[PAGE 1]                                                 LETTERS TO STUDENTS


      -----------------------------------------------------------------
      M A X   H E I N D E L ' S   L E T T E R S   T O   S T U D E N T S
      -----------------------------------------------------------------

                 DECEMBER 1910 TO JANUARY 1919, INCLUSIVE



                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                         INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
                                MT. ECCLESIA
                                P.O. BOX 713
                      OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, USA






[PAGE 3]                                                   TABLE OF CONTENTS

                              TABLE OF CONTENTS

                        NUMBER AND TITLES OF LETTERS

                                                                      Page

 1.      Friendship as an Ideal......................................... 9
 2.      Soul Growth through Doing......................................11
 3.      Unselfish Service to Others....................................13
 4.      A Plea for the Church..........................................15
 5.      Value of Right Feeling.........................................16
 6.      Healing the Sick...............................................18
 7.      Baptism of Water and of Spirit.................................22
 8.      Ruling our Stars...............................................24
 9.      Invisible Guardians of Humanity................................26
10.      Flesh Food and Alcohol.........................................28
11.      Preparations for Removal to Mt. Ecclesia.......................30
12.      Ground-Breaking for First Building on Mt. Ecclesia.............32
13.      Generative Purity the Ideal for the West.......................35
14.      The Coming Age of Air..........................................37
15.      The Role of Stimulants in Evolution............................39
16.      Necessity for Devotion.........................................42
17.      Stragglers in Evolution........................................44
18.      Keynote of the Rosicrucian Teachings...........................46
19.      Sacredness of Spiritual Experiences............................48
20.      Initiative and Personal Freedom................................51
21.      The Christ Spirit and the Spiritual Panacea....................53


[PAGE 4]                                                   TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                                                      Page

22.      The Mystic Bread and Wine......................................55
23.      Descending and Ascending Ares of Evolution.....................58
24.      The Rosicrucian Fellowship, a Spiritual Center.................60
25.      The Mystic Message of Christmas................................64
26.      Service to Others during the New Year..........................67
27.      Siegfried, the Truth Seeker....................................69
28.      The Incorporation and Future Plans of the Fellowship...........72
29.      Freemasonry, Co-Masonry, and Catholicism.......................74
30.      The Role of Evil in the World..................................76
31.      Christ, and His Second Coming..................................78
32.      The Vital Body of Jesus........................................81
33.      Improving our Opportunities....................................83
34.      A Plea for Purity..............................................86
35.      The Faust Myth and the Masonic Legend..........................88
36.      Eastern and Western Methods of Development.....................90
37.      The Reason for the Many Different Cults........................92
38.      What the Pupil May Expect of the Teacher.......................94
39.      Where Shall We Seek Truth, and How Shall We Know It?...........97
40.      Why the Truth Seeker Must Live in the World....................99
41.      A Method of Discerning Truth from its Imitation...............102
42.      Our Responsibility in Giving Out Truth........................104
43.      Woman's Suffrage and Moral Equality...........................106
44.      The Vice of Selfishness and the Power of Love.................108


[PAGE 5]                                                   TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                                                      Page

45.      Initiation not to be Attained through Breathing Exercises.....110
46.      The World War and Infant Mortality............................112
47.      The Invisible Helpers and their Work on the Battle Field......115
48.      The World War and Universal Brotherhood.......................117
49.      Desire--A Two-Edged Sword.....................................120
50.      Spiritual Prosperity for the New Year.........................122
51.      Love, Wisdom, and Knowledge...................................124
52.      Concentration in the Rosicrucian Work.........................126
53.      The Cosmic Meaning of Easter..................................129
54.      Waste through Scattering one's Forces.........................131
55.      Epigenesis and Future Destiny.................................133
56.      The Need of Spreading the Teachings...........................136
57.      Astrology as an Aid in Healing the Sick.......................138
58.      Unnatural Means of Attainment.................................142
59.      The Race Spirits and the New Race.............................143
60.      The War an Operation for Spiritual Cataract...................146
61.      Cyclic Movements of the Sun...................................149
62.      The Teacher's Debt of Gratitude...............................151
63.      Spiritual Teachers--True and False............................153
64.      The Battle that Rages Within..................................156
65.      Easter, a Promise of Newness of Life..........................158
66.      Daily Exercises in Soul Culture...............................161
67.      The Real Heroes of the World..................................164
68.      The Work of the Race Spirits..................................166
69.      Struggles of the Aspiring Soul................................167
70.      Building for the Future Life..................................170
71.      Descent of the Christ Life in the Fall........................173
72.      The Reason for the Trials that Beset the Occult Student.......175


[PAGE 6]                                                   TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                                                      Page

73.      Spiritual Stock-Taking during the Holy Season.................177
74.      All Occult Development Begins with the Vital Body.............180
75.      Serving Where Best Fitted to Serve............................183
76.      "Lost Souls" and Stragglers...................................186
77.      The Unnecessary Fear of Death.................................187
78.      Heart Development and Initiation..............................190
79.      Sacrifice a Factor in Spiritual Progress......................192
80.      Adjusting the Teachings to the Understanding of Others........196
81.      The Value of Reviewing Past Lessons...........................199
82.      Taming an Unruly Member.......................................201
83.      An Inner Tribunal of Truth....................................203
84.      Epigenesis and the Law of Causation...........................206
85.      The Present Sorrow and the Coming Peace.......................208
86.      God--The Source and Goal of Existence.........................210
87.      The Necessity of Putting Talents to Use.......................213
88.      The Nobility of All Labor.....................................216
89.      The Aquarian Age and the New Covenant.........................218
90.      Meat Eating and Fur Wearing...................................221
91.      Tolerance of Other's Beliefs..................................223
92.      The Purpose of War and Our Attitude toward It.................225
93.      The Inner Power and the Responsibility that goes with It......227
94.      Equipoise of Great Help in Times of Stress....................229
95.      The Optimistic Attitude and Faith in Ultimate Good............231
96.      Increasing the Life of the Archetype..........................234
97.      The Law of Success in Spiritual Matters.......................236


[PAGE 7]                                                 LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                                  FOREWORD

   For  eight years Max Heindel,  the mystic and occultist sent out  to  the
students of The Rosicrucian Fellowship a letter each month filled with  much
valuable information,  explaining the cause of many of the difficulties  oc-
curring in daily life,  not only of individuals but of nations as well,  and
giving a feasible solution of them.  These letters,  ninety-seven in number,
sent  out between Christmas 1910 and January 1919,  constitute  the  subject
matter of this book.

   Being  the authorized messenger of the Brothers of the Rosicrucian  Order
and consequently in close touch with them, Mr.  Heindel was continuously re-
ceiving  and giving out occult information to his students relative  to  the
past,  present,  and future evolution of life and form,  which on account of
his tutelage under the Brothers of the Order he was able to verify for  him-
self and to which he was able to add many details.  The letters in this book
give  many  side lights on the Rosicrucian philosophy  and  many  practical,
helpful hints for living the life of the Christian mystic.

   In  many of these letters there is a reference to  accompanying  lessons.
Each letter was accompanied by a lesson in pamphlet form.   The greater part
of these lessons have already been published in book form, and are available
for reference by readers of this book.   The volumes of lessons published to
date are as follows:  FREEMASONRY  AND  CATHOLICISM;  THE  WEB  OF  DESTINY;


[PAGE 8]                                                 LETTERS TO STUDENTS

MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS; THE MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION OF CHRISTMAS; AND
GLEAMINGS OF A MYSTIC.   The lessons not already published will appear later
in a second volume of GLEAMINGS OF A MYSTIC.   The readers of these  letters
will obtain much more from them if they will consult the corresponding  les-
sons as they proceed.

   In giving these letters to the world we feel that we are making a contri-
bution of permanent value and importance,  and one from which the student of
esotericism will obtain much assistance in his progress on the Path.


[PAGE 9]                                                 LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                                LETTER NO. 1

                               Christmas, 1910

                            FRIENDSHIP AS AN IDEAL

   In  a religious movement it is customary to address one another as  "sis-
ter"  and "brother,"  in recognition of the fact that we are all children of
God,  who is our common Father.   Brothers and sisters are not harmonious at
all times,  however.   Sometimes they are even misguided enough to hate  one
another, but between friends there can be no feeling but love.

   It  was a recognition of this fact which prompted the Christ,  our  great
and  glorious Ideal,  to say to His disciples:   "Henceforth I call you  not
servants.  .  . .but friends." (John 15:15)  We cannot do better than follow
our  great Leader in this as in all other things.   Let us,  therefore,  not
merely be content with the fraternal relationship, but let us endeavor to be
friends in the very holiest and most intimate sense of the word.

   The  Elder Brothers,  whose beautiful teachings have brought us  together
upon  the  Way of Attainment,  honor their disciples in the  same  way  that
Christ honored His apostles,  namely,  by giving them the name of  "friend."
If  you persist in the way upon which you have started,  you  will  sometime
stand in their presence and hear that name  utters  in  a  voice so soft, so


[PAGE 10]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

kind,  and so gentle that it beggars description or even imagination.   From
that  time  there  will be no task you would not  perform  to  deserve  that
friendship.   It will be your one wish, your one aspiration,  to serve them,
and  no  earthly  distinction will appear worthy  of  comparison  with  that
friendship.

   Upon my unworthy shoulders has fallen the great privilege of transmitting
the teachings of the Elder Brothers to the public in general and to the stu-
dents,  probationers,  and disciples of the Rosicrucian Fellowship  in  par-
ticular.   You have requested that your name be placed on my  correspondence
list,  and I gladly extend to you the right hand of fellowship, greeting you
by the name of FRIEND.   I appreciate the trust you repose in me,  and I as-
sure  you that I shall endeavor to aid you in every way within my  power  to
deserve your trust.   I hope that you will also aid me in my work for  your-
self  and others by a charitable judgment of any shortcomings you  may  dis-
cover in me or in my writings.   None need the prayers of others so much  as
one who must be a leader.

   Please remember me in your devotions,  and be assured that you shall have
a place in mine.

   I  enclose the first lesson in the hope that the foregoing may  establish
our relations upon a footing of sincere friendship.


[PAGE 11]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                                LETTER NO. 2

                               February, 1911

                          SOUL GROWTH THROUGH DOING

   I  hope  that you thoroughly studied the Christmas lesson and  are  thor-
oughly  familiar  with the phenomenon of the spiritual ebb and flow  in  the
universe  so that you will be able to give a reason for your faith in  "holy
Night."  In this month's lesson the idea is carried to a further conclusion,
not  previously taught publicly.   There are other teachings in this  little
lesson which shed a clearer light upon the immaculate mystery-birth than has
ever been given before,  and I hope that you will diligently study it during
the coming month so that you may realize to the full the transcendent beauty
of the sublime Rosicrucian teaching on this subject.

   But  whether you have studied the Christmas lesson and are able  to  dis-
course  upon the spiritual ebb and flow or whether you will be able  to  ex-
pound  the Immaculate Conception at the end of this month is after all  sec-
ondary in importance to what you answer to the following question:   Did you
take  advantage of the flood tide of spirituality at Christmas to  seek  out
some one in distress as suggested in the last paragraph of the lesson?   Did
you put it to practical use in the world's work?   I hope you did,  for only



[PAGE 12]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

as we practice the teachings in our immediate circle of influence will  they
bear fruit in soul growth.  We may read till we get mental indigestion,  but
actions speak louder than words.  Also there is a bad place said to be paved
with good intentions.   Therefore, dear friend, let me urge upon you the ne-
cessity of doing! doing! doing!

   Often we see in the home,  office, shop,  or assembly room that a certain
things  ought to be done.   But the attitude of the man of the world  is  to
shirk.  He turns away saying:  Why should I do it?  Let some one else attend
to  it.   We should reason differently, however.   We should  not  plan  how
little  we can do.   If so we are not fitting ourselves to become  Invisible
Helpers.   If we see that a task has to be performed,  we should say to our-
selves:  Some one will have to do that; WHY NOT I?

   In this coming month dear friend, let us take as a spiritual exercise the
following  of this motto,  "Why not !?"   If we follow it  consistently,  we
shall reap a greater blessing than we confer upon others.

   May God abundantly bless you and strengthen you in your efforts.


[PAGE 13]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                                LETTER NO. 3

                                 March, 1911

                         UNSELFISH SERVICE TO OTHERS

   You  have of course studied in some measure the various teachings of  the
Rosicrucian Order,  and when I address myself to you, it is not as if I were
speaking to a stranger who is unfamiliar with the teachings or perhaps  even
skeptical  of the existence of such an Order.   These teachings have  spread
like  wildfire in the Western world during the past two years,  and that  of
itself  shows a power behind them which is not of the ordinary  human  kind.
This you will probably realize better when you have read the lesson for this
month,  which deals with this mysterious Order and shows it relation to  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship.

   Has it ever occured to you to inquire, my dear friend,  what binds you to
this Fellowship?   You know there are not outward bonds, that you have taken
no  oath of allegiance,  and that you have not been intrusted with  any  se-
crets.  What then constitutes the Fellowship of which we speak?

   It cannot be the teachings,  for they are open to the whole world and are
assented  to  by many who have not requested that they be enrolled  as  stu-
dents.   Neither is it the enrollment as a student which creates  the  inner
bond, for many study only to benefit THEMSELVES and have not fellowship with


[PAGE 14]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

the rest of us.  Rather, it is the SERVICE which we perform and the earnest-
ness  wherewith we practice the teachings and become living examples to  the
world  of  that brotherly love which Christ spoke of as fulfillment  of  all
commandments.

   Last month we took for our motto the thought that if a certain task  were
to be performed which seemingly belonged to no one in particular,  we  would
say,  "Why not I?" instead of letting some one else do it or letting it lie.
I trust you have performed this unselfish service often,  and thus  cemented
the bonds of fellowship.

   In  this coming month I would ask you to give your thoughts and your  ef-
forts  to advance the teachings of the Fellowship.   Do not attempt to  con-
vince  any one against his will or to proselyte,  but try to find out in  an
unostentatious  manner what bothers your neighbor in a spiritual way.   Then
try  to  help him with our teachings.  But whether you say anything  to  him
about  where  you received them or not must depend upon your  own  judgment.
The main thing is to spread the teachings,  not to advertise the Rosicrucian
Fellowship.


[PAGE 15]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                                LETTER NO. 4

                                April, 1911

                            A PLEA FOR THE CHURCH

   Last  month I promised to take up further elucidation of the  Rosicrucian
Order  and its relation to the Fellowship, but I forgot that Easter  was  at
hand  and would require attention first.   I hope you will agree that it  is
more important to study this great cosmic event,  particularly as we live in
a  Christian  land and,  I hope,  are Christians at heart.   In  fact,  dear
friend,  the keynote of what I would bring out this month is really  A  PLEA
FOR  THE  CHURCH,  and it is with that end in view that I have  printed  the
poem, "Creed or Christ?" at the end of the lesson.

   We are all Christ in the making,  the love nature is unfolding in us all,
and  why should we not identify ourselves with one or another of the  Chris-
tian churches which cherish the Christ ideal?   Some of the best workers  in
the Fellowship are members, yes, and ministers, of churches.   Many are hun-
gry for what we feed upon.   WE cannot share it with them by standing aloof,
and  we do ourselves harm by neglecting to take advantage of the  great  op-
portunity to aid in elevating the church.

   Of course there is no compulsion.  You are not REQUIRED to join or attend
a church, but if you do go there in the spirit of helpfulness, I can promise


[PAGE 16]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

you  that you will experience a most wonderful soul growth in a  very  short
time.  The great Recording Angels, who give to each nation the religion best
suited to its needs,  placed us in a Christian land,  because the  Christian
religion  will help us in soul growth.  Even admitting that it has been  ob-
scured by creed and  dogma, we should not let that prevent us from accepting
those teachings which are good,  for  that  would be as foolish as to center
our attention upon the spots in  the  sun  and  refuse  to  see its glorious
light.

   Please think this matter over, dear friend, and let us take for our motto
this month,  GREATER USEFULNESS,  that we may grow abundantly by striving to
improve our opportunities.


                                LETTER NO. 5

                                  May, 1911

                           VALUE OF RIGHT FEELING

   I  hope  you  enjoyed last month's lesson.   Perhaps you  will  think  it
strange,  but I have fairly reveled in it myself, for it aroused by devotion
most  powerfully to think how the Divine Life pours itself out for us  peri-
odically so that we may have more abundant life.  Without that annual influx
of God's life,  all life,  or rather form,  would cease to exist.   It is by
FEELING the higher emotions that we raise ourselves the easiest.  It is good
to study and to develop our minds,  but there is a great danger in this  age
of becoming ensnared in the meshes of intellect.  Paul  struck  the  nail on


[PAGE 17]                                             VALUE OF RIGHT FEELING

the head when he said:  "Knowledge puffeth up,  but love edifieth."   We all
wish to KNOW;  it is natural that we should, but unless our knowledge serves
to make us better men and women, better SERVANTS to our fellows, it does not
make us GREATER in the sight of God.  Therefore cultivation of RIGHT FEELING
is of enormous importance,  and I sincerely hope that you have FELT the Eas-
ter lesson for that is the only way to get full benefit from it.

   Picture  to yourself that great wave of divine energy projected from  the
Invisible Sun which is the manifestation of the Father.  Try to feel the awe
you would experience if you could see it,  as the trained seer can and does.
Watch it in imagination as it strikes the earth on Holy Night at  Christmas.
Let  the feeling work upon you about the way it sinks into the earth and  is
the active cause of the germination in all kingdoms.  Christ used the simile
of  the brooding hen to describe His feelings towards other beings,  and  if
you  try to FEEL the sprouting of all things in nature as indicated  in  our
Easter lesson, you will realize a side of the subject which may have escaped
you.

   I hope that you will long use this lesson as material for mediation as it
is different from one of the intellectual lessons that may be grasped by the
mind and put aside.  This lesson is of PERMANENT VALUE,  and the oftener you
take it up and let it work upon your heart.  the more closely you will  come
to THE HEART OF THINGS,  which is God, the great and loving Father who pours
out His life alike for the tiniest plant and the tallest monarch of the for-
est; who cares for beast and bird,  for the outcast and homeless rover,  and


[PAGE 18]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

for the royal potentate in his palace, without discrimination.

   May  God  abundantly bless you and open up to you the storehouse  of  His
riches,  which surpass all earthly enjoyments,  and may you FEEL the wave of
love  which  He pours out afresh from year to year as a reality.   Then  you
will never be lonely if you are alone, and you will be, oh!  so much richer,
no matter how much you are blessed with earthly love,  and so much more able
to radiate that most sublime of all emotions, Spiritual Love.


                                LETTER NO. 6

                                 June, 1911

                              HEALING THE SICK

   Christ gave two commands to His disciples when He said:  "PREACH THE GOS-
PEL,  AND HEAL THE SICK."  We saw in last month's lesson how closely the of-
fice  of spiritual advisor is linked with healing of physical ailments,  for
though the immediate and apparent cause of disease may be physical,  in  the
final  analysis  all ailments are due to transgression of the LAWS  OF  GOD,
which  we  usually call "LAWS OF NATURE"  in our materialistic  attempts  to
eliminate the Divine.   Bacon, with rare spiritual perception,  said:   "God
and  Nature differ only as the seal and the imprint."   As flexible  sealing
wax is molded to the rigid lines of the seal,  so also nature passively con-
forms  to the immutable laws of its Divine Creator,  and thus health  and  a
carefree  condition  are  the  rule  among the lower kingdoms.  But when the


[PAGE 19]                                                   HEALING THE SICK

human stage is reached, when individuality is evolved and we begin to demand
choice,  prerogative, and emancipation, we are apt to transgress the laws of
God, and suffering invariable follows.

   There is a side of the moon which we never see,  but we know it is there,
and  that hidden side of the moon is just as much a factor in  creating  the
tides as the part of the moon which is nearest to us and visible.   So there
is  also  a  hidden  side to man which is as productive  of  action  as  the
physical being we behold.  Transgressions of divine laws upon the mental and
moral  planes of action are quite as responsible for physical  disorders  as
the hidden side of the moon is effective in producing the tides.

   If the above were understood,  physicians would no longer puzzle over the
annoying fact that while a certain kind and quantity of medicine produces  a
cure in one cause, it may be absolutely impotent in others.  A large and in-
creasing number of medical men are now convinced that the LAW OF DESTINY  is
an important factor in producing disease and retarding recover,  though they
are not believers in the fallacy of an inexorable fate.  They recognize that
GOD DOES NOT WILLINGLY AFFLICT US NOR AIM TO GET EVEN WITH THE TRANSGRESSOR;
they understand that all sorrow and suffering are designed to teach us  les-
sons which we would not or could not learn in any other way.  The stars show
the period estimated as requisite to teach us the lesson,  but EVEN GOD CAN-
NOT DETERMINE THE EXACT TIME not the amount of suffering necessary; we, our-
selves,  have a prerogative,  FOR WE ARE DIVINE.   If we awake to our trans-
gression and commence to obey the law ere the stellar affliction ceases,  we


[PAGE 20]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

are cured of our mental, moral, or physical distemper;  if we persist to the
end of one stellar affliction without having learned our lesson,  a more in-
imical configuration will enforce obedience at a later time.

   It is in this connection that the spiritually minded health adjuster  may
often  render most efficient service and shorten the period of suffering  by
pointing out to a sufferer why he is afflicted.   Even when the healer finds
himself  unable to cope with the disease, he may very often cheer a  patient
through a period of unavoidable distress by a promise of relief at a certain
time.  In my ministrations to the sick during bygone years it has not infre-
quently been my privilege to thus point out the Star of Hope, and, so far as
I  remember,  my  predictions of recovery at a set  time  have  always  been
verified,  sometimes in an almost miraculous manner,  for THE STARS ARE  THE
CLOCK OF DESTINY AND ARE ALWAYS CORRECT.

   In the above you have the great reason why we should study astrology from
the spiritual standpoint.   In next month's letter I hope to bring out some-
thing more definite concerning the Spiritual Panacea,  but in the meantime I
am  sure  you will be glad to know that we have bought the land of  which  I
spoke.   It is one of the sightliest spots in beautiful southern California;
in fact, though I have traveled all over the world, I have never seen a view
to compare with that of the site of our future Headquarters.  It is situated
upon  a high tableland,  giving free scope to the vision for forty  or  more
miles  in all directions.   On the north the Santa Ana Mountain Range  wards
off the cold north winds so that the climate is  practically  frostless  all


[PAGE 21]                                                   HEALING THE SICK

the year round.   Below us to the east is the beautiful San Luis Rey Valley,
with its river like a silver band wending it way through fertile fields past
the historic old Spanish Mission where the Franciscan Fathers taught the In-
dians  for centuries.   Farther eastward the San Jacinto mountain rears  its
snow-capped peak against a sky of deepest azure.   In the south the  promon-
tory  of La Jolla,  with its picturesque caves,  hides from view  the  great
natural harbor of Uncle Sam's southwesternmost city--San Diego.  Towards the
setting  sun  we  behold upon the placid bosom of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  San
Clemente Island, also Santa Catalina with its wonderful submarine gardens--a
composite  picture of glory and inspiration,  in itself sufficient to  evoke
all that is purest and best in any one at all spiritually inclined.

   We have named this beauty spot of nature, "Mt. Ecclesia,"  and a building
fund  has  already been started to erect suitable buildings:   a  School  of
Healing,  a  Sanitarium,  and last but not least,  a  place  of  worship--an
Ecclesia,  where the Spiritual Panacea may be prepared and sent all over the
world to be used by properly qualified helpers.



[PAGE 22]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                                LETTER NO. 7

                                 July, 1911

                       BAPTISM OF WATER AND OF SPIRIT

   Last month we started to consider the sacraments, and it was my intention
to write upon COMMUNION this month,  but the subject has proved so vast that
it takes in almost everything from Genesis to Revelation,  besides a  number
of  physiological aspects such as the chemistry of good and the blood;  also
the atmosphere,  etc.   Further, it is inseparably connected with the second
coming of Christ.   It will require more time than I can give to get it  out
early in the month, also it will cover several lessons.  Therefore I thought
it best not to use that subject until next month, and in the meantime I have
decided  to give you a lesson from the new book--THE ROSICRUCIAN  MYSTERIES.
This  lesson  is  partly taken from the chapter entitled,  "The  Mystery  of
Light, Color, and Consciousness."  You will find it most interesting and in-
structive.

   Regarding last month's lesson on BAPTISM, you will have noted that so far
from  being  only an outgrowth of the dogmatism commonly attributed  to  the
church,  it  is the symbol of condition which actually existed in  the  past
when humanity was indeed a brotherhood.   It is a fact of the greatest  sig-
nificance that until the time of Christ,  the LAW demanded an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth,  but ere He commenced to preach the gospel of  LOVE


[PAGE 23]                                     BAPTISM OF WATER AND OF SPIRIT

to  our neighbor and forgiveness towards those who trespass against  us,  He
went  under the Waters of Baptism, and there received the Universal  Spirit,
which will supplant the egoism of today.

   Thus  He became filled with love,  and therefore NATURALLY radiated  that
quality, as naturally as a stove filled with burning coal radiates heat.  We
may preach to the stove forever that its duty is to heat, but until we  fill
it with fuel, it will remain cold.  Likewise, we may preach to humanity that
we ought to be brothers and love one another, but until we put ourselves "IN
TUNE  WITH THE INFINITE,"  we can no more love our neighbor than  the  empty
stove can heat.   As Paul says,  "Though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angles,  and have not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass,  or a tinkling
cymbal."

   THE  BAPTISM OF WATER refers to a past condition when we  were  irrespon-
sible  as the child we take to church today,  but THE BAPTISM OF  SPIRIT  is
something yet in the future for most of us,  and it is this for which we are
striving.   Let us pay particular attention to the thirteenth chapter of 1st
Corinthians  during this coming month.   Let us endeavor to practice in  our
daily  lives at least one of the virtues which Paul says lead  to  illumina-
tion,  so that we may soon fit ourselves to see face to face the beauties of
the sacraments, which perhaps are now but dimly perceived as through a dark-
ened glass.


[PAGE 24]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                                LETTER NO. 8

                                August, 1911

                              RULING OUR STARS

   I  hope you enjoyed last month's lesson on "The Mystery of  Light,  Color
and  Consciousness,"  and that you now have a more thorough  realization  of
what is meant by the saying,  "In Him we live and move and have our  being,"
for everywhere,  throughout the whole universe,  wherever light  penetrates,
there God also is.   Even in the places which WE call dark because the  con-
stitution of our eyes prevents perception of objects there, organs of vision
differently constituted can function as exemplified in the instance of  cats
and owls.

   Christ said,  "Let your light shine."  To the spiritual vision each human
being  appears  as a flame of light,  variously colored  according  to  tem-
perament, and or greater or less brilliancy in proportion to purity of char-
acter.   Science has discovered that all matter is in a state of flux,  that
the particles which compose our bodies continually decay and are  eliminated
from the system,  to be replaced by others which remain for a short time un-
til they also decompose.  Likewise our moods,  emotions,  and desires change
with every passing moment,  the old giving place to the new in an interminal


[PAGE 25]                                                   RULING OUR STARS

succession.   Therefore, they also must be composed of matter and subject to
laws similar to those which govern visible physical substances.

   We even can,  and do,  change our mind; we can cultivate it in one direc-
tion or another as we please,  just as we can develop the muscles of arm  or
limb,  or we can allow the member to atrophy.   Therefore the mind also must
be  composed  of a changeable substance.  But the ego,  the  Thinker,  never
loses its "I"-dentity.   In both childhood and old age that "I"  remains the
same regardless of changes in thoughts,  feelings,  emotions,  and  desires.
Though the body,  which we use as a garment, changes with the passing years,
WE are eternally and everlasting the same.

   The quality of mutability of matter and evanescence of form is the  basis
of all spiritual progress,  however, for it matter were immutable as spirit,
there would be no possibility of advancement.  So long as we drift with  the
tide  of life and do not consciously control the ebb and flow of  matter  to
and from our being,  we are the sport of circumstances.   Then when a ray of
Mars is projected at a certain angle to the atoms of our body,  we feel  all
the aggressiveness which it carries.   A Saturnian beam,  on the other hand,
brings us depression;  it fills us with gloom and fearful forebodings.   But
as we evolve and arrive at an understanding of the MYSTERY OF LIGHT,  COLOR,
AND CONSCIOUSNESS, we gradually learn to rule our stars.  Then by conformity
to the laws of nature we become masters of our own destiny; and it is of vi-
tal importance that no matter what the aspects which may rule at any certain


[PAGE 26]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

time we should always assert ourselves and say:

   "It matters not how strait the gate,
   How charged with punishments the scroll,
   'I' am the master of my fate;
   'I' am the captain of my soul."




                                LETTER NO. 9

                              September, 1911.

                       Invisible Guardians of Humanity

   You saw in the lesson,  on Baptism, how we went back to the earliest days
of  evolution  upon our planet to find the significance of  that  sacrament.
You will have noticed also in last month's lesson how the Sacrament of  Com-
munion has its root in the beginning of time.   Thus it is apparent that un-
less we are capable of investigating the past history of the human race,  we
can  obtain no clear conception concerning anything connected with  mankind.
Goethe spoke of "DAS EWIG WERDENDE"-the ever becoming.   Change is the main-
spring of progression, and if we look upon man AS HE IS NOW,  without regard
to  what he has been,  our deductions as to his future must  necessarily  be
very limited.

   The last lesson illustrates the Law of Analogy,  showing how man was fos-
tered  by Divine Guardians in a manner similar to that in which  the  little
child is care for by its parents to prepare it for the battle of  life;  and


[PAGE 27]                                    INVISIBLE GUARDIANS OF HUMANITY

we may be sure that though these guardians have withdrawn from VISIBLE lead-
ership,  they  are still with us and keep a watchful eye upon  their  former
wards,  just as we who are parents continue to take an interest in the  wel-
fare  of our children after they have left our hearth and home to fight  the
battle of life for themselves.

   When  we have had our spiritual eyes opened and have learned  to  distin-
guish the various classes of beings in the higher realms,  that guardianship
is one of the most reassuring facts to the observer;  for though no one  may
interfere with the free will of mankind and though it is contrary to the di-
vine plan in any way to coerce a man into doing that which he does not  want
to  do,  there is no bar against suggestions along lines which he  would  be
likely to choose.   And it is due to the wisdom and love of these Great  Be-
ings that progress along humanitarian lines is the watchword of the day.

   During  the  ages which have passed,  we in the Western world  have  par-
ticularly felt the sorrow and pain due to war and strife.   The struggle for
existence  is  constantly becoming more and more acute;  it is  dictated  by
"man's  inhumanity to man."   But there is also another factor developed  by
the Lords of Love and Compassion,  namely,  the altruistic movements,  which
are multiplying in number at a wonderful rate,  and gaining in efficiency as
the years go by.   it is a noteworthy fact,  however,  that alms-giving  and
charity  which degrade the recipient are being more and more  superseded  by
HELP  TO  SELF-HELP,  which  elevates  who we aid as well as those who give.


[PAGE 28]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

That kind of help involves thought and self-sacrifice, which are fostered by
our  Invisible  Guardians  among  the stronger  who  are  now  their  weaker
brothers' keepers.

   It  is a cause for considerable congratulation that a number of our  Fel-
lowship members are workers in institutions conducted along the above lines,
and  I sincerely hope to see the day when a large majority will be  able  to
take up work of this nature, each in his respective environment.   But begin
at home, be kind to all with whom you immediately come in contact,  and when
you have been found faithful in a few things,  the larger opportunities will
not be wanting.
                         --------------------------


                                LETTER NO. 10

                                October, 1911

                           FLESH FOOD AND ALCOHOL

   It  is  one  of the usual human characteristics to  eulogize  that  which
pleases us,  and deprecate that for which we have an aversion,  but I  trust
that you will have learned from last month's lesson the one great and glori-
ous  fact  that IN THE FATHER'S KINGDOM ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER  FOR  GOOD.
Those among us who are content to live upon vegetables,  and those among  us
who feel no desire for strong drink, are usually too prone to look down upon
our  brothers  and sisters who still use flesh food and intoxicants  with  a
feeling of, "I am so much holier that thou";  but  you  will  doubtless have


[PAGE 29]                                             FLESH FOOD AND ALCOHOL

perceived  from what has been said in the lesson that such a feeling is  en-
tirely gratuitous.  Flesh food and alcohol have had a very material share in
the world's progress, and were it not for them we should not today be enjoy-
ing  many  of the comforts and labor-saving devices which make life  in  the
Western world so much easier than in primeval times.   Neither is the day of
their  usefulness entirely past;  they are necessities in the lives of  many
people.   Besides, as the Good Book says, it is not that which goes into the
mouth that defiles,  but that which proceeds therefrom;  and the attitude of
haughty disdain for those who still use flesh foods, or are subject to alco-
holism,  is far more subversive of spiritual growth than the mere  partaking
of these foods.

   Let  us therefore not condemn others,  but let us try to see  the  matter
from their side,  and allow them to have their free will as we wish to  have
ours.   Neither let us obtrude our views upon them nor seek to make converts
to our mode of living among those who are not yet ready.   THE CHANGE  OUGHT
TO COME FROM WITHIN, and it should not be dictated by a consideration of the
healthfulness  of vegetable food,  nor by the spiritual acceleration  to  be
gained  from a diet prepared without flesh.   The highest motive  should  be
compassion for the poor victims which are slain to appease appetites.

   It may be said, however, with safety that we eat too much flesh, and like
all compounds of nitrogen,  such as nitro-glycerine,  gun-cotton,  and other
explosives,  flesh foods are extremely unstable and dangerous to the system.
Therefore we will do well if we urge moderation upon all with  whom  we come


[PAGE 30]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

in contact.   Science is sufficiently well aware of the facts in the case to
furnish ample backing for any one who undertakes this mission.   We may  not
save the lives of as many animals by preaching moderation among our  associ-
ates  as we would if we could convert them to a bloodless diet,  but if  our
motive is to avert tragedy to all possible,  that will be the wisest course.
Also is we can inculcate a spirit of compassion,  the desire for flesh  will
soon vanish before the spirit of love.

                       ------------------------------

                                LETTER NO. 11

                                October, 1911.

                  PREPARATIONS FOR REMOVAL TO MT. ECCLESIA

   Saturday, October the 28th, at 12:40 P.M. sharp, Pacific time, we are go-
ing to break ground for the first building on Mt. Ecclesia, the home-site of
the Rosicrucian Fellowship.   The house will be comparatively small,  and we
are  striving to make it as inexpensive or we shall not be able to build  at
all.  I am even doing the work of architect and contractor to save expenses.
Nevertheless, we consider this first breaking of ground an epoch of greatest
import in the young life of our society, for though our private quarters may
be cramped we shall have a large workroom and accommodation for several  as-
sistants until funds become available for erection of the Ecclesia and other
pretentious structures more worthy of our mission in the world.


[PAGE 31]                                             FLESH FOOD AND ALCOHOL

   We  realize most keenly that the magnitude of our work in the  world  de-
pends  in a large measure upon the support and co-operation of  our  associ-
ates,  and we therefore most earnestly solicit your active  assistance  upon
this  momentous occasion,  to the end that our society may become a  greater
power for good than any which has gone before.

   You  know that thoughts are things;  that they are forces of a  magnitude
proportionate to the intensity of purpose behind them.   There is no  easier
or  more effective method of putting our whole being in tune with a  certain
design,  and hurling a powerful thought in a desired direction, than earnest
Christian prayer.

   Now, I have two distinct requests for your help in prayer, and I hope and
trust you will give your most hearty support.

   In  the first place,  though altogether unworthy,  it will be my duty  as
leader to break the ground for our future Headquarters at the time set,  and
it is is possible for you to withdraw to your closet,  please give  yourself
up to earnest prayer that the Headquarters then being started may grown  and
prosper in every good way;  for the united prayers of our students all  over
the world will be an immense force in that direction.

   But you can do more;  the cumulative thought of many friends directed day
by day towards a common center will work wonders.  Will you send us a prayer
every night to strengthen Mrs. Heindel, the workers at Headquarters, and my-
self,  so that we may grow purer, better,  and more efficient workers in the
service of humanity, and that we may thus become  more  potent  to alleviate


[PAGE 32]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

the sorrow, suffering, and distress of all who seek our aid?

   Further,  will you write me once in a while assuring me of your  sympathy
and  co-operation?   I may not be able to reply and thank you  individually,
but  you  can rest assured that I shall appreciate your expression  of  good
will none the less.

                 ------------------------------------------

                               LETTER NO. 12.

                               November, 1911.

                    GROUND-BREAKING FOR FIRST BUILDING ON

                                MT. ECCLESIA

   This month I am departing from my usual custom of devoting the  student's
letter entirely to a review of the previous months lesson,  in order to tell
you of the ceremony we had at Mt. Ecclesia on the 28th, when we broke ground
for  the first building on the site of our permanent Headquarters.   I  feel
sure you were with us in spirit, that you are eager to hear about it,  and I
know the recital will bring us in closer touch.

   Our first idea was to forego any outward show or ceremony.  We desired to
avoid all unnecessary expense as our funds are not, even now,  sufficient to
finish the building inside,  and we shall have to rough it for awhile  until
conditions are more favorable.

   I had intended to go there and hold the service mentally, and alone,  but
it seemed so cold, dreary,  and  desolate  not  to  have one friend there in


[PAGE 33]                                    GROUND-BREAKING ON MT. ECCLESIA

person to rejoice with me on that momentous occasion,  not even my dear com-
panion in the work-Mrs.  Heindel.  Moreover, as this is a very important af-
fair  of the Rosicrucian Fellowship and not a personal matter,  I felt  that
opportunity to attend ought to be given the members.   The thought grew upon
me until I decided to ask the Teacher's advice; and, as he most heartily ap-
proved, we made an appropriation for the purpose of celebrating the event in
a simple,  yet fitting manner,  and sent notices to friends in the immediate
vicinity.

   We made a large cross of the same style as our emblem,  and on the  three
upper ends we had painted, in gilt letters, the initials: C R C.  These, you
know, represent the symbolical name of our great Head, and designate our em-
blem  as  the Christian Rose Cross,  which conveys an idea of beauty  and  a
higher life so different from the gloom of death usually associated with the
black cross.

   This cross and a climbing rose we decided to plant at the same time as we
broke ground for the building, so that they might symbolize the verdant life
of the various kingdoms traveling to higher spheres along the spiral path of
evolution.

   On the 27th,  Mrs. Heindel and I started for Oceanside,  nearly exhausted
from  the  strain of packing and moving.  The first rain of the  season  was
falling,  and  we felt some apprehension concerning the effect on  the  cer-
emony;  but  as we looked toward the almost cloud-hidden  mountains  in  the
east, we beheld the largest, most glorious rainbow we had ever seen-a double
rainbow  in  fact-and it's southern foot seemed to stand directly  upon  Mt.
Ecclesia.


[PAGE 34]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   Our responsibility to aid thousands of weary hearts to bravely bear their
burdens has often seemed beyond our strength;  yet always have we found  our
powers renewed by looking within;  and this time it seemed as if all  Nature
wanted to cheer us and was saying: "Take courage,  remember the Work is  not
yours  but  God's;  trust entirely in Him; He will point the  way."   So  we
clasped  hands  and took heart with new strength to carry on  the  beautiful
work of which Mt. Ecclesia is to be the center.

   The day of the ceremony was an ideal California day;  the sun shone is  a
cloudless sky.  Wherever we looked from Mt. Ecclesia, oceans, valleys, moun-
tains  seemed to smile.   Both the workers and visiting members were  enrap-
tured with the incomparable beauty of the Headquarters site.   Those present
were:   Annie R.  Atwood, of San Diego; Ruth E.  Beach,  of Portland,  Ore.;
Rachel M.  Cunningham,  Rudolf Miller and John Adams of Los Angeles;  George
Kramer, of Pittsburgh, Pa; Wm. M. Patterson, of Seattle, Wash.; Mrs. Heindel
and myself.

   At the appointed time I broke ground for the building.  All helped to ex-
cavate for the cross, which was set by Wm. Patterson.  Mrs.  Heindel planted
the rose, which was then watered by all present.  May it grow, may it bloom,
to adorn the nakedness of the cross and be an inspiration to purity of  life
that  will cover all past sins,  no matter how dark the life may have  been.
The address--as it should have been delivered-constitutes this month's les-
son.  Circumstances occasioned some modifications.


[PAGE 35]                           GENERATIVE PURITY THE IDEAL FOR THE WEST


                                LETTER NO. 13

                  GENERATIVE PURITY THE IDEAL FOR THE WEST.

                               December, 1911.

   Have you grasped the main point in our last month's lesson on the symbol-
ism of the Rose Cross, the crux of the Western Wisdom Teaching?   It is Gen-
erative Purity.

   The great Leaders of humanity always prescribe conditions most  conducive
to the growth of each race; different religions for the masses,  and varying
methods  of attainment for the few.   The populous condiion of the far  East
proves  a universally unrestricted indulgence of the passions upon the  part
of our younger Chinese and Hindu brothers.  Therefore the Wisdom Teachers of
the  East prescribe celibacy for their disciples as a means of gaining  con-
trol over passion.

   In  the  West conditions are more complicated and  dangerous.   Here  the
floodgates of passion are,  in a large measure, dammed up;  not from a sense
of the sanctity of the generative act,  but because of selfishness and  fan-
cied  economic necessity.   This method often leads to insidious  perversion
and loose practices.   Were not passion so strong,  this method might indeed
result in race suicide.   To require an aspirant born under such  conditions
to live a celibate life would only given him further incentive  to  selfish-


[PAGE 36]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

ness and self-sufficiency; so it is regarded as a mark of merit when a pupil
of the Western Mystery School marries and continues to live a life of  chas-
tity.

   It has been a detriment to the Western world that various societies  have
promulgated  Eastern doctrines-celibacy among others-here, and it was a  se-
vere shock to me when an officer in one such organization deplored the  mar-
riage of one of their lecturers,  and told how it had embarrassed them  that
his  wife was about to be confined.  As the years brought new  additions  to
the family the society has since relegated him to private life.

   The  exact reverse would have happened to pupils of the  Western  School.
They  are most highly honored if able and willing to give a body and a  home
to one or more waiting spirits,  provided, of course,  that they live a life
of chaste conjugal love during the intervals.

   Thus while the younger,  weaker Eastern soul is commanded by the  Compas-
sionate Teachers,  who temper the wind to the short lamb, to be celibate and
flee temptation, the older Western spirit is allowed to test its strength by
living  in conjugal relations and perchance in accomplishing  an  immaculate
conception such as symbolized by the chaste,  beautiful rose which  scatters
its seed without passion, without shame.

   A  New Race is being born now.   Pure-minded Christian men and women  are
awakening more and more to the claims of the unborn.   Let us celebrate  the
anniversary  of our Savior's birth by praying that pure conditions may  soon
become  general,  and  that all children may be well-born.   Last,  but  not
least, let each of us teach, preach, and live this doctrine.


[PAGE 37]                                              THE COMING AGE OF AIR

                               LETTER NO. 14.

                               January, 1912.

                            THE COMING AGE OF AIR

   Reviewing last month's lesson,  there is the startling statement that  in
the next epoch we shall abandon our present terra firma and live in the  air
clothed  in a gaseous body.   Another writer along these lines has  provoked
much amusement by a series of articles so wildly imaginary that the opinions
which  we  have heard expressed unanimously vote him  champion  among  story
tellers.   Yet he stays on earth; his temples are as solid as a rock;  and I
have  hesitated to publish the above mentioned teaching till I decided  that
duty required me to speak, even if some students do class me as visionary.

   The trouble is,  we have all become so much more impregnated with materi-
alism than we realize, and it hinders us in our quest.  As students of tran-
scendental philosophy, we have accustomed ourselves to regard individual and
intermittent  life in a ethereal body possible attainment for the  few,  but
that  the  whole human race may live permanently for a whole  epoch  in  the
air!--truly, it made me hold my breath when I realized that the Bible  means
exactly  what it says when it states that WE SHALL MEET THE LORD IN THE  AIR
AND BE WITH HIM FOR THE AGES.

   Looking towards the future through the perspective of the  past, however,


[PAGE 38]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

the idea should really cause no surprise for it is strictly in line with the
path whence we have come to our present development.   We lived at one  time
like the mineral and were imbedded in the gaseous earth.   We grew  outwards
from the fiery core during a plantlike existence.   Our peregrinations  com-
menced  upon the thin earth crust at a later time;  and we are now upon  the
highlands  of the earth,  far from the inner core where our  evolution  com-
menced.   The march of progression has been OUTWARDS all the while,  and  it
follows that the next step ought to raise us above the earth level.

   I  am giving this teaching out for consideration because the majority  of
our  students believe in rebirth and the Law of Consequence,  which are  the
main  arbiters  of  destiny during the  present  dispensation  of  recurring
cycles.  Knowledge of these laws is of great value as it enables us to order
our life intelligently, building in THIS LIFE the conditions of the NEXT EM-
BODIMENT.

   The majority of Christians have not this great advantage,  but they live,
never  the  less,  through all the tribulations of THIS AGE--the Kingdom  of
Men-in the grand hope that they may qualify for admission the the Kingdom of
God--THE NEXT AGE. Our view of life has a SHORTER, theirs, a LONGER,  focus.
They  live less scientifically than those among us who apply our more  exact
knowledge of present conditions, but they are fitting themselves for the FU-
TURE  Age if they LIVE by the Bible.   Their information may be  vague,  but
they live and die in the firm belief of the great and  cardinal  truth  that



[PAGE 39]                                THE ROLE OF STIMULANTS IN EVOLUTION

they will GO TO HEAVEN and be with THE LORD FOREVER if they are real  Chris-
tians.

   If  we believe ONLY in rebirth,  we can expect nothing but  a  continuous
RETURN TO  EARTH to battle with the LAW of Jehovah;  we have no part in  the
LOVE of Christ.   To be perfectly in line with the facts, to be able to live
by THE WHOLE TRUTH, we must realize that birth and death are evanescent fea-
tures  of this age of concrete existence,  but LIFE ITSELF IS  INTERMINABLE.
John  tells us very definitely that though it does not appear what our  con-
stitution shall be, we shall be changed to the likeness of Christ and remain
deathless  throughout the Age;  and it behooves us to keep this  great  hope
firmly before us and pray for the Kingdom to come, as our Lord taught.

                      ---------------------------------

                                LETTER NO. 15

                               February, 1912

                     THE ROLE OF STIMULANTS IN EVOLUTION

   Our  last lesson finished the series dealing with the sacrament  of  Com-
munion by description of how the spirit alcohol,  which is fermented OUTSIDE
the system,  is being superseded by sugar,  which ferments WITHIN.   I trust
you  to see the thread of the argument which has been running through  these
lessons:   That  a stimulant from the lethargy attendant upon a  meat  diet;
that the bacchanalian orgies in ancient temples, which properly fill us with



[PAGE 40]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS


horror nowadays,  were the on immense value in human development;  that  the
first  miracle of Christ and His Last Supper were devoted to a  dispensation
of the stimulant;  the He ordained its use "till He come";  that as consump-
tion of sugar increases,  use of alcohol diminishes and,  concurrently,  the
moral standard is gradually elevated;  that people grow more altruistic  and
Christlike in proportion to their use of the non-inebriating stimulant,  and
that  therefore the temperance movement is one of the most powerful  factors
to hasten the coming of Christ.

   But as we cultivate finer and more delicate feelings,  we shall shrink in
horror also from flesh food;  and some day it will be considered as morbid a
taste to desire to use the stomach as a receptacle for the corpses of killed
animals as it now adjudged by society a morbid taste to desire strong  drink
inordinately.   As  students of the Western Wisdom Teaching  we  should  not
judge,  however,  but recognize the fact that many really require these  ar-
ticles  in  moderation;  but the matter is being adjusted by  the  invisible
leaders of evolution in a manner not yet obvious to casula observers, though
it is quite discernible to deeper investigators.

   It is evident that evolutionary progress is elevating the lower  kingdoms
as well as humanity.   The animals,  particularly the domesticated  species,
are nearing individualization,  and their withdrawal from manifestation  has
already commenced.   As a result it will in time be possible to obtain flesh
food.   Then the death knell of "King Alcohol"  will have struck,  for  only
flesh eaters crave liquor.


[PAGE 41]                                THE ROLE OF STIMULANTS IN EVOLUTION

   In the meantime plant life is growing more sentient.   The lateral  limbs
of  trees  produce  more abundantly than do  vertical  branches  because  in
plants,  as in us, consciousness results from the antagonistic activities of
the desire and vital currents.  Lateral limbs are swept through their entire
length by the desire currents which circle our planet and which act so  pow-
erfully  in  the horizontal animal spines.   The desire currents  rouse  the
sleeping plant life in the lateral limbs to a higher degree of consciousness
than is the case with the vertical currents radiating from the center of the
earth.  Thus, in time, the plants will also become too sensitive to serve as
food and another source must be sought.

   Today, we have considerable ability in working with the chemical, mineral
substances;  we mold them into houses, ships, and all the other things which
evidence our civilization.   We are master of the minerals OUTSIDE our body,
but powerless to assimilate and use them INSIDE our system to build our  or-
gans  until the plant life has transmuted crystals into  crystalloids.   Our
work with the minerals in the exterior world is raising their vibration  and
is  paving the way for direct interior use.   By spiritual alchemy we  shall
build the temple of the spirit, conquer the dust whence we came, and qualify
as true Master Masons prepared for work in higher spheres.




[PAGE 42]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

 
                                LETTER NO. 16

                                 March, 1912

                           NECESSITY FOR DEVOTION


   As the subject of marriage, with which our last month's lesson dealt,  is
in certain sense receiving a further treatment this month,  I feel that  the
letter  to students this month may perhaps be most profitably devoted  to  a
point on which I have for a long time wished to speak.

   The ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION has met with such phenomenal success and
called  forth  so much gratitude and admiration all over the  world  that  I
ought to be flattered at the attention it is commanding everywhere.  But, on
the contrary,  I am beginning to feel more and more afraid that the book may
miss the mark at which our Elder Brothers have aimed.   Its purpose,  desig-
nated on pages 17 and 18,  is to satisfy the mind by intellectually explain-
ing the world mystery,  so that the devotional side of the student's  nature
may be allowed to develop along lines which the intellect has approved.  The
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION ,  I believe,  has won its way because of  this
appeal  to the intellect and the satisfaction it has given to the  inquiring
mind.   Hundreds, yes thousands, of letters have testified that students who
have searched in vain for years have found here what they sought.   But  few
have seemed able, as yet,  to  transcend  the  intellectual  conception, and


[PAGE 43]                                             NECESSITY FOR DEVOTION

unless the book gives the student an earnest desire to transcend the path of
knowledge and pursue the path of devotion it is a failure, in my estimation.

   In another society formed along these lines,  I have known groups to  sit
in classes for years wrangling before a chart of the atom, delving deep into
the minutiae of its spirals and spirillae,  but cold and indifferent to  the
woe of the world around them;  and it is with great sorrow deepening  appre-
hension  that I note the development of a tendency in that  direction  among
some  of our students,  a tendency in that direction among some of our  stu-
dents,  a  tendency which I hope may be checked before it kills  the  heart.
"Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth," says Paul, and this is well exem-
plified in the attitude of leaders in the society to which I have reference,
who  often belittle the Christian religion on the platform or in  print  be-
cause it lacks an intellectual conception of the universe.

   Let me recall to you the warning given by our Teacher in the  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION   with  reference  to diagrams:  "They  are  at  best  only
crutches  to aid our limited faculties;  when we make a diagram  to  explain
spiritual  mysteries,  it is as if we should take the wheels out of a  watch
and lay them side by side to illustrate how the watch keeps time."  Although
charts may be a valuable help at a certain stage of our development,  it be-
hooves  us always to remember their limitations and STRIVE TO ATTAIN BY  OUR
INTUITION the true spiritual idea.   I feel also that it is of the  greatest
importance   that   students   should  keep  the   true   purpose   of   the
COSMO-CONCEPTION,  its aim and its end, most clearly  and  accurately before


[PAGE 44]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

them  at  all times.   It is stated in black letter son  the  return  postal
cards,  and  I would advise every student to write it in LARGE  letters  and
past  it  into the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION  where it may be  seen  each
time the book is opened,  for though we have all knowledge and can solve all
mysteries,  we are but as tinkling cymbals unless we have love and USE IT to
help our fellow creatures.


                                LETTER NO. 17

                                 April, 1912

                           STRAGGLERS IN EVOLUTION

   From  the teaching contained in last month's lesson you  will  understand
that  there  is absolutely not foundation for the idea,  as  commonly  held,
about  lost souls.   There is not a single word in the Bible  which  carries
with  it the idea that we have become accustomed to associate with  the  En-
glish  word "forever."   The Greek word is AIONIAN and means "an  indefinite
period of time,  an age"; and when we read in the Bible the words,  "forever
and ever" they should really be translated "for ages and ages."  Besides, as
it is a truth in nature that "in God we live and move and have our being," a
soul lost would mean that a part of God would be lost, and that of course is
unthinkable.

   Since writing last month's lesson another point has occurred to me  which
will illustrate how the "lost" of  one  Period  are  dealt with in the next.


[PAGE 45]                                            STRAGGLERS IN EVOLUTION

You  remember that we have spoken of the Lucifer spirits as stragglers  from
the  Moon Period and that we stated that they could find no field of  evolu-
tion  in the present scheme of manifestation.   The archangels  inhabit  the
sun,  the angels have charge of all the moons,  but the Lucifer spirits were
incapable  of dwelling upon either luminary.  They could not assist in  gen-
eration purely and unselfishly as do the angels,  but were actuated by  pas-
sion and selfish desires, so that a separate place had to be found for them.
Therefore  they were placed upon the planet Mars,  a fact well known to  the
ancient astrologers who have Mars rule over Aries,  which has dominion  over
the  head (remember,  the brain is built by subverted sex force),  and  also
gave that planet rule over Scorpio,  which governs the reproductive  organs.
Aries is the 1st house in a flat horoscope,  denoting the beginning of life;
Scorpio  is the 8th,  signifying death; and therein is contained the  lesson
that all which is generated by passion and desire is bound to meet  dissolu-
tion.  Thus Mars is, astrologically and estorecially, "the devil"; and Luci-
fer,  the chief among fallen angles, is truly the adversary of Jehovah,  who
directs the fecundating force from the sun through the lunar agency.

   Nevertheless, the Lucifer Spirits are aiding in the process of evolution.
From  them we received the iron which alone makes it possible to live in  an
oxygenated  atmosphere.   They have been, and are,  agitators  for  material
progress,  and we have no right to anathematize them.   The Bible distinctly
forbids  us  to revile the gods.   Jude states that not even  the  archangel
Michael dared revile Lucifer, and in the Book of Job the latter is spoken of


[PAGE 46]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

as among the sons of God.  His ambassador to the earth, Samuel, is the angel
of  death,  signified by Scorpio,  but is also the angel of life and  action
symbolized by Aries.  Were it not for the stirring martial impulses we might
not  feel  sorrow as keenly as we do,  but neither could we  make  the  same
progress, and surely "it is better to wear out than to rust out."

   Thus you see how these "lost sheep" of a former age are given a change to
retrieve their estate in the present scheme of evolution.  They are delayed,
and,  as stragglers,  must always appear evil, but they are not "lost beyond
redemption."   They may save themselves by serving us, probably by transmut-
ing Scorpio into Aries, generation into regeneration.


                                LETTER NO. 18

                                  May, 1912

                    KEYNOTE OF THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS


   The burden of last month's lesson was that it is our duty to pass on  the
fruits of our study in an endeavor to benefit the world.   But mystics  usu-
ally  stand aloof from their fellows and the world looks askance at  us  and
our beliefs.   This ought not to be, and analysis will prove that the teach-
ings  objected to are relatively unimportant and that the most vital of  the
teachings  will  find ready acceptance and prepare the way for  further  in-
structions.


[PAGE 47]                               KEYNOTE OF THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS

   The  value of any particular teaching depends upon its power to make  men
better  HERE and NOW;  to make them kind and considerate at home,  conscien-
tious in business, loyal to friends, forgiving to enemies;  and any teaching
which is easily applied,  and will accomplish such results,  need no further
recommendation.

   Where shall we look for such a teaching?  We have a monumental cosmogony,
describing world periods,  revolutions, epochs, and races.   Will that study
make men more kind?  Or, if we can get them to pore over the mystery of num-
bers  and names in the Kabala, will they become more conscientious?   Surely
not; therefore such knowledge is of minor import.  Will it make men moral if
we  teach  them of involution and evolution,  or if we describe  the  cyclic
journey of the soul through purgatory and heaven?   It will not necessarily,
at  least till we have convinced them that under the Law of  Consequence  we
are subject to rebirth,  and reap as we sow.   Even a hint of such a belief,
however, would turn most people from us.

   But,  you  will ask,  what them is left of our teachings?   The  greatest
teaching of all, and the most practical.  One that will arouse no antagonism
in any devotee of any religion,  or even in an agnostic,  for it need not be
labeled religious.   It will produce most beneficent results from the day it
is applied,  and affect future lives also, regardless of whether the man who
practices  it ever hears the word Rosicrucian or learns more of  our  teach-
ings.

   If  you want to really work in God's vineyard--the  world--don't  isolate
yourself.  Abstract study may be good part of the time,  but  go  out in the


[PAGE 48]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

world;  win the confidence of people in church, club, or shop.  If you set a
good example,  they will inquire the secret,  and you will be privileged  to
give them the greatest teaching ever known:

                          THE SECRET OF SOUL GROWTH

   You may talk to them something like this:

   "Every  night when I have gone to bed I review the happenings of the  day
IN REVERSE ORDER.   I try to judge myself impartially.   I blame where blame
is due,  repent,  and resolve to reform.  I praise myself, it praise is mer-
ited, and determine to do better next day.

   "I  fail  often to keep my good resolutions,  BUT I KEEP ON  TRYING,  and
little by little I succeed."

   It may be well to explain that by reviewing events in reverse order  they
are more firmly implanted in the memory,  but further elucidation should  be
avoided until you are certain your friend is seeking a solution to the prob-
lem of life.

   This is discriminative propaganda.



                                LETTER NO. 19

                                 June, 1912

                     SACREDNESS OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES


   Many  letters  have been received during the past  month  voicing  appre-
ciation of students in respect to the last lessons, and it has been a source
of  gratification to note the deep-felt love for the Fellowship and the  de-
sire to know "how it all came about."  Thus  I  feel  somewhat  better about


[PAGE 49]                                SACREDNESS OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES


introducing my personal experiences than I did in the first place.

   At the same time it cannot be too strongly emphasized that indiscriminate
relating  of superphysical experiences is one of the most harmful  of  prac-
tices,  no matter from what standpoint we look at it.   In Lecture  No.  11,
"Spiritual  Sight and Insight,"  the matter has been  thoroughly  explained.
The "treasure-trove"  must be lifted in silence;  and from the Greek myth we
learn that Tantalus was hurled down into the infernal regions for  divulging
spiritual secrets.  In other words, we cannot attain true illumination while
we  go hawking our dreams and visions from pillar to post and  recount  them
even  to  people manifestly unwilling to listen.   Thereby  we  profane  and
cheapen what we ought to reverence,  and the desecration is apt to focus our
vision in the infernal regions, the lower strata of the desire world.

   Again,  such recitals always tax the credulity of those to whom they  are
related.   There is not measure whereby we may gauge their  accuracy.   They
often seem to have no practical bearing upon the problem of life;  and  even
if we have faith in the veracity of the visionary, there is not value in his
stories unless we can find an underlying law or purpose.  Thus the statement
of the law is sufficient without embellishment.  Perhaps, the best illustra-
tion of this point may be given by relating how I discovered the law of  in-
fant mortality which was never published till it appeared in our literature.

   My  Teacher one day set me the task of following a certain person's  life
through two previous embodiments and reporting.  I  had  no  idea that I was


[PAGE 50]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

being sent in quest of a law, but thought the purpose was to develop my fac-
ulty of reading the Memory of Nature.  When ready,  I reported the result to
my  Teacher who inquired particularly the circumstances attending  death  in
each  of the two lives.   I answered that the man died in battle  the  first
time and from sickness as a child the last.   That was correct,  and another
person's  life was given me to investigate.  That one died in bed the  first
time,  and also died as a child the last time.  A third person's life termi-
nated in a fire the first time, and seemingly also as a child the last time.
I say "seemingly,"  for I could scarcely believe the evidence of my  senses,
and felt diffident when I reported to my Teacher.   I was surprised when  he
said I was correct.   This feeling grew as I,  in turn investigated fourteen
person's  lives.   IN the first life they died under varying  circumstances;
some in battle, others by accidents, and others in bed surrounded by weeping
relatives; but in the second life all passed out as children.

   The Teacher then told me to compare these lives to find why they died  as
children,  and  for many weeks I studied them night after night,  but  could
find not similarity in the conditions of their first death until one  Sunday
morning  just  as I was entering my body,  it flashed through my  brain.   I
awoke with a shout--Eureka!  I almost jumped into the middle of the floor in
my joy at having found the key.  The horrors of battle, fire,  and accident,
and  the  lamentations  of  relatives alike  prevent  deep  etching  of  the
life-panorama;  and  the value of a life terminated  under  such  conditions
would be lost save for the following death as a child and subsequent tuition


[PAGE 51]                                    INITIATIVE AND PERSONAL FREEDOM

first in the first heaven,  a fully elucidated in our literature.   The law,
as there stated, logically explains a mystery of life independent of the ac-
curacy of my story.  As I relate it only to give point to our lesson, I feel
consistent  when exhorting others to silence as to their  spiritual  experi-
ences.



                                LETTER NO. 20

                                 July, 1912

                       INITIATIVE AND PERSONAL FREEDOM


   What do you think is the main point in last month's lesson?  It is not MY
experiences,  although students have attached a great deal of worth to them,
but in reality they are insignificant save as they serve to convey  teaching
of benefit part from them.  The greatest value of that which was recorded in
last  month's lesson is the reiterated and emphatic insistence  on  absolute
PERSONAL FREEDOM in the Rosicrucian Fellowship.

   In this respect the Western Mystery Teaching differs most radically  from
that  given to the younger souls of the East,  where each has his  Master--a
despot whom he slavishly serves in all things as "Kim"  did the Guru he fol-
lowed, for there is considerable truth and fact in Kipling's story.   There,
absolute  and unquestioning obedience to the command of the EXTERIOR  Master
he sees and serves physically is the  means  of  spiritual  advancement; the


[PAGE 52]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

pupil is entirely without choice or prerogative,  but neither has be respon-
sibility.

   Among  the older souls of the WEST who aspire to spiritual growth,  there
can be no Master or Guide.  We are to learn to stand alone.  We may not like
it;  we may be afraid, and want a Master or Guide to free ourselves from re-
sponsibility.   In that fact lies the reason, I think,  why so many intelli-
gent  and cultured people have joined spiritualistic circles  and  societies
promulgating Eastern teachings.  Advanced beyond normal Western development,
they sense the Great Beyond,  and it draws them as the wide expanse of  blue
sky draws the nestling,  despite fears, to trust its untried wings;  but the
inward urge compels; and, fearing to trust themselves, they grasp eagerly at
the hand of "Masters"  or "Spirit Guides" in the hope of attaining spiritual
power by their help.  But the baby must crawl and fall;  it must rise,  fall
again  and hurt itself.   The experience is unpleasant but unavoidable,  and
far  to be preferred to the consequences of tying the infant to a  chair  to
save it from falling;  then its limbs would become useless.   And so do  the
latent spiritual powers of the unfortunates who come under the (to  Western-
ers) baneful domination of Spirit Guides and Eastern Masters.

   The  Western Teacher is more like the parent bird which pushes the  young
off the nest if they do not go themselves.  We may hurt ourselves, but WE DO
LEARN  TO  FLY.   Take  my  own case:  Pushed out  in  the  world  with  the
Rosicrucian teaching and told to spread it,  you may be sure I have held  by
breath many a time as the realization grew of what a gigantic undertaking it


[PAGE 53]                                  THE CHRIST SPIRIT AND THE PANACEA

is,  and how insignificant Mrs.  Heindel and I are.   Often,  when the  work
seemed about to swamp us, we have prayed and prayed for help, but as we look
back  we  can see what lessons we have learned by the  struggle.   Sometimes
frined have remarked:   "Oh,  how we wish the money would be forthcoming  to
build the Ecclesia and schools,  so that the work might be carried into  the
world with greater effect";  but we realize that there are other lessons be-
fore us,  and that when we are ready,  the means for further extension  will
come; until then, our wings need more training.

   It is the same with every associate of the Fellowship.   We are to  learn
the  lesson  of  working  for a common  purpose,  without  leadership;  each
prompted alike by the Spirit of Love from within to strive for the physical,
moral,  and spiritual uplift of all the world so the stature of  Christ--THE
LORD AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD.



                                LETTER NO. 21

                                August, 1912

                 THE CHRIST SPIRIT AND THE SPIRITUAL PANACEA


   You  remember reading in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION  about  how  in
the ages from Noah to Christ,  under the regime of Jehovah,  universal self-
ishness was fostered in the entire human race.   Man was told that  "Heaven,
even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth has He given to the children
of men."  Thus man was  urged to  seek  material  possessions,  and  had  no


[PAGE 54]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

conception of treasures in heaven,  which are the fruits of  self-sacrifice.
As  a consequence,  his heaven life became more and more  barren;  spiritual
progress waned,  and unless a new impulse had been given, it must eventually
have ceased.

   Then the Cosmic Christ Spirit, the "Redeemer,"  commenced His  beneficent
work,  and  eventually obtained access to the earth through  the  "cleansing
blood  of Jesus"  when it flowed on Golgotha;  and now the Christ Spirit  is
working  from within our globe to attentuate its physical and  superphysical
constituents.   An enormous spiritual inrush was felt at the moment He  came
into full possession of the earth on Golgotha;  so great,  indeed,  that the
intense light blinded the people.   From that moment the principle  altruism
commenced to take a greater hold upon our race;  we are gradually ceasing to
look to our own interest alone, and are laying up treasure by an interest in
the welfare of our fellow men.  Had not Christ come,  another moon must have
been thrown off to rid us of the worst elements,  but from this we are being
saved  by grace through sacrifice of the Cosmic Christ  Spirit--a  sacrifice
that does not involve His death as commonly understood,  but is an  infusion
of the earth with a higher life which enables us to live more abundantly  in
spirit.

   In  this coming of Christ to earth we have an analogy between it and  the
adminisering of the spiritual Panacrea, according to the law, "As above,  so
below."   There  is in every little cell of the human body a  separate  cell
life,  but  over and above that is the ego which directs  and  controls  all
cells so that they act in harmony.  During  certain protracted illnesses the


[PAGE 55]                                          THE MYSTIC BREAD AND WINE

ego becomes so intent upon the suffering that it ceases to fully vivify  the
cells;  thus bodily ailment breeds mental inaction and it may become  impos-
sible to throw off disease without a special impulse to dispel,  the  mental
fog and start the cell activities anew.   That is what the Spiritual Panacea
does.   As  the inrushing Christ life on Golgotha commenced  to  dispel  the
shell of fear bred by inexorable law that hung like a pall about the  earth;
as  it started the millions of human beings upon the path of peace and  good
will,  so also when the Panacea is applied does the concentrated Christ life
therein contained rush through the patient's body and infuse each cell  with
a  rhythm that awakens the imprisoned ego from its lethargy and  gives  back
life  and health.   May God grant that we shall soon be able to  bring  this
great boon to suffering humanity.



                                LETTER NO. 22

                               September, 1912

                          THE MYSTIC BREAD AND WINE


   If  I had asked the students to write me what--in their opinion--was  the
most  important point in last month's lesson,  what do you think would  have
been answered in the majority of the cases?   I believe many would feel that
the  connection between the bread,  the wine,  and health was the  principal
idea; and perhaps I may be responsible for that view because I printed those


[PAGE 56]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

words  in  bold type.   But while it is of signal important that  we  should
grasp this connection between the bread, the wine, and health,  and apply it
in  our lives to the very utmost power of our ability,  if we do so for  any
less reason that given by our Lord, it is essentially selfish,  and will not
further  out development nearly as much as if we do it as He requested,  "in
remembrance of Him."

   Just look at the matter in this light,  dear friend,  and you will  grasp
the idea.   Under the regime of Jehovah,  selfishness crystallized the earth
to such an extend that spiritual vibrations were almost stilled.   Evolution
was  coming to a standstill,  and the blood had become so  impregnated  with
egoism that the race was in danger of degenerating.   The Cosmic Christ then
manifested through Jesus to save us.  Cleansing the blood from egoism is the
Mystery  of Golgotha;  it commenced when the blood of Jesus flowed,  it  has
continued  through the wars of Christian nations whenever men fought for  an
ideal,  and will last until the horrors of war by contrast have sufficiently
impressed mankind with the beauty of Brotherhood.

   The Christ entered the earth on Golgotha.  He is leavening the earth anew
and making it responsive to spiritual vibrations,  but His sacrifice was not
consummated  in a moment by DYING to save us in the generally accepted  way.
He is still GROWING AND TRAVAILING,  WAITING FOR THE DAY OF LIBERATION,  for
the "manifestation of the sons of God";  and truly do we hasten that day ev-
ery  time we partake of food for our finer bodies symbolized by  the  mystic
bread and wine.  But we would be much more efficient in accelerating our own


[PAGE 57]                                          THE MYSTIC BREAD AND WINE

liberation  and in hastening "the day of our Lord"  if we always did  it  IN
REMEMBRANCE OF HIM.

   Do you remember "Sir Launfal's Vision"?   It was not the size of the gift
that counted; the gold coin he flung to the beggar was materially more valu-
able than the crust he gave later; but the coin was given in a spirit of im-
patience  to  be  rid  of a loathsome presence.   The  crust  was  given  in
rememberance of the Christ,  and for His sake, and that made all the differ-
ence.

         "And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee,
         An image of Him who died on the tree;
         Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,
         Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,
         And to thy life were not denied

         The wounds in the hands and feet and side;
         Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;
         Behold, through him I give to Thee!"

   The  more we cultivate the spirit of doing all things whatsoever for  the
sake of Christ and His Liberation, the better and the more fruitful lives we
shall lead.


                             --- END OF FILE ---

[PAGE 58]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                                LETTER NO. 23

                                October, 1912

                 DESCENDING AND ASCENDING ARCS OF EVOLUTION


   Looking  over the last month's lesson, the most important points are  the
great  antiquity and cosmic origin of the two great movements known  now  as
Freemasony and Catholicism--movements instituted respectively by the Sons of
Fire and the Sons of Water.  It is true, as stated in  the COSMO-CONCEPTION,
that  Initiation of human beings did not commence until about the middle  of
the Earth Period, when the fires of Lemuria were battling with the waters of
Atlantis,  but is is also true that the education of humanity  depends  upon
the training their instructors have had in previous evolution.  The attitude
assumed by the two groups of angels has resulted in the above mentioned  an-
tagonistic movements.   The fallen angels and fallen man are intimately con-
nected with the work of the world under its temporal rulers.   From Lucifer,
the  Spirit of Mars,  comes the fiery red blood which is the vehicle of  all
material energy, ambition, and progress; but also, it is the vehicle of pas-
sion,  which  taints it and has caused it to flow until the  earth  is  red.
From Jehovah come the restraining Law and punishment for sin.

   Let the diagram  below  represent  the  epochs  through  which the spirit


[PAGE 59]                                                  ARCS OF EVOLUTION

descends and ascends,  also the worlds and their corresponding  bodies--then
the relative connection of the various factors will be plain.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   lst Epoch                                                 7th Epoch
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2nd Epoch                                                 6th Epoch
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   3rd Epoch                                                 5th Epoch

Bodies separated into                                 Spirits separated into
sexes-male and female.                                sexes--statecraft  and
                                                      priestcraft.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  4th Epoch
                               (Turning Point)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   In  Lemuria,  the land of the Third Epoch,  mankind  was  separated  into
sexes--male  and female.   At that time they were spiritual beings  reaching
downwards into materiality, and the pioneers listened eagerly to the "gospel
of the body"  which they sensed dimly,  but learned to know as time went  on
and the spiritual world faded from sight.  Then the Lucifer Spirits were the
teachers  of the WOMAN (Eve),  and Jehovah addressed himself to MAN  (Adam).
Women was then more advanced than man along material lines for we were  then
upon the descending are of the evolutionary path.

   When  the turning point was passed in the middle of the Atlantean  Epoch,
woman gradually become more spiritually inclined.   She commenced to  listen
to  the voice of Jehovah,  and to fill the churches in an effort to  satisfy
spiritual aspirations;  while  man  now  expends  the  Martian  energy along


[PAGE 60]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

material lines originally advocated by the "Light-bringer," Lucifer.

   As the white light changes color according to the angle of refraction, so
also the viewpoint of the spirit changes with the sex of its vesture; but as
the  spirit alternates between male and female embodiments,  we may  readily
balance the scales and take the path that most appeals to us, or combine the
best path in both.   Our later lessons will point the path,  but we may  say
now  that  He  who  said,  "I am the true Light,"  is  at  the  end  of  the
path--Lucifer and Jehovah alike are but stepping-stones on THE WAY TO  TRUTH
AND LIFE.



                                LETTER NO. 24

                               November, 1912

               THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP, AS SPIRITUAL CENTER


   On  the  28th of last month it was a year since we broke ground  for  the
first building on Mt Ecclesia.   It was a typical California day of glorious
sunshine with a cloudless sky whose deep blue vied with the azure of the Pa-
cific Ocean visible for more than a hundred miles from where we stood on the
Headquarters grounds.   We were a little flock of nine, mostly visiting mem-
bers.   As we looked over the lovely green San Luis Rey valley  towards  the
great  snowclad  mountains in the east and behold the white walls,  the  red
tiled roof, and the gilded dome of the San Luis Rey Catholic Mission,  where
the Franciscan Fathers wrought and taught for centuries  among  Mexicans and


[PAGE 61]                                                 A SPIRITUAL CENTER

Indians, it seemed to us an augur.

   Here  we were,  a few enthusiasts,  upon a bare piece of land,  where  we
aimed to establish a Spiritual Center.  Those ancient Fathers had stood in a
similar position, better in some respects and worse in others.  Modern meth-
ods and transportation facilities enable us to reach the whole world  today,
while  their  field  was limited to their  immediate  vicinity.   They  were
obliged to till the soil of the field as well as the soul of their flock  to
obtain a livelihood.  They called upon their charges to perform the physical
labor  while they planned,  and by their joint efforts a temple was  erected
where all might worship.  In that respect they were much better off then we;
their  full  membership was present at the seat of operations and  ready  to
give physical help in the upbuilding of the Mission which was to  them  what
our Headquarters are to the Rosicrucian  Fellowship. But  we  have no wards;
we claim no authority, and repudiate interference  with  individual  freedom 
as much interference is diametrically  opposed to the Rosicrucian teachings,
which are the highest in the world.   "If thou  art  Christ,  help thyself,"
is flung at the candidate undergoing Initiation when  he  groans  under  the
trial.  No one who is a "leaner" can at the same time be a helper; each must
learn to stand alone.

   Our  associate  membership is four times as large as a year ago,  and  of
course the work is vastly heavier--though system and machinery enable  three
of us who work in the office to do the work of a large staff,  and paid help
does the housework and gardening.  But the routine work of preparing lessons


[PAGE 62]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

and  letters  for the various classes,  correcting examination  papers,  the
sending  each month of about 1500 individual letters to aid our students  in
difficulties,  in addition to class letters,  sometimes just swamps us.   It
seems  as if we could not entertain another application for want of help  to
do the mechanical part of the work.  But,  miraculously,  it seems,  the sky
suddenly clears,  we invent a new method of accomplishing a certain part  of
the  work with greater speed or less labor;  and are ready for  another  in-
crease;  as said, we do four times more work than a year ago, with less help
and less labor.

   But while the Fellowship at large is thus cared for,  Headquarters itself
has suffered neglect.  The proposed School of Healing, the Sanitarium,  and,
most important of all, the Ecclesia--where the Panacea is to be prepared and
powerful  healing services are to spread moral and physical health all  over
the world--all these are but germinal ideas as yet.  As the cry of suffering
humanity reaches us through many thousands of letters,  our longing for  the
realization  of the Brother's plans becomes more intense,  so keen  in  fact
that  it seems to embody the concentrated yearning of all who have  appealed
to us in sorrow and suffering.

   Our membership is scattered all over the world.  We cannot follow the ex-
ample of the Spanish padres and ask our students to make physical brick  and
lay it,  brick upon brick,  as a labor of love.   I have never asked any one
for a cent--the Rosicrucian Fellowship's work has been supported entirely by
free-will offerings and the modest revenue  accruing  from  the  sale  of my


[PAGE 63]                                                 A SPIRITUAL CENTER

books--nor can I now make an appeal for a building fund; that must come from
the hearts of friends, if at all; but feeling as we do here at Headquarters,
the intense throb of pain in the world impels me to cast about for means  of
realizing  the pain TO MAKE THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP HEADQUARTERS  A  MOST
EFFICIENT SPIRITUAL CENTER.

   A  year ago I wrote the students stating the exact moment when  we  would
break ground on Mt.  Ecclesia and asked each to enter his closet and be with
us in prayer if he could not be with us in person.   It is wonderful what an
uplift  we felt from that united spiritual effort;  the initial impulse  has
furthered  the  work to an inestimable degree during the past  year,  and  I
again feel impelled to invoke your help along similar lines.

   The Christian Scientist "demonstrates"  when he wishes to build edifices,
and  money pours into his coffers;  the New Thoughter sends out a  "demand";
and Christians of all denominations "pray" for funds.  They all use one fun-
damental method,  but employ different names.  All wish magnificent piles of
stone and glass,  and they get them.   I know that a place and building com-
mensurate  with the dignity of our work are necessary,  but much as we  need
them,  I cannot pray for sticks and stones nor can I ask you to do so; but I
can, will, and do ask you to join me in the prayer THAT THE ROSICRUCIAN FEL-
LOWSHIP HEADQUARTERS MAY BECOME A MOST EFFICIENT AND POWERFUL SPIRITUAL CEN-
TER.   Pray with your whole soul that the workers at Headquarters  be  given
grace to push the work; make them a focus for your loving thoughts so we may


[PAGE 64]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

radiate that grace back on a world hungry for just such love.   In ourselves
we are frail,  but through your prayers and God's grace we shall be a mighty
force in the world; and if we SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD, such trifles as
building  necessary for the work will follow as a matter of  course  without
degrading prayer by making it a means of acquiring physical possessions.


                                LETTER NO. 25

                               December, 1912

                       THE MYSTIC MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS

   Christmas bells!  Have you ever felt their magic in childhood days before
doubt  crept  into  your heart and shattered the ideals  inculcated  by  the
church?   The same bell rang for church on Sundays and for prayer meeting at
mid-week,  but there was a different ring at Christmas,  something unusually
festive,  something which we now attribute to childish imagination.  We miss
this something, however much we may congratulate ourselves upon emancipation
from what we are pleased to term "the mummeries of the church."  Wordsworth,
in his "Ode to Immortality,"  voiced the keen feeling of regret due to  loss
of childish ideals; nothing the world has to give can take their place,  and
however  we may be blessed with material wealth we are truly poor  when  the
"glamour"  of  youth  has  gone and  intellectual  conceptions  stifle  much
so-called "superstitions."


[PAGE 65]                                    THE MYSTIC MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS

   Paul  exhorted  us to be always ready with a reason for  our  faith,  and
there  is a mystic reason for many practices of the church which  have  been
handed down from hoary antiquity.   The sounding of the bell when the candle
is  lit  upon the altar was inaugurated by spiritually  illumined  seers  to
teach  the cosmic units of LIGHT and SOUND.   The metal tongue of  the  bell
bring  Christ;  mystic message to mankind as clearly today as when He  first
enunciated the graceful invitation:   "Come unto me,  all ye that labor  and
are heavy laden,  and I will give you rest."   Thus the bell is a symbol  of
Christ, "The Word," when it calls us from work to worship before the illumi-
nated altar where He meets us as "The Light of the World."

   Also the particularly festive feeling awakened by the Christmas bells  is
produced by cosmic causes active at this time of the year,  and the  present
season is holy in very truth as we shall presently see.  Those who study the
stars know the signs of the zodiac as a cosmic sounding board, each sign vi-
brant with a particular quality; and as the marching orbs travel in kaleido-
scopic procession from sign to sign in ever varying combination,  the chords
of  cosmic  harmony known to mystics as the "song of the  spheres"  sound  a
never ending anthem of prayer and praise to the Creator.  This is not a fan-
ciful idea but an actual fact patent to the seer,  and capable of demonstra-
tion  to thinkers by its effects.   And the harmony of the spheres is not  a
monotone; it varies from day to day and from month to month as sun and plan-
ets pass from sign to sign in their orbits.   There are also yearly  epochal
variations  due  to  precession  of  the  equinoxes.  Thus there is infinite


[PAGE 66]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

variety in the song of the spheres,  as indeed there must be,  for this con-
stant  change of spiritual vibration is the basis of spiritual and  physical
evolution.   Were it to cease even an instant,  Cosmos would be resolved  to
Chaos.

   For demonstration, observe the nature and quality of the love life poured
through the Christ-star,  the sun,  when it transits the belligerent sign of
Aries, the Ram, in spring,  Sex love is the keynote of nature; all its ener-
gies  are applied in generation;  then the passional propensities run  riot.
Compare  this with the effect of the sun during December when it is  focused
through the benevolent Sagittarius, ruled by the planet Jupiter.  Its ray is
then conducive to religion and philanthropy; the air is vibrant with  gener-
osity,  and  the love life of the Christ-star find  its  highest  expression
through this congenial sign.  Outwardly reigns the gloom of winter,  for the
visible  symbol of "The Light of the World"  has been onscured;  but on  the
darkest  night  of the year Christmas chimes evoke a ready response  to  the
Christmas feeling which makes the whole world akin,  children of our  Father
in Heaven.

   May  the mystic music of the Christmas chimes awaken the tenderest  chord
in your heart,  and may the keynote of joy be uppermost in your being during
the coming year--this is the Christmas wish of the workers on  Mt. Ecclesia.



[PAGE 67]                              SERVICE TO OTHERS DURING THE NEW YEAR


   It  is cold in the Northern Hemisphere--old Boreas holds land and sea  in
his  icy  grip--but at no other time of the year are the hearts  of  men  so
warm.   "A merry Christmas"  and "A happy New Year"  are salutations and ex-
pressions of good will which greet us everywhere.   To most people they  are
only a breath flung to the breeze, but nevertheless they leave an atmosphere
of  kindness  which is more important than is usually realized.   The  world
would  be richer if such cordial greetings were common all the year  instead
of being confined to this season.  But, "if wishes were horse, beggars would
ride"  says  the  proverb;  and unless our acts  are  directed  towards  the
realization of our wishes,  the benefit is nil.   A certain sulphuric region
is said to be paved with good intentions such as "well-meaning men" cherish,
but the world needs works more than wishes.

   Last  month  I asked you to join me in prayer for the efficiency  of  the
Rosicrucian  Fellowship in uplifting the world,  and many letters have  been
received  assuring  me that the workers at Headquarters  have  the  constant
prayers  of students.   We know the power of prayer;  without that  grateful
support we could never have endured the physical and mental strain  incident


[PAGE 68]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

to our phenomenal growth.  But a few thousands are only as drops in a bucket
compared to the millions who are seeking the light.

   Christ said;  'LET HIM WHO WOULD BE THE GREATEST AMONG YOU BE THE SERVANT
OF ALL."   The worth of a man is measured by his services to the  community.
The same is true of an association; but,  being a composite body,  its effi-
ciency  as  a whole depends upon the interest and enthusiasm  of  individual
members.  We are all under obligation to the Elder Brothers for the light we
have received.  It is our sacred duty to let that light shine so that others
may share our great privilege (not disregarding others duties), and I there-
fore solicit your personal aid in making a systematic campaign to promulgate
the Rosicrucian teachings more widely during the coming year.

   This campaign should be carried on with discretion however.   Let us  be-
ware of disturbing those of contented mind, but if you know of any one seek-
ing  for a solution to the Mystery of Life,  please send us his or her  name
and  we will send literature.   Your name will not be mentioned  unless  you
give permission.

   We shall also be pleased to furnish you slips with information about  the
Rosicrucian  Fellowship,  as  printed on the back of our postcards,  if  you
will write for them.  In this way you may interest your friends and open the
way for further inquiry,  and thus between us we may succeed in bringing the
seeker  LIGHT  to his everlasting benefit.  In helping your brother  in  his
growth you are also helping yourself.

   May  spiritual prosperity and abundance of soul growth mark every day  of
your New Year.




[PAGE 69]                                        SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER


                                LETTER NO. 27

                               February, 1913

                         SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER

   As we give our children picture books to convey moral lessons which  they
could  not grasp intellectually,  so the Divine Leaders of  infant  humanity
used  myths to convey great spiritual truths which have germinated for  ages
unconsciously  to us,  but have nevertheless been potent factors in  shaping
the  line of human progress.   You would scarcely thing that the Faust  myth
embodies the great problem of Freemasonry and Catholicism, and shows its ul-
timate solution,  but we shall see in future lessons that this is true.   At
the present time I take just a point from the great northern epic,  THE RING
OF  THE BIEBELUNG,  to show how the great truth that the truth  seeker  must
"leave father and mother," as Jesus and Hiram Abiff did, was conveyed to the
Children  of the Mist (NIEBEL is mist and UNGEN is children in German),  who
lived in the foggy atmosphere of Atlantis.  Later I may take that legend  up
for consideration.

   Wotan  is the chief of the gods,  who are always at war with the  giants.
They  build  a fortress called Valhalla where the  Valkyries,  daughters  of
Wotan,  bring  the faithful who have fallen in battle defending  the  faith.
Truth lost its universal aspect when its warders walled  it  in  and limited


[PAGE 70]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

it.   But Wotan has other children who love truth so dearly that  they  flee
from Valhalla to be free.  They are armed with a sword called "child of dis-
tress"  (representing the COURAGE OF DESPAIR),  wherewith the rebel  against
creed  and dogma ever arms himself, casts conventionality to the  wind,  and
seeks truth.  Wotan sends his minions after the fugitives, and bids Brunhild
the Valkyrie,  who represents the SPIRIT OF TRUTH,  to help slay them.   She
refuses;  and  Wotan,  who has made himself  invisible,  parries  the  sword
thrusts of his valiant son, Siegmund, who is killed in the unequal fight.

   The  dominant church does not view the complacence the secession  of  its
children.   It would even prostitute the Spirit of Truth to do its  bidding,
and when that fails,  it uses subtle means to accomplish its ends.   Its in-
tentions were good,  but it has degenerated.   As Wotan puts Brunhilde  from
him in tears to sleep on a fire-girt rock,  he tells her that she shall  not
wake till one appears MORE FREE THAN HE HIMSELF.   Truth cannot be found  in
creed-bound religion;  who seeks it must be untrammeled by allegiance to any
one.

   Such is Siegfried (translated,  he who through victory gains peace),  the
son  of the slain Siegmund and his sister-wife Sieglinda.   The latter  died
after giving birth to him.   He is thus free from father,  mother,  and  all
earthly ties;  his only heirloom is a broken sword, the "Child of Distress."
Fostered  among the Niebelungen (ordinary mankind),  he feels his  divinity,
and chafes at the limitations of his sphere.  His foster father, Mimir, is a
cunning smith; but every sword forged by him is shattered by the young giant


[PAGE 71]                                        SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER

at the first blow.  Oft had Mimir tried to forge the "Child of Distress, and
failed;  for NO COWARD can do that.   So long as we fear the church,  public
opinion, or anything else, we cannot free ourselves.

   The courage of despair overcomes fear,  and Siegfried finally forges  the
sword himself.   With it he slays Fafner,  the dragon of desire which broods
over the treasures of the earth, and Mimir, his foster father, the lower na-
ture.   He is then absolutely free.  A bird,  the voice of intuition,  tells
him of Brunhilde,  the beautiful Spirit of Truth, who may be awakened by ONE
WHO  IS FEARLESS AND FREE.   Siegfried follows the bird of intuition on  his
quest; but Wotan, his ancestor, seeks to bar him with his spear,  represent-
ing  the  power of creed upon which the sword in Siegfried's hand  was  once
broken.  That sword is stronger since Siegfried forged it, and Wotan's spear
is  weaker  since the first blow, for creed always  weakens  when  assailed.
Siegfried,  the free and fearless one, shatters Wotan's spear;  and pursuing
his way through the fire to the rock of the Valkyrie, he enfolds the beauti-
ful Spirit of Truth in a loving embrace and wakens her with a kiss.

   Thus  the  ancient myth told the truth seeker what was required  to  find
truth.   We must leave father and mother, creed,  dogma,  conventionalities,
preconceived opinions,  and worldly desires behind;  we must never fear con-
flict  with  established authorities,  but we must follow  the  inner  voice
through fire if need be; then, and then only, can we find truth.


[PAGE 72]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   Therefore  the Rosicrucians insist that all who come to them  for  deeper
teachings MUST BE FREE from allegiance to any school,  and the candidate  is
not  bound  by oaths at any stage.  Whatever promises he makes are  made  to
himself,  for liberty is the most precious possession of the soul, and there
is no greater crime than to fetter a fellow-being in any manner.  May we all
remain true to the great heritage, and valiantly resists any infringement of
this sacred right.


                                LETTER NO. 28

                                 March, 1913

            THE INCORPORATION AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE FELLOWSHIP

   This  month I have several important announcements to make and  will  use
the monthly letter for that purpose.   You remember that last year,  in  the
series of lessons entitled "Our Work in the World," I spoke of incorporating
the  Rosicrucian  Fellowship  and placing the direction of  its  affairs  in
charge of trustees,  so that that which belongs to the work may be preserved
for its altruistic purposes during the centuries to come.   Such an incorpo-
ration  has now been perfected under the laws of California and the  Fellow-
ship  has  legal standing in the world.   The Headquarter's  site  with  the
buildings  now upon it,  and the appliances necessary to carry on the  work,
are  now  the property of the Fellowship as a whole,  safe  from  individual
greed.


[PAGE 73]                                    INCORPORATION OF THE FELLOWSHIP

   This  has lifted a great load off the shoulders of Mrs.  Heindel and  my-
self.  We have accumulated the contributions to the Fellowship, varying from
a  postage  stamp  to modest sums of money (for there  have  been  no  large
amounts given as yet).   With these small means carefully expended there ex-
ists now the foundation of something so immeasurably great that it is beyond
my power of description.  You, with your freewill offerings,  have helped to
create Mt.  Ecclesia from the material point of view;  yours it is and yours
it shall remain,  for neither Mrs. Heindel not I care for money or property,
but glory only in the inestimable privilege of being of service.   Much more
is  needed of course,  so that the work may fully flower,  but we  rest  our
faith  in  the assurance of the Elder Brothers that when we  are  ready  the
things  which  make  for  greater  growth  and  greater  usefulness  of  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship will come to us.  Meanwhile we shall keep on laboring
from day to day with the means already at our command;  for thus,  and  thus
only, can we fit ourselves for greater service.

   It  is also a great pleasure to announce that whereas we were before  un-
able to obtain help,  we have now several loyal co-workers at  Headquarters;
but though our office force has doubled within the last few months,  so also
has the work increased at a most phenomenal rate, and the rush in the office
is as great as ever.

   As  you will remember,  our earliest literature took notice of  the  fact
that  Science,  Art,  and Religion had been divorced  in  modern  times,  as
separation was necessary to the thorough development of each.   It was  also
stated that as Science,  Art,  and  Religion  were  taught  unitedly  in the


[PAGE 74]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

ancient Mystery Temples,  so also must a union take place in the future  for
that is necessary to our spiritual growth.  In June we shall start a  School
on Mt.  Ecclesia to give out this composite teaching, with particular empha-
sis  upon  the art of healing.  Prospectus and further particulars  will  be
mailed  to  interested students upon application to Headquarters.   The  ex-
penses will be met by offerings from those who attend.


                                LETTER NO. 29

                                 April, 1913

                  FREE MASONRY, CO-MASONRY, AND CATHOLICISM

   At  the  end of last month's lesson a few words were said about  men  and
women  practicing Mystic Masonry,  and it might appear to some as if we  en-
dorse Co-Masonry,  but this is emphatically not the case.   While we do  not
upon principle seek disparagingly of any legitimate movement, we have always
warned our students against the Eastern religion as dangerous to the  Wester
world,  though perfectly suited to the East.  Co-Masonry is the outgrowth of
a society promulgating Hinduism.   In the winter of 1899-1900,  the  present
leader of that society was in Rome,  and one of her lieutenants accidentally
found  the Masonic rites in the Vatican library.   These she copied  without
permission, and gave them to her superior, who took upon herself to write an
extra degree.  These are now the rites of Co-Masonry.


[PAGE 75]                                         FREEMASONRY AND CO-MASONRY

   The foregoing statements are facts which we can prove;  and we leave  our
students to form their own conclusions as the ethical efficiency and  powers
of soul-building possessed by a movement based upon rites obtained in such a
manner.   Besides,  though we know positively that the rites came from Rome,
we doubt that the abstractor eluded the vigilant watchers there.  We believe
that  she  unconsciously  played  into  the  hands  of  the  Vatican.   Thus
Co-Masonry is both Hindu and Catholic in its origin.   It is not  recognized
by the regular Masonic bodies, no matter what its founders claim.

   In  the  closing lesson on Freemasonry and Catholicism we summed  up  the
points concerning their cosmic relation in order to draw out the essence  of
the teaching; now for the closing word--the quintessence of our argument:

   The word "Freemason" is derived from the Egyptian PHREE MESSEN, "Children
of  Light."   These words were originally used to designate builders of  the
Temple of God--the human soul.

   Catholic means "universal,"  and was originally applied to  differentiate
the  all-embracing  World Religion--Christianity--from race  religions  like
Hinduism.

   The blood is the vehicle of the spirit;  under the regime of Jehovah  and
the  Lucifer spirits it became contaminated with egoism.   Both  Freemasonry
and Catholicism aim to cleanse the blood and foster altruism.

   Freemasonry  teaches  the  candidate  to  work  out  his  own  salvation;


[PAGE 76]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

Catholicism leaves him dependent on the blood of Jesus.   Those who use  the
positive method naturally become the strongest souls; therefore Free-masonry
should be fostered rather than Catholicism.


                                LETTER NO. 30

                                  May, 1913

                        THE ROLE OF EVIL IN THE WORLD


   In  last  month's lesson we saw the value of discord in music;  also  the
corresponding role of evil in the world, namely,  to enhance by contrast the
beauty and harmony of good.   Thus it might seem at a superficial glance  as
if the apparent evil had been designed by God,  the Author and Architect  of
our  system--as  if He were responsible for all the pain  and  sorrow  under
which the world is groaning.  Such is not the case however.   The Bible says
truly  that the Elohim,  who were His agents,  "saw that it was  good"  when
their labor was done.   Our ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION and Lectures 13 and
14  explain  in  detail the Bible story of how the  apparent  evil  came  in
through the Lucifer spirits; and that when it had entered,  the forces which
work for good used it to serve a beneficent purpose and to achieve a  higher
good than possible without this factor.

   In  the  latter  part of the Lemurian Epoch and in  the  early  Atlantean
times,  man  was pure and innocent--the docile ward of guardian  angels  who
guided his every step upon the path of unfoldment.  He had no  reason;  that


[PAGE 77]                                      THE ROLE OF EVIL IN THE WORLD

would have been unnecessary when there was only one path to follow,  for  in
that  state  there was no choice.   The Lords of Venus were sent  to  foster
goodness,  love, and devotion.  Had no disturbing factor entered, this earth
would  have  remained in a paradise,  and man would have been  as  beautiful
flower therein.  Pain, sorrow, and sickness would have been unknown.   Under
the regime of the lunar angels and the Lords of Venus,  man would have grown
wise  and good automatically because there would have been  no  alternative.
When the Lucifer spirits opened his eyes to the other course,  and the Lords
of Mercury fostered reason to guide him,  he became potentially greater than
either as required of those who follow the spiral path of evolution.

   Thus equipped with choice and reason, it is man's glorious prerogative to
elevate himself to the pinnacle of the greatest perfection possible in  this
scheme of evolution.   Therefore Christ said: "He that believeth on me,  the
works that I do shall he do also; and GREATER WORKS that these shall be do."

   Let  us learn from the Faust myth to follow in the footsteps of our  pre-
ceptors by using the seeming evil to accomplish a greater good; let us learn
not  to be overcome by evil but to overcome it and transmute it  into  good.
There  is  a saying that "whatever is, is best."   If that were  true  there
would be no incentive to strive for anything higher, better or greater.  The
words of the Savior urge us onward and legends like the Faust myth teach  us
how to use the seemingly destructive and subversive forces.

   To whom much is given,  of  him  much  will be required.  Students of the


[PAGE 78]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

Rosicrucian Fellowship who receive the advanced Western Wisdom Teachings are
particularly  obligated to make great efforts.  May we strive with  all  our
strength to live up to our grand privilege.

   P.S.   Many new students have been added to our list since we asked  your
daily  prayers for the workers at Headquarters.   We therefore feel that  it
will  serve a good purpose to reiterate the request to please include us  in
your devotions and ask that the Rosicrucian Fellowship Headquarters may  be-
come a most efficient Spiritual Center.   We are,  as you know from the pro-
spectus, now about to open the School of Healing, and in this important step
we  feel the need of the grace of God as never before.   Please help  us  so
that we may succeed.


                                LETTER NO. 31

                                 June, 1913

                        CHRIST, AND HIS SECOND COMING

   One  of the cardinal points in this month's lesson,  and  one  concerning
which  widespread  misunderstanding exists,  had to do with  the  coming  of
Christ,  and  the vehicle he will use.   The Bible gives the  teaching  very
clearly, and the Western Wisdom Teachings of the Rosicrucians is in full ac-
cord  therewith;  hence it differs radically from the current conception  of
this matter, both among the majority of Christians and those who unwittingly


[PAGE 79]                                       CHRIST AND HIS SECOND COMING

or otherwise put forth false Christs to deceive the  unwary.   It is  there-
fore  of vital importance that scholars of the Western School should  under-
stand  this  matter thoroughly,  so we will reiterate briefly  the  cardinal
points   of   the   Rosicrucian   teachings   given   in   the   ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION and elsewhere.

   Christ is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period; the earth was them made
of desire stuff, and His densest body was formed of that material.

   No  one can form a vehicle of material which he has not learned to  mold;
hence the Christ Spirit worked with our humanity from without the earth,  as
group  spirits guide animals,  until Jesus relinquished his dense and  vital
bodies  at  the Baptism.   The Christ Spirit then descended into  these  ve-
hicles,  and ministered physically to man until the dense body was destroyed
on Golgotha,  when he became the indwelling Earth Spirit.  The vital body of
Jesus was them laid aside to await Christ's second advent.

   Christ warned against imitators, and the question arises, How may we know
the false form the real?  Paul gives us such definite information that if we
only heed it we are absolutely safe from deception.

   Paul says (1st Cor. 15:50) that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the King-
dom."   He  insists  that this body will be changed  to  the  likeliness  of
Christ's own vehicle (Phil,  3:21),  and in 1st John,  3:2 we find the  same
testimony.

   Thus  it is plain that any one who comes in a physical  body  proclaiming
himself  Christ is either demented and an object of pity,  or else he is  an
impostor  meriting  scorn  and  reprobation.   Nor  are  we  left  uncertain


[PAGE 80]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

regarding  the  nature of the vehicle in which we shall meet Christ  and  be
like Him.  In 1st Thes., 4:17 we are informed that we shall meet the Lord in
the air.  Therefore we must necessarily have a vehicle of finer texture than
our present dense body.   The transformation will require ages so far as the
majority are concerned.

   In 1st Thes.  5:23 Paul states than man's whole being consists of spirit,
soul, and body.  When we shed the dense body finally as Christ did, we shall
function  in  a body called SOMA PSUCHICON (soul body) in  1st  Cor.  15:44.
This is the "vital body" in our literature, a vehicle made of ether, capable
of  levitation,  and of the same nature as the body which Christ used  after
the Crucifixion.   This vehicle is not subject to death in the same sense as
our  physical body,  and it is eventually transmuted to spirit as taught  in
our literature and as required by 1st Cor. 15th chapter.

   Thus  the Western Wisdom Teaching is in perfect agreement with the  Bible
when  it teaches most emphatically that Christ will never come again in  the
flesh  (that  would  be  retrogression for Him).   As  a  larva  bursts  its
imprisoning  cocoon and is transformed into a butterfly which wings  it  way
among the flowers,  a gorgeous bit of animated beauty--so shall we some  day
shed this mortal coil which weights us down to earth,  and cleave the sky as
living souls radiant with glory, hastening to meet out Savior in the land of
souls,  the New Haven and the New Earth.   This is one of the main doctrinal
points  of  the  Rosicrucian  School,  and  we  trust that our students will


[PAGE 81]                                            THE VITAL BODY OF JESUS


endeavor to thoroughly master the subject so that they may be able to  "give
a reason" for their faith.


                                LETTER NO. 32

                                 July, 1913

                           THE VITAL BODY OF JESUS


   Last month's lesson brought out a number of points not heretofore  taught
in  public.   But other mysteries bearing upon the scope and  limitation  of
spiritual powers, and on the preservation of the vital body of Jesus against
attack  of the black forces,  are also involved in the conversation  between
Faust and Lucifer.   When the latter begs that the five-pointed star be  re-
moved  so  that  me  may leave,  Faust asks  "Why  through  the  window  not
withdraw?"

   People  who study mysticism often have a highly exaggerated idea  of  the
power vested in one who has evolved spiritual sight.   As a matter of  fact,
occult  investigators are limited by laws of nature appertaining to the  in-
visible world, as men of science are forced to conform to laws of physics.

   In order that balance may be maintained, the laws in one realm of  nature
sometimes act directly opposite to the laws in another.   Here in the  dense
physical world forms gravitate toward the center of the earth.   Did not the
solidity  of  the  dense  body  prevent,  we  could reach the Christ without


[PAGE 82]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

effort.   It requires power to lift a body even an inch above the surface of
the  earth;  spirit forms,  on the other hand,  have a natural  tendency  to
levitate.   It is therefore comparatively easy for a master of the black art
to  go  to Mars propelled by the sex power stolen from his victims.   He  is
naturally attracted to the planet of passion, and as the aura of Mars inter-
mingles with that of the earth the feat is far from difficult.   But he can-
not  penetrate even the first of the nine layers of the earth which lead  to
the Lord of Love, who is the Spirit of our sphere.   Such penetration is the
Path  of Initiation;  it takes soul power,  purity,  and self-abnegation  to
reach  Christ and that is the reason why so few have anything to  say  about
the earth's inner constitution.

   We do not see physical objects OUTSIDE the eye; they are reflected on the
retina, and we see only their "image" INSIDE the eye.  As light is the agent
of  reflection,  objects which resist the passage of light appear  "opaque";
other  substances,  like glass,  seem clear because they  admit  light  rays
readily.   When the spiritual sight is used,  light of superlative intensity
is  generated  INSIDE  the body between the pituitary body  and  the  pineal
gland.   It is focused "through"  the so-called "blind"  spot in the eye di-
rectly  upon the object to be investigated.  The scope of the direct ray  is
entirely  different from the range of the reflected physical ray.   It  pen-
etrates a wall without difficulty, but no spirit in the desire world can see
through glass.  Neither Lucifer nor any evil spirit ever dares to go through
anything made of that material, even the thinnest windowpane.

   Knowing  these facts,  our Elder Brothers have placed the vital  body  of
Jesus in a sarcophagus of glass to protect it  from  the gaze of the curious


[PAGE 83]                                        IMPROVING OUR OPPORTUNITIES

or profane.  They keep this receptacle in a cavern deep in the earth,  where
no  uninitiated  can penetrate.   To make assurance  doubly  sure,  however,
vigilant watchers keep constant guard over their precious charge;  for  were
that vehicle destroyed, Christ's only avenue of egress would be cut off, and
He would have to remain a prisoner in the earth until the Cosmic Night  dis-
solves its chemical elements into chaos.  Thus the mission of Christ as Sav-
ior  would have failed;  His suffering would be greatly prolonged,  and  our
evolution would be enormously retarded.

   Let us work, watch, and pray for the glad day of His liberation.


                                LETTER NO. 33

                                August, 1913

                         IMPROVING OUR OPPORTUNITIES

   One of the most important points brought out last month is the fact  that
we have power to lengthen our life materially by earnest application to  the
purpose of existence--acquisition of experience.  Whether we know it or not,
every act of our lives hastens the end, or defers it, in a measure dependent
upon whether the act is in harmony with the law or not.   If we do not apply
ourselves to the labor of life,  or if we persistently follow a path that is
subversive  of  soul  growth,  our  discordant  life destroys the archetype.


[PAGE 84]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

Rebirth is an altered environment then gives us a chance to retrieve the ne-
glected opportunities.  On the other hand,  when we live in harmony with the
plan of life inscribed in the archetype of our dense body,  there is a  con-
structive consonance in their vibrations which lengthens the life of the ar-
chetype and, consequently, also the life of the physical body.

   When  we realize that our life on earth is the seed time,  and  that  the
value  of our post-mortem existence is in direct ration to the increment  we
have earned on our talents, it will be at once apparent how supremely impor-
tant it is that our faculties should be used in the right direction.   While
this  law  applies  to all mankind, it is superlatively  vital  to  aspiring
souls;  for  when we work for Good with all our might and main,  each  added
year  of life increases our heavenly treasure enormously.   Advancing  years
give greater skill in soul culture,  and the fruit of the last few years may
easily outweigh that acquired in the first part of the life.

   If we feel that this is true,  and if we are anxious to reach the highest
degree of attainment,  the question naturally presents itself,  How many  we
know  the right way?   And the answer is not difficult;  the stars tell  the
tale.  They show our abilities and the time most propitious to sow the seeds
of the soul,  to help,  and to heal.   Therefore the Rosicrucian  Fellowship
places must stress upon the study of the stars.  In the horoscope these mat-
ters are accurately foreshown.  Knowledge of what it says is power, and this
knowledge,  the power that goes with it, and the resultant soul growth,  are
within reach of every one who will study the simplified system contained  in


[PAGE 85]                                        IMPROVING OUR OPPORTUNITIES

our corresponding course in astrology.  If you have not already started, and
are  anxious  to progress,  I would suggest that you  send  for  application
blank, begin at once so that you may learn how to use your life to the ulti-
mate of progress.

   While  I am suggesting immediate steps towards attainment,  it may be  in
season  to call attention of students to the fact that when they  have  been
six months (*) on the correspondence list as students,  they become eligible
to apply for admission to the Inner School;  and though the esoteric lessons
in healing issued to probationers contain only a faint outline of the teach-
ings  given at Headquarters,  they are a very material aid to  the  aspiring
soul.

   On  August 6th at 2:00 P.M.,  we are going to lay the foundation for  the
nucleus of our Sanitarium, so that we may commence forthwith to care for the
sick and give our students practical experience.   Please join us in  prayer
for the success of the work.  More details will be given in the ECHOES which
we shall publish on the 10th of each month in the future.
____________________

* The time is now two years.



[PAGE 86]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                                LETTER NO. 34

                               September, 1913

                              A PLEA FOR PURITY

   The  most important point in last month's lesson is the power of  passion
to  degenerate those who indulge in it.  This we illustrated in the case  of
apes,  which have been held back and have degenerated into animal-like forms
because of their action in abusing the creative force.   The  responsibility
of  the  Lucifer  spirits for that condition has been  brought  out  in  the
COSMO-CONCEPTION,  and also the fact that the apes may overtake us  if  they
advance sufficiently before the middle of the next revolution.

   But there is an added responsibility in knowledge, as Christ said:   "For
unto whom much is given of him shall be required."  And while the transgres-
sion  in  those early days may be overlooked and entail only  a  retardation
during  millions  of years,  the condition of one who has the light  of  the
greater  knowledge given to humanity today, and who transgresses the law  by
abusing  the creative force,  may become far more serious than that  of  the
class now embodied in the anthropoid forms.

   Black Magic is practiced much more commonly than one would suppose, some-
times almost unconsciously,  for the dividing line may often lie in the  mo-
tive.  If,  however,  we abuse our superior knowledge, though we may be more


[PAGE 87]                                                  A PLEA FOR PURITY

refined  in the indulgence of our passions, the result is certain to be  di-
sastrous.   At this present stage,  the vital force (save the  insignificant
quantity  required  to propagate the race) should be  transmuted  into  soul
power.   Let us,  therefore, continue steadfastly upon the path of purity so
that  worse may not befall us than the fate which has met  those  degenerate
humans found as wards of Lucifer in the witches'  kitchen--as represented in
the Faust myth.

   If  we are tempted at any time by unclean thoughts,  let us at once  turn
our minds to another subject far removed from sensuality.  Above all, let us
respect  the  laws of our country which require the ceremonial  of  marriage
prior  to union;  for though the words of the marriage ceremony do not  mate
people,  it is, nevertheless, meet that we who profess high spiritual ideals
should  not offend the common decencies by living together without  wedlock.
Those above the law render perfect obedience as Christ did, for when we com-
ply  with all laws without rebellion because it is right to do so,  then  we
have risen above the law and are no longer in bondage.


[PAGE 88]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS



                                LETTER NO. 35

                                October, 1913

                    THE FAUST MYTH AND THE MASONIC LEGEND

   Last  month's lesson finished our consideration of the Faust  Myth;  and,
taking a review of it as a whole,  we note that it brings out the same  idea
as the Masonic legend.   On the one had we have Rosicrucian and Lucifer;  on
the other, Marguerite and the priests.  Marguerite shows faith in the church
even in the darkest hour.   This faith is her comfort and stay,  and eventu-
ally she attains to the goal of the spirit.   She reaches her heavenly  home
by  faith.   Her sins of omission and commission are due to  ignorance;  but
when she sees the evil power embodied in the character of Lucifer and is of-
fered freedom from prison and death,  she declines to flee in such  company;
thereby she has redeemed herself sufficiently to merit a place in the  King-
dom.  Likewise, the wards of the church, the Sons of Seth, are today depend-
ing upon the atonement rather than upon their own deeds.   They are  looking
for salvation through faith as their power of works is but small.

   In  Lucifer  and  Faust we find replicas of the Sons  of  Cain,  who  are
positive, strong, and active in the world's work.  The same spirit which im-
bued  Cain  with a desire to make "two blades of grass grow  where  formerly
there was but one"--the independent,  divine  creative  instinct  which  has


[PAGE 89]                                                     THE FAUST MYTH

caused  the Sons of Cain in all ages to carry on the world's  work--is  also
strong in Faust;  and the glorious use to which he puts the powers of  evil,
namely,  making them build a new land,  a free one,  where a happy and  free
people may dwell in peace and contentment,  gives us a view of what the  fu-
ture has in store for us.

   By our own works, by putting the evil powers to good use,  we shall even-
tually  free ourselves from the limitations of both church and  state  which
now hold us in bondage.   Through the conventions of society and the laws of
the  land are now necessary to restrain us from infringing on the rights  of
others,  there will come a day when the spirit will ensoul us and purify  us
as  the love of Faust for Helen purified him and gave him the  incentive  to
use the Lucifer forces in the manner indicated.   When we have conquered the
desire to work for self,  when we become enamored of our work for others  as
Faust was when with his dying vision he gazed upon the land that was  rising
from  the sea,  then we shall never require the restraining feature  of  the
laws  and conventions for we shall have risen above them by compliance  with
the every requirement.   Only in that manner can we become really free.   It
but very difficult to enforce obedience on ourselves even though we may  in-
tellectually assent to the mandates of conventionality.  As Goethe says:

         "From every power that holds the world in chains,
         Man frees himself when self-control he gains."


[PAGE 90]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   The  Faust  myth tells us there is such a utopian state in store  for  us
when we have worked out our salvation by using the titanic forces within  to
make us really free.   May we all strive by our daily actions to hasten that
day.


                                LETTER NO. 36

                               November, 1913

                  EASTERN AND WESTERN METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT


   We receive frequent requests for help from people who unfortunately  have
belonged  to societies where they came under the domination of  spirit  con-
trols who now haunt and hound them until life becomes a burden.  We also re-
ceive  requests for help from people who have frequented societies  teaching
the Hindu breathing exercises.  The impatience to enter the invisible worlds
prompts many such people to take up exercises, the dangerous nature of which
they do not realize until it is too late and they are broken down in  health
and spirit.  They they come to us asking for a relief which we have unfortu-
nately  been able to give to all who have so far applied,  even though  some
were on the verge of insanity.

   Therefore  the Rosicrucian literature has been replete with  warnings  to
shun all Eastern breathing exercises,  as they are unfit for Western people.
It  is with considerable sorrow that we have heard of a student who  is  now
ill as a consequence of breathing exercises.   We therefore feel that it may
be well to once more state the reason for the difference between the Eastern


[PAGE 91]                                        EASTERN AND WESTERN METHODS

and  Western methods so that it may be made clear why it is wise to  refrain
from such exercises.

   In  the  first place,  it is necessary to realize that the  evolution  of
spirit and the evolution of matter go hand in hand.   The spirit evolves  by
dwelling in vehicles of dense matter and by working with the material  found
in the world.  Thus, the spirit progresses, and matter is also being refined
because the spirit works with it.  The more advanced spirits naturally  draw
to  themselves finer matter than those behind them upon the path  of  evolu-
tion,  and the atoms in the bodies of a highly evolved race are more  sensi-
tive than those of the earlier peoples.

   Therefore  the atoms of cultured people in the West respond to  vibratory
waves not yet contacted by those who dwell in Eastern bodies.  Breathing ex-
ercises are used to awaken the sleeping atoms of the Easter aspirant,  and a
vigorous course of this treatment is necessary to raise his vibratory pitch.
The American Indian or Bushman might take these exercises with impunity  for
years,  but it is an entirely different matter when a person with  a  highly
sensitized  Western body attempts such treatment.  The atoms of his  or  her
body  have already been sensitized by the ordinary evolution;  and when  the
person receives the added impetus of breathing exercises,  the atoms  simply
run  riot,  and it is extremely difficult to bring them into  proper  repose
again.

   As it may do some good it may not be amiss to mention that the writer had
had personal experience in the matter.  Years  ago,  when  he started on the


[PAGE 92]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

Path  and  was imbued with the characteristic impatience  common  to  ardent
seekers  after knowledge,  he read of the breathing exercises  published  by
Swami  Vivekananda and commenced to follow directions with the  result  that
after  two  days the vital body had been pulled out of the  physical.   This
produced a sensation of walking on air, of being unable to get the feet down
on solid ground; the whole body seemed to be vibrating at an enormous pitch.
Common sense then came to the rescue.   The exercises were stopped,  but  it
was  fully  two weeks before the normal condition of walking on  the  ground
with a firm step was experienced, and before the abnormal vibrations ceased.

   In the parable,  it is said that some were thrown out who had no  wedding
garment.  Unless we first evolve the soul body, any attempt to enter the in-
visible worlds spells certain disaster;  and any teacher who professes abil-
ity to railroad people into the invisible realms is not to be depended upon.
There is only one way--patient persistence in well-doing.


                                LETTER NO. 37

                               December, 1913

                   THE REASON FOR THE MANY DIFFERENT CULTS


   The central through in last month's lesson, and one that we should ponder
well is the reason why there are so many different cults.  each with its own
creed  and with the idea that it alone has the truth.   The reason for  this
condition, as shown in the lesson, lies in the fact that the ego has limited


[PAGE 93]                                THE REASON FOR MANY DIFFERENT CULTS



itself  by entering into a vehicle which separates it from every  one  else.
Because  of this limitation,  it is incapable of appreciating  absolute  and
universal truth;  and,  consequently,  religions teaching only partial truth
had to be given.

   The warfare and strife engendered in the world by the segregating  influ-
ences  of creed are not without their benefit either,  for were all  of  the
same opinion regarding the great question, "What is truth?"   there would be
no deep search for light or knowledge; and truth would not leave the  strong
impression upon us which we gain by the fight for that which we believe.  On
the  other  hand,  the  militancy of the churches shows  to  those  who,  as
pioneers,  are now taking a broader view--who recognize that none have  more
than a ray of the whole truth at present and who look to the future for  en-
largement  of the cup of their capacity--that sometime they shall no  longer
see through a glass darkly, but shall know even as they are known.

   Knowing that there is a cosmic reason for creed,  we should neither  seek
or  force advanced ideas upon those who are as yet limited by the spirit  of
convention, nor imitate the militant missionary spirit of the churches, but,
as the Bible says,  give our pearls of knowledge only to those who are tired
of feeding on the husks and who long for the true bread of life.

   Discourse  upon subjects related to this higher knowledge may help  those
who  are aroused from the spiritual lethargy unfortunately so common in  our
day and age.   But argument will never do any good,  for those who are in an
augmentative mood are not convinced by anything we may say.  The realization
of truth,  which  is  alone  potent to break down the barriers of limitation


[PAGE 94]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

that engender creed, must come from within and not from without.

   Therefore,  though we should always be ready to answer the  questions  of
those  who wish to know,  and be ready to give the reason for our faith,  we
should  also be on our guard so that we may not force our opinion upon  oth-
ers;  that,  having escaped one fetter, we may not be bound by another,  for
liberty is the most precious heritage of the soul.  Hence the Elder Brothers
in the Western World will not accept a pupil who is not free from all  other
bonds,  and they take care that he does not obligate himself to them or  any
one else.  Thus alone can the ring of the Niebelung and the ring of the gods
be dissolved.   May we all strive to live up to this ideal of absolute  lib-
erty,  at  the same time,  of course, taking care not to infringe  upon  the
rights of others.


                                LETTER NO. 28

                                January, 1914

                  WHAT THE PUPIL MAY EXPECT OF THE TEACHER

   Christ said,  "By their fruits ye shall know them."   Suppose that  weeds
were endowed with speech,   Would we believe their claims if they  professed
to be grape vines?   Indeed not,  we would look for the fruit.   And  unless
they  were able to produce, their protestations--no matter how  vociferously
made--would make no impression.  We are thus sufficiently  wise  in material


[PAGE 95]                                        SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER

matters to guard against deception; then why not apply the same principle to
other departments of life?   Why not use ordinary common sense?   If we did,
no one could impose on us in spiritual matters, for every realm in nature is
governed by natural law,  and analogy is the master key to all mysteries and
a protection against deception.

   The  Bible teaches us very,  very clearly that we should try the  spirits
and judge them accordingly.   If we do this,  we shall never be deceived  by
self-styled teachers;  and we shall save ourselves,  our relatives,  and the
Fellowship we love much sorrow and anxiety.

   Let us,  therefore,  analyze the matter and see what we have the right to
expect from one who lays claim to being a teacher.   To do this we may first
ask our selves,  What is the purpose of existence in the material  universe?
And we may answer that question by saying that it is evolution of conscious-
ness.   During the Saturn Period, when we were mineral-like in our constitu-
tion,  our consciousness was like that of the medium expelled from her  body
by spirit controls at materializing seance, where a large part of the ethers
composing  the vital body has been removed.  The physical body is then in  a
very deep trance.   In the Sun Period, when our constitution was plant-like,
our consciousness was like that of dreamless sleep,  where the desire  body,
mind, and spirit are outside, leaving the physical and vital bodies upon the
bed.   In the Moon Period, we had a picture consciousness like that which we
have  in dreams,  where the desire body is only partially removed  from  the
dense vehicle and the vital body.  Here in the Earth Period  our  conscious-


[PAGE 96]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

ness has been enlarged to cover objects outside ourselves by placing all our
vehicles in a concentric position, as is the case when we are awake.

   During the Jupiter Period,  the globes upon which we shall evolve will be
located  similarly to what they were in the Moon Period.   And the  INTERNAL
picture consciousness which we then possessed will be EXTERNALIZED,  as  the
Jupiter Period is on the ascending arc.   Thus,  instead of seeing the  pic-
tures inside ourselves,  we shall be able,  when speaking,  to project  them
upon the consciousness of those we are addressing.

   Now,  therefore,  when any one professes to be a Teacher, he must be able
to substantiate his claim in that manner;  for the true Teachers,  the Elder
Brothers, who are now preparing the conditions of evolution which are to ob-
tain  during the Jupiter Period,  all have the consciousness  pertaining  to
that period.   Thus,  it will be seen that they naturally and without effort
use  this  external picture speech,  and thereby at once given  evidence  of
their identity.  Only they are able to guide others with safety.   Those who
have not evolved to that point,  even though they may be self-deceived,  and
through  their  intentions  may be good, are unreliable and  should  not  be
trusted.   This is an absolutely infallible gauge; and the claims of any one
who cannot show this fruit are of no more value than the claims of the  weed
mentioned in our initial paragraph.

   All  of  the  Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order  possess  this  at-
tribute; and I trust no one among our students  will  in  the  future  allow


[PAGE 97]                                         WHERE SHALL WE SEEK TRUTH?

himself or herself to be deceived into following exercises or going  through
ceremonies  devised by any person who is not able to produce the fruit,  and
call up living pictures in the consciousness of those with whom he speaks.



                                LETTER NO. 39

                               February, 1914

            WHERE SHALL WE SEEK TRUTH, AND HOW SHALL WE KNOW IT?


   At  the  close of last month's lesson we saw that  Siegfried,  the  truth
seeker,  had  arrived  at the end of his quest.   He had  found  the  truth.
Meditating  upon the subject it occurred to me as profitable to devote  this
letter  to a straightforward answer to the question:   "Where shall we  seek
truth, and how shall we KNOW without doubt when we have found it"

   To  be absolutely certain about this matter is of very great  importance.
For many who accidentally find their was into the Desire World,  such as me-
diums  for instance,  are enmeshed in illusion and hallucination because  of
inability to know truth.   Moreover,  the Elder Brothers of the  Rosicrucian
Order give probationers a definite scientific teaching on this point; and in
order to guard against the danger spoken of above,  they make an actual test
before  admitting any one to discipleship.   All must come up to  a  certain
standard  in  this  matter.  It  may,  of  course,  surprise  you  that this


[PAGE 98]                                                LETTERS TO STUDENTS

discussion  is  not  reserved  for  probationers  or  disciples,   but   the
Rosicrucian Fellowship does not believe in secrecy or mystery.  All who wish
may qualify for any degree;  and this qualification is not a matter of  FORM
but of living the life.

   In  regard to the first part of the question then,  "Where shall we  seek
truth?"   There  is only one answer--WITHIN.  It is absolutely a  matter  of
moral  development;  and the promise of Christ that IF WE LIVE THE  LIFE  WE
SHALL KNOW THE DOCTRINE is true in the most literal sense.   You will  never
find truth by studying my own or any other books.   So long as you run after
outside  teachers,  myself or any one else,  you are simply wasting  energy.
Books and teachers may arouse your interest, and urge you to live the  life,
but only in so far as you make their precepts a part of your inner self  are
you really seeking in the right direction.  The Elder Brother--whom I,  per-
haps mistakenly, speak of as Teacher--has never taught me directly since the
first short period when that which is embodied in the Cosmo was given.   And
in the last year I have learned not to ask question for I have noticed  that
whenever I did so he simply gave me a hint as to how I, myself, might obtain
the desired information.  Now, instead of asking questions, I ask for direc-
tions  as to how I may solve a problem.  So you see that it is by using  our
own faculties, which may be compared to he talents spoken of by Christ, that
we get the information of most value to ourselves.

   The second part of the question, "How may we know the truth?" is best an-
swered by referring the student to the evening exercise given in the Lecture
No. 11, SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT.  It may be performed by any one regard-


[PAGE 99]                                      THE TRUTH SEEKER IN THE WORLD

less of whether he or she is a probationer of the Rosicrucian Fellowship  or
not.   The teacher said at the time of giving it that if it were possible to
prevail upon the most depraved person in the world to perform this  exercise
faithfully for six months,  he would be permanently reformed;  and those who
are faithful have found that it sharpens all mental faculties,  particularly
the  memory.   Besides,  by this impartial judgment of oneself  night  after
night,  one learns to discern truth from error in a degree not attainable in
any  other  way.   Not  all  our students  may  feel  inclined  to  take  up
probationership,  and  we never urge any one to do anything in  the  Western
Wisdom School.  But if you really want to know the truth I can honestly rec-
ommend this method.   It develops an inner faculty and no matter what state-
ment  is made to you,  once you have developed this,  you will know at  once
whether it rings true or the reverse.

                               ---------------


                                LETTER NO 40.

                                 MARCH, 1914.

                 WHY THE TRUTH SEEKER MUST LIVE IN THE WORLD

   After the transfiguration scene,  when the Christ and His disciples  were
making  ready to descend from the Mount,  the latter would fain have  stayed
and  suggested making dwelling places so that they might remain.   This  was
not permitted, however, for there was work to do in  the  world  which would


[PAGE 100]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

have remained undone had their plan been carried out.

   The  Mount  of Transfiguration is the "Rock of Truth,"  where  the  freed
spirit may behold the eternal realities.   There is the GREAT NOW (the  past
symbolized by Moses and Elijah) the prophets of the ancient dispensation met
Christ,  the ruler of the Kingdom which was to come.   Every spirit  who  is
permitted to behold the supernal splendors of this celestial realm,  to hear
the sublime strains of the harmony of the spheres, and to view the wonderful
colorplay which accompanies the music, is likewise loath to leave.   Were it
not that we seem to lose our form and personality,  and encompass this whole
realm within ourselves,  we should probably not have the strength to  return
to earth,  but this feeling that we retain "heaven within" fortifies us when
it  is  time to again turn our gaze outwards and attend to the work  in  the
world.

   Objects  in  the physical world always hide their inward nature  or  con-
struction; we see only the surface.  In the Desire World we see objects out-
side ourselves,  inside and out,  but they tell nothing of themselves or the
life that ensouls them.   In the Archetypal Region there seems to be no cir-
cumference,  but wherever we direct our attention,  there is the  center  of
all,  and our consciousness is at once filled with knowledge concerning  the
being  or thing at which we are looking.  It is easier to catch in a  phono-
graph  the tone which comes to us from heaven than to set down  the  experi-
ences we encounter in that realm, for there are no words adequate to express


[PAGE 101]                                     THE TRUTH SEEKER IN THE WORLD

them; all wee can do is to try to live them.

   But to live them,  however imperfectly, we must be in the world;  we have
no right to remain secluded with the truth we have found.  That is the great
lesson taught when Siegfried leaves his beloved.  He must not remain.   Life
is a constant flux; stagnation is the cardinal sin,  for new experiences are
the very life breath of progress.  If we have found truth, it is our bounden
duty  to  seek also a field where it may be of use.   And according  to  our
judgment  in that matter,  and the diligence wherewith we plant  and  water,
will be our harvest.

   This is a matter we should each carefully consider:   "What sue am I mak-
ing  of  the  teachings  I receive?"   We may be  off  in  the  mountain  in
dreamland,  though we live in a city, and as deaf to the cry for light which
sounds in our very ears as if the seeker were thousands of miles away.   Un-
less  we give out BY OUR LIVES--which speak louder than words--the truth  we
have found,  we incur a heavy responsibility,  "for unto whom much is given,
of him shall much be required."

   Let us remember that "Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth,"  and that
SERVICE is the standard of TRUE GREATNESS.


[PAGE 102]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 41.

                                APRIL, 1914.

               A METHOD OF DISCERNING TRUTH FROM ITS IMITATION


   IN the February letter we discussed the question:   "Where shall we  find
truth, and how shall we know when we have found it."  But there is no use in
seeking truth,  or in knowing truth when we have found it,  unless we put it
to  practical use in our life--and it does not follow that we will  do  that
merely because we find it.  There are people, comparatively many,  who scour
the civilized world to find rare treasure of ancient art--pictures or coins.
There  are many who manufacture imitations of the genuine articles,  so  the
seeker after these things runs the risk of being duped by clever rogues  un-
less he has means of knowing the genuine from the spurious.

   In  this respect he is beset by the same danger as the truth seeker,  for
there  are many pseudo-cults and clever inventions that may baffle us.   The
collector  often  shuts his find up in a musty room and gloats  over  it  in
solitude; and not infrequently after years, or maybe when he has died, it is
found  that some of the things he guarded most jealously and treasured  most
highly were spurious and imitations of no value.   Similarly,  one who finds
what he believes to be truth may "bury his treasure"  in his own breast,  or
"put his light under a bushel," to find, maybe after many years, that he had


[PAGE 103]                                      A METHOD OF DISCERNING TRUTH

been swindled by an imitation.   Thus,  there is need of an infallible final
test, one which eliminates all possibility of deception, and the question is
how to discover and apply it.

   The answer is as simple as the method is efficient.  When we ask how col-
lectors discover that a certain article they prize is an imitation, we shall
find that it is usually by showing it to some one who has seen the original.
We  may deceive all of the people part of the time and a part of the  people
all of the time,  but it is impossible to deceive all the people all of  the
time;  and had the collector shown his find publicly instead of hoarding  it
in secret,  he would have quickly learned by the collective knowledge of all
the world whether his find was genuine or not.

   Now mark this,  for it is very important:   Just as surely as the general
secretiveness of collectors aids,  abets,  and fosters fraud on the part  of
the curio dealers,  so also the desire to have and to hold for oneself great
secrets not known to the "rabble"  fosters the busines of those who trade in
"occult initiations" with elaborate ceremonial to beguile victims into part-
ing with their cash.

   How can we test the worth of an axe but by using it and thus finding  out
whether  it will keep its edge in actual wearing work?   Would we buy it  if
the  salesman required us to put it in a dark corner where no one could  see
it,  and forbade us to use it?   Certainly not!   We would want to use it in
our work, and there it would show whether it had "temper."  If it were found
"true steel,"  we would prize it; if not, we would tell the salesman to take
back his worthless stuff.


[PAGE 104]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   On the same principle, what is the sense in "buying" the wares of secrecy
mongers?   If their wares were "true steel," there would be no need  of  se-
crecy,  and unless we can use them in our daily lives, they are of no value.
Neither  is a good axe of value to us unless we use it;  it rusts and  loses
its edge.  So it is obligatory on every one who finds truth to use it in the
world's work, both as a safeguard to himself to make sure that it will stand
the grant test,  and to give others a chance to share the treasure which  he
himself finds helpful.   Therefore it is very vital that we follow the  com-
mand of Christ:  "Let your light shine."

                              ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 42.

                                 MAY, 1914.

                   OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN GIVING OUT TRUTH


   In  regard to last month's letter one of the students writes:   "in  your
letter it would seem to be implied that there is no secrecy or discretion on
the part of the individual who knows occult things,  to be exercised in giv-
ing them out, and no personal responsibility incurred; at least your meaning
does not seem to be made plain."

   It is,  of course,  impossible to cover a subject of this magnitude in  a
letter  or several letters.   But the question about the  responsibility  of
giving  out truth does really concern us in so far as the danger  of  misuse
goes.   My  correspondent also says that "there are certain  sects  in  this
country which have certain powers that they use for selfish  and  avaricious


[PAGE 105]                                RESPONSIBILITY OF GIVING OUT TRUTH

purposes," and asks whether it would be wrong to withhold occult powers from
them.   Certainly not.   But the Elder Brothers take care of that,  and they
are the real custodians of anything that is highly dangerous.  Hypnotism, of
course,  is dangerous,  but not to such an extent as the occult powers about
which our correspondent asks.

   During  the ancient Israelitic dispensation darkness reigned in the  Holy
of Holies,  and it was only permitted a few priests and Levites to enter the
Temple.   The High Priest alone was admitted into the Holy of Holies once  a
year.  But at the Crucifixion the veil was rent, the Temple was flooded with
light,  and since then no secrecy has prevailed in Initiation.  Yet it is in
a certain sense as secret as ever, for as I said in last month's letter,  it
does  not  consist in ceremony at all.  It is an inward experience,  and  we
must  have the power within ourselves to live that experience before it  can
come  to us.   It is secret in the same sense that the mysteries  of  square
root  are a secret to the child.  No initiation fee could convey  an  under-
standing to the childish mind of the subject;  he must live through a number
of  years and gradually mature to a point where it will be possible  to  en-
lighten him.   When that point is reached,  there is no difficulty about en-
lightenment.  He will understand and see truth very readily.

   It is exactly this truth of which I was speaking in last month's  letter.
The  disciple must go through a period of training and by that training  be-
come mature and mellow to such an extent that he can live the truth  within.
Then when the time comes, it is very easy for the Teacher  or  Initiator  to


[PAGE 106]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

show  him for the first time how to apply the trust which he has  found,  to
use the power which he has stored up,  and then he is initiated.   But  this
experience cannot be told to anyone else.   It is absolutely useless to  try
to convey it.   It is not through ceremony or any other outward show that it
comes to a man but as an actual result of his own past doing.   Therefore he
can  apply its truth in his daily life,  though others may be as  absolutely
unable  to get at it as the child is incapable of appreciating what is  hap-
pening  when an example in square root is being done before its eyes.   Thus
are  the real,  vital truths guarded from all till the key of merit  unlocks
the treasure box.
                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 43.

                                 JUNE, 1914.

                     WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE AND MORAL EQUALITY


   From last month's lesson it will be evident, strange as it may seem, that
the  opera Tannhauser is the legendary plea for the much  discussed  woman's
suffrage, which we hear so much of in modern times.  It is evident also,  as
said  last  month,  that like produces like; and a woman who  is  timid  and
afraid, who has been forced into marriage in a brutal manner, who feels her-
self owned,  a chattel, not free to voice her ideas and ideals,  cannot pro-
duce a noble, strong, and fearless offspring, one with the courage to adhere
to its ideals.   Therefore,  so long as we hold woman in bondage,  deny  her
rightful place in the world as the HELPMATE AND COMPANION of man, so long do


[PAGE 107]                                                  WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE

we  retard the race and our development.   This is the esoteric  reason  why
full equality must come about.

   If  men  did but thoroughly realize and understand the idea that  we  are
born in alternate embodiments,  they would very soon accede to woman's  just
requests--if for no other reason than the selfish one that in their succeed-
ing  life they who are now men will take on the womanly garb,  and  have  to
live  under the conditions which they are now making.   Thus any man who  is
now  holding back the just privileges from womankind will some day  have  to
labor under these same conditions, while those who at present for which they
are  now contending without having to ask for them;  but as the writer  sees
this matter,  it is not exactly the privilege of voting so much as the moral
equality  which the woman feels she ought to have,  and certainly she has  a
God-given right to that as well as man.

   One  point brought out in Tannhauser should particularly appeal to  those
who  want to live the higher life,  and that is that Tannhauser is  held  as
strictly accountable before those of his friends who know of his crime as he
is by the church.   There is no double standard of morality in nature.   Sin
is sin by whomsoever it is committed,  and more than that,  to whom much  is
given of him much shall be required.

   Therefore  people who reach an enlightened stage must above all learn  to
live the clean and pure life in harmony with their professions.  If,  by en-
lightenment,  we rise above the law, let us, as Paul says,  not use our lib-
erty as an occasion to gratify the flesh.  The doctrine of "soul mates"  and
"affinities" has wrecked many a life  which  but  for  that  would have been


[PAGE 108]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

crowned with great soul growth.

   What the shadow is to light, what "the devil"  is to God--that is lust to
love.   Love is divine, a companionship of FREE souls.   Lust is diabolical,
and the transgressor a slave of sin, it matters not whether the outrage  has
been legalized by the state or blessed by the church.

   Let  us therefore strive to love each other after the spirit rather  than
after the flesh.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 44.

                                 JULY, 1914.

               THE VICE OF SELFISHNESS AND THE POWER OF LOVE.


   In the last lesson we saw that the Lord of Wartburg asked the minstrel to
describe love.  As we all aspire to evolve within ourselves that quality, it
is perhaps of very great importance that we should look the matter  squarely
in the face and see what is our greatest hindrance,  for surely there can be
no  question  but that we are all lacking woefully in respect to  love.   No
matter what we may seem to others, when we look into our own hearts we stand
ashamed,  knowing the motives which prompted acts that others consider  dic-
tated  by  love of our fellow men.  When we analyze these motives  we  shall
find  that they are all dictated by the one trait of selfishness;  moreover,
this is the one fault we never confess.  I have heard men and women stand up


[PAGE 109]                                           THE VICE OF SELFISHNESS

publicly  or in private and confess to every sin on the calendar  save  this
single one of selfishness.  Yes, we even deceive ourselves by imagining that
we ourselves are not selfish.   We see this trait of character very  plainly
in  others if we are at all observant, but fail to perceive the beam in  our
own  eye;  and so long as we do not admit this great fault to ourselves  and
strive  seriously  to overcome it,  we cannot progress upon the  pathway  of
love.

   Thomas a Kempis says:   "I would rather feel compunction than know how to
define it"; and we may well substitute the word love for compunction.  If we
could only feel love rather than be able to define it!   But love cannot  be
known  now  by us except in the measure that we cleanse ourselves  from  the
great sin of selfishness.  Life is our most precious possession,  and Christ
therefore said, "Greater love (or unselfishness) hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends."

   In the measure,  therefore,  that we cultivate this virtue of  unselfish-
ness, we shall attain to love, for they are synonymous, as was shown by Paul
in  that  inimitable  thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians.   When  a  poor
brother knocks at our does, do we give him as little as we can?   If so,  we
are selfish.   Or do we help him only because our conscience will not  allow
us to let him go?  Then also this is selfishness, for we do not want to feel
the  pangs  of conscience.   Even though we give our lives for a  cause,  is
there not the thought that it is OUR work?  Often I hide my face from myself
in shame at that thought in connection with the Fellowship,  and yet we must
go on.  But let us not deceive ourselves; let us fight the demon of selfish-


[PAGE 110]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

ness  and  be ever watchful against its subtle onslaughts.   If we  find  it
whispering that we need rest and cannot afford to give our strength for oth-
ers, or if we feel that we cannot afford to give our substance, let us force
the virtue of generosity.   As a matter of actual fact, we only keep what we
give;  our bodies decay and our possessions are left behind,  but  our  good
deeds remain ours for all eternity.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 45.

                                AUGUST, 1914.

          INITIATION NOT TO BE ATTAINED THROUGH BREATHING EXERCISES


   It  is with considerable reluctance that I again take up the question  of
breathing  exercises and their effects upon the body,  but  stern  necessity
compels me to sound anew the warning against the false and dangerous  teach-
ings which are promulgated by people who are either ignorant or unscrupulous
in their desire for profit.   Breathing exercises are absolutely contrary to
the  teachings  of  the  Rosicrucian Fellowship,  for  under  our  teachings
spiritual  results  may  only be attained by spiritual methods  and  not  by
physical  exercises.   Unfortunately the great desire of students to  attain
quickly makes many an easy prey to such people.   One of our very  promising
students is now in an insane asylum because he listened to the promises of a


[PAGE 111]                                INITIATION AND BREATHING EXERCISES

charlatan who offered to initiate him for the sum of twenty-five dollars.

   I  have just learned that in one of the Fellowship centers a man who  has
not  been  affiliated with Headquarters is charging various sums  for  horo-
scopes,  contrary  to our teachings.  We annually return  from  Headquarters
many dollars to people who send to us asking for delineations and  character
reading  as  well as predictions,  because we uphold the  principle  that  a
spiritual  science  may  not be prostituted for gold however  much  we  need
money;  and it grieves us very much to find out that such people,  who admit
that  they  know  these practices to be contrary to the  principles  of  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship,  are placed upon the platform of study centers,  and
stand before the people as teachers an exponents,  of the Rosicrucian teach-
ings.   This same person has also copied from Hindu books costing but a  few
cents, breathing exercises which he sells to unsuspecting victims for a dol-
lar.

   Now I ask you, dear friends, will you not take this from me,  one who has
gone  the way and knows by experience that there is no express train to  the
Temple  of Initiation.   The road is slow and steep and rugged;  it must  be
walked step by step,  though th feet bleed,  and the heart also with  sorrow
and  suffering.   The soul body--the golden wedding garment--which alone  is
the password  by which we can enter,  is made by the good deeds done day  by
day  with  patient  perseverance in well-doing,  and  by  no  other  method.
Breathing exercises cannot take the place of good deeds.  Can you not under-
stand that?   I know what I am talking about,  because in the very  earliest
stage  of  my  endeavor  in  spiritual  directions, I also found these Hindu


[PAGE 112]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

breathing  exercises.   I tried them for two days,  and my  vital  body  was
partly  lifted out of the physical;  it then occurred to me that I was in  a
dangerous condition,  and I stopped.   But it took me two weeks to  recover,
during  which I felt as if I could not get my feet on the ground,  as  if  I
were walking on air; and during those two weeks I suffered greatly.   Others
may not have the persistence to recover that I did, and may go to the insane
asylum.  Therefore it is a very dangerous thing to try.  There may of course
be others on whom they have no effect.   But it is very,  very dangerous  to
meddle with fire, and you should not try it.  on the other hand, if you will
day by day try to serve in the vineyard of Christ,  and endeavor to do deeds
of mercy, then the golden wedding garment, the soul body, will surely be wo-
ven, which one day will admit you to the Temple.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 46.

                              SEPTEMBER, 1914.

                     THE WORLD WAR AND INFANT MORTALITY


   Up  to the present time I have especially refrained from commenting  upon
current  topics,  but feel that the present cosmic crisis demands  something
from  Headquarters which may guide students in their attitude  towards  this
calamity.   The  effect of this unprecedented slaughter of human  beings  is
much more far-reaching than is apparent from the physical viewpoint.


[PAGE 113]                                THE WORLD WAR AND INFANT MORTALITY

   In the first place, of course, that viewpoint is the one which appeals to
us.   We  feel and can sympathize with the grief felt in many  thousands  of
homes, where father, son, or husband has been ruthlessly torn away.  But the
sorrow  and suffering that are met with in the physical world fade into  in-
significance when compared with what takes place in the invisible realms  of
nature.   The thousands and thousands of victims of this cruel war are awak-
ening  from  the  death  stupor caused by the  sudden  transition  from  the
physical life to that of the desire world.   They carry with them the scenes
of  the battlefield;  many are stunned and wander about in the most  aimless
fashion.  They cannot realize what has happened.  Others again are beginning
to  sense the fact that they have passed from one phase of existence to  an-
other.   Then comes to them also the grief for those they have left  behind.
thus  there  is  in the world at this time  an  indescribable,  unimaginable
amount of sorrow and suffering, mental as well as physical.

   In fact,  never since the world was has there been such universal  sorrow
as there is at the present time.   But besides this,  we must not forget  we
are  now laying up for ourselves a great deal of future suffering;  for,  as
has been explained in the Rosicrucian lecture literature,  it is  impossible
for these people who are now so ruthlessly and suddenly torn away from their
bodies to review their past life,  and thus the etching of the life panorama
does  not take place as it should.  Therefore these egos will not  reap  the
fruit  of  their present existence as they should in purgatory and the first


[PAGE 114]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

heaven.  They will come back minus this experience at some future time;  and
it will be necessary, in order that they may regain what they have lost,  to
let them die in childhood so that they may have the new desire body and  vi-
tal body imprinted with the essence of their present life.

   Therefore  in some far-off future day we shall find that an epidemic,  or
something of that nature, will take away many thousands of children, and we,
now their contemporaries, will be left to mourn their loss.   Oh!  that this
law  of infant mortality were understood.   Then we should not have to  pray
for peace as we are now doing.   Let everyone in the Rosicrucian  Fellowship
pray morning,  noon,  and night for the restoration of peace at the earliest
possible moment.  Let us realize the responsibility of knowledge and live up
to it,  endeavoring daily to discharge it.  This knowledge which we have re-
ceived  must be given out wherever it is practicable without intruding  upon
other people.   If the world knew and believed in the law of rebirth and  of
consequence,  if it understood the law of infant mortality,  such a thing as
this war could never have happened;  and the more we try to inculcate  these
teachings,  the better we shall promote peace and good will,  and the better
serve humanity.

   Please  be  particularly earnest and concentrate every  vestige  of  your
power  upon the healing work at Headquarters when we have healing  meetings.
We need all the help we can get.


                             --- END OF FILE ---

[PAGE 115]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 47.

                               OCTOBER, 1914.

          THE INVISIBLE HELPERS AND THEIR WORK ON THE BATTLE FIELD

   Another month has gone by and still the European war is raging in all its
intensity.  Thousands and thousands have passed over the border into the in-
visible  realm,  and the distress there as well as here is unprecedented  in
the history of the world.  As you have learned from our literature,  the de-
sire world is the world of illusion and delusion;  and those poor people who
have  so suddenly been transferred to that realm with frightful wounds  upon
their physical bodies also imagine (as very frequently in the case with per-
sons who have met accidents) that the lesions of the physical body are still
with them, and they suffer acutely there from these fancied injuries as they
would here.   That is of course entirely needless.   many of them are  going
about there with dreadful wounds upon their bodies,  particularly those  who
have wounds caused by bursting shells and by bayonets.   It is of course  an
easy  matter for the Invisible Helpers to show any one of these people  that
his  or her injuries are only fancied, yet when there are so many  thousands
the task is gigantic, and our Invisible Helpers are having a time of unprec-
edented activity against overwhelming odds.

   It is not so much however the anguish  that  results  from  such  fancied


[PAGE 116]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

bodily  lesions which makes the work.   The mental anguish--the concern  for
those who have been left behind, the fear of fathers concerning their little
ones,  and the sorrow of the mothers who have been left behind to bring up a
family  of young children--is the most fearful handicap to a  settlement  of
this dreadful state of affairs that the Invisible Helpers have to meet,  and
this is the point on which I would like to ask your earnest co-operation.

   President Wilson of the United States has appointed October 4th as a  day
of prayer for peace.  It is well always to unite with such movements because
our trained thoughts will have a considerable effect and strengthen  wonder-
fully the general appeal.  This day should be spent by every earnest student
in prayer for the deliverance of the world from this awful slaughter.  Their
thoughts  should be particularly directed towards soothing those who are  in
this world, and in the invisible world also who are distressed at the sever-
ance  of family ties.   Each one should hold the thought that  although  the
present war seems grievous,  nevertheless this is only an incident in a long
stretch of time which has neither beginning nor end.   As spirits we are im-
mortal,  and these things which now seem to us of so great importance,  when
viewed  from the spiritual standpoint and when considering the fact that  we
are  really  immortal,  are of less moment than now seems the  case  to  us.
Whatever  befalls,  it will be incorporated into the spiritual nature  as  a
lesson to give us a sense of the horror of this carnage which is now  devas-
tating the world.

   This war, let us fervently hope, will be the last war that will ever  mar


[PAGE 117]                               WORLD WAR AND UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD

the peace of the earth; that having learned this costly lesson, mankind will
once and for all destroy the implements of war,  and beat their swords  into
plowshares.  Let this idea be in the mind of every student on the 4th of Oc-
tober,  but as this date is so near at hand that probably this  letter  will
not  reach all in time,  let every one in the Rosicrucian Fellowship  devote
Sunday, the 18th, to a prayer for peace.  By that time all our students will
have received this message,  and we shall again be united from morning until
evening in this effort to help restore peace to the world.   May the kingdom
of Christ soon superseded the kingdom of men,  for they have certainly shown
themselves inefficient rulers.


                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 48.

                               NOVEMBER, 1914.

                   THE WORLD WAR AND UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD


   In almost every mail we receive letters commenting upon the war, but with
very  few exceptions there has been no expression of  partisanship,  showing
that  the  writers take a loftier viewpoint than inculcated by  the  various
Race  Spirits and commonly given the name of patriotism.   This attitude  is
the  only one consistent with the principles of the Rosicrucian  Fellowship.
We  are all joined in an international association,  we are all looking  for
the  Kingdom which is to supersede all nations,  and the fact that  we  were
born  on different parts of the globe and  express  ourselves  in  different


[PAGE 118]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

tongues  does  not abrogate the command of Christ:   "Thou  shalt  love  thy
neighbor  as thyself,"  nor excuse us for playing the part of  the  "robber"
rather than that of the "Samaritan."  It behooves us in the Rosicrucian Fel-
lowship  to rise above the barriers of nationality and learn to say  as  did
that much maligned man,  Thomas Paine:  "The world is my country,  and to do
good is my religion."  We must cease to be merely national and strive to be-
come universal in our sympathies.

   But there is a war that is well worth fighting,  a war upon which we  may
legitimately  expend all our energy,  a war that we shall do well to  pursue
with unrelenting zeal,  and one of the students puts it so well that we can-
not do better than give his letter.

   "In reflecting upon the war this thought comes:   When men grow weary  of
the appalling internecine struggle and lay down their arms,  and peace holds
sway,  from this continent,  burdened with the dust of friend and foe alike,
its rivers running crimson with the best blood of empires, a new Europe will
arise, and a higher civilization succeed the one destroyed.

   "And the vast host of nameless dead,  dying,  will prove a mightier power
for world peace than had they lived.  Thus it is that from the  unrestrained
passions of men, Deity, just and loving, brings ultimate good.

   "If  men,  and women too,  were only one-tenth part as eager to wage  war
against their real enemy within the human breast as they are to take up arms
against a supposed enemy just across a non-existing  imaginary boundary line


[PAGE 119]                               WORLD WAR AND UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD

on  the face of God's good world,  then the Prince of Peace could come  into
His own.   All deadly weapons would be consigned to limbo,  and the glorious
promise would be fulfilled:  'On earth peace and good will towards men.'

   "And so for myself,  I resolve that i will not cease my efforts till  the
last vestige of evil,  error, and hate be eliminated,  and the lofty trinity
of 'Goodness, Truth, and Love reign unchallenged within.'

   "In  this  real struggle I find myself a poor soldier,  and the  tide  of
battle often sets in the wrong direction,  yet no matter if I fail ten thou-
sand times, the lesson must be learned and shall be learned.  Some day, with
a stout heart, an indomitable will, and unflagging persistence,  the victory
will be won and peace will reign--the peace that passeth all understanding."

   let us all join our brother in that noble fight, remembering the words of
Goethe:

   "From every power that holds the world in chains
   Man frees himself when self-control he gains."


[PAGE 120]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                               LETTER NO. 49.

                               DECEMBER, 1914.

                          DESIRE--A TWO-EDGED SWORD


   This is the time when good wishes are in order.  "A Merry Christmas and A
Happy New Year" are greetings soon to be heard everywhere, and in conformity
with this ancient usage the workers on Mt.  Ecclesia also extend to  members
all over the world the usual seasonal greetings.

   But  while we thus cordially wish one another Godspeed and good cheer  in
the coming year,  after all,  though the wishes of others may be encouraging
and gratifying, they are really of minor consequence.  But what we wish our-
selves  individually is of prime importance.   If the whole world  conspired
against  and antagonized us in this wish,  we should  nevertheless  succeed,
provided always we were able to put sufficient intensity and insistence into
the wish.   Do we desire riches?   They may be ours by the exercise of will.
If  we want power and popularity,  they also are at our beck and call,  pro-
vided we clothe our wish with an all-compelling ardor.  Are we sick, feeble,
or  in other ways disabled?   We may rid ourselves of these bodily  ailments
also by an intense desire for health.  Social restrictions or hampering fam-
ily  conditions  will  disappear before the earnest desire of  the  one  who
wishes.


[PAGE 121]                                         DESIRE--A TWO-EDGED SWORD

   But  there is another side.   Desire is a two-edged sword,  and what  ap-
peared the greatest good while in contemplation may prove to be a curse when
we have achieved actual possession.   The greatest fortune may crumble in  a
few  hours by earthquake or a turn of the market,  and the rich  man  always
fears he may lose his possessions.   To be popular we must be at everybody's
beck and call; we have neither rest nor time to follow our own bent.  Bodily
ailments which seem thorns in the flesh,  which seem to rob life of all  its
joys, and of which we would fain be rid, may be the greater blessing in dis-
guise.   paul had such an ailment and he besought the Lord, who said to him:
"My grace is sufficient for thee."  So also with inharmonious family  condi-
tions,  etc.   There are in all human relationships certain  lessons  to  be
learned  for our good,  and therefore we should be very careful not to  wish
them  away without always adding the words which were used by Christ  during
the passion of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Though in the body He
shrank from the torture that awaited Him, He said:  "Not my will but Thine.'
We should always remember that there is only one thing we may pray for  with
unrestricted fervor and full intensity,  and that is that we may be pleasing
to God.

   An now,  dear friends,  the Rosicrucian Fellowship is an association com-
posed of many individual members.   You are one, and will you join as a mem-
ber  in wishing ourselves,  the Fellowship, a grater baptism of God's  grace
during  the year 1915,  so that we may more efficiently do our part  of  the
work of God upon the  earth and hasten the day of Christ?  And will you wish


[PAGE 122]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

it with such intensity that you will WORK for that end all through the  year
with zeal and fervor?

   May  God  bless the Rosicrucian Fellowship and make it a  more  efficient
factor in His work in the world.

                               ---------------


                               LETTER NO. 50.

                               JANUARY, 1915.

                    SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY FOR THE NEW YEAR


   The  customary  greeting at this time is:  "May you have a  happy  and  a
prosperous New Year."   With this the writer is in hearty accord and extends
it to you, but his meaning may differ somewhat from that which is ordinarily
given,  for  usually  it is material prosperity that is  the  main  thought;
whereas  the writer wishes you that gold which is wrought by the alchemy  of
the soul, so that the base metal of the coming year's experience may thus be
transformed into the Philosopher's Stone,  the greatest good this world  can
ever give.   Worldly riches are always a source of care to their  possessor,
but this,  the jewel of jewels,  rings with it?  the peace that passeth  all
understanding.

   Moreover,  if  we work solely for material things,  our labor  is  always
found to be hard drudgery no matter how we may seek to break the monotony by
indulging  in so-called pleasures.   There comes ever and anon the  thought:
"What is the use?"  But when we labor in the vineyard of Christ,  when we do
everything in our business and out of it as "unto the Lord," then the aspect
is entirely different.  Christ said:  "My  yoke  is  easy,  and my burden is


[PAGE 123]                             SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY FOR THE NEW YEAR

light,"  and  that is an actual truth,  though perhaps not in  the  ordinary
sense.   The writer and others who have been with him during many years  can
testify from personal experience that though there has been the most arduous
labor,  both mental and physical,  and though the body has been sometimes so
tired  that it has been almost impossible to bring it together in the  morn-
ing,  nevertheless there has been a satisfaction, joy, and pleasure that the
world knows not, neither can understand.  The years that have gone by, spent
in this work, have been so satisfactory that nothing in the world could com-
pensate the writer and his companion for them should they be lost.   Year by
year he estimates it a greater privilege to thus labor,  and others who  are
with him have exactly the same feeling.

   How about you, dear friend?  We are at the beginning of a new year, a new
start.   The Rosicrucian Fellowship as an organization depends on the units,
and if we are to make spiritual progress,  then the burden must be taken  up
by every one among us.  We must become more faithful, more earnest, more de-
voted  to  the ideals that have been given by the Elder Brothers.   We  know
that there are faithful workers in the Fellowship,  but are you?   It is not
enough to simply study the teachings and meditate upon them;  we must  actu-
ally carry them into our lives and because shining lights in our  community.
We  must live the life not only in the outside world but right in the  home,
so that other members of the family may see the light and be brought in.  We
know  that many do this,  but there are others who are lukewarm,  who  still
stand on the threshold and do not want to take the yoke.  Now  the yoke must


[PAGE 124]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

be borne,  no matter if the neck becomes calloused in the effort;  in  fact,
every callous is an additional factor in building, the soul body, the glori-
ous wedding garment in which alone we can meet the Lord when he appears.

   It is the earnest, the very earnest hope of the writer that every student
of  the  Rosicrucian Fellowship will take up his yoke with more  ardor  than
ever before,  so that both individually and collectively we may lay up trea-
sure in heaven that is sure to be ours at the end of the year-day,  when  we
have borne the burden and the heat.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 51.

                               FEBRUARY, 1915.

                         LOVE, WISDOM, AND KNOWLEDGE


   This  month  we  are  starting a new series of  lesson  on  "The  Web  of
Destiny--How Made and Unmade," and we trust that this series will prove very
profitable  to  you in your study and in your life.   While the  lesson  are
analytical and technical in some respects,  the subject should be approached
in  a spirit of the deepest devotion by keeping the main purpose of life  in
view.

   As you are probably aware, the word "philosophy" is composed of two words
meaning love of wisdom.  Most people have the idea that "love of wisdom"  in
this connection is synonymous with desire for knowledge, but as we have seen


[PAGE 125]                                       LOVE, WISDOM, AND KNOWLEDGE

from a recent lesson,  there is a vast difference between knowledge and wis-
dom.   Wisdom implies love,  first, last, and all the time,  while knowledge
may  be  used  for  the most evil purposes imaginable.   In  fact  the  true
esotericist who is inspired by a fervent devotion in his study and his  work
in  life  is too modest to accept the title of philosopher,  for to  him  it
means even more as he turns it around and calls it "The Wisdom of Love"  in-
stead  of love of wisdom.   A little thought will very soon make  the  point
clear.   The subject we have chosen for the coming series of lessons is  one
of  the  most intimate and holy which one can take up,  therefore  you  will
readily realize that it must be approached in this "wisdom of love"  spirit,
in love that is embodied in the full realization of what true philosophy  is
and means.

   Robert Burns once said:

   "O wad some pow'r the giftie gie us
   To see ourselves as ithers see us!"


   But I am afraid that power would indeed be a sad possession though it may
seem upon superficial thought to be desirable.  Each of us is full of short-
comings.   At  times we make but a sorry figure on the stage of  the  world.
Sometimes we seem to be thrown aimlessly hither and thither by the  shuttle-
cock  of destiny,  while others who are unable to see the beam in their  own
eye are criticizing us and making us appear ridiculous.  If we saw ourselves
with  their  eyes,   we  should  lose  that  most  essential  attribute--our
self-respect; we should shrink from facing our fellow men.


[PAGE 126]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   When  we realize that this is so (and thought upon the matter surely  can
not fail to convince us), then we might also with profit put the shoe on the
other foot and realize that we ourselves,  by sharp criticism of the trivial
shortcomings  of  others,  are taking a very  unbrotherly,  unphilosophical,
un-wisdom-of-love-like attitude.  It is the purpose of the coming lessons to
give  us an idea of what has caused in the past some of the things  that  we
most criticize in others, so that we may be able personally to avoid similar
mistakes;  also that we may have that real,  true,  Christian charity  which
VAUNTETH NOT ITSELF, IS NOT PUFFED UP, SEEKETH NOT HER OWN, REJOICETH NOT IN
EVIL BUT IN THE TRUTH, as paul describes it in that beautiful thirteen chap-
ter of 1st Corinthians.

   I  trust that you will approach the lessons in that spirit and that  they
may be of lasting benefit to us all.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 52.

                                MARCH, 1915.

                    CONCENTRATION IN THE ROSICRUCIAN WORK


   While meditating upon the good of the Rosicrucian Fellowship the question
came  up before the writer's mind:  "What is the greatest general  hindrance
to our progress in the spiritual work?"  And the answer was:   "Lack of con-
centration."

   We  all have our families who crave and must have a certain share of  our
attention.  Our work in the world must not be neglected on any account.   We
are here to accomplish  certain  things,  and to learn by them.  After these


[PAGE 127]                                         CONCENTRATION IN THE WORK

duties  have  been attended to there still remains for each of us  a  little
time which we may justly and properly use for our own development, and it is
as important that we properly use this extra time as it is that we attend to
our worldly duties, our family, and our social obligations.

   Consider  now that in ordinary life we do not try to become a doctor  and
practice medicine today,  work in a machine shop tomorrow,  and every  other
day go at some other business.  We know that such a course would not take us
anywhere in life.  neither do we live in one family as husband or wife today
and  assume similar relations in another family tomorrow;  nor do we  change
our social circle as often as we change our coats or shoes.  Such industrial
and social conditions would be absolutely impossible.   On the contrary,  we
pursue one line of work in the world;  we look after one family;  we concen-
trate  our efforts in these departments of our life to the exclusion of  all
others.

   Why not apply the same common sense to our spiritual endeavors?  We study
our business;  we plan ahead; we work with all our might in order to make it
a success.  We also study the needs of our family and we plan for them.   We
know that success,  both social and industrial,  depends upon the amount  of
concentration and the amount of planning we do.   If,  then,  we are so wise
concerning  worldly things,  which last only for the few years of our  earth
life,  can we not bring ourselves to use the same common sense to apply our-
selves equally with all our mind and with  our heart to the spiritual things


[PAGE 128]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

that are everlasting?

   In  the  Atlantean Epoch when the Original Semites were called  out  from
among  their brothers,  many of them accounted it a great  hardship.   They,
"the Sons of God,"  married "the daughters of men," with the result which we
know from our study of the COSMO.

   We  are today at another great parting of the ways.   An  "Ecclesia,"  or
company  of men,  is being "called out" as pioneers of the next great  race.
Many roads lead to Rome and to the Kingdom of Christ,  but if we fritter our
time  away walking on one today and tomorrow choosing another path,  we  are
certain to fail;  and I therefore urge all the students who are in  sympathy
with the ideas of the Rosicrucian Fellowship to give up all other  religious
societies  and  devote their whole heart, mind,  and spirit  to  living  and
spreading our teachings.

   Trained,  skilled,  and devoted workers are sought in our earthly  enter-
prises.   In the heavenly Kingdom loyalty and devotion also are  prime  fac-
tors.

   Let  us memorize and concentrate on the first three verses of  the  first
Psalm,  for surely we want to reap the greatest harvest that we possible can
from our spiritual as well as from our material efforts.



[PAGE 129]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 53.

                                APRIL, 1915.

                        THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER

   As  this lesson will reach you about Easter time,  I thought it might  be
well to devote the letter to that recurring event.

   You know the analogy between man, who enters his vehicles in the daytime,
lives  in them and works through them,  and at night is a free spirit,  free
from  the fetters of the dense body--and the Christ Spirit dwelling  in  our
earth a part of the year.   We all know what a fetter and what a prison this
body is,  how we are hampered by disease and suffering, for there is not one
of  us who is always in perfect health so that he or she never feels a  pang
of pain, at least no one on the higher path.

   It is similar with the Cosmic Christ,  who turns His attention toward our
little earth, focusing His consciousness in this planet in order that we may
have life.  He has to enliven this dead mass (which we have crystallized out
of  the sun) annually;  and it is a fetter,  a clog,  and a prison  to  Him.
Therefore  it  is right and proper that we should rejoice when He  comes  at
Christmas  time each year and is born anew into our world to help us  leaven
this dead lump wherewith  we  have encumbered ourselves.  Our hearts at that


[PAGE 130]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

time  should  turn to Him in gratitude for the sacrifice He  makes  for  our
sakes  during  the winter months,  permeating this planet with His  life  to
awaken  it from its wintry sleep,  in which it must remain were He not  thus
born into it to enliven it.

   During  the  winter  months He suffers  agonies  of  torture,  "groaning,
travailing,  and waiting for the day of liberation," which comes at the time
that we speak of in the orthodox churches as the passion week.  But we real-
ize according to the mystic teachings that this week is just the culmination
or crest wave of His suffering and that He is then rising out of His prison;
that when the sun crosses the equator, He hangs upon the cross,  and  cries,
"CONSUMMATION EST!"--"It has been accomplished!"   That is to say,  His work
for that year has been accomplished.   It is not a cry of agony but it is  a
cry of triumph, a shout of joy that the our of liberation has come, and that
once more He can soar away a little while,  free from the fettering clod  of
our planet.

   Now,  dear friend, the point to which I would like to call your attention
is that we should rejoice with Him in that great, glorious,  triumphal hour,
the hour of liberation when He exclaims, "It has been accomplished!"  Let us
attune  our  hearts  to this great cosmic event;  let us  rejoice  with  the
Christ, our Savior, that the term of His annual sacrifice has once more been
completed;  and let us feel thankful from the very bottom of our hearts that
He is now about to be freed from the earth's fetters;  that  the life where-


[PAGE 131]                             WASTE THROUGH SCATTERING ONE'S FORCES

with He has now endued our planet is sufficient to carry us through the time
till next Christmas.

   I hope that this may furnish you with a point of view for prayerful  Eas-
ter meditation which will result in abundant soul growth.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 54.

                                 MAY, 1915.

                    WASTE THROUGH SCATTERING ONE'S FORCES


   In the March letter I suggested, as you will remember,  the concentration
of energy in one direction,  advising, as I have done before,  that students
devote all their spare time to work in and for one religious society, rather
than scattering and dissipating their energies by membership in a number  of
such societies, for it is an impossibility to do effective work in that man-
ner.

   Since  that time a few resignations have come in,  which were  not  unex-
pected.   Among a large membership like that of the  Rosicrucian  Fellowship
some of those who hold membership in other bodies would naturally have their
greatest sympathy somewhere else,  and they would follow that bent in accor-
dance  with my advice.   Indeed the surprise is that there have been only  a
few resignations, but this is no doubt due to the fact that Headquarters pe-
riodically weeds out those who show little interest, and thus keeps only the
most live members on the list.


[PAGE 132]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   But the tone of these resignations does hurt.  One writes:   "I am a mem-
ber of the Episcopalian Church; my pew rent is paid there, etc.,  etc."   It
seems strange that some will not understand that the Rosicrucian  Fellowship
is antagonistic to no church or society,  particularly not to the  Christian
churches.   It  has been stated repeatedly that we favor membership  in  any
Christian church.  What the letter said was not CHURCHES, but "religious so-
cieties"; and, as said, it was not because we had anything against societies
which work along Christian lines.  There is,  for instance the Unity Society
of Kansas City, a clean, moral organization under a noble leadership, so far
as we can learn from all reports.   But to do one's best work in that or any
other religious society one's entire energy in spare time should be given to
that society alone;  and if any member of the Rosicrucian Fellowship who  is
also  a  member of such an organization decides to cast his  lot  with  them
alone he is doing far better by them,  far better by the Rosicrucian Fellow-
ship also, than if he retains his membership in both.  On the other hand, if
the weight of his sympathies lies with the Rosicrucian Fellowship,  then  it
is better for him, better for the Unity Society,  better for the Rosicrucian
Fellowship, that he cast his lot entirely with our association.

   As we have often said,  many roads lead to Rome, but you can not walk two
roads at once.   You must walk one in order to get there.   Zigzagging  from
one to another is a waste of effort.  If we do our work in the world we have
but very little time left in which we may legitimately work for our own  ad-
vantage  along spiritual lines.  Therefore we should endeavor to concentrate


[PAGE 133]                                     EPIGENESIS AND FUTURE DESTINY

our  efforts where they will do the greatest good instead of scattering  our
energies and attaining very little soul growth in that manner.

   Moreover it should be understood that if at any time the policies of  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship do not meet with the approval of any one,  he is  not
serving  the cause by simply deserting the flag and railing against us  from
the outside.   If he remains within we listen to him as one brother  listens
to  another,  and we see his arguments from a very different point  of  view
than  if he shows hostility,  leaves,  and becomes in that way an  opponent.
Then the same arguments would lose a good deal of their weight.   We are all
agreed about the great and cardinal points of our teachings.   Every one  of
us  surely appreciates the benefit that we have reaped from this  philosophy
which we are engaged in promulgating.  Is it not meet then that we should be
tolerant in matters of policy,  that we may devote all our attention to  the
ideals?

                               ---------------


                               LETTER NO. 55.

                                 JUNE, 1915.

                        EPIGENESIS AND FUTURE DESTINY

   While  we are studying the "Web of Destiny--How Made and Unmade,"  it  is
expedient,  in fact absolutely necessary, that we should keep before the eye
of our mind the fact that life is not alone an unfoldment of causes set  go-
ing in previous existences.  The spirit,  when it comes back to rebirth, has


[PAGE 134]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

a varying amount of free will--according to the life previously led--to fill
in details.  Also, instead of only unfolding past causes into effects, there
are also new causes generated at every turn by the spirit, which then act as
seeds of experience in future lives.  This is a very important point.  It is
a self-evident truth,  for unless it were so,  the causes that have  already
been set going must at some time come to an end,  and that would mean cessa-
tion of existence.

   Thus we are not absolutely forced to act in a certain way because we  are
in a certain environment and because our whole past experience has given  us
a trend toward a certain end.  With the divine prerogative of free will, man
has the power of Epigenesis or initiative,  so that he may enter upon a  new
line at any time he wishes.   He cannot at once steer himself out of the old
life--this may require a long time,  perhaps several lives--but gradually he
works up to the ideal which he has once sown.

   Therefore life advances not only by involution and evolution,  but  espe-
cially by Epigenesis.   This sublime teaching of the Western Wisdom Religion
of  the  Rosicrucians  explains many mysteries not otherwise  capable  of  a
logical solution,  among them one which has occasioned many letters to Head-
quarters.   This subject is taken up with some reluctance as the writer dis-
likes speaking about the war.   The question concerns the connection between
a  soldier,  a woman of the enemy ravished by him,  and the ego  born  of  a
mother who hates it because of the undesired motherhood.

   Investigation of a number of cases has  shown  that this is a new venture


[PAGE 135]                                     EPIGENESIS AND FUTURE DESTINY

on the part of the spirits coming to rebirth.  All have been incorrigible in
their previous environments and it seemed that no good could come by keeping
them there to he sorrow of those with whom they were connected.  The present
war conditions,  though not made for the purpose,  afford an opportunity  to
transfer  them  to  another field of action,  where the  new  mother  reaps,
through this agency, the fruits of wrongs sown by herself in the past.

   Nor is this condition at all peculiar to war.   Very often similar  means
are used at other times so that we may reap what we have sown,  through  an-
other soul who enters into our lives to suffer and to bring suffering to us.
I  have in mind a mother who told me a number of years ago how she  rebelled
against motherhood;  how, after she had gone through the period of pregnancy
with hate and anger in her heart,  the little child was born and she refused
even to look at it;  but finally she was melted by pity for its condition of
helplessness,  and pity later turned to love.   The child had all the advan-
tages  that money could give him,  but these advantages could not  save  his
mental balance,  and today he sits in a murderer's cell in an asylum for the
criminal insane,  while the mother is left to sorrow and to ponder upon what
she did or did not do during the time when that infant was coming to her.

   Conversely, there are also occasions when a spirit, being through with an
old environment,  comes into a new sphere of action as a ray of sunshine and
comfort  to those who are fitted to receive that blessing by their  previous
actions.  Let us, therefore, remember that no matter  how  degraded  a being



[PAGE 136]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

may be he has always the power to sow the seed of good,  but must wait until
that seed can flower in a right environment.   Each of us,  though bound  by
his yesterdays, is therefore thus far free respecting his tomorrows.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 56.

                                 JULY, 1915.

                     THE NEED OF SPREADING THE TEACHINGS


   Upon  re-reading  the monthly lesson which accompanies this  letter,  em-
bodying the result of investigations made some time ago,  I was struck  anew
and  with added force by the fact of the existence of such  fearsome  condi-
tions about us.   At the present time when the horrors of the great war  are
adding unprecedented numbers to those who pass from the present world to the
invisible realms under harrowing conditions,  it seems that an extra  effort
ought to be made to offset and to minimize the evil.   The Rosicrucian  Fel-
lowship  is  as yet but a drop in the ocean of humanity,  but if we  do  our
share we shall earn a greater opportunity for service.

   There is no remedy for the present conditions equal to a knowledge of the
continuity of life and of the fact that we are reborn from time to time  un-
der  the immutable Law of Consequence.   If these great facts with all  that
they  imply could be brought home to a large number of people,  this  leaven
must ultimately  work  in such a manner as to change conditions all over the


[PAGE 137]                               THE NEED OF SPREADING THE TEACHINGS

world.   One man, Galileo, changed the viewpoint of the world concerning the
solar system;  and though we are only a few thousand, it is not possible for
us  to  exert an influence upon the opinion of the world when we  know  that
this is true?

   It  is  often said that people are not interested in  spiritual  matters;
that you cannot get their ear; but, really, it is not so.   Granting that of
the  hundred of thousands who went to hear Billy Sunday,  the noted  evange-
list,  a great many were actuated by curiosity or went to?  jeer and  sneer,
there  were  also many thousand in whom was a strong  desire  for  something
which they themselves perhaps could not define,  and which was the actuating
motive.   Recently  there was a debate between a New York evangelist  and  a
lawyer  on the subject,  "Where Are the Dead?"   This debate was held  in  a
large auditorium accommodating many thousands, and it lasted for three days.
Every seat in the auditorium was taken and, if I remember right,  there were
many who could not even find standing room within.  No, the world is seeking
something;  seeking  it with a hungry heart,  and it only  depends  upon  us
whether we are going to do our share by putting before the world the  ratio-
nal explanation of life which has come to us through the Elder Brothers.  It
is a great privilege and we should certainly take advantage of it.

   But the question is,  How?  Let me ask you, would not YOUR newspaper take
an  occasional  article on this subject?  There are certainly  a  number  of
people within the Fellowship capable of writing such articles.   A committee
could be formed to receive  the articles and furnish them to the members who


[PAGE 138]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

ask for them and who would agree to take them to the editors of the  newspa-
pers  in  their  respective  towns and endeavor to get  a  hearing  for  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship teachings through that medium.  If an article is well
written it is seldom refused when there is space available,  for editors are
only too glad to get something that they think may interest the reading pub-
lic, even though they may not be in sympathy with it themselves.

   Will  some of the students who can write pleas submit short  articles  on
"The Continuity of Life," and will those who are willing to undertake to get
such articles into their home papers write and register their names to  that
we may get action?   Address your communications in this matter to "The Pub-
licity Department," Mt. Ecclesia.

   I hope that this appeal will meet with a hearty response.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 57.

                                AUGUST, 1915.

                   ASTROLOGY AS AN AID IN HEALING THE SICK


   Did you ever realize the reason why Christ commanded that we should  heal
the sick?   One of the reasons certainly was that when you have demonstrated
that you can heal the body,  those who have been helped will have more faith
in  your  ability  also to help the soul.  When we have advanced to the high


[PAGE 139]                           ASTROLOGY AS AN AID IN HEALING THE SICK

stature of Christ so that we can at once see the past and the present;  when
we are able thus to determine at a glance the causes,  crises,  and  present
stage of a disease, we shall need no other aid in diagnosis and advice.  But
until  that time we must use such crutches as we have,  and  foremost  among
them is astrology.

   Many  people  who have been unwilling to WORK for results  have  come  to
Headquarters expecting to gain spiritual illumination, to sprout wings,  and
to  return  to  the world as wonder workers after a  few  days'  stay.   And
naturally,  they have been disappointed.  But whenever anyone  has  honestly
and earnestly applied himself to real work,  not classes,  for a  reasonable
time,  results  have always been attained.   We have here a  letter  from  a
friend who stayed at Mt. Ecclesia and applied himself earnestly and honestly
to  his studies.   We give his experience as encouragement to others  to  do
likewise:

   "Dear Friends:  The proposition which I expected to take up after my stay
on Mt.  Ecclesia turned out to be a graft on people and not consistent  with
our  ideals  at all,  and I therefore sent in my  resignation.   No  sooner,
though,  did I give up that scheme than I had an invitation from a prominent
physician  in Kansas City to do work with him.   He appealed to me as  being
all right.   We were literally stormed with patients.  Mrs.  Heindel,  it is
wonderful  how  people hunger for something of this nature;  they  look  for
someone to open their lives,  and they try to get encouragement from sources
that are more potent and reliable than the hard and dry life-destroying  ma-
terialism.

   "Astrology came  as  a wonderful help to me to gain their confidence; and


[PAGE 140]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

by  the aid of God,  who sent me here,  I was able to send them away,  their
ailments correctly diagnosed.   And the strangest part of it is that none of
them gave me any symptoms.   I located both disease and symptom,  and nearly
everyone  agree that I was right and resolved to live up to the  high  prin-
ciples of manhood and womanhood which I enunciated to them.

   "I expect to be very busy here and wish to thank you for the help I  have
received along this line during the last year at Mt. Ecclesia.   I certainly
enjoyed my stay with you immensely and am looking forward to a great deal of
good from my work there; am only sorry I was unable to stay longer."

   What man has done,  man can do.  Mrs.  Heindel and myself did not get our
knowledge along this line without effort.   We had to work hard for it;  and
others  who  have  worked as hard with the same spiritual  ideals  in  view,
namely,  the helping and uplifting of humanity,  also find  an  illumination
that is not given to those who are looking for the material rewards of  life
and  their  own  aggrandizement.   It  seems to  me  that  it  is  time  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship should wake up and take this study earnestly in  hand
so that healing centers may be established in every city in the world.

   We have started a department in the magazine where we delineate the horo-
scope  of  children to help parents to know  their  latent  characteristics.
There is also a correspondence course for beginners,  besides the course  in
Astro-Diagnosis and Astro-Therapy for probationers, and we would advise  all
who have not yet started to take up the study.


[PAGE 141]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 58.

                              SEPTEMBER, 1915.

                        UNNATURAL MEANS OF ATTAINMENT

   When one investigates a certain subject in the invisible world, many fas-
cinating byways open up.   he is constantly lured away from the main line of
research by this, that, or the other theme which attracts his attention, and
there is great danger of losing sight of the goal and of wandering off in  a
maze of incoherency.   Sometimes the temptation to follow a bypath is stron-
ger than my power of resistance; and recently,  while working on the "Web of
Destiny,"  the figure of a hermit who had starved his body to the  semblance
of a skeleton--who had whipped himself till the blood flowed from sores that
were  never  allowed  to  heal,  and thought he was  serving  God  by  these
austerities--led  me to search for the origin of this hideous  practice.   I
have written a lengthy article on the subject for our magazine;  but as  the
matter  is important,  and many of the students are not subscribers  to  the
magazine, I have deemed it best to give you the main facts.

   In  the  ancient  Mystery  Temples the main  truths  now  taught  by  the
Rosicrucian Fellowship concerning the vital body were given to the  aspirant
to  Initiation.   He  learned that this vehicle was  composed  of  the  four
ethers:  the  Chemical  Ether,  which is necessary to assimilation; the Life


[PAGE 142]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

Ether,  which furthers growth and propagation; the Light Ether, which is the
vehicle of sense perception;  and the Reflecting Ether,  which is the recep-
tacle of memory.

   The aspirant was thoroughly instructed in the functions of the two  lower
ethers as compared with the two higher.  He knew that all the purely  animal
functions of the body depended upon the density of the two lower ethers  and
that the two upper ethers composed the soul body--the vehicle of service  in
the  invisible  world.   He aspired to cultivate this  glorious  garment  by
self-abnegation, curbing the propensities of the lower nature by will power,
just as we do today.

   But some,  who were overzealous to attain, no matter how,  forgot that it
is  only by service and unselfishness that the golden wedding garment,  com-
posed of the two higher ethers,  is grown.   They thought the occult  maxim,
"Gold in the crucible,  dross in the fire;  light as the winds,  higher  and
higher,"  meant only that so long as the dross of the lower nature  was  ex-
pelled,  it did not matter how it was done.   And they reasoned that as  the
Chemical Ether is the agent of assimilation, it could be eliminated from the
vital  body by starving the physical body.   They also thought that  as  the
Life Ether is the avenue of propagation, they could by living celibate lives
starve it out.  They would then only have the two higher ethers, or at least
these would be much larger in volume than the two lower.

   To that end they practiced all the austerities they could think of, fast-
ing  among others.   By this unnatural process the body lost its health  and
became  emaciated.  The passional  nature,  which  sought  gratification  by


[PAGE 143]                                 THE RACE SPIRITS AND THE NEW RACE

exercise  of the propagative function,  was stilled by castigation.   It  is
true  that in this horrible manner the lower nature seemed to be  subjected;
and  it is also true that when the bodily functions were thus brought  to  a
very low ebb,  visions,  or rather hallucinations,  were the reward of these
people;  but  true spirituality has never been attained by defiling  or  de-
stroying  "the temple of God,"  the body, and fasting may be as  immoral  as
gluttony.

   Let  us endeavor to use moderation in all things,  that we may be  worthy
examples to others and earn admission to the Temple by virtue of right  liv-
ing.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 59.

                               OCTOBER, 1915.

                      THE RACE SPIRITS AND THE NEW RACE

   As  there are a great number of students who have not subscribed for  the
magazine, and as there is a very important article running now, dealing with
the occult side of the war, i feel that it may be best to devote the monthly
letter to a resume of the facts, and trust that this will also benefit those
who take the magazine;  for as I do not intend to copy, but will take up the
subject offhand, new points are sure to be brought out.

   You remember how every one of the countries concerned in this sad  affair
has  endeavored  to  disclaim responsibility from the beginning.  In a sense


[PAGE 144]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

they are right, for though all have been guilty of pride of heart and,  like
David  when  he numbered Israel,  have put their trust in the  multitude  of
their men,  ships, and armament, no war can ever take place that is not per-
mitted  by the Race Spirits.   The Race Spirit guides its charges  upon  the
path of evolution,  and, like Jehovah, fights for them,  or allows other na-
tions  to  conquer them,  as required to teach them the lesson  needful  for
their advancement.

   When  seen by the spiritual vision the Race Spirit appears like  a  cloud
brooding  over a country,  and it is breathed into the lungs of  the  people
with every breath they take.  In it they live,  move,  and have their being,
as  a matter of actual fact.   Through this process they become imbued  with
that national fellow-feeling which we call "patriotism,"  which is so power-
fully stirring in time of war that all feel wrought up about a certain  mat-
ter and are ready to sacrifice all for their country.

   America  has  no Race Spirit as yet.  It is the melting pot  wherein  the
various  nations are being amalgamated to extract the seed for a  new  race;
therefore  it is impossible to arouse a universal sentiment which will  make
all move as one in any matter.   This new race is beginning to appear,  how-
ever.   You may know them by their long arms and limbs,  their  lithe  body,
their  long and somewhat narrow head,  high crown,  and  almost  rectangular
forehead.   In a few generations I expect they will be taken in charge by an
Archangel,  who will then begin to unite them.   This itself will take  gen-
erations, for though  the pictures originally stamped in the old race bodies


[PAGE 145]                                 THE RACE SPIRITS AND THE NEW RACE

have  faded from sight with the advent of the international marriages,  they
are still effective,  and the family connections of America with Europe  may
be traced in the Memory of Nature found in the Reflecting Ether.  Until this
record has been wiped clean,  the tie with the ancestral country is not  en-
tirely broken, and the colonies of Italians, Scots, Germans, English,  etc.,
remaining  in various part of this country retard the evolution of  the  new
race.  Probably the Aquarian Age will be here before this condition has been
entirely overcome and the American race fully established.

   If  you look back at the developments during the past 60 or 70 years,  it
must be evident that it has been an age of skepticism, doubt,  and criticism
of  religious subjects.   The churches have become increasingly  empty,  and
people  have  turned to the pursuit of pleasure,  from the worship  of  God.
This tendency was on the increas in Europe until the advent of this war, and
it  is still a disgrace to certain cities and centers of scientific  thought
in America.  As a result of this worldwide attitude of mind, fostered by the
Brothers of the Shadow with the permission of the Race Spirits,  as Job  was
tempted by Satan in the legend, a spiritual cataract has covered the eyes of
the  Western  world and must be removed before evolution can  proceed.   How
that is being done will be the subject of the next letter.



[PAGE 146]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 60.

                               NOVEMBER, 1915.

                 THE WAR AN OPERATION FOR SPIRITUAL CATARACT


   You are aware from the teachings of the COSMO that there was one race  at
the  end  of the Lemurian Epoch,  there were seven in the  Atlantean  Epoch,
seven in the Aryan, and there will be on in the coming Galilean Epoch,  mak-
ing  in all sixteen races.   You also remember that these sixteen races  are
called by the Elder Brothers "the sixteen paths to destruction"  because en-
meshed in the bodies of any race to such an extent that it will be unable to
follow the others along the path of evolution.   During the Periods and  Ep-
ochs there is always plenty of time so that the Leaders of humanity can mar-
shal their flocks into line.  But the Jews are an example of what may happen
to  people who become so intensely imbused with the racial spirit that  they
absolutely refuse to let go.   They continue as an anomaly among the rest of
humanity, a people without a country, king, or any other of the factors that
make for racial evolution.

   This was the tendency among the nations of Europe up to the present  war.
Patriotism,  and the racial ideal fostered thereby,  were leading them  away
from  God.   An age of doubt and skepticism had been ushered in by the  many
scientific  discoveries,  and  the  pioneer  races in the Western world were


[PAGE 147]                               AN OPERATION FOR SPIRITUAL CATARACT

stearing very close to the brink of destruction.  Therefore it became neces-
sary  for  the Elder Brothers to devise measures whereby  mankind  might  be
brought  from the path of pleasure to the path of devotion,  and this  could
only  be done by removing the spiritual cataract from a  sufficiently  large
number  of people so that they would then override the doubt and  skepticism
of the rest.

   When we dwelt under the water in the early Atlantean Epoch,  we were,  as
you know,  unable to see the body or even to feel it, because our conscious-
ness was focused in the spiritual realm.  We saw one another,  soul to soul.
We  were unaware of either birth or death,  and we felt no  separation  from
those we loved.   But when we gradually became aware of our bodies,  and our
consciousness was focused in the physical world from birth to death,  and in
the spiritual world from death to birth, there was a separation,  and conse-
quent  sorrow on account of the advent of death.   In bygone  ages  however,
there were still many who were able to see both worlds;  they formed quite a
considerable number of the populace.  Their testimonies to the continuity of
life were a great comfort to those who had been bereaved,  for they believed
thoroughly that those whom they had lost were still alive and happy,  though
unable  to make themselves known.   But gradually the world became more  and
more materialistic; faith in the reality of the hereafter faded,  and sorrow
at the loss of the loved ones grew more and more intense,  until today  many
believe  the separation is final.   To them the word "rebirth"  is an  empty
sound, and therefore grief is overwhelming.


[PAGE 148]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   But  this very grief is nature's remedy for the spiritual  cataract.   As
surely as the desire for growth built the complicated alimentary canal  from
the simplest beginning so that the craving for growth might be satisfied; as
surely  as the desire for motion evolved the wonderful joints,  sinews,  and
ligaments  wherewith this is accomplished;  just as surely will the  intense
yearning to continue the relationships severed by death build the organ  for
its  gratification--the spirit eye.   Therefore this wholesale slaughter  of
millions of men ha helped and is helping more to bridge the gulf between the
invisible and the visible world than a thousand years of preaching could do.
All through the history of the world it has been recorded that warriors have
seen so-called supernatural manifestations, and there is plenty of testimony
that those visions have also been seen in the present war.  The shock of the
wound,  the suffering in the hospital,  and tears of the widows and orphans,
all are opening the spiritual eyes of Europe, and the age of doubt and skep-
ticism will pass away.  Instead of being ashamed of having faith in God, the
world  will honor a man for his piety rather than for his prowess in  a  not
very distant future.  And let us all pray for that day.


[PAGE 149]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 61.

                               DECEMBER, 1915.

                         CYCLIC MOVEMENTS OF THE SUN


   The news printed today in big type on the front pages of newspapers, news
which  seems of such vital and absorbing interest to everybody,  is  usually
forgotten  tomorrow,  and the papers that contained the records  are  thrown
into the fire.  Likewise the song that is upon the lips of everybody is usu-
ally  after awhile relegated to he archives of oblivion.   Even the men  who
are  launched like meteors into the limelight of publicity are usually  soon
forgotten,  together with the deeds that caused their brief popularity--for,
it? quote Solomon, "All is vanity."

   But  among  the kaleidoscopic changes that are  constantly  altering  the
stage of the world, morally, mentally, and physically, there are certain cy-
clic events which, though they are recurrent in their nature,  have a perma-
nency and stability about them which differentiates the macrocosmic from the
microcosmic method of conducting affairs.

   In the spring time, at Easter, when the sun crosses the eastern or vernal
equinox,  the earth emerges from its wintry sleep and shakes off  the  snowy
blanket which has covered it with a vesture of immaculate purity.  The voice
of nature is heard when the little babbling brooks begin to trickle down the
hillside  on  their  way  to  the  great  ocean.  It  is heard when the wind


[PAGE 150]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

whispers  in  the newly sprouted forest leaves the song of love  that  calls
forth the bud and the flower which finally bears the pollen that is  carried
upon invisible wings to the waiting mate.   It is heard in the love song  of
the  mating birds and the call of beast unto beast.   It continues in  every
department of nature until the increase of new life has compensated for  the
destruction by death.

   Through the summer, Love and Life toil exceedingly with joyful heart, for
they  are Masters in the struggle for existence while the sun is exalted  in
the  northern heavens,  at the maximum of his power at the summer  solstice.
Time  goes by,  and there comes another turning point at the  fall  equinox.
The  song of the woodland choir is now hushed;  the love call of  beast  and
bird ceases and nature becomes mute again.  The light wanes, and the shadows
of night grow longer, until at winter solstice, where we are now,  the earth
again prepares for the deepest sleep,  for she need the night of rest  after
the strenuous activities of the preceding day.

   But  as  the spiritual activities of man are greatest while his  body  is
asleep, so also, by the law of analogy, we may understand that the spiritual
fires in the earth are brightest at this time of the year;  that now is  the
best opportunity for soul growth,  for investigation and study of the deeper
mysteries of life.  And therefore it behooves us to catch opportunity on the
wing  so that we may use this present time to the very best  advantage;  yet
without hurry,  without worry,  but patiently and prayerfully,  knowing that
among  all  other  things  in  the  world  which  change, this great wave of


[PAGE 151]                                   THE TEACHER'S DEBT OF GRATITUDE

spiritual  light will be with us in the winter season for ages to come.   It
will  grow  more  and more brilliant as the earth and  ourselves  evolve  to
higher  degrees  of  spirituality.   We are now doing the  pioneer  work  of
spreading the Rosicrucian teachings which will help to illuminate the  world
during the centuries immediately following our present time.  There is a law
that "you can get only as you give."   Now--this season of the year--is  the
most propitious time to give and receive, so let us be sure to let our light
shine  on the great cosmic Christmas tree,  that it may be seen of men,  and
that  they may be attracted to the truths which we know to be of such  vital
importance in the development of our fellow men.

   In concluding this letter I desire to thank every one of the students for
their co-operation in the work during the past year.   Any may we do  better
work together in the coming year.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 62.

                               JANUARY, 1916.

                       THE TEACHER'S DEBT OF GRATITUDE


   WE are now at the close of another year of our lives and at the beginning
of a new,  and certain thoughts have come to me in connection with these di-
visions of our earthly lives.

   When Christ was at the end of His ministry,  eating the last supper  with
His disciples,  he washed their feet, despite protests from some who thought


[PAGE 152]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

that this was a humiliation for the teacher.  But as a matter of fact it was
the symbol of an attitude of mind which is of great significance as a factor
in soul growth.   Were it not for the mineral soil, the higher plant kingdom
would  be an impossibility;  and the animal kingdom could not exist  if  the
plants did not give it the needed substance.  Thus we see that in nature the
higher  feeds upon and is dependent on the lower for its growth and  further
evolution.   Although  it is a fact that the disciples were  instructed  and
helped  by Christ,  it is also a fact that they were stepping-stones in  His
development; and it was in recognition of this fact that He humbled Himself,
acknowledging His debt to them in the performance of the most menial service
imaginable.

   It  has been the great privilege of the writer to transmit  the  esoteric
instructions of the Elder Brothers to you and thousands of others during the
past year, and in this he has been aided by all the workers on Mt. Ecclesia,
directly or indirectly.  Those who have helped in the print shop, office, or
whatever  necessary department have all had their share in  this  privilege,
and we all thank you for these opportunities for soul growth which have come
to us in satisfying your need.

   We trust that we have been of some service in that respect,  and ask your
prayers that we may become more efficient servants in the coming year.

   And how about you,  dear friend?   During the past year you also have had
opportunities to serve others in a similar manner.   Have you used your tal-
ents of knowledge  transmitted  to you to enlighten those with whom you have


[PAGE 153]                                SPIRITUAL TEACHERS--TRUE AND FALSE

come  in contact?   It is not necessary to stand in a pulpit,  literally  or
metaphorically, at any time in order to speak to the heart of others.  It is
often  most  effectively accomplished in the little quiet  ways,  such  that
people do not know we are trying to show them something.   We trust you have
improved  your  opportunities to the best of your ability  during  the  past
year,  and  pray that you may enter the new year with a still  more  earnest
spirit  of service,  and that is may prove to be much more fruitful of  soul
growth than the past has been.


                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 63.

                               FEBRUARY, 1916.

                     SPIRITUAL TEACHERS--TRUE AND FALSE


   One  of  the  most  difficult problems which confront  the  leader  of  a
spiritual movement is the impatience of students who want to reap where they
have not sown.  They are not patient enough to wait for the harvest but want
results immediately, and if they do not sprout wings within a specified time
set  by themselves they are ready to cry "fraud"  and seek  and  "individual
teacher,"  visible or invisible.   So long as he will  "guarantee"  results,
they are prepared to throw common sense to the winds and follow him blindly,
though  he may lead them to the insane asylum or to a consumptives's  grave,
or in the cases of those who get off the easiest,  simply separate them from


[PAGE 154]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

some of their cash.

   This  condition  has been dealt with before in letters to  students,  but
there are always some who forget and new students are constantly being added
to the class;  therefore it is necessary to reiterate important points  from
time to time.  Hearing recently of one who left a certain center for an "in-
dividual teacher,"  and who seems on that account to be envied in a  measure
by others of the group who have not been so fortunate (?),  it seems expedi-
ent to go into the matter again.

   Have you ever seen any institution,  from kindergarten to college,  where
they  keep a teacher for every pupil?  We have not.   No board of  education
would sanction such a waste of energy,  nor would they appoint an individual
teacher  for any one simply because that pupil was impatient and  wanted  to
get  through school "quick."   And finally,  even if a board could be  found
willing  to appoint a teacher in a special case who would  "cram"  knowledge
into the pupils brain, there would be a great danger of brain fever,  insan-
ity, and maybe death in that method.

   If  this is true in schools of physical science,  how can anyone  believe
that it can be different with regard to spiritual science?   Christ said  to
His disciples:  "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not,  how
shall  ye  believe,  if  I tell you of  heavenly  things?"   No  "individual
teacher,"  if such there were, can initiate anyone into the mysteries of the
soul until the pupil is prepared by his or her own work.   Whoever professes
to do so brands himself as an impostor of a low order.  And  whoever  allows


[PAGE 155]                                SPIRITUAL TEACHERS--TRUE AND FALSE

himself  to be so duped shows very little common sense;  otherwise he  would
realize  that no truly highly evolved teacher could afford to give his  time
and energy to the instruction of a single pupil,  when he might just as eas-
ily teach a large number.

   Imagine,  if you can,  the twelve great Brothers of the Rose Cross,  each
tagging around after on puny pupil!  The thought is a sacrilege.  Such truly
great and highly evolved men have other and more important things to  attend
to,  and even the lay brothers who have been initiated by them are  not  al-
lowed to bother them for small and unimportant matters.

   It  may therefore be stated emphatically that the Elder Brothers  do  not
habitually visit any one in the Rosicrucian Fellowship, or out of it,  as an
"individual teacher,"  and whoever thinks so is being deceived.   They  have
given certain teachings which form the basis of instruction in this  school,
and by learning how to live this silence of the soul we may in time fit our-
selves to meet them face to face in the school of Invisible Helpers.   There
is no other way.

   I  trust that this may fix the idea more firmly in your own mind than  it
has  been before,  and give you a basis for setting others right who are  in
danger of being side-tracked.


[PAGE 156]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 64.

                                MARCH, 1916.

                        THE BATTLE THAT RAGES WITHIN


   From time to time we are grieved to receive letters from students in  the
warring countries chiding us for not taking up the cudgel in favor of  their
side.   There has not been a day since this sad conflict began that we  have
not mourned the dreadful slaughter,  though comforted by the knowledge  that
it  is helping as nothing else could to break down the barrier  between  the
living and the dead.  Thus the war will go far towards abolishing the sorrow
now experienced by the masses when parting from loved ones; also the present
sorrow is turning the Western people from the pleasures of the world to  the
worship  of  God.   There  has not been a night  that  we  have  not  worked
diligently  with  the  dead and wounded to allay  their  mental  anguish  or
physical pain.

   Patriotism was very good at one time,  but Christ said,  "Before  Abraham
was,  I  am."   (EGO SUM).   Races and nations,  comprehended  in  the  term
"Abraham," are evanescent, but "the Ego," which existed before Abraham,  the
race father, will also persist when nations are a thing of the past.  There-
fore the Fellowship disregards national and racial differences,  endeavoring
to join all together in a bond of love to fight a Great War--the only war in


[PAGE 157]                                      THE BATTLE THAT RAGES WITHIN

which a true Christian should fight, and one which a true Christian ought to
wage  unflinchingly and without quarter--the war against his  lower  nature.
Paul says:   "For I know that in me (that is,  in my flesh) dwelleth no good
thing.   For the good that I would,  I do not:   but the evil which I  would
not,  that I do.   I delight in the law of God after the inward man:   But I
see  another  law in my members,  warring against the law of  my  mind,  and
bringing  me  into captivity to the law of sin which is in  my  members.   O
wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

   Does  not Paul describe here most accurately the state of every  aspiring
soul?   Are we not all suffering spiritually because of the conflict  within
ourselves?   I hope there is but one answer, namely,  that this inner war is
being  waged  fiercely and unremittingly by every  Fellowship  student;  for
where  there is no struggle,  there is a sure indication of spiritual  coma.
The "body of sin"  has then the upper hand.  But the fiercer the fight,  the
more hopeful our spiritual state.

   In  America we hear a great deal of talk of "neutrality"  and  "prepared-
ness" for "defensive" purposes.  In the nobler war which we must wage, there
can be no "neutrality."  Either there is peace, and "the flesh" rules us and
holds  us in abject subjections,  or there is war aggresively waged by  both
flesh  and  spirit.   And so long as we continue to live in  this  "body  of
death"  this warfare will continue, for even Christ was tempted, and we can-
not expect to fare better than He.


[PAGE 158]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

   "Preparedness"  is good.   It is more necessary every day,  for just as a
physical enemy seeks to trap and ambush a strong adversary rather than  risk
open  battle,  so also the temptations which beset us on "the  path"  become
more subtle with each succeeding year.

   Writer  like  Thomas a Kempis were wont to speak of themselves  as  "vile
worms,"  and to use kindred terms of "self-abasement," because they knew the
great and subtle danger of "self-approbation."  But even that may be carried
too far,  and we may feel that we are "very,  very good"  and "holier"  than
others because we abuse ourselves;  and we may do it for the pleasure we get
from  hearing other people contradict us.  Truly,  the snares of the  desire
body are past finding out.

   There  is a way to be prepared,  and it is sure:   "Look to Christ,"  and
keep your mind busy every waking moment when not engaged in your daily work,
studying how you may serve Him.   Endeavor by every available means to carry
out  in a practical manner the ideas thus conceived.   The more  closely  we
imitate Christ,  the more loyally we follow the dictates of the Higher Self,
the  more certainly shall we vanquish the lower nature and win the only  war
worth while winning.


[PAGE 159]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 65.

                                APRIL, 1916.

                    EASTER, A PROMISE OF NEWNESS OF LIFE.


   This is the Easter lesson, though it does not say one word connected with
the  cosmic event of the present season.   But it emphasizes anew the  great
vital  fact  that  birth and death are only incidents in  the  life  of  the
spirit, which is without beginning or end.

   Old age,  sickness, war, or accident may destroy this earthly habitation,
but we have "a house from heaven" that no power can move.  And so, no matter
how closely death may come to us or to our loved ones,  we know that as Good
Friday is followed by the glorious Easter,  so also the door of death is but
the  gate  to  a  longer life where the sickness and  paid  which  lays  our
physical body low have no more dominion.

   Just think what that means to our poor brothers who are torn and  mangled
by the awful inhumanity of man to man, and let us give thanks that they have
escaped from the suffering which they must have endured if there had been no
death to liberate them.

   The great majority look upon death as "the king of terrors,"  but when we
are  instructed,  we realize that under our present conditions  death  is  a
friend indeed.   None of us has a perfect body, and as it deteriorates in an
alarming degree during the few years that we use it, think how it would feel
a million years hence--and a million years are less  than  a fleeting moment


[PAGE 160]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

compared  to infinite duration.   None but spirit can endure  infinity,  and
therefore Easter is the earnest of our hope of immortality,  and Christ  the
first fruits of immortality and many brethren with Him.

   Let us then,  dear friend,  approach the coming Easter in an attitude  of
spiritual aspiration to imitate our great Leader, the Christ,  by crucifying
our  lower nature.   May every day of the coming year be a Good Friday,  may
every  night be spent in the purgatorial prison ministering to  the  spirits
there confined,  as Christ also did, and may every morn be a glorious Easter
on which we rise in the newness of life to greater and better deeds.

   "Take  care  of the pennies and the dollars will look  after  themselves"
says  a  worldly  wise  proverb.   We may paraphrase and  adapt  it  to  the
spiritual life by saying,  "Take heed that every day is well spent,  and the
years will yield much treasure."


[PAGE 161]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 66.

                                 MAY, 1916.

                       DAILY EXERCISE IN SOUL CULTURE


   When  Christ visited Martha and Mary the former was much  more  concerned
with preparation for his material comfort than in attending to the spiritual
matters which he taught;  hence the rebuke that she was concerned with  many
things  of lesser moment than "the one thing needful."   There is  no  doubt
that it is positively wicked to neglect fulfilling one's duties and  meeting
every obligation honestly incurred in our ordinary everyday life.   But  un-
fortunately  most of us make the great mistake of looking upon our work  and
duties in the material world as paramount,  thinking that the spiritual side
of  our  development can wait until a convenient time when we  have  nothing
else  to do.   An increasing number of people admit that they ought to  give
more attention to spiritual matters,  but they always have an excuse for not
attending to them just now.  "My business requires my entire attention," one
will say.  "Times are so strenuous, and in order to keep my head above water
I must work from early morning till late at night.  But as soon as times are
a little better I am going to look into these matters and give more time  to
them."   Another claims that certain relatives are dependent on him and that
when he has fulfilled his obligations to these dependents he will be able to


[PAGE 162]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

devote his time to soul growth.

   There is no doubt that in many cases these excuses are legitimate,  to  a
certain extent,  and that the one who makes them is really and truly  sacri-
ficing himself or herself for some one else.   I remember the case of a pro-
bationer who once wrote in distress that her two little children were always
in need of attention at the times when she ought to perform her morning  and
evening exercises.   She ardently desired to progress along the path of  the
higher life but the care of the children seemed a hindrance,  and she  asked
what she should do.   Attend to her children, of course,  as I wrote to her.
The  sacrifice  involved in giving up her own progress for the sake  of  her
children's  comfort  naturally won a rebound to a thousand times  more  soul
growth than if she had neglected her children for her own selfish interests.

   But  on the other hand there are many who simply lack the mental  stamina
to  make th sustained effort.   No matter how strenuous  busines  conditions
are,  it is possible to devote a little time each day,  morning and evening,
to  the attainment of spirituality.   It is an exceedingly good practice  to
concentrate the mind upon an ideal during the time spent in street cars  go-
ing from home to the place of business.  The very fact that there is so much
noise and confusion,  which makes the effort more difficult,  is in itself a
help;  for he who learns to direct his thought one-pointedly under such con-
ditions will have no difficulty in obtaining the same results,  or even bet-
ter, under more favorable circumstances.  The time thus spent will prove far


[PAGE 163]                                    DAILY EXERCISE IN SOUL CULTURE

more  profitable  than if used for reading a newspaper or a  magazine  which
will call attention to conditions that are far from elevating.

   The mind of most people is like a sieve.  As water runs through the sieve
so  also thoughts flit through their brain.   These thoughts are good,  bad,
and  indifferent--mostly the latter.   The mind does not hold on to  any  of
them sufficiently long to learn its nature, and yet we are apt to  entertain
the idea that we cannot help our thoughts being what they are.   On that ac-
count  the great majority have formed the habit of listless  thinking  which
makes  them  incapable of holding on to any subject until it  is  thoroughly
mastered.   It  may  be difficult to do,  but certainly when  the  power  of
thought-control has been gained, the possessor holds within his hand the key
to success in whatever line he may be engaged.

   Therefore I would urge you in connection with this series of lessons, The
Occult  Effect of the Emotions,"  which you are receiving that you take  the
above  personally to heart and set aside a portion of each day for the  pur-
pose of gaining thought-control.   There are a number of helpful hints given
by  various authors,  but i will think the matter over and try to give  some
general hints.  This is very difficult because so much depends upon the tem-
perament  of  the student.   The instruction should  really  be  individual,
rather than collective, to bring the best results.


[PAGE 164]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 67.

                                 JUNE, 1916.

                        THE REAL HEROES OF THE WORLD

   Though  my letter is dated the first of the month it was written  earlier
of course--in fact,  the evening before "Decoration Day,"  the day when  all
patriotic Americans are supposed to honor the dead heroes who fought for the
integrity of the Union.

   As  I thought over the matter it occurred to me that it seems  always  to
require  a calamity or a catastrophe to make me forget self and rise to  the
call  of a cause or to the need of the occasion regardless of  consequences.
They always respond in war, earthquake, fire, or shipwreck.

   But why should it require such cataclysmic events to bring out the virtue
of self-sacrificing service when they are needed every day and hour in every
home, hamlet, and city?  The world would be so much better off if we did our
noble deeds daily instead of only on occasion of exceptional stress.  It may
be noble to die for a great cause, but it is surely nobler to live a life of
self-sacrifice,  covering many years,  cherishing others and helping them to
be better and nobler, than to die in the attempt to kill a fellow being.

   There is many a father who struggles years and years to give his children
what he terms "a chance in life."  There are thousands of mothers who toil a
lifetime  at  "hard labor"  to  aid  in  this work for the young.  There are


[PAGE 165]                                      THE REAL HEROES OF THE WORLD

millions  of  such heroes who are never heard of because they  helped  their
fellows to live instead of causing them to die.

   Is this not an anomaly--that we honor an army of men for more than half a
century because they killed,  killed, killed,  while that greater army which
fostered all that is best on earth lie forgotten in their graves?

   As followers of Christ, let us pay tribute to the heroes and heroines who
through  years  of suffering fought for others by rendering tender  care  in
childhood's  helpless days,  by unflagging service in times of sickness,  by
patient participation in poverty and in any and every trouble that might be-
fall.

   Nor  let us wait till they have passed to the beyond,  but let  us  honor
them here and now.   Neither should we set one day in the year apart for the
payment  of such tribute,  but we should honor them every day of our  lives,
and we should seek to lighten their burdens by emulating their noble deeds.

   How shall we find them?  they wear no uniform, neither do they wear their
hearts  upon their sleeves.   They are everywhere,  and if we seek we  shall
find them.   The quicker we join their ranks, the sooner we shall honor our-
selves  by lightening their burdens as it becomes all true servants  of  the
Master.   "Inasmuch  as ye have done it unto one of the least  of  these  my
brethren, ye have done it unto me."


[PAGE 166]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 68.

                                 JULY, 1916.

                        THE WORK OF THE RACE SPIRITS

   IN  a few days we shall celebrate in America "The Glorious  Fourth,"  our
Independence Day, and we shall waste a lot of perfectly good and useful pow-
der that might be put to better use,  in order to show our "patriotism."   A
considerable  number of fires and accidents will occur if we may judge  from
many precedents.

   To  what purpose all of this we may see by the heartrending spectacle  of
the war which for almost two years has made tears a mockery,  for no  symbol
of  sorrow is adequate to the occasion.  let us realize that had there  been
no "patriotism," there could have been no war; and realizing its baneful in-
fluence,  let us learn to say with Thomas Paine,  "The world is my  country,
and  to do good is my religion."   This, it seems to me,  is the  gospel  we
ought  to preach to our fellow men in whatever country we happen to be,  for
this attitude of mind will be one of the factors in accomplishing our  eman-
cipation from the Race Spirit feeds on war,  for it causes the nation  which
it rules  to sink its internal differences for the time being and its people


[PAGE 167]                                    STRUGGLES OF THE ASPIRING SOUL

to cluster close to one another for defense or aggression against the common
foe.  Thus they vibrate in harmony to an extent greater than usual, and this
strengthens the Race Spirit and delays the advent of Christ to that  extent.
So long as patriotism holds the nations in bondage to the Race Spirits,  the
Universal Kingdom cannot be started.

   I  would therefore urge that the students of the  Rosicrucian  Fellowship
refrain  from participation in any patriotic exercises of a martial  nature.
Practice  Universal Brotherhood by never mentioning or  recognizing  differ-
ences of nationality, for we are all one in Christ.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 69.
                                AUGUST, 1916.
                       STRUGGLES OF THE ASPIRING SOUL


   From time to time letters of discouragement are received at  Headquarters
from people who are smitten by conscience because they are unable to live up
to their high ideals,  and they feel that it would be more honest to abandon
the  faith and live as others live who make no professions.   They say  that
while they read and study or listen in church to passages which exhort  them
to love their enemies,  to bless them that curse them, and to pray for those
who despitefully use them, they are heart and soul in accord with these sen-
timents  and  would  gladly  follow  these precepts; but when they meet such


[PAGE 168]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

conditions in the world,  they cannot comply with the Biblical command,  and
therefore feel that they are hypocrites.

   If man were a homogeneous whole, if spirit,  soul,  and body were one and
undivided,  that  these people are hypocrites would be  true.   But  spirit,
soul,  and body are not one, as we realize to our sorrow from the very first
day  that we feel the desire to tread the path of the higher life.   And  in
this fact lies the solution of the problem.   There are two distance natures
in each of us.   In the days of our unaspiring life the higher spiritual na-
ture is asleep,  and the worldly personal self is undisputed lord of all our
actions.   Then there is peace and serenity.   But the moment the  spiritual
nature wakens,  the war begins.  As we grow in spirituality, the struggle is
intensified until some time in the future the personality will succumb,  and
we shall gain the peace that passeth all understanding.

   In the meantime we have the condition whereof our students complain (with
Paul,  Faust, and every other aspiring soul), that to will is easy, but that
the  good that they would,  they do not,  and the evil that they would  not,
that they do.   The writer has felt,  and feels most keenly every day of his
life this discrepancy between this teachings and his actions.   One part  of
his being aspires with an ardor that is painful in its intensity to all  the
higher and nobler things, while on the other hand, a strong personality, ex-
ceedingly difficult to curb,  is a source of continual grief.   But he feels
that so long as he does not "pose" as a saint, so long as he honestly admits
his shortcomings and professes his sorrow for them,  and so long as he  uses
the inclusive "WE" in all his exhortations,  he deceives no one,  and is not


[PAGE 169]                                    STRUGGLES OF THE ASPIRING SOUL

a hypocrite.  Whatever he says he takes to himself first and foremost,  and,
however,  unsuccessful,  he strive to follow the Rosicrucian teachings.   If
everyone  else  among our students feels troubled on the same score  as  the
correspondents who have inspired this letter, we hope that this may set them
right.

   Besides,  what else can we do but go on?  Having once awakened the higher
nature,  it cannot be permanently silenced,  and there will be the misery of
regret and remorse if we abandon effort.   We have several times called  at-
tention to the way the mariner guides his vessel across the waste of  waters
by a star.   He will never reach it,  but nevertheless it brings him  safely
through the rock shoals to the desired haven.  Similarly,  if our ideals are
so high that we realize we shall never reach them in this life,  let us also
keep  in mind that we have endless time before us,  and that what we  cannot
accomplish in this life-day will be achieved tomorrow or later.  Let us fol-
low the example of Paul and "by patient persistence in well-doing"  continue
to seek for spiritual glory, honor, and immortality.


[PAGE 170]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                                LETTER NO. 70

                               September, 1916

                        BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE LIFE


   You  know of course that the Fellowship teaches rebirth to be a  fact  in
nature,  and you believe in this doctrine because it explains so many  facts
in life which we are otherwise unable to account for.  But I wonder how many
students have really taken the practical use of this truth to heart, and are
fixing  their  attention upon it by consciously and  systematically  molding
themselves and thus making their environment for future lives.

   It is true that in the Second Heaven we devote all of our time to  making
the environment for our future life, forming the earth and the sea,  provid-
ing the conditions for the flora and fauna,  and generally shaping things to
give us a suitable arena for our coming life work.  But we do that according
to the way we have been living here in this present life.   If we have  been
lazy and shiftless here, living in a happy-go-lucky manner, it is not likely
that when we come to the Second Heaven we will be careful to prepare a  fer-
tile  soil,  which we may later till.   Therefore our next  embodiment  will
probably find us with the barest means of existence at hand,  so that  under
the whip of necessity we may learn to exert ourselves.

    It  is  similar  with our moral qualities.  When we are ready to descend


[PAGE 171]                                      BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE LIFE

into  the  next embodiment,we can only build into our new vehicles  what  we
have  garnered in this.   Therefore it is wise for us to commence now,  when
our  next  life is in the moldable clay stage,  to make our ideals  what  we
would like them to be and to make the environment in which we would like  to
be raised.

   We  are  without a doubt all ready to agree in the first place  than  our
present bodies are not as we wish them.   Diseases of all sorts come to most
people; some are subject to pain all their lives, and no one is ever able to
go  through life from the cradle to the grave without having at  least  some
suffering.   Thus each one of us may well picture himself in a  future  life
with a healthy body in which he will be free from diseases that are now  his
worst plague.

   With respect to the moral and mental faculties we are also far from  per-
fect, and each one may therefore take up with profit the subject of improve-
ment  in that direction.   Do we realize that we have a critical  spirit,  a
sharp tongue,  a hasty temper,  or other kindred faults which bring us  into
trouble with others and make life unpleasant in our environment?  Very well;
by  holding  in mind and visualizing our ideal self for  the  future--having
equipose under all circumstances, being soft-spoken, kindly,  and affection-
ate, etc.--we shall build these ideals into the thought form we have already
shaped for ourselves in that distant day.  And according to the intensity of
the  concentration which we apply tot he matter will be the result.   In  so
far  as we endeavor now to cultivate and aspire virtues,  we  shall  possess
them then;  and this applies to faculties as well.  If we are solely now, by


[PAGE 172]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

the aspiration to maintain order we shall later bring back that virtue.  Are
we lacking the sense of ryhthm?   Very well, it may be ours in the future by
asking now.  Mechanical ability, or any thing else that is necessary to give
us the life experience we seek, may be had in the same way.

   Therefore  we ought systematically to set aside a certain time at  inter-
vals,  as frequent as is consistent with our other duties,  to think forward
and plan for future life--what sort of a body, what faculties, virtues,  and
environment we wish.  When we are able to make our choice intelligently,  we
are undoubtedly given a great deal more latitude than if we had not  thought
about the matter at all.

   You  understand of course that the highest form of aspiration  to  virtue
is  the constant endeavor to practice in it our daily lives.   But while  we
are endeavoring to cultivate virtures, as we should, by practice, it is sci-
entific  to plan ahead the use we shall make of the future life just  as  we
now plan ahead the use of the day that is before us.  I trust that this idea
may  take  root among the students and be consistently carried  to  its  le-
gitimate consummation,  for in that way it will be bound to have a wonderful
effect upon the future of ourselves and the future of the world about us.


[PAGE 173]                            DESCENT OF THE CHRIST LIFE IN THE FALL


                                LETTER NO. 71

                                October, 1916

                   DESCENT OF THE CHRIST LIFE IN THE FALL

   We  are  now at the fall equinox where the physical sun  is  leaving  the
northern  hemisphere after having provided us with the necessities  of  life
for the coming year;  and the spiritual tide which carries on its crest  the
life  which will find physical expression in the coming year is now  on  its
way towards our earth.  The half-year directly before us is the holy part of
the year.   From the feast of the Immaculate Conception to the Mystic  Birth
at  Christmas (while this wave is descending into the earth) and  from  that
time to Easter (while it is traveling outward) a harmonious, rhythmic vibra-
tory song, not inaptly described in the legend of the Mystic Birth as a "ho-
sanna"  sung by an angel choir, fills the planetary atmosphere and acts upon
all as an impulse to spiritual aspiration.  Not upon all in even measure, of
course, but according to their general character.

   Some  do not feel this spiritual save at all because of their  depravity,
but it works in,  on, and with them just the same, and in time they will re-
spond.   Others are so engrossed in their buying and selling, their marrying
and giving in marriage,  their loves and their ambitions,  that they are not
conscious of it save at the time when it is at its maximum strength, namely,


[PAGE 174]                                              LETTERS TO STUDENTS

namely,  Christmas,  and  then  it expresses itself  only  as  a  spirit  of
super-socialability and generosity; they like to feast and give presents.  A
more  advanced class feels the wave of holiness from the very  beginning  of
its descent,  and realizes the important effect of its harmony and rhythm in
furthering efforts in the direction of soul growth.  They profit accordingly
by  making  the most efforts during the months from the fall to  the  spring
equinox.  It is like swimming with the tide.

   For  that reason I am devoting this letter to call your attention tot  he
annually recurring phenomenon.  Whether you are conscious of it or not,  the
powerful spiritual vibrations of life-giving Christ wave are in the  earth's
atmosphere  during  the  winter months,  and may be used by you  to  a  much
greater advantage if you know it and double your efforts than if you are un-
aware of the fact.

   Let us therefore each take stock of the particular sins which most easily
beset us, for now is beginning the most favorable time of the year for their
eradication.   Let us also take stock of the virtues we lack and  feel  most
need of cultivating,  for this is the time to do the work most  efficiently.
By  careful,  systematic work in the holy winter months we  may  make  great
strides in our efforts to realize our spiritual aspirations.

   Having made up our minds as to the personal work, let us look about us to
see who in our circle of acquaintances seem to be seeking for spiritual  en-
lightenment, and who would be likely to lend an ear to our teachings.   This
requires  discrimination,  for  we  have  no  right  to force our ideas upon


[PAGE 175]                             TRIALS THAT BESET THE OCCULT STUDENT

unwilling  ears  any more than we would be justified in beating  a  drum  in
their rooms for an hour or two each day.   If we find that they do not  take
kindly  to what we have to say,  it is better to leave them;  but there  are
many who may be awakened in winter under the spiritual Christ vibration  who
could not be reached in summer.   I therefore trust that we may use all  the
coming  months  in a way which shall profit us greatly  from  the  spiritual
standpoint.


                                LETTER NO. 72

                               November, 1916

           THE REASON FOR THE TRIALS THAT BESET THE OCCULT STUDENT


   From time to time we receive letters from students complaining that since
they  have taken up the higher teachings, and are trying to live in  confor-
mity with them, everything seems to go wrong with their affairs.   Some feel
a determined opposition in their homes, others suffer in business,  and some
are even affected in health.   Some, according to temperament,  are ready to
give up,  and others grit their teeth in persistence in well-doing"  despite
the trials.  But all are unanimous in asking why this marked change in their
affairs.   Each receives the best help we can given to solve his  individual
problems,  but  as we feel that there are many among the students  who  have
been  similarly  tried,  it  seems  appropriate to state the reason for this


[PAGE 176]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

condition.

   In  the first place,  the aspiring soul should realize that  the  adverse
conditions  happen for good according to a firmly established law of  nature
whereby God aims to aid him in the quest.  Trials are a sign of progress and
a cause for great rejoicing.  This is how the law acts:  During all our past
lives we have made ties and have incurred debts under the Law of  Causation.
These debts continue to increase so long as we live the usual selfish,  hap-
hazard  lives,  and we may liken each debt to a drop of vinegar.   When  the
turning  point comes and we cease to make vinegar,  the law of  justice  re-
quires that we take our medicine.   But we are allowed to determine  whether
we will take it in large doses and have it over quickly or whether we prefer
to  take  it in very small sips and string it out over a  number  of  lives.
This  choice is not made by words but by acts.   If we take up the  work  of
self-improvement with enthusiasm,  if we cut our vices out by the roots  and
LIVE the life we profess, the Great Beings whom we know as the Recording An-
gels give us a stronger dose of vinegar than they would if we merely  talked
about the beauties of the higher life.   They do that to help us toward  the
day of liberation from our self-made bonds and not to harm or hinder us.

   In view of these facts we can understand the Christ's exhortation to  re-
joice  when men revile us and accuse us falsely for His sake.   Boys pass  a
barren tree with indifference, but as soon as the tree bears fruit, they are
ready to throw stones and rob it.  So  it  is  with men also:  while we walk


[PAGE 177]                                            SPIRITUAL STOCK-TAKING

with  the crowd and do as they do, we are unmolested,  but the moment we  do
what they know in their hearts to be right,  we become a living reproach  to
them even if we never utter a word of censure, and in order to justify them-
selves in their own eyes they begin to find fault with us.   In this respect
those who are most closely associated with us in the home or in business are
more prominent than strangers who have no connection with us.   But whatever
the form or the source of such trouble it is a cause for congratulation, for
it  shows that we are doing something effectively progressive,;  so  let  us
keep on undismayed and with unflagging zeal.


                                LETTER NO. 73

                               December, 1916

                SPIRITUAL STOCK-TAKING DURING THE HOLY SEASON


   Christ  likened  the aspiring souls of His time to stewards who  had  re-
ceived  a certain number of talents from their lord and were supposed to  go
into trade with them that they might increase the capital entrusted to their
care.   We understand from this parable that all who aspire to serve Him are
required likewise to use their God-given talents in such a manner that  they
show  a gain in soul growth when in due season they are called upon to  give
an account of their stewardship.

   This accounting,  so far as the majority of mankind is concerned,  is put
off  till  the Reaper has closed the ledger of life and they find themselves


[PAGE 178]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

in  Purgatory to receive the result of the things done in the body,  whether
they be good or ill.

   But  what  would we think of a business man who pursued such  a  reckless
method  of conducting his affairs?   Would we not feel that he was  steering
straight for the rock of bankruptcy if he did not balance accounts and  take
stock of his assets and liabilities every year?   Surely we would feel  that
he  deserved  to  fail because of his neglect to  follow  ordinary  business
methods.

   If  we realize the value of system and the benefit of constantly  knowing
clearly how we stand with respect to our material affairs,  we ought also to
pursue  the  same  safe methods regarding our spiritual  affairs.   Nay,  we
should be much more circumspect in the conduct of the heavenly matters  than
in worldly matters,  for our material prosperity is but a watch in the night
compared to the eternal welfare of the spirit.

   We are nearing the winter solstice,  which is the beginning of a new year
from the spiritual point of view, and we are looking forward to the new out-
pouring  of love from our Father in Heaven through the Christ Child.   This,
therefore,  is a good time to take stock and ask ourselves how we have spent
the  love offerings of last year,  how we have exerted ourselves  to  gather
treasure  in heaven.   And we shall experience great profit if  we  approach
this stock-taking in the proper spirit and at the most auspicious time,  for
there is a time to sow and a time to reap,  and for everything under the sun
there is a  time  when it may be done with greater chance of success than at


[PAGE 179]                                            SPIRITUAL STOCK-TAKING

any other season.

   The stars are the heavenly time markers.  From them come the forces which
influence us through life.   On Holy Night, between the 24th and 25th of De-
cember,  at midnight, in the place where you live, you will find that retro-
spection and the resolutions engendered by it for the new year will be  most
effective.

   At Mt.  Ecclesia and the various Study Centers a Midnight Service is held
on  Holy Night,  and students attending such services are  thereby  debarred
from the midnight self-communion.   Others may be unable to hold it at  that
time for other reasons.   For these any of the late evening or early morning
hours  will serve nearly as well.   But let us all unite on that night in  a
concerted spiritual effort of aspiration; and let each student not only pray
for  his individual soul growth in the coming year,  but let all unite in  a
prayer for the collective growth of our movement.   The workers at Headquar-
ters also request your helpful thoughts.

   If we all put our shoulders to the wheel at this time,  we may be sure of
an unusually individual and collective blessing and a spiritually prosperous
year.


[PAGE 180]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                                LETTER NO. 74
 
                                January, 1917

              ALL OCCULT DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH THE VITAL BODY


   Recently a friend who has been taking the correspondence course a  number
of months wrote to get a matter cleared up which is bothering him; and as it
may be that others are feeling somewhat similar to him but have not  reached
the  point of expression,  we thought best to use this letter as an  answer.
It has sufficient general interest to be of value even to those who have not
looked at the matter in the light seen by our friend.   He does not want  to
complain,  but he asked for the correspondence course in the hope of getting
something to further occult development.   Instead he receives each month  a
nice little sermon,  which he admits is good for both beginners and advanced
students,  but where is the schooling?  Other authors give certain exercises
which  help their followers;  will we please give him one that will  develop
the faculty of writing?

   No, we cannot do that.  The Rosicrucian teachings are designed to further
spiritual progress rather than material prosperity, and we know of no occult
exercise which will bring wealth, either directly or by abnormally fostering
a  latent  talent.  If we did, we would not teach it, for such use of occult


[PAGE 181]                             OCCULT DEVELOPMENT AND THE VITAL BODY

power is black magic.   "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteous-
ness,  and all these things shall be added unto you,"  said Christ,  and  we
shall  make no mistake by following His advice.   If our friend or  any  one
else wants to develop a latent faculty for the good alone he may do with it,
that  spiritual aspiration will,  if persistently adhered to and  backed  by
physical effort (works),  eventually bring the desired end without the  need
of a special occult exercise.

   And about the lessons being "nice little sermons."  Yes, so they are when
read  superficially.   But if they are studied deeply, there is a great deal
of occult knowledge found of much more benefit to the student than an  exer-
cise such as the one our friend wants.   There is,  however,  "method in our
madness" in giving it out just that way.  Perhaps this may not have been ap-
parent to students, and we will therefore try to make it clear.  Kindly bear
in mind,  however,  that the following is a comparison made for a legitimate
purpose; it is not a criticism.

   Apart from the fact that the Eastern School of Occultism bases its teach-
ings on Hinduism, while the Western Wisdom School espouses Christianity, the
religion of the West,  there is ONE GREAT FUNDAMENTAL,  IRRECONCILABLE  DIS-
CREPANCY between the teachings of the modern representatives of the East and
those  of Rosicrucians.   According to the version of Eastern Occultism  the
vital  body--which is called "LINYA SHARIRA"--is comparatively  unimportant,
for it is incapable of development as a vehicle of consciousness.  It serves
only as an  avenue  for the solar force "prana," and as "a link" between the


[PAGE 182]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

physical  body and the desire body,  which is called "KAMA RUPA,"  also  the
"astral body."  this, they say, is the vehicle of the Invisible Helper.

   The  Western Wisdom School teaches us as its fundamental maxim that  "ALL
OCCULT DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH THE VITAL BODY," and the writer,  as its pub-
lic representative, has therefore been busy since the inception of our move-
ment  trying to gather and disseminate knowledge concerning the four  ethers
and the vital body.  Much information was given in the "COSMO"  and succeed-
ing  book,  but the monthly lessons and letters give the result of  our  re-
searches up to date.  We are constantly parading this vital body (vital in a
double sense) before the minds of the students so that by knowing and think-
ing  about  it as well as by reading and heeding the "nice  little  sermons"
which we use to wrap this information in,  they may consciously,  and uncon-
sciously,  weave the "Golden Wedding Garment."  We would advise all to study
these lessons carefully year after year; there may be much dross,  but there
is gold among them.

   You have our sincere wishes for abundant spiritual growth during the  New
Year.


[PAGE 183]                                SERVING WHERE BEST FITTED TO SERVE


                                LETTER NO. 75

                               February, 1917

                     SERVING WHERE BEST FITTED TO SERVE


   A question was asked recently as follows:   "You speak so much about SER-
VICE;  just what does that mean?   There are in our Fellowship a  number  of
people who say that they love to serve, but they do not do anything but what
they like to do.  Is that service?"

   It  seems that this question offers food for profitable thought and  that
an analysis of the subject may benefit us all,  so we decided to devote  the
monthly letter to this purpose.

   It  is evident that they majority of people in the world will  not  serve
unless there is "something in it" for them.  They are looking for a material
reward,  and that is the wise way of the unseen powers to spur them  to  ac-
tion,  for  thus they are unconsciously evolving toward the  stage  in  soul
growth  where they will serve for the love of serving.   But they cannot  be
expected  to change over night;  there are no sudden transformations in  na-
ture.   When the eggshell bursts and a chicken walks out, of when the cocoon
breaks  and  a butterfly wings it was among the flowers,  we know  that  the
magic  was not wrought in a moment.  There was an inner process of  prepara-
tion  prior  to  the  outward  change.  A similar process of inner growth is


[PAGE 184]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

required to change the servants of Mammon to servants of Love.

   If we want to make a building larger,  all we have to do is to bring  our
brick  and other building material to the place,  start a force of  workmen,
and presto!   the building begins to grow apace to any dimensions we  desire
and at any speed we wish,  depending only upon our ability to furnish  labor
and material.   But if we want to increase the size of a tree or an  animal,
we cannot accomplish our object by nailing wood to the tree trunk or  lading
flesh and skin upon the back of the animal.   The building grows by external
accretions, but in all living things physical growth is from within and can-
not be hurried to any appreciable extent without danger of complication.  It
is  the same with spiritual growth;  it proceeds from within and  must  have
time.   We cannot expect that people who have just begun to feel  the  inner
urge impelling them into an altruistic association, to renounce in the twin-
kling  of  an eye all selfishness and other vices and blossom out  into  the
stature  of Christ.   At best we are only just a little better than we  were
save  for  the fact that we are striving and endeavoring to follow  "in  His
steps."  But that makes all the difference, for we are TRYING to serve as He
served.

   If that is the motive,  it in nowise detracts from the service of a musi-
cian who inspires us with devotion at our services that he loves his  music.
Nor  does  it render the service any less because the speaker who  fires  us
with zeal in the Master's work loves to clothe his ideas in beautiful words.
Nor does it make the hall less  attractive  because  the  member  who swept,


[PAGE 185]                              SERVING WHERE BEST FITTED TO SERVICE

dusted,  and decorated it loves to make his exterior surroundings beautiful.
Each  can,  in fact,  serve to much better advantage if the line of  service
lies along the path of his natural inclinations and abilities,  and we ought
to encourage one another to look for opportunities in the line where each is
best fitted to serve.

   There  is no special merit in seeking out service in a capacity  that  is
disagreeable to us.  It would be a mistake if the musician said to the care-
taker:   "I  dislike  to scrub floors and decorate rooms,  and  I  know  you
tremble  at the thought of playing,  also that you are out of practice,  but
let us change places for the sake of service."  On the other hand, if no one
were there to play, it would be the decorator's duty to put diffidence aside
and serve as well as possible.  If the floor needed scrubbing and the chairs
dusting, the speaker and musician should be willing to do that work also re-
gardless of personal dislike.   Nothing is menial.   The same principle will
apply in the home,  shop, or office.  SERVICE MAY BE DEFINED AS THE BEST USE
OF  OUR TALENTS--THE PUTTING OF OUR TALENTS TO THE BEST USE IN EACH CASE  OF
IMMEDIATE NEED REGARDLESS OF LIKE OR DISLIKE.

   If we strive to do this,  our progress and soul growth will increase cor-
respondingly.


[PAGE 186]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS


                                LETTER NO. 76

                                 March, 1917

                         "LOST SOULS" AND STRAGGLERS


   We have been asked to give a lesson on "lost souls" and stragglers.   Our
correspondent  wants to know the Rosicrucian teachings concerning them.   As
this  very question was dealt with earlier in this book,  in the letter  for
April,  1912 (No.  17),  we cannot do better than refer our correspondent to
it.   We trust that it will explain the matter to him.  We should be glad if
other students who have questions of general interest would submit them  for
elucidation in these letters, for although there is a question of department
in the "Rays," not all our students are subscribers.  Also the problems pre-
sented  can perhaps be given a little more intimate treatment here  than  is
possible  in  a magazine that must go before a public which is not  as  well
versed in the philosophy as our students.


                             --- END OF FILE ---

[PAGE 187]                                     THE UNNECESSARY FEAR OF DEATH


                                LETTER NO. 77

                                 April, 1917

                        THE UNNECESSARY FEAR OF DEATH


   It  is really pathetic to see the gloom of people who have been  bereaved
by the death of some one near and dear, and to see how in extreme cases they
devote  themselves for the rest of their lives to mourning for the  one  who
has passed on.  They clothe themselves in sable garments, and deem it a sac-
rilege  to  the memory of the departed one to even smile,  little  realizing
that by such an attitude of mind they are keeping in the densest regions  of
the invisible world the person whom they profess to love,  where all that is
evil  lives and moves and has its being in close contact with the  base  and
selfish side of humanity.  This is not a mere fancy but an actual fact,  de-
monstrable to any one who has the slightest extension of the physical sight.

   It  is one of the greatest blessings conferred upon those who  study  and
believe  the Rosicrucian teachings that they are gradually emancipated  from
the  fear of death and from the feeling that a great calamity  has  happened
when  some  one near and dear to them passes into the invisible  beyond.   A
blessing flows both to the so-called "living" and the so-called "dead"  when
the  departing spirit is given the proper care and help during  the  transi-
tion.   It is then able to assimilate the panorama of live,  which will make
the  post-mortem  existence  full  and profitable because undisturbed by the


[PAGE 188]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

sorrow,  grief,  and hysterical weeping of those who are still in the  body.
During the years which follow it may also be assisted by their prayers.

   On the other hand, those of the so-called "living" who study these teach-
ings are learning to practice this unselfish attitude toward death,  so nec-
essary to soul growth,  because they realize that as a matter of actual fact
death  of the body at the proper time is the greatest blessing that can  be-
fall humanity.   There is not one among us who has a body so perfect that it
is  fit to be lived in forever.   In most cases the passing years bring  out
the weak points in our vehicles to an increasing degree,  crystallizing  and
hardening  them so that they become more and more of a burden which  we  are
only too glad to lay down.   Then we have the hope and the knowledge that we
shall  be given a new body and a new start in a future age,  so that we  may
learn more of the lessons in life's school.

   This is the time of the year when the Mystic Death which we are all  cel-
ebrating  naturally turns our thoughts and the thoughts of humanity in  gen-
eral to the subject of death and rebirth.   There is no other teaching  than
that  of rebirth which is of equally vital importance or of  similar  value.
Humanity needs it at this time more than ever on account of the carnival  of
cruelty and slaughter that has been enacted in the past two and a half years
in  Europe.   So closely is the human family interconnected that  there  are
probably  comparatively  few  persons in the world who have  not  lost  some
relatives in that titanic struggle.


[PAGE 189]                                     THE UNNECESSARY FEAR OF DEATH

   It  is  at once the duty and the privilege of those who  know  the  truth
about death to disseminate it as much as possible among those who are  still
in  darkness  concerning the facts connected with this event.   Therefore  I
would  urge upon the students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship to realize  that
we are all stewards of everything we have,  mental as well as physical prop-
erty,  and that it is our duty in so far as it is possible in a tactful  and
diplomatic manner to bring these great facts of life and being to the knowl-
edge  of those who are still without them.   We never can tell when we  cast
our  bread  upon the waters how it will return to us.   It is  certain  that
sooner  or later these teachings, temporarily forgotten,  must again  become
the knowledge of all humanity,  and we ought to share the pearl of knowledge
which we have found with others whenever it is possible to do so.  If we ne-
glect  to do this,  we are really committing a sin of omission for which  we
must sometime answer.

   I trust that you will take this to heart and devote yourself to spreading
this knowledge,  not as time and opportunity offer,  but taking time by  the
forelock and making the opportunity; but with all proper tactfulness so that
the object we have in view may not be frustrated by using the wrong  method.
Furthermore,  it is not necessary to label this knowledge.   Bible instances
can  be brought forth to show that this doctrine was believed by the  Elders
of  Israel who sent messengers to John the Baptist to ask if he were  Elias.
Also their speculations as to whether Christ was Moses, Jeremiah, or another
of the prophets are evidence of their belief.   Christ believed in  rebirth,
because He stated definitely that John the Baptist was Elias.  This doctrine


[PAGE 190]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

was enunciated by Paul in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, also in other
places.

   You can render no greater service to humanity than by teaching them these
truths.


                                LETTER NO. 78

                                  May, 1917

                      HEART DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATION


   While  I  was  dictating this month's lesson it occurred  to  me  to  ask
whether  you are getting the full benefit from the lessons or not?   It  all
depends  upon the way you are studying,  for you cannot get any more out  of
them than what you put into them yourself.   Therefore I thought best to de-
vote  this letter to a little discussion of the proper method of using  them
with maximum benefit.

   You  know that it is the aim of the Rosicrucian teachings to develop  the
mind and the heart equally;  to give all explanations in such a logical man-
ner  than the mind is ready to accept,  and then the heart is  allowed  free
scope for working over the material thus received.   If you simply read  the
lesson  and  think over it and find it reasonable as an explanation  of  the
subject taken up each month,  and then you lay it away and forget all  about
it,  it will do you very little good,  for you have used only your intellect
and  not  your  heart.    The  proper  way,   after  the  lesson  has   been
intellectually assimilated and assented to, is to take it up in a devotional


[PAGE 191]                                  HEART DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATION

manner during the rest of the month at different times when you feel in  the
mood for such an exercise.  You should then go over the lesson,  endeavoring
not to think about it at all,  leaving the intellect out as far as possible.
Endeavor to FEEL it, for feeling is a function of the heart.  Try to visual-
ize the different things and subjects taken up in it.

   For instance, the lesson which accompanies this present letter deals with
humanity  during the heraphrodite stage.   It calls to mind the entrance  of
the  Lucifer spirits,  also the path of regeneration under the  guidance  of
Mercury.   If you will visualize before your inner eyes the condition of man
during the different stages which have passed,  you will reap great benefit.
You can do that better than you can visualize and feel the changes that  are
still in the future,  for within your consciousness there lie latent all the
feelings  that you have had during all the past ages of your evolution,  and
it is only a matter of practice to be able to call them up at will.

   You  will remember from what it said in the ROSICRUCIAN  COSMO-CONCEPTION
concerning  the  method of Initiation that sometime when you  come  to  that
point you will have to travel backward over the road that you have come, and
feel  and see consciously that which you were unconscious of when  you  went
over it.   So the above practice is preparation.  The more you can see your-
self  in the state of mind indicated, the more deeply you can FEEL  yourself
in  the corresponding condition and realize the protecting and guiding  hand
of  the divine hierarchies which have aided us in the path of evolution, the


[PAGE 192]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

better you will be prepared for the time to come when you are to go  through
this during the process of Initiation.   It is safe to say that you will re-
ceive much more benefit from Initiation then than if you are unprepared.

   this practice of feeling the lesson you will find a very,  very great aid
to spiritual progress; and properly used, it will illuminate the lessons and
give  you  a  spiritual insight that cannot be attained in  any  other  way.
Therefore,  I  sincerely hope that you will take this to heart and  make  up
your mind to practice it regularly,  even with lessons which may seem to you
at first glance dull and uninteresting.  This process will enable you to dig
out pearls hidden beneath the surface, of which you have never dreamed.

    
                                LETTER NO. 79

                                 June, 1917

                      SACRIFICE AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS


   From time to time letters are received at Headquarters asking in  various
terms  the  question:   "How can I make more spiritual  progress?"   I  have
therefore thought well to devote this letter to a consideration of this sub-
ject.

   It  is a law in nature that "from nothing,  nothing comes"   Yet a  great
many people labor under the fallacy that spiritual truth and advancement may
be  had  without  money and without price.  In a certain sense that is true,


[PAGE 193]                                  SACRIFICE AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

because  it  is  absolutely wrong and vile to  barter  spiritual  power  for
fitlhly lucre,  as was so forcefully shown by Peter when he dealt with Simon
the  sorcerer,  who wanted to buy spiritual powers from him and offered  him
money  in  exchange.   At  the same time there  is  a  definite  price  upon
spiritual growth which must be paid by every one who wants to attain it.  In
the first place,  the old interests must be sacrificed.  We all remember the
parable  about  those who were bidden to the feast of the king but  who  re-
frained from coming for various reasons.  One had taken a wife and wanted to
enjoy his honeymoon;  another had bought oxen and wanted to inspect his  new
property;  and so on, with the result that they all neglected their opportu-
nity and lost their chance of advancement.

   The  same proposition comes to us today in different guise.   We  may  be
willing to sit at home and read a book about spiritual things in our leisure
hours when we have nothing to do that interest us more,  but when the  Great
Work demands some of our time, we have various excuses.   "I have a daughter
I want to send through college,"  says one.  "When that is done and my obli-
gations are liquidated, I will take hold." Another says:  "My business needs
my presence every day,  and at night I am tired.  I cannot work for the Fel-
lowship in the evening or attend their meetings,  for I would not be fit  to
give all my energies to my work next day.   But when I retire from business,
I will take hold.  A third says:  "I have many children who demand my atten-
tion and attendance at various social functions.  I cannot go to the Fellow-
ship meetings and  neglect them.  But when they are married, I will work for


[PAGE 194]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

the cause."

   It  is perfectly true that when we have assumed obligations we must  dis-
charge them to the best of our ability.  At the same time there is also more
than a possibility that if we think thoroughly over the matter we will  find
that  we  have some time left from our duties which may be  devoted  to  the
Great Work.   In this connection it may be well to remember the incident  of
some coming to Christ and saying to Him: "Thy mother and they brethren stand
without, desiring to speak with Thee."  He answered, "Who is my mother?  and
who  are my brethren?....Whososever shall do the will of my Father which  is
in Heaven,  the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."  Again He said:
"If any man come to Me, and hate not his Father, mother, and wife, and chil-
dren,  and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple.   And every one that hath foresaken houses,  or brethren,  or sis-
ters,  or Father,  or mother, or wife, or children, or lands,  for My Name's
sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."

   There is and must be a sacrifice involved in the regenerate life.  It has
been my experience personally, and in watching thousands of others,  that in
the direct proportion that any one gives of his thoughts, his time and money
to  the cause he has espoused so will he reap spiritual benefit.   When  one
consecrates  all that he is to the regenerate life and follows the  guidance
of the spirit it will soon be seen that his very intensity of purpose in the
new direction shuts  out  the  old  things.  He has no longer time for them.


[PAGE 195]                                  SACRIFICE AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

They  pass  out of his thoughts and drop away.   In one way or  another  the
daughter  gets  through college or finds some equally  suitable  employment.
The  business prospers even better than when the proprietor devoted all  his
time and all his energies to worrying and money grubbing.  The children find
another  chaperon  fully as capable as their mother when  sometimes  she  is
working  for the spiritual cause.   In every case that which we give up  for
the  work's  sake,  the time that we spend in the cause of Christ,  and  the
money we expend in discriminate charity are all provided for and compensated
for under the law that works for good.

   As the psalmist says: "I have been young, and now am old;  yet have I not
seen the righteous foresaken, nor his seed begging bread."   The law enunci-
ated by Christ,  "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,  and His  righteousness,
and  all these things shall be added unto you,"  holds good in this  day  as
well as when it was spoken.  This I have found by actual experience, and ev-
ery  one else who lives the life and does the work will find that  the  same
holds good in his or her case.  There is growth only in service.


[PAGE 196]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                                LETTER NO. 80

                                 July, 1917

           ADJUSTING THE TEACHINGS TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF OTHERS


   Recently we received a letter from Seattle which gives good a  suggestion
that  you  may like to use.   Our friend writes:  "The other  day  while  in
Ballard  I  went into the library and called for the "COSMO."   When  I  was
ready  to go,  I turned over to the table of food values and took  the  open
book up to the librarian's desk.   I showed her this table and said:   'This
is a valuable table.'   She,  examining it said:  'Why,  I have been asked a
number of times for tables of just this kind.'   Then the thought came to me
that  when  other students go into a library and ask for the  "COSMO,:  they
might  do the same as I had done.   The librarian might then  catalogue  the
book as containing hints on health and food,  and in that way it might  come
into  the  hands  of  some  who are seeking for  just  the  light  which  it
contains."

   This is true to a much greater extent than we usually realize.  Wonderful
are the ways and the means and the places in which the Light strikes us, not
only  when  we are not seeking consciously for it but  even  asserting  that
there  is  no  such thing as light in the spiritual sense  and  decrying  as
frauds those who follow it.   It has often been an inspiration and a  source
of great encouragement to me to think of Paul's journey to Damascus.  He was


[PAGE 197]                                           ADJUSTING THE TEACHINGS

a  man who glorified in the zeal wherewith he persecuted the  saints.   None
was  as diligent as he in putting down that which he believed to be  a  dam-
nable  heresy.   But strong souls are the darlings of the gods whether  they
work  for good or for evil,  because that indomitable,  irresistible  energy
which drives them to action, even if temporarily used for bad purposes, will
be just as strong when diverted into the channels of good.   And so Paul was
a  special  favorite of the gods,  and therefore was given such  a  powerful
light  that  it  blinded him when he was least looking  for  such  a  thing,
namely,  while on the road to Damascus.   Then and there he was given an un-
derstanding  and  a  knowledge far superior to those of  any  of  the  other
apostles.   He was chosen for a special mission and given a particular  gift
in  the  shape of spiritual vision and the ability to be all things  to  all
men.

   Not  infrequently our students complain that they cannot make  their  as-
sociates or relatives understand the teachings of the Rosicrucians.   An il-
lustration occurred to me the other day when I was looking through the  tool
chest on Mt.  Ecclesia.   There were a large number of wrenches in it,  some
large and some small, each one fitted to turn just one size bolt; there were
also a few that were adjustable within certain limits.   Now it occurred  to
me  that sometimes a very small wrench may be far more valuable than one  of
large  dimensions;  it all depends upon the size of the bolt.   For a  small
bolt  you  need  the small wrench,  and for a large one  the  large  wrench.
Similarly,  when  we  meet people in the world, we must size them up and see


[PAGE 198]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

what  they require.   Many of us have studied very deeply into  the  Mystery
Teachings and have acquired a profound knowledge of these subjects.   We are
like  large wrenches,  but absolutely useless for turning the  little  bolts
that  have not been touched with this knowledge at all.   In such  cases  we
must  not try to air our profound knowledge and talk over the heads  of  our
audiences,  but  we must endeavor to come down to their  level  and  explain
things to them in exactly the same elementary manner that was required  with
us in the beginning.

   In other words, we must be adjustable, like some of those wrenches in our
tool chest.   When we meet an audience of strangers, we must talk right down
to their level and use the simplest language possible.  Then, again, when we
meet  older students and are in a class where they are capable  of  grasping
the  profounder problems,  we may expand to the very fullest of our  ability
with considerable profit and benefit to ourselves and all others  concerned.
But above all we must learn,  with Paul, to be all things to all men,  or we
shall defeat the object  we have in view of bringing light to seeking souls.


[PAGE 199]                               THE VALUE OF REVIEWING PAST LESSONS


                                LETTER NO. 81

                                August, 1917

                     THE VALUE OF REVIEWING PAST LESSONS


   There is in the following letter a valuable suggestion from a student  of
the Rosicrucian teachings, which I feel it a duty to pass on:

   "Last night when looking over a big budget of correspondence that it  had
been  my  good  fortune to receive from the Fellowship  during  nearly  five
years,  I  wondered  how other probationers and  students  deal  with  their
monthly Fellowship letters.  Next it occurred to me that this should be made
point  of in one of the monthly letters.   It is not my desire to  criticize
the doings of other probationers,  but it is very probable that few students
and  probationers  ever realize fully what a mine of information  is  really
contained  in these letters,  which can be turned into heavenly treasure  by
right action.  How often on looking over back numbers of them have new ideas
and  realizations sprung into being that I was not conscious of before,  and
what a help they have been in many an inner struggle!

   "Truly it may be said that in these back lessons we have a gold mine from
which many treasures could be dug that would help us to live the life.  Here
indeed  we have a second COSMO.  Truly it behooves students and probationers


[PAGE 200]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

to  correctly file and look after every detail of their correspondence  with
the Fellowship so that it can be made of as much use as possible in  diffus-
ing  the light of the Elder Brothers.  Perhaps just one of these lessons  is
all that is required to help a friend.   Much benefit must come from an  or-
derly arrangement of them.

   "I  think it scarcely possible that the majority of students  and  proba-
tioners  can ever fully realize what a power for good there is behind  these
lessons.  To those among us who have been used to strict data and scientific
methods  of research these back lessons will go a long way  towards  helping
unite  head and heart.   They contain many a gem of thought which will  make
for right action and perseverance in well-doing.  If the students and proba-
tioners  will hold the thought of how best to use the letters they  receive,
it  will be very helpful and make for more soul growth.   Surely it  is  the
little things that make the big things possible, and perhaps this would stir
some members to service."

   If students will bear in mind that repetition is the keynote of the vital
body,  and  that "all occult development begins with the vital  body,"  they
will realize why it is so profitable to go over the back lessons and letters
frequently.


[PAGE 201]                                           TAMING AN UNRULY MEMBER


                                LETTER NO. 82

                               September, 1917

                           TAMING AN UNRULY MEMBER


   As you probably know,  we have here on Mt. Ecclesia a short service morn-
ing and evening, which includes a reading from the Bible.  Mrs.  Heindel and
myself are very fond of reading from time to time the third chapter of James
because we find there such an important lesson.   I thought it might be well
to call it to your attention, particularly because of an incident which hap-
pened  here  a short time ago that served to drive that  lesson  with  great
force into my consciousness.   I believe that we shall all be able to profit
by taking that lesson to heart.   Let me quote a few verses from the chapter
mentioned, and then I shall tell you the incident to which I refer.

   "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man,  and able also
to bridle the whole body.   Behold,  we put bits in the horses'  mouths that
they  may  obey us;  and we turn about their whole body.   Behold  also  the
ships,  which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce  winds,  yet
are  they turned about with a very small helm,  whithersoever  the  governor
listeth.   Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.
Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindeth!  And the tongue is a fire,
a world of iniquity;  so  is  the tongue among our members, that it defileth


[PAGE 202]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

the whole body,  and setteth on fire the course of nature;  and it is set on
fire of hell,   For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents,  and
of  things  in the sea is tamed,  and hath been tamed of  mankind:  but  the
tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.  There-
with bless we God,  even the Father; and therewith curse we men,  which  are
made after the similtude of God.  My brethren, these things ought not to be.
For  where envying and strife is,  there is confusion and every  evil  work.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and
easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits.  And the fruit of righ-
teousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

   We have on Mt.  Ecclesia several swarms of bees.   Some time ago the gar-
deners were endeavoring to move a swarm from one place to another.  The bees
became  enraged  at this interference with their life and work;  they  stung
their  aggressors severely and painfully in a number of places.   When  this
incident was reported to me and I thought it over,  it struck me that  there
was in it a very important lesson.   The bee loses its sting whenever it has
stung, and then it dies.  Just think of it!  How strictly the law of justice
deals with it!  It automatically kills itself when harming anyone else.   It
is  not an avenging God but its own act that brings the  retribution.   Just
think of it!

   If  we  died when we had stung others with sharp words,  how many  of  us
would be alive?   And again, if we knew that we would die when we had stung,
would  we  not curb our tongues to the benefit of ourselves and  all  others
concerned.?  This is surely an  example  that  we may well take to heart and


[PAGE 203]                                           AN INNER TRIBUNAL TRUTH

ponder  repeatedly  until we learn to snap our teeth together and  keep  our
mouth closed whenever we are tempted to speak unkind words.   If we can only
do this,  the time will come by and by when we shall cease to FEEL  unkindly
towards people, no matter what they do to us.

   I  can assure you in the case of Mrs.  Heindel and  myself,  particularly
since we came to Headquarters,  that this chapter has been of more spiritual
benefit to us than any other.   It has helped us more than all the rest  put
together,  though of course we are far, far from perfect yet.   But what  we
have done, and what others have done with us here, is ample warrant for rec-
ommending this chapter to your earnest attention--coupled, perhaps, with the
little story of the bees--for it will do as much for you if you read it  and
take it to heart one or twice a week.


                                LETTER NO. 83

                                October, 1917

                         AN INNER TRIBUNAL OF TRUTH


   Last  week a visitor to Mt.  Ecclesia told me that she had been  studying
all the different philosophies she could get hold of for about twenty years;
also  that  she  had  in  the past few years  taken  up  the  study  of  the
Rosicrucian teachings,  and that they appealed to her as being the  absolute
truth.  She  naturally  expected  me to give acquiescence to that sentiment,


[PAGE 204]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

and was both amazed and dumbfounded when told that I did not so consider the
teachings given me by the Elder Brothers and written in our various books.

   To the Bushmen,  the Kafirs,  and other African savages who may develop a
religious temperament, so far as they are capable of such a thing,  it prob-
ably  seems  a great truth that there is a divine being of a  higher  nature
than the human.   From such men and from such a conception of religion there
is  gradual advance towards the transcendental philosophies which  call  out
reverence  in the most highly developed specimens of our human  race.   This
gives us reason to believe that the evolution of man demands also an  evolu-
tion of religion.   We have climbed from the valleys of childlike  ignorance
to the point where we are today,  and it would be absolutely contrary to the
law of analogy to suppose that anything in the religious line which we  have
today  is the ultimate;  for if there is to be no more  religious  progress,
there can be no more human progress either.

   What, then, is the way to the heights of religious realization, and where
may one find it?  This seems to be the next logical question.  The answer to
it is that it is not found in books, either my own or anyone else's.   Books
are useful in so far as they give us food for thought on the subjects  dealt
with.   We may or may not come to the same conclusions as the writer of  the
books,  but so long as we take the ideas presented into our inner being  and
there  work over them carefully and prayerfully,  whatever comes out of  the
process is our own, nearer the truth  than  anything  we can get from anyone


[PAGE 205]                                        AN INNER TRIBUNAL OF TRUTH

else or in any other way.

   The WITHIN then is the only worthy tribunal of truth.  If we consistently
and  persistently take our problems before that tribunal,  we shall  in  the
course  of  time evolve such a superior sense of truth  that,  instinctively
whenever  we hear an idea advanced,  we shall know whether it is  sound  and
true  or not.   The Bible in a number of places exhorts us to beware of  all
kinds of doctrines floating about in the air because many are dangerous  and
unsettle  the mind.   Books are launched on the market which  advance  this,
that,  or the other system of philosophy.   Unless we have  established,  or
have started to establish,  this inner tribunal of truth, we may be like the
lady referred to above--wandering about from place to place, mentally speak-
ing,  all our lives and finding no rest, knowing little more at the end than
in the beginning and perhaps even less.

   Therefore my advice to the student would be never to accept or reject  or
follow  blindly any authority,  but to strive to establish the  tribunal  of
truth within.   Refer all matters to that tribunal, proving all things,  and
holding fast to that which is good.


[PAGE 206]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                                LETTER NO. 84

                               November, 1917

                     EPIGENESIS AND THE LAW OF CAUSATION


   Some  errors are so frequently expressed by students that they  call  for
correction  from time to time.   The most general of these is  the  mistaken
idea  that everything which happens to us is the outcome or effect  of  some
cause  or action of our own in times past,  generally in a  past  existence.
Theoretically,  students know that this attitude is wrong.   They are  aware
that  besides the destiny brought over with us from previous existences  for
liquidation in this life, we are every day exerting a causative influence by
our acts.   A considerable part of the deeds done in this body will work uot
into  effects before death terminates our stay in our  present  environment,
while  those deeds which are not thus liquidated will be held over and  will
form the foundation of the destiny of a future existence,  where we may reap
what we have sown.   This destiny carried over from life to life is shown by
our horoscope,  and gives us certain characteristics and tendencies or lines
of least resistence.   It cannot be overlooked though that this destiny from
the  past gives us a certain bias or trend towards a particular line of  ac-
tion.  But, nevertheless, there is comparative free will in a large percent-
age of our actions, leaving scope for the exercise of Epigenesis, the divine


[PAGE 207]                               EPIGENEISS AND THE LAW OF CAUSATION

creative activity which is the basis of evolution.

   As said,  students all know this perfectly well,  theoretically.   But in
dealing with problems of practical every-day life they seem to  persistently
take the attitude that all that that is,  is an unfoldment of something that
has  already  been.   This is particularly true of students  who  have  been
studying  the Eastern religions before taking up the Western  Wisdom  Teach-
ings.   By  this mental attitude of ignoring Epigenesis they  are  retarding
their soul growth to a greater extent than they are aware of.  In fact some-
thing  is  happening to them similar to that which befalls  the  materialist
during his post-mortem existence at the time when he lives on the Borderland
between  Purgatory and the First Heaven in a monotony most dreadful to  con-
template.   The Borderland is,  so to speak,  an eddy outside the stream  of
life where progress is at a standstill.  The materialist is there because of
his denial of post-mortem existence, which has put him out of touch with the
spiritual currents that generate motion and action during that existence.

   Similarly,  when we constantly emphasize the Law of Causation and consis-
tently  and persistently ignore the Law of Epigenesis,  we are placing  our-
selves outside the latter's line of action,  and our opportunities for exer-
cising its initiative are missed more often than not,  with the result  that
we become more and more barren as the years go by.   Whereas if we  endeavor
intelligently when considering the problems of life,  exemplified in the ac-
tions  of those about us as well as our own actions,  to seek out the  prin-
ciple of Epigenesis  and  watch  its  operation, we shall find opportunities


[PAGE 208]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

for initiative action opening up before us to an extent we have never before
believed possible.  By watching the way in which Epigenesis applies in other
lives we shall learn how to apply it in our own.

   I hope that you will keep this thought close to you and tha you may  reap
much benefit from a persistent practice of this principle.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 85.

                               DECEMBER, 1917.

                   THE PRESENT SORROW AND THE COMING PEACE


   From the dim distant past there comes to us the voice of Isaiah in one of
the grandest and most soul-inspiring of prophesies:

   "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
   given:  and the government shall be upon
   his shoulder:  and his name shall be called
   Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the
   everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

   "Of the increase of his government and
   peace there shall be no end, upon the throne
   of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it,
   and to establish it with judgment and with
   justice from henceforth, even for ever."


[PAGE 209]                                                  THE COMING PEACE

   Nor  is the song of the angel choir above the Galilean hills less  potent
to stir the soul with its sublime ideal:

   "On earth peace, and
   Good will toward men."

   But  looking facts in the face as seen in the world today,  such  sayings
seem little short of mockery; and from the customary viewpoint of the man in
the  street all the platitudes offered by the religionists cannot  make  the
situation in the so-called, "Christian world" less odious.

   But when we apply the cosmic scale of perspective and measurement,  it is
different.  Goethe says well:

   "Who never ate his bread in sorrow,
   Who never spent the midnight hours
   Weeping, waiting for the morrow,
   He knows ye not ye heavenly powers."

   As with individuals, so with nations.  Sorrow and suffering seem unfortu-
nately  to  be the only teachers they will hear.   Hence the  necessity  for
their  lessons.   Viewing  life  as unending we  are  not  dismayed  at  the
so-called "loss of life" incident to the present war.  Those killed will all
be  born again,  and by their experience they will be better than  they  are
now.   Peace and good will are bound to come in time when we have learned to
abhor war,  hence we may well rejoice at the prospect and earnestly pray for
its consummation.  I would particularly  urge  students  of  the Rosicrucian


[PAGE 210]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

Fellowship to unite in this prayer on Holy Night at midnight when the  usual
service is held in the Pro-Ecclesia by the workers on Mt. Ecclesia.

   We  enclose  a little leaflet,  "The Bible at a  Glance,"  with  seasonal
greetings  from the workers on Mt.  Ecclesia,  hoping that you may find  the
former both interesting and instructive.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 86.

                               JANUARY, 1918.

                   GOD--THE SOURCE AND GOAL OF EXISTENCE


   We are again standing upon the threshold of a New Year, a time when it is
a  general custom to form one's aspirations into resolutions.   As the  stu-
dents  of the Rosicrucian teachings ought to be particularly  interested  in
the matter of spiritual growth,  I have thought that the following consider-
ations may perhaps be of benefit at this time.

   The  word "holiness"  has in the minds of many become associated  with  a
long face and a hypocritical attitude of mind,  so that people in the  world
are usually very shy of those who make professions of holiness.  But that of
course is not the true brand.  The really holy man is not a kill-joy;  he is
not slothful in business;  he does his duty fully,  at home or in the  shop,
puts  his heart into all his work; he is a worthy example  of  faithfulness,
and is generally respected by all who know him, for his actions speak louder
than words and command commendation.  He is careful in his dealings with his


[PAGE 211]                                  THE SOURCE AND GOAL OF EXISTENCE

fellow men,  striving to owe no man anything but love, always ready and anx-
ious to help others; he is in fact, a model man in all relations of life.

   But  this  life of worldly rectitude is not itself a  test  of  holiness.
There are many splendid people in the world who live model lives for ethical
reasons,  and comport themselves in a manner that calls for the  respect  of
all who know them.  They are also charitable and are prominent, according to
their station,  in every good work.  However, as said, this is not the test.
The  test showing the difference between the merely model man or  woman  and
the  holy one comes in the hours of leisure when the call of duty  has  been
fulfilled for the time being.  At that point it will be found that they ways
of  the worldly and the holy part,  for at that time the worldly minded  man
turns to recreation,  amusement,  and pleasure for an outlet for his energy,
or perhaps he pursues some favorite hobby according to the bent of his  mind
and as his means allow.  It may be simple games or sports, or it may be song
and music,  theaters,  parties,  or any other means he can find to make time
pass pleasantly.

   But the holy man is as the steel touched with the lodestone and deflected
by force from pointing to the pole.  When once the heart has been touched by
the lodestone of the love of God,  duty may and does deflect it towards  the
affairs  of the world which demand legitimate attention.   The holy man  not
only does not shirk his worldly duty but he fulfills it better and more con-
scientiously  than  before  giving  himself  to  God.  At  he same time sub-


[PAGE 212]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

consciously  he  feels  the yearning to return in mind to communion with the
Father,  which is analogous to the way the magnetized steel needle that  has
been  deflected  from the north exerts a pressure in the  direction  of  the
pole.   The moment the call of duty has been fully answered and the pressure
removed for the time being,  the holy man's thoughts automatically turn  to-
wards  the Divine.   A ride in the street car to or from business is an  op-
portunity for such meditation.   The time spent in waiting for some one else
is utilized in the same way.   In short,  never a moment of relaxation  from
worldly affairs comes to the holy man without his thoughts instantly turning
to his source and goal--God.

   We have heard of men who studied law while riding to and from business in
street  cars;  others have learned languages by utilizing the spare  moments
which most people waste in idle, aimless, wandering thoughts.   Let us learn
a lesson from them, and during the coming year practice the habit of turning
our thoughts to God during whatever scattered spare moments we have.   If we
practice this faithfully,  we shall find ourselves greatly advanced upon the
path of soul growth.


[PAGE 213]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 87.

                               FEBRUARY, 1918.

                  THE NECESSITY OF PUTTING TALENTS TO USE.


   The Christ exhorted us to let our light shine,  and in the parable of the
talents  He emphasized the points that TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN,  OF  HIM  MUCH
WILL BE REQUIRED,  and that every one, no matter how little he has received,
is  expected to put it out to usury, to cast his bread upon the  waters,  so
that it may return to him after many days and yield an increase.  We are now
standing near the beginning of another year.  We have received the priceless
Rosicrucian teachings.  Hence it is required of us that we put his knowledge
to  some use in order to help those of our fellow men who have not  yet  re-
ceived a solution of the problem of life and are seeking for light.

   We are properly dislike conceited people who have an exaggerated idea  of
their own abilities and who bore other people to death with their  undesired
discourse.   But the students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship seem  to  suffer
from  the  opposite  disease  and  temperament,   which  is  just  as   bad.
Self-depreciation,  timidity,  and mistrust of self squelch our ability  and
our talents,  causing them to atrophy,  just as do the eyes of animals which
have  left  the sunlight and gone into caves to live,  or as does  the  hand
which  is  held  inactive by the side for years and which loses its power to


[PAGE 214]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

move.   Our talents atrophy if not used.  We shall be responsible for hoard-
ing knowledge and withholding it from those who are seeking, just as much as
the servant in the parable who buried his talent instead of working with  it
so that it might become greater.

   We have always held that matters of belief should not be FORCED upon  the
attention  of other people,  but there are thousands of opportunities  every
year  when we may say a word calculated to bring out an inquiry relative  to
our  philosophy  on the part of a friend addressed.   It  is  perfectly  le-
gitimate  to lead people on as long as they are interested.   Paul  exhorted
his followers to be shod with a preparation of the Gospel,  and if we follow
that rule by preparing ourselves to answer questions intelligently, we shall
find that people will be interested in what we have to say.

   Just now people are intensely interested in life after death.  But to an-
swer their questions properly we must have enough of the Rosicrucian  teach-
ings by heart and we must have them at our fingers'  ends.   A little knowl-
edge is dangerous in matters of religion and philosophy as well as in  other
things.   You must have enough and of the right kind to make it worth  while
to enter the field of propaganda at all.  But it is not difficult.  While it
may  be  very  interesting and instructive to students  of  the  Rosicrucian
teachings  who  have  become deeply interested in and have  a  good  working
knowledge  of the philosophy to go into the mysteries of periods and  evolu-
tions,  epochs and races, cosmic days and nights, et cetera,  still all that
is needed to help  the man in the street is a thorough knowledge of the Laws


[PAGE 215]                                            PUTTING TALENTS TO USE

of Consequence and Rebirth as they have been given in our literature.  These
are the vital principles which concern him most.   They are the meat in  the
nut of the Rosicrucian teachings.   If you can give them to a person who  is
in despair, either on account of having lost some one near and dear,  or be-
cause the whole world seems upside down and he can find no place into  which
to fit,  no way to get over the dead wall which confronts him, you may solve
his  problems for him in a logical and reasonable manner by showing how  the
law of Rebirth,  coupled with the Law of Consequence,  is constantly working
for  the  good of humanity,  and how he may gain whatever good he  wants  by
working in harmony with these two great laws.  You will thus have done him a
signal service, and made considerable soul growth for yourself.

   I would also suggest that classes be formed in the various study  centers
to study all that has been said in our literature concerning the workings of
these two great laws,  so that the students may fit themselves to render im-
portant service to the community by helping people to solve the problems  of
life which are so baffling to the great majority.

   I trust that this suggestion may prove of benefit to you during the  com-
ing year.


[PAGE 216]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 88.

                                MARCH, 1918.

                          THE NOBILITY OF ALL LABOR

   A   correspondent   enthusiastic   over   the   beauty,   grandeur,   and
soul-satisfying  nature of the Rosicrucian teachings bemoans the fate  which
has fettered her to a cook stove, a dishpan,  the care of children,  and the
drudgery of housework; were she only free to take this new-found gospel, she
would  go into the wide world with the glad tidings for which she knows  un-
told thousands are praying and seeking.

   That would be well for our friend and those thousands, but what about the
little children deprived of their mother's care?  Do not forget the very im-
portant point that all who were hired to work in the Master's vineyard  were
standing  idle in the market place.   They had no hampering ties  to  hinder
them  from  working there the whole day,  and no one who is  not  free  from
former obligations may take up a life work of teaching others.  If we aspire
to  that  work by being faithful in the performance of our  present  duties,
they way will open sometime and give us the legitimate call.

   But  about  "drudgery";  the use of that word is  all  too  common.   The
teacher talks of the drudgery of drumming the same lesson into the heads  of
children year after year;  the  mother  talks  of the drudgery of housework;


[PAGE 217]                                         THE NOBILITY OF ALL LABOR

the father complains of the drudgery of office or shop work;  and so on down
the line.  Each thinks that if he or she were in the shoes of some one else,
life would at once change to a grand, sweet song.

   This is a fallacy.  "Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of
trouble."  No matter where he is placed, there is only one method of relief,
one way to overcome, and that is by adoption of the right attitude of mind.

   A  great gas engine going at full speed might defy an army of strong  men
to stop it, but a tiny speck of carbon deposited on the ignition point, or a
small  cam working loose,  would quickly quell its energy.   Thus  a  little
soot,  which we despise as dirt,  can under certain circumstances accomplish
more than many men.   Therefore we should not extravagantly eulogize some as
heroes  and  despise others as drudges.  There are as  noble  souls  mending
stockings as ever graced presidential chairs.   It all depends upon  whether
they put love into their work or not.

   But what many really mean when they say "drudgery" is monotony.  All work
is routine more or less,  and the constant performance of the same tasks of-
ten becomes monotonous.   There is a very good reason why the present  phase
of our development includes this principle of routine.   We are now  getting
ready for the fast approaching Aquarian Age with its great intellectual  and
spiritual  development.   This requires an awakening of  the  dormant  vital
body, whose keyword is REPETITION.  The routine  of our daily work furnishes


[PAGE 218]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

this.   If we rebel,  it breeds monotony and retards progress.   But  if  we
leaven our labor with love,  we shall advance ourselves greatly in evolution
and reap the reward of contentment.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 89.


                                APRIL, 1918.

                    THE AQUARIAN AGE AND THE NEW COVENANT


   After writing the students'  lesson and thinking over the various  phases
of  Easter and the events happening around that time according to the  Bible
story,  it occurred to me what a sealed book the Bible is to those who  have
not the Western Wisdom Teaching and a knowledge of esoteric astrology.  So I
decided to use this letter to elucidate one of the points that presented it-
self before my mind.

   You  probably remember that according to Luke (22nd chapter)  the  Christ
sent Peter and John with instructions to look for a man bearing a pitcher of
water and to enter into the house where he went,  for there the passover was
to be held.   Later at that place, we are informed, He gave the apostles the
bread  and the water which constituted the New Covenant,  declaring that  he
would no more drink the fruit of the vine.   This is entirely misunderstood.
To the great majority the man with the pitcher of water has no meaning, nei-
ther the fact that the passover was to be held at his house and not at  some
other  place.   Also people believe that Christ gave His disciples  wine  to
drink,  whereas  the  Bible  says  entirely  the opposite.  There is a great


[PAGE 219]                                                  THE AQUARIAN AGE

significance  in this story when we read it as it is written and examine  it
in the light of the esoteric teaching.

   First,  let us remember how the leaders of humanity have given  each  new
race  a  certain appropriate food,  as elucidated thoroughly in  the  COSMO.
Briefly,  grain was given to Cain,  the Second Race man,  who was plant-like
and had a vital body.   To Abel, the Third Race man,  who had a desire body,
milk was supplied.  To Nimrod, the Fourth Race man, who had a mind, meat was
given.  Wine was supplied by Noah to the Fifth Race man.  It made him a God-
less egotist,  so that man's inhumanity to man has become a byword;  but  it
also helped him to reach the nadir of his material evolution.  Now, however,
the spiritual evolution is about to begin, and altruistic ideas must be fos-
tered,  or at least started to germinating, so that they may be expressed by
the Sixth Race.  This again requires a change in diet.

   While these steps in evolution have taken place, the sun by precision has
circled the zodiac many times.   But each step was inaugurated under a  spe-
cific sign,  and each was preceded and succeeded by minor cycles which  were
replicas  of the great ages and evolutionary epochs.   Thus the last six  or
seven  thousand  years while the sun went through Taurus,  the sign  of  the
Bull,  Aries the sign of the Ram, and Pisces, the watery,  fluidic sign have
seen ages of material development,  fostered by meat and wine.   Even Christ
at the beginning of His ministry turned water to wine, ratifying its contin-
ued use during the Piscean Age.  But at the  end  of  His  earthly career He


[PAGE 220]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

sent His disciples to prepare the passover in the house of the Water-bearer,
and  there abolished meat and wine by giving the bread and the water cup  as
the New Covenant for the Kingdom of God, where He is to reign as the  Prince
of Peace.

   Could anything be plainer?   Christ is the Sun Spirit,  and when the  sun
passes  over  the  equator  at  the  vernal  equinox  in  the  sign  of  the
Water-bearer,  the Aquarian Age will be ushered in,  in which the fleshless,
non-alcoholic diet of the New Covenant will be in vogue and an era of altru-
ism  will dawn.   We are beginning to feel this beneficient  influence  now,
though it is still centuries away,  and we are here to help prepare for that
time.   Therefore it behooves us to cleanse ourselves  physically,  morally,
mentally,  and  spiritually that we may be a shining example to  others  and
thereby lead them to the great Light which we have been fortunate enough  to
see.   Let us also remember that the greater our knowledge, the greater also
our responsibility for its right use, and unless we live up to these ideals,
we shall merit the greater condemnation.


[PAGE 221]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 90.

                                 MAY, 1918.

                         MEAT EATING AND FUR WEARING


   A student who confesses that he is still addicted to flesh eating in some
degree has occasionally an urge to speak to others on the Rosicrucian teach-
ings, but always feels as if he were a hypocrite when he advocates vegetari-
anism.  He asks us how he may overcome this habit and whether he should give
up teaching others until he has himself attained.

   This  query  has  general  interest,   for  though  th  students  of  the
Rosicrucian teachings are sincere and earnest,  they have the same imperfec-
tions as all other human beings or they would not be here; hence a letter on
this subject may prove helpful to many.

   It  needs no argument to prove that you cannot effectively  discourse  on
spirituality over a cocktail,  nor advocate the harmless life while eating a
steak.   Furthermore,  those who know your habits in daily life  are  always
quick  to notice the difference between what you preach and what  you  live.
Therefore it is of course best to be able to live up to the teachings before
commencing to convert others.  At the same time it is too strong language to
call  any one a hypocrite because he advocates an ideal to which he has  not
yet attained.  So  long as one sincerely believes that the fleshless diet is


[PAGE 222]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

right and tries to live accordingly,  he is justified in advocating it  even
though  occasionally he breaks the rule.  The north star guides the  mariner
safely  to his desired haven even though he never reaches the  star  itself.
Similarly, if we set our ideals as high as the stars, we may not attain them
in this life, but we shall always be the better for having them.

   At  the same time it would seem that with a little will power brought  to
bear  it should not be very difficult for any one to abstain  from  tobacco,
liquor,  and flesh food.  Surely the thought of the suffering that is caused
the poor animals in the trains on their way to the slaughterhouse,  and  the
agony  which precedes the time when the blow is struck that ends their  life
or the time when the knife goes into their throat, ought to move any one who
aspires to live the higher life and fill him with compassion for these  poor
dumb  creatures  which cannot defend themselves.   For similar  reasons  the
wearing  of furs and feathers as ornaments should be dispensed with  by  the
gentler sex among our ranks.   It is equally inconsistent,  and would doubt-
less cause adverse comments if any one should preach the gospel of harmless-
ness while thus arrayed.

   Unfortunately the complexity of our civilization forces us to use leather
for many things because no other material is available on the market to take
its place;  for example, for shoes, straps, etc.   But nevertheless we ought
to  do all we possibly can to avoid making use of any material  which  comes
from the body of an animal that requires its death.  One of the blessings of
this present war is  that  man is find out that meat is not an indispensable


[PAGE 223]                                      TOLERANCE OF OTHERS' BELIEFS

article  of diet,  and that we are far better off without alcohol.   Let  us
hope that this is but the beginning of the end, and that man will soon cease
to breed or hunt animals for their flesh and fur.   Meanwhile let us all set
the example and apply our will power to this end.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 91.


                                 JUNE, 1918.

                        TOLERANCE OF OTHERS' BELIEFS


   We  are here to live in the conditions as we find them and to  learn  the
lesson  provided by our environment.   Those who are continually soaring  in
the clouds and seeking spiritual ideals to the neglect of their plain duties
are just as mistaken in their efforts as those who wallow in the mire of ma-
terial work, grubbing and grinding in their greed for the dollar.  Both need
help,  but in opposite directions.   One class needs to be pulled down  till
their  feet are firmly planted upon earth;  the other needs an  uplift  that
they  may see the light of heaven and begin to think of acquiring  treasures
there.

   "One man's meat is another man's poison,"  and this applies to  spiritual
food  at  least equally as much as to physical.   There is  only  one  great
truth--Diety--but it is many-sided.  The angle of presentation which appeals
to us may lack power to stir others;  and,  vice versa,  their outlook  upon
truth may fail to meet our needs.   Thus there is a reason for all the  dif-
ferent  religions  in  the  world  and  the different views presented by the


[PAGE 224]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

various  cults and sects.   Each has its mission to perform for  the  people
among whom it is found,  so we should be tolerant of all cults or  religions
even when those who profess them attack us and our views.

   We  should be satisfied to be known by our fruits,  for that is the  only
true and valid test of individual religion.  Does it make us better men  and
women, better fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers,
employers and employees?  Does it make us better all-around citizens who may
be  looked up to in the community where we live?   That is the test of  true
religion.

   There is not so much danger of finding the materialist in our ranks,  but
unfortunately  there is a tendency among people who espouse advanced  teach-
ings to soar in the clouds, forgetful of concrete conditions and earthly du-
ties.   This causes the average man and women to look askance  at  occultism
and to regard those who study it as cranks, though their actions are no more
the fault of occultism than it is the fault of good food when a weak stomach
cannot digest it.

   For  this reason we should not only be tolerant of the beliefs of  others
and make it a rule never to belittle another faith, but we should watch our-
selves to see that we LIVE  the Rosicrucian teachings so as to do credit  to
them in our immediate environment.



[PAGE 225]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 92.

                                 JULY, 1918.


                THE PURPOSE OF WAR AND OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD IT

   From time to time students in various parts of the world have been asking
what should be their attitude toward the war and what purpose it serves from
the spiritual standpoint.  In answer we have pointed out in various articles
the Rosicrucian teaching concerning the object of the war,  namely,  to turn
the  world towards God for consolation in its sorrow,  and to rend the  veil
which exists between the visible and invisible worlds by helping a consider-
able  number to acquire spiritual sight and the ability to communicate  with
those who have passed beyond.  But though the explanations given have satis-
fied  most occult students in a measure, there were others who did not  feel
satisfied therewith; they wanted something more directly bearing on the con-
ditions.   To them we pointed out the teaching in Lecture No. 13--"Angels as
Factors  in Evolution"--showing how human affairs are guided by  the  angels
and archangels who act as family and Race Spirits, causing the rise and fall
of  nations as required for the evolution of the various groups  of  spirits
under their guardianship.

   As  a final attempt to satisfy our students concerning this vital  matter
we send you herewith a lesson entitled, "The Philosophy of War," showing its


[PAGE 226]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

application to the present conditions.   We trust that this will give to all
the needed explanation and help all to understand what is involved,  so that
they  may  render their hearty co-operation to end the struggle as  soon  as
possible and secure the peace for which we all so ardently long.

   But let us realize that there can be no peace worth having until  milita-
rism  has received such a blow that it will not raise its head again  for  a
long time.  Many people hope that this will be the last war, and we ardently
wish  that we could believe it.   People thought the same when Napoleon  and
his hordes overran Europe a hundred years ago, but time has proved that such
hopes were vain.  Peace is a matter of education, and impossible of achieve-
ment until we have learned to deal charitably,  justly,  and openly with one
another, as nations as well as individuals.  As long as we manufacture arms,
peace will not become established.   It should become our aim and object  to
do  all we can toward the abolition of militarism in all countries  and  the
establishment of the principle of arbitration of difficulties.


[PAGE 227]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 93.

                                AUGUST, 1918.

          THE INNER POWER AND THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT GOES WITH IT


   Many  years ago I spent a few weeks on a farm in Maine at the  time  when
they were harvesting potatoes.   As the wagons passed me,  I noted that  the
potatoes  were  all large and of almost uniform size.   So one  day  I  con-
gratulated  the  farmer on having such a fine crop of  large  potatoes.   He
walked  over to a wagon and showed me that the bottom of the wagon was  full
of small potatoes.   He also said that they had not been sorted in the field
but that the jostling of the wagon over the rough road from the field to the
barn  brought the big potatoes to the top while the small ones sank  to  the
bottom.   "If you put the big ones at the bottom," he said,  "they will rise
to the top and the small ones will sink."

   And is this not just like life!  People of representative appearance,  of
large  qualities,  rise to the top as we jostle one another over  the  rough
places on the highway of life.  "Yon cannot keep a good man down," is an old
saying.  He will rise to the top in spite of everything by virtue of the up-
lifting power within him.  And similarly, no matter how often we put a small
man on top,  he will sink, because he lacks the inner power.  We may build a
house as  large as we want and rear it above all other structures if we have


[PAGE 228]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

material and labor in sufficient quantities,  but the growth of man is  from
within,  and  no  one  can add a hairbreadth  to  the  stature  of  another,
physically, mentally, or morally.  Each must work out his own salvation;  he
alone  can  determine whether he will remain in a lowly lot or rise  to  the
top.

   The farmer found that when his potatoes were carried over a smooth boule-
vard they remained mixed;  but the rougher the road, the quicker the big po-
tatoes  rose  to the top and the smaller ones sank to the  bottom.   In  the
great  emergencies of life great opportunities await those who are ready  to
assume responsibilities and go to the front of the battle.

   We are living in such a time, and if we aspire to rise, NOW is our great-
est opportunity.   The whole world is now asking for an answer to the riddle
of life; inquiring whither the ship of humanity is sailing.  And we have the
answer.   Upon us,  therefore, rests the responsibility of living the teach-
ings  of  the Elder Brothers and making them appeal to others  by  exemplary
lives.   Many of our brothers are carrying the teachings of the Elder Broth-
ers  into  the  very trenches and enlightening those who  are  ready  to  be
taught.   Those of us who are still in our usual environment will  find  the
interrogation  point  in many hitherto closed quarters.   Let  us  therefore
diligently seek the opportunities and improve them,  for "unto whom much  is
given, of him shall much be required."

   I  would suggest to the students that now is the time to see to  it  that
the COSMO and our other literature, as far as possible,  is in the libraries
in their  own  cities; also that it is in a place where it is accessible and


[PAGE 229]                                      EQUIPOISE IN TIMES OF STRESS

that it is being used.   If a number of people inquire about it from time to
time,  though  the Librarian may know nothing about it and perhaps  even  be
hostile, the constant call for a certain book will finally force him to take
notice.  There is no doubt that the Fellowship teachings have within them an
inner  power  that is bound to make a place for them in the  world,  but  we
shall acquire merit in proportion to the way in which we help to bring these
teachings of the Elder Brothers to the notice of humanity in general.  It is
now  vacation  time and hence an especially propitious season for  the  dis-
semination  of  our soul-satisfying philosophy.  Let us  therefore  all  put
forth  an extra effort at this time.   It will benefit others and  ourselves
also.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 94.

                              SEPTEMBER, 1918.

                 EQUIPOISE OF GREAT HELP IN TIMES OF STRESS


   In  these  days   when our customs, habits,  and business  are  being  so
radically interfered with by the great war no matter where on earth we live;
when  the flower of our manhood is being mowed down in millions  by  cannon;
when  even  woman must leave her accustomed vocation as home maker  to  take
part in the titanic struggle behind the fighting lines; when the weak, those
who  are either very old or very young,  succumb to privation;  how can  one
help being disturbed more or less according to one's individual suffering or


[PAGE 230]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

one's proximity to the seething sea of hate and sorrow in what was once fair
France or in the other battle-scarred sections?

   To remain undisturbed perhaps seems impossible.   One cannot remain  cal-
loused in the face of such suffering.  One student after describing the dev-
astation of a shelled city, asks:  "Can one help feeling very strongly about
it?"  No, Christ felt very strongly when He wept over the sins of Jerusalem,
and  He showed His righteous wrath when He drove the money changers  out  of
the temple.   But equipoise is undoubtedly one of the great lessons which we
may learn from this war.

   It  is easy to be peaceful if one goes into the mountains and  lives  the
life of a hermit.   But what credit is it to keep our equipoise with no  one
to thwart,  oppose,  or vex us?   It is more difficult,  however,  to keep a
peaceful  attitude in the industrial life of a city where relentless war  is
waged with the sword of competition and where existence is circumscribed  by
laws and custom.   But it can be done, and it is being done by many who make
no pretense to spirituality,  but who have found that loss of balance inter-
feres with their ambition.   So they setout to train themselves in the prac-
tice  of equipoise.   It has been the invariable experience of  such  people
that they have benefited greatly.   Their health has improved,  their happi-
ness also, and their business efficiency has increased.

   If  such self-control can be attained by people in the world,  and if  so
much benefit can accrue to them on that account under ordinary condition  of
life,  those among us who aim at higher and nobler things and who have  been


[PAGE 231]                                           THE OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE

endeavoring  to follow the path for years ought to be examples of faith  and
hopefulness at this time, ought they not?  We ought to be towers of strength
to  those  who have not had the great enlightenment which it  has  been  our
privilege to obtain.  And above all things, we ought to exert a constructive
and upbuilding influence in this world crisis.

   Therefore I have outlined in this month's lesson the secret causes  which
in  the past have generated and fertilized the seeds that have now  flowered
into our present cataclysmic condition,  and have indicated in a slight mea-
sure  how we are now sowing the seeds of our future well or ill being;  this
in the hope that you will concentrate your thoughts constructively along the
line  indicated,  and advocate in your sphere of life the  views  presented.
Much  sorrow may thus be averted in the future for thoughts are things,  and
if  they are in harmony with the cosmic purpose to make all things work  to-
gether for good, they will surely prosper.

                               ---------------

                               LETTER NO. 95.

                               OCTOBER, 1918.

             THE OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE AND FAITH IN ULTIMATE GOOD


   Suppose some one very close to you were undergoing a surgical  operation.
Naturally you would feel very much concerned,  and your feelings would prob-
ably  swing between fear and hope.  Sometimes one emotion and sometimes  the
other would  predominate.  But  consider  what  would be the effect upon the


[PAGE 232]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

effect  upon the patient if you were to voice your doubt and  misgivings  on
every occasion.  Fear always has a devitalizing and detrimental effect which
makes it very difficult for the patient to recover,  particularly as  during
the  time of an illness he is less self-assertive and more negative than  at
times when he is in good, robust health.  Thus while you were really anxious
to  help him and would do anything in your power to serve him,  by that  at-
titude of mind and the expression of such thoughts you would be really  hin-
dering him very much.

   Something  similar is taking place in the world at large at  the  present
time.   The  human race is undergoing a necessary  operation  for  spiritual
cataract.   The sorrow and suffering occasioned by the present war are doing
much  to tear the scale of materialism away from our eyes and rend the  veil
which divides us from those in the land of the living dead.   The  operation
is painful in the extreme.  Surely there is not a human being capable of hu-
mane  feeling in the world who is not feeling in some measure for  and  with
those who are actually engaged in the struggle.   But if we are firmly  con-
vinced  that "thoughts are things,"  it is our sacred duty to hold the  most
optimistic  attitude  of  mind which it is possible for us to  have  at  the
present time.

   I have no doubt that every student of the Rosicrucian Fellowship is doing
all  he can and giving all he can to alleviate the suffering and sorrow  ex-
isting  in the countries immediately affected,  but it is the  all-important
mental attitude of optimism that is so difficult  for  many to cultivate and


[PAGE 233]                                           THE OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE

keep.   Nevertheless it is our duty to do this, particularly in the light of
our  superior knowledge of the end in view,  which will surely be  attained.
We cannot be glad that this thing is upon us, but we can be thankful that it
is as certain to bring a great good to the world at large as it is that  the
sun rises every morning and sets at night.

   We  have  an absolute faith in the wisdom and omnipotence of  Deity.   We
know  that it is a false accusation to say that "nature is red in tooth  and
claw,"  as some one has put it.   Regardless of what it may seem to us  with
our limited vision,  benevolence is the ruling factor in the world's  evolu-
tion.  Therefore each and every one of us should live up to the sacred obli-
gation to always strive to hold an optimistic attitude and always  emphasize
our firm faith in the ultimate good which is to result from the present con-
ditions.   let us remember that when we are working with the trend of evolu-
tion  it is like rowing a boat with the stream;  our efforts will then  have
greater  effect than if we take an attitude that is contrary to the  world's
good.

                               ---------------
NOTE:  THE LETTER FOR NOV. 1918 WAS DEVOTED TO BUSINESS MATTERS CONNECTED
WITH OUR PUBLICATIONS, AND THEREFORE IS NOT INCLUDED HERE.


[PAGE 234]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 96.

                               DECEMBER, 1918.

                    INCREASING THE LIFE OF THE ARCHETYPE


   This is the last student's letter of the present year, and the thought at
the  ending of each cycle naturally turns to the fleetness of time  and  the
evanescence of existence in the phenomenal world.  It also reminds us of the
preciousness of time and of our responsibility to use it to the best  advan-
tage for soul growth,  "for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain  the
whole world,  and lose his own soul?"  Now is the seed time, and we are told
that "unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required."  Therefore we
are  accountable for what we have done or left undone to a  greater  measure
than  others who have not had the intimate knowledge of God's purpose  which
has been vouchsafed us through the Elder Brothers.

   In this connection we should realize that every act of every human  being
has a direct effect on the archetype of his body.   If the act is in harmony
with the law of life and evolution,  it strengthens the archetype and  makes
for a longer life in which the individual will get the maximum of experience
and  make soul growth commensurate with his status in life and capacity  for
learning.   Thus  fewer  embodiments  will be  necessary  to  bring  him  to
perfection  than  one  who shirks the strain of life and endeavors to escape


[PAGE 235]                              INCREASING THE LIFE OF THE ARCHETYPE

its  burdens,  or one who applies his forces destructively.   In the  latter
type of life the archetype is strained and breaks early.  Thus,  those whose
acts  are contrary to the law shorten their lives and have to seek  new  em-
bodiments a greater number of times than those who live in harmony with  the
law.  This is another instance in which the Bible is correct when it exhorts
us to do good that we may live long in the land.

   This  law  applies  to all without exception,  but it  has  greater  sig-
nificance in the lives of those who are consciously working with the law  of
evolution than in those of others.   The knowledge of these facts should add
tenfold  or a hundredfold to our zest and zeal for good.   Even if  we  have
started, as we say, "late in life," we may easily lay up more "treasure"  in
the last few years than in several previous lives.   And above all,  we  are
getting in line for an early start in lives to come.

   Let  us hope therefore that we have used to the best advantage  the  year
which is now passing,  and prepare to increase our efforts during the coming
year.


[PAGE 236]                                               LETTERS TO STUDENTS

                               LETTER NO. 97.

                               JANUARY, 1919.

                   THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS


   It  seems appropriate to commence our correspondence for 1919 by  wishing
you a happy and successful New Year.  But the proverb says:  "If wishes were
horses,  beggars would ride."   Something more is required to secure success
and happiness than mere wishes,  and perhaps mine may bear better fruit if I
explain to you the law of success.

   The  students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship are coversant with  the  fact
that  there is no "luck,"  and are quite well agreed with Mephisto in  FAUST
when he says:

   "Hoe closely luck is linked to merit,
   Does never to the fool occur.
   Had he the wise man's stone, I swear it,
   The stone had no philosopher.

   But  here a query will at once present itself to the minds of many:   "Is
it possible to reduce success to a law?"

   Yes, there is a law of success, as sure and immutable as any of the other
great cosmic laws.  And while I shall apply it only to spiritual matters,  I
cannot hide from you that it will also bring certain success in material af-
fairs.   But before you apply it in that direction,  consider very carefully
that to do so means spiritual suicide, for 'ye cannot serve God and Mammon."


[PAGE 237]                                                THE LAW OF SUCCESS

Rather,  "seek ye first the kingdom of God,  and His righteousness;  and all
these things shall be added unto you."   I can testify to the truth of  this
promise, having lived by it for many years.

   The law of success may then be stated as follows:

   First, determine definitely and clearly what you want--development of the
healing power, extended vision, invisible helpership, the ability to lecture
and carry the Rosicrucian message to others, etc.

   Second,  when you have set your goal, never harbor a thought of  fear  or
failure for a moment,  but cultivate an attitude of invincible determination
to  accomplish  your  object despite all  obstacles.   Constantly  hold  the
thought, "I can and I will."

   Do not begin to make plans as to how to attain until you have reached the
attitude  of absolute confidence in yourself and in your ability to do  what
you desire,  for a mind swayed by the slightest fear of failure cannot  make
plans that will fully succeed.   Therefore be patient,  and be sure first to
cultivate absolute faith in yourself and your ability to succeed despite all
odds.

   When  you have reached the point where you are fully persuaded  that  you
can succeed and positively determined that you will succeed in some pursuit,
there is no power on earth or in heaven that can withstand you in that  par-
ticular  pursuit;  and  you may then plan how to  go  about  attaining  your
heart's desire with certainty of success.

   I hope that you will apply this law earnestly in the pursuit of soul
growth, not only during the coming year but in all future years.


                       END OF "LETTERS TO STUDENTS"


                             --- END OF FILE ---

