[PAGE 1]                                               QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS




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           [ T H E  R O S I C R U C I A N  P H I L O S O P H Y ]
           [                                                   ]
           [                       I N                         ]
           [                                                   ]
           [     Q U E S T I O N S  A N D  A N S W E R S       ]
           [                                                   ]
           [                                                   ]
           [                V O L U M E  O N E                 ]
           [                                                   ]
           [                        By                         ]
           [                                                   ]
           [                                                   ]
           [               M A X  H E I N D E L                ]
           [                    [1865-1919]                    ]
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                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                         International Headquarters
                                P.O. Box 713
                     Oceanside, California, U.S.A., 92054






[PAGE 3]                                               QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS



                          PARTIAL LIST OF SUBJECTS

                                                                     PAGE

SECTION 1.      LIFE ON EARTH........................................7-96
                      Social Conditions.
                      Marriage.
                      Children.
                      Sleep and Dreams..
                      Health and Disease

SECTION II.     LIFE AFTER DEATH...................................97-132
                      The Science of Death.
                      Cremation.
                      Purgatory.
                      The First Heaven.
                      The Second Heaven.
                      The Third Heaven.
                      Guardian Angels

SECTION III.    REBIRTH...........................................133-146
                      The Law of Rebirth.
                      The Law of Causation.
                      Transmigration.

SECTION IV.     THE BIBLE TEACHINGS...............................147-238
                      The Creation.
                      The Fall.
                      The Immaculate Conception.
                      Sayings of Christ.



SECTION V.      SPIRITUALISTIC PHENOMENA..........................239-258
                      Mediumship.
                      Obsession.
                      Materialization


[PAGE 4]                                               QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

SECTION VI.     CLAIRVOYANCE......................................259-301
                      Dangers of Psychism.
                      True Spiritual Unfoldment.
                      Initiation.

SECTION VII.    ASTROLOGY.........................................303-324
                      True and False Astrology.
                      Prayer and Astrology.
                      Freewill and Astrology.

SECTION VIII.   ANIMALS...........................................325-339
                      Their Life Here and Hereafter.

SECTION IX.     MISCELLANEOUS.....................................341-377

SECTION X.      CLASSIFIED LIST OF QUESTIONS AND INDEX............379-417

                     ----------------------------------

                              LIST OF DIAGRAMS

                                                              PAGE

The Supreme Being, God and Other Gods...........................98
A Life Cycle...................................................132
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit................................260

The Path of the Unused Sex-Currents............................340
As Above, so Below.............................................420
Man's Past, Present and Future Form............................421
The Four Kingdoms..............................................422
The Constitution of the Earth..................................423
The Seven Worlds...............................................424
Diagram Shown the Comparative Reality of the Visible and
   Invisible Worlds by Using a Stereopticon as Illustration....425
The Seven World-Periods........................................426
The Seven Days of Creation.....................................342
Four Great Initiations.........................................427


[PAGE 5]                                               QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                            A WORD OF EXPLANATION

   The questions contained in this book have been asked of the writer  after
lectures delivered by him in various cities, and,  in most cases,  the ques-
tions reveal a certain knowledge of the subject on the part of the inquirer.

   For  the  benefit  of those who are not  familiar  with  THE  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION,  it may be well to give the following information concern-
ing the philosophy and the terms used.   With that key,  it will be easy for
anyone to understand the answer to the questions.   It may also be in  place
to  state at this point that each question has been answered  regardless  of
what has been said in answer to any other question,  so that each answer  is
complete in itself.   This has occasioned repetition of some things said  in
answer  to one questions when replying to another which is similar,  but  it
will be found that in all cases where there is such repetition it presents a
new aspect of the subject, so that the writer has no apology to make, for he
considers  the method used of greater value than a reference to  some  other
answer which perhaps the inquirer might not have time to look up.

   The  Rosicrucian Philosophy teaches that man is a complex being who  pos-
sesses:

   (1)   A DENSE BODY,  which is the visible instrument he uses here in this
world to fetch and carry; the body we ordinarily think of as the whole man.

   (2)   A VITAL BODY,  which is made of Ether and pervades the visible body
as ether permeates all other forms, except that human  beings  specialize  a


[PAGE 6]                                               QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

greater amount of the universal ether than other forms.   That ethereal body
is our instrument for specializing the vital energy of the sun.

   (3)   A DESIRE BODY,  which is our emotional nature.   This finer vehicle
pervades both the vital and dense bodies.   It is seen by clairvoyant vision
to extend about 16 inches outside our visible body,  which is located in the
center of this ovoid cloud as the yolk is in the center of an egg.

   (4)    THE MIND,  which is a mirror,  reflecting the outer world and  en-
abling the Ego to transmit its commands as thought and word,  also to compel
action.

   THE EGO is the threefold spirit which uses these vehicles to gather expe-
rience in the school of life.


[PAGE 7]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                                  SECTION I

                            QUESTIONS DEALING WITH  

                                LIFE ON EARTH




[PAGE 9]                                               QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                               QUESTION NO. 1

   IF WE WERE PURE SPIRIT AND A PART OF AN ALL-KNOWING GOD,  WHY WAS IT NEC-
ESSARY FOR US TO TAKE THIS LONG PILGRIMAGE OF SIN AND SORROW THROUGH MATTER?

   ANSWER:   In the beginning of manifestation,  God  differentiated  within
Himself a multitude of potential spiritual intelligences as sparks are emit-
ted by a fire.   These spiritual intelligences were thus potential flames or
fires,  but  they  were  not  yet  fires,  for,  thought  endowed  with  the
all-consciousness of God, they lacked SELF-consciousness;  being POTENTIALLY
omnipotent as God, they lacked dynamic power available for use at any moment
according to their will;  and in order that these qualities might be evolved
it was imperative that they should go through matter.  Therefore, during IN-
VOLUTION  each  Divine Spark was encased in various vehicles  of  sufficient
density to shut off the outer world from its consciousness.  Then the spirit
within, no longer able to contact the without, turns and finds ITSELF.  With
wakening SELF-consciousness comes the spirit's struggle to free itself  from
its prison,  and during evolution the various vehicles which the spirit pos-
sess will be spiritualized into soul, so that,  at the end of manifestation,
the spirit will not only have gained SELF-consciousness but also soul-power.

   There is a tendency upon the part of most people to believe that all that
is  is the result of something else, leaving no place for any  original  new
building.  Those  who  study  LIFE  usually  speak  only  of  INVOLUTION and


[PAGE 10]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

EVOLUTION; those who study the FORM, namely, the modern scientists, are con-
cerned with EVOLUTION only,  but the most advanced among them are now begin-
ning to find another factor, which they have called EPIGENESIS.  Already, in
1757, Caspar Wolff issued his Theorea Generations, wherein he showed that in
the development of the ovum,  there are a series of new buildings not at all
foreshown  by what has gone before, and Haeckel,  endorsing this work,  says
that  nowadays were are no longer justified in called epigenesis  a  theory.
For  it is a fact which we may demonstrate,  in the case of the lower  forms
where the changes are rapid,  under a microscope.   Since the mind was given
to man, it is this original creative impulse, epigenesis, which has been the
cause  of all our development.   Truly do we build upon that which has  been
already created,  but there is also something new due to the activity of the
spirit and thus it is that WE BECOME CREATORS,  for if we only imitated that
which  had already been laid out for us by God or Angel,  it would never  be
possible for us to become creative intelligences;  WE WOULD SIMPLY BE IMITA-
TORS.  And even thought we make mistakes, it may be said that we often learn
much more by our mistakes than by our successes.   The SIN and the suffering
which  the  inquirer speaks about are merely the result of the  mistakes  we
make,  and  their impression upon our consciousness causes us to  be  active
along  other  lines  which  are found to be GOOD--that is to say, in harmony
with nature. Thus this world is a training school and not a  vale  of  tears
wherein we have been placed by a capricious God.  (See Question No. 9)


[PAGE 11]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                               QUESTION NO. 2

   IF "GOD MADE MAN A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS," HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT
MAN IS ULTIMATELY TO BECOME THEIR SUPERIOR IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD?

   ANSWER:  This question reveals a misapprehension upon the part of the in-
quirer.  It has never been so stated in the Rosicrucian teachings, but some-
thing  has been said which may have been so misconstrued.   The fact of  the
matter  is that evolution moves in a spiral and there is never a  repetition
of THE SAME condition.   Angels are an earlier stream of evolution who  were
human in a previous incarnation of the earth,  called the Moon Period  among
Rosicrucians.   The Archangels were the humanity of the Sun Period  and  the
Lords of Mind, called by Paul the "Powers of Darkness," were the humanity of
the fourth period of the present scheme of manifestation,  the Earth Period.
As all beings in the universe are progressing,  the humanity of the previous
periods  have  also progressed so that they are NOW at a higher  stage  than
they were when they were human-they are superhuman.  Therefore,  it is  per-
fectly true that God made man a little lower than the Angels.  But as every-
thing is in a state of SPIRAL progression,  it is also true that our present
humanity  is  a higher and more evolved humanity than the Angels  were;  and
that  the  Angels were a higher order of humanity than the  Archangels  were
when they were human.   In the next step we shall attain something like  the
stage  of the Angels at the present time,  but we shall be superior to  what
they are NOW.


[PAGE 12]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                               QUESTION NO. 3

   WHY  SHOULD IT BE NECESSARY FOR US TO COME INTO THIS PHYSICAL  EXISTENCE?
COULD WE NOT HAVE LEARNED THE SAME LESSONS WITHOUT BEING IMPRISONED AND LIM-
ITED BY THE DENSE CONDITIONS OF THE MATERIAL WORLD?

   ANSWER:   The New Testament was written in Greek originally, and the word
LOGOS means both word and the THOUGHT which precedes the word,  so that when
John tells us in the first chapter of his Gospel that "In the beginning  was
the  word,  and the word was with God, and the word was God,"  we  may  also
translate  the verse:   In the beginning was the THOUGHT,  and the WORD  was
with  God,  and God was the word.  EVERYTHING EXISTS BY VIRTUE OF  THAT FACT
(the word).  In that is "life."

   Everything that exists in the universe was first a THOUGHT,  that thought
then  manifesting  as  a WORD,  a SOUND,  with build all  FORMS  and  itself
manifested as the LIFE within those forms.  that is the process of creation,
and man, who was made in the image of God, creates in the same way to a cer-
tain extent.   He has the capability of thinking;  he may voice his thoughts
and in that way, where he is not capable of carrying out his ideas alone,  e
may secure the help of others to realize them.  But a time is coming when he
will create directly by the word of his mouth,  so that when in time he  be-
comes able to use HIS WORD to create DIRECTLY he will know how.  That train-
ing  is absolutely necessary.   At the present time he would make many  mis-
takes.   Besides,  he  is not yet good-he would bring  into  being  demoniac
creations.


[PAGE 13]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   In  the  earliest dawn of man's endeavor,  he used the  SOLIDS;  muscular
force was his only means of performing work, and from bones and stones which
he  picked up from the ground,  he shaped his first crude instruments to  be
wielded  by  his  arm.   Then came a time when in a rude  dug-out  he  first
trusted  himself to the waters;  a LIQUID and the water wheel was the  first
machinery.  The liquid is already much stronger than the solid.  A wave will
raze the decks of a ship,  tear out masts and twist the stoutest iron bar as
it it were a thin wire;  but water power is a stationary force and therefore
limited  to  work in its immediate vicinity.   When man learned to  use  the
still  more subtle force which we call air,  it became possible for  him  to
erect windmills in any place to do his work and sailing vessels brought  the
whole  world into communication.   Thus,  man's next step in unfoldment  was
achieved by the use of a force still subtler than water and more universally
applicable  than that element.   But wind was fickle and not to be  depended
upon;  therefore,  the advancement in human civilization achieved by its use
paled into insiginificance when man discovered how to utilize the still more
subtle  gas which is called STEAM,  FOR THAT CAN BE MADE ANYWHERE AND EVERY-
WHERE,  and  the progress of the world has been enormous since  its  advent.
There  is,  however,  the drawback to its utility that steam-power  requires
cumbersome transmission machinery.   This drawback is practically eliminated
by  using a still subtler force,  more readily  transmissable;  electricity,
which is altogether invisible and intangible.

   Thus,  we see that the progress of man in the past has depended upon  the
utilization of forces of increasing subtlety, each force in the scale  being
more readily capable of transmission than the ones previously available, and


[PAGE 14]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

we  can readily realize that further progress depends upon the discovery  of
STILL FINER FORCES TRANSMISSABLE WITH STILL GREATER FACILITY.   We know that
that which we call wireless telegraphy is accomplished without even the  use
of wires, but even that system is not ideal, for it depends upon energy gen-
erated  in a central plant,  which is stationary.   It involves the  use  of
costly machinery and is, therefore, out of reach of the majority.  The ideal
force  would be a power which man could generate from himself at any  moment
without machinery.

   A  few decades ago Jules Verne thrilled us with delight when he  conjured
up before our imagination the submarine boat,  the trip around the earth  in
eighty days, etc.  Today the things he pictured have become facts surpassing
even his imagination,  and the day ill come when we shall have available for
use a power plant such as spoken of above.   Bulwer Lytton,  in his  "Coming
Race," has pictured to us a force called "Vril," which certain imaginary be-
ings are possessed of and which they can use to propel themselves over land,
through  the air and in various other ways.   Such a force is latent  within
every  one  of us,  and we speak of it sometimes as EMOTION.   We  feel  its
far-reaching power at times as TEMPER when it is unleashed,  and say "a  man
has  lost control of himself."   No amount of work can so tire the  physical
body  and  wreck it as when the enormous energy of the desire  body  is  let
loose in a fit of temper.  Usually, at the present time, this enormous force
sleeps,  and it is well that it should be so until e have learned to use  it
by means of THOUGHT,  which is a STILL MORE SUBTLE force.   This world is  a
school  to teach us how to use these two subtle forces--the power of thought
and the power of emotion.


[PAGE 15]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   An  illustration will make clear how this world serves that purpose.   An
inventor gets an idea.   The idea is not yet a thought, it is but as it were
a  flash WHICH HAS NOT YET TAKEN SHAPE,  but gradually he visualizes  it  in
mind stuff.  He FORMS IN HIS THOUGHT A MACHINE, and before his mental vision
that machine appears with the wheels revolving this way and that,  as neces-
sary to accomplish the required work.   Then he commences to draw the  plans
for the machine, and even at that stage of concretion it will most certainly
appear  that  modification  are necessary.   Thus we see  that  already  THE
PHYSICAL  CONDITIONS  SHOW THE INVENTOR WHERE HIS THOUGHT WAS  NOT  CORRECT.
When he builds the machine in appropriate material for the accomplishment of
the work,  there are usually more modifications necessary.  Perhaps,  he may
be obliged to throw the first machine away,  entirely rearrange his  concep-
tion  and build a new machine.  Thus the concrete physical  conditions  have
enabled him to detect the flaw in his reasoning;  they force him to make the
necessary modificiations in his original thought to bring out a machine that
will do the work.  Had there been only a World of Thought, he would not have
know that he had made a mistake,  but the concrete physical conditions  show
him where his thought was wrong.

   The Physical World teaches the inventor TO THINK ARIGHT, and his success-
ful machines are the EMBODIMENTS OF RIGHT THOUGHT.

   In the mercantile, social or philanthropic endeavors,  the same principle
holds good.   If our ideas concerning the various matters in life are wrong,
they are corrected when brought into so-called practical uses and thus  THIS
WORLD IS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY TO TEACH US HOW TO WIELD THE POWER OF THOUGHT
AND  DESIRE,  these  forces being held in leach to a  great  extent  at  the
present time by our material conditions.  But as  time  goes on and we learn


[PAGE 16]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

to  think  aright more and more,  we shall at last obtain such  a  power  of
thought  and  we shall be able to think the right thought at once  in  every
case  without  experimenting,  and then we shall also be able TO  SPEAK  OUR
THOUGHT INTO ACTUAL BEING,  AS A THING.  There was a time,  in the far,  far
past,  when man was yet a spiritual being and when the conditions  of  earth
were more plastic.   Then he was taught directly by the Gods to use the word
as a means of creation and he worked thus formatively on the animals and the
plants.  We are told in the Bible that God brought the animals to man and HE
NAMED THEM.   this naming was not simply calling a lion a lion, but it was a
formative process that gave man a power over the thing he named,  and it was
only when selfishness, cruelty and unbridled anger unfitted him for the mas-
tership that the word of power spoken of by the masons was lost.  When holi-
ness shall have again taken the place of profanity,  the word will be  found
again and will be the creative power of the divine man in a future age.


[PAGE 17]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                               QUESTION NO. 4

   IF  THIS EARTH LIFE IS SO IMPORTANT AND REALLY THE BASIS OF ALL OUR  SOUL
GROWTH,  THE LATTER RESULTING FROM THE EXPERIENCES WE GAIN HERE,  WHY IS OUR
EARTH  LIFE  SO SHORT IN COMPARISON WITH THE LIFE IN THE INNER  WORLDS,  AP-
PROXIMATING A THOUSAND YEARS BETWEEN TWO EARTH LIVES?

   ANSWER:  All that is in this world which has been made by the hand of man
is CRYSTALLIZED THOUGHT;  the chairs upon which we sit,  the houses in which
we live, the various conveniences, such as telephone, steamship, locomotive,
etc.  were once a thought in the mind of man.   If it had not been for  that
thought, the thing would never have appeared.  In similar manner, the trees,
the flowers, the mountain and the seas are crystallized thought forms of the
nature  forces.   Man,  when he leaves this body after death and enters  the
Second Heaven,  becomes one with those nature forces he works under the  di-
rection  of  the creative hierarchies, making for  himself  the  environment
which is necessary for his next step in unfoldment.  There he builds in mind
stuff"  the archetypes of the land and the sea;  he works upon the flora and
the fauna; he creates everything in his environment as thought forms, as  he
changes the conditions, so they appear when he is reborn.

   But  working  things  out in mind stuff is very  different  from  working
thinks out in the concrete.   At the present time we are very poor thinkers,
and  therefore  it  takes an enormous period of time for  us  to  shape  the
thought forms in the second heaven; then, also,  we must wait a considerable
time  before  these thought forms have crystallized into  the  actual  dense
physical environment to which we are to come back.  Therefore,  it is neces-
sary that we should stay in the Heaven World for a much longer time than  we
remain in the earth life.  When we have learned to think aright, we shall be
able to create things here in the Physical World in a much shorter time than
it now takes to laboriously form them.  Neither will it be necessary then to
stay our of earth life as long as the present time.


                               QUESTION NO. 5

   HOW  LONG  WILL IT BE BEFORE WE CAN DO WITHOUT THE PHYSICAL  BODIES,  AND
FUNCTION ALTOGETHER IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS AGAIN?

   ANSWER:   This question reveals a state of mind which is all  too  common
among  people  who  have become acquainted with the  fact  that  we  possess
spiritual bodies in which we may move through space with lightning rapidity,
bodies which do not need the material raiment and,  therefore,  will require
no  care on the part of their owners.   These people long then for the  time
when they may grown such figurative wings and shed this "low and vile mortal
coil" altogether.

   Such  a  state  of  mind  is  extremely  unfortunate.  We  should be very


[PAGE 19]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

thankful  for the material instrument which we have,  for that is  the  most
valuable of all our vehicles.   While it is perfectly true that our physical
body is the LOWEST of all our vehicles, it is also a fact that this  vehicle
is the most finished of our instruments, and without that the other vehicles
would be of little use to us at this time.   For while this splendidly orga-
nized  instrument enables us to meet the thousand and one  conditions  here,
our higher vehicles are practically unorganized.   The vital body is  formed
organ for organ as our dense physical body, but until it has been trained by
esoteric exercises it is not a fit instrument to function in alone.  The de-
sire  body has only a number of sense centres which are not even  active  in
the great majority of people,  and as for the mind,  it is an unformed cloud
with the great majority.   We should aim today to spiritualize the  physical
instrument, and we should realize that we must train our higher vehicles be-
fore  they  can be of use.   For the great mass of people that will  take  a
long,  long time.  Therefore, it is best to do the duty that is close to our
hands,  then we hasten the day when we shall be able to use the  higher  ve-
hicles, for that day depends upon ourselves.



[PAGE 20]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                               QUESTION NO. 6

   DOES  THE SPIRIT ENTER THE BODY AT THE TIME OF CONCEPTION OR AT THE  TIME
OF BIRTH?

   ANSWER:  It has been ascertained by clairvoyant investigation that at the
time of death the spirit takes with it the forces of one little atom located
in the left ventricle of the heart,  which is called the seed atom,  for its
the  nucleus or seed around which all the material in the body gathers,  and
every atom on the body must be capable of vibrating in unison with that seek
atom.   Therefore,  that atom is deposited in the semen of the  father  some
time  previous to conception,  and later placed in the womb of  the  mother.
But conception is not at all identical with the time of sexual union of  the
parents.   The impregnated spermatozoa is sometimes not imbedded in the ovum
until fourteen days after the union of the parents.  It is this impregnation
of the ovum that may be called the time of conception,  for from the  moment
when the impregnated ovum leaves the Fallopian tube the period of  gestation
commences.   During the first eighteen to twenty-one days,  all the work  is
done  by the mother,  but at that time the reincarnating Ego,  clothed in  a
bell-shaped  cloud of desire and mind stuff,  enters the womb of the  mother
and the bell-shaped cloud closes at the bottom so that it is then ovoid,  or
egg-shaped .  Then the spirit is definitely enmeshed in the flesh and cannot
escape any more, but must stay with the mother until liberated by birth.  In
the  present stage of our unfoldment, the spirit does very little  CONSCIOUS
work upon its coming vehicle,  but it is present all the time and helps  UN-
CONSCIOUSLY  in  the  task  of  providing  its instrument.  This is not more


[PAGE 21]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

remarkable than that we are able to digest our food and work our respiratory
organs without being conscious of the process.


                               ---------------

                              QUESTIONS NO. 7.

   WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE IN THE DIVISION OF THE SEXES?

   ANSWER:   The  division of the sexes was brought about at  a  very  early
stage of man's evolution,  when he had as yet no brain or larynx.   One-half
of the creative force was then turned upward in order that these two  organs
might be built.  The brain was made for the evolution of thought whereby man
creates in the Physical World.  Houses, cities, steamships, railways, every-
thing  made by the hand is crystallized human thought.   The larynx was  aso
made by the creative sex-force in order that man might express his thoughts.
The  connection between those organs will be evident when we  remember  that
the  boy who possesses the positive creative force changes his voice at  the
time of puberty, when he is first able to procreate his kind;  also that the
man  who abuses his sex-force becomes an idiot,  while the profound  thinker
who uses nearly all his creative force in  thought  will  have  little or no


[PAGE 22]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

inclination for amorous practices.

   Prior to this division man was,  like some plants today,  a complete cre-
ative  unit  capable of perpetuating his kind without the help  of  another.
The  faculties  of thought and speech have been bought at the loss  of  this
creative power;  but now that half of the creative force which is  expressed
through brain and larynx may be used to create things in the  world--houses,
ships, etc.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTIONS NO. 8.


   IS THE SOUL OF A WOMAN MASCULINE AND THE SOUL OF A MAN FEMININE?

   ANSWER:   Speaking generally, we might say "yes," the vital body which is
eventually transformed, transmuted and spiritualized into soul is of the op-
posite  sex.   It is formed organ for organ exactly like the dense  physical
body with this one exception, and this elucidates many facts otherwise unex-
plainable.   The faculties inherent in the vital body are  growth,  propaga-
tion,  assimilation and memory.  The woman having the positive vital body is
matured earlier than the male,  the parts which remain plant-like,  such as,
for instance, the  hair,  grows  longer  and more luxuriant, and naturally a


[PAGE 23]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

positive  vital body will generate more blood than the negative  vital  body
possessed by the masculine, hence we have in woman a greater blood pressure,
which  it  is  necessary to relieve by the periodical flow,  and  when  that
ceases  at  the climacteric period there is a second growth in  woman,  par-
ticularly well expressed in the saying "fat and forty."

   The  impulses  of the desire body drive the blood through the  system  at
varying rates of speed,  according to the strength of the emotions.   Woman,
having  an excess of blood,  works under much higher pressure than man,  and
while this pressure is relieved by the periodical flow, there are times when
it is necessary to have an extra outlet; then the tears of woman,  which are
WHITE BLEEDING,  act as a safety valve to remove the excessive fluid.   Men,
although they may have as strong emotions as women,  are not given to  tears
because they have no more blood than they can comfortably use.

   Being  positively polarized in the Etheric Region of the Physical  World,
the sphere of woman has been the home and the church where she is surrounded
by  love and peace,  while man fights the battle of the strong for the  sur-
vival of the fittest, without quarter in the dense Physical World,  where he
is positive.


[PAGE 24]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                               QUESTION NO. 9.

   DO WE KEEP THE SAME TEMPERAMENT THROUGH ALL OUR LIVES?

   ANSWER:   The Ego may be likened unto a precious stone,  a diamond in the
rough.  When it is taken out of the earth the stone is far from beautiful; a
rough  coating hides the splendor within, and before the rough  diamond  be-
comes a gem, it must be polished upon the hard grindstone.  Each application
to  the  stone removes a part of the rough coat and grinds a  facet  through
which the light enters and is refracted at a different angle from the  light
thrown back by the other facets.

   So it is with the Ego.   A diamond in the rough,  it enters the school of
experience,  the pilgrimage through matter,  and each life is as an applica-
tion of the gem to the stone.  Each life in the school of experience removes
part  of the roughness of the Ego and admits the light of intelligence at  a
new angle,  giving a different experience,  and thus as the angels of  light
vary in the many facets of the diamond,  so the temperament of the Ego  dif-
fers in each life.   In each life we can show forth only a small part of our
spiritual natures,  we can realize only a small part of the splendor of  our
divine POSSIBILITIES,  but every life tends to make us more rounded and  our
temperaments become more even.  In fact, it is the work upon the temperament
that is the principal part of our lesson, for self-mastery is the goal.   As
Goethe says,

   "From every power which all the world enchains,
   Man liberates himself when self-control he gains."


[PAGE 25]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 10.


   IS THE DESIRE BODY SUBJECT TO SICKNESS AND DOES IT NEED NUTRITION AND RE-
PLENISHMENT?

   ANSWER:   In a certain sense it is, during earth life;  that is  to  say,
sickness shows itself first in the desire body and in the vital body,  which
become thinner in texture and do not specialize the vital fluid in the  same
proportion  as usual during health.   Then the dense physical  body  becomes
sick.  When recovery takes place THE HIGHER VEHICLES SHOW IMPROVEMENT BEFORE
THE MANIFESTATION OF HEALTH IS APPARENT IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD.

   But  if the inquirer means to ask concerning conditions after death,  the
matter is different.  Although a person may be sick here,  perhaps bedridden
for years and unable to move about, when death has taken place, and he feels
himself without the dense body, there is at once a sense of relief,  a feel-
ing of gladness and lightness which is unusual to him, and he suddenly wakes
up to the fact that he has no pain and is able to move about.   If he under-
stands conditions,  he will also know that it is unnecessary for him to take
nourishment,  for the desire vehicle needs no replenishment.   Many  people,
however,  are not aware of the fact and therefore we find in the  lower  re-
gions  of the Desire World that sometimes they will go through all  the  mo-
tions of ordinary house keeping.   Hence the stories of some  spiritualistic
investigators,  who have found these conditions in the Invisible World;  and
this also accounts for a great deal of that which George du Maurier has told
of the life of Peter Ibbetson and the Countess of Towers, in his novel bear-
ing the hero's name.  This novel is  recommended  to  the reader as giving a


[PAGE 26]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

fine illustration of the operation of the subconscious memory where the hero
deals with his child-life,  and of actual conditions in the lower regions of
the Invisible World, where his experiences with the countess are concerned.


                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 11.

   HOW IS IT THAT ONE ATONES FOR ALL SIN IN PURGATORY,  THEN AT REBIRTH MUST
AGAIN SUFFER THROUGH THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT FOR SINS OF A FORMER LIFE?

   ANSWER:  There are two distinct activities in Purgatory.  First, there is
the eradication of bad habits.  For instance, the drunkard craves drink just
as much as he did before death, but now he has no stomach and alimentary ca-
nal  go around to the various saloons, although he may even get  inside  the
whiskey casks and steep himself in the liquor,  he obtains no  satisfaction,
for there are no fumes as when chemical combustion takes place in a stomach.
Thus he suffers all the tortures of Tantalus--"Water, water everywhere,  and
not a drop to drink."

   But, as desire in this world burns out when we realize  that is cannot be


[PAGE 27]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

gratified, so in time the drunkard is cured of his desire for drink, because
he can obtain no liquor, and he is born innocent of evil so far as that par-
ticular vice is concerned.  However, he must overcome that vice CONSCIOUSLY,
and so at a certain time temptation will come in his way.  When he has grown
up a companion may ask him to "come and have a drink."  Then it depends upon
WHETHER HE YIELDS or not.  If he does, he sins anew and must be purged anew,
till  at  last the cumulative pains of repeated purgatorial  existence  will
cause him to have a disgust for drink.   Then he will have consciously over-
come temptation and there will be no more suffering from that source.

   As to the evil that we have done to others,  for instance,  where we have
dealt cruelly with a child placed under our care,  where we have beaten  and
starved  it or otherwise maltreated it,  the scenes where we have thus  done
wrong will have impressed themselves upon the atom in the heart;  later  on,
the  etching will have been transferred to the desire body and the  panorama
of life,  which unrolls BACKWARD,  will again bring these scenes before  our
consciousness.   WE shall then ourselves feel as the child felt who was  our
victim;  WE SHALL FEEL THE STRIPES that WE inflicted just as the child  felt
them;  WE shall feel the mental anguish and mortification,  WE shall  suffer
pang for pang,  and then,  when we are reborn,  we shall meet our victim and
have the opportunity to do good to the victim instead of doing evil.   If we
do so, well and good; if our old enmity asserts itself as before,  then fur-
ther  stripes  in the next Purgatory will at last cause us to  see  that  we
ought to be merciful to those under our care.   So we do not suffer ANEW for
sins  of a former life;  WE ARE BORN INNOCENT through the blessed  ministra-
tions of Purgatory, and AT LEAST EVERY EVIL ACT WE COMMIT  IS AN ACT OF FREE


[PAGE 28]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

WILL.   But TEMPTATIONS are placed before us in order to  ascertain  whether
the  purging has been sufficient to teach us the needed lessons,  and it  is
our privilege either to yield or to stand strong and firm for the good.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 12.

   IS CONSCIENCE THE VOICE OF GOD OR OF OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL?

   ANSWER:  When the spirit passes out of the body at death, the panorama of
its past life passes before it during the first three and one-half days  af-
ter  its release from the body.   These pictures are etched into the  desire
body  and form the basis of?  life in Purgatory and the First Heaven,  which
are  located in the Desire World.   The past life is reproduced in  pictures
shifting  backward so that the scenes which happened just previous to  death
are first gone over; then follows the life toward childhood and infancy.  In
Purgatory  only the scenes where the soul did wrong are reenacted,  and  the
soul sees itself as being the one whom it wronged and suffers as those  suf-
fered whom it wronged in earth life.  The record of these sufferings is  in-
delibly engraven upon the seed atom, which is  the  only  part  of the dense


[PAGE 29]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

body  the soul takes with it and keeps permanently from life to life.   This
is,  in a way,  the "book"  of the "Recording Angel,"  and as the  suffering
caused by a certain act has been engraven upon this seed atom in  Purgatory,
it  is evident that when in a new life similar circumstances arise  and  the
old temptations come before us,  the suffering which we experienced  because
of that wrong deed is present in the seed atom to warn us that such and such
a course of action is wrong.  That is the "voice of conscience,"  and if the
suffering entailed in Purgatory was sufficiently intense,  we shall have the
power to resist whatever temptation comes before us.  If, on the other hand,
from  certain different causes,  the suffering was not keen enough,  we  may
yield  permanently  or temporarily in another life to the  same  temptations
that cost suffering in previous lives;  we may yield even against the  small
murmurings of conscience.  But when we are released from our bodies and pass
into Purgatory the next time, we shall there have the added suffering caused
by our yielding to temptation,  and the cumulative effects of this suffering
will  at last be sufficient to restrain us from the course which  caused  us
pain.

   When  a temptation has come before us in an earth life and has  been  put
aside  consciously,  we have learned the lesson and  conscience  has  accom-
plished its purpose.

   Replying definitely to the question, we may therefore say that conscience
is the spirit's memory of past sufferings occasioned by the mistakes in pre-
vious lives.


[PAGE 30]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 13.

   WHAT IS GENIUS?

   ANSWER:   From the ordinary standpoint,  genius seems to be an  accident.
The theory of heredity will not account for it,  for sometimes the most com-
monplace people bring a child into the world which is a genius, and the most
highly educated and intellectual people have idiots for their children.   At
other times we find both idiots and geniuses in the same family.   In  fact,
insanity  and  genius may be said to be the two extremes  where  the  mental
qualities of humanity meet.

   If we try to account for genius by heredity,  we cannot help asking  our-
selves  why there is not a long line of mechanical ancestors  before  Thomas
Edison,  who might then be regarded as the flower of a family.   But we find
that  in all cases the appearance of genius is not possible of deduction  to
any law when viewed from the mere material standpoint.

   When we bring the law of causation and its companion law,  the law of re-
birth,  to bear upon the problem, the matter is very different.  This theory
asserts that earth life is a school of experience; that at each new birth we
are born with the accumulated experiences of all our past lives as our stock
in trade,  our capital; that some of us have attended this school of experi-
ence during many lives,  and have gathered much store.   Perhaps we have de-
veloped one particular faculty more than others,  so that we have become ex-
tremely expert in one special line of endeavor.  That is genius.

   In order to express some of our  faculties,  for  instance,  music, it is


[PAGE 31]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

necessary that we should have certain physical characteristics such as  long
and slender fingers, a delicate nervous system, and,  particularly,  the ear
should be specially developed in order that we may express ourselves as  mu-
sicians.   Material required for that expression cannot be  found  anywhere,
but  THE LAW OF ASSOCIATION would naturally draw a musician to  other  musi-
cians,  and there he will find ready to his hand the materials wherewith  to
build  himself a body such as is required for the expression of his  talent.
Therefore,  it sometimes seems as if musicians are born in families; for in-
stance,  twenty-nine musicians were born in the Bach family in  two  hundred
and fifty years.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 14.

   IS A SOUL THAT IS BORN AS A WOMAN ALWAYS A WOMAN IN ITS AFTER LIVES,  AND
CAN IT NEVER BECOME A MAN?  AND WHAT IS THE TIME BETWEEN INCARNATIONS?

   ANSWER:   No,  the spirit is double-sexed and usually expresses itself in
its  successive  lives alternately as man and woman.   There  are,  however,
sometimes cases where,  according to the Law of Consequences,  it is prefer-




[PAGE 32]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY


able that a spirit should appear for several successive lives in  a  certain
sex.

   The law is this:

   As the sun moves BACKWARD among the twelve constellations by the movement
which we call the precession of the equinoxes, the climate of the earth, the
flora and fauna are slowly changed, thus making a different environment  for
the human race in each successive age.  It takes the sun about two  thousand
years  to go through one of the signs by precession,  and in that  time  the
spirit  is  USUALLY  born twice,  once as a man and once as  a  woman.   The
changes which take place in the thousand years between incarnations are  not
so great but that the spirit will be able to extract the experiences of that
environment from the standpoint of both man and woman.

   However,  there  may sometimes be cases where the time is  also  changed.
None of these laws are inflexible as the laws of the Medes and the Persians,
but  are administered by Great Intelligences for the benefit of mankind,  so
that conditions may be changed in order to fit the exigencies of  individual
cases.   For instance,  in the case of a musician.  He cannot find the mate-
rial  wherewith to build his body everywhere.   He needs particular help  to
build  the three semi-circular canals of his ear in such a manner that  they
will point as nearly as possible in the three directions of space;  he  also
needs special help to build the delicate fibres of Corti, for his ability to
distinguish shades of tone depends upon these features.

   In such a case, when a family of musicians with whom he has connection is
in a position to give birth to a child, he may be brought there,  though his
stay in the Heaven World should not ordinarily terminate for another hundred
years, for  perhaps  another  opportunity  might  not offer for two or three


[PAGE 33]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

hundred years after he should be born if the law were adhered to.  Then,  of
course,  such a man is ahead of his time,  and not appreciated by  the  gen-
eration among which he lives.  He is misunderstood,  but even that is better
than if he had been born later than he should have been,  for then he  would
have been behind the times.

   Thus it is that we so often see geniuses unappreciated by their contempo-
raries,  though highly valued by succeeding generations who  can  understand
their viewpoint.

                               ---------------


                              QUESTION NO. 15.

   WHEN  A MAN PAYS HIS DEBTS,  CARES FOR HIS FAMILY AND LIVES A MORAL  LIFE
HERE, WILL HE NOT BE ALL RIGHT HEREAFTER?

   ANSWER:   No, there is something more required, and there are many people
of  just that belief who have a rather unenviable time in the  Desire  World
after death.  They are, of course, to be looked up to from the standpoint of
this  life  only,  but  at the present time we  are  required  to  at  least
cultivate some altruistic tendencies in order to progress beyond our present
evolutionary status.

   We find the people who have neglected the higher duties in the fourth re-
gion of the Desire World after death.  There  is  the  business man who paid


[PAGE 34]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

a hundred cents on the dollar,  who dealt honestly by everyone;  who  worked
for the material improvement of his city and country as a good citizen, paid
his  employees fair wages,  treated his wife and family with  consideration,
gave them all possible advantages, etc.  He may even through them have built
a church,  or at least given very liberally to it,  or he may have built li-
braries or founded institutes,  etc.  But HE DID NOT GIVE HIMSELF.   He only
took  interest in the church for the sake of his family or for the  sake  of
respectability;  he had not heart in it, all his heart was in his  business,
in making money or attaining a worldly position.

   When he enters the Desire World after death he is too good to go to  Pur-
gatory and not good enough to go to heaven.  He has dealt justly with every-
one and wronged nobody.  Therefore, he has nothing to expiate.   But neither
has  he done any good that could give him a life in the First  Heaven  where
the good of his past life is assimilated.   Therefore,  he is in the  fourth
region--between  Heaven  and Hell,  as it were.   The fourth region  is  the
centre  of the Desire World and the feeling there is most intense;  the  man
still  feels  a keen desire for business, but there he can neither  buy  nor
sell, and so his life is a most dreadful monotony.

   All that he gave to the churches, institutes, etc., counts as nothing be-
cause of his lack of heart.   ONLY WHEN WE GIVE FOR LOVE WILL THE GIFT AVAIL
TO BRING HAPPINESS HEREAFTER.   It is not the amount that we give,  but  the
spirit that accompanies the gift, which matters; therefore, it is within the
power  of  everyone  to give and thus benefit himself  and  others.   Indis-
criminate money giving,  however,  often causes people to become  thriftless
and indigent, but by giving heartfelt sympathy; by helping people to believe
in themselves and start in life with fresh ardor when  they  have  fallen by


[PAGE 35]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the wayside;  by giving ourselves in services rendered humanity,  we lay  up
treasure  in heaven and give more than gold.   Christ said:   "The poor  are
with  us always."   We may not be able to bring them from poverty to  riches
and  that  may not be best for them, but we can encourage them to  learn  th
lesson  that is to be learned in poverty; we can help them to a better  view
of  life,  and unless the man who is in the position designated by  the  in-
quirer  does that also,  he will not be "all right"  when he passes out;  he
will  suffer that dreadful monotony in order to teach him that he must  fill
his  life  with something of real value, and thus in a succeeding  life  his
conscience  will spur him on to do something better than to grind  out  dol-
lars,  though he will not neglect his material duties, for that is as bad as
to spurn spiritual endeavor.



[PAGE 35]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 16.

   IT IS SOMETIMES CONTENDED THAT WE HAVE A RIGHT TO THINK WHAT WE WILL  AND
ARE  NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR THOUGHTS.   IS THAT SO FROM AN OCCULT POINT  OF
VIEW?

   ANSWER:   No,  indeed; it is very much the reverse, and we do not need to
go as far as what is usually called occultism;  we find that idea  expressed
by  Christ  in  the sermon on the mount, where he tells us that "The man who


[PAGE 36]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

has looked upon a woman with desire has,  in fact,  already committed  adul-
tery," and when we realize that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, we
shall have a much clearer conception of life if we only take into  consider-
ation  the acts of men,  for every act is the outcome of a previous  thought
BUT THESE THOUGHTS ARE NOT ALWAYS OUR OWN.

   When we strike a tuning fork, another tuning fork of the same pitch being
near,  not only the one which is struck will ring,  but the other will  also
commence to sing in sympathy.  Likewise, when we think a thought and another
person  in  our  environment  has been thinking along  the  same  line,  our
thoughts coalesce with his and strengthen him for good or evil according  to
the nature of the thought.  It is no mere fancy when in the play called "The
Witching Hour,"  the hero aims to help a scoundrel escape from the State  of
Kentucky,  where the latter is about to be arrested for murder of the Gover-
nor.   The hero,  a man of considerable thought power feels that he may have
prompted the criminal.  He tells his sister that previous to the time of the
murder he had thought that the murder could be committed JUST IN THE  MANNER
IN WHICH IT WAS ACTUALLY DONE.   He is under the impression that his thought
may have been caught by the brain of the murderer and have shown him the way
to commit the murder.

   When  we go into a jury box and we see before ourselves the criminal,  we
behold  only his act;  we have no cognizance of the thought  which  prompted
him.   If  we have been in the habit of thinking  evil,  malicious  thoughts
against  one person or another,  these thoughts may have been attractive  to
that  criminal,  and on the principle that when we have before  ourselves  a
saturated solution  of  salt it will only take a single crystal to make that


[PAGE 37]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

salt  solution  solidify,  so also if a man has saturated  his  brains  with
thoughts  of  murder,  the thought that we sent out may be  the  last  straw
breaking the back of the camel, destroying the last barrier which would have
held him from committing the act.

   Therefore, our thoughts are of vastly more importance than our acts,  for
if we will only think right,  we shall always act right.   No man can  think
love  to  his fellowmen;  can scheme in his mind how to aid and  help  them,
spiritually,  mentally or physically,  without acting out these thoughts  at
some time in his life, and if we will only cultivate such thoughts, we shall
soon find sunshine spreading around us;  we shall find that people will meet
us  in that some spirit that we send out,  and if we could realize that  the
desire  body (which surrounds each of us and extends about sixteen to  eigh-
teen  inches beyond the periphery of the physical body) contains  all  these
feelings and emotions,  then we would meet people differently,  for we would
understand that everything we see is viewed through the atmosphere which  we
have created around ourselves which colors all we behold in others.

   If,  then,  we see meanness and smallness in the people whom we meet,  it
would be well to look within to ascertain if it is not the atmosphere we are
looking  through which colors them thus.   Let us see if we have not  within
ourselves those undesirable qualities,  and then being to remedy the  defect
within ourselves.  The man who is mean and small will appear mean to him FOR
HE WILL CALL OUT FROM others the very qualities which he manifests,  on  the
principle  that  the  vibration of a tuning fork of a  certain  pitch,  when
struck,  will  cause another of identical pitch to vibrate.   On  the  other
hand, if we cultivate a  serene  attitude,  an  attitude  that  is free from


[PAGE 38]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

covetousness and is frankly honest and helpful,  we shall call out the  best
in other people.  Therefore let us realize that it is NOT UNTIL WE HAVE CUL-
TIVATED THE BETTER QUALITIES IN OURSELVES THAT WE CAN EXPECT TO FIND THEM IN
OTHERS.   We are thus in very truth responsible for our thoughts, we are in-
deed the keepers of our brothers,  for as we think when we meet them,  so do
we appear to them,  and they reflect our attitude.   Applying the  foregoing
principle,  if we want to obtain help to cultivate those  better  qualities,
let us seek the company of people who are already good,  for their  attitude
of  mind  will  be  of immense help to us to call  forth  in  us  the  finer
qualities.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 17.

   IF  A  PERSON IS CONSTANTLY BOTHERED BY EVIL THOUGHTS WHICH  KEEP  COMING
INTO HIS MIND,  ALTHOUGH HE IS CONSTANTLY FIGHTING THEM, IS THERE ANY WAY IN
WHICH  HE  CAN  CLEANSE HIS MIND SO THAT HE WILL THINK ONLY  PURE  AND  GOOD
THOUGHTS?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  there is, and a very easy way at that.   The inquirer has
himself suggested the chief difficulty in his question, when he says that he
is constantly FIGHTING these thoughts.  If we take an illustration  we shall


[PAGE 39]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

see the point.

   Supposing we have a particular dislike for a certain person whom we  meet
every day upon the street, perhaps a number of times.   If we stop each time
we  meet  that person and berate him for walking upon the  street,  for  not
keeping  out of our sight,  we are each time adding fuel to the fire of  our
enmity,  we are stirring him up, and for pure spite he may seek to waylay us
so  much  the  more.   Both like and dislike have a tendency  to  attract  a
thought or an idea to?  us, and the added thought force which we send out to
fight  evil  thoughts will keep them alive and bring them to  our  mind  the
oftener, in the same way that quarreling will cause the person we dislike to
waylay us for spite.  But if, instead of fighting him,  we adopt the tactics
of indifference.   If we turn our heads the other way when we meet him  upon
the street,  he will soon grow tired of follow us;  and,  on the same  prin-
ciple,  when thoughts of evil come into our minds.  If we will but turn away
with  indifference and apply our minds to something that is good and  ideal,
we  shall  find in a short time that we are rid of their  companionship  and
have only the good thoughts we desire to entertain.


[PAGE 40]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 18.

   IF WOMAN IS AN EMANATION FROM MAN, AS PER THE RIB STORY,  WILL SHE IN THE
FINAL RETURN TO UNITY BE REABSORBED, LOSING HER INDIVIDUALITY IN THE  MASCU-
LINE DIVINITY?

   ANSWER:   The "rib story"  is one of those instances of  gross  ignorance
upon   the   part  of  the  Bible  translators--who  possessed   no   occult
knowledge--in dealing with the language of the Hebrews, which in writing was
not divided into words and had no vowel points.  By inserting vowels at dif-
ferent points and dividing words differently,  various meanings to the  same
text may be obtained in many places.   This is one case where a word pointed
in one way reads "TSAD"  and in another way "TSELA."   The Bible translators
read the story that the God had taken something from Adam's side  ("tsela"),
and  they were puzzled as to what it was and so,  perhaps,  they thought  it
would have done him the least harm to take a rib ("tsad"), hence the foolish
story.

   The  fact  was  that man had first been like the  Gods,  "made  in  their
image,"  male and female, a hermaphrodite, and later one SIDE was taken away
so that he became divided into two sexes.   It may be further said that  the
first  organ  which  was developed as it is now was the  female  organ,  the
feminine  SIDE  having always existed in everything  before  the  masculine,
which came later,  and,  according to the law in evolution,  that "the first
shall be the last,"  the feminine will remain a distinct sex longer than the
masculine,  and, therefore, the inquirer is altogether wrong in the supposi-
tion.   It is the masculine that will be absorbed in the feminine.  Even now
it is seen that the masculine organ is gradually contracting at its base and


[PAGE 41]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

will finally cease to be.

   As for losing her individuality,  such a thing is impossible,  it is just
the  purpose of evolution that we should become individuals,  self-conscious
and SEPARATE during evolution,  self-conscious and UNITED during the  inter-
ludes between manifestations.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 19.

   WHY HAS WOMAN BEEN CURSED BY INEQUALITY,  ASSUMED INFERIORITY AND  INJUS-
TICE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE UPON THIS PLANE?

   ANSWER:   In the first place, we must remember that the spirit is neither
male nor female, but manifests in that way alternately, as a rule.   We have
all been men and we have all been women.  Therefore there can be no question
of  inequality  if we look at life from the larger point of  view.   Certain
lessons must be learned by the spirit in each age which can only be  learned
from  the  standpoint of a woman,  and there are other lessons  only  to  be
learned  by incarnation in a male body.   Therefore,  of a necessity,  there
must  be  the  change  in  sex.  It  sometimes  happens, of course, that for


[PAGE 42]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

reasons a person must appear as a male for several incarnations and then, of
course, when he takes upon himself the female garb, it may jar considerably.
In  that  case we have a very masculine woman,  perhaps a suffragette  of  a
militant nature.  On the other hand, a spirit may sometimes have been embod-
ied  for several incarnations in a female garb and then may appear as a  man
of a very effeminate nature,  a regular "sissy."   But even upon the hypoth-
esis  of alternating incarnations,  many of us probably were  incarnated  in
Rome  in the opposite sex,  and taking the law of causation  into  consider-
ation,  the  treatment of women by the men of that time was not such  as  to
cause these Roman women when incarnated now as men to give any great conces-
sions to their former masters.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 20.

   WHY  WAS THE SUFFERING OF MARGUERITE SO EXTREME AND OUT OF PROPORTION  TO
THAT OF FAUST,  EVEN TO IMPRISONMENT AND THE DEATH PENALTY,  WHILE HIS LIFE,
LIBERTY AND PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS WAS UNMOLESTED?

   ANSWER:   This question has reference to one of the myths which have come
down through the ages, and contrary to the popularly accepted opinion a myth
is not a story made out of whole cloth,  but is VEILED TRUTH,  revealing  in
symbol  great  spiritual  principles.  These  myths  were  given  to  infant


[PAGE 43]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

humanity for the same reason that we give our children ethical teachings  in
nursery stories and picture books,  which impress themselves upon the infant
mind in a way intellectual teaching would be incapable of doing.

   Goethe, who was an initiate, has treated this Faust myth in a way that is
wonderfully  illuminative,  and the key to the problem is found in the  pro-
logue, which is laid in Heaven, much in the same way as we find in the open-
ing  of the Book of Job.   The Sons of God appear before the Throne  an  the
Devil among them,  for he is also one of the Sons of God.   He is given per-
mission to try to seduce Faust in order that the spiritual activities may be
called forth and virtue developed.   It is one of our great mistakes to  re-
gard  innocence and virtue as synonymous;  every one among us is born  inno-
cent,  he comes here without any evil, that has all been purged away, but he
has certain TENDENCIES which may develop into vice and,  therefore,  he must
be  tried in every life to see whether he will yield to temptation  and  em-
brace  vice,  or whether he will stand firm and develop  virtue.   Faust  is
tempted,  he falls,  but afterwards he sincerely repents and transmutes  the
evil forces to good, so that at last he is saved.  Repentance and reform be-
fore  death  has  wrought  his salvation, the impure  passion  he  felt  for
Marguerite gave place to his pure love for Helen.  Marguerite also yields to
the  temptation,  she repents and is saved by means of  the  forgiveness  of
sins.   Thus  in the case of one it is SALVATION BY ACTS.   By  his  energy,
which dominates the evil forces,  he builds a new land,  a land where a free
people may live under better conditions; he is seeking to lift humanity to a
higher plane,  and by that act, by his unselfish work for others,  he is re-
deemed from the powers of evil.  In  Marguerite's  case,  salvation  results


[PAGE 44]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

from prayer and repentance.   Thus we have in that drama,  as represented by
Goethe, a perfect symbol of the Western teaching that there is both the for-
giveness of sins and the expiration of a wrong act by a corresponding  right
act.  Death is something that comes to all and the suffering which was inci-
dent  to the wrong act in each case is surely none the less in the  case  of
Faust,  where it was prolonged over a long period of years, than in the case
of  Marguerite,  where the life is ended in a much shorter time.   The  only
difference is that Faust has overcome CONSCIOUSLY and will in future life be
immune to temptation,  while the case of Marguerite is problematical.   In a
future earth life she will yet have to meet temptation in order that it  may
be made manifest whether or not she has developed the strength of  character
requisite to withstand the wrong and adhere to the right.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 21.

   IS THERE ANY PLACE, EITHER IN THE OLD OR NEW TESTAMENT,  WHEREIN MEN WERE
TOLD  TO MARRY AND THEN LIVE AS BROTHER AND SISTER AT ANY TIME OR UNDER  ANY
CONDITION?  AND IF NOT IN THE BIBLE, WHY DO YOU TEACH IT?

   ANSWER:   The  Original Semites were the fifth of  the  Atlantean  races.
They came out of the drowning Atlantis as told variously in  the  stories of


[PAGE 45]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Noah  and Moses.   They were to go into a Promised Land,  not little  insig-
nificant Palestine,  but the whole earth as it is now constituted.   It  was
PROMISED because the earth was undergoing the changes usual when a new  race
is to take possession.   Floods had destroyed the Atlantean civilization and
in  the wilderness of Gobi,  in Central Asia,  wandered the nucleus  of  the
present Aryan races.

   At  the  time when such a nucleus was to become a  world  peopling  race,
naturally, the begetting of children was a prime consideration.   Therefore,
it was looked upon as the duty of everyone to beget numerous children and be
exceedingly fruitful.   But we are not living in those times now;  the world
is  well peopled and the re-incarnating Egos are taken care of without  spe-
cial endeavors at generation.   We have never advocated generally  celibacy,
or  that people should marry and then live AT ALL TIMES as brother and  sis-
ter;  but  we have taught that married people,  according to  their  circum-
stances,  should help to perpetuate the race.  That is to say,  if both hus-
band  and  wife are physically,  morally and mentally able;  when  they  are
possessed of a home, wherein an incarnating Ego may obtain the chance of em-
bodiment and experience,  they should offer themselves as a living sacrifice
upon the altar of humanity and give of the substance of their bodies to fur-
nish an Ego with a vehicle, inviting it into their home as they would invite
a dear guest,  thankful that they may be able to do for it what others  have
done for them.  But when the act of impregnation has been accomplished, they
should refrain from further intercourse, until again they feel  sufficiently
fitted to generate the body for another child.   Such is the teaching of the
Rosicrucians concerning the ideal relation between husband  and  wife.  They


[PAGE 46]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

hold that creative function should not be used for sensual purposes, but for
the  perpetuation  of the race for which it has been,  naturally,  designed.
This  is  an ideal condition and may be beyond most people  at  the  present
time,  like the injunction to love our enemies;  but if we do not have  high
ideals we shall make no progress.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 22.

   IS  THERE A SOUL-MATE BELONGING TO EVERY SOUL THROUGH ALL  ETERNITY?   IF
SO,  WOULD  IT NOT BE BETTER TO REMAIN UNMARRIED A THOUSAND  YEARS  THAN  TO
MARRY THE WRONG MATE?

   ANSWER:   As the light is refracted into the seven colors of the spectrum
when passing through our atmosphere, so also the spirits which are differen-
tiated within God are refracted into seven great rays.   Each class is under
the  direct guidance and domination of one of the Seven Spirits  before  the
Throne,  which  are the planetary genii, the Star Angels.   All  the  Virgin
spirits  in their successive incarnations are continually  intermingling  in
order  that they may gain the most varied experiences;  nevertheless,  those
who have emanated from the same Star Angel are always sister or twin  souls,
and when they seek the higher life, they must enter the  path  of initiation


[PAGE 47]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

through  a  lodge  composed  of members of the  same  ray  from  which  they
originally came, thence to? return to their primal source.   Therefore,  all
occult  schools  are divisible into seven, one for each  class  of  spirits.
That was the reason Jesus said to his disciples "Your father and mine"--None
could have come into as close touch with him as these disciples were, except
those belonging to the same ray.

   Like all other mysteries,  this beautiful doctrine has been degraded to a
physical or material idea such as embodied in the popular conception of twin
souls or affinities;  that one is male and the other female,  and very often
each is somebody else's wife or husband.  In such cases the doctrine of twin
souls  is  often  made an excuse for elopement and  adultery.   This  is  an
abominable perversion.  Each spirit is complete in itself, it takes upon it-
self  a male or a female body at different times in order to learn the  les-
sons  of life,  and it is only during the present stage if  its  development
that  there is such a feature as sex at all.   The Ego was before  sex,  and
will persist after that phase of its manifestation has passed away.


[PAGE 48]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 23.


   IS IT WRONG FOR FIRST, SECOND OR THIRD COUSINS TO MARRY, AND IF SO, WHY?

   ANSWER:  The purpose of marriage is the perpetuation of the race, and ac-
cording to the physical nature of the parents, plus their environment,  will
the  child be.   We find,  for instance, that the emigrants who come to  our
shores  are different from the children they beget,  and that  the  children
that they beget HERE IN AMERICA are different from the children begotten  in
Europe.   For instance,  the longheaded Sicilians beget children who have  a
more rounded head,  and the round-headed Jews beget children who have a more
oval  shaped head,  thus showing in all races a tendency to  amalgamate  and
bring into birth A NEW AMERICAN RACE.

   These changes are not at all brought about by accident.   The great lead-
ers  of  humanity always aim to bring about certain conditions in  order  to
produce  certain types.   For only in that way can the faculties be  evolved
that  are necessary to the progress of the spirit and there was a time  when
it  was necessary to the evolution of the Ego that they should marry in  the
family.  At that time humanity was not so evolved and individualized as they
are now.  They were ruled by a family spirit which entered into the blood by
means of the air they inspired to help the Ego control its instrument.  Then
humanity  had what is known as second sight,  and that second sight  is  yet
found among people who have persisted largely in marrying inside the family,
such, for instance, as the Scotch Highlanders and the Gypsies.


[PAGE 49]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   But is was necessary that me should forget the Spiritual World for a time
and remember no life but the present.  In order to bring this change in con-
sciousness about,  the great leaders took certain steps,  one of them  being
the prohibition of marriages in the family.  When we read in the fifth chap-
ter  of Genesis that Adam lived for 900 years and all the  patriarchs  lived
for  centuries,  it does not really mean that the persons named lived  THEM-
SELVES  during  that length of time,  but the blood which coursed  in  their
veins was transmitted directly to their descendants and this blood contained
the pictures of our individual family as it now contains the pictures of our
individual lives, for the blood is the storehouse of all experiences.   Thus
the  descendants  of  the  patriarchal  families  saw  themselves  as  Adam,
Methusaleh,  etc.  Of course, during the centuries, these pictures gradually
became faint and when the memory of Adam faded out from the blood of his di-
rect descendants it was said that Adam ceased to live.

   As man became more individualized,  he was to learn to stand upon his own
legs  without the help of the family spirit.   Then international  marriages
were  permitted,  or even commanded,  and marrying inside the family was  no
longer allowed.   That killed clairvoyance.   Science has demonstrated  that
when the blood of one animal is inoculted into the veins of another  animal,
haemolysis,  or  the destruction of blood, takes place,  so that  the  lower
animal is killed.   But the introduction of strange blood,  in whatever  way
accomplished,  always kills something,  if not the form at least a  faculty,
and  the strange blood introduced by marriage killed the  clairvoyance  pos-
sessed  by primitive man.   That this statement is true about strange  blood
being destructive can be noted in the case of hybrids.  Where, for instance,


[PAGE 50]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

a horse and a donkey are mated the progeny is a mule, but that mule is minus
the  propagative faculty,  for it is neither under the group spirit  of  the
horses nor under the dominion of the group spirit of the donkeys,  and if it
should  propagate,  the result would be a species not under the dominion  of
any  group spirit.   The mule is not so far evolved,  however,  that it  can
guide  its instrument without the assistance of a group spirit,  and so  the
propagative  faculty is denied the group spirit withholding the  fructifying
seed atom.   With humanity it was different, however.  When they had come to
the stage where international marriages were commanded,  they had arrived at
the  point in evolution of self-consciousness where they were able to  steer
their own bark and where they must cease to be God-guided automatons and be-
come self-governing individuals.  The greater the mixture of blood, the less
the indwelling spirit can be influenced by any of the race or family spirits
which influenced our ancestors.  Thus greater scope is afforded the incoming
Egos when we marry strangers than when we seek a cousin for a mate.



[PAGE 51]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 24.

   WOULD IT BE WISE FOR TWO PEOPLE OF THE SAME TEMPERAMENT TO MARRY IF  THEY
WERE BOTH BORN UNDER THE SAME SIGN OF THE ZODIAC?  IN AUGUST, FOR INSTANCE?

   ANSWER:   It is said that a person is born every second of the day;  thus
there would be 3,600 born in an hour, 86,400 in a day of 24 hours, and about
two millions and a half in a month.  If they were supposed to have the  same
temperament  and the same fate in life, we should only have twelve kinds  of
people, and yet we know that there are not two people exactly alike, so that
it is foolish to say that people have the same temperament because they  are
born under the same sign of the zodiac, as determined by the month.

   To cast a horoscope scientifically,  it if necessary to take into consid-
eration the day and the year when a person was born,  for the planets do not
arrive  at the same relative positions more than once in  twenty-five  thou-
sand,  eight hundred and sixty-eight years.  We must further take into  con-
sideration  the hour of the birth and if possible try to get the minute,  on
account of the swiftly changing position of the moon.   If we also take into
consideration the place,  we can calculate THE RISING SIGN,  which gives the
FORM of the body.  Then we have an absolutely individual horoscope,  for the
degree  of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon changes every four  min-
utes, so that even in the case of twins there would be a difference.

   In order,  then,  that the astrologer may say whether the marriage of two
people will be harmonious or otherwise,  it is necessary for him to cast the
horoscope  of  the  two  persons  and  endeavor  to find out if they will be


[PAGE 52]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

physically, morally, and mentally congenial.  He judges by comparing the as-
cendants,  or rising signs, which show the physical affinity.  The positions
of  Mars and Venus will show whether they are morally of the  same  caliber,
and the Sun and Moon show their mental characteristics.   Thus he has an ac-
curate gauge as to whether their natures will blend,  but predictions  based
upon anything short of such a calculation are worthless.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 25.

   IN THE CASE OF DEATH BY VIOLENT MEANS IS THE NEXT LIFE,  WHEN THE  PERSON
DIES  AS CHILD,  LIVED IN A BODY OF THE SAME SEX AS BEFORE OR THE  OPPOSITE;
THAT IS,  WILL A SOLDIER KILLED ON THE BATTLE FIELD BE REBORN AS A BOY OR  A
GIRL, OR DOES SEX PLAY LITTLE PART WHEN THE LIFE IS A VERY SHORT ONE?

   ANSWER:  So far as the writer has been able to investigate there does not
seem  to be any attention paid to this matter in the succeeding  life.   The
Ego takes the opportunity for rebirth wherever it can be found.  All that is
necessary  is  that the material for the new vehicles shall be  gathered  so
that the moral impression may be made on the desire  body  during the heaven


[PAGE 53]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

life which follows death as a child.

   This matter of sex seems on the whole to be very elastic, at least in the
cases of those who have been living what we call "the higher life,"  because
this  has a tendency to make the vital body more permanently  positive,  and
the seed atom, located in the solar plexus, therefore automatically attracts
to  itself an increasingly large quantity of positively polarized ether,  so
that  whether the physical body is male or female,  the constituents of  the
vital  body remain positive.   Therefore in the case of so-called  "advanced
people"  sex becomes a matter of less importance than ordinarily,  being  in
many cases left to the choice of the Ego which is seeking rebirth.


[PAGE 54]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 26.

   WHY  IS THE NEGRO COMMONLY SAID TO BE MARKED WITH THE CURSE OF CAIN?   IF
HE IS THE DESCENDANT OF HAM,  ACCORDING TO BIBLICAL ETHNOLOGY,  HOW CAN THAT
RACE BE ANY OLDER THAN THE SONS OF SHEM OR JAPHET?   IS NOT THE MOST  INTEL-
LECTUAL, SUCCESSFUL AND ENDURING RACE THAT HISTORY RECORDS, NAMELY, THE JEW,
THE ONE THAT HAS LEFT ITSELF MOST FREE FROM A MIXTURE?

   ANSWER:   The Bible does not state anywhere that the negroes are the  de-
scendants  of Ham;  besides it is well known that the Biblical ethnology  as
commonly understood among orthodox people is an utter impossibility in  view
of the facts of geology and ethnological research.  We are past the day when
anyone will dare to make a statement such as,  for instance,  was made by  a
learned Dean of Cambridge University less than a century ago,  namely,  that
the World was created on Friday,  the 10th of October,  4004 B.C.,  at  nine
o'clock in the morning.   The Biblical ethnology also has the exact year  of
the flood and similar events fixed, but from the occult point of view, which
as  derived from a direct reading in the picture gallery of the past,  which
we  call THE MEMORY OF NATURE,  the case is very different.   We find  there
that  there  have been various epochs or great stages of unfoldment  in  the
earth's history,  and that the negro was the humanity of the third of  these
epochs,  the Lemurian.  The whole human race of that time was black skinned.
Then came a time, called the Atlantean Epoch, when humanity was red, yellow,
except  one race which was white.  These people were the  Original  Semites,
the fifth of the Atlantean Races.  These Atlanteans are  called Niebelungen,


[PAGE 55]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

or CHILDREN OF THE MIST, in the old folk stories, for at that time the atmo-
sphere  of  the  earth was a very dense fog.   In the  latter  half  of  the
Atlantean Epoch this atmosphere condensed, floods resulted and gradually the
sea covered the larger part of the globe.   Then the atmosphere became clear
above  the earth.   This point in evolution is described in the Bible  where
Noah,  the leader of the Semites,  came out from the drowning  Atlantis  and
first  saw the rainbow,  a phenomenon impossible in the foggy atmosphere  of
early Atlantis.   We also hear of that emigration in the story of Moses  and
the  Israelites  coming out from Egypt while the Egyptian king and  his  men
drown in the waters of the Red Sea.   These people had been chosen to become
the progenitors of our present Aryan races, but not all of them were true to
the  commands  of their leader.   There were some of them  who  "went  after
strange flesh," and that is the greatest crime possible at such a time,  for
when a leader is aiming to instil new faculties into a new race,  the admix-
ture  of  strange blood has a tendency to frustrate his  plans.   Therefore,
some of these chosen people were lost, that is to say,  they were  abandoned
by their leaders and did not become the forbears of the new humanity.

   THOSE WHO WERE THUS LOST OR LEFT BEHIND ARE, STRANGE TO SAY,  THE PRESENT
DAY  JEWS,  who  at one time married into the families  of  their  Atlantean
brethren,  contrary to the commands of their divine leader,  and  yet  today
think  themselves the "chosen people"  of God.   There is no doubt that  the
earliest Jews remember their sin in marrying outside of their tribes.   Thus
they instilled into their descendants the strong dislike against mixing with
other tribes, and so these rebels have since been faithful to the injunction
not to marry among the Gentiles.


[PAGE 56]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   As for their being intellectual as a race,  we say No!   In the  Polarian
Epoch  man  evolved  a  dense body, and  the  vitalizing  principle  in  the
Hyperboreon Epoch.   In the Lemurian Epoch came the desire body to give  in-
centive to action, and the mind was added in the Atlantean Epoch,  giving to
man CUNNING.  Thought, or reason, is the faculty to be evolved in this Aryan
epoch,  and  a  study of facts will reveal to us that  the  Jews  still  are
strongly actuated by the Atlantean faculty--CUNNING.

   The leaders of humanity have been endeavoring to get these people to  mix
with the other races in order that they might be lifted out of their present
condition.   Their Bible tells us how they have been exiled time and  again,
without avail;  they have remained a people apart.   The Christ was sent  to
them  as one of their own,  because it was thought that they would take  the
word of one from among their midst, but "they chose Barabbas."   That as was
the last straw;  it was seen that it was impossible to save them IN A  BODY.
Since then they have been scattered over the whole world, a people without a
country,  to  induce  them  to  amalgamate in that  way,  but  such  is  the
stiff-neckedness  of this people that to this day they are  still  separate.
Here in America,  however, in "the Great Melting Pot," they are beginning to
slowly  amalgamate.   They were lost by marrying outside their tribe into  a
lower  race,  but in time they will be saved by marrying into the  more  ad-
vanced races, here upon the American continent.


[PAGE 57]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 27.

   HAS  THE  ROSICRUCIAN  PHILOSOPHY ANY SPECIFIC  TEACHING  CONCERNING  THE
TRAINING OF CHILDREN?

   ANSWER:  There is perhaps no subject of greater importance than that.  In
the first place,  wise parents who are desirous of giving the child all  ad-
vantages,  commence BEFORE THE BIRTH of the child,  even before the  concep-
tion,  to prayerfully turn their thoughts toward the task they are undertak-
ing,  and  are  careful to see that the union which is to  bring  about  the
germination takes place under the proper stellar influences,  when the  moon
is  passing through signs which are appropriate to the building of a  strong
and healthy body,  having,  of course, their own bodies in the best possible
physical, moral and mental condition.

   Then  during  the period of gestation they hold before their  mind's  eye
constantly the ideal of a strong,  useful life for the incoming entity,  and
as  soon as possible after birth has taken place they cast the horoscope  of
the child,  FOR THE IDEAL PARENT IS ALSO AN ASTROLOGER.  If the parents have
not the ability to cast the horoscope themselves they can at least study the
stellar signs that will enable them to intelligently understand what the as-
trologer tells them;  but under no circumstances will they consult a profes-
sional  astrologer to help them,  one who prostitutes the science for  gold,
but  will seek the aid of a spiritual astrologer,  though they may  have  to
seek some time.  From the child's natal chart the strength and weaknesses of
its character can be readily seen.  The parents will then be in the best po-
sition possible to foster the good and take  appropriate  means  to  repress


[PAGE 58]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the  evil  before the tendencies work themselves out into  actualities,  and
thus  they may in a large measure help the incoming entity to  overcome  his
faults.

   Next,  the parent must realize that that which we term birth is only  the
birth of the visible,  physical body, which is born and comes to its present
high  stage of efficiency in a shorter time than the invisible  vehicles  of
man,  because it has had the longest evolution.   As the foetus is  shielded
from  the  impacts of the visible world by being encased in  the  protecting
womb of the mother during the period of gestation,  so are also the  subtler
vehicles encased in envelopes of ether and desire stuff which protects  them
until they have sufficiently matured,  and are able to withstand the  condi-
tions of the outer world.

   Thus the vital body is born at about the age of seven,  or the time  when
the child cuts its second teeth,  and the desire body is born at about four-
teen,  or the time of puberty.  The mind comes to birth at about twenty-one,
when we say a man has reached majority.

   There are certain important matters which can be taken care of only  dur-
ing the appropriate period of growth,  and the parent should know what these
are.   Though  the organs have been formed by the time the  child  comes  to
birth, THE LINES OF GROWTH are determined during the first seven years,  and
if  they are not properly outlined during that time,  an  otherwise  healthy
child may become a sickly man or woman.

   In the first chapter of St.  John, we read that "In the beginning was the
word . . . And without it was not anything made that was made . . .  and the
word became flesh."   The word is a rhythmic sound,  and sound is the  great
cosmic builder,  therefore during the first septenary epoch of its life  the
child  should  be  surrounded  by  music  of  the  right  kind,  by  musical
language--the  swing  and  rhythm  of  nursery  rhymes  being   particularly


[PAGE 59]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

valuable.   It does not matter about the sense at all;  what matters is  the
rhythm; the more the child has of that, the healthier it will grow.

   There  are two great watchwords which apply to this period of  a  child's
life.   They are called IMITATION and EXAMPLE.   There is no creature in the
world so imitative as a little child; it follows our example to the smallest
detail so far as it is able.   Therefore,  the parents who seek to bring  up
their  child  well will ever be careful when in the presence of  the  little
one.  It is no use to teach it not to mind; the child has no mind, it has no
reason,  it can only imitate, and it cannot help imitating any more than wa-
ter can help running down hill.   If we have one kind of food for  ourselves
which is highly seasoned and cooked in French style,  perhaps,  and we  give
our child another dish, telling it that what we eat is not good for it,  the
child  may not then be able to imitate us,  but we implant the appetite  for
such food in the little one.   When it grows up and can gratify its taste it
will do so.   Therefore,  the careful parents should abstain from the  foods
and liquors they do not wish their child to partake of.

   Regarding the clothing,  we may say that at that time the child should be
entirely unconscious of its sex organs, and therefore the clothing should be
particularly  loose at all times.   This is specially necessary with  little
boys,  for  oftentimes a most seriously bad habit in later life  may  result
from the rubbing of too tight clothing.

   There is also the question of punishment to be considered; that too is an
important  factor  at all times in awakening the sex nature  and  should  be
carefully avoided.  There is no child so refractory that it will not respond
to the method of reward for good deeds and the withholding of  privileges as


[PAGE 60]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

retribution for disobedience.   Besides, we recognize the fact that whipping
breaks the spirit of a dog,  and we oftentimes complain that certain  people
have  cultivated a wishbone instead of a backbone--that they are lacking  in
will.   Much of that is due to whippings, mercilessly administered in child-
hood.   Let any parent look at this from the child's standpoint.   How would
any  of us now like to live with someone from whose authority we  could  not
escape,  who was much bigger than we, and have to submit to whippings day by
day?  Leave the whipping alone and much of the social evil will be done away
with in a generation.

   When  the vital body has been brought to birth at the seventh  year,  the
faculties  of perception and memory are to be educated.   The watchword  for
this period should be AUTHORITY and DISCIPLESHIP.  We should not, if we have
a precocious child, seek to goad it into a course of study which requires an
enormous  expenditure of thought.   Child prodigies have usually become  men
and women of less than ordinary mentality.   The child should be allowed  to
follow  his own inclination in that respect.   His faculties of  observation
should be cultivated,  he should be shown living examples.   Let him see the
drunkard and what vice has led HIM to; show him also the good man,  and  set
before him high ideals.  Teach him to take everything you say upon authority
and  endeavor to be such that he may respect your authority as  parents  and
teachers.   At  this time he should also be prepared to  husband  the  force
which  is now being awakened in him, and which will enable him  to  generate
his kind at the end of the second period of seven years.   He should not  be
allowed to gather that knowledge from polluted sources,  because the parents
shirk the responsibility of telling him from a mistaken sense of modesty.  A


[PAGE 61]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

flower may be taken as an object lesson,  whence all the children,  from the
smallest to the biggest,  may receive the most beautiful instruction in  the
form  of  a fairy tale.   They may be taught how flowers are  like  families
without bothering at all with botanical terms,  so long as the parents  have
studied in the slightest degree a little elementary botany.   Show the chil-
dren some flowers.   Tell them "Here is a flower family where there are  all
boys (a staminate flower),  and here is another flower where there are  only
girls (a pistilate flower).  Here is one where there are both boys and girls
(a flower where there are both stamen and pistils).  Show them the pollen in
the anthers.  Tell them that these little flower boys are just like the boys
in the human families;  that they are adventuresome and want to go out  into
the world to fight the battle of life, while the girls (the pistils) stay at
home.   Show them the bees with the pollen baskets on their legs,  and  tell
them  how  the  little flower boys bestride those winged  steeds,  like  the
knights  of old,  and go out into the world to seek the princess immured  in
the  magic  castle (the ovule hidden in the pistil);  how  the  pollen,  the
flower boy-knights,  force their way through the pistil and enter the ovule;
then tell them how that signifies that the knight and the princess are  mar-
ried,  that  they live happy ever afterward and become the parents  of  many
little flower boys and girls.  When they have fully grasped that,  they will
understand also the generation in the animal and human kingdom, for there is
no  difference;  one is just as pure and chaste and holy as the other.   And
the little children brought up in that way will always have a reverence  for
the creative function that can be instilled in no better way.

   When  a child has been thus equipped, it is well fortified for the  birth
of  the  desire  body  at  the  time  of  puberty.  When the desires and the


[PAGE 62]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

emotions  are unleashed,  it enters upon the most dangerous period of  life,
the time of the hot youth from fourteen to twenty-one,  for at that time the
desire  body is rampant and the mind has not yet come to birth to act  as  a
brake.   At this time it is well for the child that has been brought  up  as
here outlined,  for its parents will then be a strength and an anchor to  it
to  tide  it  over that troublesome period until the time when  it  is  full
born--the age of twenty-one , when the mind is born.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 28.

   WHY ARE CHILDREN BORN IN A FAMILY WHERE THEY ARE NOT WELCOME?

   ANSWER:  It shows a sad state of society when a question such as this can
be relevant,  as,  unfortunately,  it is.  The primal purpose of marriage is
the  perpetuation of the race and people who are not willing to become  par-
ents  have no right to marry.   It should be the right of every child to  be
well  born,  and welcome.   But while we are careful to seek  out  the  best
strain in the animals which we use for breeding purposes,  in order that  we
may get the hardiest and best stock,  we usually do not think at all of  the
physical, moral and mental fitness of the  one we select to be the father or


[PAGE 63]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

mother of our children.  In fact, it is usually considered indelicate if not
indecent  to  think  of  children at all, and when they  come  in  spite  of
preventatives,  the parents are often distracted with grief.  But the law of
cause and effect is not to be thwarted.   The mills of the Gods grind slowly
but they are sure to grind very small, and though the centuries may pass by,
there will come a time when the one who is an unwilling parent must  himself
seek  an embodiment anew,  and perhaps he will then be reborn into a  family
where he is not welcome.   Or perhaps the unwilling parents of one life  be-
come  childless  in the next.   Cases are know to the writer  where  such  a
couple  has been blessed with numerous children whom they desired  and  pas-
sionately  loved,  but who died in childhood one after another to the  great
grief of the parents.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 29.

   WHEN CHILDREN DO NOT COME TO A MAN AND WIFE WHO DEEPLY LONG FOR THEM,  IS
THERE  NOT SOME WAY TO INDUCE SOME SOUL IN THE UNSEEN WORLD TO ACCEPT  THEIR
INVITATIONS TO REINCARNATE?   WHERE THE CONDITIONS IN THE HOME ARE MOST  FA-
VORABLE,  IT WOULD SEEM THAT AMONG THE MANY SOULS AWAITING  INCARNATION  ONE
WOULD FIND THE CONDITIONS RIGHTS.

   ANSWER:   This  is undoubtedly one of the conditions where  the  would-be
parents  have  some  time  in  a  previous  neglected their opportunity, or,


[PAGE 64]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

perhaps, have taken precautions to avoid begetting children.  Or, if this is
not the case,  it may be that at a later day their hopes will be  fulfilled.
The  writer has observed a case where a spirit seeking incarnation  followed
the mother about,  and he was told by someone else who had known the  mother
that that Ego had been following her from before her marriage.  The marriage
proved barren, however, and only recently came the news of the divorce.   It
was  plain that although this Ego evidently desired incarnation through  the
mother,  it refused the father.   We sometimes hear of marriages  which  are
barren, and then when the marriage contract has been dissolved and the part-
ners have each remarried,  both have become parents,  showing that they were
perfectly able to become parents from the physical standpoint,  and that  it
was  the incarnating Ego that was lacking.   For this should be noted,  that
unless  there is an Ego seeking embodiment through a married  couple,  their
efforts will be fruitless.   From the ordinary standpoint that would not ap-
pear to be so, but it will be readily seen that as the chemical constituents
of the semen and the ova are at all times the same, there would be no reason
why  a union of the sexes should be fruitful at one time and barren  at  an-
other  if they were the only factors.   We know that if we mix hydrogen  and
oxygen  in proper proportions we always get water;  we know that water  will
always  flow down hill;  and thus all the laws of nature are invariable,  so
that unless there were another factor than the chemical mixture of semen and
ova there would always be issue.   And this unknown and unseen factor is the
reincarnating  Ego which goes only where it pleases and without which  there
can be no issue.

   If  the  inquirer  will  pray  earnestly to the angel Gabriel, who is the


[PAGE 65]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ambassador  of the Regent of the Moon to the earth,  and therefore  a  prime
factor in the generation of bodies (vide the Bible),  it may possibly  avail
to bring the desired result.   The best time is Monday at sunrise,  and from
the new Moon to the full.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 30.

   HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE FACT THAT A CHILD SO OFTEN INHERITS THE BAD  CHAR-
ACTERISTICS OF THE PARENTS?

   ANSWER:   We  explain by saying that it is not  a  fact.   Unfortunately,
people seem to lay their bad traits to heredity,  blaming their parents  for
their faults,  while taking to themselves all the credit for the good.   The
very  fact  that we differentiate between that which is inherited  and  that
which is our own,  shows that there are two sides to man's nature,  the side
of the FORM and the LIFE side.

   The man,  the thinker,  comes here equipped with a mental and a moral na-
ture,  which are entirely his own, taking from his parents only the material
for the physical body.   We are drawn to certain people by the law of causa-
tion,  and the law of association.   The same law which causes musicians  to
seek the company of one another in  concert halls, gamblers to congregate at


[PAGE 66]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

at the race tracks or in pool rooms, people of a studious nature to flock to
libraries, etc., also causes people of similar tendencies,  characteristics,
and tastes to be born in the same family.  Thus,  when we hear a person say,
"Yes, I know I am thriftless, but then my people never were used to work, we
always had servants," it shows that similarity of tastes and nothing more is
needed to explain it.   When another person says, "Oh, yes,  I know I am ex-
travagant,  but I just cannot help it,  it runs in the family,"  it is again
the law of association,  and the sooner we recognize that instead of  making
the law of heredity an excuse for our evil habits we should seek to  conquer
them and cultivate virtues instead, the better for us.   We would not recog-
nize  it as a valid excuse if the drunkard should say,  "No,  I cannot  help
drinking, all my associates drink."  We would tell him to get away from them
as quickly as possible and assert his own individuality, and we would advise
people to cease shielding themselves behind their ancestors as an excuse for
bad habits.


[PAGE 67]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 31.


   DOES NOT THE CHILD INHERIT ITS BLOOD AND NERVOUS SYSTEM FROM ITS PARENTS?
IF SO, WILL IT NOT INHERIT DISEASE AND NERVOUS DISORDERS ALSO?

   ANSWER:   In the foetus,  in the lower part of the throat just above  the
sternum or breast bone,  there is a gland called the thymus gland,  which is
largest during the period of gestation and which gradually atrophies as  the
child grows older and disappears entirely by or before the fourteenth  year,
very often when the bones have been properly formed.   Science has been very
much  puzzled  as  to the use of this gland,  and  few  theories  have  been
advanced  to account for it.   Among these theories one is that is  supplies
the material for the manufacture of the red blood corpuscles until the bones
have  been properly formed in the child so that it may manufacture  its  own
blood corpuscles.  That theory is correct.

   During  the  earliest years the Ego which owns the child-body is  not  in
full possession,  and we recognize that the child is not responsible for its
doings,  at any rate not before the seventh year, and later we have extended
it to the fourteenth year.   During that time no legal liability for its ac-
tion attaches to the child,  and that is as it should be,  for the Ego being
in the blood can only function properly in blood of its own making,  so that
where, as in the child-body, the stock of the blood is furnished by the par-
ents through the thymus gland,  the child is not yet its own master or  mis-
tress.   Thus it is that children do not speak of themselves so much as  "I"
in  the  earlier years,  but identify themselves with the family;  they  are
Papa's girl and Mama's boy.  The  young  child will say "Mary wants" this or


[PAGE 68]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

"Johnny  wants that,"  but as soon as they have attained the age of  puberty
and have begun to manufacture their own blood corpuscles,  then we hear  the
boy or girl say, "I" will do this or "I" will do that.   From that time they
begin  to assert their own identity,  and to tear themselves loose from  the
family.

   Seeing,  then, that the blood throughout the years of childhood,  as well
as the body,  is inherited from the parents,  the tendencies to disease  are
also carried over, not the disease itself but the tendency.  After the four-
teenth  year,  when the indwelling Ego has commenced to manufacture its  own
blood corpuscles,  it depends a great deal upon itself whether or not  these
tendencies shall become manifested actualities in its life.

                               ---------------

                              QUESTION NO. 32.

   CAN  A  PERSON  BE INFLUENCED IN A NATURAL SLEEP AS HE  CAN  IN  HYPNOTIC
SLEEP, OR IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  there  is a difference.  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


[PAGE 69]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

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 its 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.
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.  This  method way of course


[PAGE 70]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

be used for evil,  but we cannot refrain from publishing it,  as we  believe
that  the good which can be done in this way will much more than offset  the
few cases where some misguided person may use it for the wrong purpose.


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