III.

This figure represents the Mystic Brahma espousals with Parasakti. The latter is the divine principle of intellectual emanative potentiality or energy, and the ideal of archi-typal womanhood. The Sakti is conceived of as the female part of the energy of Brahma’s intellectual, creative power and creative wisdom. Brahma is here the true Para-Brahma, and Para-Sakti a true Para-sarasvadi. The sexless in Brahman (neuter) is here transmuted into the male or energizing power, as the principal symbolic type of the divine emanative, yet immanent, creative power, as the masculine principle of the ideal or Great Androgynic Man or the Makrokosm; and the flaming Sun is here depicted as the flaming sun-face, representative of the male-active deity, also called Purusha. The Sakti or Para-Sakti, the fructifying energy and potentiality of Brahman’s wisdom, wears upon her head a bright fire-flaming crown or nimbus.

The veil surrounding them, is the mystic veil produced by the ideation of the eternal thought of the eternal Mind. In the left hand of the sun-figure on the first finger, is carried a bird or perhaps a dove, which is intended to symbolize the flight of the ideal creation from the eternal Mind before the appearance of that which appears to us to be the real world. In the right hand he holds the end of the mystic veil. On the head of Maya—the woman—is the world-egg cap. Below, in the shadow of the spherical cloak of the God-dawn, is seen the world-egg surrounded by the spiritualizing Ananda the snake of eternity, which as if asleep and inactive, is suspended around the egg.

In India the principal general symbols are fire and water, sun and moon, man and woman, bull and cow, the linga and yoni, the lotus and the sacred fig (_ficus indica_). The lotus is formed of red, white and blue colors; blue is considered the same as black. ISAAC MYER.

“LIGHT ON THE PATH.”

“The Soul of man is immortal and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendour has no limit.”

It is with extreme diffidence that I venture to undertake a short commentary or analysis of the book whose title heads this article; not only because of the nature of the work itself, but also because it has already been twice commented upon, once by the author, and once by a very learned student of Eastern Literature. The author’s notes, however, were rather an extension of the original text than a commentary in the strict sense of the word; while the object of the second annotator was more an attempt to show the identity of the doctrines contained in _Light on the Path_ with those of ancient Brahamanical Philosophy, than to give the nature of those doctrines in themselves.

The object of this paper on the contrary, is to attempt to analyze the scheme of Philosophy in accordance with which this little book has been written; in other words, to attempt to set forth the intellectual counterpart of the spiritual doctrines of _Light on the Path_. It is inevitable that, in thus changing the doctrine from the Spiritual to the intellectual plane, so to speak, the intellectual counterpart should be inferior to the Spiritual original. To counterbalance this loss, however, it is true on the other hand that the intellectual counterpart may render the spiritual original accessible to some, the conformation of whose minds renders them unable to appreciate it directly. It is in the hope that this may be so that the present paper has been attempted.

To begin with, then, the work we are considering indicates a possible enlightenment of the Soul, and development of the higher part of our nature; and further states that these results cannot take place before a certain battle has been fought and won: we have, therefore, to discover what the soul is; what is the nature of the battle; what are the opposing forces; and what are the results of the struggle.

The combatants are the higher nature, or Soul on the one side; and the lower nature or egotism on the other. The higher nature includes the intellectual, Spiritual, and æsthetical powers: that is to say, the powers which deal with the perception of truth, goodness, and beauty.

The sense of truth is characteristically manifested in the conquest of some intricate mathematical problem, or in following successfully some difficult chain of reasoning.

The sense of beauty is manifested in the joy with which we behold the splendor of a glorious sunset.

The sense of goodness is manifested in the voice of an approving conscience, or in the reverence and admiration we feel for some godlike and noble character.

It is undeniable that the intellect can discriminate between what is, and what is not, true, within its own domain, the æsthetical faculty also can pronounce with certainty as to the presence or absence of that quality which we call beauty.

So can the moral nature decide without hesitation as to what is or what is not in accordance with Righteousness. These three powers of the higher nature are subject to development, that is to say, at different periods they will perceive the qualities of beauty, truth, and goodness in different objects, and in different degrees; but as to the reality of the three qualities their voice is ever the same.

The three powers perceive three harmonies, each in its own domain; when the three are harmoniously developed the three harmonies are perceived to be one, and to this one great harmony are given the names of the Eternal and the Law of God. The seer of old feeling the sense of Rightousness’ within him exclaimed: “I will rejoice in the Eternal, and in him will I put my trust.” When the powers of the higher nature are developed, under all temporary disharmony and chaotic disturbance, are perceived a deeper order and more enduring harmony ever at work. Marcus Aurelius had perception of a deep Spiritual truth, when he wrote the concluding sentences of the following utterance.

“Figs, when they are quite ripe, gape open: and in the ripe olives, the very circumstance of their being near to rottenness, adds a peculiar beauty to the fruit, and ears of corn bending down, and foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars, and many other things,—though they are far from being beautiful, in a certain sense,—still, because they come in the course of nature, have a beauty in them, and they please the mind; so that if a man should have a feeling and a deeper insight with respect to the things which are produced in the universe, there is hardly anything which comes in the course of nature, which will not seem to him to be, in a manner, disposed so as to give pleasure.” That is,—in all things, could we but perceive it, is the harmony of the Eternal.

The first harmony, the harmony of truth, is perceived by the scientific materialist; that is to say, he is capable of perceiving the reign of Law in the physical universe.

The artistic nature can perceive the harmony of beauty in nature and art.

By the spiritually-minded is perceived the moral harmony.

It is the distinctive mark of modern Civilization that the harmonies of truth and beauty, of Science and Art are perceived and openly recognized by all, while the harmony of Holiness is passed over, in silence and oblivion. It is the object of Theosophy, rightly understood, to arouse the world to a renewed sense of the harmony of Righteousness.

So much for the higher nature. Confronting it stands the Egotism. For where the moral sense dictates peace and goodwill to all men, the Egotism raises a selfish claim for a monopoly of all good things, all pleasures, all enjoyments. The first enjoyment the Egotism demands is to surpass and dominate all other Egotisms which it seems to see pursuing the same pleasures as itself. Hence the command: “Kill out ambition.” Having once gained this domination the self cries out for enjoyments both sensual and sensuous, for all the pleasures of life. Hence the need for the command “Kill out the desire of life;” the self is also deterred by indolence from carrying out any good inspirations that may descend through the thick mist which surrounds it, from the higher nature: against indolence it is written “Kill out the desire of comfort.”

But the moral sense condemns the existence of this self, this centre of force, which is not in accordance with its perception of Harmony. When once the moral nature comes to perceive the evil of egotism, the question inevitably arises for solution, “Shall this cause of disharmony cease or continue?” If the decision is for its continuance one of two things will happen. Either, before the moral nature has been completely paralysed and atrophied by neglect,—before the seared conscience is completely silenced,—the fact will be recognised, in the midst of pain and sorrow unspeakable, that “to work for self is to work for disappointment;” and in that case the moral nature may at last meet with its development and all may be well; “the weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its death, and it is a plant that lives and increases through the ages.” It has been said also “the forging of earthly chains is the occupation of the indifferent, the awful duty of unloosing them through the sorrows of the heart is also their occupation” and truly “both are foolish sacrifices.” Either this takes place, or,—the moral nature at last becomes completely deadened, all the force and vital power which has been drawn away from it goes to strengthen the Egotism which becomes from henceforth a centre of evil, of destruction; an enemy of the eternal.

It seems that individual existence means a certain amount of force, which may vitalise either the powers of the higher nature or those of the egotism; or those of both, in part. It seems also that the egotism is a group of centres, so to speak, from some or all of which the energic force of the individual may work; so that, for example, when this force works from one centre in the egotism sensuality arises; when from another centre, hate; from another, evil ambition, and so on. When the energic force is raised to the higher nature it may act from various centres; from one, as charity; from another, as holiness, and so on. Hence, “any good quality may become any other good quality”—if the conditions are favorable. It seems also that the Will can degrade the energic force from the soul to the egotism; or, conversely, can raise it from the egotism to the soul; so that, by the alchemical power of the will, so to speak, the baser metal becomes converted and, rising to the top of the still, becomes pure gold. Besides the higher and lower natures we have been considering there resides also, in the complete being, consciousness or sense of existence and will. When all the portions of energic force,—or the Satwaic sparks, as they are elsewhere called,—rise to the higher nature, the individual becomes one with the Eternal, and a part of the United Spirit of Life, and individual existence ceases, in a sense. When the question is asked “Shall the self cease or continue?” the moral nature answers decisively “It ought to cease.” If the truth of this mandate is recognised, at once a terrible struggle arises; self opposed rises with tenfold force and violence; again and again it craftily casts doubt on the truth of the moral nature; raises obstacles, temptations and hindrances; all the pleasures it has enjoyed are to be swept away forever; all the momentum and power that the egotism has gained, through long continued indulgence and unhindered growth, are brought to bear at once on the struggle; the whole nature is torn by the conflict, the will is tried to the uttermost; but under all this turmoil and strife lies the assured consciousness of final victory; it is felt that sooner or later the self must be destroyed, that it is built for time and not for eternity, that its days are numbered.

During the struggle intervals of peace occur, and grow greater and longer as the end approaches; till at last, when the final victory is won this peace becomes habitual.

But as the conflict goes on, the will at last gains strength to say, once for all “Henceforth, forever, will I serve self no more.” And immediately the first struggle is ended. The dominance of self is forever destroyed. In reply to the command “Seek in the heart the source of evil, and expunge it” the soul can say “this also have I done,” then comes “peace to the troubled spirit” peace deep and pure. The soul recognises that the self has been the cause of individual existence; when the self is removed the soul tends to harmonise itself with the great harmony, to become one with the eternal; but all the evil tendencies to selfishness and sin, must be gradually overcome, for though their cause and source has been destroyed, yet they still maintain a certain momentum. Not yet can it be said that the soul is perfectly at one with the United Spirit of Life. Much remains to be done, yet much has been done already, for during the struggle the energic force has become loosened from the centres of self, and has ascended to strengthen and vivify the soul, which becomes strong, fully awakened, and in harmony with the eternal; the flower of the soul is opening, the first step on the Path is taken. In the _Idyll of the White Lotus_ the same author has given the same history in another form. The New-Testament story is the same, and so is the scheme of Christian Theology for those who have eyes to see it; for that story is “the tragedy of the soul, it has been told in all ages and among every people.”

“Enter the Path! there spring the healing streams Quenching all thirst! there bloom the immortal flowers Carpeting all the way with joy! there throng Swiftest and sweetest hours.” _Dublin, Ireland._ CHARLES JOHNSTON.

MUSINGS ON THE TRUE THEOSOPHIST’S PATH.

If you desire to labor for the good of the world, it will be unwise for you to strive to include it all at once in your efforts. If you can help elevate or teach but one soul—that is a good beginning, and more than is given to many.

Fear nothing that is in Nature and visible. Dread no influence exerted by sect, faith, or society. Each and every one of them originated upon the same basis—Truth, or a portion of it at least. You may not assume that you have a greater share than they, it being needful only, that you find all the truth each one possesses. You are at war with none. It is peace you are seeking, therefore it is best that the good in everything is found. For this brings peace.

It has been written that he who lives the Life shall know the doctrine. Few there be who realize the significance of The Life.

It is not by intellectually philosophizing upon it, until reason ceases to solve the problem, nor by listening in ecstatic delight to the ravings of an _Elemental clothed_—whose hallucinations are but the offspring of the Astral—that the life is realized. Nor will it be realized by the accounts of the experiences of other students. For there be some who will not realize Divine Truth itself, when written, unless it be properly punctuated or expressed in flowery flowing words.

Remember this: that as you live your life each day with an uplifted purpose and unselfish desire, each and every event will bear for you a deep significance—an occult meaning—and as you learn their import, so do you fit yourself for higher work.

There are no rose-gardens upon the way in which to loiter about, nor fawning slaves to fan one with golden rods of Ostrich plumes. The Ineffable Light will not stream out upon you every time you may think you have turned up the wick, nor will you find yourself sailing about in an astral body, to the delight of yourself and the astonishment of the rest of the world, simply because you are making the effort to find wisdom.

He who is bound in any way—he who is narrow in his thoughts—finds it doubly difficult to pass onward. You may equally as well gain wisdom and light in a church as by sitting upon a post while your nails grow through your hands. It is not by going to extremes or growing fanatical in any direction that the life will be realized.

Be temperate in all things, most of all in the condemnation of other men. It is unwise to be intemperate or drunken with wine. It is equally unwise to be drunken with temperance. Men would gain the powers; or the way of working wonders. Do you know, O man, what the powers of the Mystic are? Do you know that for each gift of this kind he gives a part of himself? That it is only with mental anguish, earthly sorrow, and almost his heart’s blood, these gifts are gained? Is it true, think you, my brother, that he who truly possesses them desires to sell them at a dollar a peep, or any other price? He who would trade upon these things finds himself farther from his goal than when he was born.

There _are_ gifts and powers. Not just such as you have created in your imagination, perhaps. Harken to one of these powers: He who has passed onward to a certain point, finds that the hearts of men lie spread before him as an open book, and from there onward the motives of men are clear. In other words he can read the hearts of men. But not selfishly; should he but once use this knowledge selfishly, the book is closed—and he reads no more. Think you, my brothers, he would permit himself to _sell_ a page out of this book?

Time—that which does not exist outside the inner circle of this little world—seems of vast importance to the physical man. There comes to him at times, the thought that he is not making any progress, and that he is receiving nothing from some Mystic source. From the fact that he has the thought that no progress is being made the evidence is gained that he is working onward. Only the dead in living bodies need fear. That which men would receive from Mystic sources is frequently often repeated, and in such a quiet, unobtrusive voice, that he who is waiting to hear it shouted in his ear, is apt to pass on unheeding.

Urge no man to see as yourself, as it is quite possible you may see differently when you awake in the morning. It is wiser to let the matter rest without argument. No man is absolutely convinced by that. It is but blowing your breath against the whirlwind.

It was at one time written over the door: “Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here.” It has taken hundreds of years for a few to come to the realization that the wise men had not the slightest desire for the company of a lot of hopeless incurables in the mysteries. There is to be abandoned hope for the gratification of our passions, our curiosities, our ambition or desire for gain. There is also another Hope—the true; and he is a wise man who comes to the knowledge of it. Sister to Patience, they together are the Godmothers of Right Living, and two of the Ten who assist the Teacher. AMERICAN MYSTIC.

THOUGHT EFFECTS.

Some thirty years ago, I began a five years’ residence in a foreign land. Whilst there, I was conscious of a stern conflict going on within me to keep myself from falling into some of the ways and beliefs of the people of that land. So strong was the assault in one direction upon the Idol of Right which had been set up within me by a New England training, that for fear it should topple and fall, I was constrained to withdraw myself little by little from social relations, until finally I came to be pretty much alone, living on the pampas with flocks, herds, nature generally, and a few books for company. Even after this change the fight went on, though in a less active form and on a more desultory scale.

After I went from there, reflection upon the subject brought me to this conclusion among others, viz.: that one of the most powerful forces emanating from distinct societies of mankind works by mental action upon man from the unseen atmosphere surrounding him.

It is said advisingly, “When in Rome do as the Romans do.” It may be said, warningly: “When one enters upon living in Rome, he can scarce help _but_ do as the Romans do.”

In these later days, investigation of Theosophy has shown me of what nature was the obstacle against which I had been contending so stoutly.

It was of the Karma of that nation. It has shown me also the method of that unseen, unheard influence which “is in the air,” ever about us, ever ready to move us, to govern us. And this method of influence, unseen and unheard, is the action upon us of forces existing on the Astral Plane. Among these forces are the thoughts of men living upon the objective plane of Earth.

After so much of preface, I come to a more particular consideration of some of the effects of those thoughts of man, which are unexpressed by speech or action, upon others and upon himself:

1st. How may we effectually resist the force of bad influence of locality operating on _us_ from the Astral Plane?

2nd. How may we do something, otherwise than by precept and example, towards overcoming the evil Karma of Locality which may be affecting _others_?

3rd. How may we in individual cases help some unfortunates with whose needs we are acquainted?

An answer is—by Thoughts.

In man’s advancement from darkness into light, in the “Human Soul’s” departure from lower materiality to entrance into right Spiritual living, among other means to be used to attain that end are right thought, right action, right speech and right meditation. Of these, _right thought_, is of primary importance, for it is the foundation from which only the others can spring into life. Actions in objectivity are illusions; they are shadows of our personality created by thoughts. Thoughts are nearer, more akin to our personality than actions are, for they are primary expressions from personality, always preceding conscious speech and action. Of all the indices to our personality of which we have knowledge thoughts are the clearest; we are as our thoughts are. In compliance with that grand mandate, “Know Thyself,” why scan life’s _page_ of speech and actions—shadows—when a vast _volume_ of thoughts—realities—expressions of our personality, lies open to us for finding knowledge of self?

Though independent of speech and action, thoughts are realities. They are real, living, active forces, until their force is expended,—but the effects of right thoughts last forever. Space does not necessarily limit their reach. They are in the air, so to speak, everywhere, and can move with a rapidity that is instantaneous. They may not only be sent, but are received. It takes but the veriest morsel of time to send a thought to the Sun; at the Sun it takes as little time to receive a thought from the Earth.

To the first question—“how may we effectually resist the force of bad influence of Locality operating on _us_ from the Astral Plane?”—one way is to search for Spiritual Truth. That truth is “in the air.” It is conveyed to us by Thoughts. But a thought “from the air” is as a seed. A mustard seed planted in ice will not fructify; a spiritual thought-seed falling upon a “Human Soul” which is bound and tied to Earth by its “Animal Soul” will not fructify. The mustard seed must fall into ground properly prepared for its reception, ere by culture it can sprout, grow, and bear fruit. And so, too, must the soil of the “Human Soul,” be made ready in order that it shall afford an appropriate bed upon which the ever-present Spiritual thought-seed shall alight. On such a prepared soil it will _surely_ fall; as surely as the magnetic needle points to its pole, and once there, by our own culture it may grow into “an everlasting tree of Holiness.”

How is that bed prepared? How is it that we become ready to receive Spiritual Truth? By right thought, right action, right speech and right meditation. It lies within our _inner selves_ whether we shall advance in Spiritual knowledge and life, and nowhere else; it must be our purpose, our business. No dictum of the Schools can bring it about. No printed book on esoteric wisdom or on ethics, or on the multitudinous religions of man can give it to us;—belonging to the Theosophical Society does not necessarily lead us into Spiritual life. These, to the hungry “Human Soul,” may be of immense importance, but if the “Human Soul”—principle 5, be not first prepared, if we do not look upward and build upward, all these means,—Spiritual thoughts that are “in the air,” wise books, this society of yours—they are all to such a spiritually-desert soul, but as of old—“pearls before swine”—hidden light—a force shut out by ourselves from acting within us.

_When we are engaged in right searching for Spiritual Truth, bad forces from the Astral Plane are inoperative upon us_: Thus may we effectually resist the force of bad influence of Locality operating on _ourselves_ from the Astral Plane.

The second question we are considering is, “How may we do something, otherwise than by precept and example, towards overcoming the evil Karma which may be affecting _others_?”

Surely, again, it is by right thought, and right action, speech and meditation. For, not only do they prepare the way for the reception of Spiritual Truths, but the ego, so thinking, acting, speaking and meditating, is, while so employed, disseminating Spiritual light on all sides through the Astral Plane. He is throwing out Spiritual truth-seed which is reaching far and near. Wherever a “Human Soul” is in need of it, and hungering for it, it _will surely fall_; for there the soil is ready for its reception. These right thoughts have gone into “the air,” and are certain to strike in somewhere for good.

Thus by _right thought_ we may do something otherwise than by precept and example, towards obliterating the evil Karma of locality which is affecting _others_.

Regarding the third question; it seems to me that we all know some

## particular individuals to whose high needs we can minister by direct

intention through the power of thought.

Who, that observes and reflects, cannot gather from his own experience the fact that thought can fly to a person at a distance? How common to say “I was thinking of one and he appeared.” It is not an uncommon experience for one to unexpectedly entertain serious, at any rate marked thoughts about another, and subsequently to find that the other was similarly occupied in mind with him at the same time. It is odd if there be not some among you who know that thought messages have been sent, received and acted on by the object-person when the receiver was in an abnormal condition to the sender. By these and other illustrations which doubtless will occur to you, we _know_ that it is within the province of cause and effect that thought has power to operate on others at a distance by direct intention of the sender, by mental action alone.

Believing in the reality of thought—_knowing_ the reality of thought—in its power to shield us from evil; in its power to affect others unknown to us; in our power to project it to special individuals, what opportunities it affords us for conferring high good.

But in order to do positive good to another by this direct thought unexpressed by speech or action, some certain conditions are necessary, which we may consider as milestones that shall indicate the progress of our own ascending path from materiality to spirituality. To be a power by thought influence,—(I do not refer now to thought sent by will power to a particular “sensitive” who is in subjective state to the sender—which condition is on a lower plane than that which we are now considering,) presupposes intensity of love born of and nurtured by Spirituality for those whose high good we thus seek to establish. There must first be born in us an enthusiasm for giving high and positive good to another unconciously enthusiasm, as is our enthusiasm, shall be the energy of our missive-thought; and according to the energy of that thought will be its effect upon the object to which it is sent,—the more powerfully intense the thought the deeper it will penetrate;—the longer its effects will endure.

Right meditation will be required of us to determine what we really desired to effect. If we arrive at the position within ourselves necessary for obtaining power for affecting another for good by thought message, there will be engendered within us a portion of that grand principle on which this Society is founded, viz: Universal Brotherhood—unselfish love for others.

In making thought message to others, on the basis of lifting them to a higher plane of action, a part of our daily life, by its reaction upon ourselves we shall surely be “laying up treasures in Heaven”—and full will be our material for Devachanic life.

As in Devachan one shall live in the good he has done while in objective earth life—shall live in the true beauty he has learned to perceive—shall live in the effects of his good-life, his thoughts while here on earth can be made for the Devachanic period of his existence a vast storehouse of “good-life” of purest water. But it must be of thoughts untinged by selfish considerations. It must be of thoughts evolved through love of others for _their_ good.

Right thought being the grand power it is:

1st. To resist within _ourselves_ the bad Karma of Locality.

2nd. By which to weaken and destroy the bad Karma of Locality, which is disastrously affecting _others_.

3rd. By which from a basis of spiritual love we may send light to a groping soul,—what heavy responsibility is ever over us that it shall be our purpose, our study to “think aright.”—To live much in thus right thinking—we shall ever be lifting some of the heavy Karma from off the world. It is thus, that we can “live in the Eternal, for right thought is of the Universal Mind, and Universal Mind is of the Eternal.”

Reflect that persistent right thinking affects humanity constantly in the right direction, ever from the gross and material to the refined and Spiritual. It will ever be a constant force so long as evil exists. Let this idea sink into our consciousness. Let right thought be to us as the strong arm with which to do good to others. One need not long for wealth, for position or power that he may do good to others; the poorest in material wealth, the humblest in station, the most insignificant among men has within himself this ever open storehouse of power for conferring good on which he can draw without limit; a wealth he can scatter broadcast, or can give by direct selection of object with the surety that he is bestowing benefits broadly,—knowing that he is successfully contending against Spiritual poverty—which is the sum of evil.

He who uses this wealth, can do so—_must_ do so only by sacrifice of thought of self. He must be interested only in combating evil by helping humanity at large; of offering special help to those whom he knows are desirous of help. As his life-love for the objects in view is the only foundation upon which he can do these works,—love of self can not be a power within him.

To put it the other way. Begin the work of thought for the good of others by first forgetting self; as fast as possible get away from the dominion of materiality. Live in the love of doing _enduring_ good to others—these conditions _are_ the true and upward advancement of ourselves. The doing of these things _is the reward_;—it is the advancing into _God-life_. It is part of our real Eternal selves. It is living in the Eternal—the everlasting good; for the God-life—the good-life is the only eternally active one. By living thus, the gross and material now enchaining our entities will be broken down and will die and leave us—and die they must sooner or later or the “I am I” shall perish. H. N. H., F.T.S. Brooklyn, Oct 15, 1886.

ENVIRONMENT.

To the Western mind the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation contain difficulties which while they seem imaginary to the Eastern student, are nevertheless for the Western man as real as any of the other numerous obstructions in the path of salvation. All difficulties are more or less imaginary, for the whole world and all its entanglements are said to be an illusion resulting from the notion of a separate I. But while we exist here in matter, and so long as there is a manifested universe, these illusions are real to that man who has not risen above them to the knowledge that they are but the masks behind which the reality is hidden.

For nearly twenty centuries the Western nations have been building up the notion of a separate I—of _meum_ and _tuum_—and it is hard for them to accept any system which goes against those notions.

As they progress in what is called material civilization with all its dazzling allurements and aids to luxury, their delusion is further increased because they appraise the value of their doctrine by the results which seem to flow from it, until at last they push so far what they call the reign of law, that it becomes a reign of terror. All duty to their fellows is excluded from it in practice, although the beautiful doctrines of Jesus are preached to the people daily by preachers who are paid to preach but not to enforce, and who cannot insist upon the practice which should logically follow the theory because the consequences would be a loss of position and livelihood.

So when out of such a nation rises a mind that asks for help to find again the path that was lost, he is unconsciously much affected by the education not only of himself but also of his nation through all these centuries. He has inherited tendencies that are hard to be overcome. He battles with phantasms, real for him but mere dreams for the student who has been brought up under other influences.

When, therefore, he is told to rise above the body, to conquer it, to subdue his passions, his vanity, anger and ambition, he asks, “what if borne down by this environment, which I was involuntarily born into, I shall fail.” Then when told that he must fight or die in the struggle, he may reply that the doctrine of Karma is cold and cruel because it holds him responsible for the consequences which appear to be the result of that unsought environment. It then becomes with him a question whether to fight and die, or to swim on with the current careless as to its conclusion but happy if perhaps it shall carry him into smooth water whose shores are elysian.

Or perhaps he is a student of occultism whose ambition has been fired by the prospect of adeptship, of attaining powers over nature, or what not.

Beginning the struggle he presently finds himself beset with difficulties which, not long after, he is convinced are solely the result of his environment. In his heart he says that Karma has unkindly put him where he must constantly work for a living for himself and a family: or he has a life long partner whose attitude is such that he is sure were he away from her he could progress: until at last he calls upon heaven to interpose and change the surroundings so opposed to his perfecting himself.

This man has indeed erred worse than the first. He has wrongly supposed that his environment was a thing to be hated and spurned away. Without distinctly so saying to himself, he has nursed within the recesses of his being the idea that he like Buddha could in this one life triumph over all the implacable forces and powers that bar the way to Nirvana. We should remember that the Buddha does not come every day but is the efflorescence of ages, who when the time is ripe surely appears in one place and in one body, not to work _for his own_ advancement but for the _salvation of the world_.

What then of environment and what of its power over us?

Is environment Karma or is it Reincarnation? THE LAW is Karma, reincarnation is only an incident. It is one of the means which The Law uses to bring us at last to the true light. The wheel of rebirths is turned over and over again by us in obedience to this law, so that we may at last come to place our entire reliance upon Karma. Nor is our environment Karma itself, for Karma is the subtle power which works in that environment.

There is nothing but the SELF—using the word as Max Müller does to designate the Supreme Soul—and its environment. The Aryans for the latter use the word _Kosams_ or sheaths. So that there is only this Self and the various sheaths by which it is clothed, beginning with the most intangible and coming down to the body, while outside of that and common to all is what is commonly known as environment, whereas the word should be held to include all that is not The Self.

How unphilosophical therefore it is to quarrel with our surroundings, and to desire to escape them? We only escape one kind to immediately fall into another. And even did we come into the society of the wisest devotees we would still carry the environment of the Self in our own bodies, which will always be our enemy so long as we do not know what it is in all its smallest details. Coming down then to the particular person, it is plain that that part of the environment which consists in the circumstances of life and personal surroundings is only an incident, and that the real environment to be understood and cared about is that in which Karma itself inheres in us.

Thus we see that it is a mistake to say—as we often hear it said—“If he only had a fair chance; if his surroundings were more favorable he would do better,” since he really _could not_ be in any other circumstances at that time, for if he were it would not be he but some one else. It must be necessary for him to pass through those identical trials and disadvantages to perfect the Self; and it is only because we see but an infinitesimal part of the long series that any apparent confusion or difficulty arises. So our strife will be, not to escape from anything, but to realize that these _Kosams_, or sheaths, are an integral portion of ourselves, which we must fully understand before we can change the abhorred surroundings. This is done by acknowledging the unity of spirit, by knowing that everything, good and bad alike, is the Supreme. We then come into harmony with the Supreme Soul, with the whole universe, and no environment is detrimental.

The very first step is to rise from considering the mere outside delusive environment, knowing it to be the result of past lives, the fruition of Karma done, and say with Uddalaka in speaking to his son:

“All this Universe has the Deity for its life. That Deity is the Truth. He is the Universal soul. He Thou art, O Svetaketu!”[169] HADJII ERINN.

TEA TABLE TALK.

Recently the tea-table was chatting about the Widow’s escape from the Romish fold. She was nearly converted by the urbane Monsignor Capel, but escaped at the critical moment, she said, “by reason of a sudden preoccupation.” This turned out to be the death of her worthy husband. The Widow is a pretty and amiable creature, approved even by the ladies who say “she is a good little soul and mourns most expensively.” Hence she never appears at the tea-table without an escort, and the most frequent of these is one Didymus, lawyer by profession, good humored, sceptic by nature, whose careless, semi-flippant manner makes it difficult to know him, though he and I frequent the same clubs and make our bows in the same drawing rooms. On the day in question the lady said that she brought him often because she “wanted him converted to Theosophy.”

“But, my dear Madam,” said I, “you know we don’t believe in converts. Theosophy is simply an extension of previous beliefs and like Victor Hugo it says, ‘in the name of Religion, I protest against religions.’ People have to grow into it. When they are ready for it a crisis of some kind, now moral, now physical, seems to occur just before they accept the Light from the East as a man receives back something he has lost. It seems as if those elemental creatures, who attend man, foresaw his determination and strove to frighten him away from the initial moment of choice. Great momentum, even of misapplied energies, often indicates the nearness of radical change.”

“Yes,” broke in Didymus quietly, “I believe that of the Elemental and the astral world. I’ve been there myself, don’t you know!”

Imagine the feelings of Balaam upon a noted occasion! Unlike the excellent but misunderstood animal of scripture, Didymus was urged to continue.

“No,” said he, “I can’t profess to explain my experiences, but I’ll tell them by way of illustrating Mr. Julius’ remark, as I find most people do go through a climax of some kind before they round the turning point of the Age.” The tea-table settled itself comfortably and Didymus proceeded.

“I was in a good deal of trouble last winter, trouble of various kinds, and needless to specify, and I had foolishly taken to a pretty lively life. I don’t mind saying that one of the chief causes of my trouble was the fact that I couldn’t believe in anything that made life worth living; all my ideals were pretty well played out. One Sunday I awoke with an overwhelming sense of terrible calamity, I recalled the events of the previous day, but all was in due order from the matutinal cocktail to the vesper toddy, so I finally concluded that my depression was a hint that I had been living too hard and I resolved to stop it. This resolve, by the way, I carried out from that hour, nor have I ever touched liquor since. I passed the day otherwise as usual with various friends and dined out with a glorious appetite. Returning to my hotel, I was engaged in making notes of one of Herbert Spencer’s works, when my attention was attracted by voices in the adjoining room, and I was astounded to find that they were detailing with startling accuracy, certain of my affairs which I not unnaturally supposed were hidden from the world at large. Conquering my blank amazement I sprang into the corridor, when the voices as suddenly ceased and I found my neighbor’s door ajar and the room entirely empty. This rather took me down, and I concluded to turn in, and was just falling asleep, when I seemed to see two fellows in evening dress whom I somehow knew to be jugglers. They advanced, bowed, and thereupon began a series of the most fascinating and laughable tricks I ever saw. I looked on with interest for what appeared to me a long time but at last the rapidity and variety of the illusions produced a feeling of intense weariness, and I said, ‘Gentlemen, thanks for your interesting performance, but you will pardon my remarking that it is late, and I am very tired.’ They bowed, said nothing, and continued their performance which became even more ludicrous. I repeated my request; again the bows and tricks of increasing absurdity. Worn out I exclaimed angrily, ‘I consider this a beastly imposition, you know, and if you persist I shall be obliged—’ but I never finished the sentence, for the two distorted their faces into masks of indescribable comicality and were off while I laughed—and awoke. As I did so, I was amazed to see a broad patch of vivid scarlet light slide down the wall from ceiling to floor and before I could give a second thought to this phenomenon, a big white cat sprang from the foot of my bed and vanished in the darkness.

“This aroused me thoroughly, for though I had never experienced the like before, I said to myself ‘Old Boy, you must have a touch of D. T. though why the devil you should have with your seasoned head, I can’t say.’ I got up and lit my gas; it was after midnight but I concluded to go out and get some medicine. The halls were quite dark save for a light in the front vestibule and I felt my way down by the balustrade. Turning the corner of the staircase I became aware of a shape—I cannot call it a form—which was distinguishable from the surrounding darkness only by being more intensely black. It seemed about seven feet high, the body was indistinct but in the sharply defined head two fiery eyes glowed with a malice and menace that were truly appalling. The shape stood directly before me and barred my way. I felt an icy chill down my back, and I’d wager that my hair stood up, but summoning all my courage I said,—‘Well; what do you want?’ The silent shape bowed mockingly and the eyes became more malignant and threatening. My temper, which is really hasty,” (cries of “Oh! no!” from the ladies,) “got the better of my fears, and advancing in furious anger I cried; ‘Stand aside and let me pass.’ The shape vanished and I reached the front door without further incident.

“The cold night somewhat calmed me, but as I crossed Madison Square I imagined that some one was following me. I turned sharply about; the square was deserted. I resumed my walk; again the swift footsteps ever coming closer: again I turned; nothing! By this time I began to be alarmed. For visible foes a man cares little, but those ghastly footsteps,—they curdled my very blood, by Jove! I walked on and reaching Broadway, I was struck with the tumult of voices that filled the air though there were but few people about. The street cars seemed crowded with noisy men, laughing, swearing, telling more or less questionable stories, and from every cab and wagon came similar sounds: it was like the rumpus on the Stock Exchange on a field day. The invisible footsteps, at first drowned in the noise recommenced, and constantly turning, I found myself ever duped. By this time I began to think the whole thing an illusion, but presently I saw a man just ahead of me look out from a doorway. As I approached, he apparently drew back, but getting opposite the door I found it closed by barred iron shutters: this occurred over and over. Then as I would approach anyone, pedestrian or driver, he would shout at me, mockingly, jovially, profanely or inconsequently, yet I could see that his lips were closed and that he was only mechanically aware of my presence.

“I now began to feel that there were two of me, so to speak. One recognized that this was all a delusion; the other self was alarmed and unstrung. I walked quietly but rapidly, attracting no attention. Looking at myself in a chance mirror I saw that in outward appearance I was the same as ever. Reaching the drug store by the Herald Office, I sat down completely unstrung, but my voice was steady as I asked for some Bromide of Potash, and the attendant gave me a dose in a glass of soda water at my request without remark. Having no excuse for remaining I reluctantly turned homeward, hoping that fatigue and the drug would dissipate my delusions. In vain! I no longer heard the dogging steps or saw the peeping men, but the voices were louder and more confusing in a perfect chorus of commonplace talk, intensified in volume. Arrived home, I took another dose of Bromide and threw myself on the bed. Instantly it seemed to sink under me and then rose violently. I rose, lit the gas and my cigar, but the voices began again in the next room. Though tired out, I sought the street again. By this time the sense of being ‘double’ was intensified, and I recognized with anger that my higher self was under the control of a lower portion which it ridiculed and reprobated. I walked up Broadway this time, and as I passed the hotels from doors and windows came invitations to drink, to dine, to play billiards and less innocent suggestions. A man and woman came towards me, and I was amazed at the breadth, or depth of their conversation, ranging over topics not whispered in general, much less proclaimed on the highway, yet as I met them I saw that their lips moved not; with heads bent slightly against the keen air of the winter morning they sped silently on their way. Jeers and mockeries saluted me from the cab stands, yet the cabbies dozed on their boxes. Hour after hour I walked thus, ready to drop with hunger and fatigue but unable to stop. At last in the cold grey of the morning I returned home, took a tub and a meal, and went to my Doctor, having heard the irrational tumult of voices all the while. The Doctor was vastly amused at some points of my narration; he thought my cat might be D. T. but could make nothing out of all the rest except a threatening of insanity, and giving me some beastly powders, advised me to live quietly, and keep out of doors as much as possible. I attended to my routine business, all the time hearing the voices, except when someone addressed me. Getting restless as the day wore on I walked down along the East River piers, went on board vessels, into holds and engine rooms, climbed over cargo and chatted with stevedores. No one saw anything unusual about me; friends asked me to wine and dine, yet still the hateful voices mingled with the real ones till I hardly knew them apart and feared I should commit some noticeable indiscretion. The day passed in misery; as I got to my bed at last, a red setter appeared by my side. An inmate owned a dog of this species, and at first I thought this was he, but my door was locked and as I turned to him he vanished, which upset my nerves again. Again I sought my Doctor’s aid, and taking a second worse prescription, passed another hideous night in desperate wandering, ever with the voices at my ear. It was useless to try to sleep or even to lie down; my bed heaved like a ship in a tempest. The next day I passed at my office again or with any acquaintances I could muster, talking as much as possible in the hope of a brief respite from the maddening sounds. At last the medicines did their work; the next day found me clear headed, the sights and sounds of the astral plane had vanished; I don’t want to experience them again, but I believe in them, you bet! Later I found out what they really were when my life had wholly changed, and I had joined the Theosophical Society.”

The ladies turned on him with one voice. “_You!_ A Theosophist! and you never told us!”

“Well,” said he humbly, “I tried hard, but—you never gave me a chance.”

Pretty Polly says that under cover of the laughter the Widow whispered to Didymus that she had thought he was trying to tell her something else. But I don’t believe it, for Didymus is still a bachelor; some say he is a chela.

* * * * *

In answer to queries, I would say that all occurrences related in this department are strictly true, as is the above experience of an F. T. S. communicated since the published invitation to correspondents in our last number. All such will be hospitably received by the Tea-Table. I may add further that “Julius” is now the name of a department merely; though it has at times sheltered groups of personalities of both sexes, there has always been one fixed quantity directing these, and that’s he who now signs JULIUS.

* * * * *

“These sons belong to me; this wealth belongs to me:” with such thoughts is a fool tormented. He himself does not belong to himself, much less sons and wealth.—_Buddhaghosha Parables._

OM.

FOOTNOTES:

[167] The orthodox translation is “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”

[168] From _Leaves of Grass_.

[169] _Chandogya-Upanishad_, vi.

AUM

Let us adore the supremacy of that divine Sun, the Godhead who illuminates who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke: may he direct our understanding aright in our progress toward his holy seat.—_The Gayatri._

The spiritual mind which by study hath forsaken the fruit of works, and which by wisdom hath cut asunder the bond of doubt, cannot be brought back to mortal birth by reason of any human

## action.—_Bagavad-Gita_, ch. iv.

THE PATH.

VOL. I. MARCH, 1887. NO. 12.

_The Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document._

Where any article, or statement, has the author’s name attached, he alone is responsible, and for those which are unsigned, the Editor will be accountable.

A YEAR ON THE PATH.

The present issue of this Magazine closes the first year of its publication. It was not started because its projectors thought that they alone knew the true Path, but solely out of an intense longing to direct inquiring minds towards a way which had seemed to many persons who had tried it, to hold out the possibility of finding an answer to the burning questions that vex the human heart.

The question is always naturally asked “What is the Path?” or “What is the Philosophy?” which is the same thing, for of course the following of any path whatever will depend upon the particular philosophy or doctrines believed in. The path we had in view is held by us to be the same one which in all ages has been sought by Heathen, Jew and Christian alike. By some called the path to Heaven, by others the path to Jesus, the path to Nirvana, and by the Theosophists the path to Truth. Jesus has defined it as a narrow, difficult and straight path. By the ancient Brahmins it has been called, “the small old path leading far away on which those sages walk who reach salvation;” and Buddha thought it was a noble fourfold path by which alone the miseries of existence can be truly surmounted.

But of course mental diversities inevitably cause diversity in the understanding of any proposition. Thus it happens that Theosophists have many different views of how the path should be followed, but none of them disagree with the statement that there must be _one_ Truth, and that no religion can be called higher than Truth. We therefore have pursued, as far as possible, a course which is the result of the belief that the prevalence of similar doctrines in the writings and traditions of all peoples points to the fact that _the true religion is that one which will find the basic ideas common to all philosophies and religions_.

We turned most readily and frequently to the simple declarations found in the ancient books of India, esteeming most highly that wonderful epic poem—the Bagavad-Gita. And in that is found a verse that seems to truly express in powerful words what philosophers have been blindly grasping after in many directions.

“It is even a portion of myself (the Supreme) that in this material world is the universal spirit of all things. It draweth together the five organs and the mind, which is the sixth, in order that it may obtain a body, and that it may leave it again; and that portion of myself (Ishwar) having taken them under his charge, accompanieth them from his own abode as the breeze the fragrance from the flower.”[170]

To catch the light which gleams through this verse, is not for mortal minds an easy task, and thus it becomes necessary to present as many views from all minds as can be obtained. But it seems plain that in every religion is found the belief that that part of man which is immortal must be a part of the Supreme Being, for there cannot be two immortalities at once, since that would give to each a beginning, and therefore the immortal portion of man must be derived from the true and only immortality.

This immortal spark has manifested itself in many different classes of men, giving rise to all the varied religions, many of which have forever disappeared from view. Not any one of them could have been the whole Truth, but each must have presented one of the facettes of the great gem, and thus through the whole surely run ideas shared by all. These common ideas point to truth. They grow out of man’s inner nature and are not the result of revealed books. But some one people or another must have paid more attention to the deep things of life than another. The “Christian” nations have dazzled themselves with the baneful glitter of material progress. They are not the peoples who will furnish the clearest clues to the Path. A few short years and they will have abandoned the systems now held so dear, because their mad rush to the perfection of their civilization will give them control over now undreamed of forces. Then will come the moment when they must choose which of two kind of fruit they will take. In the meantime it is well to try and show a relation between their present system and the old, or at least to pick out what grains of truth are in the mass.

In the year just passing we have been cheered by much encouragement from without and within. Theosophy has grown not only in ten years, but during the year past. A new age is not far away. The huge, unwieldy flower of the 19th century civilization, has almost fully bloomed, and preparation must be made for the wonderful new flower which is to rise from the old. We have not pinned our faith on Vedas nor Christian scriptures, nor desired any others to do so. All our devotion to Aryan literature and philosophy arises from a belief that the millions of minds who have trodden weary steps before ours, left a path which might be followed with profit, yet with discrimination. For we implicitly believe that in this curve of the cycle, the final authority is _the man himself_. In former times the disclosed Vedas, and later, the teachings of the great Buddha, were the right authority, in whose authoritative teachings and enjoined practices were found the necessary steps to raise Man to an upright position. But the grand clock of the Universe points to another hour, and now Man must seize the key in his hands and himself—as a whole—open the gate. Hitherto he has depended upon the great souls whose hands have stayed impending doom. Let us then together enter upon another year, fearing nothing, assured of strength in the Union of Brotherhood. For how can we fear death, or life, or any horror or evil, at any place or time, when we well know that even death itself is a part of the dream which we are weaving before our eyes.

Our belief may be summed up in the motto of the Theosophical Society “There is no religion higher than Truth,” and our practice consists in a disregard of any authority in matters of religion and philosophy except such propositions as from their innate quality we feel to be true.

WHAT IS TRUE “CHRISTIANITY”?

“Christianity” is a _religion_; but the word “religion” has evidently three distinct meanings:

1. In the first place it signifies the practice of a certain kind of spiritual training, by which the higher principles in the constitution of man are developed and reunited (bound back) to the divine source to which they belong. In this sense it is the same as _yogism_ (from _yog_, to bind).

2. In the second aspect it implies the knowledge of the true relation existing between microcosmic man as a part of the All and the macrocosm of the spiritual and material universe. In this sense it is a science.

3. In the third and common acceptation of the term, “religion” means a certain system of forms, ceremonies and usages, by which some supposed eternal deity is worshipped or propitiated and his favor obtained, so that the sinner may escape the deserved punishment and evade the law. In this sense it is a superstition.

To become a “Christian” of the third order, it is merely necessary to submit to a certain ceremony called baptism, whose mode of administration varies in the different sects; but it seems that to become a real Christian some other baptism is necessary, namely, the baptism of the _water of Truth_, the baptism of _Blood_, and the baptism of the _living Fire_ of the Spirit.

The first baptism, with the _water of Truth_, means the attainment of spiritual knowledge, and corresponds to the first of the _four noble truths_ taught by Buddha: “_right doctrine_.”

The second, or the baptism of _Blood_, is commonly supposed to mean a shedding of blood by martyrdom, in the defense of a belief in a historical Christ. But such a process would be a loss of blood and not a reception of it, and could not properly be called a “baptism.” The best way to obtain information in regard to this “baptism of blood,” will be to ask those who have received it or who are receiving it at present.

There is a certain class of “practical occultists,” whose inner senses are opened to a great extent, and who have been taught by no one but the spirit within themselves and their own experience. They say that the “baptism of blood” means a penetration of the growing spiritual germ in man, through the flesh and blood and bones of the physical body, by which even the gross elements of the physical form are attenuated and purified,[171] and that this process produces pains and sufferings, typically represented by the suffering, crucifixion and death of the man Jesus of Nazareth. They say that no one can be a true follower of Christ, or a “real Christian,” who has not undergone this baptism of blood, and experienced the pains of crucifixion,[172] but that man having passed through that occult process becomes an Adept, when only the highest baptism (or the last initiation)—the baptism of _Fire_—will be necessary to enter the highest attainable state (Spiritual Power), and to become a _Son of Light_.

But, it is asked, what has Jesus of Nazareth to do with that process? How does the latter come to be typified by his suffering, and what is the _rationale_ of it?

It is claimed that at the beginning of certain historical periods, when old religious truths are about to be forgotten, and the idolatry of form assumes the place of true religion, some great spirit (planetary) appears upon the Earth, incarnated into a human form, and by his word and _example_ impresses the old truths forcibly upon a number of receptive minds, to communicate them to others, and thus lay the foundation of a new religious system, embodying old truths in a new form.

It is believed that the man Jesus of Nazareth was the mortal form in which such a Spirit was embodied; the latter being no less than what I believe every planetary spirit to be—an emanation of the Universal _Logos_ or the _Word_.[173]

But what is the _Logos_? or, to express it better, how can we form a conception of it? We can conceive of no other _God_ (or Supreme Good) but the one which lives within ourselves, and which is said to be the image of the Universal God reflected in the purified human soul, where it (He) may attain self-consciousness and the knowledge of self. The Universal God may be described as the incomprehensible centre from which proceed the elements of _Love_, _Life_ and _Light_ in the various modes of manifestation on the different planes. The whole of Nature is a product of the _Spirit of God_, being poured out throughout the _All_ by the power of _The Word_, which is the _Life_—or _thought_ rendered

## active by _will_.

The same process which took place in the eternal Macrocosm of the Universe, takes place in the inner world belonging to the microcosm of man. “No one can come to the _Father_, but through the _Son_;” that is to say: No _God_ will take his seat in the interior temple of Man, except through the power of the _Word_—in other words; by the concentration of thought and good will upon the divine germ which rests in the innermost centre of every human being. If we concentrate our _Love_ upon that centre of _Good_, the divine germ will begin its active _Life_, and the interior world will gradually become illuminated by the _Light_ of the spirit. As this principle grows, it will penetrate the soul and through the soul all the lower principles, even the physical body, throwing off the impurities of soul and body, and the more such impurities are present, the greater will be the suffering, typically represented by Jesus, until finally the _baptism of blood_ is completed, the soul purified, the animal _ego_ dead and the man has become a “Christ” or an _Adept_,—that is to say one in whom the (6th) _Christ_ principle has taken form.

It will readily be seen that this process is much more difficult to accomplish, than merely to go to church, pay the dues to the priests, attend to prayer-meetings and perform the prescribed ceremonies. To accomplish this process requires a constant meditation of the highest kind, and a continual employment of will power to keep away the disturbing elements of evil, which in a person who strives for _light_ are still more boisterous than in one who is indifferent, for as soon as the spiritual light kindled in the centre begins to radiate its life-giving rays throughout our interior world, the “_dwellers of the threshold_”—the evil _egos_, created by evil thoughts and selfish desires, floating at the periphery of the soul-sphere like clouds sailing through the atmosphere of our earth, begin to feel the destroying influence of the central sun and battle for their existence. Still this atmosphere of evil must be penetrated before we can reach the luminous centre and the tranquil heaven within, and this is done by clinging to the principle of Good and virtue whose rays radiate from the centre. This principle will at first only be felt intuitionally but as we feed it with good thoughts, it grows and the interior spiritual senses become opened, so that we may _see_ and _hear_ its voice distinctly and without any fear of misunderstanding its meaning.

The “below” is always in exact correspondence to and related with the “above.” We are immersed in an all surrounding but invisible ocean of life, whose waves pervade our psychic organization, in the same sense as volumes of air enter our lungs, and as the latter stimulates the life of the body, likewise the former stimulates the growth of the elements of the spirit; which draw their substance from the lower-animal-principles. In the same way the caloric rays of the sun enter the bodies of plants and stimulate the assimilation of the elements which are drawn from earth, water and air.

Those who have gone through that occult process, will require no proof of the truth of these assertions: because they know it to be true by experience; but the “exoteric Christian” and sceptic, having no such experience to assist his faith, may arrive at a certain degree of conviction by using his reasoning powers and logic in conjunction with the teachings of the _Bible_. Christ is reported in the _New Testament_ to have said: “Except Ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in You” (John vi, 53); and again: “I am the living bread, which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever” (John vi, 51.) Now this seems plain enough to every student of occultism, and if translated into the scientific language of modern occultists, it would mean: “Unless you absorb and assimilate within your psychic organization the sixth principle (The Christ), which is the only permanent and immortal principle in the constitution of Man, you will have no sixth principle developed within you, and consequently possess no immortal life—at least as far as Your personality is concerned (for the divine and now unconscious germ within you cannot die, but will reincarnate again). But if you absorb the principle or spiritual life and develop the spirit within you, so that it grows through your flesh and blood, then will you have drunk from the _Elixir of Life_ and received the _Baptism of Blood_ and become a _Christian_, an _Adept_; for ‘Christ’ will have taken form in your body, and being himself immortal you will be immortal through him.”

These views are corroborated by the great Christian mystic _Jacob Boehme_, by _Jane Leade_, _Paracelsus_, the Rosicrucians, and I can find nothing in them which would in any way conflict with the _Esoteric Doctrine_, as taught by the Eastern Adepts. If any difference in opinion could arise, it could be only, in regard to the person of _Jesus of Nazareth_ or _Jehoshua_, and whether he lived exactly at the time claimed by modern Christians. This question I must leave to some one wiser than myself to settle; but it seems of no great importance to me; for the existence of the Christ-principle is disputed by none, and the man, Jesus—having died—can only be a Savior to us at present, if we study his character and imitate his example. F. HARTMANN, M. D.

PAPYRUS—THE GEM.

The roads were thronged with the people moving toward the great square, for it was a feast of the Goddess. The temples were crowded, while long lines of men and maidens in the robes of “The Sacred” wound in and out toward the river.

Music and song rose and fell upon the evening breeze, like the pulse of a throbbing heart. Here and there could be seen the Scribes, and seated in an open space, the Tale-tellers. One of these, as I rested near him, told the tale of

ONE WHO FOUND THE GEM.

“In the land of the Wise-men, there dwelt a young man. Many years had he labored in a strange mine; the ‘Mine of the Priceless Gems;’—hopefully, bravely, but fruitlessly. He had long known that he who should find the Master Stone, would be free, be full of peace and dig no more, for nothing better could be found. He also knew that he who found the stone should seek to share it with all men.

“Many small stones had he found, but they were laid aside to be used when the great stone was reached.

“Silently and steadily he worked on, until one gloomy day when he had grown so weak that he could make but one more effort, that effort was rewarded, and before him lay the great gem. Weary, weak, but joyful, he gathered it into his bosom, and went forth to share it with others; for he who told not of his gem, or shared it not with all men, must lose the stone.

“Far he wandered, telling his wonderful story, the _finding of the Priceless Stone_—the stone that made men greater, wiser, more loving than all things living; the stone that no man could keep unless he gave it away.

“Far he wandered in his own country, seeking to tell his story and give of the Stone to each one he met. Silently they listened—gravely they meditated and gently they said to him: ‘This is Kali-yuga, the dark age. Come to us a hundred thousand years from now. Until then—the stone is not for us. It is Karma.’

“Far into another land he wandered, ever trying for the same end. Gravely they listened, quietly they spoke: ‘Peace be with you. When the Lotus ceases to bloom and our Sacred River runs dry, come to us. Until then we need not the stone.’

“Over the seas unto another land he went, for fully he believed that there they would hear and share with him. The many days of wandering and the long journey across the sea had made him thin and ragged. He had not thought of this, but as he told his story he was reminded of it and many other things, for here the people answered in many ways, and not always gently.

“Some listened, for his story was new to them, but the gem was uncut, and they wished it polished.

“Others paused and desired him to tell his story in their tents, for that would make them exalted and famous, but they wanted not the gem. As he did not belong to their tribe, it would bring discredit upon them to receive anything from him.

“One paused to listen and desired some of the stone, but he desired to use it to elevate his own position and assist him in overreaching his fellows in bartering and bargaining. The Wanderer was unable to give any of the stone to such as this one.

“Another listened, but inasmuch as the Wanderer refused to make the gem float in the air, he would none if it.

“Another heard, but he already knew of a better stone, and was sure he would find it, because he ate nothing but star-light and moonbeams.

“Another could not receive any of the stone or listen to the story, for the Wanderer was poor and ragged. Unless he was dressed in purple and fine linen and told his story in words of oil and honey, he could not be the possessor of the gem.

“Still another heard, but he knew it was not the gem. As the Wanderer had been unsuccessful before, surely he could not have found the stone. Even had he found it, he could not have the proper judgment to divide it. So he wanted none of the stone.

“Near and far went the Wanderer. Still ever the same. Some wanted it, but the stone was too hard, or not bright enough. He was not of their people, or was ignorant. He was too ragged and worn to suit their ideas, so they wanted none of the stone.

“Saddened, aged and heart-sore, he wandered back to the land of the Wise men. To one of these he went, telling of his journeyings and that no man would share with him the magnificent stone, and also of his sorrow that he too must lose it.

“‘Be not troubled, my son,’ said the Wise One, ‘the stone is for you, nor can you lose it. He who makes the effort to help his fellow man is the rightful owner and still possesses the entire stone, although he has shared it with all the world. To each and every one to whom you have spoken, although they knew it not, you have given one of the smaller stones which you first found. It is enough. When the Master Stone is cut and polished, then is the labor of the fortunate possessor ended. The long journeying and weary wandering, the sorrow-laden heart and tear-dimmed eyes, have cut and polished your gem. Behold, it is a white and a fair stone!’

“Drawing it from his bosom, the Wanderer gazed into the wonderful light of the stone while an expression of great peace stole over his face. Folding the gem close to his bosom his eyelids closed, and he fell asleep, a wanderer no more.” RAMESES.

HERALDS FROM THE UNSEEN.

“Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”—I Cor. xv, 51. “I have found the small old path leading far away.”—UPANISHAD.

To him who without murmuring, confident in the perfect justice of the law, waits and watches, there comes a herald from heights unseen. The just man follows him and attains; the unwise may surprise him and follow also. But when the fool has rushed unbidden in where angels fear to tread, he meets a mailed Truth with a drawn sword, on whose point he dies. Now there are two deaths. From the one he may rise, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, * * * for the dead shall be raised,”[174] and this by the vivifying power of truth, if so be he have one identical incorruptible atom in his spiritual make up, or else that rash being is dead forever, and the spirit monad creates another in the dream of three thousand years.

The indivisible Truth in its entirety is incommunicable in the words of our plane. A clue may indeed be given; it is the herald to those who await him. It is useless to turn the page to see who this is that offers the clue. Of myself I know nothing, yet through me may much be made known. I am the trumpet; through it the herald may proclaim a mystery.

It was in a night of silence that a Power bade me waken, and drew me to a dark cave wherein It passed. Not so I, for the entrance was narrow and I had encumbrances about me. Only many nights later, when I had parted with effort, hope and fear, did I stand within. All of me that was essential had entered; this was enough. Then a musical chord breathed low, the darkness dispersed, and I saw the Unknown Land.

It was a circling land of streams, Light everywhere, flowing, flowing, flowing. The flow was cadenced and welled from a mysterious Centre of blackness at the edges of which spouted cataracts of flame. My thought shrank with awe of the Darkness, but an unknown grasp of Might expanded within me and drew me to that flaming verge. On the knees of the soul I fall and am not. I become one with the All, and consciously resting in Omniscience I know the whole. Yet _what_ forever dwells, wakeful and brooding with that dark pavillion, nor man nor angel may discover. Profounder than all Being, _It is_, girt about by unfathomed fires. “Ye shall enter the light, but ye shall never touch the flame.”[175]

A stir was over that central Dark, a titanic breath, like the sighing of myriad seas, measured, omnipotent. Where its harmonious friction fretted the verges of space, the flames burst forth, and with fecund pulsations gave birth to heat, light, motion and sound. The Centre felt a boundless attraction for the circumference, pouring toward it with inexhaustible energy, for “the heart of it is Love.” This was the force centrifugal, which in a dazzle of starry scintillations thrusts the universal glooms apart with a song. Were this all, Discord and Division were the end. But the circumference trembled also with a vast yearning toward the Centre, so that it ever tended to return there, as the prodigal, enriched in experience, returns to the mystic house of the Father. This was the centripetal force, and these two caused the double vibration of the Astral Light, and they are all you shall know though you blend with the infinite forever. “Whatever there is, the whole world when gone forth trembles in His breath: that Brahman is a great terror, like a drawn sword. They who know it become immortal.”[176]

Then a voice said—“The Absolute evolves thought from Himself, and the vibration of this thought in the passive wells of space generates Light and its correlated forces. The Thought is,—‘_Creation!_’ The singing breath is the Word; the Light is the Absolute made manifest, and the Universe begins.” At once I saw divergent lances of light pour their serried splendors into the void, and the point of each spear displaced the mist which curling backward from the centre of energy thus formed, communicated the movement to sister vapors in turn. Activities shoot, play back and forth, elongate, crystalize, and so great planets spring into the arena, feel the first instinct of separate Being, struggle to depart,—an estranged Self—in meteoric desolation, when the magnetic impulse of the Centre streams along the creative ray, meets the responsive principle, and lo! each chafing Orb, held in leash by Love, wheels into the circle of attraction and obeys the Law. The astral world has begun!

Thence presently the Light spreads afresh, reflected and repeated from every facet of every star, till arrowy glories, vibrant with each vibration sped forth by the primary pencils of light, in turn create dull planetary masses in the luminous abyss; then ever renewed coruscations quicken their dust with whose initial tremor shining crystals sparkle out and glide together about a glistering ring whose centre is ever a darkness ruffled by the outreaching current from that first tinted Gloom. So new spheres form, these, repeating the parent movement, with wide spreading auras touch and arouse their neighbors, and interpenetrating, revolving, throwing off, taking on, converging, diverging, modifying and modified, a world of forms is evolved whose final expression of Being is Man. Thus further departing, the infinite variations end in individuality and the greater the individuality, the more it leans to the centrifugal force, and the lack of equilibrium in the forces draws man further from the Eternal and he forgets the Law. His aura, his rays are nerve currents centred in the personality, but linked by star-beam and moon-ray to the quivering Source of all light, so that each man vibrating, imparts to the Akasa about him his own specific rate of vibration, and all men, all things, suspended as it were in this fine ether which fills the universe, act and react each on each, every one striving to modify the others to his own vibratory ratio, while the Light in the same way attacks all, and the battle of the giants is here. So the final expression of “evil” is inertia, and the highest attribute of Spirit is the Thought which is Life.

Once again the Voice spoke then saying: “What gives Life?” Someone answered: “Vibration.” And when It said, “Look back to the earth world,” I obeyed. I saw the modern sage reducing all the great forces, all the intoxicating play of colors and the bewildering tangle of harmonies to this one source,—Vibration. I saw wondering students bending over sensitive flames that danced or died at the mandate of sound. I saw a child playing with iron filings on glass, and as he drew a bow athwart the pane they marshalled into tiny mimicries of the primitive crystalline creation. I saw the Frost spirit, tracing his white wonders of tropical forests on vibrant surfaces, blazoning symbols of summer on the grim escutcheon of the snow. I saw Sound disintegrating granite and iron, taming wild beasts with a lure, transforming brothers into demons at the sibilant hiss of a scathing word.[177] I saw Light fecundating the soil, and the teeming battalions of the underworld issuing from the palpitating spark in their germs; the selective art of the flower, choosing the kindred color of her tribe from all the flashing scale, gave up to me its secret of the synchronous vibration of that hue with the astral soul within her fragrant form. Passion I saw also, flaming in two breasts that for one tumultuous moment became one, and knew it for an instant of similar vibration. Aye, and saw that Love was a steadfast quality of motion between loyal hearts, saw too that Anger and Hatred had their rise in the same source, and mounting upward I saw that Faith was a similitude of vibration with Truth itself. Again the Voice spoke; “Dost thou see aught but Vibration anywhere?” I answered: “Such all life is, and from such all proceeds. He who cons its secret laws and can institute its musical numbers at will, is a God! He can create and destroy.” “Go then, and by analogy learn what thou art,” said the Voice, and like the rebel fraction of a star I fell from Glory, and found myself alone in the Maya world again, with these words thrilling my brain. “But He, that Highest Person, who wakes in us while we sleep, shaping one lovely sight after another, He indeed is called the Light, He is called Brahman, He alone is called The Immortal. All worlds are founded on It and no one goes beyond. This is that.”[178]

It is rarely that a man gets the whole of his thought; often others supply it. Analogy is the power of following a thought into all its correlations, and I shall ask you to do this in a measure with mine. These puny pages cannot contain the theme of cycles, and falling short, it scarce matters by how many pen strokes I fail. Consider this first; what are we? Look abroad over our Society, largely; we see each member working on his own particular line. So it must be with man for ages. When you shall have exhausted your special hobby, when through astral perception, or mesmeric control or mental acumen, you shall have attained high powers, the hour of your limitation will strike, as its awful knell can strike, even from the towers of Futurity, and you will know that you have not found that corner-stone on which alone the Eternal rests,—your indivisible Self. “Great ones fall back, even from the threshold, unable to sustain the weight of responsibility; unable to pass on.”[179] Follow from the start that solitary beacon which informs the ultimate goal: _Unity_. Make it your touchstone and your guide; other stars are reflected lights only. The doctrine of unselfishness is no sentiment, but of logical, practical utility. The individual way lies from limited Being, through Becoming, to unlimited Being, precisely as the universal way lies from sterile Unity, through Division to fecund Unity, or from the one Life through Death to the Life of the All. He who in final choice elects the path of Division, chooses Death eternal. You may indeed wend homeward through the devious tangle of reflected rays, but how long, how hard are such paths! I would see your souls with eagle swoop make straight for the Central Sun. Look then within you. Man! Woman! Are you what you seem? Till this thought daily; it will bear the harvest of Life.

With analogy for our guide we observe that the first forms of life are crystalline and have two poles. You man, are also a magnetic sphere with physical and spiritual poles. On the physical side of the subject we find modern scientists telling us that man is matter in a state of low vibration, and thought, matter in a state of high vibration.[180] In this ascertained view, Spirit is a higher state of vibration than we at present cognize. “Does the fact look crass and material, threatening to degrade thy theory of Spirit? Resist it not; it goes to refine and raise thy theory of matter just as much.”[181] Nor do I say this is all. Trust your highest ideal to the unconditioned causation lying back of that primal vibration—Absolute Thought.

The vibrant tension of fixed thought must in time heighten the vibratory ratio of the man, for tension excites increased pulsation. This rarefies the density of all bodies, and the friction of intensified chemical action establishes light, heat and odic force. The increased porosity of the physical body tends to disengage the atoms of the astral body, and the generation of a strong odic current forces it out to the astral world, (always attracting it) all the sooner because the intensified pulsation of thought-tension sends the auric emanations further into space, thus draughting a larger portion of the world-soul to the entity. All vibration being attended with sound (which may or may not escape the ear) we proceed to examine tones and find them varying from the lowest of eight vibrations per second, to the highest known to western science of 24,000 per second. Remember that the tones of anger, hatred, scorn are all deep notes, those of cheerfulness, love, hope are treble. Here we discover the apparently inexplicable effect of spoken words which raise or depress our vibrations to their own by means of the etheric medium. To resist the wildfire spread of passion or anger we have but to check the vibration by holding steadily to our own; this maintained, may raise that of others, precisely as the high musical note constantly sounded, raises all lower ones at all related, to its own pitch. Tyndall says: “Scientific education ought to teach us to see the invisible as well as the visible in nature; to picture with the vision of the mind those operations which entirely elude bodily vision; to look at the very atoms of matter in motion and at rest, and to follow them forth without once losing sight of them * * to see them integrating themselves in natural phenomena.” So I shall ask you to imagine a tone at a high rate of vibration, to see it striking the hearer’s brain at a certain focus, creating there a centre of energy, which tending to crystallization, fixes the thought in the mind. And the more permanent duration of pleasant (which are high) thoughts and tones is evident if we glance back over a long period of time and note how the joys stand out and the griefs disappear; so we always forget physical suffering. Moreover we may see this tone raising his vibratory ratio and glancing off at an angle of reflection equal to that of incidence, reacting upon the surrounding ether and upon all hearers. The magical success of eastern mantras depends upon the exact intonation, which governs the vibratory result, and the proper intonation of the sacred books, learned from the priests, doubtless increased their effect. Turning to colors, we find them varying in vibration from violet 1/60000 inch to red 1/38000 inch, and the violet has greater actinism; so it would seem to follow that the more extended the undulation the greater the chemical action and resultant odic force. Hence the tone of animals or man is not such a poor test of their nature as we might suppose, and a certain clue to character is given in a preferred color. The higher sounds thus create greater akasic disturbance through increased undulation. Deleuze in his work on magnetism says: “The word which indicates our will can often exert an action. * * The very tones of the magnetizer, being produced by the vital energy, act upon the organs of the patients.” Reichenbach proved that all chemical action is a source of odic force, and the transmertion of air being nothing less, additional witness is born to the occult power of a word. All mesmerizers are now agreed that motions and words are unnecessary; the will suffices; what is this but the tension of fixed thought. Everything in Nature has its own specific rate of vibration; if we know and can reproduce and heighten it we can call the thing into existence or pass ourselves within its consciousness. Hence the old saying that numbers are the names of things. The “lost word” itself is, doubt it not, a sound of the highest possible vibration, represented by the Aum, or sound of the eternal outpour of Light, the Logos of the Christians. The ordinary ear may not grasp this sound, but Tyndall tells us such are not dead because they have passed from our ken.[182] When we remember that this astral vibration can in time elevate that of all matter, we glimpse alike the great factor of Evolution and of the use of Aum. The thought being spiritually fixed, an unbroken vital current sets in between the man and the “One eternal Thinker, thinking non-eternal thoughts. He though one, fulfils the desire of many. The wise, who perceive Him within their Self, to them belong eternal joy, eternal peace!”[183] Here we perceive the force of the repeated injunction to be calm; how else can the harmonious medium act upon us? “The man who is not calm and subdued, or whose mind is not at rest, he can never obtain the Self, even by knowledge.”[184]

Follow me now to the plane of soul. As all things from planet to molecule have their mystic centre, that of man is found in the heart, whose systole and diastole are regulated by the double movement of the Astral Light. There, hemmed about by the light of the semi-material soul, is the dusky centre, where the spirit may awaken and breathe. “The self is smaller than small, greater than great, hidden in the heart of the creature.” Air is breathed by the lungs; the soul breathes the astral light. As that spiritual monad who is your own Augoides, breathed first upon the plastic Akasa and drew together the principles of a man, so It must again breathe upon this silent centre to create the spiritual man. It does not inhabit him, It overshadows him. It is his “Father in Heaven” to whom Jesus bade him pray; his Creator. In each heart stands this shrouded altar to an unknown God. “Whom ye therefore ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.” He has created the physical man hundreds of times, for His mission is unfulfilled until through Evolution, He shall have made “one higher than the angels.” In that illimitable future which evades the mind, my soul sees ultimate beings in their glory, raise the swelling tide of Being higher still. So Divinity raises Itself by Itself and man expands God. Here is the adhesion of Jesus to the destiny latent in Humanity. “Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is also perfect.” JASPER NIEMAND, F. T. S. (_Concluded in April._)

THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE.