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The greatest discovery in the next fifty years will be along spiritual lines. — Charles Steinmetz.
The etheric body (or etheric double as it is also called) properly belongs to the physical realms — for, although not ordinarily visible to physical sight, it is composed of attenuated physical substance. It belongs in fact to the twilight realm of matter where subtle and hitherto little known forces operate just beyond the range of visibility. Into this twilight realm material science is each year penetrating a little farther. Many and wonderful are the inventions which even now result from a knowledge of its forces; for here science is endeavoring to control the mystery of the atom. And here, in a way not yet understood, interior mental forces become externalized into what we recognize as ail exterior physical world.
The term "ether" used to describe this borderland of matter is by no means clearly defined, either by occult or by physical scientists. However, occultists have seen the etheric forces by means of their extended vision, and have described them in terms of their own coining. Scientists, on the other hand, have discovered the laws governing phenomena of certain lower ethers and many valuable inventions have resulted. So we know the ethers by their products. New Age science is destined to meet with traditional occult science in this area, with benefit to both.
Marconi, famed as the inventor of wireless, is usually regarded as the first to use the etheric forces in radio transmission, thus opening the door to that vast development of intercommunication that is so rapidly drawing all peoples of the world into a close-knit human fellowship. These and similar developments in that subtle etheric realm are possible because of the interpenetration of the physical by the etheric. The latter is sometimes referred to as a network of forces.
Just as our planetary body is permeated by these invisible yet potent forces, so is the physical body of man. They constitute a field of force, an etheric double. And just as the Earth's etheric envelope is the means by which universal and solar life flow into our planet, so the etheric double interpenetrates man's physical body and is the channel for the inflow of vitality or life force from the surrounding network of global forces.
Life could not exist on Earth without this etheric envelope, since it is the medium for those forces in nature that animate forms. Occultists reverently refer to Universal Life as the Christ Consciousness or the Christ Life. Again, we speak of the "World of Life Spirit," meaning not only one of the planes of spirit-matter, but also an exalted state of consciousness in which only the One Universal Life is recognized. The Supreme Master of human evolution, Christ Jesus, is the world's outstanding example of what the attainment of this Universal Life Consciousness can mean.
By the Law of Reflection, familiar to all esotericists, this high plane of Universal Life is the prototype of the etheric realm and its manifold phenomena. Things visible and tangible in the etheric realm are signs and tokens of great powers resident in the higher realm of Life Spirit or Christ Consciousness. This means that there is a very intimate connection between the Christ Life and the life forces which operate in the twilight realm of matter, into which material science is now groping its way.
Through mental, moral and physical discipline according to spiritual law, a new etherie sheath is actually formed within and from the refined essences of the etheric body. This second etheric structure is a prerequisite to all initiatory development. Hence, without the etheric body progress through higher spiritual planes or states in Initiation would be an impossibility.
Occult science teaches that the ethers are capable of division into four states or properties of varying degrees of density, each having its own special function.
The densest of the. four ethers is called the Chemical Ether because it is the field of activity for chemical forces which underlie the structure of our material universe, and in which is realized the alchemist's dream of transmuting one element into another. It is so nearly material that only a slight extension of sight is necessary to see it. Its basic color is dark blue and it is sometimes observed under the appearance of blue flames as when gas is turned very low; or it may have the appearance of thick mist or smoke. In this ether the New Age chemist will be able to study activities of chemical forces which he knows now largely through their results and not by direct observation, In the human organism this ether seems to take the form of prisms through which the colorless solar energy radiates, assuming a rosy hue. These prismatic ether atoms seem to be embedded in the center of the physical body atoms.
The Chemical Ether is a twofold current possessing a positive and a negative pole or function. (All spirit or life is dual in manifestation, expressing itself as positive-negative or masculine-feminine.) The positive etheric current attracts and builds the physical atoms of the body; the negative current disintegrates and eliminates them. Thus, we may describe the Chemical Ether as a whirlpool of forces into which new molecules flow through the positive pole and out of which old molecules flow through the negative pole. These molecules have, actually been recognized in some instances as pertaining to known substances. To the lay mind this process suggests that vital electricity converts the body into a kind of electromagnet for attracting or holding elements needed in body building and for rejecting or eliminating those not needed, the flow of the life force corresponding to the turning off and on of a current.
The second ether known to occult science is called the Life Ether because it is concerned with the propagation of the species, whether plant, animal, or man. Physical science is eagerly anticipating the day when it can study these life forces at first hand; this it has not yet done, but the time is not far distant when anticipation will be actualized, as now intimated in the remarkable work done with carbon compounds and in new experiments in biological electricity. Yet instruments and inventions alone will not suffice. The scientists himself must become an instrument of investigation. This New Age development is not unknown to a few great modern scientists, some of whom are already partially clairvoyant without being aware of the fact.
The Life Ether is also positive and negative, and in it is to be found the secret of sex; hence, knowledge of this ether will give to biological science control of the sex of unborn infants, and even of adults. Sex hormones are crystallizations in this ether. Differentiation of the sexes as we know it today will seem very crude and primitive to future generations, in whom the ideal masculine and the ideal feminine will find adequate expression without the perversions and inequalities which burden the race today. The vital fluids (including blood) are generally crystallizatations in the Life Ether. To the etheric vision, blood is seen to course through veins in the form of a gas which reminds one of the legend that certain Spirits known to oriental mythology were said to have fire in their veins instead of blood. Ancient Greeks thought that the veins of their gods were filled with nectar instead of blood, a hint again of the miraculous powers stored in this Life Ether.
These two ethers, the Chemical and Life Ethers, surround and interpenetrate the physical form, constituting its matrix. The Chemical Ether reveals itself as a blue field whilst the color radiation of the Life Ether is a, rosy or orange hue, which varies somewhat according to species and status in evolution but is always present where life is to be found. In the plant kingdom it is a delicate pink-orange, the color of a certain lotus known in the Orient. In the human kingdom it is described as the color of new-blown peach blossoms, a deep pink with a suggestion of blue or violet overtones.
These are the ethers most commonly observed. A higher degree of spiritual perception is necessary for investigation of the two higher ethers known as Light and Reflecting Ethers.
Motion and color characterize the planetary Light Ether. It is an ether which sparkles and flashes with all the hues of the rainbow. It is sensitive to the presence of light, whether from the Sun or from artificial illuminants, under which it beats or pulsates with a wing-like motion while "seeds of light," many or few according to the intensity of the light, float about in it — probably the photons of physics.
Light Ether also has a connection with the blood in human beings, as its positive current infuses the blood with heat and controls circulation as well. The negative current operates through the five senses, especially sight. Although the basic color of the Light Ether is said to be that beautiful golden effulgence ascribed to the Christ Ray, it actually displays all the colors of the spectrum. Because this ether is the avenue for Sensation (by vitalizing the nerves), its sensitization by spiritual thought makes it a channel for sensations which ordinarily do not register in the brain — i.e., the eye begins to see colors not usually visible, the ear to hear sounds not usually audible, etc. Even the sense of touch is stimulated so an individual can feel the etheric currents both in his own body and in the atmosphere. Biological electricity is an expression of the negative pole of Light Ether as biological heat is an expression of its positive pole.
Most attenuated and refined of all etheric substances is the fourth or Reflecting Ether. This substance is beautifully clear and luminous, and is truly a reflector of eternal Truth as transcribed upon the Scroll of the Ages. It, too, has its positive and negative aspects, but this ether is scarcely physical at all in any known sense of the word. It is the avenue through which thought makes its impress upon the human brain.
The masculine or positive aspect of the Reflecting Ether works through the brain and voluntary nervous system, promoting reason and creative activity; the negative or feminine aspect operates in and through the involuntary nervous system promoting intuition, feeling and memory. The positive pole of the Reflecting Ether is, therefore, the special channel of the Ego; the negative pole, that of the Race Spirit or collective "soul." The Ego is now gradually taking over the functions formerly governed by the Race Spirit, the "God of our Fathers." It is therefore invading the sympathetic system, awakening it to new life under control of individual will, and discovering many new and miraculous powers latent therein. The work of Initiation stimulates both aspects of this ether into new and higher activity. No ether is more important than this Reflecting Ether in the mysterious labor of Initiation.
The Reflecting Ether in its negative aspect is the subconscious mind of nature and of man. It is the blue-white crystal in which the seer reads certain records, but it is not the true Memory of Nature-found in a higher sphere.
It is only through inner-plane investigation and the development of superphysical faculties that man is able to stand before the mysteries of nature and comprehend something of their wonders. The distinguishing characteristics of mineral, plant, animal, and man become understandable only in reference to their four-fold etheric structure. All four of the kingdoms of life on our earth share in the activities of the positive and negative currents of the Chemical Ether, for there could be no dense physical form of any kind without it. The minerals in general, however, do not have a vital principle; that is, they do not live and grow as the higher kingdoms do. Plants, animals, and man have a form, and that form is built up and eventually destroyed by the activity of chemical forces. But they have something more than this: they have a vital principle by means of which they grow and live and perpetuate their kind. This activity is due to the presence of Life Ether in all three kingdoms.
In animals and man we again find two distinguishing principles which plants do not share, namely, the ability to move about from place to place and the generation of blood heat. These are due to the activity of the Light Ether. However, the Light Ether is also active in the plant kingdom to a degree, for solar forces active in the positive pole of this ether circulate the juices of the plant, while the forces operative in the negative pole are concerned in the deposits of color. They have also built a rudimentary nervous system whereby plants experience simple sensations. Some psychic investigators say that plants feel pain and physical well-being much as we do. The late Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose of India set forth extensive data, based on experiments in a laboratory in support of this belief.
By sensitive instruments, Sir Bose measured a plant's reactions to varied treatment. For example, he discovered that its reactions were more marked when the plant was torn than when it was cut; furthermore, that these reactions could be eliminated by anesthetizing the plant — the process involved being the same as that used to prevent pain in a human being during an operation: temporarily driving out the etheric body. By experiments of this kind it has now become evident to the physical scientists that plants possess what may rightly be termed a rudimentary nervous system.
Besides elementary physical functions performed by the sparkling iridescent Life Ether, its exceeding sensitivity enables it to register mental impulses that inhere in the next higher or Reflecting Ether. Due to such receptivity it is able to take on the form of the golden Christ Star, which is the basis of all Initiation.
The Reflecting Ether, as we have indicated, is the bridge between soul and body, between soul and Spirit. It is the Bridge of the Gods, the connecting link between the interior soul world and the exterior world of matter. On the one side it reflects the physical world; on the other, the spiritual. The Ego must learn to see only reflections from the spiritual, which is the real or archetypal world. The negative pole of the Reflecting Ether is the storehouse of the Subconscious Mind, not of one man alone but of the race collectively and of the lower kingdoms. Through it all evolution is carried on. Through the positive pole, the active, conscious work of genius, or epigenesis, goes forward, an expression of the forward-moving impulse of Divine Creative Energy.
Already it is becoming a commonplace that, as Dr. Millikan stated, "electricity and matter look like different aspects of one and the same thing. There is proof that electricity is material; there is evidence that all matter is electrical." But even a generation ago only the occultist dared make such statements, among them Madame Blavatsky, who said boldly that electricity is life.
In his book, Why We Behave Like Human Beings, Professor George A. Dorsey writes, "The problem of the origin of life is locked up in the origin of matter and death-a vague, shadowy line crossed from day to day in the chemical laboratory. Life has been produced in no man-made shop; protoplasm, the chemical matter of life, has been. It does everything but live."
To Professor Dorsey's statement the occult scientist adds that his "vague, shadowy line" is no other than this traditional etheric realm known for countless centuries to the occult world. It is here that the man of science must come to know and possess himself of powers whereby he will at long last make protoplasm live.
Before it is possible for a person to function on superphysical planes he must possess body sheaths composed of superphysical substances. That the Ego does possess such vehicles is the claim of clairvoyant investigators.
The etheric body surrounds and permeates the physical and usually extends a couple of inches beyond it, often having the appearance of a luminous, slivery mist. Many persons can now see this etheric envelope, which proves that evolution is gradually refining our senses and points toward a time when everyone will possess faculties of clairvoyance. A number of colleges and universities have made interesting experiments along this line with the surprising result that about one-third of the students were able to see the outlines of the misty body herein described.
Although the etheric double appears vapory and insubstantial, its substance and function are very real and very important to life in the body. Through it alone the vital essence of the Sun, the Solar Ether (invisible sunlight), is able to reach the body. Without it the latter would be inert and incapable of function.
The student who is intent upon observing the etheric double for the first time will find that the most auspicious occasion for observation is where someone is standing before him under the stress of high inspiration — for example a minister, a lecturer, or singer. On such occasions the etheric body grows beautifully luminous and expansive, giving to many their first authoritative proof of the existence of these finer sheaths of the spirit. Revelations such as this, coming unsought and unheralded, have inspired many to investigate the mysteries of the inner worlds.
The principal function of the etheric body is to serve both as a receiving set and a transmitter for Solar Energy which enters the body by means of the spleen. The well-being of this etheric sheath is necessary in the processes of assimilation and excretion; hence, an abundance of fresh air and sunshine are prime essentials to health. No argument is needed as to the need for sleep if the body is to be kept vibrantly attuned to health-giving powers of the universe. It is during sleep that the greater part of the process of restoration takes place. The reason for this period of seeming unconsciousness being Nature's greatest restorative is found only upon inner-plane investigation. It is known to the occultist that during sleep the Ego actually rises out of its body, although in an unconscious condition as a rule. During this separation from the body it becomes thoroughly permeated with the life-giving forces of the inner worlds. If it were possible to dwell consciously in these life-giving forces at all times, awake or asleep, we should be immortal-for the inner planes are the true Fountain of Youth closer to us than hands and feet, if we but knew how to avail ourselves of its life-giving waters.
The more highly sensitized the two higher ethers become by reason of the spiritual life of an individual, the more easily does that person attune himself to these vital forces and the longer do the effects of restoration remain with him. Thus occurs a paradox. Ofttimes in a crisis a so-called frail person whose life is centered in eternal values can pass through the ordeal valiantly, whereas a more robust individual largely living a life of the senses will break completely. The sensualist draws so heavily upon the life forces of the etheric body that they require replenishment more frequently, which accounts for their not being available in time of need. Paracelsus spoke truly when he said that the healer who deals only with the visible body is concerned with but half a truth and will never be able to find conclusive answers to the problems of health and disease.
When the Ego and its sheaths have been restored by the vibrant rhythmic life forces circulating through the Desire World, those forces then work upon the two lower ethers. Being replenished, the latter automatically restore the physical body-of which they are the matrix, the source and sustainer of its life. The phrase "to radiate health" is applicable only to anyone whose etheric body is in a positive or healthy condition, for then this body truly does radiate lines or rays of silvery, misty light in all directions. These are felt as an exhilarating force by all who come within their immediate area of influence.
In illness the lines of force of the etheric body droop. If the illness be prolonged or chronic in nature, the etheric body becomes emaciated and the lines of force lose their vibrancy and elasticity. In cases of nervous depletion "holes" appear in the ethers just over the affected areas of the physical body.
To maintain a condition of health, the etheric body must vibrate in harmony with the keynote of the archetype of the physical body, which in turn vibrates with the keynote of the indwelling Ego. If this keynote is disturbed or gets out of tune, the vital sheath can no longer perform its proper functions and ill health may ensue. The desire body is a prime source of all disease. This sheath is also called the "astral" or "emotional" body; in it commonly invisible feelings, sensations and emotions take on visibility to clairvoyant sight. Fear, worry, anger, and lust are among the principal causes for lack of attunement between the Ego and its incarnational sheaths. Be still and know that I am God is a powerful remedy with which to restore the subtle rhythms to their pristine attunement in Spirit.
Anesthetics deaden or extinguish the sense of pain because they sever the connection between the archetype and the etheric body, forcing the etheric body partially out of the physical. If this process is carried too far death results, as is well known. The unconsciousness induced by an anesthetic is, therefore, not at all the same as the unconsciousness of sleep which is restorative and causes no break between the archetype and the etheric double, the latter remaining in normal interpenetration of the body. After unconsciousness has been produced by an anesthetic the etheric connection must be re-established; hence, the long period of time often necessary for recovery from its effects.
The question is often asked, Why do we not become conscious outside the body when we are forced out under anesthetics? The answer to this question involves knowledge of the after-death condition. Immediately after passing from the body in death, practically all persons are asleep for a period of time which varies according to the temperament of the individual. Materialists who believe that death ends everything may remain unconscious for weeks, months or even years because of a sort of self-hypnosis. Eventually, however, they do awaken. When forced out of the body by anesthetics the Ego is in a sleep similar to that which follows death.
It is only in the case of persons who are already on the threshold of initiatory work that consciousness continues, as reported in rare instances where an individual found himself completely awake outside his body while an operation was performed upon the unconscious dense body lying on the operating table. Often, too, we hear of "astral journeys" being taken under such conditions. These experiences, however, come only to sensitives who will awaken quickly on the inner planes following death. It must be remembered that the anesthetic trance seldom occupies more than a few hours-scarcely long enough for the Ego to awaken on inner planes.
The etheric body may well be designated as the "tally sheet" of the Ego. All the varied experiences of vast cycles of earth lives have left their record upon the etheric sheath. Here the clairvoyant can study the effects of past sins and past good, former sorrows and former joys. All are indelibly inscribed. upon this shining scroll.
Human races and civilizations rise and fall with a regularity like unto that of ocean tides. As the ebb of degeneration is about to set in, its first mark appears in the etheric body of the race. Here also may be found the reason for certain so-called incurable diseases, such as leprosy or tuberculosis. Misdeeds unexpiated or made right in the past have left their record in the etheric mould and must work their way out for liquidation. The fear, hatred, and lust of past incarnations are bearing fruitage today in widespread suffering and sorrow.
It is said by reputable occultists that the self-same atoms of matter are used again and again by a reincarnating Ego, and this would apply with equal force to the ethers. The "young" soul makes but little impression upon the substances in which he works. The more advanced the Ego, the easier is the task of impregnating the ethers with its own individual rhythms. Since at rebirth the ethers thus impregnated are automatically attracted to the Ego which impressed its forces upon them, we have an explanation in part for the resemblance between successive incarnations of the same Ego. This also explains why it is easier to trace incarnations of an advanced Ego, an "old soul," than of one less advanced.
As the two lower ethers are media for transmission of life and vitality to the physical body, so in like manner the two higher ethers are media for spiritual forces constituting a matrix for a spiritual. or soul body. Living a life of spiritual aspiration automatically attracts these two ethers, with their luminous blue and gold coloring. They suffuse the entire body of an illumined individual and surround it as an aureole of light. In the words of John, such an one appears to be walking in the light as He is in the light.
In many works of occult fiction the Initiate appears clothed in robes of blue and gold, indicative of the beautiful soul body of one who has attained to high spiritual status.
No phase of soul development is ever lost by an Ego during its long incarnational progress. The essence of its soul experience is forever retained by the Spirit. When a new body is assumed for another incarnation, this spiritual essence is the magnet by which like is attracted to like. Thus it is that evidences of an "old" or "wise" soul are readily discernible even in early years. In our time, the infant prodigy has become a familiar phenomenon. When such a child is studied clairvoyantly, its head is seen to be surrounded and permeated by bands of woven light composed of Light and Reflecting Ethers attracted to this particular Ego during many lives of spiritual endeavor. Many early artists were possessed of inner sight. The halos they depicted about the heads of Christian Initiates in childhood-the Virgin, the Child Jesus, John the Baptist, and others-were actualities and not illusions. As such a child develops, and years become avenues for further spiritual progress, these bands of light about his head unfold and extend over his entire body, later spreading out on all sides in a radiant auric mantle. This is a glorious vision to the seer. Even to those who cannot as yet see, the mere physical presence of an illumined one brings a benediction.
Everyone possesses an etheric body, composed of the two lower ethers, the outline of which is easily detected in a semi-darkened room by many observers; but the scintillating radiance of the soul body, formed by the two highly attenuated ethers, is discernible to the very few only. In the first place, this soul body is not often developed to a point where it is visible to one with a high degree of spiritual vision. Secondly, where it is so developed, few have awakened the inner faculties with which to see it. The vision required comes by trained and sustained concentration, and such concentration is acquired by only advanced unfoldment.
As previously stated, the Chemical and Life Ethers work particularly with the physical body. The colorless Solar Ether enters through the etheric spleen and then passes upward into the solar plexus where the seed atom of the etheric body is located. The forces inherent in the etheric seed atom distribute this ether throughout the entire nervous system. This etheric substance is the particular sustaining element of the nerves, and when the latter are functioning properly they appear to be suffused with a silvery rose mist. Previous mention has been made of the fact that depleted nerve force is evidenced by the appearance of open spaces or dark "holes." These usually appear over nerve centers, for these centers are focal points where etheric substance is massed to be rayed out along nerve channels of the body.
The two higher ethers, Light and Reflecting, in their physical aspect enter the human body by way of the brain. They pass into the lungs and are taken up by the blood, thus reaching the heart where the seed atom of the physical body is located. These two ethers play an important role in the transmutation of the blood and the refining and spiritualizing of physical body atoms.
As the processes of body spiritualization continue, the Light and Reflecting Ethers are propelled by the force of the etheric seed atom in the solar plexus to gain entrance into the lower part of the spinal cord. Having united with the forces centered there, they ascend like luminous threads of light to the head.
Each of the four ethers has a particular seat in the physical body where its forces center and from which they radiate. The densest of these, the Chemical Ether, centers in the heart, its operations governed by the seed atom of the physical body located in the heart.
The Life Ether (the propagation ether) operates from the solar plexus, the "sun" of the lower part of the body. At this center the seed atom of the etheric vehicle has its point of contact with the physical envelope, a fact which suggests to us something of the importance of the solar plexus relative to health of body. It is not possible for the life forces to be maintained without the assistance of the solar plexus which is, in very deed and truth, the body's center of vitality.
The two spiritual ethers play a dual role: each has a physical as well as mental-psychic function. The Light Ether correlates to the desire body with which it has an affinity, and it is rooted in the seed atom of the desire body located in the liver. Since the Light Ether is the channel for sense perception, we have here a suggestion as to the psycho-physical origin of the ancient cult of liver divination and of the belief that the liver was the seat of the soul. In the process of spiritual awakening the Light Ether begins to vibrate in the pituitary gland, the "feminine" organ of spiritual impulse, thus opening vision into the inner planes.
The Reflecting Ether has its root in the seed atom of the mind situated near the frontal sinus. Here is the entrance into the sanctuary of the body temple, the adytum of the Ego who has learned to build body-temples through long incarnational ages. In spiritual awakening, the Reflecting Ether vibrates to the keynote of the pineal gland, the "masculine" organ of perception commonly known as the "third eye." Since this ether is the channel of memory and for powers of the subconscious mind, its awakening confers the faculty of remembering past lives, while the awakening of the Light Ether and pituitary gland confers the power of seeing pictures impressed upon Akashic Records.
The silver cord is the connecting link between the Spirit and its earthly body. The links composing this cord are formed of inner-plane substance of varying degrees of density. Something of the importance of the silver cord is indicated by the existence of a large body of symbolic literature on this subject. The twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Bible is a notable example.
The Masonic Craft gives much valuable information relative to this cord under the symbolism of the cable tow. Albert Pike states in Morals and Dogma, "Man after the fall was left naked and defenseless against the just anger of Deity. Prone to evil, the human race staggered blindly onward into the thick darkness of unbelief; bound fast by the strong cable-tow of the natural and sinful will."
Pike's statement has reference to a time in the dim distant past when human Egos were first being brought out into phases of objective manifestation. It was then that Jehovah God literally ensouled the expanding human Spirit with His own life principle, the basis of all evolution in form. All humankind was then connected with this great and brooding Over-Soul by certain tenuous gossamer threads of projected spirit substance. By this connective link Jehovah was able to guide and direct the evolution of the human race.
Since the "fall" into mundane conditions, this tenuous cord no longer binds man to an external God, but has become the means whereby the God within, the Spirit, guides and controls its outer body sheaths.
In man's current stage of evolution the silver cord begins its development during the first four months of prenatal growth. There are at present three parts of this cord in all adults. In this connection it is interesting to note that the Brahmans of India are at a certain time invested with a cord of three strands, so arranged as to make three-times-three, and representing, as does the cable tow of the Masons, the growth and function of the tripartite silver cord.
The first appearance of the silver cord during the prenatal epoch is as an etheric projection from a seed atom of the embryonic heart. The second is a projection from the liver, composed of desire stuff. These two strands grow toward one another, meet, and unite at the focal point of the etheric seed atom in the solar plexus. This union occurs in the fourth prenatal month and marks the first contact of the incoming Ego with the objective world; it is commonly called the quickening. From this time the prospective mother is conscious of the indwelling life and the incarnating Ego is conscious of outer-plane rhythms, but in a dim and dreamy way.
After birth begins the development of the third strand of the silver cord, consisting of mental substance and rooted in the center of the forehead. This third part of the cord grows down through the body to the liver where it meets the second part already rooted in the liver since prenatal days. Their conjunction marks the age of maturity (approximately twenty-one).
During waking hours the tripartite cord ordinarily remains twined around the solar plexus; but in sleep, when the Ego rises out of its dense body by way of the bead, the silver cord, being attached to the higher vehicles, rises with it and may be seen projecting from the top of the sleeper's skull. When the Ego is sufficiently spiritual to take "soul flights," the cord is visible as a shining thread of varying thickness stretching from the soul body to the dense physical body lying asleep. Yet we are not to understand from this that the entire cord goes out of the body; only the third part, composed of mental substance, does this, for it is the elastic segment of the cord. This sensitive cord carries impulses from the sleeping body to the wandering Spirit, calling it back in times of stress or danger.
As previously pointed out, the junction of the first two segments of the cord marks the quickening, at which time the incoming Ego is definitely and irrevocably committed to incarnation. The union of the second and third segments marks the birth of the adult, or the birth of the mind. New Age humanity is destined to experience a further development of this mystic cord, from the mental seed atom in the forehead to the physical seed atom in the heart. Its junction with the etheric segment in the heart will signalize the blending of the bead and heart forces, understanding and love, into a golden spiritual fulcrum of soul wisdom. This fourth link or segment of the silver cord and its final welding into place in the heart heralds the new Initiate birth. Such was the new birth by spirit which the Master explained to Nicodemus "by night."
We have described the first three segments of the cord as composed of etheric, astral, and mental substance. The student will now observe that the growth of the cord is correlative to the development of the four ethers of the body; the first three ethers are matured in the three septenary periods prior to adulthood. At twenty-one the Reflecting Ether is organized sufficiently to serve as the basis of adult consciousness, but it is not fully matured until the age of twenty-eight-which is, therefore, one of the turning-points of the life cycle of a human being. The fourth segment of the silver cord, an acquisition of the new race, will consist of Reflecting Ether; its juncture with the seed atom of the heart will open to the conscious mind all memories of past conditions of evolution, both on the inner and outer planes-that is, all incarnations and their celestial interludes.
That esoteric Masons such as Albert Pike understood the far-reaching and beautiful meaning of the silver cord is evidenced by the importance given to the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes in Masonic rituals. This chapter is a vivid and definite teaching of the initiatory Rite of Resurrection and Immortality. In the symbolism of this rite the golden bowl is the brain, the fountain is the heart — the two vital centers connected by the fourth part of the silver cord in the body of the Illumined. The pitcher is that great vein (avenue of transmuted light essence) which carries blood to the right ventricle of the heart (fountain). The cistern is the great artery which receives the blood (now a transmuted light essence) from the left ventricle of the heart. The wheel is descriptive of the radiant, luminous center of light which the heart becomes in the body of such an Initiate (Son of Wisdom).
The fetus is purely vegetative in its activities. After birth, animalistic energies are manifest. Later, with adolescence and adulthood, intelligence is born, followed by the crowning of the life with the light of spirituality. The Ego is linked to its chain of vehicles, as previously described, by the silver cord. So long as this cord is unsevered the Ego can feel the effects of post mortems, embalming, and cremation. It remains intact for about three and one-half days after death.
In the new science of death, wherein man will be taught how to care for those who are making the Great Transition, we shall come to understand that the greatest service we can render our departing loved ones is not grief and lamentation but silence and prayer. There is an interval, varying in length of time, immediately following the cessation of heart-beats during which the silver cord is unbroken. The Ego floats in a dreamy condition above its physical shell, still attached thereto by the cord and still able to feel everything done to that shell. In this semi-conscious period the Ego is reviewing its previous life in the body, and its whole attention needs to be concentrated upon this review. Because it is outside the dense body, the records in the negative pole of the Reflecting Ether are now visible to it; the life just ended unrolls like moving pictures before its gaze. Any condition which distracts the Ego from this recapitulatory panorama lessens the benefit received from it.
One of the Masters has thus spoken of this sacred interval of silence and preparation for the new and larger life: "Tread softly while the record of the present is being inscribed upon the veils of the future." The average period required for the recapitulation is not more than three and one-half days. Although very many Egos awaken sooner, the full three and one-half days should be allowed, since only a trained clairvoyant could know for certain if the Ego were awake earlier. At the end of the three-day period the funeral may be held and the body disposed of in whatever way is deemed best; the Ego is then free to go into higher realms of being.
Unless the Ego is sufficiently advanced to be able to sever at once all contacts with the physical world, when the silver cord breaks at the end of the recapitulatory period, there is always an "earth pull" which hinders adjustment to the new life — in spirit. Cremation helps to free such Egos from their interest in the earth, for when the body is disintegrated they feel that their last hold on the physical plane is gone. Hence, the occult scientist generally prefers cremation to burial.
As humanity approaches the borderline of the Aquarian Age the veil between the seen and the unseen becomes more and more tenuous. Ever increasing numbers are learning the true significance of that triumphant declaration of Paul: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Wars have been aptly termed by Max Heindel, as operations for the removal of spiritual cataract. Through nerve tension, sorrow, and fear the ethers part for many hitherto unseeing eyes, and the forms of beloved "dead" are plainly discernible.
During such times of travail, and for several years following, many of the "best sellers" have for their theme some aspect of transition from this plane to the next and communication between the living and the so-called dead. Judge Hatch's Letters of a Living Dead Man, transmitted through Elsa Barker, and Sir Oliver Lodge's communications from his son, Raymond, in the volume titled so simply Raymond, are products of World War I. Among the most arresting so far produced by World War II are Many Mansions by Gina Cerminara and Lychgate by Lord Dowding, England's Air Chief Marshal. He relates numerous experiences with members of his forces who made the great sacrifice and whom he contacted after their death. He tells of helping them to adjust themselves to their new surroundings, and how many of them continued to aid their brother airmen who remained in physical bodies on this side of the curtain of death.
With the ending of hostilities, Lord Dowding took to the lecture platform and through all the length and breadth of England be bore the greatest of all messages for the solace of the sorrowing: "There is no death. " This same banner of hope and consolation was borne aloft after World War I by the eminent author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Thus good comes out of evil — in war as in all else, for out of it came and continues to come the divine compensation of firsthand knowledge.
The question of the continuity of life has always been of paramount interest to the human mind. Cicero, the famed Roman historian, recounts the following: Two friends started upon a journey together and, upon entering a cerfain city, they went to an inn to engage rooms. The place being crowded, one of the men took lodging in a private house not far away. During the night this man was awakened by the voice of his friend who had remained at the inn, calling for his help. Dismissing the thought as merely foolish fancy, he again fell asleep. Once again the friend called him, and this time appeared before him, saying, "I have been murdered and my body has been hidden in a cart in the field. " The next day the friend's story was verified and the body discovered in the place described.
Manifold are the latent powers within man awaiting unfoldment. In time we shall evolve the "blessed eyes" and the "blessed ears" whereby we may see and hear that our beloved ones have never died, that they are "nearer than breathing, closer than hands and feet."
There are those who yet continue to inhabit garments of flesh but who have already experienced the Great Transition commonly termed death. Those who have known this experience realize how slight is the change that occurs in the time of passing. The difference between "here" and "there" is largely a matter of vibration. The casting aside of the sheath whose work is done may be compared to the shimmering cadences of music that sift through the air at sunset. time. The Ego knows no agony of separation, but only relief indescribable and an added vibrancy, a lightness of spirit that seems to breathe the fragrance of infinite vistas and ever-expanding horizons.
There comes an indefinable feeling of oneness, a great, divine upsweeping tide of unity which seems to pervade and harmonize all that lives on all planes of manifestation. All the rhythms are singing a joyous paean of life, not death; of beginning, not ending; of bliss superlative, not sorrow. One who has known this experience can truly chant triumphantly, "0, grave, where is thy victory?"
The knowledge of occult scientists relative to inner-plane truths is continually finding verification in the discoveries of material science, as evidenced in a recent interview with a noted British scientist, Sir Edward Fish, one of the world's experts on wireless who conducted research with Marconi. He stated that he sees no reason why it will not soon be possible for the living to communicate by wireless with the dead. He asserts that it is all a matter of vibration: "Everything in our consciousness is the result of different vibrations and all matter is made from electricity. Because of this, the development of radio science might allow us to get in touch with the dead. Today we can contact only the material. It is not so fantastic to contemplate a time when radio communication will be advanced to a stage where we can contact the spiritual. Research will have to discover," he adds, "the range of frequencies used by the dead; then there is also the problem of discovering a nexus, the borderline between spirit and matter."
The occult scientist has always affirmed the uncharted powers resident within the two higher ethers, the Light and Reflecting Ethers. When the implements of material science become sufficiently sensitive to contact these higher forces there will be no further barrier between us and the "dead. " The actual discovery of immortality will have become an established and immutable fact, scientifically demonstrable in terms of our everyday consciousness.
The consciousness of the average individual is limited at present to his waking hours, during which time he takes note of and functions in the outer objective world by means of his five physical senses. Man possesses in latency, however, numerous other faculties which belono, to his inner finer, invisible vehicles. Each thought, word, and deed of daily life sets its seal upon sleeping centers, either sensitizing them or drugging them into greater insensibility. Meat, alcohol, and tobacco produce a marked effect in dulling and deadening these higher centers of contact. Concentration and meditation upon high and holy things are potent techniques for their awakening.
The first important step is the establishment of a certain rhythm within the body, the purpose of music in initiatory Temples. Early Church music served this same purpose of attuning worshippers to the rhythms of the Christian Mystery Temple. Gradually the chasm in memory between day and night is bridged.
It is always night in some parts of the world; hence, there is always a time and place for the ministrations of Invisible Helpers. In hospitals, homes where death has entered, riots, wars, fires, floods, the entombment of miners and at scenes of various natural catastrophes, the harvest for service is always white and the laborers few.
Another important field open to Invisible Helpers is that of influencing the minds of world leaders and those who are in charge of governments. Much work along this line was done during World Wars I and II which prevented even greater ebaos and confusion than was experienced. If workers can only surround key figures with an atmosphere of calm and confidence in a time of crisis, instilling in them an incentive for serving the highest good of all concerned, the Powers of Darkness will have been weakened and the Forces of Light correspondingly strengthened. Of such service the Psalmist testifies: "He giveth his gifts to his loved ones as they sleep."
The work of Invisible Helpers is invaluable in assisting the newly deceased to make proper adjustment to inner-plane conditions. Helpers also instruct newcomers on the other side to protect themselves from the swirling psychic currents of the lower Desire World, the purgatorial realms.
Disembodied Egos ofttimes express gratitude to loved ones still upon earth for having been freed by cremation instead of through the longer process of disintegration, despite their opposition to the idea of cremation during life in the body. However, as already stated, it is not good that a body be cremated within three days after death. This is according to the ancient Hebrew tradition as indicated in the Apocrypha, where we read that Adam's body was not buried until three days after his passing. In Sir Oliver Lodge's Raymond, a time limit of seven days is suggested during which cremation should not be performed, for in many cases the Spirit is still within the body or attached to it for some time after death. Raymond tells of a man who was to be cremated two days after death, and in whom the silver cord was yet actually intact. Raymond did not understand this situation, but the occultist would say that in such an instance the man was really not dead at all and, might have been resuscitated had proper means been taken. Since the cremation was set to be carried out, "spirit doctors" arrived to break this connection of the silver cord with the body and to assist the Spirit before cremation, thus sparing it much suffering, Raymond reported.
The Ego relinquishes its dense body at physical death, rises in its etheric envelope, and relinquishes that to rise into the astral. After the experiences of Purgatory and Heaven, it relinquishes its astral sheath to rise into the mental realm called the Second Heaven. This is the home of the average Ego, who has little of that abstract mentality requisite to rising into the sublime reaches of the Third Heaven, which may well be designated the "heaven of the sages."
In the Second Heaven the Ego remains for many centuries, working in full consciousness and preparing for its own future periods of evolution in time and space. All of this work is done mentally, for here "thoughts are things" and the thought forms generated are archetypes which create the outer world.
Evil souls, however long confined to purgatorial realms, eventually cast off their astral shells and ascend into heaven worlds; but their cast-off shells continue to float about on the psychic currents of Purgatory and are sometimes inhabited temporarily by evil, newly discarnate entities, or by elemental spirits of subhuman evolutions who roam about deluding credulous psychics and even innocent persons who have left the body in sleep or death. An important task of the Invisible Helpers is to invoke astral fire to consume these shells, for there is a fire of the soul which is just as real as any fire we know on earth, and that fire is an agent of purification in the hands of Invisible Helpers.
The hours of night are mystic and occult hours, the time always associated with fantasies and dreams. It is during night time that the words of the poet come true when he says that "the dream and the dreamer are one." The subtle and mysterious forces of Cancer, the sign which governs night, together with her planet, the Moon, the great night star, hold sway during the hours of darkness.
During these magic hours the Spirit is free and untrammeled by the flesh; free to roam through earth and air at will; free to soothe and serve wheresoever there is need; free also to drink of the mystic waters of life to which the Master so often referred, those Eternal Waters that spring from the fount of Cancer, the great Mother. Those who learn to partake of these living waters shall never thirst again, declared the Master.
It is before the mighty Cherubim — the Hierarchy of Cancer — that the consecrated Invisible Helper makes his supreme dedication. He goes out nightly, joyous in his mission, in the spirit of that beautiful prayer given by the Rosicrucian School: "Tonight while our physical bodies are peacefully resting in sleep, may we, as Invisible Helpers, still be found faithfully working in the vineyard of Christ, for as Spirits we need no rest."
Sleep, death, and Initiation are but varying manifestations of life. The principal difference between the living and the so-called dead is that the latter no longer possess a physical body and its corresponding etheric or vital envelope. The Ego, sheathed in the remainder of its vehicles, remains intact. Hence it is that feeling, knowledge, and perception are doubly sensitized, for the desire and mental bodies are undisturbed in their functionings. Only the physical, which acted as an incubator for these higher bodies, has been removed. Therefore, the love and understanding of our beloved "dead," instead of decreasing, is enormously magnified.
Because the Ego still remains in possession of the same desire and mental vehicles, its desire and thoughts undergo little change at the transition from "life" to "death." The act of passing from the visible into the invisible does not transform a sinner into a saint. Habit and inclination attract one to congenial Spirits "over there" exactly the same as here. In both realms are various degrees and forms of activity to which one may be attracted, high and low. The inner worlds are planes of ceaseless activity. Each new arrival soon finds his own place and sphere, whatever it may be.
The surroundings and environment of children are most wonderful and beautiful. Inner plane substance is highly amenable to the power of thought, and lessons are given to children which deal largely with the constructive use of the imagination. They learn how to remake their lives, their bodies, and their environment by thought power. Their games are all symbolic of soul growth and they are taught to endow their toys with life. The Disney productions are somewhat similar in their appeal and educational value to inner-plane instruction. Especially applicable to the state of children in the heaven-world are the lines of the poet:
Sleep and death have been termed "twin brothers" by Greek poets. This is because the processes are similar. In sleep the Ego leaves the physical and etheric bodies behind, taking with it the desire and mental bodies. It is the possession and use of these two latter vehicles that give clear pictures and vivid memory to dreams. The role of the etheric body during sleep is that of refreshing and resuscitating the physical.
In the final process of death the physical no longer needs refreshment, so the etheric is also withdrawn, thus leaving the physical body motionless, inert. Having finished its work, it is ready to be reabsorbed into the elements from which it came.
When the Ego goes out in sleep there is usually a brief period of unconsciousness before the varied activities of the "night life" begin. In death also, there is generally an interval of unconsciousness before the newly "dead" is adjusted to conditions of a new life and environment. During this interval the recently released Spirit is sensitive to impacts from both the objective and subjective realms, hence the importance of surrounding our departed ones with love, prayer thoughts of upliftment, and God's speed into the new life. This will be an inestimable blessing and of such benefit that it will go far toward liquidating unfinished karma between the individuals for whom and by whom this service is rendered.
A mystic has thus aptly described the intimate relationship between sleep and death: "Death is the great Initiation of which sleep is but the minor mystery."
Occult scientists comprehend something of the nature and functions of man's fourfold body-physical, etheric, desire, and mental vehicles. While treating them separately, it must be remembered that they function as a unit under the direction of the indwelling Ego. In sleep there is a division between the physical-etheric and astral-mental, as previously described. A similar division takes place in death, but here the division is between the physical body and the other three sheaths, the etheric sheath also separating from the physical body of which it is the matrix and double.
There is yet another division which occurs in the case of Initiation. For the vast majority intervals of sleep are mere periods of unconsciousness. This is due to the fact that their astral and mental sheaths are entirely unorganized and untrained. In order to be awake and alert when out of the body, a long and arduous preparation is necessary, prefaced and accompanied by high thinking and pure living. First, certain perceptive centers must be developed in the higher vehicles-centers possessed by everyone but usually in a crude form, mere "sensitive spots" in the aura. In time these "sensitive spots" will develop into eyes of the soul, just as "sensitive spots" in the heads of those pre-human creatures which became man developed into physical eyes. However, the eyes of the soul will not become localized as are bodily organs of vision, but will be coextensive with the soul body itself. Other senses will be similarly distributed throughout that organism. The consciousness which ensouls this all-seeing, all-feeling, all-hearing, and all-knowing body is beyond the grasp of our present powers of imagination.
Following the development of perceptive centers which confer full super-physical sight upon an Initiate, a cleavage is effected between the higher and lower aspects of the desire body and between the higher and lower aspects of the etheric, body. The lower part of the desire body is the "animal soul;" it consists of desire stuff drawn from lower regions of the Desire World, avenue of all sensual feeling. This animal soul must be laid aside as the first step toward Initiation — which means embracing a disciplined spiritual life.
Cleavage between the two higher and two lower ethers is more difficult to bring about. In oriental schools this work is not generally countenanced, attention being centered upon astral and mental substance. It must be noted, therefore, that the cleavage which takes place is not within the etheric double proper-which, strictly speaking, consists primarily of Chemical and Life Ethers — but between the double and the two higher ethers which, as we have said, still are unorganized and formless in the average individual. Before the cleavage can take place, this formless substance must become formed, the unorganized higher ethers must be organized. This is done through meditation and contemplation. As music is known to produce certain geometric patterns, so particular modes of meditation produce definite patterns in the Light and Reflecting Ethers. The pattern among Christians is generally called The Star or the Christ Star. When that Star shines in an aura a Teacher appears, as the Magi came to the infant Jesus at the shining of His Star. This Star is formed in the two higher ethers, but the esoteric work involved cannot be disclosed publicly as it endangers health if improperly done. It leads to Initiation by severing higher ethers from lower. None need fear that he will be overlooked by the Teachers. They cannot fail to see the Star when it shines in the inner world, and they come from far places, for the Star indicates to them that another "Little One" awaits their holy ministrations.
By concentration of mental forces, by their right use in meditation, together with "living the life," spiritual organs of perception are developed in the higher vehicles and the Star shines forth. One who lives almost entirely in this "upper atmosphere" will experience no unconsciousness either in death or sleep. Said Hermes, the great Egyptian Master, "Happy is he whose vices die before him. In such a one the vital body dissolves like a silver cloud and the spirit moves on into the High, the Beautiful, and the True."
Initiation is the highest achievement of our present human evolution and will form the chief cornerstone of the religion of Aquaria. It is described by Nellie Burget Miller simply and directly as "a stage in the soul's journey from the darkness of the material realms into the light of spiritual consciousness." Only by means of the expansion of vision gained through Initiation, can the oneness of all life be fully comprehended and true meaning of brotherhood realized. Hence, it is the most vital factor in the life of man and in the enlightenment of the age.
— Corinne Heline
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Contemporary Mystic Christianity |
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