[PAGE 130]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC


                                CHAPTER XVII


                  THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM" OF THE ROSE CROSS


   Occasionally we get letters from students voicing their regret that  they
are alone in the study of the Rosicrucian Philosophy,  that their  husbands,
wives, children or other relatives are unsympathetic or even antagonistic to
the teachings, despite all efforts of the said student to interest favorably
these  friends and thus obtain companionship in their studies,  or at  least
freedom from their bent.   This friction causes them a certain amount of un-
happiness according to their various temperments, and we are asked by  these
students  to  advise them how to overcome the antagonism and  convert  their
relatives.   This we have done by personal letters and have been  privileged
to help conditions in not a few homes when our advice has been followed; but
we  know  that frequently those who suffer most acutely are silent,  and  we
have  therefore decided to devote a little time to a discussion of the  sub-
ject.

   It is truly said,  very truly,  that  "a little knowledge is a  dangerous
thing," and this applies with the same force to the Rosicrucian teachings as


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to any other subject.   Therefore, the very first step is to find out IF YOU
HAVE ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE to be on the safe side.   So let me ask the  question:
What  is  the Rosicrucian teaching which you are so anxious to  have  others
share and to which they object?  Is it the twin laws of "CAUSATION" and "RE-
BIRTH?"   They are excellent for explaining a great many problems  of  life,
and they are a great comfort when the grim reaper appears and robs our  home
of some one near and dear.   But then you must remember that there are  many
who  do not feel the need of any explanation whatever.   They are  constitu-
tionally as unfit to apply it as a deaf mute is to use the telephone.  It is
true that we work to better advantage when conscious of the law and its pur-
pose, but let us take comfort from the fact that these laws work for good to
all whether they know it or not, and therefore THIS KNOWLEDGE IS NOT  ESSEN-
TIAL.   They will suffer no great loss because they do not embrace this doc-
trine,  and  they  may escape the danger incident to the  possession  of  "a
little knowledge."

   In  India where these truths are known and believed by  millions,  people
make  little  effort at material progress because they know that  they  have
endless time, and what they do not accomplish in this life may wait till the
next or a later life.  Many Westerners who have embraced the doctrine of re-
birth have ceased to be useful members of their community by adopting a life


[PAGE 132]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

of indolence, thereby bringing reproach on these so-called higher teachings.
If your friends will have none of this teaching,  leave them alone.   Making
converts  is  by no means the essential point of the  Rosicrucian  teaching.
The Guardian of the Gate will not examine them as to knowledge,  and he  may
admit some who are entirely ignorant of this matter and shut the door in the
face of others who have devoted their lives to studying,  lecturing on,  and
teaching these laws.

   Then if the doctrines of "Causation" and "Rebirth" are unessential,  what
about the COMPLEX CONSTITUTION OF MAN?   Surely it is essential to know that
we are not merely this visible body, but have a vital body to charge it with
energy,  a desire body to spend this force, a mind to guide our exertions in
channels of reason,  and that we are virgin spirits enmeshed in a  threefold
veil as egos.  Is it not essential to know that the physical body is the ma-
terial counterpart of the Divine Spirit, that the vital body is a replica of
the Life Spirit, and that the desire body is the shadow of the Human Spirit,
the  mind  forming the link between the threefold spirit and  the  threefold
body?

   No, IT IS NOT ESSENTIAL TO KNOW THESE THINGS.  Properly used, this knowl-
edge is an advantage,  but it may also be a very decided disadvantage in the
case of those who have only "a little knowledge"  in that direction.   There
are many such who are always meditating on "the higher self"  while entirely
forgetful of the many "lower selves" groaning in misery at their very doors.


[PAGE 133]                                            THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM"

There are many who dream day and night of the time when they will take their
daily  SOUL  FLIGHTS as "invisible helpers" and ease the sufferings  of  the
sick and sorrowful,  yet would not spend a five cent car fare and an  hour's
time to bring a poor, friendless soul in a city hospital a flower and a word
of cheer.  Again I say that the Guardian of the Gate is more likely to admit
him who did what he could than him who dreamed much and did nothing to  help
his suffering fellow man.

   If  you could get people to study the Rosicrucian teachings  about  death
and the life after,  you would feel it important that they should also  know
about  the silver cord remaining unbroken for a period  approximately  three
and  one-half days after the spirit has left the body,  and that it must  be
left  undisturbed while the panorama of its past life is being  etched  into
the desire body to serve as arbiter of its life in the invisible world.  You
would  like them to know all about the spirit's life in  purgatory--how  the
evil acts of its life react upon it as pain to create conscience and keep it
from repeating in a later life the acts that cause the suffering.  You would
have them know how the good acts of life are transmuted into virtues  usable
in later lives as set forth in our philosophy.

   You have no doubt been surprised at the assertion that a knowledge of the
great  twin  laws  in  unessential.  Probably  the next assertion that it is


[PAGE 134]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

immaterial whether others learn about the constitution of man as we know  it
may have scandalized you;  and you will undoubtedly feel shocked to have  it
stated  that the Rosicrucian teachings concerning death and the  passing  of
the spirit into the unseen worlds are also comparatively unnecessary to  the
purpose  we  aim  to accomplish.   It really does not  matter  whether  your
relatives  understand  or believe in these teachings.   So far as  your  own
passing is concerned, an earnest request that they leave your body quiet and
undisturbed  for the proper period will probably be carried out to the  let-
ter,  for  people  have  an  almost  superstitious  regard  for  such  "last
requests";  and if any of your friends pass over,  YOU are there  with  your
knowledge and can do the right thing for them.  So never mind if they refuse
to take up that part of the Rosicrucian teaching.

   But the student may say, "If a knowledge of the before mentioned subjects
which  seems of such practical value is immaterial to advancement,  then  it
follows that study of the Periods, Revolutions, World Globes,  etc.,  is en-
tirely so.   That disposes of everything taught in the 'COSMO,' and there is
nothing left of the Rosicrucian teaching which we have embraced and to which
we have pinned our faith!

   IS NOTHING LEFT?   Yes,  indeed, ALL IS LEFT,  for those things mentioned
are only the husks which you must remove to get at THE MEAT IN THE NUT,  the
kernel of it all.  You have read the "COSMO" many  times perhaps.  Maybe you


[PAGE 135]                                            THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM"

have  studied it and feel proud of your knowledge of the world mystery,  but
HAVE YOU EVER READ THE MYSTERY HIDDEN IN EVERY LINE?   That is the great and
essential teaching, the one teaching to which your friends will respond,  if
you can find it and give it to them.  The "COSMO" preaches on every page THE
GOSPEL OF SERVICE.

   For our sakes Deity manifested the universe.   The great creative Hierar-
chies have all been and some of them still are OUR SERVANTS.   The  luminous
star angels,  whose fiery bodies we see whirling through space,  have worked
with us for ages,  and in due time Christ came to bring us the spiritual im-
petus  needed at that time.   It is also significant in the extreme that  in
the parable of the last judgment Christ does not say, "Well done, thou great
and erudite PHILOSOPHER, who knoweth the Bible, the Kabala, the "COSMO"  and
all the other mysterious literature which reveals the intricate workings  of
nature" but He says, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: * * * enter
thou into the joy of thy lord.  * * * * For I was an hungered,  and you gave
me meat:  I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; * * * ."  Not one single word
about knowledge; THE WHOLE EMPHASIS WAS LAID UPON FAITHFULNESS AND SERVICE.

   There  is a deep occult reason for this:   SERVICE BUILDS THE SOUL  BODY,
the glorious wedding garment without which no man can enter into the kingdom
of the heavens, occultly termed "THE NEW GALILEE,"  and  it  does not matter


[PAGE 136]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

whether we are aware of what is going on, so long as we accomplish the work.
Moreover, as the luminous soul body grows in and around a person, this light
will teach him or her about the Mysteries without the need of books, and one
who  is thus God taught knows more than all the books in the world  contain.
In due time the inner vision will be opened and the way to the Temple shown.
If you want to teach your friends, no matter how skeptical they may be, they
will believe you if you preach the gospel of service.

   But you must PREACH BY PRACTICE.   You must become a servant of men your-
self if you would have them believe in you.  If you want them to follow, you
must lead,  or they will have the right to question your sincerity.   Remem-
ber,  "ye are a city upon a hill," and when you make professions they have a
right to judge you by your fruits; therefore SAY LITTLE, SERVE MUCH.

   There are many who love to discuss the harmless, peaceful life at dinner,
oblivious  of the fact that the red roast on the table and the cigar in  the
mouth dull the effect.   There are others who make a god of the stomach  and
would rather study dietetics than the Bible;   they are always ready to but-
tonhole  their friends and discourse upon the latest food fad.   I knew  one
man who was at the head of an esoteric group.   His wife was antagonistic to
occultism and the meatless diet.  He forced her  to  cook  his vegetables at


[PAGE 137]                                            THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM"

home,  and told her that if she ever dared to bring meat into HIS kitchen or
contaminate HIS dishes with it,  he would pitch her and the dishes into  the
street,  adding that if she must make a pig of herself she could go and  get
flesh food in a restaurant.

   IS IT TO BE WONDERED AT THAT SHE JUDGED THE RELIGION BY THE MAN AND WOULD
HAVE NONE OF IT?  Surely he was to blame, being "his brother's keeper,"  and
though this is an extreme case, it makes the lesson more obvious.   It is to
the  everlasting praise of Mahomet that his wife became his first  disciple,
and  it speaks volumes for his kindness and consideration in the home.   His
is an example we should all do well to follow if we would win our friends to
the higher life,  for though all religious systems differ outwardly THE KER-
NEL OF ALL IS LOVE.


[PAGE 138]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC


                                CHAPTER XVIII


                              STUMBLING BLOCKS


   Not  infrequently the remark is made by people who have no sympathy  with
our  aspirations  to live the higher life,  that it unfits  people  for  the
world's work.   Unfortunately it cannot be denied that there is seeming jus-
tification for the assertion, though in reality the very first requisite for
living the higher life involves an obligation to comport oneself irreproach-
ably  in dealing with material matters,  for unless we are faithful  in  the
little  things,  how  can we expect to be  trusted  with  greater  responsi-
bilities?   It has therefore been deemed expedient to devote a lesson to the
discussion  of some of the things which act as stumbling blocks in the  life
of aspirants.

   In the Bible story where the king sent out his servants with  invitations
to the feast he had prepared,  we are told that his invitations were refused
on various grounds.  Each one had material cares, buying, selling, marrying,
therefore they could not attend to the spiritual things,  and such people we
may  say  represent  the  greater  number  of  humanity  today,  who are too


[PAGE 139]                                                  STUMBLING BLOCKS

engrossed  in the cares of the world to devote even a thought to  aspiration
in  the higher direction.   But there are others who become so  enthusiastic
upon the first taste of the higher teachings that they are ready to give  up
all work in the world, repudiate every obligation,  and devote their time to
what they are pleased to call "helping humanity."   They will readily  admit
that it takes time to learn how to be a watchmaker,  a shoemaker,  an  engi-
neer,  or  a musician,  and they would not for a moment dream of  giving  up
their present material business to establish themselves as shoemaker, watch-
maker,  or  music teacher just because they felt enthusiastic about  or  in-
clined  to  take  up such work.   They would know that  lacking  the  proper
preparation and training they would be doomed to failure, and yet they think
that just because they have become enthusiastic over the higher world's work
and devote their time to service similar, even though in a lesser degree, to
that rendered by the Christ in His ministry.

   One writes to Headquarters: "I have given up flesh eating,  and I long to
live the ascetic life, far from the world's noise that jars upon me.  I want
to give my life for humanity."  Another says:  "I want to live the spiritual
life,  but I have a wife who needs my care and support. Do you think I would
be justified in leaving her to help my fellow men?"  Still another says: " I
am in a business which is unspiritual; every day I must do things  which are


[PAGE 140]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

against  my higher nature,  but I have a daughter dependent upon me  for  an
education.  What shall I do: continue or give up?"  There are of course many
other problems presented to us,  but these serve as fair samples,  for  they
represent a class which is ready to give up the world at the slightest  word
of encouragement,  and rush off to the hills in the expectation of sprouting
wings immediately.  If the people who are in that class have any ties,  they
break them without a scruple or a moment's consideration.

   Another class still feels some obligation,  but could be easily persuaded
to repudiate it in order that they might live what they call " the spiritual
life."   It cannot be denied that when people get into this state  of  mind,
when they lose their ambition to work in the world,  when they become shift-
less and neglectful of their duties,  they merit the reproach of the  commu-
nity.

   But as already said such conduct is based upon a misunderstanding of  the
higher  teachings  and is not at all sanctioned by the Bible  or  the  Elder
Brothers.

   It is a step in the right direction when a person ceases to feed on flesh
because  he  feels compassion for the suffering of the animals.   There  are
many people who abstain from flesh foods for health's sake, but theirs being
selfish motive,  the sacrifice carries with it no merit.  Where the aspirant
to  the  higher  life  is  prompted  to  abstain  from flesh food because he


[PAGE 141]                                                  STUMBLING BLOCKS

realizes  that the refining influence of a meatless diet upon the body  will
aid  him in his quest by making the body more sensitive to spiritual  influ-
ences,  there is no real merit either.  Truly,  the person who abstains from
flesh  foods for the sake of health will be much benefited,  and the  person
who  abstains  to make his body more sensitive will also get his  reward  in
that respect, but from the spiritual point of view neither will be very much
better.   On the other hand, whoever abstains from flesh food because he re-
alizes that God's life is immanent in every animal just as in himself,  that
in the final analysis God feels all suffering felt by the animal, that it is
a divine law, "Thou shalt not kill," and that he must abstain out of compas-
sion,  this  person is not only benefited in health and by making  his  body
more sensitive to spiritual impacts, but because of the motive which prompts
him  he  reaps a reward in soul growth immeasurably more precious  than  any
other consideration.  Therefore we would say by all means abstain from flesh
food, but be sure to do so prompted by the right spiritual motive or it will
not affect your spiritual interests one iota.

   When the enthusiast says that he wants to get away from the world and the
noise  that jars upon him to live the ascetic life,  it is truly  a  strange
idea  of service.   The reason why we are here in this world is that we  may
gather experience,  which is then transmuted into soul growth.  If a diamond
in the rough were laid away in a drawer for years  and years, it would be no


[PAGE 142]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

different  than before,  but when it is placed against the gridstone by  the
lapidary the harsh grinding process removes the last atom of the rough coat-
ing  and  brings out the beautiful,  luminous gem.   Every one of  us  is  a
diamond  in the rough,  and God,  the Great Lapidary,  uses the world  as  a
grindstone which rubs off the rough and ugly coating, allowing our spiritual
selves to shine forth and become luminous.   The Christ was a living example
of  this.   He did not go away from the centers of civilization,  but  moved
constantly among the suffering and the poor, teaching, healing,  and helping
until  by the glorious service rendered,  His body was made luminous on  the
Mount of Transfiguration,  and He who had trodden the Way exhorted His  fol-
lowers  to be "in the world but not of it."   That is the great lesson  that
every aspirant has to learn.

   It is one thing to go out in the mountains where there is no one to  con-
tradict or to jar upon our sensibilities and keep our poise there; it is an-
other thing entirely to maintain our spiritual aspirations and keep our bal-
ance  in the world where everything jars upon us;  but when we stay on  this
path, we gain a self-control which is unattainable in any other manner.

   However,  though we are careful to prepare our food well and  to  abstain
from  flesh eating or any other contaminating OUTWARD influence,  though  we
want to get away to the mountains to escape the sordid  things of city life,


[PAGE 143]                                                  STUMBLING BLOCKS

and  we  want  to  rid ourselves of every outward thing  that  may  prove  a
stumbling block to our progress,  still what about the things that come from
WITHIN,  the  thoughts we have in our minds and our mental  food?   It  will
avail  us not one iota of good if we could feed our bodies upon  nectar  and
ambrosia, the ethereal food of the gods, when the mind is a charnel house, a
habitat of low thoughts, for then we are only as whited sepulchres,  beauti-
ful  to  behold from without but inwardly full of a nauseating  stench;  and
this  mental delinquency can be maintained just as easily and perhaps it  is
even  more  apt to be maintained in the solitude of the mountains  or  in  a
so-called  spiritual retreat than in a city where we are busy with the  work
of  our  vocation.   It is indeed a true saying that "an idle brain  is  the
devil's  workshop,"  and  the safest way to attain to  interior  purity  and
cleanliness  is  to keep the mind busy all the time,  guiding  our  desires,
feelings,  and emotions toward the practical problems of life,  and working,
each  one in his own immediate environment, to find the poor and  the  needy
that  he  may give them whatever help their cases require and  merit.   That
class  which  has not ties of its own may profitably make ties of  love  and
friendship with those who are loveless and friendless.

   Or if it is the care of a relative--wife,  daughter,  husband,  or anyone
else that claims us, let us remember the words of Christ  when He said, "Who


[PAGE 144]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

are my mother and my brother?"  and answered the question by saying,  "Those
who do the will of my Father."  This saying has been misconstrued by some to
mean  that Christ repudiated His physical relationships for  the  spiritual,
but it is only necessary to remember that in the last moments of His life on
earth He called to His mother,  giving him to her as a son and charging  the
disciple  to care for His parent.   Love is the unifying force in life,  and
according to the higher teachings we are required to love our kin,  but also
to extend our love natures so that they may also include everyone else.   It
is good that we love our own mother and father,  but we should also learn to
love other people's mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, for universal
brotherhood can never become a fact so long as our love is confined only  to
the family.  It must be made all inclusive.

   There was one among the disciples of Christ whom He loved especially, and
following His example we also may bestow a particular affection upon certain
ones,  though  we ought to love everyone and do good even to them  that  de-
spitefully use us.  These are high ideals and difficult of accomplishment at
our  present stage of development,  but as the mariner steers his ship by  a
guiding star and reaches his desired haven though never the star itself,  so
also by setting our ideals high we shall live nobler and better  lives  than


[PAGE 145]                                                  STUMBLING BLOCKS

if we do not aspire, and in time and through many births we shall eventually
attain, because the inherent divinity in ourselves makes it imperative.

   Finally then, to sum up, it does not really matter where we are placed in
life,  whether in a high station or a low.  Present environment with its op-
portunities and limitations is such as suits our individual requirements  as
determined by our self-made destinies in previous existences.   Therefore it
holds for us the lesson we must learn in order to progress properly.   If we
have a wife,  a daughter, or other family relations to hold us to that envi-
ronment, they must be considered as part of what we have to reckon with, and
by  doing our duty to them we learn the required lesson.   If they  are  an-
tagonistic to our belief, if they have no sympathy with our aspirations,  if
we  have on their account to stay in a business and do things which  we  are
not pleased with,  it is because we must learn something from these  things,
and  the proper way for the earnest aspirant is to look conditions  squarely
in the face with a view to finding out just what it is that is needed.  This
may not be an easy matter.  It may take weeks, months, or years to solve the
problem,  but  so long as the aspirant applies himself  prayerfully  to  the
task,  he may be sure that the light will shine some day,  and then he  will
see  what is required and why these conditions were imposed upon him.   Then
having  learned the lesson or found out it purpose,  he will if he  has  the
right spirit prayerfully bear the burden, for he will know that he  is  upon


[PAGE 146]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

the right road and that it is an absolute certainty that as soon as the les-
son of that environment has been learned a new way will be opened up showing
him  the next step upon the path of progress.   Thus the "stumbling  blocks"
will have been turned into "stepping stones,"   which would never have  hap-
pened if he had run away from them.   In this connection we would quote  the
beautiful poem.

             "Let us not waste our time in longing
               For bright but impossible things.
             Let us not sit supinely waiting
               For the sprouting of angel wings.
             Let us not scorn to be rush-lights,
               Everyone can't be a star,
             But let us fulfill our mission
               By shining just where we are.

             "There is need of the tiniest candle
               As well as the garish sun;
             And the humblest deed is ennobled
               When it is worthily done.

             We may never be called on to brighten
               Those darkened regions afar,
             So let us fulfill our mission
               By shining just where we are."


[PAGE 147]                                            THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT


                                 CHAPTER XIX


                           THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT


   HAVE  YOU ever seen how ships going up a canal or river are  lifted  from
one  level to another?   It is a very interesting and  instructive  process.
First  the ship is floated into a small enclosure where the water  level  is
the  same as that of the lower part of the river where the ship  has  previ-
ously been sailing.   Then the gates of the enclosure are shut and the  ship
is cut off from the outside world by the high wall of the lock.   It  cannot
go back to the river without; even the light is dimmed around it,  but ABOVE
the  moving clouds or the brightest sunshine are seen beckoning.   The  ship
cannot  rise without assistance,  and the law of gravity make it  impossible
for  the water in that part of the river where the ship has been sailing  to
float  it  to  a higher level,  hence no help may be looked  for  from  that
source.

   There are also gates in the upper part of the lock which prevent the  wa-
ters on the higher levels from rushing into the lock from  above,  otherwise


[PAGE 148]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

the inrushing water would flood the lock in a moment and crush the ship  ly-
ing  at the bottom level because acting in conformity with that same law  of
gravitation.   It is from ABOVE,  nevertheless, that the power must come  if
the ship is ever to be lifted to the higher level of the river, and so to do
this  safely  a SMALL STREAM is conducted to the bottom of the  lock,  which
lifts  the  ship VERY SLOWLY AND GRADUALLY BUT SAFELY to the  level  of  the
river  above.   When that level has been reached,  the upper  gates  may  be
opened without danger to the ship,  and it may sail forth upon the expansive
bosom of the higher waterway.  Then the lock is SLOWLY emptied and the water
it contained added to the water at the lower level,  which is thereby raised
even if but slightly.  The lock is then ready to raise another vessel.

   This  is,  as said in the beginning,  a very interesting and  instructive
physical operation, showing how human skill and ingenuity overcome great ob-
stacles by the use of nature's forces.   But it is a source of still greater
enlightenment  in a spiritual matter of vital importance to all  who  aspire
and  endeavor  to live the higher life,  for it illustrates  the  only  safe
method whereby man can rise from the temporal to the spiritual world, and it
confutes those false teachers who for personal gain play upon the too ardent
desires  of the unripe,  and who profess ability to unlock the gates of  the
unseen worlds for the consideration of an initiation fee.   Our illustration
shows that this is impossible, because the immutable laws of nature forbid.


[PAGE 149]                                            THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT

   For  the purpose of elucidation we may call our river the river of  life,
and we as individuals are the ships sailing upon t;  the lower river is  the
temporal  world,  and when we have sailed its length and  breadth  for  many
lives,  we inevitably come to the lock of upliftment which is placed at  the
end.  We may for a long time cruise about the entrance and look in, impelled
by  an  inner urge to enter but drawn by another impulse towards  the  broad
river  of life without.   For a long time this lock of upliftment  with  its
high,  bare walls looks forbidding and solitary,  while the river of life is
gay  with bunting and full of kindred craft gaily cruising about;  but  when
the inner urge has become sufficiently intense, it imbues us with a determi-
nation not to go back to the river of worldly life.   But even at that stage
there are some who falter and fear to shut the gate behind them; they aspire
to ardently at times to the life on the higher level, but it makes them feel
less alone to look back upon the river of worldly life,  and sometimes  they
stay  in this condition for lives,  wondering why they do not progress,  why
they  experience no spiritual downpouring,  why there is no uplift in  their
lives.  Our illustration makes the reason very plain; no matter how hard the
captain might beg, the lock keeper would never think of releasing the stream


[PAGE 150]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

of water from above until the gate had been closed behind the ship,  for  it
could  never lift the ship,  for it could never lift the ship an inch  under
such conditions but would flow through the open gates to waste in the  lower
river.   Neither will the guardians of the gates of the higher  worlds  open
the stream of upliftment for us,  no matter how hard we pray,  until we have
shut the door to the world behind us, and shut it very tight with respect to
the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, the sins that so easily beset us
and are fostered by us in the careless worldly days.   We must shut the door
on  them  all before we are really in a condition to receive the  stream  of
upliftment,  but  once we have thus shut the door and  irrevocably  set  our
faces forward,  the downpouring begins,  slowly but surely as the stream  of
the lock keeper which lifts the vessel.

   But  having left the temporal world with all its deed behind  and  having
set his face towards the spiritual worlds,  the yearning of the aspirant be-
comes more intense.   As time passes he feels in increasing measure the void
on  both sides of himself.   The temporal world and its deeds  have  dropped
from him as a garment;  he may be bodily in that world,  performing his  du-
ties,  but he has lost interest;  he is in the world but not of it,  and the
spiritual  world where he aspires to citizenship seems equally distant.   He
is  all  alone and his whole being cries and writhes in  pain,  longing  for
light.


[PAGE 151]                                            THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT

   Then comes the turn of the tempter:  "I have a school of initiation,  and
am  able to advance my pupils quickly for a fee,"  or words to that  effect,
but usually more subtle; and who shall blame the poor aspirants who fall be-
fore the wiles of these pretenders?  Lucky are they if,  as is generally the
case,  they are merely put through a ceremonial and given an  empty  degree,
but  occasionally they meet one who has really dabbled in magic and is  able
to open the flood gates from the higher level.  Then the inrush of spiritual
power shatters the system of the unfortunate dupe as the waters of the river
above would wreck a vessel at the bottom of the lock is an ignorant or mali-
cious  person were to open the gates.  The vessel must be lifted slowly  for
safety's  sake,  and so must the aspirant to spiritual upliftment;  patience
and  unwavering persistence in well-doing are absolutely indispensable,  and
the door to the pleasures of the world must be kept closed.  If that is done
we  shall surely and certainly accomplish the ascent to the heights  of  the
unseen world with all the opportunities for further soul growth there found,
for it is a natural process governed by natural laws,  just as is the eleva-
tion of a ship to the higher levels of a river by a system of locks.

   But how can I stay in the lock of upliftment and serve my fellow man?  If
soul growth comes only by service,  how can I gain by isolation?   These are
questions  that  may  not  unnaturally  present  themselves to students.  To


[PAGE 152]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

answer them we must again emphasize that no one can lift another who is  not
himself upon a higher level, not so far above as to be unreachable, but suf-
ficiently close to be within grasp of the reaching hand.   There are,  alas,
too  many who profess the higher teachings but live lives on the level  with
ordinary men and women of the world or even below that level.  Their profes-
sions  make the higher teachings a byword and call down the scorn of  scoff-
ers.   But those who live the higher teachings have no need to profess  them
orally;  they  are isolated and marked in spite of  themselves,  and  though
handicapped  by the misdeeds of the "professors,"   they do in time win  the
respect  and  confidence of those about them;  eventually they call  out  in
their  associates  the desire of emulation, they convert them  in  spite  of
themselves, reaping in return for this service a commensurate soul growth.

   Now is the time of the year (Christmas) when the crest wave of  spiritual
power envelops the world.   It culminates at the winter solstice,  when  the
Christ is reborn into our planet,  and though hampered by the present  (from
the limited viewpoint) deplorable war conditions, His life given for us  may
be  most  easily  drawn  upon by the aspirant  at  this  season  to  further
spiritual  growth;  therefore all who are desirous of attaining  the  higher
levels  would do well to put forth special efforts in that direction  during
the winter season.



[PAGE 153]                                      THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER



                                 CHAPTER XX


                        THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER


   ON THE MORNING of Good Friday, 1857, Richard Wagner, the master artist of
the nineteenth century,  sat on the verandah of a Swiss villa by the  Zurich
Sea.   The  landscape about him was bathed in the  most  glorious  sunshine;
peace  and  good will seemed to vibrate through nature.   All  creation  was
throbbing with life;  the air was laden with the fragrant perfume of budding
pine forests--a grateful balm to a troubled heart or a restless mind.

   Then  suddenly,  as a bolt from an azure sky,  there came  into  Wagner's
deeply  mystic  soul  a  remembrance of the  ominous  significance  of  that
day--the darkest and most sorrowful in the Christian year.   It almost over-
whelmed him with sadness, as he contemplated the contrast.  There was such a
marked incongruity between the smiling scene before him, the plainly observ-
able  activity  of nature,  struggling to renewed life after  winter's  long
sleep, and the death struggle of a tortured Savior upon a cross; between the
full  throated  chant  of life and love issuing from the thousands of little


[PAGE 154]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

feathered choristers in forest,  moor and meadow,  and the ominous shouts of
hate  issuing from an infuriated mob as they jeered and mocked  the  noblest
ideal  the world has ever known; between the wonderful creative  energy  ex-
erted by nature in spring,  and the destructive element in man,  which  slew
the noblest character that ever graced our earth.

   While  Wagner  meditated thus upon the incongruities  of  existence,  the
question presented itself:  Is there any connection between the death of the
Savior upon the cross at Easter, and the vital energy which expresses itself
so prodigally in spring when nature begins the life of a new year?

   Though  Wagner  did not consciously perceive and realize  the  full  sig-
nificance of the connection between the death of the Savior and the  rejuve-
nation of nature, he had, nevertheless, unwittingly stumbled upon the key to
one  of  the most sublime mysteries encountered by the human spirit  in  its
pilgrimage from clod to God.

   In  the  darkest night of the year,  when earth sleeps  most  soundly  in
Boreas' cold embrace, when material activities are at the very lowest ebb, a
wave  of spiritual energy carries upon its crest the divine  creative  "Word
from  Heaven"  to a MYSTIC BIRTH at Christmas;  and as a luminous cloud  the
spiritual impulse broods over the world that "knew it not,"  for it  "shines
in the darkness" of winter when nature is paralyzed and speechless.


[PAGE 155]                                      THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER

   This divine creative "Word" has a message and a mission.   It was born to
"save the world,"  and "to give its life for the world."   It must of neces-
sity  sacrifice its life in order to accomplish the rejuvenation of  nature.
Gradually it BURIES ITSELF IN THE EARTH and commences to infuse its own  vi-
tal  energy into the millions of seeds which lie dormant in the ground.   It
whispers "the word of life" into the ears of beast and bird,  until the gos-
pel  or  good news has been preached to every creature.   The  sacrifice  is
fully  consummated  by the time the sun crosses its Easter (n) node  at  the
spring equinox.   Then the divine creative Word expires.   IT DIES UPON  THE
CROSS AT EASTER in a mystical sense,  while uttering a last triumphant  cry,
"It has been accomplished" (consummatum est).

   But as an echo returns to us many times repeated,  so also the  celestial
song of life is re-echoed from the earth.   The whole creation takes up  the
anthem.  A legion-tongued chorus repeats it over and over.  The little seeds
in the bosom of Mother Earth commence to germinate; they burst and sprout in
all directions,  and soon a wonderful mosaic of life, a velvety green carpet
embroidered  with multicolored flowers,  replaces the shroud  of  immaculate
wintry  white.   From  the furred and feathered tribes "the  word  of  life"
re-echoes as a song of love, impelling them to mate.   Generation and multi-
plication are the watchwords everywhere--THE SPIRIT HAS RISEN to more  abun-
dant life.


[PAGE 156]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

   Thus,  mystically, we may note the annual birth, death,  and resurrection
of the Savior as the ebb and flow of a spiritual impulse which culminates at
the winter solstice,  Christmas, and has egress from the earth shortly after
Easter when the "word"  ASCENDS TO HEAVEN"  on Whitsunday.   But it will not
remain there forever.  We are taught that "thence it shall return,"  "at the
judgement."   Thus when the sun descends below the equator through the  sign
of  the  scales  in October,  when the fruits of  the  year  are  harvested,
weighed,  and assorted according to their kind, the descent of the spirit of
the new year has its inception.  This descent culminates in birth at Christ-
mas.

   Man is a miniature of nature.   What happens on a large scale in the life
of a planet like our earth,  takes place on a smaller scale in the course of
human events.   A planet is the body of a wonderfully great and exalted  Be-
ing,  one of the Seven Spirits before the Throne (of the parent  Sun).   Man
isalso a spirit and "made in their likeness."   As a planet revolves in  its
cyclic  path  around the sun whence it emanated,  so also the  human  spirit
roves in an orbit around its central source--God.   Planetary orbits,  being
ellipses,  have  points of closest approach to and  extreme  deviation  from
their solar centers.   Likewise the orbit of the human spirit is elliptical.
We are closest to God when our cyclic journey  carries us into the celestial


[PAGE 157]                                      THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER

sphere  of  activity--heaven,  and we are farthest removed from  Him  during
earth life.   These changes are necessary to our soul growth.  As the festi-
vals  of the year mark the recurring events of importance in the life  of  a
Great Spirit,  so our births and deaths are events of periodical recurrence.
It is as impossible for the human spirit to remain perpetually in heaven  or
upon earth as it is for a planet to stand still in its orbit.   The same im-
mutable  law  of periodicity which determines the unbroken sequence  of  the
seasons,  the alternation of day and night, the tidal ebb and flow,  governs
also the progression of the human spirit, both in heaven and upon earth.

   From realms of celestial light where we live in freedom,  untrammeled  by
limitations of time and space,  where we vibrate in tune with infinite  har-
mony  of the spheres,  we descend to birth in the physical world  where  our
spiritual  sight is obscured by the mortal coil which binds us to this  lim-
ited  phase of our existence.   We live here awhile;  we die and  ascend  to
heaven,  to be reborn and to die again.  Each earth life is a chapter  in  a
serial life story, extremely humble in its beginnings, but increasing in in-
terest  and importance as we ascend to higher and higher stations  of  human
responsibility.   No limit is conceivable,  for in essence we are divine and
must therefore have the infinite possibilities of God dormant within.   When
we have learned all that this world has to teach us, a wider orbit, a larger


[PAGE 158]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

sphere  of  super-human usefulness,  will give scope to  our  greater  capa-
bilities.

             "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
             As the swift seasons roll!
             Leave thy low vaulted past!
             Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
             Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
             Till thou at length art free,
             Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea."

   Thus says Oliver Wendell Holmes,  comparing the spiral progression in the
widening  coil  of a chambered nautilus to the  expansion  of  consciousness
which is the result of soul growth in an evolving human being.

   "But what of Christ?"  someone will ask.  "Don't you believe in Him?  You
are  discoursing upon Easter,  the feast which commemorates the cruel  death
and the glorious,  triumphant resurrection of the Savior, but you seem to be
alluding  to  Him more from an allegorical point of view than as  an  actual
fact."

   Certainly we believe in the Christ;  we love Him with our whole heart and
soul,  but we wish to emphasize the teaching that Christ is the first fruits
of  the race.   He said that we shall do the things He did,  "and  greater."
Thus we are Christs-in-the-making.

             "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
             And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
             The cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain,
             Unless within thyself it be set up again."



[PAGE 159]                                      THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER

   Thus  proclaims Angelus Silesius,  with true mystic understanding of  the
essentials of attainment.

   We  are too much in the habit of looking to an outside Savior while  har-
boring  a devil within;  but till Christ be formed IN US,  as Paul says,  we
shall  seek in vain,  for as it is impossible for us to perceive  light  and
color,  though they be all about us,  unless our optic nerve registers their
vibrations,  and as we remain unconscious of sound when the tympanum of  our
ear is insensitive,  so also must we remain blind in the presence of  Christ
and deaf to His voice until we arouse our dormant spiritual natures  within.
But  once these natures have become awakened,  they will reveal the Lord  of
Love  as a prime reality;  this on the principle that when a tuning fork  is
struck,  another of identical pitch will also commence to sing, while tuning
forks of different pitches will remain mute.  Therefore the Christ said that
His  sheep knew the SOUND of His voice and responded,  but the voice of  the
stranger they heard not (John 10:5).   No matter what our creed,  we are all
brethren of Christ,  so let us rejoice, the Lord has risen!  Let us seek Him
and forget our creeds and other lesser differences.


[PAGE 160]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC


                                 CHAPTER XXI


                        THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER


   ONCE MORE we have reached the final act in the cosmic drama involving the
descent of the solar Christ Ray into the matter of our earth,  which is com-
pleted at the Mystic Birth celebrated at Christmas, and the Mystic Death and
Liberation,  which are celebrated shortly after the vernal equinox when  the
sun  of  the new year commences its ascent into the higher  spheres  of  the
northern heavens,  having poured out its life to save humanity and give  new
life to everything upon earth.  At this time of the year a new life, an aug-
mented energy,  sweeps with an irresistible force through the veins and  ar-
teries of all living beings, inspiring them, instilling new hope,  new ambi-
tion,  and new life, impelling them to new activities whereby they learn new
lessons  in the school of experience.   Consciously or unconsciously to  the
beneficiaries, this outdwelling energy invigorates everything that has life.
Even the plant responds by an increased circulation of sap, which results in
additional growth of the leaves, flowers, and  fruits  whereby this class of


[PAGE 161]                                      THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER

life is at present expressing itself and evolving to a higher state of  con-
sciousness.

   But wonderful though these outward physical manifestations are,  and glo-
rious though the transformation may be called which changes the earth from a
waste of snow and ice into a beautiful, blooming garden,  it sinks into sig-
nificance before the spiritual activities which run side by side  therewith.
The salient features of the cosmic drama are identical in point of time with
the material effects of the sun in the four cardinal signs,  Aries,  Cancer,
Libra  and  Capricorn,   for  the  most  significant  events  occur  at  the
equinoctial and solstitial points.

   It is really and actually true that "IN God we live and move and have our
being."   Outside Him we could have no existence; we live by and through His
life;  we move and act by and through His strength;  it is His  power  which
sustains  our dwelling place,  the forts the universe itself would  disinte-
grate.   Now we are taught that man was made in the likeness of God,  and we
are  given  to understand that according to the law of analogy we  are  pos-
sessed of certain powers latent within us which are similar to those we  see
so potently expressed in the labor of Deity in the universe.   This gives us
a  particular  interest in the annual cosmic drama involving the  death  and
resurrection of the sun.  The life of the GOD MAN,  CHRIST JESUS was moulded


[PAGE 162]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

in conformity with the solar story,  and it foreshadows in a similar  manner
all that may happen to the MAN GOD of whom this Christ Jesus prophesied when
He said:  The works that I do shall ye do also;  and greater works shall  ye
do;  whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me af-
terwards.

   Nature  is the symbolic expression of God.   She does nothing in vain  or
gratuitously,  but  there  is a purpose behind every thing  and  every  act.
Therefore  we should be alert and regard carefully the signs in the  heavens
for  they have a deep and important meaning concerning our own  lives.   The
intelligent  understanding of their purpose enables us to work so much  more
efficiently  with God in His wonderful efforts for the emancipation  of  our
pace from bondage to the laws of nature,  and for its liberation into a full
measure  of the stature of the sons of God--crowned with glory,  honor,  and
immortality,  and free from the power of sin, sickness,  and suffering which
now  curtail our lives by reason of our ignorance and nonconformity  to  the
laws of God.   The divine purpose demands this emancipation,  but whether it
is to be accomplished by the long tedious process of evolution or by the im-
mensely  quicker  pathway of Initiation depends upon whether or not  we  are
willing  to lend our cooperation.   The majority of mankind go through  life
with  unseeing eyes and with ears that do not hear.   They are engrossed  in
their material affairs, buying and selling, working  and playing, without an


[PAGE 163]                                      THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER

adequate understanding or appreciation of the purpose of existence, and were
it  unfolded to them it is scarcely to be expected that they  would  conform
and co-operate because of the sacrifice it involves.

   It is no wonder that the Christ appeals particularly to the poor and that
He emphasizes the difficulty of the rich entering the kingdom of heaven, for
even  to this day when humanity has advanced in the school of evolution  for
two  millenia  since His day,  we find that the great majority  still  value
their houses and lands, their pretty hats and gowns,  the pleasures of soci-
ety,  dances,  and dinners more than the treasurers of heaven which are gar-
nered by service and self-sacrifice.  Although they may intellectually  per-
ceive  the  beauty  of  the spiritual  life,  its  desirability  fades  into
insignificance  in their eyes when compared with the sacrifice  involved  in
attaining.   Like the rich young man they would willingly follow Christ were
there no such sacrifice involved.   They prefer rather to go away when  they
realize  that sacrifice is the one condition upon which they may enter  dis-
cipleship.   So for them Easter is simply a season of joy because it is  the
end  of winter and the beginning of the summer season with its call of  out-
door sports and pleasures.

   But for those who have definitely chosen the path of self-sacrifice  that
leads to Liberation, Easter is the annual sign given them as evidence of the
cosmic basis of their hopes and aspirations.  As  Paul  properly  states  in


[PAGE 164]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

that glorious fifteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians, "If Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

   "Yea,  and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of  God that He raised up Christ,  whom He raised not up if so be  that  the
dead rise not.

   "For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.

   "And if Christ be not raised your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

   "If  after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at  Ephesus,  what
advantageth it me if the dead rise not?

   "But  now is Christ risen from the dead,  and become the first fruits  of
them that slept."

   But in the Easter sun which at the vernal equinox commences to soar  into
the northern heavens after having laid down its life for the earth,  we have
the  cosmic symbol of the verity of resurrection.   When taken as  a  cosmic
fact in connection with the law of analogy that connects the macrocosm  with
the microcosm, it is an earnest that some day we shall all attain the cosmic
consciousness  and know positively for ourselves by our own experience  that
there is no death,  but that what seems so is only a transition into a finer
sphere.


[PAGE 165]                                      THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER

   It is an annual symbol to strengthen our souls in the work of  well-doing
that we may grow the golden wedding garment required to make us sons of  God
in the highest and holiest sense.   It is literally true that unless we walk
in the light as God is in the light, we are not in fellowship; but by making
the sacrifices and rendering the services required of us to aid in the eman-
cipation  of our race we are building the soul body of radiant golden  light
which  is the special substance emanated from and by the Spirit of the  Sun,
the  Cosmic Christ.   When this golden substance has clothed us with  suffi-
cient density, then we shall be able to imitate the Easter sun and soar into
the higher spheres.

   With these ideals firmly fixed in our minds, Easter time becomes a season
when  it is in order to review our life during the preceding year  and  make
new  resolutions  for  the coming season to serve  in  furthering  our  soul
growth.   It is a season when the symbol of the ascending sun should lead us
up to a keen realization of the fact that we are but pilgrims and  strangers
upon earth, that our real home as spirits is in heaven, and that we ought to
endeavor  to learn the lessons in this life school as quickly as is  consis-
tent with proper service,  so that as Easter Day marks the resurrection  and
liberation of the Christ Spirit from the lower realms,  so we also may  con-
tinually look for the dawn of that day which shall permanently free us  from
the meshes of matter, from the body of  sin  and  death,  together  with our


[PAGE 166]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

brethren  in bondage,  for no true aspirant would conceive of  a  liberation
that did not include all who were similarly placed.

   This is a gigantic task; the contemplation of it may well daunt the brav-
est heart,  and were we alone it could not be accomplished;  but the  divine
hierarchies who have guided humanity upon the path of evolution from the be-
ginning of our career are still active and working with us from their  side-
real worlds,  and with their help we shall eventually be able to  accomplish
this  elevation of humanity as a whole and attain to an individual  realiza-
tion of glory,  honor,  and immortality.  Having this great hope within our-
selves, this great mission in the world, let us work as never before to make
ourselves better men and women,  so that by our example we may waken in oth-
ers a desire to lead a life that brings liberation.


[PAGE 167]                                                THE NEWBORN CHRIST


                                CHAPTER XXII


                             THE NEWBORN CHRIST


   IT  HAS  OFTEN been said in our literature that the sacrifice  of  Christ
wass not an event which, taking place on Golgotha, was accomplished in a few
hours  once and for all time,  but that the mystic births and deaths of  the
Redeemer  are continual cosmic occurrences.  We may therefore conclude  that
this sacrifice is necessary for our physical and spiritual evolution  during
the  present phase of our development.   As the annual birth of  the  Christ
Child approaches,  it presents a never old,  ever new theme for  meditation,
from which we may profit by pondering it with a prayer that it may create in
our hearts a new light to guide us upon the path of regeneration.

   The inspired apostle gave us a wonderful definition of Deity when he said
that "God is Light,"  and therefore "light"  has been used to illustrate the
nature of the Divine in the Rosicrucian teachings, especially the mystery of
the  Trinity in Unity.   It is clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures of  all
times that God is one and indivisible.  At the same time we find that as the


[PAGE 168]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

one  white light is refracted into three primary colors,  red,  yellow,  and
blue,  so God appears in threefold role during manifestation by the exercise
of the three divine functions of CREATION, PRESERVATION, AND DISSOLUTION.

   When He exercises the attribute of CREATION, God appears as Jehovah,  the
HOLY  SPIRIT;  He is the Lord of law and generation and projects  the  solar
fertilizing principle INDIRECTLY through the lunar satellites of all planets
where it is necessary to furnish bodies for their evolving beings.

   When  He exercises the attribute of PRESERVATION for the purpose of  sus-
taining  the bodies generated by Jehovah under the laws of nature,  God  ap-
pears as the Redeemer,  CHRIST,  and radiates the principles of love and re-
generation  DIRECTLY into any planet where the creatures of Jehovah  require
this  help to extricate themselves from the meshes of mortality and  egotism
in order to attain to altruism and endless life.

   When God exercises the divine attribute of DISSOLUTION, He appears as THE
FATHER  who calls us back to our heavenly home to assimilate the  fruits  of
experience  and soul growth garnered by us during the day of  manifestation.
This Universal Solvent,  the ray of the Father,  emanates from the Invisible
Spiritual Sun.

   These divine processes of creation and birth, preservation and life,  and
dissolution, death and return to the Author of our being  we  see everywhere


[PAGE 169]                                                THE NEWBORN CHRIST

about us,  and we recognize the fact that they are activities of the  Triune
God in manifestation.  But have we ever realized that in the spiritual world
there are no definite events,  no static conditions;  that the beginning and
the end of all adventures of all ages are present in the eternal "here"  and
"now"?   From the bosom of the Father there is an everlasting outdwelling of
the  essence  of things and events,  which enters the realms of  "time"  and
"space."   There it gradually crystallizes and becomes inert,  necessitating
dissolution that there may be room for other things and other events.

   There is no escape from this cosmic law;  it applies to everything in the
realm of time and space, the Christ ray included.  As the lake which empties
itself  into the ocean is replenished when the water that left it  has  been
evaporated and returns to it as rain,  to flow again ceaselessly toward  the
sea, so the Spirit of Love is eternally born of the Father, day by day, hour
by hour, endlessly flowing into the solar universe to redeem us in its death
grip.  Wave upon wave is thus impelled outward from the sun to all the plan-
ets, giving a rhythmic urge to the evolving creatures there.

   And  so it is in the very truest and most literal sense A NEWBORN  CHRIST
that we hail at each approaching Yule-feast, and Christmas is the most vital
annual  event  for  all humanity whether we realize it or not.   It  is  not
merely a commemoration of the birth of our beloved Elder Brother, Jesus, but


[PAGE 170]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

the advent of the rejuvenating love of life of our Heavenly Father,  sent by
Him to redeem the world from the wintry death grip.   Without this new infu-
sion  of  divine life and energy we should soon perish physically,  and  our
orderly progress would be frustrated so far as our present lines of develop-
ment  are concerned.   This is a point we should endeavor to  realize  thor-
oughly  in order that we may learn to appreciate Christmas as keenly  as  we
should.

   We may learn a lesson in this respect as in many others from our children
or from reminiscences of our own childhood.  How keen were our anticipations
of the approaching feast!  How eagerly we waited for the hour when we should
receive  the gifts which we knew would be forthcoming from Santa Claus,  the
mysterious  universal benefactor who brought the toys for the  coming  year!
How  would we have felt had our parents given us the dismembered  dolls  and
broken drums of yesteryear?  It would surely have been felt as an overwhelm-
ing  misfortune and would have left a deep sense of broken trust which  even
time would have found it difficult to heal;  yet it would have been as noth-
ing compared with the cosmic calamity that would befall mankind if our Heav-
enly Father should fail to provide the newborn Christ for our cosmic Christ-
mas gift.

   The Christ of last year cannot save us from physical famine any more than
last year's rain can drench the soil again and swell the millions  of  seeds


[PAGE 171]                                                THE NEWBORN CHRIST

that  slumber in the earth awaiting the germinal activities of the  Father's
life  to begin their growth;  the Christ of last year cannot kindle anew  in
our  hearts the spiritual aspirations which urge us onward in the Quest  any
more than last summer's heat can warm us now.   The Christ of last year gave
us  His love and His life to the last breath without stint or measure;  when
He was born into the earth last Christmas,  He endued with life the sleeping
seeds which have grown and gratefully filled our granaries with the bread of
physical  life;  He lavished the love given Him by the Father upon  us,  and
when  He had wholly spent His life,  He died at Eastertide to rise again  to
the Father, as the river by evaporation rises to the sky.

   But endlessly wells the divine love; as a father pities his children,  so
does  our Heavenly Father pity us,  for He knows our physical and  spiritual
frailty and dependence.   Therefore we are now confidently awaiting the mys-
tic birth of the Christ of another year,  laden with new life and love  sent
by  the Father to preserve us from the physical and spiritual  famine  which
would ensue were it not for this annual love offering.

   Younger  souls usually find it difficult to disabuse their minds  of  the
personality of God,  of Christ,  and of the Holy Spirit,  and some can  only
love Jesus, the man.  They forget Christ, the Great Spirit, who ushered in a
new era in which the nations established under the regime of Jehovah will be
broken to pieces that the sublime structure of Universal Brotherhood  may be


[PAGE 172]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

built  upon their ruins.   In time all the world will realize that  "God  is
spirit,  to be worshiped in spirit and truth."  It is well to love Jesus and
to imitate him;  we know of no nobler ideal and none more worthy.   Could  a
cobler one have been found, Jesus would not have been chosen as a vehicle of
that Great One,  the Christ, in whom dwelt the Godhead.   We shall therefore
do well to follow "in His steps."

   At  the same time we shall exalt God in our own consciousness  by  taking
the word of the Bible that He is spirit,  and that we cannot make any  like-
nesses which will portray Him for He is like nothing in heaven or on  earth.
We  can see the physical vehicles of Jehovah circling as  satellites  around
the various planets;  we can also see the sun,  which is the visible vehicle
of the Father and the source of all,  appears to the greatest of human seers
only as a higher octave of the photosphere of the sun, a ring of violet-blue
luminosity behind the sun.  But we do not need to see; we can feel His love,
and that feeling is never so great as at Christmas time when He is giving us
the greatest of all gifts, the Christ of the new year.


[PAGE 173]                                            WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN

                                CHAPTER XXIII

                           Why I Am A Rosicrucian

   Not infrequently we find that some one takes the platform to explain  why
he is a Baptist, Methodist, or Christian Scientist,  and what his particular
faith may be.   We have often been asked by our students for something which
would  help make plain to their associates why they had embraced the  teach-
ings  of  the Elder Brothers given through the  Rosicrucian  Fellowship,  in
preference to the faith which they had left.  We will,  therefore,  endeavor
to  give a succinct resume of reasons which appeal to us as sufficient,  but
students  will  doubtless find many other reasons equally  good  or  better,
which they may add verbally to what is here said.

   It  should  be  made clear in the very beginning  that  students  in  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship do not call themselves Rosicrucians.   That title ap-
plies  alone to the Elder Brothers,  who are the hierophants of the  Western
Wisdom  Teaching.   They are as far beyond the greatest living saint in  the
spiritual development as that saint is above the lowest fetish worshiper.


[PAGE 174]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

   When  the bark of our life sails lightly upon smooth summer seas,  wafted
along by the fair winds of health and prosperity,  when friends are  present
on every hand,  eager to help us plan pleasures which will increase our  en-
joyment of this world's goods,  when social favors or political powers  come
to us to gratify our every wish in whatever sphere our inclinations seek ex-
pression,  then,  indeed,  we may say and seem justified in saying with  our
whole heart and soul:  "This world is good enough for me."  But when we come
to  the end of the smiling sea of success;  when the whirlwind of  adversity
has  blown  us upon the rocky shores of disaster,  and a wave  of  suffering
threatens to engulf us;  when friends have failed and every human help is as
far off as it is unavailing,  then we must look for guidance to the skies as
does the mariner when he steers his ship over the waste of waters.

   But  when the skipper scans the sky in search of a star whereby to  steer
the ship safely,  he finds that the whole heavens are in motion.   Therefore
to follow almost any one of the myriad of wandering stars visible to the eye
would be disastrous.  To meet the requirements the guiding star must be per-
fectly  steadfast  and immovable,  and there is only one such,  namely,  the
North Star.   By its guiding light the mariner may steer in full  confidence
and bring his ship to a haven of rest and safety.  Likewise one who is look-
ing  for  a  guide  which  he may trust in days of sorrow and trouble should


[PAGE 175]                                            WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN

embrace a religion founded on eternal laws and immutable principles, able to
explain the mystery of life in a logical manner so that his intellect may be
satisfied,  and  at the same time containing a system of devotion  that  may
satisfy the heart, so that these twin factors in life may receive equal sat-
isfaction.   Only when man has a clear intellectual conception of the scheme
of human development is he in a position to range himself in line therewith.
When it is made clear to him that this scheme is beneficient and  benevolent
in  the very highest degree,  that all is truly ruled by divine  love,  then
this understanding will sooner or later call out in him a true devotion  and
heartfelt  acquiescence  which  will  awaken in him a  desire  to  become  a
co-worker with God is the world's work.  When seeking souls come to the door
of  the church to seek surcease from sorrow,  they cannot be satisfied  with
the  platitudes  that it is the will of God that sorrow and  suffering  have
come to them, that in His divine providence He has seen fit to scourge them,
and that they must take it as an indication that He regards them as His  be-
loved  children and be satisfied no matter what happens.   They  cannot  see
that Deity does justice when He makes some rich and many poor, a few healthy
and many sickly; and it is only too often in evidence that iniquity is pros-
perous while rectitude is in rags.


[PAGE 176]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

   The  Rosicrucian Teaching gives clear and logical information  concerning
the  world and man;  it invites questions instead of discouraging  them,  so
that  the seeker after spiritual truth may receive full satisfaction  intel-
lectually;  and its explanations are as strictly scientific as they are rev-
erently religions.   It refers us for information regarding life's  problems
to laws that are unchangeable and immutable in their realm of action as  the
North Star is in the heavens.

   Though  the world whirls upon its axis at the rate of one thousand  miles
an hour,  we stand safely anywhere upon its surface because the principle of
gravity prevents us from being hurled into space by the terrific speed.   We
know that the law of gravity is eternal;  it will not act today and  suspend
action tomorrow.   When we enter a hydraulic elevator we rest safely upon  a
column of water because that fluid is more incompressible that most  solids,
and this property is the same yesterday, today,  and forever.   Were its ac-
tion  suspended for even a few moments,  thousands of people would  fall  to
their death; but it is steadfast and sure, therefore we trust in implicitly.

   The law of cause and effect is also immutable;  if we throw a stone  into
the  air,  the act is not complete until by gravitation it has  returned  to
earth.   "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," is the way this
law  is expressed in the realm of morals.   "The mills of God grind  slowly,
but they grind exceedingly small," and once an act has been done,  the reac-
tion will come some time, some where, as surely as the stone that was thrown


[PAGE 177]                                            WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN

into the air will return to the earth.

   But  it is manifest that all of the causes that we set going in  life  do
not ripen in the present existence,  and it therefore follows that they must
find their fruition somewhere else at some other time,  or the law would  be
invalidated,  a proposition that would be as absolutely impossible  as  that
the law of gravitation could be suspended,  for either would make chaos  out
of cosmos.   The Rosicrucian Teachings explain this by a statement that  man
is a spirit attending the School of Life for the purpose of unfolding latent
spiritual  power,  and that for this purpose he lives many lives in  earthly
bodies  of increasingly finer texture,  which enable him to express  himself
better and better.   In the lower grades of this school of evolution man has
few  faculties.   Each life-day he comes to school in the morning of  child-
hood,  and  is given lessons to learn,  and at night when old and  gray  the
nurse maid of nature,  "Death,"  puts him to sleep that he may rest from his
labors until the dawn of another life-day, when he is given a new child body
and new lessons.  Each day "Experience," the teacher of the school helps him
to learn some of the lessons of life, and gradually he becomes more and more
proficient.   Some  day he will have learned the entire  curriculum  of  the
school, which includes building of bodies as well as using them.

   Thus when we see one who  has  few  faculties, we know that he is a young


[PAGE 178]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

soul who has gone to life's school only a few days; and when we find a beau-
tiful character, we recognize an old soul who has spent much time in master-
ing its lessons.   Therefore we do not despair of God's love when we see the
inequalities  of life,  for we know that in time all will be perfect as  our
Father in Heaven is perfect.

   The Rosicrucian teachings also take the sting of sorrow out of the great-
est of all trials,  the loss of loved ones,  even if they have been what  is
called wayward or black sheep; for we know that it is an actual fact that IN
GOD  WE LIFE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING;  hence,  if one single  soul  were
lost,  a part of God would be lost, and such a proposition is absolutely im-
possible.   Under the immutable law of cause and effect we are bound to meet
these  loved  ones some time in the future under  other  circumstances,  and
there  the love that binds us together must continue until it has found  its
fullest expression.   The laws of nature would be violated if a stone thrown
from  the earth were to remain suspended in the atmosphere,  and  under  the
same  immutable  laws those who pass into the higher  spheres  must  return.
Christ said,  "Ye must be born again," and "If I go to my Father, I will re-
turn."

   But  although our reason may reach into the mysteries of life,  there  is
still a higher stage,  actual firsthand knowledge.   As a matter of fact the
foregoing propositions are capable of verification by each one,  for we  all
have  a sixth sense latent in our being,  which will sometime enable  us  to
view the spiritual  world  with  the same distinctness as that with which we


[PAGE 179]                                            WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN

see the temporal.   This sixth sense will be developed by all in the  course
of evolution, and there are certain means whereby it may be developed now by
all  who  care to take the necessary time and trouble to do so.   Some  have
done this,  and they have told us of their travels in the land of the  soul.
We  believe  their testimony concerning that place just as we  believe  what
people who have traveled in Africa or Australia tell us of those  countries.
And just as we say that we know the earth rotates upon its axis and revolves
in its orbit around the sun because we have been thus informed by scientists
who  have  made  the investigations and calculations  that  establish  these
facts,  so also we say that we know the dead live,  and that whether dead or
alive,  in the body or out of it, we are all enfolded in the love of our Fa-
ther  in Heaven,  without whose Will not the smallest sparrow falls  to  the
ground,  and that He cares for all and orders our steps in harmony with  His
plans to develop our spiritual powers to the highest possible degree.

   So  because of the logical,  soul-satisfying philosophy of life given  by
the Rosicrucians,  we follow their teachings in preference to other systems,
and invite others who wish to share the blessings thereof to investigate.


[PAGE 180]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

                                CHAPTER XXIV

                  THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP

   The  object of the Rosicrucian Fellowship has been clearly stated in  our
literature, as have the means whereby it is hoped to attain the end in view,
but in response to requests for a succinct summary we devote this chapter to
that subject.

   The world is God's training school.   During the past we have learned  to
build different vehicles,  among other the physical body.   By this work  we
are  promoted from class to class,  each with its particular scope  of  con-
sciousness.  We evolved eyes that we might see, ears that we might hear, and
other organs that we might taste,  smell, and feel.   But not all egos  were
promoted  at every step.   When the mist in the air at the time of  Atlantis
condensed  and filled the basins of the earth with oceans of water,  driving
men  to the highlands,  many perished by asphyxiation because they  had  not
evolved lungs.  They could not pass through the portal of the rainbow, which
was,  so to speak, the entrance gate to the new age with its dry atmospheric
conditions.


[PAGE 181]                          THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP

   Another great world transformation is coming, we know not when;  even the
Christ  confessed His ignorance of the day and the hour;  but He  warned  us
that the day would come as a thief in the night,  and He prophesied that the
conditions  in  the world would then be similar to those prevailing  in  the
days of Noah;  they were living then in carefree enjoyment of life when sud-
denly the floodgates of heaven were opened, and death and destruction spread
before them.

   Christ  told us that it is possible to take the kingdom of God  by  storm
and attain to the consciousness and conditions there prevailing.   But  Paul
informs us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; he states
that we have a soul body (SOME PSUCHICON-1 Cor. 15:  44),  and that we shall
meet the Lord in the air when He comes.  This soul body is therefore as nec-
essary  to  entrance  into  the new age of the kingdom of  God,  as  a  body
equipped with lungs was to the Atlanteans who desired to enter into the  age
in  which  we are now living.   Therefore it is necessary that we  make  our
calling and election sure by preparing the GOLDEN WEDDING GARMENT,  the soul
body, which alone can secure our admission to the mystic marriage.

   The multitude is slowly moving in the right direction as led by the  dif-
ferent churches, but there is an ever growing class that, so to speak, feels
the wings of the soul body sproating,  people who feel an inner urge to take
the  kingdom of God by storm.   Though unaware of any definite  ideal,  they
sense  a  greater  truth  and more certain light than those which the Church


[PAGE 182]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

radiates;  they are tired of parables and long to learn the underlying facts
at the very feet of Christ.

   The  Rosicrucian Fellowship was started for the purpose of reaching  this
class,  to show them the way to illumination,  to help them build their soul
body and evolve the soul powers which will enable them to enter  consciously
into the kingdom of God and obtain first-hand knowledge.

   This is a large undertaking,  none greater and even under the most favor-
able  existing conditions progress must be slow,  but if the  aspirant  will
continue with patient perseverance in well doing, it can be done.

   The  methods  are definite,  scientific, and religious;  they  have  been
originated by the Western School of the Rosicrucian Order, and are therefore
specially suited to western people.  Sometimes, but very rarely,  they bring
results in a short time;  generally it requires years and even lives  before
the aspirant attains,  but the following system will in the end bring all to
their heart's desire.

   The Tabernacle in the Wilderness was a symbolic representation of the way
to God,  and, as Paul says, held a shadow of better things to come.   Every-
thing  in it had its spiritual meaning.  The table of shewbread gives us  an
important lesson germane to our present consideration.  Students will remem-
ber that the ancient Israelites were commanded to bring the shewbread to the


[PAGE 183]                          THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP

tabernacle  at  stated intervals.   The grain from which this was  made  was
given  them by God but they must prepare the soil in which it was  to  grow,
they must plant and cultivate, they must weed and water, so as to secure the
greatest possible increase;  they must harvest and thresh,  grind and  bake,
ere  they  had the loaves which they brought to the tabernacle as  bread  to
shew for their toil.   Similarly,  God gives to all the grain of opportunity
to serve,  but it is our duty to cultivate these opportunities and nurse and
nourish  them in the soil of loving kindness so that they may bring a  great
increase.   We must always bear in mind the words of Christ that He came  to
minister and to serve.  Therefore anyone aspiring to follow in His steps and
to be great in the kingdom of god must ever be on the lookout for opportuni-
ties to serve his fellows.  Each day must be filled as full as possible with
kind  and  considerate deeds,  for they are the warp and woof of  which  the
golden wedding garment is woven.  Without these "works" no amount of prayer,
fasting, or other religious exercise will avail.  It is useless to repair to
the  temple  without this bread to shew that we have really  worked  in  the
Master's service.

   The foregoing is also the teaching of the exoteric churches; but the fol-
lowing is the exclusively Rosicrucian scientific teaching and method,  based
upon  the deepest knowledge of spiritual facts whereby the aspirant  is  en-
abled to gain the maximum  soul  growth  in each life, so that his spiritual


[PAGE 184]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

advancement is accelerated beyond his very wildest dreams.   Therefore  this
is the most important spiritual teaching that has been given to man in  mod-
ern  times,  and no one who tries honestly to follow this simple method  can
fail to be enormously benefited:

   Ether is the medium of transmission light, that which etches a picture on
the photographic film.   It permeates the air, and with every breath we draw
from birth to death ether enters our system and etches a picture of our sur-
roundings and actions on a little atom in the heart.  Thus each carries with
him  a complete record of his life,  which is assimilated after death.   Ex-
piation of the evil deeds causes paid and anguish in purgatory.   These  are
thus transmuted to conscience to prevent repetition of the same mistakes  in
succeeding  lives:   the good deeds are transmuted to love and  benevolence.
Instead  of waiting for this post-mortem transmutation of the shrewbread  of
life,  the aspirant who desires to take heaven by storm may  assimilate  the
fruits of each day after retiring and before going to sleep by running  over
the  deeds done.   The events of the day are considered in reverse order  so
that that which happened in the evening is taken first,  then the happenings
of the afternoon,  forenoon, and morning.  This is important for it conforms
to the way the life panorama acts after death,  taking first the events just
prior  to  death,  last  the  events  of infancy.  The object is to show the


[PAGE 185]                          THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP

effects and then refer them to their antecedent causes.

   In  this  retrospection it will do the aspirant no good to run  over  the
events of the day and mildly blame himself where he did wrong-he is  usually
sure enough to praise himself sufficiently for his good deeds.   But he must
remember the altar of burnt offerings where the sacrifices for sin were  of-
fered.   They were first rubbed with salt and then placed on the altar to be
consumed by a divinely enkindled fire.  Anyone knows what an intense pain is
caused when salt is rubbed into a wound,  and this rubbing with salt is sym-
bolic of the pain the aspirant must feel for his wrongdoing.   Now mark that
it was not permissible to place the sacrifice on the altar until it had thus
rubbed  with salt.   God would not accept it before,  but WHEN IT  HAD  BEEN
SALTED IT WAS CONSUMED BY A FIRE KINDLED BY GOD HIMSELF.

   This tells us that unless we have washed our evil deeds of the day in the
salt of our tears and heartfelt contrition,  God will not accept our  sacri-
fice  of  repentance;  but when we have really repented,  our sins  will  be
washed  away and our recording atom will be clean as the driven snow.   With
respect  to our good deeds we may remember that there were two little  piles
of frankincense of the top of the shew bread.   These were offered upon  the
altar of incense, where the smoke ascended as a sweet savor to the Lord,  so
different from the nauseating stench  that  went up from the altar where the


[PAGE 186]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

sin offerings were burned.  Is it any wonder that God took no delight in the
sacrifice of bulls and calves,  but delighted in a contrite heart and repen-
tant spirit?

   It  is this spiritual aromatic extract of our good deeds that builds  our
soul body.  By the ordinary natural process it takes about one-third as many
years in our post-mortem existence as we lived in the body,  to reap what we
have  sowed.   But when an aspirant has assimilated the fruits  of  life  by
faithful  retrospection  at the end of each day,  he is free as soon  as  he
leaves  the body and may use the years spent by others in purgatory and  the
first heaven as he pleases.  Furthermore, as he needs neither food, shelter,
nor  sleep,  he may spend twenty-four hours a day doing good.   Thus he  has
practically as many years of service and soul growth after death as the num-
ber of his earth life;  and being trained and schooled in this work his  at-
tainments  are probably greater than could be made in a number of  lives  in
the ordinary way.

   To aid deserving aspirants,  still deeper and more definite teachings are
given  by the Elder Brothers through the Rosicrucian  Fellowship.   Students
who feel the inner urge may ask for information concerning these teachings.


[PAGE 187]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

                                    INDEX

Abel, man of Lemuria, 23.
Action, desirability of, 16.
Action, good, required for soul body, 183.
A. D. M., red earth, 78.
Adam, a Polarian, 22.
Airships of Atlantis, 71.
Albumen not needed by spiritual, 24.
Alcohol, action, 83.
Altar of sacrifice, 96.
America, the melting pot, 112.
Angels, humanity of Moon Period 50.
   lived in etheric world 50.
   trusted guardians, 26
   wisely guided man 32.
Anglo-Saxons, pioneers of race, 75.
Animals ruled by group spirits 108.
Aquarian Age, science to rule in 82.
   seven hundred years until 81
   teacher of 76.
Arche-Tektons, Initiates are 103.
Ark, airship of Atlantis, 71.
Aryan Age, invaders of 80.
Aryana, national segregation of 70.
Assimilation of life experiences 184.
Asteroids, remnants of Moons 60.
Astrology, value of in marriage 53.
Atlantis, destruction of 180.
Atlantean epoch, the nadir of materiality 9.
Atlanteans aspired to light 95
   divinely guided 69.
Atlantis, airships of 71.
   atmosphere of 69.
   man becomes man in 25.
   peaceful conditions of 86.
Atmosphere, changes of 180.
Attainment, method of 171.

Baptism, soul's urge for higher life 55.
Bible, only solid foundation 120; two parts of 126.


[PAGE 188]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

Black Brothers, increase evil 106.
Black magic, frequent practice of 101.
   golden wedding garment protects against 106.
   practices of 103.
Blood hound, follows invisible emanation 104.
Born of water and spirit 80.
Brain gained at sacrifice of creative force 32.
Breathing exercises, danger of 9.
   use of 10.
Brotherhood, all members of 44.
"Brother of the Third Degree"--NOT Initiation 12.

Cain, a Hyperborean 23.
Candles, tallow, attract elementals 106.
Causation 177.
Children, training of 127.
Chosen people 95.
Christ, annual coming of 171.
   bodily presence of the Father 98.
   forgiveness of 57.
   Inhabits central sun 58.
   man a Christ-in-the-making 158.
   mission of 47, 87.
   power of 158, 159.
   preservation, principle of 168.
   sacrifice of 98.
Christ, SEE ALSO Earth Spirit.
Church, doctrines of, keystones of evolution 38.
Civilization, evolution of 111.
Communication with dead 113.
Communion, points to age to come 55.
   worthy celebration of 31.
Conscience gained in purgatory 184.
Consciousness result of ware between vital and desire bodies 49.
Conservation of strength 122.
Contentment lengthens life 41.
Contrition, importance of 185.
Conversion and Initiation 12.
   inner experience 13.
Converts, making of 132.
Courage 91.
Creations, principle of Jehovah 168.
Creative hierarchies guide man 22.
Crystalloids aid in evolving vital body 88.


[PAGE 189]                                                             INDEX

Dead, communication with 113.
Death, care of body after 134.
   conquest of 56.
   price of consciousness 50.
Dense body, care of after death 134.
   crystallized state of 47
   raising vibrations of 10.
   restoration of in sleep 128.
   spiritualization of 74.
   under laws of nature 57.
Desire body, control of 128.
   destroys dense body 49.
   evolution of, in Lemuria 23
   reaction of man's acts 25.
Dietetics, albumen not needed by spiritual 24.
   legumes not to be rashly eliminated 24.
Diplomacy and force 119.
Dissolution the Father's power 168.
Divine hierarchies work upon man 22.
Divine leaders abolish religious errors 46.
Divine spirit and physical body 132.

Earth conditions cramp humanity 99.
   crystallization of due to man 32.
Earth Spirit body and blood 31.
Earth Spirit, SEE ALSO Christ.
Earthly goods, use of 177.
Easter, Christ's liberation 160.
   vital, force of 161.
Effort brings opportunities 15.
Ego chooses work of life 64.
Egotism, protection from 19.
Elder Brothers hierophants of western wisdom teaching 173;
   high status of 173.
   injunction to Max Heindel 11, 20.
   not mercenary 20.
   transmute evil 105.
Elementals inhaled with incense 106.
Emancipation, God's purpose 162.
Environment chosen by ego 64, 122.
   power of 74.
Epochs, changes of 77. 


[PAGE 190]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC


Ether etches pictures on seed atom 184.
   medium of transmission of light 184.
   new element 71.
Evolution 177; Evolution of man 35.
   spiral path of 14;  slow, tedious process 16.
Exercises:  Breathing practices 9, 10.
Experience, a grindstone 63.
Extreme unction 56.

Faculties, evolution of 177.
Fall, unchastity 62.
Family, duty to 127.
Father, The, dissolution principle of 168.
   highest Initiate of Saturn period 58.
   inhabits spiritual sun 58.
Finger nails used in Black Magic 103.
Flesh, difficult to digest, 90.
   material progress result of 23, 86, 92.
   necessitated by materialism 23.
   sins of 90.
Flood, sun in Cancer 78.
Food, significance of 22.
Forgiveness of Christ 57.
Free Will 22.
   of Initiate in choice of environment 64.
   in Atlantis 25.

Galilee, melting pot 74.
Gill clefts replaced by lungs 24.
Gills of early Atlantis 70.
Blass of water in Black Magic 104.
God, immanence of 161.
Golden wedding garment 165, 185.  SEE ALSO Soul Body.
Good Friday 153.
Gospels formulae of Initiation 64.
Grace and forgiveness of sin 34.
Grail, SEE holy Grail.
Group Spirit 108.

Hair used in Black Magic 103.
Healing, Rosicrucian method of 103.
Heaven, Third, turning point of life cycle 122.
Help, practical 133.
Hierarchies, service of 145.
   still active 166.


[PAGE 191]                                                             INDEX

Hindu breathing exercises 73,
Holy Grail, many orders constitute 105.
   two forces of 105.
Holy Spirit SEE Jehovah.
Human spirit and desire body 132.
Humanity, salvation of 160.
   slowly progressing 14.
Hyperborea, generation in 49.
Hyperborean epoch, man plantlike in 22.
   vital body gained in 22.
Hypnotism, danger of 107.

I am 25, 85, 87.
I as pronoun 83.
Inactivity causes straggling 16.
Incense, Black Forces use 106.
Inequalities, harmonizing of 178.
Initiates, arche-tektons 103.
   bodies of, immaculately conceived 64.
   choose own life work 64.
   purity of 64.
   may be women 67.
Initiation, changes life, 13.
   confers authority 13.
   free 13.
   inner experience 12.
   money cannot buy 11.
   requirements for 20.
   spiritual process 11.
   spiritualizes vital body 67.
   through spiritual exercises 11.
   tribulation leads to 63.
Initiation fee, impossibility of 20.
Inner vision opened 136.
Intellectual conception of life 175.
Intensity of feeling 19.
Invisible Helpers require nucleus 103.

Jehovah, creation principle of God, 168.
   dwells in physical sun 58.
   highest Initiate of Moon Period 58.
   race spirit of the Jews 110.
   regent of various moons 58.
   warder of creative forces 56.
Jesus, race body of 74; noblest ideal 172.


[PAGE 192]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

Judgment, Sun in Libra 156.
Justice of life 175; with mercy 33.  

Knowledge, necessity for 131.
Larynx gained at sacrifice of creative force 32.
Law, knowledge of 131.
Law of Consequence given to Atlanteans 26.
Laws of nature and destiny 25.
Legumes not needed by ADVANCED scholars 24.
Lemniscate, meaning of 14.
Lemurian epoch, evolution of desire body in 23.
Life Spirit and vital body 132.
Light Atlanteans aspired to 95
   symbol of God 167.
Living church within 124.
Lords of Mercury, stragglers of past 59.
Lords of Venus, stragglers of past 59.
Lord's Supper, SEE communion.
Lost souls 58.
Love endlessly born 169.
   keynote of coming age 80.
   of soul for soul 53; transcends sex 51.
Lucifer spirits cause body's crystallization 32
Lungs related to spirit's freedom 24.

Man becomes man in Atlantis 25.
   mineral-like in Polarian Epoch 88.
Marriage necessitated by disintegration and death 49
   sacrament of 55.
   transcends sex 51.
Materialism, predominance of 163.
Matter, limitation of causes self-consciousness 22.
Materialization, varieties of 102.
Meat non-permanent as food 82.
Meat eating, SEE Flesh eating.
Michael, race spirit 111.
Milk aid in evolving desire boyd 89.
   given in Lemuria 23.
Mind, effect of meat upon 93.
   given during Atlantean epoch 22.
   given for discrimination 122.
   link between spirit and matter 132.
Minerals, assimilation impossible 82.
Moderation in food 136.
Mongols, descendents of Atlanteans 75.


[PAGE 193]                                                             INDEX

Moons, discipline stragglers 59.
   physical vehicles of Jehovah 172.
   tumors of universe 60.
Moses led followers through water 26.
Motive, importance of 101.
Mysteries, soul body teaches 136.
Mystery schools furnish higher teaching 8.

Nationalism must pass 112.
Nations, rise and fall of 110.
Negroes, descendants of Lemurians 75.
New Galilee 135.
New Heaven and new earth, SEE Aquarian Age.
New race 75.
Niebulungen ring 42.
Nimrod, misplaced in Bible 22.
Noah 27.
Noise, evil effects of 125.
   stirs desire bodies 126.
Nucleus in magic practices 108.

Orthodoxy, arguments of 46.
Panorama etched into desire body 133.
Passion, crystallizing power of 32.
Periodic flow of earth 62.
Philosophy, hidden meaning in 135.
Physical body, SEE Dense body. 
Pioneers the active workers 16.
   two classes of 17.
Pisces, creed and dogma of 81.
Planet, body of Great Spirit 156.
   evolution of 41.
   orbit of 156.
Poise, necessity for 125.
Polarian had only dense body 88.
Polarian epoch, dense body in 22.
   mineral-like state of man in 22.
Polygamy 66.
Possession cures desire 93.
Post mortem experience 15.
Post mortem state 16.
Preservation, Christ principle 168.
Progress, impossible to unworthy 150.
13


[PAGE 194]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

Proselyting unnecessary 132.
Providence of God 120.
Purity, redemption of 35.
Race spirits cause racial characteristics 109.
   high ideals of 110.
Racial characteristics 109.
Rainbow, advent of 27.
   emblem of diversity 70.
   entrance to new age 180.
   gates to promised land 69.
Rebirth and Causation 132.
Reconciliation, desirability of 119.
Recording angels give religions 7.
Religion, happiness from 126.
Religion given by Recording Angels 7.
   suited to nations 8.
Religious errors, not long permitted 46.
Responsibility not to be shirked 127.
Resurrection, Easter Sun symbolizes 163.
Retrospection, good gained by; most important spiritual teaching 184.
   importance of 18.
Rhine Gold 42.
Rosicrucian messengers 11.
   methods, definite, scientific, religious 182.
Sacrament, Hebrew derivation of 55.
   importance of 38.
Sacrifice, evolution result of 97.
   soul growth from 165.
Sanctuary, inner 124.
Saints, 17.
Salt, 185.
Science becomes religious 40.
   to rule Aquarian Age 82.
Seances, danger of 107.
Seasons symbolize diversity 70.
Self-Sacrifie, advancement from 38.
   of Christ 100.
Selfishness bane of race 43.
Separation of sexes 32.
Service builds soul body 135.
   essential in life 135.
   redemption of stragglers 59.
   the policy that pays 118.

[PAGE 195]                                                             INDEX

Sexes, separation of 32.
Silence, great help in soul growth 126.
Sin must be expiated 57.
Sixth sense 178.
Sleep, work during, gains soul growth 129.
Solar system body of God 59.
Son, SEE Christ. 
Sorrow, keynote of Buddhism 57.
Soul amalgamates with spirit 96.
Soul body 54.
   from seed 73.
   light of, teaches man 136.
   of new age 181.
   methods of building 80.
   protects against Black Magic 106.
   wedding garment of new age 80.
Soul growth dissolves crystallized bodies 96.
   helps in 126.
   method of 17.
Sound, effect of 124.
Spinal nerves, animal twenty-eight pairs of 61.
   man thirty-one pairs of 61.
Spirit orbit of 156.
Spiritual forces, ebb and flow of 61.
Spiritual sight result of war 112.
Spiritual world, time non-existent 169.
Spring and Earth Spirit 31.
Stellar ray 64.
Strength, conservation of 122.
Sugar, beneficial effects of 83
   cure of alcoholism by 84.
Sun ascends at Easter 165.
   in Cancer, the flood 78.
   invisible vehicle of God 172.
   visible vehicle of Christ 172.

Tact, value of 119.
Talents of ego 15.

Teacher of New Age 76.
Temple, way to shown 136.
Though breaks down tissue 23.
Time, non-existent in spiritual world 169.
Tolerance for our families 137.
Tree of knowledge 32.


[PAGE 196]                                             GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC

Tribulation prepares for Initiation 63.
Trinity, mystery of 167.

Unfoldment, three states of 55.
Universal solvent 168.

Vegetarianism, advantages of 91.
Vegetarian needs no alcohol 91.
Virgin spirits enmeshed in matter as egos 132.
   self-consciousness attained by 22.
Vital body charges body with energy 132.
   constructive energy of 49.
   evolved by Hyperborean 22, 88.
   medium of occult growth 9.
   spiritualized by Initiation 67.
   stores up power 128.
   vehicle of love 51.

War, spiritual aspects of 123.
   spiritual intensity of 104.
   spiritual sight result of 112.
Water, Noah and Moses led followers through 26.
   used in Black Magic 104.
Wedding garment, SEE Soul Body.
Western Initiates more advanced 8.
Western Mystery Teaching Christian 47.
White Magic, unselfish 102.
Wine, given in Atlantis 26.
   self-assertion from drinking 86.
   stimulates spirit of man 27.
Word, cosmic meaning of 155.
Workers, the pioneers 16.
World, God's training school 180.
World change to come 181.
Worry, evil of 116.

You as pronoun 83.


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