[PAGE 1] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC BY MAX HEINDEL [1865-1919] A SERIES O
[PAGE 1] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
BY
MAX HEINDEL
[1865-1919]
A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON
PRACTICAL MYSTICISM
THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
MT. ECCLESIA
P.O. BOX 713
OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054 U.S.A.
[PAGE 3] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
FORWARD
The contents of this book are among the last writings of Max Heindel, the
mystic. They contain some of his deepest thoughts, and are the result of
years of research and occult investigation. He, too, could say as did
Parsifal: "Through error and through suffering I came, through many failures
and through countless woes." At last he was given the living water with
which he was able to quench the spiritual thirst of many souls. He also de-
veloped to their depths pity and love, and could feel the heart throbs of
suffering humanity.
Strong souls are usually endowed with great energy and impulse, and
through these very forces, they forge to the front ranks though they often
suffer much. As a result they are filled with compassion for others. The
writer of these lessons sacrificed his physical body on the altar of ser-
vice.
In writing the books and monthly lessons of the Fellowship, in his lec-
tures and class work, and in the arduous pioneer work of establishing Head-
quarters within the short span of ten years, Max Heindel accomplished more
than many who are blessed with perfect health could have accomplished in a
lifetime. His first book, his masterpiece, " The Rosicrucian Cosmo-
[PAGE 4] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
Conception," was written under the direct guidance of the Elder Brothers of
the Rose Cross. It carries a vital message to the world. It satisfies not
alone the intellect, but also the heart. His "Freemasonry and Catholicism,"
has found its way into many Masonic libraries. The occultist has received
much from the book entitled, "The Web of Destiny," which is a mine of mysti-
cal knowledge and helpful occult truths. It is also a guide to the investi-
gator, establishing danger signals for the venturesome ones who wish to take
heaven by storm. To the science of astrology he has given more in a few
years than has previously been discovered for centuries. His two valuable
works, "Simplified Scientific Astrology" and "The Message of the Stars,"
deal largely with the spiritual and medical aspects of astrology. The lat-
ter gives methods of diagnosis and healing which form a valuable addition to
the works of other authors, both ancient and modern. These books may be
found in the libraries of many doctors of the old school.
In "Gleanings of a Mystic" are found twenty-four lessons which were for-
merly sent out to students. It is the wish of the writer of this introduc-
tion that these lessons may carry a message of love and cheer to the
soul-hungry reader and hope to the disconsolate one.
Augusta Foss Heindel
[PAGE 5] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter I.
Initiation: What It Is and Is Not--Part I. 7
Chapter II
Initiation: What It Is and Is Not--Part II. 14
Chapter III.
The Sacrament of Communion--Part I. 21
Chapter IV.
The Sacrament of Communion--Part II. 28
Chapter V.
The Sacrament of Baptism. 37
Chapter VI.
The Sacrament of Marriage 46
Chapter VII.
The Unpardonable Sin and Lost Souls. 54
Chapter VIII.
The Immaculate Conception. 61
Chapter IX.
The Coming Christ. 69
Chapter X.
The Coming Age. 77
Chapter XI.
Meat and Drink as Factors of Evolution. 85
[PAGE 6] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
Chapter XII.
A Living Sacrifice. 94
Chapter XIII.
Magic, White and Black. 101
Chapter XIV.
Our Invisible Government. 108
Chapter XV.
Practical Precepts for Practical People. 114
Chapter XVI.
Sound, Silence, and Soul Growth. 121
Chapter XVII.
The "Mysterium Magnum" of the Rose Cross 130
Chapter XVIII.
Stumbling Blocks 138
Chapter XIX.
The Lock of Upliftment. 147
Chapter XX.
The Cosmic Meaning of Easter--Part I. 153
Chapter XXI.
The Cosmic Meaning of Easter--Part II. 160
Chapter XXII.
The Newborn Christ. 167
Chapter XXIII.
Why I am a Rosicrucian. 173
Chapter XXIV.
The Object of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. 180
[PAGE 7] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
CHAPTER I
INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
PART I
IT IS NO rare occurrence to receive questions relating to Initiation, and
we are also frequently asked to state whether this order or that society is
genuine, and whether the initiations they offer to all comers who have the
price are BONA FIDE. For that reason it seems necessary to write a treatise
on the subject so that students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship may have an
official statement for reference and guidance in the future.
In the first place let it be clearly understood that we consider it repre-
hensible to express condemnation of any society or order, no matter what it
practices. It may be perfectly sincere and honest ACCORDING TO ITS LIGHT.
We do not believe that we rise in the opinion of discriminating men and
women by speaking in disparaging terms of others; neither are we laboring
under the delusion that WE have all the truth and the other societies are
plunged in Egyptian darkness. We reiterate what we have often said before,
[PAGE 8] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
that all religions have been given to mankind by the Recording Angels, who
know the spiritual requirements of each class, nation, and race, and have
the intelligence to give each a form of worship perfectly suited to its par-
ticular need; that thus Hinduism is suited to the Hindu, Mohammedanism to
the Arab, and the Christian religion to those born in the Western Hemi-
sphere.
The Mystery Schools of each religion furnish to the more advanced members
of the race or nation embracing its higher teaching, which IF LIVED, ad-
vances them into a higher sphere of spirituality than their brethren. But
as the religion of the backward races is of a lower order than the religion
of the pioneers, the Christian nations, so also the MYSTERY TEACHING OF THE
EAST IS MORE ELEMENTARY THAN THAT OF THE WEST, and the Hindu or Chinese Ini-
tiate is on a correspondingly lower rung of the ladder of attainment than
the Western Mystic. Please ponder this well so that you may not fall a vic-
tim to misguided people who try to persuade others that the Christian reli-
gion is crude compared with oriental cults. Ever westward in the wake of
the shining sun, the light of the world, has gone the star of empire, and is
it not reasonable to suppose that the spiritual light has kept pace with
civilization, or even preceded it as thought precedes action? We hold that
such is the case, that the Christian religion is the loftiest yet given to
man, and that to repudiate the Christian religion, esoteric or exoteric, for
any of the older systems is analogous to preferring the older textbooks of
[PAGE 9] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
science to the newer ones which embrace discoveries to date.
Neither are the practices of Eastern aspirants to the higher life to be
imitated by Westerners; we refer particularly to the breathing exercises.
They are both beneficial and necessary to the unfoldment of the Hindu, but
it is otherwise with the Western aspirant. To him it is dangerous to prac-
tice breathing exercises for soul unfoldment; they will even prove subver-
sive of soul growth, and they are, moreover, absolutely unnecessary. The
reason is this:
During involution the threefold spirit has become gradually incrusted in
a threefold body. In the Atlantean Epoch man was at the nadir of material-
ity. We are just now rounding the lowest point on the arc of involution,
and starting upward on the arc of evolution. At this point, then, all man-
kind is immured in this earthly prison house to such a degree that spiritual
vibrations are almost killed. This is, of course, particularly true of the
backward races and the lower classes in the Western world. The atoms in
such backward race bodies are vibrating at an exceedingly low rate, and when
in the course of time one of these people develops to a point where it is
possible to further him upon the path of attainment, it is necessary to
raise this vibratory pitch of the atom so that the vital body, which is the
medium of occult growth, may to a certain extent be liberated from the dead-
ening forces of the physical atom. This result is attained by means of
[PAGE 10] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
breathing exercises, which in time accelerate the vibration of the atom, and
allow the spiritual growth necessary to the individual to take place.
These exercises may also be used by a great number of people in the West-
ern world, particularly those who are not at all concerned about their
spiritual advancement. But even among those who desire soul growth there
are many who are not yet at the point where the atoms of their bodies have
evolved to such a pitch of vibration that acceleration beyond the usual mea-
sure would injure them. Here the breathing exercises would do no harm; but
if given to a person who is really at the point where he can enter the path
of advancement ordinarily mapped out for the Hindu's precocious brothers and
sisters in the West, in other words, when he is nearly ready for Initiation
and when he would be benefited BY SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, then the case is far
otherwise.
During the aeons which we have spent in evolution since the time when we
were in Hindu bodies, our atoms have accelerated their vibratory pitch enor-
mously, and as said in the case of one who is really nearly ready for Ini-
tiation, the pitch of vibration is higher than that of the average man or
woman. Therefore he does not need breathing exercises to ACCELERATE this
pitch, but certain spiritual exercises suited to him individually which will
advance him on the proper path. If such a person at this critical period
[PAGE 11] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
meets some one who ignorantly or unscrupulously gives him breathing exer-
cises, and if he follows the instructions accurately in the hope of GETTING
QUICK RESULTS, he will get them quickly but in a manner he has not looked
for, since the vibratory rate of the atoms in his body will in a very short
time become accelerated to such a pitch that it will seem to him as if he
were walking on air; then also an improper cleavage of the vital body may
take place, and either consumption or insanity follows. Now please put this
down where it will burn itself into your consciousness in letters of fire:
INITIATION IS A SPIRITUAL PROCESS, AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS CANNOT BE ACCOM-
PLISHED BY PHYSICAL MEANS, BUT ONLY BY SPIRITUAL EXERCISES.
There are many orders in the West which profess to INITIATE ANYONE WHO
HAS THE PRICE. Some of these orders have names closely resembling our own,
and we are constantly asked by students whether they are affiliated with us.
In order to settle this once and for all, please note that the Rosicrucian
Fellowship has constantly taught that NO SPIRITUAL GIFT MAY EVER BE TRADED
FOR MONEY. If you bear this in mind, you may know we have no connection
with any order which demands money for the transference of spiritual power.
He who has something to give of a truly spiritual nature will not barter it
for money. I received a particular injunction to this effect from the Elder
Brothers in the Rosicrucian Temple, when they told me to go to the English
speaking world as their messenger, a claim I do not expect you to believe
[PAGE 12] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
SAVE AS YOU SEE IT JUSTIFIED BY FRUITS.
Now, however, about Initiation: What it is? Is it ceremony as claimed by
these other orders? If so, any order can certainly invent ceremonies of a
more or less elaborate kind. They may by flowing robes and clashing swords
appeal to the emotions; they may appeal to the sense of wonder and awe by
rattling chains and by deep sounding gongs, and thus produce in their mem-
bers an "OCCULT FEELING." Many revel in the adventures and experiences of
the hero in "The Brother of the Third Degree," thinking that this is surely
Initiation, but I tell you that it is very far from being the case. NO CE-
REMONY CAN EVER GIVE TO ANY ONE THAT INWARD EXPERIENCE which constitutes I-
nitiation, no matter how much is charged or how fearful the oaths, how awful
or beautiful the ceremony, or how gorgeous the robes, any more than passing
through a ceremony can convert a sinner and make him a saint, for conversion
is to the exoteric religionist exactly what Initiation is in the higher mys-
ticism. Please consider this point thoroughly, and you will have the key to
the problem.
Do you think that any one could go to a person of depraved character and
agree to convert him for a certain sum and carry out his part of the agree-
ment? Surely you know that no amount of money could bring about that change
in a man's character. Ask a true convert where he got his religion and how
he got it. One may tell you that he received it upon the road as he was
[PAGE 13] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
walking along; another says that the light and the change came to him in the
solitude of his room; another that the LIGHT STRUCK him as it struck Paul
upon the road to Damascus, and forced him to change. Every one has a dif-
ferent experience, and the outward manifestation of that inward experience
is that IT CHANGES THE MAN'S WHOLE LIFE from the very least to the very
greatest aspect.
So it is with Initiation; it is an inward experience, entirely SEPARATE
AND APART FROM ANY CEREMONIAL WHATEVER, and therefore it is an absolute im-
possibility that any one could sell it to any one else. Initiation changes
a man's whole life. It gives him a confidence that he never possessed be-
fore. It clothes him with a mantle of authority that never can be taken
from him. No matter what the circumstances in life, it sheds a light upon
his whole being that is simply wonderful. Nor can any ceremony effect such
a change. We therefore hold that anyone who offers initiation into an oc-
cult order by ceremonials to everyone who has the price, brands himself as
an imposter. For the true teacher, if he were approached by an aspirant
with an offer of money for spiritual attainment, would answer indignantly in
the words used by Peter to Simon the sorcerer, who offered him money for
spiritual powers: "Thy silver perish with thee."
[PAGE 14] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
CHAPTER II
INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
PART II
TO OBTAIN a better understanding of what constitutes Initiation and what
the prerequisites are, let the student fix firmly in his mind the fact that
humanity as a whole is slowly progressing upon the path of evolution, thus
very slowly, almost inperceptibly, attaining higher and higher states of
consciousness. The path of evolution is a spiral when we regard it from the
physical side only, but a lemniscate when viewed in both its physical and
spiritual phases. (See the diagram of chemical caduceus in THE ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION, page 410.) In the lemniscate, or figure 8, there are two
circles which converge to a central point, which circles may be taken to
symbolize the immortal spirit, the evolving ego. One of the circles signi-
fies its life in the physical world from birth to death. During this span
of time it sows a seed by every act and should reap in return a certain
amount of experience. But as we may sow seed in the field and lose return
on that which falls on stony ground, among thorns, et cetera, so also may
the seed of opportunity be wasted because of neglect to till the soil and
[PAGE 15] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
the life will then be barren of fruit. Conversely, as diligence and care
in cultivation increase the productive power of garden seed enormously, so
earnest application to the business of life--improvement of opportunities to
learn life's lessons and extract from our environment the experience it
holds--brings added opportunities; and at the end of the life-day the ego
finds itself at the door of death laden with the richest fruits of life.
The objective work of physical existence over, the race run, and the day
of action spent, the ego enters upon the subjective work of assimilation ac-
complished during its sojourn in the invisible worlds, which it traverses
during the period from death to birth, symbolized by the other ring of the
lemniscate. As the method of accomplishment this assimilation has been most
minutely described in various parts of our literature, it is needless to re-
peat it here. Suffice it to say that at the time when an ego arrives at
thecentral point in the lemniscate, which divides the physical from the psy-
chic worlds and which we call the gate of birth or death according to
whether the ego is entering or leaving the realm where we, ourselves, happen
to be at the time, it has with it an aggregate of faculties or talents ac-
quired in all its previous lives, which it may then put to usury or bury
during the coming life-day as it sees fit; but upon the use it makes of what
it has, depends the amount of soul growth it makes.
[PAGE 16] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
If for many lives it caters mainly to the lower nature, which lives to
eat, drink and be merry, or if it dreams its life away in metaphysical
speculations upon nature and God, sedulously abstaining from all unnecessary
action, it is gradually passed and left behind by the more active and
progressive. Great companies of these idlers form what we know as "backward
races"; while the active, alert, and wide-awake who improve a larger per-
centage of their opportunities, are the pioneers. Contrary to the commonly
accepted idea, this applies also to those engaged in industrial work. Their
money-getting is only an incident, an incentive, and entirely apart from
this phase their work is as spiritual as or even more so than that of those
who spend their time in prayer to the prejudice of useful work.
From what has been said, it will be clear that the method of soul growth
as accomplished by the process of evolution requires ACTION in the physical
life, followed in the post-mortem state by a RUMINATING PROCESS, during
which the lessons of life are extracted and thoroughly incorporated into the
consciousness of the ego, though the experiences themselves are
forgotten--as we forget our labor in learning the multiplication table,
though the faculty of using it remains.
This exceedingly slow and tedious process is perfectly suited to the
needs of the masses; but there are some who habitually exhaust the experi-
ences commonly given, thus requiring and meriting a larger scope for their
[PAGE 17] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
energies. Difference of temperament is responsible for their division into
two classes.
One class, led by their devotion to Christ, simply follow the dictates of
the heart in their work of live for their fellows--beautiful characters,
beacon lights of love in a suffering world, never actuated by selfish mo-
tives, always ready to forego personal comfort to aid others. Such were the
saints; they worked as they prayed; they never shirked in either direction.
Nor are they dead today. The earth would be a barren wilderness in spite of
all its civilization did not their beautiful feet circle it on errands of
mercy, were not the lives of sufferers made brighter by the light of hope
which radiates from their beautiful faces. Had they but the knowledge pos-
sessed by the other class they would indeed outdistance all in the race for
the Kingdom.
Mind is the predominating feature of the other class. In order to aid it
in its efforts toward attainment, mystery schools were early established
wherein the world drama was played to give the aspiring soul while he was
entranced, answers to the questions of the origin and destiny of humanity.
When awakened, he was instructed in the sacred science of how to climb
higher by following the method of nature--which is meditating upon the expe-
rience, and incorporating the essential moral to make thereby commensurate
soul growth; also with this important feature, that whereas in the ordinary
[PAGE 18] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
course of things a whole life is devoted to sowing and a whole post-mortem
existence to ruminating and incorporating the soul substance, this cycle of
a thousand years, more or less, may be reduced to a day, as held by the mys-
tic maxim, "A day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
To be explicit, whatever work has been done during a single day, if rumi-
nated over at night before crossing the neutral point between waking and
sleeping, may thus be incorporated into the consciousness of the spirit as
usable soul power. When that exercise is faithfully performed, the sins of
each day thus reviewed are actually blotted out, and the man commences each
day as if it were a new life, with the added soul power gained in all the
preceding days of his probationary life.
But!--yes, there is a great big BUT; NATURE IS NOT TO BE CHEATED; God is
not to be mocked. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Let
no one think that the mere perfunctory review of the happenings of a day
with perhaps the light-hearted admission of, "I wish I had not done that,"
when reviewing a scene where he did something palpably wrong, will save him
from the wrath to come. When we pass out of the body into purgatory at
death and the panorama of our past life unfolds in reverse order to show us
first the effects and then the causes which produced them, we feel in inten-
sified measure the pain we gave others; and unless we perform our exercises
[PAGE 19] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
in a similar manner SO THAT WE LIVE EACH EVENING OUR HELL as merited that
day, acutely sensible of every pang we have inflicted, it will avail noth-
ing. We must also endeavor to feel in the same intense manner, gratitude
for kindness received from others, and approbation on account of the good we
ourselves have done.
Only thus are we really living the post-mortem existence and advancing
scientifically towards the goal of Initiation. The greatest danger of the
aspirant upon this path is that he may become enmeshed in the snare of ego-
tism, and his only safeguard is to cultivate the faculties of faith, devo-
tion, and an all-embracing sympathy. It is difficult, but it can be done,
and when it has been accomplished the man or woman becomes a wonderful power
for good in the world.
Now, if the student has pondered the preceding argument well, he has
probably grasped the analogy between the LONG CYCLE of evolution and the
short CYCLES or steps used upon the path of preparation. It should be quite
clear that no one can do this post-mortem work for him and transmit to him
the resulting soul growth. You think it preposterous when a priesthood of-
fers to shorten the sojourn of a soul in purgatory. How, then, can you be-
lieve that anyone else can--no matter what the consideration--obviate the
necessity of a number of purgatorial existences for your benefit and trans-
mit to you at once the usable soul power you would have acquired had you
[PAGE 20] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
pursued the ordinary course of life to the day you are ready for Initiation?
Yet this is what the offer to initiate a person not yet upon the threshold
means. You must have the soul power requisite for Initiation or no one can
initiate you. If you have it, you are upon the threshold by your own ef-
forts, beholden to no one, and may demand Initiation as a right which none
would dare dispute or withhold. If you have it not and could buy it, it
would be cheap at twenty-five million dollars, and the man who offers it for
twenty-five dollars is as ridiculous as his dupe. Please remember that if
anyone offers to initiate you into an occult order, no matter if he calls it
"Rosicrucian" or by any other name, his demand of an initiation fee at once
stamps him as an imposter; explanations ot the effect that the fee is used
to purchase regalia, et cetera, are only added evidence of the fraudulent
nature of the order for it is said, "Initiation is most emphatically not an
outward ceremony, but an inward experience." I may further add that the
Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in the Mystic Temple where I received the
Light made it a condition that their SACRED SCIENCE MUST NEVER BE PUT IN THE
BALANCE AGAINST A COIN. Freely had I received, and freely was I required to
give. This injunction I have obeyed, both in spirit and to the letter, as
all know who have had dealings with the Rosicrucian Fellowship.
[PAGE 21] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
CHAPTER III
THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
PART I
TO OBTAIN a thorough understanding of the deep and far-reaching sig-
nificance of the manner in which the Sacrament of Communion was instituted,
it is necessary to consider the evolution of our planet and of composite
man, also the chemistry of foods and their influence on humanity. For the
sake of lucidity we will briefly recapitulate the Rosicrucian teachings on
the various points involved. They have been given at length in the
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION and our other works.
The Virgin Spirits, which are now mankind, commenced their pilgrimage
through matter in the dawn of time, that by the friction of concrete exist-
ence their latent powers might be transmuted to kinetic energy as usable
soul power. Three successive veils of increasingly dense matter were ac-
quired by the involving spirits during the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods.
Thus each spirit was separated from all other spirits, and the consciousness
which could not penetrate the prison wall of matter and communicate with
others was forced to turn inwards, and in so doing it discovered--ITSELF.
[PAGE 22] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
Thus self-consciousness was attained.
A further crystallization of the before mentioned veils took place in the
Earth Period during the Polarian, Hyperborean, and Lemurain Epochs. In the
Atlantean Epoch, the mind was added as a focusing point between the spirit
and body, completing the constitution of composite man, who was then
equipped to conquer the world and generate soul power by endeavor and expe-
rience, each having free will and choice except as limited by the laws of
nature and his own previous acts.
During the time man-in-the-making was thus evolving, great creative Hier-
archies guided his every step. Absolutely nothing was left to chance. Even
the food he ate was chosen for him so that he might obtain the appropriate
material wherewith to build the various vehicles of consciousness necessary
to accomplish the process of soul growth. The Bible mentions the various
stages, though it misplaces Nimrod, making him to symbolize the Atlantean
kings who lived BEFORE the Flood.
In the Polarian Epoch pure mineral matter became a constituent part of
man; thus ADAM was made of earth, that is, so far as his dense body was
concerned.
In the Hyperborean Epoch the vital body was added, and thus his constitu-
tion became plantlike, and CAIN, the man of that time, lived on the fruits
[PAGE 23] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
of the soil.
The Lemurian Epoch saw the evolution of a desire body, which made man
like the present animals. Then milk, the product of living animals, was
added to human diet. ABEL was a shepherd, but it is nowhere stated that he
killed an animal.
At that time mankind lived innocently and peacefully in the misty atmo-
sphere which enveloped the earth during the latter part of the Lemurian Ep-
och, as described in the chapter on "Baptism" Men were then like children
under the care of a common father, until the mind was given to all in the
beginning of Atlantis. Thought activity breaks down tissue which must be
replaced; the lower and more material the thought, the greater the havoc and
the more pressing the need for albumen wherewith to make quick repairs.
Hence necessity, the mother of invention, inaugurated the loathsome practice
of flesh eating, and so long as we continue to think along purely business
or material lines we shall have to go on using our stomachs as receptacles
for the decaying corpses of our murdered animal victims. Yet we shall see
later that flesh food has enabled us to make the wonderful material progress
achieved in the Western World, while the vegetarian Hindus and Chinese have
remained in an almost savage state. It seems sad to contemplate that they
will be forced to follow in our steps and shed the blood of our fellow crea-
tures when we shall have outgrown the barbarous practice as we have ceased
[PAGE 24] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
cannibalism.
The more spiritual we grow, the more our thoughts will harmonize with the
rhythm of our body, and the less albumen will be needed to build tissue.
Consequently, a vegetable diet will suffice our needs. Pythagoras advised
abstinence from legumes to ADVANCED scholars because they are rich in albu-
men and apt to revive lower appetites. Let not every student who reads this
rashly conclude to eliminate legumes from his diet. Most of us are not yet
ready for such extremes; we would not even advise all students to abstain
entirely from meat. The change should come from within. It may be safely
stated, however, that most people eat entirely too much meat for their good;
but this is in a certain sense a digression, so we will revert to the fur-
ther evolution of humanity in so far as it has a bearing upon the Sacrament
of Communion.
In due time the dense mist which enveloped the earth cooled, condensed,
and flooded the various basins. The atmosphere cleared, and concurrently
with this atmospheric change a physiological adaptation in man took place.
The gill clefts which had enabled him to breathe in the dense water-laden
air (and which are seen in the human foetus to this day) gradually atro-
phied, and their function was taken over by the lungs, the pure air passing
to and from them through the larynx. This allowed the spirit, hitherto
[PAGE 25] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
penned up within the veil of flesh, to express itself in word and act.
There in the middle of Atlantis the sun first shone upon MAN as we know
him; there he was FIRST BORN into the world. Until then he had been under
the absolute control of great spiritual Hierarchies, mute, without voice or
choice in matters pertaining to his education, as a child is now under the
control of its parents.
But one day when he finally emerged from the dense atmosphere of
Atlantis; when he first beheld the mountains silhouetted in clear, sharp
contours against the azure vault of heaven; when he first saw the beauties
of moor and meadow, the moving creatures, birds in the air, and his fellow
man; when his vision was undimmed by the partial obscuration of the mist
which had previously hampered perception; above all, when he perceived HIM-
SELF as SEPARATE and APART FROM ALL OTHERS, there burst from his lips the
glorious triumphant cry, "I AM."
At that point he had acquired faculties which equipped him to enter the
school of experience, the phenomenal world, as a free agent to learn the
lessons of life, untrammeled save by the LAWS OF NATURE, which are his safe-
guards, and the reaction of his own previous acts, which become DESTINY.
The diet containing an excess of albumen from the flesh wherewith he
gorged himself, taxed his liver beyond the capacity and clogged the system,
making him morose, sullen, and brutish. He was fast losing the spiritual
[PAGE 26] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
sight which revealed to him the guardian angels whom he trusted, and he say
only the FORMS of animals and men. The spirits with whom he had lived in
love and brotherhood during early Atlantis were obscured by the veil of
flesh. It was all so strange, and he FEARED them.
Therefore it became necessary to give him a NEW FOOD that could aid his
spirit to overpower the highly individualized molecules of flesh (as ex-
plained in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, chapter on Assimilation, p.
457), brace it for battle with the world, and spur it on to self-assertion.
As our visible bodies composed of chemical compounds can thrive only upon
chemical aliment, so it requires spirit to act upon spirit to aid in break-
ing up the heavy proteid and in stimulating the drooping human spirit.
The emergence from flooded Atlantis, the liberation of humanity from the
absolute rulership of visible superhuman guardians, their placement under
THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE AND THE LAWS OF NATURE, and THE GIFT OF WINE are de-
scribed in the stories of Noah and Moses, which are different accounts of
the same event.
Both Noah and Moses led their followers through the water. Moses calls
heaven and earth to witness that he has placed before them the blessing and
the curse, exhorts them to choose the good or take the consequences of their
actions; then he leaves them.
[PAGE 27] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
The phenomenon of the rainbow requires that the sun be near the horizon,
the nearer the better; also a clear atmosphere, and a dark rain cloud in the
opposite quarter of the heavens. When under such conditions an observer
stands with back to the sun, drops as a rainbow. In early Atlantean times
when a warm, moist fog through which the sun appeared as one of our arc
lamps on a foggy day, the phenomenon of the rainbow was an impossibility.
It could not have made its appearance until the mist had condensed to rain,
flooded the basins of the earth, and Noah, which thus points TO THE LAW OF
ALTERNATING CYCLES that brings day and night, summer and winter, in
unvarying sequence, and to which man is subject in the present age.
Noah cultivated the vine and provided a spirit to stimulate man. Thus,
equipped with a composite constitution, a composite diet appropriate
thereto, and divine laws to guide them, mankind were left to their own de-
vices in the battle of life.
[PAGE 28] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
CHAPTER IV
THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
"IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME."
PART II
"THE LORD JESUS, the same night in which he was betrayed took bread; and
when he had given thanks, he brake it and said, Take, eat; This is MY body,
which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same man-
ner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New
Testament in MY blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of
me. For as often as ye eat This bread, and drink This cup, ye do shew the
Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat This bread, and
drink This cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord . . . . For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself . . . . For this cause many are weak and
sickly among you, and many sleep."--I Cor 11:23-30.
In the foregoing passages there is a deeply hidden esoteric meaning which
is particularly obscured in the English translation, but in the German,
Latin and Greek, the student still has a hint as to what was really intended
[PAGE 29] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
by that last parting injunction of the Savior to His disciples. Before ex-
amining This phase of the subject, let us first consider the words, "in re-
membrance of me." We shall then perhaps be in better condition to under-
stand what is meant by the "cup" and the "bread."
Suppose a man from a distant country comes into our midst and travels
about from place to place. Everywhere he will see small communities gather-
ing around the Table of the Lord to celebrate This most sacred of all Chris-
tian rites, and should he ask why, he would be told that they do This in re-
membrance of One who lived a life nobler than any other has lived upon This
earth; One who was kindness and love personified; One who was the servant of
all, regardless of gain or loss to self. Should This stranger then compare
the attitude of these religious communities on Sunday at the celebration of
This rite, with their civic lives during the remainder of the week, what
would he see?
Every one among us goes out into the world to fight the battle of exist-
ence. Under the law of necessity we forget the love which should be the
ruling factor in Christian lives. Every man's hand is against his brother.
Every one strives for position, wealth, and power that goes with these at-
tributes. We forget on Monday what we reverently remembered on Sunday, and
all the world is poor in consequence. We also make a distinction between
[PAGE 30] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
the bread and wine which we drink at the so-called "Lord's Table," and the
food of which we partake during the intervals between attendance at
Communion. But there is no warrant in the Scriptures for any such distinc-
tion, as anyone may see, even in the English version, by leaving out the
words printed in italics which have been inserted by the translators to give
what they thought was the sense of a passage. On the contrary, we are told
that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, all should be done to the
glory of God. Our every act should be a prayer. The perfunctory "grace" at
meals is in reality a blasphemy, and the silent thought of gratitude to the
Giver of daily bread is far to be preferred. When we remember at each meal
that it has been drawn from the substance of the earth, which is the body of
the indwelling Christ Spirit, we can properly understand how that body is
being broken for us daily, and we can appreciate the loving kindness which
prompted Him thus to give Himself for us; for let us also remember that
there is not a moment, day or night, that He is not suffering because bound
to earth. When we thus eat and thus realize the true situation, we are in-
deed declaring to ourselves the death of the Lord, whose spirit is groaning
and travailing, waiting for the day of liberation when there shall be no
need of such a dense environment as we now require.
But there is another, a greater and more wonderful mystery hidden in
[PAGE 31] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
these words of the Christ. Richard Wagner, with the rare intuition of the
master musician, sensed This idea when he sat in meditation by the Zurich
Sea on a Good Friday, and there flashed into his mind the thought, "What
connection is there between the death of the Savior and the millions of
seeds sprouting forth from the earth at this time of the year?" If we
meditate upon that life which is annually poured out in the spring, we wee
it as something gigantic and awe-inspiring; a flood of life which transforms
the glove from one of frozen death to rejuvenated life in a short space of
time; and the life which thus diffuses itself in the budding of millions and
millions of plants is the life of the Earth Spirit.
From that come both the wheat and the grape. They are the body and blood
of the imprisoned Earth Spirit, given to sustain mankind during the present
phase of its evolution. We repudiate the contention of people who claim
that the world owes them a living, regardless of their own efforts and with-
out MATERIAL responsibility on their part, but we nevertheless insist that
there is a SPIRITUAL responsibility connected with the bread and wine given
at the Lord's Supper; IT MUST BE EATEN WORTHILY, OTHERWISE, UNDER PAIN OF
ILL HEALTH AND EVEN DEATH. This from the ordinary manner of reading would
seem far-fetched, but when we bring the light of esotericism to bear, exam-
ine other translations of the Bible, and look at conditions in the world as
[PAGE 32] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
we find them today, we shall see that it is not so far-fetched after all.
To begin with, we must go back to the time when man lived under the
guardianship of the angels, unconsciously building the body which he now
uses. That was in ancient Lemuria. A brain was needed for the evolution of
thought, and a larynx for verbal expression of the same. Therefore, half of
the creative force was turned upwards and used by man to form these organs.
Thus mankind became single-sexed and was forced to seek a complement when it
was necessary to create a new body to serve as an instrument in a higher
phase of evolution.
While the act of love was consummated under the wise guardianship of the
angels, man's existence was free from sorrow, pain and death. But when, un-
der the tutelage of the Lucifer Spirits, he ate of the Tree of Knowledge and
perpetuated the race without regard for interplanetary lines of force, he
transgressed the law, and the bodies thus formed crystallized unduly, and
became subject to death in a much more perceptible manner than had hitherto
been the case. Thus he was forced to create new bodies more frequently as
the span of life in them shortened. Celestial warders of the creative force
drove him from the garden of LOVE into the wilderness of the world, and he
was made responsible for his actions under the cosmic LAW which governs the
universe. Thus for ages he struggled on, seeking to work out his own salva-
tion, and the earth in consequence crystallized more and more.
[PAGE 33] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
Divine hierarchies, the Christ Spirit included, worked upon the earth
from without as the group spirit guides the animals under tis protectorate;
but as Paul truly says, none could be justified under the law, for under the
law all sinned, and all must die. There is in the old covenant no hope be-
yond the present, save a foreshadowing of ONE WHO IS TO COME and restore
righteousness. Thus John tells us that the LAW was given by Moses, and GRACE
came by the Lord Jesus Christ. But WHAT IS GRACE? Can grace work contrary
to the law and abrogate it entirely? Certainly not. The laws of God are
steadfast and sure, or the universe would become chaos. The law of gravity
keeps our houses in position relative to other houses, so that when we leave
them we may know of a surety that we shall find them in the same place upon
returning. Likewise all other departments in the universe are subject to
immutable laws.
As LAW, APART FROM LOVE, GAVE BIRTH TO SIN, SO THE CHILD OF LAW, TEMPERED
WITH LOVE, IS GRACE. Take an example from our concrete social conditions:
We have laws which decree a certain penalty for a specified offense, and
when the law is carried out, we call it JUSTICE. But long experience is be-
ginning to teach us that justice, pure and simple, is like the Colchian
dragon's teeth, and breeds strife and struggle in increasing measure. The
criminal, so-called, remains criminal and becomes more and more hardened
[PAGE 34] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
under the ministrations of law; but when the milder regime of the present
day allows one who has transgressed to go under suspended sentence, then HE
IS UNDER GRACE and not under law. Thus, also the Christian, who aims to
follow in the Master's steps, is emancipated from the law of sin by grace,
provided he foresake the path of sin.
It was the sin of our progenitors in ancient Lemuria that THEY SCATTERED
THEIR SEED regardless of law and without love. But it is the privilege of
the Christian to redeem himself by purity of life in remembrance of the
Lord. John says, "His seed remaineth in him," and This is the hidden mean-
ing of the bread and wine. In the English version we read simply: "This is
the CUP of the New Testament," but in the German the word for cup is
"Kelch," and in the Latin, "Calix," both meaning the outer covering of the
seed pod of the flower. In the Greek we have a still more subtle meaning,
not conveyed in other languages, in the word "poterion," a meaning which
will be evident when we consider the etymology of the word "pot." This at
once gives us the same idea as the chalice or calix--a receptacle; and the
Latin "POTARE" (to drink) also shows that the "cup" is a receptacle capable
of holding a fluid. Our English words "potent" and "impotent" meaning to
possess or to lack virile strength, further show the meaning of this Greek
[PAGE 35] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
word, which foreshadows the evolution from man to superman.
We have already lived through a mineral, plant and an animal-like exist-
ence before becoming human as we are today, and beyond us lie still further
evolutions where we shall approach the Divine more and more. It will be
readily conceded that it is our animal passions which restrain us upon the
path if attainment; the lower nature is constantly warring against the
higher self. At least in those who have experienced a spiritual awakening,
a war is being fought silently within, and is all the more bitter for being
suppressed. Goethe with masterly art voiced that sentiment in the words of
Faust, the aspiring soul, speaking to his more materialistic friend, Wagner:
"Thou by one sole impulse art possessed,
Unconscious of the other still remain.
Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast,
And struggle there for undivided reign.
One, to the earth with passionate desire,
And closely clinging organs still adheres;
Above the mists the other doth aspire
With sacred ardor unto purer spheres."
It was the knowledge of this absolute necessity of chastity (save when
procreation is the object) upon the part of those who have had a spiritual
awakening which dictated the words of Christ, and the Apostle Paul stated
[PAGE 36] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
an esoteric truth when he said that THOSE WHO PARTOOK OF THE COMMUNION WITH-
OUT LIVING THE LIFE WERE IN DANGER OF SICKNESS AND DEATH. For just as under
a spiritual tutelage, purity of life may elevate the disciple wonderfully,
so also unchastity has a much stronger effect upon his more sensitized bod-
ies than upon those who are yet under the law, and have not become partakers
of grace by the cup of the New Covenant.
[PAGE 37] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
CHAPTER V
THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HAVING studied the esoteric significance of our Christian festivals, such
as Christmas and Easter, and having also studied the doctrine of the Im-
maculate Conception, it may be well now to devote attention to the inner
meaning of the sacraments of the church which are administered to the indi-
vidual in all Christian lands from the cradle to the grave, and are with him
at all important points in his life journey.
As soon as he has entered upon the journey of life, the church admits him
into its fold by the rite of BAPTISM which is conferred upon him at a time
when he himself is irresponsible; later, when his mentality has been some-
what developed, he ratifies that contract and is admitted to COMMUNION,
where BREAD is broken and WINE is sipped in memory of the Founder of our
faith. Still further upon life's journey comes the sacrament of MARRIAGE;
and at last when the race has been run and the spirit again withdraws to God
who gave it, the earth body is consigned to the dust, whence it was derived,
[PAGE 38] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
accompanied by the blessings of the church.
In our Protestant times the spirit of protest is rampant in the extreme,
and dissenters everywhere raise their voices in rebellion against the fan-
cied arrogance of the priesthood and deprecate the sacraments as mere mum-
mery. On account of that attitude of mind these functions have become of
little or no effect in the life of the community; dissensions have arisen
even among churchmen themselves, and sect after sect has divorced itself
from the original apostolic congregation.
Despite all protests the various doctrines and sacraments of the church
are, nevertheless, the very keystones in the arch of evolution, for they in-
culcate morals of the loftiest nature; and even materialistic scientist,
such as Huxley, have admitted that while self-protection brings about "the
survival of the fittest" in the animal kingdom and is therefore the basis of
animal evolution, self-sacrifice is the fostering principle of human ad-
vancement. When that is the case among mere mortals, we may well believe
that it must be so to a still greater extent in the Divine Author of our be-
ing.
Among animals might is right, but we recognize that the weak have a claim
to the protection of the strong. The butterfly lays its eggs on the under-
side of a green leaf and goes off without another care for their well-being.
In mammals the MOTHER instinct is strongly developed, and we see the
[PAGE 39] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
the lioness caring for her cubs and ready to defend them with her life; but
not until the kingdom is reached does the FATHER commence to share fully in
the responsibility as a parent. Among savages the care of the young practi-
cally ends with the higher we ascend in civilization the longer the young
receive care from their parents, and the more stress is laid upon mental
rather than from the physical point of vantage; for the further we proceed
along the path of development the more we shall experience the power of mind
over matter. By the more and more prolonged self-sacrifice of parents, the
race is becoming more delicate, but what we lose in material ruggedness we
gain in spiritual perceptibility.
As this faculty grows stronger and more developed, the craving of the
spirit immured in This earthly body voices itself more loudly in a demand
for understanding of the spiritual side of development. Wallace and Darwin,
Haxley and Spencer, pointed out how evolution of FORM is accomplished in na-
ture; Earnest Haeckel attempted to solve the riddle of the universe, but no
one of them could satisfactorily explain away the DIVINE AUTHOR of what we
see. The great goddess, NATURAL SELECTION, is being forsaken by one after
another of her devotees as the years go by. Even Haeckel, the arch materi-
alist, in his last years showed an almost hysterical anxiety to make a place
[PAGE 40] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
for God in his system, and the day will come in a not far distant future
when science will have become as thoroughly religious as religion itself.
The church, on the other hand, though still extremely conservative is never-
theless slowly abandoning its autocratic dogmatism and becoming more scien-
tific in its explanations. Thus in time we shall see the union of science
and religion as it existed in the ancient mystery temples, and when that
point has been reached, THE DOCTRINES AND SACRAMENTS of the church will be
found to REST UPON IMMUTABLE COSMIC LAWS OF NO LESS IMPORTANCE THAN THE LAW
OF GRAVITY which maintains the marching orbs in their paths around the sun.
As the points of the equinoxes and solstices are turning points in the cy-
clic path of a planet, marked by festivals such Christmas and Easter, so
birth into the physical world, admission to the church, to the state of mat-
rimony, and finally the exit from physical life, are points in the cyclic
path of the human spirit around its central source--God, which are marked by
the sacraments of BAPTISM, COMMUNION, MARRIAGE, and THE LAST BLESSING.
We will now consider the rite of baptism. Much has been said by dissent-
ers, against the practice of taking an INFANT INTO CHURCH AND PROMISING FOR
IT A RELIGIOUS LIFE. Heated arguments concerning SPRINKLING VERSUS PLUNGING
have resulted in division of churches. If we wish to obtain the true idea
of baptism, we must revert to the early history of the human race as re-
corded in the Memory of Nature. All that has ever happened is indelibly
[PAGE 41] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
pictured in the ether as a moving picture is imprinted upon a sensitized
film, which picture can be reproduced upon a screen at any moment. The
picutes in the Memory of Nature may be viewed by the trained seer, even
though millions of years have elapsed since the scenes there portrayed were
enacted in life.
When we consult that unimpeachable record it appears that there was a
time when that which is now our earth came out of chaos, dark and unformed,
as the Bible states. The currents developed in This misty mass by spiritual
agencies, generated HEAT, and the mass ignited at the time when we are told
that God said, "Let there be light." The heat of the fiery mass and the
cold space surrounding it generated MOISTURE; the fire mist became sur-
rounded by water which boiled, and steam was projected into the atmosphere;
thus "God divided the waters . . . . from the waters . . . . "--the dense
water which was nearest the fire mist from the steam (which is water in sus-
pension), as stated in the Bible.
When water contained sediment is boiled over and over it deposits scale,
and similarly the water surrounding our planet finally formed a crust around
the fiery core. The Bible further informs us that a MIST went up from the
ground, AND WE MAY WELL CONCEIVE how the moisture was gradually evaporated
from our planet in those early days.
[PAGE 42] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
Ancient myths are usually regarded as superstitions nowadays, but in re-
ality each of them contains a great spiritual truth in pictorial symbols.
These fantastic stories were given to infant humanity to teach them moral
lessons which their newborn intellects were note yet fitted to receive.
They were taught by myths--much as we teach our children by picture books
and fables--lessons beyond their intellectual comprehension.
One of the greatest of these folk stories is "THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG,"
which tells of a wonderful treasure hidden under the waters of the Rhine.
It was a lump of gold in its natural state. Placed upon a high rock, it il-
luminated the entire submarine scenery where water nymphs sported about in-
nocently in gladsome frolic. But one of the Neibelungs, imbued with greed,
stole the treasure, carried it out of the water, and fled. It was impos-
sible for him, however, to shape it until he had forsworn love. Then he
fashioned it into a ring which gave him power over all the treasures of
earth, but at the same time it inaugurated dissension and strife. For its
sake, friend betrayed friend, brother slew brother, and everywhere it caused
oppression, sorrow, sin and death, until it was at last restored to the wa-
tery element and the earth was consumed in flames. But later there arose,
like the new phoenix from the ashes of the old bird, a new heaven and a new
earth where righteousness were re-established.
[PAGE 43] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
That old folk story gives a wonderful picture of human evolution. The
name NIEBELUNGEN is derived from the German words, NIEBEL (which means
mist), and UNGEN (which means children). Thus the word NIEBELUNGEN means
CHILDREN OF THE MIST, and it refers back to the time when humanity lived in
the foggy atmosphere surrounding our earth at the stage n its development
previously mentioned. There infant humanity lived in one vast brotherhood,
innocent of all evil as the babe of today, and illuminated by the Universal
Spirit symbolized as the Rhinegold which shed its light upon the water
nymphs of our story. But in time the earth cooled more and more; the fog
condensed and flooded depressions upon the surface of the earth with water;
the atmosphere cleared; the eyes of man were opened and he perceived himself
as a separate ego. Then the Universal Spirit of LOVE and SOLIDARITY was su-
perseded by egotism and self-seeking.
That was the rape of the Rhinegold, and sorrow, sin, strife, treachery,
and murder have taken the place of the childlike love which existed among
humanity in that primal state when they dwelt in the watery atmosphere of
long ago. Gradually This tendency is becoming more and more marked, and the
curse of selfishness grows more and more apparent. "Man's inhumanity to
man" hangs like a funeral pall over the earth, and must inevitably bring
about destruction of existing conditions. The whole creation is groaning
[PAGE 44] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
and travailing, waiting for the day of redemption, and the Western Religion
strikes the keynote of the way to attainment when it exhorts us to love our
neighbor as we love ourselves; for then egotism will be abrogated for uni-
versal brotherhood and love.
Therefore, when a person is admitted to the church, which is a SPIRITUAL
institution where love and brotherhood are the mainsprings of action, it is
appropriate to carry him UNDER THE WATERS of baptism in symbol of the beau-
tiful condition of childlike innocence and love which prevailed when mankind
dwelt UNDER THE MIST in that bygone period. At that time the eyes of infant
man had not yet been opened to the MATERIAL advantages of This world. The
little child which is brought into the church has not yet become aware of
the allurements of life either, and others obligate themselves to guide it
to lead a holy life according to the best of their ability, because experi-
ence gained since the Flood has taught us that the broad way of the world is
strewn with pain, sorrow, and disappointment; that only by following the
straight and narrow way can we escape death and enter into life everlasting.
Thus we see that there is a wonderfully deep, mystic significance behind
the sacrament of baptism; that it is to remind us of the blessings attendant
upon those who are members of a BROTHERHOOD where self-seeking is put into
the background and where SERVICE to others is the keynote and mainspring of
[PAGE 45] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
action. While we are in the world, he is the greatest who can most success-
fully dominate others. In the church we have Christ's definition, "HE WHO
WOULD BE THE GREATEST AMONG YOU, LET HIM BE THE SERVANT OF ALL."
[PAGE 46] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE
WHEN STRIPPED of nonessentials the argument of the orthodox Christian re-
ligion may be said to be as follows:
First, that tempted by the devil, our first parents sinned and were ex-
iled form their previous state of celestial bliss, placed under the law,
made subject to death, and became incapable of escaping by their own ef-
forts.
Second, that God so loved the world that He gave Christ, His only begot-
ten Son, for its redemption and to establish the kingdom of heaven. Thus
death will finally be swallowed up in immortality.
This simple creed has provoked the smiles of atheists, and of the purely
intellectual who have studied transcendental philosophies with their nice-
ties of logic and argument; and even of some among those who study the West-
ern Mystery Teaching.
Such an attitude of mind is entirely gratuitous. We might know that the
divine leaders of mankind would not allow millions to continue in error for
millennia. When the Western Mystery Teaching is stripped of its exceedingly
[PAGE 47] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE
illuminating explanations and detailed descriptions, when its basic teach-
ings are stated, they are found to be in exact agreement with the orthodox
Christian teachings.
There was a time when mankind lived in a sinless state; when sorrow,
pain, and death were unknown. Neither is the PERSONAL TEMPTER of Christian-
ity a myth, for the Lucifer Spirits may very well be said to be fallen an-
gels, and their temptation of man resulted in focusing his consciousness
upon the material phase of existence where he is under the law of de-
crepitude and death. Also it is truly the mission of Christ to aid mankind
by elevating them to a more ethereal state where dissolution will no longer
be necessary to free them from vehicles that have grown too hard and set for
further use. For This is indeed a "body of death," where only the smallest
quantity of material is really alive, as part of its bulk is nutrient matter
that has not yet been assimilated, another large part is already on its way
to elimination, and only between these two poles may be found the material
which is thoroughly quickened by the spirit.
We have in other chapters considered the sacraments of baptism and com-
munion, sacraments that have to do particularly with the spirit. We will
now seek to understand the deeper side of the sacrament of marriage, which
has to do particularly with the body. Like the other sacraments the insti-
tution of marriage had its beginning and will also have its end. The com-
mencement was described by the Christ when He said, "Have ye not read that
[PAGE 48] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said:
For This cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his
wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain,
but one flesh." Matt. 19:4-6. He also indicated the end of marriage when
he said: "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but are as the angels of God in heaven." Matt. 22:30
In This light the logic of the teaching is apparent, for MARRIAGE became
necessary in order that BIRTH might provide new instruments to take the
place of those which had been ruptured by DEATH; and when death has once
been swallowed up in immortality and there is no need of providing new in-
struments, marriage also will be unnecessary.
Science with admirable audacity has sought to solve the mystery of fecun-
dation, and has told us how invagination takes place in the walls of the
ovary; how the little ovum is formed in the seclusion of its dark cavity;
how it emerges therefrom and enters the Fallopian tube; is pierced by the
spermatozoon of the male, and the nucleus of a human body is complete. We
are thus supposed to be "at the fount and origin of life!" But life has
neither beginning nor end, and what science mistakenly considers the foun-
tain of life is really the source of death, as all that comes from the womb
[PAGE 49] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE
is destined sooner or later to reach the tomb. The MARRIAGE feast which
prepares for BIRTH, at the same time provides food for the insatiable jaws
of DEATH, and so long as marriage is necessary to generation and birth, dis-
integration and death must inevitably result. Therefore, it is of prime im-
portance to know the history of marriage, the laws and agencies involved,
the duration of This institution, and how it may be transcended.
When we obtained our vital bodies in Hyperborea, the sun, moon and earth
were still united, and the solar-lunar forces permeated each being in even
measure so that all were able to perpetuate their kind by buds and spores as
do certain plants of today. The efforts of the vital body to soften the
dense vehicle and keep it alive were not then interfered with, and was these
primal, plantlike bodies lived for ages. But man was then unconscious and
stationary like a plant; he made no effort or exertion. The addition of a
desire body furnished incentive and desire, and consciousness resulted from
the war between the vital body, which builds, and the desire body, which de-
stroys the dense body.
Thus dissolution became only a question of time, particularly as the con-
structive energy of the vital body was also necessarily divided, one part or
pole being used in the vital functions of the body, the other to replace a
vehicle lost by death. But as the two poles of a magnet or dynamo are re-
[PAGE 50] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
quisite to manifestation, so also two single-sexed beings became necessary
for generation; thus marriage and birth were necessarily inaugurated to off-
set the effect of death. DEATH, THEN, IS THE PRICE WE PAY FOR CONSCIOUSNESS
IN THE PRESENT WORLD; marriage and repeated births are our weapons against
the king of terrors until our constitution shall change and we become as
angels.
Please mark that it is not stated that we are to become angels, but that
we are to become AS ANGELS. For the angels are the humanity of the Moon Pe-
riod; they belong to an entirely different stream of evolution, as different
as are human spirits from those of our present animals. Paul states in his
letter to the Hebrews that man was made FOR A LITTLE WHILE inferior to the
angels; he descended lower into the scale of materiality during the Earth
Period, while the angels have never inhabited a globe denser than ether.
This substance is the direct avenue of all life forces, and when man has
once become as the angels and has learned to build his body of ether,
naturally there will be no death and no need of marriage to bring about
birth.
But looking at marriage from another point of view, looking upon it as a
union of souls rather than as a union of the sexes, we contact the wonderful
mystery of Love. Union of the sexes might serve to perpetuate the race, of
course, but the true marriage is a companionship of souls also, which
[PAGE 51] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE
altogether transcends sex. Yet those really able to meet upon that lofty
plane of spiritual intimacy gladly offer their bodies as living sacrifices
upon the altar of LOVE OF THE UNBORN, to woo a waiting spirit into an im-
maculately conceived body. Thus humanity may be saved from the reign of
death.
This is readily apparent as soon as we consider the gentle action of the
vital body and contrast it with that of the desire body in a fit of temper,
where it is said that a man has "lost control" of himself. Under such con-
ditions the muscles become tense, and nervous energy is expended at a sui-
cidal rate, so that after such an outbreak the body may sometimes be pros-
trated for weeks. The hardest labor brings no such fatigue as a fit of
temper; likewise a child conceived in passion under the crystallizing ten-
dencies of the desire nature is naturally short-lived, and it si a regret-
table fact that LENGTH OF LIFE is nowadays almost a misnomer; in view of the
appalling infant mortality it ought to be called BREVITY OF EXISTENCE.
The building tendencies of the vital body, which is the vehicle of love,
are not so easily watched, but observation proves that contentment lengthens
life of any one who cultivates this quality, and we may safely reason that a
child conceived under conditions of harmony and love stands a better chance
of life than one conceived under conditions of anger, inebriety, and pas-
sion.
[PAGE 52] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
According to Genesis it was said to the woman, "In sorrow shalt thou bear
children," and it has always been a sore puzzle to Bible commentators what
logical connection there may be between eating of fruit and the pains of
parturition. But when we understand the chaste references of the Bible to
the act of generation, the connection is readily perceived. While the in-
sensitive Negro or Indian mother may bear her child and shortly afterward
resume her labors in the field, the western woman, more acutely sensitive
and of high-strung nervous temperament, is year by year finding it more dif-
ficult to go through the ordeal of motherhood, though aided by the best and
most skilled scientific help.
The contributory reasons are various: In the first place, while we are
exceedingly careful in selecting our horses and cattle for breeding, while
we insist upon pedigree for the animals in order that we may bring out the
very best strain of stock upon our farms, we exercise no such care with re-
spect to the selection of a father and mother for our children. We mate
upon impulse and regret it at our leisure, aided by laws which make it all
to easy to enter or leave the sacred bonds of matrimony. The words pro-
nounced by minister or judge are taken to be a license for unlimited indul-
gence, as if any man-made law could license the contravention of the law of
[PAGE 53] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE
God. While animals mate only at a certain time of the year and the mother
is undisturbed during the period of pregnancy, this is not true of the human
race.
In view of these facts is it to be wondered at that we find such a dread
of maternity, and is it not time that we seek to remedy the matter by a more
sane relation between marriage partners? Astrology will reveal the temper
and tendencies of each human being; it will enable two people to blend their
characters in such a manner that a love live may be lived, and it will indi-
cate the periods when interplanetary lines of force are most nearly condu-
cive to painless parturition. Thus it will enable us to draw from the bosom
of nature, children of love, capable of living long lives in good health.
Finally the day will come when these bodies will have been made so perfect
in their ethereal purity that they may last throughout the coming Age, and
thus make marriage superfluous.
But if we can love now when we see one another "through a glass darkly,"
through the mask of personality and the veil of misunderstanding , we may be
sure that the love of soul for soul, purged of passion in the furnace of
sorrow, will be our brightest gem in heaven as its shadow is on earth.
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[PAGE 54] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
CHAPTER VII
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN AND LOST SOULS
SOME OF OUR students have been exercised about the unpardonable sin, and
as this subject has a certain connection with the subject of marriage, one
being a sacrilege and the other a sacrament, it might be well to elucidate
the matter from a different point of view than has been formerly taken in
our literature.
First let us see what is meant by a sacrament, and why the rites of bap-
tism, communion, marriage, and extreme unction are properly so called; then
we shall be in a position to understand what sacrilege is and why it is
unpardonable.
The Rosicrucians teach, only with more detail, the same doctrine that
Paul preached in the 15th Chapter of 1st Corinthians, starting at the
thirty-fifth verse, that in addition to the body of flesh and blood we have
a soul body, SOMA PSUCHICON (mistranslated "natural" body) and a spiritual
body; that each of these bodies is grown from a different SEED atom and that
there are THREE stages of unfoldment for Adam, or man. The first Adam was
[PAGE 55] THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
taken from the ground and was without sentient life. Soul was added to the
SECOND ADAM; thus he had life within, a leaven laboring to elevate the clod
to God. When the potential of the soul extracted from the physical body has
been raised to the spiritual, the LAST ADAM will become a life GIVING
spirit, capable of transmitting the life impulse to others directly as flame
from one candle can be communicated to many without diminishing the magni-
tude of the original light.
In the meantime the germ for our early body had to be properly placed in
fruitful soil to grow a suitable vehicle, and generative organs were pro-
vided from the beginning to accomplish this purpose. It is stated in Gen-
esis 1:27 that Elohim created them MALE and FEMALE. The Hebrew words are
"SACRE VA N'CABAH." THESE ARE NAMES OF THE SEX ORGANS. Literally trans-
lated, SACR means "bearer of the germ." Thus marriage is a sacr-ament, for
it opens the way for transmission of a physical seed atom from the father to
the mother, and tends to preserve the race against the ravages of death.
Baptism as a SACRament signifies the germinal urge of the soul for the
higher life. Holy Communion, in which we partake of bread (made from the
SEED of chaste plants), and of wine (the cup symbolizing the passionless
SEE-pod), points to the age to come, and age wherein it will be unnecessary
to TRANSMIT the seed through a father and mother , but where we may feed di-
rectly upon cosmic life and thus conquer death. Finally, extreme unction is
[PAGE 56] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
the SACRament which marks the loosening of the silver cord, and the extrac-
tion of the sacred germ, freeing it until it shall again be planted in
another N'CABAH, or mother.
As the seed and ovum are the root and basis of racial development, it is
easy to see that no sin can be more serious than that which abuses the cre-
ative function, for by that SACR-ilege we stunt future generations and
transgress against the Holy Spirit, Jehovah, who is warder of the creative
lunar forces. His angels herald births, as in the cases of Isaac, John the
Baptist, and Jesus. When he wanted to reward his most faithful follower, he
promised to make his seed as numerous as the sands on the seashore. He also
meted out a most terrible punishment to the Sodomites who committed
SACR-ilege by misdirecting the seed. He even visits the sins of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth generations, for under his regime
LAW reigns supreme. Man has not yet evolved to the point where he can re-
spond to LOVE. He requires from his enemies an eye for an eye, and with the
same measure that he metes, it is meted unto him.
Though this seems very cruel to us who are each day evolving more and
more the faculties of love and mercy, we must remember that this retributive
justice relates purely to the physical body, which is under the laws of Na-
ture just as much as any other chemical composition in the universe. When
[PAGE 57] THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
abuses have weakened it, it is incapable of fulfilling its mission and meet-
ing our demands in any respect, just as is the case with any other machinery
which we have made from materials around us. There are no miracles such as
would be required to generate a sound and healthy body from parents who have
transgressed the laws of nature by their abuses; therefore but when time and
care have restored the necessary strength and vigor, the body will again
perform its functions in a normal and healthy manner.
Thus we understand that under the law there is no mercy, for mercy is
dictated by love. Therefore, it was perfectly in consonance with cosmic or-
der when CHRIST, THE LORD OF LOVE, said that all things would be forgiven to
men which they did against Him, as LOVE is the reigning feature in His king-
dom; but whatsoever was done contrary to the LAW of Jehovah must meet its
full retribution. We cannot be sufficiently thankful for the wonderful re-
ligion which He gave us, particularly if we compare it with those under
which less evolved peoples are now struggling. Take the Buddhists, for in-
stance; grand and beautiful though their leader was, he saw only SORROW, a
constant struggle against the law of nature. He aimed to teach his follow-
ers to transcend that condition by perfect obedience such as that whereby we
have conquered the laws of electricity and other forces in nature. The
[PAGE 58] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
Buddhist sees nothing but the cold and merciless law; on the other hand, we
of the Western World have before our eyes from the cradle to the grave a
beautiful picture of One who said, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
But it may be asked, "What about LOST SOULS; are they a figment of the
imagination also?" To this question may be answered, "yes", although it
needs some qualification. We shall best understand the case if we go back
into the history of mankind and view the experiences of some who have trans-
gressed , for they will furnish us an example of what may happen. In order
to establish the point properly we shall reiterate a few of the Rosicrucian
teachings regarding the genesis of the earth and of man upon it. Three
great stages of unfoldment have preceded the present Earth Period. THE FA-
THER is the highest Initiate of the Saturn Period, inhabiting particularly
the Spiritual Sun. THE SON, the cosmic Christ, is the highest initiate of
the Sun period, inhabiting the Central Sun and guiding the planets in their
orbits by a ray from Himself, which becomes the indwelling spirit of each
planet when it has been sufficiently ripened to contain such a great Intel-
ligence. Jehovah, the HOLY SPIRIT, is the highest Initiate of the Moon Pe-
riod and dwelling in the physical, visible sun. He is regent of the various
moons thrown off by the different planets for the purpose of giving beings
who have fallen behind in the march of evolution more rigid discipline under
[PAGE 59] THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
a firmer law, to awaken them and spur them on in the proper direction if
possible.
When we look into space, we perceive that some planets have a number of
moons and others have none; but as there are laggards in any large company,
and as moons are required to aid these stragglers to retrieve their lost es-
tate if possible, we may be sure that these planets which have no moons now
have had them in the past. Those Great Beings of whom the ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION speaks as "Lords of Venus" and "Lords of Mercury" were, in
fact, stragglers from those two planets. In the dim distant past they in-
habited moons which encircled their respective planets, and were successful
in retrieving their loss in a large measure under the discipline given them
there. Later they received the opportunity to serve to secure a return to
the home planet whence they had been exiled. They were LOST under the LAW,
but REDEEMED BY LOVE; and thus we may infer that opportunities for service
will also bring to other beings, who may become "lost" the opportunity to
retrieve the past.
Since it may puzzle the student as to what becomes of the moons upon
which such beings dwell for a time, we may say that the solar system is to
regarded as the body of the Great Spirit whom we call God, and as any growth
caused by an abnormal process pains us when it occurs in our body, so also
[PAGE 60] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
such crystallizations as moons are sources of discomfort to that Great Be-
ing. Furthermore, as our own systems endeavor to eliminate such abnor-
malities as growths, so also the universe endeavors to expel moons which
have served their purpose. While the beings who have been exiled to a moon
are there, the Planetary Spirit of the primary planet by his care for these
beings, hold the moon in its orbit, and we speak of his love for them as the
Law of Attraction; but when they have returned to the parent planet, the
Planetary Spirit has no further interest in their cinder-like habitation.
Then slowly the orbit of the vacated moon widens, it commences to disinte-
grate, and it is finally expelled into interstellar space. The asteroids
are remnants of moons which once encircled Venus and Mercury. There are
also other seeming moons and lunar fragments in our solar system, but the
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION does not concern itself with them as they are
outside the pale of evolution.
[PAGE 61] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
CHAPTER VIII
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
THE PERIODICAL ebb and flow of the material and spiritual forces which
invest the earth are the invisible causes of the physical, moral, and mental
activities upon our globe.
According to the hermatic axiom, "As above so below," a similar activity
must take place in man, who is but a minor edition of Mother Nature.
The animals have twenty-eight pairs of spinal nerves and are now in their
Moon stage, perfectly attuned to the twenty-eight days in which the moon
passes around the zodiac. In their wild state the group spirit regulates
their mating. Therefore there is no overflow with them. Man, on the other
hand, is in a transition stage; he is too far progressed for the lunar vi-
brations for he has thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves. But he is not yet
attuned to the solar month of thirty-one days, and he mates at all times of
the year; hence the periodical flow in woman, which under proper conditions
is utilized to form part of the body of a child more perfect than its par-
ents. Similarly, the periodical flow in mankind becomes the sinew and
[PAGE 62] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
backbone of racial advancement; and the periodical flow of the earth's
spiritual forces, which occurs at Christmas, results in birth of Saviors who
from time to time give renewed impetus to the spiritual advancement of the
human race.
There are two parts to our Bible, the Old and the New Testaments. After
briefly reciting how the world came into being, the former tells the story
of the "Fall" In view of what has been written in our literature we under-
stand the Fall to have been occasioned by man's impulsive and ignorant use
of the sex forces at times when the interplanetary rays were inimical to
conception of the purest and best vehicles. Thus man became gradually im-
prisoned in a dense body crystallized by sinful passion and consequently an
imperfect vehicle, subject to pain and death.
Then commenced the pilgrimage through matter, and for millennia we have
been living in this hard and flinty shell of body, which obscures the light
of heaven from the spirit within. The spirit is like a diamond in its rough
coat, and the celestial lapidaries, the Recording Angels, are constantly en-
deavoring to remove the coating so that the spirit may shine through the ve-
hicle which it ensouls.
When the lapidary holds a diamond to the grindstone, the diamond emits a
screech like a cry of pain and the opaque covering is removed; but gradually
by many successive applications to the grindstone the rough diamond may
[PAGE 63] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
become a gem of transcendent beauty and purity. Similarly, the celestial
beings in charge of our evolution hold us closely to the grindstone of expe-
rience. Pain and suffering result, which awaken the spirit sleeping within.
The man hitherto content with material pursuits, indulgent discontent which
impels him to seek the higher life.
The gratification of that aspiration, however, is not usually accom-
plished without a severe struggle upon the part of the lower nature. It was
while wrestling thus that Paul exclaimed with all the anguish of a devout
aspiring heart: "Oh wretched man that I am * * * * The good that I would, I
do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do * * * * I delight in the
law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind and bringing it into captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members." (Rom. 7:19-24)
When the flower is crushed, its scent is liberated and fills the sur-
roundings with grateful fragrance, delighting all who are fortunate enough
to be near. Crushing blows of fate may overwhelm a man or woman who has
reached the stage of efflorescene; they will but serve to bring out the
sweetness of the nature and enhance the beauty of the soul till it shines
with an effulgence that marks the wearer as with a halo. Then he is upon
the path of Initiation. He is taught how unbridled use of sex regardless of
[PAGE 64] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
the stellar rays has imprisoned him in the body, how it fetters him, and how
by the proper use of that same force in harmony with the stars he may
gradually improve and etherealize his body and finally attain liberation
from concrete existence.
A shipwright cannot build a staunch oak ship from spruce lumber; " men do
not gather grapes of thorns;" like always begets like, and an incoming ego
of a passionate nature is drawn to parents of like nature, where its body is
conceived upon the impulse of the moment in a gust of passion.
The soul who has tasted the cup of sorrow incident to the abuse of the
creative force and has drunk to the dregs the bitterness thereof, will
gradually seek parents of less and less passionate natures, until at length
it attains to Initiation.
Having been taught in the process of Initiation the influence of the
stellar rays upon parturition, the next body provided will be generated by
Initiate parents without passion, under the constellation most favorable to
the work which the ego contemplates. Therefore the Gospels (which are for-
mulae of Initiation) commence with the account of the immaculate conception
and end with the crucifixion, both wonderful ideas to which we must some
time attain, for each of us is a Christ-in-the-making, and will sometime
pass through both the mystic birth and the mystic death adumbrated in the
Gospels. By knowledge we may hasten the day, intelligently co-operating
[PAGE 65] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
instead of as now often stupidly frustrating through ignorance the ends of
spiritual development.
In connection with the immaculate conception misunderstandings prevail at
every point; the perpetual virginity of the mother even after the birth to
other children; the lowly station of Joseph, the supposed foster-father,
etc. We will briefly view them in the light of facts as revealed in the
Memory of Nature:
In some parts of Europe people of the higher classes are addressed as
"wellborn," or even as "highwellborn," meaning that they are the offspring
of cultured parents in high station. Such people usually look down with
scorn upon those in modest positions. We have nothing against the expres-
sion "wellborn;" we would that every child were well born, born to parents
of high moral standing no matter what their station in life. There is a
virginity of soul that is independent of the state of the body, a purity of
mind which will carry its possessor through the act of generation without
the taint of passion and enable the mother to carry the unborn child under
her heart in sexless love.
Previous to the time of Christ that would have been impossible. In the
earlier stages of man's career upon earth quantity was desirable and quality
a minor consideration, hence the command was given to "go forth, be fruit-
ful, and multiply." Besides, it was necessary that man should temporarily
forget his spiritual nature and concrete his energies upon material
[PAGE 66] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
conditions. Indulgence of the sex passion furthers that object, and the de-
sire nature was given full sway. Polygamy flourished, and the larger the
number of their children, the more a man and a woman were honored, while
barrenness was looked upon as the greatest possible affliction.
In other directions the desire nature was being curbed by God-given laws,
and obedience to divine commands was enforced by swift punishment of the
transgressor, such as war, pestilence or famine. Rewards for dutiful obser-
vance of the mandates of the law were not wanting either; the "righteous"
man's children, his cattle and crops were numerous; he was victorious over
his enemies and the cup of his happiness was full.
Later when the earth had been sufficiently peopled after the Atlantean
Flood, polygamy became gradually more and more obsolete, with the result
that the quality of the bodies improved, and at the time of Christ the de-
sire nature had become so far amenable to control in the case of the more
advanced among humanity that the act of generation could be performed with-
out passion, out of pure love, so that the child could be immaculately con-
ceived.
Such were the parents of Jesus. Joseph is said to have been a carpenter,
but he was not a worker in wood. He was a "builder" in a higher sense. God
is the Grand Architect of the universe. Under Him are many builders of
[PAGE 67] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
varying degrees of spiritual splendor, down even to those whom we know as
Freemasons. All are engaged in building a temple without sound of hammer,
and Joseph was no exception.
It is sometimes asked why Initiates are always men. They are not; in the
lower degrees there are many women, but when an Initiate is able to choose
his sex he usually takes the positive masculine body, as the life which
brought him to Initiation has spiritualized his vital body and made it
positive under all conditions, so that he has then an instrument of the
highest efficiency.
There are times, however, when the exigencies of a case require a female
body, such as, for instance, providing a body of the highest type to receive
an ego of superlatively high degree. Then a high Initiate may take a female
body and go through the experience of maternity again, after perhaps having
eschewed it for several lives, as was the case with the beautiful character
we know as Mary of Bethlehem.
In conclusion, then, let us remember the points brought out, that we are
all Christs-in-the-making; that sometime we must cultivate characters so
spotless that we may be worthy to inhabit bodies that are immaculately con-
ceived; and the sooner we commence to purify our minds of passionate
thoughts, the sooner we shall attain. In the final analysis it only depends
upon the earnestness of our purpose, the strength of our wills. Conditions
are such now that we can live pure lives whether married or single, and
[PAGE 68] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
cold, sister-and-brother relationships are not necessary either.
Is the life of absolute purity beyond some of us yet? Be not discour-
aged; Rome was not built in a day. Keep on aspiring though you fail again
and again, for the only real failure consists in ceasing to try.
So may God strengthen your aspirations to purity.
[PAGE 69] THE COMING CHRIST
CHAPTER IX
THE COMING CHRIST
WE HAVE previously seen how infant humanity in Atlantis lived in unity
under direct guidance of divine leaders, and how they were eventually
brought out of the water into a clear atmosphere where the separateness of
each individual from all others became obvious at once.
"God is Light"--the Light which became life in man. It was dim and
achromatically diffused in the misty atmosphere of early Atlantis, as color-
less as the air on a densely foggy day in the present age, hence the unity
of all beings who lived in that light. But when man rose above the waters,
when he emerged into the aire where the godly manifestation, Light, was re-
fracted in multitudinous hues, this variously colored light was differently
absorbed by each. Thus diversity was inaugurated, when mankind went through
the mighty arch of the rainbow with its variegated and beautiful colors.
That bow may therefore be considered an entrance gate to "the promised
land," the world as now constituted. Here the light of God is no longer an
[PAGE 70] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
insipid single tint as in early Atlantis. The present dazzling play of
color tells us that THE WATCHWORD OF THE PRESENT AGE IS SEGREGATION, and
therefore so long as we remain in the present condition under the law of al-
ternating cycles, where summer and winter, ebb and flow, succeed each other
in unbroken sequence, so long as God's bow stands in the sky, an emblem of
diversity, it is yet the day of the kingdoms of men, and the kingdom of God
is held in abeyance.
Nevertheless, as surely as the Edenic conditions upon the fire girt is-
lands of ancient Lemuria ended in separation into sexes, each expressing one
element of the creative fire, and making the union of man and woman as nec-
essary to the generation of a body as is the union of hydrogen and oxygen to
the production of water; and as surely as emergence from the watery atmo-
sphere of Atlantis into the airy environment of ARYANA, the world of today,
promoted further segregation into separate nations and individuals, who war
and prey upon one another (because the sharply differentiated forms which
they behold blind them to the inalienable unity of each soul with all oth-
ers); just as certainly will this world condition give place to a "new
heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
In early Atlantis we lived in the deepest basins of the earth where the
mist was densest; we breathed by means of gills and would have been unable
to live in an atmosphere such as we have now. In the course of time desire
[PAGE 71] THE COMING CHRIST
to explore beyond caused the invention of airships, which were propelled by
the expansive force of sprouting grain. The "ark" story is a perverted
remembrance of that fact. Those ships actually did founder upon mountain
tops where the atmosphere was too rare to sustain them. Today our ships
float upon the element in which the Atlantean ships were at one time im-
mersed. We have now contrived various means of propulsion able to carry us
over the highlands of the earth which we occupy at present, and are commenc-
ing to reach out into the atmosphere to conquer that element as we have sub-
jected the waters; and as surely as our Atlantean ancestors made a highway
of the watery element which they breathed AND THEN ROSE ABOVE IT TO LIVE IN
A NEW ELEMENT, just as certainly shall we conquer the air and then rise
above it into the newly discovered element which we call ether.
Thus each age has its own peculiar conditions and laws; the beings who
evolve have a physiological constitution suited to the environment of that
age, but are dominated by the nature forces then prevailing until they learn
to conform to them. Then these forces become most valuable servants, as for
instance, steam and electricity, which we have partially harnessed. The law
of gravity still holds us in its powerful grip, although by mechanical means
we are trying to escape into the new element. We shall at a not distant
[PAGE 72] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
time attain to mastery of the air, but as the ships of the Atlanteans foun-
dered upon the mountains of the earth because their buoyancy was insuffi-
cient to enable them to rise higher in the light mist of those altitudes,
and because respiration was difficult, so also will the increasing rarity of
our present atmosphere prevent us from entering the "new heaven and the new
earth," which are to be the scene of the New Dispensation.
Before we can reach that state, physiological as well as moral and
spiritual changes must take place. The Greek text of the new New Testament
does not leave us in doubt as to this, though lack of knowledge of the mys-
tery teachings prevented the translators from bringing it out in the English
version. Did we but believe the Bible even as we have it, we should be
spared many delusions and much uneasiness concerning the time of this.
Whole sects have disposed of their belongings in anticipation of the advent
of Christ or even as God, have married, raised families, and died, leaving
their sons, who were supposed to be Christs, to fight for the kingdom. A
temporal government was forced to banish one of these militant "Christs" to
an island of the Mediterranean, and another to an Asiatic city where he is
now under military supervision. Nor is there any sign that the future will
[PAGE 73] THE COMING CHRIST
lack similar claimants; rather, the sacrilegious imposture is spreading.
WE MAY REST ASSURED THAT THE DIVINE LEADERS OF EVOLUTION MADE NO MISTAKE
WHEN THEY GAVE THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION TO THE WESTERN WORLD-- THE MOST AD-
VANCED TEACHING TO THE MOST PRECOCIOUS AMONG MANKIND. It may therefore be
regarded as a detriment when an organization undertakes to graft a Hindu re-
ligion (which is excellent for the people to whom it was divinely given)
upon our people. The imported Hindu breathing exercises have certainly sent
may people to insane asylums.
If we believe Christ's words: "My kingdom is not of this world,"
(KOSMOS, the Greek word used for "world" meaning " order of things" rather
than our planet, the earth, which is called GAEA), we shall know better than
to look for Christ today.
"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." any more than the
gill-breathing creature of early Atlantean times was fit to live under the
natural conditions prevailing in the present age where "the resurrection,
does not say as in the English translation, "There is a natural body and
there is a spiritual body." I Cor. 15:44. He affirms that there is a "SOMA
PSUCHICON," a soul body, and tells in the preceding verses how this is gen-
erated from a "SEED" in the same way as explained in the Rosicrucian teach-
ings. The Bible affirms that our bodies are corruptible. (It also teaches
[PAGE 74] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
that one organ, the heart, is an exception. This has reference to the seed
atom in the heart. Ps. 22:26) Therefore our bodies must be changed before
Christ can come.
If these things were believed, few would run after impostors, and the
latter would have their labors for their pains. But Western papers unfortu-
nately give notoriety to such schemers, though regarding them as a joke as
well they may, for it would be preposterous to believe that the great and
wise Being who guides evolution could be so shortsighted as not to know that
the Western World would never accept the scion of what it regards as a
semi-barbaric race for its Savior.
When preparations were made 2000 years ago, for the embodiment of the
Savior of the world, Galilee was the Mecca for roving spirits. Thither
flocked people from Asia, Africa, Greece, Italy, and all other parts of the
world of that day. Conditions there were exceptionally congenial and at-
tractive so that, as declared by various scholars who have investigated the
matter, Galilee was as cosmopolitan as Rome itself. It was, in fact, the
"melting pot' of that day. Among others, Joseph and Mary, the parents of
Jesus, had emigrated from Judea to Nazareth in Galilee before the advent of
their firstborn, and the body generated in that environment was different
from the ordinary Jewish race body.
It is an incontrovertible fact that environment plays a great part in
[PAGE 75] THE COMING CHRIST
evolution. We have today upon earth THREE GREAT RACES. One, the Negro, has
hair which is FLAT in section, and the head is long, narrow and FLATTENED on
the sides. The orbit of the eye is also long and narrow. The Negroes are
descendants of the Lemurain Race.
The Mongols and kindred peoples have ROUND heads. Their hair is round in
section, and orbits of their eyes are also round. They are the remnants of
the Atlantean Race.
The ARYAN RACE have oval hair, oval skulls, and oval orbits of the eyes,
these features being especially pronounced in the Anglo-Saxons, who are the
flower of the race at present.
In America, the Mecca of nations today, these various races are of course
represented. Here is the "melting pot" in which they are being amalgamated.
It has been ascertained that there is a difference in children belonging to
the same family. The SKULLS OF YOUNGER CHILDREN BORN IN AMERICA ARE MORE
NEARLY OVAL THAN THE HEADS OF THEIR OLDER BROTHERS AND SISTERS BORN ABROAD.
From this fact and from others which need not be mentioned here, it is
evident that a new race is being born on the American continent; and reason-
ing from the known fact that the Christ came from the most cosmopolitan part
of the civilized world of 2000 years ago, it would be but logical to expect
that if a new embodiment were sought for that exalted Being, His body would
[PAGE 76] THE COMING CHRIST
more likely be taken from the new race than from an ancient one. Otherwise,
if there is virtue in obtaining a Savior from the older races, why not get a
Bushman or a Hottentot?
But we may be sure that though impostors deceive for a time, they are
found out sooner or later, and their plans come to naught. Meanwhile, pro-
gression continues to bring us nearer the Aquarian Age, and A TEACHER IS
COMING to give the Christian Religion impetus in a new direction.
[PAGE 77] THE COMING AGE
CHAPTER X
THE COMING AGE
WHEN WE speak of the "Coming Age," of the "New Heaven and the New Earth"
mentioned in the Bible, and also of the "Aquarian Age," the differences may
not be quite clear in the minds of our students. Confusion of terms is one
of the most fertile seed grounds of fallacy, and the Rosicrucian teachings
aim to avoid it by a particularly definite nomenclature. Sometimes an extra
effort seems necessary to disperse the haze engendered by current cloudy
conceptions of others as sincere as the present writer, but not so fortunate
in having access to the incomparable Western Wisdom Teachings.
It has been taught in our literature that four great epochs of unfoldment
preceded the present order of things; that the destiny of the earth, its at-
mospheric conditions, and the laws of nature prevailing in one epoch were as
different from those of the other epochs as was the corresponding
physiological constitution of mankind in one epoch different from those in
he others.
[PAGE 78] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
The bodies of ADM (the name means RED EARTH), the humanity of fiery
Lemuria, were formed of the "dust of the ground," the red, hot, volcanic
mud, and were just suited to their environment. Flesh and blood would have
shriveled up in the terrible heat of that day, and though suited to present
conditions, Paul tells us that they cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. It
is therefore manifest that before a new order of things can be inaugurated,
the physiological constitution of mankind must be radically changed to say
nothing of the spiritual attitude. Aeons will be required to generate the
whole human race and fit them to live in ethereal bodies.
On the other hand, neither does a new environment come into existence in
a moment, but land and people are evolved together from the smallest and
most primitive beginnings. When the mists of Atlantis commenced to settle,
some of our forbears had grown embryonic lungs and were forced to highlands
ages before their compeers. They wandered in "the wilderness" while " the
promised land" was emerging from the lighter fogs, and at the same time
their growing lungs were fitting them to live under present atmospheric con-
ditions.
Two more races were born in the basins of the earth before a succession
of floods drove them to the highlands; the last flood took place at the time
when the sun entered the watery sign Cancer, about ten thousand years ago as
told Plato by the Egyptian priests. Thus we see there is NO SUDDEN change
[PAGE 79] THE COMING AGE
of constitution or environment for the whole human race when a new epoch is
ushered in, but an overlapping of conditions which makes it possible for
most of the race by gradual adjustment to enter the new condition, though
the change may seem sudden to the individual when the preparatory change has
been accomplished unconsciously. The metamorphosis of a tadpole from a
denizen of the watery element to one of the airy gives an analogy of the
past, and the transformation of the caterpillar to a butterfly soaring in
the air is an apt simile of the coming age. When the heavenly time marker
came into Aries by precession, a new cycle commenced, and the "glad tidings"
were preached by Christ. He said by implication that the new heaven and
earth were not ready then when He told His disciples: Whither I go you can-
not NOW follow, but you shall follow afterwards. I go to prepare a place
for you and will come again and receive you.
Later John saw in a vision the new Jerusalem descending from heaven, and
Paul taught the Thessalonians "BY THE WORD OF THE LORD" that those who are
Christ's at His coming shall be caught up IN THE AIR to meet Him and be with
Him FOR THE AGE.
But during this change there are pioneers who enter the kingdom of God
before their brethren. Christ, in Matt. 11:12, said that " the kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." This is not a
correct translation. It ought to be: The kingdom of the heavens HAS BEEN
[PAGE 80] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
INVADED (BIAXETAI), and invaders seize on her. Men and women have already
learned through holy, helpful lives to lay aside the body of flesh and
blood, either intermittently or permanently, and to walk the skies with
winged feet, intent upon the business of their Lord, clad in the ethereal
"wedding garment" of the new dispensation. This change may be accomplished
through a life of simple helpfulness and prayer as practiced by devoted
Christians, no matter with what church they affiliate, as well as by the
specific exercises given in the Rosicrucian Fellowship. The latter will
prove barren of results, unless accompanied by constant ACTS of love for
LOVE will be the keynote of the coming age as LAW is of the present order.
The intense expression of the former quality increases the phosphorescent
luminosity and density of the ethers in our vital bodies, the fiery streams
sever the tie to the mortal coil, and the man, once BORN OF WATER upon his
emergence from Atlantis, is now born OF THE SPIRIT into the kingdom of God.
The dynamic force of his love has opened a way to the land of love, and in-
describable is the rejoicing among those already there when new invaders ar-
rive, for each new arrival hastens the coming of the Lord and the definite
establishment of the Kingdom.
Among the religiously inclined there is a definite unceasing cry: How
long, O Lord; how long? And despite the emphatic statement of Christ that
the day and hour are unknown, even to Himself, prophets continue to gain
[PAGE 81] THE COMING AGE
credence when they predict His coming on a certain day, though each is dis-
comfited when the day passes without development. The question has also
been mooted among our students, and the present chapter is an attempt to
show the fallacy of looking for the Second Advent in a year or fifty or five
hundred. The Elder Brothers decline to commit themselves further than to
point out what must first be accomplished.
At the time of Christ the sun was in about seven degrees of Aries. Five
hundred years were required to bring the precession to the thirtieth degree
of Pisces. During that time the new church lived through a stage of offen-
sive and defensive violence well justifying the words of Christ: "I came
not to bring peace but a sword." Fourteen hundred years more have elapsed
under the negative influence of PISCES, which has fostered the power of the
church and bound the people by creed and dogma.
In the middle of the last century the sun came within orb of influence of
the scientific sign AQUARIUS, and although it will take about seven hundred
years before the Aquarian Age commences, it is highly instructive to note
what changes the mere touch has wrought in the world. Our limited space
precludes enumeration of the wonderful advances made since then; but it is
not too much to say that science, invention, and resultant industry have
completely changed the world, its social life, and economic conditions. The
[PAGE 82] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
great strides made in means of communication have done much to break down
barriers of race prejudice and prepare us for conditions of Universal Broth-
erhood. Engines of destruction have been made so fearfully efficient that
the militant nations will be forced ere long to "beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." THE SWORD HAS HAD ITS
REIGN during the Piscean Age, but SCIENCE WILL RULE in the Aquarian Age.
In the land of the setting sun we may expect to first see the ideal con-
ditions of the Aquarian Age: A blending of religion and science, forming a
religious science and a scientific religion, which will promote the health,
happiness and the enjoyment of life in abundant measure.
SUGAR FOR ALCOHOL
In the chapter elucidating the Law of Assimilation in the ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION, we stated that minerals cannot be assimilated because they
lack a vital body, which lack makes it impossible for man to raise their vi-
bratory rate to his own pitch. Plants have a vital body and no
self-consciousness, hence are most easily assimilated and remain with man
longer than cells of animal flesh, which is permeated by a desire body. The
vibratory rate of the latter is high, and much energy is required in as-
similation; its cells also quickly escape and make it necessary for the
flesh eater to forage often.
[PAGE 83] THE COMING AGE
We are aware that alcohol is a "foreign spirit" and a "spirit of decay"
because IT IS GENERATED BY FERMENTATION OUTSIDE the consumer's system. Be-
ing "spirit," it vibrates with such intense rapidity that the human spirit
is incapable of tuning it down and controlling it as food must be, hence me-
tabolism is out of the question. Nay, more, as we cannot reduce its vibra-
tory rate to that of our bodies, this foreign spirit may accelerate their
vibratory pitch and control us as happens in the state of intoxication.
Thus alcohol is a great danger to mankind and one from which we must be
emancipated ere we can realize our divine nature.
A stimulant spirit is necessary while we live on a DIET OF FLESH or
progress would stop, and A FOOD has been provided for the pioneers of the
West that answers all requirements; its name is "sugar." FROM SUGAR THE EGO
ITSELF GENERATES ALCOHOL INSIDE the system by the very processes of me-
tabolism. This product is therefore both food and stimulant, perfectly
keyed to the vibratory pitch of the body. It has all the good qualities of
alcohol in enhanced measure and none of its drawbacks. To perceive properly
the effect of this food, consider the peoples of eastern Europe where little
sugar is consumed. They are slavish; they speak of themselves in terms of
depreciation; the pronoun "I" is always spelled with small letters but "you"
with a capital. England consumes five times as much sugar per capita as
[PAGE 84] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
Russia. In the former we meet a different spirit, the big "I" and the
little "you." In America the candy store becomes a most dangerous rival of
the saloon, for THE MAN WHO EATS SWEETS WILL NOT DRINK, and there is no
surer cure for alcoholism than to induce the sufferer to eat freely of
sweets. The drunkard abhors sugar, however, while his system is under the
sway of the "foreign spirit."
The temperance movement was begun in the land where MOST SUGAR IS CON-
SUMED, and has GENERATED "THE SPIRIT OF SELF-RESPECT."
[PAGE 85] MEAT AND DRINK
CHAPTER XI
MEAT AND DRINK AS FACTORS IN EVOLUTION
IN PREVIOUS chapters we saw how infant humanity was cared for by superhu-
man guardians, provided with appropriate food, led out of danger's way, and
sheltered in all respects until grown to human stature and fit to enter the
school of experience to learn the lessons of life in the phenomenal world.
We saw also how the rainbow points to natural laws peculiar to the present
age, how man was given free will under these laws, and how the spirit of
wine was given to cheer and to stimulate his own timid, fearful spirit, to
nerve it for the war of the world.
In an analogous manner the irresponsible little child who has been
brought under the waters of baptism by its natural guardians is cared for
through the years of childhood while its various vehicles are being orga-
nized. When the parental blood stored in the thymus gland has been ex-
hausted and the child thus emancipated from the parents, it awakens to indi-
viduality, to the feeling of "I AM." It has then been prepared with a
[PAGE 86] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
knowledge of good and evil with which to fight the battle of life; and at
that time the youth is taken to the church and given the bread and wine to
nerve and nourish him spiritually, also as a symbol that henceforth he is a
free agent, only responsible to the laws of God. A blessing or a curse,
this freedom, according to the way it is used.
In early Atlantis mankind was a universal brotherhood of submissive chil-
dren with no incentive to war or strife. Later they were segregated into
nations, and wars inculcated loyalty to kin and country. Each sovereign was
an absolute autocrat with power over life and limb of his subjects, who were
numbered in hundreds of millions, and who yielded ungrudging and slavish
submission, an attitude maintained to the present day among millions of Asi-
atics, who are vegetarians and consequently need no alcohol.
As flesh eating came into vogue, wine became a more and more common bev-
erage. In consequence of flesh eating much material progress was made im-
mediately preceding the advent of Christ, and because of the practice of
drinking wine an increasing number of men asserted themselves as leaders,
with the result that instead of a few large nations such as people Asia,
many small nations were formed in the southwestern portion of Europe and
Asia Minor.
But though the great mass of people who formed these various nations were
ahead of their Asiatic brethren as craftsmen, they continued submissive to
[PAGE 87] MEAT AND DRINK
their rulers and lived as much in their traditions as did the latter.
Christ upbraided them because they gloried in being Abraham's seed. He told
them that "before Abraham was, I AM," that is, the ego has always existed.
It is His mission to emancipate humanity from Law and lead it to LOVE, to
destroy "the kingdoms of men" with all their antagonism to one another, and
to build upon their ruins " the kingdom of God." An illustration will make
the method clear:
If we have a number of brick buildings and desire to amalgamate them into
one large structure, it is necessary to break them down first and free each
brick from the mortar which binds it. Likewise each human being must be
freed from the fetters of family, hence Christ taught, " Unless a man leaves
his father and mother he cannot be my disciple." He must outgrow religious
partisanship and patriotism and learn to say with the much misunderstood and
maligned Thomas Paine: "THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY, AND TO DO GOOD IS MY RELI-
GION."
Christ did not mean that we are to foresake those who have a claim upon
our help and support, but that we are not to permit the suppression of our
individuality out of deference to family traditions and beliefs.
Consequently He came "not to bring peace, but a sword;" and whereas the
eastern religions discourage the use of wine, CHRIST'S FIRST MIRACLE WAS TO
CHANGE WATER TO WINE. The sword and the wine cup are signature of the
[PAGE 88] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
Christian religion, for by them nations have been broken to pieces and the
individual emancipated. Government by the people, for the people, is a fact
in northwestern Europe, the rulers being that principally in name only.
But the fostering of the martial spirit as prevails in Europe was only a
means to an end. The segregation which it has caused must give place to a
regime of brotherhood such as professed by Paine. A new step was necessary
to bring this about; A NEW FOOD must be found which would act upon the
spirit in such a way as to foster individuality through ASSERTION OF SELF
WITHOUT OPPRESSION OF OTHERS AND WITHOUT LOSS OF SELF-RESPECT. We have
enunciated it as a law that only spirit can act upon spirit, and therefore
that food must be a spirit but differing in other respects from intoxicants.
Before describing this let us see what flesh has done for the evolution
of the world.
We have noted previously that during the Polarian Epoch man had only a
dense body; he was like the present minerals in this respect, and by nature
he was inert and passive.
By absorbing the crystalloids prepared by plants he evolved a vital body
during the Hyperborean Epoch and became plant-like both in constitution and
by nature, for he lived without exertion and as unconsciously as the plants.
Later he extracted milk from the then stationary animals. Desire for
[PAGE 89] MEAT AND DRINK
this more readily digestible food spurred him on to exertion, and gradually
his desire nature was evolved during the Lemurian Epoch. Thus he became
constituted like the present day HERBIVORA. Though possessed of a passional
nature, he was docile and could not be induced to fight save to defend him-
self, his mate, and family. Hunger alone had the power to make him aggres-
sive.
Therefore, when animals began to move and sought to elude this ruthless
parasite, increasing difficulty of obtaining the coveted food aroused his
craving to such an extent that when he had hunted and caught an animal, he
was no longer content to suck its udders dry but commenced to feed upon its
blood and flesh. Thus he became as ferocious as our present day CARNIVORA.
Digestion of flesh food requires much more powerful chemical action and
speedy elimination of the waste than that of a vegetable diet as proved by
chemical analysis of the gastric juices from animals, and by the fact that
the intestines of Herbivora are many times longer than those of a car-
nivorous animal of even size. Carnivora easily become drowsy and averse to
exertion.
When prodded by the pangs of hunger the ferocious wolf does indeed pursue
its prey with unwavering perseverance, and the spring of the crouching king
of beasts overmatches the speed of the wing-footed deer. By ambush the fe-
line family foil the fleetest in their attempts to escape. The cunning of
[PAGE 90] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC
the fox is proverbial, and the slinking nocturnal habits of the hyena and
kindred scavengers illustrate the depth of depravity resulting from a diet
of decayed flesh.
The vices generated by flesh eating may be said to be lassitude, feroc-
ity, low cunning, and depravity. We may tame the herbivorous ox and el-
ephant. Their diet makes them docile and stores enormous power which they
obediently use in our service to perform prolonged and arduous labor. The
flesh food required by the constitutional peculiarities of Carnivora makes
them dangerous and incapable of thorough domestication. A cat may scratch
at any moment, and the muzzling ordinances of large cities are ample proof
of the danger of dogs. Besides, energy contained in the diet of Carnivora
is so largely expended in digestion that they are drowsy and unfitted for
sustained labor like the horse or elephant.
The drowsiness following a heavy meal of meat is too well known to re-
quire arguement, and the custom of taking stimulants with food is an out-
growth of the desire to counteract the deadening effect of dead flesh. The
intensified effect of feasting upon FLESH IN AN ADVANCED STATE OF DECAY is
well illustrated in "society," where banquets of game that is "high" are ac-
companied by orgies of the wildest nature and followed by indulgence of the
vilest instincts.
The Westerner who can live upon a clean, sweet, wholesome diet of veg-
etables, cereals and fruit, does not become drowsy from his food; he needs
[PAGE 91] MEAT AND DRINK
no stimulant. THERE ARE NO VEGETARIAN DRUNKARDS. The soothing effects of
vegetable food manifest as finer feelings, which replace the ferocity fos-
tered by flesh food. Many need the mixed diet yet, for the practice of
flesh eating has furthered the progress of the world as nothing else except
perhaps its companion vice--drunkenness; and though we cannot say that they
have been a blessing in disguise, they have at least not been unmitigated
curses, for in the Father's kingdom all seeming evil nevertheless works for
good in some respect, though it may not be apparent upon the surface. We
shall see how presently.
A private corporation, the East India Company, commenced and practically
achieved the subjugation of India with her three hundred million people, for
the English are voracious flesh eaters, while the Hindu's diet fosters do-
cility. But when England fought the flesh eating Boers, Greek met Greek,
and the valor displayed by both sides is a matter of brilliant record.
Courage, physical as well as moral, is a virtue and cowardice a vice. Flesh
has fostered self-assertion and helped us to develop backbone, though unfor-
tunately often at the expense of others who still retain the wishbone. It
has done more as will be illustrated:
As said previously, the cro