CHAPTER III.

Polarity.
Man appears to be a separate entity, a being cut loose from the earth and the various forms of nature whose spirit animates other living things. He has within himself a sense of unity and com- pleteness, while in fact he is a most composite be- ing, made up of many natures and not thoroughly master of any of them. His power consists not of one homogeneous force which he rules, but of many forms of force, and of none of these is he absolute master. The energy and activity of his mind scatters and divides spirit, instead of com- bining and focusing it. His faith would enable him to lay hold of the supra-natural if it were not for the paralyzing influence of the knowledge of himself, — the doubts, uncertainties, and weak- nesses he perceives within.
In the unity of his being, man is as free as God himself, if he could believe it, but the opposing forces originating in and the result of the combi- nation in him of all the elements of air, earth, and sea, make of him the veriest coward, the most
abject slave of circumstance. Separated from 31
32 Regeneration.
the natural world, he is yet as dependent as an infant on its changes, its* good or evil aspects. He aspires to be greater than he is, thus prov- ing that he is created to be superior to nature and to all laws save the law of Will. When he has conquered, combined, made homogeneous the composite elements of his being, that which he wills to do, to have, or to be, will be accom- plished. The antagonisms in body and soul, the ferment in blood and spirit, those restless, seething passions that generate disease and crime, are due to the corruption of Generation, which manifests as man endeavors to unify the many-part icled forces of his being. Energy is diffused in the creatures below man ; but in his nature it is com- bining, in process of attraction to a center, des- tined to a perfect unity and a perpetual radiation.
In creation the first division of Divine Unity was in the development of polarity, the division of ONE into TWO, Male and Female — the antago- nisms of spirit becoming generative.
In the vast domain of the universe, from the highest to the lowliest thing, from the crudest matter to the most ethereal, there is nothing un- polarized. The earth, herself a living, animate, conscious entity, the mother of a numerous family, has two poles. Traversing space, self-supported, self-poised, her motion is made possible, and is equalized by polarity. The north and south poles
Polarity, 33
are antagonists, and through countless ages have warred against each other. The earth is a mys- terious being, the third letter of whose alphabet is still to be learned. She makes a journey yearly around the sun, but never traverses precisely the same orbit, changing her path slightly with each revolution, the variation being known as the pro- cession of the equinoxes. The changes going on' in the earth are so gradual, and human intelligence so weak, and life so short for observation, that the mystery of her life and growth are as much an un- solved problem now as when the pyramids were built. We know that her surface is altering per- i ceptibly together with her climates, and, like a woman with child, she is becoming more rotund, as she travels the cycles of time and the oceans of space.
Geology tells us that the poles of the earth change, not being reversed, but gradually drawn together to a center at the equator, producing cata- clysms where continents sink and ocean beds become dry land. Such changes require vast stretches of time in which the achievements of man appear of as little value as writings made in air. This period of the earth's regeneration is in progress now, the poles are drawing together, the perfect sphere is flattened at the poles, and the circumference, enlarged at the equator, promises the birth of a new earth, or rather the Regenera-
34 Regeneration,
tion of the old one, its advance to a higher plane of growth.
Behold the New Earth that is to be ! A new pathway in the wilderness of suns and stars will be made, and again the morning stars shall sing together, for the old shall pass away and all things will become new.
So in the human race ; antagonisms are disap- pearing, the positive is drawing to the negative, the male and the female forces are coming to- gether, souls are taking the place of thrones. Equality is in the air, and the future is pregnant with the glory the great God has in store for those who love their kind.
Duality is easily demonstrated ; but the third principle, that which constitutes the trinity of things, is not so readily made apparent. Midway between the earth's poles lies the equator, the region of fiercest heat, the source of motion and fecundity, the womb of Generation. It is the re- gion where reigns eternal sunshine, and may fitly be termed the home of the planet's soul. Man in his physical structure is an epitome of his mother, the earth. Like her he is polarized, the brain being one pole, the sex organs the other, with the solar plexus, the sun of man's physical system, midway between the two poles. The solar plexus is the home of the soul ; here is gen- erated heat, and in this region the digestive forces
Polarity. 35
have their sphere of activity. Here is located the real man, not a winged biped, nor a four-footed beast, nor a serpent of the jungle, but the evolv- ing, involving, and revolving being we know as man. Here is his chemical laboratory, wherein he extracts the life from food, distributing it in currents of energy, first to the organs of genera- tion and secondly to the brain.
Human energy is a product of combination, the union of food with the air, and is thus the concentration of the life essences of all the ele- ments of the three kingdoms of nature, and of spirit. All forms thus release their self-existent life principle for the generation and subsistence of man. Through this diversity of life come the antagonisms, the wars and fightings within man, and without in his environment; it is Nature*s Generation, and the strife of particles inheres in the very blood, bones, flesh, and mind, not only of man, but of all living things. This ferment is necessary to create, to bring forth new forms of life, and it is really a process of corruption and decay.
In this later age man looks askance at Genera- tion, and is half ashamed of its processes in the race. He is prone to regard all mention of it as obscene and vulgar. Inertia, non-creation, celi- bacy, and childless wedlock are exponents of his thought; and he neutralizes, when it is possible,
36 Regeneration.
the creative plan of his Maker. The spirits which St. Paul speaks of as warring in his members are in every son and daughter of Adam : the lamb the feminine principle, and the lion the type of the male. In the Regeneration these two will lie down together in a union which will produce health, wisdom and the all-conscious life — the fulness of cosmic consciousness. Ignorance, dis- ease, crime, and death, are the products of Gener- ation ; in the fulness of Regeneration they will no longer be known. But the foundation must be laid ere the house is built ; the physical life must be purely natural before the body itself can be regenerated. Generation must precede regenera- tion, and if its results are disease and weakness, the outcome can only be death and decay.
Perfect polarity marks the highest plane that is subject to the action of polarity. It is not the perfect equilibrium, where motion ceases, but such an equalized state of the forces that the soul con- trols both poles.
Thought does not control the earth's motion as she wheels around the sun ; attraction, the love she has for the glorious life-giver, the symbol of im- mortality, it is that causes her to turn the equator, her soul center, ever towards him.
The soul of man is a vacuum that draws suste- nance alternately from the brain and the sex organs ; for thought and emotion are the only
Polarity, ^ 37
mediums of ingress to the soul, and to be healthful these activities must be equal Too much thought is as destructive to soul growth and expansion as is excessive sex activity. The overbalancing of either pole is destructive to tranquil, health-indu- cing motion. The control or dominance of matter by mind is unreliable and fitful, while the domi- nance of mind by matter is altogether evil in its effects. This irrepressible conflict of the poles of being is the mainspring of civilization, but its effects tend downward rather than upward. Dominance is not of the kingdom of heaven. Equality and Freedom are the poles of Immor- tality. Only the Great God who is between op- posing poles can regulate their motion. It is destructive action that needs control in man, and that control is the result of thought and emotion in equal play; the gentle, persistent influence of op- posites acting and reacting on each other through the medium of the soul, the center where God dwells. Self-control is the ideal of government, but such control is always partial. The mind governs only a small fraction of any man, for pas- sion, like fire, hisses defiance to the waters of rea- son, unless they are poured out before the tiny spark has become a destructive flame.
Love is self-acting and under no control, ruling us through the emotions and by thought. The passions which destroy happiness and life are put
38 Regeneration.
under our feet by merging opposing forces in Love. Sex passion is rightly polarized by rea- son, but quenching it destroys health and happi- ness, — destroys the race.