THE GLORY OF THE LORD

—

LESSON 71

The Ego which was last in incarnation upon this planet in the

body of Jesus the Nazarene is the same Ego which has incarnated in

every racial and national Saviour since the beginning of the present

great cycle of 200,000 years, and every such Saviour has heralded the

beginning of one age, a minor cycle of the major cycle ; that is, the

finger of God has, as it were, drawn a smaller circle within a large

circle, and evolved a new order of life upon it. When the great cycle is

closed, the Ego which has built up the bodily expressions of those

individual Saviours, will pass on to take up a higher mission, perhaps

upon some other planet, and its labors will fall upon the Ego which

comes next in development, and who will begin to build up the

vehicles [TT 183] . personalities . for its incarnations with the first

minor the major cycle. The incarnating Ego of the Saviours of any one

major cycle is the Great Initiator, "the Watcher on the Threshold", for

that cycle. Only as man can understand all that is involved in the

words, "a group soul", can he understand just what Jesus was and is.

The reflection of the sun which you see in a pool of water is not the

real sun, yet it partakes of certain qualities and characteristics active in

that sun. In illustration : if the sun were able to fix all its reflections

permanently, and endow them with mind, the vibrations in continuous

action between the sun and those reflections might gradually evolve a

group soul ; the sun being the central figure, there would be a

continual inter action of forces and principles as time passed, and the

sun and its reflections become one inseparable entity on a higher

plane.

The personality of Jesus was correspondingly a reflection of the

Father . the spiritual Sun . and there obtained that perfect interaction

of forces and principles between them, which made them one, in deed

and in truth, as has also been the case with preceding Saviours.

If a perfect understanding of this important truth has come to us,

it is no longer difficult to appreciate the righteousness of the demands

made upon us as to reverence, service, and implicit obedience to the

commands of Jesus.

We make a tremendous mistake when we try to relegate Jesus to

some inferior position, and set up an abstraction in the place he

formerly held. We often hear the expression, "There is as much of the

Christ in me as there was in Jesus", but this is not true. There may be

as much of that divine principle in such a one potentially, but there is

not in actu.

To whatever extent the principles and powers which constitute the

Christos, the Son of God, are developed in any human being, to that

extent he has become a Christ, a Saviour, and is worthy of like love

and reverence. But we must not forget the fact of the mathematical

perfection of the action of all natural law, and if one is not by divine

right in some given position in the cosmic scale of all manifested life,

the forces and principles which are pre-eminently active in that

Position or state cannot act upon the personal self as potently as they

can in the one person who has reached that karmic position, and

consequently cannot be as worthy of the love, service and reverence

Of those who are in lower positions karmically on the same scale. It

would not be a question of potential worthiness in such an instance,

but of actual worthiness ; nor a question of ability or lack of ability to

function the cosmic forces and principles pertaining to such position" ;

the position itself is the first consideration. [TT 184]

God cannot, as it were, burst into the bloom of humanity at one

bound. Leaf by leaf, petal by petal, the divine bud generated by law is

opening. The Master Jesus was one of the petals, which one aspect of

cosmic law in conjunction with individual effort had broken loose

from the restraint imposed by another phase of the same law, in

advance of the other close-bound petals of the bud, and by that single

act had made possible the opening of the rest of the petals ; for as long

as the first petal remained bound, the bud could not open perfectly. If

any other petal should force its way open before the first had opened,

the symmetry and beauty of the bud would be lost, and the final result

would be a monstrosity instead of a perfect flower.

The average idea of the great sacrifice as associated with Jesus is

based upon wrong premises ; it clings about the surrender of the

physical body, which is but one feature of that sacrifice. The breaking

forth of that first petal-the separation from the Father . the heart-

breaking cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !"

indicates the positive aspect of that great sacrifice, as the words, "It is

finished", indicate the negative aspect of the same, and we must not

lose sight of the truth that the rendering of this great sacrifice was no

more requisite for the final perfecting of Jesus than it is for the

perfecting of every disciple of the White Lodge.

The morning stars sing together at the birth of a soul, as the

evening stars weep at its death ; but this is only evidenced on the

interior planes. The birth of a soul on the material planes is, as it were,

its death on the spiritual (its temporary obscuration) ; but it is well that

all earth should rejoice in commemoration of such an event, for in

such rejoicing, the soul that is passing from death to life finds much of

its compensation for the sorrows through which it has passed, and

those who rejoice find the strength in their rejoicing that will enable

them to endure the inevitable suffering which follows upon the final

renunciation.

The stones of the sacrificial altar, and the fagots for the fire are

found and laid in rejoicing ; the sacrificial victim is bound and dies, in

sorrow, but the fire which kindles the fagots and consumes the

sacrifice is the annealing force which combines altar, fagots and

victim, and raises the result, the spiritual giant, to the throne of power,

where neither joy nor pain has dominion over it . where service, and

service alone is its life. And it is then, and then alone, that the soul of

man finds out the purpose of life, and the realization of its own

divinity, only then that "Death is swallowed up in Victory", and that

Law is fulfilled in perfect love. [TT 185]

"Rejoice, ye children of earth, for unto you is born this day a

King", a "prince of the house of David", sang the seraphs in a day that

is Past . Yet again and again shall the same song be sung by you and

yours in the days to come, and each song shall bring you closer to the

fulfillment of your highest desire.

...

THE REVELATION

—

LESSON 72

Among many wonderfully prepared parchments and papyrus

leaves, done in exquisitely illumined text, the work of many disciples

through generation after generation, there now lies in the secret

chambers of an ancient Order of the Initiates one which contains a full

interpretation of the "Visions" as seen by John, "the beloved disciple",

while undergoing his final initiation, in preparation for his translation.

These visions have been wisely termed the Revelation, yet they

are only revelation to the initiated, for in all the archives of

philosophical and sacred literature, there is nothing which begins to

compare with those ancient works in esoteric significance ; nothing so

trustworthy or more vitally important to the whole human race. Their

half-revealed lights, their dark shadows . the effects of righteously

administered justice . are strongly enough cast to enlighten the

intuitional student sufficiently to arouse him to necessary

investigation, while the more deeply concealed truths are so

perplexing as to discourage the most able scholars unless spiritual

enlightenment has been vouchsafed them, either by spiritual

illumination or by individual effort of the "Brothers of Compassion",

who alone hold the keys to obscure Biblical symbology.

The Visions of John, though expressed in somewhat different

language than have been similar visions seen by others, are the visions

Which every initiate of the Ancient Orders of the Priesthood . the

Sons of Hermes, the Order of the Saviours of mankind, must

necessarily behold when he reaches the degree of full illumination.

Naturally each initiate would express his visions and experiences in

different language, using different terminology from others, but the

differences to be found would be very slight, and would concern

unimportant details. Ali the main features would be found to be

identical.

It can be readily understood that there must be some vital

necessity for a continuance of any one series of interior experiences in

all [TT 186] such instances, and that such is the case is beyond

question to those who are familiar with the correct interpretation of

the same, for these visions are exact representations of the closing

events of every great age of manifestation ; and not only of the closing

events of an age of some one or more planets, but also of the closing

events of the still greater age of a whole planetary chain . the solar

system to which those planets belong. Every observer of this series of

visions naturally applies those terms with which he is most familiar, in

expressing any feature of the great series, and the terms applied by

John were those which were in common use by the race to which he

belonged ; but the interpretation before mentioned, when given by a

Master, is made in a universal language consisting of symbols in color

and form, and s therefore easily read by every advanced chela of the

White Lodge who bas access to it. However, I do not wish to imply

that it can be correctly interpreted by every such chela without

assistance. No one of these visions bas been so persistently

misinterpreted as that contained in the twelfth chapter of Revelation.

Woman after woman bas given it a personal interpretation. The beauty

of the imagery bas first attracted each in turn, and either some part of

the Cosmic event bas been interiorly perceived, or a natural desire bas

led to self-deception, or, as bas frequently happened, the ignorance or

deceit of some personal admirer or disciple bas led to an application of

the mystic symbols to some aspirant for Divine power ; and the

average human being willingly accepts all offered homage and honor,

regardless of the efforts of the still small voice to show how misplaced

is the homage offered, or how unworthy of it the recipient may be ;

and the fact that each woman is indeed and in truth most deeply

concerned in the great reality which underlies the superficial aspect of

the mother of a Christ, and that there 'is a basic principle back of the

desire for such motherhood, renders it all the more difficult to entirely

ignore the false claims of the self-deceived, or the personal

interpretation of the symbolic truths.

The Eternally Feminine is symbolized in the woman who is

"clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of

twelve stars on her head."

The symbol bas been interpreted astrologically many times, but

the average astrologer is so handicapped by his lack of knowledge of

the secret planets and their influences, that he gains but a limited

concept of the magnitude and importance of the symbol as a whole.

The eternally feminine . the Great Mother . as represented on the

earth plane by Astarte and Isis of the ancients, by the Virgin Mary of

the Christian era and relatively by every woman incarnated who bas

borne [TT 187] a child, is in reality "clothed with the sun" . the

Father . as Mary was "overshadowed by the Holy Ghost" . the spirit

of the Godhead, the Father. The Moon, the feminine symbol, is "under

the feet of the woman", for the reason that the Moon typifies the lower

aspect, the travail of childbirth, and the malefic forces which deceive,

intoxicate and cause great suffering to the feminine . the negative

aspect of life. With the attainment of sufficient power of a spiritual

nature, woman will be able to dominate and transmute the forces

which have hitherto held her in subjection, thus bringing them "under

her feet", the feet symbolizing Understanding.

The twelve stars symbolize the twelve dominant vital forces of

the universe, the gaining control of which . using them to crown her

efforts . will be the fruit of the travail of woman ; and thus will be

vindicated the action of the law of compensation for past suffering.

The succeeding events detailed somewhat in the same chapter are

as broad and . deep and mysterious as is that of the above-mentioned

illustration, but it would require volumes to interpret them ail, and I

have only intended to illustrate my first statement. If a faint concept of

the importance of these cosmic symbols given in vision to the

prepared could dawn upon the minds of those who so contemptuously

deride the possibility of intercommunication between the different

planes of existence, they would be much richer in knowledge, for such

derision shuts the door which otherwise might open for their

enlightenment. Far better would it be for such an one to submit to

false representations temporarily than to make it impossible for the

truth to be manifested for his more perfect understanding.

A short horizontal bar, a figure of the new moon with horns up

underneath the bar, a small five-pointed star with the figure twelve

below it placed over the bar, and a small golden colored sphere over

ail, would indicate to the enlightened all that is contained in the before

mentioned cosmic symbol as expressed in words. The colors in which

the different features of the symbols were outlined would indicate the

spheres of action upon which the manifestation of the prophecy was to

occur.

The dense ignorance and unbelief of the great majority in all that

concerns symbolism, is keeping the world from obtaining desirable

knowledge and power. The sciences which many investigators are

spending their lives, money and strength to bring to high standards are

all clearly outlined in such symbolic representations. The same

sciences have been studied and brought to perfection in ages past, and

Put into symbolic form as a legacy for those who were to come after ;

but, as a rule, man will not use the same means of enlightenment in

[TT 188] this age that were used by the old sages ; consequently the

symbols remain uninterpreted, or are marks for ridicule and contempt,

or avoidance.

There is a very palpable weakness in the argument used to destroy

the faith of the unprepared in the possible observation of visible and

audible phenomena connected with interior planes of being.

While the senses are known to be the most unreliable purveyors

of fact, they are the only means of observation which the majority

possess ; and when some one individual asserts that lie has seen or

heard some hitherto unknown or mysterious thing or event, and that

individual's assertion or oath would be unquestionably accepted if lie

were placed on the witness stand or in a jury box where the lives of

one or a dozen human beings depended upon his reliability and

integrity, it seems like an absurd travesty of justice to repudiate and

deny the possibility of his asserted observations in the former instance

and accept and justify the latter, especially when the only means of

determining the truth lies in the higher development of the senses of

the one who is sitting in judgment.

The unfortunate individual who deliberately plays upon what are

termed the finer qualities of human nature for pecuniary advantage, is

in reality on exactly the same level of development upon which stands

the man who misrepresents or adulterates the food products upon

which the lives of other human beings depend, for his own pecuniary

profit. One class of offenses is no worse than the other. The

unrighteousness in both instances is the misuse, the violation of the

vital essence of the Christos, for the nucleus of every organized or

unorganized form of energy, physical, mental or spiritual, is the

mantle, the vehicle of the essence of the christos, and its misuse is sin,

whatever form that misuse may take, and that essence is as active in

the nucleus of a wheat or corn cell as it is in a cell which helps to form

an organ in the physical body of a man.

...

THE WAY

—

LESSON 73

"No man cometh unto the Father save by me." Strange,

incomprehensible words, save to the few who have gone or are going

the way of the Christs, and therefore have some faint idea of the goal

the Father. [TT 189]

Man strives to fix some kind of a working hypothesis in his mind

regarding the intangible, omnipresent, inscrutable mystery of the

Godhead in which "We live and move and have our being", but he is

powerless to conceive a satisfactory ideal of a formless, conditionless,

limitless existence, in which all things and creatures are potentially or

actively alive ; and so, until lie reaches a certain stage of development,

the nearest lie comes to the truth is by the creation of an ever receding

ideal, which, because of its intangibility and changeableness, satisfies

him, but a short time. He does not realize that even his dissatisfaction

with those ideals indicates that he is making much more progress than

lie was making when lie clung to some less changeable ideals. It is in

the making of too great an effort to hold on to some limited concept of

the Godhead, such as bas been done in the past and is now being done

in orthodoxy and in some of what are called the New Thought

movement . limiting the limitless . that a great wrong is done the

aspiring soul. The greedy clutching at and persistent holding on to a

worn out or lived out ideal of God in abject fear that somehow that

God is going to be lost or is going to lose him if lie does not hold on,

when in reality the great Father-Mother resident in his soul is pleading

for greater expression, is a sad hindrance to man.

Man begins to limit God by fear. When fear rules him in place of

love, lie creates a personal object of worship or dread, which will act

as a blinder to his own intelligence and understanding. We can readily

create a limited ideal of the great reality in so far as it pertains to or is

active within our own individual forms, our own environment or our

little planet ; but while we are trying to combine any two or more of

these fields of action, we lose the connection between them (blank

space alone is unthinkable), and fail to see that in the gulf so created

the Godhead is as active as in the visible forms, and probably much

more so ; so we find we are able to retain only a series of broken

reflections instead of the one composite reflection, the one Divine

Reality, a realization and acceptance of which would give us Some

faint idea of the truth, and a better understanding of the fact that the

different Gods the majority of the human race delight to honor, or fear

intensely, are but some of these broken reflections.

It may help some of your number to remember that at any point in

life or in space where our consciousness, divine thought, centers, at

that point is the center of the universe for us, and there is where Our

own Higher Self now is, bas always been, and will always be. BY

such a point or center, I mean that center in whatsoever or

whomsoever self-consciousness . the consciousness of existence as an

[TT 190] individualized life . has awakened in three-fold activity,

Desire, Will an, Mind . the deific forces . in other words, the soul.

The individual who has won the power to function the above

mentioned deific forces in equilibrium, bas become a Saviour . a Son

of God . a part of The Way.

It may be of some assistance if in meditation you can retain the

consciousness that in every grain of earth, every drop of water, every

molecule of fire or air, though it be invisible to you, there is active a

definite degree of the Christos, and the outer coverings or vehicles of

action of those centers receive and radiate that great life principle or

energy, according to their particular growth and development ; and

that though the forms and degree of power active in each are

continually changing, the centers are unchangeable, eternal . are in

fact the substance of "the Path" . the Way.

Try to imagine an ever expanding, unending, ever increasing (in

power and brilliancy) spherical radiator of light, which combines all

the before mentioned centers, your own center among all others,

which has neither beginning nor end . and the radiations of which are

Lave, Wisdom, Power and Truth . in fact, the Way to God.

...

THE TRUE PATH

—

LESSON 74

One part of the world is woefully deceiving itself, refusing to

believe the records forced upon its attention, deliberately ignoring the

testimony of those who have been taught by sad experience and

suffering ; drugging conscience by over excitement and seeking by

vain efforts to amuse itself by legitimate or questionable forms of

entertainment ; all of which is due to utter hopelessness and despair of

better conditions. In many instances inherent selfishness has induced

the acceptance of some cult disguised under terms expressive of the

tenderest, holiest emotions of the human heart, or by high sounding

scientific terms. When the teachings of many of these cults are

thoroughly analyzed, and viewed from a higher consciousness, they

are found to be the rankest kind of selfish imposture, and perfect

epitomes of blasphemous idolatry, or preparatory instructions in

Phallicism. [TT 191]

In view of the fact that education has become almost compulsory

in all so-called civilized nations today, there is no valid excuse for

ignorance in regard to the woeful tyranny of the over-rich, the rapid

increase of poverty and suffering, of crime in high places, of slavery

worse than has been practiced for centuries, because more intelligently

perpetrated.

There is no excuse, no justification for the expenditure of the vast

sums literally thrown away in the building of great cathedrals, palaces,

places of amusement, objects of adornment. I say thrown away,

because not one stone will be left on another when the human cyclone

now gathering as a result of such unjust accumulation of wealth and

unwise expenditure, has passed over the doomed territories.

No matter how great the sacrifice, how unselfish the efforts put

forth by those who have not become identified with the $ aristocracy

of the day, toward the building up of some purely philanthropic

institution for the use of the suffering, or for the education of the

masses, it either fails of sustenance and passes into a receiver's hands,

or is seized by some modern highway robber and turned into another

"den of thieves." You hear moderately well informed people

discoursing about the wonderful examples of charity set to the world

in the establishment of some of the great hospitals, yet let some poor

suffering soul apply for operation or treatment at many of them, and

the degree of assistance rendered is in exact proportion to the length of

the patient's purse.

The saddest of all the sad effects of this era of repudiation of

spiritual, and mad accumulation of material, wealth, is the blighting of

the sense of interdependence between man and man, and the

destruction of long cherished ideals of the Fatherhood of God and

Brotherhood of Man. The empty places in the hearts of countless

numbers of those who have cherished those ideals, are fast filling with

utter discouragement, hopelessness and despair. The intelligence, the

energy which has heretofore enabled the human race to build those

high ideals, bas been prostituted to unworthy ends, and the result is a

reaction which has destroyed man's faith in his fellow man ; and worse

still, his power of loving his fellow man. In business every man takes

every other man to be a soulless antagonist, and treats him

accordingly. Mutual help is no longer offered or expected, save in rare

Instances.

When a realization of these facts dawns upon one of average

intelligence, and he attempts to voice his discoveries and fears, and to

end forth a warning cry or an earnest entreaty to others to pause and

apply some remedy to the disease he beholds, at once the cry

[TT 192] of Pessimist, Revolutionist, Anarchist, goes out, and his

efforts are nullified in the cases of those who most need his help ;

those who, because of selfish desire have conceived a great admiration

for the methods and results of modern business. Many of the people

most nearly concerned are well aware of the seething spirit of

discontent which is rapidly forcing events to a disastrous conclusion,

but they are devoid of the will power and power of initiative that are

essential to a clear concept of the right steps to be taken to avert or

lessen such disaster ; and yet these people are the only hope of their

fellowmen, from an exterior point of view ; and it is to such as these

that I now appeal. Even if they must lose some of their hardly earned

material wealth ; even if those vacant places in their hearts still

resound with the voices of the elemental forms with which they have

replaced the spiritual ideals of long ago, it is worth their while to take

a back-ward look in search of those lost ideals and try to win them

back.

There is but one way for man to identify himself with God . there

has ever been but one way ; Jesus of Nazareth voiced that way in the

words of the Golden Rule. Even if man must yield up physical life in

the great contest, is it not better to yield it in reaching after the only

thing that makes life worth living, the only thing that gives assurance

of a better life, a broader chance, than yield it in a maelstrom of hatred

and despair, as lie inevitably must do if he will not listen and hear the

appeal of the Spirit of Love.

I make no appeal from the (to them) incomprehensible height of

occultism, for if the rich (the overburdened) man cannot enter the

Kingdom of Heaven, much less can the unbelieving, faithless or

despairing selfish man go far on the Path of Enlightenment. The

characteristics which keep him in the rut lie bas formed, the fallacy

which leads him to believe that he has sounded every depth of

spiritual experience in the days of his long renounced orthodoxy, will

not loose their hold at any light demand ; and unless the very

foundations of his life are shattered he cannot be aroused to a

consciousness that there is aught worth striving for upon that Path, or,

indeed, that there is such a Path at all, much less the Godlike reward

for unselfish endeavor. He cannot prevail upon himself to accept the

most comforting, the most immeasurably great truth, that the only

authentic evidences of the facts of a continuous line of evolution must

be given by those who have passed from one phase of evolution into

another, and who can no more return to the former, the human phase,

in possession of the power to disclose the secrets of the Path to a

pessimist, than a man of any present day race could appeal to the

mentality of an anthropoid ape and convey a lucid idea of the methods

[TT 193] by which lie had reached the human stage. When man has

outgrown the more infantile instructions of orthodoxy, if lie fails to

comprehend that there must be more beyond, and lie is left without a

conscious director, he drifts into faithlessness, unbelief and despair.

The horror of such a fate should at least render one willing to consider

the fact of the existence of the Masters and the Lodge, even though

ignorant students of Philosophy almost smother the truth in false

representations and absurd or impossible delineations, and to make

some effort to open his eyes to the transcendent light glowing upon

the Path, even though it be too vivid for his unaccustomed eyes. But

alas ! the great majority have chosen to dwell in darkness.

...

THE MYSTERIES

—

LESSON 75

One of life's deep mysteries lies in man's persistent ignoring of

the open secrets which are so common as to stultify the almost

universal characteristic of curiosity. Although such secrets are so

common as to make it impossible for us to draw breath, to tread upon

the ground, to see or hear any phase or condition of matter, without

uncovering one or more of them, we seldom associate then with the

great truths we are wont to call "The Mysteries." We would willingly

offer all that is ours to give, for an opportunity consciously to unveil

those mysteries under the direction of those we deem competent to

rightly demonstrate such incalculably important and sacred realities.

No true teacher of occult philosophy could minimize the

importance Of the law of correspondences, or fail to lay that law down

as a fundamental proposition to any student, unless from spiritual

blindness or self-interested motives lie ignored his duty or refused to

enlighten said student as to the universality and essential value of the

material manifestations of that law, each one of which is a guide to

enlightenment.

The value of the law of Correspondences, in solving the ever-

recurring mystifying problems which harass the soul and make of

earthly existence, in the majority of cases, one long question mark,

one never-ending cry, "Why is it ?" is beyond all possible

computation.

In the law which prevents the mixing of oil and water ; in the law

which provides for and protects the fructifying, growth, maturing and

[TT 194] disintegration of the weed under our feet ; in the law which

provides the right environment for one order of life and denies

existence to that particular order of life in any other environment ; the

law which refuses water the right to run up an inclined plane and

impels it to take a downward course ; in the law which sets one star

above another in glory and power ; in all these and countless other

differentiations of the one law as exemplified in action all about us,

we may by a little study and observation solve every perplexing

secret, unravel every mystery which the soul is driving man to fathom

in order that he may enter upon his inheritance. But the greater part of

the time and effort of the great majority is given to creating countless

lesser mysteries which only add to the burden they are bearing, finally

resulting in the sad-faced, heartsick, selfish and inconsiderate

cumberers of the earth that they are.

In the case of a disciple, constant repetition by the Master of the

preliminary teachings, which are at first absolutely necessary for

enlightenment, either results in demands for still further repetition of

the same or for instructions regarding phases of life which would be

utterly incomprehensible to the human race in its present stage of

development. You should never lay by a statement of fact until you

have mastered it.

You would smile at the childishness of the man who insisted upon

your making a fire in a bucket of water ; you would never think of

expecting a child to do the work of a trained mechanic ; it would never

occur to you to demand that the tiller of the soil should paint a

marvelous work of art, neither would you demand excellence in

chemistry from a devotee of the harp or viol. These are all such

obvious absurdities that they would net require a second thought, yet

from wilful ignorance or careless negligence of opportunity, you are

continually performing even worse absurdities, and suffering from the

effects of the same, to a degree that would seem almost unbearable,

were you aware of the facts concerned, and in many cases do become

unbearable when mental or physical weakness results from continued

repetitions of such effects, and they are added to the already too heavy

burdens you bear.

If you see a beautiful flower droop and die from the effects of the

sun's excessive heat, or lack of water, you do net have to argue about

the matter ; if you desire to save the flower you will protect it from the

sun, or give it water, as the case may be. You have been taught that

fire and water are the fundamentals of all life, yet if you see a human

being sickening or dying from some unaccountable cause, it does not

occur to you that some form of fire or water [TT 195] might save that

life. It might be the fire that is kindled by sympathetic and helpful

words and deeds, or the water which is formed by the union of two

forces which correspond to hydrogen and oxygen, and which flows

from "the well of tears." It may be the knife or the bitter draught that

is needed to tap that well, and the only question you have to ask

yourself is as to your ability to use that knife or give that bitter draught

in the right spirit and from the right motive. But, my child, make sure

that you do not administer fire when water is required, or the reverse,

and you can only make sure, as you would make sure of the need of

the flower, by intelligent observation of causes, and diagnosis of

surrounding conditions. And as there are only these two infallible

rules for determining the need, and the requisite supplying of the same

on the plane of physical expression, so there are but the same two

rules (or shall we call them laws ?), by means of which we can

diagnose and determine the requisite medium for equilibrating the

unbalanced substance in the mentally, physically or spiritually

unbalanced ; and, sad to say, a large majority of the human race are

thus unbalanced.

If you see a stick of caustic applied to flesh, you know that it is

going to destroy a certain area about the point of contact. If you use

your knowledge of the law of correspondences, you know that the

human thought or word which partakes of the nature of that caustic

(and its nature is as easily determined by the same law of

correspondences), will affect a corresponding area of substance of one

or more of the interior vehicles of the life forces of your victim ; the

destruction or injury being according to the degree of resistance the

victim is able to oppose to the attacking power, and when you think

seriously over this fact and realize the effects of your cruelty in

conjunction with like cruelty perpetrated, perhaps, by hundreds of

others just as careless and thoughtless as yourself, it may be you can

gain some slight knowledge of the causes of the crucifixion of every

accepted chela . every saviour . who gives net only his physical but

his astral and manasic body up to the torture of human kind, that they

may Profit by his sacrifice.

When you have suffered enough from the effects of such causes,

from the loss of ideals, from disappointments, sorrows, the direct

reaction of just such offenses as I have indicated, destruction of faith,

ingratitude, your continual torture of the only links between you and

the Lodge, your seeming incapacity for realizing that you are cutting

off the only media of communication I have with you, then You may

be able to see what you have thrown away. God grant you may see

before it is too late. [TT 196]

...

LEST WE FORGET

—

LESSON 76

If it were for the best interests of humanity at its present stage of

development to be able to predict all future events, the knowledge

which would enable them to do so would have been more

emphatically forced upon them ; but while such knowledge bas always

been possible of attainment, it was only so to those who had

developed the interior senses to a marked degree, and who therefore

comprehended the vastness of existent relations between all states and

planes of life, and could therefore draw the right conclusions from

even slight data, and compute the length of corresponding periods of

time, according to the magnitude of the event or divine purpose. The

possibility of such attainment lies back of the desire for the same,

even in primitive man.

Man always attains what he most desires, if such desire be based

upon a principle of life, and therefore he has conquered the

unorganized, unrestrained, heterogeneous, lawless elements

sometimes posited by those who are not yet able to see the unity of the

basic principles which underlie all interior and exterior phenomena,

and therefore he recognizes the impossibility of any lasting restriction

as regards knowledge of any phase of such phenomena.

As well strive to separate the currents of the ocean from the water

of the same, and insist that the water moved by one current may not

contact the water moved by another, as to separate one man -a drop of

the universal ocean . from another, or from any phase, state or

condition of matter, force and consciousness. The divine current

which moves the combined drops, can only move those drops

(humanity), according to irrevocable laws, and if any of those drops

are too light or too heavy (too advanced or too ignorant), to be borne

by one current, they are taken up and carried on by another greater or

lesser current, but in the course of time every drop of the cosmic

ocean will touch every shore and every other drop, and, according to

the impression made by the contact (the stored up memory) will one

drop recognize any other drop or shore, and profit by such

recognition.

The language of symbolism, the science of the stars, the lines

engraved on forehead and hand by life's experiences, all these are

marks of recognition, points of contact which rightly interpreted

indicate past, present and future events, as surely as the rising of the

sun indicates the beginning of a new day. [TT 197]

If all these facts can be understood and accepted, the majesty,

purpose and power of Cosmic symbolism, which includes astrology

and prophecy, may be seen, and that great phenomenon of life be

dignified and raised to its true position in the minds of men instead of,

as now, being relegated to the shades of superstition and made a by-

word and epithet of contempt by some, and used for the deception and

beguilement of their fellowmen by others.

While the vibrations raised by the Initiates through the repetition

of ancient prophecies and messages of warning or encouragement for

the future, have resulted in sending a stream of similar prophetic

utterances throughout the world, the ignorance of vitally important

central fundamental points, upon which, like the spokes of a wheel to

the hub, all other aspects or delineations of such prophecies or

messages depend, renders such utterances of little or no importance.

By the loss of mental and physical force expended in fear or

contempt, man weakens his power to meet events prophesied, or to

reach the point of development before mentioned, where he can

rightly understand, interpret and prepare to deal with coming events.

You have been told at different times that discouragement, illness,

bereavement, loss of confidence in yourselves and others, suicidal

tendencies, and despair, are often brought on by continued exposes of

unwise or unworthy teachers, and above all by the unnatural thirst for

material gold, which crushes out all human feeling and leaves only a

grim harvest of abnormality, hidden by a mask of supposed virtue and

Self-importance. All these sad effects of ignorance separate you from

each other, and from the Higher Self, and life becomes a terror, and,

so far as you can see, the gift of a fiendish, instead of a beneficent

Power. Yet all this you must face and conquer, and you have now to

decide whether you will do it alone, or with those who have

conquered, and stand ready to aid you if you will make the necessary

conditions.

Enough of the statements I have made have been already fulfilled

to assure you that others will be fulfilled. Less and less security for

invested or hoarded means will be found. More and more disruption

Will occur and methods of quick slaughter be found. Wave upon wave

of crime will arise as a result of the frenzy aroused by the above-

mentioned discouragements, and if man refuses to make way for the

manifestation of his own divinity, to whom or what will he turn in his

hour of greatest need ?

It is not because of my need of you that I urge you to stand firm

and steady, on any one of the Temple steps you have reached,

[TT 198] but that you may have combined support of all the forces

that constitute that step, in whatever karma may have in store for you

personally. Build a centre, a fulcrum in your own inner self, where the

Love of the Great White Lodge may rest ; and Fear, the greatest of all

stultifying, unsettling forces in the universe, will have no more

dominion over you.

If you could fully understand and believe the vital truth in every

statement of prophecy I have made to you ; if you could accept the

fact that every phase of the so-called new thought, the later scientific

discoveries and results of inventive genius for the good of man, were

either the results of advantage taken of the knowledge given out by the

command of the Great White Lodge, first through the Initiate H. P. B.

(Madame Blavatsky), secondly by W. Q. J. (Wm. Q. judge), and

thirdly through the Temple ; or were the perversion of such

knowledge by the self-interested to the injury of mankind, you would

be better able to appreciate the depth and importance of seemingly

simple directions, and the necessity for fully learning the alphabet of

occult science, as given in the Temple Teachings, and so guard

yourselves against the danger you must ultimately meet when you

begin to use the letters of that alphabet to form the words and interpret

the same ; in other words, apply the Wisdom and Knowledge you,

have gained to the solution of the material problems which will

confront you.

...

VALUE OF RELIGIOUS INSTINCT

—

LESSON 77

If the unappeasable longing of the human heart for an undeniable,

self-evident reality back of all evanescent, cyclic phenomena, for the

source of the stream of love which springs up in man at the sight of a

face, the touch of a hand, and like a living fountain of water beautifies

every waste place and brings to birth the hidden germ of every useful

and beautiful characteristic in human nature . for the unspeakable awe

which numbs our gift of speech at the sight of some magnificent

mountain scene or ravishing sunset ; for the almost physical hunger

which seizes one at the scent of some rare flower when the whole

nature rebels and refuses to be satisfied with the sense of sight and

smell alone ; and most of all in the insatiable thirst for recognition by

some extraneous force or being, of some quality or [TT 199] hard-

won attribute believed by us to be worthy of recognition, or for the

blotting Out Of the effects of some unworthy act which we know

intuitively to be opposed to the manifestation of our ideals of

perfection . if all these super-sensitive actions of interior forces which

are beyond our ken are aroused in us only to die of inanition for the

reason that there is nothing behind and above them capable of

nourishing and sustaining then permanently, then all life is a lie and a

delusion, and the universe the mad dream of a mad humanity ; for

nowhere in external expression may be found a manifestation of desire

that somewhere, somehow, there has not been provision made for the

satisfaction of that desire, and it is beyond the bounds of reason that

the highest, purest, holiest desires of the human race have alone been

left unprovided for.

The strongest proof of the underlying truth of any religious

system is the need of its devotees for what that system can supply. We

may satisfy our reason for a time with various scientific hypotheses,

may over-exercise or stultify our minds with specious arguments

against the probability of any reality back of the generally accepted

dogmas and creeds which we have relinquished or have never fully

accepted, but the fact remains, that when severe illness, desolation,

great suffering, or their other extremes, great joy and gratification

come open us, we are driven back to our repudiated beliefs or

discarded ideas of a possible Divine reality.

It is only in the mediocre, the dead levels of life, when we have

lost or thrown away the power to feel deeply, to desire ardently, that

we can be satisfied with the results of our reasoning processes, our

intellectual gymnastics. At either extreme, at the highest and lowest

vibratory key of life, all in us that is capable of touching the hem of

the garment of Infinite Love cries out for closer contact with that love

at any sacrifice, and only in those extremes can such contact be

secured, whether it be by means of some accepted religious belief or

by the birth of the soul through travail of personal desire and effort.

The "Thank God !" which falls from the lips of the pessimist or

materialist as he snatches a loved one from some imminent peril, is a

surer indication of the existence of a Deity, a God who could be

thanked, than years of argumentative denial of such an One could

furnish to the contrary. One springs pure and limpid from. the depths

Of man's divine nature, a result of instantaneous recognition of

possible Infinite Love and protection, expressing one of the most

beautiful attributes in life . Gratitude ; the other is but the temporary

illusionary action of a few of the surface ripples of the great Cosmic

Ocean, transitory in their nature as the vagaries of a beam of light (as

are [TT 200] all the operations of Reason unaffected by Intuition),

possibly of use in determining temporary affairs, but failing

egregiously in satisfying the soul which is caught in some abyss of

lower desire, from which it cannot extricate itself without help.

...

SOUND VIBRATIONS

—

LESSON 78

Notwithstanding all the centuries of struggle and effort toward

development which lie behind the present human race and its straining

for educational, sociological and material advantages, in some

respects that race is exactly where it was ages ago ; and the principal

cause of such stultification, though always in evidence, as well as the

cause of much of man's excruciating suffering of mind and body, and

even crime, is deliberately ignored, ridiculed, sarcastically noted or

self-pityingly admitted, and then pushed aside and forgotten.

To my undying regret, I have seen the same causes set up by

Templars, and working similar effects, and in many cases as flagrantly

repeated, ignored or excused. Careless as you seem of the inevitable

fruits of these causes, vividly and repeatedly as I have pointed them

out and urged their eradication upon you, I am nevertheless left with

but little to encourage a repetition of the same ; and yet if I refrain

from repetition, I am remiss in duty.

I am sometimes awed at the apparent recklessness with which

some one or more of your number will draw down upon yourselves

and your loved ones the active, malignant elemental forces, and the

condemnatory decisions of the Law which controls and punishes the

use and abuse of the Divine energy called into action by the satirical,

cruel, unjust and often untrue statements to and against each other ;

and when the results of such action appear in your own lives, in the

form of physical ailments, poverty, destruction of comeliness, loss of

affection, faith and trust, to say nothing of their effect on the substance

with which you must build a Nirmanakaya body (if so be you are ever

to build one), your indifference causes me to realize my impotence

and the apparent uselessness of aiding you to destroy the ravaging

demons which you permit to reappear without contest, owing to your

own natural indolence. [TT 201]

After half a century of specific work in that line by myself, and in

view of the fact that though the students of the Great Mysteries have

been given so much attention, so much unparalleled instruction by

others as well as myself, they have made, comparatively speaking, so

little progress, I stand appalled at the thought of the superhuman task

set the Initiates who are by karmic right the executors of divine law,

for the present Maha Yuga.

A student or novice claims the protection and assistance of the

Lodge, deliberately takes a step by assuming obligations which must

inevitably precipitate a large amount of back karma, refuses to

perceive the obstacles he is continually creating, and when some

crushing blow, some deprivation or loss occurs, some retrograde

displacement from position, or failure to achieve distinction, it will

almost invariably arouse latent anger or jealousy ; and such victim of

Illusion's spells, instead of seeking the ultimate cause of his difficulty

in his own nature . his own acts and words . will "pile Ossa on

Pelion" by striking out blindly at "Fate", at his teachers, his neighbor,

or his material limitations or environment.

I ask you, my son . my daughter, individually, as one of those

most vitally concerned, "What are you going to do to change these

conditions in yourself ?"

Occasionally one of your number will say, "I hate this or that

person or condition ; things are not what I expected at headquarters, so

and so is cruel, unjust, or untrustworthy, and evidently desires my

labor or my money", and so blindly continues to pile up imaginary

grievances, utterly repudiating the probable fact that although he may

have been invited, he has never been urged to take up any position and

may have been advised to the contrary ; forgetting that he had been

given the privilege of helping to build a place of protection and satety

for himself, not to enter one already built ; forgetting all the

kindnesses that have been shown him, all the sacrifices made by those

upon whom he has subsequently brought anguish, suffering and loss ;

ignorantly charging others with the use of undue influence, when

almost, if not quite invariably, if he were open to conviction, a little

calm, intelligent examination and investigation in the right direction

could easily prove the reverse of his suspicions, and show him but too

often utterly careless of the feelings of those Who have sacrificed

infinitely more than he to make possible an opening for him. Plunged

in such a maelstrom a novice does not immediately perceive he has set

in action these hitherto quiescent, now malignant, destructive forces of

the negative pole of life, in his own auric envelope, the action of

which has an effect on the astral body [TT 202] similar to that of

corrosive acids or sulphuric poisons on the physical ; devouring,

paralyzing or disintegrating forces, which act by repercussion upon

the organs, blood vessels, muscles and nerves of his physical body,

and ultimately bring on swellings, fever, eruptions of the body, and

corresponding conditions in the astral envelope, and consequently

upon the substance he must evolve and manipulate in order to build a

yet more interior vehicle.

"Nature abhors a vacuum." If an individual sends out from his

own auric centre a definite degree of force of such a character as

above noted, thus temporarily leaving a vacuum in such centre, by that

act he sets free an equal amount of the force of suction, which draws

to himself from the aura of the one so attacked an exact equivalent, a

definite amount or degree of the same force he has expelled (it may

have been hitherto latent in the attacked), which will draw to himself

and precipitate a corresponding attack from others. The law of

compensation then begins to act, and, whether he will or not, he must

pay the debt he has made, in the same kind and degree . must give to

that other part of his own substance, which alone will counteract the

effect of the cause he has set up. He gives out an evil, a negative

personal force ; he draws to himself an impersonal retributive force

that will fill the vacuum thus created, and then must give back of the

best that is in him, a full equivalent to that of which he has robbed the

other. This is one result of the action of the irrevocable triple-sided

law of compensation.

The fact that he does not at once see the final results of its action

is of no consequence, or that there is not an immediate material loss of

health or wealth. Time has no existence in the Divine Mind. Other

karma of a better nature then due may have to be lived out before the

full results of his wrongly vitalized words become apparent.

You can predict very accurately that which lies before you, by a

self examination of your words and acts for or against others in the

past, and some day you will know beyond question that the cancer, the

fever, the eruption, the loss of a limb or organ, the utter breaking

down of nerves, brain and muscles from which you suffer, is primarily

due to some cruel, unjust or untrue statement forgotten, mayhap, as

quickly as it was uttered. Remember "there are no little things." It hath

been truly said, "You shall give an account of every idle word."

Knowing all this, I ask you, is it surprising that almost despair seizes

those who watch and labor to aid you in the dizzy climb to perfection,

or that as I have before said, the causes of the calamitous episodes, the

failures to make advance in the cases of pledged Disciples, [TT 203]

the unhappiness and misery in the world, lie almost unrecognized,

ignored or despised ?

Man's continuous ignoring of the power of silence, and the

inevitable effects Of careless use of words which have a divine origin

and purpose, is responsible for three-fifths of his suffering.

The fact that the songs of the song-birds in the airy envelope of

the earth, the roar of the mountain torrent and other nature sounds are

among the chief instruments for the increase and decrease in the rates

of the earth's vibrations, should give you some idea of the importance

and effects of the sounds you make and the words you utter.

The recent discoveries in connection with the methods by which

sound may be transmitted and recorded, may give you some idea of

the methods used by natural law to transmit and record sound waves

to and from the organic centres of the human body. The length of such

waves indicates the strength and potency of the same ; but to bring to

outer perception any knowledge of the final effects of any one sound,

the wave must be changed into a light wave (these two great energies

are interchangeable, though one is a straight and the other a curved

motion). Then another change in the vibration of the light wave brings

the dormant fiery lives which constitute that light, into action, and it is

through the control of those fiery lives that the results before

mentioned are accomplished by divine retributive law.

Until the individual members of mankind at large can be taught to

understand and apply these truths, by control of vibration, they cannot

rise to any great level. But the progress made in the transmitting and

recording of sound, and the knowledge of the curve and wave motion

of the same, indicates a gradual advance, though such advance could

be accelerated ; but man is slow to accept anything that costs him any

great effort and sacrifice.

...

THE HERESY OF SEPARATENESS

SEPTEMBER, 1908

—

LESSON 79

It is a well known fact among chemists, that upon the release of a

single nascent atom from the other constituent atoms of any

compound, by means of chemical action, the released atom seeks with

newly aroused energy to unite itself with any other freed atom within

its sphere of movement ; but it is not so well known that the newly

[TT 204] realized power which impels it to this action, is derived

from the shock which the other atoms of the compound sustained from

the hammering they received at the time the atom was freed. The

propelling power which launched it into space was drawn from the

common reservoir, the reserve force which the combination of atoms

possessed ; therefore the latter was more or less temporarily crippled

by the loss of force. But the loss sustained by the combination was

little compared to the loss which the freed atom must sustain if it

cannot immediately unite itself with other freed atoms ; for, as in the

case of all other users of suddenly acquired power, the velocity and

intensity of its action soon cause exhaustion and devitalization, and

the strength of the freed atom dwindles to nothing in short order.

Even disintegration is only a factor in integration. It is the

negative pole to a positive force. If the main body dies from the loss

sustained by the emission of an expulsive force, and a new coalition is

formed of the freed atoms, the karmic action which ensues as a result

of such necessity will invariably bring a similar catastrophe upon the

new body within a comparatively short time, for karma works

incessantly to preserve the integrity of the whole, to draw to a

common centre the fragments expelled from the centre at the

beginning of a great world period. If you were working in harmony

with that law, every effort of your lives would go toward the building

of any Lodge Centre with which you were identified. Instead of flying

off at a tangent at any blow struck against that centre, you would

gather every bit of energy in your auric body for the purpose of

tightening your grip upon it. If there was an expulsion of

disintegrating force within its ranks, you would change it or make it

harmless. It is absurd to say that any body or coalition is too strong to

conquer by your single efforts. Patience and determination will

overcome evil or weakness ; and by the exercise of the same you must

eventually succeed, or be proved in the wrong by the forces you

yourselves have evoked. In the latter case, if your motive has been

pure, your real purpose has been served, which was the defense of

your brethren, and their best good.

If you desire life, health, happiness, success in spiritual aspiration,

take this communication and use it as a bugle call. Get into line, evoke

your higher principles, take your place by the side of your

Commander and work for the good of the organization. If you let the

enemy pound your body (The Temple) to fragments, or vitally injure

its usefulness, you may be sure you will suffer defeat, not within, but

without its ranks, and a worse defeat than ever before, because your

original purpose was higher than the purpose [TT 205] of the enemy .

the expelled atom before mentioned. It is the original motive of each

atom which furnishes the concentration and integration of the atoms of

the organic body. The expulsion of the atom is without individual self-

conscious motive ; it is due to the mass motive of self-protection, and

is therefore of a lower order of power ; and it is for this reason that the

body can be shocked by the expulsion of an atom.

If its composite mass had arrived at the point of self-conscious

individuality, the explosion which always causes an expulsion would

occur within the atom expelled alone, and on the confines of the mass,

where it could not injure the mass as a whole.

Gird up your loins and work for the individualizing of The

Temple as you would work for self-consciousness as an individual.

The War of Armageddon

Do you realize that the war of Armageddon, already commenced

on the astral plane, and to be precipitated on the physical, is a

religious war, strange as that statement must appear in this age of

Iron ? This is not recognized by the majority of those who see its

coming, but, driving them on with fiendish ingenuity, the demons of

darkness are forcing England, Japan, Russia, China, Germany and the

United States, and even fomenting internal struggles between factions,

into what appears to a materialist to be a struggle for material power.

But, back of all exterior causes, is the struggle for spiritual supremacy.

On one side is the accumulated strength, power and fanaticism of the

ages, embodied in the "Brothers of the Shadow", leagued against the

strength, power, communism, true democracy and conservative force

. the garnerings of the middle path, of the "Brothers of Light."

I have told you the forces seemingly precipitated upon members

of The Temple by the Brothers of the Shadow were not in reality

primarily directed against you as individuals ; they are against Us, the

White Lodge, the progenitors of the human race, the bearers of the

cosmic hammers and battle axes, the Keepers of the Temple of the

Holy Grail, and the great war referred to is between the Brothers of

Light and of Shadow, and the gages of battle are the souls of men. The

final result means freedom or slavery for the human race for ages to

come. It means man's victory over death, or continual dying, man's

union with God ' or dispersion from God, and it is these tremendous,

incalculably great issues, which will make the result of this universal

contest the point of balance in the evolution of man, for ages to come.

Look deep enough, and you will see the jewels of truth in my

statements. Remember it will be true Christianity, typified by the

[TT 206] white race, that will be lined up against prostituted

Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc., as typified by the yellow

race, and the latter are being reinforced by the devil-ridden devotees

of demonology who belong to the black races. The Occidental and

Oriental races are the vehicles of power, but the one great issue is the

higher evolution of man.

Look underneath the surface of all the exterior causes set up by

those who are contending against each other in this world-wide

struggle for future existence on this planet, and you will find what is

sometimes termed religious instinct . the innate longing of the latent

or the awakened soul for consciousness of Self. When that longing has

deteriorated by constant indulgence of the sensuous, selfish, lower

nature of man through repeated incarnations, the soul is driven out

from the body, and the longing for spiritual supremacy, the cry of the

created for its creator is replaced by a longing for material

supremacy ; and a spiritual degradation corresponding to the material

uplift, takes place.

The incarnating Ego is thus disgraced and degraded by being

compelled to seek the races which are on the downward arc of

civilization in order to incarnate. The yellow and black races long

since lost their power of interpreting and absorbing spiritual truth.

They are only now passing the lower point of that arc and so have but

just started on their upward arc ; consequently there is a natural

religious antagonism back of the material antagonism felt by both

races for each other.

...

CHEMICAL ACTION

—

LESSON 80

The states of matter commonly termed Akasic, Ethereal, Watery

and Fiery, by the student of Occult Science, contain the bases of the

gases known to Exoteric Science, as parohydrogenic, parooxygenic,

oxyhydrogenic and nitrogenic.

By combining, recombining and dissociating the above mentioned

gases, in ways known only to Initiates of high degree, divine

chemistry evolves a state of substance . a transitory vehicle, as a

temporary residence for each division of the spiritual life forces to be

incarnated in gross matter during a great cycle. One such vehicle has

been recently brought before the exoteric scientific world in the

character [TT 207] of radium. When the individualized lives confined

in radium are released and brought into association with one of the

gases which has been generated by combination and dissociation of

the four first mentioned or primal gases, there is evolved a certain

degree of secondary elemental lives which are subject to the will of

the practical occultist, and by means of which many of the mysterious

phenomena performed by such occultists are brought about. But as

soon as the energy . the will power . which bas combined the before

mentioned gases is withdrawn, there is an instant dissociation of the

atoms of the gaseous vehicle, and consequently a release of the fiery

lives.

While the combining, recombining and dissociation of gases is

accomplished by means of occult chemistry, and the vehicle so

evolved is perceptible to the operator through the senses of smell and

taste and can be confined in glass or metal, it must escape from such

confinement in order to be temporarily ensouled by the fiery atoms,

and unless controlled by the will of the operator after escape, is

dissipated at once.

It may be interesting to you to learn that the class of fiery atoms

referred to are identical with the latest scientific discoveries in the

field of electricity (the fourth Son of Fohat), designated electrons by

its latest discoverer. I say "latest discoverer" advisedly, for that

division as well as yet more infinitesimal divisions (Sons of Fohat),

has long been known and used by practical occultists who well know

the dangers involved in bringing those degrees of the fiery lives into

juxtaposition with substance-matter of much lower vibratory action,

and consequently are faithful to their trusts and their guardianship of

the great secrets imparted to them.

Occasionally some of these nature secrets are accidentally learned

by delvers into chemistry and alchemy, and some of the more recent

discoveries along the lines of high explosives are the results of such

delving ; but if the discoverer of such a secret had the faintest

conception of the character of the inevitable karma which will result

from the sale of such secrets for the destruction of human life, he

would willingly starve if that were the only alternative, before lie

would Part with the knowledge attained by him ; for here as well as

elsewhere, where commercialism enters the field, and a consequent

degradation of a higher spiritual force is accomplished, the

unforgivable sin is committed ; in other words, ineradicable, eternal

causes, so far as this Manvantara is concerned, are set in action, and

their effects, like the ripples made in a pool of water by a vigorously

cast stone, will never stop until they have reached the outermost verge

of that sphere of action and returned to their source, bearing the

inevitable results. [TT 208]

The point of divergence . the line of demarcation between white

and black magic, between good and evil action, in such instances as

above noted, is drawn by the hand of Motive . Use . and while to the

mind of the unenlightened there could be no possible connection

between the atmospheric or ethereal gases and the attributes and

qualities of mankind, there is in fact a most intimate relation.

Nature is continually doing exactly what the practical occultist

does occasionally, by combining and dissociating gases, and thereby

drawing a higher degree of the fiery lives to ensoul such

combinations, and man is unconsciously using such elemental forces

by con centrated will power to accomplish his various designs. As yet

this is done in the majority of instances in ignorance of the results of

his action or his responsibility, and therefore he is not as accountable

as he would otherwise be for the good or evil effects which have

resulted from such use. But the final effects of such action will re

main to his credit or discredit according to the character of the motives

which have been the guiding power of his Will, that WM which

furnishes the dynamic power to direct the action of the same degrees

of elementals which nature is evolving and destroying continuously in

all her dominions.