...
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.