[PAGE  1]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC


                            GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

                                     BY

                                 MAX HEINDEL
                                 [1865-1919]



                            A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON
                             PRACTICAL MYSTICISM




                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                         INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
                                MT. ECCLESIA
                                P.O. BOX 713
                      OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054 U.S.A.





[PAGE  3]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

                                   FORWARD

   The contents of this book are among the last writings of Max Heindel, the
mystic.  They  contain  some  of his deepest thoughts, and are the result of
years  of  research and occult investigation.  He,  too,  could say  as  did
Parsifal: "Through error and through suffering I came, through many failures
and  through countless woes."   At last he was given the living  water  with
which he was able to quench the spiritual thirst of many souls.  He also de-
veloped  to their depths pity and love, and could feel the heart  throbs  of
suffering humanity.

   Strong  souls  are  usually endowed with great energy  and  impulse,  and
through these very forces,  they forge to the front ranks though they  often
suffer much.   As a result they are filled with compassion for others.   The
writer  of these lessons sacrificed his physical body on the altar  of  ser-
vice.

   In writing the books and monthly lessons of the Fellowship,  in his  lec-
tures and class work,  and in the arduous pioneer work of establishing Head-
quarters within the short span of ten years,  Max Heindel accomplished  more
than  many who are blessed with perfect health could have accomplished in  a
lifetime.   His  first  book,  his  masterpiece,  " The  Rosicrucian  Cosmo-


[PAGE  4]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

Conception,"  was written under the direct guidance of the Elder Brothers of
the Rose Cross.  It carries a vital message to the world.   It satisfies not
alone the intellect, but also the heart.  His "Freemasonry and Catholicism,"
has found its way into many Masonic libraries.   The occultist has  received
much from the book entitled, "The Web of Destiny," which is a mine of mysti-
cal knowledge and helpful occult truths.  It is also a guide to the investi-
gator, establishing danger signals for the venturesome ones who wish to take
heaven  by storm.   To the science of astrology he has given more in  a  few
years than has previously been discovered for centuries.   His two  valuable
works,  "Simplified Scientific Astrology"  and "The Message of  the  Stars,"
deal largely with the spiritual and medical aspects of  astrology.  The lat-
ter gives methods of diagnosis and healing which form a valuable addition to
the  works of other authors,  both ancient and modern.   These books may  be
found in the libraries of many doctors of the old school.

   In "Gleanings of a Mystic"  are found twenty-four lessons which were for-
merly sent out to students.   It is the wish of the writer of this introduc-
tion  that  these  lessons  may carry a message of love  and  cheer  to  the
soul-hungry reader and hope to the disconsolate one.

                                                        Augusta Foss Heindel


[PAGE  5]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC


                              TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I.
   Initiation: What It Is and Is Not--Part I.                        7
Chapter II
   Initiation: What It Is and Is Not--Part II.                      14
Chapter III.
   The Sacrament of Communion--Part I.                              21
Chapter IV.
   The Sacrament of Communion--Part II.                             28
Chapter V.
   The Sacrament of Baptism.                                        37
Chapter VI.
   The Sacrament of Marriage                                        46
Chapter VII.
   The Unpardonable Sin and Lost Souls.                             54
Chapter VIII.
   The Immaculate Conception.                                       61
Chapter IX.
   The Coming Christ.                                               69
Chapter X.
   The Coming Age.                                                  77
Chapter XI.
   Meat and Drink as Factors of Evolution.                          85


[PAGE  6]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

Chapter XII.
   A Living Sacrifice.                                              94
Chapter XIII.
   Magic, White and Black.                                         101
Chapter XIV.
   Our Invisible Government.                                       108
Chapter XV.
   Practical Precepts for Practical People.                        114
Chapter XVI.
   Sound, Silence, and Soul Growth.                                121
Chapter XVII.
   The "Mysterium Magnum" of the Rose Cross                        130
Chapter XVIII.
   Stumbling Blocks                                                138
Chapter XIX.
   The Lock of Upliftment.                                         147
Chapter XX.
   The Cosmic Meaning of Easter--Part I.                           153
Chapter XXI.
   The Cosmic Meaning of Easter--Part II.                          160
Chapter XXII.
   The Newborn Christ.                                             167
Chapter XXIII.
   Why I am a Rosicrucian.                                         173
Chapter XXIV.
   The Object of the Rosicrucian Fellowship.                       180


[PAGE  7]                                  INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

                                  CHAPTER I

                      INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

                                   PART I

   IT IS NO rare occurrence to receive questions relating to Initiation, and
we are also frequently asked to state whether this order or that society  is
genuine,  and whether the initiations they offer to all comers who have  the
price are BONA FIDE.  For that reason it seems necessary to write a treatise
on  the subject so that students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship may  have  an
official statement for reference and guidance in the future.

  In the first place let it be clearly understood that we consider it repre-
hensible to express condemnation of any society or order,  no matter what it
practices.   It may be perfectly sincere and honest ACCORDING TO ITS  LIGHT.
We  do  not believe that we rise in the opinion of  discriminating  men  and
women  by speaking in disparaging terms of others;  neither are we  laboring
under  the delusion that WE have all the truth and the other  societies  are
plunged in Egyptian darkness.   We reiterate what we have often said before,


[PAGE  8]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

that  all religions have been given to mankind by the Recording Angels,  who
know the spiritual requirements of each class,  nation,  and race,  and have
the intelligence to give each a form of worship perfectly suited to its par-
ticular need;  that thus Hinduism is suited to the Hindu,  Mohammedanism  to
the  Arab,  and the Christian religion to those born in  the  Western  Hemi-
sphere.

   The Mystery Schools of each religion furnish to the more advanced members
of  the race or nation embracing its higher teaching,  which IF  LIVED,  ad-
vances  them into a higher sphere of spirituality than their brethren.   But
as the religion of the backward races is of a lower order than the  religion
of the pioneers,  the Christian nations, so also the MYSTERY TEACHING OF THE
EAST IS MORE ELEMENTARY THAN THAT OF THE WEST, and the Hindu or Chinese Ini-
tiate  is on a correspondingly lower rung of the ladder of  attainment  than
the Western Mystic.  Please ponder this well so that you may not fall a vic-
tim to misguided people who try to persuade others that the Christian  reli-
gion  is crude compared with oriental cults.   Ever westward in the wake  of
the shining sun, the light of the world, has gone the star of empire, and is
it  not  reasonable to suppose that the spiritual light has kept  pace  with
civilization,  or even preceded it as thought precedes action?  We hold that
such is the case,  that the Christian religion is the loftiest yet given  to
man, and that to repudiate the Christian religion, esoteric or exoteric, for
any of the older systems is analogous to preferring the  older  textbooks of


[PAGE  9]                                  INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

science to the newer ones which embrace discoveries to date.

   Neither  are the practices of Eastern aspirants to the higher life to  be
imitated  by Westerners;  we refer particularly to the breathing  exercises.
They  are both beneficial and necessary to the unfoldment of the Hindu,  but
it is otherwise with the Western aspirant.  To him it is dangerous to  prac-
tice breathing exercises for soul unfoldment;  they will even prove  subver-
sive of soul growth, and they are,  moreover,  absolutely unnecessary.   The
reason is this:

   During involution the threefold spirit has become gradually incrusted  in
a threefold body.   In the Atlantean Epoch man was at the nadir of material-
ity.   We are just now rounding the lowest point on the arc  of  involution,
and starting upward on the arc of evolution.  At this point, then,  all man-
kind is immured in this earthly prison house to such a degree that spiritual
vibrations are almost killed.  This is, of course,  particularly true of the
backward  races and the lower classes in the Western world.   The  atoms  in
such backward race bodies are vibrating at an exceedingly low rate, and when
in  the course of time one of these people develops to a point where  it  is
possible  to  further him upon the path of attainment,  it is  necessary  to
raise this vibratory pitch of the atom so that the vital body,  which is the
medium of occult growth, may to a certain extent be liberated from the dead-
ening forces of the physical atom.  This  result  is  attained  by  means of


[PAGE 10]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

breathing exercises, which in time accelerate the vibration of the atom, and
allow the spiritual growth necessary to the individual to take place.

   These exercises may also be used by a great number of people in the West-
ern  world,  particularly  those who are not at all  concerned  about  their
spiritual  advancement.   But even among those who desire soul growth  there
are  many who are not yet at the point where the atoms of their bodies  have
evolved to such a pitch of vibration that acceleration beyond the usual mea-
sure would injure them.  Here the breathing exercises would do no harm;  but
if given to a person who is really at the point where he can enter the  path
of advancement ordinarily mapped out for the Hindu's precocious brothers and
sisters in the West,  in other words, when he is nearly ready for Initiation
and when he would be benefited BY SPIRITUAL EXERCISES,  then the case is far
otherwise.

   During the aeons which we have spent in evolution since the time when  we
were in Hindu bodies, our atoms have accelerated their vibratory pitch enor-
mously,  and as said in the case of one who is really nearly ready for  Ini-
tiation,  the pitch of vibration is higher than that of the average  man  or
woman.   Therefore he does not need breathing exercises to  ACCELERATE  this
pitch, but certain spiritual exercises suited to him individually which will
advance  him  on  the proper path.  If such a person at this critical period


[PAGE 11]                                  INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

meets  some one who ignorantly or unscrupulously gives him  breathing  exer-
cises,  and if he follows the instructions accurately in the hope of GETTING
QUICK  RESULTS,  he will get them quickly but in a manner he has not  looked
for,  since the vibratory rate of the atoms in his body will in a very short
time  become accelerated to such a pitch that it will seem to him as  if  he
were  walking on air;  then also an improper cleavage of the vital body  may
take place, and either consumption or insanity follows.  Now please put this
down  where it will burn itself into your consciousness in letters of  fire:
INITIATION IS A SPIRITUAL PROCESS,  AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS CANNOT BE  ACCOM-
PLISHED BY PHYSICAL MEANS, BUT ONLY BY SPIRITUAL EXERCISES.

   There  are many orders in the West which profess to INITIATE  ANYONE  WHO
HAS THE PRICE.   Some of these orders have names closely resembling our own,
and we are constantly asked by students whether they are affiliated with us.
In order to settle this once and for all,  please note that the  Rosicrucian
Fellowship  has constantly taught that NO SPIRITUAL GIFT MAY EVER BE  TRADED
FOR  MONEY.   If you bear this in mind,  you may know we have no  connection
with any order which demands money for the transference of spiritual  power.
He who has something to give of a truly spiritual nature will not barter  it
for money.  I received a particular injunction to this effect from the Elder
Brothers in the Rosicrucian Temple,  when they told me to go to the  English
speaking world as  their  messenger,  a claim I do not expect you to believe


[PAGE 12]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

SAVE AS YOU SEE IT JUSTIFIED BY FRUITS.

   Now,  however, about Initiation: What it is? Is it ceremony as claimed by
these other orders?   If so,  any order can certainly invent ceremonies of a
more or less elaborate kind.   They may by flowing robes and clashing swords
appeal  to the emotions;  they may appeal to the sense of wonder and awe  by
rattling chains and by deep sounding gongs,  and thus produce in their  mem-
bers an "OCCULT FEELING."   Many revel in the adventures and experiences  of
the hero in "The Brother of the Third Degree,"  thinking that this is surely
Initiation,  but I tell you that it is very far from being the case.  NO CE-
REMONY CAN EVER GIVE TO ANY ONE THAT INWARD EXPERIENCE which constitutes  I-
nitiation, no matter how much is charged or how fearful the oaths, how awful
or beautiful the ceremony, or how gorgeous the robes,  any more than passing
through a ceremony can convert a sinner and make him a saint, for conversion
is to the exoteric religionist exactly what Initiation is in the higher mys-
ticism.  Please consider this point thoroughly, and you will have the key to
the problem.

   Do you think that any one could go to a person of depraved character  and
agree to convert him for a certain sum and carry out his part of the  agree-
ment?  Surely you know that no amount of money could bring about that change
in a man's character.   Ask a true convert where he got his religion and how
he  got  it.  One  may  tell you that he received it upon the road as he was


[PAGE 13]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

walking along; another says that the light and the change came to him in the
solitude  of his room;  another that the LIGHT STRUCK him as it struck  Paul
upon the road to Damascus,  and forced him to change.   Every one has a dif-
ferent experience,  and the outward manifestation of that inward  experience
is  that  IT CHANGES THE MAN'S WHOLE LIFE from the very least  to  the  very
greatest aspect.

   So it is with Initiation;  it is an inward experience,  entirely SEPARATE
AND APART FROM ANY CEREMONIAL WHATEVER,  and therefore it is an absolute im-
possibility that any one could sell it to any one else.   Initiation changes
a man's whole life.   It gives him a confidence that he never possessed  be-
fore.   It  clothes him with a mantle of authority that never can  be  taken
from him.   No matter what the circumstances in life,  it sheds a light upon
his whole being that is simply wonderful.   Nor can any ceremony effect such
a change.   We therefore hold that anyone who offers initiation into an  oc-
cult order by ceremonials to everyone who has the price,  brands himself  as
an  imposter.   For the true teacher,  if he were approached by an  aspirant
with an offer of money for spiritual attainment, would answer indignantly in
the  words used by Peter to Simon the sorcerer,  who offered him  money  for
spiritual powers: "Thy silver perish with thee."


[PAGE 14]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

                                 CHAPTER II

                      INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

                                   PART II

   TO OBTAIN a better understanding of what constitutes Initiation and  what
the prerequisites are,  let the student fix firmly in his mind the fact that
humanity  as a whole is slowly progressing upon the path of evolution,  thus
very  slowly,  almost inperceptibly,  attaining higher and higher states  of
consciousness.  The path of evolution is a spiral when we regard it from the
physical  side only,  but a lemniscate when viewed in both its physical  and
spiritual phases.   (See the diagram of chemical caduceus in THE ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION,  page 410.)  In the lemniscate, or figure 8, there are two
circles  which converge to a central point,  which circles may be  taken  to
symbolize the immortal spirit,  the evolving ego.  One of the circles signi-
fies its life in the physical world from birth to death.   During this  span
of  time  it sows a seed by every act and should reap in  return  a  certain
amount of experience.   But as we may sow seed in the field and lose  return
on that which falls on stony ground, among thorns,  et cetera,  so also  may
the seed of opportunity  be  wasted  because of neglect to till the soil and


[PAGE 15]                                  INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

the life will then be barren of fruit.   Conversely,  as diligence and  care
in cultivation  increase the productive power of garden seed  enormously, so
earnest application to the business of life--improvement of opportunities to
learn  life's  lessons and extract from our environment  the  experience  it
holds--brings  added opportunities;  and at the end of the life-day the  ego
finds itself at the door of death laden with the richest fruits of life.

   The objective work of physical existence over, the race run,  and the day
of action spent, the ego enters upon the subjective work of assimilation ac-
complished  during its sojourn in the invisible worlds,  which it  traverses
during  the period from death to birth, symbolized by the other ring of  the
lemniscate.  As the method of accomplishment this assimilation has been most
minutely described in various parts of our literature, it is needless to re-
peat  it here.   Suffice it to say that at the time when an ego  arrives  at
thecentral point in the lemniscate, which divides the physical from the psy-
chic  worlds  and  which we call the gate of birth  or  death  according  to
whether the ego is entering or leaving the realm where we, ourselves, happen
to be at the time,  it has with it an aggregate of faculties or talents  ac-
quired  in all its previous lives,  which it may then put to usury  or  bury
during the coming life-day as it sees fit; but upon the use it makes of what
it has, depends the amount of soul growth it makes.


[PAGE 16]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

   If  for many lives it caters mainly to the lower nature,  which lives  to
eat,  drink  and be merry,  or if it dreams its life  away  in  metaphysical
speculations upon nature and God, sedulously abstaining from all unnecessary
action,  it  is  gradually passed and left behind by  the  more  active  and
progressive.  Great companies of these idlers form what we know as "backward
races";  while the active,  alert,  and wide-awake who improve a larger per-
centage of their opportunities, are the pioneers.   Contrary to the commonly
accepted idea, this applies also to those engaged in industrial work.  Their
money-getting  is only an incident,  an incentive,  and entirely apart  from
this phase their work is as spiritual as or even more so than that of  those
who spend their time in prayer to the prejudice of useful work.

   From what has been said,  it will be clear that the method of soul growth
as accomplished by the process of evolution requires ACTION in the  physical
life,  followed  in the post-mortem state by a  RUMINATING  PROCESS,  during
which the lessons of life are extracted and thoroughly incorporated into the
consciousness   of   the  ego,   though  the  experiences   themselves   are
forgotten--as  we  forget our labor in learning  the  multiplication  table,
though the faculty of using it remains.

   This  exceedingly  slow and tedious process is perfectly  suited  to  the
needs of the masses;  but there are some who habitually exhaust the  experi-
ences  commonly  given, thus requiring and meriting a larger scope for their


[PAGE 17]                                  INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

energies.   Difference of temperament is responsible for their division into
two classes.

   One class, led by their devotion to Christ, simply follow the dictates of
the  heart  in their work of live for their  fellows--beautiful  characters,
beacon  lights of love in a suffering world,  never actuated by selfish  mo-
tives, always ready to forego personal comfort to aid others.  Such were the
saints;  they worked as they prayed; they never shirked in either direction.
Nor are they dead today.  The earth would be a barren wilderness in spite of
all  its civilization did not their beautiful feet circle it on  errands  of
mercy,  were not the lives of sufferers made brighter by the light  of  hope
which radiates from their beautiful faces.  Had they but the knowledge  pos-
sessed by the other class they would indeed outdistance all in the race  for
the Kingdom.

   Mind is the predominating feature of the other class.  In order to aid it
in  its  efforts toward attainment, mystery schools were  early  established
wherein  the world drama was played to give the aspiring soul while  he  was
entranced,  answers to the questions of the origin and destiny of  humanity.
When  awakened,  he  was instructed in the sacred science of  how  to  climb
higher by following the method of nature--which is meditating upon the expe-
rience,  and incorporating the essential moral to make thereby  commensurate
soul growth;  also with this important feature, that whereas in the ordinary


[PAGE 18]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

course  of things a whole life is devoted to sowing and a whole  post-mortem
existence to ruminating and incorporating the soul substance,  this cycle of
a thousand years, more or less, may be reduced to a day, as held by the mys-
tic maxim,  "A day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
To be explicit,  whatever work has been done during a single day,  if  rumi-
nated  over  at night before crossing the neutral point between  waking  and
sleeping,  may thus be incorporated into the consciousness of the spirit  as
usable soul power.  When that exercise is faithfully performed,  the sins of
each day thus reviewed are actually blotted out,  and the man commences each
day  as if it were a new life,  with the added soul power gained in all  the
preceding days of his probationary life.

   But!--yes,  there is a great big BUT; NATURE IS NOT TO BE CHEATED; God is
not to be mocked.  "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."   Let
no  one  think that the mere perfunctory review of the happenings of  a  day
with perhaps the light-hearted admission of,  "I wish I had not done  that,"
when reviewing a scene where he did something palpably wrong,  will save him
from  the  wrath to come.   When we pass out of the body into  purgatory  at
death and the panorama of our past life unfolds in reverse order to show  us
first the effects and then the causes which produced them, we feel in inten-
sified measure the pain we gave others;  and unless we perform our exercises


[PAGE 19]                                  INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

in  a similar manner SO THAT WE LIVE EACH EVENING OUR HELL as  merited  that
day,  acutely sensible of every pang we have inflicted,  it will avail noth-
ing.   We must also endeavor to feel in the same intense  manner,  gratitude
for kindness received from others, and approbation on account of the good we
ourselves have done.

   Only  thus are we really living the post-mortem existence  and  advancing
scientifically towards the goal of Initiation.   The greatest danger of  the
aspirant upon this path is that he may become enmeshed in the snare of  ego-
tism,  and his only safeguard is to cultivate the faculties of faith,  devo-
tion,  and an all-embracing sympathy.  It is difficult,  but it can be done,
and when it has been accomplished the man or woman becomes a wonderful power
for good in the world.

   Now,  if  the student has pondered the preceding argument  well,  he  has
probably  grasped  the analogy between the LONG CYCLE of evolution  and  the
short CYCLES or steps used upon the path of preparation.  It should be quite
clear  that no one can do this post-mortem work for him and transmit to  him
the resulting soul growth.   You think it preposterous when a priesthood of-
fers to shorten the sojourn of a soul in purgatory.  How, then,  can you be-
lieve  that anyone else can--no matter what the  consideration--obviate  the
necessity of a number of purgatorial existences for your benefit and  trans-
mit  to  you at once the usable soul power you would have acquired  had  you


[PAGE 20]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

pursued the ordinary course of life to the day you are ready for Initiation?
Yet  this is what the offer to initiate a person not yet upon the  threshold
means.   You must have the soul power requisite for Initiation or no one can
initiate you.   If you have it,  you are upon the threshold by your own  ef-
forts,  beholden to no one,  and may demand Initiation as a right which none
would  dare dispute or withhold.   If you have it not and could buy  it,  it
would be cheap at twenty-five million dollars, and the man who offers it for
twenty-five dollars is as ridiculous as his dupe.   Please remember that  if
anyone offers to initiate you into an occult order, no matter if he calls it
"Rosicrucian"  or by any other name, his demand of an initiation fee at once
stamps him as an imposter;  explanations ot the effect that the fee is  used
to purchase regalia,  et cetera,  are only added evidence of the  fraudulent
nature of the order for it is said,  "Initiation is most emphatically not an
outward  ceremony,  but an inward experience."  I may further add  that  the
Elder  Brothers of the Rose Cross in the Mystic Temple where I received  the
Light made it a condition that their SACRED SCIENCE MUST NEVER BE PUT IN THE
BALANCE AGAINST A COIN.  Freely had I received, and freely was I required to
give.   This injunction I have obeyed, both in spirit and to the letter,  as
all know who have had dealings with the Rosicrucian Fellowship.


[PAGE 21]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

                                 CHAPTER III

                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

                                   PART I


   TO  OBTAIN  a thorough understanding of the deep  and  far-reaching  sig-
nificance of the manner in which the Sacrament of Communion was  instituted,
it  is  necessary to consider the evolution of our planet and  of  composite
man,  also the chemistry of foods and their influence on humanity.   For the
sake  of lucidity we will briefly recapitulate the Rosicrucian teachings  on
the  various  points  involved.   They have been  given  at  length  in  the
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION and our other works.

   The  Virgin Spirits,  which are now mankind,  commenced their  pilgrimage
through matter in the dawn of time, that by the friction of concrete  exist-
ence  their  latent powers might be transmuted to kinetic energy  as  usable
soul  power.   Three successive veils of increasingly dense matter were  ac-
quired  by the involving spirits during the Saturn,  Sun and  Moon  Periods.
Thus each spirit was separated from all other spirits, and the consciousness
which  could  not penetrate the prison wall of matter and  communicate  with
others was forced to turn inwards,  and  in  so doing it discovered--ITSELF.


[PAGE 22]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

Thus self-consciousness was attained.

   A further crystallization of the before mentioned veils took place in the
Earth Period during the Polarian, Hyperborean, and Lemurain Epochs.   In the
Atlantean Epoch,  the mind was added as a focusing point between the  spirit
and  body,  completing  the  constitution of composite  man,  who  was  then
equipped to conquer the world and generate soul power by endeavor and  expe-
rience,  each having free will and choice except as limited by the  laws  of
nature and his own previous acts.

   During the time man-in-the-making was thus evolving, great creative Hier-
archies guided his every step.  Absolutely nothing was left to chance.  Even
the  food he ate was chosen for him so that he might obtain the  appropriate
material wherewith to build the various vehicles of consciousness  necessary
to  accomplish the process of soul growth.   The Bible mentions the  various
stages,  though it misplaces Nimrod,  making him to symbolize the  Atlantean
kings who lived BEFORE the Flood.

   In  the Polarian Epoch pure mineral matter became a constituent  part  of
man;  thus ADAM was made of earth,  that is,  so far as his dense  body  was
concerned.

   In the Hyperborean Epoch the vital body was added, and thus his constitu-
tion became plantlike, and CAIN, the man of that time,  lived  on the fruits


[PAGE 23]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

of the soil.

   The  Lemurian Epoch saw the evolution of a desire body,  which  made  man
like  the present animals.   Then milk, the product of living  animals,  was
added to human diet.   ABEL was a shepherd, but it is nowhere stated that he
killed an animal.

   At  that time mankind lived innocently and peacefully in the misty  atmo-
sphere which enveloped the earth during the latter part of the Lemurian  Ep-
och,  as described in the chapter on "Baptism"   Men were then like children
under  the care of a common father,  until the mind was given to all in  the
beginning  of Atlantis.   Thought activity breaks down tissue which must  be
replaced; the lower and more material the thought, the greater the havoc and
the  more  pressing the need for albumen wherewith to  make  quick  repairs.
Hence necessity, the mother of invention, inaugurated the loathsome practice
of flesh eating,  and so long as we continue to think along purely  business
or  material lines we shall have to go on using our stomachs as  receptacles
for the decaying corpses of our murdered animal victims.   Yet we shall  see
later that flesh food has enabled us to make the wonderful material progress
achieved in the Western World,  while the vegetarian Hindus and Chinese have
remained in an almost savage state.   It seems sad to contemplate that  they
will be forced to follow in our steps and shed the blood of our fellow crea-
tures when we shall have outgrown the barbarous practice as  we  have ceased


[PAGE 24]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

cannibalism.

   The more spiritual we grow, the more our thoughts will harmonize with the
rhythm  of our body,  and the less albumen will be needed to  build  tissue.
Consequently,  a vegetable diet will suffice our needs.   Pythagoras advised
abstinence from legumes to ADVANCED scholars because they are rich in  albu-
men and apt to revive lower appetites.  Let not every student who reads this
rashly conclude to eliminate legumes from his diet.   Most of us are not yet
ready  for such extremes;  we would not even advise all students to  abstain
entirely from meat.   The change should come from within.   It may be safely
stated, however, that most people eat entirely too much meat for their good;
but this is in a certain sense a digression,  so we will revert to the  fur-
ther evolution of humanity in so far as it has a bearing upon the  Sacrament
of Communion.

   In  due time the dense mist which enveloped the earth cooled,  condensed,
and  flooded the various basins.  The atmosphere cleared,  and  concurrently
with  this atmospheric change a physiological adaptation in man took  place.
The  gill clefts which had enabled him to breathe in the  dense  water-laden
air  (and  which are seen in the human foetus to this day)  gradually  atro-
phied,  and their function was taken over by the lungs, the pure air passing
to  and  from  them  through  the larynx.  This allowed the spirit, hitherto


[PAGE 25]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

penned up within the veil of flesh, to express itself in word and act.

   There  in the middle of Atlantis the sun first shone upon MAN as we  know
him;  there he was FIRST BORN into the world.   Until then he had been under
the absolute control of great spiritual Hierarchies, mute,  without voice or
choice  in matters pertaining to his education, as a child is now under  the
control of its parents.

   But  one  day  when  he finally emerged  from  the  dense  atmosphere  of
Atlantis;  when  he first beheld the mountains silhouetted in  clear,  sharp
contours against the azure vault of heaven;  when he first saw the  beauties
of moor and meadow,  the moving creatures, birds in the air,  and his fellow
man;  when  his vision was undimmed by the partial obscuration of  the  mist
which had previously hampered perception; above all,  when he perceived HIM-
SELF  as SEPARATE and APART FROM ALL OTHERS,  there burst from his lips  the
glorious triumphant cry, "I AM."

   At  that point he had acquired faculties which equipped him to enter  the
school  of experience,  the phenomenal world,  as a free agent to learn  the
lessons of life, untrammeled save by the LAWS OF NATURE, which are his safe-
guards, and the reaction of his own previous acts, which become DESTINY.

   The  diet  containing an excess of albumen from the  flesh  wherewith  he
gorged himself,  taxed his liver beyond the capacity and clogged the system,
making  him  morose,  sullen, and brutish.  He was fast losing the spiritual


[PAGE 26]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

sight which revealed to him the guardian angels whom he trusted,  and he say
only  the FORMS of animals and men.   The spirits with whom he had lived  in
love  and  brotherhood during early Atlantis were obscured by  the  veil  of
flesh.  It was all so strange, and he FEARED them.

   Therefore  it became necessary to give him a NEW FOOD that could aid  his
spirit  to  overpower the highly individualized molecules of flesh  (as  ex-
plained  in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION,  chapter on  Assimilation,  p.
457), brace it for battle with the world, and spur it on to self-assertion.

   As our visible bodies composed of chemical compounds can thrive only upon
chemical aliment,  so it requires spirit to act upon spirit to aid in break-
ing up the heavy proteid and in stimulating the drooping human spirit.

   The emergence from flooded Atlantis,  the liberation of humanity from the
absolute  rulership of visible superhuman guardians,  their placement  under
THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE AND THE LAWS OF NATURE,  and THE GIFT OF WINE are de-
scribed  in the stories of Noah and Moses,  which are different accounts  of
the same event.

   Both Noah and Moses led their followers through the water.   Moses  calls
heaven and earth to witness that he has placed before them the blessing  and
the curse, exhorts them to choose the good or take the consequences of their
actions; then he leaves them.


[PAGE 27]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

   The phenomenon of the rainbow requires that the sun be near the  horizon,
the nearer the better; also a clear atmosphere, and a dark rain cloud in the
opposite  quarter of the heavens.   When under such conditions  an  observer
stands with back to the sun,  drops as a rainbow.   In early Atlantean times
when  a  warm,  moist fog through which the sun appeared as one of  our  arc
lamps  on a foggy day,  the phenomenon of the rainbow was an  impossibility.
It could not have made its appearance until the mist had condensed to  rain,
flooded the basins of the earth,  and Noah,  which thus points TO THE LAW OF
ALTERNATING  CYCLES  that  brings  day and  night,  summer  and  winter,  in
unvarying sequence, and to which man is subject in the present age.

   Noah  cultivated the vine and provided a spirit to stimulate man.   Thus,
equipped  with  a  composite  constitution,  a  composite  diet  appropriate
thereto,  and divine laws to guide them, mankind were left to their own  de-
vices in the battle of life.
[PAGE 28]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

                                 CHAPTER IV

                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
                           "IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME."

                                   PART II
  "THE LORD JESUS,  the same night in which he was betrayed took bread;  and
when he had given thanks, he brake it and said, Take, eat;  This is MY body,
which is broken for you.  This do in remembrance of me.  After the same man-
ner also he took the cup,  when he had supped,  saying,  This cup is the New
Testament in MY blood.  This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of
me.   For as often as ye eat This bread, and drink This cup,  ye do shew the
Lord's death till he come.   Wherefore, whosoever shall eat This bread,  and
drink This cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord .  . . . For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily,  eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself .  .  .  .  For this cause many  are weak  and
sickly among you, and many sleep."--I Cor 11:23-30.

   In the foregoing passages there is a deeply hidden esoteric meaning which
is  particularly  obscured in the English translation,  but in  the  German,
Latin and Greek, the student still has a hint as to what was really intended


[PAGE 29]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

by that last parting injunction of the Savior to His disciples.   Before ex-
amining This phase of the subject, let us first consider the words,  "in re-
membrance  of me."   We shall then perhaps be in better condition to  under-
stand what is meant by the "cup" and the "bread."

   Suppose  a  man from a distant country comes into our midst  and  travels
about from place to place.  Everywhere he will see small communities gather-
ing around the Table of the Lord to celebrate This most sacred of all Chris-
tian rites, and should he ask why, he would be told that they do This in re-
membrance of One who lived a life nobler than any other has lived upon  This
earth; One who was kindness and love personified; One who was the servant of
all,  regardless of gain or loss to self.  Should This stranger then compare
the attitude of these religious communities on Sunday at the celebration  of
This  rite,  with their civic lives during the remainder of the  week,  what
would he see?

   Every one among us goes out into the world to fight the battle of  exist-
ence.   Under  the law of necessity we forget the love which should  be  the
ruling factor in Christian lives.   Every man's hand is against his brother.
Every one strives for position,  wealth,  and power that goes with these at-
tributes.  We forget on Monday what we reverently remembered on Sunday,  and
all  the  world  is poor in consequence.  We also make a distinction between


[PAGE  30]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

the bread and wine which we drink at the so-called "Lord's Table,"  and  the
food  of  which  we  partake during  the  intervals  between  attendance  at
Communion.   But there is no warrant in the Scriptures for any such distinc-
tion,  as anyone may see,  even in the English version,  by leaving out  the
words printed in italics which have been inserted by the translators to give
what they thought was the sense of a passage.  On the contrary,  we are told
that whether we eat or drink,  or whatever we do,  all should be done to the
glory of God.  Our every act should be a prayer.  The perfunctory "grace" at
meals is in reality a blasphemy,  and the silent thought of gratitude to the
Giver of daily bread is far to be preferred.   When we remember at each meal
that it has been drawn from the substance of the earth, which is the body of
the  indwelling Christ Spirit,  we can properly understand how that body  is
being broken for us daily,  and we can appreciate the loving kindness  which
prompted  Him  thus to give Himself for us;  for let us also  remember  that
there is not a moment,  day or night, that He is not suffering because bound
to earth.   When we thus eat and thus realize the true situation, we are in-
deed declaring to ourselves the death of the Lord,  whose spirit is groaning
and  travailing,  waiting for the day of liberation when there shall  be  no
need of such a dense environment as we now require.

   But  there  is  another,  a  greater and more wonderful mystery hidden in


[PAGE 31]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

these words of the Christ.   Richard Wagner,  with the rare intuition of the
master  musician,  sensed This idea when he sat in meditation by the  Zurich
Sea  on a Good Friday,  and there flashed into his mind the  thought,  "What
connection  is  there between the death of the Savior and  the  millions  of
seeds  sprouting  forth  from the earth at this time of the  year?"   If  we
meditate upon that life which is annually poured out in the spring,  we  wee
it as something gigantic and awe-inspiring; a flood of life which transforms
the  glove from one of frozen death to rejuvenated life in a short space  of
time; and the life which thus diffuses itself in the budding of millions and
millions of plants is the life of the Earth Spirit.

   From that come both the wheat and the grape.  They are the body and blood
of the imprisoned Earth Spirit,  given to sustain mankind during the present
phase  of its evolution.   We repudiate the contention of people  who  claim
that the world owes them a living, regardless of their own efforts and with-
out MATERIAL responsibility on their part,  but we nevertheless insist  that
there is a SPIRITUAL responsibility connected with the bread and wine  given
at the Lord's Supper;  IT MUST BE EATEN WORTHILY,  OTHERWISE,  UNDER PAIN OF
ILL HEALTH AND EVEN DEATH.   This from the ordinary manner of reading  would
seem far-fetched, but when we bring the light of esotericism to bear,  exam-
ine other translations of the Bible,  and look at conditions in the world as


[PAGE 32]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

we find them today, we shall see that it is not so far-fetched after all.

   To  begin  with,  we must go back to the time when man  lived  under  the
guardianship  of the angels,  unconsciously building the body which  he  now
uses.  That was in ancient Lemuria.  A brain was needed for the evolution of
thought, and a larynx for verbal expression of the same.  Therefore, half of
the creative force was turned upwards and used by man to form these  organs.
Thus mankind became single-sexed and was forced to seek a complement when it
was  necessary  to create a new body to serve as an instrument in  a  higher
phase of evolution.

   While the act of love was consummated under the wise guardianship of  the
angels, man's existence was free from sorrow, pain and death.  But when, un-
der the tutelage of the Lucifer Spirits, he ate of the Tree of Knowledge and
perpetuated  the race without regard for interplanetary lines of  force,  he
transgressed  the law,  and the bodies thus formed crystallized unduly,  and
became subject to death in a much more perceptible manner than had  hitherto
been the case.   Thus he was forced to create new bodies more frequently  as
the span of life in them shortened.  Celestial warders of the creative force
drove him from the garden of LOVE into the wilderness of the world,  and  he
was made responsible for his actions under the cosmic LAW which governs  the
universe.  Thus for ages he struggled on, seeking to work out his own salva-
tion, and the earth in consequence crystallized more and more.


[PAGE 33]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

   Divine  hierarchies,  the Christ Spirit included,  worked upon the  earth
from without as the group spirit guides the animals under tis  protectorate;
but as Paul truly says, none could be justified under the law, for under the
law all sinned,  and all must die.  There is in the old covenant no hope be-
yond  the present,  save a foreshadowing of ONE WHO IS TO COME  and  restore
righteousness. Thus John tells us that the LAW was given by Moses, and GRACE
came by the Lord Jesus Christ.  But WHAT IS GRACE?   Can grace work contrary
to  the law and abrogate it entirely?  Certainly not.   The laws of God  are
steadfast and sure,  or the universe would become chaos.  The law of gravity
keeps our houses in position relative to other houses, so that when we leave
them we may know of a surety that we shall find them in the same place  upon
returning.   Likewise all other departments in the universe are  subject  to
immutable laws.

   As LAW, APART FROM LOVE, GAVE BIRTH TO SIN, SO THE CHILD OF LAW, TEMPERED
WITH LOVE,  IS GRACE.   Take an example from our concrete social conditions:
We  have  laws which decree a certain penalty for a specified  offense,  and
when the law is carried out, we call it JUSTICE.  But long experience is be-
ginning  to teach us that justice,  pure and simple,  is like  the  Colchian
dragon's teeth,  and breeds strife and struggle in increasing measure.   The
criminal,  so-called,  remains  criminal  and becomes more and more hardened


[PAGE 34]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

under  the ministrations of law;  but when the milder regime of the  present
day allows one who has transgressed to go under suspended sentence,  then HE
IS  UNDER GRACE and not under law.  Thus,  also the Christian,  who aims  to
follow in the Master's steps,  is emancipated from the law of sin by  grace,
provided he foresake the path of sin.

   It was the sin of our progenitors in ancient Lemuria that THEY  SCATTERED
THEIR SEED regardless of law and without love.   But it is the privilege  of
the  Christian  to redeem himself by purity of life in  remembrance  of  the
Lord.  John says, "His seed remaineth in him,"  and This is the hidden mean-
ing of the bread and wine.  In the English version we read simply:  "This is
the  CUP  of  the New Testament,"  but in the German the  word  for  cup  is
"Kelch,"  and in the Latin,  "Calix," both meaning the outer covering of the
seed pod of the flower.   In the Greek we have a still more subtle  meaning,
not  conveyed in other languages,  in the word "poterion,"  a meaning  which
will be evident when we consider the etymology of the word "pot."   This  at
once gives us the same idea as the chalice or calix--a receptacle;  and  the
Latin "POTARE"  (to drink) also shows that the "cup" is a receptacle capable
of holding a fluid.   Our English words "potent"  and "impotent"  meaning to
possess or to lack virile strength, further  show  the meaning of this Greek


[PAGE 35]                                         THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION

word, which foreshadows the evolution from man to superman.

   We have already lived through a mineral,  plant and an animal-like exist-
ence before becoming human as we are today,  and beyond us lie still further
evolutions  where we shall approach the Divine more and more.   It  will  be
readily  conceded that it is our animal passions which restrain us upon  the
path  if  attainment;  the lower nature is constantly  warring  against  the
higher self.   At least in those who have experienced a spiritual awakening,
a war is being fought silently within,  and is all the more bitter for being
suppressed.   Goethe with masterly art voiced that sentiment in the words of
Faust, the aspiring soul, speaking to his more materialistic friend, Wagner:

                 "Thou by one sole impulse art possessed,
                   Unconscious of the other still remain.
                 Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast,
                   And struggle there for undivided reign.
                 One, to the earth with passionate desire,
                   And closely clinging organs still adheres;
                 Above the mists the other doth aspire
                   With sacred ardor unto purer spheres."

   It  was the knowledge of this absolute necessity of chastity  (save  when
procreation  is the object) upon the part of those who have had a  spiritual
awakening which dictated the words  of  Christ,  and the Apostle Paul stated


[PAGE 36]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

an esoteric truth when he said that THOSE WHO PARTOOK OF THE COMMUNION WITH-
OUT LIVING THE LIFE WERE IN DANGER OF SICKNESS AND DEATH.  For just as under
a spiritual tutelage,  purity of life may elevate the disciple  wonderfully,
so also unchastity has a much stronger effect upon his more sensitized  bod-
ies than upon those who are yet under the law, and have not become partakers
of grace by the cup of the New Covenant.


[PAGE 37]                                           THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

                                  CHAPTER V

                          THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM


   HAVING studied the esoteric significance of our Christian festivals, such
as  Christmas and Easter,  and having also studied the doctrine of  the  Im-
maculate  Conception,  it may be well now to devote attention to  the  inner
meaning of the sacraments of the church which are administered to the  indi-
vidual in all Christian lands from the cradle to the grave, and are with him
at all important points in his life journey.

   As soon as he has entered upon the journey of life, the church admits him
into  its fold by the rite of BAPTISM which is conferred upon him at a  time
when he himself is irresponsible;  later, when his mentality has been  some-
what  developed,  he ratifies that contract and is  admitted  to  COMMUNION,
where  BREAD  is broken and WINE is sipped in memory of the Founder  of  our
faith.   Still further upon life's journey comes the sacrament of  MARRIAGE;
and at last when the race has been run and the spirit again withdraws to God
who gave it, the earth body is consigned to the dust, whence it was derived,


[PAGE 38]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

accompanied by the blessings of the church.

   In our Protestant times the spirit of protest is rampant in the  extreme,
and  dissenters everywhere raise their voices in rebellion against the  fan-
cied  arrogance of the priesthood and deprecate the sacraments as mere  mum-
mery.   On account of that attitude of mind these functions have  become  of
little  or no effect in the life of the community;  dissensions have  arisen
even  among churchmen themselves,  and sect after sect has  divorced  itself
from the original apostolic congregation.

   Despite  all protests the various doctrines and sacraments of the  church
are, nevertheless, the very keystones in the arch of evolution, for they in-
culcate  morals of the loftiest nature;  and even  materialistic  scientist,
such as Huxley,  have admitted that while self-protection brings about  "the
survival of the fittest" in the animal kingdom and is therefore the basis of
animal  evolution,  self-sacrifice is the fostering principle of  human  ad-
vancement.   When that is the case among mere mortals,  we may well  believe
that it must be so to a still greater extent in the Divine Author of our be-
ing.

   Among animals might is right, but we recognize that the weak have a claim
to the protection of the strong.   The butterfly lays its eggs on the under-
side of a green leaf and goes off without another care for their well-being.
In  mammals  the  MOTHER  instinct  is  strongly  developed,  and we see the


[PAGE 39]                                           THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

the lioness caring for her cubs and ready to defend them with her life;  but
not until the kingdom is reached does the FATHER commence to share fully  in
the responsibility as a parent.  Among savages the care of the young practi-
cally  ends with the higher we ascend in civilization the longer  the  young
receive  care from their parents,  and the more stress is laid  upon  mental
rather than from the physical point of vantage;  for the further we  proceed
along the path of development the more we shall experience the power of mind
over matter.  By the more and more prolonged self-sacrifice of parents,  the
race is becoming more delicate,  but what we lose in material ruggedness  we
gain in spiritual perceptibility.

   As  this faculty grows stronger and more developed,  the craving  of  the
spirit  immured in This earthly body voices itself more loudly in  a  demand
for understanding of the spiritual side of development.  Wallace and Darwin,
Haxley and Spencer, pointed out how evolution of FORM is accomplished in na-
ture;  Earnest Haeckel attempted to solve the riddle of the universe, but no
one  of them could satisfactorily explain away the DIVINE AUTHOR of what  we
see.   The great goddess,  NATURAL SELECTION, is being forsaken by one after
another of her devotees as the years go by.  Even Haeckel,  the arch materi-
alist, in his last years showed an almost hysterical anxiety to make a place


[PAGE 40]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

for  God in his system,  and the day will come in a not far  distant  future
when  science will have become as thoroughly religious as  religion  itself.
The church, on the other hand, though still extremely conservative is never-
theless slowly abandoning its autocratic dogmatism and becoming more  scien-
tific in its explanations.   Thus in time we shall see the union of  science
and  religion as it existed in the ancient mystery temples,  and  when  that
point has been reached,  THE DOCTRINES AND SACRAMENTS of the church will  be
found to REST UPON IMMUTABLE COSMIC LAWS OF NO LESS IMPORTANCE THAN THE  LAW
OF GRAVITY which maintains the marching orbs in their paths around the  sun.
As  the points of the equinoxes and solstices are turning points in the  cy-
clic  path of a planet,  marked by festivals such Christmas and  Easter,  so
birth into the physical world, admission to the church, to the state of mat-
rimony,  and finally the exit from physical life,  are points in the  cyclic
path of the human spirit around its central source--God, which are marked by
the sacraments of BAPTISM, COMMUNION, MARRIAGE, and THE LAST BLESSING.

   We will now consider the rite of baptism.  Much has been said by dissent-
ers,  against the practice of taking an INFANT INTO CHURCH AND PROMISING FOR
IT A RELIGIOUS LIFE.  Heated arguments concerning SPRINKLING VERSUS PLUNGING
have resulted in division of churches.   If we wish to obtain the true  idea
of  baptism,  we must revert to the early history of the human race  as  re-
corded in the  Memory  of  Nature.  All  that has ever happened is indelibly


[PAGE 41]                                           THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

pictured  in  the ether as a moving picture is imprinted upon  a  sensitized
film,  which  picture can be reproduced upon a screen at  any  moment.   The
picutes  in  the Memory of Nature may be viewed by the  trained  seer,  even
though millions of years have elapsed since the scenes there portrayed  were
enacted in life.

   When  we  consult that unimpeachable record it appears that there  was  a
time when that which is now our earth came out of chaos,  dark and unformed,
as the Bible states.  The currents developed in This misty mass by spiritual
agencies,  generated HEAT, and the mass ignited at the time when we are told
that  God said,  "Let there be light."   The heat of the fiery mass and  the
cold  space  surrounding it generated MOISTURE;  the fire mist  became  sur-
rounded by water which boiled,  and steam was projected into the atmosphere;
thus "God divided the waters . . . . from the waters . .  .  .  "--the dense
water which was nearest the fire mist from the steam (which is water in sus-
pension), as stated in the Bible.

   When water contained sediment is boiled over and over it deposits  scale,
and similarly the water surrounding our planet finally formed a crust around
the fiery core.   The Bible further informs us that a MIST went up from  the
ground,  AND WE MAY WELL CONCEIVE how the moisture was gradually  evaporated
from our planet in those early days.


[PAGE 42]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

   Ancient myths are usually regarded as superstitions nowadays,  but in re-
ality  each of them contains a great spiritual truth in  pictorial  symbols.
These  fantastic stories were given to infant humanity to teach  them  moral
lessons  which  their newborn intellects were note yet  fitted  to  receive.
They  were taught by myths--much as we teach our children by  picture  books
and fables--lessons beyond their intellectual comprehension.

   One of the greatest of these folk stories is "THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG,"
which  tells of a wonderful treasure hidden under the waters of  the  Rhine.
It was a lump of gold in its natural state.  Placed upon a high rock, it il-
luminated the entire submarine scenery where water nymphs sported about  in-
nocently in gladsome frolic.  But one of the Neibelungs,  imbued with greed,
stole the treasure,  carried it out of the water,  and fled.   It was impos-
sible for him,  however,  to shape it until he had forsworn love.   Then  he
fashioned  it  into a ring which gave him power over all  the  treasures  of
earth,  but at the same time it inaugurated dissension and strife.   For its
sake, friend betrayed friend, brother slew brother, and everywhere it caused
oppression,  sorrow, sin and death, until it was at last restored to the wa-
tery element and the earth was consumed in flames.   But later there  arose,
like the new phoenix from the ashes of the old bird,  a new heaven and a new
earth where righteousness were re-established.


[PAGE 43]                                           THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

   That  old folk story gives a wonderful picture of human  evolution.   The
name  NIEBELUNGEN  is  derived from the German words,  NIEBEL  (which  means
mist),  and UNGEN (which means children).   Thus the word NIEBELUNGEN  means
CHILDREN OF THE MIST,  and it refers back to the time when humanity lived in
the  foggy atmosphere surrounding our earth at the stage n  its  development
previously mentioned.   There infant humanity lived in one vast brotherhood,
innocent of all evil as the babe of today,  and illuminated by the Universal
Spirit  symbolized  as  the Rhinegold which shed its light  upon  the  water
nymphs of our story.   But in time the earth cooled more and more;  the  fog
condensed and flooded depressions upon the surface of the earth with  water;
the atmosphere cleared; the eyes of man were opened and he perceived himself
as a separate ego.  Then the Universal Spirit of LOVE and SOLIDARITY was su-
perseded by egotism and self-seeking.

   That was the rape of the Rhinegold, and sorrow, sin,  strife,  treachery,
and  murder have taken the place of the childlike love which  existed  among
humanity  in that primal state when they dwelt in the watery  atmosphere  of
long ago.  Gradually This tendency is becoming more and more marked, and the
curse  of selfishness grows more and more apparent.   "Man's  inhumanity  to
man"  hangs like a funeral pall over the earth,  and must  inevitably  bring
about destruction of existing conditions.  The  whole  creation  is groaning


[PAGE 44]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

and travailing,  waiting for the day of redemption, and the Western Religion
strikes the keynote of the way to attainment when it exhorts us to love  our
neighbor as we love ourselves;  for then egotism will be abrogated for  uni-
versal brotherhood and love.

   Therefore,  when a person is admitted to the church, which is a SPIRITUAL
institution where love and brotherhood are the mainsprings of action,  it is
appropriate to carry him UNDER THE WATERS of baptism in symbol of the  beau-
tiful condition of childlike innocence and love which prevailed when mankind
dwelt UNDER THE MIST in that bygone period.  At that time the eyes of infant
man  had not yet been opened to the MATERIAL advantages of This world.   The
little  child which is brought into the church has not yet become  aware  of
the allurements of life either,  and others obligate themselves to guide  it
to lead a holy life according to the best of their ability,  because experi-
ence gained since the Flood has taught us that the broad way of the world is
strewn with pain,  sorrow,  and disappointment;  that only by following  the
straight and narrow way can we escape death and enter into life everlasting.

   Thus we see that there is a wonderfully deep,  mystic significance behind
the sacrament of baptism; that it is to remind us of the blessings attendant
upon  those who are members of a BROTHERHOOD where self-seeking is put  into
the background and where SERVICE to others is the keynote and  mainspring of


[PAGE 45]                                           THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

action.  While we are in the world, he is the greatest who can most success-
fully dominate others.   In the church we have Christ's definition,  "HE WHO
WOULD BE THE GREATEST AMONG YOU, LET HIM BE THE SERVANT OF ALL."


[PAGE  46]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC


                                 CHAPTER VI

                          THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE


   WHEN STRIPPED of nonessentials the argument of the orthodox Christian re-
ligion may be said to be as follows:

   First,  that tempted by the devil,  our first parents sinned and were ex-
iled  form their previous state of celestial bliss,  placed under  the  law,
made  subject to death,  and became incapable of escaping by their  own  ef-
forts.

   Second,  that God so loved the world that He gave Christ, His only begot-
ten  Son,  for its redemption and to establish the kingdom of heaven.   Thus
death will finally be swallowed up in immortality.

   This simple creed has provoked the smiles of atheists,  and of the purely
intellectual  who have studied transcendental philosophies with their  nice-
ties of logic and argument; and even of some among those who study the West-
ern Mystery Teaching.

   Such an attitude of mind is entirely gratuitous.   We might know that the
divine leaders of mankind would not allow millions to continue in error  for
millennia.  When the Western Mystery Teaching is stripped of its exceedingly


[PAGE 47]                                          THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

illuminating explanations and detailed descriptions,  when its basic  teach-
ings are stated,  they are found to be in exact agreement with the  orthodox
Christian teachings.

   There  was  a time when mankind lived in a sinless  state;  when  sorrow,
pain, and death were unknown.  Neither is the PERSONAL TEMPTER of Christian-
ity a myth,  for the Lucifer Spirits may very well be said to be fallen  an-
gels,  and  their temptation of man resulted in focusing  his  consciousness
upon  the  material  phase of existence where he is under  the  law  of  de-
crepitude and death.   Also it is truly the mission of Christ to aid mankind
by elevating them to a more ethereal state where dissolution will no  longer
be necessary to free them from vehicles that have grown too hard and set for
further use.  For This is indeed a "body of death,"  where only the smallest
quantity of material is really alive, as part of its bulk is nutrient matter
that has not yet been assimilated,  another large part is already on its way
to elimination,  and only between these two poles may be found the  material
which is thoroughly quickened by the spirit.

   We  have in other chapters considered the sacraments of baptism and  com-
munion,  sacraments that have to do particularly with the spirit.   We  will
now  seek to understand the deeper side of the sacrament of marriage,  which
has to do particularly with the body.   Like the other sacraments the insti-
tution of marriage had its beginning and will also have its end.   The  com-
mencement was described by the Christ when He said, "Have ye not  read  that


[PAGE 48]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

He  which  made them at the beginning made them male and female,  and  said:
For  This  cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave  to  his
wife;  and they twain shall be one flesh?  Wherefore they are no more twain,
but one flesh."   Matt.  19:4-6.  He also indicated the end of marriage when
he said:  "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but are as the angels of God in heaven." Matt. 22:30

   In This light the logic of the teaching is apparent,  for MARRIAGE became
necessary  in  order that BIRTH might provide new instruments  to  take  the
place  of those which had been ruptured by DEATH;  and when death  has  once
been  swallowed up in immortality and there is no need of providing new  in-
struments, marriage also will be unnecessary.

   Science with admirable audacity has sought to solve the mystery of fecun-
dation,  and  has told us how invagination takes place in the walls  of  the
ovary;  how the little ovum is formed in the seclusion of its  dark  cavity;
how  it emerges therefrom and enters the Fallopian tube;  is pierced by  the
spermatozoon of the male,  and the nucleus of a human body is complete.   We
are  thus supposed to be "at the fount and origin of life!"   But  life  has
neither beginning nor end,  and what science mistakenly considers the  foun-
tain of life is really the source of death, as all that comes from the  womb


[PAGE 49]                                          THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

is  destined sooner or later to reach the tomb.   The MARRIAGE  feast  which
prepares for BIRTH,  at the same time provides food for the insatiable  jaws
of DEATH, and so long as marriage is necessary to generation and birth, dis-
integration and death must inevitably result.  Therefore, it is of prime im-
portance  to know the history of marriage,  the laws and agencies  involved,
the duration of This institution, and how it may be transcended.

   When we obtained our vital bodies in Hyperborea, the sun,  moon and earth
were still united,  and the solar-lunar forces permeated each being in  even
measure so that all were able to perpetuate their kind by buds and spores as
do  certain plants of today.   The efforts of the vital body to  soften  the
dense vehicle and keep it alive were not then interfered with, and was these
primal,  plantlike bodies lived for ages.  But man was then unconscious  and
stationary like a plant;  he made no effort or exertion.   The addition of a
desire body furnished incentive and desire,  and consciousness resulted from
the war between the vital body, which builds, and the desire body, which de-
stroys the dense body.

   Thus dissolution became only a question of time, particularly as the con-
structive energy of the vital body was also necessarily divided, one part or
pole being used in the vital functions of the body,  the other to replace  a
vehicle lost by death.   But as the two poles of a magnet or dynamo are  re-


[PAGE 50]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

quisite to manifestation,  so also two single-sexed beings became  necessary
for generation; thus marriage and birth were necessarily inaugurated to off-
set the effect of death.  DEATH, THEN, IS THE PRICE WE PAY FOR CONSCIOUSNESS
IN THE PRESENT WORLD;  marriage and repeated births are our weapons  against
the  king  of terrors until our constitution shall change and we  become  as
angels.

   Please mark that it is not stated that we are to become angels,  but that
we are to become AS ANGELS.  For the angels are the humanity of the Moon Pe-
riod; they belong to an entirely different stream of evolution, as different
as are human spirits from those of our present animals.   Paul states in his
letter  to the Hebrews that man was made FOR A LITTLE WHILE inferior to  the
angels;  he descended lower into the scale of materiality during  the  Earth
Period,  while  the angels have never inhabited a globe denser  than  ether.
This  substance is the direct avenue of all life forces,  and when  man  has
once  become  as  the angels and has learned to build  his  body  of  ether,
naturally  there  will be no death and no need of marriage  to  bring  about
birth.

   But looking at marriage from another point of view,  looking upon it as a
union of souls rather than as a union of the sexes, we contact the wonderful
mystery of Love.  Union of the sexes might serve to perpetuate the race,  of
course,  but  the  true  marriage  is  a  companionship of souls also, which


[PAGE 51]                                          THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

altogether  transcends sex.   Yet those really able to meet upon that  lofty
plane  of spiritual intimacy gladly offer their bodies as living  sacrifices
upon  the altar of LOVE OF THE UNBORN, to woo a waiting spirit into  an  im-
maculately  conceived body.   Thus humanity may be saved from the  reign  of
death.

   This is readily apparent as soon as we consider the gentle action of  the
vital body and contrast it with that of the desire body in a fit of  temper,
where it is said that a man has "lost control" of himself.   Under such con-
ditions the muscles become tense,  and nervous energy is expended at a  sui-
cidal rate,  so that after such an outbreak the body may sometimes be  pros-
trated  for  weeks.   The hardest labor brings no such fatigue as a  fit  of
temper;  likewise a child conceived in passion under the crystallizing  ten-
dencies of the desire nature is naturally short-lived,  and it si a  regret-
table fact that LENGTH OF LIFE is nowadays almost a misnomer; in view of the
appalling infant mortality it ought to be called BREVITY OF EXISTENCE.

   The building tendencies of the vital body,  which is the vehicle of love,
are not so easily watched, but observation proves that contentment lengthens
life of any one who cultivates this quality, and we may safely reason that a
child conceived under conditions of harmony and love stands a better  chance
of life than one conceived under conditions of anger,  inebriety,  and  pas-
sion.


[PAGE 52]                                              GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

   According to Genesis it was said to the woman, "In sorrow shalt thou bear
children,"  and it has always been a sore puzzle to Bible commentators  what
logical  connection  there may be between eating of fruit and the  pains  of
parturition.   But when we understand the chaste references of the Bible  to
the act of generation,  the connection is readily perceived.   While the in-
sensitive  Negro or Indian mother may bear her child and  shortly  afterward
resume  her labors in the field, the western woman,  more acutely  sensitive
and of high-strung nervous temperament, is year by year finding it more dif-
ficult to go through the ordeal of motherhood,  though aided by the best and
most skilled scientific help.

   The contributory reasons are various:   In the first place,  while we are
exceedingly  careful in selecting our horses and cattle for breeding,  while
we  insist upon pedigree for the animals in order that we may bring out  the
very best strain of stock upon our farms,  we exercise no such care with re-
spect  to  the selection of a father and mother for our children.   We  mate
upon impulse and regret it at our leisure,  aided by laws which make it  all
to  easy to enter or leave the sacred bonds of matrimony.   The  words  pro-
nounced by minister or judge are taken to be a license for unlimited  indul-
gence,  as if any man-made law could license the contravention of the law of


[PAGE 53]                                          THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

God.   While animals mate only at a certain time of the year and the  mother
is undisturbed during the period of pregnancy, this is not true of the human
race.

   In view of these facts is it to be wondered at that we find such a  dread
of maternity, and is it not time that we seek to remedy the matter by a more
sane  relation between marriage partners?  Astrology will reveal the  temper
and tendencies of each human being; it will enable two people to blend their
characters in such a manner that a love live may be lived, and it will indi-
cate  the periods when interplanetary lines of force are most nearly  condu-
cive to painless parturition.  Thus it will enable us to draw from the bosom
of nature,  children of love,  capable of living long lives in good  health.
Finally  the day will come when these bodies will have been made so  perfect
in  their ethereal purity that they may last throughout the coming Age,  and
thus make marriage superfluous.

   But if we can love now when we see one another "through a glass  darkly,"
through the mask of personality and the veil of misunderstanding , we may be
sure  that the love of soul for soul,  purged of passion in the  furnace  of
sorrow, will be our brightest gem in heaven as its shadow is on earth.


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