astrology is a true science, and if weknow Astrology, then we ought to be able topick people who are bound to make goodand thus avoid having failures among theworkers. This brings to mind an occasionwhen the writer was in a somewhat similarframe of mind with regard to those whowere admitted to discipleship. One of thosewho was first admitted to discipleship thenfailed most signally, and the writer’s heartwas very heavy when he asked the teacherhow that was that this person could fail afterhaving been given discipleship teachings.The answer was about as follows: “Youhave, of course, noticed that in Europe thepicture of the reigning head is stamped uponthe postage and the coin of the realm; inAmerica you have no reigning King, butyou take the Presidents’ pictures and youuse them in a similar manner. There is,however, a very radical difference. InEurope it is usually the living Kings that are

so honored, but in America you will findthat no President who has not passed out ofthis life is ever pictured upon the coin orpostage, and there is a reason back of thisdifference. In Europe they take their reign-ing head on faith, believing and hoping thatthey may turn out good and faithful servantsof the people, but in America you are goingto make sure that there will be no chance forblunder; therefore, no picture of anyPresident is placed upon your coin or cur-rency until he has passed into the beyondwhere it is absolutely impossible for him tosmirch the name of the nation that thus hon-ors him.

If we were to follow that policy and givethe discipleship teachings only to those whowe were sure would not disgrace the nameof the Rosicrucian Fellowship, or misusethe information, or in other ways do wrong,then we would have to wait until the aspi-rant was dead, for so long as he lives he isprone to err; so we follow the same methodthat they use in Europe with their Monarchs.We take the aspirant on Faith, supplementedby a reasonable performance such as wehave outlined in the probationary career,then we leave the matter in the hands ofGod, praying that all may be well.

It is the same with the leaders on Mt.Ecclesia. If we were to wait until workerswould come with horoscopes that indicatedperfection, we might wait from now todooms-day; not one of us is perfect, neitherthe leader nor anyone else; therefore we aimto be patient and believe the good will winin time. The horoscope helps us to see what


are the tendencies in their lives, and how wecan best help them, but we have found thateven the severest afflictions are not neces-sarily prohibitive of a good life and anearnest aspiration; then on the other hand,we have in our possession horoscopes with-out one single evil aspect and they indicatelives that are so wishy-washy that nothingcan be expected of such people. Youremember what the Spirit said in Revelationto the churches—there was some blame andsome praise attaching to each one of them,but one met with unqualified disapproval:“I wish thou wert cold or hot, but becausethou art neither cold nor hot, I will spewthee out of my mouth.” Indeed it is better tohave afflictions in the horoscope, for theyare like the obstacles that we must over-come in the world; they develop strength,and where they are lacking we may dependthat we have a character which is so goodthat it is good for nothing. Therefore thehoroscope does not debar from, neither doesit secure admittance to, Mt. Ecclesia or anyother true Esoteric Center.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship’s Boothopened at the Panama Pacific Exposition,April 2nd, at 11:20 A. M., but it has been inprocess of evolution ever since, and hasgrown quite attractive, with cut flowers andgrowing ferns, and our display of literature.We have one large chart showing the sevenPeriods, also our motto, and expect othercharts soon.

The Booth occupies a corner in the Palaceof Education, at the extreme end of Avenue

D and First Street, a significant location,inasmuch as the visitors, after traversing abewildering path through the various ortho-dox creeds, cults and isms, wind up in ourquiet corner “to finish their education” asone visitor remarked, “an observation notlacking in discernment.”

All sorts of people visit the Booth, theserious and the curious touch elbows. ThePalace of Education attracts more generallythe thoughtful visitors because it is not sucha show place as many of the other Palaces,or enveloped with so much commercialism.It is a showing of Ideas and naturally peoplewith all sorts of ideas visit us.

Our Booth is not especially conspicuousin location, but our emblem and the“Rosicrucian Fellowship” over the entrance,attract attention, and usually those who stopto observe them prove intelligent as sympa-thetic listeners to the explanations given.Some of them take the literature and havereturned to inquire further concerning theTeaching, and it is hoped that from such andthe various visitors, some may becomemore than guessing inquirers.

It is not unusual for expounders of differ-ent Cults to visit the Booth for the purposeof giving their “point of view” and thewriter has heard so many that she is in dan-ger of becoming very learned, yet it is foundthat sympathetic and tolerant listening oftenwins a friend, and also a listener to theRosicrucian Fellowship’s point of view.The most sympathetic visitors are ministersand students of life, those who are reallyseeking, and it is a matter of encouragement


that so many people in all ways of life areseeking for the solution of the problems thatconfront them.

It is too early in the season for largecrowds, and as the weeks go by the Boothactivities may become more interesting.

If any students or friends come to theExposition it is hoped they will hunt up theBooth and give a glad hand.

Opposite to the Booth is the Buddhistexhibit. Many of their followers visit us,one said he “hated all Christians” and I sug-gested that he probably had never seen oneand he was gracious enough to reply, “yesone,” which was a case, perhaps, of a softanswer, etc. If there is any thing the stu-dents would like to know further, questionswill be gladly answered.

Anett C. Rich,Attendant-in-charge

The New York Center of the RosicrucianFellowship has a Library and meeting roomat 31 Union Square, West, where all the lit-erature is kept for sale. It is open to thePublic daily from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. exceptSunday, and every evening except Fridayand Saturday. All are welcome.

(Some belated items, which should haveappeared in our last issue.)

The loquat, peach, apricot, and almondtrees on Mt. Ecclesia are in bloom and weare looking forward to the first crop of fruitthis year. The large tomato vine that is nowin its third year has a new crop of blossomsalso, and one little lemon tree, just three feet

tall, has twenty-nine lemons on it, all largeand ripening.

This is the 21st of March, the day of theVernal Equinox and Mt. Ecclesia is desertedsave for the writer and one or two others; allthe students have gone to the beach for a dipin the deep. And what a glorious day it isfor exercise; there is not a cloud to mar thedeep blue of the sky, and as one sits andlooks out over the ocean the reflection of theSunlight is blinding; likewise, the dazzlingwhite of the snow-capped mountain in theeast. It is certainly a wonderful climate, andthere is such a rare good fellowship on Mt.Ecclesia; it does one’s heart good to hear thelaughter of the boys while they are at theirathletic games at noon or in the evening,and how much they do enjoy those walks tothe beach. Mt. Ecclesia is blooming outgradually, and with much labor becoming abeautiful park, but down at the beach thistime of the year there is a carpet of flowersso variegated in color and blended with suchexquisite taste that no human hand couldever sow the seed in that manner. It is God,the Great Gardener of the Universe alonethat can do such beautiful work, far surpass-ing all the artistic efforts of man.

It just does one’s heart real good to seewhat real right living will do for people, somany come to Mt. Ecclesia looking delicate,peaked, and void of vitality. In a short timethey begin to take on flesh, and bloom outjust like full blown roses. It is not anuncommon thing for people to take on half


a pound of flesh a day; we have known anumber of instances where they have gainedthirty pounds in two months and ten ortwelve pounds in a month is quite the rule.This stops after a time, of course, when theyhave filled out to their normal stature, forthe archetype is, after all, the arbiter ofwhether we are fleshy or the reverse. And,therefore, it also works the opposite way;those who come here and have too muchadipose tissue will find that this living verysoon reduces their weight to a normal statewhere the well being is the greatest. Everyone on Mt. Ecclesia is certainly a splendid

advertisement of the efficacy of the vegetar-ian diet in giving health, strength, vitality,and life. We might, of course, use the time-worn expression, “that everybody looks thepicture of health,” but as you know, thatphrase is not really descriptive, for one maylook the picture of health, as we usuallypaint it, with red cheeks, etc. and still sufferfrom various ailments, while another mayseem sallow of face and expression andenjoy most perfect health, because theybelong to different types, and what ishealthy appearance of one will be a decid-edly unhealthy state for the other.

excellent method for attaining certain neces-sary soul qualities, but the history of allthose persons who have developed the intel-lect and the will, at the expense of emotionand intuition, has been a history of ultimatesorrow, disappointment and spiritual negation.

But, again, on the contrary, those whodevelop the emotions and ignore the cultureof will-power and intellect are equally liableto sorrow and disappointment.

A well-balanced character, neither toomuch developed intellectually or emotional-ly, is the correct thing and is one of the mainpoints in Rosicrucian Philosophy.


The Mystic Light

Continued from page 16

The sympathetic person, he who feelslove for all God’s creatures, and who con-siders nothing too small or mean to which toadminister aid, is a beautiful type, and everyfeature of the face is the symbol of a spiri-tual grace. Truly, the spirit moulds the fleshto a resemblance and an expression of itsown properties.

At the present day, intellect and the result-ing material achievements seem to be ofparamount importance. It is certainly an

THE

RosicrucianFellowshipITS MESSAGE AND MISSION

Formerly, religious truths were intuitively perceived ortaken wholly on faith as dogmas of the church. Today, agrowing class demands that immortality and kindred mattersbe proved to the intellect, deductively or by observation, asare other facts of life, like heredity and ether. They desirereligion as much as their fathers, but want the ancient truthsin modern dress congruous to their altered intellectual condi-tion. To this class the Rosicrucian Fellowship addresses itselfwith a definite, logical, and sequential teaching, concerningthe origin, evolution and future development of the worldand man which is as strictly scientific as it is reverently reli-gious; a teaching which makes no statements not supportedby reason and logic, which satisfies the mind by clear expla-nations, which neither begs nor evades questions, but offersa reasonable solution to all mysteries, so that the heart maybe allowed to believe what the intellect has sanctioned, andthe solace of religion may speak peace to the troubled mind.

MOUNT ECCLESIAIn order to make our philosophy of life and health of prac-

tical value in the world, we have bought 40 acres of land in thelittle town of Oceanside, 88 miles south of Los Angeles. It isone of the sightliest spots in sunny Southern California, situa-ted upon the promontory of a high tableland. From MountEcclesia, as we have named our headquarters, there is anunobstructed view of the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean.Directly west lies the island of San Clemente, 75 miles out, and

ships are often silhouetted upon the skyline as they sail by. Fortymiles to the southward looms the promontory of La Jolla, a sub-urb of San Diego, the southernmost city in Uncle Sam’s spaciousrealm. Eighty miles north from Mount Ecclesia we see the love-ly island of Catalina with its crystal clear waters and its luxuriantsubmarine gardens, so strange and fantastic that they outstripfancy and fairy tale alike. Standing upon the same spot whencewe saw the magnificent marine view described above, we maybehold a landscape equal1y glorious, varied, and wide by simplyturning upon our heels and looking towards the east.Immediately below Mount Ecclesia lies the smiling San LuisRey valley with its fertile green fields and its historic old mis-sion; a little further away are the rounded foothills with theirwonderful play of light and shade, then the mountains with theirrugged contours, and farthest to the east we see the snowcappedpeaks of Mount San Bernardino, Mount Greyback, and MountSan Jacinto. The first named is 100 and the last 75 miles from thecoast. Thus the range of our views from Mount Ecclesia is 150miles east and west (from San Jacinto Mountain to San Clementeisland), and 120 miles north and south (from Catalina to LaJolla).

The climate is as wonderful as the view, and as incomprehensi-ble to all who have not lived here. One may wear a white shirt-waist outdoors on every day in the winter, and although the waterin our solar heater gets so hot that it cracks glass, we do not per-spire on the warmest day in summer on account of the sea breezewhich sweeps over Mount Ecclesia every day from about 10 a. m.to 5 p. m., cooling the atmosphere and filling our lungs with invig-orating ozone fresh from the heaving bosom of the great PacificOcean. It is a veritable elixir of Life, and therefore this placeoffers such rare physical conditions for the attainment of healththat it is probably without a peer.

DINING HALL

ELECTRIC EMBLEMMount Ecclesia is brilliantly illuminated at night, and theElectric Emblem is a unique and striking feature.

OUR BUILDINGS, PRINTING, PUMPING,AND ELECTRIC PLANTS

Three years ago we started building our headquarters on thisbeautiful spot. We installed a pumping plant in the valley, carry-ing the water 226 feet up to the summit of Mt. Ecclesia and havethus an unlimited supply of water for irrigation and ample fireprotection. We have built a sanctuary devoted exclusively to wor-ship of God, an administration building wherein our generaloffices and printing plant are located, a commodious dining hallto accommodate all workers, patients, and pupils. We have a1sobuilt a number of cottages for the accommodation of the students,and in the summer time a tent city adds largely to the accommo-dations during the time when the summer school is in session.

Mt. Ecclesia has also its own electric lighting plant, andevery night the wonderful electric emblem of the Fellowshipmay be seen flashing its message of light across the country forover twenty miles in either direction. The exterior of the dininghall and Pro-Ecclesia, as we call our Sanctuary, are also electri-cally lighted, and thus we let the physical light shine to attractthose who are seeking the spiritual, if by chance such may passand inquire through curiosity, which afterwards turns to keeninterest.

THE CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLIn addition to thE publications of the Rosicrucian Fellowship,

regularly advertised and before the public, there are two corre-spondence courses which furnish instructions to students, a1lover the world, who are desirous of investigating the RosicrucianMysteries, and the Science of Astrology. Upon request anyonewho is not a Hypnotist, Professional Medium, Palmist, orAstrologer, will receive from the General Secretary, at headquar-ters, application blanks for admission to the Esoteric instructionscontained in these two courses—Esoteric Astrology and TheRosicrucian Mystery Teachings.

THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDINGThis building contains the General offices, the Printing plant and the

Mailing Department.

SUMMER SCHOOLDuring July, August, and September, a summer school is maintained and

students on our correspondence lists who wish to avail themselves of theopportunity of study at Headquarters may do so by applying to the Esotericsecretary, but no one is permitted to enter Headquarters until their applica-tion has been passed upon and accepted.

A HEALTH RESORTAccording to the United States Government Experts, Mt. Ecclesia is in the

center of an air belt which is purest in all of the U.S. It is therefore a natur-al health resort and this, coupled with the fact that a scientific vegetarian dietis here supplied, makes it an ideal place of residence for both the well andthe ill. We are prepared to take patients whose ailments do not prevent themfrom attending to their own needs. The rates of board are less than one-halfwhat is usually charged in sanatariums, but we are have no resident physi-cian and cannot take proper care of patients who need nursing and attention.

A Brief ResuméOf the

Rosicrucian Philosophy

Sooner or later there comes a time when the consciousness isforced to recognize the fact that life, as we see it, is but fleeting,and that amid all the uncertainties of our existence there is but onecertainty—Death !

When the mind has thus become aroused by thought of the leapin the dark which must sometime be taken by all, the question ofquestions—Whence have we come—Why are we here—Whitherare we going?—must inevitably present itself. This is a basicproblem with which all must sooner or later grapple, and it is ofthe greatest importance how we solve it, for the view we take willcolor our whole life.

Only three theories of note have been brought forward to solvethis problem. To range ourselves in one of the three groups ofmankind, segregated by their adherence to one theory or the otherin an intelligent manner, it is necessary to know the three theories,to calmly weigh and compare them one with another and withestablished facts. Lecture No. 1 does just that, and whether weagree with its conclusions or not, we shall surely have a morecomprehensive grasp of the various viewpoints and be better ableto form an intelligent opinion when we have read “The Riddle ofLife and Death.”

If we have come to the conclusion that death does not end ourexistence, it is but a natural question to ask: Where are the dead?This momentous question is dealt with in lecture No. 2. The lawof conservation of matter and energy precludes annihilation, yetwe see that matter is constantly changing from the visible to the

invisible state and back again, as, for instance, water is evaporat-ed by the sun, partially condensed into a cloud, and then falls toEarth again as rain.

Consciousness may also exist without being able to give us anysign, as in cases where people have been thought dead, but haveawakened and told all that had been said and done in their pres-ence.

So there must be an invisible World of force and matter, as inde-pendent of our cognition of it as light and color exist regardless ofthe fact that they are not perceived by the blind.

In that invisible World the so-called dead are now living in fullpossession of all the mental and emotional faculties. They are liv-ing a life as real as existence here.

The invisible World is cognized by means of a sixth sense devel-oped by some, but latent in most people. It may be developed inall, but different methods produce varying results.

This faculty compensates for distance in a manner far superiorto the best telescopes and for the lack of size in a degree unreach-able by the most powerful microscope. It penetrates where the X-ray cannot. A wall or a dozen walls are no denser to the spiritualsight than crystal to ordinary vision.

In lecture No. 3 Spiritual Sight and the Spiritual Worlds, thisfaculty is described, and lecture No. 11, Spiritual Sight andInsight, gives a safe method of development.

The Invisible World is divided into different realms: The EthericRegion, the Desire World, the Region of Concrete Thought, andthe Region of Abstract Thought.

These divisions are not arbitrary, but are necessary because thesubstance of which they are composed obeys different laws. Forinstance, physical matter is subject to the law of gravity; in theDesire World forms levitate as easily as they gravitate.

Man needs various vehicles to function in the different Worldsas we need a carriage to ride on land, a boat at sea, and an airshipin the air.

We know that he must have a dense body to live in the visibleWorld. He also has a vital body composed of ether which enableshim to sense things around him. He has a desire body formed ofthe materials of the Desire World which gives him a passionatenature and incites him to action. The Mind is formed of the sub-stance of the Region of Concrete Thought and acts as a brakeupon impulse; it gives purpose to action. The real man, theThinker or Ego, functions in the Region of Abstract Thought, act-ing upon and through his various instruments.

Lecture No. 4 deals with the normal and abnormal conditions oflife such as Sleep, Dreams, Trance, Hypnotism, Mediumship, andInsanity. The previously mentioned finer vehicles are all concen-tric with the dense body in the waking state when we are active inthought, word, and deed, but the activities of the day cause thebody to grow tired and sleepy.

When the wear and tear incident to use of a building has madeexhaustive repairs necessary, the tenants must move out that theworkmen may have full scope for restoration. So when wear andtear of the day has exhausted the body, it is necessary that the Egomove out. That withdrawal renders the body unconscious, anddefinite work is necessary to restore its tone and rhythm. Duringthe night the Ego hovers outside the dense body clothed in desirebody and mind. Sometimes the Ego only withdraws partially, ishalf in the body and half out; then it sees both the Desire Worldand the Physical World, but confused as in a dream.

Hypnotism is a mental assault. The unsuspecting victim is dri-ven out of his body, the hypnotist obtains control.

The victims of the hypnotist are released at his death, however,but the medium is not so fortunate. Spirit controls are really invis-ible hypnotists. Their invisibility gives great scope for deception,and after death they may take possession of a medium’s desirebody, use it for ages, and keep their hapless victims from pro-gressing along the pathway of evolution. This latter phase ofmediumship is elucidated in No. 5, which deals with Death and

Life in Purgatory.What we call death is in reality but a shifting of consciousness

from one World to another. We have a science of birth withtrained nurses, obstetricians, antiseptics, and every other means ofcaring for the incoming Ego, but are sorely in need of a science ofdeath, for when a friend is passing out of our concrete existence,we stand helplessly about, ignorant of how to assist, or worse, wedo things which make the passing infinitely harder than if wemerely stood idly by. Giving stimulants is one of our worstoffenses against the dying, as it draws the passing spirit into thedense body again with the force of a catapult.

After the heart has stopped, on account of the partial rupture ofthe silver cord (which united the higher and lower vehicles of manduring sleep and remains unsevered for a time, varying from a fewhours to three and a half days after death), there is still on thataccount a certain feeling if the body is embalmed, opened forpost-mortem examination, or cremated. The body should, there-fore, be left unmolested, for at that time the passing Ego isengaged in reviewing the pictures of its past life (which are seenin a flash by drowning persons). These pictures are impresseddaily and hourly upon the ether of the vital body as independent-ly of our observation as a detailed picture is impressed upon thephotographic plate by the ether, regardless of whether the photog-rapher observed details or not. They form an absolutely truerecord of our past life, which we may call the sub-conscious mem-ory (or mind) far superior to the view we consciously store in ourmemory (or mind).

Under the immutable Law of Consequence, which decrees thatwhat we sow we reap, the deeds of life are the basis of our exis-tence after death. The panorama of a past life is the book of theRecording Angels, who are adjusters of the score we make underthe Law of Consequence.

Review of the life panorama just after death etches the pictures intothe desire body, which is our normal vehicle in the Desire World,

where Purgatory and the First Heaven are located.The panorama of life is the basis of purgation of evil in purga-

tory and assimilation of good deeds in the first heaven. It is of thehighest importance that this panorama be deeply etched into thedesire body, for if that impress is deep and clear the Ego will suf-fer more sharply in purgatory and experience a keener joy in thefirst heaven. This feeling will remain as conscience in future livesto impel good action and discourage evil deeds.

If the passing spirit is left in peace and quiet to concentrate uponthe life-panorama, the etching will be clear and sharp, but if therelatives detract his attention by loud hysterical lamentations dur-ing the first three and one-half days when the silver cord is yetintact, a shallow or blurred impression will cause the spirit to losemuch of the lessons which should have been learned. To correctthis anomaly the Recording Angels are often forced to terminatethe next Earth-life in early childhood before the desire body hascome to birth, as described in Birth a Fourfold Event (lecture No.7) for that which has not been quickened cannot die, and so thechild goes into the first heaven and learns the lessons it did notlearn before, and is thus equipped to pass on in Life’s School.

As such Egos retain the desire body and mind they had in thelife where they died as children, it often happens that they remem-ber that life, for they only stay out of Earth life from one to twen-ty years.

Suffering in purgatory arises from two causes: Desires whichcannot be gratified or the reaction to the pictures of the lifepanorama—the drunkard suffers tortures of Tantalus because hehas no means of obtaining or retaining drink. The miser suffersbecause he lacks the hand to restrain his heirs from squanderinghis cherished hoard. Thus the Law of Consequence purges evilhabits until desire has burned itself out.

If we have been cruel the panorama of life radiates back upon usthe picture of ourselves and our victims. Conditions are reversedin purgatory; we suffer as they suffered. Thus, in time, we are

purged of sin. The coarse desire matter which forms the embodi-ment of evil has been expelled by the centrifugal force ofRepulsion in purgatory and we retain but the pure and the good,which is embodied in subtler desire stuff dominated by the cen-tripetal force—attraction, which amalgamates good in the firstheaven when the life panorama depicts scenes in our past lifewhere we helped others, or where we felt grateful for favors, asdescribed in lecture No. 6, Life in Heaven, which also deals withour stay in the Second Heaven, located in the Region of ConcreteThought.

That is also the realm of tone, as the Desire World is of color,and the Physical World of form. Tone, or sound, is the builder ofall that is on Earth, as John says: “In the beginning was the Word(sound), and the Word was made flesh,” the flesh of all things,“without it was not anything made that was made.” The moun-tain, the moss, the mouse, and the man are all embodiments of thisGreat Creative Word which came down from heaven.

There the man becomes one with the nature forces; Angels andArchangels teach him to build such an environment as he hasdeserved under the Law of Consequence. If he dallied his timeaway in metaphysical speculation, as do the Hindus, he neglectsto build a good material environment, and is reborn in an arid landwhere flood and famine teach him to turn his attention to materi-al things. When he focuses his mind on the Physical World, aspir-ing to wealth and material comforts, he will build in Heaven anunexcelled material environment, a wealthy land with facilitiesfor ease and comfort, as the Western World has done. But as wealways long for what we lack, the possessions we have are satiat-ing us beyond comfort and we are beginning to aspire to the spir-itual life anew, as the Hindus, our younger brothers are aspiringnow to the material prosperity we are leaving behind, as morefully elucidated in lecture No. 19, The Coming Force—Vril?which shows why Hindu Yoga practices are detrimental toWesterners; they being behind us in evolution.

When the Ego has helped to build the creative archetype for theenvironment of its next earth-life, in the second heaven, it ascendsinto the Third Heaven, located in the Region of Abstract Thought.But few people have learned to think abstractly, as in mathemat-ics; the majority of people are therefore unconscious, as in sleep,waiting for the Clock of Destiny—the stars, to indicate the timewhen effects engendered by the action of past lives can be workedout. When the heavenly time makers, the Sun, Moon, and plan-ets, have reached a proper position, the Ego wakes and desires anew embodiment.

The Recording Angels look up the record of all our past lives,which is stamped upon the super-conscious mind each time anEgo withdraws to the third Heaven, as outlined in lecture No. 7,Birth a Fourfold Event. When there is no particular reason why acertain environment should be taken, the Ego has choice of vari-ous embodiments. These are shown to it as a panorama, givingthe great outline of each proposed life, but leaving scope for indi-vidual free-will in the detail.

Once a choice has been made, the Ego is bound to liquidate ripecauses selected by the Recording Angels, and any attempt toevade that will be frustrated. It should be carefully noted that evilis eradicated in Purgatory. Only tendencies remain, to tempt ustill we have consciously overcome. Thus we are born innocentand at least every evil act is an act of free will.

When the Ego descends toward rebirth, it gathers the materialsfor its new bodies, but they are not born at the same time. Birthof the vital body inaugurates rapid growth from 7 to 14, ripeningalso the propagative faculty. Birth of the desire body at 14 givesrise to the impulsive period from 14 to 21. At that age the birth ofthe mind furnishes a brake on impulse and gives a foundation forserious life.

ROSICRUCIAN CHRISTIANITY SERIES

The price of these lectures is 5 cents each plus 1 cent postage for each copy, except No. 11. No. 1. “The Riddle of Life and Death.” Presenting a solution which is both scientific and

religious.No. 2. “Where Are the Dead?”No. 3. Spiritual Sight and the Spiritual Worlds.” Showing that we have a latent “sixth

sense,” and what it opens up to us when cultivated.No. 4. “Sleep, Dreams, Trance, Hypnotism, Mediumship, and Insanity.”No. 5. “Death and Life in Purgatory.” Describing the method of death and purgation, also

how immutable law and not an avenging Deity transmutes the evil acts of life to ever-lasting good.

No. 6. “Life and Activity in Heaven.” Showing how the Human Spirit assimilates theGood of its past life and creates its environments for a future rebirth, also how itprepares a new body.

No. 7. “Birth a Fourfold Event.” Describing antenatal preparations for birth, and thespiritual changes which inaugurate the period of excessive physical growth in the 7th

year; puberty at 14, and maturity at 21. This knowledge is absolutely essential to theright care of a child.

No. 8. “The Science of Nutrition, Health, and Protracted Youth.” Showing the materialcause of early death and the obvious prophylactic.

No. 9. “Astronomical Allegories of the Bible.” A mystic scroll.No. 10. “Astrology; Its Scope and Limitations.” Showing the spiritual side of astrology,

how it enables those who study it to help themselves and others. No. 11. “Spiritual Sight and Insight.” Its culture, control, and legitimate use, giving a

definite and safe method of attainment. Second enlarged edition 10c.No. 12. “Parsifal.” Wagner’s famous Mystic Musical Drama, a mine of inspiration and

devotion.No. 13. “The Angels as Factors in Evolution.” Showing just what part the Angels,

Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, etc., play in the Drama of Life.No. 14. “Lucifer, Tempter or Benefactor?” Showing the origin and the mission of pain

and sorrow.No. 15. “The Mystery of Golgotha and the Cleansing Blood.” A rational explanation

which satisfies head and heart alike.No. 16. “The Star of Bethlehem; a Mystic Fact.”No. 17. “The Mystery of the Holy Grail.” The way to attainment.No. 18. “The Lord’s Prayer.” Showing the esoteric side and how it applies to the seven-fold

constitution of man.No. 19. “The Coming Force—Vril! or What?”No. 20. “Fellowship and the Coming Race.” Showing why the Bible contains both the

Jewish and Christian religions, why both combined are peculiarly adapted to the spir-itual needs of the Western World, and why Jesus was born a Jew.

THE

RosicrucianCosmo

ConceptionFOURTH EDITIONPrice $1.50, Postfree

This remarkable book by Max Heindel marks an entirely newdeparture in mystic literature.

For the first time in history the Western Wisdom Teaching con-cerning Life and Being, which the Rosicrucians have guarded forcenturies, is here given by an authorized messenger, for it is heldthat the world is now ready to receive this advanced science of thesoul.

The existing soul-hunger, and the satisfying nature of theRosicrucian teachings are equally well attested by the phenome-nal sale of this great book—necessitating the issue of three largeeditions in one year and eight months—and the many thousandsof letters received by the author from grateful students all over theworld, who testify that they have found in this book what theyhave long sought elsewhere in vain.

It is one of the fundamental requirements of the Rosicruciansthat their teachings may not be promulgated for gain. The workitself amply demonstrates that the author carries this injunctionout to the letter, for the edition covers 608 pages, is printed inclear type on good paper; it is bound in cloth with reinforcementsto withstand the hard wear given to a text-book; has 30 diagramsand illustrations, two of them in four colors; and an index of 60

pages, so thorough that it is almost a syllabus of any subject in thebook. The beautiful symbolical cover design is stamped in red,black, and genuine gold, the three edges are also gold, making itan unusually handsome volume at the extremely low price of$1.50, postfree.

The wide scope of the book is indicated by the notes on the title-page, in which it is stated to be “an elementary treatise uponMan’s past evolution, present constitution, and future develop-ment.”

We give herewith some headings of chapters and subdivisions asa slight indication of what is contained in this mine of mystic lightand knowledge.

PART I

The Visible and Invisible Worlds, with two diagrams.The Four Kingdoms, with two diagrams showing their vehicles

and consciousness.Man and the Method of Evolution. Spirit, Soul, and Body;

Thought, Memory, and Soul-growth. The conscious, subcon-scious, and super-conscious mind. The science of death, thebeneficence of purgatory, life in heaven; preparation for re-birth.

Rebirth and the Law of Consequence. Wine as a factor inevolution, an authentic story proving re-birth.

PART IIThe Relation of Man to God, with diagram.The Scheme of Evolution. A general outline, with diagram of

the Seven World Periods.The Path of Evolution. Cosmic Days of active work and

Cosmic Nights of passive contemplation.The Work of Evolution. How the Cherubim, Seraphim,

Archangels, and Angels helped.Genesis and Evolution of Our Solar System. Chaos the seed-

ground of Cosmos. Birth of the Planets. Planetary Spirits.

Evolution on the Earth. The Moon, the eighth sphere of retro-gression, Birth of the Individual, Separation into Sexes, LuciferSpirits and the Fall, Sixteen Paths to Destruction.

Back to the Bible. Who was the “lost” tribes are, and whyJesus was born a Jew.

Occult Analysis of Genesis. The nebular theory, Jehovah andhis mission; a living soul; why hybrids are sterile.

PART IIIChrist and His Mission. “Peace on Earth” and “Not Peace, but

a Sword.” The Star of Bethlehem, the heart an anomaly, theMystery of Golgotha and the cleansing blood.

Future Development and Initiation. The symbolism of theCaduceus, Alchemy and Soul-growth.

The Method of Acquiring First-Hand Knowledge. WesternMethods for Western People, the science of nutrition, the law ofassimilation, the Lord’s Prayer, Esoteric Training, how the innervehicle is built.

The Constitution of the Earth and Volcanic Eruptions.Christian Rosenkreuz and the Order of Rosicrucians. The

Rosicrucian Initiation, the Rosicrucian Fellowship, Symbolism ofthe Rose Cross, the Power of Healing.

How shall weKnow Christ

WHEN HE COMES?

By Max Heindel15c postfree

The title indicates sufficiently the scope of the book. It is direct and to the point like all the writings of this author.

Christ or Buddha?

By Anett C. Rich

With a

Foreword by Max Heindel

30¢ postfree

The idea that India is the main repository of occult knowledge is heldby many who have forsaken the Christian Religion to embraceHinduism. Christ or Buddha? shows most clearly that

THE WESTERN WISDOM TEACHING

throws a light upon the problems of life which is much more intense,far-reaching and soul satisfying in every respect. A partial list of con-tents will indicate its scope.

Involution, Evolution, and EpigenesisTranceDreamless sleepDreamsThe Waking StateThe Mystery of BloodThe Mystery of SexThe Mystery of DeathThe Christ of the West is not the Christ of the EastThe Christ of the WestThe law of infant mortality

THE

Rosicrucian Philosophy

In Questions and Answers

Price $1.15 Postfree

A book of ready reference upon all mystic matters, which ought tobe in the library of every occult student. It covers 432 pages; has aconsiderable number of illuminating diagrams, is printed on fine paperin clear type, reinforced binding of cloth with the beautiful Rosicruciansymbols stamped upon the cover in red, black, and genuine gold leaf;the three edges are also gold.

The handsome style of this volume will make it a much appreciatedgift book, and the merely nominal price is an inducement to liberality.

PARTIAL LIST OF SUBJECTS.Section I.—Life on Earth. Social Conditions, Marriage, Children,

Sleep and Dreams, Health and Disease.Section II.—Life after Death. Cremation, Purgatory, The First

Heaven, The Second Heaven, The Third Heaven,Guardian Angels.

Section III.—Rebirth. The Law of Rebirth, The Law of Causation,Transmigration.

Section IV.—The Bible Teachings. The Creation, The Fall, TheImmaculate Conception, Sayings of Christ.

Section V.—Spiritualistic Phenomena. Mediumship, Obsession,Materialization.

Section VI.—Clairvoyance. Dangers of Psychism, True SpiritualUnfoldment, Initiation.

Section VII.—Astrology. True and False.Section VIII.—Animals. Their Life Here and Hereafter.

The Messageof the Stars50 Cents, Postfree

When Simplified Scientific Astrology was published, Mr.Heindel stated his intention of writing a book on the art of read-ing a horoscope. He promised particularly to elucidate his methodof detecting incipient diseases, so that application of the prover-bial ounce of prevention may preserve our health and make cureunnecessary.

The great book is now ready. Had Max Heindel written it alone,it would be

IN A CLASS BY ITSELF

but being the product of both Max Heindel and his equally ableCompanion in the Work, Augusta Foss Heindel,

IT IS A MASTER-KEY

to the esoteric side of Astrology, with the key to its practicalapplication in Life. Twenty-two horoscopes are used to illustratediagnosis of disease; examples show how

SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND MEDIUMSHIP

are indicated in the horoscope, etc.

SimplifiedScientific

AstrologySECOND EDITION

40 Cents, Postfree

Competent Astrologers all over the world have complimented Mr.Heindel on his simplified method of casting a horoscope in a thor-oughly scientific manner. They have marveled at the lucidity of hisexplanations and at the information contained within the covers of thisbook, and the second edition will cause them to coin new superlativesof praise, for it is revised, partly rewritten, and though the number ofpages is the same as in the first edition, much new matter has beeninserted by economizing space.

Notwithstanding the increased value, the price remains the same: 40cpostfree. Thus students who have the first edition can easily afford toget the second also.

THE

Rosicrucian Mysteries

200 pp. cloth. 75¢ postfree

This Is

THE BOOK FOR THE BUSY MAN

who is seeking a solution to the Great Mystery called Life, butlacks leisure to wade through volumes of metaphysical specula-tion. The lucid and logical explanations carry conviction. Theybear

THE STAMP OF TRUTH

Nevertheless, the language is so simple, clear and devoid of tech-nicalities that

A CHILD CAN UNDERSTAND

its message. It is therefore specially suited to beginners, butadvanced students will find

The MysteryOf

Light, Color, and Consciousness

and similar subjects of vital interest.

Astrologyby

CorrespondenceWHY YOU OUGHT TO STUDY ASTROLOGY

There is a side of the moon which we never see, but that hiddenhalf is as potent a factor in creating the ebb and flow as the part ofthe moon which is visible. Similarly, there is an invisible part ofman which exerts a powerful influence in life, and as the tides aremeasured by the motion of sun and moon, so also the eventuali-ties of existence are measured by the circling stars, which maytherefore be called “the Clock of Destiny,” and knowledge of theirimport is an immense power, for to the competent Astrologer ahoroscope reveals every secret of life.

Thus, when you have given an astrologer the data of your birth,you have given him the key to your innermost soul, and there isno secret that he may not ferret out. This knowledge may be usedfor good or ill, to help or hurt, according to the nature of the man.Only a tried friend should be trusted with this key to your soul,and it should never be given to anyone base enough to prostitutea spiritual science for material gain.

To the medical man Astrology is invaluable in diagnosing dis-eases and prescribing a remedy, for it reveals the hidden cause ofall ailments.

If you are a parent the horoscope will aid you to detect the evilintent in your child and teach you how to apply the ounce of pre-vention. It will show you the good points also, that you may makea better man or woman of the soul entrusted to your care. It willreveal systematic weakness and enable you to guard the health ofyour child; it will show what talents are there, and how the lifemay be lived to a maximum of usefulness. Therefore, the mes-sage of the marching orbs is so important that you cannot affordto remain ignorant thereof.

In order to aid those who are willing to help themselves we havestarted a Correspondence Class.

No direct charge will be made for tuition, but we trust that stu-dents will realize their moral obligation to contribute to the workwhich helps them.

If you are looking for fortune telling we have nothing for you.

Our Lessons are Sermons

They embody the highest moral and spiritual principles, togeth-er with the loftiest system of ethics, for Astrology is, to us, a phaseof religion, we never look at a horoscope without feeling that weare in a holy presence, face to face with an immortal soul, and ourattitude is one of prayer for light to guide that soul aright.

We Do Not Cast Horoscopes

Despite all we can say, many people write enclosing money forhoroscopes, forcing us to spend valuable time writing letters ofrefusal and giving us the trouble of returning the money. Pleasedo not thus annoy us. It will avail you nothing.

Contents

The Mystic LightA Department devoted to articles on Occultism, Mystic Masonry, Esoteric Christianity, and similar subjects.

The Question DepartmentDesigned to give further light upon the various subjects dealt with in the different departments, where queries from students and other subscribers make this necessary.

The Astral RayAstrology from an original angle, Cosmic light on Life’sProblems.

Studies in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-ConceptionOur Origin, Evolution and ultimate Destiny is religiously,reasonably and scientifically explained in this department.

Nutrition and HealthOur body is ‘A Living Temple’, we build it without sound of hammer, by our food. In this Department articles on diet teach how to build wisely and well.

The Healing DepartmentThe Rose Cross Healing Circle, its meetings and their results.

Echoes from Mount EcclesiaNews and Notes from Headquarters

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