M. C.

KeprtnteU,
BT SPECIAL PERMISSION.
OCCULT PUBLISHING COMPANY, BOSTON.
BY THE AUTHOR.
A TREATISE
WRITTEN DOWN BY
Woodbury
Light on the Path.
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These rules are written for all disciples. Attend you to them.
Before the eyes can see, they must be incapable of tears. Before the ear can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness. Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters, it must have lost the power to wound. Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters, its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart.
1. Kill out ambition.
2. Kill out desire of life.
3. Kill out desire of comfort.
4. Work as those work who are ambitious. Respect life as those do who desire it. Be happy as those are who live for happiness.
Seek in the heart the source of evil, and ex- punge it. It lives fruitfully in the heart of the devoted disciple, as well as in the heart of the man of desire. Only the strong can kill it out.
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The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its death. And it is a plant that lives and in- creases throughout the ages. It flowers when the man has accumulated unto himself innumer- able existences. He who will enter upon the path of power must tear this thing out of his heart. And then the heart will bleed, and the whole life of the man seem to be utterly dis- solved. This ordeal must be endured: it may come at the first step of the perilous ladder which leads to the path of life : it may not come until the last. But, O disciple ! remember that it has to be endured, and fasten the energies of your soul upon the task. Live neither in the present nor the future, but in the eternal. This giant weed cannot flower there : this blot upon existence is wiped out by the very atmos- phere of eternal thought.*
*Note. — Ambition is the first curse, — the great tempter of the man who is rising above his fellows. It is the simplest form of looking for reward. Men of intelligence and power are led away from their higher possibilities by it continually. Yet it is a necessary teacher. Its results turn to dust and ashes in the mouth ; like death and estrangement, it shows the man at last, that to work for self is to work for disappointment. But, though this first rule seems so simple and easy, do not quickly pass it by. For these vices of the ordinary man pass through a subtle transformation, and re-appear with changed aspect in the heart of the disciple. It is easy to say, " I will not be ambitious : " it is not so easy to say, " When the Master reads the heart, He will find it clean utterly." The pure artist,
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5. Kill out all sense of separateness.*
6. Kill out desire for sensation.
7. Kill out the hunger for growth.
8. Yet stand alone and isolated, because no- thing that is embodied, nothing that is conscious of separation, nothing that is out of the eternal,
who works for the love of his work, is sometimes more firmly- planted on the right road than the occultist, who fancies he has removed his interest from self, but who has in reality only enlarged the limits of experience and desire, and transferred his interest to the things which concern his larger span of life. The same principle applies to the other two seemingly simple rules. Linger over them, and do not let yourself be easily de- ceived by your own heart. For now, at the threshold, a mis- take can be corrected. But carry it on with you, and it will grow and come to fruition, or else you must suffer bitterly in its destruction.
* Note. — Do not fancy you can stand aside from the bad man or the foolish man. They are yourself, though in a less degree than your friend or your master. But if you allow the idea of separateness from any evil thing or person to grow up within you, by so doing you create Karma, which will bind you to that thing or person till your soul recognizes that it cannot be isolated. Remember that the sin and shame of the world are your sin and shame ; for you are a part of it, your Karma is inex- tricably interwoven with the great Karma. And, before you can attain knowledge, you must have passed through all places, foul and clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled gar- ment you shrink from touching may have been yours yesterday, may be yours to-morrow. And if you turn with horror from it when it is flung upon your shoulders, it will cling the more closely to you. The self-rightous man makes for himself a bed of mire. Abstain because it is right to abstain, not that your- self shall be kept clean.
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can aid you. Learn from sensation, and observe it ; because only so can you commence the sci- ence of self-knowledge, and plant your foot on the first step of the ladder. Grow as the flower grows, unsconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open its soul to the air. So must you press for- ward to open your soul to the eternal. But it must be the eternal that draws forth your strength and beauty, not desire of growth. For, in the one case, you develop in the luxuriance of purity ; in the other, you harden by the for- cible passion for personal stature.
9. Desire only that which is within you.
10. Desire only that which is beyond you.
1 1 . i j Desire only that which is unattainable.
12. For within you is the light of the world, the only light that can be shed upon the Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is useless to look for it elsewhere. It is beyond you ; because, when you reach it, you have lost yourself. It is unattainable, because it forever recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the flame.
13. Desire power ardently.
14. Desire peace fervently.
15. Desire possessions above all.
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1 6. But those possessions must belong to the pure soul only, and be possessed therefore by all pure souls equally, and thus be the es- pecial property of the whole only when united. Hunger for such possessions as can be held by the pure soul, that you may accumulate wealth for that united spirit of life which is your only true self, f |The peace you shall desire is that sa- cred peace which nothing can disturb, and in which the soul grows as does the holy flower upon the still lagoons. And that power which the disciple shall covet is that which shall make him appear as nothing in the eyes of men.
17. Seek out the way.*
•Note. — These four words seem, perhaps, too slight to stand alone. The disciple may say, Should I study thoughts at all did I not seek out the way ? Yet do not pass on hastily. Pause and consider awhile. Is it the way you desire, or is it that there is a dim perspective in your visions of great heights to be scaled by yourself, of a great future for you to compass ? Be warned. The way is to be sought for its own sake, not with regard to your feet that shall tread it.
There is a correspondence between this rule and the 17th of the 2d series. When, after ages of struggle and many victories, the final battle is won, the final secret demanded, then you are prepared for a further path. When the final secret of this great lesson is told, in it is opened the mystery of the new way, — a path which leads out of all human experience, and which is utterly beyond human perception or imagination. At each of these points it is needful to pause long and consider well. At each of these points it is necessary to be sure that the way is chosen for its own sake. The way and the truth come first, then follows the life.
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1 8. Seek the way by retreating within.
19. Seek the way advancing boldly without.
20. Seek it not by any one road. To each temperament, there is one road which seems the most desirable. But the way is not found by de- votion alone, by religious contemplation alone, by ardent progress, by self-sacrificing labor, by stud- ious observation of life. None alone can take the disciple more than one step onwards. All steps are necessary to make up the ladder. The vices of men become steps in the ladder, one by one, as they are surmounted. The virtues of man are steps indeed, necessary — not by any means to be dispensed with. Yet, though they create a fair atmosphere and a happy future, they are useless if they stand alone. The whole nature of man must be used wisely by the one who de- sires to enter the way. Each man is to himself absolutely the way, the truth, and life. But he is only so when he grasps his whole individuality firmly, and, by the force of his awakened spirit- ual will, recognizes this individuality as not himself, but that thing which he has with pain created for his own use, and by means of which he purposes, as his growth slowly develops his intelligence, to reach to the life beyond individu- ality. When he knows that for this his wonderful
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complex, separated life exists, then indeed, and then only, he is upon the way. Seek it by plunging into the mysterious and glorious depths of your own inmost being. Seek it by testing all experience, by utilizing the senses, in order to understand the growth and meaning of in- dividuality, and the beauty and obscurity of those other divine fragments which are struggling side by side with you, and form the race to which you belong. Seek it by study of the laws of being, the laws of nature, the laws of the super- natural ; and seek it by making the profound obeisance of the soul to the dim star that burns within. Steadily, as you watch and worship, its light will grow stronger. Then you may know you have found the beginning of the way. And, when you have found the end, its light will sud- denly become the infinite light.*
* Note. — Seek it by testing all experience; and remember, that, when I say this, I do not say, " Yield to the seductions of sense, in order to know it." Before you have become an occultist, you may do this, but not afterwards. When you have chosen and entered the path, you cannot yield to these seduc- tions without shame. Yet you can experience them without horror; can weigh, observe, and test them, and wait with the patience of confidence for the hour when they shall affect you no longer. But do not condemn the man that yields : stretch out your hand to him as a brother pilgrim whose feet have be- come heavy with mire. Remember, O disciple I that great though the gulf may be between the good man and the sinner, it is greater between the good man and the man who has attained
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21. Look for the flower to bloom in the si- lence that follows the storm ; not till then.
It shall grow, it will shoot up, it will make branches and leaves and form buds, while the storm continues, while the battle lasts. But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and melted — not until it is held by the divine fragment which has created it, as a mere subject for grave experiment and experience — not until The whole nature has yielded, and become sub- ject unto its higher self, can the bloom open, then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after the heavy rain, when nature works so swiftly that one may see her action. Such a calm will come to the harassed spirit. And,
knowledge ; it is immeasurable between the good man and the one on the threshold of divinity. Therefore be wary, lest too soon you fancy yourself a thing apart from the mass. When you have found the begining of the way, the star of your soul will show its light; and, by that light, you will perceive how great is the darkness in which it burns. Mind, heart, brain, — all are obscure and dark until the first great battle has been won. Be not appalled and terrified by this sight : keep your eyes fixed on the small light, and it will grow. But let the darkness within help you to understand the helplessness of those who have seen no light, whose souls are in profound gloom. Blame them not. Shrink not from them, but try to lift a little of the heavy Karma of the world : give your aid to the few strong hands that hold back the powers of darkness from obtaining complete victory. Then do you enter into a partnership of joy, which brings, indeed, terrible toil and pro- found sadness, but also a great and ever-increasing delight.
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in the deep silence, the mysterious event will oc- cur which will prove that the way has been found. Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is none to speak, it is a mes- senger that comes, — a messenger without form or substance, — or it is the flower of the soul that has opened. It cannot be described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and desired, even amid the raging of the storm. The silence may last a moment of time, or it may last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you will carry its strength with you. Again and a- gain the battle must be fought and won. It is only for an interval that nature can be still.*
Those written above are the first of the rules which are written on the walls of the Hall of Learning. Those that ask shall have. Those that desire to read shall read. Those who de- sire to learn shall learn.f
* Note. — The opening of the bloom is the glorious moment when perception awakes : with it comes confidence, knowl- edge, certainty. The pause of the soul is the moment of won- der ; and the next moment of satisfaction, that is the silence.
Know, O disciple ! that those who have passed through the silence, and felt its peace, and retained its strength, they long that you shall pass through it also. Therefore, in the Hall of Learning, when he is capable of entering there, the disciple will always find his master.
t Note. — Those that ask shall have. But, though the or- dinary man asks perpetually, his voice is not heard. For he
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A Regard the three truths. They are equal.
asks with his mind only, and the voice of the mind is only heard on that plane on which the mind acts. Therefore, not until the first twenty-one rules are past, do I say those that ask shall have.
To read in the occult sense, is to read with the eyes of the spirit. To ask, is to feel the hunger within — the yearning of spiritual aspiration. To be able to read, means having obtained the power in a small degree of gratifying that hunger. When the disciple is ready to learn, then he is accepted, acknowledged, recognized. It must be so ; for he has lit his lamp, and it can- not be hidden. But to learn is impossible until the first great battle has been won. The mind may recognize truth, but the spirit cannot receive it Once having passed through the storm, and attained the peace, it is then always possible to learn, even though the disciple waver, hesitate, and turn aside. The voice of the silence remains within him ; and though he leave the path utterly, yet one day it will resound, and rend him asunder, and separate his passions from his divine possibilities. Then, with pain and desperate cries from the deserted lower self, he will return.
Therefore I say, Peace be with you. " My peace I give unto you " can only be said by the Master to the beloved disciples who are as himself. There are some, even among those who are ignorant of the Eastern wisdom, to whom this can be said ; and to whom it can daily be said with more completeness.
Peace be with you.
Light on the Path.
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II.
Out of the silence that is peace, a resonant voice shall arise. And this voice will say : It is not well, thou hast reaped, now thou must sow. And, knowing this voice to be the silence itself, thou wilt obey.
Thou who art now a disciple, able to stand, able to hear, able to see, able to speak ; who hast conquered desire, and attained to self-knowledge ; who hast seen thy soul in its bloom, and re- cognized it, and heard the voice of the silence, — go thou to the Hall of Learning, and read what is written there for thee.*
I . Stand aside in the coming battle ; and
* Note. — To be able to stand, is to have confidence ; to be able to hear, is to have opened the doors of the soul ; to be able to see, is to have obtained perception ; to be able to speak, is to have attained the power of helping others ; to have conquered desire, is to have learned how to use and control the self ; to have attained to self-knowledge, is to have retreated to the in- ner fortress from whence the personal man can be viewed with impartiality ; to have seen thy soul in its bloom, is to have ob- tained a momentary glimpse in thyself of the transfiguration which shall eventually make thee more than man ; to recognize, is to achieve the great task of gazing upon the blazing light without dropping the eyes, and not falling back in terror as though before some ghastly phantom. This happens to some ; and so, when the victory is all but won, it is lost. To hear the
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though thou fightest, be not thou the warrior.
2. Look for the warrior, and let him fight in thee.
3. Take his orders for battle, and obey them.
4. Obey him, not as though he were a gen- eral, but as though he were thyself, and his spoken words were the utterance of thy secret desires; for he is thyself, yet infinitely wiser and stronger than thyself. Look for him, else, in the fever and hurry of the fight, thou mayest pass him ; and he will not know thee unless thou knowest him. If thy cry reach his listening ear, then will he fight in thee, and fill the dull void within. And, if this is so, then canst thou go through the fight cool and unwearied, standing aside, and letting him battle for thee. Then it will be im- possible for thee to strike one blow amissjj But if thou look not for him, if thou pass him by, then there is no safeguard for thee. Thy brain will reel, thy heart grow uncertain, and, in the dust of the battle-field, the sight and senses will fail, and thou wilt not know thy friends from thy enemies.
voice of silence, is to understand that from within comes the only true guidance ; to go to the Hall of Learning, is to enter the state in which learning becomes possible. Then will many- words be written there for thee, and written in fiery letters for thee easily to read. For, when the disciple is ready, the Mas- ter is veady also.
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He is thyself : yet thou art but finite, and lia- ble to error. He is eternal, and is sure. He is eternal truth. When once he has entered thee, and become thy warrior, he will never utterly desert thee ; and, at the day of the great peace, he will become one with thee.
5. Listen to the song of life.*
6. Store in your memory the melody you hear.
7. Learn from it the lesson of harmony.
8. You can stand upright now, firm as a rock
* Note. — Look for it, and listen to it, first in your own heart. At first you may say it is not there ; when I search I find only discord. Look deeper. If again you are disappointed, pause, and look deeper again.) )There is a natural melody, an obscure fount, in every human heart. It may be hidden over and utterly concealed and silenced — but it is there. At the very base of your nature, you will find faith, hope, and love. He that chooses evil refuses to look within himself, shuts his ears to the melody of his heart, as he blinds his eyes to the light of his soul. He does this because he finds it easier to live in desires. But un- derneath all life is the strong current that cannot be checked ; the great waters are there in reality. Find them, and you will perceive that none, not the most wretched of creatures, but is a part of it, however he blind himself to the fact, and build up for himself a phantasmal outer form of horror. In that sense it is that I say to you : All those beings among whom you struggle on are fragments of the Divine. ■ And so deceptive is the illusion in which you live, that it is hard to guess where you will first detect the sweet voice in the hearts of others- But know that it is certainly within yourself. Look for it there ; and, once having heard it, you will more readily recognize it around you.
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amid the turmoil, obeying the warrior who is thyself and thy king. Unconcerned in the battle save to do his bidding, having no longer any care as to the result of the battle, — for one thing only is important, that the warrior shall win ; and you know he is incapable of dafeat, — standing thus, cool and awakened, use the hearing you have acquired by pain and by the destruction of pain. Only fragments of the great song come to your ears while yet you are but man. But, if you listen to it, remember it faithfully, so that none which has reached you is lost, and endeavor to learn from it the meaning of the mystery which surrounds you. In time you will need no teacher. For as the individual has voice, so has that in which the individual exists. Life itself has speech and is never silent. And its utterance is not, as you that are deaf may suppose, a cry : it is a song. Learn from it that you are a part of the harmony ; learn from it to obey the laws of the harmony.
9. Regard earnestly all the life that sur- rounds you.
10. Learn to look intelligently into the hearts of men.*
* Note. — From an absolutely impersonal point of view, otherwise your sight is colored. Therefore impersonality must first be understood.
Intelligence is impartial : no man is your enemy, no man is
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1 1 . Regard most earnestly your own heart.
12. For through your own heart comes the the one light which can illuminate life, and make it clear to your eyes.
Study the hearts of men, that you may know what is that world in which you live, and of which you will to be a part. Regard the constantly changing and moving life which surrounds you, for it is formed by the hearts of men ; and, as you learn to understand their constitution and mean- ing, you will by degrees be able to read the larger word of life.
1 3. Speech comes only with knowledge. At- tain to knowledge, and you will attain to speech.*
After the thirteenth rule, I can add no words to what is already written.
your friend. All alike are your teachers. Your enemy becomes a mystery that must be solved, even though it take ages ; for man must be understood. Your friend becomes a part of your- self, an extension of yourself, a riddle hard to read. Only one thing is more difficult to know — your own heart. Not until the bonds of personality are loosed, can that profound mystery of self begin to be seen. Not until you stand aside from it, will it in any way reveal itself to your understanding. Then, and not till then, can you grasp and guide it. Then, and not till then, can you use all its powers, and devote them to a worthy service.
* Note. — It is impossible to help others till you have ob- tained some certainty of your own. When you have learned the first twenty-one rules, and have entered the Hall of Learn- ing with your powers developed and sense unchained, then you will find there is a fount within you from which speech will arise.
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My peace I give unto you.
These rules are written only for those to whom I give my peace, — those who can read what I have written with the inner as well as the outer sense.
14. Having obtained the use of the inner senses, having conquered the desires of the outer senses, having conquered the desires of the in- dividual soul, and having obtained knowledge, prepare now, O disciple ! to enter upon the way in reality. The path is found : make yourself ready to tread it.
15. Inquire of the earth, the air, and the wa- ter, of the secrets they hold for you. The de- velopment of your inner senses will enable you to do this.
16. Inquire of the holy ones of the earth, of the secrets they hold for you. The conquering of the desires of the outer senses, will give you the right to do this.
17. Inquire of the inmost, the one, of its fi- nal secret, which it holds for you through the ages.
The great and difficult victory, the conquering of the desires of the individual soul, is a work of ages ; therefore expect not to obtain its reward until ages of experience have been accumulated. When the time of learning this seventeenth rule
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is reached, man is on the threshold of becoming more than man.
18. The knowledge which is now yours is only yours because your soul has become one with all pure souls and with the inmost. It is a trust vested in you by the Most High. Betray it, misuse your knowledge, or neglect it, and it is possible even now for you to fall from the high estate you have attained. Great ones fall back, even from the threshold, unable to sustain the weight of their responsibility, unable to pass on. Therefore look forward always with awe and trembling to this moment, and be prepared for the battle.
19. It is written, that, for him who is on the threshold of divinity, no law can be framed, no guide can exist. Yet to enlighten the disciple, the final struggle may be thus expressed : —
Hold fast to that which is neither substance nor existence.
20. Listen only to the voice which is soundless.
21. Look only on that which is invisible alike to the inner and the outer sense.
Peace be with you.
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Karma.
Consider with me that the individual existence is a rope which stretches from the infinite to the infinite, and has no end and no commencement, neither is it capable of being broken, This rope is formed of innumerable fine threads, which, lying closely together, form its thickness. These threads are colorless, are perfect in their qualities of straightness, strength, and levelness. This rope, passing as it does through all places, suffers strange accidents. Very often a thread is caught and becomes attached, or, perhaps, is only violently pulled away from its even way. Then for a great time it is disordered, and it disorders the whole. Sometimes one is stained with dirt or with color ; and not only does the stain run on further than the spot of contact, but it discolors other of the threads. And remember that the threads are living, — are like electric wires, more, are like quivering nerves. How far, then, must the stain, the drag awry, be communicated ! But eventually the long strands, the living threads which in their unbroken continuity form the individual, pass out of the shadow into the shine. Then the threads
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are no longer colorless, but golden ; once more they lie together, level. Once more harmony is established between them ; and, from that har- mony within, the greater harmony is perceived.
This illustration presents but a small portion, a single side of the truth : it is less than a frag- ment. Yet dwell on it : by its aid, you may be led to perceive more. What it is necessary first to understand is, not that the future is arbitrarily formed by any separate acts of the present, but that the whole of the future is in unbroken con- tinuity with the present, as the present is with the past. On one plane, from one point of view, the illustration of the rope is correct.
It is said that a little attention to occultism produces great Karmic results. That is because it is impossible to give any attention to occultism without making a definite choice between what are familiarly called good and evil. The first step in occultism brings the student to the tree of knowledge. He must pluck and eat ; he must choose. No longer is he capable of the indecision of ignorance. He goes on, either on the good or on the evil path. And to step definitely and knowingly even but one step on either path, pro- duces great Karmic results. The mass of men walk waveringly, uncertain as to the goal they aim at ; their standard of life is indefinite ; con-
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sequently their Karma operates in a confused manner. But, when once the threshold of know- ledge is reached, the confusion begins to lessen, and consequently the Karmic results increase enormously, because all are acting in the same direction on all the different planes ; for the oc- cultist cannot be half-hearted, nor can he return when he has passed the threshold. These things are as impossible as that the man should become the child again. The individuality has approached the state of responsibility by reason of growth : it cannot recede from it.
He who would escape from the bondage of Karma must raise his individuality out of the shadow into the shine ; must so elevate his ex- istence that these threads do not come in contact with soiling substances, do not become so at- tached as to be pulled awry. He simply lifts himself out of the region in which Karma op- erates. He does not leave the existence which he is experiencing, because of that. The ground may be rough and dirty, or full of rich flowers whose pollen stains, and of sweet substances that cling and become attachments — but, overhead, there is always the free sky. He who desires to be Karmaless must look to the air for a home, and after that to the ether. He who desires to form good Karma will meet with many confusions,
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and, in the effort to sow rich seed for his own harvesting, may plant a thousand weeds, and among them the giant. Desire to sow no seed for your own harvesting : desire only to sow that seed the fruit of which shall feed the world. You are a part of the world : in giving it food, you feed yourself. Yet in even this thought there lurks a great danger which starts forward and faces the disciple who has for long thought himself working for good, while, in his inmost soul, he has perceived only evil ; that is, he has thought himself to be intending great benefit to the world, while all the time he has unconscious- ly embraced the thought of Karma, and the great benefit he works for is for himself. A man may refuse to allow himself to think of reward. But in that very refusal is seen the fact that re- ward is desired. And it is useless for the disciple to strive to learn by means of checking himself. The soul must be unfettered, the desires free. But until they are fixed only on that state where- in there is neither reward nor punishment, good nor evil, it is in vain that he endeavors. He may seem to make great progress, but some day he will come face to face with his own soul, and will recognize that when he came to the tree of knowledge he chose the bitter fruit and not the sweet ; and then the veil will fall utterly, and he
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will give up his freedom and become a slave of desire. Therefore be warned, you who are but turning towards the life of occultism. Learn now that there is no cure for desire, no cure for the love of reward, no cure for the misery of longing, save in the fixing of the sight and hearing upon that which is invisible and soundless. Begin even now to practise it, and so a thousand ser- pents will be kept from your path. Live in the eternal.
The operations of the actual laws of Karma are not to be studied until the disciple has reached the point at which they no longer affect himself. The initiate has a right to demand the secrets of nature, and to know the rules which govern human life. He obtains this right by having escaped from the limits of nature, and by having freed himself from the rules which govern human life. He has become a recognized portion of the divine element, and is no longer affected by that which is temporary. He then obtains the knowledge of the laws which govern temporary conditions. Therefore, you who desire to understand the laws of Karma, attempt first to free yourself from these laws ; and this can only be done by fixing your attention on that which is unaffected by those laws.
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Comments on Light on the Path,
" Before the eyes can see they must be incapable of tears."
It should be very clearly remembered by all readers of this volume that it is a book which may appear to have some little philosophy in it, but very little sense, to those who believe it to be written in ordinary English. To the many, who read in this manner it will be — not caviare so much as olives strong of their salt. Be warned and read but a little in this way.
There is another way of reading,, which is, in- deed, the only one of any use with many authors. It is reading, not between the lines but within the words. In fact, it is deciphering a profound cipher. All alchemical works are written in the cipher of which I speak ; it has been used by the great philosophers and poets of all time. It is used systematically by the adepts in life and knowledge, who, seemingly giving out their deep- est wisdom, hide in the very words which frame it its actual mystery. They cannot do more. There is a law of nature which insists that a man
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shall read these mysteries for himself. By no other method can he obtain them. A man who desires to live must eat his food himself: this is the simple law of nature — which applies also to the higher life. A man who would live and act in it cannot be fed like a babe with a spoon ; he must eat for himself.
I propose to put into new and sometimes plain- er language parts of " Light on the Path " ; but whether this effort of mine will really be any in- terpretation I cannot say. To a deaf and dumb man, a truth is made no more intelligible if, in order to make it so, some misguided linguist translates the words in which it is couched into every living or dead language, and shouts these different phrases in his ear. But for those who are not deaf and dumb one language is generally easier than the rest ; and it to such as these I ad- dress myself.
The very first aphorisms of " Light on the Path," included under Number I. have, I know well, remained sealed as to their inner meaning to many who have otherwise followed the purpose of the book.
There are four proven and certain truths with regard to the entrance to occultism, The Gates of Gold bar that threshold ; yet there are some who pass those gates and discover the sublime and
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illimitable beyond. In the far spaces of Time all will pass those gates. But I am one who wish that Time, the great deluder, were not so over- masterful. To those who know and love him I have no word to say; but to the others — and there are not so very few as some may fancy — to whom the passage of Time is as the stroke of a sledge-hammer, and the sense of Space like the bars of an iron cage, I will translate and re-trans- late until they understand fully.
The four truths written on the first page of " Light on the Path," refer to the trial initiation of the would-be occultist. Until he has passed it, he cannot even reach to the latch of the gate which admits to knowledge. Knowledge is man's greatest inheritance ; why, then, should he not attempt to reach it by every possible road ? The laboratory is not the only ground for experiment ; science, we must remember, is derived from sciens, present participle of scire, "to know," — its origin is similar to that of the word "discern," to "ken." Science does not therefore deal only with matter, no, not even its subtlest and obscurest forms. Such an idea is born merely of the idle spirit of the age. Science is a word which covers all forms of knowledge. It is exceedingly interesting to hear what chemists discover, and to see them finding their way through the densities of matter
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to its finer forms ; but there are other kinds of knowledge than this, and it is not every one who restricts his ( strictly scientific ) desire for knowl- edge to experiments which are capable of being tested by the physical senses.
Everyone who is not a dullard, or a man stupefied by some predominant vice, has guessed or even perhaps discovered with some certainty, that there are subtle senses lying within the physical senses. There is nothing at all extra- ordinary in this ; if we took the trouble to call Nature into the witness box we should find that everything which is perceptible to the ordinary sight, has something even more important than itself hidden within it; the microscope has opened a world to us, but within those encasements which the microscope reveals, lies the mystery which no machinery can probe.
The whole world is animated and lit, down to its most material shapes, by a world within it. This inner world is called Astral by some people, and it is as good a word as any other, though it merely means starry ; but the stars, as Locke pointed out, are luminous bodies which give light of themselves. This quality is characteristic of the life which lies within matter ; for those who see it, need no lamp to see it by. The word star, more- over, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon " stir-an,"
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to steer, to stir, to move, and undeniably it is the inner life which is master of the outer, just as a man's brain guides the movements of his lips. So that although Astral is no very excel- lent word in itself, I am content to use it for my present purpose.
The whole of " Light on the Path " is written in an astral cipher and can therefore only be de- ciphered by one who reads astrally. And its teaching is chiefly directed towards the cultivation and development of the astral life. Until the first step has been taken in this development, the swift knowledge, which is called intuition with certainty, is impossible to man. And this positive and certain intuition is the only form of know- ledge which enables a man to work rapidly or reach his true and high estate, within the limit of his conscious effort. To obtain knowledge by experiment is too tedious a method for those who aspire to accomplish real work ; he who gets it by certain intuition, lays hands on its various forms with supreme rapidity, by fierce effort of will ; as a determined workman grasps his tools, indifferent to their weight or any other difficulty which may stand in his way. He does not stay for each to be tested ■ — ■ he uses such as he sees are fittest.
All the rules contained in " Light on the Path,"
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are written for all disciples, but only for disciples — those who "take knowledge." To none else but the student in this school are its laws of any use or interest.
To all who are interested seriously in Occult- ism, I say first — take knowledge. To him who hath shall be given. It is useless to wait for it. The womb of Time will close before you, and in later days you will remain unborn, without pow- er. I therefore say to those who have any hunger or thirst for knowledge, attend to these rules.
They are none of my handicraft or invention. They are merely the phrasing of laws in super- nature, the putting into words truths as absolute in their own sphere, as those laws which govern the conduct of the earth and its atmosphere.
The senses spoken of in these four statements are the astral, or inner senses.
No man desires to see that light which illu- mines the spaceless soul until pain and sorrow and despair have driven him away from the life of ordinary humanity. First he wears out pleas- ure ; then he wears out pain — till, at last, his eyes become incapable of tears.
This is a truism, although I know perfectly well that it will meet with a vehement denial from many who are in sympathy with thoughts
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which spring from the inner life. To see with the astral sense of sight is a form of activity which it is difficult for us to understand immediately. The scientist knows very well what a miracle is achieved by each child that is born into the world, when it first conquers its eye-sight and compels it to obey its brain. An equal miracle is performed with each sense certainly, but this ordering of sight is perhaps the most stupendous effort. Yet the child does it almost unconscious- ly, by force of the powerful heredity of habit. No one now is aware that he has ever done it at all ; just as we connot recollect the individual movements which enabled us to walk up a hill a year ago. This arises from the fact that we move and live and have our being in matter. Our knowledge of it has become intuitive.
With our astral life it is very much otherwise. For long ages past, man has paid very little at- tention to it — so little, that he has practically lost the use of his senses. It is true, that in every civilization the star arises, and man confess- es, with more or less of folly and confusion, that he knows himself to be. But most often he denies it, and in being a materialist becomes that strange thing, a being which cannot see its own light, a thing of life which will not live, an astral animal which has eyes, and ears, and speech,
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and power, yet will use none of these gifts. This is the case, and the habit of ignorance has become so confirmed, that now none will see with the in- ner vision till agony has made the physical eyes not only unseeing, but without tears — the moist- ure of life. To be incapable of tears is to have faced and conquered the simple human nature, and to have attained an equilibrium which cannot be shaken by personal emotions. It does not imply any hardness of heart, or any indifference. It does not imply the exhaustion of sorrow, when the suffering soul seems powerless to suffer a- cutely any longer ; it does not mean the deadness of old age, when emotion is becoming dull be- cause the strings which vibrate to it are wearing out. None of these conditions are fit for a dis- ciple, and if any one of them exist in him it must be overcome before the path can be entered upon. Hardness of heart belongs to the selfish man, the egotist, to whom the gate is for ever closed. Indifference belongs to the fool and the false philosopher ; those whose lukewarmness makes them mere puppets, not strong enough to face the realities of existence. When pain or sorrow has worn out the keenness of suffering, the result is a lethargy not unlike that which ac- companies old age, as it is usually experienced by men and women. Such a condition makes
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the entrance to the path impossible, because the first step is one of difficulty and needs a strong man, full of psychic and physical vigour, to attempt it.
It is a truth, that, as Edgar Allan Poe said, the eyes are the windows for the soul, the win- dows of that haunted palace in which it dwells. This is the very nearest interpretation into or^ dinary language of the meaning of the text. II grief, dismay, disappointment or pleasure, can shake the soul so that it loses its fixed hold on the calm spirit which inspires it, and the moist- ure of life breaks forth, drowning knowledge in sensation, then all is blurred, the windows are darkened, the light is useless. This is as literal a fact as that if a man, at the edge of a precipice, loses his nerve through some sudden emotion he will certainly fall. The poise of the body, the balance, must be preserved, not only in danger- ous places, but even on the level ground, and with all the assistance Nature gives us by the law of gravitation. So it is with the soul, it is the link between the outer body and the starry spirit beyond ; the divine spark dwells in the still place where no convulsion of Nature can shake the air ; this is so always. But the soul may lose its hold on that, its knowledge of it, even though these two are part of one whole; and it is
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by emotion, by sensation, that this hold is loosed. To suffer either pleasure or pain, causes a vivid vibration which is, to the consciousness of man, life. Now this sensibility does not lessen when the disciple enters upon his training ; it increases. It is the first test of his strength ; he must suffer, must enjoy or endure, more keenly, than other men, while yet he has taken on him a duty which does not exist for other men, that of not allowing his suffering to shake him from his fixed purpose. He has, in fact, at the first step to take himself steadily in hand and put the bit into his own mouth ; no one else can do it for him.
The first four aphorisms of " Light on the Path," refer entirely to astral development. This development must be accomplished to a certain extent' — that is to say it must be fully entered upon — before the remainder of the book is really intelligible except to the intellect; in fact, before it can be read as a practical, not a metaphysical treatise.
In one of the great mystic Brotherhoods, there are four ceremonies, that take place early in the year, which practically illustrate and elucidate these aphorisms. They are ceremonies in which only novices take part, for they are simply ser- vices of the threshold. But it will show how serious a thing it is to become a disciple, when
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it is understood that these are all ceremonies of sacrifice. The first one is this of which I have been speaking. The keenest enjoyment, the bitterest pain, the anguish of loss and dispair, are brought to bear on the trembling soul, which has not yet found light in the darkness, which is helpless as a blind man is, and until these shocks can be endured without loss of equilibri- um the astral senses must remain sealed. This is the merciful law. The " medium, " or " spirit- ualist," who rushes into the psychic world with- out preparation, is a law-breaker, a breaker of the laws of super-nature. Those who break Na- ture's laws lose their physical health ; those who break the laws of the inner life, lose their psychic health. " Mediums " become mad, suicides, miserable creatures devoid of moral sense ; and often end as unbelievers, doubters even of that which their own eyes have seen. The disciple is compelled to become his own master before he adventures on this perilous path, and attempts to face those beings who live and work in the astral world, and whom we call masters, because of their great knowledge and their ability to control not only themselves but the forces around them.
The condition of the soul when it lives for the life of sensation as distinguished from that of
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knowledge, is vibratory or oscillating, as dis- tinguished from fixed. That is the nearest literal representation of the fact ; but it is only literal to the intellect, not to the intuition. For this part of man's consciousness a different vocabulary is needed. The idea of " fixed " might perhaps be transposed into that of " at home." In sensa- tion no permanent home can be found, because change is the law of this vibratory existence, that fact is the first one which must be learned by the disciple. It is useless to pause and weep for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has passed.
It is a very well-known fact, one with which Bulwer Lytton dealt with great power, that an intolerable sadness in the very first experience of the neophyte in Occultism. A sense of blank- ness falls upon him which makes the world a waste, and life a vain exertion. This follows his first serious contemplation of the abstract. In gazing, or even in attempting to gaze, on the in- effable mystery of his own higher nature, he himself causes the initial trial to fall on him. The oscillation between pleasure and pain ceases for — perhaps an instant of time ; but that is enough to have cut him loose from his fast moorings in the world of sensation. He has experienced, however briefly, the greater life ; and he goes on with ordinary existence weighted by a sense of
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unreality, of blank, of horrid negation. This was the nightmare which visited Bulwer Lytton's neophyte in " Zanoni " ; and even Zanoni himself, who had learned great truths, and been entrust- ed with great powers, had not actually passed the threshold where fear and hope, despair and joy seem at one moment absolute realities, at the next mere forms of fancy.
This initial trial is often brought on us by life itself. For life is after all, the great teacher. We return to study it, after we have acquired power over it, just as the master in chemistry learns more in the laboratory then his pupil does. There are persons so near the door of knowledge that life itself prepares them for it, and no in- dividual hand has to invoke the hideous guar- dian of the entrance. These must naturally be keen and powerful organizations, capable of the most vivid pleasure ; then pain comes and fills its great duty. The most intense forms of suffer- ing fall on such a nature, till at last it arouses from its stupor of consciousness, and by the force of its internal vitality steps over the threshold into a place of peace. Then the vibration of life loses its power of tyranny. The sensitive nature must suffer still ; but the soul has freed itself and stands aloof, guiding the life towards its greatness. Those who are the subjects of Time, and go slow-
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ly through all his spaces, live on through a long- drawn series of sensations, and suffer a constant mingling of pleasure and of pain. They do not dare to take the snake of self in a steady grasp and conquer it, so becoming divine; but prefer to go on fretting through divers experiences, suffer- ing blows from the opposing forces.
When one of these subjects of Time decides 6 enter on the path of Occultism, it is this which is his first task. If life has not taught it to him, if he is not strong enough to teach himself, and if he has power enough to demand the help of a master, then this fearful trial, depicted in Zanoni, is put upon him. The oscillation in which he lives, is for an instant stilled ; and he has to sur- vive the shock of facing what seems to him at first sight as the abyss of nothingness. Not till he has learned to dwell in this abyss, and has found its peace, is it possible for his eyes to have become incapable of tears.
" Before the ear can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness."
The first four rules of Light on the Path are, undoubtedly, curious though the statement may seem, the most important in the whole book, save one only. Why they are so important is that they contain the vital law, the very creative essence of the astral man. And it is only in the
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astral ( or self-illuminated ) consciousness that the rules which follow them have any living meaning. Once attain to the use of the astral senses and it becomes a matter of course that one commences to use them ; and the later rules are but guidance in their use. When I speak like this I mean, naturally, that the first four rules are the ones which are of importance and interest to those who read them in print upon a page. . When they are engraved on a man's heart and on his life, unmistakably then the other rules become not merely interesting, or extraordinary, meta- physical statements, but actual facts in life which have to be grasped and experienced.
The four rules stand written in the great chamber of every actual lodge of a living Broth- erhood. Whether the man is about to sell his soul to the devil, like Faust ; whether he is to be worsted in the battle, like Hamlet ; or whether he is to pass on within the precincts ; in any case these words are for him. The man can choose between virtue and vice, but not until he is a man ; a babe or a wild animal cannot so choose. Thus with the disciple, he must first become a disciple before he can even see the paths to choose be- tween. This effort of creating himself as a dis- ciple, the re-birth, he must do for himself without any teacher. Until the four rules are learned
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no teacher can be of any use to him ; and that is why " the Masters " are referred to in the way they are. No real masters, whether adepts in power, in love, or in blackness, can affect a man till these four rules are passed.
Tears, as I have said, may be called the moisture of life. The soul must have laid aside the emotions of humanity, must have secured a balance which cannot be shaken by misfortune, before its eyes can open upon the super-human world.
The voice of the Masters is always in the world ; but only those hear it whose ears are no longer receptive of the sounds which affect the personal life. Laughter no longer lightens the heart, anger may no longer enrage it, tender words bring it no balm. For that within, to which the ears are as an outer gateway, is an un- shaken place of peace in itself which no person can disturb.
As the eyes are the windows of the soul, so are the ears its gateways or doors. Through them comes knowledge of the confusion of the world. The great ones who have conquered life, who have become more than disciples, stand at peace and undisturbed amid the vibration and kaleidoscopic movement of humanity. They hold within themselves a certain knowledge, as
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well as a perfect peace ; and thus they are not roused or excited by the partial and erroneous fragments of information which are brought to their ears by the changing voices of those around them. When I speak of knowledge, I mean in- tuitive knowledge. This certain information can never be obtained by hard work, or by experi- ment ; for these methods are only applicable to matter, and matter is in itself a perfectly uncer- tain substance, continually effected by change. The most absolute and universal laws of natural and physical life, as understood by the scientist, will passed away when the life of this universe has passed away, and only its soul is left in the silence. What then will be the value of the knowledge of its laws acquired by industry and observation ? I pray that no reader or critic will imagine that by what I have said I intend to depreciate or disparage acquired knowledge, or the work of scientists. On the contrary, I hold that scientific men are the pioneers of modern thought. The days of litera- ture and of art, when poets and sculptors saw the divine light, and put it into their own great lan- guage— these days lie buried in the long past with the ante-Phidian sculptors and the pre-Homeric poets. The mysteries no longer rule the world of thought and beauty ; human life is the govern- ing power, not that which lies beyond it. But
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the scientific workers are progressing, not so much by their own will as by sheer force of circumstances, towards the far line which divides things interpretable from things uninterpretable. Every fresh discovery drives them a step on- ward. Therefore do I very highly esteem the knowledge obtained by work and experiment.
But intuitive knowledge is an entirely different thing. It is not acquired in any way, but is, so to speak, a faculty of the soul ; not the animal soul, that which becomes a ghost after death,when lust or liking or the memory of ill-deeds holds it to the neighborhood of human beings, but the divine soul which animates all the external forms of the individualised being.
This is, of course, a faculty which indwells in that soul which is inherent. The would-be dis- ciple has to arouse himself to the consciousness of it by a fierce and resolute and indomitable effort of will. I use the word indomitable for a special reason. Only he who is untameable, who cannot be dominated, who knows he has to play the lord over men, over facts, over all things save his own divinity, can arouse this faculty. " With faith all things are possible." The skep- tical laugh at faith and pride themselves on its absence from their own minds. The truth is that faith is a great engine, an enormous power,
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which in fact can accomplish all things. For it is the covenant or engagement between man's divine part and his lesser self.
The use of this engine is quite necessary in order to obtain intuitive knowledge ; for unless a man believes such knowledge exists within him- self how can he claim and use it ?
Without it he is more helpless than any drift- wood or wreckage on the great tides of the ocean. They are cast hither and thither indeed ; so may a man be by the chances of fortune. But such adventures are purely external and of very small account. A slave may be dragged through the streets in chains, and yet retain the quiet soul of a philosopher, as was well seen in the person of Epictetus. A man may have every worldly prize in his possession, and stand absolute master of his personal fate, to all appearance, and yet he knows no peace, no certainty, because he is shak- en within himself by every tide of thought that he touches on. And these changing tides do not merely sweep the man bodily hither and thither like drift-wood on the water ; that would be noth- ing. They enter into the gateways of his soul, and wash over that soul and make it blind and blank and void of all permanent intelligence, so that passing impressions affect it.
To make my meaning plainer I will use an
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illustration. Take an author at his writing, a painter at his canvas, a composer listening to the melodies that dawn upon his glad imagination ; let any one of these workers pass his daily hours by a wide window looking on a busy street. The power of the animating life blinds sight and hearing alike, and the great traffiic of the. city goes by like nothing but a passing pageant. But a man whose mind is empty, whose day is objectless, sitting at the same window, notes the passers-by and remembers the faces that chance to please or interest him. So it is with the mind in its relation to eternal truth. If it no longer transmits its fluctuations, its partial knowledge, its unreliable information to the soul, then in the inner place of peace already found when the first rule has been learned — in that inner place there leaps into flame the light of actual knowledge. Then the ears begin to hear. Very dimly, very faintly at first. And, indeed, so faint and tender are these first indications of the commencement of true actual life, that they are sometimes pushed aside as mere fancies, mere imaginings.
But before these are capable of becoming more than mere imaginings, the abyss of nothingness has to be faced in another form. The utter silence which can only come by closing the ears to all transitory sounds comes as a more appalling
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horror than even the formless emptiness of space. Our only mental conception of blank space is, I think, when reduced to its barest element of thought, that of black darkness. This is a great physical terror to most persons, and when re- garded as an eternal and unchangable fact, must mean to the mind the idea of annihilation rather than anything else. But it is the obliteration of one sense only ; and the sound of a voice may come and bring comfort even in the profoundest darkness. The disciple, having found his way into this blackness, which is the fearful abyss, must then so shut the gates of his soul that no comforter can enter there nor any enemy. And it is in making this second effort that the fact of pain and pleasure being but one sensation be- comes recognisable by those who have before been unable to perceive it. For when the solitude of silence is reached the soul hungers so fiercely and passionately for some sensation on which to rest, that a painful one would be as keenly wel- comed as a pleasant one. When this conscious- ness is reached the courageous man by seizing and retaining it, may destroy the " sensitiveness " at once. When the ear no longer discriminates between that which is pleasant or that which is painful, it will no longer be affected by the voices of others. And then it is safe and possible to
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open the doors of the soul.
" Sight " is the first effort, and the easiest, be- cause it is accomplished partly by an intellectual effort. The intellect can conquer the heart, as is well known in ordinary life. Therefore, this pre- liminary step still lies within the dominion of matter. But the second step allows of no such assistance, nor of any material aid whatever. Of course, I mean by material aid the action of the brain, or emotions, or human soul. In compel- ling the ears to listen only to the eternal silence, the being we call man becomes something which is no longer man. A very superficial survey of the thousand and one influences which are brought to bear on us by others will show that this must be so. A disciple will fulfil all the duties of his manhood ; but he will fulfil them according to his own sense of right, and not according to that of any person or body of persons. This is a very evident result of following the creed of knowledge instead of any of the blind creeds.
To obtain the pure silence necessary for the disciple, the heart and emotions, the brain and its intellectualisms, have to be put aside. Both are but mechanisms, which will perish with the span of man's life. It is the essence beyond, that which is the motive power, and makes man live, that is now compelled to rouse -itself and act.
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Now is the greatest hour of danger. In the first trial men go mad with fear ; of this first trial Bul- wer Lytton wrote. No novelist has followed to the second trial, though some of the poets have. Its subtlety and great danger lies in the fact that in the measure of a man's strength is the measure of his chance of passing beyond it or coping with it at all. If he has power enough to awaken that unaccustomed part of himself, the supreme es- sence, then has he power to lift the gates of gold, then is he the true alchemist, in possession of the elixir of life.
It is at this point of experience that the oc- cultist becomes separated from all other men and enters on to a life which is his own ; on to the path of individual accomplishment instead of mere obedience to the genii which rule our earth. This raising of himself into an individual power does in reality identify him with the nobler for- ces of life and make him one with them. For they stand beyond the powers of this earth and the laws of this universe. Here lies man's only hope of success in the great effort ; to leap right away from his present standpoint to his next and at once become an intrinsic part of the divine power as he has been as intrinsic part of the in- tellectual power, of the great nature to which he belongs. He stands always in advance of him-
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self, if such a contradiction can be understood. It is the men who adhere to this position, who be- lieve in their innate power of progress, and that of the whole race, who are the elder brothers, the pioneers. Each man has to accomplish the great leap for himself and without aid ; yet it is something of a staff to lean on to know that oth- ers have gone on that road. It is possible that they have been lost in the abyss ; no matter, they have had the courage to enter it. Why I say that it is possible they have been lost in the abyss is because of this fact, that one who has passed through is unrecognizable until the other and al- together new condition is attained by both. It is unnecessary to enter upon the subject of what that condition is at present. I only say this, that in the early state in which man is entering upon the silence he loses knowledge of his friends, of his lovers, of all who have been near and dear to him ; and also loses sight of his teachers and of those who have preceded him on his way. I explain this because scarce one passes through without bitter complaint. Could but the mind grasp beforehand that the silence must be complete, surely this complaint need not arise as a hindrance on the path. Your teacher, or your predecessor may- hold your hand in his, and give you the utmost sympathy the human heart is capable of. But
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when the silence and the darkness comes, you lose all knowledge of him ; you are alone and he cannot help you, not because his power is gone, but because you have invoked your great enemy.
By your great enemy, I mean yourself. If you have the power to face your own soul in the darkness and silence, you will have conquered the physical or animal self which dwells in sen- sation only.
This statement, I feel, will appear involved ; but in reality it is quite simple. Man, when he has reached his fruition, and civilization is at its height, stands between two fires. Could he but claim his great inheritance, the encumbrance of the mere animal life would fall away from him without difficulty. But he does not do this, and so the races of men flower and then droop and die and decay off the face of the earth, however splendid the bloom may have been. And it is left to the individual to make this great effort ; to refuse to be terrified by his greater nature, to refuse to be drawn back by his lesser or more material self. Every individual who accomplishes this is a great redeemer of the race. He may not blazon forth his deeds, he may dwell in secret and silence ; but it is a fact that he forms a link between man and his divine part ; between the known and the unknown ; between the stir of the
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marketplace and the stillness of the snow-capped Himalayas. He has not to go about among men in order to form this link ; in the astral he is that link, and this fact makes him a being of another order from the rest of mankind, - Even so early on the road towards knowledge, when he has but taken the second step, he finds his footing more certain, and becomes conscious that he is a re- cognized part of a whole.
This is one of the contradictions in life which occur so constantly that they afford fuel to the fiction writer. The occultist finds them become much more marked as he endeavors to live the life he has chosen. As he retreats within him- self and becomes self-dependent, he finds himself more definitely becoming part of a great tide of definite thought and feeling. When he has learned the first lesson, conquered the hunger of the heart, and refused to live on the love of others, he finds himself more capable of inspiring love. As he flings life away it comes to him in a new form and with a new meaning. The world has always been a place with many contradictions in it, to the man ; when he becomes a disciple he finds life is describable as a series of paradoxes. This is a fact in nature, and the reason for it is intelli- gible enough. Man's soul " dwells like a star apart," even that of the vilest among us ; while
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his consciousness is under the law of vibratory and sensuous life. This alone is enough to cause those complications of character which are the material for the novelist ; every man is a mystery, to friend and enemy alike, and to himself. His motives are often undiscoverable, and he can- not probe to them or know why he does this or that. The disciple's effort is that of awakening consciousness in this starry part of himself, where his power and divinity lie sleeping. As this con- sciousness becomes awakened, the contradictions in the man himself become more marked than ever ; and so do the paradoxes which he lives through. For, of course man creates his own life ; and "adventures are to the adventurous" is one of those wise proverbs which are drawn from actual fact, and cover the whole area of human experience.
Pressure on the divine part of man re-acts up- on the animal part. As the silent soul awakes it makes the ordinary life of the man more pur- poseful, more vital, more real, and responsible. To keep to the two instances already mentioned, the occultist who has withdrawn into his own citadel has found his strength ; immediately he becomes aware of the demands of duty upon him. He does not obtain his strength by his own right, but because he is a part of the whole ; and as
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soon as he is safe from the vibration of life and can stand unshaken, the outer world cries out to him to come and labor in it. So with the heart. When it no longer wishes to take, it is called upon to give abundantly.
" Light on the Path " has been called a book of paradoxes, and very justly ; what else could it be, when it deals with the actual personal experience of the disciple?
To have acquired the astral senses of sight and hearing ; or in other words to have attained per- ception and opened the doors of the soul, are gigantic tasks and may take the sacrifice of many successive incarnations. And yet, when the will has reached its strength, the whole miracle may be worked in a second of time. Then is the dis- ciple the servant of Time no longer.
These two first steps are negative ; that is to say they imply retreat from a present condition of things rather than advance towards another. The two next are active, implying the advance into another state of being.
" Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters."
Speech is the power of communication ; the moment of entrance into active life is marked by its attainment.
And now, before I go any further, let me ex-
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plain a little the way in which the rules written down in " Light on the Path " are arranged. The first seven of those which are numbered are sub-divisions of the two first unnumbered rules, those with which I have dealt in the two preced- ing papers. The numbered rules were simply an effort of mine to make the unnumbered ones more intelligible. "Eight" to "fifteen" of these numbered rules belong to this unnumbered rule which is now my text.
As I have said, these rules are written for all disciples, but for none else ; they are not of in- terest to any other persons. Therefore I trust no one else will trouble to read these papers any further. The first two rules, which include the whole of that part of the effort which necessi- tates the use of the surgeon's knife, I will en- large upon further if I am asked to do so. But the disciple is expected to deal with a snake, his lower self, unaided ; to suppress his human pas- sions and emotions by the force of his own will. He can only demand assistance of a master when this is accomplished, or at all events, par- tially so. Otherwise the gates and windows of his soul are blurred, and blinded, and darkened, and no knowledge can come to him. I am not, in these papers, purposing to tell a man how to deal with his own soul, I am simply giving, to
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the disciple, knowledge. That I am not writing even now, so that all who run may read, is ow- ing to the fact that super-nature prevents this by its own immutable laws. . &-
The four rules which I written down for those in the West who wish to study them, are as I have said, written in the ante-chamber of every living Brotherhood ; I may add more, in the ante- chamber of every living or dead Brotherhood, or Order yet to be formed. When I speak of a Broth- erhood or an Order, I do not mean an arbitrary constitution made by scholiasts or intellectualists; I mean an actual fact in super-nature, a stage* of development towards the absolute God or Good. During this development the disciple encounters harmony, pure knowledge, pure truth, in different degrees, and as he enters these degrees, he finds himself becoming part of what might be roughly described as a layer of human consciousness. He encounters his equals, men of his own self-less character, and with them his association becomes permanent and indissoluble, because founded on a vital likeness of nature. To them he becomes pledged by such vows as need no utterance or framework in ordinary words. This is one aspect of what I mean by a Brotherhood.
If the first rules are conquered, the disciple finds himself standing at the threshold. Then if
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his will is sufficiently resolute his power of speech comes ; a two-fold power. For, as he advances now, he finds himself entering into a state of blos- soming, where every bud that opens throws out its several rays or petals. If he is to exercise his new gift, he must use it in its two-fold char- acter. He finds in himself the power to speak in the presence of the masters ; in other words, he . has the right to demand contact with the di- vinest element of that state of consciousness into which he has entered. But he finds himself com- pelled, by the nature of his position, to act in two ways at the same time. He cannot send his voice up to the heights where sit the gods till he has penetrated to the deep places where their light shines not at all. He has come within the grip of an iron law. If he demands to become a neophyte, he at once becomes a servant. Yet his service is sublime, if only from the character of those who share it. For the masters are also servants ; they serve and claim their reward afterwards. Part of their service is to let their knowledge touch him ; his first act of service is to give some of that knowledge to those who are not yet fit to stand where he stands. This is no ar- bitrary decision, made by any master or teacher or any such person, however divine. It is a law of that life which the disciple has entered upon.
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Therefore was it written in the inner doorway of the lodges of the old Egyptian Brotherhood, " the laborer is worthy of his hire." " Ask and ye shall have," sounds like something too easy and simple to be credible. But the disciple can- not " ask " in the mystic sense in which the word is used in this scripture until he has attained the power of helping others.
Why is this ? Has the statement too dogmatic a sound?
Is it too dogmatic to say that a man must have foothold before he can spring ? The position is the same. If help is given, if work is done, then there is actual claim — not what we call a person- al claim of payment, but the claim of co-nature. The divine give, they demand that you also shall give before you can be of their kin.
This law is discovered as soon as the disciple endeavors to speak. For speech is a gift which comes only to the disciple of power and knowl- edge. The spiritualist enters the psychic-astral world, but he does not find there any certain speech, unless he at once claims it and continues to do so. If he is interested in " phenomena," or mere circumstance and accident of astral life, then he enters no direct ray of thought or pur- pose, he merely exists and amuses himself in the astral life as he has existed and amused himself
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in the physical life. Certainly there are one or two simple lessons which the psychic-astral can teach him, just as there are simple lessons which material and intellectual life teach him. And these lessons have to be learned ; the man who proposes to enter upon the life of the disciple without having learned the early and simple les- sons must always suffer from his ignorance. They are vital, and have to be studied in a vital manner ; experienced through and through, over and over again, so that each part of the nature has been penetrated by them.
To return. In claiming the power of speech, as it is called, the Neophyte cries out to the Great One who stands foremost in the ray of knowledge on which he has entered, to give him guidance. When he does this, his voice is hurled back by the power he has approached, and ech- oes down to the deep recesses of human ignor- ance. In some confused aud blurred manner the news that there is knowledge and abeneficient power which teaches is carried to as many men as will listen to it. No disciple can cross the threshold without communicating this news, and placing it on record in some fashion or other.
He stands horror-struck at the imperfect and unprepared manner in which he has done this ; and then comes the desire to do it well, and with
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the desire thus to help others comes the power. For it is a pure desire, this which comes upon him ; he can gain no credit, no glory, no person- al reward by fulfilling it. And therefore he ob- tains the power to fulfil it.
The history of the whole past, so far as we can trace it, shows very plainly that there is neither credit, glory, or reward to be gained by this first task which is given to the Neophyte. Mystics have always been sneered at, and seers disbelieved ; those who have had the added pow- er of intellect have left for posterity their written record, which to most men appears unmeaning and visionary, even when the authors have the advantage of speaking from a far-off past. The disciple who undertakes the task, secretly hoping for fame or success, to appear as a teacher and apostle before the world, fails even before his task is attempted, and his hidden hypocracy poisons his own soul, and the souls of those he touches. He is secretly worshiping himself, and this idolatrous practice must bring forth its own reward.
The disciple who has the power of entrance, and is strong enough to pass each barrier, will, when the divine message comes to his spirit, forget himself utterly in the new consciousness which falls upon him. If this lofty contact can
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really rouse him, he becomes as one of the divine in his desire to give rather than to take, in his wish to help rather than be helped, in his resolu- tion to feed the hungry rather than take manna from Heaven himself. His nature is transformed, and the selfishness which prompts men's actions in ordinary life suddenlydeserts him.
" Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters, it must have lost the power to wound."
Those who give merely passing and superficial attention to the subject of occultism — and their name is Legion — constantly inquire why, if adepts in life exist, they do not appear in the world and show their power. That the chief body of these wise ones should be understood to dwell beyond the fastnesses of the Himalayas, appears to be sufficient proof that they are only figures of straw. Otherwise why place them so far off?
Unfortunately, Nature has done this and not personal choice or arrangement. There are cer- tain spots on the earth where the advance of " civilization " is unfelt, and the nineteenth century fever is kept at bay. In these favored places there is always time, always opportunity, for the realities of life ; they are not crowded out by the doings of an inchoate, money-loving^ pleasure seeking society. While there are adepts
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upon the earth, the earth must preserve to them places of seclusion. This is a fact in nature which is only an external expression of a profound fact in super-nature.
The demand of the neophyte remains unheard until the voice in which it is uttered has lost the power to wound. This is because the divine-as- tral life* is a place in which order reigns, just as it does in natural life. There is, of course, always the centre and the circumference as there is in nature. Close to the central heart of life, on any plane, there is knowledge, there order reigns completely ; and chaos makes dim and confused the outer margin of the Circle. In fact, life in every form bears a more or less strong resem- blance to a philosophic school. There are always the devotees to knowledge who forget their own lives in their pursuit of it ; there are always the
flippant crowd who come and go Of such,
Epictus said that it was as easy to teach them philosophy as to eat custard with a fork. The same state exists in the super-astral life ; and the adept has an even deeper and more profound se- clusion there in which to dwell. This place of
* Of course every occultist knows by reading Eliphas Levi and other authors that the "astral " plane is a plane of unequalized forces, and that a state of confusion necessarily prevails. But this does not apply to the "divine astral" plane, which is a plane where wisdom, and therefore order, prevails.
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retreat is so safe, so sheltered, that no sound which has discord in it can reach his ears. Why should this be, will be asked at once, if he is a being of such great powers as those say who believe in his existence ? The answer seems very apparent. He serves humanity and identi- fies himself with the whole world ; he is ready to make vicarious sacrifice for it at any moment — by living not by dying for it. Why should he not die for it ? Because he is part of the great whole, and one of the most valuable parts of it. Because he lives under laws of order which he does not desire to break. His life is not his own, but that of the forces which work behind him. He is the flower of humanity, the bloom which contains the divine seed. He is, in his own per- son, a treasure of the universal nature, which is guarded and made safe in order that the fruition shall be perfected. It is only at definite periods of the world's history that he is allowed to go among the herd of men as their redeemer. But for those who have the power to separate them- selves from this herd he is always at hand. And for those who are strong enough to conquer the vices of the personal human nature, as set forth in these four rules, he is consciously at hand, easily recognized, ready to answer.
But this conquering of self implies a destruc-
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tion of qualities which most men regard as not only indestructible but desirable. The "power to wound" includes much that men value, not only in themselves, but in others. The instinct of self-defence and of self-preservation is part of it; the idea that one has any right or rights, either as citizen, or man, or individual, the pleas- ant consciousness of self-respect and of virtue. These are hard sayings to many ; yet they are true. For these words that I am writing now, and those which I have written on this subject, are not in any sense my own. They are drawn from the traditions of the lodge of the great Brotherhood, which was once the secret splen- dor of Egypt. The rules written in its ante-cham- ber were the same as those now written in the ante-chamber of existing schools. Through all time the wise men have lived apart from the mass. And even when some temporary purpose or ob- ject induces one of them to come into the midst of human life, his seclusion and safety is pre- served as completely as ever. It is part of his in- heritance, part of his position, he has an actual title to it, and can no more put it aside then the Duke of Westminster can say he does not choose to be the Duke of Westminster. In the various great cities of the world an adept lives for a while from time to time, or perhaps only passes
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through ; but all are> occasionally aided by the actual power and presence of one of these men. Here in London, as in Paris and St. Petersburgh, there are men high in development. But they are only known as mystics by those who have the power to recognize ; the power given by the conquering of self. Otherwise how could they exist, even for an hour, in such a mental and psychic atmosphere as is created by the confusion and disorder of a city? Unless protected and made safe their own growth would be interfered with, their work injured. And the neophyte may meet an adept in the flesh, may live in the same house with him, and yet be unable to recognize him, and unable to make his own voice heard by him. For no nearness in space, no closeness of relations, no daily intimacy, can do away with the inexorable laws which give the adept his seclusion. No voice penetrates to his inner hearing till it has become a divine voice, a voice which gives no utterance to the cries of self. Any lesser appeal would be as useless, as much a waste of energy and power, as for mere chil- dren who are learning their alphabet to be taught it by a professor of philology. Until a man has become in heart and spirit, a disciple, he has no existence for those who are teachers of disciples. And he becomes this by one method only —
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the surrender of his personal humanity.
For the voice to have lost the power to wound, a man must have reached that point where he sees himself only as one of the vast multitude that live ; one of the sands washed hither and thither by the sea of vibratory existence. It is said that every grain of sand in the ocean bed does, in its turn, get washed up on to the shore and lie for a moment in the sunshine. So with human beings, they are driven hither and thither by a great force, and each, in his turn, finds the sunrays on him. When a man is able to regard his own life as part of a whole like this he will no longer struggle in order to obtain anything for himself. This is the surrender of personal rights. The ordinary man expects, not to take equal fortunes with the rest of the world, but in some points, about which he cares, to fare better than the others. The disciple does not expect this. Therefore, though he be, like Epictetus, a chained slave, he has no word to say about it. He knows that the wheel of life turns ceaselessly. Burne Jones has shown it in his marvellous pict- ure— the wheel turns, and on it are bound the rich and the poor, the great and the small — each has its moment of good fortune when the wheel brings him uppermost — the King rises and falls, k the poet is feted and forgotten, the slave is happy
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and afterwards discarded. Each in his turn is crushed as the wheel turns on. The disciple knows that this is so, and though it is his duty to make the utmost of the life that is his, he neither complains of it nor is elated by it, nor does he complain against the better fortune of others. All alike, as he well knows, are but learning a lesson ; and he smiles at the socialist and the re- former who endeavor by sheer force to re-ar- range circumstances which arise out of the forces of human nature itself. This is but kicking against the pricks ; a waste of life and energy.
In realising this a man surrenders his imagined individual rights, of whatever sort. That takes away one keen sting which is common to all or- dinary men.
When the disciple has fully recognized that the very thought of individual rights is only the outcome of the venomous quality in himself, that it is the hiss of the snake of self which poisons with its sting his own life and the lives of those about him, then he is ready to take part in a year- ly ceremony which is open to all neophytes who are prepared for it. All weapons of defence and offence are given up ; all weapons of mind and heart, and brain, and spirit. Never again can another man be regarded as a person who can be criticised or condemned ; never again can the
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neophyte raise his voice in self-defence or excuse. From that ceremony he turns into the world as helpless, as unprotected, as a new-born child. That, indeed, is what he is. He has begun to be born again on to the higher plane of life, that breezy and well-lit plateau from whence the eyes see intelligently and regard the world with a new insight.
I have said, a little way back, that after parting with the sense of individual rights, the disciple must part also with the sense of self-respect and of virtue. This may sound a terrible doctrine, yet all occultists know well that it is not a doctrine, but a fact. He who thinks himself holier than another, he who has any pride in his own ex- emption from vice or folly, he who believes him- self wise, or in any way superior to his fellow men is incapable of discipleship. A man must be- come as a little child before he can enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Virtue and wisdom are sublime things ; but if they create pride and a consciousness of separate- ness from the rest of humanity in the mind of a man, then they are only the snakes of self re-ap- pearing in a finer form. At any moment he may put on his grosser shape and sting as fiercely as when he inspired the actions of a murderer who kills for gain or hatred, or a politician who
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sacrifices the mass for his own or his party's interests.
In fact, to have lost the power to wound, im- plies that the snake is not only scotched, but killed. When it is merely stupefied or lulled to sleep it awakes again and the disciple uses his knowledge and his power for his own ends, and is a pupil of the many masters of the black art, for the road to destruction is very broad and easy, and the way can be found blindfold. That it is the way to destruction is evident, for when a man begins to live for self he narrows his horizon steadily till at last the fierce driving inwards leaves him but the space of a pin's-head to dwell in. We have all seen this phenomenon occur in ordinary life. A man who becomes selfish iso- lates himself, grows less interesting and less agreeable to others. The sight is an awful one, and people shrink from a very selfish person at last, as from a beast of prey. How much more awful is it when it occurs on the advanced plane of life, with the added powers of knowledge, and through the greater sweep of successive in- carnations !
Therefore I say, pause and think well upon the threshold. For if the demand of the neophyte is made without the complete purification, it will not penetrate the seclusion of the divine adept,
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but will evoke the terrible forces which attend upon the black side of our human nature.
" Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters, its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart."
The word soul, as used here, means the divine soul, or " starry spirit."
"To be able to stand is to have confidence; " and to have confidence means that the disciple is sure of himself, that he has surrendered his emotions, his very self, even his humanity ; that he is incapable of fear and unconscious of pain ; that his whole consciousness is centred in the divine life, which is expressed symbolically by the term "the Masters;" that he has neither eyes, nor ears, nor speech, nor power, save in and for the divine ray on which his highest sense has touched. Then is he fearless, free from suffering, free from anxiety or dismay ; his soul stands without shrinking or desire of postponement, in the full blaze of the divine light which penetrates through and through his being. Then he has come into his inheritance and can claim his kin- ship with the teachers of men ; he is upright, he has raised his head, he breathes the same air that they do.
But before it is in any way possible for him to do this, the feet of the soul must be washed mi h blood of the heart.
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The sacrifice, or surrender of the heart of man, and its emotions, is the first of the rules ; it in- volves the " attaining of an equilibrium which cannot be shaken by personal emotion." This is done by the stoic philosopher ; he, too, stands aside and looks equably upon his own sufferings, as well as on those of others.
In the same way that " tears " in the language of occultists expresses the soul of emotion, not its material appearance, so blood expresses, not that blood which is an essential of physical life, but the vital creative principle in man's nature, which drives him into human life in order to ex- perience pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow. When he has let the blood flow from the heart he stands before the Masters as a pure spirit which no longer wishes to incarnate for the sake of emotion and experience. Through great cy- cles of time successive incarnations in gross mat- ter may yet be his lot ; but he no longer desires them, the crude wish to live has departed from him. When he takes upon him man's form in the flesh he does it in the pursuit of a divine ob- ject, to accomplish the work of " the Masters," and for no other end. He looks neither for pleasure nor pain, asks for no heaven, and fears no hell ; yet he has entered upon a great inher- itance which is not so much a compensation for
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these things surrendered, as a state which simply blots out the memory of them. He lives now not in the world, but with it ; his horizon has extended itself to the width of the whole universe.
A
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSO- PHIST.
Brothers and Sisters Theosophists, — In address- ing you I feel deeply impressed with the importance of the question I now put to you — How best to be- come a theosophist?
As a preliminary observation I need scarcely remind you that all who aspire to become theosophists pledge themselves to live a pure, simple, temperate, and self- denying life, and with brotherly and sisterly love.
Theosophy means the science of the wisdom of God. But who is there among us who shall presume to dog- matise on a science beyond the comprehension of the human mind ? for " who (in soul life) can by searching find out God? or who can find out the Almighty unto perfection ? "
All we can do is to conceive in our minds an idea in harmony with our highest inspirations, and in doing so we shall accept of the axiom of the initiated King of Israel, when he said, " The awe of God is the begin- ning of wisdom."
Let us here recall the definition of our position as laid down in the rules of our Society which read thus : —
" The British Theosophical Society is founded for the purpose of discovering the nature and powers of
4 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
the human soul and spirit by investigation and experi- ment.
" Our object is to increase the amount of human health, happiness, knowledge, wisdom, and goodness ; and we pledge ourselves to the best of our powers, to live a life of truth, temperance, purity, and brotherly love.
"We believe in a great first intelligent Cause, and in the Divine sonship of the spirit of man, and hence in the immortality of that spirit, and in the universal brotherhood of the human race."
This is truly a holy and sublime programme, and the question which should present itself for our con- tinual consideration is, " How best shall we carry out these rules, and thus become theosophists ? "
In endeavouring to arrive at the best method, I shall do my best to present all sides of the question with fairness and submission; and if I fail to point out the truest method, or, in your opinion, under-estimate any method, or over-estimate any other method, it will be for you to exercise your reason, and in a brotherly and sisterly way point out the defects. This, I beg to say, once for all, that you cannot confer a greater favour than by, now and at all times, pointing out any defect in manner, matter, or thought, which you may discover in your President ; and if you promise to show me this kindness, I will now frankly promise in return to render you a like service, for thus we shall " bear each other's infirmities," and thus fulfil one of the highest laws.
I feel how unworthy I am to occupy the position you have placed me in, but in all I say I shall endeau>m to speak in the spirit so sublimely expressed by out;
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of the most intensely true and loving of men, himself apparently an initiate, and at least illuminated with that knowledge without which there can be no comprehen- sion of theosophy — the triune nature of man as Body, Soul, and Spirit. This Paul of Tarsus says, when writ- ing to those of his society then residing in \ihe city of Corinth : —
" Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal ; and although I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and although I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing ; and although I give all my goods to feed the poor, and although I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it prohteth me nothing."
This magnificent picture of charity or love cannot be surpassed in nobleness of expression, and I submit that our Society could not do better than write -it up as our initiatory rule of life.
We all, I understand, fully realise the trinity in man of body, soul, and spirit; and thus it is that our rules indicate that we shall do our best to increase our bodily health, our souls' strength and purity, and the exaltation of the spirit; and we all, I think, thus un- derstand that the central essence of all true religion i3 one and identical, namely, to evoke the hidden spiritual centre of the soul, and unite that with God.
We see this and thus also we are able to see, that just in proportion as we descend from this sublime stand- point, and attempt to formulate our belief by symbols, or by a ritual, we encounter the danger of more or less worshipping the creature in the place o£ the Creator;
6 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
and of descending into idolatry, dogmatism, sectarianism, and intolerance.
This, I think, all theosophists will admit; and yet the . human mind, so long at least as it is united to the body, demands something more tangible, and more loveable, and more capable of application to daily life than is found in the sublime but abstract and incomprehensible idea of a central spiritual essence.
Hence religion, although its essential meaning is religio, to rebind, that is, to rebind the spirit of man with the Spirit of God, has, in harmony with human nature, been formulated as the Spirit of the Son seeking the Spirit of the Father. And thus in all nations, and in all ages of the world, religion has attempted to concrete itself, and in doing so, and in attempting to realise the Divine Mind, has worshipped that idea as exhibited in or by the ad- vent from time to time of Avatars, or manifestations of the Logos or Wisdom, or Spirit of God, in Divine and miraculous men.
Hence we have Gautama Buddha in the East and Jesus Christ in the West, who, esoterically considered, may be said to teach the one great law of religion, namely, that man can only know the Divine by evoking the gift of God, the Divine light which lies latent within him, and by which light only he can know his Father, and thus return to the bosom of his God.
But although it may in a sense be said that these two esoterically considered are one, yet each would seem to have been moulded in body, soul, and spirit, in harmony with the physical aspects of Nature, as existing on thai part of our planet on which he appeared.
In the East we find a hot atmosphere, a luxurious vege- tation, and stupendous mountains; and the form the
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
religion takes is that of power, subtlety, contemplation, stillness, repose, rest, sleep, and entrancement ; and the ascetic life, with its diet of fruits, vegetables, and cereals, and its soul-power — entrancement and magic.
In the West, on the other hand, we find a more temper- ate climate and a more active life — a bigger brain and a manifestation of a wider range of the intellectual ana practical life; and while we find the same prayer and contemplation and sacrifice of the bodily desires as in the East, we find at the same time less subtlety and idealism — less repose, but more energy — a severer standard of truth and a more practical benevolence.
In the East we find abstraction, subtlety, secrecy, and the magical power of the individual; in the West we find prayer, a fervid and open boldness with truth, and a spir- itual love content with nothing less than the salvation of the whole world.
Moreover, I believe this, that there is in the moral and spiritual progress of the world an evolution, as in the vegetable and animal creation ; and with Tennyson I can say that
" I doubt not through the ages an increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns."
We find that all esoteric and ascetic forms of religion take the same ground regarding the body, namely, that it must be brought under subjection to the soul, and thereby rendered a fitter temple for the rule of the spirit.
In this respect the East seems to me to have a more complete and scientific method than the West, for in the East the method has been systematised after a manner almost unknown in the West, and regarding which no systematic rules are laid down, either by Jesus of Naz-
8 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
areth, or by any of His disciples ; although this may per- haps be explained by the fact that no universal and minute rules can be laid down with regard to physical details, for that which might be best in Central India could not be best in London or in Greenland.
When I attempt to describe the Eastern method, I do not pretend to speak with authority as to details, because, as we all know, the innermost details are hidden from all but the initiated, and we, as a society, after one year's connection with the East, have not yet received more than a few fragments of knowledge to be picked up at the threshold.
Broadly stated, however, the occult and ascetic method of the East, consists in a life separated from th£ family ties, and all the anxieties and discords of the world, and in which continual contemplation of God is required.
The devotee must live a life of absolute chastity ; he must abstain from the flesh of animals and from all alco- hols, and he must practise frequent ablutions.
Having freed his soul from bodily desires and his body from superfluous flesh, he must still further totally ab- stract himself from the world, and fix his thoughts on the supreme centre ; after which, by the practice of retain- ing the breath, the attainment of which power is progres- sive, he ultimately obtains the "Internal respiration," and by the final assistance of those who know, he projects his soul into the astral, and thus becoming the one internal sense he is as a unity at one with God — knowing good and evil, and working as a divine and magical man.
How the adept lives after this stupendous victory, or how he occupies his life, or what his desires and works are, we in the West know very little, except generally.
It is seen, however, that ae becomes a magician in the
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best sense ; and so long as he fixes his thoughts on God as the supreme power, and truth, and love, he must live a life of abstract if not active goodness.
Having these magical powers, moreover, he must, unless simple and wise and true and loving, be exposed to terri- ble temptations; and if "the angels kept not their first estate," but by " ambition, that last infirmity of noble minds," fell, " how can man, then, the {frail) image of his Maker, hope to win by it?" Or how shall he escape the fate of that " Lucifer son of the morning "who, aspir- ing to be as God, was cast out of heaven and fell headlong v into the abyss ? 1
But the idea of the adept is most fascinating to the human mind, and to attain to the dignity and power of the magical man is an ambition far transcending all earthly ambition.
The idea of the true adept is one whose powers and knowledge far transcend all merely human power and knowledge, and with him riches and worldly honours, and rank and distinction, are as nothing. But for this very reason the adept, I conceive, must be for ever in a critical position.
To subdue our base and worldly and animal desires is comparatively an easy triumph over matter. Will-force
1 Colonel Olcott, in the Theosophist, p. 213, says, " The adept though unseen is yet ever doing good." Bnt as this good is wrought secretly we have no idea what direction it takes. So far as I know it has not in modern times manifested itself openly in Poetry, Art, Science, Philosophy, Theology, or Philanthropy, and herein lies one great distinction from Christian saintship which for ever obeys the command to let its light shine before men. Truly spiritual adepts in the East will not be offended by these remarks, because they will instinctively know that they are made in all sincerity.
10 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
is sufficient for that. But this very will-force must for ever present the temptation of that self-will, which be- comes spiritual tyranny ; and if it be true that the adept controls and uses for his high purposes the souls of weaker spirits, how can he escape that penalty which follows all slaveholding ? Must he not sooner or later be compelled to pay the price for work done? Or " can any man touch pitch and not be defiled ? "
Secrecy as an essential in Eastern adept-ship is so far a good, as it is of the nature of that reticence which is so far strength ; but can secrecy be maintained for a life- time, and be the essence of one's life, and not tend to engender selfishness?
In certain conditions of society, and for certain ends, secrecy may be essential to safety ; but perhaps the day is beginning to arrive when even with adeptship the rule of absolute secrecy may be relaxed, and it almost seems as if Madame Blavatsky, as editor of The Theosophist, were really preparing the way to give us a second and true edition of " Isis ( fully') Unveiled."
Another question suggests itself to us as members of the British Theosophical Society. If, as we are told, some of those who practise yogi perish from over-strained bodies, while others, becoming entangled in the middle passage, are torn to pieces by the demons of infernal desire, how could we, the pale faces of the West, endure the ordeal? Unless, indeed, the victory were gained after a long and systematic training of soul and body.
Finally we may ask, granting that magical powers can be obtained by these spiritual athletes, should we of the West, at least, not be in the position of those physical athletes, of whom we know that they ever stand on the verge of dangerous disease?
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 11
But T have already confessed that we know almost nothing of the powers or mode of life followed by the Eastern adept.
Perhaps one may some day appear in our midst and instruct us, although it may be a question whether he could, with advantage to himself, forsake his native soil and air, and, isolated from his brothers, stand before us.
But although we are ignorant, and therefore must speak with discretion regarding the adeptship of the East, we can with knowledge and confidence speak regarding what I ask permission, for the sake of analogy, to call the Christian adeptship of the West, because in the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth we find the history of the greatest of all the magicians 1 who ever stood on this planet, because lie sought not His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.
His rule of life is distinctly laid down in words, and was openly and continually manifested in His life and works ; and all who choose may freely enrol themselves as brothers and sisters of His order, while those who begin to live the life will at once begin to know the doctrine ; and those who truly live the life will know the doctrine in its fulness.
Now the rules for Christian adeptship we find fully laid down by the Founder Himself in His Sermon from the Mount.
The historian, after a rapid sketch of the birth and early life of Jesus of Xazareth, suddenly introduces Him as entering on His public life as a teacher of righteousness and a worker of miracles.
1 I use this term, magician, again for the sake of analogy and as signifying the Master of Divine Knowledge, Wisdom, and Power.
12 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
We find, if I may reverently use the term, that He com pleted His initiation by going into the wilderness and fasting forty days and forty nights, after which He was " an hungered."
Then, as in Eastern initiation, still following the par- allel, He became subject to the test temptations of what is called the devil, but which Easterns and moderns call evil spirits; and thus the narrative proceeds.
" And the tempter came to Him and said : H Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said : Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh Him up into the Holy City and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him: If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answered and said : It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said unto Him: All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then Jesus an- swered and said : Get thee behind Me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered unto Him."
We could not conceive a grander tableau of that soul which, aspiring to be a Son, and thus one with God, in- fallibly encounters the demons of the middle passage, but triumphing over these, the world, the flesh, and the devil, from henceforth lives with the angelic ministrations.
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 13
Thus we find — From that time Jesus (having left the wilderness and entered on His ministry) began to preach and to say, " Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," and "taking His disciples up into a mountain apart," He propounded unto them the entire rule of His adeptship as follows.1
Whosoever would be My disciple must crucify those affections and lusts which war against the soul, and must take up his cross daily and follow Me (The Logos) ; and no one who loveth father or mother, or brother or sisters, or houses or lands, more than Me (Divine Wisdom) can be My disciple.
And he who would (selfishly) save his life shall lose it, but he who would lose his life (for righteousness) shall find it ; for to be dead in the flesh is to be alive in the spirit, and what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is better to enter into life maimed, rather than with two hands to be cast into hell fire. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is better to enter into life with one eye, rather than with two eyes to be cast into hell fire. And lay not up for yourselves (redundant) treasures upon earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal ; for where your treasure is, there
1 The rule is taken almost entirely from the Sermon on the Mount, but the sentences are sometimes transposed, and some- times cumulated directly or indirectly from the teachings of Jesus.
14 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
will your heart be also. And take no (inordinate) thought as to what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or where- withal ye shall be clothed, for your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But consider the lilies how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not ar- rayed like one of these. And behold the fowls of the air. for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns ; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them.
Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all (with sacrifice) to the glory of God ; and who- soever would be great among you, let him be your minis- ter, and who would be chief among you, let him be your servant. And choose not the uppermost rooms at feasts, nor the chief seats at the synagogue, nor greetings in the market-place, nor to be called Master, for One is your Master, even Christ.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His right- eousness, and all things else shall be added unto you.
And, behold, the kingdom of heaven is within you, the true light that lighteth every soul that cometh into the world. But except ye be born again ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And no man can serve two mas- ters, therefore resist the devil, and he will flee from you, and draw near unto God, and He will draw near unto you; for if your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.
But except you become as little children, whose angels do always behold the face of the Father, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And whosoever liveth the life shall know of the doc- trine.
Then to him who overcometh will I give to eat of the
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 15
tree which is in the midst of the paradise of God, even the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it ; a name unlawful and impossi- ble (for the human larynx) to utter ; but thou shalt be- hold the King in His beauty, and the Lord shall be thy light.
Then shall rough places become plain, and crooked places shall become straight, and ye shall tread on ser- pents, and heal the diseased, and open the eyes of the blind, and cleanse the lepers, and stop the mouths of lions, and quench the violence of fire, and cast out devils, and raise the dead, and be yourselves raised from the dead.
Xevertheless, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
But let him who standeth take heed lest he fall, and watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : yet strive ye to enter into the strait gate, for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
But see that your light shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore, let love be without dissimulation; abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good. Let brotherly love continue, in honour preferring one an- other.
Resent not injuries, and give no place unto wrath ; but love your enemies, and bless them which curse you, and
16 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you ; for freely ye have received, therefore freely give.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Finally, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thyself ; for this is the whole of the law and the prophets, and none other commandment is greater than these.
Then blessed are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
And blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
And blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
And blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Thus, with a power beyond all merely human words, for " never man spake as this Man," are revealed to us the rules of Christian adeptship ; that is, in one word, So to empty the soul of self that the Father, becoming manifest in His Sons, illuminates and regenerates the world.
In the East, adeptship is secret and mysterious, and hidden from all except a select few, who have passed through an ordeal so severe and dangerous that many, it is said, perish in body or in soul on making the attempt, and into which select few no woman has ever been fully admitted.
But the Christian adept not only invites but implores all to enter into the order.
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 17
The Oriental adept obtains magical or soul power ovei matter, which he uses for his own high ends — and over inferior spirits. But the Christian adept or saint desires only to communicate with angels or with the Holy Spirit, while his life is spent in openly transmuting his spiritual powers into good works for the good of mankind.
But you will ask — Have any men or women by follow ing Christ's rules, and by living the life, ever reached to that spiritual power over ordinary law which we believe is obtained by Oriental magicians ?
To this question I reply emphatically — Yes.
The founder of the system not only possessed powers far beyond any ever manifested by any magician, but he conferred those powers on His disciples by breathing on them and saying, " Receive ye the Holy Spirit."
These disciples went out and healed all manner of dis- eases, and cast out devils, and spake with tongues, and foretold events, as He had done. And like powers have from time to time been manifested in the lives of Chris- tian saints, who, forsaking self have found God.
St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Teresa, Savonarola, and others in the middle ages wrought miracles, and, becoming born of the spirit, ascended in the air, becoming transfigured and effulgent, while others were caught up into paradise and " beheld that glory which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive."
In modern times like instances have occurred ; and in the life of the Cure D'Ars, who left this earth only a few years ago, we have an example of a man wholly self-sac- rificing, and wholly given to God and good works. He became a divine and miraculous man, and with the power of prayer and the laying on of hands he cured all manner of disease ; he saw the secrets of those who hid from hire
18 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
in confession their inner sins. He transformed wicked men and women into repentant, remorseful, and good beings by a mere word, or touch of the hand, or glance of the eye ; and while he himself lived on crusts and water, he fed an orphanage of children, sometimes by a miracu- lous increase of bread.
In the life also of the Protestant Sister Dora we see the Divine possibilities of a Christian faith as exemplified in a life of devout self-sacrifice accompanied by all but superhuman powers.
I must not, however, be misunderstood as exhibiting the lives of the Romish saints as perfect patterns for us to follow.
For the most part they lived under the tyrannical influ- ence of an ignorant and superstitious and self-seeking priesthood, and they committed the fatal error of think- ing that it was holy to mascerate and disfigure their bodies, under the delusion that the body was all sin, and the soul only holy.
But the Theosophist knows, on the contrary, that the body is a necessary part of our triune nature ; and, as the temple of the spirit, must be rendered clean, pure, strong, and beautiful.
But can we Theosophists in London, surrounded by the noise and care and routine of daily life, with its money anxieties, attain to that life of holy self-sacrifice, the re- sult of which with the saints was the gift of miracle ?
Can we, in short, reach that Regeneration of soul and body which is the essence of the Hermetic mysteries, and without which, Christ says, we cannot enter (directly) into the kingdom of heaven ?
This regeneration was signified by the successive fer- mentations, deaths, and distillations of the salts of the
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 19
alchemists, through which process the perfect gold and the elixir were achieved — signifying a sevenfold process of deaths and resurrections, and corresponding to the days of the creation of the earth and man, which culmi- nated in the Angel in Paradise, in a Sabbath of peace and perfection.
This regeneration or transfiguration may be further illustrated by the law of crystals, wherein a positive acid dominating a negative alkali thus creates a body called a salt, it may be triangular in shape and of a dull colour ; which crystal may in its turn be seized by a more positive acid, the weaker acid displaced, and the crystal re-formed or regenerated into, it may be, a hexagonal crystal, in colour effulgent.
The nearest approach to this in our experience, is when the sensitive, who may be an ignorant and almost an ugly woman, is during entrancement transfigured sometimes into almost angelic beauty.
But such transformations or regenerations are in our experience evanescent — resembling that transient glimpse of happiness got when the sun, glinting through the leaden clouds hanging on a highland hill, illuminates the gorse and the heather, and creates a momentary fairyland of magical beauty.
The question, then, of how far true regeneration of soul and body is possible for us is not easily answered, for so far as we know there has not occurred one perfect in- stance on this earth during the last eighteen hundred years.
But with the Spirit all things are possible. At the same time, " strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
But, as our rule says, the object of this society is by
20 HOVT BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST.
investigation, and experiment to discover the nature and power of the soul and spirit ; and if so, may I now ask, are there any in this society willing to enter upon these experiments in person ?
Let us all begin as neophytes, and see how far we can practise a life of self-denial and unselfishness, free from scandals, strifes, envy, and jealousy, but full of brotherly love.
The essence of all sin, and therefore of all weakness, is selfishness, and the foundation of all true spiritual power is love, self-denial, and unselfishness. And as like attracts like, let us set our affections on things above, for if we do so, angelic spirits will minister unto us, for thus should " we surround ourselves with the forms of our affections."
" Draw near unto God," for thus only does the Spirit draw near unto you ; and thus it is that we can see how the highest science of psychology, namely, a knowledge of how to save the soul, consists merely in believing and in asking truthfully, sincerely, and unselfishly.
If you do this, then not only will gradually come to you health and strength of body, but clearness and purity of mind, and that " Spirit which will lead you into all truth."
******
Those who have watched the transformations which sometimes take place in ecstatic entrancement, where perhaps some almost ugly and ignorant person suddenly becomes radiant, and moves with consummate grace, as she utters words of heavenly wisdom, will easily under- stand how the enlightened, trained, and purified Christian neophyte may rise to beatific visions.
If any one is prepared to say, " I no longer desire to feed on the husks which the swine do eat; I desire to
HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 23
•forsake the sins which so easily beset me;'" and -who says, M I will arise and go to my Father ; " "I will set my face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem," as He did who knew that insults, crucifixion, and death awaited Him; or who, like the child Samuel, as he watched in the temple, says, " Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth ; " — if there be any such a one, then while listening, he or she will become conscious that there is One " who stands at the door and knocks " — and very suddenly, it may be, you will be led rapidly through the vestibule and into the presence cham- ber, and " your eyes shall behold the King in His beauty," while by an ineffable effulgence, " the secret of tlie Logos " — 11 the kingdom of heaven within you " — "the Lord of the Temple" — will be revealed. Then no longer will you ask how best to become a Theosophist; for you will know, because you have already, while on earth, attained to the spiritual resurrection of your body, and to eternal life in the presence of your God.
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