...

MULTIPLE PLANES OF BEING

—

LESSON 151

The Wisdom Religion formulates seven different planes or states

of consciousness. Many teachers of the philosophy of the said religion

frequently refer to one or more of the seven sub planes of each one of

these seven grand divisions, who are not aware that the sub planes

may be differentiated almost ad libitum, for in fact there are as many

sub planes as there are thinking entities on the four primal planes of

matter. As there are no two beings, no two leaves on a tree, no two

[TT 382] blades of grass exactly alike, so there are no two mentalities

exactly alike. The dynamic power resident in a single great idea or

ideal may draw together and hold many minds to a given point,

although each mind may perceive a different aspect of the idea.

When a definite idea has taken form in a mentality, and been

expressed in speech or writing, if it be new to people at large, and

expresses some great need, it is avidly seized and if practicable

quickly acted upon. Every mind so seizing the idea and concentrating

upon it adds a definite corresponding degree of energy to that of the

original idea, and gradually a distinct plane or state of consciousness

is created, into which may plunge the minds of uncounted, hitherto

unborn human beings, and which will last until the energy which

created and has sustained it is exhausted.

The size of the vortex created in the Manasic substance of the

universe by the generation and birth of the idea is gradually lessened,

the motion of the swirling substance is stilled and there remains but

the seed of the original thought or ides when the cyclic course of the

idea has been run. That seed remains as a laya center in the universal

mind until such time as a new cycle may open for it by its

refertilization in the mind of some other individual. This may take

place ages after its previous externalization.

Every true psychic, and in some degree every dreamer has many

partial glimpses of differing forms of phenomena which illustrate in a

measure one of the truths I desire to express. In the preliminary stages

of trance or dream various half formed pictures or images are seen,

partial sentences or incomplete revelations are heard, before the

psychic senses can seize upon some clearly outlined picture, or some

definite intelligible experience is lived through on whatever plane the

consciousness is acting. These undefined, incomplete representations

are partial personal recollections of some previous train of experience

upon some sub plane which bears a distinct relation to some one of the

great full planes . the seven primal planes of manifestation. Such

experiences are worthy of note and interpretation for they are

connecting links in some life experience, but as reliable interpretation

can only be had by means of symbolism they are never understood or

appreciated save by some well advanced student of occultism.

The relation between ideas and their cyclic return may be partially

illustrated by means of a string of 49 beads graduated from the size of

a mustard seed to that of a walnut. The beads should be of one color

save each seventh bead, which should be of different form and color ;

the colored beads should be placed according to the scale of the colors

of the spectrum. The string which holds the beads would indicate the

original idea, the graduated beads would indicate the [TT 383] growth

of the idea from one sub plane to another, while each seventh bead

would indicate the externalized idea upon a full plane. The different

color and form of each bead forming the during the different periods

of externalization, every intermediate bead would indicate a sub plane

. a new state of consciousness . for the corresponding races of earth

or the individuals so indicated.

This is far from being an adequate illustration, but no perfect

illustration of very interior truths is possible because we are then

dealing with matter subject to entirely different laws from those of the

physical plane, which can only be considered by correspondence and

analogy by the tyro in occultism.

It is necessary for the human mind to transcend the physical plane

and act consciously on interior planes in order to grasp the underlying

principle of any universal law and the action of the forces controlling

the gross matter of any plane of manifestation.

...

THE UMBILICUS

—

LESSON 152

The paths between Gods and men is the umbilicus which once

connected God and man. The navel, the Central Spiritual Sun, is the

point of separation between Spirit and Matter. The umbilicus

connection was severed when the Elohim said, "Let us make man in

our own image", and having so made man they set him down in the

Garden of Eden. Man cut the cord between himself and the great

Father-Mother. Therefore man must reunite the two severed ends of

the cord. This is the real occult secret behind the use of the navel in

concentration by some of the ancient teachers. Symbolically it is the

lower end of the Path, the gateway, so to speak ; and if the gateway is

choked by weeds (sensuous desires and gratifications) the soul cannot

pass through it to reach the path of true knowledge and power.

...

PLEDGE FEVER

—

LESSON 153

Many references have been made in the past both in earlier

esoteric teachings, to the effects which inevitably follow upon the

signing of a pledge by a Student of Occultism. [TT 384]

Notwithstanding the warning always given by all true leaders of

esoteric schools to those who come under their guidance and

supervision, these warnings are very frequently superficially

considered and eventually ignored ; consequently the student is left

without the protection which earnest consideration and obedience

would give, and he finally reaches a condition comparable to that of a

bird whose feathers have all been plucked, leaving its unclothed skin

subject to the icy blasts of the Storm King and the burning heat of the

sun.

While there remains a subconscious memory of the warning

received, but little effort is made by the majority of students to revive

it on the exterior plane. Like many other laws which seem made to be

broken, the laws of discipleship often suffer the same fate. When, at

the close of his long ; Nard struggle, a disciple has reached a certain

degree of the Great White Lodge and can look back on the path he has

trodden, he may be able to see that his disobedience in that one respect

has been mercifully overruled to his advantage, for the reason that the

icy blasts on his bare skin, figuratively speaking, the burning heat of

the Sun, the heavy blows on the unprotected flesh, the stabs of

enemies and all the other calamities which threatened to overwhelm

him, were so many necessary tests of his power of endurance, his vital

energy, and ability to maintain a state of equilibrium in the face of

every disturbing condition, and were all essential to the unfoldment of

his spiritual nature. All this does not militate against the reality and

importance of the aforementioned law and the inevitable results of

disobedience. His development has taken place notwithstanding his

disobedience and thoughtlessness, and because of an overplus of good

Karma or because he has deliberately or carelessly chosen the hard

rough way instead of the normal, wise and protected way.

While he might have had to meet tests fully as difficult to pass on

this protected way, he would have had more power to meet them ; his

strength would not have been frittered away on trifles, and he would

not have been led into so many blind traits and lost his way so many

times.

The eventual result of like disobedience and thoughtlessness may

be discerned today by any advanced disciple, in the many instances of

failure to reach a desired goal by some of the adherents of the first

Theosophical bodies to be formed in Europe and America, as well as

in many instances of less antiquity. The great majority of the above

mentioned have never advanced a single step on the true path since

their first novitiate was passed. They have either sunken into a state of

spiritual coma, or are still feverishly discussing the first principles of

Occultism in their waking hours with all who will listen, for the

[TT 385] reason that they have failed to grasp those of deeper moment

or they have deserted the ranks of discipleship and been added to the

flotsam and jetsam on the deceptive currents of Maya.

The terrible responsibility they assumed in the sacred pledges

they took in esoteric orders has been shirked, and instead of the

beacons of light to a drowning multitude that they might have become,

they are poor forsworn spiritual or psychic wrecks endangering the

safety of other human vessels ploughing the waves of life's ocean and

seeking for harbor against the heavy storms they intuitively feel are

close upon them.

When a disciple is told that with the taking of a pledge to the

Great White Lodge every latent tendency of good or evil in his nature,

however unsuspected, will become active, it is to his eternal interest to

be on guard and watch for their appearing. If he is vain, sensual or

ambitious, those vices will break out no matter how successfully he

has concealed them in the past. If he is honorable, compassionate, and

serviceable, those qualifications will be intensified.

"There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed." This is an

immutable law of Occultism. The conditions which obtain in the early

stages of his novitiate may result in serious attacks of illness, the

effects of his unpreparedness for battle with the elementary forces he

has loosed from thrall.

The state of the disciple during this stage of his development has

been well summed up by one of our most faithful disciples as "Pledge

Fever." While any disciple is suffering from an attack of "pledge

fever", his co-disciples should constantly exercise patience and

compassion toward him ; otherwise they will assuredly suffer from the

lack of such help in their own hours of trial.

This whole subject cannot be considered too seriously and every

effort should be made to impute the right causes to the effects which

manifest, instead of passing them off carelessly and

uncomprehendingly, or imputing them to exoteric influences.

The accepted disciple has started toward the central flame of his

own being and the closer he approaches the fire, the more will he feel

the effects of the flames which are searching out the carboniferous

deposits of his lower nature. Until these deposits are burnt up he can

make but little real progress on the path of practical occultism, and

can experience naught but an occasional hour of fictitious peace at the

very best ; while the "peace of understanding" so requisite for spiritual

growth seems to be constantly receding. But this is only unexpectedly

at the last. [TT 386]

...

THE POWER OF LIGHT

—

LESSON 154

But for causes to be subsequently noted, every earnest student

who has read and thoroughly digested my first Instructions on Light

and Sound might be far in advance of the exact scientists of the age,

all other things being equal, for being thus thoroughly digested they

yield a knowledge of the bases on which many of the greatest systems

of philosophy have been built, as well as the principles on which

many professions and trades have been founded.

Especially is the latter true of those professions and trades which

have grown out of the conduction of light and sound from place to

place.

Ill advised methods of education have resulted in the atrophy or

temporary paralysis of one particular brain centre in the majority of

human beings ; a centre which was peculiarly active in some

preceding races ; i. e., the centre through which the Attribute of

Intuition is demonstrated. Therefore the ability quickly to perceive the

requisite correspondences between the different forms and degrees of

matter and apply the knowledge so gained to the solution of the

problems which confront them in all fields of investigation, is limited

to comparatively few people.

The attribute of which I speak is much higher in the scale of

power than that of analogy. It is an attribute of the soul . higher mind.

As far as was humanly possible under existing circumstances, and

with those at present under my tuition I have previously defined the

nature of the energy of Light, and its relation to the Absolute. It is to

its offices of Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, and to its methods of

procedure that we are now to turn our attention.

The one all absorbing purpose of the Initiates is the breaking

down, or rather the expansion of the fine of their life cycles that they

may fully enter into their inheritance, the Absolute, and this is because

of their knowledge of the effects of the evils . the sine of omission

and commission of humanity en masse, and of their individual

disciples or children . on the vibration of the light within, in

perpetually decreasing the number of those vibrations, while they

should be increased to a great degree to permit of the fulfilling of the

divine purpose. For the said Initiates cannot enter into their

inheritance until they have brought their disciples to a certain degree

of life.

If the terms now used to designate certain features of scientific

investigation along the fine of physics might be exchanged for the

[TT 387] terms in common use in all religions all earnest teachers and

misunderstandings now responsible for so inating the human race

would disappear as by magic. Every teacher who further confuses the

minds of his pupils by renaming world old truths and so disguising

them is responsible for much of that evil. If for instance a man knew

that by the commission of some contemplated evil act he would

increase the density of a substance which would thereby cut him off

from possible realization of some ambition or aspiration, and he

understood the rationale of the procedure and could plainly see by

logical reasoning that there was no avoiding the effects of a cause so

set up, his efforts to refrain from the commission of that evil would be

increased ten-fold more than they would be by some faint hearted

belief in something that merely appealed to whatever religious sense

he might have.

Science and religion are one. If what is commonly believed to be

mere sentiment in religious teachings could be shown to have a bona

fade existence as matter and force possible of manifestation by higher

forms of energy and force, and that methods of manifestation could be

worked out by logical reasoning, teachers of religion would have more

charity for the average materialist, and the latter would be better able

to appreciate the truth and beauties of religion.

The student who imagines that the laws of constriction,

construction, conservation and expansion, or in fact any other law by

which matter is created or controlled, ceases its action when the

physical plane is passed, is much mistaken ; for such action is

intensified on the more interior planes.

The power of the astral body to absorb light is greater than that of

the physical, but unless that light is diffused almost as rapidly as it is

absorbed the discarnate soul has but little control of the astral body.

After death it drifts hither and yon until its atoms are finally dissipated

and the soul released.

It is almost unthinkable to the average man that the energy of

light should have anything to do with the release of the soul from its

enveloping astral body, yet it is true. Light overcomes even the pull of

gravitation. The action of gravitation is still more powerful on the

astral than on the physical man, and astral matter lighter and more

tenuous than physical matter the astral body is literally pulled away

from the earth sphere by light and dissipated in space when the

controlling force of the soul is withdrawn, but the very weight or

heaviness of the astral body that has absorbed all the light possible and

diffused none worth mentioning makes [TT 388] all the process of

disintegration and dissipation a painful one, and it is the difficulty

encountered in that process of dissipation and disintegration which

produces in the weighted astral the state called Purgatory.

The astral body of the man of broad, generous ideas, filled with a

spirit of true brotherhood and humanity, the man whose every thought

and desire is centered on the good of the race to which he belongs, and

who therefore diffuses the light he absorbs almost as rapidly as it is

absorbed, has, so to speak, loosened the tendrils which held his astral

to the physical body and rendered the former so extremely tenuous, so

loosely held together that the soul is entirely released very shortly

after death and the atoms of the astral body rapidly return to the

elements which created them, leaving the soul free. It is necessary for

you to bear constantly in mind the fact that the light of the physical

plane, sunlight, is the garment of spiritual light, and it is spiritual light

that is the basic energy of which I have been speaking, though you

will find perfect correspondences to the phenomena produced by

spiritual light in the action of sunlight on the mattes of the physical

plane if you will seek far enough.

I have referred to the above mentioned phenomena of the astral

plane to help to fix your attention on the similarity of the action of the

laws of light on the mattes of the two planes and the interaction of

energy and mattes.

With some understanding of the nature of light, its purpose and

action, the mysteries of darkness become less unsolvable. It has been

supposed that the tendency to perform evil deeds in the dark was

merely to escape observation, but the hours of darkness are natures

periods of assimilation and of excretion, therefore the energy absorbed

by day leaves the body less positively active and less able to reject the

exterior influences resulting from the refuse cast off by nature during

the hours of assimilation and ejection . the influences of the eighth

sphere . and knowing little or nothing of the causes the nature secrets

back of the impulses which lead him into temptation-he falls an easy

prey unless he leads a purely natural life, in which case the weariness

of body and mind resulting from his daily toil, the inertia which

follows his day of activity, impels him to sleep, and in sleep his

thinking self passes beyond the sphere of lower astral activity and his

body thus becomes impervious to those lower exterior influences.

Darkness is therefore something more than a cloak for evil. So far as

any negative action can be externalized it is evil itself, or rather the

decreased vibration of nature or light, primarily beneficent and

making for test, but when misused conducive to evil. [TT 389]

The rapid perfecting of the moving picture contains a valuable

process of photographing the them on the screen or curtain placed to

receive them is an exact correspondence to the methods by which the

events of human life, the action of every ocean wave, stirring leaf,

mountain geyser or crawling ant is thrown capon the astral screen, the

film of substance which envelops every materialized atomy and by

means of the same energy, light and reflection, there to remain while

time lasts.

There is one difference, however, which is of great importance ;

the moving picture is merely a shadow of the scenes which have been

photographed, while the live pictures on the astral screen are the very

substance of the scenes depicted thereon. The microscopical

envelopes or sheaths which every atom w mattes sloughs off during

every second of time are caught cap by the energy of light, carried and

fixed in that astral screen day after day throughout the manifesting era

of planet or universe, and all together form God's Book of

Remembrance or Life.

Bearing this in mind it is not difficult to see how the law of

Karma can work so perfectly, down to the minutest act of a man's fine

of incarnations. The living witness of his good or evil acts is depicted

on that astral screen, the very mattes with which and by which he

committed those acts. The energy which gave and sustains his

physical life, writes indelibly the record of that life. It is a passing

glimpse of this living record that the Browning man, the victim of any

accident, catches in his last moment, and which fills him with such

terror. It is the record which you and I are constantly facing and

adding to daily, to break capon out unbound eyes one day in the future

when out hour has struck. There are no erasures, no softening of harsh

fines or blotting out of imperfections in those photographs. They stand

there in all their beauty or ugliness for all souls to see.

...

INNER REALMS

—

LESSON 155

We, Elder Sons of the same great Father-Mother which bore you

who are the younger sons, are taught that the same far distant bodies at

which you gaze so longingly at times are but holes in the great blanket

of space, as is this seemingly solid body your heavy feet now press so

haltingly. [TT 390]

Not until your eyes are opened to the illusion which now enwraps

you can you fully comprehend the reality back of such a seemingly

wild statement. If you drive a nail inter a tree, or cut a piece out of any

solid body, the instruments you have used have entered a new realm, a

realm which science designates an intermolecular realm. If by an

effort of will and the use of a thought-nail you could plunge that

instrument through the midst of that realm, the instrument so used

would enter a still finer realm of substance, the inter-atomic realm.

The inter-molecular realm of science is in fact the lowest astral

realm of occultism. The inter-atomic or etheric realm is the higher

astral realm. That you are constantly passing through, lingering in, and

coming back from those realms, in both sleeping and waking hours,

does not often occur to you ; yet it is true, and the same wave motions

which bear your wireless electric messages to you upon this dense

realm of matter, may bear your consciousness from one realm to the

other.

The disintegrating of your dead bodies creates similar vortices in

space, giving opportunity for the mind instrument . the soul . to enter

the inter-atomic realm, as the disintegration of other forms of matter

gives opportunity for the release of the elementals inhabiting them and

allows them to break through into the inter-molecular realm of the

disembodied.

If this be true, as it is, is it not also true that the apparently dense

matter in which you are engulfed is but the cast off shells of that inter-

atomic and inter-molecular substance with which the soul clothes

itself for experience when passing from the realm of spirit, the higher

pole of life, to matter, the lowest pole ?

In your dream life, in trance and spiritual vision, you escape from

the bondage of molecule and function in those higher inter-atomic

realms of substance, and because you fend yourselves outside the

limits of time and space as you know them, and subject to different

laws, you generally think the former are the illusory realms and the

one you have left the only substantial reality.

Doubt and unbelief are the bars which close the doors of those

interior realms to you, for doubt and unbelief belong to the realm of

the cast off shells. They have no place in the interior realms where

uncertainty has given place to knowledge. Those interior realms are

the real realms of power, and until you can consciously enter portals,

concentration, in the sense in which the Initiates use the word, is very

difficult if not impossible, for to concentrate to any the visible

universe must pass from your mind. No human tongue can tell you

how to do it, for it is a function of the soul. [TT 391] I can tell and

have told you how to proceed to learn the alphabet of it, but neither I

nor any other being can describe its final achievement. In a few words

it may be partially designated.

Learn to lose yourself in the thing, person, or condition you

would concentrate upon, and do so with a definite purpose as the

guiding farce. A more penetrating ray than those given of the newly

discovered elements, and a more efficient method for determining the

constitution of matter Chan the spectroscope has given, is possessed

by man, but his Jack of patient investigation and his continued falling

back into the illusions of sense, and his unwillingness or inability to

bear the results of his own actions when such results are precipitated

by the hosts of elementals which guard the gateway of every interior

plane, prevent his recovery of the power once possessed by him.

Just on the verge of that discovery, chela after chela loses his

opportunity, by reason of the temporary obscuration of his inner sight

as a result of the commission of some deed to which he has been

incited by those guarding elementals, or his refusal to perform some

duty assigned to him as a trial of his strength or intuition, and the hard

climb commences over again. Truly it is said, "Whom the Gods would

destroy they first make mad."

...

WAR

—

LESSON 156

One almost invariably runs the risk of being grossly

misunderstood or of arousing the wrath of another by speaking the

simple truth in regard to anything. It may be that a truth so spoken

would be perfectly evident to that other if time and calm reflection

were bestowed upon it ; but as a usual thing the first impulse of the

hearer tends toward denial, and as argument only intensifies the

attitude taken by both parties, the main cause of the argument . the

truth . is usually submerged in an ocean of words before the argument

is ended.

When I say that democracy is an error and that a democratic form

of government is neither right, wise nor enduring, I can see either

denial or perplexity spring into your faces, yet both statements are

literally true at the moment from the standpoint of the statement might

be less antagonistically received [TT 392] such a form of government

is neither right, at certain periods in a manvantara. However, from the

standpoint of unity, evolution and spiritual reality, the idea of a

democracy is inadmissible.

Take up the argument from the standpoint of evolution atone. It is

perfectly evident to the deep student of life that there are not two

persons in the world exactly alike. The highest ideal each person is

capable of conceiving differs greatly from the highest ideal of others.

A satisfactory democracy would demand a race of beings exactly

alike, a race with a common desire or ambition and without opposition

by the individual desires and ambitions of its members, beyond a set

average. The moment one man evolves beyond his neighbors in the

average democracy, admiration is followed by jealousy, emulation and

dissatisfaction on the part of a majority of his fellows. True, this is

also the case in the average autocracy of today, to a great degree ; but

the reason for this in an autocracy is the evident wrong doing of the

upper class-the class in power. It is not true of the ideal patriarchal

form of government of the Great White Lodge, a body which is

practically an autocracy.

From the standpoint of divine law, every creation of life, whether

it be man or animal, plant or mineral, is exactly in its right place at all

times. If he or it could be permanently displaced by any exterior

means, death or degeneration would be the result. There is a definite

place, position and purpose for every individual creation. The law of

Karma determines the right place from moment to moment, according

to the character of the desires and acts of the individual actor, and no

other created thing or person could remove that individual from that

position in the universal scale of life unless the law of Karma decreed

such removal, without producing untoward results.

In an ideal patriarchal form of government or a monarchy, the

father or the king is in the ruling position because Karmic law has

placed him there. Every son and daughter directly descended, or other

person on whom patents of nobility have been bestowed, is in his or

her natural position because Karmic law has placed them there. If this

be true, how then can a democracy, with all power in the hands of a

people, the majority of whom are not even evolved to the point where

they are capable of perceiving their own natural positions in the scale

of life, have the right to pick from their number some person of whose

rightful position they are equally ignorant, and place him in a position

which they are equally incapable of comprehending, and expect

anything but division, discontent and final rebellion as a result ? The

answer to the first question is now as it has been for ages : [TT 393]

"Because of the hardness of their hearts, God suffered them." In

other words, because of his ignorance, willfulness and Jack of spiritual

discernment, man chooses to endeavor to change divinely appointed

and natural law and is permitted to make the effort. To express it

somewhat differently, at certain periods in a grand Manvantara, on the

lowest arc of certain cycles, spiritual intelligence in man is at a low

ebb. The Gods have not yet appeared to give the impulse to the new

evolutionary forces for the upward rise of the cycle. A spirit of unrest

seizes the masses ; desire for change and all that such change may

bring comes over them ; and the result is the overturning of the old

and the establishing of a new order. But the new order, manifesting as

it does in such instances on the lowest arc of the cycle, cannot endure

for all time. Little by little, as knowledge and power increase, the old

order . the higher order . is re-established and lasts until the

evolutionary forces of the new cycle have decreased in strength,

volume and purpose, when another change occurs.

However, if this view is unacceptable to you now, bear in mind

that evolutionary law operates in a spiral, not in a closed circle ; and

each round of the spiral, in each Manvantara, sees the rising of the

human race to a greater elevation of Wisdom and Power. The

positions in the universal scale of life . eternal by their very nature

now occupied by unacceptable, autocratic and unwise longs and

nobles, will one day in a future age be occupied by the Masters of

Wisdom (who possibly may be yourselves), and other features of life

will have changed in the same ratio. In other words, the Gods will

once more dwell with man, as they have done on the upward arc of

previous cycles, and democracy will then be only a name, a forgotten

ideal, for a very long period.

Remember what I tell you. Democracy may be the only

acceptable ideal to the masses of the people of the present age, and so

be relatively right and wise ; but it is not right or wise from the

standpoint of the Higher Self, and a democracy could not obtain

among men who had reached the highest of development in their

individual evolutionary cycles.

The present world war is one result of Natures efforts to tear

down old conditions, and it is absolutely unavoidable at this time,

from one point of view. As a worldly, a material event, it may appear

to be right and necessary to the mind of the many, although,

paradoxical as it may seem, the individual man who incites to war and

encourages its continuance is an object for harsh criticism.

The same consequences could have obtained from a series of fires

and floods, earthquakes and volcanic action, as far as the race is

concerned. [TT 394] That is, a large part of a race could be destroyed

by natural means and a new race born subsequently from the

remainder ; but man in his ignorance cannot wait for that. He

convinces himself that he must precipitate events and see the sacrifice

of life from another angle in order to satisfy the bloodlust of his

nature, thereby creating the hard Karma that will naturally fall on the

races living at the close of the next corresponding world period, as

well as upon many during the present cycle. If this destruction of life

could have been left to natural causes, such Karma would not have to

fall on the new race.

But do not forget the spiral ascent of life. War will one day cease

and a government be established according to divine law ; a

government which will last. For a higher round of the spiral will be

then reached, when even the evolutionary forces of the lowest arc of

the cycle will no longer have power to influence man to his undoing,

for he then will have entered into his divine birthright.

...

THE WINDOWS OF THE SOUL AND THE FIRE

ELEMENTALS

—

LESSON 157

The universal Soul gazes out through many windows and doors of

the palace, commonly termed Life, windows which look upward and'

downward, outward and inward ; windows which open upon the

unending vistas of light and love we call God and heaven ; doors

which open upon the dense, unyielding, massive piles of matter,

which in consociation we term the material plane. And the windows

and doors are wonderful objects of superhuman skip. The tiniest hard

shelled seed of plant or tree, the soft shelled seed of animal and human

life are the shuttered windows behind which each individual life is

hidden at some period of tune, waiting the touch of the brooding soul,

to spring into activity, tear down the shutters, fling wide the window

and burst out into the open ; an imaged,

If you would catch a glimpse of that marvelous being, the Soul of

the universe, look closely into the eyes of the men and animals you

contact, for through no other lenses can you catch such perfect visions

of the operations of that Soul, its possibilities, and its yearnings. The

answers to all the paradoxes and puzzles of life are concealed

[TT 395] therein, and may be revealed to the one who can seek with

wise understanding and unselfish motive. The vagaries of the human

mind, the animal instincts of man may conceal themselves behind the

shutters of other organs of sense, but not behind the shutters of the

eyes. They are wide open windows which always permit the ingress of

the searchlight sent out through the eyes of some other soul who has

learned to seek wisely, patiently and lovingly for a glimpse of the

sister or brother soul looking out from behind those windows. Other

features of the human body may possibly deceive, but to the Initiate or

advanced disciple, the eyes of another are like the pages of an open

book, revealing by their high and low lights, and in the depths of those

wells of truth commonly called the pupils, the possibilities of the soul

behind them.

No amount of effort or training can extinguish or change those

lights, or hide the reflections constantly changing form in those

depths. The lights grow in intensity and power of reflection from

youth to middle age, when they begin to grow dim, but they are only

totally extinguished at the beginning of the last long sleep-and even

then the power is only transferred to the eyes of another plane or state

of existence.

The time was when man had only one such window of the soul,

but not only all the light and power which are now visible in the twin

eyes, but also the more intense light and power, now only active in the

interior organs of vision in the case of modem man, were concentrated

in that one eye. The guardians of that light and power . a high order of

the fiery elementals . were recognized and controlled by the soul of

which they were minor parts and were instrumental in producing the

flashes of fine which at the command of will could destroy lower

forms of life.

You have much to learn of the power and offices of the fiery

elementals. For instance, combustion seems to be a simple process to

you. You see some inflammable substance reduced to ashes and the

fire which consumed it die out, and you naturally think that is the end

of both substance and fire. But it is not the end of either the fine or

substance. Just as the fiery elementals came forth to do the bidding of

those who had power to command them by means of ignition, so they

return to their own habitat when their offices are completed, for they

are indestructible.

Every molecule of inflammable material is an individual

environment for an indwelling fire elemental, and whether or not it is

called forth into active service while in that environment by means of

friction or ignition, it matters not, the result, is the same. With

[TT 396] the destruction of the inflammable substance the elemental

loses its vehicle, and has no further existence on the material plane

until it is again embodied in some other form of matter.

The ancients knew as the Initiates of today know of the power and

purpose of these infinitesimal conscious laves, and to them they were

sacred. No fire was ever lighted by the seers of old without an

appropriate ceremony. This ceremony was instrumental in uniting the

consciousness of the elementals with the consciousness of the seer in a

bond of mutual service. The sacrifice of their embodiments in such

service was repaid by the one for whom the sacrifice was made, by

assisting the elementals to regain embodiment in a higher order of life.

The priests of the modern Christian church have but little

knowledge of the real purpose of the lighted candies upon their altars

and beside their dead, and the laity are even more ignorant. The

practice is as old as is the material world, and is still continued by the

Initiates to whom the ceremonies connected therewith are as sacred

and the purposes to be served are of as much importance now as they

ever were.

The fire elementals are more intelligent than are the water, earth,

and air elementals, and while the last three mentioned are subject to

any human being who has been made their master, the fire elementals

are absolutely uncontrollable, as far as the rendering of individual

service is concerned by any save the Initiates. One of the chief offices,

and the office which is now and has always been sought for with more

pertinacity than any other by both ancient and modem Initiates is the

office of guardianship to the Sacred Fire of the Temple of Initiation,

and it is believed that a circle of fire, or some other figure outlined by

fire elementals will protect any object or person entrusted to their care.

When their guardianship is disturbed or broken down by any

extraneous force, the fire elementals exert all their power to destroy

the person or thing that has been used as a weapon for that purpose,

and it requires all the power and influence of the Initiates to protect a

disciple who has ignorantly or viciously been instrumental in

preventing the said elementals from carrying out their trust.

An altar is the most sacred thing in the material universe to a true

Priest or worshipper, its defilement the worst sin that can be

committed, in their eyes ; therefore, in the past fire elementals were

called upon to guard both home and temple, and some inflammable

substance which was their natural habitat, was made into forms which,

when ignited, would call forth the elementals to the duty assigned

them, though they were hidden by flames from mortal view. The

[TT 397] same races of elementals were called upon to guard the dead

from profanation.

The belief in the sacredness of the times led to belief in the visible

presence of the elementals called forth in the burning of inflammable

materials.

It is because of the willful and ignorant calling forth of the fire

elementals, without their consent and co-operation, that they are so

difficult to control by man. The destruction of their embodiments

rouses them to fury when no effort is made to assist them to others by

working in conjunction with them, as is done by the Initiates ; and the

selfish use and squandering of the natural forces, stored in

combustibles, is bound to bring a terrible fiery karmic action upon

mankind.

And yet the first Lesson in the occultism of Fire is very simple. If

a disciple of the White Lodge would always remember just what he is

about to do when igniting any inflammable substance, and concentrate

upon a definite thought which includes gratitude for the service to be

given, and desire to render equal service, he would make a bond

between the elementals confined therein and himself. The thought

would take form on the astral plane, and furnish new astral

environment for the released elemental. As man by means of natures

materials may furnish exterior homes, according to a thought plan, so

may he help these infinitesimal laves to furnish their environments ;

that is help them to gather from natures finer forces whatever they first

need for securing new embodiments . new forms in matter. Like man,

they object to being evicted by force.

...

TRUTH VERSUS FALSEHOOD

LESSON 158

—

December, 1914

It is openly said, and implicitly believed by many people of the

present day that a perfectly honest and truthful man cannot succeed in

any line of business or professional life ; and if success means the

amassing of great wealth or worldly honors it appears on the surface

to be true. The effects of dishonesty are only too obvious in a great

majority of instances, but one effect of this belief, permeating as it

[TT 398] bas the minds of the masses, is responsible for a world vide

calamitous condition which bids fair to do more toward destroying the

confidence of the people in each other and their faith in God and in

spiritual existence after death, than all else ; and also bids fair to bring

down upon all the races of the earth the most serious karmic effects

that have ever befallen the present human race.

For some years there bas been a great cry going up from the

masses for reform in Law, in Ethics, in Religion and in Politics and

that cry bas finally risen to a great swelling chorus. The demand thus

made bas awakened a response in the minds of certain individuals

among more intelligent people, and if one were to judge from the

apparent sincerity of those who are in the forefront of many of the

movements now on foot for securing such reforms there would be but

little cause for fear or anxious thought ; but unfortunately "those who

know", those who are able to see behind the surface act, to the motive

governing the majority of these would-be reformers, are forced to

perceive that having failed in reaching a desired success on more

legitimate lines, the latter have now seized the thunder of the

demagogues of a decade ago and are using it to deafen the masses to

their real purposes, while backing, if not leading, various so-called

reform movements.

With the concentration of such immense sums of capital in the

bands of a few, and the fear of a coming monarchy that will destroy

the freedom of the masses, there is gradually growing up a sentiment

of hatred and distrust which renders many among the masses

amenable to the purposes of the aforementioned backers or leaders.

With the natural indolence of many, the obsession of countless men by

one idea, the hosts of men and women incapable of earnest thought in

any direction save that of keeping themselves and their children from

starvation, what hope is there that all these can be aroused to the right

kind of action before the damage is done which now seems

imminent ?

The power that was in the bands of the moneyed men a few years

ago is passing into the bands of the aforementioned reform leaders,

and back of many of the laws they are responsible for making, the

destruction of old forms, the establishing of unwise precedents, the

tearing down of safeguards built up by the centuries of effort made by

honest men, the destruction of old religions ideals and the replacing of

them with fines of supposedly new thought (which are in effect the

black magic of centuries past), back of all these is an unsuspected,

creeping, crawling serpent full of venom that will strike at the very

heart of the nation when the time is ripe. That heart is the freedom of

man. [TT 399]

I know my statements will seem wild and unauthorized, and it

will be because of their seeming wildness that they will not ring true

and compel the consideration they are really worth. If there were no

ulterior motives behind the acts of those I have in mind who are

apparently seeking reform, there would be no occasion for such

statements as I have made, for there is no question about the need of

reform in many directions ; and the fact that in many instances these

people are ignorant of the real motives actuating them, and the

inevitable effects of such action as they inspire, makes the conditions

all the more dangerous.

A few Divine Laws have been given man at the beginning of

every great world period. The more these laws are ignored, the faster

other laws are superimposed upon them, the more rapidly a world and

its inhabitants are destroyed. Two of those Divine Laws command that

no man shall steal from or lie to his neighbor. If his neighbor makes it

impossible for him to live without stealing, or lying to conceal some

theft, and then builds a vile prison and forces him into it by means of

some lesser laws that he bas made, and enforces the same by his

greater mental or physical power, is it conceivable that Divine Justice

will let that neighbor escape punishment ? If Divine Law says, "the

earth is the Lord's", and that it is the birthright of man, and a few men

divide it up among themselves and make the great majority till it for

their benefit, will it be possible to thwart Divine Law by means of the

petty laws made by man to retain possession of that earth ? If Divine

Law says a man shall do good and not evil, and if other men take

away his freedom of choice by laws which bind him to only one mode

of procedure (whether they believe those laws will enforce the good or

not), will not the man deliberately break those laws to regain his

freedom of action, whatever the aftereffect ; and if mankind once

realizes that these lesser laws were not really made for his safety, but

only for his exploitation, will anything keep him from revolution in an

effort to get back under the guidance of the Divine Laws which he

feels were really made for his higher evolution ?

As worldly conditions now are, the threatened revolution of a few

years ago, when the open cry for reform first started, is far more

imminent now, and it is the supposed reforms that are bringing it

about . and they are doing this because of the ulterior motives, the

unjust methods, and the unwise laws which would rapidly reduce men

to automata if they were allowed to increase and be perpetuated.

Get to the bottom of things. Do not be carried away by surface

waters. Make the seeing of truth your object, instead of self-deception.

[TT 400]

...

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

—

LESSON 159

Until the soul of man can reach the point of balance . the

equilibrating center of consciousness, he is a drifting, purposeless

animal, pleased when tenderly stroked ; angry and mayhap vicious

when the stroke is sharp ; companionable, agreeable, selfishly

unselfish when amused, flattered or. adored ; bitter, vengeful,

oftentimes cruel when ennuied, ignored or ill treated.

The qualities which are pre-eminently active in these changes

have been bred by the pairs of opposites into his animal soul, and until

the change comes which lifts that animal soul into the environment of

the human soul, wherein are stored the higher phases and forces of the

same qualities, and where the effects of the action of the law of

opposites are raised in proportion to his efforts for daily or yearly

accomplishments, his opportunities for rapid growth are few.

Long before a child has grown to maturity it commences to

realize that pleasure and pain may follow quickly upon the heels of

each other.

Violent emotions in one direction are swiftly followed by equally

violent emotions in another direction. An ecstatic joy is the forerunner

of a gaunt specter of misery ; and as year by year passes he begins to

accept a great joy with an underlying fear, and the fear is generally

justified. The periods between joy and sorrow are lengthened, and in

the interim between joy and sorrow the soul is impelled to ponder on

and assimilate the results of either the joy or sorrow, as the case may

be. Then there comes a long period when the joys of life come very

infrequently, are less vivid and very temporary, and the sorrows seem

interminable ; the man becomes incapable of esctasy, his joys are very

tame affairs, and the periods of care, anxiety and fear grow longer and

longer, and finally even sorrow loses its power to crush, fear is

swallowed up in indifference, and real joy never enters his dwelling

with the intent to linger for any length of time.

This is the tale of the average life, the life without a definite ;

spiritual purpose. But the tale of the man with such a purpose cannot

be told in such simple terms, nor are the results of his experiences the

same, although the experiences may be similar, and to the common

observer the dissimilarity may not be perceptible, but the difference

lies in the fact that when the last mentioned man reaches the point in

his life cycle where the lengthened periods between joy and sorrow

leave him time and space for con sideration, for pondering upon and

assimilating the fruits of his experiences, he catches a glimpse of

[TT 401] the great purpose behind all those fluctuations, and

perceives that they are necessary to growth. He sees that when the

pendulum of his clock of life has ceased its action to and fro there will

come a time of rest and silence wherein opportunity is given for the

coming of the "Holy Ghost" . the Illuminator . through Whom alone

the vast mysteries of life are revealed.

Life's purpose then becomes clear to him.

He perceives that the pendulum can attain to rest and equilibrium

without the destruction of the clock, and the latter can be started up

again at his option. Therefore his time and effort are spent in gaining

the power truly to govern his own life instead of permitting it to be

controlled by the elementary forces of life, and by the senses and

emotions.

Eventually he finds that he can do better work for the world, and

incidentally for himself, if he can continue in the state of equilibrium

indefinitely, and so he transfers his life energy to a higher plane of

life, and does so consciously, whereas the first mentioned man is the

sport of the forces which have controlled him even to the end of his

life, and beyond.

The ultimate effect of action is determined by the motive, the

purpose of the act, whatever may appear to be the incidental effect of

such action. The higher, the more unselfish and humanitarian the

purpose, the harder will be the battle with the pairs of opposites ; yet

without the victories won in these battles man would never rise above

the soulless animal manifestation he was before the incarnation of the

Sons of Mind.

So, instead of looking at the pairs of opposites as needless, cruel

instruments of torture devised by an angry God, as man is tempted to

do, when in the throes of suffering, he should endeavor to stand apart,

and realize that they are beneficent, needful and altogether good.

...

RIGHTEOUSNESS

—

LESSON 160

When man has attained to full mental and physical maturity, and

some strong interior impulse impels him to reconsider and analyze all

those features, phases, and conditions of life which have been

instrumental in promoting what the world terms his successes . his

[TT 402] pleasures, his power over weaker men, his self-gratification

in any desired form . what then does life hold for him as a basis for

unremitting effort in the days and years which are to follow ?

If he has come face to face with his naked soul in that period of

introspection, and perceives the rags and tatters lying at its feet or still

clothing it, the fag ends of his birthright which alone remain as the

final result of all his post efforts ; namely, satiation, disappointment,

hopelessness, bitter contempt for the things, the methods, the means,

the ideals of his fellow creatures . the men and women with whom he

has been most closely associated in the varied experiences of his

business and social life . it may be that in some interval between

those fines of mental action the word Righteousness falls upon his ear,

or is whispered by his diviner Self, and forces him to a more just

review of his life experience, and a fairer determination of causes and

effects. In such an instance the purposeless future narrows before a

man's vision and regret for wasted opportunities temporarily blinds

him to all else.

Only then can he begin to comprehend the beauty, the desirability

of Righteousness, the necessity of living up to some code of psycho-

material, moral and ethical laws as that inculcated in the Ten

Commandments, or in some other religious code of laws that has been

handed down from father to son from time immemorial.

It dawns upon his consciousness that he has entirely misconstrued

the purpose and the character of those laws, and that far from being

the arbitrary, undesirable, crippling demands of a formerly cast off

personal God, or of some dictator of a post age, they are simply the

most beneficent, helpful, clean, all-embracing, and sane rules of life it

is possible for human or divine mentality to invent.

He now perceives that aspiration . prayer . compassion, honesty,

purity, self-sacrifice, regard for the rights of others, if religiously

followed, would have built a foundation for an eternal structure of

Peace, Usefulness, Unity ; would have clothed that now naked soul

with exquisite garments of Love, Hope, Faith, Wisdom and

Knowledge, and finally, away down in the depths of his disgust and

abhorrence he cries out : "O, what a foot I have been ; truly, I have

bartered my birthright for a mess of pottage !"

A man or woman must have sunk to the state of swine, in order to

be content to remain filthy in body day after day, when there is any

possibility of cleansing that body, yet many men and women who are

outwardly clean are content to remain in such a state of interior moral,

mental, and psychical filth as the vilest animal would shrink from if

able to perceive it. [TT 403]

In its lest analysis, the word "Righteousness" means cleanness .

purity of soul and body, and when one considers that such moral,

mental and psychical filth as I have mentioned creates conditions of

astral life which are analogous to the germs of disease and death

which are developed by material filth, he begins to understand and

realize how desirable is Righteousness . cleanness . from every point

of view he is capable of observing, and if he is not utterly lost to all

interior and exterior decency he will turn face about, and like the

Prodigal son, "arise and go to his Father" ; that is, get up out of the

mire and filth of his lower nature, look earnestly into the heights of his

Spiritual Self, recognize the wholesomeness, the cleanness, the beauty

and truth of a life guided by divine laws, and then set out in earnest to

live by those laws, regardless of anything in the fine of pity or

contempt shown by his whilom friends, and perfectly oblivious of the

pain, the loneliness, the anguish which must inevitably come at times

until his soul and body have been cleansed and purified from the

results of his post misuse of life's greatest blessings.

Ah, truly, Righteousness should be the one aim and ambition of

the, human soul, for there is nothing else in the wide universe that

justifies the bestowal of immortality upon man.

...