[PAGE 74]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                            DETERMINATION OF SEX
                              QUESTION NO. 24.

   IT  IS STATED IN THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION THAT A MATRIX  MADE  OF
ETHER IS PLACED IN THE WOMB OF THE MOTHER WHICH AN EGO IS TO BE REBORN,  AND
THAT  THE SEED ATOM OF THE DENSE BODY COMES FROM THE  SPERMATOZOON  RECEIVED
FROM THE FATHER.   IF THIS IS ALWAYS SO SHOULD NOT THIS METHOD PRODUCE CHIL-
DREN  OF ONE SEX,  WITH NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE VITAL BODY FROM THE MOTHER  AND
POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE DENSE BODY FROM THE FATHER?  IF NOT, HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN
THE DIFFERENCE OF SEX AT BIRTH?

   ANSWER;   It is also stated in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION that  the
vital  body of a woman is positive and the vital body of a man is  negative.
When  the  agents of the Recording Angels are assisting an Ego  to  come  to
birth,  the matter of sex has already been determined,  either by law of al-
ternation or a modification of that law by specific circumstances in the in-
dividual life of the Spirit,  and the Ego is then helped to draw to itself a
sufficient amount of the different kinds of ether as required by its  devel-
opment.   These materials are all of certain polarity,  either  positive  or
negative.   When a matrix made solely from positive etheric atoms is  placed
in the womb of the prospective mother,  these atoms will unerringly draw  to
themselves  negative  physical  atoms,  and the resultant child body becomes


[PAGE 75]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

female in consequence.  If, on the other hand, the matrix which is place din
the mother's womb is composed of negative etheric atoms, it will attract the
positive dense atoms with the result that the male sex organ is most  devel-
oped and the sex therefore masculine.  Life, like electricity, requires both
positive and negative expression, otherwise it cannot manifest.


                            MEMORY OF PAST LIVES
                               QUESTION NO. 25

   IF  AN  INDIVIDUAL HAS ATTAINED A HIGH DEGREE OF SPIRITUAL SIGN  IN  THIS
LIFE, AND THEN DIES, TO BE REBORN AT A LATER PERIOD, WILL HE REMEMBER WHO HE
WAS,  AND RETAIN SPIRITUAL POWER AS IN THE FORMER LIFE,  OR WILL BE HAVE  TO
CULTIVATE THE FACULTY ANEW?

   ANSWER;  When spiritual sight has been cultivated consciously in one life
it remains,  so far as we know, a faculty of the Spirit in all future lives,
improving  in  scope  and power with each existence,  under  normal  circum-
stances.   But there is a case known to the writer where a person  has  pos-
sessed the spiritual sight,  along with the faculty of leaving the body  and
remembering what happened on his soul flights outside the body, in one life,


[PAGE 76]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

and  in the next he made it impossible for himself to exercise these  facul-
ties by the use of drink,  drugs, and cigarettes,  which so addled his brain
that  it was impossible for the Spirit to impress upon it memories  of  what
happened when it was free from the body.

   Out  of the body he can still rove about the world where he  chooses  and
take his place in his Order among the other Initiates, but in the body he is
hampered by his poor,  sick,  abused brain.  Nor should it seem strange that
this  is so,  for it is only the same principle which allows a man to  enjoy
spiritual  sight despite the fact that he is physically blind.   Apart  from
the  loss and the lack which such a man feels there is of course  the  moral
aspect,  and it is doubtful in the writer's mind whether this person's  next
body  will  have  a brain fit to carry memories from the  invisible  to  the
visible world.   It is our belief that it will probably take lives of  right
living  before he is able to build another sensitive brain which is  capable
of spiritual transmission.

   As for the memory of past lives it is not necessary to wait till a future
existence for the development of that faculty,  when the spiritual sight has
been  cultivated,  with the aid of the proper teachers,  such as  the  Elder
Brothers  of the Rosicrucian Order.   For the neophytes are taught from  the
beginning  to read the Memory of Nature in order to know  and  differentiate
between truth and delusion, first in the  record  that is kept in the fourth


[PAGE 77]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

or  reflecting  ether,  which requires only a very slight extension  of  the
physical sight.  Then by degree, if they live the life and are diligent, the
extension  of sight is raised to the records kept in the archetypal  region.
These are usually opened to them within a few years, and there they can eas-
ily  investigate their own past.   However,  we do not believe that that  is
generally done,  for no one goes so deeply into the work without becoming so
absorbed in the system of service to others that he has no time to attend to
his own selfish inclinations.


                                RIPE DESTINY
                               QUESTION NO. 26

   IT IS TAUGHT IN THE PHILOSOPHY THAT EVERY EVIL ACT IN LIFE IS EXPUNGED IN
THE  PURGATORIAL STATE AFTER DEATH.   IT IS ALSO STATED THAT DEATH  DOES  NO
LIQUIDATE  AN INJURY ANY MORE THAN MOVING TO ANOTHER CITY PAYS A  CONTRACTED
DEBT, THAT RIPE FATE HAS ITS ROOT IN A FORMER LIFE AND THAT WE CANNOT ESCAPE
FROM THIS DEBT OF THE PAST.  HOW CAN THESE STATEMENTS BE RECONCILED?  SURELY
WE ARE NOT MADE TO SUFFER TWICE FOR THE SAME THING.


[PAGE 78]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

    ANSWER:  You are right.  God does not want us even to pay back once,  if
by  thorough repentance and reform suffering is made unnecessary.   But  the
problem of liquidating a chain of causes in a life is much more  complicated
than  to pay a bill for good received.   There are many sides to each  case.
Let  us take as an illustration a drunkard who makes a beast of himself  and
at the same times abuses his children,  depriving them of the necessities of
life and the education which they ought to have, who beats his wife, setting
the children an example they may follow,  and generally lowering their moral
standard.

   After  death than man will feel in purgatory,  first,  the tortures of  a
craving for a drink,  which he is not able to satisfy,  and second,  he will
feel  all the suffering which he inflicted upon his family.   Her  has  then
paid for his wrong doing,  and it is true that he comes back to rebirth with
a perfectly clean slate so far as the actual suffering which he caused  them
is concerned.   But he took a vow to love and cherish the  woman who  became
his  wife,  and by the performance of the creative act  and  furnishing  the
nucleus for a body he assumed the responsibilities of fatherhood toward  the
children which came to him for help and a suitable environment.   These  pa-
rental  responsibilities he also neglected to fulfill,  and there is  conse-
quently  a time between him and the members of his family.   HE  STILL  OWES
THEM  A DEBT OF LOVE AND SERVICE which must be rendered at some future  time
and  therefore in a later life these souls will be brought together  and  so
placed  that  he  may have an opportunity for doing good toward them.  If he


[PAGE 79]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

does not then take the opportunity,  he may in a still later life render  an
adequate service to some one else.   It is for his sake that service must be
rendered so that the love nature may be evolved and expanded to become  uni-
versal and all inclusive.

   The same rule holds good in all other cases and as the extreme conditions
make the best illustrations,  we may take as another instance the  relation-
ship between a murderer and his victim.   After death he suffered in  purga-
tory  and the actual debt is there wiped out.   But a time has  been  estab-
lished between these two Egos,  and in a future life they will again meet so
that the murderer may have the opportunity of serving his erstwhile  victim,
that they may become reconciled as friends.  FELLOW FEELING MUST BECOME UNI-
VERSAL, since it is the basic principle in the kingdom of God.

   To  sum up then we may say that all our debts are paid in  purgatory,  so
far as the commission of wrong is concerned; our debts of love,  friendship,
and service remain for liquidation in later lives.


[PAGE 80]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                       POST-MORTEM FATE OF VIVISECTORS
                              QUESTION NO. 27.

   DOES A SURGEON FEEL IN PURGATORY ALL THE PAINS HIS PATIENTS HAVE FELT  IN
THE  OPERATIONS HE HAS PERFORMED?   THIS WOULD SEEM UNFAIR IN CASES OF  CON-
STRUCTIVE SURGERY.

   ANSWER:   Certainly not.   The sufferings in Purgatory are the results of
moral delinquencies, and the resentment of those who are injured thereby.  A
surgeon who performs a constructive operation in doing a service which  mer-
its the gratitude of the person operated upon and the picture of such an op-
eration in the panorama of life will react upon him in the First Heaven with
the  gratitude of the person he helped.  It will make him more ambitious  to
serve his fellow men.

   On  the other hand,  those unscrupulous surgeons who persuade  people  to
have operations performed for the love of experimentation,  of who take them
out  of  charitable institutions for that purpose will certainly be  as  se-
verely death with as they deserve.   As for the vivisectionist's  purgatory,
we have seen some cases compared with which the orthodox hell with its devil
and  pitchfork  is a place of mild amusement.   Yet there  are  no  exterior
agents  of  outraged nature to punish such an one--only the agonies  of  the
tortured animal contained in his life panorama reacting upon him with three-
fold intensity  (because  the  purgatorial  existence  is only one third the


[PAGE 81]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

duration of the physical life).   Those people do not realize in the slight-
est degree what they are storing up for themselves,  or the torture chambers
would soon be emptied and there would be one horror less in the world.


                              INFANT MORTALITY
                              QUESTION NO. 28.

   ACCORDING TO AN ARTICLE IN A RECENT MEDICAL JOURNAL, GIRL BABIES SEEMS TO
HAVE  A GREATER POWER OF RESISTANCE WITH RESPECT TO THE INIMICAL  INFLUENCES
WHICH  RAVAGE  THE RANKS OF INFANTS DURING THE FIRST YEARS OF LIFE.   IT  IS
STATED:   "SPEAKING GENERALLY,  IT MAY PERHAPS HE SAID THAT THE  BOY  REACTS
MORE  VIOLENTLY TO DISEASE THAN THE GIRL,  IS MORE EASILY KNOCKED OVER  THAN
THE LATTER,  DOES NOT RECUPERATE AS QUICKLY WHEN THE ILLNESS TAKES A  FAVOR-
ABLE TURN, AND DOES NOT OFFER AS MUCH RESISTANCE WHEN SUFFERING FROM CHRONIC
AILMENTS."  CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS?

   ANSWER:   To the occultist versed in the Rosicrucian Teachings concerning
the  polarity of the vital body the seeming anomaly is easily accounted for,


[PAGE 82]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

with many other facts known tot he medical profession,  but not explained by
them.

   Man, who has the positive physical body, has a negative vital body.  Thus
he  is  not able to resist disease as well as a woman,  who has  a  negative
physical body,  but a positive vital vehicle.  For that reason woman is able
to endure a siege of sickness that would kill a man twice her weight and ap-
parent vitality.  She suffers more keenly than man, but bears pain with more
fortitude.   When the favorable turn comes,  her positively polarized  vital
body  seems  to suck in,  as with a million mouths,  the solar  energy.   It
swells and begins almost immediately to radiate the streamers so  character-
istics of health, with the result that the physical body recuperates space.

   On the other hand,  when a man has been brought very low by sickness  and
the turn of the tide sets in, his negatively polarized vital body is likes a
sponge.  It will absorb all the solar energy it can get, but the avidity no-
ticeable in the vital body of the woman is lacking.   Therefore he lingers a
long  while  in the shadow of death,  and as it is easier to  give  up  than
fight, he succumbs oftener.

   There  is  also another reason for greater mortality  among  boy  babies.
Students of the Rosicrucian Philosophy are acquainted with the law governing
infant  mortality,  namely,  that when the Ego which passes out at death  is
very  much disturbed by the loud and hysterical lamentations  of  relatives,
the  turmoil  incident  to death through railway accidents, fires, wars, and


[PAGE 83]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the like,  it cannot concentrate its attention on the panorama of life which
then passes in review, much as a picture film thrown on a screen.

   This panorama should be etched into the desire body to form the basis  of
feelings of pain or pleasure in Purgatory and the First Heaven, the pain be-
ing  transmuted to conscience to warn the Ego in future lives not to  commit
again the mistakes of the past.  The pleasure felt on account of goods deeds
in life generates virtue to spur the Ego on to better things in later lives.
When  the Ego is seriously disturbed in its concentration on the  life  pan-
orama,  the etching does not work on the feelings as it should, and thus the
life experience would be lost did not the higher Powers interfere and let it
die in infancy when next it comes to rebirth.   The subtle vehicles are  not
born at the same time as the physical body.   The fruits of the former  life
are then incorporated into them, after death in infancy,  and in a few years
the Ego seeks a new embodiment and lives its normal span of time on earth.

   Under this arrangement an enormous number of children are predestined  to
die in infancy, for wars and wakes over the dead, with lamentation, have de-
prived  millions of Egos of peace at the time of death.   this  present  war
(1916)  will  add more millions.   Thus infant mortality  must  continue  to
grieve  our hearts until we learn the science of death and how to  help  the
passing Ego as we have learned to care for the incoming babe.  We,  with out
small and finite minds,  have already learned to use the lines of least  re-
sistance to attain our ends.  We  have  studied  the conservation of energy,


[PAGE 84]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

and we may be sure that the great Divine Hierarchs who have charge of evolu-
tion make use of similar methods with greater efficiency.  Hence,  as babies
must  die for the reasons given,  what more natural than to let as  many  as
those  predestined  take a male body with a negative vital body  which  will
more easily succumb to the rigors of physical existence?

   It is not to be denied,  however, that a great many deaths in infancy are
due  to lack of understanding of the complex constitution of a  human  being
which  includes subtler vehicles than the one seen and commonly believed  to
constitute the whole organism.  Although the vital body of an infant is till
comparatively  unorganized at the time of birth,  the ether which is  to  be
used for its completion is within the aura, ready to be assimilated,  and if
anyone  in  its surroundings happens to be weak and anemic,  an  unconscious
vampire, he or she draws from the unassimilated store of ether of the infant
much more easily than from that of an adult whose vital body is fully  orga-
nized.  Naturally the weak person draws more easily ether that is negatively
polarized, as in the body of a boy baby, than the positive ether of the girl
baby.   Hence also in this way the greater mortality of boy babies is to  be
accounted for, together with many deaths not due to the law as stated.

   If this were known and believed a long step would have been taken to save
infants, for precautions could then be adopted.  In the first place, infants


[PAGE 85]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

should sleep in a crib as far from the mother as she can reach,  so that her
aura does not mingle with that of the child.  A weak mother should not nurse
her child,  but obtain,  if possible,  milk fresh and warm from healthy well
fed cows,  or better still,  GOATS,  for fresh milk is supercharged with the
ether  of the animal and has a vital energy not appreciated by  the  chemist
who  makes  a merely physical analysis of its  chemical  constituents.   And
last, but not least, massage of the spleen and stimulation of the splanchnic
nerves, CAREFULLY AND CONSERVATIVELY PRACTICED will aid the etheric counter-
part  of  that organ in its activity of specializing the solar  energy  upon
which the vital processes are as dependent as the lungs are on air.


                           IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
                              QUESTION NO. 29.

   IT IS COMMONLY ASSUMED THAT EACH INDIVIDUAL SOUL HAS HAD A BEGINNING, BUT
IS NEVERTHELESS SO CONSTITUTED THAT IT IS IMPERISHABLE.  THIS IDEA WAS QUES-
TIONED  BY  ONE WHO BELIEVES THAT DEATH ENDS ALL AND I SHOULD LIKE  TO  FIND
SOME  ARGUMENT OR PASSAGES FROM THE BIBLE SO THAT I MAY CONVINCE HIM  HE  IS
WRONG.  WILL YOU PLEASE HELP ME?

   ANSWER:   While there a number of ways in which it is possible to  demon-
strate that death does not end all, we are afraid that no amount of argument
will convince one who is not willing to be shown.   You remember the parable
Christ told about the rich man and Lazarus who dies,  and when the rich  man
desired  that Lazarus be allowed to return from the dead to warn his  broth-
ers, Christ said:  "If they will not believe Moses and the prophets, neither
would they believe if one rose form the dead."   And that is the point.   We
have heard so-called scientists say that they would not be convinced of life
after  death even though they actually saw a ghost,  for having  settled  by
reason  and  logic  to their own complete satisfaction  that  there  are  no
ghosts,  they  would consider themselves suffering from a  hallucination  if
they were actually to see an apparition.

   Neither is it possible to give you authorative statements from the Bible.
The Word "immortal"  is not found in the Old Testament.   Then it was  said,
"Dying thous shalt die,"  and long life was held out as a reward for  obedi-
ence.   Nor is the word found in the four Gospels,  but in the  epistles  of
Paul it occurs six times.  In one passage he speaks of Christ having brought
immortality to light through the gospel.   In another he tells us that "this
mortality must put on immortality."  In  the  third  passage  he makes clear


[PAGE 87]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

that this immortality is given to those who seek for it.   In a fourth place
he  speaks of our state,  "When this mortal shall have put on  immortality."
In a fifth place he declares that "God only has immortality,"  and the sixth
passage is an adoration of the King Eternal,  immortal and invisible.   Thus
the Bible does not by any means teach that the soul is immortal,  but on the
other hand it says emphatically, "the soul that sinneth it must die."

   Were the soul inherently and intrinsically imperishable that would be  an
impossibility.   Nor can we prove immortality from the Bible by passages  as
John 3:16:   "God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that
whose believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life."   If we
rely upon that word to prove that the soul is without end,  possessed of in-
terminable life, we must also accept the passages which state that the souls
are doomed to everlasting torment as claimed by some of the orthodox  sects.
But  as a matter of fact these passages do not provide of unending bliss  or
torment.   If you will take Liddel and Scott's Greek dictionary and look  up
the word you will find that the word translated everlasting in the Bible  is
a  Greek  word "aionian,"  which means for a "little while,"  "an  age,"  "a
little  time,"  "a life time."   You will readily see that in  the  case  of
Onesimus concerning whom Paul writes to Philemon,  "for perhaps he therefore
departed  for a season that thou shouldst receive him forever."   This  word
forever could only mean the few years of Onesimus'  life on earth,  and  not
infinite duration.


[PAGE 88]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   What  then is the solution?   Is immortality only a figment of the  fancy
and incapable of proof?   By no means, but we must differentiate sharply be-
tween the soul and the Spirit.   These two words are too often taken as syn-
onymous and they are not.   We have in the Bible the Hebrew word REACH,  and
the Greek word PNEUMA,  both meaning Spirit, while the Hebrew word NESHAMMAH
and the Greek word PSUKE mean soul.  In addition to these we have the Hebrew
word  NEPHESH,  which means breath,  but has been translated  LIFE  in  some
places and SOUL in others,  as suited the purpose of the translators of  the
Bible.   And that is what creates confusion.   For instance,  we are told in
Genesis that Jehovah formed man from the dust of the earth and blew into his
nostrils  the breath (nephesh) and man become a breathing creature  (nephese
chayim), not a living soul.

   Regarding  death  we  are told in Ecclesiastes  3:19-20,  also  in  other
places,  that there is no difference between the man and the animal, "as the
one  dieth  so  dieth the other,  for they have all  one  breath,"  (nephesh
again).   Thus is indicated that man has no preeminence above the beast  and
all  go unto one place.   But there is a very definite distinction made  be-
tween the SPIRIT and the BODY, for we are told that "when the silver cord is
loosed  then shall the body return to the dust whence it was taken  and  the
Spirit  to God who gave it."   The word death is nowhere connected with  the
Spirit,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  Spirit is taught


[PAGE 89]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

definitely at least once in the Bible:  Matthew 11-14, where the Christ said
concerning  John  the  Baptist,  "This is Elijah."   The  Spirit  which  had
ensouled the body of Elijah was reborn as John the Baptist.   It must there-
fore have survived bodily death and have been capable of continuity of life.

   For the deeper and more definite teachings concerning this matter we must
however  go  to  the  mystic teaching, and we  learn  from  THE  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION that the Virgin Spirits sent out into the wilderness of the
world  as Lightrays from the Divine Flame,  which is our Father  in  heaven,
first underwent a process of involution into matter,  each ray crystallizing
itself into a threefold body.   Then mind was given,  and became the fulerum
upon  which the involution turns to evolution,  and epigenesis,  the  divine
creative  ability inherent in the indwelling Spirit,  is the lever by  which
the threefold body is spiritualized into the threefold soul and  amalgamated
with the threefold Spirit,  soul being the extract of experience whereby the
Spirit  is nourished from ignorance to omniscience,  from impotence  to  om-
nipotence, and thus finally becomes like its Father in heaven.

   It  is  impossible for us with our present limited capabilities  to  even
conceive of the magnitude of this task,  but we can understand that we are a
long,  long, way from omniscience and omnipotence, so that this must require
many lives.  Therefore we go to the school of life, as the child goes to our
schools here.  And as there are nights of rest between the children's school


[PAGE 90]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

days  so there are nights of death between our days in Life's Schools.   The
child  takes up its studies each day where it left off the  previous  after-
noon.  So also we, when coming to rebirth, take up the lessons of life where
we left off in our previous existence.

   If the questions asked why we do not remember our previous existences  if
we have had them,  the answer is easy.  We do not now remember what we did a
month ago, a year, or a few years ago.  How then could we expect to remember
so much farther back?  We had a different brain attuned to the consciousness
of  the previous life.   Nevertheless,  there are people who remember  their
past  existences and more are cultivating the faculty every year,  it  being
latent within each human being.

   But  as  Paul  says  very properly in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  First
Corinthians, "if the dead rise not, then our faith is vain and we are of all
men the most miserable."   Therefore the neophyte who has passed the door of
initiation  into the invisible world is always brought to the bedside  of  a
dying child.   He sees the Spirit pass out and is told to watch that  Spirit
in  the invisible world until it seeks new embodiment.   For this purpose  a
child is generally selected which is destined to seek rebirth within a  year
or two.   Thus within a comparatively short time the neophyte sees for  him-
self how a Spirit passed out through the portal of death and enters physical
life again through the womb.  Then he has the proof.  Reason  and faith must


[PAGE 91]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

suffice those who are not prepared to pay the price for firsthand knowledge,
which is not to be bought for gold.  The price is paid in one's lifeblood.


                             FATE OR FREE WILL?

                              QUESTION NO. 30.

   CAN WE BY FORCE OF WILL CONTROL THE ASPECTS SHOWN IN OUR HOROSCOPE?  HAVE
WE ANY RIGHT THUS TO CHANGE THE DESTINY BROUGHT OVER FORM OUR LAST LIFE?

   ANSWER:   Can we by force of will control the aspects in  our  horoscope?
that is a pretty big question,  but we may say that if the aspects in  one's
horoscope can't be controlled, and we have to do thus and so,  then we might
as well lie down and take our medicine and drift along.   If fate rules  and
we  are helpless on the sea of life,  what in the world would be the use  of
studying astrology?   What would be the one factor that is not shown in  the
horoscope,  and that is the will of man.  That is what makes all the differ-
ence.

   Let  us suppose that two people have the same aspects coming on in  their
horoscopes;  they  may  have  been  born  close to the same time and may get


[PAGE 92]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

horoscopes  that are very much alike in some respects.   They have the  same
sign rising and the same planets are in conjunction.   Suppose they have the
same  afflictions coming on to one of the major planets,  and one sits  down
and says,  "I can't help it.   Here it is.   I have simply got to go through
with it.  There is no use fighting."  And the other would say, "I am not go-
ing to submit.   I am going to stand up in my boots and fight."   The mental
attitude of the latter would change events entirely for him.

   That is why we never can predict with absolute certainty.  In ninety-nine
cases  out  of a hundred we can predict with certainty because  most  people
drift with the tide, but that is just the reason for studying astrology.  By
means of the stellar science we know what is coming, and if we see something
evil,  we can say,  "I know there is a certain influence coming and I am not
going to submit to it."   We have seen, however,  so many,  many cases where
people are ruled by their stars in spite of all.  We have told people a cer-
tain  influence would come up and that they would act rashly to their  great
hurt if they weren't careful, and at the very moment predicted they would go
and do just the very thing they have been warned against.

   However,  there is this great comfort:  the stars IMPEL but  they  cannot
COMPEL.  That is the basis upon which we should work with the stars to bring
out  all  the good of our horoscope.  When we see the good  aspects  coming,
somethings that makes for soul growth, try  to  work  with  it by all means.


[PAGE 93]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

People  are too often prone to let good aspects take care of themselves,  as
well as the evil.   Whether we are going to take up our part,  is  something
that can't be foretold.

   Have  we any right to change destiny brought over?   Certainly,  that  is
what  we  are supposed to do.   In a former life we drifted into  a  certain
stellar position, and we had to bring it over with us.  Now we are here just
for the purpose of learning to guide ourselves and rule our stars,  and that
is just what the science of astrology is given to us for.  We must try to do
the best we can with this knowledge, otherwise it may become a curse.  There
are  people who constantly watch their horoscopes with the attitude of:   "I
am going to be sick and I can see death is certain,"  etc.   If that is  the
way they are going to use it, it is better not to study astrology.

                           INTERFERING WITH KARMA


                               QUESTION NO. 31

   IS IT WRONG TO INTERFERE WITH KARMA, OR SHOULD WE ASSERT OUR DIVINITY AND
RISE ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES BY AFFIRMATION OF OUR GODHOOD?

   ANSWER:   A question like the above was asked Mr.  Heindel at one of  his
recent lectures in Los Angeles, and he answered about as follows:  While all


[PAGE 94]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

great religions are God-given,  there is a Western religion for the  Western
people  as well as Hinduism for the people of India,  and I can see no  good
reason  why we should copy their terminology and force people here to  learn
Sanskrit when we have an excellent language of our own,  with terms  capable
of  explaining everything.   To make the matter clear,  we will take an  in-
stance which occurred a number of years ago.   There was at that time a con-
troversy in a certain society which makes the mistake of promulgating  East-
ern teachings and using their terms here in the West.  The dispute was about
the word "AVYAKTAM."

   Not  even the Hindus are certain about the meaning of their  terminology.
Tons of paper and barrels of ink were used to settle the controversy and the
following  seems to be the definition upon which they  finally  compromised:
"Avyaktam" is Parabraham clothed in Mulaprakriti, from which its UPAHHIS are
made during the Manvantara, and into which they areagain resolved on arrival
of the Arolaya."   Mr.  Heindel then said that he hoped the audience  under-
stood the meaning of "Avyaktam."   When the audience laughed and shook their
heads, the speaker expressed himself as being sorry for their lack of under-
standing  of such a highly learned explanation,  he would try the  ORDINARY,
garden variety of  English and see if that would explain.   "Avyaktam is De-
ity clothed in Cosmic Root Substance,  from which its vehicles are made dur-
ing the Day of Manifestation,  and into which they again resolve on  arrival
of the Cosmic Night."


[PAGE 95]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    When  the audience had declared they comprehended this explanation,  Mr.
Heindel  said it is the same with the word "karma."   Everybody in the  U.S.
and  a large part of the world besides,  knows what a "debt of  destiny"  is
without explanation, and there are a number of other English words which may
be used with better effect than the Hindu word KARMA,  which is  meaningless
to  the majority of Westerners.   The speaker also held that such  words  as
"astral"  and "incarnation"  were out of place because they have  been  con-
ceived to mean something not warranted.   He was sorry that the word "incar-
nation" had been used in our earliest literature, notably in the COSMO.  The
Elder  Brothers  who gave him the teaching in German always  used  the  word
"Wiedergeburt"  which means rebirth, and there is a great deal of difference
between the two terms which may not appear at first sight.

   It is possible for a Spirit to incarnate in an adult body by ousting  the
owner  from his vehicle,  by obsessing the body,  but when we  say  rebirth,
there is,  and can be,  only one meaning.   In view of these facts he  urges
upon  students never to use the term "incarnation"  but always the word  re-
birth.  Continuing he answered the question as follows:  We will now take up
the first part of the question, Is it wrong to interfere with destiny?   And
to  arrive  at  a conclusion, let us first realize who made the destiny!  WE


[PAGE 96]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

did.   We set the force going which has now ripened into destiny, and having
made it,  we certainly have the right to change it in so far as we are able.
In  fact  this  is the hallmark of Divinity--to rule  ourselves.   The  very
greatest  majority  of mankind is ruled by the heavenly orbs  which  may  be
called  the  "Clock of Destiny."   The twelve signs of the zodiac  mark  the
twelve  hours of the day and night,  the planets may be likened to the  hour
hand and show the year when a certain debt of destiny is ripe for expression
in our lives.  The Moon indicates the month, and attracts certain influences
felt by us without our knowing that they are being exerted,  or without  our
realization of what they are for.

   However, these influences will tend to bring our actions in line with the
destiny which we have made in previous years or previous lives,  and invari-
ably the thing which is foreshown will come to pass.

   That  is it will unless we exert ourselves.   Yes,  there is  an  UNLESS,
thank God,  for if it were not so,  if there were no possibility of changing
destiny,  then we might as well sit down and say, "Let us eat, drink, and be
merry,  for tomorrow we die."   We should then be in the hands of inexorable
fate,  and unable to help ourselves.   But,  thank God,  there is one chance
which is not shown in the horoscope, namely,  that the human WILL may assert
itself and frustrate Fate.   You remember that beautiful little poem in  the
COSMO:


[PAGE 97]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   "One ship sails east and another sails west
   With the self same wind that blows.
   "Tis the set of the sail, and not the gale
   Which determines the way they go."

   It is of the utmost importance that we set the sails of the barque of our
lives as we want and never scruple about interfering with fate.

   This  disposes also of the idea of "affirmations"  as a factor  in  life.
This in itself is folly.  It is work and action that we need in life, as you
will readily see by an illustration.  Suppose a little seed of those beauti-
ful carnations were endowed with speech,  and it came to us saying,  "I am a
carnation."   Would you not answer:  "No, you are not a carnation, you fool-
ish little thing.  You have the potentiality in you, but you will have to go
out into the garden and bury yourself for a while and grow.  By that process
alone  can you become a carnation,  never by affirmation."   Similarly  with
ourselves.   All the "affirmations"  of Divinity are in vain unless accompa-
nied  by actions of a divine character.   Deeds will prove our  divinity  as
words never can.


[PAGE 98]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                           THE FRUIT OF EVOLUTION

                              QUESTION NO. 32.

   WHAT  IS IT WE BRING BACK AFTER OUR EVOLUTIONARY JOURNEY?   IF SPIRIT  IS
PERFECT IN THE BEGINNING, WHAT CAN WE ADD?

   ANSWER:   We are taught that in the beginning of manifestation  God,  the
Great Spirit,  differentiates WITHIN Himself (not from Himself) a number  of
Spirits  which are as sparks from a flame,  partakers of the divine  nature,
yet  no one will contend that a spark is as good and as illuminative as  the
flame, though of the same substance.  Before the differentiation these Spir-
its possessed and partook of the divine all-consciousness, omniscience,  and
other attributes.   These divine faculties are latent in them,  and the pil-
grimage  through  matter,  the evolutionary journey,  is  designed  for  the
purpose  of  fanning these sparks into flames and unfolding  the  attributes
which  are in latency to potency,  so that they may become  dynamic  powers,
ready for use by each individual Spirit.

   However,  there  is something more gained.  When the wind  blows  over  a
new-mown  hay field it absorbs and carries with itself the fragrance of  the
myriad of flowers.  It is laden with the incense peculiar to that field.  In
another place,  where the wind blows through a garden of roses or of  orange
blossom, it gathers a different scent.  Similarly with the evolving Spirits.


[PAGE 99]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Each one, during the fanning process in the evolutionary field,  gathers the
aroma  of its individual experience,  and at the end of evolution  when,  as
Prodigal  Sons,  we return to the bosom of the Father,  each one of us  will
carry with him or her the aroma of his particular and individual  experience
upon the evolutionary journey.  This composite essence, then,  will be amal-
gamated  with the great Divine Spirit of the Father;  we shall then  all  be
partakers  of one another's experience,  and the Father will be partaker  of
all of our experience.  Thus there will be a distinct gain to all concerned,
for besides having evolved our own individuality we shall learn and  partake
of  the  knowledge and experience gathered by all the other Spirits  in  our
life wave.

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

                 ROSICRUCIAN VIEWPOINT OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

                              QUESTION NO. 33.

   DO  THE  ROSICRUCIANS BELIEVE IN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT,  AND IF  SO,  PLEASE
STATE THE REASONS WHY.  WHEN A MAN HAS BEEN EXECUTED, DOES HE COME UNDER THE
LAW OF INFANT MORTALITY IN HIS NEXT LIFE AND DIE AS A CHILD THE SAME AS VIC-
TIMS OF ACCIDENTS?

   ANSWER:   The Rosicrucian Teachings are never in conflict with the Chris-
tian religion,  and  we  know  that  according  to  the  doctrine  of Christ


[PAGE 100]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

the principle of retaliation,  "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,"  is
absolutely wrong.   Besides, from the occult standpoint there are other good
and sufficient reasons why capital punishment is emphatically the worst pos-
sible  manner of dealing with a dangerous man.  So long as such a man is  in
the physical body it is easy to restrain him and put him in a place where he
cannot do society any harm,  but when we hang or electrocute him we actually
set  him at liberty in the Desire World where it is possible for him to  in-
fluence others to a much greater extent than here.

   Such people who are a menace to society are not slow in finding out their
possibilities  and taking advantage of them.  They incite others who have  a
grievance  against  the community to do their work by  encouraging  them  to
wreck buildings, commit murder or rape, or perhaps gratify a personal griev-
ance against some enemy by taking his life.   Thus one murder will result in
a  number  of other crimes by the practice of capital  punishment.   On  the
other hand,  if the murderer were imprisoned for the safety of the community
it  is possible that during the years of his life in such an institution  he
would change his views.  A great many of them do repent of their crimes, and
then when released from the body and sent out into the Desire World at death
they  are no longer a menace to society and will not have an evil  influence
upon others.

   For these reasons capital punishment is really subversive of the  purpose
for  which  it  is meted out.  It does not act as a deterrent to others, but


[PAGE 101]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

actually fosters crime.   Thus,  even apart from the facts that the practice
of  retaliation is absolutely wrong,  that we have no right to take  a  life
which  we cannot give,  and that at times the wrong man is found guilty  and
executed  for a crime he never committed while the real murderer goes  free,
capital punishment should be abolished to lessen crime.

   Referring to your question as to whether a murderer who has been executed
will have to die as a child in the next life, we may answer, yes.  According
to the law of infant mortality, anyone who dies under horrible circumstances
so  that he does not attend to the panorama of his life,  which is  reviewed
just after death, does not reap the fruits of his past life.   When a person
is executed,  the shock, the anger, and the resentment he feels--the horrors
of the whole proceeding--deprive him of the peace and quiet necessary to the
post-mortem work so that he will not obtain a record of the life just ended.
Therefore, this lack will have to be supplied by educational work done after
he  has died as a child in the next life exactly on the lines we have  shown
in  other places in our literature where the law of infant mortality is  ex-
plained.



[PAGE 102]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                             YOUNG SOULS AND OLD
                              QUESTION NO. 34.

   YOU SPEAK OF YOUNG SOULS.   WERE NOT ALL STARTED INTO THIS EARTH LIFE  AT
THE SAME TIME, OR DID SOME COME ON A PREVIOUS LIFE WAVE?

   ANSWER:   The detailed explanation of this great question is given in THE
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION,  particularly in the chapter on stragglers and
newcomers,  but we may say briefly that the human life wave now in evolution
on the earth comprises about six billion spirits.  At the present time about
1,500 million are embodied, so that there are about three fourths of the hu-
man life wave in the invisible worlds.   At certain periods of our  develop-
ment as many as 50 per cent inhabit the earth, clothed in the earthen vessel
of physical bodies.   It must also be remembered that in addition to  these,
which belong to the earth ray only,  there are other hosts inhabiting  Mars,
Mercury, Venus, and the other planets.

   However,  the whole vast company of Virgin Spirits commenced their evolu-
tion in our solar period at the same time in a mineral-like existence.  Dif-
ferences soon developed, however.  Some were found to be much more adaptable
than  others and they naturally progressed faster upon the path  than  their
brethren who then become stragglers.   As we advanced along the evolutionary
course the number of pioneers became smaller and smaller, and the company of


[PAGE 103]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

stragglers increased proportionately,  until we now find the pioneers of the
human  life wave evolving on earth in the Western World,  clothed in  bodies
having a white skin.  We speak of then as older souls because they are older
in experience,  while the so-called inferior races, such as the Hindus,  Ne-
groes,  Chinese, etc., may be called younger souls because they are young in
experience and development.

   It should be noted,  however, that this is the general rule only.   There
are  many young souls drawn to the West by ties of kindness and service,  or
by hate and the desire of vengeance on account of association in past lives.
We also find old souls born among the so-called lower races for the  purpose
of helping them to rise to a higher level.  Therefore, the color of the skin
is  no certain indication of the age of the soul any more than the color  of
the cover of a book reveals its nature.   It should also be understood  that
the terms "higher and lower races" and "older and younger souls"  are not to
be considered in any wise as reflecting or indicating superiority and  infe-
riority.   The Lords of Venus and the Lords of Mercury who helped us in  our
evolution are also Spirits belonging to our life wave and they have  evolved
so immeasurably far beyond our present status that they may look upon us  as
a grown young man regards his baby sister or brother.


[PAGE 104]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                                  SOUL AGE
                              QUESTION NO. 35.

   YOU  SOMETIMES  SPEAK  OF YOUNG SOULS AND OLD SOULS.   WERE  WE  NOT  ALL
STARTED IN THIS EARTH LIFE AT THE SAME TIME,  OR DID SOME COME ON A PREVIOUS
LIFE WAVE?  ARE NOT ALL THE WHITE PEOPLE OF THE SAME SOUL AGE?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  we started at the same time as the Virgin Spirits on  our
pilgrimage  of evolution,  but from the very start there were some who  were
more  adaptable to their environment than others.   Therefore from the  very
beginning  there have been some who have straggled behind in life's  school,
just  the same as we find children in our schools at the present day.   Some
are more precocious than others, and these precocious ones in life's schools
are  naturally  able to pass into phases of evolution carrying with  them  a
higher degree of consciousness than others.

   Thus the life wave which is now human has been automatically divided into
a  number  of  classes which we now see as white,  black,  red,  and  yellow
people,  and the lowest of the school are now the anthropoid apes.   On  the
other hand there are also some who have been particularly precocious and who
have  taken  higher steps in evolution than the majority of  mankind.   They
are,  comparatively speaking,  very few,  however, and we find them as  Ini-
tiates,  Adepts,  and Elder Brothers of humanity who stand at the top of the


[PAGE 105]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ladder of the human life wave.   Therefore, it is true that we have all been
on the road of evolution the same length of time,  but some have been   more
adaptable,  more diligent.  Consequently they have gathered for themselves a
greater  amount of experience.   That is what really makes the soul age,  so
that those who have attained the highest amount of knowledge may probably be
called "OLD SOULS," while those who are behind them are comparatively speak-
ing "YOUNG SOULS."  Those Spirits who inhabit the anthropoids we may say are
"SOULLESS."


                              JUDGING SOUL AGE

                               Question No. 36


   I SHOULD LIKE TO ASK A QUESTION REGARDING A STATEMENT MADE MY MR. HEINDEL
IN SOME OF HIS WRITINGS TO THE EFFECT THAT WHEN THE ASCENDANT IS IN ARIES IT
SHOWS THAT THE NATIVE IS A YOUNG SOUL, OR IN OTHER WORDS, AS IT WERE, IN THE
BEGINNING OF MATERIAL MANIFESTATION.  OPPOSING THIS,  MR.  HEINDEL ALSO SAYS
THAT WHENEVER THE ASCENDANT OCCURS IN SCORPIO, IT INDICATES THAT DISSOLUTION
HAS TAKEN PLACE AS A BEGINNING.

   NOW WHILE THE ARIES ASPECT INDICATES A PHYSICAL PROPOSITION,  THE SCORPIO
ASPECT LEAVES ONE  IN DOUBT.  IS THIS SCORPIO ASPECT RELATED TO THE PHYSICAL


[PAGE 106]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY


ALONE AND IN WHAT MANNER?  DOES DISSOLUTION FOLLOW IMMEDIATELY OR IS IT OF A
GRADUAL NATURE, FINALLY CULMINATING IN THE PASSING OF THE SIGN PISCES?

   MR.  HEINDEL ALSO STATES THAT THE CHART OF A SEVEN MONTHS'  CHILD IS DIF-
FICULT TO HANDLE IN THAT IT SEEMS OUT OF LINE WITH THE NATIVE CONCERNED.   I
AM  A SEVEN MONTHS'  EXAMPLE AND CAN VOUCHSAFE FOR THE TRUTH OF THIS  STATE-
MENT,  BUT TAKING THE FOREPART OF THIS LETTER INTO CONSIDERATION,  I AM AT A
LOSS AS TO JUST HOW I CAN RECONCILE CONDITIONS IN MY HOME AS REGARDS THE AS-
CENDANT  OF EACH MEMBER AND THE APPARENT INDICATION AND INCLINATION OF  EACH
AS OPPOSED TO MYSELF.

   ANSWER:  Even if it were true that we have made the statement you ascribe
to  us that those who have Aries on the Ascendant at birth are young  souls,
that would be no guide in your case, because you admit being a seven months'
child.  Therefore, the general principles could not be applied in your case,
but as a matter of fact we have never made such a statement.  If you look up
the  passage  to which you have reference,  you will find that  your  memory
played you a trick.   What we have said, and still, say,  is that the Spirit
is born under all the twelve signs in order that it may gain the  experience
which  comes from each and it may be taken on general principles that  THOSE
WHO  ARE BORN WITH ARIES ON THE ASCENDANT HAVE JUST ENTERED UPON A NEW  LIFE
CYCLE, A HIGHER SPIRAL ON THEIR PATH OF EVOLUTION.


[PAGE 107]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   Thus  it is evident that others in their immediate family or  environment
may have any of the other eleven signs rising and still be one or more rungs
or spirals below or above the one who has Aries on the Ascendant.  When this
is understood you will also readily realize that when a person reaches Scor-
pio,  the sign of death and dissolution, the fruits of all the  lives  under
the  various  preceding signs are beginning to ripen and dissolve,  so  that
when the Spirit progresses through Capricorn,  Aquarius,  and Pisces,  these
fruits are gradually assimilated and the seed ripens for the entrance of the
soul into Aries and the commencement of a new life cycle.

   It  should  also be understood that the number of births under  any  par-
ticular  sign  varies according to the adaptability of the  Spirit  and  the
readiness  wherewith it learns the lessons that have been set for it by  the
divine  Hierarchies.   There may be only one birth under Aries in a  certain
life  cycle and perhaps five or ten under other signs,  and vice  versa,  so
that  if  two Spirits were to enter birth under the sign Aries on  the  same
spiral  of  evolution and one were diligent in learning his lessons  in  the
school of life,  he might be promoted to the Taurus or even the Gemini class
before the other left Aries.   Then he having a particular liking for Gemini
work might speed on past the other who would be slow in the Cancer path, and
so on.   There are no definite rules.   Everything depends upon the inherent
quality of the Ego,  and  what  one  does  is no criterion whatever for what


[PAGE 108]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

another may do.  Thus you cannot judge the status of any one merely by exam-
ining his Ascendant.

   There is only one method that gives an approximate solution of the  prob-
lem  and  shows what is the intention of the divine Hierarchs  concerning  a
particular  life,  and that is by comparing the relative progression of  the
Ascendant  and the Midheaven.   When you do this you will note that  one  of
them  moves  faster  than the other.   Supposing,  for  instance,  that  you
progress the horoscope of a person for forty years.  Let us say that one de-
gree of Aries is on the Midheaven and one degree of Cancer on the  Ascendant
at birth.   Suppose,  then,  that at any age of forty the Midheaven has pro-
gressed  to  Taurus  5 and the Ascendant to Leo 15.   This  shows  that  the
Midheaven has traveled 35 degrees while the Ascendant has traveled 45.   The
Midheaven denotes the spiral tendencies and opportunities in life, while the
Ascendant shows the material side.   Thus is it evident that the  opportuni-
ties placed before the Ego have been mainly material and the tendency of his
evolution in the particular life under consideration would be of the  earth,
earthly.

   But,  mark this:  the horoscope, as we have repeatedly reiterated,  shows
only tendencies, and it is quite possible for a person with such a horoscope
to determine to go his own way and cultivate all the spiritual opportunities
he possibly can.   If he has sufficient will power to do this he may  change
his  life  entirely.  Another,  who  Midheaven  progresses  faster  than his


[PAGE 109]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Ascendant,  might  find it difficult to attain material success,  but  would
have all the opportunities for soul growth he could wish placed in his path.
He  also  may determine that he will rule his stars and succeed  in  worldly
things,  but  whether he does or not depends upon the strength of  his  will
pitted against the suasion of the stars.



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



                     SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF BIRTH CONTROL


                               QUESTION NO. 37

   WILL YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN THE ROSICRUCIAN VIEWPOINT TOWARD BIRTH CONTROL?

   ANSWER:  In the first place we should remember that there are about sixty
billion Spirits in our life wave, going the cycle of life and death,  living
part  of the time in the visible and part in the invisible worlds.   At  the
present  time there are only fifteen hundred millions of people in  physical
existence.   This is about the lowest ebb,  and that usually happens at  the
end  of  an  age.   During the million years or more since we  came  out  of
Atlantis the average has been fifty to sixty million people.  It may also be
stated  that  the  Western  people  are  the  cream  of  this evolution, and


[PAGE 110]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

therefore it has fallen to our lot to grapple with the great problems  which
are always incidental to a transition stage.

   Woman has been the arbiter of the world's destiny in past  civilizations,
while man has had his way in others as is now the case.  We are now upon the
eve of a transition to a new Age where woman will again wield the scepter of
power and man will have to submit to her dictates,  but before that comes to
pass an era of equality will come.   This is called the Aquarian Age by  oc-
cultists,  and we are beginning to feel its effects since the middle of  the
last  century  when  the Sun by precession came within orb of  the  cusp  of
Aquarius.   It is, however, at the present time, still in ten degrees of Pi-
sces.   At the slow rate of travel of the equinox the Sun will not reach the
last degree of Aquarius until about six hundred years have passed.  But dur-
ing  that  time  there will of course be so many wonderful  changes  in  our
physical,  moral,  and mental status, that we are unable at the present time
to conceive what we shall be like then.

   We  who are now in the body will be followed by groups of  Spirits  still
more evolved than we,  who will bring about great reforms,  and by the  time
the people on earth at the present time are reborn about four hundred  years
of the Aquarian Age will be passed,  so that the world will be well  started
on the line development peculiar to that time.  The backward Spirits who are
born into the atmosphere of great intellectual attainment  will thereby gain


[PAGE 111]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

an immense uplift on the same principle that an electric conductor which  is
brought into close proximity to a highly charged wire will automatically re-
ceive  a  charge of a lower voltage.  Thus each class or group  which  rises
helps  also to raise those who are below it in the scale of evolution.   The
matter of population,  then, is not entirely governed by individuals,  or by
manmade laws.  The divine hierarchs who guide our evolution arrange the mat-
ter  as required for the highest good for all concerned,  and the number  of
population is in their hands rather than in our own.

   This does not mean that we cannot or should not exercise birth control in
some degree as suggested by those who are responsible for that movement.  It
is  also  true that one must help people where they are and not  where  they
ought  to be.   The Rosicrucian teachings emphasize the fact that  like  at-
tracts like,  and therefore it is a duty upon the part of those who are well
developed physically, morally, and mentally to provide an environment for as
many  incoming  Spirits as their physical and financial  circumstances  will
permit.  This duty is still more binding upon those who are also spiritually
developed,  for a high spiritual entity cannot enter into physical existence
through a vile parentage.   But when a couple has reached the point where it
is  deemed either dangerous to the health of the mother to bear  more  chil-
dren,  or where the financial burden would be above their means,  then  they
should  live  a  life  of  continence,  not  indulging  the passional nature


[PAGE 112]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

and seeking by artificial means to bar the way for incoming Egos to take ad-
vantage of the opportunity for rebirth offered them by the sexual indulgence
of such a couple.

   This   naturally   requires  considerable   spiritual   advancement   and
self-control.   There are few who are capable of living such a life, and one
might  as well preach continence to a stone wall as to the average  specimen
of humanity.   He cannot understand that it is necessary.   He even believes
that it would interfere with his health,  for false statements about the ne-
cessity  of exercising the natural function has led to many  deplorable  re-
sults.   Even if he could be persuaded that he ought to deny himself for the
good of his mate and the children he has already brought into the world,  he
would probably be utterly unable to restrain himself,  particularly  because
people  in  such  moderate  circumstances can usually  not  afford  to  have
separate  sleeping quarters.   Therefore it may be necessary to teach  these
people birth control by scientific means.   However,  we submit that  though
they are unable to understand the reason why continence should be practiced,
and  unable  to practice it because of lace of self-control,  THE  SPIRITUAL
TEACHINGS  SHOULD BE GIVEN REPEATEDLY so that as the steady drop  wears  the
stone, in time the coming generations will learn to depend on their own will
power  to  accomplish  the object of keeping their lower  nature  in  check.
Without  this educational feature looking towards a spiritual  emancipation,
information  concerning  physical  methods  of  limiting  the  birth rate in


[PAGE 113]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

families that are overburdened is dangerous in the extreme.

   There is another phase of the matter which deserves elucidation.   It has
been said that,  "the attitude of the mother's mind just prior to the recep-
tion of the seed atom is all-important in determining what sort of child she
will  bring  into the world.   A fit of temper or violent  passion  at  this
sacred moment leaves the gateway unguarded and invites the wrong sort of en-
tity  to enter."   Besides the people in the world we see,  the whole  atmo-
sphere about us teems with different other entities who are attracted to be-
ings  of  a  like nature.   Just as musicians  congregate  in  music  halls,
sportsmen  in yacht clubs and on race tracks,  etc.,  so do  these  entities
gather  around people of a nature similar to their own.   As  drunkards  and
gangsters gather around our physical saloons, as immoral men and woman  meet
in  so-called redlight districts,  so also IMMORAL SPIRITS GATHER  AROUND  A
HOME WHERE THE PASSIONS OF THE LOWER NATURE ARE INDULGED PERHAPS MANY  TIMES
DURING THE NIGHT OR DAY.

   There  is a certain class of beings, male or female demons living in  the
ether,  who were called by the ancient alchemists incubi and succubi,  which
feed upon the passions of others.  What chance has a mother in such an envi-
ronment of attracting desirable Spirit to take rebirth through her?  And al-
though conception is almost never synchronous with the union of the parents,
but  may  take  place  at any moment with two weeks or more of that event, a


[PAGE 114]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

mother  surrounded by such influences in the home is never free  from  them.
Some of the religions of some of the people we call savages require to  this
day  that the generative act be performed in the temple,  and that is as  it
should  be.   There is no more important act in life,  and instead of  being
condemned  as a shame it ought to be exalted to the dignity of  a  sacrament
and  performed under the holiest and most inspiring circumstances  possible.
Were  this  done today as in the so-called Golden Age,  we  should  find  an
upliftment and an improvement in the conditions of the world as we would not
deem possible to accomplish in centuries.


[PAGE 115]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


                                 SECTION III


                           QUESTIONS DEALING WITH

                             HEALTH AND HEALING


[PAGE 116]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY
  



                              DIAGRAM 2:

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|   
|                                                                         |    
|                         THE SEVEN WORLDS                                |   
|                                                                         |   
|                          /\                                             |   
|WORLD OF    Consisting of/  \ 7 Regions.                                 |   
|  GOD                   /GOD \                                           |   
|                       --------                                          |   
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|   
|WORLD OF    This World consists of 7 Regions and is the  abode |         |   
| VIRGIN     of the Virgin Spirits when they have been  differ- |         |   
|SPIRITS     entiated in  God  before  the  pilgrimage  through |VEHICLES |   
|            matter.                                            | OF MAN: |   
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|<<|
|WORLD OF    Consists of 7 Regions and  is  the  abode  of  the | Divine  |  |
|DIVINE      highest spiritual influence in man.                | Spirit  |  |
|SPIRIT                                                         |         |  |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|  |
|WORLD OF    Consists of 7 Regions and is the abode of the  se- | Life    |  |
|LIFE        second aspect of the threefold spirit in man.      | Spirit  |  |
|SPIRIT                                                         |         |  T
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|  H
|WORLD OF                                                       |         |  E 
|THOUGHT:                                                       |         |   
|                                                               |         |  E
|            7th Region contains the germinal idea of  form  in |         |  G
|            mineral, plant, animal and man.                    | Human   |  O
|REGION OF   6th Region contains germinal idea of life in plant |         |  |
|ABSTRACT    animal and man.                                    | Spirit  |  |
|THOUGHT     5th Region contains germinal idea  of  desire  and |         |  |
|            emotion in animal and man; abode of 3rd aspect  of |         |  |
|            spirit in man.                                     |         |  |
|      -------------------------------------------------------------------|<<<
|            4th Region contains the archetypal forces and  the |         |  |
|REGION OF   human mind. It is the focusing point through which |         |  |
|CONCRETE    the spirit mirrors itself in matter.               |  Mind   |THE
|THOUGHT     3rd Region: archetypes of desire and emotion.      |         LINK
|            2nd Region: archetypes of universal vitality.      |      BETWEEN
|            1st Region: archetypes of form                     |         |  |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|<<<
|            7th Region: Soul-Power >--|                        |         |  |
|            6th Region: Soul-Light >--|---->>Attraction        |         |  |
|            5th Region: Soul-Life  >--|                        |         |  |
|                                                               |         |  |
| DESIRE                          |--< Interest                 |  Desire |  T
|            4th Region: Feeling<-|                             |         |  H
|                                 |--< Indifference             |         |  E
| WORLD                                                         |   Body  |    
|            3rd Region: Wishes                 >--|            |         |  P
|            2nd Region: Impressionability      >--|->>Repulsion|         |  E
|            1st Region: Passion and Low Desire >--|            |         |  R
|---------------------------------------------------------------|---------|  S
|PHYSICAL                                                       |         |  O
| WORLD:                                                        |         |  N
|                                                               | Vital   |  A
|            7th Region: Reflecting ether, memory of nature.    |         |  L
|ETHERIC     6th Region: Light ether, medium of  sense  percep- |  Body   |  I
|REGION                  tion.                                  |         |  T
|            5th Region: Life ether, medium for propagation.    |         |  Y
|            4th Region: Chemical ether, medium  for  assimila- |         |  |
|                        tion and excretion.                    |         |  |
|      ---------------------------------------------------------|---------|  |
|CHEMICAL    3rd Region: Gases                                  | Dense   |  |
|REGION      2nd Region: Liquids                                |         |  |
|            1st Region: Solids                                 |  Body   |  |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|<<<






[PAGE 117]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                 PROCEDURE WITH SO-CALLED INCURABLE DISEASES

                              QUESTION NO. 38.

   DO YOU THINK IT ADVISABLE TO ASK FOR TREATMENT IN SUCH CASES OF  CONSUMP-
TION,  CANCER, SCLEROSIS AND THE LIKE, OR SHOULD WE ACCEPT THESE DISEASES AS
INCURABLE,  THE RESULT OF SOME CAUSE IN THE PAST,  AND WAIT FOR A MORE EFFI-
CIENT BODY IN ANOTHER LIFE?

   ANSWER:   Cancer and consumption are often seemingly incurable, yet there
is always a possibility that they may yield,  and they certainly will  yield
if the force directed against them is sufficient.   Like all other  physical
manifestations they are the result of a spiritual cause,  and if we can  get
at that,  offset it with something of an opposite nature,  there is a chance
of recovery; whereas the attitude of resignation and nonassistance will cer-
tainly never bring the patient out of his condition.   Life in a  salubrious
climate,  a strong desire for health,  a hope that neither knows nor permits
of  discouragement,  and a simple nutritious diet will cure even  the  worst
case of consumption.

   As  for cancer,  no one can ever tell when the debt of destiny which  has
caused the trouble has been paid.  There are many cases on record where can-
cer  has  been  cured;  that is to say, in its milder forms.  But even in an


[PAGE 118]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

advanced  stage  there is no reason for giving up hope as long as  there  is
life.  In the case of sclerosis there are several methods of curing it,  and
the patient may become as well as ever particularly if he can be brought  to
recognize  the breach of the laws of nature which caused the disease in  his
particular case.

   It is to this end that we should always labor, for whether any disease be
cured or not,  if the patient can be taught what laws have been transgressed
and how, if he can be led to see what is the spiritual cause of the disease,
and learn to walk in the way of virtue according to the laws of God, then in
the future there will be no disease for him.  It is that which we are labor-
ing for, that we may hasten the day of Liberation, and bring all mankind to-
ward the full realization of health.


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


                 MORPHINE AND THE POST-MORTEM CONSCIOUSNESS


                              QUESTION NO. 39.

   WHAT  IS  THE EFFECT OF MORPHINE ON THOSE WHO ARE ADDICTED  TO  ITS  USE?
WHEN A PERSON WHO HAS BEEN VERY ILL FOR A LONG TIME, AND WHO, BECAUSE OF THE
SEVERE SUFFERING,  HAS BEEN KEPT UNCONSCIOUS BY LARGE DOSES OF MORPHINE  FOR
MANY DAYS, PASSES FROM  EARTH  LIFE  IN  THAT  CONDITION,  DOES THE RELEASED


[PAGE 119]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

SPIRIT BECOME CONSCIOUS WHEN IT LEAVES THE BODY?  WHAT IS ITS CONDITION COM-
PARED TO THAT OF ONE WHO DIES SUDDENLY AND IN FULL POSSESSION OF ALL  FACUL-
TIES?

   ANSWER:  The use of morphine and other narcotics in very small doses such
as  are generally taken by the ordinary drug addict has a  deadening  effect
upon  the nerves,  so that the Spirit feels less sensitive in the  body  and
more like the freed Spirit which left the physical vehicle.  Under such con-
ditions the mental faculties are better,  and the person feels such an  ease
of  mind and body that it is like heaven itself until the reaction sets  in;
then he begins to suffer the tortures of hell,  and consequently takes  more
in order to restore his previous sense of well-being.

   When morphine is given in large doses, it produces a condition similar to
that of a person who passes out while under an anesthetic.   The writer  has
met a number of the latter,  but has never seen one who passed out under the
action  of morphine;  therefore he cannot give the direct information  asked
for.   But these people who died under an anesthetic were just as  conscious
as  the ordinary human being after the silver cord has been  severed.   They
went  through  their life panorama in about the same way as the  person  who
passes out normally, and had no different experiences.   Therefore we should
say that one who passes out under morphine probably has no  extra-unpleasant


[PAGE 120]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

experience  on account of the morphine given him before his transition;  and
the first feeling would be one of great relief that he had escaped from  the
suffering  incident to severe illness preceding death of the physical  body.
This feeling of relief is common to all who have suffered, no matter whether
consciously or unconsciously.   They are all exceedingly grateful that  this
is past,  and can scarcely realize that there is no sickness in the land  of
the living dead to which they go after leaving this world.


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

                             IDIOCY AND INSANITY

                               QUESTION NO. 40

   ARE  DOCTORS JUSTIFIED IN ALLOWING A CHILD TO DIE THAT IS BOUND TO BE  AN
IDIOT  AND  PHYSICALLY HELPLESS WHEN AN OPERATION WOULD ENABLE IT  TO  LIVE.
DOES  AN  IDIOT OR AN INSANE PERSON GAIN ANY WORTH-WHILE  EXPERIENCE  DURING
LIFE?   IS THE EGO WITHIN AWARE OF THE PHYSICAL DISABILITY OF THE  MIND  AND
BODY DURING SUCH A LIFE, AND DOES IT LEARN THEREBY?  CAN INSANITY BE CLASSED
AMONG THE HEREDITARY DISEASES?

   ANSWER:   Suppose a child met with an accident while playing,  a blow  on
the  head,  and  hence  became abnormal,  or perhaps was put into a state of


[PAGE 121]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

coma; no one would hesitate for a moment to have the operation of trepanning
performed  so that by taking the pressure off the skull from the  brain  the
child  might  be restored to its normal state of  consciousness.   They  why
should  a weak-minded child not receive the same care,  and have  everything
done  for it that is possible?   It would be considered criminal to allow  a
normal child to die for lack of care, and it is just as indefensible in  the
case of a child born to be an idiot,  for when the Ego has gone through  the
womb in order to gain the experiences of this physical life,  we are in duty
bound to support its efforts in every possible manner.

   The Ego does gain experience by a life of insanity, for the Ego itself is
never insane.   It is improper connection between its various vehicles,  the
mind,  desire body, vital body, and dense body, which makes insanity.   When
the connection between the brain centers and the vital body is imperfect, we
have  what  is called the idiot,  often melancholy but  generally  perfectly
harmless.   When the faulty connection is between the vital body and the de-
sire body,  the conditions are somewhat similar, but include the class whose
muscular control is defective, as in epilepsy., St Vitus dance,  etc.   When
the connection is broken or faulty between the desire body and the mind,  we
have a raving maniac who is violent and dangerous.   And when the connection
is  defective  between the Ego and the mind,  we have what we might  call  a
soulless  man,  the  most  dangerous  of  all, gifted with a cunning that is


[PAGE 122]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

usually at some unexpected time put to a most diabolical use.

   If we consider the body, or the different bodies,  as musical instruments
upon which the Ego is playing, then when every connection is perfect the Ego
can bring out more or less beautiful symphony of life according to its state
in evolution.  But when the connections are faulty or broken the Ego is like
a musican forced to exercise his talent with an instrument lacking a  number
of  strings,  and he is therefore unable to bring out anything but  discord.
To the musician it would be torture to be forced to play on such a defective
instrument;  and it is the same with the Ego which is immured in a body  cut
off from its normal control.   For reasons to be sought in past lives it  is
forced  to stay with a body that it cannot control,  and it suffers more  or
less  acutely  according to its stage in evolution;  thus,  however,  it  is
learning a certain lesson in the school of life which is required to make it
perfect.   It is a sad condition,  but though a lifetime appears to be  very
long, it is but a fleeting moment in the unending life of the Spirit; and we
may console ourselves with the knowledge that when such an Ego comes back to
earth  it  will have a normal body, provided of course that the  lesson  has
been learned.

   With  respect to the last part of the question as to whether insanity  is
hereditary,  we may answer in the affirmative or the negative  according  to
which  phase  of  the  problem we are considering.  From the spiritual point


[PAGE 123]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

of view it is not hereditary for,  as already stated,  insanity is not a de-
fect in the Ego.  Because of a twist in its character it cannot build a nor-
mal body, hence by association it is drawn to a family that is similarly af-
flicted.   This is on the very same principle that people of like  character
always  seek  one another's company;  as the old saying goes,  "birds  of  a
feather flock together."  Musicians congregate in music halls,  at concerts,
and similar places.   They also seek birth in families of musicians  because
there the instruments needed,  long slender fingers and an ear in which  the
semicircular canals are properly placed,  can be obtained,  which will  give
them the ability to express music.  Sporting men and gamblers flock together
at race tracks and in gambling dens.  Thieves have their resorts, and so on.
Similarly,  those with a certain defect in their character are attracted  to
families which have the same defect.  Hence if we view the problem of insan-
ity from the form side, it may be said that it is hereditary.

   Scientists  who  view the matter entirely from the form side are  of  the
opinion  that by limiting the reproduction of defectives they may stamp  out
disease.   But just as the soft juices of the snail's body are gradually set
out  and  crystallized into the hard and flinty shell it  carries  upon  its
back,  so it is also the acts of the Ego which gradually  crystallize  them-
selves into a body wherein the Spirit must dwell until they are worked  out.
Relief will never be obtained  by  working  with  and upon the physical body


[PAGE 124]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

alone,  any  more  than operating upon the shell would cure  a  sick  snail.
Emerson  said truly that "a sick man is a scoundrel who has been found  out,
breaking the laws of nature."   The insane are in that category,  and if  we
wish to cure them we must use spiritual means of education.  All other meth-
ods are simply palliative; they do not reach the source of the disease.


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


                            EFFECTS OF AMPUTATION

                              QUESTION NO. 41.

   WHEN  AN ARM OR A LIMB IS AMPUTATED DOES THAT EXIST INDEPENDENTLY IN  THE
DESIRE WORLD AFTER THE AMPUTATION?  AND AFTER DEATH DOES A PERSON APPEAR MI-
NUS A HAND OR FOOT IN THE DESIRE WORLD?   I HAVE KNOWN PEOPLE TO SUFFER PAIN
IN A LIMB LONG AFTER AMPUTATION, EVEN YEARS.  HOW IS THIS ACCOUNTED FOR?

   ANSWER:   When  an arm,  limb,  or any organ has been  removed  from  the
physical body by any means of a surgical operation,  only the dense part  of
the organ permeated by the planetary ether is taken away.   The four  ethers
which  constitute the vital body of the man or woman thus operated upon  re-
main; but there is a certain magnetic connection  between  the part decaying


[PAGE 125]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

in the grave and the etheric counterpart which remains with the person.

Therefore,  he or she feels the pain and suffering in the part  removed  for
some time after an operation,  until decay has taken place,  and the etheric
counterpart has disintegrated.

   You  will find some interesting cases demonstrating this point  and  some
further teaching on this matter in the COSMO.   When a person who is injured
passes into the invisible realm, he thinks with the same mind, pictures him-
self there as he was in this world.   Consequently a scar on the forehead or
the loss of an arm or limb is reproduced by his thought in the matter of the
Desire World and he appears there disfigured as he was here.

   In  the  World War this was very noticeable,  for all  the  soldiers  who
passed  out with wounds which they could see and which they knew how to  de-
termine the effect of, reproduced these wounds in their desire bodies.  They
felt pain similar to what they would have felt if they had still been in the
physical body,  because they fancied that there must be pain connected  with
it.   However,  they were very quickly assisted by one another and by  those
who  had  been helped by the Elder Brothers to see the matter  right:   that
there was no actual pain.   As soon as they were convinced that their wounds
were but illusions and taught that they could shape their bodies in the nor-
mal and health state, they could quickly remedy the condition.


[PAGE 126]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                         DESTROYING SICK VIBRATIONS

                               QUESTION NO. 42

   THE  FOLLOWING  IS SENT IN BY A DOCTOR OF OSTEOPATHY:   AT  THE  TIME  OF
TREATMENT CAN ONE DESTROY SICK VIBRATIONS SO THAT THEY WILL NOT RETURN AFTER
TREATMENT?

   ANSWER:  If we read between the lines of this question we shall sense two
very  common difficulties in the practice of Osteopathy and kindred  methods
of treatment by the laying on of hands.   In this process there are two dis-
tinct  operations.   One is taking away from the patient something  that  is
poisonous and injurious,  provocative of disease; and there is also a giving
out of vital force by the doctor himself or herself.  Everybody who has done
any work of this kind knows this because it has been felt and is felt by ev-
erybody  who is successful.   Now,  unless the doctor or healer is  bubbling
over with radiant health, two things are liable to happen:  either the human
miasma taken away from the patient may so overwhelm him or her that,  to use
a common expression,  "he takes on the condition" of the patient,  or he may
give  too much of his own vital force,  and thus become  entirely  depleted.
Both  of these conditions may combine,  and then there comes a day when  the
physician or healer finds himself or herself run down and forced to rest up.

   Magnetic healers who are frankly unscientific,  often  escape  the first-


[PAGE 127]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

mentioned condition by "throwing off the magnetism,"  as they say,  but  all
are liable to be run down.   That is something that nobody can escape,  save
one who can see the etheric effluvia he takes and the vital fluid he  gives.
Most people are vampires when they are sick,  and the stronger and more  ro-
bust they are ordinarily,  the worst they are usually when sickness has  put
them in bed.   I have never been so sick as I was after treating a giant who
was  suffering from intense inflammation of the kidneys and had been in  bed
from this cause for more than two weeks.   It was dreadful to see his agony,
and I gave myself wholly,  with the result that I was prostrated.   The  pa-
tient,  however, was up the next morning and as well as ever.  He had my vi-
tality,  I had his disease, or at least the effluvia from it, and it took me
three days to get rid of it.  That was, of course,  before I was able to see
spiritually.

   Since  then I have gained considerable knowledge in this department,  and
the  questioner will find the following hint of value in keeping away  these
undesirable  conditions:   First,  fix your thought firmly in such a  manner
that  you will not allow this miasmatic effluvia which leaves the  patient's
body to enter your body farther than the elbow; second,  when you are giving
treatment  leave the patient once in a while and wash your hands in  running
water if possible;  but at any rate wash in water,  and change the water  as
frequently  as  possible.   The water has a twofold effect.   In  the  first
place, the effluvia leaving the patient's body  has  an  affinity for water.


[PAGE 128]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

In the second place, the moisture which stays upon your hands enables you to
get  the  miasma  from the patient in a larger measure  than  you  otherwise
would.

   This is on the very same principle that if you take the electrodes of  an
electrical battery and put them into water, you will find the effect of  the
electricity is many times intensified if you try to touch the water.

   So  also with yourself:   you are the electric battery in the  case,  and
your hands being moistened,  the miasma will be drawn to yourself in a  much
greater measure than otherwise.   If conditions are such that you cannot get
water you may try to throw off the magnetism, but then it is necessary to be
careful,  because when the magnetism is thrown away from you it is attracted
to the earth because it is subject to gravity.   To the spiritual vision  it
is a dark or rather a black, jelly-like fluid.  It lies shimmering and shiv-
ering  on  the floor.   If now the patient gets up relieved from  the  couch
where the treatment has been given,  and goes over the place where this mag-
netism has been thrown away, then the miasma will reenter the body and he or
she  will  be in a worse condition that before you  started  the  treatment.
Therefore, it is the best policy to throw such  miasma out of the window, or
better still, put it into a fireplace and then set fire to it.

   From the foregoing,  it is evident that this laying on of hands is  some-
thing that should not be done indiscriminately by any one who  has  not been


[PAGE 129]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

trained  in  one of the many properly schools of  Osteopathy,  Chiropractic,
etc.   In the School of the Rosicrucians, Probationers who live worthy lives
are trained under the special guidance of the Elder Brothers.


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


                              QUESTION NO. 43.


                         DESTROYING DISEASE PRODUCTS


   AT THE TIME OF TREATING A PATIENT, CAN ONE DESTROY THE VIBRATIONS OF DIS-
EASE SO THAT ONCE THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PATIENT THEY DO NOT RETURN
AFTER THE TREATMENT IS OVER?

   ANSWER:   We suppose you refer to magnetic treatment for disease,  and we
may  say that this method of healing consists wholly in removing  vibrations
of disease by absorption into the body of the healer,  who must have  suffi-
cient  vitality  to throw them off himself or he will become  ill  in  turn.
This  has been explained before in our literature,  but perhaps  taking  the
subject up from another angle may not prove uninteresting or uninstructive.

   When one looks with the spiritual sight at a person who is diseased,  the
patient's vital body looks thin and emaciated in proportion  to  the ravages


[PAGE 130]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

made by the disease.   There are no radiating lines from it as when the body
is  in health,  but a sickly emanation which curls up in eddies and  spirals
that  hand close to the dense body.   Instead of being pinkish-purple it  is
usually  a dull grey in most places, and the part that is particularly  dis-
eased is enveloped in something which resembles a mass of black jelly.  That
is  what we might call the vibrations of disease,  and at the time when  the
person receives a magnetic healing treatment it is this black poisonous mass
which  is absorbed into the hands of the healer.   When he or she throws  it
off by a vigorous movement of the arms it sinks to the floor.   Then if  the
patient  happens  to step close to that place where it lies he or  she  will
reabsorb it.   Therefore, it has always been the writer's practice to either
throw these emanations out of the window or into a fire place where they may
be burned.  They they can do no harm.

   But  while we are upon this subject it may be well to bring home  another
phase of this matter and the method of healing.  So long as an organ is dis-
eased  it generates this poison stuff which hangs about it and prevents  the
currents of the vital body from coarsing through it.  What a magnetic healer
does  is simply to cleanse this organ for the time being and thus  he  opens
the  way for the influx of life-giving and health-promoting  currents.   The
relief is usually only temporary,  for the weak and diseased organ continues
to generate the poison "miasma," as we call it, so that shortly  it requires


[PAGE 131]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

another  cleansing by the magnetic healer.   This continues until the  vital
currents  finally become sufficiently strong to over- master and  throw  off
the poison stuff and cleanse the organ themselves.  Then health returns.

   The  osteopathic physician goes at the matter from the opposite angle  by
manipulation of the nerves for the vital currents.   This strengthens  these
currents  and they begin to scatter the miasma in the diseased part  of  the
body.  However, it usually requires a number of treatments from him also be-
fore  health  is restored,  because the poison miasma blocks up  the  nerves
again shortly after he has ceased manipulations.   Therefore,  it would seem
to the writer,  though he has never tried it,  that a combination of the two
methods:   opening up the nerve currents and strengthening them by means  of
osteopathic treatments,  at the same time removing the poison miasma by mag-
netic healing,  being careful either to burn or otherwise dispose of the ef-
fluvia, ought to facilitate the treatment of disease wonderfully.


[PAGE 132]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                              HEALING THE SICK

                               QUESTION NO. 44

   HOW  DOES AN INITIATE HEAL THE SICK?  BY INVOCATION OF A HIGHER POWER  OR
CONCENTRATION OF HIS OWN?  IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FIRST AND THE
LAST METHOD?  IF SO, WHAT IS IT?

   ANSWER:  As the question stands it is difficult to answer.  While we know
certain methods of healing,  we also believe that the choice is a matter  of
temperament,  and the different methods of healing are probably used at dif-
ferent times by all Initiates as the occasion demands.  We know that on cer-
tain occasions the Christ addressed Himself to the Father when performing  a
cure.  At other times when He was in a crowd and someone touched Him, He ob-
served  that the virtue had gone out from Him and doubtless healed  the  one
who had drawn the force from Him.   All who have followed in His steps  have
no  doubt  varied  their methods to suit the occasion.   But  in  the  final
analysis  the healing power is the same, for it emanates from our Father  in
heaven  who is the Great Physician,  and each Initiate or healer absorbs  as
much  of His divine power as he is capable of containing,  giving it out  as
required to each suffering one that comes before Him.

   If you look up the article "How We heal the Sick"  in the Healing Depart-
ment of "Rays from the Rose Cross" for September, 1915, you will  find there


[PAGE 133]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

a  description  of our method which will throw considerable light  upon  the
subject.   (See page 105 of Occult Principles of Health and Healing.)  There
is also in the same magazine an article by Stuart Leech,  M.D.,  showing how
he saved himself the necessity of performing a surgical operation by  visit-
ing  the patient at night when he was out of his body,  materializing  hands
within the body of the patient,  and straightening out the trouble,  so that
the  next morning the patient was cured beyond the necessity of  having  the
knife applied.   This will probably make it clear that there is considerable
scope and latitude to the Initiate and Invisible Helper in dealing with  the
morbid conditions of the body.  As said before,  the healing balm comes from
our Father in heaven, and no matter who does the work or what method he uses
to bring health to the ailing, the glory and honor belong to God alone.


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


                          REMOVING DISEASED ORGANS

                               QUESTION NO. 45

   WHEN  WE  ARE AFFLICTED IN THIS LIFE AND HAVE A SURGICAL  OPERATION  PER-
FORMED AND THE DISEASED ORGAN REMOVED,  DOES THAT HEAL US PERMANENTLY OR  DO
WE RETURN IN A FUTURE BODY WITH A SIMILAR AILMENT?

   ANSWER:   Christ said:   "As a man thinketh in his heart so is  he,"  and
this  covers  the matter thoroughly when taken in its  widest  significance.
When  we enter the invisible realms after death and during  the  post-mortem
state undergo the purgatorial and First Heaven experiences, all our vehicles
are gradually dissolved, and we enter the Second Heaven where we commence to
create the environment of our new existence.   When that task has been  com-
pleted we enter the Third Heaven where only a very, very few have conscious-
ness  as yet.   Hence,  forgetfulness of all that has gone before wipes  the
slate  clean and we take with us only the quintessence of our  past  experi-
ences  as faculties when we reenter the Second Heaven on our way toward  re-
birth  and mould the archetype of our coming physical body with the help  of
the Recording Angels and their agents.

   To make the point clear let us remember that during childhood days we  go
through the most dreadful contortions in learning to write.   The letters we
form are grotesque in the extreme,  but by and by in the course of time with
persistent effort we acquire the faculty of writing a legible hand.  Then as
the  years pass by we forget our difficulties in learning to write  but  the
faculty remains with us.   Similarly,  the embodied Spirit forgets all  that
has gone before, but the faculty of doing certain  things  remains  with it.


[PAGE 135]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Therefore,  it is has formed a body weak in a certain place in one life  and
has suffered the pain incident to that weakness and disease, even to the re-
moval of an organ, we may be very sure that though the event will be forgot-
ten  in  a  coming existence the Spirit will remember the fact  when  it  is
moulding  the  archetype and coming to rebirth.   It will then  endeavor  to
build a better organ so that it may save itself the pain which it endured in
a previous life and thus, instead of perpetuating the diseased organ,  it is
very  safe to say that an organ that was diseased in one life will be  sound
in the next.  Gradually mankind is thus learning by past mistakes to build a
better and sounder body.

   To take another illustration,  we may consider how an architect would act
who had built a house and by living in it found certain discomforts.   If he
sold this house and built himself another, he would remember the discomforts
he had in his previous dwelling and endeavor to build a house that would  be
free from those inconveniences.   Then perhaps he would find other  develop-
ments that were not to his taste in the new house and on selling that  would
build  a third house that would be better than the two previous and  so  on.
We may infer that the case is similar with the house of the Spirit which  it
builds  anew in each life.   Oliver Wendell Holmes put that so very  beauti-
fully in the last verse of his "Chambered Nautilus,"  which had built larger
and larger chambers as it grew and finally had left the outgrown shell.   He
says:


[PAGE 136]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
    As the swift seasons roll.
    Leave thy low vaulted past!
    Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
    Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
    Till thou at length art free,
    Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea."


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


                             REMOVING THE SPLEEN

                               QUESTION NO. 46

   THERE  HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO MY NOTICE A CASE WHERE A WOMAN HAD BEEN  OPER-
ATED  UPON AND THE SPLEEN REMOVED.   ACCORDING TO THE ROSICRUCIAN  TEACHINGS
THE SPLEEN IS THE ENTRANCE GATE OF THE SOLAR FORCES WHICH VITALIZE THE BODY,
AND IN THE ETHERIC COUNTERPART OF THAT ORGAN THE SOLAR ENERGY IS  TRANSMUTED
TO  A VITAL FLUID OF A PALE ROSE COLOR,  WHICH FROM THENCE SPREADS ALL  OVER
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.   WE ALSO LEARN THAT THE RAYS OF THE SUN ARE TRANSMITTED
EITHER DIRECTLY OR REFLECTED BY WAY OF THE PLANETS,  OR BY WAY OF THE  MOON.
THE  DIRECT  RAYS FROM THE SUN GIVE SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION,  THOSE  RECEIVED
FROM THE PLANETS PRODUCE INTELLIGENCE, MORALITY, AND SOUL GROWTH.  IN A CASE
LIKE THE ABOVE DESCRIBED, WILL THE ETHERIC COUNTERPART CONTINUE  TO  PERFORM


[PAGE 137]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ITS WORK AFTER THE DENSE ORGAN HAS BEEN REMOVED,  OR WILL IT DISINTEGRATE AS
DOES  THE ETHERIC COUNTERPART OF AN ARM OR LEG THAT HAS BEEN AMPUTATED,  AND
IF SO WHAT IS THE EFFECT UPON THE PERSON SO OPERATED ON?

   ANSWER:   You are right in your statement of the  Rosicrucian  Teachings,
except where you say that the solar energy is transmuted in the spleen to  a
pale  rose colored fluid.   The spleen is the gate of the solar forces,  but
the transmutation you speak about takes place in the solar plexus, where the
prismatic seed-atom of the vital body is located.

   With  respect to what takes place after the spleen has been  removed,  it
will help us to recall that the physical body accommodates itself so far  as
possible  to altered conditions.   If a wound in a certain part of the  body
makes it impossible for the blood to flow in the normal channels,  it  finds
another set of veins by which it may take its circuit.   But an organ  never
atrophies  so long as it can serve any useful purpose.   It is similar  with
the vital body composed of the ethers.  When an arm or a limb has been ampu-
tated,  the etheric counterpart of that member is no longer required in  the
economy of the body, therefore it gradually wastes away.  But in the case of
an  organ  like the spleen where the etheric counterpart  has  an  important
functions as gateway for the solar energy,  naturally no such disintegration
will take place.


[PAGE 138]                                            ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

   It  should  also  be remembered that whenever disease  manifests  in  the
physical  vehicle  that part of the vital body has first  become  thin,  at-
tenuated, and diseased, and it was its failure to supply the necessary vital
energy  that  caused the manifestation of physical symptoms  of  ill-health.
Conversely,  when health returns, the vital body is the first to pick up and
this convalescence is then manifested in the dense body.  Therefore,  if the
physical  spleen is diseased,  it is a foregone conclusion that the  etheric
counterpart is also in subnormal health,  and the wisdom of removing the or-
gan is doubtful.   However, if it is done, the body will seek to accommodate
itself to the new conditions and the etheric counterpart of the spleen  with
continue to function as before.


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


                              INVISIBLE HELPERS

                              QUESTION NO. 47.

   WHEN ONE WHO HAS BEEN WORKING UNCONSCIOUSLY AS AN INVISIBLE HELPER LEAVES
THE BODY AT DEATH,  WILL HE RECOGNIZE THOSE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD WITH WHOM HE
HAS BEEN WORKING AT NIGHT, OR WILL THOSE EXPERIENCES LEAVE NO RECORD?


[PAGE 139]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   ANSWER:   The experiences of an Invisible Helper who works  unconsciously
in the invisible worlds during the time when the body is asleep may be  lik-
ened to a dream which he does not remember upon awakening.  However, the ex-
periences are nevertheless stored in the seed atom and will form part of the
panorama of life,  so that when he leaves the body at death he will see  all
that has happened to him,  awake or asleep, during the time when he lived in
the body.   Thus his recollection of what has happened will not be quire the
same as if he had gone through it consciously,  but he will nevertheless ob-
tain  from the life-panorama a knowledge and an idea of what has been  done.
thus,  though  he  will not have the same feeling as if he  had  been  going
through the experience consciously,  he will soon adjust himself to  believe
and understand that what seemed a dream is nevertheless a perfectly true ex-
perience.


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


                        PROTECTION AGAINST VAMPIRISM

                              QUESTION NO. 48.

   I  HAVE  ALWAYS  BEEN  WEAK AND ANEMIC,  AND I  FIND  THAT  OTHER  PEOPLE
VAMPIRIZE  MY  STRENGTH.  MUST  I  STOP  HELPING PEOPLE BY CONCENTRATING FOR


[PAGE 140]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

THEM,  OR CAN YOU GIVE SOME SAFE METHOD OF PROTECTION?   I KNOW  OF  SEVERAL
PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE HELPED BY YOUR ANSWER.

   ANSWER:   If  you  will  study what is said on pages 89  and  90  in  THE
ROSICRUCIAN  COSMO-CONCEPTION  about the way thoughts are generated  in  the
mind and then projected upon others to do their work, you will learn a great
deal concerning the science of concentration and how to do the work you  are
trying  to perform for humanity.  Incidentally,  you will  probably  realize
that  the thought forms you send out for the purpose of helping others  take
away only a small part of your own desire body which is immediately replaced
by  desire stuff of an even higher grade than that sent out,  owing  to  the
high  rate of vibration always generated by unselfish effort.   However,  it
takes nothing away from your vital body and it is upon the condition of this
vehicles that your physical health depends.

   Thus you  are never vampirized by concentrating upon anyone else when you
yourself are alone,  but it is the contact with other people that is apt  to
hurt  you if you are in a weakened condition.   If you are at all  sensitive
you  probably know who draws upon you,  and while walking and visiting  with
such  people it is best if possible to keep a few feet away from  them.   If
you are sitting in a room with them and talking with them,  cross your limbs
at the ankles and fold your hands.  Then  you form a magnetic circuit on the


[PAGE 141]                                             QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

floor or ground your are in magnetic rapport with any person who happens  to
be near you.

   These measures are,  however, only precautions which you may use with ad-
vantage until you get yourself in hand.  That should be your first consider-
ation,  for it is useless to apply palliative treatments to the effect while
the cause is still thee.  According the the conditions we get from your let-
ter you need iron and ether.  If it is possible for you to get milk directly
it has been milked from the cow that will be a wonderful help to you, for at
that time the milk is surcharged with the healthy animal ether.   However if
you cannot get it that way there are other means.

   Relative to their size,  the plants have the strongest vital bodies  com-
posed  of the two lower ethers,  which have to do with the  assimilation  of
physical nutriment.   Therefore, green vegetables even though they have been
in  the market for some time are surcharged with ether.   Lettuce,  spinach,
tomatoes,  and strawberries are among the plants which abound in  iron.   If
you will refrain from cooking,  merely putting them in water an hour  before
meals  to make them crisp,  you will in a short time increase the  ether  in
your  body and the iron in your system.  The you will  not be anemic and  in
danger of vampirism.


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