iiln ■ ■ m L II ■Mil; Esoteric Lessons IBY SARAH STANLEY GRIMKE, Ph. B. SEQUEL TO 'FIRST LESSONS IN REALITY" PUBLISHED BY The i^Wo-pjilogophical publishing Co. DENVER, COLO., I9OO 2912S .t» Lib **'» Of Concir^^| Two Copies Reu u*o J AUG 3 1900 Copyright entry SECOND COPY. Delivered to ORDER DIVISION, AUG 7 1900 COPYRIGHT, I90O By HENRY WAGNER, M. D. 67151 Personified Unthinkables AN ARGUMENT AGAINST PHYSICAL CAUSATION Ilhtstrated by the Magic Lantern including " First Lessons In Reality," "Personified Unthinkables" and "A Tour Through the Zodiac," a sequel to "First Lessons In Reality." PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. It is the desire of the Authoress to preserve her "First Lessons in Reality" and "Personi- fied Unthinkables/' together with "A Tour Through the Zodiac/' in one volume. There- fore she has requested me to carry out her wishes, and also to copyright the whole of her writings in my own name, believing they will serve the use for which they were written in the future, niore than to-day. Henry Wagner, M. D. PREFACE. The object of the following Argument is to establish what is commonly regarded as purely physical health upon a purely psychical basis ; to show that Health is knowledge, , wisdom, in- sight; that men suffer from so-called purely corporeal diseases only because they form er- roneous judgments; also, to show that the fun- damental erroneous judgment is, that there is any such thing in the Universe as Physical Causation, a belief in which leads both directly and indirectly to disease. Often directly in the case of the individual, but more commonly in- directly as a race-belief held throughout the known history of mankind. The practical outcome of such a doctrine of Health would be its teachableness. Health IV PREFACE. would then be something universally human, something every one could acquire through in- struction and practice. This was the Socratic doctrine of Virtue: Socrates taught : *"Men act wrongly only be- cause they form erroneous judgments." He thus "Laid the foundation stone for a scientific treatment of Ethics, a treatment which must be dated from him." , In attempting to establish this doctrine of Health, our aim has been to show that it is a direct implication and strict logical deduction of Theistic or Spiritual Philosophy. *Schwegler's History of Philosophy, page 76. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION. . . . i Freedom as a postulate of Morals, Intellect and Health, p. I. — Health explained as a result of Mechanism leads to Material- ism, p. 2. — Evil and Disease both results of erroneous judgment, and erroneous judgment implies Freedom, p. 3. — Defi- nition of Freedom, p. 3. — Results of the possibility of affirming and believing a lie illustrated, p. 4. — Disease a result of this possibility, consequently Health is Knowledge and Wisdom, p. 5. — Physi- cal Causation the erroneous judgment which results in Disease, and which The- istic philosophy cannot affirm without VI CONTENTS. violating the law of Contradictories, P- 5- PART I. REALITY. AN OUTLINE STATEMENT OF HOW ALL RE- ALITY IS TO BE REGARDED 7 Infinite Mind, p. 7. — Infinite Thoughts, p.- 8. — Ideals, p. 8. — Ideals realized in Act, p. 11. — Line of Reality, p. 13. PART II. POLAR OPPOSITES. . . 14 Definition, p. 14 — Thought and Symbol, p. 14 — Unity and Multiplicity, p. 15 — ■ Identity and Diversity, p. 15 — Being and Attributes, p. 16 — Abstraction, p. 17 — Personification, p. 18. CONTENTS. Vll PART III. CONTRADICTORIES. LAW OF CONTRADICTORIES. . . 20 Results of the Violation of this Law, upon Intellectual Life, p. 21. — Morals, p. 23. — Health, p. 25. — True Definition of Cause, p. 28. — Exposition of how the erroneous judgment of Physical Causa- tion manifests itself upon the Body, p. 31. — Eternal Life and Heaven, p. 33. CONCLUSION 34 The use of Contradictories in our Mental Activities, p. 34. — The Touchstone for Truth, p. 35. — The Principle according to which all Ideas must be worked out. PERSONIFIED UNTHINKABLES. INTRODUCTION. It is certainly a self-evident proposition that actions can have moral quality only on a sup- position of freedom. It is also equally certain (though perhaps not so self-evident) that * freedom is an abso- lutely necessary postulate of intelligence; for without the power of choosing an end or law and governing one's self accordingly, there could be no intellectual life. But that health — so called physical health — is possible only through the fact of freedom, will probably, appear to most minds as a self- evident absurdity. The connection between Body, Intellect and^ *Bowne ? s Metaphysics, pages 168 and 169. X INTRODUCTION. Morals, no one denies. But it has been gener- ly accepted on the authority of materialistic sci- ence. Physiology measures out our intellectual life for us, and even goes so far as to decide the ex- tent of moral responsibility from the structure of the brain. While the thorough-going Mater- ialist affirms that the Mechanism is sufficient to explain all the phenomena of Will, even going so far as to calmly suggest as a recent ^writer does, that desire for suicide, for immor- tality, annihilation, etc., are severally the neces- sary result of the state of the body in which the individual had no choosing. This pushes the whole subject to an issue on the question of free will. The moralist and intellectualist can no lon- ger assert Freedom, while they leave Health to be explained by the mechanism; for they are ^laudsley's "Body and Willy page 82. Introduction. xi thus still at the mercy of the materialist. Philosophy, both Ethical and Theistic, in defending itself against materialism, has quite overlooked this fact. Health has been recognized only as an im- portant conditioning physical fact. But a spir- itual philosophy, (whether it be Idealism or Phenomenalism), which regards physical man- ifestations as entirely, or in any degree a product or effect of Mind, must no longer theoretically or practically exempt Body. Body in all its varying manifestations must be effect or result of Thought. The basis of Health must be wholly mental, and it follows directly from this that the basis of Disease must likewise be wholly mental. Disease and Evil must both be the direct did indirect results of an erroneous judgement. Here the materialist would stoutly affirm that che erroneous judgement was the necessary re- Xll INTRODUCTION. suit of the state of the body, in which the indi- vidual had no choosing. And here the spiritual philosopher must as stoutly affirm th$t all so-called diseases of Body are simply effects of a mental cause, the necessary result of an error of reason, and that mind does have the power of correcting its own mistakes of judgment. But the possibility of forming an erroneous judgment, and the power of correcting it, both imply Freedom. The fact of Freedom does not by any manner of means make an ignorant man learned by the simple choosing. It does not make an evil man virtuous, with- out some effort on his part; nor does it lift the sick man from his bed, to simply choose to be well. But when reason tells me that two plus two equals four, if I choose to turn round and say INTRODUCTION. Xlll perhaps after all two plus two equals five, I ex- ercise my freedom in the matter. I do not alter the Truth, but as far as the moral or physical effects upon myself are concerned I can change results. I can realize the Truth, or I can realize the effects of a denial of the Truth. By Freedom, either for the individual or the race, is simply meant a power to choose some Truth or its Contradictory ; some Reality or its opposite Nothingness, and to regulate one's self accordingly. If any one should affirm that effects could exist without any cause whatsoever, he would but illustrate the possibility of saying a thing was so, when it was not so. Further, if any one should accept this state- ment as so, which was not so, and should regu- late his actions accordingly he would certainly realize results in accordance with his erroneous judgment. XIV INTRODUCTION. Now the Reality of a feeling consists in being felt. . Yet the foundation of the feeling may be perfectly false. The feeling may be wholly the result of the possibility of saying a thing is so when it is not so. Thus persons have been known to lose the power of speech and motion, to fall fainting and lifeless even, upon a false alarm of fire in a building. No fire at all ; still the feeling of fear and its results upon the body were real enough while they lasted. All these results were from a belief in a lie. But if mind is endowed with trustworthy faculties for ascertaining the truth or falsity of a report, and mind does not choose to exercise them, is not that mind in a measure responsible for its own sufferings? A different state of mind would certainly change results completely. INTRODUCTION. XV The same person who falls imbecile or life- less, upon a false alarm of fire, if inspired by per- fect fearlessness, or a touch of heroism, could pass unharmed through raging flames. Now if a person chooses to believe a false alarm of fire, that does not make a fire, when there is none. It does not make a Reality out of Nothing. Such persons only change results as far as they themselves are concerned. If then all the Reality, commonly called purely corporeal diseases, possess, can be shown to be the result of the possibility of saying, or believing a thing is so when it is not so, that would establish Disease to be the result of an erroneous judgment; and since the possibility of forming an erroneous judgment implies.* (i) Freedom; (2) that there is absolute truth of Reason, — that would also at the same time establish health to be wisdom, knowledge, *Bowne's Metaphysics, page 168. XVI INTRODUCTION. insight. Thus would our new Doctrine of Health be demonstrated. For Health would be Wisdom if Disease was lack of Wisdom. Now if Physical Causation is as false as a false alarm of fire, any one who affirms Physical Causation but illustrates the possibility of say- ing a thing is so when it is not so. If the individual or the race accept Physical Causation as true and regulate themselves ac- cordingly, they are certain to realize Results in accordance with the erroneous judgment of Physical Causation. In Logic the Law of Contradictories is called a fundamental Lazv of thought. According to this Law, "One of two contradictories must be affirmed." It would, for example, be a viola- tion of this Law to affirm, that all right angles are equal, and at the same time assert that some right angles were larger than others. Our aim is to deduce this doctrine of Health ? INTRODUCTION. XV11 from Theistic or Spiritual Philosophy; and to point out that Theistic Philosophy cannot af- firm Physical Causation, even in the case of so- called purely corporeal diseases, without a self- evident violation of the Law of Contradictories. PART I. REALITY. AN OUTLINE STATEMENT OF HOW ALL REALITY IS TO BE REGARDED. The Absolute; the Unknowable; the Infinite Essence ; First Cause, etc., are some of the fash- ionable terms employed to denote our concept of the Supreme Reality of the Universe. They have the praiseworthy quality of being quite unpicturable ; but their unpicturability re- sults rather more from their lack of meaning than anything else. The terms Being, Reality, Infinite, etc., are logical abstractions in themselves, and have no real meaning apart from some active agent. But in that connection they do have meaning. Our highest conception of an active agent is the conscious ego, or Mind. 20 Esoteric Lessons. Now there is certainly nothing in the Uni- verse so utterly unpicturable as Mind. What possible picture can one form of the part of him which reasons, reflects, gives judgments, forms decisions, etc. ? Besides being unpicturable, the term Mind stands for the most definite, vivid and self-evi- dent fact of consciousness. Therefore Mind, our highest, most real, defi- nite and knowable term for a Unitary Active Agent, we adopt for the present purpose, as the Source of all Reality in the Universe. In- finite Mind! It is impossible to conceive of a mind without thoughts. On the other hand, thoughts have no inde- pendent existence by themselves. They are not a community loafing around waiting for some Mind to think them. Neither are thoughts, mind, nor mind, thoughts. There is an ulti- Personified Un think able s. 21 mate dualism between the two. They can never lose their identity and change, the one to the other. Yet mind implies thoughts. They cannot exist apart. They are therefore what may be called Real or Polar Opposites. They mu- tually imply each other. Thought, or product of mind, regarded by it- self is quite as unpicturable as mind. However, in connection with thought, occurs a phenome- non, the importance and significance of which, in all its bearings, perhaps, has not been suffi- ciently regarded by philosophy and psychology, viz : — For every thought there is an accompanying mental picture of some kind. If the thing itself cannot be pictured, there will still be an accom- panying mental picture of some manifestation or appearance of the thing. If the idea triangle is called to mind, one can- 22 Esoteric Lessons. not think of it without seeing in his "mind's eye" a figure with three sides. One cannot re- flect upon so-called general ideas without a mental picture. Take e. g. the general term Animal. We find at once an accompanying mental picture of some individual included un- der the class, animal ; e. g\, a dog or lion, etc. Neither can one consider ideas regarded ab- stractly, such as, Life, Love or Virtue, without some object possessing Life, Love or Virtue, picturing itself to the mind. Furthermore these mental pictures either, (i) correspond to. previous sensations derived from phenomena or visible universe, or (2) they are original constructions made up out of previous sensations by means of association, comparison, etc. Mental pictures are therefore, ( 1 ) the mind's symbols for objective phenomena, and (2) they are representations of the activities — the work- ing over processes of intellect. Personified Unthinkables. 23 The first class, the finite ego, refers to some other agent than itself as cause, but the second it claims as its own construction. Its images, or ideals, the finite mind is in- stinctively impelled to put in some* form recog- nizable to the senses. To the Artist, the Poet, the Author, we ac- cord our highest praise and admiration in pro- portion as they succeed in creating the most perfect form or expression for their ideals. Mental images are then the mediation be- tween unpicturable thought, and a representa- tion to the senses, of thought. They are the purely mental expression for the thoughts which the Artist puts on canvas, the Poet and the Author into form for eye and ear. The creative faculty we regard as the high- est mark of genius in finite mind. But in the real, the ontological sense of the 24 Esoteric Lessons. word Infinite Mind, is the only Creator. It is also, in the true sense of the word, the Only Mind in the Universe. The finite mind stands in the relation of Thought to this One Great Mind. ( i . ) Thoughts can never be the mind which thinks them. (2.) Again the sum of all the thoughts of Infinite Mind can never equal the One Mind. (3.) Again thought has no independent existence apart from mind. Therefore : ( 1.) Man can never be God. (2.) All mankind together can never equal God. (3.) Man is an utter unthinkability apart from God. For every thought of Infinite Mind, there exists, so to speak, an accompanying mental pic- ture, type or ideal. These types or ideals, the Idealist regards as the reality of Phenomena, or visible Universe. Here the Idealists divide into two classes. Personified Unthinkables. 25 Neither class denies that there is objective reality. * "Berkley affirmed an objective and spiritual ground of our sensations as an abso- lute necessity of thought. He questioned only the external existence of the object in percep- tion, and reduced it to an effect in us." The other class regards the mental ideal or type as the reality of phenomena but also hold as Leibnitz did, that visible universe is a cre- ative act. It is the ideal of thought realized in act. Since whichever class may have the truth of the matter does not to any extent affect the present argument, visible universe is regarded as a Creation for the realization of a purpose; also as an expression of an ideal, just as an artist seeks to represent his ideals of thought. ^Bowne's Metaphysics, page 451. 26 Esoteric Lessons. But for all that, phenomenon is only an ap- pearance. It has no more substance in it than the vivid reflections thrown upon a screen or wall by the magic lantern, which presents to the eye a perfect, beautiful and certainly a most real appearance. Just as every minutest detail of the brilliant picture on the wall corresponds to a small transparency within the lantern, just so phe- nomenon is the reflection of an ideal of Infinite Mind. The reflection of a thought has no substance, (the words substance and matter ought to be annihilated) but it has reality. Just as all the reality the reflection on the screen possesses is derived from the magic lan- tern, just so all the Reality of visible universe is derived from Infinite Mind consists in its purely mental quality. Therefore as an act of Infinite Mind the re- Personified Unthinkables. 27 flection of a thought is real. For all the Divine doing is Real. And all the Divine doing is perfect, beauti- ful, harmonious ; perfect in Order, Health and Happiness. Whatever other appearance man may imagine he sees there is an entirely gratui- tous contribution on his part. An example of the exercise of his freedom to form erroneous judgments, whereby he does not alter Truth or Reality; but merely as far as he himself is concerned, changes results. All the Reality, then, in the Universe, is to be regarded as in a direct line from One Source. Also in a regular grade of order which can- not be reversed or worked backwards any more than, in the case of the magic lantern, the re- flection can be the cause of the transparencies, or lenses — or again the transparencies or lenses can be the cause of the light in the lantern. 28 Esoteric Lessons. LINE OF REALITY, i. Infifite Mind. 2. Infinite Thoughts. 3. Infinite Ideals of InfiniteThoughts. 4. Infinite Expressions, or Ideals Re- alized in Act ; — Visible Universe. PART II. POLAR OPPOSITES. REAL OR POLAR OPPOSITES. Infinite Mind. Infinite Thoughts. ( Thought — Symbols. < Unity —Multiplicity ( Identity — Diversity. j Being. I Attributes. Real or Polar Opposites are necessarily reciprocal. They do not exclude, but mutually imply each other. *They are utterly meaning- less apart. One cannot exist without the other. *Cocker's Handbook of Philosophy, Divis- ion i, p. 177. 30 ^ Esoteric Lessons. ( i . ) Thought and symbol are Polar Opposites just as much as Mind and Thoughts. They have no existence apart. Mind cannot think a thought without sign or symbol of some kind. The Thought for which mind has no mental conception, is perfectly meaningless. Mind has not thought it. If the senses have never given the symbol which mind has translated into the idea Triangle, or if Mind has never constructed it out of its previous sensation of lines and angles, that mind has never thought the idea Triangle. (2.) The same thought may be expressed in a multiplicity of ways, as e. g. the idea Castle may be expressed by a zvord spoken or written, — by the architect on paper, by the mechanic in brick or stone, or by the artist on canvas, etc. The Thought never loses its Unify, no matter how numerous the forms which represent it. Personified Unthinkables. 31 (3.) Again, the idea Cube never changes to the idea Cylinder ; nor the idea Cylinder to the idea Sphere. Yet the form which expresses the idea cube assumes the exact appearance of the form cylinder by simply revolving the cube (suspended at the center of one of its sides), and a perfect sphere is produced as far as the sense of sight can inform us by rotating the cylinder (suspended at the center by its round side.*) Throughout the phenomenal universe, the idea remains forever the same. The idea solid does not change to the idea liquid nor the idea liquid into the the idea vapor. Yet the appear- ance, or expression for the idea may change from one to the other right before our eyes, as in the case of water. *Froebel's Kindergarten System. — The Sec- ond Gift. 32 Esoteric Lessons. We cannot therefore affirm identity of phe- nomena. When we change ice into steam and then back into ice again, we cannot affirm that w r e have the same piece of ice with which we started. But thought can never lose its identity nor its unity, nor cease to exist as long as mind exists to think it. Therefore this Thought of Infinite Mind which you and I represent can- not cease to exist, nor lose its unity nor its identity any more than Infinite Mind can cease to exist, since Mind and Thoughts imply each other. Further, since Thought and Symbol are likewise polar opposites which imply each other, we shall always have expression or body of some kind or other. Phenomenal universe of some kind must al- ways exist, as long as Infinite Mind exists. We cannot blot out one and leave the other any more than by rubbing the vivid reflections thrown upon the wall by the magic lantern, we Personified Unthinkables. 33 can erase the picture while the lantern con- tinues to burn. Or any more than we can put the lantern out and still have our picture left on the wall. (4.) Pure or Absolute Being apart from At- tributes is quite as unthinkable as Mind with- out Thoughts. Life, Truth, Virtue, in the ab- stract, are quite as meaningless and absurd as it. would be to talk about a smile or a grin in the abstract, floating round in the air, or which no one had ever smiled or grinned. * Abstraction, however, is the first act or condition in knowledge. It is the withdrawal of attention to a part. We have seen that all Reality was to be re- garded as in a direct line and order from the same Source. But the whole process of knowl- *Cocker's Handbook of Philosophy, Divis- ion 1, p. 169. 34 Esoteric Lessons. edge, however, follows along the reversed line; and thus (as we shall see) with Abstraction, or the first step in knowledge, has occurred Personification, or the fundamental error. Attention (abstraction) is first directed to Phenomena. Sensations are mental transla- tions of Phenomena. Sensations, again, are not entities. They are only Sensations as they are thought by mind; only as they are an act of the conscious ego. There are two ways, however, of regarding this one act. At the same time the ego recognizes its sensations as its own, it also recognizes that the sensations stand for something not its own; and thus ar- rives at phenomena. Here it observes most wonderful manifestations of power, law, truth, life, etc., etc., and is impressed with overwhelm- ing Reality. Thus it is led to personify Nature, or endow Phenomena with independent Real- ity ; not realizing the fact that Visible Universe Personified Unthinkables. 35 is purely a mental expression of Thought, that if Infinite Mind could cease to exist, all the appearances which seem so vast and everlast- ing, would vanish like a bubble without leav- ing the shadow of a dream behind. The ego having personified Nature, when it arrives at some knowledge of Infinite Mind has two opposing Realities in the universe — Mind and Matter — or if it has personified the various Laws, Forces, etc., which it abstracted on its way, it already has a host of Divinities. Personification, then, is the fundamental lie, which has attended abstraction, — the first step in knowledge. Personification is from persona, the Latin word for a mask ; and obtained its present sig- nificance from the fact that Actors were in the habit of wearing masks in the plays. That is, by means of masks they assumed to be per- sonages they were not. 36 Esoteric Lessons. ^ So the ego in turning its attention to phe- nomena, endowed the manifestations of Real- ity, with an independent existence and Reality which they do not possess. And thus counted the mask, (the appearance), for One, as well as the Actor, One, quite overlooking the fact that the Actor, and the character he personates, cannot count as Two distinct individuals. When the ego comes to explain Body and Soul as the union of mind and matter, it has two irreconcilable forces. In proportion as matter is allowed dominion, Intellect and Morals are Slaves, until in a final struggle for consistency, Matter is declared Omnipotent! Mind is but reflection, expression of Matter. Mechanism is fully competent to explain all appearance or phenomena of mind. Sensations are all. John Stuart Mill asserts that, *"In the lan- * "Logic," ch. III. § 3. Personified Unthinkables. 37 guage of philosophy, feelings and states of con- sciousness are synonymous; everything is a feeling of which the mind is conscious. " Although Mr. Mill establishes a scale of rank in feelings, yet such statements reduced to their lowest terms degrade Philosophy to some such gibberish as the following: — Algo ten kephaten; ergo sum. — I suffer a headache; therefore I exist. The Greek and Latin give an appearance of learing, but looking behind the Mask, at the content of the sentence, every healthy mind is instinctively impelled in the name of Phiosophy to sledge-hammer it as a lie, and then start out once more with that lofty assertion of Des Cartes, "I think, therefore I exist/' And I exist, because Infinite Mind Thinks. And I have no existence apart from Infinite Mind. In that sense, "I and the Father are One." The Law of Polar Opposites is the most 38 Esoteric Lessons. fundamental law in the universe ; and Personi- fication is a direct and stupid violation of that law. Personification is Idolatry.** *Book of Exodus, Chap. XX, verses 3 to 7. PART III. CONTRADICTORIES. Truth. Falsity. Virtue. Evil. Health. Disease. Life. Death. The Law of Contradictories is a funda- mental Law of Thought. According to this law, "One of two contradictories must be af- firmed." All Contradictories of universal, necessary and absolute Truth are impossible;* and Un- thinkable. *Cocker's Handbook of Philosophy, Divis- ion i, p. i. 40 Esoteric Lessons. On the opposite side of the great principles of Truth, Virtue, Health, Life, etc., the ego beholds another set of appearances which it also at once proceeds to personify, to establish as realities, viz. : Falsity, Evil, Disease and Death, until, however, gradually coming to comprehend there can be no such thing as at- tributes apart from Being, that Truth, Virtue, Health and Life, etc., are meaningless abstrac- tions by themselves, it is confronted by the monstrous paralogism of affirming that if Falsity, Disease, Evil and Death are also At- tributes of Being, are Realities, just as much as Truth, Virtue, Health and Life are Reali- ties, then Falsity, Evil, Disease and Death, and Being are necessarily reciprocal. They do not exclude, but mutually imply each other. Infinite Mind, and Falsity, Evil, Disease, and Death are utterly meaningless apart ; one cannot exist without the other ! And thus to Personified Unthinkables. 41 avoid the revolting necessity of making the In- finite the Father of Lies, another (Personage) mask is introduced into the Universe to father this new set of Realities. A necessity which might have been wholly obviated by the cor- rection of the very simple blunder in the prem- ises, viz. : — that Falsity, Evil, Disease, and Death are not polar opposites of Being at all, they are the purely Verbal Opposites, or Con- tradictories of the Attributes of Being. What rational ground is there, then, for af- firming them to be Realities, or the Attributes of Being? Is it not, on the other hand, a direct violation of the law of Contradictories to do so? If we affirm the proposition; some right angles are larger than others, to be equally true with the proposition, all right angles are equal, we at once introduce confusion and chaos not only into mathematics, but also into Astron- 42 Esoteric Lessons. omy, Physics, or, in short all the Arts and Sciences depending on mathematics. So long as we maintain that single Falsity to be a Real- ity, just so long would we remain in the densest ignorance on all these subjects. We would not alter the Truth, but only as far as we our- selves are concerned, we would change results. Whether we will or no, we cannot possibly affirm both of two Contradictories. It we hold fast to one, we lose the other. And we must affirm Truth and deny its verbal opposite as an absolute Unthinkable, in order to make the slightest advance in knowledge. Now since all the Contradictories of uni- versal, necessary and absolute Truth are im- possible, are Unthinkables, we must either af- firm Truth, Virtue, Health (from Anglo- Saxon hal, Whole), Life, Love, etc., to be universal, necessary and absolute Truths, and their contradictories unthinkables, or else we Personified Unthinkables. 43 must affirm Falsity, Evil, Disease, Death, Hate, etc., to be universal, necessary and absolute truths and their contradictories unthinkables. A conclusion which the consistent Materialist accepts either openly or else practically. But a conclusion the Spiritual Philosopher cannot ac- cept without a most flagrant violation of the Law of Contradictories. But here the ego immediately inquires : How, then, come these appearances which seem so real; take, e. g., the manifestations of Evil, the contradictory of Virtue ? Here, however, a moment's reflection con- vinces us, this class of manifestations we uni- versally regard as results. Moral quality is never affirmed of results, but of the thought which actuated the results. To remove the re- sults in no way affects the guilt of the Thought. But again the ego questions : Why is not the erroneous judgment back of the results of 44 Esoteric Lessons. Evil, as evidently unthinkable as the statement, some right angles are larger than others ? The answer is plain enough. It is purely a matter of insight, of education. The race has been so accustomed to accept truth from authority instead of reason, that with most minds a college degree will outweigh any logical demonstration. It is an erroneous judgment that self inter- est or happiness ever in any way conflict with Virtue. On the contrary, the welfare and happiness of the individual, and of the race depend un- conditionally upon Virtue. It is just as untrue that a man is the slave of his senses, as that some right angles are larger than others. But, just as surely as a man comes to the conclusion that his senses rule him, or were given for personal gratification, just so surely the physical, or phenomenal results of Personified Unthinkables. 45 such a decision begin to manifest themselves. And since Intellect and the Senses meet through the imagining faculty, Intellect hav- ing accepted the unthinkable, the impossible for Truth, for Reality, Imagination proceeds to portray these Unthinkables to the senses. And all the acts of that man thereafter are re- sults of that one mental error. But, right here must be noticed an important and undeniable fact, viz. : The whole physical organization also responds to the mental error. A momentary thought of sensuality, avarice, or revenge, distorts the face, impairs respira- tion, retards or quickens the circulation, ^and goes tingling through every nerve and fibre of the body. But if long enough continued it re- sults in either Disease of some form, or perma- nent deformity of the features, if not of the whole body, or both. Very many forms of Disease are well known 46 Esoteric Lessons. to be the results of immorality, and conse- quently purely mental origin. Yet it never seems to strike one as at all absurd to physic a man for Avarice, or Revenge. On the con- trary it is taken for granted as the proper thing to do. Still the person who should undertake to remove an ugly image reflected on a wall by a magic lantern, with a coat of whitewash, would in all probability be regarded, either as non compos mentis, or, as a very great ig- noramus. No matter how much one may try to ignore the fact, or cheat the senses, by hang- ing a dark curtain over the ugly picture, yet Reason will insist that the reflection is still there as long as the lantern remains intact; and that you have only to lift the dark curtain to be again confronted by the unseemly reflec- tion. There is but one way to remove it from the wall, and that must be done by a change in- side the Lantern. Personified Unthinkables. 47 In like manner as long as the mental image for an unthinkable is held in the mind, just so long- will the immoral results continue to mani- fest themselves. But, just as surely as the erroneous judgment is corrected, all the results of the personified unthinkable will be replaced by manifestations of Truth, Pure living, and High thinking. The complete reformation of an immoral man would not then be the miracle it now is, if physical causation were seen to be as utterly unthinkable, as for the Reflections of the magic lantern to be the Cause of the image they re- flect. But such results are impossible on a basis of physical necessity, and, moreover, as long as physical causation is allowed in the slightest degree, Morals are at the mercy of Chance. For a man may be free one moment but neces- sitated the next. Or again one man might be 48 Esoteric Lessons. entirely free under circumstances which would render another wholly necessitated. The fundamental lie, then, which opens the door to evil and which continues to hold it open is physical causation, or allowing the senses dictatorship. The office of the Senses is solely to report phenomena. Reason translates it into Knowledge. The Senses should give us neither pleasure nor pain. Either pleasure or pain de- notes perversion of their use. In their office they should be as sensationless and unconscious as perfect digestion. The pleasure derived from the harmony of color or sound, or proportion should be wholly intellectual. Pain should be the revolt of the intellect against an untruth. For discord and inharmony are but expressions for a lie ! Pleasure and Pain are both results of the erroneous judgment of Physical Causation, for Physical Causation is as absolutely unthink- Personified Unthinkables. 49 able as it would be for the reflections of the magic lantern to be the Cause of the Reality they reflect; or, for Thoughts to be the Cause of the Ego or Mind which thinks them. This conclusion, however, being thoroughly contrary to established belief will not be readily accepted in the case of so-called purely physical Disease. For although mental and moral cau- sation is generally conceded for a large class of bodily maladies, yet physical causation is in- sisted upon for a large proportion. Feuchtersleben says : "The operations of body and mind meet in the fancy (or imagination) as in a punctum saliens; it is only through the imagination that they act and re-act together. Thought without an image cannot become dis- eased; nor can sensations without imagination become psychically diseased. Below imagina- tion we find affections of the sensor and motor nerves which remain purely corporeal diseases 50 Esoteric Lessons. so long as they do not encroach upon her do- main."* But how can they become diseased and not encroach upon her domain ? For all our knowl- edge and experience of sensor and motor nerves is derived wholly from their diseased condition. Xo one would ever have known of nerves from their healthy condition. They never report themselves. But having become disordered they do report themselves ; and the report must of necessity be made through the imagining faculty. There is no other way. The only point which remains then, to consider, is whether sensor and motor nerves get out of order themselves, or by some misuse on the part of the ego. If then, diseased conditions of sensor or motor nerves can be shown to be results of erroneous judgment, there certainly 'Medical Psychology, pp. 241-242. Personified Unthinkables. 51 need no longer be any reason for the Spiritual- istic Philosopher to violate the Law of Contra- dictories, even to the extent of affirming Physi- cal Causation in the solitary case of sensor and motor nerves. The true definition of Cause is : "Whatso- ever Will, does or Did Do."* Throughout the phenomenal Universe we observe only an orderly succession of events, never Cause. Our only experience of cause is when phenom- ena is modified through human agency or de- sign. Thus man can combine Hydrogen and Oxygen in the proportion of two volumes of H to one of O and produce the result H2O, or Water, through his own design and agency. But at the same time he is conscious that he is not the author of the immutable principle nec- essary to the combination, and instinctively *Chas. De Medici, Commensuration, p. 12. 52 Esoteric Lessons. concludes to a Supreme Cause or Will, as an ultimate ground of all the orderly succession of events observable in the Universe. The finite ego is the immediate or efficient cause of change or modification of phenomena observable about us in human life. While the Infinite is the ulti- mate Cause of the immutable principles back of Visible Universe. Reason can never be satis- fied with any causation apart from Will. Es- pecially since it must necessarily result so dis- astrously to Intellect and Morals. Simply because the senses report certain ap- pearances followed by suffering and disorder of the Organism, which interfere with the func- tions of body and mind is not sufficient, reason for affirming Physical Causation in the case of purely corporeal Diseases. For, why should Reason allow the Senses to be competent to furnish the truth in this one case, while in every other the Senses but furnish the data which Personified Unthinkables. 53 Reason alone is competent to work over into knowledge? The Senses would at this very moment, (if they were consulted), insist that the Earth is stationary; and deny point blank the fact that the earth is whirling through Space, in its Orbit, at the rate of 68,288 miles an hour. If then a perfectly satisfactory explanation of all so-called purely corporeal diseases can be given by assuming physical causation to be the erroneous judgment which results, either directly or indirectly in corporeal diseases, Reason is bound to accept it, since it would thus forever dispose of both Physical Causation and Corporeal Disease by effectully knocking their heads together. (1.) A belief in physical causation produces Fear, and Fear acts both directly and indirectly upon the body. Often immediately upon the sensor and motor nerves in like manner as was 54 Esoteric Lessons. seen in the illustration of the immediate results of Avarice and Revenge upon sensor and motor nerves; or in the case of the results observed upon a belief in a false alarm of fire. It would be impossible to dismay that mind which was in conscious possession of its perfect ability to subdue the fire, or else to escape from the flames uninjured. Especially if the consciousness of perfect ability was based upon the knowledge that the only conceivable danger would result from Fear. Just so perfect fearlessness has carried many untouched through the most vio- lent contagions of cholera, small-pox, yellow fever, etc. (2.) Fear is also the remote, or (latent) cause of disease, as a race belief held through- out the whole history of mankind. It is the open door through which the Enemy can at any moment rush in and bind the strong man. It is co-existent with the first Personified Ab- Personified Unthinkables. 55 straction, or the lie of an independent Reality apart from and hostile to Mind. Observe the "Fossil history' to be seen in the formation of the two words Health and Disease. Dis-ease is the lack of ease immediately resulting from the erroneous conceptions of an independent Health (anglo-saxon Hal. Whole!) Whole- ness apart from Infinite Mind. This one lie lurks behind a million different Masks, which pass for so many different en- tities and Realities. Every scientifically la- belled Disease with its various attending symp- toms minutely and vividly pictured out to the senses is a Mask. The Lie and its masks are Personae" of a Stupendous Masquerade under Personified Unthinkables. The "Dramatis the auspices of Materialism, and the stage man- agement of Physical Causation. An High Carnival which might be sufficiently entertain- ing but for the fact that its swift and inevitable 56 Esoteric Lessons. termination in that woeful Tragedy of Er- rors — the Errors of Falsity, Evil, Disease and Death, touches a chord which vibrates in every Here the ego insists upon an answer to the human heart. question : Hozv is it possible for a lie or an un- thinkable to be expressed upon the body? But one answer is possible. It is manifested on the same principle as all Thought in the Universe; that grand principle according to which all Reality is manifested ; the immutable princi- ple of which the finite is not the author and which it cannot alter, although it may deny. But if it denies, it reaps the results of the de- nial worked out on the very principle which it denies. One can write out on a black-board the state- ment for the unthinkable two plus two equals five; he, there, has a manifestation of a lie. If he affirm the lie to be true and on the strength Personified Unthinkables. 57 of the affirmation gets $5 out of his neighbor instead of $4 there are immediately, immoral results from the lie. Now, Rheumatism or Pneumonia, etc., are Verbal expressions for unthinkables just as two plus two equals five is a verbal expression for a lie. By means of the picturing faculty, both of the individual and of those about him, the outward manifestation of the unthinkable will express itself upon the body just as surely as the magic lantern will reflect the picture in- serted between the light and the lenses when the proper conditions are met. This explanation reduces all physical phe- nomena in the Universe to the manifestation of Thought and removes the contradictory from the philosophy which affirms man to be the union of mind and matter, and the erro- neous judgment that Soul and body interact. Will is the only Cause in the Universe of 58 Esoteric Lessons. which we have any knowledge or experience. That Will modifies, changes and controls the physical is our hourly and daily experience. But how matter, even in the form of sensor and motor nerves can change itself into sensations transcends all experience. On the other hand, mind can locate sensations in any part of the body at will. Thus cases are common (quite too common) where from the simple trimming of the finger nails some persons actuallv suffer more than others would from cutting into the skin. Again others pride themselves upon such an acute sense of digestion that they can tell the exact ingredients of their food even when the palate is deceived. Soul and body cannot interact any more than the Reflection and the Magic Lanter inter- act. Quinine or Physic never made a sick man well, any more than a dead man could double Personified Unthitikables. 59 up his fist and strike a blow. Faith in the knowledge and skill of the doctor who pre- scribed the medicine; hopefulness in those about the sick man changes the mental image until the appearance of disease, like Dissolving View, fades into the glorious Reality of Health. The problem of Health, then, would be how to cultivate and keep clean and healthy pictures in the mind. Health would then be an essential part of the ego. Man would be a strict unity not a trinity of Intellect, Body and Morals. And the absolutely necessary postulates of this Unity would be Infinite Mind, Freedom and Eternal Life. One more Contradictory remains to be con- sidered, viz. : The Contradictory of Life. If we affirm life to be a universal, necessary and absolute Truth, then Death is impossible and unthinkable. 60 Esoteric Lessons. The appearance called death is therefore only the last stage of the Lie of Physical Causa- tion in which the lie and its mask are swallowed up in the victor 7 of Truth, in which the Per- sonified Unthinkable is erased from off the boards of Reality. Heaven is not a Place where there is no more sinning, suffering and dying. It is a state of Intellectual development. And when the finite reaches that stage of Insight by which the contradictories of all attributes of Infinite Mind are seen to be self-evident Unthinkables — then there will be no more death, no matter whether that degree of Wisdom is attained upon this Earth or in some other Sidereal System. CONCLUSION. A few more words remain to be said in re- gard to the use of the Verbal Opposite, or Con- tradictories. Since there is such a thing as Verbal Opposite, what is its office in our mental activities? Reason insists that nothing is use- less or meaningless in the Universe. Why, then, is it possible to say or to believe a thing is so when it is not so ? Consider, then, for a moment, the propo- sition that two straight lines cannot enclose space. Nothing can make the truth of the proposition so manifest, as the attempt to think its contradictory, — (two straight lines can in- close space.) In fact, Truth cannot be estab- lished or proved in any other way. A truth is only accepted nominally or on trial, as it were, until its contradictory is seen to be a self-evi- 62 Esoteric Lessons. dent Unthinkable. This principle of Con- tradictories is, then, our Touchstone for truth. And this is the part Attributes and their Contradictories play in our knowledge of Re- ality. Attributes are the lights, and Contra- dictories the shades, which together work out some magnificent truth of Being; just as an artist represents the idea, Tree, on paper, by means of- black dots, and lines, — and light spaces. The idea, tree, is made manifest by means of the Law of Contradictories, and cannot be done in any other way. Why? Be- cause the artist is imitating Nature, and in nature, the idea is worked out on the principle of Contradictories; for phenomena are but mental pictures for the ideas of Infinite Mind. In like manner all the great truths of Health, Virtue and Life are worked out of this same principle of Contradictories; But mankind, at present, as it were, accept them only nominally, Personified Unthinkables. 63 or on trial. There is but one way to establish them as grand Realities. When the appear- ances called Evil, Disease and Death, are seen to be results of personifying self-evident un- thinkables; then Health, Virtue and Eternal Life will be as absolutely certain as the fact that all right-angles are equal. If a man in looking at the drawing of the tree on paper, should see only a meaningless collection of black lines and dots, and should devote himself to a minute analysis and enu- meration of dots, angles, and straggling and crooked lines, he might display a very profound erudition on the whole subject of lines and dots ; but he would forever miss the idea Tree in the artist's mind. If on the other hand, another man should de- vote himself to the study of the phenomena of light spaces, he might work out some very marvelous theories involving laws of Optics 64 Esoteric Lessons. and Mathematics; but he would also forever miss the idea, tree, in the artist's mind. But if, finally, some one should, in looking at the sketch, arrive instantaneously and un- consciously at the idea, tree, lights and shades would be quite meaningless, in themselves, and never interest him beyond the fact that they represent the principle by means of which the idea was expressed. Like Socrates of old, he would claim no wis- dom for himself, simply because he had recog- nized the design of the artist, but would feel more than ever impelled to affirm that he knew nothing, in view of the fact that he was neither the Author of the idea, nor the sketch, nor the principle by which it was executed. If the Oracle pronounced him the wisest of men, he would maintain that it was simply because he knew nothing, while the Erudites of the Dark Lines and Light Spaces did not even know they knew nothing. Personified Unthinkables. 65 So if the ego could, with the humility of a little child, or with the Wisdom of Socrates, starting out once more from the Threshold of Knowledge, arrive instantaneously and un- consciously at the sublime ideas of Life and Love, contradictories would be quite meaning- less in themselves and never more be of inter- est, save as they had together manifested the ideas of Life and Love and furnished the Prin- ciple whereby other ideas of Infinite Mind could be comprehended by the Finite. FIRST LESSONS IN REALITY OR THE PSYCHICAL BASIS OF PHYSICAL HEALTH PREFACE. The following lessons are now given to the public without the slightest alteration, just as they were prepared, and taught by correspond- ence to a few friends and fellow seekers after Truth. Although it would seem desirable, because of their somewhat mystical nature, to attempt to fortify them against misconception, yet ex- perience has taught that the attempt would, after all, but court the very danger to be avoided. To interpret them too literally will be to lose their essence. On the other hand, not to dis- cern the vital relations between the ideas herein expressed, and the symbols embodying them, will be equally fatal to their true apprehension ; for the terms employed are not as one might jo Esoteric Lessons. suppose merely fanciful, figurative, poetic, etc., but are used because they express the dual unity of Thought and Symbol. To have a knowledge of facts is one thing, but to grasp the relation of these facts to each other, is quite another thing. One mind can help another in the former case, but in the lat- ter each soul must discern relations for itself. This discerning must be inborn, it cannot be im- parted. One cannot discern a relation for an- other any more than a joke can be appreciated vicariously. So in these lessons Thought and Symbol have been placed in juxtaposition, the insight into their relation must be left to the Soul in travail with Truth. Los Angeles, California, July, 1886, SYNOPSIS Introduction — The Staff. i. REFLECTION. ( Visible. ( Hunger. Ray-ment < Audible. Food j Eating. ( Tangible. ( Assimilating. 2. REFRACTION. ( Proportion. ( Ray. House < Door. Hearth-fire ] Images. ( Hearth. ( Law. Conclusion — The Wall, FIRSf LE380N8 IN REALITY INTRODUCTION. THE STAFF. One end of a staff implies another end. 1 cannot (as tradition relates of a certain Hi- bernian philosopher) cut off one end from my staff, and then have only one end left. I maj f thus reduce the size of my staff, but while it holds out it continues to have two ends. Neither do the two ends remain after the staff has gone. The staff and its ends are real, or polar oppo- sites, which mutually imply each other, which are utterly meaningless and unthinkable apart. However, although I cannot detach the staff from its ends, nor the ends from the staff, yet I can distinguish between them. One end is not the other end. The head is not the foot of the staff, neither is the foot the head. There must, 74 Esoteric Lessons. therefore, be some invisible point of union be- tween the two. A point which is neither the one end nor the other, but where the two are one. This invisible centre I take to be the point of equilibrium. I, therefore, balance my staff until I find this point. Now but one thing re- mains to make my staff living, to turn the rod into a serpent, and that is motion. The motion of my staff about its invisible centre is circu- lar, a form of spiral. Spiral is from the Latin spira, meaning breath, coil, spire, etc. Spirit is from the same word. Motion is, according- ly, the breath of life. The staff as a whole expresses Unity; as composed of polar opposites it is a Duality; as polar opposites and point of equilibrium, a Trinity; as living it manifests a Quartemi, — the sacred Quarterni of Pythagoras. The two ends of the staff, as visible, sym- bolize the phenomenal, or terrestrial portions of First Lessons in Reality. 75 this Quarterni. Point of equilibrium, and motion, as invisible, symbolize the more real and celestial elements. Having learned this much of the nature of the rod, I wish to know what use I am to make of it in the study of Reality. Finding that the words real, ray, thing and thought are all de- rived from the word meaning Rod, I conclude that Reality is Rod-ality, and that to spare the rod, in this study of Reality, would be to spoil the child. Accordingly, my staff, whether I take it as a rod of light, or as a type of all vegetation, from the blade of grass to the tallest tree, symbolizes to me an invisible and more real rod of thing and Ray of Thought. LESSON II. RAY-MENT— VISIBLE. If, when standing beside a body of water, I chance to see the form of a cloud mirrored in golden and rosy tints upon its surface, I am not deceived by the picture. Beautiful as it is, I know that it is but a reflection of a cloud in the sky, far above my. head, which I do not see as long as my attention is directed to the cloud upon the water. I know that, although I thus distinguish between the cloud upon the water and the cloud in the sky, I cannot separate the one from the other. I cannot detach the cloud upon the water from the one in the sky, and still have my picture upon the water after the picture in the sky has drifted away beyond the horizon. Still further, I know that as my cloud upon First Lessons in Reality. yy the water depends upon the cloud in the sky, so they both depend upon the light from the sun, and that while my picture upon the water is simply a reflection produced by the action of rays of light and the reaction of the surface of the water, so the picture in the sky is a refraction produced by the action of rays of light and a reaction of vapor in the atmosphere. My cloud celestial, and my cloud terrestrial, are each a Ray-men t (rod-ment) resulting from an action and a reaction. But if I cannot separate the refracted picture from the reflected picture, then there must be some invisible point of union between the two, a centre of equilibrium between the action im- plied in the term refraction, and the reaction implied in the term reflection, a point which is neither celestial or terrestrial, but where the two are One. Looking again upon the water I behold my y8 Esoteric Lessons. face reflected upon its surface, and then call to mind the fact that my own face I have never seen ; its reflected image is all that I ever have seen, or can see. Now the reflected face upon the water is certainly only a ray-ment produced by the action of rays of light and the reaction of the surface of the water, and if, what I have hitherto considered my real face is only a ray- ment produced by an action and a reaction, the fact that it has never occurred to me proves nothing against its truth, especially when I remember that since real and ray are the same in derivation, from the meaning of the w T ords, my real face is my ray face. Turning my attention to my body, I conclude that if my face is ray-ment my whole body is ray-ment, produced by an invisible action and reaction. If, then, this terrestrial body or ray- ment is like my cloud terrestrial, simply an in- verted reflect of my celestial ray-ment, the fact First Lessons in Reality. 79 that I have never consciously recognized my celestial ray-ment proves nothing against its existence, for while my attention was directed exclusively to my cloud floating upon the water, I became for the time being entirely oblivious of the cloud above my head which I could not see. But if this terrestrial ray-ment is only an inverted reflect of a true and celestial ray-ment, then I am possessor of an heritage hitherto un- known; for, like the two clouds, they canot be separated, they are real ( ray) or polar opposites which mutually imply each other, which are utterly meaningless and impossible apart. Xow if my consciousness has been located, hitherto, solelv within the reflected imasre of my true self, then I am a slave bound clown, by my own ignorance, to chains of sense and suffering. But with this recognition of my serfdom I also see clearly the way of escape. There must be 80 Esoteric Lessons. an invisible point of union between the Iwo, and I must locate my consciousness at that in- visible centre of equilibrium between my re- fracted and my reflected self, the point which is neither celestial nor terrestrial, but where the two are One. The question of how to emancipate my con- sciousness from its inverted reflection and to locate it at its true and invisible centre, is the. most momentous in the universe. It involves the meaning and object of existence. It is the problem of all times, that of the perfectibility and immortality of the soul. Of the soul, for this earthly consciousness is but the inverted reflection of my true consciousness, which is the same thing as soul. These first lessons in Reality, then, are first steps in the path of Rodality, — a straight and narrow ray of light ! Turning, therefore, to my staff, I state the problem in terms of rod. The two visible First Lessons in Reality. 81 ends are terrestrial ray-ments; the head of the staff is the body; the foot of the staff is the purely finite or earthly mind ; the point of equi- librium, or the invisible centre, where body and sensations are one, is consciousness; mo- tion, the breath of life, completes this Quar- terni. Consciousness and motion symbolize the re- fracted or celestial elements of the Quarterni. Body and finite mind, the terrestrial portions. Body is the strictly visible member of this Quarterni. And body, again, as a whole, is four-fold, corresponding in structure to the four elements. The solids of the body (bones, tissues, etc.) correspond to earth. Heat, the agent of the functions especially connected with solids and betw r een solids and liquids, correspond to the second element, or fire. Se- cretions of the body correspond to the third ele- ment, or water, while breath is the fourth ele- ment, or air. 82 Esoteric Lessons. The action of respiration and the reaction of secretions form an upper dualism, and to de- stroy, e. g., the balance between the action of the lungs and the reaction of the blood, would instantly produce violent and even fatal results, from which the visible body would soon pass to the realm of the invisible. The action of heat and the secretion of tis- sues form a lower dualism, and to destroy the balance between heat and tissues would like- wise produce a wasting away of the visible body. Now the harmonious equilibrium between these upper and lower dualisms is what is ordi- narily termed physical health, and if, as I have already decided, equilibrium of body is simply a reflect of a celestial or soul equilibrium, then the basis of physical health, is purely psychical. But as long as my consciousness is located within my body, body rules soul, whereas body First Lessons in Reality. 83 should be simply raiment (ray-ment) for my true consciousness. Again, this raiment for my soul must be like all rays, or, like my staff. It must have two ends and a central point. I, therefore, regard the Visible as the head of my staff, the Audible as the foot, and the Tangible as the point which is neither visible nor audible, but where the two are one. LESSON III. RAY-MENT— AUDIBLE. Once, by means of an aperture in a shutter, and a prism, I tried to detach a ray of sunlight from the sun, and shut it up within a dark room. It arranged itself in beautiful colors upon the wall, but when the sun went, the ray went too. So with each step in this study of Ray-ality I am confronted with the impos- sibility and unthinkability of any such thing as separateness. Thus, by means of refraction and reflection, combined according to definite numeral conditions, light becomes visible ; also, by means of refraction and reflection combined according to definite numeral conditions, breath becomes audible; yet breath and light cannot be separated, for light without breath or motion would not be light, would not exist at all. Still, although I cannot separate visible rays First Lessons in Reality. 85 from audible rays, yet I must distinguish be- tween them in order to reach an understanding of them. As a first step in distinguishing be- tween visible and audible rays, I turn my at- tention to the numeral conditions according to which all external manifestation takes place. And in order to study numbers, I regard them as visible numerals and as invisible numerals. The visible numerals are three, viz., the point, and the two forms of the line, or, the straight line and the crooked line. When I draw a picture on a piece of paper, I use the three visible numerals. But in order to com- plete the manifestation, to make my picture liv- ing, there must be the light spaces of the paper to bring it out. A moment's reflection con- vinces me that the whole visible universe is pic- tured out to my vision solely by means of the three visible numerals in space. All the infiinite variety is but gradation and combination of 86 Esoteric Lessons. these primary numbers. The horizon gives me the perfect circle. The line from the zenith to my feet is the straight line. The outlines of the clouds present a loose combination of the straight and the crooked lines, while the rocks, trees, etc., of the earth's surface, display a more minute and compact combination of the two forms of line. Geometry, or the art of measuring the earth, as well as the whole sci- ence of Astronomy, depend upon these visible numerals, and with this thought comes to me the meaning of these visible numerals. The point symbolizes the centre of the two forms of line, or the point which is neither the straight line nor the crooked line, but where the two are one. Again, the straight line symbolizes the form of force which strikes out from the centre, termed in science the centrifugal ; while the crooked line symbolizes the form of force which draws back to the centre, termed centri- First Lessons in Reality. 87 petal. Thus is all visibfe but the type of an in- visible force — a force which is dual in its action, and its dual action being balanced at a central point which is neither centrifugal nor centri- petal, but where the two are one. And if this balance were overcome by either form of force, the visible universe would vanish like a shadow. Just as the art of measuring deals with the visible numerals, so the art of counting or num- bering treats of the invisible numerals. All counting is based on the Ouarterni, 1, 2, 3, 4. Their sum is 10, ten tens are 100, and so on to infinity. All the operations of arithmetic are also based on the first four, viz., addition, sub- traction, multiplication, division. But counting cannot be separated from something to count. The elements which comprise the earth's sur- face and atmosphere combine only according to count. Take e. g. the two invisible gases, oxygen and hydrogen. They combine and 88 Esoteric Lessons. form water only according to the number tzvo. And, moreover, this combination is audible at the instant at which it becomes visible. This number two holds the balance of power. It represents the point which is neither oxygen nor hydrogen, but where the two are one, and I have only to overcome this polarity to cause the visible water to vanish into two invisible gases. But what is true of water is true of all compounds comprising the earth's surface. De- stroy the numeral condition and the visible van- ishes. Even the diamond, the hardest known substance, heated in oxygen gas, burns to car- bonic acid, and carbonic acid at the ordinary atmospheric temperature is a transparent, colorless gas. In order to determine the relation of measur- ing to counting, I turn to my imprisoned ray of sunlight, pictured on the wall in seven different colors, viz. : First Lessons in Reality. 89 Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. 12 3 4 5 6 7 Now the odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7, are certain- ly different gradations of refraction from the white back to the white, completing the circle. But 2, or orange, which is between red and yel- low, reflects both red and yellow, and is thus a mixture or compound of the two. Again, 4, or green, reflects both yellow and blue; 6, or indigo, reflects both blue and violet. Thus I see that the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, signify differ- ent gradations of the centrifugal force or straight line, while the even numbers, 2, 4, 6, are gradations of the centripetal force, or crooked line. Counting expresses gradations of measuring. But what is true of the seven colors is equal- ly true of the seven notes : 12 3 4 5 6 7 Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. CD E F G A B 90 Esoteric Lessons. c,l, d, b, are different gradations of re- fraction from the octave to the octave, while d, f 1 are reflected tones, correspond- ing in quality to the colors they represent. The exquisite primary cord I, 3, 5, or C, E, G, is Reel, Yellow and Blue manifested to my consciousness through my ear instead of my eye. So every conceivable cord and combina- nation of tone and color can be written out in figures, until I am led to exclaim : Sound is color made audible ; and color is sound made visible ! My eye and my ear are avenues to my consciousness of the two halves of a unity. In order to determine whether the sense of touch is the avenue to my consciousness of the unity of the two halves, I next give my attention to the Tangible. LESSON IV. RAY-MENT— TANGIBLE. I might have been born blind, and yet been able to determine the meaning, the harmony, and to a certain degree, even the color of ob- jects about me, by means of touch. I might have been born deaf, and yet been able to deter- mine the meaning of words, and the harmo- nies of sound from touch and sight. I might have been born with only the sense of touch, yet have attained to a higher and truer knowl- edge of the world in which I live than many about me endowed with five senses. But without the sense of touch I could not maintain my terrestrial existence. When feel- ing goes, life of the visible body goes too. Touch is, then, the vital sense of the terrestrial body. When I push my hand against a stone, or 92 Esoteric Lessons. thrust it into water, or pass it through the air, I am conscious of different degrees of resist- ance. And I classify objects about me accord- ing to the different degrees of resistance which they offer to my touch. The air, when it offers no resistance to my touch, is unperceived, so without resistance there is no touch. But what is resistance? Resistance is sim- ply force, an invisible action and reaction, which is expressed by, and can be determined from, numbers, e. g., the resistance of water is expressed by the number 2. I have only to overcome the polarity or equilibrium expressed by this numeral to render the water, which was tangible, tangible no longer. But what can be done in the case of water is also possible in the case of the most seem- ingly immovable solids of the earth. By means of burning glasses the sun's rays can be col- lected to a central point, or focus, and heat ob- First Lessons in Reality. 93 tained sufficient to change solid rocks into liquid flames. And thus I come to realize that the tangible is tangible only according to cer- tain definite conditions which correspond ex- actly with the conditions according to which the Visible is visible and the Audible is audible. Upon comparing the three forms of ray- ment still further, I am convinced that the visi- ble, and the audible, likewise, are perceivable by me, only by means of Resistance. The one is resistance of light vibrations, or radiations, and the other is resistance of breadth vibra- tions, or radiations. So that sight and sound can be said to be forms of Touch. Touch thus represents the point where sight and sound are one. All sensation may then be called touch, or Resistance expressed in different degrees. The sense of touch (ordinarily so called) expresses the first degree, or most actual and living con- 94 Esoteric Lessons. tact ; sound, the second degree ; vision, the third degree, or most remote and external contact. Thus, to hear and see flames may affect me very agreeably, but the effect of touch would be quite the contrary. Yet the flames come in contact with my consciousness as truly in the one case as in the other. The fact of the unity of sensation is well il- lustrated in the case of a child. It is never sat- isfied with simply looking at an object. It must see with its fingers as well as its eyes. And shakes or drops the object in order to see with its ears also. Xow since T have decided that this terrestrial ray-merit is only an inverted reflect of a celestial rav-ment, or thoughtment, I must strictly apply this fact in the case of sensation. This resistance, comprised under the three forms of visible, audible and tangible sensa- tion; this purely terrestrial touch : this my First Lessons in Reality. 95 means of communication with the external world, or terrestrial minds about me, is simply an inverted reflect of a higher sense of Touch, of a Resistance to an interior or celestial world of Thoughts and Minds (since thoughts imply minds). If I have hitherto been entirely unconscious of this interior three-fold sense, it is because my attention has been so taken up solely with external resistance that the interior resistance has been unobserved. But when I do observe this interior resistance I find that, in its development, my experience corresponds to that of the child in the case of its exterior sensation. I see first with my fingers. This is the interpretation of bodily suffering. Body first responds to this thought resistance. But as I advance in knowledge and acquire this thought resistance through the other avenues of touch, thought vibrations, or g6 Esoteric Lessons. radiations, which, like the flames, now cause me acute suffering, will become a source of most wonderful knowledge and understanding as soon as I can hear them and see them instead of simply feeling them. Then, what now pros- trates me with physical suffering will become to me the greatest possible source of power and wisdom. But before I can raise my interior and true sense of touch to the celestial plane, I must first pass through a terrestrial plane of thought. I am encompassed round about by a dense at- mosphere of absorbing cares, in traffic, and in social and political life. I must feel my way through this earthly atmosphere before I can reach a higher realm of Thought. First, I feel my way with touch in the first degree, which means suffering; second, with touch in the second degree, by means of which I begin to ob- serve a harmony and meaning in the confused First Lessons in Reality. 97 din and squabble about me; and finally, with touch in the third degree, whence my eyes are gradually opened, and seeing for the first time in my life, I come to know how to see less with my fingers and more with my ears and my eyes. Thus I come to discern the relation of terres- trial body and mind to celestial body and mind. Reflected body and its three-fold sense is simply raiment, or garment, or visible expres- sion for the celestial body, or soul. Finite, or earthly, or reflected mind is the food or nourishment for the soul, by means of which the soul after hungering, eating and as- similating the husks of finite thought, returns to its Father's house, to be fed with the heaven- ly bread and staff of life, and to enter upon the celestial heritage. This great truth of my celestial heritage is first refracted to my consciousness through the tear-drops of suffering, then afterwards re- 98 Esoteric Lessons. fleeted, by means of numbers and harmony, to my vision. Touch is the refractory medium through which the Divine Ray is transmitted to my con- sciousness, while the medium refracts outward- ly, the Ray is a rod of correction, but when it refracts back toward its celestial source, it is the staff which comforts. The Tangible is thus the point of equilibrium between the Visible and the Audible, the vital point of radiation, while radiation itself, or mo- tion, changes sensation from the plane of re- flected body to the plane of reflected Intellect, or to the second spire or coil of the Serpent. LESSON V. FOOD— HUNGER. The polar opposite of touch is desire; and, although touch and desire cannot be separated the one from the other, yet I at once observe a very important and signficant distinction. Touch, I cannot disconnect from bodily sensa- tion; Desire, I cannot disconnect from mind — the purely finite or reflected mind. Bodily sensation brings me in contact with the infinite wonders of the phenomenal uni- verse, and spontaneous with this contact occurs the desire to experience and to know the reality back of this phenomenal — its meaning, and its purpose. The way by which I am to reach this experi- ence and knowledge is, obviously, very direct, ioo Esoteric Lessons. if I but follow the straight and narrow path al- ready marked out viz., as the phenomenal is an inverted and left-sided copy of the real ; as ex- ternal sensation also bears this relation to in- terior sensation, then must the desire connected with external sensation be also only an inverted and left-sided copy of a Desire which is in- terior, or esoteric. In other words, the interior sense of touch implies the esoteric desire, just as external touch implies external desire. In order to reach this coterie desire, I must, indeed, start from the r.roteric desire — the out- ward doth from the inward roll — and the in- ward dwells in the inmost soul. I must possess myself of the knowledge which only can be bought by experience, and which comes from direct contact with the phenomenal. But I must accept the experience of sensation and desire only as a means of knowing reality — the ex- oteric must always be my ladder to the coterie First Lessons in Reality. 101 The Visible must simply reflect to me images of objects which in themselves are entirely be- yond my range of sight; from the Audible I must learn to detect the counts of the Still Voice; while the rod of the Tangible, with its two ends of pleasure and pain, must truly "Feed full my sense for a while;" until balancing the rod and finding the point of equilibrium between pleasure and pain, I attain to the interior vision, "The sight that my soul yearns after." To refuse the experiences of bodily sensation and desire is to refuse ray-ment and food to the soul ; and thus to deprive the soul of its only means of development toward final perfection. But, to be deceived by these images — to ac- cept the mere reflections for the realities them- selves — is the fundamental error, or, in other words, the fatal sin of Idolatry. No matter whether I call it error, or whether I call it sin, 102 Esoteric Lessons. the thing in itself, independent of what I may call it, is Idolatry. Therefore, although I must diligently till the soil of this terrestrial ray-ment and its sen- sations, the fruit must not be consecrated to the idols themselves, but must be brought as an offering and sacrificed to the true desire of soul. Now, if I say the irrevocable penalty of Idol- atry is Disease and Death, I but state in other words the fact that Disease and Death are logical results of calling inverted shadows the entities they are not and cannot be. The fact in itself acts quite independent of whatever I may choose to call it. Idolatry is not pacified with the term sin any more than by the word error. As long as I am an Idolator, I am subject to disease and death in spite of the creed to which I may subscribe, in spite of the benevolence and morality I may practice, or even in spite of the First Lessons in Reality. 103 drugs I may swallow and the laws of hygiene I may observe. Xor is this death penalty of Idolatry can- celed with once meeting its decrees ; on the con- trary, it means innumerable deaths for me, until, by my own insight, I renounce the Idola- try of shadow worship, and turn to the Living Ray-ality. Yet the requisite insight, together with the necessary power of choice, do not reside in the finite mind itself. They cannot be separated from it, but their true seat is in the soul. That consciousness possessed by the finite mind and its desires (hungers), together with its seeming power of choice, are but illusory re- flects of Soul (true consciousness), and true Freedom. Soul is the true Ego, while the con- sciousness possessed by finite mind and its de- sires is reflected ego. So also in this power of choice which I possess, I must distinguish be- 104 Esoteric Lessons. tween a true and a reflected Freedom. Now, this true ego is the central point of my four-fold system as a whole; body is raiment to this ego, and, just as I must needs have many garments in the course of my earth life, so must the true ego require innumerable robes in its long course of development toward perfection. Finite mind is food to the true ego, and also, just as my finite mind and its hungers is not in itself developed by one meal of victuals, so the true ego requires for its nourishment dur- ing its long process of growth the food supplied by innumerable finite existences.* In other words, the true ego is only developed by means of innumerable incarnations. Herein is the mystery of birth and death. Of my staff of finite mind, desire is the head ; and just as the staff must follow the course of *In mineral, vegetable, animal and lastly man, First Lessons in Reality. 105 the head in its revolutions, so the coterie de- sire leads the whole staff in downward spirals to the very depths of the shadows ; but the es- oteric desire leads in upward spirals toward the celestial light. As the polar opposite of desire is action, ac- tion must then be the foot of my staff of finite mind. But esoteric desire of the finite mind is only another term for hunger of soul, and just as de- sire implies action, so hunger implies eating. Esoteric desire and action of the finite mind are hunger and eating of the true Ego. LESSON VI. FOOD— EATING. Since desire is either true desire or reflected desire, exoteric or esoteric, then must the action implied by desire be either exoteric action or esoteric action. Accordingly, studying action as dual, as true action and reflected action, I first observe that the two forms must, of necessity, be exactly contradictory. This is implied in the relation itself of a reflect to the object it reflects. Ac- tion on the plane of finite thought moves in a diametrically opposite direction from action on the plane of the celestial. And as long as the finite acts unconscious of the higher plane, which it simply contradicts (reflects), that power of choice which I seem to possess is, in truth, the exact contradictory of choice. It is First Lessons in Reality. 107 only the choice of the winds and the tides, the times and the seasons, which obey the hidden law instead of coming and going as they them- selves may choose. As my eyes become opened to the relation of exoteric action to esoteric action, as expressed in the law of contradictories, the more evident it becomes to me, that the very actions, in the performance of which I was most certain of perfect power of choice, were the very ones in which I had absolutely no choice. On this plane of the shadows I find that al- though I have eyes I see not, although I have ears yet I hear not, and although I act with seeming freedom, yet all my acts are contra- dictory ; what I do with my right hand, that my left undoes, and what I affirm with my lips, that mv heart denies; when I would walk in one direction my feet follow the opposite. Thus I come to realize that the quality of all 108 Esoteric Lessons. my action on the finite plan, though seemingly active, is in truth, passive. Accordingly I re- gard all finite action (exoteric action) as in its essence, Passion. Again, action is always put forth as a means to obtain a given end. It is a reaching out to- ward, accordingly I must regard action as Offering, or Oblation, as well as Passion. From this it directly follows that all my ac- tions which have in view terrestrial aims, pleas- ures and possessions are offerings, or sacrifices made to idols (shadows'). As long as in my desires I worship idols, all my acts must, of necessity, be oblations to my idols, for the de- sire and the act mutually imply each other. But, on the other hand, it also directly follows that as soon as my desires becomes esoteric all my actions will be offerings to the living Ray-ality instead of to shadow idols. The ancient myth of Saturn feeding upon First Lessons in Reality. 109 his own helpless offspring, is, I find, an exact type of my true ego, which is sustained and de- veloped to maturity (im-mortality) by devour- ing its own reflected (mortal) images. However, as long as I am an idolater, and my desires purely exoteric, I find that I, in my turn, act the part of Saturn to all beneath me in the plane of shadow. I desire, and seek my own comfort and welfare as paramount. If I am humane it is because I am enlightened enough to discern that thus I best secure my own ends. And even on the plane of body, while I continue to maintain my animal life at the expense of my animal kindred, I do so without perceiving that I thus have the dis- tinctive mark which classifies me with the beast of prey tribe. I deprive a helpless victim of the birthright to life for the sake of a mess of savory pottage, thus securing for myself both the birthright no Esoteric Lessons. and pottage. And as I analyze my line of con- duct still further, I find that this one act is a perfect type of every act of wordly wisdom and prudence. But the instant my desire becomes esoteric, the whole line of conduct is reversed and be- gins to move in the opposite direction. Action is no longer sacrifice of the higher to the lower, but becomes a series of oblation after oblation of the lower to the higher. Each act is the re- nunciation of a shadow for a true ray. Each step upon the ladder by which I mount from the exoteric to the esoteric is the crucifixion of a contradictory of truth. Yet any ascetic practice I may adopt which merely aims to restrain the external act, while the desire still exists in full force, is as futile a performance as it would be for me to set my- self to work to cut off one end of my staff and expect to have only one end left. I must not First Lessons in Reality. 1 1 1 attempt the impossible, but must patiently set myself to work to balance my staff of desire and action, and not being- discouraged with re- peated failures, persist, sustained by the knowledge that the staff can be balanced, that there is a point of equilibrium between desire and act, and that upon this point I can step, in perfect security, to the higher plane. But if I try to step upon either end the staff will surely tip. It is only the point of equilibrium which will sustain my weight. These steps are the true sacrifices by means of which I attain to my maturity. They are the burnt offerings of consumed shadows upon which the true ego feeds, until, accumulatine the necessary strength . it will finally free itself wholly from the shadows and enter upon its celestial heritage. They are the offspring of Saturn, which will eventually possess them- selves of their father's throne and power. H2 Esoteric Lessons. But how will they possess themselves of this power? Hunger and eating are polar oppo- sites ; now the equilibrium between hunger and eating, or the point where the two are one, is assimilation. The strength of my phenomenal body seemingly comes from the assimilation which follows eating. But this seeming fact is only a reflection of the seeming fact that the finite mind obtains its finite wisdom from its power of assimilating thought. While this seeming fact, in its turn, is but reflection of the Truth that the celestial Power of the true ego is attained through its assimilation of its own esoteric offspring, or its true Sacrifices. LESSON VII. FOOD— ASSIMILATING. On the plane of body, assimilation occurs through the secretions, or fluids. On the plane of finite mind, the mental picture expresses the point of assimilation between mind and thought. Now, the relation of finite mind to body is that of cause to effect. Finite mind symbolizes action ; body, re-action ; and since action and re- action are only different terms for refraction and reflection, it follows that all operations of body are reflected mental operations ; therefore, it also follows that all forms and conditions of secretions are reflected mental pictures. In the case of finite mind, the mental picture is expressed outwardly by means of words, ii4 Esoteric Lessons. spoken or written, or through some of the arts. In the case of body, the secretions (reflected mental pictures) expressed outwardly are bones, muscles, skin, etc. Just so in the case of the globe I inhabit — its liquids (reflected mental pictures) expressed outwardly are its geological formation, its rocks, minerals, etc. In order to clearly and fully grasp this rela- tion, I will first analyze it by means of my staff, and then follow out its application in the case of a word. (i.) The word in itself as external (visible or audible) is the head of my staff. (2.) Its finite or reflected significance and force, is the foot of my staff. (3.) My experience of the significance and force of the word is the point of balance be- tween the external word and its internal force ; and this experience is of different degrees, from First Lessons in Reality. 115 a merely blind physical re-action up to the high- est form of consciousness. (4.) The true, celestial force and meaning of a word is motion, which completes the Quar- terni. Now I will apply this analysis in the case of the word which is expressed outwardly, or phe- nomenally, as arsenic. (1.) Arsenic is a weapon of a cold, steel grey color, and of a glittering lustre. This metal is the visible expression of a reality which on the plane of finite mind I term Cal- umny. Arsenic is the steel grey, glittering weapon of the assassin Calumny, and the metal in itself no more destroys than the weapon can slay apart from the hand of the assassin. Arsenic destroys bodily tissues and functions for the very simple reason that it cannot be separated from the thought which it repre- sents. It cannot come in contact with my sense n6 Esoteric Lessons. of touch without suggesting to my mind, and then to my body, the thought of which it is an inverted reflect. It makes no difference whether my sense of touch comes in contact with the symbol through my stomach or through my eyes, it is the thought which slays, and not its reflected image. Neither does it make the slightest difference in the result that I did not know my mind was acting, and my body re-acting, to the thought Calumny; for I know next to nothing of the majority of the thoughts which pass and re- pass through my mind, either of their true meaning, or of their connection, or how they come and where they go. (2.) But the visible effect of swallowing arsenic upon my body only expresses a more real effect, on the plane of finite mind, of the assassin Calumny upon my whole terrestrial usefulness and existence. First Lessons in Reality. 117 (3. ) However, when I grasp the meaning of the law of contradictories, and begin to know the esoteric life, I gradually come to know that the more powerless I am rendered on the lower plane, the more do I gain power on the true plane, if I but know how to use it. (4.) As my experience of the true force and significance of the word is raised toward true consciousness, I also begin to discern the celes- tial force of the word Calumny, and finally be- hold, in the assassin, only a left-handed and inverted redeemer. But what is true of this one word is true of all words. The whole universe can be regarded as words in different degrees of evolution, just as it can be considered thought-rays in differ- ent degrees of manifestation. I must first learn the names of these words, then I must combine words into phrases, then into sentences. But, after I become a proficient in reading, it is a n8 Esoteric Lessons. long time before I can grasp even the external (reflected) significance of what I read. And only after most profound study and experience of the external do I come, finally, to grasp the law of contradictories, through which I gain the esoteric vision that enables me to discern the true and right-sided reality even while my exoteric eye sees only its inverted reflection. This whole process expresses the various de- grees of reading, and esoteric reading is the assimilation of the true ego. From this analysis I observe a solemn import in the use of words. No matter how ignorantly I may use them, I must render an account of my use ; for the word cannot be disconnected from its significance any more than the reflect can be separated from the object it mirrors, or re- action can exist apart from action. No matter how I may regard words, just as surely as I call upon them with my lips, just so First Lessons in Reality. 1 19 surely do I evoke their true significance and force, which will act in sublime indifference to any conventional opinion I may chance to hold of their meaning. Words w r ill follow the force which impels them, and will rebound according to count. But when I become an esoteric reader and know the law of the action and the count of the rebound, these words no longer rule me, but I rule words, until finally I realize the power which follows assimilation. This power of assimilating contradictories which enables me to see in death only an in- verted and left-sided reflect of Life; and also to see that birth and death are opposite ends of the same staff, .is the light upon my path which leads to my celestial heritage. It is also the illumination by means of which this heritage is made visible to my esoteric sense. But assimilation, in its highest degree, is the gestation and travail of that new birth which is neither birth nor death, but the life eternal. LESSON VIII. HOUSE— PROPORTION. My staff of Consciousness has two ends and a point of equilibrium, i. c, exoteric conscious- ness, esoteric consciousness and soul (true ego), the invisible centre where the two ends are one. Consciousness, as a whole, is the tent, the covering, or House of the true ego; exo- teric consciousness is the outer room; esoteric consciousness the inner room, while the soul itself is symbolized by the Hearth situated in the centre of the house between the two rooms. Before proceeding upon this study of Con- sciousness, I must bear in mind the fact that I am now dealing with entities which are not palpable to the senses — Consciousness I cannot First Lessons in Reality. 121 see, hear nor touch: it is a House not made by hands, and to accept literally any of the terms employed in designating degrees and relations of consciousness will be to fall into the gross- est error. And yet, since this present study is devoted to the exposition of the psychical basis of physical health, my study cannot go beyond the ground plan of this house ; its elevation plan must be reserved for future study in Reality. In my present study I can only consider my cloud celestial with reference to my cloud ter- restrial, and not with reference to its relation with its celestial Sun and Source. In the study of my cloud terrestrial, I have been dealing with Reflection and inverted Re- flects ; now, however, I must study my celestial heritage as Refraction, and true Refracts. And I must constantly bear in mind that, owing to the blindness of my esoteric vision, these true Refracts will at first seem to me upside down: 122 Esoteric Lessons. but as my eyes are opened, Refracts will seem right side up, but Reflects will then, for the first time, seem in their true light as inverted. The House of Consciousness, as a whole, must, therefore, be a true refraction of which my Ray-ment of Body was the inverted reflec- tion. Of my staff of Ray-ment, the Visible was the head ; therefore, that which appeals to the eye in the case of House, or Proportion, must be the true refract, of which the Visible is the in- verted reflect. The Proportion which appeals, through my exoteric vision, to my sense of harmony, is the external symbol of that true Proportion discernible only through my eso- teric vision. Proportion is commonly defined as an equal- ity or equilibrium of ratios. And since it must consist of four terms, Proportion is the scales, or balance, of the Quarterni. First Lessons in Reality. 123 - In the case of body, this balance is the equilibrium of the four elements, which results in the consciousness of physical proportion termed Health. In the case of Unite mind, this balance is the equilibrium of mind, thoughts, mental pictures and outward expression (in speech, in art, etc.), which results in the consciousness of mental proportion termed knowledge and power. But on the true and larger plane it is the equilibrium of my celestial and terrestrial re- fraction and reflection, which results in the conscious possession and realization, on the part of the true ego, of its celestial heritage. Now, the terrestrial reflection was dual ; i. e., it consisted of action (finite mind) and a re- action (body). So the celestial refraction also consists of an action (a Ray, one with and in- separable from its Sun and Source), and a re- 124 Esoteric Lessons. action (true ego). Accordingly, in order to clearly see and firmly grasp the relation of the dual reflection to its dual refraction, I state them thus : starting with the reflection, I rep- resent body by a; finite mind by b ; true ego by x; celestial Ray by y. Now, since Proportion is an equilibrium of ratios, it directly follows from the nature itself of reflection and refraction that a : b : : x : y, or, body is to finite mind as the true eeo is to its celestial Ray. Body (is to) finite mind (as) true ego (is to) Ray. a : b : : x : y Reflected , Reflected . . Refracted . Refracted re-action ' action ' ' re-action action. a and b (body and finite mind) are the known terms of this proportion, x and y the unknown terms ; and the problem stated thus, a : b : : x : y, represents the true equilibrium between re- flection and refraction, and at the same time First Lessons in Reality. 125 states the reason that a : b, as it is, because x : y, as it is. But when I wish to solve the problem I transpose the unknown terms to the first mem- ber of the equation, and the known to the sec- ond member of the equation, or, turn the left hand to the right, thus, x \ y : : a : b, an in- stinctive acknozvledgement of the fact that the knozi'n is the inverted and left-sided copy of the unknown. The word ratio is from the Latin radius (ray or rod), therefore in its derived significance a ratio is a rod, and proportion is accordingly an equilibrium of rods, and thus is the true mean- ing expressed in the derivation, since propor- tion is equilibrium between reflected rods (rays) and refracted rods. This equilibrium of rods is always a problem capable of solution, although one requiring skill and patience. The value, meaning, and force of x, or true ego, is always the point to be ascertained. 126 Esoteric Lessons. Here, again, I notice that the very symbol itself (the x) which I have instinctively em- ployed to designate the true ego expresses, by its form of cross, the equilibrium of two rods. Thus, not only is proportion itself a statement of the problem of the soul, but also the term itself, which stands for soul, states this mo- mentous problem. Reflecting still further, I find that proportion, as the equilibrium of re- flected rods and refracted rods, states and solves all the problems of light, heat, sound and motion, and thus I come to regard the whole phenomenal universe as but a continuous state- ment and re-statement of this problem of the soul. But I have just found that each statement, in itself, is dual ; that at the same time, or together with the statement, there is also a re-statement, or reason why, implied in the statement itself, First Lessons in Reality. 127 i. e. } the statement also implies the solution ; or, to state is to solve, thus, (as) (because) a : b : : x : y a : b : : x : y Statement. Solution. The statement implies knowledge, while the solution (re-statement) expresses faith. But the equilibrium between this statement and its re-statement is the anchor by means of which the true ego realizes its Ray-ment, or House of consciousness as the refracted reality, of which its Ray-ment of bodily sensation was the in- verted reflection. LESSON IX. HOUSE— DOOR. Between the outer and inner rooms of my House of Consciousness there is a door, which swings out or in. The name of this door is Doubt. When it swings out, the counts of its vibrations are audible to my external ear; but when it swings in, the counts are audible only to my esoteric ear. This double nature of my door is expressed in its very name ; for doubt is derived from two Greek words which signify to go two zvays, and to doubt is, very literally, to be in the mental and physical condition of trying to walk in two opposite directions at the same time. However, from doubt — from this attempt to walk in two opposite directions at the same time First Lessons in Reality. 129 — is produced all mental action, which ulti- mately results in knowledge. Doubt is the only door through which I can ever reach absolute certitude. As long as I do not doubt, but accept every- thing as it appears on the outside, taking for granted the seeming for the real, the door be- tween me and knowledge is closed and locked. But the moment I begin to doubt the door be- gins to swing, and it swings out, creaking and grating, and forces me away from the very knowledge I would seek; while I, deceived by the sound, think, because the door is opening, and because I am listening to the counts, that I am thus acquiring truth, while I am, really, only acquiring the contradictory of truth. Thus I who sincerely seek truth, partake only of its inverted reflect, and, thereby, deceived and bewildered, I become a victim of all man- ner of delusions, and fearful of shadows, until 130 Esoteric Lessons. finally the door swings clear back against the wall, and can go no further. The door has swung wide open, and to doubting was due the whole mental activity by which this result was accomplished. In its course of outward movement the door has described a semicircle. There is but one way to complete the circle, viz., the door must swing back again, and then swing over the threshold into the inner, and hitherto unknown room of my house, until it reaches the wall again on the inner side; then the circle will be complete. Doubt has opened wide the door, and mani- fested the whole process of the movement which described the outer semicircle. Now, the determination to complete and to know the other half of the circle is the exact contra- dictory of doubt. Determination reverses the movement of the door. It begins to swing in. First Lessons in Reality. 131 To determine is, therefore, to reverse doubt, not to abandon it; for, manifestly, determina- tion without previous line of doubt to follow back upon must surely end in my finding my- self just where I started, i. e. y before a closed and locked door. The way to reverse doubt is to, at once and unreservedly, doubt all that doubt has pre- viously accepted as real, what doubt has hither- to decided to be unreal. Thus will I possess myself of the key which will force the door to swing over its latch without locking. But I must swing the door clear open, and describe the inner semicircle, before I can myself pass in and consciously possess myself of the treas- ures of this esoteric consciousness. In geometry, the word term signifies the point and the line, and to dc-term-ine is to limit by means of the point and the line. According- ly, to doubt and to determine is the process by 132 Esoteric Lessons. means of which I arrive at the true meaning of the point and the line. Doubt is the form of force which causes the door to swing, or strike out from the centre of equilibrium, or, the cen- trifugal force; while Determination is the form of force which draws back to the centre, or, centripetal force. Now, when these two forms of force are in perfect equilibrium, my door will describe the perfect circle. But before that, in my actual experience while developing this circle, this larger line is in itself marked out by an incessant pendulum-like swing, first back, then forth, of the door, and so on — an infinitely zigzag line, and a continuous tick-tack of count, the counts varying according to the longer or shorter swing of the door. And these counts express gradations of doubt and determination. This I also found to be the relation between the two forms of numerals, or, counting and meas- uring. First Lessons in Reality. 133 Doubt has led to a mental activity which has resulted in the accumulation of facts, or knowl- edge of the external construction of my circle. Determination is the re-action against doubt, which will ultimately force the door back and within. The relations of doubts and determinations is that of cogs and grooves, and without the two the wheel could not revolve; i. e., doubts and determinations are polar opposites which mu- tually imply each other. Just so my outer semi- circle, when completed, must be the polar op- posite of the inner semicircle, and since the two mutually imply each other, when I know the external I also know what the inner must be. The name, Doubt, «which I have given my door, since it signifies to go two ways, implies both doubt and determination in itself. How- ever, as doubt is the first act which drives the door away from the inner room, and determina- 134 Esoteric Lessons. tion impels it back into my esoteric conscious- ness, I now give my door two names to desig- nate the direction in which it swings. Thus, when swinging out I call it Doubt, when swinging in I call it Determination, for it is de- termination which forces the door in — tears it open. Now the first meaning of the word door, is to tear or break open, the same word also meaning to pray or to supplicate. Doubt is action, de- termination, re-action. Door, or true prayer is the point of equilibrium between the two. As I carefully regard the nature of my con- sciousness, I find that in the day time I am actively absorbed with the external and phe- nomenal. But that at night, in sleep I pass to the re-active, or appearantly unconsicous state. Yet, if I awaken suddenly I am often conscious of having been interrupted in a train of thought ; or of being recalled from distant lands First Lessons in Reality. 135 and scenes which I was visiting in dreams. By addition of motion to proportion (bal- anced rods), the form thus described builds me a spiral house. Also the two rooms described by the swinging of my door, marks out to my ear a circular house. Proportion and Door express the same house of two rooms, the one to my esoteric eye, the other to my esoteric ear. Proportion and door symbolize the true refracts of which the visible and audible are the inverted reflects. Further- more, Day and Night consciousness express the true refracts of color and sound sensation. Day is night made visible. Night is day made audible. LESSON X. HOUSE— HEARTH. Since my house is spiral, the line between its two rooms is a diameter, or two radii (rods, rays). The door is one radius, the hearth is the other. My hearth is the warmth giving vital centre. It is the point from whence the Hearth-fire radiates and permeates my whole house. In my physical system, this vital centre is the heart, situated on the left side, while the lungs on the right, are the door which swinging in- cessantly back and forth, fans the life flame glowing on my hearth, or in my heart. Thus I see that on the reflected plane, my hearth is my heart, and examining the two words I see the heart (h) is heart with an aspirate ( a spira) added. And this addition of the breathing First Lessons in Reality. 137 which changes heart to hearth signifies the in- separable unity of Hearth and Door as well as the inseparable unity of heart and breathing. Hearth and door as a unity are a diameter, as polar opposites, they are two radii. Now the point of equilibrium between the two radii is the point of radiation, the centre of reflected (physical) life, the centre of refracted life which is consciousness. And strangely enough the word H-ear-th expresses all this in its for- mation. The two breathings are the polar op- posites, the radii ; while the word ear means to shoot, to dart, to ray. And this point of radiation, is also the centre of my whole house ; for, the revolution of these radii about the centre describe the circle which bounds my whole house. And since my door and my hearth extend from the floor to the ceiling, they must in their revolution, describe a spiral or cylindrical form of house. My house 138 Esoteric Lessons. is thus my tower. And since to shoot, to ear is the centre, the ear of corn is, very truly, the symbol of my house, as my tower. But my house is consciousness, therefore consciousness is my tower, my strength and my defense. Just as the ear of corn symbolizes the ex- ternal form of my house, so the listening car expresses the esoteric reality of consciousness. Now ear implies voice, just as heart implies breathing, just as hearth implies door. Voice is sound thrown out by breath, therefore ear: voice : : hearth : door. And this proportion must both state, and solve all problems of conscious- ness involving the relation of hearth to door. The listening ear is the ear leaning, inclining, stretching out toward, or, in other words, it is the resisting ear. It is the ear resisting, or re acting against the vibrations thrown out by the voice of my door. List and lust are the same in derivation, — list is the resistance to the true First Lessons in Reality. 139 vibrations, lust is the resistance to the reflected vibrations. Resistance, in itself, is dual, e. g. in the case of external sensation; unless my consciousness re-acts against the action offered by the polarity of external objects, I experience no sense of touch. Now as long as my consciousness is wholly occupied in external and phenomenal resist- ance, it knows only the voice and language of exoteric consciousness. But after I learn from experience of the visible, audible and tangible, to comprehend the relation of reflection to re- fraction, I come to see, from proportion what must be the relation of the hearth to the door of my house of consciousness, i. e., since, on the physical (reflected) plane, the relation of eye to light vibrations, of ear to voice, of heart to breathing, but express different de- grees of resistance, or forms of the sense of 140 Esoteric Lessons. touch, therefore, on the refracted plane, the re- lation of esoteric hearth to esoteric door ex- presses the true refract, of which the three- fold sense of resistance is the inverted reflect. And, accordingly, if I would know the eso- teric voice of my door, and acquire the lan- guage of its esoteric breathing, so as to discern its relation to the esoteric raying (earing) of my hearth, then I must combine Knowledge and Faith as shown in Proportion. Knowledge is the insight into the equilibrium of ratios ; Faith is the trust that the refraction which I cannot see, is the cause of the reflection which I do see; thus Faith is the discerning eye. Prayer is the trust that the inaudible vibra- tion is the cause of the audible vibration. And this inaudible vibration is the still voice which the listening ear doors (prays) open, — hears. Realizing (ray-izing) is the trust that this vital spark of consciousness, impalpable to my First Lessons in Reality. 141 exoteric resistance, is the cause of the flame smouldering on my hearth of heart. And this vital spark is tangible to the resisting hearth, — ■ the pure heart. The discerning eye sees the celestial Ray; the listening ear communes with It, — the resist- ing heart consciously and vitally realizes It. This Ray is one with and inseparable from its celestial Sun and Source; — this Ray is a Thought of the Infinite Mind, and one with In- finite Mind. So that when I see the Ray, I also see the Sun, for the sun and its rays are one; when I know the Thought I also know the Mind, for mind and thoughts cannot be sep- arated. Mind and Thought-rays become one, or, are assimilated, through mental pictures. There- fore, this pure hearth of heart, this vital centre of consciousness, when it resists, or reacts against the celestial Thought-ray, not only be- 142 Esoteric Lessons, comes assimilated with the Thought-ray itself, but also brings to a vital focus, a mental picture of Infinite Mind. My true ego, my soul is, therefore, a mental picture of the Infinite Mind in process of ex- pression. And it takes many and hard lines to bring this mental picture to a focus, and to emancipate it from its own inverted reflections. The Divine Artist acts through the Thought- ray. And when my soul consciously re-acts, or responds, the work goes on swiftly. More- over, since thought and mental picture mu- tually imply each other, just as mind implies thought, therefore, I am one with Infinite Mind as soon as I consciously accept and realize the fact of Inseparableness. An appeal to consciousness is always ulti- mate. The sensations of my body, and the de- sires of my terrestrial mind, are the undeniable facts of my consciousness, therefore to solve First Lessons in Reality. 143 any problem of soul implied in the statement a : b : : x : y is a very simple process of elimina- tion; for I always have the two following- equa- tions from which to compare and substitute the value of x: Body [a : b : : sensation : y] Finite mind [a : b : : desire : y But I know that to realize this inestimable value of x will be to cast out the errors of my desires, and to heal the diseases of my sensa- tions; for the reflection must correspond to the refraction. And not only my own errors and diseases, but also those of other souls slumber- ing in their inner rooms of consciousness. For within every inner room there glimmers a celes- tial Thought-ray of Infinite Mind. And with- in the unity of this Infinite Mind our true con- sciousnesses all move and have their being. To enter within this inner room and to real- ize its inseparable unity with the celestial Man- 144 Esoteric Lessons. sions of all consciousness, is to reverse Night and Day, and to awaken and find how soundly I have been asleep amid the inverted shadows of the true Aurora. LESSON XI. HEARTH-FIRE— RAY. Drawing near my Hearth I now regard the fire growing upon its shrine, in order to learn from thence, of the celestial ray which trans- mutes the flame offered at the Altar of the heart into Soul. These dancing and gleaming flames upon my Hearth are, indeed, very literally transformed sunlight, and it was as a perpetual reminder of this fact, that, in olden times, in case the hearth- fire should, by mischance, go out it would be relighted from sunlight by collecting rays to a First Lessons in Reality. 145 focus. So in studying these glowing embers, I am but studying inverted sunlight, while sun- light in its turn is but reflected Thought-light. What first attracts my attention is the fact of motion — without this motion, or radiation, the entire manifestation of light and heat dis- appears. Motion is an inseparable factor of this fire which consists of polar opposites of fire and rays, and a point which is neither fire nor rays, but where the two are one, — the point where they constantly balance from one to the other in an endless circle. Just so motion cannot be separated from mind and thoughts, any more than thoughts can exist apart from mind. In the case of mind I term this motion reasoning (derived from radius, rod), and thus reasoning is radiation both in meaning and derivation. Even in the case of my staff which I desig- 146 Esoteric Lessons. nate as inanimate, were it not for a certain de- gree of motion it would not exist at all, it would vanish entirely from my sight. Thus, it is visible because it re-acts against light-vi- brations. It is tangible because of certain equi- libriums of action and re-action commonly termed attraction and repulsion. Thus I see that motion, radiation, reasoning and existence, are all forms of Ray-ing, and ray-ing is the inseparable fourth element, or Quarterni in every Unity. Every Unity is an inseparable Duality, Trinity and Quarterni. Although motion cannot be separated from unity, duality and trinity, yet I must distinguish between it and the other elements in order to comprehend the nature of Force, or Ray-ing, before I can divine its meaning, and realize its presence upon the altar of my Hearth. The ray-ing of these flames before which I hold my hands, is of two kinds, viz. : For First Lessons in Reality. 147 every ray-ing out, there is a ray-ing back. Dif- ferent gradations of the ray-ing back but cor- respond to gradations of the ray-ing forth. Action and re-action are equal, or, in other words, there is an equilibrium between the forms of ray-ing. At this point of equilibrium between the two, i. e., by the union of the two, are formed all manner of figures, mathematical, fantastic and beautiful. And as I closely watch them, I even discern the colors; now a dart of red, now a dart of blue, flashes of purple, and of gold. But since flames are only inverted sunlight, every ray of light, therefore, also carries its prism with it, i. e., its re-active form of force is its prism by means of which, through infi- nite equilibriums of its infinite gradations, it images forth infinite colors and forms. Now I have already seen that every equilibri- 148 Esoteric Lessons. urn, from the lowest gradation to the highest is a statement and re-statement of the problem of the Soul. Therefore each and every grada- tion, must, in itself, be a statement and re- statement of some different degree and phase of the general statement. And at once the whole visible universe looms up before me, no longer vague, chaotic and meaningless, but as a sublime universal language, which appeals, through sensation, to my whole nature. ( 1.) Each vibration, and shade of color, is a reflected vibration and shade of Thought, of which it is a polar opposite, and from which it cannot be separated. So that when I once possess the key which translates the symbol to its thought, I am never at the mercy of a blind chance, but read according to an unalterable law. And each prismatic color, not only re- flects a thought, but the seven together are spokes of a wheel, which by their relation to First Lessons in Reality. 149 each other by their difficult gradations of refrac- tions and reflections, reflect various thought re- lations. And moreover this wheel when re- volved at a certain velocity blends the seven colors into the pure white light, — and this also expresses a thought. (2.) Each vibration of sound, but speaks to my listening ear in this same universal lan- guage. It pronounces the words spelt out to my eyes. (3.) Through the resistance of touch this universal language becomes a vital, living real- ity to me. I not only see and hear, but I feel it throughout every nerve and fibre of my body. I sensibly realize myself as an inseparable menv ber of the written word, perhaps only as a punc- tuation mark, yet in some way inseparably con- nected with the sense of the whole. Touch implies desire, and passing from sen- sation to the second spire, or coil of my nature. 150 Esoteric Lessons. I see at once, from the very necessities of finite desire, action and the assimilation of the two, that this universal language is a drama in which I am a blind puppet, obeying a hidden law of entrances and exits (births and deaths), and in which I but repeat a speech as pronounced to me, trippingly on the tongue, with no more conception of the plot of the play, and the real purpose for which it is enacted, than had Ham- let's players of the deep and hidden purpose for which he employed them. But at length my consciousness passes the curve of the third coil of my spiral nature, and grasps the equilibrium of ratios, and combines the knowledge and faith which mutually imply each other, into a statement, — a statement which is also a solution of the esoteric sense of this great drama. As I come to understand the external con- struction of this universal language, I see that First Lessons in Reality. 151 our modern printing press is but an adaptation on the finite plane, of the principle according to which the Infinite Mind has published abroad throughout the universe, his divine thoughts and purposes. Therefore, to know my part, I must first learn the letters and words as they seem, then learn to read them upside down, and from right to left. In the second place I must learn the exoteric meaning and action of my part in the drama. And here, as before, the Ray of Light is my clew of thread, which alone reveals the path through the labyrinth of bewildering shadows, to the abode of the Minotaur of finite desire and ac- tion. For the fabulous beast Minotaur, which was fed by the sacrifice of the choicest Athenian youths, but personifies the finite, or earthly mind, with its idol worship, — with its sacrifices and oblations of the higher nature to the lower. And this Minotaur must be slain by the true 152 Esoteric Lessons. Theseus, before I can start out to know and act my part in the esoteric drama. The Ray is, therefore, first, in itself, the en- tire alphabet of the universal language. For, by its two forms of force, and point of equi- librium, it furnishes the point and lines accord- ing to which the whole visible universe is pic- tured out to my senses. The Ray is, second, in itself, the fire (inverted sunlight), — the fuel, the father, the food of sensation, in its search after the Minotaur. Food and father are the same in derivation. And the finite mind is indeed the father of the body, in that it provides and cares for all its demands. But the finite mind is also the father or food of the Soul during the period of ap- prenticeship to the Shadows. It is the reflected father of the Soul, and from it the Soul must learn of its celestial Father. Every time one finite mind goes out in the ap- First Lessons in Reality. 153 pearance called death, then the Soul re-kindles its finite food (fuel) from its celestial Father, or Thought-ray, and goes on anew, to learn its part in the drama, until I come to discern this celestial Ray in my heart, and realize this vital spark of consciousness as re-acting (re- sponding) to it as its celestial Father. Then is the Ray the force by which I solve the mean- ing of the words about me; and divine their significance in the great drama. Then finally will consciousness be transmuted into Soul, qualified to enact its part in the larger drama, since having become one with its own celestial Father, it is also one with the Father of All Lights. LESSON XII. HEARTH-FIRE— IMAGES. These mysterious forms which are constantly appearing and vanishing amid the flames glow- ing on my Hearth next claim my attention, — these faces, beautiful or weird, which suddenly gleam with an intelligence that I am rarely quick enough to interpret, ere the glance has melted into another expression, and assumed another face. I have already seen that these images occur at the point of equilibrium between the two forms of force, or, the point where polar oppo- sites are one. Consciousness is, therefore, the focus where form, or images, is made clear, — made mani- First Lessons in Reality. 155 fest. The word manifest at once interests me. The primary sense of the word man, manna, manes, is image, form, shade; festu was a small staff used to point out letters to children when learning to read, therefore the first meaning of man and festu joined together in the word man-i-fest evidently is to point out, or make clear the image, form, man, manna, manes. And this I take to be the object, or purpose of all manifestation, viz., to bring to a vital focus the divine image of Soul. Accordingly I re- gard images as of four degrees, or classes, the first two being reflected and terrestrial, the last two being refracted and celestial. (1) (2) (3) (4) Man : Manes : : Soul : Manna. . ( 1 . ) Man, or body, is the external and visible expression of the image. (2.) My present finite mind is a manes in process of expression. 156 Esoteric Lessons. (3.) Soul is a mental picture (image) of the Infinite Mind in process of development. (4.) The celestial Thought-ray of Infinite Mind is the Manna, True Food, or Father of the Soul. For every thought of my finite mind there is an accompanying mental picture, existing, so to speak, in my erwn mental light, and held at a focus by my consciousness. Now, obviously, if this mental picture is reflected to other minds within the range of my mental light, this mental picture will be mirrored on their screen, or tent of consciousness, and since mental picture can- not be separated from thought, their minds will also think my thought. This illustrates the way all thoughts come and go; for all minds are factors of an inseparable Unity, and are, therefore, in a constant state of action and re- action. Now while my senses are wholly absorbed First Lessons in Reality. 157 in the external, I never consciously discern mental pictures. They are an entirely unrecog- nized factor in my mental machinery. And, in the present age, all inner vision is sternly re- manded to the realm of fantasy as the next door to insanity, and proof positive of morbid con- ditions of body and mind. Therefore, if I would ever know the truth of the inner vision, I must endure the infamy of being one who dreams dreams, and sees visions. (However, a very little experience and reflection soon con- vinces me that the mutual polarity of thought and mental picture explains all phenomena of dreams, clairvoyance, premonitions, appari- tions, etc., etc.) I have already found that all finite action is dual, i. e., it is passion, and it is oblation. Now oblation is of various degrees. (1.) Part of my daily actions are the sacri- fices of the lower forms of life to maintain my 158 Esoteric Lessons. own bodily existence. But in return for these acts, certain sacrifices are required at my hands. The scales of Proportion measure out to me just as I measure out to others, for every scrap and muscle of animal flesh which I take into my system is a pictured scroll of suffering, fear of death, and sense of deprivation of an heritage to life. These words my sense of touch reports faithfully to my consciousness, and I myself, in my turn, am a constant slave to these same fears and sufferings. Yet, I must pass through a long period of apprenticeship in sacrificing to these images until I learn the esoteric meaningof the word sacrifice upon this plane of my nature. Then I will be enabled to sustain my physical life upon the vegetables, grains and fruits of the Earth, which are more directly transformed sunlight, and thus symbolic of the celestial manna. (2.) The social or moral acts of my daily First Lessons in Reality. 1 59 life are sacrifices to the manes. The Manes are the shades of the departed. They are the cast off reflects of the soul, — photographs of soul, existing in the magnetic light. And since they are photographs of true consciousness, they must partake, in a degree, of the living Ray- ality they reflect. And must, therefore, possess a terrestrial and finite consciousness, capable of communicating (through mental pictures) with other intelligences. These finite con- sciousnesses with which I am surrounded con- stantly reflect to me my own past thoughts and deeds, and thus impel me to perform again the same acts and deeds. If I strongly set myself to do right, then my acts are sacrifices to the good manes, but if I am selfish and cruel, then I sacrifice to the evil manes. But, more than this, just as I am in a most complex social relation with other minds about me, so are my manes, also, involved in this same complex re- 160 Esoteric Lessons. lation with the manes of other minds. More- over, just as these photographs (manes) reflect good or evil thoughts to me, so they also reflect diseased, and otherwise marked physical, pe- culiarities to me. So that if I would maintain my physical health, I must be able to discern these shades which hang unseemly pictures in my House of consciousness. I must tear down the evil manes, and hang up the good manes. (3.) These sacrifices to the good manes are absolutely essential to my progress toward my realization of soul ; for the manes feed upon my finite mind and body, just as I feed upon the lower forms of life. These sacrifices are the third form of oblations, i. e., they are offer- ings to Soul; for, the soul, in its turn, also feeds upon the manes. (4.) The fourth form of oblation is that of the soul to its celestial Manna. And, although, while embodied I must practice all four forms First Lessons in Reality. 161 of sacrifices, yet I can never catch a gleam of soul and its implied eternity without hence- forward directing my entire course of action (oblation) so as to partake of the food which is mercy and not sacrifice, — which is love and not suffering, and finally to sustain myself wholly upon the celestial Manna. Now, the soul as a mental picture of Infinite Mind, is of divine origin, poor, sinless, and perfect, in that it contains within itself, in the germ, all that is eventually evolved. And its evolution is the result of its own inner force, united to that of its own Thought-ray. Time is the period of its process of expression, but the soul has eternity back of it, and before it. And at the end of its time, — its great day of Memory, when the soul, freed from birth and death, is ready to collect together different earth lives as so many events in one great whole, — and is waiting to put on its beautiful gar- 1 62 Esoteric Lessons. merits, so as to go and dwell forever with its Father, and enact its parts of the larger Drama, within the celestial Mansions; then the stern Judge Minos draws or pours, these robes, or manes, from out his Urn, and only such as are worthy of eternity can be strung as beads on memory's silver cord. The soul can assume only such characters as are fitted to be enacted in the presence of di- vinity. And the manes which have in no way reflected the true ego, but only its contradictory, will go out in the outer darkness of nothingness. For as they exist only as contradictories of the sours light, among the inverted shadows, they have failed to lay hold of the true refraction, which alone is entity, which is eternal life, and when the soul's light is indrawn from the ter- restrial, to its celestial Source, these inverted reflections will be utterly dispelled. However, until the end of time, it is pos- First Lessons in Reality. ■ 163 sible, for even the contradictory manes to be quickened. For, just as it is possible for me, when the visible life of my friend goes out, to hold his manes, spellbound, and in agony, by my grief, just so it is possible for me who have House, Food and Ray-ment to shelter the home- less, to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked. Thus can I rescue this manes, and herein is the oblation which is Love and not suffering. But the grief of despair is, in truth, a refined form of vivisection. LESSON XIII. HEARTH-FIRE— LAW. yea : nay : : Yea : Nay. The Law of Man-i-fest-ation, or of pointing out Images, is the Law of Contradictories. • Contradictory Opposites are inverted and left-sided reflections of Real or Polar Oppo- sites. Polar Opposites mutually imply and in- 164 Esoteric Lessons. elude each other, while Contradictory Opposites mutually deny and exclude each other. And just as it is impossible for me to walk in two opposite directions at the same time ; just as it is impossible for me to affirm both of two Contradictions to be true and avoid mental chaos and nothingness, just so it is impossible for me to affirm the identity of Real Opposites and Contradictory Opposites, and avoid spiri- tual chaos and nothingness. To grasp this distinction is to make the choice between the Real and the un-real, be- tween Light and darkness, between Life and death, between the Eternal and the temporal, between Wholeness and chaos. And it is the spiritual insight implied in this choice which is so beautifully expressed in the myth of Ariad- na's Clew of Thread. Ariadna's mystical clew of thread symbolizes this intuitive discerning of the relation of True Opposites to contra- First Lessons in Reality. 165 dictory opposites which will lead the true The- seus safely through the mazes of the Labyrinth of inverted reflections, and enable him to de- stroy the Minotaur of sense and seeming. The fact that Ariadna's twist of thread sym- bolizes this inner, intuitive Ray, is evident from the derivation of the word twist, as well as from the formation itself of a twist. Thus the Greek word skiza is a twist, a torch, a flame. Our word scissors is also derived from this same word. Again, in its formation, a twist expresses the mystery of this Law, thus the twist is com- posed of two strands (each strand double), which are first twisted in opposite directions, then by being doubled back upon each other, the two strands fly magically into one mani- festation. In the thread of light the Law is expressed in the dual, and vet unitarv manifestation of re- 1 66 Esoteric Lessons. f racted ray and its inverted reflected ray. The scissors also expressed the Law in their construction of two blades fastened at the cen- tre, by a point, or pin. When opened they image a cross, while the movement itself, of cutting, expresses the contradictories ; i. e. } the two blades come together and cut only as a re- sult of the movement which forced them apart. This movement of the scissors is also the move- ment of the hand bellows, which impart breath ■ to the flame. The thread is the path in the Labyrinth ; the torch is the light on the path; the scissors cut along the narrow thread which twists in and out amid the mazy shadows ; while the three are all one. They are the Parcae. In order to still further study the Law of Contradictories, I take the word Health, and its contradictory Disease. Following the Quar- tern! of word as already given in the lesson or First Lessons in Reality. 167 assimilating, thus : (1.) The outer expression of disease upon the body in various forms, is the external sym- bol of the word. (2.) On the plane of finite mind, dis-ease is lack of ease resulting from the erroneous judgment of a finite Health apart from Infinite Wholeness. (3.) My conscious experience of the word is the point of equilibrium between the finite and Infinite meaning of the word. (4.) The true and celestial force and signifi- cance of the word completes the Quarterni, and Health would therefore be wholeness, com- pleteness and perfection. On the reflected, or finite plane, Health as ordinarily understood is, in truth, lack of wholeness, inasmuch as it is taken for granted to be purely physical, and something apart from spiritual wholeness. It therefore signifies, not i68 Esoteric Lessons. the balanced staff, but only the physical end up, of the staff, and the location of consciousness in the body which will surely lead the finite ego to seek bodily pleasures. This tendency of consciousness will inevitably lead to pain, and the finite ego thus will see-saw from one end of the staff to the other until it maintains its po- sition at the centre. Accordingly consciousness located in the body, and giving a sense of physical lustiness, is, in reality, incompleteness and lack of Whole- ness. While pain, which in itself is only the other end up, of the staff, is only a second woe, and consciousness still out of its true position. But the equilibrium of these two woes, finally enable consciousness to assume its equilibrium. They teach the way to true Health. Without the action of the woe of pleasure, and the re- action of the woe of pain, consciousness could never realize its celestial heritage. Herein is First Lessons in Reality. 169 the Worth of the two woes. Pleasure is as much a dis-ease as is pain. Pleasure and pain are head and foot of the staff of disease, and disease is the inverted reflection, or, contra- dictory of Health. When I can invert Disease and read it from right to left, then I know the mystery of Health, and not before. Pleasure and pain are a double strand twisted together into the reflected half of a word. This reflected half is, either Dis- ease, or finite Health, but the other half, the contradictory of Disease, is the perfect ease of true Health, while Wholeness is the equilibri- um between the refraction and reflection which cuts or distinguishes between the inseparable; for true cutting is uniting. It mysteriously combines the double strands which were twisted in opposite directions. Thus this process of healing is the process of assimilating, and assimilating is Reading (rod- 170 Esoteric Lessons. ing) — exoteric and esoteric reading, therefore healing is reading. Exoteric healing with min- erals and drugs is only exoteric reading and an indispensable first step toward esoteric reading, or healing. I must learn the symbols of words before I can learn the words. But when I come to know that healing, reading and assimilating take place through Images, then there is no longer need of communicating with external words. I can communicate directly through the Images. The Images communicate my thought without my going out to hunt up a clumsy drug or mineral to act as interpreter. Again, with our lips we all speak foreign tongues to each other, but the Images speak the language of the heart ; there is no misunder- standing them. The Law of Contradictories is also the Law of communication as well as the Law of mani- festation, for the object and purpose of man-i- First Lessons in Reality. lyi fest-ation is communication. And if assimilat- ing, reading and healing are all different de- grees of communication, then must this Law of Contradictories be the Law of The Most High, mystically expressed as Yea, yea; Nay, nay, but which translated in terms of staff or proportion, reads yea : nay : : Yea : Nay. yea and nay are contradictory or reflected opposites of Yea and Nay the true and Polar Opposites. The force with which the terrestrial fibres of pleasure and pain twist away from the ce- lestial fibres they reflect (contradict), but ex- press the force with which the two strands will enfold each other when the finite will removes the pressure with which it clings to its idols and turns toward the true ray, and toward its ce- lestial Source. 172 Esoteric Lessons. Healing, — making whole, is therefore, the last and greatest Word for me to learn. It is the process of combining the contradictory parts of the drama into a magnificent Whole, and entering into the spirit of the Divine Author; It is a recalling of the parts I have been learn- ing since the beginning of time. It is the as- suming of the robes and characters I have been so long and painfully elaborating. And finally it is a swinging out from time into eternity to enact a part prepared for me from the begin- ning. Looking out into this vast Universe I see only Mind in process of evolution. Each ray is a Thought-ray in development by means of refraction and reflection. Equilibrium, or Central-point, whenever it occurs, is Conscious- ness in process of realization. Motion is Reasoning in process of radiation. The Reason- ing which is spiral and Spiritual. LESSON XIV. CONCLUSION— THE WALL. Will implies Freedom. If I have no power of choice, then I, evidently, have no will of my own. Moreover, if I have no Freedom (im- plied by Will), then I am the most abject of slaves. In the ancient ceremony of manumission the slave was touched with the rod, as a symbol of the fact that the ray frees from bonds of de- lusion. Again in the rite of Knighthood, which ad- mits to the privilege of bearing arms, the rod bore an important part. Accordingly before I can enter upon my heritage, before I can seat myself upon my Throne and assume my Scepter, I must, first, be freed from slavery, and, second, I must be 174 Esoteric Lessons. endowed with the privilege of bearing arms. But before I can receive a scepter and rule I must know hozv to rule, — before I can receive the honors of Knighthood I must know how to build a Wall and defend my possessions. (i.) To know how to rule I must be able to balance the rod of Justice and Mercy, Now, Justice and Mercy are. not Contradictories, as the world seems to have taken for granted, but they are Polar Opposites of the same rod. They mutually imply each other, and are simply un- thinkable apart; for Justice without Mercy is not just; — for Mercy without Justice is blindly cruel, and therefore not Mercy at all. Now the perfect equilibrium between Justice and Mercy is perfect power of choice, or perfect Freedom. For, since when I am ruled I am not free, if I am ever ruled in the slightest de- gree by my affections, then I am neither just nor merciful, and if my sense of Justice pre- First Lessons in Reality. 175 ponderates over my affection, then I am neither just nor merciful, and therefore am not free. It thus directly follows that I am not free, un- til I balance the rod of Justice and Mercy, and, moreover, since Freedom (power of choice) implies Will, it also directly follows that when I am free, then I shall know the meaning of Will, and not before. Now, just as true Freedom is the exact con- tradictory of freedom on the finite plane, — so true Will is the exact contradictory of will on the finite plane. And since will implies free- dom, my true Will is my emancipation from slavery, and it is also (as I have just seen) the power which confers the right to rule. My true Will, therefore, becomes my Wall of Strength, which I next consider how to build. (2.) Our word Wall is from the Latin, as well as from Saxon, Dutch, etc. In the Saxon it is the same word as weal, strength, soundness, 176 Esoteric Lessons. etc. The Latin vallus is a stake or post, and doubtless the wall originally was a palisade of posts. The primary sense of vallus is a shoot, suggesting at once ray, ear, etc. From this I also see at once hozv to build my wall. I must concentrate together rods as troops. All my forces, or possessions, I must con-centre, as con- verging lines or rays, so that they all meet at a common point. And thus to build my wall of Will I must acquire the Power of Concentration. But before I can do this, and in order to ac- quire the Power of Concentration, I must make the last and the greatest oblation of all. Be- fore I can know the true Will I must offer up its contradictory. I must resign the finite will with all its finite desires, before I can know the True. But, manifestly, it is utter folly to make this offering before it is mine to make i. e., be- fore I am Free. And since to be free I must First Lessons in Reality. 177 know how to balance the rod of Justice and Mercy, I turn once more to consider again this rod. Freedom is the point of equilibrium between Justice and Mercy. Will is the power of Con- cent-er-ing, or of Ray-ing about the Centre, accordingly I discern the very Highest Mani- festation of the Quart erni. Head. Foot. Centre. Motion. Justice: Mercy: : Freedom: Will. This proportion expresses the Quarterni of Ray evolved to its highest power. And when my soul realizes this perfect Harmony, then I am forever free from the illusions of birth and death. And Will is the Motive force which will propel, throughout Eternity, the perfectly balanced rod of Justice and Mercy. Therefore this Power of Concentering is the last and greatest acquirement. Its attainment is the great Weal / its lack is the great Woe. To secure it is to realize Wholeness, to fail 178 Esoteric Lessons. is Chaos and Nothingness. And in order to attain this great Weal I must offer up the ob- lation of a true High Priest. And in order to secure the Perfect Peace of Wholeness I must fight the fight of the True Warrior. A War- rior capable of bearing and hurling a lance. I, therefore, turn to the Staff with which I started. This conclusion is, after all, only an- other beginning. The Ray of Light is now my Lance } armed with which I continue my spiral and unending course in Reality. APPENDIX. OUTLINE LESSON IN OPTICS. I. Refraction. Rays of light in passing* obliquely from one medium to another are bent (refracted) from their course, — the degree of bending (refrac- *Perpendicular rays pass directly through without being bent, First Lessons in Reality. 1 79 tion) depending upon the density, or rarity of the medium. Thus in passing into a medium of greater density (e. g., from air to water), rays will be bent towards a perpendicular. But in passing from a denser to a rarer medium (e. g., from water to air), they will be bent from a perpen- dicular towards a horizontal. (a.) Let A B represent a sur- face of water, then the perpen- dicular ray D C will pass to D E. B (&.) ' But the oblique ray F C, instead of passing • . i to F I will be bent at C and pass to F G, or towards the perpendicular. i8o Esoteric Lessons. (c.) The oblique ray G C in passing from water to air (from denser to rarer medium) will be bent at Q and instead of passing to G H will be bent to G F, or towards the horizontal A. B. II. Reflection. Rays of light falling obliquely upon a pol- ished surface are thrown off in a new direction, and the angles of contact (incidence) and the angles of departure (reflection) are always equal. Let A B repre- sent a polished surface, then the perpendicular ray D C falling upon this surface will -b be thrown directly back from C to D. But the oblique ray E C will be thrown off First Lessons in Reality. 181 in the direction C F, and the angle G will eqvial the angle H. The more nearly perpendicular the ray E C, the more nearly perpendicular will be the ray C F, — or again, the more nearly horizontal the ray E C, the more nearly horizontal will be the ray C F. Yet the angles H and G will always be equal ; for the size of the angle H implies the size of the angle G, just as the direction of the ray E C implies the direction of the ray C F. III. Relation of Refraction to Reflec- tion. All oblique rays of light, in passing into our atmosphere must be more or less bent before they reach reflecting surfaces, and must there- fore, be Refracted, or Incident Rays before they can be Reflected Rays. And since Reflected rays and angles depend upon Incident rays and angles, it directly fol- 1 82 Esoteric Lessons. lows that the relation of Refraction to Reflec- tion is that of cause to effect, of action to re- action, or in other words, Refraction and Re- flection are polar opposites which mutually im- ply each other. Every direct and true Refraction implies an inverted Reflection, and the existence of the one proves the existence of the other. Sight, Heat, Sound, Motion and Thought are all manifested through Refraction and Re- flection. Questions. i. How are rays of light bent? 2. How are rays of light bent in passing into a medium of greater density? 3. How are they bent on passing into a rarer medium ? 4. How are rays of light thrown off from a polished surface? 5. What are angles of. Incidence and Reflec- First Lessons in Reality. 183 tion? 6. How are they always equal ? 7. What is the relation of Refraction to Re- flection ? — Give the reason why. LESSON L— THE STAFF. Questions. 1. What is the Supreme Reality of the Uni- verse; and how illustrated in its unity and duality by mind and thoughts ? 2. How is the unity and duality of a lumi- • nous body (e. g., the sun) illustrated by sun and rays? 3. Illustrate the unity and duality of the staff, or, rod of light ? 4. How is the trinity comprised in the rod? How in the sun ? How in the mind ? 5. What is the relation of motion to the staff, to the luminous body, and to mind ? 184 Esoteric Lessons. 6. What is the Ouarterni of the staff ? 7. Of this Ouarterni which represents ter- restrial dualism, and which celestial dualism? 8. What is the Quarterni of a luminous body, e. g., the sun ? 9. Of this Ouarterni which represents ter- restrial, and which celestial dualism? 10. What is the Ouarterni of mind ? 11. Of this Quarterni which represents ter- restrial, and which celestial dualism? 12. What does the rod symbolize? LESSON II— RAY-MENT— VISIBLE. Questions. 1. What is Refraction of light? 2. What is Reflection of light? 3. What is the relation of Refraction to Re- flection? 4. How do Refraction, Reflection, and point of equilibrium correspond to the staff? First Lessons in Reality. 185 5. What is the relation of a terrestrial to a celestial body ? 6. What is the four-fold formation of body ? 7. How do the four elements of body corre- spond to the Quart erni as expressed in the staff? LESSON III.— RAY-MENT — AUDIBLE. Questions. 1. What are the Visible Numerals? 2. How are they used in drawing, and in measuring ? 3. What do they symbolize? 4. What are the Invisible Numerals ? 5. How are they used in counting? 6. What do the odd numbers symbolize, and what do the even numbers symbolize? 7. What is the relation of counting to meas- uring? 1 86 Esoteric Lessons. LESSON IV.— RAY-MENT— TANGIBLE. Questions. i. How are touch, sight and sound all forms of Resistance? 2. How do numbers express Resistance, and how can Resistance be overcome ? 3. What is the relation of touch to the other forms of Resistance? 4. What must be the nature of the Interior three-fold sense of Resistance? 5. What is the meaning and purpose of this Interior sense? 6. How is it developed and realized ? 7. How is sensation elevated to Thought ? First Lessons in Reality. 187 LESSON V.— FOOD— HUNGER. Questions. 1. What is the relation of desire to body, and to finite mind ? 2. What is the distinction between ex-oteric and es-oteric desire ? 3. What is Idolatry? 4. What is the penalty of Idolatry ? 5. What is the distinction between reflected and true ego ? 6. How is the true ego clothed and fed ? 7. How must the true ego obtain its final emancipation from birth and death ? LESSON VI.— FOOD— EATING. Questions. 1. How must finite action, from its nature, be contradictory? 1 88 Esoteric Lessons. 2. Why is finite action, Passion? 3. How is finite action, Oblation? 4. What is the nature of exoteric Oblation? 5. What is the nature of esoteric Oblation? 6. What is the significance of the myth of Saturn ? 7. How does the true ego and its offspring become one ? LESSON VIL— FOOD— ASSIMILATING. Questions. 1. How is physical food assimilated? 2. How is mental food assimilated ? 3. What is the relation of external word to mental picture? 4. What is the Quarterni of word ? 5. What is the relation of refracted word to reflected word ? 6. What is assimilation on the part of the true ego ? First Lessons in Reality. 189 7. How does this assimilation give power to rule words ? LESSON VIII.— HOUSE— PROPOR- TION. Questions. 1. What is the relation of House to Ray-* ment? 2. What is the relation of Proportion to the Visible? 3. What is exoteric Proportion? 4. What is esoteric Proportion? 5. How is Proportion a statement of the problem of the Soul ? 6. How is Proportion a solution of the prob- lem of the Soul ? 7. What is the relation of Knowledge to Faith? 190 Esoteric Lessons. LESSON IX.— HOUSE— DOOR. Questions. 1. What is Doubt? 2. What is Determination ? 3. What is Door? 4. What is the relation of Doubt, Deter- mination and Door to each other ? 5. What is the relation of Door to Propor- tion? 6. Describe the two forms of Consciousness ? 7. What is their relation to color and sound ? LESSON X.— HOUSE— HEARTH. Questions. 1. What does Hearth symbolize on the re- flected plane? 2. What does it symbolize on the refracted plane ? First Lessons in Reality. 191 3. What is symbolized in the relation be- tween Hearth and Door ? 4. What are the two forms of Resistance ? 5. How is true Resistance, Prayer? 6. What is the relation of the true Ego to the Infinite Mind ? 7. What is the relation of Night conscious- ness to Day consciousness ? LESSON XL— HEARTH-FIRE— RAY. Questions. 1. How is Motion, Raying? 2. What are the two forms of Raying, and what their relation to each other ? 3. How is the Ray also Prism, and what re- sults from the equilibrium between Ray and Prism? 4. How is the visible universe a universal language on the plane of sensation ? 192 Esoteric Lessons. 5. How is it a drama on the plane of finite mind? 6. How is consciousness an actor learning its part? 7. What must be the true refracted and ce- lestial Drama, and how must Consciousness learn and act its part in this larger Drama? LESSON XIL— HEARTH-FIRE— IMAGES. Questions. 1 . What are Images ? 2. How are they manifested ? 3. Why are they manifested ? 4. How must we sacrifice to Images? 5. Why must we sacrifice to Images? 6. What is Memory ? 7. What is the relation of the Soul to Mem- ory, to Time, and to Eternity ? First Lessons in Reality. 193 LESSON XIII.— HEARTH-FIRE— LAW. Questions. 1. What is the distinction between the two forms of Opposites ? 2. How is this distinction an absolute Ne- cessity to spiritual insight ? 3. How do the Tzvist, the Torch, and the Scissors illustrate the Law? 4. How is the Law of Contradictories the Law of Manifestation? 5. How is it the Law of Communication ? 6. How is it the Law of Healing? 7. How is Healing, in its turn, the Supreme Word of the L T niverse? 194 Esoteric Lessons. LESSON XIV.— CONCLUSION— THE WALL. Questions. i. How does Freedom imply Will? 2. How does the perfect equilibrium between Justice and Mercy imply Freedom? 3. How is Will, Wall? 4. How is the Wall, Power of Concentra- tion? 5. What is the Ouarterni of Scepter? 6. What is the Beginning and End of Reality? A TOUR THROUGH THE ZODIAC SEQUEL TO First Lessons In Reality LESSON I. THE WARRIOR. As a slave, in bondage to sense and seem- ing, with a simple staff in my hand, I started out in my first studies in search for the Pole-Star of truth — for truth implies free- dom. But now I commence the second round of my spiral ladder as a warrior, armed with a lance, for I have learned that I must be able to defend my possessions and acqui- sitions in truth before I can obtain a scep- ter and rule. Now a scepter has two ends; a head, or master, who wields it, and a foot, or slave, who is u under therod\" and, since these two ends cannot be detached, the ruler 198 Esoteric Lessons. and the serf are the two halves of a unit, while at this point of unity is the true King. So, in my own individual case, at the same time that I am a slave I am also a master. I comprise the two within my system. If I have been a slave of some, I must also have been a tyrant to others. Therefore, since the King alone is free, before I can realize freedom I must be able to maintain the point of equilibrium be- tween the tyrant and the slave, and it will, most assuredly, be an incessant war- fare until this harmony is experienced. The true warrior must combine into a unity the slave of sense, or sensualist, on the one hand, with the tyrant, who would ignore and destroy sense, on the other. But I wish, in entering upon so formid- able an undertaking, for a fixed point A Tour Through the Zodiac. 199 from whence to start. I must have a cen- ter in order to describe a circumference; yet, since the point of equilibrium is just the thing for which I am about to engage in warfare, I hesitate no longer, but at once rush forward into the melee of shad- ows, with my lance poised ready to hurl. But lo! my lance, poised in my hand, turns my ray-of-light — my clew-of-thread, and the shadows are already breaking before the mystic point of this lance. Having hurled it, I watch it revolve as it speeds on its course, and at its mystic point, where it strikes and refracts, I behold the bow of promise — the beautiful seven-point- star. This star is the point I seek, the mystic point of radiation, of equilibrium, of harmony. Its seven colors, blending through infinite tints and shades into the pure white light, are the seven-fold mys- 200 Esoteric Lessons. teries of Unity in Infinity, the Unity-in- Infinity which is the mystery of Godliness. In my " First Studies of Reality" this seven-point-star at once divided itself (the first and last, however, being in reality one, or the mystic Thirteen) into polar-opposites, or chromatics of fourteen lessons, just as each of the seven colors has its complementary ray, which is invis- ible to exoteric vision, the esoteric quality of which may be expressed by the eso- teric terms written over each color. (See diagram of seven-point-star.) Starting with red, the zenith of the figure, and the color least refracted from the celestial white, I observe that the figure outlined by the point in the circum- ference, the lines, staff and wall, the dot- ted lines, and the point at the center is a diamond, the hardest, or most fixed, sub- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 201 v s stance known; and well does the diamond symbolize my throne and point-of-equilib- rium. And, surely, only the highest wis- dom can ever enable me to attain this balance, and all wisdom truly begins and ends with it. It is Alpha and Omega. The visible red is symbolic of blood, sensuality, suffering and ignorance. Therefore, following the Law of Contra- dictories, the invisible red expresses the blood turned to wine, sensuality to spirit- uality, suffering to power, ignorance to the most unspeakable wisdom. But how mar- velously is this spiritual-ray hidden from the worldly-wise and prudent; for, just as red is the color those afflicted with color- blindness cannot discern, so the invisible red is just the wisdom hidden from those who are spiritually color-blind. The form of motion by which the white 202 Esoteric Lessons. ray breaks out into the seven colors is the first, from center to circumference, but the form which concenters, and to realize which I am about to engage in warfare, is the second — the exact reverse of the first. Therefore, as in the "First Lessons in Reality" my studies outlined, or cir- cumscribed, the seven-point-star, so now I pass from circumference to center, and accordingly reverse my diagram; i. e., turn my seven-point-star outside in. First I reverse the cardinal points, turning the right hand to the left; east becomes west and north becomes south. Red, the least refracted ray, is the beginning and end of the point at the center. Next orange, rising in the east, the union of visible and audible, forms its point at the center, or throne, and so on round the circle until the seven color-points blend into a unity A Tour Through the Zodiac. 203 at the foot of my throne, from thence to ray forth on a higher plane and in larger spirals. Although this second round of my lad- der, as a whole, follows the second form of motion, yet each day's march of this expedition must follow the first line of motion, while each night my forces indraw to the camp-fire at the center. Day is the raying out of the seven points to the cir- cumference; night the raying back to the one-point center. Only I must not here lose myself in these symbols. The Seven-fold Morning Star is the Temple of the Body; the reversed Evening Star is the Holy of Holies, wherein the soul meets the Most High. But Lucifer and Venus are one star, not two; as formerly supposed. Therefore I am about to engage in war- 204 Esoteric Lessons. fare, to establish the true and only har- mony between soul and body. This physical temple, neglected or in ruins, must be rebuilt and re-occupied before the soul can meet its God. This is the only way under the Sun whereby men can be saved. This is the Corner-Stone, so long rejected by all our builders. Physical health and truth — the truth which is above, beneath and roundabout all religions, mutually imply each other, and are absolutely un- thinkable apart. Body, this inverted and left-sided reflec- tion of soul, is the only trysting-place between the soul and its Divine source. Therefore, as a warrior and worshiper I seek the diamond-point of wisdom, where the red-ray blends into its spiritual coun- terpart. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 205 QUESTIONS. i — Who is the Warrior? 2 — What is the Warfare? 3 — Why must there be War? LESSON II. THE FIERY TRIPLICITY. V, OR WATCHING. On my first round of this spiral ladder I proceeded by quadrants, or the quar- terni, as expressed in the terms ray-ment, food, house and hearth-fire. But, on this second round, my advance follows according to triplicities, or the four equi- lateral triangles. (See diagram.) Taken by twos, and placed side by side, they form two diamonds; on being in- 206 Esoteric Lessons. terlaced, they comprehend all the mys- teries. The quadrant is a fourth part of the Zodiac, containing three consecutive signs. A triplicity is a fourth part of the Zodiac, containing three signs, each of which are four signs apart. Thus, the first triplicity, starting with <¥> (symbol -for head and face, and exalted above all as containing eyes) will be the equilateral triangle, having its vertices at the signs T £1 t, or the Les- sons Visible, Eating and Hearth. In proceeding by quadrants, the four great Kingdoms, Earth, Fire, Water and Air (motion), were regarded separately, yet I found the first three were only modes of ray-ing, or motion, and that they all interpenetrate and balance from one to the other. Just so now, although fire zeal, courage, etc., are the first requisites A Tour Through the Zodiac. 207 in a good warrior, which he must have on all occasions; yet this Fiery Triplicity expresses the more active forms of fire, whereas it is, as it were, only latent in the other triplicities. Turning to the diagram of the seven- point-star, <¥, or visible, is the red ray, which, together with the yellow ray of audible, b, unite to form orange. There- fore the red ray is one side of my equilat- eral triangle; next ft, or eating, is the yellow ray in the formation of green, so yellow is another side of the triangle, while the third side is from $ y hearth, the blue ray in the formation of indigo. Accord- ingly, the Fiery Triplicity has for its three sides the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue. Thus the primary chord in color, or in sound, also expresses the pri- mary element of fire. And this is true of 208 Esoteric Lessons. all the other triplicities as well as the fiery. Thus: ( Audible. Assimilating. Ray. Earthy.. \ » ttr VJ Yellow. Blue. Red. ( Hunger. Door. Law. Watery . < 25 n£ X ( Yellow. Blue. Red. ( Tangible. Proportion. Images. Airy . . . . \ n ^ zz [ Yellow. Blue. Red. It is the red ray in zz which is used both in the formation of indigo and violet, its chemical property; whereas the red, or key, note C of the scale is the Heat-ray. This is the mystery of the octave. The key note C is the red of heat, but, refracted in its spiral course through the scale, it circles round and reaches its starting place one octave higher. On this higher plane, after having been A Tour Through the Zodiac. 209 blent with the yellow of trial and tempta- tion and the blue of knowledge, it ex- presses the mystic, magnetic, electric melody of the seventh, whether in color, sound or soul. In this formation of the triplicities through the primary chords is expressed a most profound mystery, and upon my ability to grasp this mystery depends my success as a warrior. In entering upon the fiery ordeal I have to learn three lessons, correspondencies, or correlations of the three lessons: Vis- ible, Eating and Hearth. The first implies the Warrior Seeing, or as a Sentinel, Watching. The second implies the Warrior Acting, or Sacrificing. The third lesson is the Warrior judging from the results of the sacrifices, or, to 210 Esoteric Lessons. use the mystic terms of the ancients, "dis- cerning the omens from inspecting the entrails of the victims offered at sacrifice! 1 So, now, as the warrior detailed to my first duty, I climb my watch-tower to watch (as the ancients said) for the " flights of birds;" i. e., I must see the eso- teric reality in the exoteric shadow phan- toms. My eyes must be trained to detect these "birds" from afar, either singly, as dots, or in companies of lines and curves. I must observe the direction of their flights and, from the law of motion, see first in my mind's eye the esoteric meaning of everything within the ken of my watch- tower, even while my physical eyes see only the powers of darkness drawn up against me. But before I can see with the eyes of soul, through the spirit-red- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 211 ray, I must to some extent have so con- formed my life to truth as to have actually and consciously realized the Real from the Unreal. I must see that Body, Pleas- ure, Pain, Disease and Death are all illu- sions; that finite personalities, with their loves, hates, greeds and jealousies, are all illusions. Still further, I must see that each of these illusions, singly, is reflected over and over again, in every direction, so that the army drawn up against me, appa- rently so vast, is simply a reduplication of a few primary illusions. I therefore give my attention to the primary illusions, for when they are dis- pelled the enemy is routed: 1 — The illusion of Body. 2 — The illusion of One's Self, refracted on the seven different planes. 3 — The illusions of Finite Self. 212 Esoteric Lessons. 4 — The illusion that the Soul, or True Self, could ever be projected outside of the One Infinite Mind into Body, or Phe- nomena. But when I can climb still higher in my tower, and can know there is, no such thing as illusion; that truth is all there is; that One Mind and Father has made all trehe is, and that illusion and self never could be projected into Nothing outside of the All, then the sentinel has completed the watch. Yet, before I can climb to this height' all the illusive phantom-self of personal- ity must be burned or sacrificed (Leo) upon the altar of Heart (/) ; i. e., I cannot rightly or truly see until after the other sides of my triplicity are filled in, for an equilateral triangle is not an equilateral triangle until it has three equal sides. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 213 Just as from simply seeing flames with the physical eye I do not comprehend how they will affect my hand until I throw it into them, so, now, I cannot see until after the sacrifice unless I have first seen. So, in order to balance these contradictories, I now proceed to the sacrifice. QUESTIONS. i — For what must the Sentinel Watch? 2 — How must he Watch? 3 — Why must he Watch? LESSON III. THE FIERY TRIPLICITY. SI, OR SACRIFICING. Fire is the great purifier. So action is that form of the Fiery Triplicity (yellow- ray side) which is the great purifier. 214 Esoteric Lessons. According to the former analysis, all action is sacrifice, passion and oblation, and it is through this trial by fire, and the sacrifice and suffering implied in it, that I gain my spiritual sight (insight) . And it is a delusion that my eyes can ever be opened to the nature of fire, except by experiencing it; for how can I ever know that illusion is illusion unless I experi- ence its nothingness? I may stand up before the enemy and repeat the words: " There is only one Mind; there is no illusion of finite person- ality," but, as far as vain repetition goes, I would better take some other creed, for herein is a great mystery. This awful law of contradictories works (when actu- ally evoked) in spite of my unbelief, and even when I, in my blindness, do not see the results. This is the true creed of the A Tour Through the Zodiac. 215 Knowledge of Good and Evil and of the Tree of Life; and to partake of the fruit of this tree, tempted by the serpent of the lower nature, or self-mask, is to surely die. If the lower self stumbles upon this true creed, or is entrusted with it unpurified by the trial of fire and suffering, the lie of personality is only accentuated. The mask thinks it has become as the Gods, and its fall is inevitable. It has taken exactly the opposite road for truth, and instead of realizing its oneness with the Divine Spirit it will fall to the very depths of the shadows of nothingness, even while mumbling the true creed. Yet this seeming and so-called fall is but the first form of action, without which there could be no reaction, and inaction is as fatal to insight as personality, accentu- ated to nothingness. 2i6 Esoteric Lessons. Since, in order to rise, there must be a seeming fall, so, in order to realize there is no such thing as illusion, I accept it as an hypothesis to get rid of it, just as it is necessary to demonstrate certain proposi- tions in geometry to be untrue by assum- ing them to be true, for thus only can their untruth become self-evident; and in order to realize the Infinite One I am forced to postulate the finite personalities. And yet I also know that to even momentarily accept illusion chains me to it (for the time being) ; for I am where I locate myself, as One with the All, or as seemingly pro- jected outside the All, where, like a soap- bubble, I shall speedily realize the lie of self-mask; the harder I blow this bubble the quicker it bursts into nothingness. Like a child, I can keep on blowing per- sonality bubbles, only to see these finite A Tour Through the Zodiac. 217 Egos burst, one after another; or I can put away the childish things, resolving to be no longer dsceived by them, and blow them only to understand the law accord- ing to which they come and go. There- fore I accept finite personalities solely to demonstrate their utter impossibility, and when I know that time is also an illusion, I rise to the plane where even the Sun itself will stand silent upon Gibeon, and the Moon stay in the valley of Ajalon until I avenge myself upon all my enemies. Hereafter let me act, or refrain from acting, simply to know truth, and no longer conform to finite and worldly codes of morality or mere social traditions and usages. Just as in a former lesson I accepted the visible Universe in its unity and in its infinity as a grand universal language, its 2i8 Esoteric Lessons. sentences, letters and punctuation marks all symbols for thought and traced with the finger of God, so now I accept all ter- restrial action as purely symbolic action, possessing no moral quality in itself, but simply descriptive of spiritual acts, which I cannot possibly comprehend until I have faithfully performed all the symbolic acts To refrain from these symbolic acts before I grasp the real acts is to deliberately bar and bolt the only door by which I can enter the temple, expecting thus to gain admittance. To refrain from flesh eating, from wine drinking and from social and family life, simply for the sake of absti- nence, is to play the part of a stupid tyrant and not of the King. On the other hand, to debauch myself in all these acts, simply because they satisfy my senses, is to be- come the slave of suffering and death. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 2ig The mob must not rule, yet the tyrant who devastates his kingdom and puts all the inhabitants to death by fire, torture, or slow starvation, ends by having no king- dom to rule. If I destroy the mob be- cause I fear it, I do not overcome fear by the process nor obtain wisdom. I therefore sacrifice to idols, or shadowy images, simply to eliminate melody out of discord, to realize the " Octave of Purifi- cation," whereby the fire, which on the lower plane is destructive to life, is raised from the key-note C to the chemical, life- giving C of the scale. From out this fiery furnace of trial this right action, knowledge and wisdom are born. The Christ-Truth must be born of this Tribe of the Lion (si). It can only come from this Royal Action, and is itself the highest and supreme sacrifice, whereby 220 Esoteric Lessons. the Son of Man becomes the Son of God. But I can never comprehend this last sacrifice until I have learned the meaning of all the other sacrifices, and how to make them. I must learn the meaning of eating, whereby the plant life and animal life are sacrificed, before I can compre- hend the awful mystery of the sacrifice of human life, called death, even up to that sublime death on the Cross. But sacrificing is not destroying, and to comprehend the meaning of eating, or sacrificing, or action, is to realize the ab- solute unthinkability of the illusion called death. Therefore, let me never take a morsel of food into my mouth without reflecting that I am performing the cere- monials of sacrifice within the temple of my body, just as the rites of public temple worship were formerly observed. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 221 And let me study the meanings of all the correspondencies of these temple rites. And, also, let me engage in all the acts of finite life; of trade, politics and social life, etc., until I learn the reality which makes the shadow, and thus burn every idol upon the altar of truth. QUESTIONS. i — What are the Victims to be sacri- ficed? 2 — How must the Sacrifices be con- ducted? 3 — Why must there be Burnt Offerings? LESSON IV. THE FIERY TRIPLICITY. V SI t $, OR JUDGING. As the victims have been slaughtered 222 Esoteric Lessons. and consumed by the flames, the warrior must carefully collect together the ashes, or remnants, into the Sacred Urn of Pure- Heart, and then, placing them before the bar of conscience, await the responses. These responses are judgments, pro- ceeding from the Divinity within. If the offerings have been good and acceptable, and the rites properly observed, then the replies will surely be auspicious. But if the two former duties have not been prop- erly performed, then am I guilty of the most awful sacrilege in approaching the Divinity profanely. According to my own actions am I judged; my own conscience is the arbiter. This judge must give the decisions accord- ing to the manner in which the sentinel and the sacrificial priest have performed their tasks, for the judgment follows as A Tour Through the Zodiac. 223 inevitably as when, having placed two sides of an equilateral triangle together at the proper angle, the third side is the re- sponse, depending upon the other two. Again, this response is the third note in the primary chord. If I have struck the first two, there is only one other which possibly can complete the chord. Again, this response is the conclusion, or third term, in the perfect syllogism. The sentinel upon the watch-tower, hav- ing properly performed his duty, states the major premise; the sacrifice, with its implied suffering, gives out the minor note or premise; the Oracle speaks out the con- clusion. Although the conclusion of a syllogism is its third term, yet it expresses the mystery of the trinity, for it is a trin- ity, and at the same time an organic unity. It combines the major and minor prem- 224 Esoteric Lessons. ises into a higher unity, which differs from either of them, just as the molecule of water combines two dissimilar elements into a unity differing from its component parts, and also as H and O combine with a lightning flash of soul which accompa- nies the combining together of the two premises of a syllogism into their higher unity, and is an intuitive spark from the altar of Divinity. This altar is my Hearth (/) of Pure- Heart. Unless this Urn is sufficiently purified by properly accepting (not reject- ing) the experiences of life, it cannot receive the ashes of the sacrifice and impart to them the Divine Spark which makes them over into a living, organic unity, on a higher plane than they were before, nor raise in power and might the ashes of actions sown in weakness and A Tour Through the Zodiac. 22$ watered with tears of suffering. This expresses the mystery of the re-birth, whereby the physical body is raised to the plane of spiritual body while yet in the possession of the physical. This is that which constitutes the spir- itual plane upon which one is born. There is a Divine correspondence, and the latent possibilities of the soul have the corresponding possibilities in the brain, which can be brought forth to usefulness while in the physical body. Bringing about the harmony between the two con- stitutes re-birth. There is only one way of being re-born, just as there is only one way to be born into the physical, and this one way is revealed through the fiery syllogism (tri- plicity), the major premise of which is Truth Realized from the Sentry's Watch- 226 Esoteric Lessons. tower, the minor premise of which is Love Actualized by the Sacrifice of Burnt Offerings, the conclusion of which is Life Immortalized, or lifted from the plane of Time to Eternity. This conclusion is the Immaculate Conception of the re-birth, which is conscious son-ship with the Father. Truth realized frees from every illusion of sense and casts out every error and all diseases. Truth realized is liberty, for from or by the power born of Knowledge you can be free. Love actualized, or practiced, recog- nizes the Divine origin of every soul, and that every form of life and condition is necessary to the unfoldment of the soul in its evolutionary steps of progress, and, comprehending the law of contradictories, knows only universal charity and com- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 227 munion of saints, those who have passed through the fires of purification and learned the lessons therein taught, with- out prejudice, sentiment or pain. Love actualized is Fraternity. Then are we able to look upon all life as one Divine Whole, recognizing all as one fraternity, each filling the necessary notes in the Anthem of Creative Life. Life eternalized, making every moment eternity, lifts the soul to a plane above illusion. Realizing the realities of life leaves no room for illusions where, grasp- ing the equality of ratios, it knows only Oneness. But this true equality with God distinguishes between thoughts and think- ers. The recognition of God's variety of life, form, color, etc., are each equally necessary to the fulfillment of the Divine plan. This is the only law of equality. Life, thus eternalized, is equality. 228 Esoteric Lessons. Liberty, Fraternity and Equality must ever be the war-cry of the true warrior. But if the offerings, or truths, seen from the watch-tower through the first side of the Fiery Triangle are not acceptable, nor the sacrifices of our past ideas and illu- sions properly observed or parted with, then, instead of liberty, comes renewed bondage to error and disease; instead of fraternity, failures, strife and murder; instead of equality with Divinity, there is a descent to the lower sphere and union with demons and fiends. On the other hand, the Ascetic who mutilates, denies, the truths realized in the major premise from the sentry's watch- tower, and destroys the offerings, the knowledge thus revealed, and who refuses the experiences of the sacrifices can never hear the responses nor know the mystery A Tour Through the Zodiac. 229 of re-birth. In either case, remorse and repentance, in themselves, are perfectly stupid, and only delay realization. The suffering implied in remorse is not a true and acceptable sacrifice, for the major premise is still wrong, for truth never brings remorse. Remorse implies a misconception of the nature of reality. If I have struck the wrong note in my chord, and experienced inharmony, I only make the more haste to strike the right note. I waste no time in groaning over the dismal sound. QUESTIONS, i — Upon what are judgments based? 2 — How are Responses either Concep- tions or Sacrifices? 3 — Why are Remorse and Asceticism equally unavailing? LESSON V. THE EARTHY TRIPLICITY. tf, OR LISTENING. The signs of the Earthy Triplicity ex- press the crisis, or fixed point, wherein the shadows seem to come to a crust and harden. They are illusions, reaching their ultimate. And this Earthy Triplicity fol- lows the fiery, just as ashes follow fire, or, as geology tells us. our Earth has result- ed from a ball of fire, and all the solids now visible from molten liquids. To the warrior, this Earthy Triplicity (triangle) is the battlefield, a field of three equal sides. Its first side he takes possession of and holds as soon as he comprehends the sounds proceeding from it. He must lis- ten for its strains of martial music, its dis- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 231 tant rumbling of artillery and the tramp, tramp of marching troops, its shouts of victory and courage, its groans of anguish, defeat and retreat. Having learned to watch, he must now learn to listen. The ear must be trained as well as the eye. In order to have both sides of the contradictories we must know the results of things seen, hence must hear the effects through vibration, or motion. Thus listening is essential. But Taurus (&) is the sign of the neck and throat as well as the ear, and this is so because of the subtle connection be- tween the ear, neck and throat. In a former analysis I saw the relation of ear to voice (of which the throat is but the instrument) , and now, as I listen to the sounds from the battlefield, I discern the relation of ear to neck. 232 Esoteric Lessons. At the first sound of martial music the steed arches his neck, and none the less, as its strains inspire the warrior, does his neck respond to the sounds, drawing up the head and stiffening the entire verte- bral column. He pants for prowess, re- nown, praise, promotion and unending fame and honors. But the true warrior, who from the sentry's watch-tower dis- cerned the shadows to be delusions, now listens for the bugle-call, the clear note which, cleaving the awful din and con- fusion of the battlefield, gives out the key-note according to which the discord- ant sounds are evolved into a majestic symphony. As long as the warrior fights for fame of self and to hear all men speak well of him, instead of striking the key- note he only strikes its exact contradic- tory. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 233 Therefore, if I am to be a true warrior I must renounce praise and learn true humility 7 . Not only must I renounce praise, but must even rejoice when all men speak evil of me. If I am cast down when I am reviled and persecuted, then I have not yet learned humility. To be cut to the quick by censure is as far from hu- mility as to be stiff-necked with praise; for so long as blame crushes me, just so long will praise elate me. Therefore, in order to renounce praise I must also re- nounce blame. The point of equilibrium between, or indifference to, either praise or blame is the only point I can strike which will give out the true vibration which enables me to detect the key-note. This is a hard lesson, and one I can never learn until mine eyes have seen the 234 Esoteric Lessons. unreality of the shadows, until I have sac- rificed to the Divinity within and obtained its responses; or, in other words, if I have not fully and comprehensively en- compassed the first syllogism, or triplicity, I cannot intelligently and courageously step upon the next rung of the ladder in my watch-tower. But if I have realized the war-cry of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality, then, in proportion as I realize humility, renouncing alike praise and blame, in just that proportion I shall now be able to see that my war-cry is also my key-note. I now have my key, which is two-sided, one from the first syllogism and the other from the second, Watching and Listening. This is a marvelous key, which unlocks both ways. Turned one way it reveals color symphonies; the other gives out sound harmonies, and as I become A Tour Through the Zodiac. 235 skillful in turning this key the visible will be the notes of a musical composition, which my soul at once reads into sound while the audible vibrations round out into forms and colors. But the visible and the audible united form the Orange Ray of my Seven-Point-Star, and the spiritual quality corresponding to orange is the understanding, and when I am armed with this ray-ment of true understanding, then the bow of prismatic colors and the octave of chromatic sounds will interpret to my soul that larger octave of the heavens called the Zodiac, or Wheel of Life. Upon the steps and half-steps of this Zo- diacal octave the Sun, Moon and planets go on, giving out now strong major chords, now plaintive minor vibrations, both of which the rightly attuned soul translates into higher symphonies of the purposes 236 Esoteric Lessons. and laws of the Infinite Mind, grand ora- torios of " Creation" and " Messiah." When this spirit of understanding is mine, then these vibrations, struck by the swiftly revolving orbs on the Zodiacal octave, will as surely reach my external ear as they now do my external eye, and my soul will as surely recognize a primary chord from the larger octave as now from the smaller, for the intervals of one cor- respond exactly to the intervals of the other. All these intervals are expressed by numbers, but as long as numbers represent only dollars and cents, or the shadows exchangeable for money, the results or returns only looked for on the material plane, just so long will the " music of the spheres" remain an unmeaning myth to my soul. We must ever remember that the effects A Tour Through the Zodiac. 237 must correspond to the plane of the cause. Esoteric wisdom cannot be utilized in exoteric gains (the law of contradictory opposites would soon take the place of affinity opposites) and rise in the scale of progress. Harmony is the law of prog- ressino. The contest of the ages is upon us. QUESTIONS. 1 — What is the first lesson from the Battlefield? 2 — How must I learn Humility? 3 — Why will Humility reveal the Octave of Life? LESSON VI. THE EARTHY TRIPLICITY. TT£, OR RECONNOITERING. (PATIENCE — WAIT.) The green ray is formed by the union of yellow and blue, so the spiritual quality corresponding to green is the blending of the yellow flame, from off the altar of trial and sacrifice, together with the blue of knowledge. The spiritual green result- ing from this blending is that peculiar, burning, zealous knowledge which makes the warrior powerful and strong, or, in other words, "mighty in battle." But the warrior can never be mighty in battle in the midst of wholly unknown A Tour Through the Zodiac. 239 country. He must know the mountain passes, the location of bogs and quick- sands, rivers and springs. He must un- derstand all the physical and natural ad- vantages and disadvantages of the enemy's position and strongholds, or fortifications. And all this can be accomplished only by the union of skill (knowledge, blue) with daring (sacrifice, yellow) . The union of these two results in green of power, a kind of knowing by which the whole vast field of warfare stands out, illuminated, to the mind's eye of the warrior. Now the work of mixing together skill and daring, by means of which the country becomes known, is the work of recon- noitering. Reconnoitering is therefore the subject of this lesson and the second side of my triangle. In planning for the work in 240 Esoteric Lessons. hand I must first draw upon the knowl- edge already obtained of this perilous region of shadows and illusions. Virgo is the symbol for the process of assimilation, which takes place in the intestines, or bowels, and if this process be incomplete or inharmonious, loss of strength is the immediate result. I be- come weak-kneed, unable to walk or even stand. Just so our Mother Earth (the Green Planet) has stored away for the use of her children, down in the caverns and spacious recesses of her bowels, a vast and complete laboratory, with all materials and chemical appliances at hand where daring reconnoiterers become the daring alchemists. Knowledge has been gained, and power obtained through assim- ilation to put that knowledge into practical use. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 241 But where are those who do not assimi- late the food provided by Mother Nature, who are indifferent to conditions, and fail to see and hear, who lack that burning zeal to reconnoiter so that they may make themselves acquainted with the various aspects of the country, hence fall into the refuse bogs and morasses and lose what strength they do have, become unable to walk, or even stand, and are finally cast out into the outer darkness of nothing- ness? Our Mother Earth is a just planet, and no goodie-goodie, stuffing obedient and disobedient alike with confectionery. Each attracts to himself the just com- pensation for the energy put forth, whether that be much or little, good or evil. If I am deceived by the will-o'-the- wisps, or follow wandering doctrines, not 242 Esoteric Lessons. only must I ask to be forgiven for my trespasses, but I am also sure to suffer some punishment or reprimand for my mistakes. Yet, if I am wise, I accept them thankfully and cheerfully, without repining, for thus are accomplished two things: First, the suffering is the healing remedy, which repairs the mischief; sec- ond, just as the mother takes more closely to her heart than ever before the truly pen- itent child, just so Mother Earth reveals her most precious secrets to her right- minded offspring, those who are patient under suffering and affliction and learn the lessons of remorse, suffering and humility, knowing that Nature is only asking, or demanding, a just retribution for violation of her laws. , Ignorance excuses not. Nothing but knowledge can enable one to escape the bogs and morasses of igno- rance. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 243 And thus right here, I see, comes the application of my lesson on the discipline of the ear. Reconnoitering puts to the test listening, or true humility. If the first and the second sides of this Earthy triangle are rightly constructed, then the second note of the chord will harmonize with the first, and I know that so far my work is well done. But if I find discord, then it is an absolute certainty that the third side of my triangle will not fit, and if I undertake to advance upon the enemy's territory, swift and sure defeat is before me. Therefore in all humility I set diligently to work to con- struct a map of the country I am about to invade, and procure a compass, so that I may not lose my way amidst the false doc- trines which encompass me on every hand, at every turn, and the dense forests of 244 Esoteric Lessons. "isms," which bewilder and perplex. This compass is but a simple Cross, which always points to the Pole-Star of Truth, arid indicates the four cardinal points of the Universe, and the fourfold division of both Macrocosm and Micro- cosm. Aries, the Fiery, rules the Eastern ter- minus of this Rosy-Cross; Libra, the Airy, the Western; Capricorn, the Earthy (the most fixed and material), the Southern, while Cancer, the Watery, pure desire, forever aspires to the North of Truth and Freedom. Thus the four points of the compass also express the four elements. Each ele- ment also expresses the fourfold constitu- tion of man: Earth, Body; Fire, Finite Mind, or Fiery Body; Water, Soul; Air Spirit. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 245 There is nothing so penetrating as air, and no element so essential to life. In every form of life air is the potent, ani- mating principle, ,and without the air (spirit) the other four elements would be •useless. The spirit is one and indivisible, but the other three divisions of man are each dual, and thus results the sevenfold divi- sion of the Microcosm, or, going back to the four elements, I can regard each as triune, and from this division map out the Zodiac, this mazy wheel of life, and thus completing the reconnoiter of my great field of battle I boldly advance, clinging to my simple Solar Cross. QUESTIONS. 1 — What is the nature and purpose of the second lesson in the Earthy Triplicity? 246 Esoteric Lessons. 2 — How must the warrior construct his Map and Compass? 3 — Why must the work of Reconnoiter- ing be done? LESSON VII. THE EARTHY TRIPLICITY. VJ, OR ADVANCING. When the Sun enters the sign of V?, where lived the framers of the Zodiac, then the Goats advanced up the mountain sides, for the time of grazing was at hand. The fruits of labor were beginning to spring up and be realized by the laborer. So now advances the warrior into the region of winter, toward the point where shadows are congealed or hardened into the sub- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 247 stances called matter and solids; where the indigo ray passes almost to black — the ex- act antipodes of soul and summer, the white light. Here the black of negation mixes with blue to form the indigo of righteousness. But with his faithful compass (Cross) he advances, undismayed. His knees do not knock together through the weakness of fear; fear belongs to immature natures. The patient waiting acquired as a recon- noiterer has admitted him into the labora- tory of Mother Earth, and he has there armed himself with the force which solves solids and transmutes matter into its cor- relatives of spirit — black to white, death to life. The Rod and the Knee express the two extremes of Power and Submission. The monarch who sways the rod enforces the homage of the bended knee from his sub- 248 Esoteric Lessons. jects. Never was there such a despot as fear, and the victim swayed by fear is the most craven and knock-kneed object in existence. The one who has not learned to wait is still the slave of fear, and is held bound in the bowels of Earth, and has yet to break the bars of iron and steel which hold him a prisoner of pomp, splen- dor, honor and dignity, and this also implies its exact opposite. Yet, the one whom the world delights to honor is not the one who advances, a conqueror, into the realm of realities. Ah, no! He is the one most overcome by fear and that grim, monster-shadow called Death. But the true warrior, "compass" in hand, even tho.ugh despised and rejected by men advances undismayed, knowing before- hand the exact nature of that which he is to explore. He knows the grim monster- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 249 shadow, death, to be but Nature's initia- tion into the great mysteries of existence, whose realms he, like Virgil and Dante and others before him, have invaded while yet embodied. He will find it possible to go, and, return- ing, give a clever and entertaining account of adventures, hairbreadth escapes, etc., to a gaping crowd. He may bring back a lot of curios, to dispose of for money to the highest bidder, for curiosity mongers to "Oh!" and "Ah!" over. Or he may transform his knowledge into a comfortable "Sale of Indulgences," pro- claim: " There is no such thing as Death; he is only a scarecrow; all is life; there is no such thing as Evil, all is good. Therefore gormandize, cheat and steal to your heart's content. You are one with God, and your soul can never be lost!" But he 250 Esoteric Lessons. strikes a note which grates on the purely trained ear, and he communicates a con- clusion which does not accord with, nor follow, the premises. With the major premise of Taurus (humility) and the minor premise of Virgo (patience) , sooner or later will he trip in the meshes of his false syllogism and be brought in abject terror before the awful Voice of the Mighty One, whose Ineffable Name he, himself, has attempted to assume, instead of, in true humility, saying " Hallowed be Thy Name," and, as a penitent reconnoit- erer, he must add, " Forgive us our tres- passes," and upon his knees confess, "For Thine is the Kingdom." But not thus with the warrior who has the first two premises correctly formed. His conclusion is incontrovertible. At the very outset of his advance he learns his A Tour Through the Zodiac. 251 immortality, his heritage; also discerns the conditions upon which they are won. He realizes the dignity, grandeur and meaning of life, and knows that he is saved, crowned and Deified in spite of himself; whether he will or no. Neither for the simple wishing on his part, but with the knowledge obtained in Dame Nature's laboratory he has but to hold up the Mystic Cross, which combines in its significance polar opposites and contra- dictory opposites, and the most fixed becomes volatile. Baser metals are changed to gold, and gold transmuted to Sunlight, the Water of Soul to the Wine of Spirit, the mask to reality, shadows to substance, error to truth, hate to love, death to life. He also knows that the direct ray is Truth Absolute, while the oblique ray is 252 Esoteric Lessons. Truth Relative, and will be refracted and reflected indefinitely from one plane to another and soon bewilder him in a laby- rinth of shadowy reflects unless he sternly adheres to his knowledge and boldly clings to his Cross. And, while he knows that it is his duty to realize and actualize all that he possibly can of truth absolute, he also knows it is likewise his duty to recognize the differ- ent planes of expression, and remember that truths on different planes are relative to each other, but that each is absolute on its own plane, and that, in order to ad- vance from one plane to another, or higher, like water he cannot rise above his level until he find the point of equilibrium of that plane upon which he is, by means of which, like water vaporized, he rises to the plane above him. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 253 But, until he does actually rise to the plane above him, he is ruled by the laws of that plane, and he is its subject until he, by rising to the plane above, becomes ruler of the plane below. Poison, calumny and malice are abso- lute monarchs on their own special plane, but to the warrior, armed with the force which solves and transmutes, they become relative, and finally obedient. Neither do I become ruler by simply repeating, parrot-like, " There is no such thing as malaria; malaria does not rule me, I rule malaria," etc., but I must have within me the force which, having divined the meanings of things, has made them a part of me, having neutralized (nothing- ized) it by counterbalancing it with its polar opposite. Thus, from yy of the Earthy Triplicity, 254 Esoteric Lessons. do I arrive at true Progress, Advancing. The Fiery trip showed the perfect syllo- gism — the righteous judgment of Sagitta- rius, deducted from the major premise of Aries and the minor premise of Leo. The Earthy syllogism, analogous to the Fiery, is symbolized in terms of a chemi- cal compound, in which the sharp and stinging acids of censure and uncharita- bleness, leading to humility (Taurus) , fuse and blend with the alkalies of patience (Virgo) under afflictions, and from this fusing and blending arising to a higher plane, or Capricorn. From this Earthy syllogism I have learned from Taurus: "Hark!" from Virgo: "Wait!" from Capricorn: "Be Strong!" Listening in true Humility for Thy hal- lowed name, I have found that even sorrow A Tour Through the Zodiac. 255 and failure, if accepted in patience, al- though they may seem like the reconnoit- erer's path, too often go back instead of forward, are, after all, accomplished prog- ress, and are but seeming bonds, from which my soul, "like a hind let loose/' all the more swiftly advances up the moun- tain steeps when the time for grazing arrives. Then he has reached that point where he can utilize the power and knowl- edge gained while passing through the first syllogism, Fire, and the second, Earth. J LESSON VIII. THE AIRY TRIPLICITY. 11 A r II, OR CARRYING ARMS. The signs of the Airy Triplicity have especial reference to motion. 256 Esoteric Lessons. II, more especially, or directly, is con- cerned with projecting, hurling, etc.; =^= with balancing, maintaining equilibrium between opposites; zz with floating and undulating, as represented by the action of air upon the surface of the water, pro- ducing waves. II implies, first, a grasping of the hands, or combining forces (Gemini), the effects of knowledge gained so far on his jour- ney; second, an impulsive force from the will, directed to the muscles of the shoul- ders and arms, by means of which the object is hurled through the air. There- fore I can be no warrior and hurl my lance until I understand the meaning of these twins and how to train and use them effectually. First, I discern that these twins are not two of the same kind, but they are oppo- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 257 sites, or counterparts, and fit together like two hemispheres of one sphere. The one is right, the other left; the one positive, the other negative. Ancient mythology allegorized one, the right half, the positive, as Castor, a star of the first magnitude, the Immortal, while the other, the left, the negative, was Pollux, the lesser star i n brilliancy, the Mortal ; and thus they expressed the fact that it is the positive, active force of the soul which, reaching out, attains immortality; i. e., there must be action before there could be reaction. But, again, as the action itself must have its reaction in order to complete its orbit, as the positive pole of the battery is nothing without its negative pole, just so the immortal Castor is repre- sented in the myth as one-half of the time foregoing his privilege among the Celes- 258 Esoteric Lessons. tials in order to pass the other half of the time with his brother, who was mor- tal, yet whom he so dearly loved; or, in other words, they were polar opposites, which mutually implied each other, and were utterly meaningless and unthinkable apart. (And one quite noticeable fact of twins is that, even while of the same sex physi- cally, in temperament and disposition one is more positive, the other more nega- tive. Usually this difference is very marked.) In regard to the hands, I observe that, while the right is positive to the left, yet the different parts of each hand are rela- tively positive and negative to each other, Thus the knuckles are positive in relation to the palm, the nails positive in relation to the balls of the fingers, etc. The A Tour Through the Zodiac. 259 elbows are aggressive, while the muscles of the inner arm are indrawing and ca- ressive. The hands are the great avenues of the sense of touch. The hands are the means by which we grasp at treasures, reach out for that which we wish to attain, manipu- late, formulate materials about us in order to provide for the necessities, comforts and luxuries of physical life. And from these two, following the law of correspondencies, I discern the esoteric meaning of the hands, and from thence the application of bearing arms. The right hand has been educated almost to the exclusion of the left (or female) in our present generation. Otherwise it would be self-evident to us that sensation is not completely obtained only through the right, and when we examine anything 260 Esoteric Lessons. critically we instinctively use both hands. Our right hand gives us more the external, intellectual, positive qualities of an object, the left the interior, intuitional, negative qualities; and thus the first great use of the hands is to teach polar opposites, the Twins. All the infinite variety of weapons or arms the warrior can ever have to deal with can be classed under these two words — Polar Opposites. Every force through- out the boundless universe has its pole, or Divine center, which embraces the positive and negative attributes in one, and in order to correspond to that pole all life is evolved in pairs — twins, male and female. Whenever they appear to be separated it is only in seeming, and because the ex- ternal eye is blinded to the shadow of illusions. Again, just as we have neglected the A Tour Through the Zodiac. 261 education of the left hand, just so have we lost, through this neglect, that inner con- sciousness of the esoteric meaning of the thousands of exoteric, or physical, uses with which we daily employ our hands. Our treasures are accumulated only for this world, regardless of the swift-coming subjective state, upon whose borders we may this very instant be drifting. This, then, is the lesson for the warrior. The arms of warfare are polar opposites. Bearing arms is learning their esoteric uses. Right here, for the warrior, must come his great rununciation. He must come to care for the external only for the sake of the interior. He must "renounce luxury and be chaste." But chastity is by no means celibacy nor asceticism. For the true soul love is in very truth the purest chastity. 262 Esoteric Lessons. The word chaste is here, however, used in its true and larger sense. Polar oppo- sites is only another word for sex; hence the word chaste applies to every word and thought. Let the warrior, then, cleanse his hands and remember that the blessings of the Lord are promised to one who " hath clean hands and a pure heart." The force which binds polar opposites together, the point of equilibrium where the two are one, is love, and from love is evolved life, while truth may be defined as knowledge, or understanding, of the relation of polar opposites. The warrior must first comprehend truth, and truth must be in him and he in the truth before he can possibly know anything whatever of life and of love. But he must ronounce the things of sense and seeming in order A Tour Through the Zodiac. 263 to say: u Oh, Truth! Thy Kingdom Come." But it directly follows the fact of the uneducated left hand, and the consequent non-comprehension of polar opposites, that mankind to-day can have no conception whatever of the Law of Unity, or the love by which the two polar opposites are one. And thus the world has utterly lost the esoteric meaning of the love which exists exoterically between man and woman. Marriage is only a name and a form, a legal, conventional and mechanical union, and the empty symbol no longer teaches the spiritual reality. With the Divine element of love lost to our sight, atheism and materialism at once follow. The days of true chivalry are the days of true relig- ious growth. Man cannot know God without know 264 Esoteric Lessons. ing love, for God is love, and if the exo- teric symbol of love does not lead to an insight to spiritual truth, to an actual knowledge of truth (which is also God), then that exoteric symbol is the grossest unchastity, and leads to perdition and damnation. But the warrior, having put aside, or renounced, all the showy and glittering weapons of sense and seeming, arming himself only with truth, as symbolized in his lance, with its two ends, and, balanc- ing this trusty lance in his hands, he dis- cerns the sublime truth of the Twins (n), and knows that somewhere in the vast universe there exists a missing half, from whom his soul, in reality, never has been and never can be separated. A Tour Through the* Zodiac, 265 LESSON IX. THE AIRY TRIPLICITY. n =2= - £V=, OR OBEYING ORDERS. The spirit of mortal, alas, is proud. Not realizing itself as nothing but a shad- owy reflect, it arrogates to itself, while yet a minor, its birthright of Divinity and heritage of immortality, as if it had al- ready attained its majority and come into possession of its estate. Obedience is a difficult attainment, per- haps the most difficult of all, and yet all the boasted free will of a mortal ends in his obedience, in spite of himself, for one grand command comprises all the lesser orders. The others are but copies, or reprints, of the original. 266 Esoteric Lessons. This One Supreme is that Divine love principle which binds polar opposites into one. And true is the command: " What God hath joined together let no man put asunder," for mortal cannot put it asun- der. He cannot accomplish the impossi- ble and unthinkable, and there is but one punishment for attempted disobedience. He does not alter the law, but, as far as he himself is concerned, he realizes the results in accordance with his disregard of the law, whether intentional or not. To fulfill this great law of love is peace, equilibrium, harmony and life; to ignore or defy it is strife, confusion, discord and death. And thus the mortal obeys the law in spite of himself, for death is not a change preparatory to another state or condition of life, in which the mortal, or reflect, is A Tour Through the Zodiac. 267 given another chance to obey the order which comprises all orders. THE EQUILIBRIUM OR EQUALITY OF RATIOS. Love. j\ Justice. In walking, which is propelling the body through the air, the process of locomotion is threefold, or triune; i. e., there are three great centers of locomotion. First, the arms and shoulders; second, the legs, especially the muscles of the calves, and the third is that portion of the body which is the point of equilibrium between the two, and this portion perfectly describes an old-fashioned balance, or pair of scales, ^-. It includes the reins, or kidneys, and extends to the loins, or hips. Now, in walking, as the weight of the body is thrown on one leg the opposite hip, like 268 Esoteric Lessons. one end of the beam of the scales, comes up and the other hip goes down, then vice versa, and so on. This is so in true, natural walking; but alas! the fine, true, harmonious, stately gait is very rare in this degenerate age. Yet if this perfect equipoise of the body were maintained at every step, walking could be continued indefinitely without fatigue. But to one who understands the esoteric meaning of symbols there can be no more significant and saddening sight than to watch for a moment the hurrying, sway- ing, shuffling throng of a crowded street. Truly is the world blind to the knowl- edge of soul poise, and disobedient to the law which binds polar opposites into a unity. On the reflected and phenomenal plane this law has special reference to the forms A Tour Through the Zodiac. 269 of union called marriage and partnership. The same law which governs marriage governs partnership, no matter whether the parties are composed of nations or only two individuals, and looking out into the world to-day, with its teeming mill- ions, a very serious state of affairs is presented to the eyes of the warrior. Inharmony, discord, strife everywhere. No marriage, all lust; no partnership, all monopoly. And nowhere is this more apparent than among those who profess to have found Truth — to know the real from the unreal. However, as the warrior rises to a higher plane, and regards the present condition of humanity in a larger sense, he only sees them with pitying and tender eyes, as infants learning to walk, tottering, and in constant danger of losing their balance; 270 Esoteric Lessons. swayed first by one strong passion and then another, and then he knows just how far it is possible for one soul to help another — only in so far as a child can be helped to walk. But the child must walk for itself ; no one can walk for it. I can, by my understanding of truth, influence another person to do a virtuous deed. This deed would be the result of an action on my part; so, unless there is also a reaction on the part of the person per- forming the deed, there has been no equi- librium established whereby any inner purity has been evolved on his part, and he has not, consciously, taken a single step for himself toward truth. I have only lifted him up and carried him, and perhaps delayed him in the process of walking. He will look for some one else to come along and carry him instead of A Tour Through the Zodiac. 271 walking for himself. The soul cannot grow vicariously, anymore than the child can so walk. Now this belief in the possibility of a vicarious union of polar opposites, or At- one-ment, is the great delusion of the age. Truly there is but one way under the Sun whereby men can be saved. It is by obe- dience to the law of equilibrium. Not a stupid, passive obedience, for, like every- thing else under the Sun, obedience is dual — active and passive, positive and neg- ative. Therefore, while I accept the fact that every soul must walk for itself, yet at the same time I remember that it must have its seeming props and helps, while learning to walk, until it attains its major- ity. So I must help all about me. Thus, for the time being, I seem to hinder, but only in order to help. This is that awful 2J2 Esoteric Lessons. law of contradictories, so bewildering to the child soul, wherein we seemingly dis- obey in order to obey. Herein consists the duality of obedience. In order to realize absolute good I must, for the time being, accept relative, or seeming, evil; but it is only in accordance with the higher law, which evolves the perfect harmony out of seeming discord, whereby I gain my spiritual insight and read aright the esoteric meaning from the exoteric sym- bol. If I accept seeming evil for any other purpose, I am at once bound in chains of sense and seeming and sink deeper and deeper in the shadows, until that which should be a symbol for the very highest, following the law of contradicto- ries, becomes the very lowest and foulest, as is now so generally the case with sym- bolic marriages. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 273 In the particular phase of soul unfold- ment through which humanity is at present passing, the last and highest symbol for mortal to comprehend is marriage — the union of man and woman. The very fact that there is a symbol proves there is a reality. The fact of a shadow proves there must be a substance. Just so the exoteric form we know as marriage proves, of necessity, a true soul marriage, and further, for the warrior this is a most sig- nificant fact and means another lesson, which cannot be omitted. The reason this At-one-ment is seldom or never real- ized is, as we have just seen, humanity has not yet developed to the point of soul equilibrium. It cannot yet walk; there- fore this soul union can only take place in the next phase or condition of develop- ment. Man can no more ltaHie scul 274 Esoteric Lessons. marriage than our domestic animals could live our present family life. But right here, at this point, the warrior who has mastered the former lessons, stands forth in the strength of his God- given heritage, scorning the shadow sym- bols, determined to know only the real; he foregoes all the sensuous and seeming and becomes the true celibate. He sees that one of the factors in the attainment of his celestial heritage is the union with his polar opposite. The immortality of his soul is an utter unthinkability without this At-one-ment. He can never coftie into possession of his Kingdom until he places a Queen upon the Throne by his side. He cannot be knighted until he has found and won his lady. Thus is he jus- tified in putting aside earthly ties, only in order to realize the celestial union whic A Tour Through the Zodiac, 275 follows obedience to the love which binds together polar opposites. lesson x. THE AIRY TRIPLICITY. II ^1 zz ZZ, OR PROVIDING RATIONS. The three duties of Bearing Arms, Obeying Orders and Providing Rations, comprised under the Airy Triplicity, relate more to the special training and individ- ual discipline of the w T arrior, yet none the less necessary and important to his suc- cess, for the properly drilled and thor- oughly disciplined warrior, having com- pleted the three sides of the Airy Triplicity, stands forth as the wonder-working magi- cian, able to transform light into the bread of Heaven, or the power to put into use the knowledge gained. 276 Esoteric Lessons. First, if he knows how to bear arms, i. e., to properly formulate with his esoteric hands; second, if he has thoroughly vital- ized his purposes from a strict obedience to the laws of polar opposites and equilib- rium; third, then he has only to strike the third note of the chord to realize his undertakings completed and actualized, and himself nourished and sustained as are the angels of light themselves. Properly formulated and vitalized, his thoughts cannot return unto him void. Herein is the awful, the divinely and un- speakably awful force of this law of equi- librium or balance. They cannot return void, and if they have been revengeful, malicious or covetous, and have worked out results of sorrow and suffering to oth- ers, then, as he has measured so will it be measured out to him. Sooner or later A Tour Through the Zodiac. 2JJ will they complete their orbit and find him out. Polar opposites, vitalized, are the same things as centrifugal and centripetal forces set in motion. They will describe a circle. Mortal cannot annul Divine law. The warrior has now reached a point where he must become a breadmaker. First, the loaves must be kneaded and formulated with the hands (n) ; second, the loaves must be vitalized, fomented by an understanding of (^) the equipoise of the two opposite forms of force, in order that, third, he may realize himself nour- ished and sustained and finally thus self- sustaining {zz) . His bread must.be either life-giving or life-destroying, for, once formulated and fomented (vitalized), his loaves cannot return to him void. 278 Esoteric Lessons. It is perfectly possible for him to formu- late expressions or images for what is absolutely impossible and unthinkable. It is also possible for him to seemingly vitalize his phantoms, but the awful results of this kind of breadmaking are sure to follow. His phantoms become vampires, which feed upon him, and even upon all who ignorantly come within his mental atmosphere. Yet this possibility must not deter the warrior, for he must be a bread- maker. He must put into practical use that which he has made himself acquainted with; he must let his cup overflow, so as to benefit those who walk with him. Inac- tion is as fatal as to create vampires for unthinkables and impossibilities. There- fore, let the work rely upon the purity of his motive, which is soul unfoldment and the attainment of his celestial heritage A Tour Through the Zodiac. 279 knowing that, sooner or later, the law will be revealed to him from within, how those loaves which turn out failures and abor- tions can be neutralized and nothingized. If he is free from covetousness, vain- glory and sensuousness, then let him work only to know truth and realize justice, and he will find himself self-sustaining and able to command in emergencies, and finally find within himself an image of that creative force which, in its turn, images the Divine creative will, or center of the universe. This law of the creative, or bread-mak- ing* syllogism is universal in its applica- tion, from the most seeming and external life up to the highest symbolic form of our present phase of Earth life, or child cre- ating, in which the human approaches the nearest to the Divine parent. To a certain extent, the warrior must 280 Esoteric Lessons. have a varied and large experience throughout all the worlds of form-making. He must work unceasingly, sa does the Great Creator. Herein is the import of the command to be "fruitful, increase and multiply;" not that man and woman are to devote their whole time, thought and energies to populating the globe, as the selfish sensualist proclaims from the house- top in order to procure a license for his own secret sins, but through that equilib- rium gained by the harmonious blending and fusing of polar opposites, or twin souls. His thoughts, truths, or bread, will be his children, who will guide and sustain him as well as those who partake of such royal dainties, born from the union of formulation and vitalization. Thus the bread-winner becomes the bread-distribu- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 281 tor, and the loaves of understanding will not be void. The consciousness of his dual self evolved through his journey on the first side of the Airy Triangle (n) , and where he learns to formulate, and on the second side (■/>-) , where the creative principles are balanced — then, and not until then, does he become capable of breadmaking, or creating self-sustenance; and when he is able and strong enough to walk alone he must support others, for we cannot receive unless we also give. Thencefor- ward the warrior can enjoy the promise of his Creator: "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath," and cast forth upon the univer- surrents the life-sustaining rations of 282 Esoteric Lessons. his own winning, not in floods or great downpours, but as the gentle, soothing, rippling waves of zz. In bearing arms the warrior is subject to the higher commands of his being, and is, in action, manipulated by the arms — not the arm, but the arms, implying the utter uselessness of one alone. The brave, positive Castor must be balanced by his mate, Pollux; thus the training and culture necessary for bearing arms cor- rectly, as a skilled warrior, every move- ment known, and at what moment to so execute the laws of his will that they will not conflict with Nature's laws and bring failure and sorrow for his ignorant disobedience. Herein self is forgotten, self is lost in the recognition of the two as one, equal- ized, blended as one. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 283 This awful mystery of self, this life- destroying monster, when alone, stalking about as the imperious I. Selfishness of the past must be lost, for now he becomes the man; that selfishness that ruled and regulated the life of the lower forms through which the soul was gaining expe- rience before the plane of reason and intuition had been reached, and then only can perfect obedience and equilibrium be attained. Bearing arms is wearisome, obeying or- ders difficult, and demands an indefatiga- ble exercise in Watching, Listening and patient advancement that the balance is not tilted by misjudgements. Then the warrior can traverse his king- dom and scan the circumference of his ground in so far as he has reached in his watch-tower. More climbing is to be 284 Esoteric Lessons. done, hence sustenance is required; there- fore he must utilize his balanced forces and provide his own self-sustaining ra- tions. Another's winnings or knowledge would not sustain and give him the free- dom in exploring his universe in search of the object of his journey — Truth. What constitute the Rations? The attributes evolved on each side of the four equilateral triangles of Fire, Air, Earth and Water. Providing Rations is externalizing the twelve manners of fruits, each division of his own kingdom providing the necessary material. The truths that spring from every side of the triangles in the fourfold elements are food and sustenance to his soul. His journey is not yet complete. He is now in the realm of Imagery. Knowledge A Tour Through the Zodiac. 285 and experience are necessary in this cre- ative realm. He must bear arms with caution. The Lance of Light and Truth must be borne aloft constantly, that impossible imageries may not be formulated and spring into active expression to impede his progress. His desires and loyal aspirations make him charitable to all life. Yet the true warrior must not hesitate at sacrifices. He must become master of his own king- dom, hence must make the lives born from his own thoughts subject and useful to his Divine will. The higher he ascends into the tower the brighter becomes his Ray of Light, the expanse of country broader, and new things appear to his vision, new conditions present themselves. A new stimulus to action is received. Responsibility is in- 286 Esoteric Lessons. creased and more knowledge is required, and ever on and on. Life is motion, as the Airy Triplicity symbolizes, and motion is eternal. LESSON XI. THE WATERY TRIPLICITY. 25 n X 25, OR ASPIRING. The signs of the Watery Triplicity are pre-eminently fruitful signs, and, just as all physical germination, growth, pros- perity, maternity and fruition depend for their existence on water, so must the germ seeds of aspiration be moistened by the waters of spiritual life before they will germinate and bear us outward fruit; and we may go further, and say that the very first primordial germ of organic life itself, A Tour Through the Zodiac. 287 in the first faint blush of the dawn of God's creation, had its origin in the ele- ment known as water. So, on the higher planes of living there must be the Water of Life, the springs and fountains of which sustain soul fruition. Desire is the first side of the fruitful triangle, that which the soul ardently longs for, that which the soul will fight for until all obstacles are vanquished, but when there is no desire the soul seed will attract no moisture to enable it to send forth its tiny shoots up toward the Sunlight of Truth. Yet, to the truly aspiring soul' this Wa- ter of Life is not anything external to the soul itself. On the contrary, it is the very element which, self-generating, flows like an ocean of Infinite love from the celes- tial, Deific center of its birthplace onward 288 Esoteric Lessons. and downward through myriads of solar centers and starry systems until it reaches its perihelion point upon some earth, the external battle ground of matter, whereon it enters the good fight against the blind force of lower nature, to return at the ebb of its own celestial tide, triumphant, through countless spiritual states and spheres of glorious, pulsating life. Aspiring is breathing, and true breath- ing creates an atmosphere about the soul germ which will in itself collect together moisture and generate the seed. The seed that is planted at the proper cyclic period can, through desire and aspi- ration, be watered from time to time until the harvest is most bountiful. Born in water, nourished with water, dissolved again in water, to be born upon higher planes of life t Existence is eter- A Tour Through the Zodiac. 289 nal, but spheres and planes are eternally changing. Promotion is the law of God, and the warrior can, by his own efforts, shorten his warfare upon the battle ground of materiality by becoming famil- iar with his own country, and, through the knowledge of its layout, the points of vantage and disadvantage, he can soon rise to the apex of the Watery Trian- gle. Cancer represents on the Earth the oceans and their correspondences, the broad expanse of the spiritual Water of Life on the spiritual plane. Here the soul is nearing the Divine center of its being. True inspiration here takes place, that Divine respiration, where each inha- lation and exhalation is in harmony with the ebb and flow of the tides of spiritual life. Hence inspiration naturally belongs to the signs of the Watery Triplicity. 290 Esoteric Lessons. The natural moisture that will bring forth to external life the latent possibili- ties, or seeds of the soul, is desire, aspira- tions and creations from material (knowl- edge) accumulated while traversing the battle ground up to the present plane of warfare. Through the Water of Life knowledge has been born on the journey, so that his bread is the knowledge of good and evil, of polar opposites, and when his eyes take the observations of the flights of the birds the law of contradictories will direct his judgments and his movements. He has learned the law governing the blind forces of Nature, and now, instead of obeying their orders, he, himself, has become the triumphant master of these forces, and the elements, as well, as the elementals, of each realm are now his A Tour Through the Zodiac. 29 1 servants and slaves, moving and obeying his kingly commands. Another step is taken in the watch- tower, and so cautiously has he moved over his ground, and so thoroughly mas- tered every condition as he proceeded, that now he is monarch of all he surveys from the point of observation that he has reached, and rightly earned, in his fearless march through the field of battle. He now knows the extent of his im- mediate battle ground, the force of the enemy, the obstacles to surmount, the for- tifications to throw up; but, being armed with the Lance of Truth and Knowledge and his path illuminated by his Ray-of- Light, he prepares to descend from his tower and take full possession of his coun- try, or his own individual universe, and, with his queen, reign supreme. 292 Esoteric Lessons. "Give us this day our daily food" is herein signified, and it must be drawn by the Divine Center of our being from the infinite ocean of spiritual life. Man can draw, through respiration, all the moisture he wishes to nourish the seeds of immortal life. The breathing known by all true war- riors, that breathing of soul to soul, of God to Man, of Man to Woman, of Infi- nite to Finite, of Great to Small, is the harmonious relationship of polar oppo- sites, and soul affinities will bring the requisite harmony and union of the finite to the infinite. The perfect response of the body to mind, when the interior and exterior breathing is going on alternately, will set the soul free to soar aloft amidst its own special sphere of life, to grow and gain A Tour Through the Zodiac. 293 knowledge of its own in the realm of real- ities, that he may learn their laws, and thus become the master of their reflec- tions on the battlefield of matter. The wielding of the scepter of aspira- tion calls forth inspiration, and sets in motion the creative power of thought. Here, again, the warrior is cautioned, in his work of creation, that he cre- ate not impossibilities and unthinkabili- ties, lest they become unconquerable foes on other planes, or rounds, of the esoteric ladder. Is the warrior to create new forms of life, that will prove willing slaves or rebel- lious tyrants in his kingdom? This is a portion of his breadmaking. This is a generous realm, where the vibrations are set up by the soul's ardent desires and aspirations, and the creations are limited only by the will. 294 Esoteric Lessons. If he has not learned how to watch and wait, listen, and obey the God within, stumbling blocks will surely arise at an unguarded moment, and be as fungi in his kingdom when taking form on the second side of the triangle of this triplicity. In no realm is the reconnoiterer to be more guarded in his movements, for cre- ation follows every action. The Lance is here needed to put to instant flight the false imaginings of the soul before being vitalized and taking on form. LESSON XII. THE WATERY TRIPLICITY. 25 "I X 1^L OR ATTACKING. The early morning of the great day has at length arrived. The hour so long A Tour Through the Zodiac. 295 awaited and so carefully prepared for has come, and the warrior now descends from the heights of his watch-tower, armed with the Ray-of-Light of Lance and Knowledge to meet the enemies of the battle ground. The war-cry is sounded, and echoed from center to circumfer- ence. He has descended into matter, into the shadows of nothingness, but from this plane they are real as long as the shadow lasts. He steps forward, well armed, and the first phantom to conquer and put to flight is Self. Fear is the shadow of the real man. He must be fearless, for " he who hesitates is lost." Caution guides his steps, and his lamp, or Divine Ray, illumines his path. Step by step he progresses; foes, real and unreal, are met with unyielding 296 Esoteric Lessons. will, and a determination to return home the Master, the King, the Lord and Ruler of his own Kingdom. All must be brought to obedience and service of his Divine will. Not forgetting the possibility of slipping too far on either side of the point of bal- ance and becoming a tyrant on the one hand or a slave on the other, he keeps keenly alive to all conditions and wide- awake to all temptations that might prove pitfalls or unconquerable obstacles, and thus losing the freedom he seeks. He is now traversing and experiencing another angle of the Watery Triangle — the realm of creative forms. On this side of the triangle is the fierce struggle for life going on. Life is sweet to the lowest forms of existence, and the battle to de- fend and preserve it is a battle to the A Tour Through the Zodiac. 297 death. This the warrior seeks to avoid — the premature cutting off of life, for that would rob him of their service and his rule. Utilization is the secret of success, not waste nor abandon. The greatest wisdom must be displayed in this realm of creation, where man imi- tates or obeys the command of his God: " Increase, multiply and replenish the Earth" — not with false images, that will eventually take form and become the shadows on the plane of matter, but truths, that will be solid stepping stones to higher rounds of being, and be of that nature where he can set them up as mile- stones to guide correctly the travelers who may follow him in adjoining countries. The life-giving force that is generated on this side of the triangle is threefold in 298 Esoteric Lessons. its influence and power of utilization. Does the warrior want all his creations in material forms? Does he want only the fruits of matter, that so soon perish? Does he want to be buried in nothingness, from which eternal things cannot be born? No! Allurements of the shadows are great, and he must constantly pray: "Lead us not into temptation. " The Balance must be brought into constant use, the Magic Lance ever borne aloft, so that in an un- guarded moment he may not lose his way and be overcome by the snares ever lurk- ing on this side of the triangle. His first formulations, or conceptions, are here to take form and become active, living realities upon or in his kingdom. Here comes the test of his work in the realms visible. The mystical sign of this A Tour Through the Zodiac. 299 Triplicity is revealed to the warrior as he enlers its sphere. Unknown and un- dreamed-of trials and temptations, real and apparent obstacles will spring up at every step as he goes forth to attack, subdue, conquer and master. To master is the watchword of the true warrior, knowing that in the sacrifice of forms new lives spring into existence, more formidable than those he sacrifices. It is man's duty to evolve, not destroy, and his creations must have the wings of the eagle, to bear them aloft above the illusions of matter. Here the mind rises superior to the lower self; the lower must and will become the servant of the higher. Terrible will be the attack; not a moment must he rest; looking back will be fatal. In no part of the warfare must one stand so resolute, so 3oo Esoteric Lessons. steadfast, so courageous. No other part of the field is so boggy. The creations of sense and seeming are his enemies. No part of the journey is so full of rebellion, warring incessantly, until the whole cir- cumference encircling his dominions is encompassed. The vantage is not great in the realm ruled by Scorpio. The spark of light at the point of his lance will not pierce the darkness far, but each advancing step drives back to humble submission the lurking forms of the shadows. At last what transpires? Instead of the creeping, slimy serpent, the aspirations have given it wings. The Scorpion has been transformed. It is now the eagle, able to soar in the water of the Infinite Waters of Life instead of creeping upon the battle ground of matter. A Tour Through the Zodiac. 3O1 The work is done. The innocent, igno- rant warrior returns the conqueror. He is bid to come up higher, and again he ascends to the top of his watch-tower and awaits his heritage. LESSON XIII. THE WATERY TRIPLICITY. 25 ^l X X, OR VANQUISHING. As the mists and the shadows of the battlefield clear away the warrior pauses, and from his height views the mighty field of conflict and weighs and considers the results from the twelve mansions of his dominion. Each has been penetrated and the fruits gathered and garnered and he has partaken thereof. The illusions and delusions of the battlefield have been per- 302 Esoteric Lessons. ceived and their nothingness realized, and the warrior has now to vanquish them by the laws he has learned in watching, lis- tening, patient and cautious advancement and reconnoitering, aspiring while attack- ing, and in his engagements in battle. He has plenty of time to reflect while the atmosphere is clearing. His journey has led him to the last rung of the exoteric ladder. The mists of seeming and sense begin to pass away, all preconceptions have van- ished, he has climbed the exoteric ladder, and now he is about to face the realms of realities and to place his foot upon the first rung of the esoteric ladder. Has he been released from all exoteric burdens, his bundles of loves, of hates, of revenge, of false conceptions and conclu- sions that were drawn from the realm of A Tour Through the Zodiac. 303 effects and dropped by the wayside? These are the mists and shadows of the battlefield, that have clung so tenaciously to the warrior's outward self. What are the considerations of his reflections? Knowledge has been his lot and por- tion, and he is now fitted to proclaim his kingship, his queen by his side, the equi- librium gained, the fight for freedom won. Having triumphantly conquered all upon the field of warfare and conflict he rests, to behold his victories' trophies. The law of contradictories and corre- spondencies guides him in judging of re- sults, in drawing conclusions from being able to see both ends of his simple staff that he started out with. Cause rests upon one end and effects upon the other. Both lie within his grasp, and are obedient to all commands. 304 Esoteric Lessons. The last external life of the embodied human soul has been experienced, the les- sons learned, the fruits of good and evil partaken of and fully accepted as the Di- vine Fiat of God; "Man, know thyself, and thus know thy God." As the warrior steps from the last rung of the exoteric onto the first rung of the esoteric ladder his works do follow him, and these will constitute the enemies and friends of the new battle ground in another sphere. But when he consciously realizes which are the illusions and delusions, that which is mortal from the immortal, the seeming from the real, then all foes are put to Right and he henceforth dwells in the land of realities. The mists of the battlefield having passed away, the country lies exposed to the scanning eye of its king. He looks A Tour Through the Zodiac. 305 upon his works. It calls forth the reso- lute courage of a well-trained, unfaltering will to behold and to hold in check the emotions of awe, consternation, sadness and joy that would fill his heart. His own creations stand at his feet. The children created, born and reared in matter appeal to his care. Can his soul fly from its own creations, whether of good or evil ? No. And while some may be beautiful, encouraging and divinely inspiring, others will prove re- bellious, and cling as a millstone about his neck, impeding his progress in his spiral Mazy Wheel of Necessity. Vanquishing is the next step, The spi- rals have become large and expansive, taking in a vast domain, for he has not been a slothful warrior. His days of trav- eling have been filled with an unceasing 306 Esoteric Lessons. activity that grew and broadened as he journeyed. He chose to know as he pro- ceeded, and knowledge gained expands the field of vision, investigations and cre- ations. Now his domains have become a mighty kingdom. His aspirations set his mark high. The Pole-Star of Truth is his goal, and that star stands in the center of his empire, and when each spiral of the exo- teric ladder has been traversed with but one motive, and that motive Truth, he can view, from the outward circle, or spiral of his ladder, the center. This Pole-Star, which illumines the whole field of battle, exposes to the eso- teric vision his possessions. Ls it as he would wish? If it were so, vanquishing would not be necessary. We have followed him thus far. The A Tour Through the Zodiac. 307 veil is drawn to other eyes than his own. What his visions are we cannot see; but, taking courage, we can begin to pre- pare to enter on an investigating tour of our own country, and learn its circumfer- ence, the health of its soil and the products that may belong to it The Pole-Star of Love is in the center, filled with the radiance that can only be seen by climbing, and thus obtain "the glory forever and ever. Amen." BOOK REVIEWS. WITHIN THE TEMPLE OF ISIS. By Belle M. Wagner. "This is an Occult Novel of rare value, as it contains a vast deal of Occult lore on many subjects. Soul-Transfer and Soul-Marriage are especially dealt with in a scientific manner. Everybody should read it." — Zanoni. "It is the most intensely soul-stirring work that it has ever been my privilege to read. It certainly touched the keynote that connects my soul with Deity Him- self. ,, — S. E. Morrison. "I am free to say, that the value of 'Within The Temple of Isis/ can not be computed in dollars and cents. It is in- valuable, and I hope that all seekers for the true light will have it." — D. C. Grunow. CLOTH, PRICE 75 CENTS. THE ASTRO-PHILOSOPHICAL PUB. CO. 1609 Downing Ave., Denver, Colo. BOOK REVIEWS. WITHIN THE TEMPLE OF ISIS. "Within the Temple of Isis" is a divine revelation of the God- like attributes of the human soul, given in the form of a simple, tender story. Its pages are replete with Occult truths. It portrays a phase of love, the world knows little or nothing about, the pure love of the soul for its counterpart ; that love that lies at the foundation of the perfecting of the human family. The magical feats herein related, may seem strange, but are nevertheless true. The masses to-day are amazed at the stupendous and marvelous achievements of intellectual man, the result of the magical powers of mind. Then who shall dare say that to men who have evolved their spirit- ual possibilities, equally with their intellectual gifts, and powers, such magical and occult ceremonies as this book describes, were impossible. The potent powers of the planets and their influence upon the soul and physical body, are well-known facts to the students of Astral Science. When the man fully realizes that he is an immortal soul, not a thing of dust as he has been taught for ages, that he is eternal spirit, with infinite possibilities, there will be no mystery attached to these Magical Rites. The Soul transferror the mutual good of two bouls, should not be confounded with obsession, which is entirely different. To the student of Nature's hidden forces, this Rite is quite feasible. The physical brain is the instrument only, spirit the ani- mating principle, the real thinking power, and it is a logical con- clusion that the development of the higher organs of the brain, through spiritual unfoldment and occult training of the mental qualities, must bear rich fruit, wholesome and pure. Therefore we would commend this volume to the thoughtful reader and student, believing it will rind a response in many souls and awaken in others a new trend of thought.— Miss Minnie Higgin, Astrologer, Denver, Colorado. I have read "W T ithin the Temple of Isis" with much interest and pleasure. It is the best representation of the process of "The Transmutation of Souls" which I know of. — Thomas M. Johnson, Osceola, Mo. THE DUALITY OF TRUTH; — OR— The Occult Forces of Nature. Reviewed from the Standpoint of Hermetic Philosophy By Henry Wagner. M. D. This is a clear, practical statement of Nature's dual forces, and will prove of great value to Occult students. A rare treat is in store for you on The Sphinx and Pyr- amids of Egypt, Symbolism aud Correspondence alone are worth many times the cost of this unique book. — Zanoni. CLOTH, PRICE $1.00. THE ASTRO -PHILOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING CO., 1609 Downing Ave., Denver, Colo. "WITHIN THE TEMPLE OF ISIS." By BELLE M. WAGNER. This is an Occult Novel of rare value, as it contains a vast deal of Occult lore on many subjects. Soul- Transfer and Soul- Marriage are especially dealt with in a scientific manner. Everybody should read it. — Zanoni. CLOTH, PRICE 75 CENTS, THE ASTRO -PHILOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING CO., 1609 Downing Ave.. Denver, Colo. "The liight of Egypt;" OR The Science of the Soul and the Stars. FOURTH EDITION. In Two Parts. Price, Cloth, $2; Paper, $1. By an Initiate in Esoteric Masonry. FINELY ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS. It is claimed that this book is not a mere compilation, but thoroughly original. It is believed to contain information upon the most vital points of Occultism and Theosophy that cannot be obtained else- where. It claims to fully reveal the most recondite mysteries of man upon every plane of his existence, both here and hereafter, in such plain, simple language that a child can almost understand it. The secrets and Occult mysteries of Astrology are revealed and explained for the first time, it is affirmed,' since the days of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. An effort is made to show that the science of the Soul and the science of the Stars are the twin mysteries which comprise The One Grand Science of Life. The following are among the claims made for the work by its friends. To the spiritual investigator this book is indispensable. To the medium it reveals knowledge beyond all earthly price, and will prove in real truth, "a guide, philosopher and friend." To the Occultist it will supply the mystic key for which he has been so long earnestly seeking. To the Astrologer it will become a "divine revelation of Science.'* OPINIONS OF PRESS AND PEOPLE. "A noble, philosophical and instructive work."— Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten. "A work of remarkable ability and interest."— Dr J. R. Buchanan. "A remarkably concise, clear and forcibly interesting work. * * * It is more clear and intelligible than any other work on like subjects."— Mr. J. J. Morse. "A careful reading of The Light of Egypt discovers the beginning of a new sect in Occultism, which will oppose the graft- ing on Western Occultists the subtile delusive dogmas of Karma and Re-incarnation."— New York Times. 44 It is a volume likely to attract wide attention from that class of scholars interested in mystical science and occult forces. But it is written in such plain and simple style as to be within the easy comprehension * * * of any cultivated, scholarly reader." The Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean. " However recondite his book, the author certainly presents a theory of first causes which is well fitted to challenge the thoughtful readers' attention and to excite much reflection."— Hartford Daily Times. 44 Considered as an exposition of Occultism, or the philosophy of the Orient from a Western standpoint, this is a remarkable pro- duction. * * * The philosophy of the book is, perhaps, as pro- found as any yet attempted, and so far reaching in its scope as to take in about all that relates to the divine ego-man in its manifold relation to time and eternity— the past, present and future."— The Daily Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah. 44 This work, the result of years of research and study, will undoubtedly create a profound sensation throughout the philo- sophic world."— The Detroit Commercial Advertiser. 44 It is an Occult work but not a Theosophical one. * * * It is a book entirely new in its scope, and must excite wide atten- tion."— The Kansas City Journal. 44 The book is highly interesting and very ably written, audit comes at an opportune time to eliminate from the "Wisdom Re- ligion," re-incarnation and other unphilosophical superstitions of the otherwise beautiful structure of Theosophy."— Kansas Herald. 44 What will particularly commend the book to many in this country is that it is the first successful attempt to make the truths of Theosophy plain and clear to any one not a special student, and it lays bare the frauds of the Blavatsky school."— San Francisco Chronicle. Beautifully printed and illustrated on paper m anuf actured for this special purpose, with illuminated and extra heavy cloth binding. Cloth, $2.00 ; Paper, $1.00. For sale, wholesale and retail, by Astro-Philosophical Pub- lishing Co., 1609 Downing Ave., Denver, Colo. ; Banner of Light Publishing Co., No. 9 Bosworth St., Boston, Mass.; The Pro- gressive Thinker, No. 40 Loomis St., Chicago, Ills. ; The Ban- croft Book Co., 1126-1128 16th St., Denver, Colo. ; Also, Religio- Philosophical Publishing House, 1429 Market St., San Fran- cisco, Cal. CEliESTIflli DVf4fl]VIICS. BEING A NORMAL COURSE OF STUDY — IN— THE ASTRO-MAGNETIC FORCES OF NATURE. BY THE AUTHOR OF " THE LIGHT OF EGYPT,'" " THE LANGUAGE OF THE STARS." ETC. A magnificent and complete course of Astro- meta- physical study embodying Vital Principles of Life. Mental Force, Sickness and Disease. With the only true and really Scientific method of treating the sick successfully. Mental Healers, Metaphysicians, and ail who prac- tice the healing Art Divine, should give "Celestial Dy- namics" a thorough and impartial study and thus learn the real cause of their frequent failures. No Astro Student can afford to be without this work, if he would understand the Metaphysics of As- trology. The Price, One Dollar, is within the reach of all who seek for light. Orders accompanied by cash, will be filled immediately. Apply early, as the edition is limited. Address, THE ASTRO-PHILOSOPHICAL PUB. CO. 1609 Downing Ave., Denver, Colo. N. B. — This wotk has been specially prepared for pub- lication to meet the demands of a large and very earnest class of people who cannot afford to pay for a regular course of instruction under a qualified teacher. And those who can afford this privilege will find the work an invaluable text book to their studies. "THE LANGUAGE OF THE STARS," A. New and Important Book (50 Cents), for Everybody. BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE LIGHT OP EGYPT," " CELESTIAL. DYNAMICS," ETC. A Master of Esoteric Masonry. A work that no Mental Healer, Christian Scientist or Magnetic Physician can afford to be without, if they would become the real masters of their profession in the study of man and the healing art divine. A Primary Course of Lessons in Celestial Dynamics. This important primary work is the first practical exposition of the Astro-Magnetic forces of Nature — in their relation to man — that has yet been issued by the American Press. It contains fourteen special lessons, embracing each department of human life, in such plain, simple language, that a child can understand the ele- mentary principles laid down. And in addition to these lessons there is an Appendix, containing a full explana- tion of all technical and scientific terms in general use upon the subject, thus forming a brief, yet practical Astro Dictionary. This work is illustrated with special plates. PRICE, ONLY 50 CENTS, Post Eree. FOR SALE BY- — Astro-Philosophical Pub. Co., 1609 Downing Ave., Denver, Colo. Banner of Light Pub. Co., No. 9 Bosworth St., Boston, Mass. The Progressive Thinker, No. 40 Loomis St., Chicago, Ills. The Bancroft Book Co., 1126-1128 16th St., Denver. Colo. : : : ALSO : : : RELlGiO-PHlLOSOPHlCAL PUBLISHING HOUSE, 1429 Market St., San Francisco, Cal. ESOTERIC LiESSOfiS By Sarah Stanley Grimke, Ph. D. Including PERSONIFIED UNTHINKABLES, FIRST LESSONS IN REALITY, A TOUR THROUGH THE ZODIAC, (A Sequel to) First Lessons in Reality. This is a remarkable production of occult thought, and will well repay careful study and meditation by all occultists. Price, Cloth, $1.50. For sale by the ASTRO PHILOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING CO., Denver, Colo. THE LIGHT OF EGYPT— VOL. II. This is the author's posthumous work left in MS. to a few of his private pupils in occultism, and like Volume I is (a valuable addition and) a library on occult subjects. Spiritual astrology is especially elab- orated. Alchemy, Talismans, the Magic Wand, Sym- bolism, Correspondence, Penetralia, etc., etc., are a few of the subjects treated of in a scholarly and masterly manner, showing the author to be familiar with his subjects. You cannot afford to be without it, as well as all his other books, viz., The Light of Egypt, Vol. I, bound in cloth, $2.00; paper, $1.00. The Light of Egypt, Vol. II, bound in cloth only, $2.00. Celestial Dynamics, cloth, $1.00. The Language of the Stars, paper, 50 cents. For sale by The Astro Philosophical Publishing Co., Denver, Colo., 1609 Downing Ave. All of the above books are for sale by The Religio Philosophical Publishing House, 1429 Market St., San Francisco, Cal. The Banner of Light Publishing Co., 9 Bosworth St., Boston, Mass. The Progressive Thinker, 40 Loomis St., Chicago, 111. The Western Book and Stationery Co., 1126-1128 Sixteenth St., Denver, Colo. The Metaphysical Publishing Co., 465 Fifth Ave., New York City, N. Y. 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