[PAGE 367]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

                                 CHAPTER XV

                           CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

                          THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION

   In  the foregoing part of this work we have become familiar with the  way
in which our present outside world came into existence,  and how man evolved
the  complicated organism with which he is related to outer conditions.   We
have also,  in a measure,  studies the Jewish Race-religion.   We will  next
consider the last and greatest of the divine measures put forth for the  up-
lifting of humanity,  i.e.,  Christianity, which will be the Universal Reli-
gion of the future.

   It is a notable fact that man and his religions have evolved side by side
and in an equal degree.  The earliest religion of any Race is found to be as
savage as the people governed by it and as they become more civilized, their
religions become more and more humane and in harmony with higher ideals.

   From this fact materialists have drawn the inference that no religion has
a  higher origin than man itself.   Their investigations into early  history
have resulted in a conviction that, as man progressed,  he civilized his God
and fashioned Him after his own pattern.

   This reasoning is defective,  because it fails to take into account  that
man is NOT the body, but an INDWELLING spirit, an Ego who uses the body with
ever-increasing facility as evolution progresses.


[PAGE 368]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   There is no doubt that the law for the BODY is "The Survival of the  Fit-
test."   The  law for the evolution of the spirit demands  "Sacrifice."   As
long  as  man believes that "Might is Right,"  the Form prospers  and  waxes
strong, because all obstacles are swept out of the way regardless of others.
If the body were all, that manner of life would be the only one possible for
man.   He would be altogether incapable of any regard for others  and  would
forcibly  resist  any  attempt  to encroach  upon  what  he  considered  his
rights--the right of the stronger, which is the sole standard of justice un-
der the law of the Survival of the Fittest.  He would be quite regardless of
his  fellow  beings;  absolutely insensible to any force FROM  WITHOUT  that
tended  to  make him act in any manner not conducive to  his  own  momentary
pleasure.

   It is manifest, then, that whatever urges man toward a higher standard of
conduct in his dealing with others must come FROM WITHIN,  and from a source
which is not identical with the body, otherwise it would not strive with the
body  and  often prevail against its most obvious interests.   Moreover,  it
must be a stronger force than that of the body,  or it could not succeed  in
overcoming  its desires and compelling it to make sacrifices for  those  who
are physically weaker.

   That such a force exists, surely no one will deny.   We have come to that
stage  in our advancement where,  instead of seeing in physical weakness  an
opportunity  for easy prey,  we recognize in the very frailty of  another  a
valid  claim upon our protection.   Selfishness is being slowly  but  surely
routed by Altruism.

   Nature is sure to accomplish her purposes.  Though slow,  her progress is
orderly  and  certain.  In  the  breast  of every man this force of Altruism


[PAGE 369]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

works  as a leaven.   It is transforming the savage into the civilized  man,
and will in time transform the latter into a God.

   Though  nothing that is truly spiritual can be  thoroughly  comprehended,
yet it may at least be apprehended by means of an illustration.

   If one or two tuning-forks of exactly the same pitch is struck, the sound
will induce the same vibration in the other, weak to begin with,  but if the
strokes  are continued,  the second fork will give out a louder  and  louder
tone until it will emit a volume of sound equal to that of the first.   This
will happen though the forks are several feet apart, and even if one of them
is  encased  in glass.   The sound from the smitten one will  penetrate  the
glass and the answering note be emitted by the enclosed instrument.

   These  invisible sound-vibrations have great power over concrete  matter.
They can both build and destroy.  If a small quantity of very fine powder is
placed upon a brass or glass plate,  and a violin bow drawn across the edge,
the  vibrations will cause the powder to assume beautiful  geometrical  fig-
ures.   The human voice is also capable of producing these  figures;  always
the same figure for the same tone.

   If   one  note  or  chord  after  another  be  sounded  upon  a   musical
instrument--a piano,  or preferably a violin, for from it more gradations of
tone  can be obtained--a tone will finally be reached which will causes  the
hearer  to  feel a distinct vibration in the back of the lower part  of  the
head.  Each time that note is struck, the vibration will be felt.  That note
is the "key-note"  of the person whom it so affects.  If it is struck slowly
and soothingly it will build and rest the body,  tone the nerves and restore
health.  If,  on  the  other hand, it be sounded in a dominant way, loud and


[PAGE 370]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

long enough, it will kill as surely as a bullet from a pistol.

   If we now apply what has been said about music or sound to the problem of
how this inner force is awakened and strengthened, we may perhaps understand
the matter better.

   In  the  first  place,  let us particularly note the fact  that  the  two
tuning-forks were OF THE SAME PITCH.   Had this not been the case,  we might
have sounded and sounded one of them until the crack of doom,  but the other
one would have remained mute.  Let us understand this thoroughly:  Vibration
can be induced in one tuning-fork by one of LIKE TONE ONLY.   Any thing,  or
any  being,  can  be affected as above stated by no  sound  except  ITS  OWN
KEY-NOTE.

   We know that this force of Altruism exists.  We also know that it is less
pronounced  among uncivilized people than among people of higher social  at-
tainment,  and  among the very lowest races it is almost  entirely  lacking.
The  logical conclusion is that there was a time when it was altogether  ab-
sent.   Consequent upon this conclusion follows the natural question:   What
induced it?

   The material personality surely had nothing to do with it; in fact,  that
part  of man's nature was much more comfortable without it than it has  been
at any time since.   Man must have had the force of Altruism latent  WITHIN,
otherwise it could not have been awakened.  Still further, it must have been
awakened  by  a  force of the same kind--a similar force  that  was  already
active--as  the second tuning-fork was started into vibration by  the  first
AFTER it was struck.

   We  also saw that the vibrations in the second fork become  stronger  and
stronger  under  the  continued  impacts of sound from the first, and that a


[PAGE 371]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

glass case was no hindrance to the induction of the sound.   Under the  con-
tinued impacts of a force similar to that within him, the Love of God to man
has  awakened  this force of Altruism and is constantly increasing  its  po-
tency.

   It is therefore reasonable and logical to conclude that, at first, it was
necessary to give man a religion commensurate with his ignorance.   It would
have been useless to talk to him,  at that stage,  of a God Who was all ten-
derness and love.   From his viewpoint, those attributes were weaknesses and
he  could not have been expected to reverence a God Who possessed what  were
to him despicable qualities.   The God to Whom he rendered obedience must be
a strong God,  a God to be feared, a God Who could hurl the thunderbolt  and
wield the flail of lightning.

   Thus, man was impelled first to FEAR God and was given religions of a na-
ture to further his spiritual well-being under the lash of fear.

   The next step was to induce him a certain kind of unselfishness, by caus-
ing  him  to  give up part of his worldly  goods--to  sacrifice.   This  was
achieved by giving him the Tribal or Race-God, Who is a jealous God, requir-
ing of him the strictest allegiance and the sacrifice of wealth,  which  the
growing man greatly prizes.   But in return,  this Race-God is a friend  and
mighty ally, fighting man's battles and giving him back many fold the sheep,
bullocks and grain which he sacrificed.  He had not yet arrived at the stage
where it was possible for him to understand that all creatures are akin, but
the  Tribal  God taught him that he must deal mercifully  with  his  BROTHER
TRIBESMAN  and gave laws which made for equity and fair dealing between  men
of the same Race.

   It must not be thought that these successive steps were taken easily, nor
without rebellion and lapses upon the part of primitive man.  Selfishness is


[PAGE 372]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

ingrained in the lower nature even unto this day,  and there must have  been
many lapses and much backsliding.  We have in the Jewish Bible good examples
of how man forgot, and had to be patiently and persistently "prodded"  again
and  again  by  the Tribal God.  Only the visitations  of  a  long-suffering
Race-spirit were potent, at times, in bringing him back to the law--that law
very few people have even yet learned to obey.

   There are always pioneers,  however, who require something higher.   When
they become sufficiently numerous, a new step in evolution is taken, so that
several  gradations always exist.   There came a time,  nearly two  thousand
years  ago,  when the most advanced of humanity were ready to  take  another
step forward,  and learn the religion of living a good life for the sake  of
future reward in a state if existence in which they must have faith.

   That was a long,  hard step to take.  It was comparatively easy to take a
sheep  or  a bullock to the temple and offer it as a sacrifice.   If  a  man
brought  the first-fruits of his granary, his vineyards,  or his flocks  and
herds,  he still had more,  and he knew that the Tribal God would refill his
stores and give abundantly in return.  But in this new departure, it was not
a question of sacrificing his goods.  It was demanded that he sacrifice HIM-
SELF.   It was not even a sacrifice to be made by one supreme effort of mar-
tyrdom;  that also would have been comparatively easy.  Instead,  it was de-
manded  that day by day,  from morning until night,  he must act  mercifully
toward all.   He must forego selfishness,  and LOVE his neighbor,  as he had
been  used to loving himself.   Moreover, he was not promised any  immediate
and visible reward, but must have faith in a future happiness.


[PAGE 373]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

   Is it strange that people find it difficult to realize this high ideal of
CONTINUED well-doing, made doubly hard by the fact that self-interest is en-
tirely ignored?  Sacrifice is demanded with no positive assurance of ANY re-
ward.   Surely it is much to the credit of humanity that so much altruism is
practiced and that it is constantly increasing.   The wise Leaders,  knowing
the frailness of the spirit to cope with the selfish instincts of the  body,
and  the  dangers of despondency in the face of such standards  of  conduct,
gave  another uplifting impulse when they incorporated in the  new  religion
the doctrine of "vicarious Atonement."

   This idea is scouted by some very advanced philosophers,  and the law  of
"Consequence"  made paramount.  If it so happens that the reader agrees with
these  philosophers,  we request that he await the  explanation  herein  set
forth, showing how BOTH are part of the scheme of upliftment.  Suffice it to
say,  for the present, that this doctrine of atonement gives many an earnest
soul the strength to strive and, in spite or repeated failures, to bring the
lower nature under subjection.  Let it be remembered that, for reasons given
when  the laws of Rebirth and Consequence were discussed,  western  humanity
knew practically nothing of these laws.  With such a great ideal before them
as  the  Christ,  and believing they had but a few short years in  which  to
attain to such a high degree of development as this,  would it not have been
the greatest imaginable cruelty to leave them without help?  Therefore,  the
GREAT SACRIFICE on Calvary--while it also served other purposes,  as will be
shown--become  rightfully the Beacon of Hope for every earnest soul  who  is
striving to achieve the impossible;  to attain,  in one short life,  to  the
perfection demanded by the Christian religion.


[PAGE 374]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

                           JESUS AND CHRIST-JESUS.

   To  gain some slight insight into the Great Mystery of Golgotha,  and  to
understand the Mission of Christ as the Founder of the Universal Religion of
the future, it is necessary that we first become familiar with His exact na-
ture  and  incidentally,  with that of Jehovah,  Who is  the  head  of  such
Race-religions as Taoism,  Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.;  also with the
identity of "The Father,"  to Whom Christ is to give up the Kingdom,  in due
time.

   In the Christian creed occurs this sentence:  "Jesus Christ, the only be-
gotten  Son of God."   This is generally understood to mean that  a  certain
person Who appeared in Palestine about 2,000 years ago,  Who is spoken of as
Jesus Christ--one separate individual--was the only begotten Son of God.

   This is a great mistake.   There are three distinct and widely  different
Beings  characterized in this sentence.   It is of the  greatest  importance
that  the student should clearly understand the exact nature of these  Three
Great  and Exalted Beings--differing vastly in glory,  yet each entitled  to
our deepest and most devout adoration.

   The student is requested to turn to diagram 6 and note that "The only be-
gotten" ("The Word," of Who John speaks) is the second aspect of the Supreme
Being.

   This "Word"  and It alone,  is "begotten of His Father (the first appear)
before all Worlds."  "Without Him was not anything made that was made,"  not
even the third aspect of the Supreme Being, which proceeds from the two pre-
vious  aspects.   Therefore the "only begotten"  is the exalted Being  which
ranks above all else in the Universe,  save only the Power-aspect which cre-
ated It.

   The first aspect of the Supreme Being "thinks out," of imagines, the Uni-
verse  before the beginning of active manifestation,  everything,  including


[PAGE 375]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

the  millions of Solar Systems and the great creative Hierarchies which  in-
habit the Cosmic Planes of existence above the seventh,  which is the  field
of  our evolution (See diagram 6).   This is also the Force which  dissolves
everything  that has crystallized beyond the possibility of  further  growth
and at last, when the end of active manifestation has come, reabsorbs within
Itself all that is, until the dawn of another Period of Manifestation.

   The second aspect of the Supreme Being is that which manifests in  matter
as the forces of attraction and cohesion,  thus giving it the capability  of
combining  into Forms of various kinds.  This is "The Word,"  the  "creative
Feat,"  which molds the primordial Cosmic Root-substance in a manner similar
to the formation of figures by musical vibrations,  as previously mentioned,
the  same tone always producing the same figure.   So this great  primordial
"WORD'  brought, or "spoke," into being, in finest matter, all the different
Worlds,  with all their myriads of Forms,  which have since been copied  and
worked out in detail by the innumerable creative Hierarchies.

   "The Word"  could not have done this, however,  until the third aspect of
the Supreme Being had first prepared the Cosmic Root-substance; had awakened
it  from its normal state of inertia and set the countless INSEPARATE  atoms
spinning upon their axes,  placing those axes at various angles with respect
to each other, giving to each kind a certain "measure of vibration."

   These  varying angles of inclination of the axes and the measures of  vi-
bration made the Cosmic Root-substance capable of forming different combina-
tions,  which are the basis of the seven great Cosmic Planes.  There is,  in
each  of  these  Planes,  a  different  inclination  of the axes, and also a


[PAGE 376]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

different measure of vibration, consequently the conditions and combinations
in each one are different from those in any of the others, due to the activ-
ity of "The Only Begotten."

   Diagram 14 shows us that:

   "The Father" is the highest Initiate among the humanity of the Saturn
         Period.  The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Lords of
         Mind.
   "The Son" (Christ) is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period.  The
         ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Archangels.
   "The Holy Spirit" (Jehovah) is the highest Initiate of the Moon
         Period.  The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Angels.

   This  diagram also shows what are the vehicles of these different  orders
of Beings,  and upon comparison with diagram 8,  it will be seen that  their
bodies  or vehicles (indicated by squares on diagram 14) correspond  to  the
Globes of the Period in which they were human.   This is always the case  so
far  as the ordinary humanities are concerned, for at the end of the  Period
during which any live wave becomes individualized as human beings, those be-
ings  retain  BODIES corresponding to the Globes on which  they  have  func-
tioned.

   On  the other hand,  the Initiates have progressed and evolved for  them-
selves higher vehicles, discontinuing the ordinary use of the lowest vehicle
when the ability to use a new and higher one has been attained.  Ordinarily,
the lowest vehicle of an Archangel is the desire body,  but Christ,  Who  is
the highest Initiate of the Sun Period,  ordinarily uses the life spirit  as
lowest vehicle, functioning as consciously in the World of Life Spirit as we
do  in  the  Physical  World.  The  student  is requested to note this point


[PAGE 377]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION


                               DIAGRAM 14:

       THE VEHICLES OF THE HIGHEST INITIATES AND ORDINARY HUMANITY



[PAGE 378]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

particularly,  as the World of Life Spirit is the first UNIVERSAL World,  as
explained   in   the  chapter  on  Worlds.   It  is  the  World   in   which
differentiation ceases and unity begins to be realized,  so far as out solar
system is concerned.

   Christ has power to build and function in a vehicle as low as the  desire
body, such as is used by the Archangels but HE CAN DESCEND NO FURTHER.   The
significance of this will be seen presently.

   JESUS belongs to our humanity.   When the man,  Jesus is studied  through
the memory of nature, he can be traced back life by life,  where he lived in
different circumstances, under various names, in different embodiments,  the
same time,  in that respect, as any other human being.   THIS CANNOT BE DONE
WITH THE BEING, CHRIST.  In His CASE CAN BE FOUND BUT ONE EMBODIMENT.

   It must not be supposed,  however, that Jesus was an ordinary individual.
He was of a singularly pure type of mind,  vastly superior to the great  ma-
jority of our present humanity.   Through many lives had he trod the Path of
Holiness and thus fitted himself for the greatest honor ever bestowed upon a
human being.

   His mother,  Virgin Mary, was also a type of the highest human purity and
because of that was selected to become the mother of Jesus.   His father was
a high Initiate,  virgin and capable of performing the act of fecundation as
a sacrament, without personal desire or passion.

   Thus  the  beautiful,  pure and lovely spirit whom we know  as  Jesus  of
Nazareth was born into a pure and passionless body.   This body was the best
that could be produced on Earth and the task of Jesus,  in that  embodiment,
was  to  care  for  it  and  evolve  it  to  the  highest possible degree of


[PAGE 379]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION


efficiency, in preparation for the great purpose it was to serve.

   Jesus  of  Nazareth  was born at about the time stated  in  the  historic
records,  and not 105 B.C., as stated in some occult works.   The name Jesus
is common in the East, and an Initiate named Jesus did live 105 B.C., but he
took the Egyptian Initiation and was not Jesus of Nazareth, with whom we are
concerned.

   The Individual who was later born under the name of Christian Rosenkreuz,
who is in the body today,  was a highly evolved being when Jesus of Nazareth
was born.  His testimony, as well as the results of first-hand investigation
by later Rosicrucians,  all agree in placing the birth of Jesus of  Nazareth
at the beginning of the Christian Era, on about the date usually ascribed to
that event.

   Jesus  was  educated  by the Essenes and reached a  very  high  state  of
spiritual development during the thirty years in which he used his body.

   It may be here said,  parenthetically, that the Essenes were a third sect
which  existed  in  Palestine,   besides  the  two  mentioned  in  the   New
Testament--the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The Essenes were an exceedingly
devout order, widely different from the materialistic Sadducees and entirely
opposite to the hypocritical, publicity seeking Pharisees.  They shunned all
mention of themselves and their methods of study and worship.  To the latter
peculiarity is due the fact that almost nothing is known of them,  and  that
they are not mentioned in the New Testament.

   It is a law of the Cosmos that no Being,  however high,  can function  in
any  world  without  a  vehicle built of the material  of  that  world  (See
diagrams 8 and 14).  Therefore the desire body was the lowest vehicle of the


[PAGE 380]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

group of spirits who had reached the human stage in the Sun Period.

   Christ was one of those spirits and was consequently unable to build  for
Himself  a vital body and a dense physical vehicle.   He could  have  worked
upon humanity in a desire body, as did His younger brothers, the Archangels,
as Race-spirits.   Jehovah had opened an avenue for them to enter the  dense
body of man by means of the air he inhaled.   All Race-religions were  reli-
gions  of law,  and creators of sin through disobedience of that law.   They
were  under  the  direction of Jehovah, Whose lowest vehicle  is  the  human
spirit,  correlating Him to the World of Abstract Thought,  where everything
is separative and therefore leads to self-seeking.

   That is precisely the reason why the intervention of Christ became neces-
sary.   Under  the  REGIME of Jehovah unity is  impossible.   Therefore  the
Christ, Who possess as a lowest vehicle the unifying life spirit, must enter
into the dense human body.   He must appear as a man among men and dwell  in
this  body,  because  only  from  WITHIN  IS  IT  possible  to  conquer  the
Race-religion, which influences man from WITHOUT.

   Christ  could not be BORN in a dense body,  because He had  never  passed
through an evolution such as the Earth Period, therefore He would first have
had to acquire the ability to build a dense body such as ours.  But even had
He  possessed that ability,  it would have been inexpedient for such an  ex-
alted   Being  to  expend  for  that  purpose  the  energy   necessary   for
body-building through ante-natal life,  childhood and youth,  to bring it to
sufficient  maturity for use.   He had ceased to use,  ordinarily,  vehicles
such as would correspond to our human spirit, mind and desire body, although
He had learned to build them in the Sun Period,  and retained the ability to


[PAGE 381]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

build  and function in them whenever desired or required.   He used all  his
own vehicles,  taking only the vital and dense bodies from Jesus.   When the
latter  was 30 years of age Christ entered these bodies and used them  until
the climax of His Mission on Golgotha.   After the destruction of the  dense
body,  Christ appeared among His disciples in the vital body,  in  which  He
functioned for some time.   The vital body is the vehicle which He will  use
when He appears again, for He will never take another dense body.

   It  is encroaching upon a subject to be dealt with later to  remark  that
the object of all esoteric training is to so work on the vital body that the
life spirit is built up and quickened.  When we come to deal with Initiation
it  may be possible to give more detailed explanations,  but no more can  be
said  on the subject just now.   In chronicling the events incident to  POST
MORTEM existence, this subject has been partially dealt with and the student
is  here asked to note that a man is supposed to have conquered  his  desire
body to a considerable extent before attempting esotericism.   His  esoteric
training  and the earlier Initiations are devoted to work on the vital  body
and result in the building of the life spirit.   At the time Christ  entered
the  body of Jesus,  the latter was a disciple of high degree,  consequently
his life spirit was well organized.  Therefore,  the lowest vehicle in which
Christ functioned,  and the best organized of the higher vehicles of  Jesus,
were identical;  and Christ,  when He took the vital body and the dense body
of Jesus,  was thus furnished with a complete chain of vehicles bridging the
gap between the World of Life Spirit and the dense Physical World.

   The  significance of the fact that Jesus had passed  several  initiations
lies  in  the  effect  that  has  on  the vital body.  Jesus' vital body was


[PAGE 382]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

already  attuned  to the high vibrations of the life  spirit.   An  ordinary
man's  vital body would have instantly collapsed under the  terrific  vibra-
tions of the Great Spirit who entered Jesus' body.  Even that body, pure and
high-strung as it was, could not withstand those tremendous impacts for many
years,  and when we read of certain times when Christ  withdrew  temporarily
from  his disciples,  as when he later walked on the sea to meet  them,  the
esotericist  knows that he drew out of Jesus'  vehicles to give them a  rest
under  the care of the Essene Brothers,  who knew more of how to treat  such
vehicles than Christ did.

   This change was consummated with the full and free consent of Jesus,  who
knew during this entire life that he was preparing a vehicle for Christ.  He
submitted gladly, that his brother humanity might receive the gigantic impe-
tus  which  was  given to its development by  the  mysterious  sacrifice  on
Golgotha.

   Thus (as shown in diagram 14) Christ Jesus possessed the twelve vehicles,
which formed an unbroken chain from the Physical World to the very Throne of
God.   Therefore He is the only Being in the Universe in touch with both God
and  man and capable of mediating between them,  because He has,  personally
and individually experience all conditions and knows every limitation  inci-
dental to physical existence.

   Christ is unique among all Beings in all the seven Worlds.  He alone pos-
sess the twelve vehicles.  None save He is able to feel such compassion, nor
so  fully  understand the position and needs of humanity;  none save  He  is
qualified to bring the relive that shall fully meet our needs.


[PAGE 383]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

   Thus do we know the nature of Christ.   He is the highest Initiate of the
Sun  Period  and He tool the dense and vital bodies of Jesus that  He  might
function directly in the Physical World and appear as a man among men.   Had
He appeared in a manifestly miraculous manner,  it would have been  contrary
to the scheme of evolution, because at the end of the Atlantean Epoch human-
ity had been given freedom to do right or wrong.   That they might learn  to
become self-governing,  no coercion whatever could be used.   They must know
good  and  evil  through experience.   Before that time they  had  been  led
willy-nilly,  but at that time they were given freedom under  the  different
Race-religions,  each religion adapted to the needs of its particular  Tribe
or Nation.

                            NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD

   All  Race-religions are of the Holy Spirit.   They are insufficient,  be-
cause they are based on law, which makes for sin and brings death,  pain and
sorrow.

   All Race-spirits know this,  and realize that their religions are  merely
steps   to  something  better.    This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that   all
Race-religions,  without exception, point to One Who is TO COME.   The reli-
gion  of the Persians pointed to Mithras;  of the Chaldeans to Tammuz.   The
old  Norse  Gods foresaw the approach of "The Twilight of  the  Gods,"  when
Sutr, the bright Sun-spirit, shall supersede them and a new and fairer order
be established on "Gimle," the regenerated earth.   The Egyptians waited for
Horis,  the new-born Sun.   Mithras and Tammuz are also symbolized as  Solar
orbs and all the principal Temples were built facing the East, that the rays
of  the rising Sun might shine directly through the open doors;  even  Saint
Peter's  at  Rome  is so placed.  All these facts show that it was generally


[PAGE 384]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

known that the One Who was to come was a Sun-spirit and was to save humanity
from the separative influences necessarily contained in all Race-religions.

   These religions were steps which it was necessary for mankind to take  to
prepare for the advent of Christ.  Man must first cultivate a "self"  before
he can become really UNselfish and understand the higher phase of  Universal
Brotherhood--unity of purpose and interest--for which Christ laid the  foun-
dation at His first coming,  and which He will make living realties when  He
returns.

   As the fundamental principle of a Race-religion is separation,  inculcat-
ing self-seeking at the expense of other men and nations, it is evident that
if  the principle is carried to its ultimate conclusion it must  necessarily
have  an increasingly destructive tendency and finally frustrate  evolution,
unless succeeded by a more constructive religion.

   Therefore the separative religions of the Holy Spirit must give place  to
the unifying religion of the Son, which is the Christian religion.

   Law must give place to Love, and the separate Races and Nations be united
in one Universal Brotherhood, with Christ as the Eldest Brother.

   The Christian religion has not yet had time to accomplish this great  ob-
ject.   Man is still in the toils of the dominant Race-spirit and the ideals
of Christianity are yet too high for him.  The intellect can see some of the
beauties,  and readily admits that we should love our enemies,  but the pas-
sions of the desire body are still too strong.   The law of the  Race-spirit
being "An eye for an eye," the Feeling is "I'll get even!"   The heart prays
for Love; the desire body hopes for Revenge.  The intellect sees, IN THE AB-
STRACT,  the  beauty of loving one's enemies but in concrete cases it allies


[PAGE 385]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

itself with the vengeful feeling of the desire body, pleading,  as an excuse
for "getting even," that "the social organism must be protected."

   It is a matter for congratulation, however,  that society feels compelled
to apologize for the retaliative methods used.  Corrective methods and mercy
are  becoming more and more prominent in the administration of the laws,  as
is shown by the favorable reception which has been accorded that very modern
institution,  the Juvenile Court.   Further manifestation of this same  ten-
dency may be noted in the increasing frequency with which convicted  prison-
ers are released on probation, under suspended sentence; also in the greater
humanity with which prisoners of war are treated of late years.   These  are
the vanguards of the sentiment of Universal Brotherhood, which is slowly but
surely makings its influence felt.

   Yet,  though the world is advancing and though, for instance, it has been
comparatively  easy for the writer to secure a hearing for his views in  the
different cities where he has lectured,  the daily papers sometimes devoting
to  his utterances whole pages (and front pages at that) so long as he  con-
fined  himself to speaking of the higher worlds and the POST MORTEM  states,
it has been very noticeable that as soon as the theme was Universal Brother-
hood his articles have ALWAYS been consigned to the waste-basket.

   The  world in general is very unwilling to consider anything that is,  as
it thinks,  "too"  unselfish.  There must be "something in it."   Nothing is
regarded as an entirely natural line of conduct if it offers no  opportunity
for  "getting  the best of" one's fellowmen.   Commercial  undertakings  are
planned and conducted on that principle and,  before the minds of those  who
are  enslaved  by  the  desire  to  accumulate  useless  wealth, the idea of


[PAGE 386]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Universal  Brotherhood  conjures up frightful visions of  the  abolition  of
capitalism and its inevitable concomitant, the exploitation of others,  with
the wreck of "business interests" implied thereby.  The word "enslaved"  ex-
actly describes this condition.  According to the Bible, man was to have do-
minion  over  the world,  but in the vast majority of cases the  reverse  is
true--it is the world which has dominion over man.   Every man who has prop-
erty  interests  will,   in  his  saner  moments,  admit  that  they  are  a
never-failing source of worry to him; that he is constantly scheming to hold
his possessions,  or at least to keep from being deprived of them by  "sharp
practice,"  knowing  that others are as constantly  scheming  to  accomplish
that,  to them,  desirable end.   The man is the slave of what,  with uncon-
scious irony,  he calls "my possessions,' when in reality they possess  him.
Well  did the Sage of Concord say,  "THINGS are in the saddle and ride  man-
kind!"

   This state of affairs is the result of Race-religions,  with their system
of law; therefore do they all look for "One Who is to come."   The Christian
religion ALONE is NOT looking for One Who IS to come,  but for One Who is to
come AGAIN.  The time of this second coming depends upon when the Church can
free itself from the State.   The Church, especially in Europe,  is bound to
the Chariot of State.  The ministers are fettered by economic considerations
and dare not proclaim the truths that their studies have revealed to them.

   A visitor to Copenhagen,  Denmark, recently witnessed a church  confirma-
tion service.  The Church there is under State control and all ministers are
appointed by the temporal power.   The parishioners have nothing whatever to
say in the matter.  They may attend church or not,  as they please, but they


[PAGE 387]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

are compelled to pay the taxes which support the institution.

   In addition to holding office by the bounty of the State,  the pastor  of
the particular church visited was decorated with several Orders conferred by
the king,  the glittering badges bearing silent but eloquent testimony as to
the extent of his subserviency to the State.  During the ceremony, he prayed
for the king and the legislators,  that they might rule the country  wisely.
As long as kings and legislators exists, this prayer might be very appropri-
ate,  but it was a considerable shock to hear him add:  ". . .  .  and,  al-
mighty God, protect and strengthen our army and navy!"

   Such a prayer as this shows plainly that the God worshiped is the  Tribal
or  National  God--the Race-spirit,  for the last act of the  gentle  Christ
Jesus  was  to  stay the sword of the friend who would  have  protected  Him
therewith.  Although He said He had not come to send peace, but a sword,  it
was  because  He foresaw the oceans of blood that would be  spilled  by  the
militant "Christian"  nations in their mistaken understanding of His  teach-
ings  and  because high ideals cannot be immediately attained  by  humanity.
The wholesale murder of war and like atrocities are harsh,  but they are po-
tent illustrations of what Love would abolish.

   There is,  apparently,  a flat contradiction between the words of  Christ
Jesus,  "I came not to send peace, but a sword," and the words of the celes-
tial song which heralded the birth of Jesus,  "On earth Peace,  Goodwill to-
ward men."  This contradictions, however, is apparent only.

   There  is as great an apparent contradiction between a woman's words  and
her actions when she says, "I am going to clean house and tidy up," and then


[PAGE 388]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

proceeds to take up carpets and pile chairs one upon another, producing gen-
eral confusion in a previously orderly house.   One observing only this  as-
pect  of the matter,  would be justified in saying,  "She is making  matters
worse  instead of better,"  but when the purpose of her work is  understood,
the  expediency  of the temporary disorder is realized and in  the  end  her
house will be the better for the passing disturbance.

   Similarly, we must bear in mind that the time which has elapsed since the
coming  of Christ Jesus is but little more than a moment in comparison  with
the  duration  of  even one Day of Manifestation.   We must  learn,  as  did
Whitman,  to  "know the amplitude of time,"  and look beyond  the  past  and
present cruelties and jealousies of the warring sects to the shining age  of
Universal Brotherhood, which will mark the next great step of man's progress
on his long and wondrous journey from the clod to the God,  from  protoplasm
to conscious unity with the Father, that

         . . . one far-off, divine event
         To which the whole creation moves.

   It may be added that the above mentioned pastor,  during the ceremony  of
receiving  his  pupils into the Church taught them that Jesus Christ  was  a
composite individual;  that Jesus was mortal,  human part,  while Christ was
the divine,  immortal Spirit.   Presumably, if the matter had been discussed
with him, he would not have supported this statement, nevertheless in making
it he stated an occult fact.

                           THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

   The unifying influence of the Christ has been symbolized in the beautiful
legend  of  the worship of the three magi,  or "wise men of  the  East,"  so
skillfully woven by General Lew Wallace into his  charming story, "Ben Hur."


[PAGE 389]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

   The three wise men--Caspar,  Melchior and Balthasar--are the  representa-
tives of the white,  yellow and black Races and symbolize the people of  Eu-
rope,  Asia and Africa, who are all led by The Star to the World-Savior,  to
Whom  eventually "every knee shall bow," and Whom "every tongue  shall  con-
fess";  Who shall unite all the scattered nations under the Banner of  Peace
and Goodwill;  Who shall cause men to "beat their words into plowshares  and
their spears into pruning hooks."

   The  Star of Bethlehem is said to have appeared at the time of the  birth
of Jesus, and to have guided the three wise men to the Savior.

   Much  speculation  has been indulged in as to the nature  of  this  Star.
Most material scientists have declared it a myth,  while others have said if
it were anything more than a myth,  it might have been a  "coincidence"--two
dead  Suns  might have collided and caused a conflagration.   Every  mystic,
however,  knows the "Star"--yea,  and the "Cross"  also--not only as symbols
connected with the life of Jesus and Christ Jesus,  but in his own  personal
experience.   Paul says:   "Until Christ be formed in you";  and the mystic,
Angelus Silesius, echoes:

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

   Richard Wagner shows the intuitional knowledge of the artist when, to the
question of Parsifal, "Who is The Grail?"  Gurnemanz answers:

   That tell we not;
   But if thou hast by Him been bidden,
   From thee the truth will not stay hidden.
   . . . The land to Him no path leads through,
   And search but severs from Him wider
   When He Himself is not the Guider.


[PAGE 390]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   Under the "old dispensation" the path to Initiation was not open.  It was
for only the chosen few.  Some might seek the path,  but only those who were
guided  to the Temples by the Hierophants found entrance.   Previous to  the
advent of Christ,  there was no such sweeping invitation as "Whosoever  will
may come."

   At  the moment the blood flowed on Golgotha,  however,  "the veil of  the
Temple  was rent"  (for reasons presently to be explained),  and ever  since
that tine, whosoever will seek admittance will surely find it.

   In the Temples of Mystery the Hierophant taught his pupils that there  is
in the Sun a spiritual,  as well as a physical force.   The latter force  in
the rays of the Sun is the fecundating principle in nature.   It causes  the
growth of the plant world and thereby sustains the animal and human kingdom.
It is the upbuilding energy which is the source of all physical force.

   This physical,  solar energy reaches its highest expression in midsummer,
when the days are longest and the nights are shortest,  because the rays  of
the  Sun then fall directly on the northern hemisphere.   At that  time  the
spiritual forces are the most inactive.

   On  the  other  hand,  in December, during the long  winter  nights,  the
physical  force of the solar orb is dormant and the spiritual  forces  reach
their maximum degree of activity.

   The  night between the 24th and the 25th of December is The  Holy  Night,
PAR EXCELLENCE, of the entire year.  The Zodiacal sign of the immaculate ce-
lestial Virgin stands upon the eastern horizon near midnight, the Sun of the
New  Year  is then born and starts upon his journey  from  the  southernmost
point  toward  the  northern  hemisphere,  to  save  that  part  of humanity


[PAGE 391]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

(physically)  from the darkness and famine which would inevitably result  if
he were to remain permanently south of the equator.

   To the people of the northern hemisphere, where all our present day reli-
gions originated, the Sun is directly below the Earth; and the spiritual in-
fluences are strongest, in the north, at midnight of the 24th of December.

   That being the case,  it follows as a matter of course that it would then
be easiest for those who wished to take a definite step toward Initiation to
get in conscious touch with the spiritual Sun especially for the first time.

   Therefore the pupils who were ready for Initiation were taken in hand  by
the  Hierophants of the Mysteries,  and be means of ceremonies performed  in
the  Temple,  were raised to a state of exaltation wherein they  transcended
physical  conditions.   To their spiritual vision,  the solid  Earth  become
transparent  and they was the Sun at midnight--"The Star!"   It was not  the
physical Sun they saw with spiritual eyes,  however,  but the Spirit in  the
Sun--The  Christ--their  Spiritual Savior,  as the physical  Sun  was  their
physical Savior.

   This is the Star that shone on that Holy Night and that still shines  for
the  mystic  in  the darkness of night.   When the noise  and  confusion  of
physical activity are quieted,  he enters into his closet and seeks the  way
to the King of Peace.   The Blazing Star is ever there to guide him and  his
soul hears the prophetic song, "On earth Peace, Goodwill toward men."

   Peace and goodwill to all,  without exception; no room for one single en-
emy  or outcast!   Is it any wonder that it is hard to educate  humanity  to
such  a high standard?   Is there any better way to show the beauty of,  and
the necessity for peace, goodwill and love than by contrasting them with the
present state of war, selfishness and hate?


[PAGE 392]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   The stronger the light,  the deeper the shadow it casts.   The higher our
ideals, the more plainly can we see our shortcomings.

   Unfortunately,  at the present stage of development,  humanity is willing
to  learn only by the hardest experience.  As a Race,  it must become  abso-
lutely selfish to feel the bitter pangs caused by the selfishness of others,
as one must know much sickness to be thoroughly thankful for health.

   The religion MIScalled Christianity has therefore been the bloodiest  re-
ligion known, not excepting Mohammedanism, which in this respect is somewhat
akin to our malpracticed Christianity.   On the battle field  and in the In-
quisition innumerable and unspeakable atrocities have been committed in  the
name  of the gentle Nazarene.   The Sword and the Wine  Cup,--the  perverted
Cross and Communion Chalice--have been the means by which the more  powerful
of  the  so-called  Christian  nations gained  supremacy  over  the  heathen
peoples, and even over other but weaker nations professing the same faith as
their  conquerors.    The  most  cursory  reading  of  the  history  of  the
Graeco-Latin, Teutonic and Anglo-Saxson Races will corroborate on this.

   While  man was under the FULL sway of Race-religions each nation  was  an
united  whole.   Individual interests were willing subordinated to the  com-
munity interests.   All were "under the law."  All were members of their re-
spective tribes first, and individuals only secondarily.

   At the present time there is a tendency toward the other extreme--to  ex-
alt "self" above all else.  The result is evident in the economic and indus-
trial problems that are facing every nation and clamoring for solution.

   The  state  of  development wherein every man feels himself an absolutely


[PAGE 393]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

separate unit, an Ego, independently pursuing his own course, is a necessary
stage.  The national, tribal and family unity must first be broken up before
Universal  Brotherhood can become a fact.   The REGIME  of  Paternalism  has
been largely superseded by the reign of Individualism.   We are learning the
evils  of  the  latter  more and more as  our  civilization  advances.   Our
unsystematic method of distributing the products of labor,  the rapacity  of
the  few  and  the  exploitation of  many--these  social  crimes  result  in
under-consumption, industrial depressions and labor disturbances, destroying
internal  peace.   The  industrial war of the present  day  is  vastly  more
far-reaching and destructive than the military wars of the nations.
[PAGE 393 cont'd]                                     CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

                          THE HEART AS AN ANOMALY.

   No lesson,  though its truth may be superficially assented to,  is of any
real value as an active principle of the life until the heart has learned it
in longing and bitterness,  and the lesson man must so learn is that what is
not  beneficial  to all can never be truly beneficial to  any.   For  nearly
2,000 years we have lightly assented with out lips that we should govern our
lives in accordance with such maxims as "Return good for evil."   The  Heart
urges mercy and love,  but the Reason urges belligerent and retaliatory mea-
sures,  if not as revenge, at least as a means of preventing a repetition of
hostilities.   It is this divorce of head from heart that hinders the growth
of a true feeling of Universal Brotherhood and the adoption of the teachings
of Christ--the Lord of Love.

   The mind is the focusing point by means of which the Ego becomes aware of
the material universe.  As an instrument for the acquisition of knowledge in


[PAGE 394]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

those  realms the mind is invaluable,  but when it arrogates to  itself  the
ROLE of dictator as to the conduct of man to man,  it is as through the lens
should  say  to an astronomer who was in the act of  photographing  the  Sun
through a telescope:   "You have me improperly focused.  You are not looking
at the Sun correctly.   I do not think it is good to photograph the Sun any-
way, and I want you to point me at Jupiter.  The rays of the Sun heat me too
much and are liable to damage me."

   If the astronomer exercises his will and focuses the telescope as he  de-
sires,  telling it to attend to its business of transmitting the  rays  that
strike it,  leaving the results to him. the work will proceed well,  but  if
the  lens  has the stronger will and the mechanism of the  telescope  is  in
league with it,  the astronomer will be seriously hampered in having to con-
tend with a refractory instrument,  and the result will be blurred pictures,
of little or no value.

   Thus it is with the Ego.   It works with a threefold body,  which it con-
trols, or should control through the mind.  But, sad to say, this body has a
will of its own and is often aided and abetted by the mind, thus frustrating
the purposes of the Ego.

   This antagonistic "lower will" is an expression of the higher part of the
desire body.   When the division of the Sun, Moon, and Earth took place,  in
the   early  part  of  Lemurian  Epoch,   the  more  advanced   portion   of
humanity-in-the-making  experienced  a division of the desire  body  into  a
higher  and a lower part.   The rest of humanity did likewise in  the  early
part of the Atlantean Epoch.

   This  higher  part of the desire body become a sort of animal  soul.   It
built the cerebro-spinal nervous systems and the voluntary muscles,  by that
means  controlling  the  lower  part of the threefold body until the link of


[PAGE 395]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

mind was given.   Then the mind "coalesced" with this animal soul and become
a co-regent.

   The mind is thus bound up in desire; is enmeshed in the selfish lower na-
ture,  making it difficult for the spirit to control the body.  The focusing
mind,  which should be the ally of the higher nature, is alienated by and in
league with the lower nature--enslaved by desire.

   The law of the Race religions was given to emancipate intellect from  de-
sire.   The  "fear of God"  was pitted against "the desires of  the  flesh."
This, however, was not enough to enable one to become master of the body and
secure its willing co-operation.  It became necessary for the spirit to find
in  the body another point of vantage,  which was not under the sway of  the
desire  nature.   All  muscles  are expressions of the  desire  body  and  a
straight road to the capital,  where the traitorous mind is wedded to desire
and reigns supreme.

   If the United States were at war with France, it would not land troops in
England, hoping in that way to subjugate the French.  It would land its sol-
diers directly in France, and fight there.

   Like a wise general, the Ego followed a similar course of action.  It did
not commence its campaign by getting control of one of the glands,  for they
are expressions of the vital body; nor was it possible to get control of the
voluntary muscles, for they are too well garrisoned by the enemy.  That part
of  the involuntary muscular system which is controlled by  the  sympathetic
nervous  system would also be useless for the purpose.   It must get into  a
more direct touch with the cerebro-spinal nervous system.   To do this,  and
secure a base of operations in the enemy's country, it must control a muscle


[PAGE 396]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

which is involuntary,  and yet connected with the voluntary nervous  system.
Such a muscle is the heart.

   We have previously spoken of the two kinds of muscles--voluntary and  in-
voluntary.   The latter are formed in lengthwise stripes and  are  connected
with functions not under the control of the will, such as digestion,  respi-
ration,  excretion,  etc.   The voluntary muscles are those which  are  con-
trolled  by  the  will through the voluntary nervous  system,  such  as  the
muscles  of the hand and arm.   They are striped BOTH lengthwise and  cross-
wise.

   The above is true of all muscles in the body EXCEPT THE HEART,  which  is
an involuntary muscle.  Ordinarily, we cannot control the circulation.   Un-
der normal conditions the heart-beat is a fixed quantity,  yet to the bewil-
derment  of  physiologists,  the heart is  CROSS-striped  like  a  voluntary
muscle.   It is the only organ in the body exhibiting this peculiarity  but,
sphinx-like, it refuses to give material scientists an answer to the riddle.

   The  occult  scientist easily finds the answer in the memory  of  nature.
From  that record he learns that when the Ego first sought a  stronghold  in
the heart, the latter was striped lengthwise only, the same as any other in-
voluntary  muscle;  but  as the Ego gained more and more  control  over  the
heart, the cross-stripes have gradually developed.  They are not so numerous
nor  so well defined as on the muscles under the full control of the  desire
body,  but as the altruistic principles of love and brotherhood increase  in
strength  and  gradually overrule the reason, which is based in  desire,  so
will these cross stripes become more numerous and more marked.

   As previously stated,  the seed-atom of the dense body is located in  the
heart during life and withdrawn only at death.   The active work of the  Ego
is  in  the blood.  Now, if we except the lungs, the heart is the only organ


[PAGE 397]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

in the body through which all the blood passes in every cycle.

   The blood is the highest expression of the vital body,  for it  nourishes
the entire physical organism.   It is also, in a sense,  the vehicle of  the
subconscious memory,  and in touch with the Mercury of Nature,  situated  in
the highest division of the Etheric Region.   The blood carries the pictures
of life from ancestors to descendants for generations, where there is a com-
mon blood, as produced by inbreeding.

   There are in the head three points, each of which is the particular  seat
of one of the three aspects of the spirit (See diagram 17),  the second  and
third aspects having, in addition, secondary vantage grounds.

   The desire body is the perverted expression of the Ego.   It converts the
"Selfhood"  of the spirit into "selfishness."  Selfhood seeks not its own at
the  expense of others.   Selfishness seeks gain regardless of others.   The
seat of the human spirit is primarily in the pineal gland and secondarily in
the  brain and cerebro-spinal nervous system,  which controls the  voluntary
muscles.

   The  love and unity in the World of the Life Spirit find  their  illusory
counterpart in the Etheric Region,  to which we are correlated by the  vital
body, which latter promotes sex love and sex union.  The life spirit has its
seat primarily in the pituitary body and secondarily in the heart,  which is
the gateway of the blood that nourishes the muscles.

   The actionless Divine Spirit--The Silent Watcher--finds its material  ex-
pression in the passive,  inert and irresponsive skeleton of the dense body,
which is the obedient instrument of other bodies, but has no power to act on
its  own initiative.   The Divine Spirit has its strong hold in  the  impen-
etrable point at the root of the nose.


[PAGE 398]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   In reality there is but one spirit,  the Ego,  but looking at it from the
Physical  World,  it  is refracted into the three  aspects,  which  work  as
stated.

   As the blood passes through the heart, cycle after cycle, hour after hour
all  through life,  it engraves the pictures it carries upon the  seed-atoms
while they are still fresh,  thus making a faithful record of the life which
is  indelibly  impressed on the soul in the POST MORTEM  existence,   It  is
always in closest touch with the life spirit,  the spirit of love and unity,
therefore the heart is the home of altruistic love.

   As  these pictures pass inward to the World of Life Spirit,  in which  is
the  true  memory  of nature,  they do not come through  the  slow  physical
senses,  but  directly  through the fourth ether contained  in  the  air  we
breathe.  In the World of Life Spirit the life spirit sees much more clearly
than it can in the denser Worlds.   In its high home it is in touch with the
Cosmic  Wisdom and in any situation it knows at once what to do and  flashes
the  message of guidance and proper action back to the heart,  which as  in-
stantaneously  flashes  it  on  the the brain  through  the  medium  of  the
pneumo-gastric nerve,  resulting in "first impressions"--the intuitional im-
pulse,  which is always good, because it is drawn directly from the fountain
of Cosmic Wisdom and Love.

   This is all done so quickly that the heart has control before the  slower
reason  has  had time to "take in the situation,"  as it were.   It  is  the
thought  that man "thinketh in his heart,"  and it is true that "so is  he."
Man is inherently a virgin spirit,  good,  noble and true in every  respect.
All that is not good is from the lower nature,  that illusory reflection  of
the Ego.  The virgin spirit is always giving wise counsel.  If we could only


[PAGE 399]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

follow  the impulses of the heart--the first thought--Universal  Brotherhood
would be realized here and now.

   But  that  is just the point where the trouble begins.   After  the  good
counsel of the first thought has been given, the mind begins to reason, with
the  result that,  in the great majority of cases,  it dominates the  heart.
The telescope arranges its own focus and points where it lists,  despite the
astronomer.   The  mind  and the desire body frustrate the  designs  of  the
spirit by taking control and, as they lack the spirit's wisdom,  both spirit
and body suffer.

   Physiologists  note that certain areas of the brain are devoted  to  par-
ticular thought activities and phrenologist have carried this branch of sci-
ence still further.   Now, it is known that thought breaks down and destroys
nerve  tissues.   This and all other waste of the body,  is replaced by  the
blood.   When, through the development of the heart into a voluntary muscle,
the  circulation of the blood finally passes under the absolute  control  of
the  unifying  life spirit--the Spirit of Love--it will then be  within  the
power of that spirit to withhold the blood from those areas of the brain de-
voted to selfish purposes.   As a result,  those particular thought  centers
will gradually atrophy.

   On  the other hand,  it will be possible for the spirit to  increase  the
blood  supply when the mental activities are altruistic,  and thus build  up
the areas devoted to altruism,  so that, in time,  the desire nature will be
conquered  and the mind emancipated by Love from its bondage to desire.   It
is only by complete emancipation,  through Love, that man can ruse above the
law and become a law unto himself.   Having conquered himself,  he will have
conquered all the World.

   The  cross stripes of the heart may be built by certain  exercises  under
occult training,  but as some of these exercises are dangerous,  they should


[PAGE 400]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

be  undertaken  only under the direction of a competent  teacher.   That  no
reader  of  this book may be deceived by imposters  professing  ability  and
willingness  to so train aspirants for a consideration,  it is  emphatically
repeated  that NO TRUE OCCULTIST EVER BOASTS,  ADVERTISES HIS OCCULT  POWER,
SELLS  OCCULT  INFORMATION OR LESSONS AT SO MUCH EACH OR FOR A  COURSE;  NOR
WILL  BE  CONSENT  TO A THEATRICAL DISPLAY.  HIS WORK IS DONE  IN  THE  MOST
UNOBTRUSIVE MANNER POSSIBLE AND SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEGITIMATELY HELP-
ING OTHERS, WITHOUT THOUGHT OF SELF.

   As said in the beginning of this chapter,  all persons earnestly desiring
the higher knowledge may rest assured that if they will but seek,  they will
find the way open for them.   Christ Himself prepared the way for "whosoever
will."   He will help and welcome all real seekers,  who are willing to work
for Universal Brotherhood.

                           THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA.

   During  the  last  2,000 years much has been said  about  "the  cleansing
blood."  The blood of Christ has been extolled from the pulpit as the sover-
eign remedy for sin; the ONLY means of redemption and salvation.

   But  if the laws of Rebirth and Consequence work in such a way  that  the
evolving beings reap as they have sown,  and if the evolutionary impulse  is
constantly   bring  humanity  higher  and  higher,   ultimately  to   attain
perfection--where  then is the need for redemption and salvation?   Even  if
the need existed, how can the death of one individual help the rest?   Would
it  not be nobler to suffer the consequences of one's acts than to hide  be-
hind another?  These are some of the objections to the doctrine of vicarious
atonement  and  redemption  by  the  blood  of Christ Jesus.  We will try to


[PAGE 401]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

answer them before showing the logical harmony between the operation of  the
law of Consequence and the Atonement by Christ.

   In the first place,  it is absolutely true that the evolutionary  impulse
does work to achieve ultimate perfection for all; yet there are some who are
constantly straggling behind.   At the present time, we have just passed the
extreme  point of materiality and are going through the sixteen  Races.   We
are  treading "the sixteen paths to destruction,"  and are  consequently  in
graver  danger of falling behind than at any other part of the  evolutionary
journey.

   In the abstract,  time is nothing.   A number may fall behind so far that
they  must  be  abandoned,  to take up their further  evolution  in  another
scheme,  where they can continue their journey to perfection.   Nevertheless
that was not the evolution originally designed for them and it is reasonable
to suppose that the exalted Intelligences in charge of our evolution use ev-
ery means to bring through in safety as many as possible of the entities un-
der their charge.

   In ordinary evolution,  the laws of Rebirth and Consequence are perfectly
adequate  for bringing the major portion of the life wave up to  perfection,
but they do not suffice in the case of the stragglers,  who are lagging  be-
hind in the various Races.  During the stage of individualism,  which is the
climax  of the illusion of separateness, all mankind needs extra  help,  but
for the stragglers some additional special aid must be provided.

   To give that special aid,  to redeem the stragglers,  was the mission  of
Christ.   He said that He came to seek and to save that which was lost.   He
opened the way of Initiation for all who are willing to seek it.

   Objectors  to  vicarious  atonement  urge:  That  it  is cowardly to hide


[PAGE 402]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

behind another;  that each man should be willing to take the consequence  of
his acts.

   Let us consider an analogous case.   The waters of the Great Lakes narrow
into  the  Niagara River.   For twenty miles this enormous volume  of  water
flows rapidly toward the falls.  The river bed is filled with rocks and if a
person who goes beyond a certain point does not lose his life in the  rapids
above the cataract, he will surely do so by the plunge over the brink.

   Suppose  a  man appeared who,  in pity for the victims  of  the  current,
placed a rope above the cataract,  although he knew that the conditions were
such  that in doing so,  he himself could not by any possible chance  escape
death.   Yet  gladly and of his own free will,  he sacrificed his  life  and
placed  the  rope,  thus modifying former conditions so that  any  otherwise
helpless  victims who would grasp the rope would be saved and  thenceforward
none need be lost.

   What  would we think of a man who had fallen into the water  through  his
own carelessness,  and was struggling madly to reach the shore, if he should
say:   "What!   Save myself and seek to avoid penalty of my carelessness  by
shielding  myself behind the strength of another,  who suffered  through  no
fault  of  his own,  and gave up his life that such as I  might  live?   No,
never!   That would not be "manly."  I will take my deserts!"   Would we not
all agree that the man was a fool?

   Not all are in need of salvation.  Christ knew that there is a very large
class who do not require salvation in this way,  but just as surely as there
are  the ninety-and-nine who are well taken care of by the laws  of  Rebirth
and  Consequence  and will reach perfection in that way,  so there  are  the
"sinners"  who  have  become  "bogged" in matter and cannot escape without a


[PAGE 403]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

rope.  Christ came to save them and to bring peace and good will to all,  by
raising  them to the necessary point of spirituality,  causing a  change  in
their desire bodies which will make the influence of the life spirit in  the
heart more potent.

   His  younger  brother  Sun  spirits,  the  Archangels,   had  worked   as
Race-spirits on the desire bodies of man, but their work had been from WITH-
OUT.   It  was simply a reflected spiritual Sun-force and came  through  the
Moon--as moonlight is reflected sunlight.  Christ, the Chief Initiate of the
Sun spirits,  entered directly into the dense body of the Earth and  brought
the direct Sun-force, thus enabling Him to influence over desire bodies from
WITHIN.

   Man cannot gaze long upon the Sun without becoming blind because its  vi-
brations are so rapid that they destroy the retina of the eye.   But he  can
look  without harmful results upon the Moon,  the vibrations from which  are
much slower; yet they are also sunlight, but the higher vibrations have been
taken up by the Moon, which then reflects the residue to us.

   So it is with the spiritual impulses which help man to evolve.   The rea-
son why the Earth was thrown off from the Sun was because our humanity could
not endure the Sun's tremendous physical and spiritual impulses.  Even after
an  enormous  distance  had  been placed between  the  Earth  and  Sun,  the
spiritual  impulse  would still have been too strong had it  not  been  sent
first to the Moon, to be used by Jehovah, the Regent of the Moon,  for man's
benefit.   A number of Archangels (ordinary Sun spirits) were given  Jehovah
as helpers in reflecting these spiritual impulses from the Sun upon the  hu-
manity of the Earth, in the form of Jehovisitic or Race-religions.

   The lowest vehicle of the Archangels is the desire body.  Our desire body
was  added  in  the  Moon  Period,  at  which  time  Jehovah was the highest


[PAGE 404]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Initiate.   Therefore  Jehovah  is  able to deal  with  man's  desire  body.
Jehovah's lowest vehicle is the human spirit (see diagram 14) and its  coun-
terpart is the desire body.  The Archangels are His helpers because they are
able to manage the spiritual Sun forces and the desire body is their  lowest
vehicle.   Thus they are able to work with and prepare humanity for the time
when  it  can receive the spiritual impulses directly from  the  Solar  Orb,
without the intervention of the Moon.

   Upon Christ,  as the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, is laid the task
of sending out this impulse.   The impulse which Jehovah reflected was  sent
out by Christ,  Who thus prepared both the Earth and humanity for His direct
ingress.

   The  expression,  "prepared the Earth,"  means that all  evolution  on  a
planet is accompanied by the evolution of THAT PLANET ITSELF.   Had some ob-
server  gifted with spiritual sight watched the evolution of our Earth  from
some  distant star,  he would have noticed a gradual change taking place  in
the Earth's desire body.

   Under  the old dispensation the desire bodies of people in  general  were
improved by means of the law.   This work is still going on in the  majority
of people, who are thus preparing themselves for the higher life.

   The higher life (Initiation) does not commence,  however,  until the work
on the vital body begins.  The means used for bringing that into activity is
Love,  or rather Altruism.   The former word has been so abused that  it  no
longer conveys the meaning here required.

   During the old dispensation the path of Initiation was not free and open,
except to the chosen few.   The Hierophants of the Mysteries collected  cer-
tain  families  about  the  Temples,  setting  them apart from all the other


[PAGE 405]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

people.   These chosen families were then rigorously guarded as  to  certain
rites and ceremonies.  Their marriages and sexual intercourse were regulated
by the Hierophants.

   The effect of this was to produce a race having the proper degree of lax-
ity  between the dense and vital bodies; also to wake the desire  body  from
its  state of lethargy during sleep.   Thus a special few were made fit  for
Initiation and were given opportunities that could not be given to all.   We
see  instances of this method among the Jews,  where the tribe of Levi  were
the chosen Templars;  also in the caste of the Brahmins,  who were the  only
priestly class among the Hindus.

   The Mission of Christ,  in addition to saving the lost,  was to make Ini-
tiation  possible to all,  therefore Jesus was not a Levite of the class  to
which  priesthood came by inheritance.   He came from the common people  and
though not of the teacher class, His teaching was higher than that of Moses.

   Christ Jesus did not deny Moses, the law, nor the prophets.   On the con-
trary,  He  acknowledged them all and showed the people that they  were  His
witnesses,  as they all pointed to One Who was to come.   He told the people
that those things had served their purpose and that henceforth Love must su-
persede Law.

   Christ Jesus was killed.   In connection with this fact,  we come to  the
supreme and fundamental difference between Him and the previous teachers, in
whom the Race spirits were born.  They all died and must be reborn again and
again to help their peoples bear their destiny.   The Archangel Michael (the
Race-spirit of the Jews) raised up Moses,  who was taken up to Mount Nebo to
die.  He was reborn as Elijah.  Elijah returned as John the Baptist;  Buddha
died and was reborn as Shankaracharya; Shri Krishna says, "Whenever there is


[PAGE 406]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

decay of Dharma.  . .and. . .exaltation of Adharma, then I myself come forth
for the protection of the good,  for the destruction of evil-doers,  for the
sake of firmly establishing Dharma.  I am born from age to age."

   When death came Moses' face SHONE and Buddha's body become ALIGHT.   They
all reached the stage when the spirit begins to shine from within--but  then
they died.

   Christ Jesus reached that stage on the Mount of Transfiguration.   It  is
of the very highest significance that HIS REAL WORK TOOK PLACE SUBSEQUENT TO
THAT EVENT.  He suffered; was KILLED--and RESURRECTED.

   Being  killed is a very different thing from dying.   The blood that  had
been  the vehicle of the Race-spirit must FLOW and be cleansed of that  con-
taminating influence.  Love of father and mother, exclusive of other fathers
and mothers,  must go--otherwise Universal Brotherhood and an  all-embracing
Altruistic Love could never become an actuality.

                             THE CLEANSING BLOOD.

   When  the Savior Christ Jesus was crucified His body was pierced in  five
places;  in the five centers where the currents of the vital body flow;  and
the  pressure  of  the crown of thorns caused a flow from  the  sixth  also.
(This is a hint to those who already know these currents.   A full  elucida-
tion of this matter cannot be publicly given out at this time.)

   When the blood flowed from these centers, the great Sun-spirit Christ was
liberated from the physical vehicle of Jesus and found Himself IN THE EARTH,
with individual vehicles.  The already existing planetary vehicles He perme-
ated with His own vehicles and, in the twinkling of an eye, diffused His own


[PAGE 407]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

desire body over the planet,  which has enabled Him thenceforth to work upon
the Earth and its humanity from WITHIN.

   At that moment a tremendous wave of spiritual sunlight flooded the Earth.
It  rent the veil which the Race-spirit had hung before the Temple  to  keep
out all but the chosen few,  and it made the Path of Initiation free thence-
forth  to whomsoever will.   So far as concerned the Spiritual Worlds,  this
wave transformed the conditions of the Earth like a flash of lightning,  but
the dense, concrete conditions are, of course, much more slowly affected.

   Like all rapid and high vibrations of light,  this great wave blinded the
people by its dazzling brilliance,  therefore it was said that "the Sun  was
darkened."   The very opposite was what actually occurred.   The Sun was not
darkened,  but shone out in glorious splendor.   It was the excess of  light
that  blinded the people,  and only as the entire Earth absorbed the  desire
body  of  the bright Sun-spirit did the vibration return to  a  more  normal
rate.

   The expression,  "the cleansing blood of Christ Jesus," means that as the
blood flowed on Calvary, it bore with it the great Sun-spirit Christ, Who by
that  means secured admission to the earth itself and since that moment  has
been  its Regent.   He diffused His own desire body throughout  the  planet,
thereby  cleansing it from all the vile influences which had grown up  under
the REGIME of the Race-spirit.

   Under the law all sinned;  nay,  more--they could not help it.   They had
not evolved to where they could do right for Love's sake.  The desire nature
was  so strong that it was an impossibility for them to rule it  altogether,
therefore their debts, engendered under the law of Consequence,  piled up to
monstrous  proportions.  Evolution would have been terribly delayed and many


[PAGE 408]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

lost to our life wave altogether it some help had not been given.

   Therefore did Christ come "to seek and to save that which was lost."   He
took  away the sin of the world by His cleansing blood,  which gave Him  en-
trance to the Earth and its humanity.  He purified the conditions and we owe
it  to  Him  that  we  are  able to  gather  for  our  desire  bodies  purer
desire-stuff than formerly,  and He continues working to help us,  by making
our external environment constantly purer.

   That  this was and is done at the expense of great suffering to  Himself,
no one can doubt who is able to form the least conception of the limitations
endured  by  that  Great  Spirit in entering  the  hampering  conditions  of
physical existence, even in the best and purest vehicle possible; nor is His
present limitation as Regent of the Earth must less painful.   True,  He  is
also Regent of the Sun,  and therefore only partially confined to the Earth,
yet  the  limitations  set by the crampingly slow vibrations  of  our  dense
planet must be almost endurable.

   Had  Christ Jesus simply died,  it would have been impossible for Him  to
have done this work, but the Christians have a RISEN Savior; One Who is ever
present  to help those who call upon His Name.   Having suffered  like  unto
ourselves  in all things and knowing fully our needs,  He is lenient  toward
our  mistakes  and failures so long as we continue trying to live  the  good
life.  We must ever keep before our eyes the fact that THE ONLY REAL FAILURE
IS CEASING TO TRY.

   Upon  the death of the dense body of Christ Jesus,  the seedatom was  re-
turned to the original owner,  Jesus of Nazareth,  who for some time  after-
ward,  while  functioning in a vital body which he had gathered temporarily,


[PAGE 409]                                            CHRIST AND HIS MISSION

taught the nucleus of the new faith which Christ had left behind.   Jesus of
Nazareth has since had the guidance of the esoteric branches which sprang up
all over Europe.

   In many placed the Knights of the Round Table were high Initiates in  the
Mysteries  of the New Dispensation.   So were the Knights of  The  Grail--to
whom was finally confided Joseph of Arimathea's Grail Cup, which was used by
Christ  Jesus at The Last Supper.  They were afterward entrusted  also  with
the  Lance  which pierced His side, and the receptacle  which  received  the
blood from the wound.

   The  Druids  of  Ireland the Trottes of  Northern  Russia  were  esoteric
schools  through  which the Master Jesus worked during the  so-called  "Dark
Ages,"  but,  dark though they were, the spiritual impulse spread,  and from
the standpoint of the occult scientist they were "Bright Ages"  compared  to
the growing materialism of the last 300 years,  which has increased physical
knowledge immensely, but has almost extinguished the Light of the Spirit.

   Tales of "The Grail," "Knights of The Round Table," etc., are now scouted
as superstitions and all that cannot be materially demonstrated is  regarded
as unworthy of belief.   Glorious as are the discoveries of modern  science,
they have been bought at the terrible price of crushing the spiritual  intu-
ition and,  from a spiritual standpoint,  no darker day than the present has
ever dawned.

   The  Elder Brothers,  Jesus among them, have striven and are striving  to
counteract  this terrible influence,  which is like that in the eyes of  the
snake,  causing the bird to fall into its jaws.   Every attempt to enlighten
people and awaken in them a desire to cultivate the spiritual side of  life,
is an evidence of the activity of the Elder Brothers.


[PAGE 410]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   May  their efforts be crowned with success and speed the day when  modern
science shall be spiritualized and conduct its investigation of matter  from
the standpoint of spirit,  for them, and not until then, will it arrive at a
true knowledge of the world.


                                DIAGRAM 14:

                           "AS ABOVE, SO BELOW"


   The world, the man and the atom are governed by the same law.   Our dense
earth is now in its 4th stage of consolidation.   The mind,  the desire body
and the vital body are less solid than our 4th vehicle, the dense body.   In
the  atomic weight of the chemical elements there is a similar  arrangement.
The 4th group marks the acme of density.



[PAGE 411]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

                                 CHAPTER XVI

                     FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATION.

                         THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION.

   The  Rosicrucian speaks of the Earth Period as Mars-Mercury.   The  great
creative  Day of Manifestation is embodied in the names of the days  of  the
week,  for  our  week-days have been named  after  the  evolutionary  stages
through which the virgin spirits pass in their pilgrimage through matter.

DAY                     CORRESPONDS TO THE                      IS RULED BY
Saturday............... Saturn Period.......................... Saturn
Sunday................. Sun Period............................. The Sun
Monday................. Moon Period............................ The Moon
Tuesday................ First half of the Earth Period......... Mars
Wednesday.............. Second half of the Earth Period........ Mercury
Thursday............... Jupiter Period......................... Jupiter
Friday................. Venus Period........................... Venus

The Vulcan Period is the last Period of our scheme of evolution.   The quin-
tessence of all the preceding Periods is extracted by the recapitulation  of
spiral after spiral.   No new work is done until the very last Revolution on
the  very  last  Globe and then only in the Seventh  Epoch.   Therefore  the
Vulcan Period may be said to correspond to the week,  which includes all  of
the seven days.

   The claim of astrologers that the days of the week are ruled by the  par-
ticular planet for which they are named, is well-founded.  The ancients were
also  familiar with this occult knowledge, as is shown in their mythologies,


[PAGE 412]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

in  which  the names of the gods are associated with the days of  the  week.
Saturday  is plainly "Saturn's day";  Sunday is correlated to the  Sun,  and
Monday to the Moon.  The Latins call Tuesday "Dies Martis,"  which obviously
shows its connection with Mars, the god of war.   The name "Tuesday"  is de-
rived from "Tirsdag,"  "Tir"  or "Tyr,"  being the name of the Norse god  of
war.   "Wednesday"  was "Wotensdag,"  from Woten, also a Norse  god;  it  is
called "Dies Mercurii"  by the Latins, showing its association with Mercury,
as given in our list.

   Thursday,  or "Thorsdag,"  is named for "Thor," the Norse god of thunder,
and is called "Dies Jovis" by the Latins, after the thunder god,  "Jove"  or
"Jupiter."

   Friday is named for the Norse goddess of beauty, "Freya," and for similar
reasons, the Latins call it "Dies Veneris," or Day of Venus.

   THESE NAMES OF PERIODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PHYSICAL PLANETS,  BUT
REFER TO PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE INCARNATIONS OF THE EARTH;  for,  again ap-
plying the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below,: the macrocosm must have its
incarnations as well as the microcosm, man.

   Occult science teaches that there are 777 incarnations, but that does not
mean  that the Earth undergoes 777 metamorphoses.   It means  that  evolving
life makes
                        7 Revolutions around the
                        7 Globes of the
                        7 World Periods.

   This pilgrimage of Involution and Evolution, including the "short cut" of
Initiation,  is embodied in the Caduceus, or "Staff of Mercury" (see Diagram
15),  so called because this occult symbol indicates The Pat of  Initiation,
which  has been open to man only since the beginning of the Mercury half  of
the  Earth  Period.  Some  of the lesser mysteries were given to the earlier


[PAGE 413]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

                             DIAGRAM 15:

        THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION AND THE FOUR GREAT INITIATIONS.



[PAGE 414]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Lemurians and Atlanteans, but not the Four Great Initiations.

   The black serpent on diagram 15 indicates the winding, cyclic path of In-
volution,  comprising the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods, and the Mars half of
the Earth Period, during which the evolving life built its vehicles, not be-
coming fully awake and clearly conscious of the outside world until the lat-
ter of the Atlantean Epoch.

   The  white  serpent represents the path that the human race  will  follow
through the Mercury half of the Earth Period,  and the Jupiter,  Venus,  and
Vulcan Periods, during which pilgrimage man's consciousness will expand into
that of an omniscient, Creative Intelligence.

   The serpentine path is the path followed by the great majority;  but  the
"Staff of Mercury," around which the serpents twine, shows the "straight and
narrow way," the path of Initiation, which enables those who walk therein to
accomplish in a few short lives that which it requires millions of years for
the majority of mankind to accomplish.

   It need scarcely be said that no description of the initiatory ceremonies
can be given,  as the first vow of the Initiate is silence; but even if per-
missible,  it  would  not  be important.  What  concerns  us  in  getting  a
bird's-eye view of the evolutionary path is to ascertain the results of  the
ceremonies.

   The whole result of initiation is to give to the spiritually aspiring  an
opportunity  to develop the higher faculties and powers in a short time  and
by severe training,  thereby gaining the expansion of consciousness that all
manking will surely possess eventually,  but which the vast majority  choose
to  acquire through the slow process of ordinary evolution.  We may know the


[PAGE 415]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

states of consciousness and their concomitant powers attained by the  candi-
date as he passes through successive great Initiations provided we know what
those future states and powers will be for humanity in general.   Some hints
have  been given and more may be logically deduced by an application of  the
law of Correspondences, to give a fairly rounded picture of the evolution in
store for all of us, and the magnitude of the great steps in Initiation.  To
do this it may help us to glance back over the steps by which the conscious-
ness of man has been evolved through the various Periods.

   We remember that during the Saturn Period the unconsciousness of man  was
similar to that of the dense body when plunged into the deepest trance  con-
dition;  this was succeeded,  in the Sun period,  by a dreamless-sleep  con-
sciousness.  In the Moon Period the first glimmering of waking showed itself
in inward pictures of outward things.  The entire consciousness consisted of
such  inward representations of external objects,  colors,  or  sounds.   At
last, in the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, this picture consciousness,
in which objects could be observed outside,  clearly and distinctly outlined
in space.   When this objective-consciousness was attained, man became aware
of  an outside world and for the first time thoroughly realized the  differ-
ence  between "self"  and "others."   He then realized his separateness  and
thenceforth the "I" consciousness, Egoism, became paramount.  As previous to
that  time  there had been no thoughts nor ideas dealing with a  an  outside
world, there had consequently been no memory of events.

   The   change   from   the   internal   picture   consciousness   to   the
objective-self-consciousness was effected by a very slow process,  commensu-
rate with its magnitude,  lasting from the existence on Globe C in the third


[PAGE 416]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Revolution of the Moon Period, until the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch.

   During  that time the evolving life passed through four great  stages  of
animal-like development before reaching the human stage.  These steps of the
past  correspond to four stages yet to be passed through,  and to  the  four
initiations.

   Within these four stages of consciousness previously passed there are al-
together  thirteen steps,  and from man's present state to the last  of  the
Great Initiations there are also thirteen initiations--the  nine degrees  of
the lesser mysteries and the four Great Initiations.

   There is a similar division among our present animals which can be traced
through Form,  because, as the form is the expression of life,  so each step
in its development must necessarily show a step forward in consciousness.

   Cuvier  was  the  first to divide the animal kingdom  into  four  primary
classes,  but  was not so successful in his division of these  classes  into
sub-classes.   The embryologist, Karl Ernst von Baer, also Professor Agassiz
and  other  scientists,  classify the animal kingdom into four  primary  and
thirteen subdivisions, as follows:

   I    RADIATES:
              1-Polyps, Sea-anemones and Coral.
              2-Acaleph, or Jelly-fish.
              3-Starfish, Sea-urchins.
   II   MOLLUSKS:
              4-Acephala (oysters, etc.).
              5-Gast ropoda (snails).
              6-Cephalopoda.
   III  ARTICULATES:
              7-Worms.
              8-Crustacea (lobsters, etc.).
              9-Insects.
   IV   VERTEBRATES:
              10-Fishes.
              11-Reptiles.
              12-Birds.
              13-Mammals


[PAGE 417]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

   The  first three divisions correspond to the remaining three  Revolutions
of the Mercury half of the Earth Period,  and their nine steps correspond to
the nine degrees of the lesser mysteries, which will have been taken by  hu-
manity in general when it has reached the middle of the last Revolutions  of
the Earth Period.

   The fourth division in the list of the advancing animal kingdom has  four
subdivisions:   Fishes,  Reptiles,  Birds,  and Mammals.   The steps in con-
sciousness thus indicated correspond to similar states of advancement to  be
attained by humanity at the end of the Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Pe-
riods and which any qualified individual may now attain by initiation.   The
first  of the Great Initiations gives the stage of consciousness which  will
be attained by ordinary humanity at the end of the Earth Period;  the second
that  to which all will attain at the end of the Jupiter Period;  the  third
gives the extension of consciousness to be reached at the close of the Venus
Period;  the last brings to the initiate the power and omniscience to  which
the majority will attain only at the end of the Vulcan Period.

   The  Objective-Consciousness by which we obtain knowledge of the  outside
world  is dependent upon what we perceive through the medium of the  senses.
This  we call "real,"  in contradistinction to our thoughts and ideas  which
come to us through our inner consciousness; their reality is not apparent to
us in the same as that of a book or table,  or other visible or tangible ob-
ject in space.  Thoughts and ideas seem misty and unreal, therefore we speak
of a "mere" thought, or of "just" an idea.

   The ideas and thoughts of today, however,  have an evolution before them;
they  are  destined  to  become  as  real,  clear and tangible as any of the


[PAGE 418]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

objects  of  the outside world which we now perceive  through  the  physical
senses.   At present, when a thing or a color is thought of,  the picture or
color  presented by the memory to our inner consciousness is but a  dim  and
shadowy one compared with the thing thought of.

   As early as the Jupiter Period there will be a marked change in this  re-
spect.  The the dream-pictures of the Moon Period will return, but they will
be subject to the call of the thinker,  and not mere reproductions of  outer
objects.   Thus there will be a combination of the pictures of the Moon  Pe-
riod  and the thoughts and ideas consciously developed during the Earth  Pe-
riod, that is, it will be a Self-Consciousness Picture-Consciousness.

   When a man of the Jupiter Period says "red," or speaks the name of an ob-
ject, a clear and exact reproduction of the particular shade of red of which
he is thinking,  or of the object to which he refers,  will be presented  to
his inner vision and will also be quite visible to the hearer.   There  will
be no misconception as to what is meant by the words spoken.   Thoughts  and
ideas  will be alive and visible, therefore hypocrisy and flattery  will  be
entirely eliminated.  People can be seen exactly as they are.  There will be
both  good and bad,  but the two qualities will not be mingled in  the  same
person.   There will be the thoroughly good man and the downright evil  man,
and  one of the serious problems of that time will be how to deal  with  the
latter.   The Manichees,  an Order of still higher,  spirituality  than  the
Rosicrucians,  are at present studying that very problem.   An idea  of  the
condition  anticipated  may be gained from a short resume or  their  legend.
(All mystic orders have a legend symbolic of their ideals and aspirations.

   In  the  legend  of  the  Manichees  there  are two kingdoms--that of the


[PAGE 419]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Light-Elves and that of the Night Elves.  The latter attack the former,  are
defeated  and must be punished.   But, as the Light-Elves are as  thoroughly
good as the Night-Elves are bad,  they cannot inflict evil upon their  foes,
so they must be punished with Good.   Therefore a part of the kingdom of the
Light-Elves is incorporated with that of the Night-Elves and is this way the
evil is in time overcome.  Hate which will not submit to hate,  must succumb
to Love.

   The  internal  pictures of the Moon Period were a certain  expression  of
man's external environment.   In the Jupiter Period the pictures will be ex-
pressed from within;  they will be an outcome of the inner life of the  man.
He  will  also possess the additional faculty,  which he cultivated  in  the
Earth Period, of seeing things in space outside of himself.  In the Moon Pe-
riod he did not see the concrete thing, but only its soul-qualities.  In the
Jupiter  Period he will see both,  and will thus have a thorough  perception
and understanding of his surroundings.  At a later stage in the same Period,
this  perceptive  ability will be succeeded by a still  higher  phase.   His
power to form clear mental conceptions of colors, objects, or tones will en-
able him to contact and influence supersensuous beings of various orders and
to secure their obedience, employing their forces as he wishes.   He will be
unable  to send out from himself the forces wherewith to carry out  his  de-
signs,  however,  and will be dependent upon the help of these superphysical
beings, who will then be at his service.

   At the close of the Venus Period he will be able to use his own force  to
give his pictures life and to set them out from himself as objects in space.
He will then possess an Objective, Self-Conscious, Creative-Consciousness.

   Very little can be said about the high spiritual consciousness which will


[PAGE 420]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

be attained at the close of the Vulcan Period;  it would be quite beyond our
present comprehension.

                           SPIRALS WITHIN SPIRALS.

   It  must not be supposed that these states of consciousness  commence  at
the  beginning of the Periods to which they belong and last until  the  end.
There is always the Recapitulation,  and therefore there must be the  corre-
sponding stages of consciousness on an ascending scale.   The Saturn Revolu-
tion of any Period,  the stay on Glove A,  and the first Epoch on any Globe,
are repetitions of the Saturn Period states of development.  The Sun Revolu-
tion, the stay on Globe B, and the second Epoch on any Glove are Recapitula-
tions  of  the  Sun Period states of development,  and so on,  all  the  way
through.   Hence it will be seen that the consciousness which is to  be  the
especial and peculiar result or product of any Period,  does not begin to be
evolved    until   all   the   Recapitulations   have   been   made.     The
waking-consciousness  of the Earth Period was not started until  the  Fourth
Revolution,  when the life wave had reached the Fourth Glove (D), and was in
the Fourth or Atlantean Epoch on that Globe.

   The Jupiter Consciousness will not start in the Jupiter Period until  the
Fifth  Revolution,  when the Fifth Globe (E) has been reached and the  Fifth
Epoch commences on that Globe.

   Correspondingly,  the Venus consciousness will not begin until the  Sixth
Revolution  has come to the Sixth Globe and Epoch,  and the  special  Vulcan
work will be confined to the very last Globe and Epoch,  just before the Day
of Manifestation closes.

   The  time  required  for  passing through these respective Periods varies


[PAGE 421]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

greatly.   The  further into matter the virgin spirits descent,  the  slower
their  progress  and the more numerous the steps or stages  of  progression.
After the nadir of material existence has been passed and the life wave  as-
cends into more tenuous and mobile conditions, the progress is gradually ac-
celerated.   The Sun Period is of somewhat longer duration that  the  Saturn
Period,  and the Moon Period is longer than the Sun Period.   The  Mars  (or
first) half of the Earth Period is the longest half of any Period.  Then the
time begins to shorten again,  so that the Mercury half of the Earth  Period
the latter three and a half Revolutions, will occupy less time that the Mars
half; the Jupiter Period will be shorter than the Moon Period; the Venus Pe-
riod  shorter than the corresponding Sun Period;  and the Vulcan Period  the
shortest Period of them all.

   The states of consciousness of the different Periods may be tabulated  as
follows:

PERIOD        CORRESPONDING CONSCIOUSNESS
Saturn....... Unconsciousness corresponding to deep trance
Sun.......... Unconsciousness resembling dreamless sleep
Moon......... Picture consciousness corresponding to dream state
Earth........ Waking, objective consciousness
Jupiter...... Self-conscious picture consciousness
Venus........ Objective, Self-conscious, Creative consciousness
Vulcan....... Highest Spiritual Consciousness

   Having taken a general survey of the states of consciousness to be devel-
oped  in the next three and a half Periods,  we will now study the means  of
attainment.


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