Finding The Third Eye

THE FINDING
OF THE
THIRD EYE
VERA STANLEY ALDER

This edition published in 1970 by
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
York Beach, ME
With offices at
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Boston, MA 02210
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Copyright © 1968 Lucis Trust

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First published in 1938 by Rider & Co., London.
ISBN 0-87728-056-8
Printed in the United States of America

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The Way We Were
—A Love Story of
Student and Spiritual
Teacher
by Reverend Carol E.
Parrish-Harra, Ph. D.
This is truly a love story -
a story of the special love
one feels for a mentor.
I take this opportunity
to acknowledge treasures
passed from one soul
to another.
VERA STANLEY ALDER

Born October 29, 1898, in the late 1970s Vera Stanley Alder is
ageless. Young beyond her years, lovely beyond physical attributes,
proud to be a Scorpio (Leo rising, moon in Taurus), her visionary
ability charms her friends. I feel, I know I am privileged to be her
student. Vera’s home is mysteriously charged with the atmosphere of
a world server. The corner serving as her office holds an imposing
world map of her contacts; every correspondent has a pin, and she
knows who is in most every country.
On my first visit, she takes me to the map and tells me stories
about this one or that and how she longs to help pick up a part of the
Plan to weave humanity into the future of great possibilities she
would later disclose. As her part of the work, Vera attempts to put
5
into words a picture of the evolved humanity she envisions through
the mists of time. The burden of seeing that it happens lands directly
on her students. She is an agent and angel of transformation.
Whether writing you a directive or looking into your face with full
earnestness, she charges you to go forward in service—lovingly.
In 1972, when I discover The Finding of the Third Eye, I fall
under the influence of Vera. I tell a close friend, “I have found the
book I thought I should have a clear, concise introduction to wisdom
teachings” available. This book fills me with such joy, I immediately
write the author in London.
After a year, I still have no reply. Then David Spangler of
Findhorn fame comes to St. Petersburg, Florida, to speak at the
church where I am an associate minister. When I ask him if he knows
Vera, he replies affirmatively—and do I know she has left London
and moved to Bournemouth? Just learning she is still living propels
me to renewed action. As soon as I get home, I write to Rider and
Company, her publishers, enclosing a letter for Vera and asking them
to forward it to her. In a short time, her first letter arrives, and so
begins a relationship of a decade, 1974-1984.
Vera easily picks up the threads of spiritual development
initiated by my first teacher, Ann Manser of Oldsmar, Florida. Ann
had provided concepts, words, and direction to establish a baby
student. Now Vera builds upon what Ann set into motion and brings
more sophistication—with her English charm and directness.
She sees herself as moving me from a national worker to an
international worker for the Hierarchy. She wants to toughen me up
for the challenges she “knows” I will meet. She is looking for the next
generation of those touched by the Hierarchy.
We spend many hours probing our relationships with Masters
and teachers who have aroused our exploration. Both of us have
experienced intervention from the Unseen, so we have a bond only
that can bring. Raphael has given Vera a mission and continues to
guide her, and Master Morya has left an indelible mark upon me.
Our passion is dedicated to laying the foundation of a world yet to be,
our hearts bonded in the immediate task. Vera seeks those she feels
6
are dedicated to the Great Work and so she blesses me with her
fervent awareness and her wealth of knowledge.
A modern empowered woman

Long before it becomes fashionable, Vera is self-assured and by
her own account, Bohemian, and a bit proud of it. On one occasion,
when Charles and I are staying around the corner in a charming bed-
and-breakfast, we are invited to dinner with Vera and her husband,
Aage Larsen. When we arrive at Vera’s flat, she is in the drawing
room, looking lovely. She asks us to be seated, saying Aage will be
along shortly. Indeed, here he comes down the sidewalk, pushing a
dinner cart whereupon rests our dinner under a white tablecloth.
Aage advances, pushing as fast as he can so the meal will stay warm.
The table is set at Vera’s but Aage has prepared the food at his flat
several houses away because Vera does not like cooking smells in the
air at her place.
At the time of her marriage, Vera had been living with her dear
friend and long-time secretary, Norah. The two had worked together
for many years, and she would not allow their world service to be
disrupted; yet Vera fully accepted that Aage was her soul companion.
She had seen his face in meditation years before he appeared at her
flat in London to ask questions about the world situation. She knew
he was to be the helper she needed for the rest of her life. She loved
his Danish blue eyes and recognized them immediately; yet her sense
of loyalty to Norah was immense. How to resolve? Indeed, Vera and
Aage marry on February 16, 1963, in Copenhagen, Denmark, where
Aage stays for a few years to complete his employment. Now he can
come to England to be with Vera and earn a retirement income. He
moves Vera and Bournemouth where it is warmer, fulfilling Vera’s
desire to have sunshine every day and a garden of her own.
I know Norah only slightly—a bulwark of strength to Vera. The
two have the dedication required to carry out the worldwide letter-
writing campaign called “The Order of World Guardians.” They
answer letters daily or work on a manuscript. Aage is the spark of
7
laughter, fun, and charm the women need to lure them from work, to
eat, take a walk, or enjoy a big of time in the garden.
Vera’s writing about her garden conjures in my mind a garden as
we know it in the United States. So the first time I visit her and she
invites me to sit in the garden, I am eager to do so. I then discover the
small yard and little rows of flowers under the windows and down the
dividing line are called “the garden.” Later, she and I add scraps from
the table to the compost; another time, we spread the compost about
the plants. Vegetables and flowers live in friendly fashion in Vera’s
garden—just as it should be, she says, for right-relationship within
and between kingdoms.
Vera has little time for eating; her flat has about 4 x4 room added
to the exit area to the backyard to serve as kitchen. It is plenty for
Vera who is in to health food before it is fashionable. On one of my
earliest visits, she explains why we should eat for health and beauty.
Later, she writes me,” Aage and I have already become Vegans, but
we are more interested in what I call VITALISM which means eating
everything possible in its most natural and unprocessed state, with as
few as possible mixtures.” Indeed when we visit, Vera knows just
where we should eat in London, and she hands us a list of health-
oriented restaurants; in Bournemouth we make the rounds with her.
She wants us to try this treat here and that special meal there.
These are the only outings Vera and I take, other than walking
or sitting in the sunshine. Vera does not tolerate crowds very well;
even in warm weather, she wears a full-length coat, saying the harsh
vibrations throw her off. Many times, Charles and I invite Vera and
Aage to spend the winter in Florida at Villa Serena, our spiritual
community apartment house. The idea excites her, she talks about it
and thanks us for the invitation, but ends by telling us how ill she
becomes when she travels. From the time of her return from Paris as
a young woman, Vera traveled little, more to Denmark after meeting
Aage than anywhere else. Vera’s energy drains rapidly when she goes
out; as she aged, her love of solitude increased.
After moving to Bournemouth, Vera makes only limited trips to
London, though she often expresses her love of the city and
8
numerous friends still there. She asks me to call for her, to “ring them
up and give them a warm message.” I return to the States saying “ring
up” and love the bit of English influence that lingers.
Examining my notes from one of our visits, I see Vera’s words,
“The old lust for battle is going and already gone in many people of
France, England, and America. If many minds hold the idea of
peace, brotherhood, and love, it will become a model. The idea of
one world has been around for a long time, slowly growing. The
United Nations and Common Market are these ideas in their infancy.
The World Court is an effort to set the future on a secure foundation.
These ideas must be guided by politically respectable and practical
idealists leading in daily matters.”
A proper nonconformist
A bold thinker, her words resound in such a commanding
manner. Vera looks like a fragile, proper English lady and sounds like
a revolutionary. She is a channel for a message demanding
courageous individuals to accomplish. She provides great inspiration
to others who disperse the message around the world. The Order of
World Servers is certainly ahead of its time. I believe: The expressions
of the higher world are dispersed through this structure because,
unless these words are stepped down from the “Cloud of Knowable
Things” to the minds of humanity, there can be no wonderful future.
Whoever is ready to heed has only to connect with Vera to be fed.
In her book, The Fifth Dimension, Vera tries to show humanity
the task that lies ahead, appealing to thinkers who can take the group
mind forward. She perceives the message of cosmic visionaries as the
way humanity will develop minds attuned to achieving divine
potential. Thus, she sees this message of promise and possibilities as
her assignment and intention for the rest of this incarnation. She tells
me so, and I watch her live it.
At home Vera charms her visitors with futuristic ideas and topics
that engage imagination —then demands to cross examine as to how
and why such things might occur. This exercise transpires when I take
9
a group of students from the United States to meet Vera in 1980. Ten
are with me for a trip to England’s sacred sites and a brief visit to
Bournemouth. Vera and I have savored our private time and study,
when she agrees to serve tea in the finest English style for my
companions. Everything has been arranged by Vera and me before
our guests arrive. Aage comes to fix the tea.
With every propriety and social grace, everyone receives tea
poured by Vera, in her lovely velour dressing robe—her favorite attire
for home events—and we chat comfortably for a brief time. Eager to
challenge our thoughts, as teatime ends, Vera immediately suggests
we attune to what we are going to be in out next life and leads us into
silence. A bit of time passes, and she says, “Now we are going about
the circle, and each one will tell the others what they will reincarnate
as and why.” Of course, a fun time ensues, and her friendly cross
examination is truly enjoyed.
On this same trip, one day in town I find a fluffy pink hat just
like one Vera has admired in a book she showed me. When the ladies
and I buy it and present it to her, she promptly dons it, wearing it as
a crown, which indeed brings out all her royal lineage. In fact, pleased
with her proper background in the way that English people are, Vera
is proud she has the daring to challenge that propriety and break
through to new ways of thinking.
All artists dream of Paris

I love the story of how she challenged her father when her
parents forbade her pursuits in art. Later she realized how much she
and her younger sister did indeed press them into the new era,
whether they felt ready or not. Her sister became an actress and Vera
an artist; neither fit the models their parents considered proper for
English ladies of the first quarter of the twentieth century. When she
said she wanted to be an artist, Vera was told that was fine for a
hobby, but she had to be educated for a purpose, to consider teaching
school, and she rebelled. The account she tells me reveals her spirit.
10
Vera told her parents she was an artist—it was in her soul, and
she had to be an artist. When they refused, she kissed them each and
told them goodbye, she was going upstairs to die. Up she went and
they thought, “This will pass.” It did not. She refused food, stayed in
bed; her parents began dropping by and tried to talk to her, but to no
avail. After several days her father became truly frantic and implored
Vera to get up, eat, do something—anything! Again she refused,
saying that all her soul wanted was to paint, and if that was
forbidden, she might as well be dead.
At last her tearful father consented to a small allowance that
would permit Vera to live in Paris and see if she could make it on her
own. She promptly recovered, gathered her belongings, and left.
Indeed, she said, when she stepped off the train in Paris, her spirit
came alive. She felt she had come home, that she was exactly where
she was meant to be. One event after another led her to a comfortable
studio, though she had almost no money to be able to enjoy daily life.
Once she found her way, she broke rapidly onto the scene of Parisian
artists.
She shares with me how she drew attention to herself in Paris.
She had arrived at the city of artists—most all of them reasonably
good. Vera needed a way to make an impression. She did not feel she
was particularly pretty; she always believed her sister was the beauty
of the family. She full confidence her portrait painting was good, she
was right where she ought to be, but she had to find a gimmick so
she would be noticed. We are now approaching World War II, and
even in the artistic community, certain etiquette was expected. Vera
loved to wear black—to complement her very light coloring, a fine,
clear English complexion, and a slender bone structure. Acquiring
black stockings, full black Spanish dresses, skirts, and blouses, Vera
wore large black Spanish hat and one large black earring. This
striking personage would not pass unnoticed. Thus, she joined the
artists community of Paris and had a growing number of pieces
commissioned. Her work proved itself.
Indeed Vera became known for her portraits and was soon
painting the famous, she showed me photos of her portraits of
11
distinguished men and women, many military officers and some of
the European royalty who were savoring the abundance of artists
gathered in Paris. Stories of this era delight Vera and, looking at
albums of snapshots she had taken of most of her paintings, she
recalls many names and stories of happy years.
Vera’s multi-faceted entourage

World War II brings a reluctant Vera home, as she tells in her
book, From the Mundane to the Magnificent. But now her life is
transformed and she soars in consciousness —for Master Raphael
appears. Vera shares her personal awakening in her autobiography,
but she writes little of participating in Alice Bailey’s Discipleship in
the New Age group. She knows her task is to step down these great
teachings for the average person who might otherwise never hear the
words “ancient wisdom.”
Back in England, Vera begins to write and soon discovers an
ability to explain complex concepts in succinct, comprehensible
terms. In fact, Vera realizes that she paints word pictures as well as
she paints oil portraits, and she gives herself unreservedly to both
kinds of work, each demanding much of her. She is captured by the
vision given her by Master Djwhal Khul while in the Discipleship
group lead by Alice Bailey and knows herself to be a world server
with a task to accomplish. In time, this knowledge leads her to a
worldwide correspondence with people of all races, religions, and
countries.
Perhaps as much as anyone in the world, Vera is equally at home
with royalty, hippies of her era, and visitors from diverse cultures. I
have a photo of Vera painting the portrait of a member of a royal
black family who was in England for a year. Vera enjoyed telling
friends how shocked people were when they were going about the
city together or having dinner, and in all his propriety the young man
referred to her as his “mistress, Vera.” Her lively spirit loves to shock
others, and I revel in seeing this side of her.
12
To study with Vera is to learn through age-old means of
feminine sharing. She tells stories, mingling her timeless wisdom with
walking and talking. She writes articles and asks me to critique them,
then sharply defends everything she has written. She loves to be
challenged. The student who does not think quickly does not hold
her interest.
Vera is eccentric in other ways as well. I am told that not much
is known about her at the houses in which she has previously lived.
When I studied with her at first flat in Bournemouth where she
shared quarters with Norah, they were considered “maiden ladies.”
Aage was seen as a protector, with Vera and Aage’s relationship
questionable. Norah had some additional income which allowed the
two of them to live in comfortable but simple style, and while she
served as Vera’s secretary, they were bound by love of their world
service more than by any employer-employee relationship. I know
them as peers, each doing her part of the one Great Work, which
commands total allegiance. By 1980, Vera and Norah take tea only at
home and dedicate all their strength to the hundreds of letters filled
with questions concerning Vera’s books.
When Norah dies, Vera is deeply grieved. Her letters to me are
replete with references to “dear Norah” and her concern for the
Order of World Guardians. Vera knows her own strength is waning
and one day, in great solemnity, she looks at me and says, “Carol,
you know you are my spiritual daughter. You must carry on the
Work.” I know this is her greatest concern —the beloved Work of
the Hierarchy, so little understood even today. I assure her I will and
that I, too, feel the dedication and courage the women and men
before me have known. She speaks of Raphael and the wonder of his
touch in her life, and how I have been called into service by those
Wise Ones —a bond that draws us together. I understand her fear of
not knowing who will be there when her life is completed. Dedication
and service own Vera’s life, as they do the lives of all those who the
Masters call.
13
Often Vera sends me a paragraph such as the following to let me
know what she wants me to prepare to discuss with her. This excerpt
is from a letter written in August, 1980.
"We will have much to discuss. I am going to concentrate on the
theme of “A World Mind,” centered in U.N., under whose influence
all our problems —governmental, educational, industrial, moral,
everything, in fact— could be addressed and coherently integrated."
I read her materials and related items, do meditation work, and
prepare thoughts to share with her. Vera debates concepts and forces
me to articulate my ideas more and more clearly by asking, “What
if…and why not…?” Vera believes that indeed responding to these
exercises will strengthen my confidence and force my thinking
processes. Knowing how important it is to be able to do this with the
public, she feels it is not her job but mine. So she “drills” me.
When Vera writes the preface to my first book, A New Age Hand-
book on Death and Dying, I rejoice in her support. It means so much.
She and I discuss Alice Bailey’s having written the foreword to Vera’s
The Finding of the Third Eye and that by Vera’s writing the foreword
to my first book, I will be of the lineage of these royal women. My
spirit celebrates every time I think of how the grace of my early work
flows to and through me to the spiritual workers of tomorrow.
A different trip than intended

After years of loving friendship, discipline, sharing, training —
having sifted through concepts, books, and manuscripts half
completed, ideas scribbled on pieces of paper— I am taking ten
students to meet with Vera. Upon arriving at the hotel in
Bournemouth, the clerk says, “There is a message for you,” and I
know, Vera is gone. The note is from Aage, who is awaiting my
arrival. It is Sunday afternoon, and Vera had not awakened Saturday
morning. He is stunned, and grateful I am on the way.
I am stunned as well; Vera has not been ill, just fragile, simply
disappearing before our eyes. Each visit she is thinner, more easily
fatigued, and more passionate about the Work. Now no longer with
14
us, we are all sad. I go immediately by cab to Aage. Our tears mingle
as he tells me how much she looked forward to my visit and meeting
my friends. He has not begun to arrange anything but has waited,
having only tea and toast, until I arrived. I know that indeed I am the
daughter of my beloved teacher, and now I will be able to do for her
some of the tasks that await. Cecily Barnes, her secretary and assistant
now, is seriously ill and away. Lovingly, I will hear from her later by mail.
(At Sparrow Hawk Village a special Sunday for Vera, planned to
take place the day we are with her and entitled, “Celebrating the Life
of a Living Legend,” becomes a loving memorial to her. Planned
without our realizing its ultimate function, we thought we were just
saluting her, not writing the last chapter of a book of experiences.)
My American friends busy themselves while services are
arranged, visiting the surrounding countryside which has so much to
offer. I set about to clear up office details, post letters, assisted by my
dear friend, Barbara Everett, and see to the care of Aage. We will
prepare for the service on Wednesday, June 6th. I compose and have
printed a letter to send to the large number of Vera’s correspondents
so they will know of her transition. Barbara and I set to work
addressing envelopes to World Guardians around the globe who will
learn their volunteer head has left the Work in their hands. We cry,
we laugh, we work, and I fulfill the duties of a daughter to a woman
who has handed me a torch to carry into the future.
The funeral service for Vera is attended only six or eight English
people, with her beloved Aage, myself, and ten American friends who
came to say hello, not goodbye. We feel blessed to be representing all
world servers who love and appreciate the service by many who love
her and the inspired work to which she dedicated her life. Since its
inception in 1978, Sancta Sophia Seminary has used Vera’s seven books
as curriculum for spiritual science. The powerful overview continues
to speak to those who vibrate to her unique combination of strong
conviction and gentle heart. On occasion, I am aware of her presence,
especially during certain programs; it seems the higher world looks in
on today’s workers to see if we truly comprehend the wonder of our
times.
15
Vera and communities
Vera affirmed my conviction regarding communities as the way
of the future. At the time of our first contact, I lived in a community
arrangement of four houses where we experimented with lives of
sharing, mutual respect, and spiritual guidelines. Later, Charles and
I established a spiritual community in an apartment house in
Sarasota, Florida, and for six years people came and went through its
doors —affirming community and studying Vera’s concepts. When
the geographical move was inspired by Spirit, a number of us
gathered ourselves, our school, and our guidelines and established
Sparrow Hawk Village, a 432-acre community atop Sparrow Hawk
Mountain near Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Here Alder Way comme-
morates Vera’s extraordinary contribution to this vision anchored in
Midamerica.
Vera was distressed when I first told her the name of the
community. Sparrow hawks are naughty birds, she told me. They nip
the heads right off other birds, and do not live peacefully. But when
I told her the Native American people had chosen the name of
Sparrow Hawk Mountain long ago, she softened. She acknowledged
her respect for the North American Indian tradition and conceded
to the name. And when I pointed out her that the sparrow hawk, the
kestrel or small falcon, is the symbolic bird of Egypt representing
Horus, she was truly persuaded.
Vera frequently acknowledged the difficulties of transiting from
one age to another and felt we would face hard challenges of
adjustment. In fact, once she said she had come in early because she
would be able to be of more assistance from spirit than from matter
by the time of these things were happening. It seems to be so.
A beacon to universality
As I watch my own life unfold, I know Vera’s influence has
certainly caused me to hold in my heart a relationship to the entire
world, not to believe any one part to be more important than another.
16
When I received my first passport, I rejoiced in having broken
through a ring-pass-not; from then on, I knew I would wend my way
to many places. In each, sincere seekers of high consciousness
appear. We spoke in those days of how others were holding the light
behind the Iron Curtain; now as I travel to and from Russia, Siberia,
even Mongolia, I know it is so.
Vera’s service to world guardianship and her determination to
impress those with whom she had contact have radiated through
hundreds of spiritual thinkers in day-to-day service; their meditations
and prayers, too numerous to ever be known, prompt the change of
hard hearts and narrow minds into receptive vessels. As I see travelers
scout sacred sites, respecting ancient concepts and unknown people,
I thank God for those who have preceded us, leaving an ever-
expanding heritage of immortal wisdom.
Vera helped me define my life’s work and inspired me to believe
humanity is ready for people to be bold, to speak out, and to write.
Today the seminary is a monument to her and others who sowed and
sow seeds of high consciousness into the human group mind to bear
fruit in its own good time.
The formation of the human group mind and the building of
layers of mind that assist humanity to become all that it may be are
subjects Vera and I discussed repeatedly. As I have recounted, she
was an artist, as was my first teacher, Ann Manser. In time, while still
studying with Vera, these associations lead me to the work of Helena
and Nicholas Roerich and Agni Yoga teachings, to which the Bailey
material is considered to be related.
Again, Nicholas was an artist and, while I did little with art, I
was inclined that way. Here exists the temperament needed to receive
the impress or to recognize the sensitive touch of spirit. Nicholas
Roerich said that in the new era art, religion, and science will unite
humanity in culture and point the way of the future. Vera, as a grand
lady of art, restored to religion its gift of spirituality and in a most
detailed way presented the ancient spiritual sciences once again to a
world that was needy.
17
Awakening for a new era
Vera explained, “Many believe we are emerging from a long
dark age into perhaps the most glorious event in world history. But
the transitional stage is terrible, and only those who awaken
spiritually are able to truly decipher the signs of the times. Awakened
ones are imbued with a new spirit, a decentralization or selflessness
which inspires them to study and to work for the good of the whole
and produce a coherent and sane world. We have named this new
spirit world guardianship, because it is an expression of world
goodwill based on intelligent, informed planning and cooperation.
We are dedicated to amassing literature for self training in personal
and world regeneration, and in the comprehension of the necessity
for establishing an entire new way of living—the way of reality based
on the realization of simple irrefutable facts.
These are:
• That man is biologically a fruitarian species, and that his full
health and longevity can still be obtained and retained by living on
uncooked, unprocessed natural foods—mostly tree foods, fruit, nuts,
green leaves, and grains.
• That such a life obeys the Commandment, Thou shalt not kill,
and that it brings the solution to the problems of disease,
malnutrition, soil erosion, over breeding, exploitation, conflict, and
war, and would successfully adjust world economy, for it is the
practice of love-wisdom, and has already many successful adherents.
• That, once [the] body is thus cleansed, [humanity] can
demonstrate that [we are] indeed [children] God, and guardian[s] of
all the kingdoms of nature on this planet; and that [we] can learn to
do so by developing [our] spiritual channel to Universal Mind
through the practice of meditation.
• That through meditation and study [we] can gain the vision
which will enable [us] to work for purification and, on this beautiful
planet, the cleansing of air, soil, water, and the human mind of all the
pollution with which [we] have been impregnated for so long that
true living and right action are now almost impossible of realization.
18
• That when enough awakened people are living the “good life,”
it will become infectious and transmute the mental “envelope”
of this planet. People will demand a more ethical and
constructive way of life, be prepared to study and take action
in this cause, and elect right-minded people to represent them.
• That when enough people everywhere have reached this stage,
their influence will create conditions which will enable the
“Second Coming” of Christ to take place; and a New World
Order to be established. That all the above should be embodied
in a fundamental education to serve the coming new age.
• This is serious work, and we are therefore appealing only to
those who are transiting from self-centeredness to world-
centeredness at this time.
This vision and much more have been worked out in Vera’s
series of seven books. Now they are all in paperback and available
through Rider and Company, London and some are in print in the
US. Vera would challenge each aware human being to think on these
things, and if there is resistance, demand we examine what in our
nature causes us to believe otherwise. Needless to say, Vera was an
iron fist in a velvet glove. Her vision and her spiritual wisdom
dominated her life and ignited others to action.
19
20
CONTENTS
_____________
Preface 23
Author’s Note 27
Introduction 29
Part One 33
Things as They Are 35
What Modern Science Says 42
The Secret Knowledge 51
How We are Made 62
How We are Classified 69
Male and Female 86
Birth, Sleep and Death 94
Secrets of Breathing 102
Secrets of Colour 109
Secrets of Sound 116
The Science of Numbers 121
Diet and Exercise 128
21
Part Two 137
The ‘Third Eye’ 139
First Steps to Mastery 150
Meditation 159
History of the Wisdom 167
The Present Awakening 175
Dangers in the Path 179
The Summing-up 188
Bibliography 195
22
PREFACE
____________
These are days in which the spirit of inquiry is perhaps more

alive than at any other time in the history of humanity. They are days
also in which the orientation of humanity towards spiritual realities
and towards the higher values is more pronounced than ever before,
in spite of many opinions of the pessimistically inclined to the
contrary. The masses are becoming increasingly sensitive to the world
of ideas and to the vision of truth. Hitherto it has been the advanced
men and women who have so responded, but today it is the many.
The spirit in man has always been divinely alive, but today men
everywhere are inquiring with one voice: Which is the WAY that we
should go? How far have we travelled towards our goal?
This book is an attempt to trace in brief and simple language the
progress man has made as he has travelled along the way of truth
and thus answer that question. It seeks to penetrate behind the outer
world of seeming to the world of spirit, and to find, behind the
external forms, that which gives them life.
The subject is necessarily so vast that it is safe to say that it can
only be handled in three ways. First by the production of volumes
which would embody the erudition of the ages and which would be
read, therefore, only by the erudite and selective few. Secondly, by
specializing in some one or other of the many aspects of the Ageless
Wisdom, and writing on a chosen subject, appealing consequently
only to those attracted to that subject and that particular presentation
of a part of the truth. Thirdly, by writing simple ‘bridging’ books
which (selecting the highlights in the history of truth and the basic
foundational realities) will make the teaching real to the average man
in the simplest terms. In this way the man of average intelligence,
busy with the affairs of everyday life, can get some understanding of
23
that enlightenment which has ever poured forth over humanity from
the heart of God Himself, and thus regain that confidence and that
belief in love and immortality which is our divine heritage. This we
have somewhat lost through the activity of living, the press of the
economic situation, the fear and suspense engendered by the world
situation, and the bewilderment aroused in many minds by the
warring theologies of the great religions.
As I have read this book, it has seemed to me that the intent of
the author is to present to the man in the street (who is now awake
and demanding such information) a picture of the two lines of
continuity which the history of the past reveals to the attentive
student. There is, first of all, the continuity of the Wisdom Teaching,
which, down the ages, has come forth from God and thrown the
needed light upon the ways of men. It has taken the form outwardly
of the world religions (living or dead), but has always presented to
those whose eyes were open those esoteric truths and those clear
instructions whereby man can find his own soul and his way back to
the centre of life. There is, secondly, the continuity of Messengers
from the Most High – Revealers of Divinity, culminating for us in
that supreme Son of God Whom Christianity recognises.
These two interwoven golden threads of light can be seen
passing – unbroken and untarnished – down through the history of
the race. They are the product of human aspiration and divine
response, of human effort and divine transmission. They constitute
the way to the goal. The form the Path which all must tread. The way
to Those Who have journeyed ahead of us upon the selfsame Path.
It is a practical way; it has the endorsement of history and the
example of the foremost and the most enlightened who have walked
the ways of earth. It is the history of the WAY in contradistinction to
the many ways.
There is need for such books as this in the world today, for
bridging books which all people can read, which can evoke their
interest and lead them to a closer and a more earnest search. This
book should find immediately a real field of usefulness and serve and
help many. The field of esoteric truth is so large and its departments
24
so many and so varied that the neophyte is apt to be confused and
bewildered by the extent of the horizon which opens up before him
and the many types of knowledge which presumably he is expected
to master. Mysticism, occultism, esoteric psychology, astrology,
numerology, theosophical doctrines, Kabbalistic lore, Rosicrucian
truth, comparative religion, symbolism and the conflicts between
creeds all clamour for his attention. We need simple synthetic
presentations, which eliminate the non-essentials and give a clear
picture in clear outline and clear language. Such a book is this, and,
as a forerunner of many more, I wish it Godspeed and a wide field
of service.
Alice A. Bailey
1937
25
26
AUTHOR’S NOTE 1968
_______________________
Thirty years have passed since this little book was published.
During that time the book and its successors have brought me much
rich experience and many friends.
Together we are watching the transition from the old age into
the new age, and we are offering our thought and our prayers for the
expected event of the ‘Second Coming’.
Time rushes by. The old civilization is burning itself up in a
crescendo of confusion. But, even before its ashes are formed, the
Phoenix can be seen arising, emerging as the new revolting youth of
today, in every land – an unprecedented event – universal revolt,
seeking, however instinctively, for the Will of God.
If to these new crusaders everywhere could be introduced the
Plan of Evolution as it has emerged from all the great Wisdom
teachings, they might find an anchor and a purpose by means of
which they could lead the world into a new era of both sanity and
fulfilment.
It is to this end that this book and its successors are dedicated.
The emblem on the cover is a reminder of the instruction from Christ:
‘Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves!’
Vera Stanley Alder
27
28
INTRODUCTION
_________________
Are human beings potential gods, as they have been told, or are
they merely the least of worms?
The world today is a seething mass of contradictions. Life does
not become simpler with each new achievement, and the average
man, kept busy with the urgent process of existing, has little time for
thought.
Yet there are moments when, looking out upon a world which
appears drab, cruel, confused, and very ugly in many ways, man
wonders…….
If there are great heights for him to attain why does he seem to
know so little about them? What has man been doing all these
centuries? Why do disease, difficulties and dangers appear to have
increased the more civilization ‘progresses’?
There comes a time in the lives of many people when they
earnestly desire to find an answer to these questions. They would
know why they are here, what it is all about, and if they can learn to
master circumstances instead of continually being a prey to them.
They begin to make an individual effort to find out for themselves if
there is really any rhyme or reason, any justice in life, anything to
hope for or to work for.
When a man arrives at this stage in his life it marks a very
important crisis in his development. It is the moment at which he
changes from a puppet into an individual and joins the honoured
company of the seekers.
To his surprise he finds that the number of these seekers is
increasing rapidly, and that, in fact, they are beginning to make their
impact felt upon social consciousness.
29
THE FINDING OF THE THIRD EYE
He soon sees the significance of this. True socialism becomes

possible when people recognize themselves as individual units of
power, capability and thought; then there will inevitably follow a
correspondingly important and congenial position in life for each one
of them. There is an unfailing demand for either the competent
worker or for those able to wield constructive influence, and all can
fill one of these needs. There is no other way to individual happiness.
The general apathy and ignorance which has existed for so long
has reduced living conditions to a chaos in which there has been
undernourishment in the midst of plenty, barbaric wars and cruelties
taking place under the wing of so-called religion, and a system of
education which results neither in mental power, physical fitness,
good looks nor happiness.
Now, however, humanity is waking up in a wonderful manner to
a recognition of its own failures. Everywhere there is widespread
effort and intensive seeking going on in manifold directions. This
effort is to be found not only among the leaders and teachers of the
people but among the people themselves. The public interest in
health, diet, physical culture, spiritualism and hundreds of other cults
and movements shows the beginning of a powerful wave of progress
which may sweep humanity upwards to the peak of a new
Renaissance of a kind the world has never known before.
There are many today already caught in the throes of the birth
of this coming Renaissance. They are tormented by the desire to
know more of the inner meaning of life and the hidden issues to
which they are so swiftly moving. One after another they take up the
challenge of Life’s Riddle, and join the ever-growing band of seekers.
It is significant that this seeking should press into the realms of
‘religious’, ‘psychic’, ‘spiritualistic’ and ‘occult’ thought – in other
words, the inner unseen world of causes. Man realizes that ‘science’,
which had dealt so successfully with physical phenomena, has not
yet succeeded in giving humanity any measure of happiness or safety.
So he is at last determined to try to find his happiness by getting in
touch with causes instead of effects, by seeking for the laws or truths,
30
INTRODUCTION
if any, which may lie behind the reactions of living things. He begins
to sense the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
Knowledge is the result of an accumulation of facts, and its
tendency is, through specializing, to isolate subjects one from
another.
Wisdom is the deduction from these facts of useful laws, a
process which can only take place by comparing the facts in one
compartment with those in all the others, thus giving a vision of the
whole.
When man becomes an individual seeker his first effort is to
discover what he can of ‘facts’ connected with the fundamental truths
of life. He wants proofs.
There are many people ready to admit him into the world of
inner research. He is faced with a long and complicated pilgrimage.
Wonderful promises are held out to him, he is assured of becoming
a superman, with health, happiness, and power hitherto undreamt-of
and hard for him to comprehend. He asks himself if all this can be
true. If so, why is humanity still wallowing in such helplessness? In
bewilderment he hesitates on the threshold of philosophy,
Spiritualism, Christian Science or a dozen other cults and ‘isms’!
His inexperienced eyes are unable to detect the true from the
false, and he is at the mercy of many people who seek to enlist him
for their own pet cult, or who wish to make profit for themselves by
trading upon his virgin curiosity and yearning. If he has a tendency
to emotionalism or a love of the sensational, he will be an easy prey.
How, then, is he going to escape the many pitfalls and manage
to keep upon the true path to an understanding and mastery of life?
These chapters have been written in an effort to provide the
seeker with a simple guide-book for his pilgrimage to Truth, a concise
and bird’s-eye view of the new universe which he is about to explore.
It endeavours to help him to place each new discovery into its relevant
position so that he, while gathering his store of knowledge, may
develop wisdom, also, and learn those few essential secrets through
which he may attain the poise, power and creativeness which will
ultimately develop him into a superman.
31
The seekers who acquire and use this knowledge will be the
builders of the new and promised Golden Age.
In this book an effort will be made to sort out, summarize and
compare the ancient knowledge with modern science. Most of the
statements made are capable of world-wide and extensive
corroboration by trustworthy authorities, and can be verified by any
reader who will care to give the time to it. He can satisfy himself by
as many proofs as he has the patience and energy to seek and the
intelligence to judge and sift.
The quest after Truth opens up an unimagined and wonderful
new world to the seeker, so thrilling and so full of reward and interest
that it is not within the power of human speech to portray it. Only the
fringe of this absorbing search has been touched in these few pages,
but even so this book contains the recipe for turning an ordinary
human being into a superman, one who commands the means of
success, happiness or personal fulfilment always within himself, and
irrespective of all circumstances.
32
PART ONE
33
34
1
THINGS AS THEY ARE
_____________________________
Our first concern will be to take a survey of the present position

with unprejudiced eyes.
The unprejudiced eye is a much more difficult thing to cultivate
than we may imagine. In fact, to most of us it is an impossibility. For
generations, indeed for centuries, we have been brought up in certain
grooves of thought, certain traditions and habits, until our brains
become wedged into a confined rut and are unable to look at things
from a new angle.
When, however, after finishing our survey of the present
position, we see around us the result of thinking in these grooves,
and realize to what a state of unhappiness, chaos and muddle this
has brought us, we may, in sheer desperation, make the effort needed
to jerk our brains out of their ruts and guard them against ever
slipping back again.
Truth can only be understood by one in a state of attention.
Therefore Truth is not available to those in a slack condition of mind
– they could not take it in. Truth is only to be found ‘at the bottom
of a well’; it must be struggled for and sought after and come upon
through earnest effort, through the stimulation brought about by
suffering or striving, whereby the mind is prepared to recognize it.
That is why Truth appears always to be hidden, veiled and
guarded.
Let us, then, try to look with new eyes at the struggling mass of
inconsistencies which we are in the habit of calling civilization.
Man has striven always for happiness, and he has sought to
attain it mostly in one of three ways – comfort, entertainment, and
35
religion. But he has sought these things only in their outward form.
Comfort for the body has been the first aim, while a comfortable state
of mind has been the last thing considered, until the lack of it has
reduced the victim to despair. Cleanliness has also been studied
outwardly, but seldom in its inward form – we do not understand
how to keep our minds wholly free from rubbish and poisoning
material. Religion likewise has come to be mostly an external
observance, while as for entertainment it is poured in from outside,
the mind being required to make no effort to obtain it.
All the same, we are told that Mind over Matter constitutes our
real power! Therein is one of the inconsistencies! Let us find some
more!
In some countries the State supports a Church which tells us,
‘thou shalt not kill’, but is not averse to sending us out to war in order
to slaughter our possibly blameless fellow-men. For this we are called
heroes. Yet is we kill someone for a reason which seems good enough
for us we are no longer heroes, and we are hanged!
Many of us are asked to believe in Church teaching and the
Bible, both of them containing a mass of contradictions which no
one attempts to explain. For example, Christ asked His disciples to
carry on the work as He had done, saying: ‘He that believeth in me,
the woks that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall
he do.’ These words referred to healing, prophesying and
clairaudience, which, with the ‘gift of tongues’ (power to be
understood by all nationalities), the power to work miracles, to
interpret dreams and symbols, and to have wisdom, were the seven
gifts of the Holy Ghost. Yet the State, which supports the Church’s
teachings, may imprison one for prophesying, and the clergy, who
should be cultivating these gifts, leave them mostly in the hands of
those whom they consider ignorant and superstitious.
Calling ourselves civilized, we produce a race which cannot
compare with many of the most savage tribes in health and physique.
Look around at the members of an average crowd of today and
compare them with the Greek ideal, or the early Egyptian or Assyrian
bodies. Through unbiased eyes we shall see that we are mostly
36
THINGS ARE THEY ARE
misshapen travesties of what a human being should be; we cannot

deny the prevalence today of imperfect bodies, unlovely vacant faces,
ugly clothes and primitive conversation.
Surely a modern crowd’s appearance shrieks of the wrongness
of our present mode of living?
We know the hospitals are full; so are the asylums – who dares
to tell us how full?
Consider also that we are at present in imminent danger of a
world war which would let loose as much beastliness and cruelty as
has ever existed in history.
But even without war man is being murdered daily in various
ways by the terrible Robot which he has reared under the name of
Civilization. This Robot is running amok; it has mastered its creator
for the time being and produced a clever system of keeping him in
slavery. Much that is really enlightening in knowledge is gradually
being eliminated from man’s education, which is given to him in odd
spoonfuls having no apparent relation to each other. Through no fault
of his own he is under an economic system which causes him to
spend all his days in the terror and anxiety of being without means
of support. If he works at all he must drudge the whole week
through, while many of his comrades are refused employment, and
he is obliged to pay for their support; there is ‘over-production’ and
yet a difficulty in obtaining cheap food, even in some countries the
danger of starvation; honesty and purity are preached to him from
one side, while pornography and sensationalism are showered upon
him from the other.
Every effort is made to soak him through and through with an
interest in sex – by means of cinemas, theatres, books, newspapers
and through the type of food most cheaply obtained. He is never told
the plain truth – that a preoccupation with sex is one of the greatest
deterrants to brain development. He is surrounded with mind-
destroying noise, rush and anxiety, until even the doctors are
beginning to say that modern life will soon exterminate itself!
As if this were not enough, he is furthermore at the mercy of
the war-lords, who can send him out to murder and mangle his
37
fellow-man even if he has the kindest character; and, escaping this

last horror, he is daily slaughtered in his own streets by his brother
road-hogs, while they, in turn, pay millions into the hospitals to put
him together again!
Life altogether seems to have been expressly planned to prevent
him from creative thought; he has been, until quite recently, offered
no problems to solve; his entertainment has been put before him in
the form of predigested sensationalism – mental baby-food.
Weary and half drugged by this intensive treatment, man has
largely ceased to recognize the heritage of his wonderful mind. He no
longer knows why he should think – or what there is to think about.
Here then is a pessimistic picture of life as it is today!
Ought we to be satisfied with this state of affairs? Is this indeed
the whole picture, or is there a brighter side to it?
Let us not forget the claim that man is a marvellous creature, in
spite of much that appears to the contrary. This claim seems not to
be entirely without foundation. On every hand we find clues to
strange and tremendous forces hidden within us, forces that when
properly understood and developed could certainly lead us to
unimaginable power and achievement. We glimpse these powers in
such people as the imaginative genius, the child prodigy, the thought-
reader, the healer and the clairvoyant. We hear of them on every side
and their existence is too well known to be disputed.
There are many great men alive today whose achievements
stand out in sharp contrast to the average. Is it that they are supermen,
or that the rest of us are lagging far behind the point of development
we should have reached? If we were to lay any of them upon the
dissecting table we should certainly find nothing about them that
differs in any degree from the average person.
Where, then, is the key to the wonderful power and omnipo-
tence that apparently may be every man’s birthright? There is nothing
to prove that we could not all attain complete mastery over our lives
and fortunes, and reach ideal happiness, were we given this key, and
had the will and the determination to use it. Had we this secret,
instead of being, as we are, slaves to life, to our possessions, our
38
THINGS ARE THEY ARE
environment, ill-health, ‘bad luck’ and the rest, we could be master

and controller of all our circumstances, and welcome with content
and understanding everything that life brings to us.
We are told that the secret lies in the use and understanding of
a certain knowledge through which is given an insight into the inner
laws and forces of life, and the manner in which to use them. This
knowledge has always existed, but it remains hidden for ever from all
but the earnest seeker.
For the last few hundred years humanity has been passing
through its Slough of Despond – Ignorance.
The hour has already struck which marks the beginning of
humanity’s emergency from that blackness. Men have suffered so
much and for so long, through ignorance, that at last the inevitable
reaction has set in. We can feel this change beginning to play in subtle
ways through all phases of life.
We have reached the time when we demand to know, and to
know for ourselves and through ourselves, and to wield that
knowledge irrespective of authority. We refuse any longer to dance
like puppets to the drugging jazz tunes of incompetent authority. And
soon authority will have to pull itself together and follow the lead of
the seekers.
For there is widespread seeking going on everywhere now for
the happiness, freedom and power which we instinctively feel will be
ours when we have gained the requisite knowledge.
And the knowledge is to be found – hidden, waiting, wonderful!
Our first clue to this knowledge lies in the study of what is
known as the Secret Wisdom. This teaching was always in the charge
(in the early days) of those who were well equipped both to govern
and teach. But in time they neglected their deep knowledge in favour
of the easier way – power through money, superstition and material
pomp. This resulted in laziness and effete degeneration. Their only
hope of retaining hold on the people was to plunge them into
ignorance also. Therefore a systematic persecution of certain
knowledge began, by edicts, inquisitions and massacres. Finally their
39
end was so thoroughly attained that from the highest to the lowest
the wisdom had apparently faded out.
Fortunately, however, there are now, and always have been,
those who would give their whole lives to the guarding and hiding of
a treasure so precious. Such people were the alchemists, hermits, early
freemasons and many more. So the knowledge was not really lost,
but only concealed and safely guarded from desecration.
Humanity is fast approaching the day when, through patient
struggling, it will have earned the right to this wisdom; in fact, some
years ago it was given out in part for those earnest seekers in the
vanguard of progress to discover. Let us make all speed to gain for
ourselves this rich heritage.
Whether we approach the subject from a purely scientific
viewpoint, from a common-sense one, or from a religious one, we
will find that science, logic or the root-form of any of the principal
religions will lead us finally to identical truths. We will realize that if
we are able to accept these truths we will obtain a very satisfactory
understanding of the ‘workings’ of Nature’, and of certain rules
which will enable us to control ourselves and our circumstances in a
manner hitherto impossible.
We cannot gain such valuable knowledge without making
worthy effort, but if we persevere there is no limit to the benefit we
shall obtain.
The earliest results achieved will be, firstly, a considerable
improvement and control of health and looks, a growing capacity for
happiness, an inability to worry or fear; a gaining of popularity, and
freedom from boredom.
In time, when greater strides are made, there will be immunity
from disease, conquering of fatigue, and prolonging of youth. There
will be a growing capacity for helping others, a mastery of sorrow and
pain, and the development of healing power. A growing inner force
will be felt, both for creating ideas and the carrying of them out.
Neither does the tale end here. Very advanced students, such as
are the Yogis, become unaffected by heat or cold, wounds and
poisons. They are able to perform feats usually considered as
40
THINGS ARE THEY ARE
miracles, and they appear to have access to regions of wisdom and

felicity undreamt of by us. People of this type move about among us
unsuspected. They do not advertise themselves; they are under a Law
which forbids them to help unless help is asked, or to give out
knowledge unless it is sought and will be properly understood. They
are ready and waiting for the time when a growing number of people
sense their secrets and beg their help.
When the general public have sufficiently advanced they will
insist on being governed by persons of such attainments, and then
indeed will begin the coming Golden Age.
Meanwhile those who are anxious to forge ahead and prepare
for the future will find in this book a broad survey of many sides of
the subject, together with the first simple rules for the beginning of
attainment.
They are asked only to keep an open mind as they read, for only
an open mind is big enough to contain the secrets of the universe.
41
2
WHAT MODERN SCIENCE SAYS
___________________
Before we begin studying the ancient wisdom we will find it very

helpful to prepare our minds by taking a survey of the ground covered
by modern science today. It will be fascinating to see how identical
facts can be known under different names and reached by different
methods.
Both the ancient sages and modern scientists are agreed that
everything in life is formed of vibrations. So that, as we shall be
obliged often to use this word, we can begin by defining it.
We are told that vibration is the result of force or energy,
concentrated in some mysterious way and caused to vibrate, shake
or oscillate at different speeds. The composition of an atom,
according to some scientists, is, first of all, a tiny vacuum, round
which this force or energy revolves as a vortex, just as the circle of the
sun’s aura or zodiac revolves round it. The zodiac contains the planets
revolving within it, and the minute ‘zodiac’ of the atom contains also
its planets, or electrons as they are called.
The difference between one object and another is ultimately a
question of rate of vibration. It is the number and arrangement of
the electrons within an atom, and the varied cohesions of atoms into
molecules, which go to make up these vibratory differences.
The disturbance in the atmosphere caused by a vibration sends
out a ripple or air-wave in all directions. As an illustrative simile of
this we can throw a stone into a pool of water. At first we see the hole
which the stone makes, corresponding to the vacuum in the centre of
the atom. Then we see the disturbance in the water created by the
hole, a circle of energy which sets up waves or ripples which spread
out to an unlimited distance. Drop other stones in nearby, and their
42
circle of waves will flow over and through the others, none, however,
being destroyed although they affect one another slightly. The
distance between one ripple and the next is called the ‘wave-length’.
We have in this a rough picture of what happens in the
atmosphere, and of the waves set up by light, sound, or any kind of
object – anything, in other words, that vibrates.
Low rates of vibration form the more static or visible objects;
we might say that they send out only slow ripples; higher rates of
motion, between the rapidly flying particles, form less tangible things,
such as gas. These particles intermingle rapidly with the air, but often
they do not move sufficiently quickly to penetrate through solids.
I would like to say here that the statements in this chapter are not
intended to be scientific accuracies, but roughly suggestive for the
purposes of our argument. As the ‘facts’ of science are continually
having to be modified or changed we need not take them too
seriously. The last word has never been said!
Vibrations of a relatively low frequency are known to us as
sounds. Higher ranges are known as heat.
Sound and heat are fine enough to pass through certain solids.
We know all about the ripples or waves caused by sound. So also we
know about the electrical impulses, through the wireless, and we call
them wave-lengths, and know all their measurements. Some of the
wireless wave-lengths are as much as three miles long.
We might picture the scale of vibrations as a vast keyboard, on
which there are many octaves and different types of vibration and
motion. One range of motion expresses itself as solid, liquid and
gaseous forms. Other ranges are perceived as sound, heat and those
intangible things about which we know little.
Above the octaves of sound would come those of light and
colour vibrations. The colours range from red – the lowest (which
vibrates at 451 million million times per second, and has a wave-
length of one 36,918th of an inch) – up to violet. We see this order of
colours in the rainbow and in the spectrum.
Above the violet, colour can no longer be seen by the eye, and
we find the ultra-violet rays and the X-ray. Now at last we have
43
reached vibrations fine and rapid enough to penetrate through most

solids. Higher up on the scale we come to the magnetic vibrations
and their wave-lengths, such as those that issue from the mind of the
hypnotist. These can go through denser solids than the X-ray can,
which accounts for the hypnotist being able to produce the effect of
a deep trance upon a person seated in an adjoining room.
Apparently the vibrations of the mind can travel instantaneously
many hundreds of miles, as in thought telepathy, passing through all
solids which intervene. They have an intimate connection with
electricity which, as we know, can travel round the world in a flash.
Each thought is a vibration having a set wave-length! When,
however, we consider the vastness of the scale of vibrations with
which we have to deal it will be seen that there are enough and to
spare for everything.
Now, having placed sound, light and heat in their respective
order as we know it, we must ask what they are and how we know
they exist.
Had we and the animals no ears, what would sound be?
What we know as sound is that tiny section of octaves on the
scale of vibration which can be transmitted to the brain by the
receivers in the ear. The human ear is successful up to a certain point,
beyond which it can receive no more; but many animals hear
vibrations which to us are no longer sounds at all.
Higher up on our keyboard than sound comes heat. Our skin
contains the little receivers to transmit these vibrations, to which the
ear is no longer sensible.
Farther up the scale still we come to light and colour. We only
have one tiny marvellous organ to register this set of vibrations to the
brain – the optic nerve. The eye is made to react up the scale of colour
to the violet vibration. After that, as already stated, the oscillation is
so minute and rapid that it can inter-penetrate solids, so these
ultraviolet vibrations pass right through the eye lens.
The question now arises – have we any organs which can deal
with those higher vibrations, or the very subtle substance of which
they are composed, and in what form are these contacted?
44
These last vibrations are so fine that they use the ether as their
vehicle instead of the heavier air particles. The ether is the indefinable
substance in which this earth and all the atoms of the air are
supported. Scientists are on the verge of discovering that there is more
than one kind of ether, in fact even perhaps three or four. The finest
vibrations which we have yet considered are within the realm of
electrical and magnetic phenomena. These are the forces which man
also contains within himself, and which can be utilized through the
mind.
We must now inquire what organs man has with which to
register these particular vibrations, embracing the radiations and
emanations, which come under the general term ‘psychic’. There are
two small glands in the head which give doctors much cause for
speculation. I refer to the Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland.
The former is a tiny, double bean-shaped body situated behind
the root of the nose. It is posed so that it is very sensitive to vibrations.
We know that it is in some way connected with nurture, body-
building, and the nervous system. If it is removed all organic function
ceases. If overdeveloped it produces giantism, which if underde-
veloped dwarfism is the result. The Pituitary Body has been called
the seat of the mind. Its frontal lobe is concerned with emotional
thought, of the type which produces poetry and music, while the
anterior lobe is connected with more concrete intellectual concepts.
The Pineal Gland is a tiny cone-shaped body in the middle of
the head, behind and just above the Pituitary. It contains pigment
similar to that found in the eyes, and is connected by two nerve cords
with the optic thalmi; it is said to control the action of light upon the
body, and for these reasons scientists have suggested that it is the
remnant of a third physical eye. Men of learning, such as Descartes,
have pronounced it to be the point in the human being where soul
and body meet, the seat of intuition.
It is said that when, for specific reasons, the Pituitary Body and
the Pineal Gland have become fully developed and stimulated, their
vibrations fuse and stir into life the mysterious ‘Third Eye’ of man,
the eye of the soul. Apparently this activity provides the mind with a
45
perfect instrument with which to work, a transmitter by means of

which vibrations of very differing types can be translated, interpreted
and rearranged. This gives him personal access to much knowledge,
of which we will speak later.
Man can also become sensitive to the finer chemical and
magnetic emanations in the ether, and can ‘see’ the numberless
thought-forms, entities and creatures, the endless complexities and
types of life which make up a vast world of teeming energies which
the limited capacity of ordinary physical sight is unable to register.
In a few people there is a slight involuntary functioning of these
latter activities, and we call them either clairvoyant or crazy, accor-
ding to our understanding. They can literally see the radiations and
‘photographs’ in the ether which are given off by almost any kind of
body. We will study these in a later chapter. But, just as the muscles
and brain need developing in an average person, so these organs of
‘second sight’ need their own particular training. Many, however, are
born with a ‘knack’ for their use, in the way of any other type of
prodigy.
When a psychometrist holds an article to his forehead against
the awakened ‘Third Eye’ it tunes in to and commingles with the
vibrations emanating from the article, and as these vibrations repre-
sent a certain picture, just as do our thoughts, he is able to describe
the associations attached to it. The emanations from an object are
often so fine and numerous that they continue to be given off for
thousands of years, just as with radium.
The Egyptians knew all about the ‘Third Eye’, and indicated it
on the statues of their gods by a knob on the forehead. They trained
the people in the use of this psychic centre in the temple of Ma-at.
The god Ma-at was vulture-headed, because the vulture has a sight so
keen as to be almost clairvoyant. When people responded to this
training they became ‘seers’, or psychic, as we should say now. They
could see with the trained ‘Third Eye’ right through a body, as the X-
ray does, and diagnose disease. All over the East we find statues of
historic men or women of wisdom with a knob or other mark upon
the forehead indicating this type of achievement.
46
Of course there are some people who have this power today, but
we do not understand its use now how to train them properly,
consequently their development has been left to chance.
We have now reached the most subtle portion on the scale of
vibrations which we are discussing. The question arises as to whether
we have quite exhausted its possibilities, or whether there are still
finer ones than those that exist in the ether, and, if so, have we any
means of contacting them?
The sphere of thought next occurs to us. We are told that
‘thoughts are things’! We know that each thought has its definite
vibration, because this has been proved. An instrument has been
invented by Dr. Baraduc of Bordeaux which records thought vibra-
tions. When an intelligent person approaches this instrument it
registers a high-speed and strong vibration. When a low type or imbe-
cile approaches it the vibration is correspondingly feeble and slow.
It has also been proved by experiment that by an act of will the
mind can cause objects such as metal levers to move (see experiments
by Sir William Crookes in Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science). We
have also heard of numberless cases of fakirs and people of that kind
having been able to prevent themselves from burning by fire, from
suffocating when buried alive, from bleeding from wounds, and from
other normal reactions. They can do this by being able to bring into
action the power that the finer vibrations of the mind have over the
lower ones of chemical matter. The same thing is done in chemistry
through the use of electrical heat to split up, reorganize or control
chemical compounds.
Sometimes people use these powers without knowing exactly
what they are doing, nor what the result will be, as in the cases of
some forms of mental healing, based on ‘blind faith’. Such cases are
a wonderful proof of existing possibilities, but at best they are
uncertain (sometimes only ‘flukes’), and often much harm is done
through lack of a fuller understanding.
In curing some diseases, either by self-treatment or by a mental
healer, the fine vibrations of the mind act on the lower vibrations of
the disease tissue. This can be performed at the same rate at which
47
that particular mind is able to visualize and concentrate – it may take

hours, days or weeks, according to the condition of patient and healer.
However, we know that there have occurred many cases of
‘instantaneous’ healing, diseased and broken tissues being rendered
whole in a flash of times. We have heard of such things throughout
history, and they are said to happen at the present day in places such
as Lourdes. In these cases we have at last touched upon the finest and
subtlest ‘vibrations’ of all, those of the ‘spirit’ or the highest creative
force. Such vibrations, being unhampered by the processes of the
brain, and operating at a terrific speed, can go through the whole
process of cure so quickly that we cannot possibly follow its course,
and the result seems to us to be instantaneous.
With a great spiritual healer such as Christ was, works of this
kind are possible, especially if the sufferer can tune in, through ‘faith’
or through the medium of his own ‘spiritual’ vibrations, to the hea-
ler’s actions. Christ encouraged us to strive for these powers of hea-
ling, which are not really ‘supernatural’, but the result of an intensive
development and an understanding of the laws of the universe.
The mind has power over everything that it can understand and
visualize. Therefore the first step of all is to study these arguments
and theories, and those facts which are supported by adequate
testimony, with a perfectly open and logical mind.
If and when we become convinced of any argument or concept,
we must tabulate it carefully, and pass on to a study of the next. In
this way we will begin gradually to discover what we really can know
and believe.
For instance, we may feel that it is impossible for us to prove for
ourselves the truth of Christ’s miracles, or of any others in the past.
But actually such things are happening every day, in every guise and
form, and a little inquiry will soon put us in touch with them. Our own
common sense will then enable us to separate the true from the false.
The object of this chapter is to show that, although we may
approach this subject from the angle of pure chemical and
mechanical science, we shall still be able to work through to the final
result that there is a certain force controlled by our minds which can
48
act more powerfully over solid matter than anything else; and that
there is a still stronger force, apparently outside of mind, which can
act instantaneously and ‘miraculously’.
It is not enough to go on any longer weakly tabulating these
things as ‘hypnotism’, ‘thought-reading’, or ‘imagination’. They must
be better understood for what they really are. We must have an
explanation for the changes in tissue and matter which occur. The
old alchemists claimed that it was possible to direct a mental force to
change the composition of atoms by altering their vibrations, and
that thereby it would be possible to make gold. They believed it was
so, but already materialism had stepped in, and they often
endeavoured to accomplish it by chemical means alone.
The only real power to do such things lies within ourselves, but
we must first learn to use our own highest vibrations.
These powers can only work if they are undisturbed by the
inharmonious heavy vibrations which enter into our composition if
we live out of harmony with the laws of Nature.
The athlete knows that alcohol, smoking, unbalanced diet,
worry and lack of sleep upset his health and undermine his stamina,
so that even the low vibrations of physical strength and steadiness
cannot gain control.
The mental worker knows that he has to steady down all his
bodily disturbances and vibrations before he can concentrate at all.
He needs not only to be able to ignore the vibrations all around him,
which he can only do if they are steady and balanced (a hum of
traffic disturbs many much less than odd drops of falling water), but
also he must have steadiness and balance of every activity of his own
body – so that he can ignore it.
If, however, he is seeking neither athletic nor mental expression,
but ‘inspiration’, he can only obtain that by steadying down the brain
itself, so that, balancing its vibrations to the same state of poise as
those of his body, he can ignore the brain and reach for the subtler
forces of the mind. The greatest inspiration will flash suddenly into
the brain at a moment when it is quiet and receptive.
49
Therefore, although the highest vibrations are the most

powerful, we cannot get in touch with them within ourselves when
our bodies and brains are a mass of struggling, fighting inharmonious
vibrations, as is usually the case. Though the highest forces are there
within us, we give ourselves little chance of linking up with them,
and consequently are unable to utilize them.
The yogis and fakirs spend hours in ‘meditation’, or the effort to
quieten down every activity in the body and brain, so that the afore-
mentioned portions of the latter, the Pineal Gland and the Pituitary
Body, can ‘tune in’ to those highest powers. When this is accomplished
these men can, while in that state, cure their own and others’ bodily
or mental ills, obtain inspiration or wisdom, and attain a high state of
physical fitness and strength without our methods of ‘exercise’.
The first thing for us to do, therefore, is to eliminate all
inharmonious vibrations from our bodies and brains. We must throw
them out one by one as we discover them. Every unnecessary act,
thought, emotion and fear must go! We must build into the fabric of
our lives only those things which will balance, strengthen, and
beautify them. We will find that there is a tremendous amount of
accumulated rubbish to cast away! Those things which remain will
give us all the greater joy and interest through being intensified.
The simple methods for doing this will be explained later.
Before closing this chapter let us give a thought to the modern
scientists. Having followed a long trail in their efforts to discover the
difference between matter and the life which pours through it, they
have finally arrived at the perplexing result that there is no difference
at all! They now know that solid matter in its final analysis is merely
energy in a certain state of motion. They also know that our thoughts
are also energy in a certain state of motion!
In other words, the world appears to be made up of the energy
of the Being or Mind behind it, whose idea it was!
The scientists do not put it this way – yet!
From a scientific point of view they have come up against a
blank wall, and their present attitude is probably that of a big
question-mark.
50
3
THE SECRET KNOWLEDGE
__________________
Having studied our world according both to the modern matter-

of-fact scientist and the less orthodox modern ideas, let us now turn
and plunge into the past, and see what our ancestors knew, and how
their knowledge helped them.
They prophesied the long dark Age of Ignorance from which
we are at present emerging. That ignorance has engendered in us the
habit of scoffing at everything which is not ‘ordinary’, ‘normal’ or
able to be weighed and measured by scientists.
The scientists themselves have reached a point where they are no
longer dealing with purely physical or chemical things – they have
pushed upwards through the great scale of vibrations until their heads
are in the clouds of conjecture. Perhaps they dare not speak of the
possibilities they conceive.
Let us leave them hesitating in that exciting position, and start
a tour of exploration on our own.
In a universe full of trillions of stars, of constellations and solar
systems, there is one minute speck of matter which we call our earth.
This speck of matter is covered with millions of microcopical
creatures called human beings. The strange thing is that these
microscopical creatures consider themselves important. Each minute
one of them is able to feel that he is more important than the whole
universe upon ;which he is but a speck.
Are these creatures really important, and if so, why?
Looking at them dispassionately, we can see that there is at least
one remarkable thing about them. Almost any one of them, by
training his microscopical brain, is able to visualize the past, present
and future, not only of his own little person, country or planet, but of
51
the whole universe. Within his tiny personality there is locked a

power which will give him unlimited understanding of things quite
beyond his physical reach, a dynamic capacity to wield the forces of
Nature with a mind of which he knows not the limits.
Man is an animal, but he is an animal embodying a god. The
ancients were much more alive to his potentialities than we are now.
As we explore, it will take us some time to decide whether man knew
more thousands of years ago than he does today, and whether he was
a finer being.
This planet is infinitely older than most of us imagine, and so is
the history of mankind. Archeologists are continually having to push
back their dates further into the past. Much learnt in history books by
the last generation is obsolete, and must now be unlearnt!
Civilizations had been rising, falling and disappearing aeons before
the men who owned the paleolithic skulls were born.
All these things are revealed to us in the Ancient or Secret
Wisdom, which is a collection of teachings handed down from the
very earliest times, explaining man, his origin, his composition and
destiny, and also the purpose of the Universe. The Wisdom has come
to us in unchanged form, concealed and taught throughout the world
under the garb of many of the ancient religions. We will trace this in
a later chapter, but begin now by a study of the Wisdom itself as it is
still to be found in the East.
This teaching professes to expound to us the few great
fundamental laws upon which are founded the life and progress of
man and the universe.
Let us endeavour to shake off the habits of thought imposed
upon us by the generations of a Dark Age, and consider with an open
mind the heritage bequeathed to us by our earlier ancestors.
The Great Laws can best be named for us in English as follows:
Repetition: The Microcosm and the Macrocosm
Evolution.
Cause and Effect, or ‘Karma’ and Rebirth
The Plan of Creation, or the Seven Planes.
52
The principle of the first of these laws is: ‘As in the Microcosm
(man) so in the Macrocosm (the universe)’. It asserts that the same
system of form, time and motion runs through the whole universe, so
that if we properly study an atom or a cell we will obtain the key to
the workings of a man, a planet, or a constellation. In that way,
through a knowledge of periodicity – or the regular periods of time
which occur on a small scale in nature – the ancient mathematicians
were able to calculate the stars, their movements, and thereby the
evolutionary stages in history on a large scale, and to prophesy
conditions and influences thousands of years ahead.
It is disconcerting to find that the conceptions of the very
ancient sages tax the modern man’s mind to the utmost. Even to
understand their meaning and visualize their ideas takes effort and
practice – much less could modern man originate such profound
theories himself. And the ancients accomplished these things
without, so far as we know, any of our modern mechanical aids.
This great Law of Repetition declares that there is an ordered
arrangement within the universe, with certain periods of time and
patterns of form repeated up the scale and governing the tiniest to
the greatest. It asserts that the little things are a mirror of the larger
ones, and everything is not only a replica but intimately connected
with everything else. For instance, if you want to study a solar system
you can study an atom. And if you want to study animal, plant,
mineral or even solar life you will find it all represented in the body
of man himself.
‘Man, Know Thyself ’ was the ancient command written above
the temple door. If we persevere with this fascinating study we will
find that in the form of every human being the universe is presented
to us; we can inspect the solar systems of his atoms, the mineral
world in its most active and creative form in his interior laboratory,
and the physical development of animal life from its lowest to highest
form in his embryo. In his nature we will find a mixture of the
passions and peculiarities of all living creatures. We can also trace
an intimate relationship with all the planets through the interplay
going on in his body with the cosmic and planetary rays, and a
53
connection with the world of magnetism and electricity as well.

Finally we will discover that man has in his puny frame the capacity
to connect his mind with the highest unseen cosmic intelligence – the
mind of ‘Nature’.
This first great Law, then, that of the Macrocosm and the
Microcosm, gives us at once a much more comprehensive outlook
on life, and therefore the capacity of brining vision and breadth into
our creative work.
The second great Law is that of EVOLUTION:
Everything in life is evolving upwards and onwards to a higher
and more perfect state, having had its beginning in an uncreative,
unconscious and elementary form, and growing and progressing
through striving, sacrifice and struggle to a condition of creative
selfconscious potent strength.
Beginning at the lowest end of the scale with the minerals, we
know that they have an elementary consciousness or mentality; that
they strive, struggle and become tired, and that they are ‘sacrificed’ to
or absorbed by the kingdom above them, the vegetable kingdom
which lives upon them.
The vegetable kingdom has a higher consciousness or vibration
than the mineral kingdom, and a greater power for struggling and
adapting itself; in its turn it is sacrificed to the animal kingdom who
feed upon it. The animals may seem to the plants to be some kind of
deities, with wonderful and to them ‘miraculous’ powers of
movement.
The sum of vegetable and mineral experience is absorbed by the
animals, who depend on this for their life and evolution. In return, it
is said that the animals provide, by their breathing, the carbon dioxide
upon which plants exist during the day. Some of the animals are
becoming extremely advanced in consciousness, and are full of what
can be described as (for them) spiritual aspiration. Mankind are their
deities, and they strain and strive to attain, in such things as speech
and work, to the miraculous activities of their gods. The adoring eyes
of a dog and his efforts to talk, and the keenness and pride of an
elephant at work, are instances in point.
54
Animals in their turn offer up their sacrifice of adoration,

emulation and service to man. Whereas the vegetable kingdom
should adequately sustain the body of man, the animal kingdom
should feed his emotional needs only, through his function of
guardianship (‘domain’) over them. This relationship of loving,
learning and teaching is the true one, instead of the prevailing
extraordinary exploitation, slaughter and cruelty enacted towards
animals, which forms the basis of similar attitudes towards all the
other kingdoms, producing the predatory world which we have today.
We continue up the scale and find that in the kingdom of man
the same process is going on. The more advanced type of human
being is sacrificing his lower nature, and striving to reach and copy a
higher kingdom of beings than his own. He calls these beings angels,
gods or deities, and has as much difficulty in understanding their
wonderful capabilities as the animals have in understanding his own.
But just as the animals depend upon man for the final development
of their intelligence, so man depends upon the subtler and more
inspiring minds of the ‘angels’ for his own awakening.
We are told, also, that, just as man depends for his sustenance
and progress upon the lower kingdoms of nature, so the ‘angel’ world
depends upon the offering and sacrificing of man’s ‘soul-force’ for its
own nourishing and development. Mankind and the angels can only
reach greater heights of realization through the interplay of mutual
service.
In accordance with the first great Laws of Repetition we realize
that the process must continue, and therefore we are bound to infer
that the angels are also sacrificing to, and striving to reach, a higher
kingdom of Beings than themselves.
The Ancient Wisdom has mapped out for us the pattern of these
angel communities and Hierarchies. An amazing vista of worlds
ahead of us is thereby opened up for our consideration.
The third great Law is that of KARMA AND REBIRTH. This
states that nothing in life is wasted, and all things share alike the
chance of gaining ultimate perfection and of going through the full
course of experience and development. We see that in the physical
55
world as soon as a plant or other living creature has had its particular
span or life it dies or withers. The cells which formed it disintegrate,
but their chemical constituents come together at a later period to form
a future plant or animal, closely resembling the former one, but plus,
always, a stage of further adaptability, and change, showing that the
consciousness and memory of the former plant has been reborn too.
When we come to a highly specialized consciousness like that of
a human being we are told that it is being continually reborn upon the
earth, and that it struggles and strives upwards perfecting and
developing itself through numberless hard lessons and inevitable
mistakes, until finally it reaches the stage of creative and conscious
power which we call ‘superhuman’.
The method by which experience and progress is assured is
expressed in the ancient law of KARMA. This word has not even an
equivalent in the English language. Its meaning is ‘cause-and-effect’,
or ‘action-and-reaction’. We are told that all of life is built upon the
law of opposites, as in the negative and positive poles of electricity,
day and night, heat and cold, summer and winter, good and evil. The
constant friction between these opposites causes development,
change, adjustment – in other words originality, or the free-will which
functions throughout all creation, and through which creation itself
learns eventually to become creative.
All this happens so slowly (to us) that at times we don not realize
that there is progress, because we become confused by the backward
crouch of the wave of progress before a further push forward.
Probably we are living at the time of a backward crouch now, and
perhaps that is why so much that is bad in humanity seems to be
driven to the surface, so that to some the world appears at present to
be deteriorating.
The Laws of Rebirth and Karma work hand in glove, so to
speak. We are told that mankind came into being because Spirit, or
the life-force behind everything, wished to develop more creative
power. This development could only be accomplished by Spirit being
so imprisoned and confined in matter (flesh) that It forgets Its oneness
with Wisdom, and has to find everything out afresh through fighting
56
and experience. So we are told that Virgin Spirit divided itself up into
fractions and, by ensouling the egos of man and all other forms of
life, sank itself into the heavy imprisoning matter of this world, and
is slowly and patiently fighting its way back to Truth and Light and
Power. The human egos evolve steadily, each undergoing constant
rebirth, until it gradually attains to a knowledge of the laws of the
universe through Karma – or the effect of its own acts and thoughts,
achieving power and strength through the mastery of one law after
another until at last it reaches omnipotence both physical and
spiritual. We might say that the friction between the opposite poles of
spirit and flesh causes, as in electricity, light or energy, which is
creative force-power! The planets, the earth, the races of mankind,
the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms also reincarnate, all
being under the same law. (We must mention here that it is not
possible, according to the Secret Teaching, for man to be reborn as an
animal, because however low he might sink in his own kingdom he
could not retrogress into a slower vibration. This theory, called
Transmigration of Souls, is held by certain peoples who have allowed
their former knowledge to become distorted.)
Many persons here in the West find it rather difficult to accept
this theory of reincarnation, because it has been stamped out for
thousands of years. It therefore requires a great deal of unaccustomed
mental exercise to obtain a real picture of it to hold in the mind. It is
accepted quite naturally by most of the Eastern peoples, and has been
for untold centuries, so that whether we believe in it or not we should
go into the theory as fairly and impartially as if we were studying
their ideas on art or agriculture.
As a rule human beings are unable to remember anything about
any past lives they may have had. Of course there are exceptions, and
many people have collected a great deal of evidence of such memo-
ries, which evidence is extremely interesting. In fact, I think we would
find it impossible to deny that some people, at least, have lived before.
When we consider that we are unable to remember a great deal of our
present life, especially things which have affected our characters
deeply, until they are laid bare by a psychoanalyst, it is not surprising
57
if we do not remember past lives. But we are told that the experience
gained in such lives is retained by us in those qualities which we
describe as ‘having a conscience’, an ‘instinct’ or a ‘knack’.
According to this, then, a child prodigy is the result of
continuous effort in past lives along some particular line. It might
reasonably follow that imbecility is the result of a continuous refusal
to use the brain and make effort; that to be a dwarf or cripple is the
Karma of one who in previous lives neglected his body; and that an
epileptic is probably discharging the debt of continuous immorality
in a past life. In the light of this reasoning we could feel that there is
no injustice or inequality in life, because the egos are choosing their
own ways of learning life’s lessons, which can only be learnt through
experience and suffering. Believing this, then, we could blame our
parents for nothing since we are the masters of our own fate, and reap
exactly as we have sown in the past – the effect of the cause – Karma!
We are told that certain groups of people incarnate together at
intervals. In this way old injuries and insults must be recompensed,
old enmities finally adjusted, and old loves allowed to continue and
to grow and beautify. Nothing is lost, nothing is wasted, everyone
finally reaches the same goal of perfection, although they are all in
such different stages and classes now. No man becomes perfect or
attains his goal so long as there is a single feeling of enmity between
him and another, or until a score has been settled and wiped out by
service and friendship. This is what Christ meant when He gave us
that difficult injunction to ‘turn the other cheek’ and to ‘offer thy
cloak also to him who shall take thy coat’. If we ‘love our neighbour
as ourselves’ we cannot mind to whom the coat belongs! These
conceptions are very difficult for a selfish world to grasp as yet, and
few of us have the pluck to try them out.
We limit ourselves by being possessive. The greatest things we
can have – wisdom, health and power – are all-pervading, and cannot
be divided. They can only develop and be shared. Possessiveness, on
the other hand, causes wars, cruelties, jealousies and sufferings. It
can never do any good, and usually despoils the most beautiful thing
in life – Love.
58
Therefore, if we can once believe in Reincarnation we would

realize that Fear is wasted effort, because though we have suffered
death and pain often before we are here again! Fear is something of
our making, and it paralyses us and renders us stupid.
Also we can see that it is better not to think evil, unkind or
worried thoughts, because by doing so we are causing effects which we
will have a lot of work in putting right again – Karma! Thoughts are
things, and when we unloose an ugly or harmful thing into the world
we shall be obliged to remove it. Thoughts persist in the ethereal
regions, and are connected with the one who made them until they
are disintegrated through his effort.
The fourth great Law is that of the PLAN OF CREATION
which teaches us about the Seven Planes. We learn that the whole of
the solar system is built upon an orderly numerical system, and a set
of seven definitely graded types of matter, substance, or, as the
mystics and occultists call them, planes. These planes meet one
another in a delicately graded sequence of interpenetrating vibrations
with which the modern scientist is experimenting today and which
we discussed in Chapter 2. The scope of his discoveries lies roughly
between the phenomenon of sound (with its lowest vibration at about
sixteen to the second) to that of X-ray (whose highest vibrations are
estimated at 2,305,843,009,213,693,952 per second). These vibrations
constitute a portion of what is known as the chemical or physical
world or plane. The ancients were able to understand and tabulate
seven times as much as this, because they postulated seven worlds of
different kinds of life, interpenetrating and influencing one another,
through which were functioning the various life-forces, currents, rays,
thoughts, emotions, and archetypes of form which combine to
produce life as it is, with all its different complexities. They had all
this thoroughly worked out, and understood just how these different
forces were concentrated into man’s body through the channels of
his various glands. The doctors of today are still struggling with the
‘unknown’ functions of some of these glands because they have not
had the inspiration to refer to the ancient knowledge and unravel the
symbolism in which it was presented.
59
This symbolism was arranged and used both to awe the public
and keep them from a knowledge which might be dangerous when in
the hands of the ignorant and unprincipled, in much the same way as
Latin is employed today by doctors. In times of high national morale
more and more of the secrets were given out and understood by the
public. But in periods of decadence and materialism the priests and
rulers themselves deteriorated, and the knowledge was hidden away
and guarded by the few remaining initiates or sages.
We are emerging from a long period of such materialism at
present, and that is why doctor, priest and public are confronted with
the task of learning a great deal all over again, and revising the
knowledge of their ancestors before they can carry things a step
further.
This revision was begun at the end of last century by such people
as Madame Blavatsky through the Theosophists, by the Christian
Scientists, by Mesmer, and a host of others, who aroused the public
desire to penetrate once more into the fundamental meaning of Life
and its ultimate purpose. Since then modern methods have been used
to unearth the Ancient Wisdom and once more reinstate it.
Some people say, ‘What do we want with the past? Let us go
forward and be practical!’ But as we have not yet been able to improve
in some respects upon the conceptions of art, architecture,
mathematics, ethics, and science of some of those very ancient
civilizations to any degree, it will surely be worth our while to study
the foundations upon which their mentalities were built.
The four Great Laws which we have enumerated in this chapter
were a part of those foundations.
We hear people say, ‘Oh, the East is degenerate and effeminate,
and social conditions there are terrible – therefore, of what use has
that Ancient Wisdom been? People like this should think further,
realizing that the higher one mounts the lower one can fall.
Degeneracy is the result of laziness, slackness and subsequent
distortion of teaching, and has nothing whatever to do with the pure
teaching of a religion in its original form, which is nearly always fine.
We have only to consider the original teachings of Christ, observing
60
how we have degenerated that, with our long history of bloodshed,

greed and oppression, to feel that we cannot point any finger of
criticism at the East. Also, the East is now the prey of old age, and
feminine in character, as compared with the vigorous, youthful,
masculine Western civilization.
The four Great Laws are hidden in the Christian religion, and
can be revealed with a little study, in spite of the mistranslation and
censorship to which it has been subjected.
It is very necessary to see life as a Whole, and realize that we
can obtain a high state of mental balance and vision only when we
attempt to link together the past, present and future, and all the
sciences, into one comprehensive and comprehensible picture.
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4
HOW WE ARE MADE
__________________
The secret knowledge explains to us in quite a scientific way how

we are made.
We have seen that modern scientists have worked out the whole
of physical or chemical life to a scale of atoms vibrating at different
speeds. The Ancients called this great scale the Physical Plane.
A Plane meant a complete series or world of substances under
one Law.
The Physical Plane includes solids, liquids, gases and the ethers
of which we are told there are four. That totals up to seven ‘states of
matter’, which go to make up the densest or chemical expression of
life called the Physical Plane. We must remember that these ‘states of
matter’ are mostly able to interpenetrate each other, as we saw in
Chapter 1.
The Physical Plane includes, of course, our Solar System, with
its solids, gases and chemical rays.
Now, the Ancient Wisdom teaches that life is made up of Seven
Planes or states of matter, of which the Physical Plane is only one –
the densest or, in wireless parlance, the one of lowest frequency.
We are told that each of the Seven Major Planes is divided into
seven sub-planes or strata, just as is the Physical Plane, each Plane
and each Stratum being a mirror or counterpart of one of another
series. Take the seven colours of the spectrum and split them up into
seven shades of each colour, and you have a simile. Let the seven
darkest shades represent the Physical Plane, and the seven palest and
most luminous represent the Spiritual Plane. You will see how closely
they are all connected with each other, even taking into account the
complementary colours.
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HOW WE ARE MADE
The Planes are neither above nor below one another, but
interpenetrating, those which we think of as ‘above’ being of higher
frequency from the standpoint of vibrations. (Bear in mind that all
these things are very difficult to put into words.)
Everything in life, from a planet to a fly, from a cloud to a grain
of sand, is interprenetrated by all these seven planes or worlds, and
in most cases has a ‘body’ with which to function in each of them.
Man possesses a body made up of the material of the physical
plane world, a body containing chemicals in liquid, solid and gaseous
state. This body is interpenetrated by another body, which is its
counterpart, and is made up of the four ethers. This is called his
‘etheric’ body, and constitutes a fine web through which the electric
and radiating life-forces are fed into his physical body from the outer
universe. This completes a man’s physical plane equipment.
The next of the Seven Planes is called the Astral World. It is
called by some the Desire World, as it is the sphere of emotions or
desires. It contains the substance that stirs or motivates us. It is the
world of attraction and repulsion.
Man has a body of this astral material, which is in full action
when he is roused, excited, afraid, or full of desire – these feeling
being, as we know, sometimes quite divorced from and stronger than
our reasoning minds. It is possible for man, the individual, to separate
his astral body from his physical body and wander about in it. Such
an astral body can be seen by the astral eyes of another person, who
will speak of it as a ‘ghost’.
Everything physical has its counterpart in astral substance, so
that a man wandering in his astral body can see chairs and tables, or,
rather, their astral counterparts. The counterparts of physical things
are made up of the lowest and densest stratum of the astral material,
whereas the counterparts of thoughts and feelings are made up of
the subtle and malleable kind of astral stuff. This has been described
by clairvoyants as a moving and shimmering kaleidoscope of swiftly
interchanging colours.
The Astral World is therefore almost impossible to visualize by
anyone who has not been able to see it, but a vague idea of it can be
63
obtained by a study of the various descriptions given to us by

clairvoyants of all times.
The third of the Seven Great Planes is the world of thought or
mind. The densest stratum of this Plane contains our own more
worldly and material thoughts. The finer strata are used by cosmic
intelligences for planning the archetypes and activities of the universe.
That is why if we can contact the higher strata of the mind-world or
Mental Plane by training the corresponding parts of our brains (as all
the sages have endeavoured to do), we shall gain inconceivable
knowledge. The world of thought is even more difficult for us to
picture than the Astral World, but as a beginning let us realize that it
is said to interpenetrate all of life, like a sort of forceful ‘gas’. It is not
confined to the brain, which latter acts more like a kind of telephone
switchboard to all the thoughts which pass through it.
The Fourth Plane is that of the Will or Life-spirit, and it is of this
world that the real individual, the Ego, is a part. It is the Ego who
uses the physical, astral and mind bodies as tools with which to
achieve his purpose. When they are completely under his control and
in harmony and balance one with another he becomes omnipotent
and has achieved conquest over matter. He can, after careful training,
shed his physical body like a coat and, leaving it safely in the
nourishing care of its etheric web, continue his activities in his other
bodies, or ‘vehicles’ as they are called.
When he wishes to return he slips back into the cramping and
restricting burden which is his outer coating of flesh. We call this
waking up, or returning to consciousness, as the case may be. He has
often brought back useful knowledge which would benefit mankind,
but the jar of contact once again with the heavy earth vibrations is so
harsh that it usually snaps the thread of memory of the preceding
activities, unless the person has been specially trained.
We have now come to a point where words are no longer even
of the slightest help, so we will not attempt to describe the remaining
three of the Seven Great Planes, those three which carry the
consciousness through to a contact with the world of the Divine
Creator Himself. It takes courage even to think, let alone speak, of
64
HOW WE ARE MADE
such untranslatable wonders – but we do need such courage, and man

is therefore obliged to reduce them to tiny Physical Plane conceptions
able to be grasped by his five limited senses. Daring, however, is not
without its reward, provided the motive is sincere, so man soon learns
that he is more than an animal.
The Seven Planes, then, comprise the material of which the
whole evolving universe is made. The Physical Plane, or solid world,
takes up the smallest space, because it is condensed and we can see
it everywhere with our physical eyes. The etheric counterparts
protrude an inch or two outside all living objects, and can be seen
with the help of the Kilner glass screens.
The astral body protrudes to a still further extent, and is
described by the clairvoyant who can tell a great deal about the
individual by looking at it. Our earth also has an astral body, of
course, which stretches very far out from its circumference.
Incidentally, we shall have to accustom ourselves to the idea that the
earth is a living creature, as are also the planets.
The Astral World is the world wherein the Fourth Dimension is
to be found and understood. If you can imagine having eyes that see
right through everything in all directions at one, you are visualizing
your condition when functioning in the Astral World!
The thought-world, or Mental Plane, or that part of it which is
the thought-body of our earth, extends still further outwards into
interplanetary space. It presents a marvellous field of exploration for
the mystic and the occultist.
The worlds of spirit occupy still larger space. The finest stratum
of these, in the final world of Divine force, embraces all and flows
uninterruptedly through everything. By this we can see what is meant
when we are told that God, or heaven, is within us. We are each able
to contact the world of spirit within our own little bodies, because in
the final analysis it is the life of that world which is interpenetrating
and sustaining us.
We have taken but a superficial glance at the Law of the Seven
Planes. It is open to us to reject or accept such a hypothesis, as we
choose. But the exhaustive way in which all the workings of these
65
Planes have been analysed gives us a most interesting and suggestive

field of study, full of amazing and thrilling conceptions.
Let us summarize some of the main points once again.
According to this teaching, then, man has for his use first of all
his solid physical body of low-frequency vibrations (an instrument
or switchboard through which he contacts physical things).
Secondly, he owns a body of ether, interpenetrating this first
body by reason of its higher and finer vibrations, and acting as an
intermediary between it and the outer ether, a channel through which
all the magnetic life-forces are fed to it.
Thirdly, he owns an ‘astral’ or ‘ghost’ body, interpenetrating the
other two, and having much the same high speed of movement as
electricity, at which speed he can travel when polarized entirely in
the astral body (as in sleep).
Fourthly, there is his mental body, and well-known instances of
though telepathy travelling right across the world in the space of a
few seconds prove to us the speed at which we can function while in
this body. We often hear of cases of people appearing to their friends
at the moment of their death, although living in a distant land.
Man’s spiritual body is composed of the finest and most high-
frequency vibrations of all, and can for that reason take control of all
the lower ones. It can travel so fast that it can appear to be
‘everywhere at once’. When man can consciously function in his
spirit-body he is able finally to conquer time and space, which only belong
to a seventh part of the universe, the Physical Plane.
It is very hard for present-day materially minded man to
visualize these ‘planes’ and ‘bodies’. But he must not allow his brain
to remain inferior to that of the early races. The Egyptians, for
instance, were quite at home with this knowledge, and drew and
named the different ‘bodies’ of man on tombs and frescoes.
According to some authorities they symbolized them as follows:
They called the physical body KAT, a dead fish! The symbol was
a curled-up dead fish, perhaps the most physical of all creatures.
The etheric double was called KA, and symbolized, as the
vehicle or holder of the body, by a breast and two upstretched arms.
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HOW WE ARE MADE
They called the astral body BA, symbolizing it by a human-

headed bird, a bird being a ‘traveller through space’.
The spirit was represented by a lotus, which is able to rise out of
the darkness and mud to reach the light.
The knowledge of these early peoples was astonishing. They
understood so completely the power of mind over matter. One
outstanding instance of this is seen in their feats of building, still
incomprehensible to us.
It is said that they were able to wield the spirit-force over astral
and physical substance and create entities to attach to the tombs, to
guard them for centuries.
Present-day scientists are busy exploding the atom with
magnetic and electric force, but so far the results of their efforts have
been dubious, because of the poisonous by-products produced.
Perhaps they are doing things the wrong way round, using physical-
plane instruments of low vibrations to try to control higher
vibrations. They might do better if they could train the only high-
powered instrument they possess – the mind – as did the ancient
scientists. The true alchemists tried to use the burning force of the
concentrated mind as the crucible in which they could distil the elixir
of life from gold.
Fire can burn up anything of lower vibration than itself. The
mind can control fire, being of higher vibration. There are many
authentic cases of people who can contact fire without being burnt
and can be pierced by knives without shedding blood.
The mind can act very quickly on matter, but the spirit can act
instantaneously, rearranging the vibrations and re-forming them. This
fact is probably the basis of the performance of ‘miracles’ and ‘faith-
healing’.
Many people are testing these things out, through mesmerism,
hypnotism, thought-reading, psychometry, and other methods.
The explorer along such lines will find that the etheric body has
been weighed by scientists; that the aura can be seen through a glass
prepared by psychic researchers; that numberless people have had
experience of the astral body; that the vibrations of the mental body
67
have been recorded by instruments; and the power of the spirit-body

demonstrated by innumerable ‘miracles’.
It is natural to be sceptical about many of these things, but he
who is wise will keep an open mind until he has fairly tested the
various proofs available to him.
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5
HOW WE ARE CLASSIFIED
________________
We are told that the attainment of wisdom and power can only
be acquired through study and knowledge of ourselves. We have seen
also that the same laws govern the whole universe, and that if man
can understand some of the laws governing himself or the tiniest
atom he will have a clue to those which govern the solar systems and
the greater system to which they belong. Scientists have discovered
that an atom closely resembles a miniature solar system in its turn is
one of millions of atoms forming the body of some great Being too
vast for us to picture. Such a Being might feel small compared to the
world which He in turn finds surrounding Himself.
Let us carry this idea a little further. The atoms (the starts)
forming the cells (constellations) of the body of this vast Being would
not appear to be far apart to Him; seen by Him they would be
intimately connected with each other, there being strong chemical
reactions and influences between them, just as with the cells in our
own bodies. When an atom from one of our own cells is examined
it is found to be composed of a proton (or sun) surrounded by various
numbers of electrons (or planets) all vibrating at set speeds. Now, we
are told that the proton is so small a part of the atom that it can be
compared with a bee buzzing inside a cathedral! So that if we could
become small enough to cling to that proton we should certainly feel
as if we were clinging to a star in a mighty space, and it would be
difficult to believe that our star was part of an atom in the cell of a
very solid body.
Some scientists now claim that the ether itself is denser than the
planets that swing through it, so you see we must reserve ideas about
solidity until we are a little better informed. The point made in this
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case is that through visualizing our vast giant we can better

understand the intimate relation in which the stars stand to each
other. Composed of chemicals held together by force or energy, the
radiations from each star and planet strongly affect each other,
carrying with them chemicals in a very fine and subtle form. Thus
from the planet Mercury we should expect to receive rays of the
wave-length that belongs to Mercury, and containing mercury itself
in a fine form; also certain other chemicals which are contained in the
planet to a lesser degree. As our solar system is believed to have been
formed from the splitting up of one star, every planet, every man and
every atom within it must still be held and connected one with
another by the interplay of identical chemical radiations. As an
example, it is said that a ruby is actually a fragment of that part of the
original star which finally broke away to form the planet Mars.
The astrologer makes careful calculations of the chemical and
spiritual influences set up by the continual changing of the relative
positions of the planets and luminaries (sun and moon), and of their
effect upon the microcosm or tiny replica which is man. The macro-
microcosmic law comes into play also in the question of time. A
man’s whole life is said to be mirrored in the moment of his birth.
According to one school of astrologists a person’s individuality,
his positive side, his character, are determined by the zodiacal sign in
which the sun is found at his birth. His personality, or negative side,
is determined by the sign in which the moon is found at his birth.
When he is born he is ‘tuned in’, as it were, to the play of the
planetary influences at the time, and the vibrations set up within him
rule him all his life, determining his reactions both chemical and
characteristic, and the environment which they attract.
It is in this way that people are classified.
There are at present scientific experiments in progress whose
object is to indicate the differing results of inaugurating the same
chemical mixtures at various phases of the planets, and also the
different reactions at such times in plants and animals.
The ancient sages had a great knowledge of this fascinating
subject and considered it of paramount importance. First of all they
70
conducted endless studies about the planets, and we call the results of
their research Astronomy. They next made extraordinarily
complicated and exhaustive studies of the combined influences of
the planets on both the earth and human beings, according to their
different positions in the heavens at various times. The results of this
particular research have come down to us embodied in another
science which we call astrology.
Astrology divides the heavens into twelve portions, rather like
the divisions of an orange. These divisions, called the Twelve Signs
of the Zodiac, correspond roughly with the twelve months of the
year. Each of these Signs is governed by one of the planets.
According to the month of the year in which you were born you can
tell which Sign rules your life, and consequently what sort of health
you may expect to enjoy, and what your characteristics will be.
Astrology is such a lengthy study and so difficult a science that
there are few really expert astrologers in the world. Those few who do
exist usually belong to a family of astrologers, whose teaching has
been handed down for generations. A genuine astrologer must make
complete calculations of the interplay of influences, chemical and
otherwise, of every planet upon the person or subject under
consideration.
But anyone can make a beginning with a simple study of the
Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, and although the information gained is
only generalization, it is close to the truth and therefore helpful and
can be used by those who have not learnt to cast a horoscope.
To attain his final development, man is supposed to be born
under the Signs of the Zodiac one by one, to learn the lessons they
teach. Sometimes he is obliged to learn one of these lessons for the
third time, perhaps for the thirtieth!
This has all been beautifully expressed in the Twelve Labours of
Hercules, which was written with a profound knowledge of both
astrology and symbolism, and contains deeply occult meaning.
The ancients declared that the whole history of the evolution of
mankind, the solar system, and the universe is described and foretold
by the start, grouped in a kind of mystic shorthand, and capable of
71
perfect translation. Such translation are contained in many of the

hidden archives.
In respect of our year, one Sign of the Zodiac, with its planet, is
ruling from about the 21st to the 21st of each month.
The influences of the Signs overlap each other slightly, so that a
person born between about the 15th and 25th of the month is
influenced by two Signs (being born near to their junction). This gives
him a more complex character. The most composite influence takes
place on the 22nd of the month, so we find many prominent
characters born on that date, such as Wagner, Van Dyck, Byron,
George Washington, Hitler, Conan Doyle, Baden-Powell, Faraday
and Rider Haggard.
A person born during the first half of the month comes under
the unmixed influence of the sign, and would therefore be of a more
definite type.
It must be understood, however, that in dividing the whole of
humanity into only twelve types we are merely taking the first step.
We are only generalizing, and although we have made an important
beginning we must not take it as the final word.
The birth of Christ took place at a rare and wonderful
conjunction of the stars, by which they announced (in the
aforementioned shorthand) that tremendous event.
The Three Wise Men, who were Astrologer Kings of Chaldea,
had been waiting for this conjunction to occur, and when they saw its
approach they set off to journey to Jerusalem, over which town it
was apparent that it would take place. They arrived and told King
Herod, who at once realized the significance of the conjunction,
which heralded a new ‘King’. Herod called all his wise astrologers
together and ‘inquired of them diligently what time the star
appeared’. They were all much troubled.
History is full of stories illustrating the immense importance
given to astrology, of which astronomy was but the foundation. All
priests and governors in olden days had to be well versed in the
science of the stars and in the science of numbers, and we find that
this knowledge existed all over the then known world.
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We have only time here to take a superficial glance at the way in

which we can apply astrology to the understanding of ourselves, and
also of racial and world conditions.
By means of this science it is considered possible to map out the
whole of a person’s life. This is done in the first place by using the law
‘As in the Microcosm so in the Macrocosm’, and therefore by
postulating that the plan of a person’s threescore years is mirrored in
the first day, and even in the first moments, of his life. In the same
way the history of a race or country can be determined by the
influences under which it had its inception.
These things can, of course, only be believed through the study
of proofs. The way to obtain these proofs is first of all to study
astrology (!) and then to consider the hundreds of horoscopes of
famous people which are available, as well as the annals of history
itself.
In Astrology the great law of cause and effect (Karma) plays a
big part. If, for instance, a man is greedy, it is not magical to predict
that at a future date he will suffer from a digestive trouble, or if he is
rash and impetuous that an accident is very sure to befall him. The
average astrologer will predict the accident, but if instead he would
study the cause, and persuade the man to cure his rashness, Karma
would be defeated or adjusted, and the accident need not happen.
‘The wise man is master of his stars, the fool is ruled by them.’
A conscientious astrologer always tries to show a person what
tendencies he has to master, instead of playing upon his love of
sensation by describing future events. What does a man need with
his future before he has any idea of how to deal with the present?
Today contains all possibilities for those who know how to strive for
them.
Astrology has been sadly neglected as a science, but lately it is
beginning to come into its own again, under the patient research-
work of hard-headed scientists who are quite unsuspecting of that
which they are about to unearth.
One of the principal uses to which Astrology can be put is the
thorough diagnosis of a patient, bringing to light the chemical
73
deficiencies or maladjustments in his internal laboratory, and the

planetary rays which he is able to assimilate and use, or those which
are causing him trouble. This method will do away with all
guesswork, it is claimed, as we are assured that it is an exact science
and will play a large part in the future of medicine.
Some of the biochemical experts have declared that the twelve
principal cell-salts found in the human body are ruled by the twelve
Signs of the Zodiac. They affirm that a person uses up more of the
cell-salt belonging to the Sign under which he was born, as that
chemical is connected with the key-note of his activity. Therefore the
fist deficiency that occurs in his internal laboratory is this cell-salt,
his ‘birth salt’, and the various symptoms of his ills may be traced
primarily to this depletion. All this was apparently known to the
ancients, but as they gave to the cell-salts the names of gods, and
described their activities in mythical parables, we are only just
beginning to understand what they meant.
Let us now take a rapid glance at the major general
classifications of astrological characteristics:
The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac represent the twelve lessons of
human existence, the twelve qualities to be developed in the
formation of the perfect man. It is said that these qualities are
gradually achieved by every human being, life after life, but not
necessarily Sign after Sign. That is where man’s free-will comes in. If
he chooses to work under some particular Sign more often than the
others, or repulses the lesson of one Sign altogether, a one-sided
character results, such as a genius with evil tendencies.
The Zodiacal year begins at the vernal equinox on March 21st,
with the Sign of Aries. The symbol of Aries is a Ram, because the
ram pushes his head into the wintry stubble and ploughs it up with
his horns to expose the new budding green upon which his family
can feed. Aries represents the first crude uprush of life, the beginning
of the human journey, and therefore bestows extreme physical
activity, daring and impulsiveness upon its natives. Aries rules the
head, and therefore the Arian, or person born between march 21st
and April 21st, uses the brain intensively, although without much
74
experience of life to back him. Aries is ruled by Mars, the warlike

planet. So man, at the beginning of his journey, spoils for a fight, is
a born leader, eager, brave, with quick-working brain. Keen to help,
he is a poor judge of character, and often deceived. He makes a bad
subordinate, and although plucky, he is full of fears, because he has
not yet developed much faith or philosophy. These Arians should be
guarded from overworking the brain and given plenty of sleep. Hans
Christian Anderson was an Aries born, although a very advanced
type.
From April 21st to May 21st we have the second Sign, that of
Taurus. Its symbol is a bull, and those born under it partake of the
nature of that animal. They are very strong but quiet and plodding,
until, if suddenly roused, they plunge ruthlessly to their goal. They
are ruled by the planet Venus, and so love is a part of man’s second
lesson; he can love devotedly and work the earth patiently. It is among
the Taurians that we find many of our great agriculturists and lovers
of nature, also our singers and poets. Often they serve their fellow-
men with courage and devotion. Sir James Barrie and Florence
Nightingale are examples of this Sign.
Taurus folk are very strong, and easily over-nourished. Their
chief ills arise from too-luxurious living.
Having learnt both activity and service the next lesson which
man has to tackle is how to use the brain for practical matters and for
reasoning. This is the work of those born under the third Sign,
Gemini, May 21st to June 21st, whose symbol is ‘The Twins’. This
symbol represents a dual type of mind, one who can see both sides
of a question, and jumps with keen interest to every new idea
presented. Such people, apparently changeable and ambitious
(without knowing exactly for what), and whose brains race like
chattering birds from branch to branch of the tree of knowledge, have
difficult characters to govern. They are ruled by the planet Mercury,
which gives quickness and brilliance, and through an intensive study
of life they learn to develop a logical reasoning mind. This brilliance
and rapidity of thought depends upon the nervous system more than
75
on the brain, so these people must be guarded against overworking

their nerves.
Advanced types will have attained to a very broad vision, and we
can take as examples Elgar and Dean Inge.
Our human being has by now gained much experience, and so
his next lesson is to learn how to apply it. The fourth Sign, Cancer,
June 21st to July 22nd, bestows great patience and tenacity, and a
genius for parenthood and family life. As we develop, however, we of
course become more complex, and so Cancer people are sometimes
restless and love to travel. The symbol of Cancer is the Crab, who
carries his house on his back, and moves through life in a curious zig-
zag way, suddenly going backwards again when least expected.
Cancer people are like that. Just when about to achieve success they
will turn back, or begin something else, and so in spite of their
industry they have a life of ups and downs. Sir Joshua Reynolds
ruined many of his pictures through continually changing his method
of painting. Cancer people are ruled by the Moon, which makes them
deeply sensitive and passionate. They badly need a life of discipline
and order.
Henry VIII is a good example of a Cancer type who became
undisciplined, and John Calvin of one who went to the other
extreme.
Now we come to the point where man has learnt a great deal of
the human side of life and is able to produce very fine results. His
next task, therefore, is to stand forth as a powerful and well-developed
human being, capable of high achievements.
The fifth Sign is Leo the Lion, July 22nd to August 23rd. We
sometimes find born under it the kings of men – people of power,
large-hearted, strong both mentally and physically, proud, ambitious
and popular. They have not yet touched the Divine Intuition, and so
as a rule they misunderstand and despise those weaker than
themselves, although they attract many sycophants. They often suffer
cruel disillusion in their friendships, through their own inadaptability.
They are ruled by the Sun (the heart of the solar system) and are
76
therefore liable to high blood pressure and other affects of the heart
and circulation.
We expect to find famous people born under this Sign, and sure
enough among them are Napoleon, Mussolini and H.P. Blavatsky.
Having risen to great heights through impulsiveness, forcefulness
and the talent for self-expression, the next quality to be acquired is
that of discrimination, of taste, the lack of which brought Leo into
many unhappy relationships. Therefore we find that the sixth Sign,
Virgo, August 23rd to September 23rd, whose symbol is the Virgin,
teaches this lesson.
Virgo people are born with a natural fastidiousness and critical
faculty. They are ruled by Mercury, who also held sway over the
people of Gemini, but whereas in that Sign great energy was
expended in the collecting of facts from all quarters, the Virgo people
have all that experience to draw upon, plus the fruit garnered in
Cancer and Leo. So they are able to take up life from the angle of the
critic rather than the man of action. They are adaptable to almost
any pursuit, make excellent subordinates, are plodding, and generally
successful. Their exquisite taste is evident in many walks of life. From
their ranks are drawn both restaurant-keepers and art critics!
Journalism and hygiene also attract them.
They rely on the material side of life, and because Mercury rules
the nerves they often suffer from ills due to worry, hypersensitiveness
and imagination. Nevertheless, they can be controlled, practical and
resourceful. We can study one of the higher types of the Sign in
Elizabeth, the Virgo or Virgin Queen.
The Sign of Virgo ends at the autumnal equinox on September
23 , so we have therefore traversed the first half of man’s journey
rd
round the Zodiac. He has learnt how to be the complete human

being; but yet only half his journey is accomplished! The remaining
half will be taken up in learning to give over the reins of power to
the spiritual man, and live in both worlds at once, with feet firmly
planted on the earth, but with mind in communion with the Divine.
The man has now become the aspirant, realizing that there is a world
for his conquering worth infinitely more than the physical world. His
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task now becomes harder to understand, but the first thing that such
a man must achieve is balance. And so the symbol of Libra,
September 23rd to October, 23rd, the seventh Sign, is the Balance.
The Libran seeks balance all through his life. In fact, he misses
many opportunities through too much weighing and balancing in his
mind – through ‘second thoughts’! In his case these are not always the
wisest. He has reached the stage where man is becoming psychic and
intuitive, and he would do well to act on his first impressions. Librans
are ruled by Venus, and so are full of love, but their love has become
more mental than physical. They are able to love abstract things such
as harmony, justice and beauty, and they shrink from all
disharmonies in life.
Some of them will do anything to avoid a row. This desire for
harmony and balance deprives them of the more direct energy and
impulsiveness of the preceding Signs. The refining process has begun,
but those who do not understand may think Librans cowardly and
weak. They may sometimes be condemned to rather colourless lives.
We find among their ranks many lawyers, judges and specialists, also
architects and research-workers, as all these require the qualities of
care and balance. Their personal life is often unhappy, through their
being too analytical of other people and afraid to let themselves go.
So we can be sure that they must guard against loneliness and
depression, which feelings often cause them to overwork themselves.
As examples of the advanced types of Librans we can take
Faraday, Sarah Bernhardt, and Annie Besant.
Having begun to learn how to transmute the tender passion of
love to higher planes, man’s next step is to bend the warlike force of
Mars in the same direction. So we see that the eighth Sign, Scorpio,
October 23rd to November 22nd, is ruled by Mars, giving to its natives
a strong, forceful and magnetic personality. We are coming now to
the types who are so stored with accumulated magnetism and
experience, so full of ‘character’ that they exercise great fascination,
and sometimes call forth fanatical devotion from their friends.
The Sign of Scorpio has produced more saints than almost any
other, and probably more villains too. These people are capable of
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the best or the worst, but never of being negative or unnoticed.

Therefore, Scorpio has three symbols, firstly the scorpion – the
animal who bites itself with its rail, representing the man who is his
own enemy; secondly, the Serpent, representing the birth of wisdom,
and thirdly, the White Eagle soaring to the sun, showing the final
rising upwards from earthly ties and attaining the spiritual sunlight.
The Scorpio native usually passes through the fire of the temptation
of sex in all its forms. He has to learn that it is his sex-force which he
needs for use in higher channels, and no other. He is usually versatile,
full of ideas, a leader who can sway audiences, a mental fighter,
proud, ambitious, sensitive and a good organizer. He is capable of
intense and enduring feelings. The higher types are the
humanitarians, peacemakers and philosophers.
The Scorpio native should be guarded against evil companions
and always allowed to wield authority. We can take as examples Saint
Augustine, Mahomet, Martin Luther and Edward VII.
By this time man has become a very potential being, though still
extremely self-centred. The ‘I’ dominates everything. So that in the
next stage of development we find the beginnings of unselfishness
taking shape. The ninth Sign is that of Saggitarius, November 22nd
to December 21st. Its symbol is the archer shooting straight into the
sky, representing the quick, strong mind leaping at its goal, Truth.
These people instinctively grasp the fact that Truth is beautiful and
joyful, and translate that realization into a keen wish to spread joy
and beauty around them. They are the lovers of life, full of kindly
humour. They may be domineering, egotistical and stubborn; but
they cannot live without attempting to make their companions happy.
They are therefore usually the souls of hospitality. They give great
encouragement to music, the arts, and all the pleasures and luxuries
of life. Containing as they do the qualities of all preceding signs, they
are extremely versatile, but as they are ruled by Jupiter, music and
ceremonial make a special appeal to them. Their love of life makes
them an easy prey to self-indulgence, and they are very excitable and
emotional.
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Most of their ills come from these two characteristics. Their

agile minds and prophetic instinct cause them to jump to results
without patient study, and this is a snare to their undoing. They often
fail to appreciate the worth of slower folk.
As they are high-powered people, Saggitarians must always be
actively employed, but they should have short intervals of complete
rest in which to relax their tenseness. Because of their zest for life
they are very popular. We can take as examples Lord Beaconsfield,
Queen Alexandra, Heine and Winston Churchill.
We have arrived at the stage where man has at last realized the
wonder of spiritual accomplishment, and has bent his will to attain
it. His challenge is at once accepted, and Saturn or Satan, the great
tester and trainer of humanity, steps in to help. So we find that the
tenth Sign, Capricorn, December 21st to January 21st, is ruled by the
planet Saturn, whose metal is lead, and who exerts a heavy crushing
influence, holding his victim down to earth, pressing and pressing
upon him until all the dross in his nature is forced out.
The symbol of Capricorn is the Goat. Man has ceased to be the
sheep, listening and following others’ lead; he has decided to stand on
his own feet and work out his own salvation. He wants proof of all
that he may hitherto have believed. So the Capricornian is, above all,
thoughtful and practical, outwardly perhaps a materialist, yet with a
worship of intellect and an interest in the sciences and in the occult.
He is independent, proud and domineering, happiest when leading
and organizing. Although he lacks the kindly humour of Saggitarius
and the brilliant enthusiasm of Leo, he has more tact, pity and
patience than either, and with these he is beginning to earn his
Godhead. He is learning to see outside of himself, using his own
sufferings to identify himself with the feelings of all humanity. Such
a one is likely to become a Communist, a Socialist, or fighter for some
ideal. The difficult personal adjustments he is making often cause
him to be hard to understand, complex and peculiar in some of his
reactions. Nevertheless, in spite of the stern discipline of his life he
is usually long-lived and rarely is obliged to call in the doctor.
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We can take as examples of the higher types Joan of Arc,

Woodrow Wilson, Benjamin Franklin and Gladstone.
Saturn’s intensive work on man is not complete by the end of
the Sign of Capricorn, so he carries it right through the next Zodiacal
month, The Sign of Aquarius, January 21st to February 21st, which
follows, is also ruled by that planet. By now, man has lost much of his
crudity, and having had some of his pride knocked out of him, he is
less egocentric. He feels that he is a part of the Whole, and has made
a great step forward in that he is beginning to give more importance
to others than to himself. The Symbol of Aquarius is the Water-
Carrier pouring out the Waters of Life upon mankind and the child
of this Sign loves to merge himself with people, in gatherings and
functions; he loves to work in intimate relation with the masses. He
is visionary and inventive and has a great desire for the public welfare.
No longer ambitious for the self, he is apt to remain in the
background unless inspired to work for a cause, in which case he can
rise to great heights and can then push forward quite impersonally.
The Aquarian mind is learning to be non-attached, clear-cut, honest,
with a love of freedom, and a sympathy with human weakness. He
is still over-sensitive. He reads character instinctively, ‘seeing through’
people, and this gives him intense likes and dislikes. He has already
developed some of the finer subtle qualities of the soul, and this
causes him to be very delicately balanced. For this reason he often
feels frail in health, although in reality he has great reserve force.
As examples of the higher types we can take Abraham Lincoln,
Charles Dickens, Swedenborg, Darwin, Ruskin and Voltaire.
The merging of the self into other peoples’ lives produces genius
for the stage, so we also find such people as Nell Gwynne, Pavlova,
and Sir Henry Irving under Aquarius.
We have now arrived at the last Sign of the twelve, the one
therefore under which the most perfected type of spiritual man can
be born. This Sign is called Pisces and lasts from February 21st to
March 21st. Its symbol is the Fish, which is also the symbol of
Christianity. The lesson of Pisces is a final letting go of the self, the
complete merging into the lives and feelings of others. Therefore
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under this Sign are born our most brilliant actors. The inspiration
which the people of Pisces have earned produces also fine poets,
dramatists and musicians. The strongest and the weakest types are
born at this time. The force which flows through the Piscean is
difficult to handle, and unless he turns it to good account it may drive
him to drugs, drink and other excesses. The Sign is a dual one, so the
two Ways are open. The native may rise, if inspired, to any heights
of self-denial and attainment, but he needs encouragement and
confidence in himself. As with all the later Signs, his character is
complex and versatile. His past training gives him a ‘natural’
understanding; he absorbs knowledge rather than studies it. Pisces is
ruled by Jupiter, who bestows brilliance and a love of ceremony, as
we saw in Saggitarius. So our Piscean contributes much to the
decorative and romantic in life, and this arouses intense and
sometimes fanatical devotion in his friends. If these friends push him
in the right way he can become a great public servant, but he depends
upon co-operation with others – he prefers to work in brotherhood.
He has identified himself with the universe, and this gives him a great
love of travel and the sea.
From the advanced types in this Sign we can choose Chopin,
Michael Angelo, David Livingstone, David Garrick and Ibsen.
We have now completed our initial review of the types born
under the twelve Signs. We must, however, remember that astrology
subdivides them ad infinitum, and that the laws of rebirth, Karma and
free-will arrange for numberless variations of the order in which
people progress through these Signs. The number of times they have
accomplished the full round will determine whether they are ‘old and
experienced souls’ or ‘new souls’. The old souls are of course
becoming more rounded out as they approach the state of perfect
man, who is a blend of the best in all the Signs. The examples which
we have given of famous people are therefore the older souls, and not
really very typical of their Sign, but the mediocre and simple types
rarely leave their mark in history.
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With regard to the twelve cell-salts which are the principal agents
of activity in the human body, let us note the interesting relation they
are said to bear to the Signs of the Zodiac.
Aries, the Ram, the brain worker, uses up very much of the
Potassium Phosphate which nourishes the brain fluid and produces
the highest rate of vibration in the body. A deficiency causes brain-
fag and lack of comprehension.
Taurus, the Bull, ruling the liver, governs the cell-salt Sulphate
of Sodium, which eliminates excess water from the body, due to the
abundant intake of the luxury-loving Taurian. A deficiency of this
salt causes such ills as diabetes and quinsy.
Gemini, the Twins, ruling the nervous system, governs that cell-
salt Potassium Chloride, which forms fibrin in the blood and so builds
the nerves; while a deficiency causes thickening of the fibrin, and
therefore bronchitis, asthma and other nervous diseases result.
Cancer, the tenacious Crab, rules the spleen, and governs the
salt Fluoride of Lime, which builds the tenacious elastic fibres hol-
ding the body together. A deficiency of this causes sagging through-
out the organs, with many attendant ills, from depression to dropsy.
Leo, the Sun, ruler of the heart and vitality, governs the salt
Phosphate of Magnesia, which regulates the muscular spasms such
as those controlling the heart-beats. A deficiency causes cramps, lack
of muscular force, palpitations and meningitis.
Virgo, ruler of the solar plexus and stomach, governs the salt
Potassium Sulphate, which makes the oil necessary to keep the
machinery going throughout the body. A deficiency causes thickening
of the oil, which clogs the pores and produces various forms of
stagnation.
Libra, the Balance, ruler of the kidneys, governs the cell-salt
Carbonate of Sodium. This salt holds the balance between the acids
and the fluids in the system, and produces harmonious life. A
deficiency engenders acidity, with hate, jealousy, depression and their
attendant ailments, such as headache and lumbago.
Scorpio, the Scorpion, ruler of the sex organs, governs the cell-
salt Sulphate of Lime. This needs to be transmuted by water to form
83
the white plaster of Paris; this strengthens the whole system and gives
tone to the grey matter of the brain. A deficiency demoralises the
brain, destroying the power of elevated thought, and renders the body
prone to infectious diseases.
Saggitarius, the archer, rules the thighs, and governs the cell-salt
Silica, which is really quartz. This is formed of strong minutes arrow-
shaped pieces, which stiffen the walls of hair, nails nerve sheaths and
cells, and pierce a way outwards to the surface for necessary
eruptions. A deficiency produces weakness of the cell-walls, leading
to various forms of self-poisoning such as rheumatism and other
inflammations.
Capricorn, the Goat, rules the bones, and governs the cell-salt
Calcium-Phosphate. This uses albumen to make cement for bones. A
deficiency causes diseases due to overflow of albumin, which upsets
the gastric juices and brings on such inflictions as Bright’s Disease
and other digestive troubles.
Aquarius, the Water-Carrier, rules the white corpuscles, and
governs the cell-salt Sodium Chloride, which acts as water-carrier to
the human system. A deficiency causes general frailty and such
diseases as jaundice.
Pisces, the Fish, rules the feet, the foundation of the body, and
the red corpuscles, and governs the cell-salt Phosphate of Iron, which
is the foundation of the blood. A deficiency gives bad circulation,
chills and fevers.
Here, then, we have a rough idea as to how the planetary rays are
said to affect the chemicals within us and our own reactions. Much
research work along these lines by certain of the bio-chemists and
other scientists is in progress at present. Naturally the reactions of
the cell-salts overlap and interplay with great complexity, and the
science would appear to be a deep one.
How much truth there is in all this, and how much study it
would take to produce useful results, are questions which we must
leave to the student who feels disposed to investigate.
We cannot leave this science of Astrology without applying the
Micro-Macrocosmic Law to it, and observing how it works out on a
84
larger scale. According to its findings, then, our own sun with its
planets is in its turn revolving round a parent sun. The Signs of the
Zodiac repeat themselves in a still greater cycle, during which our
sun takes about 2500 years to pass through each Sign, but as this
greater movement is in the opposite direction from the smaller one,
the Signs follow one another in reverse order. Each of these great
periods is called an ‘Age’. During 2000 years of the Jewish
Dispensation the sun was passing through Aries, the Ram, which
animal figures very largely in sacrifice and symbol of the time.
Before that Period there was the Age of Taurus, wherein the
winged bull (representing the Taurian capacity for rising to spiritual
heights) was worshipped and sculptured by such people as the
Chaldeans and Assyrians.
The Sphinx would appear, in this light, to have been built during
the Age of Leo, somewhere before 10,000 B.C., as it has a lion’s body.
Following the Jewish came the Christian Dispensation, under
the Sign of Pisces, the Fish. The fish is the symbol of Christianity,
and some of us are required to eat it every Friday. The 2000 years of
the Piscean Age drew to a close with the nineteenth century, and we
are now coming gradually into the new Age. This is the Aquarian
Age, when the ‘waters of life will be poured out to all mankind’.
During this period we are told that Universal Brotherhood will beco-
me an accomplished fact and a Golden Age will be brought to birth.
According to these calculations, then, it must be about 34,000
years since the previous Aquarian Period, containing also a Golden
Age. Historians who study this particular question proclaim that this
took place on the lost continent of Atlantis, whose submergence
caused the spread of its culture to other lands.
There have been several hundred books written on Atlantis,
many founded on geological and biological research.
The subject is one which is apt to stir racial memory and enlarge
man’s viewpoint. It enables him to understand the inevitable
succession of cycles and therefore to prepare hopefully at this time for
the Golden Age which is promised to us soon by the shorthand in
the skies.
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6
MALE AND FEMALE
__________________
Let us see what part the much-tormented question of Sex plays

in this deeper conception of life that we are trying to reach.
We must follow our usual procedure and first try to get at the
roots and underlying causes, taking as broad and as scientific a view
of the subject as we can.
We find the male and female are really the positive and negative
aspects in nature – that is to say, that male is the positive or electrical
quality and female is the magnetic, receptive or negative quality.
When the two fuse, creative action occurs. The word ‘negative’ is here
used in its electrical application, and means that which does not act
but holds power. It does not represent futility or weakness, but reserve
force.
The whole of the universe is built upon this fusion of ‘male’ and
‘female’. From the greatest planet to the tiniest chemical cell the same
process goes on. It is really as if the world were an electric pole
containing vast numbers of other electric poles of all sizes down to
the most minute. Let us consider this question of electricity for a
moment. Quite simply, you have a current of electricity passing down
a ‘pole’ or straight line – the pole can be a bar or iron, a planet or a
person; one side of the pole is the ‘positive’ or electrical side, and the
other side is the ‘negative’ or magnetic side.
The magnetic side draws to itself, absorbs and retains power.
When it contacts the positive – i.e. the action, or electrical – side of
the pole, it gives off this power, combustion occurs, a spark is lit, and
force is generated. It is exactly this process which causes a planet to
rotate, moves a car, creates a child, or makes a plant grow.
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MALE AND FEMALE
The positive electrical male side of nature is represented by the

acids, and the passive female magnetic side of nature is represented
by the alkalis. Before a planet or a car moves, the right constituents
of acid and alkali must be assembled, to create the little explosions of
electrical life-force which brings action about. It is also this identical
driving-force which motivates our bodies. The tiniest cell in our
bodies is an electric battery in a state of combustion; just as our whole
body is also electrically polarized.
The acid part of our bodies is the action part, the muscles; the
alkali part of us is the blood, which holds and carries the power to
those muscles. When in a state of health the two are rightly balanced,
but at death the power which holds them apart (the pole) is
withdrawn and the acid floods the alkaline blood, causing the whole
mechanism to become static.
In chemistry you must take an alkali element and combine it
with an acid element if you want to create a compound which is
strong and useful. If you want to make a bomb (which is only
condensing the production of force into a small space) you must also
bring together an acid and an alkali – when they are allowed to meet
the bomb explodes.
The same thing happens when a well-matched man and woman
meet – attraction leads to combination and then action!
It must not be inferred, however, that a man is all electrical and
a woman all magnetic. On the contrary, these two qualities run in
juxtaposition through every cell and atom. But all existing things are
pre-eminently of one sex, although containing both interiorly in
various degrees. The planet Mars, for instance, is pre-eminently
masculine, but of course is held in manifestation by its pole of
positive and negative. Our earth has its pole running through it, called
North and South at its two ends, and, of course, one side of the earth
is electrical and the other magnetic.
So also a man and a woman, though pre-eminently male-electric
and female-magnetic, have each what we might call their poles
running through them. The right side of our bodies is electric and
87
the left side magnetic – the right side the side of action and the left the
female or heart side.
The subdivision of these two continues to infinity in our bodies,
until each tiny cell has its pole, and even each atom, as we know, is
revolving round its pole or axis.
Thus throughout the whole of life from the greatest to the tiniest
we have the same process going on. The female magnetic power
attracts the male electric force and creation and action takes place.
Now, as this process runs throughout everything we may expect
to find an expression of it in our own brain, and we do! The human
brain has a shape curiously like the human embryo, and it contains
a part which is male and a part which is female. When these two
parts are co-ordinated by mental training and concentration, and
made to co-operate, a most wonderful development takes place, and
the mind becomes inspired, forceful and creative.
This was well known to the very ancient peoples. In their own
remarkable way they worshipped the means by which a human being
can contact ‘God’ within his own brain. They worshipped those
symbols of the male-female power in the head.
Succeeding generations, in their ignorance, debased this worship
into the Phallic worship of sex in its physical sense. Our ideas about
the things that matter have grown smaller and smaller down the
centuries, until at present they are almost non-existent!
We can now begin to glimpse the truths lying behind the
worship, in many ancient civilizations, of the great Trinities of Life,
The Christians adopted them, and gave us God (the Life-force), the
Virgin or Mother (the wisdom or stored power), and the Son, the
result of that blending, the One who acts and achieves. In most
ancient religions we can trace an appreciation of this Trinity.
The alchemists expressed the Triangle in their own way, as
Mercury, Sulphur and Salt (our cell-salts being that which builds and
acts within our won bodies).
Then there is also our Sun, the male electrical positive force
whose rays strike the magnetic female Moon; the combination of
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MALE AND FEMALE
both rays reaching the earth causes fertilization, movement and

growth.
For a long time we have been accustomed in our little limited
way to think of sex only in the primitive terms of our power of
physical procreation, not as the vase process on which the whole
universe is built. Infinitely petty and restricting taboos have
shamefacedly locked up the entire question in a secret box in our
minds. We muddle along in complete ignorance, oblivious that the
box contains our greatest jewels.
Let us now take out these jewels of ours and study their value.
We are confronted throughout history with certain symbols. One
of them is the serpent, which was always much in evidence wherever
the ancient temples devoted to wisdom flourished. Since the old story
of Adam and Eve, the serpent has represented two things –
Knowledge and Sex – thus hinting at a close connection between
them. And the secret is that the Creative Force within us is one single
force, whether it be used for physical or mental ends. We have the
choice as to which way we shall direct this force, upwards or
downwards.
In material-minded or primitive man it continues to be used
purely for procreation or sensual gratification. But as man aspires to
higher ideals, as he yearns to create mentally and live in the spirit,
the force is gradually drawn upwards to the creative principles in the
brain.
This force is called by the Easterns the Kundalini, and is likened
to a serpent of fire lying coiled at the base of the spine. If man
steadily purifies his mind and nature through living chastely and
moderately, he is able to magnetize the Kundalini serpent upwards
through the channel of his spine, until finally it reaches the
Masculine-Feminine principles of the brain and fires them into co-
ordination. The man is then filled with inspiration and becomes
attuned to the inner world of Wisdom. This can only be
accomplished with the help of the ‘Kundalini serpent’. Perhaps
Christ gave a hint of this when he said: ‘Be ye wise as serpents.’
89
Men and women have, therefore, the choice as to what they will
do with this power within them. Shall they exhaust it in the various
self-indulgences of sex-life, both mental and physical, or shall they
use it to become creative in the realms of the spirit and higher mind
– a force for good? It is this tremendous choice which every human
being has to face. Usually they face it unconsciously or in the dark,
because of the utter helplessness of present-day education in these
matters. Hardly one of the many pitfalls surrounding them is properly
explained.
It is easy to convince ourselves of the fact that it is one and the
same force which feeds either the procreative organs or the brain. The
gland specialists have brought much to light proving this. They tell us
that the Pineal Gland in the head acts as a brake upon sex
development. As we have said, it was once a third eye. Now it
regulates the action of light upon the body. If it is diseased or inactive
we get precocious sex-development. The Pituitary Body, in the head,
is the gland of intellectuality, promoting the mathematical and artistic
powers. When it is deficient sexual abnormalities result.
We also have the evidence of our numberless lunatic asylums,
peopled largely with those whose brains have deteriorated through
sex excesses of various kinds.
On the other hand we have many cases of people who
apparently have gone made as the result of fanatical piousness.
This needs another explanation. Here we have com up against
the result of what might be termed SPIRITUAL GREED. A person
who is greedy and self-indulgent on the physical plane will naturally
not change his character just because he decides that more benefit
will accrue from a pursuit of spiritual assets. It is possible to be greedy
for spiritual food which is as yet undeserved. Very often people
attempt to make in a few years the spiritual progress for which they
should have been patiently working for all their lives. The result is
that the body has not had time for its vibrations to become purified
and raised to a higher tempo, and the brain is still full of the dregs of
worldly and impure thoughts. When, therefore, by a forcing process,
the Kundalini serpent of fire is prematurely driven up the spine,
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MALE AND FEMALE
burning away all dross as it goes, and it arrives within a brain unfitted
to receive it, parts of the brain cannot stand this bath of fire and
perish with the sudden burning of the dross they still contain, and
various forms of derangement ensue.
Many highly dangerous breathing exercises originating in the
East are designed with purpose of arousing the Kundalini. They
bring disastrous results when used by ignorant or materially minded
people. Sometimes the same issue is achieved when those with mixed
motives fling themselves violently into the various religious cults and
‘isms’; we hear that their final foal turns out to be a mental home.
Yet another mishap can befall the aspirant who is not sufficiently
whole-hearted. If he once arouses the ‘serpent’, and then
subconsciously repents of his endeavours, the serpent rushes
downwards and plunges his owner into the worst of orgies and
excesses. Unfortunately this sometimes happens to saintly men who
have been just a little too ambitious for spiritual gain.
We have to realize that steady, patient, even and balanced
progress is the surest way; we must not expect to come to results too
easily. Greed of the mental or spiritual body will produce a
congestion and sickness on those planes as surely as its counterpart
will be on the physical. To try and attain mental expansion while still
the victim of inhibitions and repressions is like expecting to become
a ballet-dancer while still refusing to use certain limbs or muscles. We
have so fully to realize the glories of possible attainment that all lesser
desires simply fade out – they do not have to be repressed. It is only
in the purity of a one-pointed mind (the root-meaning of pure is
‘complete’) that we can welcome as one of the greatest events of our
life the safe awakening of the Kundalini serpent.
The same truth applies in the relation between the sexes, where
again sincerity of purpose and wholeheartedness are the determining
factors of resulting happiness. When a spiritually minded man and
woman fall in love with each other there occurs a blending and a
union between the seven-fold bodies of each of them, culminating in
spiritual as well as physical creation. This gives an ecstasy and
fulfilment seven times greater than that which the average physical
91
union can bring. Force and power are engendered an hundredfold

more on all planes through having been conserved instead of frittered
away. Both the children and all creative work resulting from such a
union would be incomparably superior to the average.
If every child were brought up with understanding and ambition
focused upon such an ideal we should soon have a heaven upon
earth.
As it is, the subject of sex is so little understood that any
irregularities in its manifestation consign the victim to suffering in
ignorant and misunderstood wretchedness.
The interplay of the masculine-feminine positive-negative
principle throughout out bodies is not yet fully grasped. The ancient
wisdom teaches that man, having a positive masculine physical body,
has a feminine negative etheric body. This may be why he has in some
ways much less staying power in the matter of pain and endurance
than woman, who owes her endurance to the fact that in spite of her
negative feminine physical body she has a positive or male etheric
body.
Man’s astral or emotional body is masculine, and therefore active
and under his control, whereas woman’s astral is negative and
absorbing. It is at the mercy of outside influences, and that is why
she can be dragged down to lower depths in some ways than a man
can. A drunken woman is more terrible than a drunken man.
It would seem to follow, then, that man’s mental body has a
preponderance of the feminine quality and woman’s of the
masculine, and perhaps that explains why wise men have always
considered that woman can actually take the lead and inspire them
from the mental level if she but realizes it and fits herself to do so.
Man is meant to learn sensitivity and intuition from woman,
and woman is meant to learn steadiness and honesty from man. A
perfect man or a perfect woman must be a complete blending of the
qualities of both. That is why we are told that at the end of evolution
there will be no differentiation of the sexes. Meanwhile, the process
of this integration brings about temporary aberrations which result,
through misunderstanding, in homosexuality and other irregularities.
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MALE AND FEMALE
We are taught that men and women change their sex at various
incarnations. This change sometimes produces a masculine woman
or a feminine man, until the readjustment is complete. It is necessary
that these things are better understood. Then people, instead of giving
way helplessly to any abnormalities which they discover within
themselves, and living a life of shame-faced yet defiant indulgence,
will learn to master such tendencies and turn them to good account.
When we consider that, from the greatest to the smallest, all
progress and evolution depends upon the interplay of the male-
positive and female-negative principle, and how this especially applies
to the mental and spiritual creative powers to which mankind is
dedicated to strive, we begin to see how much futile stagnation is
caused either by people who refuse any relationship with the opposite
sex, such as nuns and monks, or by those who indulge in
homosexuality. The seven bodies of man and woman merge
creatively when they work or play together, entirely irrespective of
the sexual act, and stimulate and nourish one another in a way which
is essential to the bringing through of creative inspiration. In the
temples of ancient wisdom, before their degeneration, the priests
worked with their female oracles to achieve their greatest results.
When men and women are brought up to be sensitively alive to
this interplay of the forces between them, they will obtain so much
fulfilment from them that the act of procreation will fall back quite
naturally to its normal use. Sex-antagonism and other inhibitions will
disappear. There will be produced the perfect working unit, built up
of Woman-Wisdom-Strength and Man-Power-Action.
It is upon such units that the Golden Age will be founded.
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7
BIRTH, SLEEP AND DEATH
_____________________
As we have proceeded to explore life along these lines, it has

appeared to grow more and more complicated. Indeed, many people
will draw back with a feeling of resentment. They will say: ‘It is not
necessary to know all these things! So far I have managed very well
without them. The simple Christian faith is sufficient for me.’
Such people will probably hate the idea of living again on this
earth. They are interested neither in the future development of
mankind nor in the service which they might contribute to it. In this
way they show us that they are possibly still the victims of moral
laziness. They are not yet prepared to think deeply or to seek new
ways of helping and achieving. They wish to be left in peace in the
groove in which they have been brought up.
Nor is it good to endeavour to persuade them otherwise. They
are probably doing very well at their present stage, even, possibly,
better than those who are so anxious to teach them other ways.
There are plenty who are eager for further knowledge and who
need no persuading!
Let us continue our explorations with these latter ones, and
consider more deeply the phenomena of man’s existence – his birth,
his growth, his sleep and finally his death.
It has been said that man is born unfinished! He is born at the
ninth month, the ‘finished number’ being twelve. And certain it is
that the young of the human are the most helpless of all.
Throughout this chapter we will study the human being in his
fullest sense, that is to say with his seven interpenetrating ‘bodies’ as
before explained.
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We are told that the birth of the physical body precedes that of
the other ‘bodies’, each one of which is intimately connected with
one of the seven principal Endocrine Glands.
We can do no more than touch on this intricate subject here, in
order to give point to our argument. Up to the age of seven the
average child has only complete control of its physical body, the rest
of its faculties being imitative or dormant. In a court of law a child
is not considered punishable until after seven years of age.
After the first cycle of seven years we are told that the ‘etheric
body’ is ‘born’, or comes under positive control. The ethers govern
growth and memory. These are the two functions most prominently
active during the next seven years.
At the age of fourteen the astral or ‘emotional’ body is said to
‘come into birth’. This governs the emotions and desires, so this is
the age of puberty, and unrestrained emotions. Up to fourteen years
the child has been dominated by the Thymus Gland in which was
bequeathed a store of red blood corpuscles by the mother. This gland
should become recessional by the age of puberty, at which time the
child has begun to manufacture its own blood. The blood is known
to be the seat of the ego, which can then begin to control the young
person, who becomes conscious at this time of his individuality.
From now on guidance instead of authority must be the rule.
The Adrenal Glands, which come into dominance at puberty,
help to develop the individual driving-force as well as the brain power.
They are said to be the ‘glands of fight and fright’. Under their
government there is extreme sensitivity to fear and anxiety. These
tendencies arouse a need for some kind of religious belief to give
reassurance. So we find that during these years there is often great
emotional piety.
The end of the third cycle of seven years sees the ‘birth’ of the
‘mental body’, so that by twenty-one years of age the individual has
reached an important epoch in his life. He has accomplished the
completion of the three lower ‘bodies’ of man, the physical,
emotional and mental. He has developed into the complete human
being (from ordinary standpoints) and is considered to have reached
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his majority and the state of manhood. From then onwards, if man
develops as he could and should do, every further seven years will
see the birth of a new quality or power, of a kind more subtle and
less easily described here.
Finally, we come to the magic number of seven times seven and
man has reached the age of forty-nine. It is here, therefore, that we
can expect the flowering of his greatest power and quality. Sure
enough we are told that it is at this age that his ‘Higher Mind’ should
come into birth, giving him a subtle capacity for the highest and
loftiest achievement. The Pituitary Body and Pineal Gland should
now co-operate to use the sum of his life’s experience for new creative
ideas, deductions and philosophies.
Therefore, at this age, it would indeed be well if man could retire
from all mechanical routine work and concentrate on giving to the
world his contribution in the way of schemes for the betterment of
mankind and the various inspirations resulting from his experience.
As he could still have expectation of life for another fifty years, this
would allow him close on half a century of potent fulfilment in living.
Such would be the programme of the perfected man or woman who
was able to live up to his or her potentialities.
But at the present time many people dissipate their energy and
strength to such an extent while young that they never reach the
flowering of their greatest faculties at all. They live and die without
ever tasting the ultimate joys and triumphs of human existence. They
are never able to feel that they have made any knowledge really their
own – that they know any one fundamental fact of life – what they
are, why they are here, or to what progressing! They live always like
the man who said, ‘The only certain thing in life is doubt!’ They
admit their dark ignorance by scoffing at the bare possibility of such
knowledge, refusing to see that right down the ages there has been a
vast accumulation of ‘circumstantial evidence’ compiled for their
own heritage and benefit. They continue to muddle along
interminably in their stagnant grooves.
Such laziness makes man willing to be blind to the fact that his
greatest contribution of value to the world can be expected after he
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is fifty. Therefore he does not husband his mental and his physical
strength to that end. He should realise that the inspired productions
of the higher mind give the intense joy of fulfilment, than which there
is no greater glory.
The fact that many people are half-exhausted wrecks by the age
of fifty, and others much before that, is a disgrace to ‘progress’ and
modern education; and one more proof of the prevailing ignorance
is that people are not sensible of this disgrace.
When healing the sick Christ said, ‘Thy sin is forgiven thee’,
pointing out very definitely that disease is the outward manifestation
of wrong thinking. But we have not yet taken the hint. We are still
proud to tell of our disease, unaware that we are giving away the
unclean and unkempt condition of our minds. In the future people
will feel ashamed of letting down the community by becoming
unwell. A man will be as unwilling to admit to having a cold as he
now is to confess to a theft.
The present general ill health is responsible for many
irregularities in the development of the glands. Some of them do not
recess when they should, and so a childish and unmoral state
continues in the growing youth.
Unbalance of the glands causes some of them to predominate
too early, to compensate for weakness in others. This produces
geniuses, who are, for that reason, often prone to epilepsy and other
abnormalities.
The ancients understood the connection between the glands and
the subtle worlds of nature. It will be a happy day when that
knowledge is revised by modern scientists.
Let us next consider the common but marvellous phenomena
of sleep.
There is a vast accumulation of data proving that the ego or
individual can and does leave the body during sleep. The blood
recedes from the brain, which can then no longer function. Yet much
mental activity may take place, together with many authentic
experiences of far-away places. A person can, during sleep, solve
intricate problems which have beaten him during the day. He can also
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tell the time and awaken at any hour decided upon. He can function
in a complex world of happenings which he calls ‘dreams’.
We are told that if the ego leaves the physical body during sleep
he does so clothed in his mental and astral ‘bodies’, in which he is as
mobile as electricity. The physical body is left enveloped in its etheric
body or couble, that counterpart of the human being formed of
‘condensed ethers’, through which the life-forces are fed to the tissues
from the surrounding ethers.
Man’s various ‘bodies’ are linked together by a vital elastic cord,
operating rather like an electric current without the wire. This cord is
a kind of umbilical cord which joins the ego and his vehicles to that
part of Mother Earth which is his physical body. When it snaps he is
born into the ‘after-life’ and we say that he is dead. This cord is
referred to in the Bible as the ‘Silver Cord’. As long as it is intact the
travelling ego is able to get back into his body as surely as a telephone
message can travel along the wire.
We are told that the only difference between ‘life’ and ‘death’ is
the sundering of this subtle link which binds a person to his physical
body.
A strong desire to see a friend may often take the sleeper to see
that friend, who may be either awake in his physical body or himself
travelling, while ‘asleep’, in the astral realms.
In this way, it is said, many important meetings and actions are
rehearsed by the people concerned days before they occur. This
would explain why one often has the feeling of knowing just what is
going to be said or done. It is possible in that way that many
prophecies are given.
In this connection we should notice the extreme significance
which all ancient nations attached to dreams. The power clearly to
remember one’s dreams was cultivated assiduously by the priesthood,
as was also the ability to interpret the dream. An adept in these
matters was held in highest esteem by the nation, whose affairs were
regulated according to the instructions or prophecies so given. Joseph
of the Old Testament was such a case. Cheating or incompetence in
these matters was a heinous crime. Josiah of the bible was told that
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false dreamers should be put to death. Alexander the Great spoke of

dreams as the greatest chance man has of acquiring knowledge.
Martin Luther said that the correct translation of ‘He giveth His
beloved sleep’ is ‘He giveth to His beloved during sleep.’
The whole history of the Bible, as well as many other ancient
histories, revolves round the importance of visions, prophecies and
dreams.
What are we doing now about this interesting activity which
takes up nearly a third of our living hours?
The first step would be to obtain through concentration and
practice a clearer recollection of our dreams. To do this it is necessary
to try to visualise the Astral Plane as it really is. This is difficult
because once we are free in the Astral World conditions are utterly
different. Then around us pulsates the living malleable astral stuff,
which is free from the laws of gravitation, and which moulds itself at
once into form under the impetus of our minds. If we want a horse,
for example, we involuntarily and rapidly build one with our
thoughts, and it is only such a horse as our powers of visualisation
and observation can produce! So we are told that at night the astral
realms are peopled with sleepers surrounded by their ‘dreams’ or
creations, which are sometimes ludicrous in the incompleteness of
their conception. Apparently a person can, therefore, either actually
meet his friend in sleep or converse with his own conception of his
friend, which he has created. How near he gets to his desire depends
on the extent of his concentration and will-power.
Another condition of the Astral World is that many things can
be happening in the same spot without being aware of one another,
as it were, the different grades or vibrations of astral stuff flowing
through and interpenetrating without losing their separate identities
(in much the same was as we when in physical bodies can walk right
through in ‘ghost’). Here we enter the realm of the Fourth
Dimension. If we have had no personal experience of it, we can only
understand it by studying the thousands of descriptions given to us
throughout history by those who had.
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The jar of returning from those subtler realms into the heavy
vibrations of our physical bodies, at the moment of awakening,
usually shatters the memory of our experience. We retain at best a
jumbled and inconsequent translation of our dream. This is where
the need of training comes in. We should concentrate on exercising
a strong grip upon ourselves at the instant of awakening. By this
simple expedient we may soon learn consciously to profit by our
nightly experiences.
Also, before sleeping we should tune our minds to our highest
aspirations, as this will determine the realms we are able to reach. If
the mind is clogged with petty earthly considerations, such as the
price of food or a quarrel with a neighbour, its owner is naturally
drawn to the same type of vibration when asleep in the astral world.
Let us now consider what is said to happen when Death has
snapped the Silver Cord, and the person is finally separated from his
physical body. We are told that often it may take a little while for the
individual to realise that he is ‘dead’. But for some time prior to this
he has been building in the astral stuff the kind of Heaven or after-life
to which he aspires.
Of course, thousands build a Heaven with golden streets and
angels playing on harps. These numberless living ‘thought-forms’
cohere by the law of attraction into one great whole, so that the
conventional ‘Heaven’ is actually there awaiting its owners.
Those who expect, because of their guilt, hell-fire and goblins,
have created that charming reception for themselves also!
The miser will probably have made for his use a heaven full of
nothing but gold pieces. The Eastern pasha will certainly get his
Paradise of Houris. The disbeliever in after-life will have created for
himself a horrible blank abyss.
We are told, then, that people remain imprisoned in their self-
constructed Paradises until they become so weary of the limitations
of their own desires that they are gradually freed from them, and the
mind is able to expand and aspire to fresh ideals. Eventually the ego
is free to pass through these lower astral realms, known as Purgatory,
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purged finally of petty wishes and conceptions, and enjoy the higher
states of Paradise to which it has learnt to orient itself.
We have heard of the Third Heaven and the Seventh Heaven,
without probably giving a second thought to those terms. There are
apparently vistas of amazing worlds ahead of us which only open up
to our understanding in measure as we develop our minds and our
aspiration to meet them.
We must realise that life on the Physical Plane is but a fraction
of the whole and that the Sage or Yogi of both East and West is
endeavouring to train his mind to a state of continued unbroken
consciousness throughout waking, sleeping, death, and onwards to
the next incarnation upon this earth.
In this way does a man finally become a god.
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8
SECRETS OF BREATHING
____________________
Continuing our study of the phenomena of life we can next

consider the universal activity of breathing.
This very strange process is indeed much more widespread than
we would at first suppose. We are told that the creation of the world
was begun when the Creator ‘breathed upon the waters’.
And again, the symbolical explanation of the creation of man
tells how he was formed out of dust, into which was breathed the
‘Breath of Life’.
The tremendous importance of Breath could hardly have been
more definitely emphasized, but we have paid little attention to the
invaluable hints bequeathed to us by those ancient savants in their
veiled language. We know that plants breathe, and lately have
discovered that metal breathe also. Scientists are busy studying the
long-drawn-out rhythms of the sun. if we apply to the mystics on this
point they tell us that the sun breathes regularly, each breath taking
eleven years, and causing at its fullness the appearance of ‘sun-spots’
upon its surface. The sun is called the heart of the Solar System. We
may suspect that it really is the heart of a very vast living Being in
Whose breath we have our own breathing and living.
We are familiar with the main chemical aspects of the act of
breathing as applied to ourselves.
Primarily, we must contain a definite amount of air, to counter-
act the law of gravitation which pulls us to the earth. At sea level the
pressure is about sixteen pounds to the square inch, and this must be
equalized by the intake of air. That is why the lungs never empty all
the air they contain. Their total capacity is said to be 250 cubic inches,
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but they only empty 150, so that thee always remains 100 cubic inches
of air within them. For this reason, if it is desired to clean and refresh
the lungs, very prolonged outward breathing is the most efficacious.
Nature’s way of refreshing us is to cause us to collapse limply into a
chair and sigh out a long breath.
In breathing we absorb the Oxygen from the air into our lungs
to be used for the production of heat and energy through combustion
with the substances contained in our food, and we exhale the (to us)
poisons as Carbonic Acid Gas.
The animal breathe in the same way, but plants, on the other
hand, need to breathe in the Carbonic Acid Gas for their sustenance.
Here we have one of the secrets of the give-and-take existing in
Nature and the reason why animals and plants could not live without
each other.
In an normal human being there are approximately sixteen to
eighteen breaths per minute, each taking in thirty cubic inches of air.
Each breath consists of inhalation, exhalation, and a pause, the
whole process taking up the time of four heart-beats. Our artificial
methods of living have gradually ruined the natural quality of our
breathing and hardly one person in fifty breathes as Nature intended.
The correct muscular action is as follows:
The lungs are contained within the basket of the ribs, the whole
resembling a balloon, which inflates at the intake of breath and
deflates at the exhaling. There is a muscle at the base of the lungs
which should contract them upwards at the inhalation, but in must
people the muscle is inactive.
Many breathe downwards into their abdomens, pressing down
the already sagging internal organs.
In correct breathing the whole chest is uplifted at the intake of
the breath, and this raises up all the internal organs from their
stagnant position. At the exhalation the diaphragm muscle
aforementioned contracts again upwards, dragging up still farther the
organs below.
Correct breathing in this manner will of course exercise a
continuous gentle massage and stimulation of the digestive organs,
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thereby ensuring perfect action of the alimentary canal and

eliminating the need for pills and drugs. The second important aspect
of breathing is the rate at which we breathe, the ‘frequency’, as we
should say in wireless parlance. We have seen that the whole of life
is built up by means of different speeds of vibration, and therefore the
rate of motion of anything is the most important factor about it,
determining what it is. Therefore, we cannot overestimate the
significance of the speed and rhythm of our breathing.
‘Show me how you breathe and I will tell you what manner of
man you are!’
The Yogis and Eastern Sages make a very deep study of
breathing and have evolved a profound science from it. By means of
this science they profess to accomplish many things, such as
prolonging their youth and their years of living, and attaining to
various degrees of trance and clairvoyance, by means of which they
gain access to knowledge. This science has been handed down from
teacher to pupil for thousands of years, and is only accessible to and
possible for the very few. But it is said to be a forerunner of the
attainment of all humanity in the dim future.
Certain it is that all who wish to obtain any degree of control of
their health, characters, or circumstances, must first begin at the very
foundation of their lives – their breathing.
Having put in order the mechanical muscular action of
breathing, the next thing to consider is the rhythm. We have now to
realize that, as not only physical things but also thoughts, feelings
and various forces exist all around us by reason of their particular
number or rate of vibration, so we are all the time tuning in to this or
that according to our own rate of vibration, which is adjusted by our
breathing. We can think of ourselves as wireless receivers, and it is up
to our ego or will to tune us in and decide what we shall receive.
I have said that normally there are sixteen to eighteen breaths
per minute.
It is said that if the breathing is changed to about twenty-six light
breaths per minute it will be impossible after a short time to feel pain!
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That is why in the heat of battle terrible wounds can be received

without feeling them at all. It is also why many great feats are
accomplished under the stress of excitement. The breath quickens,
the blood heats up, and this drives the ego slightly out of the body, so
that sensations are little felt. Extreme indulgence in alcohol has the
same effect. That is why intoxicated persons seldom hurt themselves.
We can do and suffer things in ‘hot blood’ which we can never
achieve in ‘cold blood’.
There is an interesting story in the Bible in connection with this.
When Amalek drew the Israelites into battle Moses went to the
top of a hill. He held up his arms, using his great hypnotic powers to
prevent the enemy from working themselves up to the fighting frenzy
in which they would partly leave their bodies. He prevented them
from quickening their breathing, and so they had to fight in cold
blood and could not prevail. Directly Moses dropped his arms from
fatigue the battle would go against the Israelites.
Martial music is designed to quicken the breath and the
emotions. So is the colour red on flag and uniform.
It is quite impossible to become excited if one breathes slowly.
That is why a person in a rage is asked to ‘stop and count ten’; the
breathing inevitably slows down and excitement drops.
Some of the sages believe that we have a definite number of
breaths allotted to us for our lives. Those who waste them and speed
them up in excitability and emotionalism shorten their span. Those
who become philosophers in the true sense of the word, balanced,
measured and contented, will be able to live to a very ripe old age
with unimpaired faculties.
By quickening the breath the body loses its powers of self-
protection and exhausts and injures itself without feeling it at the
time.
By slowing the breathing down to ten or twelve per minute it
will be found impossible to feel excited, irritable or ‘nervy’. This is a
useful and invisible little exercise with which we can protect ourselves
from those states of mind which tend to poison our systems.
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If the breathing is reduced to a deep slow rhythm of ten per

minute, for five minutes, the brain will become marvellously clear
and ready for work. This can be done before taking up any study, the
result lasting for some hours. Many of the conflicting vibrations and
‘thoughts’ which we allow to pass haphazard through body and brain
will have been cancelled out by the rhythmic powerful beat brought
about by the slower breathing.
If the breathing can be dropped to an even three per minute all
the bodily vibratory activities will become so subdued and
harmonized that the more delicate psychic perceptions will be
discernible, giving us what we call ‘inspiration’, instinct or
premonition; for they are the instigators of all great achievement.
The above-mentioned rates of breathing can be used without
danger, if practised gradually and intelligently. But it is extremely
dangerous for the average person to attempt any of the more
complicated systems sometimes unwisely given out, which might
lead them into a mental home or worse.
Yogis can slow down the breath to one per minute, which allows
them an intensity of concentration resulting in experiences beyond
our imagination or comprehension. Finally they are able to suspend
the breathing altogether and allow themselves to be buried for weeks
at a time without coming to any harm.
Breathing must always be performed through the nose, quite
silently, steadily, regularly and without strain. It should preferably be
practised in a quiet place and not just after eating. While breathing
the mind should be focused on the highest ideals and aspirations.
Remember that we are breathing in, besides oxygen, nitrogen, and
hydrogen, a host of subtle and powerful elements and forces. It is the
mind which subconsciously directs the selection and utilization of
these powers. We breathe in Life, we breathe in God, according as to
what we aspire.
Slow, deep, gentle breathing will cure insomnia, nerves, blood-
pressure, fear, brain-fag and bad temper.
The Easterns apparently know many things about breathing
with which the Western world is not yet familiar. They believe, for
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instance, that in correct breathing only one nostril is actually used at

a time. This is said to be caused by tissues in each nostril which swell
alternately at intervals, thus allowing full use of only one nostril.
There are said to be two currents which pass up and down the spine,
the one on the right side being positive and the one on the left side
negative.
The breathing, therefore, is performed alternately along an
electrical current indrawing ‘positive sun-ruled’ particles; and a
magnetic current indrawing ‘negative moon-ruled’ particles. It is said
that by using this knowledge the temperature of the body can be
regulated.
Astrologically, a Sign comes up on the Ascendant every two
hours, alternately a positive and negative sign, and this is connected
with the breathing.
It is said that Indian doctors always study the patient’s breathing
first of all, being in this way able to determine the condition of the
magnetic and electrical areas in the body at the time.
Apparently, after a meal or during the change-over both nostrils
are used, so that it takes a little time to determine the exact state of
affairs.
An expert in these matters would, however, know the quality of
his powers of achievement at any given hour, being thus able to
ensure the maximum of creative output with the minimum of
expended energy. Whereas all we now know is that we are either ‘in
the mood’ for work or not, and this results in an indifferent and
uneven output.
The much-discussed power of levitation, in which a yogi is said
to be able to conquer the laws of gravity and rise in the air, appears
to have a strong connection with breathing.
A simple little experiment will point this out.
Let one person lie down straight and stiff on a couple of chairs.
Let four persons stand round him, one at each shoulder and one at
each knee, each one placing a finger beneath their prone comrade.
All must then breathe steadily and in unison for a minute or so.
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Finally, after the intake of breath, raise the prone man into the air
upon the tips of the fingers. He will seem to weigh nothing at all.
The Egyptians and earlier races could life might stones by some
agency which still puzzles scientists. Were they perhaps able to
overcome the laws of gravity by concentrated scientific breathing on
a large scale? If four people can lift say twelve stone without feeling
it, by breathing in unison, what could a thousand do?
It has been found in some factories that the output of work is
much improved by allowing the workers to sing. After all that has
been said about breathing it will be realized at once what an
enormous power for good singing could be if properly used and
understood. There is no end to the benefit to be obtained by
combining breathing, rhythm and sound as in singing.
A person who is timid, cowardly or shy narrows his chest and
breathes feebly. Diseases such as asthma are probably the direct result
of nervous breathing. If we are calm, confident and courageous we
breathe deep and slow. As an aid to attaining these qualities we must
first correct our breathing.
Everyone should breathe in the divine Breath of Life with all his
heart and sing his song of thanksgiving no less regularly than do the
birds.
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9
SECRETS OF COLOUR
___________________
Some poet has said, ‘Colour is not in the rose but in ourselves.’
What is colour?
In Chapter 2 we stated that out of the vast scale of Nature’s
vibrations a tiny octave is registered by the optic nerves. Our physical
eyes respond to these particular vibrations with a reaction which we
know as colour. If we had no eyes those vibrations would still exist –
but as what?
Medical science has proved that different colours have definite
and varied effects upon our nervous systems and that they act upon
us quite independently of our eyes or mings. Their influence is
particularly marked in the case of lunatics.
It has been suggested that Colours are really Rays radiating
down to this earth at their specific rates of vibration. A red rose
reflects back all the colour rays except red, which it absorbs. Our optic
nerves react to its vibrations and we say, ‘The Rose is red.’
The perfect blending of the seven colour rays in the bright
daylight gives us a white light. If the rays are split up by being passed
through a glass prism they are at once visible as colours. In the same
way a rainbow is produced by the minute prismatic effects of rain in
the sky. If you walk round a fountain in the sun, at a certain point you
will see a rainbow.
The colour rays are pouring down on the earth night and day.
Every object and every atom responds to them, thereby announcing
its own quality to those who are able to decipher the language of
colours.
Where do these rays come from and what are they?
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We have noted that the seven major planets of our solar system
are radiating their various forces outwards, so that they reach this
earth at considerable strength. As there are also seven primary colour
rays radiating to the earth we may suspect a definite connection here,
and suggest that colours are really an expression of the planetary rays,
observable by us as they are absorbed and held by different objects.
The planets are composed of minerals and chemicals. In each
planet one particular metal is said by astrologists to predominate. In
Mars it is iron, and in Mercury it is that metal. Just as radium radiates
off minute particles of itself for hundreds of years, so do those
enormous planets radiate subtle emanations of their own chemical
constituents in infinitely fine form. A human being also radiates
subtle emanations of everything of which he is composed. A
clairvoyant (or person with extra-sensitive sight) is able to see the
colours of these rays at a certain angle, and speaks of them as the
person’s ‘aura’.
Let us name the colours in the order in which they appear in the
spectrum. We take red first because it has the lowest vibration, being
therefore the coarsest and most physically vitalizing; its place on the
scale is just above the heat vibrations, and it is heat-giving in itself. As
the vibrations increase in speed up the scale we come to orange, then
to yellow, then green, blue, indigo and violet, the violet leading us on
up into the extraordinary penetrating and rapid vibrations of the
ultra-violet ray.
Let us see if we can connect up any of the information which
astronomers, astrologers and scientists give us about colour and the
planets. Astrologers tell us that the ‘planetary colour’ of Mars is red,
and that Mars ‘rules’ or has dynamic power over iron. Now, it is iron
which is responsible for our red warm blood – without it we should
have some sort of cold pale liquid in our veins. Mars is the home of
the god of war, giving a martial spirit to all those born under his Sign,
giving quick strength and force, vitality, power and leadership.
If we suppose that the properties of this planet are to be found
in its rays which filter downwards and reach this earth as the colour
red, then we are not surprised when we find that the effect upon
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SECRETS OF COLOUR
patients of red-coloured electric lamps is to stimulate, warm, excite

and cheer; to increase the activity of the arterial blood; to counteract
physical inefficiency, paralysis and rheumatism; that red glass
windows have much the same effect, and also red walls and
decorations to a lesser degree. By the same token red should be
avoided by those who contain too much iron, or who are in any
condition of heat or inflammation. Red-haired people, excitable
lunatics, and bulls should be surrounded by the cooler colours if
peace is to prevail!
Proceeding with our investigations we find that red is the chief
spectroscopic colour in any herbs or medicines, having a hearing and
stimulating effect, such as cayenne, cloves, or musk. Finally, we can
turn to the discoveries of the famous Dr. Babbitt in chromotherapy,
or healing with colours. He proved that plain water hung up in the
sunlight in a sealed chromo-lens of red glass becomes impregnated
with certain chemicals in a pwerfully healing form, the chief of which
is iron! Such water when swallowed has, apparently, the same effect
as an iron tonic.
Let us, therefore, when using or thinking of the colour red, bear
in mind the following attributes with which scientists or sages have
connected it. It is the colour of Mars, whose stone is the ruby and
whose metal is iron.
It is the lowest of the seven of the colour scale, and it belongs to
the lowest of the seven notes of the musical scale, which is C. When
C is played certain sensitive people see the colour red; and most
martial music is in the key of C.
Red when predominating in herbs, coloured lights or glass, and
surroundings, gives warmth, increased circulation, vitality and energy
to the body, and cheerfulness, stimulation and excitement to the spirit.
The red flag has been used throughout history for incendiarism.
Finally, if dark red is seen in the aura it indicates passion and a
fighting spirit!
The second colour in the spectrum is orange. This beautiful
colour is associated with the Sun, and has also a warming and
invigorating effect. But whereas red is stimulating to the body and
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the blood, orange is stimulating to the emotions. It cures those states

of paralysis which are often due to emotional reaction. It should be
avoided by extremely emotional types, who should acquire balance
through its complementary colour, blue. Its note is D in the musical
scale. Melodies in that key have a strong emotional appeal. The metal
belonging to the Sun is gold, from which the alchemists believed they
could obtain the Elixir of Life which rendered man immortal. Used
as a medicine gold has a very purifying effect.
The third colour in the spectrum is yellow. We are told that this
colour belongs to the planet Mercury. Mercury confers a quick
intellect by stimulating the nervous system. To be quick-witted the
nerves should be in an active condition throughout the body; so
nothing can remain stagnant under the beneficial influence of this
planet. Wisdom is said to be conferred by Mercury and its colour
yellow. Therefore Buddha always clothed his priests in yellow, which
colour has stood for wisdom and intellect throughout the ages.
Yellow electric lamps or glass windows stimulate the nerves of
the brain and the body and cure a stagnant condition of the internal
organs. They should not be used for highly nervous subjects.
We find that yellow predominates spectroscopically in all herbs
which are purgatives or nerve-stimulants, such as senna, sulphur, fig
juice, tartar, phosphorus and castor oil. An extreme amount of yellow
has a disastrously over-stimulating effect upon the nerves, causing
death, as with prussic acid and strychnine, which are very yellow. Dr.
Babbitt proved that plain water, hung in the sunlight in a sealed lens
of yellow glass, becomes impregnated with very nerve-animating
properties such as phosphorus and sodium, and that it will have a
purgative action if drunk, where possibly other drugs have failed.
This lens must not be entirely filled, as it will absorb such highly
expansive chemicals from the yellow rays that it would burst if full.
It is interesting to learn that the water so treated goes bad in a few
days.
Yellow is the third of the colour scale. It corresponds to the
musical note of E. Its jewel is the yellow topaz, and it represents
luminosity. When seen in the human aura yellow, if dark and crude,
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SECRETS OF COLOUR
it tells of deceit, treachery and cowardice (we have all heard of the
‘yellow streak’!), but if pale, pure and luminous it shows high wisdom
and intellectuality.
Our fourth colour is green, standing in the centre of the scale of
seven. It is the meeting-ground between the thermal or heating and
expanding colours of red, orange and yellow, and the electrical,
contracting, cooling colours of blue, indigo and violet. Green gives
stability, endurance and quietude. We are allowed much of it to look
at in nature and to partake of as nourishment. Its action is to cool
the blood and animate the nerves. It belongs to the planet Saturn,
whose metal is lead. Saturn rules the spleen which makes the white
corpuscles of the blood. These harmonize the building and
destroying going on in the human organism. So people with the
luminous green of Saturn in their auras are the harmonizers and
pacifiers of the world. They stand for social stability. If the green is
dark and crude it tells that its owner, so concerned with the affairs of
others, has become ‘green with envy’.
Green belongs to the fourth of the musical scale F, whose
melodies, usually in a minor key, sing of the melancholy always
associated with Saturn. Its stone is the emerald, which bestows peace
of mind. Therefore whether through lights, coloured glass or herbs,
greed gives an all-round steadying and quietening influence. The
green flag and lamp represent safety and speak of the guardianship
of those in authority. We are told that on the planet Saturn live our
guardian spirits.
Now we leave the heating colours and pass upwards to the
cooling, contracting ones – blue, indigo and violet.
These rays have a soothing, narcotic and antispectic action. They
act as sedatives to the vascular and nervous system, subdue mania
and angry passions, inflammations, sunstroke, insomnia, eyestrain
and all irritated conditions of mind and body.
Sedatives, antiseptics and narcotics contain much of these
colours; narcotic flowers are blue and purple; blackberries are valued
for their astringent qualities.
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Blue belongs to the planet Venus, the giver of love, devotion and
harmony. Its stone is the amethyst, the super-sacred of the seven
sacred jewels. Pale blue in the aura represents devotion, while dark
blue shows fanaticism. One can either be ‘true blue’ or have a fit of
the ‘blues’, according to one’s outlook!
Dr. Babbitt says that blue lenses filled with water and exposed to
sunlight become impregnated with chlorine, cobalt, manganese and
other properties having soothing and antiseptic action. This water
will never putrefy. It acts as a sedative and an antiseptic, and is
cooling, especially to the blood.
The musical note of blue is G, a favourite key for the composer
of romantic music.
Indigo is the sixth of the colour scale. It is, like green, a meeting-
ground for all the colours. Its action through herbs and chemicals is
intermediately between blue and violet, soothing both nerves and
blood. Its planet is said to be Uranus and its stone is jet. In the aura
it shows dignity and high aspirations.
Violet is the seventh and last of the colour octave. It represents
the seventh and highest quality which man attains – noble spiritual
aspiration. Therefore it has always been connected with the priestly
ceremonies. Its musical note is B, in which key much sacred music is
written. Its planet is Jupiter, ruling the metal tin and the jewel
sapphire. In its medical action it approaches the realm of the violet-
ray. It cools the nerves, is magnetic and antiseptic.
Violet-lens water keeps indefinitely, and greatly benefits the hair,
eyes and the digestion.
Violet in the aura speaks of honour, spirituality and self-esteem.
Above the violet we begin a new octave of higher and more
ethereal colours mostly unseen to the average human eye.
The first is rose, which is the red of Mars transmuted to its
higher octave, where it speaks of optimism, hope and spiritualized
love. The colours continue in octaves which become more and more
sublimated, luminous, pure, and pale until in the end they blend back
again into the glorious white light from whence they sprang. When
the character of a human being is sublimated and perfected the
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SECRETS OF COLOUR
colours of his aura also resolve themselves into a white spiritual light.
In the olden days people were able to see this. They represented it as
the halo shining around the head of a saint.
Colours, therefore, are of the very deepest significance to us
throughout all phases of our life. They have more influence upon us
than we can possibly imagine. If we can use them intelligently, they
are the greatest of friends, strengthening, soothing and inspiring.
Dark, drab and dingy colours harm our spirits, morals and
health; they encourage crime, inhibitions, inferiority complexes,
suicide and stunted development. They actually prevent the radiation
of personal magnetism, the give and take between human beings.
They inhibit optimism, inspiration and therefore success.
A glance at some of our streets with their dingy dark bricks and
shrieking posters will at once show us one reason why apathy,
dullness and poor health are still prevalent.
Brown is the colour of earth and holds us to the earth and to
material thoughts. Grey is neutral and useful as a background to
other colours. White reflects back all the rays and is therefore cooling
and restful. Black absorbs them all and is therefore warm, although
neutralized.
The modern trend towards plain, pale pastel shades shows a
promising awakening to a new and uplifting colour sense.
A colour campaign intelligently launched would do much to
cheer, inspire and invigorate humanity.
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10
SECRETS OF SOUND
_______________
‘In the beginning was the Word.’

Thus is the importance of sound emphasized to us, although so
simply and directly that it is easy to miss its significance.
The universe was created by speech – the Creator did not act.
He spoke. He said: ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.
Let us not pass over these words with a shrug, as if they were
charming fairy-tales designed to enthral the naïve people of old. The
deepest scientific knowledge of all times was always thus veiled by
symbolism and by myth, and rich is the reward of every effort at
interpretation. Certain of the ancient peoples made a profound study
of chemistry. The fact that they chose to give to their chemicals the
names of gods and goddesses and to describe their reactions under
the guise of myths and ‘legends’ does not in the least detract from
their actual knowledge. On the contrary it may show how much
deeper and further they penetrated into the realms of ultimate Causes
than men of science do today.
We are told by those teachers of antiquity that the formation of
this universe out of chaos was brought about by the Breath and Word
of the Creator – by Sound! Certain sounds produced differing sets of
vibrations in the ether. Some of these were of such low frequency
that they formed particles of what we call ‘matter’ or physical
substance. There could not be Light, as we know it, without minute
specks of matter in the ether to reflect it.
We learn that later these particles of matter collided, coalesced,
the force of their mutual attraction (or gravity) causing them to
commence spinning. The endless arrangements thus formed
produced this Solar System and all that is therein. We can gain an
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SECRETS OF SOUND
idea of the infinite number of these arrangements by considering the

vast scale of vibrations with which we dealt in Chapter 2.
The little section of oscillations on this scale, to which the ear
can react, and which we know as Sound, are of comparatively low
frequency. They occur below the heat vibrations. A vibration of
sixteen per second gives the lowest note heard by the human ear, and
the scale of sound runs up to nearly 40,000 vibrations per second.
This speed is the highest which we can register as sound.
Higher up on the scale, vibrating at about seventy million million
million times per second, begins the vibrations which we know as
heat, and to which the heat-centres in our skin react. Above these
come the Light and Colour vibrations and above those are the X-ray
and the subtle vibrations of the mind.
Below the Sound vibrations come those of chemical substances
which make up the physical world.
It is said that the whole scale of vibrations is divided up into
Octaves of Seven. Each octave is a replica of the others, only functio-
ning at a doubled or trebled speed of vibration. Thus, merely as a
simile, supposing the first note of the octave C to vibrate at twenty per
second, we might find that a certain number of octaves lower down
– the vibrations of the first note of an octave at say perhaps twenty per
minute – would be apparent to us as, for instance, the metal iron. The
first note of an octave several hundred times higher up on the scale
would be apparent to us as the colour Red, and far higher up still, as
the emotion of anger or passion. All these different expressions of
one note or vibration, as well as many others in between, are ruled,
controlled, or emanated from the planet Mars according to certain
schools of thought, and express the good and bad qualities which are
associated with that planet.
By studying such theories we can realize the intimate connection
between Sound and all other expressions of life. Sound is low down
on the scale and comes just above Form. Therefore Sound is the interme-
diary between the ‘abstract’ idea and the ‘concrete’ form. Sounds mould the
ether into shapes, and through these shapes the corresponding Power
is able to play and make its impress on physical matter.
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The clairvoyant primitive peoples actually saw the shapes produ-

ced in the ether by sounds. They represented these shapes as the letters
of their alphabet. So most words and sounds of the early languages
actually controlled and represented that which they expressed. When
those peopled called on the god ‘Ra’ they established a connection just
as definitely as we do when we tune in our wireless to Paris or London.
Throughout history we can learn of the deliberate and effective
use of sound. Priests have always employed it, creating certain definite
reactions on the people by the use of chanting and intoning. In the
Ancient Mysteries and Magical Ceremonial Rites words, sounds and
shapes were combined to gain certain ends. Each one of us is intensely
affected by sound-waves, which of course pass right through our bodies.
Every object and every person has a key-note – in other words
the sum of their vibrations responds to one particular note or chord
of the musical scale. If a person’s note or chord is sounded gently and
melodiously it has a healing and constructive influence upon him. If
it is sounded loudly, harshly and continuously it has a correspon-
dingly destructive influence, making that person ill and unhappy. If
you can discover the note belonging to a particular wine-glass and
sound it loudly into the glass for a little while you will shatter the
glass to pieces. It is said that the walls of Jericho fell because of this
same law, as the key-note of the wall was purposely sounded with
continuous harshness by the trumpets, under the instructions of
someone with a knowledge not uncommon in those days.
An instrument has lately been invented called the eidophone. It
contains a tightly stretched drum surface upon which a paste is
spread. Sounds and words are then uttered underneath this drum.
They cause beautiful shapes to form in the paste, exact replicas of
trees, ferns and flowers as they are in nature.
If sand is spread on the drum instead of paste the sounds will
produce geometrical designs instead of plant forms. It is even said
that ugly and obscene words will produce ugly and displeasing patterns,
and the reverse! This experiment proves the creative aspect of sound
and helps us to visualize the definite forms and radiations set up in
the ether by our own words.
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SECRETS OF SOUND
The sounds with which we are surrounded in present-day city

life are mostly harsh, monotonous and unbeautiful. If the roar of the
traffic were suddenly to cease as we walked down the street we should
find that we had been screaming discordantly at our companion to
make ourselves heard. Our pleasures also are mostly crudely noisy. At
the average cocktail-party everyone shouts at once. The hostess is
disappointed if it is not so, while some of the dance music is harsh
beyond words. Tube, train and bus all add their quota to the barrage
of hideous noise which we have to endure. People who are obliged to
listen day after day to sounds which are a discordant offence to
Nature’s laws will inevitably become sick or depleted, and soon be
suffering from one of those innumerable nerve complaints which are
the order of the day.
The only way to counteract these bad effects would be by healing
the damaged nerve centres with soothing harmonies or with the
blessed balm of complete silence for a short period every day. If a
person is able to discover his own key-note or chord and to play it
over gently to himself he will revive as if by magic. One’s key-note
can be ascertained by listening to some good orchestral music. When
the note is played it will send a thrill right through its owner.
If a person’s life is in some way inharmonious or destructive this
can be detected at once in his voice, which will often jar upon the
listener’s nerves; whereas one who is living in accordance with divine
law will have a melodious, pleasing voice. The more advanced types of
people have resonant voices, while primitive types have the flat ‘chest’
voices such as are heard among natives, gypsies or the apaches of Paris.
The creative use of sound can be observed on all sides. The baby
cries to promote its own growth. Until the little one has uttered its
first cry its progress is not assured.
It is said that the birds set up the vibrations which promote the
growth of the young leaves by their singing in the early spring. When
the leaves are all full out the birds’ songs cease, except at twilight and
at dawn, at which times the chemical activities of the plant life
change. At night plant life breathes out carbon dioxide, although
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during the day it breathes out oxygen. The times of the change-over
are heralded by the birds.
The ancient Japanese mystics such as the Zen monks were said
to be able to bring the dead or dying back to life by uttering a certain
loud cry. An interesting description of this can be found in the novel
The Garden of Vision.
Some people assert that in order to connect ourselves with power
and wisdom we should go apart to a quiet place and call our own
Christian name over and over very gently. Uttering a noun or name
creates a form in the ether which acts as a ‘receiving station’ to certain
powers which then play through it. Tennyson declared that he could
leave his own body consciously, and gain much experience, by calling
his own name. He describes this in the ‘Ancient Sage’.
The potent action of sound has always been recognized and
applied throughout history; but at the present time a stringent tackling
of the Sound problem is urgently needed.
An anti-noise campaign is actually in existence, but its efforts
are not much in evidence as yet, and have not received the whole-
hearted public support which they deserve.
The medical profession is experimenting with the healing proper-
ties of sound. But it is up to every individual to take a personal interest
in this vital problem and all the infinite possibilities connected with it.
Those who really wish to get the best out of life should shun
inharmonious noises and all superfluous chatter; they should feed
their spirit and nerves with music; they should sing often, aiming
more at rhythm and resonance than at loudness and high notes; they
should study the tones of their own speaking voices to gain an insight
into their own characters. They should watch and guard their own
words, remembering that in speaking they are building definite forms
for good or for evil, which will persist in the ether, connecting their
owner permanently with good or evil influences, and attracting to
him much that he may ignorantly consider he has not deserved.
Lastly, they should remember that, as all the sages and wise ones
are aware, the greatest inspiration and wisdom has been bestowed
upon humanity during periods of profound and complete silence.
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11
THE SCIENCE OF NUMBERS
___________________
The world is built up of thousands of differing rates of

vibrations, all these having their origin in the One original vibration
of the mind of the Creator – or the sum, essence or single number of
the Whole.
We learn from the ancient teachings that the One original
mighty Creative Power, wishing to make further manifestation, and
to exercise His creative ability for a purpose which it is beyond us to
understand at present, divided Himself (by the power of the Word)
into Three, thus forming that great Triangle which originated Life
and Action as we know it.
The Triangle, known as Father-Mother-Son, or Positive-
Negative-Combustion, or Mercury-Sulphur-Salt, as we have seen, has
always been studied all over the world.
We begin, therefore, in this science, with the number One, the
Creator, who divides into Three in the act of creating. The scientist
will describe this formation as Polarity. As Schopenhauer put it:
‘Polarity, or the sundering of a force into two quantitively different
and opposed activities, striving reunion …. Is a fundamental type of
almost all the phenomena of Nature, from the magnet and the crystal
to man himself.’ The Hindus describe it thus: ‘Brahma, that the world
might be born, fell asunder into man and woman, became name and
form, time and space.’
In a further definition of the origin of this Solar System we are
told that the Creator, a Great White Light, divided into Three – Red,
Yellow and Blue (the primary colours which correspond with the
primary notes of the scale, C, E and G). After the division into Three,
the second great division into Seven took place, and the Seven Spirits
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Before the Throne, inhabiting the Seven Sacred Planets of this Solar
System, came into being. From them radiated the seven colours of
the spectrum. There are also the seven notes of music, the seven
planes of matter, seven days of the week, the seven ages of man and
his seven glands – in fact, as we have seen, the tremendous scale of
Nature’s vibrations runs in an infinity of octaves of seven.
In history we can trace man’s appreciation of the significance
of the number Seven when we think of the ‘Seven days of Creation’,
Seven Cardinal Virtues, Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Wonders of the
World, Seven Towers of Constantinople, Seven Hills of Rome, Seven
Plagues of Egypt, the Seven-branched Candlestick – and even the
Seven-league Boots!
Seven, therefore, is the number of the condition of man’s
physical existence upon the earth as it is at present. But humanity is
imperfect, unfinished, unevolved, so seven is not the final number.
Mankind, as well as all of Nature, is to rise out of the imperfect state,
to become complete and creative, and to develop the full quota of
qualities and capacities, which run up to the finished number of
twelve.
To this end man has to evolve under the discipline of the Twelve
Signs of the Zodiac as described in Chapter 5.
These signs circle round the Sun and represent the twelve great
lessons and qualities of living. We therefore find this number Twelve
playing a significant part in Nature also, as well as in mythology and
history. We can at once call to mind such divisions as the twelve
hours of the day and the twelve months of the year.
There were also the twelve sons of Jacob, symbolizing the
climax of a past period, and the Twelve Apostles, representing the
climax of the present era.
When humanity has taken its degree in the school of earthly life,
and graduated through all the twelve great tests, becoming thereby
master of itself and all conditions, and therefore creative, it turns
‘back to the Father’ as in the tale of the prodigal son. It has exhausted
the possibilities of matter, has realized the illusion of the infinite
divisions of nature, and retraces its steps back to the one original great
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White Light of Omniscience. Man has become One in understanding

with the Creator.
The farther we go back in history the more profound seems the
understanding of these definitions of life. The ancients arrived at a
deep knowledge of astronomy, astrology and world history without
apparently possessing any of our instruments of science. We are told
that they obtained this knowledge through the subtler senses, by
meditation. They discovered many things about the formation,
quality and meaning of the universe which could not be expressed in
words but only in numbers and symbols, and many of the vital truths
of life are still only to be found in this way. Numbers and symbols
play a very large part in all the Bibles and sacred writings of the
ancients. We should gain much by being able to decipher them.
Everyone who was allowed to study the Mysteries with the
learned priesthood of Egypt and Chaldea was initiated into the
meanings of numbers and symbols. It is said that first Moses and then
Jesus studied in this way. Pythagoras studied thus with the priests for
twenty-five years in Memphis, Thebes and Babylon and, as a result,
founded his famous school of philosophy. He called his pupils
‘mathematicians’. He said ‘God geomatrises’. He studied the
numerical relationships of all the phenomena of the universe and
was able finally to classify and sum them up.
Numbers rule nature, not only in the classification of objects but
in periods of time. The Moon plays a large part in this, moving in
periods of four weeks, or four sevens, ruling woman also in these
cycles, and governing the tides and seasons, fertility and growth.
The Moon passes through one of the Zodiacal Signs every two
hours. The earth herself, moving on a grander scale, passes through
one of the Great Zodiacal Signs about every 2500 years. Certain
influences are therefore radiated down to earth by the Moon in
miniature changing every two hours, and by the Sun in magnitude
changing about every 2500 years. The scientists or astrologer who
can decipher the lesser influence can be sure of the greater one. It
was in this way that the ancient peoples were able to ‘prophesy’ the
trend of civilizations and races 2000 or 200,000 years ahead. Much
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of this knowledge is wrapped up in the mistranslated symbolism of

the Revelations.
It is therefore apparent that one way of learning many of the
secret processes at work in the universe and in our own natures lies
in the understanding of numbers and symbols. To do this we must
study the output of those early peoples and understand the
foundation and origin of their knowledge, and the way in which they
were able to tap the ‘Universal Mind’.
If a doctor, knowing the periods of crisis and the duration of a
certain disease, were to tell a company of the microbes just what
would happen to them in three days’ time, that would seem an
impossible and wonderful feat of prophecy to the microbes; and as
they only live from a few minutes to a few hours the prophecy would
apply to their far-distant descendants in the dim future. If, however,
the microbes could train their mentalities (and science has now
proved that even a cell or a microbe has a mentality) they could
obtain telepathic contact with the mind of the doctor, and themselves
discover his ideas and knowledge of their future development.
Mankind may be said to bear an analogous position to the
microbes. We are little more than microbes upon the body of a great
Being, which body we call the earth. Just as we depend for our future
health, comfort, peace and the development even of our wisdom
upon the well-being and co-operation of the cells in our body, so, we
may imagine, does that Being depend upon us for His own progress
and in helping ourselves we help Him! If we make progress He is
possibly just as grateful to us as we are to our own hands, eyes or
brain as they improve in their capacity to serve us well.
Having visualized man as a microbe upon the living body of the
earth, let us go further. The Sun is called the Heart of the Universe –
why? Because, we are told, it is a great heart, the heart of a Being too
vast for us to conceive of, and in whose structure our earth plays the
part of a gland or organ.
This Gigantic Being is He whom some of us call God, just as we
ourselves are a vast inscrutable all-knowing God to the little creatures
whom we know as the cells of our own bodies.
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In all reverence we might try also to realize that the glorious

Being whose heart is the Sun may also be worshipping and striving
to reach a still mightier God even further from our power to
comprehend. So life repeats, up and down the scale of size, forwards
and backwards upon the scale of time, periods and cycles. It is only
by having the clue to the octaves and their numbers that we are able
to link up and connect and interpret the manifold different
expressions of the few fundamental qualities of evolving creation.
These hidden truths constitute some of the Mysteries which the
Initiates and Adepts are able to reach, one by one, as they graduate
upwards through the school of life, taking one Initiation after another.
In olden days certain people were carefully selected to be trained to
this end in the temples, although now the road is open to all.
Those early scholars realized that certain sounds linked them up
with certain creative principles in nature and that every sound and
quality had its number which was the sum total of its vibrations.
The science of numbers, or numerology, has, like much of the
ancient knowledge, become through disuse misunderstood and
debased to the rank of superstition. It is only used now from the
limited personal viewpoint, but even so it can be both interesting and
helpful.
It is said that before birth we are drawn to our names, birthdates
and parents by an irresistible affinity with those vibrations which
compose our own characters and aspirations, and that a numerologist
by studying the former is able to tell us what we are and wherein lie
our potentiality, our hopes and our hazards. Each letter and date
represents a number. The right reading of these numbers will describe
our character and type of life. Each number represents a planet,
colour, quality and experience in either its good, bad, or negative
aspect. We can map out the life according to the relation in which all
its numbers are standing to each other.
Those who believe in this science declare that it is extremely
useful in the choosing of vocations and partnerships and that with
its help the handicap of incompatibility can be avoided. Like
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everything else it must be used with moderation and common sense

and not in a spirit of idle superstition.
The famous American physician Dr. Abrams invented an
apparatus which measures the vibrations of all the reactions of the
human body. He ascertained that every disease has its own numerical
value, and that the cure can also be determined by means of numbers.
Much, of course, has to be learned and proved about this science, but
here again the fundamental importance of a number is brought to
light.
The meanings of the primary numbers have been described
throughout the ages as follows:
The number One represents the first necessary qualities of
evolving life, the pioneer fighting spirit, leadership and force. A
person born on the first of any month will be given chances of
exercise these qualities.
The number Two represents the second stage in man’s
developing nature – sociability, and includes affection and all the give-
and-take qualities, such as diplomacy and home-making.
The number Three represents self-expression. Man has fought
and made friends. Now he wants to give entertainment, beauty and
joie de vivre. People with this birthdate should not be expected to be
very orderly or reliable.
The number Four stands for the solid framework of life, the
foundations. People attuned to this number will be called the
‘backbone of the country’. They are patient, reliable plodders.
The number Five represents the Five Senses – Experience. It
gives travel, variety and drama to life, and progress.
The number Six represents Family Life, but on a much broader
scale than the retiring number Two. Six stands for Guardianship,
when a man begins to sense his higher destiny and responsibilities, to
care for all families as well as his own, and to offer world-wide
hospitality and help.
The number Seven represents the final turning of man inwards
to the spiritual life, to the study of sciences and truths, discipline and
organization. It is the number of loneliness.
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In number Eight, man, having found his own soul and the power
within him, must turn to earth-life once more and learn to combine
the two. So eight gives power, organization, and constructive
leadership, backed by spiritual inspiration.
The number Nine represents the perfect and completed man,
who having fully developed himself, must now forget himself in
Sacrifice and Service. Here we have the great lover, humanitarian and
artist. Through this number beats the most high-powered of human
vibrations, which has great force to be used for either good or evil.
To write all that is known about numbers would fill volumes.
We have not space to do more than take this glance at the primary
numbers. They, of course, each belong to their Colour, Planet and
Sound. When, after some study, it is seen how completely all these
facets of life dove-tail and fit into their places like an intricate vast
Chines puzzle it will be realized that these marvellous ‘theories’ are
too perfect and too near to the truth to have been invented by the
brains of human beings. This indeed is the reward of a study of these
matters - a gradual realization of the amazing fact that there really is
a whole universe of marvels and of sublime promise for those who
seek.
The science of numbers is exhaustive, instructive, and useful if
applied with an honest desire for progress and understanding.
Modern scientists are busily expressing the ancient beliefs in their
own manner. They are measuring the vibrations of diseases, of
thoughts, of will-power and of many other activities and getting them
all numbered. They are numerologists in their own way, although they
still turn their backs rigidly upon the ancient sciences. Nevertheless,
they are bringing to light one fundamental fact, and that is that
everything exists through the formation of a different number, and
therefore that numbers must constitute a language, a key, and a clue
to many secrets in life, if we can learn to decipher them.
There are various systems of numerology. The sifting of the true
from the false will do much to develop the student’s own powers of
deciphering numbers.
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12
DIET AND EXERCISE
________________
People all over the world are becoming more and more health-
conscious.
Very much is being thought, written and tried out in the realms
of Diet and Exercise.
At one end of the scale we have those who continue deliberately
to ‘dig their graves with their teeth’, living grossly, carelessly and
unnaturally, and indeed ‘selling their birthright for a mess of pottage’.
At the other end of the scale we find the ‘cranks’, people who
may end in an asylum or a nursing-home through overdoing things
and lacking moderation in their search for the perfect state.
In the middle of the scale we find the people who are as much
put off by the cranks as they are by the slovens, and continue in doubt
as to how seriously they should treat the whole subject.
It will be well, therefore, to take a comprehensive glance at the
question of physical fitness and decide what are the few essentials
necessary for its maintenance. It is of paramount importance to
realize that the body is built by the mind or ego. We are what we think.
It is the ego which drives the machinery, which directs the habits of
the brain, and which selects from the elements of food and air just
what it chooses to use. That is why one person will keep healthy and
happy on a few grains of rice while another will perish of
‘undernourishment’ on a quite fair diet. No amount of food, air or
exercise will help anyone unless he has the will to be well and the
will to be happy, and if he has these qualifications then he will be
comparatively independent of his air, food or exercise! This is the
first fundamental truth to realize about health. We are as healthy and
as happy as we wish to be. If we know how to live, how continually
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to adore and accept the Divine Will in whatever guise it is working

out, and never to act contrary to the tide of Nature, then health and
joy will abundantly flow through us, irrespective of accidental man-
made conditions.
Most people have not a living faith. Even a quite sincere
Christian goes about in a perpetual state of worry, about himself,
others and the world in general.
We can only progress through painful experiences, therefore we
should welcome such events with keenness!
If we believe that death is a gate to a brighter life then we should
never fear it.
We are not logical, and we only half believe things. Therefore
our minds are divided against themselves, and this constitutes an
inner conflict which naturally poisons and undermines our systems.
The first essential to health, therefore, is to believe – to believe in
ourselves, our power over ourselves and our destinies.
The second thing to recognize is that we are meant to be happy.
We have not been given the wealth of beauty and wonder which
surrounds us on all sides merely to ignore it. We have not been given
bodies capable of a hundred enjoyments merely to deny them. For
centuries thwarted and jealous kill-joys have been busy
misinterpreting religion and human nature, insulting and slighting
the very works of their Creator in the natural human functions. If
only they had taught Love and Love and again Love in its fullest
sense, people’s hearts would have become too full and too broad to
need to resort to petty physical indulgencies for the capturing of a
faint reflection of the Universal Union.
The body should not be disdained, misunderstood or driven to
death. It is our wonderful servant, our intricate tool, and the sacred
temple of our inspirations. Therefore we must cherish it and nourish
it, remembering that joy is the greatest of all nourishment.
We must learn how to enjoy, and that this faculty lies within us,
not without us. A blind man chained in a dungeon has yet the
capacity for infinite joy within himself. And we who are free can
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drink in joy from a little square of blue sky, a twinkling star, a budding
leaf, or a flake of snow; we can find a world of wonder in the eye of
a fly or the instinct of a building swallow.
We must also enjoy the many delicious things which constitute
man’s food. We must make of eating a sacrament, not a grossness,
nor a dull necessity. When we eat we are performing a miracle, but the
miracle is only as complete as the enthusiasm which we apply to it.
From a physical point of view we are the result of what we eat
and how we eat, so we must never forget to treat our period at the
table as an event entirely unto itself. Those people who gobble
hurried, over-large or meagre meals while screaming with laughter
or frantic with worry, and with their minds in a state of rush or
restlessness, are committing sacrilege and suicide in subtle form.
It is not of much use to concern ourselves with diet until these
primary matters are attended to. We can easily sum up the first
essentials as follows:
Deep, slow breathing produces a supply of oxygen for the
combustion of food. One should never eat while breathless, hurried,
worried or upset. Calm down first, remembering that nourishment
taken by a person in such condition turns to poison – in fact, it is
much better to miss a meal altogether, waiting until the system has
recovered.
Many people do not realize what a large part of the digestive
process should take place before the meal is swallowed. That is why
the importance of slow and thorough mastication is always
emphasized. A very necessary part of the nourishment can best be
absorbed through the walls of the mouth. People who bolt their food
have to exist without this primary stage of the digestion. While in the
mouth most of the vital living forces of the food are meant to be
abstracted; but, once swallowed, the acid digestive juices neutralize
these forces and part of the potency of the food is lost. Quick eaters
do not obtain the stimulation to the brain and nerve-forces which is
the reward of eating slowly.
It is a mistake to drink with meals. Food should be taken as dry
as possible, without being drowned in liquid or sauces, as this
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prevents the digestive juices from contact the food. Drinking should
take place before eating or in between meals. Animals do not drink
and eat at the same time. Remember always to eat too little in
preference to too much. This will be easy once the speed is reduced!
Many people eat an appallingly complicated mixture of foods at
one meal, most of which are incompatible. Adults should be very
sparing with starchy foods, which are no longer so necessary to them.
They should not take starch with acid-making foods such as meat,
as this causes fermentation. The famous British lunch of roast beef
is ruined by its accompaniment of bread, Yorkshire pudding,
potatoes, peas and pastry tart, which array of starch turns the meal
into an outrage! Instead of starch we should concentrate upon those
foods which give us mental and nervous energy, containing
phosphorus and ‘vitamins’, such as green vegetables, fruits and
salads. We should remember that everything which we are able to eat
in its raw state is more than twice as strengthening as cooked food.
Another primary necessity for health is the complete natural
elimination of all waste matter from the body. Lack of this
achievement is the fundamental cause of almost all disease. It can be
assured by correct breathing (see Chapter 8), sparing diet containing
roughage, an intensive chewing of all food, and naturally induced
perspiration.
If these few simple rules are followed and whatever changes to
be effected in the diet are made gradually, a sure foundation for
physical fitness will be built up, without the individual becoming a
crank or a pest to himself or others. But the most important of all is
thorough mastication.
A twenty-four hours’ fast taken every three or four weeks will
be of extreme benefit, and can do no possible harm, as long as the
faster does not wish to think that it is killing him! If he is really too
terrified of the extreme danger of this proceeding, he might bring
himself to miss one meal occasionally. These little attentions give a
chance to the internal organs to perform a much-needed ‘spring-
clean’, which they are always anxious and willing to do if given the
chance.
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A great many people are perturbed by the question as to whether

or not to eat meat. An authority stated in the newspaper recently that
the consumption of meat is falling rapidly, and that the choice seems
to be whether to return to meat-eating and the strong warlike nature
of our forefathers or to give it up and become more peaceable and
gentle. As the whole world is crying out for peace and brotherliness,
the latter course would certainly seem to be the more desirable.
No idealist or advanced person really likes the idea of eating
meat. Many believe that it is a barbarism which will gradually
disappear with the passing of the ‘Dark Age’. It is quite possible to be
strong and active, as many are, on a meatless diet, but after half a
lifetime of meat-eating many systems may find a temporary difficulty
in readjustment. Here again ‘crankiness’ must be avoided. Meat may
gradually be relinquished until there is a sound knowledge of the
necessary substitutes, such as nuts and cheese. But apart from any
question of principle, most people would improve in health in
measure as they gave up all flesh foods.
The question of alcohol and smoking naturally arises at this
point. There again it must be an individual concern for each person.
Alcohol is an artificial stimulant and a poison. Its action if taken any
quantity is to drive the ego partly out of the body. The ego can only
use the body when it is of a certain temperature. Extreme cold forces
the ego out, and unconsciousness ensues. Overheating has the same
effect, resulting in fainting or the delirium of fever.
Constant driving out of the ego through alcoholism loosens its
grip upon the body and allows outside entities or influences to gain
admittance, with the various and dire results, such as obsessions and
deliriums while the victim is still partly conscious of the lower astral
world (alas, those snakes and rats are not ‘imagination’!).
No self-respecting and earnest person will care to indulge unduly
in any stimulant, drug, sedative (such as smoking), excitement or
emotionalism which prevents him from being entirely himself and
the captain of his own soul.
Nevertheless, a sudden violent reactionary effort towards
complete abstention in any of these matters may have, of course, an
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equally over-balancing effect upon the individual. Common sense,

moderation, and a love of the natural joys of living will keep the
situation under control. For instance, discrimination between raw
spirits and delicate wines is a case in point.
Hand in hand with the question of diet comes the problem of
exercise.
It is recognized now that men and women have no longer
strenuously to hunt for and prepare their food, that they need a
substitute for the exercise they would obtain if living in a ‘natural’
state. In other words, human beings have a tendency, unless otherwise
obliged, to sink into habits necessitating only those few movements
which the routine of their lives demands. They mostly move of
necessity and not from pleasure. True, we are learning to ‘take
exercise’, but the same exercises, such as tennis or cycling, are liable
to be taken by any and everyone, irrespective of their particular
nervous or muscular condition. There have been many cases of an
overstrained business-man dropping dead at his game of golf for the
simple reason that additional concentration was the last thing he
needed. College rowing also sometimes results in an overstrained
heart, which may handicap the unfortunate youth for the rest of his
life.
It is a magnificent thing that physical culture is claiming public
attention and enthusiasm, but it is not quite such a simple wholesale
affair as may be imagined. A little individual knowledge and
intelligence applied to it will do much to aid the authorities. In the
pressure of modern life many of us get quite a lot of movement. We
rush from one place to another, anxious and hurried, with our
muscles tensed up rigidly most of the time. In this case our exercises
should be relaxing ones, designed to counteract the tension of our lives
and give our nerves and muscles a rest. Most people are quite unable
entirely to relax their brain, nerves and muscles. If they could once
learn to do so for a short time each day they would rapidly grow
young again!
The second thing to consider is our habitual position, according
to what our work is. Those people who spend many hours bent
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double over a desk are not helping themselves by bending again over
a golf-club. They must choose a form of exercise which bends the
spine in the opposite direction. It will be seen that serving at tennis
has somewhat this effect, although actual back-stretching exercises
are better. Swimming is a fine exercise for the spine.
If we turn to Nature, we can see at once the exercises which
animals take. Cats and dogs stretch themselves, shake themselves and
roll upon the ground. We cannot do better than learn from Nature.
After sleeping or working we should stretch and stretch and stretch
again, in every direction we can think of, both lying down and
standing upon our toes. Particular attention should be paid to
relaxing the back of the neck, as that is the portion of the spine which
is kept most continually an unnaturally tensed. It is tensed in
thinking. Sleep is only possible when complete relaxation at the back
and base of the skull takes place.
After having stretched until every single ligament in our bodies
has had its turn, then let us shake ourselves. Stand up in bare feet and
relax every muscle loosely. Then shake yourself about, imagining that
you are both intoxicated and boneless! Continue this until you are
sure that every single muscle has relaxed. Then lie down and try to
relax the whole of the legs and feet. Follow this with deep, slow
breathing.
These exercises may sound strange to those who are accustomed
to Swedish drill. Drilling has also its advantages for strengthening
and using the muscles, but relaxation correctly performed achieves a
release and refreshment for the nervous system not to be found in
any other way.
The Western idea of exercise seems mostly to consist of
violently agitating every limb of the body in turn, until reduced to a
state of exhaustion.
The Easterns exercise in such a way as to conserve instead of
expend energy. It is said that those who join the sacred schools of
physical culture and are trained by the Yogis learn to exercise while
sitting still in one posture and concentrating upon each nerve and
muscle. They use special postures to stimulate any given nerve in the
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body or brain. It is said that in this way they can cure any disease,
acquire a fine physique and live a phenomenally long life. The
modern osteopath is beginning to discover possibilities of this nature
also, but, of course, he works from the outside.
Rolling on hard ground is an excellent form of massage which
tones up the muscles and disperses soft fat.
The finest exercises, then, are those in which the animals
indulge. Next in order comes the equally natural exercise of
swimming.
Other more violent forms of sport may not always be beneficial.
In any case, their drawback is that directly they are discontinued the
muscles suffer from the changed conditions and the victim may grow
plumper than ever, or develop rheumatism. It is often remarked how
champion athletes are liable suddenly to succumb to diseases which
do not defeat the weedy little man!
The question of exercise must therefore be approached
individually and not collectively, bearing in mind that our chief object
should be to counteract the tensions and postures of our daily life,
and to cultivate a simple joy in the suppleness of our bodies and the
ecstasy of free and rhythmic movements.
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PART TWO
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138
13
THE ‘THIRD EYE’
________________
In the preceding chapters a bird’s-eye view has been taken of the

conditions surrounding developing humanity.
The possible fruits of a deeper understanding of various aspects
of life have been considered, such aspects, for instance, as the
planetary influences by whose aid we develop, and which we can
study through astrology and numbers, and by their manifestations
through Colour, Sound and Form. A little research has brought to
light the possibility that the discoveries of men of science today may
coincide with the knowledge of the mystics of all times, with a
difference only of presentation and nomenclature, and the fact that
the Mystics always postulated an ultimate Cause and Law behind all
phenomena, while present-day scientists seem afraid to link up with
such big issues.
Finally we have considered the perfecting of our physical life
through more intelligent control of diet, exercise and the human
relationships.
Let us now draw away the Veil still further and take a peep at
what may be the future awaiting man when he struggles out of the rut
of materialism and finally takes the reins of his life into his own
hands. It looks as if the Powers that Be are tantalizing humanity into
making this effort, because they are allowing hints and bits of
knowledge to filter through in a more general way than ever before.
We find all sorts of unexpected people playing enthusiastically with
these jewels as if they were bright new toys. On every hand we hear
glib talk of trances, visions, healings and divine guidance. We hear of
intimate relationships with the ‘Masters’, of mystic experiences upon
the ‘Path’. We are given full details of ‘Initiations’, reincarnations,
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and Magic Black and White! Hundreds of societies and cults with
scores of ‘Teachers’ have sprung up everywhere like a mushroom
growth – and of course they mostly claim to be the especial
instrument of the ‘Great White Lodge’.
Now, it may be that many of these people are childish, and that
some of the remain materialistic, and jealous, and even profiteer with
their spiritual goods!
Nevertheless, two things stand out.
Firstly, there is a growing widespread demand for enlightenment
on these subjects, and a deepening sense of the existence of such
knowledge. Secondly, everything that is being given out everywhere
bears the same stamp, posits the same laws, and makes fundamentally
the same promises, in spite of superficial and surface differences. It
would all appear to come from one original source, and that source
to have been the very ancient teachings of the greatest Sages and
Mystics of all times, which has existed the world over in much the
same form.
And although people are still perhaps infantile and naïve over
the treasures of knowledge so freshly re-presented to them, yet their
interest is intense and their numbers are growing.
Furthermore, as in all their various forms these teachings yet
tally in laying emphasis on brotherhood, unselfishness, generosity
and Peace, they would seem to form some kind of opposition to the
propensities for slaughter, oppression, greed and selfishness which
are causing widespread havoc in various parts of the world.
True, among these cults are to be found many cranks, hypocrites
and other undesirables; but these people would exist in any case.
They may have more chance of regeneration where they are. It is
necessary always to distinguish between the Teaching and the
Teacher; it is possible to learn beautiful truths from a very unbeautiful
character, who in that way may be working off his ‘Karmic’ debts.
The great revival of interest in ‘occult’ subjects began towards
the close of last century. It is said that the close of any century ushers
in a foretaste of the knowledge to be assimilated in the next. Certain
it is that fifty years ago (written in 1937) there was an intense
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THE THIRD EYE
pioneering activity in research, both ‘occult’ and ‘scientific’. The

Theosophists, Christian Scientists, and Spiritualists, the Hypnotists,
the Mesmerists and Healers resulted from these activities, to which
were drawn many eminent men and women of the time, who have
left behind a wealth of printed records of their studies and testified
experiments. Much of all of these results may be doubted by the
sceptics – but there is no smoke without fire. The impartial enquirer
will do well to observe that in all these diverse activities much the
same type of manifestations, information and mysterious laws
appears to have come to light.
Those who were studying these things from the mental and
philosophical angle were headed by a remarkable woman called H.P.
Blavatsky, whose strange personality seemed rather divorced from
her profound and level-headed writings. She made a deep and
exhaustive search into ancient Eastern mystical records and produced
almost an encyclopedia upon the subject in her Secret Doctrine and
other books. The Theosophists, headed by Annie Besant, carried on
the work. During the same period a very ancient sect called the
Rosicrucians were allowed to begin to give out a little of their
knowledge to the public. Some of this work was accomplished by
Rudolph Steiner and men like Max Heindel. The less intellectually
inclined were provided for by the Spiritualists, Christian Scientists,
Mesmer, Dr. Coue, and others.
Everything was done by fair means, and possibly foul to awaken
people to a sense of the potency of the inner worlds. The seeds thus
sown germinated and persisted. Today there is a big field of these
activities, and excites little comment because it has grown to be a part
of the life of the public.
What are the principal elements of the more exalted of these
teachings?
We hear first of all of the great Plan for the evolution of
humanity, which develops through Spirit ensouling seven great Races
and dwelling on seven great Continents, of which Lemuria and then
Atlantis were the first two. The earth itself is to have seven successive
incarnations before becoming spiritualized. All this is only a tiny little
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cog in the wheel of Planetary Evolution. Planets come into successive

births just as does, humanity, both individually and collectively, and
so do Solar Systems!
Presiding over our Solar System in the Hierarchy, and all their
staff of graded helpers, mentioned in the Bible as the Seven Spirits
before the Throne, the Archangels, Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim.
Humanity is in the School of Earth, graduating to be qualified to fill
such exalted positions in the dim future. The first to pass these mystic
examinations (called Initiations) will be ready to replace those of the
celestial company who are promoted to higher positions. Having
attained such status They have no longer any need of earth-lessons,
but They sometimes elect to come back to help humanity and set
them an example of the perfect human life, as did Jesus Christ, the
Buddha, and many others in earliest history. In fact, we are told that
the gods themselves instructed humanity at the dawn of history, at
which time humanity was entirely conscious of the inner world and
had gradually to learn to become aware of the crystallizing Physical
Plane.
The gods, or those members of the hierarchy who are in charge
of the elements and the different forces of Nature, have always been
appreciated throughout the ages and worshipped in excellent
symbolical form by such people as the Egyptians, the Assyrians and
the Chinese. All these faiths in their original root form acknowledged
the One God over all. For instance, if we study the revival of that
pure religion as it was cultivated by King Akhnaton, we will see that
he founded it upon a former faith, existing thousands of years
previous to his time, which worshipped the one God.
We are told that humanity has had to pass through a long dark
Age of Materialism in which to learn to master physical matter by its
own means. This accomplished, it will rise once more from the
‘Maya’ or ‘Illusion’ of the importance of matter and focus its eyes
upon the real inner world of causes and realities.
Human beings were built originally, we are told, with a special
organ with which to register the finer vibrations of the physical world,
the realm of the ethers.
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This organ was known, as we have said, as the ‘Third Eye’. The
‘Third Eye’ is placed between the other two, at the root of the nose,
and has its seat near the Pineal Gland. It is said that the earliest
people of all used only that middle eye, and were known as the
Cyclops. We are told that during the embryonic development of the
human species, at first man’s only organ was one which he used to
feel with, and to differentiate between heat and cold. In time this
organ recessed, and the first sense, of touch, spread all over the
nervous system and through the skin. Apparently man’s second organ
to develop was his one ‘Eye’, which he used to see all ‘non-solid’
matter (which was all that existed at the time). As the earth solidified
man developed his two physical eyes with which to view the solid
world, and his second organ recessed, its etheric sight spreading all
over the nervous system and having its seat in the solar plexus. It is
said each of man’s five senses will eventually spread all over his body
in the same way.
The capacity for sight in the ‘lower’ non-solid etheric portion of
the physical plane is therefore one of the most primitive involuntary
functions, which man shares with the animals. It is only when this
ability is brought by will-power and training under the control of
man’s higher faculties, and made to work in conjunction with the
centres in his head, that it becomes of real value. Thus co-ordinated,
all three activities are often classed under the heading of the ‘THIRD
EYE’, and for the present it will simplify matters if we sometimes do
this also.
As physical eyesight developed, the etheric eye recessed, but
although dormant at present In most people, it is only awaiting
development and training to be reawakened . this training is a part of
deliberate mystical development, which was well understood and
thoroughly provided for in the ancient temples. No high ruler or
Pharoah was eligible without such training. The fact of his finished
apprenticeship was announced by a nob upon the forehead of his
statue, representing the awakened ‘Third Eye’, or by a serpent’s head
rearing from his own show that he had raised the Kundalini serpent.
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The Chinese mandarin wore a peacock’s feather in his head-

dress to represent the same development.
The functioning of the ‘Third Eye’ puts the individual in touch
with the greater part of the physical world, all that part which is
invisible to the physical eyesight. The physical world is divided, as is
all else, into seven interpenetrating planes or strata. These are solid,
liquid, gaseous, and four kinds of ether. The physical eye can register
or ‘see’ the vibrations of the first three. The ‘Third Eye’ can
voluntarily register or ‘see’ the vibrations of the four ethers.
Certain creatures and types of activity (such as human beings
and waterfalls!) have their final outer expression in solid form.
Many other beings and types of activity have their final outer
expression in ether form or ‘etheric matter’ as it is called. For
instance, we are told that the angels have an etheric body as their
outer coat instead of a solid physical one as we have, and that this is
because aeons ago, at the time when they went through the ‘human’
or individualizing stage, the ether was the densest condition of matter
in existence.
When the ‘Third Eye’ is opened the individual begins to see all
the manifold creatures and activities of the ether, and he approaches
much nearer to the causes and realities of life. The mind can have
power over everything which it can visualize. Therefore, while man
is thus studying and learning to comprehend life in the ethers, he is
able to develop the power to use and control some of this life.
He sees, for instance, exactly what his thoughts are and what
happens to them. Once he has thoroughly comprehended the region
of thought he uses and controls his thinking apparatus to much
greater purpose.
He also studies the records of the earth’s history which exist in
the ethers in photographic form. He also gains an acquaintance with
the plane described as the Fourth Dimension, the power to penetrate
with one’s sight or consciousness in every direction at once, and
backwards and forwards through time.
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Time and Space are physical attributes, but only an infinitesimal

fraction of their limits can be apprehended by the senses while using
their fleshly encasements.
The Yogi or Sage who wishes to know truth at first hand, and to
study the workings of the universe, sets himself earnestly and
patiently to reawaken his ‘Third Eye’ into activity, using time-worn
and tested methods. He proceeds to study the conditions in each of
the four ethers. He gradually accustoms himself to discriminate
between and sum up the unaccustomed intricacies of
interpenetrating, mobile and changing activities. The task is
extraordinarily difficult and unimaginable to the ordinary man, but
the Sage has access to instruction and help of which many of our
less advanced mediums and psychics of the West are ignorant.
Truth is the essence of Purity, and therefore, as the Sage knows,
can only be contacted by one of a like vibration.
Therefore the wise one acknowledges the first step to be the
attaining of a condition of Purity - Purity of Motive and Purity of
Living – a very little understood condition!
He next works to bring the brain under the complete subjection
of his will instead of at the mercy of outside influences. By a series
of carefully planned exercises he trains his mental equipment in much
the same way as a dancer trains her muscles. The dancer gains
complete control of her body at the cost of tremendous work and
sacrifice. The Sage, for about the same cost of effort, gains complete
control of the mind.
The mind is a very powerful instrument. We cannot say much
about it at this juncture except that it can be compared with material
of electrical consistuency which has, if concentrated to one point,
the same burning quality as fire. If a mind is divided upon several
thoughts its burning force is dispersed in various directions. If
concentrated upon one point it becomes as a burning-glass to the
‘Sun’ of its own Ego.
The effort of the Yogi, or any spiritual aspirant, is directed
towards achieving one-pointedness of the mind. With this sharp
instrument he can then bore through all the shells of illusion to the
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very truth and essence of all life. He can then deliberately wield and
mould with his mind creative patterns which will help to shape the
future. He is no longer confined to the haphazard creative efforts of
the average man. He can create from the inside with the invisible
sources of things.
With such capacities he can heal, prophesy and teach from the
source of Truth. Such attributes the true Christian also is dedicated
to seek, because they are the ‘gifts of the Holy Ghost’.,
To do these things, however, it is not enough to have opened the
‘Third Eye’, or the Eye of the Soul. This knowledge of the universe
must be linked with the highest creative force within the body before
creative activity can follow.
The seat of this creative force is in the throat, in the Thyroid
gland. When the magnetism of the soul dominates the body it draws
up reserve force from the base of the spine, where it was used for the
animal nature, to the throat, as we mentioned in the description of
the Kundalini serpent. This fire of creative force can then be used for
inspired creative work of various kinds. But the highest expression
of the power of the throat centre lies in the spoken word. God spoke
and created the world. Christ spoke and called to the dying to arise
and walk.
Man is a god in the making, and the goal is waiting before him.
When once he has set his feet firmly upon the path of attainment his
earnest aspirations will burn the dross out of his body and mind.
Then by degrees the centres of force located within his seven major
glands will be enabled to function. These centres, named by the
Indians chakras, connect him with the knowledge of and power
consciously to work in the different planes of matter.
Man’s whole mentality can by this means be re-oriented and
changed from a limited conception of third-dimensional objective life
to a broad understanding concerning the why and the wherefore of
the universe and his own part in the scheme of things. He achieves a
telepathic union with the Mind of the Being whose body is this solar
system, sometimes spoken of as Cosmic Consciousness.
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THE THIRD EYE
The science of self-development along these lines usually

includes special dieting, fasting, breathing and posture, but the
principal aspect of this training is known as Meditation.
The practice of Meditation is creeping into various of the
Western cults and occult societies, under different guises, and, alas,
in some cases, in incomplete and misconceived forms. However, the
germ of the idea has already taken root in the West, and as everything
is speeded up nowadays it may come to be more quickly understood
than we could expect.
The third factor which is necessary for this attainment of man
is the heart. Sequestered in one of the ventricals of the heart is what
is called the ‘seed-atom’ of man’s physical body. It contains a minute
image of the man himself, and his own body is said to be a large
replica of it. This seed atom is the little record, the actual essence of
the man’s personality, the link or channel between him and his soul.
It holds the ‘silver chord’ to the heart, and when it is severed and
‘death’ occurs the seed-atom leaves the body and is preserved in the
subtler realms until the man’s reincarnation, when he is formed from
it again.
We can say, therefore, that the actual man himself, his real
personality, his essence, his memory and all of him that will endure,
dwells, in the last analysis, within the heart. For this reason all that
man learns, through training and combining his physical brain with
his higher mind, must be linked with his heart before it is really his.
Christ said ‘As a man thinketh in his heart so is he’, and ‘Where a
man’s heart is there will his treasure be’.
The function, action and quality of the heart is Love. Love in
its broadest sense is the desire for reunion with the divine Spirit of the
Creator which permeates all life. Love is the magnet which holds all
life together. Its attraction is so strong that nothing can resist it.
Through the direct access of the heart to the Divine Spirit of
Love or Truth come those ‘intuitions’ which are always more reliable
than the ‘thought-out’ processes of the brain – everything which you
can love you can understand. Put limitations to Love and you limit
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life. That is what most of us do. We confine our love to one or two
people and possessions, and close ourselves to the rest of life.
To reach the divine Truth, therefore, the heart must desire it, the
heart must love it above all else. And then the power of the heart will
link the man within it to his illumined mind and brain, the active
Pineal Gland and Pituitary Body. The perfect Triangle will have been
formed, the Triangle that has been drawn and symbolized and named
in so many tongues.
Then the birth of the God in Man takes place – ‘Unless ye be
reborn ….’ We must quote the Christ in this connection because His
great work, we are told, was to flood the earth permanently with His
own great Spirit of Love, to make it possible for humanity to attain
this rebirth of the Soul through the pure straight channel of the Heart
alone. Since His coming it has no longer been necessary to have strict
occult training and deep mental development before spiritual heights
can be achieved. From then onwards the heart has been able to reach
illumination through direct union, through love and worship, with
the great Christ spirit, and through following the standards set by Its
embodiment in the man Jesus.
The sacrifice of the Christ spirit in thus bearing the heavy mantle
of earth vibrations in order to support the faltering heart-beat of
humanity has been greater than we are able to imagine. Humanity
would appear to be very slow in taking advantage of it, and seems
hardly able seen to grasp the standards set for it as yet.
‘Love thy neighbour as thyself ’ – so simple and so clear! And
quite enough to change this tortured earth to a lovely place.
‘Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves.’ Here again we
have the serpent as the age-old symbol of the Kundalini serpent
which rises up the spine and links together the great Triangle. We can
gather that Jesus Christ taught His disciples the science of
Meditation. Often He took them apart into a high place (or plane).
We read that one of them even reached the ‘third heaven’ and learned
there of things which no man is allowed to tell.
The Buddha sat in Meditation for years until he had gained
access to the Universal Knowledge.
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THE THIRD EYE
Such great spirits have done much of the preliminary work for
us and have shared with us their knowledge, so all we need do is to
profit by it.
It is not necessary for all of us to travel the occult path, to study
deeply and to train as mystics. We are all at different stages along the
‘Path’. We must not over-reach ourselves or we will have to retrace
our steps. Many of us, in fact, may choose, subconsciously, to
continue with our most vital inner development only during our
hours of sleep, and to withold our growing knowledge, for the time
being, from our little waking brain. But it is never too early for any of
us to take the quickest way – to begin to learn to Love, and to clear out
all the accumulated rubbish of false thinking, intolerance and greed
which is robbing us of the Light of Life.
Whether we choose to approach the Truth through the discipline
of study, complex thought and abstruse language, or through the
discipline of self-sacrifice and service, the essence of that which we
seek remains the same – too simple for words or brain, just a letting
go of fear and ambition for the self.
We are trying to overcome habits of thought embedded in our
personalities for centuries. For some of us this may only be possible
at our present stage through the constant drilling of words, words,
words! Others may be able to short-circuit them by a tremendous
effort of Love.
But however the goal is approached, and however, it is achieved,
let it be borne in mind that the gate of man’s deliverance, his birth as
a god in human form, is heralded by the re-opening of the ‘Third
Eye’, after which he will remain no longer blind to everything in life
except the tiny excrescence which we call the physical World!
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14
FIRST STEPS TO MASTERY
___________________
The mastery of which we speak is a potent inner quality that

may manifest outwardly in various forms, according to the decision
of the Ego or Inner Man.
We are told that the Ego decides before birth upon the
experiences, hardships and conditions of life by means of which it
shall learn its next lesson, ‘develop its next spiritual muscle’, upon
earth.
It then chooses, or is drawn to, a birthdate which will tune it in
to such conditions, and selects parents with whom it had already built
up certain Karma or obligations in former lives.
It is pointless, therefore, for the individual to try to shirk, avoid,
or mitigate the experiences and difficulties of his life thus expressly
selected to help him. To do so would be merely to postpone the issue
and lose chances of development. The issue at hand is to learn a
certain spiritual Law, to cure a certain defect in character, and to
develop a certain quality of mastery. Therefore an intelligent man
will strive to discover where he stands and what is the lesson he is
required to learn. If he is then able, by an effort of will, to anticipate
this lesson by deliberately training his heart and mind to the stage
required, he may in this way obviate the necessity for an unpleasant
experience.
Thus may a man learn to master his own stars, by eradicating in
his character those vibrations which attract the analogous disciplinary
stellar influences to him.
The individual may choose thus to hasten his development by
speeding up the improvement in his own character. Or he may take
the simpler way of the heart, the way of Intuition and Love. In this
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case he will, through opening his heart in love and faith, establish a
direct link with the Great Plan, the joy of which superconscious
Knowledge will uphold him through all experience. It will illuminate
his path through life, investing sorrows and joys with the radiance of
their inner message, so that he would not wish one particle of his life
changed. ‘Stone walls do not a prison make’ – nor do palaces a
paradise!
Illumined poets throughout the ages have expressed these truths.
Milton said, ‘The mind is its own place and in itself can make a hell
of heaven or a heaven of hell.’ We have to learn to taste life to the
very dregs while listening intently for the inner spiritual message
which it teaches, and never losing sight of the inevitable and glorious
goal – Godhood.
The first step to mastery is, therefore, to put the mind in order,
to train it to work clearly and dispassionately and to establish a true
perspective on life. We must clear out from our minds quite
mercilessly all the accumulated rubbish, so that we will have a clean
free field in which to develop the marvellous latent powers which are
our heritage. We must get rid of all ‘inhibitions’, all false values,
uncertainties, indecisions, fussiness and restlessness, all those states
which eat away the vitality of body and mind.
We have paid much money in the past to doctors and specialists
to analyse our bodies for us. Finding the results not quite satisfactory,
we instinctively turn to the psycho-analysts and psychologists, paying
them to analyse that which we begin to feel is the root of our troubles.
All those men do what they can for us because we have given them
cause to believe that we do not care to hear the truth – namely that
we could do much more for ourselves than they can do.
Worry, rush, noise, anger, fear and envy poison the system just
as surely as if we took arsenic. If we err sufficiently in any of those
ways we die; therefore, if we err in any lesser degree we are still
injuring ourselves; even although death comes more slowly, we
shorten our lives.
It is recorded that venom has been found on the tongue of a man
in a rage exactly similar in its constituents to the venom of a snake.
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The same poison has been found to be generated in the body of an

angry bull. Such venom would of course emanate in a fine form from
the body of a vindictive and furious person, and act as a subtle poison
to all contacting it. The story is told of the ward of a certain hospital
for the wounded during the war in which an alarming percentage of
the patients died. Investigations were pursued and it was discovered
that the matron had been all her life a ‘man-hater’. After her
departure the death rate returned to normal. There is also recorded
an experiment in which the breath of a person who was very much
upset was caught in a test-tube and found to contain enough poison
to kill a small rodent in a few moments.
The effects of people’s emanations upon flowers, animals and
children is often very noticeable.
Love and hate, then, have each their chemical form and action.
It is obviously impossible for doctors or teachers to do us any
permanent good until we learn not to poison ourselves and those
around us.
The true spiritual qualities entirely eliminate these poisons.
Absolute faith makes fear and worry an impossibility.
Unreserved love leaves no room for hate, anger, envy or greed.
Worship of beauty in abstract and concrete form strengthens and
protects man in all his activities. One who is able to live in this way
needs no outside help and sheds warmth and radiance on all around
him.
If we wish seriously to set the stage and prepare the way to this
attainment our first step must be gradually to eliminate all
unnecessary thoughts, desires and habits from our lives.
Every day for a few weeks we should examine ourselves
thoroughly, writing down honest replies to the following questions:
What are our ideals? In what do we really believe?
What is our ambition in life – and why?
Are we prepared to face the truth about ourselves and make a
change?
Or are we liable to sit on both sides of the fence?
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What are our faults? And what are our talents? What are we
doing about them?
What are the things which affect and worry us? Just how
important are they?
This examination should be persevered with until all the answers
are clearly written down. It will be found that much sound thinking
has probably never been done before. The result will be like a tonic to
the brain and a stimulant to the endeavours. The important thing is
to clear out everything from the mind which we can possibly do
without, so as to concentrate all our powers upon the strictly
necessary.
One of the Seven Devils of mankind is Possessiveness.
Possessions rule us while appearing to be our slaves. Our lives
are cluttered up with possessions which we are sure that we need;
they take up our time and money, tie us to places and complicate our
lives in a thousand ways. To be continually looking at quantities of
possessions confuses the brain. A clairvoyant gazes at the crystal
merely to prevent her physical eye from seeing any objects; she knows
that to see them detracts from the powers of the mind.
The Yogi discards all possessions, and tries to discover the
minimum needs for physical existence.
Jesus Christ instructed His disciples to go out into the world to
teach, taking only the barest necessities of raiment.
Possessiveness is the root cause of all wars, tyrannies and other
obscenities. It is founded on an entire fallacy. If we endeavour to
possess anything we at once separate that thing and ourselves from
the rest of life. We are meant to possess all things, to share all things,
to be a part of all life, to have power over all things – not over one. If
we insist on striking always on one note the rest of the music is lost
to us.
The desire to possess people or one person also defeats its own
end, restricts progress and leads to jealousy – the gate of madness. We
should respect the privacy and originality of every human soul and
allow it complete freedom for development. Otherwise the inner spirit
resents the outrage of repression and love dies.
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Possessiveness arises from the innate unconscious knowledge

that we are born to own and to unite with All; we must learn to
transmute our petty physical possessiveness back to its divine origin.
By this achievement a great amount of the unnecessary will be
removed from our lives.
The next step is to study our own processes of thought. We will
soon discover that we are usually ‘thinking of a hundred things at
once’. It would be impossible for several shorthand typists to capture
all the thoughts which jostle one another through our brains in the
space of a few moments. This shows that we divide the power of our
minds up into about a hundred parts, giving only a very small portion
of it to any one thing. Therefore we do most things with a tiny percen-
tage of our actual capacity, which usually remains for ever unknown.
Once having eliminated all unnecessaries from our minds, we
can give undivided attention to anything we do. The completely
undivided attention of the mind is all-powerful, omnipotent, a force
that can burn through everything and bend everything to its
command. This is known to occultists, mystics, and students of these
things, who spend the best part of their lives in practices and studies
with this end in view.
In the West such training as Pelmanism coincides in many
particulars with the Eastern traditions and can produce similar
excellent results. It can safely be said that nothing in any sphere of life
will be successfully achieved until the capacity for one-pointed
concentration has been developed.
The third step in the preliminary process of self-analysis is to
gain a clear conception of our sense of values and as concise an idea
as possible of our definition of right and wrong, good and evil.
Many of us do not agree with the statements of the Christian
Scientists that there is no such things as evil and that pain does not
exist.
We feel pain, and we see evil and ugliness around us. Perhaps it
would be more practical to accept the evidence of our senses and try
to discover what part the dark side of life is meant to play in the
scheme of things and how we can best co-operate.
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A little thought will make clear that this world is built up in

reality of a collection of opposites, and that it is only through being
able to compare these opposites that we are able to have any views at
all. Light would be meaningless to us if we did not know darkness;
summer would be equally monotonous if we had no winter; warmth
could not be appreciated if we did not suffer cold; peace and silence
exist to us by reason of their contrast with noise; and goodness itself
would be non-comprehensible were we not able to compare it with
evil. Without sin and pain where would we be? ‘Perfect’, with no
possibility of further progress, static!
If we are to evolve to something better on this earth, we must be
given some means by which to do so. How should we be able to grow,
to learn, to conquer, without such aids as sin, sorrow and pain? If
the imagination is sufficiently alive to picture a world devoid of ‘evil’,
life would be seen going round and round in a complete groove,
without incident, without change, getting nowhere!
In the earliest days of the religion from which part of the Christian
beliefs have sprung, Satan was worshipped. He was understood to be
the greatest benefactor of man, placing before him temptations and
experience without which he would remain stagnant and futile.
Without experience man cannot create. At present humanity is
said to be evolving from a state of ineffectual virgin ‘spirit’ into self-
conscious creative ‘Godhood’, and this is mostly through the help of
‘evil’ or ‘Satan’. According to this, then, one can no longer call Satan
‘evil’, nor can one think of evil as evil if it is so beneficial to us.
It is possible, therefore, to say that there is no evil.
What, then, is there? What causes all the trouble?
There is only un-balance. Perfection is true balance of all the
parts whether it be found in a human face, in character, or in the
works of Nature. And this is where man’s free-will comes in. He is
able to upset the ideal balance of things by stressing too much some
particular aspect. This upsetting of the balance at once creates a state
of non-perfection or ‘evil’.
Too much stress upon the possessive feelings, for instance,
produces the ‘sin’ of jealously.
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Too much stress upon the bodily sensations produces a glutton

or a libertine.
Too much stress upon mental sensations creates a crank or a
fanatic.
Even if a man puts too much stress upon his spiritual side and
ignores his body he may go mad – unbalanced, as it is rightly called.
There are many lesser stages of madness not recognized as such
– a snob, a miser, a murderer, all expressing advanced stages of over-
balance or the putting of too much stress on any one thing.
We all do this inevitably in one way or another, because of our
free-will, and in order to learn the great law of Karma – cause and
effect, action and reaction.
Satan was at one time called the Magistrate of God, the Keeper
of Karma and of Numbers. His work was to stand by and deal out
the lawful effects of unbalance. It can be imagined, therefore, that the
glutton might be given a diseased body, lasting throughout several
lives until he learns balance in that respect. The fanatic or the man
who has ill-used, or not used, his brain might be given imbecility for
a life or two, until he learns to understand the necessity for keeping
a balanced brain. The theory seems to be that the soul of man, in
these cases, chafes with impatience within his imbecile or diseased
body, bewailing the wasted time due to his former foolishness, and
developing good resolutions for the future.
It takes a long time for man to learn this simple law of cause
and effect, and meanwhile he blames his parents, circumstances or
Fate for his shortcomings. When he learns that he himself has been
developing these shortcomings in former lives he can no longer blame
his parents. Nor can they say that they have not deserved such a son,
for he is their Karma as much as they are his!
Finally, we are told, man will master this lesson of balance – or
non-evil – in all parts of his make-up.
He will learn to love deeply, but unselfishly, without stressing
the self, understanding and forgiving all because of his own
experience and realization of the laws of development. He will no
longer give all his love to his own people and nothing to the world.
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He will realize that all the world is serving him – with the experience
he so deeply needs for his growth. And he will keep the balance by
giving back to the world always, giving of all the love and
understanding he has, without criticizing that ‘evil’ by means of
which others are striving to develop, just as he is. Understanding the
law of rebirth, he will realize that all stages, either of ignorance, sin,
unhappiness or achievement, either have been or will be once his
own. He will learn to balance his emotions with his aspirations,
becoming dispassionately passionate, joyfully serious, calmly intense,
unhurriedly quick, and actively passive.
To attain complete balance in the character self-study is
necessary.
‘Man, know Thyself ’ was inscribed over the doors of the
wonderful ancient temples of learning as the most important
injunction to all aspirants.
‘The man who has mastered himself has mastered the world’, is
another well-worn saying, which gains in significance when we reflect
that man is said to contain within himself a facsimile of and a link
with everything in the universe.
Having thus set the stage mentally and physically for our
progress to self-mastery, we can now outline the preliminary stages of
the actual process.
The two most marked points in a person’s life are the beginning
and the end of his day, and it is to these, first of all, that we must give
especial attention.
There is a certain exercise which is given throughout the world
to all those who are seeking ‘wisdom and perfection’. It is considered
of primary importance, and like all exercises depends for its effect
upon the regularity of its performance.
It consists of a careful Review of the events and actions of the
day before going to sleep. The mind must travel slowly backwards
through all the incidents, thoughts, motives, acts and words of the
day, seeking quite impartially for traces of unbalance and also for
traces of wiser understanding. Experience gained must be noted, and
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a frank and cool summing-up of failure and achievement must be

made without either pride or condemnation.
This exercise, if faithfully and honestly repeated every night, will
work miracles in the character. It performs two services of invaluable
importance.
Firstly, it enables us to go through our Purgatory here and now
as we go along, instead of waiting for its advent in accumulated form
at some future date. By this means we can cancel out whatever
particular ‘Hell’ we would have made for ourselves, as well as much
earthly Karma. Our conscience, through being developed just like
any muscle, will become so strong that in the end we will have as
much difficulty in going wrong as formerly we had in trying to keep
right. This is a fine way of clearing the decks for action, casting out
much waste thought, remorse, and other exhausting inhibitions.
It will mean, also, that when we pass out of the body in sleep we
can travel straight through to the heart of things, without being held
back to the coarser realms by any tormented ‘earth-bound’ thoughts.
Our sleep will therefore be deeper and more refreshing. We will have
a better chance to gain the ‘soul-wisdom’ and inspiration which true
sleep brings. This exercise also helps to etch experience into the
memory, thereby avoiding the need for a recapitulation of the events,
and so saves much time for the developing soul.
The second of these vital exercises must take place at the moment
of awakening. An effort of the will should be made to capture and
remember the ‘dreams’ or experiences of the night before they rapidly
fade from the memory. All that is recollected, however trivial, must be
written down. After some practice valuable ideas, inspirations and
even prognostications will begin to be remembered. The final result
will be an unbroken train of consciousness during the twenty-four
hours, which consciousness man will learn eventually to carry straight
through the veil of death, and back with him at his next incarnation.
By means of these two simple exercises, the morning and the
evening Review, he whose inspirations are high, sincere and enduring
may begin at once to achieve his Godhood and acquire his first-hand
knowledge of the secrets of the universe.
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15
MEDITATION
_____________
‘It is in silence that the soul speaks.’

Men have always realized the mystery of silence; they have ever
been haunted by the feeling that silence and stillness are full of potent
and vital Something that is lost during activity and noise. ‘Speech is
silver but Silence is Golden’, said the poet.
As we gain in experience we will be able to observe that one of
the hallmarks of men great in spiritual qualities is that they are calm,
still, and sparing of speech, although extremely vital. If you meet a
man or woman of this type keep near to them. You will learn much
from them, even without words.
The Science of Meditation has been used throughout the ages as
the means by which a man can link his brain, mind and soul together,
and connect them consciously with the Universal Intelligence – or
the Mind and Motives of the Creator of this Solar System.
By means of Meditation man learns to concentrate and project
his attention straight through the physical plane to the Fourth
Dimension, then later to further dimensions. He endeavours to bring
that which he learns through into the physical world, translated into
physical language, and interpreted into his own brain as best he can.
In the realms which he may reach, language, colour and form have
quite different expressions to those with which we are familiar. He is
getting to the heart of things, the underlying causes, the primordial
truths which eventually give their faint distorted reflection as physical
colour, sound and form.
He learns much that cannot be expressed in words or even in
‘physical’ thought. His brain must be gradually trained to encompass
these unfamiliar aspects of life. Often this is well-nigh impossible,
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and, instead, the knowledge is absorbed and held by his ‘super-

conscious’ mind. It feeds strength and stability into his character
without his being conscious of the process at all. The result of this
union with Divine Intelligence is that man can now work in
accordance with the Plan; he is spared the tragedy of wasting his
efforts in the wrong direction. That which he does and the influence
which he spreads will be for the good of humanity – it will be a
definite building up for future progress. The innate knowledge which
he has thus acquired he may express in the creation of music, art,
literature, a new ‘religion’, new economic or social developments, or
else in an example of fine personal living.
He no longer needs to have faith in the existence of ultimate and
divine realities. He knows. He has put himself in touch and in tune
with them, and henceforth can bask inwardly in the radiance and joy
of his knowledge. He can mentally look down upon the conflicting
processes of the world’s development, including his own little
suffering, much as one would study a fascinating Chinese puzzle.
With one part of him he suffers and experiences, while at the same
time with the other part he enjoys, comments and learns.
To many people the attainment of such a state of knowledge
and power has been all-important. They have given up their lives to
it. Such people are the Yogis, Disciples, Buddhas, and those of their
kind in all countries.
There is a fundamental difference between Eastern and Western
peoples.
Those of the East draw everything inward to themselves and
hold it, and are comparatively inactive although they learn much –
intraverts.
Those of the West are full of action and energy, but give little
time to studying themselves and acquiring deep knowledge before
they act – extraverts.
So in the East we find inspired inaction resulting in stagnation.
And in the West we find uninspired action resulting in chaos.
When universal love, neighbourliness and brotherhood
eventually spread across the world, East and West will learn from
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MEDITATION
each other and pool their attributes. The result will be Inspired
Activity. We have already seen the earliest beginnings of this
amalgamation around us. While Westerners are busy improving
living conditions in the East, oriental teachers of philosophy and
spiritual laws are gaining a considerable hearing in the West.
The ideal towards which we have to work is therefore
Meditation followed by Action.
Let us now consider the actual process of Meditation and its
several phases.
Imagine a great orchestra playing a powerful symphony. In the
orchestra is one delicate muted violin, which we cannot hear
although it plays all the time. The louder vibrations swamp its sound.
If the louder instruments be stopped one by one the violin will still
not be heard. Finally when they have all ceased we can suddenly hear
it playing faintly. Our ears gradually accustom themselves to it until
it appears to be making a volume of clear sound.
This is a good simile of the process of meditation. The human
being is like an orchestra of varying vibrations. The louder, coarser
vibrations are those of the atoms of body and brain. The finer are
those of the emotions and thoughts. The muted violin represents the
soul’s message trying to filter through. To hear the soul’s message all
the rest of the orchestra must be silenced.
All the criss-cross currents of bodily sensations, thoughts,
memories, hopes, desires and emotions must be stilled into complete
passivity. Then the brain must be held poised and ready to receive the
impress from the mind of that which the latter has been able to
translate of the soul’s message.
The soul is the egos intermediary between the world of spirit and
the world of matter, the storehouse of the results of experience in
both realms, flashes of its knowledge coming to us as ‘Conscience’ or
Inspiration. The soul has been likened to a mirror which can reflect
the spirit world into the physical, but is usually too clouded over with
vibratory disturbances to do so.
‘Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face’.
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Meditation stills the vibratory disturbances of the personality,

and the mirror clears. The first stage in meditation is therefore
complete bodily relaxation. This cannot be accomplished when the
body is in the wrong position. There are one or two postures which
have been proved to be suitable. The spine must be erect and well
balanced, and the ribs must be free for deep breathing.
The early Egyptians used to sit very upright upon a chair with
the eyes gazing straight ahead, the hands palm downwards upon the
knees, the elbows well tucked in to throw out the chest, the heels
together and the toes apart. They have left many statues represented
as meditating in this position. We are told it is the one best suited to
the Westerner also.
The Indians meditate mostly sitting cross-legged upon the
ground. Those who are skilled and expert use the ‘Lotus’ posture, in
which the soles of the feet are turned upwards and the body is locked
and balanced in such a manner that should the devotee pass into a
trance he cannot fall over.
The Chines also squat, using various postures of the hands and
feet to achieve different results.
The Westerner who is making a beginning should adopt the
Egyptian pose, and learn completely to relax sitting upright, and
balancing the spine, neck and head so carefully that he ceases to be
conscious of them.
He must then commence to breathe deeply, silently, evenly and
slowly, through the nose, and gradually perfect this process until he
can perform it also unconsciously. The slower the breathing the easier
the control of the mind – but only that which can be performed
without the slightest effort or strain is of any use whatever for his
purpose.
By means of these two preliminary steps he has begun the
process of stilling the vibrations of first his physical and then his
etheric body.
The next and more difficult task is to tackle his emotional and
mental equipment. He must drop all feeling, all stress, strain and
longing for accomplishment, all anxiety or excitement at the prospect
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MEDITATION
in view. Excitement and emotion are formed of low, heavy and

‘noisy’ vibrations.
There remains now the brain, that bustling little typewriter
which ceaselessly taps out the drifting or hurrying crowds of thought-
forms which float through it upon the ether. The aspirant must
patiently, continuously, and without effort, wipe these thoughts out as
with a sponge upon a slate. This process also must be continued until
it can be performed unconsciously, a difficult feat which may need
months or years of practice. When, however, this has been
accomplished the practice of Meditation becomes possible.
In some occult parlance we are told to ‘make the mind a blank’
for Meditation. These words lead to an entire misconception. If the
ear is listening very intently for a certain sound, oblivious to all other
sounds, we do not think that the hearing is a blank! On the contrary,
it is actively at strict attention. So must the mind be, in Meditation,
held at strict attention, ready to convey to the typewriter brain its
interpretation of the impressions filtered through to it by the fine
vibrations of the inner activities – the ‘subtler planes where
knowledge is’.
The best times for Meditation are said to be upon awaking and
at about 6 p.m. It should be practised either before or several hours
after a meal. The room should be dim or dark. The eyes should be
facing a plain surface with, if desired, only one symbolical object on
which to concentrate, or, if preferred, the eyes may be closed.
We have now described the condition to which the aspirant must
learn to bring himself if he hopes to practice Meditation with any
success.
The science itself is divided into four successive stages:
Concentration, Meditation, Contemplation and Adoration.
Only the first two are possible to any but the adept of full-fledged
mystic, nevertheless we will describe them all.
The process of Concentration has already been partly analysed.
It consists in getting full control over the personality and then, when
the aspirant’s whole make-up is stilled and passive, in concentrating
the attention of the brain to one point, keeping it clear, steady and
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empty of stray thoughts, waiting to receive the information which

the mind is collecting.
When full Concentration has been established, then Meditation
can begin. Meditation consists in studying with great thoroughness
one object, subject, quality or force in life. As we have before stated
the concentrated one-pointed mind is like a powerful burning-glass or
magnet. When tuned in to the particular vibration of any object or
quality it can burn right through to the truth of it and draw to itself
everything connected with or of that same vibration.
Thus, supposing the aspirant has chosen a violin as the subject
of his meditation. He will first concentrate upon the violin, building
up in his mind as vivid and complete a picture of the instrument as
he is able. Then, holding the picture steadily before his mind’s eye, he
will begin to Meditate upon the instrument, endeavouring to learn
everything he possibly can about it. He traces its history, the wood
and other substances from which it was made, the process of making,
the story of its design, its passage through the hands of dealers.
Gradually it will be found that facts and information come to light of
which the aspirant was hitherto unaware. That is the secret of
Meditation – the possibility of actually learning without books, by
active mental contact with the information sought.
The aspirant who wishes to learn of love, unselfishness, or the
reality of the Divine Spirit, can reach this knowledge through
meditating positively but not vaguely upon it.
Meditation can also be used to solve any of life’s problems and
difficulties. Simply state the problem in an absolutely dispassionate
and impartial way, and wait steadily for the ideas relating to it to be
drawn to the mind. A fair solution will almost inevitably arrive. The
Oxford Group, now known as Moral Rearmament, use something
of this idea for their ‘Quiet Times’. Needless to say, a little knowledge
is a dangerous thing. It is better thoroughly to understand what is
happening, to avoid the danger of self-deception creeping in.
Meditation has to do with all the outer aspects and expressions
of an object or quality – all its physical-plane attributes.
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MEDITATION
The third stage, Contemplation, has to do with the inner

meaning, cause and Law behind any object or quality. In this case
the mind ceases its activity and allows the subject of Contemplation
to speak, to yield up its secret and reveal the mystery of its truth.
Having fully meditated upon the violin, if the aspirant could
pass into the stage of Contemplation the envisaged instrument would
disappear, leaving a space. Through that space would play the colours
and forces of the subtler planes, those which form the Architype or
Celestial pattern from which violins are made. The aspirant would
learn the why and wherefore of a violin, its part in the evolutionary
process and the actual creative quality of its particular tone. These
things would come to him in a form of knowledge not clothed in
words, and he would be at a loss how best to register and translate it
for his physical use.
The fourth and last stage of this science is Adoration, and of
this it is even less easy to speak.
Having learnt both the outer and inner meaning of his subject,
the aspirant has reached to the core of it. He discovers the core of it
to be the same as the core of himself – both spring from and are a part
of the Mind of the Divine Creator. Having pierced through to this
glorious and blinding realization, the aspirant can lose himself for a
brief spell in the knowledge of that perfect Unity of Love. This is his
moment of Adoration.
Through the steady practice of Meditation man can cease to be
as a puppet dancing on the end of a string jerked by some unknown
hand. He can learn to climb the string with his mind and will and
take control of the hand. He can become the friend and associate of
the Owner of the hand, and finally gain the freedom of complete
identification with Him.
It must always be remembered when trying to describe non-
physical states that physical language contains no suitable words or
phrases. The unaccustomed brain must be presented with a simile
only. When, through study or meditation, the brain has developed
and adjusted itself the same truths can be presented in a more
advanced manner which would not have been understood before.
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Therefore it is true to say that there is always much that is

superficially incorrect in occult teaching, and in, for instance, such a
book as this, because the neophyte brain must be coaxed along step
by step, the pill of truth coated with the sugar of inaccuracy, until it
becomes palatable in its purest form. However, books or no books, the
truth is always there for those who desire it above all else.
Another type of work for those who wish to push forward is
Group Meditation, or the blending of a small group of people to
meditate in unselfish brotherhood together.
Inasmuch as this calls for the breaking down of many of the
barriers that exist between the nicest of people – barriers of self-
consciousness, intolerance, criticism, and egocentricity – it is
obviously a very fine practice.
Christ said, ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them.’ Thus pointing out that unity
is strength on spiritual as well as on physical levels.
It may be inquired whether prayers do not suffice instead of
Meditation. Prayers are the five-finger exercises, the ABC of spiritual
growth. As such they will for ever play their part. But he who is not
content to remain spiritually in the nursery will sooner or later require
to put himself more individually in touch with the realities.
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16
HISTORY OF THE WISDOM
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Both the Bible and the history book, while being compiled for
us, have passed through intensive censorships, besides suffering at the
hands of unenlightened translators.
The result is that our orthodox education, both in religion and
history, is often very misleading, and keeps us in complete ignorance
of large and vital aspects of humanity’s evolution.
Much of the records of the knowledge to which we would like
to have access has been carefully guarded, secreted and even
destroyed during periods when it was considered more expedient to
keep the people in ignorance.
Nevertheless, there is still a wealth of literature all over the world
awaiting the explorer. If he pursues his inquiries with patience and
discrimination the following points will come to light.
The history of this earth is infinitely older than the modern
historian admits. There exist many and various sects, orders, and
religious and philosophical fraternities, who all possess exhaustive
records and treatises describing the evolution of man upon this
planet, and of the part that our Solar System plays in the Cosmic
scheme.
If the pure and original root of these different beliefs can be
uncovered, it will be found to be identical in most respects. In each
case we will discover that the One god over all was acknowledged,
and that the existence of the Hierarchy was well understood, and was
tabulated and represented under the names of various gods and
goddesses, nature-spirits and demons. The seven Great Spirits, their
colours, attributes and elements, the seven planes and man’s sevenfold
bodies were all carefully studied and analysed. The great Cosmic
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Cycles and Periods, as ruled by the Signs of the Zodiac and all the
astrological influences, both psychic and chemical, were subject to
intensive research. The laws of Rebirth and Karma were embodied in
all these beliefs.
We find that at the zenith of their civilization the various great
ancient nations had perfected this knowledge and by its means
produced immortal monuments to their science, such as the Great
Pyramid. It transpires that such a golden period in the history of a
nation was followed by crystallization, stagnancy, degeneration and
a final breaking up, leaving only distorted misunderstood relics of the
once-great knowledge. We learn that such great cycles were said to
occur regularly under astrological influences which provide for the
continual recommencing of man’s lesson on a higher turn of the
Spiral of Evolution, so that his development becomes ever subtler
and more complete. Before each new surge forward of enlightenment
man must be borne down within the crouching wave and submerged
in darkness and ignorance.
In all these records reference is made to the wonderful Golden
Age which occurred on the continent of Atlantis, which was said to
have submerged during its proceeding period of degeneration.
Mankind was said to have been taught the Ageless Wisdom by the
gods themselves upon Atlantis, and to have carried its remnants with
them in all directions as they fled to safer land. The story of Noah
and the Ark is repeated in many tongues and in not very varied guise.
The Atlanteans were said to have founded the Egyptian culture
and to have built the Sphinx, and their descendants the Pyramids. It
is believed that the early Egyptian religion thus founded was the
father of all the faiths which spread across Europe and Asia, as far
north as the Esquimaux and the Laplanders, and as far east as China
and Japan. In South America also perhaps the greatest of Atlantean
colonizations took place, but at a still earlier date.
There have been at least 300 books written about Atlantis. The
remains of its root language are said to be found in identical form
among the Welsh, Irish, Basques, Western Spanish, and on the
Canary Islands, Azores, Easter Island and in Mexico; as well as
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certain practices and beliefs. The Druids of England were believed to

be the descendants of Atlanteans who built Stonehenge and other
little-understood monuments in the British Isles.
We find also that a realization and consciousness of the inner
realities was the prerogative of ancient man all over the world even
if he lived as a barbarian. He did not need to believe in an after-live and
a world of spirits. He knew. He saw ‘ghosts’, and he understood their
difference from spirits. He communed with his dead. He knew of the
nature-spirits, who ruled the elements; he understood their qualities,
colours and their prototypes among the animals; he used animal
effigies to represent them.
The Zuni Indians prayed to seven great nature-gods by means of
the seven colours painted on their prayer-sticks.
The Tibetans also pray in accordance with colours, and designed
different-coloured masks embellished with a large third eye for their
‘devil-dances’.
In New Guinea the doctors paint their patients with the colours
of the particular Spirits needed to effect a cure.
The Early Britons painted themselves with the colours needed to
stimulate their prowess.
The colour of the Spirit of Darkness was usually black, of Light,
White; of water and vegetation, green; of air, blue, and of fire, red.
There was always the one Great Spirit over all whose colour was
Golden.
In Egypt Horus was white, Osiris black, Shu red, Amen blue,
and Num green.
The Egyptian Wisdom was brought to a high point under Ptah
in the Temple of memphis.
Wise men and students travelled from all over the world to study
with the Egyptian priesthood, whose famous pupils included Moses,
Jesus and Pythagoras, it is said.
The Egyptians named, described, and drew man’s seven bodies,
and went fully into all his activities after death. They understood the
etheric, astral, mental and spiritual planes, also purgatory, paradise
and the successive heavens.
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In their renowned collection of pictures and writings called The

Book of the Dead most of their beliefs are set forth. They considered
each human being as living with one goal in view, that of perfecting
his character in earthly life in preparation for his journey through the
‘nether’ world or astral planes, and his gradual progress through the
subtler planes to ‘paradise’ or the heaven-world, helped by the various
workers and representatives of the spiritual hierarchy.
The greater part of the Egyptian consciousness was
concentrated upon the Path of Attainment and the evolution of
mankind. By means of astronomy and astrology they mapped out a
wonderful and stupendous panorama of the Plan of Evolution and
the history of the world.
They originated the belief in the Messiah, whom they called the
Ever-coming One. He was the Egyptian Jesus, called Iusa or Horus,
and was reborn every 2500 years, or every time the earth passed into
the next Sign of the Zodiac. During each of these great two-
thousand-year periods He embodied the quality, lesson and type of
the Sign. For instance, under the Sign Leo, Iusa or Horus was
worshipped as a young lion and it is probable that the Sphinx was
raised in his honour. He was born as a Scarabaeus in Cancer 10-
12,000 years ago, in which Sign was also the crib or manger Star, and
that of the Ass. During that period the scarab was worshipped.
During the Sign of Taurus the Bull. He was born and worshipped as
the Golden Calf. During the Jewish Dispensation He was reborn as
a lamb in the Sign of Aries the Ram. And finally in the Christian Era
in the Sign of Pisces the Fish He came as the Jesus Christ of the New
Testament. The Sign of Jesus was a fish, which is still engraved upon
the Pope’s seal ring; the Early Christians were known as the Pisciculi.
The cross was used 7000 years ago in Egypt to represent the
power that upholds the human soul in death. The story of Jesus, of
the Annunciation, the virgin birth, of His baptism, temptation,
teaching, miracles, disciples, the Last Supper and His resurrection
had all existed and been elaborated in Egypt for 10,000 years. (Ancient
Egypt the Light of the World by Gerald Massey) Apparently it was
merely adapted by the writers of the New Testament and modelled
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on to the life of the new and greatest Messiah, with certain alterations
which clouded some of its deepest meanings.
There is only space to touch on this interesting subject here,
which can be studied at the student’s leisure.
Each of the great ancient religions had its Book of Records and
Teachings, which were for the outer ring of students. This Book was
always supplemented by a Commentary written for the inner circle of
the priesthood, explaining the secret symbolism of the Book and the
Mysteries therein concealed. Sometimes there was a second and third
Commentary giving the deepest inner meanings. These Keys or
Commentaries were carefully guarded and hidden, and in many cases
have apparently disappeared altogether.
The ancient Indian philosophy began with the Veda, including
the Upanishad books and their great Commentaries. The Rig a Yajur
Vedas are some of the earliest records of Aryan thought. They come
between the Egyptian and the Greek civilizations, and are assigned
to about 5000 BC. They worshipped a Heavenly Father (Dyans-Pitar)
and spirits controlling the elements. They had a very deep conception
of the One God. The Indian book of moral code, called the Laws of
Manu, taught continence and moderation and the striving for a
spiritual ‘second birth’. All ten of the Indian philosophies taught
Reincarnation.
Shankara, born about AD 788, was the great Indian saint and
elucidator of the Upanishads. He wrote one of the world’s
masterpieces, his commentary on the Brahman Sutras, the
Upanishads, and his ‘Song of the Lord’ (the ‘Bhabavad Gita’)’. He
was a great adept in Yoga.
Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, a method of ‘yoking’ up
with the ‘Supreme Self ’, a practice of extreme discipline for the
attainment of perfection. A Yogin is one who has studied, Yoga,
often at the Buddhist University of Nalanda.
The Buddha was the great Indian mystic, founder of Buddhism.
The Buddhist philosophy is based on the law of Karma. The
Brahmins believed Buddha to be the reincarnation of Vishnu, their
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ancient Teacher. They absorbed his teachings, which also took hold
in Tibet, China, and in Japan among the Zen monks.
The Tibetans have also a Book of the Dead containing the ‘Bod’,
which is a guide-book to the dying during the forty-nine days which
constitute the ‘Intermediary Stage’ between death and Union with
the Divine. Passages from this book are read to the deceased for forty-
nine days after his death, while he is supposed to be passing through
the three lower astral planes and viewing the panorama of his created
thought-forms. He finally realizes illusion and craves a new rebirth.
He is exhorted to believe in the One great Divinity of whom he is a
part.
In Persian a very fine philosophy was cultivated. This was the
Sufi with its book the Avesta. This was built upon a very early worship
of the sun-god Mithra, which at one time held great sway in Europe
as well as upon the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyam is inspired by Sufism. The Sufis
find ecstasy through losing themselves in union with the One Divine
Spirit. Some of the Fakirs and Dervishes are their offshoots, but these
are sometimes degenerated.
The Mohammedans possess a great wealth of philosophy in
their book the Koran, which also teaches an aspiration to unity with
the One God.
In China the religion, whether Buddhist or Taoist, is built upon
the teachings of Confucius. Confucius was a very practical teacher
and social organizer. Born in 551 BC, he worked to develop social
science and the building up of individual character, and did much to
bind China together. He was almost a contemporary of Buddha, and
was greatly influenced at one time by Lao Tze. His pupils recorded
his teachings in a book called The Digested Conversations, a large part
of which was burnt later during the Ts’in dynasty, with the usual
object of keeping the people in ignorance. Confucius believed in the
one God over all, and in three types of subsidiary spirits. He called
himself the ‘transmitter of the wisdom of the Ancients’.
Lao Tze was the Chinese ‘Jesus’. He was born of a virgin
mother, conceived under a falling star. He was a high mystic and left
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a famous book called Tao The King, which expounded a moral code
for the Way of Attainment. ‘Tao’ means Way and represents the
aspiration of the Taoists, Lao Tze believed in Reincarnation, Karma,
and the victory of gentleness.
The Japanese State religion was Shinto. Shinto means the Way
of the Spirits. Some of the Japanese became Buddhists, and nearly all
of them became Confucians as well.
Then there was a very stern type of Buddhism called Zen which
gained great sway in China and was finally transplanted to Japan.
The Zen classic is a poem called ‘The Taming of the Bull’, the bull
being of course the animal nature or materialism. The Zen monks
originated ju-jitsu, which has a deep scientific and mystical origin,
and was practised by their famous samurai warriors.
The Greek philosophies, founded by Pythagoras, Plato and
others, upon the Egyptian teachings accepted rebirth and other of
the ancient doctrines.
The Jews have their own great book of ancient records called
the Kaballah, and the inner meanings of these writings were sought
and studied by the famous Alchemists of the Middle Ages.
The Christian Church, as founded in Rome, guarded many
priceless manuscripts. It accepted Reincarnation and Karma, as it
said that Christ had also done. But from the first General Council of
Christendom at Nicaea in AD 325, to the last Council in
Constantinople in AD 869, Christian principles, rules and teachings
were subject to many deletions and changes. The result was to
decrease public knowledge for the aggrandizement of the priesthood.
From that time onwards all who possessed or were teaching the
Secret Wisdom were mercilessly persecuted and put to death.
Henceforward the occult sciences were studied in secret. They
were guarded and kept alive by such people as the Freemasons,
Rosicrucians, Alchemists, Troubadours, Knights of the Grail and the
Round Table, and the Avengensies or paper-makers. In Russia there
were the Trottes, and in Britain there had been the Druids. Earlier
still, in Mexico, there were the remnants of the teachings of
Quetzalcoatl, and of the ancient Atlantean settlement at Peru. In
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Chaldea there were the Magi or Magicians, the famous astrologers

who possessed the Egyptian Wisdom and knew of the time and place
where the new Messiah should be born. And in Palestine itself the
wise ones belonged to the sect called the Essenes, which had existed
for 8000 years, and was to have the privilege of training Jesus.
Everywhere in the world the self-same Ancient Wisdom can be
traced, until its widespread stamping out and persecution at the
beginning of the Dark Ages from which we are now emerging.
And everywhere in the world at present are the signs of the re-
emergence of that Wisdom back into the light of day, not as the
prerogative and secret of the priesthood, but as the hard-earned right
of the whole of humanity. The tables have indeed been turned, and
now we find much of the Wisdom outside the churches and temples
instead of inside them.
Humanity is taking its salvation into its own hands. That is
because we are now coming into the great Aquarian Age under the
Sign of the Zodiac Aquarius, which will last, as do all the Signs, for
about 2000 years. During this time the ‘Waters of Life will be poured
down on all mankind’, and the astrological influences will bring a
golden age to birth. Many believe that the Ever-Coming One will
arrive again in His newest guise, which we may not yet know; but
great will be the fulfilment for those who are ready and awaiting His
Coming.
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17
THE PRESENT AWAKENING
___________________
Having taken a lightning and very superficial survey of the

history of the Ancient Wisdom, we can now trace the evidences of
its resurrection at the present time.
The first steps were taken towards the end of the nineteenth
century. H.P.Blavatsky contributed greatly by her inspired researches
among ancient documents and the treasures she brought to light and
so tirelessly analysed. She founded the work which has since been
carried forward by the Theosophists and which consists of a
modernization of some of the Ancient Doctrines, together with
public instruction in the form of lectures and libraries. Various other
teachers and communities too numerous to mention here have come
forward all over the world to add their quota to the widespread
interest.
Some of these stress the mystical side, some the occult, and
some the practical. Everywhere there is a banding together of earnest
people thrilled with their particular fraction of the unearthed
wisdom, each little group usually convinced that it possesses the one
and only truth and way of salvation.
For a long time progress has been hampered by the old feeling
of separatism and the intolerance of another’s method of approach
to the truth. But even that handicap is finally beginning to be
overcome. The cry for world-wide unity, peace, brotherhood and the
casting down of barriers is increasingly making itself heard.
The League of Nations points the way, however imperfectly, to
the future welding together of the nations.
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Such a movement as the Oxford Group (now Moral

Rearmament), appears to be inspired, in spite of handicaps, to work
for the future fusing of all classes in a common Christian spirit.
Fraternities like the World Fellowship of Faith have fought
against almost insuperable odds of intolerance and stagnation, to
draw together the religions of the world and bring to light their
fundamental sameness. Groups have been formed all over the earth
for purposes of spiritual propaganda, united meditations, and
training for the selfless service of healing and harmonizing by
thought and prayer.
The word ‘international’ is now so much in use that it is almost
becoming a household word. Humane societies for the prevention of
cruelty of all kinds are also doing valuable work and gaining
increasing support, while education and health culture are being
revolutionized.
Nudist movements, vegetarian and nature-cure practices,
biochemistry and the latest method of psycho-analysis, all point the
way tot he future universal ‘Yoga’ of physical attainment which is
being ushered in.
The promised individualization of the Aquarian Age is already
in evidence. No newspaper can hope for success unless it provides
crossword puzzles or competitions, or in other ways allows its readers
to contribute each his own quota of self-expression or effort.
No film star dare run the risk of ignoring the individual
outpourings and demands of his fans.
From the lowest grades of humanity to the highest can be seen
signs of increasing independence, self-consciousness and awareness.
It is true that at the present time the world is racked in parts by
wars and bound down by oppression and dictatorships and that much
cruelty and selfishness is in evidence. But these very activities are a
proof of the restlessness and striving among all ranks, the stirring up
of the mud in the pond before it can be cleaned. It is like the final
orgy of a drunkard which precipitates the violent reaction through
which he is able to regenerate.
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THE PRESENT AWAKENING
The urge to combat stagnation and to struggle out of the ruts of

convention and go forward no matter how has been evidenced for
some time past in the adventures into ‘modern’ art, ‘modern’
literature, ‘modern’ music, and even ‘modern’ manners and morals.
All these signs are healthy and promising and only await the
leadership of those who have put themselves in touch with inner
realities to bear rich fruit.
One world-wide group of people, the ‘Men and Women of
Goodwill’, are pledged to contribute that leadership in all phases of
human living, fired by a lofty ideal of brotherhood which remains
completely non-partisan and all-embracing. They are introducing an
international periodical to foster the expression and reciprocity of
goodwill all over the globe. This will be an advance on the hundreds
and hundreds of periodicals already in circulation which are each
solely concerned with the activities and teachings of their own little
esoteric fraternity.
A deeper understanding of the arts and sciences is being taught
by the schools founded by Rudolph Steiner, whose very name is an
inspiration to students of the occult.
And so the work grows on all sides. There are some, of
particular gifts, who are practising alchemy itself, revising the ancient
mystic knowledge and probably preparing a wonderful step forward
for medical science.
Others are working faithfully and steadily to spin a web of
constructive thought across the world by the formation of groups
everywhere meeting regularly in Meditation.
In the Church itself many are beginning to feel the fires of
inspiration rising once more, and their congregations are quick to
appreciate it.
Even those courageous ones who seek to expose the
‘shortcomings’ of the medical profession are met half-way by many
of the doctors themselves.
The flame of regeneration and renaissance is burning high
already, and many are the little sparks, fanned by patient souls, ready
now to flare into a rich fulfilment.
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We find too that a higher type of teaching is gradually

permeating various centres of investigation both spiritualist and
Christian-Scientist, occultist and psychic, a type of teaching which
is insensibly and subtly drawing them all closer to each other. At the
same time the materialistic scientist, chemist and experimenter is, by
virtue of his very persistence, approaching to the self-same heart of
Truth in his own way.
A wonderful era may soon dawn when humanity will
figuratively rub its eyes to find that blinkers and barriers of so many
kinds have somehow melted away and that it has learnt to turn its
back upon the illusion of Division, and seeks only to unite and fuse
all people and all activities into one coherent Whole which ever
becomes simpler and more complete.
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DANGERS IN THE PATH
_________________
He who seeks Truth, the Philosopher’s Stone, and is determined

to uncover and master the secrets of the universe for himself, is
treading a Path beset with many pitfalls, dangers and illusions. The
weakest points in his character, the tiniest chinks in his armour will
be cunningly assailed.
Honesty is the talisman which will enable him to reach and to
recognize Truth – plain honesty about himself, his purpose, and other
people.
Seekers are side-tracked mainly by two things, a love of
sensationalism and laziness, both of which undermine their honesty.
It must always be remembered that sensationalism (or emotional
excitement) is to the mentality what sexual over-indulgence is to the
body. Even religious emotion can be a type of mental sensuality, and
therefore unbalancing.
The discovery of Truth is the most wonderful, powerful and
helpful work that any human being can undertake, and the capacity
to understand it is the greatest attribute which the mind can cultivate.
To attain this inestimable reward of wisdom, man must expect
and be eager to go through at least as much discipline, study and
restriction as he would endure while learning the piano or training as
a boxer.
He must remember also that in the uncovering of Truth there is
never a last word, nor a completely accurate statement about any
particle of it, because neither the human language nor brain can
encompass it. Truth to anyone is only that much of it which he can
as yet understand. At a certain stage even an untruth may be taught.
179
For instance, primitive nations had to be given a jealous god of war,

until they evolved sufficiently to accept a loving god of peace.
The mind must be trained, just like a muscle to cope with certain
conceptions, and this very training enlarges and expands the capacity
to understand still more. After a period of such training one can
explain to an intelligent person something which he would have been
quite incapable of visualizing at the beginning of it. It would have
been impossible to talk of wireless, the telephone or gramophone to
a man 200 years ago; neither his brain nor language was equal to it –
he was living in the Dark Age. But to one of the wise priests of Egypt
living 10,000 years ago one could have talked of these inventions and
probably obtained a few suggestions! To understand the fundamental
truths of life is to understand all! Those are the truths which Christ
said would ‘make us free’.
The first effort of the seeker, then, must be to avoid laziness and
to love honesty and discipline.
When once we are attuned to this ideal we will be enabled to
distinguish a wise and good person from a charlatan and so avoid an
infinite number of disillusions and dangers. The hallmarks of the
wise are easily distinguished.
Wisdom gives humility, peace, poise and strength; its owner
ceases to be afraid, to be rushed, sickly, worried, ambitious,
emotional, sentimental or changeable. His voice is resonant, neither
shrill nor grating, and his presence is never exhausting.
A truly wise one will be sparing of words, now will he loosly
speak of initiations, Masters, visions, guides, or his own powers.
People who talk of these things are childish – they have not felt the
awe and reverence which first-hand knowledge gives.
A wise one will never ask money for teaching spiritual things; it
is against the Law. He will have reached the stage where money
sufficient for his needs comes without the asking. Nor will he ever
try to persuade anyone to do or to think anything, nor will he attempt
to teach unless earnestly asked to do so;; for he has learnt to have the
greatest care for another’s free-will. A Wise one seldom uses the word
‘I’.
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DANGERS IN THE PATH
He will never attack anyone, or any cause, yet he is full of

strength and energy. He has learnt to be ‘wise as a serpent and
harmless as a dove’. He is not a crank on any one subject. He has
become such a reservoir of love and of constructive thought that he
is a worker of ‘White Magic’, lucky to those around him and the
bringer of ‘miracles’ to pass.
Such a one is he who has for some while faithfully trodden the
Path of Discipleship which leads to Godhood. He passes unnoticed
among all those who are not seeking with the same purity of motive,
the same vibration as his own. He is sometimes very cleverly aped
by the charlatan, or he who tries to serve both God and Mammon,
the worker of ‘black magic’, the bogus ‘Spiritual Teacher’.
This latter is usually very attractive to others. He has a strong
personality, and often arouses extreme love and devotion in the
people around him. This is because such a one has accumulated
throughout many lives, because of his energy, the experience, vitality
and power which he can now use for either good or evil.
A very evil person is potentially a very good one. (It is the stored
power which counts and which gains a hold on people. That is why
the enterprising lost sheep is of more importance than all who
stagnate meekly in the fold.)
If a charlatan spiritual teacher were to give himself up finally
wholly to good he would gradually defeat his own personality and
lose, one by one, those habits and ruts of thought which give him
what his friends would call his ‘little ways’, those very human
attributes.
A person who poses as a highly evolved being, a teacher of
others, and yet has human habits and frailties, makes a tremendously
strong appeal, because his achievement, apparently, needs little
discipline and rigidity. For that reason his followers are eager to adore
his personality, and he allows, against the Law, such adoration.
Thereby he feeds his own vanity and their attachment to physical
form. They are not encouraged to discriminate, but to believe blindly
what he teaches them. And the ‘teacher’, once this blindness is
established, encounters no spur of criticism or judgement to keep him
181
to the giving of his best. So the little community soon becomes a

sham and intellect retires.
The inevitable result of this situation is that a hypnotic condition
arises, due firstly to the teacher’s desperate desire to keep his
followers’ attention fixed only upon himself, so that they will not
discover better things outside and cease to contribute to his sustenan-
ce; and secondly to the wish of his followers to give themselves up to
the lazy, emotional state of adoring a physical personality, believing
in wonders without the use of intelligence, and flattering themselves
with the importance of possessing a ‘great Teacher’.
This situation can frequently be met with. It is an ambitious
imitation of the real thing, and because of a lack of honesty on all
sides, it goes rapidly downhill. The combindation of personality-
worship, sensationalism and hypnotism soon leads these people into
the toils of emotional, sensual and sexual indulgence of all kinds.
Fraudulence, destructiveness, perversion and intellectual distortion
flourish in this soil, and the link with the higher mind is broken. It
was in such foundations that the horrible Black Mass and the orgies
of ‘black magic’ were able to take root.
Black magic is simply the use of the developed mind-power for
a wrong purpose. It exists in ratio to the strength of will and
intelligence of the person using it and the lack of such in the victim
or victims.
Any desire for power over others for either good or bad reasons
is an act contrary to the great Law which stipulates complete free-
will. The moment such power is established, we have a state of
hypnotism, in slight or intense form, and therefore a condition of
‘black magic’.
Black magic is not a thing of the past; it is a manipulation of
natural laws. It is with us always, existing for instance in such groups
round charlatan teachers as have just been described; existing
sometimes side by side, almost hand in glove, with White Magic.
Rasputin was a typical example of a modern Black Magician,
and I can think of other living examples who could also be listed in
this category.
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DANGERS IN THE PATH
All such groups provide interesting psychological studies. The

author personally knows of several. In one, the ‘teacher’, a woman,
claims to be the reincarnation of one of the Apostles of Christ. This
is earnestly believed by a worthy but hypnotized little troop of
women followers, who are blind to the fact that their ‘spiritual leader’
breaks most of the commandments under their very eyes. Another
group is headed by a man who claims and is eagerly believed to be the
reincarnation of three famous people in one! There are, I understand,
several different ‘reincarnations’ of the famous Rosicrucian Comte de
Saint-German alive at present, each supported by his little group! In
fact, up to date the author has been honoured by the acquaintance of
quite an array of ‘reincarnated saints and historical celebrities’!
There are also, I am told, certain coloured teachers claiming the
highest spiritual status, of whose relations with their white women
disciples it would be better not to inquire, the hypnotized women
believing themselves to be nearly as honoured as the ‘Chosen of the
Lord’; sometimes even with an acquiescing husband in the background.
All these things are going on, comprising an almost inextricable
mixture of ‘good and evil’. The wise seeker will learn to understand
the necessity for it all, and wade through in safety, protected by the
life-belt of his own pure motives. He will not turn in dislike or
disapproval from those leaders who savour of charlatanism or
incompetence. They each have their audiences, who are drawn to
them because of similar vibrations, and could go, at their particular
stage, nowhere else.
Sometimes good teaching comes from very faulty people. This
fact is a means of stimulating students into recognizing truth for itself,
as apart from a personality. On the other hand a person who is
intrinsically good and true may be unable to utter a word of sense to
satisfy a seeker, nor take any interest in his seeking. The world is full
of infinite variety, and all are seeking and learning in their different
ways. It is hard to know who fundamentally is the most ‘advanced’.
When the aspirant can understand this and grow to love his
neighbours for their struggles and faults, and utterly abstain from any
critical feeling, then ‘will all things be added unto him’. There will be
183
no barriers to prevent it. Like attracts like, and his own honesty and
charity will inevitably draw to him as to a magnet all that is good.
By the same token, any weakness which still remains within his
character will attract him to that with which it has affinity. If he has
a latent tendency to accept too much from others, and to lean on
them, he will be an easy prey for a certain type who bind people to
them by a great show of generosity. If he finds himself saying, ‘The
one thing I cannot bear is meanness – I do like a generous character!’
let him reflect that possibly he still has something of the parasite
within him, and is not determined to be self-reliant. Let him beware
lest he is captured by one who has learnt how much it pays to be
generous and how easy it is by that means to get some people
completely under one’s influence.
Sometimes a ‘teacher’ who preaches and practises ‘generosity’
will soon obtain financial help from those well-meaning seekers who
are able to give it, and will then proceed to gain more adherents by
being generous with other people’s money! This very real abuse is
often put into practice, the final result being that much money which
would otherwise be given to the poor is spent for the pomp and
comfort of the ‘teacher’ and his somewhat nebulous ‘cause’.
A genuine teacher always deserves and usually gains support but
his ‘pomp and circumstance’ is conspicuous by its absence.
The final warning which must be given is about the imagination.
By this word I refer to that power which the mind has to form images
of that which it desires, and which it uses more successfully
subconsciously than deliberately and consciously. There is a
tremendous, intricate and forceful world of subtle life lying just below
the threshold of the conscious mind which can be manipulated to
produce varied results.
For instance, we sometimes hear of an earnest emotional female
who has been practising either ‘meditation’ or ‘psychic development’
not wisely but too well, describing a wonderful vision she has had,
perhaps of the ‘Christ Himself ’. Who possibly spoke words of praise
to her. She becomes vastly important and ecstatic about the vision,
and her friends are much impressed.
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DANGERS IN THE PATH
But what really happened?

To begin with, the lady by affirming such an experience gives
away at once her complete ignorance as to what is possible in such a
way. In all probability that which occurred was simply a case of
‘imagination’, self-hypnotism into seeing and hearing that for which
she longs; or she may perhaps have picked up the thought-form of
someone else’s imagery. In any case, the one thing certain is that if
anyone were sufficiently ‘advanced’ to obtain a genuine spiritual
experience they would be so filled with awe and so alive to the laws
pertaining to such experiences that they would find it quite impossible
to say a word about it. The only sign of it would be a radiance
emanating from them to those who were sufficiently sensitive to feel
it. The great Moses, after having talked with the Lord, was obliged to
veil his face because it shone so much that the people could not bear
to look upon it.
Imagination can play us many tricks, but we can test things out
pretty safely in the following way. Any experience we may have
which makes us want to ‘tell’about it is not the real thing, but
something to which we have laid ourselves open through an
unconscious wish for a thrill or to acquire importance. Of a real
experience we will never wish to speak, because we will realize
intuitively that each soul grows at its own pace, and that our vision
was sacred to us alone. The resulting faith that we enjoy is all we will
impart. Therefore we must never be impressed by any idle and
emotional talk we may hear about these things.
It is important, however, to try to visualize the condition of that
invisible envelope of ‘compressed ether’ (for want of a better
description) which surrounds us and goes by the name of our ‘aura’.
This contains a vast panorama of photographs, ‘astral talkies’ of all
our memories both conscious and forgotten. When we are forced
slowly out of our bodies in drowning we see this aura ourselves, and
review a rapid panorama of the events of our lives, as has often been
attested.
Anyone who is genuinely ‘clairvoyant’, such as a crystal-gazer or
fortune-teller, is able to see this aura on approaching us, and can pick
185
out pictures of past events, as well as those of our subconscious hopes

for the future, and therefore describe intimately our dead relatives or
our home life – almost as easily as we could describe any film we
were watching! There is not necessarily anything wonderful, new or
valuable for us to hear – merely that which is already there attached
to the mind.
Sometimes, however, she may even get a correct picture of some
future event. In this case she is probably reading a thought-picture in
our aura which we brought through subconsciously from something
we were allowed to learn of in a dream. For those who are tempted
to explore the phenomena of clairvoyance it is very necessary to
study the human make-up from the psycho-analytical point of view,
otherwise it is easy to be rendered awe-struck by some occurrence for
which there is a scientific explanation.
The world is indeed full of many astonishing conditions and
activities. It is better to have a clear understanding of anything
untoward that occurs than to become paralysed with superstitious
emotionalism and be helplessly swayed by influences which might
otherwise be either ignored or put to good account.
There is no Black Magic, however powerful, no evil force nor
astral horror which can have the slightest effect upon anyone who
does not contain a strain of the same vibration in their own make-up.
One who is completely honest and whole-heartedly trusts in the
power of good is an untouchable as far as evil influences are
concerned. ‘According to thy faith be it done unto thee.’
Therefore when any evil influences or threats of misfortune
approach, the one attacked needs only to cleanse his own heart of
fear, doubt or any ulterior motives, and he is at once protected by his
own vibrations. If we tune our wireless in to Paris we do not get
Moscow, and if we tune our personal wireless in to good fortune all
other vibrations will flow through and onwards without finding any
anchorage. It is upon this principle that the Christian Scientists and
many others work. They know that the fear of anything is a very
powerful magnet which draws that thing inevitably to the fearful one.
As Job said, ‘That which I greatly feared has come upon me.’
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DANGERS IN THE PATH
Fear, laziness and lack of sincerity are therefore the defects

which will lead the seeker on to the ‘left-hand path’ instead of the
‘right-hand path’. The natural Karma of this is that he will have to do
twice the work before he finally reaches his true goal.
But if a sharp lookout is kept for the various pitfalls and illusions
pointed out in this chapter much waste of time and many painful
humiliations may be avoided.
Remember that it is always possible to go straight to the
innermost goal and ignore the various stratas of comparatively petty
psychic and mental phenomena which lie in between. The really wise
have learnt to know. They want neither proof nor practice, and they
enjoy bliss and glory here and now, in spite of all circumstances and
irrespective of either past, present or future.
187
19
THE SUMMING UP
__________________
An effort has been made in this book to take a necessarily

summarized survey of life as it confronts the independent seeker. The
existence of a vast accumulation of so-called knowledge and belief
has been pointed out. The conceptions of the cosmos which have
held sway over millions for thousands of years have been briefly
sketched.
There remains one final theory to be expounded – that which is
called by some people ‘Epigenisis’.
The name means ‘an addition to that which was created’, in
other words Evolution or Progress. It concerns itself with the fact
that in the continual reincarnation of all particles and phases of life
the memory of experience is brought back plus the deductions and
adaptation gained from that experience. The evolution of plant,
insect, man and planet consists of a gradual refining, strengthening
and perfecting under the ever-changing influences of still greater
developing bodies. Even in the vast cycles of historical development
each recurring sequence of Golden Age, Dark Age and Age of
Energy is reproduced on a higher and more powerful note, and
embraces the tackling of more difficult conditions.
Humanity has just been required to pass through an age of
deeper ignorance, a more profound Blind Spot, than ever before, and
has passed through it creditably. It may therefore look forward to a
Golden Age which will bring deeper fulfilment and wider
understanding and power than any preceding.
Epigenisis is the answer to those who say that the world has not
progressed, but only if they are ready energetically to seek this answer
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THE SUMMING UP
for themselves. In studying the great religions of the world, therefore,

Epigenisis must be taken into account.
Each of the great Teachers of the world, Zoroaster, Krishna,
Lao Tze, Buddha, adapted former teachings to the future needs of
developing humanity, even though humanity lagged far behind in
taking advantage of it. Therefore it is to the last great Teacher, Jesus
Christ, that we must look for the most advanced ideal and the latest
message to humanity. We find that His work was to transfer the
possibility of attainment from the few to the many, to simplify the
great Truths for the use of all humanity and to introduce the ultimate
act of attainment, the awakening of the Love principle in the heart,
to mankind. His teaching has been in some ways too simple for
muddled and inhibited generations to grasp, but after 2000 years there
are faint signs that the seed sown is about to burst into life.
Now, leaving the religious aspect completely on one side, let us
consider entirely from the scientific point of view what the great
teachings of the world, headed by Jesus Christ’s, would do for
humanity if put into practise.
The medical profession agrees that human beings are prey to the
act of auto-intoxication, that is to say that they flood their own
systems with various poisons bred by various states of the mind and
emotions. The most poisonous of these states are fear, anger, worry,
sentimental emotionalism and envy. The destructive emanations set
up by these mental and emotional states must be clogging the virility
and sensitivity of the race like a heavy pall, and we should not forget
to add the emanations from terrified slaughtered animals to the
general agglomeration.
This terrible pall of thought-poison is of course the breeding-
place for all those ‘instincts’ which make war, murder, cruelty, lust
and stupidity possible. It beats with a heavy vibration, to which
people are drawn, as a speck of iron is drawn to a magnet, if they
have no stronger vibration of their own. From a scientific point of
view their only protection is to develop stronger vibrations, which are
those of love, hope, belief, charity, idealism and intellect – in other
189
words, to learn actually to ‘love one’s neighbour as oneself ’ and to

‘have faith even as a grain of mustard-seed’.
The result therefore of everyone obeying these plain injunctions
would be to overpower, melt or short-circuit this heavy pall, this
rubbish-heap of bad thoughts, breeding-spot for the microbes of
mental disease.
Universal love, as we have pointed out, produces an
understanding of all that exists in nature.
The result of faith would be a lack of self-poisoning and
therefore perfect health.
The result of idealism and intellectual development would be
complete normality of the reproductive functions, which would
produce in its turn perfect eugenic conditions and a natural birth
control. And the highly increased mental capacity thus evoked would
be available for the solving of those economic and social problems
which defeat the people of today.
The practice of meditation, deep breathing and self-analysis can
certainly be the means of pulling people out of the Slough of
Despond of accumulated generations of bad habits. It constitutes a
scientific process of short-circuiting undesirable vibrations.
From the purely scientific point of view therefore the following
of the rules set forth by the great Teachers would speedily produce
ideal world conditions and the hygienic, eugenic superman for which
some nations are already striving, however imperfectly.
From that which is called the ‘spiritual’ point of view, however,
the prospect is infinitely more thrilling, inspiring and illuminating.
He who is drawn to spiritual endeavour, who feels the call and the
pull of the inner mysteries, will embark on a pilgrimage in which
there is no turning back. He will go through the stages of studying the
self, developing the self, and then forgetting the self completely. He
will then realize that the ultimate privilege and joy, as Jesus Christ
came to show, is to serve.
His battle-cry will be ‘Service’. At first he will rush around trying
to serve, and getting very much in the way of his own inspiration.
Later he will realize that true service is first of all to ‘Be’. He will
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THE SUMMING UP
understand that if he has once polarized himself to be a permanent

channel or ‘receiving station’ for the Light of Wisdom, and can hold
himself in that state of constant and unchanging radiation, he can
become a fixed power-house, a torch in the realms of the mind. He
can link up with others on the higher levels of their super-conscious,
he can speak to them and teach them in that sphere where are no
words, flooding them with illumination, peace and faith from his own
storehouse. They have merely to think of his name and at once feel
the anchorage of his vibrations.
He learns finally how not to make conscious ‘effort’ to help
others, how not to interfere with their lives or their own way of
working out their salvation. He learns not to criticize but to
understand, and to be able to interpret them to themselves if they ask
it, so that they can learn the particular lessons and reason of their
difficulties. He learns to speak to each one who comes to him in his
own language and on his own level; he learns to leave in peace those
who do not seek his help, and to be a power of ready quiet strength
to those who do.
Such an aspirant will begin by envisaging the Path before him,
the progress from student to Probationer, from Probationer to
Disciple, from Disciple to Initiate, from Initiate to Master, from
master to Lord of a Planet and so on upwards and onwards
illimitably. The dazzling prospect will spur him on over the difficult
drudgery of the early steps.
But when the gate of his heart is finally opened and the mystery
of Love floods his being, then all thoughts of his own progress are
obliterated, and he would gratefully stay behind until the last faulty
little pilgrim ;has passed safely on before him.
He waits and watches and helps, and suddenly he finds that he
is one in activity and in mind with the Creator Himself. These things,
however, cannot be expressed in words, although much glorious
poetry and philosophy have been poured out in the effort.
All through history humanity has been offered the Key of
heaven, even as this little book attempts to offer it.
191
Men exist as partially dead creatures until they have used this
key and opened their hearts and minds to Reality. Then they are
flooded with such life and brilliance and illumination that they do
indeed experience a ‘second birth’ infinitely greater than the first.
As a final word, then, the value of the information touched upon
in this book is merely that it can provide the reader with a tool for the
building of his life. Like a knife, which can be used either to murder
a beautiful life or to carve out an everlasting work of art, the value of
the tool depends upon the user. It can quite definitely be used for
unimagined achievement if the motive-power be sincerity and the
highest aspiration.
Or it can result in a conceited boast of superior knowledge, the
act of the ‘big fish in the little pond’, if the ideals are not sufficiently
strong.
Or again it can fall to the ground through lazy inattention.
It is for each individual reader to decide whether he wishes to
become a vital force for good, and to realize that until he is truly
living for the world and not for himself he will never achieve anything
of that which is thrilling, joyful, wonderful and inspiring.
A selfish person is short-circuited; nothing from outside can flow
through.
Some people are not selfish, however, but self-centred, which is
just as inhibiting. They are kind, generous and vivacious at times, but
their thoughts revolve round their own kindness and all their little
personal affairs unceasingly, how they feel and felt, what others think
of them, what they know, how they love, what they must do, how they
must help. They are complete prisoners inside their own little
personality. It is this ‘I’ ‘I’ attitude which is so very difficult to get
over, and which is such a subtle handicap to many.
The only importance the personality has is that it is there as a
sort of buffer, to teach one how completely to get the better of it!
PERSONALITY VERSUS INDIVIDUALITY! How can we
discriminate between these two? The difference is much the same as
between emotion and love. Individuality, the real thing, is a calm,
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THE SUMMING UP
steady, deep and lasting force felt within a person – his essence, that
which composes the ego or inner man.
Personality (the word comes from persona, meaning mask)
comprises all the little surface peculiarities, moods and changes, all
which has to do with physical life, disturbing, evanescent and
unimportant. In astrology individuality is that unchanging part of us
governed by the sun, while the moon rules the unstable personality.
In true sacrifice and service we use our individuality and keep
our personality in complete abeyance. That is what is called slaying
our lower man or killing the dragon!
TRUE LIVING. If we can learn to love, think and serve as
above described, the mind will become so powerful and co-ordinated,
that it will unerringly direct all of our activities.
Our calm enthusiasm will inevitably give us that slow, deep and
powerful breathing which will finally become automatic with us.
But if we start at the wrong end by an intensive training in
breathing it may give us animal health, it may upset our nervous
system, it may even put us in a madhouse, but it certainly will not
give us a ready-made loving heart or wise and potent mind.
By the same token, with a mind and heart awake we will
instinctively know how, when and what to eat. Our calmness will give
us that slowness and sparingness in eating which is the first neglected
essential, and our continual development will go hand in hand with
a continual modification and change in our diet.
But if we begin at the wrong end by becoming diet cranks we
may improve our bodies or we may ruin them – the chances are pretty
equal, but we will no more create a ready-made wisdom and power
that way than by breathing.
If our hearts and minds are rightly orientated we will quite
naturally be drawn to those few studies and people with whom we
can further our particular work – our choice will be unerring and
inspired.
But if we start at the other end with absorption in theoretical
studies, teachers and cults, and count on such outside help for our
progress, and have not a strictly honest desire for the truth alone, we
193
shall fall into any number of traps, and meet with danger and
disillusionment and misery. The false always apes the real. It is only
true honesty in ourselves which acts as a tuning-fork to recognize
honesty in another.
Many people are drawn to the Great Search through a feeling of
loneliness – that wistful misunderstood loneliness which attacks them
in the midst of friends and festivities, and which is really the longing
of the soul for unity in service with those who know, and for the
realization that they are part of a wonderful whole – that they belong
and are essential to a glorious plan. Loneliness also comes from being
self-centred instead of world-centred, from a craving for a personal
love and reward, and thereby the imprisoning of oneself in a tiny
mental compartment.
Service leads finally to working with others, the beginning of
the Universal Brotherhood which some of us cannot yet picture, yet
which is inevitably and actually coming into being before our eyes.
The various banners of the vanguard of this Universal
Brotherhood are already flinging a challenge right across the world.
To anyone who wishes to achieve fulfilment for himself and to help
to build the future Golden Age, the way is now wide open. The
beginning has been made, the world is passing rapidly from Dark Age
into Light, and there remain now only the fetters of man’s own
blindness or laziness to hold him back. Let us shake off these fetters
and move forward with those happy ones who are achieving their
birthright – the triumph of Godhood in human form.
194
BIBLIOGRAPHY
_______________
The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky.

The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel.
From Intellect to Intuition, by Alice A. Bailey.
The Zodiac and the Salts of Salvation, by Dr. George W. Carey and Inez
E. Perry.
The Secret Path, by Paul Brunton.
The Story of Oriental Philosophy. By L. Adams Beck.
The Secret of the Golden Flower, by Wilhelm and Jung.
The Detection of Disease, by Oscar Parkes and Eric Perkins.
The Garden of Vision, by L. Adams Beck.
Akhnaton, by Arthur Weigall.
Ancient Egypt the Light of the World, by Gerald Massey.
Initiation Human and Solar, by Alice A. Bailey.
Your Mysterious Glands, by H.H.Rubin, M.D.
Works on Colour, by Dr. Babbitt from his The Principles of Light and
Colour.
Your Days are Numbered, by Florence Campbell.
Light and Colours, by Colville.
Practical Numerology, by C.G. Sander.
The Problem of Atlantis, by Lewis Spence.
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Finding The Third Eye

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THE FINDING

VERA STANLEY ALDER

Copyright © 1968 Lucis Trust

First published in 1938 by Rider & Co., London.

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum

VERA STANLEY ALDER

A modern empowered woman

All artists dream of Paris

Vera’s multi-faceted entourage

A different trip than intended

Things as They Are 35

What Modern Science Says 42

The Secret Knowledge 51

How We are Made 62

How We are Classified 69

Male and Female 86

Birth, Sleep and Death 94

Secrets of Breathing 102

Secrets of Colour 109

Secrets of Sound 116

The Science of Numbers 121

Diet and Exercise 128

The ‘Third Eye’ 139

First Steps to Mastery 150

History of the Wisdom 167

The Present Awakening 175

Dangers in the Path 179

The Summing-up 188

These are days in which the spirit of inquiry is perhaps more

He soon sees the significance of this. True socialism becomes

Our first concern will be to take a survey of the present position

misshapen travesties of what a human being should be; we cannot

fellow-man even if he has the kindest character; and, escaping this

environment, ill-health, ‘bad luck’ and the rest, we could be master

miracles, and they appear to have access to regions of wisdom and

Before we begin studying the ancient wisdom we will find it very

reached vibrations fine and rapid enough to penetrate through most

perfect instrument with which to work, a transmitter by means of

that particular mind is able to visualize and concentrate – it may take

Therefore, although the highest vibrations are the most

Having studied our world according both to the modern matter-

the whole universe. Within his tiny personality there is locked a

connection with the world of magnetism and electricity as well.

Animals in their turn offer up their sacrifice of adoration,

Therefore, if we can once believe in Reincarnation we would

how we have degenerated that, with our long history of bloodshed,

The secret knowledge explains to us in quite a scientific way how

obtained by a study of the various descriptions given to us by

such untranslatable wonders – but we do need such courage, and man

Planes have been analysed gives us a most interesting and suggestive

They called the astral body BA, symbolizing it by a human-

have been recorded by instruments; and the power of the spirit-body

case is that through visualizing our vast giant we can better

perfect translation. Such translation are contained in many of the

We have only time here to take a superficial glance at the way in

deficiencies or maladjustments in his internal laboratory, and the

experience of life to back him. Aries is ruled by Mars, the warlike

on the brain, so these people must be guarded against overworking