OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF
HEALTH AND HEALING
by
MAX HEINDEL
[1865-1919]
AUTHOR OF:
"THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION"
"THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY IN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS"
"ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION"
"SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC ASTROLOGY"
"THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES"
"TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE"
"THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS" ETC.
THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
MT. ECCLESIA
P.O. BOX 713
OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, USA
This compilation of material concerning the
health and healing of the human organism as considered from the occult viewpoint
affords those interested in attaining and maintaining health a treasure chest of
valuable information. Max Heindel, a trained clairvoyant and investigator of the
super-physical worlds, devoted much time and effort to ascertaining the real
causes of physical and mental disorders as revealed in the realm of cause, the
higher or superphysical planes, and this volume contains the fruits of his
labor. It embodies some of the most priceless truths in regard to the origin,
functions, and proper care of the vehicles of man to be found on the printed
page, and those concerned with the true art of healing will find it an
indispensable addition to their libraries.
Christ admonished His disciples: "Preach
the Gospel, and heal the sick." Maintaining health, when once gained or
regained, requires a knowledge of "the Gospel," or laws of God, and it
is therefore in the light of both parts of the command of the Great Teacher that
this book is dedicated to the afflicted of humanity. May the contents of its
pages, permeated as they are with the love and compassionate understanding of
the mystic heart of the author, be the means of bringing new solace and relief
to countless aching hearts and suffering bodies, as well as speed the day for
the generation of more perfect human vehicles.
PART I--MAN AND HIS VEHICLES
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
PART II - DISEASE
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
CHAPTER VII
PART III--HEALING
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
PART IV--"THERE IS NO DEATH"
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
PLATES
Max Heindel
Rosicrucian Fellowship Healing Temple
The Healing Christ
PART I
MAN AND HIS VEHICLES
Occult science teaches that man is a complex
being who possesses:
(1) A DENSE BODY, which is the visible
instrument he uses here in this world to fetch and carry; the body we ordinarily
think of as the whole man.
(2) A VITAL BODY, which is made of ether and
pervades the visible body as ether permeates all other forms, except that human
beings specialize a greater amount of the universal ether than other forms. That
ethereal body is our instrument for specializing the vital energy of the Sun.
(3) A DESIRE BODY, which is our emotional
nature. This finer vehicle pervades both the vital and dense bodies. It is seen
by clairvoyant vision to extend about sixteen inches outside our visible body,
which is located in the center of this ovoid cloud as the yolk is in the center
of the egg.
(4) THE MIND, which is a mirror, reflecting
the outer world and enabling the Ego to transmit its commands as thought and
word, also to compel action.
The Ego is the threefold Spirit which uses
these vehicles to gather experience in the school of life.
The dense body was the first vehicle built
and has therefore an enormous period of evolution back of it. It is in its
fourth stage of development and has now reached a great and marvelous degree of
efficiency. It will, in time, reach perfection, but even at present it is the
best organized of man's vehicles. It is a wonderfully constructed instrument and
should be recognized as such by everyone pretending to have any knowledge of the
constitution of man.
The germ of the dense body was given by the
Lords of Flame during the first Revolution of the Saturn Period, the first of
the Seven Great Days of Manifestation according to the Rosicrucian Teachings.
This germ was somewhat developed during the remainder of the first six
Revolutions, being given the capacity for developing the sense organs,
particularly the ear. Therefore, the ear is the most highly developed organ we
possess.
In the first half of the Saturn Revolution
of the Sun Period, the second of the Seven Great Days of Manifestation, the
Lords of Flame were concerned with certain improvements to be made upon the germ
of the dense body. It became necessary to change the germ in such a way as to
allow of interpenetration by a vital body, also capability of evolving glands
and an alimentary canal. This was done by the joint action of the Lords of Flame
and the Lords of Wisdom.
In the first or Saturn Revolution of the
Moon Period, the third of the Seven Great Days of Manifestation, the Lords of
Wisdom cooperated with the Lords of Individuality to reconstruct the germ of the
dense body. This germ had unfolded embryonic sense organs, digestive organs,
glands, etc. and was interpenetrated by a budding vital body. Of course, it was
not solid and visible as it is now, yet in a crude sort of way it was somewhat
organized. In the Moon Period it was necessary to reconstruct it and make it
capable of being interpenetrated by a desire body, and also capable of evolving
a nervous system, muscle, cartilage, and a rudimentary skeleton. This
reconstruction was the work of the Saturn Revolution of the Moon Period. These
Moon beings were not so purely germinal as in the previous periods. To the
trained clairvoyant they appear suspended by strings in the atmosphere of the
fire-fog, as the embryo hangs from the placenta by the umbilical cord. Currents,
which provided some sort of nourishment, flowed in and out from the atmosphere
through those cords.
When the Earth came out of chaos, at the
beginning of the Earth period, it was at first in the dark red stage known as
the Polarian Epoch. There humanity first evolved a DENSE BODY, the germ of which
was given by the lords of Flame during the First Revolution of the Saturn
Period. It was not then at all like our present vehicle, of course. When the
condition of the Earth became fiery, as in the Hyperborean Epoch, the VITAL BODY
was added and man became plant-like, that is to say, he had the same vehicles as
our plants have today, and also a similar consciousness, or rather,
unconsciousness, to that which we have in dreamless sleep when the DENSE and
VITAL bodies are left upon the bed.
At that time, in the Hyperborean Epoch, the
body of man was like an enormous gas bag, floating outside the fiery Earth, and
it threw off plant- like spores, which then grew and were used by other incoming
entities. At that time man was double sexed, a hermaphrodite.
In the Lemurian Epoch, when the Earth had
somewhat cooled and islands of crust had begun to form amid boiling seas, then
also man's body had somewhat solidified and had become more like the body we see
today. It was apelike, a short trunk with enormous arms and limbs, the heels
projecting backward, and almost no head--at least the upper part of the head was
nearly entirely wanting. Man lived in the atmosphere of steam which occultists
called fire-fog, and had no lungs, but breathed by means of tubes. He had the
gill-like apparatus still present in the human embryo while passing through the
stage of antenatal life corresponding to that epoch. He had no warm, red blood,
for at that stage there was no individual Spirit. He had a bladder-like organ
inside, which he inflated with heated air to help him leap enormous chasms when
volcanic eruptions destroyed the land upon which he was living. From the back of
his head there projected an organ which has now drawn into the head and is
called by anatomists the PINEAL GLAND, or the third eye, although it was never
an eye, but a localized organ of feeling. The body was then devoid of feeling,
but when man came too close to a volcanic crater, the heat was registered by
this organ to warn him away before his body was destroyed.
At that time the body had already so far
solidified that it was impossible for man to continue to propagate by spores,
and it was necessary that he should evolve an organ of thought, a brain. The
creative force which we now use to build railways, steamships, etc., in the
outer world, was then used inwardly for the building of organs. Like all forces
it was positive and negative. One pole was turned upward to build the brain,
leaving the other pole available for the creation of another body. Thus man was
no longer a complete creative unit. Each possessed only half the creative force,
and it was therefore necessary for him to seek his complement outside himself.
In the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch the
form of man was yet quite plastic. The skeleton had formed, but man himself had
great power in molding the flesh of his own body, and that of the animals about
him.
At this time, when he was born, man could
hear and feel, but his perception of light came later. The Lemurian had no eyes.
He had two sensitive spots which were affected by the light of the sun as it
shone dimly through the fiery atmosphere of ancient Lemuria, but it was not
until nearly the close of the Atlantean Epoch that he had sight as we have it
today.
His language consisted of sounds like those
of Nature. The sighing of the wind in the immense forests which grew in great
luxuriance in that super-tropical climate, the rippling of the brook, the
howling of the tempest, the thunder of the waterfall, the roar of the
volcano--all these were to him voices of the Gods from whom he knew himself to
have descended.
Of the birth of his body he knew nothing. He
could not SEE either it or anything else, but he did PERCEIVE his fellow beings.
It was, however, an inner perception, like our perception of persons and things
in dreams, but with this very important difference, that his dream-perception
was clear and rational.
But when "their eyes were opened"
(as told in the story of the "Fall") and their consciousness was
directed outward towards the facts of the physical World, conditions were
altered. Propagation was directed, not by Angels, but by man, who was ignorant
of the operation of the Sun- and Moon-forces. His consciousness became focused
in the Physical World, although things did not appear to his vision with clearly
defined outlines until the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch. Still he came by
degrees to know death because of the break made in his consciousness when it was
shifted to the higher worlds at death and back to the Physical World at rebirth.
However, what has been said about the
enlightenment of the Lemurians applies to only a minor portion of those who
lived in the latter part of that epoch, and who became the seed for the seven
Atlantean Races. The greater part of the Lemurians were animal-like and the
FORMS inhabited by them have degenerated into the savages and anthropoids of the
present day.
In the Atlantean Epoch, which followed the
Lemurian, man was very different from anything existent on Earth at the present
time. He had a head, but scarcely any forehead, his brain had no frontal
development; the head sloped almost abruptly back from a point just above the
eyes. As compared with our present humanity, he was a giant; his arms and legs
were much longer in proportion to his body than ours. Instead of walking, he
progressed by a series of flying leaps, not unlike those of the kangaroo. He had
small blinking eyes and his hair was round in section. The latter peculiarity,
if no other, distinguishes the descendants of the Atlantean Races who remain
with us at the present time. Their hair was straight, glossy, black and round in
section. That of the Aryan, though it may differ in color, is always OVAL in
section. The ears of the Atlantean sat much farther back upon the head than do
those of the Aryan.
The higher vehicles of the early Atlanteans
were not drawn into a concentric position in relation to the dense body, as are
ours. The Spirit was not quite an indwelling Spirit; it was partially outside,
therefore could not control its vehicles with as great facility as though it
dwelt entirely inside. The head of the vital body was outside of and held a
position far above the physical head. There is a point between the eyebrows and
about half an inch below the surface of the skin, which has a corresponding
point in the vital body. When these two points come into correspondence, as they
do in man today, they form the seat of the indwelling Spirit in the man.
On account of the distance between these two
points, the Atlantean's powers of perception or vision was much keener in the
inner worlds than in the dense Physical World, obscured by its atmosphere of
thick, heavy fog. In the fullness of time, however, the atmosphere slowly became
clearer; at the same time, the point spoken of in the vital body came closer and
closer to the corresponding point in the dense body, being united to it in the
last third of the Atlantean Epoch.
The Rmoahals were the first of the Atlantean
Races. They had but little memory and that little was connected with sensations.
They remembered colors and tones, and thus to some extent they evolved Feeling.
With memory came to the Atlanteans the rudiments of a language. They evolved
words and no longer made use of mere sounds, as did the Lemurians, giving names
to things.
The Tlavatlis were the second Atlantean
Race. Already they began to feel their worth as separate human beings. They
became ambitious; the demanded that their works be remembered. Memory became a
factor in the life of the community. Thus began ancestor worship.
The Toltecs were the third Atlantean Race.
They inaugurated Monarchy and Hereditary Succession, originating the custom of
honoring men for the deeds done by their ancestors. Experience came to be highly
valued, and memory was developed to a very great degree.
In the middle third of Atlantis we find the
beginning of separate nations. In the time the Kings became intoxicated with
power, and began to use their power corruptly, for selfish ends and personal
aggrandizement instead of for the common good.
The Original Turanians were the fourth
Atlantean Race. They were especially vile in their abominable selfishness,
erecting temples where the Kings were worshiped as Gods.
The Original Semites were the fifth and most
important of the seven Atlantean Races, because in them we find the first germ
of the corrective quality of thought. Therefore the Original Semitic Race became
the "seed-race" for the seven races of the Aryan Epoch. They were the
first to discover that "brain" is superior to "brawn."
During the existence of this race, the atmosphere of Atlantic commenced to clear
definitely, and the previously mentioned point in the vital body came into
correspondence with its companion point in the dense body. The combination of
events gave man the ability to see objects clearly with sharp, well-defined
contours; but it also resulted in loss of the sight pertaining to the inner
worlds.
The Akkadians were the sixth and the
Mongolians were the seventh of the Atlantean Races. They evolved the faculty of
thought still farther, but followed lines of reasoning which deviated more and
more from the main trend of the developing life. As the heavy fogs of Atlantis
condensed more and more, the increasing quantity of water gradually inundated
that continent, destroying the greater part of the population and the evidences
of their civilization.
Central Asia was the cradle of the Aryan
Races, who descended from the original Semites. Thence have the different races
gone out. It is unnecessary to describe them here, as historical researches have
sufficiently revealed their main features.
In the Saturn Revolution of the Earth period
the dense body was given the ability to form a brain and become a vehicle for
the germ of mind which was to be added later. The impulse was given to building
the frontal part of the brain. The brain and the nervous systems are the highest
expression of the desire body. They call up pictures of the outside world, but
in mental image-making, the blood brings the material for the pictures;
therefore, when thought is active the blood flows to the head.
In man the brain is the link between the
Spirit and the outside world. He can know nothing of the outside world except
through the medium of the brain. The sense organs are merely carriers to the
brain of impacts from without and the brain is the instrument which interprets
and coordinates those impacts. The Spirit, aided by the Angels, built the brain
to gather knowledge of the Physical World. When the Ego entered into possession
of its vehicles it became necessary to use part of the creative force for the
building of a brain and larynx. The Lucifers are the instigators of all mental
activity, by means of the part of the sex force that is carried upward for work
in the brain. Thus did the evolving entity obtain brain consciousness of the
outside world at the cost of half its creative power.
Physiologists note that certain areas of the
brain are devoted to particular thought activities, and phrenologists have
carried this branch of science still farther. Now, it is known that thought
breaks down and destroys nerve tissues. This and all other waste of the body, is
replaced by the blood. When, through the development of the heart into a
voluntary muscle, the circulation of the blood finally passes under the absolute
control of the unifying Life Spirit it will then be within the power of that
Spirit to withhold the blood from those areas of the mind devoted to selfish
purposes. As a result, those particular thought centers will gradually atrophy.
Brain-knowledge, with its concomitant
selfishness, was bought by man at the cost of the power to create from himself
alone. He bought his free will at the cost of pain and death; but when man
learns to use his intellect for the good of humanity, he will gain spiritual
power over life, and in addition, will be guided by an innate knowledge as much
higher than the present brain-consciousness as that is higher than the lowest
animal consciousness. The brain is, at best, only an indirect way of gaining
knowledge and will be superseded by direct touch with the Wisdom of Nature,
which man, without any cooperation, will then be able to use for the creation of
new bodies.
In the Moon Period it was necessary to
reconstruct the dense body to make it capable of being interpenetrated by a
desire body, and also capable of evolving a nervous system, muscle, cartilage,
and a rudimentary skeleton. This reconstruction was the work of the Saturn
Revolution of the Moon Period.
The reconstruction of the dense body in the
Saturn Revolution of the Earth Period gave the first impulse to the incipient
division in the nervous system which has since become apparent in its
subdivisions: the voluntary and the sympathetic. The latter was the only one
provided for in the Moon Period. The voluntary nervous system (which has
transformed the dense body from a mere automaton acting under stimuli from
without, to an extraordinary adaptable instrument capable of being guided and
controlled by an Ego from within) was not added until the present Earth Period.
When the division of the Sun, Moon, and
Earth took place, in the early part of the Lemurian Epoch, the more advanced
portion of humanity-in-the-making experienced a division of the desire body into
a higher and a lower part. The reset of humanity did likewise in the early part
of the Atlantean Epoch. This higher part of the desire body became a sort of
animal soul. It built the cerebrospinal nervous system and the voluntary
muscles, by that means controlling the lower part of the threefold body until
the link of mind was given.
Part of the involuntary muscular system is
controlled by the sympathetic nervous system.
The seat of the Human Spirit is primarily in
the pineal gland and secondarily in the brain and the cerebrospinal nervous
system, which controls the voluntary muscles.
The study of the blood is very deep,
far-reaching, and of supreme importance from whatever viewpoint we analyze it.
Lucifer was decidedly right when he said that "blood is a most peculiar
essence." It builds the physical body from the time the seed atom is
deposited in the ovum till he rupture of the silver cord ends material
existence, being one of the highest products of the vital body and the carrier
of nourishment to every part of the body. It is the direct vehicle of the Ego,
having injected into it every thought, feeling or emotion transmitted to the
lungs.
In infancy, and up to the fourteenth year,
the red marrow-bones do not make all the blood corpuscles. Most of them are
supplied by the thymus gland, which is largest in the fetus and gradually
diminishes as the individual blood-making faculty develops in the growing child.
The thymus gland contains, as it were, a supply of blood corpuscles given by the
parents, and consequently the child, which draws its blood from that source,
does not realize its individuality. Not until the blood is made by the child
does it think of itself as "I," and when the thymus gland disappears,
at the age of fourteen, the "I" feeling reaches its full expression,
for then the blood is made and dominated entirely by the Ego. The following will
make clear the idea and its logic:
It will be remembered that assimilation and
growth depend upon the forces working along the positive pole of the vital
body's chemical ether. That is set free at the seventh year, together with the
balance of the vital body. Only the chemical ether is fully ripe at that time;
the other parts need more ripening. At the fourteenth year the life ether of the
vital body, which has to do with propagation, is fully ripe. In the period from
seven to fourteen years of age the excessive assimilation has stored an amount
of fore which goes to the sex organs and is ready at the time the desire body is
set free.
This force of sex is stored in the blood
during the third of the seven year periods and in that time the light ether,
which is the avenue for the blood heat, is developed and controls the heart, so
that the body is neither too hot nor too cold. In early childhood the blood very
often rises to an abnormal temperature. During the period of excessive growth,
it is frequently the reverse, but in the hot-headed, unrestrained youth, passion
and temper very often drive the Ego out by overheating the blood. We very
appropriately call this an ebullition or boiling over of temper and describe the
effect as causing the person to "lose his head," or become incapable
of thought. That is exactly what happens when passion, rage, or temper overheats
the blood, thus drawing the Ego outside the bodies. The Ego is outside of its
vehicles and they are running as much, bereft of the guiding influence of
thought, part of the work of which is to act as a brake on impulse. Only the man
who keeps cool and does not allow excess of heat to drive him out can think
properly.
As proof of the assertion that the Ego
cannot work in the body when the blood is either too hot or too cold we will
call attention to the well-known fact that excessive heat makes one sleepy, and,
if carried beyond a certain point, it drives the Ego out, leaving the body
unconscious. It is only when the blood is at or near the normal temperature that
the Ego can use it as a vehicle of consciousness.
The burnish blush of shame is an evidence of
the manner in which the blood is driven to the head, thus overheating the brain
and paralyzing thought. Fear is a state when the Ego wants to barricade himself
against some outside danger. He then drives the blood to the center and grows
pale, because the blood has left the periphery of the body, and has lost heat,
thus paralyzing thought. In fever the excess of heat causes delirium.
The full-blooded person, though the blood is
not too hot, is active in body and mind, while the anemic person is sleepy. In
one the Ego has better control; in the other, less. When the Ego wants to think
it drives blood, at the proper heat, to the brain. When a heavy meal centers the
activity of the Ego upon the digestive tract, the man cannot think; he is
sleepy.
The old Norsemen and the Scots recognized
that the Ego is in the blood. No stranger could become associated with them as a
relative until he had "mixed blood" with them and thus become one of
them.
In the descendants of the patriarchal
families--Adam, Methuselah, etc., the blood which coursed through their veins
contained the pictures of all that had happened to their different ancestors,
and these pictures were constantly before the inner vision of each one as they
had no outer vision at that time. At the present time the blood of each
individual contains only the pictures of his own individual experiences and the
subconscious mind has access to them. Up to the time that marriage outside of
the family was commenced individuals were ruled by a Family Spirit (Angel) which
entered the blood by means of the air inspired, and helped each Ego to control
its vehicles. When marriage outside the family began, Egos had arrived at a
point in the evolution of self-consciousness where they could depend on self,
and where they were to ease being God-guided automatons and become
self-governing individuals. The greater the mixture of blood the less the
indwelling Ego can be influenced by the Race or Family Spirits. Unmixed blood
gave us ancestral assistance when we needed it. Mixed blood makes for
independence of outside help. A God (creator) must be independent.
The heat of the blood is the vantage ground
of the Ego, and the Lucifer Spirits from Mars aid in maintaining this heat by
dissolving iron, a Mars metal, in our blood to attract oxygen, a solar element.
The proper heat for the real expression of
the Ego is not present until the mind is born from the macrocosmic Concrete
Mind, when the individual is about twenty-one years old. Statutory law also
recognizes this as the earliest age when the man is deemed fit to exercise a
franchise.
In the lower order of animals blood is fluid
and nucleated. The nuclei, enters of life, are the vantage ground of a Group
Spirit. It regulates their vital processes and guides them through the nuclei.
During the early part of the gestatory period the blood of the fetus is also
nucleated by the life of the mother, and she regulates the process of body
building, but as soon as the incoming Ego enters the mothers body, it commences
to assert its individuality and resists formation of nucleated blood cells. The
old cells gradually disappear, so that when the silver cord is tied at the time
of quickening and the Ego is drawn into its body, all nuclei have disappeared,
and it is absolute autocrat of its new vehicle, a heritage more precious than
any other earthly possession; and when properly used it is our means of
generating soul power and laying up treasure in heaven. When we abandon this
vehicle to Spirit controls, we seriously hinder our higher evolution and commit
a great sin.
Thus the blood is the particular vehicle of
the Ego, and as in the past eons of development we have crystallized matter in
order to form our dense body, so also it is destined that now we must
etherealize our vehicles in order that we may lift ourselves and the world out
of the realms of materiality and into the spiritual. Naturally, therefore, the
Ego aims first to make the blood gaseous, and to the spiritual sight, this red
unnucleated blood is not a fluid, but a gas. It is no argument against this
assertion that the moment we prick our skin the blood comes out as a liquid. The
moment we open up the try-cock of a steam boiler the gas also condenses into a
liquid, but if we make a model steam engine of glass and look at the way steam
works there we shall see only the piston move backward and forward, driven by an
invisible agent, LIVE STEAM, and similarly, as the live steam direct from the
boiler is invisible, and gaseous, so also the LIVE BLOOD in the human body is a
gas, and the higher the state of development of any given Ego, the more ethereal
is it able to make the blood.
When, by the vital processes, food has
reached the highest alchemical state, the process of condensation begins and the
blood-gas is formed into tissue in the various organs to replace what has been
wasted or destroyed by the activities of the body. The spleen is the gateway of
the vital body; there the solar force which abounds in the surrounding
atmosphere enters in a constraint stream, to aid us in the vital processes, and
there also the war between the desire body and the vital body is waged most
fiercely. Thoughts of worry, fear, and anger interfere with the process of
evaporation in the spleen, a speck of plasm is the result, and this is at once
seized upon by a thought elemental which forms a nucleus and embodies itself
therein. Then it commences to live a life of destruction, coalescing with other
waste products and decaying elements wherever formed, making the body a charnel
house instead of the temple of in indwelling living Spirit. We may therefore say
EVERY WHITE CORPUSCLE WHICH HAS BEEN TAKEN BY AN OUTSIDE ENTITY IS TO THE EGO A
LOST OPPORTUNITY. The more of these lost opportunities there are in the body,
the less is the body under control of the Ego, therefore we find them present in
larger numbers in all diseases than when the person is in health. It may also be
said that the person of jovial good nature or one who is devoutly religious and
has an absolute faith and trust in divine providence and love, will register
many less lost opportunities or white corpuscles than those who are always
worrying and fretting.
So it is that the blood is the only part of
the body really course. The measure in which we control all blood depends upon
the Ego's ability to express itself through the body. It is only through the red
corpuscles that the Ego is able to work. Whenever we allow ourselves to be
negative we manufacture white corpuscles, which are not, as we have seen,
"the policemen of the system," as science now thinks, but destroyers.
When the blood courses through the arteries
which are deep in the body, it is a gas, as has been shown; but loss of heat
near the surface of the body causes it to partially condense, and in that
substance the Ego is learning to form mineral crystals. Science has lately found
that the blood of different people has different crystals, so that it is
possible now to the tell the blood of a Negro from the blood of a white man; but
there will come a day when they will know a still greater difference; for just
as there is a difference in the crystals formed by the different races, so there
is also a difference in the crystals formed by each individual man.
Looking at the matter from another angle, we
may note that when blood is beaten with a stick it separates into three distinct
substances: the serum or water-like substance which comes under Cancer ruled by
the Moon (Lunar Hierarchy); the red coloring matter which is the Martian
substance generated under Scorpio; and most important of all, the fibrin, or
stringy matter which is under the third of the watery signs, Pisces. When the
skeleton was outside our flesh, consciousness was dull as in the crustacea. By
getting outside the bony structure we have gained a much higher grade of
consciousness, and by spiritualizing this inner skeleton through the medium of
the blood, we extract the essence of all we have learned in the past epochs and
transform it to usable soul power in the Jupiter Period. To interfere in this
work is a crime against the soul.
Since woman has the positive vital body, she
matures earlier than the male, and the parts which remain plant-like, such as
the hair, grow longer and more luxuriant. Naturally positive vital body will
generate more blood than the negative vital body possessed by the male, hence we
have in woman a greater blood pressure, which it is necessary to relieve by the
periodical flow, and when that eases at the climacteric period there is a second
growth in woman, particularly well expressed in the saying, "fat and
forty."
The impulses of the desire body drive the
blood through the system at varying rates of speed, according to the strength of
the emotions. Woman, having an excess of blood, works under much higher pressure
than man, and while this pressure is relieved by the periodical flow, there are
times when it is necessary to have an extra outlet; then the tears of woman,
which are WHITE BLEEDING, act as a safety valve to remove the excessive fluid.
Men, although they may have as strong emotions as women, are not given to tears
because they have no more blood than they can comfortably use.
The blood is now differently constituted
from what it was in the earlier ages of human evolution. The Christ Spirit was
seen at the Baptism to descent upon Jesus' body. Jesus himself, the Spirit, left
that body and was given a mission to serve the churches while his body was being
used for direct teaching by the Christ, and his blood was being prepared as an
OPEN SESAME to the Kingdom of God.
When anyone is killed, the Venus blood with
its impurities clings closely to the flesh, and therefore the arterial blood
which flows is distinctly leaner than it would otherwise be. Being etherealized
by the great Christ Spirit, the cleansed blood of Jesus overflowed the world,
purified the Etheric Region of selfishness to a great extent, and gave man a
better chance to draw to himself materials which will allow him to form
altruistic purposes and desires.
It is well known to the esoteric astrologer
that the human body has an immense period of evolution behind it and that this
splendid organism is the result of a slow process of gradual upbuilding which is
still continuing and will make each generation better than the previous until in
some far distant future it shall have reached a stage of completion of which we
cannot even dream. It is also understood by the deeper students that in addition
to the physical body man has finer vehicles which are not yet seen by the great
majority of human beings, though all have within them latent a sixth sense
whereby they will in time cognize these finer sheaths of the soul.
The occultist speaks of these finer vehicles
as the vital body, made of ether, and the desire body, made of desire stuff, the
material whence we draw our feelings and emotions, and with the addition of the
SHEATH OF MIND and the physical body these complete what may be termed the
personality which is the evanescent part distinct from the immortal Spirit that
uses these vehicles for its expression. These finer vehicles interpenetrate the
dense physical body as air permeates water and have particular dominion over
certain parts thereof, because the physical body itself is a crystallization of
these finer vehicles in the same manner and upon the same principle that the
soft fluids of a snail's body gradually crystallize into the hard and flinty
shell which it carries upon its back. For the purpose of this dissertation we
may say broadly that the softer parts of our bodies which we commonly call flesh
may be divided into two kinds, glands and muscles.
The vital body was started in the Sun
Period. Crystallization from that time on it that vehicle has developed what we
now call glands and to this day they and the blood are the special
manifestations of the vital body within the physical vehicle. Therefore, the
glands as a whole may be said to be under the rule of the life-giving Sun and
the great benefic, Jupiter. It is the function of the vital body to build and
restore the tone of the muscles when tense and tired by the work imposed upon
them by the restless desire body, which was started in the Moon Period. The
muscles are therefore ruled by the wandering Moon, which is the present vantage
point of the Angels, the humanity of the Moon period, and by the impulsive and
turbulent Mars, where the so-called "Fallen Angels," the Lucifer
Spirits, dwell. That is to say, as a whole, for the student must carefully note
that individual glands and particular groups of muscles are under the rulership
of other planets as well. It is as when we say that all who live in the United
States of America are citizens of that country, but some are subject to the laws
of California, others to those of Maine, etc.
We know the Hermetic Axiom, "As above,
so below," which is the master key to all mysteries, and as there are upon
the Earth, the macrocosm, a great many undiscovered places, so also in the
microcosm of the body do we find unknown countries that are a closed book to the
scientific explorers. Chief among them has been a small group of the so-called
"ductless glands," seven in number, namely:
The Pituitary Body, ruled by Uranus.
The Pineal Gland, ruled by Neptune.
The Thyroid Gland, ruled by Mercury.
The Thymus Gland, ruled by Venus.
The Spleen, ruled by the Sun.
The two Adrenals, ruled by Jupiter.
They have a great and particular interest
for occultists, and they may be termed in a certain sense "the seven
roses" upon the Cross of the body, for they are intimately connected with
the occult development of humanity. Four of them, the thymus gland, the spleen,
and the two adrenals are connected with the personality. The pituitary body and
the pineal gland are particularly correlated with the spiritual side of our
nature and the thyroid gland forms the link between. The astrological rulership
is as follows:
The spleen is the entrance gate of the solar
forces specialized by each human being and circulated through the body as the
vital fluid, without which no being can live. This organ is therefore governed
by the Sun. The two adrenals are under the rulership of Jupiter, the great
benefic, and exert a calming, quieting and soothing effect when the emotional
activities of the Moon and Mars or Saturn have destroyed the poise. When the
obstructive hand of Saturn has awakened the melancholy emotions and laid its
restraint upon the heart, the adrenals' secretions are carried by the blood to
the heart and act as a powerful stimulant in its effort to keep up the
circulation, while the jovial optimism struggles against the saturnine worries
or against the impulse of Mars, which stirs the desire body into turbulent
emotions of anger, rendering the muscles tense and trembling, dissipating the
energy of the system. Then the secretion of the adrenals comes to the rescue,
releasing the glycogen of the liver in a more abundant measure than usual to
cope with the emergency until the equipoise has been again attained, and
similarly during whatever other stress or strain. It was the knowledge of this
occult fact that prompted the ancient astrologers to place the kidneys under the
rulership of Libra, the Balance, and in order to avoid confusion of ideas we may
say that the kidneys themselves play an important part in the nutrition of the
body, being under the rulership of Venus, the Lady of Libra. However, Jupiter
governs the adrenals, with which we are now particularly engaged.
Both Venus and her higher octave, Uranus,
govern the functions of nutrition and growth, but in different ways and for
different purposes. Therefore Venus rules the thymus gland, which is the link
between the parents and the child until the latter has reached puberty. This
gland is located immediately behind the sternum or breast bone. It is largest in
antenatal life and through childhood while growth is excessive and rapid. During
that time the vital body of the child does its most effective work, for the
child is not then subject to the passions and emotions generated by the desire
body after that comes to birth at or about the fourteenth year. But during the
years of growth the child cannot manufacture the red blood corpuscles as does
the adult, for the unborn, unorganized desire body does not then act as an
avenue for the martian forces which assimilate the iron from the food and
transmute it into hemoglobin. To compensate for this lack there is stored in the
thymus gland a spiritual essence drawn from the parents, and with this essence
provided by their love the child is able to accomplish the alchemistry of blood
temporarily until its desire body becomes dynamically active. Then the thymus
gland atrophies and the child draws from its own desire body the necessary
martian force. From that time, under normal conditions, Uranus, the octave of
Venus, and ruler of the pituitary body, takes charge of the function of growth
and assimilation in the following manner.
It is well known that all things, our food
included, radiate from themselves continuously small particles which given an
index of the thing whence they emanate, its quality included. Thus when we lift
the food to our mouth a number of these invisible particles enter the nose and
by excitation of the olfactory tract convey to us a knowledge whether the food
we are about to take is suitable for this purpose or not, the sense of smell
warning us to discard such foods as have a noxious odor, etc. But besides those
particles which attract or repel us from food by their action on the olfactory
tract through the sense of smell, there are others which penetrate the sphenoid
bone, impinge upon the pituitary body and start the Uranian alchemistry by which
a secretion is formed and injected into the blood. This furthers assimilation
through the chemical ether, thus affecting the normal growth and well-being of
the human body through life. Sometimes this Uranian influence of the pituitary
body is eccentric and therefore responsible for strange and abnormal growths
which produce the unfortunate freaks of Nature we occasionally meet.
But besides being responsible for the
spiritual impulses which generate the before-mentioned physical manifestations
of growth, Uranus, working through the pituitary body, is also responsible for
the spiritual phases of growth which aid awakened man in his efforts to
penetrate the veil into the invisible worlds. In this work it is, however,
associated with Neptune, the ruler of the pineal gland, and it will therefore be
necessary, in order to properly elucidate, that we study the functions of the
thyroid gland, ruled by Mercury, and of the pineal gland which is under the
domination of his higher octave, Neptune, simultaneously.
That the thyroid gland is under the rule of
Mercury, the planet of reason, is readily realized when we understand the effect
which the degeneration of this gland has upon the mind, as shown in the diseases
of Cretinism and Myxedema. The secretions of this gland are as necessary to the
proper functioning of the mind as ether is to the transmission of electricity,
that is to say, upon the physical plane of existence where the brain transmutes
thought into action. Contact with and expression in the invisible worlds depends
upon the functional ability of the pineal gland, which is altogether spiritual
and is therefore ruled by the octave of Mercury, Neptune, the planet of
spirituality, which operates in conjunction with the pituitary body ruled by
Uranus.
Scientists have wasted much time in
speculation upon the nature and function of these two little bodies, the
pituitary body and the pineal gland, but without avail, and principally because,
as Mephistopheles says so sarcastically to the young man who wants to study
science under Faust:
"WHO E'ER WOULD KNOW AND TREAT OF AUGHT ALIVE
SEEKS FIRST THE LIVING SPIRIT THENCE TO DRIVE;
THEN ARE THE LIFELESS FRAGMENTS IN HIS HAND;
HE LACKS, ALAS! THE VITAL SPIRIT BAND."
No one can really and truly observe the
physiological functions of any organ under such conditions as exist in the
laboratory, on the operating table, or in the dissection or vivisection chamber.
To arrive at an adequate understanding one must necessarily see these organs
exercising their physiological functions IN THE LIVING BODY, and that can only
be done by means of spiritual sight. There are a number of organs which are
either atrophying or developing; the former show the path we have already
traveled during our past evolution, the latter are finger posts, indicating our
future development. But there is still another class of organs which are neither
degenerating nor evolving; they are simply dormant (spiritually) at the present
time. Physiologists believe that the pituitary body and the pineal gland are
atrophying because they find these organs more developed in some of the lower
classes of life, such as worms, but as a matter of fact they are wrong in their
ideas. Some have also suspected that the pineal gland is in some way connected
with the mind, because it contains certain crystals after death, and the
quantity was much less in those who were mentally defective than in people of
normal mentality. This conclusion is right, but the Seer knows that the spinal
canal of the living is not filled with FLUID; that the blood is not LIQUID, and
that these organs have no crystals in them when the body is alive.
These assertions are made with full
knowledge of the fact that the blood and the spinal essence are liquid when
drawn out of the body, living or dead, and the contents of the pituitary body
and the pineal gland APPEAR crystalline when the brain is dissected. However,
the reason is similar to that which causes steam drawn from a steam boiler to
condense immediately upon contact with the atmosphere, and molten metal drawn
from a smelter's furnace to crystallize immediately upon withdrawal therefrom.
All these substances are purely spiritual
essences when inside the body; they are then ethereal and the substance in the
pineal gland, when seen by the spiritual sight, appears as LIGHT. Furthermore,
when one Seer looks upon the pineal gland of another who is then also exercising
his spiritual faculties, this light is of a most intense brilliancy and of an
iridescence similar to but transcending in beauty the most wonderful play of the
Northern Lights, the AURORA BOREALIS. It may also be said that the function of
this organ seems to have changed in the course of human evolution. During the
earlier epochs of our present stay upon the Earth, when man's body was a large,
baggy thing into which the Spirit had not yet entered, but was there only as an
overshadowing presence, there was an opening in the top and the pineal gland was
within it. It was then an organ of orientation, giving a sense of direction. As
the human body condensed, it became less and less able to endure the intense
heat which prevailed during that time and the pineal gland gave warning when the
body was brought too near one of the many craters and active volcanoes which were
then erupting the thin Earth crust, thus enabling the Spirit to guide it away
from these dangerous places. It was an organ of direction which operated by
feeling, but feeling has since been distributed over the skin of the whole body.
This is an indication to the occultist that some day the senses of hearing and
sight will also be similarly distributed so that we shall both see and hear with
our whole body and thus become still more sensitive in those respects than we
are now.
Since then the pineal gland the pituitary
body have become temporarily dormant (spiritually) to make man oblivious to the
invisible world while he learns the lessons afforded by the material world. The
pituitary body has manifested the Uranian influence sporadically in abnormal
physical growth, producing freaks and monstrosities of various kinds, while
Neptune working also abnormally through the pineal gland, has been responsible
for the abnormal spiritual growth of medicine men, witches, and mediums of
Spirit controls. When they are awakened to normal activities these two ductless
glands will open the door to the inner worlds in a sane and safe manner, but in
the meantime the thyroid gland, ruled by Mercury, the planet of reason, holds
the secretion necessary to give the brain balance.
In the future the ductless glands are
destined to play a prominent role; their development will accelerate evolution
greatly, for their effects are mainly mental and spiritual. We are now nearing
the Aquarian Age; the Sun is therefore beginning to transmit the highly
intellectual vibrations of this sign which accounts for the intuitions,
premonitions, and telepathic transmission now so prevalent. In the final
analysis these phenomena are due to the awakening of the pituitary body, ruled
by Uranus, the lord of Aquarius, and every passing year will make them more
manifest.
The Lymphatic System is tubular and somewhat
closely associated with the capillaries which connect the Venus and arterial
circulations, terminating the large veins near the heart. The lymph which flows
along its channel passes out one way, viz: toward the center of circulation, the
heart. It is considered a system of small sewers for the body, simply because it
collects the dish water of the tissues after they have all been bathed in the
lymph which it carries. If you think of the tubes as drainage canals depleting
the tissues of the wash water, you may think of these lymphatic glands as locks
along the course of the channels at which the flow of lymph must stop and be
filtered on its way to the Venus blood stream.
The glands are located in the bends of the
elbows, in the arm pits, in the popliteal spaces, in the groins, thickly
scattered throughout the anterior part of the neck (the part in front of the
cervical vertebrae), in the abdomen between the folds of the mesentery which
suspends the small intestines to the backbone, and in the chest between the
lungs, this space being known as the mediastinum.
Every one of the lymphatic vessels passes
through one or more of these glands on its way to its destination in the veins.
The lymph cells are the only cells in the body that possess no cell wall; they
move about like jellyfish in water. When inflammation attacks the human body in
any of its types, the lymph is more responsible, for all poisonous liquids pass
at once into the lymphatic channels.
The glands are likely to be sickly, owing to
the poisonous nature of the lymph which filters through them. The lymphatic
system is threefold: it collects lymph from the tissues, chyle from the
intestines after it has been manufactured in the process of digestion, and by
means of the lymphatic glands manufactures lymph cells which are identical with
the white blood corpuscles.
The vital body is the second oldest of our
vehicles, having its original germ given by the Lords of Wisdom in the Sun
period. In the Sun Revolution of the Moon Period it was modified to render it
capable of being interpenetrated by a desire body, also of accommodating itself
to the nervous system, muscle, skeleton, etc.
During the Sun Revolution of the Earth
Period the vital body was reconstructed to accommodate the germinal mind. It was
fashioned at this time more in the likeness of the dense body, its organization
at present being next to the dense body in efficiency.
Further reconstruction was done in the
Hyperborean Epoch of the Earth Period when the Lords of Form appeared, with the
Angels, and clothed man's dense form, then a baggy-shaped object, with a vital
body.
The dense body is built into the matrix of
the vital body during antenatal life, and with one exception, it is an exact
copy, molecule for molecule, of the vital body. All through life the vital body
is the builder and restorer of the dense form, its tendency being to soften, as
well as to build. Its chief expression is the blood and the glands, also the
sympathetic nervous system, having gained ingress into the stronghold of the
desire body when it began to develop the heart into a voluntary muscle.
It interpenetrates the dense body and
extends beyond its periphery about an inch and a half. In texture the vital body
may be crudely compared to one of those picture frames made of hundreds of
little pieces of wood which interlock and present innumerable points to the
observer. The points of the vital body enter into the hollow centers of the
dense atoms, imbuing them with vital force that sets them vibrating at a rate
higher than that of the mineral of the Earth which is not thus accelerated and
ensouled.
When we analyze the human being, we find
that in him all four ethers (the chemical, life, light and reflecting ethers)
are dynamically active in the highly organized vital body. By means of the
activities of the chemical ether he is able to assimilate food and to grow; the
forces at work in the life ether enable him to propagate his species; the forces
in the light ether supply the dense body with heat, work on the nervous system
and the muscles, thus opening the doors of communication with the outside world
by way of the senses; and the reflecting ether enables the Spirit to control its
vehicles by means of thought. This ether also stores past experience as memory.
The chemical and life ethers form a matrix
for our physical bodies. Each molecule of the physical body is embedded in a
meshwork of ether which permeates and infuses it with life. Through these ethers
the bodily functions, such as respiration, etc., are carried on, and the density
and consistency of these matrices of ether determine the state of health.
The atoms of the chemical and life ethers
gathered around the nuclear seed atom located in the solar plexus are shaped
like prisms. They are all located in such a manner that when the solar energy
enters our body through the spleen, the refracted ray is red. This is the color
of the creative aspect of the Trinity, namely, Jehovah, the Holy Spirit, who
rules Luna, the planet of fecundation. Therefore the vital fluid from the Sun
which enters the human body by way of the spleen becomes tinged with a pale rose
color, often noted by Seers when it courses along the nerves as electricity does
in the wires of an electric system. Thus charged, the chemical and life ethers
are the avenues of assimilation which preserve the individual, and of
fecundation which perpetuates the race.
During life each prismatic vital atom
penetrates a physical atom and vibrates it. To form a picture of this
combination, imagine a pear-shaped wire basket having walls of spirally curved
wire running obliquely from pole to pole. This is the physical atom; it is
shaped nearly like our Earth, and the prismatic vital atom is inserted from the
top, which is widest and corresponds to the north pole of our Earth. Thus the
point of the prism penetrates the physical atom at the narrowest point, which
corresponds to the south pole of the Earth, and the whole resembles a top
swinging, swaying, and vibrating. In this manner our body is made alive and
capable of motion.
The light and reflecting ethers are avenues
of consciousness and memory. They are somewhat attenuated in the average
individual and have not yet taken definite form; they interpenetrate the atom as
air interpenetrates a sponge, and they form a slight auric atmosphere outside
each atom.
It has been determined by physical science
that the atoms in our dense body are constantly changing so that all the
material which composes our present vehicle at this moment will have disappeared
in a few years, but it is common knowledge that scars and other blemishes
perpetuate themselves from childhood to old age. The reason for this is that the
prismatic ether atoms which compose our vital body remain unchanged from the
cradle to the grave. They are always in the same relative position--that is to
say, the prismatic ether atoms which vibrate the physical atoms in the toes or
in the fingers do not get to the hands, legs, or any other part of the body, but
remain in exactly the same place where they were placed in the beginning. A
lesion of the physical atoms involves a similar impression on the prismatic
ether atoms. The new physical matter molded over them continues to take on shape
and texture similar to those which originally obtained.
The foregoing remarks apply only to the
prismatic atoms which correspond to solids and liquids in the Physical World,
because they assume a certain definite shape which they preserve. But in
addition each human being at this stage of evolution has a certain amount of
light and reflecting ether, which are the vehicles of sense perception and
memory, intermingled in his vital body. We may say that the light ether
corresponds to the gases of our Physical World; perhaps the best description
that can be given of the reflecting ether is to call it hyper-etheric. It is a
vacuous substance of a bluish color resembling in appearance the blue core of a
gas flame. It appears transparent and seems to reveal everything that is within
it, but nevertheless it hides all the secrets of nature and humanity. In it is
found one record of the memory of Nature. The light and reflecting ethers are of
an exactly opposite nature to that of the stationary prismatic ether atoms. They
are volatile and migratory. However much or little a man possesses of this
material, it is an accretion, a fruitage, derived from his experiences in life.
Inside the body it mingles with the blood stream and when it has grown by
service and sacrifice in life's school so that it can no longer be contained
within the body it is seen on the outside as a soul body of gold and blue.
Blue shows the highest type of
spirituality, therefore it is smallest in volume and may be compared to the blue
core of the gas flame, while the golden hue forms the larger part and
corresponds to the yellow light which surrounds the core in the gas ring. The
blue color does not appear outside the dense body save in the very greatest of
saints--only yellow is usually observable there. At death this part of the vital
body is etched into the desire body with the life panorama which it contains.
The quintessence of all our life experience is then eventually impressed upon
the seed atom as conscience or virtue which urges us to avoid evil and to do
good in a coming life. Thus the quality of the seed atom is altered from life to
life. The quintessence of good extracted from the migratory part of the vital
body in one life determines the quality of the prismatic stationary ether atoms
in the next life. The highest in one life becomes the lowest in the next and
thus we gradually climb the ladder of evolution towards divinity.
From the foregoing it will be evident that
the vital body is a vehicle of habit; all parents know that during the first
seven years of childhood when this vehicle is in course of gestation that
children form one habit after another. Repetition is the keynote of the vital
body and habits depend upon repetition. It is different with the desire body,
the vehicle of feelings and emotions which are always changing from moment to
moment; though it has been said that the ether which forms our soul body is in
constant motion and mingles with the blood stream, that motion is relatively
slow compared to the rapidity of the current of the desire body; we may say that
the ether moves like a snail compared with light.
When the Ego is on its way to rebirth
through the Region of Concrete Thought, the Desire World, and the Etheric
Region, it gathers a certain amount of material from each. The quality of this
material is determined by the seed atom, on the principle that like attracts
like. The quantity depends upon the amount of matter required by the archetype
built by ourselves in the second Heaven. From the quantity of prismatic ether
atoms that are appropriated by a certain Spirit, the Recording Angels and their
agents build an etheric form which is then plead in the mother's womb and
gradually clothed with physical matter which then forms the visible body of the
new born child.
Only a small portion of the ether
appropriated by a certain Ego is thus used, and the remainder of the child's
vital body, or rather the material from which that vehicle will eventually be
made, is thus outside the dense body. For that reason the vital body of a child
protrudes much farther beyond the periphery of the dense body than does that of
an adult. During the period of growth this store of ether atoms is drawn upon to
vitalize the accretions within the body until, at the time when the adult age is
reached, the vital body protrudes only from one to one and a half inches beyond
the periphery of the dense body.
The Western Wisdom School teaches as its
fundamental maxim that "all occult development begins with the vital
body." The part of the vital body formed of the two higher ethers, the
light ether and the reflecting ether, is what we may term the SOUL BODY; that is
to say, it is more closely linked with the desire body and the mind and also
more amenable to the Spirit's touch than are the two lower ethers. It is the
vehicle of intellect, and responsible for all that makes man, man. Our
observations, our aspirations, our character, etc., are due to the work of the
Spirit in these two higher ethers, which become more or less luminous according
to the nature of our character and habits. Also, as the dense body assimilates
particles of food and thus gains in flesh, so the two higher ethers assimilate
our good deeds during life and thus grow in volume as well. According to our
doings in this present life we thus increase or decrease that which we brought
with us at birth. This is the reason the Western Wisdom Teaching says that ALL
MYSTIC DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH THE VITAL BODY.
In the third Revolution of the Moon Period
the Lords of Individuality radiated from themselves the substance which they
helped the unconscious, evolving man to appropriate and build into a germinal
desire body. They also helped him to incorporate this germinal desire body in
the compound vital body and dense body which he already possessed. This work was
carried on all through the third and fourth Revolutions of the Moon Period.
The antagonistic "lower will" or
will of the body, is an expression of the higher part of the desire body. When
division of the Sun, Moon, and Earth took place, in the early part of the
Lemurian Epoch, the more advanced portion of humanity-in-the-making experienced
a division of the desire body into a higher and a lower part. The rest of
humanity did likewise in the early part of the Atlantean Epoch.
This higher part of the desire body became
a sort of animal soul. It build the cerebrospinal nervous system and the
voluntary muscles, by that means controlling the lower part of the threefold
body until the link of mind was given. Then the mind "coalesced" with
the animal soul and became co-regent.
During the life of man his desire body is
not shaped like his dense and vital bodies. After death it assumes that shape.
During life it has the appearance of a luminous ovoid which, in waking hours,
completely surrounds the dense body, as the albumen does the yolk of an egg. It
extends from twelve to sixteen inches beyond the dense body in the ordinary
individual. The matter in the human desire body is composed of material from the
Desire World and is in incessant motion of inconceivable rapidity. There is in
it no settled place for any particle, as in the dense body. The matter that is
at the head one moment may be at the feet in the next and back again. There are
no organs in the desire body, as in the dense and vital bodies, but there are
centers of perception, which, when active, appear as vortices, always remaining
in the same relative position to the dense body. In the majority of people they
are mere eddies and are of no use as centers of perception. They may be awakened
in all, however, but different methods produce different results. The desire
body is rooted in the liver, and is born at about the fourteenth year in the
being.
In the involuntary clairvoyant developed
along improper, negative lines, these vortices turn from right to left, or in
the opposite direction to the hands of a clock--counter-clockwise.
In the desire body of the properly trained
voluntary clairvoyant, they turn in the same direction as the hands of a
clock--clockwise, glowing with exceeding splendor, far surpassing the brilliant
luminosity of the ordinary desire body. These centers furnish him with means for
the perception of things in the Desire World and he sees, and investigates as he
wills, while the person whose centers turn counter-clockwise is like a mirror,
which reflects what passes before it.
In a far distant future man's desire body
will become as definitely organized as are the vital and dense bodies. When that
stage is reached we shall all have the power to function in the desire body as
we now do in the dense body.
In the Atlantean Epoch of the Earth Period
the Lords of Mind radiated from themselves into our being the nucleus of
material from which we are now seeking to build an organized mind. It was given
to man to give purpose to action, but as the Ego was exceedingly weak and the
desire nature strong, the nascent mind coalesced with the desire body; the
faculty of Cunning resulted and was the cause of all the wickedness of the
middle third of the Atlantean Epoch.
The mind, being the last of man's vehicles
built, is not yet even a body. It is simply a link, a sheath for the use of the
Ego as a focusing point. It is however, the most important instrument possessed
by the Spirit, and its special instrument in the work of creation. We,
ourselves, as Egos, function directly in the subtle substance of the Region of
Abstract Thought, which we have specialized within the periphery of our
individual aura. Thence we view the impressions made by the outer world upon the
vital body through the senses, together with the feeling and emotions generated
by them in the desire body, mirrored in the mind.
From these mental images we form our
conclusions, in the substance of the Region of Abstract Thought, concerning the
subjects with which they deal. These conclusions are ideas. By the power of will
we project an idea through the mind, where it takes concrete shape as a thought
form by drawing mind stuff around itself from the Region of Concrete Thought.
The image may be projected in one of three directions:
(1) It may be projected against the desire
body in an endeavor to arouse feeling which will lead to immediate action.
(2) Where no immediate action is called for
by the mental images of impacts from without, these may be projected directly
upon the reflecting ether, together with the thoughts occasioned by them, to be
used at some future time.
(3) It may be projected toward another mind
to act as a suggestion, to carry information, etc. When the work designed for
such a thought form has been accomplished, or its energy expended in vain
attempts to achieve its object, it gravitates back to its creator, bearing with
it the indelible record of its journey.
At our present stage of evolution we say
that the mind is born at the age of twenty-one, but the prime of mentality is
not reached until about the forty-ninth year.
The mind is the focusing medium whereby the
ideas wrought by the imagination of the Spirit are projected upon the material
universe. First they are thought forms only, but when the desire to realize the
imagined possibilities has set the man to work in the Physical World, they
become what we call concrete "realities."
At the present time, however, the mind is
not focused in a way that enables it to give a clear and true picture of what
the Spirit imagines. It is not one-pointed. It gives misty and clouded pictures.
Hence the necessity of experiment to show the inadequacies of the first
conception, and bring about new imaginings and ideas until the image produced by
the Spirit in mental substance has been reproduced in physical substance.
At the best, we are able to shape through
the mind only such images as have to do with Form, because the human mind was
not started until the Earth Period, and therefore is now in its form, or
"mineral" stage, hence in our operations we are confined to forms, to
minerals. We can imagine ways and means of working with the mineral forms of the
three lower kingdoms, but can do little or nothing with living bodies. We may
indeed graft living branch to living tree, or living part of animal or man to
other living part, but it is not life with which we are working; it is form
only. We are making different conditions, but the life which already inhabited
the form continues to do so. To work with life is beyond man's power until his
mind has become alive.
In the Jupiter Period the mind will be
vivified to some extent and man can them imagine forms which will LIVE AND GROW,
LIKE PLANTS.
In the Venus Period, when his mind has
acquired "Feeling," he can create living, growing, and FEELING things.
When he reaches perfection, at the end of
the Vulcan Period, he will be able to "imagine" into existence
creatures that will live, grow, feel, and THINK.
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