...

SPEECH IN MUSIC

LESSON 81

It is a commonly accepted fact that some knowledge of music is

essential to any high degree of attainment in that science of the

sciences feebly expressed by the term "Occultism", but it is not

generally understood that far more than the limited amount of

knowledge above indicated is indispensable to the interpretation of the

language of symbolism, as the latter is primarily founded upon sound.

The musical scale adopted by the Occultist contains an infinite variety

of notes and sounds ; in fact, every note or sound possible of utterance

by any created thing or being. Only certain notes or combinations are

classed among musical tones by the masses of people, while the truth

is that Nature's great Anthem, Life, could never be correctly

interpreted if even a single one of the tones or sounds usually

considered harsh and discordant, or sweet and melodious to the human

ear, were omitted ; both poles of sound being requisite. The fact that

sound . Music . is a perfect language capable of expression by voice

or instrument . a language which may be uttered [TT 209] without a

spoken word, is known to many, and by them designated the first

division of the Mystery language. It is commonly used by the Initiates

in conveying necessary secret directions or information to each other

when the use of other divisions of the same language such as Color,

and Speech, would be inadequate or unwise.

Save for the Initiates, it is only the natural musician who can utter

or interpret ideas or ideals of his own or of others, when they come to

birth in Musical tones.

Many tones possible of expression in a single octave, and

requisite for voicing some one idea, are above, below, or between the

notes of the commonly accepted octave of seven full tones, and could

convey no meaning to the average person, even if heard ; and each one

of those twenty-eight tones is a full tone in a scale which is a

connecting link between two planes, or states of consciousness.

One is often struck by the apparent understanding existing

between two animals when no outer sound bas reached his ear. The

looker-on might indignantly deny an accusation to the effect that he

was unable to hear a sound which had been very evidently voiced by

either animal ; nevertheless it might be perfectly true, for what

amounts to a perfect interchange of communication between two

horses, and even between two ants, may be continuously carried on in

tones perfectly uttered and heard by each animal or insect, and which

may be heard by the trained human ear.

When you understand that there are seven full tones and

innumerable lesser tones possible of sounding between any two full

notes of a voice, violin or other instrument, you can gain some idea of

the infinite variety of tones a more highly evolved man or an animal

may use for expression of higher or lower ideas, and the mathematical

accuracy and length of the beats or measures . the intervals . between

said tones, during which there is opportunity for the introduction of

light waves conveying different qualities to the sound waves in action.

The sense of feeling is so closely identified with the sense of

hearing in the case of the natural-born musician, that it will enable

him easily to comprehend my words when I say that it is more through

the sense of feeling than that of hearing that the tones above

mentioned, in use by animals or insects, are interpreted, one by the

other. In other words, the horse ' or the ant feels the vibration of the

idea or force as it is expressed by the higher, lower or intermediate

tones, more acutely than it hears the tones, although the latter make a

distinct impression on the sounding board . the drum of the ear.

The multiplicity of unnatural sounds with which the tympanum

Of the ear of man has been afflicted during many generations has

[TT 210] resulted in hardening and toughening that drum in the case

of the great majority of the human race ; otherwise, the present

generation would have gone insane long ere reaching maturity. But

this process of protection carries with it an immeasurable loss,

namely, the power to hear or perceive the tones which hold the "open

sesame" to many of nature's holiest secrets.

If the finer tones of nature were to reach the consciousness

through the ear, in most cases it would be at the cost of a great

nervous strain.

You will note the physical sensation of strain especially in the

brain if you attempt to reach into the silence through the sense of

hearing alone, and this strain nullifies your efforts to perceive interior

phenomena, for it brings on a condition analogous to pain, thus

keeping your consciousness fixed on the physical plane. Yet you have

to conquer such conditions if you are to gain the lost sense of finer

hearing ; and if you can be patient with yourselves you can do this by

persistently modifying that sense of strain, and, as it were, quickly

without conscious effort . listening to what the average man would

call "nothing." But under no circumstances do I advise you to continue

the practice when you are conscious of any strain . for that way

madness lies.

The voicing of the right tones of a Mantram or Lodge . Call is of

great importance. A single wrong note may bring an inharmonious or

destructive instead of harmonious or constructive force into operation

which might not only destroy the effort of others, but also bring into

action another force which would build up some condition greatly

opposed to the original desire.

Do not lightly read and then ignore the information herein given

if you have any hope of becoming a practical occultist, for I am

openly giving you another of Nature's great secrets ; but you must use

the key yourselves, and use it wisely.

...

THE MEASURE OF TRUTH

LESSON 82,

The never ceasing craving of the heart of man, first aroused by the

awakening soul, for some outer manifestation in human form that can

satisfy that craving, has made man the prey of designing fellow

creatures through long ages. [TT 211]

There is more excuse for the failure of the humanity of preceding

ages to recognize the truth than there is for the humanity of the present

age, and therefore more cause for regretting the ease with which

unprincipled men and women can now deceive others as to their true

nature and possibilities, and the character of their teaching regarding

the constitution of man and his environment.

Scientific research, as well as the revival of long buried

philosophical truths has brought to light the nature of the matter from

which physical man draws his life sustenance. That matter is now

easily proven to be evanescent, changeable and unreliable. All that is

real and unchangeable is the spark of divinity in man, and so long as

man is bound by the conditions of matter, so long he will remain to a

greater or less degree the slave of those conditions ; yet he reaches

continually for the perfect within the imperfect, and when

disappointed in one direction persists in flying immediately to some

other, repudiating the fundamentals to be found in the first before they

have been assimilated, in his mad effort to gain immediate

satisfaction ; and this can never be gained in any division of life study

until he bas thoroughly learned his first lesson. It would save him long

years of futile effort, and save others upon whom he brings great

suffering, if upon learning something of the nature and constitution of

Matter, he could realize that the cause of the imperfection he finds in

some other person he has set upon a pedestal for his copying and then

incontinently dragged down, did not lie in the real man or woman, but

in the very substance of the vehicle used by that reality within the

physical body in which the soul (the real man or woman) was bound

as securely as was his own soul in his body ; and that so long as the

matter of the physical plane remains at its Present vibratory rate of

action, just so long will it be impossible for a perfect man or woman

to manifest in that matter. It is not only the individual body that must

change periodically, as vibration increases or lowers, but all the matter

upon which all bodies in the same sphere subsist, before the real Self

be rid of all imperfections. This being true, what cause is there for

condemnation of, or dissatisfaction with our comrade or friend for the

reason that he does not fulfill our expectations, or gratify a longing

which could only be gratified in substance-matter of a higher

vibration ?

What satisfactory reason can one give for believing that some

Perfect being belonging to, and formed from the substance of another,

a higher state or plane of life than that in which he himself is involved,

could by any possibility live indefinitely in a lower form, of matter ?

Does not all nature teach the contrary ? But there is one way and one

[TT 212] only by which the higher and lower planes and states of life

may be related, namely, by the re-forming of the bridge torn away

when spirit and matter were separated. Man himself must build that

bridge, and must build it of the substance of his own physical body

and lower mentality, and that body . the aforesaid bridge, even if

rightly built, could not stay in position until its WEIGHT . its

pressure . was reduced to the lowest possible degree, otherwise it

would break through and fall into the abyss below. In other words, lie

must build it well and strong by untiring effort, and with the tools of

self-sacrifice and aspiration, and must reduce the weight of each

constituent molecule by conquering selfishness and lower desire while

the bridge is in process of building.

When the bridge is built, then, some appointed day, may lie cross

to the middle" of it where he will find awaiting him the one lie has

longed for and previously sought in vain among his own kind. He may

never meet that one again in a single lifetime, but it will not be

necessary, for he will have seen and been satisfied and will be content

to return to the side of the Cosmic stream lie had left, comfort his

brethren, and teach them to build their own bridges. This docs not

mean that lie shall be released from the governing laws of matter, for

that will never be, so long as he remains in its dominions ; it does not

mean that he is perfected. It means he has learned the way to release ;

he has taught himself how to tread "the path", and has opened his ears

to the tones of a voice lie may thereafter hear and recognize . the

voice of his beloved . at all times and in all places. He will never

more condemn a human being because lie cannot filch from him what

he has not earned, nor will lie make of himself an object of envy, or a

hindrance to his brethren, by permitting them to feel that having

reached a higher level than that they stand upon he no longer feels his

kinship, or dependence upon their good offices.

We are often nonplussed at the exercise of some unexpected

characteristic, or at an act committed by some person we have raised

to a great height in our regard. He commits some act, or shows forth

some trait of character which would previously have appeared to us

utterly foreign to his real nature. We are frequently at a loss to

understand how it is we can look upon some horrible sight with

equanimity, or bear some heavy pain, slight twinges of which had

formerly almost driven us to desperation. We wonder how a naturally

tender hearted man can be lashed into such a state of fury on a

battlefield that lie is maddened with lust for killing and striking down

without a qualm of conscience every soldier of the opposing side that

lie can reach ; and also how it is that we can witness famine,

pestilence and all forms of [TT 213] human misery at certain times

without feeling one impulse of sympathy.

There is a point in the Cosmic mentality beyond which the Ego

cannot go without creating an entire change in the position of the

molecules of some brain centre of the body it is using . the point

where extremes meet ; and where in the individual mind horror and

pain become pleasure or indifference, and vice versa.

This change is due to the action of a merciful law, for the brain of

man is so constituted that it cannot bear the vibration of any one phase

of the sense of feeling, beyond a certain degree. When that degree is

reached the action is reversed as it were, and the opposite pole to the

one in operation responds to the demand which has been previously

made. If it were not so, every molecule of the brain centre involved

would burst its boundary lines and disappear from mortal ken, for the

same dynamic energy that was active in the sense of feeling is just as

active in every cell of the protoplasmic matter of the physical plane

from which the brain centre was formed, the energy of Fohat the

energy back of every explosive force in manifestation. It is sortie

phase of the action of the above-mentioned law that has produced the

surprising effects above noted, and when it is understood that the

physical man and lower mentality are not conscious of any act that

could produce such sudden changes in his nature, it becomes evident

that the physical man is neither accountable for the changes, nor

should lie be judged and condemned by others who are subject to the

same changes.

...

ACTION AND REACTION OF FORCES

LESSON 83

In commenting upon the Instruction entitled "The Mysteries of

Space", the Master said :

"The truth herein stated will take its place among the scientific

facts at the end of the cycle, not before. I mean the one hundred year

cycle which has just begun. The ether of the occultist is now

recognized by science, or rather is used as a hypothesis upon which to

build its theories of etheric or astral phenomena. In the same way will

science claim something else that will demonstrate the truth of other

things I have now said. Great earthquakes will unveil many of the

hidden things of this globe before many years, and these discoveries

will nullify much that science now claims to be truth. These [TT 214]

earthquakes will occur at different points of the earth. Same of them

will take place in this state, others at other points of the country.

"We have long been holding back the forces that are making for

the uncovering of a secret path across the Ocean, or rather underneath

the ocean. The time is fast coming when we shall no longer be able to

hold back these powers, for cyclic reasons. The path will be found, but

when it is found its discovery will only be useful to demonstrate the

truth of what I have now told you ; because, knowing that this must

take place, we are now engaged in building a roundabout way which

will answer all purposes for us, and still leave the old path' where it

may be found 8.

"It takes about a half hour of your time for us to pass from one

continent to another, but you must remember that we use a form of

energy of which you are not yet conscious."

Given January 7, 1907

"Every ruling aspect of a hierarchy, every individual who is in

any sense a part of that ruling aspect, meets, from those who are

lineally beneath it, with its opposite pole . -revolt . in the hearts of

the latter ; I mean by this that every individual who is in any sense in a

                        

8 [Without working injury to those who have hitherto depended upon

it for rapid travel.]

ruling position (no matter how tender hearted he may be in reality, no

matter how deeply he may crave the love and appreciation of those

brothers and sisters, no matter how kindly lie may feel toward all the

world), awakens in every individual who is in any sense beneath him

in the Cosmic scale, a vibration of fear, hatred or rebellion. For this

reason lie is of all people to be pitied, for lie is seldom understood. If

you trace back the history of every great king, ruler, president, or all

officials in high authority, you will almost invariably find that though

they may be feared and obeyed, they are seldom loved by those what

are subject to them, and this rule holds good, up through higher ranks

of life, as well as through lower.

"In many cases you will find that one, or at most two, sincere,

earnest friends or lovers, are all that these could claim for their own,

amide the myriads by which they were surrounded. This is due

partially to a cause not known to many. The cause is set up with the

beginning of the evolution of matter. The single cell is the beginning

of all organic forms of matter. That cell separates and forms others,

either by budding, extension or division, and final aggregation of

atoms. In every instance there is first manifested within the single cell

the action of an expulsive force, and this action of the force of

expulsion is by its very nature positive and arbitrary in action, and

[TT 215] must inevitably arouse in other cells, even if hitherto latent,

a negative force of opposition to the ruling cell.

"I call your attention to this for more than one reason."

...

MOTHERS OF THE CHRIST-CHILD

LESSON 84

One of life's great mysteries is partially solved when in deep

concentration on any absorbing subject, and For the a human being

realizes the underlying unity of all things lines, physical and mental,

built up by life's experiences, fall away one by one in concentration

until all sense of outer things is lost and the consciousness and the

idea concentrated upon is all of existence for the time being. The Ego

(the thinker) and the thought, fill all space, and time is obliterated

from consciousness.

As each normal human being may have the same experience, it

follows that there must be same state of consciousness in which

inseparableness reigns ; that state which is only comparable to space,

where all things move and are.

It is essential to a perfect understanding that the fundamental

truths underlying the above mentioned statement be accepted, other-

wise the new light which I desire to throw upon a subject which has

awakened profound thought, suspicion, and contempt in many minds

of different calibre, would only add to a seeming jumble of impossible

or insane conclusions in regard to what now, under the patronage of

science, has become a subject of world-wide recognition, and would

not be seriously considered. Yet it is a subject of the most vital

importance to every thinker. I refer to the subject of the occult

sciences, and more particularly to one phase or aspect of one such

science, namely, the apparent impossibility of accepting seriously the

countless claims of divine guidance and bestowal of authority and

supremacy Made by many different persons in as many parts of the

world. Women who claim to be the mothers or prospective mothers of

a Christ-child, Men and women who claim to be reincarnations of

Jesus, administrators of his commands, or vehicles for the

transmission of his life forces. The fact that in these claims there could

possibly be any truth worthy of investigation is laughed to scorn by

the unbelievers, and accepted slavishly by the followers of the

claimant. Yet there is [TT 216] an underlying truth, a basic reality to

many such claims, beautiful past telling, to many listeners, and

important to all.

To every true Seer or astral visitant there are visions granted,

sounds and speech heard, that far surpass in beauty and grandeur any

thing imaginable by the less gifted, as well as sights and sounds which

exceed in unspeakable horror anything to be seen or heard under other

conditions. Those same experiences, sights and sounds, beautiful or

horrible, are as open to the interior senses of every other man or

woman who has consciously or unconsciously developed one

particular organ in the brain, as they are or may be to the Seer. There

seems to be a false idea prevalent even among Psychics that there

must be a new scene or sound to every new observer of astral

phenomena.

As the interior planes of life are contacted, one becomes more and

more enlightened as to the unity of all consciousness on those planes.

The identity of the individual is not lost, yet the soul is identified in

some mysterious manner and degree with the identity of every

individual or object seen : for instance, in gazing at a beautiful astral

flower, one becomes identified with the flower and knows all about it,

how it came into life, and what it is or will be in the future. In

communication with others one realizes that the term "I" or "you"

does not refer to I or you, individually. Consequently, when these

terms are used, either in direct communications from higher entities,

or accidentally heard, as it were (as in sleep), if one is not familiar

with the fundamental truth before mentioned, there is no alternative to

the belief that he or she is individually indicated or intimately

concerned with any direct promise or statement regarding such a

momentous subject, as for example, the birth of a Christ-child or the

bestowal of some great dignity. Of course this fact will be disputed by

the supposed mothers of such children, and such supposed dignitaries,

for there is an underlying desire for personal recognition, and a love of

power in the heart of every normal human being, and all seeming

fulfillments of such desires die a hard death. However, I am quite sure

every true occultist will agree with me.

Jesus himself said, "I will come again." The Book of Revelation is

full of promises to the believer and threats against the "lost" . the

unbeliever. With the mental picture already painted in the mind by

familiarity with those several promises or threats, and the apparent

visualizing or auditory confirmation of the same, if one is to "believe

her or his own eyes and cars" what is there left but literal acceptance

for the average psychic ? And once accepted, pure human longing and

natural egotism will bind one of either sex irrevocably to such beliefs.

Owing to the before noted great fundamental truth back of all illusions

of this [TT 217] character, it is not surprising that any woman might

accept a universal for an individual promise, for when all is said every

woman who bears a child does indeed give birth to a Christ-child.

Jesus said, "I and the Father are One." "I in Thee, and thou in me,

that we may be made perfect in One", and to whatever extent such a

child partakes of the nature of Christ, it is a Christ-child ; and whether

it be consciously or unconsciously, such a prospective mother knows

in her heart that she is bearing "a Christ-child."

Every man knows in his soul that he bas been or ought to, have

been, born to be a leader, a wise teacher, scientist or some other

noteworthy individual. Seeing or hearing what is to him astral

corroborative sight or speech, wild animals could not tear from him

his belief in the blindness of those who do not accept his estimate of

himself.

This all being true, can we not have a little more patience with

what we believe to be vagaries or frauds ; be willing to accept the fact

of the possible vision or hearing of the seer, and strive to realize that

the great longing Mother-heart of the world is eternally bringing back

to earth a Saviour of the people, a leader of the nations. It does not

matter HOW he comes, so that he arrive on the present scene of

desolation. The need is great enough, and the need of man is supplied

by God when that need reaches its greatest height, whatever that need

may be.

It makes no difference who or what may be the woman that

Karmic law designates for the vehicle to bring a great soul . an Avatar

. to the physical plane. The fact that so much obscurity surrounds the

birth of Jesus, and that it has been left possible to cast unworthy

reflections upon the character of the Mother of Jesus and his most

intimate woman friend, Mary Magdalene, should open the eyes of

Christians to one very important fact. If it were essential to the

incarnation of a great soul that the vehicle of his manifestation should

be what is termed a sexually pure woman, the Masters of the White

Lodge would have long since made that fact indisputable. In the case

of Jesus their silence proves that too much emphasis on such an

hypothesis is not advisable. Karmic law . the law of cosmical

succession . would determine such an honor before all else. I mention

this point to emphasize my former statement, that it is of little

consequence how or through whom the next great Avatar comes to the

physical plane. The only point that is essential is that of his finally

reaching that plane. But God forbid that any poor self-deceived

woman should make that statement the basis of belief in license for a

sexual impurity. No Words of mine can tell the extent of evil already

done by ignorant or depraved men and women who use the limited

knowledge they [TT 218] possess of such cosmic truths for the

degradation of their fellow men and women. No ordinary man or

woman of the present age could determine the possibility of creating a

vehicle for the incarnation of an Avatar. The knowledge of such

possibility in the case of any woman is only obtainable through and

could only be imparted by an Initiate of much higher degree than

those who contact the average avenues of life, and then only in the

intervals between the passing of one Messianic cycle and the

beginning of another. But all women should look forward to forming

the sustenance, the spiritual food for incarnating Egos of this age, for

it is only the feminine aspect of life that has the power to do so, and to

whatever extent they do this, they mother the Christ-child.

...

WILL AND LAW

LESSON 85

A very important cycle, the last of the seven lesser cycles of seven

years each, which compose a larger cycle of forty-nine years, is now

closing. There have been better results shown in the line of individual

psychic development during this last lesser cycle, especially among

conscious disciples of the White Lodge, than during any other similar

period of the present two thousand-year cycle. These results are due to

the persistent exercise of the newly developed power of equilibrium

by said disciples, which has enabled them to hold themselves in a

more balanced condition of mentality while a stronger and higher

vibratory key was being struck by the Infinite, during which time

many things and conditions evolved in previous cycles were changing

and adapting themselves to the higher vibratory key, and so falling

into lines for future action.

Twenty-one years ago there were but three disciples out of forty-

nine, divided into seven groups of seven individualities in each, and

located at different points of the western globe, who were strongly

enough fortified exteriorly and interiorly to bear the effects of the

action of opposing forces of the age, and so enable the Lodge of

Initiates to form fixed auric centres in their immediate vicinity for use

in the connecting of three or more planes by such Initiates. Two of the

three mentioned have now left the physical plane ; the third one will

leave it at no very distant date, but their sacrifice and unselfish,

intelligent work for humanity has resulted in the formation of nine

similar [TT 219] auric centres by the Initiates through which may be

sent and received the lines of force which will furnish the Initiates

substance for building and sustaining great numbers of vehicles .

astro-mental bodies . capable of bearing the vibrations of newly

incarnating Egos of greater age and experience than those now

incarnated, during the period of gestation which precedes physical

birth.

To the uninitiated the formation of nine auric centres, impossible

of contact through the physical senses would seem of little

importance, but "to those who know", it is the greatest event of the

present manvantara, for it means the advancement of the human race

at a rate hitherto unimagined, and whatever be the cost in the way of

material loss, the gain will be immeasurably greater.

The gain to the individual disciples of the Masters by the rise in

degree-cosmic position-of the before mentioned Three and Nine is

wrought by and in accordance with precession and position. Each

advance made in the cosmic scale by a human being advances all who

follow the former on the same scale, in the same cyclic round, and

therefore leads to a change in outer position as well as in interior

environment.

Free Will as a factor in human life is a commonly recognized fact,

notwithstanding a tendency to belief in the doctrines of Fatalism ; but

the difficulty of harmonizing two such opposing ideals, or learning

just how much truth is concealed in either has hitherto been

insurmountable in this age for the reason that the key to the problem

has been lost. But that key has been found and presented to you under

the name of the Cyclic Law.

Personal free will is the divine prerogative of man, but the Will

governing the action of Cyclic Law is much greater in wisdom,

knowledge and power, and that Will has decreed that the first

principle or embodied thing or creature of one cyclic round shall be

the last of the next succeeding cyclic round in the cosmic spiral which

reaches from the Physical to the spiritual plane, and that the second in

line can never take the position of the first until the latter has passed

into the next higher round of the spiral, or has fallen back to the last

position of the round it was upon at the time of change ; therefore, no

matter to what extent free will in man may be exercised in individual

affairs, his Position in the cyclic spiral is determined by a higher Will.

However . and this is most important . man's latitude is so wide

in his own field of will power, that there is no injustice in what at first

thought might appear to be arbitrary control ; for individual past

karma has fitted each soul for the position it occupies in the cosmic

scale, whatever its position in life may be ; furthermore, if all mankind

[TT 220] connected with any one soul in the cycle of time wherein it

is developing are individual parts, or souls, of the same Group Soul

which governs that cycle, its karma must be inextricably intertwined

with that of each one of those parts or souls ; therefore, all must be

subject in great degree to the Will of the Group Soul. The one who bas

overcome the lower . the heavier . karmic obstacles which confront

all men alike, must inevitably reach the first position on the spiral line,

owing to a peculiar action of the same law which compels any light

substance to rise to the top of a heavier one (unless separated by a

third substance, native, yet repellant to both). And that peculiar action

of Law arouses Divine Will to distinguish between the lower . the

heavier . aspect of Matter and separates it from the higher . the

physical from the Spiritual . and does this by the introduction of a

third aspect, the human soul, the seat of free will in man, at the same

time defining the position of each soul, at every stage of progress on

the line of cyclic progression.

I have digressed from my first statement in order to throw some

light on the process by which the three and the nine disciples out of F~

large number have reached a higher stage of development than their

former associates.

By passing into higher groups of Disciples the first three

mentioned by me opened the way for a change in place and position,

therefore a change in environment and opportunity, for those who,

were next in line, and, to a greater extent than in preceding cycles, the

three individualities immediately following each one of the first

mentioned three were able to profit by the change ; for the reason that

each outward sweep of a cyclic line is, so to speak, of greater girth

toward the middle point of any cyclic spiral. The next forty-nine year

cycle will see a decrease in the number of those reaching a similar

degree of attainment, owing to the closing up of the lines of the

coming cycles in the major or world spiral ; but at the same time, the

higher evolution of so many degrees of force and substance

constituting the environment of the present races of humanity will

give opportunity for advancement on less interior lines, to a much

greater number of people, Who will thus be prepared for higher

positions in the wider lines referred to as girths, of the next cyclic

sweep of the Divine Will.

I am emphasizing and elaborating this subject of position for

many good reasons, the chief of which is embodied in our efforts to

dissipate the feeling of discouragement which so often depletes and

devitalizes disciples when a recognition of the futility of opposing an

inherently weak human will against the commonly termed "Will of

God" comes to them, and to bring them to a realization that the Divine

[TT 221] Will governing cyclic law is not in opposition to human will

in an arbitrary sense. Divine Will is working to bring all temporarily

differentiated wills to the point where they will recognize the fact that

there can be but one Will, and that Will is good. It only requires

intelligent observation of the phenomena produced by that Will to

arouse mankind to make an effort to harmonize the now discordant

lower elemental forces, which are apparently diametrically opposed to

that One Will.

One other reason I may give more in detail, though it is included

in the above :

The masses of mankind are battling for position ; position of one

kind or another, merely for the sake of the position, when if they could

understand all that is contained in the words, "the least of these, my

disciples", spoken by Jesus, they could appreciate the fact of the

futility of the struggle so far as personal satisfaction through such

position, is concerned.

Any position worth having, on either material or interior lines,

seeks the man or woman because he or she has earned it ; and it so

seeks through the action of the cyclic law. It is "the least of these" who

gain such recognition by reason of the child heart that obeys

unquestioningly those who have the karmic right to such obedience,

and so acts in conjunction with divine law. In the child heart, the

dividing line . the confining force . is giving way. Spirit has refined

soul, soul is refining body. There has occurred a change in such a life

that bas reversed the action of the force formerly acting as repulsion,

and the force of attraction is now drawing together and combining all

three, body, soul and spirit, on a higher plane of life, and the position

of such an entity in the cosmic scale is secured for all time.

...

LAW

LESSON 86

You doubt not the rising and the setting of the sun . you doubt

not the action of the known laws which demonstrate birth and death

the alternates light and darkness, through which every infinitesimal

life in mineral, vegetable and animal manifestation must pass. You are

aware of the positive and negative action of all electrical phenomena ;

You know that sleep must follow wakefulness, as night follows day.

In every field of manifested existence you see the action of two

immutable, [TT 222] eternal laws which absolutely control all things

and creatures within your sphere of consciousness. You know that

they are the two extremes of life, the action of the law of opposites ;

and practically as, well as you know the operation of said laws in

material, visible life you know the same laws are as omnipotent and

unchangeable in the spheres of higher vibration, and can trace their

action through those spheres, Knowing all this, can you willfully blind

yourselves, in order that you may gratify the sensuous part of your

nature in all its extremes, or when you are brought face to face with an

opponent in discussion of the highest, holiest functions of human life

. the development of which has separated you from the animal

creation, can you justify a plunge back into the depths from which you

have escaped, as does the man or woman who denies the

righteousness of, and rejects, the only possible protection and

safeguard for either a race or individual that stands on the dividing

line between the purely animal and part human, as you must deny and

reject the same if you uphold or countenance the promiscuous

cohabitation of the sexes and the repudiation of the law of Monogamy.

The laws which govern the before-mentioned states and

conditions of matter are the same laws and are just as rigid in their

application to the emotions and senses of man as they are to Force or

Matter of lower Vibration, and you can no more help arousing its

opposite, hate, when you have given loose rein to the emotion

ordinarily termed love, namely, lust, than you can prevent night from

following day ; and lust is as different from the attribute love, as the

color red is different from the color blue. If the emotion lust, were in

truth one with the attribute Love, there would be no reaction, no

possibility of satiation from its indulgence, for in love the two

extremes of one spiritual force or attribute, unite, and when fully

expressed by a human being, sex attraction disappears. The sexless

Lord has no preference for either sex.

The argument used to sustain sex freedom, namely, that the early

races were uncontrolled in the matter of sexual impulse, and

consequently better off in that respect than later races, betrays

ignorance. If all the past ages of strict adherence to the laws of

evolution for the evident purpose of refining gross forms of matter are

only to result in throwing back those forms into the same condition

from, which they were evolved, what a farce the whole process would

be. A refiner of silver in olden times must sit by the crucible which

held the molten mass until he could see the reflection of his face in the

purified metal. The refiner of the human being . the evolutionary law

which is refining gross forms of life according to a perfect pattern,

[TT 223] must bring those forms to the point of development where

the pattern is reflected in every organic cell of those forms . in all of

the conditions, states, material, mental and spiritual, where those

forms perform any function whatever, and Fire, i. e., stress, strain and

suffering are the only levers by which the mass-the human race-may

be lifted from the crucible. Physical substance must be lifted into the

light or substance of higher mentality, where renunciation of all

attachment to the lower states of substance, the Passions, will make

possible the manifestation of the refined . the perfected spiritual

forms of life.

No sane man or woman can fail to see the great necessity for a

change in the methods and results of the present marriage laws, if a

better race of human beings is to follow the present race, but the

abrogation of the present marriage laws and a deliberate retrogression

of ideals, and acceptance of the laws, or rather the lawlessness, which

prevailed in antediluvian ages could have but one result. The laws

which control the evolution of the elemental forces of the deadly

nightshade cannot by the same processes and means produce a rose

bush. The operation of the same laws may be necessary, but the

processes of growth and formation, and the necessary substance and

energy must be of other qualities. Humanity does not gain in power

and knowledge by retreat, but by advance. Education and effort in

regard to the marriage relation should now be directed along the lines

of right natural selection and monogamy instead of promiscuity.

If a good horticulturist wishes to produce an extraordinarily fine

flower of a certain kind, he obtains the seed or takes the grafts from

the best specimens of the kind he desires to combine with another of

the same family, and cultivates the seed which results, to the highest

Possible degree. When he finally produces the flower he wants he is

very careful not to mix its seed with, or to graft from, that lower order

of plant life which he used to evolve that perfected flower, if he

desires to perpetuate the new and rare variety. A single act of such

nature would mean a reversion to lower type for the plant which grew

from seed or graft. The laws by which he bas brought the masterpiece

to Perfection are the same laws which govern the production and

perpetuation of a higher class of life, the human class. If a divine

masterpiece, a perfected man, is to be evolved, a prospective parent of

that ideal man cannot go back into the humanity of the night of time,

back to a degenerate race for the seed . the other parent . or use the

methods and conditions which availed for the evolving of an inferior

race of Men, Bach parent to be must select the seed (the mate), and the

conditions and environment most favorable for the new life and the

future growth of the same from the highest type of human beings he or

she [TT 224] is able to contact and prepare the best possible

conditions and environment.

If the strength of the original plant is wasted by overproduction of

flower and seed, or by some disease, the horticulturist is not going to

take his seed for new experiment or culture from that plant. If the

human being wastes his or her strength in promiscuity, and so

devitalizes the cells which form the seed of human life for the mere

gratification of sexual desire (which desire was originally implanted in

man for one specific purpose, namely, production of offspring), when

the time comes that lie or she meets the one man or woman by and

with whom. it would be possible to bring to birth the highest form of

life it was possible for those two individuals combined to create, he or

she is absolutely incapable of supplying the necessary substance, force

and magnetic energy which alone could produce the requisite vehicle

or body in which a waiting perfected soul could perform its divine

mission. They might create bodies innumerable, but they absolutely

could not create such a body as I have described. The freshness, the

magnetic qualities, the Odic force, the pure love essential to the

creation of the highest form of physical life would be no longer theirs

to give. No amount of argument can make what is, commonly termed

"sex freedom" anything else but license for gratification of lower

desire, in the present cycle of manifestation. In a more highly evolved

race a greater degree of freedom in every line of life would naturally

result, and would not be abused as it inevitably would be abused at the

present time, in the majority of cases where it was exercised. The true

marriage would follow as naturally as day follows night when other

right conditions obtained, and promiscuous sex relations would be as

rare then as are true marriages at the present time.

I would not be quoted as upholding the continuance of the

marriage relations between men and women who are antagonistic,

unfaithful and cruel to each other. What I plead for is more care in

selection and the use of all natural means by which such selection,

could be intelligently made. Wrong planetary conditions, sordid

motives, abnormal sexual desire, amounting to disease, are

responsible for the majority of the unhappy, unnatural marriages of

the present age.

It is as absurd unjustly to criticise the Law which demands

monogamy because men and women enter into the marriage relation

unprepared and unfitted for such relation, as it would be to criticise

the law of gravitation for not fulfilling its purpose when some

obstruction was deliberately placed in the path of a descending object.

Consciously or unconsciously, the condemnation of monogamy

and, the exploitation of promiscuity is based upon abnormal sexual

desire [TT 225] in the case of every intelligent man and thoroughly

familiar with the causes and effects of disobedience to the law

governing creative forces.

Humanity is now evolving under a different phase of universal

law from that which governed the birth and evolution of man in the

earlier ages of this cycle. The law of differentiation . separation .

then ruled supreme, while the law of unification . of combination . is

preeminently active in the present race. The triangle is in process of

becoming the straight line again, as it must so become in the closing

eras of any great cycle of manifestation ; and those who pit their puny

strength and selfish desire against Divine purpose and power must

inevitably lose in the contest.

...

THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE

LESSON 87

One of the rules of initiation in a high degree of the Great Lodge

contains the following paragraphs :

"This is a secret which gives death ; close thy mouth lest thou

shouldst reveal it to the vulgar ; compress thy brain lest something

should escape from it and fall outside."

To this exhortation is added yet another :

"Open wide thy hand that the blood droppings from thy opened

veins may fall from thy finger tips to give life to the dead. Open thine

heart that its inmost shrine may be reflected on the screen of the world

by the rays of the Central Sun, in order that man may know that there

is speech higher than words."

Since mindless man was overshadowed by the Sons of Light, and

Higher Manas was born in the human race, the shades of the lower

mind . animal instincts . have fought to regain and hold their former

supremacy, and to strike out all the "thou shalt not's" from the

commandments, issued as guides to higher evolution, by the Sons of

Light.

The Decalogue is no modern invention of a few thousand years

ago, given by a God through a single leader of the jewish race, as is

generally supposed. Each paragraph outlines the final result of aeons

of experience, lived out by countless numbers of seers and sages, and

graven on "two tablets of stone", i. e., on the two lobes of the lungs,

the air transmitters, the double organ which renders speech possible to

man. [TT 226]

But there are many more of these "thou shalt not's", graven on

similar stones or organs, by the same methods, and to similar ends, by

the same seers and sages in more fully developed bodies, and among

them is the following :

"Thou shalt not take the children's bread and give it unto the

dogs" : meaning, "Thou shalt not take the secrets of initiation and give

them to the world in general."

In many instances, where this commandment has been disobeyed,

death indeed has resulted . death of the soul of the one who imparted

the secret and the one who received it. For when certain great cosmic

truths have been given to the unprepared . the uninitiated . the soul

and body have been destroyed by lack of power to control the cosmic

forces generated, owing to the fact that it was impossible to impart

instructions as to safe and right methods of manipulating the forces

generated by the use of said truths, which alone could be imparted

"mouth to ear" by the Hierophant of any degree, to a neophyte of the

same degree, and no man or God in such a position could possibly be

induced to give such instructions to the weak or unworthy.

Before the utter disintegration of such "dead" forms, the latter had

become temples of black magic more or less consciously .

instruments for the use of evil spiritual forces in form. And the same

great crimes, with their terrible after . effects, are occurring in this age

even more frequently and with greater power for evil than ever before,

for it is the age of the anti-Christ, and there is no place, no centre, on

the earth where the spiritual currents of the White Lodge have been

directed for the amelioration of the ills of mankind, the betterment of

existing conditions, and the spiritual advancement of the human race,

that there has not entered into it the conscious satanic emissaries of the

Black Lodge to take up their dwelling place in some man, or woman,

who selfishly or ambitiously begins to use the knowledge acquired

from close association with the disciples of the White Lodge, for the

disruption and dissociation of the body with which he or she is

connected.

The same forces, the same character of weak, unstable and

drifting souls . vehicles of those forces . are with you now, as they

are with every like centre where a link with the Initiates has been

forged, and are fulfilling the same cosmic service, i. e., acting as

testing stones for the individual members of the centre. In many cases

such individuals ignorantly believe "they are doing God's service",

while in reality they are striking at the very foundation of Faith, Hope

and Courage. In other instances they are consciously bringing upon

others all the evils human flesh is heir to, in the form of suffering,

loss, and disease ; while [TT 227] posing in their black lined white

garments as benefactors. The Initiates are thus greatly hampered in

their efforts ; and often incapacitated for imparting the methods hinted

at in the above mentioned Rules, hindered from, opening the hand that

the droppings from the finger tips . the rules of the Mystery language

. may fall on mankind' ; i. e., may reach the intelligence, and so make

possible the regaining of the powers and privileges now lost ; the

possibilities of which are taught and explained in that language alone.

In every instance, so far, that an attempt has been made to teach this

language to the laity, and even before the first principles had been

fully understood, those to whom the requisite knowledge had been

entrusted have been compelled to stay their hand and wait for the

replacing of some recreant from a seven fold group before they could

continue ; for such a seven-fold group is an essential. Other disciples

wonder and puzzle over the cessation of, or change in, some line of

esoteric instruction, the cause for which cannot be explained at once

by their teachers without breaking some law of discipleship by which

they individually are bound ; and they often jump to the conclusion

that the teachers are untrue or have reached the limit of their

knowledge.

You must know these things if you are to meet them and be

prepared "to stand in the furnace" by the side of those who must bear

the strain of such conditions, and so make possible the resumption of

any interrupted course of instruction, or the holding of a centre against

the powers of evil that have gained entrance. If you cannot do this,

"Your hour has not yet come." You have not yet gained the power to

"lie still on the horizontal bar of the balanced cross, while the

perpendicular spear passes through your vitals, to raise the vibrations

of the Solar centre and enable you to win the reward of crucifixion."

Distrust the man or woman who tells you he or she is a Templar

and then strikes at the heart of your Order. You are facing an emissary

of the Brothers of the Shadow every time. Fly from the man or woman

who offers you the gold of Spiritual knowledge in a cup made of the

heart of a co-disciple. Your own heart's blood will eventually fill that

cup, if you accept it.

He who appeals to the Brothers of Light for the opportunity, at

the same moment of his appeal, demands the trial by fire, i. e., he

demands an opportunity to prove his fitness for life on higher levels.

The law mercifully blinds him to his failures in many instances,

but it is his fault alone if he fails in recognizing the presence of an

emissary of a black magician in the midst of his Order when the

fundamental law of that Order . Inseparableness . is attacked.

[TT 228]

...

SPIRITUAL HEREDITY

LESSON 88

Consciousness is the essential basis of all life. All outer

expressions of consciousness are ephemeral, passing, illusory.

Each of the four lower of the combined seven forms which

constitute the manifested self of a human being, has an individual

past, present and future karma that is in perfect alignment and

correspondence with the karma of the other forms, also with the karma

of the race, family, nation, world and universe of which it is a

constituent. Each one of these four bodies or sheaths, as they are

termed in the Secret Science, is ill or well, happy or unhappy, in good

or bad environment ; is energetic or indolent, wise or foolish, during

any one period of time, according to the dominant karmic force in

operation on its particular plane of action at that period.

The lowest, the physical body, sometimes seems logy, lazy, with

no apparent cause for the same, but in such an instance it might be that

the next body or sheath in sequence was at that moment experiencing

some phase of action that impressed the result as a negative force,

within the physical atoms, or, as it were, unlocked the cell doors and

permitted that force to sift through the atomic structure of the physical

body, hence the feeling of inertia.

A sudden wild gust of passion, utterly unaccountable at the

moment to the mind of all interested people, because of its apparent

causelessness, seizes upon an individual, and results in some crime on

the physical plane. It might be that in such an instance some one of the

other sheaths is living through some past experience of similar nature,

when extreme anger had aroused a burst of passion ; or is then passing

through some similar experience to that the physical body is

undergoing, at the same time in its own field of expression, and the

force of that passion has thus involved another sheath and perhaps

forced it into the commission of crime. The consciousness being, at

the moment, fixed upon the physical plane more powerfully than,

upon any other, would naturally locate the ultimate cause for such an

exhibition of passion upon that physical plane by acting through the

physical senses.

Each plane and each body of any plane is, as it were, a double-

faced mirror. The consciousness . the Builder . which dwells as "a

star apart", gazes, at certain clearly defined cyclic periods, into each

mirror in turn. When it is fixed upon some one mirror it perceives not

only itself as the dominant figure upon the same, but also the

reflections of itself in surrounding mirrors, and reflections of

reflections. [TT 229] It periodically identifies itself with each one of

those reflections until discrimination has been evolved. All of the

sheaths disintegrate and return to a homogeneous condition, each one

in perfect sequence ; first the physical, then the astral, the mental and

the higher astral or soul As the consciousness releases itself from one

sheath it centres itself more and more in those sheaths which remain.

And all of the power, knowledge, and wisdom it has gained by its

experience in all its sheaths is finally centred in the permanent

spiritual body of the Ego . the Nirmanakaya robe, which has been in

process of building since the first manifestation of matter at the

commencement of a new Manvantara.

When the individuality, the Ego, is compelled by karmic law to

incarnate, it gathers the scattered fragments, the skandas, and the

lasting results of previous incarnations, all together within its Auric

sphere and recreates each of its new sheaths in turn, the physical last,

informing it with its own consciousness during the process of creation.

With the completion of the physical body, one round of an individual

life cycle is closed.

I am but giving you something of an illustration, not attempting a

detailed statement of the action of the various forms, phases, forces

and conditions of life referred to above, but will note a few interesting

details.

Sometimes the shadows . the sheaths . of one or more other Egos

drift across the surface of one of the mirrors, in which case there is a

blending of the consciousness of the individual Egos . it may be

momentary or it may last through a longer period of time ; but this can

never occur unless the Egos are closely related by karmic and

sympathetic tics ; in fact, unless they belong to the same Cosmic Ray.

Man ignorantly calls different phases of this phenomenon spiritualism,

affinity, psychic control, or something similar ; but it is indeed and in

truth the action of a spiritual law. It is the only right basis for marriage

between souls, and is but a premonitory expression of what will be an

ultimate reality, at the close of a manvantara, when there will be no

occasion for mirrors . bodies, as means to identification, for the

human race will then have again become what it was in the beginning,

one entity.

You might ask, "What becomes of planetary influences, heredity,

etc.", but do not forget that I have said that this world, as well as the

universe which contains the world and its inhabitants is evolving in

like ratio, and all are subject to the same laws which control the

movements of the planets.

The planetary influences are simply those drifting shadows before

referred to as being cast upon the mirrors of 'the individual Ego, the

[TT 230] action of which is only possible because of the intimate

relation existing, karmically and cosmically speaking, between the

Egos, which are, as it were, the lights which make possible the casting

of the shadows, The shadows mingle and intermingle with each other

and with the thought-forms cast upon the mirror, and only the Egos .

the planetary rulers in this instance . have power to separate them one

from the other and place them where they belong in the scale of life ;

but as these drifting shadows glide over the surface of the mirrors and

intermingle, so the planetary influences, and their reflections cast by

the individual Egos of the planetary rulers, mingle with each other and

affect each other according to the action of the natural laws which

create and control those particular expressions of Divine life, and only

the Mystic who can observe those reflections and is competent to

decipher their mysteries and compute the power and purpose of each

one, can possibly cast a true horoscope of a human being.

Possibly a less developed person might cast the horoscope of a

physical body, but how about the horoscopes of the next three bodies,

the astral, mental and psychic bodies ? And they must be cast if a true

delineation of that fourfold entity, the human being, is to be found.

An honorable astrologer will never promise to bring forth the

mysteries of the stars relating to the interior sheaths for the eyes of the

profane to degrade. He realizes the enormity of the sin of even such an

attempt.

...

CHARACTER

LESSON 89

Character is the basic source as well as the culmination of every

successful effort in the direction of soul building ; the beginning and

the end of every individualized Cosmic, planetary, and human

endeavor toward spiritual supremacy.

The non-possession or deterioration of that basic principle, means

the death and disintegration of any individualized form of life.

Few among even the more enlightened class of investigators stop

to consider what may be the method of procedure, what forces are

available to build up the substance of character, or of what that

substance really consists.

The interaction of Will and Desire under certain stimuli impels to

rapid action the central nucleus of an embryonic cell ; continued

[TT 231] repetition of the stimuli may create the c its of what will

sometime be an organic centre, a base of supplies, it may be for a

brain. This centre can only respond to the same character of

stimulating force which formed the third line of the trio, Action, and

the stimulus is originally given by the vibratory action of various

qualities commonly termed good, existing in the mentality of the

planetary ruler of the planet on which that cell is developing and

therefore subject to the attracting power of the duo, Will and Desire as

expressed in the cell. Constant contact and interaction between these

stimulating forces, the basic source and the cells of a brain, will

evolve the same qualities to a greater degree as time passes until they

are finally manifested in what we term character in an individual.

The word "character" commonly conveys a vague impression of

the good or bad characteristics of a person, the possession of which

leads to position and influence, social, religious or political, as the

case may be, or the reverse. The truth is that every separate factor,

every quality that enters into the sum total which manifests character

is the result of aeons of conscious, persistent, indefatigable effort by

the individual Ego through stone, plant, animal and human life.

The monad when first clothed in the form of a crystal has

alternately attracted and repulsed various vibrations of pranic energy,

and incipient Will has finally cohered and molded the resultant

molecular substance into a given form. It has sharpened the edges of

each facet and thereby constructed points for contact with similar

forms, and for weapons of offense and defense. These sharpened

points of the crystal are ultimately the bases of other correspondingly

potent organic centres and weapons, according to the cyclic

development of the natural kingdom in which it is manifesting and the

phases or races of life evolving within that kingdom. For instance such

points may evolve into the thorns of a rose tree, the horns of an

animal, the fins of a fish, the Poison sacs of a serpent, or the teeth and

nails . the weapons of defense and offense of an animal.

Every one of the crystal points was primarily fitted for its

particular act of service according to the need, the desire, and will of

the Monad as it was concentrated and expressed in the central cell of

the crystal ; and all such points have finally developed into the

mediums of contact, and weapons of defense and offense commonly

termed qualifications ; developed in the human mentality and acting

through the human body. While the forms of such qualifications are

not perceptible to the human eye, they have subordinate mediums of

expression within the human brain and visible to the inner eye. If the

brain is destroyed [TT 232] they have no expression in form,

thereafter in occult phraseology they are termed Skandas.

These qualifications are the foundation stones of the edifice we

have reared to express character. If you find yourself lacking one of

the basic qualities of this edifice it follows that you have not earned it

in the past, or, through abuse of it, you have lost it and never will have

it again until you earn it once more by persistent, indefatigable effort.

If it is the quality of self-control that you lack, never lose an

opportunity of bringing your will to bear upon any condition that

inhibits such control. A thousand failures do not count where one

successful effort is made. Every test you pass brings you so much

nearer final accomplishment. The same is true in regard to all other

qualities.

Attract to yourself by strong desire the cosmic building forces.

Cohere and emplace your successes within the mental image you have

formed of the desired quality, by means of Desire.

Never lose sight of the concealed power within yourself, which

first acted within the crystal points ; the same power that is now

resident in those qualities which are manifesting character ; namely,

self-control, altruism, service, purity, faith, truth and devotion. When

these qualities have reached their highest point of attainment in you,

you will have become a Master of the White Brotherhood, and never

until then, even though you possessed the earth and all else that it

contains and expresses.

The day of full recognition of the power of "little things"

approaches . the little things that are the bases of all great things ; and

rightly directed study of even the facets of a crystal will point out the

path to the Gods. Not alone the qualities referred to will you find

expressed in the crystal as above noted, but all things, all features of

the genus homo ; for in the very first manifested form of life force is

concealed the power of the trinity, Will, Desire and Action. The more

complex the form, the greater has been the operation of that power

and the greater the possibilities for the future.

So long as you only desire me to corroborate your own beliefs,

your own conceptions of life and action (such life and action as you

have as yet only touched upon), because you cannot or will not obey

certain laws of Being, obedience to which would increase the power

of non-resistance in the organic centres through which alone the light

of sure knowledge can radiate, and so unconsciously repel that light,

just so long you are doomed to disappointment and chagrin ; and just

so [TT 233] long you will be subject to every fluctuation of thought in

the minds of those about You ; thought-forms which drift through

your own mind and confuse every main point and thus make you

incapable of holding to any one centre to which you owe allegiance .

owe it because karma and your own higher Will and Desire have

justly placed you in one definite position toward such centre.

If you are convinced that your Initiate Teacher knows no more

than you know, yourself about any subject formulated and introduced

by him that you may be interested in, and will only believe in and act

upon conclusions formed as a result of such drifting thoughts as now

sift through your mentality, you will gain nothing from his

instructions.

The kingdom of God is within you, and it is also within the

central cell of the crystal, and the centre of any thing or condition ;

and so long as you are obediently subject to that central cell you will

go on building the higher qualities, as the points of that crystal are

built, by the same law, to final perfection of form. But such expansion

of spiritual substance, as well as that of cellular life, is contingent

upon the resident power in each atom to resist every exterior force that

would tend toward separation from its kind ; separation that would

tend to frustrate the purpose of the Ego that dominates the mass and

which alone knows the geometrical form which Divine Wisdom has

set according to number for any mass of substance, and the equally

potent power of non-resistance to the true building forces. So with

man, as with the crystal cell, his power of expansion, of growth, rests

upon his ability to identify himself with a true centre that is one of a

direct line of centres reaching from a Dhyan Chohan, through a

planetary ruler, down through the ranks of lesser Masters to the

composite body of which he is a constituent . a line of centres in one

sense, yet one centre in toto, and that power is dependent on character.

Without a centre of expression, the manifestation of character is

impossible ; without character man would be but a congery of

unstable forces.

It has been taught by some who argue from generalities to

particulars that moral responsibility builds character ; but the reverse

is true. It is character that determines moral responsibility. Morals are

changeable. They are relatively good or bad, according to the race,

nation, religious prejudices, etc. ; but character, as I have insisted, is

the one persistent feature from incarnation to incarnation. It is, so to

'Peak, the basic sheath of the Ego, inseparable from that Ego.

[TT 234]

...

MISUSE OF POWER

From the Master M

LESSON 90

If there is any one thing more than another that justifies the

Initiates of the right hand path in refraining from divulging the deepest

truths of occultism concerning the exercise of creative power it is the

attitude of the great majority of the human race toward the feminine

sex ; and the fact that the most malicious, cruel and unjust treatment of

woman is by woman, adds immensely to the difficulties in the way. A

student of occultism is so much more accountable for such treatment

than are others that comparison is hardly possible, for such an one

knows full well that without the assistance of the female, the male is

absolutely helpless in his search for the philosopher's stone . the lost

creative power. This knowledge makes his conduct ten-fold more

reprehensible when he indulges in, or sustains others in indulging in

vituperative, malicious slander of a woman, whoever or whatever the

slandered woman may be. The poor tool of the Brothers of the

Shadow who teaches that anything but the most perfect purity can

avail to reach the heights of knowledge where the generation and

exercise of patent creative forces is possible, is a wilful or ignorant

deceiver. Yet knowing all this, as every true student of occultism does

know it, the first demonstration of ambition, weariness, anger or

righteous criticism of some fault often results in vicious slander,

persistent vituperative scandal against the woman, whoever she may

be, who occupies a prominent position in the organic body of which

those are parts. Whether the body be religious, scientific, social or

political, it would seem that the feminine, the most vital, the most

necessary (even if it be concealed from outer view) source of

sustenance for the growth and development of such a body, is almost

invariably the point of most demoniacal attack. And so it will be until

woman, purely for the sake of womankind, awakens from her

lethargic sleep and compels regard for her sex. She will lever be

voluntarily given her place in the world by man during the present

manvantara until she takes it by means of her own inherent strength,

and she lever will have the power to take it while she can stand by and

see those of her own sex attacked and misused, without protest, and

without an effort to rehabilitate those attacked and often displaced by

those seeking selfish aggrandizement.

This is not a matter of ethics alone, One of the universal law,

governing spiritual creative power is infringed upon or broken

[TT 235] (according to the strength of the governing motive) in all

like instances, and in all such cases the hitherto latent positive aspect

of the creative force is prematurely aroused and, figuratively speaking,

dammed up and thrown back on itself, causing explosive action and

scattering its volume in many directions, instead of developing evenly

and normally in combination with the negative aspects of the same,

into one powerful force, in which case an occultist may, by

concentration of will and mind, direct the latter into channels of

spiritual generation for the evolving of higher spiritual powers.

Indulgence in such action as is referred to above produces

phenomena upon the astral plane that are akin to the display of electric

light on the physical plane when conducting wires are crossed, and the

fiery force thus astrally liberated reappears on the latter plane and is

seized by the passions and used up in lower creative functions,

although it is unconsciously done in the majority of instances.

Mankind is slow in reaching to knowledge of the fundamental causes

of the effects it is continually fighting, and in no instance is it so slow

as in its search for the causes back of the effects of the destructive

forces of Nature.