[PAGE 191]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 94.

   WAS NOT THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM A COMET?

   ANSWER:   No;  the Star of Bethlehem shines at midnight of every night as
it shone upon the night which is recorded in the Bible,  and may be seen  by
anyone among the wise men of today, though hidden from all others.

   The key to the mystery is this:

   The Gospels are not simply stories of the life of an individual; they de-
pict  dramatically  and in symbol the incidents in the path  of  attainment;
they are formulae of initiation.

   In the summertime, when the whole earth is exerting itself to bring forth
THE BREAD OF LIFE for all who live upon it,  the sun is high in the heavens,
sending forth its life giving rays toward our planet.  Then all the PHYSICAL
ACTIVITIES are to the fore and man is engrossed in material occupations nec-
essary  to his existence.   But when in winter the sun is below the  equator
and nature slumbers,  SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES sent forth from the sun are  most
potent.  When the physical darkness increases the spiritual light burns more
brightly and culminates in the birth of saviors on the darkest night in  the
year,  between  the twenty-fourth and the twenty-fifth of December,  at  the
time the sun starts on its journey northward to save humanity from the  cold
and famine which would result if it remained in the southern latitudes.

   On that particular night of the year the spiritual vibrations are  stron-
gest.  It is the HOLY NIGHT of the year par excellence.  On that night it is
easiest for the neophyte to come into conscious touch with spiritual  vibra-
tions.  Therefore it was customary to take neophytes into the temples on yon


[PAGE 192]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

Holy  Night.   There they were entranced under the guidance of WISE MEN  and
taught to leave their bodies consciously by an act of will.   The earth then
became  transparent  to  their  gaze  and they saw  behind  it  THE  SUN  AT
MIDNIGHT--THE  BLAZING STAR.   Not,  of course,  the physical sun,  but  the
spiritual  sun which is the true Christ-star,  for the cosmic Christ is  the
highest Initiate among the luminous sun spirits, the Archangels.

                              QUESTION NO. 95.

   WHAT WERE THE GIFTS OF THE WISE MEN?

   ANSWER:  The Bible tells us that they were GOLD, myrrh and frankincense.

   GOLD has always been regarded as the emblem of spirit in the old  legends
and  symbology.   In the story of the Ring of the Niebelung,  dramatized  by
Wagner,  we hear how the Rhine maidens played in their watery element on the
bottom of the river Rhine.   The water was lighted by the flame of the gold.
This  legend takes us back to the time when these CHILDREN OF THE MIST  were
living  in the beautiful conditions of early Atlantis,  where they were  one
vast  brotherhood,  innocent and childlike, and the Universal Spirit had not


[PAGE 193]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

yet drawn into the separate bodies.

   The gold resting upon the rock at the bottom of the water was the  symbol
of  the Universal Spirit illuminating all mankind.   Later it is stolen  and
welded into a ring by Alberich, the Niebelung, who forswears love to possess
this  gold.   Then it becomes the symbol of the separate Ego in the  present
loveless age of selfishness.  The man who has become wise and sees the evils
of  selfishness offers gold to the Christ as a symbol of his desire for  the
return to the Universal spirit of Love.

   The second gift,  MYRRH,  is an aromatic plant growing in Arabia which is
very rare and scarce.  It is the symbol of the soul.  We are told in legends
of saints who have been so holy that they emitted an aroma.  This is thought
to be a pious fable,  but it is an actual fact that a man may become so holy
that he emits a most beautiful perfume.

   The third gift,  FRANKINCENSE,  is a symbol of the dense body,  which has
been etherealized by a holy life, for frankincense is a physical vapor.  The
minister of the interior of Servia,  one of the conspirators who planned the
regicide in that country less than a decade ago,  has since written his mem-
oirs.   It appears,  according to him,  that when they burned incense at the
time they invited people to join them in their conspiracy,  they  invariably
succeeded in winning over the one whom they sought.  He did not know why, he
simply mentioned it as a curious coincidence.  But to the occultist the mat-
ter is plain.

   No spirit can work in any world without a vehicle made of the material of
that world.  To function in the Physical World, to fetch and carry,  we must
have  a  dense body and a vital body;  both are made of  various  grades  of
physical  matter,  solids,  liquids,  gas  and  ether.  We  may  obtain such


[PAGE 194]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

vehicles in the ordinary way, by going through the womb to birth,  or we may
extract ether from the body of a medium and temporarily use that to  materi-
alize,  or we may use the fumes of incense.   In the Catholic Church,  where
certain spirits are invoked,  incense furnishes the vehicle whereby they may
operate upon the assembled congregation as the discarnate spirits did to fa-
vor the Servian regicides.

   Thus we see that the gifts of the wise men are SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY, de-
voted to the service of humanity.  To give oneself is to imitate Christ,  to
follow in His steps.


                              QUESTION NO. 96.

   WAS NOT JESUS A JEW?   IF SO,  WHAT DID HE MEAN BY SAYING "BEFORE ABRAHAM
WAS, I AM"?  FOR EVEN IF HE REINCARNATED, ABRAHAM WAS THE FATHER OF THE JEW-
ISH RACE.

   ANSWER:   In olden times,  and even up to the present day,  patriotism is
looked  upon  as one of the prime virtues,  but from the  occult  standpoint
there is of course but the One Spirit,  and the races are but an  evanescent
phase of the scheme of evolution; in fact, a very dangerous phase, for while


[PAGE 195]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

in the Periods and great Epochs of evolution there is an abundance of  time,
and it is possible for the leaders to bring most of the spirits in line  for
promotion,  the races and nations are born and die in such  a  comparatively
short  time,  there is great danger that the spirits may become enmeshed  in
the race bodies and not follow the bulk of humanity in their progress.

   This is just what happened to the Jews.  They were so intensely patriotic
that no Jew thought of himself as an individual at all.  Primarily, and when
using  the  highest terms,  he would speak of himself as  "Abraham's  seed."
Secondarily,  he  thought of himself as belonging to a  certain  tribe,  and
lastly, perhaps he was Solomon Levi or Moses Cohen.

   The  Christ  combated this idea of IDENTITY WITH THE RACE when  he  said,
"Before Abraham was, I am."  The Ego existed before Abraham;  Abraham was an
incarnation of an Ego,  a spirit.   He,  and the Jewish race descended  from
him,  were simply BODIES,  but the Egos which inhabited them existed  before
the  race  bodies.   Thus the Christ advised his hearers to  look  from  the
evanescent to the eternal.

   In another place He said, "Unless a man leave Father and mother,  he can-
not follow me."   Father and mother are also RACE BODIES.   We have no right
to leave dependent relatives to follow the higher life;  we must fulfil  all
our  duties here before we selfishly take up the study of the  higher  life,
but we are not to identify ourselves with the race, the nation,  or the fam-
ily into which we are born.  EVERY ONE OF US IS AN INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT,  WHICH
EXISTED  BEFORE  THE  BODIES WE CALL RACES AND WILL EXIST  AFTER  THEY  HAVE
CEASED  TO BE.   Failing to keep that fact in mind,  we may crystallize  and
stay with the race instead of progressing.  That is just what the Jews  have
done.  Their intense patriotism has caused them as spirits to reincarnate in


[PAGE 196]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the Jewish race bodies for milleniums.

   The  leaders of humanity had sought in various ways to get them to  amal-
gamate with others, that they might progress, but always in vain, and Christ
was sent to them for the same reason that Booker T. Washington has been sent
to the negroes.  Though a more advanced soul than his race brethren,  he was
incarnated in a black body to enable him to help the negroes in the most ef-
ficient manner.   Had he been embodied in a white skin,  there would  always
have been a seeming patronage.   Similar reasons decreed the birth of Christ
as a Jew.  It was hoped that they would receive His teachings because coming
from one of their own race.    But instead of honoring their traditions  and
looking up to Abraham in a reverential attitude of mind,  He cast down their
ideals,  He spoke of a new heaven and a new earth,  He asserted the priority
of  the individual to the race,  and,  therefore,  they would have  none  of
Him--"they chose Barabbas."

                              QUESTION NO. 97.

   JESUS WAS BAPTIZED AT THIRTY, RECEIVING THE "CHRIST SPIRIT."   PLEASE EX-
PLAIN THIS BAPTISM.

   ANSWER:   The earth has not always been as it is now.   Science tells  us
that  there  was  a  time when it was blended firemist.  The Bible goes back


[PAGE 197]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

even  further and speaks of a time before that mist,  when the earth  became
glowing and luminous as fire; a time when darkness reigned.

   There  have been in all four epochs or stages in this development of  the
earth.   First there was this dark stage, which is called in the Rosicrucian
terminology the "Polarian"  Epoch.   Then the substance which now forms  the
earth was a dark mass,  hot and gaseous.   In the second stage,  called  the
Hyperborean Epoch, this dark mass was ignited.  We are told "God said:  'Let
there be light,' and there was light."  Then came the stage when the heat of
this firemist in contact with cold space generated moisture,  and this mois-
ture  was  densest near the fiery core, where it was heated  to  steam  that
rushed  outward from the center--"God divided the waters from  the  waters,"
that is, the dense water nearest the core from the light steam outside.  Fi-
nally there cam an incrustation,  such as always takes place where water  is
boiled over and over again, and thus the crust over the earth, the dry land,
was formed.

   When that crust had been completed,  there was no water upon the  surface
of the earth, but as the Bible says, "A mist went up from the surface,"  and
no  herb had yet grown upon the face of the earth.   At that time,  however,
vegetation began to appear and nascent humanity lived there.   But they were
not a humanity constituted as we are today.   Their form was very much  dif-
ferent  and they were not nearly as evolved as we are at the  present  time.
In fact,  body and spirit were not perfectly together;  the spirits  hovered
partly outside and therefore "man's eyes had not yet been opened."

   Old  folk stories such as we hear of in Germany and different  places  in
the Old World,  speak of them as the niebelungen.   "Niebel"  means mist and
"ungen" is children.  They were the  "CHILDREN  OF  THE MIST," for the clear


[PAGE 198]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

atmosphere of today did not then exist; the sun appeared like an arc lamp in
the street on a very foggy day,  on account of the density of the mist which
rose from the earth.

   While  humanity lived in that state,  they were not as far advanced  men-
tally as we are now.  They could not see things outside themselves, but they
had  an  inner perception.   They saw the soul qualities of  all  who  lived
around them and they perceived themselves as spiritual rather than material.
At that time there were no nations at all,  but humanity was one vast broth-
erhood.  All were partially outside their bodies and therefore in touch with
the  Universal Spirit,  which has now been obscured in the  separateness  of
egotism  which causes each man to feel himself distinct and apart  from  all
the rest of humanity; where brotherhood is forgotten and selfishness rules.

   When  any one has progressed so far that he appreciates the blessings  of
brotherhood,  where he endeavors to abolish egotism and cultivate  altruism,
he  may go through the rite of baptism.  He enters the water as a symbol  of
his return to the ideal conditions of brotherhood which existed when all hu-
manity lived, so to speak, in water.  Therefore, we see Jesus, the herald of
universal Brotherhood,  at the beginning of his ministry entering the waters
of  the Jordan and being baptized there.  When he rose from the waters,  the
Universal Spirit rested upon Him as a dove, and from that time on he was not
simply  Jesus,  but Christ Jesus,  the potential Savior of the world  imbued
with the Universal Spirit, which shall eventually take away all the evils of
selfishness  and restore mankind to the blessings of brotherhood which  will
be realized when the Universal Spirit has become immanent in all mankind.


[PAGE 199]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


                               QUESTION NO. 98

   IN  YOUR  TEACHING  YOU STATE THAT WE STAY FOR A  TIME,  AVERAGING  ABOUT
ONE-THIRD  OF THE LENGTH OF THE EARTH LIFE,  IN PURGATORY IN ORDER THAT  OUR
SINS  MAY BE EXPIATED PRIOR TO GOING TO HEAVEN.   HOW THEN DO YOU  RECONCILE
THIS TEACHING WITH THE WORDS OF THE CHRIST TO THE DYING THIEF:   "TODAY THOU
SHALT BE WITH ME IN PARADISE"?

   ANSWER:   The New Testament was written in Greek,  a language in which no
punctuation  marks are used.   The punctuation marks in our Bible have  been
inserted  by  our  later  Bible  translators,  and  punctuation  often  very
radically changes the meaning of a sentence, as the following story will il-
lustrate:

   In  a prayer meeting some one handed in a request which the  pastor  read
thus:   "A sailor going to sea, his mother-in-law desires the prayers of the
congregation  for his safe return to wife and child."   The request was  not
punctuated  at all,  but would imply that the young man's mother-in-law  was
very solicitious to have him return safely to his wife and child and  there-
fore  desired  the  prayers of the congregation.   Had the  pastor  read  it
without the comma,  it would have implied that the sailor,  going to see his
mother-in-law,  desired the prayers of the congregation for his safe  return
to wife and child,  and one would naturally think that the lady in  question
must be a Tartar when it was necessary for the young man to ask the  prayers
of the congregation before facing her.  In this case, if the words of Christ
are  read thus:   "Verily I say unto thee today,  thou shalt be with  me  in
Paradise," they would imply that the thief would be  with the Christ at some


[PAGE 200]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

future time not defined.  But where the comma is placed before the world to-
day, as in the Bible, it gives the idea ordinarily held by people.

   That  this  idea  is absolutely wrong can be seen by the  remark  of  the
Christ  just after His resurrection,  when He said to the woman,  "Touch  me
not,  for I have not yet ascended to my Father."   If He promised the  Thief
that  he  should be with Him in Paradise on the day of the  crucifixion  and
three days later declared that He had not yet been there,  the Christ  would
have been guilty of a contradiction which,  of course,  is an impossibility.
Placing  of the comma as suggested fully reconciles the meaning of  the  two
passages, and besides Peter tells us that in the interval He worked with the
Spirits in Purgatory.

                              QUESTION NO. 99.

   WHAT IS THE ESOTERIC MEANING OF THE TWO THIEVES AND THE CROSS?

   ANSWER:   Contrary to the ordinarily accepted opinion,  the four  Gospels
are not at all the biography of jesus, the Christ; they are Formulae of ini-
tiation  of  four  different Mystery Schools, and in  order  to  veil  their
esoteric meaning, the life and ministry of the Christ  is also intermingled.


[PAGE 201]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

That  could be easily done as all initiates,  being cosmic characters,  have
similar  experiences.   It is truly said that unto the multitude the  Christ
spoke in parables, but the hidden meaning was given to His disciples in pri-
vate.   Paul also gave the milk to the weak and the meat to the strong ones.
It  was  never intended at any time to give the hidden symbols  to  ordinary
people,  or to make the Bible "an open book of God,"  as people nowadays be-
lieve.

   When  reading in the memory of nature,  we find that at the time  of  the
crucifixion, there were not only two, but a number, who were crucified.  The
people of that time meted out capital punishment for the slightest  offenses
and there were always plenty to suffer these barbarous deaths.  Thus,  those
who wanted to veil the hidden meaning of the gospels were at no loss to find
something  wherewith to fill out the tale and obscure the points  which  are
really  vital  in the crucifixion.   The part of the story relating  to  the
thieves is,  therefore,  a true incident, without having anything to do with
the esoteric meaning at all.


[PAGE 202]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 100.

   WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE CROSS?  IS IT SIMPLY AN INSTRUMENT OF  TORTURE
AS USUALLY TAUGHT IN THE ORTHODOX RELIGION?

   ANSWER:   Like  all other symbols,  the meanings of the cross  are  many.
Plato gave one of these meanings when he said, "The Worldsoul is crucified,"
that is to say:  We have four kingdoms in the world--the mineral, the plant,
the animal and the man.

   The  mineral kingdom ensouls all chemical substance of whatever kind,  so
that the cross,  of whatever material it is made,  is first a symbol of that
kingdom.

   The upright lower limb of the cross is a symbol of the plant kingdom  be-
cause  the currents of the group spirits which give life to the plants  come
from the center of the earth where these group spirits are located and reach
out toward the periphery of our planet and into space.

   The upper limb of the cross is the symbol of man,  because the life  cur-
rents  of the human kingdom pass downward from the sun through the  vertical
spine.   Thus  man is the inverted plant, for as the plant  takes  its  food
through the root, passing it UPWARD, so does the man take his nourishment by
way of the head,  passing it DOWNWARD.  The plant is chaste,  pure and  pas-
sionless,  and  stretches  its  creative organ,  the  flower,  chastely  and
unashamed TOWARD THE SUN, a thing of beauty and delight.  Man turns his pas-
sion filled generative organ TOWARD THE EARTH.   Man inhales the life giving
oxygen and exhales the poisonous carbon dioxide.  The plant takes the poison
exhaled by man, building its body therefrom, and returning  to us the elixir


[PAGE 203]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

of life, the cleansed oxygen.

   Between  the  plant  and the human kingdom stands  the  animal  with  the
horizontal  spine,  and  in the horizontal spine the life  currents  of  the
animal  group  spirit play as they circle around our globe.   Therefore  the
horizontal limb of the cross is the symbol of the animal kingdom.

   In  esotericism the cross was never looked upon as an instrument of  tor-
ture,  and it was not until the sixth century that the crucified Christ  was
shown  in pictures.   Previous to that time the symbol of the Christ  was  a
cross  and a lamb resting at its foot, to convey the idea that at  the  time
when  the Christ was born the sun at the vernal equinox crossed the  equator
in the sign Aries,  the Lamb.   The symbols of the different religions  have
always  been  made  in that way.   At the time when the  sun  by  precession
crossed  the vernal equinox in the sign Taurus,  the Bull,  a  religion  was
founded  in Egypt where they worshiped the Bull Apis in the same sense  that
we worship the Lamb of God.   At a much earlier date,  we hear of the  norse
God Thor driving his twin goats across the sky.   That was at the time  when
the vernal equinox was in the sign Gemini,  the Twins.   At the time of  the
birth  of Christ,  the vernal equinox was in about 7 degrees of  Aries,  the
Lamb,  therefore our Savior was called the Lamb of God.  There was a dispute
in  the  earlier centuries regarding the propriety of having the lamb  as  a
symbol of our Savior.  Some claimed that the vernal equinox at His birth was
really  in the sign Pisces,  the Fishes, and that the symbol of  our  Savior
should have been a fish.   It is in memory of that dispute that the bishop's
mitre still takes the form of the head of a fish.


[PAGE 204]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 101.

   COULD  NOT  THE MISSION OF CHRIST HAVE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT  SUCH  A
DRASTIC METHOD AS THE CRUCIFIXION?

   ANSWER:  It could, of course, have been accomplished without the specific
method  of  crucifixion,  but IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY  THAT  THE  BLOOD
SHOULD FLOW.   There are various grades of teachers and they require differ-
ent  conditions for the accomplishment of their task.   Some teachers,  like
Moses  and the Buddha,  come to a nation and help it to a certain  a  point,
they themselves growing thereby; and both of the teachers mentioned attained
to  the point in their own development where their bodies  became  luminous.
We  hear how the face of Moses shone so that it become necessary for him  to
use  a  veil,.   The Buddha become luminous at the time of his  death.   The
Christ attained the stage of luminosity at the time of His  transfiguration,
and  it  is very significant that the most important part of His  work,  His
suffering and death, took place after the event of the transfiguration.  And
while it become necessary for Moses, Elijah,  Buddha and the other  previous
teachers to be born in a physical body and will not need again to take  upon
Himself  such  an instrument.   For when the spirit leaves the body  in  the
natural  way it takes along certain impurities as it slowly  withdraws  from
the congealing blood.  Even in such a pure body as the body of Jesus,  there
were impurities,  and the violent death which caused the blood to run liber-
ated  the Ego of Christ from the blood with a quick wrench,  leaving  behind
whatever impurity there may have been, so that the Christ  emerged  from the


[PAGE 205]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

body of Jesus unsullied and without the time of destiny usually attendant on
life in the dense body.

   On  the same principle it is a fact that although at the present time  we
have  wars  that are to be regretted from the mere human standpoint,  it  is
nevertheless  a fact which is patent to the occultist that these  wars  have
cleansed the blood of the race considerably,  so that gradually humanity  is
becoming less and less passionate and more and more spiritual.   Also we may
say  that  in  this  fact lies the redeeming feature  of  the  slaughter  of
animals.   When humanity went through the animal stage it had no red passion
filled  blood  as  our animals have;  we were not as  highly  evolved.   The
animals of today,  though behind us in evolution, are on a higher spiral and
while we now are suffering under the law of consequence because of having to
overcome our passions in our own strength,  the animals are being helped and
held  in check by their group spirits.  And when they reach the human  stage
in the Jupiter Period,  they will be a higher humanity,  free from the  pas-
sions which have made this world such a sorrowful place.  thus nature always
transmutes whatever evil we may commit into a higher good.

   Answering the question,  we may therefore say that in the case of  Christ
the  violent  death was necessary because it enabled the  Christ  Spirit  to
withdraw from the body of Jesus without retaining any of the impurities  at-
tached to that merely human vehicle.


[PAGE 206]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 102.

   ACCORDING TO THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHING, WHEN WILL CHRIST COME AGAIN?

   ANSWER:  The Bible says truly that the "day and the hour knoweth no man,"
and the people who have been trying to fix a certain date or a certain  year
for the Second Coming have entirely misunderstood the object of the Christ's
mission on earth.  His teaching was given to humanity in order that the law,
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" might be abolished--that THE LAW
OF FEAR (of God) might be swallowed up by THE LAW OF LOVE.  "The law and the
prophets were until Christ," it is said, but we know that even today law is,
and is necessary.   Therefore,  it is evident that law was not abolished  at
the  physical  coming  of Christ.   It is the coming  of  Christ  into  "the
within,"  the inner nature of man,  that is to abolish law.   paul speaks of
this  advent as the "Christ being formed in ye,"  and until the  Christ  has
been formed in us we are not ready for the Second Coming.   Angelus Silesuis
says:

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

   The Second Coming of Christ depends upon how soon a sufficient number  of
people have become Christ-like and attuned to the Christ principle. so that,
as  tuning  forks of the same pitch sing together when one is  struck,  they
will be able to respond to the Christ vibrations that will be set up at  the
return of the Savior.  Therefore, this event is not to be calculated.  Every
time we endeavor to imitate Christ and fulfil His teachings,  we are hasten-
ing His Coming; so let us thus strive.


[PAGE 207]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 103.

   WHAT  IS MEANT BY THE SAYING THAT CHRIST WAS MADE A HIGH  PRIEST  FOREVER
AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC?

   ANSWER:   We are told that this Melchisedec was king of Salem and also  a
high priest.   We are told that his priesthood was far above that of  Aaron,
for it was unchangeable,  while that of Aaron and the Levites was subject to
frequent change.

   During  the times of which we have records in history,  there has  always
been  a division of the temporal and the ecclesiastical powers.   Moses  was
the  temporal  ruler and leader of the Jewish people,  while Aaron  was  the
priest who looked after their spiritual welfare,  and down the ages this di-
vision of the church and the state has ever been apparent,  at times causing
great  strife and bloodshed,  for their interests seem ever to be  diametri-
cally opposite.   But at the time of this Melchisedec, king of Salem,  which
interpreted means "PEACE,"  there was no such division, the two offices were
combined  in  one individual.   The story of Melchisedec,  a  Being  without
earthly pedigree,  refers, of course, to the time in early Atlantis when hu-
manity  had not yet been divided into warring nations,  but were  one  vast,
peaceful brotherhood, and the leaders of the people were Divine Beings,  who
were both kings and priests.

   The later division of church and state has been one of the most  fruitful
sources  of  enmity and war among humanity,  for each of  these  powers  has
striven  for supremacy over the other,  while in reality there should be  no
prejudice,  for no one who is not as spiritual as a priest should be is  fit
to rule as a king, and no one who is not as wise and just as a  king  should


[PAGE 208]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

be  is fit to have the spiritual guidance of humanity as the  priests  have.
When these qualities are combined in one leader again,  the reign of univer-
sal peace and brotherhood will become a fact.   The Christ has been heralded
as such a leader, capable of uniting church and state as king and priest af-
ter the order of Melchisedec.   His Second Coming inaugurates the milennium,
the age of peace and joy,  where the symbolical New Jerusalem,  the city  of
peace  (for  Jer-u-salem,  means "THERE SHALL BE PEACE"),  reigns  over  the
nations of the earth, united into one universal brotherhood.  There shall be
Peace on Earth and Goodwill among Men.

                              QUESTION NO. 104.

   WHAT  DID CHRIST MEAN WHEN HE SAID, "ALL WHO CAME BEFORE ME WERE  THIEVES
AND ROBBERS"?

   ANSWER:   We read in the Bible about two great cities,  strangely similar
yet directly opposite.  One is the city of Babylon, the birthplace of confu-
sion,  where mean ceased to be brothers and separated from one another.   It
lies upon seven hills by a river and is ruled over by a king.   Lucifer--the
"day star"--the light giver.  His fall from heaven is  lamented  exceedingly


[PAGE 209]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

in  the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah,  and later on we hear of the  fall  of
that great city, which has become an abomination, is called a harlot, having
caused war, trouble and desolation among all the people of the earth.

   Then,  in supreme antithesis,  we are told of another city called the New
Jerusalem, which occupies the honored position as bride.  IN that city there
is NOT A FLOWING RIVER but A SEA OF GLASS.   It also lies upon seven  hills,
is ruled over by another light giver who is called "the light of the world,"
and it is a city of peace where the gates are never closed although the pre-
cious Tree of Life is within.  This city is not a city of this world,  but a
city which has come down from heaven.

   To  understand this symbology,  it is necessary to go back into  the  far
distant past when man-in-the-making had not yet attained the development  he
has today.   When he first came upon this earth the dense body was built  in
the  POLARIAN EPOCH,  and was vitalized by the interpenetration of  a  vital
body  in  the  HYPERBOREAN EPOCH.   At that time man was  like  the  Angels,
male-female,  a complete creative unit,  able to create from himself by pro-
jecting his whole creative forces--which is love.

   Later it becomes necessary for man to evolve a brain, and in order to ac-
complish that object one-half of his creative force was turned inward in or-
der to build the necessary organs.  From that time on, man must seek the co-
operation  of some one having the other half of the sex force available  for
propagation.  Now he loves selfishly to obtain the cooperation of another in
propagation;  the  other half of the creative force wherewith he  built  his
brain and larynx he also uses selfishly to think,  because he desires to ob-
tain knowledge.


[PAGE 210]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   Previously  man had projected his whole creative force  without  reserve,
unselfishly.   Since the division of the sex force man has eventually become
selfish and therefore by attraction a prey to others of like nature.

   The  Angels were the humanity of the Moon Period and have since  attained
to their present high development,  but as in every great company there  are
stragglers,  so also in the case of the Angels there were some who  did  not
attain--a  class of beings which were behind the Angels but above  humanity.
They were in a sad state,  for they could not follow the present development
of  the Angels and neither could they sink as low into matter as man.   They
could not,  as the Angels, dispense with a brain, yet they were incapable of
building one for themselves,  so when humanity evolved the brain and  spinal
cord  they saw an opportunity in woman,  who expresses the negative pole  of
the creative force,  IMAGINATION,  the faculty which enables her to build  a
body in the womb.   In order to gain access to her consciousness this intel-
ligence took advantages of a perplexity then disturbing the woman on account
of her exercise of the imaginative faculty.

   At  that  time the eyes of humanity had not yet been  opened;  they  were
spiritual beings,  not quite conscious of the possession of a physical body.
The woman was the first to dimly observe that she and others possessed  such
an  instrument,  and  she had observed that at certain  times  some  of  her
friends whom she had previously perceived as having this physical appendage,
had lost it,  so she was troubled.   From the Angels she could obtain no in-
formation,  but this intelligence which appeared within herself in the  ser-
pentine spinal cord,  enlightened her, and "the serpent said unto the woman,
'Hath God said, ye shall not eat of every Tree in the Garden?'" to which she



[PAGE 211]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


answered that they had been forbidden "to eat  of the Tree of Knowledge" un-
der penalty of death.  But the serpent said:  "Ye shall not surely die,  for
God knows that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and
ye shall be as gods,  knowing good and evil."   The woman secured the  coop-
eration  of  the  man according to the instructions of  LUCIFER,  THE  LIGHT
GIVER,  and since then their eyes have been opened, they have known good and
evil.   But prior to that time man had been unconscious of the possession of
his body;  it had fallen away from him at times,  as the leaf falls from the
tree,  without inconveniencing or disturbing him,  for his consciousness had
been focused in the Spiritual World at all times.   But the Lucifer  spirits
desired a power over him, a foothold in his brain and spinal cord.  They in-
cited  him to break away from the yoke of the Angels and take  the  creative
function in his own hands.   By the oft repeated and ignorant abuse of  that
faculty the consciousness of man was withdrawn from the Spiritual Worlds and
focusedin the Physical World.   Then came death in all its present  terrible
aspects,  for man now regards this earth life as the only real  life.   When
that  ends,  he enters an existence of which he knows nothing and  which  he
consequently fears.

    Thus, on account of listening to Lucifer, THE FALSE LIGHT GIVER, man has
become subject to sorrow,  pain and death.  He has been robbed of his  inno-
cence and peace.   The Christ came into the world to save humanity from sin,
sorrow and death.  Therefore He called Himself the TRUE LIGHT,  and the oth-
ers,  who had come before, He characterized as thieves and robbers, for they
had  robbeed man of the spiritual sight though they had enlightened  him  in
the physical sense.


[PAGE 212]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 105.

   WHAT DID THE CHRIST MEAN WHEN HE SAID,  "WHOSOEVER SHALL NOT RECEIVE  THE
KINGDOM OF GOD AS A LITTLE CHILD SHALL NOT ENTER THEREIN"?

   ANSWER:   In the world around us we see the kingdom of men,  where  every
one  is  endeavoring to maintain his own position and depends upon  his  own
ideas  and his own self-assertion to hold that position against all  comers.
When anything new is presented to him, his mental attitude is usually tinged
with skepticism.  He fears to be deceived.

   The  attitude of a little child with regard to what it sees or  hears  is
exactly the reverse of the position of its elders.   The little child has no
overwhelming  sense of its own superior knowledge,  but is frankly  ignorant
and therefore eminently teachable,  and it was to this trait that the Savior
referred in the passage quoted.

   When  we enter the higher life,  we must first forget everything that  we
knew in the world.   We must commence to look at things in an entirely  dif-
ferent way, and WHEN A NEW TEACHING IS BROUGHT BEFORE US WE MUST ENDEAVOR TO
RECEIVE  IT REGARDLESS OF OTHER FACTS PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED.   This  in  order
that we may be perfectly unbiased.   Of course,  we are not supposed to  be-
lieve offhand that "black is white,"  but if some one seriously asserts that
an object which we have hitherto regarded as black is really white, our mind
should be sufficiently open to prevent us from passing judgment at once  and
saying,  "Why,  I know that that object is black."   We should be willing to
reexamine the object to see if there may not be a  point of view whence that


[PAGE 213]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

thing  which we have thought black appears to be white.   Only when we  have
made thorough examination and have found that the thing is really black from
whatever point of view may we return to our previous opinion.

   There is nothing so remarkable about a child as the flexible attitude  of
its mind which renders it so teachable, and the pupil who endeavors to  live
the  higher life should always aim to keep his mind in that  fluidic  state,
for as soon as our ideas have become SET and incapable of being changed, our
progress ceases.   That was the great truth which the Christ was endeavoring
to  present to his hearers when he made the remark which has occasioned  the
question.

                              QUESTION NO. 106.

   DID NOT JESUS EAT FISH?  WHY THEN ARE THE ROSICRUCIANS VEGETARIANS?

   ANSWER:  After the Resurrection the Christ at one time appeared among His
disciples while they were in a locked room.   They did not recognize Him  at
once and did not believe that His was a material body.   But the vehicle  in
which He appeared was the vital body of Jesus, and  it was possible for Him,


[PAGE 214]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

as for anyone else capable of functioning in that vehicle, to draw matter of
the  chemical  region around Himself and build a perfectly  tangible,  dense
body in a moment.  In order to convince them that He was as usual,  He asked
for something to eat and was given a piece of a honeycomb and some fish.  It
is stated that he ate,  but not that he ate the fish,  and one who had  been
brought  up among strict vegetarians like the Essenes would not  have  eaten
the  fish any more than he would have eaten flesh if it had been set  before
him.

   It is also related of the Buddha that he died after gorging himself  upon
boar's  flesh,  which is highly amusing to anyone aware of the fact that  he
taught his disciples the simple and harmless life--to sustain the body  upon
the  purest  and best foods as they come directly from the  ground--and  was
moved  to the greatest pity at the sight of suffering on the part of man  or
beast.   The esoteric student understands that in olden times the boar was a
symbol of the esoteric knowledge.   One may give of his knowledge;  the more
we  give the more we have--at least the same amount of knowledge always  re-
mains.   This  truth  was taught in a symbol of  the  Norse  mythology:   In
Valhall the warriors who had fought the good fight were seated around tables
feasting upon the flesh of a boar, which was so constituted that as often as
they cut a part of its flesh away the flesh grew out at once,  so that there
was always plenty, no matter how much was taken or how many ate.  The Buddha
in his earth life had gorged himself upon this sacred knowledge, and when he
died he was full thereof.

   Nevertheless,  the inquirer has a wrong idea.   The Rosicrucians  do  not
teach that everyone should be a vegetarian AT ONCE.  In fact they teach that
the vegetarian diet generates an abundance of energy,  much more than  flesh
foods.  This  energy  is  not  only physical but spiritual, so that if a man


[PAGE 215]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

leads a sedentary life and is of a material disposition,  engaged,  perhaps,
in  sordid business transactions or in other lines of strictly material  en-
deavor,  this spiritual energy can find no vent and is apt to cause systemic
disturbances.   Only  those  who live an active,  outdoor  life,  where  the
abundance  of energy generated by the vegetarian food can be thrown off,  or
who  transmute that energy into spiritual endeavor,  can thrive on the  veg-
etarian diet.   Besides,  we recognize that the heredity of many generations
has  made  man partly carnivorous,  so that in the case of most  people  the
change  from a mixed diet to vegetables should be gradual.   The diet  which
suits  one  man is not fitted for another,  VIDE the old proverb  that  "one
man's meat is another man's poison,"  and no hard and fast rules can be laid
down which will apply equally to all people.  Therefore,  everything that we
eat as well as everything else connected with our personality should be  de-
termined by ourselves individually.

   The  Bible  says truly that is not that which goeth into the  mouth  that
defileth us.   If we crave and support ourselves upon loathsome food,  IT IS
THE  CRAVING THAT IS THE SIN,  and not the food itself.   If a man is  in  a
place where he cannot obtain the pure foods which he desires and craves,  he
ought to take the food which is obtainable, even flesh food,  without loath-
ing,  just as thankfully as he takes the pure food.   It will not defile him
because of his attitude of mind.


[PAGE 216]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 107.

   IF  CHRIST  FED THE MULTITUDE WITH FISH,  WHY IS IT WRONG FOR US  TO  USE
THEM, OR EVEN FLESH, AS FOOD?

   ANSWER:  It is the nature of a beast of prey to eat any animal that comes
in its path,  and its organs are such that it must have that kind of a  diet
to exist, but EVERYTHING IS IN A STAGE OF BECOMING; it is always changing to
something higher.   Man, in his earlier stages of unfoldment,  was also like
the beasts of prey in certain respects;  however,  he is to become  God-like
and thus he must cease to destroy at some time in order that he may commence
to  create.   The Jews were still in a position where their  animal  natures
were so much to the fore that they had exceedingly small ideas of  altruism.
They clung closely to the law,  "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,"
and were not at all merciful in any respect.   We have gone a little further
along  the path of evolution,  and altruism is coming to the fore  more  and
more.

   We have been taught that there is no life in the universe but the life of
God.   That  "in Him we live and move and have our being."   That  His  life
animates  everything that is and therefore we naturally understand  that  as
soon  as  we  take  LIFE we are destroying THE FORM built  by  God  for  His
manifestation.   The  lower  animals are evolving spirits  and  have  sensi-
bilities.  It is their desire for experience that causes them to build their
various FORMS,  and when we take their forms away from theme we deprive them
of their opportunity for gaining experience.   We hinder their evolution in-
stead of helping them.   It is excusable in the cannibal,  who knows no bet-
ter, when he eats his fellow men.  We  now  regard  cannibalism with horror,


[PAGE 217]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

and the day will also come when we shall feel a like disgust at the  thought
of  making  our  stomachs the burying ground of the  carcasses  of  murdered
animals.

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

   When we cry to the Bible as authority for flesh eating we should also  be
willing  to follow its injunctions and stop eating pork,  which is the  most
horrible food of all.   It is a notable fact that the orthodox Jews who  ab-
stain  from the foods interdicted in the Bible are immune  from  consumption
and cancer.

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

   There  is an esoteric meaning to the feeding of the multitude where  fish
was  used as food,  but looking to the purely material aspect we may sum  up
the points made in our answer by reiterating that we shall some time outgrow


[PAGE 218]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

flesh and fish eating as we have risen above cannibalism.   Whatever license
may  have been given in the barbaric past will disappear in  the  altruistic
future,  when more refined sensibilities shall have awakened us to a  fuller
sense of the horrors involved in the gratification of a carnivorous taste.

   For  a very full presentation of the question,  "Does the  Bible  justify
Flesh Eating," we would refer the inquirer to a little pamphlet by that name
issued by the Unity Society of Kansas City,  Missouri,  which gives the  pro
and the con with great impartiality, and shows that it was only as a conces-
sion to the before mentioned LUST for flesh that the practice was  tolerated
at all.

                              QUESTION NO. 108.

   PLEASE  EXPLAIN WHY THE FATTED CALF WAS NOT KILLED FOR THE RIGHTEOUS  SON
INSTEAD OF THE PRODIGAL.  WAS THAT NOT GIVING A REWARD FOR WRONG DOING?

   ANSWER:   The story of the prodigal son was a parable whereby the  Christ
intended  to  teach a lesson and not an actual fact.   It is a  story  which
tells  of  the  spirit's pilgrimage through  matter.   There  are  different
classes  of  spirits.  Some,  but  not  all,  have  gone  into the school of


[PAGE 219]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

experience,  the world.   They have descended from their high estate in  the
World of God gradually deeper and deeper into the sea of matter which blinds
them.   At  last they find themselves immeshed in the dense  matter  of  the
Physical World.  That is the turning point where they wake up; where the un-
conscious path of involution ends; where self-consciousness is attained plus
a consciousness of the world without.   But the spirit within is not content
to remain in this world.  Re-awakened to a sense of its inherent divinity it
feels drawn anew to the highest spheres, and says "I will arise and go to my
father."

   Then comes the toil of stripping off the various vehicles in which it has
become  immeshed and of raising itself once more to the conscious  communion
with  God.   While engaged in this arduous task "the Father meets it a  long
way off";  the still small voice from within begins to speak and tell of the
heavenly  glories and,  at last,  when either the evolution of humanity  has
been  completed or the single spirit has taken THE SHORT CUT OF  INITIATION,
there is a reunion with God and the other brothers who have not yet gone out
into the school of experience.   Naturally there is more rejoicing over  the
return  of one who has fought the good fight and has come back to his  heav-
enly home,  than over the one who has not yet sought to improve his opportu-
nity.



[PAGE 220]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 109.

   WHY  DID THE LORD COMMEND THE UNJUST STEWARD AS RELATED IN THE  SIXTEENTH
CHAPTER OF ST. LUKE?

   ANSWER:   The inquirer should read the chapter carefully.  We are told of
an  unfaithful steward who was brought before his master,  the latter  being
suspicious that his accounts were not quite right.   This unfaithful steward
made a bargain with the debtors of his master to secure himself against  the
day  of discharge from his position.   It is said in verse 8 that "the  lord
commended the unjust steward."   When he rendered his accounts he must  have
fixed them so skilfully that his master was deceived, for the "lord"  of the
man--his  master--was the one who commended him,  as will be seen  from  the
fact  that  the  word "lord"  is spelled with a small  letter,  whereas  the
capital letter is always used where the Christ is signified.

                              QUESTION NO. 110.

   PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT IS MEANT BY SINNING AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.

   ANSWER:   Speaking generally,  the Holy Spirit is the creative  power  of
God.  For confirmation,  remember the passage in the creed "Conceived by the


[PAGE 221]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Holy Spirit,"  which Gabriel said to Mary should come upon her.  By that all
that is has been brought into being,  and it is a ray from that attribute of
God which is used by men for perpetuation of the race.  When that is abused,
that is to say, when it is used for sense gratification, whether in solitary
or  associated vice,  with or without the legal marriage,  that is  the  sin
against the Holy Spirit.  That sin, we are told, is not forgiven; it must be
expiated.   Humanity  as  a whole is now suffering for that  sin.   The  de-
bilitated  bodies,  the sickness that we see around us,  has been caused  by
centuries of abuse,  and until we learn to subdue our passions there can  be
no  true  health  among the human race.  We have been born  of  parents  who
thought  that it was right to gratify their passions at any and  all  times.
In  consequence we suffer now,  and by our attitude toward the sex  question
most  of  us are at the present time conferring the same maladies  upon  our
children.   Thus the sins of the fathers are being visited upon the children
from generation to generation, and will continue to bring sorrow and suffer-
ing  until we shall understand that every child has a right to be well  born
and to receive the proper physical conditions during the period of antenatal
life.


[PAGE 222]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 111.

   IS THE CHRISTIAN CREED BASED UPON DIVINE AUTHORITY?

   ANSWER:   There are three forms of the Christian creed.   One of them  is
known  as the APOSTLE'S CREED,  although not composed by the  apostles,  but
supposed to embody their beliefs.   Another creed was formulated and adopted
at the Council of Nice and is called the Nicene Creed.  The Athanasian Creed
was of still later date.   They have no more divine authority than any other
contention of men concerning the Bible.

   The Bible itself gives a creed, however, in the passage which states that
THERE IS NO OTHER NAME GIVEN EXCEPT THE NAME OF CHRIST JESUS WHEREBY MEN MAY
BE SAVED,  and this is in harmony with the occult teaching,  for Jehovah was
the  author of all the old Race Religions where the fear of God  was  pitted
against the desires of the flesh and a law was imposed upon man to curb  de-
sire.   Race Religions act educationally upon the desire nature by the means
stated,  but will in time be superseded by the Religion of Christ.  This re-
ligion of brotherhood and LOVE WILL CAST OUT THE FEAR engendered by the  law
of Jehovah.  It will endeavor to do away with nations, with their laws, with
struggle and strife,  by working upon the vital body so that humanity  shall
be actuated entirely by love instead of by law.   This is not the  ultimate,
however.   When the kingdom shall have been fully established, He is to give
it over to the Father.   The Religion of the Father will be something higher
even than the Religion of the Son.


[PAGE 223]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 112.

   HOW DO YOU RECONCILE THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT WITH THE DOCTRINE OF THE
FORGIVENESS OF SINS?

   ANSWER:   The inability to believe in the forgiveness of sins has  caused
many  to believe exclusively in the law of cause and effect,  as  taught  in
eastern countries under the name KARMA.  There are also many who think that,
because eastern religions teach that law and the law of rebirth more clearly
than the western religion,  Christianity, these eastern religions are better
and more scientific than the western religion,  which teaches,  as popularly
interpreted,  that the Christ died for our sins and that in consequence  be-
lief in Him will bring us forgiveness.

   As a matter of fact,  however, the Christian teaching also enunciates the
doctrine  that "as we sow so shall we also reap,"  and thus it teaches  both
the law of cause and effect and the forgiveness of sins.  BOTH of these laws
are vitally operative in the unfoldment of humanity, and there are good rea-
sons  why the earlier eastern religions have only one part of  THE  COMPLETE
TEACHING WHICH IS FOUND IN THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

   In  those early days when the religions of the East were given to  human-
ity, mankind were still more spiritual in nature than the material beings of
the present day Western World.  They knew that we live many lives in differ-
ent shapes and forms here upon this earth.   In the East today they are  yet
thoroughly imbued with that idea,  and as a consequence they are exceedingly
indolent.   They are more concerned with thought of  Nirvana--the  invisible
world--where they may rest  in  peace and joy, than with taking advantage of


[PAGE 224]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

their present material resources for advancement.   As a consequence,  their
country  is arid and waste,  their crops are small and often destroyed by  a
scorching sun and devastating flood.   They suffer famine,  they die by mil-
lions,  but although they teach the law of cause and effect, they seem to be
unaware  that their miserable conditions are brought about by indolence  and
indifference to material things.   For naturally,  when they have not worked
here they have nothing to assimilate in the heaven life between death and  a
new birth, and as an organ or limb that is disused gradually atrophies, so a
country  that is not developed by the spirits incarnated  therein  gradually
atrophies and becomes useless as a habitation for mankind.  It was necessary
to  the evolution of humanity to enter this material world and  develop  all
its resources.

   Therefore, the Great Leaders have taken various means to cause us to tem-
porarily forget the spiritual side of our nature.   In the West,  where  the
pioneers  of the human race are found,  they commanded marriage outside  the
family.   They gave to the West a religion that did not definitely teach the
doctrine of rebirth and the law of cause and effect as means of advancement.
They also originated the use of alcohol, with its paralyzing effect upon the
spiritual sensibilities of man.   By these means we have in the West  tempo-
rarily forgotten that there is more than this one life on earth, and in con-
sequence we apply ourselves with the utmost diligence to making the  fullest
possible use of what we believe to be our only opportunity here.  Therefore,
we  have developed the West into a veritable garden;  we have made for  our-
selves, BETWEEN INCARNATIONS, a land that is exceedingly fertile and rich in


[PAGE 225]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the minerals which we need in our various industries,  and thus we are  con-
quering the visible material world.

   It is evident,  however, that the religious side of man's nature must not
be entirely neglected, and as Christ, the great ideal of the Christian reli-
gion,  had been set before us for imitation,  and we could not possible hope
to become Christ-like in one life,  which is all that we now have any knowl-
edge of,  there must be given us a compensatory doctrine, or we should cease
to strive in despair, knowing that it would be futile.   Therefore the West-
ern  World  was taught the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins  through  the
righteousness of Christ Jesus.

   It is equally certain,  however, that no doctrine which is not a truth in
nature can have any uplifting power,  and,  therefore,  there must also be a
sound basis behind the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins,  which seems  to
vitiate the law of causation; it is this:

   When  we look about us in the material world,  we observe  the  different
phenomena of nature, we meet other people and have various transactions with
them,  and all these sights,  sounds and scenes are observed by means of our
sense organs.   Yet not all,  for we are usually exceedingly unobservant  of
details.  It is exasperatingly true when it is said that  "we have eyes that
see not and ears that hear not."  We lose a great deal of experience on that
account.   Besides, our memory is woefully lacking; while we are able to re-
call  a  little,  most of our experiences are lost to us because  we  forget
them.  our conscious memory is weak.  There is another memory, however.   As
the  ether and the air carry to the photographic plate in a camera  the  im-
pression of the landscape without,  omitting,  not the slightest detail,  so
also does the air and the ether  which  carries impressions from the outside


[PAGE 226]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

to our sense organs carry into the lungs, and thence to the blood, an actual
picture  and  a record of everything with which we come in  contact.   Those
pictures are stored in the minute seed atom resting in the left ventricle of
the heart,  and that little atom may be considered the Book of the Recording
Angels, where all our deeds are inscribed.  Thence it is mirrored in the Re-
flecting Ether of our vital body.

   In  the ordinary course of life,  man passes into Purgatory at death  and
inscribed upon that atom.  Later he assimilates all the good stored there in
the First Heaven,  working upon his future environment in the Second heaven.
But a devout person realizes each day his shortcomings and failings.  He ex-
amines  the  events of this life daily and prays from a devout heart  to  be
forgiven  for sins he has committed.  Then the pictures which have  recorded
the  sins of omission and commission fade, and are wiped out of  his  life's
record  from  day to day.   For it is not the aim of God or nature  TO  "GET
EVEN"  as it would seem under the law of causation,  which decrees an  exact
retribution for every transgression, as well as a reward or compensation for
every  good act.   It is the aim of God that we should learn  by  experience
here to do justly and well.   When we have realized that we have done  wrong
and  determine to do better,  we have learned the lesson,  and there  is  no
necessity for PUNISHING us.

   Thus the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins is an actual fact in nature.
If we repent, pray and reform, the sins we have repented of,  prayed for and
reformed  from are forgiven and wiped out of our life's record.   Otherwise,
they  are eradicated by corresponding pains in Purgatory after death.   Thus
the doctrine of Karma, or the law of cause and effect as taught in the East,


[PAGE 227]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

does not fully meet human needs, but the Christian teaching,  which embodies
BOTH the law of causation and the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, gives
a more complete teaching concerning the method employed by the Great Leaders
to instruct us.

                              QUESTION NO. 113.

   BY WHAT POWER DID PETER RAISE DORCAS FROM THE DEAD?

   ANSWER:  Peter did not raise Dorcas from the dead, neither did the Christ
raise Lazarus or anyone else, nor did he so claim.  He said "HE IS NOT DEAD,
he sleepeth."

   In order that this matter may be understood,  we will explain what  takes
place at death and wherein death is different from the state of trance,  for
the persons mentioned were entranced at the time the supposed miracles  took
place.

   During the waking state,  when the Ego is functioning consciously in  the
Physical  World,  its various vehicles are concentric--they occupy the  same
space--but at night, when the body is laid down to sleep, a separation takes
place.  The Ego, clothed in the mind and desire body, extricates itself from
the dense body and the vital body, which  are left upon the bed.  The higher


[PAGE 228]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

vehicles hover above or near.   They are connected to the denser vehicles by
THE SILVER CORD,  a thin glistening threat which takes the shape of two fig-
ure  sixes,  one end being attached to the seed atom in the  heart  and  the
other to the center vortex of the desire body.

   At the moment of death,  this thread is ruptured at the seed atom in  the
heart  and  the  forces of this atom pass  along  the  pneumogastric  nerve,
through the third ventricle of the brain, and thence outward through the su-
ture between the occipital and parietal bones of the skull, along the silver
cord  and into the higher vehicles.   Simultaneously with this rupture,  the
vital body is also disengaged and joins the higher vehicles which are hover-
ing  above  the dead body.   There it remains for about three  and  one-half
days.   Then the higher vehicles disengage themselves from the  vital  body,
which disintegrates synchronously with the dense body, in ordinary cases.

   At  the time of this last separation, the silver cord also breaks in  the
middle, and the Ego is freed from contact with the material world.

   During  sleep the Ego also withdraws from the dense body,  but the  vital
body remains with the dense body and the silver cord is left intact.

   It sometimes happens that the Ego does not enter the body in the  morning
to waken it as usual,  but remains outside for a time varying from one to an
indefinite  number  of  days.   Then we say that the body is  in  a  natural
trance.   But  the silver cord is not ruptured in either of the  two  places
mentioned.   Where  these ruptures have once taken place no  restoration  is
possible.   The Christ and the apostle were clairvoyants;  they saw that  no
rupture had taken place in the cases mentioned, hence the saying, "He is not


[PAGE 229]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

dead, he sleepeth."  They also possessed the power to force the Ego into its
body  and restore the normal condition.   Thus so-called miracles were  per-
formed by them.

                              QUESTION NO. 114.

   DO YOU BELIEVE IN CONVERSION?

   ANSWER:   Certainly, but there are conversions and conversions.  There is
the  conversion  which takes place in a revival meeting to  the  beating  of
drums,  the clapping of hands, the singing of gospel hymns and the insistent
calling of the revivalist to "come before it is too late."   All these  aids
to  conversion produce an intense hypnotic influence,  which works upon  the
emotional  nature  of  many people in such a way that  these  "sinners,"  so
called, can no longer remain in their seats, but are FORCED in the most lit-
eral  sense to obey the command and come forward to "the  mourner's  bench."
That kind of a conversion is usually of very little worth.  Revivalists find
that it is extremely easy to convert people in that manner.   The exasperat-
ingly difficult problem is, as one of them expressed it, "to make it stick,"
for  when  the  victim  of  the  hypnotic revivalist leaves the meeting, the


[PAGE 230]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

influence  gradually  wears off,  and sooner or later he relapses  into  his
original attitude.   And though these "backsliders" may feel no pang at  all
when backsliding, the next revival meeting draws them to the mourners' bench
again as surely as a magnet draws a needle.   They are converted  repeatedly
and backslide regularly every time there is a revival meeting,  to the  dis-
gust of the revivalist and the amusement of the community,  who are  unaware
that it is a simple case of mild hypnotism.

   There is another conversion, however, always accompanied by planetary in-
fluences,  and according to the strength of these influences the conversion,
or change in the life, will be more or less radical.  It then shows that the
soul has reached a certain point in its pilgrimage where it feels attraction
to  the higher life.   The immediate cause of conversion may be a sermon,  a
lecture or a book, a verse in the Bible, or something in nature, but that is
only  the physical cause of something which was already a fact  spiritually.
From  that moment the man or the woman will commence to take a new  view  of
life, will lay aside the old vices, will follow new lines of thought and en-
deavor.   It may change his whole attitude toward life and also his environ-
ment.   In fact, very often a journey has brought him out of the usual envi-
ronment for the time being,  to give the proper condition for sowing of  the
new seed.


[PAGE 231]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 115.

   IS THERE ANY VALUE IN CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION?

   ANSWER:   If the inquirer means confession and absolution in the sense in
which  it  is practiced in the Catholic Church,  it may be stated  that  the
priest, certainly, has no power to forgive the sins of the penitent, and the
practice  of confession BY THE ORDER OF A CHURCH at the best is usually  but
an  outward  show of penitence,  putting one in mind of the  prayer  of  the
Pharisee who went into the temple that he might be seen of men.

   If,  on the other hand,  confession is made in the spirit of the  scribe,
which is the spirit of true penitence, then there is a certain value, for as
a little child who has committed a wrong feels conscience smitten and sorry,
so may we feel extremely penitent for our sins of omission and commission.

    It is a fact often noticed by kind parents that penitence in silence  is
sometimes  insufficient  to the child which feels the need of going  to  the
parent and CONFESSING ITS SIN.   When the forgiveness of the parent has been
obtained its conscience is at rest.  So also with the child of God.   We sin
and we are sorry for our sins; we determine not to commit this or that wrong
again; but if we can confess to someone in whom we have faith, and get their
sympathy and assurance that this wrong will not be held against us, we shall
feel easier in conscience.  That was the principle underlying the command of
the  Bible "Confess your sins to one another."   The one to whom we  confess
will,  of course,  be a person for whom we have a profound respect and love,
and he or she will stand toward  us  at that moment as the representative of


[PAGE 232]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

God or our own higher nature,  and we shall thus feel very much relieved  at
having received his sympathy.   But we shall feel also that the pact we have
made  with  ourselves  not  to commit the sin in  question  again  has  been
strengthened  by having him as a witness.   If confession is made thus,  and
absolution so obtained, then it has undoubtedly a very beneficial effect.

                              QUESTION NO. 116.

   IS  THERE  ANY  VALUE IN THE LATIN RITUAL USED BY  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH?
WOULD  IT  NOT BE BETTER IF IT WERE TRANSLATED SO THAT PEOPLE  COULD  UNDER-
STAND?  AND ARE NOT THE EXTEMPORANEOUS SERMONS AND PRAYERS USED IN THE PROT-
ESTANT CHURCHES MUCH TO BE PREFERRED TO THE RITUAL AND STEREOTYPES MASSES OF
THE CATHOLICS?

   ANSWER:   At the present time all humanity has evolved so far  that  they
are  above law in some respects.   Most people obey the law "Thou shalt  not
steal," for instance.

   Law is a curb on the desire nature,  but where occult or rather spiritual
advancement  is contemplated,  the spiritualization of the vital  body  must
also be accomplished.  And that is attained by means of art and religion, in


[PAGE 233]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

OFT-REPEATED IMPACTS, for the keynote of the vital body is REPETITION, as we
can  see by looking at the plants which have only a dense body and  a  vital
body.  There stem and leaf follow each other in upward succession; the plant
keeps  on growing them alternately.   it was the vital body that  built  the
vertebrae of the human spine one after another by constant repetition.   And
memory,  for instance,  which is one of the faculties of the vital body,  is
strengthened and developed by constant iteration and reiteration.

   When the Protestants left the Catholic Church they truly left many of the
abuses behind,  but they also left almost everything of value.   They  aban-
doned  the ritual which everyone may know and understand regardless of  poor
enunciation upon the part of the preacher.   Knowing the ritual,  the  laity
could send their thoughts in the same direction as the thought of the priest
who was reading,  and thus an enormous volume of identical spiritual thought
was  massed  together  and projected upon the community for  good  or  evil.
Nowadays the congregation in a Protestant church listens to the extemporane-
ous  prayer or sermon of their minister, who usually does not think so  much
of the spiritual work before him as he does of how he may turn out the  most
euphonious phrases to tickle the ears of his congregation.  They forget what
he has said before they leave the church.  Those who go to a Catholic church
understanding  the  ritual are still today able to unite their  thoughts  in
spiritual conclave and keep within memory that which has been gone  through.
Thus  they are every time adding a little to the spiritualization  of  their
vital bodies, while the Protestant church members have been affected only in


[PAGE 234]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

their  emotional  natures,  and that effect is soon thrown out.   The  Bible
tells us to pray without ceasing,  and many have scoffed saying that if  God
is omniscient He knows whereof we have need without our prayer, and if He is
not, He can most likely not be omnipotent, and therefore our prayers are not
granted, so that it is useless to pray.  But that command was indited from a
knowledge  of the nature of the vital body,  which needs that repetition  in
order that it may be spiritualized.

   So  much  for the ritual.   As to the use of the Latin  language,  it  is
stated in the first chapter of John that in the beginning was the word. .  .
and without it was nothing made that was made.   Word is sound.   If we take
sand or plant spores and place them upon a brass or a glass plate, then take
a  violin bow and draw it across the edges,  we shall produce a  sound,  and
that  sound will cause the spores or sand to arrange itself  in  geometrical
figures,  similar to the crystals of which all things are  composed.   EVERY
SOUND PRODUCES A DIFFERENT FORMATION.   Thus, if a certain sound produces  a
certain effect which we wish to produce,  WE CANNOT CHANGE THE SOUND WITHOUT
ALSO CHANGING THE EFFECT.   If we emit a certain sound and say "Deum,"  then
translate Deum and say God,  the sound is very different,  and as sound pro-
duces certain effects upon our invisible bodies,  the effects that were pro-
duced by the original Latin ritual have been lost to the Protestant churches
which changed it into English or dropped it altogether.

   It is often a wonder to people how the Catholic Church retains its  power
over  its  people,  and it may be said that were they to abandon  the  Latin
ritual  there would not be one of their followers left in ten years.   More-
over, their truly occult rituals have  not been transposed into English, and


[PAGE 235]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

even  among the Rosicrucians,  Latin rituals, though not those used  in  the
Catholic Church, are in vogue at the services.

                              QUESTION NO. 117.

   WHAT  IS THE ACTUAL MERIT IN MARTYRDOM?   DID THE MARTYRS  REALLY  BECOME
SAINTS?

   ANSWER:   Man lifts himself to a union with God through four great  steps
or  stages.   First he prays to or sacrifices to a God whom  he  fears  and,
therefore,  seeks to propitiate, so that his God will not harm him.  Next he
learns  to look upon this God as a mighty ally against his enemies and as  a
giver of all good things to him, that is, provided he obeys the God and sac-
rifices to him of the material things which he possesses.  In the third step
he is taught TO SACRIFICE HIMSELF by living a life of righteousness, and ex-
pects to be rewarded in a future state called heaven, where he is to live in
eternal happiness as a compensation for whatever he may have endured  during
earth life.  The martyrs were at the stage where they held this belief,  and
were  thoroughly imbued with the verity and glory of heaven.   Therefore  it
was to them an easy matter to sacrifice  their  lives and then attain to the


[PAGE 236]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

future glory at once.

   In reality, if martyrdom can unlock a heaven with eternal bliss,  that is
a most easy method of obtaining the reward.  It may take courage to die, but
after  all  it takes infinitely more courage to live.   We are very  apt  to
think  that when a man has given his life he has given to the  very  utmost,
and we often hear people say of a man who has committed suicide that "HE HAS
PAID IT ALL."   As a matter of fact, suicide is usually an expression of the
greatest  possible cowardice,  and martyrdom is far less to be admired  than
the  lives of people who day by day endeavor to follow the spiritual  teach-
ings of the Bible and live a noble life.   Of course it is readily  admitted
that  the martyrs are to be admired for stanchly adhering to their faith  in
the face of death and torture.  Undoubtedly they will have greater  opportu-
nities  for spiritual growth in later lives than they were deprived of  when
burned at the stake or otherwise exterminated.   And we may also surely  say
that they were saints and holy people in the sense that their faith was even
more to them than life,  but we strenuously hold that the edict of a  church
is incapable of making a sinner a saint.


[PAGE 237]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 118.

   IN ONE OF YOUR LECTURES YOU SAID IN EFFECT THAT IT WAS A MISTAKE TO  SEND
MISSIONARIES  TO  FOREIGN COUNTRIES;  THAT THE RELIGIONS  PRACTICED  BY  THE
SO-CALLED  HEATHENS ARE RIGHT FOR THEM AT THE PRESENT TIME,  BUT THAT  THESE
MISSIONARIES HAVE DONE LITTLE HARM AS YET.  HOW THEN DO YOU EXPLAIN THE COM-
MAND  OF CHRIST TO HIS APOSTLES,  "GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND  PREACH  THE
GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE?"

   ANSWER:  The meaning of the Christ's words obviously rest upon the inter-
pretation  of  the word "world."   If by that word we understand  the  whole
earth,  it may be right to send missionaries to foreign countries;  but  the
Bible tells us that THE DISCIPLES TO WHOM THE COMMAND WAS GIVEN returned af-
ter  having  accomplished their mission,  showing that the word  of  command
could  not have been meant to include the whole earth.   In this  connection
the word "world"  should rather have been given the interpretation "polity,"
which will also be found in some of our dictionaries as another meaning  for
the  word.   At the time of Christ people did not know the whole world.   We
find   even  to  this  day  the  westernmost  cape  of  Spain  called   Cape
Finisterre--THE  END  OF THE EARTH.   Therefore this term at the  time  when
Christ spoke his command could not have included the whole earth as we  know
it today.  The statement is, therefore, not contrary to Bible teachings.  It
is wrong to send missionaries out to the people we call "heathen," for their
development  is  as yet such that they cannot understand  a  religion  which
preaches  LOVE  to one's neighbor,  a religion which even we  have  not  yet
learned to practice.  Besides, if the great Recording Angels who have charge


[PAGE 238]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

of men's evolution are capable of judging our needs, and placing each one in
the environment where he will find the influences most conducive to progres-
sion,  we must also believe that they have given to each nation the religion
most salutary to its unfoldment.  Therefore, when a man has been placed in a
country  where  the Christian religion is taught,  that religion  holds  the
ideal which he should strive for,  but to try to force it upon other  people
who  have  been placed in a different sphere is to set our  judgment  up  as
greater  than the judgment of God and His ministers,  the Recording  Angels.
However,  as said,  the Christian missionaries have done little harm to  the
people they have visited, but they might have done more good at home.  We do
not  need to go away from home to find heathen who need instruction  in  the
Bible.   Professor Wilbur L. Cross of Yale mentions, for instance, that in a
class  of forty students not one could place Judas Iscariot;  that he had  a
Jewish student who had never heard of Moses and that in answer to a question
concerning the nature of the Pilgrim's Progress, the best answer was that it
is the basis of New England history.   If the missionaries were brought into
contact with these heathen, perhaps they might do some good.

   More  harm,  however,  is done when the East sends its missionaries  over
here  to  convert  us to Hindooism and kindred religions,  for  often  these
Hindoos  teach breathing exercises which cause insanity or consumption,  be-
cause  our western bodies are not at all fitted for such practices.   it  is
safest to rest in the religion of our country,  to study and practice  that,
leaving to other nations the privilege of doing the same in respect to their
own religions.



[PAGE 239]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
                                  SECTION V

                            QUESTIONS CONCERNING

                          SPIRITUALISTIC PHENOMENA


[PAGE 241]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 119.

   IS MEDIUMSHIP INJURIOUS TO HEALTH?

   ANSWER:  That depends:  Where a person becomes the medium for a disembod-
ied  spirit  which enters the body,  as in the case of the  trance  mediums,
where  it takes possession of this body and uses it as the owner  might  do,
there is little if any harm done, provided the spirit control does not abuse
his privilege.   In fact,  there are some cases where spirit controls have a
better idea of caring for a body than the owner himself,  and may  sometimes
improve  the health.   But spirits of a high ethical nature do  not  usually
control  a medium,  it is rather earthbound and low spirits such as  Indians
and  others of a like nature who obtain a control over mediumistic  persons,
and when in possession of the body they may use it to gratify their low pas-
sions for drink and sex.   Thus they cause a disturbance to the system and a
deterioration of the instrument.

   In the case of the materializing medium, we may say that the influence is
always  injurious.   The materializing spirit entrances the victim and  then
draws the ether of the vital body out through the spleen, for the difference
between  the materializing medium and the ordinary person is the  fact  that
the connection between the vital body and the dense body is exceedingly lax,
so  that it is possible to withdraw this vital body to a very great  extent.
The  vital  body  is  the  vehicle  whereby the solar currents which give us


[PAGE 242]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

vitality are specialized.  Deprived of the vitalizing principle, the body of
the  medium  at the time of a materialization sometimes  shrinks  to  almost
one-half  its usually size;  the flesh becomes flabby and the spark of  life
burns  very low.   When the seance is over and the vital body replaced,  the
medium is awakened and in normal consciousness.  He then experiences a feel-
ing of the most terrible exhaustion and sometimes, unfortunately, resorts to
drink to revive the vital forces.  In that case, of course,  the health will
very  soon suffer and the medium will become a total wreck.   At  any  rate,
mediumship should be avoided,  for apart from this danger to the  instrument
there  are other and far more serious considerations in connection with  the
more  subtle  bodies,  and particularly in connection with  the  after-death
state.

                              QUESTION NO. 120.

   WHERE  MEDIUMS  MAKE  SO-CALLED SOUL TRIPS, WHAT IS IT  THAT  LEAVES  THE
PHYSICAL BODY, AND CAN IT LEAVE IN THE WAKING STATE TO GATHER DATA?

   ANSWER:   A medium is a negative or involuntary clairvoyant and under the
control  of a spirit from the Desire World.   He or she corresponds  to  the
victim of a hypnotist in the Physical  World.  In the case of the hypnotist,


[PAGE 243]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

he is seen by his victim in the waking state,  while the medium does not see
the  spirit which hypnotizes her until she has been driven out of her  body.
She is then clothed in her desire body and therefore usually unable to bring
her experiences back.

   All  her experiences take place while the physical body is in  a  trance.
It is the Ego clothed in the mind and desire body which leaves the  physical
body behind,  and the same separation takes place then as in ordinary dream-
less sleep, with the difference, however, that the physical body is not left
tenantless upon the bed,  but the spirit control usually enters the physical
body  of the medium,  taking possession and using it according to  pleasure,
often to the great detriment of the medium.   For when such a spirit control
has  been a drunkard or libertine during earth life,  it will often use  the
medium's  body  to gratify its craving for liquor or its base,  sensual  in-
stincts.   We  cannot too seriously impress upon people that  this  physical
body is our most valuable instrument,  and that it is very wrong for  anyone
to  abandon it to the tender mercies of either a hypnotist or a spirit  con-
trol.  In the case of mediums, there is a still graver danger, for sometimes
it is not an ordinary human Ego which is the control,  but an elemental that
cannot ordinarily function in the Physical World.   When the medium at death
enters  the Desire World,  the elemental has obtained such a power over  the
desire body of the medium that it may rob the owner of his vehicle.  The de-
sire  body is the vehicle whence comes the spring to action,  and  therefore
when an Ego is deprived of that vehicle there is nothing to cause it to  re-
incarnate.  The elemental may keep this body even for millions of years, and
so,  while  the  result  of  humanity  is  progressing, the unfortunate Ego,


[PAGE 244]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

deprived  of its desire body,  is left inert and will be far behind all  its
fellows,  perhaps,  before it is released from the bondage of  this  entity.
Therefore,  mediumship is the gravest danger to the soul the writer knows of
or is able to conceive, except the practice of black magic.

                              QUESTION NO. 121.

   I  HAVE TAKEN MANY SOUL FLIGHTS,  AND ON ONE OF THESE JOURNEYS  MY  GUIDE
TOOK  ME THROUGH GATES INTO A CRYSTAL CITY AND ON INTO A TEMPLE FILLED  WITH
ETHEREAL PEOPLE, SAYING, "THIS IS GOD'S HOLY CITY."  WILL YOU KINDLY TELL ME
WHERE THIS IS,  WHEY THERE ARE GATES AND WALLS AROUND THE CITY,  AND WHY EV-
ERYTHING LOOKED LIKE CRYSTAL?

   ANSWER:   It is one of the peculiarities of desire stuff,  which  is  the
matter of the Desire World that it is exceedingly plastic and readily molded
by thought.   In the twinkling of an eye it takes the most different  shapes
according to the thought that ensouls it,  and where many people upon  earth
think  along similar lines all their thoughts mass themselves and  form  one
grand whole.

   Thus in the lower regions of the Desire World, the thoughts of people who
believe in a fiery, furnace-like Hell make of  the desire stuff there such a


[PAGE 245]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

place  of torture.   There we may see devils with horns,  hoofs  and  tails,
prodding the unhappy sinners with pitchforks, and often when people pass out
at death, after having lived in that belief, they are in a sad state of fear
on beholding this place which they have helped to create.   There is also in
the  higher regions of the Desire World a city such as you describe,  a  New
Jerusalem with pearly gates,  with a sea of glass and its great white throne
upon which is seated a thought form of God,  created by these people and ap-
pearing like an old man.  It is probable that you visited this place,  which
is  a permanent feature of the Desire World,  and will remain so as long  as
people continue to think of the New Jerusalem in that way,  for these  forms
have no life apart from the sustained thoughts of mankind,  and when in time
humanity shall have outgrown that faith, the city created by their  thoughts
will  cease to exist.   Its crystal-like appearance is due to the  exceeding
brilliance  of the desire stuff of which it is built.   The  old  alchemists
called the Desire World "astral," "starry," on that account.


[PAGE 246]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 122


   ARE NOT THE DESIRE BODIES LEFT BY PROGRESSING EGOS USED BY ELEMENTALS  TO
DECEIVE FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF THE DECEASED PERSON?   HOW CAN THEY BE  DE-
TECTED AND RECOGNIZED?

   ANSWER:   When the spirit has passed out at death,  and after a  stay  in
Purgatory  of shorter or longer duration enters the First Heaven,  it  still
has with it the desire body used during the earth life,  but when it  enters
the  Second Heaven that desire body is left behind in a like manner  as  the
vital and dense bodies were left at death and shortly after.  But, while the
dense  body goest to decay and disintegrates,  becomes inert and useless  AT
ONCE when the spirit has left it, it is very different with the desire body.
The material of which that body is composed is so much more vitalized by the
UNIVERSAL  Spirit that it will retain the ability to move about a long  time
after  the spirit has left.   The shell is drawn by magnetic  attraction  to
those  with whom it associated during earth life and a memory of  that  past
life  very  often enables it to pose successfully as  a  deceased  relative.
This is particularly the case when the shell is used by an elemental entity.

   These empty shells ensouled by elementals account very satisfactorily for
most of the phenomena encountered at spiritualistic seances.   The pranks of
these  elementals in spilling water down the necks of the sitters,  throwing
chairs, tables and the like about, are specimens of what may be done by such
empty shells when in the possession of elementals.

   As  to how they may be detected or recognized by us,  it will be  evident
that while our deceased friends and relatives  during  earth  life possessed


[PAGE 247]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

common sense,  there is nothing to be gained from the inane nonsensical com-
munications of these empty shells,  for the spirit which was in reality  our
friend  has passed away,  leaving the house empty.   Therefore we may  judge
them by words and acts as we judge people here.


                              QUESTION NO. 123.

   CAN ELEMENTALS ASSUME THE SHAPE OF ANIMALS OR REPTILES,  AND WHAT CAN  BE
DONE TO STOP THEM?

   ANSWER:   In this material world all the forms are stable and do not eas-
ily  change.   The Desire World is widely different in  that  respect.   The
fairy tales,  like the metamorphosis of Cinderella's mice, etc.,  are actual
facts in the Desire World,  for the forms change at the will of the ensouled
life with a lightening-like rapidity,  which is very bewildering to one  who
enters that world as a neophyte.  It is, therefore, necessary for the clair-
voyant to be trained, in order to escape being glamoured by THE FORM,  which
is always changing and may assume any shape at any moment.  When we are able
to see the ensouling LIFE, it does not matter what form it takes upon itself
for  the  time  being,  we  are not deceived.  Like all others in the Desire


[PAGE 248]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

World,  elementals have this faculty of changing their shape,  and it is due
to that fact that so many strange tales or visions seen are thought true  by
untrained clairvoyants.   Nothing can be done to stop elementals from chang-
ing their shape,  but we may shoo them away from us as we chase a serenading
feline from below our bedroom window.

                              QUESTION NO. 124.

   HOW CAN ONE AVOID BECOMING OBSESSED?

   ANSWER:   Obsession is a state where a discarnate spirit has taken perma-
nent  possession of the body of someone after dispossessing the owner.   but
sometimes  people who have formed a habit of drunkenness or some  other  low
vice seek to excuse themselves by claiming to be obsessed.   Wherever a per-
son  makes that statement concerning himself, one may nearly always be  sure
that it is nothing but an excuse,  for a thief who has stolen something here
in  the material world does not go about and tell people of his theft,  nei-
ther  does an obsessing entity go around proclaiming the fact.   It is  very
certain  that  such  an  entity  does not care what is thought about the man


[PAGE 249]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

whose body he has stolen,  so that there is no reason why he should tell and
risk being exorcised.

   There  is an infallible means of knowing whether a person is  really  ob-
sessed,  namely,  by diagnosis of the eye.  "The eye is the  window  of  the
soul,"  and only the true owner is capable of contracting and expanding  the
iris,  or pupil of the eye, so that if we take a person who claims to be ob-
sessed or whom we think is obsessed,  to a room which is darkened,  we shall
find  that the pupil of his eye will not expand if he is obsessed.   Neither
will the pupil contract when we bring him into the sunlight,  nor expand  if
we  ask him to look at an object at a distance or contract when he is  asked
to read small type.   In short, the pupil of the eye will respond neither to
light nor to distance when a person is obsessed, but there is also a certain
disease called locomotor ataxia, where the iris will not respond to distance
but is responsive to light.

   No  one  who maintains a positive attitude of mind can  ever  become  ob-
sessed,  for so long as we assert our individuality that is strong enough to
keep  all outsiders away.   But in spiritualistic seances where the  sitters
are negative there is always a great danger.  The best way to avoid becoming
obsessed would be to maintain this positive attitude.   And anyone who is at
all negatively inclined should avoid spiritualistic seances,  crystal gazing
and  other  methods of evoking spirits.  That is bad  practice  anyway,  for
those  who  have gone beyond have their work to do there and should  not  be
brought back here.


[PAGE 250]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY


                              QUESTION NO. 125.

   WHAT IS PSYCHOMETRY?

   ANSWER:  Science teaches us that every particle of matter in the Physical
World is interpenetrated by ether,  so that the chemical atoms of every sub-
stance,  no matter how dense, do not touch one another, but each little atom
vibrates  in a field of this all-pervading ether.   The vibrations  of  this
ether  emitted  by every object carry to our eyes a picture  of  the  things
about  us.   This picture is not lost.  The pictures of all things which  we
have consciously observed still exist in the ether of our vital body, and it
only depends upon our ability to call them back whether we remember them  or
not.

   There is also in the ether pervading every object a picture of the  whole
surroundings  of that object.   On the walls of our rooms are inscribed  all
the scenes,  every incident that ever happened in that room, and even though
we  strip them of lath and plaster,  it may be impossible to get rid of  all
the  pictures inscribed there.   If we take a piece of plaster from  such  a
room and bring it to a person who has cultivated etheric sight,  it is  pos-
sible for that person to see the ether in that piece of plaster, and to tell
about  the scenes which happened where that plaster came from.   If we  show
him  a piece of stone taken from the pyramids of Egypt,  he will  see  those
pyramids just as well as if we had brought him a photograph,  for it is  the
ether from an object such as the pyramid that makes the impression upon  the
photographer's sensitive plate, and the only difference between that impres-
sion  and the impression we receive through the eye is that we are  able  to
fix it on the photographic plate,  and  may take a look at the photograph at


[PAGE 251]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

any time,  while we are not yet able to clearly visualize the scenes of  our
past under ordinary circumstances.   But the psychometrist who can read  the
ether has a wonderful picture gallery at his disposal.

                              QUESTION NO. 126.

   IS  IT TRUE THAT AT SPIRITUALISTIC SEANCES PERSONS ARE  SOMETIMES  TRANS-
PORTED BODILY FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER BY INVISIBLE HANDS; THAT FLOWERS ARE
BROUGHT INTO THE ROOM THROUGH CLOSED WINDOWS AND DOORS,  AND IF SO,  HOW CAN
THAT BE DONE?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  it is perfectly true that such phenomena as you have men-
tioned  take place at times under conditions where no fraud is at  all  pos-
sible.  As to the movement of objects, that may be accomplished by the spir-
its  in  charge of the seance in various ways.   Hands may  be  materialized
which are either visible or invisible,  and they may lift objects or persons
from one place to another,  or else these objects may be lifted by the  sus-
pension of the law of gravity so far as that object is concerned.  As to the
passage of flowers through a wall, a closed window or other material object,


[PAGE 252]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

we should remember that these objects are not really as solid as we  usually
think.  Science recognizes the fact that no two atoms in any substance touch
one another, but each atom swings and vibrates at a varying rate of speed in
the sea of ether which permeates all matter.  It is well known also that all
substances may be reduced to gas.  Iron,  stone,  water,  or whatever  other
substance we name is capable of being thus reduced.   Realizing this,  it is
only  a step further to the idea that as these substances are reduced  to  a
gaseous state and as readily resolved back into their original state,  so  a
flower  may be resolved into ether,  passed between the atoms in a wall  and
then  resolved back into its existence as a flower.   That is in  fact  what
happens.

   But the inquirer may say, "Yes, but if you take a silver dollar,  melt it
in  a crucible,  or retort and change it into a gas,  it will not  take  the
shape  of a silver dollar when it is resolved back into the  metallic  state
but will become simply a lump of metal."   That is true where the  operation
is  performed by an ordinary man,  who is incapable of separating the  dense
material from its etheric counterpart during the process of melting, but the
spiritual  entities who perform the feats spoken of are capable of thus  de-
taching  the ether part of the flower from the dense material.   And  it  is
that etheric part which retains its shape and forms the matrix or mold which
gives  form to the material of the flower when liberated in the  room  after
having been passed through the wall.


[PAGE 253]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 127.

   WILL  YOU KINDLY EXPLAIN THE USE OF THE PLANCHETTE?   AND STATE IF IT  IS
ADVISABLE TO TRY TO PRODUCE THE PHENOMENA AMONG AMATEURS.

   ANSWER:  The planchette is a small board placed upon wheels with a device
for holding a pencil in a vertical position,  so that when the medium's hand
is  placed  upon the board and moved about by the spirits  the  pencil  will
write  their messages on a sheet of paper.   Like all  other  spiritualistic
phenomena,  planchette writing is produced by a disembodied spirit through a
negative medium.

   When an entity has passed out of earth life and entered the Invisible Be-
yond,  an evolution of a different nature from ours awaits him in  Purgatory
and the various heavens.  It is a retrogression when he tries to communicate
with us here under ordinary circumstances.   Therefore,  all  spiritualistic
phenomena which bring the disembodied spirit into contact with the  Physical
World  are  to be deprecated as having a bad effect upon  the  spirits  con-
cerned.   The communicating entities are also dangerous to the negative sit-
ters in a circle,  who abandon their will powers and their bodies to a  cer-
tain extent.

   Of course in planchette writing the whole body may not be in trance,  al-
though it sometimes is; but at least an arm is abandoned to the control of a
discarnate  spirit whom the sitter does not see,  and who may or may not  be
what it represents.  If a tramp came to our door and tried to persuade us to
abandon  our house and allow him to take possession for a little  while,  we
would indignantly refuse, but when a tramp  from the Desire World asks us to


[PAGE 254]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

let him have possession of our most valuable house,  our body,  many at once
comply,  flattered in the belief that "a dear Angel" has visited them.   But
"dear  Angels"  and philanthropists do not grow on every bush in the  Desire
World any more than here.   It cannot be too often reiterated that there  is
no  transforming power in death;  that an ignorant Indian does not  suddenly
become  all wise by the mere fact of having passed out at death.   As it  is
necessary to study in order to gain knowledge in this world, so must the de-
parted  spirits  apply themselves if desiring to learn about  conditions  in
that world, and until they have had the requisite amount of experience,  the
departed  are no more fit to guide us from there than they were while  here.
The safest plan is to leave all negative phenomena alone,  concentrating all
our energies on LIVING THE LIFE,  and doing exercises which foster in us the
faculty  of entering that world at will,  either traveling in our finer  ve-
hicles  or  clairvoyantly observing it while still within  our  dense  body.
THAT IS PROGRESS; when we have that ability we can see the disembodied enti-
ties face to face and judge for ourselves whether it is advisable to  listen
to their counsel or not.  Until we can do that we are at a disadvantage, and
caution should teach us to keep on the safe side.


[PAGE 255]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 128.

   IS A VAMPIRE THE SAME AS A WEREWOLF?

   ANSWER:   No,  a vampire is a person who absorbs the vitality of another,
while that which was called a werewolf in mediaeval times was the vital body
of a low order of black magician.  He would give a gruesome shape to his vi-
tal body, and partly stud it with dense matter in order to inflict harm upon
other people.  The old folk stories said that it was no use to strike such a
thing,  blows would not hurt it.  But if it were stabbed with a knife or an-
other  sharp  instrument,  it would commence to disgorge the  blood  of  its
victims,  run away yelping to its home, and there the black magician who had
manifested  as a wolf could be found suffering from a wound in  the  precise
place where the wolf had been hurt.  This is on account of a curious circum-
stance  known to occultists as REPERCUSSION, and the same phenomena  may  be
seen where spirits materialize at a seance.   The ether in which these spir-
its materialize has been taken from the body of the medium,  and if a  piece
is cut out of the robe of such a spirit,  a piece will be found missing from
the  garment of the medium at the close of the seance.   This fact has  been
used by skeptical investigators ignorant of the law of repercussion to stamp
mediums as frauds, when in fact they have been perfectly honest,  though in-
capable of explaining away the seemingly damning evidence.


[PAGE 256]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 129.

   WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TRANCE MEDIUM,  A MATERIALIZING  MEDIUM,
THE TRAINED CLAIRVOYANT AND THE ORDINARY PERSON?

   ANSWER:  Roughly speaking, we may say that humanity today is divided into
two  classes--those  in whom the connection between the vital body  and  the
dense  body is very close,  and another class where the connection  is  more
loose.   The former class is the ordinary person who is engaged in  material
pursuits and is altogether out of touch with the Spiritual Worlds.  The lat-
ter  class  is  the  so-called sensitives, and is  again  divided  into  two
classes.   One  class is ACTUATED BY THE WILL FROM WITHIN and  is  positive.
From this class comes the trained clairvoyant and the Invisible Helper.  The
other class is negative and is AMENDABLE TO THE WILL OF OTHERS.   From  this
class mediums are recruited.

   When the connection between the vital body and the dense body of a man is
somewhat lax,  he will be sensitive to spiritual vibrations, and if positive
he  will BY HIS OWN WILL develop his spiritual faculties,  live a  spiritual
life  and in time receive the teaching necessary to become a trained  clair-
voyant and a master of his faculty at any and all times, free to exercise it
or not, as he pleases.

   If  a person has this slight laxity between the vital and  dense  bodies,
and  is  of  a negative temperament,  he is liable to  become  the  prey  of
discarnate spirits, as a medium.

   Where  the  connection between the vital and dense body is very  lax,  so
that it may be withdrawn,  and the man is positive,  he may become an Invis-
ible  Helper,  capable of taking the two higher ethers away from  his  dense
body AT WILL and using them as a vehicle for  sense  perception  and memory.


[PAGE 257]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

He  can  then function consciously in the Spiritual World and bring  back  a
recollection of everything he has done there, so that, for instance, when he
leaves  his body at night he takes up the life in the Invisible World  in  a
fully conscious manner,  as we do here when we wake up in the morning  after
sleep and perform our various duties in the visible world.

   When  a  person has this lax connection between the vital  body  and  the
dense  body and is of a negative temperament,  the spirits which  are  earth
bound  and seek to manifest here may withdraw his vital body by way  of  the
spleen and temporarily use the ether of which it is composed to  materialize
spirit forms, returning the ether to the medium after the seance is over.


                              QUESTION NO. 130.

   IF  MEDIUMSHIP  IS SO DANGEROUS,  WHY DO NOT THE MEDIUMS CEASE  TO  ALLOW
THEMSELVES TO BE CONTROLLED?

   ANSWER:  In the first place, of course, the great majority of the mediums
do not realize that there is danger.   They are particularly unaware of  the
enormous danger which threatens them after death.   The desire body may then
be  appropriated  by  the  spirit  control.  If they were to try to stop the


[PAGE 258]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

influence of the spirit control while still here in the body they would find
that that entity has an exceedingly strong hold upon them,  a control it  is
very difficult to break, and they ought to realize that naturally when death
brings  them into the same world with these spirit controls the danger  will
be still greater.

   The writer has known certain cases where mediums have balked and tried to
escape  from the toils of the spirit control,  but have failed to break  the
strong hold of that entity.   They were helpless.   Mediums have come to the
writer for help and told him that they were almost irresistibly compelled by
their spirit controls to commit suicide and murder; that they had begged and
pleaded  with the spirit controls to leave them alone,  but  without  avail.
Cases  are known also where spirit controls have mercilessly  dragged  their
victims out of bed in the middle of night against their will and forced them
to listen to their importunities.   Only seldom does one hear that they show
mercy.   Though  the writer has known mediums who have been  ill  from  such
treatment,  he has only known of one case where the sickness of  the  medium
induced the spirit controls to listen to his plea and leave him alone for  a
few months while he recuperated.

   Thus it will be seen that mediumship, once entered into, is not usually a
matter  of choice with the mediums;  they lose the power to shut out  spirit
controls.   While they do the bidding of their taskmasters and  are  docile,
they may not feel the bit;  but let one of them try to balk,  and he or  she
will soon feel that the spirit control has both bit and spur,  and is merci-
less in his use of them.


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