CHAPTER XVIII.

WILL-CULTURE.

Let him who aspires to power commence by a
close and critical analysis of himself. As will is the
extraordinary of man, its culture is the culture of the
entire man, and the regeneration of him — or another
creation. The methods of it will be found as extraor-
dinary as God himself — for how can a thing culti-
vate itself without God's help ? And God's methods
are not our methods.

The three great principles of the selfhood, from,
by and through which all actions come, are ( i ) Love ;
(2) Imagination; (3) Will. The Imagination is
neutral, as indifference or nature ; Will is masculine ;
Love is feminine. As a husbandman must till the
soil in order to make it productive, so must a man
culture his loves in order to produce will-power.
As a slave must first overcome his master before
he can be free, so must the will overcome its loves :
hence love is the way of freedom, of regeneration,
and power.

Self-analysis shows impurities which must, as a
primary step, be removed. There can be no progress
without vastation. The old habits, vices, follies,

WILL-CUL TURE. 233

modes of thought, loves, hates, envy, jealousies, covet-
ousness, fear, pride and egotism must all die and be
buried far out of sight as a preparatory step to soul-
growth ; as will is cultivated and made strong in the
subduing of those things which limit its freedom
and power. Purity is the only thing that cannot be
destroyed ; therefore, the purity of love, will and
wisdom are immortal.

It is only the semblance of real things which dies
or changes ; hence, that which is supposed to be real
love, or real will, or real wisdom, is only the sem-
blance of the real, for they change or die. Thus in
the regeneration, the semblance must pass away to
give place to the real. These bodies are mere reflec-
tions of ourselves, with which we, seeing them in
the mirror or mirage of nature, fall in love and, em-
bracing, die.

This law is the same in relation to sex-love —
we love the reflex of ourselves which we see in the
mirror as woman. This is not real love, for its
operations being downward, we propagate only our
kind, or conditions, or emanations, which are antag-
onistic to us ; while real love propagates new atoms

— parts of a divine body, unchangeable and eternal

— its operations are upward, and its emanations
mingle in the essence of God.

The infinite is all power, and it is man's field of
operation. It encompasses him round about ; it bends
to him with anything for which he asks ; but we must
work for what we want. " Not every one that saith,

234 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

Lord ! Lord ! shall enter the Kingdom ; but he that
doeth" — i.e., he that worketh with a will in the right
direction. Now the road to power lies through the
perfection of our nature, which consists first in the
attainment of duality. I have already spoken of
ideal love, of its conception, growth and union, or
marriage in the spirit. Now, the true methods of
will-culture have for their object growth. Soul-
growth is inward, by letting go of outward things,
and looking forward to the realization of a true life
in which true love appears as one with the will, or
the female united to the male in real durable oneness
of being, or marriage.

There can be no union of objects ; therefore, man
and woman, being separated entities, are not one — -
neither can they be — on this earth ; and marriage is
but a semblance or type of a reality, or changeless
condition, as a union of two in one, or two in spirit.
Harmony must be first had in the individual ere it
can be effected with another, and for this reason a
lifetime of effort or culture is necessary in which
things inharmonious or at variance with each other
are to be avoided.

Owing to the inharmonies of marriage (and the
loss of power therein) the Essenes and Rosicrucians
of old discarded marriage as something unreal, and
lived lives of celibacy. For this reason the Buddh-
istic and Catholic priesthood are not permitted to
marry. Further reasons are set forth in regard to
the nature of sin, to which the reader is referred.

WILL-CUL TURE. 235

In order to destroy that which retards the soul in its
flight, viz., sin, its opposite or antagonist must be
strengthened ; to this end the whole mind must be
given up to the contemplation of such things as make
the soul sick and disgusted with sin.

This creates another emotion antagonistic to love,
viz., feelings of disgust at that after which the world
runs mad. Love is an emotion. Will is motion, but
love is a reflex of it, or an emotion, or wo-man, because
emotions ruin the will or the man in leading it into
captivity. The object of love is to join itself to the
will in order to increase power to enjoy, as a loving
wife works for and delights in the happiness of her
husband. So woman should not unite with man save
for the purpose of begetting life, spirit, power. In
true marriage, according to the divine intention of it,
there are no children, and no disease ; neither do
they die.

To have an ideal elevated, pure and full of rest and
unalloyed pleasure, is to have the pain of disappoint-
ment in realization. It is to kindle a consuming fire
at your very vitals, which you are obliged to quench
by the will, because no heart answers your heart-
throbs and because all fall short of your ideal love.
This is for him to suffer who aspires to be some-
thing more than the common. There is no greatness
not born of pain, and there is no pain greater than
that of a heart bruised ; for it is so soft and flexible,
that it will not break.

Sexual love has the strongest hold of and of the

236 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

passions ; it is the hardest for the will to turn from
its lust. The effort to idealize love in the imagina-
tion is analogous to that of the libertine and de-
bauchee — only one is chaste while the other is
impure. The onanist sees in his imagination the
object of his lust, and thus acting upon his emotions
pollutes himself. It is the same with the libertine.
These emotions that destroy power and the soul are
created by an inward action; and in proportion to
the power of concentration is the spirit drawn within,
condensed and projected, and thus the life, spirit and
power thrown away. But this wasted virility, though
lost to the man, is not lost in nature, for it is a pro-
toplasm from which spring infusoria, worms, insects,
reptiles, etc., which are a curse to the earth and man-
kind. Your ideal love may not be a very near
approach to true love ; but your highest conception
of womanly beauty, purity, goodness, truth, grace and
excellence, coupled with form and action, is your
estimate of it, and as such is your kingdom of power
towards which you grow rapidly or slowly as the case
may be.

Control must begin at home — in the selfhood.
But how, or in what manner, can a thing culture and
control itself? How can the will regulate its own
action ? The will has the nearest approach to free-
dom of anything of which we know. Love is limited
by the sensibilities, and wisdom, by that which we
learn ; but will, being free from emotion, is free to
produce emotions according to its love and wisdom.

WILL-CUL TURE. 237

So love and wisdom are the shackles of the will.
Now we do not control that which we love, but that
which we love controls us. Hence the necessity of
subduing love as the beginning of the road to power.
We do not destroy love, but we wean it from sensu-
ous objects. Thus weaned, it becomes as one with
the will in its freedom, and the flights of the soul.
This is the At-one-ment — (Atonement). Love can-
not be purified. " There is no impure love," said
P. B. Randolph. What we call purifying love is
merely the vastating of pretences. Love itself is hon-
est ; but this world's love is but a pretence of what
it is not. It is the shame, in order to hide which,
God clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of animals.
If all the shame were removed from mankind, the
little love left would be very small indeed.

Will-culture is a thing altogether antagonistic to
general religious ideas ; for the will is generally con-
sidered of the " evil one " — to be broken and crushed.
With this idea I am at variance. We have far too
little power, and to increase it is the acme of all
religion. It is in the false direction of power wherein
evil exists, not in the power itself. To enlighten the
mind, then, or to culture the imagination, is to con-
trol man's creative powers or loves and guide them in
the right direction.

All culture must begin at home. Begin by a re-
construction of yourself. If you feel that you are
superior to others, disabuse yourself of that idea at
once. In arrogance there is no growth of the soul.

238 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

To feel as you really are, is to feel very weak and
very small. In order to rise above the common level,
you must be real. To feel equal is to feel real and
to be real. Let every man have his opinions in
freedom — the rights you claim, freely grant to others.
Thus you pluck the motes out of your eye. Judge
no man, for you know not his motives. The free-
dom you claim for yourself, that grant to others, even
in thought and feeling — for freedom is the principle
of growth — the first and the last, and the only prin-
ciple in existence. He who is bound by love, hate,
or any passion whatever, is not free. How can he
then expect to have power ?

Power only comes by freedom. To be free, then,
necessitates a cutting loose of the bonds of slavery.
To love nothing, to hate nothing, to have no likes or
dislikes, to have no prejudices, no tastes, no prefer-
ences— this it is to be free. The little power we
have comes from freedom. Now let him, who expects
to culture his will, bear in mind this fact — that it
cannot be done for a selfish or mercenary purpose. I
am aware that one part of it, viz., firmness and self-
esteem may be cultivated and increased, but it is not
real culture of the will after all, but a throwing out of
balance of the will, which is destructive in the main.

All power, to be lasting, must descend from the
higher to the lower, as a baptism ; and this descent
is accomplished by and through the feminine of will
— viz., Continuity. The second effort of will is in the
propulsion of force into the nerves — as in grasping

WILL-CULTURE. 239

by the hand or in striking a blow. But the first
effort is in the gathering together of force before
striking. The latter is expansive like the inflation of
the lungs ; while the former is exhaustive as in the
expiration of the breath.

Inflation is the beginning or foundation of all
power. This is concent rat ive, and involves the exer-
cise of continuity. The greater the concentration,
the greater will be the power manifested — either in
physical, mental, or spiritual effort. In making a
great physical effort, there must be a stimulant or an
excitement, in order to produce a manifestation of
the full power of the individual. This excitement is
a mental effort in which the mind expands to its ut-
most tension of energy, feeling, or want of feeling,
a resolution is formed, born or begotten, and the
nerves and muscles become braced — filled to over*
flowing with force.

The whole person expands, as a prospective mother,
and is eager to deliver itself of its superabundant
force, energy or burden. When full to overflowing
with anger, love or any passion, we are eager to
express it : but the first effort is to be full. This is
a mental effort in which the will gets its excitement
from dwelling upon wrongs, or love, in the imagina-
tion. This " brooding' ' over wrongs, or dwelling
upon things in thought involves the exercise of con-
tinuity. From this it is known that the real power
of will comes from the feminine part of it, viz., con-
centration or continuity.

240 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

It is also evident that the more one believes in the
reality of the wrong or love, the fuller they will be-
come of love or anger, and the power of its manifes-
tation will be proportionally greater. Now this is
exactly the case with all occult or spiritual power.
The excitement of the will comes from dwelling upon
an idea or an object to be attained and in the resisting
of the excitement of the passions. In fact, the cul-
ture of the will is in the alternate excitement of the
passions, and in subduing the same without expres-
sion.

For instance : — some one wrongs you a little ;
you seize upon it as if it were a sweet and delicious
morsel, and by constantly thinking of it in its most
aggravating features, and by dwelling upon it, you
work yourself into a mental fever in which you feel
like "knocking down," "kicking," "shooting," and
" dragging out," — but you do no such thing ; and
before your passion is too strong for you, you turn
your mind to another feature of the wrong, and be-
gin to look upon it as not quite so hideous, after all,
and gradually it grows less and less, as the excite-
ment cools down.

You have not manifested this to the world, but it
has had an effect upon you. Your will power has
grown in the exercise. Physical power grows by
manifestation, but spiritual power, by silent suppres-
sion or repression. If you express your power physi-
cally, it is lost to you spiritually. Hence the motto :
" Silence is strength."

WILL-CULTURE. 24 1

In thus exciting yourself, and then controlling
yourself, you are creating power, as well as teaching
the involuntary powers obedience. After practicing
for awhile this exercise, you will find you are becom-
ing very excitable, and you can excite yourself even
without any outward provocation. A jealous person
can easily become half crazy about nothing. In this
manner you learn how to create emotions of a low
order first, and then you gradually step up to emo-
tions of a higher order, such as mirth, love, pity,
rapture ; but of all creative emotions, that of love
transcends all else.

To gaze at a dead body with worms crawling in
and out, and look at it as human, and think that that
is the end of all flesh, and that you will be the same
in a short time, disgusts one fearfully with the follies
of life, and tames the passions of any man who thinks
at all. This helps the will to gain the ascendency ;
but after seeing it once or twice, you can see it in
your mind at any time, and thus subdue all low and
unworthy thoughts and feelings — this strengthens
the will. " He who keeps death in view seldom does
a wrong."

The will that cannot create emotions by its own
effort is weak : it needs a stimulant. To keep your
heart young and full of tenderness and love for your
companion, think of her as when you wooed and won
her. To destroy your love, think of it in connection
with something disgusting and low, and it will speed-
ily die ; but do not be deceived ; some things die

242 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

very hard. Habits take hold of the vitals. Many
who read these lines may be able to see what they
desire in the mind without physical contact. Such
can develop power rapidly.

Others, again, will need some aggravating circum-
stances to stir the emotions. To provoke another to
anger with words, looks and gestures, and then sub-
due yourself with a thought, and control and subdue
the other by the creations of mirth or grief, is a good
exercise, but a dangerous one.

Who can stand and calmly take a blow without
resentment ? But it was in view of this same sub-
ject that Jesus said : " If a man smite you on one
cheek, turn the other also." Habits are hereditary
as well as acquired. They, like diseases, are hard to
cure. All habits of the ordinary man tend outward,
and hence are weakening. To be more than ordinary,
work against habits. This is done only by creating
other and opposite habits.

" Does thine eye offend thee, pluck it out ! " or
train it not to see objects external, by turning it in-
wardly. Perhaps you are fond of some particular
article of diet — you love the taste of it. Pork, for
instance. You first satisfy yourself that it feeds
scrofula and the humors of the blood, and you desire
to leave it off. You go to work to kill the taste for
it by becoming disgusted mentally with the thing
you delight in. It is done by meditation. Imagine
a stomach filled with flesh fermenting and working
as do maggots in carrion. Flesh in the stomach, as

WILL-CULTURE. 243

in the sun, becomes putrid. It is nothing but a bit
of corpse dressed and cooked, that I am eating. Be-
hold the market, hung round and round with corpses,
not unlike my own, if it were dressed like these. A
little while ago they were moving, living beings, like
myself. I know that I become like that upon which
I feed. See the swine. The scavenger of the filth
of living things; what a loathsome object, and I am
his scavenger. " I am naught but a sepulchre full of
rotten flesh/ '

Behold the butcher ! A living corpse cutting up
dead ones, while others stand eagerly looking on,
with mouths watering like dogs for the feast of
rottenness. See the carts hurrying away to the
meat shops, laden with corpses yet warm with life,
their naked, mutilated limbs mutely appealing to
heaven against the horrid butchery, while a demon in
human form sits driving to the charnel house.

By persistence in such thoughts, the taste changes,
and the stomach heaves at the sight or thought which
we conjure in regard to food or anything else.
Thought is sight, feeling, tasting, smelling, etc., all
in one. The taste changes, as our thoughts change
in regard to it. Just so with all the passions.

There is no virtue where there is no temptation ;
no merit where there is no demerit ; no grace where
there is no sin ; no power where there are no obsta-
cles. The greater the obstacle overcome, the greater
the glory of the achievement. The filthiest thing con-
tains the most life ; but this life is worthless till utilized.

244 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

The will is the husbandman, who, if needs be,
drains his ground, enriches, plows, harrows, plants
and cultivates his crop. If he be not slothful, he
shall, according to nature's laws, reap his harvest.
So with the aspirant to power ; he must prepare his
body, his blood must be filtered, and the acids and
alkalis harmonized, and the flesh made soft, sweet
and glowing. Drugs will not do this. The body
must be reached through the mind, or not at all.

It is a well-known fact that the imagination affects
the body. Fear, disgust, and in fact, all the passions
have an effect upon the blood. One may accelerate
the action of the heart, while another retards it. All
the passions get their excitement from the imagina-
tion. So the imagination is the connecting link
between the body and the soul. It is the door be-
tween the visible and the invisible worlds of sense.
To purify the body, then, the will must affect it
through the imagination. The imagination corrupts
the blood ; why may it not purify it as well ? That
we do not know how this is done is no argument
against this proposition. Love tinges the cheek with
the glow of magnetic health ; fear congeals the blood ;
disgust produces neuralgia, and lust produces con-
sumption. Hate dries up and coagulates the humors ;
covetousness produces dyspepsia, — and so on to the
end of the chapter.

Every passion, and even thought and reason have
their roots in the imagination. The effect which things
have upon us depends upon the way we look at

WILL-CULTURE, 245

them. Beauty and deformity spring alike from the
imagination. We receive the spirit of a thing by
looking at it — smelling, tasting, hearing — and more
than all by thinking of it. We get the grossness of
food by eating it, but the real life of it is extracted
by the thoughts we have of it. In other words the
ideas we have in regard to the quality and use of
food impart to it something akin to themselves.

Thus the body may be gradually changed by diet ;
not so much by quality as by quantity ; for the will
imparts any desired quality.

A very, sensitive person suffers nausea at the sight
of that which is loathsome — to conjure up that thing
in the imagination has the same effect. Many a per-
son is afflicted with dyspepsia and other disorders
from a settled conviction that it is inevitable. The
idea that you will cure yourself is better than medi-
cine. The idea that you will eat simply because you
are obliged to do so in order to live, and not for the
pleasure of eatings is better in reality than food or
fasting ; but to eat, drink and love for the sole object
of attaining immortal power, and not for the sensuous
gratification of the appetites or passions, is to work
upon the mind, blood, body and spirit as God works
— downward. This downward operation eliminates
the grossness, and leaves the essences or life for your
use.

Remember this simple thing : All impurities re-
suit from compounding, or combining different sub-
stances > fluids > magnetisms and spirits in one. Purity

246 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

is oneness. The simpler the diet the better ; one
thing is better than three, four or a dozen. Never
eat for pleasure, eat only when hungry, and stop
while still hungry. To test your power of will, think
of something sickening as you gaze upon your food ;
if your stomach rejects the food from that cause, you
have no need of any more food at that time — cease
eating at once. If you drop your knife, fork or
spoon, or have any such mishap at the table, cease
eating. Never think how your food tastes, and never
indulge in talk and laughter while eating ; let your
thoughts be fixed upon the object to be attained,
whether it be the elimination of disease, grossness,
bad habits, etc., or the building up of the dual divine
nature wherein all power resides.

The one great curse of civilization (?) is gormandiz-
ing. We need very little food if the truth were
known ; just enough should be taken into the stomach
to form a nucleus of attraction for the spirit to mate-
rialize itself, or condense and form new particles of
blood, nerve and flesh. Behold ! the miracle of the
loaves and fishes as an illustration of this principle.
Food multiplies itself in the half-filled stomach, when
it is left vacant from a principle ; but when the stom-
ach is full there is no room for multiplication or
condensation to take place, and a filthy, rotting,
destructive process takes the place of divine and life-
improving process.

The life of the body comes from the spirit, and
not wholly from the food we take in at the mouth.

WILL-CULTURE. 247

The full stomach crowds out the spirit, and there
is no room left for the action of the spirit. Besides,
the spirit feeds upon that which is in harmony with
it in its passage to and from, and radiation about the
body, and passing into the body deposits therein that
life which it has accumulated.

Look at Dr. Tanner, fasting forty days ! * Look
at the fast of Jesus for forty days, and then behold
Gautama Buddha, living seven years alone in the

* Says Dr. Alexander Wilder of Orange, N. J., in a letter to me after the first
edition of this work was published :

" I notice that you mention Dr. Tanner. I watched with him several times, and
was present at the end. Of the genuineness of the matter there is no room for two
opinions. No man willing to be candid can possibly doubt the evidence. That
' Science gained nothing by it ' (as often asserted), was solely because the men who
dictate what shall be regarded as science, determined in advance that no observa-
tion or fact ascertained should be accepted. Yet enough was observed in 1880, to
have preserved the life of Gen. Garfield in 1881, if it had been put to use. * * * I
was somewhat disappointed in my observation of Dr. Tanner. Having read of
trances, ecstatic visions, and intimate communications with the interior world, in
connection with prolonged fasts, I hoped to witness something of the sort now. I
did not. His mind was always clear, but his temper was somewhat irritable. The
senses became exquisitely keen. For 15 days he drank nothing ; he was a distressed
sight. He actually gained weight for a day or two after resuming. But he was
very sensitive ; he could ill tolerate Croton water and went daily to a spring in
Central Park for a supply. He also complained of the air at Clarendon Hall —
very justly. The spectators would have worn me out ; how he endured them I
cannot well surmise. Yet several individuals did remark a loss of strength after
being near him. This fact of the fast is not so very remarkable. But for our
abominable materialism we could easily perceive the matter. Griscom, in Chicago,
fasted 45 days. The Hindoo Fakirs and others do the same. Perhaps the powers
most valuable are hidden. We make too much account of meat and drink, and far
too little of the forces about us that transcend these. A tree will grow and not
exhaust the soil materially. A coral reef is a mass of lime gathered where no lime
is. A chick in the egg gets a skeleton from substance that chemistry does not
reveal the existence of. The diatomes built a mass of flinty stone under Petersburg,
in Virginia. I opine that living things transmute forces into matters, by changing
their polarity, so that the problem, imputed incorrectly to the alchemists, of trans-
mutation, is solved by the living beings of this earth. * * * There is a brother-
hood of true men, and they recognize each other by a pass-word , more expressive
than any symbolism of a society. # * * "

248 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

forests of Thibet, subsisting wholly upon berries and
roots ; and at last throwing himself at the foot of
"the sacred Bodhi tree," vowing that he would not
again taste food until he had achieved his object, viz.,
the attainment of supernatural energy, and when
so weak with the long fast that he could no longer
stand upon his feet, how the "Dewas" (celestial
beings) came and fed and nursed him. Did he attain
his object? Look at the results and then judge.
He lived about five hundred years before Christ, and
died when he got ready (at the age of eighty years) ;
founding the greatest religion that man has ever
known, whose adherents numbered a few years ago
the enormous figure of three hundred and sixty-nine
millions, and that without violence or bloodshed.
(See Hardy's "Eastern Monachism.")

Those who eat the least have the best health and
last the longest. Life is sustained more from the
atmosphere and electricity than from the solid food
taken into the stomach. It is the essence of things
which is of greatest value, and the essence is not
limited to the solid substance, but radiates round
about as its aura — intangible to our dull senses, but
nevertheless existing. It is upon the aura of things
that the spirit feeds, and according to the attractive
power of the soul is its pasture. So long as the spirit
is fat it will feed the body.

The glutton has a weak, lean, hungry spirit, and
little will-power. The diseased forms which meet the
eye at every turn, are evidence of weak, small, spirit-

WILL-CUL TURE. 2 49

less will — and collapsed and angular souls. They
present a ravenous multitude, a standing mockery of
nature, and a clamorous rebuke of the wisdom of an
infinite Creator. When diseased, in pain and trouble,
how nice it is to lay the blame on fate, nature or
God. But if we would only stop and think that we
have to suffer from the malignity or mistakes of the
relentless power which compels us to exist, and that
no prayers are answered save those of the will, we
would philosophically shoulder the power to be as
much as to do and to suffer.

We could then see clearly that the diseases, fail-
ures and mistakes ascribed to fate are due to our
own ignorance, weakness, and headstrong folly. We
have to bear the consequences of our acts — why not
claim the credit of causation ? So long as we can
ascribe our acts to circumstances, nature, fate, or
God, we trust to luck and drift like bubbles upon the
frothing deep — effortless.

It takes effort to accumulate property ; it takes
effort to be a man under all circumstances ; but it
costs no effort to be a beggar or a knave. This has
become so common that it has given rise to the trite
saying, that "man is prone to do evil as the sparks
are to fly upward." It is far easier to fall than to
climb ; but it hurts fearfully at the bottom. The
labor of climbing is pleasant after you get used to it ;
for the higher you climb the more vigorous you be-
come, and the purer the atmosphere. Why ? Because
the climber is ascending towards life, while he who

2 SO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

falls is descending towards pain, disease, weakness,
darkness, death and nonentity. Will-culture is the
royal ladder, anchored in God's throne, and reaching
to every soul.

You cannot carry much grossness, either of body,
mind or spirit, up that ladder. Grossness is always
positive, and very difficult to become negative. But
the greater the grossness, the greater the power when
the victory is won. Paul understood this. He says
in substance, " Where sin abounds, grace doth much
more abound.' ' I have already explained the reason.
It takes a great soul to excel in anything. Great
criminals are always men of greatness, misdirected.

The mind is a wandering vagrant ; like the eye, it
wanders restlessly in quest of new things. But "let
your eye be single/' and your mind will follow after.
Look steadily at a speck on the wall — think steadily
of one thing — and gradually there steals over you
strange sensations, as clouds and flashes of light pass
before your vision. To make the mind single — as
an eye with the motes plucked out sees only one ob-
ject— limit the range of thought. In this you are
drawing the mind to a focus preparatory to elonga-
tion. As the eye with dust therein sees nothing dis-
tinctly, so the mind untrained has no focus, no depth,
no clairvoyance ; it wanders in a maze of error.

To call its scattered forces together is a herculean
task, but it is small compared to the focusing of the
spirit. As involuntary powers follow the lead of
the voluntary — as the mind follows the direction of

WILL-CUL TURE. 2 5 1

the eye, being fixed when the eye is fixed — so spirit
obeys the will. Agitation of the body disturbs the
mind; agitation of the mind distracts and confuses
the spirit, so that the will is deprived of its means to
execute. Hence the necessity of calmness.

Continuity is that which produces rest and satisfac-
tion, as the love of a woman. It is the feminine of
will, and creates by persistent effort. In deep, pro-
found meditation the soul becomes pregnant with
greatness, for the spirit, no longer driven from the
soul by outward motions and emotions, slowly comes
home to the soul, being called in and projected up-
ward and inward. As spirit is fire, or that which
produces fire, there is heat produced by its accumu-
lation, which in time blazes forth, at first soft and
mild, in great sheets of light, afterwards as the forked
lightning. This light is life, which feeds the spirit
body, and gives it strength and growth.

It is in this turning within, this meditation, that
the positive will becomes the negative ; and when
pushed to extremes, total abstraction or forgetfulness
follows. This is Trance. In trance the angels and
celestial spirits are attracted, for the whole universe
of spirit impinges upon the soul, by virtue of its at-
tractive power. The Heavens are opened, and there
is nothing hid from the truly great will. It pierces
to any centre of power, energy, love, or knowledge,
and drags therefrom its secrets.

This is indeed the closet wherein Jesus told his
disciples to enter when they prayed ; and to pray in

252 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

secret, not letting the right hand know what the left
hand doeth. In this way is the answer of prayer
possible. "God is a spirit, and they who worship
Him must worship in spirit and in truth.' ' To be in
a trance is to be enveloped in spirit — to be " bap-
tized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire.,, No de-
ception, no untruth can enter here. Truth elevates
the soul, and is a condition requisite to acquisition of
all occult knowledge and power. To be true to your-
self is to be true to God. To be true to conditions
is to be divested of all fear, distrust, and doubt ; these
bar the way and close the door.

An abiding faith in the Infinity of Power, and belief
in the ability of the soul to rise to realms thereof, are
essentially basic principles of progress. To awaken
the soul from its long sleep of the ages, a preparation
is necessary. All passions must be put to sleep.
The temper must be subjugated, and the animosities
of nature must be destroyed. This is a herculean
task to most men, but unless this be done, let no one
boast of his will-power.

The reason is obvious why these conditions are
requisite. The larger the soul the greater the agita-
tion of the elements within its radius ; and the pas-
sions being the easiest disturbed are all in excessive
activity. This explains why many noble-souled men
go to the bad. Those capable of soaring the highest
fall the lowest when bereft of self-control. The soul
is an absolute calm, and when all things are calm out-
side it expands itself as if to burst its prison-walls ;

WILL-CULTURE. 2$$

then the Unnatural rushes upon its prisoner to over-
come its power and destroy it. The calm warm sun-
shine of summer days creates vast vacuums in the
atmosphere ; then come the cyclone, the tornado, the
lightning. These are nature's passions, which rage
till the vacuum is subdued.

The essential office of the soul is to create, and it
does this by motions and emotions. Repulsion drives,
diffuses, and scatters the spirit abroad. Attraction
draws, not only its own to itself, but the aura or spirit
of other things, which it appropriates so far as it is
able. And this appropriation or fusion of elements
is either elevating and life-giving, or is destructive.

The fire of things is life, and there are no com-
pounds thereof — it is one ; but the aura of things is
graded from fire to the grossest stench, which, united,
form a compound that is not pure. Purity feeds the
fire-body, in which death and destruction have no
place.

Water in agitation becomes pure, but stagnant
water has more life in it than running water. Of
course the spirit in concentration becomes stagnant
for a time, and in this stagnation, as in stagnant
water, life in myriad forms springs into being. But
ere they have being in the spirit, by persistent effort
of will, in concentration upon the Idea of a Divine
body, this life is condensed, indrawn, or compelled to
take form as One.

I am aware that there is a spiritual body which
forms at death, but it is not an immortal body. This

254 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

has been seen and described by many clairvoyants,
and is spoken of by Paul ; but the Divine body is
formed in this body during earth-life, or it is not
formed at all. It is not a compound, neither is it
corruptible matter. It is not seen by you, but you
will know of it by having a feeling of immortal life
and undying power within. When perfected, all
power in heaven and in earth will be yours — not
as a man, but as a God.

"A mere fancy sketch " — "a picture of a dis-
ordered brain I'' Nevertheless, it is a shadow of
creative power, projected from the realm of the in-
comprehensible beyond !

To return to our subject. In the concentration
of spirit is increased life, sensation, sensitiveness,
motions, emotions, and power of all sensuous enjoy-
ments. Hence many fall into the slough of sense on
the road, and never get out.

The body is filled to overflowing with spirit (mag-
netism miscalled), and the entire being vibrates with
pleasure-seeking emotions and longings. None but
the pure can pass over this bridge ; the impure fall
at "the threshold." Monstrous shapes stand guard
here — " Cherubim " with "flaming swords " guard-
ing "the way to the tree of life/'

It is the combustion of the compounds in the
spirit which causes the commotion, and if it is re-
sisted, they become rectified in time.

First be thoroughly satisfied in your own mind
that the road to calmness, tranquillity, and peace,

WILL-CUL TURE. 2 5 5

is the only way to health and happiness. I am not
going to argue this point, it is the universal instinct
of all thinking, reasonable men — none but savages
will dispute it. This point settled, then go to work
to attain it.

This is done by a constant and eternal watchful-
ness. As I before stated, the passions must be con-
trolled, subdued, and brought into total and abject
subjection to the will. This is best accomplished by
setting apart one hour each evening for meditation.
During this hour you think only of the weakness and
folly of anger, lust, avarice, envy, etc., dwelling most
upon your greatest and most besetting weakness in
such a manner as to cause you to loathe yourself ;
think of all you have done during the day — of the
thoughts and feelings you have had, especially dwell-
ing upon your failures at self-control ; aggravating
your follies, and not trying to excuse yourself in the
least. If you feel like asking for help, do so, but in
thought only, and that the last thing you do, and as
briefly as possible.

Compare yourself with the calm, tranquil beauty of
a flower, or a twinkling star, and thus take the pride
out of your pretended greatness and egotism. Think
of the body as needing your utmost care of nursing,
as an ulcer needing to be dressed and poulticed —
not that you love the ulcer, but to assuage its
pain.

Only a few years, and loathsome worms will crawl
out and in at its nine orifices, and filthy matter will

256 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

frost the lips you now curl so proudly. To destroy
any feeling create its opposite. Is your heart agi-
tated, torn and lacerated with unrequited love ? Does
jealousy steal away your sleep and peace of mind ?
Kill it then by clothing in your mind the object in
garments of disgust. Rise above it in your thought,
and look down upon it with disgust as an eagle
passes by carrion. Fix your mind upon its worst
and most disgusting aspect ; thus forgetting its allure-
ments, and the love will grow less and less, until at
last you wonder that you ever had such a feeling.

Analyze, dissect the human heart, turn it over and
over, pick it to pieces shred by shred, and see if you
can find its main spring — when found, it will be
just like your own. Do you hate ? Have you an
enemy who delights in your woe ? Well, kill your
hate, and thus your enemy, by learning to love him.
" Oh ! that is impossible," says one. Impossible only
to the weak. The will that cannot create love is a
mere semblance — a bubble ; it cannot endure.
Christ said, " Love your enemies."

In order to produce love, you must sow the seed
before it can grow. The seeds of love are respect.
In your meditations fix your mind upon him, and
thus evoke his "similacrum," and compel him to
reveal his best nature to you ; thus you can find in
all some little good to inspire your respect. Culture
this, losing sight of his deformities and infirmities of
character, for it shall in time ripen into love to the
building up of yourself and him. Are you superior

WILL-CULTURE. 257

to your enemy ? If so, it is only in your love or
charity, and not in pretence.

" Pray for your enemies." Desire is prayer, which,
to be answered, must be so intense that acts go there-
with. To pray for your enemy is to do him good —
not in the mere breathing of desire, but by kindly
looks and acts. A gentle manner, a kind look, or
word fitly spoken, an unobtrusive gift always goes to
the heart, and will do more to kill enmity and elevate
the soul than all the egotism on the globe. Pride,
avarice, envy and malice have no wings, they are
monsters of the deep, and have their home in the
slime ; if you harbor them they will carry you down,
down. They leave you as you grow calm and tran-
quil in lovefulness. If you find you cannot grow in
love, go down into disgust, and there wallow till the
Divine fire is kindled ; but do not get disgusted with
others — your field of labor is in yourself, in your
own passions and weaknesses.

It is out of disgust, as out of the cesspools of hell,
that true manhood and spiritual power take their rise.
He who is not disgusted with his own weaknesses
and follies remains in them as a hog in his filth.

In man's natural state he is indifferent ; hence, to
him, there is neither good nor evil, neither height, nor
depth — all things are alike — indifferent. As the
earth without living things to inhabit it, is neither
good nor evil. But man in an unnatural state is seeth-
ing, boiling over, raving mad with the fires of lust ; he
knows nothing of love or its divinity ; he scoffs at the

258 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

idea of the soul-union of the male and the female as
the door to immortal life and Godlike energy.

All habits arise from and have their life in lust.
Sexual habits are no exception, and the rules for
destroying the taste for food and drink apply to sex-
love as well.

The fires of lust flow downward naturally. To
reverse this downward tendency is to reverse the en-
tire man. The spirit follows the thought, as the
thought is controlled by physical motions or absence
thereof. This turning of the operations upward is
done only by an increased and extreme action of the
brain and nervous system. To charge the brain with
blood and increase its magnetic power and action,
breathe deeply and constantly through the nostrils —
deep, slow, long drawn inspirations, followed by rapid
expirations ; this persisted in, becomes in time, a
habit, which the soul carries on even in sleep, till the
barriers of sense give way, and clairvoyance is the
result ; but beware of insanity if the mind does not
expand first by proper training.

The higher mind ought to rule, but unfortunately
in most men, body lords it over mind, lust rules the
world. The man who by will rules and controls his
passions is nicely balanced ; the man who by will
puts his passions to sleep so that they need no watch-
ing, has entered already the realm of power ; he has
withdrawn the sexual fires from the lower extremities
to his brain, and only needs to go one step more to
become one of the " Illuminati," i.e., provided he is a

WILL-CUL TURE. 259

passionate man. (" A passionless man is an infernal
monster, not only in this, but in all the starry worlds
of space.,, P, B. Randolph.)

When passion is held and controlled by will, and
the fires of sex confined to the body, they gradually
draw together towards the mind and the thoughts
collect and run together like a stream of water.
Shallow and wide at first it lies, spreading away into
swamps and marshes — stagnant pools which send up
scum and filth, redolent of disease and crime, — but,
when a channel is dug, its waters collect into a mur-
muring brook, and gradually become a mighty river,
purifying its waters by its own motion. The will
digs the channel, and gradually draws the thoughts
therein. It is hard at first, for they love the freedom
of wildwood and slough, where they can bask and
sun themselves, and evaporate to nothing ; they wash
away the tiny banks many times, but the determined
will builds and rebuilds until the banks are moun-
tains high, and the river a powerful stream, upon
which the soul is borne aloft, and angels, descending,
meet the lone voyager with comfort and a purer
spirit.

The heights once ascended, the pathway ever re-
mains, and each succeeding ascent becomes easier
and easier. The way once learned, how strong and
vigorous — how full of life, peace, rest, and joy, the
scene becomes ! And yet how lowly, innocent and
childlike ! But " the way is a strait and a narrow
way." If ye will abide, then dig deep the channel

260 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

towards the Infinite, and train the fractious thoughts
to run therein, until they shall love the way, and all
other thoughts be tributary, and run and murmur
along the valleys, down the gorges, and leap and
dance into the bosom of God.

By concentration alone can man become powerful.
Who can select one idea or thing, and think of that
alone to the exclusion of all other thoughts, for the
space of five short minutes ? Not many. Yet there
are men who can take one thought, and follow its
thread-like form for hours, as it winds its devious
way, increasing as it goes, until it flows smoothly and
noiselessly into the bosom of the sublime ocean of all
truth, wherein they lave to their soul's content.

Thought comes upon us like the dew upon the
earth, but there are places where there is no dew.
Such are rocks or dry sands. There are no flowers
whose opening petals fail to catch some dew. Some
men are like a pool of water, redolent of filth, whose
surface is covered with that yellowish-green scum,
which comes not from the atmosphere, but from
within. This scum settles upon the faces of men,
thick here and thin there ; and also upon their lives.
It may be seen sometimes with the naked eye ; at
other times it flashes out like an adder's tongue, only
to be seen with clairvoyant sight.
s^- This shows that man has but a little time since
come up out of the water, and that some have been
out a longer time than others. There are lizards,
snakes, frogs, toads, birds, spiders, and God only

WILL-CUL TURE. 26 1

knows what, walking like men ; but genuine men are
scarce. They may be known by their lack of scum.
Thought dissipates the scum ; meditation annihilates
it.
^ Thought is the lightning of God's universe. Men
are lightning-rods. Some are so flat on the top of
the head, that they attract nothing from the clouds
that overshadow. Such attract from the earth ; their
feet take root ; they cannot think, but vegetate and
gather scum, the filthiest of which is Gold ! Others
— and God knows how few they are — by their high,
dome-like heads, attract spiritual forces, like the
lightnings from the clouds, that shatter and break up
the great deeps of their being, searing the outside so
that no moss or scum will grow there.

Real thought burns ; it rolls and turns the brain
inside out, giving no opportunity for stagnation.
Not so the thought that comes from the earth ; this
stagnates and increases filth.

Purity is oneness. It is the nucleus around which
centers all good. It is the magnet of the human
soul, and holds our thoughts as one, centered upon
the source of all purity, God.

By thought, man meditates ; and meditation col-
lects the spirit, draws it from outward things to
the inner, and leads to abstraction — the forgetting
of one's self. Abstraction is the knife that cuts
the cords which bind the soul to things. In other
words, it finishes what thought begins and prepares
the soul for flight. Magnetic sleep is its weakest

262 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

phase. In this, the soul goes not out ; but the sub-
ject often has second sight, and sees to distant
places ; his power depending upon the combined fires
of the operator and himself.

The spirit once concentrated and drawn within, is
under the control of the will, and may be projected
to any distance, and produce any effect desired, from
the impressing of others, and healing the sick, up to
moving substances, and the manifesting of phantoms.
This is a dual power.

In the culture of will, there are many things
demanding attention. The tongue is said to be
an unruly member ; hence the Rosicrucian adage,
"Silence is strength." In much speaking is evil.
Excitement is injurious ; and the tongue fires and
excites passion. The calm man is the strong man.
To control others, first control yourself. To control
spirit, control your passions.

To penetrate the secrets of others, expand your
consciousness so as to come en rapport with their
inmost being. To feel as others feel, and thus know
them, you must rise above them, then descend to
them. You are not superior to anything, only in
your imagination. Culture this, then, by looking for
pictures in it as in a mirror.

To get en rapport with another, you must first see
him in your imagination ; when seen command him,
and he will obey. Clairvoyance is the road to power ;
but be so healthily or not at all. The soul is magical ;
it can do anything ; produce anything, if it be large

WILL-CULTURE, 263

enough ; then study to expand it. To project your
spirit to any distance, and thus be seen and heard,
make the spirit pure so that it can vie with the light-
nings in space, and not stick like slime to objects on
the way.

Your soul cannot travel without a coach, the spirit
is the coach. Make yourself double, and then all
things are easy. To be divine, forget that you are
the devil. Power dwells in silence, and in secrecy —
more in thought than in word — more in a look than
in a blow, if you know how to look. Many a man
has sickened and died, or become crazy, at the wish of
another. Many a man has been haunted to death by
the strong will of another. Many a man has been
made to do the right towards another by that other
forgiving him his wrong long before.

There is more power in forgiveness than in re-
venge, for the Gods avenge wrongs done to a good
man. " Curses come home to roost," but they often
do a sight of mischief before they come home, espe-
cially when the outraged soul curses.

If you feel disgust, can you look love ? Can you
look disgusted when you feel love ? If not, " try,"
for this is will-culture. Can you hold your tongue
when another calls you liar, thief, dog ? If not, you
are no man ! Dogs snarl and bite at each other.
How can you control your spirit, when your tongue
is your master ? Can you be deaf while another
raves ? Especially your wife ? If not, then you
are under the control of others. Get out, man, by

264 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

all means! Enter into yourself, as in a "closet,"
and when you have shut your eyes to sight, your
ears to sound, and your nerves to sensation, you
have then "shut the door," and "whatever you shall
ask the Father in secret shall be done to you openly."
This is worshiping "in spirit and in truth."

Water is prolific ; all things gestate in water. The
waters of the human soul are wrung out of the heart
by real or imaginary wrongs. There is no growth
without moisture. The dews that give life to vegeta-
tion are nature's tears. The great soul has a soft,
weeping heart. The small soul has no tears in it
to shed.

The true child of "the shadow" has a heart that
distills the dews of its sympathy unseen and un-
known ; it weeps over the fallen, and suffers in secret
at its powerlessness to relieve. It is often sad with-
out knowing why. Even adversity in material things
does not affect it, as the shadow which seems to
brood over it like the night.

When the shadow comes closest, — when the sun
is obscured and the stars give no light, — when hope
is well-nigh fled, — look up, child of the gloom ! The
light is near by, hidden in the deep folds of the cloud
which rests like a pall over you. It is "the brood-
ing " of the spirit you sense, in your disgust of life
and love — which is softening and making malleable
your heart of stone ! When it is sufficiently cultured,
it will produce its fruit — - the harvest is sure. Pre-
pare your ground; then dig deep the ditches for

WILL-CULTURE. 265

drainage and irrigation ; and draw together all your
forces in order to pierce the gloom.

The meditations recommended in this work as the
true mental and spiritual discipline, are all of a gloomy
and sombre character. The reason must be obvious
to every thinker. There is a principle underlying
this, in perfect harmony with the history of man-
kind. It is the thoughtless who laugh. It is thought
which takes the laughter out of a man and drapes
him in black — symbol of the fire.

Inspiration comes from despair ; and hearts that
weep are close upon the confines of a great joy, peace
and rest. " Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted." "God chasteneth whom he
loveth," is a hard saying, but it is true.

The trouble is, we do not know how to make use
of the gloom, or the evil of life. We must learn to
love the shadow, and to call it to ourselves by a mental
effort. " Resist not evil," is appropriate here. The
great minds who have pierced the gloom, and handed
down to mankind light and philosophy, that enable
us to bridge the abyss of death, have been sad-
hearted, weeping men. "Jesus wept," but we have
no knowledge of his ever laughing. Gautama never
smiled after he forsook a crown and his family, for
the forest and the yellow robes of Asceticism. Ap-
ollonius, Socrates and Plato were not laughing
men.

There is a chamber of mourning, veiled and draped
in black — in every human heart. We all retire to it

266 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS.

at times, but the great -souled oftenest. Here the
lurid world loses its glare, and all things become
sombre ; the mind here loses its ferocity, and we go
forth subdued. Alas for him who does not ! Alas
for him whose experience still leaves him hard within ;
whose river of life sends out no waters, no tears, no
dew of sadness and sympathy over weaknesses and
follies, all too apparent !

Such need much thought — nay ! they need the
blows and chastisement of fate — the earthquake,
the tremblings of fear, the lightning's rending — the
agony of disease, disappointment, hate, jealousy and
despair, to compel them to think.

But let him, who would steer clear of these, pro-
voke his soul to sadness, by meditations of such a
nature as shall make him sick of life and its pleasures.
If disease, weakness, pain or sickness bring lucidity
of mind, it is well, but if death ensue without it, it
is not so well. The mind should grow clearer and
stronger from physical suffering, as the soul should
expand her wings from mental anguish. To love the
evil, and invite it, is to make it good.

At a certain stage of development the soul becomes
self-sustaining and productive of all that is needed.
It becomes magical in its physical manifestations, as
it is itself ; for the soul is a magical thing, and in its
expansion — when it has filled the whole man with
itself, after having become globular — the body be-
comes a magical or a divine body.

SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 267