[PAGE 331]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 165.

   ARE NOT VENOMOUS AND DESTRUCTIVE REPTILES CREATED BY THE EVIL THOUGHTS OF
MEN,  SO FAR AS THE FORM IS CONCERNED?  AND, THEREFORE,  IS IT NOT AN ACT OF
LOVE  TO KILL THEM AND THUS LIBERATE THE DIVINE SPARK WITHIN SO THAT IT  MAY
OCCUPY A HIGHER FORM?

   ANSWER:  None of the animal forms which we see about us have been created
by man.  All these forms, from the highest to the lowest, are the emanations
of group spirits,  which are spiritual entities belonging to another  evolu-
tion than the human kingdom,  But man is a creator by means of his thoughts,
and the evil thoughts,  the thoughts of fear and hatred, do take form and in
the course of centuries they crystallize into what we know as bacilli.   The
bacilli of infectious diseases are particularly the embodiments of fear  and
hate, and therefore they are also vanquished by the opposite force, courage.
As a tuning fork will commence to vibrate when we strike another tuning fork
of the same pitch,  so also will these microscopic germs.   If we enter  the
presence  of  a  person  infection  with  a  contagious  disease in fear and


[PAGE 332]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

trembling,  we most assuredly draw to ourselves the death dealing  poisonous
microbes.   If  on the other hand,  we approach that person in  a  perfectly
fearless  attitude,  we shall escape the infection,  PARTICULARLY IF WE  ARE
PROMPTED BY LOVE.  But love does not prompt us to kill in the usual sense of
the word.   It is true that if we could deal directly with the LIFE of  evil
and  poisonous things and help them into a higher form,  we might  be  doing
good; but in the first place we are not capable of judging when that present
form has outlived its usefulness, and, therefore,  we cannot presume to take
the responsibility of depriving the informing life of its instrument in lov-
ing kindness.  The only time when we may sometimes properly kill for love is
in case an animal has been maimed beyond chance of recovery,  and we kill it
to end its sufferings.

                              QUESTION NO. 166.

   WHAT IS A GROUP SPIRIT, WHERE IS IT, AND WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

   ANSWER:   As a man has a body composed of many cells,  each with an indi-
vidual  consciousness,  so is a group spirit an entity  functioning  in  the
Spiritual  Worlds  and possessing a spiritual body composed of many separate


[PAGE 333]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

animal  spirits.   The group spirit itself cannot function in  the  Physical
World, but it evolves by sending the different animal spirits into a form of
body which it creates,  and which then forms a species or tribe of  animals,
and the group spirit guides all these animal bodies by means of  suggestions
which we call instinct.  When the body of an animal dies,  the animal spirit
has unconsciously derived a certain experience from functioning in that  ve-
hicle,  and  after a time it is reabsorbed into the spiritual  body  of  the
group  spirit,  where it remains for some time while the  group  spirit  as-
similates the experience gathered by that separate animal spirit.   Thus  in
time the group spirit grows and evolves.  So do the animal spirits which are
its wards.  They will become human in a future incarnation of the earth, and
then the group spirit will look after them as race or a national spirit  un-
til  they have become perfectly capable of taking care of  themselves  indi-
vidually.   The  group spirits of the animals are in the  Desire  World  and
circle  the surface of the earth.   The group spirits of the plants  are  in
that part of the Region of Concrete Thought which occupies the center of the
earth,  and the group spirits of the minerals have not yet properly  entered
the atmosphere of our earth.  They are in the Region of Abstract Thought.

   The group spirits of the animals are very often seen in the Desire  World
having human bodies and animal heads.   The illustrations upon the  Egyptian
temples represent in a crude way the appearance of these group spirits.  The
trained  investigator finds no difficulty in conversing with them and  often
he has cause to marvel at their erudition.


[PAGE 334]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 167.

   ARE ANIMALS AMENABLE TO THE LAW OF CAUSATION?

   ANSWER:   No, not in the sense of being MORALLY responsible.   Of course,
if an animal jumps out a window from a high building,  that as a cause  will
produce  lesions  according to the nature of the fall it sustains,  just  as
when a human beings jumps out of the window.   But in the case of the animal
there  is only the physical effect shown by the hurt it suffers,  while  the
man who deliberately commits such an act not only sustains certain  lesions,
but  he is also MORALLY RESPONSIBLE for the instrument which  he  possesses,
and the law of causation brings to him an adequate MORAL retribution of such
a  nature that he will learn to take care of his instrument and not seek  to
destroy it by such acts in the future.

   The  reason why the animal has no moral responsibility is that is has  no
reasoning power,  but ordinarily acts by direction of the group spirit which
we call instinct,  and it may be that instinct has instilled a fear into the
animal  which  causes it to commit an act resulting in injury to  its  body.
Before  anyone can be MORALLY responsible to the law of causation,  he  must
have a certain free will and choice,  also the power of reasoning  properly,
and, therefore, we reiterate that as animals are devoid of these attributes,
they are not at all amenable MORALLY to the law of causation.


[PAGE 335]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 168.

   DO ANIMALS LIVE AFTER DEATH?

   ANSWER:   That which lives is THE SPIRIT, which has neither beginning nor
end, IT IS.  But what you mean is, most likely, does it persist in the shape
of an animal?   to that question we may say yes, it persists for a longer or
a shorter time,  according to the stage of its evolution,  in a desire  body
made of the material of the Desire World.   Even the beetle tat crawls  over
the  sidewalk and is stepped upon may be seen by the clairvoyant to  walk  a
few feet away and then gradually fade to nothingness.   It persists only for
a  few moments in its shape before the spirit returns to the central  source
of the group spirit.   In the case of a horse,  a cow,  or any of the higher
animals,  there is a correspondingly longer time and more  consciousness  in
the Desire World than in the case of these lower forms.   As an illustration
we may mention a case which attracted considerable attention a few years ago
when Rider Haggard, the English novelist, published a remarkable dream.   He
had a dog to whom he was very much attached,  and one night he dreamed  that
the  dog came to him showing signs of embarrassment and distress,  beckoning
him  to come along.   Rider Haggard in his dream followed the dog which  led
the  way some distance to a brook.   There among some bulrushes,  it  showed
Rider Haggard ITSELF lying dead,  looking up at him in mute and piteous  ap-
peal for an explanation.

   When  Rider Haggard woke the following morning,  he remembered the  dream
most  vividly,  but took no notice of it until later in the day when it  was
discovered that the  dog  was  missing.  After a search had been made in the


[PAGE 336]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

immediate  neighborhood,  Rider Haggard finally betook himself to  the  spot
seen in his dream.   There he found among the bulrushes the body of his  dog
in the very position he had seen it in his dream.  Explanations,  of course,
could not be given;  it was a puzzling experience and that was all.   But to
the  occultist it is very plain that the intelligent dog,  having met  death
and finding itself in the Desire World at night, went to its master, who was
at that time also outside his body,  and brought him to the place of the ac-
cident in order to obtain his help and explanation.

                              QUESTION NO. 169.

   WHEN A PET DOG OR CAT DIES,  DOES THE ENTIRE GROUP SPIRIT TO WHICH IT BE-
LONGS DIE AT THE SAME TIME?  ALSO WHAT BECOMES OF THE ANIMAL SOUL,  AND DOES
THE HUMAN LOVE AND CARE IT HAS RECEIVED HELP IT ON ITS UPWARD JOURNEY?

   ANSWER:   The question shows that the inquire has not the proper idea  of
what a group spirit is.  As our body is composed of innumerable cells,  each
cell having its own little cell life, but all the cells subjected to our own
central  intelligence,  so  the  group  spirit  of a species of animals is a


[PAGE 337]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

spiritual  entity belonging to a different evolution and having a  spiritual
body  composed  of many evolving animal spirits.   These animal  spirits  it
sends  into  incarnation  from time to time into the animal  bodies  of  its
tribe,  one  spirit  to each body,  and at death they return  to  the  group
spirit,  having gained a higher grade of consciousness than when  they  were
born.   This helps the group spirit to evolve,  and in return it governs the
spirits  of the separate animals in its tribe.   Like all other  spirits,  a
group spirit cannot die.   It is the guardian of the animal spirits,  and as
they  evolve the spiritual body of the group spirit undergoes a  metamorpho-
sis.   When the separate animal spirits have evolved sufficiently,  they be-
come individualized human beings,  but continue in charge of the same  group
spirit,  as we see nations or races under the domination of a  race  spirit.
They do not become their own masters until they have evolved even beyond the
point of having family or national ties.  That was why Christ said that "un-
less  a  man leave father and mother he cannot follow me,"  for  father  and
mother are bodies--they are ties and clogs.   The spirits have no father and
no mother, but are all one in the ultimate.

   As  to what becomes of the animal soul at death,  we may say  that  after
passing out of this body it soon returns to the group spirit,  and the  love
and  care which we have given it naturally further it greatly in its  evolu-
tion,  for  while the wild animals act entirely under the  dictates  of  the
group spirit by that which we call instinct, the domestic animals show a ca-
pability of thought,  entirely beyond their normal evolution at the  present
time.   They have received that ability from us on the same  principle  that
when  we take a wire highly charged with electricity and place another  wire
which  is  not  charged  close to it, the uncharged wire will become charged


[PAGE 338]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

with electricity OF A LOWER VOLTAGE.   In a similar manner the animal  which
comes  in contact with human beings is not itself capable of  thinking,  but
learns to do so in a measure by this contact.   And we may safely infer that
those animals which have become domesticated will in time become the  teach-
ers of their less advanced brothers.

                              QUESTION NO. 170.


   WHAT  SUBSTANCE  DOES A PERSON OR ANIMAL THROW OFF WHEREBY  THEY  CAN  BE
TRACED, AS, FOR EXAMPLE, CRIMINALS ARE TRACED BY BLOODHOUNDS?

   ANSWER:  When a clairvoyant looks at other persons with etheric sight for
the  first  time,  he is usually astonished at beholding showers  of  stars,
pyramids, double pyramids and all other geometrical forms issuing from their
hands and faces, and he wonders greatly what they are.  Later on,  he learns
that they are the crystals of which his body is composed and which are  thus
being excreted by the skin.   Most of the excretions remain in the clothing,
and furnish bloodhounds or dogs with the necessary starting point for  their
search.  As these atoms decay,  they emit an effluvia similar to that of all


[PAGE 339]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

decaying bodies.   This effluvia we sense ourselves where soiled clothing is
left unlaundered for some time.   The dogs, having a keener scent than human
beings, distinguish between the effluvia from one person and another, and as
the atoms left by a person fleeing from justice are strewn along the path he
has taken, it is easy for the bloodhound to distinguish these from the atoms
of other people or animals for a short time after the fugitive has passed.


[PAGE 341]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                                 SECTION IX

                           MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS


[PAGE 342]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY



                                 DIAGRAM 13A

                         THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION     

          |    [  Stage of Unconscious  ]    |    [  Stage of Conscious   ]   |
          |    [      Involution.       ]    |    [      Evolution.       ]   |
          |    [  Growth of the 3-fold  ]    |    [  Growth of the 3-fold ]   |
          |<---[  body, the focus of    ]--->|<---[ by right action, right]-->|
          |    [  mind & attainment of  ]    |    [    feeling and right  ]   |
          |    [  self-consciousness.   ]    |    [        thought.       ]   |
          |                                  |                                |
          |                                  |                                |
          |                                  |                                |
          ||--------|                        |                        |-------|
          ||THRONES |                        |                        |We will| 
  World   ||awakened|                        |                        |  be   |
   of     || the    |                        |                        | God-  |
  Divine  ||Divine  |                        |                        |  Men  |
  Spirit  || Spirit |                        |                        |  and  |
          || in man |                        |                        | Crea-
----------||and gave|----------------------- |------------------------|--tors-|
  World   ||him  the||--------|              |               |-------||  by   |
   of     || thought||CHERUBIM|              |               |We will||Amalga-|
  Life    ||form  of||awakened|              |               | be    || mating|
  Spirit  ||   a    ||  the   |              |               | Demi- || the   |
----------||-Dense--||-Life---|--------------|---------------|-Gods--||-3-fold|
W Region  || Body.  || Spirit ||--------|    |     |--------|| and   || Soul  |
O  of     ||        || in Man ||SERAPHIM|    |     |We will ||extract|| with  |
R Abstract||        ||and gave||awakened|    |     |  be    ||  the  ||  the  |
L Thought || Lords  ||him  a  ||  the   | We are   |Super-  || Emo-  || Mind. |
D         ||   of   ||germinal|| Human  | human    |  Man   ||tional ||       |
          ||  Mind  || Vital  || Spirit | here>>   |  and   || Soul  ||       |
O ........||..were..||.Body...||and gave|.....\|/..|.extract||.from..||.......|
F         || human. || which  ||the germ||--------||  the   ||  the  || Mine- |
          ||        ||  was   || of the || LORDS  ||Intel-  || Desire|| rals  |
T Region  ||        ||then  a || Desire ||  OF    ||lectual || Body. ||will be|
H   of    ||        || thought||  Body  || FORM   ||  Soul  ||       || human.|
O Concrete||        ||  form. || which  ||        ||  from  ||       ||       |
U Thought || Globes ||        ||was then||  Mind  ||  the   ||       || Globes|
G         || of the ||        ||   a    ||given by|| Vital  ||Plants ||of  the|
H         || SATURN ||        || thought||Lords of|| Body.  ||will be|| VULCAN|
T         || PERIOD ||        ||  form. ||  Mind  ||        ||human. || PERIOD|
          ||--------||        ||        ||is now a||        ||       ||-------|
----------|----------|--------||--------||-thought||--------||-------|---------
  Desire  |          |        ||        || form.  ||        ||       |
  World   |          |        ||        ||        || Animals||       |
          |          | Globes ||        ||  Con-  ||will be || Globes|
          |          | of the ||        || scious || human. ||of  the|
          |          |  SUN   ||        ||  Soul  ||        || VENUS |
          |          | PERIOD ||        ||  ex-   ||        || PERIOD|
          |          |--------||        || tracted||        ||-------|
----------|--------------------|--------||-from---||--------|------------------
P         |                    |        || Dense  ||        | 
H         |                    |        || Body. M||        |
Y         |                    | Globes ||M      E|| Globes |
S Etheric |                    | of the ||A      R|| of the |
I Region  |                    |  MOON  ||R      C|| JUPITER|
C         |                    | PERIOD ||S      U|| PERIOD |
A         |                    |--------||1/2    R||--------|
L ........|..............................|.......Y|............................
          |                              |     1/2|
W         |                              | Globes |
O Chemical|                              | of the |
R Region  |                              | EARTH  |
L         |                              | PERIOD |
D         |                              |--------| 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Involution brings the spirit              Evolution lifts the spirit out of
down into matter by crystal-              matter by spiritualizing the bodies
lizing it into bodies.                    into soul.

                Epigenesis, the original creative activity
                of the spirit, is the lever and the Mind
                is the fulcrum upon which Involution turns
                to Evolution.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------




[PAGE 343]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 171.

   WHAT IT THE ORIGIN OF LIFE?

   ANSWER:   When that question is asked a scientist,  he will  commence  to
tell  us about protoplasm,  protyle or something else of a like nature,  but
that is form.   No matter how small,  insignificant and simple that form may
be, it is still a form, and from the occultist's point of view, the question
is poorly put,  for the spirit,  IS,  WAS and WILL ALWAYS BE.   As Sir Edwin
Arnold says in his beautiful poem, "The Song Celestial":

   "Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be
         never;
   Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are
         dreams!
   Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the
         spirit for ever;
   Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of
         it seems!
   "Nay, but as when one layeth his worn-out robes away,,
   And, taking new ones, sayeth, 'These will I wear today!'
   So putteth by the spirit lightly its garb of flesh,
   And passeth to inherit a residence afresh."

   It  is LIFE that builds the FORMS and uses them for a time in order  that
it  may  progress thereby.  When their usefulness has ceased the life passes


[PAGE 344]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

on,  leaving the forms behind,  and then they are dead.   Thus the  question
should rather be "How did the dead originate?"  for life IS--it has  neither
origin nor termination.


                              QUESTION NO. 172.

   WHAT IS MATTER?  IS IT NOT UNREAL?

   ANSWER:  There are various theories of matter.  If we ask the materialist
he, of course, maintains that MATTER IS THE ONE REALITY; that all and every-
thing is matter and that nothing can exist except that.   The Christian Sci-
entist  is  of  the  very  opposite  opinion.    He  holds  that  matter  is
nonexistent--a delusion;  that EVERYTHING THAT IS,  IS SPIRIT,  and so those
two classes of people are the very antitheses of one another.  But the truth
is between.

   When  God  desires to manifest,  He emanates within Himself  the  thought
forms of such a universe as he desires to create, and these archetypal ideas
are spirit when first emanated in that central source.  But under the influ-
ence  of time and space,  they slowly crystallize and become that  which  we
know as matter.   This is a similar process to that which we may observe  in
the case  of  a  snail.  The  juices of its soft and flexible body gradually


[PAGE 345]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

crystallize into the hard and flinty shell which is incapable of moving save
as propelled by the snail.   Thus, as the house of the snail is crystallized
snail,  SO MATTER IS CRYSTALLIZED SPIRIT.  And as the house of the snail re-
mains  stationary when not moved by the snail,  so matter is  immobile  save
when moved by the spirit.   But in the course of time the snail's house goes
to decay.   The matter of which it was formed is broken up into minute  par-
ticles  and becomes available for the building of other  flexible  forms--it
may  become  the  body  of  a  snail  again.   So,   also  the  crystallized
spirit--matter--is re-etherealized and becomes spirit again.  Matter evolves
as well as spirit,  for it becomes more etheral, more flexible,  and or ame-
nable  to the impacts of spirit when it is built into different  forms  time
after time.

   Thus  we  may say with the Christian Scientist that all is  spirit,  that
which  appears as matter being in reality spirit in a state of  crystalliza-
tion,  and  we may also agree with the materialist that all is  matter,  for
spirit which has not yet crystallized into matter will eventually do so.  It
is a mistake to consider anything in God's Universe as unreal;  both  matter
and spirit are real.  They are the positive and negative poles of God.


[PAGE 346]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 173.

   YOU  SAID  IN A PREVIOUS LECTURE THAT THE EARTH IS THE BODY OF  A  SPIRIT
WHICH  GIVES ITS LIFE FOR THE DWELLERS UPON THE SURFACE.   WHY DOES IT  GIVE
FLOWERS AND FRUIT TO SOME AND EARTHQUAKE AND FAMINE TO OTHERS?

   ANSWER:   During  the  interval  between  death  and  a  new  birth,  the
discarnate  spirits who have reached the Second Heaven where the  archetypes
of  everything are,  build their future environment in which they reap  what
they  have sown.   If they have been diligent in past lives,  if  they  have
tilled  the soil and made two blades of grass to grow where there  was  only
one,  they  will build for themselves a still more fertile land  which  will
yield greater fruits for less labor.  If they have spent their time thinking
of NIRVANA,  a heavenly place of rest and indolence,  and have loved more to
enter into metaphysical discussion than to look after material things,  they
will continue to do so in the Second Heaven,  and in consequence their  land
will be arid when they come back to earth life.   They will then  experience
famine, flood and earthquake, so that they may realize the necessity of pro-
viding for material conditions.   Thus they will in time learn their  lesson
and  strive  to  conquer this world as we have done in  the  West,  for,  of
course, the inquirer has reference to the people of the East who suffer from
flood and famine.   They are our younger brethren,  behind us in  evolution,
and must follow in our footsteps.   They must learn to forget,  for a  time,
the spiritual worlds in order to attain the development which only the mate-
rial world can give them.  Thus, there is a deep purpose in the famine which
is at present their lot and there  is  a  purpose as deep in our prosperity.


[PAGE 347]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Their  famine will eventually drive them into more material conditions,  but
we,  having a land of plenty with all the good things of this  world,  where
ingenious inventions make life easier on every hand,  will eventually say to
ourselves, when we have been satisfied with these material blessings,  "What
is the good of it all?  Give us, rather, the spiritual things,"  and we will
then enter a spiritual development much higher than that of the East.

                              QUESTION NO. 174.

   WHAT IS MEANT BY THE SENTENCE "MAN, KNOW THYSELF?"

   ANSWER:   This sentence was found above the entrance to a  Greek  mystery
temple as an indication of the fact that it is obligatory upon man to  thor-
oughly understand the mystery of his own nature,  which is much deeper  than
is apparent on the surface.   This,  on the principle of the hermetic axiom,
"as  above,  so below."   When he understands himself and knows himself,  he
will be able by analogy to know about God.   For it is truly said that  "Man
was made in the image of God."

   But to know himself it is not only necessary  that  he  should understand


[PAGE 348]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

that which he sees,  the physical body,  but also the invisible bodies which
are the causes of his thoughts, feelings and emotions.   This was the teach-
ing given in the mystery temples.

   There  is still another and a far deeper meaning to that sentence.   When
we  ask ourselves the causes of all the sorrow and the misery in the  world,
we must revert to the earliest epochs of the earth's existence to solve  our
problem.  In the first two Epochs, the Polarian and the hyperborean, man was
a complete creative unit,  capable of sending forth from himself the  forces
which generated a body for another being.   But in the Lemurian Epoch,  when
it became necessary to build a brain and a larynx, the sex force was divided
and  one half retained in order to accomplish that object.   Only the  other
half  remained available for generation.   Then man ceased to KNOW  HIMSELF,
but "Adam KNEW his wife," and as a result she bore him children.

   The  spirit inherently feels its own divine creative nature and  secretly
rebels against the necessity of seeking the cooperation of another to gener-
ate.   As a result,  sorrow, trouble and pain have come into the world,  and
will  exist so long as the present method of procreation makes it  necessary
for  two to cooperate to perpetuate the species.   And it was  the  glorious
goal  that  is set before humanity in the future--the coalition of  the  two
poles  of the creative force which will gain make man an individual  Creator
complete  in himself--that was adumbrated in the mystery words,  "Man,  know
thyself."

   The Apostle John, in his First Epistle, the 3rd chapter, 8th verse, tells
us the way of attainment where he says that "He that commiteth sin is of the
devil...For  this  purpose  was the Son of God  manifested,  that  he  might
destroy  the  works  of the devil....Whosever is born of God does not commit


[PAGE 349]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

sin, FOR HIS SEED REMAINETH IN HIM."

   Where the animal propensities are catered to and an abnormal use is  made
of  the sex force,  a man is apt to become an idiot,  but the thoughts of  a
spiritual man are pure, chaste and full of wisdom.

   At the present time, cooperation of the sexes is necessary to procreation
of vehicles for Egos who are coming to rebirth,  but the time will come when
man  will cease to create in that manner.   HE WILL KNOW  HIMSELF.   Concen-
trated thought as the seed will remain within himself,  but he will manifest
it by means of the larynx as a Creative Word,  a word that will form  things
in the Physical World.   Then it will no longer be necessary for mankind  to
seek the cooperation of one another in providing new vehicles.   This he was
taught in the mystery schools,  which are way stations upon the path of  at-
tainment,  and therefore the saying "Man,  know thyself"  was inscribed upon
the Delphian oracle.


[PAGE 349]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 175.

   WHAT IS THE HOLY GRAIL?

   ANSWER:   The  story of the Holy Grail is one of the myths  used  by  the
great leaders of humanity to convey to us spiritual truths in symbols  which
would at that time have been incomprehensible to our infant intellect.


[PAGE 350]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   The Grail story is found, variously told, in all the earlier races as far
back  as we can trace religious teaching,  and libraries have  been  written
about this wonderful mystic panacea for all ills.

   In medieval times many versions of this legend were recited by minstrels,
minnesingers,  troubadours or master-singers.  Most beautiful, perhaps,  was
the simple version of Wolfram von Eschenback, which was taken in hand by the
master artist of the nineteenth century, Richard Wagner, in his famous music
drama "Parsifal."

   The  story relates that on the night when our Savior ate the last  supper
with His disciples,  He drank from a certain cup or chalice,  and later one,
when the lifeblood flowed from His wounded side,  Joseph of Arimathea caught
the life blood of our dying Savior in yon chalice.   He also took the  spear
wherewith  that wound had been inflicted.  These relics he carried with  him
for many years, and such was the wonderful life giving power of the Savior's
blood that it sustained him throughout all his privations, in prison, and on
his wanderings.  At last, the relics were taken up into heaven for a time in
the  care of Angels,  but one night there appeared a mystic  messenger  sent
from God to the holy Titurel with command that he build a castle HIGH IN THE
AIR, upon a mountain top, and there gather around himself a bank of knights,
WHO MUST BE CHASTE AND PURE.   These Grail Knights were permitted to  behold
the sacred relics at stated times and thus they became inspired with  desire
and  power  to  go into the world to do mighty  spiritual  deeds.   In  time
Titurel  gave  the wardership of the Grail to his son Amfortas  and  in  his
reign as King of the Grail, a sad calamity befell the Grail Knights.

   There lived in "A HEATHEN VALE"  below  the  castle a black knight by the


[PAGE 351]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

name  of Klingsor who desired to become a Knight of the Grail.   he was  not
chaste,  so  in order to meet the condition he mutilated himself in  such  a
manner that it became impossible for him TO GRATIFY DESIRE.  But when he ap-
plied to the holy Titurel,  the latter saw his heart and refused him  admit-
tance.   Then Klingsor swore that if he might not serve the Grail, the Grail
should serve him.   He peopled the garden of his magic castle with  illusory
phantasmic flower maidens who waylaid the Knights of the Grail on their pas-
sage  to and from the castle,  seduced them and thus disqualified  them  for
further service as Grail Knights.

   Fearing  that  all  the Knights of the Grail would  become  prisoners  of
Klingsor,  Amfortas decided to fight the black magician.   He took with  him
the holy spear to accomplish his object.  But Klingsor evoked KUNDRY, who is
a creature of two existences.   At one time she is the faithful and  willing
servitor of the Grail, at another time the unwilling tool of Klingsor.  When
serving the Grail, she is humble, obedient and simply clad.  Under the spell
of  Klingsor,  she becomes beautiful in the extreme,  a  woman  of  seducing
charms,  and  these she is forced to use as Klingsor bids her,  for  he  has
power  over  her  by virtue of the fact that he is not  susceptible  to  her
charms on account of his act of mutilation.

   Kundry meets Amfortas,  who falls before her charms.   While lying in her
arms the spear falls from his hand and is snatched by the waiting  Klingsor,
who  inflicts A WOUND THAT CANNOT HEAL, and for many years the King  suffers
tortures, particularly when he unveils the Holy Grail for the benefit of his
knights.  Then the spear wound commences to bleed anew, causing him the most
excruciating pain.


[PAGE 352]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   Roughly  speaking,  the giving one of the several  valid  interpretations
which  appertain to the Grail mystery,  as to other symbols,  Kundry is  the
negative dense body which at one time is under the control of the higher na-
ture  symbolized by the Grail Knights,  and another time ruled by the  lower
desire nature symbolized by Klingsor, which tempts the spirit to forsake its
higher  ideals,  and  causes suffering when temptation is  yielded  to.   In
Parsifal,  the  pure and guileless one,  we see the man  who  overcomes  and
therefore succeeds to the wardership of the Grail.

   On Good Friday morning,  1857, Richard Wagner sat at the Villa Wesendonck
by the Zurich Sea,  and as he looked about him the sun was shining,  all na-
ture was smiling and from the millions of seeds buried in the ground  around
him,  innumerable  plants and flowers were sprouting.   The  thought  struck
Wagner, "What is the connection between the death of the Savior at this time
of the year and this manifold sprouting life,"  and in that thought he  came
very near to the key to the mystery of the Grail,  for the Grail was a  Mys-
tery School,  one of many which existed in the Middle Ages.   The stories of
King  Arthur  and his Knights of the Round Table are not  fables,  they  are
facts.   There  was  such a Mystery in Wales as late as the  time  of  Queen
Elizabeth.  And these Mystery Schools exist to the very present day,  though
not  as publicly known as they were in the more spiritual  mediaeval  times.
They  Mystery of King Arthur dealt more with the material and temporal  side
of  life  than  the Mystery of the Grail,  which  was  altogether  pure  and
spiritual.   And there the pupil was taught,  not in words,  but THE FEELING
WAS GIVEN TO HIM, a teaching from within, which we may express as follows:

   You see all around you the various kingdoms  in the world.  There is man,


[PAGE 353]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

animal,  plant and mineral.   The LIFE which is in each of these kingdoms is
the  one  universal life of God, which manifests through all  these  various
FORMS.   When the forms decay it becomes necessary to provide other forms in
their places,  hence the generative activity which serves this purpose.   In
the plant kingdom,  which is beneath you, that activity is pure,  chaste and
immaculate.  There is no passion connected with it in any respect.

   In the kingdoms of the Gods, which are beyond you,  it is also carried on
as  a process of regeneration which is pure and holy.   But in the  kingdoms
which  stand between the plant and the gods,  conditions are the reverse  of
chaste.   Man  and animal are passionate.  MAN IS,  IN  FACT,  THE  INVERTED
PLANT.  The plant is unashamed and stretches its creative organ, the flower,
towards the sun,  a thing of beauty and delight,  pure,  chaste and passion-
less.  Man turns his creative organ toward the earth; he hides it with shame
because it is filled with passion.  In time man is to become a god, he is to
use  his  creative  ability  for the benefit of others  and  not  for  sense
gratification.  And so in time man must become plant-like on a higher scale.
Therefore,  you see this symbol:   THE POD OF THE PLANT WHICH HOLDS THE SEED
IS THE GRAIL CUP,  and the spear which brigs that seed forth from the flower
is the ray of the sun.  You, also, must learn to take the solar force, which
is the builder of all forms,  and use it in your creative organ without pas-
sion,  so that that which you create shall be immaculately conceived and not
as now begotten in sin.

   The juice of the plant flows through its green stem and leaves uncolored,
pure and chaste.   Your blood is red and filled with passion, but in the re-
generation  that  blood must be cleansed by the spiritual force  which  will
come  to  you  from  the  spiritual sun, as the forces from the physical sun


[PAGE 354]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

bring forth the juice of the plant.  And having become thus regenerated, you
will die as a man to be resurrected a God.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 176.

   WHAT  WAS  THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE PYRAMID BUILDERS OF EGYPT  AND  THE
PYRAMID BUILDERS OF CENTRAL AMERICA?  WHICH IS THE HOLDER CIVILIZATION?

   ANSWER:   Anthropological researches have shown that the Negro races have
a long, narrow head, narrow eye sockets and flat hair.  The Mongolian races,
the Indians,  etc.,  have round heads,  round eye sockets and their hair  is
round.   The head of the white races is oval, so are the eye sockets and the
hair,  showing that we have upon earth three kinds of people and  these  are
the  remnants  of the LEMURIAN RACE which lived in the Third  Epoch  of  the
earth's development.  The Mongolians, Indians, etc., are the remnants of the
ATLANTEAN PEOPLES and the white races are the present ARYANS.  Upon examina-
tion,  it  will be found that the Egyptians belonged to  our  present  Aryan
races, while the Aztecs show the peculiarities of skull, orbit and hair dis-
tinctive of the Atlantean people.  Therefore that civilization is older than
the Egyptian.


[PAGE 355]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   Not much has been written concerning the pyramids of Central America, but
Piazzi Smith and Richard Proctor, both professional astronomers,  have writ-
ten  considerable concerning the pyramids of Egypt,  and have endeavored  to
find out what their use was.  From the measurements of the pyramids,  Piazzi
Smith deduces the theory that they were built by divine architects, a theory
which Professor Proctor ridicules,  although he finds the measurements  sup-
port  the theories of Professor Smith, but he attributes it to  coincidence.
When  the base of the pyramid measures as many hundreds of inches  as  there
are days in a year;  when the diagonals of the base show the same number  of
inches as there are years in the great sidereal world year,  it merely  hap-
pened so, in the estimation of Professor Proctor.  These coincidences are so
numerous,  however, that to an unbiased mind they appear to be an embodiment
of a definite design.  Professor Proctor, being an unwilling witness for the
theory that the Pyramid was designed for astrological purposes,  gives  aug-
mented  value to his testimony when he admits that of all the  theories  ad-
vanced concerning the use of the pyramids,  the theory that they were  built
for astrological purposes,  is the only one that can withstand the weight of
the  contrary evidence.   Therefore,  though he characterizes it as  a  wild
theory, it is the only tenable one, according to evidence.

   As a matter of fat, the pyramids were temples of initiation, built by the
Hierophants  of  the lesser mysteries,  and as initiation of  candidates  is
founded  upon  the passage of the heavenly bodies,  the stars,  through  the
twelve signs of the zodiac, so naturally, these temples of initiation embod-
ied all the cosmic measurements.  Only the pyramid of Cheops among the Egyp-
tian group was thus used.   The others were simply imitations built at later
times  by  some  of  the  Pharoahs.  The  lesser  mysteries  have existed in


[PAGE 356]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

different parts of the world and at various times.  In India,  in Egypt,  in
Greece,  and also in Central America.  Therefore, the connection between the
pyramid builders of one part of the world and another is that they were  all
the Hierophants of the lesser mysteries and that their temples were used for
purposes of initiations.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 177.

   WHAT IS THE ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TEACHINGS OF THE ROSICRUCIAN
PHILOSOPHY AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH?

   ANSWER:  There are many, but perhaps the principal one is the teaching of
orthodoxy that at each birth a newly created soul enters material  existence
fresh  from  the hand of God,  that it lives here in a material body  for  a
longer or shorter span of time and then passes out by death into the  invis-
ible  beyond,  there to remain for all eternity in a state of  happiness  or
misery according to what it did while here in the body.

   The  Rosicrucian teaching is that each soul is an integral part  of  God,
which is seeking to gain experience by repeated existences in gradually  im-
proving material bodies and that, therefore, it passes into and out of mate-
rial  existences  many  times;  that  each  time  it  gathers  a little more


[PAGE 357]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

experience  than  it  previously possessed and in  time  is  nourished  from
nescience  to omniscience--from impotence to omnipotence--by means of  these
experiences.

   Our sense of justice revolts against a teaching which sends one soul into
a  home of culture and a noble family where it has the advantage of  wealth,
where moral teachings are implanted in the growing child,  but sends another
into the slums,  its father a thief and the mother,  perhaps,  immoral,  and
where its teachings consist in lying, stealing, etc.  If here only once, all
should have the same chance if they are to be judged by the same laws, an we
know  that no two people have the same experiences in life.   We  know  that
where  one meets many temptations, another lives comparatively untouched  by
the storms of life.   Therefore, when one soul is placed in a moral environ-
ment and another in immoral surroundings, it is not right to send the one to
a  heaven  of enjoyment and eternal bliss for doing the right he  could  not
help doing, nor is it just to send the other to a hell for stealing and rob-
bing  when the environment and the conditions into which he was thrown  were
such that he could not help himself.

   Therefore,  the  Rosicrucian teaching holds that we  come  into  whatever
place is best fitted for us by our previous experiences in former lives, and
that  we get just what we deserve in all cases;  that all experiences  which
come to us are just what we need to give us the appropriate impetus for  our
next step in unfoldment.


[PAGE 358]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 178.

   KINDLY  STATE THE ESSENTIALS WHEREIN THE ROSICRUCIAN  PHILOSOPHY  DIFFERS
FROM THEOSOPHY.

   ANSWER:   We are not as much concerned in seeking out differences  as  in
finding  agreements.   It may be said,  however,  that the Rosicrucian  Phi-
losophy is the Western teaching given to the Western people at this time for
their advancement.  If we take Theosophy as meaning THEO SOPHIA (Divine Wis-
dom), then, of course, the Rosicrucian Philosophy is only a part of that Di-
vine Wisdom,  like all other religious systems.  But if we take theosophy to
mean the philosophy promulgated by the Theosophical Society,  or  Societies,
for there are several brands,  then we may say that the Rosicrucian teaching
is much more comprehensive and complete.   Besides,  in teaching their  phi-
losophy  the  Rosicrucians are diametrically opposed to the  method  of  the
Theosophical Society, which has for its objects:

   First, The formation of a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood,

   Second, The study of comparative religion, and

   Third,  The investigation of the unexplained laws in nature and the power
latent in man.

   The  Brothers  of the Rosy Cross contend that the  majority  of  advanced
people are in sympathy with the idea of Universal Brotherhood,  and that  we
need not be theosophists to have that idea at heart.   Countless other soci-
eties have altruistic ideas along the lines of brotherhood.  Many scientists
are studying comparative religion and doing it exceedingly well.   it is not
necessary  to  be  a  theosophist  in order to follow that object, but it is


[PAGE 359]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

necessary to be an occultist in order to follow out the third object of  the
Theosophical Society,  namely,  the study of the unexplained laws of  nature
and the powers latent in man.

   Therefore,  the Rosicrucians recommend that all thoughts be centered upon
living such a life and practicing such exercises as will develop the  latent
powers in each pupil so that he may see and know the invisible worlds whence
come the causes we see manifested here.   When this object is attained,  and
not  till then,  is he capable of investigating the unexplained laws of  na-
ture.  He is then also in a much better position than the scientists or any-
one else to study comparative religion,  for he sees the central source from
when all religions sprang,  each being adapted to the people to whom  given.
He  also sees how they fit into the grand scheme of evolution,  and when  he
has  become  capable of reaching the consciousness of the inner  worlds  the
unity of life is so apparent that he does not need to trouble himself  about
the  first object of the Theosophical Society,  the universality of the  One
Life  which makes brotherhood a fact in nature,  beyond necessity of  state-
ment.

   To  reach that last step,  we must have the true view of the matter.   We
may  preach to a stove that its duty is to heat and warm us,  but unless  we
comply with the laws of its nature and put fuel into it,  our preaching will
be of no avail.   On similar principle, unless we reach the step of  exalta-
tion where our hearts are filled with the divine love, we may preach and put
forth  teachings concerning Universal Brotherhood,  but it will do no  good.
If we fill the stove with fuel,  it will heat us,  and if we fill our hearts
with  love they will radiate that quality without statement of objects  such
as the first one mentioned.

   Therefore, the principal difference  between the Theosophical Society and


[PAGE 360]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the Rosicrucian fellowship is a complete reversion of method.  For,  whereas
the Theosophical Society aims to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood
by the study of comparative religion and only take up the development of the
hidden  side  of man's nature last--and many even decry development  of  the
hidden powers--the Rosicrucian teaching urges the pupil first of all to LIVE
THE LIFE,  to concentrate all the powers of his being to so walk that he may
be  fitted for possession of the soulpowers absolutely essential to the  in-
vestigations he contemplates.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 179.

   IS THE WHITE LODGE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY THE SAME AS THE TEMPLE  OF
THE ROSICRUCIANS?

   ANSWER:   No, the Theosophical Society is simply an exoteric organization
for the dissemination of a certain philosophy, mostly derived from the East-
ern  Religions,  while  the Rosicrucian Fellowship aims  to  promulgate  the
teachings of the Western Mystery School, the Order of Rosicrucians, which is
secret and not accessible to anyone except upon direct invitation.

   As  to  the  relation  of  the  Order of Rosicrucians and kindred Mystery


[PAGE 361]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Order to the White Lodge,  we may say that there are in different places  of
the  earth a number of these schools of the lesser mysteries,  each of  them
composed of twelve brethren,  and also a thirteenth member.   The latter  is
the  link between the different schools, and all these HEADS  or  thirteenth
members compose what is ordinarily known as the White Lodge,  namely,  a su-
preme conclave of the Eldest among our Brothers,  who are now in full charge
of human evolution and plan the steps we are to follow in order to advance.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 180.

   WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE TERM MASTER, AND IS THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOW-
SHIP MOVEMENT INSPIRED BY THEM?

   ANSWER:  In the far East the pupil who aspires to the higher life seeks a
"Master"  and is bound hand and foot, figuratively speaking, to that Master.
he  must blindly follow the instructions of his Master,  without  the  least
hesitancy or exhibition of curiosity concerning the purpose of whatever  di-
rections are given him.  He must render the Master personal service of what-
ever  kind  required and at whatever cost or inconvenience to  himself,  and
thus,  in short,  he becomes virtually the slave of an often  very  exacting
taskmaster.

   That seems to be a very barbaric method, but is is doubtless the only way


[PAGE 362]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

to  overcome the indolence of the Oriental, an as they are a backward  class
of Egos they are accustomed to servility and subserviency,  so that it works
no  hardship to their finer feelings.   But here in the West such  a  method
would be altogether degrading, for we have advanced to such a stage of indi-
viduality  that WE CAN ONLY PROGRESS BY ACTION FROM WITHIN,  and if we  make
any  promises or take any vows we ought not to obligate ourselves to  anyone
else, but make our promises and vows to ourselves; for if we cannot keep our
vows to ourselves, we certainly cannot keep promises made to others.

   Furthermore, we may break a promise given to someone else and deceive him
into believing that we have kept our faith, but we cannot deceive ourselves.
If  we break a promise made to ourselves we know it at once,  and  therefore
the  pupil  in the West is instructed to make his promises TO  HIMSELF,  for
that  is stronger than any vow to an outsider.   The teacher in the West  is
the closest friend and adviser of the pupil,  for he follows the example  of
the Christ,  who said to his disciples:   "This is my commandment,  that  ye
love one another,  as I have loved you.   YE ARE MY FRIENDS if ye do what  I
command  you  (and)  HENCEFORTH I CALL YOU NOT  SERVANTS,  for  the  servant
knoweth  not  what his lord doeth;  but I have called you friends,  for  all
things  that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto  you."   John,
chapter 15, verses 12, 14, 15.

   The Rosicrucian Fellowship is not backed by these teachers or inspired by
them;  they  gave certain teachings to the writer on the condition  that  he
should spread them to the best of his ability, AND ANNOUNCED THEIR READINESS
TO  HELP OTHERS WHO WOULD QUALIFY FOR THAT INSTRUCTION.   Students of  these
teachings  have  banded together for the benefit of  associated  study,  but
there is no hard and fast organization,  nor is it intended to form one, but


[PAGE 363]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

to  let people obtain this teaching anywhere they please.   We  prefer  that
they should remain in their churches.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 181.

   IF  ONE WHO BELIEVES IN THE TEACHINGS ADVANCED BY THE  ROSICRUCIANS  EAR-
NESTLY  MAINTAINS THAT THEY ARE TRUE,  IS HE NOT IN DANGER OF BECOMING  DOG-
MATIC AND INTOLERANT OF THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS?   AND WHAT SHOULD BE HIS AT-
TITUDE TOWARDS THOSE WHO REFUSE TO ACCEPT THESE TEACHINGS?

   ANSWER:   It  is of utmost importance that we should recognize  the  fact
that,  at least in our present limited existence,  we cannot possible arrive
at truth IN THE ULTIMATE.  Therefore, that which seems to us "truth, and the
whole  truth"  is  most likely after all only a part of the  truth.   As  we
evolve and become capable of understanding more and more, our conceptions of
life,  the world, and God, change.  Therefore, we ought at all times to have
the open mind so that we may receive new truth,  we should never forget  the
fact  that  there are still greater truths which we have  not  yet  learned.
Then we are open minded and cannot become creed bound or hide bound.


[PAGE 364]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   Some people grow so extremely enthusiastic when they have found something
which appeals to them as truth,  that they at once commence a veritable cru-
sade to compel others to share it with them.   That is a great mistake.   If
we go into a church and commence asking questions which raise doubts in  the
minds  of  the members and make them uneasy concerning their faith,  we  may
easily cause a sad state of disturbance.   If that which we have to give ap-
peals  to them and becomes an anchor to them,  so that they may rest in  the
new and higher faith,  well and good.   But if it so happens that that which
we have to give is beyond them,  is unacceptable,  we may lead them into  an
extremely unhappy frame of mind and they may turn to materialism, atheism or
some other dreadful, skeptical attitude.  Their life, in that case, will lie
at our door.   We should always make it a rule in the world to be very quiet
about  what we believe or do not believe,  though never neglectful to say  a
little  word where an opportunity is given, and if that word brings  an  in-
quiry  we should answer it fearlessly.   Thus we may gradually lead the  in-
quirer on.   He will not be thus led unless he is seeking,  and when we find
out  that he desires the information,  we should give him all he  wants  and
give  it freely.   But we reiterate that IT IS A SERIOUS  RESPONSIBILITY  TO
THRUST OUR OPINION UPON EARS THAT ARE UNWILLING OR NOT READY.


[PAGE 365]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 182.

   HOW  IS IT THAT NOT MANY WHO STUDY THE HIGHEST PHILOSOPHY INTEREST  THEM-
SELVES  IN BETTERING INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS,  SUCH AS THE ABOLITION  OF  WAGE
SLAVERY, WHICH IS AS DEGRADING AND BRUTAL AS NEGRO SLAVERY?

   ANSWER:   All occultists recognize the crying needs of the day,  and none
long  more ardently for the day of liberation,  the day when brotherly  love
shall  be a fact,  when the nations shall beat their swords into  plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks,  as prophesied by Isaiah,  but they  go
about making these conditions in a different way.   Socialistic Labor Unions
and  such like organizations are seeking to better CONDITIONS,  but the  oc-
cultist maintains that their methods are inefficient,  and frustrate lasting
realization  of their object,  for there can be no doubt that IT IS MEN  WHO
MAKE  CONDITIONS and not conditions that make the men.   If,  therefore,  we
seek to better humanity and raise their standard of right and wrong,  if  we
seek to elevate their ideals, then WHEN MEN HAVE BECOME BETTER, as a natural
consequence, CONDITIONS WILL BE BETTER.

   Under the present conditions, when labor unions, by strike or through the
employer's fear of a strike,  have succeeded in gaining a better  condition,
the  employer at once commences to plot how he may checkmate them and  frus-
trate their object.   He bands together with other employers for mutual pro-
tection  and  these organizations are always at war with the  labor  unions.
The  better conditions which are obtained by one are continually changed  by
the other.   When,  however,  the employer as well as the employed have been
Christianized an have learned to do unto others as they would have others do


[PAGE 366]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

unto them,  there will be no necessity for labor unions,  for the  employers
will look out for the welfare of their employees and anticipate their wants.
This  state  of affairs,  the occultist believes,  can be brought  about  by
thinking  about it,  because all things and all conditions have  first  been
thoughts in the minds of men.  Therefore,  he earnestly prays that the minds
of  men may be opened to the fact of universal brotherhood,  that  they  may
take  into their hearts the love of God and become united in seeking  to  do
the right instead of separately planning how to oppress and intimidate  oth-
ers.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 183.

   CAN ANYONE STUDY OCCULTISM, LIVE THE HIGHER LIFE AND BE A MILLIONAIRE?

   ANSWER:   Christ said to the rich young man,  "Go,  get rid of  all  thou
hast,"  but the young man,  being very much taken up with the good things of
this life,  went away sadly,  and the Christ remarked concerning the  diffi-
culty besetting the rich man's entrance into heaven.  He did not say that it
is impossible, but he knew what a snare and a temptation there is in riches.
Nevertheless, a  man  may  be  a  millionaire and still striving to live the


[PAGE 367]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

higher  life.   Riches are a clog and a fetter,  but it would be  absolutely
wrong  to infer that riches prevent occult development.   All  depends  upon
what  vie  a man takes of his riches.  If he uses them for  the  purpose  of
self-aggrandizement and to oppress his fellowmen, of course there can be  no
spiritual growth, but where a man regards himself as the stewart of his pos-
sessions,  and where he aims to build factories having model conditions  and
model tenement houses,  etc., WHERE HE WORKS STRENUOUSLY HIMSELF TO SEE THAT
HIS  PHILANTHROPIC IDEAS ARE BEING CARRIED OUT,  and that his fellowmen  are
receiving good conditions and every chance for self improvement,  wealth  is
an enormous power for good.   When a man works thus unselfishly for the wel-
fare of others he will not have much chance to think of self-improvement,
and his spiritual growth will be unconscious rather than obvious.  Neverthe-
less,  he will progress enormously,  and his opportunities to do better  and
greater work will increase as the years pass by in this life and also in fu-
ture  lives.   That was really the meaning of the parable  of  the  talents.
Those who used their talents were made rulers over a number of cities in or-
der  to  give them adequate employment in the evolutionary scheme.   On  the
other hand,  if a man owns a factory and becomes so imbued with a desire for
occult  development that he selfishly sells out his factory and  throws  his
workmen  out of employment in order that he may develop his own  powers  and
live the higher life,  such a man is shirking his duty and will  undoubtedly
receive  a rebuke at the hands of the Master,  for he has buried his  talent
and in a new life he will find himself deprived of the opportunity which  he
has neglected.


[PAGE 368]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 184.

   DO YOU BELIEVE IN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?  IS IT NOT BETTER AND MORE MERCIFUL
THAN IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE?

   ANSWER:  Among the savages might is right, the stronger always overpowers
the weaker.   We pride ourselves that in our civilization we have come to  a
higher stage,  and that we practice altruism in all departments of our  pol-
ity.   Nevertheless, although we do not go out with a club and promiscuously
murder our fancied adversaries, except in war, we do murder in a refined way
by  what we call law.   There was a time when the thief was hanged  by  law.
Nowadays  we designate such punishment barbaric,  but capital punishment  is
still a blot upon our civilization.   Besides,  we are much more refined  in
our cruelty than the people in older civilizations,  for they hanged or  be-
headed the so-called criminal in short order, while we keep him incarcerated
for years,  subject him to the torture of long jury trials,  set the day for
his execution a long way ahead and allow him in the meantime to suffer death
by anticipation during all the intervening time.

   We profess that our object is not retaliation,  but plead that it is nec-
essary to safeguard society and to deter others from committing like crimes,
but  capital punishment promotes murder.   When a man has homicidal  tenden-
cies,  he should be properly restrained so that he may not hurt his  fellow-
men.   To kill him,  however, does not restrain him;  death liberates him in
the Desire World,  and as the Desire World is all about us he is at  perfect
liberty to go among people and instill into them thoughts of hatred and ven-
geance  against  society.  Therefore,  murder  is  multiplied.  Besides, ho-


[PAGE 369]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

micidal  mania  is aided by the press.   The glaring headlines which  recite
the  ghastly minutiae of the crime incite others to go and at likewise.   If
the  press would only be silent about murders and suicides we should have  a
great  deal less crime in the land,  and it is very gratifying to  see  that
there are at least some newspapers, for instance a Christian Science  publi-
cation, which refuses to print anything that is not good.

   As to the part of the question which says,  "Is death not better than im-
prisonment for life?"  we may say "Perhaps,  under the present conditions of
prison regime,  it is."   But that branch of our institutions also calls for
reform  and  we have much to do and undo in our treatment of those  whom  we
call criminals.   They are our brothers,  just as much as the so-called  re-
spectable  members  of society who have not yet committed  the  unpardonable
crime of being found out.  It is true that we have made prison life somewhat
better and less barbaric than it used to be.   It is also true that we  have
probation  and suspended sentences nowadays,  but we are far  from  treating
these weaker brothers properly yet.   If we could understand thoroughly that
they  are our brothers and treat them as we would treat a weak  brother  who
was  the  son of our own mother,  we should be doing nearer right,  for  who
amongst  us  if his own brother committed a wrong would send him  to  prison
with scorn or call him "jail bird"  when he had served his sentence,  or os-
tracize him for life because of a weakness?   When a person is sick with ty-
phoid fever we do not get angry with him and send him to the hospital for  a
month;  we send him there UNTIL CURED, we take good care of him,  and aim to
aid him in recovering his health,  and we rejoice with him when he is  well.
A criminal is weak and mentally sick.  He should not be sent to prison for a


[PAGE 370]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

term, but should be sent to an institution where he could be properly taught
and helped to overcome his weakness.  Not until we treat our weaker brothers
with  such  loving care may we say that we have risen  above  the  barbarian
maxim  of demanding an eye for an eye.  How can we dare to pray "forgive  us
our  transgressions AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US,"  while  we
treat these poor brothers as we do even now?

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

                              QUESTION NO. 185.

   WHAT IS THE VIEWPOINT OF THE ROSICRUCIANS ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE?

   ANSWER:  The spirit is neither male nor female, but manifests alternately
as man and woman,  so that looking at woman suffrage from the larger  stand-
point,  it would be to the advantage of the men of the present day to  grant
women that which is really their right--a full and complete equality in  ev-
ery  particular.   The double social standard which obtains at  the  present
time,  where  by a man may commit the social sin without  being  ostracized,
should  be  done away with.   Woman's work should be paid as much  as  man's
work, and in every case the lines which are laid down so admirably in Edward
Bellamy's novel, "Looking Backward," should be followed.


[PAGE 371]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   The advisability of this equitable social arrangement will be evident  if
we look at life from the viewpoint that this earth life is but one in  many,
and that we are born as men and women alternately;  but there are other rea-
sons  why  woman should be given the franchise.   In man the dense  body  is
positive  and man's positive forces are therefore particularly focused  upon
the Chemical Region of the Physical World.   He is most particularly  inter-
ested  in  that which he can weigh, measure,  analyze and work with  in  his
daily life; his development is particularly along the material lines,  shap-
ing the earth and everything upon it to suit his fancy, but taking little or
not interest in the spiritual side of things.

   Woman,  on the other hand, has the positive vital body and as a result is
intuitively in touch with the spiritual vibrations of the universe.   She is
more idealistic and imaginative,  taking a great interest in all the  things
which  make for THE MORAL UPLIFTMENT of the race,  and a it is only  by  the
moral  and the spiritual growth that humanity can advance at this time,  she
is really the prime factor in evolution.  It would be of an enormous benefit
to  the race if she were given an equal right with man in every  particular.
For not until then can we hope to see reforms rought about that will  really
unite humanity.  We see that by analogy if we will look into the home, where
woman  is really the central pillar around which both husband  and  children
cluster.  According to her ability she makes the home what it is, she is the
cementing influence and the peacemaker.  The father may pass out by death or
otherwise,  the children may leave,  while the mother remains,  the home  is
there;  but when the mother is taken away by death, the home is at once bro-
ken up.

   Some  have  argued, "Yes, but when she is taken away by politics the home


[PAGE 372]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

will be broken up just as much."  But of that there need be no fear.  During
the transition stage while women have to fight for their rights,  and,  pos-
sibly,  a short time afterward,  until they have adjusted themselves,  there
may in some cases a neglect of the home,  but in the places where it has al-
ready  been  tried  no  homes have been broken up and  much  good  has  been
achieved,  for women can always be counted upon to stand for any improvement
which makes for morality.   While laws are only makeshifts to bring humanity
to  a  higher plane where each one will be a law unto himself,  doing  right
without coercion,  it is nevertheless necessary that such reforms should  be
brought about at the present time by legislation.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 186.

   IF OCCULTISTS ABSTAIN FROM FLESH EATING BECAUSE IT REQUIRES A TRAGEDY  IN
ITS PREPARATION,  AND THEY DO NOT WISH TO BE A PARTY TO TAKING LIFE,  EITHER
DIRECTLY OR BY PROXY,  IS IT NOT ALSO TAKING LIFE WHEN WE EAT EGGS OR FRUIT,
VEGETABLES, ETC.?

   ANSWER:  The case mentioned by the inquirer is very different from taking
life by killing an animal.  In fact, while it is necessary to kill an animal
in order to? obtain its flesh, and we are, therefore, doing it harm,  we are
actually  helping  a  tree  when  we take the fruit away from it, as will be


[PAGE 373]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

readily seen when we understand the process of germination.

   The  process is the same with animals a with human beings,  and  in  fact
with all kingdoms.   When an animal is to be born, the group spirit,  helped
by nature spirits and angels,  fashions the vital body of the coming animal,
which is then deposited in the womb of the mother and the seed atoms are de-
posited  in the semen of the male; then gestation takes place and an  animal
is born.  Without the presence of the seed atom and the matrix vital body no
dense animal body can be formed.   Similar conditions govern fecundation  in
the case of an egg,  or of a plant seed.  They are like the female ova--they
are  so many OPPORTUNITIES.   If an egg is put into an incubator or under  a
hen,  the group spirit sends for the the requisite life,  accepting the  op-
portunity for embodiment.   If a seed is dropped in the soil,  that is  also
fertilized  when the proper conditions have been made for  its  development,
but  not  before.   When an egg is crushed,  cooked or in  other  ways  dis-
qualified  for its primal designation,  or where a seed is stored for  years
perhaps, there is no life, and consequently we do no wrong when we use these
products for food.  It is even beneficial to plants when the ripe fruits are
removed, because then they cease to take sap from the tree unnecessarily.


[PAGE 374]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              QUESTION NO. 187.

   IS THAT TERRIBLE ENTITY WHICH GLYNDON SAW IN BULWER LYTTON'S "ZANONI" THE
SAME AS MR HYDE IN ROBERT L. STEVENSON'S STORY?

   ANSWER:   No.   There is a similarity in certain respects,  but in  other
points  there  is  a very great difference.   The dreadful  entity  seen  by
Glyndon  is spoken of in occultism as the "Dweller on the Threshold."   When
the  neophyte  enters  into the Desire World consciously,  having  left  his
physical body behind in sleep, he must pass an entity such as that described
by Glyndon.  This is the embodiment of all the evil deeds of his past which,
having not yet been expiated,  await eradication in future lives.   He  must
recognize and acknowledge that entity as part of himself.   He must  promise
himself to liquidate,  as soon as possible, all the debts represented by yon
terrible shape.

   This entity is not even apparent to the ordinary man during the times be-
tween death and a new birth,  though ever present.   It is a demon,  and  is
offset by another shape which represents all the good a man has done in  the
past,  and may be called his guardian angel, but these twin forms,  as said,
are  invisible to the ordinary man at all times,  though ever potent in  his
life.

   It  sometimes happens,  however,  that an individual passes out at  death
with  a  desire nature so extremely strong that after he  has  expiated  the
deeds  it contained in Purgatory,  and has entered the Second  Heaven,  this
shell holds together and lasts until the man is reborn.  It is then drawn to
him  by magnetic attraction and he possesses,  as it were,  A DOUBLE  DESIRE
BODY.  The desire body of the old  life  may  then at times make itself felt


[PAGE 375]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

and  cause  him to lead a double life,  substantially as related  by  Robert
Louis  Stevenson,  impelling him to do deeds which he loathes,  because  the
suffering engendered in expurgating them is acting as conscience and causing
him to repel the evil.  Fortunately, however,  such cases are extremely rate
at this present date.

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

                              QUESTION NO. 188.

   IF  WE AMPUTATE THE ARM OF A MAN,  SAW OFF THE LIMB OF A TREE  AND  BLAST
AWAY A PORTION OF A CLIFF, WILL THE INVISIBLE COUNTERPART OF THESE DIFFERENT
OBJECTS ALSO BE SEVERED?

   ANSWER:   In the case of the arm which is amputated, the etheric counter-
part will still remain with the vital body, although there is a certain mag-
netic tie between that and the physical arm which is buried.   A case is  on
record of a man who,  having had his arm amputated,  complained bitterly  of
pains as if something were piercing the flesh of his arm.  This pain contin-
ued  for several weeks,  when the arm was at last exhumed and it  was  found
that  in boxing a nail had been driven through the flesh in the place  where
the man felt pain.  When the nail was removed the pain ceased.   Persons who
have had arms or limbs amputated sometimes  complain  of  pain in the member


[PAGE 376]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

for  a  few years after the operation.   Then the pain  ceases  because  the
etheric arm has decayed synchronously with the limb in the grave.

   The  vital  body  of  the  plant is only  composed  of  the  two  densest
ethers--the  CHEMICAL  ETHER and the LIFE ETHER--which enable the  plant  to
grow and propagate,  but it lacks the two higher ethers--the LIGHT ETHER and
REFLECTING ETHER--hence it has no sensation or memory of what passes  around
it.   Therefore,  amputation of a limb will not be felt by the plant,  ad in
the case of the cliff which is blasted,  only the CHEMICAL ETHER is present,
so that the crystals will have no feelings at all.  Still, it would be wrong
to infer that there is no feeling in either of these cases,  for though  the
plants and the minerals have no individual means of feeling, they are envel-
oped  and interpenetrated by the ethers and the Desire World of the  planet,
and  the PLANETARY SPIRIT FEELS everything, on the same principle  that  our
finger,  having  no  INDIVIDUAL  desire  body,  cannot  feel,  but  we,  the
indwelling spirits inhabiting the body, feel any hurt done to the finger.


[PAGE 377]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                              QUESTION NO. 189.

   DO  YOU KNOW OF A PLACE,  A HOME OR RETREAT WHERE ON MAY GO TO LIVE  THIS
BEAUTIFUL, SIMPLE AND HARMLESS LIFE YOU ARE ADVOCATING?

   ANSWER:   No,  we do not know of any home, and if a home were founded for
that purpose,  we should feel very sorry for its inmates.  If we have a high
temper  and  go into the mountains to live as recluses where there  are  not
people  to rile our sensibilities,  it is small credit to us that we do  not
become impatient with others.  If we find it difficult to overcome our vices
or faults in the city,  and go into the wilds where those temptations do not
exist,  small is our credit for not yielding.  We have been placed in cities
and among our fellows in order that we should accustom and accommodate  our-
selves to them,  and learn to keep our tempers despite any riling--learn  to
shun  temptations  where they exist.   One may be in the mountains  and  his
heart in the city,  or he may immure himself in a monastery and yet be long-
ing of the pleasures of the world.  It is best to stay in the place where we
are found and there develop the spiritual qualities that shall make us  bet-
ter  men and women.   There is work to be done in the world,  and if we  fly
from the world, how shall we do it?  We have a responsibility to our fellow-
men.  unless we discharge that responsibility we are shirking our duty,  and
fate  will  bring  us back in such an environment  that  we  cannot  escape.
Therefore,  it  is better to aim to learn all the lessons that  are  at  our
hands instead of running away from them.



[PAGE 379]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              LIST OF QUESTIONS

                     QUESTIONS CONCERNING LIFE ON EARTH

1.-   If we were pure spirits and part of an all-knowing God, why was it 
      necessary for us to take this long pilgrimage of sin and sorrow 
      through matters?
2.-   If God made man a little lower than the Angels, how will man 
      ultimately become their superior in the spiritual world?
3.-   Why should it be necessary for us to come into this physical 
      existence?  Could we not have learned the same lessons without being 
      imprisoned and limited by the dense conditions of the material world?
4.-   If this earth life is so important, and really the basis of all our 
      soul growth, the latter resulting from the experiences we gain here, 
      why is our earth life so short in comparison with the life in the 
      inner worlds, approximating a thousand years between two earth lives?
5.-   How long will it be before we can do without these physical bodies and 
      function altogether in the spiritual world again?
6.-   Does the spirit enter the body at the time of conception or at the 
      time of birth?
7.-   What was the purpose in the division of the sexes?
8.-   Is the soul of a woman masculine and the soul of a man feminine?


[PAGE 380]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

9.-   Do we keep the same temperament through all our lives?
10.-  Is the desire body subject to sickness, and does it need nutrition and 
      replenishment?
11.-  How is it that we atone for all sin in Purgatory and then at rebirth 
      must again suffer through the law of cause and effect for sins of a 
      former life?
12.-  is conscience the voice of God or of our Guardian Angel?

13.-  What is genius?
14.-  Is a soul that is born as a woman always a woman in its after lives, 
      and how long is the interval between two earth lives?
15.-  When a man pays his debts, cares for his family and lives a moral life 
      here, will he not be all right hereafter?
16.-  It is sometimes contended by people that we have a right to think what 
      we will and are not responsible for our thoughts.  Is that so from an 
      occult point of view?
17.-  If a person is constantly bothered by evil thoughts which keep coming 
      into his mind although he is always fighting them, is there any way in 
      which he can cleanse his mind so that he will think only good and pure 
      thoughts?
18.-  If woman proceeded from man as per the rib story, will she in the 
      final return to unity be reabsorbed, losing her individuality in the 
      masculine divinity?
19.-  Why has woman been cursed by inequality, assumed inferiority and 
      injustice since the beginning of human existence upon this plane?
20.-  Why was the suffering Marguerite so extreme and out of proportion to 
      that of Faust, even to imprisonment and the death penalty, while


[PAGE 381]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

      his life, liberty and pursuit of happiness were unmolested?

                           MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN

21.-  Is there any place, either in the Old or New Testament, where men were 
      told to marry and then live as brother and sister at any time or under 
      any conditions?  And if not in the Bible, why do you teach it?
22.-  Is there a soul mate belonging to every soul throughout all 
      eternity?  If so would it not be better to remain unmarried a thousand 
      years than to marry the wrong mate?
23.-  Is it wrong for first, second or third cousins to marry, and if so, 
      why?

24.-  Would it be wise for two people of the same temperament to marry if 
      they were both born under the same sign of the Zodiac, in August, for 
      instance?
25.-  In the case of death by violent means is the next life, when the 
      person dies as a child, lived by a body of the same sex as before or 
      the opposite; that is, will a soldier killed on the battle field be 
      reborn as a boy or a girl, or does sex play little part when the life 
      is a very short one?
26.-  Why is the Negro commonly said to be marked with the curse of Cain, if 
      he is the descendant of Ham, according to Biblical ethnology?  How can 
      that race be any older than the sons of Shem and Japheth?  Is not the 
      most intellectual, successful and enduring race that history records, 
      namely the Jews, the one that has kept itself most free from mixture?
27.-  Has the Rosicrucian Philosophy any specific teaching concerning the 
      training of children?


[PAGE 382]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

28.-  Why are children born in a family where they are not welcome?
29.-  When children do not come to a man and wife who deeply long for them, 
      is there not some way to induce some soul in the unseen world to 
      accept their invitation to reincarnate?  Where the conditions in the 
      home are most favorable, it would seem that among the many souls 
      awaiting incarnation one would find the conditions right?
30.-  How do you explain the fact that a child so often inherits the bad 
      characteristics of the parents?
31.-  Does not the child inherit the blood and nervous system from its 
      parents?  If so, will it not inherit disease and nervous disorders 
      also?

                              SLEEP AND DREAMS

32.-  Can a person be influenced in natural sleep as he can in hypnotic 
      sleep, or is there a difference?
33.-  What are dreams, have they all a significance, and how can we invite 
      or induce dreams?
34.-  What is sleep and what causes the body to go to sleep?

                             HEALTH AND DISEASE

35.-  Do the Rosicrucians believe in materia medica or do they follow 
      Christ's method of healing?
36.-  Do you think it wrong to take medicine to remove pain, since all is 
      the result of our own doing, if one is not hopelessly ill or dying?
37.-  In case of sickness, what form of healing do you advise, physician's 
      or practitioner's, as in the Christian Science belief?


[PAGE 383]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

38.-  What is your opinion in regard to fasting as a means of curing 
      disease?
39.-  Do you consider it wrong to try to cure a bad habit, such as, for 
      instance, drunkeness, by hypnotism?
40.-  Are there any methods of eradicating the calcareous matter which comes 
      into our bodies by wrong methods of diet?
41.-  Is not nature guilty of frequent physical malformation in the plant 
      and animal world, as well as the human race, and can there be a 
      perfectly whole and sane intelligence with a forceful will in a 
      diseased or malformed body?
42.-  Do you believe in vaccination?
43.-  If, as you state, the Ego dwells in the blood, is not the practice of 
      blood transfusion from a healthy to a diseased person dangerous?  Does 
      it affect or influence the Ego in any way, and if so, how?
44.-  What are the causes of insanity?
45.-  When an insane person dies, will he still be insane in the Desire 
      World?

                    QUESTIONS CONCERNING LIFE AFTER DEATH


46.-  What is the use of knowing about the after death state, what happens 
      in the Invisible World, and all these things?  Is it not far better to 
      take one world at a time?  Sufficient unto the day is the trouble 
      thereof, why borrow more?
47.-  Is there any time set to the limit of earth life before we are born?
48.-  If is possible to shorten the time between death and a new birth so as 
      to hasten one's evolution, and if so, how?


[PAGE 384]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

49.-  Are there seasons and times, ages and epochs in the other world?
50.-  Does a person who has been buried alive become conscious of his 
      condition, and how does the spirit get back to the body when it lies 
      in the grave?
51.-  Why do children die?
52.-  What is the cause of the vast number of deaths which occur in infancy 
      and childhood?
53.-  Does the cremation of the dense body after death affect the spirit in 
      any way?
54.-  If a person has lost his memory through nervous shock or fever, does 
      that affect his vital body and prevent him from getting the record of 
      his life in the three days immediately following death?
55.-  If a disembodied spirit can pass through a wall, can it also pass 
      through a mountain an the earth, and can it see what is inside?
56.-  Do we meet our loved ones after death, even if they have held a 
      different belief from our own, or, perhaps, been atheists?
57.-  Do we recognize loved ones who have passed out through the gate of 
      death?
58.-  Does the man who commits suicide stay longer in Purgatory that the 
      people who die naturally?
59.-  Does a good man have to go through Purgatory and be conscious of all 
      the evil that is there before he can get into the First, Second and 
      Third Heavens, and if so, isn't that an undeserved punishment?
60.-  What is the condition of the victim of a murder and the victim of an 
      accident subsequent to death?
61.-  Where is heaven?
62.-  It is said that there is no sorrow in heaven, but if our loved ones


[PAGE 385]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

      are met there and then pass on, does not the parting from them involve 
      a sense of dissatisfaction?
63.-  Please explain how to concentrate in order to help those in the other 
      world.  Do you mean sitting in the silence and sending out loving, 
      helpful thoughts to them?
64.-  Do those who have passed out of earth life keep watch and ward over us 
      who are left behind?  For instance, do mothers look after their little 
      children or even the larger ones?

                        QUESTIONS CONCERNING REBIRTH

65.-  Why, with a few exceptions, are we reincarnated without having the 
      slightest knowledge of any previous existence, and thus suffer blindly 
      in this life for transgressions of which we are entirely ignorant, 
      committed in some former life?  Does it not seem as though we could 
      get better and quicker spiritual advancement if we knew how and why we 
      had erred before, and what acts we must correct before we can 
      progress?
66.-  Are all the human beings that people the earth at the present time 
      souls that have gone through earth life before, or are new souls being 
      created all the time?
67.-  How do we know beyond a doubt that rebirth is a fact?  Is it not 
      possible that those who so state may be suffering from hallucination?
68.-  Do the souls that have passed into Purgatory and through the First, 
      Second and Third Heavens come back there and reincarnate on this 
      earth, or do they go to other spheres?



[PAGE 386]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

69.-  Do we come in contact with friends of one life when we are born again 
      into a new life?
70.-  Is the experience gained in each incarnation recorded separately and 
      added to the previous ones, so that in the ultimate the spirit is 
      entirely conscious of the complete sum of its experiences, or is that 
      experience more or less unconsciously absorbed by the next succeeding 
      incarnation, so that only a general effect is obtained?
71.-  When the spirit coming down to rebirth has drawn to itself its mind 
      stuff and sinks into the Desire World, will it not then be in 
      Purgatory again?
72.-  Who can you believe in the theory of reincarnation--that we come back 
      here in the body of an animal?  Is it not much more beautiful to 
      believe in the Christian doctrine that we go to heaven with God and 
      the Angels?

                  QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE BIBLE TEACHINGS

73.-  Why is it that every sect interprets the Bible differently and that 
      each one gets an apparent vindication for its idea from that book?
74.-  What is meant by the second aspect of the Triune God?
75.-  Ware the Recording Angels individual beings?
76.-  Do the Angels and Archangels watch over us individually as well as 
      collectively and know just what our lives are?
77.-  Have Angels wings as shown in pictures?
78.-  Do the Rosicrucians accept the Bible as the Word of God from cover to 
      cover?
79.-  What is the viewpoint of the Rosicrucians concerning the creation of 
      the world in seven days?


[PAGE 387]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


80.-  The Bible teaches the immortality of the soul in an authoritative 
      manner.  The Rosicrucian teaches the same professedly by appealing to 
      reason.  Are there no positive proofs of immortality?
81.-  Is there any authority in the Bible for the theory of rebirth?
82.-  According to the Bible only man was given a soul.  Why, then, do you 
      say that the animals have a group spirit?
83.-  Is it true that Eve was taken out of Adam's side?
84.-  If God made man in his image and likeness and supposedly perfect, why 
      were the different epochs prior to the fall of Adam and Eve necessary?
85.-  What was the sin or fall in Eden?
86.-  Is the Tree of Life spoken of in the Bible the same as the 
      Philosopher's Stone of the Alchemist?
87.-  The Lord had respect unto Abel and his bloody offering, but unto Cain 
      and his sweet and clean offering He had not respect.  Why?
88.-  What is the esoteric significance of the Ark of the Covenant?
89.-  Is there an occult significance in the various Christian feasts of the 
      year?
90.-  I understood you to say that the Christ had been incarnated only once, 
      in Jesus.  Was he not previously incarnated in Buddha and still 
      earlier in Krishna?
91.-  We are told that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
      Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not die but have everlasting 
      life.  How do you reconcile that idea with the words of Christ, "I 
      came not to bring peace, but a sword."
92.-  What is meant by everlasting salvation and damnation?


[PAGE 388]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

93.-  What is the teaching of the Rosicrucians concerning the Immaculate 
      Conception?
94.-  Was not the Star of Bethlehem a comet?
95.-  What were the gifts of the Wise Men?
96.-  Was not Jesus a jew, and if so, what did he mean by saying "Before 
      Abraham was I am," for even if He reincarnated, Abraham was the father 
      of the Jewish race?
97.-  Jesus was baptized at thirty, receiving the Christ spirit.  Please 
      explain this baptism.
98.-  In your teaching you state that we stay for a time averaging 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."
99.-  What is the estoeric meaning of the two thieves on the cross?
100.- What is the meaning of the cross, is it simply the instrument of 
      torture as usually taught in the orthodox religion?
101.- Could not the mission of Christ have been accomplished without such a 
      drastic method as crucifixion?
102.- According to the Rosicrucian teahcing, when will Christ come again?
103.- What is meant by the saying that Christ was made a High Priest forever 
      after the order of Melchisedec?
104.- What did Christ mean when he said, "All who came before Me were 
      thieves and robbers"?
105.- What did Christ mean when He said "Whosoever shall not receive the 
      kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein"?


[PAGE 389]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

106.- Did not Jesus eat fish?  Why, then, are the Rosicrucians vegetarians?
107.- If Christ fed the multitude with fish, why is it wrong for us to use 
      them as food?
108.- Please explain why the fatted calf was not killed for the righteous 
      son instead of for the prodigal.  Was that not given a reward for 
      wrong doing?
109.- Why did the lord commend the unjust steward, as related in the 
      sixteenth chapter of Luke?
110.- What is meant by sinning against the Holy Ghost?
111.- Is the Christian Creed authoritative?
112.- How do you reconcile the law of cause and effect with the doctrine of 
      the forgiveness of sins?
113.- By what power did Peter raise Dorcas from the dead?
114.- Do you believe in conversion?
115.- Is there any value in confession and absolution?
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 
      understand it, and are not the extemporaneous prayers used in the 
      Protestant Churches much to be preferred to the ritual and stereotyped 
      masses of the Catholics?
117.- What is the actual merit in Martyrdom; did the martyrs really become 
      saints?
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 heathen re right for them at the present time, but 
      that the missionaries have done little harm as yet.  How, then, do you 
      reconcile the command of the Christ, "Go ye into all the world and 
      preach the gospel to every creature."


[PAGE 390]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                QUESTIONS CONCERNING SPIRITUALISTIC PHENOMENA

119.- Is mediumship injurious to health?
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?
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 and why there are gates and walls around 
      the city, and why everything looked like crystal?
122.- Are not the desire bodies left by those who have progressed beyond the 
      Desire World used by elementals to deceive friends and relatives of 
      the deceased person?  How can they be detected and recognized by them?
123.- Can elementals assume the shape of animals or reptiles, and what can 
      be done to stop them from doing it?
124.- How can one avoid becoming obsessed?
125.- What is psychometry?
126.- Is it true that at spiritualistic seances persons are sometimes 
      transported bodily from one place to another by invisible hands, 
      flowers are brought into the room through closed windows and doors, 
      and if so, how can that be done?
127.- Will you kindly explain the use of the planchette, and state if it is 
      advisable to try to produce the phenomena among amateurs?
128.- Is a vampire the same as a werewolf?
129.- What is the difference between a trance medium, materializing


[PAGE 391]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

      medium, the trained clairvoyant and the ordinary person?
130.- If mediumship is so dangerous, why do not the mediums cease to allow 
      themselves to be controlled?

                      QUESTIONS CONCERNING CLAIRVOYANCE

131.- What is the difference between a clairvoyant, an Initiate and an 
      Adept?
132.- Why is it that trained clairvoyants do not offer to lend themselves to 
      some simple but conclusive tests conducted by men of science which 
      would convince everybody of the reality of faculties transcending the 
      physical senses?
133.- If clairvoyance is such an accurate means of investigation, such a 
      high spiritual faculty, why do we usually see it in possession of 
      people of little education and coarse breeding, who have seemingly 
      very little spirituality and who often tell lies?
134.- What do you mean by initiation, and why are only men Initiates?
135.- Is it not the duty of one who is informed on subjects concerned with 
      the higher life to give information and help to the less informed?
136.- What qualifications are necessary to become an Invisible Helper?  Must 

      the whole life be given over to spiritual endeavor?
137.- What purpose has the person in going out of his body?
138.- Is it absolutely necessary to live a life of asceticism in order to 
      become spiritual and endowed with psychic powers?
139.- Are all children clairvoyant up to a certain age?
140.- What is the difference between white and black magic, and what is the


[PAGE 392]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY


      effect of the practice of black magic upon the soul?
141.- You speak of the western and eastern schools of occultism.  Is not the 
      western school the better, and if so, why?
142.- What is the difference between etheric sight, clairvoyance, and the 
      sight pertaining to the World of Thought?
143.- Is it safe for a person in a greatly debilitated nervous condition to 
      take occult training given by the Rosicrucians, or is it necessary for 
      such a person to first recover?  Is health regained by occult 
      training?
144.- A sound body being necessary for spiritual unfoldment, what does the 
      Rosicrucian teaching hold out to one not a present in the best 
      physical condition?  Will perfect health be one result of the study of 
      this philosophy, and if the teaching is practiced, will it tend to 
      keep a person in good health?
145.- In what way will it help us in the life after death if we have 
      cultivated clairvoyance in the present life?
146.- Would the contemplation of the God within, if persistently carried on, 
      aid one in spiritual growth and bring one to adeptship?
147.- Has it not been recorded that certain individuals have developed 
      spiritual power, clairvoyance, sixth sense, or whatever we wish to 
      call it, by living a clean life in harmony with nature's laws, and 
      does not the teachings of modern occultists with so many terms of 
      technicality have a tendency to create confusion rather than bring the 
      desired results?
148.- Is it possible to cultivate clairvoyance by the use of drugs, by 
      crystal gazing or breathing exercises, and do these methods not


[PAGE 393]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

      bring results quicker than the methods you advocate?
149.- What time in the morning is best for concentration?
150.- It is difficult for me to review the events of the day IN REVERSE 
      ORDER when doing my evening exercises.  Is this absolutely necessary, 
      and if so, why?
151.- What value are breathing exercises in developing body and mind?
152.- Is not the Invisible World of which you speak very unreal and shadowy 
      in comparison to this world in which we now live?

                       QUESTIONS CONCERNING ASTROLOGY

153.- Is it possible that astrology and palmistry can be true, inasmuch as 
      we could avert coming disaster by being forewarned in that manner?  
      And would it not interfere with our destiny?
154.- Is it wrong to use palmistry, astrology or phrenology as a means of 
      livelihood?
155.- Are Mars, Jupiter and other planets inhabited; if so, are those people 
      superior to the people on earth; do the souls from the earth ever 
      reincarnate on other planets and vice versa?
156.- Does not the nebular theory account for the existence of the universe 
      in a much more scientific manner than the creation stories of the 
      Bible?
157.- What are comets?
158.- Does the movement of a planet through space create a noise?
159.- What is the esoteric significance of the use of the names of the 
      twelve sons of Jacob in connection with the twelve signs of the 
      zodiac, and are these used in connection with the earth's zodiac or 
      the sun's zodiac, or both?



[PAGE 394]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

160.- Can you give an idea of the difference between heliocentric and 
      geocentric astrology?  Is the geocentric concerned only with the 
      affairs of this earth, the material life, and the heliocentric with 
      the soul or the spiritual side?  The sun, being the spiritual planet 
      and the ruler of our solar system, would lead to this conclusion.  
      Inasmuch as we use the sun's zodiac in heliocentric astrology and the 
      earth's zodiac in geocentric.  Can predictions in this life ever be 
      made by the sun's zodiac, or is the latter simply concerned with the 
      spiritual side of a person's nature?
161.- How is it possible to get on good terms with Saturn?  The inquirer has 
      been under his influence all his life.  Sickness, poverty, loss of 
      inheritance, and accidents are bad enough, but can Saturn also cause 
      us trouble spiritually; can he put barriers up for our unfoldment when 
      our spirit is struggling for the good, and are we liberated from his 
      influence when we pass out at death?
162.- How may we pray to or address Saturn when he is the ruling star 
      causing us trouble and sorrow?

                        QUESTIONS CONCERNING ANIMALS

163.- Why do animals, which are a lower evolution, have an instinct which 
      seems so much more reliable than the reason of human beings?
164.- Can you throw some light on what our attitude toward the lower forms 
      of life should be?  Have we the right to kill anything harmless, since 
      every living thing is in a sense our brother?  How about the


[PAGE 395]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

      venomous insects and reptiles?
165.- Ware not enormous and destructive reptiles created by the evil 
      thoughts of men, so far as the form is concerned?  And, therefore, is 
      it not an act of love to kill them and thus liberate the divine spark 
      within so that it may occupy a higher form?
166.- What is a group spirit, where is it, and what does it look like?
167.- Are animals amenable to the law of causation?
168.- Do animals live after death?
169.- When a pet dog or cat dies, does the entire group spirit to which it 
      belongs die at the same time?  Also what becomes of the animal soul, 
      and does the human love and care it has received help it on its upward 
      journey?
170.- What substance does a person or animal throw off whereby they can be 
      traced, as, for example, criminals are traced by bloodhounds?

                           MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS

171.- What is the origin of life?
172.- What is matter?  Is it not unreal?
173.- You said in a previous lecture that the earth is the body of a spirit 
      which gives its life for the dwellers upon the surface.  Why does it 
      give flowers and fruits to some and earthquake and famine to others?
174.- What is meant by the sentence, "Man, know thyself"?
175.- What is the Holy Grail?
176.- What was the connection between the pyramid builders of Egypt and the 
      pyramid builders of Central America?  Which is the older civilization?


[PAGE 396]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

177.- What is the essential difference between the teachings of the 
      Rosicrucian Philosophy and the orthodox church?
178.- Kindly state the essentials wherein the Rosicrucian Philosophy differs 
      from Theosophy.
179.- Is the White Lodge of the Theosophical Society the same as the Temple 
      of the Rosicrucians?
180.- What do you understand by the term Master, and is the Rosicrucian 
      Fellowship a movement inspired by them?
181.- If one who believes in the teachings advanced by the Rosicrucians 
      earnestly maintains that they are true, is he not in danger of 
      becoming dogmatic and intolerant of the opinions of others?  And what 
      should be his attitude toward those who refuse to accept these 
      teachings?
182.- How is it that not many who have studied the highest philosophy 
      interest themselves in bettering industrial conditions, such as the 
      abolition of wage slavery, which is as degrading and brutal as Negro 
      slavery?
183.- Can anyone study occultism, live the higher life and be a millionaire?
184.- Do you believe in capital punishment?  Is it not better and more 
      merciful than imprisonment for life?
185.- What is the viewpoint of the Rosicrucians on woman suffrage?
186.- If occultists abstain from flesh eating because it requires a tragedy 
      in its preparation, and they do not wish to be a party to taking life, 
      either directly or by proxy, is it not also taking life when we eat 
      eggs or fruit, vegetables, etc.?
187.- Is that terrible entity which Glyndon saw in Bulwer Lytton's


[PAGE 397]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

      "Zanoni" the same as Mr. Hyde in Robert L. Stevenson's story?
188.- If we amputate the arm of a man, saw off the limb of a tree and blast 
      away a portion of a cliff, will the invisible counterpart of these 
      different objects also be severed?
189.- Do you know of a place, a home or retreat where one may go to live 
      this beautiful, simple and harmless life you are advocating?


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