THEOSOPHY WORLD ----------------------------------- December, 2006

An Internet Magazine Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy
And its Practical Application in the Modern World

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to theos-world@theosophy.com.

(Please note that the materials presented in THEOSOPHY WORLD are
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be reposted or otherwise republished without prior permission.)

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CONTENTS

"Loyalties," by B.P. Wadia
"Why Not Laugh at Yourself," by G. de Purucker
"Theosophy is Related to Modern Times," by Leon Maurer
"The Inner Divinity," by G. de Purucker
"Celtic Christianity," Part II, by Alun Llewellyn
"Fatalism or Destiny," by Gertrude W. van Pelt
"The Mystic Birth," by G. de Purucker
"A Realized Ideal: The Lomaland School," by Reata V.H. Pedersen
"The Driving Power in Nature," by Cranstone Woodhead

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> You will observe, Ladies and Gentlemen, from what precedes, that
> It has often been my observation that devout Theosophists are not
> really that different from devout Christians in behavior. Both
> groups are intellectually inclined to harsh judgments and
> intolerance. It has become clear to me in discussions with such
> people, no matter their particular creed, that they relish
> perceiving themselves as the Knowers and Defenders of Truth.
> Hence all evidence that supports their Beliefs is evidence of
> Truth and all evidence that represents the antithesis of their
> Beliefs is slander and lies used as food to sustain their
> Beliefs. This usually takes the form of expressing pride and
> happiness in being "attacked" and "challenged" because being
> opposed in one's beliefs is further evidence that one's Beliefs
> are the Truth.
>
> -- Bill Meredith

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LOYALTIES

By B.P. Wadia

[From LIVING THE LIFE, pages 134-39.]

It has been said that every man is a philosopher. Each lives by
his philosophy. He does so most often unconsciously to himself.
His inner attitude to life remains undefined to himself, until he
progresses to the point of inquiring about the purpose of the
life that surrounds him. But for any observant and thoughtful
inquirer the philosophy of any man is not very difficult to
determine. The outer behavior bespeaks the man's philosophy.

The outer behavior of a person has myriad sides. It is a
congeries of the expressions of thoughts and feelings in words
and deeds. But there is one factor common to a man's many acts.
His loyalties speak loudly, revealing his defects and merits. He
may have many or only a few loyalties; he may have conflicting
loyalties. Again, his loyalties may change, bettering or
lowering his status as a person in one or another phase of life.

His loyalty to his city was emphasized by the late Pherozeshah
Mehta, a man of great civic qualities; so it was by Joseph
Chamberlain of Birmingham; and by his superb loyalty to the City
State of Athens, Pericles has come down to us as a great figure
in history.

There is patriotism-loyalty to one's own country.

> Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
> Who never to himself hath said,
> This is my own, my native land!

A very long list of names could easily be made of those coming in
this category.

A more restricted sphere is the family, but as a field for the
practice of loyalty, it plays a very significant part.

The peasant's loyalty to his farm, the scholar's to his
knowledge, the artist's to his art, are all telltale expressions
of the man's philosophy.

A man's loyalty is often very restricted and in that measure
defective. A man who praises his own city, exclaiming, "Of no
mean city am I," and condemns the worth of other cities shows a
paucity of knowledge and a narrow-mindedness. At the present
hour, here in India, the champions of the Adi Dravida Movement,
who claim for Tamiland special place and position, show a lack of
true and noble patriotism. A chauvinist who proclaims, "My
country, right or wrong," and who is therefore unjust to other
nations is less than man is; he acts like a beast of prey,
unmindful of the destruction that he causes. Partial loyalties,
like half-truths, bespeak moral blindness and mental limitations.

Personal loyalties that hamper the growth of the liberal mind,
which harden the heart of love, which inhibit growth in the power
to sacrifice, do not further the progress of the human soul.

Great movements in human history have resulted from the expansion
of personal loyalties. Great men become such by letting their
loyalties in a restricted sphere grow and embrace vaster
loyalties. The Indian village panchayat of old was not a
constrictive institution; it laid the foundation for the future
district board, provincial state, united India.

The village state evolved into the city-state in world history,
as the feudal orders and dukedoms evolved into nations. A
simple-minded girl from Domremy, Jeanne d'Arc, changed history,
not so much by compelling the English to raise the siege of
Orleans as by raising the cry, "France for the French." This was
in the Europe of the early 15th century. In our own times,
Wendell Willkie's cry of "One World" has already evinced its
great potency in fashioning One World.

There is the famous statement of the Prince of statesmen and
diplomats, Sri Krishna, in the UDYOGA PARVA of THE MAHABHARATA:

> For the sake of a family, an individual may be sacrificed. For
> the sake of a village, a family may be sacrificed. For the sake
> of a province, a village may be sacrificed. Lastly, for the sake
> of the Self, the whole earth may be sacrificed.

For enabling man's Great Self to perform its dharma to the
Supreme Spirit, the petty personal self should be subdued. That
is why Krishna called upon the blind Dhritarashtra to bind his
wicked son Duryodhana and to avert the tragedy of war between the
Pandavas and the Kauravas. For every student of Theosophy, there
is more than one practical lesson in the thesis presented by
Krishna at the court of the Kaurava King where he acted as the
Ambassador of the Pandavas in the cause of peace and acted to
prevent the fratricidal war.

Our worldly loyalties should be used in the service of the
spiritual soul; we should not allow them to exploit the cause of
truth, of virtue, of beauty. He who loves his son (Duryodhana)
more than his friend Krishna is an unworthy King, is an unworthy
man.

The Esoteric Philosophy teaches that we should so love our
parents and children that the loyalty to our personal family may
grow into the superb loyalty to the spiritual family of all human
souls. Our patriotic feeling for our motherland should expand
into loyalty to the One World when it comes into being.

Every small loyalty should become an avenue to a greater loyalty.
For the love of the Supreme Spirit, one should not call his
father "householder" -- that is reversing the process: making the
Supreme loyalty utter falsehood, become evil and express
ugliness. Similarly, religious loyalty should expand from
loyalty to a single sectarian creed to loyalty to the Truth that
manifests itself in living Nature as the Most High. Personal
loyalty to the Pope should grow into loyalty to Christ and to
God. One cannot be faithful to the Pope and to Christ, to Mammon
and to God.

Traditional and historical loyalties, spatial and geographical
loyalties, when rightly considered and evaluated, give birth to
universal and eternal loyalties. He who is loyal to the dead
past, or he who is loyal to the passing present, or he who is
loyal to hopes of a future heaven, is bound to become a narrow,
dogmatic, and fanatical person. But he whose loyalty grows to
embrace the ever-lengthening history of soul culture, to perceive
the superb beauty of the Eternal Now, who learns to see the
expanding universe in a tiny grain of sand -- his evolution
brings to him the Vision of Truth, of Light, of Joy.

What are the great thoughts of Theosophy that will enable the
student whose sphere of loyalties is limited to unfold them into
eternal loyalties? In THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, HPB speaks of the
real nature of Theosophy as the Religion of Life. "Its creed is
Loyalty to Truth, and its ritual 'To honor every truth by use.'"
The seekers of Wisdom-Truth "in every age have more or less
clearly apprehended the Theosophical doctrines and wrought them
into the fabric of their lives."

Applying this to the present generation of earnest students,
which truths of the Esoteric Philosophy should first be wrought
into the fabric of our lives?

(1) The Immanence of Deity clearly points to the positive
practice of Universal Brotherhood. Castes and classes,
discriminations based upon the color of the skin and creedalism,
and other factors that are upheld by modern civilization do
violence to the sacred idea of the omnipresence of Spirit. Such
a phenomenon as untouchability in India clearly points to a
denial of the wisdom taught by Krishna in THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, that
He, as the Light of all lights, presides in the heart of everyone
-- not in the Brahmana only but in the Mlechcha also. In all men
and women dwells Hari, the Divine, and St. Paul proclaimed that
in God we "live and move and have our being."

The student of Theosophy refuses to call others heathens or
heretics, kafirs or infidels. Recognizing the One Self in the
many forms of life, he is able to understand the diversity in
Nature because he knows the doctrine of Emanations, and in human
nature because of the fact of Reincarnation.

(2) The differences between the learned and the illiterate, the
wise and the foolish, the healthy and the diseased, the saint and
the sinner, are easily understood in the light of reincarnation
and metempsychosis. The eye of wisdom is the eye of love, and he
who loves, understands. But what piece of knowledge gives birth
to love and understanding?

(3) The universe is governed by Law. Every event, every form,
organic or inorganic, so-called, is an effect from a cause.
Justice works incessantly, but being divine and infallible, it
ever and always adjusts, and its punishments are opportunities
for growth in harmony. Each man is the maker of his own destiny.

> The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
> But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Also, each man is, albeit unwittingly, an agent of Karma for
many, for the whole of Nature. By the Law of Unity, the many are
linked by and in the One.

By correctly applying the three truths, we shall be able to
expand and elevate our small loyalties and transform them into
greater loyalties. Creedal beliefs learnt at home or school and
to which we are loyal today, will become transmuted into the
Religion of Knowledge that will enable us to endeavor
successfully to make Theosophy a living power in our lives.
Karma spells self-improvement; there is no purifier like
spiritual knowledge. If we try to attain to spiritual wisdom, we
shall draw to ourselves the help of the Wise Ones.

Expansion of loyalties implies acquiring a more enlightened
faith. Loyalty to Truth means loyalty to many truths in the One
Body of Knowledge, and the Faith in our Heart manifests itself in
expressions of Loyalty in the world of deeds.

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WHY NOT LAUGH AT YOURSELF?

By G. de Purucker

[From WIND OF THE SPIRIT, pages 75-77.]

Many people talk about the heroism of self-conquest -- something
with which we all agree; but do you know, I sometimes wonder if
our ideas of heroic battling with ourselves are not just a wee
bit hysterical and even foolish! I do not mean the heroism part
of it, but this lower self of us, poor little thing! It plays
havoc with us all the time, simply because we identify ourselves
with it and always try to fight it and make it as big as we are.
Is it heroic to fight a ghost of our own making?

How about wise old Lao-Tse? If you want to conquer your lower
self, make it ashamed of itself; make it look ridiculous. Laugh
at it; laugh at yourself. So long as you pay attention to
something, you dignify it and put it on your own level; and then
when you attempt to fight it, you are actually fighting another
part of yourself that really could be enormously useful.

I have heard it said, Kill out the lower self. Well, suppose we
could do that. We should then be most unfortunate beings; in
fact, we should not be here. This lower self, when kept in
order, is a good little beastie. It helps us. Our duty IS
simply to keep it in order. Now when a man has a fractious dog,
horse, cat, or some other pet -- whatever it may be -- he does
not kick it, beat it, and hit it on the head in order to make it
good. He would be apt to make it rebellious, cowardly, and
vicious; he would be degrading it. Thus, the lower self should
be neither degraded nor clothed with the false dignity of an
adversary erroneously raised to the position of the spiritual
Self. It should be kept in its place and treated with kindness,
consideration, and courtesy, but always governed with a firm
hand.

Take a dog. A dog can be made vicious and cowardly by brutal
treatment just as the lower self can, for the dog begins to think
it is its master's equal when the master pays too much attention
to it. Just so with the human lower self. But when the human
lower self, like the dog or any other pet, forgets its place and
begins to presume, then put it in its proper position, but
neither by brutality nor by dignifying it nor by fighting it.
Ridicule your lower self. You will temporarily cause it to
assume its proper position, shamed, having a loss of face as the
Chinese say.

Just so with the dog. Have you ever seen a dog stick its tail
between its legs when you laugh at it? Dogs know when they are
laughed at and it is one of the finest ways of handling a beast.

I do believe Lao-Tse of China was wise in his statement that runs
to the effect that one of the best ways of conquering a foe is to
make him look ridiculous.

Now that does not work as between man and man, because it is
often very harsh and cruel, the two being on the same level. You
can hurt a human being horribly and unjustly by placing him in a
false position through ridicule. No; but try it on yourself.
The next time the lower self begins to hold its head up and wants
to tell you what to do, laugh at it; don't dignify it; don't give
it position and power and strength by fighting it; nor on the
other hand, do not abuse it nor make it weak, vicious, and
cowardly. Put it in its proper place by ridicule, and indeed at
times a gentle contempt. Learn the greater heroism. Laugh at
the thing that bothers you!

----

The role a sense of humor plays in human life, which means in
human thought and feeling and consequent conduct, and the role
that humor plays in spiritual things is all too often overlooked.
We may define a sense of humor as seeing the relations, the
harmonious relations, between apparently incongruous things, the
congruities as among incongruities, arousing a sense of the funny
in us.

The ability to see humor in what happens to us is a spiritual
attribute. For after all, humor is at the very root of the
universe; and I think that one of the greatest tragedies of
individual existence has been the lack of the ability to see the
funny side of things when troubles come. When disasters befall
you, just try to see the funny side, and you save yourself
trouble and get a great kick out of it.

I remember the great kick I got out of a discussion between my
dear old father and myself when I was a boy. My father had read
an article in some theological magazine by some eminent Christian
clergyman who pleaded for the existence of a sense of humor "in
Almighty God." I said this was simply grand; because although our
sense of humor is human, small because we are small, yet, is it
possible for a part, a human being, to have something that the
almighty whole, which the Divine, lacks? Of course, if Divinity
has a sense of humor, I said, it is a sense of divine humor, but
it is humor all the same.

I think that there is a great deal of sound science and
philosophy in the old Hindu idea that Brahman brought forth the
Universe in play, in fun. The words are different from those of
the Christian clergyman, but the idea is the same. In other
words, the bringing forth of all things was not a tragedy; there
was beauty in it, there was harmony in it; there was humor in it;
and those who are in this Universe can see the humor in it if
they will.

Look at the religious wars and squabbles that never would have
occurred if people had had a sense of humor. If people nowadays
would see the funny side of things, then they would begin to live
together, to love together, to laugh together, and to take
counsel together instead of distrusting each other.

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THEOSOPHY IS RELATED TO MODERN TIMES

By Leon Maurer

Not to disagree with anyone, but I would like to set the record
straight and prevent misunderstandings with respect to claims by
some students that Theosophy as presented by H.P. Blavatsky does
not relate to modern times, people, places, and circumstances.
Here are some additional views to consider.

The only thing outdated in the timeless teachings of Theosophy
presented in ISIS UNVEILED, THE SECRET DOCTRINE, THE KEY TO
THEOSOPHY, THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY, and other writings of
Blavatsky and W.Q. Judge are their references to classical
science. Since then, scientists including Einstein have made
significant advances. (Also, consider the mistakes in earlier
theosophical writings later corrected and explained by HPB.)

Modern science was not only predicted by HPB clearly and
accurately, but also was thoroughly presaged and explained in the
esoteric teachings (symbolic language) in her books, articles,
and transcripts of her direct discussions with students.

For further information, see:

    users.aol.com/uniwldarts/uniworld.artisans.guild/einstein.html

    www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sdcommnt/sdchp.htm

Symbolic language was necessary to express metaphysical teachings
prior to the modern scientific breakthroughs of the past and
present century. In HPB's time, there were no terms in western
language to explain transcendental science. To understand
Theosophy, one must learn to interpret this symbolic language.

Ancient mystic philosophers and religious teachers also utilized
anthropomorphisms and euphemisms, which if not properly
interpreted, could generate skeptical denials and
materialistically biased counter arguments against theosophical
truths.

Accordingly, it is wise to learn how to study THE SECRET DOCTRINE
properly to uncover its occult esoteric meanings. There are
seven keys to understanding it as well as inadvertent and
sometimes necessary blinds. A dead letter interpretation may
only lead to confusion. We see this happen with some later
theosophical writers, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes
intentionally to suit their personal agendas.

For further insight on this, refer to:

    users.aol.com/uniwldarts/uniworld.artisans.guild/HPB-ONHOWSTUD.SD.html

    users.aol.com/uniwldarts/uniworld.artisans.guild/HPBvsAB.html

Today, science includes Superstring, M-brane, quantum field, and
holographic paradigm concepts theorized by many scientists such
as Greene, Kaku, Bohm, Pribram. My theory of ABC provides a
synthesis of their ideas. It eliminates the paradoxes and
incompatibilities of both relativity and quantum physics. It
explains the holographic nature of the universe along with its
genesis in scientific terms and explains consciousness and its
relationships with mind, brain, and physical matter. The ABC
theory completely vindicates the metaphysics of pure theosophy
first given out by the Masters and by HPB in THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

See:

    www.tellworld.com/Astro.Biological.Coenergetics

    www.theosociety.org/Pasadena/sd/sd1-0-in.htm

The theory is a new, synthetic, and fundamentally electrodynamic
"Unified Field Theory of Everything." The established scientific
community has not yet fully accepted it. Suitable experiments
and observations are now partially underway, and soon to be
correlated. When demonstrated to be true in the not too distant
future, as Blavatsky has predicted, it is destined to become the
final scientific proof of Theosophy, although it may happen under
a different name.

As an added observation, since these theories first appeared in
the last quarter of the twentieth century, they may constitute
the new message of Theosophy and their authors collectively the
new messenger. Blavatsky predicted something to occur around
this time as possibly the last cycle of the Theosophical
Movement.

The metaphysical teachings presented in THE SECRET DOCTRINE and
confirmed by its correspondence with the most ancient occult
scriptures are consistent with the most advanced emerging
multidimensional hyperspace scientific theories. It should be
apparent that these teachings could not have changed since time
began, regardless of outward change in our world and universe.

Among these teachings is the necessity to form a "nucleus of the
universal brotherhood of humanity" and the direct means to
achieve it through individual, self devised and self determined
efforts related to the last two objects of the Theosophical
Movement. Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Master Occults from
ancient to modern times have given out similar teachings to their
disciples.

For further information, see:

    www.wisdomworld.org/additional/3-ObjectsOfTheosophicalMovement/

However, this is the first time in recorded history that such
esoteric teachings were given out to the world at large.

Presumably, this was because of a possible human evolutionary
setback due to general ignorance of the eternal verities and to
the almost total acceptance of materialism and its concomitants
of selfishness, greed, competition, endless wars, and runaway
technologies that can only lead to economic and ecological
collapse of the Earth's life support systems. HPB warned that
this could set back our evolution by a million years.

Unfortunately, we find the formation of new cults or religions
centered on self-promoted gurus, messiahs, saviors, and
channelers of so-called ascended masters. This is NOT the
answer. Even so, it is wise to study the writings of later
theosophical teachers and modern occultists, comparing them with
the original, the timeless teachings given out by the
theosophical Masters K.H. and Morya through their direct agents
HPB and WQJ.

How is one to find out the true and act on it for the good of
all? Certainly one can do so without outside pressure, coercion,
or intimidation based on a blind and passive, nonsensical belief
in a personal God that listens to our prayers and punishes us for
our sins or without a hierarchical messianic religion based
government that dictates our every thoughts and actions.

It would be a mistake to confuse the teachings and occult
metaphysics of Theosophy with its practical application to the
conditions of the modern world. HPB offered sufficient warnings
and suggestions to help modern theosophists devise their own
methods of dealing with coming changes. Most important is, she
advised, to understand the nature of modern communications and
utilize its "language of this age" to spread broadcast the
teachings of Theosophy. We would help people come together and
voluntarily practice its precepts of unity, liberty,
independence, and brotherhood, ultimately leading to a peaceful
and more stable world.

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THE INNER DIVINITY

By G. de Purucker

[From GOLDEN PRECEPTS, pages 71-84.]

Man PER SE is an invisible entity. What we see of him in and
through the body is merely the manifestation of the inner man,
because man essentially is a spiritual energy -- a spiritual,
intellectual, and psycho-material energy, the adjective depending
upon the plane on which you choose to discern his actions, for
indeed he exists on all planes, inner and outer.

Though Man is an invisible entity, he needs a physical body in
which to live and with which to work upon this physical plane.
He is a pilgrim of eternity. He came forth from the invisible
part of Cosmic Being in eons so far in the past that humanity,
except the great Sages and Seers, has lost all count thereof. He
came out of the womb of Cosmic Being as an un-self-conscious god
spark, and after wandering eon after eon after eon after eon
through all the various inner worlds, passing at different stages
through our own material sphere, and out again into the inner
worlds, he finally became Man, a self-conscious entity; and here
we are. Future eons of time will bring forth even on this our
earth into a far more perfect manifestation than at present the
locked-up faculties and powers existent in every human being. In
those days of the far distant future, man will walk the earth a
god, and he will walk this earth communing with his fellow-gods,
for he will then have brought forth the godlike powers now
unevolved but nevertheless within his essence.

The heart of the heart of a human being is a god, a Cosmic
Spirit, a spark of the Central Cosmic Fire. All evolution --
which means unfolding what is within, unwrapping what is within
the evolving entity, bringing forth what is locked up within --
all evolution is merely bringing forth ever more into a more
perfect manifestation, the infolded, inlocked, wrapped up,
energies, faculties, powers, organs, of the evolving entity. And
with equal step, as these faculties and energies become more able
to manifest themselves, more perfectly evolved forth, does the
organism through which they work -- the body, show the effects of
this inner evolving fire, of this energy within, and thus also
the body itself so evolves, because automatically reflecting in
itself each inner step taken forwards.

Human beings essentially are kin to the gods, kin to the Cosmic
Spirits. The Universe is our Home. We cannot ever leave it. We
are its children, its offspring, and therefore all that there is
of boundless Space is we ourselves in our inmost. We are native
there, boundless Space is our home, and our instinct tells us
"all is well."

Out of the invisible into the visible, like the growth of a
plant, comes Man, the Man-Plant of eternity. Beginning in one
life of earth as a human seed, it grows to maturity, and produces
or evolves forth what is locked up within. Then with the natural
decay of power, sinking to earth, the body dies; and after a long
period of rest and assimilation of experience in the invisible
worlds, the inner spiritual flame comes again to earth for a new
reincarnation here.

Such in brief is the history of Man, the Man-Plant of the ages.
He is born and flowers a while and then dies down and rests, and
with the returning life-season he springs anew into existence and
again flowers and again dies down; but always the golden thread
of self -- the Sutratman -- passes through both time and space.

The spirit of man works through the human soul, and this human
soul works through the vital-astral or ethereal vehicle, body, or
carrier: the transmitter of the energies or powers of the soul,
which psycho-magnetically connects with the organs of the
physical body. This vital-astral principle thus works through
the physical body and is carried into all parts of our physical
frame, very much as the electric current is carried not only in
but also over and around the wire. The spirit enfolds, guards,
and produces the human soul from within its own womb of selfhood;
the human soul similarly permeates and produces the vital-astral
vehicle; and this in its turn permeates and produces the physical
body.

A human seed comes from the ethereal worlds, and is the
laya-center, through which streams from and builds up from the
interior worlds the body to be, cell by cell. This seed grows
into the physical body, and, as it grows, incarnation of the
human energies takes place concordantly, coordinately, and
progressively, until maturity is reached. At that point, you see
the full-grown man and more or less fully incarnated human soul.

Man is a complex and compound entity. His constitution ranges
from body to spirit with all intermediate degrees of ethereal
substances and energies and powers: seven in number. When these
seven different degrees or grades are cooperating in vital
activity then you have a complete man, a fully living man.

The human soul is neither immortal nor mortal PER SE; it is the
seat of will, consciousness, intelligence, and feeling in the
average human being. It is not immortal because it is not pure
enough to be truly impersonal; if it were, it would not be human
but superhuman. It is not wholly mortal, because its instincts,
its movements, the operations of itself, are in a sense above
purely mortal things of matter.

Man has holy loves, aspirations, hope, and vision. These belong
to the spirit, which is immortal and deathless. They are
transmitted through this intermediate nature or human soul, which
human beings ordinarily call "I" much as the sunlight streams
through the pane of glass in the window. The pane of glass is
the vehicle, carrier, bearer, or transmitter of this wondrous
quality or force streaming from the spirit above. The human soul
is like this pane of glass: reflecting as much of the spirit, of
the golden sunlight of the spirit, as its evolutionary
development enables it to do.

The human soul is conditionally immortal, if man allies himself
by will and vision with the deathless spirit within and above.
It is mortal if he allows himself to be dragged down into what is
called Matter and material instincts and impulses. These are
wholly mortal and die when death comes and frees the immortal
spirit within so that when man goes to his sublime Home for the
inter-life period of rest and peace, only bliss and high vision
and memory of all that is great and grand in our past life
remain. The soul is itself an ethereal vehicle or carrier of the
deathless and immortal energies of the productive spirit or
Monad.

The spirit is the immortal part of the human constitution. It is
the Monad, the Monadic Essence: that which tastes never of death,
which lasts from the beginning of the Manvantara to the end of
that majestic period of cosmic manifestation: that that passes
over the Cosmic Pralaya to begin its spiritual and other
activities again when the new Cosmic Manvantara begins.

And so on in cyclical periods constantly recurring forever, the
spirit or Monad is constantly growing: it is evolving, on its way
to become the super-spiritual, finally to become the Divine, then
the Super-divine. Is that the end of its evolutionary
possibilities? No, it advances ever, constantly and endlessly
evolving, growing. Words fail here to describe this sublime
conception. We cannot describe it in faltering human language.
Our imagination falls, helplessly trembling, from any such
attempt, and we can merely point to the evolutionary path
vanishing in both directions into infinity and into eternity, as
beginningless as it is unending.

That is the Spirit or the Monadic Essence. It is the god within.
This Bright Intelligence stirs and moves the inmost articulations
of the higher parts of the constitution, which movements in their
turn reflect in the brain-mind, the human mentality. It is the
source of everything great and noble and high, pure, good,
aspiring and clean in the human being. It is the source of
immortal love, the source of self-sacrifice, the source of all
harmony and beauty, in the human being -- the feeling of I AM.
That is the Spirit, the immortal Monad, the undying, the
stainless, the eternal inner god.

The human soul is a ray of it; this ray is what you recognize as
the human being, the feeling that I AM I. The soul, even as is
the spirit, is a growing, advancing, progressing, evolving thing,
growing ever greater. In the far distant eons of the future, the
soul in its turn will have so evolved forth its own innate and
latent capacities, powers, and faculties -- the splendor within
itself -- that from soul it shall have become spirit: BECAUSE THE
ROOT OR SEED OF THE SOUL IS A SPIRITUAL RAY. When this shall be
in its culmination, then man shall have evolved from manhood into
human godhood, from a human being into an incarnate god. Then
the god within you will manifest itself with its transcendent
faculties and powers, and you will have become a living Buddha.

A human spirit is a deathless entity; it is a part of the very
fabric of the Life Universal in its inmost parts; and this spirit
of man, this inner being, this spiritual soul, is pursuing an
eternal pilgrimage in space, infinite in space and eternal in
time. It passes from mansion to mansion of life, sojourning now
here, now there, learning everywhere. The earth is one such
mansion, in fact. Every sphere, every orb, in the celestial
spaces, is another mansion of life.

The greatest lessons are learned in the invisible worlds for this
physical world we see, despite its physical splendor, its
illusory and magical interest is but the shell, the garment, the
body, the exterior. From the interior of man flow forth all his
thoughts, all his inspiration, all his genius, all his powers and
energies into the physical, and express themselves in the works
that man does. In like manner are all the manifestations we see
in the physical universe are but the expressions of the
indwelling energies, faculties, powers, and forces within that
universe.

This eternal pilgrimage of the spiritual soul of man is not only
in this cross-section of the physical universe that our imperfect
eyes can see, but also most especially in the invisible realms:
in what men call the spiritual worlds for there are grades upon
grades upon grades of them, higher and higher and higher and
higher and higher.

This god within, an eternal pilgrim, learns eternally, going
higher and higher and higher. Like human races on earth that,
after reaching their culmination of splendor in civilizations,
fall to rise again, so does the Monad, the god, the spiritual
soul, pass from the spiritual worlds down into ethereal matter,
learning in each, and rising again out of each in order to reach
a still higher peak of destiny. Then down it goes into the
ethereal material realms again. Then there is another rise to
something still more lofty and sublime -- and so on forever.

Oh, the peace and happiness that comes from allying yourself with
this inner splendor! This alliance of life and consciousness with
this inner divinity brings everything of worth into your life.
In so allying yourself, you become one with the energies and
forces that control the universe, of which this inner god of you
is a spark of the Central Fire. When this inner union is
achieved in fullness, you are on the pathway to human divinity.
Buddhahood lies ahead of you.

This knowing of your inner self, of your inner god, is an
expansion of your own consciousness; it is growth; it is
evolution; it is coming to an understanding of all that exists.
When you have even some vague foreshadowing of this vision --
some inkling of it, some hint of it -- then such a thing as fear
vanishes. Death loses all its terrors; for you know that you are
one with the All, inseparable; that you are in fact that All
Itself; and therefore you are in your utmost reaches
frontierless, because in very truth there are no utmost reaches.
You never can reach the frontiers of yourself, your divine self,
never; for the innermost parts of you are the very spiritual
Universe in which you live, move, and have your being.

It is the outer senses that distract our attention from the
splendor within, away from the spirit within the human
constitution that manifests through the human body. These outer
senses are expressions of five different energies of the
intermediate nature of man; and are the avenues -- or functions
as such -- by which man may become self-consciously aware of the
outer world. In a way, these senses are a help; and in another
manner, they are a detriment to progress. They are a help,
because they show somewhat of the nature that is around man, and
it is through the senses that much of his ordinary consciousness
now functions, thus learning much about the world and fellow
human beings. This learning ultimately teaches lessons of
self-control, and helps to awaken the faculties of pity, of love,
of compassion, and of the will to do better, which are within
man.

------------------------------------------------------------------
CELTIC CHRISTIANITY, Part II

By Alun Llewellyn

[From THE ARYAN PATH, September 1968, pages 393-97.]

The "Ancient Books" are, however, exactly based on a classical
science as understood -- and most necessary to be understood --
for the practical purposes of daily life. Modern astronomers
divide the heavens in the five circles, Arctic, Cancer, Equator,
Capricorn, and the outer edge of observation; exactly as the
Great Circle Map for aerial navigation divides Earth, reduced to
a planisphere, into the same series with the same names. This
ancient device for equating Time and Space was, for the minds
that first conceived it, an expression of the identity of the
god-inhabited heavens with the lives of men, both inspired by the
eternal Intelligence that motivated all Creation. For the
writers of the Ancient Books, this was a fundamental concept, and
the mathematical order into which the work of the heavens fell
was a constant manifestation and observable proof of that
presiding intellect.

The central structure of the system was the line of the Sun's
meridian, the highest point of its daily position and the
mid-point of its course between East and West. This line of Noon
moves from the Summer Solstice during the year to its Winter
Solstice extreme, from which it is gradually drawn back again.
But it remains invariably "reined" to the Northern Star; the
first essential of an accurate sundial is that its gnomon should
be aligned directly on the Pole Star. Since the Sun operates
only by day and the Pole Star can be seen only at night, it is
obvious that the sundial was itself the product of a series of
closely observed and accurately annotated calculations. But the
mathematical analysis into which Time and Space were therefore
seen to fall was accepted by the Ancient Books not as an
attribute of man's ingenuity but rather of the tremendous
principle that launched Creation before man was made, of what
Heraclitus called the Logos, from which both Gnome and Nous
prepared the structure of the World and planned its destiny.

This manifest Meridian line inspired the symbolism by which early
societies attempted to explain Creation to themselves. The Pole
Star handled the Sun as though it were a Horse; indeed Heraclitus
himself used the term Hippoi in the precise sense of the Powers
belonging to God, suggesting that the Greek word for a Horse
(Hippo) meant in fact and primarily a Thing of Power. Much of
the mythology built in later years from the literature of the
Ancient Books derives from the misapplication of many such
metaphors from a context not only misunderstood but also
proscribed. In this, however, their experience is by no means
unique. But the basis of belief that the "Celtic" Church
accepted is reflected in their constant study of the phenomena of
the Fixed Point of the North and the Fixed Line of the Meridian
round that the whole order of Planets revolved. This was the
focal design upon which the aggregation of the several Spheres of
Creation was concentrated -- the Graal, as it was written. The
idea has a very close parallel in the Rod of the Myth of Er that
Plato, using it as an image of an ordered Universe, "rescued from
oblivion" and made the final chapter of his REPUBLIC.

While much of this body of thought is influenced by the long
tradition maintained from the earliest civilizations, one
significant point relates the Ancient Books to a particular stage
in the history of Western philosophy. The Neo-Platonist
Plotinus, contriving a synthesis that would give new life to
Classical ethics (A.D. 250), equated the Logos no longer with
the material elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air but rather with
the perception of Light. The Ancient Books retain the Classical
canon in so far as Air (Guynt), it discussed as the basis through
which the Quintessence (Cuynt) related itself to Fire (Guyn),
Water (Guy), and the principle of life in Earth and Man (Gui);
but the Neo-Platonic relation of Logic with Light is the most
striking feature of its vocabulary.

The term "loc" expresses the word in the Beginning; LOG, the
Thought that it expressed; and LLOG, the order of Light
established in the sequence of hours into which that Thought
resulted. The analytic system the literature developed applied
these terms to each of the Five successive spheres in succession
through a series of vowel changes. The close relation these
(e.g., LOC, LUC, LAC, LEC, LIC) show to Classical words for
Speech, Thought, Light, and Law (Loq-, Log-, Luc-, Lak-, Leg-,
Lic-) suggests that Plotinus himself may have built directly upon
a concept much more ancient.

What most inescapably emerges is the Pythagorean forms upon which
the philosophy was founded. Numbers, and numbers in their
logical relation to the degrees of Space and Time, dominate the
essays contained in the Ancient Books. Being, for which Plato's
term ON is used, which enclosed the Cosmos in its own Whole
(Holos) dominates the Unity of the Firmament (UN), the Anima or
Soul of the World of Planets (AN), the Entity or Body of Earth
(EN), and the life of men on the Land contained by Ocean (IN). A
series of didactic lines (TALIESIN, 79) distinguishes these
unities in their separate Spheres (5); divides them into the
Quarters (4) of the Seasons of the Year and the Cardinal Points;
marks out the Sectors of Time, Dawn to Noon, Noon to Sunset,
Sunset to Dawn (3), to each of which the Summer Solstice allots
eight hours; and adds the Equinoctial balance in which the equal
divisions (2) of twelve hours each for Day and Night are defined
by the exact semi-circle of 180 degrees containing each (BLACK
BOOK, 47b). The six points of Noon and Midnight, plus the
Solstice Hours of 4 AM and 8 PM, 8 AM and 4 PM; the seven planets
then recognized; the eight formed by the four Cardinal Points of
Earth plus the four Points of the Heavens, North Pole, South
Pole, the Zenith of Sun in the Northern and in the Southern
Hemisphere; the nine circles of the ENNEAD as known to Aristotle
-- these complete the series. Ten is recognized as a basic
measure for calculating the degrees of Space and Time and twelve
is noted as the principle of division for the Hours, the Months,
and the Centuries.

But there is nothing mystical in the appeal to this mathematical
system in the Ancient Books; it is a system that remains
fundamental to all modern computation and that they acknowledge
as the expression of the great Mind of the Creator, of the
Knowledge of God (CNAUT) that in man became Flesh (GNAUD).
Neither is there the remotest suggestion of the "astrology" that
Gildas so fiercely denounces. The Planets are named and ascribed
to their proper arithmetical relation to the rest of Creation.
Venus (GUENER) is accorded due recognition as the star that,
appearing after sunset, heralds the approach of the
constellations that will continue the function of the Sun in
marking the cycle of Time and that, as Morning Star later in the
year, gives assurance of the rebirth of light. In one passage
(BLACK BOOK, 5) it is brilliantly celebrated in a poem somewhat
superior to the invocation made by Lucretius at the opening of
his DE RERUM NATURA. The Harmony of the Planets, their assonance
of measure, which Pythagoras assigned to the seven intervals of
the musical octave, is treated in the same manner (TALIESIN, 72).

But Gildas's objections, so far as the Ancient Books disclose any
ground for them, may have been limited to the use of certain
metaphors.

The first is that of the Serpent -- SARPH for the orbit of the
Sun, SARFF for the Planets at night. Many ancient philosophies
based themselves on the idea of the Earth as the last product of
a course of Creation that uncoiled the animate World of Planets
from the cold sphere of the Firmament. The Ancient Books see the
process as a separating movement from the sphere of Saturn
winding from Jupiter to the nearest of the planets, Mercury, and
so finally forming Sea and Land and inspiring Man's wakened soul
with knowledge. Some assumptions of his own as to the meaning of
the great parable in Genesis and the proper relation of men to
the divine Knowledge may have led Gildas to take the unfavorable
view he did.

For the Divine Principle, the Ancient Books have no direct word.
What was inscrutable could not be defined by name or image. It
had shown itself in the past by the act of Creation, for which Yu
is the term, and continued to show itself in the present courses
of created things (UY) that were evolving to a prescribed end.
The reversal of the lettering is far from accidental but is
typical of the vocabulary; Being was manifest in Past Time and in
the Future towards which Creation was reversing its issue. But,
like the Ionian philosopher who pointed out that there was
nothing static in existence ("You cannot step into the same
stream twice"), the Ancient Books are acutely aware of the drift
of Time evident in the relentless movement of the stars that
marked its hourly passage. YUUY is their phrase to explain the
hidden mind of eternity and where God Himself rather than any
particular manifestation of that power is intended, that phrase
and that phrase only is used.

A most interesting feature is the application made of Aristotle's
concept that the several spheres of Creation were "crystalline"
in form. Even Renascence scholars assumed this to mean actual
material globes of some glass-like substance. Since Land and
Ocean were each understood to be contained in a distinct sphere,
it is more than unlikely that Aristotle should have meant
anything other than a form of precipitation, or thin integument
of extreme cold (kryos -- frost) contracting within its contrary
impulse the forces of fire that possessed the stars and kindled
life on Earth.

This sense of a concentration of a principle of force is implicit
when the Ancient Books speak of the living society of men; the
word CRYST, the general term for the concentration of Creation,
becomes CRIST when applied to mortal beings. It is significant
to notice that, in a series of poems in the BLACK BOOK (18, 19,
20), the language belonging to the expression of this philosophy
is at one point deliberately changed to Latin. For a few lines,
following the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the Brittanic words,
there is introduced a Latin text wherein the CRIST is
specifically identified with Christ. It would be difficult to
find any moral or philosophical ground for objecting to this
convergence of the idea of a purposeful Creation with that of
Man.

It is important to recognize that the Ancient Books are strongly
characterized by concepts belonging to seamen. Much of their
instructional matter is devoted to navigational purposes, though
the devotional aspect is rarely overlooked. Constantine the
Great's conquest of the Roman Empire in the fourth century was
launched from Britain, for which enterprise the support of its
naval stations was essential.

The sign under which he fought, for an ultimately Christian
purpose, was the Labarum. Its form is that of the ancient
design, known as far back as 300 B.C., upon the trading-seals of
the Panjab civilization, of the "Andrew" cross marking the
Solstice points on the sundial divided by the North-South line of
the Meridian. Derivation of this design, which takes the form of
a P raised upon an X, from the Greek letters Chi and Rho is a
theory not unchallenged. A Roman form for the monogram is
equally arguable and can be as readily assumed to mean Crux Pia
or even Crista Pia. Its parallel with the symbols of the tropic
variation of the Sun by day and the movement of the Septem
Triones, the Polar Constellation of the Bear, by night, the
inseparable principles by which seamen steered and the divine
Intelligence made itself manifest, is too close to be overlooked.

Seamen then as now were closely concerned with the working
heavens that they saw not in mythopoeic forms but rather as the
exact instruments of a perfect Law. If in fact, as Homer
suggests, the Labyrinth was the design of Time that men had
traced through observation of the interaction of Sun and Star,
the Labarum may well have been a parallel phrase and of equal
antiquity to describe the slow and regular movement (Labor) of
the stars activated by the creative Mind.

Both in their retention of the terminology of sciences already
anciently established and originating in the first civilizations
of the East and in the spiritual explanation they gave to them,
the Ancient Books deserve wide study. The genuine form of the
"Arthurian" theme is one that uniquely preserves knowledge and a
practice basic to the understanding of Classical and pre-Classic
thought. In some part, it suffers from contact with the fatalism
affecting Stoic belief. But in its broader outlook, it re-states
the early wonder of men at the fashion of the Universe and
accepts with simple loyalty the design of a Creator whose Word
became Flesh and to whose Word all that lives must submit itself
in the service of what is naturally Just.

------------------------------------------------------------------
FATALISM OR DESTINY

By Gertrude W. van Pelt

[From THE DOCTRINE OF KARMA: CHANCE OR JUSTICE, pages 28-32.]

> This Law -- whether Conscious or Unconscious -- predestines
> nothing and no one. It exists from and in Eternity, truly, for
> it is ETERNITY itself; and as such, since no act can be co-equal
> with eternity, it cannot be said to act, for it is ACTION itself.
> It is not the Wave that drowns a man, but the PERSONAL action of
> the wretch, who goes deliberately and places himself under the
> IMPERSONAL action of the laws that govern the Ocean's motion.
>
> -- H.P. Blavatsky, THE SECRET DOCTRINE, II, 305

Probably there is no truth that cannot be perverted so as to
appear something it is not. As has been said, Karma is
essentially, intrinsically, a doctrine of free will. Yet this,
which implies choice of action, is often, by a strange mental
twist, interpreted as fatalism. What imp of darkness is it that
has ever suggested to man -- the embryo god, the carver of his
own destiny -- that he lives under a doom foreordained? But in
any case, whatever may be the surface expression of a mood, every
man, deep in his nature, knows that he is free to act and to
think. As evidence, he constantly makes efforts in this
direction or that from which he expects results. If he
attributes to himself those that are favorable, by what logic is
the 'will of God' to account for the others -- unless, indeed, it
be the will of the god within himself? Or, as so excellently
expressed by a fellow-Theosophist:

> In practical daily life there is no uncertainty about man's
> having free will. A man's freedom, within certain natural
> limits, is obvious. In his relations to his fellowmen his
> freedom of choice and therefore his responsibility are
> fundamental. Our whole social structure and our laws are founded
> upon it. The whole idea of moral responsibility presupposes free
> will. A man who refused to act, or to accept responsibility for
> his acts, on the ground that he did not have free will, would be
> considered a man of addled brain or one obstructing duty and
> right action by senseless caviling. A man whose acts escape the
> control of his will is defective, a hysteric, or insane. The
> civil Courts would send him to an asylum, not to jail. They do
> not execute a man whose free will is inhibited.
>
> The question of free will is much beclouded by an exaggerated
> idea of what freedom is. The assumption, perhaps unconscious, is
> that if there are any limitations there is no freedom.
>
> Freedom can only be exercised on condition that it is not abused.
> A man has personal freedom within the laws of the society to
> which he belongs. If he violates these laws his freedom is
> thereafter limited to the inside walls of a prison. Does anyone
> ever doubt or question that a man at liberty has freedom when
> compared to a man in prison?
>
> In a society governed by law and order all men have freedom
> within the limits of law and while they conform to the social
> order. A law-abiding citizen is not a slave because he conforms
> to the necessary restraints of the social order.
>
> -- LUCIFER, Vol. VI, No. 9, March 1935

Law-breakers must suffer penalties, more manifestly when the
HIGHER Law is broken -- that Law of Unity, Co-operation, and
Compassion that holds the Universe together, which is the very
nature, the essence of things. Every current set in motion
strikes its objective and returns, rebounding with force in
direct proportion as it is aimed consciously against the Higher
Law. But it is always possible to start a counter current to
weaken or neutralize the force of the first. Suppose, for
instance, that one is involved in a family feud like those that
poisoned the life of Venice during the Middle Ages, with feelings
running higher and fed with new life by every generation. Then
such a one resolved -- as happened sometimes in those days -- to
break the spell, to make offers of friendship and settle the old
quarrel. That would mean starting a new karma to counteract the
old and would bring peace where there had been discord.

There is another twist that the selfish lower mind sometimes
brings to bear upon this teaching. All, at times, while
traveling their own path, run into others suffering from
accidents or misfortunes with which they are apparently
disconnected, and occasionally one with a pharisaical respect for
the law, hesitates to interfere with the other's karma. Or, he
may be frankly brutal and say: "The sufferer brought it on
himself; let him take the consequences." In such cases, there is
always this to be considered: we MAY run into the misfortunes of
another because in the past we helped to bring them about and
this is to be remembered: "Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an
action in a deadly sin" (THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE). In this
intricate web of life, binding us all together, how often in our
blindness do we make a tangle of the threads!

But let us beware of indifference. The man fallen by the wayside
that we for the moment travel, has a claim upon us. If it is his
karma to be sore beset, it is equally his karma that someone able
to help him should come along. That needs no argument, surely.
But more fundamental than the Law of Consequences that brought us
there, is the "Law of Laws, Compassion." It is our patent DUTY to
help and succor him. We can trust the laws of Divine Justice to
see to it that a man gets what he deserves, without ourselves
giving an extra pinch.

We are our brother's keeper. Woe to us if we callously "pass by
on the other side." Better the mill-stone around our neck and the
depths of the sea to receive us.

Certain things indeed ARE inevitable. We are all in the Universe
and we MUST live. We are here on this Earth and we must continue
to come back to it repeatedly until we learn its lessons -- we
are tied to it until that day. But we ourselves guide our bark
through its streams either wisely or unwisely. When we have
mastered its problems and ourselves in relation to them, we are
then free to move forward -- we then, in fact, DECREE to move
forward. The basic fact overlooked in this theory of fatalism,
is that man at the core of his being is at one with the core of
the Universe, than which there is no higher authority.

> We cut these numerous windings in our destinies daily with our
> hands, while we imagine that we are pursuing a track on the royal
> high road of respectability and duty, and then complain of those
> ways being so intricate and dark. We stand bewildered before the
> mystery of our own making, and the riddles of life that WE WILL
> NOT solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But
> verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen
> day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own
> doings in this or another life. If one breaks the laws of
> Harmony ? one must be prepared to fall into the chaos one has
> oneself produced ?
>
> Therefore, if any one is helpless before these immutable laws, it
> is not ourselves, the artificers of our destinies, but rather
> those angels, the guardians of harmony. Karma-Nemesis is no more
> than the (spiritual) dynamical effect of causes produced and
> forces awakened into activity by our own actions ?
>
> This state will last till man's spiritual intuitions are fully
> opened, ? Until then the only palliative to the evils of life is
> union and harmony -- a Brotherhood IN ACTU, and ALTRUISM not
> simply in name. The suppression of one single bad CAUSE will
> suppress not one, but a variety of bad effects.
>
> -- H.P. Blavatsky, THE SECRET DOCTRINE, I, 643-4

------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MYSTIC BIRTH

By G. de Purucker

[From IN THE TEMPLE, pages 23-31.]

Companions, tonight I would like to say a few things to you that
may explain a little at least of what takes place in certain
parts of the world at the Winter Solstice. You know that there
are four turning points of the year, so to speak: respectively
the Solstices of Winter and Summer, and the two Equinoxes of the
Spring and of the Autumn. The cycle of the year among the
ancient peoples was always considered a symbol of the life of
man, or, indeed, of the life of the Universe.

Birth at the Winter Solstice, Adolescence at the Spring Equinox,
Adulthood, full-blown strength and power, at the Summer Solstice,
and then at the Autumnal Equinox the time of the Great Passing.
Birth comes at the beginning of the year, Adolescence -- trials
and their conquest -- at the Spring Equinox, and then the Summer
Solstice, which represents the period of initiation when the
Great Renunciation is made. The cycle closes with the time of
the Autumnal Equinox, the period of the Great Passing. This
cycle of the year likewise symbolizes the training in Chelaship.

At the time of the Winter Solstice -- that which even now is
taking place -- two are the main Degrees that neophytes or
Initiants must pass through. These are the Fourth Degree and the
Seventh or last: the Fourth for less great men although they are
great men none the less; and the last or Seventh Initiation,
coming but at rare intervals as the ages cycle by, being the
birth of the Buddhas, of the "Christs" as they are called in your
Occidental lands.

During the initiation of the less great men, men of less
grandiose spiritual and intellectual capacity than is the human
material out of which the Buddhas are born, during this Fourth
Initiation the postulant is taught to free himself from all the
trammels of mind and from the lower four principles of his
constitution. Being thus set free, he passes along the magnetic
Channels or Circulations of the Universe, even to the portals of
the Sun, but there and then he stops and returns. Three days
usually are the time required for this, and then the man arises a
full Initiate indeed, but with a realization that ahead of him
are still loftier peaks to scale on that lonely Path, that still
Path, that small Path, leading to divinity.

As regards the Seventh Initiation, this occurs in a cycle lasting
some 2160 human years, i.e., the zodiacal time that it takes for
a zodiacal Sign to pass through a constellation backwards into
the next constellation: in other words, what is called among
mystics in the Occident the Messianic Cycle. When indeed the
planets Mercury and Venus, and the Sun and the Moon and the
Earth, are situated in syzygy, then the freed Monad of the lofty
neophyte can pass along the magnetic pathway through these bodies
and continue direct to the heart of the Sun.

For fourteen days, the man left on earth is as in a trance, or
walks about in a daze, in a quasi-stupor; for the inner part of
him, the real part of him, is peregrinating through the spheres.
Two weeks later during the light half of the lunar cycle or month
when the moon stands full, his peregrinating Monad returns
rapidly as flashing thought along the same pathway by which he
ascended to Father-Sun. He retakes to himself the habiliments
that he dropped on each planet as he passed through it: the
habiliments of Mercury, the habiliments of Venus, the habiliments
of the Moon -- of the lunar body: of the lunar orb -- and from
the Moon the Monad returns to the entranced body left behind.

Then for a while, shorter or longer according to circumstances,
his whole being is irradiated with the solar spiritual splendor,
and he is a Buddha just "born." All his body is in flaming glory
as it were; and from his head, and from back of his head in
especial, as an aureole, there spring forth rays, rays of glory
like a crown. It is because of this that crowns in the Occident
and diadems in the Hither East were formerly worn by those who
had passed through this Degree, for verily they are Sons of the
Sun, crowned with the solar splendor.

In these initiations the man dies. Initiation is death, death of
the lower part of the man; and in fact, the body dies but is
nevertheless held alive not by the spirit-soul that has flown
from it, as a butterfly frees itself from its chrysalis, but kept
alive by those who are watching and waiting and guarding. It is
due to this holding of the bodily triad alive that the
peregrinating spirit-soul is enabled finally to return as a bird
to its nest, where it recognizes its former bodily home, and is
"reborn," but in this case reborn into the same body.

During the period of time when the peregrinating Monad is absent,
whether it is for three days or for fourteen, the excarnate Monad
has followed the pathways of death literally, but has done so
quickly and within the fortnight. In fact, the process is
virtually identical with that followed in the case of excarnation
and reincarnation, for it returns to the entranced body along the
pathways of rebirth, of reembodiment, and is, as it were, reborn
into the old body instead of into a new one. Thus was it said of
such a man in India that he is a Dwija, as the Brahmans of
Aryavarta put it -- a "twice-born" Initiate.

This phrase also has one meaning more: One who is reborn from the
ashes of the old life, which life is now burnt out and dead. But
it has also the deeper significance of which I have spoken. The
Seventh-Degree Initiations that occur once during the so-called
Messianic Cycle just spoken of, and that produce the spiritual
fruit of a minor Buddha, called a Bodhisattva, must not be
confused with one of the greatest of initiations known to the
human race, i.e., those belonging solely to the racial Buddhas.
There are in any Root-Race but two racial Buddhas. But the
Bodhisattvas of differing degrees of evolutionary grandeur are
very numerous. The cyclical Bodhisattvas as above hinted come
one each in every Messianic Cycle of 2160 years and are usually
of an Avataric character.

There are cases, my Brothers, where neophytes fail, but, as you
heard last night, those who fail have another chance in other
lives; but the penalty for failure in this life is either death
or madness, and the penalty is very just. Solemn indeed are the
warnings given to those who would fly like the birds into the
ethers of the inner worlds and follow the tracks of those who
have preceded them along the Circulations of the Universe.

I would try to make one more thing clear. When you look up at
the violet dome of night, or, during the day-time raise your eyes
and look at the splendor of Father-Sun shining in the blue vault
of midday, how empty the spatial expanse seems to you to be --
how seeming vacuous, how seeming void! Your western, your
Occidental, astronomers will tell you that the earth is a sphere
poised in the void, in the ether, free except for the
gravitational attraction of the Sun, and that the Earth is
following its pathway, its orbit, around the Sun not otherwise
than gravitationally attached thereto: in short, that Space is
emptiness.

Indeed, SPACE, mystically speaking, is Sunyata, emptiness in the
sense of our own esoteric significance, but by no means
"emptiness" as understood by your Occidental astronomers.
Verily, the space that you look at, which your physical eyes
think they see -- or don’t see -- is substance so dense, so
concrete, that no human conception can give any clear idea
thereof to the brain-mind otherwise than by mathematics.

One of your Occidental physicist-astronomers, J.J. Thompson,
some years ago calculated that the ether of space was two
thousand million times denser than lead. This revoices an old
doctrine. Remember this, Brothers, the proper manner of
expressing this fact all depends upon the way in which we look at
it. We have eyes evolved to sense or pierce the matter of our
sphere. We see what seems to us to be vacuity, emptiness, but
actually, that seeming vacuity or emptiness is full. In fact, it
is a plenum, a pleroma, full of worlds and spheres and planes,
full of hierarchies, of evolving entities on these worlds and
spheres and planes.

Please try clearly to grasp this idea. Our entire Surya-system,
our entire Solar System in other words, called the Egg of Brahma,
may be looked at from one very true standpoint as an enormous
ovoid aggregate body poised in space. Were some astronomer on
some distant in the stellar deeps to see our Egg of Brahma, and
were he to see it from the proper superior plane or world, our
entire Solar System would appear to him as an ovoid body of light
-- as an egg-shaped irresolvable nebula. This would include all
the emptiness that we see, or think we see, the emptiness so
called, and therefore would include all our solar world of the
Egg of Brahma, from the very heart of Father-Sun to beyond the
confines of what your astronomers call the farthermost planets.

Hearken well to this: The Egg of Brahma is composed of concentric
spheres centered in the Sun, and each one of these spheres is a
cosmic world. Its heart -- the heart of each one of them -- is
the Sun. The world or sphere of our Earth is one such, and
surrounds the Sun as a sphere of dense substance; and the nucleus
in this sphere or Egg, for such it is, is what you men call our
Earth. Yes, and of Uranus too; but remember that Uranus belongs
not to our own system of Sacred Worlds, although it belongs to
our Egg of Brahma.

In this connection, any such concentric sphere such as our Earth,
or that of Jupiter, or that of Mercury, is, de facto, such an Egg
or Sphere of Brahma. Yet note well that the nucleus of each such
sphere, or what men call a planet, if seen in motion from another
plane, would appear to be a wave or ripple advancing steadily in
and around a solid or semi-solid zone or belt. This zone or belt
actually being what we call on our plane the locus of the orbit
of such planetary body as of Earth, or of Jupiter, or of Mercury.
The meaning of this again is that a planetary orbit such as that
of Earth and seen from another plane is an actual belt or zone
surrounding the Sun. It is the pathway, so to speak, of the
nucleus that in this zone can be considered in movement as a
ripple or wave moving steadily around this belt or zone, or ring.

From what has just been said, it becomes immediately obvious that
what we call a planet can be properly viewed from three different
planes of vision, as three different things. First, it is seen
as a globe such as we men on this plane see it. From another
plane, it is seen as a wave or ripple, circularly advancing in
and following the course of an annular zone or belt surrounding
the Sun. Third, it is seen as a concentric sphere, or rather
spheroid, or egg, with its center at the heart of the Sun.

These concentric worlds or spheres are in constant circular
movement of revolution around the heart of the Sun. The spheres
are within each other, somewhat like the skins of an onion, and
yet each one is formed of different matters, in a sense, i.e., of
matters in a different state from the matters of the other
spheres. Hence, they pass through each other as easily as if the
others did not exist. It is that our eye can see some of the
stellar bodies lying beyond the orbits of Mars and of Jupiter and
of Saturn.

All we see of the stellar host outside of our Egg of Brahma
happens to be those particular stars or suns that because of
their having attained the same degree of material evolution
whereon we ourselves now stand and where our physical sun is.
Therefore, they are visible to our organs of sight. Were we
living on another plane, our vision could not penetrate the
respective matters, otherwise the orbits or spheres, of Mars or
Jupiter or of Saturn.

These three planets alone hide billions and billions and billions
of suns that we during our present Manvantara cannot ever see.
Some day in the far distant future, as evolution works on the
matter of our world-sphere, we shall see some of the Raja-Suns
now hid by these three planets -- by the spheres of these three
planets, for the planets and their respective spheres are really
the same. It is precisely because the Egg of Brahma is
substantial throughout, and that interplanetary space is
therefore substantial throughout, that light belonging to this
fourth cosmic plane can pass from stars to us.

In speaking of these concentric spheres, please remember also
that a proper conception of the structure and characteristics of
the Egg of Brahma must include a realization of the grandiose
fact that there are many more planetary concentric spheres than
those of the eight, or nine, or ten planets known to Occidental
astronomy. There are scores of planets in the Solar System that
are invisible by means of any Occidental astronomical instrument
or apparatus.

Furthermore, and still more important, there are numbers of these
concentric spheres that belong to entirely other planes of the
cosmos, and each one of these invisible concentric spheres, which
are in some cases superior, and in some cases inferior, to our
plane, is as fully inhabited with its multifarious hosts of
beings as our own plane is. Each plane has its own hierarchies
of inhabitants, its own inhabited worlds with their dwellers,
with their countries, with their mountains, and seas, and lakes,
and dwellings, and what not, even as our Earth has.

These concentric world-spheres considered as a whole were the
crystalline spheres of the ancients, which your Occidental
astronomers have so grossly misunderstood, and therefore have so
much derided.

What indeed did these words mean: crystalline spheres? The
meaning was, spheres of which the center was the Sun and that
were transparent to our eyesight. Just as glass is very dense
and yet is transparent to our eyesight, so are the ethers of our
fourth cosmic plane very dense and yet transparent to our
eyesight. To the inhabitants of Earth viewing the phenomena of
the Solar System from the Earth, the entire system of concentric
spheres, due to the Earth’s rotation, seems to revolve around the
Earth, and hence arises the geocentric way of looking at the
apparent movements of the planets and the Sun and the Moon and
the stars. All things in Universal Nature are repetitive in
structure and in action. The small mirrors the Great, and the
Great reproduces itself in the small, for verily the twain is
one.

Furthermore, because of the magnetic structure and action of the
12 globes of our Planetary Chain, our Earth has magnetic bipolar
action of twelve different kinds; one such polar pair is known to
your scientists, the others unknown. Our Egg of Brahma, our
Solar System, as a whole, likewise has twelve magnetic bipolar
courses, what in short are called magnetic poles. Each one of
these twelve poles has its locus in one of the twelve
constellations of the Zodiac -- or rather, the twelve
constellations of the Zodiac are the loci of the twelve poles of
the zodiacal period. The Wheel of Life with its twelve spokes
runs on forever.

Thus, it is that a man, a human being, can be a Son of the Sun.
Thus, it is that a human being can ascend along the magnetic
pathways from Earth to Moon, from Moon to Venus, from Venus to
Mercury, from Mercury to the heart of Father-Sun -- and return.
On the journey outward, certain sheaths or integuments of the
peregrinating Monad are dropped at each planetary station. Dust
to dust on Earth. The lunar body cast off and abandoned in the
valleys of the Moon. In Venus, habiliments of Venusian character
are cast aside also; and so is it likewise in Mercury. Then the
solar portion of us is ingathered into its own heart.

The peregrinating Monad on its return journey leaves the Sun
after re-assuming its own solar sheath. It enters the sphere of
Mercury, gathers up there the garments that it previously had
cast aside, assumes these, and then passes to Venus. There it
reclothes itself with what it had there previously laid down,
then enters the unholy sphere of the Moon, and in its dark
valleys picks up its former lunar body, and thence is borne to
Earth on the lunar rays when the Moon is full. Dust to dust,
Moon to Moon, Venus to Venus, Mercury to Mercury, Sun to Sun!

As you have often been told, Initiation is the becoming, by
self-conscious experience, temporarily at one with other worlds
and planes, and the various degrees of Initiation mark the
various stages of advancement or of ability to do this. As the
Initiations progress in grandeur, so does the spirit-soul of the
Initiant penetrate deeper and deeper into the invisible worlds
and spheres. One must become fully cognizant of all the secrets
of the solar egg before one can become a divinity in that solar
egg, taking a part, self-conscious and deliberate, in the cosmic
labor.

Brothers, prepare yourselves continually, for every day is a new
chance, is a new doorway, a new opportunity. Lose not the days
of your lives, for the time will come, fatally come, when it will
be your turn to undertake this most sublime of Adventures.
Glorious beyond words to express will be the reward if you
succeed. Therefore practice, practice continuously your will.
Open your heart more and more. Remember the divinity at your
inmost, the inmost divinity of you, the heart of you, and the
core of you. Love others, for these others are you. Forgive
them, for in so doing you forgive yourself. Help them, for in so
doing, you strengthen yourself. Hate them, and in so doing you
prepare your own feet to travel to the Pit, for in so doing you
hate yourself. Turn your backs on the Pit, and turn your faces
to the Sun!

------------------------------------------------------------------
A REALIZED IDEAL: THE LOMALAND SCHOOL

By Reata V.H. Pedersen

[From THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH, March 1931, pages 244-49.]

The search of parents for a proper school to which to entrust the
education of their children can be a most disheartening
experience. It can develop many humorous situations; but the
thoughtful person, the real child-lover, will be saddened and his
laughter may come through lips just a little awry.

There are few schools in which complete trust can be placed.
This is because it seems there is little connection between the
theory of what is to be done for the good of the child and that
which is actually accomplished.

In our search for a school, we, two average persons with two
average children (impersonally judging them), found the claim
most common to all of them to be that always there was some
responsible adult in charge of a child or group of children; but
we had the misfortune to prove the statement untrue on three
occasions.

It seemed to us that a school must provide a home and the safety
of a home as a first requirement. Our second was that the other
pupils be of the same moral standing as our own children. The
third, that proper food be provided, and the fourth, that the
system of education offer preparation for living and the making
of life something more than a sordid struggle for existence.

We met comprehension of our requirements as to home-atmosphere
and diet-needs, but when we came to consideration of the other
two requirements, we met "the psychologist who is connected with
our school."

Now as one having had a nurse's training, I know that it is
sometimes necessary to consult such a specialist so that a child
may be helped to health and happiness. I also know of cases
where the child has suffered actual harm from a visit to one,
because he was presented to himself as different from other
children and became terror-stricken through belief in his
'unbalanced growing.'

When we refused the services of the psychologist, we were thought
to be hiding something much worse than an inferiority complex in
our youngsters. It seems there are things worse, although
considering the emphasis put upon it and the surprising methods
used to do away with it, one would hardly think so. We, poor
innocents, thought it was not present in either of our children.

At this particular school, I think we must be remembered still as
the great refusers, because we did not wish the test for this,
and the inoculation for that, given; nor yet the adenoids,
tonsils, and teeth of our children removed. You see, we liked
'em the way they were.

Because of the advantages of the European schools regarding the
acquirement of languages, we sought the ideal school in England,
France, and Germany. First, the children had three months at a
nursery school in a New England state.

The pupils at this school were taught to call the charming woman
and splendid man at its head, Aunt Mary and Uncle Dave. Aunt
Mary and Uncle Dave had three children of their own and the other
forty pupils suffered considerably at the hands of these three
who in the minds of their parents could do no wrong.

The diet was very well planned and would have been satisfactory
had it been followed. The excuse that good cooks were difficult
to find and that fresh vegetables and choice of meat almost out
of the question in 'the delightful country-town in which the
school is situated' did not make it easier for me to correct the
evils following upon an almost steady diet of pork. And the fact
that my small daughter loudly proclaimed her appreciation of the
pork made it no easier to feed her spinach instead.

The charge made at this school was one hundred dollars a month
for each child, with doctor, dentist, chaperone, transportation
to and from the office of the dentist or doctor, and
orange-juice, buttermilk, laundry, and mending, all a matter of
extra charge.

In England, we placed our children in a preparatory school that
had a record of never having had a fatal illness among the pupils
in forty years. It was a boys' school, but as the head master
had three small girls, our daughter lived at his home and
attended the school.

The cost was five hundred pounds the year for the two, but many
extras, such as fires and chapel, library and baths, were
charged, and the expense of the 'tuck shop' would have been
large, I feel sure, as oranges and other fruits were to be had
only there. However, the boy became so ill through being caned
and hazed by being thrown into a tub of icy water that the record
of the school as to a fatal illness almost was lost.

In Germany, the windows of the dormitory were kept so tightly
closed that the little girl in search of fresh air found a nice
but purely ornamental balcony held in place by plaster and there
slept for hours, sans covering, while a frantic head mistress and
an ashen-faced mother searched for her.

We tried one more school abroad but it closed for lack of
patronage, and this ended two years of search.

Returning to America, the children entered a school in the West
whose principal was young and enthusiastic and whose consulting
physician was a relative of ours whom the children adored. Here
they were left for five months while their parents made a
necessary journey to Asia.

The investigation of this school had brought out the fact that
the children were allowed to develop naturally, were taught to
think that being ill was just a little bit of a disgrace (with
the object of preventing our old friend the inferiority-complex
from sunning itself in the dramatic orb shining upon an invalid).

With our faith based on the sanity of our relative, the
consulting physician, and the children themselves satisfied that
the natural-development clause meant that they would just
naturally be allowed to do whatever they wished, we sailed away.

Nothing much of moment can be inserted in the record here other
than mention that the boy was allowed to suffer several hours
with a broken ankle while he was examined (figuratively) as to
his inferiority. In other words, he was thought to be shamming.
The child put an end to the matter by telephoning for the doctor.

The 'natural' development resulted in mob-rule in the dining
room, and all in all I should not call it a successful school.

In summing up these experiences, the writer must in fairness
admit that most of these incidents were exceptions, adding that
she feels sure they would not have had much chance for
repetition, for even schools with psychologists attached thereto
can profit by experience. Yet when parents are forced to absent
themselves from their children, they like to feel that the
possibility of neglect in illness, illness through wrong diet,
danger because of lack of watchful care, and severe punishment,
cannot occur at all. They feel that hazing will not be tolerated
in the school and that manners will be taught, especially the
table-manners which it is said is the one claim America can make
to distinction in that direction.

----

In 1930, our search ended when the children were entered as
resident-pupils at the Lomaland School. This is the school
founded by Katherine Tingley more than thirty years ago.

The system of education is based upon the thought of the child's
unity with himself and with the Universe of which he is a part.
It is not a new thought, for in the groves where Plato taught, it
was held a basic principle of learning.

With the knowledge that the nature of each child was the result
of an individual choosing and refusing of certain desires in ages
past, the Foundress decided upon individual training.

That this training, this directing of the child's thought to the
fact that he is one with the Universe, the teaching of
self-control of body and mind through recognition of the
spirituality of the Real Being, result in a balanced growth of
mental, physical, and spiritual faculties, the writer can attest.

It has been my privilege to live in the grounds of the Lomaland
School and to come in daily contact and to work with the
teachers, and these teachers are with few exceptions men and
women who were themselves trained in this school from childhood
or early youth, or have been many years in training under the
Foundress, Katherine Tingley.

They are devoted men and women whose interests are here, whose
life-work is here, and whose purpose in life is to pass on that
which they were so generously given by Katherine Tingley and her
teaching-staff.

It is possible to bring forward the testimony as to the almost
immediate result of this training upon children because of the
evident improvement in health, in perception, in reaction to
superior social contacts, in desire to learn -- and in character
-- of my own boy and girl.

They are happy children, my two, even during my absence. They
associate with other children who are happy, who feel as do my
own that they have in their home a school and in their school a
home.

It is the intention of their father and me to leave the education
of our children in the hands of the directors of this school.

----

In Lomaland, there are no servants, and in consequence, the
pupils have the privilege of learning that those of gentle
breeding who are their example in manners are also an example of
the dignity of self-service.

Neither fear nor familiarity is observable as between pupil and
teacher. Discipline is indeed constructive, but the elder
brother and big sister attitude of the teacher to the child is
the outstanding feature of their contact.

The curriculum is well suited to the child and to the needs of
modern living. The classes held out-of-doors when weather
permits, which in California is most of the time, give
opportunity, first for exchange of thought between pupil and
teacher.

The language-classes are in charge of teachers who thoroughly
understand the idiom of the foreign tongue. (It is not unusual
to hear a student translate letters from German, French, and
Spanish, one after the other, so that others may enjoy the
correspondence carried on with friends in other lands.)

There is something of the air of a cosmopolite in a graduate of
Lomaland School and yet there is a flavor of the classic
schooling too.

Music holds high place in the education-system as does the study
of the drama; and plays are studied and acted in the beautiful
open-air theater -- the first Greek Theater built in America.

A current-events class, which even the young child attends, is a
biweekly delight. Newspapers are not found in the reading-rooms
but carefully chosen magazines are there; so that the student at
home for the weekend is not as one from another world, but one
most surprisingly able to take his part in the conversation of
his family.

The arts-and-crafts work finds much favor with the young child.
He is happy in his activities too, and the games in the playroom
and in the playing fields are carefully supervised.

The attention of physicians to ordinary routine of health is not
made an extra charge and each child is given the diet he most
needs for right growth. The only extra charge is for dentistry
and personal laundry.

The school is an all-year-round one, with vacations at frequent
intervals and special ones by arrangement with parents.

Our old friend, the inferiority complex, isn't much heard of in
Lomaland. But I remember an amusing thing told me by the father
of two boys who brought them here with long and detailed reports
from a most expensive psychologist.

The directress to whom he offered them said, "I'll take them and
keep them in our files if you insist, but I'd really rather not
read them. It seems like taking advantage of the boys and I'd
like to wait for knowledge of them to be given to me by
themselves."

The father smiled as he told me this, saying that he had kept the
record in his own files to remind him how foolishly he had spent
several hundred dollars.

As for the boys -- well, they are just the average, little bad
and little good, thoughtful and thoughtless boys -- but with a
firm faith in that Directress and much love for their home
school.

As I have been writing this, I have tried to name the reasons for
the success this school has been proven to have in the training
of the child. I have asked myself why in this day of
revaluations, made necessary by change of forms in social
control, in this age when education is in such a state of
confusion, why this school is able, so serenely, to endure.

It teaches now as it taught thirty years ago. Other hands than
those of Katherine Tingley control its destiny -- hands that are
friendly, tender, and firm -- but its destiny is so evidently
that which was planned thirty years ago.

I find myself looking deeper into the thought upon which it was
built, and I find that thought to be the religion of the school
-- indeed, the religion that is Theosophy. In it, there are no
dogmas to teach to children, or to their elders for that matter.

Unity with oneself and with all that is -- it is beautiful as
thought or as a religion. It seems to me that it is that
thought, that religion, which has made of the Lomaland School and
its system of education -- a realization of an ideal.

------------------------------------------------------------------
THE DRIVING POWER IN NATURE

By Cranstone Woodhead

[From THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH, October 1915, pages 257-62.]

In bringing our minds to dwell upon this important subject, we
shall soon perceive that we are at a point where our intuitive
faculties reach beyond the ordinary creeds and dogmatism of
modern times.

If the bibles of all races and religions are to have any effect
in lifting the human race to a higher standpoint of realized
truth, they must surely be studied by the light of the higher
qualities of the human consciousness, wherein truth is cognized
at first-hand. The literal interpretation of a creed, formulated
obscurity, or the desire for power or authority of any special
class of human beings is one of our greatest delusions.

Truth is for all. It is universal. It cannot be measured by
brain capacity. It has a quality of eternal life that all
thinking beings can intuitively perceive in the measure of their
development towards the common goal.

When we look abroad into the field of Nature, we cannot fail to
recognize that the worlds that make up the universe are moved by
some mysterious force. We may call the force by what name we
please, but it is the life force of the eternal in some form or
other. The sun is the center of a system of worlds that move
around it in rhythmic measure so accurate that we can calculate
their position years ahead to the fraction of a minute. Upon the
world that we inhabit, we see a marvelous display of infinite
varieties of life, which together form a complete whole of
various grades of intelligence, yet all acting under
never-changing laws. A mighty yet silent force urges onwards
through the birth, growth, decay, and rebirth of minerals,
plants, animals, and men. Seas and continents have interchanged
their position many times, whilst successive races have risen to
empire and have passed away.

Let us then look around us with discerning eyes and consider the
signs of this great driving life force that rules the world.

We shall soon perceive that the outward appearance that we call
matter and that is to be observed by our mortal eyes is but a
mask and an illusion. There is that within it that rules and
guides according to law. We cannot observe this inner life by
the aid of either telescope or microscope, but we are able to
perceive and judge of it by the aforesaid unseen qualities that
we have within ourselves. They become evident through our own
conscious mind, which is the divine heritage of humanity. For
the microcosm, which is man, is but a copy of the macrocosm of
Nature. He is god incarnate, and if he will, he can arouse
within himself the knowledge of this noble Truth by turning his
attention in the right direction, i.e., within himself.

The scientists who look out into the heavens tell us that the
solid globe on which we live was once a nebulous fire mist, more
tenuous than any form of matter of which we can now conceive. In
the course of untold ages, it has slowly condensed into the solid
body of the earth that is visible to our eyes, holding many
inherent qualities that are invisible but may be perceived by
man's awakened inner senses.

In this, they agree with the teaching of the ancient sages, who
in their turn received their knowledge from the divine beings --
the gods who dwelt on earth with men during the golden age. Yet
even these declared that not only the whole of the earth and of
Nature but also they themselves were but manifestations of the
unseen power, the great eternal essence of being, the unknown
dark god, the primeval breath, the origin, the harmonious cause,
which is the center of the light and life of the universe. Thus
the wise ancients knew well that there is a boundless source of
life and power upon which all things depend and from which all
life flows, and that this is represented in space and time by the
visible sun, the heart of the life of the earth; whilst in the
spaceless soul of the universe, it is the one eternal being that
makes all things from a portion of itself.

Upon such knowledge was founded the ancient Wisdom-Religion of
humanity, the original source of all other religions of whatever
age.

If in thought we look back upon the far distant ages when the
earth began to take form and to bring forth the various kingdoms
of Nature, we shall see a wondrous drama of cycle after cycle, in
which mineral, plant, and animal were successively produced in
the progress toward the formation of a concrete world. The final
effort at this period was the body of man, devoid of a FULLY
conscious mind, but otherwise perfected.

Then, the sages tell us that about eighteen million years ago,
the human race was lifted above the animals by the lighting up of
the godlike flame of divine mind within the animal body of
primitive man.

From that time, the tide was turned. The now divinely inspired
man became potentially lord of the earth and king of nature.
From thence, the long journey was begun back to the source from
which all things originally emanated. Thus by the power of
self-conscious mind, man is enabled, if he so will, not only to
recognize the power of divinity within his own being and his
essential unity with the eternal, but also to rule the kingdoms
of nature that are below him and of which he is also a part.

What then does he see when he looks abroad on his surroundings?

Any child can perceive the progress of all life in matter through
the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms to the body that man
occupies as a temple wherein to dwell for a time that he may gain
experience of divinity and of nature.

As he grows older, he sees that the solid body of the earth is
crystallized and mineralized light and life. Within it are born
many wonders such as radiant matter, and gold, which grows and
purifies itself in its matrix of quartz. From the earth, we
extract the sunlight that impacted itself into coal millions of
years ago, and we employ it to give us light and power.

Then there is the vegetable kingdom. On the broad bosom of
Mother Earth, the forests grow in luxuriant beauty. The life-sap
ebbs and flows through the plants in autumn and spring. But
"grapes do not grow on thorns or figs on thistles," so countless
species produce themselves after their kind, through the
mysteries of Nature's workshop. What marvelous powers of
discriminative growth are shown in these wonders! We see them
every day with unseeing eyes. We do not discern the power that
produces these marvels, nor the beauty of harmonious law that
guides every flower that blooms. There is ever the silent and
mysterious motive force that directs the course of every
individual in the different situations of climate, moisture,
soil, and exposure.

As we pass on to the animal kingdom, we find the power of choice
and motion, and find a discernment that we call instinct. Animal
forms reach a remarkable perfection of strength, grace, and
beauty. They are our brothers truly on a lower grade of
evolution through which our bodies have once passed. They are
our friends if we will have it so, for we are to them as gods.
The songs of the birds, the affection of the household animals
for their masters, appeal to us in a strange way. It would be
well nigh impossible for the human mind to conceive of an animal
body more perfect than that of a majestic lion or a golden eagle.
Yet often the qualities that may be admirable enough in them are
precisely those that we must master, and turn to higher use if we
would preserve an ideal manhood.

We have said nothing of the numerous species on the dividing
lines between these kingdoms of life, yet truly, there are no
marked dividing lines. All growth is by infinite gradations.

It may be asked, how does this driving power in Nature affect
humanity and how is it manifest in our daily life?

If it be remembered that man is essentially a soul -- a spiritual
being incarnate in an animal body so that he may gain experience
thereby and work out his own divinity, the answer is not far to
seek.

By observing what is the driving power in our own lives and in
the lives of those around us, we shall understand in part at
least what that power is in nature as a whole, for man is the key
to the universe.

We have not far to look to find out what is the impelling power
in human nature generally. It takes various forms: ambition,
greed, appetite, or passion. Some form of personal desire
usually urges man on his course, some desire to attain some
object or to attain some goal near or far away. An ancient
saying is "Behind the will stands desire." Desire sets the will
in operation.

Using this as a key to our understanding of nature as a whole, we
find all creatures acting according to the law of their own
natures in the orderly course of their lives. In the animal
kingdom, we find desire and appetite analogous to the same desire
and appetite in man. We find the plants sending out their roots
in search of water and lifting their heads to the air and
sunlight. In the mineral kingdom, elements combine with other
elements in proportions according to fixed laws. Everywhere in
Nature, there is attraction and repulsion.

Whatever we find in the lower kingdoms we find reproduced in man
with the difference that there is something added in man, WHICH
MAKES HIM MAN. He has the power to choose whether he will follow
this something that is the distinguishing mark of his humanity,
or work against it. He is no longer subject, as it were, against
his will, to the driving power of Nature. He must either
cooperate with it, control, and use it or sink below the level of
the beast. Recognizing his own divine nature, he may live, if he
so choose, in harmony with it. Failing to do this, he becomes a
slave of the passions and appetites. Thus the passional
desire-nature is, as it were, a great source of energy and motive
power, which he must transmute and direct if he would fulfill the
higher law of his being and take his place as one of the sons of
God. He should exchange the personal for the spiritual will.

The highest aims and true end of man can only be attained by the
exercise of his spiritual will, and the first evidence that this
is in operation is the effort for mastery of the animal or lower
self and the conquest of every form of personal selfishness. By
doing this, he conforms to the divine desire of the Supreme to
bring forth a universe inhabited by successive gradations of
created beings. In recognizing this and accepting his divine
estate, man will lay aside his lower passional nature and
self-will and be ready to exclaim at any moment, "Not my will but
thine be done."

Then he is no longer subject to the driving power in nature, but
on the contrary IDENTIFIES HIMSELF WITH THAT POWER. He becomes a
coworker with Nature and in his own life the driver himself, the
arbiter of his own destiny, working with the higher law of his
being understandingly. Then he will have realized his divinity,
and will have returned to his primeval godhood. For there is
that in man that which will, if he so choose, make him
independent of the genii that rule the material world. In THE
SECRET DOCTRINE of Mme. H.P. Blavatsky, we are told that one of
the fundamental propositions of the ancient Wisdom-Religion was
as follows:

> The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal
> Oversoul, the latter being itself an aspect of the unknown Root;
> and the obligatory pilgrimage of every Soul through the cycle of
> Incarnation (or "Necessity") in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic
> law during the whole term. In other words no purely . . .
> divine Soul can have an independent existence before the spark
> which issued from . . . the Oversoul has (a) passed through
> every elemental form of the phenomenal world . . . and (b)
> acquired individuality, FIRST BY NATURAL IMPULSE, and THEN BY
> SELF-INDUCED AND SELF-DEVISED EFFORTS (checked by its Karma) thus
> ascending through all the degrees of intelligence from the lowest
> to the highest . . . from mineral to plant up to the holiest
> Archangel.

In thinking over this, we see at once that the development of man
by natural impulse began to give place to a higher development by
the divine self-conscious mind incarnate within him.

From that time, he began to make those "self-induced and
self-devised efforts" to which reference is made. From that
time, the purely animal instincts in man have been at war with
the divinity within him manifested in his own intuitive
conscience.

A modern writer has put it in this way:

> Greatness in man is popularly supposed to be a thing inborn. The
> belief must be a result of want of thought, of blindness to facts
> in nature. Greatness can only be attained by growth; that is
> continually demonstrated to us. Even the mountains, even the
> firm globe itself, these are great by dint of the mode of growth
> peculiar to that state of materiality -- accumulation of atoms.
> As the consciousness inherent in all existing forms passes into
> more advanced forms of life, it becomes more active, and in
> proportion, it acquires the power to growth by ASSIMILATION
> instead of ACCUMULATION. Looking at existence from this special
> point of view, we immediately perceive it to be reasonable to
> suppose, that as we advance beyond our present standpoint, the
> power of growth by assimilation will become greater and probably
> changed into a method yet more rapid, easy, and unconscious. The
> universe is in fact full of magnificent promise for us if we will
> but lift our eyes and see.
>
> In man taken individually or as a whole, there clearly exists a
> double constitution. Two great tides of emotion sweep through
> his nature; two great forces guide his life. The one makes him
> an animal, and the other makes him a god.
>
> It is upon the union -- the right relation of these two forces in
> himself -- which man stands as a strong king. That is the whole
> secret. That is what makes man strong, powerful, and able to
> grasp heaven and earth in his hands. Do not fancy it is easily
> done. This power can only be attained by giving the god the
> sovereignty. Secreted and hidden in the heart of the world and
> in the heart of man is the light that can illumine all life.
> Shall we not search for it?

In this extremely brief sketch, it is impossible to point out how
the precepts of all the great teachers of humanity embody the
ideas herein contained. The virtues of self-denial and universal
compassion for all creatures are the forsaking of the desires of
the personal man that are natural to the body in which he dwells
-- the ceasing to exercise the will that makes them live -- the
destruction of the personal desire to accumulate for oneself
anything whatever; and the reaching out toward an assimilation
with the god within in order that he may rule.

The power to be sought for is not exterior. There within the
silence of man's own heart lies the fountain of sweet waters --
the peace that passeth all understanding. Katherine Tingley has
said:

> Oh that every atom of my being were a thousand-pointed star to
> help men to see the divine everywhere, to know their limitless
> power, to feel while in the body, the exhaustless joy of Real
> Life, to wake and live instead of dreaming the heavy dreams of
> this living death, and to know themselves as at once part of and
> directors of Universal Law. This is your birthright of Wisdom
> and the hour of attainment is now if you will. Tarry no longer
> in the delusion of the Hall of Learning. Feel, Know, and Do.
> Face to face with the defeats of the past, you hold in your hands
> a new weapon forged in all past struggles. -- Wherefore, arise,
> claim your own, move on to the Sublime Peace that shall follow
> the final Victory.

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