[PAGE 421 cont'd]                                         FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

                           ALCHEMY AND SOUL-GROWTH

   The dense body was started in the Saturn Period,  passed through  various
transformations  in  the  Sun  and  Moon Periods, and will reach its highest


[PAGE 422]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

development in the Earth Period.

   The  vital body was started in the second Revolution of the  Sun  Period,
was reconstructed in the Moon and Earth Periods,  and will reach  perfection
in the Jupiter Period, which is its fourth stage, as the Earth Period is the
fourth stage for the dense body.

   The  desire  body was started in the Moon period,  reconstructed  in  the
Earth period, will be further modified in the Jupiter Period,  reaching per-
fection in the Venus period.

   The mind was started in the Earth Period, will be modified in the Jupiter
and Venus Periods, and attain perfection in the Vulcan Period.

   Reference to diagram 8 will show that the lowest Globe of the Jupiter Pe-
riod is located in the Etheric Region.   It would therefore be impossible to
use  the dense physical vehicle there,  as only a vital body can be used  in
the  Etheric Region.   Yet it must not be supposed that after  spending  the
time from the beginning of the Saturn Period to the end of the Earth  Period
in completing and perfecting this body,  it is then thrown away that man may
function in a "higher" vehicle!

   Nothing  in Nature is wasted.   In the Jupiter Period the forces  of  the
dense body will be superimposed upon the completed vital body.  That vehicle
will then possess the powers of the dense body in addition to its own facul-
ties,  and will therefore be a much more valuable instrument for the expres-
sion of the threefold spirit that if built from its own forces alone.

   Similarly,  Globe  D of the Venus Period is located in the  Desire  World
(see Diagram 8),  hence neither a dense nor a vital body could be used as an
instrument  of  consciousness, therefore the essences of the perfected dense


[PAGE 423]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

and vital bodies are incorporated in the completed desire body,  the  latter
thus becoming a vehicle of transcendent qualities, marvelously adaptable and
so  responsive  to the slightest wish of the indwelling spirit that  in  our
present limitations, it is beyond our utmost conception.

   Yet the efficiency of even this splendid vehicle will be transcended when
in  the Vulcan period its essence,  together with the essences of the  dense
and vital bodies,  are added to the mind body,  which becomes the highest of
man's  vehicles,  containing within itself the quintessence of all that  was
best in all the vehicles.   The vehicle of the Venus Period being beyond our
present power of conception,  how much more so is that which will be at  the
service of the divine beings of the Vulcan Period!

   During  involution the creative Hierarchies assisted man to  arouse  into
activity the threefold spirit, the Ego, to build the threefold body,  and to
acquire the link of mind.  Now, however, on the seventh day (to use the lan-
guage of the Bible),  God rests.  Man must work out his own salvation.   The
threefold  spirit  must complete the working out of the plan  begun  by  the
Gods.

   The  human spirit,  which was awakened during Involution in the Moon  Pe-
riod,  will be the most prominent of the three aspects of the spirit in  the
evolution  of the Jupiter Period,  which is the corresponding Period on  the
upward arc of the spiral.  The life spirit,  which was started into activity
in the Sun Period, will manifest its principal activity in the corresponding
Venus  Period,  and the particular influences of the Divine Spirit  will  be
strongest in the Vulcan Period, because it was vivified in the corresponding
Saturn Period.

   All three  aspects of the spirit are active all the time during evolution


[PAGE 424]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

but  the  principal activity of each aspect will be unfolded in  those  par-
ticular Periods, because the work to be done there is its special work.

   When the threefold spirit had evolved the threefold body and gained  con-
trol of it through the focus of Mind,  it commenced to evolve the  threefold
soul by working from within.   How much or how little soul a man has depends
upon  the amount of work the spirit has done in the bodies.   This has  been
explained in the chapter describing post mortem experiences.

   As  much of the desire body as has been worked upon by the Ego is  trans-
muted  into the emotional soul,  and is ultimately assimilated by the  human
spirit, the special vehicle of which is the desire body.

   As much of the vital body as has been worked upon by the life spirit, be-
comes the Intellectual soul, and it builds the life spirit, because that as-
pect of the threefold spirit has its counterpart in the vital body.

   As much of the dense body as has been worked upon by the Divine Spirit is
called  the Conscious soul,  and is ultimately merged in the Divine  Spirit,
because the dense body is its material emanation.

   The Conscious soul grows by action, external impacts, and experience.

   The  Emotional soul grows by the feelings and emotions generated  by  ac-
tions and experiences.

   The Intellectual soul,  as mediator between the other two,  grows by  the
exercise of memory,  by which it links together past and present experiences
and  the  feelings  engendered thereby, thus creating  "sympathy"  and  "an-
tipathy,"  which could not exist apart from memory, because the feelings re-
sulting from experience alone would be evanescent.


[PAGE 425]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

   During the involution the spirit progressed by growing bodies, but evolu-
tion  depends upon soul growth--the transmutation of the bodies  into  soul.
The soul is,  so to say,  the quintessence,  the power or force of the body,
and when a body has been completely built and brought to perfection  through
the  stages  and Periods as above described,  the soul  is  fully  extracted
therefrom and is absorbed by the one of the three aspects of the the  spirit
which generated the body in the first place; thus:

   The  CONSCIOUS  SOUL will be absorbed by the DIVINE SPIRIT in the seventh
Revolution of the Jupiter Period;
   The  INTELLECTUAL  SOUL  will be absorbed by the LIFE SPIRIT in the sixth
Revolution of the Venus Period;
   The  EMOTIONAL  SOUL  will  be  absorbed by the HUMAN SPIRIT in the fifth
Revolution of the Vulcan Period.

                             THE CREATIVE WORD.

   The  mind is the most important instrument possessed by the  spirit,  and
its special instrument in the work of creation.   The spiritualized and per-
fected larynx will speak the creative Word, but the perfect mind will decide
as to the particular form and the volume of vibration,  and will thus be the
determining factor.  Imagination will be the spiritualized faculty directing
the work of creation.

   There  is a strong tendency at the present time to regard the faculty  of
imagination slightingly,  yet it is one of the most important factors in our
civilization.   It it were not for the imagination,  we would still be naked
savages.  Imagination planned our houses, our clothes and our transportation
and  transmission facilities.   Had not the inventors of these  improvements
possessed the mind and imagination to form mental images,  the  improvements
could  never  have  become concrete realities.  In our materialistic day and


[PAGE 426]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

age  there is scarcely an effort made to conceal the contempt in  which  the
faculty of imagination is generally held,  and none feel the effects of this
more acutely than inventors.  They are usually classes as "cranks,"  and yet
they  have been the chief factors in the subjugation of the  Physical  World
and in making our social environment what it is today.   Any improvement  in
spiritual or physical conditions must first be imagined as a possibility be-
fore it can become an actuality.

   If  the student will turn to diagram 1 this fact will become  clear.   In
the comparison there drawn between the functions of the different human  ve-
hicles and the part of a stereoptican, the mind corresponds to the lens.  It
is  the focusing medium whereby the ideas wrought by the imagination of  the
spirit  are projected upon the material universe.   First they  are  thought
norms  only,  but when the desire to realize the imagined possibilities  has
set the man to work in the Physical World, they become what we call concrete
"realities."

   At the present time,  however,  the mind is not focused in a way that en-
ables  it to give a clear and true picture of what the spirit imagines.   It
is not one-pointed.  It gives misty and clouded pictures.   Hence the neces-
sity  of  experiment to show the inadequacies of the first  conception,  and
bring about new imaginings and ideas until the image produced by the  spirit
in mental substance has been reproduced in physical substance.

   At  the best,  we are able to shape through the mind only such images  as
have to do with Form, because the human mind was not started until the Earth
Period,  and therefore is now in its form, or "mineral" stage,  hence in our
operations we are confined to forms,  to minerals.   We can imagine ways and
means of working with the mineral forms of the three lower kingdoms, but can


[PAGE 427]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

do  little or nothing with the living bodies.   We may indeed  graft  living
branch to living tree, or living part of animal or man to other living part,
but it is not life with which we are working; it is form only.   We are mak-
ing different conditions, but the life which already inhabited the form con-
tinues to do so still.   To create life is beyond man's power until his mind
has become alive.

   In  the Jupiter Period the mind will be vivified to some extent  and  man
can then imagine forms which will live and grow, like plants.

   In the Venus Period, when his mind has acquired "Feeling,"  he can create
living, growing, and feeling things.

   When he reaches perfection,  at the end of the Vulcan Period,  he will be
able to "imagine" into existence creatures that will live, grown, feel,  and
think.

   In the Saturn Period the life wave which is now man started on its evolu-
tion.   The Lords of Mind were then human.  They worked with man at that Pe-
riod, when he was mineral.  They now have nothing to do with the lower king-
doms, but are concerned solely with our human development.

   Our present animals started their mineral existence in the Sun Period, at
which time the Archangels were human, therefore the Archangels are the  rul-
ers and guides of the evolution of that which is now animal,  but have noth-
ing to do with plant or mineral.

   The  present plants had their mineral existence in the Moon period.   The
Angels  were then human,  therefore they have special concern with the  life
that now inhabits the plants,  to guide it up to the human stage;  but  they
have no interest in the minerals.

   Our  present  humanity  will  have  to work with the new life wave, which


[PAGE 428]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

entered evolution in the Earth Period and NOW ENSOULS THE MINERALS.   We are
now  working  with  it by means of the faculty  of  imagination,  giving  it
form--building it into ships, bridges, railways, houses, etc.

   In the Jupiter Period we shall guide the evolution of the plant  kingdom,
for  that which is at present mineral will then have a plant-like  existence
and  we must work with it there as the Angels are now doing with  out  plant
kingdom.  Our faculty of imagination will be so developed that we shall have
the  ability,  not only to create forms by means of it,  but to endow  those
forms with vitality.

   In the Venus Period our present mineral life wave shall have advanced an-
other  step,  and we shall be doing for the animals of that period what  the
Archangels  are  now doing for our animals--giving them living  and  feeling
forms.

   Lastly, in the Vulcan Period it will be our privilege to give them a ger-
minal mind,  as the Lords of Mind did to us.  The present minerals will then
have  become  the humanity of the Vulcan Period,  and we shall  have  passed
through stages similar to those through which the Angels and Archangels  are
now  passing.   We  shall then have reached a point in  evolution  a  little
higher that that of the present Lords of Mind, for remember,  there is never
an exact reproduction anywhere, but always progressive improvement,  because
of the spiral.

   The Divine Spirit will absorb the human spirit at the close of the  Jupi-
ter Period;  the life spirit at the close of the Venus Period;  and the per-
fected  Mind,  embodying  all that it has  garnered  during  its  pilgrimage
through all the seven Periods,  will be absorbed by the Divine Spirit at the
close  of the Vulcan Period.   (There is no contradiction of  the  foregoing
statement  made  elsewhere  that  the Emotional soul will be absorbed by the


[PAGE 429]                                                FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

human spirit in the fifth Revolution of the Vulcan Period,  because the lat-
ter will then be within the Divine Spirit.)

   Then  will succeed the long interval of subjective activity during  which
the virgin spirit will assimilate all the fruits of the septenary Periods of
active  Manifestation.   It is then merged in God,  from Whom  it  came,  to
re-emerge at the dawn of another Great Day,  as One of His glorious helpers.
During  its past evolution its latent possibilities have been transmuted  to
dynamic  powers.   It  has acquired Soul-power and a Creative  Mind  as  the
fruitage of its pilgrimage through matter.   It has advanced from  IMPOTENCE
TO OMNIPOTENCE, FROM NESCIENCE TO OMNISCIENCE.


[PAGE 430]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

                                CHAPTER XVII.

                THE METHOD OF ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE.

                               THE FIRST STEPS.

   The  time has now come for pointing out the way by which each  individual
may investigate for himself all the facts with which we have dealt thus  far
in our study.  As stated in the beginning, there are no special "gifts"  be-
stowed upon any.   All may know for themselves the truth concerning the pil-
grimage  of the soul,  the past evolution and future destiny of  the  world,
without being compelled to depend upon the veracity of another.   There is a
method whereby this valuable faculty may be acquired,  and the earnest  stu-
dent quality himself to investigate those super-physical realms; a method by
which, if persistently followed, the powers of a God may be developed.

   A  simple  illustration  may indicate the first  steps.   The  very  best
medicine is well-nigh helpless without the tools of his craft.  Indeed it is
the hall mark of a good artisan that he is very fastidious as to the quality
and  condition of the tools he uses, because he knows that the work  depends
as much upon their excellence as upon his skill.

   The Ego has several instruments--a dense  body,  a vital body,  a  desire
body,  and a mind.  These are its tools and upon their quality and condition
depends  how much or how little it can accomplish in its work  of  gathering
experience in each life.  If the instruments are poor and dull there will be


[PAGE 431]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

but little spiritual growth and the life will be a barren one, so far as the
spirit is concerned.

   We generally estimate a "successful" life by the bank account, the social
position attained,  or the happiness resulting from a carefree existence and
a sheltered environment.

   When life is regarded is that way all the principal things that make  for
permanency  are forgotten;  the individual is blinded by the evanescent  and
illusionary.   A bank account seems such a very real success,  the  fact  is
forgotten that from the moment the Ego leaves the body,  it has no equity in
gold  nor any other earthly treasure.   It may even have to answer  for  the
methods employed in amassing that hoard and suffer great pain in seeing oth-
ers spend it.   It is forgotten that the important social position also dis-
appears  when  the silver cord is loosed.   Those who once fawned  may  then
sneer, and even those who were faithful in life might shudder at the thought
of an hour spent with no company but that of the dead.   All that if of this
life alone in vanity.  Only that is of true value which can be taken with us
across the threshold as the treasure of the spirit.

   The hot-house plant may look very beautiful as it blooms in its sheltered
glass house,  but should the furnace fire go out,  it would wither and  die,
while the plant that has grown in rain and sunshine, through storm and calm,
will survive the winter and bloom afresh each year.   From the viewpoint  of
the  soul,  happiness and a sheltered environment are generally  unfortunate
circumstances.   The  petted and fondled lap dog is subject to  diseases  of
which the homeless cur,  which has to fight for a scrap from a garbage  can,
knows nothing.  The cur's life is hard, but it gets experience that makes it


[PAGE 432]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

alert,  alive and resourceful.   Its life is rich in events,  and it reaps a
harvest  of experience,  while the pampered lap dog drones it time  away  in
fearful monotony.

   The case of a human being is somewhat similar.   It may be hard to  fight
poverty  and hunger,  but from the standpoint of the soul it  is  infinitely
preferable  to a life of idle luxury.  Where wealth is nothing more  than  a
handmaid of well thought out philanthropy,  which helps man in such a way as
to really uplift him,  it may be a very great blessing and a means of growth
for  its possessor,  but when used for selfish purposes and  oppression,  it
cannot be regarded as other than an unmitigated curse.

   The  soul is here to acquire experience through its  instruments.   These
are the tools furnished to each at birth,  and they are good,  bad or indif-
ferent  according  to what we have learned through past  experience  in  the
building of them.  Such as they are we must work with them, it at all.

   If  we  have become aroused from the usual lethargy and  are  anxious  to
progress, the question naturally arises, What must I do?

   Without well-kept tools the mechanic can do no effective work; similarly,
the instruments of the Ego must be cleansed and sharpened;  then we may com-
mence  work to some purpose.   As one works with those wonderful tools  they
themselves improve with proper use and become more and more efficient to aid
in the work.  The object of this work is Union with the Higher Self.

   There  are three steps by which this work conquers the lower nature,  but
they are not completely taken one after the other.   In a certain sense they
go together, so that at the present stage the first receives the most atten-
tion, the second less, and the third least of  all.  In time, when the first


[PAGE 433]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

step  has  been wholly taken,  naturally more attention can be paid  to  the
other two.

   There are three helps given in attaining these three stages.  They can be
seen in the outside world,  where the great Leaders of humanity have  placed
them.

   The  first help is Race religions, which by aiding humanity  to  overcome
the desire body, prepare it for union with the Holy Spirit.

   The full operation of this help was seen on the Day of Pentecost.  As the
Holy Spirit is the Race God,  all languages are expressions of it.   That is
why the apostles,  when fully united and filled with the Holy Spirit,  spoke
with  different  tongues  and were able to convince  their  hearers.   Their
desire  bodies had been sufficiently purified to bring about the  wished-for
union  and this is an earnest of what the disciple will one day attain  to--
the  power  to speak all tongues.   It may also be cited as a  modern,  his-
torical example, that the Comte de St. Germain (who was one of the later in-
carnations  of Christian Rosenkreuz the founder of our sacred Order),  spoke
all languages,  so that all to whom he spoke thought he belonged to the same
nation as they.  He also had achieved union with the Holy Spirit.

   In the Hyperborean Epoch,  before man possessed a desire body,  there was
but one universal mode of communication and when the desire body has  become
sufficiently purified, all men will again be able to understand one another,
for then the separative Race differentiation will have passed away.

   The  second help which humanity now has is the Religion of  the  Son--the
Christian religion, the object of which is UNION WITH CHRIST by purification
and control of the vital body.


[PAGE 434]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   Paul refers to this future state when he says:   "Until Christ be  formed
in you,"  and exhorts his followers,  as men who are running a race,  to rid
themselves of every weight.

   The fundamental principle in building the vital body is repetition.   Re-
peated  experiences work on it to create memory.   The Leaders of  humanity,
who  desired  to give us unconscious help by certain  exercises,  instituted
prayer  as a means of bringing pure and lofty thought to work on  the  vital
body,  and enjoined us to "pray without ceasing."  Scoffers have often asked
sneeringly why it should be thought necessary to always pray, because if God
is omniscient He knows our needs and if He is not, our prayers will probably
never reach Him; and if not omniscient, He cannot be omnipotent,  and there-
fore  could not answer prayer in any case.   Many an earnest  Christian  may
also have thought it wrong to be continually importuning the Throne of
Grace.

   Such  ideas are founded upon a misunderstanding of facts.   Truly God  is
omniscient and requires no reminder of our needs, but if we pray aright,  we
lift ourselves up to Him,  thus working upon and purifying our vital bodies.
If  we pray aright--but that is the great trouble.   We are  generally  much
more concerned about temporal things than we are about spiritual upliftment.
Churches will hold special meetings to pray for rain!  and the chaplains  of
opposing  armies or navies will even pray before a battle that  success  may
follow their arms!

   That  is  prayer to the Race God, Who fights the battles of  His  people,
gives them increase of flocks and herds, fills their granaries and caters to
the material wants.  Such prayers are not even purifying.  They are from the
desire body, which sums up the situation thus:  Now Lord,  I am keeping your


[PAGE 435]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

commandments to the best of my ability and I want You to do Your part in re-
turn.

   Christ  gave  to  humanity a prayer that is,  like  himself,  unique  and
all-embracing.  In it there are seven distinct and separate prayers; one for
each  of  the seven principles of many--the threefold  body,  the  threefold
spirit and the link of mind.   Each prayer is peculiarly adapted to  promote
the progression of that part of composite man to which it refers.

   The purpose of the prayer relating to the threefold body is the  spiritu-
alization  of those vehicles and the extraction therefrom of  the  threefold
soul.

   The  prayers relating to the threefold spirit prepare it to  receive  the
extracted essence, the threefold soul.

   The prayer for the link of mind is to keep it in its proper relation as a
tie between the higher and the lower nature.

   The  third help to be given to humanity will be the Religion of  the  Fa-
ther.   We can have very little conception of what that will be,  save  that
the ideal will be even higher than Brotherhood and that by it the dense body
will be spiritualized.

   The Religions of the Holy Spirit,  the Race religions,  were for the  up-
lifting  of  the  human  race through a feeling  of  kinship  limited  to  a
group--family, tribe or nation.

   The purpose of the Religion of The Son, Christ, is to further uplift man-
kind by forming it into a Universal Brotherhood of separate individuals.

   The  ideal of the Religion of The Father will be the elimination  of  all
separateness, merging all into One, so that there will be no "I" nor "Thou,"
but  all will be One IN REALITY.   This will not come to pass while  we  are
still  inhabitants  of  the  physical  Earth, but in a future state where we


[PAGE 436]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

shall  realize our unity with all,  each having access to all the  knowledge
garnered by each separate individual.  Just as the single facet of a diamond
has access to all the light that comes through each of the other facets,  is
one  with them,  yet bounded by lines which give it a certain  individuality
WITHOUT SEPARATENESS, so will the individual spirit RETAIN THE MEMORY OF ITS
PARTICULAR EXPERIENCES,  while giving to all others THE FRUITS of its  indi-
vidual existence.

   These  are the steps and stages through which humanity  is  unconsciously
being led.

   In past ages the Race spirit reigned alone.   Man was content with a  pa-
triarchal and paternal government in which he had no part.  Now all over the
world we see signs of the breaking down of the old system.   The caste  sys-
tem, which was the stronghold of England in India, is crumbling.  Instead of
being separated into small groups, the people are uniting in the demand that
the oppressor shall depart and leave them to live in freedom under a govern-
ment of, by and for the people.  Russia is torn by strife for freedom from a
dictatorial,  autocratic government.   Turkey has awakened and taken a  long
stride toward liberty.  Here in our own land, where we are supposed to be in
the  actual enjoyment of such liberty as others are,  as yet,  only able  to
covet or fight for,  we are not yet satisfied.   We are learning that  there
are other oppressions than those of an autocratic monarchy.   We see that we
have still industrial freedom to gain.  We are chafing under the yoke of the
trusts  and  an  insane  system of  competition.   We  are  trending  toward
co-operation, which is now practiced by the trusts within their own confines
for private profit.  We are desirous of a state of society where "they shall


[PAGE 437]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

sit  every man under his vine and under his fig tree;  and none  shall  make
them afraid."

   Thus,  all  over the world,  the old systems of paternal  government  are
changing.   Nations, as such, have had their day and are unwittingly working
toward Universal Brotherhood in accordance with the design of our  invisible
Leaders, who are none the less potent in shaping events because they are not
officially seated in the councils of nations.

   These  are  the slow means by which the different bodies of  humanity  at
large  are being purified,  but the aspirant to the higher  knowledge  works
CONSCIOUSLY to attain to these ends,  by well-defined methods,  according to
his constitution.

                     WESTERN METHODS FOR WESTERN PEOPLE.

   In  India,  certain methods under different systems of  Yoga,  are  used.
Yoga means Union and,  as in the West,  the object of the aspirant is  union
with  the Higher Self;  but to be efficacious,  the methods of seeking  that
union must differ.  The vehicles of a Hindu are very differently constituted
from those of a Caucasian.   The Hindus have lived for many,  many thousands
of  years in an environment and climate totally different from  ours.   They
have pursued a different method of thought and their civilization, though of
a  very  high order,  is different from ours in its effects.   Therefore  it
would be useless for us to adopt their methods, which are the outcome of the
highest occult knowledge and perfectly suited to them, but as unsuitable for
the people of the West as a diet of oats would be for a lion.

   For instance,  in some systems it is required that the yogi shall sit  in
certain positions, that particular cosmic currents may flow through his body


[PAGE 438]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

in  a  certain way to produce certain definite  results.   That  instruction
would be altogether useless for a Caucasian,  as he is absolutely impervious
to those currents, because of his way of living.  If he is to attain results
at all, he must work in harmony with the constitution of his vehicles.  That
is why the "Mysteries"  were established in different parts of Europe during
the  Middle Ages.   The Alchemists were deep students of the  higher  occult
science.   The popular belief that the object of their study and experiment-
ing was the transmutation of baser metals into gold,  was because they chose
that symbolic way of describing their true work, which was the transmutation
of the lower nature into spirit.   It was thus described to lull the  suspi-
cions of the priests,  without stating a falsehood.   The statement that the
Rosicrucians were a society devoted to the discovery and use of the  formula
for  the making of the "Philosopher's Stone" was and is true.   It  is  also
true that most people have handled and do often handle this wondrous  stone.
It is common, but of no avail to an but the individual who makes it for him-
self.  The formula is given in the esoteric training and a Rosicrucian is no
different in that respect from the occultist of any other school.   All  are
engaged in the making of this coveted stone,  each,  however,  using his own
methods,  as there are no two individuals alike and consequently really  ef-
fective work is always individual in its scope.

   All occult schools are divisible into seven,  as are the "Rays"  of Life,
the  virgin  spirits.   Each School or Order belongs to one of  these  seven
Rays,  as does each unit of our humanity.   Therefore any individual seeking
to unite with one of these occult groups, the "Brothers" in which do not be-
long to his Ray, cannot do so with benefit to himself.  The members of these


[PAGE 439]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

groups are brothers in a more intimate sense than are the rest of humanity.

   Perhaps if these seven Rays are compared to the seven colors of the spec-
trum, their relation to one another can be better understood.  For instance,
if a red ray were to ally itself with a green ray,  inharmony would  result.
The same principle applies to spirits.   Each must proceed with the group to
which  it belongs during manifestation,  yet they are all one.   As all  the
colors are contained in the white light,  but the refractive quality of  our
atmosphere seems to divide it into seven colors,  so the illusory conditions
of concrete existence cause the virgin spirits to seem grouped and this  ap-
parent grouping will abide while we are in this state.

   The  Rosicrucian Order was started particularly for those whose high  de-
gree of intellectual development caused them to repudiate the heart.  Intel-
lect imperiously demands a logical explanation of everything--the world mys-
tery,  the  questions  of life and death.   The reasons for  and  the  MODUS
OPERANDI of existence were not explained by the priestly injunction "not  to
seek to know the mysteries of God."

   To any man or woman who is blest,  or otherwise,  with such an  inquiring
mind it is of paramount importance that they shall receive all the  informa-
tion they crave, so that when the head is stilled, the heart may speak.  In-
tellectual knowledge is but a means to an end,  not the end itself.   There-
fore,  the  Rosicrucian purposes first of all to satisfy  the  aspirant  for
knowledge that everything in the universe is reasonable,  thus winning  over
the rebellious intellect.   When it has ceased to criticise and is ready  to
accept provisionally,  as PROBABLY true, statements which cannot be  immedi-
ately  verified,  then,  and  not  until  then,  will  esoteric  training be


[PAGE 440]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

effective  in developing the higher faculties whereby man passes from  faith
to first-hand knowledge.  Yet, even then it will be found that, as the pupil
progresses in first-hand knowledge and becomes able to investigate for  him-
self,  there are always truths ahead of him that he knows to be truths,  but
which he is not yet advanced sufficiently to investigate.

   The  pupil will do well to remember that nothing that is not logical  can
exist in the universe and that logic is the surest guide in all the  Worlds,
but he must not forget that his faculties are limited and that more than his
own powers of logical reasoning may be needed to solve a given problem,  al-
though  it may,  nevertheless,  be susceptible of full explanation,  but  by
lines of reasoning which are beyond the capacity of the pupil at that  stage
of  his  development.   Another point that must be borne  in  mind  is  that
unwavering confidence in the teacher is absolutely necessary.

   The  foregoing is recommended to the particular consideration of all  who
intend  taking the first steps toward the higher knowledge.   If the  direc-
tions given are followed at all,  they must be given full credence as an ef-
ficacious  means  to  accomplish  their  purpose.    To  follow  them  in  a
half-hearted manner would be of no avail whatever.   Unbelief will kill  the
fairest flower ever produced by the spirit.

   Work  on  the different bodies of man is carried on  synchronously.   One
body  cannot be influenced without affecting the others,  but the  principal
work may be done on any one of them.

   If  strict attention is paid to hygiene and diet,  the dense body is  the
one  principally affected,  but  at the same time there is also an effect on


[PAGE 441]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

the  vital body and the desire body for,  as purer and better materials  are
built  into the dense body,  the particles are enveloped in purer  planetary
ether and desire-stuff also,  therefore the planetary parts of the vital and
desire bodies become purer.   If attention is paid to food and hygiene only,
the personal vital and desire bodies may remain almost as impure as  before,
but it has become just a little easier to get into touch with the good  than
if gross food were used.

   On  the other hand if,  despite annoyances,  an equable temper is  culti-
vated, also literary and artistic tastes, the vital body will produce an ef-
fect  of  daintiness and fastidiousness in physical matters  and  will  also
engender ennobling feelings and emotions in the desire body.

   Seeking to cultivate the emotions also reacts upon the other vehicles and
helps to improve them.
[PAGE 441 cont'd]                             ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

                          THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION

   If we begin with the dense vehicle and consider the physical means avail-
able  to improve it and make it the best possible instrument for the  spirit
and afterward consider the spiritual means to the same end,  we shall be in-
cluding  all  the other vehicles as well;  therefore we  shall  follow  that
method.

   The first visible state of a human embryo is a small, globulous, pulpy or
jelly-like substance,  similar to albumen, or the white of an egg.   In this
pulpy  globule  various  particles  of  more  solid  matter  appear.   These
gradually  increase in bulk and density until they come in contact with  one
another.  The different points of contact are slowly modified into joints or
hinges  and  thus  a  distinct framework of solid  matter,  a  skeleton,  is
gradually formed.

   During  the formation of this framework the surrounding pulpy matter  ac-
cumulates  and  changes  in form until at length that degree of organization


[PAGE 442]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

develops which is known as a foetus.  This becomes larger, firmer,  and more
fully organized up to the time of birth, when the state of infancy begins.

   The same process of consolidation which commenced with the first  visible
stage of existence, still continues.  The being passes through the different
stages of infancy,  childhood, youth, manhood or womanhood, old age,  and at
last comes to the change that is called death.

   Each of these stages is characterized by an INCREASING DEGREE OF HARDNESS
AND SOLIDITY.

   There  is a gradual increase in density and firmness of the  bones,  ten-
dons,  cartilages, ligaments, tissues, membranes, the coverings and even the
very substance of the stomach, liver, lungs,  and other organs.   The joints
become  rigid and dry.   They begin to crack and grate when they are  moved,
because the synovial fluid,  which oils and softens them,  is diminished  in
quantity and rendered too thick and glutinous to serve that purpose.

   The  heart,  the  brain,  and the entire muscular  system,  spinal  cord,
nerves,  eyes, etc., partake of the same consolidating process, growing more
and  more  rigid.   Millions upon millions of the minute  capillary  vessels
which  ramify and spread like the branches of a tree throughout  the  entire
body,  gradually choke up and change into solid fibre, no longer pervious to
the blood.

   The larger blood vessels, both arteries and veins,  indurate,  lose their
elasticity,  grow  smaller,  and become incapable of carrying  the  required
amount of blood.   The fluids of the body thicken and become putrid,  loaded
with earthy matter.  The skin withers and grows wrinkled and dry.   The hair
falls  off  for  lack  of  oil.  The  teeth  decay  and drop out for lack of


[PAGE 443]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

gelatine.   The motor nerves begin to dry up and the movements of  the  body
become awkward and slow.   The senses fail;  the circulation of the blood is
retarded;  it stagnates and congeals in the vessels.  More and more the body
loses its former powers.  Once elastic, healthy, alert, pliable,  active and
sensitive,  it becomes rigid, slow, and insensible.  Finally, it dies of old
age.

   The question now arises,  What is the cause of this gradual  ossification
of the body, bringing rigidity, decrepitude, and death?

   From the purely physical standpoint, chemists seem to be unanimous in the
opinion  that it is principally an increase of phosphate of lime (bone  mat-
ter),  carbonate  of lime (common chalk), and sulphate of lime  (plaster  of
paris),  with occasionally a little magnesia and an insignificant amount  of
other earthy matters.

   The only difference between the body of old age and that of childhood  is
the greater density,  toughness and rigidity,  caused by the greater propor-
tion  of  calcareous,  earthy matter entering into the  composition  of  the
former.  The bones of a child are composed of three parts of gelatine to one
part of earthy matter.  In old age this proportion is reversed.  What is the
source of this death-dealing accumulation of solid matter?

   It  seems to be axiomatic that the entire body is nourished by the  blood
and  that everything contained in the body,  of whatever nature,  has  first
been in the blood.  Analysis shows that the blood holds earthy substances of
the same kind as the solidifying agents--and mark!--the ARTERIAL blood  con-
tains more earthy matter than the VENOUS blood.

   This is highly important.   It shows that in every cycle the blood depos-
its  earthy  substances.  It  is therefore the common carrier that chokes up


[PAGE 444]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

the system.  But its supply of earthy matter must be replenished,  otherwise
it  could  not continue to do this.  Where does it renew  its  deadly  load?
There can be but one answer to that question--from the food and drink; there
is absolutely no other source.

   The food and drink which nourish the body must be, at the same time,  the
primary  source of the calcareous,  earthy matter which is deposited by  the
blood all over the system,  causing decrepitude and finally death.   To sus-
tain  physical life it is necessary that we eat and drink but as  there  are
many  kinds of food and drink,  it behooves us,  in the light of  the  above
facts, to ascertain, if possible, what kinds contain the smallest proportion
of destructive matter.   If we can find such food we can lengthen our  lives
and,  from an occult standpoint, it is desirable to live as long as possible
in  each  dense body,  particularly after a start has been made  toward  the
path.   So  many years are required to educate,  through childhood  and  hot
youth, each body inhabited, until the spirit can at last obtain some control
over  it,  that the longer we can retain a body that has become amenable  to
the spirit's promptings,  the better.  Therefore it is highly important that
the  pupil  partake of such food and drink only as will  deposit  the  least
amount  of hardening matter and at the same time keep the  excretory  organs
active.

   The  skin  and the urinary system are the saviors of man  from  an  early
grave.   Were it not that by their means,  most of the earthy  matter  taken
with our food is eliminated, no one would live ten years.

   It  has been estimated that ordinary,  undistilled spring water  contains
carbonate  and  other compounds of lime to such an extent that  the  average
quantity used each day by one person in the form of tea, coffee, soup, etc.,


[PAGE 445]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

would in forty years be sufficient to form a block of solid chalk or  marble
the size of a large man.   It is also a significant fact that although phos-
phate of lime is always found in the urine of adults, it is not found in the
urine of children, because in them the rapid formation of bone requires that
this salt be retained.   During the period of gestation there is very little
earthy  matter in the urine of the mother, as it is used in the building  of
the foetus.   In ordinary circumstances, however, earthy matter is very much
in evidence in the urine of adults and to this we owe the fact that physical
life reaches even its present length.

   Undistilled water, when taken internally, is man's worst enemy,  but used
externally,  it  becomes his best friend.   It keeps the pores of  the  skin
open, induces circulation of the blood and prevents the stagnation which af-
fords  the best opportunity for the depositing of the earthy,  death-dealing
phosphate of lime.

   Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, said that health de-
notes a free circulation and disease is the result of an obstructed circula-
tion of the blood.

   The  bathtub  is  a great aid in keeping up the health of  the  body  and
should  be  freely used by the aspirant to the higher  life.   Perspiration,
sensible and insensible, carries more earthy matter out of the body than any
other  agency.   As  long as fuel is supplied and the fire  kept  free  from
ashes,  it will burn.   The kidneys are important in carrying away the ashes
from  the body,  but despite the great amount of earthy matter carried  away
by the urine,  enough remains in many cases to form gravel and stone in  the
bladder, causing untold agony and often death.

   Let  no one be deceived into thinking that water contains less stone  be-
cause  it  has  been  boiled.  The  stone  that  forms  on the bottom of the


[PAGE 446]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

teakettle has been left there by the evaporated water which escaped from the
kettle as  steam.   If  the  steam were condensed,  we should have distilled
water, which is an important adjunct in keeping the body young.

   There is absolutely no earthy matter in distilled water,  nor in rain wa-
ter,  snow nor hail (except what may be gathered by contact with house-tops,
etc.), but coffee, tea, or soup made with ordinary water, no matter how long
boiled, is not purified of the earthy particles; on the contrary, the longer
they are boiled, the more heavily charged with ash they become.   Those suf-
fering from urinary diseases should never drink any but distilled water.

   It may be said generally of the solid foods we take into our system, that
fresh  vegetables and ripe fruits contain the greatest proportion of  nutri-
tious matter and the least of earthy substances.

   As  we  are writing for the aspirant to the higher life and not  for  the
general  public,  it may also be said that animal food  should  be  entirely
avoided,  if possible.   No one who kills can go very far along the path  of
holiness.   We  do even worse than if we actually killed,  for in  order  to
shield  ourselves  from the personal commission of the act of  killing,  and
still reap its results, we force a fellow being, through economic necessity,
to devote his entire time to murder, thereby brutalizing him to such an  ex-
tent  that the law will not allow him to act as a juror in cases of  capital
crime, because his business has so familiarized him with the taking of life.

   The  enlightened know the animals to be their younger brothers  and  that
they  will be human in the Jupiter Period.   We shall then help them as  the
Angels,  who  were  human in the Moon Period, are now helping us, and for an


[PAGE 447]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

aspirant to high ideals to kill--either in person or by proxy--is out of the
question.

   Several very important food products from animals,  such as milk,  cheese
and butter, may be used.  These are the results of the PROCESSES of life and
require no tragedies to convert them into food.  Milk, which is an important
food  for the occult student,  contains no earthy matter of any  consequence
and has an influence upon the body possessed by no other food.

   During  the Moon Period man was fed upon the milk of  Nature.   Universal
food  was absorbed by him and the use of milk has a tendency to put  him  in
touch with the Cosmic forces and enable him to heal others.

   It is popularly supposed that sugar or any saccharine substance is  inju-
rious to the general health,  and particularly to the teeth,  causing  their
decay and the resulting toothache.  Only under certain circumstances is this
true.  It is harmful in certain diseases, such as biliousness and dyspepsia,
or  if held long in the mouth as candy,  but if sparingly used  during  good
health and the amount gradually increased as the stomach becomes  accustomed
to its use, it will be found very nourishing.  The health of negroes becomes
greatly improved during the sugar-cane harvest time,  nothwithstanding their
increased labor.   This is attributed solely to their fondness for the sweet
cane-juice.   The same may be said of horses,  cows,  and other  animals  in
those localities, which are all fond of the refuse syrup fed to them.   They
grow  fat in harvest time,  their coats becoming sleek and shining.   Horses
fed  on boiled carrots for a few weeks will get a coat like silk,  owing  to
the saccharine juices of that vegetable.  Sugar is a nutritious and  benefi-
cial article of diet and contains no ash whatever.


[PAGE 448]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   Fruits are an ideal diet.   They are in fact evolved by the trees to  in-
duce  animal and man to eat them,  so that the seed may be disseminated,  as
flowers entice bees for a similar purpose.

   Fresh fruit contains water of the purest and best kind, capable of perme-
ating the system in a marvelous manner.   Grape juice is a particularly won-
derful  solvent.   It thins and stimulates the blood,  opening the way  into
capillaries  already  dried and choked up--if the process has not  gone  too
far.   By a course of unfermented grape-juice treatment,  people with sunken
eyes,  wrinkled skins and poor complexions become plump,  ruddy and  lively.
The  increased permeability enables the spirit to manifest more  freely  and
with renewed energy.   The following table, which with the exception of  the
last column,  is taken from the publications of the United States Department
of Agriculture,  will give the aspirant some idea of the amount it is neces-
sary to eat for different degrees of activity,  also the constituents of the
various foods named.

   Considering  the body from a purely physical standpoint,  it is  what  we
might call a chemical furnace,  the food being the fuel.   The more the body
is exercised,  the more fuel it requires.   It would be foolish for a man to
change  an ordinary diet which for years had adequately nourished  him,  and
take  up a new method without due thought as to which would be the best  for
serving  his purpose.   To simply eliminate meats from the ordinary diet  of
meat-eaters would unquestionably undermine the health of most persons.   The
only  safe  way is to experiment and study the matter out first,  using  due
discrimination.   No fixed rules can be given,  the matter of diet being  as
individual as any other characteristic.  All that can be done is to give the
table  of  food  values  and describe the general influence of each chemical


[PAGE 449]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

chemical element, allowing the aspirant to work out his own method.

   Neither must we allow the appearance of a person to influence our  judge-
ment  as  to the condition of his health.   Certain general ideas of  how  a
healthy person should look are commonly accepted, but there is no valid rea-
son  for so judging.   Ruddy cheeks might be an indication of health in  one
individual and of disease in another.   There is no particular rule by which
good health can be known except the feeling of comfort and well-being  which
is enjoyed by the individual himself, irrespective of appearances.

   The table of foods here given deals with five chemical compounds.

   Water is the great solvent.

   Nitrogen or proteid is the essential builder of flesh,  but contains some
earthy matter.

   Carbo-hydrates or sugars are the principal power-producers.

   Fats are the producers of heat and the storers of reserve force.

   Ash is mineral,  earthy,  and chokes the system.  We need have no fear of
not  obtaining it in sufficient quantities to build the bones;  on the  con-
trary, we cannot be too careful to get as little as possible.

   The  calorie is the simple unit of heat,  and the table shows the  number
contained in each article of food when bought at the market.   In a pound of
Brazil nuts, for instance, 49.6% of the whole is waste (shells), but the re-
maining  50.4% contains 1485 calories.   That means that about  one-half  of
what is bought is waste,  but the remainder contains the number of  calories
named.   That  we may get the greatest amount of strength from our  food  we
must  pay  attention to the number of calories it contains, for from them we


[PAGE 450]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

obtain  the  energy  required  to perform our daily  work.   The  number  of
calories necessary to sustain the body under varying conditions is shown  in
the following table (per day):

Man at VERY hard muscular work...........................5500 Calories
Man at moderately hard muscular work.....................4150 Calories
Man at moderately active muscular work...................3400 Calories
Man at moderately LIGHT work.............................3050 Calories
Man at sedentary work....................................2700 Calories
Man without muscular exercise............................2450 Calories
Woman at light to moderate manual work...................2450 Calories


                            TABLE OF FOOD VALUES



[PAGE 451]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

                      TABLE OF FOOD VALUES (Continued)


[PAGE 452]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   According to this table,  it is evident that chocolate is the most nutri-
tious food we have; also that cocoa, in its powdered state, is the most dan-
gerous of all foods,  containing three times as much as as most of the  oth-
ers,  and  ten  times as much as many.  It is a powerful  food  and  also  a
powerful  poison,  for  it chokes the system more  quickly  than  any  other
substance.

   Of course,  it will require some study at first to secure the best  nour-
ishment, but it pays in health and longevity and secures the free use of the
body, making study and application to higher things possible.  After a while
the  aspirant will become so familiar with the subject that he will need  to
give it no particular attention.

   While  the  foregoing table shows the proportion of  chemical  substances
contained in each article of food named, it must be remembered that not  all
of this is available for use in the system,  because there are certain  por-
tions which the body refuses to assimilate.

   Of vegetables,  we digest only about 83% of the proteids, 90% of the fat,
and 95% of the carbo-hydrates.

   Of fruits,  we assimilate about 85% of the proteids, 90% of the fat,  and
90% of the carbo-hydrates.

   The  brain  is the co-ordinating mechanism whereby the movements  of  the
body  are controlled and our ideas are expressed.   It is built of the  same
substances as are all other parts of the body, with the addition of phospho-
rus, which is peculiar to the brain alone.  (As to proportion.--Ed.)

   The  logical conclusion is that phosphorus is the particular  element  by
means  of which the Ego is able to express thought and influence  the  dense
physical body.   It is also a fact that the proportion and variation of this
substance  is found to correspond to the state and stage of intelligence  of
the  individual.  Idiots  have  very little phosphorus; shrewd thinkers have


[PAGE 453]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

much;  and in the animal world, the degree of consciousness and intelligence
is in proportion to the amount of phosphorus contained in the brain.

   It  is therefore of great importance that the aspirant who is to use  his
body  for mental and spiritual work,  should supply his brain with the  sub-
stance  necessary for that purpose.   Most vegetables and fruits  contain  a
certain  amount of phosphorus,  but it is a peculiar fact that  the  greater
proportion is contained in the leaves, which are usually thrown away.  It is
found in considerable quantities in grapes,  onions,  sage,  beans,  cloves,
pineapples,  in  the  leaves  and stalks of many  vegetables,  and  also  in
sugar-cane juice, but not in refined sugar.

   The following table shows the proportions of phosphoric acid in a few ar-
ticles:

100,000 Parts of:

Barley, dry, contain, of phosphoric acid,....................210 parts
Beans........................................................292 parts
Beets........................................................167 parts
Beets, Leaves of ............................................690 parts
Buckwheat....................................................170 parts
Carrots, dry.................................................395 parts
Carrots, Leaves of...........................................963 parts
Linseed......................................................880 parts
Linseed, Stalks of...........................................118 parts
Parsnips.....................................................111 parts
Parsnips, Leaves of.........................................1784 parts
Peas.........................................................190 parts

   The gist of the preceding argument may be thus succinctly stated:

   (1)  The body, throughout the entire period of life, is subject to a pro-
cess of consolidation.

   (2)  This process consists of the depositing by the blood  of earthy sub-
stances, principally phosphate and carbonate of lime,  by  which the various
parts become ossified, converted into bone, or kindred matter.


[PAGE 454]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   (3)   This conversion into bone destroys the flexibility of the  vessels,
muscles  and  other parts of the body subject to motion.   It  thickens  the
blood and entirely chokes up the minute capillaries, so that the circulation
of the fluids and the action of the system generally diminishes,  the termi-
nation of this process being death.

   (4)  This process of consolidation may be retarded and life prolonged  by
carefully avoiding the foods that contain much ash; by using distilled water
for internal purposes;  and by promotion excretion through the skin by means
of frequent baths.

   The foregoing explains why some religions prescribe frequent ablutions as
a religious exercise,  because they promote the health and purify the  dense
body.   Fastings were also prescribed for the same purpose.   They give  the
stomach a much needed rest,  allow the body to eliminate the EFFETE  matter,
and thus, if not too frequent or too prolonged, promote the health, but usu-
ally  as much and more can be accomplished by giving the body  proper  foods
which are the best medicines.

   Always the first care of the physician is to ascertain if there is proper
excretion,  that being Nature's chief means for ridding the body of the poi-
sons contained in all foods.

   In  conclusion,  let the aspirant choose such food as is most easily  di-
gested, for the more easily the energy in food is extracted, the longer time
will the system have for recuperation before it becomes necessary to replen-
ish the supply.   Milk should never be drunk as one may drink a glass of wa-
ter.  Taken in that way, it forms in the stomach a large cheese ball,  quite
impervious to the action of the gastric juices.  It should be sipped,  as we
sip  tea or coffee.   It will then form many small globules in the  stomach,
which are easily assimilated.  Properly used, it is one of the best possible


[PAGE 455]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

articles of diet.  Citrus fruits are powerful antiseptics, and cereals, par-
ticularly rice, are antitoxins of great efficiency.

   Having  now explained,  from the purely material point of view,  what  is
necessary for the dense body,  we will consider the subject from the  occult
side, taking into consideration the effect on the two invisible bodies which
interpenetrate the dense body.

   The  particular stronghold of the desire body is in the muscles  and  the
cerebro-spinal nervous system,  as already shown.  The energy displayed by a
person when laboring under great excitement or anger is an example of  this.
At such times the whole muscular system is tense and no hard labor is so ex-
hausting as a "fit of temper."   It sometimes leaves the body prostrated for
weeks.   There  can be seen the necessity for improving the desire  body  by
controlling the temper,  thus sparing the dense body the suffering resulting
from the ungoverned action of the desire body.

   Looking at the matter from an occult standpoint, all consciousness in the
Physical World is the result of the constant war between the desire and  the
vital bodies.

   The tendency of the vital body is to soften and build.  Its chief expres-
sion is the blood and the glands, also the sympathetic nervous system,  hav-
ing  obtained ingress into the stronghold of the desire body  (the  muscular
and the voluntary nervous systems) when it began to develop the heart into a
voluntary muscle.

   The tendency of the desire body is to harden,  and it in turn has invaded
the realm of the vital body, gaining possession of the spleen and making the
white blood corpuscles, which are not "the policement of the system" as sci-
ence now thinks,  but destroyers.  It uses the blood to carry these tiny de-
stroyers  all  over  the  body.  They pass through the walls of arteries and


[PAGE 456]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

veins  whenever annoyance is felt,  and especially in times of great  anger.
Then  the  rush of forces in the desire body makes the  arteries  and  veins
swell  and  opens the way for the passage of the white corpuscles  into  the
tissues of the body, where they form bases for the earthy matter which kills
the body.

   Given the same amount and kind of food,  the person of serene and  jovial
disposition will live longer,  enjoy better health,  and be more active than
the person who worries,  or loses his temper.  The latter will make and dis-
tribute through his body more destructive white corpuscles than the  former.
Were a scientist to analyze the bodies of these two men,  he would find that
there was considerably less earthy matter in the body of the kindly disposed
man than in that of the scold.

   This  destruction is constantly going on and it is not possible  to  keep
all the destroyers out,  nor is such the intention.   If the vital body  had
uninterrupted sway,  it would build and build, using all the energy for that
purpose.   There would be no consciousness and thought.   It is because  the
body checks and hardens the inner parts that consciousness develops.

   There was a time in the far, far past when we set out the concretions, as
do the mollusks,  leaving the body soft, flexible and boneless,  but at that
time  we had only the dull, glimmering consciousness the mollusks now  have.
Before we could advance,  it became necessary to retain the concretions  and
it  will be found that the stage of consciousness of any species is in  pro-
portion to the development of the bony framework WITHIN.   The Ego must have
the solid bones with the semi-fluid red marrow, in order to be able to build
the red blood corpuscles for its expression.


[PAGE 457]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE


   That is the highest development of the dense body.   It signifies nothing
in  this connection that the highest class of animals have an internal  bone
formation similar to man's,  but still have no indwelling spirit.   They be-
long to a different stream of evolution.

                          THE LAW OF ASSIMILATION.

   The  law of assimilation allows no particle to be built into  our  bodies
that we,  as spirits, have not overcome and made subject to ourselves.   The
forces active along these lines are, as we remember, principally our "dead,"
who  have  entered "heaven"  and are learning there to build bodies  to  use
here,  but they work according to certain laws that they cannot  circumvent.
There  is life in every particle of food that we take into our  bodies,  and
before  we can build that life into our bodies by the process  of  assimila-
tion,  we must overcome and make it subject to ourselves.   Otherwise  there
could be no harmony in the body.  All parts would act independently, as they
do  when the co-ordinating life has been withdrawn.   That would be what  we
call decay,  the process of disintegration, which is the direct opposite  of
assimilation.   The more individualized is the particle to  be  assimilated,
the  more energy will it require to digest it and the shorter time  will  it
remain before seeking to reassert itself.

   Human  beings are not organized in such a manner that they can live  upon
solid minerals.  When a purely mineral substance, such as salt, is eaten, it
passes  through the body leaving behind it but very little waste.   What  is
does leave,  however, is of a very injurious character.  If it were possible
for  man to use minerals as food,  they would be ideal for that purpose  be-
cause  of  their  stability  and  the little energy required to overcome and


[PAGE 458]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

subject  them to the life of the body.   We should be compelled to eat  very
much less in quantity and also less often than we now do.   Our laboratories
will some time supply us with chemical food of a quality far surpassing any-
thing that we now have, which shall be always fresh.  Food obtained from the
higher  plans  and  still  more  from the  yet  higher  animal  kingdom,  is
positively  nauseating because of the rapidity of decay.   This  process  is
caused  by the efforts made by the individual particles to escape  from  the
composite whole.

   The plant kingdom is next above the mineral.   It has an organization ca-
pable  of assimilating the mineral compounds of the Earth.   Man and  animal
can  assimilate the plants and thus obtain the chemical compounds  necessary
to  sustain  their bodies and as the consciousness of the plant  kingdom  is
that of dreamless sleep,  it offers no resistance.   It requires but  little
energy to assimilate the particles thus derived and having small individual-
ity of their own,  the life ensouling the particles does not seek to  escape
from  our  body as soon as food derived from more  highly  developed  forms,
therefore  the strength derived from a diet of fruit and vegetables is  more
enduring  than that derived from a meat diet,  and the food supply does  not
require  as frequent replenishing,  besides giving more strength in  propor-
tion, because less energy is required for assimilation.

   Food  composed of the bodies of animals consists of particles which  have
been worked upon and inter-penetrated by an individual desire body, and have
thus been individualized to a much greater extent than the plant  particles.
There is an individual cell soul, which is permeated by the passions and de-
sires of the animal.  It requires  considerable energy to overcome it in the


[PAGE 459]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

first place,  so that it may be assimilated,  yet it never becomes so  fully
incorporated into the polity of the body as do the plant constituents, which
have no such strong individual tendencies.   The result is that is is neces-
sary  for  the flesh-eater to consume a greater weight of food than  is  re-
quired by the fruitarian; also he must eat oftener.   Moreover,  this inward
strife of the particles of flesh causes greater wear and tear of the body in
general,  rendering the meat-eater less active and capable of endurance than
the  vegetarian,  as all contests between advocates of the two methods  have
demonstrated.

   Therefore, when flesh food derived from the herbivora is such an unstable
diet,  it is evident that if we should try to use the flesh  of  carnivorous
animals,  in which the cells are still further individualized,  we would  be
forced  to  consume enormous quantities of food.   Eating would  occupy  the
greater part of our time, but notwithstanding that fact,  we would always be
lean and hungry.   That such is its effect, can be seen in the wolf and  the
vulture;  their  leanness and hunger are proverbial.   Cannibals  eat  human
flesh,  but only at long intervals and as a luxury.  As man does not confine
himself  exclusively to a meat diet,  his flesh is not that of  an  entirely
carnivorous beast,  nevertheless the hunger of the cannibal has also  become
the burden of a proverb.

   If the flesh of the herbivora were the essence of what is good in plants,
then, logically, the flesh of the carnivora should be the quintessence.  The
meat of wolves and vultures would thus be the CREME DE LA CREME, and much to
be  desired.   This we know is not the case,  but quite  the  reverse.   The
nearer  we  get to the plant kingdom, the more strength we derive  from  our
food.  If the reverse were the case,  the flesh of carnivorous animals would


[PAGE 460]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

be sought by other beasts of prey,  but examples of "dog eat dog"  are  very
few throughout nature.

                             LIVE AND LET LIVE.

   The first law of occult science is "Thou shalt not kill," and that should
have  the greatest weight with the aspirant to the higher life.   We  cannot
create so much as one particle of dust,  therefore what right have we to de-
stroy the very least form?   All Form is an expression of the One  Life--the
Life of God.  We have no right to destroy the Form through which the Life is
seeking experience, and force it to build a new vehicle.

   Ella Wheeler Wilcox,  with the true compassion of all far advanced souls,
champions this occult maxim, in the following beautiful words:

         I am the voice of the voiceless;
         Through me the dumb shall speak
         Till a deaf world's ear
         Shall be made to hear
         The wrongs of the wordless weak.

         The same force formed the sparrow
         That fashioned man, the king.
         The God OF THE WHOLE

         Gave a spark of soul
         To furred and feathered thing.

         And I AM MY BROTHER'S KEEPER;
         And I will fight his fight,
         And speak the word
         For beast and bird
         Till the world shall set things right.

   Sometimes  the objection is made that life is also taken when  vegetables
and fruits are eaten,  but that statement is based upon a complete misunder-
standing of the facts.  When the fruit is ripe, it has accomplished its pur-
pose, which is to act as a womb for the ripening of the seed.  If not eaten,


[PAGE 461]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

it decays and goes to waste.   Moreover, it is designed to serve as food for
the  animal and human kingdoms,  thus affording the seed  opportunities  for
growth by scattering it in fertile soil.  Besides,  just as the ovum and the
semen of human beings are ineffectual without the seed-atom of the  reincar-
nating Ego and the matrix of its vital body, so any egg or seed,  of itself,
is  devoid of life.   If it is given the proper conditions of  incubator  or
soil, the life of the group spirit is then poured into it, thus grasping the
opportunity  so afforded of producing a dense body.   If the egg or seed  is
cooked, crushed, or not given the conditions necessary for the life, the op-
portunity is lost, but that is all.

   At the present stage of the evolutionary journey,  everyone knows  inher-
ently that it is wrong to kill and man will love and protect the animals  in
all  cases where his greed and selfish interest does not blind him to  their
rights.   The law protects even a cat or a dog against WANTON cruelty.   Ex-
cept  in "sport,"  that most wanton of all our cruelties against the  animal
creation,  it is always for the sake of money that animals are murdered  and
bred to be murdered.  By the devotees of "sport"  the helpless creatures are
shot down to no purpose save to bolster up a false idea of prowess upon  the
part of the huntsman.  It is hard to understand how people who appear other-
wise sane and kindly can,  for the time,  trample upon all their gentler in-
stincts  and revert to bloodthirsty savagery, killing for the sheer lust  of
blood  and joy in destruction.   It is certainly a reversion to  the  lowest
savage animal instincts,  and can never be dignified into the remotest  sem-
blance of anything "manly", even though practiced and defended by the other-
wise humane and worthy temporary head of a mighty nation.


[PAGE 462]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   How  much more beautiful it would be for man to play the role  of  friend
and protector of the weak.   Who does not love to visit Central Park in  New
York City and pet,  stroke and feed the hundreds of squirrels which are run-
ning about secure in the knowledge that they will not be molested?   And who
is not glad,  for the sake of the squirrels,  to see the sign,  "Dogs  found
chasing the squirrels will be shot."  This is hard on the dogs, but is is to
be commended as an evidence of the growth of the sentiment favoring the pro-
tection of the weak against the unreasoning or merciless strong.  Nothing is
said  on  the sign about the squirrels being injured by  men,  because  that
would  be unthinkable.   So strong is the influence of the trust the  little
animals repose in the kindness of man, that no one would violate it.

                              THE LORD'S PRAYER

   Returning  to our consideration of the spiritual aids to human  progress,
the Lord's Prayer, which may be considered as an abstract,  algebraical for-
mula  for  the upliftment and purification of all the vehicles of  man,  the
idea  of  taking proper care of the dense body is expressed  in  the  words:
"Give us this day our daily bread."

   The prayer dealing with the needs of the vital body is,  "Forgive us  our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

   The vital body is the seat of memory.  In it are stored the sub-conscious
records of all the past events of our life, good or ill, including all inju-
ries inflicted or sustained and benefits received, or bestowed.  We remember
that  the record of the life is taken from those pictures immediately  after
leaving the dense body at death,  and that all the sufferings of POST MORTEM


[PAGE 463]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

existence are the results of the events these pictures portray.

   If,  by continual prayer,  we obtain forgiveness for the injuries we have
inflicted  upon others and if we make all the restitution  possible,  purify
our vital bodies by forgiving those who have wronged us,  and eliminate  all
ill feeling,  we save ourselves much POST MORTEM misery,  besides  preparing
the way for Universal Brotherhood,  which is particularly dependent upon the
victory of the vital body over the desire body.  In the form of memory,  the
desire body impresses upon the vital body the idea of revenge.  An even tem-
per  amid  the various annoyances of daily life indicates  such  a  victory,
therefore  the aspirant should cultivate control of the temper,  as  it  in-
cludes work on both bodies.  The Lord's Prayer includes this also,  for when
we see that we are injuring others, we look about and try to find the cause.
Loss of temper is one of the causes and it originates in the desire body.

   Most people leave physical life with the same temperament they bring into
it,  but the aspirant must systematically conquer all attempts of the desire
body to assume mastery.  That can be done by concentration upon high ideals,
which strengthens the vital body and is much more efficacious than the  com-
mon prayers of the Church.  The OCCULT SCIENTIST uses concentration in pref-
erence to prayer, because the former is accomplished by the aid of the mind,
which is cold and unfeeling,  whereas prayer is usually dictated by emotion.
Where  it is dictated by a pure unselfish devotion to high ideals prayer  is
much higher than cold concentration.   It can never be cold,  but bears upon
the pinions of Love the outpourings of the mystic to the Deity.

   The prayer for the desire body is, "Lead us not into temptation."  Desire


[PAGE 464]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

is the great tempter of mankind.   It is the great incentive to all  action,
and  in  so far as the actions subserve the purposes of the  spirit,  it  is
good;  but where the desire is for something degrading,  something that  de-
bases the nature,  it is indeed meet that we pray not to be led into tempta-
tion.

   Love, Wealth, Power, and Fame!--These are the four great motives of human
action.  Desire for one or more of these is the motive for all that man does
or leaves undone.   The great Leaders of humanity have wisely given them  as
incentives to action, that man may gain experience and learn thereby.   They
are necessary,  and the aspirant may safely continue to use them as  motives
for action, but he must transmute them into something higher.  He must over-
come  with nobler aspirations the selfish love which seeks the ownership  of
another body, and all desires for wealth, power and fame for narrow and per-
sonal reasons.

   The Love for which he must long is that only which is of the soul and em-
braces all beings,  high and low,  increasing in proportion to the needs  of
the recipient;

   The Wealth,  that which consists solely of abundance of opportunities  to
serve his fellow men;

   The Power, that alone which makes for the upliftment of humanity;

   The Fame,  none save that which increases his ability to spread the  good
news,  that  all  who suffer may thus quickly find solace  for  the  heart's
grief.

   The  prayer for the mind is "Deliver us from evil."   We have  seen  that
mind is the link between the higher and the lower natures.  Animals are per-
mitted  to  follow  desire without any restriction whatever.  In their case,


[PAGE 464a]                                     ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

                               DIAGRAM 16:

                            THE LORD'S PRAYER


[PAGE 465]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE


there is neither good nor evil, because they lack mind,  the faculty of dis-
crimination.   The  method of self-protection which we pursue in  regard  to
animals which kill and steal is different from that which we use in relation
to human beings who do the same things.  Even a human being who is bereft of
mind is not held accountable.   The fact is recognized that he does not know
he is doing wrong, therefore he is simply restrained.

   It  was only when his mental eyes were opened that man came to know  good
and evil.   When the link of mind becomes allied to the Higher Self and does
its bidding, we have the high-minded person.  On the contrary, the coalition
of  the  mind with the lower desire nature produces the  low-minded  person;
therefore  the meaning of this prayer is that we may be delivered  from  the
experience  resulting  from the alliance of the mind with the  desire  body,
with all thereby implied.

   The aspirant to the higher life accomplishes the union of the higher  and
the lower natures by means of Meditation on lofty subjects.   This union  is
further cemented by Contemplation,  and both these states are transcended by
Adoration, which lifts the spirit to the very Throne.

   The Lord's Prayer, given for the general use of the Church,  gives Adora-
tion  first place,  in order to reach the spiritual exaltation necessary  to
proffer a petition representing the needs of the lower vehicles.   Each  as-
pect of the threefold spirit,  commencing with the lowest,  raises itself in
adoration to its corresponding aspect of Deity.   When the three aspects  of
the  spirit  are  all arrayed before the Throne of Grace,  each  utters  the
prayer appropriate to the needs of its material counterpart, all three join-
ing in the closing prayer for the mind.


[PAGE 466]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   The  human spirit soars to its counterpart,  the Holy  Spirit  (Jehovah),
saying "Hallowed be Thy Name."

   The  life spirit bows before its counterpart,  The Son  (Christ),  saying
"Thy Kingdom Come."

   The  divine spirit kneels before its counterpart,  The Father,  with  the
prayer, "Thy Will be done."

   Then the highest,  the divine spirit, petitions the highest aspect of the
Deity,  the Father,  for its counterpart, the dense body:  "Give us this day
our daily bread."

   The next highest, the life spirit, prays to its counterpart, the Son, for
its counterpart in the lower nature, the vital body:   "Forgive us our tres-
passes as we forgive those who trespass against us."

   The lowest aspect of the spirit, the human spirit,  next offers its peti-
tion to the lowest aspect of Deity for the highest of the threefold  bodies,
the desire body:  "Lead us not into temptation."

   Lastly,  in unison, all three aspects of the threefold spirit in man join
in  the  most important of the prayers, the petition for the  mind,  in  the
words:  "Deliver us from evil."

   The introduction,  "Our Father Who art in Heaven,"  is merely as the  ad-
dress  on an envelope.   The addition,  "For Thine is the Kingdom,  and  the
Power,  and the Glory, forever.  Amen," was not given by Christ, but is very
appropriate  as the parting adoration of the threefold spirit as  it  closes
its direct address to the Deity.

   Diagram  16 illustrates the foregoing explanation in a simple and  easily
remembered manner,  showing the connection between the different prayers and
the corresponding vehicles,  which are similarly colored.   This diagram  is
inserted opposite page 464.


[PAGE 467]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

                            THE VOW OF CELIBACY.

   The sex-pervert, or sex-maniac, is a proof of the correctness of the con-
tention  of occultists that one part of the sex-force builds the brain.   He
becomes  an idiot,  unable to think because of drawing and sending out,  not
only  the negative or positive part of the sex force (according  to  whether
male  or  female)  which is normally to be used through  the  sex-organ  for
propagation,  but in addition to that,  some of the force which should build
up the brain, enabling it to produce thought--hence the mental deficiency.

   On the other hand, if the person is given to spiritual thought,  the ten-
dency to use the sex force for propagation is slight,  and whatever part  of
it is not used in that way may be transmuted into spiritual force.

   That is why the initiate,  at a certain stage of development,  takes  the
vow of celibacy.   It is not an easy vow, nor one to be lightly taken by one
desirous of spiritual advancement.  Many people who are not yet ripe for the
higher life have ignorantly bound themselves to a life of asceticism.   They
are  as dangerous to the community and to themselves on the one hand  as  is
the imbecile sex-maniac on the other.

   At  the  present stage of human evolution the sex function is  the  means
whereby bodies are provided,  through which the spirit can gain  experience.
The  people who are most prolific and follow the creative impulse  unreserv-
edly are the lowest classes;  thus it is difficult for incoming entities  to
find good vehicles amid environments enabling them to unfold their faculties
in such a manner as to permanently benefit themselves and the rest of human-
ity,  for  among  the  wealthier  classes  who  could furnish more favorable


[PAGE 468]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

conditions many have few or no children.  It is not because they live abste-
mious  sex-lives,  but for the entirely selfish reasons that they  may  have
more ease and leisure and indulge in unlimited sex-gratification without the
burden of a family.  Among the less wealthy middle class,  families are also
restricted,  but in their case partially for economic reasons, that they may
give  one or two children educational and other advantages that their  means
would not permit them to give to four or five.

   Thus  man exercises his divine prerogative of bringing disorder into  na-
ture.   Incoming Egos must take the opportunities offered them sometimes un-
der  unfavorable circumstances.   Other Egos who cannot do that,  must  wait
till favorable environment offers.  Thus do we affect one another by our ac-
tions and thus are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children, for as
the Holy Spirit is the creative energy in nature,  the sex energy is its re-
flection  in man,  and misuse or abuse of that power is the sin that is  not
forgiven,  but must be expiated in impaired efficiency of the  vehicles,  in
order to thoroughly teach us the sanctity of the creative force.

   Aspirants  to the higher life,  filled with an earnest desire to  live  a
noble spiritual life, often regard the sex-function with horror,  because of
the  harvest of misery which humanity has reaped as a result of  its  abuse.
They  are  apt  to  turn  in disgust from  what  they  regard  as  impurity,
overlooking  the fact that it is precisely such people as they  who  (having
brought their vehicles into good condition by means of proper sanitary food,
high  and lofty thought,  and pure and spiritual lives) are best  fitted  to
generate  the dense bodies essential to the development of entities  seeking
incarnation.  It  is  common  knowledge among occult scientists that, to the


[PAGE 469]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

detriment of the race,  many high class Egos are kept out of incarnation  at
the present time solely because parents cannot be found who are pure  enough
to provide them with the necessary physical vehicles.

   Persons  who,  for the reason above mentioned,  refrain from doing  their
duty to humanity,  are magnifying the sun spots to such an extent that  they
forget to see the Sun itself!   The sex function has its great place in  the
economy of the world.   When properly used, there is no greater boon to  the
Ego,  for it then provides pure and healthful bodies such as man  needs  for
his development; conversely, when abused, there is no greater curse,  for it
is then the source of the worst ills to which flesh is heir.

   It is a truism that "no man liveth unto himself."   By our words and acts
we are constantly affecting others.   By the proper performance,  or the ne-
glect of our duty,  we make or mar the lives, first, of those in our immedi-
ate  environment,  but ultimately of all the inhabitants of the  Earth,  and
more.   No one has a right to seek the higher life without having  performed
his duty to his family,  his country, and the human race.   To selfishly set
aside  everything else and live solely for one's own spiritual  advancement,
is as reprehensible as not to care for the spiritual life at all.   Nay,  it
is  worse;  for those who do their duty in the ordinary life to the best  of
their  ability,  devoting themselves to the welfare of those dependent  upon
them, are cultivating the essential quality of faithfulness.  They will cer-
tainly  advance  in  due time to a point where they  will  become  awake  to
spiritual necessities,  and will carry to that work the faithfulness  devel-
oped  elsewhere.   The man who deliberately turns his back upon his  present
duties  to  take up the spiritual life will surely be forced back  into  the
path  of  duty from which he has mistakenly diverged, with no possible means


[PAGE 470]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

of escape until the lesson has been learned.

   Certain  tribes of India make the following excellent division  of  life.
The first twenty years are spent in obtaining an education;  the years  from
20 to 40 are devoted to the duty of raising a family; and the remaining time
is devoted to spiritual development, without any physical cares to harass or
distract the mind.

   During the first period the child is supported by its parents; during the
second period the man,  in addition to supporting his own family,  cares for
his  parents  while they are giving their attention to  higher  things;  and
during the balance of his life, he is in turn supported by his children.

   This seems a very sensible method, and is quite satisfactory in a country
where all,  from the cradle to the grave,  feel the spiritual need,  to such
degree that they mistakenly neglect material development except as  impelled
by the lash of direst need,  and where the children cheerfully support their
parents,  secure  in the knowledge that they will be supported in  turn  and
thus be enabled to devote themselves entirely to the higher life after  hav-
ing performed their duty to their country and to humanity.   In the  Western
World,  however,  where no spiritual need is at present felt by the  average
man because he is properly following material lines of development,  such  a
mode of life would be impossible of realization.

   Spiritual desire never comes until the time is ripe,  and always when the
particular conditions obtain under which we must seek its gratification,  if
at  all.   Whatever  duties exist which are apparent  restrictions  must  be
borne.   If the care of a family prevents the complete consecration desired,
the  aspirant  would  certainly  not  be  justified  in  neglecting duty and


[PAGE 471]                                    ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE

devoting the entire time and energy to spiritual purposes.   An effort  must
be made to gratify such aspirations without interfering with duty to family.

   If  the desire to live a celibate life comes to a person who  holds  mar-
riage relations with another,  the obligations of such relations are not  to
be  forgotten.   It would be very wrong,  by practicing celibacy under  such
circumstances,  to endeavor to escape from the PROPER performance  of  duty.
As to what constitutes duty in regard to coition, however,  there is a stan-
dard  for aspirants to the higher life different from that of  the  ordinary
man or woman.

   Most  people  regard marriage as sanctioning unlimited  license  for  the
gratification of sexual desire.  In the eyes of statute law, perhaps it does
so, but no man-made law nor custom has any right to govern this matter.  Oc-
cult  science  teaches  that  the sex-function  should  NEVER  be  used  for
sense-gratification, but for propagation ONLY.  Therefore an aspirant to the
higher life would be justified in refusing coition with the marriage partner
unless the object were the begetting of a child,  and then only if both par-
ties were in perfect health--physically,  morally and mentally--as otherwise
the union would be likely to result in the generation of a feeble or  degen-
erate body.

   Each person owns his or her body, and is responsible to the law of Conse-
quence  for  any misuse resulting from the weak willed abandonment  of  that
body to another.

   In the light of the foregoing,  and looking at the matter from the  view-
point of occult science,  it is both a duty and a privilege (to be exercised
with  thanks  for the opportunity) for all persons who are  healthy  and  of
sound  mind to provide vehicles for as many entities as is  consistent  with
their  health  and ability to care for the same.  And, as previously stated,


[PAGE 472]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

most particularly are aspirants to the higher life under obligation in  this
respect, on account of the purification which their purer lives have wrought
in  their bodies,  because of which they are better qualified than  ordinary
humanity to generate pure vehicles.  Thus they enable high-class entities to
find suitable vehicles and help humanity to advance by affording these wait-
ing Egos opportunities to incarnate and exercise their influence at an  ear-
lier period than would otherwise be possible.

   If  the sex force is used in the way indicated,  coition will take  place
but  few times in a life,  and practically the entire sex force may be  used
for spiritual purposes.   It is not the use,  but the abuse that causes  all
the trouble and interferes with the spiritual life,  so there is no need for
anyone to abandon the higher life because he or she cannot be celibate.   It
is not necessary to be strictly celibate while going through the lesser Ini-
tiations.   The vow of absolute celibacy applies to the greater  Initiations
only,  and even then a single act of fecundation may sometimes be  necessary
as an act of sacrifice, as was the case in providing a body for Christ.

   It may also be said that it is worse to suffer from a burning desire,  to
be constantly thinking vividly of the gratification of sense,  than to  live
the married life in moderation.  Christ taught that unchaste thoughts are as
bad as,  and even worse than unchaste acts, because thoughts may be repeated
indefinitely, whereas there is at least some limit to acts.

   The  aspirant to the higher life can be successful only in proportion  to
the extent of the subjugation of the lower nature,  but should beware of the
other extreme.


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