CHAPTER XI.

Angelic Love.
Love is the same in essence in all conditions of being, but it differs in manifestation or modes of expression. It is always generative of something. It may be of mirthful sports as in children, or, as in the graver pursuits of maturer years, it gener- ates thought which may manifest in business, art, or literature. In its dual action it procreates ; in its triple expression, the A of the Rosicrucians, it is Regeneration.
The vibrations which flow from sex love differ in the same individual at different times and un- der changed conditions. Neither are they the same in velocity in any two persons as a general thing. The grosser or more material the nature, the slower the rates of vibration, and the narrower their radius, for it is spirit that vibrates. The dif- ferences in vibrations may be illustrated by the difference between the area covered by the light from a candle and that covered by an arc-light. In both it is light, but how different in radius and quality ! So the love of the brute sends out vibra- tions, but their velocity and radius are to man's as 131
1 3 2 Regeneration,
man's are to angel's. The reason is obvious; in the brute natural matter is dense, and therefore obstructs spirit, and the volume of love is also less. Brute love is generative, but it has no expansion ; and in the brute nature the elements of Regener- atioii have not evolved. He fills full the niche in which he vegetates and pours out his force, but he has no space beyond it to fill. Man's love, how- ever, being expansive, might fill the world with its vibrations, were it not for the obstructions of igno- rance and grossness he sets in the way.
Love flows from the soul into the body in vibratory waves by means of the nerves, and comes into the consciousness in thrills of ravishing pleasure. Love begins to manifest first in the soul in a gentle heat of desire, for the first vibrations, those of desire, are feminine. These ultimate in willy which is masculine and produces motion. Thus we see that the male is born of the female ; i.e., Will springs from Desire. As Love and Desire are in the soul of all things and as the soul is the kingdom of Heaven where God is, — the great Silence where vibrations are so fine, so infinite in velocity and power as to trans- cend human imagination, — it must follow that the angels who are nearest to him in spiritual likeness and power must send forth the finest, most crea- tive and far-reaching vibrations of any of his creatures. The loves of the angelic world must be
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the fullest expression of the love of God, — the life, light, providence of the universe.
Motion and emotion spring from Love, which always and everywhere is sexual ; the positive and negative principles in interchange causing its man- ifestation from atomic rock to mightiest archangel. Therefore, the loves of the angels are sexual, as is the love that emanates from the center of love, God himself.
Violent vibrations are harsh and destructive ; creative power is not the result of such vibrations. It is due to the softer, finer, and therefore, more far-reaching and rapid ones. The still, warm sun- light ; deep, silent waters, the quiet night, the se- cret vibrations of the earth, are all prolific of life unknown to man, — beings of an hour or of an age, forms of pulsating joy whose vibrations exceed in rapidity, those of electricity in its most ethereal form. The infinite calm, the great deep of the soul, unruffled by passion's gusts, attracts the an- gels, whose silent but powerful vibrations inter- blend with and underlie those of the soul. Thus we may let go of the erratic vibrations of the outer world and sink into the downy bed of dreamless peace. When in this condition, one's guardian an- gel manifests that ideal counterpart of the higher self, through union with whom we shall grow wiser, gentler, and more charitable in mind and spirit, while the vibrations of this interior uncon-
1 34 Regeneration,
scious love flow outward into the physical nature, there is an influx of life.
This interior unruffled life is the homeland of the Mystic. It is the third heaven of Paul, who, being caught up into it, saw those things which it is " not lawful to utter,*' but which those of a later age do not hesitate to describe as far as our imper- fect symbols of speech can be made to convey form and meaning.
The wrath of God : what is it } I questioned as I pondered a sermon to which I had recently listened, on the verse in John, chapter iii., and last clause of the thirty-sixth verse. If God is Love, what manner of thing can the ** Wrath of Love be " ? My soul answered : ** Away with the thought : there can be no wrath in Love." What mother will teach her child that wrath is good, much less divine ? I have lived long and traveled far, always asking for truth, yet I have never found the Wrath of love. I have been a stranger in a strange land, and have found love everywhere; but of its wrath I have known nothing, unless it may be when footsore and hungry I was refused bread by some "regenerate" son of the church. Mayhap that was the Wrath of Love !
Lying on my couch one evening I prayed : "Great God, reveal thyself to me. Art thou truly Love t It is written that thy wrath rests on him who can not bejieve the report of thee made
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by another man. If thou art Love^ show me how thou lovest ! " The moonlight lay on field and wood like an angelic smile, and creeping in at the window kissed my feet, wrought pictures on the wall, and softly sweetly lured me from myself. Like Paul, I was wrapped away into another sphere, and what I saw and heard I here record.
I found myself on a vast undulating plain, broken here and there by groves, the foliage of which, of all conceivable colors, sparkled and scin- tillated, touched into motion by a light breeze. A soft light lay on the landscape, tinging earth and sky with a pale golden gray, and I pondered on the mystery of the sparkling trees where there was neither sun, moon, nor stars to give light. Everything was as distinctly visible as if in bril- liant sunlight ; but there were no shadows.
As far as the eye could reach the plain was dotted with human beings in pairs : a man and a woman, idly wandering, pausing here and there in groups, to break up and disperse again in pairs. There were no single wanderers.
The air was fresh and deliciously fragrant, and inspiring music seemed to well up from the very ground beneath my feet. To cursory inspection, the earth seemed as solid as my well-known fields, but on a closer view showed a slow, gentle, undulating motion, something like the dead swell of the sea, but less pronounced, its undulations
1 36 Regeneration,
rising and falling to the rhythm of the music which I sensed rather than heard. At intervals, small dark spheres like bubbles, ten or twelve feet in diam- eter, appeared resting on the earth, — phenomena which arrested and held my attention, as they appeared, culminated, and disappeared. They ap- peared to be composed of vapor in rapid motion, rolling like dusky billows and thrusting forth flashing tongues of dark-colored flames. They ex- haled neither heat nor smoke. These spheres appeared suddenly and disappeared, in the same manner as a bubble breaks and is gone, leaving no trace behind, and yet whenever a sphere burst, I saw a man and woman standing, attired in shining garments, beautiful with delicate and charming colors, whose faces shone with such brilliancy that I could not look on them, but was forced to turn my eyes away. Astonished and bewildered, I gazed, unable to grasp the meaning of the gor- geous and unusual spectacle, and it was some time before I could overcome the sense of strangeness . sufficiently to observe critically what occurred.
A pair loitering near me, apparently on confi- dential terms, lingered, facing each other in atti- tudes which enabled me to scan their faces and general appearance in detail. They were apparently ordinary persons neatly clad in plain and rather somber garments, fully intent each on the other, and unaware of or indifferent to me. As they
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stood thus, clasping hands, I saw them look up- ward, and with that look folded in each others* arms, they disappeared, and a dark, billowy sphere appeared where they stood, rolling and tumbling vapor and thrusting forth tongues of flame.
Fascinated beyond expression, my eyes were held riveted to the pulsating sphere for a few min- utes, when suddenly it vanished and in its stead was the pair I had previously seen, transformed, transfigured, with bright and delicate robes and faces of celestial beauty.
Then was borne in upon me like the echo of a spirit voice, these words : ** Behold the way the angels love ! Through the involution of spirit, the angels progress in angelic splendor, and power, and joy. These dark spheres are the Divine efflu- ence of spirit, which through Love, the angelic pairs enter, become involved in, to reappear efful- gent, * washed in the blood of the Lamb,' which being interpreted is : * cleansed in innocent love.' In humanity, in the angels, through all the crea- tures of his Will, from the highest to the lowest, God loves throiigh meanSy as all his manifestations are made. There is no other Love of God."
These dark spheres shadowed forth the truth that the mysteries of Love are guarded and their manifestations concealed on all planes of being. Love enters " into the closet and shuts to the
138 Regeneration.
door/" even in the angelic worlds ; but its vibra- tions descend to the extremest outposts of being. Human love is a reflex or materialization of an- gelic love, and its manifestations are curtained round with modest silence, even as the angels con- ceal themselves in the mystery of spirit.
There is a time for all things ; a time to grow, a time to decay; a time for love to generate the family, and a time when it creates thought and refinement ; and the culmination of it on the hu- man plane is when the time arrives when Love re- generates this mortal into immortality.
" Behold, I show you a mystery.'* The soul is a globe and revolves in an orbit corresponding to the orbit of the moon. At their conjunction the moon smiles, and friendship, fame, wealth, love, or the soul's greatest blessing, immortality, may be attained. But beware when the face of the celes- tial orb is turned away, for love itself will gene- rate domestic discord, ill fortune, poverty, and dis- ease. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."