[PAGE 111]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

                                  CHAPTER X

                          THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION

GENERAL PRINCIPLES:

   If we begin with the dense vehicle and consider the physical means avail-
able  to improve it and make it the best possible instrument for the  Spirit
and afterward consider the spiritual means to the same end,  we shall be in-
cluding  all  the other vehicles as well;  therefore we  shall  follow  that
method.

   The first visible state of a human embryo is a small, globulous, pulpy or
jelly-like substance,  similar to albumen, or the white of an egg.   In this
pulpy  globule  various  particles  of  more  solid  matter  appear.   These
gradually  increase in bulk and density until they come in contact with  one
another.  The different points of contact are slowly modified into joints or
hinges  and  thus  a  distinct framework of solid  matter,  a  skeleton,  is
gradually formed.

   During  the formation of this framework the surrounding pulpy matter  ac-
cumulates  and changes in form until at length that degree  of  organization
develops which is known as a foetus.  This becomes larger, firmer,  and more
fully organized up to the time of birth, when the stage of infancy begins.

   The same process of consolidation which commenced with the first  visible
stage of existence, still continues.  The being passes through the different


[PAGE 112]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

stages of infancy,  childhood, youth, manhood or womanhood, old age,  and at
last comes to the change that is called death.

   Each of these stages is characterized by an INCREASING DEGREE OF HARDNESS
AND SOLIDITY.

   There  is a gradual increase in density and firmness of the  bones,  ten-
dons,  cartilages, ligaments, tissues, membranes, the coverings and even the
very substance of the stomach, liver, lungs,  and other organs.   The joints
become  rigid and dry.   They begin to crack and grate when they are  moved,
because the synovial fluid,  which oils and softens them,  is diminished  in
quantity and rendered too thick and glutinous to serve that purpose.

   The  heart,  the  brain,  and the entire muscular  system,  spinal  cord,
nerves,  eyes, etc., partake of the same consolidating process, growing more
and  more  rigid.   Millions upon millions of the minute  capillary  vessels
which  ramify and spread like the branches of a tree throughout  the  entire
body,  gradually choke up and change into solid fibre, no longer pervious to
the blood.

   The larger blood vessels, both arteries and veins,  indurate,  lose their
elasticity,  grow  smaller,  and become incapable of carrying  the  required
amount of blood.   The fluids of the body thicken and become putrid,  loaded
with earthy matter.  The skin withers and grows wrinkled and dry.   The hair
falls  out  for  lack of oil.   The teeth decay and drop  out  for  lack  of
gelatine.   The motor nerves begin to dry up and the movements of  the  body
become awkward,  and slow.  The senses fail; the circulation of the blood is
retarded;  it stagnates and congeals in the vessels.  More and more the body


[PAGE 113]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

loses its former powers.  Once elastic, healthy, alert, pliable, active, and
sensitive,  it becomes rigid, slow, and insensible.  Finally, it dies of old
age.

   The question now arises,  What is the cause of this gradual  ossification
of the body, bringing rigidity, decrepitude and death?

   From the purely physical standpoint, chemists seem to be unanimous in the
opinion  that it is principally an increase of phosphate of lime (bone  mat-
ter),  carbonate  of lime (common chalk), and sulphate of lime  (plaster  of
paris),  with occasionally a little magnesia and an insignificant amount  of
other earthy matters.

   The only difference between the body of old age and that of childhood  is
the greater density,  toughness and rigidity,  caused by the greater propor-
tion  of  calcareous,  earthy matter entering into the  composition  of  the
former.  The bones of a child are composed of three parts of gelatine to one
part of earthy matter.  In old age this proportion is reversed.  What is the
source of this death-dealing accumulation of solid matter?

   It  seems to be axiomatic that the entire body is nourished by the  blood
and  that everything contained in the body,  of whatever nature,  has  first
been in the blood.  Analysis shows that the blood holds earthy substances of
the same kind as the solidifying agents--and mark!--the ARTERIAL blood  con-
tains more earthy matter than the VENOUS blood.

   This is highly important.   It shows that in every cycle the blood depos-
its  earthy substances.   It is therefore the common carrier that chokes  up
the system.  But  its supply of earthy matter must be replenished; otherwise


[PAGE 114]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

it  could  not continue to do this.  Where does it renew  its  deadly  load?
There can be but one answer to that question--from the food and drink; there
is absolutely no other source.

   The food and drink which nourish the body must be, at the same time,  the
primary  source of the calcareous,  earthy matter which is deposited by  the
blood all over the system,  causing decrepitude and finally death.   To sus-
tain physical life it is necessary that we eat and drink,  but as there  are
many  kinds of food and drink,  it behooves us,  in the light of  the  above
facts, to ascertain, if possible, what kinds contain the smallest proportion
of destructive matter.   If we can find such food we can lengthen our lives,
and from an occult standpoint,  it is desirable to live as long as  possible
in  each  dense body,  particularly after a start has been made  toward  the
path.   So  many years are required to educate,  through childhood  and  hot
youth,  each body inhabited,  until the Spirit can at least obtain some con-
trol over it,  that the longer we retain a body that has become amenable  to
the Spirit's promptings,  the better.  Therefore it is highly important that
the  pupil  partake of such food and drink only as will  deposit  the  least
amount  of hardening matter and at the same time keep the  excretory  organs
active.

   The  skin  and the urinary system are the saviors of man  from  an  early
grave.   Were it not that by their means,  most of the earthy  matter  taken
from our food is eliminated, no one would live ten years.

   It  has been estimated that ordinary,  undistilled spring water  contains
carbonate  and  other compounds of lime to such an extent that  the  average
quantity used each day by one person in the form of tea, coffee, soup, etc.,


[PAGE 115]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

would  in  forty years form a block of solid chalk or marble the size  of  a
man.   It is also a significant fact that although phosphate of lime is  al-
ways found in the urine of adults, it is not found in the urine of children,
because  in them the rapid formation of bone requires that this salt be  re-
tained.   During the period of gestation there is very little earthy  matter
in the urine of the mother, as it is used in the building of the foetus.  In
ordinary circumstances,  however,  earthy matter is very much in evidence in
the  urine of adults and to this we owe the feat that physical life  reaches
even its present length.

   Undistilled water, when taken internally, is man's worst enemy,  but used
externally,  it  becomes his best friend.   It keeps the pores of  the  skin
open, induces circulation of the blood and prevents the stagnation which af-
fords  the best opportunity for the depositing of the earthy,  death-dealing
phosphate of lime.

   Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, said that health de-
notes a free circulation and disease is the result of an obstructed circula-
tion of the blood.

   The  bathtub  is  a great aid in keeping up the health of  the  body  and
should be freely used the aspirant to the higher life.   Perspiration,  sen-
sible  and insensible,  carries more earthy matter out of the body than  any
other agency.

   As  long as fuel is supplied and the fire kept free from ashes,  it  will
burn.   The kidneys are important in carrying away the ashes from the  body,
but despite the great amount of earthy matter carried away by urine,  enough
remains  in  many  cases  to  form  gravel and stone in the bladder, causing


[PAGE 116]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

untold agony and often death.

   Let  no one be deceived into thinking that water contains less stone  be-
cause  it has been boiled.   The stone that forms on the bottom of the  tea-
kettle  has been left there by the evaporated water which escaped  from  the
kettle as steam.   If the steam were condensed, we should have distilled wa-
ter, which is an important adjunct in keeping the body young.

   There is absolutely no earthy matter in distilled water,  nor in rain wa-
ter,  snow or hail (except what may be gathered in contact with  house-tops,
etc.), but coffee, tea, or soup made with ordinary water, no matter how long
boiled, is not purified of the earthy particles; on the contrary, the longer
they are boiled, the more heavily charged with ash they become.   Those suf-
fering from urinary diseases should never drink any but distilled water.

   It  may  be said generally of the solid foods we take into  our  systems,
that fresh vegetables and ripe fruits contain the greatest proportion of nu-
tritious matter and the least of earthy substances.

   Proper  food given at the right time and under the right conditions  will
not only cure but prevent disease.

   It is popularly supposed that sugar or any saccharine substance is  inju-
rious to the general health,  and particularly to the teeth,  causing  their
decay and the resulting toothache.  Only under certain circumstances is this
true.  It is harmful in certain diseases, such as biliousness and dyspepsia,
or  if held long in the mouth as candy,  but if sparingly used  during  good
health and the amount gradually increased as the stomach becomes  accustomed
to its use, it will be found very nourishing.  The health of negroes becomes


[PAGE 117]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

greatly improved during the sugar-cane harvest time,  notwithstanding  their
increased labor.   This is attributed solely to their fondness for the sweet
cane-juice.   The same may be said of horses,  cows,  and other  animals  in
those localities, which are all fond of the refuse syrup fed to them.   They
grow  fat in harvest time,  their coats becoming sleek and shining.   Horses
fed  on boiled carrots for a few weeks will get a coat like silk,  owing  to
the saccharine juices of that vegetable.  Sugar is a nutritious and  benefi-
cial article of diet and contains no ash whatever.

   Fruits are an ideal diet.  They are in fact evolved by the tree to induce
animal and man to eat them, so that the seed may be disseminated, as flowers
entice bees for a similar purpose.

    Fresh fruit contains water of the purest and best kind,  capable of per-
meating the system in a marvelous manner.  Grapejuice is a particularly won-
derful  solvent.   It thins and stimulates the blood,  opening the way  into
capillaries  already  dried and choked up--if the process has not  gone  too
far.   By a course of unfermented grapejuice treatment,  people with  sunken
eyes,  wrinkled skins and poor complexions become plump, ruddy,  and lively.
The  increased permeability enables the Spirit to manifest more  freely  and
with renewed energy.

    Considering  the body from a purely physical standpoint,  it is what  we
might call a chemical furnace,  the food being the fuel.   The more the body
is exercised,  the ore fuel it requires.   It would be foolish for a man  to
change  an  ordinary  diet which for years had adequately nourished him, and


[PAGE 118]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

take  up a new method without due thought as to which would be the best  for
serving  his purpose.   To simply eliminate meats from the ordinary diet  of
meat-eaters would unquestionably undermine the health of most persons.   The
only  safe  way is to experiment and study the matter out first,  using  due
discrimination.   No fixed rules can be given,  the matter of diet being  as
individual as any other characteristic.  All that can be done is to describe
the  general influence of each chemical element,  allowing the  aspirant  to
work out his own method.

   Neither  must we allow the appearance of a person to influence our  judg-
ment  as  to the condition of his health.   Certain general ideas of  how  a
healthy person should look are commonly accepted, but there is no valid rea-
son  for so judging.   Ruddy cheeks might be an indication of health in  one
individual and of disease in another.   There is no particular rule by which
good health can be known except the feeling of comfort and well-being  which
is enjoyed by the individual himself, irrespective of appearances.

   Water is the great solvent.

   Nitrogen or protein is the essential builder of flesh,  but contains some
earthy matter.

   Carbohydrates or sugars are the principle power-producers.

   Fats are the producers of heat and the storers of reserve force.

   Ash is mineral,  earthy,  and chokes the system.  We need have no fear of
not  obtaining it in sufficient quantities to build the bones;  on the  con-
trary, we cannot be too careful to get as little as possible.


[PAGE 119]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   The calorie is the simple unit of heat.   In a pound of Brazil nuts,  for
instance,  when bought at the market,  49.6 per cent of the whole  is  waste
(shells),  but  the remaining 50.4 per cent contains  1485  calories.   That
means that about one-half of what is bought is waste, but the remainder con-
tains the number of calories named.   That we may get the nearest amount  of
strength  from our food we must pay attention to the number of  calories  it
contains,  for from them we obtain the energy required to perform our  daily
work.

   Chocolate is the most nutritious food we have;  also cocoa,  in its  pow-
dered state,  is the most dangerous of all foods,  containing three times as
much ash as most of the others, and ten times as much as many.  It is a pow-
erful food and also a powerful poison, for it chokes the system more quickly
than any other substance.

   Of course,  it will require some study at first to secure the best  nour-
ishment, but it pays in health and longevity and secures the free use of the
body, making study and application to higher things possible.  After a while
one will become so familiar with the subject that he will need to give it no
particular attention.

   It  must be remembered that not all of the chemical substances  contained
in each article of food are available for use in the system,  because  there
are certain portions which the body refuses to assimilate.

   Of  vegetables we digest only about 83 per cent of the proteins,  90  per
cent of the fat, and 95 per cent of the carbohydrates.

   Of fruits we assimilate about 85 per cent of the proteins, 90 per cent of
the fat, and 90 per cent of the carbohydrates.


[PAGE 120]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   Phosphorous  is the particular element by means of which the Ego is  able
to express thought and influence the dense physical body.  It is also a fact
that  the proportion and variation of this substance is found to  correspond
to the state and stage of intelligence of the individual.   Idiots have very
little phosphorus;  shrewd thinkers have much; and in the animal world,  the
degree  of consciousness and intelligence is in proportion to the amount  of
phosphorus contained in the brain.

    It is therefore of great importance that the aspirant who is to use  his
body  for mental and spiritual work,  should supply his brain with the  sub-
stance  necessary for that purpose.   Most vegetables and fruits  contain  a
certain amount of phosphorus, but it is a peculiar fat that the greater pro-
portion is contained in the leaves,  which are usually thrown away.   It  is
found in considerable quantities in grapes,  onions,  sage,  beans,  cloves,
pineapples,  in  the  leaves  and stalks of many  vegetables,  and  also  in
sugar-cane juice, but not in refined sugar.

   The  following  table shows the proportions of phosphoric acid in  a  few
articles:

                              100,000 parts of:

   Barley, dry, contains of phosphoric acid.........210    parts
   Beans ...........................................292      "
   Beets ...........................................167      "
   Beets, Leaves of.................................690      "
   Buckwheat........................................170      "
   Carrots, dry.....................................395      "
   Carrots, Leaves of...............................963      "
   Linseed..........................................880      "
   Linseed, Stalks of...............................118      "
   Parsnips.........................................111      "
   Parsnips, Leaves of.............................1784      "
   Peas  ...........................................190      "


[PAGE 121]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   In  conclusion,  let the aspirant choose such food as is most easily  di-
gested, for the more easily the energy in food is extracted, the longer time
will the system have for recuperation before it becomes necessary to replen-
ish the supply.   Milk should never be drunk as one may drink a glass of wa-
ter.  Taken in that way, it forms in the stomach a large cheese ball,  quite
impervious to the action of the gastric juices.   It should be sipped for it
will  then  form many small globules in the stomach,  which are  easily  as-
similated.   Citrus  fruits  are powerful  antiseptics,  and  cereals,  par-
ticularly rice, are antitoxins of great efficiency.

   Having  now explained,  from the purely material point of view,  what  is
necessary for the dense body,  we will consider the subject from the  occult
side, taking into consideration the effect on the two invisible bodies which
interpenetrate the dense body.

   The  particular stronghold of the desire body is in the muscles  and  the
cerebrospinal nervous system,  as already shown.   The energy displayed by a
person when laboring under great excitement or anger is an example of  this.
At such times the whole muscular system is tense and no hard labor is so ex-
hausting as a "fit of temper."   It sometimes leaves the body prostrated for
weeks.   There  can be seen the necessity for improving the desire  body  by
controlling the temper,  thus sparing the dense body the suffering resulting
from the ungoverned action of the desire body.

   Looking at the matter from an occult standpoint, all consciousness in the
Physical World is the result of the constant war between the desire and  vi-
tal bodies.

   The tendency of the vital body is to soften and build.  Its chief expres-
sion  is  the  blood  and  the  glands, also the sympathetic nervous system,


[PAGE 122]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

having obtained ingress into the stronghold of the desire body (the muscular
and the voluntary nervous systems) when it began to develop the heart into a
voluntary muscle.

   The tendency of the desire body is to harden,  and it in turn has invaded
the realm of the vital body, gaining possession of the spleen and making the
white blood corpuscles, which are not "the policement of the system" as sci-
ence now thinks,  but destroyers.  It uses the blood to carry these tiny de-
stroyers  all over the body.   They pass through the walls of  arteries  and
veins  whenever annoyance is felt,  and especially in times of great  anger.
Then  the  rush of forces in the desire body makes the  arteries  and  veins
swell  and  opens the way for the passage of the white corpuscles  into  the
tissues of the body, where they form bases for the earthy matter which kills
the body.

   Given the same amount and kind of food,  the person of serene and  jovial
disposition will live longer,  enjoy better health,  and be more active than
the person who worries,  or loses his temper.  The latter will make and dis-
tribute through his body more destructive white corpuscles than the  former.
Were a scientist to analyze the bodies of these two men,  he would find that
there was considerably less earthy matter in the body of the kindly disposed
man than in that of the scold.

   This  destruction is constantly going on and it is not possible  to  keep
all the destroyers out,  nor is such the intention.   If the vital body  had
uninterrupted sway,  it would build and build, using all the energy for that
purpose.  There  would  be  no consciousness and thought.  It is because the


[PAGE 123]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

desire body checks and hardens the inner parts that consciousness develops.

    There was a time in the far,  far past when we set out the  concretions,
as do the mollusks,  leaving the body soft, flexible,  and boneless,  but at
that  time we had only the dull,  glimmering consciousness the mollusks  now
have.   Before we could advance,  it became necessary to retain the  concre-
tions and it will be found that the stage of consciousness of any species in
in proportion to the development of the bony framework WITHIN.  The Ego must
have the solid bones with the semifluid red marrow,  in order to be able  to
build the red blood corpuscles for its expression.   That is the highest de-
velopment of the dense body.

REASONS FOR A VEGETARIAN DIET:

   Most  people feel that a meal without meat is incomplete,  for from  time
immemorial it has been regarded as an axiom that meat is the most  strength-
ening food we have.   All other foodstuffs have been looked upon as mere ac-
cessories to the one or more kinds of flesh on the menu.   Nothing could  be
more erroneous;  science has proved by experiments that invariable the nour-
ishment  obtained  from vegetables has a greater sustaining power,  and  the
reason is easy to see when we look into the matter from the occult side.

   The  law of assimilation is that "no particle of food may be  built  into
the body by the forces whose task that is until it has been overcome by  the
in-dwelling spirit," because he must be absolute and undisputed ruler in the
body,  governing the cell lives as an autocrat,  or they would each go their
own way as they do in decay when the Ego has fled.


[PAGE 124]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   It is evident that the dimmer the consciousness of a cell is,  the easier
it  is to overpower it,  and the longer it will remain in  subjection.   The
different kingdoms have different vehicles and consequently a different con-
sciousness.   The mineral has only its dense body and a  consciousness  like
the  deepest trance.   It would therefore be easiest to subject foods  taken
directly  from the mineral kingdom.   Mineral food would remain with us  the
longest,  obviating the necessity of Eating so often;  but unfortunately  we
find that the human organism vibrates so rapidly that it is incapable of as-
similating the inert mineral directly.   Salt and like substances are passed
out of the system at once without having been assimilated at all; the air is
full of nitrogen which we need to repair waste,  we breathe it into our sys-
tem,  yet cannot assimilate it or any other mineral till it has  first  been
transmuted in Nature's laboratory and built into the plants.

   The plants have a dense and a vital body,  which enables them to do  this
work;  their consciousness is as a deep,  dreamless sleep.   Thus it is easy
for the Ego to overpower the vegetable cells and keep them in subjection for
a long time, hence the great sustaining power of the vegetable.

   In animal food the cells have already become more individualized,  and as
the animal has a desire body giving it a passional nature,  it is easily un-
derstood  that when we eat meat it is harder to overcome these  cells  which
have  animal consciousness resembling the dream state,  and also  that  such
particles  will  not stay long in subjection,  hence a  meat  diet  requires
larger quantities and more frequent meals than the vegetable or fruit  diet.
If we should go one step farther  and  eat the flesh of carnivorous animals,


[PAGE 125]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

we should find ourselves hungry all the time,  for there the cells have  be-
come  exceedingly individualized and will therefore seek their  freedom  and
gain it so much the quicker.   That this is so,  is well illustrated in  the
case of the wolf, the vulture, and the cannibal,  which have become proverbs
for hunger, and as the human liver is too small to take care of even the or-
dinary meat diet, it is evident that if the cannibal lived solely upon human
flesh instead of using it as an occasional "tidbit,"  he would soon succumb,
for  while too much of the carbohydrates,  sugars,  starches,  and  fats  do
little  if any harm to the system, being exhaled through the lungs  as  car-
bonic  acid gas or passing as water by way of the kidneys and the  skin,  an
excess of meat is also burned up,  but leaves poisonous uric acid and it  is
being more and more recognized that the less meat we eat the better for  our
well-being.

   It  is  natural that we should desire the very best of  food,  but  every
animal body has in it the poisons of decay.  The venous blood is filled with
carbon dioxide and other noxious products on their way to the kidneys or the
pores of the skin to be expelled as urine or perspiration.   These loathsome
substances  are in every part of the flesh and when we eat such food we  are
filling our own bodies with toxic poisons.  Much sickness is due to our  use
of flesh foods.

   There  is plenty of proof that a carnivorous diet fosters  ferocity.   We
may  mention the well-known fierceness of beasts of prey and the cruelty  of
the  meat-eating American Indian as fair examples.   On the other hand,  the
prodigious strength and the docile nature  of  the ox, the elephant, and the


[PAGE 126]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

horse show the effects of the herb diet on animals, while the vegetarian and
peaceable nations of the Orient are a proof of the correctness of the  argu-
ment against a flesh diet which cannot successfully be gainsaid.

   As soon as we adopt the vegetarian diet,  we escape one of the most seri-
ous menaces of health,  namely the putrefaction of particles of flesh imbed-
ded between the teeth, and this is not one of the least arguments why a veg-
etarian diet should be adopted.   Fruits,  cereals,  and vegetables are from
their very natures SLOW TO DECAY, each particle contains an enormous  amount
of ether which keeps it alive and sweet for a long time,  whereas the  ether
which  interpenetrated the flesh and composed the vital body of  an  animal,
was taken away with the Spirit thereof at the time of death.   Thus the dan-
ger from infection through vegetable food is very small in the first  place,
but many of them so far from being poisonous,  are actually antiseptic in  a
very high degree.  This applies particularly to the citrus fruits:  oranges,
lemons,  grapefruit, etc., not to speak of the king of all antiseptics,  the
pineapple,  which has been used very often with complete success as  a  cure
for  the dreaded diphtheria,  which is only another name for a  septic  sore
throat.  Thus instead of poisoning the digestive tract with putrefactive el-
ements as meats do, FRUITS CLEANSE AND PURIFY THE SYSTEM,  and the pineapple
is one of the superior to pepsin,  and no fiendish cruelty is used to obtain
it.

   There are twelve salts in the body; they are very vital and represent the
twelve  signs of the zodiac.   These salts are required for the building  of
the  body.  They  are  not  mineral  salts  as  generally  supposed, but are


[PAGE 127]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

vegetable.   The mineral has no vital body, and it is only by way of the vi-
tal  body that assimilation is accomplished;  therefore,  we have to  obtain
these salts through the vegetable kingdom.

   Doctors  claim to do this,  but they are not aware that fire used in  the
process  drives out and destroys the vital body of the plant just as  crema-
tion treats our body, and leaves only the mineral parts.   Therefore,  if we
desire  to renew the supply of any salt in our body we must obtain  it  from
the UNCOOKED plant.  To the sick this is the way it should be administered.

   But  we must not jump to the conclusion that everyone should quit  eating
meat  and live on raw plant life.  At our present stage of  evolution  there
are very few who can do so.   We must take care not to raise the  vibrations
of our bodies too rapidly,  for we, to continue our labor among present con-
ditions,  must have a body fitted for the work,  but let us keep the thought
always with us.

   There  is in the skull at the base of the brain a flame.   It burns  con-
tinually in the medulla oblongata at the head of the spinal cord,  and  like
the  fire on the altar of the tabernacle,  is of divine origin.   This  fire
emits  a singing sound like the buzz of a bee,  which is the keynote of  the
physical body,  and is sounded by the archetype.   It builds in and  cements
together that mass of cells known as "our body."

   The fire burns high or low,  clear or dim,  according to how we feed  it.
There is fire in everything in nature EXCEPT THE MINERAL KINGDOM.  It has no
vital  body and therefore no avenue for the ingress of the Life Spirit,  the
fire.  We  replenish  this  sacred  fire partly from the FORCES FROM THE SUN


[PAGE 128]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

entering  the vital body through the etheric counterpart of the  spleen  and
from  there to the solar plexus where it is colored and then carried  upward
through  the blood.   We also FEED THE FIRE FROM THE LIVING FIRE  WE  ABSORB
FROM THE UNCOOKED FOOD WHICH WE EAT AND THUS ASSIMILATE.

   Looking at the matter of flesh-eating from the ethical side also,  it  is
against the higher conception to kill to eat.   In olden times man went  out
to the chase as any beast of prey, rough and callous;  now he does his hunt-
ing in the butcher shop,  where none of the nauseating sights of the slaugh-
ter house will sicken him.   If each had to go into of of those blood places
where  horrors are enacted day after day to be able to satisfy  an  abnormal
injurious  habit which causes more sickness and suffering than  even  liquor
craving;  if each had to wield the bloody knife and plunge it into the quiv-
ering flesh of his victim, how much meat would we eat?  Very little.  In or-
der to escape doing this nauseating work ourselves on occasion,  we force  a
fellow being to stand in that bloody pen day after day killing thousands  of
animals  every day of the wee;  we brutalize him to such an extent that  the
law  will  not allow him to sit on a jury in a capital case because  he  has
ceased to have any regard for life.

   The animals which we kill also cry aloud against this murder;  there is a
cloud of gloom and hatred over the great slaughter cities.  The law protects
cats and dogs against cruelty.   We all rejoice to see the little  squirrels
in the city parks come and take food from our hands, but as soon as there is
money  in the flesh or fur of an animal,  man ceases to have regard for  its
right  to  live, and becomes its most dangerous foe, feeding and breeding it


[PAGE 129]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

for gain,  imposing suffering and hardships upon a fellow being for the sake
of gold.   We have a heavy debt to pay to the lower creatures whose  mentors
we should be;  whose murderers we are, and the good law which works every to
correct  abuses  will  also in time relegate the habit  of  Eating  murdered
animals to the scrapheap of obsolete practices as cannibalism is now.

   It  is the nature of a beast of prey to eat any animal that comes in  its
path,  and its organs are such that it must have that kind of a diet to  ex-
ist,  but  EVERYTHING IS IN A STAGE OF BECOMING;  it is always  changing  to
something higher.   Man, in his earlier stages of unfoldment,  was also like
the beasts of prey in certain respects;  however,  he is to become  God-like
and thus he must cease to destroy at some time in order that he may commence
to  create.   Flesh food has fostered human ingenuity of a low order in  the
past;  it has served a purpose in our evolution;  but we are now standing on
the  threshold  of  a new age when self-sacrifice  and  service  will  bring
spiritual growth to humanity.  The evolution of the mind will bring a wisdom
beyond  our greatest conception,  but before it will be safe to  entrust  us
with that wisdom,  we must become HARMLESS as doves, for otherwise we should
be apt to turn it to such selfish and destructive purposes that it would  be
an  inconceivable menace to our fellow men.   To avoid this  the  vegetarian
diet must be adopted.

   We have been taught that there is no life in the universe but the life of
God;  that  "in  Him we live and move and have our  being";  that  His  life
animates  everything  that is, and therefore we naturally understand that as


[PAGE 130]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

soon as we take LIFE we are destroying FORM built by God for his  manifesta-
tion.  The lower animals are evolving Spirits and have sensibilities.  It is
their  desire for experience that causes them to build their various  FORMS,
and when we take their forms away from them we deprive them of their  oppor-
tunity for gaining experience.  We hinder their evolution instead of helping
them, and the day will come when we shall feel a deep disgust at the thought
of  making  our stomachs the burying ground for the  carcasses  of  murdered
animals.   All  true Christians will be abstainers from flesh foods  out  of
pure compassion; they will realize that all life is God's life, and to cause
suffering to any sentient being is wrong.

   In a great many places where the Bible speaks of "meat," it is very plain
that  flesh food is not meant.   The chapter in Genesis where man's food  is
first allotted to him says that he should eat of every tree and herb bearing
seed,  "and to you it shall be for meat."   The most evolved people  at  all
times have abstained from flesh foods.  We see,  for instance,  Daniel,  who
was a holy man and a wise man,  beg that he might not be forced to eat meat,
but  that he and his companions be given pulse.   The children of Israel  in
the wilderness are spoken of as "lusting after flesh,"  and their God is an-
gry with them in consequence.

   There  is an esoteric meaning to the feeding of the multitude where  fish
was  used as food,  but looking to the purely material aspect we may sum  up
the  points  in our answer by reiterating that we shall  some  time  outgrow
flesh and fish Eating as we have risen above cannibalism.   Whatever license
may have been given in  the  barbaric  past will disappear in the altruistic


[PAGE 131]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

future,  when more refined sensibilities shall have awakened us to a  fuller
sense of the horrors involved in the gratification of a carnivorous taste.

NECESSITY FOR AN ATTRACTIVE, BALANCED DIET:

   In the most sublime of all prayers,  we are taught by the Christ to  pray
for our daily bread, but under existing modern conditions,  alas,  how often
do we get a stone instead.

   Because of our complex civilization,  of cold storage methods,  and other
abominations  our  food  is  such  that,  generally  speaking,   instead  of
nourishing  the body as it should,  it depletes us and makes us  subject  to
various diseases; "indigestible" is a very mild arraignment of the food sup-
ply in most places where the public eats.

   Even in the home, that which is placed upon the table to nourish and sus-
tain and build the body in health,  is often only an apology for food,  mas-
querading  under various seasonings and dressings as palatable,  for we  eat
usually to please our palate rather than to nourish our bodies.

   On  the other hand,  there is no denying that some people who profess  to
cook  along scientific lines and with common sense,  who profess to be  veg-
etarians  and  are very strict in their notions of how food should  be  pre-
pared,  seem to lack all appreciation of the fact that food may be made pal-
atable as well as wholesome and nutritious, that there is no incompatibility
between the requirements of proper cooking and the pleasure afforded to  the
palate.   Indeed  it may be said that unless food is so cooked  that  it  is
pleasing to the palate as well as  wholesome  and  nutritious,  it falls far


[PAGE 132]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

short of its full purpose.   The palate has been given to us so that we  may
enjoy our food,  that we may, as it were,  receive it with gladness and wel-
come it into our body, for this furthers assimilation and nutrition, whereas
unpalatable  food is obnoxious to the recipient and therefore not so  easily
assimilated.   This fact should be kept before the mind:  It is not how much
we eat that counts, but how much we assimilate.

   Some  who have been improperly instructed in this most important  subject
of nutrition may have been told that the legumes, peas,  beans,  etc.,  will
take the place of meat,  and they then commenced to devour these  vegetables
in great quantities after discarding meat.  It is perfectly true that  beans
contain more protein than beefsteak,  but the protein contained in the  bean
is not so readily assimilated.   There is heavy waste and also uric acid  in
such foods that should be reckoned with,  for unless counteracted by  plenty
of green vegetables,  disastrous results are bound to follow.   It is impor-
tant to remember,  however, that the green vegetables should not be eaten at
the same meal with the heavy legumes.   There are others who,  after leaving
the meat diet,  start to live on bread, potatoes, and similar starchy foods,
with the result that they become undernourished and anemic.   A satisfactory
diet  must be properly balanced in every respect,  and only in so far as  we
study the system of diet required to keep our body in good health can we ex-
pect to obtain the proper results.

   Diet,  like  health,  is determined individually, and no general standard


[PAGE 133]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

can be set up.   At the same time,  it may be safely said that the less meat
we  can get along with,  the better our general health will be.   But if  we
wish  to without it altogether,  it is absolutely essential that  we  should
study a table of food values so that we get the necessary proteins from  the
vegetables we eat.   No man can go to the ordinary table and get  sufficient
nourishment  if he eats only the vegetables provided as accessories  to  the
meat;  he  must have beans,  peas,  nuts, and like foods which are  rich  in
protein to take the place of the discarded flesh, or he will starve.

THE ROLE OF STIMULANTS IN EVOLUTION:

   The spirit alcohol,  which is fermented OUTSIDE the system,  is being su-
perseded by sugar,  which ferments WITHIN.   In the past a stimulant was in-
dispensable  in rousing the human Spirit from the lethargy attendant upon  a
meat diet;  the bacchanalian orgies in ancient temples,  which properly fill
us  with horror nowadays,  were then of immense value in human  development.
As  consumption of sugar increases,  use of alcohol diminishes and,  concur-
rently, the moral standard is gradually elevated.  People grow more altruis-
tic  and  Christlike  in  proportion to their  use  of  the  non-inebriating
stimulant, and therefore the temperance movement is one of the most powerful
factors to hasten the coming of Christ.

   It is evident that evolutionary progress is elevating the lower  kingdoms
as well as humanity.   The animals,  particularly the domesticated  species,
are nearing individualization,  and  their withdrawal from manifestation has


[PAGE 134]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

already  commenced.   As a result it will in time be  impossible  to  obtain
flesh food.   Then the death knell of "King Alcohol"  will have struck,  for
only flesh eaters crave liquor.

    In the meantime plant life is growing more sentient.   The lateral limbs
of  trees  produce  more abundantly than do  vertical  branches  because  in
plants,  as in us, consciousness results from the antagonistic activities of
the desire and vital currents.  Lateral limbs are swept through their entire
length  by desire currents which circle our planet and which act  so  power-
fully in the horizontal animal spines.  The desire currents rouse the sleep-
ing plant life in the lateral limbs to a higher degree of consciousness than
is  the case with the vertical branches,  which are traversed lengthwise  by
vital currents radiating from the center of the Earth.  Thus,  in time,  the
plants  will  also become too sensitive as food and another source  must  be
sought.

   Today,  we have considerable ability in working with the chemical mineral
substances;  we  mold them into houses, ships,  and all outer  things  which
evidence our civilization.  We are masters of the minerals OUTSIDE our body,
but powerless to assimilate and use them INSIDE our system to build our  or-
gans  until the plant life has transmuted crystals into  crystalloids.   Our
work with the minerals in the exterior world is raising their vibration  and
paving the way for direct interior use.  By spiritual alchemy we shall build
the temple of the Spirit,  conquer the dust whence we came,  and qualify  as
true Master Masons prepared for work in higher spheres.


[PAGE 135]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

FASTING AS A MEANS OF HEALING AND A FACTOR IN SOUL GROWTH:

   We  may readily conceive that there are more people in the West  who  die
from overeating than from getting too little food.  Under certain conditions
fasting  for a day or two is undoubtedly beneficial,  but just as there  are
gourmands and gluttons,  so there are others who go to the opposite  extreme
and fast to excess.   There lies a great danger.   The best way is to eat in
moderation and to eat the proper kinds of food;  then it will not be  neces-
sary to fast at all.

    If we study the chemistry of food we shall find that certain foods  have
properties  of value to the system under conditions of disorder,  and  taken
properly food is really medicine.  All the citrus fruits, for instance,  are
splendid  antiseptics.   THUS THEY PREVENT DISEASE.   All the cereals,  par-
ticularly rice,  are antitoxins; they will kill disease and the germs of pu-
trefaction.   Thus,  by knowing these medicinal properties of the  different
foods, we may very readily secure a supply of that which we need to cure our
ordinary ailments by food instead of by fasting.

   Under the ancient dispensations it was required that sacrifices of  bulls
and  goats should be made as atonement for sin,  for man then treasured  his
material possessions even higher than today, and felt keenly their loss when
forced to give them up for such a purpose.   Upon the altar of sacrifice men
were  forced to offer their cherished possessions for  every  transgression,
God appearing to them as a hard taskmaster whose displeasure it was  danger-
ous  to  incur.  But  there  has  always been an esoteric teaching, which is


[PAGE 136]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

is being promulgated exoterically today,  and this teaching does not  accept
the sacrifice of an animal,  money, or other possessions,  but demands  that
each  one make a sacrifice of himself.  This was taught to the aspirants  in
the  ancient Mystery School when they were prepared for the mystic  rite  of
Initiation.

   To  them were explained the mysteries of the vital body,  how it is  com-
posed of four ethers,  etc.   The aspirant was thoroughly instructed in  the
functions of the two lower ethers as compared with the two higher.   He knew
that  all the purely animal functions of the body depended upon the  density
of the lower ethers,  and that the two upper ethers composed the should body
which was the vehicle of service.  He aspired, naturally,  to cultivate this
glorious garment by self-abnegation,  and by curbing the propensities of the
lower nature, as as we do today.

   These  facts were kept secret from the masses,  as said,  or rather  they
should have been, but some neophytes who were overzealous to attain, no mat-
ter how, forgot that it is only by service and unselfishness that the Golden
Wedding  Garment composed of the two higher ethers is grown.   They  thought
that the occult maxim:

         "Gold in the crucible,
          Wrought in the fire;
          Light as the winds,
          Higher and higher"

meant only that so long as the lower nature, the dross, was expelled, it did
not matter how,  and if they could find an easy method, they would have left
only the gold composed of the two  higher  ethers, the should body, in which


[PAGE 137]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

they  could enter the invisible world without let or hindrance.   They  rea-
soned that as the chemical ether is the agent of assimilation,  it could  be
eliminated from the vital body by starving the physical vehicle.

   But the result obtained by these misguided people and their followers was
far from being what was intended by the training in the Mystery School.  The
candidate was there taught first and foremost that THE BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF
GOD,  and that to defile,  destroy,  or mutilate it in any manner is a great
sin.   Indulgence of the appetite is a sin, a defiling practice which brings
with  it certain retribution,  but it is no more to be reprehended than  the
practice  of fasting for soul growth.  RIGHT LIVING IS NEITHER  FASTING  NOR
FEASTING, but giving the body those elements which are necessary to maintain
it in the proper form of health,  strength,  and efficiency as an instrument
of the Spirit.   Therefore fasting for soul growth is a pseudo-method  which
has exactly the opposite effect to that which it was designed to  accomplish
by its shortsighted originators.

THE HEALTH VALUE OF INDIGESTIBLE FOODS:

   It may seem absurd, at the first blush, to say that the more indigestible
our foods are the better the health will be;  nevertheless,  when the state-
ment is slightly qualified,  it is true.   Foods which are usually reared as
indigestible  because  we  feel distress after  Eating  them,  really  cause
trouble  because they have been too thoroughly digested,  while other  foods
which  are  nearly  totally  indigestible,  and  therefore  in  a  sense not


[PAGE 138]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

foods at all, leave us with all the feelings of health and well-being.

   Lack of proper appreciation of these essential facts is at the bottom  of
the difficulties which many people experience when they adopt what they  are
pleased  to call a vegetarian diet.   They have in most cases suffered  from
digestive  troubles  before ceasing to eat flesh,  and have  in  many  cases
adopted a fleshless diet with the expectation that they would work a miracle
in restoring their health.   They are therefore often bitterly  disappointed
that  they  feel no better,  nay,  in a number of cases they may  even  feel
worse, because they continue their dietetic errors in all other respects, so
that  in  many cases their reformed diet is from a standpoint of  health,  a
thousand  times worse than the usual mixed diet of the average  person,  and
goodness knows,  that is bad enough.  In fact, instead of wondering that the
body  breaks down under the strain of dietetic indiscretion,  it  is  really
wonderful that it can stand up as well as it does in spite of the abuse  and
ill treatment to which is is subjected.

   It happens not infrequently that people who apply to us for healing admit
unblushingly  the most atrocious dietetic blunders,  perfectly oblivious  to
the fact that they are doing wrong.  They will eat four to five meals a day,
composed of hot cakes, coffee, eggs, beefsteak, white bread, potatoes,  pie,
cheese, etc., etc., and then they honestly wonder why they do not feel well.
This class of people will claim that they have no bad habits.   They smoke a
few cigars,  drink a few glasses of beer, or perhaps they take a cocktail or
two;  they  live on what they call a "natural diet,"  go to bed  at  ten  or
eleven,  and  pat  themselves  on  the  back  with the feeling that they are


[PAGE 139]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

models.  As a rule when it is first brought to their attention that they are
committing  serious blunders they stare in utter amazement and  incredulity;
they  seem to doubt their senses when told that they are killing  themselves
with food; actually and in truth digging their graves with their teeth.

   Nevertheless, that is absolutely true and it is not so much because their
food is indigestible, either, as because of the lack of indigestible materi-
als to mix among the highly concentrated foods which form the chief elements
of such a diet.   But in that respect that class of people are no worse than
people who live on a diet of such concentrated foods as prunes,  nuts,  rai-
sins, etc.

   They  also eat highly concentrated food; they get both protein  from  the
nuts and carbohydrates from the raisins,  but lack the indispensable  though
indigestible  cellulose to give the necessary amount of bulk and  cause  ir-
ritation  in  the digestive tract which is absolutely  essential  to  induce
peristalsis and secretion of the necessary digestive ferments.

   There is no question that whole wheat is much more nutritious, palatable,
and  healthful than white flour which is composed only of the  starchy  por-
tions of the grain,  but its health value is not particularly great  because
it  is more easily digested than white bread, for as a matter of fact it  is
not, nor is the great benefit derived from whole wheat bread due to the min-
eral salts necessary to body building which it contains and which are absent
in white bread.   For it should be remembered that just as a portion of  the
protein  contained  in  meat and the phosphorus  contained  in  fish  remain
undigested,  so  also  with  the  protein and phosphorus which abound in the


[PAGE 140]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

whole  meal bread.   We do not assimilate all the protein and mineral  salts
which are contained in the coarsest portions of the whole wheat.   But while
the white bread is almost entirely digested and leaves but little ash,  pro-
vided  of course that it is well made,  the coarser particles of  the  whole
wheat flour pass through the intestinal tract undigested; they massage them,
so to speak, irritate them and induce a flow of blood which keeps the intes-
tines sweet and healthy.   They do not pack as closely as the little residue
left  from highly concentrated foods,  and therefore they take with them  in
the air spaces noxious gases, leaving the digestive tract pure and clean.

   Compare  the  action on the bowels of such foods as eggs,  and  meat  and
cheese,  which  are almost totally assimilated and leave no coarse  bulk  to
cleanse the bowels after a meal has been digested,  with such vegetables  as
legumes (used sparingly), turnips, carrots, celery, onions, etc., which con-
tain every element found in flesh and in addition the, to health, indispens-
able bulk composed of coarse fibrous matter which alone can sweep the intes-
tinal  tract,  clear  off all deleterious products of waste  and  leave  the
system in a healthy condition.

   The archetype determines the form and figure of a person and this will be
his  normal statue in health,  but by our dietetic disorder we often  change
this,  so that the energy of the body is used in the process of  eliminating
an enormous amount of food which we cannot assimilate and therefore we  grow
thinner.   The  reverse happens when the eliminative powers are  poor;  then
surplus  flesh,  or  adipose tissue, is put on because of an unnatural diet.


[PAGE 141]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

When a scientifically prepared diet is adopted, the people who have been too
thin because of a previous wrong diet, taken on flesh,  and conversely those
who have put on unnatural flesh cease to do so and therefore their weight is
reduced.

RESULTS OF EATING TOO FREQUENTLY:

   Another fruitful cause of digestive disorders is the habit of Eating  ev-
ery  few hours.   People who are in the habit of Eating five or six times  a
day  frequently assert that they are hungry and must have food or  they  are
sick.  As a matter of fact, the raving is due to a diseased condition of the
stomach,  and the relief results from the weight of food which  deadens  the
stomach.

   We  call it criminal to give to a person addicted to the  morphine  habit
more just because he craves it, and it would give temporary relief from suf-
fering,  and we should apply the same logic and philosophy to people who are
poisoned by an excess of food.  This is not theory,  either,  but the result
of investigation which cannot be matched by experiments on animals or  human
beings, where the suffering incident to tabulating the results of investiga-
tions causes an unnatural digestive condition.   There are no such  barriers
to  one whose spiritual sight is opened and who can see the peristaltic  ac-
tion of the stomach and intestines when the system has been burdened.   Then
there  exudes  from the food a black poisonous gas which is  thrown  outward
through  the periphery of the aura by the man's vital body so long as he  is
in good health.  But when his vitality becomes enfeebled and the flow of the


[PAGE 142]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

solar force through the spleen is not as strong as usual, this poisonous gas
remains around the abdominal region as a broad black band which poisons  all
organic activities of the body while it is there.   When a person eats three
meals a day there is a slight chance for the dissolution of the poison  band
generated by one meal before the next is taken.   But where meals are  eaten
at intervals of only a few hours there is absolutely no chance for the  per-
son to rid himself of this poison cloud, and as a consequence he grows worse
and worse, shortening the span of his natural life in a manner that would be
a shocking surprise to most of these people could they realize it.

   For these reasons anyone who wishes to obtain and maintain health  should
make  it a point to eat only two or three times a day and SPARINGLY,  taking
care to secure an abundance of bulk rather than nutriment,  for it is an ac-
tual  fact that many,  many more people die of too much nourishment  of  too
little.




[PAGE 143]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

                                 CHAPTER XI

                       ASTROLOGY AS AN AID TO HEALING

ASTROLOGICAL BASIS FOR HEALING:

   It is well known to the modern physician that the condition of the blood,
and therefore the condition of the whole body,  changes in sympathy with the
state of mind of the patient,  and the more the physician uses suggestion as
an adjunct to medicine the more successful he is.   Few perhaps would credit
the  further fact that both our mental and physical condition is  influenced
by planetary rays which change as the planets move.  In these days since the
principle  of  radio-activity has been established we  know  that  everybody
projects  into space numberless little particles.   Wireless telegraphy  has
taught us that etheric waves travel swiftly and surely through space and op-
erate  a key according to our will.   We also know that the rays of the  sun
affect  us differently in the morning when they strike us horizontally  than
at  noon  when  they  are  perpendicular.   If  the  light  rays  from   the
swift-moving sun produce physical and mental changes, may not the persistent
rays of slower planets also have an effect?  If they have,  they are factors
in  health  not to be overlooked by a thoroughly scientific healer,  and  we
therefore maintain that results may be obtained more easily at certain times
when the stellar rays are propitious for the healing of a particular disease


[PAGE 144]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

or  for treatment with remedies previously prepared under auspicious  condi-
tions.

   If physicians would study the science of astrology,  they would thus with
a very slight effort be able to diagnose their patient's condition in a man-
ner  altogether impossible from the ordinary diagnostician's point of  view.
Some physicians are waking up to that fact and have discovered by their  ex-
periences  that  the  heavenly bodies do have an influence  upon  the  human
frame.   For instance, when the writer was in Portland, Oregon,  a physician
mentioned  as his observation that whenever it was possible for him to  per-
form  an operation while the moon was increasing in light,  that is to  say,
going  from the new to the full, the operation was always successful and  no
complications would set in.   On the other hand, he had found that when cir-
cumstances  compelled  him to perform an operation when the Moon  was  going
from the full to the dark there was great danger of trouble,  and that  such
operations were never as satisfactory as those performed while the light  of
the Moon was increasing.

    The  way to find out the peculiarities of the Spirit that dwells in  the
patient's body is to cast his horoscope to see when the times are propitious
for the administration of drugs,  giving the appropriate HERBS at the proper
time.   Paracelsus did that, and therefore he was always successful with his
patients;  he never made a mistake.   There are some who use  astrology  for
that purpose today;  the writer, for instance, has thus used it in diagnosis
in  many  cases.   He has then always been able to see  the  crises  in  the
patient's  condition,  the past, present, and future; and thus has been able


[PAGE 145]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

to afford much relief to persons suffering from various illnesses.  It is to
such uses that astrology should be put, and not degraded into fortunetelling
for the sake of gold, for, like all spiritual sciences,  it ought to be used
for the benefit of humanity, regardless of mercenary considerations.

   There are seven spheres,  the planets of our solar system.   Each has its
own keynote and emits a sound varying from that of every other planet.   One
or  more among them vibrates in particular synchrony with the seed  atom  of
the  Ego  then  seeking embodiment.   This planet then  corresponds  to  the
"tonic"  in the music scale,  and though the tones from all the planets  are
necessary to build up an organism completely,  each is modified and made  to
conform  to the basic impact given by the most harmonious planet,  which  is
therefore  the ruler of that life.   As in terrestrial music so also in  the
celestial  there are harmonies and discords, and these all impinge upon  the
seed atom and aid in building the archetype.   Vibratory lines of force  are
thus formed, which later attract and arrange physical particles as spores of
sand  are marshaled into geometrical figures by bowing a brass plate with  a
violin bow.

   Along  these  archetypal lines of vibration the physical  body  is  later
built, and thus it expresses accurately the harmony of the spheres as it was
played during the period of construction.   This period,  however,  is  much
longer than the actual period of gestation, and varies according to the com-
plexity  of the structure required by the life seeking  physical  manifesta-
tion.   Nor is the process of construction of the archetype continuous,  for
under aspects of the  planets  which produce notes to which vibratory powers


[PAGE 146]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

of  the seed atom cannot respond it simply hums over those which it has  al-
ready learned, and thus engaged it waits for a new sound which it can use to
build more of the organism which it desires in order to express itself.

    Thus,  seeing that the terrestrial organism which each of us inhabits is
molded along vibratory lines produced by the song of the spheres, we may re-
alize that the inharmonies which express themselves as disease are  produced
in the first place by the spiritual inharmony within.  It is further evident
that  if  we obtain accurate knowledge concerning the direct  cause  of  the
inharmony and remedy it,  the physical manifestation of disease will shortly
disappear.  It is this information which is given by the horoscope of birth,
for  there each planet in its house and sign expresses harmony  or  discord,
health or disease.   Therefore,  all methods of healing are adequate only in
proportion  as they take into consideration the stellar harmonies  and  dis-
cords expressed in the wheel of life--the horoscope.

   While the laws of Nature that govern in the lower realms are all-powerful
under  ordinary circumstances,  there are higher laws which pertain  to  the
spiritual realms and which may under certain circumstances be made to super-
sede  the former.   For instance,  the forgiveness of sins upon  recognition
thereof  and true repentance is made to supersede the law which demands  and
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.   When Christ walked upon this Earth
and healed the sick, He, being the lord of the Sun,  embodied within Himself
the synthesis of the stellar vibrations as the octave embodies all the tones
of the scale, and He could  therefore  emit from Himself the true corrective


[PAGE 147]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

planetary influence required in each case.  He sensed the inharmony and knew
at once wherewith to offset it by virtue of His exalted development.  He had
no need of any further preparation,  but obtained results at once by substi-
tuting harmony for the planetary discord which caused the disease  wherewith
He was dealing.   Only in one case did He take refuge in the higher law  and
say, "Arise, thy sins are forgiven."

   Likewise with the ordinary methods employed in the Rosicrucian System  of
Healing,  they  depend upon a knowledge of the planetary  inharmonies  which
cause disease and the correcting influence which will remedy the same.  This
has sufficed in all the instances which have come under our notice to  date.
However,  there is a more powerful method available under a higher law which
may accelerate recovery in cases of long standing, and under certain circum-
stances  where  the sincere and heartfelt recognition of wrong  exists,  may
even obliterate the effects of disease before destiny, cold and hard,  would
otherwise so decree.

   When we look with spiritual vision upon one who is diseased,  whether the
physical  body be emaciated or not,  it is plainly evident to the Seer  that
the finer vehicles are much more tenuous than during health.   Thus they  do
not transmit to the physical body a proper quota of vitality,  and as a con-
sequence that instrument becomes more or less disrupted.   But whatever  may
be the state of emaciation of the rest of the physical body, certain centers
which  are tenuous during health in a degree varying with the spiritual  de-
velopment  of the man,  become clogged in an increasing degree according  to
the  seriousness  of  the  disease.   This  is particularly true of the main


[PAGE 148]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

center between the eyebrows.   Therein the Spirit is immured,  sometimes  to
such an extent that it loses touch with the outer world and its progress and
becomes  so  thoroughly centered upon its own condition that  only  complete
rupture of the physical body can set it free.  This may be a process of long
years,  and in the meantime the planetary inharmony which caused the initial
disease may have passed by,  but the sufferer is unable to take advantage of
the improved conditions.   In such cases a spiritual outpouring of a special
kind is necessary to bring to the soul its message, "Thy sins are forgiven."
When that has been heard,  it may respond to the command,  "Take up thy  bed
and walk."

   None among our present humanity can measure anywhere near the stature  of
the Christ,  consequently none can exercise His power in such extreme cases;
but  the need of that power in active manifestation exists today as much  as
it did two thousand years ago.   Spirit pervades everything in and upon  our
planet,  but in a varying measure.  It has more affinity for some substances
than for others.   Being an emanation from the Christ Principle,  it is  the
Universal  Spirit composing the World of Life Spirit that restores the  syn-
thetic harmony of the body.

THE LAWS OF COMPATIBILITY AND SYSTEMIC RECEPTIBILITY:

   There   are two basic laws in the science of Astrotherapy or  healing  by
use of the stellar ray; one is the Law of Compatability, the other,  the law
of  Systemic  Receptibility.   By knowledge and intelligent  application  of
these laws the sick regain health much more  rapidly than otherwise and with


[PAGE 149]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

minimum effort on the part of the health adjuster.

   At  the  time of conception the Moon was in the degree which  ascends  at
birth (or its opposite); the vital body was then placed in the mother's womb
as  a  matrix into which the chemical elements forming our  dense  body  are
built.   The  vital body emits a sound similar to the buzz of  a  bumblebee.
During  life  these etheric sound waves attract and place the  chemical  el-
ements of our food so that they are formed into organs and tissues.  So long
as the etheric sound waves in our vital body are in harmony with the keynote
of the archetype,  the chemical elements wherewith we nourish our dense body
are  properly  disposed of and assimilated,  and health prevails  no  matter
whether we are stout or thin, of rosy complexion or sallow,  or whatever the
outward appearance.   But the moment the sound waves in the vital body  vary
from the archetypal key-note,  this dissonance places the chemical  elements
of  our food in a manner incongruous with the lines of force in  the  arche-
type.

   Then imperfect elimination of waste,  accumulation of poison in the  sys-
tem,  and abnormal growths and other conditions become manifest in the dense
body,  and  disease continues until harmony has been restored to  the  vital
body.  When the invisible cause has been removed, the visible effects disap-
pear,  and health is restored.  Thus we see that incipient disease manifests
in the vital body before the dense body begins to show signs of  disability,
and recovery of the vital body also precedes convalescence.

   When  a  healthy  person  meets  with an  accident,  his  vital  body  is
unimpaired;  therefore  he  may not feel the full extent of the injury until


[PAGE 150]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

several days afterwards.  If he survives the shock of the maximum dissonance
between the vital body and the archetype, the chances are good for recovery.

   The pitch of the etheric vibration in the vital body is determined by the
rising sign, for the reason given.  Each of the twelve signs imparts a sound
different from that of all the other signs,  as each of the twelve signs  in
the chromatic scale varies from the rest.  Some notes blend harmoniously and
with a pleasing effect;  others are basically discordant and grate upon  our
sensibilities.   Similarly,  the harmony of their rising  signs  makes  some
people  agreeable and capable of helping and healing each other when  neces-
sary,  while  people whose rising signs are in dissonance can  neither  give
each other help nor receive it from each other.

   The first consideration,  when about to undertake a case,  is to discover
the basic spiritual relationship between the healer and patient.  If the Law
of Compatability shows harmony,  the outlook is good for a speedy  recovery;
but where inharmony appears,  the patient should be turned over to a  doctor
or healer with whom he is in accord.

   This is the method which the Elder Brothers use in apportioning  patients
among  Invisible Helpers,  and it is the key to the success we have  had  in
benefiting all who have applied to Headquarters for help.

   Astrologically,  there are four elements:  Fire, Air,  Earth,  and Water.
The  planets are so many foci through which the influences of the signs  are
projected upon the newborn babe and give tone to the body,   particularly if
located in the Ascendant.  The success of the healer varies in proportion as


[PAGE 151]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

his  constitution agrees with that of the patient's ascending sign,  whether
fiery, earthy, airy, or water.

   When Saturn in the horoscope of one person occupies any degree of the zo-
diac included in the 1st or 6th house of another,  those people are mutually
incompatible and incapable of conferring benefit upon each other.   Mars and
Uranus also have an evil effect, but their force is quickly spent; it may be
compared to the snap of a terrier.   But the influence of Saturn is like the
locked jaws of a bulldog, a strangle hold, a death grip, from which there is
no release.

    The Sun is the great reservoir of LIFE, the very opposite of Saturn;  we
may  therefore readily see that its position would mark one as  particularly
beneficial  to a certain class and in certain diseases.   This influence  is
determined by its position according to triplicity.   Thus,  those who  have
the  Sun in one of the fiery signs have great healing power with respect  to
people suffering from diseases ruled by these signs;  those with the Sun  in
airy signs have power over diseases usual to airy signs,  etc.   Those  born
under  the  cardinal  sign of a certain triplicity are  most  successful  in
treating acute cases of disease pertaining to those three signs; one who has
the Sun in a fixed sign is apt in the cure of chronic diseases of that  tri-
plicity.   Those born with the Sun in common signs make the least successful
healers, but have more power to soothe the sick, and often bring recovery by
their quieting influence on the patient's nerves.  Therefore,  they make the
best nurses for patients under their triplicity,  especially where there  is
mental trouble or where physical illness is the result of mental unrest.


[PAGE 152]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   Thus, people born when the Sun was in one of the fiery signs, Aries, Leo,
or  Sagittarius,  are particularly successful in the treatment of the  head,
heart, spinal cord, femoral region, fevers, etc.  Those born in April,  with
the  Sun in Aries,  would be best for the treatment of acute cases of  those
ailments.   Those  born in August,  with the Sun in Leo,  would  succeed  in
chronic cases where others would fail,  and if these healers secure a  nurse
having the Sun in Sagittarius, he or she will aid them in all their cases as
no one else could.  The same holds good of the other triplicities.

INFLUENCE OF THE MOON IN HEALING:

   The Moon is the heavenly orb that brings all things to pass;  whatever is
foreshown  by all the other planets never comes to fruition until  the  Moon
brings it to a climax.

   There is within the human body an ebb and flow, a tide,  just the same as
there is in the outside world.   There are critical periods in certain  dis-
eases  in particular that can be measured accurately by the Moon and  it  is
therefore  important  that  all understand the  influence  of  this  unusual
planet.

   There  is a cosmic force that culminates at the New Moon and  another  at
the time when the Moon is full.  Everything that is started from the time of
the  New Moon until the full increases in intensity and  finally  culminates
when the Moon is full.   That period marks the flowing out of the life  that
comes from the Sun and is reflected to us by way of the Moon.  This force is
a  great aid in building up the body and keeping it in a healthy  condition.
From  the  Full  Moon  to  the  time  of the New Moon this great light force


[PAGE 153]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

becomes darker and darker and everything that has come to a focus begins to
fade and gradually dies.

   Knowing that the Moon has these two influences according to whether it is
increasing or decreasing,  we find that in applying treatment notice must be
taken of them.   All treatments, like drugs, may be divided into two general
classes:  stimulants and sedatives.  The first class has a distinctly better
effect and is more easily applied during the increase of the Moon,  and  the
other is found much more effectual if used during the Moon's decrease.

   The general rule is:   From the time of the New Moon to that of the  Full
Moon stimulants produce the greatest effect and sedatives are weakest.   De-
crease the dose of stimulants and increase that of sedatives.  The exception
is:  When the Moon increasing approaches a conjunction to Saturn give larger
doses of stimulants and smaller doses of sedatives.

   When  the  Moon is increasing and approaching a conjunction to  Mars  and
Mercury, stimulants have their maximum and sedatives their minimum effect.

   When  the increasing Moon is in good aspect to Jupiter and Venus  cardiac
stimulation produces the most lasting results.   Palpitation is most  effec-
tively treated when the Moon is decreasing and aspects the before  mentioned
planets favorably.   Apply heart stimulants with extreme care when the  Moon
aspects these planets unfavorably,  especially when dark.   Anesthetics  are
also then most liable to produce fatal results.  If we inhibit the function-
ing of the pneumogastric nerve to a certain extent,  we quiet the heart  ac-
tion  and  are  then  applying what would be the equivalent of a sedative in


[PAGE 154]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

medicine.   Manipulation of this nerve in such a way as to stimulate  action
is applying the equivalent of a medical stimulant.

PLANETARY POLARITIES:

   When we study magnetism we are dealing with an invisible force; and ordi-
narily we can at best state the way it manifests in the Physical World only,
as is the case whenever we deal with any FORCE.   The Physical World is  the
world  of effects;  the causes are hidden from our sight,  though  they  are
nearer than hands or feet.   Force is all about us,  invisible and only seen
by the effects it produces.

   If we take a dish of water, for illustration, and allow it to freeze,  we
shall  see a myriad of ice crystals,  beautiful geometrical figures.   These
show the lines along which the water congealed and these lines are lines  of
force which were present before the water congealed; but they were invisible
until the proper conditions were furnished them and they became manifest.

   In the same way there are lines of force going between the two poles of a
magnet;  they are neither seen nor felt until we bring iron or iron  filings
into the place where they are, when they will manifest by arranging the fil-
ings  in an orderly pattern.   By making the proper conditions we may  cause
any of the nature forces to show their effects--moving our street cars, car-
rying messages with lightning speed over thousands of miles, etc., etc., but
the  FORCE itself is ever invisible.  We know that magnetism travels  always
at right angles to the electric current from which it manifests; we know the
difference  between  the manifestation of the electric and magnetic current,


[PAGE 155]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

so dependent upon one another,  but we have never seen either;  though  they
are about the most valuable servants we have today.

   Magnetism may be divided into "mineral" and "animal" magnetism, though in
reality they are one,  but the former has very little influence upon  animal
tissue, while the latter is generally impotent in working with minerals.

   The mineral magnetism is derived directly from lodestones which are  used
to magnetize iron; this process gives to the metal thus treated the property
of attracting iron.   This kind of magnet is very little used,  however,  as
its magnetism becomes depleted,  is too weak in proportion to its bulk,  and
principally  because  the  magnetic force cannot be  controlled  in  such  a
so-called "permanent" magnet.

   The "electromagnet"  is also a "mineral" magnet.  It is simply a piece of
iron  wound round with many turns of wire,  and the strength of  the  magnet
varies as the number of turns of wire, and the strength of the electric cur-
rent that is passed through it.

   Electricity is all about us in a diffused state, of no use for industrial
purposes until it is COMPRESSED and forced through the electric wires by the
powerful ELECTROMAGNETS.   We must have MAGNETISM in the FIRST place  before
we can get any electricity.   Before a new electric generator is started the
"fields," which are nothing but electromagnets, must be magnetized.  If this
is  not done they may turn it till the crack of doom,  at any rate of  speed
they  please,  and  it will never light a single lamp nor move  a  grain  of
weight;  all  depends  upon  the  magnetism  being  there FIRST.  After this


[PAGE 156]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

magnetism  is once started it will leave a little behind when the  generator
is shut down, and this so-called "residual magnetism" will be the nucleus of
force to be built up each time the generator is started afresh.

   All bodies of plants, animals, and men are but transformed mineral.  They
have  all  come from the mineral kingdom in the first  place,  and  chemical
analysis of the plant,  animal,  and human bodies brings out the fact beyond
cavil.  Moreover, we know that the plants get their sustenance from the min-
eral soil,  and both animal and man are eating mineral when they consume the
plants  as food;  even when man eats the animals he is  nevertheless  eating
mineral compounds, and therefore he gets with his food both the mineral sub-
stances and the magnetic force which they contain.

   This force we see manifesting in "haemoglobin,"  or the red coloring mat-
ter in the blood,  which attracts the life-giving oxygen when it comes  into
contact with it in the millions of minute capillaries of the lungs,  parting
with it as readily when it passes through the capillaries which all over the
body connect the arteries with the veins.  Why is this?

   To understand this,  we must acquaint ourselves a little closer with  the
way magnetism manifests as seen in industrial uses.

   There are always two fields or a multiple of two fields in a generator or
motor,  every alternate "field" or magnet being "north-pole" and every other
alternating one "south-pole."   If we wish to run two or more generators  in
"multiple"  and force electricity into the same wire, the first requisite is


[PAGE 157]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

that the magnetic current in the field-magnets should RUN IN THE SAME DIREC-
TION.

   If that were not the case, they would not run together; they would gener-
ate currents going in OPPOSITE directions, blowing their fuses.   That would
be  because  the poles in one generator,  which should have  attracted,  re-
pelled,  and vice versa.  The remedy is to change the ends of the wire which
magnetizes the field; then the magnetic current in one generator will become
like the current of the other, and both will run smoothly together.

   Similar conditions prevail in magnetic healing; a certain vibratory pitch
and  magnetic polarity were infused into each of us when the stellar  forces
surged  through our bodies and gave us our planetary baptism at  the  moment
when we drew our first complete breath.   These are modified during our pil-
grimage of life,  but in the main their initial impulse remains  undisturbed
and therefore the horoscope at birth remains the most vital power in life to
determine our sympathies and antipathies as well as all other matters.  Nay,
more, its pronouncements are more reliable than our conscious likes and dis-
likes.

   Sometimes  we  may meet and learn to like a person,  although we  have  a
feeling that he has an inimical influence on us for which we cannot account,
and  therefore strive to put aside;  but a comparison of his horoscope  with
our own will reveal the reason and if we are wise we heed its warning, or as
surely  as  the circling stars move in their orbits around the Sun  we  will
live to regret our disregard of this handwriting on the wall.


[PAGE 158]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   But there are also many cases when we do not sense the antipathy  between
ourselves and a certain person,  though the horoscope reveals it,  and if we
see  the  signs when comparing the two horoscopes we may  feel  inclined  to
trust  our feelings rather than the stellar script of the horoscopes.   That
also will in time lead to trouble, for the planetary polarity is certain  to
manifest in time unless both parties are sufficiently evolved to rule  their
stars  in  a  large measure.   Such people are few and far  between  at  our
present stage of evolution.  Therefore we shall do well if we use our knowl-
edge of the stellar script to compare our horoscopes with those at least who
come intimately into our lives.   This may save both them and us much misery
and  heartache.   We would advise this course particularly with regard to  a
healer and his patients,  and with reference to a prospective marriage part-
ner.

   When anyone is ill, resistance is at the lowest ebb,  and on that account
he is least able to withstand outside influences.   So the vibrations of the
healer  have  practically unrestrained effect,  and even though  he  may  be
ensouled by the noblest of altruistic motives, desiring to pour out his very
life  for the benefit of the patient, if their stars were adverse at  birth,
his vibratory pitch and magnetism are bound to have an inimical effect  upon
the patient.  Therefore it is of prime necessity that any healer should have
a knowledge of astrology and the Law of Compatibility, whether he belongs to
those who admittedly heal by magnetism and the laying on of hands or to  the
regular  school of physicians,  for the latter also infuse their  vibrations
into  the  patient's  aura  and help or hinder according to the agreement of


[PAGE 159]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

their planetary polarity with that of the patient.

   What  has been said with regard to the healer applies with tenfold  force
to the nurse, for he or she is with the patient practically all the time and
the contact is so much more intimate.

   For healer, nurse, and patient, compatability is determined by the rising
sign,  Saturn,  and the 6th house.  If their rising signs agree in nature so
that all have fiery signs rising, or all have earthy, airy,  or watery signs
rising, they are harmonious, but if the patient has a watery sign rising,  a
nurse or a doctor with fiery signs will have a detrimental effect.

   It is also necessary to see that Saturn in the horoscope of the nurse  or
healer  is  not  placed  in any of the degrees  of  the  zodiac  within  the
patient's 6th house.


[PAGE 160]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

                                 CHAPTER XII

              THE THERAPEUTIC BASIS OF LIGHT, COLOR, AND SOUND

   God is Light.

   Each  time we sink ourselves in these three words we lave in a  spiritual
fountain  of  inexhaustible depth,  and each succeeding time we  sound  more
thoroughly the divine depths and draw more closely to our Father in heaven.

   With  every  year that passes,  with the aid of the  greatest  telescopes
which the ingenuity and mechanical skill of man have been able to  construct
to pierce the depths of space,  it becomes more evident that the  infinitude
of light teaches us the infinitude of God.

   Truly,  God is ONE and undivided.   He enfolds within His being all  that
is,  as the white light embraces all colors.   But he appears  threefold  in
manifestation,  as  the white light is refracted in  three  primary  colors:
blue yellow, and red.  Wherever we see these colors they are emblematical of
the Father,  Son,  and Holy Spirit.  These three primary rays of divine life
are  diffused or radiated through the Sun and produce  Life,  Consciousness,
and Form upon each of the seven light-bearers, the planets, which are called
"the Seven Spirits before the Throne."   Their names are:   Mercury,  Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.


[PAGE 161]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   Each  of the seven planets receives the light of the Sun in  a  different
measure,  according to its proximity to the central orb and the constitution
of its atmosphere, and the beings upon each, according to the stage of their
development have affinity for some of the solar rays.  They absorb the color
or colors congruous to them,  and reflect the remainder upon the other plan-
ets.   This reflected ray bears with it an impulse of the nature of the  be-
ings with which it has been in contact.

   Thus the divine Light and Life comes to each planet, either directly from
the Sun,  or reflected from its six sister planets, and as the summer breeze
which  has  wafted over blooming fields carries upon  its  silent  invisible
wings  the blended fragrance of a multitude of flowers,  so also the  subtle
influences from the garden of God bring to us the commingled impulses of all
the Spirits and in that varicolored light we live and move and have our  be-
ing.

   The rays which come directly from the Sun are productive of spiritual il-
lumination,  the reflected rays from other planets make for added conscious-
ness and moral development,  and the rays reflected by way of the Moon  give
physical growth.

   But as each planet can absorb only a certain quantity of one or more col-
ors  according to the general stage of evolution there,  so each being  upon
Earth:   mineral,  plant, animal, and man, can absorb and thrive only upon a
certain quantity of the various rays projected upon the Earth.   The remain-
der  do  not affect it or produce sensation,  any more than  the  blind  are
conscious of the light and color which exist everywhere around them.


[PAGE 162]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   The  white  light of the Sun contains the seven colors of  the  spectrum.
The  occultist  sees even twelve colors, there being five  between  red  and
violet--going  one  way around the circle--in addition to the  red,  orange,
yellow,  green,  etc.,  of the visible spectrum.   Four of these colors  are
quite indescribable,  but the fifth--the middle one of the five--is  similar
to  the tint of a new-blown peach blossom.  It is in fact the color  of  the
vital  body.   Trained  clairvoyants who describe it  as  "bluish-gray,"  or
"reddish-gray,"  etc., are trying to describe a color that has no equivalent
in the Physical World:   and they are therefore compelled to use the nearest
descriptive terms afforded by our language.

   When the three primary colors are interblended,  there appear four  addi-
tional colors, the three secondary colors:  orange, green, purple,  each due
to  the  blending of two primary colors,  and one color (indigo) which  con-
tains  the  entire gamut of colors,  making in all the seven colors  of  the
spectrum.  (Red plus yellow gives orange; blue plus yellow gives green; blue
plus red gives purple.)

   The color of Mars is red; of Venus, yellow;  of mercury,  violet;  of the
Moon,  green;  of the Sun, orange; of Jupiter, blue; of Saturn,  indigo;  of
uranus,  yellow.   We may blend these colors in order to  obtain  help  from
them.   As a matter of fact,  it is the complementary color which is seen in
the Desire World that produces the effect of the physical colors.   If it is
desired to restrain one whose Mars is too prominent, the gems,  colors,  and
metals of Saturn will help,  but if we want to help someone who is moody and


[PAGE 163]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

taciturn, we may use the gems, colors, and metals of Mars to advantage.

   In  the  Physical  World red has the tendency  to  excite  and  energize,
whereas green has a cooling and a soothing effect,  but the opposite is true
when  we look at the matter from the viewpoint of the Desire  World.   There
the complementary color is active,  and has the effect upon our desires  and
emotions  which  we ascribe to the physical color.   We speak  of  jealousy,
which is engendered by impure love, as the green-eyed monster.

   Upon observing the auras of people,  the trained clairvoyant notices  the
scarlet  of  anger,  the gray and steel blue of fear,  the darkish  blue  of
worry,  the red cloud of hate, the black veil of despair,  etc.   A tinge of
soft  sky-blue indicates hope,  optimism, and a dawning  religious  feeling.
Blue shows the highest type of spirituality, but the blue color does not ap-
pear outside the dense body save in the very greatest of saints--only yellow
is usually observable there.

   In the lower races  the ground color of the aura is a dull red  like  the
color of a slow burning fire, indicating their passionate, emotional nature.
When  we examine people upon a somewhat higher rung of the ladder of  evolu-
tion,  the  basic color or vibration radiated by them is seen to be of an o-
range hue,  the  yellow of intellect mixed with the  red  of  passion.   The
natural  golden color is the Christ ray finding its chemical  expression  in
the oxygen,  a solar element,  and as we advance upon the path of  evolution
those who are not professedly religious acquire a tinge of gold in their au-
ras due to the higher altruistic impulses common to the West.


[PAGE 164]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   There  is an intimate connection between color and tone;  when a  certain
note is struck, a certain color appears simultaneously.  In the heaven world
color  and  sound are both present,  but the tone is the originator  of  the
color.   Pythagoras spoke of the harmony of the spheres,  and he did not use
that expression simply as a poetical allusion.  There is such a harmony.  We
are  told  by John that in the beginning was the Word...and without  it  was
nothing made that was made.   That was the creative fiat which first started
the world into being.  We hear of celestial music, for from the point of the
heaven world, everything is first created in terms of sound which then molds
concrete  matter into the multitudinous forms which we see around  us.   Or-
derly  rhythmic  sound  is  the builder of  all  that  is--the  creator  and
sustainer of all form.

   In the occultist's sphere of vision,  the whole solar system is one  vast
musical instrument,  spoken of in the Greek mythology as the "seven-stringed
lyre of Apollo,  the radiant sun god."  As there are twelve semitones in the
chromatic scale, so we have in the heavens, twelve signs of the zodiac,  and
as  we have the seven keys or whole tones on the keyboard of the  piano,  we
have  seven  planets.   The  signs  of the zodiac may  be  said  to  be  the
sounding-board  of  the cosmic harp and the seven planets are  the  strings;
they  emit  different  sounds as they pass through the  various  signs,  and
therefore they influence mankind in diverse manner.  Should the harmony fail
for one single moment,  should there be the slightest discord in that  heav-
enly band, this whole universe  as such must crumble.  For music can destroy


[PAGE 165]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

as well as build.   This has been well proven by great musicians.   For  in-
stance, the grandson of the immortal Felix Mendelssohn has for several years
been experimenting with the power of sound in that direction.   He has  come
to  the conclusion that once we find the keynote of a building,  bridge,  or
other structure,  we may raze that structure to the ground by sounding  that
note sufficiently loud and long.

   Our  supercilious  smiles of bygone days when listening to the  story  of
Joshua  and the walls of Jericho are no longer in place.   The sound of  the
ram's horn undoubtedly struck the keynote of those walls which had been sen-
sitized by the rhythmic tramp of his army in preparation for this final cli-
max.  The rhythmic tramp of many feet will destroy any bridge, and therefore
soldiers are instructed to break step when crossing a bridge.

   Thus  we may say that every planet gives out a keynote which is  the  sum
total  of all the noises upon it,  blended and harmonized by the  indwelling
Planetary  Spirit.   That sound can be heard by the Spirit ear.   As  Goethe
says:

         "The sun intones his ancient song
          Mid rival chant of brother spheres;
          His prescribed course he speeds along
          In thunderous ways, throughout the years."

         "Sound unto the spirit ear proclaims the
             new-born day is here;
          Rocky gates are creaking, rattling,
          Phoebus' wheels are rolling, singing--
          What sound intense the light is bringing."


[PAGE 166]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   The  invisible  sound-vibrations have great power over  concrete  matter.
They  both build and destroy.   If a small quantity of very fine  powder  is
placed upon a brass or glass plate,  and a violin bow drawn across the edge,
the  vibrations will cause the powder to assume beautiful  geometrical  fig-
ures.   The human voice is also capable of producing these  figures;  always
the same figure for the same tone.

   If   one  note  or  chord  after  another  be  sounded  upon  a   musical
instrument--a piano,  or preferably a violin, for from it more gradations of
tone  can be obtained--a tone will finally be reached which will  cause  the
hearer  to  feel a distinct vibration in the back of the lower part  of  the
head.  Each time that note is struck, the vibration will be felt.  That note
is  the  keynote of the person whom it so affects.   If it be sounded  in  a
dominant way,  loud and long enough, it will kill as surely as a bullet from
a pistol.  If, on the other hand, it is struck slowly and soothingly it will
build and rest the body, tone the nerves and restore health.


[PAGE 167]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

                                CHAPTER XIII

                              SLEEP AND HEALTH

   THE VALUE OF SLEEP:

   During  the daytime the vital body specializes the colorless solar  fluid
which is all about us, through the organ we call the spleen.   This vitality
permeates the whole body and is seen by the clairvoyant as a fluid of a pale
rose  color,  having been transmuted upon entering the  physical  body.   It
flows  along every nerve,  and when it is sent out by the brain  centers  in
particularly large quantities it moves the muscles to which the nerves lead.

   The  vital body may be said to be built of points which stick out in  all
directions, inward, outward, upward, and downward, all through the body, and
each  little  point goes through the center of one of  the  chemical  atoms,
causing it to vibrate at a higher rate than its natural speed.   This  vital
body  interpenetrates the dense body from birth till death under all  condi-
tions except when,  for instance,  the blood circulation stops in a  certain
part,  as when we rest a hand upon the edge of a table for some time and  it
"goes to sleep,"  as we say.   Then, if clairvoyant,  we may see the etheric
hand  as  a glove,  and the chemical atoms of the hand  relapse  into  their
natural slow rate of vibration.   When we slap the hand to cause it to "wake
up,"  as  we  say, the peculiar prickling sensation we feel is caused by the


[PAGE 168]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

points of the vital body which then re-enter the sleeping atoms of the  hand
and start them into renewed vibration.

   The vital body leaves the dense body in a similar manner when a person is
dying.   Drowning persons who have been resuscitated experience  an  intense
agony caused by the entrance of these points, which they feel as a prickling
sensation.

   During the daytime,  when the solar fluid is being absorbed by the man in
great quantities, these points of the vital body are blown out or distended,
as it were, by the vital fluid, but as the day advances and poisons of decay
clog the physical body more and more, the vital fluid flows less rapidly; in
the evening there comes a time when the points in the vital body do not  get
a full supply of the life-giving fluid; they shrivel up and the atoms of the
body move more sluggishly in consequence.  Thus the Ego feels the body to be
heavy,  dull,  and tired.  At last there comes a time when, as it were,  the
vital  body collapses and the vibrations of the dense atoms become  so  slow
that the Ego can no longer move the body.   It is forced to withdrawn in or-
der  that  its vehicles may recuperate.   Then we say the body has  gone  to
sleep.

   Sleep is not an inactive state,  however; if it were,  there would be  no
difference in feeling in the morning and no restorative power in sleep.  The
vey word RESTORATION implies activity.

   When a building has become dilapidated from constant wear and tear and it
is  necessary to renovate and restore it, the tenants move out to  give  the
workmen full play.  For similar reasons the Ego moves out of its tenement at
night.  As  the  workmen  work  upon  the  building,  to  make  it  fit  for


[PAGE 169]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

reoccupancy, so the Ego must work upon its building before it will be fit to
re-enter.   And such a work is done by us during the night time, although we
are not conscious of it in our waking state.   It is this activity which re-
moves  the poisons from the system,  and as a result the body is  fresh  and
vigorous in the morning when the Ego enters at the time of waking.

HOW TO TREAT DISEASE DURING SLEEP:

   It  has been asked if a person can be influenced in natural sleep  as  he
can in hypnotic sleep, or if there is a difference.  Yes, there is a differ-
ence.   In the natural sleep,  the Ego, clothed in the mind and desire body,
draws outside the physical body and usually hovers over the body,  or at any
rate remains close to it, connected by the silver cord, while the vital body
and the dense body are resting upon the bed.

   It is then possible to influence the person by instilling into his  brain
the thoughts and ideas we wish to communicate.  Nevertheless, we cannot then
get him to do anything or to entertain any idea except that which is in line
with his natural proclivities.   IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO COMMAND HIM TO DO  ANY-
THING  AND TO ENFORCE OBEDIENCE,  the same as it is when he has been  driven
out  by  the passes of the hypnotist,  for it is the brain which  moves  the
muscles,  and during the natural sleep his brain is interpenetrated  by  his
own vital body and he is in perfect control himself,  while during the  hyp-
notic  sleep the passes of the hypnotist have driven the ether of which  his
vital body is composed out of the brain,  down to the shoulders of the  vic-
tim,  where it lies around his neck and resembles the collar of  a  sweater.


[PAGE 170]                          OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

The  dense brain is then open to the ether from the hypnotist's vital  body,
which displaces that of the proper owner.   Thus,  IN THE HYPNOTIC SLEEP THE
VICTIM HAS NO CHOICE WHATEVER AS TO THE IDEAS HE ENTERTAINS OR THE MOVEMENTS
HE MAKES WITH HIS BODY,  but in the ordinary sleep he is still a free agent.
In fact,  this method of suggestion during sleep is something which  mothers
will find extremely beneficial in treating refractory children,  for if  the
mother will sit by the bed of the sleeping child, hold its hand, speak to it
as she would speak when it is awake, instill into its brain ideas of such  a
nature as she would wish it to entertain,  she will find that in the  waking
state many of these ideas will have taken root.  Also in dealing with a per-
son who is sick or is addicted to drink, if the mother, nurse, or others use
this method, they will find it possible to instill hope and healing, materi-
ally furthering recovery or aiding self-mastery.

THE EFFECT OF HYPNOTIC SLEEP:

   From  the  occult viewpoint it is obviously wrong to try to  cure  a  bad
habit,  such as drunkenness, by hypnotism.  Looked at from the standpoint of
one  life,  such methods as those employed by the healers  of  the  Immanuel
Movement,  etc.,  are undoubtedly productive of an immense amount  of  good.
The patient is seated in a chair,  put into sleep and there he is given cer-
tain so-called "suggestions."  He rises and is cured of his bad habit;  from
being a drunkard he becomes a respectable citizen who cares for his wife and
family, and upon the face of it the good seems to be undeniable.


[PAGE 171]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

   But looking at it from the deeper standpoint of the occultist,  WHO VIEWS
THIS LIFE AS ONLY ONE IN MANY, and looking at it from the effect is has upon
the invisible vehicles of man, the case is vastly different.   When a man is
put  into a hypnotic sleep,  the hypnotist makes passes over him which  have
the  effect of expelling the ether from the head of his dense body and  sub-
stituting  the ether of the hypnotist.   The man is then under  the  perfect
domination of another;  he has no free will, and,  therefore,  the so-called
"suggestions"  are in reality COMMANDS which the victim has no choice but to
obey.  Besides, when the hypnotist withdraws his ether and wakens the victim
he is unable to remove all the ether he put into him.  To use a simile, as a
small part of the magnetism infused into an electric dynamo before it can be
started for the first time is left behind and remains as residual  magnetism
to  excite  the fields of the dynamo every time it is started  up,  so  also
there remains a small part of the ether of the hypnotist's vital body in the
medulla  oblongata of the victim,  which is a club the hypnotist holds  over
him all his life,  and it is due to this fact that suggestions to be carried
out  at  a period subsequent to the awakening of the victim  are  invariably
followed.

   Thus  the victim of a hypnotic healer does not overcome the bad habit  by
his  own strength,  but is as much chained in that respect as if he were  in
solitary confinement,  and although in this life he may seem to be a  better
citizen,  when  he returns to Earth in another embodiment he will  have  the
same weakness and have to struggle until at last he overcomes it himself.


[PAGE 172]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

PROTECTIVE INFLUENCE:

   There are methods of protecting oneself from inimical influences,  and it
is  better to be enlightened concerning things that threaten so that we  may
take whatever precautions are necessary to meet the emergency.

   When  we live lives of purity,  when our days are filled with service  to
God and to our fellow men,  and with thoughts and actions of the highest no-
bility,  then we create for ourselves the GOLDEN WEDDING GARMENT, which is a
radiant force for good.   No evil is able to penetrate this armor,  for  the
evil acts as a boomerang and recoils on the one who sent it, bringing to him
the evil he wished others.

   It  is a fact than an auric atmosphere surrounds every human  being.   We
know that often we feel the presence of a person whom we do not see,  and we
feel it because there is this atmosphere outside of our dense bodies.   This
is gradually changing;  gradually it is becoming more and more golden in the
West.   The  farther  we  go  with the  Sun,  the  more  this  golden  color
increases--the color of the Christ and of the Christ-like,  the saints  whom
painters  have  depicted with a halo.  Gradually we are becoming  more  like
Him,  and this SOMA PSUCHICON or soul body is taking shape,  is  being  made
ready as our "Wedding Garment."

   But, alas, none of us are altogether good.  We know only too well the war
between  the flesh and the Spirit.   We cannot hide from ourselves the  fact
that like Paul,  "the good that we would do, we do not, and the evil that we
would shun,  that we do."  Far too often our good resolutions come to naught
and  we  do  wrong because it is easier.  Therefore, we all have the nucleus


[PAGE 173]                           OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH AND HEALING

of evil within ourselves,  which affords the open sesame for evil forces  to
work  upon.   For that reason it is best for us not to expose ourselves  un-
necessarily  at places where seances are held with Spirits invisible to  us,
no  matter how fine their teachings may sound to the unsophisticated.   Nei-
ther should we take part even as spectators at hypnotic demonstrations,  for
there  also a negative attitude lays one liable to the danger of  obsession.
We should at all times follow the advice of Paul and put on the whole  armor
of  God.   We should be positive in our fight for the good against the  evil
and never let an occasion slip to aid the Elder Brothers by word or deed  in
the Great War for spiritual supremacy.


                             --- END OF FILE ---

