CHAPTER VII.

Sexuality.
Natural law is a safe guide in the range of be- ing which is under law. Law is inexorable in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, but in the human kingdom man has a measure of free- dom. Of all creatures, he only is endowed with imagination and the power to originate. Animals look earthward, but the face of man, by some mysterious attraction, is lifted toward the heavens, and his horizon is practically unlimited. He sees pictures beyond the stars, never dreaming that he is gazing into the limitless vault of his own soul. There are no boundary lines to the realm of Imagination, in which man creates pictures, emo- tions, ecstasies of pain and pleasure, of hope and fear, of hatred and love. In this realm he dis- covers tastes that ruin and create habits, both above and beneath the laws of his physical being. The three lower kingdoms now organized into man's structure are as much subject to physical law as they were prior to such organization. In evolution, some new element is added at each step
of progress. In the change of mineral to vege-
78
Sexuality
table elements are found in the latter not possessed by the former, and as the vegetable merges into animal there is developed the new element of volition, as if mind were added to clay. This, however, is only an appearance, for intelligence " sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the vegetable, wakes in the animal, and comes to consciousness in man." In the mineral, although only the intel- ligence of obedience, it is still of the same essence and akin to mind. Chemical affinity is the love of atoms, and in this love is generated the heat that throws lava from mountain tops and boiling water from geysers. It disintegrates minerals, softens the rock, and bursts forth in forms of use and beauty from the insensate soil. Evolution is only another name for Generation, and Generation is Sex Love. Sex Love is the action of the positive upon the negative principle, whether in inert mat- ter or loftiest spirit. The love of the sun for the earth baptizes her with life and beauty, and this glory alternates with the shadowy night, with storm, winter, and decay. In nature, all things are male and female, and Evolution is the action and reaction of sex principles. If there is a con- dition of being wherein action and reaction do not exist, it is certainly an unknown condition. It is perhaps the conception of the Buddhist, but practically it remains a mental concept. So far as we know, motion co-exists with life ; the logical
8o Regeneration.
conclusion is that when motion has ceased nothing remains. Generation, working on many planes, producing different effects on each plane, is con- tinuous in its operations, creating mental and spiritual as well as physical form and substance. Having fulfilled its office on one plane, it passes to another. To cease the generation of animal spir- its by an abstemious diet with right mental atti- tude, is to begin the generation of spiritual force.
Muscle is sometimes generated at the expense of mind. To cultivate one side of the nature with- out due regard to the harmony of the whole be- ing, is to unbalance the entire economy inviting failure, weakness, and disease. Mind and muscle are both necessary in equilibrium, and it is a mistake to overbalance one side or the other. Habit, through long persistence, sometimes be- comes second nature, the original true nature being overgrown and lost in the tangle of some unnatural practice revolting to those who view it from a more advanced condition.
Sexual habits contrary to nature are fatal, for sex has its roots in the soul itself. Animals have no evils of this nature, for they are governed wholly by the law of attraction. If the female in- vites the male, he responds; not otherwise.""" Th'e female of the lower orders of life is as much bound by the law of expansion and contraction as the fruit tree, whose buds open and expand for the es.
Sexuality. 8 1
cape of its spirit, and contract on the reception of its opposite, to produce fruit. The male is mas- tered by the female, but it is not themastery_of Will, or of physical fnrcc. or of the mind. _ We name it "instinct," and it is the attraction of the
positive for the negative iron in the blood of each.
The moment the negative is charged to fulness it
becomes positive and repels, while the positive force becomes negative and quiescent.
Ih5 ahm^al i^rSWiprer'whne man is complex. On the animal side, he is as little complex as are the animals, but on the mental side he is like a blooming flower, wide open to the influences from the universe of spirit, which, entering him in the form of thought and imagination, furnish to the blood and tissues something which the animal wholly lacks. By reason of this element he is master of himself and all T^o\ver_lif e, if he willsTo" be master.
The field of Imagination is without limit and what a man adds to himself, lifting him above or sinking him below the brute, is of vast importance, for he creates it out of himself, — in fact it is him- self in another form. Thus, as his creations are made up of the best of himself, he should consider well what he wishes to create before he becomes the victim of habits whose bondage he may be unable to throw off.
Habits involve the love nature. A habit of
82 Regeneration.
accumulation generates a material love, a worship of material things that calls the soul downward toward the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, pre- paratory to reincarnation. That which we love we worship ; it becomes our god and toward it we tend, for the soul's loves will become material by attraction to material things. Love is not an action, nor an object ; it is that which prompts to action. Its weakest phase is desire of possession. Desire leads the mind and influences all action. The love of possession grows by the habit of get- ting. It soon becomes a monster never satisfied with accumulating and devouring material things, but fastens its vampire claws on the finest sensi- bilities and noblest attributes of the soul itself. When a habit is fully formed the soul is wedded to it and lost in the thing loved and labored for.
Sex love is nature's method of providing for the continuance of the race ; but in excess it is like the instinct of the rat and the beaver which store up more than can be used. Those who do this tend downward ; the creative power exhausts it- self in excess and the mind reverts constantly to personal desires rather than to thought for the general good. The larger the mind, the more developed the will, the greater the power to con- trol habits, passions, and desires. This control of self is one of the distinctions between man and the brute. Ey Memory and Imagination man is
Sexuality. 83
able to forecast the future and determine to some extent the consequences of his acts. Imagination is the parent of civilization, and inventions are not confined to mechanics. The governments, reli- gions, social life, and loves are all products of man's prolific imagination.
Matter, under the law of repulsion, softens and expands and becomes more susceptible to the energizing influence of spirit, whether in the earth or in the human body. Soul which controls is so far removed in condition from matter that it requires an intermediate substance, or medium of activity, to enable it to establish intimate relations with matter. Mind is this vehicle, touching mat- ter on one side and soul on the other. It is a pivot on which the man may turn in any direction a mirror in which to view himself ; a telescope whose power is unlimited. The soul is ** native and to the manner born " in a state of inconceiv- able bliss ; its nature is pleasure, and anything that offers pleasure is attractive to it. Physical and mental nature are one. Moral and spiritual nature are also one. These two constitute man's duality. Matter is feminine, Mind is masculine ; Morality feminine and Spirit masculine. For this reason God is termed he, although God is both masculine and feminine. The feminine in man's nature should receive the same care and education as should the masculine — equilibrium of these
84 Regeneration.
forces being necessary to sound health and longevity.
It has been affirmed that if properly generated man would not need regeneration. This is not true ; generation in itself is perfect, because it is natural and without thought, while regeneration is the product of thought, which is not found greatly de- veloped in the inferior animals. Thought that re- generates does not pertain to external things, but busies itself with God, duty, and the interior soul nature. These thoughts regenerate and build, cell by cell, the Divine Life within.
Sexual fire is generative ; the same profound thought that stirs the emotions attracts this fire from the sex organs to the solar plexus, the cen- tral station of the soul — to burn__on that altar until all grossness and lust are burned away, in the gradual transmutation of this mortal into immor- tality.
Thought is chemical, as it is mechanical, in its effects. It constructs, contracts, expands, and concentrates. It is the executive of the universe, but it is influenced by the Imagination, which leads thought to the depths and to the heights, to the far and near, to the unseen and unheard. Sexual fire is very sensitive to the action of thought and imagination ; it glows and wavers and is fanned or quenched by their influence. It is this sensitiveness that gives the generative
Sexuality. 85
power its intense actions and reactions ; the ex- pansion of the atoms of the body influenced by- sexual emotion, enabling the soul to work therein as it wills.
Excessive sexual desire is not the only form of lust. There is the lust of dress, of display, of wealth and power, for lust dwells in any excessive desire for ownership. "■ Thou shalt not covet," to own, or possess any thing, for the things we own really possess us. They have taken possession and we are obsessed by them in proportion to their hold on us. Our children rule over us, our posses- sions make slaves of us ; to save and hoard, or to gather and scatter selfishly, absorbs our time and best energies. The divine right of kings, the in- fallibility of the Pope, private ownership of the soil, all ownership, in fact, are assumptions born of the imagination. When God takes anything away from us the logical inference is that he is a robber, if we really own anything. The fact is, that we may use and enjoy anything we find in the worlds of mind or matter ; but nothing possessed or not possessed belongs to us. We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing away.
The first work of Regeneration is to attain to oneness, to unite the dual forces in yourself, that as Jesus admonished " the eye may be single,"
86 Rege7iei'atioii.
seeing only God, who is Love, in all the universe. When that union is accomplished all things be- come lovely and lovable ; even discord helps on the perfect harmony. To attain this state, training of a specific character is necessary. The external mind must be hushed into quiet ; the passions and animosities engendered by the friction of life must be subdued before the Spirit can beget a child of God in the Soul. The masculine and feminine principles must be united in thought, motive, ob- ject and love. This is purity. The combination of many things in agitation causes impurity ; for this reason the duality of Generation must give place to oneness in Regeneration. Man repre- sents spirit; therefore, Jesus called himself the Son of Man. Woman represents Matter ; when the violence of spirit is tamed, Matter, and Spirit unite and are one.
It is the masculine force that must be regener- ated in order to enter the kingdom of God. In the words of the Great Master, '' Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." All gestation is in water, and water is in matter as if in a womb. Spirit is that which impregnates and it is Matter alone that becomes pregnant, for Matter is passive, negative, feminine. It is the masculine in each person that must be regenerated. To be born of water, the male, (mind), must enter the feminine, (soul), for
Sexuality. 87
these are the waters of Hfe. Tp ."^nter the soul is to enter into Love, and it is the office of the in- telHgence to find the soul and know the love be- fore full faith can be felt.
Love ranges from the lowest sensation to the ecstasy of angels : each thing that feels senses a degree of pleasure which takes rank in the con- sciousness as supreme. The highest physical sen- sation is the sexual generative sensation, which is the culmination of sex love. This culmination is the absorption of the positive by the negative and is only partial. That positive element which passes from the male is generally the vilest part, forced out by lasciviousness. The true feminine nature repels lasciviousness and consequently, in- stead of a free and natural blending of the two forces, there is antagonism which closes all ave- nues to Regeneration.
The spiritual being produced by Regeneration is first conceived as a germ in the male mind. As every person is both mind and soul — Mind being male and Soul female — the Mind must first find the Soul and gently blend with it. The new life. Regeneration, then begins in embryo, as a child in the womb. Love and the Soul are one and the quality of your love decides the character of the spiritual gestation. Unless the male principle in each nature enters fully into the Soul, there can be no spiritual gestation, by which it is perceived
8 8 Regeneration.
that a divided mind cannot generate the Child of God. " Ye cannot serve two masters." You cannot enter into two or more diverse courses of thought, conduct, or effort at the same time, for that is division ; and a divided love cannot beget in Regeneration. The man who loves two women loves neither; he loves only himself. As he finds nothing lovable, or rather attractive in himself, all the male elements being similars which repel each other, he seizes on externals, and through the imagination borrows that which attracts and pleases — the most external and unreal of pleasures. To attain to oneness of thought, the mind must be focused on one desire with such intensity as to cause a gentle heat to be felt in that nerve gang- lion just above the back of the stomach, called the solar plexus, which, as I have said, is the cen- tral station of the Soul. A single thought is a sun-glass which being held to one point a suffi- cient time, kindles a fire in things that obstruct the light, until a hole is burned through dark mat- ter to the source of light and heat. Well might the poet sing :
"Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours."
When this flame is kindled you knoiv you have a soul within ; the next effort is to get within it,
Sexuality. 89
to blend and become one in mind and soul. When in the soul, which is Love, you are in God, and in time may be born of God ; but the process of ges- tation is slow. In nature, growth is a slow pro- cess, and the growth of the immortal man is no miracle, but follows the line of universal law. This life is not for toil or pleasure, but for making immortal all those who love it.
That which makes life a weary burden must be cast aside ; if in the mind only it must be re- versed, turned back into the darkness of Chaos. This reversal of hindrances and evils requires close and vigilant attention ; but this is culture of the noblest faculties of the mind, will and desire ; fac- ulties that connect the mind closely with the soul where God is. The Soul is the door to Infinitude ; through it the wandering mind is drawn to dwell with, to become one with God.
Regeneration requires rigid and close analysis of motive and desire, to the end that oneness may be attained. If two natures appear, if two spirits are within warring with each other, the call comes to choose which you will serve, for the warfare re- veals the preponderance of force, which belongs to the plane of Generation. Force acts with vio- lence, it compels obedience ; but love gently leads and persuades and attracts into the perfect life. Force is hypnotic in its action, — it enslaves ; but love is freedom.
90 Regenci'ation.
Sexual love is the love of objects. If the object to whom you give yourself in part make a like re- turn, mutual satisfaction results and you are free to grow to the limit of that satisfaction. We are, however, so constituted that no two persons can follow the same line. Sooner or later the Unes will so far diverge that the limit of satisfaction will be reached, and antagonism begin. It is ap- parent that sex love in its external manifestation is transient, ephemeral, belonging wholly to the plane of Generation ; while soul love is as endur- ing as the moral worth which attracts it, and is an element in the new man born of the spirit who has attained Regeneration. The love of objects is transient and barren, because the soul is never satisfied by objects, since no object can enter therein. No matter how many the objects loved, the soul, like a stomach fed on air, is always empty and hungry. Who can portray the burning thirst or the gnawing hunger of a loveless soul ! A loveless soul is a sexless soul. Behold the world of mankind bathed in a sea of alcoholic drink to drown in universal intoxication, this immortal craving. See the mad rush for wealth and power, the incessant strife for place and position, the drunkenness of ambition, by which this hunger is partially appeased !
As already stated, to be born of God is to be born of Love ; and birth must presuppose a mother.
Sexuality. 9 1
The Mother is nearest to the Father ; the newborn being must be born of the mother-love, that being the nearest approach to God. What words can express the immortal, imperishable character of mother-love! It surpasses all other manifesta- tions of love. It holds within itself the potencies of all virtue. Beside its matchless supremacy, fame, gold and glory are so many \vorthless straws. The mother-love gives birth to the babe, and the soul of the woman is surrendered at the shrine of maternity. She is the providence of her off- spring, its protector, guide and everlasting friend, with no thought of reward or desire of return in kind, being repaid fully by the love that warms her breast, and permeates her entire being. It is the mother-love that regenerates ; the true feminine love, — a creative and recreative force, into which the whole world can come regardless of ignorance, failure and sin.
Paul testifies to the transcendent worth of this powerful principle in the second chapter of Tim- othy, tenth verse, where he gives evidence of a knowledge that the mother-love was the true re- generative principle.
Christ is alluded to as ''the only begotten son of the Father." Jesus said: *' God is a Spirit"; therefore it is a truth that spirit begets children, or offspring. We know this, for nothing but spirit can enter into the womb. Spirit begets
92 R egeiie7'atio7i .
love also, and various kinds of love are given birth through varying environment, and the various forms of spirit that beget, as for instance, a dom- inating spirit begets self-love. This begetting and birth is in each individual of the race, for we are each one of us male and female. The spirit is within, and from it is evolved the form, charac- ter and life conduct of the man, as from the invis- ible emanates the visible. The marriage of a man and a woman is merely an external expression of a union already effected, and the child begotten of that interior union is the materialized love, the character of which is decided by the quality of spirit predominating in each. Genuine marriage is the union of the Father-Spirit with the Mother- Love in each and every individual, and unless such union is effected in each prior to wedlock, there is no real marriage possible. The Father- Spirit was referred to by Jesus as the Bridegroom; and the Bride is the Virgin-Mother-Love that waits the coming of the Bridegroom. The Christ is the Only Begotten Son, born into the regenerated man or woman from such union. Physical mar- riage is the external representation of spiritual marriage, of this dual union in the nature of each of the contracting parties ; the failures and imper- fections of marriage, therefore, are due to an im- perfect spiritual union between the masculine and feminine principles in each. The Christ is not be-
Sexuality. 93
gotten because the Father has not descended to meet the Bride. Christ can only be begotten by the Father, and is therefore the only begotten Son of Love, — the saviour from sin and its conse- quence,— death. ** Love lieth at the foundation " ; it is the only life, the only immortality.
In order to know what manner of spirit is essen- tial that one may make the conditions necessary to the evolution of the Christ, the nature of the Bride- groom must be explained and well understood.
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