CHAPTER VI.

THE MIND.

We have many so-called sciences of mind, promi-
nent among which is phrenology. This is recognized
as a science by most thinkers. The brain is recog-
nized as the organ of the mind, and mind is treated
as an entity — the Soul. I regard mind as the
light of the soul. It is a something the soul has
developed to enable it to come in contact with, and
to handle matter. The idiot has no mind, but he has
the power to suffer and enjoy. Now, it cannot logi-
cally be held that sense is mind, or that instinct is
mind ; infants have no mind, but they have the
capacity to develop mind. Thus mind is a thing that
grows and dies like a vegetable. Mind is a manifes-
tation of the soul, composed of various powers or
faculties. My mind is a machine I have made. It
belongs to me, as my body or my coat belongs to me.
It is my property. I may be robbed of it as I may
be of my money. True ! When my mind is gone I
am driven back, as it were, to a condition where
sense remains, but memory, reason, judgment and
will are not.

Mind is to me what the rudder is to a ship. By

68 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

the use of it I sail my frail bark over the stormy seas
of this life. Without it I am drifting like a piece of
drift-wood wherever the waves toss me. As a man
without property is considered nobody, so man with-
out a mind is, in fact ', a cipher.

As sense is the first manifestation of the soul,
mind is the second, and the body is the third. But
to observation the reverse seems to be true, inasmuch
as the body seems first, mind second, and the soul —
blank.

/ Sense surrounds the soul as the atmosphere sur-
rounds the earth, and constitutes a sensorium upon
which all things are photographed, all sounds vibrated,
all thoughts and emotions reflected. It is sense
which separates things, holds each atom and each
body in place, and establishes the relationship govern-
ing. It is the sense of a thing which constitutes it
a thing. Without sense things could not exist.

Without feeling there is no contact ; without hear-
ing, no sound ; without light, no colors, no beauty, no
deformity. Sense does all things : it is God. The
awakening of our dull senses is like unto an egg
in incubation. The soul is the germ. The sense is
the beautiful arrangement and adjustment of vital
elements hermetically sealed up in a shell (body).
Without this sealing up, this isolation or insulation,
this partition between us and God, we could not
exist. These bodies stand guard over our souls to
preserve individuality. They are our preservation
from the Infinite. The lightnings are chained

THE MIND. 69

down, bottled up, suspended in liquid form in the
egg> as fire quenched by water in wood, coal, or
storm-cloud. These bodies are important. Their
quality varies, according to the power contained
therein, as the shells of eggs vary. They subserve
the end of solidifying the fire into organic life. When
that is accomplished the shell becomes rotten, and
the fully-developed chick works its way out, into a
new life, or, rather, another stage of the same life,
for there is only one life — the life of sense or of "
God.

" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
Kingdom of God." " The Kingdom of God " is only
another and higher stage of life, and no man can
enter it save through the gestation and birth of a
Divine Body.

Ah ! the mysteries of being. Thou insignificant
egg ! Thou holdest in solution the incomprehensible
mystery of God and eternity ! In thy darkened
chambers God is waiting ! Thy spherical form speaks
of revolution as the primal law of all being ! " Her-
metically sealed " — so secure from curious eyes, so
full of "the elixir of life," and yet so fragile ! Thou
art the flame-tip liquefied ! Pure, beautiful thing !
Containing in thyself infinity, soul, mind, body and
spirit ! What doth thy hatching signify if it be not
immortality ? Thy wings speak of flight and liberty,
thy lungs of inspiration, thine eyes of light, beauty,
immortality and the beholding of it. Thy instinct
speaks of intuition and all knowing ! Even the

JO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

hovering of the Hen over thee typifies the " brood-
ing" care, and life-giving power of the Holy Spirit !
Art thou evolved from the " black muck," thou pure,
white thing? Can mud see, or can it make eyes
like thine ? Can it think, or can it evolve a thought
or a thing capable of thought, Or, rather, didst thou
not descend, little chick — as descends the glory of
the night — from the " mystery of the shadow " ?

As an egg in incubation receives heat, first in the
shell, and secondly in the albumen, so do impressions
come to the mind through the body by contact with
the outer world. The heat which causes growth of
vegetation, animals and men comes from without, and
it is through pressure, contact or impressions. Nature
is to man what the hen is to the egg. Physical con-
tact is required to warm up and influence things that
have little sense ; but to those who have mind, there
is a spiritual contact or impact, far more potent and
far-reaching.

It is considered that man has five senses : feeling,
hearing, seeing, smelling and tasting. But I claim
that there are many faculties of the mind, and only
one sense. Sense is nearest the soul, the mind
comes next. Through the mind the sense receives
the fire which quickens the germ in the soul, or the
egg. Sense may be said to be feeling. We see a
lovely flower — we feel pleasure. If it be some hor-
rible sight we are pained. We may see it at a
distance, but the effect is the same.

We come in contact with that which we see, hear

THE MIND. 71

and smell, as much as we do by taste or touch. We
see sights that electrify us. We hear sounds that
startle and urge us to action, as much as if we had
been struck a blow. We come in contact with things
and phenomena at a distance by sight and hearing, of
things nearer by touch and smelling, but it is all
feeling after all. The nerves of taste are only a little
more acute than those of the hands. We smell the
aroma of a rose, and we know it is near, although it
may be hidden. We are in contact with the rose,
for we have received something from it that has
made an impfession upon us. Its spirit has met
ours, and entering in, has added some fuel to the fire
burning within. New combinations have been formed
within us, and the rose has added its fire to ours.

Our spirits glow with a purer light from the con-
tact of love and beauty. All things grow by pressure,
contact or impressions. The impressions we receive
in our journey through life, from the gentle caress of
love to the discord and clash of opposing conditions,
are but for the reception of that Divine fire we
worshipped in the past.

"^-Each object we meet imparts its fire ; each ex-
perience we have, from the joys of a mother's heart
to the despair of the hopeless, is from the pressure
mother nature gives, as she warms and hatches her
brood. If we live properly we grow stronger and
stronger in all that makes the true man, till the rot-
ting shell (the body) bursts, and we fly away to
realms of immortal life.

72 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

Pressure comes by attraction, and this produces
growth by the gentle heat generated thereby ; but
the contact which comes by force is from repulsion,
and is death by conflagration. Fire struck out by
force is destructive. By attraction we receive what
we need, but by force more than we need, and often
that which is sickening.

Ask the pale, sickly mothers of th£ land if this is
not God's truth ! There is a mental or spiritual con-
tact of things, whose limit is unknown. It is not
possible for us to think of a thing, principle or state
of being that does not exist somewhere, within or
without the domain of " nature." To think of a
thing intensely is to see it in the mind ; and this sight
is clairvoyance.

To see a thing is to feel it ; this is contact, pres-
sure, impressions. The pressure upon the brain of a
thinker shows the power of thought and its contact.
The pleasure he feels in giving birth to that which
he hopes will do the world a great good, shows the
baptism with fire of which we read in the Scriptures.
~ Thought is the lightning's flash. It penetrates.
It is the sunlight. It warms and gives color to life.
It dwells in all things, for all things are suggestive of
thought. They provoke us to think. If we will not^
think, they send the plague, the famine, and a slow
decay. There are some rotten eggs in every nest.
Thought calls us out from ourselves, from our knowl-
edge of our weakness and follies — and then we are
great. To dwell in thought among the stars is to be

THE MIND. 73

in contact with the Gods, and to receiver from them
what otherwise we should not have. Thought is a
stimulant : it intoxicates. To be drunk with thought
is to provoke mirth, like any drunken man.

The sun illumines a little space on the earth, but
the darkness is before and behind, and all around.
Like a coward it flees away as the sun approaches,
and like a coward it follows close behind, as follows
the past upon the present.

We cannot stand still : we must move on. The
little thought we have flashes out into the darkness
before and behind. Memory looks back at the gloom
of almost forgotten joys, and from the dim twilight
of the past come the ghosts of evil deeds. Our
weakness and follies appear gigantic. They are alive
and active, but the little good we have done is
scarcely perceptible — is feeble, is crowded back, like
a small boy in a crowd.

Thought flashes a ray of hope — of prescience ;
and the world follows its light with a deathless trust.
For it, they tax themselves to build churches and to
support an army of priests. For this ray of light,
this spark of Divine fire, they go hungry and in rags,
patiently. Who shall say there is not a pressure
here, a contact as close as that of matter, impressions
that move the souls of mankind ?

We gain knowledge, laboriously, in the collection
of facts ; but these facts must be digested by the
mind before they can be of use. Thought, reason,
analysis, are the stomach of the mind. Here the fire

74 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

is extracted from facts, as life is from food in the
physical stomach. Doubt is indigestion. He who
digests the facts and phenomena of life, and still
doubts the immortality of man, has mental dyspepsia.
He does not get the fire, and consequently his spiritual
nature lacks warmth.

* He who properly digests the facts of life grows
warm and tender, and stronger in his trust towards
others. He dreams of immortality, for its fact is
impressed on his mind. In his dreams the mind
becomes telescopic, and he sees that which the
doubter scoffs at. But, nevertheless, he grows
stronger and stronger in his belief.

Long years ago I became very much interested in
clairvoyance. I wished to attain the power. I read
much and thought more. Sat in " circles/ ' used
magnets, insulated stools, galvanic bandages ; in fact,
exhausted all the methods within my reach, but with
the exception of a few " clouds " and "flashes of
light," my spiritual sight remained obscured. It was
late one stormy night in winter, in the little cottage
on the hill, overlooking "the father of waters," that,
after having lain on a couch for an hour as usual,
with a huge magnet in contact with my head, I re-
tired to bed, feeling sad and low-spirited. I lay for a
time listening to the moaning and wailing of the
winds, and pondering upon the subject which at that
time engrossed my entire being. All at once I be-
came conscious of a presence in my room. It was
intensely dark to the natural eye, but I saw clearly

THE MIND. 75

an old man, tall and majestic, with a lofty brow,
deeply plowed with thought-lines ; mild, gentle expres-
sion, long, white beard, and hair that fell on his
shoulders. He held in his hand a brass rim, inclosing
a circular glass. He held it up, and asked me to
examine it. I did so and found it a mirror. He
called my attention to the fact that it not only re-
flected objects, but retained the images impressed
thereon. "This,,, said he, " is the human mind,
which ordinarily has the power of reflection and
retention " (memory). He then pressed his thumbs
upon the glass holding the rim with his fingers. It
sunk with much difficulty under the pressure to the
depth of the rim. The glass then seemed a shade
smaller, but was still inclosed as before by a brass rim.
I looked in the dish-like mirror, and it seemed clouded ;
and strange, fanciful objects flitted across its surface.
Again he applied the pressure, and with some effort
the disk became deeper. Again I looked ; the clouds
had partially disappeared, and dimly seen, deep down
in the mirror, as if in the far distance, a lurid light
sent fitful gleams across the surface in the mirror.
Said he : " The mind, like this mirror, has the power
of elongation. Like this, the two first sections are
very difficult to start ; but these accomplished, and
the rest come easily." And he shoved rim after rim
out to the number of seven, and then bade me look.
I looked, and lo ! the wonders of the universe were
revealed. The light was clearer than the brightest
I ever saw. The ineffable glory of creative principle

J 6 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. *

flashed like lightning upon my brain. I could not
bear the steady flame, and turned my wondering eyes
to the face of "the stranger." He smiled, and
^/said : "The mind has a telescopic power, little known
to mortals. When once attained, there are no secrets
that may not be discovered/ ' And then he and the
" Magic Mirror " were gone. But I have nor for-
gotten the lesson.

In these pages, if you can comprehend the ideas,
you will find a verification of its truth, and the guide-
posts on the road to power. We can never know a
thing or principle except by contact therewith. Ideas
grow in the mind as vegetation grows in the earth.
Thoughts are the letters of a word ; the word is part
of a sentence. A complete sentence or a combina-
tion of incomplete sentences, contains an idea.

The word is the beginning of speech, or the first
materialization of an idea. Hence St. John says,
"In the beginning was the Word/' Now we may-'
think and think till we are exhausted, but if we con-
ceive no idea, and think it out to a clear and perfect
definition, it will do us no good ; it is like a plant
struck by frost, or withered by drouth. But if, in our
analysis of facts, we conceive an idea — - no matter
how vague — and dwell upon it in thought, it gradu-
ally takes form and grows to maturity. y

Maturity is a perfected idea. When an idea is
matured in the mind it enters into the soul, and be-
comes an integral part of the thinker, and he is
changed thereby.

THE MIND. 77

•/"We are changed by our thoughts. That which
leads us upward towards the good is expansive ;
hence, creative of power : but that which is debasing
leads downward, and is contraction, hence destructive
to power. The soul expands by fire, but contracts
for want of it. Fire is power ; and weakness is for
want of it. It will be seen from the foregoing that
the mind occupies an important position.

Everything that reaches the soul must pass through
it in the form of ideas. For the soul is an idea itself,
and nothing can enter the soul that is foreign to it.
Fire is the spirit in which ideas reside.

If man were natural, there could be no progress,
for he would be in a state of indifference. But, being
unnatural, he is progressive and intense — i.e., insane
in his mind. The real appears to him as unreal, and
the unreal as the real. From this cause he looks
upon the body as the man, and the mind as the effect
of the body — like "the blaze of a candle " — and
laughs at the idea of a soul or spirit. This state of
the mind is termed natural. I call it unnatural. But
we cannot help being unnatural on account of our
ignorance. Ignorance always blunders — weakness
always falls. The first act of the natural was a fall,
for he was ignorant. When fallen he struggles to
stand erect, for he has knowledge of an erect posture.
The unnatural is progressive.

In the creation of man instinct was suspended by
a reversal, or depolarization of it, in which it was dis-
solved as it were and scattered, and became the seeds

78 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

of many faculties. Each and every faculty of the
mind has instinct as its foundation. This scattering
or division of instinct may have been, and undoubt-
edly was, a slow process, occupying many ages.

Man is the only thing that comes into existence
totally helpless, totally blank of intelligence : hence
the death of instinct must have culminatad in his
creation.

The tossing waves of instinct, torn from the depths
of creation's ocean, tossed to mountain heights, and
beaten to froth, subsided in a great calm ! Anon, a
breath of the Infinite fanned the great deep, and man
sprang into being !

This calm is a great rest of nature as she gathers
her forces for another effort : it is the soul as it
expands ; the vacuum that provokes motion. The
tornado was coming ; all nature held its breath in
expectancy ! It came in the shape of mind. Ever
since its advent there has been no more calm. From
sun to sun, from star to star, from pole to pole, from
centre to circumference, there is agitation. Nature
seems torn from her moorings. Her steady and
quiet ways seem broken in upon as by a God. She
is all turned topsy turvy. And she, good dame,
has joined in the mad revelry, as at her own nup-
tials. Nature seems to have departed from her usual
methods ; an innovation has been made, as if the
absent Lord had returned, or a god had descended !
From this point — from this great calm, this rest and
expansion, this birth — work is the law. The first

THE MIND, 79

effort was a failure because there was no guide, no
knowledge. A failure ! Such a thing was unknown
to nature. Astonished and bewildered, the soul^
shrinks and collapses in giving the awful thing birth !
A failure ! If being forced back from multiplicity to
unity — if being compelled in a new creation to go
back to the starting point — indifferent sense — to
work outward again to multiplicity — if this be a
failure, then man is a failure. And every man who
weeps over the weaknesses, follies and sufferings
of poor benighted humanity, recognizes it as such.
Every man who has an idea of improving the race
knows there is something wrong.

But nature, like an over-indulgent mother, says to
her child: "It is no failure, my child; try again/ '
And sinking herself in her great love for him, be-
comes the involuntary powers of her child. For her
spoiled child she bears patiently every abuse. She
breathes for him while he sleeps. She labors as he
directs ; while he, visionary that he is, is busy build-
ing castles in the air. She walks, if he says walk ;
he takes no thought of the distance or the steps : all
he has to do is to direct her. If he fails to point the
way, through forgetfulness, she goes astray, for she
seems to be blind ; but she keeps on walking till he
says stop. If, in his perversity, he takes up some
habit that will eventually ruin him, she adapts herself
to his whim, and carries it on without his volition,
even to his death ; when he forgets it, she reminds
him of it. In his sleep she still labors for him to
V

80 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

restore the waste of his unnatural life ; still whisper-
ing, " Try again!'

If he hates, she keeps it in his mind. If he re-
solves to commit some crime, she assists him as
readily as to do a good act, always whispering, " Try
again''

<• If an incurable disease attacks her child, she fights
for him while he directs, and in the manner that he
directs, but when he loses control she joins forces
with the adversary to hurry on the work of dissolu-
tion. Even in death she reminds him of his habits.
Nature seems to be a blind force, an indifferent thing;
if it be a thing. She knows nothing, feels nothing ;
she simply furnishes us with the power to think and
feel, whispering, " Try again ! "

It is no fiction, — the fall of man, — but it is an
allegorical representation of a truth : or, in other
words, the effort of a great mind to explain the life
we live — the principles of being. The acts we do
furnish the light of experience. The man who trusts
in himself and walks out boldly gains the most. He
who trusts in God, although the happiest, gains the
least knowledge. If we fall and hurt ourselves, we
have the freedom to climb up again. And though
we may not climb back to the same place, we may go
higher.

Ever since the "fall," man has been scaling the
precipices of his weaknesses and failures. The point
I call your attention to is this : All acts have their
beginning and inception in the mind. Hence all

THE MIND. 8 1

violations of law, with their attendant pain, disease,
weakness, and death, spring from mind. All viola-
tion is a creation. Hence all creation is a mental
product.

As acts flow from the mind, so matter flows from
the mind ; for acts materialized are matter. This
being so, the more Divine the mind is, the greater
will its creative power be. The evolution of matter
from itself having any quality or form, or the dissolv-
ing of matter already formed, by the suspension of
atomic laws, is logical, and within the range of man's
power, as a Divine Being. ^As a creator, all creation
is in his grasp, and he is therefore the architect of
himself, and his heavens or his hells. The concep-
tion of a thing is the beginning of its growth, Hell
grows out of our minds : so also does heaven ; but
hell is largest. So also a Divine body may be grown
by conception, gestation and birth in the mind.

Hell is fed by our desires to see our enemies suffer,
and from a spirit of retaliation and revenge.

82 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.