[PAGE  1]                                                THE WEB OF DESTINY




                 ----------------------------------------    
                [   T H E   W E B   O F   D E S T I N Y  ]
                [                                        ]
                [                                        ]
                [           HOW MADE AND UNMADE          ]
                [                                        ]
                [                 ALSO                   ]
                [                                        ]
                [    THE OCCULT EFFECT OF OUR EMOTIONS   ]
                [       PRAYER--A MAGIC INVOCATION       ]
                [ PRACTICAL METHODS OF ACHIEVING SUCCESS ]
                [                                        ]
                [                                        ]
                [                                        ]
                [                  BY                    ]
                [                                        ]
                [         M A X   H E I N D E L          ]
                [              [1865-1919]               ]
                 ----------------------------------------    




                 A SERIES OF LESSONS UPON THE HIDDEN SIDE OF
                    LIFE, SHOWING THE OCCULT FORCES WHICH
                             SHAPE OUR DESTINY.
                                   -------


                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                         INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
                                MT. ECCLESIA
                                P.O. BOX 713
                      OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, U.S.A.
                                   ------


[PAGE  3]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

                                   FOREWARD

   The series of seventeen lessons printed in this volume are a part of  the
ninety-nine  monthly lessons sent out by the author to his  students  during
his last years in the body.   The others have been printed in other  volumes
and under various titles.

   These books contain the priceless treasures of the latest  investigations
of this great mystic, and carry a message of Christian love mingled with di-
vine wisdom, which only the Initiate into the deeper mysteries can give.

   We  hope  these lesson may be the means of leading many back to  God  and
strengthening their reverence and love for the Christ.


[PAGE  5]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

                              TABLE OF CONTENTS

                             THE WEB OF DESTINY

Part I
   Spiritual Research--The Soul Body............................  7
Part II
   The Christ Within--The Memory of Nature...................... 16
Part III
   "The Dweller on the Threshold"--Earthbound Spirits........... 26
Part IV
   The Sin Body--Possession of by Self-Made Demons--Elementals.. 39
Part V
   Obsession of Man and of Animals...............................46
Part VI
   The Creation of Environment--The Genesis of Mental and
   Physical Disabilities........................................ 54
Part VII
   The Cause of Disease
   Efforts of the Ego to Escape from the Body--Effects
   of Lasciviousness............................................ 61
Part VIII
   The Christ Rays Constitute the "Inner Urge"--Etheric
   Sight--Collective Destiny.................................... 69


[PAGE  6]                                                THE WEB OF DESTINY

                      THE OCCULT EFFECT OF OUR EMOTIONS

Part I
   The Function of Desire....................................... 79
Part II
   The Color Effects of Emotion in Assemblages of People--
   The Isolating Effect of Worry................................ 86
Part III
   Effect of War Upon the Desire Body--The Vital Body as
   Affected by Detonations of Big Guns.......................... 94
Part IV
   The Nature of Ether Atoms--The Necessity for Poise...........103
Part V
   The Effects of Remorse--The Dangers of Excessive Bathing.....111

                         PRAYER--A MAGIC INVOCATION


Part I
   The Nature of and Preparation for Prayer.....................121
Part II
   The Wings and the Power--The Invocation--The Climax..........129

                   PRACTICAL METHODS OF ACHIEVING SUCCESS

   Based Upon Conversation of Sex Force.........................139



[PAGE 7]                                                  SPIRITUAL RESEARCH

                             THE WEB OF DESTINY

                                   PART I

                      SPIRITUAL RESEARCH--THE SOUL BODY

   Although considerable new light and much information was given upon  this
subject in the "Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" and our subsequent literature,
letters have been coming to Headquarters from students at various times, re-
questing more light upon such subjects as obsession,  mediumship,  insanity,
abnormal conditions of character, etc.  These have given the writer cause to
investigate the subject more deeply than theretofore.  The maxim that "prac-
tice makes perfect"  holds good in research of the spiritual realms as  well
as in physical things.   Therefore it is hoped that the light upon this sub-
ject,  which will be contained in the following pages,  may help the student
to  see more clearly into the causes that are productive of effects in  this
life.

   In order that we may thoroughly understand this subject,  it will be nec-
essary  to  begin at the beginning; to realize that  the  first  fundamental
facts  of  existence  are  the  continuity  of  life  and that action is the


[PAGE 8]                                                  THE WEB OF DESTINY

expression  of life in manifestation.   As soon as the spirit has taken  its
first action,  it has thereby generated a cause which must have its  effect.
This is an absolute necessity in order that the equilibrium of the  universe
may be maintained.   If this action was physical, that is to say,  performed
by  a spirit in a physical body, the reaction must of necessity be  physical
also.   If this be granted,  then it follows as a matter of course  that  we
must take birth in this world from time to time,  for it is a matter of  ob-
servation patent to everyone that we all generate causes in this world  from
day to day which cannot and do not have their adequate reaction,  and if  we
cannot reap what we have sown in this body,  we must certainly come back  to
reap in a new body or else the law is invalidated.   If the law of Cause and
Effect  is true,  periodical rebirth is a matter of absolute logical  neces-
sity.   Thus,  whether we realize it or not and whether we relish it or not,
we are in a circle of necessity, and because of our own past actions,  bound
to  come  back to act and to react until we develop a power which  shall  be
greater  than the one that is now swirling us about.   What this  power  is,
Goethe, the great German mystic, indicated in the few words:

   "From ev'ry power that holds the world in chains,
   Man frees himself when self-control he gains."

   And  as  knowledge  is  power,  it  is evident that the more thorough our


[PAGE 9]                                                  SPIRITUAL RESEARCH

understanding of the operation of the twin laws of Consequence and  Rebirth,
the easier we shall find the way to liberation,  and also better know how to
help others.

   Science is to be much commended for the ingenuity, the patience,  and the
persistency it displays in the invention of instruments wherewith to  ferret
out  the secrets of nature.   But while it can thus successfully  deal  with
MATTER,  the secrets of spirit and of life are to the savants a closed book,
as  Mephisto says with fine sarcasm to a scholar who knocks at the  door  of
Faust, seeking admission to the college:

   "Who'er would know and treat of aught alive
   Seeks first the living spirit thence to drive.
   Then are the lifeless fragments in his hand,
   He lacks, alas! the vita spirit band."

   There is only one instrument which is adequate to investigate the  things
of the spirit,  and that is the Spirit itself.   Just as it is necessary  to
train a man for scientific research in the physical world, so also is a long
and slow process required to fit oneself for investigation of the  spiritual
world.   As the man of science must pay the price of his knowledge in months
and years of unflinching, unremitting labor, so also the mystic investigator
must give years of his life to understand and be capable of investigating by
methods of the spirit.


[PAGE 10]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

   As  you know,  that which is now THE PHYSICAL BODY was the first  vehicle
acquired  by  man as a thought form; it has undergone an immense  period  of
evolution  and  organization until it is now the splendid  instrument  which
serves him so well here;  but it is hard,  set,  and difficult to act  upon.
The  next vehicle acquired was THE VITAL BODY,  which ha also gone through a
long  period of development and has condensed to the consistency  of  ether.
The third vehicle,  THE DESIRE BODY,  has been comparatively lately acquired
and is in a state of comparative flux.  Lastly, there is the mind,  which is
only as an unformed cloud,  not worthy of the name of vehicle,  being as yet
but a link between the three vehicles of man and the spirit.

   These three vehicles,  the physical, vital,  and desire bodies,  together
with  the link of mind,  are the tools of the spirit in its evolution,  and,
contrary to the common conception,  the ability of the spirit to investigate
the higher realms does not depend upon the finest of these bodies as must as
upon the denser.  The proof of this assertion is close at hand,  and indeed,
anyone who has ever seriously tried has had this proof himself.  If not,  he
may  have it forthwith simply by following the directions for  changing  the
condition of his mind.   Let us say that a person has formed certain  habits
of thought which he does not like.  Perhaps after a religious experience  he


[PAGE 11]                                                 SPIRITUAL RESEARCH

finds  that  in spite of all his desires these habits of  thought  will  not
leave him.   But if he decides to cleanse his mind so that it shall  contain
nothing but pure and good thoughts, he may do this by simply refusing to ad-
mit  impure  thoughts.   He will find that after a week or two his  mind  is
noticeably cleaner than at the commencement of his effort;  that it holds by
preference the religious thoughts he is seeking to generate in it.   Even  a
most  abnormally degenerate mind can be thoroughly cleansed inside of a  few
months.   This is actual knowledge to many who have tried it, and anyone who
wishes and is sufficiently persistent may have the same experience and enjoy
a clean mind in a very short time.

   But  while clean thoughts take us a long step on the path of  attainment,
the  emotions and desires of the desire body are not so easily subdued,  for
that vehicle is already considerably more set than the mind.   While the re-
generate  mind readily agrees to the idea that we should love  our  enemies,
the desire body,  the emotional and passionate nature, aims with every fibre
of its begin to get even,  to get an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Sometimes,  even years and years after we think that the sleeping serpent is
subdued, that we have at last gained mastery over it, and that it cannot mar
our peace,  it may suddenly rise and overthrow all our hopes,  take the  bit
between  its  teeth,  go  on  a  rampage, and vow vengeance for some real or


[PAGE 12]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

fancied wrong.  Then it takes the whole power of the higher nature to subdue
this rebellious part of our being.  This, the writer thinks, is the thorn in
the  flesh concerning which Paul besought the lord thrice and was given  the
answer:   "My grace is sufficient for thee."  It certainly does need all the
grace  one can command to overcome,  and eternal vigilance is the  price  of
safety, so let us "WATCH AND PRAY."

   It  is  the desire body which is responsible for all our  actions,  good,
bad,  or indifferent, and the oriental philosophers have therefore given di-
rections  to their disciples to KILL OUT OF DESIRE and to abstain  from  ac-
tion,  good or bad,  as much as possible,  in order that they may thus  save
themselves from the wheel of birth and death.  But that temper which is such
a  great menace when it takes control, may be made as effective for  service
under our proper guidance.   We would not for one moment think of taking the
temper our of a knife;  we should then be unable to cut anything  therewith.
The  temper  of  the desire body must be controlled but  not  by  any  means
killed.   For the dynamic power of motion and action in the invisible  world
is stored in this desire body, and unless it is intact,  we cannot expect to
control  ourselves  there  any  more  than an ocean liner whose engines were


[PAGE 13]                                                 SPIRITUAL RESEARCH

disabled  could buffet the ocean waves.   There are certain societies  which
teach negative methods of development,  and one of their first  instructions
to  the pupil is to drop the jaw and make himself perfectly  negative.   Any
one floated from the physical world toward the spiritual world by such meth-
ods  would certainly find himself as driftwood upon the ocean,  cast  hither
and  thither by the waves,  they prey and the sport of every  current.   And
there are in the inner worlds, as well as here,  beings who are anything but
benevolent,  who  are ready to take advantage of anyone that  ventures  into
their world not fully prepared to protect himself against them.  Thus we see
the  supreme importance of subjecting our desires to the will of the  spirit
HERE  IN THIS WORLD,  of forcing this desire before we attempt to enter  the
inner world.  Here it is, in a very large measure, held in check by the fact
that it is interpolated within the dense body,  and therefore cannot sway us
hither  and yon in the same degree as it can when it has been released  from
the physical prison house.

   But even the subjection of the desire body,  difficult as it is to accom-
plish,  will not serve to make a man CONSCIOUS in the invisible worlds,  for
the desire body has not evolved to such a point that it can at as a real in-
strument of consciousness.  It  is  unformed  and  cloud-like  in  the great


[PAGE 14]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

majority of people,  and only a number of vortices are present as sense cen-
ters or centers of consciousness; these are not yet sufficiently unfolded so
that  they can serve the purpose without some other help.   Therefore it  is
necessary  to work upon and educate the vital body in such a manner that  it
may be used in soul-flights.   This vehicle, as we know,  is composed of the
four ethers.   It is by means of this body that we manipulate the densest of
all our vehicles,  the physical body, which we usually think of as the whole
man.   The chemical and life ethers form a matrix for our  physical  bodies.
Each molecule of the physical body is imbedded in a meshwork of ether  which
permeates  and infuses it with life.  Through these ethers the bodily  func-
tions,  such as respiration,  etc., are carried on, and the density and con-
sistency of these matrices of ether determine the state of health.   But the
part of the vita body formed of the two higher ethers,  the light ether  and
the reflecting ether, is what we may term the SOUL BODY; that is to say,  it
is more closely linked with the desire body and the mind and also more  ame-
nable  to the spirit's touch than are the two lower ethers.   It is the  ve-
hicle of intellect, and responsible for all that makes man, man.   Or obser-
vations,  our aspirations,  our character,  etc., are due to the work of the
spirit  in  these  two  higher  ethers,  which  become more or less luminous


[PAGE 15]                                                 SPIRITUAL RESEARCH

according  to the nature of our character and habits.   Also,  as the  dense
body  assimilates  particles  of food and thus gains in flesh,  so  the  two
higher  ethers  assimilate our good deeds during the life and thus  grow  in
volume  as well.   According to our doings in this present life we thus  in-
crease or decrease that which we brought with us at birth.   If we are  born
with a good character, expressed in these two higher ethers,  it will not be
easy for us to change this because the vital body has become very,  very set
during the myriads of years through which we have evolved it.   On the other
hand, if we have been lax and negligent and indulgent in the habits which we
call evil,  if we have formed a bad character in past lives, then it is dif-
ficult to overcome because of this set nature of the vital body, and it will
require years of constant effort to change its structure.   This is the rea-
son the Western Wisdom Teaching says that ALL MYSTIC DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH
THE VITAL BODY.


[PAGE 16]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

                                  PART II.

                   THE CHRIST WITHIN--THE MEMORY OF NATURE

   There  are  a great many people who associate spirituality with  a  great
show of emotionalism but as we saw in the last chapter,  this idea has abso-
lutely  no foundation in fact;  on the contrary,  the kind  of  spirituality
which is developed by and associated with the emotional nature of the desire
body is unreliable in the extreme;  this is the variety that is generated in
revival meetings where emotionalism is brought up to a high pitch, causing a
person to make a great splurge of religious fervor which soon spends  itself
and leaves him exactly as he was before, much to the chagrin of the revival-
ists  and other people who are engaged in evangelical work.   But what  else
can  they  expect?   They set out to save souls with drums and  fifes,  with
rhythmic  revival songs,  with appeals made in a voice which is  raised  and
lowered in harmonic waives,  all of which are as powerfully effective on the
desire  body  as  storms  which  stir the sea to fury and then subside.  The


[PAGE 17]                                                  THE CHRIST WITHIN

vital body is much more set, and it is only when conversion affects this ve-
hicle that it sticks and stays with a man or woman for life.  Those who have
the  true spirituality do not feel saved one day,  in the seventh heaven  of
ecstasy,  and the next feel themselves down in the dumps and miserable  sin-
ners  that can never be forgiven;  for their religion is not based upon  the
emotional nature which feels these things,  but is rooted in the vital  body
which is the vehicle of reason,  set and persistent in the path it has  once
chose.   As new forms are propagated through the second ether of  the  vital
body, so the HIGHER SELF, the CHRIST WITHIN, is formed through this same ve-
hicle of generation,  the vital body,  in its higher aspects embodied in the
two upper ethers.

   But as a child that is born into the world requires nourishment,  so also
the Christ that is born WITHIN is a babe and requires to be nourished to the
full stature of manhood.   And as the physical body grows by a continual as-
similation of material from the chemical region,  the solids,  liquids,  and
gases, so also, as the Christ grows, will the two higher ethers grow in vol-
ume and form a luminous cloud around the man or woman sufficiently  discern-
ing to set his or her face heavenward; it will invest the pilgrim with light
so brilliant that he "WALKS IN THE LIGHT,"  as a matter of actual fact.   By
the  exercises  given  in the Western Mystery School of the Rosicrucians, it


[PAGE 18]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

becomes  possible in time to detach the two higher ethers,  and the man  may
then  step away from his physical body, leaving it for a time  invested  and
vitalized only by the two lower ethers; he is then what we call an INVISIBLE
HELPER.

   There are various grades of spiritual sight.   One grade enables a man to
see  the ordinarily invisible ether with the myriads of beings  that  invest
that  realm.   Other  and higher variants give him the faculty  to  see  the
desire  world and even the world of thought while remaining in the  physical
body.   But these faculties,  though valuable when exercised under full con-
trol  of the human will,  are not sufficient to read the "MEMORY OF  NATURE"
with absolute accuracy.  To do this and to make the necessary investigations
in  order that one may understand how the "Web of Destiny"  is made and  un-
made,  it is necessary to be able at will to step from the physical body and
function  outside in that soul body which we have spoken of as  composed  of
the two higher ethers, this being also invested with the desire body and the
mind.  Thus the investigator is in full possession of all his faculties,  he
knows all that he knew in the physical world,  and has the ability to  bring
back  into the physical consciousness the things which he has learned  with-


[PAGE 19]                                                  THE CHRIST WITHIN

out. When he as this ability he must  also  learn to balance himself, TO UN-
DERSTAND the  things which he sees outside, for mark this:  It is not enough
to be able to step outside the body  into  another  world  and to see things
there; we do  not by that fact become omniscient any more than we understand
what  everything is used for and how everything works here in this  physical
world because  we live here from day to day and year to  year.   It requires
study and  application to become thoroughly familiar with the  facts  of the
invisible  world  as it does with the facts of the world in which we are  no
living in our physical bodies.  Therefore the book, the "Memory of  Nature,"
is not read  easily at the first attempt or at the second either,  for  just
as  it takes a child time to learn how to read our ordinary books  here, so,
also, it requires time and effort to decipher this wonderful scroll.

   It is a familiar fact to students of science that the history of th earth
is  written in unmistakable characters upon the rocks and by  the  glaciers.
Upon every stone there is found some sing which guides the trained  investi-
gator  in  deciphering its message concerning the development of  the  earth
during  past ages,  and it is wonderful to read in the text books upon  this
subject how well the scientific investigators have been able to make a  con-
nected story out of these  many  clues.  It is also well known that wherever


[PAGE 20]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

we  move individually,  we leave behind us marks which may be traced  though
they are unseen even by ourselves.  The wonderful ingenuity displayed by the
Indians,  as told by Fenimore Cooper and others, in tracing their friends or
their foes through the virgin forest guided by broken twigs,  etc.,  is  far
exceeded by scientists today,  who trace the criminal by his finger  prints.
The seemingly fantastic exploits of Sherlock Holmes are duplicated by actual
experience in criminal detection.   The actions of men now living may be re-
produced  by the moving picture camera a hundred years hence when  the  real
actors have long moldered in the grave;  and so we can by the light of these
later  discoveries prepare our minds for the belief that there is  an  auto-
matic  record of every human life and of the lives of communities,  kept  in
what  we may call,  for want of a better name,  the Memory of Nature.   This
shows the stages in evolution attained by all living things,  and gives  the
ministers of God,  the Recording Angels, the needed perspective in order  to
aid us in our attainment of wisdom, knowledge,  and power;  the clue to what
lessons  are  needed  to  carry  us further on the  Path.   So  far  as  the
individual is concerned,  this record starts at the moment when he draws the
first breath and continues until the last respiration has emptied the arter-
ies of blood.  We know that the  whole  universe  is vibrant with life, that


[PAGE 21]                                                  THE CHRIST WITHIN

each  object constantly emits from itself vibratory waves which  reveal  its
nature  and presence.   We also know that when a child takes its first  com-
plete breath, the physiological conditions in the heart are changed, the fo-
ramen ovale is closed,  and the blood forced to circulate through  the heart
and lungs.   There is meets the air charged with a picture of the  surround-
ings.  Thus the blood, which is the vehicle of the Ego, absorbs in the lungs
a  complete picture of the outside world.   When it rushes through the  left
ventricle  of  the heart,  it leaves an impress upon the  little  seed  atom
situated  at the apex and which corresponds to the film of the  camera,  nor
should it be an obstacle to belief in this idea that a large number of  pic-
tures  must be imprinted upon a very small surface.   When we consider  that
the  picture  of  the  Moon which we see in the  retina  is  less  than  one
two-hundredth  part  of one inch in diameter, we can see that a  very  small
picture can be very distinct,  for even within that small space we note upon
the Moon a number of mountains and valleys with the naked eye.   The picture
of  a man at a distance of a hundred feet or so is not one-twentieth  of  an
inch in size,  according to an authority upon this subject,  yet we  distin-
guish in that minute picture the expression of the face,  the pattern of the
clothing, etc.  Similarly, there is upon this minute  seed atom a picture of


[PAGE 22]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

every action ever performed, of every scene in which we have ever found our-
selves,  during the whole time from birth to death.   George du Maurier  and
Jack  London  describe in "Peter ibbetson"  and in "The Star Rover,"  how  a
prisoners  in  the flesh may live over again the scenes  of  his  childhood,
where he sees himself,  his playmates,  his parents,  his whole environment,
effectively reproduced from the etheric record of his child life or even  of
past  lives.   Any one who knows the secret of how to put himself  in  touch
with  these pictures may find and read the lives of the people with whom  he
comes  in contact,  as proved by mediums.   But while fresh or  contemporary
records may be read with comparative ease, it becomes increasingly difficult
to read as we go backwards,  for the records which are made in the ether are
fruit  compared with the ones in the next higher realms and fade gradually.

   When  a seer examines one who is about to become ill,  he will find  that
the vital body is actually becoming more attenuated, and when it has reached
a  point  of tenuity where it can no longer support the physical  body,  the
latter  commences  to manifest signs of what we call disease.   Again,  some
time before we see physical recovery, the vital body gradually becomes  more
dense in structure; then the period of convalescence commences.   It is also
patent  to  all who have to do with victims of accidents  that  they  do not


[PAGE 23]                                                  THE CHRIST WITHIN

suffer as keenly just after the accident as later; this is because the vital
body  at  the time of the accident is uninjured,  and  therefore  the  whole
effect of the accident is not felt until this vehicle has become  attenuated
and  unable  to support the vital processes.   Thus we see  that  there  are
changes in the ether of a human being;  and according to they mystic  axiom,
"As above,  so below,"  and vice-versa,  there are also changes in the plan-
etary  ether which constitutes the vital body of the Earth Spirit.   As  the
conscious  memory  of  recent  events which is strong  in  the  human  being
gradually fades,  so also the etheric record,  which is the lowest aspect of
the Memory of Nature, fades in time.

   In  the highest sub-division of the Region of Concrete Thought,  just  on
the  border line between pure spirit and matter,  an impress is made of  the
things  and events in this world which is relatively much clearer  and  more
lasting than the etheric record, for while events inscribed upon the etheric
record fade away in spots in a few hundred years,  and even important events
may  last only one or two thousand years,  the record found in  the  highest
sub-division  of the Region of Concrete Thought lasts for the Earth  Period.
While  the  records made on the reflecting ether may be read  by  the  unin-
structed  who  have  just  a little spiritual sight, several initiations are


[PAGE 24]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

required  before it is possible for any one to read the records kept in  the
higher region noted above.  You will readily understand the relation of this
record  to the one made in the ether,  and also to the absolutely  permanent
record  which  is  inscribed in the World of Life  Spirit,  if  you  examine
diagram No.  1 on page 52 of the Cosmo.  Paracelsus calls the record made in
the ether,  Sidereal Light; and Eliphas Levi, the great Kabalist,  speaks of
these  records as being kept in the Astral light.   This is in a sense  cor-
rect,  for though they have nothing to do with the stars,  as the name would
seem to imply,  they are found in the Etheric Region outside the earth's at-
mosphere.   The  medium or hypnotic victim who leaves the body  by  negative
processes under outside control, levitates towards these realms as naturally
as our physical body gravitates towards the earth.

   As stated in the Cosmo in connection with the constitution of our planet,
the path of initiation goes through the earth from circumference to  center,
one stratum at a time,  and though our physical bodies are drawn that way by
the force of gravitation,  their density prevents trespass as effectually as
the  force of levitation which repels the uninstructed class spoken of  from
sacred precincts.  Only when by the power of our own spirit we have left our
dense  body,  instructed by and because of right living, are we able to read


[PAGE 25]                                                  THE CHRIST WITHIN

the  etheric record to best advantage.   At a farther point of progress  the
"water stratum"  in the earth is opened to the Initiate, and he is then in a
position to read the record of past events permanently engraved in the  liv-
ing substance of the Region of Archetypal Forces,  where duration and  space
are practically non-existent, and where all is an eternal Here and Now.


[PAGE 26]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

                                  PART III.

                       "THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD"

                             EARTH-BOUND SPIRITS

   While we are studying "The Web of Destiny,  How Made and Unmade,"  it  is
expedient that we devote some time to the mysterious "Dweller on the Thresh-
old," a subject that is quite misunderstood.  Our investigations of the pre-
vious  lives of a number of people who have applied to the Fellowship  head-
quarters for relief from so-called obsession, have proved that their trouble
is due to one phase of what has been mistakenly called by previous  investi-
gators,  "The Dweller on the Threshold."  When cases are examined merely  by
the use of spiritual sight or by reading in the etheric record,  such a mis-
take  may  very easily be made as to confuse that apparition with  the  true
Dweller on the Threshold.  But as soon as we look the cases up in the imper-
ishable records contained in the Region of Archetypal Forces,  the matter is
at  once cleared up and the facts developed in these investigations  may  be
summed up as follows:


[PAGE 27]                                       THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD

   At the moment of death when the seed atom in the heart is ruptured  which
contains  all  the experience of the past life in a panoramic  picture,  the
spirit  leaves its physical body taking with it the finer bodies.   It  then
hovers  over the dense body which is now dead,  as we call it,  for  a  time
varying from a number of hours to three and one half days.   The determining
factor as to the time is the strength of the vital body,  the vehicle  which
constitutes the soul body spoken of in the Bible.  There is then a pictorial
reproduction of the life,  a panorama in reverse order from death to  birth,
and  the pictures are etched upon the desire body through the medium of  the
reflecting ether in this vital body.  During this time the consciousness  of
the Spirit is concentrated in the vital body, or at least it should be,  and
it  has  therefore no feeling about this matter.   The picture that  is  im-
pressed upon the vehicle of feeling and emotion, the desire body, is the ba-
sis of subsequent suffering in the life in Purgatory for evil deeds,  and of
enjoyment in the first Heaven on account of the good done in the past life.

   These were the main facts which the writer was able to personally observe
about death at the time when the teachings were first given to him and  when
he was introduced by the help of the Teacher to the panoramic  reproductions
of  life when persons were going through the gate of death, but the investi-


[PAGE 28]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

gations  of later years have revealed the additional fact that there is  an-
other  process  going  on during these important days  following  death.   A
cleavage  takes place in the vital body similar to that made by the  process
of  initiation.   So much of this vehicle as can be terms "soul,"  coalesces
with the higher vehicles and is the basis of consciousness in the  invisible
worlds  after death.   The lower part, which is discarded,  returns  to  the
physical  body and hovers over the grave in the great majority of cases,  as
stated in the Cosmo.  This cleavage of the vital body is not the same in all
person  but depends upon the nature of the life lived and the  character  of
the person that is passing out.   In extreme cases this division varies very
much  from normal.   This important point was brought out in many  cases  of
supposed spirit obsession which have been investigated from headquarters; in
fact it was these cases which developed the far-reaching and astounding dis-
coveries  brought out by our most recent researches into the nature  of  the
obsession from which the people who appealed to us were suffering.  As might
be expected,  of course,  the division in these cases showed a preponderance
of evil,  and efforts were then made to find out if there were not also  an-
other  class  of people where a different division with a  preponderance  of
good takes  place.  It is a pleasure to record that this was found to be the


[PAGE 29]                                       THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD

case,  and after weighing the facts discovered,  balancing one with another,
the following seems to be a correct description of the conditions and  their
reason:

   The vital body aims to build the physical,  whereas our desires and  emo-
tions tear down.   It is the struggle between the vital body and the  desire
body which produces consciousness in the physical world,  and which  hardens
the  tissue so that the soft body of the child gradually becomes  tough  and
shrunken in old age,  followed by death.   The morality or immorality of our
desire and emotions acts in a similar manner on the vital body.  Where devo-
tion to high ideals is the mainspring of action, where the devotional nature
has been allowed for years to express itself freely and frequently, and par-
ticularly where this has been accompanied by the scientific exercises  given
probationers in the Rosicrucian Fellowship, the quantity of the chemical and
life ethers gradually diminishes as the animal appetites vanish,  and an in-
creased  amount of the light and reflecting ether takes their place.   As  a
consequence,  physical health is not as robust among people who  follow  the
higher  path as among people whose indulgence of the lower  nature  attracts
the  chemical  and life ethers,  in proportion to the extent and  nature  of
their vice, to the partial or total exclusion of the two higher ethers.


[PAGE 30]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

   Several  very  important consequences connected with  death  follow  this
fact.   As it is the chemical ether which cements the molecules of the  body
in  their places and keeps them there during life,  when only a  minimum  of
this material is present, disintegration of the physical vehicle after death
must be very rapid.   This the writer has not been able to verify because it
is  difficult to find me of high spiritual proclivities who have passed  out
recently,  but it would seem that this is so from the fact recorded  in  the
Bible that the body of Christ was not found in the tomb when the people came
to  look  for it.   As we have said before in relation to this  matter,  the
Christ spiritualized the body of Jesus so highly,  made it so vibrant,  that
it was almost impossible to keep the particles in place during his ministry.
This  was a fact known to the writer by the teachings of the Elder  Brothers
and  by what investigation he has made of the subject in the memory  of  Na-
ture, but the bearing of this fact upon the general subject of death and the
after-existence was not know until lately.

   The  real "Dweller on the Threshold"  is the composite  elemental  entity
created  on the invisible planes by all our untransmuted evil  thoughts  and
acts  during all the past period of our evolution.   This  "dweller"  stands
guard  at the entrance to the invisible worlds and challenges our  right  to
enter therein.  This  entity  must be redeemed or transmuted eventually.  We


[PAGE 31]                                       THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD

must generate poise and will power sufficient to face and command it  before
we can consciously enter the super-physical worlds.

   As  before stated,  a worldly life increases the proportion of the  lower
ethers  in  the vital body to that of the higher.   Where,  in  addition,  a
so-called "clean life" is lived and excesses avoided, the health during life
is  more  robust than that of the aspirant to the higher life,  because  the
latter's  attitude to life builds a vital body composed principally  of  the
higher ethers.   He loves "the bread of life" more than physical sustenance,
and therefore his instrument become increasingly high-strung,  nervous,  and
delicate,  a sensitive condition which greatly furthers the objects  of  the
spirit, but which is a hardship from the physical viewpoint.

   In  the great majority of mankind there is such a preponderance of  self-
ishness  and a desire to get the most out of life as they view that  matter,
that  either  they are busy keeping the wolf from the door  or  accumulating
possessions and taking care of them, and hence they have very little time or
inclination  to undertake the soul culture so necessary to true  success  in
life.  The writer has often heard them contend that if they pay the minister
to  study  the  Bible  during  the  six days and give them on the seventh an


[PAGE 32]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

epitome of what he has found,  that should be all that is required to get  a
ticket to heaven.  They subscribe to the church and to the things ordinarily
called for in life as honorable and upright; for the rest, they have "a good
time."   Therefore there is so little that persists in each life of the  ma-
jority  and evolution is so frightfully slow that until one is able  to  vie
the  act of death from the higher regions of the World of  Concrete  Thought
and, so to say, look downwards, it does not appear that anything is saved of
the vital body.  This body seems to return complete to the physical body and
to hover over the grave,  there it disintegrate simultaneously with the lat-
ter.  As a matter of fact, an increasing part cleaves to the higher vehicles
and goes with them into the desire world,  there to be a basis of conscious-
ness  in,  and to live through, the purgatorial and heaven lives,  generally
persisting  until  man enters the second heaven and unites with  the  nature
forces  there  in his efforts to create for himself a new  environment.   By
that time, it has been absorbed by the spirit or almost so, and whatever may
remain of a material nature will quickly fade away.  Thus the personality of
the  past life has vanished and the spirit will not meet with it in the  fu-
ture lives upon this earth.

   But there are some people who are of such an evil nature that they  ENJOY
a  life  spent  in  vice  and  degenerate  practices, a brutal life, and who


[PAGE 33]                                       THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD

delight in giving pain.   Sometimes they even cultivate the occult arts  for
evil  purposes  so that they may have a greater power  over  their  victims.
Then their fiendish, immoral practices result in hardening their vital body.

   In  such extreme cases where the animal nature has been paramount,  where
there has been no soul expression in the preceding earth life,  the division
in the vital body spoken of before cannot take place at death,  for there is
no dividing line.   In such a case, if the vital body should gravitate  back
to  the dense body and there gradually disintegrate,  the effect of  a  very
evil life would not be so far-reaching,  but unfortunately there is in  such
cases  an  interlocking grip of the vital and desire bodies  which  prevents
separation.   We have seen that where a man lives mostly in the  higher  na-
ture,  his spiritual vehicles are nourished to the detriment of  the  lower.
Conversely,  where his consciousness is centered in the lower  vehicles,  he
strengthens them immeasurably.  It should be understood that the life of the
desire body is not terminated by the departure of the spirit;  it has a  re-
sidual life and consciousness.   The vital body is also able to sense things
in a slight measure for a few days after death in ordinary cases (hence  the
suffering  caused by embalming, postmortem examinations,  etc.,  immediately
after death), but where a low life has  hardened  and  endued  it with great


[PAGE 34]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

strength, it has a tenacious hold on life and an ability to feed on odors of
foods and liquors.  Sometimes, as a parasite, it even vampirizes people with
whom it comes in contact.

   Thus an evil man may life for many,  many years unseen in our very midst,
yet so close that he is nearer than hands and feet.   He is far more danger-
ous than the physical criminal for he is able to prompt others of a  similar
bent  to criminal or degenerate practices without fear of detection or  pun-
ishment by law.

   Such beings are therefore one of the greatest menaces to society  imagin-
able.   They  have sent countless victims to prison,  broken  up  homes  and
caused an unbelievable amount of unhappiness.   They always leave their vic-
tims  when  the latter have come into the clutches of the law.   They  gloat
over their victims' sorrow and distress, this being a part of their fiendish
scheme.   There  are other classes which delight in posing  as  "angels"  in
spiritualistic seances.  They also find victims there and teach them immoral
practices.  The so-called "Poltergeist" which enjoys breaking dishes, upset-
ting  tables,  knocking hats over the heads of the delighted  audience,  and
similar horseplay,  is also in this class.   The strength and density of the
vital body of such beings makes it easier for them to give physical manifes-
tations than for those who have passed beyond into the desire world; in fact


[PAGE 35]                                       THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD

the vital bodies of this class of spirits are so dense that they are  nearly
physical,  and it has been a mystery to the writer that some of  the  people
who are taken in by such entities cannot see them.  Were  they  once discov-
ered, one look at their evil sneering faces would very soon dispel the delu-
sion that they are angels.

   There is another class of spirits belonging to this same category who ap-
peal  to  person seeking spiritual development  outside  the  spiritualistic
line,  by  posing to them as INDIVIDUAL TEACHERS and giving them  a  lot  of
goody-goody nonsense.  They also play upon the credulity of their victims in
an almost unbelievable manner, and even though for years they may keep their
intentions secret, sometime or other they will show themselves in their true
colors.   Therefore it cannot be reiterated too often that no one should ac-
cept  from  any  one else,  either visible or invisible,  teachings  in  the
slightest  degree contrary to his own highest conception of ethics.   It  is
dangerous to trust absolutely to people in this world and admit them to  our
full confidence; we know this by experience and act accordingly.   We ought,
naturally, to be much more careful when the question comes to matters of the
soul,  and  not  trust  that  most  important  of all matters, our spiritual


[PAGE 36]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

welfare,  in the hands of some one we cannot at least see and judge  accord-
ingly.   There are many spirits, of course, who have not the wits to do any-
thing  very evil with their victims,  and who just lead them around  by  the
nose for years and years without any particularly harmful results.  But SELF
RELIANCE  is the most essential virtue to be cultivated by us at this  stage
of our evolution; the mystic maxim, "If thou art Christ,  help thyself,"  is
always  sounded  in the ears of those who endeavor to tread the  true  path.
Hence we ought to guide ourselves without fear or favor from any spirit.

   It is amazing when one searches the Memory of Nature of the past to  find
how prevalent this interlocking condition of the desire and vital bodies was
in former centuries and millenniums.  We realize, of course, in a sort of an
abstract way,  that the further we go back into the history of men the  more
savage  we  find them,  but that in our own historical times  this  savagery
should  have been so common and so brutal an that might was the  measure  of
right absolutely and beyond dispute, was, to say the least, quite a shock to
the writer.   It has been taught that selfishness and desire were  purposely
fostered under the regime of Jehovah to give incentive to action.   This  in
the course of time had so hardened the desire  body  that when the advent of


[PAGE 37]                                       THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD

Christ  took place,  there was almost no heaven life among the  people  then
living;  but the writer,  personally,  never realized what this fact implied
until the recent investigations of "The Web of Destiny" were commenced.

   Nor  were these ancient people content to do all the evil they  could  in
life  and then get away,  but they must even have their war  horses  killed,
their weapons laid down in their coffins,  and everything else possible done
to keep them here,  for the ether in those things which had belonged to them
during  life had an attraction for them, and was a means to further  keeping
them within the earth's sphere.  It enabled them to haunt, for they actually
did haunt,  their castles for years and years, and of course it was not only
the  rich or the warrior classes but also others.   In cases of blood  feuds
where people were slain,  the ghosts incited their relatives to avenge  them
by  remaining  about and helping them to carry out the bloody  deeds.   Thus
they  perpetuated evil and kept the world in a turmoil of blood and  strife;
nor is this condition entirely broker in what we call modern days.  Wherever
a person dies who has fostered malice and hatred in his heart,  these inter-
lock  the desire and vital bodies and make him a more serious menace to  the
community  than  anyone  can  imagine who has not investigated this subject.


[PAGE 38]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

Therefore, if for no other reason, capital punishment should be abolished so
that  we may not let loose upon the community such dangerous  characters  to
incite the morally weak to follow in their footsteps.



[PAGE 39]                                                       THE SIN BODY

                                  PART IV.

         THE "SIN BODY"--POSSESSION BY SELF-MADE DEMONS--ELEMENTALS

   Earthbound spirits,  such as previously mentioned, gravitate to the lower
regions of the desire world which interpenetrate the ether,  and are in con-
stant and close touch with those people on earth most favorably situated for
aiding  them  in their evil designs.  They usually stay in  this  earthbound
condition for fifty,  sixty,  or seventy-five years,  but extreme cases have
been  found  in which such people so remain for centuries.   So far  as  the
writer has been able to discover up to the present time,  there seems to  be
no  limit  to what they may do or how soon they will let go.   But  all  the
while they are piling up for themselves an awful load of sin,  nor can  they
escape  suffering therefor;  for the vital body reflects and  etches  deeply
into  the desire body a record of their misdeeds,  and when at last they  do
let go and enter the purgatorial existence,  they meet the retribution which
they well deserve.  This suffering is naturally lengthy in proportion to the
time  they  have  continued their nefarious practices after the death of the


[PAGE 40]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

dense  body--another proof that "Though the mills of God grind  slowly,  yet
they grind exceeding small."

   When the spirit has left the SIN BODY,  as we will call this vehicle,  in
contrast to the soul body, to ascend to the second heaven,  it does not dis-
integrate as quickly as the ordinary shell left behind by normal people, for
the consciousness in it is enhanced by its dual composition; that is to say,
being  composed of both a vital and desire body,  it has an individual or  a
personal consciousness that is very remarkable.  It cannot reason, but there
is a low cunning present which makes it seem as though it were actually  en-
dowed  with  a spiritual presence,  an ego, and this enables it  to  live  a
separate life for many centuries.   The departed spirit meanwhile enters the
second  heaven,  but having done no work on earth to desire or merit a  pro-
longed stay there or in the third heaven,  it only stays there  sufficiently
long to create a new environment for itself and it is then reborn much  ear-
lier  than usual--to satisfy the cravings for material things which draw  it
so strongly.

   When  the spirit returns to earth, this Sin Body is  naturally  attracted
towards it,  and usually stays with it all its life as a demon.   Investiga-
tions have proved  that this class of soulless creatures were very prevalent


[PAGE 41]                                                       THE SIN BODY

during Biblical times,  and it was to them that our Savior referred as  dev-
ils,  they being the cause of various obsessions and bodily ills such as are
recorded in the Bible.   The Greek word "daimon"  describes them accurately.
Even today a large proportion of southern Europe and the Orient is thus  ha-
rassed,  the affliction being specially aggravated in  Sicily, Corsica,  and
Sardinia.   Whole tribes in Africa,  where the Voodoo magic  prevails,  have
with them these gruesome spectres; the Indians of America and negroes in the
South are also subject to them.

   But  unfortunately the evil is not confined to these so-called  lower  or
backward races.  Right here in what we call civilized countries, in northern
Europe and in North and South America,  we find that demoniac possession  is
far from infrequent,  although,  of course,  its form is not so abject as in
the first mentioned places where it is often accompanied by the most  filthy
and abominable practices.

   The  writer  was at one time quite apprehensive of the effect  which  war
might  have in respect to locking the desire and vital bodies  together  and
bringing to birth legions of monsters to afflict future generations.  But it
is with great thankfulness that he records his conviction that we need  have
no fear on that score.   Only when people are premeditatively malicious  and
vindictive, and  persistently harbor a desire and a purpose to get even with


[PAGE 42]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

some one,  only when such feelings are hugged,  nursed,  and entertained  do
they  harden  the vital body and cause the interlocking grip  of  these  ve-
hicles.   We know from the records of the great war that the rank  and  file
have  no  such  sentiments against one another,  but that  enemies  meet  as
friends  whenever  chance brings them into such relationship that  they  may
converse with one another.  So, though war is responsible for the awful mor-
tality  now and will cause deplorable infant mortality in a future  age,  it
will be blameless with regard to the dreadful diseases engendered by  obses-
sion and the crimes suggested by these demoniacal sin bodies.

   The  discarded sin bodies mentioned in the preceding parts of this  chap-
ter,  inhabit normally and by preference the lowest regions of the ether and
condense themselves to the very line of sight.  Sometimes they even make use
of some of the constituents of the air and seem usually to be perfectly vis-
ible  to those people whom they harass,  although their victims are  usually
very  careful  not to allow anyone to suspect that they have  such  a  demon
about them, that is at least in the western world; there seems to be no such
delicacy in the southern part of Europe.

   Following the above investigations,  the writer attempted a number of ex-
periments  with spirits who were in the higher realms of the  ether,  having
just  passed  out,  and  with  people who had been in the desire world for a


[PAGE 43]                                                       THE SIN BODY

longer  or  shorter  time,  some of them being almost ready  for  the  first
heaven.   A number of spirits who had departed this life kindly  co-operated
as subjects.   The aim of the experiments was to determine how far it  would
be  possible  for them to clothe themselves in the materials  of  the  lower
etheric  and even the gaseous regions.   It was noticed that those  who  had
just  passed out could quite readily endure the lower ether vibrations,  al-
though being of good character they were not well satisfied to remain  there
longer than necessary,  for they were uncomfortable.  But as we tried people
from successively higher regions of the desire world up to the first heaven,
it  became  more and more difficult to wrap themselves in ether  or  descend
into  it.   The concensus of opinion was that it was like going down into  a
deep well,  there to smother.   It was also found that it was absolutely im-
possible for any one in the physical to see them.   We tried by every method
of suggestion to arouse the people in rooms which we visited,  to a sense of
our  presence,  but we found no response, though in a number  of  cases  the
forms  which we condensed were so opaque that it seemed to the writer as  if
they  were  nearly as dark as those physical people whom we desired  to  at-
tract.  We placed our experimental  subjects between the physical people and


[PAGE 44]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

the light; nevertheless we had no success in any case, either with those who
were  from the higher realms or with those who had passed out  recently  and
were able to stay in the given position and density for a considerable time.

   In  addition  to the entities already mentioned who dwell in a  sin  body
made by themselves, and who thus suffer entirely from their own deeds in the
period  of expiation,  two classes were found which were similar in  certain
respects although entirely different in others.   In addition to the  divine
Hierarchies and the four life waves of spirits now evolving in the  physical
world through the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms, there are also
other  life waves which express themselves in the various invisible  worlds.
Among  them there are certain classes of sub-human spirits which are  called
elementals.  It sometimes happens that one of these elementals takes posses-
sion of the sin body of some one of a savage tribe,  and thus adds extra in-
telligence to that being.   At the rebirth of the spirit that generated this
sin body,  the usual attraction brings them together,  but on account of the
elemental  ensouling  the sin body,  the spirit becomes different  from  the
other members of the tribe,  and we find them then acting as medicine men or
in a similar capacity.   These elemental spirits ensouling the sin bodies of
Indians also act upon mediums as  spirit controls, and having obtained power


[PAGE 45]                                                       THE SIN BODY

over the medium during life,  when he dies,  these elemental spirit controls
oust him from the vehicles which contain his life experience,  and thus  the
medium may be retarded in evolution for ages, for there is no power that can
compel  these  spirits to let go,  once they have gained control of  such  a
body.   Therefore, though mediumship may produce no seeming evil effect in a
lifetime,  there is a very, very, grave danger after death to the person who
allows his body to be taken possession of.   Spiritualism has done a  neces-
sary work in the world.  It was probably the chief means of checking the ab-
solute  materialism of science,  and it has brought solace to  thousands  of
suffering souls who grieved for the loss of departed ones; it has turned un-
believers to believe in a higher existence.  We have no desire, whatever, to
speak  in  a derogatory manner of its workers,  but we cannot  refrain  from
voicing a warning,  as we feel it a duty to point out the enormous danger to
those who allow themselves to be habitually controlled by spirits whom  they
cannot see, and about whom they cannot possibly know anything.


[PAGE 46]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

                                   PART V.

                       OBSESSION OF MAN AND OF ANIMALS

   It is a curious fact that subhuman elementals sometimes attach themselves
to certain persons, to a family, or even to a religious society; but in such
cases it was always found that their vehicle did not consist of the hardened
sin body composed of an interlocking desire and vital body, but that the ve-
hicle  had been obtained through mediumship practiced by a person  of  ordi-
narily good character,  and that the ether of this vehicle was in a state of
disintegration.  To offset this and to prolong their hold on such a vehicle,
they  demand  of those whom they serve,  regular offerings of food  and  the
burning of incense;  though they cannot, of course,  assimilate the physical
food,  they can and do live upon the ether fumes and odors which arise  from
it, also upon the fumes of incense.

   This is only another illustration of the fact that purity of motive  will
not protect us when we go contrary to the laws of God,  any more than we can
escape  a  burn  if we put our hand on a hot stove, no matter why we did it.


[PAGE 47]                                    OBSESSION OF MAN AND OF ANIMALS

But,  nevertheless,  it  has been found in cases where  a  medium  has  been
ensouled by pure motives and high religious devotion,  it is very  difficult
for  such  evil entities to hold the vital body for a long time;  they  soon
tire  of the effort and seek another victim who is more in  accordance  with
their  nature.   Thus in the south of Europe and in the far East  there  are
elementals that take possession of the vital bodies of a family,  generation
after  generation,  leaving one for another and performing certain  services
for  the  family for a consideration of food,  which is usually  offered  at
regular times.   Some of them are too vile to be satisfied with the offering
of ordinary food and demand blood,  even human blood,  and these beings  are
responsible  for such tribes as the head-hunters of the Philippines and  the
stranglers of India,  who commit murder as a religious rite.   This is  also
the basis of Ancestor Worship in the East.

   These as well as the sin bodies which are not ensouled by an outside  in-
telligence have been called "THE DWELLERS ON THE THRESHOLD," merely owing to
the fact that when the person by whom they were originally generated was re-
born,  this demon attached itself to him and became a tempter and a devil to
him all through life.   Not infrequently it was found that in the case of  a
person  who had in one life generated such a demon,  but who had  taken  the
lessons  of  that  life  so  much  to  heart  that they were expiated in the


[PAGE 48]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

purgatorial  existence,   and  who  when  reborn  endeavored  in  the   most
whole-souled way to live a clean,  upright,  and honest life,  this sin body
was  still always on hand to hamper him.   Many of the people who were  thus
afflicted were so sincere in their desire to reform that they entered monas-
teries  and practiced dreadful austerities upon their bodies,  each of  them
believing that the demon which haunted him and of whose presence he was con-
scious was the devil or an emissary from him.

   It  is said truly that the boy is the father of the man.   In  a  similar
sense our previous existences are the progenitors of our present and  future
lives,  and it is very certain that in this sense at least, "the sins of the
fathers are visited upon the children"; nor can we deny the justice thereof,
for  the cruelties practiced by these people which caused the  formation  of
the sin body were generally of the most atrocious nature imaginable.

   You have probably heard it said that when a bull dog has taken a grip  on
anything,  he WILL NOT let go.  This implies, however, that he has the power
to do so if he wants to.   But it is different with a snake;  its teeth  are
pointed  towards  the back of the mouth so that when once it  has  sunk  its
fangs  into  the  flesh  of  its  victim, it CANNOT let go but must perforce


[PAGE 49]                                    OBSESSION OF MAN AND OF ANIMALS

swallow the victim.   Curiously enough, something similar is the case in ob-
session.

   You  will remember that the writer has always contended that spirit  con-
trols stand outside their victim's body and behind him, manipulating the or-
gan of speech or the whole body,  as the case may be,  from and through  the
cerebellum  and  medulla  oblongata where the flame of  life  burns  with  a
double, buzzing sound composed of two tones, indicative of the resistance of
the  body to the manipulations of the intruder.   Our latest  investigations
have,  however,  disclosed the fact that the spirit controls  who  thus  ma-
nipulate their victims from without,  are the wise ones who are too wary  to
be caught in a trap.   While they are without,  they can let go at any  time
they wish and leave their victim to pursue his daily life as desired,  while
they  do the same themselves.   But there are other spirits who are  not  so
wise,  or who are perhaps more foolhardy or else so anxious to get into  the
physical  world  that they throw all caution aside.   Entering the  body  of
their victims,  they find themselves in almost the same position as the prey
of  the snake;  the body of their intended victim has a lock grip upon  them
and they cannot let go under ordinary circumstances.  Thus the obsession be-
comes permanent, and the whole personality of that victim changes.


[PAGE 50]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

   If  the obsessing spirit be an elemental or subhuman entity which is  not
able to use a mind or larynx, these being the latest human acquisitions, the
person  so obsessed becomes a hopeless lunatic,  not infrequently of  a  ma-
levolent nature,  and the faculty of speech is also impaired.   It is almost
impossible to dislodge such an entity once it has entered.  Investigation of
former  lives shows that this affliction is usually the outcome of a  desire
to  run away from life's experience;  for those who are obsessed  are  often
found to have been suicides in a previous existence.   Then they had a  body
which they did not appreciate, and as a consequence in a later life the men-
tality became weakened either through an organic disease, a great shock,  or
by  obsession.   In any one of these cases the spirit was  ousted  from  its
body, always hovering around it and eager to obtain possession but unable to
do so because of the lack of mind wherewith to focus thought upon the  brain
or because of obsession by an extraneous entity.

   Sorrow and disappointment are usually the causes of suicide,  and often a
great sorrow was found to derange the mind; but the spirit is then quite ca-
pable of understanding and handling the situation even though it may not  be
able to use its vehicles because of the lacking focus of mind.  But where it
has given way and attempted to  escape  by  suicide, it learns in the manner


[PAGE 51]                                    OBSESSION OF MAN AND OF ANIMALS

described to realize the value of a body and of the links therewith, so that
in  the  future no provocation will be sufficient to cause it to  sever  the
silver  cord.   In fact,  sometimes sorrows come to tempt a person  who  has
given way in the past to do this very act; and when he resists,  it shows he
has  become immune from the temptation.   It seems to be the same  principle
upon  which  the drunkard of a former life is tempted to drink in  order  to
test his stability of character by his conscious refusal to yield.

   It  is curious that the commission of suicide in one life and the  conse-
quent post-mortem suffering during the time when the archetype still  exists
often  generate in such people a morbid fear of death in the next  life,  so
that  when  the event actually occurs in the ordinary course of  life,  they
seem  frantic  after they leave the body and so anxious to get back  to  the
physical world again that they frequently commit this crime of obsession  in
the  most foolish and unthinking manner.  However,  as there are not  always
negative human subjects available for obsession, (and even if there were, it
is  not certain that the person who has just passed out and who  is  seeking
such  a chance will find one in whom he may take refuge) a strange,  a  hor-
rible thing often happens,  namely,  that such a spirit ousts the real owner
of an animal body and then ensouls its vehicle.  it is then under the dread-


[PAGE 52]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

ful necessity of living an animal existence, pure and simple.  If the animal
is subjected to cruelty by its master, the obsessing human spirit suffers as
the  animal spirit would have suffered;  if the animal is to be  killed  for
food,  the man within sees and understands the preparation for slaughter and
has  to  go through the horrible experiences connected therewith.   Nor  are
cases of this nature infrequent at all; in fact they happen very often, as a
visit to some of the great American slaughter-houses has brought home to the
writer in a most forcible manner; and the realization of this,  to him,  new
fact has brought home in an almost painful manner the necessity of educating
the people to the great truth that DEATH,  LIKE BIRTH,  IS ONLY AN EVENT  OF
FREQUENT OCCURRENCE IN THE NEVER-ENDING LIFE OF THE IMMORTAL SPIRIT.

   Full  faith in this doctrine would take away untold misery from  mankind,
and we ought to do all in our power to help spread this gospel of Life.

   It also sometimes occurs that an evil man embodies himself in a beast  of
prey  and  takes a fiendish delight in terrorizing a  community.   When  the
Christ  walked upon earth,  such cases of animal obsession by human  spirits
were met with every day,  and the instances recorded in the Bible are not at
all  myths  or  foolishness  to one endowed with spiritual sight and able to


[PAGE 53]                                    OBSESSION OF MAN AND OF ANIMALS

read in the Memory of Nature, for it is found that these things actually did
happen;  in fact,  the ancient seers who observed this habitual entrance  of
people  of  low and evil character into the bodies of beasts when  they  had
passed out of their own bodies at death,  thought that this was the  regular
course of nature instead of being an anomalous condition, and they therefore
formulated the doctrine of Transmigration.


[PAGE 54]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

                                  PART VI.

                 THE CREATION OF ENVIRONMENT--THE GENESIS OF

                      MENTAL AND PHYSICAL DISABILITIES


   It  is a fact evident from the merest superficial observation that  while
animals  act  alike under like circumstances, because they are guided  by  a
group spirit,  the human being does not.  In humanity there are as many spe-
cies as there are individuals, each one being a law unto himself; and we can
never  predict from the actions of one,  how another will act under  similar
circumstances;  even the same individual may act differently,  and  probably
will, under similar circumstances at different times.  On that account it is
difficult  to handle or properly elucidate a subject like "The Web  of  Des-
tiny,"  when we are only equipped with minds of such small capacity as human
beings have at present.   To fully understand this subject would require the
wisdom of such great beings as the Recording Angels, who have charge of this
intricate department of life.

   It must not, therefore, be thought that the writer is giving in this book
more  than  a very superficial view of how destiny is made and unmade.  Each


[PAGE 55]                                        THE CREATION OF ENVIRONMENT

act of each individual calls forth in the universe a certain vibration which
spends itself,  reacting upon him and others in his environment; and no mere
human  mind could either watch or tabulate the results of these actions  and
reactions in a few short months,  years, or lives.   But we have sought from
the general picture impressed upon our mind by the study of our subject,  to
classify the causes engendered in the past as they appear to us,  and  their
effect in present lives.   Several hundred persons have been investigated in
the  course of this study,  and in some cases we have gone back  for  three,
four,  or even more lives in order to get at the root of the matter  and  to
determine  how the actions in the past react to make conditions  in  present
lives.   But  although  we have thus done our very best  under  the  circum-
stances,  students are particularly requested not to regard this as any  au-
thoritative conclusion in the matter,  but rather as a fingerpost which,  we
hope, may help to solve certain problems.

   As  regards  environment,  it would seem that people who are  of  a  par-
ticularly difficult nature to get along with and who have a hard life before
them,  are often born among strangers where they will not receive any sympa-
thy  and where their sufferings will not create upon their next of  kin  ac-
cording to  the  flesh  any appreciable sympathetic impression; or else they


[PAGE 56]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

are orphaned, or deserted by their parents, or they run away from home at an
early  age.   Where this is the case, the soul often hungers for a  sympathy
which  it had neglected to give to others in previous lives.   We have  also
found  cases where certain people committed the most atrocious  outrages  in
the past and brought shame and dishonor upon their nearest kin, who suffered
deeply because they loved the miscreant.   And in the life where this erring
soul  was to atone for past misdeeds, it would find itself in an  altogether
unsympathetic environment,  hungering and thirsting for the love that it had
despised in a previous life;  thus its lot was made all the harder.   If the
man did not learn the lesson in one life,  several lives of similar  experi-
ence would teach him to be sympathetic to those who loved him, as well as to
do honestly and rightly by others.

   It was also found that often a soul had gone wrong in past lives  because
of a lack of kindly influence on the part of those who composed his  immedi-
ate  family,  and who should have given to him their loyalty,  support,  and
love.   The lack of this sympathetic environment did not, of course,  excuse
his misdeeds in the eyes of the law, and he was forced in later lives to ex-
piate the misdeeds of the past.   But in such cases the tables were  usually
reversed; the family, which in past lives had been indifferent to him, would


[PAGE 57]                                        THE CREATION OF ENVIRONMENT

not  dote upon him and thus would feel keenly whatever sorrow and  suffering
he must go through on account of his past.  Thus they expiated their part in
making him what he was because of their lack of sympathy and kindness.

   These are extreme cases;  but, naturally, one cannot draw a definite les-
son  from cases not clearly marked;  the more bluntly events stand out,  the
easier  it is to tabulate them.   The law which holds good in extreme  cases
would also hold good in lesser cases, with modifications in proper degree to
cover choice of environment.

   The  foregoing  facts  show us clearly that we are  truly  our  brother's
keeper,  and that it behooves every one of us to show all the  sympathy  and
kindness we possibly can to those who are in misfortune, either in or out of
our families.   For though upon the fact of things and looking at life  from
the  viewpoint of our present embodiment alone, we may not seem to have  any
responsibility for the condition of a scapegrace relative;  nevertheless  if
we could view the larger life, if we could see behind the veil,  probably we
should find that we ourselves had helped him to sink into degradation.

   We frequently hear the expression that such and such a person is the "odd
one" in a certain family;  and  we  may  nearly always take it that the poor


[PAGE 58]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

soul so designated is a stranger among strange people,  having to stay there
for  this life on account of some misdeeds in the past.   "Blood is  thicker
than water,"  says an old proverb; but as a matter of fact, the tie of blood
is of no consequence unless the spirits in a family are bound to one another
by love or hate from the past,  which determines their real relationship  in
the present life.   A soul may be clothed in the flesh of a certain  family,
it may sit at their board and have a legal right to a part of their  estate,
while  still it is as much a stranger to them as a passing tramp who begs  a
meal at their kitchen door.   Do you remember that the Christ said,  "For  I
was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:  I
was a stranger and ye took me in."  And then,  "Inasmuch as ye have done  it
unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  When
we find such a soul, one that is "odd," lonely,  and strange in its environ-
ment,  it  should be our endeavor as Christians to emulate the  example  set
forth  by our Lord;  we should endeavor to make such a strange soul at  home
and cultivate its acquaintance for Christ's sake, regardless of its supposed
oddities.

   The disabilities which affect humanity may be divided into large classes;
MENTAL and PHYSICAL.   The mental troubles are particularly traceable to the
abuse of the creative function, when they are congenital, with one exception
which we shall note later.  The same holds true in case of impairment of the


[PAGE 59]                                        THE CREATION OF ENVIRONMENT

faculty of speech.   This is reasonable and easy to understand.   The  brain
and the larynx were built with half of the creative force by the Angels,  so
that man who,  prior to the acquisition of these organs,  was bi-sexual  and
able to create from himself alone,  lost that faculty when these organs were
created  and is now dependent upon the co-operation of another  of  opposite
polarity or sex in order to generate a new vehicle for an incoming spirit.

   When  we use the spiritual sight to look at man in the Memory  of  Nature
during the time when he was yet in the making,  we find that wherever  there
is now a nerve,  there was first a desire current; that the brain itself was
made of desire substance in the first place and also the larynx.  It was de-
sire  that first sent a motive impulse through the brain and  created  these
nerve currents, that the body might be moved and obtain for the spirit what-
ever gratification was indicated by desire.  Speech,  also,  is used for the
purpose of obtaining a desired object or end.   Through these faculties  man
has  obtained a certain mastery over the world,  and if he could  just  flit
from  one body to another,  there would be no end to his abuse of his  power
for gratifying every whim and desire.   But under the law of consequence  he
takes with him into a new body, faculties and organs similar to those  which
he left behind in the one preceding.


[PAGE 60]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

   When  passion has wrecked the body in one life,  it is stamped  upon  the
seed  atom.   In the next descent to rebirth it is therefore impossible  for
him to gather sound material with which to build a brain of stable construc-
tion.   He is then usually born under one of the common signs,  and usually,
also,  the four common signs are on the angles; for through these signs pas-
sionate desire finds it difficult to express itself.   Thus the powerful im-
pulse which formerly ruled in his brain and which might be used for the pur-
pose of rejuvenescence is absent;  he lacks incentive in life and  therefore
he becomes helpless--a log upon the ocean of life--often insane.

   But the spirit is not insane;  it sees,  knows,  and has a keen desire to
use the body, though that be an impossibility, for often it cannot even send
a correct impulse along the nerves.  The muscles of face and body are there-
fore  not  under the control of its will.   This accounts for  the  lack  of
co-ordination  which makes the maniac such a pitiable sight.   And thus  the
spirit learns one of the hardest lessons in life,  namely,  that it is worse
than death to be tied to a living body and unable to find expression through
it because THE DESIRE FORCE necessary to accomplish thought, speech, and mo-
tion  HAS BEEN SPENT IN UNRIGHTEOUS LIVING in a previous life and  left  the
spirit  without the necessary energy to operate its present fleshly  instru-
ment.


[PAGE 61]                                               THE CAUSE OF DISEASE

                                  PART VII

                            THE CAUSE OF DISEASE

                 EFFORTS OF THE EGO TO ESCAPE FROM THE BODY.

                          EFFECTS OF LASCIVIOUSNESS


   Though mental disabilities,  when congenital,  are generally traceable to
abuse of the creative function in a past life, there is at least one notable
exception to this rule,  namely,  cases such as mentioned in the Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception and elsewhere in our literature,  and described as follows:
Where a spirit,  who has a particularly hard life before it,  comes down  to
rebirth  and  feels upon entering the womb that the panorama of  the  coming
life then shown it marks an existence too hard for it to undergo,  it  some-
times tries to run away from the school of life.  At that time the Recording
Angels  or their agents have already made the connection between  the  vital
body and the sense centers of the brain in the forming foetus; therefore the
effort of the spirit to escape from the mother's womb is frustrated, but the
wrench  that is given by the Ego deranges the connection between the etheric


[PAGE 62]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

and  physical sense centers,  so that the vital body is not concentric  with
the physical, causing the etheric head to extend above the physical cranium.
Thus it is impossible for the spirit to use the dense vehicle; it is tied to
a  mindless  body which it cannot use,  and the  embodiment  is  practically
wasted.

   We also find cases where a great shock later in life causes the spirit to
endeavor  to run away with the invisible vehicles.   As a result  a  similar
wrench is given to th etheric sense centers in the brain,  and the shock de-
ranges the mental expression.   Everybody has probably felt a similar sensa-
tion on receiving a fright; a surging as of something endeavoring to get out
of the dense body;  that is the desire and vital bodies,  which are so swift
in their motion that an express train is as a snail by comparison.  They see
and  feel the danger and are frightened before the scare is  transmitted  to
the inert and slow physical body in which they are anchored,  and which pre-
vents their escape under ordinary strain.

   But at times,  as said,  the fright and shock are sufficiently severe  to
give them such an impulse that the etheric sense centers are deranged.  This
most  frequently happens to persons born under common signs,  which are  the
weakest in the zodiac.   However,  as a ligament that has been stretched and
torn  may  gradually regain comparative elasticity, so also, in these cases,


[PAGE 63]                                               THE CAUSE OF DISEASE

it is easier to restore the mental faculties than in those cases where  con-
genital insanity,  brought over from past lives,  has caused inadequate con-
nection.

   Hysteria,  epilepsy,  tuberculosis,  and cancer were all found to  result
from  the erratic propensities of a past life.   It was noticed that  though
many of the subjects had been,  in the past lives investigated,  almost  ma-
niacal in the gratification of their lasciviousness,  they were at the  same
time  of  a highly devotional and religious nature;  and in such  cases,  it
seems  that  the physical body generated in the present  life  was  normally
healthy and their disability altogether mental;  while in other cases  where
the indulgence of the passional nature was coupled with a vile character and
a cruel disregard of others, epilepsy together with rachitis, hysteria,  and
a deformed body were the present result;  also,  frequently,  cancer,  espe-
cially cancer of the liver or breast.

   In this connection,  however,  we wish to again warn students not to draw
hasty  conclusions that these are hard and fast conditions.   The number  of
investigations  made,  though  very large and an arduous task  for  one  re-
searcher to handle, are too few to be really conclusive in matters involving
millions of human beings.   They are, however, in line with the teachings of
the Cosmo given by the Elder Brothers regarding the effect of materialism in


[PAGE 64]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

bringing  about  rachitis a softening of a part of the body that  should  be
hard,  and tuberculosis,  which hardens tissues that should remain soft  and
pliable.  Cancer is essentially similar in effect; and when we consider that
the sign Cancer is ruled by the moon, the planet of generation, and that the
lunar sphere is under th sway of Jehovah,  the God of generation,  whose an-
gels  announce  and preside over birth as instanced in the  case  of  Isaac,
Samuel,  John the Baptist,  and Jesus, we readily see that abuse of the gen-
erative  functions can cause both cancer and lunacy in the most  differenti-
ated forms.

   Therefore with regard to physical abnormalities and deformities, the rule
seems to be that as the physical indulgence of passion reacts on the  mental
state,  so the abuse of the mental powers in one life leads to physical dis-
ability in later existences.   An occult maxim says that "A lie is both mur-
der and suicide in the Desire World."   The teachings of the Elder  Brothers
given  in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception explain that whenever  an  occur-
rence takes place,  a certain thought form generated in the invisible  world
makes  a record of the incident.   Every time the event is talked  about  or
commented  upon,  a  new thought form is created which  coalesces  with  the
original and strengthens it,  provided they are both true to the same vibra-
tion.  But  if  an  untruth is told concerning what happens, then the vibra-


[PAGE 65]                                               THE CAUSE OF DISEASE

tions of the original and those of the reproduction are not identical;  they
jar and jangle,  tearing each other to pieces.   If the good an true thought
form  is sufficiently strong,  it will overcome and break down  the  thought
forms based upon a lie,  and the good will overcome the evil;  but where the
lies  and malicious thoughts are the stronger,  they may overcome  the  true
thought form of the occurrence and thus demolish it.   Afterwards they  will
jar among themselves, and all in turn will be annihilated.

   Thus a person who lives a clean life, endeavoring to obey the laws of God
and  striving  earnestly for truth and righteousness,  will  create  thought
forms about him of a corresponding nature; his mind will run in grooves that
harmonize with truth; and when the time comes in the second heaven to create
the archetype for his coming life, he will readily, intuitively, by force of
habit from the past life,  align himself with the forces of right and truth.
These lines,  being built into his body,  will create harmony in the  coming
vehicles,  and  health will therefore be his normal portion  in  the  coming
life.  Those who, on the other hand, have in the past life taken a distorted
view of things, displayed a disregard for truth, and exercised cunning,  ex-
treme selfishness, and disregard for the welfare of others, are bound in the
second heaven to see things in an oblique manner also, because that is their


[PAGE 66]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

habitual line of thought.   Therefore,  the archetype built by them will em-
body lines of error and falsity; and consequently,  when the body is brought
to birth,  it will exhibit a weakness in various organs, if not in the whole
bodily organization.

   Again we warn students not to draw quick conclusions from these tentative
rules.  It is not our intention to imply that every one that has a seemingly
healthy body has been a paragon of virtue in his past life, and he who  suf-
fers   from   one   disability  or  another  has  been   a   scapegrace   or
good-for-nothing.   None  of us are able to tell at the present  time,  "the
whole truth and nothing but the truth."   We are deceived because our senses
are illusive.   A long street seems to narrow in the distance,  when,  as  a
matter  of fact,  it is just as wide a mile away as where we  are  standing.
The sun and moon seem much larger when near the horizon than when at the ze-
nith; but, as a matter of fact, we know that they do not gain in size by de-
scending  toward  the horizon,  nor lose by ascending into  the  mid-heaven.
Thus we are constantly making allowances for and correcting sense illusions;
similarly,  with everything else in the world.  What seems to be true is not
always  so,  and what is true today regarding conditions of life may  change
tomorrow.   Therefore it is impossible for us to know truth in the  ultimate
under the evanescent and illusory conditions of physical existence.


[PAGE 67]                                               THE CAUSE OF DISEASE

   It  is only when we enter into the higher realms,  and particularly  into
the  Region of Concrete Thought,  that the eternal verities are to  be  per-
ceived;  hence we must necessarily make mistakes again and again,  even  de-
spite our most earnest efforts to always know and tell the truth.   On  that
account  is is impossible for us to build a thoroughly  harmonious  vehicle.
Were that possible,  such a body would really be immortal,  and we know that
immortality in the flesh is not the design of God; for Paul says that "flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

   But  we  know that even today only a very small percentage are  ready  to
live as near the truth as they see it,  to confess it and profess it  before
men by service and by righteous and harmless living.  We can also understand
that such must have been few and far between in the by-gone ages,  when  man
had not evolved the altruism that came to this planet with the advent of our
Lord and Savior,  Christ Jesus.   The standards of morality were much  lower
then,  and the love of truth almost negligible in the greater part of human-
ity,  who were engrossed in their endeavors to accumulate as much wealth  or
gain as much power or prestige for themselves as possible.  They were there-
fore naturally inclined to disregard the interests of others,  and to tell a
lie seemed in no way reprehensible and sometimes even appeared  meritorious.


[PAGE 68]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

The archetypes were consequently full of weaknesses,  and the organic  func-
tions of the body today are interfered with to a serious degree as a result,
particularly  as the western bodies are becoming more high strung  and  more
sensitive to pain on account of the spirit's growing consciousness.


[PAGE 69]                                                    THE CHRIST RAYS

                                  PART VIII

                THE CHRIST RAYS CONSTITUTE THE "INNER URGE"--

                      ETHERIC SIGHT--COLLECTIVE DESTINY


   Assimilation  of  the  fruits of each past life takes  place  before  the
spirit  descends  to rebirth,  and consequently the character  generated  is
fully formed and readily expressed in the subtle,  mobile mind-stuff of  the
Region of Concrete Thought,  where the archetype of the coming dense body is
built.   If the spirit seeking rebirth loved music,  it will seek to build a
perfect ear with the semi-circular canals accurately placed and the ampullae
very thin and sensitive to vibration;  it will seek to form long and slender
fingers wherewith to execute the heavenly chords caught by the ear.   But if
it  detested music,  if in the past life it endeavored to close its ears  to
sounds of gladness or the sob of sorrow the desire to shut itself away  from
others  thus formed would cause it to neglect the ear when building the  ar-
chetype, and as a consequence this organ would be defective in a degree com-
mensurate  with the neglect caused by the character of the  previous  exist-
ence.


[PAGE 70]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

   Similarly with the other senses; who drinks from a fount of knowledge and
endeavors to share his knowledge with his neighbor,  lays the foundation for
powers of oratory in a future life, because the desire to communicate knowl-
edge  would  cause  him to pay particular attention  to  the  formation  and
strength of the vocal organ when he is building the archetype of his  coming
body.   Those who, on the other hand, endeavor to gain access to the myster-
ies  of life for the sake of curiosity or to gratify their own pride of  in-
tellect,  neglect to build an adequate organ of expression and are therefore
found  to  have weak voices or impediments in speech.   In this  way  it  is
brought  home  to them that expression is a valuable  asset.   Although  the
brain of one thus afflicted may not sense the lesson, the spirit learns that
we are strictly accountable for the use we make of our talents,  and we must
pay th penalty sometime,  somewhere, if we neglect to speak the word of Life
to  light  our brothers or sisters upon the path,  when  well  qualified  by
knowledge to do so.

   Regarding  lack  of vision or disabilities of the organ of sight  it  has
long  been known among researchers that it is the effect of extreme  cruelty
in a past life.   Recent investigations have developed the further  informa-
tion  that much of the eye trouble now prevalent among people is due to  the
fact that OUR EYES ARE CHANGING; they are, in fact, becoming responsive to a


[PAGE 71]                                                    THE CHRIST RAYS

higher octave of vision than before, because the ether surrounding the earth
is  becoming  more  dense and the air is growing more rare.   This  is  par-
ticularly true in certain parts of the world, southern California among oth-
ers.  It is noteworthy in this connection that the Aurora Borealis is becom-
ing more frequent and more powerful in its effects upon the earth.   In  the
early years of the Christian Era this phenomenon was almost unknown,  but in
the  course of time as the Christ wave which descends into the earth  during
part  of  the year,  infuses more and more of its own life  into  the  dead,
earthly  lump,  the ETHERIC VITAL RAYS become visible at  intervals.   Later
they became more and more numerous and are now commencing to interfere  with
our electrical activities,  particularly with telegraphy,  which service  is
sometimes completely demoralized by these radiating streamers.

   It  is also noteworthy that the disturbances are confined to wires  going
east and west.  If you will refer to pages eighty-five and eighty-six in THE
ROSICRUCIAN  COSMO-CONCEPTION,  you will see it stated there  that  rays  or
lines  of force from the plant group spirits radiate in all directions  from
the  center  of the earth towards the periphery and then  outwards,  passing
through the roots of plants or trees, then upward toward the top of same.


[PAGE 72]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

   The currents of the animal group spirits, on the other hand, encircle the
earth.  The comparatively weak and invisible currents generated by the group
spirits of the plants,  and the very strong powerful rays of force generated
by the Christ Spirit now becoming visible as the Aurora Borealis, have hith-
erto been of about the same nature as static electricity, while the currents
generated  by the animal group spirits and which encircle the earth  may  be
likened  to dynamic electricity which gave the earth its power of motion  in
by-gone ages.   Now, however, the Christ currents are becoming more and more
forceful and their static electricity is being liberated.   The etheric  im-
pulse  which they give will inaugurate a new era,  and the sense organs  now
possessed by mankind must accommodate themselves to this change.  Instead of
the etheric rays which emanate from an object bringing a reflected image  to
the retina of our eye, the so-called "blind spot"  will be sensitized and we
shall look out through the eye and see directly the thing itself instead  of
the  image upon our retina.   Then we shall not only see the surface of  the
thing  we  observe,  but we shall be able to see through and through  it  as
those who have cultivated the etheric vision do now.

   As  time goes on and the Christ by His beneficent ministrations  attracts
more and more of the interplanetary ether to th earth, thus making its vital


[PAGE 73]                                                    THE CHRIST RAYS

body more luminous, we shall be walking in a sea of light, and when we learn
to forsake our ways of selfishness and egotism through the constant  contact
with  these  beneficent Christ vibrations, we also  shall  become  luminous.
Then the eye as it is now constituted would not be of service to us,  there-
fore  it is now beginning to change and we are experiencing  the  discomfort
incident  to all reconstruction.   It may be said further with reference  to
the Aurora and its effects upon us, that these rays are radiated through ev-
ery part of the earth,  which is the body of Christ,  from the center to the
periphery,  but in the inhabited parts of the world these rays are  absorbed
by  humanity  as  the rays of the plant group spirits are  absorbed  by  the
flower.   These rays constitute the "inner urge"  which is slowly but surely
impelling mankind to adopt an attitude of altruism.  They are the impregnat-
ing rays which fructify the soul, so that eventually the immaculate  concep-
tion will take place and the Christ will be born within each of us.  When we
have  all thus become perfectly impregnated, the Christ light will begin  to
radiate from us.  Then we shall walk in the Light as He is in the Light, and
we shall all have Fellowship, one with another.

   Just a few words concerning collective destiny will end these lessons:

   Besides the individual destiny generated by ourselves in each life, there


[PAGE 74]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

is also a collective destiny which we incur by the fact that we are  members
of a community or a nation.  It is well known that communities sometimes act
as  a whole,  either for good or for evil,  and it is only  reasonable  that
these  collective  actions should also have a collective  effect  in  future
lives upon the members of that community or nation which takes part in them.
And  it is found that when these acts are evil the debt thus  contracted  is
generally  liquidated  in the course of accidents,  so called,  on  a  large
scale.   It has been taught as a matter of fact that there are no  accidents
save  where man,  who has the divine prerogative of initiating  new  causes,
breaks  into  other lives and thereby causes a change in their  affairs,  or
when by carelessness he takes the life of a fellow-being.   The latter is an
accident  in many cases.   But such great cataclysms as that which  we  wit-
nessed in Sicily, and such as the San Francisco earthquake,  the great Euro-
pean War,  etc.,  are not accidents, but are causative acts of the community
involved  or the result of such acts in past lives.   Knowing what we do  of
the working of the laws of infant mortality, we can readily realize, for in-
stance,  that as so many hundreds of thousands of victims of the  Great  War
have passed out upon the battle field where it is absolutely impossible  for
them to etch in the panorama  of  their  past life, it will be necessary for


[PAGE 75]                                                    THE CHRIST RAYS

them  to pass out in the next existence during childhood,  and how can  this
wholesale  death  come  to the infants of a future  age  save  through  some
epidemic or some cataclysm which will sweep the earth?   On that  hypothesis
we may see in the Sicilian earthquake, San Francisco's destruction, the fam-
ines in Ireland and India,  and similar national catastrophes,  the workings
of  destiny from the past,  bringing to each nation the fruits of  its  past
lives and actions as a community.

   What has been said in the foregoing pages is a very slight hint of how we
make and unmake destiny.   Please remember that the few hundred cases inves-
tigated do not give an adequate basis for a general idea of the scope of the
Law,  and the student is bound to find incongruities in individual cases re-
garding  what has been said.  Questions will undoubtedly present  themselves
regarding  this,  that,  or the other specific case,  and while it  is  easy
enough  to investigate single cases and state what causes in one  life  pro-
duced  certain effects in another life of one person,  it is very  different
when we come to tabulate them and endeavor to form a general law, as we have
tried to do in the present work.   To perform this task in a perfect  manner
would require superhuman knowledge and wisdom,  and the present attempt  may
perhaps be characterized as a case of a  fool  rushing in where angels might


[PAGE 76]                                                 THE WEB OF DESTINY

well fear to tread.   Personally,  the writer has gained much more knowledge
than  he has been able to communicate,  but he hopes nevertheless that  what
has  been said may be of some little use to the student as hints  concerning
the great mystery of life.

   May these studies in the Web of Destiny generate in each student a keener
desire to live day by day in such a manner that there shall be more peace on
earth and good will among men.


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