“Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”


I hope you enjoyed last month’s lesson on “The Mystery of Light, Color and Consciousness,” and that you now have a more thorough realization of what is meant by the saying, “In Him we live and move and have our being,” for everywhere, throughout the whole universe, wherever light penetrates, there God also is. Even in the places which WE call dark because the constitution of our eyes prevents perception of objects there, organs of vision differently constituted can function as exemplified in the instance of cats and owls.

 Christ said, “Let your light shine.” To the spiritual vision each human being appears as a flame of light, variously colored according to temperament, and or greater or less brilliancy in proportion to purity of character. Science has discovered that all matter is in a state of flux, that the particles which compose our bodies continually decay and are eliminated from the system, to be replaced by others which remain for a short time until they also decompose. Likewise our moods, emotions, and desires change with every passing moment, the old giving place to the new in an interminable succession. Therefore, they also must be composed of matter and subject to laws similar to those which govern visible physical substances.

 We even can, and do, change our mind; we can cultivate it in one direction or another as we please, just as we can develop the muscles of arm or limb, or we can allow the member to atrophy. Therefore the mind also must be composed of a changeable substance. But the ego, the Thinker, never loses its “I”-dentity. In both childhood and old age that “I” remains the same regardless of changes in thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires. Though the body, which we use as a garment, changes with the passing years, WE are eternally and everlasting the same.



   "It matters not how strait the gate,

   How charged with punishments the scroll,

   `I' am the master of my fate;

   `I' am the captain of my soul."






 ANSWER: As the light is refracted into the seven colors of the spectrum when passing through our atmosphere, so also the spirits which are differentiated within God are refracted into seven great rays. Each class is under the direct guidance and domination of one of the Seven Spirits before the Throne, which are the planetary genii, the Star Angels. All the Virgin spirits in their successive incarnations are continually intermingling in order that they may gain the most varied experiences; nevertheless, those who have emanated from the same Star Angel are always sister or twin souls, and when they seek the higher life, they must enter the path of initiation through a lodge composed of members of the same ray from which they originally came, thence to return to their primal source. Therefore, all occult schools are divisible into seven, one for each class of spirits. That was the reason Jesus said to his disciples “Your father and mine”–None could have come into as close touch with him as these disciples were, except those belonging to the same ray.

 Like all other mysteries, this beautiful doctrine has been degraded to a physical or material idea such as embodied in the popular conception of twin souls or affinities; that one is male and the other female, and very often each is somebody else’s wife or husband. In such cases the doctrine of twin souls is often made an excuse for elopement and adultery. This is an abominable perversion. Each spirit is complete in itself, it takes upon itself a male or a female body at different times in order to learn the lessons of life, and it is only during the present stage if its development that there is such a feature as sex at all. The Ego was before sex, and will persist after that phase of its manifestation has passed away.









Part I










 In looking over the marvelous achievements of physical science, there is one characteristic particularly worth while to note; namely, that each new discovery has been made through the invention of new or the improvement of previously existing devices to aid the senses; and for that reason the investigations of science have been limited to the world of sense the dense Physical World. Scientists have dealt with the chemical elements: solids, liquids, and gases; but beyond that they have no instruments capable of reaching, although forced to postulate a still finer matter they call “ether,” because without this finer medium they find it impossible to account for light, electricity, etc. Thus we see that physical science inductively recognizes the existence of an invisible world as a necessity in the economy of Nature.






Have you ever stood by the bedside of a friend or relative who was about to pass out of this world and into the beyond? Most of us have, for where is the house that has not been entered by Father Time? Neither is the following phase of the occurrence, to which we would particularly direct attention, uncommon. The person about to pass out very often falls into a stupor, then awakens and sees not only this world but the world into which he is about to enter; and it is very significant that then he sees people who were his friends or relatives during the earlier part of his life– sons, daughters, a wife, anyone in fact near and dear to him–standing around the bedside and awaiting his crossing over. The mother will fondly stretch out her arms: “Why, there is John, and how big he has grown! What a splendid big boy he is!” And so she will recognize one after another of her children who have passed into the beyond. They are assembled at her bedside, waiting for her to join them, actuated by the same feeling that possesses people were when a child is about to be born into this world, making them rejoice at the new arrival because they feel instinctively that it is a friend who is coming to them.

 So, also, the people who have gone before into the beyond gather when a friend is about to cross the border line and join them on the other side of the veil. Thus we see that the birth into one world is death from the viewpoint of another–the child that comes to us has died to the spiritual world, and the person who passes out of our ken into the beyond and dies here is born into a new world and joins his friends there.

 As above, so below; the law of analogy, which is the same for microcosm and macrocosm, tells us that what befalls human beings under given conditions must also apply to the superhuman under analogous circumstances. We are now approaching the winter solstice, the darkest days of the year, the time when the light of the sun has almost faded, when our Northern Hemisphere is cold and drear. But on the longest and darkest night the sun turns on its upward path, the Christ light is born on the earth again, and all the world rejoices. By the terms of our analogy, however, when the Christ is born on earth He dies to heaven. As the free spirit is at the time of birth finally and firmly encased in the veil of flesh which fetters it all through life, so also the Christ Spirit is fettered and hampered each time He is born into the earth. This great Annual Sacrifice begins when our Christmas bells are ringing, when our joyful sounds of praise and thanksgiving are ascending to heaven. Christ is imprisoned in the most literal sense of the word from Christmas to Easter.

 Men may scorn the idea that there is an influx of spiritual life and light at this time of the year, nevertheless the fact remains whether we believe it or not. Every one in the whole world at this time feels lighter, feels different, feels as if a load were lifted off his shoulders. The spirit of peace on earth and good will towards man prevails; the spirit that WE ALSO WOULD GIVE something expresses itself in Christmas gifts. This spirit is not to be denied, as is patent to anyone who is at all observant; and this is a reflex of the great divine wave of giving. God so loved the world that He gave His only or alone begotten Son. Christmas is the time of the giving, though it is not consummated until Easter; this is the crux, the turning point, the place where we feel that something has happened which ensures the prosperity and continuance of the world.

 How different is the feeling at Christmas from the one that is manifest at Easter! At the latter there is an outgoing desire, an energy which expresses itself in sex love with desire for perpetuation of self as the keynote; how different this is from the love which expresses itself in the spirit of giving that we find at Christmas time rather than that of receiving.

 And look now at the churches; never does the candle burn so brightly as upon this, the shortest and the darkest day of the year. Never do the bells sound so festive as when they ring out their message to the waiting world, “The Christ is born.”

 “God is Light,” says the inspired apostle, and no other description is capable of conveying so much of the nature of God as those three little words. The invisible light that is clothed in the flame upon the altar is an apt representation of God, the Father. In the bells we have an apt symbol of Christ, the Word, for their metal tongues proclaim the gospel message of peace and good will, while the incense brings an added spiritual fervor, representing the power of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is thus symbolically part of the celebration which makes Christmas the most spiritually joyful time of the year from the standpoint of the human race which is now embodied and working in the physical world.

 But it must not be forgotten, as was said in an opening paragraph of this lesson, that the birth of Christ upon earth is the death of Christ to the glory of heaven; that at the time when we rejoice at His annual coming, He is invested again with the heavy physical load which we have crystallized about ourselves and which is now our dwelling place–the earth. In this heavy body He is then encrusted, and anxiously He waits for the day of final liberation. You understand, of course, there are days and nights for the greater spirits as for the human beings; that as we live in our body during the daytime, work out the destiny which we have created for ourselves in the physical world, and are then liberated at night into the higher world to recuperate, so also there is this ebb and flow of the Christ Spirit. It dwells within our earth a part of the year and then withdraws into the higher worlds. Thus Christmas is for Christ the commencement of a day of physical life, the beginning of a period of restriction.

 What then should be the aspiration of the devout and enlightened mystic who realizes the greatness of His sacrifice, the greatness of this gift which is being bestowed upon mankind by God at this time of the year; who realizes this sacrifice of the Christ for our sake, this giving Himself, subjecting Himself to a virtual death that we may live, this wonderful love that is being poured out upon the earth at this time–what should be his aspiration? What but to imitate in however small a measure the wonderful works of God! He should aspire to make himself more the servant of the Cross than ever before, more closely to follow the Christ in every thing by sacrificing himself for his brothers and sisters, by uplifting humanity within his immediate sphere of work so as to hasten the day of liberation for which the Christ Spirit is waiting, groaning and travailing. We mean the PERMANENT liberation, the day and the coming of Christ.

 To realize this aspiration in the fullest measure, let us go forth during the coming year with full self-reliance and faith. If we have heretofore despaired of our ability to work for Christ, then let this despair pass, for has He not said: “Greater works than these shall ye do”? Would He who was the Word of truth have said such things if it were not possible to realize them? All things are possible to them that love God. If we will really work in our own little sphere, not looking for the greater things until we have done the work close at hand, then we shall find that a wonderful soul growth may be attained, so that the people who are round about us shall see in us something which they may not be able to define but which will nevertheless be patent to them–they shall see that Christmas light, the light of the new-born Christ, shining within our sphere of action. It can be done; it only depends upon ourselves whether we will take Him at His word so as to realize this command: “Be ye therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Perfection may seem a very long way off; we may realize more acutely as we look upon Him how far we are from living up to our ideals. Nevertheless, it is by striving daily, hourly, that we finally attain, and every day some little progress can be made, something can be done, in some way we can let our light shine so that men shall see it as a beacon light in the darkness of the world. May God help us during the coming year to attain a greater measure of Christ-likeness than we have ever before attained. May we live such lives that when another year has rolled around and we again see the candle lights of Christmas and hear the bells that call us to the Holy Night service, we shall then feel that we have not lived in vain.

 EACH TIME WE GIVE OURSELVES in service to others we add to the luster of our soul bodies, which are built of ether. It is the Christ ether that now floats this sphere of ours, and let us remember that if we ever want to work for His liberation, we must in sufficient numbers evolve our own soul bodies to the point where they may float the earth. Thus we may take up His burden and save Him the pain of physical existence.

Adoración de los pastores, ca. 1668





















 The “plan of salvation” which the theologians are offering is worse than sending a motorboat to save the people on Atlantic liner, for tow or three are a larger proportion saved out of a total of 3,000 than 144,000 of all the myriads of souls created on the plan of theology. If God had really evolved that plan, it would seem to the logical mind that He cannot be good. If He cannot help Himself, He is not all-powerful. In neither case can He therefore be God. Such suppositions are, however, unthinkable as actualities, for that cannot be God’s plan, and it is a gross libel to attribute it to Him.

 If we turn to the doctrine of reincarnation (rebirth in human bodies) which postulates a slow process of development carried on with unwavering persistence through repeated embodiment in human forms of increasing efficiency, whereby all beings are in time brought to a height of spirituality inconceivable to our present limed understanding, we can readily perceive its harmony with nature’s methods. EVERYWHERE IN NATURE IS FOUND THIS SLOW AND PERSISTENT STRIVING FOR PERFECTION; AND NOWHERE IS FOUND A SUDDEN PROCESS OF EITHER CREATION OR DESTRUCTION ANALOGOUS TO THE PLAN WHICH THE THEOLOGIANS AND MATERIALISTS WOULD HAVE US BELIEVE.









 When we seek to solve the riddle of life and death; to find an answer that shall satisfy both head and heart as to the difference in the endowment of human beings, and give a reason for the existence of sorrow and pain; when we ask why one is reared in the lap of luxury while another receives more kicks than crusts; why one obtains a moral education, but another is taught to steal and lie; why one has the face and figure of a Venus, while another has the head of a Medusa; why one has perfect health and another never knows a moment’s rest form pain; why one has the intellect of a Socrates, and another can only count “one, two, many,” as do the Australian aborigines, we receive no satisfaction from the materialist or the theologian. Materialism gives the law of heredity as the reason for sickness, and in regard to economic conditions a Spencer tells us that in the animal world the law of existence is “eat, or be eaten”; in civilized society it is “cheat, or be cheated.”


 On the moral plane a like condition prevails. Police records show that though the children of habitual criminals generally possess criminal tendencies, they invariably keep out of the courts, and in the “rogues’ galleries” of Europe and America it is impossible to find both father and son. Thus criminals are the sons of honest people, and so heredity is unable to account for moral proclivities.



 The Law of Rebirth offers a reasonable solution to all the inequalities of life, its sorrow and pains, when coupled with its companion law–the Law of Consequence–besides showing the road to emancipation.




 There is but one sin–Ignorance; and but one salvation–Applied Knowledge. All sorrow, suffering and pain are traceable to ignorance of how to act, and the school of life is as necessary to bring out our latent capabilities as is the daily school which evokes those of the child.



 The question, “Why do we not remember our past existences?” is another apparent difficulty. But if we realize that we have an entirely new brain at each birth, and that the human Spirit is weak and engrossed in its new environment, so that if fails to make a full impression on the brain in the days of childhood, when it is most sensitive, it is not so surprising after all. Some children do remember the past, especially in the earliest years, and it is one of the most pathetic phases of childhood that they are so thoroughly misunderstood by their elders. When they speak of the past, they are ridiculed, and even punished for being “imaginary.” If children speak of their invisible playmates, and of “seeing things,” for many children are clairvoyant, they met the same harsh treatment, and the inevitable result is that the little ones learn to keep still until they lose the faculty. Sometimes it happens, however, that the prattle of a child is listened to and results in some wonderful revelations. The writer heard of such a case a few years ago on the Pacific Coast.












 ANSWER: When you are reading a book you do not take everything it contains literally, if the strain of the book is poetical. You see the absurdity of this literal interpretation of the Bible when it come to such passages which say that the trees sing or that the hills dance, for you know that as a matter of actual fact the hills do not dance nor the trees sing and laugh. You enter into the sentiment of the poet, but discount such expressions a poetical terms, not meant to be taken literally.

 It is similar with other statements that are contrary to what is actually known to be the facts. When one has evolved the spiritual sight, it is a fact patent to him that consciousness does not begin with birth nor end with death. In reality the waking consciousness in the physical world which we think so paramount and important during life is really very limited when compared with the spiritual consciousness. We are more conscious before birth and after death, because we are closely in touch with the spiritual Source of our being in whom is all consciousness.

 The Spiritualists and the Society for Psychic Research have done a great deal toward bringing positive evidence before the public that there is a continuance of consciousness after we pass out of this body. While there has been much fraud in these demonstrations, there has also been an overwhelming mass of truth brought out, under conditions that made deception or mistakes impossible. Messages have been received from persons who had passed out of this life and they have shown that such a state as that described in this passage from Job is absolutely not true. If you will read our lectures, “The Riddle of Life and Death,” and “Where Are the Dead?” you will find the question of rebirth very thoroughly discussed.

 Both biblical and historical instances, such a that of Joan of Arc, the French liberator, who was an ignorant peasant maid, but guided by the Spirit voices intelligently out-maneuvered the English generals and brought victory to the French armies, prove that those who pass out of this life are not in a state of unconsciousness and do not lose their intelligence to any degree whatever.

 Besides, it is not necessary to rely on Spirits from the other side of the veil of death to communicate to us the facts of existence there. Each one of us has latent within himself or herself a sixth sense which, when cultivated, enables us consciously to penetrate that field and to see, know, and function upon that plane of life and existence together with those Spirits who have passed out of the present life. We may then talk with them, walk with them, and in all things enter into their lives, so that we may know for ourselves without depending upon anyone else that the consciousness which we have in life is augmented, if anything, by the shuffling off of this mortal coil.

 It requires exercise and labor, however, to awaken that spiritual faculty an use that sense, just as it requires time, labor, and application to acquire the art of playing upon a piano or making a watch. However, everyone has the faculty latent within and may develop it if he or she so wills.

 In the course of time every human being will have that faculty in addition or our present five senses. That is what is meant in Revelation when it is said that in the new heaven and the new earth there shall be no death. Job speaks of the body and the present heavens. These pass away, but Revelation speaks about a New Heaven and a new Earth where dwelleth righteousness. The last enemy that is conquered is death. When we have evolved that spiritual faculty so that it is possible for us at any moment to focus our vision upon that plane of existence where those whom we call “dead” are now living, we see them as they were before and we realize that there is in reality no death. That is the best proof.

Question and Answers – Max Heindel



  Is there an occult significance in the various Christian feasts of the year?

 Answer: Yes, the feasts of the year have the very deepest occult significance. From the material point of view, the planets are but so many masses of matter going about in their orbits in obedience to so-called blind laws, but to the occultists they appear as Great Spirits, moving about in space as we move in the world.

 When a man is seen gesticulating, we attach a certain significance to his gestures. If he shakes his head, we know that he is negativing a certain proposition, but if he nods, we infer he agrees. If he beckons, having the palms of his hands turned toward him, we know that he is motioning for someone to come to him, but if he turns the palms outward, we understand that he is warning someone to stay away. In the case of the universe, we usually do not think that there is any significance to the altered position of the planets, but to the occultist there is the very deepest meaning in all the varied phenomena of the heavens. They correspond to the gestures of man.

 Krishna means anointed, and anyone who had a special mission to perform was so anointed in olden times. When, in the winter time, the sun is below the equator at the nadir point of its travel, the spiritual impulses are the greatest in the world. For our material welfare, however, it is necessary that the sun should come again into the northern hemisphere, and so we speak of the time when the sun starts upon its journey northward as Christmas, the birthday of the Savior, anointed to save us from the famine and cold which would ensue if he were to stay at the nadir point always.

BLOGFC-GIOVANNI-di-Paolo-The-Baptism-of-Christ As the sun passes toward the equator, it goes through the sign Aquarius, the water-man, at that time the earth is deluged with rain, symbolizing the baptism of the Savior. Then comes the passage of the sun through the sign Pisces, the fishes, in the month of March. The stores of the past year have been all consumed, and the food of man is scant, hence we have the long fast of Lent, where the eating of fish symbolizes this feature of the solar journey. Then comes the Passover, when the sun passed over the equator. This is the time of Easter, when the sun is at his eastern node, and this crossing of the equator is symbolized by the crossification or crucifixion, so called, of the Savior; the sun then goes into the sign of Aries, the Ram, and becomes the Lamb of God, which is given for the salvation of the world at the time when the plants begin to sprout. In order that the sacrifice may be of benefit to man, however, he (the sun) must ascend into the heavens where his rays will have power to ripen the grape and the corn, and so we have the feast of the Ascension of the Savior to the Throne of the Father, which is at the summer solstice in June. There the sun remains for three days, when the saying “Thence he shall return” takes effect as the sun commences his passage toward the western node. At the time when he enters the sign Virgo, the Virgin, we have the feast of the assumption and later on, when he leaves the sign Virgo, the Nativity of the virgin, who seems, as it were, to be born from the sun.

 The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles occurred at the time when the sun was crossing the equator on its passage into the winter months, and this feast was accompanied by the weighing in of the corn and the harvest of the wine, which were the gifts of the solar God to his human worshipers.

 Thus all the feasts of the year are connected with the motions of the stars through space.





 Answer: We are told in the gospel story that Pilate placed a sign reading, “Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorem,” and His Cross, and this is translated in the authorized version to mean “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” But the four initials, I.N.R.I., placed upon the Cross represent the names of the four elements in Hebrew: Iam, water; Nour, fire; Ruach, spirit or vital air; and Iabeshah, earth. This is the occult key to the mystery of crucifixion, for it symbolizes in the first place the Salt, Sulphur, Mercury, and Azoth which were used by the ancient alchemists to make the Philosopher’s Stone, the universal solvent, the elixir-vitae.

blogFC-christ-inri  The two “I’s” (IAM and IABESHAH) represent the salient lunar element water, (a) in fluidic state holding salt in solution, and (b) in the coagulated extract of this water, “the salt of the earth.” In other words, the finer fluidic vehicles of man and his dense body. N, (NOUR) in Hebrew stands for fire and the combustible elements, chief among which are SULPHUR and phosphorus, so necessary to oxidation and without which warm blood would be an impossibility. The Ego could not then function in the body, nor could thought find a material expression. R (RUACH) is the Hebrew equivalent for the Spirit, Azoth, functioning in the mercurial mind. Thus the four letters, I.N.R.I., placed over the Cross of Christ according to the gospel story represent composite man, the Thinker, at the point of his spiritual development when he is getting ready for liberation from the cross of his dense vehicle.




 RUACH, the Hebrew word for Spirit, or vital air, is an excellent symbol of the Ego clothed in the mercurial mind which makes man MAN, and enables him to control and direct his bodily vehicles and activities in a rational manner.


 This stage of the Christian Mystic’s spiritual development therefore involves a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary downward course through the tripartite spinal cord where the three segments are ruled by the Moon, Mars, and Mercury, respectively, and where the ray of Neptune then lights the REGENERATIVE SPINAL SPIRIT-FIRE which, mounting upward, sets the pituitary body and the pineal gland into vibration. This, opening up the spiritual sight and striking the frontal sinus, starts the crown of thorns throbbing with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by the sacred spirit-fire which wakes this center from its age long sleep to a throbbing, pulsating life, sweeping onward to the other centers in the five-pointed stigmatic star. They are also vitalized and the whole vehicle becomes aglow with a golden glory. Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the desire body located in the liver is liberated, and the martial energy contained in that vehicle propels upward and sidereal vehicle (so-called because the stigmata in the head, hands, and feet are located in the same relative position to one another as the points in the five-pointed star), which ascends through the skull (Golgotha), while the CRUCIFIED CHRISTIAN utters his triumphant cry, “Consummatum est” (it has been accomplished), and soars into the subtler spheres to seek Jesus whose life he has imitated with such success and from whom he is henceforth inseparable. Jesus is his Teacher and his guide to the Kingdom of Christ where all shall be united in one body to learn and to practice the RELIGION OF THE FATHER to whom the Kingdom will eventually revert that He may be All in All.




 ANSWER: The gospel story as it is usually read by people in the churches is only the story of Jesus, a unique character, the Son of God in a special sense, who was once born in Bethlehem, lived once upon the earth for the short space of thirty-three years, who died once for mankind after much suffering, and is now permanently exalted to the right hand of the Father. Thence they expect Him to return to judge the quick and the dead, and they celebrate his birth and his death at certain time of the year, because they are supposed to have taken place on definite dates, the same as the birthday of Lincoln, Washington, or the Battle of Gettysburg.

resurrection-243x300 While these explanations satisfy the multitudes who are not very deep in their inquiries concerning the truth, there is another side which is very patent to? they mystic. This is a story of divine love and perpetual sacrifice that fills him with devotion to the cosmic Christ, who is born periodically in order that we may live and have an opportunity to evolve in this environment for he understands from that viewpoint that without such recurring annual sacrifice, this earth and its present conditions of advancement would be an impossibility.

 At the time when the Sun is in the celestial sign Virgo (the Virgin) the Immaculate Conception takes place. A wave of solar Christ light and life is focused upon the earth. Gradually this light penetrates deeper into the earth, until the turning point is reached on the longest and the darkest night of the year, which we call Christmas. This is the mystic birth of a cosmic Life Impulse which impregnates and fertilizes the earth. It is the basis of all terrestrial life. Without it no seed would germinate, no flower would appear upon the face of the earth, neither man nor beast could exist, and life would soon become extinct. Therefore, there is a very, very valid reason for the joy that is felt at Christmas time. As the divine Author of our being, our Father in heaven, has given the greatest of all gifts to man, the Son, so men also are impelled to give gifts to one another. There reigns upon earth, joy, good will, and peace, no matter whether man understands the mystic and annually recurrent reasons therefore.

 As “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” so this spiritual life impulse which impregnated the earth at the winter solstice works its way through the winter months, towards the circumference, giving life to all wherewith it comes in contact. Even the minerals would not grow were this light impulse withheld, and by the time Easter is reached, when the earth is in bloom, when the birds start singing, and the animals in the forest are mating, all is imbued with great Divine Life. It has spent itself, it dies, and is raised again to the right hand of our Father. Thus Christmas and Easter are turning points which mark the ebb and flow of the Divine Life annually given for our sakes, without which it would be impossible for us to live upon the earth. The latter ends also the annual recurrence of the festive feeling which we experience from Christmas to Easter, the joy that thrills our being. If we are at all sensitive, we cannot help but feel Christmas and Easter in the air, for they are laden with DIVINE LOVE, LIFE, AND JOY.

 But whence come the note of sorrow and suffering which precedes the Easter resurrection? Why may we not rejoice with an unmingled joy at the time when the Sun is liberated ad returns to His Father? Why this Passion, this Crown of Thorns? Why cannot this be left out of consideration?


 To understand this mystery it is necessary to view the matter from the Christ viewpoint, and it is necessary to realize fully and thoroughly that this annual life wave which is projected into our planet is not simply a force devoid of consciousness. It carries with itself the full consciousness of the Cosmic Christ. It is absolutely a true fact that without Him was not anything made that was made, as we are told by St. John in the opening chapter of his Gospel. At the time of the Immaculate Conception in September, this great life impulse commences Its descent upon our earth, and by the time of the winter solstice, when the mystic birth takes place, the Cosmic Christ has fully concentrated itself upon and within this planet. You will realize that it must cause much discomfort to such a great Spirit to be cramped within this little earth of ours and to be conscious of all the hate and discord we are sending out from day to day all through the year. It is a fact that cannot be gainsaid that all life expression is through and by love, and similarly, death comes through hate. Were the hate and discord which we generate in our daily lives in our transactions one with another, the deceit, the infamy, and the selfishness, left without antidote, this earth would be swallowed up in death.

 You remember the description of initiation given in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION. It is there stated that at the Service held every night at midnight, the etheric Temple in Germany is the focus of all the thoughts of hate and disturbance in the Western world which it serves, that these thoughts are there disintegrated and transmuted, and that this is the basis of social progress in the world. It is also known that saintly Spirits grieve and suffer greatly at disturbances in the world, at the discord and the hate, that they send out from themselves individually thoughts of love and kindness. The associated efforts of such orders as that of the Rosicrucians are directed in the same channels of effort when the world is still, so far as physical exertions are concerned, and is therefore more receptive to the spiritual influence, namely, midnight. At that time they endeavor to attract and transmute these thought arrows of hate and discord, suffering thus their small share while trying to lift a few of the thorns from the Savior’s crown.

 Considering the foregoing, you will understand that the Christ Spirit in the earth is, as St. Paul says, actually groaning and travailing, waiting for the day of liberation. Thus He gathers all the darts of hate and anger. These are the crown of thorns.

 In everything that lives, the vital body radiates streamers of light from the force that has spent itself in building the dense body. During health they carry away all poison from the body and keep it clean. Similar conditions prevail in the vital body of the earth which is the vehicle of Christ. The poisonous an destructive forces generated by our passions are carried away by the life forces of the Christ, but every evil thought or act brings Him its own proportion of pain, and therefore becomes a part of the Crown of Thorns–the crown because the head is always thought of as the seat of consciousness. We should realize that every single evil act of ours reacts upon the Christ in the manner stated and adds another thorn of suffering.

 In view of the foregoing we can realize with what relief He speaks the final words at the time of liberation from the earthly cross: “Consummatum est.” why the annual recurrence of suffering, you ask? As we take into our bodies continually the life giving oxygen to go through its cycle to vitalize and energize the whole body, as that oxygen dies to the outside world for the time being, while it is living in the body, as it is charged there with poisons and waste products, and finally exhaled as carbon dioxide, as poisonous gas, so it is necessary for the Savior annually to enter into the great body which we call the earth and take upon Himself all the poison that is generated by ourselves, to cleanse and purify, and to give it a new lease of life before He finally is resurrected and rises to His Father.

The Wisdom of the Vegetarian Diet

Most people feel that a meal without meat is incomplete, for from time immemorial it has been regarded as an axiom that meat is the most strengthening food we have. All other foodstuffs have been looked upon as mere accessories to the one or more kinds of flesh on the menu. Nothing could be more erroneous; science has proven by experiments that invariably the nourishment obtained from vegetables has a greater sustaining power, and the reason is easy to see when we look at the matter from the occult side.

 The Law of Assimilation

   The Law of Assimilation is that “no particle of food may be built into the body by the forces whose task that is until it has been overcome by the indwelling Spirit.” The Ego must be absolute and undisputed ruler in the body, governing the cells as an autocrat, or they would all go their own ways as they do in decay when the Ego has fled.

The level of the consciousness of the cell determines its power as a unit. The lower its consciousness, the easier it is for the Ego to act as the governing head of the bodily functions. Cells taken into the body also have their individual and collective consciousness. Therefore, the level of their spiritual attainment is a factor to be considered when food is to be used by the organism. The different kingdoms have different vehicles and consequently a different consciousness. The mineral has only its dense body and a consciousness like the deepest trance. It would, therefore, be easiest to subject foods taken directly from the mineral kingdom. Mineral food would remain with us the longest, obviating the necessity of eating so often; but unfortunately we find that the human organism vibrates so rapidly that it is incapable of assimilating the inert mineral directly. Salt and like substances are passed out of the system at once without having been assimilated at all. The air is full of nitrogen which we need to repair waste; we breathe it into our system, yet cannot assimilate it, or any other mineral, till it has first been transmuted in Nature’s laboratory and built into the plants.

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The plants have a dense and a vital body, which enables them to do this work. Their consciousness is as a deep, dreamless sleep. Thus it is easy for the Ego to overpower the vegetable cells and keep them in subjection for a long time, hence the great sustaining power of the vegetable.

Animal Food

In animal food the cells have already become more individualized, and as the animal has a desire body giving it a passional nature, it is easily understood that when we eat meat it is harder to overcome these cells which have animal consciousness resembling the dream state, and also that such particles will not stay long in subjection. Hence a meat diet requires larger quantities and more frequent meals than the vegetable or fruit diet. If we should go one step farther and eat the flesh of carnivorous animals, we should find ourselves hungry all the time, for there the cells have become exceedingly individualized and will, therefore, seek their freedom and gain it so much the quicker. An excess of meat is burned up, but leaves poisonous uric acid, and it is being more and more recognized that the less meat we eat, the better for our well-being.


There is plenty of proof that a carnivorous diet fosters ferocity. We may mention the well-known fierceness of beasts of prey, while the prodigious strength and the docile nature of the ox, the elephant, and the horse show the effect of the herb diet on animals.

Healthy Foods

As soon as we adopt the vegetarian diet, we escape one of the most serious menaces of health: the putrefaction of particles of flesh embedded between the teeth. Fruits, cereals, and vegetables are from their very natures slow to decay; each particle contains an enormous amount of ether which keeps it alive and sweet for a long time, whereas the ether which interpenetrated the flesh and composed the vital body of an animal was taken away with the Spirit thereof at the time of death. Thus the danger from infection through vegetable foods is very small, and many of them are actually antiseptic in a very high degree. This applies particularly to the citrus fruits: oranges, lemons, grapefruits, etc., not to speak of the king of all antiseptics, the pineapple. Instead of poisoning the digestive tract with putrefactive elements as meats do, fruits cleanse and purify the system, and the pineapple is one of the finest aids to digestion known to man. It is far superior to pepsin and no cruelty to sentient life is used to obtain it. Some modern nutritionists advise that for full benefit of the nutrients, citrus fruits should not be mixed with other foods.

Cell Salts

There are twelve salts in the body known as cell salts; they are very vital and represent the twelve signs of the zodiac. These salts are required for the building of the body. They are not mineral salts as generally supposed, but are vegetable. The mineral has no vital body, and it is only by way of the vital body that assimilation is accomplished. Therefore, we have to obtain these salts through the vegetable kingdom.

Raw or Cooked?

Heat destroys the vital body of the plant and leaves only the mineral part. Therefore, if we desire to renew the supply of these salts in our bodies, we must obtain them from the uncooked vegetable. Since cooking destroys the valuable cell salts, our diet should contain a large percentage of raw food. Herb teas, which should be steeped and not boiled, are also very rich in vegetable salts.

But we must not jump to the conclusion that everyone should stop eating meat and live entirely on raw plant food. At the present stage of evolution there are very few who can do so. We must take care not to raise the vibrations of our bodies too rapidly, for we, to continue our labor in the present conditions, must have bodies fitted for the work.

Occultists know that there is a flame in the skull at the base of the brain. It burns continually in the medulla oblongata at the head of the spinal cord, and is of divine origin. This fire emits a singing sound like the buzz of a bee and is the keynote of the physical body. It builds and cements together that mass of cells known as “our body.”

Harmless as Doves

The fire burns high or low, clear or dim, according to how we feed it. There is fire in everything in Nature except the mineral kingdom. It has no vital body and therefore no avenue for the ingress of the Life Spirit, the fire. We replenish this sacred fire partly from the forces from the Sun entering the vital body through the etheric counterpart of the spleen, and from there to the solar plexus where it is colored and then carried upward through the blood. We also feed this fire from the living fire we absorb from the uncooked food which we eat and thus assimilate.

Looking at the matter of flesh-eating from the ethical side also, it is against the higher conception to kill to eat. We have a heavy debt to pay to the lower creatures whose mentors we should be, but whose murderers we are; the good law which works ever to correct abuses will in time relegate the habit of eating murdered animals to the scrap heap of obsolete practices.

Man, in his earlier stages of unfoldment, was like the beasts of prey in certain respects. However, he is to become God-like and thus he must cease to destroy in order that he may commence to create. Flesh food has fostered human ingenuity of a low order in the past; it has served a purpose in our evolution; but we are now standing on the threshold of a New Age, when self- sacrifice and service will bring spiritual growth to humanity. The evolution of the mind will bring a wisdom beyond our greatest conception, but before it will be safe to entrust us with that wisdom, we must become harmless as doves. Otherwise we would be apt to turn it to such selfish and destructive purposes that it would be an inconceivable menace to our fellow men. To avoid this, the vegetable diet must be adopted.

Practical Considerations

From the purely practical standpoint, too, the vegetarian diet is advantageous. The ever more prohibited price of meat is causing housewives to turn to substitutes, and people are gradually being taught that the God-given food, the vegetable, is most delicious and healthful. Many people who have been eating more fruits and vegetables are coming to realize that they are gaining in health and, in many cases, that this physical betterment has been accompanied by moral and mental improvement. It has been claimed that it takes twelve acres of pasture to raise the meat sufficient to feed one man. If these twelve acres of land were used for truck gardening, they would produce enough to feed several fair-sized families. With the population increase all over the world, it will soon become necessary to discontinue stock raising and devote the acreage to wheat and vegetable growing.

In this changing age, when more advanced Egos are born, many of them are naturally vegetarians; a new race having a higher consciousness is coming to birth, especially on the Pacific coast. The coming age will be a vegetarian age, and all who are progressive will naturally fall in line and become vegetarians–the others will remain behind and be classed among the stragglers of humanity.



Once more in the course of a year we are upon the eve of Christmas. The view which each of us takes of this festival is dissimilar to that of every one else. To the devout religionist it is a season hallowed, sacred, and fraught with mystery, none the less sublime because uncomprehended. To the atheist it is a silly superstition. To the purely intellectual it is a puzzle, for it is beyond reason.

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In the churches the story is recited of how upon this, the holiest night of the year, our Lord and Savior, immaculately conceived, was born of a virgin. No further explanation is made; the matter is left to acceptance or rejection by the hearer according to his temperament. If mind and reason dominate him to the exclusion of faith, if he can believe nothing which cannot be demonstrated to the senses at any moment, he is forced to reject the tale as absurd and out of consonance with various immutable laws of nature.

Various interpretations have been given to satisfy the mind, these principally of an astronomical nature. They have set forth how, on the night between the 24th and the 25th of December, the sun commences its journey from the south to the north. He is the “Light of the World.”

Cold and famine would inevitably exterminate the human race if the sun remained always in the south. Therefore it is a cause for great rejoicing when he commences his northward journey. He is then hailed as “savior,” for he comes “to save the world,” to give it “the bread of life,” as he ripens grain and grape. Thus “he gives his life” upon the cross(ing) of the equator (at the spring equinox), and then commences his ascent into the (northern) heaven.

On the night when he commences his northward journey the zodiacal sign Virgo, the celestial virgin, the “Queen of Heaven,” stands upon the eastern horizon at midnight, and is therefore, astrologically speaking, his “rising sign.” Thus he is “born of a virgin” without other intermediary, hence, “immaculately conceived.” This explanation may satisfy the mind regarding the ORIGIN of the supposed superstition, but the aching void which is in the heart of every skeptic, whether he is aware of the fact or not, must remain until the spiritual illumination is attained which shall furnish an explanation acceptable to both heart and mind. To shed such light upon this sublime mystery shall be our endeavor in the following pages.

The immaculate conception will form the topic of a future lesson; just now we will show how the material and spiritual forces alternately ebb and flow in the course of the year, and why Christmas is truly a “holy day.” Let us say that we subscribe to the astronomical interpretation as being as valid from its point of view, as the following is true when viewing the mystery-birth from another angle. The sun is born from year to year in the darkest night. The world-saving Christ are also born when the spiritual darkness of mankind is the greatest. There is a third aspect of supreme importance, namely, that it is no mere idle foolishness when Paul speaks of Christ being “formed in you.” It is a sublime fact that we are all Christs-in-the-making, and the sooner we realize that we must cultivate the Christ WITHIN before we can perceive the Christ without, the more we shall hasten the day of our spiritual illumination. In this connection we again quote our favorite aphorism from Angelus Silesius, whose sublime spiritual perception caused him to say:

“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn; The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, Unless within thyself it be set up again.”

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At the SUMMER SOLSTICE in June the earth is furthest from the sun, but the solar ray strikes the earth at nearly RIGHT ANGLES to its axis in the Northern Hemisphere, hence the high degree of PHYSICAL ACTIVITY resulting.

Then the SPIRITUAL radiations from the sun are OBLIQUE to this part of the earth, and are as weak as the physical rays when they are oblique. At the WINTER SOLSTICE, on the other hand, the earth is nearest the sun. The spiritual rays then fall at right angles to the earth’s surface in the Northern Hemisphere, PROMOTING SPIRITUALITY, while physical activities are held in abeyance on account of the oblique angle at which the solar rays strike the surface of the earth.

On this principle, the physical activities are at their lowest ebb and the spiritual forces reach their highest tidal flow on the night between the 24th and 25th of December, which is therefore the most “holy night” of the year. Midsummer, on the other hand, is the sporting time of the earth-goblins and similar entities concerned in the material development of our planet, as shown by Shakespeare in his MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

If we swim with the tide at the time when it is strongest, we shall cover a greater distance with less effort than at any other time. It is of great importance to the esoteric student to know and understand the particularly favorable conditions which prevail at Yule-tide. Let us follow Paul’s exhortation in the 12th chapter of Hebrews and throw aside every hampering weight as do men who are running a race. Let us strike while the iron is hot; let us specially bend all our energies at this time to spiritual endeavor, and we shall reap a harvest such as we cannot obtain at any other time of the year. Let us remember also that self-improvement is not our first consideration. We are disciples of Christ. If we aspire to distinction, let us remember that He said: “Let him who would be the greatest among you be THE SERVANT of all.” There are much sorrow and suffering around us; there are many lonely and aching hearts in our circle of acquaintances. Let us seek them out in an unobtrusive manner. At no time of the year will they be more amenable to our advances than just now. Let us strive to spread sunshine in their path. Thus we shall earn their blessings and the blessings of our Elder Brothers. The resulting vibrations in turn will cause a spiritual growth not to be attained in any other way.


But, some may say, if all is thus fore-shown  it argues an inexorable destiny decreed by divine caprice; what use is there then of striving, or knowing; let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

If we were born into this life on earth for the first and only time, to live here for a while and then pass away from this sphere never to return, fate and favoritism independent of justice would seem to rule. Such cannot be the case; in a world where everything else is governed by law, human existence must also be reducible to a system, and we hold that a reasonable solution of the mystery of life is given by the Twin Laws of Being, the Law of Rebirth and the Law of Causation.

  That which has a beginning must have an end, and conversely, that which is without ending can never have had a beginning. If the human spirit is immortal and cannot die, neither can it be born; if it will live to all eternity, it must have lived from eternity, there is no escape from this truth; pre-existence must be accepted if immortality is a fact in nature.

  In this world there is no law more plainly observable than the law of alternating cycles, which decrees succession of ebb and flow, day and night, summer and winter, waking and sleeping. Under the same law man’s life is lived alternatively in the physical world where he sows seeds of action and gains experiences according to his horoscope. These, the fruits of existence here, are later assimilated as soul powers in the spiritual world,; birth and death are thus nothing more than gateways from one phase of man’s life to another, and the life we now live is but one of a series. The differences of character, nobility or brutality, moral strength or weakness, possession of high ideals or low instincts, etc., are certain signatures of soul power or soul poverty. Finer faculties are the glorious garments of gentle souls wrought through many lives in the crucible of concrete existence by trial and temptation. They shine with a luster which illuminates the way and makes it easier for others to follow. Coarseness of caliber proclaims the young in Life’s School, but repeated existences here will in due time smooth the rough corners, mellow and makes them soulful also.

  The horoscope shows this difference in the texture of the soul and the aspects indicate how the soul is ripened by the kaleidoscopic configurations of planets in progression, which fan the fires in the furnace of affliction to cleanse and purify the soul of blemish, or brighten the crown of virtue when victory is won, but though the planets show the tendencies most accurately there is one indeterminable factor which is not shown, a veritable astrological “x,”the will power of the Man, 3and upon that rock astrological predictions are ever liable to founder; that, at times, is the Waterloo of even the most careful and competent astrologer, yet the very failure of well-founded predictions is the blessed assurance that we are not fated to do thus and so because our horoscope shows that at a certain time the stellar rays impel us in a given direction. In the final analysis we are the arbiters of our destiny, and it is significant, that while it is possible to predict for the great majority of mankind with absolute certainty that the prediction will be vindicated, because they drift along the sea of life directed by the current of circumstance, predictions fro the striving idealist fail in proportion to this spiritual attainment of will power which rouses him to self assertion and resistance of wrong.


 A beautiful little poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox gives the idea in a most pleasing form:

      “One ship sails East and another sails West,
      With the selfsame winds that blow;
      ‘Tis the set of the sail
      And not the gale
      That determines the way they go.
      “Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
      As we voyage along through Life;
      ‘Tis the act of the soul
      That determines the goal’
      And not the calm or the strife.”