CHAPTER III.

Utaiblp an&

THE CHEMICAL REGION.

If one who is capable of consciously using
his spiritual body with the same facility that
we now use our physical vehicles should
glide away from the earth into interplanetary
space, the earth and the various other plan-
ets of our solar system would appear to him
to be composed of three kinds of matter,
roughly speaking. The densest matter,
which is our visible earth, would appear to
him as being the center of the ball as the
yolk is in the center of an egg. Around that
neucleus he would observe a finer grade of
matter similarly disposed in relation to the
central mass, as the white of the egg is dis-
posed outside the yolk. Upon a little closer
investigation he would also discover that this
second kind of substance permeates the solid
54

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 55

earth to the very center, even as the blood
percolates through the more solid parts of our
flesh. Outside both of these mingling layers
of matter he would observe a still finer, third
layer corresponding to the shell of the egg,
except that this third layer is the finest most
subtile of the three grades of matter, and
that it inter-penetrates both of the two inner
layers.

As already said, the central mass, spirit-
ually seen, is our visible world, composed of
solids, liquids and gases. They constitute
the earth, its atmosphere, and also the ether,
of which physical science speaks hypothet-
ically as permeating the atomic substance of
all chemical elements. The second layer of
matter is called the Desire World and the
outermost layer is called the World of
Thought.

A little reflection upon the subject will
make clear that just such a constitution Is
necessary to account for facts of life as we
see them. All forms in the world about us
are built from chemical substances: solids,
liquids and gases, but in so far that they do
move, these forms obey a separate and dis-
tinct impulse, and when this impelling energy
leaves, the form becomes inert. The steam

56 THE BOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

engine rotates under the impetus of an in-
visible gas called steam. Before steam filled
its cylinder, the engine stood still, and when
the impelling force is shut off its motion
again ceases. The dynamo rotates under
the still more subtile influence of an electric
current which may also cause the click of a
telegraph instrument or the ring of an elec-
tric bell, but the dynamo ceases its swift
whirl and the persistent ring of the electric
bell becomes mute when the invisible electric-
ity is switched off. The form of the bird
the animal and the human being also cease
their motion when the inner force which we
call life has winged its invisible way.

All forms are impelled into motion by de-
sire:— the bird and the animal roam land
and air in their desire to secure food and shel-
ter, or for the purpose of breeding, man is al-
so moved by these desires, but has in addition
other and higher incentives to spur him to
effort, among them is desire for rapidity of
motion which led him to construct the steam
engine and other devices that move in obedi-
ence to his desire.

If there were no iron in the mountains
man could not build machines. If there were
no clay in the soil, the bony structure of the

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOKLD 57

skeleton would be an impossibility, and if
there were no Physical World at all, with its
solids, liquids and gases, this dense body of
ours could never have come into existence.
Eeasoning along similar lines it must be at
once apparent that if there were no Desire
World composed of desire-stuff, we should
have no way of forming feelings, emotions
and desires. A planet composed of the ma-
terials we perceive with our physical eyes
and of no other substances, might be the
home of plants which grow unconsciously,
but have no desires to cause them to move.
The human and animal kingdoms however,
would be impossibilities.

Furthermore, there is in the world a vast
number of things, from the simplest and
most crude instruments, to the most intricate
and cunning devices which have been con-
structed by the hand of man. These reveal
the fact of man's thought and ingenuity.
Thought must have a source as well as form
and feeling. We saw that it was necessary
to have the requisite material in order to
build a steam engine or a body and we rea-
soned from the fact that in order to obtain
material to express desire there must also be
a world composed of desire stuff. Carrying

58 THE KOSICKUCIAN MYSTERIES

our argument to its logical conclusion, we al-
so hold that unless a World of Thought pro-
vides a reservoir of mind stuff upon which
we may draw, it would be impossible for us to
think and invent the things which we see in
even the lowest civilization.

Thus it will be clear that the division of a
planet into worlds is not based on fanciful
metaphysical speculation, but is logically
necessary in the economy of nature. There-
fore it must be taken into consideration by
any one who would study and aim to under-
stand the inner nature of things. When we
see the street cars moving along our streets,
it does not explain to say that the motor is
driven by electricity of so many amperes at
so many volts. These names only add to our
confusion until we have thoroughly studied
the science of electricity and then we shall
find that the mystery deepens, for while the
street car belongs to the world of inert form
perceptible to our vision, the electric cur-
rent which moves it is indigenous to the realm
of force, the invisible Desire World, and the
thought which created and guides it, comes
from the still more subtile World of Thought
which is the home world of the human spirit,
the Ego.

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 59

It may be objected that this line of argu-
ment makes a simple matter exceedingly in-
tricate, but a little reflection will soon show
the fallacy of such a contention. Viewed
superficially any of the sciences seem ex-
tremely simple; anatomically we may divide
the body into flesh and bone, chemically we
may make the simple divisions between solid,
liquid and gas, but to 'thoroughly master the
science of anatomy it is necessary to spend
years in close application and learn to know
all the little nerves, the ligaments which
form articulations between various parts of
the bony structure, to study the several
kinds of tissue and their disposition in our
system where they form the bones, muscles,
glands, etc., which in the aggregate we know
as the human body. To properly under-
stand the science of chemistry we must
study the valence of the atom which de-
termines the power of combination of the
various elements, together with other nice-
ties, such as atomic weight, density, etc.
New wonders are constantly opening up to
the most experienced chemist, who under-
stands best the immensity of his chosen
science.

60 THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

The youngest lawyer, fresh from law
school knows more about the most intricate
cases, in his own estimation, than the judges
upon the Supreme Court bench who spend
long hours, weeks and months, seriously de-
liberating over their decisions. But those
who, without having studied, think they un-
derstand and are fitted to discourse upon
the greatest of all sciences, the science of
Life and Being, make a greater mistake.
After years of patient study, of holy life
spent in close application, a man is often-
times perplexed at the immensity of the sub-
ject he studies. He finds it to be so vast in
both the direction of the great and small
that it baffles description, that language
fails, and that the tongue must remain mute.
Therefore we hold, (and we speak from
knowledge gained through years of close
study and investigation), that the finer dis-
tinctions which we have made, and shall
make, are not at all arbitrary, but absolutely
necessary as are divisions and distinctions
made in anatomy or chemistry.

No form in the physical world has feeling
in the true sense of that word. It is the in-
dwelling life which feels, as we may readily
see from the fact that a body which respond-

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOBLD 61

ed to the slightest touch while instinct with
life, exhibits no sensation whatever even
when cut to pieces after the life has fled. Dem-
onstrations have been made by scientists,
particularly by Professor Bose of Calcutta,
to show that there is feeling in dead animal
tissue and even in tin and other metal, but
we maintain that the diagrams which seem
Jto support his contentions in reality demon-
strate only a response to impacts similar to
the rebound of a rubber ball, and that must
not be confused with such feelings as love,
hate, sympathy and aversion. Goethe also,
in his novel "Elective Affinities," (Wahl-
verwandtschaft), brings out some beautiful
illustrations wherein he makes it seem as if
atoms loved and hated, from the fact that
some elements combine readily while other
substances refuse to amalgamate, a phenom-
enon produced by the different rates of
speed at which various elements vibrate and
an unequal inclination of their axes. Only
where there is sentient life can there be feel-
ings of pleasure and pain, sorrow or joy.

The Etheric Region.

In addition to the solids, liquids and gases
which compose the Chemical Region of the

62 THE KOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

Physical World there is. also a finer grade of
matter called Ether, which permeates the
atomic structure of the earth and its atmos-
phere substantially as science teaches. Sci-
entists have never seen, nor have they
weighed, measured or analyzed this sub-
stance, but they infer that it must exist in
order to account for transmission of light
and various other phenomena. If it were
possible for us to live in a room from which
the air had been exhausted we might speak
at the top of our voices, we might ring the
largest bell or we might even discharge a'
cannon close to our ear and we should hear
no sound, for air is the medium which trans-
mits sound vibrations to the tympanum of
our ear, and that would be lacking. But if
an electric light were lighted, we should at
once perceive its rays ; it would illumine the
room despite the lack of air. Hence there
must be a substance, capable of being set in-
to vibration, between the electric light and
our eyes. That medium scientists call ether,
but it is so subtile that no instrument has
been devised whereby it may be measured
or analyzed and therefore the scientists are
without much information concerning it,
though forced to postulate its existence.

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 63

We do not seek to belittle the achievements
of modern scientists, we have the greatest
admiration for them and we entertain high
expectations of what ambitions they may yet
realize, but we perceive a limitation in the
fact, that all discoveries of the past have
been made by the invention of wonderful in-
struments applied in a most ingenious man-
ner to solve seemingly insoluble and baf-
fling problems. The strength of science lies
vested in its instruments, for the scientist
may say to anyone: Go, procure a number
of glasses ground in a certain manner, in-
sert them in a tube, direct that tube toward
a certain point in the sky where now nothing
appears to your naked eye. You will then
see a beautiful star called Uranus. If his
directions are followed, anyone is quickly and
without preparation, able to demonstrate for
himself the truth of the scientist's assertion.
But while the instruments of science are its
tower of strength they also mark the end of
its field of investigation, for it is impossible
to contact the spirit world with physical in-
struments, so the research of occultists be-
gins where the physical scientist finds his
limit and are carried on by spiritual means.

64 THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

These investigations are as thorough and
as reliable as researches by material
scientists, but not as easily demonstrable to
the general public. Spiritual powers lie
dormant within every human being, and
when awakened, they compensate for both
telescope and microscope, they enable their
possessor to investigate, instanter, things be-
yond the veil of matter, but they are only de-
veloped by a patient application and contin-
uance in well doing extended over years, and
few are they who have faith to start upon
the path to attainment or perseverance to go
through with the ordeal. Therefore the oc-
cultist's assertions are not generally cred-
ited.

We can readily see that long probation must
precede attainment, for a person equipped
with spiritual sight is able to penetrate
walls of houses as easily as we walk through
the atmosphere, able to read at will the in-
nermost thoughts, of those about him, if not
actuated by the most pure and unselfish mo-
tives, would become a scourge to humanity.
Therefore that power is safeguarded as we
would withhold the dynamite bomb from an
anarchist and from the well-intentioned but

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOKLD 65

ignorant person, or, as we withhold match
and powder barrel from a child.

In the hands of an experienced engineer
the dynamite bomb may be used to open a
highway of commerce, and an intelligent
farmer may use gunpowder to good account
in clearing his field of tree-stumps, but in
the hands of an illintentioned criminal or ig-
norant child an explosive may wreck much
property and end many lives. The force is
the same, but used differently, according to
the ability or intention of the user, it may
produce results of a diametrically opposite
nature. So it is also with spiritual powers,
there is a time-lock upon them, as upon a
bank safe, which keeps out all until they have
earned the privilege and the time is ripe for
its exercise.

As already said, the ether is physical mat-
ter and responsive to the same laws which
govern other physical substances upon this
plane of existence. Therefore it requires
but a slight extension of physical sight to
see ether, (which is disposed in four grades
of density), the blue haze seen in mountain
canyons is in fact ether of the kind known
to occult investigators as 'chemical ether.'
Many people who see this ether, are un-

66 THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTEKIES

aware that they are possessed of a faculty
not enjoyed by all. Others, who have de-
veloped spiritual sight are not endowed
with ether ic vision, a fact which seems an
anomaly until the subject of clairvoyance is
thoroughly understood.

The reason is, that as ether is physical mat-
ter, etheric sight depends upon the sensitive-
ness of the optic nerve while spiritual sight
is acquired by developing latent vibratory
powers in two little organs situated in the
brain: the Pituitary body and the Pineal
gland. Nearsighted people even, may have
etheric vision. Though unable to read the
print in a book, they may be able to "see
through a wall," owing to the fact that their
optic nerve responds more rapidly to fine
than to coarse vibrations.

When anyone views an object with etheric
sight he sees through that object in a man-
ner similar to the way an x-ray penetrates
opaque substances. If he looks at a sewing
machine, he will perceive; first an outer
casing; then, the works within, and behind
both, the casing furthest away from him.

If he has developed the grade of spiritual
vision which opens the Desire World to
him and he looks at the same object, he will

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOULD 67

see it both inside and out. If he looks close-
ly, he will perceive every little atom spin-
ning upon its axis and no part or particle
will be excluded from his perception.

But if his spiritual sight has been develop-
ed in such a measure that he is capable of
viewing the sewing machine with the vision
peculiar to the World of Thought, he will be-
hold a cavity where he had previously seen
the form.

Things seen with etheric vision are very
much alike in color, they are nearly reddish-
blue, purple or violet, according to the den-
sity of the ether, but when we view any ob-
ject with the spiritual sight pertaining to
the Desire World, it scintillates and corus-
cates in a thousand ever changing colors so
indescribably beautiful that they can only
be compared to living fire, and the writer
therefore calls this grade of vision color
sight, but when the spiritual vision of the
World of Thought is the medium of percep-
tion, the seer finds that in addition to still
more beautiful colors, there issues from the
cavity described a constant flow of a certain
harmonious tone. Thus this world wherein
we now consciously live and which we per-
ceive by means of our physical senses is pre-

68 THE KOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

eminently the world of form, the Desire
World is particularly the world of color and
the World of Thought is the realm of tone.

Because of the relative proximity or dis-
tance of these worlds, a statue, a form, with-
stands the ravages of time for millenniums,
but the colors upon a painting fade in far
shorter time, for they come from the Desire
World, and music which is native to the
World furthest removed from us, the World
of Thought, is like a will-o-the-wisp which
none may catch or hold, it is gone again as
soon as it has made its appearance. But
there is in color and music a compensation
for this increasing evanescence.

The statue is cold and dead as the mineral
of which it is composed and has attractions
for but few though its form is a tangible
reality.

The forms upon a painting are illusory
yet they express life, on account of the color
which has come from a region where nothing
is inert and lifeless. Therefore the painting
is enjoyed by many.

Music is intangible and ephemeral, but it
comes from the home world of the spirit and
though so fleeting it is recognized by the spir-
it as a soul-speech fresh from the celestial

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 69

realms, an echo from the home whence we
are now exiled, and therefore it touches a
cord in our being, regardless of whether we
realize the true cause or not.

Thus we see that there are various grades
of spiritual sight, each suited to the super-
physical realm which it opens to our per-
ception: Etheric vision, color vision and
tonal vision.

The occult investigator finds that ether is
of four kinds, or grades of density:

The Chemical Ether,
The Life Ether,
The Light Ether,
The Eeflecting Ether.

The Chemical Ether is the avenue of ex-
pression for forces promoting assimilation,
growth and the maintenance of form.

The Life Ether is the vantage ground of
forces active in propagation, or the building
of new forms.

The Light Ether transmits the motive
power of the sun along the various nerves of
living bodies and makes motion possible.

The Reflecting Ether receives an impres-
sion of all that is, lives and moves. It also

70 THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

records each change, in a similar manner as
the film upon a moving picture machine. In
this record mediums and psychometrists
may read the past, upon the same principle
as, under proper conditions, moving pictures
are reproduced time and again.

We have been speaking of ether as an
avenue of forces, a word which conveys no
meaning to the average mind, because force
is invisible. But to an occult investigator
the forces are not merely names such as
steam, electricity, etc. He finds them to be in-
telligent beings of varying grades, both sub
and superhuman. What we call "laws of na-
ture, " are great intelligences which guide
more elemental beings in accordance with
certain rules designed to further their evo-
lution.

In the Middle Ages, when many people
were still endowed with a remnant of nega-
tive clairvoyance, they spoke of Gnomes and
Elves or Fairies, which roamed about the
mountains and forests. These were the
earth spirits. They also told of the Undine
or watfersprite, which inhabited rivers and
streams, of Sylphs which were said to dwell
in the mists above moat and moor, as air
spirits, but not much was said of the Sala-

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 71

manders, as they are, fire spirits, and there-
fore not so easily detected, or so readily ac-
cessible to the majority of people.

The old folk stories are now regarded as
superstitions, but as a matter of fact, one
endowed with etheric vision may yet per-
ceive the little gnomes building green chlor-
ophyl into the leaves of plants and giving to
flowers the multiplicity of delicate tints
which delight our eyes.

Scientists have attempted time and again
to offer an adequate explanation of the phe-
nomenon of wind and storm but have failed
signally, nor can they succeed while they
seek a mechanical solution to what is really
a manifestation of life. Could they see the
hosts of sylphs winging their way hither
and thither, they would know who and what
is responsible for the fickleness of the wind;
could they watch a storm at sea from the
etheric view-point they would perceive that
the saying "the war of the elements" is not
an empty phrase, for the heaving sea is truly
then a battlefield of sylphs and undines ^and
the howling tempest is the war cry of spirits
in the air.

Also the salamanders are found every-
where and no fire is lighted without their

72 THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

help, but they are mostly active under-
ground. They are responsible for explo-
sions and volcanic eruptions.

The classes of beings which we have men-
tioned are still sub-human, but will all at some
time reach a stage in evolution correspond-
ing to the human, though under different
circumstances from those under which we
evolve. But at present the wonderful intel-
ligences we speak of as the laws of nature,
marshall the armies of less evolved entities
mentioned.

To arrive at a better understanding of
what these various beings are, and their re-
lation to us, we may take an illustration:
Let us suppose that a mechanic is making
an engine, and meanwhile a dog is watching
him. It sees the man at his labor, and how
he uses various tools to shape his materials,
also how, from the crude iron, steel, brass
and other metals the engine slowly takes
shape. The dog is a being from a lower ev-
olution and does not comprehend the pur-
pose of the mechanic but it sees both the
workman, his labor and the result thereof,
which manifests as an engine.

Let us now suppose that the dog were only
able to see the materials which slowly

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 73

change their shape, assemble and become an
engine but that it is unable to perceive the
workman and to see the work he does. The
dog would then be in the same relation to the
mechanic as we are to the great intelligences
we call laws of nature, and their assistants,
the nature spirits, for we behold the mani-
festations of their work as force moving
matter in various ways but always under
immutable conditions.

In the ether we may also observe the
angels, whose densest body is made of that
material, as our dense body is formed of
gases, liquids and solids. These beings are
one step beyond the human stage, as we are
a degree in advance of the animal evolution.
We have never been animals like our pres-
ent fauna, however, but at a previous stage
in the development of our planet we had an
animal-like constitution. Then the angels
were human, though they have never pos-
sessed a dense body such as ours, nor ever
functioned in any material denser than
ether. At some time, in a future condition,
the earth will again become ethereal. Then
man will be like the angels. Therefore the
Bible tells us that man was made a little
while lower than the angels (Paul's letter to

74 THE KOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

the Hebrews, second chapter, seventh verse;
see marginal reading.)

As ether is the avenue of vital, creative
forces, and as angels are such expert build-
ers of ether, we may readily understand that
they are eminently fitted to be warders of
the propagative forces in plant, animal and
man. All through the Bible we find them
thus engaged : Two angels came to Abraham
and announced the birth of Isaac, they prom-
ised a child to the man who had obeyed God.
Later these same angels destroyed Sodom
for abuse of the creative force. Angels fore-
told to the parents of Samuel and Samson,
the birth of these giants of brain and brawn.
To Elizabeth came the angel (not archangel),
Gabriel and announced the birth of John,
later he appeared also to Mary with the mes-
sage that she was chosen to bear Jesus.

The Desire World.

When spiritual sight is developed so
that it becomes possible to behold the Desire
World, many wonders confront the newcom-
er, for conditions are so widely different
from what they are here, that a description
must sound quite as incredible as a fairy
tale to anyone who has not himself seen them.

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 75

Many cannot even believe that such a
world exists, and that other people can see
that which is invisible to them, yet some peo-
ple are blind to the beauties of this world
which we see. A man who was born blind,
may say to us : I know that this world ex-
ists, I can hear, I can smell, I can taste and
above all I can feel but when you speak of
light and of color, they are nonexistent to
me. You say that you see these things, 1
cannot believe it for I cannot see myself.
You say that light and color are all about
me, but none of the senses at my command
reveal them to me and I do not believe that
the sense you call sight exists. I think you
suffer from hallucinations. We might sym-
pathize very sincerely with the poor man
who is thus afflicted, but his scepticism, rea-
sonings and objections and sneers notwith-
standing we would be obliged to maintain
that we perceive light and color.

The man whose spiritual sight has been
awakened is in a similar position with re-
spect to those who do not perceive the De-
sire World of which he speaks. If the blind
man acquires the faculty of sight by an op-
eration, his eyes are opened and he will be
compelled to assert the existence of light and

76 THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

color which he formerly denied, and when
spiritual sight is acquired by anyone, he al-
so perceives for himself the facts related by
others. Neither is it an argument against
the existence of spiritual realms that seers
are at variance in their descriptions of condi-
tions in the invisible world. We need but to
look into books on travel, and compare sto-
ries brought home by explorers of China, In-
dia or Africa and we shall find them differ-
ing widely and often contradictory, because
each traveler saw things from his own stand-
point, under other conditions than those met
by his brother authors, and we maintain that
the man who has read most widely these
varying tales concerning a certain Country
and wrestled with the contradictions of nar-
rators, will have a more comprehensive idea
of the country or people of whom he has
read, than the man who has only read one
story assented to by all the authors. Simi-
larly, the varying stories of visitors to the
Desire World are of value, because giving a
fuller view, and more rounded, than if all
had seen things from the same angle.

In this world matter and force are widely,
different. The chief characteristic of matter
here is inertia: the tendency to remain at

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOULD 77

rest until acted upon by a force which sets it
in motion. In the Desire World, on the con-
trary, force and matter are almost indistin-
guishable one from the other. We might al-
most describe desire-stuff as force-matter,
for it is in incessant motion, responsive to
the slightest feeling of a vast multitude of
beings which populate this wonderful world
in nature. We often speak of the "teeming
millions" of China and India, even of our
vast cities, London, New York, Paris or Chi-
cago, we consider them overcrowded in the
extreme, yet even the densest population of
any spot upon earth is sparsely inhabited
compared with the crowded conditions of the
Desire World. No inconvenience is felt by
any of the denizens of that realm, however,
for, while in this world two things cannot
occupy the same space at the same time, it is
different there. A number of people and
things may exist in the same place at the
same time and be engaged in most diverse
activities, regardless of what others are do-
ing, such is the wonderful elasticity of desire
stuff. As an illustration we may mention a
case where the writer while attending relig-
ious service, plainly perceived at the altar
certain beings interested in furthering that

78 THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

service and working to achieve that end. At
the same time there drifted through the room
and the altar, a table at which four persons
were engaged in playing cards. They were as
oblivious to the existence of the beings en-
gaged in furthering our religious service, as
though these did not exist.

The Desire World is the abode of those who
have died, for some time subsequent to that
event, and we may mention in the above con-
nection that the so-called 'dead* very often
stay for a long while among their still living
friends. Unseen by their relatives they go
about the familiar rooms. At first they are
often unaware of the condition mentioned:
"that two persons may be in the same place
at the same time, ' ' and when they seat them-
selves in a chair or at the table, a living rela-
tive may take the supposedly vacant seat.
The man we mistakenly call dead will at first
hurry out of his seat to escape being sat upon,
but he soon learns that being sat upon does
not hurt him in his altered condition, and that
he may remain in his chair regardless of the
fact that his living relative is also sitting
there.

In the lower regions of the Desire World
the whole body of each being may be seen, but

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 79

in the highest regions only the head seems to
remain. Eaphael, who like many other peo-
ple in the middle ages was gifted with a so-
called second sight, pictured that condition
for us in his Sistine Madonna, now in the
Dresden Art Gallery, where Madonna and
the Christ-child are represented as floating
in a golden atmosphere and surrounded by a
host of genie-heads : conditions which the oc-
cult investigator knows to be in harmony with
actual facts.

Among the entities who are, so to speak,
'native' to that realm of nature, none are
perhaps better known to the Christian world
than the Archangels. These exalted Beings
were human at a time in the earth's history
when we were yet plant-like. Since then we
have advanced two steps : through the animal
and to the human stage of development. The
present Archangels have also made two steps
in progression ; one, in which they were sim-
ilar to what the angels are now, and another
step which made them what we call Arch-
angels.

Their densest body, though differing from
ours in shape, and made of desire stuff, is
used by them as a vehicle of consciousness in
the same manner that we use our body. They

80 THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

are expert manipulators of forces in the De-
sire World, and these forces, as we shall see,
move all the world to action. Therefore the
Archangels work with humanity industrially
and politically as arbitrators of the destiny
of peoples and nations. The Angels may be
said to be family -spirits whose mission is to
unite a few spirits as members of a
family, and cement them with ties of
blood and love of kin, while the Archangels
may be called race and national spirits, as
they unite whole nations by patriotism or love
of home and country. They are responsible
for the rise and fall of nations, they give war
or peace, victory or defeat as it serves the
best interests of the people they rule. This
we may see, for instance, from the book of
Daniel, where the Archangel Michael (not to
be confounded with the Michael, who is am-
bassador from the sun to the earth), is called
the prince of the children of Israel. Another
Archangel tells Daniel, (in the tenth chapter)
that he intends to fight the prince of Persia
by means of the Greeks.

There are varying grades of intelligence
among human beings, some are qualified to
hold high- and lofty positions entirely beyond
the ability of others. So it is also among

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOULD 81

higher beings, not all Archangels are fitted to
govern a nation and rule the destiny of a race,
people or tribe, some are not fitted to rule
human beings at all, but as the animals also
have a desire nature these lower grades of
Archangels govern the animals as group-
spirits and evolve to higher capacity thereby.
The work of the race spirits is readily ob-
servable in the people it governs. The lower
in the scale of evolution the people, the more
they show a certain racial likeness. That is
due to the work of the race spirit. One
national spirit is responsible for the swarthy
complexion common to Italians, for instance,
while another causes the Scandinavians to be
blond. In the more advanced types of hu-
manity, there is a wider divergence from the
common type, due to the individualized Ego,
which thus expresses in form and feature its
own particular idiosyncrasies. Among the
lower types of humanity such as Mongolians,
native African Negroes and South Sea
Islanders, the resemblance of individuals in
each tribe makes it almost impossible for civi-
lized Westerners to distinguish between
them. Among animals, where the separate
spirit is not individualized and self-conscious,
the resemblance in not only much more

82 THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

marked physically but extends even to traits
and characteristics. We may write the bi-
ography of a man, for the experiences of each
varies from that of others and his acts are
different, but we cannot write the biography
of an animal for members of each tribe all act
alike under similar circumstances. If we de-
sire to know the facts about Edward VII, it
would profit us nothing to study the life of
the Prince-Consort, his father, or of George
III, his son, as both would be entirely differ-
ent from Edward. In order to find out what
manner of man he was, we must study his
own individual life. If, on the other hand,
we wish to know the characteristics of beav-
ers, we may observe any individual of the
tribe, and when we have studied its idiosyn-
crasies, we shall know the traits of the whole
tribe of beavers. What we call 'instinct,' is
in reality the dictates of group-spirits which
govern separate individuals of its tribe
telepathically, as it were.

The ancient Egyptians knew of these ani-
mal group spirits and sketched many of them,
in a crude way, upon their temples and
tombs. Such figures with a human body and
an animal head actually live in the desire
world. They may be spoken to, and will be

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOULD 83

found much more intelligent than the aver-
age human being.

That statement brings up another peculi-
arity of conditions in the Desire World in re-
spect of language. Here in this World hu-
man speech is so diversified that there are
countries where people who live only a few
miles apart speak a dialect so different that
they understand each other with great diffi-
culty, and each nation has its own language
that varies altogether from the speech of
other peoples.

In the lower Eegions of the Desire World,
there is the same diversity of tongues as on
earth, and the so-called 'dead' of one nation
find it impossible to converse with those who
lived in another country. Hence linguistic
accomplishments are of great value to the
'Invisible Helpers', of whom we shall hear
later, as their sphere of usefulness is enorm-
ously extended by that ability.

Even apart from difference of language
our mode of speech is exceedingly productive
of misunderstandings. The same words of-
ten convey most opposite ideas to different
minds. If we speak of a "body of water",
one person may think we mean a lake of small
dimensions, the thoughts of another may be

84 THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

directed to the great American Lakes and a
third person's thoughts may be turned to-
wards the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. If we
speak of a " light ", one may think of a gas-
light, another of an electric Arc-lamp, or if
we say "red", one person may think we mean
a delicate shade of pink and another gets the
idea of crimson. The misunderstandings of
what words mean goes even farther, as illus-
trated in the following.

The writer once opened a reading room in a
large city where he lectured, and invited his
audience to make use thereof. Among those
who availed themselves of the opportunity
was a gentleman who had for many years
been a veritable "metaphysical tramp,"
roaming from lecture to lecture, hearing the
teachings of everybody and practicing noth-
ing. Like the Athenians on Mars' Hill, he
was always looking for something "new,"
particularly in the line of phenomena, and his
mind was in that seething chaotic state which
is one of the most prominent symptoms of
"mental indigestion."

Having attended a number of our lectures
he knew from the program that: "The lec-
turer does not give readings, or cast horo-
scopes for pay." But seeing on the door of

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 85

the newly opened reading room, the legend:
"Free Beading Boom," his erratic mind at
once jumped to the conclusion that although
we were opposed to telling fortunes for pay,
we were now going to give free readings of
the future in the Free Beading Boom. He
was much disappointed that we did not intend
to tell fortunes, either gratis or for a consid-
eration, and we changed our sign to "Free
Library" in order to obviate a repetition of
the error.

In the higher Begions of the Desire World
the confusion of tongues gives place to a uni-
versal mode of expression which absolutely
prevents misunderstandings of our meaning.
There each of our thoughts takes a definite
form and color perceptible to all, and this
thought-symbol emits a certain tone, which is
not a word, but it conveys our meaning to the
one we address no matter what language he
spoke on earth.

To arrive at an understanding of how such
a universal language becomes possible and is
at once comprehended by all, without prepa-
ration, we may take as an illustration the
manner in which a musician reads music. A
German or a Polish composer may write an
opera. Each has his own peculiar terminol-

86 THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

ogy and expresses It in his own language.
When that opera is to be played by an Italian
band master, or by a Spanish or American
musician, it need not be translated, the notes
and symbols upon the page are a universally
understood language of symbols which is in-
telligible to musicians of no matter what na-
tionality. Similarly with figures, the German
counts : ein, zwei, drei ; the Frenchman says :
un, deux, trois, and in English we use the
words : one, two, three, but the figures : 1, 2, 3,
though differently spoken, are intelligible to
all and mean the same. There is no possibil-
ity of misunderstanding in the cases of either
music or figures. Thus it is also with the uni-
versal language peculiar to the higher Re-
gions of the Desire World and the still more
subtile realms in nature, it is intelligible to
all, an exact mode of expression.

Returning to our description of the entities
commonly met with in the lower Desire
World, we may note that other systems of re-
ligion than the Egyptian, already mentioned,
has spoken of various classes of beings native
of these realms. The Zoroastrian Religion,
for instance, mentions Seven Ameshaspends
and the Izzards as having dominion over cer-
tain days in the month and certain months in

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOBLD 87

the year. The Christian religion speaks of
Seven Spirits before the Throne, which are
the same beings.the Persians called Ameshas-
pends. Each of them rules over two months
in the year while the seventh: Michael, the
highest, is their leader, for he is ambassador
from the sun to the earth, the others are am-
bassadors from the planets. The Catholic re-
ligion with its abundant occult information
takes most notice of these 'star-angels' and
knows considerable about their influence upon
the affairs of the earth.

The Ameshaspends, however, do not inhab-
it the lower Regions of the Desire World but
influence the Izzards. According to the old
Persian legend these beings are divisible into
one group of twenty-eight classes, and anoth-
er group of three classes. Each of these
classes has dominion over, or takes the lead of
all the other classes on one certain day of the
month. They regulate the weather conditions
on that day and work with animal and man
in particular. At least the twenty-eight class-
es do that, the other group of three classes
has nothing to do with animals, because they
have only twenty-eight pair of spinal nerves,
while human beings have thirty-one. Thus
animals are attuned to the lunar month of

88 THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

twenty-eight days, while man is correlated to
the solar month of thirty or thirty-one days.
The ancient Persians were astronomers but
not physiologists, they had no means of know-
ing the different nervous constitution of ani-
mal and man, but they saw clairvoyantly
these superphysical beings, they noted and
recorded their work with animal and men
and our own anatomical investigations may
show us the reason for these divisions of the
classes of Izzards recorded in that ancient
system of philosophy.

Still another class of beings should be
mentioned: those who have entered the De-
sire World through the gate of death and are
now hidden from our physical vision. These
so-called 'dead' are in fact much more alive
than any of us, who are tied to a dense body
and subject to all its limitations, who are
forced to slowly drag this clog along with us
at the rate of a few miles an hour, who
must expend such an enormous amount of
energy upon propelling that vehicle that we
are easily and quickly tired, even when in
the best of health and who are often con-
fined to a bed, sometimes for years, by the
indisposition of this heavy mortal coil. But
when that is once shed and the freed spirit

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 89

can again function in its spiritual body, sick-
ness is an unknown condition and distance
is annihilated, or at least practically so, for
though it was necessary for the Savior to
liken the freed spirit to the wind which blows
where it listeth, that simile gives but a poor
description of what actually takes place in
soul flights. Time is nonexistent there, as
we shall presently explain, so the writer hap
never been able to time himself, but has on
several occasions timed others when he was
in the physical body and they speeding
through space upon a certain errand. Dis-
tances such as from the Pacific Coast to Eu-
rope, the delivery of a short message there
and the return to the body has been accom-
plished in slightly less than one minute.
Therefore our assertion, that those whom we
call dead are in reality much more alive than
we, is well founded in facts.

We spoke of the dense body in which we
now live, as a "clog" and a "fetter." It must
not be inferred, however, that we sympathize
with the attitude of certain people who, when
they have learned with what ease soul-flights
are accomplished, go about bemoaning the
fact that they are now imprisoned. They are
constantly thinking of, and longing for, the day

90 THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTEBIES

when they shall be able 'to leave this mortal
coil behind and fly away in their spiritual
body. Such an attitude of mind is decidedly
mistaken, the great and wise beings who are
invisible leaders of our evolution have not
placed us here to no purpose. Valuable les-
sons are to be learned in this visible world
wherein we dwell, that cannot be learned in
any other realm of nature, and the very con-
ditions of density and inertia whereof such
people complain, are factors which make it
possible to acquire the knowledge this world
is designed to give. This fact was so amply
illustrated in a recent experience of the wri-
ter:— A friend had been studying occult-
ism for a number of years but had not stud-
ied astrology.

Last year she became aroused to the im-
portance of this branch of study as a key to
self knowledge and a means of understand-
ing the natures of others, also of developing
the compassion for their errors, so necessary
in the cultivation of love of one's neighbor.
Love of our neighbor the Savior enjoined
upon us as the Supreme Commandment
which is the fulfillment of all laws, and as
Astrology teaches us to bear and forbear, it
helps as nothing else can, in the development

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 91

of the supreme virtue. She therefore joined
one of the classes started in Los Angeles by
the writer, but a sudden illness quickly ended
in death and thus terminated her study of
the subject in the physical body, ere it was
well began.

Upon one of many occasions when she vis-
ited the writer subsequent to her release
from the body, she deplored the fact that it
seemed so difficult to make headway in her
study of astrology. The writer advised con-
tinued attendance at the classes, and sug-
gested that she could surely get someone ' on
the other side' to help her study.

At this she exclaimed impatiently: "Oh
yes! of course I attend the classes, "I have
done so right along; "I have also found a
friend who helps me here. "But you cannot
imagine how difficult it is to concentrate here
upon mathematical calculations and the judg-
ment of a horoscope or in fact upon any sub-
ject here, where every little thought-current
takes you miles away from your study. "I
used to think it difficult to concentrate when
I had a physical body, but it is not a circum-
stance to the obstacles which face the student
here."

92 THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

The physical body was an anchor to her,
and it is that to all of us. Being dense, it Is
also to a great extent impervious to disturb-
ing influences from which the more subtle
spiritual bodies do not shield us. It enables
us to bring our ideas to a logical conclusion
with far less effort at concentration than is
necessary in that realm where all is in such
incessant and turbulent motion. Thus we are
gradually developing the faculty of holding
our thoughts to a center by existence in this
world, and we should value our opportunities
here, rather than deplore the limitations
which help in one direction more than they
fetter in another. In fact, we should never
deplore any condition, each has its lesson. If
we try to learn what that lesson is and to
assimilate the experience which may be ex-
tracted therefrom, we are wiser than those
who waste time in vain regrets.

We said there is no time in the Desire
World, and the reader will readily under-
stand that such must be the case from the
fact, already mentioned, that nothing there
is opaque.

In this world the rotation of the opaque
earth upon its axis is responsible for the al-
ternating conditions of day and night. We

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOKLD 93

call it Day — when the spot where we live is
turned towards the sun and its rays illumine
our environment, but when our home is
turned away from the sun and its rays ob-
structed by the opaque earth we term the re-
sulting darkness : Night. The passage of the
earth in its orbit around the sun produces
the seasons and the year, which are our di-
visions of time. But in the Desire World
where all is light there is but one long day.
The spirit is not there fettered by a heavy
physical body, so it does not need sleep and
existence is unbroken. Spiritual substances
are not subject to contraction and expansion
such as arise here from heat and cold, hence
summer and winter are also non-existent.
Thus there is nothing to differentiate one
moment from another in respect of the con-
ditions of light and darkness, summer and
winter, which mark time for us. Therefore,
while the so-called 'dead' may have a very
accurate memory of time as regards the life
they lived here in the body, they are usually
unable to tell anything about the chronologi-
cal relation of events which have happened
to them in the Desire World, and it is a very
common thing to find that they do not even
know how many years have alapsed since

94 THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

they passed out from this plane of existence.
Only students of the Stellar Science are able
to calculate the passage of time after their
demise.

When the occult investigator wishes to
study an event in the past history of man, he
may most readily call up the picture from
the memory of nature, but if he desires to fix
the time of the incident, he will be obliged to
count backwards by the motion of the heav-
enly bodies. For that purpose he generally
uses the measure provided by the sun's pre-
cession : Each year the sun crosses the earth's
equator about the twenty-first of March. Then
day and night are of even length, therefore
this is called the Vernal equinox. But on ac
count of a certain wabbling motion of the
earth's axis, the sun does not cross over at
the same place in the Zodiac, it reaches the
equator a little too early, it precedes, year by
year it moves backwards a little. At the time
of the birth of Christ, for instance, the Ver-
nal Equinox was in about seven degrees of
the Zodiacal sign Aries. During the two
thousand years which intervene between
that event and the present time, the sun has
moved backwards about twenty-seven de-
grees, so that it is now in about ten degrees

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOULD 95

of the sign Pisces. It moves around the
whole circle of the Zodiac in about 26,868
years. The occult investigator may there-
fore count back the number of signs, or
whole circles, which the sun has preceded be-
tween the present day and the time of the
event he is investigating. Thus he has by
the use of the heavenly time keepers a very
approximately correct measure of time even
though he is in the Desire World and that is
another reason for studying the Stellar Sci-
ence.

The World of Thought.

When we have attained the spiritual devel-
opment necessary to consciously enter the
World of Thought and leave the Desire
World, which is the realm of light and color,
we pass through a condition which the occult
investigator calls The Great Silence.

As previously stated, the higher Eegions
of the Desire World exhibit the marked pe-
culiarity of blending form. and sound, but
when one passes through the Great Silence,
all the world seems to disappear and the spir-
it has the feeling of floating in an ocean of
intense light, utterly alone, yet absolutely
fearless, because imbued with a sense of its
form nor sound, nor past or future, but all is

96 THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

one eternal NOW. There seems to be neither
pleasure nor pain and yet tfiere is no absence
of feeling but it all seems to center in the one
idea: — "I am" I — The human Ego, stands
face to face with itself as it were, and for the
time being all else is shut out. This is the ex-
perience of anyone who passes that breach
between the Desire World and the World of
Thought, whether involuntarily, in the
course of an ordinary cyclic pilgrimage of
the soul, which we shall later elucidate when
speaking of the post-mortem existence, or by
an act of the will, as in the case of the trained
occult investigator, all have the same experi-
ence in transition.

There are two main divisions in the Physi-
cal World: the Chemical Region and the
Etheric Eegion. The World of Thought also
has two great subdivisions: The Region of
concrete Thought and the Region of abstract
Thought.

As we specialize the material of the Physi-
cal World and shape it a dense body, and as
we form the force-matter of the Desire
World a desire body, so also do we appropri-
ate a certain amount of mindstuff from the
Region of concrete Thought ; but we, as spir-

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 97

its, clothe ourselves in spirit-substance from
the Region of abstract Thought and thereby
we become individual, separate Egos.

The Region of Concrete Thought.

The Region of concrete Thought is neither
shadowy nor illusory. It is the acme of real-
ity and this world which we mistakenly re-
gard as the only verity, is but an evanescent
replica of that Region.

A little reflection will show the reasonable-
ness of this statement and prove our conten-
tion that all we see here is really crystallized
thought. Our houses, our machinery, our
chairs and tables, all that has been made by
the' hand of man is the embodiment of a
thought. As the juices in the soft body of
the snail gradually crystallize into the hard
and flinty shell which it carries upon its back
and which hides it, so everything used in our
civilization is a concretion of invisible, in-
tangible mind-stuff. The thought of James
Watt in time congealed into a steam engine
and revolutionized the world. Edison 's
thought was condensed into an electric gener-
ator which has turned night to day, and had
it not been for the thought of Morse and Mar-
coni, the telegraph would not have annihil-

98 THE KOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

ated distance as it does today. An earth-
quake may wreck a city and demolish the
lighting plant and telegraph station, but the
thoughts of Watt, Edison and Morse remain,
and upon the basis of their indestructible
ideas new machinery may be constructed and
operations resumed. Thus thoughts are
more permanent than things.

The sensitive ear of the musician detects a
certain musical note in every city which is
different from that of another city. He hears
in each little brook a new melody, and to him
the sound of wind in the treetops of different
forests give a varying sound. In the Desire
World we noted the existence of forms simi-
lar to the shapes of things here, also that
seemingly sound proceeds from form, but in
the Region of concrete Thought it is differ-
ent, for while each form occupies and ob-
scures a certain space here, form is nonex-
istent when viewed from the standpoint of
the Eegion of concrete Thought. Where the
form was, a transparent, vacuous space is ob-
servable. From that empty void comes a
sound which is the 'keynote' that creates and
maintains the form whence it appears to
come, as the almost invisible core of a gas-
flame is the source of the light we perceive.

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOBLD 99

Sound from a vacuum cannot be heard in the
Physical World, but the harmony which pro-
ceeds from the vacuous cavity of a celestial
archetype is ' * the voice of the silence, ' ' and it
becomes audible when all earthly sounds
have ceased. Elijah heard it not while the
storm was raging; nor was it in evidence
during the turbulence of the earthquake, nor
in the crackling and roaring fire, but when
the destructive and inharmonious sounds of
this world had melted into silence, "the still
small voice" issued its commands to save
Elijah's life.

That 'keynote' is a direct manifestation of
the Higher Self which uses it to impress and
govern the Personality it has created. But
alas, part of its life has been infused into the
material side of its being, which has thus ob-
tained a certain will of its own and only too
often are the two sides of our nature at war.

At last there comes a time when the spirit
is too weary to strive with the recalcitrant
flesh; when "the voice of the silence" ceases.
No matter how much earthly nourishment
we may seek to give, will not avail to sustain
a form when this harmonious sound, this
"word from heaven" no longer reverberates
through the empty void of the celestial arche-

100 THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

type, for " man lives not by bread alone," but
by the WORD, and the last sound-vibration *
of the ' keynote' is the death-knell of the phy-
sical body.

In this world we are compelled to investi-
gate and to study a thing before we know
about it, and although the facilities for gain-
ing information are in some respects much
greater in the Desire World, a certain
amount of investigation is necessary never-
theless to acquire knowledge. In the World
of Thought, on the contrary, it is different.
When we wish to know about any certain
thing there, and we turn our attention there-
to, then that thing speaks to us, as it were.
The sound it emits at once gives us a most
luminous comprehension of every phase of
its nature. We attain to a realization of its
past history; the whole story of its unfold-
ment is laid bare and we seem to have lived
through all of those experiences together
with the thing we are investigating.

Were it not for one enormous difficulty, the
story thus obtained would be exceedingly
valuable: But all this information, this life-
picture, flows in upon us with an enormous
rapidity in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, so that it has neither beginning nor end,

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 101

for, as said, in the World of Thought, all is
one great NOW, Time does not exist.

Therefore, when we want to use the arche-
typal information in the Physical World, we
must disentangle and arrange it in chrono-
logical order with beginning and ending be
fore it becomes intelligible to beings living in
a realm where Time is a prime factor. That
rearrangement is a most difficult task as all
words are coined with relation to the three
dimensions of space and the evanescent unit
of time, the fleeting moment, hence much of
that information remains unavailable.

Among the denizens of this Eegion of con-
crete Thought we may note particularly two
classes. One is called the powers of darkness
by Paul and the mystic investigator of the
Western World knows them as Lords of
Mind. They were human at the time when
the earth was in a condition of darkness such
as worlds in the making go through before
they become luminous and reach the firemist-
stage. At that time we were in our mineral
evolution. That is to say: The Human Spir-
it which has now awakened was encrusted in
the ball of mindstuff, which was then the
earth. At that time the present Human Spir-
its were as much asleep as is the life which

102 THE RosicKuciAisr MYSTERIES

ensouls our minerals of today, and as we are
working with the mineral chemical constitu-
ents of the earth, molding them into houses,
railways, steam-boats, chairs, etc., etc., so
those beings, who are now Lords of Mind,
worked with us when we were mineral-like.
They have since advanced three steps,
through stages similar to that of the Angels
and Archangels, before they attained their
present position and became creative intelli-
gences. They are expert builders of mind
stuff, as we are builders of the present min-
eral substances and therefore they have given
us necessary help to acquire a mind which is
the highest development of the human being.
According to the foregoing explanation it
seems to be an anomaly when Paul speaks of
them as evil and exhorts us to withstand
them. The difficulty disappears, however,
when we understand that good and evil are
but relative quantities. An illustration will
make the point clear: — Let us suppose that
an expert organ builder has constructed a
wonderful organ, a masterpiece. Then he has
followed his vocation in the proper manner,
and is therefore to be commended for the
good which he has done. But if he is not sat-
isfied to leave well enough alone, if he refuses

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOULD 103

to give up his product to the musician who
understands how to play upon the instru-
ment; if he intrudes his presence into the
concert hall, he is out of place and to he cen-
sured as evil. Similarly the Lords of Mind
did the greatest possible service to humanity
when they helped us to acquire our mind, but
many subtle thought influences come from
them, and are to be resisted, as Paul very
properly emphasizes.

The other class of beings which must be
mentioned are called Archetypal Forces by
the Western School of occultism. They di-
rect the energies of the creative Archetypes
native to this realm. They are a composite
class of beings of many different grades of in-
telligences, and there is one stage in the cyclic
journey of the Human Spirit when that also
labors in, and is part of, that great host of
beings. For the Human Spirit is also des-
tined to become a great creative intelligence
at some future time, and if there were no
school wherein it could gradually learn to
create, it would not be able to advance, for
nothing in nature is done .suddenly. An
acorn planted in the soil does not become a
majestic oak over night, but many years of
slow, persistent growth are required be-

104 THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

fore it attains to the stature of a giant of the
forest. A man does not become an Angel by
the mere fact of dying and entering a new
world any more than an animal advances to
be a man by the same process. But in time
all that lives, mounts the ladder of Being
from the clod to the God. There is no limita-
tion possible to the spirit, and so at various
stages in its unfoldment the Human Spirit
works with the other nature forces, accord-
ing to the stage of intelligence which it has
attained. It creates, changes and remodels
the earth upon which it is to live. Thus, un-
der the great law of cause and effect, which
we observe in every realm of nature, it reaps
upon earth what it has sown in heaven, and
vice versa. It grows slowly but persistently
and advances continually.

The Region of Abstract Thought.

Various religious systems have been given
to humanity at different times, each suited to
meet the spiritual needs of the people among
whom it was promulgated, and, coming from
the same divine source: — God, all religions
exhibit similar fundamentals or first princi-
ples.

All systems teach that there was a time
when darkness reigned supreme. Everything

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 105

which we now perceive was then non-exist-
ent. Earth, sky and the heavenly bodies
were uncreate, so were the multitudinous
forms which live and move upon the various
planets. — All, all, was yet in a fluidic condi-
tion and the Universal Spirit brooded quies-
cent in limitless Space as the One Existence.

The Greeks called that condition of homo-
geneity Chaos, and the state of orderly segre-
gation which we now see ; the marching orbs
which illumine the vaulted canopy of heaven,
the stately procession of planets around a
central light, the majestic sun ; the unbroken
sequence of the seasons and the unvarying
alternation of tidal ebb and flow; — all this
aggregate of systematic order, was called
Cosmos, and was supposed to have proceeded
from Chaos.

The Christian Mystic obtains a deeper com-
prehension when he opens his Bible and pon-
ders the first five verses of that brightest
gem of all spiritual lore: the Gospel of St.
John.

As he reverently opens his aspiring heart
to acquire understanding of those sublime
mystical teachings he transcends fhe form-
side of nature, comprising various realms of
which we have been speaking, and finds him-

106 THE IVOSICBUCIAN MYSTEEIES

self "in the spirit, " as did the prophets in
olden times. He is then in the Kegion of ab-
stract Thought and sees the eternal verities
which also Paul beheld in this, the third,
heaven.

For those among us who are unable to ob-
tain knowledge save by reasoning upon the
matter, however, it will be necessary to ex-
amine the fundamental meaning of words
used by St. John to clothe his wonderful
teaching, which was originally given in the
Greek language, a much simpler matter than
is commonly supposed, for Greek words have
been freely introduced into our modern lan-
guages, particularly in scientific terms, and
we shall show how this ancient teaching is
supported by the latest discoveries of mod-
ern science.

The opening verse of the gospel of St. John
is as follows: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God." We will examine the
words: 'beginning,' 'Word* and 'God.' We
may also note that in the Greek version the
concluding sentence reads : "and God was the
Word," a difference which makes a great
distinction.

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 107

It is an axiomatic truth that "out of noth-
ing, nothing comes," and it has often been
asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches
generation "from nothing. " We readily
agree that translations into the modern lan-
guages promulgate this erroneous doctrine,
but we have shown in The Rosicrucian Cosmo
Conception (chapter on "the Occult Analysis
of Genesis), that the Hebrew text speaks of
an ever-existing essence, as the basis whence
all forms, the earth and the heavenly lights
included, were first created, and John also
gives the same teaching.

The Greek word arche, in the opening sen-
tence of the gospel of St. John has been
translated the beginning, and it may be said
to have that meaning, but it also has other
valid interpretations, vastly more significant
of the idea John wished to convey. It means :
—an elementary condition, — a chief source, —
a first principle, — primordial matter.

There was a time when science insisted that
the elements were immutable, that is to say,
that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron
since the earth was formed and would so re-
main to the end of time. The Alchemists
were sneered at as fanciful dreamers or mad-
men, but since Professor J. J. Thomson's dis-

108 THE EOSICKUCIAN MYSTERIES

covery of the electron, the atomic theory of
matter, is no longer tenable. The principle
of radio-activity has later vindicated the Al-
chemists. Science and the Bible agree in
teaching, that all that is, has been formed
from one homogeneous substance.

It is that basic principle which John called
arche : — primordial matter, — and the diction-
ary defines Archeology as: "the science of
the origin (arche) of things. Masons style
God the "Grand Architect, " for the Greek
word; tektos means builder, and God is the
Chief Builder (tektos), of arche: the primor-
dial virgin matter which is also the chief
source of all things.

Thus we see that when the opening sen-
tence of St. John's gospel is properly trans-
lated, our Christian Eeligion teaches that
once a virgin substance enfolded the divine
Thinker :— God.

That is the identical condition which the
earlier Greeks called Chaos. A little thought
will make it evident that we are not arbitrary
in finding fault with the translation of the
gospel, for it is self-evident that a word can-
not be the beginning, a thought must precede
the word, and a thinker must originate
thought before it can be expressed as a word.

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 109

When properly translated the teaching of
John fully embodies that idea, for the Greek
term logos means both the reasonable
thought,— (we also say Logic),— and the
word which expresses this (logical) thought.

1) In the primordial substance was thought,
and the thought was with God

And God was the word,

2) THAT, [The Word], also was with God in
the primal state.

Later the divine WORD ; the Creative Fiat,
reverberates through space and segegrates
the homogeneous virgin substance into sepa-
rate forms.

3) Every thing has come into existence be-
cause of that prime fact, [The Word of
God], and no thing exists apart from that
fact.

4) In that was Life.

Tn the alphabet we have a few elementary
sounds from which words may be construct-
ed. They are basic elements of expression,
as bricks, iron and lumber are raw materials
of architecture, or as a few notes are compo-
nent parts of music.

But a heap of bricks, iron and lumber, is
not a house, neither is a jumbled mass of
notes music, nor can we call a haphazard ar-
rangement of alphabetical sounds: a word.

110 THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

These raw materials are prime necessities in
construction of architecture, music, literature
or poetry, but the contour of the finished pro-
duct and the purpose it will serve depends
upon the arrangement of the raw materials,
which is subject to the constructor's design.
Building materials may be formed to prison
or palace : notes may be arranged as fanfare
or funeral dirge ; words may be indited to in-
spire passion or peace, all according to the
will of the designer. So also the majestic
rhythm of the Word of God has wrought the
primal substance : arche, into the multitudin-
ous forms which comprise the phenomenal
world, according to His will.

Did the reader ever stop to consider the
wonderful power of a human word. Coming
to us in the sweet accents of love, it may lure
us from paths of rectitude to shameful igno-
miny and wreck our life with sorrow and re-
morse, or it may spur us on in noblest efforts
to acquire glory and honor, here or hereafter.
According to the inflection of the voice a
word may strike terror into the bravest heart
or lull a timid child to peaceful slumber. The
word of an agitator may rouse the passions
of a mob and impel it to awful bloodshed, as
in the French Eevolution, where dictatorial

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOKLD 111

mandates of mob-rule killed and exiled at
pleasure, or, the strain of "Home, Sweet
Home" may cement the setting of a family-
circle beyond possibility of rupture.

Eight words are true and therefore free,
they are never bound or fettered by time or
space, they go to the farthest corners of the
earth, and when the lips that spoke them first
have long since mouldered in the grave, other
voices take up with unwearying enthusiasm
their message of life and love, as for instance
the mystical "Come unto me" which has
sounded from unnumbered tongues and
brought oceans of balm to troubled hearts.

Words of Peace have been victorious,
where war would have meant defeat, and no
talent is more to be desired than ability to
always say the right word at the auspicious
time.

Considering thus the immense power and
potency of the human word, we may perhaps
dimly apprehend the potential magnitude of
the Word of God ; the Creative Fiat, when, as
a mighty dynamic force it first reverberated
through space and commenced to form pri-
mordial matter into worlds, as sound from a
violin bow moulds sand into geometrical fig-
ures. Moreover, the Word of God still sounds

112 THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

to sustain the marching orbs and impel them
onwards in their circle paths, the Creative
Word continues to produce forms of gradu-
ally increasing efficiency, as media expressing
life and consciousness. The harmonious
enunciation of consecutive syllables in the
Divine Creative Word mark successive stages
in evolution of the world and man. When the
last syllable has been spoken and the com-
plete word has sounded, we shall have reached
perfection as human beings. Then Time will
be at an end, and with the last vibration of
the Word of God, the worlds will be resolved
into their original elements. Our life will
then be " hid with Christ in God," till the Cos-
mic Night : — Chaos, — is over, and we wake to
do "greater things " in a "new heaven and a
new earth."

According to the general idea Chaos and
Cosmos are superlative antitheses of one an-
other. Chaos being regarded as a past condi-
tion of confusion and disorder which has long
since been entirely superseded by cosmic or-
der which now prevails.

As a matter of fact, Chaos is the seed-
ground of Cosmos, the basis of all progress,
for thence come all IDEAS which later ma-

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOKLD 113

terialize as Eailways, Steamboats, Tele-
phones, etc.

We speak of " thoughts as being conceived
by the mind," but as both father and mother
are necessary in the generation of a child, so
also there must be both idea and mind before
a thought can be conceived. As semen germ-
inated in the positive male organ is projected
into the negative uterus at conception, so
ideas are generated by a positive Human Ego
in the spirit-substance of the Eegion of ab-
stract Thought. This idea is projected upon
the receptive mind, and a conception takes
place. Then, as the spermatozoic nucleus
draws upon the maternal body for material
to shape a body appropriate to its individual
expression, so does each idea clothe itself in
a peculiar form of mindstufr*. It is then a
thought, as visible to the inner vision of com-
posite man, as a child is to its parent.

Thus we see that ideas are embryonic
thoughts, nuclei of spirit-substance from the
Eegion of abstract Thought. Improperly
conceived in a diseased mind they become va-
garies and delusions, but when gestated in a
sound mind and formed into rational thoughts
they are the basis of all material, moral and

114 THE KOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

mental progress, and the closer our touch
with Chaos, the better will be our Cosmos,
for in that realm of abstract realities truth is
not obscured by matter, it is self-evident.

Pilate was asked "what is Truth, " but no
answer is recorded. We are incapable of
cognizing truth in the abstract while we live
in the phenomenal world, for the inherent na-
ture of matter is illusion and delusion, and
we are constantly making allowances and cor-
rections whether we are conscious of the fact
or not. The sunbeam which proceeds for 90
millions of miles in a straight line, is refract-
ed or bent, as soon as it strikes our dense at-
mosphere, and according to the angle of its
refraction, it appears to have one color or an-
other. The straightest stick appears crooked
when partly immersed in water, and the
truths which are so self-evident in the Higher
worlds are likewise obscured, refracted or
twisted out of all semblance under the illu-
sory conditions of this material world.

"The truth shall set you free," said Christ,
and the more we turn our aspirations from
material acquisitiveness and seek to lay up
treasure above, the more we aim to rise, the
oftener we "get in the spirit," the more read-
ily we "shall know truth" and reach libera-

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD 115

tion from the fetter of flesh which binds us to
a limited environment, and attain to a sphere
of greater usefulness.

Study of philosophy and science has a ten-
dency to further perception of truth, and as
science has progressed it has gradually re-
ceded from its erstwhile crude materialism.
The day is not far off when it will be more
reverently religious than the church itself.
Mathematics are said to be "dry;" for they
do not stir the emotions. When it is taught
that "the sum of the angles of a triangle is
180 degrees," the dictum is at once accepted,
because its truth is self-evident and no feeling
is involved in the matter. But when a doc-
trine such as the Immaculate Conception is
promulgated and our emotions are stirred,
bloody war, or heated argument, may result,
and still leave the matter in doubt. Pythagor-
as demanded that his pupils study mathemat-
ics, because he knew the elevating effect of
raising their minds above the sphere of feel-
ing, where it is subject to delusion, and ele-
vating it towards the Eegion of abstract
Thought which is the prime reality.

In this place we are dealing with worlds in
particular, and will therefore defer comment

116 THE ROSICKUCIAN MYSTERIES

upon the remainder of the 5 first verses of St.
John's gospel:

"And Life became Light in man,
5) and Light shines in Darkness."

We have now seen that the earth is com-
posed of three worlds which interpenetrate
one another so that it is perfectly true when
Christ said that "heaven is within you" or,
the translation should rather have been;
among you. We have also seen that of these
three realms two are subdivided. It has also
been explained that each division serves a
great purpose in the unfoldment of various
forms of life which dwell in each of these
worlds, and we may note in conclusion, that
the lower regions of the Desire World con-
stitute what the Catholic religion calls Purga-
tory, a place where the evil of a past life is
transmuted to good, usable by the spirit as
conscience in later lives. The higher regions
of the Desire World are the first Heaven
where all the good a man has done, is assim-
ilated by the spirit as soul power. The Eegion
of concrete Thought is the second Heaven,
where, as already said, the spirit prepares
its future environment on earth, and the Ee-
gion of abstract Thought is the third Heav-

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 117

en, but as Paul said, it is scarcely lawful to
speak about that.

Some will ask: is there then no hell? — No!
The mercy of God tends as greatly towards
the principle of GOOD as "the inhumanity
of man" towards cruelty, so that he would
consign his brother men to flames of hell dur-
ing eternity for the puerile mistakes com-
mitted during a few years, or perhaps for a
slight difference in belief. The writer has
heard of a minister who wished to impress
his " flock " with the reality of an eternity of
hell flames, and to demonstrate the fallacy of
a heretical notion entertained by some of his
parisioners : that when sinners came to hell
they burn to ashes and that is the end.

He took with him an alcohol lamp and
some asbestos into the pulpit and told his
audience that God would turn their souls
into a substance resembling asbestos. He
showed them that though the asbestos were
heated red hot it did not decompose into
ashes. Fortunately the day of the hell
preacher has gone by, and if we believe the
Bible which says that "in God we live and
move and have our being," we can readily
understand that a lost soul would be an im-
possibility, for were one single soul lost, then

118 THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

logically a part of God Himself would be
lost. No matter what our color, our race or
our creed, we are all equally the children of
God and in our various ways we shall obtain
satisfaction. Let us therefore rather look
to Christ and forget Creed.

Creed or Christ?

No man loves God who hates his kind ;
Who tramples on his Brother's heart and

soul.

Who seeks to shackle ; cloud or fog the mind ;
By fears of Hell has nor perceived our
goal.

God-sent are all religions blest;

And Christ ; the Way, the Truth and Life,
To give the heavy-laden rest,

And peace for Sorrow, Sin and Strife.

At his request the Universal Spirit came ;

To all the churches; not to one alone,
On Pentecostal morn a tongue of flame;

Round each apostle as a halo shone.

Since then, as vultures ravenous with greed ;

We oft have battled for an empty name,
And sought by Dogma, Edict, Creed,

To send each other to the flame.

THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WOELD 119

Is Christ then divided? Was Cephas or Paul

Nailed to the cross to die?
If not : — then why these divisions at all ?

Christ's love doth embrace you and I.

His pure sweet love is not confined
By creeds which segregate and raise a
wall

His love enfolds, embraces Humankind
No matter what ourselves or Him we call.

Then why not take Him at His word?

Why hold to creeds which tear apart?
But one thing matters, be it heard,

That brother-love fill every heart.

There is but one thing that the world has

need to know;

There is but one balm for all our human woe
There is but one way that leads to heaven

above ;
That way is human sympathy and love,