DEDICATED TO THE VANGUARD OF THE HUMAN RACE

“There appears to be a need of some bold man who will say

outright what is best . . . opposing the mightiest lusts and
following reason only.”

—Plato, Laws, VIII,835.

 Foreword
“The wise in all ages have always said the same things; and
the fools, who at all times form the immense majority, have
continued to do the opposite.” —Schopenhauer, Aphorismen
zur Lebensweisheit, Einleitung.

The prerogative of the present generation to talk and write

freely and frankly about sex has been applied to an almost
unlimited extent — and as good as exclusively — to the
dissemination of unsound theories which pander to the
passions of the human animal by sanctioning, encouraging
and glorifying sexual expression for its own sake.

In order to offset those fallacies it will be necessary to take

advantage of the same prerogative to use plain, straight-
forward language in emphasizing the enormous value of
conservation of the generative force — a conservation which
is practically synonymous with, yet more positive than what
is commonly understood by chastity.

Unfortunately, many attempts to prove that value have been

so sketchy and clumsy, so little logical, or so biased and
bigoted, that the whole idea of conservation has nearly lost
all power of appeal.

Yet many sound and profound reasons can be put forward in

support of a philosophy in which the central theme is an
ideal of drastic purification — a philosophy which propounds
that a permanently effective solution of the almost
inextricably entangled problem of sex can be found only in
the limitation of the sex life to reproductive activity. And
although this ideal may seem extreme, and not be
immediately applicable to general practice, it is of most vital
importance that its fundamental principles be widely known.
For a recognition of its inherent value, and a turning of face
into its direction, may change the current of human
evolution, if at first only in individual cases.

Personally, the urge to formulate such an idealistic

philosophy of humanity’s most momentous and mystifying
problem became irresistible when the conviction grew that a
lack of chastity in act and thought constitutes the
underlying cause of nearly all misery, of discontent with life,
of marital disharmony, of congenital low vitality, of sluggish
intellects, of many avoidable ailments, of human wrecks in
body and in mind, and of countless untimely deaths. In final
synthesis the general misusage of the generative force
revealed itself as the basic cause not only of humanity’s
woes, but also of its failure to advance in evolution.

If the ideas formulated in this book represented merely the

writer’s opinion, they could carry but little persuasive power.
But it is a verifiable fact that through the centuries the
sages have almost unanimously proclaimed the signal value
of sexual restraint as an ineludable requirement for the
attainment of real human progres. They who possessed
superior wisdom apparently always knew that higher
evolution is impossible without conservation of the sex
force. And researches of modem scientists, as well as
equitable observations by outstanding writers, lend support
to the pronouncements of the wise.

However, most of the relevant statements by thinkers of the

past are hidden in abstruse volumes that are hardly ever
accessible to the average person. And reports of modem
findings are usually diluted and discolored before they
come, in quasi popularized form, under the eyes of the lay
reader.
It has therefore seemed worth while to gather brief
quotations from a great variety of sources, and to
incorporate these into the text. Wherever they could be
either directly corroborative, or indirectly helpful in leading
up to the main issue, the words of others have been
introduced. Their profusion may serve to demonstrate the
extent of preparatory research, as well as the impersonal
and eclectic nature of the work.

In order to avoid the cumbersome effect which the

introduction of numerous quotations often produces, a
special effort has been made to blend them with the text in
such a way that the continuity of the composition is not
broken.

The reader’s forbearance may have to be asked for the large

number of reference notes. They are necessary in order to
give due acknowledgment to the source of each quoted
phrase. They will be useful to the student who wants to
verify them. But reference to the notes is in no way essential
to the comprehensibility of the text.

The present volume is intended mainly to inculcate a clear

mental appreciation of the ideal.

Another manuscript is in preparation, under the title: The

Conquest of the Serpent, and will deal with practical
methods by which the ideal can be approached and realized.

Eventually a still later volume will present some deeper

metaphysical considerations in support of the claim that
THE RACE’S ONE CHANCE FOR HIGHER EVOLUTIONARY
PROGRESS DEPENDS ON ITS MASTERY AND
TRANSMUTATION OF THE SEX FORCE.
“We carry an excessive burthen of sex . . . and we have to
free ourselves from it.”

— Wells, The World Set Free,v,270.

 CONTENTS
Foreword
PART ONE
FORMULATING THE IDEAL
I — The Serpent
II — Ignorance
III — Civilization
IV — Evolution
V — The Deadlock in Human Evolution
VI — The Ideal
PART TWO
SUBSTANTIATING THE IDEAL
VII — Considerations
VIII — Spirit versus Matter
IX — Embodied Spirit
X — The Sex Principle
XI — Purpose of Sex
XII — Instinct
XIII — Desire
XIV — The Pleasure Principle
XV — The Senses
XVI — Inspiration
XVII — Intellect and Intuition
XVIII — Unfolding of Spirit
XIX — Marriage
XX — Soul-Mates
XXI — Love versus Sex
XXII — Birth Control
XXIII — Eugenics
XXIV — Adolescence
XXV — Sex and Nutrition
XXVI — Glands and Secretions
XXVII — A Physiological Dilemma ioo
XXVIII — Erotic Dreams
XXIX — Perversion
XXX — Sexual Normalcy no
XXXI — Continence x
XXXII — The Notion of Necessity
XXXIII — Virility
XXXIV — Health and Disease
XXXV — Venereal Diseases
XXXVI — Neuroses
XXXVII — Medical Advice
XXXVIII — Popular Opinion
XXXIX — Asceticism
XL — The Modern Ascetic
XLI — Perfect Celibacy
XLII — Race Suicide?
XLIII — Woman Too!
XLIV — A Single Standard
XLV — Freedom
XLVI — Crime
XLVII — The Altruism of Ethics
XLVIII — Supreme Morality
XLIX — Laws
L — Taboos
LI — Aboriginal Religion
LII — Sacerdotal Celibacy
LIII — Vestal Virgins
LIV — Virgin Births
LV — The Bible
LVI — Early Christianity
LVII — Mysticism
LVIII — Christian Science
LIX — Islam
LX — Judaism
LXI — The Religion of Ancient Egypt
LXII — Hinduism
LXIII — Buddhism
LXIV — Indian Philosophy
LXV — Chinese Philosophy
LXVI — Greek and Roman Philosophy
LXVII — Modern Philosophy
LXVIII — Modernistic Sophistry
LXIX — Mythology
LXX — Ancient Mysteries
LXXI — Freemasonry
LXXII — The Real Rosicrucians
LXXIII — Alchemy
LXXIV — Astrology
LXXV — Theosophy
LXXVI — Rebirth
LXXVII — Retribution
LXXVIII — Psychism
LXXIX — Magic
LXXX — Yoga
LXXXI — Occultism
LXXXII — The Path of Perfection
LXXXIII — Tests and Temptations
LXXXIV — Regeneration
LXXXV — Uncoiling the Serpent
PART THREE
GLORIFYING THE IDEAL
LXXXVI — The Future
LXXXVII — Supermen
LXXXVIII — Cosmic Consciousness
LXXXIX — Oneness
XC — Deathlessness
XCI — Immortality
XCII — Epilogue

Index of Authors
Index of Subjects
“In order to reconstruct society we must reconstruct the
moral ideal.”

— Adler, Reconstruction of the Spiritual Ideal ,i,12.

 PART
ONE

FORMULATING

THE

IDEAL

“For the remoralization of sex . . . which is so long overdue ...

we need a more definite turning to higher ideals.”

— Thomson and Geddes, Life,I,iv,544.

“Heaven and earth were once united, but were severed by a
serpent.”

—Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism,

I,v,88.
 I
THE SERPENT

"A serpent twisted in spiral volumes is the hieroglyphic of

evil."

— Faber, Origin of Pagan Idolatry,I,441.

Caught in the mighty coils of the giant-serpent Sex,

humanity is on the point of being crushed and strangled.
That serpent, which in the beginning was intended to serve
human evolution, was foolishly adopted as a pet and unduly
coaxed and fondled. Being overfed and pampered and
having its slightest whims complied with, the pet has grown
into a monster that has overpowered its master, and now
threatens to destroy him.

Out of the choking throat of imperiled humanity the inner

ear can hear a cry for help ascending: a fearful cry that
swells and falls and again rises, pleading for liberation from
the malignant creature’s rigid hold.

But there is no response, no outside help forthcoming. Man’s

precarious position is entirely self-produced. He himself it
was who gave the creature all the power it now has by his
habitual yielding to its growing demands; and he himself
must remedy this self-created woe by unrelenting self-
exertion.

“The serpent ... is the monster to be overcome.” 1 If man but

wills he can reduce its power. He can brace himself against
the pressure of the uncanny coils. He can in fact subdue the
unwieldy and unruly reptile even yet by opposing its
depraved desires.
By will he can reduce it to servility again. And then its
valuable hidden power will aid him in his ascent of
evolution’s path. Indeed, “when conquered the serpent
becomes a means of life.”* Instead of appropriating the life
force of man, it will then supply him with the greatest factor
that can lead to a higher human existence. The turbulent
serpent of Sex will then be transformed into the docile
Serpent of Wisdom, which will show the way out of
the;human toward the superhuman state.

' ‘ But- irian- must not delay. He must unloose the coils
before the monster crushes him.

The symbol of a snake encoding the body of humanity

occurs in the mythology of various peoples.* And Oriental
literature mentions a serpent coiled up in a mysterious
center of force inside the human body. While the two are not
entirely equivalent, the uncoiling of this serpent within the
body, as of the entwining monster, is held to be man's
evolutionary task. 1

Records of a serpent symbolism in some form or another

have been found in all parts of the world. Especially of
universal occurrence are the legends about heroes who
conquer an evil serpent. 8 And there can be no doubt that
these legends symbolize the necessity of man’s victory over
the domineering influence of sex, for from the earliest times
folk-lore seems to have connected the serpent with the
sexual function.

Erudite investigators have come to the conclusion that “the

serpent always has a phallic signification.”* But what
usually mystifies the student of symbolism is that “though
the serpent is exhibited as the representative of the evil
principle ... it is considered also in the opposite light.”*
However, where the symbolism has not suffered in transition
there is a notable difference between the two portrayals.
While the evil serpent is coiled, “the serpent of good is
always represented ... as upright.”* This is the transformed
serpent, not any more coiled but standing on its tail, its
body slightly curved, reminiscent of the human spine which
plays such an important part in the actual uncoiling of the
serpent.* It is still the phallic serpent, but conquered, tamed,
and thereby changed into the most valuable adjunct of man.

Reflective inquiry into various forms of serpent symbolism

shows that they contain a principle of supreme im-'-portance
— namely: that every effort to resist the demands of the
sexual urge will gradually lead to an uncoiling of the
serpent, and therewith to spiritual freedom 18 and
untrammeled evolutionary growth. 11 But this ultimate
result_ cannot be attained without a conscious realization of
ideal'' purification. “Tremendous purity is the one secret of
spirituality” 11 — of that factor of evolutionary attainment
which must follow the acquisition of intellect, but which has
almost entirely been neglected by mankind.

’•***»

1 Levi, Transcendental Magic, I vi, 94.

1 Trumbull, The Threshold Covenant, vii, 196.

8 See Gh. box. Mythology.

4 See Ch. bexxv. Uncoiling the Serpent.

8 Same as s .

4 Forlono, Rivers of Life, I, iii, 141.

T Faber, Origin of Pagan Idolatry, I, 448.

8 Wake, Serpent Symbols, iii, 104.

9 Same as 4 .

19 See Gh. xviii. Unfolding of Spirit.

11 See Ch. v, The Deadlock in Human Evolution.

18 Vivekananda, My Master, 60.

 II
IGNORANCE

“The serpent . . . ever in congress with its infernal

counterpart of ignorance.”

— Mead, Chaldean Oracles, ii,37.

Humanity is like a child that is hiding away from its elders,

who call to it because they know that it should make an
effort to develop its abeyant faculties. It is like a child that
wishes to continue to play with distorted images of real
things instead of becoming acquainted with everlasting
realities. It is like a child that persists in remaining ignorant
of the deeper verities of the science of life.

Humanity plays with life. It plays with sex. It wants to

perpetuate that playing rather than understand nature’s
eternal laws, rather than unfold its latent spiritual powers. It
would play on until these very powers became stunted for
ever — until, otherwise matured, it would become an
imbecile in regard to spirit.

If the clinging to toys persists, and if ignorance is claimed as

an excuse where there is only flagrant and purposeful
ignoring, there is imminent danger of incurable idiocy on the
spiritual level. Already mankind is subnormal for its age
because it engrosses itself in precarious material diversions;
because it is absorbed in frivolous emotional games;
because it does far too little real thinking, and remains
obstinately ignorant of facts and laws concerning its own
true nature.
“Men err in their choice of pleasures . . . from defect of
knowledge” 1 ; they “are content with the little goods they
have and adhere desperately to these in ignorance of the
greater blessings to which they could attain did they but
open their spiritual eyes.”*

Mental development makes a child gradually set aside its

infantile toys. After a while it does not want them again, and
would not at any price wish to exchange its arduously
acquired mental enjoyments for a return to the foolish
playthings which amused it when it was ignorant.

So will spiritual unfoldment make man gradually leave his

playing, particularly with such things as were never meant
for play. It will make him rise above the customary sexual
games. After a little while he will not want these again, will
not want to forsake the far greater glorious joys gained in his
spiritual growth for a return to the unwisely chosen
playthings of his period of sensuous amusements.

But through sheer wilfulness and cherished ignorance

humanity seems to prefer to go on with its playing, even
with the most sacred treasures on nature’s altar. Childlike, it
moans if it scorches its fingers when grasping the sacrosanct
vessel in which bums the sacred flame. It groans when
sickness follows the quaffing of the holy wine. It whines
when it is taken from its ungodly perilous game. It rages
when it is threatened with retributary action of nature’s
exacting laws.* And it will not see that all its misery and
suffering result from its own stubborn persistence in
remaining ignorant of spiritual principles.

Such ignorance is unavoidable in the infancy and early

youth of a race. But the large portion of humanity that has
racially arrived at the advanced adolescent stage should
now overcome that ignorance. It should know its own
dormant spiritual powers, awaken them, and make them
dominant. It should drop the unsanctioned toying and stop
its wasteful playing with the life force, which is the most
sacred force in nature.

**#**

1 Plato, Protagoras, 357.

1 Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, II, 119. 3 See Ch. xlix.

Laws.
 III
CIVILIZATION

“The progress of civilisation seems to have been unfavorable

to the virtue of chastity.'*

— Gibbon, Dtclin # and Fall ! of tka Roman Em pit*, I, ix,

504.

“The energy ... of civilization-man is directed outwards.” 1 It

is applied to materialistic and intellectual progress at the
cost of the spiritual. Thus “our knowledge has increased but
not our wisdom.” 1 Industrial mechanics have astoundingly
evolved, but not the modes of building character. “While we
are hastening from moment to moment we have neither
leisure nor repose ... for the development of character.”*

“The stressing of the physical sciences without a

corresponding cultivation of the spiritual factors has lowered
man’s sense of his moral power and responsibility.” 4 “The
most noxious sign of the blight in the social atmosphere is
the openly increasing laxity of morals.”* In fact, “moral
sense is almost completely ignored by modem society.” 4

The race may be more intellectual than it ever was, but it is

not more spiritual. “Intellect preponderates. At the same
time . . . consciously hardly any one thinks today of
developing the soul.” 7 “The great intellectual progress has
been achieved to the detriment of soul life.”* Yet “it is the
character of the soul which determines man’s level.”* Man
has learned to control many of nature’s forces. But as long
as he can not control the forces within himself there can be
no question of real civilization. “Control of appetites is the
first step in human culture.” 14 •••••••••••••
“As regards his sexual ethics man has . . . retrograded.” 11
Although a milder mannerism in sexual expression has been
adopted by mankind, it has not become less sensual; rather
the opposite. “Human culture . . . has not carried thing s
further than the putting of a finer polish on . . . our animal
impulses.” 11 “The effort of our civilization has been to
domesticate lusts” 11 , and now they are found and fostered
in almost every home. “In comparison with— the mode of
life which prevailed among mankind for thousands of years
we people of the present day are living in a very immoral
age.” 14 “Sexual morals have been cast aside.” 1 * “Sexual
license would seem to be the unwritten code of modem
society.” 1 * “We find ourselves ... in a welter of urban
sensualism and immorality.””

Sex tends to permeate to such an extent man’s mental and

emotional as well as physical existence that “sex and its
expression have become an obsession” 18 ; and the present
generation stands practically indicted as one of sex-addicts.

Characteristically one finds in this age of boasted culture:

society saturated with sexual abuses from the bottom to the
top; prostitution flourishing on a Gargantuan scale; white
slave traffic amongst the fastest growing crimes 1 *;
abduction and seduction as daily occurrences; “criminal
assaults upon children . . . greatly increased” 1 *; abortions
more frequent than at any period, and as lightly looked upon
as is the extraction of a tooth; sexual relationships among
students of colleges and schools; “epidemics of venereal
diseases ... in highschools” 11 ; widespread indulgence in
perverse sex practices by old and young, even the very
young; sex plays on stage and screen attracting largest
audiences; sex novels finding the best market; sophistical
sex teachings disseminated without restriction, their
popularity resulting from the fact that they provide excuses
for personal weaknesses; and such a prevalence of male and
female troubles that it would seem that ‘civilization’
inevitably spells ‘syphilization’.

“Mere animalistic sex expression has no more place in

worthwhile civilization than would mud-huts serve as
modem houses.” 11 But in our pseudo-civilization worse
than animalistic sex misuses are indulged in and condoned.
11

There can be no question of real civilization until a relentless

campaign against the domination of sex is well on its way. A
lessening of the overwhelming influence of sex is necessary
before the race can claim a semblance of true culture and of
becoming spiritualized.

It is just because spirituality has been practically discarded

that sensuality has become paramount; for there is a close
relation, in inverse ratio, between the two: only where the
one is absent can the other rule.

Hence the great need of consciously and conscientiously

approaching a spiritualizing ideal. In themselves “ideals . . .
testify to a high level of civilization” 14 — particularly when
they help to bring the spiritual nature to the fore, the animal
nature to the background of human consciousness.
Therefore “human nature . . . must be modified according to
a definite ideal.”* 5 And the needed ideal must in the first
place diminish the overpowering fascination of sex.

Because “it is not possible to develop . . . civilization unless

we can inhibit primitive passions””, “there is as yet no
civilized society.”* 7 Above all other responsibilities “the
task of humanity is to build up a genuine civilization, a
corpus spirituale of mankind”** — a civilization in which a
purified love, disentangled from all sexual accretions, will
come into its own.**
*****

1 Spengler, The Decline of the West, I, 37.

2 Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious , i, 24.

8 Eucken, Present-Day Ethics, vi, 125.

4 Sockman, Morals of Tomorrow, I, iii, 68.

5 Corelli, Free Opinions, 84.

4 Carrel, Man the Unknown, iv, 132.

7 Keyserling, Creative Understanding, II, 120.

8 Same as 7 , II, 112.

• Same as 7 , II, 112.

10 Stockham, Tokology, xi, 162.

11 Lydston, Genito-Urinary, Venereal and Sexual Diseases,

VI, xxii, 5*4.

12 Eckartshausen. The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, iv, 54.

18 Tanner, The Intelligent Man’s Guide , lxiv, 212.

14 Nietzsche, Dawn of Day, I, 9.

15 Same as 8 , iv, 153.

14 Same as n , VI, xxii, 526.

17 Durant, The Story of Philosophy, vi, 314.

18 MacFadden, Encycl. of Physical Culture, V, ii, 2450.

19 Hoover, Memorandum of Federal Bureau of Investigation,
August, 1936.

20 Bebel, Woman : Past, Present and Future, xii, 205.

81 Parran, “The Next Great Plague to Go ”; in: The Survey

Graphic, XXV, vii, 407.

88 Dennett, “Sex Enlightenment’; in: Calverton, Sex in

Civilization, 100. 88 See Ch. xxix, Perversion.

84 Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, iii, 58.

85 Metchnikoff, The Prolongation of Life, IX, iv, 325.

86 Kirsch, Sex Education, xix, 495.

87 Adler, Reconstruction of the Spiritual Ideal, v, 162.

88 Same as r , v, 163.

89 See Ch. xxi, Love versus Sex.

 IV
EVOLUTION

"Evolution if . . . the triumph of human qualities over animal

qualities." — Kropotkin, Ethics, x,a54*

Whether or not the materialistic theories about it are in

every way correct, “evolution is a fundamental element in
life.” 1 “It is a change forward and upward”*, “an advancing
from the imperfect to the perfect.”* Many however mistake
the growth of our civilization for evolutionary progress and
think of these two processes as being synonymous. But they
are neither equivalent nor always parallel.

Evolution brings with it a proportionate degree of true

civilization. But civilization as we know it is not in every
respect the outcome of evolution. Our civilization is largely
the result of an exclusive development of mind, of a
onesided attention to matter and to material life at the cost
of spiritual development. High mental efficiency is only then
a characteristic of harmonious evolution when it concurs
with commensurate spiritual unfoldment. Evolution will then
not only make man scientific, but — by letting his unfolding
faculties find expression through a spiritualized mind — it
will make him approach omniscience.

Overdeveloped brain power however, applied exclusively to

material science, is as little a natural concomitant of or an
aid to allround evolutionary growth as are overdeveloped
muscles. Therefore most of the remarkable intellects of this
day and most of the modem inventors with their astounding
accomplishments can not be considered to be products of
normal evolution. They are more like hothouse products of
an abnormal civilization. They are the outcome of a forced
and artificial growth of lopsided qualities, carried on through
many generations. They are in the human kingdom what
exceptionally trained animals are in the sub-human. They
are no samples of evolutionary growth toward the
superhuman. 4

Civilization as it is distinctly constitutes a hindrance to

spiritual unfoldment. In its concentration on materialistic
and mental achievements it neglects and suppresses the
inner development of man. It antagonizes the higher
expression of the life force which evolution seeks to bring
about.

It is for this reason that our present civilization is on its way

to follow the fate of most preceding civilizations. They
reached a high state of mental development and of material
well-being. Then, when their materialism together with its
attendant lack of morality nullified their value in the
evolutionary scheme by antagonizing the unfoldment of the
spiritual element, they were inexorably destroyed.

Total destruction of our own civilization can be prevented

only if cognizance is taken of the spiritual demands of
evolution.

Evolution is nature’s process of allowing the latent qualities

of the life force to come gradually into perfect manifestation.
For this purpose she constructs ever more suitable, more
responsive, more delicate living instruments through which
to express always more of her own innermost being, more of
that unfathomable element which we call spirit

In the simplest physical forms of the mineral kingdom nature

can only manifest what seems to us unconscious existence.
In the plants — which rise above the minerals, out of and
above the ground — the life force stirs and shows a
consciousness of sentient living. In the animals — which
might be called uprooted plants, growing by motion and by
emotion above the animal kingdom — life expresses itself in
instinctive consciousness. In present humanity — grown
mentally above the animals — life’s energy displays itself in
a conscious realization of self-consciousness.

Could this rudimental humanity as it now is be the climax of

the evolutionary scheme? Of course not. “Man as we know
him is by no means the highest creature that will be
evolved.” 8 “There is not the slightest reason for supposing
that the powers . . . which we human beings happen to
possess are the highest of which this planet is capable.”*
“Progress is the law of life, man is not Man as yet.” 7 The
process of progress must continue until nature can perfectly
reveal its highest powers in a perfected instrument. A
superhumanity must be developed which realizes an
untrammeled expression of spiritual consciousness.

At the primitive human stage there came a change in the

evolutionary method.

Pre-human progress was involuntary. But “human progress

can be willed” 8 — nay, it must be willed. So far growth had
been regular and automatic, unopposed. It might have
continued thus if man (that is: the human species) had not
used self-consciousness to foster self-indulgence and
sensuality. He thereby set up an impediment which he
himself must again undo by self-chosen, willing effort.
Instead of continuing mechanically from without, growth has
become an accomplishment that must be aided from within.
“Further evolution . . . will result solely from conscious efforts
towards growth.”* It can be achieved only through
persistent self-exertion. Henceforth “man, not striving
toward evolution . . . not helping it, will not evolve. And the
individual who is not evolving . . . goes down, degenerates . .
. This is the general law.” 1 *

The choice is man’s. Will he successfully progress toward the

succeeding stage of fully spiritualized humanity, and finally
to that of divinized superhumanity, then he must with self-
determination overcome the obstacles to growth.

"“Divinity is in us; animality hampers and constricts it,

stunting our growth.” 11 Especially “sexual activity weakens
man ... in his most essential, his spiritual expression.” 18 “If
the race is to progress ... it must somehow become

- less sexual” 18 ; for even “the potentiality of a higher

spiritual life ... is endangered by fleshly lust.” 14

Human evolution cannot proceed unless man sets himself to

the task of overcoming the passions which obstruct

- his spiritual unfoldment. “He who shall attain to perfection

must be one who . . . has courage to be absolutely chaste.”
18

*«**•

1 Kellogg, Human Life, 133.

* Same as *, 133.

3 Hegel, Philosophy of History, 108.

4 See Ch. Ixxxvii, Supermen.

5 Kingsley; quoted in: Spencer, Autobiography, I, xxiii, 47a.

• Wells and Huxley, The Science of Life, III, v, 418.

T Browning, Paracelsus, V, 741-2.

8 Radhakrishnan, “Philosophy in the History of Civilization”;
in: Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of
Philosophy, 548.

8 Ouspensky, Tertium Organum, xxiii, 322.

10 Same as 9 , xxiii, 322.

11 Papini, Life of Christ, 123.

13 Tolstoi, Works, XVIII, 470.

13 Ingram, The Modern Attitude, iii, 39.

14 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 47.

15 Kings ford. The Perfect Way, viii, 221.

 V
THE DEADLOCK IN HUMAN EVOLUTION

'The strength of the sexual appetite ... is unquestionably the

great obstacle to the improvement of the race'

— Newton, The Better Way, 15.

Human evolution has been at a standstill for many

thousands of years. As far as we can look back into history
and compare ourselves with the human elements of ancient
civilizations, no evolutionary progress is noticeable. Our
bodies have, if anything, deteriorated. Human qualities have
not improved. Character, emotions, and motives for action
have remained very much the same. “Our materials for
knowledge have increased, but not our intellectual capacity
.” 1 The intellectual power of our brainiest contemporaries
does not surpass that of a Homer or a Hermes, or of
purported Atlantean illuminati. Of any thing beyond intellect
there still occurs only sporadically no more than an almost
negligible indication.

Since we can trace no noticeable advance in human

evolution within a measurable period, it may well be
presumed that at some time in the past a seemingly
insurmountable obstacle has been erected which has
checked our evolution. Some powerful factor must have
prevented the life force from rising to new and higher
outlets.

Even a cursory survey of the progress of the expression of

life energy in pre-human as well as in human vehicles will
help to discover the nature and the cause of the obstruction
in the path of our evolution.
A fundamental difference between various stages of
evolutionary growth lies in the ways in which the life force is
being utilized. In all organisms, from the simplest to the
most complicated, the action of the life force is sustained by
nutrition (which in a wider sense includes respiration). All
functions other than nutrition, instead of sustaining,
consume some of the available life energy.

In the smallest and simplest creatures, such as unicellular

bacteria, life’s energy is utilized in but a single way: in fast
multiplication. “A bacterium is all germ-plasm, all
reproductive material.”* Under favorable conditions
hundreds of billions of specimens can descend from a single
one in a twenty-four hour period.*

Out of the unicellular beings nature has gradually evolved

the multicellular and complex creatures in which groups of
cells are differentiated for special purposes. In the jellyfish,
for instance, parts of the body’s surface have protruded and
grown into grasping and feeling extensions. Other cells of
the skin have become receptive to impressions of light,
preparing what later becomes an eye. And so with other
rudimental organs of the senses. Within the body an
incipient muscular and‘a still diffuse nervous system have
begun to take shape. Body-growth, muscular exertion, and
the nascent faculty of perception of the external world
require a goodly share of the life energy which in the lowest
forms was monopolized by reproduction. At the stage of the
jellyfish reproduction is still profuse, though not comparable
with that of bacteria. Fast multiplication remains necessary
wherever destructive factors cause a high rate of accidental
deaths; but as a rule this need diminishes as evolution of
the form proceeds, and new and higher faculties are being
developed.
At the more elaborately organized stage of the reptiles the
most striking functional change that by then stands out as
having been accomplished is the centralization of the
nervous system. The spinal cord has been definitely
established ; and at the head-end of the cord the cerebellum
is ready to register impressions. Its functioning and that of
the entire improved nervous system required an additional
amount of nervous energy. The new demand for this
specialized form of the life force — which again had to be
taken from what at earlier stages would have remained
available for the reproductive system — necessarily caused
reproduction to be slowed down.

Ascending the scale of being to the mammals, we find the

cerebrum or fore-brain developed to a certain extent. As
above stated, the reptiles had the cerebellum or hindbrain ;
but “its activities are considered as not entering
consciousness .” 4 Provided with a be it only slightly active
cerebrum, the mammals become conscious of sense-
impressions, and therewith capable of more strongly sensed
emotional responses to impressions from the outside. Again,
with the introduction of these newer functions life energy is
transferred from the reproductive organs to the brain; and
reproduction is considerably diminished.

Between the evolutionary stage of the highest developed

animal and that of man there is a gap so far as scientific
knowledge about it is concerned — an unfathomable dark
cleft. It looks as though evolution at this point, quite against
its customary gradual procedure, had taken a sudden and
bold leap. Before following it in that hypothetical jump
across the canyon of ‘missing links’ a critical look back over
the covered ground may well be taken.

The point that stands out prominently is that originally the

entire flow of life’s energy was directed toward reproduction.
Inherently, from that time on, the reproductive principle has
held a first claim on the life force. Every new function of the
evolving organisms could be introduced only at the cost of
reduced reproduction. The energy needed for each new
evolutionary acquisition had to be diverted from the earlier
established reproductive tendency, and to be transformed
into other modes of expression. The life force had to be used
more and more for inward instead of for outward purposes.

All the way up through the animal kingdom this process was
made easy by the absolute power of instinct, which
unfailingly guides all animals in their every activity in
harmony with the plan of evolution . 8 The animal is bound
to follow that guidance because it has no faculty, no power
of its own, with which to oppose nature’s will and purpose.

Thus it was an easy matter for the evolving animal to yield

more and more of its reproductive energy and activity to the
needs of higher and higher evolutionary attainments.

Now: the human stage.

Mind, reason, intellect, conscious self-consciousness are the

evolutionary characteristics of the human species. Thanks to
a far better developed brain than possessed by any group in
the animal kingdom, these new factors can function in man.

The additional brain development has been made possible

by nature by instituting a long period of childhood, followed
by years of adolescence before maturity is fully reached. To
make the most of the evolutionary advantages and
possibilities it is evident that in the first place youth, up to
full maturity, should conserve all of life’s energy for the
development of body and of brain.*

But after maturity has been reached the law of evolution

does not cease to require more and more transmuted energy
at every forward step. For the adult as truly as for youth, for
the married 1 as truly as for the unmarried, further progress
in evolution can only be attained at the cost of diminished
sexual activity. In some of the higher animal species this had
already been reduced to as little as a single act in the
season of rut, which in many cases occurs only once a year.
For human beings, then, a still further reduction — a
limitation to the few occasions when propagation is
consciously willed — is requisite if evolution is to proceed.

In the human body nature continues to be lavish with the

production of seed as a storage battery of life force. But
more insistently than ever the evolutionary law demands
that — except for limited generative use — the force be kept
within the body for regenerative purposes.'

For mankind this has been always a most perplexing

problem. “Man is the first product of evolution to be capable
of controlling evolutionary destiny.”* Endowed as he is with
reasoning powers, he must independently decide upon his
own behavior, without the compelling guidance by instinct.
Supplied with mind, he is expected to cooperate consciously
with nature in her further evolutionary program.

Unfortunately humanity has arrantly failed to make a serious

effort to promote its own further progress. Instead of using
the power of the mind to understand the responsibilities
which freedom from blind obedience to instinct entails,
mankind has refused to listen whenever it was reminded of
the requirements of the evolutionary law. It was so much
easier to lend an ear to the promptings of desire, which was
an unknown element up to the human stage. 1 ® It must
have been very soon after the acquisition of mental self-
consciousness and his becoming aware of stirrings of
primitive impulses, that man began to use the mind to
stimulate the desires of the body. In this way he has
indulged the almost negligible sexual impulse which he
inherited from the animal kingdom, until it has become a
desire so strong that he has difficulty to control it.

Overstimulated by this unnaturally strong desire of his own

making, man has looked for arbitrary ways in which to
gratify it. Although reducing actual reproduction, he has
discovered ways of unreproductive sexual action. But every
such act, whatever form it takes, is a misuse of sex and uses
up some of the life force that should be utilized for the
support and the development of higher faculties. “The
record of our race progress clearly shows how our upward
movement has been checked ... by that misuse .” 11

At the time when- mankind became accustomed and

addicted to sexual acts without reproductive purpose, at
that very time it put a deadlock into the course of its
evolution. Not until this deadlock is removed can humanity,
individually and jointly, stride on toward the attainment of
the greater faculties and powers which evolution has in store
for man. 1 *

*****

1 Juno, Psychology of the Unconscious, i, 94.

* Wells and Huxley, The Science of Life, IV, v, 551.

8 Same as 8 , IV, v, 439.

4 Morris, Human Anatomy, VIII, 869.

5 See Ch. xii, Instinct.

6 See Ch. xxiv. Adolescence.

7 See Ch. xix, Marriage.

8 See Ch. xxxiv. Regeneration.

9 Same as *, IV, ix, 649.

10 See Ch. xiii, Desire.

11 Gilman, “Sex and Race Progress” ; in: Calverton, Sex in

Civilization ,

121.

18 See Ch. lxxxvi. The Future.

 VI
THE IDEAL

“The ideal man is . . . non-attached to his bodily sensations

and lusts.' 1 — Huxley, Ends and Means, i^.

Amongst those who give this subject serious thought

practically “every one today admits that our sexual life is far
from perfect .” 1 But instead of attempting to perfect it by
lifting it to the level of an ideal, the majority tries to lower
that life to a cunningly intensified sensual gratification. The
general tendency is to idolize its imperfections, even to
worship at the shrines of its deformed images. And the only
effort to counteract this degrading idolatry consists in an
occasional ineffective mumbling by would-be moralists
about so-called moderation.

The genuine doctrine of moderation deals with the elements

contributing to evolutionary growth. It teaches avoidance of
lopsided development. It warns against extremes in physical
training, in rigidity of asceticism, in receptive sensitiveness,
in compassionate emotions, in intellectuality, in
philosophical abstraction, in spiritual meditation— all of
which are necessary factors that must be practised, but that
must be kept in balance with each other if harmonious
evolution is to be attained. The world however has avidly
grasped and misconstrued the doctrine of moderation in
evolutionary elements, and applied it to its own anti-
evolutionary tendencies to self-gratification. The ideal
doctrine has been degraded into an excuse for personal
habits and weaknesses, every individual proclaiming that
his particular standard of pandering to these can serve as a
model of moderation.
Not moderation, but elimination is the ideal in regard to
evolution-retarding habits. In a sanitarium for dopeaddicts it
may be advisable to allow patients temporarily a restricted
— but at the same time gradually diminishing — use of
narcotics. Similarly it may be advisable to condone that sex-
addicts (that is to say: all those who have habituated
themselves to sexual acts) do not suddenly break their
habit, provided they will gradually overcome it. But no sane
person can opine that a continuous use of drugs should be
prescribed for the dope-addicted patients — not even in a
so-called moderate degree. Still less that it should also be
recommended for those who are free from the addiction. As
little reasonable is it to claim that quasi moderate sexual
activity must continually be indulged in by those who are
addicted to such acts, and that also it should be
recommended for all who are not so addicted.

Once realizing that the sexual life of humanity is far from

faultless, it becomes imperative to look impersonally and
unbiased for a way out of its unsound condition.

Evidently two pathways lie ahead: one leading up out of

entanglement, the other down and deeper into it. Man must
either climb toward the radiant, though seemingly lonesome
summit, or slide into the tempting shadows of the crowded
lower path. The one path is the way of self-control, of
mastery over sex, leading to purity and progress; the other
is the road of self-indulgence, of enslavery to sex, of passion
and resultant retrogression.

One must either recognize that sexual intercourse is not

essential to individual well-being*, and encourage
continence ; or acknowledge the regular necessity of such
intercourse for all who are physically mature, and frankly
sanction licentiousness. Sexual acts must either be limited
to propagation, or perversion* must be condoned. There
must be either a sane and sanitary living, or there will be a
wider spreading of venereal disease . 4 If there is no
purification, there is bound to be purification.

On the one path there is ethical refinement*, clarification of

the mind®, and general regeneration; on the other, moral
decay, mental retardation and allround degeneration. Either
a transmutation of the sex force will bring spiritual
expansion; or continued transgression of natural law will dull
the already acquired, and limit all chance of developing
higher faculties.

Man must either consciously help evolution and make every

effort to ascend to the superhuman state 7 ; or he will
stubbornly counteract and undo the work of evolution, and
thereby descend below the grade of the sub-human state.

Every human being has the choice between those two paths.
“Every individual ... must belong either to the side which is
in favor of purity, or to the fraction which practises and
advocates sensuality .” 8

Which of die two will lead to a more desirable, more worthy,

more ideal humanity? “Which must we choose and follow? ...
A voice from within in each case definitely and clearly gives
the answer; and all that is left for moral philosophy to do is
to give it the form of a universal rational principle.”*

Such a principle is contained in the following formula:

FOR ADVANCED EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH PASSION MUST BE

CONQUERED AND THE GENERATIVE ORGANS BE USED FOR
GENERATION only. In other words: all the sex force not
actually used for the perpetuation of the species must by
transmutation be made available for higher evolutionary
attainment.
The sexual life to which the application of this formula leads
is a spiritualized and impersonal one — a life in which the
personality’s actions are ruled by spiritual motives, and in
which the selfish longings of the body, of the senses or of
the mind cannot be allowed to play any part.

As an ideal this applies to all. Albeit not within immediate

reach of every individual, as a final destination it is the same
for all. It is “an ideal that is set to us as a task: we must
strive toward it, even if its realization is beyond our power .”
19 For a majority it may be so far away that it seems
unattainable indeed. But a close approach to its attainment
is possible for quite a number. In individual cases it has been
successfully approached, always concurring with
commensurate spiritual growth.

Amongst those who have fully realized this ideal in the past
are some who have left imperishable impressions of spiritual
greatness on human history. They, the wisest teachers that
ever trod the earth, stand out as exemplars of what mankind
can be and of what it is destined to be when it grows
spiritually mature. In the process of that growth all humanity
must gradually conquer passion, must gradually diminish
the abuse of sex.

Eventually the ideal of purity must be seen and recognized

and ultimately reached by all, if the race is to rise from its
wearisome condition of the human-animal to the felicitous
spiritual-human state. Every individual must face the basic
facts. Understanding these, one must choose the ideal as a
goal; and the will must consciously be applied to
approximate that goal as rapidly as possible. A beginning
must be made by every one some time. To deny this is to
deny oneself the chance for evolutionary progression.
Once one’s aspirations are concentrated upon the ideal, its
distant glimmering becomes more and more distinct and
more irresistibly attractive. Approaching it from wherever
one may stand, every conscious step in its direction edifies,
until consummate attainment well-nigh deifies.

All this may seem to many too idealistic. But ideals of today
are realities of the future . Undeniably, “the ideal is remote .
. . but he who will not attain it will fare well for having
striven after it .” 11

**♦**

1 Forel, The Sexual Question , xix, 527.

1 Sec Ch. xxxii, The Notion of Necessity.

I See Ch. xxix. Perversion.

4 See Ch. xxxv. Venereal Diseases.

• See Ch. xlvii, The Altruism of Ethics.

4 See Ch. xvii, Intellect and Intuition.

T See Ch. lxxxvii, Supermen.

• Scott, The Sexual Instinct, i, 20.

• Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 53.

10 Silberer, Problems of Mysticism, III, 413.

II Tolstoi, Works, XVIII, 471.

 PART TWO

SUBSTANTIATING

THE

IDEAL

This ... is supported by testimony from so many independent

sources that it can not be dismissed lightly .” —Lippmann,
Preface to Morals, ix,156.
“Men as you are today, half-men, half-beasts . . . Are you so
satisfied with your bastard and imperfect humanity, with
your animality scarcely held in leash?.”

— Papini, Life of Christ, 123.

 VII
CONSIDERATIONS

“There are certainly a number of highly rational arguments

against . . . passion."

— Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, II,ix,ao8.

Not being a text-book, this work does not attempt to be

either complete or systematic. It is more in the nature of a
test-book: one in which the genuineness of the proffered
ideal concerning the importance of conservation of
reproductive energy is being tested on the touchstone of
widely diversified subjects. Science and metaphysics,
sociology and ethics, and philosophical and religious
systems of all times are lightly touched upon, at a single
point, for the purpose of substantiating the ideal and of
proving its intrinsic value. In almost every direction
evidence can be found in corroboration of the ideal of purity.

A perusal of the following four-score chapters will reveal how

widespread and how well supported is the view that the
evolutionary development of body, of intellect, of every
cultural attainment, of spirituality and of hidden powers
largely depends upon the conservation and transformation
of sexual energy.

Where each chapter deals with a single subject, each

presents but a single argument or suggests only a single
consideration. Therefore one chapter by itself may or may
not prove strikingly convincing. But each in some way
serves to strengthen all the others; each chapter contains a
contribution to the central theme of the book.
All statements made or quoted can not be equally strong,
and they are not expected to be always generally accepted.
More likely than not even the most conclusive remarks
would be rejected anyhow by the multitude which clings to
its addiction to sensuous gratification. Evidently “least of all
can I hope for approbation from those who are . . . under the
power of passion .” 1 “For he that lives at the dictates of
passion will not hear nor understand the reasoning of one
who tries to dissuade him.”* “Passion seems not to be
amenable to reason .” 3 It is still true that “this lower
principle in man would not listen to reason and . . . would
never naturally care for any arguments .” 4

After all “each man can only prize that which to a certain
extent is analogous to him, and for which he has at least a
slight inclination .” 3 Therefore the thoughts expressed in
these pages are intended mainly for those who have become
already somewhat receptive to spiritual principles. Even to
those perhaps not all the arguments presented in favor of
the ideal will appeal. But if by logic or by intuitive reaction
they find that the cumulative evidence of be it only half a
dozen chapters seems convincing, then that should suffice
to plant the seed of the ideal in their consciousness.

Nearly every one who is willing to face the evidence frankly

and squarely will have to acknowledge that the ideal is
based on a deep, solid stratum of universal truth. And once
this recognition is rooted, a little regular attention will make
it grow and bloom and bear the refreshing and rejuvenating
fruit which brings a taste of spiritual realization.

*****

1 Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, IV, xliv, 338. *

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, X, ix, 7.
8 Same as 8 , X, ix, 7.

4 Plato, Timaeus, 71.

8 Same as \ IV, lxviii, 497.

 VIII
SPIRIT VERSUS MATTER

“The law of spirit ... is to go up;

the law of matter ... is to go down.”

— Saint-Martin, Oeuvres Posthumes,

1.3 * a

In their final essence “spirit and matter are only opposite

poles of the same universal substance .” 1 As the primary
expression of nature’s law of polarity, without which the
universe could not exist, they are “states of one unity,
divided only in our conception of the modes of its
manifestation.”*

On this point the deepest philosophies, the highest occult

teachings, the broadest religious viewpoints and the farthest
reaching scientific searchings seem to lead to very similar
conclusions. They have come to look upon spirit and matter
as being basically one single element which from one form
of expression can be transmuted into another by changing
its rate of vibration. “Regarded concretely, spiritual and
material being are two kinds of energy which can be
transformed into each other, just as mechanical motion can
be transformed into heat and vice versa .” 8

If looked upon in the same analytical way, steam and ice are
basically one and the same thing; but in every-day talk and
for practical purposes they remain definitely distinguishable
and as good as opposites. Their relative opposition and yet
basic unity may be indicated by calling ice the lowest form
of that of which steam is a higher manifestation. And so may
matter be called the lowest form of that of which spirit is the
highest expression.

Only the exceptional mind can occasionally contemplate

and still more rarely entirely grasp the ultimate reality of
oneness. For a perfect understanding of the state of unity we
first “must escape from matter, which is but an inferior form
of spirit” 4 ; that is to say, we must escape from the
crystallizing power that matter holds over us. For the
average human intellect the standpoint of duality is the
more logical, the only comprehensible. Therefore spirit and
matter are for the present purposes dealt with as
antithetical.

Justification for considering matter low and spirit high can

be found mainly in a comparison of their rates of vibration :
that of matter and its qualities is low and slow, while that of
spirit and its attributes is high and fast beyond measure,
beyond imagination.

Wherever two of different rates of speed are linked together,

as spirit and matter inextricably are, there is conflict, push
and struggle, strife for supremacy. Thus spirit and matter are
in constant conflict with each other; spirit always pushes
onward and matter is holding back. But about the final
outcome of their contest there cannot be a doubt: the
quicker always ultimately wins, in the evolutionary arena as
in the wrestling-ring.

In the end matter—which expresses the static power of

solidification, of separateness, of selfishness and of
sensuousness—is fated to be vanquished by spirit, whose
dynamic power is that of expansion, of unification, of self-
effacement and of sublime purity.
“In that victory of spirit over matter . . . matter is not
destroyed but is made ... an instrument of the activity of
spirit.”* Matter will then no longer oppose, but support
spirit; it will become spiritualized itself, and will manifest
only that which is in accord with spirit, namely: absolute
purity in every expression of life.

“Such purity is necessary if real spirituality is to be

attained.”'

*****

Mathers, The Kabbalah Unveiled, Preface, viii, Hartmann,

Occult Science in Medicine, II, ii, 32. Solovyof, Justification of
the Good, I, ii, 47. Maeterlinck, The Great Secret, xii, 259.

Same as *, II, iii, 180.

Vivekananda, My Master, 47.

 IX
EMBODIED SPIRIT

"Man is a human being only if he conquers nature by spirit*’

— Keyserlino, Book of Marring*,

111,302.

In humanology the clashing cosmic elements of spirit and

matter are represented by the human “spirit, which is the . .
. emanation from the divine, and the body with its various
desires and passions, which is of the nature of matter .” 1
And as cosmically matter is lower than spirit by reason of its
lower rate of vibration, so the physical human body is lower
than the indwelling spirit.

Everything that increases the power of matter over man

makes the body denser, lower in vibration and less fit to
serve as an instrument for spirit. Even the body’s finest
organs high in the skull become thereby less accessible to
spirit.

The attraction of matter is most powerful in the organs in the

lower part of the trunk. Hence there are good reasons for
designating the sexual tendency as belonging to man’s
lower nature. It is this lower nature with its animal qualities
that must be conquered by the spirit within man in order
that he may become a truly human being. “The binding of
the lower is necessary in order that the higher may act.

To give a clear definition of the spirit in man seems, alas,

impossible. Mere words cannot correctly define it because
“since it is spirit ... it can be comprehended only
spiritually.”* As long as man is “controlled by carnality . . .
there is nothing in him that can touch or sense spirit, and
therefore he cannot be conscious of it .” 4 Very few possess
the needed faculty of spiritual comprehension. And few are
they who are willing to take up the rigid training necessary
for the acquisition of that faculty — probably just because
for this purpose “the lower faculties . . . require to be strictly
governed by the higher .” 8

Those wise ones who had acquired the faculty of spiritual

comprehension have stated in different ways but always
“with absolute certainty that essentially we are spirit” , that
we are not a body which may or may not have a soul, but
that we are a soul (or individualized spirit) incidentally using
a body; that “the body is but an instrument existing for the
use and sake of the soul, and not for itself .” 7 But to prove
this to ourselves “we have to discover the spirit in us by
stripping off all that is extraneous to it ... A strictly ethical
discipline is insisted on ... an absolute inward purity
demanding self-mastery and self-renunciation”*, in the first
place a renunciation of everything that increases the power
of matter over spirit. “If we wish to become spiritually
developed we must . . . become rid of our sensuality and
passions .” 9

As expressed in the language of a somewhat orthodox moral

philosophy, which none the less is basically true: “if the
spirit ... is to increase in power, the flesh must be subdued .”
10 “As long as the satisfaction of the appetites and lusts of
the flesh is included in man’s ideals and aims, he never can
rise above the plane of animalism .” 11 ‘Flesh’ here refers to
man’s “material nature which violates . . . the spirit, is
opposed to and exclusive of it.” 1 * And since “the
predominance of flesh over spirit expresses itself most
strongly ... in the carnal union” 1 *, the first step towards
giving supremacy to spirit is to master the sexual urge.
It is “the grossness of all the matter in which material man
consists . . . which holds the soul in continual imperfection .”
14 “Our body . . . fills us with desires and passions and vain
imaginings . . . and a host of frivolities.” 1 * But once
“having got rid of the foolishness of the body, we shall be
pure . . . and know the clear light of truth.” 1 * “Who then
would not . . . strive to wean himself by degrees from the
domination and insolence of this flesh ?” 17

However, to subdue the flesh does not mean that the body
should be despised or stunted or neglected. “The true
attitude toward the body will be one neither of contempt nor
of weak pandering to its impulses.” 1 * The whole trend of
evolution shows a tender care on nature’s part in the
building of better, finer, higher organized bodies, through
which spirit can ever more fully express itself. We can help
evolution, not by neglecting the body but by disciplining
and purifying it, by bringing its vibrations up to a higher
standard, “by refining and subliming it, and so heightening
its powers as to make it sensitive and responsive to all the
manifestations of the spirit.” 1 ® “The body is not to be put
off; it is to be ... made spiritual .”* 0 And “the living flesh
itself becomes spiritualized in proportion to the inner growth
of its bearer .”* 1 Only by resolutely improving and
perfecting it as an instrument for spirit can we, while living
in a physical body, hope to know and consciously express
the priceless faculties of spirit.

*****

I Encyclopaedia Britannic a, (Ninth Edition), II, 591.

8 Adler, Reconstruction of the Spiritual Ideal , iii, 91.

4 Hegel, Philosophy of History, 125.

4 Butler, The Goal of Life, xxiii, 315.

4 Buchanan, Therapeutic Sarcognomy, xv, 291.

1 Tagore, Sadhana, ii, 30.

7 Kingsford, The Perfect Way, viii, 217.

4 Radhakrishnan, An Idealistic View of Life, iii, m.

9 Hartmann, In the Pranoas of the Temple, 47.

10 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 47.

II Buck, The Soul and Sex, v, 145.

11 Same a$ 10 , I, ii, 46.

14 Same as 10 , I, ii, 52.

14 Eckartshausen. The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, iv, 52.

15 Plato, Phaedo, 66.

14 Same as 15 , 66.

17 More, Enchiridion Ethicum, III, iii, 199.

18 Black, Culture and Restraint, x, 290.

19 Same as 7 , viii, 217.

80 Nicholson, Mystics of Islam, 16.

81 Kbyseruno, Creative Understanding, I, 20.

 X
THE SEX PRINCIPLE

“Sex is a thing of bodies, not of souls."

— Hermes, Excerpts by Stobaeus,xxvi,44.

“It has been commonly imagined that sex is a primal fact

rooted in the very constitution of life, if not indeed of the
universe ... But there is nothing of that fundamental
character about the device of sexual reproduction .” 1

Strictly, sex is only that which physically distinguishes

female from male. It is but one of the manifold
manifestations of nature’s unfathomable law of polarity. So
also is electricity in its positive and negative poles ,* so is
music in its polar opposites of major and minor; so are the
contrasts of spirit and matter, of day and night, of repulsion
and attraction. Innumerable are the expressions of polarity,
of which sex is but one instance.

To reverse this statement and to say that all polarity is

teducible to sex is the specious reasoning of a race
mentality so pervaded with thoughts of sex that it seeks to
sexualize everything. Thus the idea of sex often has been
connected with the most abstract concepts, including deity.
Unfortunately some of the deepest metaphysical
dissertations have used the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ in
reference to positive and negative forces in nature and to
other polar opposites far above the physical plane. This may
have been done in order to make the difficult abstract ideas
more readily understood by the average mind; but with it all
it has contributed to the widespread misunderstanding that
sex implies more than a physical differentiation. But apart
from that material distinction “nature knows no more of a
male and a female principle than of a vertebrate and
invertebrate principle.”*

Whatever seemingly important place one may be inclined to

assign to sex in individual physical existence, from a higher
standpoint one can see in it no more than “a mere
temporary expression on the physical plane of the pairs of
opposites”*, “merely an adventitious . . . adaptation .” 4
Spiritually considered we are not ‘men* or ‘women’; we are
spirit, using — and using only temporarily — a male or a
female body. “It cannot be too emphatically reiterated that
the sex function exists only on the physical plane”®, and
that “it is only in the body that sex exists.”* “There is no sex
in mind.”' Also “souls have no sex.”® Still less can there be
any question of sex in the spirit. From which it follows that
as one grows in spirituality sex loses its importance.

Abundant as may be the neo-psychological and the

erotically romantic and poetical attempts to put sex and its
function on a hallowed pedestal, only a sense-dimmed vision
can lead to the belief that this is where it rightfully belongs.
Sex being only a characteristic of the physical body, every
sexual gratification sustains the body in its resistance
against a fuller manifestation of spirit.

Before considering sex to be man’s “crowning glory”* and

his “most godlike possession” 19 , one may well take into
account that every pig and every insect shares in the
imaginary glory of that same possession which does not in
any way crown man as different from the lowest animal.
“The reproductive process ... is still an essentially animal
function .” 11 “True spirituality demands its utter extirpation
.” 11 Man’s truly godlike possession lies in the possibility of
spiritual development. Not in sex. On the contrary, “the
absolutely spiritual man is . . . entirely disconnected from
sex.” u

( Sexual reproduction has often been regarded as an

expression of man’s creative power. But “reproduction is not
. . . creation .” 14 Even the purest sexual act, even on those
rare occasions when it is performed with propagative
intention, is not creative. The male’s part in the act is at best
no more creative than the action of a husbandman who
sows, depending entirely upon nature to produce a harvest.
“The seed is deposited in the womb, and another cause
takes it, operates it, and moulds a child .” 15

Moreover, the comparison of the male’s role with that of a

sower is still too flattering; and to say that “the woman in
her conception and generation is but the imitation of the
earth” 1 *, is not giving her sufficient recognition for hers.
For she represents not only the earth, but the earth with the
seed, the ovum, already in it. The male, far from exerting
any creative power, is required to furnish only a fecundating
element, which perchance it may become possible to
provide without him. “The spermatozoon can be replaced by
a chemical or physiological agent. Only the female element
is essential.” 1 ^

No, not in sex lies man’s creative power. What is usually

spoken of as procreation is not in any way a manifestation of
creative faculties of the procreators. No human being knows
how to create the seed, nor how to make it grow into a living
being. Procreation is a physical expression belonging to the
animal part of man — whereas creation belongs to a higher,
as yet practically unmanifested part in him.

“The only true creative function is that of . . . the faculty of

formative thought .” 18 Creative power is that which
consciously makes the subjective objective, by exercise of
intensely concentrated thought. It goes far beyond what is
so often considered to be the creative power of artists, who
even at their best are but extremely skilful artisans giving
more or less perfect physical form to what they observe in
visible objects, or to what in moments of inspiration may
have been impressed on them. 1 * The real power of creation
rests in the mind. And it can manifest only after the mind
has been freed from any connection with sex, and has
become indissolubly linked with spirit.

*****

B rif r ault. The Mothers , I, iii, 91.

Same as l , I, iii, 91.

Besant, “Mysticism, true and false”; in: Lucifer, IX, 181.

Same as *, I, iii, 91.

Prysb, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 139.

Vivekananda, My Master, 45.

Tanner, The Intelligent Man's Guide, xiv, 38. Lutoslaw8ki,

The World of Souls, vi, 167.

Gck igk

9 Curtiss, Letters from the Teacher, I, ix, aoa.

19 Collins, The Doctor looks at Lave and Life, i, 16.

11 Mauds ley. The Pathology of Mind, I, iii, 68. u Same as B ,

216.

19 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, III, 458.

14 Wells and Huxley, The Science of Life, IV, ii, 443.

15 Plato, Menexenus, 238.

19 Aurelius, Meditations, X, 26. ir Carrel, Man the Unknown,

iii, 91.

19 Same as 9 , 217.

19 See Ch. xvi. Inspiration.

 XI
PURPOSE OF SEX

“The real purpose . - . propagation of the species.”

— Krafft-Ebino, Psychopathic Sex

uaUs, i,9.

Nature — or whatever one may wish to call that force which

manifests in the evolution of life and form — needs in her
evolutionary work an almost endless series of generations in
order to lead up to the final, perfect form. Through
innumerable generations of minerals, of plants, of animals,
of men, she is leading up to supermen and on beyond.

In all her kingdoms nature has instituted methods of

perpetuating the species “for the purpose that the
perfection which one generation has not reached may be
approached by the next .” 1 Of every method of
reproduction self-evidently reproduction is the natural aim.
Thus also “in creating the division of the sexes . . . nature
has only one aim — the continuation of life.”* The physical
use of physical organs of reproduction is by nature intended
for physical propagation, and for that purpose only. Certainly
“those powers and instruments and appetites which are
subservient to copulation were imparted to men not for the
sake of voluptuousness but for the perpetuation of the
human race.”* “Inasmuch as the object of the sexual
function is the preservation of the species, the act of
copulation should be performed only at such times and
under such circumstances as subserve that object .” 4
Sexual action that is not propagative cannot be considered
to be in harmony with nature’s purposes. Every attempt to
justify unreproductive sexual action can only be the result of
a wish to whitewash the addiction of humanity to sexual
abuse.*

It is irrational to ascribe to nature the intention that sex

should be used for sense-gratification, where that misuse is
but an invention of the human mind. As well might be
deduced from the existence of poppies and of all such plants
from which man has seen fit to extract narcotics and
intoxicating stimulants, that it is nature’s intention to people
the earth with dope-addicts and drunks.

Always to serve in the most effective way her fundamental

plan — that is: to forward evolution — nature has evolved
different propagative methods for successive evolutionary
forms; from fission she has changed to budding; from this
apparently to a hermaphroditic system; out of which she has
developed the method which requires cooperation of two
separated sexes. “Man is bom in the present way only as the
consequence ... of the law of natural evolution.”*

Each change was introduced when evolution could be

promoted by a new method of reproduction. The still
unanswered question is: why was unisexuality developed in
preference to some other propagative system, and how was
this particular method expected to aid evolution better than
any other.

While the physical aspect of sex is intended exclusively for

propagation, a secondary purpose entirely apart from the
physical must have been part of nature’s plan when
instituting the sexual method of reproduction — a purpose
that would aim to advance human evolution in higher
realms simultaneously with that in the physical.
Emotional and mental and spiritual evolution must proceed
on parallel lines with that of the physical forms; and the
evolving form enhances the possibility of higher emotional,
higher mental and spiritual expression. All of these are at
first much more stimulated by the interdependence of the
two sexes than by the self-centered self-sufficiency of the
preceding undifferentiated and asexual systems of
reproduction.

But the attainment of the secondary purpose does not

depend on physical sex expression. It manifests in the
psychological or superphysical relation of the sexes.

The differentiation of the sexes has left each individual

intact as a soul. Only, where in the one sex a positive
principle has been emphasized while a negative was
subdued, in the other a negative principle has been
strengthened at the cost of a positive. As a result, the same
as in magnetic poles, there is mutual attraction. And that
attraction, which is not physical but psychological, serves to
turn the attention away from self and from selfishness; it
lays the foundation for loftier emotions, for a tender care of
others, for sympathy and self-sacrifice, for compassion and
self-effacement, and for pure love. And so sex fulfills its
secondary purpose by aiding in the evolutionary task of
leading humanity in the direction of the goal of conscious
spiritual unification.

But not by physical union can this non-physical unification

be attained. As soon as the lower organs are sexually active
there can be no question of any spiritual expression, except
if it be in the form of a sacrificial dedication to the entity
that may be bom. Apart from this, sex and spirituality are
diametrically opposed. Every attempt to give the
unreproductive sexual act a quasi sublime appearance is
nothing but self-delusion; it may lead to emotional
exuberance, but never to anything of a spiritual nature,
never to soul unification.

Far from enhancing higher faculties of the soul, each

physical sexual act which lacks propagative consecration is
a deterrent to those faculties. It cannot possibly promote
love, but only lust, which sooner leads to separation than to
unification . 7 Instead of aiding, it frustrates spiritual
evolution; for every such act draws one down into the world
of sense-bound matter from which one should be freed.

Therefore a limiting of sexual action to “the normal object of

the sexual appetite, reproduction”* will most effectually
advance evolution.

*****

* Tolstoi, Works, XVIII, 456.

* Ouspbnsky, A New Model of the Universe, xii, 516. s

Luganus, On the Nature of the Universe, iv, si.

4 Lydston, Genito-Urinary, Venereal and Sexual Diseases, VI,

y nl , 585.

* See Ch. xxix, Perversion.

4 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, III, 895.

1 See Ch. xxi, Love versus Sex.

4 Forel, The Sexual Question, viii, 890.

 XII
INSTINCT

“The sexual act in human beings is not instinctive.”

— Russell, Mar rings and Morals,

xii,i38.

Looking back over the path of evolution we see the mineral

kingdom still asleep in nature’s womb, the earth; the
vegetable kingdom still connected with its mother, directly
fed through roots; then the helpless animal kingdom as
nature’s toddling little child over which she closely watches,
holding it tightly by the hand. By this close, protecting
contact nature’s own intelligence unerringly guides the
animal, in which it manifests as instinct.

“Instinct is given to the animals since they have no

understanding .” 1 In everything they automatically “follow
their instinct, and in doing so they act as nobly . . . as their
position in nature permits.”* The sexual body-urge in itself is
not instinct; instinct is the power which in the animals
controls that urge, just as it controls their selection of the
right food and their building of a nest, a hive, a web. Instinct
unfailingly directs and restricts their sexuality which it
allows to come into expression only in the season of rut,
purely for the perpetuation of the species. This is the rule,
“unless through association with mankind the animal has
become abnormal in this respect”*, in which case the power
of instinct is interfered with.

From her older child, from humanity, nature has withdrawn

her guiding hand. Instead of instinct she has implanted in
man mind, which is an individualized part of her own
intelligence, so that in him “reason has completely
supplanted instinct in the government of conduct.”* “There
exists no instance in normal man of a determinate pure i
instinct. ”* Not even in the savage. Only the cells and
cellgroups within the body are still directed by instinct to
perform such processes as digestion and the restoration of
damaged tissue. But all acts of the individual have come
entirely under the control of human volition.

For the direction of human conduct by man himself nature

has developed in him a brain through which the mind can
find expression. “Instinctive life does not need the brain.”®
Hence below the human stage instinct could be manifest
already before the brain began to be formed; and as long as
the brain was not sufficiently developed to serve as an
instrument for the mind, instinct remained the regulator of
conduct. But since individual mind has become active,
instinct has become superfluous. Therefore, anatomically,
“as the brain developed, the centers for the older instinctive
activities were covered over .” 7 Physiologists of high repute
agree that with the growth of the brain “the place of instinct
. . . was taken by intelligent educability” 8 , and soon
“intellectual powers . . . had the effect of superseding those
of instinct.”*

Surely then, man’s overstrong sexual urge cannot be

excused by ascribing it to instinct — to an influence from
which he has been cut off in the dim past. No instinct is
either urging or restraining him. The cause lies entirely in
himself, in his abuse of mind.

Part of mind’s mission was to take over nature’s task of

judicious direction and restriction of the sexual urge. But
instead of using his reasoning power for this purpose man —
becoming conscious of self-seeking, sense-serving, sex-
stirring possibilities — applied his mentality to the distortion
of the sexual life. In the exercise of reason presumably
rational, intelligent man “descends below the level of the
beasts . . . because he puts his intellect at the service of
bestiality.” 1 * “He calls it reason, but pollutes its use by
being beastlier than any brutes .” 11

It is believed that “the pairing of our earliest human or half-

human ancestors . . . was restricted to a certain season of
the year” 1 *, “and that abstinence was the rule at other
times .” 18 “But . . . the sexual impulse became perverted
through lust .” 14 “In order to multiply the moments of
[body-] pleasure man acquired the faculty of repeating
genetic acts during any season .” 18 This has been
detrimental in several ways. For one thing “it was ... at the
cost of the length of his life .” 14 The most serious effect has
been that “he is manifesting a degenerative tendency
instead of taking an upward step on the evolutionary scale.”
1 * By his chronic animalism “man sinks lower than an
animal because he lives in a state of disorder which does not
exist among animals.” 1 * Where animals are only sexual,
man has become sensual by degrading the reproductive
sexual urge into a desire for unreproductive sensual
satisfaction. Sensuality is man-made. By overexciting the
reproductive faculty for millions of years man has only
himself to blame for the impelling power of the sexual
impulse. And only he himself can reduce that power and
bring it back within the boundaries of its legitimate domain:
that of the perpetuation of the race.

*****

1 Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, IV, xliv, 348.

I Paracelsus, “De Fund amen to Sapientiae”; quoted in:

Hartmann,
Paracelsus , iii, 61.

1 Curtiss, Letters from the Teacher, I, ix, 20s.

4 McDouoall, Outline of Abnormal Psychology, 558.

4 Brifpault, The Mothers, I, ii, 45.

• Solovyof, Justification of the Good, II, iii, 185. r Paton,

Human Behavior, xi, 335.

4 Thomson, Towards Health, iv, 178.

• Paget, Selected Essays and Addresses, v, 34.

10 Papini, Life of Christ, 62.

II Goethe, Faust, Prologue in Heaven, 235.

18 Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, I, ii, 81.

18 Popenoe, Problems of Human Reproduction, ix, 102.

14 Guyot, Toga, the Science of Health, viii, 184.

15 Same as 14 , viii, 184.

14 Same as 14 , viii, 184.

17 Arm it age. Sex Advice to Women, xv, 215.

14 Kant, Lectures on Ethics, 123.

 XIII
DESIRE

“The slave of desire is quickly the victim of lust”

— Riley, Bible of Bibles,wu, 2 og.

In its widest meaning the word ‘desire’ may be used to

express a longing for the attainment of any form of
satisfaction, be it physical, emotional, intellectual or
spiritual — a longing for anything that can be expected to
provide passing pleasure or lasting joy. But in practical
application the use of the word more often than not has
been limited to signify a passional emotion for sense-
gratification — and here it will be so used.

Even in this restricted meaning desire does not exist below

the human stage. Animals are equipped with appetites. In
their natural state they are guided by nature’s intelligence
— that is, by instinct — to satisfy those appetites for
preservation of self and of species. They serve nature’s need
in a natural attraction to food or mate without being driven
by desire.

Only in man, endowed with mind and with self-

consciousness, desire comes into being; for “desire is
appetite with consciousness thereof .” 1 Instead of being
wisely led by instinct man is misled by unwise use of mind
and driven by desire. At the evolutionary stage of average
present humanity mind is used in separative, selfish ways
and is largely confined to matter; and thus desire, produced
by matterbound and matter-blinded mind, seeks separative,
selfish and material satisfaction. And “man not only . . .
satisfies the desires of the moment, but refines upon them
and stimulates them ” 1 by a continual misapplication of
memory and anticipation, these two great powers of the
mind.

Hence it is that “desire is insatiable and is always in want”*,

and that “merely natural impulses . . . make more and more
demands the more concessions one makes to them .” 4 With
it all, “no attained object of desire can give lasting
satisfaction; it can produce merely a fleeting gratification” 5
, which only feeds and fosters the desire and makes it grope
for forms of self-indulgence which grow ever more noxious.

In most cases “the desire lasts long; the demands are

infinite ; the satisfaction is short.”* And besides, “the
satisfied passion leads oftener to unhappiness than to
happiness”'; so that “so long as we are given up to the
throng of desires ... we can never have lasting happiness nor
peace.”* Therefore, to do what the ultra-modernists seem to
propound, namely “to make desire a final authority ... is to
invite chaos in the inner life”*; whereas “to diminish our
desires is the same as to augment our powers .” 10

Undoubtedly the lower forms of desire have their due place

in the scheme of evolution. As long as humanity was in a
young evolutionary stage such desire was as useful as a
teething ring is for a baby in the teething stage. But the
babe does not need the ring after the teeths cut through—
although it may want to keep it as a toy. So does humanity
not need the element of desire after the breaking through of
a higher consciousness, although it may want to cling to its
every desire as to a pleasure-producing toy.

At the present time desire still may be the indispensable

motive power for those backward ones who will not move or
work without anticipating sense-satiety as a reward. But that
is not to say that it is still a necessary element for all, or that
it must remain for ever with those who are being helped by
it now.

Sooner or later one begins to see that desire for transitory'

things does not and can not bring any permanent
satisfaction ; and also that “so long as our desires are in
conflict with the universal law we suffer pain” 11 ; that not
only all “desire is accompanied by pain” 1 *, but that desire
itself is pain, and that there is “no pain like passion, no
deceit like sense.” 1 *

Then, turning away from the tyranny of selfish sensedesires,

one finds an inner spiritual longing for more lasting things,
an unselfish aspiration for conscious cooperation with
nature’s plans and laws which supplies an even more
effective motive power for action than desire.

An intuitive knowledge of the reality of a higher form of

human existence, and a longing to attain it, become
manifest as one’s unselfish efforts increase.

This longing lies deep down within each one, not like desire
fed by misdirected mind but wed to unerring wisdom. It is an
essential part of us; yet is it not to many actually known
because “our animal desires . . . have hidden from us our
true life .” 14 This is “the real misery of man . . . that he is
self-obscured, lost in the midst of his own desires.” 1 ’ Hence
“the idea that man ought to liberate himself from the
bondage of earthly desires is the conclusion of a
contemplative mind reflecting upon the short duration and
emptiness of all bodily pleasures.” 1 * “To expel all
eagerness of temporary desire . . . this is emancipation, and
this is the free man’s worship .” 17

It is but a repetition of the conviction of the greatest

thinkers and of the mystics and the spiritual leaders of all
ages that for every person who wishes to advance in
evolution and to attain real happiness there comes a time
when “desires must starve . . . the animal passions must die
.” 13

“Nothing hinders us so much in the development and

exercise of our inner powers as . . . our external desires.” 1 *
“Those powers . . . are even by the slightest application of
desire disturbed and hindered .” 30 Therefore all desire must
eventually perish. But it need not perish by the painful
process of being killed by force. By transmutation the lower
desires will automatically shrink, dissolve and vanish.
Suffering will then yield its place to constant exaltation; for
“freedom from desire is like the choicest extract from the
choicest treasure .” 31 “Divine influences will come to him
who liberates his soul of all carnal desires .” 33

*****

1 Spinoza, Ethics, III, ix, Note.

* Schopenhauer, Neue Paralipomena, vii, 217.

1 Sextus, “Select Sentences 1 '; in: Iamblichus, Life of

Pythagoras, II, 194. 4 Foerster, Marriage and the Sex
Problem, I, ix, 153.

4 Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, III, xxxviii, 233.

• Same as 5 , III, xxxviii, 253.

7 Same as B , IV, xliv, 368.

I Same as 5 , III, xxxviii, 254.

9 Briohtman, A Philosophy of Ideals, iv, 108.

10 Rousseau, Emile, I, iii, 319.

II Tagore, Sadhana, iii, 61.

19 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, III, xi, 6.

19 Arnold, The Light of Asia, viii, 173.

14 Tolstoi, Life, xx, 153.

18 Same as 11 , ii, 40.

16 Westernarck. The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas,

II, xxxix, 363.

ir Russell, Mysticism and Logic, iii, 55.

19 Hartmann, Magic, White and Black, v, 136.

19 Hartmann, In the Pranoas of the Temple, 48.

90 John of the gross. The Living Flame of Love, iii, 85.

91 Maitri Upanishad, vi, 30; in: Hume, The Thirteen Principal

Upanishads,

442

19 Same as 19 , 48.
 XIV
THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE

"Sex today ... is slimed over with the thought of pleasure.**

— Carpenter, Love's Coming of Age ,

ai.

What a restless, pleasure-craving, pleasure-grasping crowd

humanity has become! “The chief good is supposed by the
multitude to be pleasure .” 1 Pleasure is made life’s purpose,
pleasure its single aim. Not purely recreation but self-
gratification; not merely amusement in the form of harmless
diversion, but such as is detrimental to the individual and to
the race. And “closely connected with the pursuit of
pleasure is the serious increase of sexual license”*; for “the
pleasures of the body are the ones we most often meet with;
these have usurped the family title.”*

Not joy is being sought, not happiness, not gladness — but

sensuous stimulation and gratification, impairing physical
and mental health; for “who that is a slave to [body-]
pleasure is not in an evil condition both as to his body and
his mind ?”* Such pleasure exhausts one’s powers, while joy
increases them. Pleasure is usually followed by its opposite,
grief; while “it is a characteristic of real joy that it never
changes into an opposite”®, because joy is absolute, while
pleasure is but relative.

“The mere sum of pleasures does not constitute

happiness”®; more often “people are unhappy ... on
account of pleasure .” 7 In grasping pleasure they may
“imagine that they are finding happiness, whereas they are
finding only a frenzied and incomplete oblivion.”* For that is
all that “pleasure is ... a matter of momentary oblivion”*, a
chasing of shadows, an utmost self-delusion. “In pleasure . . .
there is something positively unreal and ungenuine.” 1 ® It
is no part of real life. “The pleasure principle . . . prevails
over the reality principle to the detriment of the whole
organism .” 11 While imagining that they amuse themselves
in the pursuit of pleasure, people frequently destroy if not
themselves then at least their chances of perpetual joy.

Well considered, “pleasure is neither good nor useful.” u It

melts away the moment it is grasped, leaving naught but
dissatisfaction and emptiness. “This void which we try to fill
by the stimulus of sensations” 1 * calls ever for more of the
unsatisfying pleasure.

Giving to the word ‘pleasure’ a wider meaning than that of

indulgence of the body, it becomes necessary to distinguish
degrees of pleasure, supplying either physical or emotional
or intellectual satisfaction. And “when one gets higher than
the intellect . . . one finds a state of joy in which all
pleasures . . . even of the intellect become as nothing .” 14

Naturally “the pleasures derived from the higher faculties

are preferable ... to those of which the animal nature is
susceptible .” 18 “Pleasures of the mind are more
considerable to one’s happiness than . . . pleasures of the
body.” 1 * “Bodily pleasures . . . rightly are called slavish” 1
'; they are undoubtedly the lowest of all.

Not any person who knows a relatively higher pleasure

would ever want to surrender it for a lesser kind. “Nobody
would choose to retain the mind of a child throughout his
life, even though he could continue to enjoy the pleasures of
childhood to the utmost .” 18 Still less do they who have
found true joy — of which there is within oneself an
unconditioned and unlimited supply — long to go back to
any form of pleasure the nature of which is to gratify the
personality by limited means, conditioned from without.
“They would not resign what they possess . . . for the most
complete satisfaction of all desires .” 18

“To make pleasure the aim of life is a sure way to deprive it

of all true joy .” 80 “The moment that reason gets the upper
hand pleasure is discarded .” 81 This is why “the true
philosopher . . . abstains from pleasures .” 88 He sees that
“pleasure is one of the chief things that beguile men from
the higher path” 88 , because “it increases and intensifies
the personality” 84 , which tenaciously holds on to the
material side of life, thus barricading itself against the spirit.

“If you seek pleasures . . . you are as far short of wisdom as

you are short of joy”**; “for joy is an elation of the spirit; it
can be attained only by the wise.”** Only “when pleasures
have been banished, then . . . there comes upon us a
boundless joy that is firm and unalterable .”* 7

The trouble is that in the pursuit of pleasure most people

have conscripted the concrete mind to serve on the side of
the emotions and the senses; and this rebellious triumvirate
triumphantly sweeps aside all higher-minded and spiritual
considerations.

Each of the three alone — the mind, the emotions or the

senses — could be confuted and induced to join the
elevating evolutionary forces; but united, the three-in-one
obstreperously hold on to their contemptuous, tempestuous
reign of gross material pleasure. They thrive impelling man
to snatch at passing pleasure, thwarting his acquisition of
lasting happiness.
Within each human entity, near the high mountain top of
one’s own spiritual being, there is a spring of purest joy
compared with which all pleasure drawn from the outside
world is tasteless, drab and disillusioning.

Not without some exertion can that spring be reached. It lies

high above the valley of polar opposites; to reach it one
must rise above all opposites — hence also rise above sex.
But even though their crops of relative pleasure inevitably
are followed by inexterminable growths of pain, most people
prefer to remain down in the valley, rather than to make the
effort to climb to the source of absolute joy.

“The spiritual man feels spiritual joy which is superior to

material pleasure, exceeding it a thousand times”**; “he
looks upon the lower satisfactions of life as stranglers of the
real joys.”** When the elating joy from the inner source has
been once tasted, mere pleasure “will become not only
uncraved for but simply and literally repulsive .”* 0 Then all
the childish pleasures of the world will fade away in the joy
of spiritual life; and “they who have cast away passion . . .
will reach the highest joy .”* 1

*****

1 Plato, Republic , VI, 503.

I Hardman, Ideals of Asceticism , vii, #13.

* Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics , VII, xiii,' 6.

4 Xenophon, Memorabilia , I, v, 5.

8 Senega, Epistulae Morales , I, lix, 411.

4 Sockman, Morals of Tomorrow , I, vi, 116. r Senega, On the

Happy Life , vii, 2.
4 Russell, Marriage and Morals, xx, 233.

9 Same as *, xx, 232.

“ Same as *, IX, 383.

II Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, i, 3.

19 Aurelius, Meditations, viii, 10.

18 Johnston, An of the Yoga Sutras of PatanjaU, 33.

14 Beck, The Way of Power, viii, 138.

18 Mill, Utilitarianism, ii, 10.

14 Shaftesbury, Characteristics of Men, II, 101.

17 Plato, Phaedrus, 238.

18 Same as 8 , X, iii, 12.

19 Same as 18 , ii, 8.

99 Black, Culture and Restraint, viii, 210.

91 Philo, Allegories of the Sacred Laws, III, xxxix, 138.

99 Plato, Phaedo, 83.

98 Wbininobr, Sex and Character, II, xiv, 336.

84 Bbsant, “Spiritual Darkness**; in: The Theosophical

Review, XXV, 492. 98 Same as 8 , I, lix, 419.

96 Same as 8 , I, lix, 411.

97 Same as 7 , iii, 4.
98 Swedenborg, Conjugal Love, 29.

99 Same as 14 , vii, 135.

84 G. M., “The Elixir of Life*’; in: Five Years of Theosophy, 13.

81 Sankaragharya, Vivekachudamani, 473.

 XV
THE SENSES

“We sure given over to the world of sense, we neglect the

spiritual world." — Roger Bacon, Opus Majus, 11,652.

If we compare the organization of human nature with that of

an army in the field, the physical senses represent the
outposts which report their findings to the central
intelligence department. Successful progress depends upon
the use made of the data received from the outposts. An
army whose scouts are permitted to smuggle intoxicating
and salacious supplies into headquarters and into the
encampments is doomed to failure. So is human progress
impossible when the senses are allowed to introduce
questionable sensations into body and mind.

In the course of evolution sense-awareness first came into

expression in the plants, inciting the beginnings of a
development of emotion. In the animals the emotions,
stimulated by physical senses under the control of instinct,
laid the foundation for a development of mind. In the same
way, in order that evolution may progress, the mind in man
should intelligently prepare the coming into expression of
spirituality. For this purpose the mind should keep a strict
control over the senses, and train them to a responsiveness
to ever higher vibrations, never permitting them to disrupt
the human intelligence or to carry passion-stirring elements
into the system.

However, in most people the senses are not controlled by

the mind but on the contrary are allowed to dominate it.
Thus “the senses, having mastered reason, have led man
into pursuit of pleasure . . . and lust has become his second
nature .” 1 Instead of being used to digest the observations
of the senses for the benefit of spiritual growth, the mind of
the majority is made to serve the senses and to encourage
these in a response to the coarsest vibrations. In this way
mind and senses have combined to excite the passions of
the body.

Instead of serving as observation outposts for the guidance

of spiritual evolution, the senses have been enlisted in the
service of sensuous and sensual self-gratification. This can
never be in harmony with evolution, because such
gratification coarsens the individual instead of refining him;
and the struggle to acquire for oneself the means of
gratification strengthens separateness and thereby opposes
the spiritual oneness, at a realization of which evolution
aims.

Generally “the senses have usurped a place beyond their

station . . . and dominated an organism which is made for
higher activities.”* The majority not only have submitted to
that domination by the senses, but have encouraged it by
“seeking satisfactions almost exclusively through sentient
experience”*, and by “depriving the inner man of all power
in order to use it for the outer man .” 4 “The spiritual faculty
... is closed to most men by the incrustation of the senses .”
8

In almost every way “the inclinations of sense . . . are quite

contrary to those of the spirit”*; if submitted to they blunt
the susceptibility to all sublimer things.

Under the sway of the senses “the whole keyboard of the

emotions may be played upon by sensuous stimuli .” 7 But
especially in the domain of sex unwarranted power has been
delegated to the physical senses. Their alertness to sex-
stimulating impressions has been encouraged and
overdeveloped by ages of licentiousness. As a result of the
habitual sharpening of the senses in this respect, the sexual
system has become artificially and unduly responsive to
tactile and olfactory, to auditory and visual impressions, and
thus “sexual excitement is furnished . . . from all [sense-]
organs of the body.”*

Fundamentally it is not the senses that are to be blamed for

the unnatural excitability of the libido. The fault lies with the
way in which the senses have been used, and with the
mental and emotional response to sentient impressions.
Each of the physical senses should be trained and
developed to the utmost in its own particular field for the
purpose of expanding one’s awareness through conscious
observation. But when the activities of one of the senses are
used as a reminder and as a stimulant of other sensations,
and when they are turned into means of sensual
gratification — then there is abuse of natural faculties; then
the senses are developed to the exclusion and at the cost of
higher faculties; then evolution cannot proceed.

Always to discriminate clearly between a natural and an

unnatural use of the physical senses is a rather difficult
problem because the world of the senses as well as “the
world of the body is delusive except to him who has escaped
from carnal lusts.”* Until this has been attained “men’s
perceptions are warped by their passions.” 1 * At least some
degree of clear spiritual perception is essential to right
discrimination. But “human passion and [misapplied]
physical senses are ever in the way of the development of
spiritual perceptions .” 11 “The eye of the man of sensuous
perception is closed firmly to all that is transcendental .” 11

Until a glimpse has been caught of either a subjective or an

objective transcendental world it may remain difficult to
believe that anything exists except what is observable
through the physical senses.

Yet it is well enough known that the possibilities of

observation through the physical senses are limited.
Whether or not assisted by mechanical appliances, these
senses make possible an awareness of various wide fields of
the external world — fields differing from each other in their
ranges of vibrations. But the sum total of all those fields that
one can at best become aware of through all the senses
together is far from covering the entire outside world. It is
scientifically acknowledged that between and beyond the
ranges of vibrations knowable by the senses there are wider
ranges to which the physical sense organs can not be made
to respond.

There is however no logical reason to reject the idea that

man, without leaving the physical body, can develop other
powers than those of the physical senses for the perception
of what these senses cannot perceive. But only few have
been able to affirm from experience that there is “a spiritual
power of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting — a
power of direct perception of which the vulgar have no
conception and of which even the learned usually do not
know the existence .” 13 Few know by fully conscious
experience that “there are loftier beauties which in the
sensebound life we are not granted to know ... To the vision
of these we must mount, leaving sense to its own lower
place .” 14

But only “whoever gets out of subjection to the senses . . .

can be a person of spiritual vision .” 18 And “this may be
brought about . . . through oblivion of the passions.’”*
Therefore “the wise ones tarry not in pleasure-grounds of
senses.”” Indeed, “never was there a wise man who had not
to reject pleasures of the senses to acquire his wisdom .” 13
For only “if the senses are restrained the intelligence
increases .” 13

“To be immune to the attractions of the senses is to invite

into expression the spiritual powers” 30 ; and “the more the
spirit increases in power the more it is detached from
sensible objects .” 31 Then it finds that “beyond all the
[physical] sensations there is a bliss compared to which the
pleasures of the senses are [like those of children’s]
playthings .” 33 Then it knows “the boundless joy that lies
beyond the senses.

But already long before this stage has been reached it

becomes clear that “true happiness never comes to us
through the avenue of the senses” 34 , and that even for the
sake of simple happiness “the sense nature of man must be
subordinated to the aims of the spirit .” 38 “Man must lead a
life above sense . . . rising till he touches the infinite region
of spirit .” 38

*****

1 Pascal, Pensdes, VII, 430.

9 Underhill, Mysticism, II, iii, aao.

1 Sockman, Morals of Tomorrow, II, viii, 138.

4 Eckhart, Sermons, vi, 48.

5 Eckartshausen, The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, i, 7.

4 Same as *, II, iii, a 18.

T Scott, The Sexual Instinct, v, 148.

1 Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, iii, 77. 9
Rumi, The Masnavi (II), I, 136.

19 Spencer, Social Statics, II, xvi, 5.

11 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, I, 493.

13 Same as 9 , i, 5.

13 Hartmann, “Interview” ; in: The Theosophist, VII, 535.

14 Plotinus, Enneads , I, vi, 4.

15 Same as f , I, 8.

14 Porphyry, De Abstinentia, I, 32. lT Blavatsky, The Voice of

the Silence, 21.

18 Beck, The Way of Power, ix, 162.

13 Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, cxxviii, 373.

30 Mingle, Science of Love, xii, 310.

31 Mounos, The Spiritual Guide, 57.

33 Ramakrishna ; quoted in: Vivekananda, My Master, 38.

38 Same as 18 , xi, 198.

34 Gibson, The Faith that Overcomes the World, v, 49.

39 Eucken, Life's Basis and Life's Ideal, III, 341.

34 Black, Culture and Restraint, v, 146.

 XVI
INSPIRATION

"Moral imperfections lessen the degree of inspiration."

— Maiicomsdxs, Eight Chapters on

£fhfcx,vii,8i.

Although it may not seem a demonstrable fact, “the limit of

inspiration is the limit of receptivity . . . produced by the
discipline of the lower nature .” 1 The more this is under
control, the higher one’s aspirations may become. And
inspiration is but a negative reception of impressions in
response to aspiration. Inspiration is not under the positive
control of the will. It comes in flashes, be it through the mind
or through one of the senses. It can only find its way where
mind or sense is hypersensitive.

Art being dependent more on the senses than on the mind, a

high degree of sensitiveness of one or more of the senses is
indispensable to an artist if he is to receive inspiration. In
the course of harmonious evolution such a sensitiveness is
acquired' along with a proportionate development of all the
other elements that constitute evolutionary progress. But in
the artist the sense-sensitiveness frequently is a
manifestation of one-sided growth — such as the athlete, the
scientist, the mystic, the philosopher and the yogi often
demonstrate along other single tracks of evolvement.

With the sensitized senses as a means of contact with the

beauty side of nature, the artistic temperament may
sometimes open to inspirational perception of supernal
beauty. “What is thus caused by nature may be imitated by
art”*, and the thrilled recipient tries to render it in lines or
words, in physical sound or shape or color. “The business of
every form of art is but to mimic a corresponding form of
nature.”* “The earthly artist . . . tries to give us a hint of his
glimpse of truth. Only those who have tried know how small
a fraction of his vision he can under the most favorable
circumstances contrive to represent .” 4

It is in the interim between flashes of inspiration that artists

crave new sense-impressions in a longing for new
inspiration. Too often, mistaking sensuous excitement for
inspirational sensation, they seek an outlet for their craving
in sensual gratification, which many of them virtually claim
to be an essential aid to the expression of their artistic
power. But if this power were increased by sexual activity,
there certainly would be more genii. «••••••••••••

The very nature of inspiration is such that it can only come

down from a high source, to which the aspiring one must
reach up. Inspiration constitutes the highest purpose for
which the senses can be used. Evidently then, true
inspiration can never be found on the low level of sense-
gratification. What sometimes is found on this level and is
then mistaken for inspiration, is an emotional impetus
similar to that which is occasionally instilled by alcohol or
drugs. Not on account of such stimulation but
notwithstanding its degrading quality, the resulting
animation of the faculties may find expression in the
production of things containing an element of beauty, if
their maker happens to possess the necessary technique.
But in such a case technique is often used to disguise in a
beautiful form an expression of lower emotions, which subtly
spread their pernicious influence over those who are
attracted by the admirable appearance of the form.
Technique without inspiration can never produce true art.
Art can be real only when it is inspired by the Muses, whose
task must ever be to uplift mankind by making it sensitive
and receptive to the sublimity of supraphysical, divine
beauty. Inspiration can manifest only in response to
wholehearted aspiration — and in aspiration all material
wants are forgotten. Sense-gratification is the irreconcilable
opponent of aspiration. “Aspiration ... is stifled by the net of
unspiritual desires .” 5 Wherever there is but a trace of
bodily gratification there can be no question of aspiration —
hence no question of inspiration, nor of true art either.

Occasionally great works of art have been inspired by pure

spiritual love, when this was devoid of sensual attraction.
Such were the outstanding historical cases which are so
often erroneously quoted as instances of and as excuses for
erotic romanticism in artists. Only pure love, free from
eroticism, contains an uplifting power that can carry one
toward the realm of heavenly beauty. Hence, vaguely and
crudely though it be, youth is so often inclined to be poetic
and artistic in its period of just awakening, unsoiled, ideal*
istic love, when the fast waxing life force is by no thought or
act diverted to the lower centers. But whenever in young or
old the life force is involved in sexual expression, the
channel for inspiration becomes clogged.

The futile searching for inspiration in the wrong direction is

the greatest blunder of artistic temperaments. Even though
it may not always seem to interfere immediately with their
artistic expression, this error is undoubtedly the foremost
cause of the fits of melancholy, the moodiness and lack of
balance of which so many artists suffer. And these
disturbances within cannot fail to exert a deleterious
influence on their art, which as a result in many cases shows
a decadence after a short period of auspicious productivity.
If artists could always aspire to inspiration in a truly
supersensuous way, free from the lower attractions of the
senses, it could be theirs almost continuously. But “as long
as we enjoy our senses . . . and do not know how to free
ourselves from their thraldom, so long will it be impossible ...
to break through the barrier which separates us from a
knowledge of things in themselves.”* And without that
knowledge even a genius remains dependent upon
unfrequent and deceptive flashes of inspiration, which are
possible only when he rises above his lower nature.

To be sure, “art in its highest manifestation is a path to

cosmic consciousness .” 7 But such can never be the art of
the sense-bound, nor of the would-be artists who fill the
world with erotic literature, erratic statuary, exotic paintings
and exciting jazz.

True art can only be produced by one who keeps the channel
for inspiration free from sensual obstructions — be it only in
preparation for and during the execution of a special work.
There are great “artists who feel most fit for work when
refraining entirely from sexual intercourse.”* Many one
“knows the harm done by sexual intercourse on occasions of
great strain” 9 ; knows also that “nothing contributes more
thoroughly to the suppression of inspiration than sexual
commerce .” 10 Therefore “the masters of all the more
intensely emotional arts have frequently cultivated a high
degree of chastity” 11 , and “men of great genius have
apparently been completely continent throughout life.” 1 *

Whoever looks for inspiration should remember that “the

sublime vision comes to the pure ... in a chaste body .” 19

#*##•

1 Be SANT, Superhuman Men, i, 92.

* Paracelsus, "De Sagis et Eorum Operibus" ; quoted in:
Hartmann, Paracelsus , vi, 150. s Aurelius, Meditations, XI,
10.

4 Underhill, Mysticism, I, iv, 76.

4 Sankaracharya, Vieveka Chudamani, 975.

4 Hillard, Abridgement of the Secret Doctrine, 191. r

Ouspensky, Tertium Organum , xxiii, 331.

4 Gruber, "The Hygienic Significance of Marriage" ; in:

Senator-kaminer, Health and Disease , ii, 20.

4 Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, III, 8.

14 Mayer, Des Rapports Conjugaux, I, iii, 102.

11 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, v, 173.

14 Same as u , VI, vi, 184.

14 Emerson, "The Poet"; in hit Complete Writings, I, 247

 XVII
INTELLECT AND INTUITION

“There is something inherently antagonistic between sex

and intellect.*' — Ingram, Th $ Mo dim Attitude ,

iiU*

Mind is meant to help in the liberation of mankind from

enthralment to matter. But it cannot be of any help while so
little of it, while on an average only a tenth of its full
capacity is being used. Nor so long as the mind’s
instrument, the brain, and with it the rest of the body are
unprepared and insufficiently purified to utilize even that
little portion of the mind properly. The mind cannot fulfill its
liberating mission so long as people continue to make use of
what little they have available of it in the diffused and
untoward way in which most of them apply it.

Like any other force mind can be used in multitudinous

ways. When applied exclusively to material interests, only
concrete lower mind can become manifest; this is a part of
the mind which has become blinded by the density of
matter, and intellect is its highest mode of expression. When
applied to spiritual concerns another part of the mind,
abstract Mind begins to manifest and to open the way to
intuition. In other words, one might say that materialistic-
intellectual man uses the mind, while intuitive-spiritual man
uses Mind.

Intuition, by the way, springs from the same source as

instinct; both are expressions of nature’s intelligence. In the
form of physical instinct this unfailing intelligence is
unconsciously and only partially partaken of by the mindless
animal. But man, having mind, must by positive effort make
himself ready to share consciously in the entire cosmic
intelligence and to become nature’s full-grown, willing
coworker. Through tuition — through allround exercise of his
mind, and by gradually developing Mind — he must learn
how to acquire intuition, which might be called spiritual
instinct. In this way he can reestablish the close harmonious
link with nature’s intelligence, which he lost when animal
instinct was replaced by an as yet imperfectly developed
mentality . 1

When the mind first became manifest in man it was drawn

into the vortex of carnal life. The mind’s elements of self-
consciousness, memory and anticipation were applied to the
main interests of primitive animal-man, to his bodyimpulses.
Man used his mind to excite these impulses constantly
beyond their natural usefulness. Having continued this
stimulation of the passions through the ages, the greater
part of the race still clings to the habit of using the mind
inordinately in that detrimental way.

Thus in the course of time “consciousness and memory have

greatly strengthened the hold of sex on mankind . . . and
increased the tendency to give it an unduly prominent sway
over conduct. The result is that humanity is oversexed”*,
and that the abuse of sex has grown excessive. To change
this abnormality it is necessary first of all that “by
purification . . . man shall make his mind harmonious with
Mind.”® Most effectively “the mind is purged by
abstinence” 14 ; “by subduing passion the mind becomes
clear.”* And “in the degree in which a man’s mind is nearer
to freedom from all passion, in that degree also is it nearer to
strength.”*

Contrariwise “those who yield themselves to lower desires

drive Mind away, and their appetites are only the more
strengthened by the mind .” 7 Unfortunately nearly every
one clings desperately to the lower mind, seeking to over-
capitalize on his intellect. But it is the higher, ever
capitalized Mind that will eventually lead through intuition
to nature’s most secret chambers where “she shows her
treasures only to the eye of spirit . . . the eye for which there
is no veil in all her kingdoms.”*

Under exceptionally favorable conditions “intellectual

reasoning . . . may arrive at the door of the spiritual
temple.”* Occasionally some mental genius has climbed the
steps that lead up to the sanctuary’s portals. If he worked in
unselfish devotion on discoveries, inventions or measures by
which to help the progress of the race, the spiritual element
in this kind of intellectual occupation may have brought him
on the very threshold of nature’s storehouse of unlimited
true knowledge. But in order to be able to cross this
threshold one must first realize that “he who wants to enter
into the sanctuary must die to ... his animal impulses and
desires .” 10 “If the intellect is in the bonds of the flesh ... it
will be unable to penetrate into the divine mysteries of
nature .” 11

Even without looking for spiritual attainments the normal

growth of intellect itself depends upon a strict limitation of
sexual expression. For in individual development as well as
in the evolution of the race intellectual power is a
manifestation of the life force. Whatever amount of this force
is trifled away in sex, is lost to the possibility of being
transformed into intellectual energy. 1 *

Of old it has been known that “carnal pleasure ... is at war

with intellect.” 1 * And the latest scientific pronouncement
still confirms that “in order to reach its full power intellect
seems to require . . . repression of the sexual appetite .” 14
Therefore, “to the attainment of a life according to intellect
it is requisite to abstain from ... all venereal concerns.” 1 *

That at least “a measure of sexual continence is the pre-

condition ... of mental energy” 1 * is beyond a doubt. For “all
who have to do intense mental work feel . . . how continence
increases their alertness and efficiency.” 1 * Especially if
their continence is self-willed and freely chosen. For this
reason “many eminent thinkers seem to have been without
sexual desire.” 1 * They overcame it, realizing that “the
continent life gives . . . the greatest intellectual strength .”
10

This is not to say that everybody who refrains from sexual

acts can thereby become highly intellectual. Not everybody
is bom with the potential capacity out of which intellectual
genius can be developed. Moreover, many who do not waste
part of their life force in sexual activity fritter it away in
petty personal concerns and in endless small talk.

Decidedly, in the life of every individual “a certain

asceticism, a grimly gay, whole-hearted renunciation is . . .
one of the most favorable conditions to the highest
intellectualism”*® — that is to say: to the maximum of
intellectuality that can possibly be attained in each
individual case. Therefore, “if the human race is to progress
in an intellectual direction it must become . . . less sexual in
its proclivities.”* 1

To reach up to intuition one has to rise not only above the

attractions of the senses, but above the limitations of the
concrete mind. Thus alone can one acquire “the faculty . . .
through which direct and certain knowledge is attainable.”**
The manifestation of that faculty “varies with the nature of
the vehicle; through the more finely differentiated fabric ... it
becomes a stream of spiritual intuition.”** But the fabric can
be sufficiently refined only by those who are content to be
continent.

*#*#*

1 See Ch. xii. Instinct.

I Galloway, Biology of Sex, vii, 68.

3 Mead, Simon Magus, III, 84.

4 Aorippa, Occult Philosophy, III, liii, 519.

5 Buck, Mystic Masonry, vi, 17a.

6 Aurelius, Meditations, XI, 18.

7 Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, II, 40.

8 Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence, 30.

• Hartmann, Paracelsus, ix, 271.

10 Hartmann, In the Pranoas of the Temple, 36.

II Same as 10 , 36.

13 See Gh. v, The Deadlock in Human Evolution.

13 Cicero, De Senectute, XII, xlii, 51.

14 Carrel, Man the Unknown, iv, 143.

15 Porphyry, De Abstinentia, I, 41.

16 Huxley, Ends and Means, xv, 365.

17 Gruber, Die Prostitution, 41.

18 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, I, 310.

19 Stock ham. Tokology, 342.

30 Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, III, 9.

31 Ingram, The Modern Attitude, iii, 30.

33 Hillard, Abridgement of the Secret Doctrine, 41. 33 Same

as **, 191.
 XVIII
UNFOLDING OF SPIRIT

“So far ms man becomes spiritual, so far he puts off the love

of sex.”

— Swedenborg, Conjugal Love^ 8,ii.

The oldest records and legendary traditions of many nations

prove that spiritual teachings have been given to the human
race since times immemorial. They indicate that “true
progress in the individual and in society consists in a
growing spiritualization and in the ever more complete
mastery of spirit over matter .” 1 But few have paid any
attention, and fewer have been willing to apply the rules for
spiritual development contained in such teachings. The
great majority has always refused to heed the requirements
for spiritual unfoldment — with the result that the very
meaning of spirituality remains little understood. Some
materialists even deny that it can have any meaning,
because they have never been able to see or sense or in any
way experience it.

“A way must be found ... of establishing as a fact that there

exists in man a spiritual nature which exalts him.”* But just
as a Bushman cannot grasp intellectuality as a concept
because he cannot know it through the senses, so most of
modem, civilized “mankind seems stricken with spiritual
blindness and deafness”*, because spirituality is “not only
beyond the power of sensual perception but . . . beyond that
of intellectual comprehension .” 4 Yet, in the words of some
of the most advanced thinkers, including some of our own
day, “the spiritual life belongs to the permanent reality of
the world .” 5 Not only that, but “it is the central point of
reality.”* “The nature of all reality is spiritual .” 7 Everywhere
“the ultimate reality in things is spiritual.”*

Thus also “man as he really is ... is a spiritual being”*,

hidden though the spiritual side of his nature may be. And
whether he realizes it or not, “man is essentially governed
by spirit. Consequently he must give prominence to its
claims” 1 ® — especially if he wants to evolve beyond the
sordidness and the shallowness of the average present form
of existence. “The endeavor to advance in spirituality is the
soul of the life of the individual; where there is no endeavor
of this kind there is no true life .” 11 “If the spiritual side of a
man’s nature be undeveloped he is not truly fullgrown.” 1 *

From an evolutionary viewpoint “the goal of attainment ... is

spirit in its completeness.” 1 * For every human entity “the
attainment of spiritual individuality constitutes a lofty goal,
only to be compassed by . . . self-reformation and self-
discipline .” 14 But “the animal nature . . . impedes it from
steadily progressing on the path of its evolution.” 1 ®

In the end spirit’s rule must become supreme. In the earliest

stages of expression of life in form physical bodies had to be
built. In the body sense-awareness and emotions were then
developed, and they governed the actions of the body. At a
further stage intellect became manifest, and it now
influences the emotions — unwisely yet, because intellect
itself is still imperfect and unwise. Quite logically and
naturally this stage must be followed by the unfolding of
spirituality, which eventually will rule wisely over all
physical and emotional and mental activities. “It is only
when the spiritual rules and directs that there can be
permanent harmony.” 1 * And “the highest efficiency can be
attained only when the sex nature is . . . kept under the
control of the spiritual faculties.” 1 *
In each of us the four factors — body, emotion, mind and
spirit — coexist, although they are not equally active. So far
we have been largely limited to the lower aspects of the first
three. United into one these three — dense physical body,
sensuous emotions and concrete mind — make up the
personality with all its grasping, greedy tendencies, its
selfinterest and its personal, material wants. “We have
become foolishly convinced that the highest perfection of
man is the development of the wants of the personality . . .
and that happiness consists in gratifying those wants.” 1 *
But the most superficial analytic observation of modem
civilization should prove to any one the utter fallacy of this
idea; the present generation’s nerve-wrecking search for
happiness proves to be unsuccessful because it is directed
toward personal gratification instead of toward spiritual
attainment.

The widespread lack of happiness lies mainly in the neglect

of the spiritual principle. Not only is there neglect but
resentment and resistance. The personality opposes the
advent of the impersonality of spirit, because it feels that
under the sway of spirit its own selfish ways will be
endangered. But before spirituality can even begin to
manifest, the resistance of the personality must change into
willing, longing aspiration. <( For the spiritualization of
human life a longing rooted in the whole being is primarily
necessary.”"

Suitable conditions for spiritual life must be prepared. Spirit

cannot find expression so long as “the lower passions chain
the higher aspirations to the rock of matter.”** Only “as the
soul is purified from all sensual affections . . . does it attain
to liberty of spirit .”* 1 * Naturally “the spiritual man must
be stronger than his impulses”**, for “true spirituality can be
attained only when a pure life is led.”** “Before one can
attract the spiritual qualities . . . one must repulse the sexual
tendencies.”**

“Can man rise to this spiritual level? On the possibility of his

doing so rests all our hope of supplying any meaning and
value to life .”* 8 9 10 II * 13 14 15 Not until the spiritual
element finds expression in human nature is there a chance
for the realization of an ideally harmonious and peaceful life
on earth.**

Note 1

Note 2

Note 3

Note 4

Note 5

Note 6

Note 7

Note 8

Note 9

Note 10

Note 11

Note 12

Note 13

Note 14
Note 15
Chapter Notes
1 Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, III, vi, 979.
I Adler, Reconstruction of the Spiritual Ideal, i, 16.
3 Brunton, The Secret Path, ii, 34.
4 Hartmann, Paracelsus, ix, 970.
5 Eucken, Life’s Basis and Life’s Ideal, II, 148.
6 Eucken, Present-Day Ethics, v, 101.
T Eddington, New Pathways in Science, xiv, 319.
* Same as 3 4 , vi, 193.
9 Same as 8 , iii, 70.
10 Keyserling, The Book of Marriage, III, 303.
II Same as 5 6 * , II, 158.
19 Black, Culture and Restraint, v, 138.
13 Hegel, Philosophy of History, 106.
14 Eucken, The Meaning and Value of Life, 98.
15 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 116.

19 Same u u , x, 990.

lT Exnbr, Rational Six Lift , vi, 93.

19 Tolstoi, Lif t , ee, 153.

*• Same as 5 , II, 938.

M Same as **, II, 440.

91 John of thb cross, Tht Dark Night of iht Soul , I, ziii, 11. 99
Foerstkr, Marriott and tht Stx Probltm , I, is, 133.

99 Prysr, Tht Apoealypst U rut alt d, 69.

99 Mingle, Scitnet of Loot , v, 157.

98 Same as u , 77.
99 See Ch. ixxxvi. The Future.
 XIX
MARRIAGE

“In the further ascent of man carnal marriage becomes ... a

corrupt relic of immature conditions in the race.'* — Harris,
The Wedding Guest, 2 o.

It has long been thought that a permanent sexual

partnership existed in many of the higher animal species.
Later, more extensive and closer study seems to have shown
that its occurrence is a great exception . 1 But this scarcity
of instances in the animal world does not disprove that
monogamy is and remains an evolutionary institution
belonging to the human stage.

Man, having evolved beyond the animal, cannot take its

ways of living as an exact model for his own. He has to raise
the instinctive tendencies of the lower kingdom to a higher
standard. To do this successfully he has to follow the
fundamental lines of development which nature has laid
down. In regard to mating the general trend has been that
with a lengthening of the period of gestation and of
helplessness of the progeny “there must be a union of male
and female for the bringing up of the young . . . and this
union must be of considerable duration.”* It is through this
extended and devoted cooperation that “sexual
reproduction leads to . . . the dawn of the love of mates and
the evolution of parental emotions.”* For love develops in
interdependence better than in independence.

It is not the sexual communion that gives rise to affection

and love, but the close cooperation and the community of
interests. And this sharing of interests is to be raised from
the material level to the mental and then to the spiritual —
until it loses all connection with sex.

If nature has not on every side given the example of

monogamy, yet the evolutionary development toward this
relationship has been clearly indicated. If nature in its lower
kingdom has not supplied many a perfected model of a
permanent marriage relation, she has at least laid a solid
foundation for it. On this natural basis humanity could have
erected a beautiful structure of towering strength, designed
with mounting lines of highest aspiration, constructed
throughout of stone of flawless purity. But instead of adding
to nature’s work man has discarded the natural foundation,
and on more accessible but much lower ground has built a
flimsy structure for sexual convenience.

“Marriage as it is today is a corrupt institution .” 4 Compared

with its ideal form “the actual marriage, in its squalid
perversity ... is as the wretched idol of the savage to the
reality which it is supposed to represent” 5 ; it is only “man’s
little clay image of the heavenly love . . . cracked in the fire
of daily life.”* “Physical sense . . . places it on a false basis .”
5

The perfect marriage utilizes sex in physical expression only

for reproduction and serves in its secondary, psychological
effects as “a means of arousing the higher emotions of ^
reverence . . . and compassion and self-sacrifice” 8 , leading
to a spiritualization of affection. But the human imitation
uses sex for sensual satisfaction. As long as marriage
contains a trace of this sensual element it forms an
impervious obstacle to spiritual expansion.

*** section divider ***

Even though legalized by the state, sanctified by the
church, and acclaimed by popular standards, the licensed
licentiousness of carnal marriage remains antagonistic to
nature’s purposes and to man’s higher development.

The mere going through a religious rite or a legal formality

cannot possibly change nature’s physiological and spiritual
laws. Quite in harmony with the highest concepts of moral
philosophy “science refuses to admit that the ceremony of
marriage nullifies or changes natural principles .” 8
Scientifically considered “there is no difference whatever
between the married and the unmarried so far as the
physical sex act and its consequences are concerned .” 18

Of course, even practical sociological considerations raise

human reproduction in wedlock ethically and
psychologically above that in unmarried relationship. But
from whatever standpoint non-productive sexual intercourse
in marriage may be sanctioned or condoned, it constitutes
as much an infraction of natural law as out of wedlock. “The
sanction that has been invented is merely an ingenious
defense of a desire .” 11 From nature’s standpoint “the same
act cannot become good or bad according as it is performed
in or out of marriage.” 1 *

“It is a strange delusion that marriage can make allowable

and moral that which out of marriage is immoral .” 11 It is
illogical and insincere and hypocritical to proclaim that what
is unnecessary, condemnable and immoral before marriage
should become moral, condonable and even necessary after
the marriage ceremony. “There is no worse prejudice than to
believe that sensuality can be justified by the lawful bonds
of marriage .” 11

“If illicit intercourse is unnecessary to health 18 , then licit

intercourse is equally superfluous. There cannot be the
slightest difference between the two kinds as far as
necessity to health is concerned.” 1 * Social or legal or
religious contracts cannot affect the fact that “sexual
indulgence is not necessary to health .” 11 And always,
under all circumstances^ “every purposeless or merely
sensual communion is a waste of vital energy .” 18
Physiologically as well as morally “lust isan abomination . . .
whether it be in the state of wedlock or out of it .” 19

In regard to sex “marriage in its existing form is as

incompatible as free love with the highest interpretations of
the moral law ”* 9 as well as of the physiological.

The logical conclusion from the preceding remarks is not

that marriage should be abolished, but that it should be
elevated. Far from having outgrown the necessity of
marriage, materialistic humanity has not even begun to
understand what real marriage means.

As long as the sexual method of reproduction lasts, a

permanent partnership of one man with one woman is not to
be substituted or supplemented by less durable, more
exciting sexual attachments, but to be purified and evolved
into a loftier union. Even if one holds that “marriage is
essentially the adjustment of the sexual tensions prevailing
between the sexes”* 1 , the fact remains that “the
adjustment

. . . may be accomplished in the manner of a purely spiritual

completion.”” “The true marriage is . . . beyond lower sex
attraction.””

Continence in marriage is undoubtedly more difficult than in

the unmarried state. “Within the married relation . . . the sex
desire is enormously stimulated because the opportunity for
its satisfaction is unhindered.”” Moreover, the almost
general approval given by a sense-bound, thoughtless world
to unreproductive intercourse in marriage tends to break
down whatever scruples one or both of the wedded partners
may have against it.

It may require rare power of will, combined with

highmindedness and strong convictions to resist entirely the
desire for sexual gratification in the physical closeness of
wedlock. Yet, “strict continence in married life is not without
illustrations of those who have voluntarily chosen it.””
“There are couples who . . . give up sexual relations
absolutely, and are not any less happy, but often more
happy on that account.””

"“In the ideal marriage the partners will unite in sexual

congress only in a longing for parenthood, conscious of the -
sacrificial nature of their act. No one can doubt that the
bringing forth of a child is a sacrifice on the woman’s part.
That in its highest aspect the fructifying act is a sacrifice on
the part of the male will gain recognition when the value of
the secretions of the sex glands" and the currents of the life
force in the body” are better understood. Far from having to
fear impairment of body or of nerves, “those who seek die
ideal . . . may live a life of marital continence not only
without injury but with positive benefit.””

Moreover, “abstinence . . . will but serve to strengthen

mutual affection””, whereas in most carnal marriages the
affection gradually diminishes. “The feeling of attachment . .
. becomes stronger and more constant when the conjugal
relation is maintained habitually pure .”* 1 “In the
recognition of this fact is to be found the secret of married
happiness between wedded advanced and cultured
individuals.”” For “happiness in marriage depends for sure
not on the animal functions but on qualities of spirit.”” An
unparallelled connubial happiness can only be realized
when “the great fact of the spiritual nature of the true
marriage crystallizes into more clearness”* 4 , when union is
not sought in flesh but in ideal companionship.

After all, “pure affection . . . depends much more on ties of

comradeship than on merely passionate elements.”** And
“really satisfactory comradeship is sexless.”** “In the —
progress of marriage . . . with those who are spiritual the
love of sex is exterminated”” — leaving the field free for the
manifestation of true, pure love.

*****

i*

11

1*

13

14 18 18 IT

18

If

10

si

ss

S4

36 S«
37 18 SO

38 U

Briffault, The Mothers , I, v, 168-176.

Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, II, 331.

Russell, Marriage and Morals, xx, 227.

Mantegazza, La Physiologic de VAmour, xxii, 326.

Carpenter, Love's Coming of Age, 79.

Same as 5 , 79.

Eddy, Science and Health, iii, 60.

Das, The Science of Social Organization, iv, 914.

Armitaoe, Sex Secrets, ix, x6i.

Armitaoe, Sex Force, III, vii, 94.

Wrininger, Sex and Character, II, xiv, 347.

Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, vi, 194.

Same as 10 , III, vii, 101.

Lutos law 8ki. The World of Souls, vi, 182.

See Ch. xxxii. The Notion of Necessity, and Ch. xxxiv, Health
and Disease. Robinson, Sex Problems of Today, 216.

Report of the Chicago Society of Social Hygiene; quoted in:

A. G., The Science of Regeneration, v, 51.

Same as 10 , III, vii, 101.

Boehme, Three Principles of the Divine Essence, xx, 63.

Same as u , II, x, 221.

Dahlke, "Marriage as a Fetter’*; in: Keyserung, The Book of

Marriage, III, 417.

Same as u . III, 418.

Farnsworth, The Heart of Things, 163.

Ingram, The Modern Attitude, iii, 36.

Stall, What a young Husband ought to Know, v, 81.

Robinson, America's Sex, Marriage and Divorce Problems, IX,

411.

See Ch. xxvi, Glands and Secretions.

See Ch. lxxxv, Uncoiling the Serpent MacFadden, Encycl. of

Physical Culture, V, ii, 2463.

Comte, System of Positive Polity, I, 193.

Same as *°, II, 158.

** Armitagr, Sex Advice to Women, xv, 216.

M Bridges, The Testament of Beauty, III, 852. u Same as 5 ,

112.

M Same as vi, m.

M Tanner, Tfc* Intelligent Man*s Guide, xv, 67. 37

Swedenborg, Conjugal Love, 48, ii.
 XX
SOUL-MATES

“All souls . . . not only pairs of souls are one.”

— Das, Science of Social Organization jv,2I9.

The soul-mate theory propounds that somewhere in the

universe each human soul has its supplementary
counterpart with which it was originally at one and with
which it must seek to be reunited. And this is usually
interpreted as a reunion in the flesh.

This theory is based apparently upon the hypothesis found

in various ancient teachings that at one time there were no
separate male and female bodies, but that each body was
complete in itself, self-reproductive, containing equally
active male and female elements such as many plants still
do possess. The theory suggests that nature, in creating
separate sexes, suddenly split the hermaphroditic body into
halves, at the same time splitting the indwelling soul into
two separate units.

Nature however is more likely to have worked slowly, to have

changed the physical form gradually through endlessly
succeeding generations, without in any way affecting the
soul. In one series of changes the female elements of the
bodies were made paramount, leaving inactive rudiments of
the male; in the other just the opposite procedure must have
taken place. Proof of this evolutionary process can be seen
in the vestigial organs in the bodies of each sex. Meantime
in every individual case the indwelling soul remained just
what it was: a complete being as before, now temporarily
using a single-sexed instead of a double-sexed body. This
natural process does not present the slightest logical basis
for the soul-mate idea.

Another source from which the soul-mate theory may have

sprung is the little understood metaphysical concept known
as the ‘mystic marriage’. Christian mystics have symbolically
described this as the marriage to Christ (supreme love).
Philosophical mystics have spoken of it as their marriage to
Sophia (supreme wisdom). Mohammedan mystics have
written about it in the most glowing words as the union with
the Beloved (the spirit). In every case the language used in
carrying out the simile has frequently been of such a nature
as to mislead the reader who has no understanding of mystic
lore, and to leave the impression that indeed a personal and
sexual union with another soul was meant.

But the ‘mystic marriage’ does not refer to any personal

union, not even of soul with soul. It personifies the
impersonal and immaculate union of soul with spirit, with
what may be called the divine counterpart of the soul. It
depicts the reunion of the soul with that from which it came
and of which it is only an individualized part. The ‘mystic
marriage’ symbolizes the union of the soul with one’s higher
self, with the divine essence that dwells in each. As a result
of this spiritual, inward union the perfect man with perfect
love and with perfect wisdom is bom. It is the union that
every human being shall have to seek and bring about as
evolution proceeds. But this union with spirit cannot take
place so long as there remains a tendency toward sexual
gratification.

Sex has to be transcended before soul Can know spirit.

From whatever source it may have been taken, the soulmate

theory confuses the idea of soul attraction with that of sex
attraction, for it looks on the plane of the soul for a sexual
mate. But the soul itself is sexless . 1 All “souls are of the
selfsame nature . . . nor male, nor female are they.”* Souls
do not propagate; therefore they need no reproductive
faculty, no sex.

No wonder then that as a rule “they are miserably deceived

who look for a mate from on high.”* If they were willing to
purify their sexual relation they might find lasting soul
companionship, which can be only sexless. But if the self-
styled soul-mates dwell on the sexual level they soon find
naught but soulless sex communion.

The theory of soul-mates has not been demonstrated as

workable in practice. Is there a single instance in which
those who joined because they thought themselves to be
soul-mates, have proven to be inseverably reunited halves
of one unit? Their tie rarely survives the stage of sexual
satiety, which never fails to come unless sex is surmounted.
At best so-called soul-mates are no better or no worse than
any other mates. But too often soul-mateship is only an
excuse for those who want to change from one mate to
another.

However, apart from doubtful soul-mate theories a strong

attraction may exist between soul and soul, between souls
similarly attuned and equally high-evolved. No greater boon
can come to any soul than to be closely linked with another
kindred one. But this “can only take place when purity has
been established to such an extent that the soul no longer
yearns for the seductive pleasures of the senses .” 4 In a tie
of soul with soul sex plays no part.

Sex attraction must be overcome before soul can know soul.

«*«*•

1 See Ch. x. The Sex Principle.

* Hermes, The Virgin of the World, ii, 44.

* Kinosford, Clothed with the Sun, II, xii, 249.

4 Mingle, Science of Love, xii, 310.

 XXI
LOVE VERSUS SEX

“Sexuality and love are opposed principles.”

— Lucka, £701,11^209.

“Concupiscence has nothing in common with love .” 1

Popular opinion in its confusing way may declare them to be
identical or inseparable, but they remain in essence mu'
tually inimical.

"Love is spiritual and increases the dominion of spirit; sex is

physical and emphasizes the power of matter at the cost of
spirit. Love belongs to the soul, sex to the body. Love is
eternal, sex is ephemeral. Love is selfless, sex is selfish;
“there is no selfishness so deep as the selfishness of sex
indulgence.”* Love works for the interests of the other, sex
for its own. Love radiates, sex vampirizes. Love in
abundance refines and elevates, sex in abundance coarsens
and degrades. Love by itself gives restful bliss; sex by itself
gives restless cravings. Love speeds evolution, sex retards it.
'Basically “earthly sex is opposed to spiritual love”*, and
“love ... is antagonistic to those elements which press
towards sexual union.”* In its true nature “love can be
known only when sex consciousness is absent .” 8

Love is the unifying principle in the universe. Where love

exists there is a longing for unification, for proximity, for
sharing every expression of life on every plane of
manifestation. Hence love between the sexes usually
includes a longing to share parenthood and, as a means
thereto, to share that most intimate relationship that can
lead to parenthood. This relationship then comes about
indirectly as a by-product, not as a direct expression of love.
Still, when this longing to share parenthood is either
consciously or subconsciously present, sex communion
might almost be called a love act. For in such a case the love
element overwhelmingly exceeds the sex element, which is
there only to serve its natural purpose. But even then, as a
rule, sex disillusions love, so that for many a couple “with
the rending of the bridal veil the illusion is destroyed.”*
They soon discover that sex fulfillment is not love
fulfillment.

Whenever the act is dissociated from its propagative

purpose it is entirely dissociated from love. Then it becomes
an expression of merely physical attraction and gratification.
Although momentarily uniting the bodies, it does not unify
the souls — which is the unification that love looks for.
Justification for the sexual act of two who love each other is
often sought in calling it a reflection of the real oneness';
but it remains as impossible to attain that oneness through
its so-called reflection as it is to catch a bird by reaching out
for its reflection in a pond.

Evidently “an attraction that springs merely from sexual

impulse cannot be love at all.”* Sex, seeking its own
physical gratification, has not the slightest connection with
love. Unreproductive sexual action is neither based on love,
nor does it inspire love. Instead of leading to love “the
animal attraction of one body for another . . . ends in satiety
and disgust ” 9 — proof of which can be seen in numberless
divorces, in short-lived so-called love affairs, and in the
discordant relation of many married couples. Only rarely is
true love strong enough to survive the demands of sex
unscathed. Sooner than to promote love “lust . . . readily
passes into hate .” 10 Therefore “love’s arch foe is lust .” 11
Sex desire, in order to make itself more acceptable, may
disguise itself as love, and call itself sex-love. But the
disguise cannot change its nature. Under all circumstances
it remains true that “the indulgence of the sexual appetite
can by no means be regarded as an expression of love.” 1 *
It is only an expression of desire. 1 * And “love and desire
are two unlike, mutually exclusive, opposing conditions .” 14
“Love is higher than sexual desire” 15 , and does not require
sexual intimacy. “The fullest fruition of love is without the
loss of virginity.” 1 *

Only a slender thread connects sex and love. It consists of

nature’s secondary use of sexual reproduction as a means of
laying the foundation for love . 17 The whole strength of
that thread lies in its element of reproduction, in joining two
for the sake of the young. But as soon as the reproductive
element is eliminated, the thread snaps. Then love and sex
fall apart into their natural antagonism in which sex kills
love. In uncountable cases “love has been slain upon the s
exual altar .” 18

"Passion is the distortion of love.” 1 * “When one loves one

rises above . . . passion.”” Just “because of his love the
courtly lover is pure .”* 1 Those who truly love, will know
that “sexual expression is . . . not so satisfying as spiritual
affinity.”” The greater and purer their love, the less there
remains of sex. Out of love and for the sake of love they
renounce passion and sex. Thus “love slays the liking of
lechery . . . and brings into the soul true chastity.”” “Chastity
is a wealth that comes from abundance of love.””

In the course of evolution love must conquer sex. “The

serpent . . . would devour the world, were it not vanquished
by love””, by that pure love which does not feed but defeats
sex.
When love comes into its own it will automatically supersede
sex. But “the rehabilitation of love depends upon the
recovery of man’s spiritual significance.”" Not until man
removes the greatest obstacle to his spiritual unfoldment —
not until he frees himself from the overbearing power of sex
— can love come into expression.

*****

1 Kant, Die Metaphysik der Sitten, II, i, 7.

1 Galloway, Biology of Sex, v, 47.

• Merejkowski, The Secret of the West, II, viii, 3*7.

4 Weininger, Sex and Character, II, xi, 239.

• Mingle, Science of Love, xiii, 327.

• Schiller, "Das Lied von der Glocke”; in his Gedichte, 29a.

T See Ch. lxxxix, Oneness.

4 Kant, Lectures on Ethics, 163.

4 Corelli, The Soul of Lilith, viii, 64.

10 Spinoza, Ethics, IV, Appendix, xiv, 240.

11 Jordan, The Strength of Being Clean, 21.

14 Armitage, Sex Force, III, vii, 94.

14 See Ch. xiii, Desire.

14 Same as 4 , II, xi, 239.

14 Kaoawa, Love, the Law of Life, v, 109.

u Patmore, Rod, Root and Flower, 150. lT Sec Ch. xi, Purpose
of Sex.

11 Bragdon, Eternal Poles, viii, 91.

1# Johnston, Interpretation of the Yoga Sutras, 14.

* Same as 15 , iv, 86.

n Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, viii, 93. n

Carpenter, Love*s Coming of Age, 186. n Hilton, The Seale of
Perfection, III, ix, *69.

H Tagore, Stray Birds, 73.

** Livi, “Unpublished Writings"; in: The Theosophist, VIII,

338. M Sockman, Morals of Tomorrow, I, iv, 84.
 XXII
BIRTH CONTROL

“Sexual relations unfavorable to the rearing of offspring . . .

must tend towards degradation."

— Spencer, Principles of Ethics , 11 ,

xui,i8i.

Repulsive to all of us is the custom of those ancient

Pompeians who used emetics at their dinner parties. After
eating all that the stomach would hold they promptly
emptied it in their ‘vomitorium’ in order to be able to eat
again. They did not eat for the natural purpose of preserving
the body, but for the satisfaction of their unnatural appetite.
They ate exclusively for the pleasurable sensation of tasting
and swallowing food, for sense-gratification. And they must
have judged themselves extremely clever for having
discovered how to circumvent the purpose for which nature
has designed the digestive system. But today everybody
lodes back in disgust at that unwholesome and vulgar
practice of the past.

Yet, far more loathsome is the now widespread practice

- of contraception. By humiliating preparations which reduce

the body to a mere instrument for sensual expression, or by
other unethical methods, contraceptors seek to circumvent
the purpose for which nature has designed the reproductive

-system. “These nature thwarters ” 1 want cohabitation, not

for the natural purpose of race perpetuation but for the
satisfaction of their unnatural sex appetite, for sensual
gratifi

- cation.

So cunning and specious are the modem arguments which

are advanced in support of contraception, and so strongly do
they appeal to an already oversensualized generation, that
birth control has become a readily accepted custom of the
day. But undoubtedly “a more sensitized . . . world of the
future will view contraceptives with the distaste now felt for
the ancient resort of emetics .” 1

Because humanity is what it is, birth control has found

countless propagandists and adherents. But just because
humanity is no better than it is, its present standards cannot
be accepted as the best and noblest. Just as a cry of all the
world for war does not make war an ideal world condition —
and just as a craving for narcotics in a growing number of
people does not make their use an advisable habit for any
one — so does the popularity of contraceptives not jus • tify
their use. All that it proves is that there are many people
who gladly welcome any means to evade a natural
consequence of sexual indulgence.

Whatever sociological and other purely materialistic

contentions may be put forth to defend contraception, all its
methods are and remain a sordid perversion of nature’s
designs and purposes. All methods that intentionally and
artificially prevent the possibility of fructification are
inherently unnatural and abnormal. “All methods of
producing the orgasm by contact of the sexes save the
normal one are unphysiologic, and therefore injurious.”* “At
the best they are tampering with nature, and that is a
dangerous thing in itself .” 4 “Nature cannot be abused with
impunity.”* She has her own unfailing way of upholding her
precepts and “she is prompt to punish any infringement of
her laws by those who are legally married as well as those
who illicitly break them.”* “Though she often seems to be
satisfied with deferred payment, she exacts it finally in one
coin or another .” 7 “Never can any advantage be taken of
nature by a trick.”*

Under all circumstances “when no children are desired the

exercise of the sexual function ... is a detriment.”* When any
kind of preventives of conception are used “their
uncertainty, their desperate matter-of-factness . . . and the
probability that they are in one way or another dangerous or
harmful: all these things are against them .” 10

“There is no harmless way in which to prevent conception”

11 , at least not by artificial means. There is “but one
prescription which is both safe and sure, namely: that the
sexes shall remain apart .” 11 “The best means to prevent
conception is total sexual abstinence, and it is perfectly
harmless .” 11 “Every mode of prevention, other than that of
living in chastity, is an evident violation of nature .” 14 “The
idealist .. . insists that the proper method of birth control is
self-control, and he condemns the use of contraceptives.” 1 *
“Contraceptive practices . . . are objected to by some
authorities on the ground that they are liable to induce
nervous or mental instability.” 1 * “Eminent neurologists and
psychiatrists talk in terms of neuroses and psychoses as the
result of the refusal of parenthood ” 11 by those who yet
practise sexual congress.

When parenthood is wished for after using contraceptives

for some time, there is often disappointment. This is because
in the woman the use of contraceptives may have destroyed
the capacity for motherhood; for “it seems probable that
sperm-overloading is a cause of sterility.” 1 * In fact, “world-
renowned authorities have posited sterility as an almost
certain consequence of contraception.” 1 *

“The gravest objection to the use of even the [seemingly]

safest contraceptives ... is that they are psychologically
unnatural .”* 0 “All the means that have been resorted to in
order to prevent conception . . . disturb the finer sensibilities
of man and woman ”* 1 — especially of the woman, “since
here, as so often in matters of sex, the man’s satisfaction is
largely at the cost of the woman.”**

“The supreme objection to all methods of contraception is in

the spiritual field.”** “No one can practise any form of birth
control . . . without being injured spiritually .”* 4 The very
thought leading to the decision to reduce sexual congress to
an act of unproductive self-gratification tends to paralyze
every nascent spiritual faculty. Even if contraceptives were
made absolutely reliable and not in the least injurious, their
application would still remain not only an anti-natural but
also — by its prevention of spiritual growth — an anti-
evolutionary, hence in final effect an anti-social procedure.

*****

1 Collins, “The Doctor looks at Companionate Marriage”; in:

The Outlook , CXLVII, 493.

s Tanner, The Intelligent Man's Guide , lxxv, 258.

* Lydston, Genito-Urinary, Venereal and Sexual Diseases, VI,

xxiv, 563.

4 Stall, What a young Husband ought to Know, xii, 179.

5 Kellogg, Plain Pacts, I, 216.

• Cowan, The Science of a New Life, ix, 79.

7 Same as \ CXLVII, 493.

8 Emerson, <( The Poet” ; in his Complete Writings, I, 247.

• A. G., The Science of Regeneration, v, 53.

10 Carpenter, Love’s Coming of Age, 178.

11 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, viii, 275.

18 Pomeroy, Ethics of Marriage, iii, 62.

13 Talmey, Woman, VI, lxxv, 183.

14 Nichols, Esoteric Anthropology, viii, 115.

15 Same as *, lxxv, 258.

10 Marshall, Introduction to Sexual Physiology, viii, 148.

17 Moore, “Doctors differ on Birth Control”; in: The

Commonweal,

XIII, xxvi, 716.

18 Popenoe, Problems of Human Reproduction, ix, 101.

19 Same as 17 , XIII, xxvi, 716.

30 Evans, “The New Method of Birth Control”; in: Physical

Culture,

LXXIV, iv, 59.

31 Freud, Modern Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness,

29.

33 Same as 10 , 178.
33 Same as l , CXLVII, 493.

34 Same as \ CXLVII, 493.

 XXIII
EUGENICS

“To bring about a higher type of humanity . . . the individual

must repress his strong animal impulses."

— Gruber, Die Prostitution ,44.

Unquestionably “the procreation of children should be a

matter far more carefully regulated by moral considerations
than it is at present” 1 ; for under conditions as they are the
welfare of unborn populations of the earth is continually
being sacrificed to the sensualism of their progenitors. In
order to remove the greatest obstacle to the improvement of
the race “man must assume a more complete restraint over
his reproductive functions and subordinate his inclinations
to the future interests of his descendants.”*

Even where love links the parents “it rarely happens that in
sexual relations much unselfish thought is bestowed upon
unborn individuals.”* Yet “a conscientious man and woman
would not enter upon procreation without the most serious
considerations as to the probable value of their progeny.”*
To make the productive act ideally effective they will raise it
to a deed of love for the unborn, and gladly sacrifice their
personal gratifications to the welfare of the child.

Love between the parents is of course a factor of inestimable

value to the progeny on account of the harmony which will
influence conception, gestation and childhood. But
eugenically considered, mutual love of the parents is not the
greatest, not even an indispensable factor for the wellbeing
of the babe. After all, “procreation is carried on quite
successfully by means of the ordinary organic functions,
without any lofty ecstasy of personal love” 5 ; and even
artificial insemination — which entirely excludes the
element of love of the parents for each other — has been
demonstrated to be of practical eugenic value.*

The one imperative eugenic requirement is parental

dedication to the child-to-be, even long before it is
conceived.

Most parents are ready for any sacrifice, any renunciation for
the well-being of their child, once it is born. But for its
greatest possible well-being potential parents — and that
means all youth — must be willing to keep their bodies in
such a condition that a faultless seed and a perfect soil shall
be available for the prenatal growth. Almost as a rule
however the male contribution to the seed has been
weakened, and very often infected with inheritable disease,
by abuse of the reproductive organs. And where in the past
at least the soil — the mother’s body — used to offer the
foetus a fair chance, this factor too is more and more
exposed to vitiation. Mankind seems to deteriorate
deliberately into animalistic parents of an ever more
wretched posterity.

Any tampering with the sexual function before it is being

used for the conception of a child endangers the purity of
the seed and of the soil. Promiscuity is particularly fateful in
this respect, because in the intimacy of the sexual act each
of the partners leaves a permanent impression on the other.
Traces of these impressions are carried to later partners, and
eventually to descendants. Physical proof of this lies in “the
recognized fact that for a white woman, when stamped with
the sexual vibrations of other races, ... to bring forth a white
child, even in conjunction with a male of the white race, is
impossible .” 7 Similarly the prospective father brings with
him the commingled, usually polluting influences of every
woman with whom he has sexually conjoined. And these
influences affect not only the physical constitution; they are
much farther reaching in their effect, for “promiscuity in sex
commerce adulterates the soul essences.”' Therefore
unbroken virginity of both prospective parents until they
come together for intended propagation is an essential
eugenic requirement.

Not less important for the progeny than sexual purity of the
parents before intended reproductive action is the
avoidance of ardent passion during coitus. For “carnal
passions are transmitted . . . through conception in the fire
of lust.”* “The union of two bodies . . . need not be spoiled
by vulgar sensuality, if a powerful affinity of souls imparts to
it the ideal character of an appeal for their unborn child .”
19 A higher evolved ego can thus be attracted.

Another notable eugenic requisite is absolute sexual

abstinence during the period of gestation and of nursing.
“Undisturbed maternity ... is a vital and indisputable
necessity for the improvement of humanity .” 11

“If humanity would follow strictly the edicts of nature . . .

coition would be absolutely omitted during the gestation
period .” 11 “The whole force at these times should be taken
up with providing sustenance for the new body .” 11 If only
for this reason, “sexual intercourse should cease when the
purpose of nature is fulfilled .” 14 But another reason for its
cessation is that, when exercised, “it is very often found to
be injurious to pregnant women .” 18 “The venereal orgasm
has the character of a violent nervous crisis” 1 *, and “in
their condition . . . every nervous commotion has its danger
.” 11 In normal individuals “it should be repugnant to the
female during gestation. Where it is not, there is hereditarily
perverted sexual physiology due to the unphysiologic
approaches of the male practised through the ages.” 1 *
Some “obstetric writers have . . . granted a license which
leads to more evil than good.” 1 * For “it is a more frequent
cause of premature confinement than is commonly
supposed .” 10 Also it “is not unseldom a cause of
miscarriage” 11 , and “increases the pain and danger
connected with child birth .” 11 Therefore “from an early
period great authorities have declared themselves in
opposition to the custom of practising coitus during
pregnancy .” 11 “Even uncivilized nations have condemned
the practice .” 14 And “medical science is beginning to utter
the same warning, and before long will probably be in a
position to do so on a more solid and coherent evidence .”
18

An indication of scientific evidence has already come to light

in favor, of postponement of resumption of conjugal
relations until after a baby has been weaned. It is contained
in the discovery that prolactin, produced by glands in the
mother’s body for the purpose of stimulating milk-secretion,
at the same time inhibits the sex glands — thereby calling
for abstinence from intercourse as long as feeding from the
breast continues. “It seems to show that parental behavior
[such as suckling] and sex activity are antipathetic, by
glandular decree.”**

Foremost in eugenic interest remains the fact that “sex— ual

commerce during pregnancy [and also during the lactation
period] is a violation of the rights of the unborn ego.

Apart from physical considerations one of those rights is the

opportunity to be born without such anti-evolutionary
tendencies as can be forestalled by the parents. They have
to consider that “such is the intimate connection between
the mother and the embryo that the exercise of any faculty
or of any organ of her body stimulates . . . the corresponding
faculty or organ of the incipient child.”* 8 On account of this
impressionability of the embryo “couples bring upon
themselves by their sensuality the curse of sensual
offspring.”** For “one of the most certain effects of sexual
indulgence during pregnancy is to develop abnormally the
sexual impulses in the child. Here is the key to the origin of
much of the sexual precocity and depravity which curs ?
humanity”**, and which stand in the way of evolutionary
growth.

Truly eugenic parents are those who limit sexual activity to

intended reproduction. “They are the direct benefactors of
the race by begetting progeny who are not predisposed to
vitiation.”* 1 They prove that “sexual continence is not only
an ascetic but also an altruistic demand.”** It is by far the
most essential precept for the evolutionary improvement of
the race.

• «•••••••••• •

“Future generations will probably with a kind of horror look

back at a period when the most important function which
has fallen to the lot of man was entirely left to . . . caprice
and lust.”** “In the future . . . this will be carried on with a
degree of conscious intelligence hitherto unknown, which
will raise it from the following of a mere impulse to the
completion of a splendid social purpose.”* 4

An important part of “the task of human parents is to

enhance the spiritual life of the next generation by planting
the seed of spirit in their own child.”** In order to be able to
do this the parents-to-be must first unfold spirituality in
themselves.

Those who are imbued with a high degree of responsibility

for the welfare of the race will not hesitate to apply its laws
to their own lives — now.
*****

1 Russell, Marriage and Morals, xviii, tit.

9 Marshall, Introduction to Sexual Physiology, viii, 148.

1 W esteem arck, Ethical Relativity, viii, 24a.

4 Same as *, xviii, an.

9 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, II, i, 143.

6 Seymour, "Medicolegal Aspect of Artificial Insemination’*;

in: Journal of the American Medical Association, CVII, xix,
1531.

1 Minole, Science of Love, viii, aa8.

9 Same as T , viii, aa8.

9 Lutoslawski, Pre-Existence and Reincarnation, xiv, 133.

19 Lutoslawski, The World of Souls, vi, 180.

11 Stock ham. Tokology, xi, 158. u Richard, Histoire de la

Giniration, iv, 293.

11 Naphrys, The Transmission of Life, III, 163.

14 Parvin, The Science and Art of Obstetrics, II, vi, 213.

19 Palmer, "Hygiene and Management of Pregnancy”; in:

Norris, The American Textbook of Obstetrics, I, 184.

19 Dubois, Les Psychonivroses, xxv, 388.

1T Mayer, Des Rapports Conjugaux, I, iii, 131.

19 Lydston, Genito-Urinal. Venereal and Sexual Diseases, VI,
xxii, 523.

19 Same as 14 , II, vi, 213.

99 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, i, 19.

91 Same as 14 , II, xi, 292.

99 Nichols, Esoteric Anthropology, vii, 99.

99 Same as ", VI, i, 18.

94 Same as 19 , I, 184.

99 Same as ", VI, i, 19.

" "Prolactin”; in: Time, XXXI, xviii, 40. See also: Time , XXIII,
ii, 3®99 Same as 7 , viii, 227.

99 Same as 11 , xi, 160.

" Same as 1# , vi, 182.

" Kellogg, The Science of Human Life, 327.

91 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, i, 33.

99 Same as 9 , II, i, 140.

99 Westermarck, Origin and Development of Moral Ideas, II,

xli, 403.

94 Carpenter, Love*s Coming of Age, 73.

99 Adler, Reconstruction of the Spiritual Ideal, iii, 106.

 XXIV
ADOLESCENCE

"You just maturing youth! You male or female!

Anticipate your own life . . . Retract in time."

— Whitman, Poem of Rtmtmbranc*.

Adolescence, the time of maturing youth, is that “stormy

period . . . when the very worst and best impulses in the
human soul struggle against each other for its possession .”
1 Every impulse that is allowed freedom of expression at this
time leaves an indelible impression on the rest of life.

During adolescence the sexual element develops in the

body and tries to press its claims. Overstimulated from
within and from without and encouraged by popular
casuistry it clamors for satisfaction before it is matured. But
if sex is yielded to prematurely, then to the same extent that
this is done the individual will literally ‘run to seed’. “Many
an individual has had reason to regret the indulgences of his
youth because of . . . their effect upon his further life.”*
Whenever allowed expression, “early forms of indulgence
interfere with normal growth of body, of emotions and of
mind”*, as well as with spiritual unfoldment. Growth in each
of these directions is dependent upon the same force as is
the sexual faculty. That life force, “if expended in one
channel ... is lost for another .” 4 “The longer its outlet
towards sex is deferred . . . the greater is the refinement and
breadth and strength of character resulting .” 5

Hence if the growth toward a perfected humanity is to be

aided, “a delay in entering actively on the sexual life must
be one of the adaptations that has to go along with
evolution .” 5 It is the only way to give the higher faculties a
chance to come into expression at all. Therefore “the result
of evolution . . . has been to lengthen the period of
development .” 7 The animal matures very quickly, but only
physically ; and during its maturation nature takes care,
through instinct, that no force is wasted in sexual channels.
Savages develop physically and emotionally; by taboo* the
unspoiled tribes are restrained from premature sexual
expression. Civilized individuals must pass through an
additional mental development, and the period of
adolescence is therefore necessarily prolonged. For young
people sexual “restraint is indispensable during a period of
more and more years . . . if they are to mature well.”*

“The only way to an ever higher and fuller maturity ... b by

self-restraint” 10 , by perfect sexual abstinence during an
ever longer period of adolescence. In the average individual
at the present time “complete maturity is reached by the
woman after the twentieth . . . and by the man not before
the twenty-fifth year .” 11 As evolution advances and
spiritual development b added to the mental, the period of
adolescence and of needed absolute juvenile continence will
be still more extended.

The indbputable fact that strict continence b at no time

more important than during adolescence has been
recognized and stressed by every student of the subject Yet
the fabe rumor “that sexual abstinence be injurious . . . b
exerting a most pernicious influence upon youth.” 1 * In
reality “abstinence can in no way injure them .” 18 Whereas
“premature sexual acts mean . . . shortened lives .” 14 “Not
that continence alone assures a long life, but . . . it b an
evident contribution to longevity .” 15 In every individual
case the maximum length of life attainable undoubtedly
depends very much upon the preservation of the life force.
The amount of this force available in one individual or
another may vary greatly; each one seems limited to
whatever quotum fate has put at his disposal. But a
misdirected spending of one’s energies will tend to shorten
the physical existence and reduce the balance on which to
draw for other essential and beneficial purposes.

A point deserving special attention b that “the sexual ... is in

closest connection with the cerebral system .” 14 “The
immediate effect of sexual desire upon the brain . . . b
sometimes very marked .” 11 “The nerves that supply the
sexual centers are directly connected with the brain by
means of the spinal canal; if those nerves become weakened
the brain is at once effected to a corresponding degree .” 18
This is why “the tampering with the sexual impulse tends to
produce a lasting impression on the cerebral centers” 1 *,
and also why “sexual indulgence is ruinous to mental
health”*

“The brain and the sexual organs are . . . great rivals in using
up bodily energy .” 81 “When the reproductive organs make
demands . . . they can be satisfied only at the expense of the
brain .” 88 Therefore “premature sexual activity impairs the
educability of the child .” 88 “Early sexual expression signs
away the highest reaches of individual development” 84 ,
which otherwise could be attained. “It produces mediocrity
and conventionality of mind .” 85

“The intellectual life of a whole nation must suffer if sexual

activity is the rule among its young people .” 88

In a general way “idealism is one of the most splendid

characteristics of adolescent youth .” 87 Especially “the joy,
the cordial merriment, the sunny confidence of vigorous
young people who have remained chaste are characteristic
traits .” 88 Such youths are also the most gentle and
sensitive, open to poetic inspiration and to enthusiastic
support of Utopian movements.

But as soon as youth yields to the sordidness of sexual

expression for self-gratification, or to indulgence in erotic
thoughts, the splendid enthusiasm disappears, often to
make place for a cynical materialism. So much of the life
force is then wasted on the sexual level that none can be
transformed into the higher energy on which aspiration and
idealism depend. Thus “continence ... is connected with
ideal aspirations no less than with physical vigor” 8 * and
with mental clarity. Therefore the way to maintain a strong
and pure idealism through life is to adhere to continence.

For many reasons then “the ideal of chastity is . . . the very

highest that can be held up to youth .” 80 “If it is the effort
of their lives to be chaste . . . then, indeed, shall abide for
them an incorruptible felicity” 81 ; then the cornerstone for
a future Utopia has been laid.

*****

I Hall, Adolescence , I, v, 407.

* Lydston, Addresses and Essays, 148.

9 Galloway, Biology of Sex, vi, 58.

4 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, v, 173.

5 Carpenter, “Affection in Education'’; in: International

Journal of Ethics,

IX, 488.

4 Popenoe, Conservation of the Family, II, ii, 63. r Same as 6 ,

II, ii, 63.
• See Ch. 1 , Taboos.

9 Same as x , I, vi, 456.

19 Same as l , I, vi, 438.

II Talmey, Love, VIII, xxiv, 403.

19 Eulenburo, Sexuale Neuropathic; quoted in : Wegener,

We Young Men, 141.

19 Jacobsohn ; quoted in: 4 , VI, vi, 193.

14 Kirsch, Sex Education, xiii, 283.

15 Surbled, Cilibat et Manage, vii, 56.

19 Lombroso, Crime , II, ii, 256.

1T Lydston, Genito-Urinal, Venereal and Sexual Diseases, VI,

xxiv, 558.

19 A.G., The Science of Regeneration, viii, 101.

19 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, i, 25.

99 Barino-Gould, Origin and Development of Religious

Belief, I, xvii, 352. 91 Same as 4 , VI, v, 174.

99 Popenoe, Problems of Human Reproduction, i, 21.

99 Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, iii, 91.

94 Sock man. Morals of Tomorrow, I, vii, 140.

99 Same as 94 , I, vii, 140.

99 Same as 9 , II, ii, 63.

99 Exner, Rational Sex Life, i, 20.

99 Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, III, vi, 268.

99 Hastings, Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, III, 484.

99 Same as \ I, vi, 453.

91 Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, iii, 140.

 XXV
SEX AND NUTRITION

"There is ... a direct contrast between the processes of

conjugation and nutrition.”

— Wbismann, Essays upon Hsrtdity ,

I,v,893.

A presumed analogy between sex and nutrition is frequently

put forth in support of a pretended imperiousness of sexual
intercourse. But in reality there is more contrast than
analogy between the two. Nutrition sustains the life force,
whereas sex consumes it. And while “food and drink are vital
necessities . . . the generative impulse does not serve any
vital necessity” 1 , at least not of the individual. “The
function of reproduction ... is not essential to the
maintenance of the organism.”* “Men can survive without it,
whereas they can not survive without food or drink.”*

If reproduction were entirely stopped the race would perish.

But the continuation of the race does not require that
everybody takes part in its propagation. Therefore, while the
digestive system is designed for regular activity, “the sexual
organs are constructed for intermittent action, and their
functions may be suspended without harm to either their
anatomy or physiology.”® And “the sexual appetite, unlike
hunger or thirst, can ... be reduced to a more or less
quiescent state which, far from injuring, may benefit the
physical and psychic vigor generally.”® In fact, “one may
live without carnal activity . . . and never better than without
it .” 1
Another distinction between sex and nutrition is that
nutrition is inherently a selfish function, serving self-
preservation ; whereas the sexual act as intended by nature
is an unselfish function in which the individual sacrifices a
fragment of himself for the sake of the preservation of the
race. “Nutrition implies an increase in the capital of the body
. . . Reproduction always means a parting with some of the
living material.”® While to part with this for the sake of the
species is an act of self-sacrifice, doing so for selfish
gratification without a chance of benefitting the race is but
injurious self-waste.

The only clear analogy between nutrition and sex lies in the
fact that both are allowed to play too prominent a part in
human existence. Instead of using them as natural means by
which to keep oneself and the race alive, humanity has
chosen to live and work mainly in order to satisfy its self-
created inordinate desire for unnatural food and drink
beyond the needs of nutrition, and for unnatural sex
expression beyond the needs of reproduction.

Nature has implanted in living beings a nutritive and a

reproductive appetite only to the extent of her own needs:
to ensure individual and racial preservation. And “she has
intermingled pleasure with necessary things ... in order that
the addition of pleasure may make the indispensable means
of existence attractive to us”*, so that they shall not be
neglected. But “this bait of gratification is merely a device of
nature and not in itself an end which has any useful function
.” 14 In unadulterated form “no appetite exists . . . for its
own sake merely, just to be gratified .” 11

However, nutrition and sex “both are alike subject to abuse

by those who pursue the pleasure of gratification of the
animal appetites with disregard of their natural objects.” 1 *
Out of both, in his continuous search of pleasure for
pleasure’s sake, man has distilled a means of sense-
gratification. Both impulses have been perverted by
overstimulation and by habitual indulgence.

Both of these forms of abuse are degrading, and obstructive

to evolutionary growth. But the abuse of sex is the more
injurious one, since it always consists in a deleterious way of
spending vital elements, while the common errors in
nutrition rarely omit a taking in of at least some body-
building material.

Basically everything beyond nature’s simple needs is

unnatural. Hence many other factors of civilized existence
may have to be regarded as not exactly natural. But none of
those other items are comparable with sex or with nutrition,
since none affect the body as an instrument for spirit like
these two.

By the indulgence of the nutritive as well as of the

reproductive function false cravings get ever stronger, and
the body becomes more and more engrossed, so that a
response to higher vibrations is made impossible.
Indulgence in evanescent physical pleasures is ever at the
cost of abiding spiritual joys.

*****

1 Talmby, Love, VIII, xxiv, 401.

* Howell, Textbook of Physiology , IX, 1017.

8 Russell, Marriage and Morals, xx, 227.

4 See Ch. xlii, Race Suicide.

8 Huhner, Disorders of the Sexual Function, xvii, 262.

• Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, vi, 210. r Hilton,
The Scale of Perfection, I, viii, 109.

8 Thomson and Geddes, Life, I, iv, 456.

8 Seneca, Epistulae Morales, III, cxvii, 335.

10 Ellis, “Love as an Art’*; in: Keyserling, The Book of

Marriage,

HI, 373.

11 Galloway, The Sex Factor in Human Life, vi, 58.

18 Lydston, Genito-Urinal, Venereal and Sexual Diseases, VI,

xxii, 523.
 XXVI
GLANDS AND SECRETIONS

“Certain gland* are much influenced by thinking ... of the

condition* under which they are excited.”

— Da*win, Expression of the Emo

tionr^dii,)39.

Wondrous beyond human understanding are the workings of

the glands, the biochemical factories in living bodies.
Substances on which the body depends for its development
and sustenance are manufactured by the glands from
materials which they extract out of the mass of
heterogeneous food that is put into the stomach.

Left to themselves the glands perform their tasks

instinctively according to nature’s needs “in a manner which
the most learned can neither understand nor explain” 1 ;
their activity is backed by an intelligence that is not
equalled by the greatest intellect of man. As long as not
interfered with, the glands produce and contribute to the
processes of life just the kind of secretion that is needed,
just when and where it is needed. They do this in response
to messages originating in any part of the body requiring
their particular product. So well has nature’s intelligence
arranged it that these messages, upon arriving at the gland,
automatically stimulate it into accordant action. “Glands in
general secrete only under the influence of some special
stimulation.”*

Man has interfered with nature’s normal stimulations and

with the normal functioning of glands. With artificial
excitations he has forced some glands to serve his pleasure,
to work overtime, to overproduce secretions. Especially has
he overstimulated the glands that are connected with
nutrition and with sex — particularly with sex.

• ••••••••••••

“Modem physiology has emphasized the dual function of the

essential reproductive glands, the ovaries and the testes.”*
“The ovaries are strictly analogous to the testes .” 4 Both
produce external secretions for the generation of new
bodies. And both “testes and ovaries produce internal
secretions”* for the upbuilding and regeneration of one’s
own body. These internal secretions play no part in the
sexual act and are never expelled, but always taken up by
the blood. “While the external ... is what might be called the
racial secretion, the internal is necessary for the individual’s
welfare.”*

In regard to the internal secretions “the cases of the two

sexes are . . . strictly parallel.”* Apart from “giving rise to the
development of the secondary sexual characters”* they “are
essential for physical and mental manhood and
womanhood.”* “The testes secrete substances which pass
into the circulation and are of immense importance in the
development of the organism.” 1 * These substances are the
internal secretions which also “add enormously to a man’s
magnetic and spiritual force .” 11 And in woman “the
ovaries elaborate an internal secretion which is absorbed by
the system and which is necessary to the physical and
spiritual well-being of woman.” 1 *

“Modem science . . . recognizes in the internal secretion of

the sex glands the necessary factor for the right functioning
of the whole organism, and in its weakening the cause of the
deterioration of all other functions.” 1 * Hence “there is no
surer way to destroy existing manhood [or womanhood]
than such a course of life as deprives the body of this
internal secretion .” 14 Sexual activity has a deleterious
effect in this respect.

Unfortunately the individual has the power to use the

external or racial secretions for other than racial,
propagative purposes. The tragedy of this is that by every
act which disposes of some external secretion “the formation
of the internal ... is undoubtedly interfered with .” 18 When
compelled to produce more external secretions than
required for generation, the sex glands cannot supply the
normal amount of internal secretions for regeneration.

“The physical harm in the habitual overproduction [of

external secretion] . . . seems to lie in the fact that it drains
from the blood nutriment which is needed for the production
of internal secretion .” 14 “The best'blood of the body goes
to form the ingredients for reproduction in both sexes .” 17
“The richest elements of that blood are used in the
distillation of the reproductive fluids.” 1 * The more these
elements are extracted from the blood for the formation of
external, the less they are available for internal secretions
and for the essential processes which depend thereon. The
whole body suffers when these vital elements are wasted.

Not only every sexual act but all “irritation of the sex organs
interferes with the formation of the internal secretion.” 1 *
Hence not only every wasteful sexual expression but also
every irritating stimulation of the sex impulse takes place at
the cost of self-regeneration, mental and spiritual —as well
as physical.

Even where the use of the external secretions is limited to

generation in harmony with natural law, the formation of
internal secretions is unfavorably affected. This in itself
makes reproduction a sacrificial act. In such a case however
the loss in spiritual potentialities is compensated by the
sacrificial element in the purely generative act. But in every
sexual expression which lacks propagative intention there is
naught but loss on the regenerative side — a greater and
more irreparable loss according to the frequency of the
indulgence.

The prominent part played by the internal secretions of the

sex glands of both men and women in every phase of
individual development has been discovered only in modem
times. This new knowledge confirms the idea that in order to
make possible an advancement in evolution, more and more
of the life force must be taken away from generative activity
and turned into regenerative channels”; for it shows that
this force, instead of being used for the formation of the
generative external, must be directed to the production of
the regenerative internal secretions of the sex glands.

Since the production of those important secretions depends

on the well-functioning of the sex glands, it is evidently
essential to the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of
the individual that these glands are normally developed.
Where the glands are deficient there can be no efficient
internal secretions. This fact however has been widely
misunderstood and often wilfully misinterpreted. It is quite
erroneous to think that the glands must prove their normal
efficiency in sexual expression, and that they must be kept
in condition by such activity. Quite to the contrary — and as
already emphasized in this chapter — the right functioning
of these glands for the benefit of the individual is interfered
with by every sexual act.

The best proof of the well-functioning of the sex glands is to

be found in as sound a physical body as other prevailing
factors will permit, in a clear idealistic mind, and in a
progressive spiritual growth of the individual.

**»**

1 Stall, What a Young Man ought to Know, iii, 83. f Hall,

Biology of Reproduction , iii, 55.

* Foundations of Social Hygiene, 136.

4 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, V, 179.

4 Marshall, Introduction to Sexual Physiology, vi, 99.

4 Robinson, Our Mysterious Life Glands, xvi, 12a. f Salebby,

Health, Strength and Happiness, xxiii, 358.

4 Moll, The Sexual Life of the Child, iv, 109.

9 Elliott and Bone, Sex Life of Youth, v, 76.

19 Same as 4 , V, 180. ll Stockkam, Karezza, iv, 41.

14 Robinson, Sexual Problems of Today, 238.

14 Ouspensky, A New Model of the Universe, xii, 536.

M Same as 7 , wriii, 359.

1 4 Same as J , iv, 86.

14 Exnbr, Rational Sex Life, ii, 19.

17 Nicholas; quoted in: Atkinson and Beals, Regenerative

Power, iv, 67.

18 A. G., The Science of Regeneration, v, 52.

19 Hall, From Youth into Manhood, 55.

80 See Gh. v, The Deadlock in Human Evolution.

 XXVII
A PHYSIOLOGICAL DILEMMA

“The reabsorption of semen can scarcely be said to be a part

of the modern physiological doctrine.’*

— Ellis Studies in the Psychology of Sex 9 V t 180.

It is not the intention of this study to delve into

physiological details. But some facts have been so
misunderstood and twisted into motives for unwarranted
sexual acts, that it is unavoidable to speak about them if
current wrong impressions are to be counteracted.

Until a few years ago it was generally held that man’s body
could absorb the external secretions produced by its sex
glands after these secretions had accumulated in the
vesicles. But the possibility of such absorption has now by a
few physiologists been doubted and by some denied.

Yet, one of the greatest modern authorities admits the

possibility of conditions under which “the highly vital fluid . .
. is, partially at least, reabsorbed and acts as a tonic to the
entire system .” 1 Others too are still convinced that it is
feasible that “the secretions ... are reabsorbed, partly at
least, by the rich plexi of lymphates which surround the
canals .” 1 Apparently the question is not definitely settled.
Most likely the absorption is neither impossible, nor always
possible for the entire amount secreted. It seems that
anyhow “in the continent person . . . the semen is partly
reabsorbed .” 3

That there is repeated mention of only partial absorption is

not surprising. That nearly always “whatever absorption
takes place ... is less than what is produced ” 4 is to be
ascribed to the circumstance that in almost every case there
is an unnatural overproduction which overtaxes the capacity
of whatever apparatus for absorption exists.

In present humanity the sex glands have a tendency to form

external secretions in larger quantities than are needed for
reproduction. Racial habits have denatured these glands.
They have long been artificially habituated to produce
external secretions steadily instead of only when needed for
propagation. They have been inured to yield an unnatural
overproduction, just as the lactic glands of the dairy cow
have been trained to yield an abnormal overproduction.

“Under conditions of right thinking and right living the

seminal fluid would be produced only when there is a
demand for propagation.”* Formation of reproductive fluids
at times when there is no question of propagation is as
unnatural and abnormal as the formation of milk when there
is no question of motherhood.

• ••••••••••••

Once formed, the accumulation of reproductive fluids is apt

to cause some discomfort, even strain. This tension is
usually mistaken for a manifestation of the reproductive
impulse. But almost without exception the formation of the
fluid by the sex glands results as little from the natural
reproductive impulse as the flow of saliva at the thought or
sight of a delicacy results from a natural hunger. Both
conditions are caused by artificial stimulation and undue
imagination. “A man accustomed to abstinence will not
suffer from any accumulation of secretions” 4 , and “the
longer the period of continence the less of the irritation and
discomfort will be felt.” T
The tension of the accumulated external secretion has given
rise to “the view met with among the ignorant . . . that this
fluid rpight be noxious if allowed to accumulate. It is
regarded as an excretion to be got rid of like those of the
bladder and the intestines .” 8 This view of the supposed
necessity of expelling the reproductive fluid is supported by
the new theory of non-absorption. But “everything relevant
that is known in biology and physiology indicates that
nothing could be more false and pernicious.”*

The external secretion of the sex glands is “a vital fluid

representing far greater potentiality than the same quantity
of blood .” 14 “It is not a waste material” 11 , and one
“positively and directly gains by the absorption of that
secretion .” 11 “This is evidenced by increased muscular
action, a diminished sense of fatigue and enhanced
recuperativeness.” 1 ’ Undoubtedly “the more the fluids are
retained in the body . . . the greater fulness of life, health
and power are experienced .” 14

Therefore under no circumstances apart from propagation

should the external secretion be expelled voluntarily. If a
surplus really should be removed, nature will do so without
any voluntary action of the person and with a minimum loss
of physical and psychic energy. 1 *

After all, it matters little whether absorption of the

reproductive fluids is possible or not. The essential point
concerns not the way in which they are disposed of after
being formed, but their non-formation. If their formation is
prevented except in the service of propagation, absorption
becomes superfluous.

Of the greatest practical value is that the formation and

accumulation of these external secretions is avoidable. Even
the inherited tendency to their overproduction can be
overcome if it is not reinJforced by ever new excitations. The
infallible way is to lessen the erotic stimuli. As a result of this
it becomes possible to utilize the vital elements of the blood
constantly for the formation of the inner secretions 1 *,
which enhance the development of greater physical and
mental and spiritual power.

*#**#

1 Robinson, Sexual Problems of Today, 237.

I Hall, Adolescence, I, vi, 419.

• Surbled, Cilibat et Manage, vii, 55.

4 Galloway, Biology of Sex, xi, 141.

• Armitaoe, Sex Force, III, ii, 17.

4 Parkhurst; quoted in: Atkinson, Regenerative Power, iv, 74

* r Parkhurst ; quoted in : Armitaoe, Sex Secrets, xiv, 248.

• Same as J , I, vi, 448.

• Same as f , I, vi, 448.

10 Hall, Love and Marriage, III, iv, 260.

II Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, III, 18.

19 Salbeby, Health, Strength and Happiness, xxiii, 359.

19 Gruber, “The Hygienic Significance of Marriage"; in:

Senator* Kaiciner, Health and Disease, ii, 20.

14 Butler, Solar Biology, i, 14.

14 See Ch. xxviii, Erotic Dreams.

19 See Gh. xxvi, Glands and Secretions.
 XXVIII
EROTIC DREAMS

“Erotic dreams . . . are influenced by erotic desire.”

— Nystrom, Natural Laws of Sexual

Life 4 ,19

In the consciousness of man an important part is played by

what psychoanalysts have termed ‘the censor’.

“Deeply implanted in man’s nature there is the

determination not to be content with oneself as one is, but
somehow to be cleaner and higher; to suppress and reduce
to nothingness the sort of things that drag one down, and to
concentrate attention and effort on the higher parts of one’s
being .” 1 The so-called censor may well be interpreted as
being an embodiment of that determination, that urge to
reach an ever higher evolutionary stage. He can also be
considered to be “the impartial spectator . . . the judge
within”*, who is a personification of conscience, warning
against actions that are inconsistent with the stage which
the individual has reached. Thus the censor is the
equivalent of “the good demon which every man has as a
proper keeper ... to bring him to perfection.”*

Ultimately the censor represents spirit, albeit only a

negative, inhibiting aspect thereof. The power of the censor
depends upon how much of spirit can manifest through a
person. The more spiritual one becomes the louder the
censor warns against an ever wider range of tendencies
which must be outgrown. In effect the censor acts as “a
guiding principle which can be developed as a regulative,
but which is easily obscured .” 4

In many people the censor is indeed very easily obscured.

Especially often “during sleep the censorship ... is
removed.”® And even during the waking state old
tendencies frequently succeed in passing the censor to find
expression, if not in acts then in emotions and in thoughts of
a less desirable nature.

To a great extent the thoughts of the day shape the dreams

of the night. “The waking thoughts and emotions have a
powerful and determining influence upon the activities of
the consciousness during the hours when the physical body
is asleep.”* “In almost every dream certain details are found
which have their origin in the impressions or thoughts ... of
one of the preceding days”* — or sometimes in seemingly
forgotten impressions of longer ago.

What kind of dreams can one expect when, after sensual

stirrings have been admitted during waking hours,
censorship is removed during sleep? It is but natural that
then, “the higher inhibitions gone . . . the lower passions
surge to the front in turbulent welter.”* And it is no wonder
that “many of the phenomena of dreams . . . are due to the
sexual impulse.”*

“Even in good men there is a latent wild-beast nature which

peers out in sleep” 1 *; and perhaps in women too. “When
the reasoning and ruling power is asleep, then the wild
beast in human nature . . . starts up and leaps about and
seeks to satisfy its desires .” 11 Then “die serpent is . . . ever
fruitful in alluring dreams.” 1 * Then it is that “sexual
excitement entertained in a waking state . < . induces
ejaculation during sleep.” 1 *
'The passive involuntary nocturnal orgasms undoubtedly are
less harmful than any passionate voluntary mode of sexual
expression. Once the sex glands have formed an oversupply
of external secretion — which however should have been
prevented 14 — it is better to lose this unconsciously during
sleep than to cause its expulsion in a conscious act But in
the majority of cases “the generative glands would not form
such an excess of secretion ... if they were not -
overstimulated or overworked.” 1 *

The fact that nocturnal losses are very general does not
mean that they are normal. On the contrary “such emissions
are always more or less abnormal.” 1 * Nor does it mean that
they are necessary. “Health does not require that there ever
should be an emission .” 11 The less frequently they occur
the better. Always “their frequency varies according to ... the
degree in which the mind is directed to sexual matters .” 18
“One who stimulates the mind with erotic fancies . . . will
experience them with greater frequency.” 1 * * 4 * But “the
more the mind while awake is occupied with other than
sexual matters ... the less frequent die excitements and
emissions during sleep .”* 8 “They rarely occur in those . . .
who most nearly approach the standard of perfect chastity.””

“Some continent persons never have nocturnal emissions.

“It is a mistake to believe that emissions during the dream

state cannot be controlled.”" The censor can be made to
function during sleep as well as during the waking hours. “In
the dreamer there exists an unconscious propensity to
conceive his erotic experiences as guilty.”" He is vaguely
aware that “emissions in sleep pollute.”" “The reluctance of
the will even during sleep to consent to the tendencies of
the sexual system, strengthens the idea of moral impurity in
relation to the nocturnal pollution”"; it also shows that the
censor is not always entirely off duty. A little exercise of the
will can force him to remain alert while one sleeps. “With
many people indeed the will power becomes sufficiently
awake to allow of their inhibiting the pollution when on the
point of occurring.”"

In order to prevent emissions during dreams, therefore^

exertion of will and control of thought are necessary.
Especially “the last thought as one sinks into slumber has
aninfluence out of all proportion of the time it occupies the
mind.”" “When before going to sleep one has awakened his
rational powers and fed them on noble thoughts . . . then
one is least likely to be the sport of fanciful visions.”"

Thus can any one keep mind and body pure in the dreaming
as well as in the waking state, and thereby fill a necessary
requirement for spiritual evolution.

Note 1

Note 2

Note 3

Note 4
Chapter Notes
1. 1 Murray, "The Crisis in Morals’*; in: Spauldino, Twenty-
four Views of Marriage, in.
2. 1 Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, III, iii, 191.
3. 9 Aorippa, Occult Philosophy, III, xxii, 410.
4. 4 Hall, Adolescence, I, vi, 454.

8 Coriat, Repressed Emotions, iv, 141.

• Rogers, Dreams and Premonitions, ix, 134.

7 Juno, Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology, xii, 299.

8 Maudsley, Pathology of Mind, II, iii, 243.

9 Hartland, Ritual and Belief, 233.

10 Plato, Republic, IX, 572.

11 Same as 10 , IX, 571.

11 Livi, Transcendental Magic, I, vi, 93.

19 Northcote, Christianity and Sex Problems, 436.

14 See Ch. xxvii, A Physiological Dilemma.

15 MacFadden, Manhood and Marriage, xxiv, 187.

18 Same as 15 , xxiv, 187.

17 Mayer; quoted in: 81 , I, 268.

18 Paget, Selected Essays and Addresses, v, 40.

19 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, iii, 76.

80 Same as 18 , v, 49.

81 Kbllooo, Plain Facts, I, 420.

88 Hall, Biology of Reproduction, 138.

89 Armitage, Sex Force, III, vii, no.

84 Same as 7 , xii, 306.

85 Porphyry, De Abstinentia, IV, 20.

88 Same as l8 , 435.

87 Same as 19 , 436.

88 Same as 8 , ix, 134.

89 Same as l0 , IX, 571.

 XXIX
PERVERSION

“Every expression of the sexual impulse that does not

correspond with nature's purpose of propagation must be
regarded as perverse.”

— Krafft-Ebino, Psychopathic Sexualis, iv, 79.

“From the point of view of nature the end and object of the
sexual impulse is procreation .” 1 Therefore “every sexual
act not having in view the propagation of the species is
perverse.”* This is true whether the act be solitary or
mutual; whether heterosexual with intended
unproductiveness, or homosexual; whether to be classed as
prostitution or as birth control; whether technically labeled
as inversion or as perversion; and whether the tendency to
such acts be congenital or acquired. “None of these acts
have in view the perpetuation of the species, and all are
therefore perversions .” 3 From the sociological point of view
they may differ in degree of reprehensibility; but from the
spiritual standpoint they are all equally objectionable and
corrupt.

What some writers have said about specific sexual

aberrations may well be applied to all perversions of the
reproductive impulse. They are “a sad pathological
acquisition of the human race” 4 , “contrary to nature and . .
. due to unbridled lust .” 8 They are “the negation of the
higher order of things”*, “ethically reprehensible” 7 , and
“destructive of everything noble and dignified in human
nature.”* They “deprive the system at large of what might
have become general stimulation and vitality”*, and “there
is a continuously greater strain upon the nervous system .”
10 In their addicts “self-control is being undermined” 11 , to
such an extent that “the person who shows sex
abnormalities is potentially the most dangerous casual
criminal.” 1 * And “worse than any of these effects are those
that appear in the offspring” 1 *, for “acquired sexual
perversion may be . . . an irradicable vice in the next
generation .” 14 In short, not only “from the unnatural loves
of either sex ... innumerable evils have come” 15 , but from
every sexual perversion in the widest sense great evils have
fallen upon individuals and upon humanity.

It is true of every sexual perversion that “the practice is

contrary to the ends of humanity; for the end of humanity in
respect to sexuality is to preserve the species without
debasing the person.” 1 * All perverse sexual acts do just
the opposite: without preserving the species they debase
the person; they interfere with the possibility of the soul's
normal development.

Also, “he who indulges in them ... is the reverse of happy.””

“If humanity is ever to be capable of being raised to a
condition of true happiness . . . passions must diminish.” 1 *

Pathological results of the most frequently occurring forms of

perversion have been so often overstated that now even a
conservative statement of the truth 1 * finds little credence.
But after all, the “psychic effect ... is even more deleterious
than the physical.”** Of any perversion “the effects on the
higher qualities are not easily exaggerated .”* 1 “Far more
serious than any physical impairment ... is the impairment of
the idealism and the nobility of life.”** "The finer
endowments of man suffer graver lesions than do the
physical.”** Every perversion “inevitably coarsens . . . man’s
whole moral and spiritual fiber.”** “It is . . . mere sense
pleasure bought at the cost of the higher life.”**
The modem way of looking upon perversion is to extenuate
and to condone it on the ground that it is often the result of
inborn tendencies, or of specific glandular defects. On this
same basis all crime, too, should then be excused and
tolerated; for undoubtedly the criminal as well as the
pervert in many cases descends from tainted progenitors, or
has deficient endocrines. To recognize this may lead to a
better understanding of their disordered condition and to
the discovery of means by which to help, to correct, to cure
them. It should also lead to ways of eugenically preventing
the birth of ever more congenital criminals and perverts.**
But it does not mitigate the fact that perversion and crime
both are intolerable abnormalities. Counteracting spiritual
evolution, they cause mankind’s devolution. They must
necessarily be eliminated wherever the aim of society is
evolutionary progress.

*****

1 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, vi, 214.

8 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, iii, 104.

* Same as *, xii, 419.

4 Forbl, The Sexual Question, vii, 199.

8 Plato, Laws, I, 636.

• Robinson, Americans Sex, Marriage and Divorce Problems,

VIII, v, 385. r Freud, Modern Sexual Morality and Modern
Nervousness, 41.

8 Same as 8 , xii, 428.

8 Sperry, Confidential Talks, 54.

10 MacFadden, Encycl. of Physical Culture, V, ix, 2777.

11 Weather head. Mastery of Sex, viii, 126.

18 Cooper, Here f s to Crime, xiv, 298.

13 Hall, Adolescence, I, vi, 444.

14 Lydston, Addresses and Essays, 248.

18 Same as 5 , VIII, 836.

16 Kant, Lectures on Ethics, 170.

1T Same as 5 , I, 636.

18 Eckartshausen. The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, v, 61.

18 Same as 13 , I, vi, 439, 443, 452, etc.

80 Lydston, Genito-Urinal, Venereal and Sexual Diseases, VI,

xxii, 527.

81 Exner, Rational Sex Life, iii, 27.

88 Hall, Love and Marriage, III, iv, 261.

88 Same as 8 , xii, 426.

84 Same as 81 , iii, 30.

85 Same as 13 , I, vi, 452.

86 See Ch. xxiii, Eugenics.

 XXX
SEXUAL NORMALCY

“Man has deliberately taken the sexual appetite . . . away

from its natural, normal manifestation."

— Atkinson, Regenerative Power,

As a race we are oversexed. By habitual indulgence, by

cumulative heredity, by influence of surroundings, and by
seeking or submitting to stimulation, the human sexual
impulse has long since been developed to a state far beyond
its natural normalcy. “The excessive sex urge in man bears
the stamp of ... a compulsion which is unnatural .” 1 Normal
sexuality has been replaced by abnormal sensuality.

•The sex impulse is natural only as long as “the

fundamental design of the sexual act — propagation”* is in
view. At the evolutionary stage which most of humanity
should have reached by now the biological urge is entirely
normal only when it drives mate to mate in a longing to call
forth another living being out of a union of the highest that
each is able to contribute. When the urge appears at other
times it is abnormal and ought to be considered
pathological. And at such other times “to yield to the
biological is to betray the spiritual.”*

Normal human evolution calls for a steady ascent from the

stage of animal instinct to that of spiritual self-
consciousness and power. But the blinding glare of
oversexedness has drawn humanity to bide and settle down
in bypaths of evolution and to ignore the goal of the ascent
toward spiritual heights. Oversexedness is an abnormal
development which causes a delay, if not a permanent break
in evolutionary growth . 4

Yet so almost general a symptom has oversexedness become

that it is erroneously regarded as a normal, natural
condition. “Where practice is so general, theory has
accommodated itself so far as to assume that sexual
intercourse

. . . is necessary and wholesome .” 5 Public opinion on this

point is misled by the peculiar quality of the human body
that it readily accustoms itself to whatever habit it acquires,
soon craves for it, and protests when the demands of the
habit are not regularly obeyed. Once accustomed to alcohol
or drugs or to sexual excitement a body manifests
discomfort when its craving for gratification is not satisfied.
This has led to the fallacy that it is necessary and even
healthy to supply the gratification in order to remove the
discomfort. But the normal, natural way to eliminate the
latter is to ignore it, and to prevent its repetition by
establishing a purer standard. Not a single habit can
constitute a necessity.

Even where the tendency to a habit is inborn it can be

overcome, provided the mind begins to see that the habit is
undesirable. The first requirement for sexual normalcy is,
therefore, a mental recognition that the present sexual
habits of the race are abnormal. Then the individual will
either avoid to become addicted — or, if already an addict,
will gradually break away from those habits.

It should be clear to any one that “the existence of a sexual

excitation ... is not sufficient to prove that it is normal.”* But
“in judging of matters relating to sexual morality men have
generally made little use of their reason .” 7 Abnormal
stimulation of the sexual function has biased the
discriminative faculty which is needed to distinguish
between natural and unnatural, between normal and
abnormal. The prejudiced opinion of many who wish to
justify their personal tendencies leads them to scoff the
purer normal standard and to decry this as though it were
abnormal and morbid.

This mistaken attitude is shared by many others who are

misguided by the thought that normalcy is measured by the
condition of a majority. But absolute normalcy does not
consist in what the majority may do or think or be. In the
absolute sense our oversexedness — howsoever widespread
it may be — is an abnormal symptom; it is as much a
deviation from normal sexuality as our general low rate of
health is a departure from normal well-being. Humanity has
caused its general lack of health as well as most of its other
misery largely by its digression from nature’s normal
standards . 1 “Misery is nature’s protest against
degeneration .” 1 Every wilful deviation from nature’s
normalcy is therefore followed by a severe and often painful
reaction, even if that result is not always immediately
apparent . 11

In present humanity almost every one seems to prefer to

remain complacently in the hedonic state of oversexedness,
and to be indifferent to its deleterious results for the
individual and for the race. In the general tendency of ready
surrender to its dictates “the imperiousness of the sex
impulse has been greatly overrated .” 11 But “the sexual
appetite is not insuperable .” 11 With a little strength of
character and of will it is not very difficult to overcome the
'abnormal drive of this urge. Only “weaklings yield to -sexual
impulses which the normally strong feel but repress .” 11
After recognizing that sexual normalcy consists in purity,
people of high principles free themselves from the grip of
sex. Rising above all erotic influences and conditions, they
take up again the long interrupted ascent toward the
highest goal of human evolution: spiritual unfoldment . 11

*****

1 Bjbrre, The Remaking of Marriage, ii, 23.

8 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, iii, 107.

8 Rudisill, Intimate Problems of Youth, vi, 137.

4 See Ch. v, The Deadlock in Human Evolution.

8 Flexner, Prostitution in Europe, ii, 43.

4 Forbl, The Sexual Question, vii, 202.

7 Westermarck, Ethical Relativity, viii, 242.

8 See Ch. xxxiv. Health and Disease.

8 Jordan, The Strength of Being Clean, 8.

14 See Ch. lxxvii, Retribution.

11 Glasgow ; quoted in: Arm it age. Sex Secrets, xiii, 238.

18 Keyes, “The Sexual Necessity”; in: Medical News,

LXXXVII, 74.

18 Morrow, Health and the Hygiene of Sex , 29.

14 See Ch. xviii, Unfolding of Spirit.

 XXXI
CONTINENCE

“If one is gaited to idealism . . . continence should make

powerful appeal to him."

— Collins, The Doctor Looks at Love and Ls‘/#,I,i,i8.

Threaded through all the pages of this book, even where but
faintly showing between the lines, is the ever recurrent
thought that the ideal sexual life is one of strict continence.

Continence: the word is not used here loosely to denote

moderation, in which sense it is so often applied to the very
flexible moral standard of most people. “By continence is
meant the voluntary and entire abstinence from sexual
indulgence in any form .” 1 Strict continence is meant;
absolute abstinence except for purposes of propagation;
“abstinence not only from the gratification of the impulse . .
. but also from mental and tactile caresses and from all
abnormal practices.”* All such “dalliance is not
abstinence.”* And because “continence is not compatible
with sexual excitement ” 4 of any kind, “it must involve a
permanent abstention from indulgence in erotic
imaginations and voluptuous reverie”* and “from any of the
factors which arouse the sexual passion.”*

Perfect “sexual continence ... as an ideal to be striven for . . .

cannot be dismissed as a mere monk-made superstition.”*
Even for the most materialistic purposes the value of
abstinence has been generally acknowledged. It has always
been a rule for athletes while training for contests and prize
events. “This fact about athletes has been often positively
affirmed by the ancients”*; and strict abstinence is still
adhered to in our own days in the preparation of participants
for prizefights, league ball games and similar sports. During
the period of intensive training sexual excitement “is the
one thing which is rigidly excluded.”*

Clearly it is considered worth while and possible even for the

most full-blooded and hard-muscled men to be continent for
a certain period for the sake of a chance to win a prize in a
competitive contest. It will be found to be much more worth
while, and just as possible, in the longer period of training
for the acquisition of the inestimable prize of an expanded
consciousness. This is the prize which every one can win; for
“the feeling of control and power produced by continence
plays its part in the production of spiritual insight .” 10 For
spiritual results, however, it must include an obliteration of
all sexual craving.

After an experimental period of an observance of continence

the next step will most naturally come in the form of its
permanent continuance. For it is only logical that “what is
profitable for a time should be always practised, that it may
be always profitable .” 11

Or “shall one be willing only to abstain from what is

ordinarily deemed a pleasure for the sake of a victory in
wrestling and the like and ... be incapable of a similar
abstinence for the sake of a much nobler victory which is the
noblest of all ?” 11

“There are enough sexual stoics in the world to prove by

experience that continence is not only possible but also
practical.” 1 * “As every competent and responsible
authority asserts, it does no harm to the individual .” 14 “No
one was ever yet in the slightest degree the worse for
perfect continence .” 11 Where other factors do not
counteract its salutary influence there is “exuberance of
health, life and intelligence to be observed among chaste
people .” 10

The more continently one lives the better work one can
produce, because in body and in mind “energy is gained by
the establishment of continence .” 17 “It enlivens perception
.” 18 “One who consistently lives the continent life . . . wins
a power of concentration that is unknown to one who trifles
with the sex impulses .” 10 Thus, for instance, “the abstinent
scientist can devote more of his energy to study” 10 ,
accomplishing greater results. And this applies analogically
to any profession, to any accomplishment. “Only those who
have left the animal-man entirely behind are able to do the
best work in many spheres of life .”* 1

Hence for the most matter-of-fact reasons one can follow no

more excellent rule of life than to “acquire continence as the
greatest wealth.”** And what makes this rule of paramount
value is that at the same time “one can save the spiritual
store in the body by observing continence.”**

*****

1 Cowan, The Science of a New Life, x, 83.

8 Talmey, Love, VI, xvi, 177.

8 Warbasse, “Sex Morality”; in: Robinson, Sex Morality, 158.

4 Same as s , 148.

8 Rohleder, “Die Absdnentia Sexualis”; in: Z*it*chrift fdr

Sexualwissen schaft, 1908, 625.

6 Huhner, Disorders of the Sexual Function, v, 84.

T Bragdon, Eternal Poles, iv, 37.

8 Plato, Laws, VIII, 840.

9 Sturgis, Sexual Debility in Man, x, 292.

10 Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 59.

11 Tertullian, “On Exhortation to Chastity”; in: Ante-Nicene

Christian

Library, XVIII, 15.

« Same as 8 , VIII, 840.

18 Same as 8 , VIII, xxiv, 402.

14 Saleeby, Health, Strength and Happiness, xxiii, 359.

18 Gowers, “Lectures on Syphilis and the Nervous System”;

in: The British Medical Journal, 1889, I, 348.

18 Lombroso, Crime, its Causes and Remedies, II, ii, 257.

17 Patanjali, Toga Sutras, II, 38.

18 Clarke; quoted in: Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, vi,

265.

19 Exner, Rational Sex Life, iv, 55.

80 Freud, Modern Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness,

34.

81 Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, I, ix, 143.

88 Pythagoras; quoted in: Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras,

189.

88 Vivbkananda, Complete Works, VI, 80.

 XXXII
THE NOTION OF NECESSITY

“The idea still prevails . . . because it fits in with inclination."

— Woolston, Prostitution in the

U.S.,lfiifio.

For humanity as a group “a sexual necessity exists only in so

far as the integrity of the race is concerned .” 1 But there is
no necessity of everybody’s sharing in the task of continuing
the race.

For the individual “the idea of biological [sexual] necessity

is so obviously coupled with selfish interests as to give it the
quality of a special bias.”* It “rose from the excuses made by
those whose lust controlled them.”* It is misleadingly
supported by some sexologists who would build a norm for
normal people on the basis of their abnormal ‘cases’. And it
is almost ineradicable because “men . . . will accept any
doctrine that flatters their desires .” 4

In reality “so-called physical relief is never necessary.”®

""The tradition of sex necessity is a dangerous lie,
particularly as it is founded on the false assumption that
cohabitation is essential to health.”® “This pitiable
argument . . . is a pure sophism.’” “It is a singularly false
notion”*, “that man’s vitality is weakened unless he has
indulgence. Statements by eminent physicians flatly
contradict this assumption.”®

“The sexual functions may remain unused without any injury

to health .” 10 And this applies not only, as some might
think, to people of low vitality or little virility; also “a strong
person can live and live well . . . without any indulgence of
the sex tendency .” 11 Therefore entirely refuted must be
“the lie that continence is dangerous to health, for the
opposite is true.” 1 * “Continence is one of the conditions
essential to the attainment and maintenance of the highest
degree of physical and mental vigor.” 1 *

“There is no physiological basis for . . . the irresponsible

assertion that sexual intercourse is essential for the
maintenance of the healthy metabolisms of the normal
organism .” 14 “It is but a pernicious pseudo-physiology
which teaches that the exercise of the generative functions
is necessary in order to maintain physical and mental vigor.”
1 * “Science cannot subscribe to this ” 18 — the less so
when considering that in addition “there is no adequate
evidence that there is any intrinsic psychological necessity
for sex indulgence either in men or women .” 17 “Such
necessity is disproven by experience and is condemned by
the best medical authorities throughout the world.” 1 *
“Under no circumstances can unchastity be either necessary
or justifiable.” 1 *

After all “the question as to the necessity of sexual

intercourse . . . has wider bearings than in relation to
health.”** Overlooked and denied as it may be by many,
there is in human existence something of far greater value
than the physical body, and than desire, and than intellect.
The well-being and the growth of the spiritual element is the
most important factor. And spiritual well-being depends
upon normalization and purification of all the elements of
individual existence.

As already brought out in various preceding chapters, every

yielding to the sexual impulse other than for propagation,
deters from spiritual attainment which is of paramount value
for evolutionary progress.

*****

1 Exner, Rational Sax Lift, v, 62.

* Galloway, The Sex Factor in Human Life, ii, 23.

I Howard, Plain Facts on Sex Hygiene, viii, 155.

4 Mundy, Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley, xxix, 358.

4 Curtiss, Letters from the Teacher, I, ix, 189.

9 Cowan, The Science of a new Life, xxiii, 243.

T Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, vi, 262.

8 P£rier ; quoted in: 7 , vi, 264.

• Woolston, Prostitution in the U. S., I, iii, 80.

19 Same as 1 , v, 62.

II McDouoall, Character and the Conduct of Life, xvii, 305.

18 Thomson, Towards Health, iv, 170.

11 Kellogg, Plain Fact*, I, 286.

14 Foundations of Social Hygiene, 137.

15 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, iii, 99.

16 Gruber, “The Hygienic Significance of Marriage” ; in:

Senator-Kaminer,

Health and Disease, ii, 20.

1T Same as *, ii, 24.

18 Stall, What a young Husband ought to Know, vi, 84.

18 Same as 18 , I, 286.

80 Northcote, Christianity and Sex Problems, v, 86.

 XXXIII
VIRILITY

“Sexual intercourse is not essential to the preservation of

virility.'*

— Winslow, The Family Physician,

V,i,S 57 .

“It has been claimed that continence leads to impotence .” 1

But against this biased popular superstition many

“distinguished medical writers maintain . . . that abstinence
from sexual intercourse cannot be reckoned as a cause of
impotence.”* A large group of the foremost medical
authorities has endorsed a declaration that “continence has
not been shown to be detrimental to . . . virility .” 3 Another
medical group has declared that “the sexual power is never
lost through abstinence from cohabitation, any more than
the ability to weep is lost through abstinence from weeping
.” 4

This last statement hits the basic fallacy in the idea that sex
organs need exercise. For “the essential organs of
generation are not muscles but glands .” 5 And, unlike
muscles, glands require no exercise — certainly no volitional
exercise by their possessor — in order to keep the power to
function when nature requires it. Hence “the function of the
sexual apparatus may be held in abeyance . . . without
producing physical injury.”* Even after very long periods of
abstinence that apparatus can be “sound and capable of
being roused into activity .” 7
“If impotence exists after long abstinence it is not to be
ascribed to the abstinence but to . . . preoccupation with
sexual questions, overstimulation of the sexual disposition
and the like”*, because these irritate and thereby weaken
the organs. “A continent life, accompanied by a normal
mental outlook, never yet resulted in impotence .” 9
Therefore, above all, “normal people .... may practise
continence for many years or indefinitely without any loss of
sexual power .” 10 “There is no loss of power . . . provided
one does not keep the genital organs irritated" 11 , be it by
sensory or by mental stimuli.

“Atrophy caused by sexual abstinence . . . remains

scientifically unproven ." 11 In fact, “it may be affirmed that
no amount of continence ever caused atrophy ." 11 Surely
“no continent person need be deterred from leading a chaste
life by the apocryphal fear of atrophy .” 14

What is likely to become apparent after a period of strict

continence is a normalization of what had been an
abnormally overstimulated, sensualized virility. In this sense
it is true that “the sexual appetite . . . diminishes with
abstinence " 15 — but not the latent virile power.

“If abstinence be rigidly adhered to, the desire materially

diminishes and a condition of sexual indifference endues.
This is perfectly normal ." 15 Its result is that a previously
existing unwholesome virility is apt to be reduced to a
normal ability to propagate without sensual desire. Far from
being detrimental, this normalization of the sexuality can
only be beneficial to a wholesome virility and salutary to
body and to spirit.

*****

1 HGhnbr, Disorders of the Sexuol Function, xvii, 974.

1 North cot*, Christianity and Sex Problems, v, 76.

1 Declaration endorsed by 360 of the foremost medical

Authorities ;

quoted in: Exnbr, Rational Sex Life, v, 61.

4 Report of the Chicago Society of Social Hygiene,

comprising 1000 Physicians; quoted in: A. G., The Science of
Regeneration, v, 51.

• f Talmby, Love, VI, xvi, 176.

1 Lydston, Genitourinary, Venereal and Sexual Diseases, VI,

xxiv, 364. r Paobt, Selected Essays and Addresses, v, 30.

4 Pops nob. Problems of Human Reproduction, xiii, 133.

9 Same as 9 , xiii, 133.

19 Allen, “Nervous Impotence**; in: Ultzmann, Neuroses of

the Genitourinary System, 165.

11 Sturgis, Sexual Debility in Man, x, 892.

11 Nacke, “Zur Frage der sexuellen Abstinent*; in: Deutsche

Medische Wochenschrift, XXXVII, xliii, 1986.

19 Keyes, “The Sexual Necessity**; in: Medical News,

XXXVII, 74.

14 Acton, Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive

Organs, II, ii, 38.

15 Forel, The Sexual Question , iv, 87.

19 Same as 11 , x, 292.
 XXXIV
HEALTH AND DISEASE

“What an antiseptic is a pure life!'* —Lowell, My Study

Wtndows,$ 7 &.

“Disease is the disharmony which follows disobedience to

nature’s laws” 1 ; it is “a scourge to drive us back into
obedience to her laws .” 1

Every indulgence of the senses contrary to nature’s

purposes produces discord between man and nature.
Whether the indulgence consists in eating except for self-
preservation, or in sexual expression except for racial
preservation — it is bound to result in the disharmony that
eventually becomes manifest in the form of disease.*

“Each passion in man ... is capable of producing disease .” 4

But especially “the misuse of the reproductive function is
the underlying cause of much sickness”*, because “the
lower pelvic region ... is capable of deranging every bodily
organ.”* “There is no one function which, if disturbed, leads
so certainly to general ill-feeling”* or to physical disorders,
even though these often do not arise until much later. It is
almost true that “its misuse ... is the cause of all misery and
disease.”*

Every use of the sexual function beyond intended

racepreservation constitutes a misuse, an excess. And
“excess . . . brings on disease, misery, suffering, mental and
physical.”* “Specialists agree . . . that the aggregate evils
arising from excesses of this kind are greater than those
arising from excesses of all other kinds put together.” 1 *
It is largely through the abuse of the sex force that “man is
more diseased . . . than any animal .” 11 Free from man’s
influence animals do not indulge in sexual congress except
in the season of rut. 1 * “The sexes become neutralized
during the rest of the year.” 1 * “Thus their natural vitality is
greatly conserved and intensified in their seed .” 14 But
man’s abuse of the sex force has gradually affected most of
the human seed, of the valuable germ-plasm, as a result of
which mankind “becomes with every century . . . more
dwarfed and weakened .” 15 By sexual self-gratification
“man has become ... a helpless, scrofulous being and . . . the
wealthiest heir to constitutional and hereditary diseases.” 1
* Through physical indulgence the human race is afflicted
“with puny and precarious healths and early deaths.””

“The flesh of man is corrupt because by unwise cohabitation

he has corrupted his race.” 1 * “Illness ... is his fate while his
immortal spirit languishes in the bonds of sense.” 19

Continence would be of the greatest help in humanity’s

struggle against illness, because in the continent person the
undiminished internal secretions * 4 of the sex glands are
better able to fulfill their task of keeping the system immune
to infections .* 1 Or where infection is already active in the
body these secretions can the more effectively combat the
disease-producing toxins” and prevent a serious outbreak.
And should actual disease be insuppressible and take its
course as a result from overruling causes, then a continent
life shall have enabled the patient to “save up force which . .
. greatly assists in the recuperative powers.””

Of course, those who abstain from indulgence cannot

immediately be vigorous and entirely free from ills. But
when there are pathological symptoms in one who abstains
from sexual acts there certainly is an “other cause than
continence for conditions of ill-health .”* 4 Entirely
unfounded and unfair is the popular tendency to ascribe to
continence whatever ails a continent person.

However, sometimes a diseased condition is caused in one

who is outwardly continent by what might well be called an
unchaste continence. When physical continence is not
combined with chastity in thoughts, there can be no
harmony, no balance in the body — hence no health. To be
thoroughly effective the continence must be positively
willed and supported from within, not but negatively and
grudgingly accepted from outer compelling circumstances.
Supported by inward purity, continence will lead unfailingly
to greater strength and better health than would be
attainable otherwise.

Health depends on too many different factors to be

permanently secured by continence alone. Heredity sets up
its limitations. Unwholesome habits have a lasting influence.
Overwork and worry frequently interfere. Often fatal to
physical well-being are dietetic errors — and hardly any one
knows how to avoid these. And sometimes health is
disturbed when a person is developing spiritually while
neglecting to give sufficient attention to a proportionate
purification and spiritualization of the body; or while failing
to consider that the body, as it becomes a more delicate
instrument, requires different and greater care than before.

But whatever the momentarily disturbing factors, always “in

the direction of purity lie health and vitality.””

*****

1 Hartmann, Occult Science in Medicine, 10.

I Butler, Practical Methods, 11.

* See Ch. lxxvii, Retribution.

4 Same as l , III, ii, 59.

* Cowan, The Science of a New Life, x, 83.

• Buchanan, Therapeutic Sarcognomy, xxvi, 649.

T Napheys, The Transmission of Life, I, 60.

8 Curtiss, Letters from the Teacher, I, ix, 180.

• The Mahatma Letters, x, 57.

10 Spencer, Principles of Ethics, III, viii, 234.

II Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, III, 13.

13 See Ch. xii, Instinct.

13 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 430.

14 A. G., The Science of Regeneration, ix, 114.

15 Same as 1S , II, 429.

13 Same as 13 , II, 429.

11 Emerson, “Domestic Life**; in his Complete Writings, I,

653.

13 Newbrouoh, Oahspe, II, 187.

19 Eckarts hausen. The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, v, 61.

10 See Ch. xxvi. Glands and Secretions.

11 Hall, Adolescence, I, vi, 442.

13 Sokoloff, Vitality, vii, 100.

33 Howard, Plain Facts on Sex Hygiene, viii, 165.

34 Furbrinoer, “Sexual Hygiene in Married Life**; in:

Senator-Kaminer,

Health and Disease, vi, 229.

13 Exner, Rational Sex Life , vi, 92.

 XXXV
VENEREAL DISEASES

“Venereal disease ... in an educated age will be unknown."

— Salbeby, Health, Strength and Happiness^xv^g^.

On degenerated humanity venereal disease is a mark of

moral deficiency. It is an affliction, self-attracted by
recklessly playing with the fire of life. Wherever this game is
played it exposes the players to the scourge of sexual
disease.

Due to the popularity of the perilous sexual game “diseases

of the sexual function are more widespread and cause
greater misery and suffering than any other disease of the
human body, barring none .” 1 Those diseases are so
prevalent because “it is practically impossible to avoid
venereal infection when having illicit intercourse”*,
especially if this goes together — as it usually does — with
promiscuousness. “Wherever promiscuity . . . increases,
there venereal disease will certainly increase also.”*

The incontestable argument against uncontrolled and

unrestricted sexual expression remains that “promiscuous
indulgence is sure, sooner or later, to bring infection by one
or both of the venereal diseases, gonorrhea and syphilis .” 4
These two are “the infections which are so commonly
associated with the unwise exercise of the racial impulse.”*
“They have been responsible for much of the misery in the
world”*, and “for vast suffering in the innocent as well as in
those who incur the direct results of their own conduct.”*
Many “physicians know that the majority of diseases
peculiar to women have their origin in a microscopic
organism which men harbor . . . and which is the relic of an
infection that has perhaps even been forgotten.”*

“There is no warrant for ordinary students wading into the

pathology of the subject . . . The less pathology we read the
better.”* All such descriptions, as well as those of anatomical
and physiological details, may satisfy a prurient curiosity;
but they have a tendency to stir up morbidity and eroticism,
and can rarely serve any edifying purpose.

Yet every one should know that “venereal diseases are

exceedingly grave.” 1 ® Every person should know
something about “the terrible consequences of both
gonorrhea and syphilis and the relationship of these
diseases to incurable conditions of many vital organs .” 11
“It is now established . . . that gonorrheal infection results in
numberless cases in complications.” 1 * “The whole
organism may be involved.” 1 * It has also been found that
“syphilis . . . predisposes the organism to the attacks of
other diseases .” 14 “It may become the cause of all
maladies with which humanity is afflicted” 1 ®, “and these
often become the immediate cause of death” 1 *, be it years
after the venereal infection when there is no thought of
connecting the new symptoms with their true origin. Thus,
indirectly, “syphilis . . . actually causes more deaths than
any other infection .” 17

Moreover, “what makes syphilis so exceedingly serious in its

consequences is the fact that it is capable of reacting
harmfully on subsequent generations .” 18 “It may destroy
the health and the very existence of the unborn children.” 1
* “It is a cause of the degeneration of the race.”*® And
gonorrhea, while not directly inheritable as such, “is one of
the most formidable and far-reaching infections by which
the human race is attacked .”* 1 Indirectly it is apt to cause
serious infantile infections.** “Some high medical
authorities regard gonorrhea as even more serious in its
social consequences than syphilis.”**

• ••••••••••••

“The insidious nature and destructive virulence of venereal

diseases ”* 4 should be more widely known in order to offset
the heedless way in which they are generally regarded.

“They are difficult to cure from the first, and almost

impossible when thoroughly lodged in the system.”*® When
the outer symptoms have been suppressed the disease
“often settles down into a latent and dormant condition”*®,
and “years afterwards the poison will break out .”* 7

Usually quite “costly are the few fleeting moments of sexual

gratification — heavy and enduring the penalty to be paid.””
“All protective devices, both mechanical and medicinal,
have failed to insure safety from the venereal diseases. No
method of absolutely insuring against infection has been
discovered”** — except one: “continence . . . would solve
the problem .” 10

“Venereal disease is now so widespread that even for

prudential reasons purity should be observed by old and
young. »31

Though fear is not a noble reason for abstaining from the

yielding to an impulse or a passion, it is better to abstain on
account of fear than not to abstain at all. Better let fear of
punishment detain from murder and from theft than to yield
to an inclination to such actions. Better let continence be
motivated by a fear for venereal diseases than to have one
yield to sexual passion which is bound to lead to misery for
self and for others.
Of course, “one who is only as good as fear will make him is
not very good. One must have higher motives to impel to
self-control.” 8 * “Chastity must have a far more solid
foundation than fear .” 83 Higher than fear for dreadful
physical results is prudence. Higher than prudence is the
ethical consideration of not wanting to cause hurt to others.
Higher than ethics is the spiritual motive of wanting to aid
evolution, and not to set up new causes for ever more
misery.

Whatever motive may lead up to it, “the only satisfactory

method of avoiding venereal disease is to live a clean life .”
84 And “that one method is open to all .” 85

*****

1 Robinson, Sexual Problems of Today, 181.

* Huhner, Disorders of the Sexual Function, xvii, 260.

8 Clbndenino, Care and Feeding of Adults, II, iii, 288.

4 Galloway, Biology of Sex, vi, 58.

8 Salreby, Health, Strength and Happiness, xxiii, 361.

4 Wynne, '‘The Dangerous Age”; in: America, XLII, vi, 137.

T Foundations of Social Hygiene, 133.

8 Collins, The Doctor looks at Love and Life, I, i, 30.

9 Thomson, Towards Health, iv, 179.

10 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, iii, 86.

11 Same as 2 , xvii, 253.

12 Bioelow, Sex Education, ii, 41.

13 Taylor, Genito-Urinary and Venereal Diseases, i, 18.

14 Metchnikoff, The Prolongation of Life, IV, iii, 145.

15 Talmey, “Sex Morality”; in: Robinson, Sex Morality, 175.

16 Same as 6 , 137.

17 Parran, “Why don’t we stamp out Syphilis”; in: The

Reader's Digest ,

XXIX, clxxi, 68.

18 Lorand, Life-Shortening Habits and Rejuvenation, iv, 48.

19 Stopes, Married Love, ii, 14.

20 Morrow, Social Diseases and Marriage, II, xvi, 182.

21 Same as 13 , i, 18.

22 Sbnator-Kaminer, Health and Disease, xiv, 182.

23 Exner, Rational Sex Life, iii, 34.

24 A. G., The Science of Regeneration, vii, 69.

25 Same as 24 , vii, 67.

26 Same as 13 , i, 18.

27 Same as 24 , vii, 72.

28 Same as 24 , vii, 68.

29 Same as 23 , iii, 34.

30 Vecki, The Prevention of Sexual Diseases, viii, 110.

81 Rudisill, Intimate Problems of Touth, vi, 129.

82 Same as **, iii, 33.

38 Armitaoe, Sex Advice to Women, xiii, 183.

34 MacFadden, Manhood and Marriage, xxxiii, 343.

33 Gowers, “Lectures on Syphilis and the Nervous System”;

in: The British Medical Journal, 1889, I, 348.
 XXXVI
NEUROSES

“There it no evidence that continence . . . produces any

neurotic symptoms."

— Foundations of Social Hygiene, 138

In many and sundry ways “modem civilization . . . increases

the irritation of the nervous system .” 1 It overstimulates
every personal element of human nature. As a result
“neurotics represent a very large proportion of humanity.”*
And their number seems to be rapidly increasing.

Considering that above all else the sexual nature is being

overstimulated, so that an increasing majority of mankind is
oversexed* and ever less continent — may not the growing
percentage of neurotics have some special connection with
the increased neglect of chastity? Under the spreading
influence of misleading sophistries there is less and less of
what in popular speech is called repression, more and more
of expression of sex. Is it then not more likely that the
increase of cases of neurosis is caused by undue sex
expression, whether in thought or act, rather than by so-
called repression?

Yet, “psychoanalysts . . . are inclined to trace to sex

repression most of the nervous and mental disorders .” 4
However, “what the psychoanalyst means when he says that
psycho-neuroses are due to repression is something very
different from saying that they are due to sexual restraint .”
5 Not understanding the psychoanalytical theory, the lay
public has transposed it into the fallacy that restraint or
continence tends to produce neurosis; and this has been
taken to support the erroneous notion that sex expression is
generally advisable and even necessary.*

But “the opinion which on pseudo-psychological grounds

suggests or permits incontinence is absolutely false ... It
rests on misinterpretations, always biased and often
deliberate .” 7 “According to this idea the one who allows his
impulses an unbridled expression should be proof against
neurosis. But daily experience shows that he may be as
neurotic as others.”* In fact, “there are more victims of
neurasthenia among those who give free rein to their
sensuality than among those who . . . know how to escape
the yoke of mere animalism.”* And this is to be expected
since “a weakness of will with regard to sexual temptations
makes one less capable of resisting . . . nervous
disturbances.” 1 '

Refuting the idea that abstinence has a deleterious effect on

the nervous system is the conspicuous fact that “there are
men and women whose daily experience proves that it is
possible for even highly sexed individuals to remain
continent . . . without any abnormal psychological effects .”
11

Some of “the most prominent neurologists ... do not believe

that continence leads to nervous disease.” 1 *

“Physiology and pathology clearly show that the base of the

trunk, when it has undue influence on life, works the
destruction of the whole nervous system.” 1 * “An abnormal
condition of irritability and disorder of the sex organs causes
nervous derangement .” 14 But “the strictly continent suffer
little or none of that irritability” 1 *, and such disorder is
practically unknown to them.
Where neurotic conditions are observed in continent persons
“it is not the continence which is responsible.” 1 * Usually
“the patients . . . have become neurasthenics for entirely
different reasons, such as primary disposition, mental over-
exertion, etc.” 1T However, “neurasthenia can occur when
there is antagonism between impurity of the thoughts and
purity of the body; but that would not be a case of true
chastity.” 1 * Any one who notwithstanding physical
abstinence “persistently indulges his sex fantasies . . . must
expect to be the victim of . . . psychological distress” 1 *; for
“wherever conditions arise which specially stimulate the
sexual emotions, neurasthenia may be produced.”** In such
a case “the real harm . . . comes not from the restraint of sex
desires but from . . . artificial stimulation beyond the means
of healthy control .”* 1 Hence what is to be avoided is
mental and other overstimulation of the sex impulse.

Since “continence itself never produces neurosis”**, there is

no foundation for the warnings against continence which are
now not only surreptitiously but often brazenly
disseminated.

“In healthy and not hereditarily neuropathic people

complete abstinence is possible without injury to the
nervous system.”**

However, it may be true that “in individuals of neuropathic

predisposition enforced abstinence may give rise to danger
of nervous and mental diseases”* 4 , and that “the more one
is predisposed to neurosis the harder is sexual
abstinence.”*® But since the neurotically predisposed
should particularly guard against every avoidable loss of
nervous energy, the practice of continence is especially
advisable for them. For “the continent person avoids all loss
of nervous energy incidental to sexual excitement.”** “Every
waste of sexual power in either sex . . . lowers the nervous
tone of the entire system.”** Considerably so, because “the
nervous shock accompanying the exercise of the sexual
organs ... is the most profound of all to which the system is
subject .”* 8 And especially “those who seek variations from
the normal method . . . stamp their nervous systems with a
malign influence.”**

^Therefore, to save nervous energy one should be strictly -

continent. For some — especially for those habituated to
sexual acts — this may seem difficult. But it is well worth
while to make the effort, because “as a result of sexual
abstinence one may acquire ... a firmness of character which
will place one beyond the reach of nerve-disturbing
.influences .”* 0 The strength of will demonstrated and
fortified in the process of mastering the sexual impulse, is in
itself •a protection against neuroses.

*****

1 Lombroso, Crime, its Causes and Remedies, II, ii, 956.

* Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex , i, 34.

8 See Ch. xxx, Sexual Normalcy.

4 Badley, The Will to Live, xiii, 929.

1 Foundations of Social Hygiene, 140.

4 See Ch. xxxii. The Notion of Necessity.

T Gowers, “Lectures on Syphilis and the Nervous System*';

in: The British Medical Journal, 1889, I, 348.

• Juno, Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology, xiv, 378.

• Dubois, Les PsychonSvroses, xxv, 390.

10 Fobrster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, II, iv, 180.

11 Same as 8 , 138.

u HOhner, Disorders of the Sexual Function, xvii, 274. u

Buchanan, Therapeutic Sarcognomy, xxvi, 659.

14 Nystrom, Natural Laws of Sexual Life, vii, 173.

18 Acton, Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive

Organs, II, i, 18.

14 Furbrinoer, “Sexual Hygiene in Married Life 1 *; in:

Sbnator-Kaminer, Health and Disease, vi, 229.

1T Posner, “Diseases of the Lower Uro-Genital Organs”; in:

SenatorKaminer, Health and Disease, xix, 754.

18 Escande, ProbUme de la Chasteti, vii, 129.

19 Same as 17 , xix, 719.

80 Lobwenfeld, Sexualleben und Nervenleiden; quoted in:

Ellis, Studies

in the Psychology of Sex, VI, vi, 195.

81 Same as 8 , 139.

88 Monakow ; quoted in: Schroeteler, Geschlechtliche

Ergiehung, 71.

88 Same as 80 , VI, vi, 195.

84 Schrenck-Notzino, Therapeutic Suggestion in

Psychopathic Sexualis , ii, 37
88 Freud, Modern Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness,
27.

84 MacFadden, Encycl. of Physical Culture, V, ix, 2786.

87 Pratt, Orificial Surgery, i, 4.

88 Kellogg, The Science of Human Life, 308.

84 Lydston, Addresses and Essays, 248.

80 Same as l0 , I, viii, 113.

 XXXVII
MEDICAL ADVICE

“The real continent individuals . . . do not require medical

help.'*

— Talicey, Lovt,V\jtxi t 178.

Sex in its pathological expressions, in its disturbances and

diseases which need to be cured, is intrinsically a matter for
expert medical attention. But since “there is no pathology in
continence” 1 , the subject of continence does not belong
specifically to medical science. Therefore medical opinion on
this subject need not carry more weight than serious lay
opinion.

“The medical profession is made up of just as many kinds of

people as any other group.”* For this reason a unanimous
support of the ideal of continence can at no time be
expected from their side any more than from other large
groups of men. As in other humans, so in physicians exists
the danger to let personal inclination bias personal opinion;
and this tendency is always particularly strong in regard to
sexual behavior, in which almost every person wants to find
justification for his own standard. Moreover, the medical
practitioner’s constant dealing with unreproductive and
abnormal sex expression of patients is apt to obscure his
vision of its ideal manifestation. And the modem
materialistic trend, with its sophistical excuses for
unrestrained sexual expression, has affected the ideas on
this subject within the ranks of the medical profession as
much as amongst laymen. On account of this, definite
medical statements in support of sexual purity have become
scarcer as the years passed by.
But even if not a single medicus ever had expressed himself
in favor of continence, the ideal would not be affected. Too
many arguments apart from medical advice support its
adequacy and its evolutionary indispensability.

Even if the whole medical faculty had united in attacking

the advisability and the feasibility of the ideal from a
physical standpoint, its absolute value would still remain
intact. For “there is something in sexual purity that is
supraphysical, something that remains inviolate and
unshaken evoi though its physical defenses should be
shattered.”* The spiritual value of the ideal is impervious to
physical attacks.

Be it then that medical opinion for or against continence is

not necessarily conclusive, it is yet gratifying to find that
many medici, including some of the leaders in the
sexological field, have published unequivocal statements in
support of continence.

As already demonstrated by quotations in preceding

chapters, “reputable physicians and physiologists unite in
advocating a chaste and continent life, simply for the sake
of one’s health, independently of all other considerations .”
4 Scores of medical writers have already been quoted; and
“the science of a thousand others . . . has affirmed that
abstinence has never caused any disturbance to health .” 5
“The American Medical Association has repeatedly
repudiated the false doctrine that sexual continence is
incompatible with health.”* A large English medical group
has stated that “there is no definite evidence to prove that
continence in either sex results in any harmful effect upon
the normal physiological activities of the organism .” 7

Outstanding specialists have declared that with all the

opportunity of long experience they “have no knowledge of
any harm resulting from a pure and moral life” 8 ; “have
never found a man suffering from keeping himself pure”*;
“have never observed a single instance of atrophy of the
generative organs from this cause” 1 *; “have never seen
diseases produced by chastity” 11 , and “are without proof
of their existence .” 18

Everywhere in the medical profession there always have

been strong supporters of the view that “the yielding to
desire is no more to be justified upon physiological or
physical than upon moral or religious grounds” 18 , and that
“the control of the sexual desire ... is necessary from the
hygienic standpoint .” 14 “The majority of medical
authorities maintain that man can always retain control over
the sex urge.” 1 ® Should the urge become annoying, the
best medical advice would still be that “the real remedy for
sexual distress is to remain continent.” 1 * “A pure life is
best under all circumstances .” 17

Just as the opposite opinion can not be accepted as final

because it has been subscribed to by some physicians, so
“the view entertained by the most advanced medical
authorities about the benefits of continence does not have
to be accepted on the word of any of them . . . It is a matter
capable of individual proof .” 18 And an individual effort to
obtain this proof will readily demonstrate that “the
subjugation of the sexual impulse . . . develops all that is
best and noblest” 18 , and that “the control of this force
seems to contribute definitely ... to intellectual growth and
to spiritual development.” 8 *

*****

1 Fini, L*Instinct Sexuel; quoted in: Stowbll, Sex, 171:

1 Clendbnino, The Care and Feeding of Adults, II, iii, 289.

9 Northcote, Christianity and Sex Problems ; xxiii, 358.

4 Scott, The Sexual Instinct , iii, 97.

I Pastorello ; quoted in: 9 , v, 84.

9 Wile, Sex Education , ii, 53.

7 Foundations of Social Hygiene , 136.

9 Declaration of the Medical Faculty of Christiana University;

quoted in:

Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, vi, 266.

9 Henderson; quoted in: Armitaoe, Sex Secrets , xiv, 244.

19 Acton, Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive

Organs, II, ii, 37.

71 Manteoazza, La Physiologic de VAmour; quoted in:

Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, vi, 265. u Fournier, Pour
Hos Fils, 28.

II Beale, Our Morality and the Moral Question; quoted in:

Huhner,

Disorders of the Sexual Function, xvii, 264.

14 Furbringer, “Sexual Hygiene in Marriage"; in: Senator-

Kaminer, Health and Disease, vi, 228.

19 Kirsch, Sex Education, viii, 210.

19 Same as 10 , II, i, 19.

17 Howe, Excessive Venery, x, 197.

19 Armitaoe, Sex Force, III, vii, 109.

19 Same as 4 , iii, 77.

90 Moore, Keeping in Condition, ii, 48.

 XXXVIII
POPULAR OPINION

“Young people are led astray . . . neither by temperament

nor by the senses but by popular opinion."

— Rousseau, Emile, II, iv, 293

The colorless expression of immature minds which are

deluded by warped echos of half-truths — that’s popular
opinion. It covers the earth as though with a layer of viscid
paste which glues most of humanity down to a common,
very common level. Devoid of depth, despoiled of elevation,
it is in one word shallow.

Whoever pulls himself loose from the confining adherence to

popular opinion and rises morally and spiritually above the
surrounding group, is scoffed and ridiculed. This has always
been the fate of those who aspired to realities within instead
of reaching like most of the others for unrealities without.
Always “the wisdom lover is rebuked by the many as though
he were beside himself .” 1 Always “men are attacked for
seeking perfection .” 1 And if they try to tell the others that
greater things can be acquired by a renouncing of the lesser,
“they’re hated and despised.”* Always “men seek to vilify . .
. whoever teaches them to discipline the senses in order that
their higher nature may appear” 4 , “and he escapes with
rare good fortune if his chastity or his virility is not
assailed.”*

What else can be expected when “the mass of men . . . are

so prone to lust that they cannot delight in any pleasure
save such as they receive from bodily sensations.”* In the
world in which we live, when one is seen rejecting these
physical sensations for the sake of spiritual realization, it is
the usual thing that “the rest are of opinion that to him who
has no part in bodily pleasure life is not worth living.”*

However, “in matters where strong desires and lusts are

concerned the majority ... is usually wrong.”* In their opinion
on such matters most people are misled by their own
sensual attractions. And “turning all their thoughts and
desires towards transitory things . . . they know nothing of
the inner life”', which the one who separates himself from
the masses strives to reach.

The majority, limited in vision to material interests, cannot

possibly understand spiritual motives. “Neither the spiritual
man nor spiritual things can be judged by the carmil mind”
1 ', which shapes the fallacies of popular opinion. But “as it
is not for those to speak of graceful forms of the material
world who have never seen them, so those should be silent .
. . who have never known the face of Moral Wisdom,
beautiful beyond the beauty of evening and of dawn .” 11

Those who have had a glimpse of spiritual beauty will agree

that “it is the province only of the stupid to pay attention to
the opinion of the multitude.” 1 ' For when, either from
mental lassitude or in order not to be unpopular, one lets
himself be held back by popular opinion from climbing
spiritual heights, one never gets above the common plains.

Of course “it is much easier to go with the majority than to

climb, painfully and slowly, to the heights of isolation” 1 *,
which have remained free from the profaning influence of
the multitudes. Yet it is only on these heights that one can
enjoy a wider outlook, breathe purer air, hear whisperings of
spirit and conceive its wisdom.

*****
1 Plato, Phoedrus, 249.

I Mencius, LX Ldu, I, xxi.

* Hermes, Corpus Hermeticum , IX, 4; in: Mead, Thrice-

Greatest Hermes,

II, 131.

4 Mundy, Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley, xxix, 339.

5 Kellooo, The Science of Human Life, 30s.

4 Augustine, The City of God, xiv, 2.

T Plato, Phaedo, 65.

* Galloway, The Sex Factor in Human Life, vi, 61.

* Eckhart, Sermons, vi, 47.

10 Black, Culture and Restraint, v, 140.

II Plotinus, Enneads, I, vi, 4.

lt Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, xxxi, 104. u Weininger, Sex

and Character, II, xiv, 348.
 XXXIX
ASCETICISM

“My highest respect to the ascetic ideal in so far as it is

honest."

— Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, III, 26.

In an unspoiled state, and again in a purified state, man is

naturally ascetic in the sense of being abstemious, of
leaving off whatever only serves to satisfy unnaturally
stimulated, desire-created cravings. In the unspoiled such
cravings do not yet exist, in the purified they have been
overcome.

Between these two evolutionary conditions lies the

intermediate one in which most of humanity now finds itself.
By misusing the mind to overstimulate the body-impulses
man has abandoned the primitive, more innocent state. By
clinging to sense-gratification he hinders his attainment of
the higher, spiritualized condition.

In the present deadlock of human evolution 1 mankind

chooses ignorantly or stubbornly to follow the dictates of
bodily desires. Those however who are anxious to hasten
evolution must inevitably free themselves from the
domination of such desires; and for this purpose the need of
ascetic exercises — more or less drastic and rigid according
to one’s individual propensities — is undeniable.

In many ways “asceticism and chastity . . . are useful means

to desirable ends.”* “An ascetic element is inseparable from
all morality.”* It “is an absolutely indispensable means for
the attainment of moral freedom, especially in the sphere of
sex .” 4 For “only asceticism can free us from the yoke of our
passions, and lead us to the highest goal of morality.”* But
also “those who want to conquer real knowledge have to . . .
submit themselves to a kind of asceticism.”* Through
regular exercise the mind must be freed from the influence
of the senses in order to be able to function to its fullest
capacity/ In every way “asceticism . . . leads to a fuller life .”
8 And finally “by means of ascetic observances man
becomes ... a spiritual being.*’* In no other way can those
racial habits which render the body unserviceable as an
organ of the spirit be overcome . 10

The real purpose of asceticism is to remove the noxious

weeds of physical indulgence in order to make room for
valuable spiritual growth. So considered “the ascetic ideal
has an element of eternal truth without which life can have
no true culture .” 11 For first of all “asceticism is a discipline
in self-control ... It helps to fortify the character and the will.”
1 * “It is a discipline of mind and body to fit men for the
service of an ideal. Its purpose is to harden as well as to
purify” 1 *, “to secure control over the appetites . . . and to
bring the body into subjection to the will .” 14

It is unfortunate that many a fanatical ascetic has

specialized in exaggerated, morbid and repellent austerities,
as though one could acquire a spiritual asset by outdoing
others in self-torture, or as though preparatory exercises
themselves constituted the sought-for end!

Such ascetical extremists may well have succeeded “by

inflicting any smart to overthrow the strongest passion by
the most violent pain” 15 , on the same principle that is
applied in the modem medical method of counter-irritation.
But by so cruelly crushing the lower side of life they
frequently have crippled the physical body which, after all,
is the vehicle through which man’s higher faculties also
must find expression.

Apart from this unwarranted application of ascetic principles

“there is a sane and civilized asceticism which presents a
quite different face .” 14 It holds that “the ascetic is not he
who punishes the body but who purifies the soul” 1T , at the
same time that he disciplines and refines the body to bring
it into vibratory harmony with spirit. This moderate and
sensible asceticism emphasizes that its self-denying
practices are only a contributory factor in inducing a
spiritual result, and that they must be combined with the
practical exercise of spiritual qualities. “The sane ascetic
strives to coordinate his personality, to unify his powers ...
by subordinating the lower to the higher; and where he
represses it is with a view to development and enrichment.”
1*

Indeed, “the creed of the ascetic . . . has a real and vital

meaning.” 1 * “His voluntary celibacy and abstinence . . .
place at his disposal all that force which would be
discharged by a man of the world ... in domestic affection”*
and in worldly pleasures and excitements.

If evolution is to proceed without an interrupting

retrogression, “asceticism . . . will have to be recognized as a
basic thing in human nature ”* 1 — even though in many it
be deeply buried under layers of sense-feeding soil.

• •••••••••ft**

“In the ascetic movements . . . there was an equally vital and

important truth, which will have to be rehabilitated.”** That
truth involves the fact that spiritual power can not manifest
where there is moral weakness; and that “whatever is given
to the body is taken from the spirit.”* Hence “the principle of
true asceticism is the principle of spiritual self-preservation
.”* 4

*****

1 See Gh. v, The Deadlock in Human Evolution.

I Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, v, 177.

9 Eucken, Present-Day Ethics, iv, 84.

4 Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, II, ii, 174.

6 Kropotkin, Ethics, x, 245.

4 Carrel, Man the Unknown, iv, .38. f See Ch. xvii, Intellect
and Intuition.

4 Link, The Return to Religion, ii, 33.

4 Bucks, Cosmic Consciousness, IV, i, 1*4.

10 See Ch. xviii. Unfolding of Spirit.

II Black, Culture and Restraint, vi, 174.

14 Same as 4 , VI, v, 169.

14 Lippmann, Preface to Morals, ix, 161.

14 Raleigh, Scientific a Hermetica, vi, 62.

14 Taylor, Holy Living and Dying, ii, 69.

14 Same as 1S , ix, 159.

iT Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, I, vii, 435.

14 Hardman, Ideals of Asceticism, v, 159.

14 Carpenter, Love's Coming of Age, 165.

44 Baring-Gould, Origin and Development of Religious

Belief, I, xvii, 352. 41 Same as 14 , 164.

44 Same as w , 146.

49 Kingsford, The Perfect Way, viii, 217.

44 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 57.

 XL
THE MODERN ASCETIC

“Our day has created a new ascetic type . . . one finds him
almost everywhere.”

— Bjerrb, Remaking of Marriage,vii,ioo.

Enters : the modem ascetic.

Not an emaciated sitter-under-a-tree is he, as so many of his

Oriental brothers. He is neither dolorously pious like the
early Christian or the standardized medieval type, nor long-
faced and gloomy like the Puritan blue-lawmaker is
commonly represented to be. He is not mirthlessly
narrowminded, not solemnly condemning, not unctuously
upbraiding others with a self-satisfied sham of superiority.
Nor is he trying to force his ways or his convictions on his
fellowmen.

On the contrary, he is a cheerful, radiant person, happy in

the spiritual felicity that is his; unostentatiously and
unassumingly going his way; strict for himself in trying to
apply the spiritual principles in every-day existence, while
broadmindedly understanding that others, from different
standpoints, will view things differently. Seeing as he does in
savage and sage a manifestation of the All, he feels in spirit
oneness with all.

People may call him meek because he is not aggressive, nor

self-assertive, nor greedy, and because in his recognition of
the one life in whatever physical form it may manifest he is
no fighter, no killer, and will even “choose rather to be
strong in soul than in body .” 1 His meekness is not a sign of
weakness: it is the expression of positive spiritual strength.

Life might be easier for him if he went into solitude. But

permanent solitude befits either the weaklings who seek
protection against the hurts and hazards of worldly trials
and temptations, or it belongs to those who have grown
spiritually so strong as not to need the stimulating whip of
worldly dilemmas any more. It is just for developing this
strength in regular exercise and against unremitting
opposition that the modem ascetic is living in the midst of a
materialistic world.

Instead of living solitarily he seeks solidarity. He tries in a

way “to lead the monastic life while remaining in the world .
. . seeking not to detach himself from his fellowmen, but
only from earthly gratification.”* He attempts not to escape
but to conquer all those forces which are antithetical to his
growing spiritual strength. “He is a man in the world, but he
. . . will raise himself entirely above it.”* “When such a one
after many struggles with his own nature has finally
conquered ... he looks on the delusions of the world smiling
and at rest .” 4

The modem ascetic seeks to approach an ideal. And

whatever would deflect him from that ideal, whatever he
recognizes as an obstacle between himself and the ideal, he
unhesitatingly discards. Training his body as an instrument
for spirit he is truly an ascetic, realizing that “asceticism is
the necessary ante-chamber to spiritual perfection .” 8
While in that ante-chamber, he has to drop the non-
essentials before he can be admitted into the sanctum.

He knows that the senses, more than aught else, try to

delude and draw him into potentially obstructive interests
and actions 8 ; therefore he sedulously refrains from active
part in all that would tend to reinforce the possible remnant
of a sensual element in his nature. He is one “in whom the
better consciousness is so continuously active that it . . .
never allows his passions to get a hold of him .” 7 In most
cases “he does not beget children of his own flesh, but
brings to birth the children of his spirit ” 8 — be it
sometimes in no more visible form than that of elevating
thoughts.

The more clearly the outline of the ideal rises before him,
the more readily does all sense and specially sex-allurement
lose its attraction for him. Many people, “failing to recognize
the joy of ascendancy”* of the ascetic, think that he is
painfully sacrificing what they hold to be life’s pleasures.
But they do not know “that clean strong feeling of freedom
which surges over him when he has resisted the lure of some
bodily appetite .” 14 He does not really have to sacrifice any
thing, for “true asceticism consists in giving up that which
one does not want ” 11 — and this certainly excludes any
idea of sacrifice. Eventually, when nothing remains in him
that can respond to lower vibrations, all temptation naturally
falls away from him.

No, not a suffering martyr is the modem ascetic! He has

discovered “the possibility of attainment of some superior
felicity . . . unattainable except through sexual continence.”
1 * And that felicity, unknown to any seeker after sensual
pleasure, is partly his already.

*****

1 Pythagoras; quoted in: Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras ,

186.

I Fogazzaro, "Private Journo?*; quoted in: Gallarati-Scotti,

Life of
Fogazzaro, xi, 144.

• Mead, Pistis Sophia, II, 230.

• Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, IV, lxviii, 504.

9 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex , VI, v, 146.

• See Ch. xv, The Senses.

f Schopenhauer, Neue Paralipomena, vii, #17.

8 Papini, Life of Christ, 212.

9 Carpenter, Loue*s Coming of Age, 164.

19 Sockman, Morals of Tomorrow, II, viii, 169.

II Hartmann, In the Pranoas of the Temple, 130.

19 Braodon, The Eternal Poles, iv, 37.

 XLI
PERFECT CELIBACY

“The world over, celibacy is the key ... to the higher spheres
of life.’* —Dahlke, Marriage as a Fetter, 407.

Higher than the most continent life, which perchance still

shares in the propagation of the race, is perfect celibacy. It
lies above the realm of sex, and beyond the reach of all
sensual influences. “The attainment of the loftiest condition
of existence has at all times and by all races been sought
through celibacy .” 1

The nominal celibacy of those who just happen to remain

unmarried or of others who are celibates under compulsion
without inner conviction — that of course is not sufficient for
high spiritual results. True and perfect celibacy is required,
such as those who for selfish reasons or entirely against their
wishes remain single hardly ever practise, even if they do
abstain from intercourse and other sexual acts. Perfect
celibacy is also far from those who abstain on account of
fear, or because of impotence or other pathological
conditions. In these cases abstinence “is no better than that
of eunuchs ... a mere privation, without excellency.”*

Mere abstinence from physical sexual acts does not

establish perfect celibacy. Not until the mind itself is freed
from sexual disturbances and longings — not until “celibacy
is the expression of the striving after an ideal state”*, or is
self-willed and freely chosen for the sake of a lofty purpose
— can there be a question of perfect celibacy.

“The real test of the efficacy of celibacy must be whether or

not the celibate actually overcomes not merely physical
impulse but all consciousness of sex differences .” 4 No one
considers it unnatural to rise above these differences in
intellectual contacts. In spiritual companionship — and
generally at an advanced evolutionary stage — it is even
more essential to have risen entirely above every attraction
of sex.

In a few cases the soul does not consciously have to choose

or will to free itself, but seems to be bom free from sex
attraction, free from sensual tendencies, with a natural
inclination towards the perfect celibate life. This stage of
spiritual-evolutionary growth has not only been
demonstrated in the prominent but exceptional examples of
saint and saviorship; it is also frequently found in
inconspicuous persons who, in whatever circumstances they
are placed, are radiating centers of purity.

The hypothesis that the incarnating soul has pre-existed,

and has evolved by its own efforts in other lives 5 , is
probably the only one that can explain how in every
instance, even when inborn, “perfect celibacy ... is a result of
the victory of the spirit over the body.”*

*****

1 Dahlke, “Marriage as a Fetter*'; in: Kbysbrlino, The Book of

Marriage, HI, 407.

* Taylor, Holy Living and Dying, ii, 64.

* Same as 1 , III, 411.

4 Tanner, The Intelligent Man's Guide, lix, aoi.

8 See Ch. lxxvi, Rebirth.

* Papini, Life of Christ, an.

 XLII
RACE SUICIDE?

“The idea that the teaching of sexual abstinence . . . may

prematurely stop the propagation of the human race is
absurd.”

— Solovyov, Justification of the Good,I,ii,54

“Let some one hint at the necessity of our curbing our

passions, and immediately the cry is raised that the human
race is in danger .” 1 “As if any one, in surrendering to the
desire of the flesh, had ever thought of safeguarding
thereby the future of humanity!”* And as though those who
indulge in sex do not intentionally prevent issue most of the
time!

But there need be no fear. “Nature takes pretty good care ...
of her racial purposes.”* “So long as the succession of
generations is necessary for the development of the human
species the taste for bringing that succession about will
certainly not disappear in man ” 4 — that is, not in all men.

The ideal of purification of the sexual life holds not the

slightest danger for the continuation of the race. For this
ideal, as applicable to the majority of mankind, is not that
reproduction should be stopped, but that sex should be used
for reproduction only. This certainly does not entail race
suicide! It does not threaten the existence of the race, but
only that of animal-man; and in the course of evolution he
will have to disappear, just as the prehistoric animals have
been extinguished. In the records of the future spiritual
human race the present animal-man will only vaguely be
remembered as a kind of semi-human animal which long
before that time shall have passed out of existence.

No danger is entailed by the fact that always there are a few

who, in dedication to spiritual ends, wish to and can entirely
rise above animality and above sex. For these the ideal
transcends the boundaries of sex and excludes their sharing
in the propagation of the race. But as long as they are few
they do not in the least endanger the existence of humanity;
for it is never requisite that every one shall breed, as little as
that all need till the soil in order to feed the race.

A danger might be seen in the far-off possibility that those

who entirely abstain from sex become so numerous as to
form the great majority. But even then.

If perfect celibacy were chosen by the many for the sake of

spiritual evolution, this would indicate that the larger
portion of the race had reached a stage above that of
animal-man. Should nature find that it was then becoming
unpractical to continue the human species by the sexual
method, she can be trusted to institute a new reproductive
system in which sex plays no part.® Thus “the moment
when all men will finally overcome the fleshly lust and
become entirely chaste . . . will be the end of the historical
process”* — not necessarily the end of the human race.

It may well be, however, that attainment of the fully

spiritualized stage will bring mankind to the point where it
can step out of the human into a higher evolutionary
kingdom. That would bring about the end of humanity as
such. Not by suicide, but by what may be called its natural
death — death in the same sense as graduation from school
may be called the death of the ‘pupil’ who thereafter, in a
higher institution of learning, becomes a ‘student’.
Suicidal to the race is the customary abuse of sex, because
it threatens humanity with an untimely death from self-
inflicted diseases/ If mankind adheres to its present sexual
behavior “it is likely ... to perish by the various vicious
abuses and excesses which it has used the powers of its
superior reason to devise and indulge .” 8 It threatens to
degenerate and to destroy itself by an abuse of the very
element by which it was intended to maintain and, by
transmutation, to regenerate itself.

There can be no question of racial suicide when humanity

rises spiritually, and thereby rises above sex — and when,
after attaining every purpose of human existence, it leaves
the human for the supermannic life.*

*****

Tolstoi, “On Marriage and Morality”; in: Lucifer, VI, 510.

Solovyof, Justification of the Good, H ii, 54.

Carpenter, Love's Coming of Age, 9.

Same as s , I, ii, 54.

See Ch. xi, Purpose of Sex.

Same as *, I, ii, 54.

See Ch. xxxiv. Health and Disease, and Ch. xxxv. Venereal
Diseases. Maudsley, Pathology of Mind, I, iii, 69.

See Ch. lxxxvii. Supermen.

 XLIII
WOMAN TOO!

“The demand for sexual abstinence on the part of both sexes

is put forward with good reason.”

— Wbininger, Sex and Character t

II,xiv 1 34S.

Man and woman are basically alike.

Although differing anatomically and physiologically, their

bodies are but incidental variations of one fundamental
form, as is indicated by the presence of vestigial organs in
each. “Even the primary reproductive organs of each are in
all their parts represented in the opposite sex .” 1 And “the
secondary characteristics of each lie dormant in the opposite
sex.”*

Apart from the body, and especially in latent spiritual

possibilities, “man and woman are . . . perfectly equal one
with the other.”* “From the spiritual point of view there is no
difference between woman and man .” 4 “The psychological
trends that appear in men and in women . . . are not
specifically masculine or feminine.”® “There is no pure
masculinity or femininity ... in the psychological sense.”®
“Every individual contains both in many aspects .” 7 “Both
sexes are represented in every individual.”® And “in the
perfect man . . . eternal femininity and eternal masculinity
come into contact with one another”® in perfect balance.

Apparent dissimilarities in traits of character and of mind

have been caused by the differing influences to which men
and women have been exposed through countless ages. In
personal ways of expression men acquired all that manliness
implies, and women became what is now considered to be
womanly, on account of the specific social rules under which
each of the sexes evolved. “Men were standardized in
accordance with the accepted masculine model, and women
were moulded to conform with the prevailing canons of
femininity .” 10

Sexually man and woman both are essentially and naturally

pure. In this respect “it may be held that there is no
difference at all .” 11 But due to the fact that woman has
been more shielded from sexually stimulating factors, she
has generally manifested less sensuality — and, as a result,
more spirituality — than man. In women “sexual feeling is in
the majority of cases in abeyance and requires considerable
excitement to be roused at all.” 12 “In . . . not artificially
stimulated women the libido is considerably weaker than it
is in men." 13

Although there are exceptions, there can be no doubt that

“the normal sexual sentiment of woman is developedin the
direction of ... a longing for children .” 14 For this, when not
for love’s sake or for gain, she has endured man’s passion,
almost invariably in dispassionate surrender.

Originally for the sake of maternity woman has focussed her

attention on attracting and pleasing the male. So intense
has been this effort to attract him that from a means it has
become an end in itself, while the racial purpose behind it
has been neglected and has become nearly obsolete. And
while concentrating on man’s physical demands woman has
retarded her further spiritual unfoldment.

Still, woman is generally in spirituality superior to man. And

“morally the general superiority of woman over man ... is
unquestionable .” 18 She can retain this twofold superiority
as long as she does not begin to yearn for and to indulge in
sense-gratification.

But in recent times many women have been led to regard

sexual expression as a symbol of new freedom and to desire
it as a supposed mode of self-expression. They might change
their modem viewpoint if they but knew that they have been
led to their new attitude by a treacherous ruse of man!
“Modem woman’s magna charta was written by . . . man.” 1
* “Under male debauched inspiration modem emancipated
woman has extended the bounds of feminism.” 1 *

When woman began to assert her right to physical and

social independence and to break the thraldom of her sex,
man saw the imminent danger of his loss of power over her.
He came “to a conscious or subconscious realization that the
increasing intelligence of woman was removing from his
grasp those superficial, shallower female ministrations which
he desires.”” Having to reckon with her growing mental
faculties he had to find new means of inveigling her into a
continued compliance to his desires.

And so, through screen and stage and print he has assailed
“the more dignified attitude of woman towards sex.”“ He has
made morality seem ridiculous, faithfulness foolish, chastity
a superstition, sex a compelling power. And by encouraging
in her the use of the same stimulating factors that have
overexcited him — including nicotine and alcoholic drinks —
he has made her more receptive to the suggestion that his
grosser desires are also hers.

“In his own interests man has invented various doctrines

which he has persuaded many women to believe.”*® One of
these man-made doctrines is a new system of psychology
which inculcates the idea that health and happiness can
only be attained by giving free rein to supposedly natural
impulses. Through this ultra-modem psycho-sophistry he
has threatened her with imaginary dangers of neuroses”, of
sickliness and wretchedness, if she does not yield to his
amorous entreaties.

And, too, he has pretended to encourage her in her demand

for equal rights with him. He has suggested that she as well
as he shall have the right to live and love. And what is
meant by this suggestion is, plainly, that she too seek sexual
experiences — probatively, promiscuously, and
prophylactically, but above all not propagatively!

So specious and confusing have been man’s methods of

persuasion that woman has often been convinced.
Undoubtedly, in the end she “will discover, through the
painful method of trial and error, that the fewer her sex
experiments the greater her ultimate well-being”**,
spiritually as well as physically. Meantime, instead of lifting
man to her own purer, higher level, she is descending
toward his.

Therefore an exhortation to sexual purity is now not being

written for men only, but for women too — for those at least
who value health and happiness, if not for themselves then
for the sake of the children which may be theirs; and
especially for those who value spiritual growth.

The process of spiritualization is the same for woman as it is

for man. For both one of the first requirements for spiritual
unfoldment is to rise above all sensual, and above all
unproductive sexual expression. Thus only can one elude
the cause of pain and sorrow, and reach spiritual power.

«***•

I Briffault, The Mothers, I, iv, 134.

* Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants, II, xiii, 26.

8 Mathers, The Qaballah Unveiled, 335.

4 Bahai Scriptures, viii, 903.

5 Vaertino, The Dominant Sex, xvi, 220.

4 Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, iil, 79.

7 Keyseruno, The Travel Diary of a Philosopher, I, xix, 172.

8 Heaps, Preparation for Marriage, v, 101.

8 Mersjkowski, The Secret of the West, II, viii, 321.

14 Same as 5 , xvi, 221.

II Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, III, 202.

18 Acton, Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive

Organs, III, iii, 212. 18 Robinson, Sexual Problems of Today,
68.

14 Forbl, The Sexual Question, viii, 223.

15 Lecky, History of European Morals, II, v, 339.

16 Schmalhausen, “The Sexual Revolution”; in: Galverton,

Sex in

Civilization, III, 399.

17 Same as ie . III, 399.

18 Ingram, The Modern Attitude, viii, 140.

18 Carpenter, Lovers Coming of Age, 71.

84 Saleeby, Health, Strength and Happiness, xxiii, 351.

81 See Ch. xxxvi, Neuroses.

88 Hale, "Women in Transition” ; in : Galverton, Sex in

Civilization, I, 80.
 XLIV
A SINGLE STANDARD

"The double standard of morals . . is wholly indefensible

from the biological as from every other point of view"

—Popenoe, Problems of Reproduce

Patriarchy and matriarchy each has occasionally prevailed in

the course of evolution. Now the males, then the females
have been dominant. Whenever either of the two sexes has
wielded dictatorial authority, it has established a double
standard of morals: one of license for itself, and one of
inhibition for the subordinate sex . 1

Because for many ages male rule has been supreme “much
of our feeling on this subject is due to laws and moral
systems which were formed by men, and were in the first
place intended to shield them”* and their libertinism. Under
the moral code that was contrived by men “women have
been regarded as inferior creatures. And they have
contentedly accepted the status assigned to them. They
have . . . failed to resent masculine immorality.”* But in the
ascendancy of their emancipation women begin to realize
that “duplex sexual morality is an ethic of injustice, of
mendacity and ... of hypocrisy” 4 , and that “it is . . . the
acme of immorality.”*

By the disenthralment of womanhood from sexual bondage

“the double standard of sex ethics is . . . doomed.”* “One
standard of morality must be established for men and
women .” 7 The question is which standard is to be adopted.
“Women may be granted like sexual freedoms to those
which men possess, or the rigid canons of sexual behavior
which are already imposed upon women may be imposed
upon men also. Both these trends are conspicuously in
evidence today.”*

If woman insists on stepping into the ways of man, complete

racial degeneration will undoubtedly follow. For she supplies
almost entirely the elements out of which the succeeding
generation is formed. The chastity of the mothers of the race
in the past has helped to at least partly offset the damaging
results of male unchastity, and has so far prevented the
complete breakdown of the race.

Only if man adopts the chastity which used to be so highly

praised in woman, regeneration of the race will become
possible.

In the period of transition from the double standard to a

single, symptoms of lack of balance and of flagrant extremes
are bound to manifest. Every revolutionary movement drives
a large contingent of the emotional and of the ignorant to
indiscriminate, impassioned, ruinous acts.

The successful revolt of woman for emancipation has been

helpful in the approach to a single standard. But in many
cases “women’s new freedom is a rather smudgy carbon
copy of man’s petty vices.”* Too often the demanded
“equality . . . has become equality in lust and passion.
Emancipation has grown into licentiousness.” 1 ®

If women want to perfect their emancipation they will have

to “impose their higher standards on men, rather than
accept the lower standards . . . which they rightly used to
deprecate in men .” 11 For the sake of woman’s cause there
is a need of “a woman-made code of sex morality on which
the women of the future will act for their own protection and
for the protection of children — and on which they will
therefore require men to act .” 11 “The task will*assuredly
not be accomplished by women copying men’s sexual
soullessness” 1 *, but by “the rule of chastity . . . becoming
generally enforced in practice through the refusal of women
to be parties to its violation .” 14

In the end “the double standard of sex morality . . . can be

removed not by the revolt of woman but by the restraint of
man .” 15 When a lasting and uplifting single standard is
established “the morality of men will be judged by the same
standard as the morality of women.” 1 * “Men will be forced
to place a curb upon their passions and learn to exercise
control .” 11 “Ultimately chastity will be the ideal for men as
well as for women.” 18

Man must be made to see that “the woman’s cause is man’s;

they rise or sink together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free.”
1 ' He should understand that “in delivering her he also
delivers himself .”* 0 And in order to deliver her “he must
free himself of sex, for in that way only can he free woman.
In his purity . . . lies her salvation.””

The most valid reason why man should not be inferior to

woman in sexual purity is that “the racial interest requires
from him the same strict chastity as from the woman.””
“Strict female chastity was originally demanded in the
interest of posterity . . . The interest of posterity requires the
same strict chastity in the man””; in him it exacts “the great
chastity of paternity, to match the great chastity of
maternity .”* 4

A logical, ethical, noble single standard must necessarily be

one of strict chastity for all.

The single standard can never be one of equal rights. Rights

are too often conflicting. Rights can only be upheld at the
cost of inequality. The ideal single standard will have to be
one of equal duties, of equally shared racial responsibility,
rather than of equal rights.

As long as physiological differences between the sexes exist

there can be no perfect sexual equality. But there can be
and there must be for male and female equally a perfect
liberty not of but from sexual expression, except in
dedicated loving service to the race. By accepting this
standard of liberty for herself, and by enjoining it upon man,
woman can finally and gloriously win her real emancipation.

Adoption of the single standard of equal purity will

automatically bring about not only woman’s social and
mental, and man’s moral emancipation, but also the
spiritual emancipation of both,

****«

1 Varrtino, The Dominant Sex, i-iii.

* Lecky, History of European Morals, II, v, 346.

8 Flexner, Prostitution in Europe, ii, 44.

4 Same as *, xvi, 827.

8 Same as l , xvi, 829.

8 Morton, “Sex Morality*'; in: Robinson, Sex Morality, 108.

1 Talmey, Loot, VIII, xxiv, 405.

8 Same as 1 , iv, 64.

8 Schmalhausen, “The Sexual Revolution'*; in: Calvbrton,

Sex in Civilization, III, 399.
10 Bjerre, The Remaking of Marriage, iii, 37.

11 Radhakrishnan, “Philosophy in the History of

Civilization"; in: Pro

ceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy ,

549.

18 Lindsey, The Revolt of Modem Youth, x, 190.

18 Same as 10 , xii, 184.

14 Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, III, v, 317.

18 Sockican. Morals of Tomorrow, I, vii, 130.

18 Same as \ xvi, 229.

1T A. G., The Science of Regeneration, vi, 60.

18 Talmey, Woman, VIII, xcvii, 243.

18 Tennyson, The Princess, vii, 243-267.

80 Michelet, Love, 34.

81 Weininoer, Sex and Character, II, xiv, 345.

88 Talmey, “Sex Morality"; in: Robinson, Sex Morality, 173.

88 Same as **, 177.

84 Whitman, “Spontaneous Me"; in his Leaves of Grass .

 XLV
FREEDOM

“We are not free agents so long as we are on the rack of

sex.”

—Comfort, Public Squarejatv lil,17S.

The members of the younger generation are in open moral

revolt — not quite without some justifiable reasons. They
have discovered the undeniable fact that their predecessors
and preceptors have run the business of life unto the brink
of ruin; that bombastic and dogmatic sham and bigotry have
begun to characterize the rules by which that business is
conducted; and that under the polished surface of the
structure in which life’s business is carried on, dry-rot from
pretense, prudery, cant and hypocrisy has developed. “The
elders who for so long have been the sacred guardians of
civilization have bungled their task abominably .” 1 As a
result the young people have an inkling that once precious
assets have been squandered or neglected, so that little of
value seems to be left over for the succeeding generation.

The pity however is that they are trying to take charge

before having acquired the necessary preparatory
knowledge and the ability to do better than their elders.
What they desire is freedom in their own ways of running life
— although their own ways, proper, are decidedly improper.
Blind are they to the fact that “life is more than a childish
having our own way, than an indulgence of our whims and
passions.”* “It is not merely a list of opportunities for self-
satisfaction but a set of obligations for realizing spiritual
good .” 3 “Life is not made happy ... by getting what we
happen to want”*, neither by wantonness, but by seeking
what can make us lastingly happy.

Young people overlook the fact that liberty does not consist
in taking liberties, nor in libertinism. They seem quite
unaware that “freedom must be won ... by an incalculable
discipline of the intellectual and moral powers”*; that only
“he is free . . . who has controlled his passion”*; and that we
can know no freedom so long as we are slaves of the senses.
We only reach “absolute liberty . . . when we have the
greatest authority over ourselves .” 7

Freedom from all restraint is what modem youth is fighting

for — forgetting that “it is restraint which characterizes the
higher creature and betters the lower.”® Any “constraint put
upon impulse, desire, passion, and any limitation of caprice
and self-will is regarded as a fettering of freedom.”* But “we
should look upon such limitation as the indispensable
proviso of emancipation” 1 ®, instead of adhering to “that
false and misleading doctrine of freedom which encourages
our lower inclinations to run riot while allowing our higher
nature to pass into decay .” 11

“The desire for freedom . . . may become a source of

antagonism to culture” 1 *; and such so-called “freedom . . .
is liable to become the occasion for all imaginable
excesses.” 1 * It is under the influence of false teachings
about freedom that in impassioned frenzy the rampageous
revolters tear down whatever they consider an obstruction:
barriers of decency, pillars of man-made laws, and warning
signposts of the wisdom of the ages. Finally they crash into,
and meet disaster for themselves in venturing to break up,
the adamantine monuments of nature’s own great laws.

As in all previous premature revolts of untrained rebels the

feasting and ravaging will go on until all are exhausted,
their vital energies spent. Either they will wake up and
realize their errors, or the task of clearing up the ruins will
fall upon another generation.

Intact under the ruins will then be found the long discarded
treasure that has been known and remembered always by
just a very few: the treasure metaphorically consisting of the
indestructible tablets on which are inscribed the manifestos
of eternal spiritual laws.

Only by studying those laws and by living in accordance, by

becoming all at-one with them can freedom be attained. By
“asserting once more the dominion of spirit over matter and
of spiritual freedom over animal slavery” 1 *, “the soul . . .
learns that in the life of the spirit only is true Gberty.

«****

I Schmalhausen, “The Sexual Revolution*'; in: Calverton,

Sex in

Civilization, III, 417.

* Briohtman, A Philosophy of Ideals, iv, 107.

* Radhakrishnan, “Philosophy in the History of Civilization";

in: Pro

ceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy,

548.

4 Same as *, iv, 106.

8 Hegel, Philosophy of History, 89.

4 Vivekananda, Complete Works, VI, 194.

T Senega, Epistles, LXV.

8 Ruskin, The Two Paths, v, 13a.

8 Same as 8 , 90.

10 Same as 5 , 90.

II Foerstbr, Marriage and the Sex Problem, I, ix, 16a.

18 Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, iii, 60.

18 Same as 8 , 64.

14 See Ch. xlix, Laws.

18 Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, vi, 285.

11 John op the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, II, xiv, 3.
 XLVI
CRIME

“The greatest cause of crimes is lust" — Plato, Laws, IX,87o.

“Crime as determined by passion is forced upon the

attention of moralist and magistrate by the large number of
active and passive victims for which it is responsible .’’ 1

“Sexual immorality ... is a most prolific source of crimes.”*

Definitely “sexual crimes are amongst the saddest
phenomena of modem criminality”*; everywhere “court
dockets bear out the tale with murders for lust . . . and other
crimes of jealousy and perversion .” 1 And indirectly, too, in
a more general sense “the viciousness and crime so
prevalent in this day are the logical harvest springing out of
the unnatural sex relations of our artificial civilization.”*
Considering that by far most of humanity’s sexual acts are
inherently unnatural and perverse*, it is no wonder that the
harvest in the form of crime is steadily increasing.

“With both men and women sex as an immediate excitant to

crime is acknowledged to serve in much the same way as
alcohol serves as an excitant to sex interest .” 7 Stirred
beyond control, “the fire of sexual lust . . . kindles every
species of wantonness .” 8 “There is no criminal purpose and
no evil deed which the lust for carnal pleasure will not drive
a person to undertake.”*

Already in adolescent delinquency a strong connection

between sensuality and crime is evident. “The criminal habit
commences in most young people . . . with illicit sexual
indulgence.” 1 * And experts have found “sexual precocity
characteristic of young criminals .” 11
All this adds force to the conclusion to which philosophers
have come, namely that “the lust for sexual excitement is
the greatest ill of all” 1 *, and that “concupiscence is the
root of all evil.” 1 * What humanity has made of the sexual
urge by abuse and overstimulation undoubtedly constitutes
the basic origin of most of the misery that oppresses
mankind . 14 Were concupiscence brought back within the
limits of its natural purpose of racial preservation, there
would be far less crime, because the greatest incentive
would be lacking.

Certainly, “it is time that law enforcement gave more

attention to the close correlation of sex and crime .” 15

•••••t

Most people, of course, feel themselves far beyond the

possibility of committing or of being accessories to the com*
mitment of any crime. Yet, few are entirely free from sharing
in the guilt of those who perpetrate sexual crimes. Part of
the guilt falls on all who foster erotic thoughts and cherish
passional emotions.

It has become a platitude to say that thoughts are things;

and hardly any one seems to take it very seriously that also
“passional emotions create ... a variety of thought-forms.” 1
* Yet it seems only logical that every little thought or
emotion sends out a vibratory wave which links up with
others of its own nature. They reinforce each other until
“very powerful blocks of emotion-forms are floating about . .
. and a person may readily be influenced by them .” 11

Thus it appears to be literally true that “sensuality . . . hangs

over humanity like a heavy funereal pall” 1 *, which is
“ready at any moment to pounce on the unwary and inject
its poison into their emotional organism.” 1 * All who are
receptive — the young, the weak of character, the sensually
sensitive, the criminally inclined — they all are dangerously
exposed to the influence of the accumulated terrible
thought-forms to which many a self-righteous person has
contributed a far from negligible share.

In essence the merest erotic thinking is apt to contribute to

somebody’s criminal delinquency — which makes the
thinker of sensual thoughts an instigator of crime.
Considering this, one may well come to the conclusion that,
in so far as moral responsibility is concerned, “it is one of the
greatest crimes to indulge in sexual sensuality.”**

*****

1 Praol, Passion and Criminality, Preface, v.

8 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, vii, 206.

8 Lombroso, Crime, its Causes and Remedies, II, ii, 255.

4 Tanner, The Intelligent Man's Guide, lxxix, 269.

5 A. G., The Science of Regeneration, i, 8.

4 See Ch. xxix. Perversion.

7 Same as 4 , lxxix, 269.

8 Plato, Laws, VI, 783.

9 Cicero, De Senectute, XII, 40.

10 Wines ; quoted in: Hall, Adolescence, I, v, 339.

11 Baer, "Ueber jugendliche Mflrder” ; in: Archiv fdr

/Criminal-Ant hr *•
pologie, XI, 103.

18 Raleigh, Philosophia Hermetic a, viii, 103.

18 Charron, Of Wisdom, I, xxiii, 80.

14 See Ch. Ixxvii, Retribution.

18 Cooper, Here's to Crime, xiv, 292.

18 Scott, Music, III, xxii, 144.

17 Leadbeater, The Chakras, ii, 22.

18 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 430.

19 Same as 18 , III, xxii, 144.

20 Lutoslawski, The World of Souls, vi, 182.

 XLVII
THE ALTRUISM OF ETHICS

"As an ethical being man it naturally superior to passion."

— Keyserlino, Book of Marriage,

111 , 303 .

The foundation of ethics is others-mindedness.

Though often considered to be the equivalent of morality,

ethics is strictly only that part of applied morality which in
every act shows due consideration of others. It is the result
of a recognition that each is but an integral part of the
whole, and that therefore the true interests of others are
identical with one’s own. It is an expression, though as a rule
an unconscious one, of the inner spiritual knowledge of the
oneness of all life. 1

If humanity is to build a better world out of the present

conditions, “the ideal that regulates the new world must be
an ethical one.”* And in order to be truly ethical it must be
altruistic, it must in every action give foremost consideration
to the well-being of others; “its final test must be the total
welfare and progress of society.”*

Along with the application of ethical principles in other

fields “a new and better sexual ethic is indispensable.”* It,
too, must be based on the interests of others, and this can
be attained in one way only: “the sexual impulse must be
subordinated to the welfare of society . . . through the
cultivation of inhibition.” 6 Therefore “increasing inhibition
of the lower centers by the higher and diminishing sexual
passion must play a strong part in determining conduct in
the future.” 6 Thus alone can ethics become manifest in the
sexual life of mankind. “Any so-called ethics which does not
recognize the necessity of putting restraint upon naive
desire is inherently absurd.”'

After all, in the sexual domain as in every other field the true
interests of the individual and of the race are identical. For
“if man controls his desires for the sake of higher social
motives, he himself rises in the scale of being.”' A consistent
practice of inhibition of the sex impulse for ethical reasons
leads toward individual and social evolutionary perfection at
the same time. “If we all so ordered our conduct that it
should be in harmony with the destiny of mankind, the
highest perfection would be attained.”' To approach this
ideal state “each must make such a contribution of his own
that if all contributed similarly the result would be perfection
.” 10

But whenever a sensual impulse is permitted to influence

thoughts and acts ethics is forgotten. Then “the singular
violence of amorous passion . . . can lead to forgetfulness of
the most sacred duties .” 11 “All the indecencies of life have
arisen as a result of this .” 11 At such times even the
idealistically inclined often “do not find it necessary to
introduce higher ideals into their lives.” 1 '

To be effective under all circumstances ethics must be based

on “a view of life which emphasizes the spiritual power of
man over mere impulse ... a view in winch the spiritual
element is cultivated and practised .” 14

The popular idea that sexual behavior is exclusively one’s

private affair is antagonistic to the very principle of ethics.
Every sexual act touches the interests of society and of the
race. Even whether or not directly harming another person,
even whether or not fomenting and spreading disease,
sexual activity is always intrinsically not just one’s own but a
racial affair. When the act is purely propagative the interests
of the individual to be bom — and thereby of coming
generations — are evidently involved. In every other case
sexual activity, in whatever form it may manifest, is an
expression of sensual self-gratification and as such is
detrimental to the race. “Every individual . . . who claims the
liberty to use the reproductive energy merely for his own
pleasure spreads in society the germs of disorder.” 1 * For “a
terrible interrelation joins that supposed private action to
the most distant events in the social life.” 1 '

To divert the generative power into channels for personal

gratification is detrimental to the race for this reason also
that it interferes with the spiritual development of the acting
individual . 17 Humanity can advance in its evolution only if
the separate units progress. Hence to impede individual
evolution in effect hampers the evolution of humanity. On
this basis, too, sexual behavior proves to be by no means
only one’s private affair, but a matter of racial importance.

For all these reasons every sexual act that is devoid of

propagative intention, being inconsiderate of the best
interests of humanity, is preeminently lacking in altruism
and is unethical. If we want to be ethical “our duty towards
ourselves and the interest of humanity demand that we
should have no passion.” 1 ® Many may consider this an
extremist’s view. But “ethics insists on the extreme.” 1 *

“It is a hard ethic, you say . . . But only so can we cease to be

beasts and begin to be gods.” 1 *

*****
1 See Ch. lxxxix, Oneness.

* Silberer, Problems of Mysticism, III, 350.

* Galloway, The Sex Factor in Human Life, ii, 94.

4 Russell, Marriage and Morals, xviii, 211.

8 Johansson; quoted in: Flexner, Prostitution in Europe, ii,

51. 6 Jacobi, “Sex Morality” ; in: Robinson, Sex Morality, 95.

T Lippmann, Preface to Morals, ix, 165.

8 Galloway, Biology of Sex, vii, 69.

9 Kant, Lectures on Ethics , 252.

10 Same as 9 , 252.

11 Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, vi, 277.

11 Ouspensky, Tertium Organum, xviii, 227.

18 Same as 1J , xviii, 227.

14 Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, I, ix, 149.

15 Same as u , vi, 276.

18 Same as n , vi, 275.

lf See Ch. xviii, Unfolding of Spirit.

18 Same as •, 146.

19 Spencer, Principles of Ethics, III, x, 242.

90 Durant, The Story of Philosophy, vi, 302.

 XLVIII
SUPREME MORALITY

“The moral law . . . must be the expression of supreme

purity."

— Kant, Lectures on Ethics,66.

Changing with times and climes moral codes have

fluctuated like fashions, customs and conventions. But all
these varying, arbitrary and relatively moral codes have
made allowances for human shortcomings and limitations.
They are merely distant semblances of an absolute,
unvarying standard.

There is a universal moral law, as universal and immutable

as that of gravitation. “It contains the standard of moral
perfection .” 1 Only “if the foundation of our actions is that
they shall be consistent with the universal rule, which is
valid at all times and for every one, then our conduct has its
source in the principle of true morality.”*

The absolute moral law is for eternity engraved in the scrolls

of spirit — not as an imposed command, but as a statement
of facts in nature. To have access to these scrolls one must
needs be spiritually evolved. Those who had reached that
stage have always demonstrated the absolute moral law in
their own lives; and many of them have tried to render the
canons of this law in as simple, lucid terms as human
language permits, in order that others might know the way
to spiritual attainment.

Based on nature’s immutable laws “the principles of morality

are axioms like those of geometry.”* These moral axioms can
be condensed into one phrase: the need of purification,
leading to faultless purity.

In order to advance in harmony with evolution, and to grow

spiritually, it is necessary to follow the principles of supreme
morality in every respect. But in the realm of sex particularly
great stress must be laid on the necessity of purification
“because the spiritual in us is so overborne, so overweighted
by the animal .” 4

“The human constitution as it exists today . . . containing a

large animal element, cannot furnish the basis of rational
morality .” 8 Therefore, in practice “morality should be
based not on human nature in its existing vitiated condition,
but on human nature, ideal, as it may be in the future.”*

Essentially “the moral task of man is spiritualization.” T To

be effective, “morality must work so . . . that in everything
the realm of the spirit may be increased”*, because in that
direction lies the evolutionary perfectability of human
nature. “While striving after morality we are at the same
time battling for our own spiritual self’*, for “a complete self-
consciousness of the spiritual life is attained first in
morality” 10 , in a morality far above the common standard.
No dabbling in half-way measures, which cater to personal
deficiencies, can bring results.

Unavoidably, in order to become spiritual, man must

unfailingly apply the absolute moral law, for the truly
“spiritual man cannot be ... an immoral man; if he were he
would kill his spiritual life .” 11

Until spirituality has been gained, “life is a never ceasing

duel between the animal impulse and morality .” 11 A heavy
struggle sometimes. But “any system of morality which
accommodates itself to what is easy for man to do corrupts
the perfection of humanity .” 11

Even for every-day existence “the moral law must be . . . the

law in obedience to which perfection consists .” 14 “If there
is to be any moral progress the lower must be forced to give
way to the higher .’’ 18 “The moral principle . . . contradicts
the passions and serves to check them .” 11 “With regard to
the corporeal life our moral task consists in not being
passively determined by fleshly desires.” ir “Morality . . .
demands actual struggle with the flesh.”“ All such
statements as just quoted are not arbitrarily conceived. They
are only the practical expression of absolute moral law.
Every breaking of that law — in other words: every act that
is not perfectly pure — is spiritual suicide.

1 Kant, Lectures on Ethics , 74.

* Same as 43.

8 Pike, Morals and Dogma, xxvi, 534.

4 Black, Culture and Restraint, v, 140.

5 Metchnikoff, The Prolongation of Life, IX, iv, 325.

6 Metchnikoff, The Nature of Man, xii, 289.

7 Eckhart, Sermons, vii, 58.

8 Eucken, Life*s Basis and Life f s Ideal, III, 340.

9 Eucken, Present-Day Ethics, iv, 91.

10 Same as 8 , III, 339.

11 Same as 4 , v, 137.
18 Krafft-Ebino, Psychopathia Sexualis, i, 5.

18 Same as 1 , 74.

14 Spencer, Social Statics, I, i, 2.

15 Same as 4 , vi, 165.

18 Kropotkin, Ethics, iv, 82.

17 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 49.

18 Same as 1T , 472.
 XLIX
LAWS

“The supreme Law can be known only . . . when the ego has
disentangled itself from the enticements of sex.”

— Mingle, Science of Love,xiii,325.

“We are all held fast and guided, not only in our physical but
also our moral lives, by immutable Laws .” 1 Law rules the
universe. Macrocosm and microcosm, the invisible and the
visible, the spiritual and the material worlds are definitely
bound by nature’s all-embracing Laws.

In the lower kingdoms natural Law rules unprotested. The

minerals, as all matter, are subject to physical Laws, most of
which science has discovered and analyzed. In the
vegetable kingdom the Laws of life work automatically. In
the animal kingdom nature’s moral Law finds unopposed
expression through instinct.*

It is only in the human kingdom that the Laws of nature are

militated against by man’s self-sufficiency and by the
predominance of his desires over the mind. The primitive
races have kept at least a few remnants of nature’s higher
Laws as an instinctive basis for their distorted rules of
taboo.* But with an increasingly selfish use of the
developing mind, mind itself has been subjugated and
chained to matter — and this has caused the civilized races
to become more and more blinded to the moral Law of
nature.

Particularly blinding in this way is the enslavement of mind

and body to the allurement of sex. Man seems to think that
he is free to use the sexual function in any way he wants. He
reasons like an outlaw who imagines that no law applies to
him and that he is free to take whatever he may want, so
long as he is not caught. But results will somehow ultimately
show that one cannot with impunity evade or break the laws
— least of all nature’s Laws, because their application is
automatic and inexorable.

All of nature’s moral and spiritual Laws have been pushed

into the background of human consciousness, and have
been replaced by man-made legislation which expresses
only the temporary moral standard of not yet highly evolved
majorities. However, “the eternal moral order . . . cannot be
canceled by civil laws .” 4

Civil laws have their useful place in the scheme of evolution.

With humanity as it is, social life would be impossible
without civil codes and laws. And where “the many are more
amenable to compulsion . . . than to moral ideals” 5 , the
rules laid down by legislation serve as a preparation for a
higher morality. Where the conscious touch with nature’s
Laws is lacking the man-made “lenient laws which are
framed to meet the weakness of human character”* can
serve temporarily as substitute moral guides. But since
these substitutes are naught but changeable makeshifts,
and are of unreliable strength, they cannot be accepted as
dependable permanent guides.

The best that can be expected as an immediate effect of

civil laws is to keep within the bounds of decency those who
are still sub-moral. But as a standard of true morality such
laws are quite inadequate. Anyhow, true morality cannot be
legislated into a person; it cannot be enforced by civil law.
By means of laws and regulations “ye cannot make them
chaste that are not thither so.” T Man-made “laws have
never yet supplanted animality.”*
“Morality is a function of the human soul ... It is not
inculcated from without. Man has it primarily within
himself.”* True morality must grow from within, concurrent
with spiritual unfoldment. “The moral Law that lies at the
center of nature ” 15 can be understood only from within. By
seeking to understand that Law and by living up to its high
standard one can outgrow the outer civil laws. But one will
never violate them then. All who evade and violate civil laws
prove by this very act that they are still sub-moral.

Real morality consists in strict obedience to nature’s highest

spiritual Laws. Obedience to nature’s Laws includes the
practice of obedience to man-made laws, because it is
impossible to violate a civil law without also violating some
universal ethical or moral principle. And though one may
succeed in escaping legal punishment, it is not possible to
evade nature’s retribution.*

Those who have really outgrown the need of civil laws have
also outgrown every inclination to violate human laws as
much as nature’s Laws.

“Nature will permit no violations of her Laws, even though

nations must perish in order to uphold them .” 11 Therefore
“we must all strenuously seek to live in accordance with
nature ... or else inevitably suffer disaster.” 1 * In regard to
the sexual life we must remember that “chastity . . . is the
Law of nature .” 14 “In order to rise out of degradation,
misery, poverty and ruin ... the individual must come to a
clear understanding of this Law.” 1 * “Instead of wasting the
life force in sex sensations . . . this energy should be used in
idealistic, constructive ability.” 1 *

In order to progress on the path of evolution man must

reestablish the link with spirit by consciously bringing his
physical as well as his mental life into harmony with nature’s
fundamental Laws; for “that which links spirit to matter . . .
is the Laws of nature .” 17

*****

I Corelli, Free Opinions, 81.

* See Ch. xii, Instinct.

8 See Ch. 1 , Taboos.

4 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, III, i, 215.

5 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, X, ix, 9.

• Kant, Lectures on Ethics, 73

7 Milton, Areopagitica, 18.

8 Papini, Life of Christ, 122.

9 Juno, Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology, xiv, 379.

10 Emerson, “Nature” ; in his Complete Writings, I, 13.

II See Ch. lxxvii, Retribution.

11 A. G., The Science of Regeneration, vi, 64.

18 Gore, Philosophy of the Good Life, x, 264.

14 Kellogg, Plain Pacts, I, 286.

16 Kino, The Magic Presence, iv, 103.

18 Same as 1B , iv, 99.

17 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, I, 44.

 L
TABOOS

“ Chastity forms part of the rules . . . known as taboo.”

— Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex,i,47.

In strong contrast to the spreading lack of chastity among

the more or less civilized portion of humanity “the savage
may be said to possess a natural chastity .” 1 Where he has
lost this, “the sexual depravity of savage races most often
arises from the influences of civilized people.”*

In territories inhabited by natives who were not yet

“contaminated by association with civilization and . . .
degraded by contact with white peoples”*, explorers have
found that “some tribes who are in other respects among the
lowest are in this respect among the highest.”* They
discovered that “primitive man ... on the whole ... is more
moral than civilized man .” 8

Outstanding is the fact that “the majority of barbarous

peoples emphasize prenuptial chastity as an ideal.”* For
instance, in Borneo “prenuptial intercourse was forbidden by
the Hill-Dayaks” 7 ; “in Nias both seducer and seduced were
put to death .” 8 In some of the independent tribes in the
interior of the Philippine Islands “chastity is held in great
honor . . . and is protected by very severe laws.”* In
Australia “promiscuous intercourse between the sexes is not
practised by the aborigines, and their laws on the subject . .
. are very strict” 14 ; “before the advent of the whites ... it
was almost death to a young man to have intercourse before
being married .” 11 “The Sulka in NewBritain believe that
sexual intercourse pollutes both men and women, married
as well as unmarried.” 1 * “They who have lived among the
Tasmanians . . . speak with respect of their purity.” 1 *
“Chastity was highly regarded by the Basutos and the
Bakwains ” 14 in Africa, where “the Nandi . . . say that
people are dirty when they have had sexual intercourse.” 1 *
In Ceylon “among the Veddas . . . girls are protected with the
keenest sense of honor.” 1 * By the Bodos and Dhimals of
India chastity is prized in man and woman, married and
unmarried .” 17 “Among the Cambodians strict chastity
seems to prevail; and if we cross the Himalayas to the North
we find ourselves among wild people to whom sexual license
is unknown .” 18

It cannot be denied that conditions of sexual depravity have

been found in places where it could not possibly have been
introduced by the white man. It would be strange if this were
not the case. For even low tribes possess enough mind to be
able to overstimulate and misdirect their sexual impulse. All
in all, however, there is plenty of evidence to show that “the
importance, even sacredness of procreation is much more
generally recognized by savage than by civilized peoples”
19 , and that “primitive customs are generally chaste .”* 4

In the case of the lowest savages, who seem still very close
to the state of the animal kingdom, “we may speak of an
instinct for chastity .”* 1 Their mind hardly awakened, they
remain unconsciously dependent on the directions of
nature’s intelligence. Undoubtedly their chastity is a
survival of an inborn and still instinctive obedience to the
laws of nature. They are yet not spoiled by a wrong use of
the mind.

With those at a slightly more advanced stage instinct has

been replaced by the unwritten law of taboo. And by taboo
“the sexuality of primitive man . . . seems to be more strictly
circumscribed than it is in higher levels of civilization.”**
Not only does one meet with taboos against fornication and
adultery, but “in certain physiological crises ... a woman
must not be approached by a man .”* 8 And “the extremely
widespread habit of avoiding intercourse during pregnancy
and suckling ... is an admirable precaution in sexual hygiene
.”* 4

Also, “many savages have made it a rule to refrain from

sexual intercourse in time of war”**; and even “before a
fighting, harpooning or hunting expedition .”* 4 In several
tribes, during such expeditions, also “the people who remain
at home must observe strict chastity. Then, again, “a
practice of abstinence from fleshly lusts has been observed
by various peoples as a sympathetic charm to foster the
growth of the crops.””

“The facility with which the savage places these checks on

sexual intercourse bears witness to the weakness of the
sexual impulse.” 1 ® That impulse is inherently weak in the
natural state; in civilization it is strong only because it has
been unnaturally and unduly overstimulated.

In many rules of taboo it is evident that “savages . . . esteem

chastity for its value as a method of self-control which
contributes towards the attainment of important ends .” 10
This is an attitude Which civilization has lost, but
necessarily must regain.

The latest, most extensive ethnological investigations show

conclusively that always “there is a close relation between
sexual opportunity and cultural condition .”* 1 “The
societies where prenuptial continence is not imposed and
where the opportunities for sexual indulgence after marriage
are greatest, exhibit the least amount of energy .”* 1 In
other words: the more restraint, the greater the energy
available for the attainment of higher cultural conditions.
This applies not only to savages, but to civilized man as
well. “The energy created by sexual restraint is the motive
power which makes it possible for us to conceive desirable
ends, and to think out the means for realizing them.”**
Whether, according to the individual’s evolutionary
progression, the sought-for ends be of a physical, of a
mental, or of a spiritual nature : increased restraint increases
the obtainable. results.

*****

Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 5. Forel, The Sexual

Question, vi, 149.

Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, III, 260. Spencer,

Principles of Ethics, II, xiii, 183. Crawley, The Mystic Rose, I,
vi, 176.

Same as x , i, 26.

Low, Sarawak, 247; quoted in *, i, 22.

8 Hastings, Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, III, 478.

9 Kotzebue, A Voyage of Discovery, III, 66.

19 Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, II, 318.

11 Holden, Folklore of the South-Australian Aborigines;

quoted in: 4 , II, xiii, 183.

19 Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der S&dsee, 179; quoted in:

Westermarck.

History of Human Marriage, I, xi, 406.

19 Bon wick. Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, ii, 11.
14 Same as 9 , III, 478.

18 Hollis, The Nandi, their Language and Folklore, 9a.

14 Same as s , III, 479.

1T Hodgson, Miscellaneous Essays on Indian Subjects, I,

123.

18 Same as 8 , III, 273.

19 Same as 8 , III, 261.

99 Same as 9 , vi, 130.

91 Same as l , i, 46.

99 Freud, Collected Papers, IV, xiii, 223.

99 Malinowski, The Sexual Life of Savages, II, xiii, 455.

94 Same as 9 , VI, v, 145.

98 Frazer, The Golden Bough, III, iv, 164.

96 Landtman, The Kiwai Papuans, xvii, 250.

91 Same as ", I, iii, 125.

98 Same as ", IX, viii, 347.

99 Same as 8 , III, 263.

80 Same as 8 , VI, v, 145.

81 Unwin, Sex and Culture, i, 35.

89 Huxley, Ends and Means, xv, 361.

88 Same as ", xv, 369.
 LI
ABORIGINAL RELIGION

"Among many peoples persons whose function it is to

perform religious rites must be celibates."

— Westbrmarck, Ethical Relativity,viii,253.

“From the primitive savage, kneeling before some

supposedly sacred tree or holy stone, thrilled with the
thought that somewhere at the back of created matter
vibrates a Force beyond his knowing . . . down to the great
faiths of today, men have understood a reality behind the
shifting panorama of nature .” 1 And they have ever tried to
discover means of contacting that reality beyond material
forms, beyond matter — the reality that can only be found in
the formless realm of spirit.

Religion is the attempt to approach spirit; but spirit can only

be reached when religion is freed from routine form. Of
essential interest therefore are not the differences in rituals
and dogmas of the different religions, but the points of
agreement of their underlying principles. And of these one
of the most striking in the teachings of practically all
religions is the recognition of sexual purity as a prerequisite
for conscious contact with the unknown force, with spirit.

Even “in primitive society chastity ... is enjoined on solemn

occasions.”* “It is a common rule that he who performs a
sacred act . . . must be ceremonially clean; and no kind of
uncleanness is more carefully to be avoided than sexual
pollutions.”* It is almost generally believed that “an act
regarded as sacred would, if performed by an unclean
individual, lack that efficacy which would otherwise be
ascribed to it.”*

Abundant evidence to support these last remarks has been

found in numberless tribes, in many parts of the world.

In Southern India the priests of the Todas “must be celibate

while in office .” 8 On the South Sea islands “the skaga of
the Haidas . . . refrains from sexual intercourse ” 8 ; “the
Marquesan candidate for the priesthood had to be chaste for
some years beforehand’”; “in Efate sexual uncleanness was
especially avoided by sacred men, as it destroyed their
sacredness” 8 ; and the Tahitians seemed so convinced of
the spiritualizing power of continence that they had a
doctrine to the effect that “if a man refrain from all
connection with women some months before death, he
passes immediately into his eternal mansion ... as if already,
by his abstinence, he were pure enough to be exempted
from the general lot.”*

In Africa “among the Tshi-peoples candidates for religious

offices are trained for two or three years; during this period
the novices . . . must refrain from all commerce with the
other sex .” 18 “In Lower Guinea we are told of a priest-king
who was not allowed to so much as touch a woman” 11 ;
while even “the cook of the priest-king of Angoy was
expected to keep himself pure.”“ But the strongest and
strangest instance of belief in the influence of continence
was met with in the Congo, where “when the supreme
pontiff left his residence to visit other places within his
jurisdiction, all the people had to observe strict continence
the whole time he was out; for it was supposed that any act
of incontinence on their part would prove fatal to him ” 18

In North America “the Shawnee Indian had a great respect

for certain persons who observed celibacy” 14 ; and “the
Thlinkets believe that if a shaman does not observe
continuous chastity, his own guardian spirit will kill him .”
18 In Mexico “any incontinence amongst the priests was
severely punished; the priest who was convicted of having
violated his chastity was delivered up to the people, who
killed him; in Ichcatlan the high-priest was obliged ... to
abstain from commerce with any woman whatsoever, and if
he unluckily failed ... he was certain of being tom in pieces.
16

Especially among the Maya nations of Central America

celibacy was held in high esteem. “The natives of the

Isthmus had a priesthood sworn to perpetual celibacy .” 17

In Guatamala “the Tohil priests were vowed to perpetual
continence” 18 ; and “among the Chibchas of Bogota the
priests were not allowed to marry .” 18

Sometimes strict continence was required of others, outside

the priesthood. For instance “the manufacturers of the new
Yucatan idols had to . . . preserve their continence during
the process” 80 ; also “in Yucatan they had two war-
captains, one of whom was chosen for a term of three years;
during these years he could know no woman” 81 ; and “the
Chichen Itza kings lived in strict celibacy .” 88

Again, in Zapotecapan “it was incumbent upon the pontiff of

Yopaa ... to be a shining light of chastity for the guidance of
those who looked up to him” 88 ; while “priests of a lower
order . . . added also to the credit of their profession by the
excessive rigor with which they guarded their chastity ... A
glance or a sign which might be construed into a carnal
desire was punished as criminal, and those who showed by
their actions a strong disposition to violate their vow were
relentlessly castrated .” 84
Some of these instances may be exaggerated and fanatical
expressions of the conviction that continence is
indispensable to the development of spiritual power. In our
materialistic age nearly everybody is inclined to apply to all
that has been said the banal epithet of superstition, which is
so commonly used to decry anything that one does not and
does not want to understand.

But does not this recurrence of a high regard and a religious

demand for chastity by so many different peoples in the
most diverse parts of the world suggest that something more
than superstition must be its fundamental cause?

Even “if . . . the institutions in question have been based

partly on superstition, it by no means follows that they have
never been based on anything else. On the contrary . . .
there is a strong presumption that they rest mainly on
something much more solid than superstition .” 88 The only
logical basis for the universal religious valuation of chastity
lies in nature’s law that yielding to the senses prevents all
contact with spirit.

Apparently those who originally laid down the rules for even
the most primitive aboriginal religious usages were
acquainted with the fact that sensuality so coarsens the
vibrations of the body as to exclude the finer vibrations of
spirit. Therefore they already taught what humanity still
seems loathe to learn — namely: that “the animal fife in man
must be subordinated to the spiritual.”**

*****

1 Radhakrishnan, "Philosophy in the History of Civilization";

in: Proendings of the Sixth International Congress of
Philosophy, 546.

• Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 47.

* Westermarck, Ethical Relativity, viii, 955.

4 Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas,

II, xli, 418. 9 Rivers, The Todas, iv, 80.

9 Hastings, Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, III, 484. f Same as

4 , IIP, 484.

1 MacDonald, Oceania, xvii, 181.

4 Cook, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, III, ix, 164.

19 Same as 4 , III, 484.

11 Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loan go K&ste, I,

987.

19 Same as ll , I, 216. u Frazer, The Golden Bough, III, i, 5.

14 Ashe, Travels in America, 250; quoted in: Westermarck,

History of Human Marriage, I, xi, 395.

11 Landtman, Origin of Priesthood, 156; quoted in: 4 , II, xli,

406.

14 Clavioero, History of Mexico , II, vi, 46.

1T Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstitions, xi, 384.

14 Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, III, xi, 489.

19 Same as ir , xi, 384.

90 Same as 4 , III, 482.

91 Same as l# , II, xxiii, 741.

19 Same as 14 , II, xxi, 679.

99 Same as lt , II, v, 143.

94 Same as 19 , II, v, 919.

98 Frazer, The DeviVs Advocate, i, 3.

94 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 45.

 LII
SACERDOTAL CELIBACY

11 The lusts of the flesh . . . are particularly weakening to

him who would give all his attention to the things of spirit”

— Papini, Life of Christ, si9.

Religion in any form, even when disguised almost beyond

recognition, is essentially a means of spiritualizing man, of
bringing him closer to spirit.

Where the individual is not capable of establishing a direct

connection with spirit, some other person — from a
medicine-man to an ecclesiastic — is depended on to aid
and to act as mediator. It is presupposed, of course, that
such an intermediary himself is already closely linked to
spirit. Therefore he should be expected to show in his daily
life that he has freed himself from the domination of matter
and from sensuous appetites.

Recognizing that “perfect mortification of passions makes a

true religious man” 1 , there has usually been a demand for
sexual purity in those who minister to the people’s religious
wants. This demand has been met even among native
tribes*, quite independent of the great world-religions.
Indeed, it seems to be but the expression of a universal
principle that also in “the leading religions of cultured
humanity of the more recent epoch, Buddhism and
Christianity ”, “religious celibacy is enjoined . . . with a view
to raising the spiritual nature by suppressing one of the
strongest sensual appetites .” 4
In Buddhism this rule of celibacy has been successfully
maintained, except in later sects on foreign soil. It is
asserted of the Buddhist priest that “having put aside the
habit and thought of sexual intercourse, his life is pure.”* In
such old Buddhistic countries as Burma “popular opinion is
inflexible and inexorable on the point of celibacy . . . The
people can never be brought to look upon any person as a
priest or minister of religion unless he live in that state. The
law of celibacy is observed with a great scrupulosity, and a
breach of it is a rare occasion.”*

In Christianity sacerdotal celibacy has been one of the most

disputed problems . 7 It had already been a subject of
stirring controversy long before Protestants so drastically
turned against it in protest against abuses. Unfortunately,
instead of attacking and correcting the abuses, they have
repudiated the meritoriousness of celibacy itself. But abuses
are no proof that the principle which is being abused is
wrong. “Abuses and exaggerations . . . naturally accompany
such a great and difficult attempt to elevate man above
himself.”* “The more sublime a doctrine is, the more it is
exposed to abuse at the hands of human nature.”*

Every part of this book tends to confirm that by sexual

gratification one “renders himself unfit for spiritual things” 1
® — unfit therefore to be another’s spiritual guide. Only
perfect celibates can truly and effectively aid others in
reaching up to spirit; and even then only if their celibacy is
freely chosen, an outcome of their own inner conviction.
Then, “strengthening their own spiritual element . . . their
purity is the elevation on which human nature culminates .”
11

To become ever more spiritual by outgrowing all carnal

desires — that is the purpose of religious attainment, not
only for ecclesiastics but for every single individual.
*****

1 Thomas A Kempis, Imitation of Christ, I, xvii, 9.

1 See Ch. li. Aboriginal Religion.

• Ouspensky, A New Model of the Universe, xii, 531.

4 Westbrmarck, Ethical Relativity, viii, 255.

8 Beck, The Splendor of Asia, xvii, 210.

• Bioandet, Life or Legend of Gaudama, II, 291.

T Lea, Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy .

• Fobrster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, I, ix, 155.

• Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, IV, xlviii, 448.

10 Aquinas, Summa Theologica, XIX, 158.

11 Fooazzaro, The Saint, ii, 46.

 LIII
VESTAL VIRGINS

“Fire being incorrupt . . . the chastest of all mortal things . . .

must look after the fire."

— Dionysius Halicarnassus, Homan Antiquiiiss,!!,Ixvi.

“Fire stands in every philosophical and religious system ... as

a representation of the spirit .” 1 Therefore fire has been
worshipped, flames have been kept on altars (if only by
burning candles), and perpetual fires have been tended in
temples as a symbol of keeping alive the power of spirit.

In most places the care of such sacred fires was entrusted to

consecrated virgins, symbolizing the fact that sexual purity
is essential in keeping the spiritual fire within man burning.
“The ancients universally held virginity as a transcendental,
mysterious something, which exercised power
supematurally.”* Wherever virgin-priestesses lived they
“were distinguished by extraordinary influence and personal
dignity.”* “They were treated with marks of respect usually
accorded to royalty .” 4

In Rome “Numa built a temple to Vesta and appointed

virgins to be her priestesses . . . under a necessity of
continuing unmarried. If they suffered themselves to be
debauched they were delivered up to the most shameful and
the most miserable death.”* Even before Numa’s time “at
Alba there was an ancient temple of the goddess Vesta”*;
and besides her virgins there were “Juno’s at the town of
Achaia, and Apollo’s amongst the Delphians, and Minerva’s
in some places.’” “The worship of Diana in her sacred grove
at Nemi was of immemorial antiquity . . . Her holy fire,
tended by virgins, burned perpetually in a temple within the
precinct .” 8 “Scattered over Greece were shrines ministered
at by virgins”*; best known of these has always been the
temple at Delphi, where “the prophetess . . . entirely gives
herself up to a divine spirit, and is illuminated with a ray of
divine fire” 10 , and where only “virgin maidens were
consecrated to the service of the oracle .” 11

Also in other parts of Europe vestals have existed. “At

Kildare in Ireland the nuns of St. Brigit were in charge of a
perpetual holy fire” 1 *; “in the island of Sena, off the coast
of Brittany, there was an oracle of a Gallic deity whose
worship was cared for by virgin priestesses” 1 *; and “in
Lithuania there seem to have been holy fires that were
looked after by virgins .” 14

In some other parts of the world the worshippers turned to

the sun as the solar system’s central fire, in which they saw
the manifestation of spirit. Connected with their worship,
too, were consecrated virgins. For instance “in ancient Persia
there were sun-priestesses who were obliged to refrain from
intercourse with men” 18 ; and in Yucatan existed “an order
of vestals . . . whose duty was to tend the sacred fire, the
emblem of the sun, and to keep strictly chaste .” 10

Particularly esteemed among the Incas of Peru “was the

perpetual virginity which women observed in many
conventual houses . . . These virgins were dedicated to the
sun.” 1T “There was a law for the nun who should transgress
this rule of life, that she should be buried alive and that her
accomplice should be strangled . . . This was the law, but no
one ever transgressed it .” 18 And “besides those who
professed perpetual virginity in the monasteries there were
many women of the blood royal who led the same life in
their own houses . . . These women were held in great
veneration for their purity .” 10
Also in Mexico “women . . . took care of the sacred fires.
Nothing was more zealously guarded than the chastity of
these virgins. Any trespass was unpardonable. ” l#

Thus in civilizations of a fairly advanced order a reverence

for perfect chastity was frequently found, proving again that
it seems to be an integral part of man’s spiritual nature. The
homage paid to vestals everywhere was an expression of the
intuitive recognition of the great significance of unimpaired
virginity as a means of linking up with spirit.

Only an over-culture of the senses as providers of stimuli for

sensual gratification has gradually caused an ever greater
disregard of sexual purity, and has cut most of humanity off
from any contact with the spiritual part of their own inner
nature.

*****

1 Blavatsky, The Seer it Doctrine, I, 87.

I Jennings, The Rosicrucians , II, xi, 370.

* Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 57.

4 Frazer, The Golden Bough, II, xvi, aa8.

4 Dionysius Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, II, lxvii.

6 Same as 4 , II, lxv.

T Tertuluan, “Exhortation to Chastity,” xiii ; in: Ante-Nicene

Christian Library, XVIII, 19.

4 Same as 4 , I, i, 41.

9 Same as *, i, 56.
10 Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, III, xi, 143.

II Hall, Encycl. Outline of Symbolical Philosophy, lxii. u Same

as 4 , II, xvi, 340.

ls Mela, De Chorographia, III, vi, 48.

14 Same as s , i, 57.

14 Wbstermarck, Ethical Relativity, viii, 853.

14 Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, III, xi, 473. lT

Veoa, Royal Commentaries of the Tucas, I, 891.

14 Same as lT , I, 398.

19 Same as lr , I, 398.

m Clavioero, History of Mexico, II, vi, 46 ft 48.

 LIV
VIRGIN BIRTHS

“The idealization of virginity may be observed in the stories

of supernatural birth.”

— Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i,30.

“Everywhere heroes of extraordinary achievement or

extraordinary qualities have been of extraordinary birth .” 1
Especially those spiritual giants who are looked upon as
saviors are almost without exception said not to have been
bom like ordinary men, but from virgins. The birth story of
Jesus has, and had had before his era, its parallels in
traditions of other religions and in legends of many peoples.

The oldest recorded tale of immaculate conception is about

Sri Krishna, “this first of the Messiahs, this eldest of the sons
of God”*, of whom it is told that he was bom of the virgin
Devaki who, “seeing herself overshadowed by the Spirit of
the universe . . . conceived the divine child.”*

About the Buddha “the belief soon sprang up that he had no

earthly father” 4 ; “the opinion is authoritatively handed
down that Buddha had his birth through a virgin”*; “on her .
. . descended the spirit and entered her womb.”* “The
Siamese likewise had a savior, called Codom, who was
virgin-born .” 7 Another instance, in Persia, is “the begetting
of Zoroaster through the drinking of homa-juice . . . infused
with his guardian spirit .” 8 And “in China the Shing-moo or
holy mother . . . conceived and bore a son while yet a virgin.
The infant became a great man and performed miracles.”*
“A similar story is told in regard to Loatze.” 1 * “Apollonius . .
. was also bom of a virgin-mother according to the stories
that were recorded of him during and shortly after his time .”
11 Even “Plato . . . was reputed by his followers to have been
bom of a virgin.” 1 *

Among spiritual teachers and leaders on the American

continent is the Aztec “Quetzalcohuatl ... he who was bom of
the virgin Chalchihuitzli” 1 *, to whom “the Lord of Existence
appeared . . . and breathed upon her, thereby quickening
life within her .” 14 Similarly the ancient mentor of the
Mexicans, “Huitzilopochtli is said to have been miraculously
brought forth by a woman who perceived a ball of feathers
floating down to her through the air, taking which she found
herself pregnant .” 15 And of Montezuma, “divine priest,
prophet, leader and legislator of the Pueblo cities of New-
Mexico” 1 *, the legend tells how “he was immaculately
conceived by a drop of dew falling on the breast of his moth

In almost endless variety such stories of miraculous

conception are also related in connection with less spiritual,
but nationally idolized and idealized heroes. “In popular
legend and folklore it is almost incumbent on the hero to be
bom in such an abnormal manner.” 1 *

“The Romans believed that the founders of their city and

race were the offspring of the virgin Ilia.” 1 * They also (
claimed that the mother of their king Servius Tullius
“conceived by a phantom . . . when alone in the room in
which a miraculous manifestation had been seen to take
place”**, and “that the mother of Julius Ceasar conceived
him miraculously in a temple of Apollo .”* 1 “The emperor
Alexander likewise was conceived by a virgin.”** “Cyrus,
king of Persia, was believed to have been of divine origin.”**
“So was the birth of the famous Genghis Khan ascribed to
the glance of a divine or quasi divine being .”* 4 In Ireland
“both Conchobar and Cochulainn were of supernatural
birth”* 5 ; while in Bogota “Gacheta was a virgin who
brought forth Garanchaca, a famous chief.”**

“Fo-hi, the founder of the Chinese empire, was the child of a

virgin . . . who ate a certain flower .”* 7 The Finnish hero who
became ‘king and master of Karyala’ was bom from “Mariatta
. . . virgin-mother of the Northland.”" In a very similar way
the American-Indian Hiawatha is described as being the son
of the virginal Wenonah and the Westwind." “The incident
appears in the mythology of more than one American
people”* 0 , and “the supernatural birth . . . is known in
large groups of the Pacific Islands .”* 1

Whether in its physical, biological aspect immaculate

conception ever did or could take place is not the question
here. And for present purposes it matters not whether in its
highest metaphysical aspect its oft repeated story first of all
may have been intended to symbolize the cosmic process of
creation — that is: the impregnation of virgin matter by the
divine breath, out of which a universe is bom.

Of more general interest remains the indubitable fact that so

many peoples have deemed the ordinary way of propagation
to be too common, too coarse, too lowly for those whom they
worshipped. “In the popular mind the mightier the hero the
greater the need for providing him with a worthy entrance
upon his mortal existence .”* 1 Popular belief has wanted
such at least to be disconnected from and raised above all
vulgar touch of sex, and has therefore ascribed their birth to
an immaculate conception — in other words: to a pure and
passionless one. “Pure must be the form into which such an
individual is bom.”** Race consciousness apparently has
always, everywhere, intuitively known that qualities worthy
of worship belong to realms where the sense of sex dwells
not.
There is, however, still another aspect of the idea of
immaculate conception. It serves as a universal symbol of
the coming into expression in the human individual of what
has variously been called the higher self, the Christ within,
the spirit. In this aspect the idea of virgin birth shows
explicitly that only in the body of a virgin (of either sex) can
spirit come to fruition.

*****

1 Hartland, Primitive Paternity, I, i, I.

* Schur£, The Great Initiates, I f 74.

* Same at *, I, 90.

4 Rhys Davids, Buddhism, vii, 182.

4 Jerome, “Against Jovinianus”, i, 42; in: Select Library of

Nicenc and Post-Nicene Fathers, VI, 380.

4 Foshohing Tsanking, I, i, 4; in: Sacred Books of the Bast,

XIX, 9. r Lewis, The Mystical Life of Jesus, iv, 80.

9 Strings of Z a d mS P aram i *i, 10; in: Sacred Books of the

Bast, V, 187.

9 Barrow, Travels in China, viii, 472.

10 Same as *, I, i, 21.

11 Same as T , iv t 84.

19 Conybeare, Myth, Magic and Morals, xii, 194.

19 Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, III, vii, 271.

14 Same as *, I, i, 21.
15 Kinosborouoh, Antiquities of Mexico, VI, 103.

16 Same as 19 , III, v, 172.

ir Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstitions, iii, 76.

18 Same as **, xii, 201.

19 Same as VI, 381.

90 Dionysius Haucarnassus, Roman Antiquities, IV, ii.

91 Same as u , xii, 196.

99 Same as 19 , xii, 196.

93 Same as T , iv, 83,

94 Same as l , I, i, 26.

99 Hart land. The Legend of Perseus, I, v, 116.

96 Same as 1T , iii, 113.

91 Same as 1 , I, i, 5.

98 Kalevala, II, 729.

99 Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha, III, 41-51.

90 Same as l , I, i, 26.

91 Same as ", I, v, 143.

99 Same as ", III, xxi, 185.

99 Besant, Superhuman Men, iii, 68.

 LV
THE BIBLE

“Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh.*’

— Galatians,v, 16.

“All the great faiths have taught abstinence ” 1 ; and

Christianity too has not failed to bring out that “in purity lies
the essence of all religion . . . Always is purity insisted on as
a means to salvation.”* “Unless man doth partake of
unspotted virginity . . . the hope of salvation is cut off.”*
“Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself’ 4 ,
knowing that “they which were not defiled with women . . .
were redeemed” 5 , and that “blessed are the undefiled.”*
“Every one . . . should know how to possess his vessel in
sanctification . . . not in the lust of concupiscence ” 7 —
should know especially that “the lust of the flesh is not of
the Father” 8 , but that it is a man-made, mind-fed distortion
of the natural faculty to propagate the race.

“There is no enemy to the faith like the lower nature of the

individual” 9 , and “the carnal mind is enmity against God .”
10 Hence the advice to “put off . . . the old man which is
corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” 11 , and to “make
not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” 1 * But
how many Christians follow this advice? Their marriage is
frequently no more than the making of such a provision.

“The essence of the New Testament is the negation of sex”

13 , and “the recommendation of genuine and pure celibacy
... is expressed in the New Testament ” 14 in such sayings
as: “concerning virgins ... it is good for a man so to be” 15 ,
“it is good for a man not to touch a woman .” 14 It is even
stated that “it is not good to marry .” 17 But “all men cannot
receive this saying” 18 , since it is meant for those only who
whole-heartedly seek spiritual unfoldment. “The natural
man receiveth not the things of the spirit . . . they are
foolishness to him” 1 ®; only “he that is able to receive it,
let him receive it.”*®

The carnal “marriage, in genuine Christianity, is merely . . .

something allowed to those who lack strength to aspire to
the highest .”* 1 Such “marriage is a concession to human
nature”, to human weakness. It is accepted as something
apparently as unavoidable for spiritual infants as diapers are
for babes. “Better to marry than to bum”**, better let babies
have diapers than be unclean.

At the same time a higher form of marriage is spoken of, one

in which “they that have mates be as though they had none
”* 4 — a marriage in which personal ties are based on a
community of spiritual interests and in which spiritual love
transcends physical attractions. This is the ideal marriage for
men and women who seek support in each other in an effort
to outgrow the animal, to grow up to the spiritual. And they
will not fail to find that “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy,
peace .”* 5

The Gospel clearly shows what the requirements are for

those who long to hasten evolution. They should “walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit”* 5 , because “it is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing .”* 7 In an
evolutionary sense, “to be carnally minded is death, but to
be spiritually minded is life.”

A strict requirement for one who wishes to be a true

Christian is laid down in the statement that “they that are
Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the passions and the
lusts thereof.”*® Since “the flesh lusteth against the
spirit”*®, it is evidently necessary to overcome the lusts of
the flesh in order to become spiritual. Some very practical
hints are given to help in this process; best of all: “whatever
things are pure . . . think on these things” 31 , and “let no
filthy communication come from your mouth”**; also
remember that “filthy dreamers defile the flesh.”**

Through night and day the watchword is: ‘to overcome’. “In
the Scripture ‘overcome’ is used to symbolize the triumph . .
. over sex desire .”* 4 “To him that overcometh ” 35 great
things are promised. In the end “he that overcometh . . .
shall go no more out”*® — apparently meaning that he shall
not have to be reborn, because he shall have accomplished
the purpose of existence in human form.

Definitely “according to the teachings of Scripture the only

way that perfection can be attained is by saving the seed””;
for “whosoever is bom of God ... his seed remained! in him.”“
The Bible could hardly have been clearer in teaching and
beseeching people to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul”", and in emphasizing the elevating power
of sexual purity.

*#*##

1 Beck, The Way of Power, iii, 43.

I Kingsford, The Perfect Way, vii, 184.

8 Helmont, Oriatrike, xciii, 669.

4 John, iii, 3.

6 Revelation, xiv, 4.

6 Psalms, cxix, 1.
7 I Thessalonians, iv, 4 ft 5.

8 I John, ii, 16.

9 Hall, Melehitedek, 94.

18 Romans, viii, 7.

II Ephesians, iv, 99 .

18 Romans, xiii, 14.

18 Rozanov, Men of the Lunar Light ; quoted in: Merejkowski,

The Secret of the West, II, ii, 999.

Schopenhauer, Will and Idea, IV,

14
The World as xlviii, 437.

I Corinthians, vii,
16
95 ft 26.

I Corinthians, vii,
11
t.

ir Matthew, xix, 10.

is Matthew, xix, 9.

I Corinthians, ii,
19
14.
SO Matthew, xix, 19.

Same as l4 , IV,
*1
xlviii, 437.

Papini, Life of
ss
Christ, 21 1 .

I Corinthians, vii,
IS
9.

I Corinthians, vii,
S4
99.

86 Galatians, v, 92.

SO Romans, viii, 1.

ST John, vi, 63.

SS Romans, viii, 6.

Revelation, ii, 7, 11,

ss Galatians, v, 94. 36
17, 26 ft 28;

so Galatians, v, 17. iii, 5 ft 21; xxi, 7.

SI Philip plans, iv, 8. SO Revelation, iii, 12.

ss Colossians, iii, 8. ST Same as M , 152.

ss Jude, i, 8. SS I John, iii, 9.

Carey, God-Man,
S4 SO I Peter, ii, 11.
172.
 LVI
EARLY CHRISTIANITY

“The early Christians preached a doctrine of sexual

asceticism as the ideal for those who would rise to the
heights of spiritual life.’*

—Bigelow, Sex Educationjifig .

A new movement is always purest in its inception, when it is

unencumbered by rules and by-laws of organization, not yet
encrusted with formalities. It has then not yet suffered from
commentators and interpreters. To find the motive power of
a movement it must be studied as it was in the beginning,
when its adherents joined it from conviction, by their own
free choice.

In the early centuries “Christianity demanded purity of life .”

1 “Strictness in morals and inner purity were the primary
requirements.”* As a result, “for nearly two hundred years
after its establishment the Christian community exhibited a
moral purity which has never been surpassed.”* “In the
genuine and original Christianity the ascetic tendency is
unmistakable ... It is the summit towards which all strive
upwards” 4 ; and as in other ascetic movements “celibacy
was the first and always the chief asceticism .” 8

In the pure spiritual vision of the devotees “virginity became

the radiant ideal ” 8 — for men as well as for women, for
“there are virgins of both sexes .” 7

“Chastity was the supreme virtue . . . the mystic key to

Christian holiness.”* “Enthusiastic converts took the vow of
chastity.”* “Some associated themselves with congenial
souls of the opposite sex and formed Platonic unions in
which they aspired to maintain the purity which they had
vowed” 10 ; “this institution of spiritual mates continued to
flourish for many generations .” 11 However, “all vows of
continence . . . were a matter of individual volition” 1 *, and
therein lay their strength. Vows cannot be very effective
unless they are the outcome of an inner conviction.

The writings of the early Church Fathers reflect the life, the
thoughts, the aspirations of the Christians of their day. “All of
these Fathers . . . speak of the chastity and sobriety which
characterized the sect . . . and of marriages of which the sole
object was the securing of offspring.” 1 * “It was urged that
a believer should not touch his wife” 14 , except “only ... for
the sake of children” 1 * — because “to have intercourse
except for procreation is to do injury to nature .” 14

The Fathers exhorted their flocks to abstinence from sexual

gratification because they considered such abstinence to be
“the practical method in the science of the divine life,
furnishing men with the power of assimilating themselves
with spiritual natures ” 11 — in other words, because only
“by parsimony of the flesh can one gain the spirit .” 18
Therefore, they said, “renounce we things carnal, that we
may at length bear fruits spiritual .” 18 Every “kindling up of
the lurking passion . . . runs counter to the spirit”"; every
“indulgence of carnal thought and desire leads away from it
.” 81 “No man can serve . . . the flesh and the spirit .” 88

Thus among the early Christians we find the old, yet ever
new and ever true teaching that those who can should
overcome the serpent, “the creeping monster which . . .
devours the earth.”" They should do so because “the desire
of lust . . . makes one a stranger to the language of the
spirit.24
Reinach, Orpheus, ix, 373.

Eucken, The Problem of Human Life, II, 176.

Lecky, History of European Morals, II, iv, 11.

Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, IV, xlviii, 437.

Butler, “Monasticism "; in: Cambridge Medieval History, I,

xviii, 521. Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 65.

Helm o nt, Oriatrike, xciii, 670.

Morley, Voltaire, iii, 149.

Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy, ii, 39.

Same as °, ii, 39.

Conybeare, Myth, Magic and Morals, xii, a 16.

Same as •, vii, 101.

Same as 9 , i, 28.

Same as n , xii, an.

15 St Clement, Stromata, II, xxiii; in: Ante-Nicene Christian

Library, XII, 78.

*• St Clement, The Instructor, II, x; in: Ante-Nic. Chr. Libr., IV,

251.

1T St Gregory, On Virginity, v; in: Select Library of Nicene

and PostNicene Fathers, V, 351.

ls Tbrtullian, On Exhortation to Chastity, x; in: Ante-Nic. Chr.

Libr.,
XVIII, 15.

« Same as », XVIII, 15.

*° St. Methodius, The Banquet of the Ten Virgins, III, x; in:

Ante-Nic. Chr. Libr., XIV, 30.

u Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians, xxxiii; in: Ante-Nic.

Chr. Libr.,

II, 418.

M St Jerome, Epistola, xlviii, 20; in: Select Library of Nicene

and PostNicene Fathers, VI, 78. u St Jerome, Select Letters,
vii, 23.

,4 Coptic Apocrypha, 359.

 LVII
MYSTICISM

"In myidc work the serpent must be overcome.”

— Silberek, ProbUms of Mysticism,III,277

A mystic is one who in intense devotional contemplation

reaches up to union with the divine. “Mysticism is an
entirely spiritual activity .” 1 “The business of the mystic . . .
is to remake his entire personality in the interest of his
spiritual self.”* He must become spiritual; and for this
purpose he must attain an uncommon purity of life. “The self
must be purged of its devotion to sense”*, because “only
when the tumult of the senses is stilled . . . can the eternal
wisdom be revealed to the one who seeks mystic
communion .” 4 Therefore “the purification of the senses ...
is the first stage of mystic life.”*

“A life of strict asceticism has seemed the only way by which

the carnal self could be purged.”* For this reason “genuine
mysticism cannot exist without asceticism.”* In order to still
the impulses of the senses the mystic must adopt ascetic
practices; oft very rigorously at first, “as the preliminary
training for a larger spiritual life.”* And he must normally
continue some of those practices because the spiritual
exaltation which is a part of the mystic’s life would be
impossible without asceticism. “The highest degrees of
spiritual exaltation are hardly conceivable without
prolonged mortification of sensual appetites.”*

Therefore “all the great mystics . . . observed strict

continence .” 10 “True mysticism has nothing whatever to
do with sexuality .” 11 “The true mystic . . . has risen above
sex to the planes where sex is not.” 1 *

“The mystical manuals show that for spiritual education . . .

the sexual libido must be withdrawn from its original use.” 1
* All the writings by mystics bring out the necessity of
sexual purity in their quest. Like most of the literature of
their time, the language of their dissertations is usually dull
and involved. But some of the clearest of their own
statements follow.

“No one can be enlightened unless he be first purified.” 1 *

And “purity ... is this: that a man withdraws from all
unchaste deeds in whatever manner they be.” 1 * For
“unchastity in actions takes away the purity of the body . . .
unchastity in thoughts takes away the purity of the soul.” 1
* “Chastity is the power which . . . opens the soul to the
things of heaven””, whereas “fleshly likings take a man . . .
far from the clear sight of spiritual things.” 1 *

“Animal-man merely gratifies an animal desire and knows

nothing of the delight of spiritual essences.” 1 * “Only by
annihilating and subduing the passions can the
understanding become divine.”**

“People think that we are in pain and great penance, but we

have more true delight in a day than others have in the
world all their lives .”* 1 “Spiritual comforts exceed all the
delights of the world and all pleasures of the flesh.”** Even
“although abstinences give some pain to the body, yet they
so lessen the power of bodily appetites and passions and so
increase our taste for spiritual joys, that even these
severities . . . add to the enjoyment of our lives.”**

“No bodily and fleshly pleasure can ever take place without
spiritual loss .” 14 Even “a longing after sensual pleasures is
unapt for spiritual enjoyments.”** Hence “we must purif)
ourselves from the affections which we have to venial
acts”**; for “these affections . . . weaken the powers of the
spirit.”**

“Perfection cannot be attained . . . until all passions and

fleshly lusts are burnt out”**; so that only “those who fight
against their own passions . . . may conquer and obtain
perfection.”**

“All who follow the lust of the flesh are dead in soul.”** To
live the spiritual life of the soul “farewell must be said to all
that delights the senses; the pleasures of the flesh must be
utterly renounced .”* 1 For “as fire and water will not mix, so
spirituality and carnality cannot be experienced together.”**

All these quotations are from Christian mystics only. But

mystics have existed in every religion, and also independent
of established forms of religion. The similarity of their
experiences is one of the most convincing indications that
all forms of religion and of spiritual philosophy are based on
a single truth — on one reality, which the mystic in his
highest state of contemplation seeks to approach.

Quotations from other mystics, given elsewhere, will supply

additional proof that there is one requirement which is
unanimously acknowledged to be indispensable for their
work, and which no true mystic has ever failed to fulfill.
“They have transcended the sense-world in order to live on
high levels the spiritual life.”**

The mystics often may have been one-sided in their

concentrated effort to reach a spiritualized consciousness.
But just as all others who have aspired to spiritual heights
they “have recognized the great transmutability of the
sexual libido”* 4 , and they have exemplified it as the most
essential need for spiritual development.

Not only to mystics but to all who seek to acquire greater

and lasting happiness through higher evolutionary
attainment applies the rule that within oneself “animal-man
must be killed to make room for spiritual man.”**

*****

1 Underhill, Mysticism, I, iv, 84.

* Same as *, I, iii, 53.

9 Buckham, Mysticism and Modern Life, i, 31.

4 Smith, Early Mysticism , i, 5.

9 Carrel, Man the Unknown , iv, 136.

• Same as 4 , i, 7.

7 Catholic Encyclopedia, I, 768.

9 Nicholson, Mystics of Islam, 6.

9 Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious, III, 37.

10 Atkinson and Beals, Regenerative Power, iv, 76.

11 Lucka, Eros, II, iii, 275.

19 Bbsant, “Mysticism, True and False”; in: Lucifer , IX, 181.

19 Silberbr, Problems of Mysticism, III, 303.

14 Theologia Germanica, xiv, 45.

18 Ruysbroeck, The Adornment 0} the Spiritual Marriage, I,
xii, 38.

16 Tauler, Postilla, ia.

17 Ruysbroeck, Reflections from the Mirror of a Mystic, 50;

quoted in:

Herman, Meaning and Value of Mysticism , 192.

12 Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, I, viii, 106.

lf Boehms, “Of the Incarnation”, I, vii, 6; in his Sammtliche

Werke,

VI, 194.

20 John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, II, v, a.

21 Rolle, “The Form of Living”, ii ; in his Select Works, ao. n

Thomas X Kempis, Imitation of Christ, II, x, 1.

22 Law, A Serious Call, xi, 128.

24 Eckhart, Sermons, vi, 50.

23 Taylor, Holy Living and Dying, ii, 44.

20 Francis of Sales, The Devout Life, xxii, 45.

27 Same as *, xxii, 46.

28 Same sls M , II, i, 174.

29 Molinos, The Spiritual Guide, I, iv, 79.

20 Same as 14 , xvi, 50.

21 Blosius, A Short Rule, 3.

22 St Bernard; quoted in: Lucka, Eros, II, ii, 158.

22 Same as 1 , I, ii, 35.

24 Same as 12 , III, 303.

25 Eckarts hausen, The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, ii, 18.

 LVIII
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

“The serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea.’*

— Eddy, Science and Health & vi ,

564.3°

Amongst modern religious movements Christian Science

demands attention. Having introduced applied metaphysics
into orthodox religion, it analyzes every subject in a way
characteristically its own. And from its unusual viewpoint it
joins other religions in supporting, in its highest teachings,
the ideal of sexual purity. Its founder’s emphatic utterances
on this ideal are particularly noteworthy, because they
embody a restatement of the early Christian viewpoint, after
verification by a knowledge of modem psychology.

Holding that “it is not wise to take a halting and halfway

position” 1 , “Christian Science commands man ... to
conquer lust with chastity.”* It warns against “the downward
tendencies ... of sensualism and impurity.”* It even holds
that essentially ‘celibacy is nearer right than marriage .’ 4

As of every other religion so of Christian Science the purpose

is to spiritualize its adherents in its own way. But then,
“there is but one way . . . which leads to spiritual being.”*
Since “there is no sensuality in spirit”*, “spirit . . . is [only]
heard when the senses are silent .” 7 “The flesh and spirit
can no more unite in action than good can coincide with evil
.” 8
Those who “have hope in immortality”*, as Christian
Scientists have, must keep in mind that “nothing sensual . . .
is immortal” 18 ; hence everything that in the least savors of
sensuality must be extirpated before the hoped for
immortality can be attained.

According to the teachings of Christian Science “corporeal

sense is the serpent .” 11 And more definitely in its
literature the serpent is identified with lust. For the manual
speaks of “that old serpent whose name is devil” 1 *, and
then defines “devil . . . [amongst other things as] the lust of
the flesh .” 18 Therefore the statement that “the serpent . . .
will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea ” 14 again brings
out that any remnant of sensuality is looked upon as an
obstruction to spirituality.

Moreover there is the very practical consideration that “if

sexual propensities were dominated by Christian love for
both the living and the unborn — a subject on which
Christian Science is emphatic — many existing charitable
societies would have no reason to be .” 18 For there can be
no doubt that there would be fewer hospital and asylum
cases, fewer ailing or deserted babies, fewer unfit adults to
be taken care of by charity, if considerations of love ruled
humanity’s sexual expression.

So, from various angles sexual purity is insisted on; and

“purity, from the Christian Science standpoint, is to be
realized through an identification with and a longing and
love for purity .” 18

In popular thought Christian Science is best known for its

method of spiritual or mental healing.

Undoubtedly “the extent to which physical health depends

upon the mastery of the spirit over the body has not yet
been fully realized.”" It cannot be realized and successfully
demonstrated until a high degree of sexual purity has made
spiritual development possible.

Spiritual, mental, or magnetic healing can be accomplished

only by the most pure. If Jesus obtained miraculous results in
healing in such ways, it was possible to him because “there
never lived a man so far removed from appetites and
passions as the Nazarene .” 18

Healers who lack that perfect purity may succeed in raising

physical health vibrations in a patient. But along with this
they are liable to transmit to the subject some of their own
mixed emanations of doubtful purity, which are likely to
prove detrimental in other than physical ways.

To emulate the spiritual healing powers of the Christ it is

prerequisite to emulate his perfect purity. This ideal state
can be attained by any one who really, in every way, will

“abide by the morale of absolute Christian Science — [which

consists of] self-abnegation and purity.” 1 * Only by self-
abnegation and purity, including perfect sexual purity, can
one demonstrate that “it is chastity and purity . . . which
really attest to the divine origin and operation of Christian
Science.”**

*****

I Eddy, Science and Health, vii, 167.

3 Same as *, xii, 405. s Same as l 9 x, 272.

4 Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings, viii, 288.

8 Same as x , vii, 167.

8 Same as 1 , iv, 71.

7 Same as *, >v, 89.

8 Same as vii, 167.

9 Same as 1 , xii, 388.

18 Same as l 9 x, 296.

II Same as l , xv, 533. u Same as l 9 xvi, 563.

13 Same as l , xvii, 584.

14 Same as l , xv, 534.

18 Mark Twain, Christian Science, I, vii, 81.

18 Wilson, “Christian Science and the Sex Question”; in: The

Outlook, CV, ii, 99.

17 Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, II, iv, 180.

18 Same as l , ii, 53.

19 Same as 4 , viii, 298.

30 Same as l 9 x, 272.
 LIX
ISLAM

“Whoever is afflicted with lust is veiled from all spiritual

things."

— Al Hujwiri, Kashf ALMahjub, ,, xiv, 209 .

No religion can be judged by what the masses have made of

its teachings. One has to look for its highest aspect in the
lives and the writings of its wisest and most saintly
adherents.

Among the Mohammedans the saintliest and wisest men and

women have always been the Sufis, the mystics of Islam,
“whose souls have been freed from the defilement of the
flesh .” 1 Their existence dates back to the days of their
Prophet ; and already “the early Sufis wanted to be free from
all that concerned the phenomenal world in order to be free
for the world of spiritual things.”* Very soon “the Sufis
realized the advantage of celibacy for the mystic”*;
therefore “sufism was founded on celibacy .” 4 “Sufism is ...
to keep far from the claims of the senses and to adhere to
spiritual qualities.”*

“The natural desires in the Sufi are bridled with the bridle of
knowledge”*; for he recognizes that while “man is
continually being directed by intellect and passion into
contrary ways . . . passion is a false guide, and he is
commanded to resist it.”*

The Prophet himself had said: “Thy worst enemy is thy nafs,
which is between thy two sides.”* Nafs is “the seat of
passion and lust ... It constitutes the great obstacle to
attainment.”* “Mortification of the nafs is the chief work of
devotion . . . No disciple who neglects this duty will ever
learn the rudiments of sufism. The principle of mortification
is that the nafs should be weaned from those things to which
it is accustomed, that it shall be brought to recognize . . . the
impurity of its actions .” 10

“Self-mortification as advanced Sufis understand it is a

moral transmutation of the inner man .” 11 They hold that
“complete independence from the carnal self ... is a state
which, if lost, means loss of eternal bliss.” 1 * Their concept
of fana — which in some respects closely coincides with the
Buddhist’s idea of nirvana — “involves the extinction of all
passions and desires.” 1 *

The Sufis are not the only Mohammedans who are convinced
that sexual acts interfere with spiritual expression. “Among
the Turks the order of Calenders is bound to perpetual
virginity .” 14 “The Moors say that . . . when one is sexually
unclean . . . the reciting of passages of the Koran is of no
avail” 1 ®; and “a person who is sexually unclean is not
allowed to pray.” 1 *

Also any Mohammedan “would not dare to approach the

sanctuary of a saint in a state of sexual uncleanness.” 1 *
And in regard to the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every good
Mohammedan aspires to undertake, the Koran admonishes
that “whosoever purposeth to go on pilgrimage, let him not
know a woman nor transgress during the pilgrimage.” 1 *

“The charge that Mohammed allowed men to pander to their

passions is ludicrous. He imposed fasts upon every one of his
followers to assist them to detach themselves from the
passions. He banned alcoholic drinks in order to assist their
efforts at self-control.” 1 * “Long and frequent periods of
sexual abstinence are enjoined. There must for instance be
no sexual intercourse . . . during the thirty days of the
Ramedan fast.”*® Although this rule is not strictly
prescribed in the Koran, it is so understood by the Sufis who
hold that “the religious practice of fasting . . . involves not
only keeping the belly without food and drink, but also
guarding the eye from lustful looks . . . the tongue from foul
words, and the body from following after worldly things .”* 1
Only “ one who acts in this manner is truly keeping his
fast.”** And “in addition to the fast the Prophet' enforced . . .
forms of selfdiscipline, imposed with the aim of
subordinating the habits of the body to the spiritual welfare
of the soul.”**

Whatever concessions Mohammedanism as it is practised

may have made to the masses, it nevertheless shows in its
teachings an understanding of the fact that “the
abandonment of sensual desires . . . draws the soul towards
heaven .”* 4

In this way at least the esotericists among the

Mohammedans reaffirm the basic law that a strict
purification of the sexual life is absolutely necessary for
progressed evolutionary unfoldment.

*****

1 Al Nuri ; quoted in **, viii, 168. s Smith, Rabi'a the Mystic,

ix, 85.

8 Same as 8 , xiii, 167.

4 Al-Hujwiri, Kashf al Mahjub, xxiii, 364.

5 Al Junayd; quoted in **, viii, 168.

4 Suhrawardi, Awarif al-Mafarif, ii, 161 ; quoted in s , xiii,

169.
7 Same as 4 , xiv, 207.

8 Mohammed; quoted in 9 , i, 39.

9 Nicholson, Mystics of Islam, i, 39.

10 Same as 9 , i, 40.

11 Same as 9 , i, 40.

18 Abu Nu'aym, Hilya ; quoted in 8 , ix, 81.

13 Same as 9 , i, 19.

14 Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy, i, 22.

15 Westermarck, The Origin and Development of Moral

Ideas, II, xli, 418.

16 Westermarck, Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco, x, 335. lT

Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, I, xi, 410.

w The Koran, ii, 193.

19 Brunton, A Search in Secret Egypt, ix, 154.

80 Heard; quoted in: Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex,

III, 274.

81 Same as 4 , xxi, 320.

88 Same as 4 , xxi, 321.

88 Smith, Early Mysticism, vii, 126.

84 Rumi, The Masnavi, (II), I, 112.

 LX
JUDAISM

“If man purifies himself he will receive the assistance of the

holy soul” — The Zohar,I,622

“The sanctity of perfect continence . . . may be traced

through the most distant ages and the most various creeds”
1 , including Judaism.

It may be true that “Judaism was in some respects the least

ascetic of religions, but in it appear prophets . . . whose lives
were severely austere.”* Moreover, • “that the Jews . . .
entertained ideas of peculiar sanctity as attaching to the
restraint of the animal passion is shown ... by the vows of
continence of the Pharisees.’”

Whole Hebrew sects have “regarded virginity as the ideal of

sanctity .” 4 Especially “the Essenes . . . lived in a condition
of celibacy”*; while “the fear of . . . reinforcing the lower
appetites of the human being inspired the vegetarianism of
the Jewish Therapeutae.”* “In the Nazarenes too the Jews
possessed such a body of men.’”

The Old Testament indicates that “among the Hebrews we

find the restriction [of sexual intercourse] in connection with
the theophany at Sinai, and with the use of consecrated
bread.”* “Those who celebrate the Passover also are bidden
to do so with their loins mortified .” 9 “Strict continence was
required of the Hebrew congregation . . . before entering the
temple .” 10 And there is mention of “a similar abstinence
being imposed by the old law on the Levites during their
term of service in the temple .” 11 Also “when the Israelites
marched forth to war they were bound by certain rules of
ceremonial purity . . . and they had to practise continence.”
1*

Under all circumstances, over against all other views,

Judaism holds firmly to the purity of the human being.” 1 * It
is even claimed that “Jewish ethics excels all other ethical
systems in its insistence on purity . . . Any unchaste look,
thought or act . . . and all profanity of speech is declared to
be an unpardonable offense .” 14

Conclusive proof of the Hebrews’ appreciation of sexual

abstinence can be found in the Talmud, which “treats of the
common law, customs and ritual considered essential to the
outward life of the Israelite.” 1 *

“The Torah [teaching, or law] has been revealed only for the
purpose of purifying human beings .” 14 And more
effectively than anything else, “abstinence leads to purity,
and purity leads to holiness .” 11 Therefore “be temperate
and chaste” 18 , and “purify and sanctify thyself from all
iniquity .” 18

. A splendid instance of Talmudic wisdom in regard to sexual

purity is contained in the lines stating that “there is a small
organ in the human body which is always hungry if one tries
to satisfy it, and always satisfied if one starves it .” 80

In their entirety, “the laws have been given to Israel to

purify it and to cleanse it from fleshly appetites .” 81

Hebrew philosophers too have strongly emphasized the

need of sexual purification.

Philo for instance “called attention to the moral disease

seated in the flesh .” 88 He warned that “the passions injure
the mind” 88 , and that “their onset is swift and difficult to
withstand .” 84 He affirmed that “the perfect man must be
pure in every word and in every action in his whole life.” 8 *
Maimonides reminded his readers of the fact that “the
Rabbis . . . command that man should conquer his desires .”
88 And he held that “those who wish to be men in truth . . .
must constantly endeavor to reduce the wants of the body,
such as . . . cohabiting .” 81

Later Hebrew thinkers made it clear that “moral

regeneration must be an outgrowth of one’s own power; by
great struggles must one obtain . . . spiritual equilibrium .”
88 “Despite the sensual propensity innate in man’s nature
he is vested with the power of conquering it .” 88 “The
sensuous desire in the body is . . . never a compulsion .” 80
Therefore one must “lend no ear to appetite” 81 , and “be
chaste in private even as in the market-place .” 88

In Judaism as in other religions the deepest and most

valuable wisdom is to be found in its esoteric teachings. The
Hebrew secret science, known as the Qabbalah, can be
found in its most accessible form in the Zohar, which “is a
Qabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch wherein the
entire system of the Qabbalah is compiled.”"

In the Zohar it is stated that “the mighty evil serpent . . .

roams about in the world, and thus the child of man
becomes polluted .” 34 “When that strong serpent begins to
arise, woe then unto thee!”" Only “when man comes to
cleanse himself . . . the holy soul sanctifies him.”" “The good
spirit comes to him from the day he becomes pure.”" But “at
the time man deviates from this way . . . the holy soul no
longer has a connection with him.”"

Knowing these sayings in the Zohar to be statements of a

universal law, “the original Qabbalistic companions led an
ascetic and holy life . . . lest the mysterious and occult
science might prove injurious to all concerned.”"
After all, the most powerful enunciation of nature’s law that
spirituality cannot be combined with sexual indulgence is
contained in a masterpiece of Hebrew literature, namely in
the allegory of Adam and Eve and the serpent.

“By the serpent the Jews typified the enemy of mankind .”

40 And “according to rabbinical tradition the serpent is the
symbol of the sexual passion .” 41 Hence the temptation by
the serpent characterizes mankind’s yielding to the sexual
impulse for self-gratification as its surrender to the
antagonist of higher human attainment.

“The allegory of Adam [and Eve] being driven away from the
Tree of Life means . . . that the race abused the mystery of
life and dragged it down into the region of animalism and
bestiality .” 43

This archaic Hebrew story records the fact that sexual

indulgence has caused humanity to be driven from paradise,
that is: from a purely spiritual manner of living. It teaches,
by deduction, that the only way to regain a paradisical
spiritual existence is along the path of sexual purification.
This lesson is the greatest gift of Judaism to the world.

*****

1 Lecky, History of European Morals, I, i, 105.

1 Baring-Gould, Origin and Development of Religious Belief,

I, xvii, 353. 8 Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy, i, 22.

I Same as 1 , I, i, 109.

8 Schur£, The Great Initiates, II, 285.

8 Encycl. Britannica , (14th ed.), II, 499.

T Foerstbr, Marriage and the Sex Problem, I, ix, 142.

8 Smith, Lectures on the Religions of the Semites, 455.

9 , Jerome, Select Letters, xxii, n.

10 Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 48.

II Same as 8 , iv, 66.

18 Frazer, The Golden Bough, III, iv, 157.

18 Bernfeld, Foundations of Jewish Ethics, iii, 94.

14 Kohler, Jewish Theology, lix, 490.

18 Myer, The Qabbalah, Introduction, vii.

16 The Talmud, Bereshit Rabbah, c, 44; quoted in l8 , i, 29.

lT The Talmud, Abodah Z ara h , 20b; quoted in 18 , vii, 220.

18 The Talmud, Sifra to Leviticus, xix, 2 ; quoted in 18 , vii,

219.

19 The Talmud, Berakot, 17a; in: Cohen, The Babylonian

Talmud:

Tractate Berakot, ii, 111.

80 The Talmud, Sanhedrin, 107a; quoted in: Talmey, Love,

xxiv, 403.

81 The Talmud, Vayyikra Rabbah, c, 13; quoted in: 1S , i, 29.

88 Angus, Mystery Religions and Christianity, v, 211.

83 Philo Judaeus, On the Allegories of the Sacred Laws, II, iv;

in his
Works, I, 83.

84 Same as **, II, iv.

85 Philo Judaeus, On the Life of Moses , III, xvii; in his Works,

III, 105.

86 Maimonides, Eight Chapters on Ethics, vi, 76.

87 Maimonides, Moreh, iii, 8; quoted in 88 , v, 71.

88 Dienemann, Judentum und Christentum, 34; quoted in ls

, iv, 114.

89 Geiger, Das Judentum und seine Geschichte, I, 145;

quoted in 18 , iv, 115. 80 Same as 14 , xxxiv, 215.

31 Ybhudah, Rokeach ; quoted in 1S , i, 30.

88 Eleasar, The Book of the Pious, 2; quoted in 1S , ii, 78.

33 Same as 18 , ii, 12.

84 The Z°h ar > HI, 46b; quoted in 15 , xviii, 344.

88 Same as 84 , “Ha Idra Zuta Qadisha”, ix, 368; quoted in:

Mathers, The Kabbalah Unveiled, 295.

86 Same as 34 , I, 62a; quoted in 15 , xix, 406.

37 Same as 84 , I, 165b; quoted in 15 , xviii, 347.

38 Same as 34 , III, 46b; quoted in 1C , xviii, 344.

39 Same as 15 , ii, 35.

40 Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient

Egyptians, V, xiv, 244.
41 Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, xxiii, 477.

48 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 226.

48 Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 193.

 LXI
THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT

M Let the state of the shining ones be obtained ... in place of

the satisfying of the longing of lust*'

— Book of the Dead,clxxv.

Only a fragmentary knowledge has been uncovered about

ancient Egypt. But even from the fragments can the fact be
verified that the Egyptians possessed deep knowledge
about the evolutionary and the regenerative importance of
sexual continence.

Their greatest spiritual leader was Thoth, better known as

Hermes, the name given to him by the Greeks. “The Book of
Thoth . . . contained the secret processes by which the
regeneration of humanity was to be accomplished .” 1 It
taught that “no man can be saved without regeneration” 1 ,
and that this regeneration or “spiritual rebirth is an escape
from the delusions of the body” 1 , which “has with mass of
matter blocked the senses and crammed them full of loath*
some lust.”*

“All that in man is animal is proner unto bad than unto

good”*; and “where there’s passion, nowhere is there good
... for where is night, day is nowhere.”* Thus “passions and
desires are ills exceeding great’”; but “greatest ill of all is
that each of these things is thought down here to be the
greatest good .” 1

However, it is possible to free oneself from these ills —

namely by “continence . . . the power against desire.’” Just
“throw out of work the body’s senses, and thy divinity shall
come to birth.” 1 * Then “passion and desire withdraw . . .
and thus it is that man does speed thereafter upwards to the
harmony .” 11 And then “the knowledge of joy has come,
and on its coming sorrow flees away.” u

Thus taught Thrice-Greatest Hermes.

Other indications of similar knowledge can be found in the

Book of the Dead , which is “the general body of texts
having reference to the burial of the dead and to the new
life in the world beyond the grave, which texts were in use
among the Egyptians since about 4500 B. C.” “

It contains such suggestive sections as: “The chapter of

repulsing the serpent”* 4 , and “The chapter of a man not
being bitten by a serpent.” 18 It speaks of “the serpent . . .
coiled round a lotus flower” 1 * — this flower symbolizing
man, for the deceased is saying: “I am the pure lotus.” 1T

In the chapter generally known as “The Negative

Confession” 1 * the person who has left the physical body
appears as an applicant for spiritual instruction. To prove his
worthiness he is saying: “I have not . . . defiled my body” 18
, “I have not committed fornication”**, “I have not polluted
myself”* 1 , “I have not lusted . . . nor have I done any other
abominable thing”**; “I am pure, I am pure, I am pure.

Triumphant sounds the announcement in another part of the

Book of the Dead : “The Apophis is overthrown!”* 4 Now,
“Apophis is the serpent . . . the symbol of human passions.”
5 Also “Apophis is the enemy of Ra (who is Light).”** The
passions are ever known as the enemies of spiritual
enlightenment.

Thus taught the Book of the Dead ; and accordingly “the

destruction of the serpent . . . frequently occurs in the
Egyptian sculptures.”"
That the power of sexual purity was recognized in
ecclesiastic circles is proven by the fact that “chastity and
purifications were common to all the Egyptian priests.”**

And that moreover the efficacy of abstinence was popularly

acknowledged becomes apparent when one reads that
“when any king died all the inhabitants of Egypt united in
mourning for him for seventy-two days . . . and no one would
have dared to indulge in sexual intercourse during that
time.”**

Thus in ancient Egypt as elsewhere was abstinence from

sexual acts known to have an efficacious influence
extending far beyond the physical realm.

*****

1 Hall, Encycl. Outline of Symbolical Philosophy, xxxviii.

* Hermes, The Divine Pymander, VII, i ; (Everard’s tranil.,

41).

8 Hermes, Poimandres, XIII, 13; quoted in: Angus, Mystery

Religions, iii, 98.

4 Hermes, Corpus Hermeticum, VII, 3; in: Mead, Thrice-

Greatest Hermes, II, 121.

8 Hermes, Excerpts by Stobaeus, i, 17; in: Mead, Thrice-

Greatest Hermes, III, 12.

• Same as 4 , VI, 2.

7 Same as 4 , XII, 4.

8 Same as 4 , VI, 3.

8 Same as 4 , XIII, 9.
18 Same as 4 , XIII, 7.

11 Same as 4 , I, 24-25.

18 Same as 4 , XIII, 8.

18 Budge, The Book of the Dead, Introduction, xi.

14 The Book of the Dead, xxxix; in ls , Introd. xxxv.

15 Same as 14 , xxxiv; in: 1S , Introd. xxxiv.

16 Same as 14 , xvii; in: u , 280.

17 Same as 14 , lxxxi, A, 1 ; in: 18 , 340.

18 Same as 14 , cxxv; in: 13 , 347.

18 Same as 14 , cxxv, 15; in; 1S , 346.

80 Same as 14 , cxxv, 11 ; in: 18 , 348.

81 Same as 14 , cxxv, 22; in: 18 , 348.

88 Same as 14 , cxxv, 27; in: 18 , 350.

88 Same as 14 , cxxv, 21 ; in: 18 , 346.

84 Same as 14 , xxxix; quoted in K , II, 621.

88 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 621.

88 Same as M , II, 621.

87 Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient

Egyptians, IV, xiii, 436.

88 Porphyry, De Abstinentia, IV, 7.

88 Diodorus, Library of History, I, lxxii, 249.
 LXII
HINDUISM

“ Spiritual wisdom is the fruit of indifference to sensual

pleasures.**

— Adhyatma Upanishad,i,5

The sacred books of the Hindus, which originated in more

ancient times than any other known records, contain an
inexhaustible store of wisdom. All of the most profound
religious and spiritually philosophic ideas of the Occident as
well as of the Orient can be traced back to this source. “In
the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so
elevating as that of the Upanishads” 1 ; and these
themselves are but commentaries on the still deeper Vedas.

“From the earliest Vedic age Hindu thought turned to . . .

annihilations of the carnal desires.”* Even in immemorial
times the fact was well known that “only through a chaste
life can a student find the sacred knowledge.”* “A command
over our passions ... is declared by the Vedas to be
indispensable in the mind’s approximation to the divine.” 4
Sexual purity was held to be so imperative for an
understanding of things spiritual that several of the
Upanishads close with a remark to the effect that “the
supreme mystery of the Vedas is not to be declared to those
whose senses are not subdued.”®

To grow up to be a worthy member of his caste the young

Hindu was given in full charge of a guru (teacher), who
considered it “a most fortunate circumstance if he found in
his pupil a natural aptitude for the pure life”*, since only “he
who is . . . ever pure reaches the goal.”* “Neither the study
of the Vedas . . . nor austerities ever procure attainment to
one whose heart is contaminated by sensuality.”® During
the whole period of apprenticeship, which lasted until after
his twentieth year, the youth was bound by vow to the
‘Rules of Studentship’, one of the strictest of which reads:
“He shall preserve his chastity.”*

Those who wished to devote themselves to the highest

possible spiritual existence preserved their undefiled
juvenile chastity through the rest of life. An outstanding
modem example of this was the saintly Ramakrishna, who in
the nineteenth century taught and exemplified a return to
the original rules of purity of orthodox Hinduism. “He was a
triumphant example, a living realization of the complete
conquest of lust.” 1 ® And long before him “many
thousands . . . who were chaste from their youth have gone
to highest heaven without continuing the race .” 11 Also “for
the women whose temperament induced them to remain
single and unmarried the life of the celibate was open in the
same way as for the men” 1 *; “there were female ascetics as
well as male.” 1 *

But for the majority the student period was followed by that
of a householder. The adult, “to discharge his duty to society
. . . must beget children, not only that the race might be
continued but also that bodies might be supplied by parents
devoted to the ideal of the religious or philosophic life, so
that advanced souls might find birth in favorable conditions.
This is the ancient rule laid down by the Manu of the Aryan
Hindus .” 14

The ‘Laws of Manu’ were given by this great teacher of the

Aryan race “for the training of a nation of energetic,
powerful, nobly mannered and dignified men.” 1 ® In their
marriage “great temperance in sexual relations was
enjoined” 1 * by these laws, practically intended to restrict
sexual congress as closely as possible to procreative
purposes only. “Wise and grand, far-seeing and morally
beneficent are the laws of Manu on connubial life, when
compared with the license tacitly allowed to man in [so-
called] civilized countries .” 17 Based on these laws “the
noblest ideal of married life ever given to the world is found
in Hinduism, of husband and wife drawn together by
spiritual affinity rather than by fleshly desire . . . and joined
for spiritual growth.” 1 ®

After the service to the race was accomplished, after the

children grew up, the parents were free to go into seclusion,
taking up “the life in the forest, husband and wife . . .
leading there a life of peaceful contemplation” 1 *, and

Thus the life of the spiritually-minded Hindu was normally

passed in an ideal way, “in a series of gradually intensifying
ascetic stages, through which he was more and more
purified from all earthly attachment . . . The entire history of
mankind has not produced much that approaches in
grandeur to this thought .”* 1 And back of it, always, is “the
conviction that, to become perfect, the sex idea must go.”**

*****

1 Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paralipomena, II, xvi, 184.

1 Barjno-Gould, Origin and Development of Religious Belief,

I, xvii, 344.

3 Chandogya Upanishad, VIII, v, i; in: Hume, The Thirteen

Principal

Upanishads, 266.

4 Thoreau, Walden, xi, 243.

9 Svetasvatara Upanishad, VI, 22; in: Sacred Books of the
East , XV, 267.

See also : Maitri Upanishad, VI, 29; and Brihad-A rany aka
Upanishad, VI, iii, 12.

6 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 479.

T Katha Upanishad, I, iii, 8; in: Tatya, The Twelve Principal

Upanishads, 4 » 7

8 Laws of Manu, II, 97; in: Sacred Books of the East, XXV, 47.

9 Apastamba, I, i, 2 ; in: Sacred Books of the East, II, 8.

10 V iyekananda. My Master, 61.

11 Same as 8 , V, 159.

18 Das, The Science of Social Organization, iv, 213.

13 Bbsant, Ancient Ideals in Modern Life, iv, 118.

14 Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, II, 73.

15 Advanced Textbook of Hindu Religion and Ethics, vi, 225.

19 Same as 15 , vi, 229.

17 Same as 6 , II, 429.

18 Besant, Pour Great Religions, 43.

19 Same as 18 , 44.

80 Same as 8 , VI, 49.

81 Dbussen, Philosophy of the Upanishads, xvi, 367.

88 Same as 10 , 45.
 LXIII
BUDDHISM

“ Cut down the whole forest of lust! When you have cut
down every tree and every shrub, then you will be free!”

— Buddha, Dhammapada,xx,283.

Nowhere clearer, stronger, or more persistently has perfect

chastity been exhorted than in the teachings of the Buddha.
“The Buddha’s foremost aim was to lead human beings to
salvation by teaching them to practise the greatest purity .”
1

“Buddhism, in its origin at least, is an offshoot of

Hinduism”*, which had already proclaimed the ideal of the
purified life. But “at the time of the Buddha . . . the purer
Vedic teaching was smothered under a mass of fables . . .
Rite and ceremonial were all.”* “Moral life suffered since
metaphysical subtleties . . . absorbed the energies of the
people .” 4 Even those of the priestly caste, “the Brahmanas
. . . had fallen into the power of sensual pleasures.”*

Under such conditions “it was the task of the Buddha to

provide a firm foundation for morality.”* He “reaffirmed the
ancient ideal, the essence . . . consisting in spiritual
development .” 7 In himself “we have a seer of the highest,
most developed spiritual power” 8 , who “believed in the
liberating influence of ethical discipline.”*

However, in our days as in those of the Buddha, “his

doctrine will not be easily understood by beings that are lost
in lust .” 10 Such as these will hardly be found willing to
acknowledge that “when a person has not got rid of . . . the
attraction to lusts ... he has not yet broken through the first
bondage in which the spirit is held .” 11

“Buddhism regards sensuality as altogether incompatible

with wisdom” 1 *, with that intuitive spiritual knowledge
which “is the greatest treasure of man.” 1 * Only “when we
have the deeper illumination bom of moral fife we shall have
the true enlightenment” 14 , the true wisdom. “Only he who
knows that lusts have a short taste and cause pain, is
wise.15

Hence “the life of chastity is lived ... for the purpose of

insight and thorough knowledge.” 1 ' Yet not for this purpose
only, but also “for the sake of properly making an end of
misery .” 17

More attractive than wisdom to most people is happiness

and liberation from suffering.

On this the Buddha’s teachings are particularly

concentrated. How to free mankind from misery was the
ultimate purpose of his searchings, and it is the essential
part of his message. To be sure, “he did not offer any cheap
relief . . . There is no appeal to human selfishness, for
Buddhism demands a rigorous renunciation of all the
pleasures most men care for.” 1 ' However it “not only takes
away . . . it provides an irreplaceable substitute for what is
so taken” 1 ', a substitute in the form of the superb joy that
goes with freedom from suffering.

Having found that “the origin of misery is desire . . .

especially desire for sensual pleasure”* 0 , the Buddha
taught that “the noble truth of the cessation of misery ... is
the complete fading out of this desire .”* 1 “From him who
overcomes this fierce thirst . . . sufferings fall off like
waterdrops from a lotus leaf.”** Therefore “if one longs for
happiness, let him cast off all desires”**; for only he “who
delights in purity . . . gradually arrives at felicity .”* 4
“Freedom from lust . . . this truly is the highest happiness.”**
“Those who are set free through the entire destruction of
craving, only they have attained the ideal.”**

It was not to his advanced disciples alone, not for the monks
alone, but for the sake of all who would free themselves from
misery and attain the greatest possible happiness, that the
Buddha said: “I proclaim the annihilation of lust ... I teach
the doing away with lust .”* 7

Often heard is the criticism that in the concept of Nirvana

the Buddha taught total annihilation. But “Nirvana does not
mean a complete blowing out of the individual soul, but
rather . . . the subsiding of all human passions.”**

In regard to this the Buddha has stated: “It is true that I

preach extinction, but only the extinction of . . . lust.”27

“One need not have his mortal body die to avoid the
clutches of concupiscence.”" “When the inward fires of lust
are extinguished, then one has entered into Nirvana . . . This
is the Lesson of Lessons .” 11

*****

1 Blavatsky, Tht Secret Doctrine, III, 414.

1 Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, I, vii, 361.

# Beck, The Story of Oriental Philosophy, xi, 16a.

4 Same at 4 , I, viii, 35a.

5 Sutta Sipata, II, vii, 3a; in: Sacred Books of the East, X (II),
5a.
• Same at a , I, vii, 357.

T Bbsant, Pour Great Religions , 183.

4 Same at 4 , xi, 167.

9 Same as *, I, vii, 365.

19 Mahavagga, I, v, 3; in: Sacred Books of the East, XIII, 85.

II Kethokila Sutta, 8; in: Sacred Books of the East, XI, 885.

14 Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, I, xi, 398.

14 Udanavarga, I, vi, 5.

14 Same at 4 , I, vii, 465.

15 Dhammapada, XIV, 186; in: Sacred Books of the East, X

(I), 31.

14 Iti-vuttaka, 36; quoted in: Hastings, Encycl. of Religion

and Ethics, HI, 490 .

17 Same at 1§ , 107.

14 Same at 4 , I, vii, 473.

19 Dahlke, Buddhism, xvii, 845.

40 Digha Sikaya, xxii, 19; in: Warren, Buddhism in

Translations, iv, 370.

41 Same at ", xxii, ao.

44 Same at «, XXIV, 336.

43 Same as 1S , I, ii, 1a.

44 Same at 1S , I, iv, a8.

48 Same at 10 , I, iii, 3.

44 Same at ", xxi, 6; in: Rhys Davids, Sacred Books of the

Buddhists, III, 316.

47 Same at 10 , VI, xxxi, 7-8.

49 Muller, Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, viii, 373.

49 Buddha, Sermon to Sadhu-Simha; in: Taoore, Sadhana, ii,

38.

40 Buddha, A Discourse ; in *, III, 393.

41 Beck, The Splendor of Asia, xviii, aa6.

 LXIV
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

“ When a man follows . . . the way of the body, true wisdom

is not bom within him.”

—Sankaracharya, Crest Jewel of Wisdom,273.

“Man’s never-ceasing effort to . . . raise himself above the

level of the beast to a moral and spiritual height finds a
striking illustration in India ” 1 — not only in its religions but
also in its great philosophical systems, towards which many
of the foremost thinkers of the Occident have turned for
inspiration. “Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans . .
. appears faltering and feeble in comparison with the
abundant light and vigor of the Oriental idealism.”*
Philosophy in India as elsewhere stands apart from religious
creed and doctrine, from devotions and other observances;
but in common with the highest aspect of all religion
“philosophy in India is essentially spiritual.”* It “is
recommended not as with us for the sake of knowledge, but
for the highest purpose that man can strive after in this life”
4 , which is a realization of spiritual understanding.

This it seeks to attain through contemplation, for which a

clarified mind is deemed indispensable. For the purpose of
preparing the mind to grasp the deepest abstract
conceptions its profound systems have always contained
simple, morally uplifting maxims for practical application, in
which the basic idea has never been lost sight of that
“ethical perfection is the first step towards spiritual
knowledge .” 8
Above all, strikingly noticeable, is “the sublimity with which
. . . Indian philosophy expatiates upon and demands the
removal of sensuality.”* “The ancient philosophers of India . .
. preached as with a voice of thunder to subdue the passions
of the senses .” 7 They call “lust and temptation . . . the
sharks in the river of life” 8 , and remark that “he who
rejoices in the objects of senses and passions is like a thirsty
man drinking poison to quench his thirst.”* They hold that
“the pleasures that are contact-bom . . . not in these may
engage the wise .” 10 And in their flowery way they state
that “as the dawning of the day is simultaneous with the
passing of the night, so is the dawning of true knowledge
simultaneous with the passing of desire .” 11

A person “who would bring his mind into a fit state for

contemplation must be devoid of desire and observe
invariably continence” 1 *; for only the mind of those “who
have controlled their senses can attain the spiritual
regions.” 1 * In this direction one’s very “aspiration ... is
stifled by the net of unspiritual desires .” 14

Through spiritual realization “every school of Indian

philosophy seeks liberation from the limits of painful
existence .” 15 In almost identical language they agree that
“liberation is nothing but the cessation of the impediments”
; and since passion in every form is pointed out as one of the
strongest impediments 17 , it is evident that he “who is
affected with passions cannot obtain liberation .” 18

“Fascination by the body ... is the great death for him who is
seeking liberation .” 18 “If you long ardently for liberation,
put sensuous desires away”* 0 , for just as “fire when fed
with fuel blazes forth”* 1 , so “one’s appetites are never
satiated by indulgence”** but are only increased by every
gratification.
The leading systems of philosophy in India “all undertake to
supply the means of knowing the nature of the Supreme
Being .”* 8 But in doing so they call attention to the fact
that “one who is drawn to earthly pleasures can never see
Brahma .”* 4 Only if “freed from passion . . . and purified in
the fire of wisdom, men have entered into a realization of
the Supreme .”* 5 Only “when one cherishes no desire . . .
then is one said to have attained to the state of Brahma .”* 5

“In still another respect all the leading systems of Indian

philosophy are alike: they always promise . . . the attainment
of the highest bliss that can be attained by man .”* 7 This
consists in “the felicity which arises from the destruction of
all desire.’”® And since “everything comes to the
purified”**, such felicity “surely comes to one . . . whose
passions and desires are subdued.”** Unfailingly “those who
have discarded all pleasures of the senses . . . attain the
supreme bliss .” S1

All of which shows that Indian philosophers, who with

unparallelled sagacity and profundity have reasoned the
matter out, come to the one conclusion: that for all spiritual
attainment “one must . . . free oneself from sensuality”", one
must become pure.

*****

1 Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy , II, xi, 766.

* Schlegel, Aesthetica and Miscellaneous Works, VIII, III, iv,

520.

3 Same as x , I, i, 24.

4 Muller, Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, viii, 370.

5 Same as l , I, i, 52.
6 Hegel, Philosophy of History, 124.

7 Muller, Three Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy, i, 14.

8 Mahabharata, Vana Parva, ccvi, 640.

9 Sankaracharya, Mahavahyadarpanam, 207; in: The

Theosophist,

XIV, 18.

10 Bhagavad Gita, v, 22.

11 Toga Vasishta; in: The Theosophical Review, XXV, 245.

13 Vishnu Pur ana, VI, viii, 652.

18 Same as 8 , Vana Parva, cclix, 771.

14 Viveka Chudamani, 275; in: The Theosophist, VII, 730.

15 Besant, Pour Great Religions, 25.

16 Samkhya Sutras, vi, 20.

17 Patanjali, Toga Sutras, II, 3.

18 Same as lfl , iv, 25.

19 Sankaracharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, 87.

90 Same as 19 , 84.

31 Same as 8 , Canti Parva, xvii, 5.

33 Same as 8 , Adi Parva, lxxv.

33 Same as 4 , ix, 449.

34 Same as 9 , 210.

35 Same as 10 , iv, 10.

34 Same as 8 , Canti Parva , xxvi, 14.

37 Same as 4 , viii, 370.

38 Same as 8 , Canti Parva, dxxiv, 48.

39 Same as 16 , iii, 29.

30 Same as 1# , vi, 27.

31 Same as 14 , 471.

33 Same as 8 , Vana Parva, ccxv, 666.

 LXV
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

“To be guileless and pure . . . this is the way to nourish the

spirit.'*

— Kwang-Tze, Kho-I,iii.

The way to a spiritualized existence, which has always been

the subject of every uplifting philosophy as well as of
religion, has long been known in China as the Tao.

China’s philosophers discussed the Tao many centimes

before any sign of culture existed amongst white races. For
what Lao-Tze, Confucius and others taught about six
centuries B.C. was but a systematized compilation of what
some of their forefathers already had been thinking and
teaching through several generations. “Confucius’s own
acknowledgement that he was ‘a transmitter and not a
maker’ . . . is well known” 1 ; and as to Lao-Tze, “there was a
Taoism earlier than his.”*

If China, the land of the crouching dragon, had absorbed the

spiritual sunlight that floods the Tao, and by a concentration
of its rays had withered the dragon of the senses, it could
have become the world’s center of spiritual enlightenment.
It would have been exemplifying the highest sexual ethics.

Even as it is, the educated classes among “the Chinese exalt

and deify chastity as a means of bringing soul and body
nearer to the highest excellence”* — not only for the
women, but “it is held up as an ideal even to men .” 4 “The
reason why all men are not able to attain to this is that their
minds have not been cleansed, and that their desires have
not been sent away.”® Therefore “during all hours of the
day let one’s thoughts be constantly fixed on absolute
purity.”* “Purity is that in which the spirit is not impaired .” 1

As to desires, “no food is better for the heart than few

desires.”® “Where lusts and desires are deep, the springs of
the heavenly are shallow”*; but “if you keep your body as it
should be, the harmony of heaven will come to you.” 10

For this reason “the superior man . . . guards against lust .”

11 Only “he who is desireless can sound the deep spiritual
mystery of things .” 11

Having found the Tao, having become spiritualized, “the

superior man does not say [in regard to desires] ‘it is my
nature ’.” 18 He does not try to find excuses for acts which
are inimical to his stage of development. He knows too well
that “the spirit of man loves purity” 14 , and that “sensuality
is the chief of vices .” 15 Therefore “the wise man . . . puts
away indulgence .” 18

“The men who understand the Tao do so simply by means of

absolute purity” 17 ; for only “he who has this absolute
purity enters gradually into the true Tao .” 18 Hence “it is he
who can embody purity whom we call the true man.

These few quotations from Chinese philosophical writings

show how they, too, contain the same basic insight which is
found everywhere else — namely that “purity . . . gives the
correct law to all .” 18

*****

» Leooe. "Text* of Taoitm”; in: «, XXXIX, i.

* Same as », XXXIX, 1.
8 Williams, The Middle Kingdom, II, xviii, 193.

4 Westbrmarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Idea,

II, xlii, 427.

5 Ko Yuan, The Classic of Purity, i, 4; in: ", XL, 251.

* Zah Tung King, ii; in: ", XL, 270.

7 Kwano-tze, Kho-l, iii; in: ", XXXIX, 367.

* Mencius, Tsin Sin, I, xxxv; in: Lyall, Mencius, XIV, 238.

9 Kwano-tze, Ta Zu*l Shi, ii; in: ", XXXIX, 238.

10 Kwano-tze, Kih Pei Yd, iii; in: ", XL, 61.

11 Confucius, Analects, XVI, vii; in: Leooe, Chinese Classics,

I, 312.

78 Lao-tze, Tao Teh King, I, i, 3 ; in: ", XXXIX, 47.

18 Same as 8 , II, xxiv; in: Leooe, Chinese Classics, II, 489.

14 Same as 5 , i, 3 ; in: ", XL, 251.

15 Ku S^Kiung Lin ; quoted in: 8 , I, xii, 589.

« Same as 18 , I, xxix, 2; in: ", XXXIX, 72 .

17 Li Hsi-yueh, Commentary on the Khing Kang King; quoted

in: ",

XL, 254.

18 Same as 5 , i, 5; in: ", XL, 252.

19 Same as 7 , iii; in: ", XXXIX, 367.

88 Same as 18 , II, xlv, 2; in: ", XXXIX, 88.

" Sacred Books of the East (Edited by Max M&ller)

 LXVI
GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY

“The true votaries of philosophy abstain from all fleshly

lusts."

— Plato, Phaedo, 82.

The greatest of the Greek and Roman philosophers based

their opinions on secret teachings. These they had obtained
either through direct superphysical contacts and
experiences, as did for instance Plotinus 1 ; or through
initiation in the Ancient Mysteries, as in the case of Plato
and of Iamblichus’; or by going like Pythagoras 4 and
Apollonius* to the centers of transcendental learning in
India and in Egypt.

Others absorbed such knowledge indirectly from the

teachers around whom they gathered. Thus the ancients
touched a source of metaphysical and of spiritual
information to which later philosophers have rarely had
access. This touch has given the indisputably lasting value
to their writings; and it is the reason why “there is an ascetic
element in all the great philosophies of the past.”* Almost
without exception they offer cathartic teachings for practical
soul-development.

From Pythagoras to Proclus, who lived a thousand years

apart, there is an ever recurring insistance on purification as
a means of attaining to a superior human existence. And
most of the teachers knew the value of such purification
from their own experience, from what they themselves had
attained by striving to exemplify it in their own lives.
“The whole school of Pythagoras made chastity one of its
leading virtues .” 7 “The main end and design of his
philosophy was to disengage the mind from the bonds of the
body”*, and “to free the soul from the fetters of sense.”* This
is evident from his exhortation: “Fight and overcome thy
foolish passions, be sober and chaste.” 1 * He and his
followers considered that “continence precedes the
acquisition of every good” 11 , and that “it is impossible for
the same person to be a lover of body and of divinity.” 1 *
“The life represented by the thraldom of the senses the
Pythagoreans conceived to be spiritual death, while they
regarded death to the sense-world as spiritual life.” 1 *

Of sexual indulgence Pythagoras said that “it is always

harmful and not conducive to health .” 14 “And once when
he was asked when one might indulge in sex he replied:
‘whenever you want to be weaker than yourself’.” 1 * “In the
first place ... we should not have sexual connection for the
sake of pleasure, but only for the sake of begetting
children.” 1 * For “nature produced the seed for the sake of
producing children, and not for the sake of lust .” 17

The best known of the later Neo-Pythagoreans, “Apollonius

of Tyana . . . lived a life of celibacy.” 1 * “While yet a mere
youth, in full bodily vigor, he mastered the maddening
passion .” 19 Without this accomplishment it would have
been impossible for him to show all through life such a
remarkable degree of spiritual attainment .* 4 So successful
was he in this respect that after his death “his name was
invoked as a being of superhuman powers .”* 1

About Socrates we have the declaration by one of his own

disciples that “his great continence was known to every
one.”** Others have said that “he could never be persuaded
that one’s felicity was placed in the enjoyment of corporeal
delights.”** “He rebuked the licentiousness of his age
continually, and sought to shield his disciples from its
contamination .”* 4 “So long as they were with him they
found in him an ally who gave them strength to conquer
their passions.”**

“He exhorted his companions to practise self-control in the

matter of sexual indulgence.”** “Of sensual passion he
would say: ‘avoid it resolutely; it is not easy to control
yourself once you meddle with that sort of thing ’.”* 7 And
“his own self-control was shown by his deeds yet more
clearly than by his words.”**

All told, “the Socratic philosophy . . . bids the heart turn from
the temporal to the eternal; and it does so . . . by
sublimating erotic passion.”**

Plato, the greatest exponent of Socratic philosophy,

naturally offers much material for a work which is essentially
ultra-platonic. Therefore quotations from his writings occur
in several sections of this book. Far from advocating or
upholding any yielding to the body’s impulses “Plato
describes how the man who restrains passions ... is led to the
goal .” 80 And he himself “refrained from all venereal
pleasure through love of contemplation of truth .” 81

“He based his moral system upon the distinction between

the bodily or sensual and the spiritual part of our nature .”
88 The latter he called the soul, and “he never for a moment
assumed . . . that the body could be important enough to
receive consideration ahead of the soul.” 8 *

“Nature orders the soul to rule and the body to serve .” 84

But in far too many people, unfortunately, “the body is the
grave of the soul .”* 5 Since “the body is always breaking in
upon us, causing turmoil and confusion” 88 , “we make the
nearest approach to wisdom when we . . . are not surfeited
with the bodily nature but keep ourselves pure .” 88 Hence
especially “a philosopher will calm his passions” 8 *; “by no
means . . . ought a philosopher to care about the pleasures
— if they are to be called pleasures — of sex .” 88

Plato makes an idealistic effort to find “a way to make men .

. . abstain from intentionally destroying the seeds of human
increase, or from sowing them in stony places in which they
will take no root .” 40 This ideal of Plato’s, carried out in all
its logical consequences, is identical with the one presented
in the volume in hand. For only when the physical
expression of sex is limited to propagation is there no
intentional destruction and waste of seed.

To Aristotle, the great independent thinker, is ascribed a

volume 41 written for Alexander the Great, whose tutor he
had been. In it he advises to “avoid the inclinations to
animalistic pleasure, for . . . such pleasure brings with it
stains on the soul .” 48 “Do not yield to the desire for sexual
intercourse” 48 , for “what glory is it ... to follow the action of
brutes ?” 44 Moreover, “sexual intercourse involves the
destruction of our bodies, the shortening of life .” 45 “The
self-restrained man stands firm against passion .” 44

Cicero, the eclectic, “culled from every accessible

philosophy those elements which were regarded as most
helpful for the higher life .” 41 He found that “nothing is
more hostile to this . . . than sensual pleasure .” 48 “Such
pleasure . . . extinguishes completely the light of the soul.” 4
* In fact, he avers that there is “no more deadly curse . . .
than carnal pleasure .” 80

Therefore “we should be made to understand . . . how noble

it is to live with abstinence .” 81
Even Epicurus — popularly supposed to be the apostle of
pleasure, of any form of pleasure as the highest good —
taught that “no one was ever the better for sexual
indulgence, and it is an exception if he be not the worse.” 8
* And he stated that “all such desires as lead to no pain
when they remain ungratified are unnecessary, and the
longing is easily got rid of .” 88

This last statement strikingly coincides with Plato’s saying

that “the desires of which one may get rid . . . of which the
presence does no good, and in some cases the reverse of
good . . . are unnecessary .” 84 Both statements definitely
apply to sexual desires, the unfulfillment of which in normal
cases leads to no pain and which can be overcome with little
effort.

In every way “Epicurean ethics rise much higher than the

ethics of mere pleasure .” 88 Epicurus himself wrote* “When
we say that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the
pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do by some
through ignorance, prejudice or wilful misrepresentation .”
88 Even in his own days he was misinterpreted by the
seekers of body-pleasures.

Only in misconstrued and popularized form has

Epicureanism been turned into a doctrine inculcating bodily
satisfaction. In essence the Epicurean philosophy is one of
pure joy, more than of impure pleasure.

According to the Stoics “the passion of lust is a craving from

which good men are free.”” “The stoic ideal was
passionlessness.” “Stoicism ... in placing the happiness of
life in intellectual and moral action, destroys the temptation
of sensual gratification .” 80
Zeno, founder of the stoic system of thought, defined
“passion ... as irrational and unnatural, or as impulse in
excess.”*® And his disciple Chrysippus said that “the cause
of disharmony and of an unhappy life is that men follow . . .
the lower animal principle and let it run away with them .”®
1

Seneca, foremost amongst the Stoics, reiterated that “sexual

desire has been given to man not for the gratification of
pleasure but for the continuance of the human race.”**
“When once you have escaped the violence of this secret
destruction implanted in your very vitals, every other desire
will pass you by unharmed.”** Carnal “pleasure is a low act,
brought about by the agency of our inferior and baser
members .”* 4 It is “short, and apt to pall upon us . . . There
is nothing grand about it, nothing worthy of a man’s
nature.”®* All told, “passions are objectionable impulses.”**
“There await us, if ever we escape from these low dregs . . .
peace of mind and perfect liberty .”* 7

Epictetus, another Stoic, declared that “what you give to

your body you presently lose, but what you give to the soul
remains forever .”® 8 Therefore “you must altogether
control desire”* 8 , and “aspire to converse in purity with
your own pure mind.” 7 ® “Chastise your passions that they
may not chastise you .” 71 “You will be free when you
deliver yourself from appetite.” 7 *

And Marcus Aurelius called attention to “what revolting

creatures men are in sexual intercourse .” 78 He stated that
“the pleasures of sexual love are derived from the most
grossly animalistic causes” 74 , and advised to “put aside . .
. all accretions bom of the fleshly affections .” 78 He warned
against “allowing the spiritual part to be defeated by . . . the
body with its gross pleasures” 7 *, and urged one “never to
be overpowered either by the senses or the appetites, for
both are animal .” 77

“A fresh stimulus to asceticism was found in the neoplatonic

philosophy .” 78

Plotinus for instance “requires a purification of being, a

complete alienation of desire from external things.” 7 * “If
the friend of unclean pleasures, living a life of abandonment
to bodily sensation ... is to win back his grace, it must be his
business to scour and purify himself.”*® “Let the soul but be
cleared of the desires that come by its too intimate converse
with the body and be emancipated from all the passions .”*
1 “The pleasure demanded for the sage’s life cannot be in . .
. any gratifications of the body, for these stifle happiness.”**

Porphyry, most eminent disciple of Plotinus, held that

“venereal connections are attended with defilement. All
venery pollutes.”** Surely “the gods do not hear him who
invokes them if he is impure from venereal connections .”* 4
“If we wish to liberate ourselves from the fetters of the
corporeal nature we must withdraw . . . from the passions.”**
“To worthy men abstinence from corporeal pleasures is
appropriate.”**

Iamblichus, pupil of Porphyry, remarked that “a venereal

connection proceeds . . . not from divine necessity .”* 7

And Proclus, last of the Neo-Platonists, postulated that “the

one salvation of the soul is ... a flight from every thing which
adheres to us from generation . . . since such a flight alone
cuts off and obliterates the passions.”**

• ••••••••••••

Now, some will peremptorily reject whatever the ancients

have said, claiming that none of it is applicable to modem,
changed conditions.

But the subject of their philosophy, man, is not much

changed. And “for an understanding of human nature we are
still very largely dependent, as they were, upon
introspection, general observation and intuition.”** Of all
these factors the ancients, in their less turbulent existence,
could make much better use than we who live in an age of
speed and feverish excitement and exclusive preoccupation
with materialistic interests.

In our concentration upon the physical changes which

science and sociology bring about, we are apt to forget that
beyond all worldly changes there remain the unchanging
laws of nature. The laws which not only keep the stars in
their courses, but which regulate the evolution of microcosm
as well as of macrocosm, are as immutable and eternal as
ever. And also the result of any violation of these laws is still
the same as it was in the days of the Greek and Roman
philosophers. And they, “the sages of former times knew
more about the fundamental laws of nature than is admitted
today.”*®

Hence their opinions about men and morals are basic, and
thereby as relevant and pertinent now as when first
promulgated. The unanimity of their expostulations against
sexual gratifications forms a valuable fink in the chain of
evidence in favor of the ideal of purification.

*****

1 Porphyry, "On the Life of Plotinus”, xxiii; in: Plotinus,

Ethical Treatises, I, 34.

1 Brunton, A Search in Secret Egypt, xi, 175.

1 Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, III, 385.

4 Guthrie, Pythagoras, I, 9.

6 Philostratu 8, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, III.

4 Lippmann, Preface to Morals, ix, 157.

7 Lbcky, History of European Morals, I, i, 106.

I Dacier, Life of Pythagoras, 39.

• Blavat8ky, Isis Unveiled, I, i, 7.

14 Pythagoras; quoted in: Olivet, Golden Verses of

Pythagoras, 115.

II Demophilus, "Pythagoric Sentenses"; in: Sallust, On the

Gods and

the World, hi.

14 Same as ll , 1x4.

14 Hall, Encycl. Outline of Symbolical Philosophy, cd.

14 Pythagoras ; quoted in : Laertius, Lives of Eminent

Philosophers ,

VIII, i, 9.

14 Pytharoras ; quoted in: 4 , I, 160.

14 Luganus, On the Nature of the Universe, iv, ai.

1T Charondas, "Preface to a Treatise of Laws"; in : Taylor,

Political Fragments of ancient Pythagoreans, 45.

18 Same as 7 , II, v, 315.

14 Same as 4 , I, xiii, 35.

40 Same as *.

41 Encyclopedia Britannica, (Ninth edition), I, 165.

44 Xenophon, Memoirs of Socrates, I, iii, 53.

44 Porphyry, De Abstinentia, III, 1.

44 Dawson, Ethics of Socrates, xviii, 314.

45 Xenophon, Memorabilia, I, ii, 34.

44 Same as **, II, i, 1.

47 Same as 45 , I, iii, 8.

48 Same as 45 , I, v, 6.

44 Santayana, Platonism and the Spiritual Life, viii, 38.

80 Black, Culture and Restraint , v, 131.

91 Aquinas, Summa Theologica, XIII, in.

99 Same as 7 , I, i, 105.

99 Tanner, The Intelligent Man's Guide , lxix, 936.

94 Plato, Phaedo , 80.

95 Plato, Cratylus, 400.

99 Same as 94 , 66.

97 Same as ", 67.

99 Same as 94 , 84.
99 Same as ", 64.

49 Plato, VIII, 839.

41 Aristotle, Secreta Secretorum.

49 Same as M , ix; quoted in: Bacon, Opus Majus, II^68o.

49 Same as 41 , xvii; quoted in: Bacon, Opus Majus , II, 682.

44 Same as 41 , xvii; quoted in: Bacon, Opus Majus , II, 682.

45 Same as tt , xvii; quoted in: Bacon, Opus Majus, II, 682.

49 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, VII, ix, 2.

47 Angus, Mystery Religions and Christianity, v, 227.

49 Cicero, De Senectute, XII, xl, 49.

49 Same as ", XII, xli, 51.

99 Same as ", XII, xl, 49.

81 Cicero, De Officiis, I, xxx, 106.

89 Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, X, 118.

89 Epicurus, “Sovran Maxims”, 26; in: 89 , X, 148.

84 Plato, The Republic, VIII, 559.

88 Kropotkin, Ethics, v, 105.

59 Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus”; in: w , X, 131.

87 Same as «, VII, i, no.

88 Same as ", vi, 152.

89 Froude; quoted in: Beck, The Way of Power, vii, 136.

99 Same as **, VII, i> no.

91 Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, iii, 103.

89 Seneca, “To Helvia on Consolation”, xiii, 3; in his Moral

Essays, II, 463. 88 Same as ", xiii, 3.

94 Seneca, On Benefits, VII, ii, 198.

88 Same as 84 , VII, ii, 198.

99 Seneca, Epistulae Morales, II, lxxv, 143.

97 Same as ", II, lxxv, 147.

99 Epictetus, Fragments, xxvii, 409.

89 Epictetus, Discourses, III, xxii, 244.

79 Same as ", II, xviii, 155.

71 Same as ", iv, 403.

79 Same as ", xxxix, 411.

79 Aurelius, Meditations, x, 19.

74 Same as 79 , vi, 13.

78 Same as T9 , xii, 3.

79 Same as T8 , xi, 19.

77 Same as T9 , vii, 55.

Ti Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy , ii, 41.

78 Eucken, Problems of Human Life, I, m.

80 Plotinus, Enneads, I, vi, 5.

81 Same as *°, I, vi, 5.

88 Same as 80 , I, iv, 12.

88 Porphyry, De Abstinentia, IV, 20.

84 Porphyry, "Epistle to Anebo”; in 8T , 9.

88 Same as M , I, 31.

86 Same as M , I, 45.

87 Iahruchus, On the Mysteries , IV, xii, 233.

88 Proclue, Platonis Timaeum Comment aria, V, 330 ; quoted

in : 91 , Notes,

364 and 365.

88 Same as f , ix, 157.

80 Hartmann, Occult Science in Medicine , 5.

 LXVII
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

“How much more are . . . the perceiver and obeyer of truth

than die foolish and sensual millions around them!”

— Emerson, Progress of Culture .

The era of ancient philosophy faded out into the dark ages
of mental and spiritual stupor. During that period of lethargy
the component elements of the philosophy of the ancients
— mind and spirit — fell apart. When the dawn of
enlightenment broke through again, the spiritual element
had been absorbed by mysticism, while the mental part,
uniting with science, developed into modem philosophy.

Basing itself on material facts, and vaguely speculating

upon non-material things, modem philosophy lacks spiritual
knowledge and also lacks directions for the acquisition of
such knowledge. In the involved mental gymnastics of
modem philosophy there is little place for idealistic moral
considerations. Especially — as system follows system, each
offering a different set of intricate conjectures — rarely a
word is said about the need of sexual purification for
evolutionary growth. On the contrary the most modem, more
and more materialistic systems are if anything antagonistic
to the ideal of such purification. “The domestic relations of
human beings are reduced by the behavioristic theory to the
mere means of securing sexual gratification” 1 ; and “under
the naturalistic view love . . . is merely the borrowing of a
temporary bodily gratification.”*

“And so they wander further amid the mazes of error and

imagine vain philosophies, wallowing in the sloughs of
materialism and sensualism.”*

Yet here and there, sporadically, one finds a touch of

spiritual insight, a recognition such as by Emerson that
“spiritual is stronger than any material force” 4 ; or such
statements as Santayana’s that “mortal spirits ... in so far as
they free themselves from false respect for animal passion,
may behold finite being in its purity” 8 , and that
“spirituality is conditioned by ... a temperament disciplined
into chastity and renunciation.”*

Then there is Eucken with his philosophy of the spirit, who

realizes that “within humanity there is an endeavor to . . .
free the life of the soul from the bondage of sense”*, and
that “all human morality must have its basis in . . . the
spiritual life .” 8

Also it is not so long ago that Sidgwick wrote: “It is agreed

that the sexual appetite ought never to be indulged for the
sake of sensual gratification .” 8 At about the same time
Solovyof emphasized that “the flesh is strong only in the
weakness of the spirit” 18 , and that “supremacy of the spirit
over the flesh is necessary in order to preserve the moral
dignity of man .” 11

In the seventeenth century Spinoza founded one of the first

schools of modern philosophy. He “gave us a system of
morals which is the supreme achievement of modem
thought.” 1 * He posited that “chastity ... is not a passive
state but indicates a power of the mind .” 18 And from
personal experience he declared that “the true good
becomes more and more discernible . . . after one recognizes
that sensual pleasure is only a hindrance .” 14

Shortly before Spinoza’s time Descartes had taught that

“the principal use of self-control is that it teaches us to be
masters of our passions” 18 ; and that “when the passions
urge us we ought to divert ourselves by other thoughts, until
time and rest shall have entirely calmed the emotion which
is in the blood .” 14

In that same period Charron declared that “the hindrance to

wisdom which a man must carefully avoid . . . is the
confusion of his passions.” 1 *

Outstanding in the eighteenth century is Kant. “The morality

which Kant enforces is of a strong and manly type .” 18 “His
maxim was sustine et abstine (sustain and abstain) ; his
practice illustrated this .” 18

He made it clear that in contrast to bodily pleasures “the

more refined enjoyments ... do not wear out but rather
increase the capacity of further enjoyment; and while they
delight they at the same time cultivate.”*' The essence of
Kant’s moral teachings is contained in his state* ment that
“first, it is a man’s duty to raise himself . . . out of his animal
nature .”* 1

“Perhaps the day will soon come when a disintegrating

civilization will welcome again the Kantian call.”** His is but
a repetition of the call of the ages sent out to floundering
mankind in ever varying form.

“Comte . . . the first really consistent social philosopher of

the nineteenth century . . . again assigned to asceticism its
full rights.”**

In his positive system of philosophy he explained how

“positivism teaches . . . that sexual purity has a close
connection with the physical and intellectual improvement
of the individual and of the race .”* 4 As planned by him
“education will make all feel the defects of the sexual
impulse, and will raise a hope of its entire desuetude.”** For
“it is possible to effect the inaction of this impulse, now
stimulated unduly by the brain, and to attain this result with
ease.”** In fact “the requirements to which this impulse
relates can be so easily reduced that it is more susceptible of
modification than any other.”"

“To control the sexual impulse efficiently has always been

and ever will be regarded as the highest test of human
wisdom.”** “Philosophers really untrammeled by
superstition ought more and more to look upon that impulse
as tending to interfere with the true purpose of the vivifying
fluid” , “which has as its chief purpose the supply to the
blood of a stimulating element, capable of invigorating the
action of all the organs.”" In these words Comte showed his
understanding of the transmutability of the sex force and of
the enormous evolutionary importance of that
transmutation.

Also in the nineteenth century Schopenhauer promulgated

his views about “the will to live”, by which he practically
meant: the will to live a materialistic and worldly life.

He considered that “the greatest, most important and most

significant phenomenon that the world can show is . . . the
quiet, unobserved life of one who has attained to the
knowledge in consequence of which he denies the will to
live .”* 1 “His body may express the sexual impulse, but ...
he desires no sensual gratification under any condition.””
“One who has thus attained to the denial of the will to live is
filled with inward joy ... It is a peace that cannot be shaken
... a state infinitely surpassing everything else.”” But
“voluntary and complete chastity is the first step in the
denial of the will to live.””

Once one begins to see the enviable results obtainable by

this denial one cannot but agree with Schopenhauer that
“the sexual impulse appears as a malevolent demon that
strives to pervert, confuse and overthrow everything.””

“A serious historical investigation shows the bond between

the ascetic ideal and philosophy ... It was only in the leading
strings of this ideal that philosophy really learned to make
its first steps.”” So said Nietzsche.

“A distaste for the lower gratifications of the senses and a

deliberate judgement that . . . the spiritual faculties should
be cultivated at the expense of the animal propensities,
have ever been evidenced in the lives of philosophers.”” At
least the true philosopher has always felt the necessity of
sexual purity, for “he sees therein an optimum of the
conditions of the highest and boldest intellectuality.””

“Wherever philosophers have existed there exists a real

irritation and rancor on their part towards sensuality . . .
There similarly exists a real philosophic affection for the
whole ascetic ideal ... If a philosopher lacks both, then he is
— you may be certain of it — never anything but a
‘pseudo’.”"

In the true philosopher this ascetic attitude is the outcome

of the ingrain, intuitive insight that spiritual wisdom and
cognition of truth are not attainable without the annihilation
of every remnant of sensuality.

*****

I Sockman, Morals of Tomorrow, II, viii, 166.

• Same as 1 , II, viii, 167.

8 Pike, Morals and Dogma of Freemasonry, xxvii, 583.

4 Emerson, “Progress of Culture”; in his Complete Writings,
II, 797 *

8 Santayana, Platonism and the Spiritual Life, xxiii, 83.

• Same as 5 , xi, 38.

7 Eucken, Life's Basis and Life's Ideal, II, 147.

3 Same as 7 , III, 339.

• S mo wick. Methods of Ethics , III, ix, 330.

10 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 47.

II Same as 10 , I, ii, 57.

18 Durant, The Story of Philosophy, iv, 197.

18 Spinoza, Ethics, III, lvi. Note; in his Chief Works, II, 169.

14 Spinoza, On the Improvement of the Understanding ; in

his Chief Works, II, 6.

18 Descartes, The Passions of the Soul, III, 212 ; in his

Philosophical Works, I, 427 .

16 Same as 18 , III, 211.

17 Charron, Of Wisdom, II, i, 213.

18 Eucken, The Problem of Human Life, III, ii, 449.

18 Abbott, Introduction to Kant's Critique of Practical

Reason, xliii.

80 Kant, Der Kritik der praktischen Vemunft, I, I, i, 3.

81 Kant, Metaphysik der Sitten, II, Einleitung, v, A.

88 Same as **, vi, 314.

88 Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, I, ix, 162.

84 Comte, System of Positive Polity, I, 207-208.

88 Same as 84 , IV, 215.

88 Same as 84 , IV, 215.

87 Same as M , III, 380.

88 Same as 84 , III, 380.

89 Same as M , IV, 251.

80 Same as 84 , IV, 242.

81 Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, IV, lxviii, 498.

88 Same as 81 , IV, lxviii, 491.

88 Same as 81 , IV, lxviii, 504.

84 Same as 81 , IV, lxviii, 491.

88 Same as 81 , IV, xliv, 339.

88 Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, III, 9.

87 Woodhouse, Monasticism, ii, 37.

88 Same as M , III, 7.

88 Same as M , III, 7.
 LXVIII
MODERNISTIC SOPHISTRY

"We must regard as accomplices of the snake all who try to

tell us that happiness is to be found in the range of bodily
impulse."

— Tanner, The Intelligent Man's Guide, lxx, 240.

Characteristic of the modem mind is its concentration on

materialistic values, its contemptuous attitude towards
morality, its juggling with spurious science, its jabbering of
philo-sophistry. In its conceit and its ignorance of spiritual
verities it considers its own ideas superior to the wisdom of
all times. The latter it decries as obsolete, as antiquated and
outworn pedantry of bygone ages, not fitted to the
popularized new knowledge and the new conditions of the
present day and age. Yet, in so far as sexual morals are
concerned, the central thought about this newness of
knowledge and of conditions is focussed on nothing but the
general availability of means of contraception . 1

In reality there is no such thing as obsolescence of the

spiritual essence of philosophy, because this is not subject
to the shifting changes of material and social conditions;
and there is no out-of-dateness of cosmic principles, or of
verities upon which rests the wisdom of the sages and deep
thinkers of all times.

The modernist restricts his field of vision by his negation of

spirit, by limiting his attention to physical laws and to
materialistic mind. This self-willed limitation in itself causes
incompleteness and imperfection, therefore misjudgement
and fallacy in his deductions and opinions. Whereas all great
thinkers always have sought to understand and contact
spirit; and it is this underlying element that has given the
deeper value to their writings. The works of the ancient
sages will be quoted and reprinted, and their ideas and
ideals will still be recognized as fundamentally true, long
after the gaudy bubble of modernistic sophistry has burst
and ended its short-lived spectacular existence.

Naturally the ultra-modems prefer to gather around those

whom they have adopted as their own new prophets, who
cleverly “cloak animal desire in words that make it seem
respectable.”* “They center all their thoughts upon the
pleasures of the body ... in the belief that for its sake man
has come into being”*; “they set up for the animal appetite
and openly declare that . . . the chief good is what affords
best entertainment to the senses .” 4

“The modem world has assumed almost as a matter of

course that the human passions ... by their fulfillment
achieve happiness.”* As one of its apostles asserts: animals
we are and animals we remain, and the path to our
regeneration and happiness, if there be such a path, lies
through our animal nature.”* Certainly, those who choose to
remain animals will always have plenty of reason to doubt
the existence of a path to regeneration and happiness, for it
can never be found through the animal nature! “Happiness
is to be found ... in the development of the highest faculties
at the expense of those less noble.”* Moreover, “man is
destined to be a human being and not an animal; and . . . to
be human he must do away with the animal in him”*, by
restraining his animal impulses.

But “the common cult of the day is that a man should follow
his impulses without restraint.”' “Modem morality ... is no
more than a surrender to the wishes and moods of the
individual.” 1 ' “Love . . . has been reduced to the raw
realism of a sex experience .” 11 “A sordid and ignoble
realism offers no resistance to the sexual impulse.” 1 * “To
the demon of sex . . . the human conscience of our day
answers ... ‘Si libet, licet.’ (‘If you desire it, you may’) And
this self-assertive self-indulgence is taught to be the way to
self-realization! But real “self-realization consists not in the
exercise of elemental passions, but in their sublimation .” 14

Under the influence of modem sophistry any spiritual ideal

is disdainfully derided as a puerile superstition; and
“chastity, the principal foundation of moral firmness . . . has
become a subject of ridicule .” 15 Self-condemnatory,
selfdestructive even is this disesteem and disregard of
chastity; for “the society in which its estimation sinks to a
minimum is in the last stages of degeneration.” 1 *

“The cultural behavior of any human society depends ... on

the state of energy into which, as the result of its sexual
regulations, the society has arrived .” 11 “If we increase pre-
nuptial and post-nuptial sexual opportunity . . . our mental
and social energy will decline .” 15 “If sexual freedom is the
rule, there can be no such energy” 1 *, and the race must
fall from its cultural level. Therefore “the new-fashioned
naturalism in relation to all matters of sex . . . betokens the
definite closing down of civilization.”**

*****

1 See Gh. xxii, Birth Control.

1 Curtiss, Letters from the Teacher, I f ix, 190.

1 Hermes, Corpus Hermeticum, IV, 5; in: Mead, Thrice-

Greatest Hermes , n, 87.

4 More, Enchiridion Ethicum, I, v, 29.

8 Lippmann, Preface to Morals , ix, 158.

6 Russell, (Mrs.), The Right to be Happy, vi, 941. r Bari no

Gould, Origin and Development of Religious Belief, I, xvii,
349.

8 Paracelsus, Philosophia Occulta; quoted in: Hartmann,

Occult

Science in Medicine, I, 20.

9 Black, Culture and Restraint, vi, 169.

1° Eucken, Life's Basis and Life's Ideal, III, 341.

11 Sockman, Morals of Tomorrow, I, iv, 83.

18 Huxley, Do What Tou Will, 155.

18 Merejkowski, The Secret of the West, II, i, 207.

14 Radhakrishnan, “Philosophy in the History of

Civilization*’; in: Pro* ceedings of the Sixth International
Congress of Philosophy, 548.

18 Hufeland, The Art of Prolonging , Life, 228; quoted in:

Scott, The Sexual Instinct, iv, 132.

18 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, v, 143. lT

Unwin, Sex and Culture, Preface, xiv.

18 Huxley, Ends and Means, xv, 367.

19 Same as 1T , iv, 320.

80 Spenoler, The Decline of the West, I, 33.

 LXIX
MYTHOLOGY

“Take the sword and smite the serpent.”

— Saint Germain, The Most Holy Trinosophia, IV,47.

“No mythological system has yet been discovered which can

be entirely separated from all dependence on noble ideas .”
1 “Even the most phantastic of myths are expressions of an
inner reality.”* “The higher truths are invested in myths.”*

One of the highest truths that is contained in myths of

almost every country is the fact that human passion must be
overcome before spirituality can be developed.
“Mythologically expressed, inner development proceeds well
if the hero defeats the dragon .” 4

In mythology “the dragon is equivalent to the serpent.”* For

instance “in the Chaldean account of creation it is a dragon
that leads man to sin”*, just as the serpent does in the
biblical presentation. In many myths and legends “the
dragon is merely the idealized serpent .” 7

Generally “the serpent ... is the treasure-guarding dragon of

the myth.”* “The fruit of a perfect life ... is guarded by the
dragon of man’s lower nature”*; it does not want humanity
to obtain that fruit, consisting in invaluable spiritual
unfoldment, because then its own power over man comes to
an end.

Only over the animal’s dead body can that treasure be

acquired. Man must slay the dragon by means of his divine
power of will — which is usually symbolically represented by
sword or spear. In some myths the treasure guarded by the
dragon is a spring of magic water, the source and fountain-
head of spiritual refreshment and rejuvenation.

Most of the narratives about treasure-guarding dragons have

come down through the ages in such embellished and
modified forms that the true meaning hardly can be
recognized. But the fact that the struggle-with-a-dragon
episode occurs in the myths of many nations indicates that
it is a universal symbol for one single truth. This truth is: the
necessity of subduing the lower nature before acquiring the
spiritual powers, and before attaining union with the higher
nature, with spirit — which is frequently represented in
mythological symbology by the king’s daughter or a
sleeping maiden.

In India “the deed which won Indra his high place was the
feat of slaying the dragon . . . lying on the waters which
Indra thus released .” 10 “Trita . . . this mighty hero was
likewise the slayer of a dragon.According to Hindu tradition
“Krishna’s first great war was with a mighty serpent .” 11
Highly significant are “the two sculptures of Krishna
suffering and of Krishna triumphant ... In the former 1 * a
youthful figure is shown enfolded by the coils of an
enormous serpent; in the latter 14 Krishna is represented as
trampling upon the serpent’s head.” 1 * The highest
constructive will power in the universe, “Vishnu . . . enabled
Krishna to overcome the serpent .” 10 Among ancient
Buddhist sculptures there is “a suggestive representation of
Buddha as the conqueror of desire . . . seated on a coiled
serpent .” 11 “This serpent is in possession of many secrets
which he divulges only to the one who conquers him .” 10
The secret of life itself will be revealed when the phallic
serpent is vanquished.
Not only Krishna and Buddha in India, but everywhere else
“all of those called saviors are said to have crushed the
serpent’s head, in other words: to have conquered the
sensual nature .” 10 It is but natural that the same
accomplishment has been ascribed to many saints. However
“it would be tedious to enumerate the number of saints who
figure as dragon-slayers .” 00 To give only a single instance,
Saint “Michael . . . fought against the dragon . . . And the
great dragon, that old serpent which deceives the whole
world, was cast out .” 01

In China “Thienhoang . . . softened the ferocity of man . . .

after the great dragon which disturbed the whole world had
been slain.”” In Persia “Thraetona smote Azi Dahaka
(‘literally: the fiendish snake’* 8 ) . . . which Angra Mainvu
created to destroy the world of the good principle.”” In
Assyria “it was with a flaming sword . . . that Merodach
overthrew the dragon.”** In Phoenicia “Cadmus, drawing his
sword, rushed at the dragon . . . which had been set to guard
the fountain of enchanted water, so that no mortal might
quench his thirst there”” — at least not until having
overcome the dragon “which devoured Cadmus’ men as
passion still does devour people.”"

In ancient Mexico one finds a description of “the serpent . . .

crushed by the great Teotl.”** In primitive Mexican paintings
the figure of a man contending with a dragon is often seen”;
and there are also representations of a human figure
encoiled by a serpent", undoubtedly symbolizing humanity
in the power of passion.

In Egypt “Typhon is the part of the soul that is subject to the

passions.”” He “was figured under the symbol of a
serpent”**; and “the destruction of the serpent by Horns
who pierces its head with a spear . . . frequently occurs in
the sculptures.”" It was also in Egypt that Hermes released
the princess Io by overcoming the monster Argus with his
sword", and that “Anubis is represented as slaying a
dragon." 35

In Grecian mythology “Apollo killed the Python, a monstrous

serpent produced by the earth”", the embodiment of
humanity’s earthly passions. “Perseus . . . went forth to fight
against the dragon of the sea at Joppa”"; “he slew the
monster . . . before celebrating his union with Andromeda”",
the king’s daughter, symbolizing the soul. And “Hercules
had contests with serpents and dragons.”" “His
consummating glory was the conquest of the dragon which
guarded the golden fruit in the garden of the Hesperides.” 4
* Thereby he obtained that fruit, “the true gold of life,
consisting in the mastery of the passions .” 41

In Scandinavian countries “the dragon is . . . the greedy

withholder of good things from men; and the slaying of a
dragon is the crowning achievement of heroes”, of men as
near perfection as the popular mind can imagine. For
example “Thor fought with the Midgard serpent.”"

“This serpent . . . seems to have been intended as an

emblem of corruption .” 44 It “had grown so greatly that it . .
. encompassed all the land” 45 , presenting a striking
picture of passion’s grasp on humanity. In having its greatest
hero slay the serpent “Scandinavian mythology exhibits a
clear sentiment ... on the subject of purity.” 4 *

Elsewhere in a renowned epic one reads about “a certain

dragon . . . which kept watch over a treasure .” 47 But
“Beowulf . . . smote the hideous-gleaming foe with his
weighty sword.” 4 * “The horrid earth-dragon was bereft of
life. No longer could the coiled serpent rule over the treasure
hoards.” 4 * That is to say, after passion had been killed the
spiritual treasure became available for the hero.
England’s patron Saint “George drove his sword into the
dragon’s throat” 50 ; then he “pinned the mighty bulk of the
dragon to the earth with his spear .” 51 A Sussex legend
relates how “Saint Leonard saw the dragon Sin . . . and
crushed the monster .” 51 Celtic lore contains a story about
Gray Lad who “clutched his sword and cut off the dragon’s
head” 55 , whereupon “the king’s daughter came out to
meet him ” 54 — that is, again, he was united with his
spiritual nature.

In Germany the most famous dragon slayer is Siegfried. With

Wotan’s sword which he reestablishes “from the stubborn
splinters ” 55 (in other words: with the divine will which he
restores out of human stubbornness and wilfulness), he kills
the dragon that guards the Rhinegold, which “only he who
passion’s power forswears and from delights of love forbears
” 50 can mould. After killing the dragon, Siegfried
understands the language of the woodbird, the voice of
intuition, which leads him to Brunhilde, his higher self.
Clearer than any other legend does the story of Siegfried
show that the treasure of spiritual consciousness remains a
useless trinket until the truly human entity acquires it after
slaying the dragon of sensuality.

Whether in each case clearly expressed or not, all the myths

about dragon-killers picture “the terrible struggles . . .
between man and his personified human passions .” 57
Foremost among these passions, foremost as an obstruction
to the acquisition of incalculable spiritual treasure, is the
tendency to abuse the sex force. That is the dragon or
serpent which keeps humanity away from an existence of
pure spiritual joy. So long as its urgings are obeyed, man
cannot reach his glorious evolutionary destiny. This serpent
must be seen in its true dimensions; it must be met and
conquered with adequate power of will. But it often seems as
though “every one considers his serpent an ant .” 88
“The central object of all self-mastery is first to overcome the
serpent”**, or its equivalent, the dragon. “When the dragon
is conquered a valuable treasure, namely an enormous
psychic energy, is liberated.”*® With this energy it becomes
possible to climb toward the highest peaks of human and of
superhuman attainment.

*****

1 Schlegel, Aesthetic and Miscellaneous Works, VIII, II, ii,

474.

8 Keyserlino, Creative Understanding, I, 18.

* Merejkowski, The Secret of the West, I, ii, 31.

4 Silberer, Problems of Mysticism, III, 279.

5 Same as 4 , III, 276.

6 Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, v, 91.

7 Goldsmith, Life Symbols as related to Sex Symbolism, xi,

151.

8 Same as 4 , III, 276.

9 Kingsford, The Perfect Way, vii, 198.

10 Keith, Indian Mythology, i, 33.

11 Carnoy, Iranian Mythology, i, 265.

18 Forlono, Rivers of Life, I, ii, 53.

18 Same as 18 , II, 404, plate xv.

14 Coleman, Mythology of the Hindus, iv, 34, plate 12.

15 Deane, The Worship of the Serpent, v, 343.

16 Same as 18 , I, iii, 145.

17 Trumbull, The Threshold Covenant, vii, 236.

18 Schur£, The Great Initiates, I, 97.

19 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, III, 293.

80 Campbell, The Celtic Dragon Myth, Introd., xviii.

81 The Bible, Revelation, xii, 7 and 9.

88 Faber, Origin of Pagan Idolatry, I, 447.

88 Darmesteter, The Z* n d Avesta, 60.

84 The Avesta, II, XIV, xiv, 40; in: Sacred Books of the East,

XXIII, 242.

85 Sayce, Chaldean Account of Genesis, v, 86.

84 Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales, 123.

87 Same as 18 , I, iii, 125.

88 Humboldt, Researches concerning the Institutions of the

ancient Inhabitants of America, I, xv, 227.

88 Kjnosborouoh, Antiquities of Mexico, III, plates 74 and 91-

95 of painting in Vatican Library, plate 65 of that in the
Dresden Library, and plate 60 of that in the Borgian
Museum.

M Same as *, III, plate 96 of painting in Vatican Library, a. o.

81 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, xlix.

88 Wake, Serpent Worship, ii, 50.

88 Wilkin SON, Manners and Customs of the ancient

Egyptians, TV, xiii, 436. 84 Fox, Greek and Roman
Mythology, II, v, 193.

88 Same as 19 , II, 403.

86 Bell, The New Pantheon, II, 205.

87 Same as **, vi, 113.

88 Hart land. The Legend of Perseus, III, xxi, 152.

89 EncycL Britannic a, (14th edition), XX, 371.

40 Same as 15 , v, 334.

41 Phelonb, The Three Sevens, iii, 84.

48 Same as », VII, 569.

48 MacCulloch, Eddie Mythology, v, 81.

44 Mallet, Northern Antiquities, 512.

45 Sturluson, The Prose Edda, xxxiv, 42.

46 Lecky, History of European Morals, II, v, 341.

47 Beowulf, III, xxxi, 102.

48 Same as 4T , III, xxxv, 118.

48 Same as 4T , III, xxxix, 128.

88 Hood, Saint George of England, vii, 39.

81 Mabie, Heroes every Child should Know, v, 55.

88 Olcott, The Wonder Garden, 29.

88 Same as *°, 69.

84 Same as *°, 77.

88 Wagner, Siegfried, (Engl. Libretto, 15).

88 Wagner, Rhinegold, (Engl. Libretto, 20).

87 Same as 19 , II, 397.

88 Rumi, The Masnavi, (II), I, 303.

88 Butler, “Mystic Orders and Symbolism” ; in : The

Christian Esoteric, XXXIII, 301.

80 Same as 4 , III, 307.

 LXX
ANCIENT MYSTERIES

“In the mystic rites initiated, life's best delight I place in

chastity alone." — Euripides, The Cretans, Chorus.

The mystery of the mastery of man over himself, “of

suppressing the ‘old man’ and of vitalizing the spiritual
principle” 1 , has been the central idea around which have
been built most of the religious, metaphysical and ritualistic
systems. The definite purpose of every such system has
always been to help mankind to lift itself above the miseries
and limitations of merely material existence by teaching it
how to reach up to wider ranges of experience and insight.

In antiquity the Ancient Mysteries offered the way from

exoteric belief toward esoteric wisdom. “The purpose of the
Mysteries in their earlier and unadulterated state was
assuredly a high one, a blending of religious, philosophical
and moral aims .” 1 They “taught that spiritual illumination
was attained only by bringing the lower nature up to a high
standard of purity”*, and “the initiation in the Mysteries
helped toward the attainment of this object .” 4

“The ultimate design of the Mysteries, according to Plato,

was to lead ... to a perfect enjoyment of spiritual good.”*
“The neophyte was taught that a conservation of the life
energy and a refusal to expend it in generation . . . would
vitalize and vivify body and mind and give spiritual powers
.” 4

A characteristic of the Mysteries was the careful gradation of

their adherents according to the degree of purification
actually attained. Thus, although all “initiands must submit
to a cathartic process whereby the defilements of the flesh .
. . were removed” 7 , “the preparatory purification was of a
liberal character, adapted to candidates of every level of
spirituality.”*

At successive stages the rules became stricter.

While for the neophyte “purity and chastity were highly

recommended” 9 , “the initiate was definitely required to
emancipate himself from his passions and to free himself
from the hindrances of the senses .” 10 And “supreme
chastity was the most glorious crown set before hierophants
.” 11

These grades of development with their ever more stringent

requirements truly reflect the degrees of evolutionary
attainment as they exist in the human world always and
everywhere. In our days, without the Mysteries to guide the
classification, each person must decide for himself in which
grade he belongs, and work his way to the next higher one.
But he must never forget that in order to reach a higher
existence “chastity is a requisite of the life of an aspirant.” 1
*

That great stress was laid in the Mysteries (whether of

Eleusis, of Demeter, Mithra, Orpheus, Isis, or of the Druids)
upon the absolute necessity of sexual purification for those
who were to be entrusted with the secret wisdom, has been
affirmed by many. It has for instance been specifically stated
that “a declaration of virginity was exacted in the Dionysiac
solemnities” 13 ; that “asceticism was . . . the means by
which the true Orphic delivered his soul from the pollution of
the body” 14 ; that “the hierophant and other ministers of
Demeter were celibates” 15 ; that “in Greece . . . those who
took part in certain festivals were obliged to be continent for
some time previously” 10 ; and that “the ancient Druids
lived in strict abstinence .” 17

In the rites of Mithra, “in the second degree the candidate

was . . . sent into subterranean pits to fight the beasts of lust
and passion” 18 ; and in those of Isis, she (Isis) is
represented as saying to an aspirant: “You shall . . . deserve
the protection of my divinity by . . . inviolable chastity.” 1 *
Also “among the Goths . . . the initiate was prepared to
receive the great lessons of all the Mysteries ... by
abstinence and chastity .”* 0

Everywhere “the effect of initiation was meant ... to weaken

the empire of the body over the divine portion of man .”* 1
“Absolute continence . . . nearly every form of renunciation .
. . these never lost in the estimation of antiquity their
purificatory value.”**

Since the Mysteries were the institutions in which these

qualities were practised in order to make the candidate
receptive to spiritual knowledge, there was good reason for
the gnostic exhortation: “Cease not to seek day and night,
until you find the purifying Mysteries.

This same advice still holds for any one who longs for a fuller
understanding of life. But the Mysteries to be looked for are
not now embodied in publicly known brotherhoods and
fraternities. The Ancient Mysteries have disappeared as
readily accessible human organizations, for lack of a
sufficient number of worthy aspirants. Yet one can still attain
the purpose of the Mysteries, which was “to awaken the
spiritual powers which, surrounded by the flaming ring of
lust and degeneracy, lie asleep within man’s soul .”* 4 This
purpose can still be attained by not ceasing until one fully
understands the secrets of purification and transmutation of
sex, which not only were the subject of Ancient Mysteries
but which are confirmed by modem investigation.

*****

1 Angus, Mystery Religions and Christianity, iii, 95.

8 Brunton, A Search of Secret Egypt, xii, 182.

8 Hall, EncycL Outline of Symbolical Philosophy, lxxvi.

4 Xenocrate s ; quoted in Zeller, Die Philosophic der

Griechen, II, 882. 0 Taylor, Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries,
I, 87. c Atkinson and Beals, Regenerative Power, i, 18.

7 Same as 1 , iii, 78.

8 Same as 1 , iii, 78.

9 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, III, 294.

10 Pike, Morals and Dogma, xxiv, 391.

11 Lfcvi, History of Magic, II, v, 153.

18 Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary, 88.

13 Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy, iv, 66.

14 Same as l , iv, 151.

15 Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 56.

16 Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, I, xi, 409.

17 Same as n , IV, i, 229.

18 Same as 3 , xxiv.
19 Apuleius, Metamorphosis, xi, 196.

80 Same as 10 , xxiv. 431.

81 Same as 10 , xxv, 520.

M , Same as l , iii, 84.

83 Mead, Pistis Sophia, II, c, 208.

84 Same as 3 , lxxvi.
 LXXI
FREEMASONRY

"Freemasonry is . . . the conquest of the appetites and

passions ... a continual warfare of the spiritual against the
material and sensual."

— Pike, Morals and Dogma,xxxii,858.

Freemasonry re-echoes in modern times the character of the

Ancient Mysteries. Along with every other ritualistic
movement it may have demonstrated that “ceremonies are
but the unsubstantial flowers of the Toa” 1 , and that
“symbols outlast their explanations” 1 ; but in its essence, in
its ideals, it measures up to the highest standard of the
Mysteries.

As of the Mysteries so “the true object of the Masonic

fraternity . . . is an attempt to achieve the moral
regeneration of the human race .” 8 It recognizes that “in
every man there is a ray . . . which ever struggles upward
amid the obstructions of the passions” 4 ; it teaches that
“one law of our own nature . . . speaking through every
nerve and fibre, every force and element of the moral
constitution is . . . that we must govern our sensual
appetites” 8 , and also that this is “not the mere enactment
of arbitrary will . . . but the dictate of Infinite Wisdom.”*

Against the growing tendency of a materialistic age to forget

that ceremonies are quite useless when only perfunctorily
performed, the more serious-minded Masons have “never
held . . . that initiation alone sufficed.”' They have always
acknowledged that “the problem of genuine initiation
consists ... in freeing the ego from the dominion of the
appetites, passions, and the whole lower nature”*, because
“without this subordination the clamorous lower animal
nature drowns out all higher vibrations.”*

One need not enter deeply into the intricacies of debatable

interpretations of Masonic symbols to discover that a few
which are generally known contain strong indications of an
intended teaching of sexual purification. The apron for
instance, which should be spotless white, “worn over the
area related to the animal passions . . . signifies the
regeneration of the procreative forces .” 10

Another clear indication lies in the fact that “the Compass

represents the spiritual . . . and the Square the material,
sensual and baser” 11 , and in the relative position of these
two in different Masonic degrees. “For the Apprentice the
points of the Compass are beneath the Square” 1 *,
indicating that “in the man of ignorance the spirit is
concealed and the body and its passions hold dominion.” 1 *
“For the Fellowcraft one point of the Compass is above and
one beneath the Square” 14 , the interlacing of the two
symbols showing an attempted but not yet perfected
spiritualization. “For the Master-Mason both points of the
Compass are dominant and have rule, control and empire
over the symbol of the earthly and the material” 15 , as a
token that it is expected that “in the Master-Mason’s degree
matter is subordinated to spirit .” 10

But “what does the symbolism of the Compass and Square

profit a Mason if his sensual appetites and baser passions . . .
domineer over his moral sense, the animal over the divine,
the earthly over the .spiritual, both points of the Compass
remaining below the Square ?” 11

A strong hint of an original knowledge of the mechanism of

regeneration, of the ‘uncoiling of the serpent’ 18 , is
contained in the number of Masonic degrees. It can hardly
be accidental that the number of degrees is the same as that
of the vertebrae in the spine. Just as the Mason must rise to
the point of highest attainment through thirty-three Masonic
degrees, so the serpent-fire must be raised through the
thirty-three segments of the spinal column before
regeneration is perfected.

This correspondence seems the more striking when it is

considered that in Masonry “every degree . . . teaches by its
ceremonial as by its instruction that the highest purpose of
life and the highest duty of man are to strive incessantly and
vigorously to win the mastery of that which in him is
spiritual . . . over that which is material and sensual.” 1 *
After all, there can be no question but that this Masonic
ideal, in its logical and practical application, involves the
occult process of regeneration by raising the serpent-fire.

At any rate, the statements quoted from Masonic literature

show that in a cornerstone of the Freemasonic structure lies
recorded a recognition of the fact that sexual purification is
a fundamental mandate for spiritual unfoldment.

*****

1 Kwang-tze, Kih Pei Yd, i ; in : Sacred Books of the East , XL,

59.

1 Pike, Morals and Dogma, xxiv, 423.

3 Waite, Azoth, Appendix, ii, 222.

4 Same as s , xxxii, 857.

8 Same as 3 , xv, 240.

6 Same as s , xv, 240.

7 Same as 3 , xxiv, 390.

8 Buck, Mystic Masonry, vi, 184.

9 Same as 8 , vi, .84.

10 Hall, Encycl. Outline of Symbolical Philosophy, lxxvii.

11 Same as *, xxxii, 851.

12 Same as s , xxxii, 854.

13 Same as 8 , ix, 240.

14 Same as 3 , xxxii, 854.

15 Same as *, xxxii, 854.

16 Same as 8 , ix, 240.

17 Same as 3 , xxix, 808.

18 See Ch. lxxxv. Uncoiling the Serpent.

19 Same as 3 , xxxii, 855.

 LXXII
THE REAL ROSICRUCIANS

“The true Rosicrucians bound themselves to . . . absolute

chastity.*’

— Jennings, The Rosicrucians,I,v,26.

Towering above any organization or occupation of ordinary

humans there seems to have existed, and still may exist, “a
secret society of men possessing superhuman powers” 1 , a
brotherhood consisting of some of the highest evolved
individuals of the race.

Although very few authentic records about them can be

found, there is evidence that they used a super-masonic
symbolism, carefully kept from crystallizing into a mere
ceremony ; a super-alchemic hermetic system, not requiring
laboratory experiments; a super-occultism, enabling them to
be consciously active on other planes of existence than the
physical; and a super-science, giving them an
understanding of the workings of nature’s finest forces back
of all natural phenomena.

“According to this viewpoint the true Rosicrucian

Brotherhood consisted of a limited number of highly
developed adepts . . . who taught the mystery of human
regeneration through the transmutation of the base
elements of man’s lower nature into the gold of spiritual
realization.”* “The real objects of those adepts were to
remain no longer slaves to those things supposed to be
neccessities, and to rise superior to . . . sexual
degradation.”* “Their principles are in every way
correspondent to the ancient wisdom .” 4
That their philosophy substantiates the purificatory ideal
presented in this volume can also be seen from a few lines
taken from a tract which is considered to be genuinely
Rosicrucian : “Instead of governing the sensuous, man
became involved in sensuosity . . . He fell from spirit into
matter, and it is now the object of his efforts to regain his
former position . . . He is still engaged in the battle of the
sensuous against the spiritual. He wants to become
spiritualized but his body attracts him to the sensuous by a
thousand charms . . . His power of returning depends
entirely on his power to subdue everything that renders
obscure his true inner nature .” 5 If even the merely
sensuous is deemed to obscure it, how much more must
sensuality eclipse man’s inner spiritual nature!

A real Rosicrucian has been described as “a person who by

the process of spiritual awakening has attained a practical
knowledge of the secret significance of the Rose and the
Cross.” * This secret meaning can be partly understood from
such statements as: “that flowers blossom by unfolding has
caused them to be chosen as a symbol of spiritual
unfoldment” 1 , and “the cross is symbolic of the human
body. When the rose is on the cross the two symbols
together signify that the soul of man is crucified upon the
body.”* With its material ties and tendencies the body holds
the soul in torturous bondage until man rises from physical
generation to spiritual regeneration.

A practical knowledge of this symbolism may well have been

the reason why “the Rosicrucians . . . became renowned for
the extreme purity of their lives.”*

At the present time there are many societies publicly

working under the Rosicrucian name. But when one does not
see in such a society a manifestation of the real Rosicrucian
life, it must be doubted whether any connection with the
original fraternity exists beyond an appropriation of its
name. For “only when he lives the Rosicrucian life can the
disciple ever discover the secrets of that sublime fraternity
.” 10

What the truly Rosicrucian life involves is clearly laid down

in one of the ‘Rules of the Order’, stating that “no married
man shall be eligible for initiation as a brother .” 11 And why
this restriction was made can be deduced from a sentence in
a widely spread Rosicrucian manifesto, which describes the
original group working with the founder of the Order as “all
bachelors, and of vowed virginity.” 1 *

The real Rosicrucian life is therefore one of strict celibacy.

And if this was deemed basically essential for the high
spiritual standard of Rosicrucian activities, the first step for
any one who wishes to rise out of an ordinary material
existence obviously must be to diminish the wasteful
shattering of the life force.

In that way only will it ever become possible to discover the

existence of the real Rosicrucians, and to understand the full
significance of their teachings.

*****

1 Hartmann, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, I, i.

* Hall, Encycl. Outline of Symbolical Philosophy, cxl.

* Jennings, The Rosicrucians, I, xxiv, 217.

4 Philalethes, Preface to Fame and Confession of the

Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, 36.

8 Magic on ; in The Theosophist, V, 194.

* Same as \ I, 7.

7 Same as *, cxxxix.

8 Same as *, cxxxix.

9 B la vat sky. Complete Works, I, 51.

10 Same as *, cxxxvii.

11 Renatus, Die warhaffte Bereitung des Philosophischen

Steins, 124.

19 Foma Fratemitatis ; in: Waits, Real History of the

Rosicrucians, iii, 73.
 LXXIII
ALCHEMY

“Let him that is desirous of this knowledge clear his mind

from ail passions.”

— Espaonet, Hermetic Arcanum, i, 5.

“Of all the symbolic systems in which the idea of the

remaking or transmutation of the self has been enshrined
none is so complete ... as that of the hermetic philosophers
or spiritual alchemists .” 1

“By the transmutation of metals the alchemists meant the

conversion of man from a lower to a higher order of
existence, from a natural to a spiritual life.”* The making of
gold was undoubtedly the compelling motive of those
alchemists who were experimentors in primitive chemistry.
But “the true alchemists have nothing to do with ...
solutions, putrefactions, coagulations or anything of the kind
.” 3 They were as far from attempting to produce material
goldbricks as freemasons are from building with common
bricks and mortar. What they wanted was to “obtain the pure
gold of wisdom from the inferior metals represented by
man’s animal passions .” 4 In hermetic writings there occur
repeatedly such phrases as: “our gold is not in any way the
gold of the multitude, but it is the living gold” 5 ; it is the
“gold . . . with which the wise are enriched, not that which is
coined”*; all beings contain in their inmost center a precious
grain of this gold” 7 ; one must “take this pure spiritual gold
. . . Those who labor with dead materials will obtain nothing
that lives .” 8
The philosophical alchemists used only symbolically the
chemist’s utensils and vernacular “in expounding the truth
... to hide it from the unworthy, lest they should be giving
the holy thing to those who think only of indulging their
lustful desires .” 3 They taught that “alchemy casts off the
sensual man” 10 , because “sensuality suffocates its germ .”
11 Therefore, they said, “we should first study . . . how to
overcome carnal affections.” 1 * “One worthy of this science
must be strictly virtuous, leading a holy life” 1 *, “a life pure
and unsullied by sensual pleasure from birth .” 14

“Alchemy can be fully understood only by those who have

entered on and are working the philosophic process .” 18
But even a partial understanding will show that “the
culmination of the secret work is spiritual perfect man .” 16

This idea is supported by several clear statements in

hermetic writings. One of the alchemists records: “I gave
myself over to wisdom’s smelting furnace as to a fire of
purification, till all my vain desires and the tares of earthly
lust had burnt away ... so that I appeared in spirit as a pure
gold” 17 ; while another states: “I have throughout the
whole course of my life kept myself safe and free from
sensuality .” 18 Still another writes: “I command all my
successors to spiritualize their bodies.” 19 .

In regard to the philosopher’s stone they remark: “the

hidden stone is not sensuously apprehended, but only
known . . . intellectually”* 0 ; “it is a great mistake to seek
for it in material and external things .”* 1 “Our stone
consists of a body, a soul and a spirit”**; in other words, the
stone denotes spiritualized man who consciously and by
choice is as little susceptible to the passions as a stone or
mineral is in its still unawakened consciousness. This
interpretation of the stone elucidates the hermetic
command: “be ye transmuted from dead stones into living
philosophical stones .”* 8

About the hermetic elixir of life one writer states that “this
potent elixir was naught but the highly concentrated
energies of man, existing in potency and latency in his
reproductive organism .”* 4 Alchemists themselves have
said: “our secret elixir is of a fire-abiding purity”* 8 , and “he
who knows . . . how to make it homogene with imperfect
bodies knows one of the greatest secrets of nature”* 8 ; but
“whoever misuses this tincture and does not live an
exemplarily pure life . . . will lose the benefit .”* 7

“The ethical work of alchemy, as of common life, is a

sublimation”* 8 ; in fact “there is but a single important
operation in the work; this consists in sublimation”* 9 ; even

“the first step of this process ... is done through sublimation

and purification .” 30 And that this sublimation actually
refers to a transmutation of sexual energy may easily be
deduced from the following quotations.

“The great work is . . . the unification of spirit and body” 31 ;

it is “a natural and radical operation in which our natures are
altered perfectly .” 33 “First you must prepare your seed” 33
; it must be kept pure and be allowed to ripen. Then “the
sage enjoins us to sow the seed in a field which has been
prepared with living fire” 34 , “a clear transparent fire not
unlike the sun .” 33 No one can remain uncertain as to what
is meant by this fire after reading that “some call it spirit .”
30 The field referred to is “the earth or body” 33 , meaning
one’s own body. “This earth must be weeded of all foreign
elements” 33 ; the body must be purified because “you must
have a good soil ” 30 for the sublimation of the seed into
spiritual power.
Furthermore one is instructed to “take a living and
indestructible water” 40 , “which water is called the medium
of the soul .” 41 “This water is the foundation of our art .” 43
“It is a water in the belly of the earth, and the spirit . . . has
mixed itself with it .” 43 “The sages have described its
power and efficacy as being that of spiritual blood .” 44
Remembering that the earth represents the body, these
phrases leave little doubt as to what liquid they refer to.
None of it may be wasted, and it is therefore deemed
necessary to “close well the mouth of the phial .” 43 For “the
body must drink of its own prepared water, and become ever
purer the more it drinks .” 40

You must “understand that the bodily substance must be

conserved ... as being that wherein is the life .” 47 “You must
let it be your object to solve this substance which the sages
have called the highest natural good .” 43 “It causes the
body to rise from [spiritual] death to life by being dissolved
first and then sublimated .” 40 “In this sublimation our water
ascends .” 30 “In such a natural sublimation or lifting up
there is ... a separation of the pure from the impure” 31 ;
“and by such operation . . . the spirit is incorporated with the
body and made one with it ” 33 Thus “the body ... is made
spiritual by its own water .” 33

“All this can be accomplished with our water ... in its refluent
course” 54 , that is to say when reabsorbed by the body . 55
“Our ultimate or highest secret is by this our water to make
bodies spiritual.”” “He who knows this . . . knows the only
way that leads to perfection. ” w

All these pronouncements, most of which have been taken

from old hermetic treatises, distinctly show not only that
“man is the true laboratory of the hermetic art” , and that
“the genuine alchemist’s real object was . . . the perfection
of man” 55 , but also that in the teachings of the alchemists
the process of transmutation of the sex force was of primary
importance, as it always must be wherever spiritual
regeneration is the aim.

*#***

1 Underhill, Mysticism, I, vi, 141.

I Hitchcock, Alchemy and the Alchemists, 280.

* “The Only True Way” ; in: The Hermetic Museum, I, vi, 151.

4 Hartmann, Occult Science in Medicine, II, iii, 43.

5 Frizius, Summum Bonum, 34; quoted in: **, II, 178.

6 Vauohan, Magical Writings , 65.

7 Paracelsus, Hermetic and Alchemical Writings, I, 301.

8 “Treatise on the Philosopher’s Stone”; in: Hartmann, Secret

Symbols

of the Rosicrucians, II, 6.

9 “The Golden Tract”; in: The Hermetic Museum, I, i, 36.

10 Van Suchtbn, Of the Secrets of Antimony, 87.

II Same as 8 , II, 1.

11 Barrett, The Magus, II, i, 35.

19 Lover of Philalethes, A Short Inquiry concerning the

Hermetic Art, 34.

14 Westcott, Collectanea Hermetica, III, 7.

15 Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery,
597.

14 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 119.

17 Pordaoe, Sophia, 23 ; quoted in: w , II, 172.

18 Valentine, The Triumphant Chariot of Antimony, 152.

19 Trismosin, Splendor Solis, III, iv, 30.

90 Ferrara, The New Pearl of Great Price , 124.

81 Same as 8 , II, 3.

88 Artephius, The Secret Book, xvii; in: Barrett, The Lives of

the Adepts, 138.

88 Same as e , 64.

84 Atkinson and Beals, Regenerative Power, i, 20.

85 Philoctbtes, Philadelphia, 29.

88 Same as **, xi; 136.

87 Philalethes, Lumen de Lumine, 37.

88 Silberer, Problems of Mysticism, III, 341.

* Pike, Morals and Dogma, xxviii, 777.

80 Van Suchten, "An Explanation of the Natural Philosopher

1 ! Tincture";

in: Fioulus, A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature*s

Marvels, 226.
81 Same as *, II, 6.

88 Eyrbnaeus, Commentary upon Sir Ripley*s ‘Compound of

Alchemy; quoted in 8 , 244.

88 "The Glory of the World"; in: The Hermetic Museum, I, vii,

200.

84 Same as w , I, vii, a00.

85 Flamel, "Summary of Philosophy"; in: Barrett, The Lives of

the

Adepts, 253.

84 Same as ", I, vii, 198.

87 Same as M , I, vii, 227.

88 Same as •*, I, vii, 200.

88 Same as ", I, vii, 200.

40 Same as M , I, vii, 206.

41 Same as n , viii; 834.

48 Saint-Didier, The Hermetic Triumph, 129.

48 Same as **, 49.

44 Same as **, I, vii, 206.

45 Same as **, I, vii, 207.

44 Same as w , I, vii, 227.

47 Same as T , II, 117.

48 “The Sophie Hydrolith”; in: The Hermetic Museum, I, iii,
80.

48 Same as M , xv; 137.

64 Same as M , xvii; 138.

*1 Same as n , xix; 139.

58 Same as **, xv; 137.

58 Same as M , xxvi; 141.

84 Same as tt , I, iii, 80.

55 See Ch. xxvii, A Physiological Dilemma.

54 Same as M , xi; 135.

87 Same as tt , xi; 136.

88 Same as w , II, i, 162.

88 Waite, Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers, 11.

 LXXIV
ASTROLOGY

“The heavens . . . eternally witness the promise of the final

redemption of man from his earthy animal soul.” —Turnbull,
Celestial Correspondences, ix, 61.

In its highest aspect “astrology is one of the great secrets of

initiation and occult mysteries .” 1 To those who are
sufficiently prepared to understand its true significance
astrology can reveal how, from the infinitesimally small to
the infinitely great, “every part of the universe acts upon
another.”* It can show like nothing else that unity manifests
as a universal principle. It can unravel every problem of life
in the cosmos.

In its popularized form however astrology is usually reduced

to a fortune-telling game which any one can play. This petty
personal application stands in the same relation to
impersonal cosmic astrology as the keeping of a household
cashbook to the computations of astronomy. Based on its
deeper values “astrology . . was once mighty and sublime.”*
“It was not only a method of divination: it implied a religious
conception of the world .” 4 It was “a scientific theology.”*

In olden days a high standard was set for the profession of

astrology by the general belief that “man must be purified
from all defilement in order to render himself worthy ... of
heavenly things.”* “This lofty conception which was formed
of astrology . . . entailed ethical consequences of supreme
importance .” 7 As a result the ancient astrologers
“considered the exercise of their profession as a priesthood.
They laid stress on the purity of their morals and named
among the qualities which brought them near to the divine
nature: chastity . . . They led an austere life. This was the
very condition of their power.”*

Inherently chastity must ever remain a requisite for an

insight in the real purport of astrology, because in its
esotericism it is a purely spiritual science. Any kind of a
spiritual knowledge can only be acquired when the fire of
spirit bums with a clear flame within the soul; but “all carnal
desires in some measure pollute this sacred fire”', and act as
a deterrent on the understanding of esoteric truths.

A simple instance of an astrological influence is that of the

Moon on sexuality. “The Moon is the controller of human
generation .” 10 The equal periodicity of Moon and normal
menses is an indication of this fact. Furthermore there is
“evidence of the existence of a sex rhythm in the male as
well as in the female, in some way related to the phases of
the Moon .” 11

There also seems to exist a very definite connection

between the Moon’s positions and the ascending degrees at
the moments of coition, of fructification and of birth. 1 * It is
claimed that by an application of this astrological
interrelation “it is possible to arrange the act of generation
at such a time as will ensure the birth of the child at a
favorable moment.” 1 * Herein lies a eugenic secret which a
purified humanity some day will be able to apply in calling
into birth a race of supermen. But “before we can do more
than dream of a race of supermen we must first remove the
menace of the half-men” 1 , who want to turn every bit of
knowledge into selfish use and sense-satisfaction.

For those familiar with astrological lore it may be interesting

to be reminded of the doctrine that “the zodiacal signs were
first ten .” 15 That is to say, for a long time “ten only were
known to the profane; the initiates however knew them all
from the time of the separation of mankind into sexes .” 10
Up to that time “Virgo-Scorpio . . . were one single sign””
which included Libra.

Thus in astrology there is an indication that humanity was

once unisexual. And the separation of the sexes was
connected with the division of the one ancient zodiacal sign
(sometimes called the Eagle ) into Virgo (of which “chastity
is the guiding principle” 1 *), Scorpio (“the symbol of the
generative function” 19 ), and Libra (the Balance) of which
the name itself indicates that it holds the balance between
the other two.

Mankind has upset this balance which nature had decreed

and recorded in the stars. And man himself must restore it.
When the disturbing element of sex is overcome by the race,
then the three signs will again become the one, the Eagle as
of old. When the fire of human passion has been voluntarily
extinguished by the will, then out of the ashes, phoenix-like,
the Eagle of spiritual power will arise.

Another astrological indication of the evolutionary need of

sexual purification can be seen in the relation between
Taurus and Scorpio.

“Taurus ... is the symbol of spiritual generative force”* 9 ,

which is logically confirmed by the dominion of this sign
over the throat, the source of the creative Word. Whereas
“Scorpio rules the [physical] generative organs .”* 1
Corresponding to the generally acknowledged physiological
relation between the sex organs and the throat, there is a
special relation between Scorpio and Taurus. These signs are
opposites, corroborating the fact that physical generation
opposes spiritual regeneration.
Before regeneration can take place the sexual power of
Scorpio must be taken away from this sign and transferred
to Taurus; the generative force of the sex organs must be
transmuted and raised to the throat, where it can find
expression in the Word as a manifestation of the mind’s
creative power.

The fundamental idea of the transmutation of the sex force

is also confirmed by the planetary rulers, Mars of Scorpio
and Venus of Taurus.

The very symbols of these two planets are significant in this

respect. Both consist of a circle and a cross. “The cross ... in
esoteric astrology is indicative of matter or the body. The
circle . . . denotes perfection or spirit.”** The symbol for Mars
has the cross above the circle, “the material surmounting
the spiritual .”* 8 But “in the symbol for Venus we find
significance of the higher forces dominant over the lower”*
4 , for it has the circle above the cross. Hence “Venus
corresponds to spirit”**, while “Mars is the representative of
the animal soul in man.”** “Mars . . . constitutes the seat of
desire wherein the spirit is subordinated to the gratification
of the senses.”**

“Consistent with progressional law these grosser and

therefore impermanent elements of Mars . . . are convertible
into the more refined properties of Venus.”** By purification
of the sexual life “Mars will be truly transmuted into Venus,
as experience will teach.”** “Venus cannot act directly upon
the physical plane until the reign of Mars is over and the
passions have changed to . . . the highest emotions of the
spiritual nature.”**

All these detailed astrological data may run the risk of

boring the general reader. Yet one more point should be
mentioned on account of its close connection with the
subject matter of another chapter .* 1

In a horoscope the home of Scorpio and of Mars is “the

eighth house, which is generally considered to have a direct
bearing upon death.”" This reaffirms the very close
connection between sexual activity and death.

It is claimed in occult writings that death was not known

amongst men until the separation of the sexes, until sexual
reproduction began. It was then that Scorpio became
manifest as a separate sign, and with it appeared death.
Conforming to this idea the tail of the symbol of Scorpio
ends in a tiny arrow, representing the sting of death.

Deadly as the sting and the poison of the scorpion is the

passion of Scorpio and of its ruler Mars. The way to
overcome death is to overcome Scorpio’s power over the sex
organs, to overcome sexual passion.

• •••••••••••a

As in the course of time humanity grew ever more

materialistic nearly every spiritual phase of astrology was
discarded. But for the student who begins to rediscover its
concealed verities it can convincingly substantiate that
sexual purification is a requisite on the road toward a higher
humanity.

*«**#

1 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 525.

• Aorippa, Occult Philosophy, II, 339.

s Jennings, The Rosicrucians, I, ix, 70.

4 Cumont, Astrology and Religion amongst the Greeks and
Romans, iii, 76. 8 Same as 4 , iii, 81.

• Same as 4 , v, 150.

7 Same as 4 , v, 149.

8 Same as 4 , v, 149-150.

• Same as 4 , v, 150.

10 Sepharial, "The Prenatal Epoch*'; in : The Horoscope, I, iii,

177.

u Berman, The Personal Equation, viii, 245. See also: Ellis,

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, I, 106-121 and 297-309;
see also u , vii, 58-9.

11 Bailey, The Prenatal Epoch, iv, 27 and xxxvi, 209 ; see

also 1S , iv, 39.

18 Bailey, Astrology and Birth Control, vi, 55.

14 Rice, Racial Hygiene, xxv, 370.

18 Myer, The Qabbalah, xii, 248.

18 Same as *, II, 528.

17 Same as 8 , I, ix, 71.

18 Turnbull, The Divine Language of Celestial

Correspondences, ix, 62.

18 Prysb, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 131.

88 Same as 19 , 176.
81 Hbindbl, The Message of the Stars, vii, 132.

88 Hazelrioo, Astrosophia, i, 6.

88 Same as **, i, 6.

84 Same as **, i, 6.

88 Same as M , iii, 41.

88 Leo, How to Judge a Nativity, II, vi, 47.

87 Same as M , iii, 56.

88 Same as M , iii, 57.

88 Valentine, The Triumphant Chariot of Antimony, tot.

80 Same as *, II, vi, 47.

81 See Ch. xc. Deathlessness.

88 Same as u , I, xv, 142.

 LXXV
THEOSOPHY

“The sexual relation is ... a thing to be put aside the moment

a person becomes wise.**

— Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine,II, 479.

"Theosophy, the highest summit of thought which the

human mind has reached” 1 , has existed since the most
ancient times wherever a human consciousness was able to
grasp a knowledge of divine realities. Through the ages it
"has found different expressions in different philosophies
and religions” 1 , which are but cloaked embodiments of the
same eternal truths.

Seeking to give a more direct, unveiled expression to those

truths, "the theosophists of antiquity . . . showed how the
bonds of the senses could be broken and the human soul set
free.”* They showed how each one who so wished might,
while in the physical body, verify some of life’s basic facts
and laws. At the same time theosophy always “showed that
a condition of purity, far transcending any popular ideal of
such virtue, was the absolute and all-essential basis of
spiritual insight and attainment .” 4

The founder of the modern theosophical movement has not

failed to lay enormous stress on the need of sexual purity for
those who would seek an understanding of life’s deeper
verities. "It is obvious to any one who knows anything of
Madame Blavatsky’s writings and of theosophical teachings
that their whole tendency is toward the destruction of the
sex impulse instead of toward its deification .” 5
She taught that “the practice of moral and physical purity . .
. develops self-illumination.”* She listed abstinence amongst
“the conditions under which alone the study of the divine
wisdom can be pursued with safety” 7 , and mentioned it as
one of “the most efficacious means of . . . preparing for the
reception of higher wisdom.”* She pointed out that this
wisdom cannot possibly be obtained unless one first “kills
the passions of the physical, to call to life the perceptions of
the spiritual man.”*

She called sexual action “the greatest impediment in the

way of spiritual development.” 1 * And she made it very
clear that “sensual self-gratification involves the immediate
loss of the powers of spiritual discernment .” 11 For such
discernment serene harmony is a prerequisite; and “how can
harmony prevail when the soul is stained and distracted
with the turmoil of the terrestrial desires of the bodily
senses?” 1 * “It is only when ... all the lusts and longings of
the flesh are dead . . . that the union with the higher Self can
take place.” 1 * Since this union can and must be effected
during one’s physical life “the passions must first die before
the body does .” 14

Such are but a few of Blavatsky’s numerous unequivocal

pronouncements on the subject of sexual purification. They
found an echo in much of the theosophical literature,
especially in the earlier days of the new movement. There it
was emphatically stated that “spiritual culture is only
attainable ... as the demands of the flesh are subordinated
to the aspirations of the higher nature.” 1 * It was
recognized that “whenever one experiences these higher
moods . . . perfect chastity seems indeed an absolute
condition of full Self-realization.” 1 * It was realized that
“passions . . . dim man’s knowledge that he is an immortal
spirit” 11 , and that therefore “repression of desires is
absolutely necessary for spiritual progress .” 18
At an advanced stage of the soul’s development, “when men
reach the true spiritual life sex becomes nothing; the entire
forces of their natures are then transmuted into . . . spiritual
energies.” 1 *

But before attaining that stage where the sex impulse is

overcome “the war between spirit and matter . . . will last till
man adjusts his outer self to his spiritual nature. Till then the
dark and fierce passions will be at feud with the divine
man.”**

Undoubtedly “the animal will be tamed one day””, but not

until each one individually undertakes the taming. Then,
“with every effort of the will toward purification . . . the
spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher.””

Thus “as to the process of spiritual development theosophy

teaches . . . the control of fleshly appetites and desires.”” It
bases this teaching on a unique and profound system of
occult and spiritual science, including an unusual theory of
evolution. Thereby it puts the ideal of purification on a
deeper foundation than can be found anywhere else.

*****

I MOller, Theosophy or Psychological Religion, iv, 106.

* Same at 1 , iv, 106.

* Mead, '‘On the Watchtower”; in: Lucifer, XVII, 360.

4 Spectator, “Modem Apostles*’; in: Lucifer, VI, 38a.

5 Besant, '‘Mysticism, True and False”; in: Lucifer, IX, 181.

6 Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, I, i, 18.

7 Blavatsky, Studies in Occultism, I, 7.

8 Same as 7 , I, 13.

9 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, I, 495.

10 Same as 9 , II, 309.

II Same as 7 , I, 39.

18 Same as 7 , I, 34.

18 Same as 7 , I, 35.

14 Same as 9 , I, 495.

15 Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, I, 898.

16 Sedlak, “A Justification of Chastity”; in: The Theosophical

Review,

XLII, 57 .

17 Horrwitz, “The Metaphysics of Vegetarianism”; in: Lucifer,

XX, 144.

18 Wells, “Theosophical Asceticism”; in: Lucifer, XIX, 274.

19 Gay, “The Education of the Sexes”; in: Lucifer, XVIII, 141.

10 Same as 9 , II, 280.

81 Same as 9 , II, 280.

88 Same as 9 , I, 700.

88 Judge, An Epitome of Theosophy, 25.

 LXXVI
REBIRTH

“If even the smallest atom of lust has not been eradicated
one will not leave behind him these ever recurring
existences.”

— Buddha, Udanavarga, III,18.

“Reincarnation teaches that the soul enters this life not as a

new creation, but after a long course of previous existences
on this earth . . . and that the soul is on the way to future
transformations which it is now shaping for itself .” 1 Thus
reincarnation is the belief in “the existence of a persistent
individual soul passing through different incarnations and
carrying with it the consequences of its behavior in previous
states.”*

This belief “has not only dominated the ingenuous minds of

all the primitive races”*, but at the present day
“approximately fifty percent of the world’s population can be
said to believe in reincarnation” 4 , and “it has been
accepted by the greatest philosophers of all countries .” 8

The main obstacle to a wider acceptance in the Occident of

the idea of reincarnation seems to be that the memory of
“the knowledge which we acquired before birth was lost by
us at birth.”* There must be good reasons for this temporary
oblivion. One of these reasons undoubtedly is that the
remembrance of former conditions and relationships,
including those of a sexual nature, would bias one’s opinion
about associates with whom ties of the past must be
adjusted. Whatever took place in previous incarnations must
have been digested and transformed into elements of
character which enable one to cope with new experiences.
The resultant character is the essential thing; the means by
which it was developed may just as well be forgotten.

However, it is not considered impossible to recover the

seemingly vanished memory of “the immense fund of
experience gathered through countless ages ... a fund
accessible to us only when the tumult and stir of the bodily
senses is stilled .” 7 From the subconsciousness which “is
the abode of everything that is latent”®, “the memory of
the incarnating ego . . . can be recalled through the action of
the . . . regenerative force.”* This force can only become
active “by a conservation of the life energy and a refusal to
expend it in generation” 1 ®, or in any sexual act. “When
one’s being is thus purified there arises before him the firm
imperishable memory of his past experiences” 11 , for “by
the observance of the rules of purification . . . one obtains
the faculty of remembering former births.” 1 *

Uncontrolled psychic visions, which are supposed to be

connected with previous incarnations, may occasionally be
had by an unpurified sensitive; but such negatively received
impressions can never be accepted as in any way
dependable. Purification of the sexual life clearly is
considered to be an ineluctable requisite for a reliable
memory of past births.

“The doctrine of rebirth . . . untangles the knotty problems of

life simply and grandly” 1 * — in the realm of sex as well as
in other spheres of being.

For instance “that a child brings along into the world germs
of sexual activity ” 14 is seen as but the natural result of an
artificially strengthened sexual impulse in former existences.
Where a craving for sexual gratification has been nurtured
in the past it will be flagrant in the present. Reversely, to the
extent that such inclination is subdued will it lose its power
in subsequent incarnations, and so much easier will be the
ultimate victory over sensuality — a victory that is
evolutionarily imperative.

“All our successive incarnations are intended to improve the

conditions for the realization of our highest endeavors,
which are hindered and thwarted by our carnal passions.” 1
* “Only by repeated incarnations the soul is able to realize
the futility of the search for happiness and satisfaction in
material things.” 1 * “The value of reincarnation lies in the
fact that attempts to improve life are strengthened in
succeeding incarnations until final perfection is reached .”
17 “As long as we are not pure enough ... we must be bom
over and over again, and the degree of our impurity
determines what these births shall be .” 18

“Every lower impulse and craving is pulling . . . toward

rebirth upon the earth .” 18 And as long as that attraction
toward physical existence necessitates rebirth “each soul
enters the world for a certain and definite purpose, and
occupies the sex which will best enable it to fulfill that
purpose. 20

Reincarnationists are convinced that those who are here

today will be a part of a future humanity. Hence they must
see that the way to prepare a better future race, and
therewith a better world in which to reincarnate, is to
ennoble and purify the present one — beginning with that
little portion of it over which they have full control, namely:
with themselves.

Gradually the human entity will learn to overcome the

physical attractions and temptations and “will be bom . . .
with a consciousness which refuses to let him go wrong .”* 1
In the end, “through the purification of his moral character
he will attain deliverance”** from the necessity of rebirth on
the physical plane, and be free to manifest in fully
awakened, unbroken awareness in this or in other worlds.

The sooner one begins to purify his nature from sensual

inclinations, the sooner will freedom from compulsory
incarnation be attained, and the sooner will existence
become possible on a plane where death and suffering are
unknown.

*****

I Walker, Reincarnation, i, n.

3 Gore, Philosophy of the Good Life, iii, 60.

3 Same as 1 9 i, 11.

4 Goudey, Reincarnation, III, xviii, 98.

5 Muller, Three Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy, ii, 93.

6 Plato, Phaedo, 75.

7 Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, iii, 115.

8 James, Varieties of Religious Experiences, xix, 483.

9 Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 96.

10 Atkinson and Beals, Regenerative Power, i, 18.

II Chatter ji, India’s Outlook on Life, II, 67.

18 Laws of Manu, IV, 148; in: Sacred Books of the East, XXV,
15*.

18 Same as 1 , i, 14.
14 Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, iii, 90.

15 Lutoslawski, Pre-Existence and Reincarnation, xiv, 133.

16 Atkinson, Reincarnation, ix, 158.

17 Same as 4 , I, xiii, 64.

18 Same as *, ix, 223.

18 Beck, The Story of Oriental Philosophy, xiii, 201.

80 A. G., The Science of Regeneration, ix, 111.

81 Besant, In the Outer Court, i, 25.

18 Same as •, 165.

88 See Ch. xd, Immortality.

 LXXVII
RETRIBUTION

At least half the world's misery is in some way . . . connected

with the sexual sphere."

— Robinson, Sexual Problems of Today, 12.

Law links effect to cause in every manifestation of nature.

Of many physical phenomena the cause has been

discovered by science. Where a cause is still unknown
science does not deny its existence but tries to find it. In its
own dominion physical science asserts that nothing can take
place without a definite cause.

In the sphere of human life students of metaphysical science

have recognized that also in individual existence “whatever
arises is inevitably the effect of a previous cause” 1 , and
that moreover the cause must have been set up by the same
individual whom the effect affects. In this way only can it be
true that “all that befalls man befalls him justly” 1 ; thus
only can it be that justice rules the world. But “to people
delighting in desire the law of causality . . . will ever be a
matter difficult to understand.”*

Looking at a single life this law of causality — or of

retribution or, as it is often called, of karma — is not always
apparent. Seemingly without due cause some people’s path
is full of suffering, while with others good fortune abides;
and actions, baneful as well as worthy, often seem to remain
without any rebounding effect. Only when rebirth is taken
into account 4 the law of retribution with its infallible justice
becomes intelligible. Combined with the law of retribution
“the doctrine of reincarnation accounts for the inequality
observable in the lives of men on earth, giving a logical
reason for the same, and establishing the fact of universal
and ultimate justice accountable for on no other grounds.”*
“The believers in karma and reincarnation alone dimly
perceive that the whole secret of life is in the unbroken
series of its manifestations.”*

After all, “the belief that no act, whether good or bad, can be
lost is only the same belief in the moral world which our
belief in the preservation of force is in the physical world.
Nothing can be lost.”’

As long as life brings pleasant experiences these are readily

enough accepted as the natural result of personal merit, as a
compensation to which the person — usually for no
noticeable reason — feels entitled. But when misery comes
along, responsibility for its cause is but rarely
acknowledged.

Only the law of retribution can lucidly explain how all

human suffering is caused by man himself, and how the
greatest misery results from his abuse of sex. “There can be
no doubt that abuse of the sexual function is responsible for
much moral, mental and physical suffering .” 8

In whatever form misfortune may strike, it is necessarily self-

attracted. “The origin of every evil ... is in human action”*,
and thought. “Its origin rests entirely with reasoning man
who dissociates himself from nature .” 18

“All inharmony, tribulation and despair . . . are the direct

result of violations of laws of being .” 11 And “by far the
greater part is the result of the wilful refusal to obey the
moral law.” 1 * “Each violation of this law becomes a force in
the direction opposite to that toward which evolution is
working” 1 *, so that instead of helping toward regeneration
it drags down toward degeneration. “Human misery is ... an
expression of degeneration and a symptom of spiritual
decay .” 14 All “impurity . . . leads downward to decay” 15 ,
if not immediately in the same life on earth then in another
incarnation.

According to those who accept reincarnation as a fact the

unconsummated effects of whatever man has caused will
meet him when he comes to live on earth again. The human
entity “enters the embryonic stage . . . with its doom
pronounced by itself .” 18 It enters a male or a female body
according to the experiences which it has to go through. It is
automatically attracted to such parents as can supply
hereditary elements of body and of mental equipment in
accord with its own character. It is attracted to such
surroundings as will justly provide what it deserves and
needs; and to persons with whom ties were made in the past
that will have to be adjusted — the strongest and most
unpleasant of such ties having originated in sexual affairs.

Every sexual act like every other act must cause some future
reaction. And since most sexual acts, except those for
propagation, are in discord with nature, the reaction comes
as a rule in the form of misery. For “we cannot interfere with
the normal course of nature without some consequent evil
result.”"

“The mission of the reproductive energy is to secure the

continuance of the human race . . . The consequences of
every transgression will be serious in the highest degree.” 1
* Wasting the fife force is bound to result in a later lack of
that force, in an incarnation of physical invalidity, of mental
limitation, or in one that is cut short. Irresponsibility in
spreading venereal disease may bring rebirth in a prenatally
tainted body, with congenital and lingering ailments.
Inconsiderate procreation is likely to bring sickliness or loss
of children and painful childbirth. Contributing to some one
else’s delinquency must cause one’s own future
degeneration. For every sexual error one must somehow
atone.

Abuse of sex is at the very root of woeful retribution. “The

curse of karma was called down ... as the result of wasting
the life essence for personal gratification.” 1 * To this alone
must be attributed “the evil propensities — the curse of a
thousand ages of animality — with which our race is
afflicted.”** “By just retribution . . . our flesh now torments
us by insubordination”* 1 ; and this it will continue to do
until we discontinue every form of sexual abuse.”

Self-evidently sex purification will free us from the

overstimulated driving force of the sexual impulse; and it
will help to build a future free from all the misery to which
most sexual acts give cause. Already “the very longing to
realize the spiritual ideal in reproduction ... of itself tends to
lessen suffering.””

*****

1 Beck, The Story of Oriental Philosophy, xi, 168.

2 Aurelius, Meditations, iv, io.

s Mahavagga, I, v, 2; in: Sacred Books of the East, XIII, 85.

4 See Ch. lxxvi, Rebirth.

5 Atkinson, Reincarnation, iii, 43.

8 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, I, 259.

7 Muller, Three Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy, iii, 165.

8 Northcote, Christianity and Sex Problems, v, 63.

9 The Mahatma Letters, x, 57.

10 Same as 9 , x, 57.

11 Mingle, Science of Love, vii, 209.

12 Gore, Philosophy of the Good Life, x, 275.

18 Besant, The Doctrine of the Heart, 50.

14 Jordan, The Strength of Being Clean, 8.

15 Scott, The Sexual Instinct, i, 39.

16 Same as 1 , xiii, 202.

17 Thomson, “Problems involved in the Congress of the

Sexes*’; in:

British Medical Journal, 1922, I, 8.

18 Bureau, Towards Moral Bancruptcy, III, vi, 278.

19 Same as e , II, 429.

20 Cannon, The Power of Karma, i, 26.

21 Augustine, The City of God, XIV, 15.

22 See Ch. xxix, Perversion.

23 Stock ham, Karezza, vi, 57.

 LXXVIII
PSYCHISM

“The unpurified person . . . can arouse only the lower

psychic forces.” — Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed,21.

“With our physical senses alone at our command none of us

can hope to reach beyond gross matter” 1 , “which veils our
internal vision and . . . muffles our internal hearing.”*

But “there are certain faculties latent within the constitution

of man which if they become developed, call a higher scale
of internal senses into activity, and these may enable him ...
to hear, see, taste and smell things which far surpass the
powers of perception of the external senses.”* “In every
human being there are such latent faculties by means of
which he may acquire for himself knowledge of the higher
worlds” 4 , and by which he may prove to his own
satisfaction that “the supernatural is only the natural in an
extraordinary grade .” 8

Unfortunately “the development of these interior senses is

neglected almost to atrophy.”* And the capacity to respond
to spiritual vibrations has almost entirely been lost as a
result of the sexual perversions of the race . 7 “He who has
become corrupted does not easily rise to the sight of true
beauty ... He rushes on to enjoy and beget . . . and is not
even ashamed of pursuing pleasure in violation of nature .”
8 Every chance for the development of a safe and reliable
higher psychism is thereby lost, because “the soul
suffocated with the body and with lust cannot see any
spiritual things.”* “The real world ... is not to be entered by
those whom the body binds to its caprices .” 10
“The connection between spiritual seership and the
physiological purity of the seer ” 11 is of paramount
importance. Only “increasing control of the lower centers . . .
permits the emergence of the higher transcendental
perceptions.” 12

Therefore, “for the beholding of the hidden things shalt thou

forsake . . . the things of the flesh.” 1 *

“Spiritual awakening is necessarily accompanied by more or

less psychic development .” 14 But psychic development is
by no means a sign of spiritual awakening.

A low-grade, unreliable and unsafe form of psychism is

possible even without the slightest touch of spirituality.
Impressions of a superphysical nature are sometimes
negatively received by so-called sensitives. But such
psychism is “destructive to the unpurified . . . who may
succeed in arousing it .” 18 “The mere dabbler . . . will only
degrade his intellect with the puerilities of psychism and
become the prey of the misleading influences of the
phantasmal worlds.” 1 * The road to the psychopathic ward
is crowded with unpurified, unspiritualized sensitives.

The development of psychism can never be recommended.

It should not be sought, but come as the natural
concomitant of pure spiritual growth. Where a tendency to
psychism appears while purity is imperfect, that tendency
should be counteracted and entirely overcome in order to
prevent the almost unavoidable deteriorating results on
mind and morals.

Psychism is safe only after the casting out of every element

that might still respond to sensual vibrations. It is safe only
when we can assimilate the influence of the purest spiritual
forces. And “we can receive this influence only when we
liberate ourselves . . from carnal occupation .” 11

At the present time, particularly amongst students of

metaphysics and of the semi-occult, theories are rampant to
the effect that unreproductive coition in certain ways can
give spiritual upliftment. Mistaking emotional exuberance
for spirituality, it is erroneously thought that in the sexual
union a spiritual ecstasy can be experienced.

No greater and more dangerous fallacy could be invented to

beguile the students. No more specious and tempting
excuse could be presented for whatever sensual tendencies
may be residual in their nature. No act of self-indulgence
can awaken any spiritual response. “Under no circumstances
can impure acts on the physical plane cause spiritual growth
.” 18 To teach the opposite is a spiritual perversion. Every
attempt to link a physical expression of the lower centers
with superphysical experiences can at most lead to the
development of a psychism of a deceptive and dangerous
order.

Carnal expression of any kind whatsoever debases the forces

of psychism which are tenable and valuable only in “those
who . . . find these forces awakened within them by the very
purity of their nature and by the intensity of their aspiration
for the spiritual life.” 1 *

Pure psychism calls for sexual purity.

*****

1 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, III, 448.

* Eckartshausen. The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, i, 7.

8 Hartmann, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, I, 3.

4 Steiner, The Way of Initiation, ii, 50.

6 Livi, Transcendental Magic, II, i, 250.

4 Same as *, iv, 46.

7 See Ch. xxix, Perversion.

8 Plato, Phaedrus, 250.

9 Aorippa, Occult Philosophy, III, lv, 523.

10 Beck, The Way of Power, iii, 43.

11 Same as \ III, 309.

18 Underhill, Mysticism, II, iii, 226.

18 Dionysius the Areopaoite, “Epistle to Timothy"; quoted

in: Theologia Germanica, viii, 30.

14 Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 159.

15 Same as 14 , 148.

16 Same as 14 , 62.

17 Same as 9 , III, liii, 518.

18 Curtiss, Letters from the Teacher, I, ix, 190.

19 Same as 14 , 3.
 LXXIX
MAGIC

“Whoever wants to practise the art of magic . . . should leave

carnal affections and material passions.”

—Agrippa, Occult Philosophy,III,iii,350.

Where science ends magic begins. “Magical operations are

the exercise of a power which is . . . superior to the ordinary
forces of nature ” 1 — that is to say to the objective forces
which are used by physical science. Magic deals with a
subjective power latent within man.

“The power magical . . . sleeps in man since the knowledge

of the apple was assimilated; and so long as this knowledge
dominates, the noble magical power is lying dormant.”*
What has here been called the knowledge of the apple quite
evidently refers to the abuse of sex for selfgratification.
Since that abuse is said to keep the power of magic in
abeyance, it follows that the functioning of “this power is
achieved through continence.”* At least “continence is
regarded as one of the conditions required for the successful
carrying out of magical operations .” 4

Certainly “not without reason have the magicians in all lands

and times insisted on chastity.”* For the magus has to
employ forces which nature usually keeps hidden; and
“there is no other way of penetrating into the deeper secrets
of nature than the development of the higher nature of
man.”* Hence in every respect “the theurgist must
imperatively be one of high morality .” 7 He “must be
impassable and chaste . . . Most important is the attainment
of this rare preeminence .” 8
Magic is the performance of the miraculous, and only an
“abstemious mode of living can produce such an acuteness
of the senses that the greatest and most remarkable things
may be performed .” 9 “In order to work miracles we must be
. . . above all passions .” 10 Therefore “it was a very
excellent opinion of the ancient magicians that we ought to .
. . decline the impulses of the flesh .” 11

Everywhere “the first lesson of one who would become a

magus is self-mastery.” 1 * And always “sexual passion . . . is
categorically forbidden to the magus.” 1 * In fact it has been
held that in itself “to obtain command over the serpent is to
become a magus .” 14

The statements made so far refer particularly to white

magic, so called in contradistinction of black magic or
sorcery.

White magic works impersonally with the powers of the

spirit to help and to uplift others — never for the promotion
of selfish interests, never in any way for the aggrandizement
of the personality. But such unselfish “spiritual operations
require the greatest purity.” 1 * For “only when man has
outgrown his animality can his organism become a fit
instrument for the exercise of spiritual powers .” 14
“Therefore the white magician . . . seeks to transmute the
poles of the beast within himself into higher and finer
qualities .” 14

Every attempt to utilize spiritual powers to indulge the

personality constitutes black magic. Whether the purpose
be to satisfy feelings of hatred and revenge by hurting
others, or to acquire private benefits in the form of health or
prosperity or other wish-fulfillments — it is far from white
magic and must be classed with the black art. This takes in
the widespread selfish use of affirmations, of concentration
and suggestion. Though not always decidedly evil, such use
of the spiritual powers of unity for the sake of the separated
self is against natural law; and it is dangerous, if only
because it reinforces self-centeredness and thereby retards
one’s spiritual evolution which calls for the gradual
dissolution of the feeling of separateness.

Except for the lowest forms of sorcery sexual purity has long
been considered a necessary asset for almost any kind of
magical performance.

Even many “savages are perfectly well aware how valuable

sexual continence is ... to acquire the aptitude for abnormal
powers .” 14 “Almost universal among primitive peoples are
certain forms of ascetic practices inspired by motives
magical. 1 * Thus “we hear of celibate wizards and of virgin
witches.”**

In regard to the office of medicine-man, which is found

among aborigines in every part of the globe, “continence
was often required throughout the whole novitiate of
individuals in training for the office .”* 1 And afterwards in
their healing work stress was laid not only on their own
continence. “Yet more surprising . . . was their caution of not
admitting polluted persons to visit any of the patients, lest
the defilement should retard the cure.”** The emanations of
any one who shortly before had had sexual intercourse were
considered to be detrimental to the convalescent.

In the magical tradition of all ages it has been generally

surmised that “the chaste individual was the abode of
supernatural power.”** Also that sexual purity insured
protection against evil influences, that for instance “a
person cannot be bewitched ... if he has extinguished all die
surgings of carnal concupiscence .”* 4 And it was believed
that “sexual intercourse . . . removed the magical efficacy of
a charm”* 5 , which otherwise would exert a shielding power.

So, in the study of magic lore as in that of so many other

subjects one comes across much evidence that sexual purity
has always been held to be of enormous value in many
ways. Some of those subjects may seem of little practical
value, because hardly any one cares to become either a
magician or a psychic or a yogi or a mystic. Yet each subject
contributes its little share to the central idea that there
exists an innate power in chastity.

In the course of evolution magic powers beyond present

humanity’s wildest dreams are waiting to be developed. But
as long as one remains subject to the slightest stir of self
and of sex the faculty to use such powers to any measurable
extent would be as injurious and calamitous as a sharp
dagger in the hands of a little child. It is therefore fortunate
that “the schools of white magic conceal these powers from
man until through purification and unfoldment he gains the
proper incentive for using them.”**

****»

1 Livi. Transcendental Magic, II, i, 250.

I Barrett, The Magus, II, 22.

* Kuhn, TheQsophy , xi, 285.

4 Briffault, The Mothers, III, xxvii, 353.

5 Bulwkr-Lytton, Z an °ni, IV, iv, 285.

4 Hartmann, Occult Science in Medicine, V, 92. f Blavatsky,

The Secret Doctrine, III, 473. s Same as \ II, i, 251.
9 Apollonius ; quoted in T , III, 303.

10 Waite, Mysteries of Magic, 25.

II Aoripfa, Occult Philosophy, III, 341.

11 Underhill, Mysticism, I, vii, 156.

18 Same as *, I, vi, 93.

14 Livi, "Unpublished Writings’*; in: The Theosophist, VII,

358.

15 Mead, Simon Magus, III, 85.

14 Hartmann, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, I, 2.

1T Hall, Magic, ii, 28.

14 Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, VI, v, 145.

19 McKenzie, Hindu Ethics, III, iii, 234.

80 Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 56.

91 Maddox, The Medicine-Man, ii, 47.

98 Adair, History of the American Indians, xi, 123.

99 Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, 614.

94 Kramer, Malleus Maleficarum, II, i, 89 and 91.

95 Westernarck. Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco, x, 337.

94 Same as 1T , ii, 22.

 LXXX
YOGA

“Yoga manuals know the symbol of the serpent which the

individual has to overcome in order to acquire valuable
powers.”

— Silberer, Problems of Mysticism,III,277.

Since immemorial ages India has known and taught “the

science of Yoga, the way by which a man may hasten his
evolution and expand his consciousness .” 1 To this end “the
Yoga philosophy insists strongly on certain spiritual
exercises by which the soul may best obtain and maintain
peace and quietness.”*

Peace and serenity and the elimination of undesirable and

disturbing influences seem even more necessary in Yoga
than in other spiritualizing methods. Therefore “the study of
Yoga is impossible in the scattered condition of thoughts,
desires and feelings amidst which an ordinary person
lives.”* In the hectic existence of the whole Western world
there is practically no chance for an effective following of
Yoga practices. Yoga was originated in and for the East, not
for the West. Although the final goal of spiritualization is
everywhere the same, the methods of approach are
somewhat different under differing racial conditions as well
as for different individuals. A rule however which all
methods have been shown to have in common is that of
perfect chastity, essential as it is for the transmutation of
the generative force.

Attempts to westernize the Yoga teachings have led to

simplified adaptations which not only are usually ineffective,
but which become dangerous whenever they fail to insist on
an absolute cessation of physical indulgences. Any one
attracted to Yoga must well consider that “it is a very
dangerous thing to adventure in this path without the moral
foundation of perfect self-control .” 4 “Without it the practice
of Yoga . . . may lead to insanity.”5

The five known systems of Yoga may vary in their methods

of self-discipline, adjusted as these are to different
psychological types; but “the opening of a higher
consciousness is the aim of all Yogas.”* And “for all, the
subdual of the senses ... is an essential prerequisite .” 7 So
all-important is this requirement that sometimes particularly
“this, the firm holding back of the senses, is what is called
Yoga .” 8 “The general drift of Yoga remains always the same
. . . It is to serve as a discipline for subduing the passions.”*
When this discipline is omitted there can be no question of
Yoga, nor of spiritualization or of illumination.

Not only do the “Yogis know that sex energy must be

conserved and used for the development of body and mind
instead of being dissipated .” 10 They also realize that “the
greatest impediment to the acquirement of Yoga powers is . .
. sexual action .” 11 Therefore “as a first step the student is
trained and tested by the command . . . that continence
must be made the basis of life .” 18 Right from the
beginning “there must be perfect chastity in thought, word
and deed .” 18

Only “if lust ceases . . . worldly bondage will cease .” 14

Then “by absence of all self-indulgence . . . pure spiritual
being can be attained .” 18 But first, when “the intelligence
has ceased to take pleasure in the things of sense, and
therefore has seen the truth” 18 , “the perfection of the
powers of the bodily vesture comes about through the
wearing away of impurities .” 17 Thereupon “from
steadfastly following Yoga . . . comes illumination .” 18 And
“if a person ... is constantly freed from the senses the
infinite, supreme Yoga is perfectly produced.” 1 *

Like mysticism, and like every other system for spiritual

development, Yoga has often led to extreme one-sidedness.
Many of the so-called yogis are the outcome of lopsided Yoga
practices. Their demonstration of freakish physical body-
control obtained by tremendous will power, or their
performances of psychic or magical tricks resulting from
exceptional concentration — these do not in any way
exemplify the spiritualizing force of Yoga. In such cases
concentration and body-control, which to some extent
belong to the genuine means of a higher development, have
been overemphasized and made the end of attainment.

Even among those yogis who show a semblance of

spirituality a distracting one-sidedness frequently occurs.
Dropping their interest in everything in this world, their
purpose often becomes exclusively self-attainment; whereas
true spiritualization is inseparable from a longing and an
effort to be of greater service to humanity. Such yogis seek
union with the cosmic parent-life by trying to go back to
foetal existence, where with eyes closed to the world and
without effort they can feel to be one with Mother Nature,
leaving everything to her. In other words, they seek a
passive oneness of dependence. Whereas evolution’s aim is
an active oneness of equality, resulting from a wide-awake
use of the mind combined with a laborious acquisition of the
spiritual powers which will gradually enable one to become
the Father’s competent assistant and co-worker.

Where the Occident has become blinded to the necessity —

and even to the existence — of spiritual development, the
Orient has neglected the exercise of the concrete mind. For
this reason Yoga, too, generally does not fulfill the
requirements of a balanced evolutionary growth.

However, this is not the place for a critical study of Yoga’s

shortcomings. The present point of interest is only that the
first requirement of Yoga, as of every system which serves to
make spiritual development possible, whether it be for the
East or for the West, is sexual purification. “One who wants
to become a perfect yogi must give up the sex idea.”*®

***#*

1 Bbsant, Four Great Religions, 45.

* Muller, Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, viii, 371. 8

Ouspbnsky, A New Model of the Universe, vi, 848.

4 Beck, The Way of Power, x , 178.

5 Vivekananda. Raja Toga, I, v, 68.

4 Same as 8 , vi, 848.

T Same as *, 45.

Goi igk

9 Katka Upanishad, II, vi, n; quoted in: Dasoupta, Yoga

Philosophy,

44

• Same as *, vii, 356.

10 Ramaghapaka, The Hindu Science of Breath, ix, 38.

11 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 309.

11 Same as 4 , x, 177.

13 Same as 5 , I, v, 62.

14 Yoga Vasishta Laghu, i, 15.

15 Patanjau, Yoga Sutras, III, 50.

14 Yoga Vasishta; in: The Theosophical Review, XXV, 244.

1T Same as 15 , II, 43.

“ Same as II, 28.

19 Maitri Upanishad, VI, 28; in: Hu mb. The Thirteen

Principal Upanishads, 44 i

19 Same as 5 , II, ii, 177.

 LXXXI
OCCULTISM

“All sexual intercourse is forbidden in practical occultism.*’

— Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine,III,537.

On the beach of the unfathomable ocean of life we are all

playing our games or absorbed in our favorite pastimes.

Proudly the athlete struts along the boardwalk, showing off

his inflated muscles.

Along the water’s rim the scientist proceeds, exclusively

intent upon investigation of whatever the ocean has cast
ashore and brought within his reach.

Sun-shaded sits the artist, registering impressions of what

he observes around him and what is inspired to him.

Outstretched lies the philosopher, speculating upon the

being of sea and sky and land and living creatures and their
interrelation.

Forgetful of surroundings the religionist in devotional

attitude bows his head, adoring the unknown force that
manifests in nature’s magnitude.

On the sand within the tidal strip the psychic rests in

negative receptiveness, letting the waves touch him
whenever the flow comes up.

The magician is attracting wide attention trying to make the

tide recede by strange manipulations and a mighty exercise
of will.
The mystic, after meditative contemplation, so longs for a
momentary merging with the ocean of the one life that he
dips into it; but not knowing how to swim he is soon rolled
back upon the shore again.

When the waters are untroubled, the surf unstirred by wind,

the yogi dives and serenely swims a while in the samadhic
sea.

Looking and watching over all from an elevated point stands

the occultist. He is the life-guard of this beach. He is here to
help others, ready to render aid whenever called upon. He
knows the ocean well, has thoroughly explored it and is at
home in it; with eyes unclosed he can go down as deep and
stay down as long as he may wish. He observes more, knows
more, and can do more than any of the others.

Each of the others is but an incomplete expression of single

aspects of the occultist. He is the synthesis of all the others.
He exemplifies a progressive stage of balanced evolutionary
growth toward superhumanity.

The designation of occultist is frequently misapplied to

dabblers in theurgic and pseudo-occult crafts, or to students
of occultism who are still as far from being occultists as a
kindergarten pupil is from a doctorate.

The accomplished occultist is a highly and harmoniously

evolved human being in whom all faculties of body and of
soul can be used at will. He has risen above the danger of
clinging tenaciously to any one-sided form of development;
for him all-round perfection is the chosen goal.

Abundant physical vigor, scientific understanding, artistic

inspiration, philosophic speculation, religious adoration,
intuitive receptivity, mystic contemplation, yogic
concentration, magic will-power, plus other still more
wonderful abilities are all acquired by the successful
occultist — each to an extent beyond the comprehension of
those who seek to specialize in any single faculty.

The true occultist does not use any of his attainments for the
worldly benefit of the personality, nor to enhance its glamor.
He brings all the powers of the soul into expression in the
personality for the sake of helping others. And by the
growing impersonality of his being, which is of the very
character of spirit, he gains access to the source from which
all power springs.

To become an occultist, then, is the acme of human

attainment. “But occultism gives no prospect of cheaply and
immediately gained infinitude of wisdom .” 1 In the first
place “he who would become an occult student . . . must
continually increase his moral strength, his inner purity.”*
“The laws of attainment demand purity of life.”* “Whoever
wishes to come to the supreme state of the soul . . . must
purify his mind and body from all passions .” 1 For this
reason “all training in occultism has asceticism for its
keynote.”*

An essential requirement is knowledge, not only of physical

science but of the science of all superphysical laws as well.
And in order to be able to acquire it the student must “lead
the life necessary for the acquisition of such knowledge.”*
“The study is of no avail unless the spiritual intuition is
developed by the purification of desire.”' “The sanctuary of
esoteric science is closed to the frivolous ... by the law of
their own nature.”* Only “by way of purification . . . can the
soul acquire the perfect knowledge of all things knowable.”*
Therefore “the passions . . . are not to be indulged in by him
who seeks to know.” 1 * He alone “who disaccustoms himself
to concupiscence makes his heart acquainted with secrets”
11 , with those deep secrets of nature which it would be
dangerous to divulge to any one remaining ever so slightly
sensual or selfish.

It is “the reward of the conqueror who . . . vanquishes the

foes of his own nature . . . that he has imparted to him the
secret knowledge.” 1 *

Not until knowledge has thus been acquired is it safe to

attempt the development of any occult powers.

“If men knew the divine powers which are dormant in their
constitution, and were to pay attention to their development
instead of wasting all their energies upon the trifling affairs
of their external existence” 1 *, then there would soon be
many competent occultists.

But men either do not know and do not even want to know
about such powers, or if they know about these they are
reluctant to believe that “occult science allows not a shadow
of self-indulgence .” 14 But “woe to those who . . . dabble in
any form of occult science without first overcoming the more
important faults of their lower nature.” 1 * “Carnal passion . .
. suppresses the faculties of the soul.” 1 * Hence the
insistent demand that the disciple of occultism “above all
must be absolutely chaste, both physically and mentally.” 1 '
“Whoever, after having pledged himself to occultism,
indulges in the gratification of a terrestrial lust will feel the
almost immediate result of being dragged from the
impersonal divine state down to the lower plane of matter .”
18

“The sooner the animal sexual affinities are given up . . . the

sooner will come the manifestation of the higher occult
powers.” 1 * Then only can harmonious evolutionary
progress be made; and then “the consciousness of power, in
itself the most exquisite joy, is unceasingly gratified in the
progress upwards .” 80 Infinite power, to be impersonally,
unselfishly, constructively used, will then eventually
become available. Is such a prize not worth the sacrifice of
the personality’s self-indulgence?

*****

1 G. M., “The Elixir of Life”; in: Five Tears of Theosophy, 19.

* Steiner, The Way of Initiation, v, 96.

3 Hall, Fundamental Principles of Operative Occultism, 4.

4 Aqrippa, Occult Philosophy, III, liii, 517.

5 Besant, “Mysticism True and False”; in: Lucifer, IX, 181.

• Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, I, 190.

7 Mead, “Theosophy and Occultism”; in: Lucifer, IX, no.

3 Waite, Azoth, II, xii, 210.

9 Same as 4 , III, liii, 519.

10 The Mahatma Letters, xlviii, 274.

11 Rumi, The Masnavi, (II), I, 238.

13 Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 102.

13 Hartmann, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, I, 1.

14 Same as 10 , xviii, 122.

13 Same as 3 , 3.

14 Charron, Of Wisdom, I, xxii, 77.

17 Same as 7 , IX, 110.

13 Blavatsky, Studies in Occultism, I, 38.

13 Blavatsky, “The Future Occultist”; in: The Theosophist, V,

264.

30 Same as l , 19.
 LXXXII
THE PATH OF PERFECTION

"Having conquered the detires of the outer senses . . .

prepare now to enter upon the path.'*

— Collins, Light on the Path,ii,14.

Slowly winding to the top of the Mountain of Perfection leads

the road of gradual evolution. From this road the top is rarely
visible, the view being cut off by mystifying thickets and by
luxurious groves which tempt the wanderer to pause and
straggle and to forget the goal. But occasionally a glimpse is
caught, and a jubilant cry is heard from those who took a
shortcut to the summit.

The shortcut is the steep and narrow path which is known to

many but which few are inclined to follow. It is “the path
which leads from sense to soul” 1 , the straight “way to the
land concealed by the dazzling phantasmagoric show of the
senses”*, “the short though difficult way by which man
evolves more rapidly than in the ordinary course of human
evolution.”*

But only “he may tread that path who dares to declare war
on desire .” 4 “To enter the path . . . one must crucify the
lusts of the flesh.”’

Throughout the centuries the short path has been known. All
“the great faiths have taught . . . that in a certain personal
austerity was a gate to the eternal way.”* “That way, the
highest way, goes he who shuts the door to all his senses .”
7
“This path Hermes, indeed, described.”* “It is the path that
leads to truth . . . difficult to tread for soul while still in
body”*; “but it is possible for one who has the mind to free
himself from passion .” 10

It is “that path . . . which the teachers of the Veda call never

failing; the path which persons of conquered passions enter,
and desirous of knowing which they live the life of purity .”
11

It is the path, the Way, of the Taoist. “He who treads the Way
is a superior man” 1 *; and “the superior man guards against
lust .” 13

It is the Buddhist’s “noble eightfold path . . . which leads to

peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment
.” 14 “The wise are those who . . . follow the noble path and
avoid the pools of lust.” 1 *

It is the path of holiness of which the Bible states that “the

unclean shall not pass over it.” 1 *

It is the path of the Mohammedan Sufis, by whom “the

celibate ideal . . . was realized as invaluable for all who
sought to follow the mystic way .” 11 Only “when cleansed
from the lusts of the flesh the soul could enter on the path .”
11

For mystics everywhere it is the path of “purification,

illumination and perfection, the three great stages of the
ascent .” 13 “The first stage is known as the purgative life,
the stage of purification from the fetters of sensuality.”**
“The end of the path is attained ... by transmutation .”* 1 To
modem students of metaphysics it is the path which,
through probation and discipleship, leads to initiation. “The
pilgrim who ventures upon it is made first to . . . shut out
every human passion.”** During the probationary stage “the
wish to be emancipated from the thraldom of the senses
should be ever present in the mind.”** “If the higher levels
of spiritual attainment are to be reached the disciple must
be prepared to sacrifice and transcend the desires of the
body .”* 4 “The desire for sensual gratification must be
crushed”** before initiation can be reached; for “initiation is
. . . the victory of the spirit over the animal nature of man.”**
“Whosoever is the slave of his passions . . . can never be
initiated .”* 7 The opportunity to choose the shortcut is the
same for all.

The same for all also is the universal rule that mastery of the
sex force forms the initial step on that path of quickened
evolution. “The victor’s crown is only for him who . . .
conquers the demon of lust.”**

*#**#

1 Riley, The Bible of Bibles , x, 308.

2 Beck, The Way of Power, vii, 136.

* Besant, Initiation, 3.

4 Mundy, Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley, viii, 91.

5 Mingle, Science of Love, xii, 315.

6 Same as 2 , vii, 135.

T Arnold, The Song Celestial, viii, 47.

8 Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, VIII, v, 306.

9 Hermes, Excerpts by Stobaeus, i, 4; in: Mead, Thrice-

Greatest Hermes,

HI, 5
10 Hermes, Corpus Hermeticum, XII, 7; in: Mead, Thrice-
Greatest Hermes,

II, 203.

11 Bhagavad Gita, viii, 11.

11 Hsuntze, Works, II, xxi, 51.

13 Confucius, Lun YU, xvi, 7; quoted in: Westermarck, Origin

and

Development of the Moral Idea, II, xlii, 427.

14 Dhammakakka-Ppavattana Sutta, 4 ; in: Sacred Books of

the East, XI, 147.

15 Mahaparinibbana Sutta, i, 33 ; in: Sacred Books of the

East, XI, 22.

18 Bible, Isaiah, xxxv, 8.

17 Smith, Rabi’a the Mystic, xiii, 170.

18 Same as 17 , vi, 49.

19 Vauohan, Hours with the Mystics, IV, ii, 115.

20 Smith, Early Mysticism, i, 6.

11 Same as 17 , x, 109.

22 The Mahatma Letters, lxii, 351.

28 Dhammapala, “Dhyana”; in: Lucifer, IX, 401.

24 Barker, Introduction to **, xii.

28 Same as **, IX, 401.

28 Paracelsus, De Arte Presaga; quoted in: Hartmann,

Paracelsus, 292.

27 L£vi, Transcendental Magic, I, i, 34.

28 Same as M , liv, 316.

 LXXXIII
TESTS AND TEMPTATIONS

“Too weak is the temptation for one whose soul to nobler

things aspires than sensual desires.”

— Longfellow, Christus,I,ii,2.

Every temptation is a test of moral strength. At every stage

of evolutionary growth the law of that growth causes
temptations to be erected on the pathway of the soul.
Lacking the strength to overcome these natural obstructions
one cannot pass on to the next lap of the road.

Since “life is a continual battle between man’s spiritual

aspirations and the demands of animal impulses” 1 , “the
first temptation which meets every one on the road is the
hunger of the lower qualities .” 1 And in ever subtler ways
the animal proclivities are tested to the end. Even “the
highest degree of perfection attainable by man is no
security against the assaults of temptation .” 1

At a comparatively advanced stage one’s vision of the

requirements of attainment may be obscured by the allure of
the false teaching that in physical sex expression there is
“mystical inwardness” and that it can be “the means to a
great spiritual fulfillment.” Many who are already far on the
road of spiritual unfoldment fail to perceive the
speciousness of such sophistry. But “the guardians of
nature’s secrets ... let none pass until they are furnished
with the signs and passwords of perfect purity .” 4

The greatest strength by which to pass through tests and to

overcome temptations is that of purity. Not the negative
purity of innocence caused by ignorance, but the positive
purity based on knowledge and power of the will.

Dissatisfaction and dejection normally follow each failure to

overcome an enticement. But “when one has conquered
temptation . . . one finds oneself in a state of peace and
satisfaction which may well be called happiness” 8 ; then
there is elation over growing strength.

It is sometimes claimed that temptations should be sought

because they serve to increase one’s moral strength. But
this is an obvious error. Strength must be gathered between
successive tests, just as knowledge is gathered in schools
between examinations. To submit to one examination after
another without preparatory study would certainly be
abnormal. Not less abnormal is it to seek one excitement
and temptation after another without intervening effort to
develop resistant strength.

Tests of one's moral stamina need never intentionally be

sought. When the soul seems ready to pass another
milestone on the evolutionary road, then life itself applies
the necessary test according to one’s stage. And no one can
pass unto another section of that road who is not thoroughly
prepared. Nor can one ever pass by shirking the test.

The individual task is to prepare for tests by developing

greater moral strength, by obviating every weakness of
character. And since above all else “passion . . . manifests
the weakness of man”*, the first thing to be eliminated is
passion.

Quite naturally the tests become more difficult as strength

grows.

Those who approach the final stages of the road have “to be
tempted in a thousand various ways so as to draw out the
whole of their inner nature .” 7 Then “if the candidate has a
latent lust for sensual gratification of any kind, the germ is
almost sure to sprout.”* However, “it is in his own interest
that his character and attributes are being tested”* ; for
“until he has been tested to the utmost none may know
what hidden weakness lingers in him .” 10 And no weakness
may remain in those who seek admission to the temple of
purely spiritual joy to which the road finally leads.

This thought is tersely expressed in the saying that “Satan is

the doorkeeper of the temple . . . He holds the keys of the
sanctuary, that no one may enter therein save the anointed
.” 11 By tempting every one who approaches the gate that
leads to spiritual attainment, he sees to it that only those
pass through who have successfully proved their purity and
inner strength.

For the same purpose in ancient Egypt “the snake Bai

appears to have been figured ... as guardian of the door*
ways leading to chambers which represent the mansions of
heaven .” 11

Again the same idea is forcefully dramatized in the story of

Parsifal, who symbolizes the human soul. He was tested by
Klingsor’s seductive agents, the Flowermaidens and Kundry.
Said Klingsor, the arch-temptor, to Parsifal: “Into my power
thou’lt fall when pureness has departed .” 11 Only by
proving that there was no weakness left within him which
could make him fall for any temptation did Parsifal gain
access to the sublime spiritual precinct of the Grail.

It is the same testing that has been so picturesquely told in

The Pilgrim's Progress where, for instance, the pilgrim
learned that after playing with treasure “Passion . . . had
nothing left him but rags .” 14 It forms the subject matter of
The Sorrows of Satan 18 and of The Devil’s Guard 14 ; and it
holds the central interest in many other occult stories.

This periodical testing of the soul — which is intensified on

the shorter, steeper path of quickened evolution — forms
the basis for all symbolic rituals of initiation, from Ancient
Mysteries to modem Masonry. But the real tests, the subtlest
and the hardest, occur in the lives of those who are filled
with aspirations for spiritual growth, “aspirations which are
ever being debased by our lower animal nature .” 17

However, “him whose senses are utterly subdued, whom no

desires can lead captive any more — by what temptations
can ye draw him ?” 18 He has risen above temptation by
being unassailably pure. “He is no longer the subject of
temptation ... for he has entered into the reign of law.””

*#***

1 Hartmann, Magic White and Black, x, 225.

8 Hartmann, Personal Christianity, xii, 250.

8 Thomas A Kbmpis, Imitation of Christ, I, xiii, 1.

4 Mead, “The Great Renunciation" ; in: Lucifer, IX, 23. fi

Kant, Metaphysik der Sitten, II, Vorrede.

6 Hitchcock, Alchemy and the Alchemists, 214.

7 The Mahatma Letters, liv, 316.

8 Blavatsky, Complete Works, IV, 359.

9 Sin nett. The Occult World , 26.

10 Mundy, The DeviPs Guard, xx, 272.

11 Kjnosford, The Perfect Way, Appendix, xv, 360.

u Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,

V, xiii, 65.

13 Wagner, Parsifal, ii, (English Libretto, 23).

14 Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, I, 33.

15 Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan.

13 Same as 10 .

17 Same as 4 , 23.

18 Beck, The Perfume of the Rainbow, 225.

19 Waite, Azoth, I, iii, 111 .

 LXXXIV
REGENERATION

“When you have conquered entirely all sex desires . . . then

the regenerate body becomes a vessel to hold spirit.”

— Butler, The Goal of Life,xxiii,315.

Closely allied are degeneration, generation and

regeneration, caused as they are by one and the same force.
The difference lies in the way in which that force is being
used. Degeneration results if it is misused sexually for
physical gratification. Generation normally follows its use for
reproduction. In order to bring about regeneration the
selfsame force must be transformed in the individual into
spiritual power.

“Regeneration ... is the turning of the generative force to

purposes of spiritual enlightenment .” 1 It “means the
awakening of the higher consciousness.”* “To be regenerate
is to be bom into spiritual life .” 3 Those who have gone
through the experience have testified that it is literally true
that “there is ... a new birth possible to embodied man,
which shall manifestly develop the potencies of his spiritual
being .” 4 “This second birth leads to the attuning of the
individual consciousness with that which is universal and
divine.5

The new birth “in every conceivable direction adds to the

capacity of mind and body”*; it “produces great mental and
spiritual strength, which if directed intelligently will develop
supernormal powers .” 7 And “the flesh itself shall be
clarified .” 8 “The regenerative forces which now slumber in
man’s inner nature . . . when roused into activity tranform
him ultimately into a divine being .” 9

In the process of regeneration a person actually builds a new

body for himself. Cell by cell is renovated and raised to a
higher vibration by the transmuted life force. This is the
most important evolutionary accomplishment of man.
“Propagation ... is wholly subordinate to the primary and
vital use of one’s generative energy in reproducing from
hour to hour one’s own body.” 1 '

Regeneration, then, is tantamount to rebirth without first

passing through death. It is as though entering into a new
life in a new world, with new laws and new experiences,
through an inner change while remaining in the body.
“There is no regeneration after the body has died .” 11

But although the process takes place without death of the

body, yet something must perish, something must be killed
before the new birth can eventuate. The regeneration of
man depends on the destruction of everything that obscures
his true inner being. Not any particle of one’s old sensual
nature can be taken along into the spiritual birth. “The
process of this birth is described as ... a purging out of the
tendencies of the lower nature and replacing them by the
energies of the divine powers .” 11 Not until this has been
accomplished “can there be bom within the earthly man of
flesh a new spiritual man .” 11 And “thereafter the physical
man is felt to be . . . an instrument through which the
spiritual man works; whereas the spiritual man is felt to be
the real individuality .” 14

“This spiritual state is as far superior to man’s ordinary

terrestrial existence as the latter is to his foetal condition .”
11 “The sage arrived at this state has the truer fullness of
life, of life not spilled out in sensation.” 1 ' “But this cannot
happen before every animal element is eliminated from
one’s nature .” 11

Every person has to make preparation for his own

regeneration.

When the life force is functioning for physical generation it

is differentiated into a male and a female aspect, requiring
the cooperation of the two. But “in the process of evolution
sex energy . . . turns inward within the organism and creates
in it a new life, capable of regeneration .” 11 In this new
form the force is alike in woman and in man. And not only is
the spiritual energy alike in the two sexes, but the organs
through which regeneration operates are the same in woman
and in man. Therefore regeneration must be achieved by
each one separately.

Not every one however can successfully and fully bring the
new birth about in a short time. “This is possible only for the
man or woman who has attained a very high state of mental
and physical purity.” 1 * “One cannot go far in this direction
until the spirit impresses upon the consciousness the fact
that one must overcome carnal generation and must
absolutely stop all waste of the seed.”** In other words, “for
the task of giving new birth to oneself celibacy is the first
and absolute prerequisite.””

The reason for this requirement is that as already stated “in

both, generation and regeneration, the same potent force of
nature is involved, namely the force concerned with the
sexual organism.”** This force can be directed either to the
physical generative organs in the body’s lower regions or to
the spiritual regenerative organs in the head. But so entirely
different in every respect are the functions of regeneration
and those of generation that they are antagonistic and
mutually exclusive. All generative, all sexual expression
must cease if spiritual regeneration is to be effectively
produced.

“In this fundamental idea of regeneration is to be found the

explanation of the universal insistence upon chastity ... on
the part of great spiritual leaders.”** No truly spiritual leader
can be lax or lenient on this point. Regeneration requires
perfect chastity because “the mystical birth of man ... is
based on the transmutation of sex energy.”** “Man cannot
become regenerated so long as he plays with generation.”**

*****

1 Leo, How to Judge a Nativity , II, xi, 98.

* A. G., The Science of Regeneration, xii, 155.

8 Kings ford. Clothed with the Sun, I, xx, 91.

4 Waite, Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers, 37.

5 Prysb, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 211.

4 Butler, Practical Methods, v, 72.

7 Atkinson and Beals, Regenerative Power, i, 17.

8 Same as 4 , 37.

• Same as ®, 8.

10 Curtis, The Divine Law of Marriage, i, 4.

11 Hartmann, Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme, xiii, 288.

11 Mead, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, II, 245.

18 Boehme, Mysterium Magnum, Supplement, ix; in his
S&mmtlichs Werke,

v, 704.

14 Johnston, Interpretation of the Toga Sutras of Patanjali,

129.

15 Hartmann, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, I, 5.

16 Plotinus, Enneads, I, iv, 10.

17 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 440.

18 Ouspensky, A New Model of the Universe, xii, 540.

19 Same as 5 , 21.

80 Butler, The Goal of Life, xxiii, 315.

81 Same as 5 , 62.

88 Same as T , i, 11.

83 Same as 7 , i, 20.

84 Same as 18 , xii, 519.

85 Clymer, Divine Alchemy, 76.

 LXXXV
UNCOILING THE SERPENT

“Through practice the serpent power, which is coiled,

becomes straightened.*’

—Yogakundali Upanishad,i.

In all preceding chapters the ideal of sex purification has

been substantiated by manifold considerations. By
cumulative evidence the fact has been brought out that
perfect purity is of paramount value whenever an individual
wishes to comply with the law of spiritual unfoldment.

Each of the many substantiations contributes in its own way

to the acceptability of the ideal of perfect chastity. Founded
on the mass of material already presented, this ideal might
well be left to stand without needing any additional support.
Yet one of the most fundamental reasons for the necessity of
sexual purity in spiritual development has not yet been
given.

All the “miscellaneous applications of chastity . . . must

ultimately be based on physiological phenomena.”' There is
a close approach to such an ultimate basis in the physiology
of the Occident, in its new knowledge about the internal
secretions of the sex glands.* In addition to their importance
in regard to body and mind, “every bit of evidence points to
the internal secretions as the holders of the secrets of our
inmost being .” 3 There is a growing recognition that “the
reproductive system is the reservoir of vital energy upon
which to draw for all the activities and achievements of life”
4 , including the spiritual. But as long as Western science
almost generally continues to ignore the spiritual element,
“the knowledge of the essential factors of sexuality is still
withheld from us .” 5

For the rationale of sex purification one has to turn to the

meta-physiology of the less materialistic Orient, where the
modus operandi of spiritualization has been the subject of
extensive study for thousands of years. Particularly in regard
to spiritual science “our vaunted Nordic intellect needs to
learn respect for the claims and assertions of the Oriental
mind.”* There one can learn about the working of nature’s
finer forces within the human frame; about the real purpose
of some generally little understood organs in the head;
about a series of chakras or psychic nerve centers, of which
“the glands are only the outer symbols” 7 ; about force
channels and force currents along the spinal column; and
about the Kundalini, the mysterious serpent fire at the lower
end of the spine.

Because those psychic centers are not visible, not

dissectible, not measurable with physical instruments, their
existence is not recognized by Western scientists. But “the
fact that no microscope can detect such centers on the
objective plane goes for nothing” 8 , since they are
evidently built of finer matter than can possibly be observed
by any physical means. And as regards the forces and the
fires of occult physiology, their existence may be accepted
for the same reason that we accept the existence of ordinary
nerve force and of mind. These are just as little tangible, and
are known only by their results. In the same manner the
secret fires and forces have proved their existence in the
results obtained by those who have learned how to use
them.

One might prove the presence of such forces in oneself. But

the difficulty is that “the working of the spinal fires ... is so
tremendously involved that many years must be spent in
learning to understand even the fundamental principles.”*

Briefly stated, it is taught in the far East that in woman and

man alike “there is a power, called the Kundalini .” 18 “It is
at the base of the spinal column . . . that this mighty occult
power lies coiled like a serpent asleep .” 11

An impersonal as well as an individual meaning is attached

to this all-important force.

In the widest sense “the Kundalini is the creator and the

sustainer of the universe” 18 ; “it is the universal life
principle which everywhere manifests in nature .” 18
“Kundalini is therefore the mightiest manifestation of
creative power in the human body .” 14

Thus Kundalini may well be held to be the individualized

power divine, planted in the body as a seed out of which it is
intended that a perfect human flower shall develop. This
divine seed can be left, as it is generally left, in the
generative region, to be eaten away by the worms of
sensuality or to go to waste by neglect without a chance to
sprout. But “a wise man should take it up from its place to
the middle of the eyebrows” 1 *; he should carefully tend it,
so that it may germinate and shoot a stem up along the
spine. Not without good reason does the spinal cord — that
high-tension transmission line of nerve force — run from the
lower part of the trunk to the head. It is along this line that
the life force must be diverted from the generative system
and carried up to the organs of regeneration near the top of
the skull.

“Once the serpent power is aroused into activity, it is made

to penetrate one by one the psychic nerve centers until it
reaches the thousand-petalled lotus in the brain.” 1 * But
“so long as man can be controlled by his senses it is utterly
impossible for him to revive that now atrophied center in the
head . . . which is essential to the control of the truly
creative forces .” 17 Having worked its way up to that point,
the serpent power opens the highest spiritual center of man
the thinker, man the knower, man the creator, man at last in
the image of God.

“In the transference of the fire from the base of the spine . . .
lies the redemption of man.” 1 * With the raising of
Kundalini, with the uncoiling of the serpent fire, comes the
advancement of the race to superhuman glory. This is what
nature’s law of evolution has intended for mankind, for man
and woman alike.

The intentional arousing of Kundalini cannot be strongly

enough warned against until a very high degree of
preparatory purification of one’s whole being has been
brought about. And a theoretical study of the intricate ways
in which Kundalini manifests is not strictly essential to
advanced evolutionary growth. For whether or not one who
aspires to spiritual unfoldment has any knowledge of the
serpent power, it becomes nevertheless active in the body.

Whether or not one is aware of it, nature responds to one’s

spiritual aspirations by arousing this force when one is ready
for it. Its ascent to the brain is inseparable from progressive
evolution.

Even with conscious cooperation of the individual the

uncoiling of the serpent still remains a slow and difficult
procedure. Any one who sets himself the task of perfecting it
“will have to repeat the process for years, never allowing one
speck of impurity to stain him mentally or physically.” 1 *
“The thought, the will and the morality . . . must first be
purified before they are intensified by the vivifying influence
of the aroused force .” 80

“There is most serious peril in awakening the higher aspects

of this energy before man has acquired the purity of life and
thought which alone make it safe for him to unleash a
potency so tremendous .” 81 “The action of the serpent
force . . . should be preceded by the most rigid purificatory
discipline” 88 , because “the fire is destructive to the
unpurified who might succeed in arousing it .” 88 When
prematurely aroused before the attainment of utmost purity,
“the dangers connected with it are very real and terribly
serious .” 84

Just as long as the force of Kundalini is held down to the

organs of generation by sexual acts or thoughts, so long will
it be unable to rise to the sublime organs of regeneration
and of creation. And if it is drawn down after beginning to
rise, the cataclystic disturbances in the currents of finer
forces react on the rest of the body, and especially on the
brain, in such a way that physical and mental disorders are
sure to follow.

Once Kundalini begins to rise, “the close connection . . .

between the brain and the reproductive system necessitates
an absolute conservation of life energies .” 85 That is the
essential point which may never for a moment be forgotten.

These physiological, or at least meta-physiological facts

constitute the final and fundamental reason why perfect
sexual purity is essential for those who seek to quicken their
evolutionary growth.

But others too should remember that as long as humanity

plays with the sacred serpent fire it will suffer from the
resultant bums, which cause the pains of average human
existence. Everybody should heed what a knowledge of
Oriental meta-physiology makes clear: that “the miseries of
existence can be extinguished only by arriving at a
condition . . . free from passions.”** Every act of sexual
indulgence and of self-gratification retards the possibility of
liberation from woe.

*****

1 Crawley, Studies of Savages and Sex, i, 44.

I See Ch. xxvi, Glands and Secretions.

* Berman, The Glands regulating Personality, 95.

4 Curtis, The Divine Law of Marriage, v, 259.

5 Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, iii, 76.

4 Berman, The Personal Equation, iv, 113.

7 Bailey, The Soul and its Mechanism, vi, 106.

8 B LA VAT SKY, The Secret Doctrine, III, 507.

8 Hall, Melchigedek, II, 34.

18 Vivekananda, Raja Toga, I, iv, 48.

II Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Dead , 916.

18 Ghbrwal, KundaUni, 19.

18 Same as 8 , I, 312.

14 Avalon, The Serpent Power, vi, 231.

15 Togakundali Upanishad, i; in: The Theosophist, XII, 338.

16 Same as n , 216.

17 Teachings of the Temple, clxxiii, 429.

18 Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, I, i, D, 135.

18 Same as 8 , III, 505.

88 Same as 14 , 12.

81 Leadbbater, The Chakras, ii, 14.

88 Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 21.

88 Same as **, 148.

84 Same as n , iv, 39.

85 Hall, Occult Anatomy of Man, III, 31.

86 An gut tar a Nikaya, 165.

“No heaven too high for those to reach whose passions sleep
subdued.”

— Arnold, The Light of Asia,vii,141.

 PART THREE

GLORIFYING

THE

IDEAL

“Purity . . . highest of all that is; although despised by the

ignorant . . . held by the wise in great glory.” —Paracelsus,
Revelation of Hermes, I,26.
“The ultimate destiny of the human race is the greatest
moral perfection.”

— Kant, Lectures on Ethics,252.

 LXXXVI
THE FUTURE

“Is the human race never to arrive at this highest grade of

illumination and purity?

— Lessing, The Education of the Human Race,lxxxi

We are traveling along toward an improved humanity which

will attain the realization of those “higher aspirations which .
. . emerge in the hearts of the spirituallyminded who are
prophetic of a better future.” 1

If we so willed, we could speed on toward our ideal

evolutionary destination.

But we hamper our progress by carrying unnecessary

baggage, and therefore only slowly and uncomfortably
advance towards the perfection that awaits us. If we could
part with all the surplus baggage, of which the desires for
sense-gratification constitute the bulkiest portion, then we
could fly instead of trek unto the destined goal. There, still
within the boundaries of the human kingdom and of
physical existence, we would find a world which is separated
from the one in which most of us now live — separated not
by physical distance but by grades of consciousness. These
grades can easily be passed by any one who is willing to
take the steps required for spiritual unfoldment which
always brings expansion of consciousness with it. “If the
spiritual life grows towards perfection ... it will reveal a new
world which exalts us far above all petty human
considerations.”*
Some pioneers, prospecting in that new world, have
signalled messages about their findings to single travelers
along the road, and these messages have been relayed to
slower moving groups. In their reports the pioneers tell of
finding marvelous treasures of matchless joy, in comparison
with which humanity’s present pleasures are insipid and
childish. They have discovered spiritual springs ensuring
radiant health. They mention beauty never parallelled, as
the natural manifestation of spiritual qualities untainted by
blemishes of self or of sense.

They have crossed the line which marks the end of human
suffering. This they look back upon as a scourge produced
by man himself, which the economy of nature has utilized to
advantage as an aid in the development of higher qualities
in him for the advancement of his evolutionary growth.

They report a wondrous expansion of intelligence to which

nature’s deepest secrets become plain. They have acquired
an understanding of realities of which all that we now know
is only a distorted incomplete reflection. And with their
wider knowledge their power of expression has vastly grown.

They testify to the development of higher faculties which

admit them to a realm of new splendors, where they can
hear the symphonies produced by sunset colors and by
fields of flowers, and where they are aware of the music of
the spheres. They speak of new dimensions which make
distance non-existent; of penetrating with extended vision
into the densest matter; of seeing the thoughts of others; of
letting past and future pass like moving pictures before their
inner eye; of consciousness unbroken* and of death
overcome . 4

Some of the wayfarers who have not yet quite reached the
fields of the new world have added to these messages of the
pioneers tales of their own experiences. As they approach
the goal they have felt life grow brighter, richer, fuller of
interest. They have received a foretaste of the joys of the
new world.

“In that supreme and happy world all the trials of the human
race will be over.”® But “in those who are to participate in
this new world every vestige of mere impulse must vanish.”*
“Into that paradise . . . nothing impure can enter.”*

Perfection cannot be attained without complete purification.

In overlooking this fact lies the error of Utopian dreamers
who would establish ideally purified social conditions
without enjoining purity of emotions and of thought, without
exacting purity from passion. “They will only agree in
adopting a political treatment for a disease which is
spiritual.”® “Human improvement is from within outward.
Spiritual regeneration must come first . . . political and social
last.”* Without the reform of man social reform can have no
lasting effect. For this reason every sociologically idealistic
colony has failed and will fail until stress is laid on
purification from within. But perfected world conditions will
automatically result from individual spiritual perfection; and
“a true sign of perfection is found ... in a full liberation from
sexual passion.” 1 *

“Spiritual humanity not only understands this perfection

with the intellect . . . but accepts it in its conduct .” 11
Spiritually inclined man takes care that “passion no longer
rules and blinds him to universal laws and higher
principles.” 1 * He sees sex as a universal problem, given in
the school of life to be solved in the mental-human grade.
One’s spiritual faculties begin to be trained while seriously
working on this problem; they are dulled when the problem
is taken lightly and degraded into a game.
All mankind must gradually solve that problem and learn the
lesson of unselfish renunciation which sex in its intended
purity was meant to teach by instilling a loving, self-
forgetting attachment to and care for others.” 1 * When that
lesson has been learned to perfection humanity will
overcome and outgrow the need of sex which, as a universal
institution, will become as obsolete as its concomitant
elements of sexual desire and of concupiscence.

Undoubtedly nature will eventually do away with its system

of separate sexes and institute another way of reproduction,
just as it has changed from non-subservient methods in the
past. It may be expected that the present sexual organs will
then become “entirely useless vestigial organs to be
forgotten by those who have outgrown their use .” 14

Occultists have definitely claimed that “this mode of

procreation ... is but a passing phase” 1 *, which “will
change . . . and disappear.” 1 * “The most learned occultists
assert this, because they know it.” IT And men of science
already begin to suspect “an evolutionary process drifting
slowly and inevitably into the neuter state.” 1 *

However, before an outer change can become general

mankind itself must have established an inner change. It
must have produced “a future humanity more elevated
morally than ours.” 1 * We must first see “both sexes . . .
winnowed of materiality”*® and weaned from sensuality.
Before nature makes a change mankind must free itself from
the strangling grip of the serpent’s coils, and reach the
highest moral perfection to which the human race can
attain.

####*

1 Anous, Mystery Religions and Christianity, v, 228.

1 Euckrn, Present-Day Ethics, ii, 51.

1 See Gh. lxxxviii, Cosmic Consciousness.

4 See Ch. xc, Deathlessness.

I Papini, Life of Christ, 212.

4 Kagawa, Love, the Law of Life, v, 106.

T Hartmann, In the Pranoas of the Temple, 101.

8 Comte, System of Positive Polity, IV, 386.

9 Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects, IV, 283.

10 Tolstoi, Works, XVIII, 456.

II Solovyof , Justification of the Good, II, iii, 182.

11 Buck, Mystic Masonry, vi, 186.

19 See Ch. xi. Purpose of Sex.

14 Tanner, The Intelligent Man*s Guide, lix, 201.

15 B LA VAT SKY, The Secret Doctrine, I, 436.

14 Same as 15 , I, 436.

17 Same as 15 , I, 436.

18 Broster, “The Adrenogenital Syndrome"; in: The Lancet,

CCXXVI,

834

19 Carpenter, Love*s Coming of Age, 198.

80 Jennings, The Rosicrucians, II, vi, 311.
 LXXXVII
SUPERMEN

“Such men are even now upon the earth, serene amid the
half-formed creatures who should be . . . joined with them.*’

—Browning, Paracelsus,V, 783-5.

As the ripe fruit is hidden within the blossom’s hard green

bud, so is a sublime superhumanity hidden within the
present rudimental human race. Ultimately “the future
belongs not to man but to superman .” 1 “Humanity is
something that must be surpassed.”* Even “the best is still
something that must be surpassed.”*

In the process of evolution the vegetable kingdom has

surpassed the mineral, the animal the vegetable, and the
human the animal. So the superhuman kingdom shall
surpass, and has surpassed already to some extent even the
highest human specimens.

A definitely marked expansion of consciousness

distinguishes each of nature’s kingdoms from its next lower
one. “Gradations from the animal to the god . . . must be
measured by the progressive deepening and expanding of
consciousness .” 4 The highest examples of each kingdom
are those in which a trace of the expanded consciousness of
the next higher kingdom begins to show. The highest
animals, for instance, are not the ones in which instinct finds
its most remarkable expression, such as it does in ants and
bees; they are those in which is found a sign of self-
conscious intellect. So also the highest human specimens
are not the most self-conscious personalities with the most
remarkable intellects, nor the scientific geniuses, nor the
greatest industrialists, nor the most powerful empire
builders. All these may be wonderful examples of extremely
well developed human efficiency; but they no more
approach the superhuman than an ant or bee approaches
the human stage.

“The development of man towards superman cannot consist

in the growth of the intellect alone .” 5 “The expansion of
consciousness, the inner growth of man, is the ascent
towards superman.”* The highest human beings are those
who show in spiritual development a rudiment of the wider,
of the well-nigh divine consciousness which characterizes
the superhuman kingdom. Only “the heroes of supreme
renunciation . . . touch the nebulous beginnings of a
superhuman nature .” 7

To each kingdom the expanded consciousness of the next

higher must necessarily remain incomprehensible for lack of
a faculty by which to comprehend it. To the animal
consciousness a human creature can be no more than just
another animal; and to the purely intellectual human being
a superman will seem to be no more than human. It requires
spiritual faculties to even vaguely sense the transcendent
superiority of the superman.

It is therefore quite possible that “superman ... is already

bom and lives among us ” 8 without being recognized by the
majority of mankind. It is quite conceivable that there
should exist and long has existed on earth an evolutionary
advance guard consisting of individuals “who are ... as far
above human beings as the latter are above animals”*, and
who “can act superhumanly, that is after a manner which
transcends the normal possibility of men.” 1 * In some of the
old Hindu books, written thousands of years ago, “one may
read in story after story . . . how these perfected men, known
as superhuman by the powers that they possessed, visited
the courts of kings in order to see that kingdoms were well
governed .” 11

In the days of ancient Egypt, also millenniums ago, “Hermes

Trismegistus . . . spoke of holy men whose knowledge and
comprehension of divine wisdom immeasurably surpassed
that of humanity.” 1 * “But these”, he said, “are rather
immortal than mortal men” 18 , “and their humanity is near
divinity .” 14 Clearly he too was speaking of supermen.

“Men dwelling on the earth and yet not of it ” 15 they were

called by Apollonius of Tyana at the beginning of our era.

In the seventeenth century Philalethes must have had

supermen in mind when he complained that “every
sophister contemns them because they appear not to the
world.” 1 ® And he explained “upon what grounds they
conceal them* selves ” 17 by saying that “no man looks for
them but for worldly ends.” 8 For this same reason people
are still looking for them in vain. For all worldly, separative,
selfish intentions automatically preclude the possibility of
contact with the selfless, unifying forces of the supermen.

In the eighteenth century Eckartshausen was acquainted

with “the unique and really illuminated community which is
in possession of the key to all mystery . . . This community
has no outside barriers . . . Any one can look for the
entrance, but only he who is ripe can arrive inside.” 1 *

A Rosicrucian work of the same period contains another

reference to supermen. It distinctly states that “a direct
intercourse with them is not possible for man unless he
becomes sufficiently purified”*®, and that only “by a proper
course of spiritual training can we come in contact with
those beings .”* 1
Much later again one who had established an exceptionally
close link with them wrote on this possibility of contact:
“Merely the magneto-psychic law of attraction and repulsion
keeps the Adepts from exchanging thoughts with a man who
fives . . . among the magnetic fumes of carnality and of
spiritual atrophy.”**

And a great thinker of our own days has said that “man is
separated from superman ... by the fact that be is not
prepared to receive superman.”** And rarely is he willing to
make himself worthy of the contact.

Carnality and spiritual atrophy — these must be overcome

before man can be a candidate for conscious contact with
superman. “The candidate must ... be perfectly chaste,
perfectly abstemious”* 4 , because “the impure are not
permitted to approach the pure.”*® This requirement does
not necessarily exclude the rare, pure, sacrificial sexual act
for the sake of giving a soul a chance to come into the world
under favorable parental conditions; but it disallows the
slightest expression of carnal gratification.

As to the supermen, “it is the spirit of chaste asceticism

itself which incarnates in these elect.”** Of them it has been
said that “they are individuals who . , . rising by the
steadfast subordination of their lower and by exaltation of
their higher nature have at length made of their bodies
instruments of their souls and means of expression instead
of sources of limitation for their spirits. They have been
described as “profoundest of intelligence, widest of culture,
ripest of experience, tenderest of heart, purest of soul,
maturest of spirit.”** “Only to them and to those who know
and follow their method is it given to live the life of the spirit
while in the body.”** And they bear testimony that “one who
is all spirit and love will have conquered the flesh even in
memory.”**
In the world of superman the uncoiled serpent has been
disentangled for ever from sex, and its energy has been
transmuted into almost unlimited knowledge and supreme
spiritual power. These faculties are awaiting all who will take
in hand their evolution from the human toward the
superhuman state by steadfastly practising the required
subordination of the lower and exaltation of the higher
nature.

**#**

I Ouspbnsky, Tertium Organum, xxiii, 394.

* Nietzsche, Thus Spake Z* ra thustra, I, x.

8 Same as *, III, lvi.

4 Kbyserlino, Creative Understanding, I, 16.

5 Ouspensky, A New Model of the Universe, iii, 133.

6 Same as 5 , iii, 194.

7 Fooazzaro, The Saint, ii, 46.

8 Same as 1 , xxiii, 394.

9 Hartmann, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, I, 1.

10 Livx, Transcendental Magic , I, i, 36.

II Besant, Superhuman Men, i, 15.

18 Sin nett, “Alchemy as a Spiritual Science”; in: Lucifer,

XIV, 915. 18 Hermes, The Divine Pymander, XII, 90;
(Everard’s transL, 169).

14 Same as « XI, 4.
15 Philostratue, The Life of Apollonius, III, xv, 957.

16 Philalethes, Lumen de Lumine, 38. •

17 Same as 16 , 38.

18 Same as 1# , 38.

19 Egkartshausen, The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, ii, 98.

*° Magic on; in: The Theosophist, V, 194. n Same as *°, V,

194.

11 Blavatsky, “Editorial"; in: The Theosophist, V, 1. ** Same

as 5 , iii, 144.

14 Sinnbtt, The Occult World 9 a6. n Plato, Phaedo, 67.

* Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 295.

17 Kings ford. The Perfect Way, vii, 199.

n Same as r , vii, 199.

* Same as r , vii, 199.

*° Papini, Life of Christ, 212.

 LXXXVIII
COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS

"The cosmic sense crushes the serpent’s head.”

— Bucks, Cosmic Consciousness,I,iii,6.

Locked in a dark dungeon of ignorance, shut off from the

rays of spiritual light, man can but speculate upon the
source of the feeble gleam that occasionally penetrates
through the inadequate apertures in the walls of his prison.
Pacing up and down and ’round and ’round he vaguely
philosophizes in the abstract. But abstract thought and
philosophic speculation alone cannot bring more light into
his prison-cell. Some definite action must be taken to widen
the apertures and to tear down the walls.

Outside there awaits “beyond all mental powers . . . a state

of consciousness in which the highest wisdom and power are
attainable .” 1 It is the state of infallible cognition of eternal
truth and of absolute reality, the state that has been called:
the cosmic consciousness. This “is a higher form of
consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man.”*
“It can be known by no one except by him who has
experienced it. Those who live within the realm of animality
... do not even believe that such a state can possibly exist.’”
Only “he who vanquishes as much as possible a corporeal
life . . . can live surrounded with the bright splendors of truth
and wisdom .” 4

“All sensuous impressions form a wall between the soul and

the world of reality .” 8 “Absolute truth does not exist for
sensuous man; it exists only for spiritual man who possesses
... a faculty which cognizes spiritual objects as naturally as
the exterior senses perceive external phenomena.”* “Man . .
. cannot observe the splendor of eternal verities so long as
he is held by the attraction of the senses.”* “To develop the
consciousness of reality ... it is necessary to rise above
merely human aims and conditions .” 8

“The struggle for reality must be a struggle to transcend the

sense-world ... to be reborn to a higher level of
consciousness” 9 , and “to rise by free action to the higher
plane of cosmic life .” 10

In order to succeed in this attainment it is especially

requisite to rise above the disturbing emotions of sex. For
“once having freed oneself from the entanglements of the
fleshly lust . . . man enters into a higher state of
consciousness” 11 , and automatically begins to grow
toward the cosmic consciousness of the superman.

“Cosmic consciousness . . . must not be looked upon as

being in any sense supernatural, or as anything but a
natural growth.” 1 * But certain definite requirements have
to be met before it can manifest. “It is necessary for its
appearance that an exalted human personality should
exist.” 1 * “Above all one must have an exalted moral nature
.” 11

“Just as long ago our ancestors passed from simple

awareness to self-consciousness, so our descendants will
sooner or later reach, as a race, the condition of cosmic
consciousness.” 1 * And then, away from every form of self-
gratification, the race will acquire an ever greater share of
cosmic spiritual power.

This power, the rightful heritage of man, can already now

successfully be claimed by all who are willing to renounce
the deceptive excitements of sense and of sex for the
ecstatic cosmic consciousness, the consciousness of
oneness. But its “states of bliss are possible of attainment
only through transcending the reproductive tendencies
altogether .” 10

*****

1 Beck, The Way of Power, xi, 195.

1 Bucks, Cosmic Consciousness, I, i, 1.

9 Hartmann, Life and Doctrine of Jacob Boehme, 52.

4 Taylor, The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, I, 91.

5 Nicholson, Mystics of Islam, v, 121.

• Eckartshausen, The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, i, 6.

1 Hartmann, Paracelsus, ix, 198.

8 Eucken, Present-Day Ethics, iv, 98.

• Underhill, Mysticism, I, ii, 33.

19 Same as 9 , ii, 48.

11 Minolb, Science of Love, xiv, 338. u Same as *, I, v, is.

19 Same as *, III, i, 61.

14 Same as *, III, ix, 7a.

19 Same as *, I, i, 3.

19 Same as u , v, 169.
 LXXXIX
ONENESS

“The love of the sexes . . . symbolizes at a distance the

longing of the soul for that immense lake of beauty it exists
to seek.'*

— Emerson, Representative Men,(I,348).

Oneness is the keynote of spirit. “The question of attaining

this oneness is the most essential question of the inner
development of man .” 1

Deep in every human soul lies the knowledge of that

oneness which finds a constrained and deformed expression
in the search for happiness by union with external things.
The reaching for a toy, the desire for pleasure, the fondness
for delicate food, the grasping for possessions, the urge for
sexual union — all are distorted manifestations of the
longing for a realization of basic spiritual oneness, for
unification of the self with the not-self.

“Those who are seeking life in the things that perish . . . are
but unconsciously, blindly groping after the ineffable joys of
the spirit.”* They seek without exactly knowing what, in a
direction away from oneness. They seek in things external
what only within themselves can be found. They seek in the
material what inheres in the spiritual world.

At best “the physical union is like an allegory ... of the real

union.”* “The earthly expression is but a symbol .” 4 But
who, after having glimpsed the real union and after being
aware of the reality of spiritual oneness, can be satisfied
with allegories and symbols? Who wants to accept
substitutes after knowing that realities can be obtained —
especially where the substitutes detract from and prevent
the acquisition of the reality?

The greatest cosmic reality is the oneness of all life, the

oneness that exists above all seeming separateness, beyond
all apparent duality. The way toward a realization of that
oneness is covered with an almost impenetrable growth of
selfish idiosyncrasies of the separative personality. These
have to be cut down before the oneness can consciously be
reached. Complete self-effacement of the material
personality must necessarily precede a realization of
impersonal spiritual oneness. For this purpose every element
of passion, which is always selfish, must make room for
compassion; and personal love for one, after being
developed to its highest and purest state, must be expanded
into impersonal love for all.

The more spiritual a person becomes the more cognizant

also will he be of the identity of his own innermost being
with that of all other living forms. “In his inmost self man is
related to other selves in such a fashion that he lives in
them and they in him .” 8 With increasing spirituality comes
a fading of the feeling of separateness of the individual from
other individuals, of the family from other families, of the
nation from other nations, of the human kingdom from other
kingdoms of nature. The more of spirit can manifest the
nearer one approaches to “the consciousness of the identity
of one’s own nature with that of all things”*, and the higher
one rises above the concepts of separateness and of duality.
But “only when the mind becomes free from all desires and
passions the idea of duality ceases .” 7

Only by rising in consciousness above sex can the oneness

of all life be realized. For sex itself is an expression of
duality, and all self-gratifying sexual activity emphasizes
and strengthens the separative personality. Moreover, as
long as the lower physical centers are used for self-
gratification the higher spiritual centers cannot be utilized
for the necessary elevation and expansion of consciousness .
8

A persevering effort to bring about self-purification and

spiritualization until all separateness is overcome is needed
to bring one closer to a conscious realization of oneness.
And the nearer this is approached, the greater the joy of
living, which ultimately develops into an impregnable
felicity.

*****

Ouspensky, A New Model of the Universe, iii, 132.

Gibson, The Faith that Overcomes the World, v, 49.

Carpenter, Love's Coming of Age, 27.

Same as *, v, 49.

Adler, Reconstruction of the Spiritual Ideal, vi, 193.

Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, IV, xlviii, 433.
Uttar a Gita, ii, 46.

See Ch. lxxxv, Uncoiling the Serpent.

 XC
DEATHLESSNESS

“The serpent brought death into the world.”

— Higgins, Anacalypsis,IX,vi,521.

“Eros is mysteriously connected with death .” 1

“The association of death and reproduction is indeed patent

enough.”* However, “it is not death that makes reproduction
necessary, but reproduction has death as its inevitable
consequence.”* “The kingdom of death is maintained ... by
carnal reproduction .” 4 The human race “knew death only .
. . after the separation of the sexes.”* “Sex as it is is the
beginning of death.”* “To expend life in human embraces is
to strike roots in the grave.”*

These appalling statements, selected from the writings of

eminent, unprejudiced minds, may sound phantastic and
unbelievable. Yet, when a medical scholar declares in
scientific language that “erethism of any kind, in both male
and female, represents a katabolic crisis”*, he is but saying
that any kind of excitement or stimulation of the organs of
generation is a disruptive waste of energy. And this
practically affirms that “the carnal way is the way of the
breaking up and scattering of the life force, and the end of it
is death.”*

In lower forms of existence it has been definitely observed

that “the reproduction of many types is followed by the
death of the individual” 1 *, often within a few hours after
propagative activity. And although “it is one of the trends of
evolution to lessen the physiological strain of reproduction”
11 , it remains true also in the human kingdom that
“reproduction is a drain on the parent.” 1 *

“The passions . . . wear out the earthly body with their own
secret power.” 1 * “All amorous passion ... is a whirlpool
seeking to draw us down into the gulf of death .” 14
Qabbalistically speaking “the serpent caused death to the
whole world.” 1 * In the mythologies of various peoples “the
serpent is concerned . . . with the origin of death.” 1 '

“From the concupiscence of the flesh . . . death has drawn its

origin .” 11 With the general spread and stimulation of
concupiscence “death . . . has appeared in the course of
evolution.” 1 * Hence “death is ... accidental rather than
natural” 1 *; “death may be said to have become an
imported accident into the scheme of things.”"

“God did not make death .”* 1 “Man has created it himself.”"

The quoted statements might suggest the thought that

persons who never commit a sexual act should not be
subject to death. But in the course of time the racial habit of
wasting the life force has so impressed itself upon the seed
that concupiscence and loss of vital fluids occur even in
those who are most meticulously continent, so that for them
too there is no immediate escape from death. The
germplasm from which present humanity is raised has been
so weakened by careless, sensual propagation that unduly
early bodily decay as well as death seems to have become
the unavoidable fate of all. Through heredity “the body is no
longer capable of producing normal and well-vitalized
seed.”" Allegorically expressed “the serpent has poisoned . .
. the source of all organic life.”"

Decay of the living body as well as death can be overcome

by the purifying process of spiritualization, by which the
natural laws that apply to coarser matter are transcended.
By this process the body elements that do not harmonize
with the higher spiritual vibrations are gradually cast off and
replaced by finer, almost etheric atoms. “The physical man
must be rendered more ethereal.”"

“Like the fugitive who successfully casts away in his flight

those articles which incommode his progress, beginning
with the heaviest, so the aspirant eluding death abandons
all on which the latter can take hold.”" For this purpose “the
candidate for longevity . . . must begin to eschew his
physical desires”"; especially “the sexual desires, for these .
. . are direct attractions to a certain gross quality of the
original matter .”* 8 And “he must beware . . . of impure and
animal thoughts.”**

Purification of the body, of the emotions and of the thoughts

is necessary in order to weaken the resistance of the lower
elements of the personality, if the spiritual individual wills to
postpone and finally to overcome death. In this way it can
come about that “when men are innocent life shall be
longer.”** “The actual prolongation of human life is possible
for so long as to appear miraculous and incredible .”* 1

It is not unreasonable to expect that in the end the body can

be made deathless. For “old age and death . . . are
pathological.”** “Death is not a universal accompaniment of
life”**, “death is not an essential attribute of living matter
.”* 4 Nor is death an absolutely necessary phenomenon in
the existence of a composite living body.

However, no one can expect suddenly to attain

deathlessness. But every one can make an effective
beginning with the struggle against death by taking up the
struggle against sex. Doing this one shall gradually by
experience discover that “with the extinction of sensual
desire man is released of death’s most powerful bond .”* 8

“To withstand the allurement of generation is to graduate in

the conquest of death .” 38 This is equivalent to the biblical
statement that “he that overcometh shall not be hurt of . . .
death .”* 7 When the sexual urge has been entirely
overcome man can become truly the master of his fate, even
in regard to birth and death. For then a physical body can be
taken on when wanted, to be used as a perfect instrument
for self-expression during centuries if so wished; and such a
body can be laid aside at will for any length of time while
the human entity lives on in unbroken consciousness.

Thus “he who will conquer sex will conquer death.”38

1 Schopenhauer, Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit , vi.

* Geddbs and Thomson, Evolution of Sex, IV, xviii, 235.

* Goette, Ueber den Ur sprung des 7 odes, iii, 5#.

4 Solovyof, Justification of the Good, I, ii, 53.

5 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 644.

6 Merejkowski, The Secret of the West, II, viii, 333.

T Livi, History of Magic, II, v, 153.

8 Talmey, Love, VII, xxi, 366.

9 Same as 4 , II, i, 149.

10 Thomson and Geddes, Life, I, iv, 456.

11 Same as 10 , I, iv, 462.

18 Galloway, Biology of Sex, v, 47.

13 The Mahatma Letters, xlviii, 274.

14 Same as 7 , III, iii, 189.

15 The Z°har, I, 35a; quoted in: Myer, The Qabbalah, xviii,

345.

14 Lang, Modern Mythology, xiii, 136.

17 Helmont, Oriatrike, xci, 650.

18 Pearl, The Biology of Death, i, 42.

19 Howell, Textbook of Physiology, IX, liv, 1057.

90 Jennings, The Rosicrucians, I, xxiv, 217.

81 The Apocrypha, Wisdom of Solomon, i, 13.

88 Same as s , II, 441.

88 A. G., The Science of Regeneration, ix, 118.

84 Humboldt, Researches concerning America, I, xv, 227.

85 G. M., “The Elixir of Life’’; in: Five Years of Theosophy, 11.

86 Same as 15 , 18.

87 Same as u , 11.

88 Same as **, 12.

89 Same as M , 10.

80 Emerson, “Nature”; in his Complete Writings, I, 22.

81 Same as K , 3.

88 Metchnikoff, The Nature of Man, xii, 287.

88 Minot, The Problem of Age, Growth and Death, v, 214.

84 Weismann, Essays on Heredity, I, iii, 161.

85 Yogakundali Upanishad, 1 ; quoted in: Avalon, The

Serpent Power,

vi, 227.

84 Same as 7 , II, v, 153.

87 The Bible, Revelation, ii, 11.

88 Same as 4 , II, viii, 322.

 XCI
IMMORTALITY

“When a person is able to conquer the passional nature he is

. . . conjoined to the immortal state.”

—Butler, Solar Biology,i,23.

“Essentially we are spirit .” 1 And since spirit is eternal and

immortal we are inherently immortal. We are only “mortal
because of body, but because of the essential man
immortal.”*

However, we are not conscious of our immortality because

we identify ourselves so largely with our mortal bodies; for
“in so far as a man turns to the mortal part of himself, in so
far he makes his mind incommensurate with immortality.”*

Hence in order to become conscious of his spiritual immortal

state man must overcome his attachment to the ephemeral
existence in the physical body. Furthermore he must expand
mentally from accumulating knowledge to a search for
wisdom, because “by wisdom immortality is reached .” 4
And above all else he must rise to an exceptionally high
moral standard, because also “along with moral elevation . .
. comes a sense of immortality.”*

To gain a realization of immortality it is necessary to

renounce every semblance of immorality and to transcend
the relative morality of ordinary mortals. “The mortal
becomes immortal . . . only when all desires cease.”* “By
crucifying the man of flesh and his passions” 1 , and “by the
restraint of the senses . . . man becomes fit for immortality.”*
“The mortal shall put on immortality . . . when trained to
everlasting chastity.”*

As expressed in the traditions of many peoples “the serpent

. . . defrauds the human race of the gift of immortality.” 1 *
Therefore “the first step toward [a realization of] immortality
is to gain full control of the sex function .” 11

“In order to live as a conscious entity in eternity the

passions . . . must die.” 1 *

“Immortality is the secret of transmutation” 18 ; only to

those who entirely transmute the sex force can that secret
be revealed.

“To the man or woman who resolutely pursues the path of

purity . . . will come unfailingly the consciousness of
immortality” 14 , and therewith a continuous conscious
existence with ever greater wisdom, greater freedom,
greater power, and greater joy.

*****

1 Tagore, Sadhana , ii, 30.

1 Hermes, Corpus Hermeticum, I, 15; in: Mead, Thrice-

Greatest Hermes,

II, 10.

* Porphyry, Letter to his Wife Marcella, 32.

4 Ishopanishad, 11 ; in: Mead, The Upanishads, I, 20.

5 Bucks, Cosmic Consciousness, III, ix, 74.

• Katha Upanishad, II, vi, 14; in: Tatya, The Twelve Principal
Upanishads,
436.

7 Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II, 592.

8 Laws of Manu, VI, 60; in : Sacred Books of the East, XXV,

209.

9 Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, II, x; in: Ante-Nicene

Christian

Library, IV, 254.

10 Briffault, The Mothers, II, xxi, 649.

11 The Christian Esoteric, I, 317.

11 Same as 7 , I, 495.

13 Kingsford, Clothed with the Sun, I, xx, 90.

14 Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed, 82.

 XCII
EPILOGUE

“The ideal of spiritual intuition to be reached through moral

purity represents an eternal fact.”

— Black, Culture and Restraint,vi,156.

In the now completed mosaic picture of an ideal concept

imperfections will undoubtedly be found to exist in some of
the numerous particles of which it is composed. But the
ensemble is relied upon to leave an impression of the grave
significance of its leading motive. Out of the multicolored
mass arises everywhere in plain design the basic motive,
embodying the assertion that perfect purity IS AN
ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT FOR ADVANCED EVOLUTIONARY
GROWTH.

It is not claimed that purity alone will be sufficient to bring

about quick and astounding results. Even under the most
favorable conditions growth remains a gradual process.
Other requirements for evolutionary development are
sufficiently known and recognized. The need of sexual
purification, however, is so often overlooked or ignored or, as
in the case of many supposedly spiritual leaders,
unpardonably slighted, that it called for separate
accentuation.

Nobody is advised to become a perfect celibate, unless an

inner urge betokens readiness for such a resolution. No
sudden, drastic changes are recommended to any one.
Some are farther away than others from the point where the
ideal beacons. Some therefore have to take more steps
before coming near enough to be in constant contact with
its radiant energy.

But everybody should understand that the salient benefits

of higher attainments cannot be acquired without the
practical realization of sexual purity. Howsoever far one still
may be away from the ideal, it can be seen by any one who
looks in its direction. A beginning can and eventually must
be made to move toward its light. Each for himself must find
out just where he stands, and how fast he will go. Little
influence can be exerted from the outside, except by mental
persuasion.

The only purpose of the laborious compilation of data

contained in this volume has been to present as
convincingly as possible the existence as a fact in nature of
the evolutionary need of individual sexual purification.
Evidence has been supplied that the profoundest thinkers
have upheld the ideal of purity as a golden precept of
paramount natural law. Of it “the great moral prophets . . .
have spoken with a certain approach to unanimity .” 1 “All
the great teachers of the world are agreed in protesting
against the dominion of appetite in the life of man.”* “All the
great organized religions have seized on the value of sexual
abstinence . . . and embodied it in their system”*, in order to
teach their adherents to transmute the sexual into spiritual
energy.

“The historians of civilization seem to be unanimous in the

opinion that a deviation of sexual motive powers from sexual
to new aims has furnished potent component for all cultural
accomplishments .” 4 In fact, “limitation of the sexual
opportunity must be regarded as the cause of cultural
advance.”*
“Psychological researches reveal that the placing of a
compulsory check upon the sexual impulses . . . produces
thought and energy”*, thereby promoting individual and
racial evolutionary progress. Various branches of human
knowledge, from biology and ethnology to alchemy and
occultism, have been shown to point in the same direction.

“Moralists both ancient and modem . . . have never ceased

to urge men to refrain from seeking sexual indulgence” 7 ,
even though often they did not understand and therefore
failed to explain the evolutionary importance of such
abstinence. Philosophers who verged on contact with spirit
through abstract thought, mystics who reached the plane of
spirit in devotional experience, and many of the noblest
amongst humanity have always realized that “chastity, both
as practice and as principle, is a biological and
psychological moment ... of profound significance.”* They
have insisted on the need of sexual purity. And the nearer
man approaches superman the more insistent sounds the
exhortation.

That so many of the most advanced of the human race,

independent of one another, in different ways, from different
viewpoints, in different places and at different times, have
come to the same conclusion, is in itself an indication that
the ideal of purity is of universal scope. Adding together all
the factual and circumstantial evidences that have been
presented, we can hardly fail to see that this ideal contains a
truth of everlasting value, and that sexual purification is a
requisite for the harmoniously balanced physical, moral,
mental and spiritual development of the race.

Man can delay the evolutionary process. He can antagonize

the law of growth. Tarrying in the labyrinth of the senses,
where spiritual light can never penetrate, he can
philosophize that spirit does not exist. In the material world
he can establish ways of living from which all loftier
considerations are left out.

This is what has been done, and what in modem times is

being done to an ever greater extent. Amongst other things
“the spirit has been removed from sex, and the dying body
is . . . infecting the dissolving civilization.”* The very
existence of civilization and of the race is endangered by
adherence to the illusory senses and by a denial of the
sublimer elements of life.

Mankind’s salvation, even physically, depends upon an

emergence from the hypnotic spell of the senses. Not until
this spell is broken can humanity perceive the radiant light
of spirit, absorb its vitalizing rays, share in its joy and glory.

Every one is free to choose between the petty pastimes of

the senses and the gradual development of superhuman
power.

But whatever choice is made by individual or race, the laws

of nature remain immutable. They proclaim that evolution
must eventually go on. The deadlock 1 * must be broken.
“The sensual side of human nature . . . must be brought into
complete subordination to the spiritual .” 11

Souls who refuse to follow this decree are threatened with

removal from the evolutionary system. Persisting, they are
likely to perish as individualized souls, even as nations and
races which have clashed with spiritual progress by clinging
to matter and to the senses, have perished in the past.

Over the ruins of destroyed Atlantisses and Sodoms, over

the obliterated graveyards of all sex-addicted races,
evolution must march on toward a lessening of sexual
expression — on toward exaltation of spiritual faculties. Only
those who are willing to cooperate with the evolutionary
plan can keep up with the march, and reach the goal where
burdensome existence changes into the rapturous sublimity
of being.

*****

1 Gore, Philosophy of the Good Life, x, 284.

* Black, Culture and Restraint, vi, 147.

* Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, III, 273.

4 Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, III, 273.

5 Unwin, Sex and Culture, iv, 317.

6 Same as 5 , iv, 317.

T Northcote, Christianity and Sex Problems, v, 88.

9 Crawley, Studies of Swages and Sex, i, 2.

9 Rozanov, In the World of the Obscure ; quoted in:

Merejkowski, The Secret of the West, II, i, 208.

19 See Ch. v. The Deadlock in Human Evolution.

11 Thornton, Conduct and the Supernatural, viii, 295.

 INDEXES

“I have laboriously collected out of divers writers, and given

every man his own . . . Whence it is taken appears.”

—Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy ,vii.

INDEX OF AUTHORS
Abbott, Th. K., 235.

Abu Nu-aym, 203.

Acton, W., 120, 131, 134, 151. Adair, J., 281.

Adhyatma Upanishad, 211.

Adler, F., xiv, 9, 31, 65, 88, 323. Advanced Textbook of Hindu
Religion, 213.

Agrippa, H. C., 62, 105, 263, 277, 278, 281, 289.

Al-Hujwiri, 201, 203.

Al-Junayd, 203.

Allen, G. W., 120.

Al-Nuri, 203.

Angus, S., 207, 229, 247, 312. Anguttara Nikaya, 305.

Apastamba, 213.

Apocrypha, 327.

Apollonius, 281.

Apuleius, 247.

Aquinas, Thomas, 180, 229. Aristotle, 26, 45, 49, 170, 229.
Armitage, R. B., 41, 71, 72, 78, 102, 106, 127, 134.

Arnold, E., 45, 292, 30b.

Artephius, 257.

Ashe, D., 178.

Athenagoras, 193.

Atkinson, W. W., no, 196, 247, 457, 069, 474. *99Atwood, M.

A., 257.

Augustine, A., 136, 274.

Aurelius, Marcus, 35, 49, 58, 62, 229, 274.

Avalon, A., 305.

Bacon, Roger, 50.

Badley, J. H., 131.

Baer, A., 161.

Bahai Scriptures, 151.

Bailey, A. A., 305.

Bailey, E. H., 263.

Bancroft, H. H., 178, 183, 187. Baring-Gould, S., 92, 139,

207, 213, 238

Barker, A. T., 292.

Barrett, F., 257, 281.

Barrow, J., 187.

Bastian, A., 178.

Bayley, H., xvi.

Beale, L. S., 134.

Bebel, A., 8.

Beck, L. Adams, 49, 54, 180, 190, 216, 270, 274, 377, 384,
292, 496,319.

Bell, R., 244.

Beowulf, 244.

Beowulf, 244.

Berman, L., 263, 305.

Bernard. St., 197.

Bemfeld, S., 207.

Besant, A., 34, 49, 58, 187, 196, 213, 216, 219, 266, 270,
274, 284, 289, 292, 316.

Bevan, E., 229, 269.

Bhagavad Gita, 219, 292.

Bible, 188, 190, 243, 292, 327.

Bigandet, P., 180.

Bigelow, M. A., 127, 191.

Bjerre, P., 112, 140, 155.

Black, H., 31, 49, 54, 65, 136, 139, 167, 228, 238, 330, 333.

Blavatsky, H. P., 35, 38, 54, 62, 65, 123, 161, 170, 183, 207,
210, 213, 216, 228, 245, 247, 253, 257, 263, 26 a, 266,
274, 277, 281, 285, 286, 289, 295, 300, 3<>5, 312, 317,
327, 329

Blosius, L., 197.

Boehme, Jacob, 71, 197, 300.

Bonwick, J., 174.

Book of the Dead, 208, 210.

Bragdon, C., 79, 115, 142.

Bridges, Robert, 72.

Briffault, R., 34, 41, 71, 151, 281, 329

Brightman, E. S., 45, 158.

Broster, L. R., 312.

Browning, Robert, 13, 313.

Brunton, P., 65, 203, 228, 247.

Buchanan, J. R., 31, 123, 131.

Buck, J. D., 31, 62, 250, 312.

Bucke, R. M., 139, 318, 319, 329.

Buckham, J. W., 196.

Buddha, 214, 216, 267.

Budge, E. A. W., 210.

Bulwer-Lytton, E. G., 281.

Bunyan, John, 296.

Bureau, P., 65, 92, 117, 158, 164, 274

Butler, E. C., 192.

Butler, H. E., 31, 102, 123, 244, 297, 299, 300, 328.

Campbell, J. F., 243.

Cannon, A., 274.

Carey, G. W., 190.

Carnoy, A. J., a«.

Carpenter, E., 46, 71, 79, 83, 88, > 39 . > 4 », > 47 , > 5 >.
3 >*.

393.

CarreL A., 8, 53, 6®, * 39 , 196Catholic Encyclopedia, 196.

Chan doty a Upanishad, 213. Charondas, 228.

Charron, P., 161, 225, 289. Chatterji, J. C., 269.

Christian Esoteric, 329.

Cicero, 62, 161, 229.

Clarke, A., 113.

Clavigero, D. F. S., 178, 183. Clement, St, 193, 329.

Clendemng, L., 126, 134.

Clymer, R. S., 300.

Coleman, C., 243.

Collins, J., 35, 82, 113, 126.

Collins, M., 290.

Comfort, W. L., 156.

Comte, A., 71, 235, 312.

Confucius, 221, 292.

Conybeare, F. C., 187, 192.

Cook, J., 178.

Cooper, C. R., 109, 161.

Coptic Apocrypha, 193.

Corelli, Marie, 8, 78, 170, 296. Coriat, I. H., 106.

Cowan, J., 83, 115, 117, 123. Crawley, E., iii, 115, 171, 173,
178, 183, 184, 192, 207, 247, *81, 305 , 333 Cumont, F.,
203.

Curtis, A. M., 300*, 305.

Curtiss, H. A., and F. H., 35, 41,

117, 123, *38. 277.

Dader, M., 228.

Dahlke, P., 71, 143, 144, 216. Darmesteter, J., 243.

Darwin, Ch., 96, 151.

Das, Bhagavan, 71, 73, 213. Davids, Rhys, 186.

Dawson, M. M., 228.

Deane, J. B., 243.

Demophilus, 228.

Dennett, M. W., 9.

Descartes, R., 235.

Deussen, P., 213. Dhammakakka Sutta, 292. Dhammapada,

216. Dhammapala, H., 292. Dienemann, M., 207. Digha-
Nikaya, 216.

Diodorus Seculus, 2 to.

Dionysius the Areopagite, 277. Dionysius Halicarnassus,

181, 183, 187.

Dorman, R. M., 178, 187.

Dubois, P.. 88, 121.

Durant, W., 8, 104, 235.

Eckartshausen, R. von, 8,

7 » S ,v i \ 6 , 167, 197

3*9 53 >

lo 9 » * 97 , « 77 , 318, 319

Eckhart, Meister, 53, I3(

Eddington, A. S., 05.

Eddy, Mary Baker, 71, 198, 200. Eleasar, M. C., 207.

Elliott G. L., 99.

Ellis, Havelock, 58, 62, 71, 88, 92, 95> 99* 100, 102, 109,
139, 142, 151, I 73 » *38, 281, 333. Emerson, R. W., 58, 83,
123, 170,

„ 231, 235, 321, 327.

Encyclopedia Bntanmca, 31, 207, 228, 244.

Epictetus, 229.

Epicurus, 229.

Escande, F., 131.

Espagnet, J. cr, 254.

Eucken, R., 8, 54, 65, 139, 167, 192, 230. 235, 238, 321,
319. Eulenburg, M., 92.

Euripedes, 245.

Evans, W., 83.

Evans-Wentz, W. Y., 305.

Exner, M. J., 66, 92, 99, 109, 115, „ 117, 123, 127.

Eyrenaeus, 258.

Faber, G. S., i, 5, #43.

Farnsworth, E. C., 71.

F6r6, G., 134.

Fama Fratemitatis, 233.

Ferrara, B., 257.

Flamel, N., 258.

Flexner, A., 112, 154.

Foenter, F. W., aj, 44, 66, 113, « 3 i, > 39 , > 58 , >64, >80,
aoo, a<>7, 933

Fogaxzaro, A., 14a, 180, 316.

Fore), A., sa, 38, 109, its, tao,

>5>, 173

Forlong, J. G. R., 3, 343.

Foshohing Ttanking, 186. Foundations of Social Hygiene, 99,

118, 126, 128, 131, 134. Fournier, A., 134.

Fox, W. S., 244.

Francis of Sales, 197.

Frazer, J. G., 174, 178, 183, 207.

Index of Authors

339

Freud, S., 9, 49, 53, 83, 109, 115, > 3 ®, 131, 151. 158,
174, * 70 , $ 05 . 333

Frizius, J. oude, J.

257 .

Froude, J. A., aag, 31a. Fhrbringer, P., 133, 131, 134.

Galloway, T. W., 6a, 78, 9a, 95, „ *oa, i*7, 1 a6, 136, 164,
337. Gay, S. E., 266.

Geddes, P., 326.

Geiger, A., 207.

Gherwal, R. S., 303.

Gibbon, E., 6.

Gibson, V. R., 54, 333.

Gilman, C. P., 18.

Glasgow, M., 112.

Goethe, J. W. von, 41.

Goette, A., 326.

Goldsmith, E. E., 243.

Gore. C., 1170, a6 9 , 374. 333

Goudey R. F., 269.

Gowers, W. R., 115, 127, 131. Green, Th. W., 155.

Gregory, St., 193.

Gruber, M., 58, 62, 84, 102, 118. Guthrie, K. 5 ., 228.

Guyot, F., 41.

Hale, B. F. R., 131.

Hall, G. S., 92, 102, 105, 109, 123. Hall, Manly P., 183, 190,
210, 228, 247, 250, 253, 281, 289, 303. Hall, W. S., 99, 102,
106, 109. Hardman. O., 49, 139.

Harris, Th. L., 07.

Hartland, E. S., 106, 186, 187, 244. Hartmann, E. von, 196.

Hartmann, Franz, 28, 31, 43, 54, 62, 65* ,a 3 » i 4 a » 230,

253, 257 , 277 , 281, 289, 295, 3<x>, 3*2, „ ?i 6 , 319.

Hastings, J., 02, 174, 178. Hawthorne, N., 243.

Hazelrigg, J., 263.

Heape, W., 151.

Heard, S., 203.

Hegel, G. W. F., 13, 31, 65, 158,

219.

Heindel, M., 263.

Helmont, J. B. Van, 190, 192. Henderson, P., 134.

Hermes, 32, 75 , *36, aio, 238, „ 3i6, 329.

Hermetic Museum, 257, 258. Higgins, G., 324.

Hillard, K., 58, 62.

327 .

292,

Hilton, W., 79 , 95 , * 97 Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, 266.

Hitchcock, E. A., 257, 295. Hodgson, B. H., 174.

Holden, R. W., 174.

Hollis, A. C., 174.

Hood, B., 244.

Hoover, J. E., 8.

Horrwitz, E., 266.

Howard, W. L., 117, 123.

Howe. J. W., 134.

Howell, W. H., 95, 337.

Hsuntze, 292.

Hufeland. C. W., 238.

Htthner, M., 95, 115, 120, 126, 131. Huizinga, J. 79.

Humboldt, A. von, 244, 327.

Hume, D., 71.

Huxley, A., 19, 6a, 174, 238.

IambHchus, 136, 183. 230, 29a. Ingram, K., 13, 59, 6 a, 71,
131. Ishopantshad, 229.

Iti-vuttaka, 216.

, acobi, L., 164.

, ames, Wm., 269.

, as trow, M., 207. ennings, H., 183, ^51, 253, 263, 3 > 2 ,
327.

Jerome, St, 186, 193, 207.

John of the Cross, 45, 66, 158, 197. Johnston, C.. 49, 79, 300.

Jordan, D. S., 78, 112, 274.

Judge, W. Q., 266.

Jung, C. G., 8, 18, 106, 131, 170.

Kagawa, T., 78, 312.

Kale v ala, 187.

Kant, Immanuel, 41, 78, 109, 164, 165, 167, 170, 335, *95.
308. Katha Upantshaa, 313, 385, 339. Keith, A. B., 343.

Kellogg, J. H., 83, 88, 106, 118, 131, 136, 170.

Kellogg, V., ,3.

Kempis, Thomas 3 , 180, 197, 393. Keyes, E. L., 11a, iso.

Keyserling, H. A., 8, 39, 31, 65,

,5 i» i 6a > “ 43 . 3 « 6 King, G. R., 170.

Kingsborough, L., 187, 344. Kingsford, A., 13, 31, 75, 139,
190, * 43 . *96, 399, 317, 339. Kingsley, C., 13.

Kirsch, F. M., 9, 92, 134.

Kohler, K., 207.

Koran, 203.

Kotzebue, O. von, 174.

Ko-Yuan, 221.

Krafft-Ebing, R. von, 36, 107, 167. Kramer, F. H., 281.

Kropotkin, P., 10, 139, 167, 229. Kuhn, A. B., 281.

Ku Si? Kiting Lin, 221.

Kwang-Tze, 220, 221, 250.

Landtman, G., 174, 178.

Lang, A., 327.

Lao-Tze, 221.

Law, W., 197.

Laws of Manu, 213, 269, 329.

Lea, H. C., 180, 192, 203, 20*’, 230, 247.

Leadbeater, C. W., 161, 305.

Lecky, W. E. H., 151, 154, 192, 207, 228, 244.

Legge, J., 221.

Leo, Alan, 263, 299.

Lessing, G. E., 309.

Llvi, Eliphas, 3, 79, 106, 247, 281, 292, 316, 327.

Lewis, H. S., 186.

Li Hsi-Yueh, 221.

Lindsey, Ben B., 155.

Link, H. C., 139.

Lippmann, W., 23, 139, 164, 228, 238.

Lombroso, C., 92, 115, 130, 161. Longfellow, H. W., 187, 293.
Lorand, A., 127.

Lover of Philalethes, 257.

Low, H., 173.

Lowell, J. R., 121.

LSwenfeld, W., 131.

Lucanus, 38, 228.

Lucka, E., 76, 196.

Lutoslawski, W., 34, 71, 88, 161, 270.

Lydston, G. W., 8, 38, 82, 88, 92, 95, 109, 120, 131.

Maeterlinck, M., 28.

Magicon, 253, 317*

Mahabharata, 54, 219. Mahaparinibbana Sutta, 292.

Mahatma Letters, 123, 274, 289, 292, 295, 327.

Mahavagga, 216, 274 *

Maimonides, 55, 207.

Maitri Utanishad, 45, 285. Malinowski, B., 174.

Mallet, M., 244.

Mantegazza, P., 71, 134.

Marshall, F. H. A., 83, 88, 99. Mathers, S. L. M., 28, 151.

Maudsley, H., 35, 106, 147.
Mayer, A., 58, 88, 106.

Mead, G. R. S., 4, 5, 62, 142, 213, 228, 247, 266, 281, 289,
295, 300.

Mela, Pomponius, 183.

Mencius, 136, 221.

Merejkowski, D., 78, 151, 238, 243,

327 .

Metchnikoff, E., 9, 127, 167, 327. Methodius, St., 193.

Michelet, M. J., 155.

Mill, J. S., 49.

Milton, John, xi, 170.

Mingle, Ida, 54, 66, 75, 78, 88, 168, 274? 292, 320.

Minot, C. S., 327.

Mohammed, 203.

Molinos, M. de, 54, 197.

Moll, A., 99.

Monakow, G. von, 131.

Moore, E. R., 83.

Moore, H. H., 134.

More, Henry, 31, 238.

Morley, J., 192.

Morris, B., 18.

Morrow, P. A., 112, 127.

Morton, J. F., 154.

Milller. Max, 210, 219, 266, 269, 274 , 284.

Mundy, Talbot, 117, 136, 292, 296. Murray, G., 105.

Myer, I., 207, 263.

Mac Culloch, J. A., 244. Macdonald, D., 178.

McDougall, W., 41, 117. Macfadden, B., 8, 71, 106, 109, I 27

e 131

McKenzie, J., 281.

Mabie, H. M., 244. Maddox, J. L., 281.

N£cke, P., 120.

Napheys, G. H., 88, 123. Newbrough, J. B., 123.

Newton, A. E., 14.

Nicholas, M., 99.

Nicholas, M., 99.

Nichols, T. L., 83, 88.

Nicholson, R. A., 31, 196, 203, 319. Nietzsche, F., 8, 58, 62,
123, 137, « 35 . 3 '6.

Northcote, H., 106, 118, 120, 134, 274 * 333 *

Nystrom, A., 103, 131.

Olcott, F. U 244.

Ouspensky, P. D., 13* 3 ®> 5 ®> 99 * 164, 180, 284, 300,

316, 323.

Paget, J., 41. i° 8 * 120.

Palmer, C. D., 88.

Papini, G., 13, 24, 41, 142, 144, 170, 179 , I 9 °> 3*a, 3*7.
Paracelsus, 41, 58, 238, 257, 292, 411.

Parkhurst, H. M.,102.

Parkinson, S., 174Par ran, Th., 9, 127.

Parvin, T., 88.

Pascal, B., 53.

Pastorello, D., 134.

Patanjali, 115, 219, 285.

Patmore, C., 79.

Paton, S. 41.

Pearl, R., 327.

P6rier, E., 117.

Phelons, W. P., and M. M., 244. Philalethes, 253, 257, 3 > 6

Philo Judaeus, 49, 207.

Philoctetes, E., 257.

Philostratus, 228, 316.

Pike, A., 167, 235, 247, 248, 250, 258.

Plato, vi, 5, 26, 31, 35, 49, 106, 109, 1 15 , 136, 159 * 161,
222,

229, 269, 277, 317 .

Plotinus, 54, 136, 230, 300. Plutarch, 244.

Pomeroy, H. F., 83.

Popenoe, P., 41, 83, 92, 120, 152. Pordage, J., 257.

Porphyry, 54, 62, 106, 210, 228,

230, 329 Posner, C., 131.

Praol, L., 161.

Pratt, E. H., 131.

Proclus, 230.

Pry*e. J- M., 34, 66, 963, 969, 975.

977 , 989, 305, 399.

Pythagoras, 115, 142, 228.

Radhakrishnan, S., 13, 31, 139, 155, 158, 178, 216, 219,
238. Raleigh, A. S., 139, 161. Ramacharaka, Y., 285.
Ramakrishna, 54.

Reinach, S., 192.

Renatus, S., 253.

Rice, T. B., 263.

Richard, D., 88.

Riley, F. L., 42, 292.

Rivers, W. H. R., 178.

Robinson, W. J., 71, 99, 102, 109, 126, 151, 271.

Rogers, L. W., 106.

Rohleder, H., 115.

Rousseau, J. J., 45, 135.

Rolle, R., 197.

Rozanov, V., 190, 333.

Rudisill, E. S., 112, 127.

Rumi, J., 53, 903, 944, 989. Ruskin, J., 92, 158.

Russell, Bertrand, 39, 45, 49, 71, 88,

95, *64.

Russell, Dora. 238.

Ruysbroeck, J. van, 196.

Saint-Didier, A. T. de, 258. Saint-Germain, G. de, 239. Saint-

Martin, L. C. de, 27. Saleeby, C. W., 99, 102, 124, 126, "5i

Samkhya Sutras, 219. Sankaracharya, 49, 58, 217, 219.

Santayana, G., 228, 235.

Sayce, A. H., 243.

Schiller, F. von, 78.

Schlegel, F. von, 219, 243. Schmalhausen, S. D., 151, 154,

155, 158.

Schopenhauer, A., vii, 26, 41, 44, 142, 180, 190, 192, 213,
235, 323 , 326.

Schrenck-Notzing, A. von, 131. Schur6, E., 186, 207, 243.

Scott, Cyril, 161.

Scott, J. F., 22, 53, 83, 88, 92, 106, 109, 112, 118, 127, 134,
"8", 274

Sedlak, F., 266.

Senator, H., 127.

Seneca, *9, 95, 158, 229.

Sepharial, 263.

Sextus, 44.

Seymour, F. I., 88.

Shaftesbury, A., 49.

Sidgwick, H., 235.

Silberer, H., 22, 164, 194, 196, 243, 258, 282.

Sinnett, A. P., 296, 316, 317.

Smith, A., 105.

Smith, G., 243.

Smith, Margaret, 196, 203, 292. Smith, W. K., 207, 281.

Smyth, R. B., 174.

Sockman, R. W., 8 , 49* 53 , 79 , 9 «, *4«> *55, »35> 238.

Sokoloff. B., *23. OD

Solovyof, V., 13, 2a, 28, 31, 41, 88, 139 , * 45 , * 47 , i 87 , *

70 , 178, 235 , 3 * 2 , 327 .

Spencer, Herbert, 53, 80, 123, 164,

* 67 , * 73 . .

Spengler, O., 8, 238.

Sperry, L. B., 109.

Spinoza, B. de, 44, 78, 235.

Stall, S., 71, 83, 99 , 1 *8Steiner, R., 277 , 289.

Stockham, A. B., 8, 62, 88* 99 , » 74 Stopes, M. G., 127.

Sturgis, F. R., 115, 120.

Sturluson, S., 244.

Suhrawardi, 203.

Surbled, G., 92, 102.

Sutta Nipota, 216.

Soetasvatara Upanishad, 213. Swedenborg, £., 49, 63, 72.

Tagore, R., 31, 45, 79 , 3 * 9 *

Tahney, B. S., 83, 92, 95, ** 5 > *20, 127, 132, * 55 , 327 .

Talmud, 207.

Tanner, J., 8, 34 , 72, 82, 144, * 6 *, 229, 236, 312.

Tauler, J., 196.

Taylor, Jeremy, 139, 144, * 97 Taylor, R. W., 127.

Taylor, Thomas, 247, 3 * 9 Teachings of the Temple, 305.

Tennyson, A., 155.

Tertullian, 115, 183, 193. Theologia Germanica , 196.

Thomson, J. A., xv, 41, 95, ** 7 » 127, 274, 327 *

Thoreau, H. D., 213.

Thornton, L. S., 333.

Tolstoi, L., 13, 22, 38, 45, 66 , 147, 312.

Treatise on the Philosopher's Stone, 257 - „

Trismosm, S., 257.

Trumbull, H. C., 3, 243.

Twain, Mark, 200.

Turnbull, C., 259, 263.

Vaerting, M. and M., 151, 154 Valentine, B., 257, 263.

Van Suchten, A., 257, 258. Vaughan, R. A., 292.

Vaughan, Th., 257*

Vecki, V. G., 127.

Vega, G. de la, 183.

Vishnu Parana , 219.

Viveka Chudamam , 219. Viveka n a n da , S., 3, 28, 34, 115,

*58, 213, 284, 305

Wagner, Richard, 244, 296.

Waite, A. W., 250, 258, 281, 289, 296, 299.

Wake, C. S., 3, 244.

Walker, E. D., 269.

Warbasse, J. P., 115Weather head, L. D., 109.

Weininger, O., 49, 7 *, 78, *38, * 4 ®, * * 55

Weismann, A., 93, 327.

Wells, A. A., 266.

Wells, H. G., x, 13, * 8 , 35 Westcott, W., 257.

Westermarck, E., 41, 45, 88, 112, 175, 178, 180, 183, 203,
216, 221, 247, 281.

Whitman, Walt, 89, 155.

Wile, I. S., 134.

Wilkinson, G., 207, 210, 244, 296. Williams, S. W., 221.

Wilson, H. C., 200.

Wines, M., 161.

Winslow, K., 119.

Woodhouse, F. C., 235.

Woolston, H. B., 116, 117.

Wynne, S. W., 126.

Xenocrates, 247. Xenophon, 49, 228.

Yehudah, E., 207.

Togakundali Upanishad, 301, 305, 327

Toga Vasishta, 219, 285.

Udanavarga, 216.

Underhill, Evelyn, 53, 58, 196, 257, 277, « 8 i, 319

Unwin, J. D., 174, 238, 333. Uttara Gita, 323.

Zad-sparam, 187.

Zah lung King, 221. Zend-Avesta, 243. Zohar, 204, 207,

327.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS

Aboriginal religion, 175-178. Abortions, 7.

Abstinence: mind purged by —, 60;

— is harmless, 81, 133; — during pregnancy, 86, 172; —

during lactation, 86, 172; — in adolescence, 90; —
diminishes desire, 120; — builds character, 130; — of
eunuchs, 143;

— during war, 172, 204; efficacy of —, 209.

Abuse: of self-consciousness, 12; — of mind has

overstimulated sex,

40, *37 i — of the senses, 52;

— of nutrition, 94.

Abuse of sex: has checked human progress, 18; — has grown

excessive, 60; — is cause of disease, 121; — affects
germplasm, 122; — is suicidal to race, 146; — causes
misery, 272; — and retribution, 273. Also set Perversion.
Accumulation of secretions, 101-2. Adam and Eve, 206.

Adolescence: 89-91 ; brain-development made possible by

—, 17, 90.

Affirmations, 279.

Alchemy, 254-257.

Alcohol, in, 1 jo, 159, 202. Altruism of ethics, 162-164.

Ancient mysteries, 245-247; 222. Animality: hampers
evolution, 12,
41, 64; rising above —, 145; curse of —, 273.

Animals: consciousness of —, 11 ;

— are led by instinct, 16, 39;

— are sexual, not sensual, 41; .— have no desires, 42; sexual

partnerships among —, 67; — mature quickly, 89; moral law
for , 168; highest —, 313.

Anticipation: stimulates desire, 42;

— applied to body-impulses, 60. Art, 55, 56, 57

Artificial insemination, 84.

Artists: creative power of —, 34;

inspiration of —, 55-58. Ascetic: modern —, 140-142.

Asceticism: 137-*39; — is favorable to intellect, 61-62.

Aspiration: 43, 44, 55, 65, 91, *95; — is opposed by sense-

gratification, 56; — is stifled by desires, 218.

Astrology, 259-262.

Athletes, 55, 113, 286.

Atrophy, 120, 133.

Attitude of woman, 150.

Attraction of the sexes, 38.

Bacteria, 15.

Bible, i88-iqo; 2oi.

Birth control, 80-82; 107.

Birth stories, 184-186.

Body: an instrument for spirit, 29, 141; — is not to be

neglected, go; — accustoms itself to habits, in; purification
of — ; 123.

Body-cells: differentiation of —, 15 ; — are directed by

instinct, 39.

Body-impulses: overstimulated by mind, 60, 137.

Body-pleasures, 44, 46, 47, 135,

„ . * 3 ?« a? 7

Brain: instinct needs no —, 40; — is too little used, 59;

connection of — with reproductive system, 90, 91, 304.

Buddhism, 214-216; 179, 291.

Celibacy: perfect —■, 143-144; sacerdotal —, 179-180; — of

ascetics, 159; — of mystics, 201 ;

— of hierophants, 246.

Censor. 103, 104, 105.

Cerebellum, 15, 16.

Cerebrum, 16.

Ceremonies, 248.

Chastity: civilization is unfavorable to —,6; — and health,

12a, *33 5 neglect of —, 128; attitude toward —. 173 ;
purpose of —, 215; — of mothers, 153, *54; — of savages,
171-173;

— of Hindu students, 211; — of Chinese, 220; — in school of

Pythagoras, 222; — in the

Mysteries, 246; — of Rosicrucians, 251 ; — of ancient

astrologers, 259-260; — of occultists, 288; — is not a passive
state, 232; lack of — causes degeneration, 258; — is needed
for self-realization, 265; — is essential for transmutation of
generative force, 282; — is universal rule for spiritualization,
282 ; — is required for regeneration, 299; — leads to
immortality, 328; — is of profound significance, 280, 331.

Childbirth: pain of—, 86.

Chinesse philosophy, 220-221.

Choice of two pathways, 20-21.

Christianity: early—, 191 -192 ; sacerdotal celibacy in —,

180. Also see Bible.

Christian Science, 198-200.

Civilization: 6-8; — is not synonymous with evolution, 10; —

hinders spiritual development, 10, 11 ; destruction of —, 11
; unhappiness of modern —, 64; unnatural factors in —, 94;

— has overstimulated sexual impulse, 172; closing down of

—, 238; — is endangered, 332.

Codes: moral —, 165.

Coitus: passion during —, 85.

Conception: 85; immaculate —,

184, 186.

Concupiscence, 76, 159, 216, 280, 3.1 if 325

Consciousness: during sleep, 104; expanded —, 114; cosmic

—, 318-319; grades of —, 11, 309, 3 i 3 , 314

Contemplation, 194, 217, 218.

Continence: 113-115; — of genius, 58 ; — of eminent

thinkers, 61 ;

— in marriage, 69, 70; juvenile —, 90; — of ascetics, 142 ; —

of medicine-men, 280; — is a precondition of mental energy,
61 ; — is an altruistic demand, 87 ; — is connected with
idealism, 91 ; — is essential for evolutionary improvement,
87; — is not harmful, 116, 129, 133;

— leads to health, 122; — does not cause neurosis, 130;

— is required for magic, 278;

— is prescribed for Yoga, 283; —is indispensable to spiritual

power, 177; — is needed for contemplation, 218.

Contraception, 80-82; 236.

Cosmic consciousness, 318-319.

Creation: reproduction is not —, 33; power of — rests in

mind, 34, 261 ; process of —, 186.

Crime: 159-160; — compared with perversion, 108-109.

Culture: control of sex is necessary for true —6, 8.

Deadlock in human evolution, 1418; 137, 332

Death: early —, 122 ; — caused by syphilis, 125; — of
humanity, 146; spiritual —, 223 ; — related to sexual
activity, 262, 324-326.

Deathlessness, 324-326.

Degeneration: racial —, 152; — results from lack of chastity,

238, 272, 297; — caused by syphilis, 125.

Desire: 42-44; — is unknown below human stage, 18; — is

diminished by abstinence, 120; propagation without sensual
—, 120.

Desires: stimulated by mind, 18;

— stifle aspiration, 56, 218;

— predominate over mind, 168; man’s grosser —•, 150;

unnecessary —, 225.

Dietetic errors, 123.

Differences: between man and woman, 148, 149, 154; rising

above —, 143.

Disease: 121-123; venereal —, 124126.

Doctrines: man-made —, 150.

Domesticated animals: lost instinct,

^ 39

Dragon: equivalent of serpent, 239; Chinese —, 220.

Dragon-slayers, 240-243.
Dreams: erotic, 103-105.

Duality, 28, 322.

Egypt: religion of ancient —, 208-9. Elixir of life, 255.

Emanations, 199, 280. Emancipation: of woman, 149, 152, I

53 > 154 ; man’s moral —, 154. Embodied spirit, 29-31.

Embiyo: impressionability of —, 87. Emetics, 80.

Emissions: nocturnal, 10a, 103. Emotions: prepared mina,

50; passional —, 160; disturbing —, 3 i 9

Equality, 153, 134.

Erethism, 324.

Erotic: dreams, 103-105 ; — stimuli, 102, 112 ; — thoughts,

91, 104, 105, 160.

Ethics: altruism of —, 162-164; sexual —, 6, 162; Jewish —,

204.

Eugenics, 84-88; 260.

Evolution: 10-12; serpent was to serve —, 1 ; deadlock in —,

1418; — aims at oneness, 51 ; — is impeded by animality,
64; — depends on individual, 164, 165, 166; — is opposed
by disregard of moral law, 272; path of quickened —, 291,
295; process of —, 313; — must march on, 333.

Evolutionary: methods, 12; —

stages, 15-18.

Excitation: artificial —, 96, 101.

External secretions of sex glands: 97, 98, 100-102; — are no
excretion, 101.

Fasting, 202.

Fear, 126.

Femininity, 148.

Fire: symbol of spirit, 181, 182.

Flesh: represents lower nature, 30; — is corrupted by unwise

cohabitation, 122; — is strong when spirit is weak, 232.

Folk-lore: connects serpent with sex,

2.

Force centers in body, 2, 302.

Force currents in body, 70, 302, 304.

Formalities: do not change nature's laws, 68.

Freedom: 156-157; — from sex attraction, 143-144; — of

woman, 149, 153; — from

rebirth, 190, 269.

Freemasonry, 248-250, 254.

Future, 309-312.

Generation: 34, 297; — is influenced by Moon, 260; —

opposes regeneration, 261, 299.

Genius: is dependent upon inspiration, 57; continence of —,

58.
Germ-plasm, 15, 122, 325.

Gestation: period of —, 84, 86.

Glands: 96-99; sex — are inhibited during lactation period,

86-87; — are denatured by habits, 101 ; — require no
exercise, 119; — are outer symbols, 302.

Gonorrhea, 124, 125.

Gratification: sexual — antagonizes spirit, 33; sense — was

invented by human mind, 36; self — coarsens the individual,
51 ; — strengthens separateness, 51 ; — stifles happiness,
227.

Greek philosophy, 222-228.

Habits: have denatured the sex glands, 101 ; body

accustoms itself to —, in; inborn — can be overcome, 111;
racial —> >38; present sexual — are abnormal, in.

Happiness: is not the sum of pleasures, 46; — is thwarted by

pleasures, 48; — never comes through the senses, 53; cause
of lack of —, 64-65; connubial —, 71 ; — is impeded by
passions, 108; highest —, 215; how to find —, 237.

Healing, 199, 280.

Health: 121-123; — among chaste people, 114; general low

rate of —, in.

Hermaphrodites, 73.

Hermetic writings, 254-257.

Hinduism, 211 -213.

Humanity: is not climax of evolution, 11 ; evolutionary
characteristics of —,17; — militates against nature's laws,
168.

Hypocrisy, 152, 156.

Ideal:' 19-22; needed — must diminish sex, 8; — of chastity,

91 9 153* 301 ; — of continence, 113; — of purification,
143, 93 1 » 33 *

Idealism: of chaste youth, 91; — of modern ascetic, 141 ; —

is impaired by perversions, 108.

Idiocy: danger of spiritual —, 4.

Ignorance, 4-5; 293.

Illumination, 283, 291.

Imagination: undue —, 101, 113.

Immaculate conception, 184, 186.

Immorality: masculine —, 152; — is source of crime, 159.

Immortality, 328-329.

Impotence, 119.

Indian philosophy, 217-219.

Indulgence: habitual —, 94, no.

Infection, 122, 124, 125.

Initiation, 222, 245, 246, 248, 252, 859 . » 9 i, 895.

Innocence, 293.
Insanity: threatens the unpurified

? sychic, 276; — is danger of oga without chastity, 282; —

may follow arousing of Kundalini, 304.

Inspiration: 55-58; — of chaste youth, 91.

Instinct: 39-41 ; — guides animals, 16, 39, 48, 90; humanity

lacks —, 17, 39; — compared with intuition, 59; — replaced
by taboo, 172; — in ants and bees, 313

Intellect: and intuition, 59-62; — is to be followed by

spirituality, ; — is aided by sexual purity, 1, 234; modern —
is developed at cost of soul life, 6; overdeveloped — is not
part of normal evolution. 10; — is put at service of bestiality,
40; — does not develop the superman, 313 ’ 314

Intelligence: increases when senses are restrained, 53;

nature’s —, 39, 59, 96, *78; woman’s —,

150.

Internal secretions of sex glands, 97, 98, 122, 301.

Intuition, 4a, 59, 62, 242, 288. Irritation of sex organs, 98,
101, 120.

Islam, 201-203.

Liberation, 215, 218, 305.

Libertinism, 152, 156.

Libido, 51, 149, 194, 196.

Licentiousness: countless ages of —,51; licensed — of

marriage, 68; emancipation has grown into —, 153.
Life force: serpent appropriates — of man, 1 ; playing with —
must be stopped, 5, 253; ways in which — is utilized, 14, 15;
—transferred from reproductive system to brain, 16, 303;
seed is storage battery of —, 17; — is needed for higher
faculties, 18; — when spent in sex is lost to intellect, 61 ; —
is wasted on sexual level, 91, 170; — to be used for
regeneration, 98; results of wasting —, 273.

Longevity, 41, 90, 325, 326.

Love: 76-78; ideal — is free from sex, 8; — is not promoted

by unreproductive sexual acts, 38; — of mates, 67; —
between parents, 84; — reduced to sex experience, 237;
expansion of —, 382.

Lower nature: man s —, 29; — drowns out higher vibrations,

248; — is to be subdued, 240, 245 ; transmutation of —,
251; purging of —, 298; subordination of —, 316.

Lust: domesticated by civilization, 7; — is man’s second

nature, 50; — is love’s arch foe, 77.

Jellyfish, 15.

Joy: contrasted with pleasure, 4648; — lies beyond the

senses, 53; — is prevented by serpent, 243; — of spiritual
growth, 5; — of asceticism, 141 ; — of living, 322.

J udaism, 204-206. ustice, 271.

Lactation: abstinence during period of —, 86, 87, 172.

Lactic glands: overproduction of cow’s —, 101.

Laws: 168-170; moral —, 165, 166, 168, 169; civil —. 169.

Laws of nature: 4, 157, 109, 170, 172; re tributary action of
—, 5; — are immutable, 227, 332.

Legends, 239-243; 2.

Magic, 278-280.

Mammals, 16.

Marriage: 67-71; — is a concession, 189; ideal —, 70, 189,

212.

Masculinity, 148.

Masonic symbols, 248-249.

Maternity: longing for —, 149; chastity of —, 154.

Matriarchy, 152.

Matter: spirit versus —, 27-28.

Maturation: lengthening of period of 89, 90.

Medical advice, 132-134; 117, 119,

*85.

Medicine-man, 179, 280.

Memory: stimulates desire, 42; — is applied to excite body-

impulses, 60; — of previous births, 267, 268.

Metaphysics. 222, 271, 276, 291.

Meta-physiology, 301, 304, 305.

Mind: 59-62; — is applied to stimulate desires, 18, 137; —
has creative power, 34, 261 ; — replaces instinct, 39; —
must restrict sexual urge, 40; — must control the senses, 50;
— should prepare way for spirituality, 50; — is chained to
matter, 168; concrete — is neglected in Orient, 284; — is not
tangible, 302.

Mineral kingdom, 11, 39, 168.

Miscarriage, 86.

Moderation: doctrine of —, 19; — an excuse for weaknesses,

19, US

Modern ascetic, 140-142.

Modern philosophy, 231-234.

Modernistic sophistry, 236-238.

Mohammedans, 201-203.

Moon: controls generation, 260.

Morality: supreme —, 165-166;

sexual —7, 152, 153; asceticism necessary for —, 137;

preparation for —, 169; — cannot be legislated, 169.

Motive power: spiritual aspiration a stronger — than desire,

43.

Muscles: overdeveloped — no aid to evolution, 10; organs of

generation are not — but glands, 119

Mysteries: ancient —, 245-247.

Mysticism, 194-196; 231.

Mystic marriage, 74.

Mystics: 194*196; 55. 74 , 99 ' ! — of Islam, 201, 202.

Mythology, 239-243.

Narcotics, 19, 20, 57, 81, m. Necessity: notion of —, 116-

117. Nervous system: 15; strain on —, 107; irritation of —,
128; — benefits by continence, 130. Neuroses, 128-130; 82,
150. Nirvana, 202, 215, 216.

Normalcy: sexual —>, 110-112. Normalization: of sexuality,

120. Nutrition, 93-95

Oblivion : pleasure is momentary —,

Occultism, 286-289.

Oneness: 321-922; reality of —, 27; evolution aims at —, 51

; reflection of —, 77; knowledge of —, 162; passive and
active

—, 284; consciousness of —, 319

One-sided development, 10, 55, 196, 283.

Organs: vestigial —, 73, 148; generative —, 93, 98, 119,

324;

— of regeneration, 298, 299, 303 , 304

Orgasm, 81, 86, 104.

Outlaws, 168.

Ovaries, 96.

Overcome: serpent must be —, 1;

— as used in Bible, 189, 326. Overproduction of secretions:
of

sex glands, 96, 100, 101, 102;

— of lactic glands, 101. Oversexedness, 60, no, hi, 112,

128

Overstimulation, 41, 51, 60, 94, 111,

119, ISO, 128, 129, 137, 150,

* 73

Pain: follows pleasure, 48; — is caused by desire, 43.

Parenthood: longing for —, 70, 76.

Parents: sacrifice by —, 85.

Parsifal, 295.

Passion: leads to unhappiness, 43; — is distortion of love,

78; — during coitus, 85; — is forbidden to magus, 279; —
suppresses faculties of soul, 288.

Passions: must perish, 8, 44, 298, 329; — are excited by

mind and senses, 50; — prevent spiritual knowledge, 52,
265, 288; — during sleep. 104; — impede happiness, 108;
control of —, 156; Yoga requires subdual of —, 283.

Paternity: chastity of —, 154.

Path of perfection, 290-291.

Pathology: 124-125; no — in continence, 132.

Patriarchy, 152.

Perfect celibacy, 143-144; 146.

Perfection: 12, 163, 160, 190, 193, 2 i 3 » 217, 257 , 3 ° 9 »

3io, 311 ; path of —, 290-291.

Perpetual fires, 181, 182.

Personality: intensified by pleasure, 47; — is strengthened

by selfgratification, 32a; — opposes spirit, 47, 65; undue
wants of —, 64; self-effacement of —, 322.

Persuasion: methods of —, 150.

Perversion: 107-109; — of sexual impulse, 40, 94; — of nutri

tion, 94; — compared with crime, 108-109; effect of — on

offspring, 107; pathologic results of —, 108; psychic effect of
—, 108.

Phallic serpent, 2.

Philosophers: 55; — abstain from pleasures, 47 ; Hebrew —•,

205 ; hermetic —, 254.

Philosophy: Indian —, 217-219 ; Chinese —, 220-221 ; Greek

and Roman —, 222-228; modem —, 231-234; ascetic ideal
and —, 234.

Physiological dilemma, 100-102.

Pleasure: 46-48; — of the senses rejected by the wise, 53;

carnal

— is at war with intellect, 61 ;

— is intermingled with nature’s needs, 94.

Polarity: law of —, 27; sex is a manifestation of —, 32.

Poles: opposite —, 27, 48.

Popular opinion, 135-130; 163.

Pregnancy: abstinence during —,

86, 87, 172.

Premature sexual expression, 89, 90,

« . 9K

Pnests: celibacy of —•, 179-180; 176, 177, 209.

Primitive races, 171-173; 175-178; 168, 279, 280.

Progenitors: sensualism of —, 84; tainted —, 108.

Progress: human — must be willed, 12, 17; evolutionary —

demands reduction of sexual activity, 17.

Prolactin, 86.

Promiscuity, 85, 124, 171.

Propagation: not everybody’s duty, 146; careless —, 325 ;

intended —> 85, 87 ; — without sensual desire, 120.

Prostitution, 7, 107.

Psychic centers in body, 302, 303. Psychism, 275-277; 268.

Psychoanalysts, 103, 128.

Psycho-sophistry, 150.
Purification: need of, 165, 203, 231, 250, 261, 262, 266,
268, 269, 284, 310, 326, 330, 331, 332; — m the Mysteries,
245, 246.

Purity: the secret of spirituality, 3, 28 ; — and health, 123; —

a religious prerequisite, 175, 179, 188; — demanded by laws
of attainment, 287, 301 ; — necessary for regeneration, 299;
— essential to quicken evolution, 3°4> 33°; — protects
against

evil influences, 280; — brings consciousness of immortality,

329; — leads to holiness, 205;

— of early Christians, 191, —

of mystics, 194, 195; — of Rosicrucians, 252; — of

philosophers, 234; — taught by Christian Science, 198, 199,

200; — required for study of Vedas, 211 ; — proclaimed by

Buddhism, 214; — needed for the Tao, 220, 221 ; inward —,
122; — for healers, 199;

man’s —, 154; equal —, 154;

— of innocence, 293; ideal of

_ 331 , 332 .

Purpose of sex: 36-38; secondary —» 37 , 38, 77 .

Race suicide, 145-146.

ReabBorption of semen, 100-102; 257.

Rebirth, 267-269; 144, 190, 271.

Recuperativeness, 101, 122. Regeneration: 397-299; 97 ,

98, 153, 208; — is object of Freemasonry, 248, 249; — is
taught by Rosicrucians, 251 ; — is aim of alchemists, 257; —
is opposed by generation, 261, 299 ; organs of — are alike in
woman and man, 298-299.

Reincarnation: see Rebirth.

Religion: 175, 179; aboriginal —, i 75 - f 78 ; — of ancient

Egypt, 208-209.

Repression, 128, 138, 265.

Reproduction: slows down as evolution proceeds, 15-16; —

is not creation, 33; methods of —, 38, 37; new method of —,
* 48 , 3 i 1.

Reproductive fluids: 98, 101 ; nonformation of —, 102.

Reproductive system: the reservoir of vital energy, 301 ; —

is connected with brain, 90, 91,

304.

Reptiles, 15.

Restraint, 84, 153, 157, 162, 173

Retribution, 271-273; 5, 81, 112, 170.

Revolt: of woman, 153; — of youth, 156; premature —, 157.

Rights: equal —, 150, 154.

Roman philosophy, 222-228.

Rosicrucians, 251-253.

Sacerdotal celibacy, 179-180.

Sacrifice: for sake of child, 84; no

— in asceticism, 141-142. Sacrificial element in reproductive

act, 38, 70, 93, 98, 315Saliva: flow of —, 101.

Salvation: woman's —, 154; mankind’s —, 332 ; purity a

means of —, 188.

Satiety: sexual —, 75, 77.

Savages, 171-173 ; 90, 279.

Saviors: born from virgins, 184; — have crushed the serpent,

240. Science, 168, 231, 271, 301. Scientists, 10, 55.

Season of rut, 17, 39, 40, 121. Secretions: 96-99 ; — of sex

glands, 70, 100-102 ; overproduction of

—»96.

Seed: is storage battery of life force, 17; faultless — is

required, 85; — is affected by abuse of sex, 121-122, 325; —
in alchemical process, 256; waste of — must be stopped for
regeneration, 299; saving

— leads to perfection, 190. Self-delusion: pleasure is —, 46.

Self-preservation, 93, 121, 139. Self-realization, 237, 265.

Senses: 50-53; ru dimental organs of —, 15; — are providers

of stimuli, 183; internal —, 275; hypnotic spell of the —,
332. Sensitives, 268, 276.

Sensuality: fostered by self-consciousness, 12; — is man

made, 41 ; — is incompatible with spirituality, 8, 30, 198,

214, 252; — coarsens body vibrations, 178 ; removal of —,
217.

Separateness: strengthened by selfgratification, 51 ;

evolution calls for dissolution of —, 179; fading of —, 322.

Serpent: 1-3; uncoiling the —, 2, 3 ,. 249 , 301 - 305 , 316;

— of evil, 2; — of good, 2 ; coiled —■, 2, 240, 242, 302 ;
encoiling —, 2, 240, 241 ; phallic —, 2;

— in dreams, 104; — in mythology, 239-243; — in Book of

the Dead, 209; — in Yoga manuals, 282; command over

— makes magus, 279; temptation by —, 206; — is symbol of

sexual passion, 206; — is considered an ant, 243;
accomplices of —, 236; — pur

sues spiritual idea, 198, 199;

— prevents pure joy, 243; — has poisoned source of life,

325; — brought death, 324;

— defrauds humanity, 328; — would devour the world, 78,

192; — must be overcome, 1, 194 .

Serpent-fire, 249, 250, 302, 304.

Sex: principle of —, 32-34; purpose of —, 36-38; love versus

—* 76-78; — and nutrition, 93-95; — and crime, 160;
domineering influence of —, 2 ; humanity plays with —, 4;

— is too prominent, 94; — exists only in the body, 33; — is a

temporary factor. 33; — is antagonistic to intellect, 59;

— is a problem to be solved by mankind, 311; — must be

transcended, 74; — will become obsolete, 311 ; rising above
—, 322.
Sex-addicts: present generation is one of —, 7; — compared
with dope-addicts, 19-20.

Sexes: separation into —, 37, 38, 260, 262, 324;

interdependence of —, 37

Sexual abuses: 7, 12, 145-148; addiction of humanity to —,

36.

Sexual act: human — is not in* stinctive, 39, 40.

Sexual activity: evolutionary progress demands reduction of

—, 17; — suppresses inspiration, 56, 58; — is usuall
perverse, i°7 ? 159, 273; — impedes spiritual development,
265.

Sexual behavior: is not one’s private affair, 163, 164.

Sexual impulse: strength of — not due to instinct, 40; — in

origin is almost negligible, 18, 173; intensity of — is caused
by overstimulation, 41 ; — was strengthened in former
incarnations, 268; — is not insuperable, 112; — can easily
be reduced, 233.

Sexual normalcy, 110-112.

Sexual opportunity: relation between culture and —, 173,

238, 33 i

Sexual precocity, 87, 159.

Single standard, 152-154.

Sleep, 104.

Small talk: life force lost in —, 61.

Social reform, 310-311.

Sophistry: modernistic —, 230-238.

Soul: is individualized spirit, 30, 74; we are a — using a

body, 30; — is sexless, 33, 74 j — 15 more important than
body,2 24.

Soul-mates, 73 * 75 - , , . .

Spermatozoon: can be replaced by chemical agent, 34.

Sperm-overloading: frequent cause of sterility, 82.

Spinal canal, 91.

Spinal column, 2, 249, 302.

Spinal cord, 15, 3 ° 3

Spirit: versus matter, 27-28; embodied —, 29-31 ; evolution

builds instruments for —, 11 5 essentially we are —, 30, 33,

328

Spiritual birth, 298.

Spirit u al man: is disconnected from sex, 33, 63; — is the

real individuality, 298; — is aware of absolute truth, 318.

Spiritual powers, 4, 52, 53 » 297*

3 i6 » 3 * 9 » 333 - . .

Spiritual uniolament: 63-65; joys of —, 5; — makes man nse

above sexual games, 5; — is hindered by present
civilization, 10. 11 ; — is impeded by sexual activity, 265; —
demands perfect purity, 301.
Spirituality: a factor of evolutionary attainment, 3; — is
beyond intellectual comprehension, 63; purity is secret of —.
3; relation between — and sensuality 8; — must be prepared
by mind. 50; — defined, 03; emotional exuberance mistaken
for

—» 276.

Spiritualization: process of —, 150* 325; — is man’s task,

166; religion is a means of —, 1 79 J all methods of —
demand chastity, 282.

Standard: single—, 152-154; double —, 152; moral —, 165.

Sterility, 82.

Stone: philosopher’s —, 255.

Sublimation, 23 7 > 255, 256.

Subnormal: mankind is —, 4.

Sufis, 201, 202, 291.

Suicide: racial —, 145*148; spiritual —, 166.

Sun-worship, 182.

Superhumanity, 12, 146.

Supermen, 313-316.

Superstition, 1 77

Supreme morality, 165-166.

Symbolism: of serpent, 2, 239-243 ; masonic —, 248-2491

hermetic —» 254; astrological —, 260262; — of sword, 239;
— of spear, 239; — of king’s daughter, 240; — of sleeping
maiden, 240.

Syphilis, 124, 125.

Taboos, 171-173; 9 °» 188.

Tao, 220, 221, 248, 291. Temptations: tests and —, 293-295

; worldly —, 140; — by serpent, 206; — fall away, 142.

Testes, 97 Theosophy, 264-266.

Thought-forms, 160.

Thoughts: erotic —, 91, 104, 105, 160; — shape dreams,

104, 105; control of —, 105; chastity in —, 122; impurity of

—> 1 29.

Toys: men cling to desires as children to —, 4, 43.

Transmutation, 21, 247, 251, 254257, 261, 282, 291, 316,
329. Treasure: dragon-guarded —, 239243

Uncoiling the serpent, 301-305; 2,

Unfolding of spirit, 63-65.

Union: of soul with spirit, 74; mystic —■, 194; — with higher
self, 240, 265; symbol of real

Unisexuality: why — was developed, 37.

Unreproductive sexual acts: a misuse of sex, 18, 107; — are

unethical, 164; — are not based on love, 77; — are not in
harmony with nature, 36; — paralyze spiritual faculties, 82;
— frustrate evolution, 38; — in marriage, 68, 69, 70; rising
above —, 151.
Utopia, 91, 310-311.

Vedas, 211, 290.

Vegetable kingdom, 11, 39, 50, 168, 313

Vegetarianism, 204.

Venereal diseases: 124-126; epi

demies of —, 7

Vestal virgins, 181-183.

Vestigial organs, 73 > * 4 ®* 3 11

* f5 brations: of spirit and matter, 98, 99; — of body, 31 :

ranges of —, 52; — of health, 199; spiritual —, 975. 325 ;
higher — are drowned by animal nature, 248.

Virgin births, 184-186.

' 7 »rginity: of prospective parents, 83 ; transcendental

value of —, 181, 182; — as ideal of sanctity, 204; — of
Rosicrucians, 252.

Virgins: vestal —, 181-183; Bible concerning —, 188; — of

both sexes, 191.

Virility, 119-120; 116.

Volition: controls all human acts, 40.

Weeping, 119.

Will: need of —, 70, 105* 112, 122,

266; weakness of —, 129; — is fortified by continence, 130 ;

— is strengthened by asceticism, 138; Schopenhauer’s — to
live, 233-234; — is symbolized by sword or spear, 25*9.

Wisdom: moral —. 136; esotenc —, 245; — of the ages, 157 ;

— of Talmud, 203; — of Vedas, 211; — of Buddhists, 214;
approach to —■, 224; highest test of —■, 233; — is
hindered by passions, 232, 234, 264, 263;

— brings immortality, 328. Woman, 148-131.

Yoga, 282-284.

Yogis, 35, 286.

Youth: should conserve life force, 17; chaste — inclined to be

poetic and idealistic, 57; — as potential parents, 83; revolt
of —, 156; modern —, 157*