A 50900 3 UNIV. OF MICH. བ་--esu ད་ཐན་པ་ས་བ་་ས ・ BF STREET HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD 1999 592 1889 བ་ ARTES 1837. SCIENTIA LIBRARY VERITAS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN E-PLURIBUS UNIM TUEBOR SQUAERIS-PENINSULAM-AMOENAM CIRCUMSPICE THE GIFT OF Prof. 7. N. Scott 8 W 6 ་་་་་ 10 25252525 16 13: Copyright, 1SS7, by J. C. Street. THE ORACLE OF DELPHI. (See Page 309.) THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD OR THE MYSTERY WHICH HATH BEEN HIDDEN FOR AGES AND FROM GENERATIONS. AN EXPLANATION OF THE CONCEALED FORCES IN EVERY MAN TO OPEN THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL AND TO LEARN THE GUIDANCE OF THE UNSEEN HAND. ILLUSTRATED AND MADE PLAIN WITH AS FEW OCCULT PHRASES AS POSSIBLE BY J. C. STREET, A.B.N. FELLOW of the order s. S. S. AND OF THE BROTHERHOOD Z.Z. R.R. Z.Z. ALL THIN COME FROM WITHIN S.S.S. "Neither height nor depth can measure the possibilities of the human soul.” BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 Milk St., next Old South Meetinghouse THIRD EDITION 1889 + COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY J. C. Street. All Rights Reserved. THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. ELECTROTYPED BY C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON, MASS. S. J. PARKHILL & Co., PRINTERS, 222 FRANKLIN STREET. B e Se Здиль To THE COUNT A. DE G., HIEROPHANT OF THE ORDER S. S. S. Italian by birth, yet with a warm love for the whole world; whose hand is always open to the poor and the afflicted; whose generous, true heart is continually pulsating to uplift the world: To him whose tender affection is like a mother's solicitude; whose brave, strong heart is like a father's right arm; to him who infuses into every circle a child-like purity and perfect peace; to him who lives ever striving to show mankind the way to triumph in death as in life; to him who touches nothing which he does not adorn; to him whose noble con- tour of face and majesty of form are only excelled by the exalted, loving Soul within, this book is dedicated and affectionately inscribed, as a feeble testimonial of sincere gratitude for his great patience and deep and ten- der sympathy bestowed on his dutiful student through the years of our wanderings. THE AUTHOR. 172515 1. ! ! + 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION. THIS book is a compilation containing thoughts from many minds, from Intelligences in the form and out of it, from Souls embodied and disembodied. These thoughts have been gathered, as a harvester garners a few sheaves that shall yield some seed for planting when the seed-time is at hand. In this age of error and of indifference, intellect and wealth have been deified, until, in the eagerness and keenness of their pursuit, men and women turn their own vital energies back upon themselves, and all that goes to make life truly enjoyable is congealed. This is the age of intensity, while self-interest and vain-glory, called civilization, in the abstract is the guiding star. Humanity seems to have for- gotten that there are two educations one of the mind, and the other of far greater importance — the education of the soul. Some warm and highly esteemed friends, who deemed that the experience of the writer as a student and medium of occult forces, and his union and intercourse with Adepts of many lands, and with the Dervishes and Lamas of the East, might enable him to furnish some valuable information concerning the mysteries of the occult world, have earnestly solicited him to prepare these pages for publi- cation. With the full assurance from the Angel world that many men and women and whole legions of Angels will appreciate the effort, he pressed on, and in a few short weeks the first edition was ex- hausted. The many expressions of gratitude and congratulations from entire strangers as well as friends, both by mail and in personal inter- views, from individuals who had lost their hope in life, since disap- pointment had become their constant companion, and who found the teachings common to Modern Science fail utterly when the heart is stricken and the head humbled in the dust, have led the compiler to feel that another edition may reach other sorrowing hearts, and bring them hope and peace. A few changes in the two concluding chapters, and some correc- V vi INTRODUCTION. ! tion or readjustment of sentences has been made since the first edi- tion was issued. The Egyptians worshipped God as a Motherhood - Divine Love under the name of Isis, or The Female Principle, but the Male Principle was by no means ignored in Egyptian Theosophy. The Hindus held that the Divine Spirit is to be found in the Male Principle only; that the Male or Occult is the Divine Principle. Esoteric Christianity was but a continuation of the Esoteric Egyp tian Theosophy under another name. It was the Priests of Egypt to whom Pythagoras and Plato went for instruction. This book is based upon the Pythagorean system and the principles of Esoteric Christianity. The tenet of the book is Pythagorean, which is that a religion is only true which benefits humanity. The object of such a religious system is the love of all humanity, which makes it a special blessing to the poor, the down- trodden, and the unhappy. To such it offers continual consolation; inspiring them with infinite courage, it demonstrates that all truth, all love, all wisdom, and all happiness lies within their own being through the Spirit. Such was also the teaching of Christ, the PRINCE OF PEACE, — a religion not for a few philosophers and wise men, but for the common people. "At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Matt., xi.: 25. Feeling that there is so much room for books of higher thought, beyond his power to produce, yet having the promise from the world of Spirit Intelligence of a directing hand, the compiler has striven to collect simple thoughts in plain words, to teach the reader that through higher thought and nobler impulse toward the highest good, Man and Spirit in this life are entwined in one grand, eternal progress. Y We are writing by no rush-light. The glow that guides our pen gleams down from a higher font of illumination,- that of Spirit and the Divinity which stirs within us, and from departed Souls now in Heaven, that points out an eternity hereafter; thereby we have striven to transcribe from the folios of Truth and Love the tocsin of the Soul LINE UPON LINE, PRECEPT UPON PRECEPT, HERE A LITTLE AND THERE A LITTLE OF LOVE AND TRUTH AND WISDOM, which will bear repetition until the lesson is fully learned, that all may turn toward the vision of man's highest good. INTRODUCTION. vii The charge of Plagiarism may be justly brought. It was deemed necessary to use that which was most expressive in fewest words, and desirable to present that which seemed relevant to the subject, from whatever source obtained. More than ten years have elapsed since the Compiler began to col- lect these notes, little dreaming that they would appear in book form. Collecting new thoughts and ideas during his travels in almost every part of the world; rearranging and copying during long sea voyages, the names of the original authors were sometimes lost, and quotation marks carelessly omitted. The compiler, in his zeal of research and want of knowledge of unwritten law, making no claim of original ideas, being only an instrument used to gather sheaves of noble thought old as the world itself, expressed in all languages for the com- mon good, gathered out these Spiritual Truths which give life while the letter of the law killeth. We have written from out the PERPETUAL SEA OF SPIRIT, and from the Font of Light, which awakens men's Souls to freedom of thought and glorious independence of a mad, conventional world; to nobler joy and perfect peace, which comforts God has made for us. There are many persons who have become convinced that there is. a higher, truer, inner life, and who desire to surround themselves with such conditions as are most favorable for its attainment. Many thousands, too, offer up the tenderest emotions of the heart upon the altar of memory to the dear ones who have journeyed across the river of death. For these, who comprise so great a part of Divine Humanity, this book is especially written; also, to stimulate and help the great mass of seekers for light to a fuller understanding of RIGHT THOUGHT, RIGHT SPEECH, and RIGHT ACTION. Mental illumination and knowledge of the highest truths necessary in order to be reborn of Spirit, cannot be taught as children learn the multiplication table or men study the various external sciences, but must be evolved from the higher impulses of the heart and the con- cealed depths of our inner consciousness. The law of Will or Induction through man has a far higher and wider range of action. The compiler seeks in this book to aid the student to explore for himself, with his own Will and Spiritual development, the inner realm of Spirit Truth, and find the home of Mind and Sympathy which seems to extend through the whole domain of nature. Truth can never be a forgery. This Work is presented again on its viii INTRODUCTION. own merits, containing the True Essence of Moral and Spiritual Truth of all that sacred books set forth as a guide and means of in- struction for man. They are of sufficient importance to require neither explanation nor apology, and cannot be made to depend on any claim for author- ity, or circumstances which may present themselves through criticisms based on ignorance of facts. "" The Author was not ignorant of the crucible through which his years of labor must pass-remembering that "Trees which bear the best fruits are always most pelted with stones but was ever cheered on by the actualities of Spirit Truth, which, in the order of the economy of human progress and Truth, must some day become the experience and joy of the many rather than the few. There is beyond this life of human action a final judgment, where man's innermost thoughts and acts cannot escape the Divine scrutiny of Eternal Justice; for that sublime hour all true men are waiting, knowing that the Spirit of Truth will triumph. Having regard for that which is in the future, the Author in silence and patience can wait, knowing that in the golden age soon to dawn, the voice of the Spirit will become the voice of the People; for Truth is perpetual, and in her sublime grandeur will arise in triumph over every antagonism. With a gentle directing guidance of unseen hands prompting him onward to surmount many obstacles through months of weary labor, to make plain the most accessible pathways for mankind to climb the heights of Spirit within the Temple of the soul, he has sought to place in simple language, the truths of Love, Harmony and Light, within the possibilities of man's own Higher-Self.” “Books have four sorts of readers; sponges, which extract all with- out any distinguishment as to quality; hour-glasses, which receive and pour it out as fast; bags, which retain only the dregs of the spices and good, letting the purer wine escape; and sieves, which separate and sort out the true nuggets of pure gold, retaining the best only." He who gives out understandingly, Teaches. He who receives. with comprehension, Learns. Therefore if a man can communicate himself he can instruct, but not alone by words. Knowing how vast are the fields of untrodden worlds and revela- tions yet to be gleaned, and making humble confession of his ineffi- ciency to cope with so vast a subject, the writer can only trust to INTRODUCTION. ix time and growth to unfold the great mystery of life, which can never be disclosed in a single life-time, and much less condensed in a volume which lays no claim to great literary merit, classic style, and exacti- tude of method. He has desired to introduce such thought as will show what a vast amount of hidden things and phenomena, which the Spiritual philosophy has scarcely touched, still remains to be ex- plained; and he makes this effort to enlighten those who are familiar with the Hidden Ways of nature's occult forces, and to point out the most accessible pathways to hold communion with the Immortals. Persuaded by numerous calls from the two worlds, prompted by large experiences of wonderful scenes of occult character witnessed abroad, to place this effort of Truth and Love against the selfish, objec- tive world of sense, this compilation is tossed into the crucible of public opinion, confident that some grains of pure gold will be gath- ered up and become current coin in the generations to come, and so again commit these precious thoughts, gleaned from both Angels and men, to the tender mercies of the world, hoping thereby to plant Spiritual Truth and a seed of more generous Love in all human hearts. BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1888. J. C. STREET. CONTENTS. . CHAPTER I. The Three FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT Love the Secret of Life Ancient Temples Mexican Religion - The Pathway to Light - Gnosticism Impulses - Practical Love - Ancient Inspiration . CHAPTER II. GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE-The Duality of God - Will The Prodigal Son - Harmony with the Divine Mind Language Union of Dual Forces - Visions of God the Sphinx - The Trinity - Adonia. CHAPTER III. — and Love- A Universal The Riddle of The Papal SACRED SYMBOLS - The Cross of Life- The Solar Prism Keys - The Interlaced Triangles - The Serpent - The Long Face- The Heart and Feather-The Winged Globe Ezekiel's Wheel The Zodiac . CHAPTER IV. I 22 44 • 54 4 MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. - Two Great Obstacles Astrology - Astral Influence - Palmistry Palmistry — The Life of Eden - The Hierophant's Power-Adoration and Meditation - Modern Justice- Temperaments in Marriage- Heredity - Unconscious Well-doing. CHAPTER V. SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL- The Beatitudes Jesus, the Initiate and Anchorite Paul, the Gnostic-The Song of Life - Ancient Astronomy — New Birth-Soul Seeds - Sin - The End of the Journey - Memento Vivere, CHAPTER VI. THE ASTRAL BODY-Star Magno - Process of Death-Amputations-A Suggestion in Surgery Astral Flight Astral Flight Astral Photospheres — A Scientific Experiment-Trance or Semi-Trance - Elementals and Ele- mentaries The Arch Gift-Spirit and Soul Forces - Obsessions - White Magic- Human Conscience - Moral Intuition 82 • 107 xi xii CONTENTS. — CHAPTER VII. A WORLD'S RELIGION - Ancient Religions - Prenatal Rights - The Labor Question Indifferentism Spiritualism Theosophy Esoteric Buddhism - Yoginism - Hierarchy-True Magic-Swedenborg and the New Church - Light of the School of the Prophets - The Lesson of Life. • 130 CHAPTER VIII. Adept, Seer, and MediumshIP-Trains of Thought-Entrancement-Seek- ing a Sign Astral Earth-Currents - True Mediumship - Elementals, Elementaries, and Sephiroths - Inspiration - Prophecy and Predic- tion - Adeptship - Black Magic - Red Magic-White Magic . CHAPTER IX. • CULTIVATION OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS, OR THE GUIDANCE OF THE UNSEEN HAND- True Education - Soul Development - Astral Colors - Bi- Sexuality - True Prayer - Animal Food-Teachings of the Illuminati — Perceptionists and Dogmatists—“Conditions ”— Etherealization- Vibration of Light Formation of Circles - The Twelve Senses- Musical Vibrations 191 . 233 CHAPTER X. SPIRITUALIZATION OF MATTER - Transfiguration - Materialization - Home Circles - The Condemnation The Oracle at Delphi-A Soul's Awakening-Sushupti. 287 CHAPTER XI. METAPHYSICS, THE PRAYER OF THOUGHT; OR EXPRESSION OF INFINITE MIND-Latent Latent Forces-Mind the Basis of Being-Thought Acting Upon Thought-Impulse Created by Will Swedenborg's Meta- physics - Teachings to Mental Healers-Pythagorean and Egyptian Theories - Phrenopathy - Prayer Cure - The Royal Touch Cure • -Color 320 CHAPTER XII. EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION The Darwinian Theory - Haeckel's Discov- ery - Involution the True Growth- The Principle of Unity - Evolu- tion a Revelation of God-Brahministic Theory - All Things from Within-Natural and Spiritual Science - Inworld and Outworld . . 345 1 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XIII. THE GREAT MYSTERY; OR, THE HIDDEN WAY-Intuition - Unspeakable Words - The Royal Ladder - Adam and Eve - Hermetic Science- True Love-Immaculate Conception - Christos - Dual Philosophy Sacred Flame - Lust, not Love-Egyptian, Greek, and Buddhist Teaching-Reincarnation — Polarization — Unselfish Love - CHAPTER XIV. THE MANY MANSIONS Spheres - Spirits in Prison-The Middle Firma- ments Malicious and False Controls The Upper Firmaments Angels and Archangels. 379 431 je m. CHAPTER XV. TRANSLATIONS OR THOUGHTS FROM OTHER TONGUES- The Four Elements - The Oldest Traditions - Light of the Cabala - The History of Spirit - Prayer of Savitri-Key of Hermes The Divine Pymander L - The Vedas Order of the Chaldæan Eastern Star-Cabalistic Names - Philo and Paul - Magus CHAPTER XVI. THE TEMPLE WITHIN - No Light from Without-Thought-Chambers Astral Light Mirrors of the Soul- The Morning Gate - The Torch of the Angel-Works Works of Art-Woman-Jesus and Christ CHAPTER XVII. GATHERED SHEAVES - Simple Truth - Objective Intellect Objective Intellect - Bioplasm- True Good-Breeding - Development Homer and the Bible-Book Worship Opportunities in This Life-Learn to Know All, but Keep Thyself Unknown - Where Are the Dead?- God's Great Whis- pering Gallery - The Latent Magnetic Power in Precious Stones - Precepts and Aphorisms — Misunderstood by the World— Trust in the Spirit- The First Step Towards Higher Occult Powers Do not go • 446 483 to War with Evil - Out from the Shoréless Sea of the Great Unknown, 526 CHAPTER XVIII. ACROSS THE THRESHOLD- The Eternal Now- I Will Pour Out My Spirit - Faith in the Absolute Parent - The Knowledge of Silently Waiting -Under the Sunshine of Spirit - Welcome Unto Thy Heritage- Flight of the Adept, or a Human Soul Visiting the Mansions of the Blessed - To All Brethren • 584 .. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE ORACLE OF DELPHI . Frontispiece GOD, THE ETERNAL FOUNTAIN OF ALL LIFE, THE GREAT INFINITE AND ETERNAL ENERGY, FROM WHICH ALL THINGS PROCEED THE WINGED GLOBE AND OTHER GNOSTIC SYMBOLS • 22 44 • 47 50 82 130 THE HID- THE GREAT MYSTERY OF GOD IN MAN - THE INTERLACED TRIANGLE THE CROSS OF ANTIQUITY AND OTHER SACRED SYMBOLS ILLUMINATION OF MENTALITY AND OTHER SACRED SYMBOLS MONOGRAM OF THE THREE MYSTERIES AND OTHER SYMBOLS THE GNOSTIC AMULET - THE DELPHIC SACRED MYSTERIES DEN THINGS THE MANY MANSIONS, OR SPHERES AND FIRMAMENTS • • • • 379 • 431 xiv THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. CHAPTER I. FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. LOVE IS THE SECRET OF Life. -The two vital truths underlying all religions are the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. The two vital errors ingrain in all religious systems of this modern age are painfully apparent to every impartial and unbiassed mind,— first, the misconception of God and misunderstanding of man; second, the claim of exclusiveness for Divine revelation, and the infallibility of Inspiration. Divine Love of Spirit! Absolute Wisdom! Universal Harmony! God has written these truths on everything. Halt but a moment in this mad race. Behold, Nature is full of music and wisdom. This is the positive principle. Discord is negative. Everything which moves, feels, thinks, and has being in the omnipresent Spirit of God is impregnated with music and harmony. What a gospel is this! Dear reader, stop one moment for extended thought. Thought- lessness is wasted time. Therefore think of this silent gospel of the Divine Spirit of Love and Harmony. Our mouths and lives will dis- course sweet music if we correctly apply the love and harmony which make the spirit white. Oh, Pilgrim on the Threshold, what great opportunities lie before you the soul grows, what worlds beyond worlds open out be- fore your enraptured gaze. Life is but a murmuring rivulet, winding in and out of the ravines, ever pursuing various paths, softly flowing through fragrant meadows, gently rippling on the cool, mossy banks of the wood; now strug- gling among rocks, murmuring as it goes; sometimes conveying a fragrant flower upon its bosom; sometimes a dead leaf which has drifted down to it; now leaping to and fro against some angular impediment which checks its course; eventually leaping all barriers; I THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. flowing round a mountain which it could not overleap; singing a melodious song as it exerts its energies in the effort to dislodge some obstacles thrown across its path; ever pressing onward uniting its energies with the silent river hurrying on toward the sea. Thus flow our individual lives in this rudimental state of being. But most lives are like streams tributary to great rivers: few indeed like the rivers themselves. The little rivulet, however, flows onward still, and, after filling many a spring, slaking the thirst of many a traveller, refreshing many a fainting plant, perchance through ignorance, inattention, or peradventure wrong, — causing some- thing to wither or have pain, still flows onward, and finally, when it comes to the verge, leaps the brow of the hill, spreading into melo- dious cascades as it vanishes into the silent depths of the hitherto unknown gulf, continuing its course in new companionship toward more harmonious and musical spheres beyond. Let the thoughtful tourist of to-day who desires to grasp hands across the gulf of centuries with our Spiritual ancestors visit some of the colossal stone temples in the East. He who visits Karnac should pay more than mere passing attention to the two mighty columns in the immense hall of columns, and observe the large, square capital which unites these two massive pillars, where in deep cuttings he will find this hieroglyph. THE SECRET OF LIFE IS LOVE.-The time-worn appearance and desolate surroundings of this vast temple of extreme antiquity can- not be adequately described. To the visiting Hierophant and Neo- phyte the phantoms of Spirit presence present themselves, as they pass down the long silent corridor, and speak in mute accents of gorgeous pageantry, robed priests, and magnificent procession. These sacred halls of columns, which have witnessed the rise and fall of empires, the ascension of kings and dissolution of nations, still stand half buried in the sands, weather-worn and storm-beaten, silent memorials of forgotten kings and forgotten people, while the soft winds perfumed by the sacred Lotus of the Nile chant a melo- dious dirge to the unknown Souls of the so-called dead. LOVE IS THE SECRET OF LIFE is again found engraven on the principal Sphynx, in the avenue of Sphynxes. Again, on a huge block on the Island of Elephantine; near Mount Sinai, in Arabia Petræa are the caves of the anchorites; and here the observer finds the same motto, with the addition which makes it read thus: FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 3 : LOVE, WITH WISDOM, IS THE SECRET OF Life. Again at the door-way of the great rock near Deir, Petræa, on the right hand, stands engraved the inscription:- THE TORCH OF LIFE IS FED BY THE OIL OF Love. And on the left hand, LOVE IS THE OIL OF LIFE. On the large cube of cream-white stone which was presented to the Order of Z. Z. by a Mexican chief is this significant inscription:- THE TORCH OF LOVE IS THE SECRET OF SOUL. According to traditions of the Indians, this stone is of great antiq- uity, which its appearance also indicates, and it is claimed to have been one of the chief stones in the altars of Teocallis. It is like a large square opal in appearance, but hard as flirt, radiating a torch- like flame of pinkish color from the interior, which seems to change in different atmospheres. This was called by the Mexicans the torch of the Soul, and was typical of their religion, of which the following is an abridged text: There is a natural fire of inner Light, whose central flame is a cer- tain proportion of the Internal man toward the External, glowing and. growing after its own fashion according to the impulses of the man. From the inner Temple toward the outer life the sacred, Divine flame eternally consumes the grosser elements, that through purification may be radiated the great sacred Flame. The hope and desire of the collector of this compilation is that in the patient reader may be excited a more extended illumination of thought, which shall expand into unselfish and universal love, thereby opening the Soul. Illumination of mentality brings intuition of something higher than the mere animal, Intuition being the operation of the Soul, the knowl edge through it, which if from above, descending into the Soul, fills it with the perception of the interior cause of things, and opens a new world to the Pilgrim, who now embraces the great opportunity of his life. If unbiassed by any pet theories or passions, he may now tread the sacred paths of Nature's mysteries and thus participate in the pageantry of the ages. Every man has some peculiar train of thought into which he falls when alone. This, to a great degree, moulds the man. If it is of the higher aspirations of unselfish ambition for universal good, a 4 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. better man is moulded. His life becomes useful to his age and gen- eration, and he awakes to a knowledge of true universal harmonies, finding Love is the true poem, the Soul of which is the dream, the mechanical verse is but the garb that clothes the flesh by which the existence of the Spirit is made known to the outer world. If, reasons man, everything in this life is disappointment, and our fondest hopes are superficial and deceiving, is the game of life worth the candle? Are human lives only masquerades and huge jokes, intermingled with sufferings and inquisitions? Just here is the point where many weak minds lose their anchorage and drift about with every wind, in shallows and in miseries, until the hour for change has come. "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God," says Paul, “and ye are not your own?" The thoughtful man reasons alone in silence, not striving to com- bat with human argument, and little by little the Truth dawns upon him and illuminates his mind. As he catches glimpses of the silent ways of nature, he discovers a Divine harmony and finds he cannot look upon human life as an accident, while all around and at every hand he beholds such evidence of wondrous design. Awake! arise! the hour is late! Angels are knocking at thy door! They are in haste and cannot wait, And, once departed, come no more. - A Fragment. Nothing ever exists with man without a cause in the Spiritual world. If that which is natural with man could be separated from what is spiritual, every cause of existence and source of life would be eliminated. Matter is only solidified Spirit, a manifestation of that which in its original condition is invisible, viz.: Spirit, and Spirit does not become evil by becoming manifest. Evil is only the result of the limitation of Spirit. Evil is but error, Spirit is Truth. When Spirit dawns, error departs, for Spirit is God, and God is Good. Wherefore, error being the limitation of God, matter is the limitation of good and is essential and necessary to creation. In the first place let the thought be lodged in the mind as a uni- versal principle that every man is a duality, a double being, a oneness growing out of the interpenetration of two natures, male and female, in this terrestrial world, and also a corresponding duality in the Soul or FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 5 : sidereal world. By close observation, it will be found that every man has two different spheres of consciousness; one from the positive vibration of the male, and another from the passive, negative vibra- tion of the female. Also, a consciousness from the external sphere of the natural world, and another from the interior sphere of the Soul and Spiritual world. But, as mankind contents itself in living, for the present, in an external world, full of material magnetism, the Spirit is drawn out- ward and overshadowed, and frequently the man is made unconscious and unmindful of that brighter, interior sphere in which the Spirit is the true life, and his eyes are clouded to his true relations with that sphere. The vast majority of mankind is under the magnetism. of the external, animal world, and thus the lives of men are but rounds of disappointment. To such persons there is no immortal. hope, no Truth, no Spirit-world, no God. They believe only in what they see with the natural eye, and will dispute even that if they can- not fully comprehend it. A few years ago the very possibility of the telegraph, the railway, and the steamship was unknown. A few generations ago, the very truths that led to the discovery of these were refused a hearing, and their existence denied. The disadvan- tage of this condition is painfully apparent; for such persons are more or less insane, ignorant, unreasonable, and intolerant concerning the interior light of the Soul, and knowledge of a spiritual character. On the other hand, the more we are absorbed in the spiritual world, and know its truth, the more we are unmindful of the multiform relations to the world in which we now live. We may be rational and moral when measured by the interior Soul-light and the Spiritual standard, but irrational and insane when estimated by the opinions of the rail- way conductor or steamship captain, for, as it is written, our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened; then we behold them. Persons whose interior sphere is opened and growing to the Soul- knowledge and Spiritual light are extremely sensitive and impressible, and, unless surrounded by harmony and peace, suffer much disad- vantage to this condition. They may be inspired to give out many exalted ideas; but their utterances should not always be accepted as infallible, on account of the morbid atmospheres which surround them. Again, such persons are more or less disqualified for the material world of our sensuous times, because people in this age are not living in harmonious attunement with nature. They are sensuous and nervous, because of the outward inharmonies, and the control- 1 6 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. The ling power of the body has changed its plane of activity, having gone inward for its true light through the Soul life, receiving knowledge through the region of the innermost monitor of the Soul. greatest safety lies, therefore, in the middle path, between the two extremes. It will be found that all the devils of the universe are living in the symbols of the mind, brought into life through extreme grounds between our material and spiritual organizations. Teach me, then, To harmonize the discord of my life, And stop the painful jangle of these wires. Valdesso. That is a task impossible, until You tune your heart-strings to a higher key Than earthly melodies. Michael Angelo. j Dear reader, how we waste time in plaiting scourges for ourselves. These hurrying days, these busy, anxious, shrewd, cunning, ambitious times of ours are wasted, when they take our hearts away from gentle patience and charity, giving fame for love, gold for kisses, dissem- bling for friendship. It really appears that by far the greater part of humanity lives only for self; aspiring, striving, and hoping to retain the animal part and its peculiarity in the life beyond the grave, not seeming to know nor even to care to know, that the selfhood of the animal passions is not immortal, but that there is a Divine union of Soul and Spirit, a higher life of harmonious Wisdom and Love which alone is immortal. Some day there comes a time when our hungry Souls will ask for bread, and our selfish God will give us a stone. Life is not a deep, perplexing problem; it is a simple, easy lesson, such as any child may read. You cannot find its solution in the tomes of the old fathers, the philosophers, the investigators, or the scientists. It is not upon your book-shelves, but in the warmest corner of the most unlettered heart; it glows in symbols that the blind may read, a sweet, plain, simple, easy lesson. And when you have learned it, dear brother of mine, the world will be for you far better and happier. Let all thinking minds observe at times some of the noxious things upon this fair earth; the creeping and venomous things, the swinish, brutal things. Are they not typical representations of the conditions of mind and thought and also actions of many of the human kind, who seem even to the last ambitious with longing FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 7 solicitude to retain and carry their very inharmonies into their im- mortal lives; who will not awaken to receive their heritage; who, con- gealing their Souls with coldness of selfishness until their plane of life is but a frozen sea on which they strive only to make many slips, finally break through into eternities! "Thou madest him a little lower than the Angels," says the Psalmist ; "thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands." Ask of yourself, where do my love and my aspirations lead me? It is unfortunately true that more than two-thirds of the people who seek the modern Spiritual light do so for some selfish purpose, either for material gain or some prompting of vanity, instead of using the precious time in the cultivation of Soul growth, thereby gaining knowl- edge regarding spirit life and communion of Spirits in reference to the ripening of Souls and the life beyond the veil. Just here is where so many become perplexed who seek for material gain from such a source. The material things of life generally prove a great detriment to the unfoldment of Soul and the latent talents of man, simply because the material things of the day are unnatural and there- fore inharmonious. Spiritual light and knowledge, to be practical, should be sought for in a calm, dignified manner, the same as any other fact in nature, as the research is liable to be overdone if not tempered with common- sense and sound reason, which God has given his children to use. Lunacy and crankiness are often charged against Pilgrims of Spiritual Knowledge, sometimes justly, no doubt, and the stigma may be the means of bringing them to see themselves as others see them, for none are perfect. No, not one; but some, no doubt, do see cause and effect in a clearer and more practical manner than others. It is not wisdom, therefore, to be plunged headlong into issues and ideas which are against all harmonious laws of nature, and even against all Spiritual law, which one does not understand led simply by one's vanity or for selfish ends. The mind of man is often like a house of which he is the land- lord. Bad tenants are more easily admitted than removed. Then, again, more than one-third of the investigators begin the study of the occult sciences merely for curiosity, which is detrimental to Truth and to illumination of Soul. Persons who possess the greatest curiosity always investigate the least, usually forming some pet theories only. What appear to be truths from the invisible worlds are often more deceptive to the mind of man than direct lies. Human theories claim N 8 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. much for themselves, but they hold very many disputed titles. If the claims are erroneous, men are made arrogant, intolerant, obnox- ious, and conceited. The middle pathway is best; both extremes of existence are but different degrees of insanity; more properly speaking, of igno- rance and discord, because out of harmony with nature. Either con- dition is wrong; because when one is indulged in at the expense of the other, it is a partial resignation of the greatest blessing of our being, viz.; individuality of consciousness, will, and reason; and one loses his liberty of mind. Oh, Liberty that knows no law of passion, but that of following our highest, best, and noblest impulses, which knows no fear but that of injuring a fellow-creature ever so slightly, and which knows no motive but to benefit the entire race, is one of the secrets of Life. Cast away, then, Oh Pilgrim of Light, all shackles of selfishness that impede thy flight, for thou art now truly a child of nature. Acknowledge no bondage but that of Love, and of thine own higher and better self. Then, and only then, wilt thou be under the guid- ance of Angels, and will be sure to gain the confidence of all who come in contact with thee. He who lives and believes exclusively in this material and objective world is but half a man; he is a materialist; his little world is lighted only by the moon, which is but a reflex of the true sun; therefore he receives only the secondary light, though the exterior world. He has not yet found, nor does he believe in, a Spiritual Sun. While, on the other hand, he who is rapt in psychological wonders, and yearns only for the spiritual side of life, is also but half a man, and rapidly be- comes abnormal and unsound. To give ourselves wholly to the exclusive magnetism of either of these is to violate the law of nature and justice. Silent and patient growth is healthy growth. Little minds are apt to be impatient and often go into extremes in their excitability and desire for success, and thereby retard the very things for which they are so anxious. The road to Spiritual Light is silent, to be traversed step by step as a little child would climb the mountain heights. The persevering traveller will overtake very few, but will pass many lounging by the way, arguing with much noise, for many persons are like babbling brooks that carry no mill. But the calm silence of growth, with a harmonious nature filled with universal love for every up-reaching, aspiring creature, calls Angels downward. This is the pathway to Light. Thoughts are bubbles continually rising and coming to the surface FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 9 in the fountain of the Soul. The best way to graduate thoughts and impressions which roll upon our consciousness from the two hemi- spheres of our being is to be passive or willing in spirit, ready for any greater truth and higher light, but always firm in desire for the light of Truth and growth of the Soul, and determined in our opposi tion to any sensation or noise that disturbs the harmony of our mate- rial or spiritual being. There is no hesitation in stating the philo- sophical law by which we may adjudicate for ourselves, or whereby others may judge for ourselves, as to the actual condition of our individuality. And this law is that of Divine Harmony between the material and spiritual natures. In either extreme, the mind is beset with imaginary devils, hells, and evil spirits. All men may be mediums, all are seers. The Spirit of God is infi- nite, and the laborer, the mechanic, the merchant, as well as the poet and philosopher, is to some extent a seer of spirits, or, to speak more properly, of the forces or laws of nature, which are the life currents of the universal Spirit. Now, be it remembered, these forces or laws appear discordant to the discordant man and harmonious to the harmo- nious one. "The unseen world is destined to become like a newly discovered continent; we shall visit it, we shall hold communion with it, we shall wonder how so many thousands of years could have passed without our being introduced to it." This unseen world is open to every man who can become attuned to the natural harmonies of Divine law. If a musical instrument be out of tune, even the most skilful performer cannot elicit music from the cords. If a human brain be unbalanced in its forces, dispropor- tionate in any department of its combinations, not even the Angel of Light can impart to it an impression of light altogether consistent and reliable, and since most men have more scars upon their souls than on their bodies, very few communications through them are infallible. Even pure water poured into the muddy well does little but to disturb the mud. If we desire reliable illumination, we must go up the Alps of personal harmony and purer love. On the heights. of every Spiritual truth we find pure air. If we would hear and understand the voice of Angels, we must go up the mountains of light, purification, temperance, and simplicity. No man upon the mountain top calls for purer air. If we would comprehend the external world, and subjugate it to our will, we must look upon and work for it from the Spiritual sphere, because all outward phenomena in nature, seeds, plants, trees, birds, IO THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. and beasts; oceans and continents; the successive developments of human societies, all these flow from Spiritual invisible sources of causation, and if we are truly in bondage to the external, and to the innumerable symbols and superstitions which grow like fungi upon its varied surface, we are most truly "mediums for the fantastic impressions of existence.” "The kingdom of heaven is within,"and until that grand unselfish love for one universal humanity has dawned within the Soul the inspiration must be clouded, the truths mere maculations and patches. It requires but little reflection to see that this must be true. If humanity is to rise out of its natural or animal condition, through the inner Soul life, into the Spiritual, the new state is in man, not out- side of him. I baptize you with water, but there cometh one after me who will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of heaven is within you. Mind being the true atmosphere of the Soul, let no man be heed- less of the atmospheres he calls around him, which may congeal and benumb the inner life. All students of Spirit communion will affirm that good and true communications depend upon the harmonies of the medium and his state of mind. If you would have true impressions, live true lives. Your every word, your eating, drinking, sleeping, your occupation all must be free from extremes, and consistent always with the reciprocal laws of development of your dual nature. Now, be it remembered, the mind is the greatest and most fertile source of perplexities. How can mind solve mind? Our best impressions, opinions, and thoughts are the Angel part of us; our selfish acts and thoughts the earthy part. A man might as well try to lift himself by his own boot-straps as to solve this question, and yet we must press onward and analyze as much of mind as our self-investigating power will permit. How abundant the manufactures and how numerous the failures in the commerce of the mind's ideas. Weak minds are content to quaff the surface waters, while strong ones seek their draughts from the deepest fountains of Spirit, and thus we find a few quiet men who run ahead of their age, and open the gates of the future. But enough. This law explains all; that mental discord and the symbols of such discord develop all the conceptions of hell and of demons that inharmonious human minds can invent or that ever obtained a footing in this rudimental existence. Then, again, some + FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. II minds are like sewer pipes; nothing good seems to pass through them without being contaminated. Every brain is a mint in which thoughts are coined, and their true value as a circulating medium is stamped on them outside the mint, so that no thoughtful and observing person need be deceived. All high, pure, and noble thoughts; all sublime aspirations, ideas, poetry, music, harmony, and all that belongs to them, advance the world when they are brought to bear with nature from actual sem- blances and take their immortal birth here. He who strives to possess supernal charity for the world, throwing out emanations of love like billows rippled by a summer breeze, kiss- ing the pebbly shore in music attuned with nature, has attained a growth whose power can uplift the world. This Divine essence of Love brings all things to itself, therefore one must be drawn down to the nature of the beloved one or uplift it to his own plane. One who looks always for that which is crooked will call and see all things crooked; one who looks always for the good, the pure, the true, and the straight, will always find these. He who aims to brighten and uplift the Soul by the Spirit will find the Spirit; he who looks only for the cunning and selfishness of the animal will find fellowship only with the animal. The selfishness and vanity of the Ego are the rocks upon which human intellect or human ignorance wrecks its bark. A headstrong person is a living reproach to the Soul, and Spiritual growth is impos- sible while anger and passion suppress, congeal, and stifle it. True virtue consists in being reasonable. To be intolerant is a contradiction. Do not assume to know too much, but endeavor to know thyself. To be too much in the right is to be in the wrong. Reason should always persuade and never impose herself. He who seeks the paths of the Hidden Way, living in the light of the Absolute Love, loses sight of all difference in things and, passing upward, reaches the Spirit through the insight of the Soul into the fire of principles. Pilgrim of Light, when you see the fire, listen to the Voice of Fire, and when it is discovered do not rush out before the multitude with noisy announcement, or it may depart. This height can be attained only through serene, composed, oblivious tranquillity, released from all physical surroundings. Lose yourself fully into the Spirit; drop the Ego and resist no impulse of thought, word, or action, but make yourself as a pendulum vibrating between the spiritual and natural world. As a little child, be free to grow and be instructed in truth. 12 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. Be perfectly willing to put off the dusty sandals of dogma and creed; to lay aside any favorite theory of yesterday if you can replace it by a more golden truth to-day. Be free to grow. The greatest enemies to human progress, science, and art are dogma and creed; the history and bloodshed of the past cry out with terrible warning, proof of the omnipotent influence a single idea may exercise over the whole life of a nation or an individual. Any pet human theory of infallibility is a Bastile to the soul. Men are always enclosed in the surroundings they create, and live in the atmosphere to which they belong, and this theory limits their vision to that special sphere in which they dwell. I sent my soul through the invisible, Some lessons of the after life to spell. By and by it came and answered, I myself am heaven and hell. - Poem from the Persian. Dear Pilgrim, on the grandest of all altars, that of Nature, lay thy heart open to the pure creative Light, and thou shalt not be left in thine old age to sink alone among the marshes. Like the dawn of a golden morning, life becomes more and more bright, the longer we live; for are we not each day making a grand exchange of ignorance for knowledge, while the reason for everything becomes more plain? that which once puzzled us seems less and less mysterious, while the crooked and entangled paths grow straighter and clearer as we approach the end. The object of these pages is to lighten the pathways of life, since every person possesses in his own heart a mirror in which the very light of heaven may be reflected. Arise, O child, and bathe your earthly sense In yonder fountain of eternal light. Can the writer instruct one in the path that leads to this fountain, and to cleanse and polish this mirror of the Soul? He who reads, thinks; he who thinks, reasons; and he who reasons, unselfishly and honestly, will advance into the Light of Truth. This is the only impulse and desire of the compiler, who rests his hope in the Divine Love with strong desire and deep concern that every reader of this book may reach the still water on the glorious mountain-heights of a True Gnosticism. A Gnostic is one who knows things, Spiritually. The ancient FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 13 1 Gnostic knew the true nature of man and the various hierarchies of Angels, for in the Spiritual, Angels reveal themselves. The work of eternity is to acquire this knowledge and fit ourselves for such com- panionship. There are times when the Soul spurns the limitations of the material body, the outer world recedes, and there dawns upon the vision the radiance of celestial spheres, when familiar faces and lov- ing eyes smile upon us, and tender loving voices waken fond memo- ries of by-gone years. Let us purify ourselves and enter into the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, the temple of the immortals. Let us study to quicken our vision until it pierces the veil of the Beyond, or stretches on into distant lands across the threshold, bringing ever before us the forms of our beloved. Let us quicken our hearing until we can catch the music of the upper spheres, or sense the whispers of love coming to us in every direction over the invisible telephonic wires of the Soul. Love is the great motive power of the universe; without it there would be no life, no light, no motion. God is the Father of Love, Nature our Mother; all we have to do is to find our nourishment in her bosom. It lies within the power of every human being to culti- vate the silent forces through his duality until he can leave the body and clasp hands with friends either in Spirit or in mortal body, as well as to reach out to them in hours of need or disturbance. If others desire only to cultivate and live in the outward senses, apparently satisfied in the outer court of the temple, you can only pity them and pass them by; pass on, and free yourself from bondage. He who finds the hidden way of Soul into Spirit is free. Who does not sigh, either consciously or unconsciously, for liberty, Liberty of Soul, Freedom of Spirit in its truest, purest sense? He who, having enjoyed a certain degree of freedom, has through some unfortunate circumstance been deprived of it, can say how keenly he has felt his loss, not fully realizing the great blessing conferred upon him, until he found it gone. Oh, Goddess of Liberty, chants the Hierophant of Light, to thee let all men bow. Thee only will I recognize as para- mount, for the larger our share of thy favors, the greater our capacity for conferring them on others, the better are we able to loosen the fetters of the captive, even as we ourselves have been set free by the knowledge of Spirit. The expression of a wish, the trembling of a lip, the throb of a sigh for the Truth that makes men free, and makes them lovers of Liberty, is enough to bring myriads of kindred Spirits to our aid. Are you a slave to passion? Become free from passion. To Ambi- 14 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. 7 tion? Free yourself from Ambition. To Vanity and Pride? Eschew Vanity and Pride. Are you in bondage to Avarice, to Anger, to Habit, to Creed and Dogma? Cast them aside, throw all away, destroy all your earthly idols, and become again as a child; then only are you free. We are not alone; it is the poor slave who is lonely, let him be a slave to whatever master, be it greed of gain, his own pas- sions, any habit contracted, or any of the cadaverous gods that hold sway over this lower plane, even to the god of earthly pleasure, he is lonely and in bondage if he make not all subservient to Liberty pure and simple. Men have lived long enough like beasts, when they might have lived like Angels. Reader, do you prefer to descend deeper and deeper into one realm of confusion after another, the confusion of the material with the spiritual? When your individual selfishness, your great I, is paramount, you only turn the ferocity of your animal body inward to prey upon its own vitals. To be set free from all this is Liberty that brings the Perfect Peace. The atmosphere In which the soul delights to be, And finds that perfect liberty Which cometh only from above. The Divine Tragedy. If this compilation will only create pure aspirations and higher thoughts among its readers, expanding their Souls to the full Illumina- tions of Spirit, then the hopes of the compiler will be fully realized. The writer will be well repaid for all his labor, if these hurried pages give a gleam of light and hope to pilot some poor, weary, struggling child to the heights of Perfect Peace, and thus lift some of the burdens, making life more endurable until the end. Great is the art of begin- ning, that of ending is greater. May your heart grow and your mind be refreshed and renewed by the Illuminations of Spirit. May the beginning and the ending of each passing year be like unto this book, which begins and ends with Love. Oh, build for yourselves a memorial that the tempests of time and the mosses of ages cannot obliterate. Treasures in heaven; Charity and Love. A He walked and talked with Spirit, and the highest Spirit was God.-Enoch. For the things that appear to our natural eye delight us, but make the things that appear not, hard to believe; for our Spiritual eyes, if not yet opened, how can we perceive them? - Old Egyptian. FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 15 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned.—1 Cor. 11: xiv. Be ready for whatever may happen by maintaining an inviolable calmness, making that "Pythagorean inward peace, that deep un- troubled calm," respond to your call and command. Strive to know yourself, and learn to protect each defect and weakness whether in the physical or mental part of your being. The human body is strongly subject to a double law, for everything in nature is double. All magnetisms have actions that are positive and negative, active and passive, male and female. Men or women who have made care- ful study of themselves, and learned to polarize their action of Astral Magno in union with their bisexual forces, can wield a mighty power, and become the grandest of magicians with a tongue of prophetic light. This height is only reached up that pathway of Love which is of God; of Wisdom which is by silence, and the knowledge of it can be attained only through the Divine calm of silence, which brings one in accord with the infinite energy of nature. In silence God speaks to the heart of man; in silence man com- munes with God, each living Soul being a solitary ray or reflection of the absolute God, a gleam of light from the Divine Mind, and the golden fruitage of the Divine is that bread of which if a man eat he shall never die. (St. John vi. 63.) "It is the Spirit that quick- eneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life." The word is Spirit; not philos- ophy, not doctrine, not dogma nor creed, but Spirit, the life. God's life, Spirit truth, Facts spiritual not physical, are found in this the kingdom of Love. The kingdom of God is an undeveloped kingdom in every Soul, and it waits for the divine touch before it can develop. 'Why is it, then, if this be true, why does not God do it? He does. Why do not daisies grow under an impenetrable shade? When the meadow is spangled with golden dandelions, what is the reason that in some dark nook, where we thrust all broken tools and things that are no longer useful, no dandelions grow? There is seed enough everywhere, but things will not grow where the light cannot penetrate to give them life. Why is it, then, that when God desires the develop- ment of this spiritual element in the human family, it has developed in some, but in most cases the animal life of man and his physical faculties are utterly incapable of understanding the highest truth. There is a realm higher than all that, and that part of man by which ! 16 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. he understands science and philosophy cannot understand this other and higher realm. Paul says, in the spirit of the Greeks: "The natural man under- standeth not the things of the Spirit, neither can he, for they are to be Spiritually discerned." You cannot represent one element by the symbolization of another. It takes for granted that the element of Spiritual intelligence, developed or undeveloped, exists in some degree in every man, else he would not be blameworthy. Christ spoke to men, as one who saw what was in them, lying dormant, crystallized, unused and unusable, but exist- ing, a department out of which might come the percipience of Spirit- ual truth; but that, as a general fact, that department was not opened in any way, and that the knowledge which could be obtained only through that element in human nature was deficient in those who could understand as far as their senses went, and, just as far as their mere scientific reasoning carried them, could understand more or less clearly and distinctly, but in regard to the highest realm of truth, which was God's nature and God's life, and the life corresponding to it in the human Soul, they absolutely were ignorant, nor could they, until some change took place, understand those truths. And he then teaches that there exists an effluence of the Divine Spirit, which is not simply illumination though it is that but it is life power, the power of arousing life, and in that particular part of a Soul where the cognizance of Divine things resides. He taught that God, as a Spirit, may touch this inward suscepti- bility of men, this inward life, and that its development would bring to men true experience and understanding of all truths pertaining to one's own Soul life, as distinguished from his bodily life. He taught further that this life-truth of God, or life-effect springing from contact of God's nature with the human nature, is inoperative gener- ally. It is influential, not compulsory; it is commanded, yet not imper- ative. This is not strange, when you see the analogy of truth all the way through every step of human knowledge in the lower sphere. A God defined is a God dethroned. Three impulses live in and actuate The first is the impulse of the Spirit of the elements, terrestrial body and the vital forces in the animal or brute creation. man. The second is the impulse or spirit of memory and thought, intel- lectual, the sidereal or Astral-body Soul, the Star Magno or second self. The third is the Divine Essence or impulse and Spirit from the God- FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 17 head, the perfect vibration in concord with the infinite energy of nature resting in the bosom of the absolute Love, the perfect cord. All these three impulses or spirits in or about man act only as the image on the mirror of his monitor and echo on the mind. If one is fully attuned with the other a harmonious life is the result. It is frequently said of persons that they are "possessed." It is only over or under action of some one of these impulses. The overaction of the first two sometimes opens the door of mentality to an obsession, hence what we term insanity. The hidden way is the Infinite way; the instinct or natural mind is the Star Magno or seed Astral planted in the soil of the body, which not unlike a seed planted in the earth, deposited in darkness, must first soften, then enlarge, before bursting forth to catch the light of morning; so must the heart of man be first softened in darkness and suffering, enlarged with love and unselfish charity toward all, to burst forth finally into fruitage through the Divine Light. The Overture of Angels is heard afresh in new anthems, and the Heavenly Hosts are marshalled for a conquest which will be com- plete and for all time. They have issued their Declaration of Inde- pendence that man be free, mentally and spiritually, in the depths of his Soul, that creed and dead forms shall no longer shackle him free, perfectly free to do right, to think right, to live right, and be his own prophet, priest, and king. Teachers he shall have, yes, in abun- dance; but they shall be animated by the TRUE Christ Spirit, seeking not their own but their brother's welfare, who are born and in com- munion with the Holy Angels, and receiving constant revelations from on high. These advanced and unfolded teachers will so forcibly and clearly present the truth that men will come to comprehend how by dwelling in love they dwell in God. They will realize that to love the neigh- bor is logical, practical, and philosophical, that the neglect or refusal to do so, all these thousands of years, has caused horrible and devas- tating wars, the sacrifice of millions and tens of millions of lives, and thousands upon thousands of millions of money. They will come to see that by want of this love the accumulated products of their industry have been consumed, wasted, and destroyed. Man will realize that nearly all his troubles and sufferings have their inception in want of love for his neighbor. The religion of the future will be practical love and good-will, ad- vancing peace on earth. It will be noble, broad, comprehensive, . 18 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. grounded in science, philosophy, the divine revelations of nature, and the teaching of exalted Angels. May you, dear Pilgrim of Light, leave this world like a full shock of corn, gathered in by the harvesters in its season, fully ripened by a universal brotherhood, and your Soul illuminated by lessons in the school of Charity and Love. Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul, were inspired; Socrates, Sakya-Mundi, Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare, says the orthodox Christian, were un- inspired. Inspiration was exclusively the prerogative, that is, of the prophets and teachers through whom God revealed himself in Jewish and in early Christian times. But, accepting that narrow view of the Divine Spirit's operation in the world of moral intelligence and feel- ing, in what estimate are we to hold the lofty wisdom and the pure goodness that the world has revered in men who have lived beyond the limits within which orthodox teaching confines the gifts of inspira- tion? Whence come words like these? - are they from heaven, or of men? The Supreme One said : I am made evident by my own power; and as often as there is a decline of virtue, and an insurrection of vice and injustice in the world, I make myself known; and thus I appear from age to age, for the preservation of the just, the destruction of the wicked, and the establishment of virtue." (( Holy acts of sacrifice are performed by those who are devoted to their own duties, whose conduct is right and free from blemish; who are good, and tread in good paths." "When the intellect is pure as well as the heart, to it the region of the Deity becomes visible.” "God is near you, is with you, is within you.' "A sacred Spirit dwells within us, the observer and guardian of all. our evil and our good." "Be self-denying, but do not boast of it; keep a watch upon your- self, as your own most dangerous enemy. Do not plume yourself upon intellectual knowledge, which is in itself quite valueless, but on a consistent nobleness of action. Never relax your efforts, but aim at perfection." Where there is Virtue, there is Victory. He who considers all beings as existing in the Supreme Spirit, and the Supreme Spirit as pervading all, is henceforth incapable of perpetrating any sin whatever. Isa Upanishad 6. Speak the Truth. Truth alone conquers, and not falsehood. Truth means the blissful correspondence of mind, speech, and action FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 19 with one another. No religion or morality is greater than Truth, and no sin greater than falsehood. Let mortals, therefore, adhere to Truth, and Truth alone, at all times. Truth represents a great devo- tion, and upon Truth depends the good effect of our actions. There is nothing higher than Truth.” Do Justice. Justice, being destroyed, will destroy; being pre- served, will preserve; it must never, therefore, be violated. Beware, lest Justice, being overturned, overturn thee and us all."- Manu, viii: 15. "Do no injury to another. By non-injury is meant the non-caus- ing of pain of any kind to any one, at any time, in mind, speech, or action. "The principle of non-injury helps us in practising the virtues of mercy, charity, devotion, and worship. It is our greatest strength, and greatest friend; and it is the source of happiness, veracity, and all that is good." 66 Mercy is the might of the righteous. Being treated cruelly do not return the cruelty. Give blessings for curses. A good man thinks only of benefiting all, and cherishes no feelings of hostility toward any one, even at the moment of his being destroyed by him, just as the sandal-tree sheds perfume on the edge of the axe, at the time of its being cut down."- Hitopadesa. "Be not selfish. A selfish inclination is the root of the two sets of evil, and ought to be suppressed with diligence." "Strive not too anxiously for a subsistence; that has been fur- nished by providence. No sooner is a creature born than milk for its support streams from the breast of the mother." 66 'Anger is the passion of fools; it becomes not a wise man." Vishnu Purana, i. i. 18. "All undertakings prove successful, if conducted with prudence." Id. i. xiii. 78. 66 Always speak kindly and pleasantly. Do not maintain unworthy dissensions, or altercations, nor indulge in idle talk."— Manu, iv. 139. An Epitome of Aryan Morals, compiled by request of the Presi dent of the Theosophical Society, for the use of the Aryan youth. — Om. "Eswara (the Supreme Soul) resideth in the heart of every mortal being. "Oh man, thou thinkest thou art alone, and actest as thou likest. Thou dost not perceive the Eternal Soul that dwells within thy breast. Whatever is done by thee, It sees and notes it all. This Soul is its 20 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. own witness, and its own refuge. It is the supreme eternal witness. of man. Do not offend it." Action, either mental, verbal, or corporeal, bears good or evil fruit according as the action itself is good or evil; and from the actions of men proceeded their various transmigrations in the highest, the mean, and the lowest degree. Nobody ever enjoys or suffers, except from the effects of his own action. Every one reaps the consequences of his conduct." "Therefore, considering the misery attached to embodied Souls from a violation of duty, and the imperishable bliss attached to them from the proper performance of all duties; and considering also with thy intellectual powers the migration of the Soul according to its virtue or vice, thou shouldst constantly fix thy heart on virtue, and be always pure in thought, in word, and in deed." "Thou shouldst strive to raise thyself by thyself. Self is the friend of Self, and Self in like manner is the enemy of Self." "The mind of man is the cause both of his bondage and of his liberation. Its attachment to objects of sense is the reason of his bondage, and its separation from objects of sense is the means of his freedom. "He who is capable of discriminating knowledge, should, therefore, restrain his mind from all objects of sense; and therewith meditate upon Para-Bramha, the Supreme Soul, in order to attain liberation.” “In the man's passage to the next birth, neither his father, nor mother, nor son, nor wife, nor kinsman will bear him company. The only thing that adheres to his Soul is the effect of his action (Karma). Continually, therefore, man ought to heap up virtue, for the sake of securing a good, inseparable companion. With virtue for his guide, he will pass through a gloom hard to be traversed.” "His heart was in his work, and the heart Giveth grace unto every art." -The Building of the Ship. "Like shadows Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines, And death steals o'er us like a gentle sleep Soft, mild, oblivious into the arms of love. "O river of To-morrow, I uplift Mine eyes, and thee I follow, as the night Wanes into morning. Still follow, follow; sure to meet the sun, And confident that what the future yields Will be the right, unless myself be wrong." The Two Rivers. 99 FROM NIGHT TO LIGHT. 21 Mankind are usually found complaining of their lot, forgetting to give thanks for the blessings received. Human nature finds it so much easier to grumble because God has not given more, than to be grateful with a thankful heart for what He has given; to spend the day in lamentation and complaint, with no friendship or companion- ship with Spirit, Angel, or God. Kind reader, you will find it a solemn truth that if a man's religion or his love has failed to sweeten his temper, he has gotten the wrong article. "This is peace; To conquer love of self and lust of life, To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast, To still the inward strife." - Edwin Arnold. Patience cometh by long suffering and makes men look like gods. Calm patience makes a countenance peaceful as spotless innocence, gentle as the face of heaven. The patient man is not satisfied with one good deed or one victory, but each day strings all together like so many pearls, and, looking backward through the years, finds a shining pathway of pearls; a beautiful retrospect. In the drama of life, which is forever repeating itself, though the actors continually change, those who have never seen the play are deeply interested, but few study its depths of meaning, looking only for pleasure until the curtain drops upon the closing scene. Dear Pilgrim of Light, strive to possess patience and silence. The Truth of another and a better world Shines by the side of every path we tread, With such a lustre he who runs may read. ·· A CHAPTER II. GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. There is an eye that never sleeps, Beneath the wing of night. There is an ear that never shuts, When sink the beams of light. There is an Arm that never tires, When human strength gives way; There is a love that never fails, When earthly loves decay. God is everywhere! the God who framed Mankind to be one mighty family, Himself our Father, and the world our home. GOD is Spirit. God is Love. God is Life. God is Mind. God is the Subject and Object of Mind. Wherever are life and substance, there is God. Wherever God is, there is Being, and wherever God is not, there is no Being. The Universe is existence and being wherever God manifests. As living substance, God is one. As Life and Substance God is Dual or twain. He is the Life and she the Substance. God is per- fect will and perfect love; perfect knowledge and perfect wisdom; perfect intelligence and perfect sympathy; perfect justice and per- fect mercy; perfect power and perfect goodness; perfect harmony and law and order. It is a fundamental Truth that the Love which prompts creation is present from the beginning; but she reserves the manifestation of her love until the subject of her impulsion is able to bear its part in the recognition of her. First, therefore, is Will, then Love; first pro- jection, then recall; first expansion, then contraction; first motor, then sensory; first intellectual, then intuitional; first sensible, then spiritual. In short, first man, then woman. Such is invariably the order in which the universal Heart of Love and Existence manifests its essential dualism of all nature and operation. The Misconception of God and the Misunderstanding of Man are the two gigantic obstacles in the way of human progress to the Light of Truth. 22 Other Systems. Other Systems. GREAT : Other Systems. Solar System. Earth. Sun. DEEP Other Systems GOD GREAT DEEP Other Systems नेने Other Systems. THE GREAT CENTRAL SUN SPIRIT, THE INFINITE AND ETERNAL ENERGY FROM WHICH ALL THINGS PROCEed, the FouNTAIN OF ALl Life. INTERPRETATION OF THE CHART GOD. (As transmitted to Seers and Adepts.) All Spiritual Influx and all Life is from One Grand Spiritual Fountain, therefore must be the origin of all Life; all Truth, all Love, all Wisdom and Understanding, must flow from this Fountain into the soul of man, and are felt in his mind; they flow forth from his thoughts into his speech; and from his will into his actions. The Seer Swedenborg uses the following propositions in his statement of this problem. 1. That there are two worlds, the spiritual world, in which are spirits and angels, and the natural world, in which are men. 2. That the spiritual world existed and continually subsists from its own sun, and that the natural world existed and sub- sists from its own sun. That there is one sun of the spiritual world and another sun of the natural world, is because those worlds are altogether distinct; and a world derives its origin from its sun. 3. That the sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. 4. That from that sun proceeds* heat and light, and that the heat proceeding from it is in its essence love, and that the light thence is in its essence wisdom. 5. That both that heat and that light flow in into man, the heat into his will, where it produces the good of love, and the light into his understanding, where it produces the truth of wis- dom. 6. That those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow in conjointly from God into the soul of man, and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts, and from these into the senses, speech and actions of the body. 7. That the sun of the natural world is pure fire, and that the world of nature first existed and continually subsists by means of this sun. 8. That therefore everything which proceeds from this sun, regarded in itself, is dead. 9. That which is spiritual clothes itself with that which is natural, as a man clothes himself with a garment. 10. That spiritual things thus clothed in man enable him to live as a rational and moral man, thus a spiritually natural man. II. That the reception of that influx is according to the state of love and wisdom with man. 12. That the understanding in man is capable of being elevated into the light, that is, into the wisdom, in which the angels of heaven are, according to the improvement and cultivation of his reason, and that his will is capable of being elevated in like manner into heat, that is, into love, according to the deeds of his life; but that the love of the will is not elevated, except so far as the man wills and does those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches. 13. That it is altogether otherwise with beasts. 14. That there are three degrees in the spiritual world, and three degrees in the natural world, according to which all influx takes place. 15. That ends are in the first degree, causes in the second, and effects in the third. 16. That hence may appear what is the quality of spiritual influx from its origin to its effects. * These principles are one in the Fountain of Life, God, and proceed as one from Him, though they are variously received. The reader is requested to remember this explanation when he meets with this form of expression. The Spiritual world flows into the natural world, and actuates it in all its parts, as well with men as with beasts, and also constitutes the vegetative principles in trees and herbs. GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 23 և So long as man believes in a personal God who distributes favors to some and punishes others at will; a God that can be reasoned with, persuaded, flattered, and pacified by ignorant man; he who believes thus will keep himself within the narrow confines of igno- rance, and his mind cannot expand sufficiently to cultivate his Soul into the light of Truth. If such a person desists from a wicked act, or denies himself a material pleasure, it is not from any universal affection or innate love of good, but either because he expects a reward for his “sacrifice," or fears God's wrath, and this fear makes him a coward and a cringing sycophant. True love casts out all fear, is never dishonest, and can exist only under proper conditions of adaptation. God is Spirit. God is Love. God is the Divine Harmony and the infinite and eternal Energy from which all things proceed. God (the Absolute) is the interior Nature. His manifestation is his exterior appearance. God, being Life itself, it is living actively and united with God, and inseparably from Him in the same sense as force is united with motion; it is a spiritual substance, being an Essence of motion from a Divine harmony and a Divine love. The sensorium of God is frequently called Divine Wisdom. In the beginning (through Wisdom) was the Word. God is the source of all power, the active principle of creation; the Word be- comes the passive or feminine principle and serves Him as a mirror in which He may see Himself reflected as the form of all beings. God is a union of Spirit and Love. God is the active principle and the Word combined. God is a union of the male and female principles through which a higher idea is reflected than in some other creations of His handiwork. To conceive correctly or to come to a full sense of realization, three factors are necessary, viz.: Knowledge, the Knower, and the Known. If these exist on entirely different planes, there can be no relation between them, and will be no results. Absolute knowledge means perfect knowledge of the inner Soul of things. It is the light of perfection, to obtain which man must become perfect in Spirit. Imperfect man cannot know The Absolute. He can only witness the manifestations of the Absolute. God can only be known Spiritually. God is not nature, but nature is His manifestation. Every man is himself a manifestation of God, and as the character of each man differs from that of every other, so each man's idea of God differs from that of every other man, and each has an ideal God of his own. 24 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. As the Divine Essence proceeds to manifest itself in form, it descends from generalities to particulars, and as it again descends its individual units expand, grow and surmount all obstacles, ultimately to mingle with the whole, finding its Archetype in the bosom of the absolute flame, the Spirit's great central Sun of Life, the Soul of Fire abiding in the eternal Ocean of Light. The Father is Fire, the Word, Light, the Holy Ghost, air in motion. This was the sacred mystery of the Egyptians, Syrians, Mex- icans, and the chant of the Hierophant and that of the Grand Lama of the East are the same. The Adepts will instruct the student. The appearance in the true light, is darkness to the natural man; the real inner truth is directly contrary to that which is apparent; that which is light to the animal man is darkness to the supernatural; that which is light and truth to the supernatural is darkness to the natural man. Matter is darkness, yet how plainly we see it. Spirit and Soul are light, yet how few perceive them. Thus arise the misconception of God and the misunderstanding of Man. The Adept in India is taught that Heat is life, Flame its substance, and Light its manifestation. That Spirit Light is the Soul of the world, which is that inexpressible mystery of the Holy Ghost, the flower of Harmony, or glory of the latent Divine fire. God is Spirit. God is Love; and man honors God best when he seeks to be God-like. The darkness of shadow must correspond in intensity with the brightness of light, and it is only through full knowl- edge of the one that the other can be duly appreciated and appre- hended. He only can thoroughly appreciate God who has ample knowledge of Evil. It is a profound truth that the greatest sinner can grow to become the greatest saint. Truth alone is valuable and it has nothing to fear. The crucible does not harm the gold, the dross alone falls away under the test, and surely the true gold is well rid of the dross. Because some impurity obstructs the truth one is apt to reject both, instead of separating the truth from the impurity. That exquisite epitome of the Soul's history, the story of the Prodigal Son, is based upon the same text. Only they who have gone out from God, returning, know Him, the cause and consequence of going out from Him. - at once Matter is an indispensable minister to creation, without which, and its limitations, creation were not possible. It is impossible to escape from the conclusion that the law of creation which governs this physical universe is but the expression of a Spiritual idea, and as the mind is but an attribute of Will, so will of Thought is Spirit. GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 25 Man, and his creation as a physical being, is no more nor less than an expression of a spiritual idea, for matter, without the Spirit, is dead, and all ideas of life and motion must have originated with. Spirit before they can be expressed in matter. Though man had never been incarnated in matter, the Seed Idea or Ray has always been, and will ever be everlasting in the realms of Spiritual Entities with God. The law that rounds a dew-drop shapes a world, and the same principles which constitute the formation of one prevail in all the systems of resplendent worlds. In the midst of all our human theories, wisdom and enlightened ignorance, Spirit communion and Spiritual revelation, each supplements the other in assuring us there is one grand central Sun of Being - God. We are informed by all Physical science that it must be so, and it is affirmed by all Spiritual communion and revelation that it is truly so; that God is as a Great Central Sun ever radiating His rays of love and light to all the systems of worlds and their inhabitants. This is the sun of light, eternal light, dispensed from the hand of love, from God's infinitude, which in His good time, when the Soul is ripened for the harvest, will be returned to Him.* To bring one's self in harmony with the Divine absolute Mind does not mean occasionally to think of "God and the Angel World,” nor to go through some prescribed form of worship, but to establish a continuity of communion of Soul with Spirit, and a molecular vibration between the Spiritual part of man and the Divine universal Spirit; it means to live continually in one's higher loves and higher illuminations. of consciousness, which are alone objects of true contemplation. In silence God speaks to the heart of man; in solitude man com- munes with God. This is the state of true active clairvoyance or illu- mination, and is very different from the ordinary clairvoyance of the day, which is in use simply as an article of commerce. This true illumination and active clairvoyance is a pure and well developed som- nambulism, which has assimilated the Astral body and Spiritual con- sciousness, with the Absolute and Divine energy, having been in a perfect vibration in accord with God and the Angel world. The stu- dent who has reached this point will, on his return to his normal state, remain in full possession of the impressions and words received, and of the visions his soul has witnessed. Such was the clairvoyance of Swedenborg, the Seer, and of numerous hierophants of the present day. In order to know, we must learn, and in order to learn must use such means as are adapted * See illustration. 26 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOold. to our present condition, and any instructions at our command. If we have had no instructions in knowledge, being uninitiated Seers, even if the veil were suddenly withdrawn from our eyes, we should be dazzled by the Great Light, like a man who, having been born blind, is afterward suddenly made to see. Overwhelmed by new experiences and unfamiliar sensations, he is unable to discriminate and judge prop- erly, but the student of Light has grown to understand, both by expe- rience and instruction, and becomes a co-worker with Nature. Every form in Nature is a symbol of an idea, and represents a sign, a letter, or a word. A succession of such symbols forms a language. Nature is, therefore, the Divine language in which the Universal Mind expresses its ideas. The highest secrets of nature are perfectly accessible to him whose growth of Soul and illumination of mental constitution is so perfected as to bring the vibrations of his being into perfect accord with nature. This enables him to be a vehicle or instrument for expression of the ideas of Spirit or Universal Mind. Everything in nature has an impulse and a hidden proper name, and he who has the light to see the hidden ways has the power to call a thing by its proper name, and can summon it to his assistance, even into existence, by a mere vibration caused by pronouncing that name. There is only one genuine, interior language for man- the language of Spirit; and the symbols which are natural must be per- fectly intelligible to all who learn that language. The interior lan- guage is forcibly expressed, and breathes out the Divine harmony of Spirit, while the exterior one is only a succession of physical sounds. The key to the interior language is the divine Logos* and mental illu- mination. The key to the exterior one is the mental organization and habit of collective bodies of men. There is a universal light which contains the Light of all beings, and this is the Star Magno or Astral Light, which is the living organ of that universal language, the universal symbol, sound, types, and harmonies of which are expressed in nature. True language must express the harmony of the Soul with the nature of things, and as long as there is distinction of character and in harmony, there can be no universal harmonious language. Each body is the symbol of an invisible and corresponding power, and man, in whom the highest powers are contained, is the most noble symbol in nature, the first and most beautiful letter in the alphabet of earth. * See illustrating hieroglyphic. GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 27 "Learn, Oh man, to know thyself, and walk with the knowledge of the Spirit within thee," is the chant of the Grand Lama. Spiritual illumination teaches man to know that it is better to live to help and love another than to destroy and tear another in pieces. The mis- sion of man is to do good and to grow; to do that which is most use- ful for his ripening and development. Spirit is powerful, matter weak. The higher rules and controls the lower. One who would control himself must rise above his own selfish desires. One who would control another must identify himself with the being and feeling of that other, while poised mentally and spiritually above him. One who desires to control a Soul Spirit must enter the sphere of its attractions and thought, and then rise spirit- ually above it, with a higher ideal, and the Spirit will be attracted to him and will obey his every command. Man attains to the Image of God just in proportion to his com- prehension of the nature of God, for man is that which he knows, and knows only that which he is. Hence, the terms used to express God denote both sexes, and where only one sex is designated, it is not because the other is wanting but because it is latent. Hence it is, also, that in order to be made in the Image of God, the individual must have ripened and grown from the animal plane the dual nature comprised in one within himself, the masculine and feminine qualities, and become Spiritual. The union of the dual forces brings a Spiritual illumination of both man and woman. Man is perfect only when all humanity is manifested in him, and this occurs only when the whole Spirit of humanity, that is, Spirit, Love, God is manifest through him. Thus God manifests Himself, as is written in the book of Genesis, "God created man in His own Image, male and female.” This is the supreme mystery called by St. Paul the " Mystery of godliness, the truth which maketh free.” Such are the doctrines of occult societies, of secret orders, and of all Hermetic scriptures. This is that great mystery which hath been hidden for ages, and from generation to generation. It is that light of Spirit knowledge, which man always discerns when he succeeds in growing to and attaining the light of the inner and celestial side of his nature, where he is taught directly of his own Divine Spirit, and knows as he is known. The attainment of this Divine knowledge and growth is that per- fect peace which the world does not understand, which constitutes an existence of power over things in a harmonious loving Paradise ; 1 . 28 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. this that ever living fountain he that drinketh of which shall never thirst; this is the conquest of life; it is that grand exchange of igno- rance for knowledge; the victory of understanding over all doubts and fears. It is the philosopher's stone; a pure Spirit; an illuminated Soul; a firm will and a clear perception of the secret mysteries of life and death, only attained through the secret operations and ripening of the Soul. God is the crowning feature of the spiritual world, as man is that of the physical, and numerous instances are recorded of the actual, sensible vision of God. Of the Hebrew prophets, Isaiah says he “ saw the Lord high and lifted up"; Ezekiel, that he "beheld the glory of the God of Israel, as a figure of fire"; Daniel, that he beheld God as a human form en- throned in flame; and John records in the Apocalypse a similar vis- ion. The writer of the book of Exodus shows the cognizance of such visions by ascribing them not only to Moses, but to all the elders and leaders of Israel-in all, seventy-four persons. The sight of the "God of Israel" on this occasion is described as “like a devouring fire," while other ancient sacred writings are found wherein the Lord of the world exhibits to the gaze of Arjun "His supreme and heavenly form," shining on all sides with the flame of light immeasurable, "like the sun a thousandfold," and con- taining in His breast all the Gods or powers, masculine and feminine, of the universe; and, in still later days, Emanuel Swedenborg, in re- cording the results of his own extensive spiritual visions and experi- ences, not only asserts the fact of the vision, but offers an explana- tion of it. "God," he says, "Who is the All in All, appears to the Angels, only in human form, and men on earth bear His Divine Image,” and further he says, "He assumed that image Himself before making man in it. The Lord (that is the babe of Bethlehem) is God manifest as man in the universe." His representative on earth is our Lord, while many Hierophants and modern Seers of great authority claim that the "Lord is God manifest as a man," for in the Lord the formless assumes a physical form, the nameless a name, the infinite the definite, and all these human. "God's representative on earth” is intended by Swedenborg in a historical and exclusive sense, for he is always "Our Lord" and representative of God on earth, in whom the Divine Spirit finds manifestation; and this is not in any one man, but in every regenerate man. God, Diety, becomes cognizable in and by the Soul of man who has become sufficiently regenerate and grown to receive the vision. It is not as a man in the exclusively physical GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 29 sense, but as a man who has united both masculine and feminine, illuminated by the Spirit as one being, or as humanity itself. The Lord is God manifested in substance, and is dual in form, because God is dual in essence, and the true vision of God, Deity under a def- inite form, dual and human, the Androgyne, or Androgynous. Herein lies the famous riddle of the Sphinx, the Egyptian mystery. Little wonder is it that between Spirit Truth and the Materialist should be a gulf so impassable, a feud so irreconcilable, seeing that while one seeks to grow and ripen by the sacrifice of his own selfish lower nature to his higher one, of gentleness and unselfish love, not alone for himself but for all others, the Materialist cultivates only the Ego, I, looking only to the objective, turning vivisector, becoming actually fiendish. Those who cannot see God "by the eye of faith and love" do not hear His voice and fail to comprehend Him in His works. Doubts are infantine realities. The best way to determine the right or wrong of a proposed act, when the Soul does not respond nor the mirror reflect the true way, is to ask one's self the question, “Will it honor God?” We cannot think of God without being made better by the thought, for God prompts all good deeds; they are never accidental. The knowledge which descends into the Soul from above excels any that can be attained by the mere exercise of the intellect. Intuition is the operation of the Soul; the knowledge received through it from Spirit, descending into the Soul, fills it with the per- ception of the interior and true cause of Things. The Trinity, from its original point of radiation, is on the Spiritual plane, that is Love, Wisdom, and the Word. And on all planes what- soever, it is, in some mode, Father, Mother, and Child. "For there are three which bear record in heaven" (or the invisible world), and these three are one. And there are three which bear record on Earth (or the visible world), and these three agree in one, being Spirit, Soul, and Body. The Trinity of antiquity did not fall from the mark, — Fire being the first operative power of nature, so called the Father of the world and men; Earth the second operative power of nature, the maternal; the third, Spirit. On the high altar of a noble secret order are seen the three double letters of our modern alphabet, thus:— Z. Z.-R. R. — S. S. Z, the fire principle or Soul of refreshing vigor to earth, the grosser part of love; R, the passive and receptive, the motherhood, 30 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. the gentler part of love; S, the invisible sacred Spirit, the higher part of love. Only through S. S. can mortals see into the hidden secrets of the invisible world. The Trinity of the oldest religion known was Fire, Air, and Sun, while that of the scientific theorist of to-day is little better, viz.: Gaseous, Liquid, and Solid. Discoveries are not all new inventions. Far from it, they are forgotten things found again. The Eastern student finds in a certain order this Trinity. The Father is the Soul of Fire, that life which breathes the gen- erative fire; the Word, Light, the receptive Motherhood; the Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Air in motion. Again it is found that planets Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars form a Trinity analogous to Water, Air, and Fire, with colors of Golden, Purple, and Red. The Rosicrucians had a Trinity in the tri-color of a banner. First, Blue, the baptism by water, the natural bread of the Host of the body; second, White, the air or light, the intermediate for good or for evil; third, Crimson, the fire supernatural, the Spirit blood of life, the fire-born world. God, as Absolute Being, having no form nor name objective, cannot and may not be represented under any appellation; but through the creative love, the Divine Mind conceives the ideal humanity and makes the human Soul a vehicle for a seed essence of His light, in which to descend from being into existence; for the Spirit of God is as a flame of fire, which the word of God divideth into many, yet the original flame is not decreased, nor the power thereof, nor is the brightness thereof lessened. Thou mayest light many lamps from the flame of one, yet thou dost in no way diminish that first flame. It is Love alone that redeemeth, and Love hath nothing of her own. God withstandeth not God, for Love and God are one. Love redeemeth; Love lifteth up; Love enlighteneth; Love doth not forget, but advanceth Souls, for she is of the Soul, and Love hath everlasting remembrance. These are the Divine fires which burn forever before the presence of God, which proceed from the Great Spirit and are one with the Spirit. God is divided, yet not diminished, for as He giveth out the light, it lighteth anew other lights and the light increaseth; God is All and God is One. In the promotion of the development of knowledge of God and Spirit Truth, mental illumination is a prime factor. By means of it, the man is elevated to that region, interior and superior, • GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 31 where alone peace and serenity prevail, and the perception of truth is unobstructed; the Soul thus attaining to its full altitude, the mind has no longer to reason and compare, for he sees and knows, and his Soul is content in the attunement with the Ab- solute Love. For him the dual life in the Divine order of his Spiritual system is carried to the throne of God, for the intellect and intuition of the Divine male and female forces are one in the blissful home of his parent Spirit, thus forming the Angelic seed a perfected Soul. The uniting of these dual forces within forms the fourth dimension of space, whence all things have their continuity and succession, and where alone, therefore, they can be comprehended. Thrice happy is the man whose enthusiasm for truth has given him an impelling force, without which he could never have left the outer, nether, and apparent, and gained the inner, upper, and real truth and knowledge of life, and awakens to find there is really no "invisible world." Dumfounded, perhaps, at first, he soon learns that the mys- teries of life overleap and destroy all human theories and philoso- phies. Not to know impulses of Soul is not to know Love, and he who knows not Love is not yet fully a man, for he has yet to develop in himself that which alone contemplates and makes the true man, that is, the dual forces of his bi-sexual nature. The Materialist, on the contrary, regarding matter as all, and its limitations as inherent in being, sees, in the endeavor to transcend those limitations, only a suicidal attempt to escape from all being. He strives, therefore, to attach himself yet more closely to matter, little as he esteems it, and is content when he has succeeded in mak- ing from those merely material things, such selection as ministers best to his bodily gratification, nor can he comprehend one of sound mind who seeks for more. As St. Paul says, "The things of the Spirit are foolishness to the natural man." By the vision of God as the Lord, the clairvoyant Seer knows that the Angel of this celestial kingdom is within; that the king is also the queen; that in respect of form, no less than substance, man is created in God's own image, male and female; and that in ascend- ing and becoming "one with the Father," man ascends to and becomes one with the Mother, for in the form beheld is the vision of Adonia, the Androgyne, the bi-sexual, both He and She made manifest. 32 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. What and who, then, is Adonia?* This is a question which involves the mystery of the Trinity. The reader knows well that generation is not of one, but of twain, male and female. And inasmuch as that which is gen- erated partakes necessarily of the nature of the generators, it there- fore must be dual. That, then, which in the current presenta- tion of the doctrine of the Trinity is termed the Father, is in reality the Father-Mother, and constitutes the first and second per- sons of the Godhead; that which is begotten of them, the off- spring, is really the third person in the Godhead, and complet- ing the Trinity is also a dual being, not merely Son, although. so called, but is prototype of both sexes, and called in token thereof, Jehovah, Lord, El Shadi, Adonia, etc., each of which names implies duality. Having for Father the Spirit of life, and for Mother the Great Deep, which is Substance, Adonia possesses the potentiality of both sexes, and wields the dual powers of all things. From the Godhead thus constituted proceeds through Adonia, the uncreated, creative Spirit, the Divine informer and fashioner of all things, the Spirit of a flame of fire, who is called the Holy Ghost. GOD.† Oh thou eternal One! whose presence bright All space doth occupy, all motion guide; Unchanged through time's all devastating flight; Thou only God! There is no God beside! Being above all beings! Mighty One! Whom none can comprehend and none explore, Who fill'st existence with Thyself alone; Embracing all, — supporting,―ruling o'er, — Being whom we call GOD — and know no more! Thou from primeval nothingness didst call First chaos, then existence; - Lord, on Thee Eternity had its foundation:- all Sprung forth from Thee; of light, joy, harmony, Sole origin; all life, all beauty Thine. - Thy word created all, and doth create; Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine, Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! Great! Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate. * See illustration. + Translated from the Russian of Derzhaving by Sir John Bowring, who says that this. poem has been translated into Japanese, by order of the emperor, and is hung up, embroidered with gold, in the temple of Jeddo. It has also been translated into the Chinese and Tartar languages, written on a piece of rich silk, and suspended in the imperial palace at Pekin. GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 33 In its sublime research, philosophy May measure out the ocean deep —may count The sands or the sun's rays—but God! for thee There is no weight nor measure: none can mount Up to thy mysteries; Reason's brightest spark, Though kindled by Thy light, in vain would try To trace Thy counsels, infinite and dark: And thought is lost, ere thought can soar so high, Even like past moments in eternity. Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround: Upheld by Thee, by Thee inspired with breath! Thou the beginning with the end hast bound, And beautifully mingled life and death! As sparks mount upward from the fiery blaze, So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from Thee And as the spangles in the sunny rays Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry Of heaven's bright army glitters in Thy praise. A million torches lighted by Thy hand Wander unwearied through the blue abyss: They own Thy power, accomplish Thy commar.d, All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss. What shall we call them? Piles of crystal light — A glorious company of golden streams Lamps of celestial ether burning bright Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams? But Thou to these art as the noon to night. Yes! as a drop of water in the sea, All this magnificence in Thee is lost; What are ten thousand worlds compared to Thee; And what am I then? Heaven's unnumbered host, Though multiplied by myriads, and arrayed In all the glory of sublimest thought, Is but an atom in the balance weighed Against Thy greatness, is a cipher brought Against infinity! What am I then? Nought. Nought! but the effluence of Thy light divine, Pervading worlds, hath reach'd my bosom, too; Yes! in my spirit doth Thy spirit shine As shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew. Nought! but I live, and on hope's pinions fly Eager towards Thy presence; for in Thee I live, and breathe, and dwell; aspiring high Even to the throne of Thy divinity. I am, O God! and surely Thou must be ! 34 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art! Direct my understanding then to Thee; Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart Though but an atom 'midst immensity, Still I am something, fashioned by Thy hand! I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth, On the last verge of mortal being stand, Close to the realms where angels have their birth, Just on the boundaries of the spirit-land! The chain of being is complete in me; In me is matter's last gradation lost, And the next step is spirit - Deity! I can command the lightning, and am dust! A monarch, and a slave; a worm, a god! Whence came I here, and how? so marvellously Constructed and conceived? unknown! this clod Lives surely through some higher energy; For from itself alone it could not be ! Creator, yes! Thy wisdom and Thy word Created me! Thou source of life and good! Thou spirit of my spirit, and my lord! Thy light, Thy love, in their bright plentitude Filled me with an immortal soul, to spring Over the abyss of death, and bade it wear The garments of eternal day, and wing Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere, Even to its source - to Thee—its Author there. O thoughts ineffable! O visions bless'd! Though worthless our conceptions all of Thee, Yet shall Thy shadowed image fill our breast, And waft its homage to Thy Deity, God! thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar; Thus seek Thy presence-Being wise and good! 'Midst Thy vast works admire, obey, adore; And when the tongue is eloquent no more, The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude. The doctrine which regards the universe as the thought of God is a true one; but the universe is not therefore unsubstantial. God is a real Being, and that which He thinks into being is also God. There- fore, being the thought or idea of the Divine Mind, the universe is the Substance of that mind, that substance which is God. His ideas, like Himself, are real beings and Divine personages. Put forth by and in a certain sense divided from God, yet attuned with Him, in order to accomplish His purposes, they become messengers of God, that is L GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 35 Angels, among whom those to whom is assigned a condition below that of God or His Angels, a condition no longer one of Spirit and Love, are known and called "Fallen Angels." The "Fall of the Angels," therefore, denotes simply the original and cosmic descent of Spirit into the condition of Matter, that the Angelhood may come through that unity of Faith, and Knowledge of the Son of God, unto perfect manhood. Pilgrims of the Illuminati, and all dwellers of the threshold, who believe in one God believe also that the universe is filled with an immense Ocean of Spirit or of Life; and that Spirit is of the body of God, who is Love; -a Divine harmony of wisdom and law, which sends out an infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed; and that in this limitless ocean of Spirit dwells an infinite Mind — the Divine Mind—God, who is the great Architect and the mind that creates and builds all things; that He who is Spirit Love and Wisdom fills the universe; that He is the invisible and eternal energy of nature, always, from the nature of the case, being the pure essence of Love, invisible to this sidereal, terrestrial world; that God and Spirit are one; that He is the Framer of all worlds, the Father of all men, the Author of all other beings; that His love, His power, His wisdom and goodness are adequate to this great end, that is to say, infinite. Such a believer knows that God and all His laws are unchange- able; that He made no blunder or mistake in His creations; that all His ways are infinitely just and true; that mankind, the highest type of His creation on this globe, was given great privileges, so that with freedom of thought he could have the liberty of advantages for the cultivation of his Soul's growth to ripening by Spirit and finally to reaching a reunion of Spirit in the bosom of Absolute Love, and that the Souls of men, when grown into Spirit, partake of the nature of their Father, and are Divine. And he believes, further, that so-called death is only a transition, where the external body of man mingles again with the elements of earth, never more to be reclaimed by the man who relinquishes it, but that the Soul and Spirit survive the shock of death and that in and by them man is immortal; that, after death and the awakening, this Spirit constitutes man's Spiritual body; that it has senses correspondent to all the external ones, which for the most part remain dormant in the present state of being although even in the present life they are sometimes opened, more or less perfectly, through the Astral, or Star magno, of the Soul, which vibrates as a pendulum, between the Spirit and the Animal man, and by which 36 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. : invisible things are made discernible through inner senses, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc. At death the real man, that is to say the Trinity, Astral, Soul, and Spirit, rises from and is loosened from this earthly house, and that death works no change in the intellectual, affectional, spiritual, and moral nature of the man; this transition is only the being let loose into the infinite; as the Angels are quite free to choose their works. of Love, God gave man, whom He created only a little lower than they, freedom to choose the best good and his own loves; this freedom necessarily gave also the power to reject good and choose evil. The highest state of happiness possible for man consists. in living in perfect conformity to the Divine Law of Wisdom and Love. The Divine law is so constituted that selfishness and evil, hate and revenge, deception and falsehood, want of charity, and love, benevolence, and fellow-feeling, make a life of unfruitfulness, abound- ing in restless agitation and miseries. Man, having violated the Divine law, becomes wretched and un- happy just in proportion to the extent and nature of that violation;; and when by such violation he becomes thus wretched and unhappy, it is necessary, in order to restore him to happiness, that he should be regenerated and refined by this fire of affliction and brought to a sense of being loosed from all the past and brought again to act in conformity with the Divine law. He will become happy and at peace again just in proportion as he has been led to at-one-ment and con- formity to that Law, and born again to the light of truth; and uni- versal Love is the Divine Truth, leading men to conform their lives. to the Divine Law by the performance of every duty to their fellow- men as well as themselves. God requires of man perfect conformity to the Divine Law, and in all worlds an opportunity is given him for progress and for ripening his Soul by Spirit. "God does not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men," nor does He punish any vindic- tively. In the whole universe and all the worlds of Divine Creation, there is a law that "whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap,” and the true, actual measure of every man's religion and life is the amount of good he unselfishly does in the world. God requires no sacrifices, but universal love to all things. Inter- course may be established between the Souls of two persons, both being still in the body, no matter by how great a distance their bodies. may be separated, by and through the law of attunement and har- mony. Disembodied Souls from the world of Spirit can and do com- GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 37 • municate with mankind through the same law, and on this proof is founded the certainty of future life and existence. Love is the attunement and self-completion of the dual forces; it is union of corresponding opposites in the same substance, and sex has its origin in the very nature of God. Sex, says the Kabala, is the true God of Hosts. Sex, says the Egyptian, is the true light of Wisdom. Knowledge of the Bi-sexual forces, says the Adept, is the only pathway to Spirit, the inner perception of which is that knowledge of the Soul of the universe and the individual's own larger self, for only Soul can read Soul. All these theories are embraced in every inspired book of all ages, more especially in the Bible and New Testament. If there is any truth in history; if any truth in the Bible, Spiritual communion and Spiritual manifestations are as old as the ages, and have been held sacred truths by all races of men. The name of atheist is more an epithet which is hurled against a person who differs from us in religious opinions, than anything else. It is doubtful whether there ever was a person who honestly and conscientiously denied the existence of his Creator. Atheism is not consistent with the construction of the human mind, and it is hardly credible that there are atheists in fact. On the one hand we are apt to suspect a man of atheism whenever his conception of God differs from ours, and on the other there are persons who, in a kind of bravado, say things with their lips of which neither their head nor their heart is cognizant. The collected experience of mankind pronounces strongly ´against atheism. From the north to the south, from the east to the west; in fertile lands and in deserts; upon mountains and in valleys; upon continents and diminutive islands; wherever a human foot has left an imprint, we find the recognition of the existence of God ex- pressed in some form. Through the gloom of the past, as far back as the human memory will carry us, we behold people acknowledging a supreme being. Whether they called it Ra or Ptah, Jupiter or Osiris, Jahme or Chemosh, matters little; whether they expressed their reverence, adoration, and gratitude by bloody sacrifices, by artful dances, or by songs and prayers, matters still less; the fact remains that the God idea must have been not only consistent with the human mind but that it is ever co-existent with the human race. We see untutored man seek for that hidden force behind every tree, upon mountains, and in valleys; we see him listen for its voice in the roll of the 38 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. thunder, the roar of the sea, the murmur of the brook, and the rustle of the leaf; we see him attempt to verify it by his touch, though it constantly escapes his grasp; we see him endeavor to find a name for the unutterable. Unable to remove the veil, unable to detach the finite from the infinite, he often mistakes one for the other, and we behold him worshipping first tangible objects, as in fetish worship, then rise to the adoration of semi-intangible, finally reaching the intangible. ECCLESIASTES xii. 7: “Then shall the dust return to the earth, as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it." It is also written "I am the God of the living man and not of the dead." And "God created man in His own Image," which is only the inner sub- jective man. This narrow house returns to dust again, and God is of the living and not of the dead. Men are so apt to look only to the objective and external part of things, who with a little thought would see the fallacy of following the objective in any science or religion. Dear reader, strive to remember that Spirit ways are always oppo- site to human ways; this will save you from sinking into the mire of human argument and doubt, finally to be engulfed in the dark waters of the lagoon - Materialism. If you are enabled to reach the object and Spirit which the com- piler hopes and desires you may reach, you will always find open portals to the true God, for the thoughts of God are expressed in nature's language. The image of God in man is the perfect attunement of his dual being; that perfect love, male and female, in its perfect cord in the Soul of the inner man. On the physical plane the animal man is not Man but only a rude Boy, impetuous, turbulent, and headlong in his gross barbaric mis- judgment. Such is the Materialist, having all the deficiencies of a boy in the Spiritual truth, intellectual or moral, that the term implies, until the hour comes, usually ushered in by calamity or disappointment, when he renounces self and his own exclusive centrifugal impres- sions, and yields to a higher invisible centripetal attraction, doing which with all his heart he awakes to a higher sense of life. The unfortunate Materialist, who, by his own act, cuts himself off from the intuition of Spirit, takes matter for substance, and, sharing the limitations of matter, loses the capacity for knowledge. Man rose into his true life and attained the full Image of God, through the culture of the woman within him, which cultivates his GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 39 Soul and his intuition of Spirit and God. She was and is his initiator into the knowledge of life and mysteries of Divine things. No penalty incurred by man ever is or can be remitted by God alone, since Divine Justice is Just. Nor, for the same reason, can it be borne by another, since the substitution of the innocent for the guilty would in itself be a viola- tion of justice, an absolute error and wrong. Therefore the doctrine of vicarious atonement and redemption as ordinarily presented and accepted represents a total misconception of the truth, and is derogatory at once to the Divine character and the Spirit economy. That which the Christs of all ages have done for man is but to teach him what he may be in himself, by bearing, each for himself, that cross of renunciation which they have borne, - ministering to the salvation of the world through an unselfish and universal love; lifting up the afflicted and broken-hearted; refreshing and bringing hope to those whose hearts are heavy with desolation and despair, there- fore they are truly said to be Saviours of Souls, whose doctrine, love, and example have redeemed men from death, and made them heirs of eternal life. The wisdom they attained they kept not secret, but freely gave as they had freely received. And that which they gave was their own life, and they gave it knowing that the children of dark- ness would turn on them and rend them, in return for the gift of love. But with the Christs, wisdom and love are one, and the testament of life is written in the blood of the testator. Here is the difference between the Christ and the mere Adept in the knowledge of Spirit and Soul. The Christ gives and dies, in giving thereby planting many seeds of truth, because love constrains and no fear withholds him; the Adept is prudent in a worldly sense and keeps his treasure and his darling for himself alone. But, in this age of liberty and first dawning of the morning of Light, let all true Pilgrims of the holy mysteries give out to those who can receive as freely as they have received. If we are thus saved by the Love of Christ, it will be by the pure, unselfish love we ourselves manifest to others. Man made in the Image of God, the individual, must comprise within himself the perfect masculine and feminine Spiritual qualities of existence, a perfect octave of both man and woman vibrations. Man is perfect only when the whole Spirit of Humanity - that is, God is manifest through him, as is written, "God created man in His own Image, male and female. When man attains this inner attune- : 40 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. • ment of dual being, he has found the celestial Soul region of his being, where he is taught directly of his own Divine Spirit, and knows even as he is known, This is Mental Illumination, and this condition is that of truth, understanding and knowledge. This is the Word or Spirit of under- standing and knowledge. The Divine Thought. Thus reign the Sacred Trinity, — Wisdom, Love, and Under- standing. THE WORD. When man reaches this glory, he is redeemed from material limita- tions, and again becomes pure in Spirit; he is one in all and through the hearts of all, is one with God. Law governs all things. The doctrine of chance accounts for nothing. Through the Law of the Divine Economy which governs all things, the heart of God beats in the slender pulsations of the jelly-fish, as it does in the imagination of the child who turns the helpless atom over with a stick and wonders why it was made. There are found among some of the most thoughtful writers, unbiassed minds which have been released from the shackles of ortho- dox dogma and creed. The highest conception of God at the present time is that of an Infinite Being, perfect in all respects, who con- sciously and voluntarily causes, directs, and controls all manifestations of finite being, and if, as is sometimes said, all things manifest are the thought of God, then most assuredly the thoughts of God are a tangible something; therefore, inasmuch as there cannot by any - possibility be two Infinites, it logically and inevitably follows that all things are constituted of the substance, and are the varied expres- sions of this Infinite God, and we have the astonishing result of an Infinite, Self-existent God, fully and perfectly developed and un- folded in all directions, consciously and voluntarily assuming an existence in lower and imperfectly developed forms, and that thus each and every individual is a Temple of the Living God. God, being the source of all good, cannot be the source of all evil. There was no fore-ordination of evil. God is seen only by the exalted Angels and Archangels as a Grand Central Spiritual Sun.* The Holy Ghost or flower of Spirit is man's only mediator, as we see imaged and personified through the Judean Christ. Mankind cannot see God, but they can quite easily see through the eyes of Spirit, where His wisdom and Love illuminate the * See illustration. F GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 4I inner man. When man looks upward with his Soul, God looks down- ward with His heart. St. Paul says (Tim. ii: 5): “For there is One God and One Me- diator between God and man, — the man Christ Jesus," therefore St. Paul did not recognize Christ as God, but calls him Mediator and man. The word Mediator comes in this instance from mestees, which, fully translated, means medium of communication. In Matthew (iii: 16) will be found a scrap of history very seldom read correctly, and by ministers never, it appears, interpreted cor- rectly. It is as follows:— "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo! the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting upon him; and, lo! a voice from heaven, saying, 'This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.'" This is usually read and interpreted as though, if you had been there, you would have seen the Holy Ghost descend and would have heard a voice calling Jesus God's son. John says: "But the anointing (the christening) which ye have received of him, abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" ("In it margin). I Jno. ii: 27. When these texts are put together, the following conclusions will appear: 1. When Jesus was baptized, a mediumship was conferred upon him, "the heavens were opened unto him." 2. This mediumship, conferred at this time, was called the anoint- ing—the making a Christ of him. 3. This same anointing, christening, or mediumship was conferred on others, teaching them, and enabling them to teach others. - This same anointing, christening, or mediumship-mestees — has been and still can be conferred on others teaching through illum- ination. May this holy body and blood, substance and Spirit, Divine Mother and Father, inseparable duality in unity, given for all crea- tures, broken and shed and making oblation for the world, be every- where known, adored, and venerated! May we by means of that blood which is the Love of God, and the Spirit of eternal life, be redeemed, indrawn, and transmuted into that body which is Pure Substance, im- + i 42 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. • maculate and ever virgin, express image of the Person of God, that we hunger no more, neither thirst any more, and that "neither death nor life, nor Angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any creature, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ," being made one through the at-one-ment of the Spirit of Love, which only hath immortality, and inhabiteth Light inaccessible. Dear Pilgrim of Light, who hast reached the portals of the heav- enly way, may you also behold the glory of God with the heart of your inmost Soul, and may your open face be transformed into the same Image, from glory to glory, by the power of the Eternal Spirit. God is the Great Central Sun of Spirit, the fountain head of all things. God is not Mind but the cause which produces Mind; God is not a Soul but the cause that Soul is; God is not Light but the cause which produces Light. God is the Love and Harmony, the everlasting fountain of Cause or Spirit force. Therefore, by Spirit. man lives in Power, in Acts, and in Eternity. The Student of Nature, to rightly comprehend Universal Spirit- Action, must bear in mind that the human Soul did not always exist as a personality, but as an Essence, and that the Essence of our Souls can never cease to be, because they never began to be, and nothing can be immortal and live on eternally but that which hath lived from eternity. Again :- That there is no personal God, but that the name God implies all that is collective life in all and in every phase of existence, which constitutes the Great Oneness of all life. Pure originality can only be found in Deity, the Absolute Father. He is what now is, what shall be, and what has been, and no man hath lifted His veil. He is the Great Father Mother of all Life, the Great Eternal Fountain of all Life. The Dual force of being united in One, has been the God-idea throughout antiquity, and to this day is the basis of all the great religious systems of the earth. On account of the limits of this work, the author is able only to give a few thoughts from Egyptian papyrus, translated by the most reliable translators of this modern age. The Egyptian God Shou or Ra the Great God whose Divine Being was symbolized by the Sun as the highest manifestation of Divine Power in Nature. The following is but a little part of a hymn taken from the large book of Egyptian papyrus, which comprise a few of the sacred archives of Thebes. A part of this ancient papyrus is now GOD AND THE DIVINE IMAGE. 43 • to be found in the Louvre, Paris, marked V. 25, and a part in the British Museum, London, marked Magic Papyrus. All hail to Thee, the Great Lord of all times! Thou givest light and life to all worlds — above, below. Both Gods and men their faces turn to Thee, For in Thy path Thou sheddest light and joy, And naught can injure where Thy face is seen. O, Mysterious Soul, Thou art the Soul of the Sun, Thou art the life to Gods and men and all that lives, Thou art Maker of Worlds and all manifold forms, And the Spirit of Life in the dwelling of man's Soul; And Thy Love exalts all, and was first over all; Thy companions are Stars as they run in their course; But Thou elicit'st the love of both small and the great, And with tenderness melts the most obdurate heart, Dispensing Thy gifts with a most iiberal hand. All hail the Sun of Life, the Lord of radiant beams! All hail, to Thee, the Self-existent One! Although in essence One, yet thou hast made Thyself in myriad forms; which manifest Thy Life; which is the Central Source of all, How vast Thy Power, which reaches through all space! It fills immensity, and knows no bounds. Thy radiant Light and Heat of Life Extend throughout the boundless universe. Who can withstand the force, self-centred in Thy Grand Majestic Form Incomprehensible · For Thou art the Soul of Souls, the eternal Life of Lives. And on Thy head is placed the Dual crown. Hail, O Fountain of the Sun! Creator! Self-created! - Hail. ✡ ་ 1.1 # CHAPTER III. SACRED SYMBOLS. CRUX ANSATA. The Oldest Known Hieroglyph. The Insignet of Life. The Emblem of Eternal Hope. The Mystery of Life and Death. The Union, the good time yet to come, united by Love. THE CROSS OF LIFE. It is the Tree of Life, the mystery of the dual nature, male and female, the symbol of humanity perfected, and of the apotheosis of suffering. It is traced by our Lord the Sun, on the plane of the heavens; it is represented by the magnetic and diamagnetic forces of the earth. It is seen in the ice-crystal and in the snow-flake; the human form itself is modelled upon its pattern; and all nature bears throughout her manifold spheres the impress of this sign, at once the prophecy and the instrument of her redemption. Fourfold in meaning, having four points and making four angles, dividing the circle into four equal parts, the cross portrays the per- fect union, balance, equality, and at-one ment, on all four planes and in all four worlds, phenomenal, intellectual, physical, and celestial, and of the man and woman, the Spirit and the Bride. It is supremely, transcendently, and excellently the symbol of the Divine. Marriage is consummated only when the regenerate man enters the kingdom of the celestial which is within. Then the Without is as the Within, and the twain are as One in Christ. Being thus the key of all the world, from the outer to the inner, the cross presents, as it were, four wards of significations, and according to these the mystery of the cru- cifixion bears relation: First, to the natural and actual sense, and typifies the crucifixion of the Man of God by the world; 44 SYMBOLS AND HIEROGLYPHS. THE WINGed Globe. Glory Unto Thee, a Ripened and Perfected Soul, Finished of Earth, the Perfected. One, One with God, a Soul Ripened to Nirvana. € DELPHIC INSIGNIA. The principal Hieroglyph over the door- ways and about the Temple of Delphi. The Prismatic Staircase between God and Man. To Thee Who art the Light in the Mansions of the Universe. + ADONIA. The Christ Principle, the Holy Trin- ity, Attuned to God, Divine Hu- manity. THE GREAT CENTRAL SUN SPIRIT. The Fountain of All Life, the Light of the Mansions of the Universe, the Begin- ning of All Things. $ JUPITER AMMON. The Triune God, From Out the Great Deep. + THE TWO IN ONE. Androgynal, First Affection, or Results of Attraction. SACRED SYMBOLS. 45 Secondly, the intellectual and philosophical senses, and typifies the crucifixion in man of the lower nature; Thirdly, to the personal and sacrificial sense, and symbolizes the Passion and Oblation of the Redeemer; Fourthly, to the celestial and creative sense, and represents the oblation of God to the universe. The crucified, regenerate man having made at-one-ment through- out his own dual and fourfold nature, this crucifixion is the death of the animal body; the rending of the veil of the flesh; the uniting of the human Will with the Divine Will; the concord and attunement with the Absolute Love, or, as it is sometimes called, the Reconcilia- tion, which is only another name for the Atonement. It is the consummation of the prayer, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is the Divine Life, the vital immortal principle, having neither beginning nor ending. This also is the secret of transmutation—the changing of water into wine, of Matter into Spirit, man becoming attuned in concord with God; this blood of Christ and of the covenant; this wine within the holy Chalice of which all must drink; that living fountain, he who drinks of which shall never more thirst, is the perfect, pure and incorruptible Spirit, cleans- ing and making white the vesture of the Soul as no earthly purge can whiten; the gift of God through Christ, the heritage of the elect. To live the Divine Life is to be partaker in the blood of Christ and to drink of Christ's cup. It is to know the love of Christ, "which passeth understanding," that Love which is the Life of God, and the Light of the Angels, and whose characteristic symbol is the blood-red ray of the solar prism. By this mystical blood, Love, we are ripened into Spirit and saved by being born again through this blood, which is no other than the secret of all the Christs, whereby man is trans- muted from the material to the spiritual plane; the mystery of the Hidden Way; the union of the dual with the triune; the secret of the temple within and inward purification by means of Love. For this "blood," spoken of throughout all the sacred writings as the essential principle of the "Life," is the spiritual blood of the spiritual life, Life in its highest, most intense, most exalted, and most excel- lent sense, not the mere physical life, understood by materialists, nor life from a human standpoint or theory only, but the positive, absolute, and substantial Being Essence, the inward Deity in man, and it is by means of the Divine Love only, which means the Blood of Christ, that we are born again and can come to the Father and in- herit the kingdom of heaven, for when it is said that the blood of 46 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. Christ cleanseth from all sin, it is signified that sin is impossible to him who is Perfect in Love. The twofold aspect of the cross is Wisdom and Love. Though one in essence, they are twain in application, since Love cannot give without receiving, nor receive without giving. We have therefore in this double mystery both the obligation and uplifting of the Christ in Man and the Passion and Sacrifice for others, of the man in whom the Christ is manifest, for even as Christ is One in us, so are we One with Christ, because as Christ loves and gives Himself for us, we also who are in Christ give ourselves for others. The Crux Ansata or handle cross, also called the cross of Osiris, was the most sacred symbol of Egyptian antiquity, meaning the path- way to eternal life. "United by Love to Love is to Know, etc." The sacred cross was carried in the high hand, both of the Priest and the Candidate, and was an indispensable emblem of all the relig ious ceremonials of ancient Egypt. This is the symbol which, when transferred to Christian hands, became the model of the Papal Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. The character of perfection is moreover symbolized in the cross, in that, being formed of two transverse beams, it portrays the at-one- ment between the Divine and human wills and the loop or handle is symbolic of the gloria or the overshadowing of a dove, emblem of the Holy Spirit, as is the sacred Spirit to all saints and to man regen- erate, overshadowing him at his baptism of initiation, as mentioned in the Gospels. One of the most important signs whose realization gives great power, when used on the Astral color of the individual for centraliz- ing the Will, is that of the double interlaced triangle surrounded by a snake with his tail in his mouth. He who has been instructed into its hidden meanings, and thoroughly comprehends that sign, will remem- ber the words attributed to Christ: “All men cannot receive this say- ing, save they to whom it is given. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." In this sign are hidden the law of involution and evolution, the descent of the Spirit into matter, and the reascension from matter back to Spirit. He knows the never-ending cycles of eternity with its limitless days and nights of creation; the involution of the life impulses as it travels from planet to planet, beginning in the elementary Kingdom and ending in the Spirit of Man blossoming into the Angel. Six points are seen in the star, but the seventh in the centre can- not be seen by the natural eye. From this invisible centre, the great SACRED SYMBOLS. 47 Spiritual Sun radiates its seven primordial rays, orming a circle whose periphery is without limit and beyond all human comprehension, evolv- ing constellations and systems of worlds, throwing out and planting for cycles of time to reabsorb them again into its great Absolute Bosom. This is thy heritage, Pilgrim of Light, to see far beyond the com- prehension of mankind and the babbling multitude of the present day. In this hieroglyph are contained the great mystery of God in man and the doctrine of God as the Lord; the duality of the Divine Image; the Divine Word, by which all things are created, having for THE INTERLACED TRIANgle. Known as the Insignet of Hermes; Shield of David; Solomon's Seal; The Prince of Peace; The Builder of the two Truths; is claimed to have been the Divine Symbol worn by the Great Father. its celestial archetype Humanity, which, subsisting eternally in the Divine Mind, thereby makes the man in His own image. For the Spirit of God is a flame of Fire which the Word of God divideth into many, yet the original flame is not decreased, as a person may light many lamps from the flame of one lamp yet nothing is diminished from the first flame. This symbolization indicates and represents the growth of Human Nature to its ripening and perfecting. It must grow twofold in opera- 48 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. ! :. tion, fourfold in constitution, sixfold in manifestation, and as a cube stand four square to all the winds of heaven. In virtue of its two-fold-ness this vehicle expresses the correspond- ing opposites positive and negative, Spirit and Love, Justice and Mercy, Energy and Space, Life and Substance, in a word Male and Female, both of which subsist in the Divine Nature in absolute pleni- tude and perfect equilibrium. Expressed in the Divine idea, the masculine and feminine quali- ties of existence are, in their union and co-operation, the life and salvation of the world, while in their division and antagonism it is a fruitless life, unripened by Truth and by Spirit, bringing desolation, extinguishment, and destruction. On this subject, Jesus the Christ has spoken very explicitly in that part of the sacred writings which are now called apochryphal, and suppressed, and so little known although recorded. One of these, given by Clement, declares plainly that the Kingdom of God and of Spirit can come only when two shall be one and the man as the woman. The increase, development, and growth of disunity of the sexes, begat disjunction, abstractedness, and disconnection between Spirit and Soul and between Soul and Body. This was the fall of man which introduced and has perpetuated the false balance of placing woman as the inferior part of humanity, and not until the feminine principle in both is grown and exalted on its planes, crowned and glorified, can humanity whether in the individual, in the communities, or in the whole race, attain to Spirit Truth, to Soul Knowledge, to Christhood and to God. This is the Heir, the Light of Spirit, the Reason, the Logos, the Lord. "Come, let us kill him, and the inherit- ance shall be ours," say those ministers of unreason, the Materialistic Scientists and many orthodoxies and creeds of the Churches and in the World. The mutilation and defacement of the Spirit of Love and the Divine Reason either by church or Science, and the failure to recog- nize the dualism of the Divine nature of God, minister to the con- firmation and continuation of the fall of man, for no sooner are Spirit truth and Reason suppressed or cast out, than madness, selfish- ness, ambition, folly and evil of every kind step in and take posses- sion, making the last state (be it of community or of individual) worse than the first. The interlaced triangles symbolize the Great Infinite Mind with- out a visible body objective, being a dual body of Spirit, Harmony, SACRED SYMBOLS. 49 Love, Mind, Will, Idea, Motion,- at the conception Idea and endow ment of Life for the Human Race, when it becomes in unison with anything in nature conceives, creates, and sets in motion a Being; for it is the Divine Spirit Agency of Action, an infinite and eternal Energy from which all things proceed. "The triangles thus combined. form in the interior space a six-sided plane figure. This is the mani- fested world. Six is the number of the world and 666 is the great mystery which is related to the symbol. St. John talks and writes of this mystical number. Around the six-sided centre are the six triangles, projecting into the Spiritual world and touching the enclosed serpent of wisdom. In the old Book this is imaged by the great head of the Lord rising above the horizon of the great ocean of matter, with the arms just raised so that they make the upper half of the triangle. "This is the long face or macroscopos as it is called. "" As it rises slowly and majestically above the surface, the calm placid water below reflects it in reverse as in a mirror and thus makes the whole double triangle. The lower one is dark in its obscure depths and sombre aspect, but at the same time the upper part of the darker one is itself light, for it is formed by the majestic head of this Adam Kadmon. Thus they shade, blending into a fusion of a centralization one into the other a united one. And this is a per- fect symbolism, for it clearly figures the way in which day shades into night, night into the morning, and evil into good, being the first great symbol known to modern man which indicated that the Spiritual and natural man were again to be united, after the long warfare against each other on account of a selfish unripened condition, so that we would we cannot do, and that which we desire not to be guilty of doing, the darker half of man compels us to do. These triangles also represent the "manifested universe" and is one of the oldest and most beautiful of symbols of antiquity, having had the most extensive range among all nations and tongues; having been discovered among all peoples, not only those now inhabiting the earth, but also in the monuments, carvings, and other remains of the great prehistoric races of mankind who have left us a few of their gigantic structures in stone, whose corridors and halls are now silent to the footsteps and voices of men, but resounding with speech and conception of thought most eloquent to those who care to listen.”* In the writings of Hermes, in the Kabala and Hindoo books, and in St. John and the Christ, will be found the seven times seven mean- ings of the interlaced triangles and their mysteries. These ancient * Eliphas Levi, etc., The Path, etc. : 50 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. symbols seem to be full of the music of ideas turned into stone. What thoughtful student of to-day has witnessed the deep carving of the Egyptian temples, and not been impressed by the pathos in the Souls of these men of the far-off past six thousand years ago. Witness, for instance, that one representing Justice by a balance in one scale of which the heart of man is placed, and evenly balanced by the feather of truth in the other. "The serpent with his tail in his mouth is the symbol of Wisdom and eternity, because eternity has neither beginning nor end. Fur- thermore, the scales of the reptile form the figures of facets or dia- monds which typify the illimitable diversity of the aspects of Wisdom and Truth. These reflecting facets are the beings composing the macrocosm. Each has developed himself only to a certain degree and can therefore reflect and appreciate only that amount of wisdom which has fallen to his lot. As he passes again and again through experiences of man he slowly develops and ripens various other powers of appreciating more truth, and so at last may become one with the whole — that is, ripened into a perfect man, able to know and feel completely his union and attunement with all.” This is when he has acquired the knowledge of the Two Truths, solving the secret of Life and Death, the highest a Perfect Soul,- "The Winged Globe."* As in the reading of the old myth, Adam represents the Body, Eve the Soul, and the Divine Voice the Spirit, so the Serpent rampant typifies the lower reason and animal instinct, and the fiery serpent — "whose food is the dust of earthly things," that is the perception of the five objective senses which are concerned with the things of time and matter only — the deposition from her rightful place. The Living Man is typified by the heavenly or dual serpent which is represented biting his tail. The serpent forming a ring or several circles typifying there is no beginning and no ending, but ever renew- ing itself through wisdom and silence by the knowledge of its dual forces, which is to become one with the whole a perfect man, illu- minated by Love and Spirit Truth to be in accord and feel completely his union with all, a ripened, perfect, spiritual, Living Man, whose fall or the division of its duality was brought about by the seductions of the lower instincts, the serpent rampant. Thence ensues the Fall in Eden. Before the fall, the Soul was subject to Spirit, thereafter the Soul is subject to the body, intuition to sense, Spirit to Matter, woman to man. *See illustration. SYMBOLS AND HIEROGLYPHS. ་ f CRUX ANSATA. FEMALE EARTH WATER FIRE CRUX ANSata. SPIRIT MALE The oldest known hieroglyph. According to Egyptian, this symbolizes the good time coming, United by Love, the Mystery of Life and Death, Eternal Hope, the Hidden Knowledge of Nature and Science, the Mystery of the Trinity in Man, etc. MEDITATION CENTER DARLINGS THROWN TO THE DOGS Rose Cross. SILENCE CENTER PEARLS BEFORE SWING FEMALE EARTH WATER FIRE SPIRIT CHRISTIAN CROSS. The Red Cross of the Rosicrucians, Life to Come, the Cycle of 12. Cycle of 10. a A U M Sacred VEDIC WORD REPRESENTING THE DIVINE INWARD BREATH. MALE SACRED SYMBOLS. 51 Henceforth the monitions of the Soul must be suppressed, her aspi- rations quenched, her conceptions difficult to quicken and ripen. Her fruit is now only brought forth with labor and sorrow. Spirit and Soul intuition wars with passion, and every victory of the Spiritual man is bought with anguish and torment, with sorrow and a bleeding heart. The law of life is not far away, neither is it placed in a far off heaven; but it is in your Soul, in your heart, in your reason, in your mouth; for again it is written, "I have left you free to choose between life and death, and good and evil," and it is in your conscience, for if you love the Spirit of Truth, you will obey its Divine voice within, where is found happiness, truth, and perfect peace. EZEKIEL'S WHEEL. Among the sacred symbols of the Gods of antiquity, none is more frequently depicted in Egyptian sculpture than the sphere or globe. This is the emblem of creative motion, because the manifest force is rotatory, being in fact the wheel of the "Spirit of Life" described by Ezekiel " as a wheel within a wheel," inasmuch as the whole system of the universe from the planet to its ultimate particle revolves in the same manner. The whole universe and all created things that move and have being grow, increase and advance, having a movement winding in form of a spiral. In the vision of Ezekiel, there were four wheels or circles, each of which denotes a region and a principality of power. As it is above so it is below. As it is in heaven so it is on earth. As is the outer so is the inner. As is the small so is the great. There is but one law and He that worketh is One. Nothing is small, nothing great in the Divine Economy. Ezekiel of the Jews saw this wheel when he was among the captives by the river Chebar, in Chaldea. In a vision he saw the four beasts and the man of the Apocalypse and with them "four each of the four faces,” a wheel of the color of a beryl; it was "as as a wheel in the middle of a wheel" and they went wherever the living creatures went, and when they went, says Ezekiel, “I heard a noise like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of a host." The beautiful hieroglyphic of the Egyptians, their Winged Globe, represents the Soul passing back to its source, after its pilgrimage, evolving rotations, unfolding into a Perfect Soul, after the trial in the Hall of Two Truths; the globe being a symbol of either the Supreme Soul or a portion of it, and the wings added represent its flight to the 52 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. "... upper spheres, having finished its course a ripened Soul on its returning journey to its original source in the bosom of Absolute Love. There are many meanings concealed in this symbol, and it is best that many of them remain concealed until man can be better trusted with the power that is within him and at his command through the Astral world and celestial forces through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, much more the elemental Spirits of these circuli, which cor- respond to Air, Water, Earth, and Fire, beginning at the outer and uppermost and going inward and downward. For the magnetic ema- nations of the Astrals are under the dominion of the Fire; they are not Souls nor Divine Personalities, but are simply emanations or phantoms of being, and have no real being. The highest and uppermost of these circuli or wheels is that of the elemental Spirits or "winged creatures," the second is that of the Souls and the seed of Souls, the third is that of the Shades or manes of the past of the planet and its life, and the fourth and lowest is that of the magnetic Spirits commonly called Astrals. This Astral sphere, belt, or circulus is variously known and called the peri- soul, the magnetic, the odic fluid or body, the second body, the book of record of thought, the reflector of the Will. But one of the most important meanings of this symbol is the light of the dual or bi-sexual forces of man in relation to the different signs of the Zodiac, the true light and knowledge of which gives man a mighty power either for good or evil. Man's will is not free nor is his intelligence active in every part of his body. His will cannot be free so long as it is governed by his imagination. Man cannot be free so long as his desires are illusive and his knowledge deficient. His responsibility grows with his knowl- edge. Man is a collective centre of energy, a solitary ray or reflection of the universally present, Divine Light, which is the Absolute and common source of everything that exists, being a true child of the great Spiritual Sun. But as Mother Nature is a true mother she does not give to her children that knowledge of power while they are still in their infancy of selfishness, irascibility, and petulance. Well she knows that to have this power before they have conquered their petu- lant and passionate temperaments, would be but to consume them- selves. Therefore she is benevolent and beneficent in her bounteous. charity, hiding these mysteries. The signs of the Zodiac or of the wheel of Life, as the name signifies, are not arbitrary; they are the words of God, traced on the planisphere SACRED SYMBOLS. 53 by the finger of God, and the first expressed in intelligible hieroglyphics by men of the " Age of Saturn," who knew the truth of Soul and Spirit, and held the Key of the Divine Mysteries. The Wheel of the Zodiac constituted the earliest Bible, for on it is traced the universal history of all humanity. History repeats itself only because all history is already written in heaven, and the key to the interpretation of her symbols is the word Now. The Zodiac is a mirror in which are found the reflex of the past, present, and future, but these are but modes to the eternal Now, for in the Divine Mind there is no past and in the Divine Economy no future. The present is philosophically the only tense. In the wheel of the Zodiac are the twelve gates of the heavenly city of religion, science, the Kingdom of God the Father. The his- tory of the Soul of the Man Regenerate or ripened into Spirit is cor- respondent to that of the Sun, the great vitalizing centre of the physi- cal system, which has accordingly been described in terms derived from the solar phenomena as indicated in the Zodiacal planisphere. Thus the history of the Soul is written in the stars, and the heavens are her chroniclers and tell the glory at once of herself and God. A true bible is always a hieroglyph of the Soul, and the Zodiac is simply the First and most stupendous of bibles, which like all others was writ- ten by men who had attained to the knowledge of their own Souls and to that of all souls and of God, who is the Life and Substance of Souls. "May I reach that purest heaven And be to other Souls the cup of strength In their sorrows, or some great agony — So shall I join the choir invisible, Whose music is the gladness of the world." "The day has dawned—the fair new day That weds the spirit world with earth; And Error's chains shall melt away In the pure light of spirit birth.” 氲 ​¡ 刂 ​- } ་ * ! CHAPTER IV. MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and mov- ing, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a God! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! - Hamlet. EVERY man, whether in this world or within the Spiritual world, is naturally attracted to the society of others who are like him. Man's way to his highest level is always up-grade, and it is within his power to discover all the mysteries he is capable of understanding, even to those of Life and death. Most men have inequalities of character which produce discords. They thus deprive their interior of that harmony which is the com- panion of Spirit Truths. The Soul of our beings being so easily influenced either for good or evil, we should indeed be careful not alone of actions, but of all our thoughts; for as we do and think, so we surround ourselves with the invisible Spirit power, which has all to do with our happiness and advancement; for it is a great necessity that we should know ourselves and our Spirit helpers, ere we drive away the loving influence about us for grosser and lower ones, which chain us down to a miserable ex- istence and blind our eyes to all good. Even our best friends are forced away from us and our lives made a lonely waste by our friend- ship with anger, intolerance, pride, envy, and passion. There are, as has been said in a preceding chapter, two gigantic obstacles in the way of progress,viz.: The misapprehension of God and the misconception of Man. So long as man believes in a personal God who distributes favors and punishments at will; who can be reasoned with, persuaded and pacified by selfish, ignorant man, that man will remain within the narrow confines of his ignorance, and his mind can- not expand sufficiently to be illuminated by Truth. No man has ever understood the true meaning of Life, or caught a glimpse of heaven, until he has given up self, which too frequently does not occur until repeated misfortunes have dispelled the flatter- ing dream of a selfish imagination which has blinded his eyes to Truth 54 MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 55 and Light. When selfishness departs and a universal Love comes, the blindness is cured and the man awakens like one out of a deep sleep, knowing, feeling, and seeing his Spiritual nature. Some lives seem to the thoughtful observer as though they had been intended only as huge jokes, simply because they are groping, drifting in darkness, refusing to listen to the True Voice. Everything contains a certain deposit of the jewel of Light, which can be found and reached through the door of occult knowledge, by which one can command through the wisdom of concentration and silence, — and be obeyed. Every human being is the centre of a universe, but a man is never so much deceived as when he believes too much in himself, when he becomes blinded and can see nothing else. The selfish man looks into the world as into his mirror, to see only himself, and finds if he is thoughtful only a medley of contradictions. God and Nature are never contradictions; man is seldom anything else. Strive to possess Love and grow, for great energies bring great opportunities, "that you may cross beyond the sea of darkness." It is hard to appreciate a condition of life different from our own. Charity toward the weaknesses of human nature is a virtue we demand of others, but which is not easy to practise ourselves. If Being all fashioned of the self-same dust Let us be merciful as well as just." you would grow strong, learn, oh Pilgrim, to sacrifice your se- cret preferences, maintaining calm silence; if you would remain in peace, remain insignificant. Learn to know all, but keep thyself un- known, is the advice of all Adepts. Be not boisterous nor of a loud noise. Look at the serpent which, coiled in repose, typifies the Infi- nite and Naught, Wisdom and Peace. No man who starts out to find Truth and pays even a little attention to occult forces can return to ignorance, but will make a definite choice between Truth and Error, Good and Evil. The first step in Occultism brings the student to the tree of knowledge, of which he must pluck and eat. He must choose, must cross the Rubicon, burning his ships behind him, for here he must decide and determine on taking either the good or evil path, for he is no longer capable of the indecision of ignorance, but is fully cognizant of which path he is going. The great mass of mankind walks waveringly and quite uncertain as to the good aimed at. The standard of life is quite indefinite; only self is known and loved and therefore paramount. The sweet ; ין 56 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. ! things of to-day may thus become the bitter things of eternity, for this life is the alphabet of the language of eternity.. Strive, then, to grow by a renewing of your minds. Ask in Truth and you will receive in Truth. Properly to desire a blessing is to deserve it, for actions are mo- tives let loose on the invisible billows of the energies of nature. When once the threshold of nature is reached, and the door of occult light pushed ever so little ajar, the confusion and vacillation about the initiate begins to lessen and calm decision to take their place. If this decision be for good and for the higher ideal, the forces of will and mentality increase enormously, for now all the forces are acting in the same direction throughout all the different planes of nature, as well as of our own being. An occult student, if true, can never be faint nor half-hearted, nor can he return when once he has passed the threshold. These things are as impossible as for the man to become a child again. At this portal the Pilgrim of Light has reached the state of responsibility by reason of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, from whose light and growth he cannot recede. One step toward progress means growth. Earthly life is often not worth living — that seems very clear. There is not enough in the life of whole nations and tribes to make it a public calamity if they were sunk in the sea. But when you introduce the thought of an eternal life, a renewed existence, the question "Is life worth living?" changes in all its aspects. Life may not be worth living here, and may be transcendently worth living on account of the here- after. For man is a biennial, and it takes two lives to tell him what he is. As when, for instance, the hollyhock is planted in one season but cannot blossom until the next; all the first season it has no come- liness; it is coarse in leaf, undeveloped in stem, and shows no color; but when the winter has hushed it to rest, and the next summer brings it out, it lifts itself up in unimagined beauty as compared with what it was in its first summer. And men are born here, to come to themselves only after death, and, when another summer shall find them, they will be lifted up in unimagined glory and beauty, unless the winter kills them. The whole question is therefore changed at once; for if we should be led to doubt whether life was worth living on account of the physical condition of things, that doubt would be dis- persed when we consider that a double and even a triple work is going One on here. Mankind has two sets of feelings and attractions. set drags him down to earth and makes him cling with a firm grasp to material necessities and enjoyments; while the other set lifts him MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 57 up into the regions of the unknown, and he forgets the allurements and distractions of matter, being brought nearer to the realms of Spirit, and abstract ideas of the good, the true, the harmonious, and the beautiful give him satisfaction and happiness and a peace which the world does not give. This is the objective and subjective life of man. Between the objective and subjective consciousness is that which is the present state of involution of mankind, a state midway between the animal and Soul, where he is not entirely guided by his instincts and impulses, nor entirely by his conscience and intuition, but more or less by his reason, the middle ground between animal instinct and intuition. But the time will soon come, when the Spiritual and inner Light will be the only truth, and all Brethren should strive to hasten the arrival of that time when man's Spiritual consciousness will be his normal life. As man radiates an atmosphere he must necessarily grow either in one direction or another. He cannot remain stagnant. If his desires are selfish they are false, because they come from himself and not from Soul or Spirit; his thoughts will be vague and corrupt because they form adulterous alliances; his words will be without efficacy because he allows them to be blunted every day in dissembling utter- ances from the lips while other intentions are in the heart, and his acts are insignificant and barren, because they can be but the result of his words. There is no Soul, no heart, nothing but selfishness in them. Mankind to-day is not guided by Truth, but is still groping in darkness, for his reasoning cannot be perfect so long as it is not based on perfect knowledge of Spirit, which knowledge is the result of experience only, and not of argument. The materials of which a superior man is constructed, are the emotions of Spirit. The builder is Love; Will and Reason the super- intendent and workman; Wisdom the supreme architect. In order to grow into the higher manhood, it is desirable that one have strong emotions, provided he has at the same time sufficient will-power to control them. A person devoid of emotions is without virtues and without vices; he is without energy; a shadow, neither cold nor warm, and necessarily useless for occult work. The passion- ate man, if he can master and guide his passions, is nearer to God than he who has nothing to control and nothing to conquer. Man's love and intuition do not belong to earth. They create energies which are active beyond the confines of the grave, and their 58 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. activity may last for ages, until it becomes exhausted of its lower in- stincts, when the purified ray or reflection is freed from earth. An extremely malicious person is the embodiment of malice and uncharitableness, and if he sees the demon in an objective form, he beholds only the reflection of his own Soul in the mirror of his own mind, judges all humanity from his false standard, and inscribes a deep scar on the age in which he lives. O Life and Love! O happy throng Of thoughts, whose only speech is song! O heart of man! canst thou not be Blithe as the air is, and as free? In order to produce a Spiritual growth in the Soul, a man must be attuned with nature and in harmony with himself; the inner and outer proportions must be harmonious; there must be no discord. Wisdom guides the work and Love furnishes the cement. An emotion is either a virtue or a vice according as it is applied. Misapplied virtues become vices, and well directed vices may become virtues. A man who acts according to the dictates of prudence alone, is a coward; one who exercises his generosity indiscriminately is a spend- thrift; courage without caution is rashness; veneration without self- esteem produces superstition; charity without exercise of judgment produces a beggar. The highest energies are latent in the lower ones; they are the attributes of the spiritual Soul, which in most men is still in a state of infancy, so they have not learned to discriminate between the true and the false, between animal and Spirit, nor to act on the highest ideal of Truth. The higher Spiritual Truths cannot be intellectually grasped by the reasoning powers of the half-grown man. He must grow to them and into the light when he beholds them. Man is conscious of being able to receive ideas and put them into forms, and his imagination may therefore be exercised either actively or passively. He does not live entirely in the objective world, but possesses an interior world of his own. The interior, like the outer world, is one of its own; its horizon may be either narrow or expanded, limited in some, without limit in others. It is sometimes dark, sometimes illuminated; it has beautiful scenery and dismal localities, its sunshine and its storms. ་ MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 59 • As man grows and lives more in his spiritual body, he can control and subjugate the destiny of the natural man. Spirit being absolute over all things, he who lives in the Spirit can surmount all the annoyances that afflict the physical man, be they sidereal or terrestrial tendencies. The natural man does not exist outside of nature, but forms an inte- gral part thereof, and whatever affects the whole will affect the indi- vidual. On this simple truth is based the much misunderstood science of Astrology. The Sun and Planets in space, as well as terrestrial objects, have their magnetic, odyllic, and astral emanations, and these exert influence upon each other and upon every organized being, in proportion to their size, their distance, and the velocity of their revolutions. They modify the character, the color of the leaves and flowers, and the growth of the plant. These forces from the planets evolve in the course of ages, monsters, variously shaped, animals of different colors, and various species of birds, and also guide the destiny of man to a very great extent, until his Soul ripens into Spirit guidance; for Spirit, being absolute over all things, is also complete in controlling all Astral forces, while the Star Magno of the planets furnishes the ener- gies which imprint themselves upon the Astral forms of plants, ani- mals, and men which find expression in physical forms. Their signatures may be seen in the open book of life, which belongs to, shapes and gives shade and color to every form. The shape of features and limbs, the lines and shape of hands, the expression of the face, the color of eyes and hair, are the signature of the planets. These are the marks which the Universal Mind stamps upon every living thing, the signet of its heritage, and those who open the book of nature's truths may read and find the true history written on the face of every thing, even upon every stone. The Astral theory is that the sun, moon, and planets each and all exercise a distinct and peculiar influence upon man. This influ- ence begins at conception, continues with increasing effect during gestation, and develops its culminating plenitude at birth; the ruling planet at this time exercises such power over the babe as to stamp its character upon the entire life. This Astral influence extends not only to the life in general, but likewise to the particulars of thought and action in minutiæ. This Astral influence is conveyed to man, and acts upon him through the Astral light. This, the palmister tells us, is composed of the seven fluids which emanate from the seven primary planets respectively. These fluids, separately and in their combina- tions, are tempered and modified by the sun and moon. The indi- 60 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. ! vidual influence of each planet acts upon man by means of this fluid, which reaches him through the mount in the hand bearing its particu- lar name. The combinations of these fluids exert their power upon man as they reach him through the different lines in the palm. These different Astral fluids which act upon the man through the hand, sepa- rately and conjointly, determine the man's life, according to his past history of disease and fortune, as well as deciding his future in this respect. The hand is therefore (according to this theory) the reflec- tion of the man; showing his past history, present condition, and foretelling his future fortune and fate. The past and future, the palmist argues, are alike unknown with- out the historian and the prophet. The future is as clear to the prophet as the past to the historian, and the prophecy of the future, written in the hand by nature and the gods, is clearer to him who can read that language than any moral history can ever be. It is no more wonderful, they say, to read the future from the hand than to give a history of the past from the same source. Each is an equally clear page to him who can read the signs written there by the planets. Palmists disclaim any absolute fatality in the signs. of the hands. These signs, they say, are rather warnings for man's use and benefit; they predict the temptation and the opportunity · the threat of one planet, the favor of another. It is still largely in man's power to choose which he will hear or accept, or mayhap make one annul the other. Hence, every man may to a great extent court the favor of the beneficent planets and thereby thwart the ill designs of the malevolent powers, and essentially determine his happiness. But he can materially change his trials and his opportunities, through growth and knowledge of Spirit, for Spirit is absolute over all things, and a man who lives in the Spirit and near to God has no fears nor doubts. Life is too real, too thoroughly momentous, in urgent gravity, to be travestied in empty creed or by fictitious representation. A man who penetrates only the world of mind halts at the gateway of mesmeric will, where there is groping through the thick darkness of the mate- rial world, and, if unguided, he blindly penetrates the realms of force. In this mad dance of demons, this age of avaricious rapacity and sordid covetousness, this age of hypocrisy and commercial traffic,- where the great ambition of half the world is to try to overreach and rob the other half; where on one side are avarice, lust, greed, selfish- ness, harshness, mercenary cupidity, and the iron hand of ungenerous power under the glove of conventionality, which is but venial vanity; MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 61 on the other side, penury, poverty, privation, destitution, hunger, distress, and anguish, smarting upon the rack of torture, the cruci- fixion and daily martyrdom of a struggle to exist, a life which is one piteous appeal and sigh of pain and want; the common multitude judge and grade a man by the amount of money he has or can com- mand. In the eyes of the world a man without money is a cipher, a nonentity, a shadow of existence, an effigy of life, who is condemned and ignored. Unless he is illumined by the companionship of Spirit, his mind wanders in horror, his thoughts growing into a hopeless spectre of abject terror, while wild promptings to some desperate act beckon him onward, till it is but a chance if he is not driven into lawless deeds. The world The step from poverty to crime is indeed a short one. calls even poverty itself a crime, but if a poor man, however low and deep has been the past, succeeds in gaining money, he is absolved. He is an object for distinguished consideration and admiration. The more show you make the more you are admired; but when, by some calamity, the gold has flown, the hand which grasped yours so warmly now slaps you in the face; the lips you hastened to relieve when parched with thirst, now hurl venom and spite after you. The bridge you builded for a friend to cross, receives a kick from the feet you bathed with precious ointment when they were weary and travel-worn. Such is the mad world's way. Better by far, take the pathway of a kind and peaceful life, that when the hour comes for you to pass on, you may apply for admission at the gates of paradise, bearing with you the perfumes of kindness and charity, the gems of good deeds, for when man attains power and wealth he grows in confidence which, if not guarded, ends in conceit, and his epitaph when all is done is told in few words - Money and Selfishness. The living may erect a shaft to his memory, but the angels see no emblem over the cold, hard heart, the life to them a mere whited sepulchre. Many an epitaph of some of those whom the world calls honorable men, when read in heaven, is something as follows: Here lies the body of a man who lived by cunning and deceit, who never did one hour's work for God, Angels, or men, nor even for his own Soul; who sinned against this life and slighted the next. Man does not form his own character entirely, it is formed by the circumstances that surround him, nor can he escape this condition except by his union with Spirit, which, through the guidance of Angels, opens the prison doors of human circumstances into liberty and light. 62 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. The whole life of an ungenerous, selfish man is only one long frightful mistake. It is like the low tolling of a bell whose song is a sigh, like a dirge at the grave. Charity, high above all the knowledge and highest powers of man, is the only safe anchorage and greatest of all virtues. Treasures in heaven are charity and Love. Man, like any other creature, is only content in the element to which he was born, unless he opens his Soul for growth and is illumi- nated by Spirit. The frog would spring from a golden chair into his native swamp, the captive bird ever tries to escape though you fill his gilded cage with flowers and sweets. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1. Cor. ii: xiv. Small minds often think themselves great, great ones, never. As unbiassed thought traverses the universe, active, but silent, unobserved, it gathers grains of golden truths and crystal sands of speculations, with which it paves man's way to his greater destiny. Man can appreciate many things, but, on account of conceit and conventionalities, enjoys but few. There is a conceit in self-culture that must be cast out, which also brings conceit in the culture of the Soul. So many are stranded on the rock of Phariseeism. Many a good man is swamped in the mire of his own atmosphere and charac- That which might have been a full shock of corn in its season is ripened out to Dead Sea fruit. ter. It is the modest, humble, unassuming man in whom are found True- Godliness and True Soul, which are rarest of rare things in this pre- sumptuous age; but the quiet, unassuming life of gentle Love is the greatest of all greatness, the noblest sublimity, an exaltation and ascension into the Spirit world which is an overflowing fountain for which human Souls are favorite reservoirs. The higher and better nature of Soul is purely harmonious, and ever tends to the equilibrium. In all her strivings, the possession of a special gift or power reaches grander heights and nobler ends if it is accompanied by an unambitious indifference to its possession. Never force talent; let it force you. Great power and great gifts in shallow minds are like richly laden vessels among breakers or in shallow waters. The moment violent anger controls a man or the fierce sway of passion or even the lower mental emotions, the working of the Spirit is retarded, and it is finally compelled to depart or to yield fully to the MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 63 impulses of the body. When Moses smote the rock in his wrath, and Christ blasted the fig-tree, their spiritual work on earth was ended. All Hierophants, Adepts, and Anchorites know that through anger, passion, and bitterness of any kind, all Spirit is hindered, and the higher forces are temporarily broken, and if in a mood of passion or violent anger the operator or Adept calls for Spirit and the higher force to unite and give him their action, they act then for the last time through that individual, but rebound and take flight from the adherent inhar- monies of that soul and body during its natural life. The Spiritual reign with that Soul so long as it remains in the mortal form is ended then and there. Well indeed does any Adept know the deep meaning of those words of the Christ at Calvary: "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani," that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” A very large part of the human race do not desire advanced thought, nor are they inclined to think for themselves. One is moved with wonder at the great deficiency of new thoughts simplified, or of any aptness and fertility of mind among the vast multitude of the human race. This is especially marked on newer thought of religious things. Apparently one-half the world fears to think, while the other half claims to have not time. All are prone to follow the bell-wether like a flock of sheep, no matter into what inconsistency or absurdity, even to danger and to death. No man who is a shedder of blood or an eater of unclean flesh will ever touch the central secret of things nor hold within his hand the mystery of life and death. No man who has not grown gentle and kind, controlling all anger and boisterousness, can ever lay hold of the Knowledge of the tree of Life. Hence it is written of the Holy City," Without are dogs," etc., for the foot of the carnivorous beast cannot enter therein, nor shall the lips polluted with blood pro- nounce the Divine Name. The Perfect Spiritual Living Man, or humanity in Paradise, made in the Divine Image, was given as meat the fruits of the trees and grains of the fields. Then men were content with the food which nature freely bestowed, for the bodily appetites knew no law but that of Spirit and a healthy intuition, and obeyed the impulses of the God within. But, so soon as man acquired a selfish and perverse will, which grew from moodiness to resentment, thence to anger, a new lust arose, for a new and sub-human nature appeared in it, the nature of the beasts of prey, whose actions the fallen man has put on. Paradise can never be regained, regeneration never completed, 64 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. man never fully redeemed until his body is brought under the law of gentleness and love of Eden. None will ever know the joys of Para- dise who cannot live like man in Paradise; none will ever help to restore the golden age to the world who does not first restore himself. He who will but live the Life of Eden shall find all its joys and all its sacred mysteries within his grasp. He who will do the Will of God, of Love, and of Spirit, shall know the doctrine of Truth, shall triumph. in the knowledge of the Great Mystery. He is free, being born again. by the Spirit and made one with the Father, his own Central God. We say boldly, and without fear of contradiction from those who really know, that the Illumination of Soul, the Interior Life and the Clear Heaven are not attainable by men who are without warm Love, not animal but universal Love. He who remains unable to detach himself from the love of matter and from the attractions of sense can at best but dimly discern the Light of the Spiritual Sun. Thou man who art so heedless and unthinking, look into this inner lamp of thine, see if there burneth a light of harmonious Love; examine well thy casket lamp, for if from it there come no flame of Spirit light, thou canst not see to look into the hidden mysteries of thy life. How can a man reflect upon himself, or hope to fathom Truth, who neither knows God nor desires to know Him? Without some Knowledge of a Divine Entity, or Absolute Energy, life is so burdened with ennui and self-contempt that no refined, thoughtful man would desire to go on with it, and usually only the strong animal man, who lives for desire and appetite, can endure to bear it long. The longer a truly unbiassed, thoughtful but material objective man lives, more and more is he lost in an ocean of speculation; his every effort to climb the heights of Truth is by stairs of sand, and as he thinks he is tossed more and more wildly on the restless billows of a shoreless sea. A man who does not believe in God is as a child who has lost himself, he knows not where. Far from home, he wanders, - - drift- ing about like a ship at sea, without compass or rudder, which, after much exertion, tempest-tossed and storm-swept, finally enters port, till at last weeping and weary he returns to his mother's breast. Such a man finds no certainty in the objective animal life of man but that his self-love has often moved his Soul to a boundless cupidity. Weary of this fruitless labor, which, even if its object were realized, would not fill the void within the human breast, he finds that which has caused him to wander so long in darkness and disquiet most un- satisfactory; he awakes to a knowledge that there is a living Truth of Spirit, out beyond as well as about him, which now illuminates and MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 65 gives him light to leap all barriers and break the chains that have so long held him captive, and, waking, he is free; a child born again of the Spirit, he has found God and now learns that God is the crowning feature of the Spiritual, as man is of the physical world. Now for the first time he finds repose and consolation within the Temple of Truth, whose eternal gates are ever open to invite the weary and erring pilgrim to enter in and refresh himself at the per- petual fountain of undying Spirit Love. He who once drinks of these waters will never again find an uncertainty in hope of immor- tality, nor are there strewn about the court-yard of this temple the mutilated limbs of truth, but colonnade and court are of purity, har- mony, and crowned by the blessed virgin of Truth herself. Man must be disappointed with the objective and lesser things of life before he will listen and stop to comprehend the true Life and the value of his Soul. This earth life, with its noisy ambitions, its. selfishness, and its mean passions, is so poor and base. As the macrocosmic will of the solar system consciously or uncon- sciously evolves forms, so does the will of microcosmic man. If we form a concrete or even an abstract idea in our mind, we give it a shape, and create an existence, with an atmosphere, which may be- come either subjective or subject and even material according to the means applied for that purpose. Every thought creates a subjective form, which may be seen and perceived not only by the originator of that form but also by another person endowed with the inner sight and the faculties of Soul perception. Forms are the symbols of ideas. The objects by which we are surrounded are but the representations of ideas, either from God or Man, representing the growth of the world. They are the alle- gories which constitute the dream we call life. Those who can understand the true meaning of surrounding objects understand nature. As ideas progress, forms become more refined, for low ideas are symbolized by low, coarse forms. Exalted, unselfish ideas are embodied in refined forms. Every emotion that arises in man may be combined with the astral forces of nature and create a being, which may be perceived by the persons to whom it is sent, if they have cultivated their inner sight as an active entity. It is through these hidden ways that the Hierophant is enabled, through his intense emotion and desire, to see or give orders to a certain person, even at a great distance. He projects himself from the physical body and becomes conscious and visible at any distance, with those he desires to reach. 66 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. Desire results from attraction. Attraction from the separation of two substances analogous in their essences and properties. The more the thoughts, desires, selfishness and the lower propen- sities clinging to the sphere of desire are concentrated, the more dim and shadowy will become the serene image and Spirit light above one, till it is lost sight of altogether; but if the aspirations. and thoughts dwell in the Love universal, everything is made effec- tive by Will. Then life and action rise above the sphere of self, clinging to the pure ideal which grows more distinct and substantial until the innermost self and Soul are united with and attuned to Spirit, and are free from earthly attractions. Now one can look down upon all that which remains below and behold it as it is in truth-only the shadow of its own reality. To recognize the purity of the Divine spark within, is true adora- tion. To attempt to realize it, true meditation. To exert this Will to bring one's self into perfect harmony with it, is inspiration or prayer; to express that prayer in acts, is to make it effective. True prayer is always efficacious on the plane on which it is made to act Prayer on the physical plane consists in physical works. Prayer on the astral plane purifies the emotions through the action of Will, softening and thereby illuminating mentality through the emotions of universal Love. In the realm of intellect, study is prayer and leads to knowledge. Thus the higher Spiritual aspira- tions lift man out of the turmoils and burdens of matter, and bring him to an attunement with Spirit and nearer to God. This self-satisfied entity called modern society, which plumes itself on appearance and heritage, is like an old hag covered with cosmetic to cover up all imperfections, but they remain, and under all this masquerade of modern conventionalities, falsehood and decep- tion exist. The only difference in methods of money-making in this modern age is that some are more notorious than others. Banks, Insurance, Stocks, Railroads, Municipal Governments, in truth, nearly all modern methods of conducting business, just escape being criminal, and when one of their managers is brought up occasionally before Modern Justice by some victim brave enough to cry out, Modern Justice often becomes a question of money. Ambition, vanity, pride, deception, and hatred live upon the labor of millions, making human beings victims of circumstances beyond. their power to control. It appears almost a necessity at times for the poor to become criminals to live. Friends of humanity, ye who have never needed to steal that ye * MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 67 might live, ye whose money has made you respectable! what tenderness of heart, what gratitude can be expected of a man who is holding the wolf of hunger by the ears? The loaf of bread first, then show him the light. What means all this disturbance and unrest? Is there any sig- nificance at all in the movements of large bodies of men, animated by a common thought, directed by intelligence, above all based on absolute justice? Is a new deluge coming upon us? How many thousands of good deeds and pure thoughts lie cramped and crippled. Behind hot and weary brows, the very Soul is compressed in this mad rush and struggle for bread. Oh the pity of it, that the aspirations of life should wither and fall so low. Surely if men would but think they would feel constrained to give each other room on this fair earth, for 'tis but a breath of time, these so-called years, when the form of which men are so selfishly careful, finds only a few feet of earth, a forgotten mound soon worn down again to the common level. But this mad age runs wildly over everything, building its own judgment day to end in suffering, pain and death. Oh that mankind would be warned in time lest in this matter they be found warring against God. It is neither just nor philosophical to name the dejection and unrest which so often exist in the Soul and are mirrored in the face of the poor man jealousy or envy. It is not these, but it is the burden of heavy life, a perpetual drag. Even to those who are placed beyond the reach of immediate want, the struggles of life are hard enough, but when to them is added the burden of wrest- ling for the commonest necessities of life, then indeed is it a torture to live. The condition of the ant by the wayside is far better, for he is conscious of no neighbor who wallows in indolence while he goes hungry. So long as this fiend of selfishness stalks abroad in our midst can any true religion or Spiritual light lay claim to Justice or right? No power can overthrow this monster of impudent hypoc- risy, but Spirit Truth, or old Father Time, who is indeed an honest fellow though slow, will balance up the account of the last century by some great calamity and deluge of suffering to all humanity. Even now, at times, Mother Earth rebels at the deep scars men make, and in convulsions throws aside her creeping populace. God is just and Nature balances His accounts. It has been said that only through pain and suffering is man made to halt in his mad career to think and meditate, and only through affliction and death does the human Soul rise into eternal Life. ་ 68 *THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. We do not claim that mankind are all of the same species- far from it; some are for one branch and pathway of life, some for another. The architect, the sailor, the mechanic, the farmer, all have their necessary callings. Let all live in peace, and not devour each other, as the birds that sing in the trees, or the frogs that croak in the marshes, each to his natural vocation and element. To ask or expect the frog to fly in the air, the bird to lie in the pool, is an injustice and reversal of nature. Misapplied virtues become vices, and well directed vices are virtues. An emotion is either a virtue or a vice according to the manner in which it is applied. Something more than a man's nature is shown in his acts, and error is not always the result of want of education, but often a lack of power to comprehend the Truth. A profound man thinks more easily than he talks; a shallow, weak one talks more easily than he thinks. Misanthropy is starvation of the heart. It is the heritage of riches. This aversion to humanity grows and grows as man gains possession of wealth and power, and is usually the rock on which his bark is wrecked. He who has outrun the large majority of God's creatures in the struggle for bread, by fleetness, or cunning, or the help of heritage, feels in his heart, and shows that he feels so in his acts, that the great horde of humanity has no right to be poor; that poverty is a crime which debars them from the right to a little room in which to live, but God is just and all His accounts are balanced with interest by dear old Time. The faith of man in man is broken because we do not worship the True God, and some of the most lamentable errors which have been taught mankind are the misconception of God and the mis- understanding of man. General confidence can only exist where man has faith in Spirit. Could the heart of humanity beat tenderly toward the fallen and the unhappy! could men but understand each other! An unhappy man needs double love and charity, and twice is he blessed who is able to bestow these. At some time in earth's history Spirit Light is coming very near to man; in this new era the old religion of Spirit Truth, the unity of man, must not be lost. Dear Pilgrim of the Illuminati, the great and rich have plenty of friends; be thou the friend of the poor. He who gives but one drop of water to the poor unselfishly, it shall be unto him a living fountain in paradise. Then again modern society trains men to the repression of the sensibilities and sympathies, the expression of which is considered MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 69 unmanly, which repression makes them seem almost brutal. Mawk- ish sensibility that weeps puerile tears over every fancied woe is not manly nor to be cultivated, but a true soul charity for the unfortu- nate. Crowds may be swayed before the footlights by the passion and pathos of the great tragedians, and retire to live the old life, their excited sensibilities dying out without exercise upon an appro、 priate object. An increased sensitiveness which would make life an excruciating pain is certainly not desirable, but there is a certain sensibility, a normal characteristic of the Spiritual, moral, and intellec- tual life, which, though disguised in some quarters, is an important factor in every rightly regulated mind. The conventional well bred composure is carried too far. We bury our tears so deep in the heart that it becomes hardened and congealed. "Let your modera- tion be known to all men," but do not stifle a noble impulse, although to yield to it is not "genteel" in society parlance. Your joys and sorrows must be kept in conventional bonds. If you feel obliged to weep, weep decorously, is the mandate of the sphinx of modern soci- ety, whose dead, expressionless face is not unlike the stone one by the Nile. As the age grows older the sensibilities and sympathies be- come schooled; as culture and conventionality came in, feeling and sympathy went out, until this age is in danger of becoming an ele- gant fossil as to its sympathy and emotional nature. That which was characterized and condemned as barbaric is fast becoming the last result of fashionable culture, a repression of the emotions where real distress, not the painted figment of the stage, should cause the tear of sympathy to flow, and spur the gift of help- fulness which might be exercised for humanity, and which follows hard on a noble and true sensibility. Many disciples of modern culture imitate the oyster and live in a shell of their own selfishness, preserving a hard, flinty exterior. To them emotion and sympathy are undignified, but they are not above committing a greater sin, perchance, and permit themselves to retail scandal of their neighbors. Dear Pilgrim, keep a strong hold on your emotional life, that impulse and sympathy may be your savior, without which you might be easily led into sin against God, Nature, Duty and Good manners. It has been said, with some truth, so widespread is this evil that the children of the present day are losing their kindness and sym- pathy for their parents, and are all miniature men and women postur- ing as their elders do in larger life; the bloom and freshness of child- hood worn off too early, the artlessness and unquestioning faith well 70 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. nigh lost. If the intellect and will are cultivated at the expense of the sensibilities, we have a growing monster, at least a civilized heathen, with great frigidity, a cold unfeeling life, which may appear brilliant to some, but to its owner full of bitterness. The intellect, with sympathy and wisdom, should be the motive power, the human will the lever that holds it to the track. Sensibili- ties are the very vehicles of progress, which are to make effective the other powers associated with them. It is sympathy which has made great men so mighty in their influence over the minds of others, and helped to sway the masses to their will. Others may be far more learned and surpassing in intellectual acumen, but never in the wealth of noble sensibility and sympathy, which impart a magnetic power over the will and thoughts of men and bend them as the needle to the pole, pervading all their intellec- tual and moral power like an atmosphere until its touch is felt by a true sensibility, and it becomes a living reality before which men must bow, as the orator's heart glows with this magnetic sensibility. The terms brutishness and modern manliness are almost synony- mous. So stolid have we become to common woes and misery; so placidly we read and see life's tragedies; so nonchalantly we march on, that our lives appear to a thoughtful mind like a childish comedy, empty and foolish. In the eyes of God and all true men, it is no disgrace to have a warm heart, no merit to keep it double-locked behind a conventional mask. Why, men "have died and made no sign" because those around them, having eyes, saw not, and, having ears, heard not; because they felt if they asked for bread they would receive only a stone; therefore they passed out into the shadows of the night, forgotten. Between the extremes of poverty and riches, the great surging mass of humanity waits for warm hearts and loving hands to lift men to the vantage-ground of healthful living. Dear Pilgrim of Light, it is not expected of you to take on the burden of the world only to sink under its weight, but here a little and there a little if only to help one of God's suffering children. This is a leaven which will leaven the whole lump. Let us not be ashamed to feel a brother's suffering and woe; first sensibility, then wisdom and sympathy for the ideal life of humanity. Even though one should deny the existence of God, there is one absolute certainty — that one is always in the presence of an infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed, it being the foun- tain-head of human sensibilities and sympathy. Sensation is the only means of knowledge, whether for the body MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 71 or the mind. The body perceives by the five avenues of touch. The Soul, in like manner, by the same corresponding senses, but of a finer sort, and put into action by more subtile agents; while Sacred Spirit responds and perceives through two higher senses, a combination of the five bodily and five Soul senses. There are therefore seven Soul and Spirit senses for the animal man to cultivate in order to become an Illuminated Pilgrim of Spirit Truth. To know God, then, is to know these senses and the substance that acts upon them. And to know this and only by knowing these is to know ourselves. This and only this was the meaning of the famous immortal and mystic utterance inscribed on the porch of the Temple at Delphi; KNOW THYSELF, a sentence which in its brevity comprehends all wisdom. The system by which these supreme ends are attained, and which now for the first time in the world's history is openly disclosed, has constituted the hidden basis of all the world's Divine revelations and religions. It is the pathway to the interior of the inner Temple of Soul, Spirit and Reality where God subsists in His plenitude and Truth abounds. Only through the knowledge of these inner senses can man find the True Light, and so, from Nature's seeming, he attains to the cognition at once of his own Being and that of God. The man who knows himself disdains being fed only by the mouth; he knows there is no true feeding except through his Soul, the higher self which is lifting itself above the animal and beyond time to eternity. Spirit Light springing up in his Soul as an everlasting fountain, he learns of a truth the words "Whosoever drinketh of that water shall never thirst, . . . a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Spirit Light sweeps away the clouds that hid the horizon; it is the bright and morning star; the forerunner and intercessor; opening the portals of Life, it pleads in love for him in the celestial realms, is his mediator and guide through all worlds, creating about him an atmosphere which can come only from the loving heart of Spirit. As Love feeds on Love; courage on courage; heroism on hero- ism; as magnanimity inspires magnanimity; as example provokes imitation, such is the blessed transformation wrought in the man who plunges into the deeper mysteries of the Soul and its union with Spirit and with God. A pure but ignorant person, if thrown into the highest state of conscious ecstasy, or even consciously into his own astral or star- magno, would not comprehend what he saw, and, if not quite evenly 72 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. balanced with good common-sense, would become insane; while the most fearless and learned man, so long as his mind is clouded with selfishness and greed, or is prejudiced by human theories, cannot enter the superior state. For this reason the inductive and deductive methods of reasoning must go hand in hand. How is it possible for the acorn, buried in the darkness of the ground, to foresee its future condition as an oak into which it may develop? The true instructor in occult science will impress on the mind of the student that the first step toward attaining true knowledge of the inner world is to realize fully that he is ignorant. The fresh student usually thinks he knows everything already, except perhaps a few details. If he remain on this ground, it is little use to occupy valuable time, for he will be unable to learn much more than details. Material Science deals as yet only with the lowest two principles of man and the five objective senses, while the remaining five higher principles and seven subjective senses are ignored and left unknown. Man's actions are his writings. By putting his thoughts into acts he expresses and records them in the book of Life. Man's acts are his creations, and give form to his thoughts and expression. The motive he vibrates endows them with life, the will furnishes them with strength. He raises the magic wand of his Will and quiets the tempest rag- ing in the Astral world. The animal or selfish emotions which were rushing about in disturbance and tumult, consuming and driving him on to destruction, now obey him and execute his orders, while he walks safely upon the waters under whose surface is hidden the abyss of death. His fate may be to walk through life greatly misunderstood, and perhaps alone, but he never can be isolated, because he knows that, wherever he may be, he is only a part of the great Absolute Love, the All in All which is united with him. He knows that personality is an illusion, and that the Divinity within him will never die. He has de- veloped a far-seeing perception which reaches away out beyond the narrow circle of his material surroundings, and beyond the short span of time which encircles the all of this earthly life, and knows that it is in his power to control his own future destiny. Fear and doubt have no power over him, for he knows Truth of Spirit. His Will is power; his protection, Spirit Truth. His faith rests in the bosom of Absolute Love and his knowledge is directed by Love and Wisdom. But most men who take an accurate account of their moral stock-in-trade will find the chief assets to be made up of selfish- .. MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 73 ་ ness, the principal liability the debt of nature. The greedy miser, on looking at nature, thinks only of the money value represented, while the Poet and true man finds beautiful forms and flowers, music in the trees and waterfalls, fairies in the wandering clouds, peace and rest in the mountain-tops, a dream of love in the shady groves. The selfish coward wanders and drifts through life with a scowl upon his face; he sees in every corner an enemy, and for him the world has nothing attractive nor right except his own small life. The man who cannot be trusted is ever distrustful; the thief fears always to be robbed, and the slanderer and backbiter is extremely sensitive to the gossip of others. Love and sympathy, envy, hate and vindictiveness, benevolence, kindness, and amiability, lust, selfishness, and greed are not persons; but, becoming assimilated with the objective part of the man, thereby become personified in the man. An extremely malicious person is the embodiment of malice, and if he sees the demon in an objective form he beholds the reflection of his own Soul in the mirror of his mind. Spirit is everywhere, but Spirit cannot exist without form, nor can it anchor without an attraction. 1 To call up a good or a wicked Spirit we need not go in search of him. We need only to create an atmosphere and permit him to come. To call up a devil is to give way and create an atmosphere of selfish desires and wrong-doing. Love is the Mother of all emotions and is of a dual nature. To vanquish the devil is to create an atmosphere of the highest Ideal of Love and Spirit Universal; thus the man resists all temptation, and evil departs. Whenever a certain amount of energy has accumulated, the time arrives when it will be expended, which must produce an effect either great or small. Man's will is not entirely free. Every mental state is the necessary result of previously existing mental states. Man's Will is the result of growth and involution, and as such cannot tran- scend its own powers, but it is capable of further development and growth. The Divine Spirit principle alone is free, — being not a re- sult of material causes, but Spirit eternally existing. The principal work of the universe is not done by manual labor, but through the Illumination of a few Minds. Forms are mental states, and the Cosmos is the result of the state of the Universal Mind. Man's outward expression gradually changes according to the changes going on in his mind. Thus the external aspect of the uni- 74 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. • verse changes according to the change produced in the Universal im- pulses. As the Universal Mind is only the collective sum total of all individual minds, the Cosmos must be the result of the gradual Invo- lution through which all the individual minds that ever existed have passed. There is no question nor doubt that the operations of the mind of an individual affect all other minds to an extent proportionate to its power, and those operations will therefore equally affect the regener- ation of the Cosmos, which as a whole is the result of the collective action of all individual minds; and hence it follows that the more an individual mind grows, expands, and becomes Illuminated by Truth, the more it acts in harmony with the Universal whole. Again, the more power will that mind obtain and become a true co-worker with Spirit and Nature, while he who opposes the law and resists the growth of Truth will become his own destroyer, for intel- lect must take the place of instinct. Besides, the will becomes more powerful through the subjective and more free to accomplish what it desires. The more the brain is illuminated by Truth, the more it becomes developed to Light, to perfection and in harmony with Spirit. Thus the more it will be able to receive the vibrations of the univer- sal Intelligence, and to assimilate them with its individual mind. The will, in order to become powerful, must be free, and the wheels of lib- erty can revolve only on the axle of good government. Intellectual people are as variable as barometers, which only show a change in the weather, they are so frequently set on some human theory with great obstinacy only to veer on the morrow to another with greater vehemence. Genius alone is essentially good. Pure happiness is only to be met with at the two extremes of the moral scale, either in the good- natured fool or the man of genius and silence, but never in the purely intellectual. The student or physician who gives to his fellow-man, in most comprehensive language, the law which governs temperaments, and the bi-sexual relations, touches one of the fundamental basic founda- tion stones of nature, and he who teaches this lesson kindly will be a noble savior of his race in his time. This law of human tempera- ments which shows that certain temperaments are suited to each other, while certain others are totally unfitted for each other, is the pedestal of happiness or misery. The men and women who practi- cally understand this will do more toward making hospitals unneces- sary than all the Sunday School teachers who talk about the Holy J MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 75 = Land and the lives of the saints. It is the living who need our pray- ers and not the dead. Instruct the children about the land of life which lies before them. A right understanding of the laws of temper- ament, and a living in accordance with those laws, will in three gener- ations drive out from the world three-fourths of the disease in it, and the doctors into other business; the human race will escape much calamity, wretchedness, and misery. The only way to purify the world and make the home circle more happy is through the compre- hension of Spirit and the understanding of the natural man, which must be ingrafted and entwined in the lives of the children that are to come. It is far too common nowadays to marry for convenience and according to wealth, social position, etc., but when mankind has been sufficiently educated to understand a few of nature's laws and the true law of temperaments, such marriage will be looked upon as criminal against the community and nation. When this is brought about, the world will be purer and happier, and men and women will be modest without prudery. Heredity may be a thought of which to speak with silent breath, but it is a science of nature made up of fundamental principles, a timely knowledge of which will save many a human being from living death and a prema- ture grave. Great facts remain to be discovered; they lie hidden in our homes, our offices, our shops; above, below, around us, at our very feet. Let us not be idle for a moment then, for life's greatest dangers are often found in apparently small risks. We are all sinners through ignorance of Spirit in Nature, but much more by practice. Men and women who are evenly balanced, thoughtful, and with good common-sense, are looking for some one brave enough to over- come the prudish condemnation of those who have little brains, and wise enough to look toward the improvement of the races of mankind, with an inquiring mind and desire for the improvement of children through the law of heredity, in which are to be found the underlying principles of either the suffering or the happiness of the coming race. Knowledge is purity where the Soul is reaching for truth, and such discussions do not border upon nor promote obscenity. The general aversion to liberal consideration of the propagation of the race and of sexual matters tending to its advancement is not only prudery but is criminal, and is the result of long centuries of superstition and igno- rance. There are two ways to change all this; first, by ensuring the reproduction of the best and healthiest elements of society; and, • 76 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. 3 second, by teaching the youth the best forms of development, and instructing them in all matters of such great import with regard to their physical, intellectual, and moral condition. The continued adulteration of human life is a great crime, especially in this age of advancement and knowledge, for we cannot now claim ignorance of these facts. While the rigid conventionality of society prevents investigation and closes the door, there must continue to be sorrow, suffering, disease, and premature death, until, on some golden dawn, generous, kind Mother Nature will rebel. To the Pure all things are Pure. This morbid evil thought of look- ing for the impure in everything, be it ever so philanthropic, is ingrain in the very nature of the age, and poisons the atmosphere like a pestilence. "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." Thus it is recorded, spake the Christ. Again, St. Paul, in Galatians vi : "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life ever- lasting. "And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. men." As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all Is not the human race of sufficient importance and consequence to require as much scientific attention to breeding as is given in the case of other animals, which are bred and improved on a scientific basis? Happy the toiler whose life is illumined by the light of truth and warmed by human love for all his kind, and a hope and inspiration for purer manhood and purer womanhood; whose only object through life is to bring a higher state of being to mankind, thereby protecting children from suffering, misery, and early death. Man's acts are his creations. They give form to his thoughts. The motive endows them with life, the will furnishes them with strength. Learning may lead to wisdom, but does not necessarily make a man wise; the Adept in Occult knowledge cannot be made, he must grow. Those who want the Truth must rise up to it by their aspira- MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 77 tions, and, ascending beyond the sphere of earthly desires, they will see that bright constellation of hallowed light which illuminates the world of Spirit forming the cross of wisdom and surrounded by the rosy light of Love, in which is inscribed in letters of gold, "Oh, man, know thyself and walk with the knowledge of the Spirit within thee." A man may have a large amount of knowledge and not much intelligence. Multitudes come out of our colleges every year with great knowledge and very little common-sense. Men who have plun dered right and left, by chicanery and cunning, through all history and in all directions, are hailed by the material multitude as great and grand, but they are not intelligent men after all. They are encumbered by their knowledge of cunning as to modern methods, but they know less of the True secret of life than many a little child, and after they have attained great wealth do not know how to use it. They are no more rich in the true knowledge than the ass that carries gold from the mines to the mint in panniers knows how rich he is. Pilgrim of Light, exhort men to abate their selfish passions and learn the pleasure of development of Spiritual knowledge and the intellect of the Soul. In this free country, there is no reason why men should be igno- rant except limitation of capacity. We are a reading people, and, if we were calm thinkers in the same ratio, should be a wise people. The food for true knowledge of Spirit was never so free and abundant as now. But, as has been frequently said by the Italian friends of the compiler, "Americans have no time for anything in the silent, loving world. You run and plunge into every science, but get at the depths of nothing." Entrance into this life is through the gate of pain. Every creature that comes to birth in this world comes crying, and every step up in life is, as it were, a new birth and attended with more or less suffering and trouble; but when once the man has gained the true secret of Life, he reaches the heights of song, and his transition is a charming melody. While a man sits at table and eats and a healthy hunger makes him eat with relish, though he does not continue to eat merely be- cause of that relish, his bodily strength is refreshed, his muscles and sinews restored to renewed activities, his body built up to manhood. So also in regard to his Spiritual food. In his harmonious child- nature he strives and prays for higher Spiritual light, for these emo- 78 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. tions are pleasing, refreshing his Soul just as the material food re- freshes the Body. He wants joy; he desires rapture and the inner experiences which bring the perfect peace that passeth understanding, which strengthen the True man (the inner, not the outer man). So he is better fitted to bear the burdens of life. We all want a strength- ening of faith, of hope, of Love, of conscience, for the grace of Love which makes us more perfect in the Spiritual man. God legislates for mankind, not for single men, and it is a living truth that the cleanest, purest development of these higher spiritual affections is just as much superior to the wisdom of the world as it is more beautifully elegant in the aspects which it shows. Spiritual Light is profitable in all things for it is quite apparent that in the administration whether of medicine, or of law, or merchandise, or enterprise in the production of material anywhere in the world, the man who carries to these spheres the highest form of Spiritual knowl- edge and intelligence will find his judgment will be sounder, his will and skill finer, than if he brought only the wisdom of his lower nature. When once a man has grown into the light of Spirit and has tasted the knowledge of Truth, there is no danger whatever that he will ret- rógrade. Once established he will not go back, for he finds his very success in life lies in the knowledge attained. • Such a man judgeth all things, and is himself judged by no man. He has reached the high moral achievement of doing right without knowing it. Following the vibrations and intuitions of his Soul, such a one directs the forces of his mind inward and upward to Spirit. He is. subordinate to and made one with the Absolute Eternal Energy. He passes within the veil, and knows even as he is known. St. Paul says, "What man knoweth the things of man, save the man himself?" "" The uninitiated person, the Materialist or highly intellectual person, with curious inconsistency (since they claim liberty and progression in all things), usually deny positively the possibility of Spirit Communion, or of any positive knowledge of the life beyond, or of the inner Soul of man, and declare that all we know is- Nothing. They speak truly so far as concerns themselves and their fellows. Well does the Apostle Paul declare as to the truth of these very inconsistencies. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 79 The two orders here indicated refer to the inner and outer man or the Soul and body of each individual. They refer also to the two great divisions of mankind. The greater part of humanity as yet recognizes only the body, while those who have ripened their Souls to Spirit Light and become initiated into the sacred mysteries have so far unfolded their interior nature as to recognize the Spirit and Soul above the body. So likewise the things of God no man knoweth save the Spirit of God within the man, and the Spirit knoweth all things and revealeth them unto the man. The life of man passes through five degrees of existence. The first is the infantine or state of pure sensation. The second, that of observation and understanding. The third, of argument and reason. The fourth, the perception of wisdom through silence and meditation, when there dawns upon the man the knowledge of higher Truths. The fifth is beyond all these in which the man becomes attuned with Soul and Spirit, a harmonious trinity. He now beholds the hidden things, perceives what has been and what will be, and all those things that escape both the senses and reason. He has now attained his freedom, by knowing himself well. To know thyself is to open the Divine mysteries and the hidden things of earth and heaven are now uncovered to thee. Thou canst attune in absorption with the Absolute, for the veil is now lifted from thine eyes; thou hast solved the hidden mysteries of Life and Death. Oh, liberty of Illumination in this life! All hail the joyous free- dom! — even if the body be imprisoned, the mind enjoys the largest liberty. Human life is a continuous battle between error and truth, igno- rance and knowledge, darkness and light, between man's Spiritual aspirations and the demands of the animal instincts. But Love is the secret of Life. Some arrive at this light sooner than others and many are lured away by some illusive creed which diffuses a refracted light, and perish like the insects that mistake the flame of a candle for the light of the Sun, scorching their wings and falling into its fire. But as the light of Spirit and the dawn of gentleness, charity, and Love becomes the atmosphere of a man, he is convinced of the emptiness of the shadows in the path he has been pursuing, and like the winged butterfly emerging from the chrysalis, he stretches out his feelers into the realm of Infinite Spirit, when his eyes are opened, 80 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. and he is astonished to find a radiant sun where he expected only darkness and death. The impressions made on the mind by the effect of imagination may be and frequently are powerful and lasting upon the person; they may change or distort the features; they may render the hair white in a single hour; they often mark and disfigure or break the bones of the unborn child and sometimes even kill it, through the imagination of the mother; they make the effects of malady or injury received by one person visible upon the body of another through the mediumship or imagination of a third with whom that one is in close sympathy. The impressions made on the human. mind act more powerfully than drugs; they are very frequently the cause of disease, and frequently cure the most violent and obstinate maladies. Imagination performs its miracles, either consciously or unconsciously, in all the departments of nature. The forces of nature, influenced by the imagination of man, act on the imagination of nature, and create tendencies on the Astral plane, which in the course of time find expression through material forms. In this way, man's vices or virtues become objective realities. As the man's mind becomes refined and purified, the earth becomes. more beautiful and refined, while vices and evil thoughts find their expression in poisonous reptiles and noxious plants or may become as a vampire prolonging its horrible existence for a time by living off the life-blood of weak and sensitive persons. The dream of life differs from the dream after death only in this. that during the former we are able to make use of the human Will to guide and control our imagination and acts, while during the first stages after death that guidance is wanting, and the Soul must rely on and be guided by what Spirit Light and Love it has gained on earth. Thus we reap that which we have sown, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant; for no effort, whether for good or for evil, is ever lost. Those who have reached out in their heart, Soul, and imagina- tion toward a high, sublime, unselfish Ideal on earth will find it in heaven; those whose life has been deceit, and whose animal desires have dragged them down, will sink to the level of their desires. Well did the Persian poet write "There is no heaven nor hell but that which man creates for himself," but it is nevertheless real and enduring to him. He who is willing to sacrifice the world to save his own insignificant little self will soon shrink to a mere nothing. MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF HIS LIFE. 81 But he who is unselfish and careless of his own benefit, seeking only to ameliorate the condition of the suffering and lift up all humanity; whose Love is universal, embracing all things, expands his energies, thus accumulating causes whose effects he will enjoy during ages of eternal happiness in a real, and to him, a substantial heaven, the creation of his own Love, Life and his own imagination. If we form a concrete or even an abstract idea in our minds, we create an existence; every emotion that arises in man, may be com- bined with the Astral forces of Nature and create a being; every coherent Ideal based on Spirit, becomes the Real of the man, thereby Truth becomes manifest through matter. There are Three kinds of loves; the love of Heaven which forgets self, this is Spiritual. The love of the World which is appearance, this is material; the love of Self which is animal, this is corporeal. The man who is affected with the love of wisdom, is like a garden in Eden, in which are two trees, the one of life and the other of the science of good and evil. The tree of life is the reception of love and wisdom from God, and the tree of the science of good and evil is the reception of them from self. To believe in himself is to be- lieve that he loves and is wise from himself, and not from God, and this is signified by eating of the tree of the science of good and evil; but to believe in God is to believe that he loves and is wise from God, and not from himself, and this is signified by eating of the tree of life. Rev. ii. UNSELFISH LOVE. "True Beneficent Love serves the virtuous mind to wake, As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads; Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace, His country next, and next all human race; Wide and more wide the o'erflowings of the mind, Take every creature in of every kind." CHAPTER V. SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. Yes! in my spirit doth Thy spirit shine As shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew. Life's little span Is as a bark upon the shoreless sea Of limitless eternity. NEITHER HEIGHT NOR DEPTH CAN MEASURE THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE HUMAN SOUL. IN works of great antiquity, and from those of Christna, it is recorded that the Soul is the principle of life which Sovereign Wisdom employed to animate bodies. Matter is inert and perishable, while the Soul thinks, acts, and is immortal. Of thought is born will; of the will is born action; and of action. is born understanding. Hence it is that man is the most perfect of all terrestrial creatures, for he operates freely as to his understanding in his mind and intellectual nature, and by meditation knows how to distinguish the true from the false, the just from the unjust, good from evil, the higher from the lower man. Therefore by that inward knowledge and conscience, that Will which conveys itself by the judgment toward what it deserves and likes and withdraws itself from what it dislikes, comes that freedom which God gave to man alone. Therefore his Soul is rendered re- sponsible for its desires and for its choice and all his actions. And for this cause God established rewards and punishments. The Soul, being immortal, came from God and must return to that Great Soul from which it issued; but as it was given to man pure and undefiled from all stain of evil or error, it cannot reascend to the celestial abode until it shall have been refined and purified from all the evil it has wrought and all the errors and faults committed through its union with matter. The Soul being purified by a shorter or longer course of self-illu- mination and strivings according to its faults and errors, held in the lower infernal heavens or firmaments, the exclusion imposed upon it 82 SYMBOLS AND HIEROGLYPHS. ILLUMINATION OF MENTALITY. Eternal Progress of the Soul by Light of Spirit, When Souls Aspire for Higher Loves True Wisdom is Attained, the Interior Form of True Soul According to the Greek Mysteries, Incessantly Onward towards the Highest. S # R THE THREE OPERATIVE POWERS OF NATURE. Sanctus Spiritus, or Holy Spirit. The Invisible Sacred Energy Spirit. The Breath of Divinity, the Invisible World. The Attuned Male Fire Principle, or Soul of Refreshing Vigor. Wisdom by Love, the Conqueror. The Triune God by Fire. The Guide of Souls in the Unseen World. The Receptive Female Principle and Intuitive Vision of Passive Motherhood. 2 * TO ESTABLISH SYMBOL OF SALVATION. Begotten of Spirit, to be Born Again by Fire and by Spirit, Easter Logos of Antiquity or True Word, the Enlightener or Omniscient One. SOUL AND SPIRIT SCUL. 83 . from reunion with the parent Great Soul, is the greatest infliction it can feel, for its desire and longing is to pass upward and return to the Primitive fountain and source of all Love, to be again merged in the Soul of all that exists. It is from its union with matter alone that all the imperfection, error, and evil comes to the Soul, but that imperfec- tion and error does not affect its inner Germ Essence, for they are not in its cause, which is the Absolute and Supreme Intelligence, which is God. Therefore the Soul cannot be imperfect in its pure essence. The Light of this sublime Central Sun does not draw obscurity from itself. If a germ of imperfection and error existed in the nature of the Soul, nothing could eradicate or destroy that imperfec- tion and error, and this germ, developing itself in the Soul, would render the Soul perishable and mortal like the body. That Christna and Zoroaster arose into those regions of Spirit, Truth, and understanding, even to the subtile illumination of the Soul and Metaphysics, no thoughtful student can doubt, and when we remember these were tabulated thoughts of men who lived ages before Moses was born, so much greater is our admiration and astonishment. The Soul of man being between spirits of such wide differences, those who always contemplate the Divine Essence, and those incapa- ble of such contemplation, our Soul can raise itself to one or sink itself to the other. We know that according to the goal which each Soul has reached on earth during its life-pilgrimage will be its first starting-point in heaven or "Spirit Life," and that an unripened Soul must win its way only through long ages of self-elaborating effort, upward and onward until it reaches the Archetype, thence passing on into its Angelhood, becoming a perfected Soul; a ministering Angel and guide to the living; a beacon light of hope to the so-called dead; progress- ing ever onward and upward, a messenger of Love; reaching out nearer and nearer toward the great Central Sun Spirit; and at last entering this Principality, resting finally in the bosom of the Absolute Love-God. The philosophy of Spirit, and the communion with departed Souls, and the guidance and guardianship of Angels is not new. The philosophy of Love and Wisdom and that of Truth by Spirit are in no way new, but date back to prehistoric man. But just at this period in the growth of the world there comes a fresh and strong overshadowing of Spirit to mankind, reminding him that through all his errors, misconceptions, and usurpations he is just beginning to rise 84 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. + ༔ above the unreason, selfishness, and ferocity in his animal nature, and is now awaking to a knowledge that he has a Soul Spirit and that there is an inner man and life as well as the objective life of the outer man, and that he is made more strong, more noble, more grand, with a greater power of potentiality and attributes of Divine Wisdom by the inner life of Truth and Spirit than he ever conceived possible through the outer, animal man; he now finds that his better part of being has been made more massive, more grand, more noble by the perfect serenity this high and sacred Dual Love diffuses over his mind and heart. He is now lifted to such a height of ecstasy that he feels life can give him nothing more, being on the eminence and altitude of perfect peace, the Illumination of the Spiritual dawn. He finds about him now an atmosphere of newly organized Spiritual force, and, glancing back at the past, he catches glimpses of development everywhere. But Spirit and Love had never been made the foundation element Until this time the until now that the day of involution has come. whole world was organized upon the animal life, its forces, craft, avarice, selfishness, luxury, and cunning diplomacy. With its physi- cal force and armies, its coercive government, the strong always above the weak, the whole world was near to the animal level, and the suc- cessful animal powers and cunning were worshipped. Who has not heard thoughts expressed from the lips of learned men on the fifth chapter of Matthew, which is so often read with vast additions of loquacious verbosity, yet so little comprehension of its meaning. "Blessed are the poor in Spirit." No! The ambitious and covet- ous; the men who think they have never received their full credit, but who push ever onward with desire; the men who think others spiritless, inactive, and mean if they are poor in earthly ambition and spirit, how can they understand: "Blessed are the poor in Spirit.” "Blessed are they that mourn." Why, the whole world was in a scramble to get away from mourning. "Blessed are the meek; they shall inherit the earth." And of all things, if ever there was one who more than all others was con- sidered despicable, who was compared to a sheep, and railed at as not worthy of respect, it was a meek man, a man humble, gentle, and mild. Yet what is this meekness which to the animal man is so odious? It is a sense of superiority in Universal Love; of patience, good- will, and charity for all, so that, when confronted with insult, ingrati- tude, and slights, integrity is still maintained, and good-will and love SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 85 "where, shed upon the smiter. "But," inquires the natural man, "All must be buried," replies the Adept. dignity does not blend well with Love. "Blessed are the meek; they shall inherit the earth.” then, is my manliness?" The worldly notion of And this is now coming to pass. The dawn of Spirit has come by the Illumination of the Souls of men. The power inherited through the long reign of brute force among men has been overtaken and conquered by Love and the inherited power of meekness and gentle- ness, which is slowly beginning to unfold, and the day is coming when not in the warrior's arm, nor in the accumulated treasures of the rich man, nor in the theory of worldly wisdom, nor any of the ordinary and lower forces of man or of society, — but in the accumulated solid pha- lanx of meekness and Love is generated an overwhelming, silent power, a "force inflexible." "" "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness the inner Soul of Truth and Love of Spirit, which was considered the most worthless thing by the multitude in those days, as it is the most useless by the fashionable society of these. "Blessed are the poor in heart." "Blessed are the peacemakers.” "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake." Now, all these qualities represent the Spiritual element in man, the combin- ing of two forces, male and female, as the organized elements that had preceded and do still exist so largely in the world representing the corporeal elements of mankind. While the planet has been ripening in the fulness of time, the Souls of men have not kept pace through Illumination of Spirit, but a little cloud of Light no larger than a child's hand burst through this long night of darkness and a new revelation of Spirit Truth is dispers ing and scattering the gloom of error and superstition. Not only is it a revelation of the Spiritual elements inherent in human nature, but a new and clear view of the development of the Divine nature in man is opened out, and he is inspired with renewed hope and joy. From its truths has sprung expert and reliable testimony in regard to the reality of the life beyond, and the awakening of the Soul after death. Through this unfoldment we hear echoing down the ages a voice that calls men back to life; that raises the so-called dead, mak- ing them tangible realities; that throws aside the cerements of grief and mourning of the past. At the hour of man's transition now, his friends are called to "loose him and let him go." Now that thoughtful men and women are casting aside the napkin of theology, multitudes of dear, good, but narrow-minded people are 86 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. · frightened lest religion itself shall be destroyed, but it is only the grave-cloths being removed, the things that have hindered the power and life of truth and impeded the Light of Spirit in the Souls of men. That which every one longs for is the knowledge that his whole life has not been spent in vain, only to be buried at the end of it; that his dear ones, his hopes, his loves, his yearnings and aspirations-all are living truths that the result of all his heroic struggles will be a tri- umph; that the victory of the Spiritual over the animal man is assured. Remember the words of the Judean Prince. "I came down from heaven. I have power to lay down my life and to take it up again. I go to make preparation for you, that where I am ye may be also. In my Father's house are many mansions," etc. Surely, if any man in this world had a right to speak as a moral expert in Soul life, it was He. In His discourses and sermons, He always spoke in parables, and continually used metaphor with his audiences and disciples. This was the pronounced peculiarity of the Essenians and Nazarines, while the Galileans, who dwelt in villages and cities, never used allegorical language. Indeed, those of his disciples who like himself were Gali- leans were surprised to hear him use such a form of expression. "Why speakest thou in parables?" they frequently inquired. "Be- cause it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; but to them it is not given." These are the words. of an Initiate and Anchorite. "Therefore I speak unto them in para- bles, because, seeing, they see not, and, hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand." Occasionally we find this Prince of Peace expressing thoughts and sentences purely of Egyptian Cult, and also Pythagorean. “Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine; lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you." The student of Eleusinian Mysteries will observe a like disposition on the part of Jesus and of St. Paul, and must classify their doctrines as Esoteric and Exoteric, some being hidden and others being communicated and made known. The mys- teries of the Kingdom of God for the apostles, and parables for the multitude. "We speak wisdom," says Paul, "among them that are perfect" (or initiated). Again he says, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” (1 Cor. iii: 1, 2.) SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 87 In the Eleusinian Greek and many other mysteries, the partici- pants were always divided into Neophytes, Anchorites, and the Perfect, and in the narrative of Paul in the second epistle to the Corinthians the student finds many descriptions of initiations and mystical rites. For instance, "These things which it is not lawful to repeat.” “A certain man, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell," etc. Not only have we this light, but there is to every man who has lived in the higher dual loves, and believed in Angel guidance and Spirit communion, an elementary power transcending any earthly com- parisons. In every true man who aspires to Spiritual growth, there is a continual struggle — a battle of life, a war without banners or trumpets or sound. Through this division of the dual attributes in man, a perpetual conflict goes on in the life of each, between the animal objective and the Soul subjective, and every man in life is subject to more or less of sorrow, disappointment, and defeat. The more frank and open the man, the more he feels the thrust of sorrow and ingratitude; the truer the faith, the stronger the love of a man's heart, the deeper falls the bolt in his household. This is the pilgrimage of this world, this the combat between earth and Spirit, and he only accomplishes a glorious victory who conquers himself. Then only does his Soul find repose amid the flowers of Spirit that bloom in the silent calm which follows the storm; then and not till then does he catch glimpses of the golden ways of Spirit, or hear the melodious music of the spheres flowing out from the man- sions of the blest. Weary Pilgrim of Light, store in your memory the melodies you hear, for it is the song of Life, thereby be refreshed and quickened. Grow as the flower grows, unconsciously but anxious to open its Soul to the air and light of golden day; open out your being to Love and press forward in Love. Open your Soul to the Eternal Light and the Eternal Light will illuminate your Soul to its ripening and to perfect peace, which shall be your constant companion; that peace which nothing, not even the violence of impending storm, can disturb, for through this peace you can command the storm and it is stilled. This is that peace through which the Soul grows to Spirit in the Light as the flower grows in the silence of the wood. You, Pilgrim, can now stand upright, firm as a rock amid the turmoils of the raging storms that beat about humanity at times. If you are a man according to the world's idea, only fragments of the ! ► 1 88 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. great song of Peace come to your ears, but if you listen and remem- ber faithfully the melody which reaches you, you will grow and your being will be illumined and you will learn the meaning of the mys- tery which surrounds you, and that only in the perfect union of your two natures is harmony. You find yourself a part of the great har- mony from which springs wisdom, - the knowledge of the one Light which illumines your life and makes all that in the past appeared mysterious open and clear to your eyes. Learn of the earth, the waters, the forests, the flowers, the birds and beasts, for the dumb creatures make far less blunders than mankind. Nature's countless mirrors reflect the Image of God, therefore look to nature and learn of her children the secrets they hold for you, and the book of Life will be opened for you. The true Pilgrim of the Illuminati has a right to demand the secrets of nature and to know the rules which govern human life. Therefore ye who desire to understand the laws of nature should first attempt to free yourselves from the laws which seem to hold you. This can be done only by fixing your attention on that which is unaffected by them—which is Spirit. Thus as you grow in Spirit and become a child of Spirit, you are in accord with the Absolute Love, and Love is God. Inquire of the calm, silent men and holy ones of earth who have thrown aside all ambition, of their secrets and what they hold for you, and as you grow more into the Light you will find that out of peaceful silence shall arise a resonant voice. In- quire of the inmost, that Dove of Immortal Love, of the final secret it is holding for you through the ages, and this melodi- ous voice will say, "It is not well that thou shouldst reap and gather continuously; now thou must sow," and knowing this voice is that of wisdom and the power of Love, in silence thou wilt obey, thus united in silence with wisdom and through wisdom with the power of Love. Ambition grows to selfishness, and selfishness is a bottomless pit. Desire to sow no seed for your own harvesting. Lay aside self. Strive and desire to sow that seed the fruit of which shall feed the whole world, being a part of which, you feed yourself. The Soul must be unfettered; the desires universal and free. Begin at the earliest moment to practise unselfishness, and so a thou- sand serpents will be kept from your path. Live in the Eternal. Listen only to the true voice which is Spirit, and Spirit dwells in the land where silence reigns. There- fore listen only to the voice which is soundless, Spirit first flower SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 89 T of earth, first gem of the sea, limitless and unchangeable. The Souls of good men are illuminated by innumerable rays flashed from the flame of Spirit Love, coming out from the Eternal Ocean of Light in the world beyond, through which by and by men do ascend to the skies. Such is the way to immortality. A man who lives in the Eternal Spirit and Universal Love is as a precious stone set in a rim of true life, a beacon-light and guide. One Soul is often the index by which another is directed to its grandest spiritual triumphs, and it is the highest moral achieve- ment in a man that he so orders his life that he does right with- out knowing it; that he is a precept and living example without sensing it. Example is a germ from which may grow a tree of good or evil. If the former, the branches shall reach to the throne of the Eternal; if the latter, it shall darken the shadows of the infernal, your own life, and the lives of others. Man fulfils his mission on earth only when the Christ Spirit truly reigns within him. "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known. "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." The language of Truth is simple, and by its simplicity Truth con- quers. This life is the great pathway to glory. If the eye is fixed upon the beacon-light of Truth, the Soul will surely be borne to its bright home, whose glory is eternal. The attainment of a pure and Divine Spiritual condition is the first object and last achievement of him who seeks to realize the loft- iest ideal of which mankind is capable, viz.: a great Universal Love. He who attains this is no mere adept, who covets power in order to save himself only, and whose knowledge of the hidden way is a thing apart from his Love. This inner Love of the Soul is the power that distinguishes the Christ, the love which saves others as well as one's self. Without self-abnegation and a universal, unselfish Love there is no at-one-ment. The man cannot become One or attuned with the Spirit within him until by his passion and crucifixion he has utterly vanquished the "Old Adam objective" of his former self. Thus he is born again; thus has he risen from the dead, from the 2. J 90 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. condition of deadness in regard to things Spiritual, and out from among those who, being in that condition, are said to be dead in tres- passes and sins. Therefore it is this which constitutes the Great Work, which is not the resuscitation of the dead body, but the redemp- tion of Spirit from Matter. It is only through the Soul that man learns the Divine Will. It is through the Soul that man communes with Spirit Souls, and, learn- ing the knowledge of Spirit Truth, saves himself. And the clearness of his vision depends on the union of his duality and the purity of the Force or mirror of the Soul in which lies the essence of all relig- ions. It is the burden of all the Bibles. With the mirror of the Soul pure, man dwells in Eden and sees God. With the forces of his being disunited, the Soul impure, and the mirror clouded through the objective man, he is driven forth into the Wilderness. Man tends toward or away from God and the Tree of Spirit Life according to the specific gravity of his Soul. Salvation and condemnation are matters of Spiritual gravitation, whose density depends upon the nature of the Love and of the affections cultivated by man. And this, again, depends upon his own Will, which is quite free. Being the regulator of his own specific gravity, therefore, he is the arbiter of his own destiny, according to the atmosphere which he himself creates; and as he himself wills and acts, he tends either inward and upward toward the Light, or outward and downward toward darkness and unripeness of Soul. Yielding to the tempter, Sense, in the objective world, and making of matter, not merely means to an end, but sole ambition, object, and end, his Soul loses at length much of her Spiritual nature. But while there is life and a germ of unselfish Love, there is hope for him through a return to purity of the inner life of the Soul, in whom the Christ, the Spirit, the Saviour can only be born when she is immaculate. St. Luke viii. : 10. And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. 17. For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. 18. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 91 Then the heart will utter words of understanding, and wisdom will grow in thy breast, for the Spirit will strengthen thy memory. In each human Soul is planted a Spiritual seed-germ that in different periods and times brings forth the fruitage of an Angel. This little fire-germ, a ray or reflection from the great Infinite Essence, comes out to a material body, and the chief aim and ambi- tion of a man should be to grow and guard his own Soul with pro- tecting care, conducting it back through successive stages of growth, cleansed and purified, and returned to its original Architect, the Absolute God. These were the great Truths of the Egyptians and the central doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras. He who has grown to the capacity of finite perception and love is one who surely has the right to say I know. He who dwells in the silent land of Spirit and communes with the immortals has entered upon a grander vista of Truth and he will reveal the order of Divine wisdom as mani- fested in our human existence, declared by the departed Souls who have lived and struggled behind the veil of Life, now growing into the fuller light of knowledge. A true and natural man, like nature, must grow, and be like children of the forest who do not vainly exhaust themselves to find God, He comes to them, and they simply find Him. In our time men stigmatize these children of nature as barbarians. It is because they are free and untrammelled by creed, unfettered by priestcraft and unbiassed by inherited prejudices; not exhausted by intellectual theories, they do not seek for God; they go out into the forest and simply find Him, interpreting without failure His writing and words to His children. Tradition comes wafting down the ages and it is whispered that God needs no temples made with hands but will respond to the call of His loving children in the forest and on the plain, on the mountain and in the valley, on the sea and on the land, a living voice, with Ray of Flame gently leading His children to the perfect day. Time is nothing in carrying out the issues of Divine Will and purpose. A second of time, a year or millions of years are but cycles forming a dot on the dial plate which marks the round of eternal progress, and in that long ago forgotten age when mankind was young and natural, men veiled their adoring eyes in the passion of their Souls, communing with Spirit and worshipping with nature, the Absolute, in primeval simplicity. Then came the age when men of learning, through years of prepa- ration, were set apart by king and people to watch the order and the pathway of the marching worlds; striving to delve into their hidden. • " 92 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. 1 mysteries; gazing incessantly night and morn from pyramid and tower were these men of yesterday. Again Time puts his sickle in among the days, and gathers them into sheaves, to be gathered into years and ages. With succession of times and seasons, generation has followed generation. Still the world rolls on gathering some of her children each day to her bosom, the whole grand scheme involv- ing her own dissolution when ripened for the harvest. The glory and brightness of the stars; the silent magnetic motion of the planets as they glide along in their pathway through the firmaments; the fiery comets in their wanderings; the terrific flashing of meteors; and the silent, unfathomable mystery of floating nebulæ, all have and do exert an influence on this fair green earth, standing out alone far into the night under the gentle radiance of the moon, with its gentle rivers and shoreless seas; its lofty mountains and mysterious valleys; its sombre forests and vast prairies; its natural children untutored and savage still and its refined and half Divine mankind; with all these realms of power, what sublimity and what littleness! Looking up through the mysterious, solemn silence of the night; dwelling but a moment on the thought of boundless, limitless space; on the count- less systems of worlds far beyond the eye and thought of man, one gasps for breath, the heart leaps up, and one cries out with the Psalmist, “Oh Lord our God, when I consider Thy heavens the work of Thy fingers; the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him?" Back in the dim ages of the past, the ancient mind discovered, through patient toil and untiring study, that all, everything moves, in corresponding order and one continuous motion sweeping both earth and heaven, " and all that in them is." Throughout all the regions of limitless space, all so harmoniously defined, the grandeur of such knowledge of the universal law of nature's harmonies; the stupendous wisdom munificence and Love manifest the presence and the attributes of that Divine Architect called God, all in Him one grand interblending universal brotherhood of Love, Wisdom, and Power. Who has not heard the profound outcries of the human Soul for Light, more Light? Spirit and Spiritual energy, when viewed from the highest altitude attainable by human conception, become merged into the great Absolute and Universal Spirit. Not with the limited idea derived from appearances in the objective life in the realms of nature, but with an ever-expanding Truth as the inmost Soul becomes illumi- SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 93 nated, the student will view the great universe itself. Then the mere loss of what we now think is personality and individuality becomes an incomprehensible and infinite gain. When the Pilgrim once becomes possessed of pure wisdom and the knowledge of the Absolute Spirit of Love, that dread of death which causes so much fear and suffering to the living; that great dark gulf which modern ecclesiasticism is unable to light up with a Truth, giving only blind faith and indefinite hope, -all is made quite clear and lovingly attractive when the Soul has ripened to its fulness, unfolding its own mystery, and, laying down this mortal body, he "Wraps the drapery of his couch about him, And lies down to pleasant dreams.” Every human life is either a prayer or blasphemy. The theories of the average man and woman of to-day; the ferocious, imperative demands of modern society, are something like those of swine and wolves. The chief, indeed the only object, in life, in youth, is to make an independent living. In riper years, to accumulate wealth, no matter how, only being careful to keep out of the clutches of the law. What better is such life than that of swine and wolves? Avarice is even stronger than hunger; the former has motives, the latter has none, and some men seem more desirous of making an im- pression upon a fool than upon a wise man, and among animals there are no fools. It requires a strong constitution and well balanced brain to with- stand repeated attacks of prosperity, for a man's future is controlled by present circumstances. · The ambition of the young woman is to be beautiful in exterior form and face, or to appear so to the world, no matter how much na- ture is abused. A little later it is to find a mate, to furnish her with fashionable attire, house, servants, etc., that she may live in indolence, though thousands should suffer. If such is the sole object of woman- hood, what is her life better than that of a butterfly or vampire? But nature, abused, is a hard mistress, and this poor ignorant child is quite apt to drag out an existence of suffering, pain, and death, after this masquerade of modern life. While earthly ambition invariably strives. to reach the top, it oftener leaves its victim at the bottom, and the sweets of to-day become the bitter things of eternity. Fashion is a fleet-footed monstrosity, which often outruns decency, and generally completely distances rationality. Thoughtful and Spiritual men well. know why our prisons, almshouses, and insane asylums are crowded to 94 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. overflowing, and too well they know it will never cease to be so until the race is ruled by the Spirit and Soul from within. Then and only then can we hope for the ideal man and woman and the ideal society; then will the human race come into that unity of faith and the knowl- edge of the Spirit into a Perfect Man. The God of nature, according to Plato, is exemplified in the little seed that produces the plant. The little acorn, planted in the earth, surrounded by darkness, swells and softens and at last bursts from its little shell, by the self-acting energy of the Germ in its interior, reaches the sunlight in the tiny plant, then the tree, passing through several transmutations, all the phases illustrating the idea of so many potentialities. The plant participates in an idea as at any given mo- ment it realizes only some of the phases of the idea. Real existence as we see it is thus whirling round in spiral form in all its possibilities. To be born of the Spirit requires of a man a greater change than boisterous noise and ecstatic shouts. The new birth generally comes in the change of a man after great affliction and sorrow, when there is an entire giving-up of all earthly ambitions and fond desires. The heart softens, the Soul broadens, and the Dual being becomes more harmonious. Then a new birth is effected, in which the true union of the dual forces of the animal body become united with the Soul and for the first time the eyes of the Soul open to the light of Spirit. Thus inspired and filled with God, the Soul kindles into flame and the God, Spirit, identified with the man, speaks through him, making the man speak in the name of God. Hence he disavows for himself the authorship of his utterances, as did Christ. "The words I speak unto you I speak not of myself. But the Father which dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." To attain to the perfection of the Christ, is to become above all things Media not a Medium as is ordinarily understood in the mod- ern Spiritual science, but to become polarized in Spirit Love through the Union of the Dual Nature of Being. That is the Divine Spirit without measure, unlimited, and to be- come a Pivotal Point, a Man of Power, and a Medium for the Highest. Although this development is open potentially to all men, it is in this present stage and character of civilized man not actually open to any but the Illuminated few, who, while not declining the experiences of life and the body, have made the Spirit and Soul, and not the body, their chief Love, their object and aim. SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 95 The wrongs of others wound the Spirit of God, and the stripes of others fall on His flesh. He is smitten with the pains of all creatures, and his ear is pierced by their cries. There is no offence for which He does not suffer, nor any wrong by which He is not hurt, for His Heart is in the breast of every creature and His blood in the veins of all flesh, for to know perfectly is to love perfectly and so to love is to be partaker in the pain of the beloved. So, then, he who loves and succors and saves even the least of God's creatures ministers to the Lord. Christ is the perfect Lover, bearing the sorrows of all the poor, oppressed, and broken-hearted, and those wounded in Spirit. The sin, injustice, and cruel wrong; the ignorance, imposition, and intolerance of the world are the nails in His hands and feet, and ingratitude the spear that pierced His side. Oh; Passion of Love, that givest thyself freely even unto death, for no man can do Love's per- fect work unless Love thrusts him through and through; but if he love perfectly he shall be able to redeem his beloved, for strong, ener- getic Love is a net which draws all Souls unto him, because unto Love is given all power and might both in heaven and on earth. Seeing that the Will of him who loves perfectly is one with the Will and in concord with God, and unto God and Love all things are possible, therefore the secret of Life is Love. There is an interior vitalized life principle in all men, peoples, and systems which, according to wise and unerring and omnipotent law, the Economy of the Absolute Spirit, must ever be working outward, and which manifests its power in involution, by the formation of distinct and different genii of mankind. (6 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me." The complaint made against occult knowledge and Spiritual Light in the past, and that which will be made by modern theologians against this exposition of the real and true nature of the gospel his- tory, is that it has taken away their Lord. Not so. He is only taken away from the place wherein the church has so long kept him, the Sepulchre. There with the dead, bound about with cerements, a figure alto- gether of the past, the Christians of the past have laid their Christ, but at last the stone of superstition has been rolled away by the hand of the Angel of Knowledge, of Spirit Truth, and the grave so long concealed is found to be empty. No longer needs the human Soul to seek her Lord and Master among the dead. Christ is risen into the 96 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. | . : heaven of the Living Ideal, whence he can descend into the hearts of all who desire him. None the less real and powerful and not merely a historical personage of the past, but a real person in Spirit and Love of the present; no less mighty to save because instead of being a single man regenerate, He is every man Regenerate ten thousand times ten thousand, the Son of Man (Himself). The Man Regenerate is so exclusively under the influence of his inner Soul Spirit or Mother as to have but a slender connection with his external body, using it only for shelter and nourishment and such other purposes as minister to his Soul's welfare and to others during his earthly pilgrimage. Thus men ascend to Spirit Light and God. Such is the pathway to immortality. The fruit of the Spirit is Love, Charity, Joy, Peace, Gentleness, Long-suffering, Benevolence, Knowledge, Light, Meekness, Temper- ance, and Great Wisdom. He who has grown to possess these is a child of Spirit. "The wind bloweth where it listeth and ye hear the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of Spirit." It is a man's Soul growth which determines what he may become and what fruition is possible to him. The man whose title is full of Love and Charity and magnanimity, and who wears it with simple- unaffected grace and true feeling, with that grand God-like Love born in all mankind,- how can the outside world of lesser men measure him or have one true thought of judgment. Then let us hold our peace; very often one word or look can efface years of happiness to a Spiritual, sensitive, or refined medium. For great hearts live fast in a little while. A year is an age to a great, pitying heart. "Ye are not of the world; but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."-Christ. As tall trees of the forest are the first to be smitten by the storm and shattered by the thunderbolt, so men of advanced thought are first assailed by the tempest of indig- nation. "The people that walk in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, unto them hath a light shined." - Isaiah ix: 2. The halo of Peace which surrounds some men often excites the brutish man to anger. The Spiritual man is likened to the heavenly orbs, which shine more brightly as they approach the mundane world. Strive, therefore, to be illuminated by the Spirit of the Living Truth. SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 97 SPIRIT-THE LIVING TRUTH. PSALM CXXXIX. 1. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and know me. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it alto- gether. 5. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy pres ence? 8. If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. sea; 9. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the 10. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. II. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 12. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. 13. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. 14. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curi- ously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. 17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! 18. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. 19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. 20. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. 21. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? 22. I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever. lasting. We are living in most peculiarly excited and exciting times and in the midst of turmoil and perplexity. On every hand a new light is * 98 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. . breaking, surely even though slowly, upon all sorts and conditions of persons and institutions. Everywhere man is confronted by a Power, a Force, a Law, an Energy, a Will, infinitely beyond himself; that law operates in all the elements and through all agencies, it is indeed that perpetual reminder of the Infinite Spirit's presence everywhere which led the author of the 139th psalm to pen that wonderful composition which must in every age and every country awake responsive echoes within every reflective mind. Ideas of Deity change, but only to improve and to enlarge; ideas of responsibility and duty change, but only to grow diviner and clearer, as age by age man's moral sense unfolds. Religions change, but only to become purer and more helpful to mankind. As each Sabbath dawns upon the fair earth, what oceans of ver- biage follow the noonday sun around the world. How very little True Spirit is to be found in it all! what dissimulation and artful coloring to make the word fit pet theory, dogma, and creed. How cold, lifeless, and insincere are the parrot-like prayers of salaried preacher and hireling priest, as compared with the burning appeals and eloquent entreaties of one who is overshadowed and inspired by Spirit. The Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, says Paul. Every man has a Spirit Soul, therefore Spirit becomes en rapport with Spirit, so every one must have a Soul Spirit within him or herself, the latent possibility of mediumship. The Temple of God within man contains the True Light of the world. Love and wisdom in sacred duality make the only light that can illuminate his pathway or be shed on the pathway of Truth. If one is unable to perceive it within himself it is useless to look else- where for it. It is yet beyond him and he must strive continually to achieve it, making it his purer love. When he has reached it he will have gained the heights of purer day and lost himself in the bosom of Absolute Love. If he does not reach these heights it is unattainable, because it forever recedes as it depends on the attraction of attune- ment and Unity. He may press on and enter the halo of the Light, but he will never touch the flame without uniting the Soul of Life with the Spirit of Life. In social life men visit only where they are welcomed. Spirit in the subjective world is much the same, visiting only where there is an attraction, a unity of hopes and fears, a similarity of thought. The very Alpha and Omega of Spiritual success is its dependence on Love, Sympathy, and Unity. Some think the Soul a miracle, they hear and SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 99 speak of it with awe. It cannot be described in common language, for only those can comprehend the Soul who live at times in the true subjective world. 66 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them." From the Egyptian rock temples that have withstood the ravages of time and the vandalism of man, and from the ancient Sanscrit of the Jews, we find the human Soul is an emanation or seed from God, and in its original Essence is all purity, innocence, and Truth; that in the mansions of paradise, the home of Truth, Purity, and Love, Soul flowers spring up like blossoms in this the All-Father's garden of light and immortal beauty; and as it is the tendency of that Divine nature, God, whose chief attributes are Love and Wisdom, whose presence is Heat and Light, to repeat itself eternally, and mirror forth its own perfections in scintillations from itself, these sparks of heavenly Fire Seeds, when planted in the animal form, become to us a living Soul. And as the effect must share in the nature of the cause, the Fire which warms into Life also illuminates into Light. Therefore, the Soul Seed emanations from God are all Love, Action, and Heat, while the illumination of light, which streams ever from the great Central Sun of Being irradiates all Souls with correspond- ing beams of light. Born of Love, which corresponds to Divine Action and Heat; brightened with Light, which is Divine Wisdom and Truth, the first and most powerful Soul emanations repeat some of the acts of their Supreme Originator, giving off emanations from their own being, some higher, some lower, the highest tending upward into Spiritual essences, the lowest forming particles of matter. These denser emanations, following out the creative law of God, aggregate into suns, satellites, nebula and worlds, each repeating the story of creation, suns giving birth to systems, and every member of a system becoming a theatre for subordinate states of Spiritual or material existence. Thus do ideas descend into forms, and forms ascend into ideas. Thus is the growth, development, and progress of creation endless. Thus must Spirit originate and create worlds of matter for ever, for the purposes of its own progressive unfoldment. Thus the mighty march of creation never ceases. Thus the endless cable anchored in the heart of the Deity stretches out for ever. Forever, shout the blazing suns, Forever echoes back the anthem of the stars. Forever, UorM 100 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. . the planets and our world join in the chorus, whirling along their glit- tering pathway, flashing in their jewelled, crowns humanity, for men are real gems when they have grown to majestic Truth and Love. As the Soul is made more tender through the refining fire of Life, and grows into Love and gains Wisdom through silence and contem- plation, it is filled with indescribable longings for a change from the animal and its appetites, with a growing desire for a broader vista of knowledge, for peace and rest. As it cultivates less of ego, dropping its selfishness and worldly ambitions, and aspiring for mightier power to ameliorate the suffering of others, it grows more and more into Divine Love, and through this urgent appeal of the earth to man to be lifted up and his tender appeal and yearning for Love above the animal, the Divine Love, which has also its involuntary sympathy and tender yearnings, is called into action, and a union is effected between the two. The Spirit becomes attuned in harmony with the Soul, thereby precipitating itself into the realm of matter along with the Soul, to undergo a pilgrimage through the probationary states of earth, and regains its paradise by the fulfilment of the pilgrimage. The Soul of man may have lived on many planets or worlds. before he reached this. Myriads of worlds swarm in space where the Soul in rudimental conditions performs its pilgrimage ere it. reaches this planet called earth, the glorious function of which is to confer upon Soul the consciousness of itself, and knowledge of good and evil. On this earth only is he man; prior to this, in every other stage of his vast journey, he has been but an embryonic being, a fleeting temporary form of matter, gaining here a little, and there a little, a creature in which is a part of the high imprisoned Soul seed, which shines forth a rudimental shape with rudimental functions, as a butterfly springing up from the chrysalis; ever going onward into new birth, new death, new incarnations, dying and living again, stretching and reaching upward, striving onward, rushing along the giddy, lonely, tiresome, toilsome pathways, onward and upward. It awakens once more out of darkness, opens its eyes once more to life to be for a time a thing of dust, a creature of flesh and blood for a little space of time a man. After this birth of the Soul into humanity, it acquires the knowl- edge of its own individuality, its passions, its loves, and a knowledge of good and evil; it gains self-consciousness, and is closing forever its career of material pilgrimage and transformations. With the death of this human body it gravitates to a fresh series. of pilgrimages and existences through the firmament where are purely Maou ין SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. ΙΟΙ spiritual realms of being. Here commence the further purifications and growths of the Soul; now filled with the sublime attributes of Love and Wisdom gained by self-knowledge, or with the lower attributes. of the Animal by which it permitted itself to be overcome during its earth life. The Illumination of Soul gently leads the natural man to a more interior and pure thought, to an unselfish and more elevated stand- point, where fallacies have no place, but where pure truth is dis- played, and spiritual blindness passes away as fast as the natural mind can bear the gradual unfoldment to the True Light of Spirit. St. Paul cautions and admonishes his brethren at Rome thus: "Let every Soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God. "Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Let love be without dissimulation. Christ said, "And I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you." Again Paul counsels, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." The great truth that humanity is brought into this world to grow and ripen the Soul is set forth thus in the analogy of the fruit-bearing vine, where Jesus said (John xv. :8): "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples." There is scarcely any figure which so abounds in different forms in all the different bibles and holy scriptures of all religions, as this of the vine, the vineyard, the vintage, and the gathering of the ripened fruit. It is found in every shape, both as it refers to the church and to the individual; to those who are good and those who are bad; in numer- ous analogies, as ripened and unripe fruitage; while in the chapter where the Judean Prince likens himself to the vine, and his disciples to the branches, it becomes almost an apologue. More precious than whole worlds like this is the possession of him. who knows and feels that his daily life is attended with God's Perfect Love ripening in the golden light of Spirit Truth. It is written, the more one's Soul responds to Spirit, the more is revealed the nature of God. It is through the development gained by 102 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. silent contemplation of purer thought that men at large come to form gradually a conception of the Divine nature. One cannot become learned by scientific investigation or human argument, that is to say the cultured investigation one would bestow upon geology, astronomy, the higher mathematics, and that class of studies. It is not that sort of culture that reveals Spirit, although that culture may fully recog- nize it, for that Law that moulds a dew-drop forms a world. The poet says: "Nothing that is shall perish utterly But perish only to revive again In other forms, as clouds restored in rain The exhalations of the land and sea." It is a revelation of these qualities and a recognition of them in ourselves that constitute the glory of the Divine Image, God. Thus the Illumination of the human Soul by Spirit is much like the dia- mond in its purity, having the power both for reflection and refrac- tion. So with those who are really God's gems and jewels. The light that flashes from their daily lives reflects Him, and, through the atmospheres of Wisdom and Love which surrounds them, He is made easily manifest to men. Therefore, Pilgrim of Light, strive continu- ally for Spirit Truth,- Mental Illumination, a full transformation by the renewing of the mind by Spirit, and thou shalt have the True Light of Knowledge, out from the great Central Sun, that Absolute, Eternal Energy from which all things proceed. He who is brave enough to rise above the ostracisms of society, the sneers of the babbling multitude, will find himself more than a hundredfold repaid, by that Perfect Peace he finds on every height of Spirit Truth, that glorious Light and calm repose the world cannot give. He sees a new world, and in it a realization of that ideal of pure religion which he had formed in his Soul. His vague ideas and loftier hopes have now become realities. The star which he had seen glittering at a great distance has now developed into a glori- ously radiant sun enveloping him like a halo of glory. The Perfect Soul lives as a pure Spirit in Spirit realms, gloriously bright, radiantly happy, strong, powerful, eternal, infinite, free to come and go as it pleases, and, having conceived an attachment through sympathy for some of earth's children, an attachment is inter- woven with the very heart-strings of that person. Such Souls are man's Angel guides, and Heaven to him is the in-dwelling with God, • SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 103 • the thrice-blessed mortal finding an indescribable oneness and mag- netic sympathy which attaches him to his invisible friends and companions, which is, to the Materialist, simply inexplicable-un- knowable. But those who live by the Spirit, and those who are indeed of the Christ Spirit, as well as called by his name, know by personal expe- rience that the kingdom of heaven is within. They know that relig ion which is the Science of Life does not appeal to the animal or bodily senses, but to the Soul and Spiritual sense, since no mere physical phenomena can have any relation to Spiritual needs. The Substance of Spirit in the Soul or inner being of man, as also the Spirit of all things therein, being an essence from the Absolute Mind, is a part of the substance of Deity. Since there is but one substance of the Divine Spirit, which is always a Trinity in Unity, that by which substance becomes manifest is the evolution of its Trinity. If we reckon from without inward, and from below upward, the Trinity is Force, universal Ether, and their offspring the Material World. On the intellectual plane, the Trinity is Life, Substance, and Phe- nomenon. The fertility of the earth is due to Water, while its transmutory or chemical power is due to Fire. The water corresponds to the Soul, while fire is to the body what Spirit is to the Soul, for wherever there is motion there is heat and consequently fire. As motion is the con- dition of Matter, so without fire there would be no matter. In other words, Matter is a mode of life. Blood is the first incarnation of the Universal Fluid; it is the materialized vital Light; it lives only by perpetually transforming it- self, and renewing itself through the polarization of its dual magnet force. The lines of human progress are radii from the central point of creation, the great Central Sun Spirit, diverging ever, yet to be extended to the outermost circle of God's universe. Although the ways of Deity may seem slow to our short vision, they are swift in the sight of heaven and the eternal. That which will occur at the expiration of this cycle, when earth will take her rest in the tomb of worlds, will not be a quittance of mankind from earth in the physical sense, as ordinarily supposed, but a complete withdrawal of the man into his own interior Soul Spirit and celestial region. It is the growth and ripening to the attunement and unification of 104 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. • the duality occurring within the individual which constitutes the At- one-ment, and in him in whom this occurs to the fullest extent the Soul nature realizes the ideal to attain which she first came from God. The process is one which each individual must accomplish for himself, for, being an interior process of ripening and illumination by inward self-purification, it cannot be performed or accomplished from without. It is according to the Divine order of nature that the Soul should control the body, for as a manifested entity man is a dual being, the Soul being the real, permanent individual, the self, the everlasting substantial Idea, of which the body is but a temporary residence and phenomenal expression. But the Soul, properly speak- ing, has no soul of her own, since she is feminine and negative, being the intuitional mirror of being. She is, therefore, by her nature bound to obey the reflexion or will of some other than her- self, which other can only be the Spirit within or the animal body without. The Within and Above which is Divine and of God, or the Without and Lower which by itself and in its lowest expression is the so-called Devil. Sin does not consist in fulfilling any of the functions of nature, but in acting without or against the Spirit, and in not seeking Divine sanction in every act, for sin is not of the physical but the spiritual part of man, and by and through the act he is redeemed or con- demned. Evil in the world is but the friction in the running of God's great machinery, which He is overcoming more and more as time rolls on. When He shall have accomplished the last degree, the millennium will dawn. In that unknown silent land SIN is only undeveloped good. God, being the source of all good, cannot be a source of unpardona- ble iniquity. "The souls of those that die Are but sunbeams lifted higher." Death is only the loosening of the Soul into the infinite. There- fore, Pilgrim of Light, let thy life be as the hands of a good watch through every golden moment marking the progress of the inner life. Because of ignorance, the Soul of man comes in horror to its change by death. Man fears and trembles when he is confronted by the soul of nature, because he is false to nature, most men having more scars upon their Souls than on their bodies. Golden threads of Soul growth and Spirit knowledge will always SOUL AND SPIRIT SOUL. 105 If be found woven into the fabric of a true human life, and it affords one of the sweetest pastimes of old age to sit down and slowly to unravel them, recalling the hours when they were woven in, the first dawn of the day when Spirit became to the man a truth. Although years of snowy winters may have left their mark upon his head, the Eternal Love and Spring of Spirit are in his heart. The more nearly he approaches the end of things earthly, the more frequently he feels about him the immortal presence of his loved ones, the more dis- tinctly hears around him the melodies in the eternal symphony of the world of Spirits who await him. It is marvellous, yet so simple; a fairy tale, yet a reality and history. He can await his transition through the valley of the shadow like one who lies down to pleasant dreams with a full assurance of a beautiful to-morrow. His day's work done for this life, his hour of rest has come, but, the life being by no means ended, next morning another day's work will begin. The tomb is to him no blind passage or darkened lane, but a great open thor- oughfare where guardian Angels and loving friends await his coming. The life of this earthly day closes in the twilight which opens with a brighter dawn into a new day. The Soul of man is of God, not from God, an exile from Him; it lives in the body as in a prison and banishment from God. Before its exile the Soul saw Truth, but here it has only glimpses "to awaken the slumbering memory of the past." The object of all Sufi teaching is to lead the Soul onward by degrees to reach that stage again. You say "the sea and the waves,” but in that remark you do not believe that you signify distinct objects, for the sea when it heaves produces waves, and the waves when they settle down again become. sea; in the same manner men are the waves of God and after death return to His bosom. Or you trace with ink upon paper the letters of the alphabet, a, b, c; but these letters are not distinct from the ink which enabled you to write them; in the same manner the creation is the alphabet of God and is lost in Him. The world is life and intellect, as far as the mineral kingdom; but the manifestation of intellect in everybody is determined by the temperature of the human constitution. Sometimes beauty attains an excellence which is uttered with ecstasy, and becomes a modula- tion more powerful than that which strikes the ear; and this is the work of the prophet. 106 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. Human life is a journey, and the seekers after Spirit Truth and knowledge of the Love of God are Pilgrims of the heavenly way. Perfect knowledge of Deity as diffused through creation and the ripening of the Soul to perfect fruit is the purpose of the journey. Spirit Truth is the guide, and the end of the journey is a Perfect Soul, the Angelhood a union with God. - Soul is finer than air, thinner and more ethereal than wind, more volatile and light than ether, and only through attunement of the duality of being can man's Soul become fine and pure enough to sense it. He who is just beginning to see into the Soul world some- times finds before his inner vision bodily shapes of individuals apart from the person, which shape is the Astral, Double or Atmospheric Spirit, the Star Magno or covering of the Soul. Again, at times, if the Soul of a person has grown a little toward ripening, it will be seen separated entirely from the body before it is quite resolved back into its original element of Spirit. Through silence God communes with the hearts of men; through Love, Spirit embraces every Soul, and through this experience comes Wisdom, and the wise man builds a magnificent temple, not made with hands, whose golden spire of Truth is first to catch the sun- light of the morning which proclaims the glory of God's light and Love to all the world. Has your night been full of song like those of the Angels, or a pathway of thorns, lonely and dark, a midnight of despair and defeat? Does this life satisfy your soul, This life of show and empty sham, Too late you find how vain the goal For which you ran. MEMENTO VIVERE. j CHAPTER VI. THE ASTRAL BODY. I hear a voice that cries, "Alas! alas! Whatever hath been written shall remain, Nor be erased nor written o'er again; The unwritten only still belongs to thee: Take heed, and ponder well what that shall be.” · Morituri Salutamus. Guard well thy thoughts; — Our thoughts are heard in heaven. THE Cassandras of life are never believed in. Arguments are useless and as empty as words. The things that are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. - 2 Cor. iv: 18. The Universal Agent or Star Magno has been known and used by the mystics of all ages with the favored few. It is that subtile and all-pervading fluid, of which the phenomena of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and vitality are considered to be but the grosser and more palpable manifestations. It is the subjective and one of the first great principles of nature and of being. The first element of man is perishable matter; the second is that portion of this universal agent which gives him life; the third is the reflection of his perishable substance in the Star magno or Astral light, coincident with him, but not visible to his earthly eye; the fourth is made up of all the desires he feels by his material senses, this part not real but only transitory being, a result; the fifth is that which says, “I am,” whereby a man knows himself from other men, and with which there is an intelligence of lower but none of higher things; the sixth is that pure understanding, eternal and co- extensive with all infinitude of time and space, and all that is real, imperishable, and invisible to the eye of man. The seventh element is the true Soul—itself from God. The Astral odic substance is not the Soul itself, but is the medium or manifestor of the Soul, as the act is that of the idea. It is the fiery manifestation of the Soul, the magnetic factor of the body. 107 108 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. From close observation we find this Divine Essence and Spirit of fire in the blood and also with marked demonstrations we very frequently see it in the eye. As it is above, so it is below; as on earth, so it is in heaven. The Astral or Star magno may be said to be the quintessence of matter, and is the principle of organic life. It is also the agent of all the sensations of the outer life. Observation has shown us that the Astral body at death disengages itself more or less slowly from the body. During the first few moments which follow dissolution, a Soul does not usually clearly understand its own situation. One does not think himself dead, for he feels himself alive. He sees his body beside him, knows it is his, yet does not understand that he is separated from it, and, according to the Spiritual growth of the Soul, this state of indecision, or else a numb unconsciousness, continues so long as there remains the slightest connection between the body and the Astral. We know that in proportion as the Soul progresses, the essence of its Astral, which is of the finer nervous fluids, becomes more and more etherealized, whence it follows that the influence of matter diminishes in proportion to the advancement of the Soul; that is, the Astral becomes less and less gross. A careful study of this Astral or Star magno, which plays so important a part in all Spirit phenomena (for every effort made or occult power reached must come through and by it), makes it highly essential that we know more of it and its use. As it is the link that unites the Soul with the material body, and is drawn from the surrounding atmospheres, from the planetary fluids of the universe, it participates at once in the nature of a more refined electricity, that which we receive from nature being much grosser in all its elements, or of the magnetic fluid of inert matter. Numerous Occult Societies in the East, and also the Rosicrucians, allege that this material body is only a vehicle and covering for the invisible Soul, and that the Astral body is analogous to the Spiritual body of which the apostle Paul speaks. The magnetic and astral body are the same, being the Dual Asa or Life-fluid, the Astral being that Life-fluid which Spirits use as their means of coming in contact with matter, and it is the magnetic Star-magno which they draw from the bodies of mediums to manifest their power and make themselves visible. The human body being the instrument of pain, which, if not the primary cause, is at least the immediate one, the Soul receives the pain thus caused through the Star-magno or Astral, which possesses THE ASTRAL BODY. 109 the faculty of perceiving and transmitting every action of harmony or inharmony of the human body. While the memory of pain retained by the Astral may be very acute, it cannot exercise any physical action. Neither the Astral body nor the Soul can be disorganized by either heat or cold, nor can they freeze or burn, but we see constantly among humanity either the remembrance or the apprehension of phys- ical pain producing all the effects of reality, and even causing death. We know, in cases of recently amputated limbs, not properly cared for, that in almost every case the patient is sure to complain of cramps or pain in the limb he has lost, even if he has not the slight- est knowledge of the disposal which has been made of it. All this is due solely to the action of the Star-magno, or Astral, vibrating between the amputated limb and the patient. So frequent and almost universal are such occurrences that all surgeons use the utmost caution in disposing of amputated limbs. The writer, having had a marked experience of the same law through an accident to a friend, feels it may be of interest if related here. While summering among the White Mountains, in 1881, with a party of friends, a gentleman of the party, visiting a saw-mill, acci- dentally slipped, and his forearm was driven against a rapidly revolv ing saw, and so mutilated as to render amputation necessary. Being at so great a distance from any city, a country surgeon was called, who finished the amputation begun by the saw, and disposed of the injured member by placing it in a crude box, packing saw-dust about it, and burying it back of the mill. Soon after he recovered from the shock of amputation, the gentleman began to complain of discomfort in the absent member, declaring that the hand was full of saw-dust, and a nail sticking in the finger. His complaints were so persistent, especially on awaking from his disturbed sleep, that many of his friends feared his reason was giving way, and might become de- throned. Happily, at one of our sittings for occult experiments, some of his friends thought to inquire of the accident and condition of our friend, when we received through independent writing the asser- tion that the hand was placed as he declared, and a nail driven partly through the first finger, in closing the box. It was decided at once that two of us should go to the place, have the box taken up and see just how it was placed and left by the sur- geon, which was done by the writer of this book, and a personal friend, and, strange as it may appear (the patient being more than a hundred miles away at this time, and neither himself nor any of his ما IIO THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. "" family knowing of the exhumation taking place), the armless man suddenly exclaimed, "They are pouring warm water on my hand, and taking the nail out. I think my arm will get well! His friends thought this was imagination, but on our return, when we came to compare notes, we found he had been right as to the moment of every detail, and every operation performed by me was accurately described by him, even to procuring the warm water with which to cleanse the hand. From a surgical journal the compiler has copied the subjoined report, bearing on the same subject. A SUGGESTION IN SURGERY. A similar instance of pain in an amputated limb, attributed by a poorly informed reporter on a New York paper to the "effect of the imagination," was lately reported in Elizabeth, N. J. Samuel Mor- gan, an employé of the Singer Machine Works, had his arm caught in the machinery, so badly mangling it as to necessitate amputation. He afterward complained of a sensation of pain in the shoulder, as if the amputated limb were still on, and the hand cramped and ach- ing. He caused the arm to be dug up, when it was found that it was bent at the elbow from the manner in which it had been buried, and the hand partly closed. The arm and hand were straightened and reburied, since which time the unpleasant sensation has disappeared. It is no longer a matter of doubt that an amputated limb retains a sensory connection with the body of the individual, and that any injury to the member is promptly transmitted to the sensorium. This may occur at any distance, but of course ceases when decomposition takes place. A few years ago it was demonstrated by actual experi- ment in a case of amputation of the hand that the pain caused by a string designedly tied by the surgeon around a certain finger of the severed member was promptly transmitted to the patient in the next room. It was removed to another finger, and tied around a different joint, with the same result. We have been led to think that recovery from amputations would be more prompt and satisfactory if, instead of waiting the slow pro- cess of decomposition, the limbs were at once cremated. The physi- cal limb is not only severed, but its spiritual counterpart is also involved, and is attracted by this mysterious affinity to the buried member. When the amputated limb is cremated this attraction is overcome, a readjustment of the disturbed spiritual and physical ele- ments takes place, promotive of comfort to the patient and a speedy THE ASTRAL BODY. III recovery. It would be advisable to place the patient under the influ- ence of an anæsthetic to avoid possible shock to the system from the sensation of burning. We have made many inquiries of persons who have lost limbs by amputation, and find in all a consciousness of the presence of the lost member, the fingers and toes of which readily move in response to the will, although years may have elapsed since the operation. Instances are on record where this impression has continued twenty years, and although the perception may be effaced or blunted in as many months in certain temperaments, it does not change the fact of the existence and relation of the spiritual counterpart to the physical limb. The growth of the Soul is also a growth of the Astral body, which becomes more and more vivid and etherealized as we progress. Soul Spirits from other planets draw from the atmosphere in which the Soul finds itself for the time being, which varies according to the nature of the different worlds. In passing from one world to another, Soul Spirits change their envelopes as we change a garment when we pass from summer to winter or from the pole to the equator. The sight of Soul Spirits is entirely independent of our light. The faculty of vision is an essential attribute of the Soul for whom dark- ness has no existence. The Soul Spirit, therefore, possesses in itself the faculty of all perceptions. In this earth-life the inner monitor or mirror may be so defaced by worldliness and evil that there seems to be nothing left of it; from a human point of view we would say it was utterly obliterated. This is not so. Nothing is lost. Man, by transgression of law, shuts out God and his Soul's blossoming for a time. Going into Spirit-life in such a condition, he is driven and drifts about, sometimes into numbness and sleep, sometimes into the dark region of regrets and despair. But he is not forgotten; the Angels of Love and Mercy are ever on the watch for an opening by which they may operate on the moni- tor or mirror, the inner part of the darkened Soul of this immortal, and when this opening does take place, as a result of the discipline undergone, when the little spark appears, the door of the Soul is thrown open for the influences of these ministers of Love and Truth ; the dark sackcloth is thrown aside, and the links of the chain forged by passion are broken forever. Light flows into the darkened cells of his inner being, gradually and slowly at first, but ever increasing, II2 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. and as light comes in, the unripe fruitage of earth emerges, and, re- freshed by new growth, out from past miserable conditions he rises, going upward and onward, and in God's good time reaching and pass- ing up through the firmaments a ripened soul. One who awakes fully in the Astral body seems to stand like a bird poised for flight, quite free of every clog or chain, except an in- visible but quite tangible cord, which connects the Soul and its Astral covering with the clay form it has inhabited, which now lies inert like a cast-off garment on the couch or easy-chair beneath, while the real living self is poised and quietly balanced in air. Above, below, and all about will be found a radiant, sparkling, and discernible mist en- closing the whole form, which will glow with more or less of radiance according as one has attained the duality of his being. The vision now pierces walls, ceilings, and dwellings, taking in an almost unlim- ited area of space, including cities, fields, plains, mountains, and valleys, together with the firmament on high. One who has fully balanced his Soul with his dual being can, despite any obstacle of matter which may surround him for the time, enter at will into the vast realms of earth and heaven, through his Soul's perception in its Astral flight, with a vision as clear as that of the natural eye. The objective, opaque obstacles of the mundane sphere are no more. He finds by this union of Will and Soul with the Astral form which ap- pears to him like a singular kind of bluish vapor, surrounding him like a second self, that he quite readily becomes all Force, that subtile yet soluble as a radiant fire-mist could pass through anything mate- rial. It is the fire flame of Soul, loosed from the body save by the invisible cord which connects the Astral body with the material form. Poised in this realm of Soul, the Soul of matter, one has now for the first time arrived to the knowledge that the Soul realm in which he now enters is the real force which holds matter together, and he can just as easily break apart the atoms of matter and pass through them as one can place a solid body in the midst of air or water. One realizes now the curious phenomenon of atmospheres about other persons, and observes a similar aura or luminous Astral in more or less broken shadows, a tangible second self about each and every one, varied in color and in density according to the nature of their lives; an open Astral book, which correctly reveals the character, motives, and full record of the past life of each individual. Where is there a medium or seer who has not frequently been shocked, though he must remain silent, at these interior disclosures so often revealed to the eye of the Soul, although entirely hidden THE ASTRAL BODY. 113 away or unknown to the objective bodily senses? Where is there a seer who has not been made to shrink aghast at some apparent gentleman, of fine exterior, who has imprinted on his Astral photo- sphere crime, hate, and deceit, representations of most foul and dis- gusting reptiles? Here are photographed all the events of our past lives, and the motive which prompted all our acts. Now it becomes clear that the set of motives of man's selfishness produce horrible deformities, and the motives of unselfish love, gentleness, and sympathy, which seem to illuminate the Soul and cast a halo of beauty and radiance over the whole being, are glorious emanations, making one appear like a per- fect Angel, whose atmosphere is redolent with Love. The Astral body, enclosing the Soul like an atmosphere, can be and has frequently been seen by attendants and physicians, leaving the animal body, just at the moment of separation between Soul and body, known as death or dissolution. It has been found, by numer- ous experiments, that by having a strong bluish green light thrown obliquely from a window across the face of the patient, an observer standing a little to one side, in the shadow, will find as the death rattle sounds in the throat of the patient a column of thin ethereal violet blue vapor vibrating and oscillating, ebbing, finally passing up- ward and fading away. At times where there has been a violent and strong desire in the patient not to die, this has been seen to return and settle over and about the upper part of the corpse, where it will remain until the human form has entirely returned to dust. It was on this account that the ancient Greek and other nations esteemed above all other things the privilege of cremation after death. The translation reads thus: "I pray you, my friends, if you in- deed love me, see to it that my body is burned into dust, that the vestal fire of the Soul may pass on its way rejoicing." Pythagoras says: "This is that deposit out of the jewel of Light, passing on its way rejoicing. That it may be released unfettered, being one of the Two Truths, it is a Holy Necessity" that the body return to dust. The compiler gives below the words of a Scientist on the dis- covery of the departing soul with its Astral covering. "In some way," he says, “I have become possessed of the belief that the Soul of a man has a counterpart of the body, and in this theory of the dual man I have long sought for the key of Life and Death. I have been forced to believe, and have reason to do so, that : 114 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. } within this body and sinew, as well as an outer atmosphere about it, there is yet another body existing, of a thin, ethereal, and vapory form, which, according to natural law, death alone should set free, and felt, after extended reasoning, that a simple microscopic device could be made that would assist the dull sight of human eye so that it might penetrate the most minute particles of the air we breathe, and thus witness the Soul and this ethereal form take flight to the boundaries of the other world. My attention was first attracted to these truths by a patient of mine lying upon a sofa suffering with pain in his foot, and yet there was no foot, the leg having been amputated nearly to the hip, and the wound had healed quite nicely. I found that not until I had the limb and foot disinterred and placed in a natural posi- tion (the foot having been thoughtlessly placed beside the amputated limb at burial) did the patient's suffering cease. This being done, he gained in flesh, slept well, grew strong, and never again complained of his foot. For a long time this incident ran in my mind, until at last I resolved upon an experiment. Procuring the most powerful lenses I could find, I completed an invention of my own, and, when my light was so perfectly arranged that I could examine the microbes in the air, called upon a patient who had lost his arm, and had also suffered in a similar manner, explaining to him that I wanted him to put his imaginary hand where I directed. "He laughingly accompanied me to my rooms, and did as I desired. The moment I adjusted the glass, a new world and light of revelation broke upon me. The dual hand lay beneath my glass! I asked him to make letters with his imaginary finger. He did so, and, to his wonder and astonishment, I spelled out the sentences he thus wrote. This was to me conclusive evidence of an ethereal second self. Will you most kindly and sincerely apologize to the noble Italian, with a part for yourself," continues the doctor in this letter to the compiler of the present work, "for my contradiction and protest against these very truths which you and your noble friend were trying to impart, while I in my ignorance and narrowness, disputed and disclaimed these natural curiosities." Then he continues thus: "The second experiment was one of great difficulty. Remembering your oft-repeated assertion that one could · see the Soul take flight at the moment of dissolution, I was not contented in my past blind ignorance, where I so often professed to know so much. The time finally arrived where I had proper condi- tions of light, etc., where a man of more than ordinary spirituality was being called over to the silent majority. I watched the hours go THE ASTRAL BODY. 115 by till the moment came when he was about to cease breathing, and a sudden tremor passing through his body announced his hour had come. 'Now is our time,' I whispered to the friend who was assisting me. We passed our heads under the black cloth, and bent our eyes intently upon the object-glass. Particles of dust in the air were magnified several thousand times, and for a time their motion kept a perfect dazzle upon the glass. Then a thin violet column of vapor gathered into a soft cloud apparently formed over and about the body. "Particle seemed to seek particle as if by some molecular attrac- tion until the outline of an object was clearly distinguishable. "As it grew stronger, it seemed the vapory form of a man, rapidly assuming a more perfect shape, pure and colorless as the most perfect crystal, having changed from the violet tinge. my "There was at this moment an awful stillness. An indescribable feeling came over both of us; our hearts seemed to stand still. Words are perfectly inadequate to express or describe our feelings. We bent our eyes intently on the glass until particle after particle came into the shapely form of the man we knew so well. It lay floating about a foot above the body, apparently moored by a slender cord to the breast of the corpse. The face was the face of the man, but far more peaceful and beautiful in expression; the eyes were closed, and the new form apparently seemed asleep. Through some impulse, both friend and myself wished, as it were simultaneously, that he might awake, when the cord that held it to the clay house parted; a gentle tremor passed through the beautiful form, every limb of which was of perfect mould; a violet flame was radiating over the heart, a kind look on the gentle face. He had lived his life unselfishly, and was an unexceptionable man when he was with us. As his beautiful inner life united with the outer one, the perfect mould was a perfect man. arose to a standing position; cast one sorrowful look at the tenant- less clay that lay so still; extending a hand as it were to say, ‘Fare- well, thou narrow house! I need thee no more,' gathered its forces into a little sphere passed out into the sunlight of the everlasting morrow. We are assured and know that our friend lives; that mem- ory and thought which loves and feels, although no material eyes ever saw them during life, were only his manifestation through matter; he is immortal, a living presence forever, and we conclude our narrative of our discovery by saying that we are both changed men. To us this life and this world appear entirely different since this experi- ence." It R ! 116 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. How truly wise was the inscription over the portals of the old Grecian temple :— KNOW THYSELF. Meditation in the quiet calm of nature is the poising of the Soul's wings for flight. The Initiate finds through his Astral that perfect Soul and Spirit can make and dwell in any kind of a body it chooses and dissolve it at will. By and through this knowledge one will be led to more beautiful scenes and more beautiful homes than human thought can imagine. There are many mansions and many homes in heaven among the firmaments, prepared by the Angels and other lov- ing hands of those who are waiting patiently to receive us when our earth work is done and life's long dream is over. Mortal eye hath not seen nor ear heard of the wonderful beauties and the melodious. songs of Spirit-land. Here we find reality that exceeds any descrip- tion that can be given; here in God's great economy we learn that time is nothing; that this life is but a moment on the shoreless sea of ages. In this exquisite nature of pure Spirit we see written in the Astral world countless volumes of the heart; age after age, race after race. It has been found the best mode of reaching the Astral world is by slow and patient growth, step by step, octave after octave, till the third state, the perfect harmony is reached. Man's first initiation into the Astral world is in Trance, or Semi- Trance, or sort of dream. In dreams all human knowledge com- mences; in dreams one hovers over measureless space. This is the first faint bridge between Soul and Spirit- this world and the world. beyond. After long periods of renewing the mind from every-day avocations, there come times of silence and contemplation, then comes that third state of being which all sages of the East and among the Indians rightly recognize as that Peace between sleeping and waking, which is very imperfectly described by the name Semi-Trance. One of the first Eastern Occult Societies names it Tranoz, another the inner contemplation, another and the oldest secret society known, the Egyptian, calls it CABA 2, meaning the Hidden Way. A most. noble Brahmin, in whose company the writer had the pleasure of pass- ing some months, says to the Omniscient in Truth, "Trance is a third and co-equal condition of being, the three modes of life being sleep- ing, waking, and trance." The Astral body of a person asleep or in a trance may be at- tracted to certain places or persons, and visit them without being able } THE ASTRAL BODY. 117 to realize its surroundings; it may be attracted, as is often the case after separation from its physical body by death, to places or persons in a half-conscious condition, and, being partly magnetized into con- sciousness by another person, may give intelligent answers; or it may, either before or after death, be fully conscious and act with judgment and reason, while the physical body is asleep or uncon- scious. This is that coveted secret of the feat of projecting the Astral body to a distance, which the Indian Mahatma performs by reducing the animal body, and by seclusion and fastings producing a very negative, ecstatic state, neither natural nor practical. The same beautiful phenomenon is more readily attained by the focalization of Will, through the united effort of several persons, as performed by the German branch, Occult Egyptian Society. It is a process acquired by birth or learned by practice. The difficulty in the way of development consists in making the physical brain capa- ble of receiving the influence and atmospheres of the higher planes, which is accomplished by the process of involution, which may be slow or fast, according to the manner in which the life objective is transferred to life subjective, the physical consciousness to the Astral and Spiritual plane, and the manner in which we assist the process of nature by our own efforts. The Adept forms an image in his mind, and may make that image directly visible to others by throwing out his Astral body, either pro- jecting it directly upon their mental spheres, where it may be per- ceived, or he may send it into space, and, by the power of the knowl- edge of Spirit, clothe it with matter and render it both visible and tangible. It is well known that the Adept has power to part with the living waves of his being, the vitalized life-principle of dual energy. He may send them to the shores of another's life 'at will. This was the true Love of the Spirit of Christ. I will give my life to you as a part of you, to bring forth the living fires of your Soul and illuminate the temple of your inner being with the Spirit of Everlasting Life. I die that you may live. The most powerful All-Force known to Adepts is formed where the Astral of two individuals of the same sex have been united, one of a positive, calm temperament, the other a negative, vivacious one. When these are attuned with one accord they are invincible, leaping every barrier. They are a dual force of Soul in the realm of Soul. It has been found that the Soul force generated by a good act in one part of the world can, when a perfect union of Astral Soul and 118 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. T Spirit is a perfect octave, be used to prevent crime and wrong-doing in other places, no matter at what distance. In the finer realms of exalted being, the vision of the Soul views the grosser at will; and as man grows and becomes attuned to Spirit and a fuller knowledge of the highest, he becomes a power and power is will and the secret of will is knowledge silentiy put into practice, united with the Astral. This little world is one of God's great whispering galleries, and is so constructed as constantly to bring God's messages to us in unaf- fected simplicity or polished elegance; in Love's fidelity and nature's grace. If man will but rise above his grosser elements and keep his harp-strings attuned to unselfish universal Love, with a sincere and open-hearted veracity, he will read the messages of Deity and com- mune with God, and men then will know the actual reality of things without seeing it with the objective eye. The inner jewel of light or Astral fire is never absent from even the grossest atom, although it may take ages to unfold it, to make it susceptible to the Divine Spirit ray which is ever tending to uplift, refine, and purify through chemicalization and physical changes, con- verting gross and base things into refined and ethereal. Even this round red globe, in process of time, will be changed into a glorious etherealized and spiritualized planet. He who has once been a companion in a closed circle of Adepts knows there are occasions when the magnetic aura has united and combined to the required degree, when he may ascend in air and float there at will. He does not fail to grow and expand into lofty aspira- tions and soar away above the frivolities and petty aims for which all the world runs wild. He is changed, as it were, in an hour; the habits and ambitions of yesterday have no charms for him to-day; the whole world looks so differently from this hour; he is a changed man, who can never again return to the unfathomable abyss of ignorance and darkness. The Spirit Soul of man can penetrate during entrancement away up the mountain-tops; among the regions of eternal snow, away beyond the paths of light, cleft only by soaring eagle's wings; and down deep into the ocean depths, among the cities of pearl and coral palaces. The closed gate of the mysteries of Life and Death is unlocked by his own hand. When he has done all that was required of him, the illumination and ripening of the Soul takes place, then he may rest in peace. Besides Souls, there are very many kinds of Essences: Spiritual THE ASTRAL BODY. 119 Astral, Essences, Elementaries and Elementals, of earth and sea, of hills, valleys, and running waters, of primeval forests and all flowers that grow. Some even inhabit the depths of earth. Their numerous places of abode cannot be named, as they are found in all earth's secret corners. And these Astrals, Essences, Ele- mentaries, or Elementals, are sometimes brought under the control of men. Sometimes for good, but more often for evil, as they appear to grow and flourish under the guidance and will of man, and take delight in serving him, not distinguishing between good and evil deeds. All locations, earth, minerals, and water, are directly governed by Astral influences. In everything that has any life are found Elemen- tary and Astral forces, be they planets, bodies, animals, or men, and Spirit is the eternal and absolute energy over all. In the earth and vegetable world are found Matter, Force, and Spirit. In the animal and human world are found Matter, Soul, and Spirit. This is that grand Trinity of being which constitutes the solar universe and its inhabitants. The Astral body never forgets; from it is generated that action of life known as instinct to the animal world. To the mineral and vegetable, waters, rocks, and gases, it is that spirit principle of motion known as galvanism, magnetism, attraction and repulsion, etc. The Astral influences and Elementals are as great a necessity for the growth and well-being of the mineral and vegetable world as air is to the growth of man. Every essence, every element, every plant, element, and man is in its appropriate place, and working out its appointed life. An Adept forms an image in his mind and through the Will, united with the Astral body, may make that image directly visible to others, either by projecting it directly upon their mental spheres where it may be perceived: or he may send it into space, and by the power of his Astral with Spirit clothe it with matter and render it visible or a potential force to direct and control the action of things and persons, for it has become a tangible power. According to the amount of momentum imparted by the Astral body to thought, so it vibrates, going fast or slow, gaining in its subtle potentiality as Will is united with it. The Astral body or Star magno receives impressions, and on it is engraved every act of the individual to whom it belongs; all his peculiar traits of character; all his vices, powers, motives, and virtues; his hopes, defeats, memories, and thoughts both past and 120 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. 1 + present. It keeps an accurate and unrelenting account of every act and deed the Soul has woven and gathered on its earthly pilgrimage. Thus man shall be his own judge when he has grown enough in wisdom and true Justice to look over the pages of his life in his own Astral book. Again, the Astral fluids of the world are the element in which Soul Spirits live, as our air is the atmosphere in which all animals exist. It is very often the case, where there is a concentration of thought by numerous individuals, that a magnetic battery of thought has overcharged the elements and imparted a certain current of vibration which acts on other persons, who are impelled to act in accordance. Thus new doctrines or ideas "are in the air" and spread like wildfire. One or two strongly positive minds who may focalize a Will thus give the initiative, and the impulse flies through the whole mass of latent light, correspondingly influencing all who are in relation with it. The Spiritual and Astral forces produce the Magnetic, and it will be found on a close observation that the magnetic fluids or forces are to the Soul and Mental body as the circulation of the blood is to the animal body. There is that subtle something which proclaims a well rounded individuality affecting pro or con not only those in immediate physical contact with the magnetizer, but extending its influence as the sun sheds its rays, over every part of the human race which in any sense comes within range. People often exclaim, "What a wonderful magnetism!" It is simply a harmonious union of an odyllic vibration or octave with the Astral body, which generates (( moves that gigantic magnetism that sways the multitude and almost the world." This is known as the Arch Gift. The Spirit and Soul, which are original life and substance, are Divine and uncreated, while the Astral and Material bodies are the created or manifested part. The Astral, which is called the Star magno, the Sidereal, the Odic, the Magnetic, the Soul of Fire, is fluidic and constitutes the bond between the Soul and the material body. It is the second self or the original body, being that which makes and that which becomes. The original, immortal, permanent individual consists of Soul and Spirit and when manifested in objec- tive form it is by means of the Astral or Fluidic Body, of which the material or fixed body is the outer manifestation. It is frequently claimed by old Hierophants that the Astral body 1 121 THE ASTRAL BODY. + contains and holds all the thought and memory part of us. Not only have men and animals their memory, but each stone, each plant, and every physical substance has its surrounding Akasa in which is stored up its own past history and the history of its surroundings. It is given to him who cultivates his inner soul senses to learn to read all nature and the account of the daily lives of all things. 66 What a curious faculty is this intuitive perception, this subtle something" of an inner sense. It is very marked in dogs and horses and is attached to a woman as part of her daily life to shun, recoil, and evade this or to seek, court, and endeavor to attract that. Happy and thrice fortunate is the man who has cultivated this gift of inner sense, which is known as the peculiarly feminine trait Intuition. It arms him thrice against danger and that which is false; opens up to him a thousand beautiful avenues and unknown ways, that he had never seen or dreamed of during his single life of mere masculinity, for he can now fathom the Soul and subjective of things as well as the exterior and objective. He who once drinks at the fountain of the Astral world is changed in all his hopes and aspirations. He has become initiated. into the secrets of that magic which empty worldly wisdom and philosophy treat as a chimera or an imposition. To argue is useless, for the knowledge is gained only by experience. Therefore, dear Pilgrim, hold thy peace. Thou canst now behold the immortal shore up to the mansions of the blest. Thou art the victor. Therefore follow the path that is silent, for well thou knowest that our eyes are holden, that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened — then we behold them. "The stranger at my fireside cannot see The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear; He but perceives what is; while unto me All that has been is visible and clear." Dear Pilgrim of the heavenly way, never resort to argument. Mountains of theory often become mole-hills of fact. Understanding in the hidden paths of Spirit is only gained by experience. Neither must you claim a thing is thus or so, simply because you want it so, nor assume that which you do not know is false. Study in silence to know, know to comprehend, comprehend to judge. Perchance these pages may excite a new conception in some thoughtful mind. Before judging of either book or author, study calmly, thoughtfully, and with 122 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. .. : unbiassed judgment the history of the nations of antiquity, of old civilization, and the religions of the far East, and with one who has done this the writer would shrink from no discussion on God or Spirit Truth and fear no light. To the first and highest circulus belong the Spirits of the elements which pervade all things, not only of the Macrocosmic planet but of the Microcosm Man; of these elementals, the Air- spirits preside over the functions of respiration and the organs. which accomplish it. The Water-spirits preside over the humors and secretions of the body and the blood in particular. The Earth-spirits have for their domain the various tissues of the body, and Animal heat, assimilation, and nutrition are dependent on the Fire-spirits. The Adept or Initiate of the highest grade, one who has power to hush the storm and still the waves, has a full understanding and knowledge of these forces and gradations, and can through the same agency heal the disorders of those who are ill, and regenerate the functions of the body in those who are broken in strength. He does this by an impulsion of Will, acting on the Astral or magnetic Atmosphere, every particle of which has a Spirit capable of respond- ing to the human Will, for to concentrate a thought with Will forms a projectile. Pythagoras speaks of a direct mystic intuition of the Deity, which is sustained by a flame like atmosphere that vibrates an enthusiasm without passion, a still intoxication of the Soul, in which man rises above his common life to contemplate the Absolute, rais- ing himself through that height of mystic union, knowing himself to be in attunement with the Father of All Wisdom. This is that asbestos flame that was lighted in every heart when once united with the white flame without, the Astral, never to be quenched, but to dwell with the immortals. At present even the most advanced of modern Spiritualists believe that the phenomenon is produced almost entirely by disembodied Souls, and cannot believe that embodied human beings are more than passive spectators. Here lies the most serious difficulty in modern Spiritualism, which must give place to a very different view, when it is learned what Spirit and Soul forces actually are, and that embodied Souls can and do produce phenomena more forcibly than disembodied ones. This unquenched thirst for physical existence is a great force, and has a creative force in itself so strong that it frequently draws the THE ASTRAL BODY. 123 being back into earth life when it should have passed on to loftier heights. Strive, therefore, to test the beauties of the Soul world, the Spirit of Truth in the subjective life, that a creative force and power may receive you and waft you onward to the mansions of the blest. Herein lies one of the greatest mistakes and errors of these modern times. When the hour has come to an individual, and the Soul is about to depart from its tenement of clay, through blindness and cruel ignorance, friends gather about, calling the Soul, when it is fluttering like a chained bird through its Astral body, back to its animal body. By and through this ignorance of nature's law, the Soul of many a departed loved one has been made to hover about his tomb awaiting release either by the resolving of the body back to dust, or by some kindly hand, which may be either embodied or dis- embodied. The writer has known cases where the Elementaries have assisted in the release of Souls thus chained. As man has his counterpart in his world of thought and his dis- embodied Soul, so do the vegetable, mineral, gaseous, vapors, air, heat, etc., have their counterparts in the elementals. In pursuing inquiry into the forces, nature, power, habit, and con- dition of the elementaries, or elementals, great care and calm judg- ment must be exercised. If by neglect or thoughtlessness, or from idle curiosity, the investigator does not strictly maintain every occult law of nature, he frequently finds himself adrift upon an unknown sea without compass or chart to guide his course, and is most fortunate if he is not seized in the vice-like grip of some elementary, or ele- mental, pestilence, which, if not promptly released from his physical body, consumes it even unto death. Even the most fortunate experi- menter in the subtle invisible collections of elementary forces is some- times thrown back upon the shore from whence he started, bewil- dered and astonished at what he has encountered. It is claimed and believed by most Hierophants and Adepts that more than half the persons who become insane are obsessed by a dis- embodied Soul in its connection with the elementaries finding an anchor- age in the living person. Thoughts are motions existing in the mind, just as motion exists in the waves of the ocean, one acting on the other. Emotion with more or less consciousness exists in the Astral ele- ments of nature and in the Astral body of man, the Astral forces of nature being creators of form. As every motion on the physical plane may give rise to a modification of forms on the lower plane, so 124 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHold. Astral energies determine the constitution of higher forms of life. To give pure, simple, and perfect expression to thought is a potential vibration is white magic. All our thoughts and memory rest in the Astral body or so-called Star magno, and everything pertaining to the Spirit world must come through the same. Human nature reflects herself in the mirror of the mind, and, mind being the atmosphere of the Soul, men should surely guard well their minds and thoughts, first in silence, for silence is the sentinel of wisdom. Remember, kind reader, "As thou thinkest so thou art." Selfishness is a bottomless pit, her home a whited sepulchre, and minds beclouded with self-conceit and selfishness are blind to all truth. When Spirit shall have gained complete mastery over matter, death will be unknown, for matter is only solidified Spirit. Then the perishable becomes eternal-the earth a part of heaven, and it is found that the tribulations of earth diminish in proportion to the ele- vation and illumination of the Souls of men to Spirit Truths. Human Conscience is the vibration of the Astral body between the higher Soul and the animal man. About this human conscience more has been said and less understood than about almost any other quality of the human mind. It has hitherto been generally supposed to be a kind of moral intellect infixed in the constitution of the human mind, whose function it was to discern the peculiar quality of right and wrong in human feeling and conduct. When, in opposition to that view, it was asked: "How, then, if there be a Divinely appointed arbiter of right and wrong in the human Soul, can it be that con- sciences differ so much?" To which it was replied that watches differ although they were all made to keep time aright. Watches are but creatures of man's construction, and only objective; while man is a creature of God's construction, and men differ in their individuality, as to climate, circumstance, and culture of physical and mental strength; creating their own individual vibration between the Soul within and the natural man without is conscience, simply the Astral pendulum playing between the man higher and the man lower, or selfish animal body. Conscience carries the idea of discernment. Now, conscience is simply a sentiment, an emotion which may grow and gather strength as Will is united with it. Like all other emotions, it is without intel- lectual perception. It is not itself a percipient faculty, and is depen- dent for its action upon the judgment of that wisdom the Soul has been enabled to radiate in its understanding of reports of right and wrong. The conscience, when it is in its normal and not in its exces- $ THE ASTRAL BODY. 125 sively morbid condition, acts as an appendage to the inner life and vibrates like a pendulum between the Astral and the objective and the Soul the within. If the sentiment of emotion is stronger with the animal man, this pendulum of conscience will vibrate to the Astral body a mental thought of merely animal judgment. If the illumina- tion of Truth in the Soul is the stronger, the judgment will be to the higher and better thought which reaches the inner man by each vibra- tion opening his Soul to the Ray or reflection of Spirit and to the voice of God. Conscience is a sentiment or emotion, as has been said, and is dependent for its action upon the judgment, whatever the understanding of the individual reports as right or wrong. A piano has its strings, each of which has a quality of its own, but not one of them can give forth a note of itself. It is through the touch of a hand that the cord is struck and so resounds; and conscience, like these strings, is dependent on the stroke of thought to make it re- sound. Now, when any emotion is predominant, and the quality of its organs fine with exalted illumination of Spirit within, the feelings will inspire the intellect with a particular sensibility of exalted lofti- ness which is one of the traits of the emotion. Many persons go through life never seeing any of the True things in it, but only the objective, not the qualities; while others go through life with the skies full of something else than the mere objective clouds. They see about nature and humanity a harmony of Spirit and Soul, a sublime and exalted idea of some sublime Mind. To them man- kind is something else besides a mere crowd, and they enter with kind- ness and harmony into the flashes of life's brightness and mirth the springs of life, which lift one easily over the jolts and ruts. The answer to the question, Is life worth living? depends entirely on the man who is living it. His years may be many, yet his life as an empty vessel. Thought, being the unconscious and unceasing lan- guage of the mind, is frequently interrupted by conscience peeping through the windows of the Soul, and our thoughts play hide-and-seek with memory. That which is true of conscience is so of all other emotions, simply the vibrations of the Astral body between the Soul higher and the objective world. Without the emotion of benevolence a man goes through life seeing little that touches him in humanity. Those in whom benevolence is large and sensitive can scarcely take a step without discovering cause for pity and assistance of humanity. The intellect, while it discerns and determines, is itself affected by the magnetism of emotions in the astral that lie behind it. A 126 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. • There may be many persons whose conscience and whose judg- ment of right and wrong as revealed by their intellect are small, which is usually caused through the influence of Heredity and wrong in the beginning. Other men have consciences large and sensitive, and the intellect discerns the sense of right and wrong on every side with emotions of kindness and sympathy, which sometimes become even oppressive, for conscience is one of those qualities that man cannot do without and often cannot do with; while it is necessary, it is fre- quently despotic in this age which does not fully recognize the sacred rights of mine and thine. This being the case, how is the intellect trained so that it may discern and report through its Astral messenger to the Soul that which is right or wrong? Here comes the great necessity of Spirit culture of the inner man. In the beginning, when a child is born into earth life, it does not. know one thing from another, and when it begins to gain knowledge it does not yet get it by experiment (except in a very narrow sphere). but by instruction, and, as it advances still further, only learns the difference between right and wrong through the influences, culture, and instruction thrown around it; for those who have gone before have found out how they can live harmoniously and truly in the culture of the gentler family relations, and there are already existing certain distinctions in that immutable law of Heredity, and the child is in- structed in those atmospheres to which it belongs. We are in this respect gathering that which has been growing for thousands of years, and have not yet determined the True Absolute right and wrong, but only that which is relatively so, for right and wrong shift ground as we rise higher and higher toward the octave or plane of Spirit Truth. Thus, as the Soul becomes more illuminated with wisdom, a higher stage in humanity is reached, when men determine right and wrong by applying Spiritual knowledge and wisdom with the principles of Truth and the Genesis of the man. Therefore, benevolence is right and affection is right, and all the gentler, loving qualities are right. In all uncertain conduct which has not yet been determined in custom or law, minds of a superior class are able to exert their inter- pretive conscience. A higher class of mind is continually enlarging the way of justice, making it straighter and picking but the crooks and knots, false teachings and unwholesome broodings of life, and mak- ing of it far more than it was in the early conditions of humanity. This quality of wisdom can hardly be explained by mere intuition. One must look higher in the Spirit, his Soul, and his Astral body to THE ASTRAL BODY. 127 solve the problem. The writer well knows the philosophers of the day have been very shy of the use of any such phrases, but neverthe- less this moral intuition goes beyond the logical and scientific pro- cesses, and works upon the lower grade throughout society which determines things, facts, and qualities to be right or wrong. Men of genius, too, have their vivid intuition. Artists and musi- cians tell of a certain thing or atmosphere which comes over them, they cannot tell how; a true orator feels the overshadowing that comes to him in making an appeal to a public assembly, though he does not know why. It is the higher Soul speaking through the man, -in Christ's words, "It is the Father within me that speaketh," through the vibrations of the Astral body. All inspirational speakers will tell you that they strike the key-note of thought and then strive to get away from the objective about them, when words come and do what it is desired to accomplish. Striving to give full freedom to the inner man without thinking of the outer, their words will flow like rippling waters. Now, in the brain are organs of power that have special reference to the human body; then, there are higher organs, the emotional and intellectual and the moral sentiment, the kingdom of mind, the kingdom of heart, and the kingdom of Spirit. The company these organs and attributes keep with each other determines a man's character. At war within himself, how can there be peace and truth without. Then, again, things in this age may be moving in the best way and may be relatively right. The best in any age is relatively right. Creeping is the best a child can do, though walking is better than creeping. A thing which is right at one time may be wrong at another, even in the same age. When a man is ignorant, his con- science is in bondage. No law or form as high as the highest thought in any community can be made effectual. No law can be enforced that is higher than the average knowledge and common-sense and the average conscience of that community, and to attempt to take the ideal of to-morrow and coming years and enforce it upon the present will always bring failure and defeat, and be injurious to the cause. But the average knowledge and common-sense and conscience may be raised toward the ideal. What are the influences that determine human character? Hered- ity is one of the leading ones. There are multitudes of men born in a well balanced state, as to the animal, who neither before nor after birth ever felt the least vibration of Spiritual growth or Love within ! 128 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. the Soul. Children from the very beginning and earliest days need to be taught kindness and loyalty toward others, which cultivates true wisdom of the Soul. When men find what is right and what wrong in every relation of life, and what their own individual duty to humanity, then shall follow a great impulse to pursue the right and avoid the wrong. Such a various body of men and women cannot be held together unless they can be held to the law of rectitude, nobleness, and goodness through the emotions of the Soul within the inner temple. Thus the mes- senger of the Astral must play its little part instructing the individ- ual to a standing of conscience on the plane of Truth which will be the ultimate salvation of the world when all truth, wisdom, and jus- tice will be meted out by the power of Spirit vibrating through the Astral body in our consciences. The Astral is the primary actuality of the living body and the framework upon which matter builds, the Soul being simply the tenant of the little house, and Soul ripened by Spirit is made an Eternal Thing. "A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." Thou art now treading the heights of an unknown land, and, unless under the guidance and directing hand of Spirit or mortals, thou art on dangerous ground, moving on through lonely darkness, over an unknown abyss, in whose depths are secrets as profound as death. Thou art much like the Neophyte of Ancient Egypt who, attempting to climb the long, dark, tortuous passage in the Great Pyramid, when just on the point of entering the Grand Gallery, through blindness to his own radiating atmosphere, slipped into that narrow descending passage, down, far down, into the subterraneous pit, never again to re- appear in this world, but passing out into the clammy embrace of the silent Nile. The ancient sages believed and taught that every living creature was and is during all its life surrounded and enclosed by an atmosphere to which he belongs, and to that special sphere in which he dwells, and not until his dual forces have been attuned to the lower octave toward Divinity does he cease to consume the inner vitals of his Soul. "Therefore know yourselves and never unprepared but always ready advance your inner growth, for he who does not advance fails. Be faithful as Angel guardian to your own Soul, and you will find. the magnetic Key which unlocks the gate of heaven. Have little to say of your pilgrimage to any man; but impart justice, mercy, and love to all. Pass on in silence; nature silently keeps her wits, try you THE ASTRAL BODY. 129 to keep yours. No man can injure thee. Thou art one of the chil- dren of the Divine Truth," says Pythagoras. Trust in the God You need only be Pilgrim of the shadow land, never despond. that made thee and follow the sea that is silent. anxious with deep solicitude for the advancement of these Golden Truths, when reaching and drifting in the Astral world becomes fash- ionable, and familiar mundane spirits become popular to the world at large. Then we indeed tremble, but Mother Nature guards her secrets well, and is indeed good and wise toward her children, while he who has grown and whose Soul has ripened into the Astral world now finds immortality is no longer a name, but fully knows and real- izes that after bursting these barriers the True man ascends to that source of unbounded power and infinite wisdom, a ripened Soul re- splendent with the LOVE OF GOD. "WE ARE OUR OWN CHILDREN.” "Men must reap the things they sow. Force from force must ever flow." Our acts our Angels are for good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." Fré 1 • CHAPTER VII. A WORLD'S RELIGION. ONE WITH GOD IS A MAJORITY. "For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught; "But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." -Acts v. 38, 39. A GREAT tidal wave of the Spirit is now sweeping through the land. Dogma and creeds are of the past. They are no longer be- lieved in by the great majority even of church-going people. The greatest change of this epoch and age has been wrought among think- ing people during the past seven years. Never since the time of Christ has there been so high regard and anxious search for Truth in the depths of Spirit knowledge. Soul and Spirit are triumphant. In them are the kingdoms of the heart, the realms of human affection. From them is drawn the conclusion that mankind is universal, immortal. We stand on the summit of ages. Our eminence has cost the fruit and toil of centuries. Who shall eventually lift the veil which shuts out the True Light from the spiritual eyes of the Masses? For in the Word it is written; "My Spirit shall not always strive." "Prove all things," says St. Paul, "and hold fast to that which is good." A World's Religion! What shall it be? Materialistic, Spiritu- alistic, Esthetic, or Ecstatic? There are strong tendencies toward the Spiritual or Ecstatic. Ecstasy is but the tasteless foam crowning the cup of joy in human life; let us beware lest it overflow and soil the white robes of our virtues. There is a great tendency at this time toward the ancient and antique religions, of which the compiler mentions the following:- Religions based on Nature Worship. The Norse, consecrating Valor. The Greek Beauty. The Roman "C Justice. 130 SYMBOLS AND HIEROGLYPHS. Ф MONOGRAM OF THE THREE MYSTERIES Delphic, from the School of Oracle InsiGNIA OF THE PATHWAY OF HOLY LOVE. Emblem of Man's Dual Being attuned to Spirit, Learn to Know All, but Keep Thyself Unknown. Mythos of Eros. The Re-born Soul. HA MONOGRAM OF THE FIRE OR GENERATIVE PRINCIPLE of All Life. The Dual Being United by Fire, the Male Principle of Wisdom. According to the Greek, Only through Thee can Mortals See into the Mysteries of Hid- den Things. The Charm out of the Invisible Fire, the Gate of Heaven. IH Tetragramm umaton Uu I. E. S. Monogram of Christ, Ecce Homo, He Died for You, Self-Abnegation, Universal Love, Divine Humanity, I. N. R. I., I. H. S. Ф GREEK OPHIDIAL. The Uniter, the Reformer, the Knowl- edge of Eternally Renewing One's Self, the Female Principle of Intuition and Perception of Truth, Androgyne. FIRE ΚΩΦ THE GREEK DIVINE LOGOS. The True Voice, Illumination Within, Renewing of the Mind, the . Hidden Way, Glory unto Thee, the Pathway of Silence. WATER ARYAN AND CHALDEAN MONOGRAM. Of Elemental Energies in Nature, when united with Elementary Ener- gies, gives the Buddhist LAMH HAND or Guidance of an Unseen Power. A WORLD'S RELIGION. 131 Moral Religions, based on Authority and Reflection. The Doctrine of Confucius, cultivating Reverence. "C "Mahomet "Zoroaster Faith. Purity. Intellectual Religions, based on Science and Imagination. Osirianism characterized by Aspiration. Brahmanism Buddhism 66 ( Spirituality. "Emancipation. That which is so much needed here is a religion suited to both climate and people, a religion of Divine Humanity, the Temple Within. As all the woes of the world have their root in sin, while sin and evil have their origin in a depraved heart, the illumination by Spirit Truth will turn the heart to goodness. All ancient or Eastern religions have but one Key, one diapason, one word. In all the sacred books, the Veda of the Brahmins, the Paranas of Siva and Vishnu, the Koran of the Mohammedans, the Zend-Avesta of the Parsees, the Tripitika of the Buddhist, the main diapason with one refrain and one voice is this; Salvation of the Soul is by works. They all say, Salvation must be purchased, bought with a price, the sole price the ripening and growth of the Soul through one's own works. What we need, in these eventful days, is not a dull uniformity of thinking, but a league and union of different minds for a predeter- mined conquest for Truth Absolute; a religion, a church without dogma or intolerance, a church of the Divine Fragments, a temple for Divine Humanity. The age demands a Spiritual rostrum, free from all the prejudices of the past, and it can only be maintained in so far as it becomes the vanguard of Spiritual things. The world needs help and the Light of Truth, irrespective of all creed or dogma. Struggling mortals need help to attain a higher Spiritual life, and greater peace to their Souls. Should not the tear- ing-down period give way to that of building up? We cannot exist on pulling other institutions down. We must build for ourselves. Make religion broad. Let it draw into its current representatives of every belief and every creed. Make its inspirations like the bounte- ous river of life, and mould its members into one common brother- hood, but in all good works use charity, deal justly, build wisely, and our cause will prosper according to the abundance of our faith and the purity and elevation of our work. 1. # 132 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. No one poor weak piece of human clay has the right to dictate the road to immortality or sit in judgment on a fellow-being, and none has a right to think a thing true simply because he wants it so. He who claims to have the whole truth in any direction closes. the door to the reception of more light and truth in that direction. Human character is the Key to everything in life; man stands out. alone as a goal; everything in life builds up to man, and then beyond; not externally, but having reached man, the development goes on within. Man must be developed out of life. Every individual possesses certain inalienable rights of which he cannot be justly divested by any act of his own, nor can any other individual, society, or government deprive a person of or trespass upon such rights without committing a crime against such person. Among these inalienable rights, the first in time and importance to the individual is the prenatal right to be well born, free from all Hereditary tendencies to disease of body, mental aberrations, or moral obliquities. This call rises from millions of suffering children the divine right to be well born. This enfant terrible of the present age and time proclaims the immutable law of Heredity. We need a religion that will make it a duty to see that our future men and women are as well born as our domestic animals, in the breeding of which more care is now taken than the human race obtains, for circumstances are the mould in which characters are run. "A woman who loathes or fears her husband will find that the children born to her while living in a chronic state of terror or loathing will inevitably be fretful and troublesome in their infancy, disobedient and unmanageable during adolescence, and most likely riotous, treacherous, and criminal in their maturity." A very lovely and high-bred lady, who had the misfortune to have a son hanged for murder, once said to us: The crime of my boy was the legitimate outgrowth of my own criminal weakness in living with his father, whose violent passions made my life a torture; too much the slave of my social position to give food for gossip or scandal by leaving him, even while I hated him as bitterly as I feared him, for many years previous to his death I never saw him leave the house without an involuntary mental prayer that he might not live to return. For years this poor lady, as shown by her confession to us, was a murderer at heart, and transmitted to her child the character that led to his death upon the gallows. Another woman, educated and well connected, who had brought A WORLD'S RELIGION. 133 her husband a large fortune, found him to be so penurious as not to be willing to allow her the necessaries of life, although he spent money without stint in the gratification of his own tastes and vices. "When I was about to become a mother," said she, "my husband refused me money even to provide necessaries incident to my condi- tion, and had I not risen from my bed after he was asleep at night and taken the money I needed by stealth, from his pocket-book, my boy would not have had a single garment at his birth.” This communication was made to us by a broken-hearted mother, whose young son (detected in stealing from his employer) we were endeavoring to save from the legitimate consequences of his crime. This boy, in spite of light, intellect, and high culture, had, we after- ward learned, been an inveterate thief from infancy, and could no more withhold his hands from that which pleased him than he could prevent his ears from receiving sweet sounds, or his eyes from roving over the scenes that delight them. “Had I known anything of the laws governing Hereditary trans- mission," said the mother, "I would have wrapped my baby in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, or have taken him to the nearest stream and cast him in, rather than to have stamped upon him, by prenatal impression, a character that will forever make honest living impossible to him.” A woman, of course, cannot control the proclivities of a vicious husband, or even her children, altogether from taint inherited from the father; but all women can understand that criminal or dishonor- able impulses entertained unchecked by themselves are likely to be reproduced in their offspring and bring them to grief and shame. We do not believe, at this stage of the world's history, that any intelligent man or woman can seriously doubt that the evil traits of parents are transmitted to their children just as frequently as are their virtues and features. If the distinguishing characteristics of parents are virtuous, as a rule we may look in vain through pauper or criminal lists for their descendants. We have Christ's own words as authority for believing (( a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." The old adage "blood will tell" is but a more terse rendering of a still older scriptural warning: "The sins of the parents shall be visited upon their children, unto the third and fourth generation." Travellers in Lombardy are invariably struck with the astonishing 134 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. number of deformed persons to be seen in that province. Every- where the eye falls upon dwarfs, cripples, hunchbacks, and such unfortunates, of both sexes. This is said to be the result of marriages within the forbidden degrees of kinship. In Lombardy first cousins. usually wed each other, and uncles and nieces frequently live together in marital relations. The offspring of these unions are apt to be all wrong in some way, and the nuisance is further aggravated by the fact that the deformities intermarry, begetting others like themselves. Thus the people are fast being transformed into a race of mon- strosities. The coming religion must of necessity be one of perfect charity, pure love, and unfaltering faith, with a divinely trusting hope and a belief that can be demonstrated beyond a doubt. Based upon such a safe foundation, with the assured aid of all the good of past and present time, shall not such a union of spiritual strength work wonders indeed? A charity that gives to each a perfect right to individual belief, ready and willing to take those who differ by the hand in all har- mony, and listen to their mode of thought in brotherly good faith and feeling; A love so pure that "an injury to one is the concern of all " that each shall help bear the others' burden, thus lightening sorrows and sharing together all joys; every heart shall be ready to respond to those in need, poverty, and sickness, or to rejoice with the happy and prosperous; A faith made sure by more than promises; by actual words of cheer from departed friends; by the sight of beloved ones gone before; that is able to be fully demonstrated by science and phi- losophy as well as fact. A blessed hope, too, that desires good to all humanity, and a Divine aspiration of beholding a heaven upon earth, which would certainly be possible if all humanity earnestly endeavored to be unselfish, honest, pure, intelligent, just, and industrious, believing in Then will every the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. true man and woman feel to say and each new day practise, "The world is my Country, and to do good my religion." We need a religion in which the grand conception of faith of a Socrates and the loving tenderness of a Christ may be actualized without fear of poison cup or bloody cross. A religion in which every man is free to develop and grow his Spiritual life and utter his best thoughts. A WORLD'S RELIGION. 135 A religion in which we behold the fires of the old hell quenched, and God's great Love made so manifest that the meanest wretch in all the world, if penitent, may hope through his own good deeds to win another chance. A new religion, in which the voiceless darkness of death shall be dispelled by the voices of the so-called dead and awakened by joy- ous welcomes of love to a land of light and everlasting day, while across the starry spaces golden threads of sweet messages from those we love make a reunion of eternity. A new religion, in which the cry of the oppressed gains a hear- ing; where money is no longer the open sesame, infallible over all, while goodness and moral worth stand at the door and vainly knock. A religion where the new birth called death reveals man as a living Soul in Spirit, still marching onward and upward, so that the possible greatness in human nature shall yet be rounded out into a divine reality. A new religion that shows all men that when we pass from the border lines of life and this present, the truth of the future means to man a continuation of growth; a perpetuation of all purer and nobler joys, and an eternity of pure Love. A world's religion that has Justice, Mercy, and Love for those who bear the burden and heat of the day in honest toil. The labor question is a deeply religious one. The clergy are hap- pily coming to a keen realization of this fact. Every man who would turn back the threatening drift toward civil war must labor for the substitution of co-operative compromise, through peaceable arbitra- tion, in place of the barbarous law of retaliation now threatening the peace and safety of society. If there is not religion, learning, and sense enough among us to keep this malignant ulcer, a settled war of classes, from seating itself upon the body of society, the days of the Republic are numbered. But it will be many a day yet before the average citizen will lose faith in that silent but powerful consensus of the best thought and conscience within society, which will bid a halt to imperious greed, on the one hand, and the violent sway of irrespon- sible brute force, on the other. Never was the line which divides the rich from the poor more rigidly marked than now. Side by side with the man of wealth, encased in sealskin overcoat, with gloves and hat to match, walks the poor devil in shabby coat and fluttering trousers, with broken shoes, shivering from head to foot. The palaces of the rich absolutely blaze in the electric light with regal sumptuousness, and the miserable tene- 136 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. .. ments of the very poor are made more comfortless than ever by the icy winds that penetrate unguarded doors and windows. Society, says Science, coolly, with slippered feet before its open fire, is a struggle for existence, the issue of which is the survival of the fittest. Let Science stop a little and ponder that the survival of the fittest means also the despair and death of the unfittest. Struggle for existence! Survival of the fittest! Oh, brothers! is a great city only a great jungle? Are men and women only beasts of burden or beasts of prey? God forbid ! The contrast between the conduct of some of our overpaid, high- toned fashionable ministers and the self-abnegating missionary work done by the street preachers who harangue throngs of men upon our docks, and those who occupy the steps of the City Hall, Sunday in and Sunday out, paralleled as it is with the ceaseless endeavor of the same strain of Roman Catholic clergy, is not to be mentioned in the same day, not to be thought of in the same mind almost. The former sit literally in the lap of luxury among the votaries of fashion, while the others, imitating the Man of Sorrows, seek out the poor and suffering, extend the hand of helpfulness to those who cannot help. themselves, and never hesitate a moment to help a lame dog over the stile. That which passes under the name of religion is not the religion of Christ. As we live, so is our Christ, and such our temple and form of worship. The God that is professedly worshipped is as far above the God actually worshipped as the infinite is above the finite or the eternal above the transient. The pure and transparent word of Christ is dimmed by our earthiness and selfishness, but the light is constantly there. The perfect religion of all ages shines upon the earth, illuminating the darkness, though the darkness comprehend it not; and the light is still there, though its rays may be perverted by the shadows of our present condition, and the whole world will finally acknowledge the glory and splendor of its rays, even as the whole earth now acknowledges the glory of the light of the sun. This religion is all summed up in the one brief commandment that we love one another. In obeying this, we are all of us sure to keep ourselves "unspotted from the world," and thus while in it are not of it in the sense of being evil. The perfect release of a man from worldly chains will readily be acknowledged as the first and simplest condition. Whitfield asserts that this alone, without further need of form or ceremonial, will be the final religion of earth. God reveals himself according to human • ! A WORLD'S RELIGION. 137 # needs, and the revelation continues to go on as the human state becomes adapted to the influx of the Divine Spirit in increasing measure. We shall become as the Angels, in the ratio of our release from the thraldom of earthiness. The process is an advancing one, ever a struggle and a new vic- tory, with numberless discouragements and defeats. It is the Christ- principle that is at last to be all in all. The forms of religion will in the future be of less account than religion itself—the reverse of what has prevailed till now, and even now is only shaken, not overthrown. Form and substance will become one. The manner of expressing it is wholly secondary to what is to be expressed. One man may formulate his religion in one way, and one in another; but the vital and only thing is to love one another and seek to do good to all. The real measure of our religion should be the measure of our loving kindness toward one another. In America, there is great opportunity to make a religion out of the sacredness of the individual. In every human being there is a Temple of the Living God. Method is simply an adaptation to facts. Law governs all things. Can this Republic set up for itself without practising the Divine Beatitudes? Can she afford to do without a God? One of the great questions of the hour is, Does the Infinite Entity of Being, in its primal condition, have an objective and manifest existence, fully developed and unfolded to its highest and most perfect condition, or is its existence in its primal state simply essential in Being and poten- tial in form? "Ah! if our souls but poise and swing Like the compass in its brazen ring, Ever level and ever true To the toil and task we have to do, We shall sail securely, and safely reach The Fortunate Isles." "You cannot grow grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." Neither can you obtain brilliant thought from an audience devoid of zeal or aspiration. Live thought is like lightning, it dazzles the eye and strikes the heart. This age calls for rapid mental action and pro- found thought. The corpse which all noble effort is doomed to carry around lashed to its back is Indifferentism. The orthodox pulpit gives it the name of "the world.” 138 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. The decadence or total loss of enthusiasm is the greatest calamity that can overtake human life. The happiest days are those that are commanded by a noble passion; and youth is happy because it has not lost the power of dreaming great dreams. The life which has forgotten how to wonder and weep and exult is to be pitied indeed. If life has been natural, then what touched it so in youth should touch it with all the more power in age. The early music should then burst into a chorus. The Soul can no more live without earnestness than the body can live without air or food. Apathy produces spiritual asphyxia. Only life can produce life. "Whatever makes the past glorious and memorable is the result of a mastering enthusiasm." Nothing of worth ever came of either vanity or apathy. The Souls that have headed every noble advance have been fully awakened Souls. 'Those who have given the world its highest art, its noblest lib- erty; who have discovered its new continents or its new planets, or have reformed its religion, have been those who were strangers to all indifference, and were completely enthralled by the beauty or neces- sity of the thing to be done. Everywhere victory awaits earnestness, and everywhere victory waits upon earnestness. Man is never more joyous than when he is under subjection to the subtle influences. "Then he is capable of his highest acts; then he is most fearless, then most self-sacrificing; then most ready to undertake every diffi- cult, noble task, and to scout the very idea of impossibility." Great are facts, and figures, and statistics. Bring to us nothing say these present days — that has not some fixed data; let us have no dreams, hopes, expectations, memories: "If you have a veritable planet that you want weighed or measured; if you have a rail- road to survey; or a new insect to classify; or a new theory about germs and cells; or an ore to be assayed, we will attend to that. But as for poetry, and worship, and immortality, and God -- they are not in our line." But what is this which has discovered the laws of all these solid, measurable things of earth and sky? It is the Soul. Upon what do they rest ultimately? Upon an idea. They are a thought realized. But what is an idea? It is that which the Soul sees. But can the Soul see that which is not? No more than can the eye. These things which the eye sees the atom, the flower, the tree, the planet - on this side, are objects; on the other or reverse side are thought. Who will deny, then, that these other ideas which the Soul sometimes has A WORLD'S RELIGION. 139 power to see-God, Immortality—but which the eye seeks in vain to see, may not have an existence as well founded as any material form? Let us trust that the pendulum has reached the further limit of its swing toward materialism, and is about to begin its return. Or rather, we would say, let us hope that this too ready credence. in the external and material as the only real is to discover its supple- mental part, is to find its other half of truth, and acknowledge that, although it is noumenon and not phenomenon, it is capable of being objectively cognized by the Soul alone, that it was thought before it was creation, and that Infinite Being of necessity precedes finite crea- tion. This it is to lift the vision to the higher spiritual level, and in so doing to enlarge, exalt, and inspire it. And it is only after this way, too, that the light of inspiration pours in over the human mind like a wave, lifting it to unknown heights and filling it with a truly sacred enthusiasm. In this age of immense intellectual awakening and stir, the danger chiefly is that the claims of the heart will be either slighted or wholly cast aside. Therefore no church can be truly called a church that does not transmit inspiration from the universal Spirit to the individ- ual Spirit. Never will the mind expand faster, never be more hospi table to truth, and never will thought and action have more beauty than when the Spirit comes in contact with the Eternal. "Slave to no sect nor creed And take no private road, But walk with nature up to nature's God. This is the liberty God gave to man; Yet few there be that find it." The heaven of man is the harmony of his own Soul. Then prepare thy heaven now, that thou mayst enjoy it the more in the grand here- after. This life is man's opportunity to illuminate the Temple Within. To do this is and has been the prayer of all ages. When grand old Socrates cried, "I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within," he knew the secret of Life. Also when David, in his 51st Psalm, calls on God, "Create in me a clean heart and renew a right Spirit within me," and Jesus says "Blessed are the pure in heart," there is little difference, the essential element is the same in all. They all knew the secret of Life. In going back over the dusty pages of human history, we find the .. 140 THE HIDDEN WAY ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. men and women who have moved the world upward to higher Truths have not been the learned priests, philosophers, and statesmen who assumed scholastic airs and adhered to dead forms and ceremony, but the deeply and sincerely thoughtful persons, who, filled with the zeal of great conviction, have faced the learning, science, and religious faith of the world, scorning rack, dungeon, pillory, and scourge, and all that hoary-headed bigotry and intolerance could inflict, standing out alone, even unto death, that they might be honest with their inmost thoughts and convictions. If the devotees in many of the churches of to-day, who complain of absence of worshippers, were to look within, they would see them- selves like the decayed, standing trunk of a cold, sapless tree. Empty of life, vacant and tenantless of Spirit, they have not kept pace with their time and age. The Spirit of progress and growth has departed. A PARABLE. A man was in the habit of going to mill with a bag across his horse's back, with a grist in one end of the bag, and a big stone, to balance the grist, in the other. One day his son, preparing to go to mill, forgot to put in the stone, and when he placed the bag across the horse the grist accidentally became about evenly divided. When he saw what he had done, he called exultantly to his father, saying, "Pa, look here! We don't need any stone." His father replied, Stop that foolishness. If that were the best way to carry a grist, don't you s'pose I or my father or my father's father would have found it out?" Like unto that man is he who will persist in believing a lie, merely because it is an old one. - Man requires but one TRUTH — that Truth Spirit; but one Book the great open book of Nature; but one TEMPLE the Temple of God within. Man stands between two worlds, one of light, the other of darkness. Here he is left to his own free will, either to rise into a glorious ascension or to decline into a subsidence. Modern Spiritualism is only the material part of True Spiritualism. True Spiritual phenomena are as the sun-ray of the morning to the objective world, being an enlightener to the unbiassed, thoughtful man. While the action of the Spiritual sun-ray is a new influx of Truth and Knowledge to the inner man, the Soul which expands to the True light from Spiritual sources is the true enlightener of the hu'nan intellectual faculty. This is the difference between material, A WORLD'S RELIGION. 141 phenomenal Spiritualism and True Spirituality and illumination and growth of the Soul within man. The Materialistic Spiritualist lives by and judges from phenomenal appearances. He thinks that organic forms are the results of exter- nal forces, and that mind with its rational faculty is evolved from