[PAGE 133]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
                                 SECTION III

                            QUESTIONS CONCERNING

                                   REBIRTH


[PAGE 135]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 65.

   WHY,  WITH  A FEW EXCEPTIONS,  ARE WE REINCARNATED,  WITHOUT  HAVING  THE
SLIGHTEST  KNOWLEDGE OF ANY PREVIOUS EXISTENCE,  TO SUFFER BLINDLY  IN  THIS
LIFE  FOR TRANSGRESSIONS COMMITTED IN SOME FORMER LIFE OF WHICH WE  ARE  NOW
ENTIRELY IGNORANT?   COULD WE NOT ADVANCE BETTER AND QUICKER SPIRITUALLY  IF
WE  KNEW WHERE WE HAD ERRED BEFORE AND WHAT ACTS WE MUST CORRECT  BEFORE  WE
CAN PROGRESS?

   ANSWER:  It is one of the greatest blessings to man that he does not know
his  previous experiences until he has attained considerable  spiritual  ad-
vancement, because there are in our past lives (when we were much more igno-
rant than we are now) dark deeds that call for retribution, and this fate is
being gradually liquidated, so that did we know our past lives,  did we know
how  and when the law of cause and effect will bring to us  retribution  for
past  misdeeds,  we would see this impending calamity hovering over us,  and
fear  of our fate would then be apt to rob us of the strength  wherewith  to
battle against it,  and at the time of its arrival we should stand  appalled
and helpless.

   On the other hand,  not knowing what is being us,  we escape knowing what
is before us, and, therefore, we learn the lessons without being deprived of
our strength by fear.   Besides, for those who wish to know,  there are cer-
tain  means  of knowing what lessons we are to learn and how best  to  learn
them.  For  instance,  OUR  CONSCIENCE tells what we are to do or not to do.


[PAGE 136]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

If we care to study the science of astrology the horoscope tells us our ten-
dencies  and the lines of least resistance,  so that by working  with  these
laws  of nature we may advance quickly, and the more we follow the  dictates
of  our conscience the more we study the laws of nature as revealed  by  as-
tronomy, the quicker we shall be ready for first-hand knowledge.

   In "Zanoni," Bulwer Lytton speaks of a fearsome specter which met Glyndon
as he was attempting to enter a step in unfoldment not hitherto attained  by
him,  and that is called in Occultism the "Dweller on the  Threshold."   Be-
tween  the time of death and a new birth,  this Dweller on the Threshold  is
not seen by man,  but it is the embodiment of all our past evil deeds,  that
must first be passed by one who wishes to enter the inner worlds consciously
and  attain to a full knowledge of conditions there;  but there is also  an-
other  Dweller which is the embodiment of all our good deeds,  and that  one
may be said to be our Guardian Angel.

   If we have the courage to pass the hideous one,  which is perceived first
because  formed of coarse desire matter, we shall soon obtain the  conscious
help  of the other and then we shall have the strength to stand fearless  in
the storms of vilification that come to all who attempt the path of  unself-
ishness.   But  before  we have passed this specter we are  not  fitted  for
knowledge of our previous lives; we must rest content with the ordinary view
given to mankind.


[PAGE 137]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 66.

   ARE ALL THE HUMAN BEINGS THAT PEOPLE THE EARTH AT THE PRESENT TIME  SOULS
THAT HAVE GONE THROUGH EARTH LIFE BEFORE, OR ARE NEW SOULS BEING CREATED ALL
THE TIME?

   ANSWER:  The ingress of the spirits into the human bodies, as constituted
at  the present time,  commenced in the stage of the world's  solidification
known as the Lemurian Epoch, and was not fully completed until the middle of
the Atlantean Epoch, a period of time occupying, perhaps, millions of years.
But  since  that  time,  there has been no  farther  ingress;  the  door  is
definitely closed because we have now evolved so far that those who had  not
reached  the  stage where they could manipulate a human body  at  that  time
would be too far behind us to catch up with our further development.   Since
that time,  the spirits which were embodied in human shapes have been evolv-
ing by repeated embodiments so that, without exception, every one of the hu-
man beings now on earth has been embodied at different times and in  differ-
ent environments.


[PAGE 138]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 67.

   HOW DO WE KNOW BEYOND A DOUBT THAT REBIRTH IS A FACT?  IS IT NOT POSSIBLE
THAT THOSE WHO SO STATE MAY BE SUFFERING FROM HALLUCINATION?

   ANSWER:  The trained clairvoyant who is able to read in the memory of na-
ture  may  follow  the lives of people from their  present  state  BACKWARD,
through  the years of childhood.   He will then see them in infancy,  follow
them  through  the  gestatory period to the time  when  the  spirit  entered
thewomb of the mother.  He may go back through their heaven life, their life
in Purgatory, arriving at the time of death in the previous life,  then fol-
low them backward and see the whole life.  But in the case of an adult,  the
time involved is usually a thousand years or more, and of course, it is pos-
sible,  were there no other means of verification,  that this might be  hal-
lucination.  In the cases of children, however, who have not reached puberty
there  is a comparatively short interval between incarnations.   In  such  a
case it is easy to verify a reembodiment among one's own acquaintances,  and
that is in fact part of the education of a pupil of the Elder Brothers.   He
is  shown a child which is about to die and is told to watch that  child  in
the invisible world for perhaps one or two years,  following it step by step
until  it  takes a new embodiment--perhaps with the same and  possibly  with
other parents.   When the pupil has thus followed an Ego through the  invis-
ible worlds from one death to the next birth,  he knows absolutely that  the
law of rebirth is a fact in nature, and he often has occasion on account  of
his other investigations,  to pursue such studies of the past lives of  many
individuals.


[PAGE 139]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   Still,  it may be urged,  is not this clairvoyance of which he speaks  as
his  means of investigation in itself a hallucination?   May he not be,  al-
though  perfectly  honest,  the victim of a chimerical vision?   It  may  be
stated in answer to that suggestion,  that he has every day at his  disposal
the means for verifying his observations.   When a man has visited the  city
of New York and has seen the city he will never be tempted to say,  I wonder
if I could have been mistaken?   HE HAS BEEN THERE AND KNOWS IT.   So it  is
with the clairvoyant.   At times when he leaves his body he meets and  works
with people whom he does not know in ordinary life.  Later he may be invited
to  visit  these friends from the invisible world;  he may travel  by  their
clairvoyant direction to a city where he is a stranger;  he may find them in
the street and house seen clairvoyantly, recognize them and be himself  rec-
ognized.  He may then converse with these friends of the things they did and
the  places they visited in their invisible bodies,  and if he ever had  any
doubt  of  the reality of his life outside the dense physical world,  he  is
then once and for all time convinced of the reality of his experiences while
out of the body.   He knows that they are not strange, he knows that he can-
not have been glamoured, but that his life there, his work there and his ex-
periences there are as real as his life, his work and his experiences here.


[PAGE 140]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 68.

   DO THE SOULS THAT HAVE PASSED INTO PURGATORY AND THROUGH THE FIRST,  SEC-
OND  AND  THIRD HEAVENS COME BACK HERE AND REINCARNATION THIS EARTH,  OR  DO
THEY GO TO OTHER SPHERES?

   ANSWER:   They come back to this earth again until they have learned  the
lessons that can be learned here.   It is essentially the same principle  as
when we send a child to school.   We do not send it to kindergarten one day,
to grammar school the next, and to college the third day,  but we send it to
kindergarten  day after day for a long time,  until it has learned  all  the
lessons  that are to be learned there.  The knowledge it has gained in  kin-
dergarten  forms  the basis for what it is to learn in the  grammar  school;
that again is the foundation for the lessons of the high school and the col-
lege.   By a similar process we have learned lessons under different  condi-
tions in the past,  and in the future, when we have learned all that can  be
learned from our present earth environment,  we shall also find the tasks of
higher evolutions awaiting us.  There is endless progress, for we are divine
as our Father in heaven, and limitations are impossible.


[PAGE 141]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 69.

   DO WE COME IN CONTACT WITH THE FRIENDS OF ONE LIFE WHEN WE ARE BORN AGAIN
INTO A NEW EARTH LIFE?

   ANSWER:   The law of rebirth has for its companion law the law of  causa-
tion.   It will be manifestly apparent that there are many causes set  going
by all of us which do not bring about effects in this life.  For instance, a
husband is sick and the wife cares for him with great self-sacrifice.  There
is  obviously a debt there,  and if the sickness continues until the end  of
the husband's life, there is in that life no opportunity for a return of the
favor.  But if we know what the laws of nature are and how they operate,  we
shall understand that they are not set aside by such small matters as cessa-
tion  of life in a certain body.   If we break a limb it is not  healed  the
next day,  although we may have slept at night unconscious of our hurt;  but
when  we awaken the limb is in about the same condition as on  the  previous
day.   So  it is with the deeds done in the body in one life.   Although  we
pass through the life between death and a new birth, and are now unconscious
of former lives, nevertheless, when we enter upon a new life, the law of as-
sociation,  the causes generated in a former life,  will bring us into a new
environment where we shall find our old friends and our old foes.   We  know
them,  too, although perhaps we do not directly recognize them.   Sometimes,
however,  we meet a person for the first time and are drawn to that  person;
we  feel  as if we had known that person all our lives,  and that  we  could
trust him or her with everything we have.  That is because the spirit within
sees an old friend and recognizes  him,  though unable to impress the recog-


[PAGE 142]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

nition upon the brain it now possesses.  Or perhaps we may meet a person and
feel that we would not care to be in his company;  we instinctively  dislike
him though we have no reason from ordinary points of view; but there also it
is the recognition of the spirit which bridges the past and sees an old-time
enemy.   Thus  our instinctive likes and dislikes are  guides,  dictated  by
former  experiences,  and they will usually be found to be reliable  in  the
light of subsequent experience.

                              QUESTION NO. 70.

   IS  THE  EXPERIENCE GAINED IN EACH INCARNATION  RECORDED  SEPARATELY  AND
ADDED TO THE PREVIOUS ONES,  SO THAT IN THE END THE SPIRIT WILL BE  ENTIRELY
CONSCIOUS  OF THE COMPLETE SUM OF ITS EXPERIENCES,  OR IS THE EXPERIENCE  OF
ONE LIFE MORE OR LESS UNCONSCIOUSLY ABSORBED BY THE NEXT SUCCEEDING INCARNA-
TION, SO THAT ONLY A GENERAL EFFECT IS OBTAINED?


   ANSWER:   When we were children we learned to write and we  went  through
many awkward motions before we had finally cultivated the faculty.   In  the
years that have gone by we have forgotten all about the experiences we  went
through  while learning,  but our faculty remains ready for our use  at  any
time required.


[PAGE 143]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   In a similar manner,  experiences we have had in different lives are usu-
ally  forgotten by the man,  but the faculties he has cultivated remain  and
ready  for his use at any time.   Thus we sometimes see a man who has  never
had  a lesson in painting who is nevertheless an artist to the very tips  of
his finger ends, able to paint the most wonderful pictures.   He has brought
over from past lives a faculty which he is now able to use.  When we hear of
a Mozart composing at three years of age,  that also shows the  accumulation
of the sense of harmony in the past.  Thus it may be said that,  although we
do not remember,  we always have the faculties cultivated in our past  lives
for use in the present.   It is that which makes the difference between  man
and man; between the dune and the sage.

   There is, however, also a record in nature of our past lives in their mi-
nutest detail.  The trained clairvoyant who is able to read in the memory of
nature can follow the past lives of a man backwards, as,  for instance,  the
film  of  a moving picture is unrolled in reverse order.   He will  see  the
man's present life first,  his birth, his previous sojourn in the  invisible
world, next the death of the previous life, which will then unroll itself in
reverse order through old age, manhood, youth,  childhood and infancy,  back
to that birth, and so on through the various lives.


[PAGE 144]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 71.


   WHEN  THE SPIRIT,  COMING DOWN TO REBIRTH,  HAS DRAWN TO ITSELF ITS  MIND
STUFF AND SINKS INTO THE DESIRE WORLD, IS IT NOT THEN IN PURGATORY AGAIN?

   ANSWER:   The difficulty of the inquirer is that he has not fully compre-
hended what constitutes Purgatory.  Purgatory is in the lower regions of the
Desire World,  but these regions are not Purgatory to those who have nothing
to  be purged from.   The low desires of man are formed of the desire  stuff
from  this region,  and as they cannot be gratified,  the man suffers.   Be-
sides,  there the force of repulsion is supreme, and when the Ego is passing
outward  to the Heaven World it has in its desire body pictures of the  evil
acts  it  has committed.   These pictures are formed also of  coarse  desire
stuff, because they were generated by the passions of the man at the time he
committed the evil act which they depict,  and the centrifugal force of  re-
pulsion seeks to expel them from his makeup.   It is the process of  tearing
them out that causes the pain he feels.   When,  on the other hand,  the Ego
passes through this region on its way to rebirth,  the centripetal force  of
attraction  brings  new  desire  matter into its makeup.   Then  it  is  not
Purgatory at all;  neither is it Purgatory for the Invisible Helpers who  go
among the spirits in prison endeavoring to aid them in learning the  lessons
that shall make them better men and women.  It is only where evil has to  be
expurgated by a spirit that it feels this region as being purgative.


[PAGE 145]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 72.

   HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE IN THE THEORY OF REINCARNATION THAT WE COME BACK HERE
IN THE BODY OF AN ANIMAL?   IS IT NOT MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL TO BELIEVE IN  THE
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE THAT WE GO TO HEAVEN WITH GOD AND THE ANGELS?

   ANSWER:   The writer has never advocated the views attributed to  him  by
the inquirer, who, evidently, has not studied the question at all.  There is
a  doctrine among some of the most ignorant tribes in the East teaching  the
theory of transmigration,  that the human spirit may incarnate in the bodies
of animals,  but that is very different from the doctrine of  reincarnation,
which holds that man is an evolving being progressing through the school  of
life by means of repeated embodiments in bodies of gradually improving  tex-
ture.   The Christ said to his disciples,  "Be ye therefore perfect,  as the
Father in heaven is perfect."   That was a definite command,  and the Christ
would never have given it if it were unattainable;  but we all know that  we
cannot reach that goal in one short life.   Given time and the opportunities
afforded by repeated embodiments and changed environments, however, we shall
some time accomplish the work of perfecting ourselves.

   There  is no authority in any of the sacred writings of the  East,  even,
for such a belief as transmigration.   The only semblance to such an idea is
found in the Kathopanishad,  Chapter 5, Verse 9, which says that some of the
souls, according to their deeds, return to the womb to be reborn, but others
go into THE MOTIONLESS.  Meaning, in the opinion of some,  that they may re-
incarnate down even as low as the mineral  kingdom.  The  Sanskrit word used


[PAGE 146]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

in that place is STHANU,  which also means a pillar,  and read thus it gives
the  same  idea  as  the  passage  in  Revelation  which  says:   "Him  that
overcometh,  I will make a pillar in the house of my God, thence he shall no
more go out."   When humanity has reached perfection, there will come a time
when they will not more be tied to the wheel of births and deaths,  but will
remain  in the Invisible Worlds to work thence for the upliftment  of  other
beings.

   Besides,  transmigration is an impossibility in nature,  because there is
in  every human body AN INDWELLING INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT,  while each  tribe  of
animals is ruled by A COMMON,  OR GROUP SPIRIT,  of which these animals  all
form  a part,  and no self-conscious Ego can enter into a body ruled by  an-
other.

   The  inquirer asks whether it is not much more beautiful to believe in  a
heaven with God and the angels?  Perhaps it is,  but we are not concerned so
much  with that which may be pleasing to our passing fancy as  with  finding
THE TRUTH,  and although this doctrine of reincarnation is sometimes derided
by wiseacres as impossible and a heathen doctrine,  it is really not a ques-
tion of whether it is heathen or not either.  When we deal with a mathemati-
cal problem,  we do not care who first solved it;  all we are concerned with
is, has it been properly solved?  Likewise with this doctrine, no matter who
taught it first, it is the only one that will solve all the problems of life
in a rational manner, whereas, the theory that a man who perhaps never cared
about music and did not know the first thing about harmony,  immediately af-
ter  he  has died develops an insatiable passion for music and  will  remain
content to toot in a trumpet or strum on a harp for all eternity,  is rather
more ridiculous.


[PAGE 147]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                                 SECTION IV

                            QUESTIONS CONCERNING

                             THE BIBLE TEACHINGS


[PAGE 149]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 73.

   WHY IS IT THAT EVERY SECT INTERPRETS THE BIBLE DIFFERENTLY AND THAT  EACH
ONE GETS AN APPARENT VINDICATION FOR ITS IDEAS FROM THAT BOOK?

   ANSWER:   That question,  if asked by a skeptic, affords him a great deal
of satisfaction, for he sees in it A VINDICATION FOR HIS IDEA that all sects
are wrong in their beliefs and that the Bible is a conglomerate mass of non-
sense, while in fact the case is very much the other way.  We do not contend
for the Divinity of this Book or hold that it is the Word of God from  cover
to  cover;  we  recognize  the fact that it is a  poor  translation  of  the
originals and that there are many interpolations which have been inserted at
different times to support various ideas, but,  nevertheless,  the very fact
that so much truth has been massed into such a small compass is a source  of
constant wonder to the occultist, who knows what that Book really is and has
the key to its meaning.

   There is one fact that the skeptic fails to see.   His idea is that if  a
certain interpretation is true,  all other interpretations must  necessarily
be false.   That idea is most emphatically wrong.   TRUTH IS MANY SIDED  and
eternal;  the quest for truth must also be all embracing and  never  ending.
We  may liken truth to a mountain,  and the various interpretations of  that
truth  to  different  paths  leading  up  to  the  summit.  Many  people are


[PAGE 150]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

traveling along all of these paths and every one thinks his path is the only
one while he is at the bottom; he sees only a small part of the mountain and
may therefore be justified in crying to his brothers,  "You are wrong;  come
over in my path;  this is the only one that leads to the top."   But as  all
these people progress upward,  they shall see that the paths converge at the
top and that they are all one in the ultimate.

   It may be said most emphatically that no system of thought which has ever
been able to attract and hold the attention of a large number of people  for
a considerable time has been without its truth;  and whether we perceive  it
or  not,  there  is in every sect the kernel of  divine  teaching  which  is
gradually bringing them upward toward the top of the mountain, and therefore
we should practice the utmost toleration for every belief.

                              QUESTION NO. 74.


   WHAT IS MEANT BY THE SECOND ASPECT OF THE TRIUNE GOD?

   ANSWER:   God is one, just as the light is one, but, as the light passing
through  the atmosphere is refracted into three primary colors--red,  yellow
and blue--so also God,  when he manifests or reflects himself in nature,  is
threefold in his manifestation.  There is first the Creative principle, next
there  is  the  Preservative  principle, and in the third place there is the


[PAGE 151]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

principle of Destruction of THE FORMS which have been created, preserved for
a  time while useful,  then to be destroyed in order that the material  from
which they were constructed may be used in the building of new forms.

   These three principles of God have been called by different names in dif-
ferent religions, and much ink and many goosequills have been used in latter
years  to  defend or decry the idea of a Trinity,  though that ought  to  be
manifest to anyone who will look about him in nature with a thoughtful mind.
In the Western World,  we have been used to calling the Second Aspect of the
Triune God,  the unified preserving principle, CHRIST; and it is very appro-
priate  in a certain sense,  because the Christ came as the teacher of  Love
and  Universal Brotherhood which was to supersede nations that  war  against
one  another,  and He Himself said that there was a still higher stage  when
the  kingdom He was to establish should be delivered to THE FATHER  and  all
should be one in Him.

                              QUESTION NO. 75.

   ARE THE RECORDING ANGELS INDIVIDUAL BEINGS?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  they are mighty Individualities,  the ambassadors of  the
Great Planetary Angels, and as  such they are concerned in the birth of man,


[PAGE 152]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

helping  him in the selection of his environment and allotting to each  life
the right destiny which is ready to be worked out into effects.   They guide
the stellar influences so that they affect each one in such a way as to  fa-
cilitate  the liquidation of his past indebtedness to others,  helping  him,
also, to reap the benefit of whatever good he has done in past lives.

   In  this the Recording Angels are helped by a mighty host of  agents  and
the nature spirits, which are not individualized yet, but work under the di-
rection of these Great Beings unconsciously, much as the animals are  guided
by group spirits.

                              QUESTION NO. 76.

   DO  THE ANGELS AND ARCHANGELS WATCH OVER US INDIVIDUALLY AS WELL AS  COL-
LECTIVELY AND KNOW JUST WHAT OUR LIVES ARE?

   ANSWER:  THE LORDS OF MIND, which Paul calls the "Powers of Darkness" be-
cause they were the humanity of the dark Saturn period when the universe was
just coming out of chaos, WORK ONLY WITH MAN.

   THE ARCHANGELS, who were human in the fiery Sun Period where the universe
was of the consistency of "desire stuff,"  work  now  as  the HELPERS OF THE


[PAGE 153]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

GROUP SPIRITS OF THE ANIMALS AND AS RACE SPIRITS FOR HUMANITY, because these
classes of beings have a desire body.

   THE  ANGELS,  who were the humanity of the Moon Period,  WORK  WITH  MAN,
ANIMAL AND PLANT, for in the Moon Period the universe was of the consistency
of  "ether"  and the vital bodies of the three kingdoms named is  formed  of
that material.   The Angels are,  therefore,  properly helpers in the  vital
functions such as assimilation,  growth and propagation,  and in their  work
with humanity they are family spirits.   They cause the increase in the fam-
ily, in man's cattle and in the yield of his fields.

   MAN,  himself,  who  is a little lower than the Angels,  WORKS  WITH  THE
MINERALS, which are found in the chemical region of the Physical World, com-
posed  of  the gases,  liquids and solids.  He is to the minerals  what  the
Higher  Beings are to us.   He is gradually waking them to life  by  molding
them into houses, bridges, railways, etc.

   In  a future incarnation of the earth,  when these minerals  have  become
plant-like,  man will have learned to work with life and will then be  in  a
similar position with regard to them as the Angels occupy now with regard to
us.   Thus there is endless progression, the higher always helping the  less
evolved, until all shall have reached perfection.

   Answering the question more specifically,  we may say that the Archangels
work with the nations and the races of the earth,  while the Angels are con-
cerned  particularly  with the families and the individuals in  the  family.
The "Guardian Angel," however, is not exactly an entity from a higher evolu-
tion,  but is rather the personified embodiment of our good deeds in all our
past lives,  which, though unseen by us, is still with us always,  impelling
us toward right action and the doing of more good.


[PAGE 154]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 77.

   HAVE ANGELS WINGS AS SHOWN IN PICTURES?

   ANSWER:   No; none of them have such bird wings as they are shown to have
in pictures,  but there are some classes of Beings in the Spirit World which
have wing-like appendages.   These, however, are not for the purpose of fly-
ing or moving through space,  but are currents of outwelling force that  may
be hurled in one direction or another,  as we use our arms and limbs.   Thus
an  Archangel who is impelling the armies of two nations to battle may  send
out a current of spiritual force in one direction,  numbing the soldiers  of
one  army with fear,  and may send another force to imbue the opposing  army
with added courage,  thus influencing the battle in a manner little  dreamed
of by the contestants.

                              QUESTION NO. 78.

   DO THE ROSICRUCIANS ACCEPT THE BIBLE AS THE "WORD OF GOD"  FROM COVER  TO
COVER?

   ANSWER:  Certainly not, and more particularly not in the extremely narrow
interpretation of some people who think that the book we now have with us is
the only genuine one ever given to humanity.  At most,  it could be only one
of the BOOKS of God,  for there are many other sacred writings which have  a
claim  to  recognition and cannot be ruled out of court by a  few  wiseacres
such as those who have delegated the so-called apocryphal books to the  lit-
erary scrap heap.

   In  the  first place it should be remembered that the Old  Testament  was
written in Hebrew at various times and by numerous writers, and that no col-
lection of these writings was made prior to Ezra.  Of these Hebrew writings,
there is not now a single scrap in existence.   Even as long ago as 280 B.C.
the  Hebrew  language had been abandoned, so far as scriptural  writing  was
concerned,  and the Septuagint,  or Greek Translation,  was in general  use.
That  was  the only Bible in existence at the time of the birth  of  Christ.
Later  some  of  the  Hebrew writings were collected  and  collated  by  the
Masoretes,  a sect which existed about 700 A.D.   This is the best and  most
accurate text.

   The English translation,  most in use today,  is the King James  Version,
but  His  Majesty  was not so much after accuracy in  translation  as  after
peace,  and the act which authorized the translation of the Bible prohibited
the  translators from translating any passages in such a way that  it  would
interfere  with existing beliefs.   This was done to avoid any  uprising  or
dissension in his kingdom,  and of the forty-seven translators,  only  three
were Hebrew scholars and two of them died before the Psalms had been  trans-
lated.   A  number of the books were thrown aside as apocryphal,  and  alto-
gether  words were wrenched out of their original meaning to conform to  the
superstition of the age.   Martin Luther,  in Germany,  translated from  the
Latin  text  which had itself been translated from the Greek  and  thus  the
chances of conveying wrong meanings have been enhanced in  many  and various


[PAGE 156]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

ways.  Add to this that in the old style Hebrew vowel points are omitted and
there is no division into words,  so that by inserting vowel points in  dif-
ferent ways,  words and sentences of entirely different meanings may be  ob-
tained from almost any sentence.   In view of these facts it is evident that
the chances of our getting an accurate version of what was originally  writ-
ten are small indeed.

   Moreover,  it was not intended by the original writers to make the  Bible
an open "Book of God,"  as can well be seen by the following quotation  from
the Zohar:  "Woe to the man who sees in the Thorah (the law--the Bible) only
simple  recitals and ordinary words,  because if in truth it contained  only
these,  we would even today be able to compose a Thorah more worthy of admi-
ration.   But  it is not so;  each word in the Thorah contains  an  elevated
meaning and a sublime mystery...The recitals of the Thorah are the vestments
of  the  Thorah...Woe to him who takes this vestment of the Thorah  for  the
Thorah  itself...The simple take notice of the garments and recitals of  the
Thorah alone;  they know no other thin, they see not that which is concealed
under  the  vestment;  the more instructed men do not pay attention  to  the
vestment, but to that which it envelops"...

   In other words,  they pay no attention to the letter,  but take only  the
spirit.  And, as in a field sown with potatoes there are not only these VEG-
ETABLES,  but also THE SOIL in which they are hidden,  SO IN THE  BIBLE  THE
PEARLS  OF OCCULT TRUTH ARE HIDDEN IN WHAT ARE OFTEN HIDEOUS GARMENTS.   The
occultist  who has fitted himself to possess these pearls has  received  the
key,  and sees them plainly.   To others they remain obscure until they also
have worked for that key.    Thus,  while the story of the wanderings of the
children of Israel and the dealings of a certain God with them are partially


[PAGE 157]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

true, there is also a spiritual significance that is far more important than
that material history.   Even though the Gospels contain the great  outlines
of the life of an individual called Jesus,  they are formulae of  initiation
showing  the experiences which everyone must eventually pass through on  THE
WAY TO THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.

   This path was foreseen by the various persons who wrote the Bible and who
were  thus prophets and seers,  but only in so far as that was  possible  at
their time and age.  A new era will require a new Bible, a new word.



[PAGE 157]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 79.

   WHAT IS THE VIEWPOINT OF THE ROSICRUCIANS CONCERNING THE CREATION OF  THE
WORLD IN SEVEN DAYS?

   ANSWER:  There are two creation stories in the Bible.  One commences with
the first verse of the opening chapter and ends with the third verse of  the
second chapter of Genesis.  Another account commences with the fourth verse.

   These two creation stories seem to be greatly at variance in several par-
ticulars.  The first account states that in the beginning the earth was cov-
ered  with  water;  the  second avers that it was dry.  The first informs us


[PAGE 158]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

that  man was created last;  the second version says he was the first  crea-
ture,  etc.   These discrepancies seem to be irreconcilable,  and afford the
skeptic  great satisfaction when he recounts them with a smile of  supercil-
ious pity for the poor ignorant fools who believe such silly nonsense.   Yet
the two accounts are not really incongruous,  they are complementary and  in
harmony with scientific facts.   The first account deals with the genesis of
form,  the  second chapter with the evolution of consciousness.   The  human
FORM as at present constituted is the chef-d'oeuvre of evolution, built upon
the basis of all lower forms which have gone before.  The LIFE which is man,
THE THINKER,  is without beginning or end, eternal as God Himself,  and that
LIFE was here before all FORMS, as told by the second creation story.

   Regarding  the time in which this creation of FORM is said to have  taken
place,  the Rosicrucians do not teach or believe that it was accomplished in
seven  days  of twenty-four hours each, but in our scheme  of  manifestation
seven  great  transformations of the earth are necessary to  facilitate  the
full evolution of self-consciousness and soul power by the evolving spirits.
Three  and one-half of these periods have been spent in obtaining  vehicles;
the remainder will be required for the evolution of consciousness.

   The opening verse of the Bible states that in the beginning the earth was
dark and without definite form.  That was in the SATURN PERIOD, when the in-
cipient firemist was forming from the root substance of space.

   The third verse informs us that God said "Let there by Light,"  a passage
which has been jeered at as showing the ignorance of the authors and the in-
consistency  of the account with scientific facts;  for,  says the  scoffer,
"When the sun and moon were not created till the fourth day, how could there


[PAGE 159]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

be light previous to that time?   We are not dealing with the world as it is
today,  a solid mass.   That,  of course,  would be dark without an  outside
source of light,  but at that time the earth was a world in the making,  and
according  to the nebular theory there must first be the stage of dark  heat
to  which we have given the name Saturn Period.   Later the mist is  ignited
and luminous;  THE LIGHT IS WITHIN and is not dependent upon an exterior sun
and moon.   This second stage in the development of our planet is called the
SUN PERIOD.

   Next we are told that God said,  "Let there be 'an expansion'  in the wa-
ters  to divide the water from the water."   The word here rendered  "expan-
sion"  is translated "firmament"  in the authorized version,  but we use the
Masoretic text,  which was translated by translators of knowledge,  who were
unrestricted by a royal edict such as that which hampered King Jame's trans-
lators.   The  use of the term "expansion"  harmonizes the  Bible  with  the
nebular theory,  for, when a firemist appears in space moisture is generated
by  the  contact of this heated mass with the surrounding  space,  which  is
cold.  This moisture becomes heated AND EXPANDS into steam which rushes out-
ward from the fiery core,  is there cooled,  and condensed,  and  gravitates
back  to the source of heat.   THUS THE EXPANSION IN THE WATERS DIVIDED  THE
WATER  FROM THE WATER,  the dense moisture remaining nearest the fiery  core
and  the  steam outside.   This stage in the consolidation of the  earth  is
called the MOON PERIOD.

   The  continual  boiling of the water surrounding the fiery  core  finally
caused an incrustation and dry land appeared.   We are told that "God called
the dry land Earth."
                         
   During the first part  of  the present Period the earth was as dark as in


[PAGE 160]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the  Saturn Period.   Only mineral substances existed them.   This stage  is
called the POLARIAN EPOCH.

   The fiery Sun Period finds its replica in the HYPERBOREAN EPOCH, which is
described  in verses 11-19 as the time when plants were generated,  and  the
earth became a planet lighted from without by sun and moon.   This ends  the
work  described as having been performed on the fourth great day in the  de-
velopment of our earth.

   In  the LEMURIAN EPOCH we have a recapitulation of conditions during  the
Moon Period, a fiery core and an atmosphere of fire fog, also the genesis of
the lower grades of animals, described in the Bible story as the work of the
fifth day.

   In the ATLANTEAN EPOCH the vertebrate mammals and man were formed, as de-
scribed under the heading of the sixth day,  and when man became a reasoning
being  in the present ARYAN EPOCH,  the Gods rested to let him work out  his
own salvation under the twin laws of Rebirth and Causation.

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


                              QUESTION NO. 80.

   THE BIBLE TEACHES THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL IN AN AUTHORITATIVE MANNER.
THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY TEACHES THE SAME PROFESSEDLY BY APPEALING TO REA-
SON.  ARE THERE NO POSITIVE PROOFS OF IMMORTALITY?


[PAGE 161]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   ANSWER:  The inquirer is mistaken when he says that the Bible teaches the
immortality of the SOUL.   There is not a single mention of the word  IMMOR-
TALITY  or heaven in the sense of a possession of man in the Old  Testament.
There it is explicitly stated that "Heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's,
but THE EARTH has he given to the children of men"; Psalms 115,  16th verse.
It is explicitly taught that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die."   If the
soul were immortal that would be an impossibility.  In the New Testament the
word "immortal"  or "immortality" is only used six times.   It is designated
as something to be striven for, or something which is an attribute of God.

   So far as THE SPIRIT is concerned,  however,  the case is different,  and
even where that is the theme, the word immortal is not used.  Immortality is
implied in the same way that doctrine of rebirth is implied in so many  pas-
sages, but even the doctrine of rebirth has the advantage of the doctrine of
rebirth  was  taught DEFINITELY at least once in Matthew  11:14,  where  the
Christ  said of John the Baptist,  "This is Elijah."   In this teaching  the
doctrine of immortality was again implied,  for if the spirit Elijah was re-
born as John the Baptist he must have survived bodily death.   The  teaching
of  immortality was at that time one of the mystery teachings,  and even  to
this day it can hardly be received until a man has entered the path of  ini-
tiation and there sees for himself the continuity of life.

   It may be stated,  however,  in answer to the question,  that  everything
hinges upon what is meant by "POSITIVE PROOF,"  and what the  qualifications
of the person are who asks for the proof to judge of these proofs?   We can-
not prove a problem in trigonometry to an infant, but if the infant is given
time to grow and is properly taught  the  preliminaries,  it will be easy to


[PAGE 162]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

prove the problem.  Neither can we prove the existence of color and light to
a man who was born blind; they are facts which he cannot appreciate, because
lacking in the requisite faculty.   But if he acquires the faculty to  sight
by an operation, it will be unnecessary to prove these facts to him, he will
then see their verity.   For similar reason no one can appreciate proofs  of
the immortality of the spirit until he has fitted himself to see the spirit;
then it will be easy for him to obtain positive proof of the immortality  of
spirit,  its existence prior to birth and persistence after death.  Until he
has thus qualified himself,  he must be satisfied with reasonable inferences
such as may be obtained in many ways.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 81.

   IS THERE ANY AUTHORITY IN THE BIBLE FOR THE THEORY OF REBIRTH?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  there is plenty of authority,  although it is only taught
directly  in one place.   The Jewish priests believed in the theory  of  re-
birth,  or  they  would  not have sent to ask John  the  Baptist  "Art  thou
Elijah?" as it is recorded in the first Chapter of John in  the twenty-first


[PAGE 163]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

verse;  and in the Gospel of Matthew, we have the words of Christ concerning
John the Baptist which are unambiguous and unequivocal.   He said,  "This IS
Elijah."   Also on the later occasion,  at the time when they had been  upon
the  Mount of Transfiguration,  the Christ said,  "Elijah has come and  they
have done to him as they listed,"  and we are told that the disciples  "knew
He was speaking of John" who had then been beheaded by Herod.

   In Matthew, the 16th chapter, 14th verse, He is asking His disciples "Who
do  the people say I am?"  and the answer which they give Him is  "Some  say
that  you are John the Baptist,  others say that you are Elijah,  and  again
other say that you are Jeremiah or one of the Prophets."   It is  noteworthy
that the Christ did not contradict them at all, for He was a teacher, and if
they  had  entertained a wrong idea concerning the doctrine of  rebirth,  it
would  have been His undoubted duty to set them right.   But He did  not  do
that.  He moreover taught it directly, as per the above passage.

   There are also cases mentioned in the Bible, where a person has been cho-
sen  for a certain work BEFORE HIS BIRTH.   An Angel foretold the coming  of
Samson  and  his mission--to slay the Philistines.   The Lord  said  to  the
prophet Jeremiah, "Before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee and
I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."   John and Jesus had their mis-
sion allotted to them before they were born.   A person is chosen for a mis-
sion  because of a special fitness.   Proficiency presupposes  practice  and
practice  prior to birth must have been in a previous life.   Thus the  doc-
trine of rebirth is also taught by implication in the cases cited.


[PAGE 164]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 82.

   ACCORDING  TO THE BIBLE ONLY MAN WAS GIVEN A SOUL.   WHY DO YOU THEN  SAY
THAT THE ANIMALS HAVE A GROUP SPIRIT?

   ANSWER:   In the first chapter of Genesis, verse 20, we are told that God
said:   "Let the water bring forth abundantly the moving creature  that  has
LIFE."   The world used in Hebrew is NEPHESH,  which means  "BREATH."   That
word is also used in the second chapter, verse 7, where it is said that "The
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
THE BREATH OF LIFE (nephesh), and man became a 'nephesh chayim,' a BREATHING
CREATURE."  Not a living soul, as there translated.  The translation of King
James has been modified by people who had a little more regard for the truth
than for preconceived ideas;  they have consented to put the word "SOUL"  in
the  margin  as an alternative reading of the word in chapter 1,  verse  20,
where the creation of the animals is recorded, so that EVEN IN THE BIBLES OF
TODAY, IT IS ADMITTED THAT ANIMALS HAVE A SOUL.

   This translation is not correct,  however;  nephesh means BREATH and  not
soul;  the Hebrew word for soul is neshamah.   Soul is not  synonymous  with
spirit,  which is called RUACH,  so that Genesis does not mention THE SPIRIT
of either man or animal,  for spirit has no genesis,  IT IS.   The FORMS  of
animal  and  man which are sustained by BREATH had a beginning and  that  is
what  Genesis  records.   That idea is perfectly in line with the  words  of
Solomon  in Ecclesiastes 3:19,  where we are told that (SO FAR AS  THE  BODY
FORMED  OF THE DUST IS CONCERNED) man has no pre-eminence above  the  beast,
for as one dieth so dieth the other, THEY HAVE ALL ONE BREATH  (nephesh) and


[PAGE 165]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

as one dieth so dieth the other.  All go unto one place (namely,  the Desire
World).

   If  the inquirer accepts only the English word and version of the  Bible,
as  if that book had been written directly in our language,  it  would  seem
fair to ask:  If man obtained his soul as described in the Bible,  where did
woman receive her soul; or is she without a soul?

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

                              QUESTION NO. 83.
   IS IT TRUE THAT EVE WAS TAKEN OUT OF ADAM'S SIDE?

   ANSWER:   Among  the forty-seven translators of King James's  Bible  only
three  understood  Hebrew and two of them died before the  Psalms  had  been
translated.   Besides,  in the Hebrew language,  particularly the old  style
writing,  the vowel points are never put in,  and thus a word may  be  given
different meanings,  according to the way these points are entered.   In the
case of the story of Adam's rib, the word translated "RIB"  when pointed  in
one way reads TSAD, which really means rib, but pointed another way it reads
TSELA,  which means side.  The occult teaching concerning the development of
the earth and man states that there was a time when man was like  the God or


[PAGE 166]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

Elohim who created him,  in one particular--sex.   He was both male and  fe-
male,  a hermaphrodite,  capable of generating another being  from  himself.
Later  it became necessary to his further evolution that a brain  should  be
evolved, and whereas he had previously sent out from himself the DOUBLE cre-
ative force,  positive and negative,  HALF OF THAT WAS THEN RETAINED FOR THE
PURPOSE OF BUILDING A BRAIN,  A LARYNX, AND A NERVOUS SYSTEM,  as organs  of
thought and a keyboard whereby the spirit might manipulate its organism  and
express  itself vocally.   Some of the spirit retain the  positive  creative
force and send out only the negative,  or female force,  while others retain
the female or negative force and send out the positive.  Thus it may be said
that God took away from the one SIDE of their being, but not the rib.   This
reading  of the word has as good a claim to recognition as  the  translation
RIB,  and also has the further merit that it helps to explain  an  otherwise
unexplainable fact.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 84.

   IF GOD MADE MAN IN HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS,  SUPPOSEDLY PERFECT,  WHY WERE
THE DIFFERENT EPOCHS PRIOR TO THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE NECESSARY?

   ANSWER:   The  inquirer is laboring under a misapprehension.   The  Bible
says that God saw his work, and that is was "GOOD," but not PERFECT.  Had it


[PAGE 167]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

been  perfect,  there would have been nothing further to do,  and  evolution
would have been superfluous.  The human race did not become definitely human
until  the  latter part of the Lemurian Epoch when the spirit  commenced  to
draw into the bodies.   The humanity of that time,  Adam and Eve,  were very
different from our present day humanity.  They were also products of  evolu-
tion,  for there is no instantaneous creation.   These beings had progressed
through  stage  of plant-like and animal-like development from  the  mineral
kingdom wherein they started,  and it was not a single pair,  as is  usually
understood by orthodox religionists,  but a humanity that was both male  and
female at the time mentioned in the Bible.   It is said that male and female
created He them,  moreover, it was not the first time that man had been upon
the earth,  or that the earth had been peopled,  as can be seen from Genesis
1:28, where they were commanded to go out and RE-plenish the earth,  showing
that  the earth had been the abode of certain other beings previous  to  the
advent  of  those which are called Adam and Eve.   Josephus says  that  Adam
means "RED EARTH" and the Hebrew "ADMAH," from which Adam is derived,  means
"firm ground";  that described the state very well.   Adm (as it is given in
the  Hebrew text),  did not come upon the earth until it had solidified  and
become firm,  yet he came before the earth had become properly cooled as  it
is  now,  an so the earth was really in a RED and fiery state at that  time.
He had been here before.  During the earlier Epochs before the Lemurian, the
spirits hovered over the fiery earth and helped to form and mold it as it is
now.  The human spirits were at that time learning lesson with which we have
no present concern.  We were unconscious at that time, but did the work just
as  well  as,  for  instance,  our  digestive  organs  perform  the chemical


[PAGE 168]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

operations  necessary to digestion and assimilation although we are  unaware
of these processes in our conscious mind.  It must be plain,  however,  that
as  the work of children in the kindergarten and grammar school is  the  all
important foundation for the later teachings of high school and college,  so
were  the earlier epochs the foundation stones for our  present  conditions.
They  were as necessary as it is to learn the alphabet before we attempt  to
read.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 85.

   WHAT WAS THE SIN OR FALL IN EDEN?

   ANSWER:   When the earth came out of chaos,  it was at first in the  dark
red stage known as the Polarian Epoch.  There humanity first evolved a DENSE
BODY, not at all like our present vehicle, of course.  When the condition of
the  earth became fiery,  as in the Hyperborean Epoch,  THE VITAL  BODY  was
added and man became plant-like, that is to say, he had the same vehicles as
our plants have today, and also a similar consciousness, or, rather,  uncon-
sciousness,  to  that  which  we  have in dreamless sleep when the DENSE and


[PAGE 169]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

VITAL bodies are left upon the bed.

   At that time,  in the Hyperborean Epoch,  the body of man was as an enor-
mous gas bag,  floating outside the fiery earth, and it threw off plant-like
spores,  which then grew and were used by other incoming entities.   At that
time man was double sexed, a hermaphrodite.

   In the Lemurian Epoch,  when the earth had somewhat cooled and islands of
crust had begun to form amid boiling seas,  then also man's body ha somewhat
solidified and had become more like the body we see today.  It was ape-like,
a  short trunk with enormous arms and limbs,  the heels projecting  backward
and almost no head--at least the upper part of the head was nearly  entirely
wanting.   Man  lived  in  the atmosphere of  steam  which  occultists  call
fire-fog,  and  had  no lungs,  but breathed by means of tubes.   He  had  a
bladder-like  organ inside,  which he inflated with heated air to  help  him
leap  enormous chasms when volcanic eruptions destroyed the land upon  which
he was living.  From the back of his head there projected an organ which has
now  been drawn into the head and is called by anatomists THE PINEAL  GLAND,
OR  THE THIRD EYE,  although it was never an eye,  but a localized organ  of
feeling.   The body was then devoid of feeling,  but when man came too close
to a volcanic crater, the heat was registered by this organ to warn him away
before his body was destroyed.

   At  that time the body had already so far solidified that it  was  impos-
sible for man to continue to propagate by spores,  and it was necessary that
he should evolve an organ of thought, a brain.   The creative force which we
now use to build railways,  steamships, etc.,  in the outer world,  was then
used inwardly for the building of organs.   Like all forces it was  positive
and negative.  One pole was turned  upward  to  build the brain, leaving the


[PAGE 170]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

other  pole available for the creation of another body.   Thus man  was  not
longer  a  complete creative unit.   Each possessed only half  the  creative
force, and it was therefore necessary for him to seek his complement outside
himself.

   But at that time, "their eyes had not been opened,"  and the human beings
of  that  age were unconscious of each other in the Physical  World,  though
well aware and awake in the Spiritual World.  Therefore,  under the guidance
of  the  Angels,  who were particularly fitted to help them  in  respect  to
propagation,  they were herded together in great temples at certain times of
the  year  when the lines of force running between the planets  were  propi-
tious,  and there the creative act was performed as a  religious  sacrifice.
And when this primal man Adam came into the intimate sexual contact with the
woman, the spirit for the moment pierced the flesh and "Adam KNEW (or became
aware of) his wife;"  he sensed her physically.   It is this which the Bible
has recorded,  using that chaste expression all through its leaves,  for  we
are told that "Elkanah KNEW his wife Hannah, and she bore Samuel."   Even in
the  New Testament where the angel comes to Mary telling her that she is  to
be the mother of the Savior, she answers, "How shall that be possible seeing
I KNOW not a man?"

   Sin  is action contrary to law, and while humanity propagated  under  the
guidance of the Angels,  who understood the cosmic lines of force,  parturi-
tion was painless,  as it is now among wild animals, which propagate only at
the  proper  time of the year under the guidance of the group  spirit.   But
when man,  acting on the advice of certain spirits half-way between humanity
and  the Angels,  undertook to create at any and all times of the year,  re-
gardless  of  cosmic lines of force,  that sin,  or "eating of the  tree  of
KNOWLEDGE,"  caused  the  painful  parturition which the Angel proclaimed to


[PAGE 171]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Eve.   He did not curse her,  but simply stated what would be the result  of
the ignorant and indiscriminate use of the creative function.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 86.

   IS THE TREE OF LIFE SPOKEN OF IN THE BIBLE THE SAME AS THE  PHILOSOPHER'S
STONE OF THE ALCHEMISTS?

   ANSWER:  Yes and no.  To understand the matter it is necessary to go back
in the history of mankind.   There was a time when humanity was double sexed
and capable of generating a body without the help of another.   But when  it
became  necessary to build the brain in order that the spirit might be  able
to  CREATE  BY THOUGHT as well as in the Physical World,  one-half  the  sex
force was retained to build an organ of thought.   Then it became  necessary
for each to seek the cooperation of another who expressed the opposite  pole
of the creative force which he had available himself for sex purposes.  Hav-
ing no brain,  and as "their eyes had not been opened,"  they were of course
unconscious  in the Physical World and unable to guide  themselves.   There-
fore, the Angels herded them together  at certain times of the year when the


[PAGE 172]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

planetary  forces were propitious to perform the generative act as  a  reli-
gious  sacrifice,  whereby they gave up part of their bodies  for  the  gen-
eration of a vehicle for another spirit.  In that close embrace,  the spirit
first  pierced the veil of the flesh and Adam "KNEW"  his wife.   Later  on,
when the consciousness of humanity had become focused a little more upon the
Physical  World and a few among them had begun dimly to perceive the  bodies
of which we now are so thoroughly conscious,  these pioneers began to preach
the  gospel of the body,  telling the others that they possessed a  physical
body,  for the majority were then unconscious of that instrument as  we  are
now of having a stomach when in good health.

   Then it was noticed that those bodies died,  and the question arose among
the  pioneers  as to how such a body could be replaced.   The  solution  was
given  to  man by a certain class of spirits who were  stragglers  from  the
evolution of the Angels, demi-gods, as we might say.  These Lucifer Spirits,
or light givers, enlightened nascent humanity regarding their powers of gen-
erating  a body at any time.   But these bodies were not perfect  then--they
are  not  perfect today--and of course generation without reference  to  the
planetary  conditions has produced even inferior bodies to what  would  have
been otherwise generated,  in addition to the painful parturition prophesied
by the Angel.

   Since  then the generative function has been exercised unrestrictedly  by
the ignorant human race.   But by the fact of death it has been possible for
the  Angels to teach humanity between death and a new birth how to  build  a
gradually improving body.  Had man learned in that far past how to renew his
vital body, a he was taught to generate a dense vehicle at his own pleasure,
then death would indeed have been an impossibility and man would have become


[PAGE 173]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

immortal as the Gods.  But he would then have immortalized his imperfections
and  made progress an impossibility.   It is the renewal of this vital  body
which  is  expressed in the Bible as "eating of the Tree of Life."   At  the
time  of his enlightenment concerning generation man was a  spiritual  being
whose  eyes were not yet blinded by the material world,  and he  might  have
learned the secret of vitalizing his body at will,  thus frustrating  evolu-
tion.   Thus we see that death, when it comes naturally,  is not a curse but
our greatest and best friend,  for it frees us from an instrument from which
we can learn no more;  it takes us out of an environment which we have  out-
grown,  that we may learn to build a better body in an environment of  wider
scope in which we can make more progress toward the goal of perfection.

   In this pilgrimage there comes at last a time when man is fitted to  have
the powers of LIFE.  The body which he has made for himself becomes pure and
is  of service for a much longer time than heretofore.   Then he  begins  to
seek after the philosopher's stone,  the elixier vitae,  or whatever name he
may  choose to employ.   The alchemists aimed to manufacture this  pure  and
holy vehicle,  but not by a chemical process in a laboratory, as supposed by
the ignorant multitude.  Nomenclature which gave color to that idea was made
necessary  because they lived in an age when a dominant and apostate  church
could have brought them to death had the truth been known.   When they spoke
of transmuting base metals to gold,  they spoke the truth not only from  the
material standpoint but also from the spiritual,  for gold has ever been the
symbol  of spirit and these alchemists aimed to spiritualize  their  bodies,
which are of baser mixture.

   Everywhere the pure and beautiful  symbol  of transparency has been given


[PAGE 174]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

to  designate  the power of purity.   In the Old Testament we  hear  of  the
Temple of Solomon that was "built without sound of hammer."   The most beau-
tiful ornament there was THE MOLTEN SEA.   Hiram Abiff,  the master-workman,
AS HIS FINAL ACHIEVEMENT,  succeeded in smelting all the metals of the earth
into an alloy as TRANSPARENT AS GLASS.  In the New Testament we are told the
last  about  a beautiful city having in its midst A SEA OF  GLASS.   In  the
East,  the initiate aims to become the diamond-soul,  pure and  transparent.
In  the West the Philosopher's Stone is the symbol of the purified soul  ex-
tracted  from the bodies which have been transmuted and spiritualized.   The
soul that sinneth,  it shall die,  but the pure soul is immortalized by  the
elixir  vitae,  the  "TREE  OF LIFE,"  into a  vital  body  that  will  last
milleniums as a vehicle for the spirit.



[PAGE 174]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 87.

   THE LORD HAD RESPECT UNTO ABEL AND HIS BLOODY OFFERING, BUT UNTO CAIN AND
HIS SWEET AND CLEAN OFFERING, HE HAD NOT RESPECT.  WHY?

   ANSWER:   The inquirer is under a misapprehension.   The offering of Abel
was not a BLOODY offering.  It is nowhere stated that Abel killed an animal.


[PAGE 175]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

The legend of the occult free masons, which we will give in part,  tells the
story:

   Once upon a time, the Elohim created Eve; he united with her and she bore
Cain;  he left her before the birth of Cain and Cain was thus "the son of  a
widow."   Then the Elohim Jehovah created Adam who united with Eve  and  she
bore Abel.  In time Cain and Abel brought their offerings to Jehovah.   Abel
brought of his flocks created by God while Cain brought THE WORK OF HIS  OWN
HANDS,  the grain.  And Jehovah received the gift which Abel had found ready
to  his hand,  made by nature,  but he despised the sacrifice which was  the
outcome  of  the  creative ability of Cain.   Then Cain slew  Abel  and  was
cursed.  Adam again united with Eve, and she bore Seth.

   From Cain and Seth came two classes of people.   The descendants of  Cain
were  Tubal-Cain and Hiram Abiff,  cunning master workmen,  who knew how  to
fashion things with their hands, HAVING WITHIN THEMSELVES THE DIVINE ABILITY
OF CREATION, of making two blades of grass grow where there was only one be-
fore,  and from them come all those who work with their hands and strive  to
conquer the earth and its resources.

   From Seth descended the kings and the priests,  WHO RECEIVED THEIR WISDOM
READY MADE FROM THE GODS,  AND TOOK THINGS AS THEY FOUND THEM.   Among  them
was Solomon,  the wisest of men,  but he had not worked for his wisdom  him-
self,  HE RECEIVED IT AS A GIFT OF GOD.   These two classes are still  found
upon  earth today and are battling for supremacy.   One is  the  progressive
temporal Powers, the other the conservative Priest-craft.

   The reason,  then,  why Jehovah accepted the offering of ABEL was because
he had taken things as they were found created;  HE WAS A SON OF A MAN,  AND
DID NOT ASPIRE TO DIVINE CREATORSHIP.  But  CAIN  WAS OF A DIVINE NATURE; HE


[PAGE 176]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

HAD WITHIN HIM THE CREATIVE INSTINCT;  and that was not to the liking of the
God.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 88.

   WHAT IS THE ESOTERIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ARK OF THE COVENANT?

   ANSWER:   We read in the earliest chapters of the Bible about the Fall in
Eden,  when man took the creative force into his own hands,  used  it  igno-
rantly and thus sinned against the laws of nature.  Propagation is a faculty
of the vital body which is the shadow of the life spirit,  the second aspect
of the threefold spirit in man.

   Cherubim  are described as having been put on guard with a flaming  sword
when man was driven out from Eden,  lest he eat of the Tree of Life and  be-
come  immortal,  for they are the great creative hierarchy which had  charge
over  the  earth in the Sun Period, when the vital body germinated  and  the
life spirit was awakened.

   Then commenced the long pilgrimage THROUGH THE WILDERNESS of matter,  and
the ark of the covenant was the symbol of man in this migratory phase of his
existence.  During the pilgrimage in the wilderness,  the  staves which were


[PAGE 177]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

used  to carry the ark were always left in their places to show that it  had
no abiding place,  but when it came to the temple made without sound of ham-
mer,  the Temple of Solomon,  its pilgrimage was ended,  and the staves were
removed.

   In  its  character as a symbol of man the ark contained THE BOOK  OF  THE
LAW, given to teach man right action.  There was THE ROD OF AARON which bud-
ded,  a wand of power,  symbolizing the spiritual force latent in every man.
This rod was a replica of the spear of Parsifal,  which was an instrument of
harm in the hands of Klingsor, the Black Magician, and likewise in the hands
of  the Roman soldier,  but the pure and spiritual Parsifal used it to  heal
the wounds of Amfortas.   The rod of Aaron had been used among the Egyptians
to cause distress and sorrow,  an was the HIDDEN WITHIN THE ARK,  symbolical
of  the  fact that man had at one time possessed and misused  the  spiritual
power now hidden within.

   There was the POT OF MANNA.   This was not a food for the body as materi-
alistically explained.  The word manna is almost universal.  In the Sanskrit
we have "MANAS," THE THINKER.  In German, the English, the Scandinavian lan-
guages,  and in many others,  we have the same word "MAN"  to designate  the
thinker.   The placing of the pot of manna within the ark  commemorates  the
time  when the Ego drew into the form it had built and became an  INDWELLING
individual spirit.

   That  was THE "FALL"  into material conditions,  necessitating  the  gen-
eration of dense bodies.   When man arrogated to himself the power to gener-
ate at any time,  he was exiled from the Etheric Region lest he possess him-
self  of  the  secret of vitalizing the imperfect bodies  he  generates  and
render evolution impossible.


[PAGE 178]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   It is stated in the first part of our answer,  the Cherubim were the  au-
thors of our vital powers, so they must guard them until man is qualified to
have  control himself.   Therefore they are said to have been placed at  the
garden of Eden with a Flaming Sword, and it is of the greatest  significance
that UPON THE DOORS to the Temple of Solomon there stood the Cherubim, hold-
ing  in their hands no longer the Flaming Sword,  but an open  flower.   The
flower is the generative organ of the plant,  which accomplishes the act  of
generation IN A PURE,  PASSIONLESS MANNER,  and when man has learned how  to
become pure and passionless so that each and every FORM is immaculately con-
ceived, he can enter into the temple of God as the ark entered the Temple of
Solomon, and he may REMAIN THERE, as signified by the removal of the staves,
and  as prophetically told in Revelation where the spirit said:   "Him  that
overcometh,  I will make a pillar in the House of God:   THENCE HE SHALL  NO
MORE GO OUT."

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

                              QUESTION NO. 89.

   IS  THERE AN OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE IN THE VARIOUS CHRISTIAN FEASTS  OF  THE
YEAR?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  the feasts of the year have the very deepest occult  sig-
nificance.   From the material point of view,  the planets are but  so  many
masses  of  matter  going  about  in  their orbits in obedience to so-called


[PAGE 179]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

blind laws, but to the occultists they appear as Great Spirits, moving about
in space as we move in the world.

   When a man is seen gesticulating, we attach a certain significance to his
gestures.   If he shakes his head,  we know that he is negativing a  certain
proposition,  but if he nods, we infer he agrees.  If he beckons, having the
palms of his hands turned toward him, we know that he is motioning for some-
one to come to him, but if he turns the palms outward, we understand that he
is warning someone to stay away.  In the case of the universe, we usually do
not  think  that there is any significance to the altered  position  of  the
planets,  but to the occultist there is the very deepest meaning in all  the
varied phenomena of the heavens.  They correspond to the gestures of man.

   Krishna means anointed,  and anyone who had a special mission to  perform
was so anointed in olden times.  When, in the winter time,  the sun is below
the equator at the nadir point of its travel, the spiritual impulses are the
greatest in the world.  For our material welfare,  however,  it is necessary
that the sun should come again into the northern hemisphere, and so we speak
of the time when the sun starts upon its journey northward as Christmas, the
birthday of the Savior,  anointed to save us from the famine and cold  which
would ensue if he were to stay at the nadir point always.

   As the sun passes toward the equator,  it goes through the sign Aquarius,
the water-man, at that time the earth is deluged with rain,  symbolizing the
baptism of the Savior.   Then comes the passage of the sun through the  sign
Pisces, the fishes, in the month of March.  The stores of the past year have
been all consumed, and the food of man is scant, hence we have the long fast
of LENT, where the eating of fish  symbolizes  this  feature  of  the  solar


[PAGE 180]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

journey.   Then comes THE PASSOVER,  when the sun PASSED OVER  the  equator.
This is the time of EASTER,  when the sun is at his EASTERN node,  and  this
CROSSING of the equator is symbolized by the CROSSIFICATION OR  CRUCIFIXION,
so called, of the Savior; the sun then goes into the sign of Aries, the Ram,
and becomes the Lamb of God,  which is given for the salvation of the  world
at  the time when the plants begin to sprout.   In order that the  sacrifice
may be of benefit to man, however, he (the sun) must ascend into the heavens
where  his rays will have power to ripen the grape and the corn,  and so  we
have  the feast of the Ascension of the Savior to the Throne of the  Father,
which  is at the summer solstice in June.   There the sun remains for  three
days,  when the saying "Thence he shall return" takes effect as the sun com-
mences his passage toward the western node.  At the time when he enters  the
sign Virgo,  the Virgin,  we have the feast of THE ASSUMPTION and later  on,
when he leaves the sign Virgo, THE NATIVITY of the virgin, who seems,  as it
were, to be born from the sun.

   THE  JEWISH  FEAST OF TABERNACLES occurred at the time when the  sun  was
crossing the equator on its passage into the winter months,  and this  feast
was accompanied by the weighing in of the corn and the harvest of the  wine,
which were the gifts of the solar God to his human worshipers.

   Thus  all  the feasts of the year are connected with the motions  of  the
stars through space.


[PAGE 181]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 90.

   I UNDERSTAND YOU TO SAY THAT THE CHRIST HAS BEEN INCARNATED ONLY ONCE  IN
JESUS;  WAS HE NOT PREVIOUSLY INCARNATED IN GAUTAMA BUDDHA AND STILL EARLIER
IN KRISHNA?

   ANSWER:   No.   Jesus Himself was a spirit belonging to our human  evolu-
tion,  and so was Guatama Buddha.  The writer has no information  concerning
Krishna,  but is inclined to believe that he was also a spirit belonging  to
the human race, because the Indian stories concerning him tell of how he en-
tered heaven and what took place there.  The Christ spirit which entered the
body  of  Jesus when Jesus himself vacated it,  was a ray  from  the  cosmic
Christ.   We may follow Jesus back in his previous incarnations,  and we can
trace his growth to the present day.  The Christ spirit, on the contrary, is
not to be found among our human spirits at all.

   We  may say that before the coming of Christ,  He worked upon  the  earth
from the outside, much as the group spirit works with the animals from with-
out, guiding and helping them, until they become sufficiently individualized
to be the abode of an individual spirit.   There was no indwelling spirit in
the earth prior to the coming of Christ,  but at the time when the sacrifice
upon Golgotha had been consummated and the Christ spirit was liberated  from
the  body of Jesus,  it drew into the earth and is now the indwelling  Earth
Spirit,  which Paul says "is groaning and travailing, waiting for the day of
liberation,"  for,  contrary  to the accepted opinion,  the  sacrifice  upon
Golgotha  was  not completed with the death of the body of Jesus;  in  fact,
that event may be said to be only the beginning; the sacrifice will continue


[PAGE 182]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

until  such  time as we shall have evolved the altruism and love  that  will
liberate  the Earth Spirit from the cramping conditions of  material  exist-
ence, when the necessity for guiding us shall have passed away.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 91.

   WE  ARE TOLD THAT "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY  BEGOTTEN
SON,  THAT  WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT DIE BUT  HAVE  EVERLASTING
LIFE."  HOW CAN WE RECONCILE THAT IDEA WITH THE WORDS OF CHRIST, "I CAME NOT
TO BRING PEACE BUT A SWORD"?

   ANSWER:   It is said that the "law and the prophets were  until  Christ,"
and there are four steps whereby man lifts himself to God.   At first,  when
he  awakens  to a consciousness in the Physical World and is in  the  savage
state,  he finds himself surrounded by other men,  who by the very stress of
circumstances are forced to fight for life, men among whom "might is right";
here he learns to rely upon his own strength to save him from the onslaughts
of wild animals and other men.   But he perceives around him the nature pow-
ers,  and of them he is afraid,  for he knows their ability to kill and  his
own  impotence  to  cope with them.  He therefore begins to worship, seeking


[PAGE 183]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

to PROPITIATE THE GOD HE FEARS by bloody sacrifices.

   Then comes the time when he begins to look to GOD AS THE GIVER OF THINGS,
who will reward him here and now for obedience to his law and punish him in-
stantly for disobedience.   A mighty ally against his enemies but a powerful
enemy,  and therefore, much to be feared also.  And so, he worships and SAC-
RIFICES ANIMALS THROUGH FEAR AND AVARICE.

   Then  comes the stage when he is taught to worship A GOD OF LOVE  and  TO
SACRIFICE HIMSELF from day to day, through his whole life, for a reward in a
future  state  which  he is to believe in by faith and  which  is  not  even
clearly outlined.

   Finally man will reach a stage when he will recognize his divinity and DO
RIGHT BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT without thought of fear or bribe.

   The  Jews had reached the second of these stages and were under the  law.
The Christian religion is gradually working through the third stage,  though
not yet freed from the second.  All of us are yet under laws made by God and
by  man  in  order  to curb our desire bodies BY FEAR,  but  to  advance  us
spiritually  from now on we must sensitize our vital body which is  amenable
to love while not at all cognizant of law which governs the desire nature.

   In order to prepare this coming state the priests, who were more advanced
than the ordinary people, kept separate and apart from them.  We hear in the
East  that only a certain caste,  the Brahmins,  were allowed to  enter  the
temples and perform the temple services.  Among the Jews,  only the  Levites
were allowed to approach the holy place, and among other nations it was  the
same.   The priests were always a distinct class,  who were not  allowed  to
marry among the ordinary people.   They were separate and apart in every re-
spect.


[PAGE 184]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   That was because the leaders of humanity could only use the strain  where
there  existed a certain laxity between the vital body and the  dense  body.
And so they bred these priests and herded them around the temples,  regulat-
ing their life,  sexually and otherwise, in every respect.   But at the time
when  Christ  was liberated from the body of Jesus and  diffused  His  Being
throughout the whole earth, the veil was rent, as a symbol of the fact, that
the need for any special condition had passed away.   From that time on  the
ether has been changing in the earth.  An increasingly higher rate of vibra-
tion allows for the expression of altruistic qualities.  It was the starting
of  that enormous vibration which caused the darkness said to have  attended
crucifixion.   That  was not darkness at all,  but an  intense  light  which
blinded people for the time being until the vibrations slowed down by immer-
sion  in the dense,  physical earth.   A few hours later the radiant  Christ
Spirit  had drawn into the earth sufficiently to restore normal  conditions.
But  gradually  that power from within is gaining the  ascendency,  and  the
etheric vibrations are being accelerated,  increasing altruism and spiritual
growth.   Thus  the conditions are now such that no  special  or  privileged
class  need exist,  but EACH AND EVERY ONE MAY ASPIRE TO ENTER THE  PATH  OF
INITIATION.

   Old conditions die hard, however; under the regime of Jehovah, the Spirit
of the Moon,  humanity had been broken up into nations, and in order that He
might guide them it was necessary that He should at times use one nation  to
punish  another,  for humanity was not then amenable to love--it would  only
obey under the lash of fear.  Before the great Universal Brotherhood of Love
can  be  inaugurated it is necessary to break up these nations on  the  same
principle that if we  have  a number of buildings, composed of bricks and we


[PAGE 185]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

wish to build them into one grand structure,  it is necessary first to break
them  to pieces so that the individual bricks will be available for  use  in
the larger building.  Therefore the Christ said, "I come not to bring peace,
but a sword."

   We  must OUTGROW PATRIOTISM and learn to say as that great  soul,  Thomas
Paine, "The world is my country, and to do good is my religion."  Until that
time,  the wars must go on and the more the better,  for thereby the  sooner
will the horror become sufficiently appalling to compel peace.

   On the holy night when the Christ child was born, the angels sang a song,
"Peace on Earth and Good Will among Men."  Later the child grew up and said,
"I  came not to bring peace,  but a sword,"  and the Christian religion  has
been the bloodiest of all religions of humanity.   It has carried desolation
and sorrow with it wherever it has gone,  but out of all that travail  there
will  yet come the day when the song of?  the Angels will become a fact  and
the  words  of the Christ uttered at other times concerning  love  to  one's
neighbor will be lived.   When the sword has done its work it will be beaten
into plow shares,  and there will be no more war,  for there will be no more
nations.


[PAGE 186]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 92.

   WHAT IS MEANT BY EVERLASTING SALVATION AND DAMNATION?

   ANSWER:  The orthodox religions say that those who have done well in this
life are saved,  that is to say,  they will go to a heaven not very  clearly
defined,  and those who fail to reach this salvation are plunged into a hell
of which not very much is known save that it is a place of misery.  The good
and  the bad stay in their respective places,  once they have  been  judged;
there is no redemption for the lost souls, and no danger of a fall for those
once saved.

   Such  an interpretation is radically wrong,  if the Greek  dictionary  is
taken  as authority,  for obviously the meaning hinges upon the word  trans-
lated  "EVERLASTING."   That word is AIONIAN, and in the  dictionary  it  is
translated to mean "an age, an indefinite period, a lifetime,"  etc.   What,
then, is the true meaning of the passage quoted we may ask ourselves, and in
order to find that meaning it will be necessary to take a comprehensive view
of life.

   In the beginning of manifestation, God,  a great flame,  differentiates a
vast number of incipient flames or sparks WITHIN Himself,  not FROM Himself,
for it is an actual fact that "IN Him we live and move and have our  being."
NOTHING CAN EXIST OUTSIDE GOD.  So within Himself,  God differentiates these
countless souls.   Each of them is POTENTIALLY divine,  each enfolds all His
powers as the seed enfolds the plant,  but as the seed must be buried in the
ground to bring forth the plant, so it is necessary that these divine sparks
should be immersed in material vehicles in order that they may learn lessons
that can be mastered only in such a separative existence as there is in  the
world.


[PAGE 187]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   The world may be regarded as a training school for the evolving  spirits.
Some of them started early and applied themselves diligently to the task be-
fore them;  consequently they progressed rapidly.   Others started later and
are laggards.   They are therefore left behind in the race; but all will ul-
timately  attain the goal of perfection.   In consequence of  the  foregoing
fact there are a number of classes of these pilgrim spirits,  and before one
set,  or class,  of spirits can be moved up another step in evolution it  is
necessary that they should have attained a certain standard of  proficiency.
They are SAVED from a lower condition which they have outgrown.   Once  this
measure  of  efficiency has been acquired,  they are promoted  into  another
race,  another epoch.   But among a large number there are always  laggards,
and these are CONDEMNED to stay in the class where they are until they  have
arrived  at  the  stage of growth required for  advancement.   The  plan  is
similar  to the method in which children in a school are promoted  into  the
next higher class AT THE YEARLY EXAMINATIONS if they have attained a certain
standard of knowledge;  if not,  they are CONDEMNED to stay behind--NOT FOR-
EVER,  BUT  ONLY  UNTIL ANOTHER YEAR'S EXAMINATION  PROVES  THAT  THEY  HAVE
QUALIFIED.

   The foregoing is not a distorted or a wrong representation of the meaning
of the word aionian.  It has been used other places in the Bible in a manner
which bears out our contention.  For instance, in Paul's letter to Philemon,
where he returns to him the slave Onesimus with the words,  "Perhaps it  was
well that you should lose him for a time that he might be given back to  you
FOREVER."   The word "forever"  is the same word aionian which is translated
EVERLASTING  in  connection with damnation and salvation,  and  it  will  be
readily seen that in this case  it  can  only mean a part of a lifetime, for


[PAGE 188]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

neither Paul or Philemon, as such, would live forever.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 93.

   WHAT  IS THE TEACHING OF THE ROSICRUCIANS CONCERNING THE IMMACULATE  CON-
CEPTION?

   ANSWER:   The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is,  perhaps,  one of
the most sublime mysteries of the Christian religion,  and perhaps for  that
reason  it has suffered more from being dragged down into  materiality  than
any of the other mysteries.   It has suffered alike from the  interpretation
of  its  clumsy supporters and the sneers of the skeptics.   When,  for  in-
stance,  we see in churches a picture of God as an old man sitting up in the
skies  with a blow-pipe in his mouth in the act of blowing the infant  Jesus
into the side of Mary, it is more than ridiculous, it is pathetic!

   The popular,  but erroneous,  idea is that about 2000 years ago an  indi-
vidual named Jesus Christ was born of a mother without the cooperation of an
earthly  father,  and THIS INCIDENT IS REGARDED AS UNIQUE IN THE HISTORY  OF
THE WORLD.  In reality, it is not unparalleled;  the  immaculate  conception


[PAGE 189]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

has taken place many times in the history of the world and will become  uni-
versal in the future.

   The  anticipated  history of man is written in the stars--man  being  the
little world as the stars are great worlds.  There the ideal,  the prototype
of  the Immaculate Conception is dramatically presented from year  to  year.
The sun is the LIFE GIVER of the world;  it is THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD  also.
And  as the more advanced beings who are saviors of mankind appear when  the
greatest  spiritual darkness is upon earth,  so the sun is born anew at  the
winter  solstice  and starts its journey toward the equator on  the  darkest
night of the year, the night between the 24th and the 25th of December.   At
that  time,  the zodiacal sign Virgo rises upon the eastern horizon  in  all
norther latitudes, which are the most populous parts of the earth.

   Thus,  the light of the world is each year immaculately conceived by  the
celestial  virgin mother and starts upon his journey northward to  give  his
life  for  humanity  as he ripens the corn and the grape.   By  analogy  the
spiritual teachers are born at time when spiritual darkness is greatest, and
they give to man the bread of life which feeds the soul.

   Men do not gather grapes of thorns, but like always begets like;  an  en-
tity that is vile must be born of a mother who is vile,  and before a savior
can be born a pure virgin mother must be found.   But when we say  "virgin,"
we do not mean virgin in a physical sense.   We all possess physical virgin-
ity in the early years of our lives, but virginity of the spirit is a  qual-
ity of soul acquired by lives of pure thought and lofty aspirations.   It is
not  dependent upon the state of the body.   A true virgin may bear  several
children and remain "virgin."

   Whether a child is conceived in sin or immaculately conceived is thus de-
pendent  upon  its  own  inherent soul quality, for if the Ego to be born is


[PAGE 190]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

pure  and  chaste it will naturally be born to a mother who is also  of  the
same pure and beautiful nature.  And the physical act,  which in the case of
most people is dictated by passion and desire for sensual gratification,  is
performed by the pure and the chaste of soul in a spirit of prayer as a sac-
rifice.   Thus the child is begotten without the sin of passion;  it is  im-
maculately conceived.

   Such  a one is never an accidental child.   His coming has been  heralded
and looked forward to with anticipation of pleasure and joy,  and there  are
many  cases at the present day where people come very close to an  imitation
of  the  Immaculate Conception;  cases where both the parents are  pure  and
chaste;  where they perform the generative act in the spirit of  pure  love;
where the mother is unmolested during the gestatory period and the child  is
born in almost as pure a manner as foreshadowed in the symbolical immaculate
conceptions.  In time, when humanity grows more and more altruistic, passion
will be superseded by pure  love  and all men will be immaculately begotten.


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